stories from two-lane america

Hey:

What I know about finances is how much money is in my pocket at any particular moment. I can’t begin to understand the magnitude of what is happening in world markets, but this sort of puts it in perspective, in a very scary way.

If is has to happen it, I saw we at least et to string up a couple of CEOs before it’s over. 

Via the always wonderful blog by Cory Doctorow, Boing Boing

ts

Bailout costs more than Marshall Plan, Louisiana Purchase, moonshot, S&L bailout, Korean War, New Deal, Iraq war, Vietnam war, and NASA’s lifetime budget — *combined*!

Posted by Cory Doctorow, November 25, 2008 4:48 AM | permalink

Barry Ritholtz sez,
In doing the research for the “Bailout Nation” book, I needed a way to put the dollar amounts into proper historical perspective.

If we add in the Citi bailout, the total cost now exceeds $4.6165 trillion dollars.

People have a hard time conceptualizing very large numbers, so let’s give this some context. The current Credit Crisis bailout is now the largest outlay In American history.

Crunching the inflation adjusted numbers, we find the bailout has cost more than all of these big budget government expenditures – combined:

• Marshall Plan: Cost: $12.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $115.3 billion
• Louisiana Purchase: Cost: $15 million, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $217 billion
• Race to the Moon: Cost: $36.4 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $237 billion
• S&L Crisis: Cost: $153 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $256 billion
• Korean War: Cost: $54 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $454 billion
• The New Deal: Cost: $32 billion (Est), Inflation Adjusted Cost: $500 billion (Est)
• Invasion of Iraq: Cost: $551b, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $597 billion
• Vietnam War: Cost: $111 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $698 billion
• NASA: Cost: $416.7 billion, Inflation Adjusted Cost: $851.2 billion

TOTAL: $3.92 trillion

YES WE DID!

“There is but one unconditional commandment, which is that we should seek incessantly, with fear and trembling, so to vote and to act, as to bring about the very largest total universe of good which we can see.”

 – William James, The Moral Philosopher and the Moral Life. 1897

Baseball is over.

Leaves are falling.

I got a new sweatshirt.

The snow blower needs the carb flensed out

Be a good night for a fire in the backyard, but some alley metal scavenger stole mine.

So stay inside and watch a movie instead.

http://www.freeforall.tv/

 ts

Hey…

 when I first got this, I assumed it was another hatchet piece, the same as Obama is a Muslim etc, or circa 2000 McCain has a black child, or circa 2008, look at how wonderful McCain is for adopting a child (thank you Karl Rove).

 Anyway, it’s been cleared by Snopes.com, her name is in the phone book, and it is looking very scarily real. I cut and paste, you decide.

ts

Dear friends,

 

So many people have asked me about what I know about Sarah Palin in the

last 2 days that I decided to write something up . . .

 

Basically, Sarah Palin and Hillary Clinton have only 2 things in

common: their gender and their good looks.

 

You have my permission to forward this to your friends/email contacts

with my name and email address attached, but please do not post it on

any websites, as there are too many kooks out there . . .

 

Thanks,

Anne

 

 

ABOUT SARAH PALIN

 

I am a resident of Wasilla, Alaska. I have known Sarah since 1992.

Everyone here knows Sarah, so it is nothing special to say we are on a

first-name basis. Our children have attended the same schools. Her

father was my child’s favorite substitute teacher. I also am on a

first name basis with her parents and mother-in-law. I attended more

City Council meetings during her administration than about 99% of the

residents of the city.

 

She is enormously popular; in every way she’s like the most popular

girl in middle school. Even men who think she is a poor choice and

won’t vote for her can’t quit smiling when talking about her because

she is a “babe”.

 

It is astonishing and almost scary how well she can keep a secret. She

kept her most recent pregnancy a secret from her children and parents

for seven months.

 

She is “pro-life”. She recently gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby.

There is no cover-up involved, here; Trig is her baby.

 

She is energetic and hardworking. She regularly worked out at the gym.

 

She is savvy. She doesn’t take positions; she just “puts things out

there” and if they prove to be popular, then she takes credit.

 

Her husband works a union job on the North Slope for BP and is a

champion snowmobile racer. Todd Palin’s kind of job is highly

sought-after because of the schedule and high pay. He arranges his

work schedule so he can fish for salmon in Bristol Bay for a month or

so in summer, but by no stretch of the imagination is fishing their

major source of income. Nor has her life-style ever been anything

like that of native Alaskans.

 

Sarah and her whole family are avid hunters.

 

She’s smart.

 

Her experience is as mayor of a city with a population of about 5,000

(at the time), and less than 2 years as governor of a state with about

670,000 residents.

 

During her mayoral administration most of the actual work of running

this small city was turned over to an administrator. She had been

pushed to hire this administrator by party power-brokers after she had

gotten herself into some trouble over precipitous firings which had

given rise to a recall campaign.

 

Sarah campaigned in Wasilla as a “fiscal conservative”. During her 6

years as Mayor, she increased general government expenditures by over

33%. During those same 6 years the amount of taxes collected by the

City increased by 38%. This was during a period of low inflation

(1996-2002). She reduced progressive property taxes and increased a

regressive sales tax which taxed even food. The tax cuts that she

promoted benefited large corporate property owners way more than they

benefited residents.

 

The huge increases in tax revenues during her mayoral administration

weren’t enough to fund everything on her wish list though, borrowed

money was needed, too. She inherited a city with zero debt, but left it

with indebtedness of over $22 million. What did Mayor Palin encourage

the voters to borrow money for? Was it the infrastructure that she said

she supported? The sewage treatment plant that the city lacked? or a

new library? No. $1m for a park. $15m-plus for construction of a

multi-use sports complex which she rushed through to build on a piece

of property that the City didn’t even have clear title to, that was

still in litigation 7 yrs later–to the delight of the lawyers

involved! The sports complex itself is a nice addition to the

community but a huge money pit, not the profit-generator she claimed it

would be. She also supported bonds for $5.5m for road projects that

could have been done in 5-7 yrs without any borrowing.

 

While Mayor, City Hall was extensively remodeled and her office

redecorated more than once.

 

These are small numbers, but Wasilla is a very small city.

 

As an oil producer, the high price of oil has created a budget surplus

in Alaska. Rather than invest this surplus in technology that will

make us energy independent and increase efficiency, as Governor she

proposed distribution of this surplus to every individual in the state.

 

In this time of record state revenues and budget surpluses, she

recommended that the state borrow/bond for road projects, even while

she proposed distribution of surplus state revenues: spend today’s

surplus, borrow for needs.

 

She’s not very tolerant of divergent opinions or open to outside ideas

or compromise. As Mayor, she fought ideas that weren’t generated by

her or her staff. Ideas weren’t evaluated on their merits, but on the

basis of who proposed them.

 

While Sarah was Mayor of Wasilla she tried to fire our highly respected

City Librarian because the Librarian refused to consider removing from

the library some books that Sarah wanted removed. City residents

rallied to the defense of the City Librarian and against Palin’s

attempt at out-and-out censorship, so Palin backed down and withdrew

her termination letter. People who fought her attempt to oust the

Librarian are on her enemies list to this day.

 

Sarah complained about the “old boy’s club” when she first ran for

Mayor, so what did she bring Wasilla? A new set of “old boys”. Palin

fired most of the experienced staff she inherited. At the City and as

Governor she hired or elevated new, inexperienced, obscure people,

creating a staff totally dependent on her for their jobs and eternally

grateful and fiercely loyal–loyal to the point of abusing their power

to further her personal agenda, as she has acknowledged happened in the

case of pressuring the State’s top cop (see below).

 

As Mayor, Sarah fired Wasilla’s Police Chief because he “intimidated”

her, she told the press. As Governor, her recent firing of Alaska’s top

cop has the ring of familiarity about it. He served at her pleasure

and she had every legal right to fire him, but it’s pretty clear that

an important factor in her decision to fire him was because he wouldn’t

fire her sister’s ex-husband, a State Trooper. Under investigation

for abuse of power, she has had to admit that more than 2 dozen

contacts were made between her staff and family to the person that she

later fired, pressuring him to fire her ex-brother-in-law. She tried to

replace the man she fired with a man who she knew had been reprimanded

for sexual harassment; when this caused a public furor, she withdrew

her support.

 

She has bitten the hand of every person who extended theirs to her in

help. The City Council person who personally escorted her around town

introducing her to voters when she first ran for Wasilla City Council

became one of her first targets when she was later elected Mayor. She

abruptly fired her loyal City Administrator; even people who didn’t

like the guy were stunned by this ruthlessness.

 

Fear of retribution has kept all of these people from saying anything

publicly about her.

 

When then-Governor Murkowski was handing out political plums, Sarah got

the best, Chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission: one

of the few jobs not in Juneau and one of the best paid. She had no

background in oil & gas issues. Within months of scoring this great

job which paid $122,400/yr, she was complaining in the press about the

high salary. I was told that she hated that job: the commute, the

structured hours, the work. Sarah became aware that a member of this

Commission (who was also the State Chair of the Republican Party)

engaged in unethical behavior on the job. In a gutsy move which some

undoubtedly cautioned her could be political suicide, Sarah solved all

her problems in one fell swoop: got out of the job she hated and

garnered gobs of media attention as the patron saint of ethics and as a

gutsy fighter against the “old boys’ club” when she dramatically quit,

exposing this man’s ethics violations (for which he was fined).

 

As Mayor, she had her hand stuck out as far as anyone for pork from

Senator Ted Stevens. Lately, she has castigated his pork-barrel

politics and publicly humiliated him. She only opposed the “bridge to

nowhere” after it became clear that it would be unwise not to.

 

As Governor, she gave the Legislature no direction and budget

guidelines, then made a big grandstand display of line-item vetoing

projects, calling them pork. Public outcry and further legislative

action restored most of these projects–which had been vetoed simply

because she was not aware of their importance–but with the unobservant

she had gained a reputation as “anti-pork”.

 

She is solidly Republican: no political maverick. The State party

leaders hate her because she has bit them in the back and humiliated

them. Other members of the party object to her self-description as a

fiscal conservative.

 

Around Wasilla there are people who went to high school with Sarah.

They call her “Sarah Barracuda” because of her unbridled ambition and

predatory ruthlessness. Before she became so powerful, very ugly

stories circulated around town about shenanigans she pulled to be made

point guard on the high school basketball team. When Sarah’s

mother-in-law, a highly respected member of the community and

experienced manager, ran for Mayor, Sarah refused to endorse her.

 

As Governor, she stepped outside of the box and put together of package

of legislation known as “AGIA” that forced the oil companies to march

to the beat of her drum.

 

Like most Alaskans, she favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife

Refuge. She has questioned if the loss of sea ice is linked to

global warming. She campaigned “as a private citizen” against a state

initiaitive that would have either a) protected salmon streams from

pollution from mines, or b) tied up in the courts all mining in the

state (depending on who you listen to). She has pushed the State’s

lawsuit against the Dept. of the Interior’s decision to list polar

bears as threatened species.

 

McCain is the oldest person to ever run for President; Sarah will be a

heartbeat away from being President.

 

There has to be literally millions of Americans who are more

knowledgeable and experienced than she.

 

However, there’s a lot of people who have underestimated her and are

regretting it.

 

 

CLAIM VS FACT

•”Hockey mom”: true for a few years

•”PTA mom”: true years ago when her first-born was in elementary

school, not since

•”NRA supporter”: absolutely true

•social conservative: mixed. Opposes gay marriage, BUT vetoed a bill

that would have denied benefits to employees in same-sex relationships

(said she did this because it was unconsitutional).

•pro-creationism: mixed. Supports it, BUT did nothing as Governor to

promote it.

•”Pro-life”: mixed. Knowingly gave birth to a Down’s syndrome baby

BUT declined to call a special legislative session on some pro-life

legislation

•”Experienced”: Some high schools have more students than Wasilla has

residents. Many cities have more residents than the state of Alaska.

No legislative experience other than City Council. Little hands-on

supervisory or managerial experience; needed help of a city

administrator to run town of about 5,000.

•political maverick: not at all

•gutsy: absolutely!

•open & transparent: ??? Good at keeping secrets. Not good at

explaining actions.

•has a developed philosophy of public policy: no

•”a Greenie”: no. Turned Wasilla into a wasteland of big box stores

and disconnected parking lots. Is pro-drilling off-shore and in ANWR.

•fiscal conservative: not by my definition!

•pro-infrastructure: No. Promoted a sports complex and park in a city

without a sewage treatment plant or storm drainage system. Built

streets to early 20th century standards.

•pro-tax relief: Lowered taxes for businesses, increased tax burden on

residents

•pro-small government: No. Oversaw greatest expansion of city

government in Wasilla’s history.

•pro-labor/pro-union. No. Just because her husband works union

doesn’t make her pro-labor. I have seen nothing to support any claim

that she is pro-labor/pro-union.

 

WHY AM I WRITING THIS?

 

First, I have long believed in the importance of being an informed

voter. I am a voter registrar. For 10 years I put on student voting

programs in the schools. If you google my name (Anne Kilkenny +

Alaska), you will find references to my participation in local

government, education, and PTA/parent organizations.

 

Secondly, I’ve always operated in the belief that “Bad things happen

when good people stay silent”. Few people know as much as I do because

few have gone to as many City Council meetings.

 

Third, I am just a housewife. I don’t have a job she can bump me out

of. I don’t belong to any organization that she can hurt. But, I am no

fool; she is immensely popular here, and it is likely that this will

cost me somehow in the future: that’s life.

 

Fourth, she has hated me since back in 1996, when I was one of the 100

or so people who rallied to support the City Librarian against Sarah’s

attempt at censorship.

 

Fifth, I looked around and realized that everybody else was afraid to

say anything because they were somehow vulnerable.

 

CAVEATS

I am not a statistician. I developed the numbers for the increase in

spending & taxation 2 years ago (when Palin was running for Governor)

from information supplied to me by the Finance Director of the City of

Wasilla, and I can’t recall exactly what I adjusted for: did I adjust

for inflation? for population increases? Right now, it is impossible

for a private person to get any info out of City Hall–they are

swamped. So I can’t verify my numbers.

 

You may have noticed that there are various numbers circulating for the

population of Wasilla, ranging from my “about 5,000″, up to 9,000. The

day Palin’s selection was announced a city official told me that the

current population is about 7,000. The official 2000 census count was

5,460. I have used about 5,000 because Palin was Mayor from 1996 to

2002, and the city was growing rapidly in the mid-90’s.

 

Anne Kilkenny

annekilkenny@hotmail.com

August 31, 2008

Well I tellaya what….

He was a Clinton deputy, an accomplished ballet dancer, served in the Israeli Military (maybe)  , and once messengered a dead fish to a member of Congress after they lost a crucial vote.

He was the inspiration for one of the best characters ever to be on television, and has been my Congressman for several years.

Regardless of all that, if THIS is the number one tune on his iPod, then I raise a glass and say God Bless the Fifth Congressional District of Illinois, the people within it, and better days to come.

get your vote on folks, this one will matter 

ts

Alas, George Carlin did not write this. In fact, Carlin called it a “sappy load of sh–.” It was written in 1998 by Jeff Dickson. There are plenty of Internet variations out there. http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/paradox.asp

  

well….the sentiment remains, but apparently this did not originate with Carlin. Hat tip to Ron Warnick, editor at the Tulsa World for pointing it out, handing me my balls on a paper plate, and making me go to the back of the line for potato salad

The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more, but have less, we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time. We have more degrees but less sense, more knowledge, but less judgment, more experts, yet more problems, more medicine, but less wellness.

We drink too much, smoke too much, spend too recklessly, laugh too little, drive too fast, get too angry, stay up too late, get up too tired, read too little, watch TV too much, and pray too seldom. We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom, and hate too often.

We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbour. We conquered outer space but not inner space. We’ve done larger things, but not better things. We’ve cleaned up the air, but polluted the soul. We’ve conquered the atom, but not our prejudice.  We write more, but learn less. We plan more, but accomplish less. We’ve learned to rush, but not to wait. We build more computers to hold more information, to produce more copies than ever, but we communicate less and less.

These are the times of fast foods and slow digestion, big men and small character, steep profits and shallow relationships. These are the days of two incomes but more divorce, fancier houses, but broken homes. These are days of quick trips, disposable diapers, throwaway morality, one night stands, overweight bodies, and pills that do everything from cheer, to quiet, to kill. It is a time when there is much in the showroom window and nothing in the stockroom. A time when technology can bring this letter to you, and a time when you can choose either to share this insight, or to just hit delete.

Remember, spend some time with your loved ones, because they are not going to be around forever. Remember, say a kind word to someone who looks up to you in awe, because that little person soon will grow up and leave your side. Remember, to give a warm hug to the one next to you, because that is the only treasure you can give with your heart and it doesn’t cost a cent.

Remember, to say, “I love you” to your partner and your loved ones, but most of all mean it. A kiss and an embrace will mend hurt when it comes from deep inside of you. Remember to hold hands and cherish the moment for someday that person will not be there again. Give time to love, give time to speak, and give time to share the precious thoughts in your mind.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER: Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Vm2Mdma2dXw

Believe it is nine years ago to the day, I banged on this guy’s door at 5 a.m., and said.

So? You ready to go or what?

ts

Dear President Bush.

Thank you very much for giving up golf, to show your solidarity with the 4000 young men and women who have died in a war that you got us into through lies and corruption. My respect for you as Commander-in-Chief has reached a new level.

from the New York Times

Mr. Bush and the G.I. Bill President Bush opposes a new G.I. Bill of Rights. He worries that if the traditional path to college for service members since World War II is improved and expanded for the post-9/11 generation, too many people will take it.

He is wrong, but at least he is consistent. Having saddled the military with a botched, unwinnable war, having squandered soldiers’ lives and failed them in so many ways, the commander in chief now resists giving the troops a chance at better futures out of uniform.

He does this on the ground that the bill is too generous and may discourage re-enlistment, further weakening the military he has done so much to break. So lavish with other people’s sacrifices, so reckless in pouring the national treasure into the sandy pit of Iraq, Mr. Bush remains as cheap as ever when it comes to helping people at home.

Thankfully, the new G.I. Bill has strong bipartisan support in Congress. The House passed it by a veto-proof margin this month, and last week the Senate followed suit, approving it as part of a military financing bill for Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Senate version was drafted by two Vietnam veterans, Jim Webb, Democrat of Virginia, and Chuck Hagel, Republican of Nebraska. They argue that benefits paid under the existing G.I. Bill have fallen far behind the rising costs of college. Their bill would pay full tuition and other expenses at a four-year public university for veterans who served in the military for at least three years since 9/11.

At that level, the new G.I. Bill would be as generous as the one enacted for the veterans of World War II, which soon became known as one of the most successful benefits programs — one of the soundest investments in human potential — in the nation’s history.

Mr. Bush — and, to his great discredit, Senator John McCain — have argued against a better G.I. Bill, for the worst reasons. They would prefer that college benefits for service members remain just mediocre enough that people in uniform are more likely to stay put.

They have seized on a prediction by the Congressional Budget Office that new, better benefits would decrease re-enlistments by 16 percent, which sounds ominous if you are trying — as Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain are — to defend a never-ending war at a time when extended tours of duty have sapped morale and strained recruiting to the breaking point.

Their reasoning is flawed since the C.B.O. has also predicted that the bill would offset the re-enlistment decline by increasing new recruits — by 16 percent. The chance of a real shot at a college education turns out to be as strong a lure as ever. This is good news for our punishingly overburdened volunteer army, which needs all the smart, ambitious strivers it can get.

This page strongly supports a larger, sturdier military. It opposes throwing ever more money at the Pentagon for defense programs that are wasteful and poorly conceived. But as a long-term investment in human capital, in education and job training, there is no good argument against an expanded, generous G.I. Bill.

By threatening to veto it, Mr. Bush is showing great consistency of misjudgment. Congress should forcefully show how wrong he is by overriding his opposition and spending the money — an estimated $52 billion over 10 years, a tiniest fraction of the ongoing cost of Mr. Bush’s Iraq misadventure. As partial repayment for the sacrifice of soldiers in a time of war, a new, improved G.I. Bill is as wise now as it was in 1944.

From the White House statement:

Once again, the New York Times Editorial Board doesn’t let the facts get in the way of expressing its vitriolic opinions - no matter how misleading they may be.

In today’s editorial, “Mr. Bush and the GI Bill”, the New York Times irresponsibly distorts President Bush’s strong commitment to strengthening and expanding support for America’s service members and their families.

This editorial could not be farther from the truth about the President’s record of leadership on this issue. In his January 2008 State of the Union Address, while proposing a series of initiatives to support our military families, President Bush specifically called upon Congress to answer service members’ request that they be able to transfer their GI Bill benefits to their spouses and children.

In April, he sent a legislative package to the Hill that would expand access to childcare, create new authorities to appoint qualified spouses into civil service jobs, provide education opportunities and job training for military spouses, and allow our troops to transfer their unused education benefits to their spouses or children.

As Congress debates the best way to expand the existing GI Bill, Secretary Gates has laid out important guidelines to ensure that legislation meets our service members’ needs and rewards military service.

First, since our servicemen and women have regularly requested the ability to transfer their GI bill benefits to their family members, legislation should include transferability. Second, legislation should provide greater rewards for continued military service in the all volunteer force.

There are several GI bill proposals under consideration in both the House and Senate. The Department of Defense has specific concerns about legislation sponsored by Senator Webb because it lacks transferability and could negatively impact military retention.

The President specifically supports the GI Bill legislation expansion proposed by Senators Graham, Burr, and McCain because it allows for the transferability of education benefits and calibrates an increase in education benefits to time in the service. Though readers of the New York Times editorial page wouldn’t know it, President Bush looks forward to signing a GI bill that supports our troops and their families, and preserves the experience and skill of our forces.