Morning Seditionists

So, yet another reason to be proud of our fine Democratic representatives.

Congressional Democrats stripped from President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus plan a local lawmaker’s bid to assure that American high-tech companies would get jobs funded by that plan. (more…)

So, it looks like Obama is considering appointing New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg as Commerce Secretary. Seeing as NH’s Governor is a Democrat and gets to appoint a new Senator, that sounds like a pretty good move to me. Once Al Franken is finally sworn in, that would give Democrats 59 Senate seats. If you add the two Independents (Bernie Sanders and he who shall not be named), that would give the Democratic caucus 60 votes. I hesitate to call that filibuster-proof, since getting Democrats to all vote the same way is tougher than herding cats, and we all know what a traitor that Independent from CT is. (more…)

So I find myself agreeing with House Republicans, which makes me feel kind of dirty (where’s the Liberal Confessional when you need it). Not on the economic stimulus thingie, but on something more important: the analog teevee cutoff.

President Obama has been pushing to extend the February 17 changeover to all digital TV. Due to mismanagement (surprise, surprise) by the Bushies, the digital converter coupon fund has run out of money (there are apparently 3 million folks on the waiting list for the $40 coupons), and an estimated 6.5 million households are unprepared (meaning on all but low-power stations, which are exempt, all they’ll see is a whole lotta nothing on their teevees in three weeks or so). The Senate passed a bill to extend the deadline for four months, but the House failed to pass their version (by a large enough margin) yesterday. (more…)

Another day, another snowstorm they’re trying to get us to obsess over. This time, it seems to be headed for everybody here in the Northeast. We got an inch or three overnight here, and the lo-cal teevee weather dork is predicting six to ten total by the time things pass through completely. Of course, after storms pass by here, they bring a sort of “back-door draft” across Lake Ontario, which means lake effect snow – probably another three to seven inches by tomorrow night. Not exactly a blizzard, but enough to get the shovel (which has been standing idle in the garage for the past week or so) out. We’ve had about 111″ so far this season (we’re kicking butt for the NY State “Golden Snowball” award – as usual – leading Buffalo and Rochester by over 30″), so this ought to take us over the ten foot mark. (more…)

Over 40,000 people lost their jobs yesterday alone, and some people are predicting unemployment will hit 10%, which is the worst it’s been since about 1982 or so (and I wasn’t much affected back then, having not yet dropped out of school, and with a dad who had a good union job and a working mom). Hell of a time to be having octuplets. This is obviously terrible for the economy in general (for many of these jobs – the good ones, at places like Caterpillar – each loss take out another two or three jobs that rely on the business generated by them), but it’s also bad for those of us who are still working. (more…)

Not much coming to mind this morning, so I reckon I’m forced to resort to the weather. It’s cold (not Minnesota cold, but cold), there’s lake effect snow forecast for later on tonight, and then a storm moving in from the Roclies for Wednesday (they’re only predicting 5 to 9 inches for that one, but you never know). And here we are, down to 4 bags of pellets, and no relief in sight.

It’s the first Booblehead Sunday of the Obama Administration. On Press the Meat, Larry Summers will be on to give us the economic forecast (shitty today, with things expected to turn shittier tomorrow). Then John “Poppa” Boehner will be in to tell us how we’re all going to die now that Obama has outlawed torture and is closing Git’mo. Then it’s a roundtable on how President Obama’s administration has failed, with Tom “my head is flat” Friedman, The Weekly Standard’s Senior Putz, Setphen Hayes, and this week’s post-Obama token non-white guy, Michele Norris of NPR. (more…)

MYSTERY PRISON BUSES IN THE DESERT
Ellen Brown, January 22, 2009
www.webofdebt.com/articles/wackenhut.php

On a recent visit to Tucson, where I was invited to give a presentation on monetary reform, I was disturbed by a story of strange goings on in the desert. A little over a year ago, it seems, a new industrial facility sprang up on the edge of town. It was in a remote industrial zone and appeared to be a bus depot. The new enterprise was surrounded by an imposing security fence and bore no outward signs identifying its services. However, it soon became apparent that the compound was in the business of outfitting a fleet of prison buses. Thirty or so secondhand city buses were being reconfigured with prison bars in the windows and a coat of fresh paint bearing the “Wackenhut G4S” logo on the side. more (more…)

So, they’re saying our next Senator from NY is going to be Kirsten Gillibrand. Not a total shock, but kind of a nice surprise, seeing as she’s from Upstate NY (Central NY would have been better, but you take what you can get). She’s apparently a good fundraiser, which will be a necessity since she’ll need to pretty much go into campaign mode. And it helps the Guv, since it puts an Upstate woman on the ballot with him for his campaign. (more…)

Only Thursday? Damn, feels like it ought to be Friday, doesn’t it? And I had Monday off. I guess since we traveled about 400 years in time between Monday and noon on Tuesday, it just feels like forever. I’m proposing new Federal legislation for Obama to make his #1 priority. The Friday of any week having a Monday holiday should be a Federal holiday. And any week without a Monday holiday should be required to have that Monday as a holiday. And half days on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We promise to be productive as hell on Wednesdays, though. (more…)