Take a break, everyone, for something on the lighter side:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xkw8ip43Vk&eurl=https://www.docudharma.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=9765
’tis no wonder he has the gift of Blarney about him.
General Motors has come to Washington, begging for a $25 billion bailout to keep it and its ailing Detroit counterparts going next year. But nobody seems too thrilled about the prospect. Liberals dwell on the companies’ gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles. Conservatives obsess over all the well-paid union members with gold-plated benefits. And people of all ideological backgrounds remember how they used to buy domestic cars, years ago, but stopped because the cars were so damn lousy. "The downfall of the American auto industry is indeed a tragedy," the Washington Post editorial board sermonized recently, "but the automakers and the United Auto Workers have only themselves to blame for much of it."
In wooing federal employee votes on the eve of the election, Barack Obama wrote a series of letters to workers that offer detailed descriptions of how he intends to add muscle to specific government programs, give new power to bureaucrats and roll back some Bush administration policies.
This is by far one of the best articles I have read in a very long time. It articulates why “Trickle Down Economics” doesn’t work and why the policies that the Republicans advocate and promote just plain don’t work.
Why the Economy Grows Like Crazy Amid High Taxes
High taxes create an incentive to reinvest profits into long-term growth.
With high taxes, the only way to retain the bulk of the wealth created by a business is by reinvesting it in the business — in plants, equipment, staff, research and development, new products and all the rest.
The higher taxes are (and from 1940 to 1964 the top rates were around 90 percent), the more this is true.
I never understood why people hated me just because I was a Jew, and I don’t understand someone hating President Elect Obama just because he is half-negro and half-caucasian.
Hatred is insidious, and it can spread to our children who may overhear an out-of-context, or sadly, an in-context remark expressing hatred for a black or a Jew, or yeah, a moslem. I made a blanket disparaging remark about moslems to my 39 year old son and he jumped all over me about it. He pointed out that his best friend in high school was the son of a man from Syria, a man who really did not like Jews and was pretty unhappy with the fact that his son was palling around with one. I, on the other hand, liked Omar, and we had some pretty good discussions about the situation in the Middle East.
Once campaign rivals, President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain are ready to talk about how they can collaborate on issues facing the country.
A private meeting, slated for Monday at Obama’s transition office in Chicago, will be the first since Obama beat McCain, the Republican candidate, in the Nov. 4 election.
The meeting comes as Obama, who resigned his Senate seat on Sunday, has been interviewing some of his one-time political opponents to help him run the country.
Advisers to the former candidates have said they don’t expect Obama to consider McCain for an administration job.
John Podesta, a leader of President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, was the Clinton administration official who worked to douse scandals, outmaneuver Republicans and keep Bill Clinton popular even through impeachment. He’s now in charge of a 450-person staff whose experts — including Podesta himself — aren’t always in sync with those of his new boss.
Podesta has proposed a different way to pay for universal health care than Obama — even though they both support a huge expansion of coverage. Both men say they also favor a transparent, open government that protects civil rights and liberties, but have different ways to get there.
Labor unions at the Federal Aviation Administration are looking to President-elect Barack Obama for quick action to settle long-running contract conflicts at the agency.
Perhaps it was the announcement that NBC News is coming out with a DVD titled “Yes We Can: The Barack Obama Story.” Or that ABC and USA Today are rushing out a book on the election. Or that HBO has snapped up a documentary on Obama’s campaign.
“The simple truth is that the world for which the [U.S.] national security system was designed in 1947 no longer exists. Today’s challenges require better integration of expertise and capabilities from across the government. . . . Instead, departments and agencies are often working against one an…