President Obama claimed a major victory less than a month after being in office. His battle to get his stimulus bill was won today, but was it really a victory? Although the bill passed, a $787 billion bill to be exact, not one of the House Republicans voted for it. In fact, there was a little drama from House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio, who dumped a copy of the 1,071-page bill to the floor in a gesture of contempt and stated, “The bill that was about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that’s about spending, spending, spending.”  But, isn’t that the purpose of a stimulus bill – to get people to spend, spend, spend? And what’s that old adage, you have to spend money to make money.  Anyway, here’s the breakdown of the stimulus bill and how it will (maybe) impact you personally:

• High-speed and inner-city rail: Went from $300 million in House bill to $2.25 billion in Senate to $8 billion in final version. There also is a $6.9 billion provision for public transit.

• Amtrak: Picked up $500 million from both House and Senate versions to total $1.3 billion. The bill stipulates that no more than 60 percent can go to the Northeast Corridor.

• National Institutes of Health: Ends up with $10 billion in the final bill. The House proposed $3.5 billion and the Senate wanted $10 billion — $8.2 billion goes to the NIH director for his discretion.

• Government oversight: Board to oversee stimulus bill spending will get $84 million to do the job. House bill allocated $14 million while the Senate bill called for $7 million. There is also more than $100 million more for various inspectors general in different agencies.

• NASA: Banked just more than $2 billion, including $400,000 for science/global-warming research.

• Veterans: Nearly all items for Veterans Affairs were reduced and the $2 billion the Senate wanted for VA construction was wiped out altogether. The VA did get one thing: $1 billion for medical facilities renovation and retooling.

• Military construction: Cut and put into a general pot, a change from targeted money for each branch of the services. Army construction alone went from $600 million in the Senate and $900 million in the House to $180 million in the final bill. But negotiators compromised over a general military construction fund — the House wanted $3.75 billion while the Senate allocated $118 million and settled on $1.45 billion for all services.

• FBI: Senate had allocated $475 million but all was cut out of final bill.

• Pandemic flu research: Although senators agreed it wouldn’t produce jobs, it’s getting $50 million in the final bill, down from nearly $900 million

• Foreclosures: $2 billion is set for a neighborhood stabilization program that helps areas plagued with foreclosures by buying back properties and preventing blight.

• Homeless: $1.5 billion is directed to homelessness prevention.

• Passports: $90 million is going to the State Department to deal with domestic facilities that deal with passports and training.

• Social Security: $500 million goes to replace its 30-year-old computer system.

• Car buyers: Anyone who buys a new car in 2009 gets to deduct the sales tax. To qualify, buyer must make less than $125,000 individually or $250,000 jointly. Cost is $1.7 billion.

• Homebuyers: First-time homebuyers who purchase this calendar year get an $8,000 tax credit which does not have to be repaid like a similar measure last year. This phases out for people making more than $75,000 individually or $150,000 jointly. “First-time homebuyer” is defined as someone who has not owned a home for the past three years. Cost: $6.63 billion.

• Pell grants: will increase to a maximum of $5,350 per student in 2009-2010 year thanks to two provisions in the stimulus.

• Tax credits: Individuals making less than $80,000 or families making less than $160,000 can get up to $2,500 in tax credits for college tuition. 40 percent ($1,000) of the credit is refundable. Cost: $13.9 billion over 10 years.

• Tax credits: Anyone making $75,000 individually or $150,000 as a family will get refundable tax credit up to $400 per person or $800 per family

President Obama is expected to sign the bill within a few days.

And some people wonder why there is so much distrust in the criminal justice system.  Here’s a story about two judges in Pennsylvania who pleaded guilty to accepting more than $2.6 million from a private youth detention center in Pennsylvania in return for giving hundreds of youths and teenagers long sentences.

Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan of the Court of Common Pleas in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, entered plea agreements in federal court in Scranton admitting that they took payoffs from PA Childcare and a sister company, Western PA Childcare, between 2003 and 2006.  Both judges are facing up to seven years in prison.

When someone is sent to a detention center, the company running the facility receives money from the county government to defray the cost of incarceration.  So as more children were sentenced to the detention center, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare received more money from the government, prosecutors said.  Teenagers who came before Ciavarella in juvenile court often were sentenced to detention centers for minor offenses that would typically have been classified as misdemeanors, according to the Juvenile Law Center, a Philadelphia nonprofit group.

The Constitution guarantees the right to legal representation in U.S. courts.  But many of the juveniles appeared before Ciavarella without an attorney because they were told by the probation service that their minor offenses didn’t require one.  Marsha Levick, chief counsel for the Juvenile Law Center, estimated that of approximately 5,000 juveniles who came before Ciavarella from 2003 and 2006, between 1,000 and 2,000 received excessively harsh detention sentences.  She said the center will sue the judges, PA Childcare and Western PA Childcare for financial compensation for their victims.

“That judges would allow their greed to trump the rights of defendants is just obscene,” Levick said.  The judges attempted to hide their income from the scheme by creating false records and routing payments through intermediaries, prosecutors said.  The Pennsylvania Supreme Court removed Ciavarella and Conahan from their duties after federal prosecutors filed charges on January 26, 2009.

This is why President Obama radiates hope to millions of people.  On Monday, at the town hall meeting in Florida, a woman made the following emotional plea to the president, “I have an urgent need,” said the woman to the president. “We need something more than the vehicle and parks to go to. We need our own kitchen and our own bathroom, please help.”

This plea came from Henrietta Hughes, a Florida homeless woman, who has been living in her car.  In 2003, her son lost his job and soon after, they lost their home.  After making her plea to President Obama, he told her that, “we’re going to do everything we can” and that someone with him would talk to her after the town home meeting.

Well, it seems, after her heart-felt plea, Hughes now has a place to call home – if she so chooses.    Senator Nick Thompson and his wife have offered Hughes a home, in Fort Denaud, Florida, after hearing her story at the town hall.  The home is being offered to Hughes rent-free for as long as she needs it.  It’s a 3-bedroom 2-bath house on three acres of land and it’s been vacant for more than a year.  

After offering Hughes the home, Senator Thomson makes this following statement,  ”I’m not a millionaire, I’m not rich, but this is what I can do for someone if they need it.  We’re American.  That’s what we’re supposed to do for each other.  We’re supposed to help each other.  So if I can help her, I will.”

Hughes is expected to look at the house for the first time in the next few days.

How wonderful is this?!!!!  Isn’t this truly a blessing from heaven above?!  This is what America and being an American is all about!  America was founded on Godly principles (one of them being charity) and I love it when Americans display their generosity.  It’s uplifting and inspirational.  Well-done Obama!  And last, but certainly not least, well-done Senator Nick Thomson and wife!

Love makes kids smarter.  Yesterday, I read an article that states the more love given to kids as they mature, the smarter they will be.  According to a Yahoo News Story, “In the 1950s, Harry Harlow conducted a series of experiments with baby rhesus monkeys that showed, without a doubt, that lack of love and comfort makes for a crazy monkey. “  In addition, ” Harlow and pals put little monkeys into contraptions that isolated them from others, visually, physically, and even out of hearing, and the babies became despondent. “  Wow.  Isn’t this how, back in the day, some people raised their kids?  Think about it.  Haven’t you heard advice on raising kids such as, let babies cry for a while – it doesn’t hurt them, let babies sleep alone to grow independent, or for God’s sake, put that kid down – you’ll spoil him/her by holding them too much.

Current research is building on Harlow’s work by showing that a mother love doesn’t just make for a psychologically well-adjusted child, it also makes for a smart kid.  In the research, it shows that the highly nurtured chimps do better than the ones without a history of attachment.  It also shows that the well-nurtured chimps do even better than human kids on this pint-sized IQ test.

We all know that we need to love and to be loved . We need to be held and talked to and made to feel that at least one person wants to be with us all the time.  And what is, in my opinion,  indisputable is that if we get that kind of love and give that kind of love to our children, we all will be fine – even better than fine. 

Now, I like this research (surprised?).   Just to build on the love factor, I also think studying has something to do with kids getting smarter.  So, if balance is applied, between love and studying, can you imagine the smarts a child can have?

I’ve been following the story about the California mom who just had octuplets.  She previously had 6 kids, but with the birth of the octuplets, she now has 14 children.  There has been major publicity around her concerning these births.  Namely, because she had the children via in-vitro fertilization.  She is being called selfish, a bad mom, etc. because she now has all of these kids.  My response to this is so what?  So what she has all of these kids?  If she’s supporting them, loving them, providing for them, so what?

Look, I just had my first child and it was via in-vitro fertilization.  So obviously, I  think in-vitro is a wonderful thing.  But now, because of the California mom, people are starting to wonder if in-vitro should be regulated.  I think if they are her eggs and she froze them, but decided to use them, where is the harm?  People are saying she should be ashamed for doing this and it was wrong of the fertility clinic to implant so many embryos.  Here’s the bottom line with the implanting of embryos:  parents who are going through in-vitro want to increase their chances of the embryos successfully implanting.  So, if they are given the option to implant numerous embryos, they are fully aware that it increases their chance of becoming pregnant, which is the goal of going through in-vitro fertilization.

Here’s another thing to think about.  What’s wrong with wanting to have more kids?  You have people choosing all the time to abort a pregnancy.  Why can’t people make the choice to have kids, regardless of the method?

President Obama has had a tough week so far.  His nominations are dropping like flies.  Tom Daschle and President Obama’s pick for federal spending watchdog both pulled out of contention Tuesday because of personal tax problems.  Earlier, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew as President Obama’s choice as commerce secretary because of an ethical investigation in the state.  And, Timothy Geithner won Senate confirmation as treasury secretary despite $34,000 in tax arrears he had belatedly paid.  Now, we common tax payers would never get away with being in arrears on our taxes.  So, on this point, Obama loses a point.

On the flip side, President Obama earned a  point today because he readily admitted that, “I think I screwed up, and I take responsibility for it” as it relates to his nominee fiasco.  I like that.  Did President Bush EVER admit to making a mistake during his presidency?  Please make reference to the fact that I said DURING his presidency – not on his way out the door!  I think I’ll answer my own question:  Nope, President Bush never admitted to making a mistake while he was president.  If I’m wrong, I readily welcome correction.

The other point President Obama earned today was that he put a limit on the executives’ pay who obtain bailout money from the government.  I love it!  President Obama capped executive’s pay to $500,000 instead of  the millions they were continuing to receive even after receiving help from the government.  President Obama had this to say about the matter:  “This is America. We don’t disparage wealth. We don’t begrudge anybody for achieving success,” Obama said. “But what gets people upset — and rightfully so — are executives being rewarded for failure. Especially when those rewards are subsidized by U.S. taxpayers.”

So, I’ve listed my score for President Obama thus far.  What’s yours?  Or, are you even keeping track?  Let’s talk about it.

Rush Limbaugh is trying to start a race war!  Yep, I said it.  Why else would he make the following statement, “We are being told that we have to hope he succeeds, that we have to bend over, grab the ankles, bend over forward, backward, whichever, because his father was black, because this is the first black president.”  For those of you who are unaware, President Obama and Rush Limbaugh have been having a war of words for the last couple of weeks.  For instance, Rush said he hopes the President fails; the President responded by telling people not to listen to Rush.  Whatever.  Personally, I think President Obama should’ve taken the high road and not responded to that idiot Limbaugh, but I can certainly understand why he did.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for freedom of speech.  I think everyone is entitled to their opinion and should be able to voice them.  However, when you do voice them, be very aware that there may be backlash against what you have to say, and in this Rush Limbaugh instance, backlash is called for!  Also, it should be noted that more times than not, those people who ALWAYS have something to say about someone or something, usually cannot take criticism when it’s pointed back at them.

He (Rush Limbaugh) has said that he was over President Obama being the first Black president soon after Obama was elected.  But based on his statement above, has he really?  I think not!  By saying what he said, he knows he’s going to rile up some of those racist idiots out there who already think White people are losing ground (can we say delusional)?!  But, Rush doesn’t care!  He’s just hating on President Obama so much!  All I can say is, get over it Rush!  President Obama is here for a minimum of four years.  Instead of hoping that his presidency fails, why don’t you hope that he makes a change to help this country get back on its feet?!  Ugh, people like Rush Limbaugh irritate the the heck out of me!  Can you tell?  On a final note, with people like Rush Limbaugh continuously spewing their hatred, we, as a people, and a country, will never come together and be on one accord!  It’s gonna take a whole new world to make that happen.

In President Obama’s stimulus bill that passed the House last week, a “Buy American” provision was inserted into the bill by the House.  This provision requires that preference be given to domestic steel producers in building contracts and other spending. The provision also requires that the uniforms and other textiles used by the Transportation Security Administration be produced in the United States.  This week, the Senate may broaden such provisions to include many other products.  My opinion on this provision is that We’re Just Not That Into American-Made Products.

By me saying this, I know some people will say that I am not patriotic.  Whatever.  As a consumer, I have come to realize that American-made products are, more times than not, inferior products that cost more money.  Let’s take cars, for example.  Imported cars have consistently beat out American-made cars for years in the following three categories:  reliability, price and gas efficiency.  What if the Senate broadened the “Buy American” provision to include cars?  As an American, do you think your rights would be trounced upon?  I would!  That’s what makes America, America — having the right to buy what you want to — even if it means not supporting products made in America!

As I think about this provision, what more could the Senate add to it?  Also, by adding that provision, doesn’t it hurt our relationship with other countries who sell their products in our country?   I mean if we’re told to give preference to American-made products, what about the American-made products being sold in other countries?  Would the other countries retaliate and tell their consumers not to buy American?  How would that affect us Americans in the big scheme of things?  I think this provision is something that requires a little bit more thought, don’t you?