Free Republic

Oklahoma is getting about $12 million to fight homelessness in the state. Funds will be used for the Homeless Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, which targets those who are newly or nearly homeless and are having trouble coming up with this month's rent, are behind on their utilities, or need help with a car payment. OKLAHOMA CITY -- A common criticism of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act has been that too much of the money is going to support or expand social programs. No wonder, then, that some people roll their eyes over the fact that $1.5 billion in...

Forty-four days before he assumed the office, Barack Obama went on Meet the Press and spoke of shovel ready projects that were supposedly awaiting a job stimulus plan: "When I met with the governors, all of them have projects that are shovel ready, that are going to require us to get the money out the door, but they've already lined up the projects and they can make them work. And now, we're going to have to prioritize it and do it not in the old traditional politics first wave. What we need to do is examine what are the projects...

Well this one really took the cake today. Obama says healthcare reform will help the economy by helping small businesses to start up easier. Totally ignoring the additional COSTS that ALL businesses will incur if Obamacare passes. Totally ignoring the additional costs every employee will have to pay in increased taxes, penalties, and the poorer care they will receive if they go into the government plan. The only few places that will benefit will be big government bureacrats, morticians, and grave diggers. Everyone else is screwed. Here's the bill. For the whole series of Zero dollar bills, go here: "Flickr...

Economically beleaguered Michigan faces a possible government shutdown - shuttering highway rest areas, state parks, construction projects and the state lottery - if lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal in the next few days. The state with the nation's highest unemployment rate has a nearly $3 billion shortfall. Federal recovery act money will fill more than half the gap, but the spending cuts or tax increases needed to fill the rest have caused bitter infighting at the state Capitol. Michigan is one of just two states whose budget year starts Oct. 1. The other, Alabama, already has a spending...

The president’s chief economic adviser warned Friday that the nation’s unemployment rate could stay “unacceptably high” for years to come — a situation that would seriously complicate Barack Obama’s ability to convince Americans that he’s beating back the recession. “The level of unemployment is unacceptably high,” National Economic Council Director Larry Summers said Friday. “And will, by all forecasts, remain unacceptably high for a number of years.” Summers’ comments came in a briefing with reporters ahead of Obama’s speech in New York City on Monday, marking the one-year anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, an event widely regarded as...

Hundreds of thousands of Bay Area commuters remain in limbo today as crews scramble to complete an emergency repair to the workhorse Bay Bridge. The 73-year-old bridge, crossed by more than 260,000 cars and trucks a day, was shut down for a larger, unrelated seismic upgrade project. Now, crews are working to fix a cracked steel link, called an eyebar, that helps hold up the east span. Inspectors discovered the problem Saturday afternoon, setting in motion a dash to fix a problem that - by itself - would have forced officials to shut down the bridge. "There's a lot of...

New unemployment data show why it will take years for the labor market to recover from one of its fastest and deepest declines since World War II, even if an economic recovery is around the corner. The Department of Labor report released Friday showed job cuts in August were lower than they've been in recent months. But a deeper look at the data shows why it will take millions of new jobs to dig American workers out of this recession's deep pit. Unemployment for teenagers stands at nearly 26 percent. More than 758,000 workers are so discouraged they quit looking...

Republicans this week pronounced Barack Obama’s six-month-old $787bn (€553bn, £477bn) stimulus a failure. But Earl Devaney, the former secret service agent who heads Mr Obama’s stimulus monitoring board, says critics do not yet have the tools to judge accurately. Mr Devaney, who meets weekly with Joe Biden, the vice-president, to monitor the outflow of stimulus money, is scrambling to set up the most complex government website in history by the October 10 deadline imposed by Congress. He predicts that the site, which will enable journalists and citizens to monitor every dollar that comes out of Washington and match it with...

Health Care: There might not be a "death panel," as Sarah Palin described it, but federal bureaucrats will be making end-of-life decisions. That's why state-run medicine is a leading cause of death in Britain and Canada.A post on the former Alaska governor's Facebook page has caused a stir by discussing openly what many privately fear and something we have written about. End-of-life counseling and efforts to measure cost-effectiveness of treatment will combine in a perfect storm to ration care in a way that lets the government decide who lives and who dies. "The America I know and love is not...

On FR there was a magnificent graphic of freshly-dug open graves..."ObamaCare....a shovel-ready project"--I've looked for it and can't find it. I invite the creator to provide us with a poster-ready project to download and print for our March on Washington. Maybe access to a jpg that is high-res?

Palin Vs. Kerry (And MoveOn.org) By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY | Posted Wednesday, July 15, 2009 4:20 PM The political death of Sarah Palin has been greatly exaggerated. In a devastating op-ed in the Washington Post, Alaska's governor exposes the cap-and-tax fraud that has nothing to do with earth's temperature and everything to do with government control of the economy. She also exposes the stealth socialism ambitions of the Democratic left and once again points out the availability of abundant "shovel-ready" resources under America's soil, off America's shores and even in America's rocks. Judging from the reaction from Sen. Kerry and...

Politics: John Kerry, replying to an op-ed Sarah Palin wrote on cap-and-trade, suggests the Alaska governor "check the view from her front porch." What she sees from there, senator, is energy wealth going to waste.The political death of Sarah Palin has been greatly exaggerated. In a devastating op-ed in the Washington Post, Alaska's governor exposes the cap-and-tax fraud that has nothing to do with earth's temperature and everything to do with government control of the economy. She also exposes the stealth socialism ambitions of the Democratic left and once again points out the availability of abundant "shovel-ready" resources under America's...

Money for 'shovel ready' projects have strings attached WZZM 13 ONLINE 5/28/2009 6:32:48 AM GRAND RAPIDS (WZZM) - Shovels are hitting the ground across Michigan as hundreds of road projects get underway that will be paid for with federal stimulus dollars. But the money comes attached to some strings that some people call unnecessary. Michigan is getting about $873 million in stimulus money to pay for the road projects. A spokesperson for Governor Jennifer Granholm says it will create or sustain about 25 ,000 but there is a small catch. "Part of the requirement is they (the federal government) want...

WASHINGTON – Think you can do better than your federal boss? President Barack Obama wants to know how. Obama on Saturday announced a plan for federal workers to propose ways to improve their agencies' and departments' budgets. The president said employees' ideas would be key as his Cabinet officials cut millions from the federal budget and trim the deficit.

Here's a timely story. Polihale State Park on the Island of Kauai, Hawaii, has been closed since December when flooding damaged a small bridge at the entrance to the park (for Wikipedia link on Polihale State Park see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polihale_State_Park). It would have taken $4 million and 2 years for the State to repair the bridge. But the State of Hawaii, like other states, is out of money. So when the bridge could be repaired and the park re-opened was anybody's guess. A bunch of the vendors and residents whose livelihoods depend on the tourist trade from the park got...

Spending: Stimulus money is being spent to build a bridge between two parts of Microsoft's corporate campus. Money's also available for suicide-prevention fencing on an Ohio bridge — just in time for taxpayers.The stimulus package is designed to fund already planned "shovel ready" projects that states and cities say they cannot afford to complete in this economy. The town of Redmond, Wash., had such a project on its wish list when it applied for stimulus funds to complete a bridge over a freeway dividing the town. Redmond Mayor John Machione said it would create jobs as well as "connecting our...

Why did the fried-chicken maker cross the road? To fill the potholes, of course. The folks at K[entucky] F[ried] C[hicken] recently cooked up an appetizing offer for cash-strapped cities: The restaurant chain will fix crater-ridden streets for free if they're allowed to brand repairs with a chalked-on message saying that the road has been "Re-Freshed by KFC." Company president Roger Eaton put the deal on the table last week in an open letter to America's mayors. KFC intends to select four towns to receive "a smooth drive that is fit for a colonel." KFC started the project in its hometown...

All of the Storm Drain Grates on my street have been replaced. There was nothing wrong with the old ones that I could tell. But they didn't have the admonition, "DUMP NO WASTE / DRIANS TO WATERWAY" in raised letters in the iron or whatever it is they use to make these things. I discovered this only today, because today was the first day this year that the weather permitted an outside cigar walk. They repaved the street sometime and it was probably during this project that the new grates were installed. Pictures below: (The new one is the one...