The vote was 61-37, and the procedural vote yesterday made this margin all but certain. But this doesn’t mean it’s all sewn up. There’s still some debate to be had. Politico digs into the specifics… —Both House and Senate bills provide close to $87 billion in increased federal aid to help states meet their healthcare [...]

For those of you who would have done nothing, listen to the reality… Partial transcript… I was there when the secretary and the chairman of the Federal Reserve came those days and talked to members of Congress about what was going on… Here’s the facts. We don’t even talk about these things. On Thursday, at [...]

Presented here in its entirety. So far, all I’ve been seeing are high marks for Obama’s performance. I thought he tended to be a bit long winded in places, but I don’t think many Americans will be complaining about that after 8 years of a lot of simplistic hyperbole. I know I’m certainly not. However, [...]

I almost feel bad for the guy. First, he gets caught up in the whole D.C. Madam scandal. Ouch. Now, with that behind him, he starts to prepare for his 2010 Senate re-election run. Cue the comically ironic porn-star: This year, an ad appeared on Craigslist seeking “a female in some aspect of the adult-entertainment [...]

This is a bad recession. About in the middle of pack as far as recessions go. The graphic points out an interesting aspect of recessions. They all end. And, surprisingly, they didn’t all need a trillion dollar stimulus bill from the Feds to end them. In fact, all of them combined up to now did not need a trillion dollar stimulus to end.

And there is strong disapproval for the way Republicans are handling this situation. Not only that, confidence in Obama’s ability to move this country in a positive direction seems to have risen over the past couple weeks… As I’ve said earlier today, Republicans are playing a dangerous electoral game by going all in on the [...]

The way some Republicans are talking, Obama’s plan will destroy our very way of life. Do they really think it’s smart to put such an extreme message out there? From CNN: Leading Republicans warned Sunday that the Obama administration’s $800 billion-plus economic stimulus effort will lead to what one called a “financial disaster.” “Everybody on [...]

After failing to rally bipartisan support for the stimulus package, President Obama is taking to the road to rally the people behind his plan. The president will visit two areas hard hit by the recession: Elkhart, Indiana, and Fort Myers, Florida. The question is, will Obama’s trip be nothing more than the kind of cheering-crowd [...]

From the AP via FirstRead, “New Mexico: Iceman For Governor?” Val Kilmer is pondering running for governor of New Mexico in 2010, when Democrat Bill Richardson’s second term ends. ‘I’m just looking for ways to be contributive,’ Kilmer told The Associated Press on Thursday. ‘And if that ends up being where I can make a [...]

Whichever one of the Ten Commandments tells us not to bow down to idols, that’s the one we’ve been breaking with all the Abraham Lincoln worship lately. There’s no way he was even half as popular amongst Northerners back in the 1860s (I still bump into Civil War kooks down South who HATE Lincoln more [...]

Jim Jones in his Marine Corps days General Jones is in charge.  At least he thinks so, which probably means that’s the way President Obama wants it. That’s my reading of this story in today’s Washington Post: President Obama plans to order a sweeping overhaul of the National Security Council, expanding its membership and increasing [...]

Stimulus? Stimulus. Stimulus stimulus stimulus, stimulus stimulus stimulus stimulus stimulus stimulus stimulus stimulus. Stimulus.

Once again, it’s all about the economy… I thought it was a decent back and forth, but I think it’s pretty clear that free marketers will NEVER back down from the idea that tax cuts are the greatest good. And during a time when pretty much any tax cut will either be saved or used [...]

One week after I argued that my senator should be on MTP advocating for the stimulus package, well, there she is. Coincidence? Yes, probably. She even tweeted about it today…as well as some thoughts on the stimulus yesterday… McCaskill brings up a point that I’d like to address because there’s been so much ill will [...]

Here is the simple way to ground a country’s air force… The Telegraph is reporting that fighter planes in the French navy were unable to take off after their computers were infected by a computer virus. The aircraft were unable to download their flight plans after databases were infected by a Microsoft virus they had [...]

I have a little ritual on Sundays: brew a pot of coffee, turn on the tube and watch the the talking head shows. So when the folks over at BuyWell (their ad is in the middle column) contacted me and said they wanted to send me some organically grown coffee to try, I jumped at [...]

Oddly reminiscent of some recent comments I’ve read. Hmmm… I wonder if Nancy is commenting here on the Donk with sock puppets. h/t Joe Gandelman at the Moderate Voice

Compared to now… The situation is certainly getting worse and there are no indications I’ve seen that it’ll get better anytime soon… The United States lost nearly 600,000 jobs last month, sending the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent, the highest in 16 years, the U.S. Labor Department said Friday. News of the increase, up from [...]

Pay no attention to the content (massive pork) in the bill. Pay no attention to the fact that it will not solve the root problem and will at best delay a day of reckoning. Pay no attention that it will add a trillion dollars of debt that we do not have and will have to borrow from the Chinese or tax from Americans or devalue the currency to repay. Just pass it, because an economic fear-mongering President says it should be passed.