I recently saw a chart which gave the figures for how much $1 in stimulus spent on things like food stamps, unemployment insurance and tax cut gives back to the economy. Food stamps gave back the most - $1.76, followed by unemployment insurance. Tax cuts were very ineffective - somewhere around $.30, if I remember correctly.

George Will is saying the New Deal did not work.

What a complete and utter mess.

Need another example of how these people are f**king things up?

Here - read this and scream:

When Barack Obama was campaigning for president, he promised to enact legislation to prohibit the states from limiting the right to abortion. Now that Obama is in the White House and solid Democratic majorities are ensconced in Congress, opponents of abortion rights have been bracing for that and other major changes to abortion laws.

But there are indications that what those groups dread most and some liberal voters eagerly anticipate as the rewards of victory might not come to pass - at least not yet. Democrats on Capitol Hill say that while they are committed to reversing several Bush administration policies with regard to abortion rights and family planning, they might hold off on pursuing the kind of expansive agenda feared by social conservatives.

Despite gains in the House and Senate in last year's elections, there are still significant numbers of moderate Democrats, particularly in the House, who either oppose abortion altogether or are not in favor of sweeping changes, instead preferring a more incremental approach. And any large-scale effort involving something as polarizing as abortion necessitates spending political capital, something the Obama White House needs in abundance at the moment to ensure the survival of its economic policies.

"We deal in reality," said Nancy Keenan, the president of NARAL Pro-Choice America. "You have to be pragmatic, realistic and, in the end, strategic."

The media is dead and gone.

Shaeffer is a moron.

We are in very deep sh*t.

/snark

Why rely on Okun's "Law" - rather than the scientific method?

Here, courtesy of Senator Pat Leahy's office via McClatchy, is what the Senate compromise proposes to ax in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009:

    Billion dollar cuts

    $40 billion State Fiscal Stabilization

    $16 billion School Construction

    $7.5 billion of State Incentive Grants

    $5.8 billion Health Prevention Activity

    $4.5 billion GSA

    $3.5 billion Higher Ed Construction (Eliminated)

    $3.5 billion Federal Bldgs Greening

    $2.25 Neighborhood Stabilization (Eliminate)

    $2 billion broadband

    $2 billion HIT Grants

    $1.25 billion project based rental

    $1 billion Head Start/Early Start

    $1.2 billion in Retrofiting Project 8 Housing

    $1 billion Energy Loan Guarantees

    Million dollar cuts

    $100 million FSA modernization

    $50 million CSERES Research

    $65 million Watershed Rehab

    $30 million SD Salaries

    $100 Distance Learning

    $98 million School Nutrition

    $50 million aquaculture

    $100 million NIST

    $100 million NOAA

    $100 million Law Enforcement Wireless

    $50 million Detention Trustee

    $25 million Marshalls Construction

    $100 million FBI Construction

    $300 million Federal Prisons

    $300 million BYRNE Formula

    $140 million BYRNE Competitive

    $10 million State and Local Law Enforcement

    $50 million NASA

    $50 million Aeronautics

    $50 million Exploration

    $50 million Cross Agency Support

    $200 million NSF

    $100 million Science

    $300 million Fed Hybrid Vehicles

    $50 million from DHS

    $200 million TSA

    $122 million for Coast Guard Cutters, modifies use

    $25 million Fish and Wildlife

    $55 million Historic Preservation

    $20 million working capital fund

    $200 million Superfund

    $165 million Forest Svc Capital Improvement

    $90 million State & Private Wildlife Fire Management

    $75 million Smithsonian

    $600 million Title I (NCLB)

they r hiding the rats

And now we hear Obama is going to take his case to the people. Which one is that -again we don't know. Is it the bill with all the extra tax cuts that will do nothing to actually create jobs (we know this because we have had 8 years of tax cuts and paltry job growth even during a huge bubble) or the one that never even got considered? You know the one where all the money would go to new infrastructure, to food stamps and extending unemployment insurance and to the states so they wouldn't  have to lay off more people. Or to investing in cleaner technology and weaning us from foreign oil. Oops except not much of that actually made it into even the  House bill.

As someone once said you can lipstick on a pig but it is still a pig. Chances are this pig will pass and the media will tell our boob tube nation that it was a victory. Unfortunately unlike the other so called jobs Obama has held he is going to have to actually do something this time. And he will be held accountable (except by people like Pat Robertson who is already touting that it is not Obama's fault).