Meanwhile….

The same under-handed, transparency-defying, earmark-stuffing process that marked the porkulus beast is dominating every other pricey piece of legislation hurtling through the Democrat-led Congress. The Waxman-Markey “cap and trade” bill that passed the House two weeks ago contained bribes galore – including a $50 million hurricane research center for Florida Democrat Alan Grayson and a $3.5 billion economic development “sweetener” package for Ohio Democrat Marcy Kaptur. The current health care takeover proposals feature a crucial payoff to Big Labor – a golden exemption from any tax on union members’ generous health care benefits.

The friends and patrons of Obama may be making out like bandits. But for everyone else, the Democrats’ ideological bankruptcy comes at a nauseatingly steep price.

Hope and Change for Pelosi….in the stimulus

The Washington Times reported this week that “as much as $16.1 million from the stimulus program is going to save the San Francisco Bay area habitat of, among other things, the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse” in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s backyard.

Here’s what others have said:

“We’ve seen him in action for a bit more than six months. What we can say with confidence, now that we have the evidence of his actions, is that had he run on (a) transforming the U.S. economy by massive federal government intervention, (b) taking an owner’s stake in the automobile industry, (c) transforming the rules of America’s energy economy, (d) instituting a national health-care system - all of these simultaneously and in the centre of a financial meltdown - Barack Obama wouldn’t merely have lost the election, he wouldn’t have got as many votes as gnarly old Ross Perot did in an election long past… . Mr. Obama has taken the real crisis of the U.S.(and world) economy and used it as the screen and lever for a massive agenda of transformation, a transformation that calls for expenditures on a scale never before seen in the history of government on this planet.”

If Obama had told the truth during his campaign he would’ve lost the election.

Maggie..those field may be hiring in yoru area.  My research shows that Texas has been impacted the LEAST on any state.

but they are not replacing the  millions of jobs for those who are unemployed now at a rate of 500k per month!! 

I’ve felt for a long time that we were flooding the market with college grads. I’m all for education, but not frivolously. Year after year the Dept of Labor publishes forecasts of the number of job openings for various occupations and it’s sobering to see the [high] supply and [low] demand for jobs that were once coveted. For example, many of the medical jobs are now being filled by foreigners, who are only partially trained in medicine in  the US. This is a problem in the UK.

All in all, I have to say that I feel it is a misstep to fund-up the college grant money. It’s almost like holding candy out to a kid and then yanking it away when he reaches for it. There are far too many kids [and their parents] who are in financial dungeons due to college loans. [Think Sallie Mae - lots of shady stuff goes on there.]  In the end you have kids going off to college for an education and graduating with great expectations and few job opportunities.

Will Pell Grants help? Depends. In 2007-2008 $4310 was the maximum award [contingent upon family income]. UC-Berkeley: $4874 for tuition and fees per semester. Doesn’t include room, board, meals, books…… And let’s remember that the Pell Grant is only eligible to those with family income <$50K. So, yes, for them the Pell Grant will help……but to what end? A college grad working in construction in Texas? [I mean no offense to construction workers.]