Stimulus Package?????

The bill passed by the House yesterday contains 100's of billions of dollars in spending. However, less the $100 billion for this year, about $100 billion for next year, and $100 billion the year after that. 60% of it won't be spent in Obama's first term! Stimulus packages spend money now. In case you can't connect the dots: THIS IS NOT A STIMULUS PACKAGE! IT IS A LONG-TERM SPENDING PACKAGE!

I hope the Senate votes this down and then let's start over with a REAL stimulus package that fixes the problems now!

The President's First Three Days

President Obama: Kudos on your ethics changes for the Executive Branch! Now if we could just get Congress to accept the same limitations, we'd really clean up Washington.

Bringing the Troops Home: Glad it's finally going to happen. Bush's surge (which should have happened two years before) worked and we can start transitioning power back to the Iraqi people.

Closing Gitmo: Not so sure about this one. I have friends that have visited there on fact-finding missions and they say the prisoners are treated better than the guards are! I guess Leavenworth would be a great place to transfer the remaining prisoners until the courts decide what to do with them. Meanwhile, Prez Obama needs to call an international meeting on how exactly to deal with non-state sponsored terrorists and pirates. Then all countries need to abide by that agreement.

Reversing the Course on Intelligence: We're going back to pre-911 days. What did that get us?

The Economy: Sure it's bad. Sure it's going to get worse. But why is Obama using scare tactics to try and get Congress to pass the BIG, BIG, BIG Bailout? Is he afraid that if we look at what he's trying to get pushed through we'll see that the emperor has no clothes? Bush has already gotten one by us. Remember the old Russian saying (courtesy of Star Trek's Chekof): "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

Refunding Overseas Abortion: Good way to make the Islamic terrorists madder at us.

Report Card on Obama's Cabinet Picks

Ratings A-F for Obama's picks. Just my opinion.

(C) White House Chief of Staff: Rep. Rahm Emanuel. Democrat, Illinois. Obama said he wanted to unite us. Why pick a guy who is so divisive from the Illinois (read Chicago) political machine?

(D) Commerce: Bill Richardson, Democrat, New Mexico Governor, withdrawn because of a scandal. No replacement named.

(A) Securities and Exchange Commission: Mary Schapiro, CEO of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. Lots of experience in the financial industry. Former SEC commissioner and served as chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in 1994 during the Clinton Administration.

(A) Transportation: Rep. Ray LaHood of Illinois, Republican. Experience in crafting positive legislation for transportation. Well respected by both Republicans and Democrats.

(C) Agriculture: Former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, Democrat. Championed use of ethanol from corn for fuel. Should we be led by a man who advocated burning up our food supply?

(C) State: Hillary Clinton, Senator from New York, former first lady. Are there conflicts of interest with Bill receiving millions of dollars from Middle Eastern countries?

(A) Interior: Colorado Sen. Ken Salazar, Democrat. Previously served as the state’s attorney general and head of its Department of Natural Resources. Rancher and farmer.

(A) Defense: Bill Gates, Republican, Current Secretary. Great pick for a smooth transition during time of war. Probably will be replaced in a couple of years after things settle down.

(D) Treasury: Timothy Geithner, Democrat. President of the New York Federal Reserve Bank. Failed to pay taxes for several years. And we want him to be in charge of collecting taxes? Come on!

(C) Homeland Security: Gov. Janet Napolitano, Democrat, Arizona. Does she really have the experience to manage this?

(C) Health and Human Services: Former Sen. Tom Daschle, Democrat, South Dakota. Leads Obama’s healthcare working group. Watch out for problems with his personal life!

(A) Attorney General: Eric Holder, Democrat, former deputy attorney general. Good experience.

(C) Labor: Rep. Hilda Solis, Democrat, California. What are her qualifications?

(A) U.S. Trade Representative: Ron Kirk, Democrat, former mayor of Dallas. Businessman. Good negotiator.

(A) Housing and Urban Development: Shaun Donovan, Democrat, New York. Commissioner of housing preservation and development in New York City. Served as a deputy assistant secretary at HUD during the Clinton administration.

(A) Small Business Administration: Karen Mills. A long resume’ of successful work raising capital and managing economic councils.

(C) Energy: Steven Chu. Head of the Berkeley National Laboratory and is a specialist in carbon-neutral energy sources. Won the 1997 Nobel Prize in physics. Great scientist, but is fully on the AGW bandwagon.

(D) Education: Arne Duncan, Democrat, Illinois. Head of the Chicago public school system — the third largest in the country. Previously ran an educational institute in Chicago. Championed and ran several failed educational programs—do we want him running the whole country’s?

(B) Veteran’s Affairs: General Eric Shinseki. Former U.S. Army chief of staff. 4-star general.

(A) EPA: Lisa Jackson, Democrat, New Jersey. Oversaw New Jersey’s environmental protection office and currently serves as the chief of staff to the state’s governor. Chemical Engineer.

(A) Management and Budget: Peter Orszag, Democrat. Director of the U.S. Congressional Budget Office. During the Clinton administration, special assistant to the president for economic policy and senior economic adviser at the National Economic Council.

(D) Drug Control: No one picked yet. For this important office?

(F) Science Advisor: John Holdren. Physicist, a professor of environmental policy at Harvard, a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the director of the Woods Hole Research Center, and the author or co-author of many papers and books. He has 30 years of doom and gloom predictions that NEVER came true. Why would we trust him as Science Advisor?

(F) CIA Director: Leon Panetta. Democrat. Former White House chief of staff to President Bill Clinton. He has ZERO intelligence experience. Why would we risk this? Nothing against Leon—use him for something else.

MLK Day -- Remember What He Did

As we pause and remember what MLK did, let's remember that he positively impacted the world and broke down racial barriers even though he had the known flaws of womanizing and plagiarism. I say this not to disparage him, but to show that even though you and I may have our own shortcomings, weaknesses, and behavioral problems, we can impact our world as well.

Also, when a politician or other leader has skeletons in his or her closet, remember that they can change and still do good things. Everyone makes mistakes. Everyone can put those things they'd rather forget behind them and move forward to accomplish their purpose in life.

Inaugural Porta-Potties

For those of you attending Presidential Inauguration Next Week: The U.S. Park service is ordering 5000 porta-potties for the Inauguration. The health departments require 1 porta-potty for 300 people at public events. Estimates for attendance at the Inauguration range up to 4 million people. That's over 8000 porta-potties short. Look for long lines and don't wait too late to get in line!

Inauguration Next Week!

Next week we get a new President. The old one is leaving and moving to my neck of the woods. It will be very interesting to see how much of Obama's original agenda he will be able to even introduce with the economic problems we are seeing. Luckily, so far things aren't any worse than they were under Carter's last few months in office yet. (In case you think I'm bashing Carter, let me explain that I believe Nixon's wage/price freezes of 1973-4 caused the problems of the late 70s.) Hopefully, things won't get much worse than they are now.

Let's all stay involved with our Congressmen and Senators. Let them know what you think about any issue that is important to you. And don't be a name-caller or basher. If we disagree with our elected officials we need to let them know why. If we agree, we need to let them know. That's what representative democracy is all about.

Those of us who pray should also pray for wisdom for our President and those around him. He's facing a lot of problems caused by people on both sides of the aisle and will need it over the next four or eight years.

On Burris & Blago, on Franken & Coleman

Note to Senate: Let Mr. Burris in! He’s been legally appointed. There is no evidence of wrong-doing on his part. And Blago has not been indicted. It’s also clear that the requirement for the Secretary of State to sign applies only to verifying an election.

On the Minnesota Election: It’s not over yet. Lots of irregularities. According to several websites and newspapers, there are 25 districts in Minnesota where there are more ballots than people who signed the roles. In others, there are ballots that have been counted twice. There are also counts provided with no ballots to back them up. There are ballots that magically showed up a week later. Ballots have been counted inconsistently: there are multiple ballots with an “X” in a filled-in circle that counted as votes for Franken, yet when the same markings appeared for Coleman, they are counted as “no votes.” Clearly, obviously, ethically, morally, and legally inconsistent! There is enough of this to turn the election around by several hundred votes. Ron Coleman’s website says he’s filing a lawsuit. Where is the national media on this? They are not reporting it.

Happy New Year!

May God you in the new year!

And God bless the USA!