north carolina legislature

Early Monday Morning News Roundup

• The stimulus package has passed the House and the Senate and awaits the president’s signature. If you think the fight over the stimulus package is over, you’re wrong. There’s plenty more fighting to do. As Obama and his administration begin to look at the housing and the banking crisis, look for Republicans to harp back on this stimulus bill to try to retard progress. Lindsey Graham and John McCain, along with a host of other Republicans, hit the Sunday morning talk shows to criticize “wasteful” government spending.
• Paul Krugman makes an excellent point. The average American lost money during the Bush administration. I talked about this four years ago, looking at median income. The Federal Reserve released a report called Survey of Consumer Finances, revealing that Americans’ net worth decreased during the Bush administration. This is in spite of the fact that we were told we did not have to worry about our low savings rate because most of our net worth was tied up in our houses… and home prices “always” go up. It’s clearly time for us to get our house in order — pun intended.
• Newly appointed Senator Ronald Burris may have misled Congress and the Illinois legislature. It appears that Governor Ron Blagojevich‘s brother may have asked for campaign financing “help”. Marcy has three excellent posts on this new development (here, here and here).
• Historians rank George W. Bush as one of the worst.
• I’ve talked previously to my colleagues and to members of the North Carolina legislature about the absolute danger of scooters. I doubt that my ramblings had any influence, but it seems now that North Carolina is looking at a law to restrict scooters. From a trauma standpoint, this only makes sense. Many people who lose their licenses begin driving scooters. A lot of these people have made poor choices in the past and continue to make poor choices (like driving while intoxicated). There’s a nice article in this morning’s Citizen Times.
• There may be some room for negotiations with North Korea.

More later…