The Stimulus Recovery Package

Let's talk about the impending Obama recovery.

First, Republicans are opposed to the $825 billion recovery bill; Obama is open to "compromise", which surely amounts to tossing a few fig leaves to the right.

A key part of the controversy - a lot of the "stimulus" won't even be spent until after the economy is projected to be in the early stages of a recovery  (projected by whom, one might wonder?).  Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman tries his hand at economic history and offers assurance that this time, the spending lag won't matter:

It’s not a problem if some or even most of the stimulus arrives after the official recession, as determined by the NBER, is over. Why? Because in modern recessions, unemployment keeps rising long after the NBER has determined, based on things like industrial production, that the recession proper is over. You can see that the need for stimulus doesn’t end with the recession by the simple fact that in each of the last two recessions the Fed continued to cut interest rates long after the official cycle trough. if it’s good enough for the Fed, it’s good enough for fiscal policy.

So what is the right criterion? Actually, I think it’s quite straightforward. The reason we’re talking about fiscal policy is the fact that monetary policy is up against the zero lower bound. Stimulus will still be valuable as long as we’re still up against that bound — which is likely to be the case for a long time.

Again, I think it’s helpful to look at the last two recessions, even though we didn’t hit the zero bound either time. The 1990-1991 recession officially ended in March 1991; but the Fed kept cutting rates, and it didn’t start raising the target rate until Feb. 1992 (sic - should be 1994), 2 years and 11 months later. The 2001 recession officially ended in Nov. 2001; but the Fed kept cutting, and didn’t start raising rates until June 2004, 2 years and 7 months later. This suggests a long window, even after the recession officially ends, before the zero bound stops binding, and hence before the current strong case for fiscal expansion goes away.

My goodness, Krugman's citation of the 1990/91 recession and the low interest rate environment that followed it is amusing.  Let's play a quick word association game:  Rubinomics, Clintonomics, "The Agenda", James Carville reincarnated as the bond market - are any memories of that era coming back?

Please - in his 1993 budget Bill Clinton famously jettisoned some liberal spending plans as part of a deal with Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan under which the Fed would provide low rates if the Administration battled the deficit.  Surely this is not news to a Nobel Laureate?  Unless Obama is poised to become a deficit fighter at the instant of recovery, the 1991 comparison is inapt.

Von at Obsidian Wings provids a longer economic history - following the more serious 1982 recession interest rates headed up almost immediately and in every recession since 1950 except the two cited by Krugman, unemployment fell at the outset of the recovery (that could be a matter of how "recovery" was defined, of course).

Finally, over at The Corner Jim Manzi offers the very prudent observation that what were once emergencies are now baselines.  For example, part of the stimulus recovery package includes an expansion of the food stamp program.  Regardless of how it is currenty budgeted, does anyone expect a future Democratic Congress and President to cut that program?  Obama and his Democratic allies are using this package to build new budgetary baselines that will entrench a permanent expansion of the Federal goverment.  OK, that is the flip side of the Republican page of the playbook where we cut taxes and entrench deficits in order to restrain spending, but still...

[Click for end of thread]

Comments

[hit and run]

Well, one of my favorite ideas to really stimulate the economy is the suspension of the payroll tax.

Of course, it'll never get off the ground, but don't we have a really good opening to conflate our way to at least get somebody's attention here?

How about a movement for citizens to stage a Payroll Tax Revolt -- coupling the idea that suspending the payroll tax may be the best, quickest and likeliest-to-be-successful stimulus for the economy with the fact that tax chiseler Geithner has been confirmed as Treasury Secretary (and thereby the head of the IRS) and personally approves of the approach...

Needs a snappy name, it's really nothing without a snappy name.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

OY, far superior to XP...

I was up all night working on a deadline and I'm punchy.

[MayBee]

I don't see anybody really supporting the details of this package.
I see some on the left defending it, and some saying spending is necessary. But there is nobody I can find who is out there saying "This bill as written is exactly what we need right now. Everything in it is important".

That says something, doesn't it?

[glasater]

I've been using Firefox since it came out and I've never seen the problem as described above

OK--that may be true. The IT guy says he uses google mail for the newsroom and leaves the mail on google servers since--am assuming here--he does not want virus downloaded into their system.
Perhaps that's where that particular conflict lies.....google mail does the zipping and truncating into the Firefox browser.

[glasater]

I thought I closed the tag--sorry

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

MollyNichelson reports: House voting on digital TV & then there will be an hour debate on H.R. 1. Senate still working in committee on their stimulus.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

If you all used Firefox and the HTML toolbar, you wouldn't have to worry about closing tags. Just a thought.

[Stephanie]

How about a movement for citizens to stage a Payroll Tax Revolt -- coupling the idea that suspending the payroll tax may be the best, quickest and likeliest-to-be-successful stimulus for the economy with the fact that tax chiseler Geithner has been confirmed as Treasury Secretary (and thereby the head of the IRS) and personally approves of the approach...

Someone is coming around to what I've been advocating!! Like I said before, the only way they will notice us it to hit them in the pocketbook. They hit us and we notice, so turnabouts is fair play...

Now we've only got a few million more taxpayers needed to get on board and it'll take off...

[Stephanie]

is to hit them

need more coffee...

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

Well, New York is complaining big time. Says that with the provision of no bonuses to the financials, they are losing many many many millions in taxes. Turns out that the taxpayer will have to make that up. So we gave the money, to AIG, etc. and have to pay for that out of our pockets in tax money and now because those million dollar bonuses aren't allowed to be paid anymore, the States are getting socked in loss of revenue. Talk about a scam.

[narciso]

Well I've had trouble since I changed from a E-machine IBM clone with XP to the Hewlett Packard Pavillion with Vista, than again I may have this gremlin thing when it comes to electronics.

I know I've probably overreacted again, it's just frightening to consider, it's like the Mondale/Jackson administration we avoided for twenty four years, slashing defense, insulting and betraying our allies
blocking any energy development, negotiating
with our most virulent foes (I know it was Mondale/Ferraro, but even she wouldn't have signed up for much of this ludicrousness.)

I've moved on from the idea of media
malpractice, that implies they accidentally stumbled upon the flawed coverage, I've moved on like Luc Benda's Traison deClerics,
to Traison de Media, for that's what they did and continued to do. I've said my piece before of the contempt they piled upon a battered, but fundamentally decent if aloof former war hero, but more often than not, that waged upon the good and decent mother and public servant, where beyond any argument with her policies, her vety status
as a woman and wife was challenged. Maybe it's because I was mostly raised by my mother and late grandmother, to which I owe so much, and I would never betray their memory, for all the gold in the world, unlike some people. I know I shouldn't dwell on this point, but the past is prologue to the present and to the future, I re-enrolled by the way, with my contact information,

[DrJ]

Sara,

Outlook doesn't have Servers

Usually it is set up to use an Exchange server, I believe. So they might have the words wrong, but their idea is right. The way IT is set up in a corporate setting, and that includes government, is rather different than how it is done on a small network.

And Vista is despised by the computer geeks because (1) it is Microsoft, and (2) it is not Linux (but I repeat myself) and (3) it uses a lot of resources, which it does. It won't run well on your old Pentium 3 system.

I've set up Vista computers, too, and I don't understand the hue and cry either. And I too like it better than XP.

[Extraneus]

Obama argues for stimulus plan before House vote

By LIZ SIDOTI

WASHINGTON (AP) - Looking beyond expected House approval of his $825 billion economic stimulus plan, President Barack Obama said Wednesday the nation is at a "perilous moment" requiring swift and decisive action.

"We don't have a moment to spare," Obama said in the East Room of the White House, just hours before a crucial House roll call vote. The measure intended to steady the ricocheting economy was expected to pass, but likely with little of the bipartisan support that Obama wanted. The issue then goes to the Senate where the new president hopes to draw more GOP backing.

Obama tempered the sense of urgency in his voice with his observation that he and corporate leaders "left our meeting confident that we can still turn our economy around."

The best part is how these lemmings make believe they think Obama has some great insight into macroeconomics.

[Stephanie]

Pushback from Phil Gingrey (idiotR- GA) about Rush and Rush's response...

“I think that our leadership, Mitch McConnell and John Boehner, are taking the right approach,” Gingrey said. “I mean, it’s easy if you’re Sean Hannity or Rush Limbaugh or even sometimes Newt Gingrich to stand back and throw bricks. You don’t have to try to do what’s best for your people and your party. You know you’re just on these talk shows and you’re living well and plus you stir up a bit of controversy and gin the base and that sort of that thing. But when it comes to true leadership, not that these people couldn’t be or wouldn’t be good leaders, they’re not in that position of John Boehner or Mitch McConnell."
See Also

* Saltsman pins 'Magic Negro' on media
* GOP weapon: Obama earmarks pledge
* Republicans chew on DeMint

Asked to respond to Gingrey, Limbaugh, in an email to Politico, wrote: “I'm sure he is doing his best but it does not appear to be good enough. He may not have noticed that the number of Republican colleagues he has in the House has dwindled. And they will dwindle more if he and his friends don't show more leadership and effectiveness in battling the most left-wing agenda in modern history. And they won't continue to lose because of me, but because of their relationship with the grassroots, which is hurting. Conservatives want leadership from those who claim to represent them. And we'll know it when we see it.”

Thwack! Cluebat's are useful things...

[DrJ]

Does this still work to kill dangling tags?

[Thomas Collins]

I have LUNed the Closing Velocity web site (see above for narciso's reference to Zero's apparent caving on missile defense for Poland and Ukraine). I am hoping against hope that this report is wrong, but I fear that it is correct. If Zero is caving on this, my worst fears about Zero being a conciliatory internationalist are being realized. Conciliatory internationalism leads to war, pure and simple. Russia will not be satisfied by the scrapping of missile defense, but will become more aggressive. Zero's foreign policy will be as effective in keeping the peace as was the Kellogg-Briand Pact.

On the bright side, this should make us relax about the stimulus bill. Why? Because compared to the damage it appears that Zero will wreak in the area of US national security interests, the ill effects of the stimulus package will pale into insignificance.

[DrJ]

Guess not!

[Jane]

If you all used Firefox and the HTML toolbar, you wouldn't have to worry about closing tags. Just a thought.
'
A bad thought. Yesterday when I made the place bold for half a day I was using the Firefox HTML toolbar.

[Stephanie]

Snap! Need more Coke... (not O's preference, I AM in Atlanta)

LUN

[Jane]

My guess is that in firefox you can put italics around the first paragraph, but if you end the post with italics it carries over.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

I don't want to be one who says Obama is not MY president, but the incompetence and wrongheadedness of this crew scares the daylights out of me. Iran now demanding the US apologize to them, the entire financial disaster brewing, the Gitmo B.S., etc, etc. all has my bloodpressure off the meter.

[centralcal]

I think the DCCC website is down. I followed the link from Rush and can't get in. Tried 3 times.

Wouldn't it be hilarious is Rush commenters crash the site?

[Extraneus]

Ha!

Gingrey comments on Rush misunderstanding

[Stephanie]

And Gingrey walks it back... grovel grovel grovel...

Because of the high volume of phone calls and correspondence received by my office since the Politico article ran, I wanted to take a moment to speak directly to grassroots conservatives. Let me assure you, I am one of you. I believe I was sent to Washington to fight for and defend our traditional values of smaller government, lower taxes, a strong national defense, and the lives of the unborn. In my six years in Washington, I have led the charge on many of these issues. In fact, in 2008 The National Journal ranked me the #1 most conservative Member of the House of Representatives.

As long as I am in the Congress, I will continue to fight for and defend our sacred values. I have actively opposed every bailout, every rebate check, every so called “stimulus.” And on so many of these things, I see eye-to-eye with Rush Limbaugh. Regardless of what yesterday’s headline may have read, I never told Rush to back off. I regret and apologize for the fact that my comments have offended and upset my fellow conservatives—that was not my intent. I am also sorry to see that my comments in defense of our Republican Leadership read much harsher than they actually were intended, but I recognize it is my responsibility to clarify my own comments.

I went to his site to give him some grief, and he has taken a big bite of humble pie...

[Stephanie]

Extra.. jinx. Rush wields a mighty sword.

Smite thee o hapless congressman!

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

How much longer do we suffer the italics?

Did Typepad hire all Mac users too?

[JM Hanes]

Sara:

I found the computer problems story particularly ironic given......the way they ridiculed McCain's lack of skills during the campaign too.

Did you ever use Windows XP? IIRC, a lot of people thought it was developed for business users and never installed it.

Here's a comic "review" from a guy who "upgrades" Vista by migrating to Windows XP!

[Thomas Collins]

See LUN for another article on the apparent Zero Euro missile defense shield cave.

Putin and Medvedev are most likely celebrating with their favorite vodka.

[DrJ]

Did you ever use Windows XP? IIRC, a lot of people thought it was developed for business users and never installed it.

Well, not really. Windows 2000 came out in "professional" and "server" flavors, and it was not used much by the average Joe, who was on Windows 98 at the time. The upgrade from 2000 to XP was slight, but that became the standard consumer product (as XP Home) in addition to the professional world (as XP Professional). The differences were slight, and if you know what you are doing, you can convert Home to Professional without upgrading.

The "upgrading" of Vista to XP is misguided, in my opinion. Windows 7 should take care of most of the issues with system responsiveness (which are not significant on modern hardware anyway). I'm intending on giving a Windows 7 beta a try this weekend.

FWIW, I have active computers running 98SE, W2K, XP, Vista, FreeBSD, Linux (Suse and Arch), Solaris, and a couple on the shelf that run MP/M and Windows 3.1 and 95.

No, I'm not a collector. Really!

[Porchlight]

I have Vista at work and XP at home. While overall I prefer the simplicity of XP, the Vista upgrade was less buggy than I expected and it now runs just fine. My main peeve is that the logoff button on Vista is ridiculously placed - hidden, really. But my complaints are minor.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

JMH: I had XP on 2 computers and I was still using Windows 2000 on my desktop. I loved Win2000. The only thing I didn't like when I got my new laptop last year that came with Vista is that you couldn't network Vista to XP, worked the other way around, so I could get into old files on the old computers, but couldn't see my new one from any of them.

Normally that wouldn't be a problem for me, but when I gave the kids my old laptop and one of the desktops for their use, I cleaned all my stuff off and then couldn't access back for oddball utilities, photogalleries, etc. that they still wanted and I wanted to transfer back to them. Had to do all kinds of timeconsuming work-a-rounds with disks.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

My main peeve is that the logoff button on Vista is ridiculously placed - hidden, really. But my complaints are minor

Isn't it at the bottom of the Start menu, just like in XP? Mine says "Shut Down." I can't remember XP well enough to say now.

[hit and run]

OMG! Did you hear that there is $92M set aside in the bill for an Obama museum??!!?!!?

No?

Damn. Then I have yet to be successful in planting and spreading this rumor.

How about the $54M to commission a team of artists and engineers to develop plans for adding Obama to Mt. Rushmore?

Damn again. I've a lot of work to do.

[sbwaters]

Sara, if you loved Win2000, then you never used Mac OS-X. I do not believe good people deserve to use Windows... I have about 50 Macs at work and my family has about six -- even my 87-year-old Mother has an iMac and a MacBook.

I mention this because I don't wish to see a better operating system avoided because it is associated with Democratic No-nothings.

[bad]

I wonder how long Gibbs will last as press secretary.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

Bob Owens calls the Stimulus Bill the Multi-Generational Financial Rape Act

[DrJ]

I'm not Sara, but I've used OS-X. It is fine, particularly in its use of the FreeBSD userland accessible from a shell window.

Sadly, Apple does not make hardware in which I'm interested. They've chosen not to make a desktop in a workable enclosure other than the Mac Pro, and that is too expensive (and overkill) for what I need.

For daily use with the usual sorts of applications, I don't see any significant difference.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

I mention this because I don't wish to see a better operating system avoided because it is associated with Democratic No-nothings.

LOL. I can't help it. I associate Mac users with Silicon Valley no-nothings, just like I associate Pepsi and the Yankees with Democrats.

There is a reason for the latter two, but I have no idea why I think San Fran nannystate elitists when I think of Macs. I know it is unfair, but the idea is in my head.

Don't tell anyone but I've never even seen a Mac.

[MayBee]

"Sara, if you loved Win2000, then you never used Mac OS-X. I do not believe good people deserve to use Windows... I have about 50 Macs at work and my family has about six -- even my 87-year-old Mother has an iMac and a MacBook."

I've got too many years on Windows to find Macs intuitive anymore. I have a Mac, and I don't love it. At this point, it's like trying to learn to ride a different kind of bike.

[MayBee]

bad:I wonder how long Gibbs will last as press secretary.
--------

I foresee him being replaced with Marc Ambinder.

[bad]

Gibbs is saying more people will lose their jobs without the pork swillers bill. That is his response rather than answer questions about the pork in the bill.

Smoking cessation funding is in the bill. How much of that will be spent on PBHO?

[MayBee]

Gibbs is saying more people will lose their jobs without the pork swillers bill. That is his response rather than answer questions about the pork in the bill.

====

That's just it, bad.
There is nobody saying this bill is good. Just that not doing something would be horrible. The best they can say is this is "something".

[bad]

It may be Ambinder. I know it's going to be somebody. Gibbs is not used to answering real questions.

He is fear mongering.

[Bill in AZ]

How about the $54M to commission a team of artists and engineers to develop plans for adding Obama to Mt. Rushmore?

I heard that too - he's replacing Lincoln.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

He is fear mongering.

He is doing his master's bidding, because the downer note worked so well for Carter.

[MayBee]

I just say Ambinder because he is currently a reliable source for people who want reporting with the spin of the Obama team's choosing.

[narciso]

Hanson, is building an academic 'head of steam' on the Al Arabiya interview and Fouad Adjami, the wisest of the Middle East academics with the possible exception of Walid Phares, points out the cold and bitter truth:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310499999722371.html. How do you LUN again anyways. I've tried hreffing that doesn't work very well.

[clarice]

As if we didn't already have enought trouble in the ME:
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=6750266&page=1

[sbwaters]

Sara, any change is difficult, so I won't even consider asking you to change.

But, ironically, it is Windows users who remind me of rabid, egotistical, irrational, dogmatic oafs.

They are the ones who sell programs that aren't platform independent. They are the mad kings who survey their basement dungeon in which they live and believe it their kingdom.

[Jane]

Hit,

I have begun spreading that rumor in a place where it will have the desired effect.

Happy to be of service.

[bad]

Is the market up because the bill is gonna pass or because there is so much opposition to it?

[JM Hanes]

"Did Typepad hire all Mac users too?"

Well, I'm a Mac user, and I am happy to report that Apple finally cured the dangling tag syndrome in Safari several updates ago. I used to keep a copy of Camino on my drives to handle those threads.

IIRC, back when TM decided to take his site green, he credited someone else for the design. I've always believed there must be a few peculiarities or anachronisms in the coding, because the problems which afflict JOM from time to time almost never show up on other Typepad blogs. I suspect the glitch with posting long URLs, for example, is a function of his fixed width columns. If JOM was not originally formatted using Typepad's tools, TM may not know how to fix or alter the underlying code himself.

The Previous/Next purgatory, of course, is entirely of Typepad's making. Their interface will not allow you to escape pagination. I suspect that's not the case if you upgrade your account to Movable Type, but you need considerable technical expertise to handle that on your own. If you engage a 3rd party to design a site for you, you're pretty much stuck with it -- whether the configuration ages well or not.

[matt]

any good will Obama may have been seeking with his outreach to the Arabs just got blown to smithereens with the story of the CIA's Algerian station chief drugging and raping Muslim women in Algeria and Egypt. The fact that he is a Muslim will not enter into the matter.

That just bought us more hell in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all over the world.

Close the CIA now. It's a parody of it's former, not so competent, self.

[Rocco]

It's time for our party to position itself for the mid terms. And this stimulus recovery package could be the springboard to success in the future. History could repeat.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

This gang has no institutional memory, they are all way too young. Starting with the inaugural and allowing Michelle to be horrendously dressed by a 26 year old. But these guys don't remember the Carter years at all, most of them probably were still in diapers when Reagan was president. So, we're bound to see them repeat history. On a happier note, this will most likely guarantee a one term presidency.

What bothers me the most is how they've been brainwashed into thinking you can snap your fingers and make things happen. I don't think any of them had a clue what governing as the executive entails.

The left and Obama might have thought that the president controls everything and that all he has to do is snap his fingers and voila problem solved, which is what they were convinced Bush could or did do, but we know it doesn't work that way.

They didn't stop to think that we have some strict regulations in place to keep the Administration from going outside normal channels, esp. with national security issues, and normal channels can take months or even years. They're finding out that the president may be thought of as the most powerful man in the world, but when it comes to big agencies, Congress, and the way Washington works, he is only as powerful as those regulations allow him to be. Look at the temper tantrum Obama took when he was told he couldn't use his Blackberry at will.

[Rocco]

sorry for the double posting...is it a full moon?

[DrJ]

sbw,

But, ironically, it is Windows users who remind me of rabid, egotistical, irrational, dogmatic oafs.

Clearly you've not run into the average Linux user. *shudder*

[Thomas Collins]

Highlight the link you want to LUN, narciso, go to "Edit" and click on "Copy". Then, when your flashing cursor is in the URL rectangle of JOM's "Post a comment" section, go to "Edit" and click on "Paste". You can check the LUN by hitting "Preview" and clicking on "narciso" (which should be highlighted).

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

JMH: I don't think JOM is using any custom code. It looks like one of the standard default choices offered with Typepad that is nothing more than filling in blanks, selecting either a preset layout/colors or filling in color codes of your own choice and choosing between 6 or so layouts.

You can do CSS coding with a Typepad blog to really customize it, but maybe TM doesn't know how. And it would up the monthly cost from $7.95 to $11.95 if you do that. With the CSS option, you have Moveable Type just about, only the blog is still hosted on the Typepad/6Apart servers, whereas with MT, you have to put it on your own server.

[bad]

I'm a Windows user...sob, sob...not that there's anything wrong with that.

[JM Hanes]

" Look at the temper tantrum Obama took when he was told he couldn't use his Blackberry at will."

He probably needs it when he has to work without a teleprompter. In his defense, however, if I were told I couldn't surf the internet, I'd go crazy, so I'm afraid I can't cast the first stone at that kind of dependency.

[Jane]

Is it just me or does anyone else sense that the republicans are starting to pay attention.

Too little too late perhaps but better than nothing.

[MayBee]

I love Microsoft's Basement Dungeon Runner 2007.
I could not do my taxes without it.
:-)

[Sue]

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=6750266&page=1>Uh oh

I wonder if this story is why Obama chose Al Arabyia to do his first interview?

[bad]

STIM-U-LUS
UNDER THE BUS!!

STIM-U-LUS
UNDER THE BUS!!

[MayBee]

I can't believe George Bush ordered his CIA station chief to rape women.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

ThomasCollins: Wouldn't be easier to just right click to copy and then right click to paste?

DrJ: Linux/Open Source guys are definitely the most arrogant. We are all peons to them and hardly worth a notice. I taught myself php but by the time I mastered the learning curve, I had forgotten what I planned to do with it.

Pal2Pal blog is an Expression Engine blog which was a bear to figure out. It is very powerful, like MT & Wordpress on super duper steroids, but one comma, one bracket out of place and you're doomed. And div tags still drive me batty.

[bad]

Maybee, must have been Cheney....

[Sue]

bad,

I'm thinking Cheney, too.

[narciso]

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310499999722371.html

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

In his defense, however, if I were told I couldn't surf the internet, I'd go crazy, so I'm afraid I can't cast the first stone at that kind of dependency.

I hear you. I just don't think these young turks had any idea how restricted being in the WH is or has to be. I think they are all still in shock and some of them are saying, "what have we done." They should have watched more episodes of West Wing or something. There is no personal freedom allowed in the WH.

[JM Hanes]

Sara:

"You can do CSS coding with a Typepad blog to really customize it, but maybe TM doesn't know how."

That's basically what I was suggesting, since I believe TM said he had someone else set JOM up for him. If he himself is stuck with using Typepad's default tool set, there's not a lot he can change himself.

[DrJ]

DrJ: Linux/Open Source guys are definitely the most arrogant.

Most, but not all of us (yes, I'm one too). The BSD and Solaris sorts usually are much more mature the Linux fanbois.

Any comments on Wordpress? JOM actually is not that sophisticated from a blog viewpoint (no slight intended); I don't think the needs really are that many. A few ads, links, long threads and posting. Maybe I'm naive about this...

[narciso]

http://futuremd.blogspot.com/2009/01/great-communicator.html#comments

[bad]

Fear not, Maybee, Panetta is gonna fix everything wrong with the CIA.

[narciso]

http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=YWJlNTJmMDE0MDA0MzQyZWRlM2NkZDdhZmMxMTRjZTQ=

[JM Hanes]

DrJ:

"No, I'm not a collector. Really!"

Bless your little heart, you just have all this stuff lying around.

[Topsecretk9]

If he was covert, who leaked his status to ABC? Axelrod?

(idea stolen from HA commenter Skywise)

[bad]

ha ha Tops

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

It's been fun, but I have to get dressed and go to the store. My printer is out of ink and I can't take a bath until I get a new bathmat. My son wants to go with me, which means there is something he is hoping I'll buy for him that he thinks I won't be able to refuse. He's probably right, but I wish he didn't know that. At least he'll be there to carry packages, which is hard for me to do with my bad back. And I won't have to pump my own gas.

[Extraneus]

Making a big deal of this is just giving in to the fear that we might make Muslims mad. After all, they're very jealous of infidels touching their slaves.

I bet he treated the women better than 99% of the men do over there.

[bad]

What a hoot Sara!! My children work exactly the same way.

I rarely cave...

[Stephanie]

Mr. Obama also revoked Executive Order 13440, which declares al Qaeda and Taliban fighters to be "enemy combatants" and therefore not protected by the Geneva Conventions.

Industrial grade stoopit right there....

LUN

[Extraneus]

Gosh, that was almost intolerant. The 99% refers only to the ones who'd get the maddest.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

JOM actually is not that sophisticated from a blog viewpoint

That's why I think it is a default. But for the totally computer illiterate, even that might be too much at first. JOM has been exactly the same since I've been coming here and that is several years. Adding sidebar items is pretty simple and easy to switch out with new ads, etc. Still default though and another fill in the blank. He doesn't even use a graphic in the header, so that is default too, just change the words when the mood strikes.

[sbwaters]

Sara, I wish I were on your side of the learning curve on PHP. Just got a Head First "PHP and MySQL" book. Sigh.

[Danube of Thought]

Full moon is Feb. 9, Rocco.

Obama and his people are starting to say routinely that O inherited a $1.3 trillion deficit from Bush. Where does that figure come from? Is it accurate?

[sbwaters]

Can't seem to trust those CIA folks. Didn't some CIA dame, Flame or something like that, seduce an older State Department dude to do her bidding?

[bad]

lol sbw

[Mel]

narciso-

You got it with The Corner post.

[Thomas Collins]

Thank you for the suggestion, Pal2Pal(Sara). I tried your suggestion and it is quicker.

Fellow JOMers, the next time one of your lovable but loony liberal friends (living and working in the Boston area, I have a lot of LBLLFs) goes on about Bush this and Bush that, bring up the article in the LUN. Apparently, one of the Zero Brigade folks fired a GWB appointee who was running successfully an AIDS relief program. The appointee had been asked to stay on for a transition period, but was then dumped the day after the inauguration. A Zero official admitted the firing was political.

So, the Dems fire for admittedly political reasons an official successfully running a worldwide AIDS relief program. Change we can count on.

[MayBee]

Jane- have we heard a report about yesterday's Fun with Dick and Jane?

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

Most servers offer WP for free. I downloaded it and looked at it a couple of years ago, but then got talked into Expression Engine so I never really set up a full blog. It seems quite powerful and has lots of nice built-in features, but it isn't for the novice. I thought about switching over to WP from EE, but my database isn't transferrable to WP and with over 3300 posts, it would take me forever to figure out how to make it work seamlessly. The nice thing about WP and 6Apart blogs is that most Widgets and things like MySpacee/Facebook/Twitter will install automatically and it makes it faster and easier to add scripts and 3rd party addons, whereas I have to do it manually and for me, that is often trial and error. Those damn div tags will bite me every time. Either too many or not enough and then I find my sidebars in the center or all kinds of weird goblins to find and fix.

[Pal2Pal (Sara)]

Now I have to go for real, see you all later.

[Stephanie]

OT but I just had to laugh...

Fox Business is running Brittany Spear's song "Toxic" as the bumper music today.. Stimulus bill discussions going on...

A vapid "stimulus" bill. A vapid President. A vapid "entertainer." Yep. That works....

[narciso]

This was the Foad Adjami piece I was referring to;

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123310499999722371.html

[DrJ]

Most servers offer WP for free. I downloaded it and looked at it a couple of years ago... It seems quite powerful and has lots of nice built-in features, but it isn't for the novice.

Maybe I'll have a go of it this weekend. That's decidedly *not* an offer to host JOM, but the recent nonsense has me curious about how easy or hard these sorts of things are to do.

[narciso]

This was the piece I was talking about