February 28, 2011

Showdown Week

This week is a week for deadlines and high stakes negotiations, with a potential Federal Government shutdown and NFL lockout possible by Friday.

Like any good fight this one is over money. Lots of money.

Just for the record, I'm with Obama and the player's union on this stuff.

February 22, 2011

The Voyure Thrill of Revolution on My TV

I'll have to admit it, watching people from other Contries throwing some murderous bastard of a leader out on his ass. Joss Weadon's Angel said it best: "Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be." So anytime we see the world getting better it hits us deep in the riotous part of our brains the part that craves progress and freedom.

Plus, its a cost-free thrill. Apart from a little tick up in gas prices we pay no price for the freedom of people in the Middle East. I get to see and feel the cheering of victorious people on the main square without risking my own hide to wooden batons or rubber bullets. And it looks like the Libyans are facing the full horror of a civil war.
Me, I can root for the good guys from the safety of my couch.

February 14, 2011

The Money is Where the Fight is

Obama is out with his budget for the year. 3.73 trillion, not bad. It cuts in some places, spends more in others. Of course, its not going anywhere in the new GOP controlled House, but the budget has to get down, unlike every other thing we are going to fight about this year. No budget, and the little old ladies in the Tea Party woun't get thier Social Security checks. And we can't have that, can we?

Every other thing that the House, the Senate or the President wants can get killed by the other branches. The Senate makes it so easy to kill policy iniatives that sometimes they kill things by accedent. But the budget is different.

So this is where the fight is.

Victory Lap

Oh yeah, Arcade Fire totally won the Grammys and Justine Bieb lost. So yeah Grammys.

February 9, 2011

Running Stuff is Hard

Especially when you have no agenda except no.

So the House Republicans failed to pass the Patriot Act yesterday as about 26 GOPers deserted ship. Now this loss reflects more about obscure House procedures than a sudden outbreak of civil libertarianism on the part of the Republicans, but it does reflect the problems of moving from mindless opposition to needing to get things done.

Mindless opposition is easy to do. Just vote no and denounce everything that get proposed as communism. Easy. But getting things done means having to think about the consciouses of what you do, both as policy and politics. Thus we get a few Republicans who suddenly thought that surveillance without limits might be an expansion of government power, and ain't we against that sort of thing?

Keep in mind, this is just for renewing a law that's already in effect, not passing some new program. Is the GOP going to be able to do that?

February 3, 2011

How Interesting

I've already gone into detail about my love of The Most Interesting Man in the World. The New Yorker talked to the actor who's The Man and it turns out that he's ...very, very interesting.