Here and There

A fifth day of rain here in soggy Atlanta. We need the rain but I'm starting to feel a real urge for 'fish and chips" if you know what I mean. The Congress is back in session and my optimism for a "wonderful new world" and "change I can believe in" is rapidly declining. Looks like politics and partisan gamesmanship are still the order of the day. Taking a quick break from the routine to hit the "tubes". Here is some of what I noticed.

Paul Krugman has some math on the stimulus package that seems to be forming. Not very encouraging if you ask me. These are bad times and going to get worse and this situation calls for bold action. It doesn't look very bold to me.
The thing is Obama seems to be doing a lot to get the GOP to climb on board. Recent history shows that trying to work with the GOP for the common good merely gets the Dems screwed. If that is what Obama wants then I guess he is going in the right direction but everything tells me it is a mistake. They(the GOP) don't care about anything but keeping their power and rich contributors happy. Government spending is fine and dandy when they or their wealth friends benefit but wasteful government intrusion and pandering to the neer do wells otherwise. Their Hoover economics got us where we are today and I am, for one, really tired of it.

Obama's team has leaked that Leon Panetta is the new man at the CIA and Dianne Feinstein and John Rockefeller have their shorts in a wad over it. DiFi is soon to be head of the Intelligence committee and thinks she should have been consulted. From everything I have read most people in the know think Panetta is a good choice. Personally, I think DiFi and the other naysayers are upset that the game is going to change and don't like it because both DiFi and JDR have much to answer for in how the CIA and the intelligence community as a whole have performed in the last 8 years. DiFi voted to confirm the idiot Porter Goss so we know her judgement is flawed in this area.

Cookie Jill over at Skippy's place is giving us some great news. For those of us worrying about presciption drug costs all we have to do is eat more vegetables. Seems that if you grow your vegetables using manure from cows/chickens that have had antibiotics and other drugs that the veges are just passing them along.

vegetables such as corn, potatoes and lettuce absorb antibiotics when grown in soil fertilized with livestock manure, according to tests conducted at the university of minnesota. - environmental health news

Just the news I needed.

If you are a Hemingway fan Jim DeRosa is pleased to let us know that thousands of his writings are now available via the internet. Cool!

Things are going from bad to worse in Gaza. CNN is reporting that IDF artillery fire has fallen near a UN school in Northern Gaza killing at least 30 and wounding many more.

Three artillery shells believed to have been fired by Israeli forces struck near the perimeter of a U.N. school in northern Gaza today, killing at least 30 people and wounding 55, a United Nations official said. Most of the casualties were outside the school in the Jabalya refugee camp, the official said.

Reports are that the Palestinian death toll since the start of this tragedy is now at 555.

Finally, just in case you haven't noticed...that light at the end of the tunnel is a train.