Roof replacement
Old wood shake roof: From Roof New composite shingle roof: From Roof Three days of noise and a gigantic rubbish truck parked in my driveway while my car lived homeless on the street was worth it, don’t you think?
Archive of entries posted on May 2011
In the weeds with the Tea Party
Reuters’ Nick Carey spent some time with Speaker Boehner’s Tea Party constituents in Ohio as well as with other Tea Party groups and learned they are seriously angry with those elected members of the Republican party who aren’t voting to blow up the economy. These people seriously want to keep the debt ceiling from being …
The filibuster is a terrible thing and I’d never use it
Unless I want to. A total of 43 senators — including 42 Republicans — successfully filibustered Goodwin Liu’s judicial nomination this afternoon. With that in mind, it’s worth noting what many of these same senators used to say about this practice before there was a Democratic president. For some, their own actions today weren’t just …
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Gang of Six shrinks
For a while now there’s been a so-called Gang of Six Senators trying to forge a compromise between the Democrats and the Republicans on deficit reduction. The Dems are represented by Dick Durbin of Illinois, Mark Warner of Virginia, and Kent Conrad of North Dakota, while the Republican members of the group are Saxby Chambliss …
Southern Californians, take note
My long-time internet acquaintance Jon Sullivan has put together a map of the best taco shops in and around San Diego. He’s tried almost all of them, he says. Jon’s blog was the first one I ever commented on back in ’02. He’s not posting as frequently as he used to, but when he does …
Oh, yeah, that’s right
Something I’d forgotten about government debt: Congress has already appropriated and authorized Treasury to spend money. The fact that spending that money takes us over the debt ceiling should have been recognized when Congress approved the budget for the current fiscal year, no? Meh. That doesn’t matter to the Republicans in Congress. One would think …
Fantasyland
Listening to the hourly NPR newscast at 11:00pm HST (5:00am EDT) I heard Senator John Kyl of Arizona say we won’t default on our debt. “We can’t. The Constitution won’t allow it.” Er, what? Senator, unless you and your colleagues in Congress vote to increase the debt ceiling, we certainly can default. How would the …
Debt ceiling
One wonders if the Republicans and their Tea Party members realize that if the US defaults interest rates will immediately spike, not just on T-Bonds and T-Bills but on the prime rate as well. And that if prime jumps, all the mortgage and credit card rates that are tied to it will also jump. I’m …
Things Democrats Need to Realize
From AlterNet: . . . the long arc of American history suggests that the forces of progressive and liberal thought have expanded rights and liberties for the country’s citizens, as well as provided a more certain future in the pursuit of the common good than those alternatives offered by the Right. For contemporary conservatives the …
The Morganza Spillway is opened
CBS News reports: Only one of the 125, 10-ton steel floodgates on the 4,000-foot long Morganza Spillway in Louisiana was opened Saturday to prevent worse flooding downstream in New Orleans; a cautious first step to give everyone and everything a chance to flee. “We’ll open one bay today. We’ll open one or two tomorrow and …