On January 20th of this year, Barack Obama probably had perhaps the strongest personal position to work from of any President in recent memory. Everybody wanted to hear what he had to say and many were prepared to do what he asked.
Today, he seems to have frittered away much of this authority and devalued his own brand. How else to explain that he is relying on a former president (Bill Clinton) to sell his health care agenda in Congress and it took another former president (George W Bush) to visit the Ft. Hood tragedy.
I argued last week that all the electric vehicle talk we heard so much of at Chrysler and GM during their restructuring (remember all those GM electric car ads on TV, which have now disappeared?) were just a honey trap for Obama. Auto makers knew that they were not designing a car for the masses, but for one man, to get him to put taxpayer money into their companies. Now that they actually have to think about selling these cars to the public, the ads have disappeared and now Chrysler is ending its EV program.
I want to take you back to their restructuring plan. The plan had 7 steps, listed in priority order. The first and second priority was restructuring. The third priority was a deal with Fiat. The next priority, ahead of any others beyond the initial restructuring and Fiat deal, was their EV car program. Here is the page from their plan (click to enlarge)
In fact, this was very clearly a business plan aimed at Obama. Look at the #4-7 priorities and their order. Only one potential investor in the whole world would appreciate these priorities. Any private investor would find these priorities nuts:
4) Commitment to Energy Security and Environmental Sustainability
5) Compliance with Fuel Economy Regulations
6) Compliance with Emissions Regulations
7) Achieving a Competitive Product Mix and Cost Structure
So "achieving a competitive product mix and cost structure," arguably the problem that drove them into bankruptcy, is their dead last priority! Welcome to government motors, where commitment to energy security is more important than having a competitive product mix or cost structure.
My company exited business in Washington State about 3 years ago, and since then I have routinely turned down new business opportunities in the state. The workers comp system is expensive, the sales and lodging tax regime is both expensive and complicated, and minimum wage rates are set to crack $10 an hour, and are indexed in some raise that they seem to rise substantially every year. The state made it very difficult to manage a fleet of vehicles in the state, and generally made it clear that they would rather me not doing business there. So I don't.
In a case that raises questions about online journalism and privacy rights, the U.S. Department of Justice sent a formal request to an independent news site ordering it to provide details of all reader visits on a certain day.
The grand jury subpoena also required the Philadelphia-based Indymedia.us Web site "not to disclose the existence of this request" unless authorized by the Justice Department, a gag order that presents an unusual quandary for any news organization...
The subpoena (PDF) from U.S. Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded "all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us" on June 25, 2008. It instructed Clair to "include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information," including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers' Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.
This is remeniscent of the indimidation subpoena and later arrests at the Phoenix New Times orchestrated to stop the paper from criticizing Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
We had a really good crowd out last night for my climate lecture. I am currently working on publishing the video and the slides. I am going to destroy the email list for this lecture, but before I do so I am going to send everyone a link to the slides and video when I get them posted. If you would like to be notified when these are up, you may join the email list here.
A Phoenix ordinance banning charity dining halls in residential neighborhoods withstood a challenge by a north-central Phoenix church.
Retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice Robert Corcoran, serving as a hearing officer, ruled Monday that feeding the homeless at a place of worship can be banned by city ordinance. The decision affects all Phoenix churches with underlying residential zoning.
Over the summer, city officials maintained that CrossRoads United Methodist Church, 7901 N. Central Ave., violated Phoenix zoning code by feeding the poor and homeless on its property, a use that can only occur in commercial or industrial zones.
You will be relieved to know that this has nothing to do with a wealthy people fearing that their Xanax-induced equilibrium will be upset by actually seeing a poor person in their neighborhood. We are assured as such by Paul Barnes, a "neighborhood activist" who presumably participated in the suit to stop the Church from holding pancake prayer-breakfasts:
"It's not a problem with homeless people in wealthy neighborhoods. That would be a matter of prejudice. This issue would be setting churches up to avoid zoning ordinances."
Wow, I am so relieved. And we all know what a problem it is when churches are organized solely to evade zoning regulations. Why, just last week the First Baptist Church and Gas Station as well as the United Methodist Church and Topless Bar opened right in my neighborhood.
You will be happy to know as well that the Constitution in no way limits the government in any way when it wants to regulate your property:
In a 19-page opinion, [Judge] Corcoran said the city can restrict where the homeless and poor can be fed and that zoning regulations apply to everyone equally. Additionally, he said that trumping land-use regulations is not a constitutional right.
Whew - yet another assault on the rights of government bureaucrats has been bravely turned aside.
Update: More random embedding of ads by the Republic. They are putting them between words in the paragraph now. RRRRRR. Hopefully it is gone now.
Never heard of tilt-shift photography until today, but it is cool. Here is an example - real scenes are digitally manipulated to look like it is a model. Which in fact is exactly the opposite of what I try to achieve with my model railroading.
Update: The video seems to have left the building.
The private homes that New London, Conn., took away from Suzette Kelo and her neighbors have been torn down. Their former site is a wasteland of fields of weeds, a monument to the power of eminent domain.
But now Pfizer, the drug company whose neighboring research facility had been the original cause of the homes' seizure, has just announced that it is closing up shop in New London.
To lure those jobs to New London a decade ago, the local government promised to demolish the older residential neighborhood adjacent to the land Pfizer was buying for next-to-nothing. Suzette Kelo fought the taking to the Supreme Court, and lost. Five justices found this redevelopment met the constitutional hurdle of "public use."
... but I am increasingly convinced it is real. Somehow I got on the mailing list of the "Environmental New Network" and got this press release:
Eco-Friendly Snow Thrower Is Alternative To Belching Snow Blowers
Sno Wovel Quietly Outperforms Snow Blowers Without Emissions, Noise, Strain
New Canaan, CT. November 9, 2009 -- Structured Solutions II LLC announced the launch of their newly-designed wheeled snow shovel this fall. The Sno Wovelâ„¢ is the only non-combustion alternative snow removal device performing equal to or better than a snow blower.The all new folding frame Sno Wovelâ„¢ debuts in a new category of hybrid tools, combining safety for the user, protection of the environment and high-performance.No fuel, fumes and deafening noise to harm the environment or the operator "“ no electric cords to tangle with.The Sno Wovel is 2-3 times faster than shoveling and comes with a folding frame design for easy and portable storage.
This seems like a fairly unsatisfying alternative to a big honkin' snow blower, but I live in Phoenix so what do I know?
Those of us who accused Chrysler and GM of hyping their electric car programs merely as a honey trap to capture money from the Obama Administration were accused of being ridiculous cynics. But...
Chrysler has disbanded a team of engineers dedicated to rushing a range of electric vehicles to showrooms and dropped ambitious sales targets for battery-powered cars set as it was sliding toward bankruptcy and seeking government aid.
The move by Fiat SpA marks a major reversal for Chrysler, which had used its electric car program as part of the case for a $12.5 billion federal aid package.
As late as August, Chrysler took $70 million in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a test fleet of 220 hybrid pickup trucks and minivans, vehicles now scrapped in the sweeping turnaround plan for Chrysler announced this week by Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne.
I don't know if you remember, but during the GM bankrupcy deliberations, the airwaves were flooded with commercials for the Chevy Volt. Seen one lately? It is clear in retrospect those messages were political ads seeking subsidies, not marketing ads seeking to sell cars.
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told the military and civil militias today to prepare for war as a deterrent to a U.S.-led attack after American troops gained access to military bases in neighboring Colombia.
Chavez said a recently signed agreement that gives American troops access to seven Colombian bases is a direct threat to his oil-exporting country. Colombia has handed over its sovereignty to the U.S. with the deal, he said.
"Generals of the armed forces, the best way to avoid a war is to prepare for one," Chavez said in comments on state television during his weekly "Alo Presidente" program. "Colombia handed over their country and is now another state of the union. Don't make the mistake of attacking: Venezuela is willing to do anything."
Dictator play book page 1, paragraph 1: When domestic situation goes bad, find an external enemy.
One of the successes of US law vs. European is that we have generally maintained the inventive to work -- in other words, we have been able to relieve economic hardship while still making unemployment uncomfortable enough to provide incentives to find work.
Based on this Mises Institute post, this may no longer be true. If a family is comfortable with $45,000 a year, or doesn't think it has the prospect of earning more than that, there appears to be little incentive to work.
See the original post for explanation of the methodology and the exact programs driving these lines.
The fall of the Berlin wall is probably one of the 3-4 "Where-were-you-when..." events that I remember in my lifetime. I remember turning on the TV and seeing people dancing on top of the wall and being struck with a strong sense of cognitive dissonance, wondering if I was watching some war-of-the-worlds style fiction. I don't remember even today if this was a surprising event to the whole world, of if it was just I who was holed up in some ignore-the-outside-world zone, but it certainly was a stunning surprise to me.
It was truly a great day, in my mind more great than 9/11 was bad, so it is kind of amazing to me how much it is already almost forgotten. In the late 1970's, I had the opportunity to take the East Berlin tour through Checkpoint Charlie to see the wrong side of the wall. Many Americans I have talked to had the same reaction to this tour -- that it was meant to be one long propaganda spiel for communist East Germany but in fact was pathetically self-mocking. The propaganda failed because even the writers of the propaganda could not conceive of how wealthy the west was compared to the East. So when they bragged that 70% of the residents had running water or that "almost" all of the city had been rebuilt from the war 30 years later, Westerners were unimpressed.
House passes health care bill. I wonder if anybody really knows what is in this thing. I am not much of a political expert, but I don't see how, if the vote was so close in the House, that they are ever going to get this pig through the Senate. Perhaps go the conference route so they can avoid cloture.
If you are in the Phoenix area and interested in a scientific discussion of climate issues, and in particular the science behind the skeptic's position, you will likely enjoy my lecture this coming Tuesday (Nov 10) in Phoenix. The presentation is free to the public, and will be from 7-9PM in Dorrance Auditorium at the Phoenix Country Day School, on 40th Street just north of Camelback Road. Hope to see you there.
But other problems have such a straightforward solution the only question is, why haven't we implemented it already?So it is with the phone charger (H/T Mother Jones). How many old ones do you have kicking around in a drawer? If you're loyal to a particular phone, you may even have several identical chargers. Because they're electronic, you're also burdened with disposing of them properly lest they leach their toxins into some poor, unsuspecting landfill.
Not only that but chargers use a good bit more electricity than they need to and are vampires"”meaning they continue to draw power even when they're not, you know, charging.
Now imagine a world where not only did phone chargers use less energy, but they were universal, meaning any charger fit any phone. That would mean about 600 million fewer chargers each year stashed in drawers around the world and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 15 to 24 million tons a year"”not even to mention e-waste.
The UN's International Telecommunication Union has approved this universal dreamboat of a charger. It will use half as much energy on standby. Samsung, Nokia and Motorola have already agreed to use it. Of course, they're hemorrhaging business to BlackBerry and Apple...no word yet from those guys.
I wrote:
There are at least two problems with this. The first is that consumers are all different. A lot of cell phones (and other devices like my kindle) are standardizing on a mini-USB connection. Should I use the UN's solution, which is likely inferior? Why? Most of the time I don't even travel with a charger, I plug the mini-USB into my computer to charge. That way I only have 1 charger on the road, for my computer. You want me to carry 2, in the name of having fewer chargers? You might say, "well, I hadn't thought of this situation," and I would say, "that's the point - you can't, there are 6 billion of us individuals out there."
The second problem is innovation. Who says that innovation won't demand a different type of connection in 2 years? Do you really want your technology gated to some working group at the UN? Go back in time and imagine the government locking in a standard on something. We still would have 801.11a wireless only, or cars would still all have crank starts (but they would all turn the same direction!) or cars would all have the same size wheels. If the UN had invented something 3 years ago, it would have been power only and not data. Today, most cell phones have power connections and connectors that double as data ports.
There is always a technocratic urge in messy changing technology markets to swoop in and mandate a standard from above, even while the technology is still evolving. The problem is that neither you nor anyone else knows everything. Hayek described this information problem well but you make it abundantly clear on this site you have no familiarity with Hayek. You extrapolate what seems to be a good solution from your narrow knowledge, but cause many of us to sub-optimize because you did not anticipate how I use my charger or what technology some cell phone manufacturer today may be developing that requires a different kind of charger standard.
I am sick and tired of so many people treating the economic growth of India and China like it is bad news. The astounding numbers of people emerging from almost unimaginable poverty is fabulous news, and perhaps one of the ten greatest events in all of world history. Too many people -- from neo-Malthusians to global warming alarmists to cold warriors looking for the next enemy to trade protectionists -- treat these countries' emerging wealth like it is some sort of disaster.
Rivera has 88 appearances in the post-season with only one blown save. When he walks to the mound in the World Series, it is usually (in the immortal words of Bill Paxton) "game over man, game over." But his one blown save is remembered in Phoenix, since it coincided with what is easily the greatest moment in Arizona pro sports history.
