The math of politics

It would be really helpful if there was an equation for decisions. Plug in some number of people served, plug in some number of comments with an amplification factor for comment vehemence, put something in to allow for people who haven’t got around to commenting, maybe people who are entirely satisfied with the same thing that the commentors are opposed to, throw in all the known incidental factors, and BAM! decision.

stuff balance

People don’t know there’s stuff where they are. Other people know about it and take it to places where somebody who needs some food or something gets told to do something to the stuff, and they do it. Then the stuff somehow gets to places where people with enough food and maybe too much time on their hands and also money too get the stuff and do something with it until it’s used up. Then the stuff goes somewhere else; if what’s left is really awful it goes back to the people who didn’t know they had it in the first place. That’s called recycling and it’s really a good thing.

Senator Franken

is good enough, smart enough, and.doggone it, people like him. It’s simple, and it’s nationwide. Maybe not a Tester, but surely a Baucus.

Maybe I’ll go re-read Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot.

Say, what?

Tei M. Nash, executive director of “Coalition for Community Responsibility,” “head chair” of “The Truth Consortium” (and parent of only, so far, five children), says:
“If you support the claim of ‘no censorship allowed,’ particularly in relationship to propaganda, then you are in essence supporting the trustee’s [sic] decision that a violation has occurred because censorship is propaganda’s sister.”

What that lacks in rhyme or reason it more than makes up for with grammatical imagination.

No wonder Tei M. Nash advanced all the way to “Head Chair” of the “Truth Consortium.”

Of dogs and gardens

Hypothetically speaking. Sort of.

The only time there’s any chance of having some idea what the population as a whole wants from their government representatives is when there’s an election. When people who are fully aware of what their representatives have done or have promised to do, vote, they might careully weigh the pros and cons of a particular candidate’s actions and positions vs. the pros and cons of some other candidate’s; or they might base their decision on a small piece of one candidate’s actions and promises vs. another’s. They might decide based on what they wish their choice could do vs. what they know their choice could do.

Other voters probably know little or nothing about the candidates, so if they know one thing, or if they’re told one thing – true or not – their decision is likely to be based on that single thing.

Representatives? They can only do the best they can.

Zuber

Zuber objects to “The Story of Stuff.”

The Story uses a narrator and cartoons to show where stuff comes from and where it goes.

Zuber objects.

Zuber shouldn’t object to the depiction of Where Stuff Comes From. All he has to do is read current events. Any article about vermiculite in Libby or copper/zinc/arsenic from Butte downstream including the former damsite in East Missoula highlights the validity of Where Stuff Comes From, including the situation the natives find themselves in. Where Stuff Goes is no harder to find.

There’s balance, too: all the fine jobs trying to clean up the mess.

Zuber.

Stimulus

I am pleased that a portion of the Stim is likely to be used to make roads and bridges and windmills and such.
I am not impressed by tax cuts. Shall we investigate non-repayment options?

Stimulus

I feel so much richer now.
At least some of the money will be spent fixing bridges and such. That’s something that will keep on giving.

Well.

That didn’t last long.

What I really need is a crawling tree branch.

That’s incentive.

Stimulus Fix

Republicans want a stimulus of 400 billion dollars.
Easy fix:
Get the tax cuts out and leave projects. That’ll fix it.