The Daily Parker

Politics, Weather, Photography, and the Dog

Going around, coming around

So, in January I started a new job, right around the corner from my old office. Then I moved out of my old office. Today I'm moving back in, with three of the developers who work for me. It's temporary, and it's surreal. I'll have before-and-after pics later.

Forehead-slapping proposal

Via Calculated Risk, Georgia's junior (Republican) senator has one of the dumbest proposals in history:

Isakson is pitching an idea to his colleagues in Congress: a $15,000 tax rebate check to anyone who agrees to buy a home. Congressional budget analysts project the program would cost $14 billion over the next few years. But Isakson said the rebate checks are well worth the hefty price tag. "If we can convince buyers to come back to the marketplace and buy these houses, then the houses aren't vacant. It's replaced by an owner-occupant, who is there making payments on a loan and helping all of the other houses around."

Where does one begin to explain to this guy what's wrong with the proposal?

I hope longtime blog reader AR, a resident of Georgia, will chime in and explain how this guy got elected.

Founder's Disease

Joel Spolsky's latest column in Inc. is a must-read for entrepreneurs (and I include anyone who has founded an organization) who have grown beyond the garage:

The great employees will be devoted, sure, and it's completely reasonable to expect them to work their butts off. But unlike founders, employees are concerned about what their jobs are like today. They're not as excited about making sacrifices for the long run. So don't tell your star salespeople to take the bus and stay with relatives when they make that call in St. Louis, even though that's what you did when you started the company.

The enemy of my enemy...

Via Talking Points Memo, Reuters reports the reception Iran's president got in Baghdad this week:

Pomp and ceremony greeted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his arrival in Iraq on Sunday, the fanfare a stark contrast to the rushed and secretive visits of his bitter rival U.S. President George W. Bush.

Ahmadinejad held hands with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani as they walked down a red carpet to the tune of their countries' national anthems, his visit the first by an Iranian president since the two neighbours fought a ruinous war in the 1980s.

His warm reception, in which he was hugged and kissed by Iraqi officials and presented with flowers by children, was Iraq's first full state welcome for any leader since the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Weren't our troops supposed to be greeted this way? Funny how that didn't happen.