Daily Loaf

It wasn’t easy for me to resist the temptation to gush happily in print over our President’s visit to DeSoto county last week; but what struck me as I watched the event on TV were the paradoxical images –

Consider this: a utility company executive delivers accolades to the President for his leadership on sustainable energy production. Is this an anomaly? Maybe, but FPL Group’s CEO Lewis Hay, belongs to an exclusive club. Its members are forward thinking business executives readying their companies for a new green economy.

Granted, Mr. Hay’s exuberance may be due to the $200 million of stimulus funding FP & L is about to receive. But you have to admit, it does take chutzpah for him and his activist executive buddies to visit Washington in support of climate change legislation. They gathered as the Waxman/Markey bill was coming up for a key house vote back in June, even taking out a full page ad in DC newspapers. Acknowledging the paradigm shift to sustainable, clean power production so many others deny, they see the legislation as good for business. Whoa, did you hear that, Chamber of Commerce? Jokingly, Obama noted that people get nervous about change, relating Hay’s comment “especially utility executives” to which the crowd, largely made up of utility contractors and employees, laughed heartily.

Or this image: Juxtaposed against gleaming hi-tech solar panels, straw cowboy hats perched atop the heads of men in the first row bobbed up and down nodding in agreement with the President’s words. Thirty years ago this would be a scene in a sci-fi flick, and for some in the Deep South it would have been a horror flick. An African American President telling a rural Florida farming community: Boys, we’re gonna be installin’ some special equipment out here in these pastures, we’re gonna start harvesting sun rays. Yeah, sure ya are, and I just got done putting a trailer hitch on my spaceship to Mars. Oh by golly, farming sure has changed. No horses corralling cattle; no tractors in the fields, no worry of drought damaged crops.
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This may qualify as the dumbest thing I have ever posted in this space. Yet, somehow I am charmed. Ladies and gentlemen, I present Obama’s Elf.

• High hopes in Florida for Obama’s foreclosure plan.
• Hillary takes it to them in Asia.

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Now that the $787 billion stimulus package has been signed in to law, you may be wondering, “What’s in it for me?” This video should help.

• President Obama orders 17,000 troops to Afghanistan.
• Looks like we’re not going to be one big bipartisan family after all.

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And now, a message from the President of the United States of America.

• When Sen. Lindsey Graham advocates nationalizing the banks, you know we’ve got a crisis.
• President Obama to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill into law on Tuesday in Denver.

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I can’t believe Obama appointed Judge Dredd to his cabinet in the first place. Have a good weekend everyone.

• Gov. Crist’s bipartisanship leads to a Republican backlash.
• Court rules Autism not caused by vaccines. Don’t we have doctors for this?

Chris Brown and Rihnna after the jump.

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This is a great Daily Show segment, in which Jon takes apart Bill O’Reilly yet again. Bill-O’s hypocrisy practically melts the screen.

• The Simulus Bill That Will Not Die tops out at $789 billion. What do you think? Too big, too small or just right?
• Bank CEOs swear to Congress that they are lending cash to consumers. Uh huh.

A piss test for prostate cancer? Info after the jump …

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Good morning, South Carolina. Good news! There’s no more real crime in your state. How do I know? The cops spent time yesterday arresting eight college kids for being at that party where Michael Phelps was caught on camera sucking on a bong. Phelps was not among the incarcerated. (Of course.)

• Late-night bargaining in The Stimulus Debate That Will Not Die.
• Jesus Geithner, you can’t announce that you’ll have details of a plan soon. That means you don’t have a fucking plan in the first place!

More news after the break …

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The bill moves on to the Senate, where Obama is going to need at least a few Republican votes to get the package through to his desk.

• For the U.S. Postal Service, the crumbling economy has proven more troubling than snow, rain, heat or gloom of night.
• Capitalists, please remain calm: Obama Administration has no plans to nationalize any banks.

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Americans for the Arts is making a push to get arts funding included in the economic stimulus package. Here’s the text of the email they’re sending around:

The House version [of the bill] currently has $50 million to the National Endowment for the Arts to distribute to state and local arts agencies to help preserve jobs; the Senate version does not. They are deliberating this stimulus package now. Americans for the Arts has made it easy for you to communicate to your members of Congress about maintaining the arts in this Economic Stimulus Recovery Package.  Click the link below, and take action now.  Thank you.

And here’s the link. “Two minutes,” says the headline. “That’s all it takes to tell Congress you support the arts and arts education.”

So take two minutes and add your two cents.