"Cash for Caulkers" will find at least one point of agreement

Obama to pitch cash for caulkers in Georgia | Reuters

You really have to give the President credit for a move like this. Even with skyrocketing debts, increasingly-nervous foreign investors, a declining approval rating, and a movement firmly set against him and most (if not all) government services, Obama is going to boldly announce another one of his "socialist" programs - this time $6b to provide incentives for improving energy efficiency in their homes.

Obama has been compared to Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson, and John F. Kennedy at different times, but none of these are very accurate comparisons. F.D.R. couldn't make a jump shot; Lyndon Johnson may have had a crushing handshake, but at least he could decide between a handshake and a bow; and though Chicago is the common denominator between Kennedy and Obama, our current president hasn't fucked Marilyn Monroe...yet.

No, the current level of swagger Obama is exhbiting in the face of such criticism can only be compared to George W. Bush. Despite all the uproar about almost everything Obama has said or done, he has once again donned the presidential blinders. Before the years 2001-2009, those blinders had remained on their hook in the Oval Office since the 1920s, when it was the popular style for everyone in Washington to wear the blinders and completely ignore anything happening anywhere, unless alcohol was involved.

I'm not saying what Obama is doing is a bad thing. It may sound hypocritical to say Bush was an overconfident idiot when he rode roughshod over political sensibility while at the same time saying Obama is doing what is necessary to help the country, but let's look at my three-pronged test for political stubbornness:

Am I using questionable information or lying?
Is the world going to hate us?
Is there a good chance thousands of people could die?

Bush failed all three of those tests. All economic predictors are dubious, so that doesn't apply to a bill like this. I would hope most of the industrialized world would congratulate us for joining them in the modern era, of equal rights and attempts to pay people living wages. Finally, there is very little chance anyone will die as a direct result of enacting Obama's social and economic legislature, except maybe Glenn Beck, but let's be honest: if he cries so much that he dies of dehydration, he brought it upon himself.

This bill is what Obama promised so many hopeful people on the campaign trail. Right now, Obama needs successful legislation. If he has to do it without Republican support, that's too bad for them, because as programs like Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid have shown, opponents of positive social programs have landed on the wrong side of history.

Washington may not be able to agree on much, but at least the pet name of the bill ("Cash for Caulkers") is something no one can complain about. I have a feeling that if the bill had been dubbed "Cash for Caulk," no matter what the legislation did, too many people would find that aurally unsavory.

"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

I just listened to this EP, Ladybug, by Katerina Hope, and, for old time's sake (and to support up-and-coming and local artists), I thought I'd throw up a review:


Upon first meeting Katerina Hope, one will most likely find her quiet, even timid; but her soft-spoken Southern genteel belies an unexpected musical passion that betrays her Jersey roots. Armed with just a guitar and her voice, Ms. Hope brought this veiled energy from Sugar Hill, Georgia and first began to trouble the waters of the New York indie music scene in the fall of 2008. There, according to the bio provided on her MySpace page (found here), she "plays at local hot spots such as the Bitter End and the Bowery Poetry Club," where her lyricism has caught the attention of the likes of poet Michael Rechtenwald.

With the release of her first studio-recorded EP, Ladybug, Katerina Hope is about to make a splash. Her catchy guitar riffs, which often utilize chords somewhat atypical in her line of indie folk (she is currently a Music Composition major at New York University), are both aurally entertaining and stimulating, not to mention the fact that they'll stick in your head long after the songs end. Even more impressive though is her voice. Ms. Hope can wrench the listener's heart with her soft, haunting melodies, before belting out fervid proclamations of love and loss, submerging the listener in the seas of her pain and passion.

Ladybug consists of six tracks, mixing her solo guitar work with pieces using a full studio band. Both styles suit Katerina Hope just fine, displaying her wide range of musical and emotional ability. Were I one with more clout in the music business, or even just as the interested listener I am, I would keep an eye (and ear) out in the coming months and years for Katerina Hope. This EP bodes well for the music to come.