Well, just a little bit off the beaten path. We noticed that up there in the Green Mountain State the other day the agriculturally inclined among them were talking about rules and regulations for producing “organic” maple syrup. Anybody down here ready for more rules and regulations? We thought you just gathered in the sap, built a roaring fire and waited for the steam to evaporate. That requires rules?
The voice of experience…
Our Senator, Ted Kennedy, created an extraordinary political moment in endorsing Barack Obama. He has handed the strength of a his voice and experience to a new man and a new generation. Obama comes with a promise of change, and a promise to lift this country up. He comes with a reason to hope that we can rekindle our best American values, reach for what is possible and repair our world. This man Obama deserves your vote.
Talk to my robot …
Rules for living in 2008: 1. We have not reached you when we get your voice mail. We’ve reached your robot surrogate. 2. If you want our vote for your candidate, call and ask for it. We do not vote for recorded messages. and 3. We do NOT call back when your robot bill collector says it has an important message for someone in this household.
Come out, come out, whoever you are…
Two people got the nomination papers for Selectmen, got the signatures and are running for office. A third, we hear, has launched a write-in campaign. The difference is that a declared candidate has to talk to everybody. A write-in candidate just has to round up as many of his friends as are needed to win. That can be done quite privately with phone calls and e-mails. Increasingly, it seems, that’s how small town politics works, under the covers. In the dark, where private agendas can flourish. And that is most certainly not a good thing.
Got it? OK, then, spend it…
The president and Congress have decided to ignore the two quickest ways of getting money into the economy, unemployment benefits extensions and food stamps and instead are handing out tax breaks to middle-income families and to corporations. Tax rebates take longer – months instead of weeks – but perhaps we can count on the recipients to keep up their part of the bargains and buy consumer goods, not pay bills or buy heating oil. Maybe the recipients will rush off to the mall. Or maybe they’ll use the cash to hire their neighbors to do the yard work in the spring.
Insert Part A into Tab B
To register a car you A. Get a form from your insurance agent. B. Get an insurance endorsement from your insurance company. C. Pay $35 at the Registry. D. Get plates and registration. E. Attach plates to car. F. Get sticker. G. Pay insurance bill. Do we need an efficiency expert here to simplify the process?
Why a check for $800 won’t fix it
From the New York Times: The main problem is that the good times are no longer good enough to carry the middle class through the bad times. For much of the last 35 years, the incomes of most workers have been growing far more slowly than they once did. In the current expansion, which started in 2001, the median weekly paycheck of workers has actually fallen 1 percent, once inflation is taken into account, according to the Labor Department.
Performance enhancing economics?
An economic stimulus pacakge? $800 for every taxpayer to spend is more like substituting a one-time performance enhancing drug for the work and time required to become a skilled athlete. What’s missing is not a fast $800, but the benefit and security of being able to depend on being able to earn that money and more over the long haul. When will Washington hear the concern of average Americans who know that Made in America was key to long-term growth and stability and a strong middle class.
A scrap from the archives
We offer the linked article suggesting a re-use plan for the Nichewaug Inn, an easing of pressure of social security payments burden and other remedies without comment.
