King Politics

California, Delaware and Maine, among others lead the nation in state-led efforts to achieve energy efficiency in the private and public sectors. Research concludes it is more efficient to create more energy with less by utilizing conservation efforts rather than building more utility plants. Plus, it's cheaper. Plus, there's a beautiful foreign policy component - reducing American dependence on foreign sources of energy. Not surprisingly, Mississippi, the template for head in the ground leadership, is near the bottom.

Labels: Energy, Environment, Mississippi

Time says the California dream lives on. I've repeatedly blogged on California. My fascination with the state largely rests with several satisfying trips I've made to San Diego, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Besides those, California (along with Texas) seems to best embody the American spirit of entrepreneurship and creativity in the face of great obstacles. I also appreciate California's political moderation and public sector willingness to get creative and forward-thinking. California has problems, but no problems they cannot surmount.

Labels: California

The Senate passed federal hate crimes legislation criminalizing crime specifically directed against someone due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. George Bush had previously stymied this legislation because he promised to veto it. President Obama has promised to sign it into law.

This bill is long overdue.

Analysis
A common complaint against federal hate crimes law is that it makes favorites out of the law. That is not so. The long and true history is that when it is left to the states, crimes against certain people tend to be under-prosecuted. Traditionally, crimes against blacks and other minorities, and now crimes against homosexuals, tend to be trivialized into irrelevance when left up to local authorities. Federalizing certain crimes is simply a way for the federal government to ensure that all victims are properly represented by the prosecuting government.

Labels: Barack Obama, Gay Rights, George Bush

Gordon Chang at Forbes doesn't think so. At least in regards to China's recent reporting of 8.9% growth in the 3Q. The problem, as Chang sees it, is that China's government forces government-owned bureaucracies to buy goods and sit it in warehouses. In other words, China is the next economic force, but it's not there yet.

Labels: China

Robert Scheer says we should put public health before Wall Street wealth.

E.J. Dionne chastises charities for resisting changes in the tax code that would help raise funds to pay for the health care overhaul.

Nouriel Roubini on how the world now belongs to Obama, not Bush.

Why some black students chose to or not to attend a historically black college or university.

Calculated Risk has lots of good, real-time, macro-economic stats.

A discussion about rent-seeking at Positive Liberty.

Labels: Economics, Education, Foreign Policy, Public Health

Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation that would equalize the sentences meted out for powdered cocaine and crack cocaine. Currently, "it takes 100 times as much powdered cocaine as crack to trigger the same mandatory minimum sentence" as received with crack cocaine. The consequences have been staggering.

Crack cocaine is disproportionately used by African Americans and many experts believe the sentencing disparity helped fuel an explosion in the number of African Americans serving time for non-violent drug offenses. Instead of getting rehabilitation, they would receive 20 years hard-time. Meanwhile, users of powder cocaine would be eligible suspended sentences.

Labels: Criminal Justice, Drugs

H/T: Ezra Klein

Here are some nifty images of U.S. credit conditions. The maps show, county-by-county, delinquencies in auto loans, bank cards, mortgages and student loans.

How does your county stack up?

Labels: Credit

A few months ago, pundits were about to drop New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine for dead. Scandals and the stench of his association with Goldman Sachs were going to lead him off a cliff. Well, not so fast my friends. Looks like there's been a left turn in New Jersey.

Despite a turnabout in New Jersey, Republicans haven't felt this good since prior to the 2006 midterms. The GOP set a non-election year monthly fundraising record in September (WSJ), and that should help them compete for House seats Republicans lost in 2006 and 2008.

China is the big winner this recession. Says who? Good question. Says Fareed Zakaria. You know him. He's the guy always on the Daily Show. Why? China entered the Great Recession better prepared than almost every other country. Strong reserves, a government surplus and they limit excessive credit-taking and risk.

Labels: China, House Republicans, New Jersey

Even though fewer states are posting jumps in unemployment, the smart money is on continued stimulus dollars helping out the unemployed.

Arguably something that might help the unemployed is a public option health care plan. This is why congressional liberals still push for public option in the health care plan. They'd rather have public option than Olympia Snowe's tepid support.

Labels: Health Care, Olympia Snowe, Stimulus, Unemployment

Senator John Kerry, not special envoy Richard Holbrooke, served as the administration's point man in Afghanistan, convincing President Karzai to submit to a runoff election.

Poland, eager to become America's BFF, still wants our missiles.

I learned on Jeopardy yesterday that Rio de Janeiro means River of January. Supposedly the city was discovered on New Year's Day. Anyway... the 2016 Olympic hosts face a spate of drug-related violence in the slums.

A film showing in DC focuses on Rahm Emanuel's role in the 2006 congressional takeover by the Democrats.

Labels: Afghanistan, Brazil, John Kerry, Poland, Rahm Emanuel

New research shows people are hard-wired for hypocrisy. Our brain changes how we think to match our actions. That's why church-going folks who preach the gospel about lending their fellow man a helping hand can look at themselves in the mirror with a straight face when they reject government help for the poor.

In other news, recent polling shows that Americans are more familiar with Latinos - and that's a good thing. Familiarity can breed contempt, but in this case I believe familiarity will help develop comfort. I've met lots of people who say the most ignorant things about ethnic minorities and it's usually because they have little or no contact with different folks.

Analysis
I just hope Americans weren't being hypocrites in the poll.

Labels: Latinos, Science

Yesterday, the Obama administration announced new Justice Department rules on going after state licensed medicinal marijuana dispensers. Previously, the Bush administration went hard after marijuana dispensaries, even if they were in compliance with state law (really odd for a conservative administration). Now, Obama has instructed prosecutors to spend their time and federal dollars going after nefarious criminals, not sick stoners. John Nichols agrees.

Year One of the Obama Administration focused on using the government to stabilize the economy and (hopefully) enact serious health care reform. Year Two (and three and four) will likely focus on deficit reduction. Gerald Seib of the WSJ suggests that Obama might support the Conrad-Gregg proposal to create a bipartisan Congress/White House deficit reduction panel. The panel would be charged with developing a mix of tax increases and spending cuts in order to better manage our fiscal imbalances. We'll see. But, it's hard to imagine much getting accomplished in an election year. Sad.

The debate among Obama's war council centers on whether sending an additional 40,000 troops to Afghanistan will actually work. f

Finally, liberal activists are upset at the slow pace at which Obama is handling judicial nominations. Compared to recent predecessors Obama has forwarded far fewer names to the Senate for judicial confirmation. Why? Some attribute it to Obama's insistence on reducing partisan rancor. Others simply say it's because Obama has not fully articulated his own judicial vision. Either way, he needs to step it up.

Labels: Afghanistan, Barack Obama, Courts, Drugs, Federal Budget

H/T to Ezra Klein for pointing me to this story on Phil Ellis. Dr. Ellis is in charge of the Congressional Budget Office's health insurance reform team. In other words, his office is charged with scoring the varying reform packages floating around Capitol Hill. In other words, if his office deems a plan too expensive, it is doomed; if it's economically feasible - according to him, plans can survive to fight another day.

Labels: Blogs, Health Care

Probably not. Most folks haven't. Yet, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup and J.P. Morgan Chase each exceeded expectations in raking in the profit. I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure I never received a thank-you note card in the mail for helping bail them out.

Labels: Bailout, Banks

Recent Washington Post-ABC News polling show that Americans "overwhelmingly see Iran's nuclear program as geared toward the development of atomic weaponry, and more than eight in 10 support direct diplomatic talks to try to resolve the situation."

Analysis
The key stat for me is that 8 in 10 favor diplomacy. Smart. Diplomats know that as long as you're talking, you're not fighting. That's a lesson George Bush forgot (or never learned). As long as we have troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, we have Iran effectively contained. The trick is to engage the international community to collectively sanction the regime in to good behavior while praying the regime mysteriously topples on its own (won't happen). Not sure what's going to happen here. But, if you look at what happened in Iraq and asked Americans if they'd like to repeat that experiment with Iran, the answer would be unequivocal "NO!"

Labels: Foreign Policy, Iran, Polls

Michael Maiello provides a surprisingly contrarian view on the Chamber of Commerce. He smartly points out the hypocrisy of their "free enterprise" rhetoric. The Chamber was the first to push Congress into big bank bailouts last fall, yet cries foul when liberals talk about ending corporate welfare.

On an unrelated note, can't say I felt too bad that the Chamber was the victim of a hoax. I only wish their real policies were hoaxes.

Labels: Business

More schools embrace digital texts, also known as a flexbook. The idea is they save money (in the long-run) because they are so much cheaper than hardbound texts (averaging a $100 a pop). Additionally, because they are digital, they can be updated quickly - especially important for government and econ texts.

Analysis
This is a positive benefit of federalism. States and individual school districts can individually experiment with this new technology. If it works, and hopefully it will, we'll see laggards (e.g. Mississippi) embrace the change.

In a cost-cutting environment, teachers would be smart to tackle any change that cuts costs, before the budget-makers go after them. Speaking of jobs, the Obama Administration announced today that 250,000 jobs were created or saved by federal stimulus dollars. In some places - Illinois - federal dollars amounted to 23% of the state education budget.

Labels: Education