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.

I don’t know why we’d need to create jobs for Americans. Hell, only 100,000 people lost their jobs last week.

The “local lawmaker” in question is PA Republican Tim Murphy. I don’t know anything else about the guy, but I am rather chagrined to once again find myself agreeing with a Republican.

“From the iron mines to the manufacturers, to the mills, let’s use it to buy American,” the Upper St. Clair Republican said. “If we really are going to be serious about American jobs, we should require the billions in taxpayer funds go only towards American jobs and to buy products that say ‘Made in the U.S.A.'”

Sounds good. Just as good as President Obama’s and Chris Dodd’s rhetoric about Wall St. executives getting huge bonuses, all while working to block legislation that would allow the government to actually do something about it.

Nice to know we can still count on politicians to suck – no matter which side of the aisle they sit on.

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.

Still, it’s a move that would at least piss off the Republicans, so that’s worth it all by itself. Of course, Republicans are already putting the screws to Gregg to keep him from accepting the job if offered. NH tends to be a pretty independent-minded state, but Republicans generally do what they’re told. I don’t know if there’s more potential graft available as Commerce Secretary than as a NH Senator, so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.

Otherwise, it’s the end of another long week. We’ve got a bit of a reprieve from the snow (not much yesterday and nothing predicted for today), but there a couple more storms brewing for next week. We’re up over the ten foot mark for the season, so I’m hoping we can pull out another 80 inches before summer gets here and break the 200 inch mark.

First off, though, gotta get this week over with.

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.

While I feel a certain amount of comradeship with the procrastinators out there, I really don’t think extending the deadline will help. The only real way to give these slackers a kick in the butt is to have their teevees stop working. Few things strike more fear into the heart of Americans than the loss of their electronic babysitter. Once they see snow on the box (so to speak), they’ll get themselves out to the nearest Best Buy and take care of business.

I do feel bad for the old and/or lonely folks out there without friends and family who kind of rely on the TV for news and companionship. I can see them, slack-jawed and stunned, awash in the flickering glow of their snow-filled Zeniths, twisting knobs and fiddling with rabbit ears. No doubt a lot of TV repair people will make a lot of money on house calls come February 18.

But time marches on, and, in the scheme of things, these people will be better off without broadcast TV for a few days. There’s always the radio or (god forbid) they might even pick up a book. I know one of the things that I’ve all but abandoned in this electronic age is reading books. I can’t seem to concentrate on more than a paragraph or two these days (I keep trying to click something). It made going back to school pretty tough.

The House is apparently scheduling a new vote in an effort to pass an extension (because there’s nothing more important going on out there than teevee). Personally, I hope that fails as well. It’s time to put our long national analog TV nightmare behind us.

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.

On the bright side, it might actually get as warm as 30 degrees today, and that’d be pretty damn summer-like.

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.

With times this tough, it’s damn near impossible to tell your employer to kiss your ass, and walk out the door. And it makes getting a raise or a better deal a lot less likely. Plus, for those of us who aren’t old enough to retire but also aren’t young single kids willing to work for next to nothing, share an apartment with three or four other young folks to make ends meet, and devote 80-100 hours a week to our jobs, it makes it hard not to think about being pushed out the door in favor of some fresh-faced kid right out of school. And then trying to find a job someplace else; not everybody is drooling over the prospect of hiring a “new” 50’ish employee with family commitments just trying to run out the clock ’til retirement (which is not necessarily the case, but you know that’s what these people are thinking).

The prospect of freezing to death alone in a dark, silent house as the ice builds up on the windows because I couldn’t pay my utility bill is a little bit disturbing.

So, I guess I’d better just suck it up and drag my ass out there every day with a fake smile plastered on my face. After all, I have dogs to feed.

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.

Over at CBS, Bob Schieffer has Joe Biden, on to talk about today’s Syracuse-Louisville basketball game. And maybe some government-type stuff, too.

At Fux News, Weaselface Wallace and John McCain talk fisting, and Chuck Schumer will also be on to talk about what a pleasure it’ll be to have Upstate Blue Dog shiksa Kirsten Gillibrand in the Senate with him, and the usual group of fuxheads will be on to talk trash about Caroline Kennedy, Barack Obama, and America in general.

On the Goebbels Network’s This Weak, George Snufalufagus and Nancy Pelosi will share Botox tips, and discuss how Nancy will “reign in” the new President. Then the Axis of Drivel is reunited again, as Sam :omg: Donaldson, Cokie “the hag” Roberts, and George :jerk: Will are joined by disgraced former HP CEO (and McCain adviser who – at least in some small way – helped deliver the White House to Barack Obama), Carly Fiorina and Nobel Prize winning economist Paul Krugman (who I think we’re allowed to like again, now that we’ve put all that Hillary Clinton animosity behind us).

Later, on 60 Minutes, Scott Pelley tells us how Wilmington, OH is screwed, now that their largest employer, DHL, is shutting down its domestic operation (welcome to the club, Wilmington – aren’t you all glad you helped get Bush that second term?), Bob Simon reports on how the two-state solution is dead in Israel (I say we take all the Sudanese refugees, move them into the region, and tell the Israelis and the Palestinians that this is their home now. Sorry), and Morley Safer reports that scientists have found a substance – called resveratrol – in red wine that slows down the aging process in mice.

If Granny was a mouse, she’d live forever!

Have a good Sunday, y’all.

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

Vigilance! I’m starting to get suspicious of our Gov Napolitano who is now heading the dept of Homeland Security.

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.

Otherwise, I’m just glad it’s Friday.

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.

Looks like Caroline Kennedy really is out of the running for the NY Senate seat, despite anything Olberman may have reported. Maybe Keith is just struggling to remain relevant in a post-Bush world. I don’t particularly want Andy Cuomo either, though. Not unless we can get Spitzer back as AG.

Nobody cares what I think, though. Especially our Governor.