Shot in the Dark

Category: Pork Patrol

  • Who said What?

    President Obama, in his weekly address Saturday, said the country cannot “settle for a future of rising deficits and debts that our children cannot pay.” …and the members of OPEC would like you to conserve fossil fuels. Oh and – hee hee – Jim Cramer has a stock tip for you. Uhhh, and Dan Rather…

  • 0.0028169014084507%

    That is the percentage Obama is proposing to cut from the budget to reduce the deficit. A senior administration officials says President Barack Obama is ready to ask federal department and agency chiefs to find $100 million to cut from the budget when he holds his first formal Cabinet meeting. Now before you jump to…

  • Next Year, Next Year, I Love You, Next Year

    …You’re only a Year Awaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay! Barack Obama is tough on earmarks! Just like he campaigned. White House budget director Peter Orszag says the Obama administration isn’t happy with the billions of dollars aimed at lawmakers’ pet projects – also known as earmarks. Obama had campaigned on changing the way such money is appropriated by Congress.…

  • Passing The Bucks

    Fresch Fisch asks: The “stimulus” money coming to Minnesota will be full of strings and conditions in order to accept the money. Will our state elected officials let us read the details of the handouts before they accept them? Oh, goodness no. Any good con man knows that getting in and out fast is the…

  • Mr. President

    To:  President Barack Obama From:  Mitch Berg – American, Citizen, Accidental Constituent Re:  Geese and Ganders Mr. President, As a person with an innate notion of common sense and right and wrong, I don’t disagree that it’s really, really bad PR for Wall Street firms and banks that are asking for government bailouts to be…

  • Democrats Can Be Sneaky

    …but sometimes they’re just stupid. Nancy Pelosi gave up on the condoms today, but stimuless dollars for ACORN? Seriously?! Republican lawmakers are raising concerns that ACORN, the low-income advocacy group under investigation for voter registration fraud, could be eligible for billions in aid from the economic stimulus proposal working its way through the House. House Republican…

  • Blue Dogs to the Rescue

    Conservative Republicans in Congress may out-numbered but they may still be in the majority. The real fiscal policy battle is going to be among liberal and conservative Democrats, the “Blue Dogs” as they are known, and they seem to think Barack Obama is one of them. “Barack totally gets it . . . He is…

  • Carriers Reaction to Broadband Package Illustrates Why The Stimulus Won’t Work

    Barack Obama has a dream of affordable broadband internet for every American household and six billion dollars of the Democrats stimulus package is earmarked to that end. Broadband carriers say it’s too little and it will be too late. “I was incredibly impressed how quickly the House moved,” says Shirley Bloomfield, senior vice-president for federal…

  • Stand Back

    I’m going to be sick. I just read Nick Coleman’s snarky satire on Zygi’s recent offer to the good people of Minnesota: Vikings Stadium As Economic Stimulus. Minnesota is in trouble, with a $5 billion deficit staring us in the face and more red ink to follow. We can’t cut our way out of budget…

  • Slow: Liberals Crossing

    Barack Obama’s trillion-dollar economic and job creation stimulus is a Trojan Horse for his Grand Vision of Mass Transit and The Battle for the Planet. Obama wants a large portion of the money spent on mass transit but exactly how does the expansion of infrastructure that requires permanent public subsidy to serve a small segment…

  • Eighteen Million Dollars of Spam

    As Governor Pawlenty prudently cuts aid to local government, these cities will in turn need to prioritize their expenditures. I’ve got an idea. Cut lobbying expenditures. Plymouth taking an exit from I-494 lobbying group Unhappy that Interstate 494 has not been widened through Plymouth as it has through Minnetonka and Eden Prairie, Plymouth plans to…

  • Now I Want One

    I used to hate these bumper stickers. Now I want one. Visiting with business-owner and otherwise conservative clients these past few days, I have found a consistent level of puzzlement at best – ire more often – with President Bush’s move to override Congress, a GOP filibuster, and public opinion with his move this week…

  • Don’t Be Surprised…

    …if the Senate denies The Big Three bailout. Ford Bailout Money Unnecessary, Company Says DEARBORN, Mich. — By shunning government loans, Ford Motor Co.’s top executives say they hope to buff up the automaker’s image and set it apart from its cash-starved Detroit competitors, General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC. Why is Cerberus, one of…

  • “We’ve got to make sure that the economic stimulus plan is large enough…”

    …so that we can load it up with the most useless projects we can devise…but we’ll call them “Infrastructure,” and taxpayers will look the other way. From a couple posts ago… “We understand that we’ve got to provide a blood infusion to the patient right now to make sure that the patient is stabilized. And…

  • Hello, Hello, Hello, Is There Anybody In There?

    …Just nod if you can hear me. Is there anyone home? Barack Obama is already deflecting…this is going to be a long four years for everyone if our fears of his emptysuitedness manifest themselves. All Americans should hope that Obama grows some, and fast. What America needs now is not the rhetoric and campaign promises…

  • President-Defect Obama: Create 5 million green jobs.

    As long as we are “lowering” expectations for his disciples, here’s another Hopey-Changey campaign promise that needs to be broken. Let’s be clear on how wealth and jobs are created because a politician that says “we (the government) will create jobs” is either unaware of how capitalism works, or is (once again) just plain lying…

  • Truth In Advertising Granting

    2008 Grants Recipients Artist Initiative Media arts Number of grants: 12 Total dollars granted: $59,000 Mauricio Arango, Saint Paul $5,000 — to produce a video essay dealing with the lives of the inhabitants of the town of San Jose de Apartado in northern Colombia…so I don’t have to get a job. Peter B. Becker Nelson,…

  • Liberals Never Learn

    The cause of our current financial system crisis, overarching government meddling and regulation, set in place by liberals, bolstered by the Clinton Administration and allowed to remain during the Bush Administration is not going away any time soon. The Community Reinvestment Act is to blame for the financial crisis, but it so powerfully serves Democrats’ interests that they’ll…

  • State of Affairs

  • Show Us The Money. Show Us Your Plan.

    Democratic leaders in Congress denied the Jet-Setting Big Three CEO’s saying show us your plan before we show you the money. The Big Three are on their own for now. Congressional efforts to rescue Detroit’s auto makers collapsed Thursday, with lawmakers saying the industry lacked credible plans to return to profitability. The decision came after…

  • Rum: The Other White Meat

    As in Pork that is. As Congress debated the historic financial rescue package on Oct. 3, the world economy was hanging in the balance. The House already had rejected Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson’s emergency $700 billion banking bailout plan. The Senate, hoping to get the House to relent, added $110 billion in “sweeteners” and sent…