1) The story of the day is that the $838 billion economic stimulus package passed the Senate. Now the House and Senate must reconcile the differences between their two bills in hopes of getting legislation on President Obama's desk to sign by next week.Yawn. We've got to go with "whatever." We won't pretend to understand the finer points of economics -- like how you can spend your way out of a deficit. In fact, we'd venture to say that economists also don't understand economics. As far as we can tell, making economic predictions is like betting the spread in the NFL. Anyone who's right more than 51 % of the time gets considered an expert.
Again, whatever. There seems to be a mainstream consensus that the stimulus bill has to happen, so we're on board. But we will spare you a slew of opinion-summarizing links from the usual media suspects. After reading a dozen columnists of varying political stripes (all warning of catastrophe if their favorite squeaky wheel gets no grease), we can sum up pretty quickly. Liberals think the bill is too heavy on tax cuts and conservatives think there's too much spending. Tadah! We just saved you an hour of partisan blather.
2) Next up, Chris Brown's pre-Grammy fight with Rihanna is big news, we guess, because Chris Brown was a different kind of R&B star. He doesn't wear bling and sport a gangster scowl. He sings about love instead of gang-banging. Allegedly beating the crap out his girlfriend, the wildly sexy Rihanna, has now cost Brown his endorsement deal with Wrigley's Gum; ironic because Rihanna allegedly had bite marks on her arm. next for Brown is a court case, a plea bargain, anger management classes, a press conference asking America for forgiveness and a "comeback."
3. FInally, a panel of three federal judges in California ruled that overcrowding in state prisons amounts to cruel and unusual punishment, and the state must cut the prison population by as many as 57,000 people. Judges said the ruling, which has already been appealed, could save the state more than $900 million a year. Great. Let's start right away by releasing everyone in jail for the heinous unforgivable crime of marijuana possession.
According to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the state's total prison population at the end of 2007 was at 170,129. Of those, 33,738 were imprisoned for drug crimes, with 13,456 of those in jail for simple possession of pot. If California wants to alleviate prison overcrowding, those 13,000 stoners are a good place to start. Tomorrow. Today. Now.
