Political Irony

Here's a good website for those of you who, like me, are liberalheart supporters of the current administration and who notice that Washington is full of irony.

http://politicalirony.com/

And here's a great post from that site to get your started:

Voting Rights - Yes!

This decision by the Supreme Court is even more touching now that we visited the Voting Rights Museum in Selma, Al. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200906u/voting-rights-ruling

Well Said!

We heard Frank Schaeffer being interviewed on the XM POTUS08 channel today and he had a lot to say that I agree with:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/open-letter-to-the-republ_b_172822.html

Connecticut Stimulus

I wrote both our CT senators to thank them for their support of the stimulus package. In his response to me, Sen. Dodd provided the interesting list of CT's share of the stimulus. By the way, my thoughts on the stimulus are that I'm not economist to know if it will work or not...but I do think that those supported it are right that more is needed than just tax cuts.

Key Funding Provisions for Connecticut in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009:

UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE

· Approximately 277,766 Connecticut residents will receive additional Unemployment Insurance benefits.

· The Federal Emergency Unemployment Insurance program will be extended through the end of Dec. 2009, which will benefit approximately 44,580 Connecticut residents.

· States that modernize their Unemployment Insurance systems to make them more accessible to part time and low wage workers, will receive federal funding to cover the administrative cost of these improvements. Connecticut would be eligible for up to $84 million if they modernized their system.

WORKER RETRAINING

· Connecticut will receive $29 million in additional funding for worker retraining and employment services.

MAKING WORK PAY TAX CREDIT

· This credit will provide up to $400 per year to workers. Approximately 95 percent of working families are eligible for the tax credit.

INFRASTRUCTURE

• $487.5 million for Connecticut infrastructure projects.

• $302 million for rebuilding and improving Connecticut's roads and bridges.

• $137.5 million for Connecticut in transit formula funding.

• Nearly $36 million in public housing capital funds for Connecticut.

• $11 million in Community Development Block Grant (CBDG) funds for Connecticut.

• $19.7 million for Connecticut in Drinking Water State Revolving Fund and $48.8 million in Clean Water State Revolving Fund for clean water and waste water projects.

ENERGY

• $39 million in State Energy Program funding for Connecticut to address energy priorities and to adopt emerging renewable energy and energy efficiency technologies.

• $66 million to help Connecticut families reduce their energy bills through the Weatherization Assistance Program.

PUBLIC SAFETY

• Connecticut will have at least $80 million in stabilization funds that can be used to prevent fire fighter and police officer layoffs and other cuts to critical services

• $21 million in Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grant funding for Connecticut to prevent, fight and prosecute crime

EDUCATION

• $5 million in Head Start funding to improve the school readiness of Connecticut's children and $14 million in Child Care and Development Block Grants to help hardworking families with childcare assistance

• $443.5 million in state stabilization that will, among other things, help communities in Connecticut prevent teacher layoffs, funding cuts to education and other services, and the modernization, renovation, and repairs of public school facilities and higher education institutions

• $12 million in Community Services Block Grant funds to assist with key services in Connecticut, including childcare, employment, education, emergency services, health care, housing, nutrition, transportation, youth development, and coordination of resources and community participation.

• Increases the maximum Pell Grant by $500, which will benefit nearly 52,000 low income Connecticut students

CHILD TAX CREDIT

• The families of an additional 96,000 children in Connecticut will be eligible to claim an expanded Child Tax Credit.
  

DCCC chief Chris Van Hollen, the Maryland congressman, released a statement declaring: “House Republicans are fast becoming party of No-bama. Americans will hold Republicans accountable for being the party of no – no to President Obama’s economic recovery, no to children’s health care, and no to equal pay for women doing equal work.”

A short time, ago, I saw a Republican House member using the excuse that they ALL voted against the recovery package because it had too much spending in it and because they hadn't seen it soon enough to review it. My response is the same as the Prez's - a stimulus package IS a spending package AND there were plenty of time to get details about the bill in the press so I'm sure the members of both parties had plenty of time to return the bill.

President Obama!!!

It's taken me a few days to post my thoughts on the inaugurations. Here's some of my thoughts.....

1) I love hearing hearing the phrase "President Obama" for two reasons - one is that it isn't "President Bush" and second because hearing it reminds me that I now have a president that "gets it" regarding so many values that we share!

2) I had thought the inauguration was going to be emotional but I was caught by surprise by the flood of tears when Aretha started to sing. Dick Cavett wrote a great column that captures many of my thoughts http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/23/im-not-weeping-its-an-allergy/

3) Shouldn't Justice Roberts have had a cheat sheet with the words since they are so important??

4) The one sad thing about the day was that my niece had tickets to the purple area and after more than four hours standing in a tunnel was turned away. I'm still proud of her for her intern service to a member of congress that earned her the ticket and proud of her wanting to brave the early hour and cold to try to see the historic event. I hope she gains some solace that even waiting in that tunnel with all those people that she was part of the history making event.

5) My 26 year old son that is barely old enough to remember back to the pre-Bush years, posted on inauguration day that he is feeling optimistic about the future. It's going to be a slow trek to undue the past administration's wrongs but I share his optimistic feeling to know we are now going in the right direction.

6) I thought THE speech was great and I intend to refer to it as a touchstone to remember the historic context for the direction our country will be taking during President Obama's first term.

7) I'm trying to think of how I can be part of President Obama's call for us to serve the country during this phase of my life. How interesting that Starbucks is also helping spread that call to action.

In closing, YAY for democracy and for liberal, patriotic, intelligent leadership! I love that President Obama is making it clear that liberals are also passionately liberal!