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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (58628)	2/4/2009 1:07:38 PM
From: MJ	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224750

Ann In order--------- Reg. Google's capability----- --very Orwellian--- So Google becomes the "peeping Tom"----and we thought we were safe from such and intruders. When power is concentrated whether it be in Google or other sources, it can and often becomes corrupted. Computers smarter than cleverest humans have been touted for decades------in the end the computers parts will disintegrate and processors stop working just like our bones turn to dust. Now to the earthly-----I missed Ferguson's comment---considering Ferguson, his comment has a double entendre---comparing Clinton Administration withdrawals---i.e. Clintons oval office withdrawals with Obama's withdrawals of nominees? (Sex Ed 103) Obama and his friends and not friends--- I watched the interview with now former Governor of Illinois on the Letterman show last night. Letterman was predisposed to not beleiving him. Letterman played a tape that talks about money without specifying the context of the conversation. According to Blago---- the conversation was about filing financial election reports every 6 months. Taken out of context---it sounds suspicious---put in the context of the required filing of election reports that tape was not suspicious. By the time his trial comes I suspect that Obama will wish he had never moved to Chicago. mj

To: Ann Corrigan who wrote (58628)	2/4/2009 2:14:08 PM
From: lorne	2 Recommendations Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 224750

In Our View: A stimulus too far Daily Herald Feb,4 2009 heraldextra.com The Democrats' stimulus bill has become an embarrassment -- the all-time champion of pork-barrel spending -- with more than $895 billion in the Senate version. Let's take a look at some of the numbers, big and small, from tens of thousands of line items: • $83 billion for a $500 "tax break" for single people and $1,000 for married couples -- even if they didn't owe taxes in the first place, which means it's a pure handout. One version of the bill would allow people who don't have Social Security numbers to claim the refunds, too. • $400 million for prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted diseases. • $200 million for birth control (ditched after a public outcry). • $870 million to fight the flu. (That's a lot of chicken soup.) • $88 million for a new building for the Public Health Service. • $1 billion for Amtrak, the subsidized East Coast rail line that's never made money. • $345 million for Agriculture Department computers. • $4.19 billion to "community organizations" like ACORN, which among its other activities pushed banks and government to give mortgages to people who couldn't afford them, thereby touching off the whole financial meltdown. • $54 billion to federal programs that the Office of Management and Budget or the Government Accountability Office have criticized as ineffective. This includes the Economic Development Administration, the Small Business Administration, a slew of job-training programs and more. • $0 for "financial assistance to students to attend private elementary or secondary schools." Don't want to give anything to schools that often do the best job educating students. • $650 million for coupons to replace the analog TVs that will become obsolete on Feb. 17. (Don't we want people out working rather than watching TV?) • $300 billion for states in direct grants, Medicaid handouts and education funding. This should be called the "Too Bad for Utah" provision because it lards money onto states with huge deficits while Utah lawmakers were passing balanced budgets. • $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. What does this stimulate? • $198 million to Filipino World War II veterans. We don't disparage their service, but they are not likely to be stimulating the economy much. • $50 million to the National Cemetery Administration of the VA. For what purpose, we can't imagine. • $600 million for fuel-efficient cars for government workers. How about this idea instead: Take the bus. States, counties and cities are drooling as they make plans to receive their dough: • $50,000 to build barbecue pits in a park in San Benito County, Calif. • $6 million for snow-making equipment -- in Minnesota. • $2.3 million for a bicycle bridge in Grafton, Wis. • $3 million to widen Elk Run Road in Waterloo, Iowa. • $750,000 for a skateboarding park, also in Minnesota. • $21 million to the Portland, Ore., public schools for a range of projects, including the installation of low-flow toilets and urinals. • $1.1 million for a multi-purpose trail along the Grand Calumet River in East Chicago, Ind., one of the last places on earth you'd ever go for a hike or bike ride. The list goes on and on and on. The U.S. Conference of Mayors listed 18,750 projects on which to spend federal "stimulus" (no longer "bailout") money. And that's just for towns over 30,000 in population. Even little towns are lining up: • $375 million was sought by Edwardsville, Ala. Its population is 194, meaning that its request totaled $2 million per person, for items such as a renewable energy museum, a scenic road and vineyards. Media attention evidently embarrassed civic leaders, and the town withdrew its proposal. That's what the American people as a whole should do. Out of sheer embarrassment, we should rise up and stop this boondoggle immediately. The package wastes (insert large adjective here -- staggering, huge, enormous, monumental, colossal, etc.) amounts of money. It will fail to correct the recession. And it will likely wreck the credit of the United States.