Happy belated Valentine’s day everyone. I hope you all had a great day yesterday! So sorry for the late posting on this. I had an unbelievable amount of submissions this past week. It took a long time to get through them. I hope you enjoy them all as much as I did.
Conservative
Selkirk presents Question of the Week: President Obama’s Honeymoon Over So Soon? posted at Political Castaway Blog: Broadcasting Conservatism to Rescue America, saying, “Political Castaway answers a reader’s question as part of its its weekly feature. This week’s question focuses on an assessment of the honeymoon period of the Obama Presidency.”
Between your response, Pitcairn’s response, and Hytholoday’s response to the question – I have very little to add. I say you all hit the main points. But, given the way the MSM completely glossed over this pork filled bill and did not hold Obama or Congress’s feet to the fire on it – I would say their lovefest with Obama is still going on.
Michael Haltman presents Cheerleader In Chief – Or Not? [del.icio.us] posted at The Political and Financial Markets Commentator, saying, “Nobody is looking for the President to get up in front of the country and spin the current crisis into a peaches and cream scenario. What we do look for, or at least I look for, is some semblance of hope that the administration is on track to address and solve the problem.”
Hey Michael – Obama is taking his plays directly out of FDR’s playbook of putting fear the in the people and telling them the only way to fix it is to turn to the government for help. He’s a socialist through and through and is advancing the agenda of big government by pointing the fingers at capitalism and big business. Regarding Geithner – we saw how Wall Street reacted to his bogus plan. Obama’s mistake there was letting a cheat takeover and try to tell the rest of the cheats how to run their businesses!
Selkirk presents Question of the Week: After Stimulus, What’s Next? posted at Political Castaway Blog: Broadcasting Conservatism to Rescue America.
Ummm…socialism! Well, I simplified it – but – I think you guys nailed it all! Where have you been before now? I really enjoy reading your take on the current issues. Great post again! I’ve read all the other posts that follow this one – and – rather than comment on each of the other ones individually – I’ll just say – for all my readers – please do go check out the rest of these yourself. These guys are really spot on with their assessments (well, if you lean Conservative or Libertarian that is). You guys must drive the lefties as loonies as I do!
Selkirk presents Support For the Stimulus Must Be Based On Ideology Because It Surely Is Not Based on Economics or History posted at Political Castaway Blog: Broadcasting Conservatism to Rescue America.
Selkirk presents Employee Free Choice Act: An Insult to American Workers posted at Political Castaway Blog: Broadcasting Conservatism to Rescue America.
Selkirk presents Obama: Having His Cake and Making Us Choke On It posted at Political Castaway Blog: Broadcasting Conservatism to Rescue America.
Miscellaneous
nickel presents $15,000 Homebuyer Tax Credit posted at fivecentnickel.com.
Welcome, Nickel – just out of curiousity – just how is that tax credit applied? Most homebuyers pay their taxes through escrow and when you buy a home – you only pay the outstanding amount of property taxes through the rest of the year. The actual purchase of the home isn’t taxed – at least here in Florida its not – you only pay property taxes. If the purchase price of a house was taxed at local rates – who the hell could ever afford to buy a home? Any down payment made would only be paying for the sales tax. For example – a $300,000 home taxed at our local 7% rate would be $21,000. So – do you know exactly how this tax credit is applied? My annual property taxes are $2,200. Would that credit be extended over a 4 year period? Does the Federal Government give that tax money to the cities and counties then if it’s not coming from the homebuyer?
American Packet presents Dems Must Be Absolutely Plastered on Absolute Power posted at American Packet.
Welcome to the Carnival Packet – you are so right on track here! Sure, the Dems may be out of their minds crazy with power – and I believe you appropriately pointed out the hypocrisy of the Republicans. Those freakin’ idiots passed that TARP unquestioningly – and now they grow a pair? Great post. I hope you come back again with another great submission like this.
lsm presents A Fork in a Very Dark Road. posted at awaken the elephants blog.
“Which path will we choose?” – Well, I believe the good news is that there are many more Americans now opposing these policies of Congress and Obama (based on the outcry from this stimulus package) and that more and more people are starting to wake up and pay attention. The politicians have been keeping Americans divided and the idiot box and American Idol have been keeping them pacified. Unfortunately, the path I see is taking is leading either to another civil war or a complete revolution. I see some good days coming again in the future, but, we the people are going to have to go to battle against our own government to get there. My hopes are that enough people get to the ballot box on 2010 and vote all those idiots out this time around which will avoid the revolution. Time will tell.
Michael Haltman presents Tim Geithner Speaks posted at The Political and Financial Markets Commentator, saying, “I Heard A Lot Of Noise, But I Didn’t Hear Anything
I just listened to the Geithner speech, and to tell you the truth I did not hear anything along the lines of firm direction, but to be honest it sounded like more of the same.”
Bwahahaha! That’s what I got out of it also! Blah blah blah, we’re not calling it TARP anymore, blah blah blah, but we’re going to do the same thing that we proposed to do in the first place blahdity blah blah.
Sarah Scrafford presents The Ultimate Guide to the Ultimate Blackberry (Obama’s) posted at Masters in Criminal Justice.
Howdy again Sarah. The only real thing that I like about Obama is his ability to utilize today’s technology in a very cogent and effective manner. I would say that his ability to grasp today’s technology is really what helped him to win this election. However, regarding his use of a Blackberry – I only see some major problems coming down the road. While I did take note of the points you made regarding the security of his blackberry – the fact that hackers can still get in to the Pentagon computers and other government computers – I have no doubt that they will eventuall get in to his blackberry. This is a very dangerous tool for him to be using as the President. I think he needs to give this up for at least the next 4 years.
Madeleine Begun Kane presents Hey Republicans, Go Filibuster Yourselves! posted at Mad Kane’s Political Madness.
Surely, Mad Kane, you must see just how dangerous this stimulus bill is? Neat little poem – but – I wish the Dems would call their “bluff.” I believe this time the Repubs would actually have gone through with it given the fact that every nobel winning, nobel laureate, and well respected economist in this country said this bill is doomed to fail and will cause this country more harm than good. Whether the Repubs did it for political gain or not – standing against this bill was the right thing to do for this country and for the people.
steven germain presents “There Is No Such Thing As Raw, Analloyed, Agendaless Kindness” – David Foster Wallace posted at Rough Fractals, saying, “I hope you will consider posting this, thank you.”
Amen, Steven! You are absolutely correct in that a stimulus package should be based on only measures that would actually stimulate the economy – including the infrastructure projects. Obama was able to claim there were no earmarks in this bill because there was no one identified specifically that would receive any of the money. Sure, that is one way to get around saying that giving money specifically to the city of San Francisco for saving a swamp rat isn’t an earmark because Nancy Pelosi wasn’t specifically identified as the benefactor – but -we all know its an earmark. The problem is as you identified – there is no one identified in the bill as the “banker” to control how the money is spent or who will be responsible for overseeing that spending to make sure it goes only for waht it was intended. Great post.
Nayano Taylor-Neumann presents Who will take Australian refugees? posted at A possie in Aussie.
Hi Nayano – my sympathies go out to you Aussies in the wake of that horrible firestorm you had going on over there. But, climate change refugees? Pretty funny. It’s being reported over here that the fires were started due to arsons and they have been caught. I don’t see how this is related to “climate change” myself. Besides – we know that “climate change” is just another made up term so they don’t have to say “global warming” and embarass themselves given the fact that the science has proven we’ve been in a 7 year cooling period.
News
The Smarter Wallet presents Will The Obama Economic Stimulus Check and 2009 Stimulus Plan Save The Economy? posted at The Smarter Wallet, saying, “Thanks!”
Well, the I certainly believe the points you indicated in your discussion will probably help stimulate the economy in a relatively minor way – except for the fact the CBO states that very little of that money will be spent within the first year. The problem with the stimulus package in its current form is that only 38% of it is actually stimulus. The remaining is all pork-barrel spending. Good post!
Piotr Stepien presents Be Mass Media Free posted at we overstep, saying, “Improve your awareness and mental health. Stop addiction to news, television shows and any low level mass media. Be mass media free and turn your time into something productive.”
Howdy Piotr – there have been many studies out there that absolutely prove beyond a shadow of doubt that the amount of hours a kid spends in front of the TV is directly proportional to their grades and knowledge. However, there has also been a revolution with TV these days compared to when we were kids. There are now educational channels on TV that I find very fascinating and I have learned much from them and I encourage my kids to watch them as well – Discovery Network, Science Channel, National Geographic Channel, Sprout TV, etc. Sure, we might be getting information from the boob tube – but – at least it is more educational than watching American Idol and all those other stupid reality shows. However, I still feel it is better to get your education through reading and hands on experience. When you read you improve your comprehension and you have to use the little pictures in your mind to get to an understanding. It helps to improve creativity as well. I’m with ya on this one!
Silicon Valley Blogger presents 2009 Economic Stimulus Package: Obama’s Plan For Your Money? Tax Cuts and Spending posted at The Digerati Life, saying, “Thanks!”
“My Biggest Concerns: if you look at the charts above, it shows how the big money is going to general spending, with a large chunk reserved for “federal and state government”. And if you look into the details more carefully, you’ll see funding going to things that don’t necessarily promote economic revival.”
Well – it has been pointed out everywhere that the only thing this bill truly does is expand government and does very little at all to stimulate this economy. As with all your posts – this ranks right up there with the best. This is a great look at the stimulus package and what we can expect as a result. I like your analogy of the comatose patient.
Politics
Jon Chambers presents Blind Loyalty (Article) posted at The Mind Of Jon.
Hey Jon – welcome to The Carnival! This was a very refreshing article, Jon. Too often I come across other bloggers and other people in my day-to-day life that are blindly supporting Obama without question. The fact this stimulus bill passed is a great example. While 63% of Americans opposed this bill in its form, it passed along party lines in Congress. Congress is blindly following Obama rather than do what they are supposed to be doing – checks and balance. Don’t get me wrong – when Congress was under Republican control – they did the same thing for Bush. I agree that people need to get over their infatuation with Obama and start questioning him. As a conservative, I will always be questioning his ideas and policies. I did the same when Bush was in office. I’m glad to see someone from the “other” side will be paying close attention as well.
Bob O presents Just What Is A Bill and How Does It Become Law? posted at Inside Government, saying, “A very detailed look at how ideas become a bill and gets put in to law – this goes beyond our elementary education from School House Rock.”
Yeah – I know – I wrote this myself and I’m tooting my own horn! But, its still a good educational piece.
Bill Brown presents Cargo Cult Capitalism posted at The New Clarion, saying, “Why does the Third World have such trouble adopting capitalism? I use the metaphor of the post-WWII cargo cults to explain.”
Excellent post Bill – and welcome to The Carnival. I’m glad you took the time to mention that our government’s newly found adoption of Keynesian doctrine is leading this country down the wrong path. Capitalism only works when governments get out of the way. Unfortunately, those third-world nations, such as Ethiopia, will never be able to recreate our success until their governments are reformed as well. It’s just sad to see that our “great experiment” may be dying now with socialism creeping in to the government.
U.S. Common Sense presents Response to Glenn Hall: Chevron’s Big Oil Find posted at U.S. Common Sense, saying, “I know I owe you some articles. 
This article discusses the frustration related to our dependence on oil and the President’s/media’s constant practice of ignoring hydrogen power. A hydrogen economy is not only a great “stimulus/job creation” plan but it also gives us a new growth market in the future that provides a return on investment.”
U.S. – another great post as usual! If I’m not mistaken, I believe there are already fully functional hydrogen fueled cars in South America and hydrogen fueling stations as well. In fact, I remember reading somewhere that there are at least 50 different models that have been produced, some of them by our auto manufacturers. Hydrogen is most definitely a cheap renewable fuel – I don’t see why we haven’t moved closer to it now!
vjack presents Investing in Infrastructure is a Matter of National Security posted at Atheist Revolution.
Hey there again, VJack – Actually, the GOP wasn’t against the infrastructure spending as it does help to stimulate the economy by providing jobs. The GOP was standing up against things that did not actually belong in a stimulus bill like giving money for public health, saving a rat in a swamp, increasing government employee pay, and buying golf carts for federal employees in D.C. When you look at the CBO breakdown of the bill – all infrastructure spending was placed in the stimulus side of the pie. I do agree with you that infrastructure is a matter of national security. Giving amnesty to illegals and providing them healthcare is not.
Piotr Stepien presents Money Free World posted at we overstep, saying, “Will politicians ever support this idea?”
Hmmm…don’t see how it could ever work. Any form of trade and barter in an economy will have a value placed on it. Money as we know it today would just be replaced with another system of value. I get you are talking about a form of exchange – but – a value would have to be placed on each item to be exchanged. At this time, it’s based on monetary values. Nice thought though.
SpkTruth2Pwr presents New Age Curse of the Cabinet Secretary posted at The Apathy Remedy, saying, “Another Obama appointment falls by the wayside, this time on policy differences. Is acting in a post-Bush cabinet position a political curse?”
Nice to see ya again. Just wanted to point out that Gregg didn’t withdraw his nomination because of irresolvable conflicts stemming from the stimulus package. It has everything to do with Obama’s wishes to move the Census in to the hands of the Chief of Staff this is counter to the constitution. According to the Constitution the Census is done at the control of Congress. The President should not have anything to do with the census as it is a conflict. By giving the census to Rahm Emanuel it is putting it under the President’s control.
Ron McKie presents This is awesome posted at Phuck Politics.
I’d vote for her! She’s more than qualified than any dickhead that is currently serving in Congress. At least she already has experience taking it in the ass!
That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of The BoBo Carnival of Politics using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.
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