Been So Long

Building a Mystery
President Barack Obama is seeking to build public support for his $447 billion jobs plan before formally sending the bill to Congress Monday. The president will promote the jobs plan, which focuses on tax cuts and new spending, during an event in the Rose Garden Monday morning. He will send the bill to Congress later in the day.  Obama will be joined in the Rose Garden by teachers, police officers and firefighters, all of whom the White House says would benefit from the bill's passage.  (NYT, 9/12/2011)


A.K.A. the Jobs Bill to Reward My Union Supporters Who Will Contribute to My Re-election Campaign.


He's Like a Rainbow
Green guru Al Gore is seeing red -- and might just talk himself blue.  The former vice president and outspoken climate-change defender plans a 24-hour worldwide presentation called "24 Hours of Reality" to combat the country's growing disbelief in his contention that man's actions have dramatically shaped the planet's climate and caused a rash of extreme weather.  (Foxnews.com, 9/12/2011)


RedStateVT warned everyone that this was coming and no one did anything about it.  The former Vice President has come unhinged and now this is the result.  Meanwhile from the same article .....


Public perception of climate change has steadily fallen since the "Climategate" scandal in late 2009. A Rasmussen Reports public opinion poll from August noted that 57 percent of adults believe there is significant disagreement within the scientific community on global warming, up five points from late 2009.


The same study showed that 69 percent of those polled believe it’s at least somewhat likely that some scientists have falsified research data in order to support their own theories and beliefs. 


Cram-u-lus
First, instead of passing a targeted antirecession package, Congressional Democrats crammed the stimulus bill with spending on everything from Head Start and Pell Grants to high-speed rail and renewable-energy projects. The hope was that the legislation would do more than just kickstart a recovery: It would lay a new foundation for the economy, with an electric car in every garage and a Solyndra solar panel on every roof. The result, predictably, was a bill that looked less like a temporary exercise in crisis management and more like the Democratic Party’s permanent wish list. (Ross Douthat, NYT, 9/11/2011)


Great column from Douthat on Stimulus 1, even as Obama tries to stick us with Stimulus 2.