Travsite.com: February 2008
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Washington DC Madness
2/24/2008
Here are some photos of us acting retarded in our Nation's Capitol. We went to Washington DC for a week after our trip to New York for Christmas.While we were there, I got yelled at by the Secret Service at least 3 times and we went through about 30 metal detectors. Good times! View our photos of Washington D.C. Don't miss the photo of Jessica holding a live giant cockroach!.
Labels: vacation
Obama for Change: What Could Go Wrong?
2/13/2008
It looks like Barack Obama will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, so I figured that it was time to look into all of the hype. Some say that Obama's "Hope for Change" is nothing but non-specific puffery, but today I learned otherwise. I went through Obama's Blueprint for Change and narrowed his hopechanging ideas down to the following categories: Create, Increase, Provide, Require and Allow.If you thought the Federal Government was large, inefficient and overbearing before....
Create
- create an energy-focused youth jobs program
- create a fund to help people refinance their mortgages
- create a law to ban the permanent replacement of striking workers
- create a credit card rating system
- create an exemption in bankruptcy law for individuals who can prove they filed for bankruptcy because of medical expenses
- create a program to inform businesses about the benefits of flexible work schedules
- create a generous savings match for low and middle-income Americans.
- create a new American Opportunity Tax Credit that will make tuition at the nation's community colleges completely free and will cover up to two-thirds the cost of tuition at the nation's public colleges and universities.
- create new Teacher Service Scholarships that will cover four years of undergraduate or two years of graduate teacher education
- create Teacher Residency Programs that will supply 30,000 exceptionally well-prepared recruits to high-need schools.
- create of a market-based cap-and-trade system to reduce carbon emissions
- create a federal investment program to help manufacturing centers modernize
- create a Clean Technologies Venture Capital Fund to fill a critical gap in U.S. technology development.
- create a number of incentives for local communities to invest in their biofuels refineries
- create a competitive grant program to award those states and localities that take the first steps to implement new building codes
- create a Global Energy Forum
- create a new program to identify and train the next generation of farmers.
- create a 10 percent universal mortgage credit to provide tax relief to homeowners who do not itemize
- initiate a strategy to encourage all 50 states to adopt paid-leave systems , provide a $1.5 billion fund
- launch a Children's First Agenda that provides care, learning and support to families with children from birth up to five years old.
Increase
- increase the resources devoted to the commercialization and deployment of low-carbon coal technologies.
- increase incentives for farmers and private landowners to conduct sustainable agriculture
- increase funding for federal workforce training programs and direct these programs to incorporate green technologies training
- increase the minimum wage, index it to inflation
- increase the Earned Income Tax Credit
- double funding for the main federal support for afterschool programs
- expand FMLA to cover businesses with 25 or more employees
- increase funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program
- expand and improve programs like Senior Corps to connect seniors with quality volunteer opportunities
- double science and research funding for clean energy projects
- double fuel economy standards
- quadruple Early Head Start
Provide
- provide capital for farmers to create value-added enterprises
- provide $150 billion over 10 years to advance the next generation of biofuels and fuel infrastructure,
- provide assistance to the domestic auto industry
- provide retooling tax credits and loan guarantees for domestic auto plants and parts manufacturers
- provide incentives to give teachers paid common planning time so they can collaborate to share best practices
- provide affordable and high-quality child care to ease the burden on working families
- provide potential borrowers with a simplified, standardized borrower metric (similar to APR) for home mortgages
Require
- require that 25 percent of electricity consumed in the U.S. is derived from clean, sustainable energy sources
- require 36 billion gallons of renewable fuels to be included in the fuel supply by 2022
- require 25 percent of American electricity be derived from renewable sources by 2025
Allow
- allowing workers to take leave for elder care needs
- allowing parents up to 24 hours of leave each year to participate in their children's academic activities
- allowing low-income families to receive up to a 50 percent credit for their child care expenses
Labels: politics
Dorking Around in the Wrightwood Snow
2/10/2008
Jessica's mom is in town, so we spontaneously drove up to Wrightwood to check out the snow. Here are some embarrassing photos of us goofing off.
Labels: family, goldendoodle, wildlife
TV Dog
2/02/2008
Our strange dog loves to watch TV. I'm kind of concerned. This is a photo of him watching a dog show today. Is that normal? Also, why is our TV so old?
Labels: goldendoodle