Who helped pass the Stimulus package in the Senate? You can thank the people of New Hampshire, Virginia, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Colorado!

Hard to believe isn't it. Yes, I am pleased at the extra praise rightfully given to Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snow, Republicans from Maine and Arlan Spector of Pennsylvania voting for the Stimulus bill. They really do deserve the praise for standing up against the Republican leader of the Senate, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and other Republicans but let's not also forget that if it wasn't also for new Democratic Senators elected in November the bill would never have passed. Here's the impact of your votes:

- Jeanne Shaheen new Democratic Senator of New Hampshire, who won a seat from a former Republican Senator John Sununu,
- Mark Warner, new Democratic Senator of Virginia, who also won an open seat which had been held by a Republican,
- Tom Udall new Democratic Senator of New Mexico who also defeated a Republican GOP Rep. Steve Pearce
- Kay Hagan Democratic Senator of North Carolina, who defeated Republican Elizabeth Dole and
- Mark Udall new Democratic Senator of Colorado who also defeated former GOP Rep. Bob Schaffer. Mark Udall is a cousin of Tom Udall.

So thank you my friends from New Hampshire, Virginia, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Colorado. Without you this Stimulus package would have certainly failed the final vote. And don't ever let anyone tell you again that your vote doesn't matter. The elections of 2008 changed all that forever. Just ask the soon to become Senator Al Franken, Democrat from Minnesota, who is about to defeat Republican Norm Coleman. Here's the latest on that race:

Al Franken gets boost over Norm Coleman in Senate race
Minnesota judges say Coleman hasn't shown a widespread absentee-vote problem.
Associated Press
February 14, 2009

St. Paul, Minn. -- The judges in Minnesota's U.S. Senate trial said in a preliminary ruling Friday that Republican Norm Coleman had not yet shown a widespread problem with absentee voters being denied the right to vote.

The three-judge panel ordered that rejected absentee ballots from 12 of 19 categories should not be counted in the Senate race.

Coleman, who is trying to undo Democrat Al Franken's 225-vote lead, had wanted to count ballots in all but three of the categories.

Coleman had argued that thousands of rejected absentee ballots were excluded inconsistently and should be counted, but Friday's ruling would limit the total number of ballots to be reviewed for counting.

"The facts presented thus far do not show a wholesale disenfranchisement of absentee voters in the 2008 general election," wrote judges Elizabeth Hayden, Kurt Marben and Denise Reilly.

Market Outlook for week of Feb. 9th: Up & Down in a tight range until the Stimulus is passed.

Yes, we are doomed to uncertainty for the day today and possibly the next few days as the Stimulus package is in its final stages before the approval of Congress and the signature of the President. When the market closed on Friday we thought we might have a deal Friday night in the Senate and a vote, but we didn't. In anticipation the market rose Friday about 200 points. Now we know there has been posturing again over the weekend and only 3 Republican Senators look like they will sign it. Sen. Susan Collins Republican of Maine looked frustrated with her Republican colleagues on Friday night for not joining her other two colleagues, Sen. Arlan Spector and Sen. Olympia Snow, also of Maine, in joining their bipartisan move and be willing to add their endorsement.

Pre-market reflects this dichotomy, as the Dow is down about 50 points. This evening President Obama is taking his message directly to the American people in hopes of having them flood the Congress and Senate with their voices by emailing or calling them to get support for his bill. I don't think the strategy will work as most of the Republicans are still in Republican strongholds and their seats are safe with their constituents. But President Obama feels he must try and so he will. It should be interesting as the Oval office does not allow him the live audience to give a stirring speech as he would live with 10's of thousands of people in his proximity. He will get the Bill passed so their is no doubt about that. So when all is said and done the market will rise when it does.

I forgot to mention on Friday, but I bought back into MGM, as the price was irresistible at $6.20/share. I expect this stock to go back to $10/share on a strong Bear market rally coming to a neighborhood near you soon. I will not try to buy TZA in these small moves down and try to time the market. It would be foolish to do this during this week. I will keep my TNA and SSO and will not sell them although, depending on any pullback, I would add to the shares I own with additional purchases. I currently have about 6,000 shares of TNA and 3000 shares of SSO.

The Stimulus package: Today there was a shift towards compromise

Markets have reacted positively to the work of finding a compromise on the Stimulus package, led by two well respected Senators, Sen. Susan Collins (R) of Maine and Sen. Ben. Nelson (D) of Nebraska. As soon as the two of them spoke to CNN, about what they were doing, and Sen. Collins said she believed she could get it done today, the markets reversed and started to go up. The Dow now is sitting at 8,082, up 129 at 11:30am PST. Indeed, this is what all Americans want, a sense of reasonableness from their elected officials. Sen. Collins gets it, but those hard core Republican Senators and Representatives from strongholds around the country from States like Texas, Mississippi, Alabama and Kentucky, would rather feed their own egos, and help create a defeat for this new President, than to truly compromise and work with him. The Democratic far left from strong holds of people the likes of Nancy Pelosi, has its own people also who don't just get it. The world has changed and they are still playing the game of politics like everything is the same. They all need to wake up to the realities of a new day.