Shameless Self-Promotion: July 18, 2008

SO, I'm putting in an appearance to shamelessly self-promote my blogs. It's what happens when my son isn't in school, my husband messes around with his work schedule and we keep leaving town.

But we did get our fence in. And I wrote some awesome posts this week that could use some love -- not to mention your comments and thoughts:

1. An economic stimulus idea that might actually stimulate the economy: Barack Obama proposes that we fix our infrastructure, creating jobs and improving quality of life right here in the good 'ol U.S.A.
2. President Bush eliminates the executive ban on offshore drilling. Bottom line: Offshore drilling wouldn't help in the short run anyway, and it would divert funds from projects that could make a more viable long term difference in our energy situation. Of course, Congress has to lift its ban for anything to happen.
3. You just bought a car. Let the real costs of buying a car start to pile up.
4. What happens to your money when a bank like IndyMac fails? If you have less than $100,000 in an account, nothing happens to your mine. It's fine.
5. What sort of stock market hijinks have we been treated to this week? Plenty. At least four.

Tags: Barack Obama, Barack Obama economic stimulus, buying a car, stock market,
bank fails, offshore drilling

Are the Dems Really Trying to Censor Social Media?

*Disclosure: I'm not registered with any party (I'm an independent), but often my progressive ways put my in company with the Democrats.

But there is a bit of a flap right now over social media. Here are two different takes on the situation:

• Erin Kotecki Vest at BogHer.
• Mark Hopkins at Mashable.
  

The bottom line? Democrats tried to re-emphasize the fact that official communications (whatever that means) shouldn't be posted on social media sites. They did, however, point out that the Internet is a great place for people to access those they represent.

And it is. Look for your representatives and try to engage them online. The Internet -- especially the social media phenomenon -- offers a great chance for "we the people" to have better access to the folks that decide how to spend our hard-earned taxpayer dollars.

Be careful, though. Politicians lie just as easily online as they do offline.

Happy 4th of July!

Celebrating the 4th today. Re-reading the Constitution, and then having a BBQ with my sister's family and my brother's family. Good times.

Enjoy these videos.

What I've Been Doing With Myself

Hmmm...It's been awhile. Here's why:

My husband attended a European Space Agency conference in France for work (June 21-June 28). So, I figured I'd go do stuff. Here's what I did:

1. Attended part of my 10 year high school reunion.
2. To The Boy to Arizona to see my grandpa (and do some fishing).
3. Meet up with my college roommates for a trip to the spa and lunch.

Since I've been back, I've been:

1. Catching up with work.
   
2. Catching up with work.
3. Cleaning the house.

Look out for pictures from Arizona and musings on my high school reunion.