Ford Moves to Increase Production

Cash for Clunkers increasing employment. Good stuff.

It Won’t Be So Bad: A Q&A With the Author of $20 Per Gallon

Interesting read. I’m not quite sure I agree with some of his predictions, but it is an interesting topic regardless.

G.M. Puts Electric Car’s City Mileage in Triple Digits

Two hundred thirty miles per gallon and debuting next year? I hope it isn’t too good to be true.

The Unfunny Truth by Ross Douthat

I’m giving Kristol’s replacement a chance. No complaints so far.

The Town Hall Mob

Two things to preface this one: 1) when David Brooks is on vacation, all that’s left some days on the Op-Ed page is Krugman and 2) although he may be an economist, I only like Krugman when he writes about anything but economics.

Anyway, I think the anti-healthcare reform protests are really interesting (which is why I already wrote about this topic before Krugman did). On the one hand, people are actually reacting to what the government is doing in ways other than bitching about things while sitting on the couch. Good stuff. On the other hand, though, these people are so misinformed that I have to agree with Krugman when he says that they probably aren’t reacting to what Obama is actually proposing (come on, how educated can you be on the whole reform movement when you don’t know that Medicare is a government program?). So what’s better (or worse), Americans who don’t know what’s going on in politics and never think to lobby Congress, or Americans who lobby Congress based almost entirely on beliefs that are wrong?

Rethinking North Korea, With Sticks

This is an interesting commentary from Nicholas Kristof on the subject of North Korea. It caught my eye for a few reasons. Kristof is very liberal in the sense that he almost always supports negotiations with adversaries, even if those adversaries are Iranians and the leaders of Hamas. While his take on whether to negotiate with hostile nations/groups might be liberal,  his views on international economics and the use of force are, in my judgment, right of center. His arguments for sweatshops make him sound like Milton Friedman and his reasoning for opposing the war in Iraq was not based in liberal ideologies like pacifism or populism, but rather on the Bush Administration’s lack of compelling evidence and its failure to develop a post-invasion plan before attacking- two things that, with the benefit of hindsight, most people can agree doomed our effort before it started. 

So, basically, Kristof is a guy whose views deserve to be viewed as legitimate by both liberals and conservatives. He’s liberal when it comes to negotiations, but more conservative when it comes to international economics. He is more driven by pragmatism than ideology. And now he says that we’ve got to be tougher on North Korea and that formal diplomacy isn’t going to work. Coming from a guy who almost always supports formal diplomacy, I think this is really something. There is far more to say on this topic than what is discussed here, but I decided to share this link along with a few of my thoughts because I’ve read a good bit of Kristof and, if he says diplomacy alone isn’t going to work, it’s a good bet that he’s right. Time to put on the gloves, Hillary and Barack.

Latest Starbucks Buzzword: ‘Lean” Japanese Techniques

Kudos to Starbucks for making attempts to adapt during the recession and to compete with McDonald’s. I just hope it doesn’t lose its identity along the way.

I thought the presidential campaign made clear to Americans, conservative and liberal, that healthcare is a problem that needs to be fixed. Republicans dislike the plans created by the Democrats, which is fine- I, too, happen to think they’re far from perfect. The problem is that rather than contributing anything to the bills, I think their plan is to destroy Obama’s healthcare plans, at the expense of Americans, so that they can use the defeat as campaign material in ’10 and ’12. In other words, they would rather win next year’s elections than help pass legislation that will benefit millions. And, politically, it is probably the right decision.

Comprehensive health reform will cost a lot of money before many of its benefits will be felt. Lots of people who don’t have coverage will get it pretty quickly, sure, but, as voters, those people are probably already pretty strong Democrats. The benefits I’m talking about are the ones that will be felt by all Americans, even those who already have insurance. These include higher wages that will come as a result of lower premiums for businesses who buy coverage for their employees and a greater ability for our businesses to compete with those in other countries that spend less on healthcare- both of these things, however, will only occur as a result of the cost-cutting reforms that will take a decade or so to be phased in. So, if this legislation passes, Republicans will have a few election cycles in which they can point out how Obama’s healthcare plan hasn’t cut costs yet and continue to harp on the deficit that they did nothing to reduce during their last eight years in the White House. And it’s a win-win, because if the legislation doesn’t pass, they can campaign on how they stopped Obama from achieving his primary goal (and continue to ignore the 50 million people without coverage).

What might be worse, though, is the hysteria the Republicans are creating amongst regular Americans. The article that spurred me to write this entry talks about the rising voices of voters who oppose healthcare reform. These people don’t just have problems with the details of the Democrats’ plan, nor do they offer any opinions regarding alternative ways to reform healthcare- instead, they simply prefer to pollute the world with ignorant babble and make constructive discussions between congressmen and their constituents impossible. An example: I read an Op-Ed the other day that discussed a townhall at which a congressman was told by an old man to “keep his government hands off my Medicare.” Insane. If people don’t even realize that Medicare is a government program, how are they possibly capable of making an informed decision of whether to support Obama’s plans?

Here’s an excerpt from today’s New York Times article:

Mr. Doggett said that he had tried his best to answer questions, but that the demonstrators expressed opposition not only to the health care plan but also to all government programs, including Medicare and Social Security.

He said that because of the protesters he was unable to speak to other constituents, including a father and his son, wearing a Boy Scout uniform, who wanted to talk about applying to one of the military academies. He said he remained firmly committed to the health plan.

“In Texas, not only with the weather but with the politics, it is pretty hardball around here,” he said. “I have a pretty thick skin about all of this. But this really goes over the line.”

These people have, at least, been using new media to organize. Good for them. Hopefully someday, though, they’ll broaden their use of the internet beyond Fox News and Facebook.

Immigration Explorer

This is an interactive map that allows readers to browse the number of immigrants in each county of the United States and and to see where they’re from.

Heads of State

Just a funny article on presidents’ drinks of choice.