Day: February 3, 2009

Is It A Sneak Attack On The Constitution?

Where are all those beady eyed Constitution conspiracists at when you need them to exercise their tiny little minds?

Ever hear of HJ Res 5?  No?  That is odd because it is all about trying to change the US Constitution.  The 22nd amendment to be exact.  Ringing any bells?

HJ Res 5 states:

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.

JOINT RESOLUTION

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to repeal the twenty-second article of amendment, thereby removing the limitation on the number of terms an individual may serve as President.

    Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled (two-thirds of each House concurring therein), That the following article is proposed as an amendment to the Constitution of the United States, which shall be valid to all intents and purposes as part of the Constitution when ratified by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years after the date of its submission for ratification:
    ‘The twenty-second article of amendment to the Constitution of the United States is hereby repealed.’

Surely somewhere out there someone has got to be scream conspiracy.

Is It All That Stimulating?

They call it “stimulus” legislation, but the economic measures racing through Congress would devote tens of billions of dollars to causes that have little to do with jolting the country out of recession.

There’s $345 million for Agriculture Department computers, $650 million for TV converter boxes, $15 billion for college scholarships — worthy, perhaps, but not likely to put many Americans back to work quickly.

Yes, there are many billions of dollars in “ready-to-go” job-creating projects in President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus bill. But there are also plenty of items that are just unfinished business for Congress’ old bulls.

An $800 billion-plus package, it turns out, gives lawmakers plenty of opportunities to rid themselves of nagging headaches left over from the days when running up the government’s $10 trillion-plus debt was a bigger concern.

There’s $1 billion to deal with Census problems and $88 million to help move the Public Health Service into a new building next year. The Senate would devote $2.1 billion to pay off a looming shortfall in public housing accounts, $870 million to combat the flu and $400 million to slow the spread HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases such as chlamydia.

But nothing is in the legislation by accident. By including in the Senate stimulus bill such far-ranging ideas as $40 million to convert the way health statistics are collected — from paper to an electronic system — lawmakers are able to thin out their in-boxes, even if they aren’t doing much to create jobs.

There’s also $380 million in the Senate bill for a rainy day fund for the Women, Infants and Children program that delivers healthful food to the poor. WIC got a $1 billion infusion last fall.

At the same time, putting items in the stimulus bill that really should be handled in annual appropriations bills creates more room in the latter for pet project and other programs.

Part of the reason so much non-stimulus spending has made it into the stimulus bill is that there are only so many traditional jobs-heavy public works projects that can get started quickly. As it is, most of the money in the bill for roadbuilding, water projects and mass transit probably won’t be spent until the economy has turned around and is back on a recovery path.

For example, just one-third of $30 billion proposed by the House for highway construction would reach the economy in the next year and a half, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Democrats are going ahead with Obama’s $500 tax credit for most workers and $1,000 for couples even though there’s wide agreement that last year’s rebate checks weren’t effective in sparking recovery.

Defenders of the package said that once experts determined it would take $800 billion to start to pull the country out of recession and emphasized the urgency, details took on less importance.

If the reader would like to step back into the posts of Info Ink they will find that I have not been a big supporter of any of the so called stimulus bills or bailout or whatever you wanted call them.  The first was hand outs for Repubs and Wall Street, the second is hand outs for Dems and pet projects.  If they want to stimulate the economy then flush the crap and do a bill with NOTHING but parts that will stimulate the economy now and in the long run.  This bill is a joke and a waste of time and will lead to nothing good!

Oh My God! It Is Trickle Down All Over Again!

I have been listening to all the clap trap about the stimulus plan from both sides and it is all so much dookie on the wall.  On the Pres side we see very little that will create a sustainable amount of jobs and growth, just trying to make banks more stable and give them more liquidity,  Liquidity?  I have been saying for months now that demand is needed not liquidity (see page titled demand not liquidity).  Economists and politicians are spending great amounts out time and effort to make the stimulus complexities as confusing as possible as to keep the public from understanding it at all.

We as a country are assisting banks, here is an idea give the money to people that are in dire straights, they can pay off their mortgages, car loans, credit cards and the money would go to banks and that is where would was going to go anyway.  Once that was taken care of the people’s money could then be used for consumption which would then create more demand and in turn would create more activity in the different sectors of the economy.

That is just way too easy.  Both parties are proposing some form of the old tired BS of trickle down economics or voodoo economics, that is where if you do good things for the wealthy then they will start doing good things all along the economic spectrum and all income classes will benefit.  It was fecal matter back in Reagan’s days and it is still fecal matter today.

Give a business a tax cut and they will hire more people and make more goods….is that about the scheme?  Cool!  But if NO one is buying why would they hire more people or make more goods?  Riddle me that, Batman?

You do not have to be a Nobel economist to know that running a deficit, which is really borrowing money, from China in our case, is just postponing the inevitable rise in taxes…shall I say what it really is?  Okay I shall!  THE COWARD’S WAY OUT!  Politicians try to scare the crap out of the people by saying that their children will be responsible for the deficit, LISTEN…it is a lie……it is their cowardice that your children will be paying for, nothing else.

No Longer Need Book Banning

This from an article in the USA Today.  It is a sad day when the knowledge acquired from books found in libraries has come to this point in our society.

Dwindling tax dollars are forcing libraries to close branches, cut hours and end programs just as more people are turning to them for services.

“Libraries rely on public dollars, and we know there are less public dollars,” says Sari Feldman, vice president of the Public Library Association and executive director of the Cuyahoga County Public Library in Ohio.

• Troy, N.Y., is closing two of three branches today because the budget has been cut 16% to $669,000 this year, says Paul Hicok, executive director of the Troy Public Library. Its circulation of borrowed materials increased 16% last year.

• Muncie, Ind., is closing three of five branches, says library director Ginny Nilles. Its $4.8 million annual budget is facing a cut of $2 million over two years. Circulation increased 7% last year.

• In Philadelphia, Mayor Michael Nutter planned to close 11 of the city’s 54 libraries this month to save $8 million, but a judge ruled he did not have the authority. Nutter is appealing. The branches remain open, but their hours will be reduced.

• Phoenix faces a 27% cut in its $40.6 million budget that would reduce hours at its 15 branches from 72 hours a week to 48 and eliminate some children and adult reading programs, says city librarian Toni Garvey. The number of visitors increased 8% in 2008.

• Darby, Pa., expects to close its only library — the oldest continuously operating free public library in Pennsylvania and believed to be the oldest in the nation — next year.

Cities are making tough choices, says Chris Hoene, director of policy and research at the National League of Cities. As people lose income or curb spending, income tax and sales tax revenue falls. Local officials must choose between core services, such as police and fire protection, and services such as libraries and parks.

“Obviously, when push comes to shove,” he says, city governments facing budget cuts “will protect city services considered more vital to the safety of the community.”

It is true that more people are getting their information from the internet, whgich is great, but not everyone has the access to the internet.  Now that brings up another post (later) about a promise from Obama about a universal broadband access for the US.

Iceland Installs First Gay PM

Johanna Sigurdardottir, named as Iceland’s prime minister on Sunday, is the first openly lesbian head of government in Europe, if not the world – at least in modern times.

The 66-year-old’s appointment as an interim leader, until elections in May, is seen by many as a milestone for the gay and lesbian movement.

Up until now, if a gay man or woman has been prime minister, they have done their best to conceal the fact.

In Iceland itself, however, the new prime minister’s sexual orientation appears to be causing less excitement than it is abroad.

What is really historic about this new cabinet, says Skuli Helgeson, the general secretary of Ms Sigurardottir’s Social Democratic Alliance, is not the fact that its leader is a lesbian, but that for the first time in Icelandic history it boasts an equal number of men and women.

“I don’t think her sexual orientation matters. Our voters are pretty liberal, they don’t care about any of that,” he told BBC News.