Darker and darker

While a good many of us could have told you that things are actually worse than we are being told (and we have been saying so for over a year) there are a lot of folks, mostly fat cat Republicans who still will insist that the economic problems are not that bad and that there were even signs of recovery late last year. For the rest of us, this confirms what we already knew was happening.

The U.S. economy contracted more sharply than initially estimated in the fourth quarter, government data showed on Friday, as exports plunged and consumers cut spending by the most in over 28 years amid a severe recession.

The Commerce Department said gross domestic product, which measures the total output of goods and services within U.S. borders, fell at an annual rate of 6.2 percent in the October-December quarter, the deepest slide since the first quarter of 1982. The government last month estimated the drop in fourth-quarter GDP at 3.8 percent.

The weaker GDP estimate reflected downward revisions to inventories and exports by the department.

The decline was worse than analysts' expectations for a 5.4 percent contraction in fourth-quarter GDP. The economy expanded 1.1 percent in 2008, the slowest pace since 2001, the department said.

Consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of domestic economic activity, dropped at a 4.3 percent rate, the biggest fall since the second quarter of 1980, as household wealth plunged. That compared with a 3.5 percent fall estimated last month.

Exports, until recently one of the few pillars supporting the distressed economy, tumbled at a 23.6 percent annual rate, the steepest plunge since 1971. That was revised from the 19.7 percent drop estimated in last month's report.

the thing is, I don't think people realize what this continuing saga of bad news and worsening conditions portends. Our "leaders", whether they be in government or banking or manufacturing, have actually had it pretty easy so far. We are still paying them big bucks for failure or reelecting them inspite of their bad governance. There is a strong likelihood that this happy go lucky attitude on the part of the downtrodden masses will shift in a very negative direction.

Worst-case scenarios abound:

The global economic meltdown has already caused bank failures, bankruptcies, plant closings and foreclosures and will, in the coming year, leave many tens of millions unemployed across the planet. But another perilous consequence of the crash of 2008 has only recently made its appearance: increased civil unrest and ethnic strife. Someday, perhaps, war may follow.

As people lose confidence in the ability of markets and governments to solve the global crisis, they are likely to erupt into violent protests or to assault others they deem responsible for their plight, including government officials, plant managers, landlords, immigrants and ethnic minorities. (The list could, in the future, prove long and unnerving.) If the present economic disaster turns into what President Obama has referred to as a “lost decade,” the result could be a global landscape filled with economically fueled upheavals.

I still remember the downright nastiness back in the 70's when gas was in short supply. Many probably don't remember but that is when you began to see locking gas caps and anti-siphon hardware on the fill caps. It was a regular occurrence to have the gas siphoned from your car even when it was parked in your driveway. Rarely a day went by without someone getting rowdy in a gas line or even having a gun pulled when someone really got angry. It really doesn't take much to send otherwise civilized people over the edge. If gasoline shortages can do it, just imagine what bread lines will cause.

Newspaper Pots

I almost ordered a wooden die thingy to do this but it was almost $20 so I didn't. Glad I stumbled on this at La Vida Locavore. Thanks Jill.

Check this out: You can make seed-starting pots from newspapers.

I use starter trays but they are only about an inch and a half square and not really big enough to get a plant to the size needed to transplant. This is a great solution.

About Time for the H-1B to Go Away

One of the things I really like in the stimulus package is the fact that companies hiring people under the H1-B visa program are not eligible for bailout money. About damn time we started to put a finger in this hole in the dike. The primary reason I am unemployed right now is that someone from India on an H1-B visa is doing the job I should be. The rules say they have to be paid the "prevailing wage" but I know from personal experience that they are paid a lot less than American workers in the same job. Yes, most of them are smart and seem capable but that is not the point. The thing is, India has been sending 65,000 IT workers over here every year and each one of those jobs is putting someone like me out of work. The program was originally supposed to help bridge the gap in demand for IT workers that couldn't be met with American workers but that time is long past.

Predictably, the anger is growing in India over proposed changes to the U.S. H-1B visa work program. The stimulus package forbids companies who hire H-1B workers from receiving federal bail-out money and the move could send tens of thousands of temporary workers, largely engineers, back to India. Indian labor and political parties are threatening boycotts of American companies if Indian workers are eliminated.

Let them boycott. If you take an inventory of the Indian workers in the IT departments of most major American companies, including and especially the financial sector, you will find that they outnumber Americans by a large majority. This might have been an OK thing back when there was a huge shortage of IT trained American workers but that situation is changed and the whole H1-B visa program should be scrapped for good.

We'll probably lose some good Indian restaurants but I'll willingly make the sacrifice.

Beavis and Butthead?

Krugman, as usual, minces no words on the GOP response by Bobby Jindal to last night Obama speech.

And leaving aside the chutzpah of casting the failure of his own party’s governance as proof that government can’t work, does he really think that the response to natural disasters like Katrina is best undertaken by uncoordinated private action? Hey, why bother having an army? Let’s just rely on self-defense by armed citizens.

The intellectual incoherence is stunning. Basically, the political philosophy of the GOP right now seems to consist of snickering at stuff that they think sounds funny. The party of ideas has become the party of Beavis and Butthead.

We Will Recover!

Well, while I missed the first part of it, I did see a very good speech last night by President Obama. What a change from the last impostor! That was the way a President should address a nation in crisis. He was excellent, setting the the right tone and overall very impressive. How very refreshing to have a real president again.

I didn't bother to stay up and watch what was apparently a nothing speech by Governor Jindal. From what I am reading this morning it was the exact opposite of President Obama's speech. He offered nothing to counter Obama except the worn out and discredited GOP mantra of cutting taxes. It's not surprising, as they have proven repeatedly that they've got no ideas and what Bobby Jindal demonstrated last night just reinforced that to everyone. It speaks volumes if you remember that Jindal has been billed as the GOP's next great leader. If what the GOP has to offer in 2012 is Jindal and Palin then the GOP is really a has been political party.

Here is the skinnyon the speech from Sam Stein at the Huffington Post:

Instant public surveys on Barack Obama's address before Congress showed, by in large, that the public was incredibly receptive to his speech, regardless of political party. But that did not hold true for every single study. A CBS News poll of approximately 500 people saw approval of the president rise from 62 percent before the speech to 69 percent afterward. Meanwhile, a poll on CNN showed that 68 percent of respondents -- who skewed a bit Democratic -- viewed the speech positively, 24 somewhat positively, and only eight percent not positively. Eighty-two percent supported the president's economic plan as outlined in the speech, while 17 percent opposed it.

Those results were buttressed by the findings of longtime Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg. In his own dial poll, which included 50 participants of mixed gender, education and politics, Greenberg found a large swath of bipartisan support for Obama's addres. That included a 14 percent jump, from 62 to 76 percent, in the favorability rating for the president. Saying at the onset that this was an "immensely successful speech," he highlighted a few issues on which Obama won over the audience....

New Experience

Probably going to be quiet around these parts again today. I am going to brave the Georgia Dept. of Labor and file for my unemployment today. Georgia is a little backward in that you actually have to make an appearance at the state agency to apply...no online here. I have no idea how long it will take. The commute alone will be an hour or better since it is located in midtown.
If I get back before too late I need to get my onion plants in the ground. They showed up in the post on Saturday and are patiently waiting to be planted. Technically, I have a week or two to get it done but the sooner the better.
You guys play nice while I'm gone and have a nice Mardi Gras.

Laissez les bon temps rouler!


Update: Not too bad. Only took about 3 hours. The sad thing is most of the time was spent online on their computer filling out the form. Absolutely no reason for a personal appearance. Now to the onions.

The Old Bamboo

Yes it has been quiet here today. A good part of the day was spent harvesting bamboo. I learned early today that the stand of bamboo on the historic Bulloch Hall property was going to be leveled in the name of progress this week. It is an ancient stand of giant bamboo and many of the "trees" are 4" across and 50 or 60 feet high. I need bamboo in the garden for beans to climb on and for cuke and melon support. I don't need the big stuff but the smaller stuff makes perfect garden poles. I don't know of anything stronger than bamboo pound for pound. So anyway that's where I have been all day and my aching body will testify to that. There is still a mountain for the bull dozer to chew on but I have my load.

Water, Water Everywhere

I love stuff like this:

It’s a kitchen degreaser. It’s a window cleaner. It kills athlete’s foot. Oh, and you can drink it.

Sounds like the old “Saturday Night Live” gag for Shimmer, the faux floor polish plugged by Gilda Radner. But the elixir is real. It has been approved by U.S. regulators. And it’s starting to replace the toxic chemicals Americans use at home and on the job.

The stuff is a simple mixture of table salt and tap water whose ions have been scrambled with an electric current. Researchers have dubbed it electrolyzed water — hardly as catchy as Mr. Clean. But at the Sheraton Delfina in Santa Monica, some hotel workers are calling it el liquido milagroso — the miracle liquid.

That’s as good a name as any for a substance that scientists say is powerful enough to kill anthrax spores without harming people or the environment.

Used as a sanitizer for decades in Russia and Japan, it’s slowly winning acceptance in the United States. A New York poultry processor uses it to kill salmonella on chicken carcasses. Minnesota grocery clerks spray sticky conveyors in the checkout lanes. Michigan jailers mop with electrolyzed water to keep potentially lethal cleaners out of the hands of inmates.

In Santa Monica, the once-skeptical Sheraton housekeeping staff has ditched skin-chapping bleach and pungent ammonia for spray bottles filled with electrolyzed water to clean toilets and sinks.

“I didn’t believe in it at first because it didn’t have foam or any scent,” said housekeeper Flor Corona. “But I can tell you it works. My rooms are clean.”

Management likes it too. The mixture costs less than a penny a gallon. It cuts down on employee injuries from chemicals. It reduces shipping costs and waste because hotel staffers prepare the elixir on site. And it’s helping the Sheraton Delfina tout its environmental credentials to guests.

The hotel’s kitchen staff recently began disinfecting produce with electrolyzed water. They say the lettuce lasts longer. They’re hoping to replace detergent in the dishwasher. Management figures the payback time for the $10,000 electrolysis machine will be less than a year.

“It’s green. It saves money. And it’s the right thing to do,” said Glenn Epstein, executive assistant at the Sheraton Delfina. “It’s almost like fantasy.”

Actually, it’s chemistry. For more than two centuries, scientists have tinkered with electrolysis, the use of an electric current to bring about a chemical reaction (not the hair-removal technique of the same name that’s popular in Beverly Hills). That’s how we got metal electroplating and large-scale production of chlorine, used to bleach and sanitize.

It turns out that zapping salt water with low-voltage electricity creates a couple of powerful yet nontoxic cleaning agents. Sodium ions are converted into sodium hydroxide, an alkaline liquid that cleans and degreases like detergent, but without the scrubbing bubbles. Chloride ions become hypochlorous acid, a potent disinfectant known as acid water.

“It’s 10 times more effective than bleach in killing bacteria,” said Yen-Con Hung, a professor of food science at the University of Georgia-Griffin, who has been researching electrolyzed water for more than a decade. “And it’s safe.”

Transparency is Good

The NY Times reports some changes in how our federal spending is reported:

For his first annual budget next week, President Obama has banned four accounting gimmicks that President George W. Bush used to make deficit projections look smaller. The price of more honest bookkeeping: A budget that is $2.7 trillion deeper in the red over the next decade than it would otherwise appear, according to administration officials.

The new accounting involves spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Medicare reimbursements to physicians and the cost of disaster responses.

But the biggest adjustment will deal with revenues from the alternative minimum tax, a parallel tax system enacted in 1969 to prevent the wealthy from using tax shelters to avoid paying any income tax.

Even with bigger deficit projections, the Obama administration will put the country on “a sustainable fiscal course” by the end of Mr. Obama’s term, Peter R. Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, said Thursday in an interview. Mr. Orszag did not provide details of how the administration would reduce a deficit expected to reach at least $1.5 trillion this year.

Mr. Obama’s banishment of the gimmicks, which have been widely criticized, is in keeping with his promise to run a more transparent government.

Fiscal sleight of hand has long been a staple of federal budgets, giving rise to phrases like “rosy scenario” and “magic asterisks.”

The $2.7 trillion in additional deficit spending, Mr. Orszag said, is “a huge amount of money that would just be kind of a magic asterisk in previous budgets.”

“The president prefers to tell the truth,” he said, “rather than make the numbers look better by pretending.”

This is a really, really good idea. It is about time the politicians actually have to face the real impact of their spending and the accounting tricks of the past allowed them to hide most of their sins. The freaking whole war was "off budget" for crissakes! The first step in getting a realistic picture of where we are as a nation fiscally is to quit hiding spending in nooks and crannies. Shine the light on everything.
I do want to reiterate one thing that John Cole says over at Balloon Juice on this subject:

The first thing I would do if I were Peter Orszag and company, and this is one of the very few times I actually hope someone in government listens to me, is to go back and re-score the last decade or so of budgets using the new accounting system, so when they roll this out they can say “Here is what this year’s budget would have looked like under the old system. Here is what it looks like under the new system. Here are the past ten years worth of budgets under the old system. Here they are under the new system.” For political reasons, this simply has to be done.

If the Obama team does not do this it will be like handing a loaded gun to the GOP and painting a target on your back, forehead and butt. If this isn't done and spread liberally throughout the media and internet it won't take a half hour before the Rethugs start comparing the new deficit numbers using the "new" legitimate accounting to the old budgets under Shrub and Reagan using the "old" criminal accounting and screaming socialism, communism and Goddess knows what else. They'll still do it anyway but it will take some of the sting out if Obama is proactive.

Kicking Them While They're Down

If you can judge from the rant of CNBC's Rick Santelli against the mortgage bailout, the wingnuts still don't get it. Letting the mortgage crisis continue to fester is not going to help any of us. Yeah, yeah, a lot of the people that are going to get help probably didn't make the wisest choices when buying their homes but the banks and mortgage lenders have a lot to answer for. Let's face it, if you didn't have the financial resources to buy the house you did and yet were given a mortgage anyway then whose fault is it? Is standing by and watching the further collapse of the housing market going to do any of us any good?

We are talking a lousy $75 billion(a couple of weeks of Shrub's war) here compared to the trillions either given directly to the banks or committed in some other way. Get a grip. If you think the banks are equal partners in this mess and deserve some slack then take a look at this and then maybe rethink your position.

Edited to correct usage.

First, Arthur Santa-Maria called Bank of America to ask how to check the balance of his new unemployment benefits debit card. The bank charged him 50 cents.

He chose not to complain. That would have cost another 50 cents.

So he took out some of the money and then decided to pull out the rest. But that made two withdrawals on the same day, and that was $1.50.

For hundreds of thousands of workers losing their jobs during the recession, there’s a new twist to their financial pain: Even when they’re collecting unemployment benefits, they’re paying the bank just to get the money — or even to call customer service to complain about it.

Thirty states have struck such deals with banks that include Citigroup Inc., Bank of America Corp., JP Morgan Chase and US Bancorp, an Associated Press review of the agreements found. All the programs carry fees, and in several states the unemployed have no choice but to use the debit cards. Some banks even charge overdraft fees of up to $20 — even though they could decline charges for more than what’s on the card.

The bastards deserve any scorn they receive especially after taking our money.


h/t Ballon Juice

25 Things About Willy

We've have all seen the meme around the web "25 things about me" well here is one about the Bard that is very funny.

h/t Susie

Chilly Friday

Turned cold overnight...back down into the 20s this morning and it is supposed to stay cooler than normal for the next few days. I forgot to put the birdbath heater in last night and this morning all my feathered friends, the chipmunks and the skwerls were standing around the edge looking for a drink. I poured a bucket full of very hot water on it and now everyone is sipping away. It should stay thawed until the temp gets above freezing.

Not much encouraging news on the economic front. The DOW set a twenty year low yesterday, people drawing unemployment checks hit 5 million and I am going to add myself to that list next week for the first time in my life. A wee bit depressing. Paul Krugman is not very encouraging this morning either and is forecasting a very long time before we see the clouds begin to part.

So people at the Fed are troubled by the same question I’ve been obsessing on lately: What’s supposed to end this slump? No doubt this, too, shall pass — but how, and when?

To appreciate the problem, you need to know that this isn’t your father’s recession. It’s your grandfather’s, or maybe even (as I’ll explain) your great-great-grandfather’s.

I could have used a little better forecast from Paul but I guess it is better than hiding your head in the sand and banking on the lottery to get you through.

New Life

Not that anyone but me cares, but most of the tomato seeds planted on Valentines Day are now tiny little tomato plants. I kept them warm and moist and now they are popping up like crazy. I can't tell you how excited I get when those little plants appear. I moved all the peppers and stuff to the with shelves by the sliding glass door in the basement which is a nice Southern exposure and they are all busy sucking in the natural sunlight and everybody seems happy. The new tomatoes will bask under the artificial grow lights for a while longer or at least until they are all up and have true leaves. One tray of peppers has not sprouted yet...the little "bird peppers" sometimes called chili pequin. They were planted like everyone else so maybe they are just slow. Maybe it takes extra time to build up the excruciating heat they have. I haven't given up on them yet. It's getting cool again with nightime temps back into the 20's so the urge to get out and play in the dirt is subsiding a bit. I should be getting my seed potatoes in the next few weeks which is the official kick off of the outside gardening. The brocolli, cabbage, cauliflower, leeks and arugula should be ready to find their homes in the garden by that time as well. Then begins the battle with the deer and rabbits. The deer have enjoyed the cereal rye in the garden cover crop all winter but now it's time for my food to grow and not theirs. Early stuff is beginning to green so they will have enough natural food soon. Not to mention that all the subdivisions are putting out their spring beds of deer food.

My daughter(mini monk) has volunteered to help me get my trailer back in shape. The floor has rotted out again and this time she wants to put in expanded metal. She never misses an opportunity to weld and this floor should last a couple of years. She is also hoping I will quit begging for her to bring me horse manure if I have a trailer good enough to haul my own. There are all kind of horse barns around that will give you manure if you just haul it off. The stuff is black gold for us organic gardeners and I can use tons.

I have been hard at work this week generating all my my marketing material. Short paragraphs highlight my skills and accomplishments using all of the functions soft skill action words I identified last week. The goal is to create a "brand" for yourself that is both accurate and memorable. Something that will set your resume apart from all the rest of the galloots that are applying for the same job. It sounds simple enough but trust me, it is very difficult.

I spent hours working on my elevator speech. How do you wrap up over 30 years of experience and accomplishments into 50 words or less? I have also written the first draft of my script for my 45 second video. I am not one to toot my own horn and when you have only 45 seconds to summarize who you are, what you have done and what your goals are and make it different and memorable it's tough. I think it is pretty good but will definitely need some expert help.

We'll see this afternoon when I sit down with my career coach and he critiques my effort. Fortunately, he will help me refine it and punch it up.

More Good Change

It's about time, as we are behind the rest of the civilized world by a decade or more. Consumers deserve the right to know the details about the food they buy. When you consider the food related issues from China and other countries last year, country of origin is important. One of the reasons I am willing to spend a lot more on food at Whole Foods is their origin labeling. I like to know where my food comes from. I can't make an informed decision about buying without knowing where its from or how far it has traveled to get here.

The Obama administration is throwing out food labeling rules proposed by the Agriculture Department just before George W. Bush left office, saying it wants labels for fresh meat and other foods that would show more clearly where an animal or food came from, according to consumer groups who've been briefed on the issue.

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack told several consumer groups Tuesday in a conference call that he will ask the meat industry to voluntarily follow stricter guidelines for new package labels designed to specify a food's country of origin, according to three people who were on the call. If the industry does not comply, the administration will write new rules, according to those who spoke with Vilsack.

The labeling requirements, which would apply to fresh meats and some perishable fruits and vegetables, long have been debated in Congress and were enacted as part of a wide-ranging farm bill last year. While the meat industry and retailers responsible for the labels have protested the changes — saying they are burdensome and could lead to higher prices — consumer groups and northern states ranchers who compete with the Canadian beef industry favor them.

Should Have Bought Fireworks

The market didn't do anybody any favors today. The DOW was off 296. Ouch!

Sure am glad I saved all that money over the years just to watch it vanish. Should have bought fireworks with it, then I at least would have had a show.

High Fructose Corn Syrup is Poison

I've posted before here about HFCS. It is bad news for most people and especially bad for those with weight problems, insulin resistance or diabetes. I test my blood sugar at least once a day and often twice or three times a day. I also monitor what I eat pretty closely. I know from personal experience that if I allow HFCS in my diet it makes my blood sugar worse. Now there is even more evidence that this is not just me. Asinus Asinum Fricat brings together the latest research on fructose versus glucose over at La Vida Locavore.

You are also what you drink. Yet another damaging HFCS report surfaces: researchers from the Monell Center in Philadelphia report that overweight people who drank a fructose-sweetened beverage with a meal had triglyceride levels almost 200 per cent higher than the same group who drank a glucose-sweetened beverage with a meal. In plain words triglycerides are manufactured by the body from dietary fat and function as fat transporters. While normal levels of triglycerides are essential for good health, increased levels have been linked to a higher risk of cardiovascular disease.

The Corn Refiners Association has been running cute little ads about "What's wrong with HFCS?" lately. Someone offers another a popsicle or something with HFCS and when the other refuses because of the HFCS content they get the "It's made from corn and has the same calories as sugar" speil. Of course, the person hesitating to eat the HFCS doesn't have a response. The reality is that the body doesn't understand HFCS. The body hasn't evolved to eat HFCS and therefore doesn't respond to it like it does regular sugars like glucose or even plain fructose.

You have a choice. You can eat it and suffer the consequences, which aren't fully understood but are apparently real and not good, or you can avoid it like the plaque that it is. The choice is yours. I know from personal experience that it causes my blood sugar to go up and stay up. I do not get the same result when I sin and eat something sweet with just plain sugar. Yes my blood sugar goes up but it comes down fairly quickly as soon as the body produces enough insulin to metabolize it. A significant dose of HFCS and my blood sugar runs higher for a couple of days. It's hard enough in today's environment to avoid sugar and carbohydrates when you are insulin resistant like I am. Fortunately it is not too hard to avoid HFCS but you do have to read labels like a maniac. It's in everything from salad dressings to crackers and even pickles. Look for some pickles on your grocery store shelf without HFCS(except dill) and you will be surprised. Look for some sandwich bread or crackers without it. If you read labels as religiously as I do you will find it everywhere, and everywhere you find it it is going to be bad for you.

Lots to Do

I hope everyone had a great weekend. Happy President's Day or is that Presidents Day. Whatever, it is nice to actually have a President worth feeling good about isn't it?

Looks to be a busy week for me. My career consultant has given me a load of "homework". I need to spend quite a bit of time defining my personal network, identifying all my "soft skills" and completely re-doing my resume along their guidelines. I also have to begin writing my script for my brief online video. In light of all the work I have to do, it may be a little light around here for a few days. I'll try and post when something moves me but the priority is trying to counteract Shrub's and the GOP negative impact on my career.

Play nice and take a look at the blogroll as there are plenty of good things to read there.

Peanuts, Peanuts, Who's Got the Bad Peanuts?

It is not over! Don't relax your vigilance and take a good look at the latest products that have been recalled. It's a long and very well respected list including products from Slim-Fast, Whole Foods, and lots more.

There are still being cases of salmonella poisoning from peanut bearing products reported, so in spite of the national press, people are still eating this stuff. They either have it already in the pantry or there are stores not following the protocols. If you have anyone in your circle of friends or family that may not be up-to-date on the whole peanut debacle then give them a ring and let them know.

Even yours truly discovered that the Kashi Chewy Trail Mix bars in my cupboard are verboten and only because I couldn't find any more in the stores. Madam eats a couple of these a week. Read the ingredients on boxes if you are in doubt and if there is any question look on the manufacturer's web site or the FDA site and check it out.

On a side note: I keep thinking about Kashi's television commercials and how they go to such great lengths and exotic places for their ingredients. Who knew Blakely, Ga was so exotic?

Tomato (Pomodoro) Day

It's rainy and damp today in Atlanta. It is a perfect day to plant the seeds for this years tomato garden and since it is Valentines Day that makes planting "pomodoro" or "love apple" even more significant. I have a bunch of varieties to plant. The peppers and artichokes I planted on the 3rd are mostly all up and going so it is time to get the rest cooking. It is the most fascinating thing to take these tiny, tiny seeds and put them into the dirt and then in a week or two see the little plants peek through the soil. How all that life is stuffed into that little hard seed is amazing. It is an endless fascination to me and truly a Zen moment. Here is one of the babies I am planting today. The seeds are from Italy via the Seed Savers Exchange. I can almost taste it now.



Costaluto Genovese Tomato
Lycopersicon esculentum
Heirloom
6-8 oz. Tender Annual
Old Italian variety that grows 6-8 ounce large, meaty, semi-pleated red fruits in abundance. While it is not the prettiest of the tomatoes, this variety rated among the very highest in our taste tests with a very earthy, old-fashioned tomato flavor.

Compare and Contrast

Here is an excerpt from President Obama's weekly address today. It reinforces a very strange concept into the national dialogue...accountability. Very strange indeed! You can view the entire address over at Americablog.

Now, some fear we won’t be able to effectively implement a plan of this size and scope, and I understand their skepticism. Washington hasn’t set a very good example in recent years. And with so much on the line, it’s time to begin doing things differently.

That’s why our goal must be to spend these precious dollars with unprecedented accountability, responsibility, and transparency. I’ve tasked my cabinet and staff to set up the kind of management, oversight, and disclosure that will help ensure that, and I will challenge state and local governments to do the same.

Once the plan is put into action, a new website – Recovery.gov – will allow any American to watch where the money goes and weigh in with comments and questions – and I encourage every American to do so. Ultimately, this is your money, and you deserve to know where it’s going and how it’s spent.

This historic step won’t be the end of what we do to turn our economy around, but the beginning. The problems that led us into this crisis are deep and widespread. Our response must be equal to the task.

Oh! and here is the contrast from Michael Steele, the newly elected head of the RNC talking with uber ass Glenn Beck of Faux News about Republican credibility.

"You have absolutely no reason, none, to trust our word or our actions at this point."

Now that's a mouthful.