Fuzzy Math

Broder examines the new budget:

What does it do about the deficits? If you believe Putnam, House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and other Republicans, this budget “reduces the deficit in half over four years.”
But if you read the fine print, here’s what you find: The budget envisages the national debt increasing by $683 billion next year; by $639 billion the second year; by $606 billion the third year; by $610 billion the fourth year; and by $605 billion the fifth year.
As Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee asked, “Where is the deficit cut in half?”

I wonder if some of these leaders could have made it through high school if they’d grown up in the “No Child Left Behind” era.
Oh, and there’s this from Cato:

President Bush has presided over the largest overall increase in inflation-adjusted federal spending since Lyndon B. Johnson. Even after excluding spending on defense and homeland security, Bush is still the biggest-spending president in 30 years. His 2006 budget doesn�t cut enough spending to change his place in history, either.
Total government spending grew by 33 percent during Bush�s first term. The federal budget as a share of the economy grew from 18.5 percent of GDP on Clinton�s last day in office to 20.3 percent by the end of Bush�s first term.

I guess President Clinton’s “the era of big government is over” was over once he left office.

Site Meter Spectacular

While other sites are celebrating millions of visitors, we here at Resonance are celebrating a milestone of our own. Sometime today we should receive our (don’t laugh aloud) 50,000 visitor!
If you are the lucky guest, you win a free screen shot of the Site Meter, provided you know how to save it. Otherwise, you win nothing. Thanks for playing. We might really blow the budget when 100,000 rolls around.

Cades Cove Planning

Per this article I see that a Cades Cove planning group has entered Phase II in its effort to improve the visitor experience while protecting the environment.
Phase II “expected to last 22 months, will include additional data collection, refinement of the five alternatives, environmental assessment and analysis and more public involvement.”
I can save them most of the 22 months. In order to make the visitor experience more pleasant, they need to repave the loop road and make it at least five to ten feet wider, adding many more pull over spots. Frankly, a passing lane sounds like a good idea to me, though it would admittedly add some new problems.
If you can’t tell, I’m not a big fan of riding behind a pokey car or waiting in line because some out-of-staters spotted a squirrel or deer in the woods. I know this impatience kind of goes against the spirit of the place, but if I’m in a vehicle, I like to keep moving. If I want go slow and take my time, I’ll get out and walk.

Nurse-In

This is one of the more unusual Capitol Hill gatherings of support for a bill I’ve noticed in a while.
I have no idea what the prospects are for the Breastfeeding Promotion Act. Since a Democrat is promoting it, probably close to zero. But if it did become law, it would be evidence that Congress will use tax incentives to promote just about anything.

Comments

I believe you should now be able to post a comment without my approval. I had to uninstall an older version of MT Blacklist, then install a newer version. I just ran a test and it worked.
Note, however, that I reserve the right to delete comments if I don’t like the content or the commenter.

A World Away

Wow. These people are hardcore:

It’s less than a week since the tiny Afghan village community witnessed the execution of 25-year-old Bibi Amena for adultery, but by Tuesday life appeared to have returned to normal. Bibi was sentenced to death by local religious leaders in the Spingul valley in the isolated northeastern province of Badakhshan.
Her crime was to be found in the company of a man she was not married to.
. . .
The killing was even endorsed by Amena’a mother.
“When the verdict was announced they came to consult me and I said, ‘kill her’ she said, without emotion. “I am proud and happy that she [Amena] was killed, because she undermined the honour of the village.”

Quite a contrast from our so-called “culture of life” in America. Here we have people getting all bent out of shape and passing emergency acts of congress when someone stops artificially feeding a woman whose been brain dead for more than a decade. There, they don’t appear to be so concerned about such matters.
At any rate, these type of incidents illustrate that despite globalization, we are literally still a world from some people on the other side of the globe.