A Fresh START for Porkulus

Walt Minnick, Idaho First, has a better alternative to the Pelosi/Reid/Obama Porlulus bill,  DC Examiner:

While President Barack Obama goes on the road to shore up slipping popular support for the $1 trillion stimulus porkfest that he ordered up from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Rep. Walt Minnick, a freshman Democrat from Idaho, is pushing a better idea: The Strategic Targeted American Recovery and Transition Act (START).

Minnick is a member of the Blue Dog caucus of occasionally conservative Democcrats. His START plan is a $170 billion “bare bones” pure stimulus approach that would put $100 billion immediately into the pockets of low- and middle-income Americans, then use the other $70 billion for basic infrastructure projects that create jobs. START requires that all funds not spent by 2010 be returned to the Treasury. START also stops stimulus spending when the nation’s Gross Domestic Product increases in two of three previous quarters, and all START payments are required to be posted on a public website.

Hat tip:  Ed Morrissey, Hot Air.

Representative Minnock has done what Nancy Pelosi, Dirty Harry Reid and Barack Obama were incapable of doing, developing a stimulus plan which is  targeted, timely and temporary.

Tell your representative to dump the Pelosi/Reid/Obama Porkulus package and throw their support to Minnick’s START.  The economy you have might to your own.

Addendum:

Ed Morrissey, Hot Air, correctly points out that Mimnick’s START bill closely resembles BO’s campaign promises, whereas Porkulus does not even come close:

[C]onsidering Walt Minnick’s START proposal. It spends almost exactly what Obama promised during the campaign, in almost exactly the manner Obama proposed at that time. Shouldn’t Obama seize that as his mandate, since voters elected him on that basis, rather than the Omnibus Pork Package wending its way through Congress? And why hasn’t the media noted this similarity, and asked Obama why he’s not honoring his campaign promise by supporting Minnick’s bill instead of Nancy Pelosi’s?

Then BO seems to have a poor grasp on history, even his own.

Time to let your voice be heard… loudly and repeatedly.
Here’s where.

As a candidate Barack Obama created a terrible box for himseslf.  He could placate his leftard base and abandon an effective war on terror, or he could placate his base, and thus imperil both the nation’s safety and his own re-elections prospects.    At least this once, Obama has opted for national security, and Glenn Greenwald, Salon, is pissed:

For those interested, I wrote many times in the past about the origins of the State Secrets Privilege and how the Bush administration’s abuse of it (endorsed by the Obama DOJ today) has been so severe and destructive — see, for instance, here and here. And see this excellent comment from DCLaw1, explaining yet another reason why the Obama administration’s decision today is such a substantial setback for the cause of restoring our Constitutional framework.

Get used to it Glenn.  While BO is a fool, he not a total moron.

“The change in administration has no bearing?” she asked.

“No, your honor,” he said once more. The position he was taking in court on behalf of the government had been “thoroughly vetted with the appropriate officials within the new administration,” and “these are the authorized positions,” he said.

As a candidate, BO described each and every Bush policy as “failed.”   Yet as President, BO now finds it appropriate to continue many of these policies.    Honesty, is not Obama’s strong suit.

Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) — Republican Senators are questioning whether President Barack Obama‘s stimulus bill contains the right mix of tax breaks and cash infusions to jump-start the economy.

Tragically, no one from either party is objecting to the health provisions slipped in without discussion. These provisions reflect the handiwork of Tom Daschle, until recently the nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department.

Senators should read these provisions and vote against them because they are dangerous to your health. (Page numbers refer to H.R. 1 EH, pdf version).

The bill’s health rules will affect “every individual in the United States” (445, 454, 479). Your medical treatments will be tracked electronically by a federal system. Having electronic medical records at your fingertips, easily transferred to a hospital, is beneficial. It will help avoid duplicate tests and errors.

But the bill goes further. One new bureaucracy, the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology, will monitor treatments to make sure your doctor is doing what the federal government deems appropriate and cost effective. The goal is to reduce costs and “guide” your doctor’s decisions (442, 446). These provisions in the stimulus bill are virtually identical to what Daschle prescribed in his 2008 book, “Critical: What We Can Do About the Health-Care Crisis.” According to Daschle, doctors have to give up autonomy and “learn to operate less like solo practitioners.”

This is merely one part of the package, only one aspect of many that I should be talking about… we ALL shoud be talking about. Obama has presented us with such a target-rich environment it’s hard to know where to start. For the moment, though, this serves as a primary example of why this supposed ‘stumulus bill’ should go down in flames, with senators pouring gasoline on it, yet. This is an example of the kind of ‘only govenment is big enough’ nonsense that Obama’s served up to us.

Daschle says health-care reform “will not be pain free.” Seniors should be more accepting of the conditions that come with age instead of treating them. That means the elderly will bear the brunt.

In other words, if the government feels your treatment will cost too much, it’s yor duty, Comrade, to just go away and die.

Welcome to government healthcare, people.

Nadya Suleman has no husband, no job, no prospects, but she does have fourteen children: 

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The California mother of newborn octuplets said on Monday she was counting on God to help provide for her family but acknowledged that she already was “struggling” financially to raise her first six children[…[

Divorced and living with her mother in suburban Los Angeles, she said all 14 were conceived with in vitro fertilization from a single sperm donor, identified only as a friend

Now Suleman’s fourteen children do have a father, refered a merely a sperm donor.   Well this anonymous has fathered foureen bastards.   I think it hire time this the male bastard breeder to start supporting his own chldren.   and for the the female bastard breeder to get her tubes tied before she give birth to any more bastards.  What say you?

Kate, Small Dead Animals, asks,”Is There Nothing That Obama Can’t Do?, video:

Evidentlly according to Bruce McQuain, Q and O, what Barack Obama can not do is to tell the truth.  BO in  Elkhart, Indiana, today:

So – so we may – we may debate- we – we can debate, you know, whether you’d rather have this tax cut versus that tax cut or this project versus that project. Be clear, though, that there aren’t – there aren’t individual pork projects that members of Congress are putting into this bill. Regardless of what the critics say, there are no earmarks in this bill. That’s part of the change that we’re bringing to Washington, is making sure that this money is well-spent to actually create jobs right here in Elkhart.

BO in Williamsburg, Virginia, last Friday:

Then there’s the argument, well, this is full of pet projects. When was the last time that we saw a bill of this magnitude move out with no earmarks in it? Not one. (Applause.)

So on Friday, Porkulus has pork in it, but by Monday, it has none.   Did BO put Porky on diet over the weekend?

So what have we discovered of the nebulous administration of one Barack Obama?   Two things, one, Obama isn’t very good at governing and doesn’t like it ; two BO likes to campaign.   So with the fate of Porkulus hanging in the balance, BO set off for a campaign stop in Elkhart, Indiana, which I find amusing.   Long ago and far away, I used to live in Elkhart.   For all I know, Bit’s trailer could have been made in Elkhart,   They make a lot of them.

What I find ironic, is that Barack Obama is seeking campaign support in town that has been victimized by democrat economics.    The recreational vehicle industry crashed when the  price of gasoline sky rocketed.     High energy costs are the natural result of the Democrats’ war on energy.  Obama was quoted as saying the thought five dollar a gallon gasoline would be acceptable.    So many RV’s will be Made in Elkhart with gas at five dollars?   Say three.

Obama came to Elkhart posing as a savior when in fact he is personally responsible for Elkhart’s economic plight.    Those dollars BO taxes away from working families can not be used to buy either RVs or the fuel to power/tow them.  Mimi Hall, USA Today

Layoffs are happening across the USA – but nowhere as fast as in this once-thriving area that used to be known as the “RV Capital of the World.” One year ago, unemployment in Elkhart County was at 4.7%. Today, it’s the highest in the nation at 15.3%, fueled largely by the rapid decline in the recreational vehicle business.

On Monday, President Obama traveled to this depressed northern Indiana city to highlight what’s at stake as his $800-billion-plus economic stimulus bill is debated in Congress.

Mean while back in the world of the sane, Ed Morrissey, Hot Air,  has some advice for BO:

In a way, Obama’s escaping rather than campaigning.  The problem in this bill isn’t in Elkhart, and neither is the solution.  Obama let his signature issue jump off the rails when he failed to control Nancy Pelosi and force her to get Republicans involved in writing the bill.  That didn’t happen in Elkhart.  He could solve that problem by summoning Pelosi and Harry Reid to the Oval Office and instructing them to go back to the drawing board, this time with Republican leadership, and get a bill that would gain massive support on both sides of the aisle.

Then in a way you can’t blame BO for preferring to gaze at the banks of  Elkhart River, rather than the face of Mrs. Pelosi.

Welcome, one and all to the most intense nightly read on the sphere… Bitsblog’s Nightly Ramble

An interesting weekend, and lots on the horizon to discuss. Let’s get it.

• PROKULUS: Obama is scheduled to beg and plead for his Porkulus bill tonight. He’ll lay out all kinds of doomsday scenarios, and basically, be playing the politics of fear, as I described the other day.  And Class Envy as well. He’s scheduled to show up on your TV at 8pm eastern.
• THE POLITICS OF FEAR: Fear, and something else, as well. Remember when Obama used to complain, bitterly about people ‘questioning his patriotism’? Funny how when questions ours,  it’s OK.  Whatever happened to his call for ‘bipartisanship’? Dissent, apparently, is no longer patriotic. Did I call this one, or what?
• Over at Pajamas Media,  Victor Hanson notes the tendency of Obama and his people to engage in hyperbolic arguments, and says it’s hurting them. He’s right, but notably, it’s not affeced their base much, I think.
• UNIONS: One aspect of this ‘stimulus’ bill is a lot of projects on highways, and other federal level construction. One thing you may not be aware of, however, is an executive order from Obama which stipulates that all construction projects that get federal funds, will be required to use only Union people. Can you imagine why? Yep… Political payoffs. No wonder he’s throwing everything he can at this. Want proof of the union connection?  Yesyerday we were treated to Barney Frank on “Meet the Depressed”.  Frank used New Bedford Mass and the threat of impending fire and police layoffs there no less than five times in his argument. The reality is, however, that layoffs are not contemplated, except as a last resort. What’s really going on is the unions are being asked to take pay cuts. Only if they refuse, will there be layoffs. In short, Barkey Frank lied. Again. (BBCT: Mark Hemmingway) 
• HOME LOANS? One thing he won’t tell you is that this whole thing was started by Democrats trying to make housing more affrdable for the poor, and specifically, minorities. This was backed by people like Dodd and Frank, who got well paid for their backing, apparently.  The resulting financial crash is what we’re dealing with now. In response to all this, the bill the Democrats, Obama included, are pushing involves… catch this, now… $9.7 trillion US Dollars. Just to put some scope on that figure, that amount of money would pay off %90 of the mortgages in the country.  Now, of course, that’s not where the Democras are planning on spending the money. It’s going to their pet projects, instead.  Doesn’t it kinda make you wonder what the Democrats are up to?
• DISASTER: Meanwhile, the Republicans are warning that this thing will head us toward disaster. They are correct. thing is, it’s a disaster they will own.
• More tax cuts, less spending. That’s what the Rasmussen data is showing the people want. Of course, it’s what the Democrats won’t do.
• OPPOSITION FROM WITHIN: Even the chair of Obama’s economic advisory board opposes this bill.
• AND THE NEARLY WITHIN: John McCain is taking Michelle Malkin’s lead on calling this bill “Generational theft”.  My instinct here is to say ‘shut up, John…too little, too late’.  But still… when someone who has shown the kind of willingness to lean left that McCain has says this thing is a real problem, I begin to think he may actually provide some weight to that argument… one of the few places he may yet do the Republicans… and the country… some good. Maybe.

My own answer to this bill? No only no, but HELL NO. Given what I see in the polling data, and what I hear from the front offices of Congresscritters, I’m hardly alone. I judge, based on what I see that the Democrats are doubling down on a bad move, here… They’re going to be paying for it for decades, politically speaking…. they’ll be out of power at the next election. Exiled. And good riddence. Trouble with this scenario? While they pay for it politically, we’ll be paying for it financially.

Other matters:

• RAP MUSIC STRIKES AGAIN: I’ve been commenting for years about ‘urban’ music awards shows and the violence inherrent in such venues. I’ve warned repeatedly that as ‘urban’ music became more ‘mainstream’ that we’d see such happenings in mainstream shows… like the Grammies. Guess what? That came true, apparently, last night.
• MLB FRAUD:  Is anyone really shocked to hear ARod was and probably is still juicing?  It’s not like the books we’ve been reading didn’t tell us that. He should now be banned from the hall of fame. Period. But more; Let’s stop danding around the involvement of Yankee officials, huh?  Torre’s book was right. ARod is a fraud. And guess what, gang? So are the Yankees as a team. It’s time to face up to that fact. It’s also time to release the other 103 names. Are you listening, MLB?
• HEARTS AND FLOWERS: If you’re planning on doing soemthing for Valentine’s day and don’t have it in motion, now would be a good time to kick that mule, son. All as a public service.

Coming into work, today, I happened to stop at the grocery store to pick up a few supplies for the office. As I was entering the store, I got behind a woman whose perfume entered the store about 20 minutes before her, and doubtless left about three hours after we both left. Of course, she weighed by my admittedly loose estimate, around 300lbs. One can only assume that she hoped the perfume would somehow make up for that.

I was left with both the line in this post’s headline, and the line from George Carlin, where he’s talking about passing wind:

Have you ever noticed your own don’t smell so bad?

Being rather free with my thoughts on the blog, and in most other matters, it was a serious challenge to hold my tounge in my teeth as I scampered by as quickly as possible, without breathing.

The air around this woman began to take on the quality of a semi-solid, almost like Jello-O, creating a refractory effect not unlike a funhouse mirror. Thus the title of the post. I can only assume the intent was to create an optical illusion, like a Romulan Cloaking device.

What in the world causes women to do that to themselves, and to us?

Now, before you start, that’s not to suggest the phenom is just limited to women. Oh, no. We’ve each run into the occasional guy who apparently bathes in the Hai Karate container. Usually, in my experience, this is the guy that will be spotless in appearance and Felix Ungar in manner, and who wouldn’t have a clue what to do with a woman if he could ever find one that could get through the odoriferous layer surrounding him.. or wanted to.

Conclusions? I have none. Just one of those little observations of life that I have daily and occasionally want to capture and share. Perhaps the motivation for sharing this particular observation is that smell is one of the least understood of the senses, in terms of the reaction it brings. A smell, even a whiff of it, can cause serious memory restoration. No, I’m quite serious.

With me, it’s carpet glue. No, I’m not kidding. See, one of my favorite memories is a radio station I used to work at. It was a non-profit and so when it came time to put sound deadening on the walls, instead of using the expensive stuff, we got local carpet stores to donate carpet samples, which we then used carpet glue to hang them on the walls. Worked fine, but left a smell that we never did get rid of, even up to the day they took the place apart to move it. The smell of carpet glue always takes me back to those days.

What kind of memories, though, would be caused by the woman this morning, I hesitate to say. One really has to wonder what kind of logic is used in the creation of the situation I described to you. What would cause someone to lay down a layer of smell the weight of which should only be used for hand to hand combat? And what kind of political point of view would come from such a mind, I’m not even going to think about.

Now, you’ll pardon me. I have to shower.

Mrs. Pelosi as Dubya is a skirt, John W. Lillpop, Post Chronicle:

Nancy Pelosi appears to be walking in W.’s steps when it comes to being inarticulate and a liability to her party.

For example, Nancy Pelosi’s garbled and illogical defense of hundreds of billions of dollars in the economic stimulus plan for non-stimulating boondoggles has been a rallying point for those who care about this nation’s fiscal future

The Sharp Tack deflates Lancet, Clarice Feldman, American Thinker.

Lead, follow or get out of the way, Delroy Murdock. Times Herald:

President Barack Obama should learn from his tumultuous struggle to drag his reputed stimulus measure through Congress. Rather than let House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid craft major bills, Obama should offer specific proposals and have his allies push them toward adoption.

Algore lies:

Fifty-four percent (54%) of U.S. voters say the news media make global warming appear worse than it really is. Only 21% say the media present an accurate picture, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.

Ashley Judd on drugs, Tim Graham, News Busters:

According to the humanitarian ethics of Ashley Judd, Sarah Palin shouldn’t allow wolves to be shot from an airplane, but she should allow human babies to have their skulls vacuumed out and killed in a partial-birth abortion. Who here is in favor of “senseless savagery” again?

Fishermen return to the ice, Associated Press:

PORT CLINTON, Ohio – Many of the 134 fishermen rescued from Lake Erie ice returned to the miles-long floe Sunday using rented air boats to retrieve left-behind snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and other equipment. A few ventured onto the risky ice to fish for walleye.

Why we can’t trust Dodd, Kevin Rennie, Hartford Courant:

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd went one contrivance too far last week at his carefully choreographed press event to explain his mortgage deals with Countrywide Financial. Dodd has engaged in so many contradictions in trying to manage the gathering storm that he probably did not recognize his stunning blunder.

Overseas challenges cascading on Obama, Eli Lake, Washington  Times:

As President Obama begins his fourth week in the White House, foreign rivals and erstwhile allies already have begun to challenge U.S. interests abroad.

On Friday, Pakistan – the recipient of billions of dollars in U.S. aid – released from house arrest Abdul Qadeer Khan, the nuclear scientist who for two decades ran a black market that sold nuclear-weapons technology to U.S. adversaries including Iran and Libya.

Charming Barry.

Kristin Stewart bikini.

Sorry about that Dan

George W Bush, 2002 State of the Union:

This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world. States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger. They could provide these arms to terrorists, giving them the means to match their hatred. They could attack our allies or attempt to blackmail the United States. In any of these cases, the price of indifference would be catastrophic

Barack Obama’s view of the World, according to Victor Davis Hansen:

Obama immediately must lower the hope-and-change rhetoric, ignore Reid/Pelosi, drop the therapy, and accept the tragic view that the world abroad is not misunderstood but quite dangerous.

This people are not misunderstood, they are evil, Agence France-Presse:

PAKISTANI Taliban militants released a graphic video on Sunday showing the beheading of a Polish engineer whom they said was killed because Islamabad refused to free detained insurgents.

The tape, seen by an AFP correspondent here, was released one day after a spokesman for Pakistan’s umbrella Taliban group said its men had decapitated Piotr Stanczak, who was kidnapped in the volatile northwest on September 28.

 Our condolances to the familly of Mr. Stanczak.

Show me a person who says he is not greedy, and I show you either a fool or a liar.   Milton Friedman takes Phil Donohue to the woodshed, video:

Hat tips: Glenn Reynolds, Instapundit and Jack Dunphy, Patterico Pontifications.

Doubtless, some of you will have noticed that there’s been some changes going on the last couple of days.

The right column has been modified somewhat. so as to allow me to compact the search items. I’m doing that, because I anticipate some additional features being over there very shortly. 

I’ve also done some modification of the category list.  This will be a little confusing until it finally hits its stride.  That may take a couple of days as I sort things out.  The category list was getting far too large for its own good; I started creating subcategories.  It’s down now to figuring out how I’d like it to be.  That’s going to be a process of experimentation, and will probably take about a week. 

You’ll also notice that Gravitars are up and running.  Those are the little pictures that are in the comments section.  You can establish one for yourself at gravitar.com

There will also be some changes being made to the Swamp Stoppers listings shortly.  There, again, we need to do some examination on which direction we’d like that to go. 

Questions, as always, can be directed at feedback.florack.us

I wrote some weeks ago at Pajamas Media:

For all the vitriol that has been coming from the left, and specifically out of President Obama’s mouth during the campaign, there’s a difference in tone coming out of the Obama camp over the last several weeks. There has been an abandonment of the hot rhetoric of the leftist in favor of of a liberal forced to face the reality of the world around him (i.e., adpopting existing White House policy). The change in tone is a recognition that the rhetoric that the American public was offered during the election was simply not based on reality.

As President Obama and his people are briefed on what has been happening in the world these last eight years, the insider’s view has given them a completely new perspective on what to do about the situation, resulting in completely different actions as compared to the ones they were telling everyone they would take once they were given the power.

The problem, of course, is that the always image conscious Obama needs to create the image of changing American foreign policy to satisfy his base,while not straying far from the policies of Bush… policies which unlike those pitched to his base t get elected, will actually work. I  warned at the time, that the chances of them actually pulling that sleight of hand off, saying one thing while doing another,  were minimal at best.

So, along comes Joe Biden this morning as noted by Bruce McQuain at Q&O

As promised, Vice President Joe Biden reached out to the international community Saturday, saying the U.S. is open for talks with Iran and Russia to repair relations, and willing to work with allies to solve world problems.

But in his first major foreign policy speech for the new administration, the Democrat also warned that the U.S. stands ready to take pre-emptive action against Tehran if it does not abandon its nuclear ambitions and support for terrorism.

Repair relations?  Just words at the moment.

Well, no… not really.

To my mind, the statement is declarative of several thoughts.  Among them;

1. Foreign policy was damaged by the United States.
2. Thereby a that the United States bears the responsibility of repairing it.
3. That the usual Liberal tactics will be employed in an attempt to “repair” them.
4. Among these, will be the always ineffective and usually counterproductive “Hind-Lick maneuver “.
5. The current Democrats have learned  nothing from the mistakes of their brother Democrats of the past and the disasters that implementation of liberal policy in the past has created.   Specifically Jimmy Carter, and Bill Clinton.

As Bruce points out:

For instance:

“I think Vice President Biden came to Munich today in a spirit of partnership,” British Foreign Secretary David Miliband told AP Television News. “I think he set an ambitious agenda with big goals and high objectives, and he called and challenged us to work with him. I think that’s the right spirit.”

That hits me as diplo-speak for “he’s going to do things the way we want them done”.  And, of course, that’s not leadership.

Understand too that diplomats are also going to give this a positive spin because they stand to gain from it. That’s why Russia said:

“The tonality was rather encouraging. It was really a serious call to restart U.S. foreign policy — including, clearly, Russian-American relations,” said Konstantin Kosachev, head of the international relations committee in Russia’s lower parliament house.

That’s diplo-speak for “we think we can roll these guys”.

Exactly so. which, is exactly why they wanted the Democrats in the White House and the first place.  They knew they would gain by it, and America would lose.  It’s really that simple.

Now, a cautionary note: Taking Biden’s word on matters of policy is problematic at best given his reputation as a loose cannon.  He ran in exactly the opposite direction from the top of the ticket on several different occasions during the campaign, all of which were only peripherally noted in the dinosaur media.   We have no reason to believe that the gaff-prone Biden has changed at all between then and now.  It certainly is the most logical way of explaining the differences between the signals that the Obama administration was sending previously, and the ones that Joe Biden sent in Munich.

So, the question becomes, how much policy change will actually occur?  Frankly, as little as they think they can get away with. And, one suspects, far less than what those in Germany heard Biden going on about, when he had his hand out for more WU troops, for Iraq and Afghanistan.

That shortcoming,  of course, will create more damage to the relationships we have around the world.  And in more than just the relationships the Democrats think we should have.

If there is anything that is surprising about all of this, it’s that anyone is, or will be surprised at all by any of it.

Still getting your televison over the air and haven’t yet got your converter box?    Congress is claiming to have done you a favor, MSNBC:

The house voted Wednesday to delay the transition to digital T.V. The nationwide switch that had been scheduled to happen February 17th, is now set for this summer. The bill was passed because of concerns that millions of people are still unprepared. With that vote, the house passed a bill to postpone the historical conversion from analog to digital T.V. Local T.V. stations will now be allowed to keep their analog transmitters plugged in until June 12th, four months later than originally scheduled for them to switch to digital. The delay gives people more time to buy digital converters for their older T.V sets

How much of a favor did Congress do for you?  Less than meets the rabbit ears.   The bill allows televion station to continue to broadcast analog signals until June 12th, does not not mandate that station do so, Pekin Daily Times:

PEKIN – Both houses of Congress have passed a bill delaying the digital television transition from Feb. 17 to June 12, but some stations – including local affiliates – are planning to stick with the original date

[…]

According to figures from the FCC, 276 stations across the country were planning to shut off their analog signals on the original date, Tomczyk said. An additional 143 stations have already made the switch, he said, and 60 others plan to do so before Feb. 17

Running a televison transmitter uses a huge amount of  electrical power.   Running two transmtters uses even more..   Dropping analog requires less electrical power and saves a lot on money, and by the way is greener.  That’ll make Algore happy.