Winners

High-speed and inner-city rail: Went from $300 million in House bill to $2.25 billion in Senate to $8 billion in final version. There also is a $6.9 billion provision for public transit.

Amtrak: Picked up $500 million from both House and Senate versions to total $1.3 billion. The bill stipulates that no more than 60 percent can go to the Northeast Corridor.

National Institutes of Health: Ends up with $10 billion in the final bill. The House proposed $3.5 billion and the Senate wanted $10 billion — $8.2 billion goes to the NIH director for his discretion.

Government oversight: Board to oversee stimulus bill spending will get $84 million to do the job. House bill allocated $14 million while the Senate bill called for $7 million. There is also more than $100 million more for various inspectors general in different agencies.

NASA: Banked just more than $2 billion, including $400,000 for science/global-warming research.

Losers

Veterans: Nearly all items for Veterans Affairs were reduced and the $2 billion the Senate wanted for VA construction was wiped out altogether. The VA did get one thing: $1 billion for medical facilities renovation and retooling.

Military construction: Cut and put into a general pot, a change from targeted money for each branch of the services. Army construction alone went from $600 million in the Senate and $900 million in the House to $180 million in the final bill. But negotiators compromised over a general military construction fund — the House wanted $3.75 billion while the Senate allocated $118 million and settled on $1.45 billion for all services.

FBI: Senate had allocated $475 million but all was cut out of final bill.

Survivors

Pandemic flu research: Although senators agreed it wouldn’t produce jobs, it’s getting $50 million in the final bill, down from nearly $900 million. Watch the latest on the stimulus bill »Damage control

Foreclosures: $2 billion is set for a neighborhood stabilization program that helps areas plagued with foreclosures by buying back properties and preventing blight.

Homeless: $1.5 billion is directed to homelessness prevention.

Passports: $90 million is going to the State Department to deal with domestic facilities that deal with passports and training.

Social Security: $500 million goes to replace its 30-year-old computer system.Tax breaks

Car buyers: Anyone who buys a new car in 2009 gets to deduct the sales tax. To qualify, buyer must make less than $125,000 individually or $250,000 jointly. Cost is $1.7 billion.

Homebuyers: First-time homebuyers who purchase this calendar year get an $8,000 tax credit which does not have to be repaid like a similar measure last year. This phases out for people making more than $75,000 individually or $150,000 jointly. “First-time homebuyer” is defined as someone who has not owned a home for the past three years. Cost: $6.63 billion.Paying for college

Pell grants: will increase to a maximum of $5,350 per student in 2009-2010 year thanks to two provisions in the stimulus.

Tax credits: Individuals making less than $80,000 or families making less than $160,000 can get up to $2,500 in tax credits for college tuition. 40 percent ($1,000) of the credit is refundable. Cost: $13.9 billion over 10 years.

• http://gigapan.org/viewGigapan.php?id=15374&window_height=831&window_width=1257
• http://photosynth.net/inauguration.aspx

I watched the Inauguration from work, some of it via streaming and some of it via TV feed.  So I am at least partly responsible for the insane Internet usage last week more details here about the usage. 

How I watched it is ultimately inconsequential, what I found interesting is how overwhelming the event was. I’m sure it was a combination of my coming of age politically, that my candidate won and that his win was historic for various reasons.  All that withstanding I still think I would have found the event overwhelming in so much as there is no clearer deomonstation of the functioning of our democracy and a the realization of the founders vision as the swearing in of a new President.

It is only recently that I have begun to appreciate how rare the peacful transition of power is and how lucky I am to be living in this country, in this time, with the ability to watch such a transition. 

The inauguration in pictures (the old fashion kind):
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/g/a/2009/01/19/bay_area_inauguration.DTL&o=25

When that inspiration meets creativity the results can be seen below.  This is one of the things that excites me about the Obama presidency.  I don’t mean more songs from Will.I.Am, although I’m not opposed to that.  I mean what can results might come from all corners of the country when they have a leader inspiring them the way Obama has.

Here is Will.I.Am’s newest piece, “It’s a New Day”.  In case the video gets taken down  you can also watch it at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RHWByjoQrR8

http://flickr.com/photos/barackobamadotcom/sets/72157608716313371/

For the first time I stumped for a candidate, some would say relentlessly. I donated seven different times to his campaign. I started a blog as a platform to help explain why I knew this was the person we needed to elect. I was invested in his campaign, he is MY candidate.

I was prepared to discuss his economics, I was prepared to discuss his foreign policy, I was prepared to discuss his character, I was prepared to discuss almost every reason why he should be elected. I hadn’t spent much time thinking about how I would feel if we won.

The moment didn’t hit me fully until his speech, and my brain still hasn’t fully embraced it as our new reality. Surreal, awesome, invigorating, overwhelming, all can be used to describe what I felt but perhaps none more so than pride.  Proud that boys and girls around the world can see that in America there is no ceiling on their potential because of their skin color, because they came from meager means, because they don’t have family connections none of this matters.  As long as they are smart enough and determined enough.

I was proud of how this was accomplished.  That an unprecedented number of people donated time and money to work to realize the change they wanted to see. From people that put off law school a year to work for the campaign to CEO’s making calls for Obama during their lunch breaks (both of those are stories from people I know personally).  We proved that in America, you can have the change you seek if you are willing to work for it.

Here are some of the texts I received as the results came in:

- This is surreal
- I’m so excited! I have my Obama shirt on.
- Damn Right!
- I am in blissful shock. Congratulations to you and these here United States.
- I am so proud right now. It’s a good feeling and about time.
- Congratulations!!! I am so happy
- Yes we did!!!!!!!!!!
- He kicked ass

Here is his acceptance speech in case you haven’t seen it:

We were the Ones we HAD been waiting for….

In case you were wondering, his grandmother did get to vote for her grandson.  She submitted an early ballot.

I wonder if the various pundits who said Obama going to visit his grandmother was a political stunt feel like crap now.  Or the guy who thought it was ‘disgusting’ that he didn’t fly commerical to Hawaii to see her.  Or Michael Savage who predicted that she would die on the eve of the election so Barack could use it in stump speeches for sypmthy votes.  They put the Ass in Class.

With the unprecedented numbers of citizens registering to vote for the first time in this election, states and counties have fallen behind in processing registration applications. But even if you haven’t received confirmation from your election office, or aren’t on the registration list at the polling place, you can still cast a ballot, say legal experts.

“Voters should absolutely be casting ballots if they submitted a timely registration and they are eligible to vote,” says Jonah Goldman, director of the National Campaign for Fair Elections, part of the Voting Rights Project at the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights. “It might be a provisional ballot, but they should still cast one.”

This years results have Obama beating McCain 57% - 39%.  For the full results check out this article: http://content.scholastic.com/browse/article.jsp?id=3750501

I am completely against legislating morality / behavior if it isn’t affecting other people.  Second hand smoking and drunken driving laws I get because that can affect somebody else.  Fundamentally that is why I am against legislation targeting gay’s, trying to impose Christianity on Middle East countries, banning drugs and ‘dangerous’ activities like cliff jumping.

More details: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/30/BAC7121IRV.DTL