Tag: earmarks

Netflix and iPad is a great combination

Netflix and iPad is a great combination

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Last night I had the opportunity to watch an old movie that I haven’t seen for ages. The movie was “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” starring Jimmy Stewart. I will comment on the movie in a bit but first a few thoughts on how I watched it. [amtap amazon:asin=B001GLX6UI]

The rest of my family wasn’t interested in seeing the movie and it was a beautiful late summer evening. So I grabbed a bottle of wine and my iPad and moved to the patio and my hammock. I must admit that watching a streaming Netflix movie on my iPad on a comfortable evening was about as enjoyable as it can get.

At first I was concerned that the experience would be poor due to the size of the screen. I quickly realized that this was not true. At the distance that I was holding the iPad (arms slightly bent so not more than 2 feet from my eyes), the virtual screen size was nearly double my 50 inch screen in the living room. This made the movie appear to be playing on the equivalent of a 100 inch screen (or maybe larger). This really enhanced the quality of the experience. [amtap amazon:asin=B00365F6EG]

I was also listening to the movie with my noise canceling BOSE headphones so the sound quality was awesome. I didn’t hear any background noises and, frankly, the sound quality exceeded my expectations.[amtap amazon:asin=B002LK2QJK]

If you have an iPad, get a Netflix account and stream your movies. If you have a Netflix account, get an iPad to enjoy movies like you never have before!

Now, a few thoughts on the movie. Obviously, they don’t make movies with this much high quality acting anymore. Unfortunately, the movie could have been made today. If you are unfamiliar with the plot, it is basically about a young and naive Senator (played by Jimmy Stewart) that is fighting corruption in an important bill. The bill contains some earmarks that will line the pockets of a campaign contributor. It would not be surprising to have exactly this scenario played out in Washington today.

I had also forgotten that this movie contains some actors that also appear in my favorite Jimmy Stewart film: “It’s A Wonderful Life”. Namely, the good reporter, Diz Moore, is played by Thomas Mitchell who also played the absent-minded Uncle Billy. The Majority Leader, played by HB Warner, also went on to play the pharmacist that lost his son in WW1, Mr. Gower.

This is a great movie and it was even more enjoyable to watch it on an iPad on a summer evening with a nice bottle of wine.

Obama Breaks Promise to Stop Congressional Earmark Pork

Obama Breaks Promise to Stop Congressional Earmark Pork

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I wrote a comment on the blog “Replace Congress” that I wanted to repeat here.  Yes, I am the famous (infamous?) Irishman.  The subject of the blog post was the disgust of the signing of the latest spending bill even though it contains billions of dollars of pork and earmarks and is contrary to the campaign promises of Barack Hussein Obama.  Here are my comments but please click through and read the original posting and the comments of that blogger.

It is unlikely that BHO could have not signed this bill and keep 50+% of support that he currently enjoys. The really bad news is that he will almost definitely not be that strong in a year, will be looking at mid-term elections and therefore have to make the same compromise of his principles.

He needs to save this 50+% political capital for the other great socialization of the country that is to come – health care.

What we need is a President that doesn’t care about his party and doesn’t care about getting re-elected but is not a lame duck on his/her second term. Then we will have someone that actually do the job efficiently (maybe). The job can’t be a popularity contest – we need someone that can make the hard choices. By my reckoning we haven’t had someone that could do that since Harry S. Truman.

Not withstanding the above, we could also do the job if our Representatives and Senators were not so wired into their jobs and responsible to the country not just to the pork barrel projects that they delivered.

The line item veto that Ronald Reagan so desperately wanted, would help as well.

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