Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Board of directors

14 comments:

Dawn Coyote said...

Oh. Ohhh. Oh.

hipparchia said...

hey there, dc! i played your audio clip for "the board" just now. there was a bit of consternation, followed by some investigation, but they all drifted back into gently snoring slumber in short order.

Otter said...

Well, can't find your article on pelosi's overspending on flowers, but thought you might enjoy this:

'Another factor in the disparity is travel. Hastert didn't bill much official travel last year, spending only about $1,700, while Pelosi racked up many times that at nearly $60,000 -- a figure that does not include her "congressional delegation" journeys to Europe and the Middle East.

Just in case you never get back to the Wake Up, America blog.

Catnapping said...

omg. this is a GREAT photo.

I • WANT • ONE.



(uhoh. i think i just felt my milk letting down...)

hipparchia said...

hey, otter! thanks for dropping by.

what i wanted to do was compare hastert's first year as speaker to pelosi's first year as speaker. pelosi's first [full] year as speaker of the house was 2007, hastert's was 1999. the earliest information i could find for hastert's spending on travel was 2000, in which he spent approximately $74,500.

if it wasn't notable for hastert, as speaker of the house, to spend more than $74,000 on travel in one year, why should it be a problem if pelosi only spends $60,000 on travel in one year?

i didn't find any articles, but there are several websites that track politicians' spending on various things. i used this database and added up the numbers myself, which was just plain tedious.

now that i look at it again, i see that that database only lists privately funded travel, so my bad on not noticing that little detail earlier. so hastert apparently wasn't spending your money and mine on travel in 2000, but what the heck was he doing accepting that much $$ from [who? lobbyists?]?

i wish that article from the hill had linked directly to whatever database[s] their information had come from. if you happen to know, or find out, i'd like to know too.

hipparchia said...

catnapping,

the other two were on that shelf in the bookcase, watching me from that direction, but as soon as i picked up the camera they jumped down to the floor.

Unknown said...

Wonderful cat shot!

hipparchia said...

:-)

Anonymous said...

It looks like girl, boy, girl, and boy based on size and head shape.

They do seem to interested in what you are up to.

Archaeopteryx said...

Good Lord!

andante said...

as soon as i picked up the camera they jumped down to the floor

Yep; mine are never very cooperative. In fact, as soon as they hear the little 'whine' from the flash, they're under the bed.

hipparchia said...

andante: bryan got it right, these don't run from the camera, they run to the camera [and anything else i do or say].

bryan: i did set out to make sure this batch liked humans. i have succeeded. beyond my wildest dreams.

arch: moar howie pics! moar howie pics! moar howie pics!

Steve Bates said...

Stella's cats would cooperate except for the sound of the autofocus. Samantha especially turns away as soon as she hears it... or maybe sees it, but I think her response is to a sound.

What a glorious display of young felinity!

hipparchia said...

if they had opposable thumbs they'd probably wrestle the camera away from me and take pictures of each other.