Archive for August 28th, 2009
"Cash for Clunkers" successful in several ways
Given the silly sniping at this small, wildly successful program, I feel obliged to update my last post.
BusinessWeek’s Auto Beat whines, “They say the program was effective in selling cars, but the boost won’t last long enough to really help the car industry for very long.” Ya think? It’s a friggin’ stimulus, and a tiny one at that — $3 billion.
And then we have the academics — UC Davis’s Christopher R. Knittel actually did a study on “The Implied Cost of Carbon Dioxide under the Cash for Clunkers Program,” which got lots of media attention like “Cash for Clunkers Pays Ten Times Market Rate for Greenhouse Gas Reduction.” I could have saved them a lot of trouble had they bothered to read my May post, which noted “As a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, this “cash for clunkers” deal is probably among the least cost-effective uses of federal dollars one could imagine.”
Memo to media: It ain’t “Cash for carbon.”
I was not a big fan of the final version of “Cash for Clunkers” because its mileage improvement requirements were so inadequate, as Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) explained here.
But in the real world, the public has mostly turned in gas-guzzlers in exchange for fuel-efficient cars — which perhaps should not have been a total surprise since oil prices are rising, gas guzzlers remain a tough resell in the used car market, and most fuel-efficient cars are much cheaper than SUVs. So as a stimulus that saves oil while cutting CO2 for free — it has turned out to be a slam dunk, far better than I had expected.
You can read the government’s final report on Cash for Clunkers aka Car Allowance Rebate System (CARS) here. The economic bottom line, “According to a preliminary analysis by the White House Council of Economic Advisers, the CARS program” will:
- Boost economic growth in the third quarter of 2009 by 0.3-0.4 percentage points at an annual rate thanks to increased auto sales in July and August.
- Will sustain the increase in GDP in the fourth quarter because of increased auto production to replace depleted inventories.
- Will create or save 42,000 jobs in the second half of 2009. Those jobs are expected to remain well after the program’s close.
I should note that Detroit sold 39% of new vehicles in the program. Further, as AP reported yesterday, …
Interesting divergence in general attitude and mindset
This is fascinating. Amanda Terkel reports in ThinkProgress:
Many town hall protesters enjoy boasting to federal lawmakers about how knowledgeable they are about public policy. For example, at a town hall meeting with Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) yesterday, an attendee stood up and declared, “I have taken the time to look at certain provisions of a bill on the Internet and I can quote…the sections and the page.” But the Omaha City Weekly went to a recent town hall hosted by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) and found that the health care protesters actually aren’t all that informed about public policy. They asked 40 pro-reform and 40 anti-reform attendees to locate Iraq on a map. The results:
A full 75%, 30 of 40 pro-reform attendees, could identify Iraq in its rather eye-catching, dead center position on the map. Only 52.5 %, 21 of 40 anti-reformers could do so. [...]
More telling was the startling reactions I got while conducting the test. Pro-reform people, even those geographically challenged few who laughed out loud at the futility of the task before them, portrayed a uniformly agreeable front. Most gave a knowing, touch_-like nod and smile. I received no negative comments, none at all, from that group.
The same could not be said of the other camp. Far from it.
One gentleman practically knocked the clipboard out of my hand in jabbing – angrily and correctly – at the country that (John Kerry was right) represented the wrong war at the wrong time in the wrong place.
Many sneered. Most at least glowered. Four accused the test itself of being somehow biased.
One anti-reform Vietnam veteran also responded, “Why the hell should I care where Iraq is?”
The difference in geographical knowledge is less interesting to me than the difference in attitude. What’s up with these angry people? Do they know they’re wrong and that makes them angry? Are they frustrated by modern life? What has made them lose common civility?
FactCheck.org lists 26 lies about healthcare reform
All the lies come from the Right—I guess in addition to Party of No, we can start calling it Party of Misinformation. The FactCheck article begins:
Our inbox has been overrun with messages asking us to weigh in on a mammoth list of claims about the House health care bill. The chain e-mail purports to give "a few highlights" from the first half of the bill, but the list of 48 assertions is filled with falsehoods, exaggerations and misinterpretations. We examined each of the e-mail’s claims, finding 26 of them to be false and 18 to be misleading, only partly true or half true. Only four are accurate. A few of our "highlights":
- The e-mail claims that page 30 of the bill says that "a government committee will decide what treatments … you get," but that page refers to a "private-public advisory committee" that would "recommend" what minimum benefits would be included in basic, enhanced and premium insurance plans.
- The e-mail says that "non-US citizens, illegal or not, will be provided with free healthcare services" but points to a provision that prohibits discrimination in health care based on "personal characteristics." Another provision explicity forbids "federal payment for undocumented aliens."
- It says "[g]overnment will restrict enrollment of SPECIAL NEEDS individuals." This provision isn’t about children with learning disabilities; instead, it pertains to restricted enrollment in "special needs" plans, a category of Medicare Advantage plans. Enrollment is already restricted. The bill extends the ability to do that.
- It claims that a section about "Community-based Home Medical Services" means "more payoffs for ACORN." ACORN does not provide medical home services. The e-mail interprets any reference to the word "community" to be some kind of payoff for ACORN. That’s nonsense.
Analysis
This chain e-mail claims to give a run-down of what’s in the House health care bill, H.R. 3200. Instead, it shows evidence of a reading comprehension problem on the part of the author. Some of our more enterprising readers have even taken it upon themselves to debunk a few of the assertions, sending us their notes and encouraging us to write about it. We applaud your fact-checking skills and your skepticism. And skepticism is warranted. [Interesting that the only way the Right can gain support for its position is to lie – LG]
Good idea: Software (free) to organize your eBooks
Take a look at this review on Lifehacker.com. Software is available both for the Mac and Windows machines.
Having enough for life
Vicki Robin is the co-author (with Joe Dominguez) of Your Money or Your Life, a life-changing book on personal finances. Today, she is a guest blogger at The Simple Dollar, and her post is well worth reading. It begins:
Financial independence – ahhh, what a dream! Doing as you please, not as you must. Having all the money you need without needing a job. Travel. Adventure. Relaxation. Time to write that book you’ve been thinking about for years.
Well, I’ve been there and done that since I was 25 years old. I’ve had an adventuresome life. I’ve worked for love, not money. I’ve slept late when my body needed it and worked late into the night when the juices were flowing. And I’ve written a book (actually two, one published) which lays out how anyone can have what I have – without risky business ventures or shady deals or being born into the right family. The book, of course, is Your Money or Your Life, which presents a step by step approach to the process of earning, spending, saving, giving and investing with a focus on having enough for life, not “it all” or “more and more.”
We just updated it and, thanks to The Simple Dollar among other frugality sites, we were able to focus on the core strategy and let go of being the go-to people for how to save money on specific purchases.
I’d like to unpack this notion of “financial independence,” though, so we can see it not simply as being filthy rich with a mega portfolio but rather as having a diversity of ways to assure your needs will be met with minimal if any paid employment. It’s a combination of passive income, occasional income, frugality (increasing your unnecessary income) and reciprocity (freely sharing stuff, services and skills with others).
First, you need to understand Financial Independence as …
Who’s to blame for the deficit numbers
Interesting article Michaels Ettlinger and Linden, which includes this chart:
After waterboarding was stopped, CIA stepped up sleep deprivation
Pamela Hess and Devlin Barrett reporting for Associated Press:
A year after the Bush administration abandoned its harshest interrogation methods, CIA operatives used severe sleep deprivation tactics against a terror detainee in late 2007, keeping him awake for six straight days with permission from government lawyers.
Interrogators kept the unidentified detainee awake by chaining him to the walls and floor of a cell, according to government officials and memos issued with an internal CIA report. The Obama administration released the internal report this week.
Though the detainee’s name and critical details are blacked out in the memos, there is only one detainee known to have been in CIA custody at that time: Mohammed Rahim al-Afghani, an alleged al-Qaida operator and translator for Osama bin Laden.
The documents show that even as the Bush administration was scaling back its use of severe interrogation techniques, the CIA was still pushing the boundaries of what the administration’s own legal counsel considered acceptable treatment.
Judge orders government to grant a security clearance to lawyer
Interesting ruling reported by Michael Doyle in McClatchy:
In a highly unusual legal step, a federal judge has ordered the government to grant an attorney a security clearance so he can represent a disgruntled former narcotics officer in a lawsuit against a former CIA officer.
The judge’s order significantly boosts attorney Brian Leighton’s long legal battle on behalf of Richard Horn, a Drug Enforcement Administration veteran whose service ranged from California’s San Joaquin Valley to the Burmese jungles. More broadly, the new judicial order challenges the president’s customary monopoly in controlling access to secrets.
“The deference generally granted the executive branch in matters of classification and national security must yield when the executive attempts to exert control over the courtroom,” U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth wrote in an order issued late Wednesday.
Already impatient with the Justice Department’s handling of a case first filed in 1994, Lamberth gave officials 10 days to grant Leighton and other attorneys the security clearances needed to see “classified and/or privileged information.” In doing so, Lamberth underscored the key question involved.
“Does the executive branch have the exclusive right to determine whether counsel . . . have a need-to-know classified information within the context of litigation, or can that be a judicial determination?” Lamberth asked rhetorically.
Lamberth added that prior cases didn’t “directly answer” the question, which he called one of “a number of vexing legal and practical difficulties” raised in the course of the lawsuit brought by Leighton and Horn…
Taser death ruled a homicide
Interesting report by Elizabeth Zavala and Mitch Mitchell in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram:
The Tarrant County medical examiner ruled Thursday that the death of a mentally ill man in April who was shocked twice by a Taser stun gun wielded by a Fort Worth police officer was a homicide.
It was the fourth time that a person shocked by a Taser has died in Fort Worth police custody since the department started using the devices in 2001, according to the Police Department.
But the death of Michael Patrick Jacobs Jr., 24, is the first that Medical Examiner Nizam Peerwani has ruled to be a homicide.
Jacobs was pronounced dead about noon April 18, an hour after he was hit by the Taser. His parents had called 911 because he was causing a disturbance at their east Fort Worth home, police have reported.
According to Peerwani’s report, …
Probiotics: Better off dead?
Interesting article in Science News by Janet Raloff, which begins:
Vast and diverse microbial ecosystems form within our guts. Trillions of bacteria strong, these communities help digest our meals, manufacture vitamins, kill pathogens, neutralize food-poisoning agents and boost our immune defenses. When antibiotic therapy or disease wipes out huge numbers of these intestinal squatters, bloating, diarrhea and more can ensue. Ewwwww.
Fortunately, medicine has developed starter cultures of beneficial germs to recolonize antibiotic-ravaged guts, to boost immunity and to sometimes act as a call to arms for other gut microbes. Because intentionally downing extra live germs doesn’t sound very appetizing, dietary supplement companies refer to these bacterial as probiotics — and even deliver some as part of the “live cultures” in a serving of yogurt.
But, as we reported last year, people have sickened or died after receiving probiotics. What role, if any, these bacteria played remains uncertain. Such events have, however, been giving some researchers and clinicians doubts about the safety of this ostensibly benign and "all natural" germ therapy.
A paper just published online in Nutrition Reviews now suggests a compromise tactic: Administer slain bacteria — microbial carcasses, if you will…
GOP: Hates the stimulus but takes credit for it at home
From the Center for American Progress:
Earlier this year, Congress passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 without a single Republican vote in the House of Representatives and with the support of only three Republicans in the Senate. This stimulus bill, which included $552 billion in spending and $275 billion in tax cuts, has provided much-needed support to state and local economies across the country. Cognizant to this fact, conservatives have jumped on the chance to personally deliver stimulus money to their cash-strapped states and districts, while conveniently brushing past their original opposition. A two-faced approach to the stimulus debate has become routine for many Republicans, with many GOP lawmakers who are standing against the stimulus in Washington, D.C., but touting it when they travel home to their constituents.
CONGRESSIONAL HYPOCRITES: Several House Republicans who opposed the Recovery Act quickly returned to their districts to tout projects that it funded. Stimulus opponent Rep. Joseph Cao (R-LA) met with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin (D) and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently to solicit stimulus money for streetcar expansions and road repairs. Cao proudly boasted that he is looking "at federal monies that the state has and channeling more of that money to the district." Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) earlier this month asked for stimulus funds to be diverted into paying down the deficit rather than paying it out to states. But the same day he took credit for the construction site at Blue Grass Army Depot in Madison County, Kentucky — a project that was funded in large part by the Recovery Act. One of the most brazen acts of hypocrisy came from House Minority Whip Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), who has repeatedly claimed that the stimulus is "failing" to create jobs. Earlier this month, Cantor appeared at a job fair in Midlothian, VA, to demonstrate how he is working on "long-term solutions that will put…Virginia workers back on the path to financial stability." But scores of jobs advertised at the jobs fair were created by the stimulus, and Chesterfield County, where the fair was being held, will receive more than $38 million in stimulus funding over the next two years.
An oil pass today
The Semogue 730 Silvertip shaving brush is quite nice—comfortable handle, good knot, and loads of lather from The Shave Den’s Coffee shaving soap, which smells like an actual cup of coffee (black, no sugar). Three passes with the Elite Razor Gold-Laced White Quartz razor did a good job, but I noticed some lack of lubrication in the polishing pass, so I picked up the Hydrolast Cutting Balm and did an oil pass to perfect smoothness. A splash of Blenheim Bouquet finished the job in fine style.
