You can read it all here.
Personally, I am, and always have been in huge favor of having more nuclear power plants here in the US. Nuclear power is just awesome.
I was slightly confused by this 'Civilian Reserve Corps'. I mean, if it's like the military Reserve Corps, why not just enlarge those? Or if it's about hiring specialists for non-combat-related jobs, why not say that? I'm probably just missing something.
Which is entirely possible, as I'm still incredibly distracted by Alberto Gonzales' recent statement on habeas corpus and the Constitution.
Yes, that's a thinkprogress.org link. Hey, they at least had the video and transcript on the same page, which makes my life easier. Feel free to ignore the comments, which may or may not have some less-than-polite language.
Anyway:
"...the Constitution doesn’t say, “Every individual in the United States or every citizen is hereby granted or assured the right to habeas.” It doesn’t say that. It simply says the right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended except by —"
And clearly the Constitution doesn't say I can't pursue world domination, at the expense of everyone else's inalienable rights. I mean, it doesn't say that specifically, so there should be no objection.
More reading:
Robert Parry in the Baltimore Chronicle
Jeremy Lott in the American Spectator
Lots more to be found on the internet, of course. Not really any of it making me any less disturbed.
So, I realize it's all kind of awesome that this town has my little out-of-the-way road plowed the same day we get 5 inches of snow.
However, just for the record, it's slightly less than awesome to get rid of the giant pile of snow which the snowplow left across the foot of my drive at 5 this evening.
It's about time we had some snow around here. Only a couple of inches over the last couple of days, but enough to cover up the dead grass and make everything look pretty. Until the snowplow comes by and drops a dirty pile of snow at the end of my drive.
*sigh*
Watched the President's speech tonight; I will now make predictions, being rather uppity and full of myself:
1) The situation in Iraq will not get better. I would love to be wrong about this.
2) Congress will not manage to get together the votes to kill funding for the Iraq war. Unless I'm totally confused, they'd need a veto-proof majority, and this won't happen before November.
3) November will roll around, and due to #1, the situation in Iraq will not have improved. Actually, I suspect by this time it'll be painfully obvious that adding extra troops did nothing at all, or maybe made things worse. At this point, there will be references to the parts in tonight's speech where it was stated that Iraqi forces would take over security in Iraq in November. A lot of the beginning of the speech was focused on the idea that this escalation is being used to help the Iraqis with something they themselves have initiated. At this point, failure will be attributed mostly to Iraq not being really ready for democracy, and maybe in a minor way to mistakes made at the outset.
4) Either the President will give the order to start withdrawing troops in November, or Congress will pull funding.
5) Despite mentioning Syria and Iran in his speech tonight, there will be no direct action taken towards either of them before November.
Now, watch me be wrong about almost all of them. Except the first one. I'm fairly certain about that prediction.
Tomorrow's Monday, and vacation's almost over. I actually managed to get one or two things done; it was so nice a couple of days ago that I went outside and took the last cruddy awning off the last of the back windows.
It's been an awfully good two weeks, and I think I'm ready to start being productive again.