Stimulus Package

By now, everyone is probably aware at least at some level of the massive rock slide that has closed Interstate 40 near the Tennessee border in Haywood County. What is the fastest way to get the slide cleaned up and traffic flowing again through this vital east-west artery?

It's hard these days to get worked up over Republican hypocrisy, especially when it comes to Mayor Pat McCrory. As the chief executive of North Carolina's largest city, he has failed again and again to represent Charlotte's interests in both Raleigh and in Washington, even as he whines today about finding himself on the short end of the stimulus stick. And even as he calls for for "Eisenhower-type" spending for the next generation.

“This is a nationwide trend on how the money was divvied up – everyone is getting a little bit, and in the end there will be nothing to show for it,” said Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, a Republican. “We should have spent it in Eisenhower- and Roosevelt-type projects for the next generation.”

I cross-posted my commentary about the rich on Facebook yesterday and it caught the attention of a friend who just happens to be president of one of the world's leading information and research companies. He wrote this:

We've got the hard data you're wishing for, man. Just released. You're dead on target here. The rich cannot sit this one out. If for no other reason than unemployment is the biggest threat to domestic security these days. If you think the French Revolution was hard on the aristocracy, wait until you see what happens if global unemployment doubles from its current levels. From upper crust to dead meat. This recession is the biggest national security problem in America right now. Anyhow, the only way out of this mess is for people to spend. Even with the credit crisis fixed, if people don't spend, the economy remains crippled. And the only people who can spend enough right now are the people you're talking about.

As the reality of the recession sinks in, consumer confidence has reached frightening lows. People all across the income spectrum here in North Carolina are hunkering down – and worse. With job losses reaching record levels, the global economy has become a literal death spiral. People in my neighborhood are foregoing medical treatment to pay for food and shelter. People in other countries are simply starving.

As President Obama said last night, this precipitous decline has come on the heels of the greatest transfer of wealth – from the middle class to the super rich – in modern history. It is time for the wealthy to do their part. And not just by paying higher taxes.

The incredible idiocy of Right Wing Republican politicians attempts to score political points by throwing the bodies of their constituants under 18 Wheelers rolling down Interstate 95 through Governor Mark Sanford's state and towards Governor Bobby Jindal's state is somehow expected.

You see, Republicans have decided to toe the line that says "We don't care about anything other than Politics here in 2009. Our vision is short-sighted and myopic, our popularity is in the shitter, but our basic values of not caring one goddamned iota about our constituants is in full evidence. Not to mention, we actually think that this is a WINNING formula going forward.

Let's explore the insanity.

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina has a message for the American people. The majority of you are the "Fringe" crazies of America.