18 FEB 09: A Stimulating Discussion
He hasn't been President one month yet, but Barack Obama already is leaving plenty of "buzz words" in the U.S. language. Take what he signed into law Tuesday - a "stimulus" bill. For several years, about the only time that word came up was when an Olympic athlete was disqualified.
A major critic of the President's stimulus plan came to Phenix City Tuesday -- and stunned some people by saying nice things about it. Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama has been all over national talk shows, finding fault with the bill. But of course, Shelby realizes when he's in a majority-Democrat county....
Sen. Richard Shelby admitted the massive stimulus plan will provide money for "infrastructure" projects, such as bridges and road construction. But that doesn't mean everyone is going to be happy with those projects. I assume Shelby drove down Broad Street to reach Phenix City Hall....
To be honest, Sen. Richard Shelby had to support the infrastructure part of the stimulus bill. Shelby has gained a reputation for bringing plenty of "pork- barrel" spending to Alabama. All the catfish research at Auburn University couldn't keep a baseball team with that name in Columbus.
While he sees some benefits from the stimulus plan, Sen. Richard Shelby still is unconvinced it will turn the U.S. economy around. He believes the "free market" approach works best - and we've all seen how well it worked for Bernard Madoff.
(Sen. Shelby added, "No one's read the bill." To which I would ask: why didn't he? The text has been available online for people to read -- although admittedly Ann Coulter's books have more attractive covers.)
Other area Republicans in Congress were less kind about the stimulus plan. Rep. Lynn Westmoreland said it lacks money to develop small businesses. Yeah - what about giving us the Better Literacy Online Grant? You know, the BLOG.
The new White House "recovery" web site was quick with details about how our area will benefit from the stimulus plan. A breakdown was issued by Congressional district, with 159,000 jobs in Georgia and Alabama which will be "created or saved." Now hold on here - they're counting "saved" jobs?! Usually saves only count in hockey games and Baptist churches.
At least there's one section of the stimulus plan for ordinary taxpayers like you and me - a 13-dollar tax credit every pay period, which could begin as soon as March. Some Republicans are dismissing that as no big help. Hopefully they aren't the same Republicans who put down lottery games as "get rich quick" schemes.
The skeptics say President Obama's stimulus plan is flawed. They say it will reduce our standard of living forever - and a few are even dropping hints someone should start a national tax protest. As long as conservative radio talk show hosts get their big checks, that seems unlikely to happen....
But Tuesday night I reached for a notebook, showing where my investments stood after the 1987 stock market crash. Things looked grim for our economy then, and I thought about pulling my money out. Yet my grand total today is ten times greater than it was then. If history repeats itself, in 22 years I may be ready to bid on a foreclosed Green Island Hills mansion.
-> Our other blog starts with poker, then goes in directions you might not expect. See what we mean at "On the Flop!" <--
BLOG UPDATE: The end came suddenly, with no fanfare at all. WLTZ had barely begun "Everybody Loves Raymond" Tuesday at midday when the analog transmitter was shut off, making its "Big Switch" official. At least it happened after "The 700 Club," so no viewers would think digital television is a Satanic plot.
We had an early writing deadline Tuesday night, so we can't comment on how well the GPB stations' digital switch went. If it went well, WJSP-28 will appear with three digital channels. If it didn't go well, Columbus area lawmakers should come home from Atlanta since we can't monitor them anymore.
GPB executive John Olive explained running nine analog transmitters across Georgia for four more months would cost about $400,000. That computes to about $11,000 per station per month, which is almost twice as much as WLTZ was spending. This is why it pays to have a commercial station - because you can pay about half your bills through advertising.
E-MAIL UPDATE: Our coverage of the battling S-Blogs Sunday brought this comment....
Check out '15 FEB 09: InTown Out of Bounds?'
I REALLY enjoyed your blog post yesterday Richard ...
This comes from "Abe," one of the masterminds behind InTown Columbus. What we wrote Sunday hasn't really been discussed there. Instead, there's talk of two additional new social blogs with "Columbus, Georgia" in their names. At least no one has gone all the way and named one Columbus, Kansas.
We also heard from someone Tuesday about the big U-turn crackdown:
Not long after reading the Mon.blog about police making arrest on Macon Rd in front of McDonald's for U turns I saw it for myself..There were 2 motorcycle units pulling people over..I'm not opposed to giving tickets if you break the law..However,I think doing 75 mph on 185 at the Macon Rd to J.R.Allen parkway where posted speed is 55 might be a wee more worthy of a ticket.Perhaps doing 85 on J.R.Allen is a little risky also. If we are short of police,which I know we are,then why not put them in the most needed areas for traffic violations.
But there's a small problem with this logic. The people getting pulled over on the freeway think car thieves are a wee more worthy of police time -- or burglars, or anybody else but them.
The good news is that Columbus Police are hiring those 100 new officers. So before long, we'll have enough people to watch both Macon Road intersections and J.R. Allen Parkway speeders. Maybe then drivers will hang up their cell phones, set their cruise controls at a proper speed, and thank Mayor Wetherington for how much safer they feel.
So what else happened Tuesday? Here are a few things....
+ Phenix City's mayor presented proclamations and "keys to the city" to several African-American pioneers. Original police officer John Allen showed WRBL he still has his badge from the 1960s. This shows how times have changed - since the current outgoing police chief almost had to surrender his.
+ Georgia lawmakers staged a "Peanut Power Hour" at the state Capitol, to show peanuts are safe to eat. To avoid any doubt in consumer minds, this was scheduled several days after the special events for firefighters and school nurses.
+ GPB's "Lawmakers" reported at least one Georgia college graduate with a physics degree has had trouble getting work in schools, because that person is considered "too smart to teach." You'd think schools would want that, to balance out the other extreme - the teachers who are too sexy.
+ The boys' high school basketball playoff game between Valley and Montgomery Carver was stopped early, when a brawl broke out on the court and spread into the stands. The chances of Alabama ever starting a high school hockey tournament are now practically zero.
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