Two coming attractions (or repulsions)

Today was light to non-existent blogging because my daughter had a soccer tournament in New Jersey, and frankly I'm exhausted.

But as inspiration fails to strike for something new tonight, I am working on two new posts for the next few days.

At Delaware Watch Dana is happy about the success of Cash for Clunkers, and believes it almost singlehandedly slays the beliefs of small-government ideologues:

Great news all around, right? But, reader, if you hear a note of weeping in the national celebration of this program's success, it's those economic conservatives who, for entirely doctrinaire reasons, simply cannot admit they were wrong. A government stimulus program worked—in fact, it exceeded expectations—and that must be denied at all costs. You see, if they admit that a government stimulus program worked here, then they'll have to admit that such programs might work in other aspects of the economy as well. Too bad for them. Reality is rarely kind to dogmatists.

This is an interesting point, worthy of an extended response. While I don't necessarily share Dana's enthusiasm for the outcome of CFC, I'm going to spot him as a starting point that he's right--the program succeeded. But, if so, does that mean what he thinks it means? Stay tuned. I'll take a shot at that, and the good part is that Dana will fire back. This is only fun when it is a competitive sport.

My other project has the working title of Do we matter? or perhaps How much do we matter?, and tries to think about the question of just how much impact this blogging thing has--at least in local terms. Are we collectively making some sort of discernable difference, or are bloggers in Delaware merely part of a self-referential community engaged in mutual mental masturbation?

And if we do make a difference, how do we magnify that difference?

Stay tuned.