Werthless wrote:

TenuredVulture wrote:

FTN wrote:789.5 billion is the stimulus, or the top end. According to John Harewood on CNBC right now

Most important question: Does it still include the bits that would benefit me?

I'm looking forward to see what money I can get.

Who wants to trade houses, then trade back? WOOHOO! Cash money!

I regret putting my wife on the title of my house. I did it for the warm feelings of partnership. I should have kept her off, in case the government decides to give money away.

FTN wrote:789.5 billion is the stimulus, or the top end. According to John Harewood on CNBC right now

Interestingly enough, that's lower than either the House or the Senate bill. I sure hope they didn't take out the stuff that helps me.

Jindal will give the Republican response to Obama's state of the Union address. It's always a tough spot, since you are writing your response without knowing exactly what the President is going to say. But this is I think Jindal's introduction to the US. If I'm not mistaken, he was supposed to make a key address at the Republican Convention, but had to evacuate S. Louisiana. (Which was pretty successful, in part thanks to Nagin's hysteria.)

TenuredVulture wrote:

FTN wrote:789.5 billion is the stimulus, or the top end. According to John Harewood on CNBC right now

Most important question: Does it still include the bits that would benefit me?

Bad news (for you):

Nelson said he thought some money for education had been increased in the stimulus compromise, adding that lawmakers were scaling back money for tax incentives to encourage auto and home buying.

Sen. Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, said lawmakers intended to keep in a one-year fix to a quirk in the tax law that threatens to ensnare the middle class in a tax intended for the richest. Other specifics were not yet available.

Take out the AMT fix, which would have come somewhere else if not here, and the price tag is down at a level where the Republicans can claim some moral victory, I guess.

That sucks for me. But probably those monies for home buying and car buying were among the least stimulative parts of the whole thing. I really don't see how giving me money to move and someone else money to buy my current house stimulates the economy, except for maybe U-Haul. And I think I'm going to be buying that car anyway. And I think I've persuaded Mrs. Vulture that since she doesn't want a small car, a late model used car is the way to go. A 2008 or 2007 model with low mileage will seem like a new car to us.

I really do think the education money though is good government spending and not just because it benefits me a little.

Stimulus agreement reached.

Reid talking now.

Susan Collins does have one of the more annoying voices in the whole world.

Specter up there whining so he doesn't get a primary challenge.

Collins evidently killed a whistleblower provision in the bill. So now we're that much less likely to hear about how much of the $800 billion was spent on hookers 'n' blow. Everybody wins!

I still think its not enough money.

The Senate homebuyers tax credit got killed. Guess that means I'm less likely to buy a condo this year.

It wasn't a tax credit, just a free loan (assuming they were just extending the same thing they did in '08)

Woody wrote:It wasn't a tax credit, just a free loan (assuming they were just extending the same thing they did in '08)

No, the Senate bill was a 15K (or 10% of purchase price, whichever is smaller) tax credit (up to the amount of tax paid) split over 2 years. Trust me, I know my tax proposals.

Lethal --- --- Woody's head, right between the eyes.

lethal wrote:

Woody wrote:It wasn't a tax credit, just a free loan (assuming they were just extending the same thing they did in '08)

No, the Senate bill was a 15K (or 10% of purchase price, whichever is smaller) tax credit (up to the amount of tax paid) split over 2 years. Trust me, I know my tax proposals.

So far, the BSG count here is two people who lost out on free goodies from Uncle Sam and are now feeling real pain, and a bunch of cranks.

Really, Mrs. Vulture is going to go look at a house tomorrow, and if this had passed, we might have tried to pull the trigger on the deal.

US defence officialsare apparently keeping information from Barrack Obama on the case of Binyam Mohammed, a British Citizen held in Guantanamo.

It is understood US defence officials might have censored the evidence to protect the president from criminal liability or political embarrassment.

Clive Stafford Smith, Lawyer and head of Reprieve, wrote to the prez outlining some of the torture undergone by Mohammed and urging disclosure of evidence relating to the case. See how much got through. The request is, in part, to investigate MI5's culpability in the torture, and a judicial inquest is being reopened after the Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, withdrew his assertion that the US was threatening to withhold military intelligence if the inquiry was pursued.

Aside from the whole torture or don't thing, I'm posting it as a reminder that it's never just political inertia at the executive level which slows up serious reform of dangerous policy. Whether the intent here is to cover the president's arse, or cover the departments', the obstruction is down to civil servents lower down the chain. that kind of institutional-led attitude can be very hard to turn around.

VoxOrion wrote:Lethal --- --- Woody's head, right between the eyes.

Wizlah wrote:US defence officialsare apparently keeping information from Barrack Obama on the case of Binyam Mohammed, a British Citizen held in Guantanamo.

It is understood US defence officials might have censored the evidence to protect the president from criminal liability or political embarrassment.

This case is such a mess. These defense officials are trying to protect themselves, not the President. If we did unmentionable things to this guy for no reason, we need to apologize, give him a bunch of money, and change the safeguards that allowed this to happen. Trying to cover it up is not going to work.

(So, it's spelled defence in the UK, and defense in the US? Firefox doesn't like "defence," but google doesn't seem to mind.)