UPDATED: Carper Vote Watch

UPDATE: Carper is a jerk. Shocking! From Jen Hill, SEIU: As of last night our Senator Carper has signed on to the Nelson Collins amendment. The amendment will reduce the…

It is worse than you think…

The unemployment numbers. Look at where the jobs are being cut. Construction and Manufacturing in the top 4 industries affected, with rates in the double digits. Indeed, the 18% for…

Women and Children First

Followed by cops and firefighters.  You can screw science, as well.  But rest easy, defense spending will increase under the latest stimulus plan changes. Total Reductions: $80 billion Eliminations: Head…

Deep FOIA Thought

Sitting in my car at a level crossing waiting for 100 car coal train headed for the Indian River Power Plant to pass by, I heard that Pete Schwartzkopf is…

Insanity

What Atrios, Digby and John Cole said.... I really don’t understand how bipartisanship is ever going to work when one of the parties is insane. Imagine trying to negotiate an…

598,000 Jobs Lost in January

While unemployment jumps to 7.6 percent. Recession-battered employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January, the most since the end of 1974, and catapulted the unemployment rate to 7.6 percent. The grim…

Talking Point Smackdown — Honeybees!

One of the resident wingnuts brought up a portion of the recovery package that is supposed to support honeybees — of course, you consider the source and presume that you are dealing with more manufactured outrage over something silly. Little did I know. Yesterday evening, I found out exactly what she was talking about (column by Michael Hiltzik in the LA Times):

What in heaven’s name does Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell have against honeybees?

That question haunted my days after I saw the Kentucky Republican on TV fulminating about a provision he found in the proposed government stimulus package. The provision, he said, would provide $150 million for “honeybee insurance.”

“This is nonsense,” he said, as if he took it personally. You had to think he got stung as a kid or maybe caught a local swarm in the act of recruiting aphids for Al Qaeda.

So I resolved to get to the bottom of this scandalous expenditure.

Hiltzik provides some more background here, so make sure you go read it all, but here is the good part: