OK, finally some new pictures from AFTER we moved in. It's been a while I know. I have a bunch of stuff but they're mostly snapshots. Here's a few random views.







The livingroom. We got the vent-free gas logs for the fireplace. It's totally awesome. And efficient too. Not sure how much gas we saved, but it uses about a quarter of what the furnace does.










Kitchen stuff





Fixing the cut glass in the door. I love the front door, the glass was intact but a little wobbly, my father in law had the tools, but I ended up having the patience to solder it together.











One day i got the energy to go ahead and build a skateboard ramp in my basement. I had all the materials lying around. To my surprise I didn't forget my tricks, but I do seem to bruise a little easier.


They do this all the time. So cute.









a few more


The Foyer. Big pocket door on the left. I like the style of my house. The doors, it's kind of arts and crafts, Roycroft style.


Upstairs


This is a snapshot but it shows the front door, and the two kitties on the mat guarding the place.

The economic recovery bill.

critics are claiming that the bill won't effect the economy for two years. Because government projects take a while to start. The state and local governments have to request proposals, and approve things before they get the project started.

OK we live in Buffalo, things tend to drag on for a while. But many of the projects in Buffalo are just waiting for money, and now that the state has budget problems, even more of those projects have been thrown into limbo. I can think of street projects in South Buffalo, the inner harbor project, and the Rath building just off the top of my head. These projects have already been approved and, the contractors have been approved too. We have projects here that are immediate. Plus even if it takes 6 months to approve a contractor for the other 100 plans in Buffalo, once the contractor gets that project, they can count on that money. Since they have money on the way, they can spend what they have in the bank on some new equipment, or they'll be more likely to get a loan based on their projected income. And Buffalo is just one city, there are thousands like us in the US that have been neglected for years. We've got the projects, $billions of them.

and as for the price tag, if the banks get $700 billion, so should the middle class.


The CEO Pay cap at $500,000

Critics call this government intervention in private business. I call it terms of the loan. The point is this, if these companies went to a private bank for a loan, they wouldn't get it. If they did get a loan it would have strict rules, and an extremely high interest rate. These companies thought that since the loan was coming from the government it was easy money, free money, why not apply for it (that was M&T's take on it). But the government decided not to be their bitch, they decided to look out for the taxpayer and not reward failure.

$500,000 salary cap, big deal, we're loaning you the money and those are our terms. Take it or leave it. So today Goldman Saks decides maybe they don't want the loan after all. GOOD, saves us money. That's the point, this is an exceptionally good loan for those who have no credit, it's a service of the government, because no private business is going to do it. But there are conditions, it's not free money, and if you don't NEED it, don't take it. Why should we give money to banks that don't need it.

I'm pissed off at the Republicans. I hope the party goes extinct. Really. because I don't believe they have the best interests of the country at heart.

I hope that isn't true, for America's sake, I hope they actually are patriots, and I'm trying to understand why they act this way.

Why are they so divisive, why are they so misleading, why do they refuse to compromise?

In case you missed it, no Republicans in the house of Representatives voted for the economic recovery package. What's up with the herd of opposition?

If you are working on some legislation, you propose an idea or you advocate for some changes, and when those changes make it into the final bill you usually vote for it. The democrats took out a bunch of 'liberal' provisions and 'wasteful spending'. The Democrats compromised, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of the public trusts the ideas of Democrats when it comes to the economy.

The republicans got a lot of what they wanted, much more than they ever gave the Democrats. But not a single house republican voted for the economic recovery bill. You'll see the republicans all over the media criticizing the bill, and offering no suggestions for improving it, except tax cuts or reducing the price tag (both of which would make the bill less effective).

Why?

I have a few ideas.

Maybe it's the permanent campaign mentality. Your team must win, and the other team must lose. Therefore the other team can absolutely never have a good idea, unless they agree with you of course. And when they agree with you, you get to say I told you so and call them weak.

Maybe it's their conservative market philosophy of self-interest spilling over into everyday life. The 'invisible hand' of the market, where if everyone follows their own rational self-interest, we magically end up with the best collective solution too. So they are all looking out for their own self interest first and foremost. Which I guess means winning elections, hoarding power, making lots of money, and get lots of campaign contributions and political favors.

Maybe redistricting and gerrymandering plays a role too. House members represent little pieces of a state, so they put the democrats on democratic pieces and the republicans on republican pieces. So the voters in their district largely prefer to keep the same party every year. Their seats are in safe Republican territory, they don't have to fear running against a Democrat (there usually is none, the incumbent is unopposed anyway) So the only thing they have to worry about is another Republican challenging them in the primary. And they only way that could happen is if the incumbent pisses of his donors, and they fund the opposition instead.

hmmm, following the logic in that last one, I guess it's about the money?


well none of those are patriotic reasons, but they seem the most logical to me. I mean, we've tried tax cuts for 8 years, did George "the king of tax cuts" Bush miss that one essential tax cut that will fix all our problems?


Maybe the Senate won't be so confrontational. They each represent an entire state, which is more politically diverse than a house district. and they also have more time between elections. Maybe they'll act more like statesmen, then their brothers in the House who look like prep school punks.

I doubt the Senate would filibuster, this is a popular bill, and they can't afford to slow it down. Especially after Obama has shown them so much compromise and respect (especially compared to the last 20 years).

Let them vote against it, and watch in horror when it passes and actually puts people back to work. Then all the campaign commercials in 2010 will ominously say "he voted against Obama's recovery package. Wrong on the economy, wrong for America"

I'm interested to see how this 'economic recovery package' works out.

There's a lot going on. I just hope our representatives put the country first, and get down to business. Are you loyal to your political party, your ideology? Or are you a patriot, who cares most about the well being of our citizens.

I hope we have enough patriots in Washington to get us out of this hole.

I'm sick of the he said she said crap that passes for political discourse. I'm sick of the perpetual campaign, where you're always trying to make 'my colleagues on the other side of the aisle' look evil. I'm sick of power struggles, political favors, and games. I'm sick of hidden agendas.

I don't care what party you're in, you were elected to represent the will of the people. We elected You, because we trust you to look out for us, NOT to look out for yourselves.

I don't want to be too hard on the Republicans, I'd really hate to be in their shoes. And I'm sure the Democrats aren't going to be easy on them. When the Republicans had power, they used that power to exclude and marginalize the Democrats. Payback has got to be appealing..

It's not going to be easy to put this bitch back together.

I gotta say though, this past weekend was a stunt. All the Republicans doing a full court press, all over TV, to tear down the stimulus package. Every one of them saying they'd vote against it. This was a game. A decision by the Republican party to begin the 2010 campaign now. Start attacking Obama, and drawing lines in the sand. I really don't think the country has patience for that shit.

Some fanatics out there must believe that the Democrats are evil, or something, because they'd rather see Obama fail. They'd rather see the next 2 years land us in a Great Depression so they can point fingers and say "see, I told you so, the democrat party was in power, and look what happened. You fools better elect some Republicans to fix their mess." Boy that would be great for the Republican party, the more Obama fails, and the more the country and the economy are destroyed, the better their chances in 2010, or 2012.

But I hope those are only the fanatics. Because the people in Washington have more important things to do than watch the country burn.

Every person I've talked to since the election says, "I hope Obama gets something done quick, we got some serious problems in this country, I hope he can deliver." It's not just democrats, everyone has a family member who isn't making both ends meet. Laid off, part time, pay cut, can't find work, turning off the cable and internet, getting rid of a cell phone or a car. Americans are not as divided as we were, we all have the same problems. I think we're also optimistic that we can solve those problems. We're a proud nation, we have faith in ourselves.

You know what the public wants, Fix it, get 'er done. Get to work, putting us back to work.

I feel unified.

This must be the most gracious and humble president we've ever had.

There is something about public ritual that inspires a certain awe. It seems an appropriate way to take pride in our country and our democracy. I've been in big cowds, It's a unifying thing, and to think of how many people are watching the same thing around the world. It's like half of humanity just took part in this moment, at the exact same time. And it's a time when we need to be unified, and determined to meet the challenges facing humanity.

It's nice to feel hopeful about the future. Maybe the world will feel like working together a little more. Feels like we all have a responsibility to help.

Barack Obama, the people's president.

Cheers to the 131.2 million people who voted this year. that's 63% of eligible voters. Congratulations to The People's President.

Hey all! it's been a while. We're doing good on the house, I plan to post some more pictures soon, but first a bit of politics.

If you're looking for the economy, you'll find it in the crapper. We've got lots of unemployment, less credit, less spending, less confidence, and less consumption.

Everyone agrees that something needs to be done to boost the economy before it gets worse. So what will get us the "most bang for our buck"? Is it tax cuts, spending on public works projects, aid to the states? What is the most effective use of dollars. We already have a trillion dollar deficit, so it'd be nice if we could avoid simply throwing money at the thing, like we did with the banks. We should be making targeted investments, and we should be able to see exactly where that money is going.

Tax cuts work different for different groups. For the working class it's supposed to encourage us to buy stuff. Pay down our debt, and get a new laptop or something. It's real similar to the rebate checks we got last time around, except it comes out of our payroll taxes instead.

Tax cuts on the upper classes, that's where we expect tax cuts to do the most good, because if they have more money it inspires them to go ahead and create more jobs for us poor working stiffs... right? I doubt it, if people aren't buying their product they're not hiring. If you sell fewer cars this year, why hire new people? And when people don't have decent jobs, then they can't buy your cars... we're still broke.

I think tax cuts are the equivalent of throwing money at the thing... "Here, everyone have a little cash, go spend it, and this will probably work itself out." Sounds like a faith based economic philosophy to me. I don't have any confidence that the invisible hand of the market will save us. I'd rather a more practical approach.

You know what inspires companies to create jobs? Better sales!!!! Increase demand, and guess what, they'll increase the size of their workforce.

If we want this recovery package to work, the government needs to buy stuff, lots of it, because that creates demand. Buy new computers for the schools, fix roads and bridges, make government buildings more energy efficient, buy some hybrid cars for the postal service, modernize some hospitals...

There are a million things in this country that have been neglected because of an anti-spending attitude in Washington. We live in Buffalo right, we've got a hundred plans and a hundred projects that are ready to go, if we just had the cash to go ahead and build. You don't even have to be creative just give states, counties and cities the money they've been waiting for. But remember, local governments can be just as corrupt as the Feds, make sure that we know exactly where the money is being spent. I love Obama's idea of making all this information public online. Transparency in government is so important.


Article supporting tax cuts


US News article


NY times roundup

I got a bum middle finger on my left hand doing some house repair. We opened up the window seat this weekend, and I poked the tip of my finger pretty bad.

I want to write about the senate elections in Minnesota and Georgia, cause I think it proves my point about Instant Runoff Voting. it'll take a lot of words though, so I'll have to wait.

Happy shoveling everyone.

In relation to my last post: "Bailout ignores homeowners"

Home Foreclosures have officially been suspended through the holidays.


Merry Christmas everybody. Fannie and Freddie don't want to ruin the Christmas Shopping Spirit by throwing you out on your ass.

I'm a little cynical here, because this type of action was not hard. The government Owns Fannie and Freddie now, and it costs zero dollars to issue a moratorium on foreclosures. The only excuse for waiting a month is confusion, incompetence and ignorance to the problems average people face.

I know not everybody can afford their mortgages, I'm sure some did get in over their head. But 279,561 people lost their homes this past month, that's 25% higher than last October, that's an increase of 70,000 people, I'll bet some were victims of adjustable rates, predatory schemes, crappy real estate markets, etc.

I guess I'm glad they're doing something.