Open Thread Tuesday

January 29th, 2008 General

Here’s my reaction to Bush’s State of the Union address:

We had about 70-so people show up for the watch party at Founding Fathers last night, and everyone seemed to be having fun. At one point an impromptu “na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye” broke out, but not too many people went along with it. Anyhow, busy day, light posting, so consider this an open thread for whatever you want to discuss.

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6 Responses to “Open Thread Tuesday”

  1.  

    Christopher Smith Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 1:21 pm

    So, ummm, do you like stuff?

  2.  

    AL Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 1:30 pm

    Anyone notice even when Bush said things that all people should be for no democrats stood up and claped. Why is this? Are Dems really that partisan? The one I’m talking about is congress having to vote on all earmark legislation. You know so we don’t have to pay for bridges to nowhere. Not one Democrat applauded. Pelosi smiled but that was about it.

  3.  

    peter scott Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 2:46 pm

    AL…Dems did stand up for some things…so the first part of your statement is just not true…

    The earmark statement I found interesting…basically because I don’t understand the legal ramifications of the execuive order that should have been put in force today, according to his comments.

    If Congress is not allowed to put earmarks into bills in committee after voting has happened, why issue an executive order?

    And if Congress has the authority to add earmarks in committee, why should an executive order take precedent over what would be constitutional, i.e. the addition of earmarks?

    Interesting how Bush has started complaining loudly about earmarks after the midterm elections in 2006…

  4.  

    Dan Says:
    January 29th, 2008 at 7:35 pm

    Although it got no press (that I have found) I was most impressed with his Pell Grants for K-12 proposal. Buffalo & Rochester have seen schools way above the median in terms of test scores close because parents can’t afford to send their kids there. If we could take the success of programs like Pell and TAP and bring them to K-12 - so that the consumers could choose what education would be best for them (rather than directing all funding to a government monopoly) it would be a great stride toward improving education for all. It is a shame that the politicians and teachers can afford to send their kids wherever they want, but the teachers’ unions will stand in the way of allowing the poorer among us the same options.

  5.  

    AL Says:
    January 30th, 2008 at 12:50 pm

    Bush stated that all earmarks would have to be voted on and approved by congress before going into affect.

  6.  

    Red Says:
    January 30th, 2008 at 7:34 pm

    I was under the impression that all earmarks ARE voted on and approved by Congress before going into effect. The thing that I understood is that the earmarks are buried in these humongous spending bills, and by the time the bill comes out of committee and Congress gets the whole 9,375 pages of the thing, there’s no time to delve into it and see that someone snuck in $1,375,000,000 to study blogging’s effect on the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow.

    NY residents should be very familiar with this, as it it essentiall how every bill in Albany is crafted and voted on.

    Although what I do not understand is this quote directly from the President’s speech:

    “And tomorrow I will issue an executive order that directs federal agencies to ignore any future earmark that is not voted on by Congress.

    If these items are truly worth funding, Congress should debate them in the open and hold a public vote.”

    Can’t say that I really get it…peter scott’s got a legit question there, I think. And the timing of such an “order” (if necessary or legal) is certainly suspect and smacks of a little bit of legacy building.

    Fun times over there at Founding Fathers, though. Wonder what it’ll be like next year…

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