This story is a bit strange—while getting a burger, the President didn’t recognize the name of one of his intelligence agencies. This is a bit strange since within the past week, he almost certainly was shown satellite images of North Korean’s missile programs—photos that would have come from the NGA.
In news of the obvious, it turns out that Gene Cauley, a class action attorney, is a thief.
Shocking.
But it’s no real surprise. When much of your job is engaging in socially non-beneficial litigation, it’s not wonder that you lose your moral compass.
Anytime a politician tells you that their plan will save money, you have to ask—if this plan makes so much economic sense, why aren’t private parties doing it already? This is especially true with something like hurricane and disaster insurance. From ClimateWire:
U.S. Rep. Ron Klein (D-Fla.) reintroduced the Homeowners Defense Act, which would make the Treasury Department a reinsurer during massive events that have a half a percent chance of occurring in any given year.
Washington would be liable for up to $200 billion under the measure. But Klein says premiums paid into the fund would cover those costs and free taxpayers from financial burdens, like emergency spending, sparked by natural calamities.
"Isn’t it better to have an obligation to pay the federal government?" he said in an interview.
It’s better for Florida homeowners, but obviously worse for the rest of us taxpayer who will likely lose out under this plan. If it made economic sense, there would be no need for the Feds to get involved.
The article also says that Klein’s “opponents, he says, are wrong to say the bill provides subsidies — and, in turn, encouragement to develop still more vulnerable coastlines.” Klein is obviously wrong. If this were not a subsidy, there would be no need to do it.
President Obama’s automobile choice shows that he cares about features other than fuel economy, so why is he forcing the American people to choose fuel economy first and foremost?
When President Obama took office, he got a new car—a 8 mile-per-gallon custom Cadillac limousine. The reason the car gets such poor fuel economy is that it is designed to protect the Commander-in-Chief from many threats. The limo’s body is composed of sophisticated titanium, steel, ceramic and aluminum armor to stop projectiles. The armored doors are 8-inches thick and there is a 5-inch thick reinforced steel plate under the car to protect against bombs. The car is equipped with night vision cameras and Obama’s seat features a foldaway desk, laptop, and satellite phone so he can conduct business on the go. Because the car’s armor and accessories weigh so much, the car is powered by a 6.5 liter diesel engine.
President Obama, however, is proposing to limit Americans’ automobile choices and force Americans to buy more fuel economy than they would choose on their own. He is proposing a fuel-economy mandate that cars in 2016 model cars will have to get at least 42 miles per gallon.
Currently there are only three cars that get 35 miles per gallon or better, the Toyota Prius, the Honda Civic hybrid, and the Ford Fusion hybrid. In just over 6 years, automakers need to improve the fuel economy of the entire fleet by 40 percent. This is possible, but it will be costly, limit American’s car choice, and it will be deadly.
A 2002 study from the National Research Council found that the federal government’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy mandate contributed to 2,000 deaths per year. The reason for this death tool is that frequently there is a tradeoff between the size of a car and safety. Cars have become safer, but today’s small, fuel efficient cars are still more dangerous than other cars in two-car frontal offset collisions, even again medium sized cars.
President Obama didn’t have to choose between safety and fuel economy when it came to his limo. He shouldn’t force the American people to be forced to choose smaller, more fuel efficient and less-safe cars.
Once upon a time evil President Bush had a problem—the military had detained some bad guys and needed to put them somewhere. The Bush Administration was concerned about detaining them in the U.S. because the detainees would be subject to more legal protections. So they put the detainees at Guantanamo Bay. And the rest is history.
As a Presidential candidate Obama castigated the indefinite detention of the detainees. And I agreed with him. If these guys are truly bad guys, they should be tried and sentenced. It is not right to indefinitely keep people in prison year after year without trial.
But then Obama was elected President and everything changed. Just after his inauguration, he signed a silly Executive Order ordering the closure of the prison at Guantanamo Bay. The Executive Order was silly because he didn’t have a plan of what to do with the detainees.
Now major media outlets are reporting that the Obama Administration wants to indefinitely detain people of the prisoners in Guantanamo Bay in the U.S. indefinitely.
This is a bad policy. The problem at Guantanamo Bay is that people were detained indefinitely without trial and Obama needs to fix that. Ironically Obama voted against the Military Commissions Act and now me might us it to give some, but apparently not all, of the Guantanamo prisoners a trial.
If you like conspiracy theories, you could argue Obama wants to bring some of the Guantanamo prisoners to the U.S. knowing full well they might be afforded more rights and get out of jail more easily. You can easily see the Supreme Court ordering trials instead of indefinite detention, especially if these guys are in the U.S.
Tomorrow the Giro d’Italia begins. In the U.S. there should be greater interest than usual because Lance Armstrong is racing this year. I don’t think Armstrong will win because he has yet to show he his fit enough, but fellow American Levi Leipheimer has a good shot. Armstrong probably relishes his role as underdog and you count count out someone as tenacious as he is.
Cycling News has a good article describing the most important days here.
You can follow Lance Armstrong’s twitter feed here.
TV coverage in the U.S. will be on Universal Sports.
For those of you outside the U.S., check out CyclingFans.com for ways to watch and listen.
I just finished re-reading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones. Reading it reminded me why I like his books. The series had the potential to be one of the greatest fantasy series ever. Martin’s characters felt real and the story wasn’t a retelling of The Lord of the Rings or another hero’s tale of a boy finding hidden powers, getting the girl, and saving the world.
I curse George R.R. Martin because it is unlikely he will finish this series any time in the next decade. The first book, A Game of Thrones, came out in 1996. He followed that with A Clash of Kings in 1998, and then A Storm of Swords in 2000. But that high level of productivity on this series died after A Storm of Swords. Book 4 in the series, A Feast for Crows came out in 2005 and he has yet to finish book 5. The problem is that in 2005, when A Feast for Crows came out, he said he was about half way done with book 5. Now, 4 years later, he still hasn’t finished.
I wish Martin would focus his energies on this series and HBO version of the series. But I can only wish.
In the mean time, I’ll have to look for more interesting books to read.