What Could Possibly Be Wrong With These Earmarks?

We keep hearing about the almost $1 TRILLION dollar "stimulus" package put forth by Obama and the Democratic leadership. And we keep hearing that a number of Republicans are pretty upset about some of the "pork" put in there. Well, the Republicans have put out a list of some of the more egregious (according to them) requests in this article, "GOP Leaders List Waste In Senate Stimulus Bill." Let's just take a little look-see to figure out what all the brouhaha is about, and bear in mind that the stimulus package is SUPPOSED to be about job creation:

• $2 billion earmark to re-start FutureGen, a near-zero emissions coal power plant in Illinois that the Department of Energy defunded last year because it said the project was inefficient. (Wow - in IL? A $2 Billion earmark? Huh - maybe people really should have paid attention to Obama's penchant for pork for IL.)

• A $246 million tax break for Hollywood movie producers to buy motion picture film. (A TAX BREAK?? While our coffers are empty? For HOLLYWOOD to buy FILM? C'mon, already. I love movies as much as the next person, but you gotta be KIDDING me. A tax break. Please.)

• $650 million for the digital television converter box coupon program.

• $88 million for the Coast Guard to design a new polar icebreaker (arctic ship).

• $448 million for constructing the Department of Homeland Security headquarters. (Well, lookey here - it seems the GSA had already asked for this funding. In February of 2008. And here it is - again - in the "Stimulus package.)

• $248 million for furniture at the new Homeland Security headquarters. (New FURNITURE?? Like Bermie Madoff's new furniture with all the artwork in his office? Hell to the no - everyone is having to tighten their belts. They can use the old desks and chairs, dammit.)

• $600 million to buy hybrid vehicles for federal employees. (I'm okay with this - it will reduce gas costs, carbon emissions, and will help auto manufacturers - maybe they'll be able to pay their own pension costs this year. Ahem.)

• $400 million for the Centers for Disease Control to screen and prevent STD's. (Um, who thought this was an important component of a STIMULUS plan?? Sorry - couldn't resist.)

• $1.4 billion for rural waste disposal programs.

• $125 million for the Washington sewer system.

• $150 million for Smithsonian museum facilities. (Listen, I love the Smithsonian - I have been a member for YEARS. But would this really help to CREATE that many new jobs, or is this just regular maintenance costs?

• $1 billion for the 2010 Census, which has a projected cost overrun of $3 billion.

• $75 million for "smoking cessation activities." (Okay - clearly these folks are UNCLEAR on the concept of for what the economic stimulus package is.)

• $200 million for public computer centers at community colleges. (Ditto above. Not that it isn't a good thing for there to be computer centers, but again - JOB CREATION is the point.)

• $75 million for salaries of employees at the FBI.

• $25 million for tribal alcohol and substance abuse reduction. (Important work, no doubt. But can we please keep our eye on the ball here?)

• $500 million for flood reduction projects on the Mississippi River.

• $10 million to inspect canals in urban areas.

• $6 billion to turn federal buildings into "green" buildings.

• $500 million for state and local fire stations.

• $650 million for wildland fire management on forest service lands.

• $1.2 billion for "youth activities," including youth summer job programs. ("Youth activities"?? Like Obama's Youth Camps that brought us the theft of caucuses through bullying, intimidation, and downright fraud? THOSE kinds of activities? Paid for by TAXPAYERS?? HELL NO!)

• $88 million for renovating the headquarters of the Public Health Service.

• $412 million for CDC buildings and property.

• $500 million for building and repairing National Institutes of Health facilities in Bethesda, Maryland.

• $160 million for "paid volunteers" at the Corporation for National and Community Service. (Isn't that an oxymoron - "paid volunteers"? And not for nothing, but their budget is already $888,462,000, no small potatoes.)

• $5.5 million for "energy efficiency initiatives" at the Department of Veterans Affairs National Cemetery Administration.

• $850 million for Amtrak. (Listen, I believe that "there is something about a train that's magic," as the Amtrak commercial says, but for the gazillionith time, WHAT is this doing in this package??)

• $100 million for reducing the hazard of lead-based paint.

• $75 million to construct a "security training" facility for State Department Security officers when they can be trained at existing facilities of other agencies.

• $110 million to the Farm Service Agency to upgrade computer systems.

• $200 million in funding for the lease of alternative energy vehicles for use on military installations. (Again, this could end up saving money in the long run, and help the manufacturing sector.)

From the renovation piece on down, all of that sounds like items for which there is regular budgeting (or should be), so why the add-ons (for instance, the Smithsonian has a budget request for FY2009 in the amount of $716.4 million already)? Who is putting these things in there? Which states are going to reap most of the benefits? Some of these things are just ridiculous - I was fully prepared for Nancy Pelosi to put in there that all Californians should get annual passes to Disney Land or something, because there are certainly some Mickey Mouse additions in here (sorry - couldn't resist that one, either).

Here's the thing. These are difficult times, and many people have lost their livelihoods and their homes. For our leaders to put forth this pork-laden stimulus package on the heels of another huge stimulus package that had NO oversight whatsoever, is absurd. They tossed away over $350 BILLION dollars, and have NO idea what the hell happened to it. And now they want to give Hollywood a freakin' tax-break for film? Or give a ton of money for STD treatment or stop-smoking campaigns (not that there is anything wrong with trying to get people to quit smoking, it just does NOT belong in this package).

Our leaders seem to have forgotten that this is OUR money they are throwing around, and that it will be our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren who will be responsible for paying it back (see Bert, alert NQ reader, I was paying attention!). We deserve better than this. Future generations deserve better than this. Let's get SERIOUS here. Stop with all of the pork. Increase oversight. Stop trying to spend OUR money so frivolously. And stop trying to convince us this is in our best interests. We all have to tighten our belts now. It is far past time for our leaders to act accordingly.

The Honeymoon Continues

I came across this article on Tuesday by Jonah Goldberg,Day 15 of Obama's honeymoon: One doesn’t have to break a sweat searching for examples of the news media’s ongoing love affair with our president. In this, he is like FDR. I have to say, on some levels it was reassuring. Apparently, the country has been through all of this fawning by a press corps or sychophants, and survived. Mr. Goldberg has this to say:

Barack Obama and his supporters have been relentlessly comparing the new president to Franklin Roosevelt. At least one similarity is shockingly accurate: They were both beneficiaries of an obsequious press corps.

In part because the feeling was mutual, the reporters hated FDR's Republican predecessor, Herbert Hoover. The new Democratic president, however, left White House correspondents "jubilant," in one historian's words. Indeed, they were so charmed by his first news conference, reporters literally burst into applause when he was done. One grizzled newspaperman observed that "the press barely restrained its 'whoopees.' "

There've been no standing ovations — yet — with Obama, but there's no denying that many in the news media are clapping on the inside. Obviously, not everyone is swooning, as the news media aren't a monolith. And, yes, President Obama deserves his honeymoon. But honeymoons suggest a respectful partnership of equals. What we're seeing here is more like a gaggle of aging love-struck groupies following Jon Bon Jovi around.

That's quite the image, isn't it? Accurate, too. Come to think of it, considering Obama listens to misogynistic rappers like JayZ, maybe HE should have been the example Goldberg used. Ahem. He continues:

Though no one's idea of an objective reporter, MSNBC's Chris Matthews does express the euphoria nicely. On The Tonight Show, he told Jay Leno that the Obamas "are really cool. They are Jack and Jackie Kennedy when you see them together. They are cool. And they're great looking, and they're cool and they're young, and they're — everything seems to be great. I know I'm selling them now. I'm not supposed to sell, OK? … But the fact is, I wouldn't be an honest reporter if I didn't tell you what the spiritual experience is like of being in a Barack Obama rally." …

On Inauguration Day, Matthews came a hair's breadth from shrieking like a teenage girl at the Beatles' debut on The Ed Sullivan Show. As is often the case with crushes, what Matthews seems to like best about Obama is how he makes Matthews feel about himself — and his network. "This is the network that has opened its heart to change, to change and its possibilities," Matthews gushed.

I am providing a break here in case you need to run to the bathroom to throw up.

Okay. I'm just shaking my head at what passes for "journalism" these days, but MSNBC/NBC has demonstrated long ago that they are nothing more than a propaganda arm. No surprise. As to the bias, Goldberg writes:

One of the great tests of news media bias is when the storyline has become unfalsifiable. With George W. Bush, no matter what he did, the facts always seemed to prove he was to blame. With Obama, no matter what he does, he's always the hero. For instance, during a trip to China in 2005, then-President Bush tried to open a locked door while leaving a news conference, and the press tittered at his buffoonery. Yet last week, when President Obama walked into an Oval Office window that he thought was a door, much of the news media looked the other way — perhaps recognizing his genius at spotting where a door should have been.

Bush's love of exercise was analyzed as a troubling obsession of an out-of-touch president. Obama's fixation with physical fitness gives numerous reporters hope that he will alleviate America's obesity epidemic. In a front-page exclusive, The Washington Post revealed that on Obama's recent vacation, the Hawaiian "sun glinted off (his) chiseled pectorals sculpted during four weightlifting sessions each week, and a body toned by regular treadmill runs and basketball games."

Remember that? How people made fun of Bush for riding his bike all of the time, and for exchanging his drinking addiction to an addiction for exercise? Everyone made fun of him. Now, of course, it's cool because Obama is hip, cool, and "chiseled" (cough, choke). But it isn't only the superficial in which these differences are highlighted:

A more serious example can be found in some of the news coverage of the stimulus bill. Obama made it his top priority to get bipartisan support for his unprecedented spending bill. The president exerted enormous personal effort to sway House Republicans to his cause but failed to win a single GOP vote, and he even lost 11 Democrats. And yet the Post reported in another front-page article that the Democratic House's passage of the bill — which was always assured — "marked a big victory for his presidency a little more than a week into his term." Indeed, it's hard to see how anything short of a crushing defeat would be described as anything other than a "big victory."

He meant to do that

Oh, yeah, that's the ticket. It was all part of his master plan!! Just like this:

Then there's Obama's inaugural address, which was panned as pedestrian by pretty much everyone who hasn't drunk the Kool-Aid and was received as the greatest oration since Henry V rallied the British at Agincourt by everyone else. Leave it to New York magazine's political reporter, John Heilemann, to square the circle. He conceded that Obama's speech failed to deliver the goods, inspirationwise. But, don't ya see, he meant to do that. In a piece titled, "Obama's Spare Inaugural Rhetoric Signals Strategic Mastery," Heilemann explained that the speech was "less than thrilling in itself, perhaps by design."

Apparently, the press corps has decided that antonyms are the way to go in reporting these days. Well, golly gee, I guess this is their idea of "change."

Goldberg concludes his article with the daily barrage of what Saint Obama means to do today, or what pithy little detail they can find about his personal regimen, or what he and the family eat for breakfast, which will no doubt bring about World Peace:

Since the inauguration, it seems every day brings another article about "Day 3" or "Day 7" or "Day 12.5" of the Obama presidency. And each one reads like a People magazine blog about American Idol. Everything he does signals hope for peace in the Middle East or race relations or the economy or whatever.

CNN's John King recently said "nobody disputes" that journalists are too enraptured by Obama's historic presidency; he seems to think it will wear off when the serious work of the nation kicks in.

History is not so reassuring. "You are still the most interesting person," newspaper editor William Allen White told FDR at the end of his second term. "For box office attraction you leave Clark Gable gasping for breath." (Jonah Goldberg, editor at large of National Review Online, is a member of USA TODAY's board of contributors.)

See, I think it is reassuring, because it demonstrates that the country has survived this kind of sophomoric fawning by the media before. FDR, Bush II, and now Obama. It gives me hope that at SOME point, they will realize what a grave disservice they have done this country by their lack of unbiased coverage. One can on;y hope that John King is right - maybe he'll be one of the first journalists to get off the bandwagon. One can but hope.

"They Pretend to Work, We Pretend To Pay"

So says Jim Cramer. Love him or hate him, the guy comes out with some real doozies. In this article, "Cramer on Obama's Anti-Wall Street Comments: "We Heard Lenin," Cramer lets fly:

With all the populist sentiment generated from the economic slowdown by politicians, CNBC “Mad Money” host Jim Cramer is seeing eerie similarities with the comments of President Barack Obama and the words of a communist revolutionary.

Cramer, appearing on MSNBC’s Feb. 2 “Morning Joe,” drew comparisons between remarks between the first head of the Soviet Union, Vladimir Lenin, and Obama. Obama criticized Wall Street’s moneymaking on Jan. 30, when he said there would be a time “for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses. Now’s not that time. And that’s a message that I intend to send directly to them.”

Whoa - he sure doesn't mince words, does he?

Cramer said that was similar to Lenin’s writings. “Let me tell you something, we heard Lenin,” Cramer said. “There was a little snippet last week that was, ‘Now is not the time for profits.’ Look - in Lenin’s book, ‘What Is to Be Done?’ is simple text of what I always though was for the communists, it was remarkable to hear very similar language from ‘What Is to Be Done?’ which is we have no place for profits.”

According to Cramer, China, which is the United States’ largest debt holder – about $682 billion – is currently faring better with capitalism, even though that government has operated communism for the last half century.

Oh, but it gets better:

“Thank heavens for the Chinese communists, deeply rooted in a profit government,” Cramer said. “Because we have decided that profits have no place in the system.”

Cramer wasn’t sure what phase of the teaching of Lenin the United States was heading, but he narrowed it down to two.

“It’s the time for nationalization, and I’ll say this,” Cramer said. “Either the new economic policy Lenin, or it’s the initial storm-the-winter palace Lenin. I’m not quite sure yet. It’s a mid-’20s situation. It could go either way.”

Gee, Jim - why don't you tell us how you really feel??

His interview with Scarborough continued:

“Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough asked Cramer about the $100 billion in tax cuts given to people who don’t pay taxes and how close that was to socialism. “This is as close to unprecedented of a total all-out socialist bill as I’ve ever seen in my life,” Scarborough said.

“They pretend to work, we pretend to pay,” Cramer replied. “I think that the real issue here is that socialism was always pretty good for creating jobs. I felt there were other forms of economy that actually confiscated jobs and socialism would be a real step-up from what we’re [at] here.”

I am getting the distinct impression that Cramer is none too fond of Obama's economic solutions! But in all fairness, I need to include the final paragraph of the story:

Cramer hasn’t been afraid to play the socialism/communism card when attacking politicians. In November 2007, he called New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo a “communist” for being in his attacks on now-failed mortgage lender Washington Mutual.

But Mr. Cramer is not the only economist who has problems with Obama's plan. Approximately 100 signed onto an ad published in the New York Times concur that Obama's plan is not the right one. Here's the ad (and you can click HERE to access the text under, "Mr. President, We Disagree"):



I'm glad at least some folks are looking at these plans with a critical eye, and not just jumping on the bandwagon (or being pressured to do so). This is our money, and we have already thrown away way too much of it with the first bailout plan, which had NO oversight. Whatever plan we institute, it must have clear oversight and accountability. No more throwing money at problems and hoping something will stick.

As for Cramer's comparisons, what do you think? Justified critique or hyperbole?

Iced Over

I thought about writing on one of several different topics this morning, like the incredibly sexist new commercials aired during the Super Bowl last night. There was a Doritos one in which this young man bit into a Dorito, and it ripped all of the clothes off of a woman on the street. Nice. Or for a new website that allows one to do whatever one wants, so this group of guys are having Danica Patrick taking numerous showers throughout the day. Ah, yes - the ads these days look like the ads from decades past, objectifying women as sexual objects. Great.

Then, I thought about writing on Michael Steele, the new RNC chair, and former Lt. Gov. of MD who had his credit record exposed by Schumer staffer a few years back. Turns out Mr. Steele wants the RNC to move forward, and to be open to all people. Interesting idea there, Mr. Steele.

Or maybe how Obama now wants an "assessment" on the whole "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" thing before, you know, anything changes. Why doesn't he just ask one of the 24 countries that DO allow gay people to serve openly in their military how they manage to accomplish this? I mean, heckfire, it's not rocket science or anything. Clearly, other countries are managing just fine. But, no, we taxpayers will pay for some study that will take ages to complete to tell us what we already know. Meanwhile, our military will continue to throw out service members who are fluent in Arabic because - gasp - they happen to be LGBT. Because that makes so much sense. As much as doing another freakin' study on it. Okey dokey.

But then I got this email from one of my oldest and dearest friends, who lives down near the Kentucky border:

It's good to be back at work, in the light, in the warm, in the grid.

I still have no electricity at my house. We have a generator which we use to run the frig, an electric heater, one light, and we alternate the remaining plug between various items. We have mainly used a Coleman stove and the grill for cooking. It is getting old. They say most houses in my electric co-op will be back on in 2-4 days. We're lucky to have (cold) water, some don't. The disastrous event occurred on Tuesday. (Local) businesses were finally open again over the weekend. Last week we had to drive 45 miles north just to buy gas for our generator. Things like camping stoves, little cans of propane, etc. were sold out throughout the area. There is not a treetop left in (the) county. We lost the top out of the beautiful pine beside of our house (and all the rest of our trees too). It's our little Katrina and things will never be the same.

My friend and her husband have been without power for days now. They are some of the hundreds of thousands of people who have been affected by this incredible ice-storm that swept through the Mid-West last week. The Kentucky governor, Steve Beshear, called out the ENTIRE Army National Guard to deal with the fallout from this storm.

And this is just a glimpse of with what the people in the Mid-West are dealing:







Their own Katrina indeed. One of my fellow writers at No Quarter will be dealing with some of the major political issues regarding this incredible storm, but for today, I wanted to highlight the personal side of the political situation. People are without water, and heat. People have been trapped in their homes. People have to drive miles and miles to get fuel. People continue to be without power a week after the storm. Tragically, people have lost their lives in this horrific storm.

Let us bear these thousands and thousands of people up in our hearts, in our thoughts, and in our prayers. And maybe, just maybe, treat each other with a little more kindness. Please.

It's Super Bowl Sunday!

Which just about everyone knows - kinda hard to miss. Personally, I will be watching it, as will Obama. That's one thing we have in common. Ahem. He's having a big ol' Super Bowl Party with a bunch of representatives whose names you've probably never heard of before (Fred Upton? Trent Franks?), as well as some more well known folks. He'll be rooting for the Steelers, but wishes the Cardinals well. I'm sure they appreciate that thought. No wonder McCain decided not to attend! Can you imagine that scene? Obama and McCain rooting for opposing teams? Oh, yeah. That would sure be something. I'm sure the press would have a field day with it! (SusanUnPC has a good post on this at "Mind-Numbing Partisan Boredom - On Super Bowl Day?".) Regardless of the politics, may the best team win.

I realize, though, that not everyone is into football, or might not care because their team didn't make it in. And it is for you folks that Animal Planet has the Puppy Bowl!! Oh, yes - it is some fun, and some MAJOR cuteness! Even if you DO plan on watching he Super Bowl, you can switch over occasionally to see how the Puppies are doing. It starts at 3:00 pm EST. Here's a LINK if you want to go see today's lineup. Here is one of today's "players," Charlie Brown:



You can also vote for a fan favorite! And don't forget the Ref Cam. There are several funny little videos of the Ref to tide you over until the Puppy Bowl begins.

BONUS: There is a KITTEN BOWL during Halftime!

If the commercials are the reason you tune in, here's a reminder of the Top Ten Super Bowl commercials from last year:



So, whether you watch the Super Bowl for the game, or for the commercials, or prefer the Puppy Bowl, I wish you a good, and safe, Bowl Day!