2009 Spend-a-Saurus Bill

Spend-a-Saurus Bill - see it here

$87 million for a single icebreaker ship to be used in the Arctic
$150 million for something called "honey insurance," which is described as money to "provide emergency relief to eligible producers of livestock, honey bees and farm-raised fish to aid in the reduction of losses due to disease, adverse weather or other conditions, such as blizzards and wildfires, as determined by the secretary"
$20 million for something called fish barriers
$50 million for the National Endowment of Arts
$400 million for global warming research
$335 million for STD prevention
$650 million for digital conversion coupons
$81 billion for Medicaid
$20 billion for food stamps
$30 billion for Cobra insurance extensions
$4.1 billion for neighborhood activist groups like ACORN
$83 billion for the earned income credit to give tax refunds to people who don’t pay income tax
$6 billion to subsidize university building projects
= A 647-page Non-Stimulus Legislation, this Bill may take a long time to read?

Population of the US = 303,824,640 people
House Estimate of what the Non-Stimulus bill would cost = $825 Billion
This comes out to $2715.38 per man, women, and child in the US

Per Barry (BHO), the stimulus is going to take awhile to work. But if that is the case why are they in such a rush to enact it? The problems didn't just start last week. It took a long time.

Answer: They don't want to give the opposition time to examine it so they can point out all its flaws. George Will, in his column today, An $800 Billion Mistake, must have been reading my mind, and he sort of quoted Barry (BHO). How does he really know this is going to work when we have never been here before? Why are the thousands of congressmen, legislators, etc., so certain their take on economics will work when not a single one of them has a degree in economics? I don't trust the economists as far as I can throw them, so why should I trust politicians? And if they are so smart today, why weren't they so smart a year ago? I need to consider reading more Dean Koontz novels. They are less scary than our government and our politicians.

Week 1 in Review

$900 Billion stimulus package to include $335,000,000 for STD prevention
Reverses international abortion funds policy
Grants first TV interview as president to Arabic network
Timothy Geithner, confirmed as the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, and his $34,000 in tax delinquencies
Leon Panetta tapped to head CIA
Eric Holder, Attorney General, who was involved with Clinton's last-minute pardon of fugitive and Democratic contributor Marc Rich and the decision to reduce the sentences of 16 members of the Boricua Popular Army, an organization that has been categorized by the FBI as a terrorist organization
William J. Lynn III, lobbyists in the Pentagon?
Ordered the closure of Guantanamo Bay and terminated the CIA's special authority to interrogate terrorists
Do we even need to say anything about Blago?

Today begins Week 2. What will be in store for us this week?

Weekend Rain?

Close-Up Shutters, to Keep the Rain Out

After the Rain

Afghanistan is 'greatest' US test

Afghanistan is 'greatest' US test

Barack Obama's new administration sees Afghanistan as its "greatest military challenge", US Defense Secretary Robert Gates has told Congress.

"President Obama has made it clear that the Afghanistan theatre should be our top overseas military priority," Mr Gates said.

* * *

Would someone please tell me why it is so important to beef up our forces in Afghanistan? Al-Kyda is pretty much dead there, at least they are no longer training terrorists for worldwide attacks. That is also occurring in Pakistan. Osama probably isn't there anymore either. And what if he is? And who cares about the Taliban? The farthest they ever go is to the caves in Pakistan. And I hear they are all dying of the bubonic plague. Finally, they have no oil.

Compare that to Iraq, it has a lot of oil, and lots of land for terrorist training. Why are we even considering sending over 30,000 troops to a land that the USSR couldn’t conquer? Isn’t Obama going to get us out of the war? Six months to get us out of Iraq? A new nation-building president? George Bush in a different country? Come on, lets worry about the economy and not a foreign, desolate wasteland. Give Afghanistan back to the Afghans.

Bush twins’ letter to Obama girls

Jan. 23: Days before moving out of the White House, former President Bush’s two daughters wrote an open letter to Sasha and Malia Obama, giving the girls some advice on living in the White House.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

They have such class....
Hat tip to Angie

Shutters - New Years Project Complete

I finished the shutters last weekend. Don’t they look great? This should keep the sun and heat out in the summer and keep the neighbor’s searchlight that seems to go off at 2:45 in the morning from entering the windows. When they let their little fluffy, barking thing out to go potty, the light just glares into the room. I think it is a Halogen 2500 searchlight made for directing air traffic. It was a challenge to put the things up with just a ladder. I put the ladder in the window for stability, and walla, the shutters went up like you see it. They also have catches when I put them down in the summer for the wind that blows. Then they won’t blow away. What do you think?

Christmas Pictures

Frodo, What are you looking at?

Smile James!!!!

Happy Christmas Pictures

Rose Parade Pace Car

Letter to the O.C. Register

The Rose Parade made a big deal about their Pace Car that runs on hydrogen which only emits water vapor. It should be pointed out that water vapor is a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. So the car’s energy source also contributes to global warming. Water vapor also raises the atmosphere’s humidity, which in turn raises the dew point. This causes nighttime temperatures to be higher, again aggravating global warming. Further, the origin of the hydrogen is probably electrolysis of water which requires lots of energy, which probably originates from the burning of fossil fuel. Lastly, if hydrogen is such a good fuel, why don’t we start using it at a much easier source – power generation plants. It would be a lot easier to convert coal, oil, and natural gas electric power generators to use hydrogen than all our cars.

R