Shovel ready?

In my town of Greenwich, Connecticut, the first of the local so-called shovel ready projects from the 15 month old stimulus package is about to begin. Seven local streets are going to be repaved with federal funds paying the cost. This project will have a total cost of just under $700,000 and will last three weeks. So there you have it! After almost a year and a half, the stimulus will kick in to provide jobs for about ten people for three weeks. Many thanks to Congress and the President for passing such an efficient measure to boost the economy immediately in 2009. What you really see is the futility of pulling the money out of the economy in early 2009 only to put it back in mid 2010. This is not a stimulus. it is more aptly described as a failure. Or, perhaps it should be called a blatant lie -- imagine shovel ready projects that took a year and half to start. Just imagine how long they would take if they were not shovel ready.