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BruceMcF is a thinker re rail transportation who merits heeding … in this guest post, he looks at Amtrak’s value as it faces the budgetary axe threat from the Republican Study Committee. The Republicans have won one of the established political Power Positions in American Politics, and so they propose to eliminate funding for Amtrak: […]

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This guest post from Veritas Curat (“the truth cures”) merits reading …  As currently structured, our economic system is defined simply: growth is good, stagnation bad, and contraction disastrous. In fact, the demand for ever-continuing growth faces Malthusian-like challenges about sustainability in terms of global resources. For a century, humanity’s growth has been propelled via […]

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This weekend, a gaggle of America’s wealthiest and most powerful individuals are gathered in a luxurious hotel near Rancho Mirage, California. Under the tutelage of the libertarian multi-billionaire Koch brothers, this secretive conclave gathers yet again to conspire on paths to undermine American liberties and weaken the Union to favor their special interests. Koch University […]

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This guest post from Veritas Curat (“the truth cures”) merits reading …  As currently structured, economics tell us that “the Earth’s not worth saving. “Socialism collapsed because it did not allow prices to tell the economic truth. Capitalism may collapse because it does not allow prices to tell the ecological truth.” – Oystein Dahle, former […]

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First Lady Michelle Obama had an interesting mix of Americans in her box for the State of the Union speech. Among them was an Oregon businessman: Jim Houser, Portland, OR Jim Houser and his wife have owned an auto repair shop in Portland, Oregon for over 25 years, and they don’t want to lose valuable […]

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In the State of the Union address, President Obama referred back to President Kennedy’s call for America to go to the moon. Half a century ago, when the Soviets beat us into space with the launch of a satellite called Sputnik¸ we had no idea how we’d beat them to the moon. The science wasn’t […]

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Since before the 2008 election, the core challenge for the incoming President was clear: JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! Yes, we were amid a collapse of the economic system, it required stabilization. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! Yes, our energy situation was (is) a mess and the climate is boiling. JOBS! JOBS! JOBS! Yes, our political system is broken. […]

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The Texas Transportation Institute of Texas A&M University recently released TTI’s annual traffic study.   Not surprisingly, it made the front page in the Washington, DC, area since DC tied with Chicago for the nation’s worse traffic congestion. Putting aside not-minor methodological issues (see here as well), the simple reality is that it gets much (MUCH) harder to […]

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The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE) released a report today examining the impact of incentive structures for sparking greater utility investment in energy-efficiency programs. The press release opens: The ability for utilities to profit from their energy efficiency programs provides strong motivation to create, support, and deliver successful programs … My initial […]

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Today, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) released the so-called Spending Reduction Act (SRA). From the introduction: The Spending Reduction Act of 2011 reduces federal spending by $2.5 trillion over ten years. The bill will specifically hold FY 2011 non-security discretionary spending to FY 08 levels, hold non-defense discretionary spending to FY 06 levels thereafter for […]

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