Non-hydro renewable electricity generation has nearly doubled since President Obama took office, reaching 5.75 percent of net electricity, according to figures from the Energy Information Administration. In 2008, before Obama entered the White House, non-hydro resources like solar, wind, geothermal, and biomass represented just over 3 percent of generation. Today, they total nearly 6 percent….
Category: News & Opinion
Republican Platform Calls Medicaid a ‘Black Hole.’
Talking about dismantling health care for the poor might seem to clash with balloons and funny hats, but this is a Republican convention, so it fits right in with the celebratory mood. Many in the parade of governors scheduled to speak tonight have long complained about how much they are forced to spend to keep…
GOP team is wrong prescription for patients
One major concern for me and every American is the future of our nation’s health care system. The quality of that system affects us all, and we need details about the candidates’ approach to health care, not high-level talking points. I write this as a lifelong Republican and registered nurse. The foremost priority for me…
Murray Energy Miners Allege They Had To Give Up Pay To Attend ‘Mandatory’ Romney Rally
Earlier this month, Mitt Romney was welcomed for a campaign event at the Century Mine in Beallsville, Ohio, by hundreds of coal workers and their families. Now many of the mine’s workers are saying they were forced to give up a day-worth of pay to attend the event, and they feared they might be fired…
The Networked Energy Web: How The Convergence Of IT And Energy Can Remake The U.S. For The Better
The American electric grid is the largest machine on earth, and has heroically served its purpose for many years: to deliver affordable, reliable energy with nearly universal access. One way of understanding the electrical system is as a “one-to-many” and fundamentally linear system. The electricity grid was built around large, centralized generation from power plants,…
How the Gun Industry Got Rich Stoking Fear About Obama
According to the National Shooting Sports Foundation—a trade association for the country’s gun and ammunition manufacturers, importers, wholesalers and retailers as well as its shooting ranges—the American firearms industry employed more than 98,000 people last year and generated an overall economic impact of $31.8 billion. The industry’s employment rate is up 31 percent since 2008….
The New New Deal: The Hidden Story of Change in the Obama Era
The leading economic forecasters all believe that at its peak the stimulus added about 2-4% to GDP, the difference between contraction and growth, and saved or created about 2.5 million jobs. (“Saved or created” has become a punchline—Obama joked after his annual Thanksgiving pardon that he had just saved or created four turkeys—but it simply…
2012 or Never for GOP’s White Base
A Republican strategist said something interesting and revealing on Friday, though it largely escaped attention in the howling gusts of punditry over Mitt Romney’s birth certificate crack and a potential convention-altering hurricane. The subject was a Ron Brownstein story outlining the demographic hit rates each party requires to win in November. To squeak out a majority, Mitt…
Preserving and Strengthening Medicare
In this week’s address, President Obama spoke to the American people about the critical need to strengthen and preserve Medicare for our seniors and future generations, because those who have worked hard throughout their lives should not lose their homes or life savings just because they get sick. Through the President’s Affordable Care Act, nearly…
U.S.A. : More Gun Shops Than Grocery Stores
There are more than 129,817 federally licensed firearms dealers in the United States, according to the latest Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives numbers (as of Aug. 1) . Of those, 51,438 are retail gun stores, 7,356 are pawn shops and 61,562 are collectors, with the balance of the licenses belonging mostly to manufacturers…
Paul Ryan: The Man Who Wasnt There
Judged by the entirety of his career, Ryan is merely a good-looking version of a typical Obama-era Republican. He calls for budgetary discipline while exploding the deficit. He speaks of lowering taxes but merely shifts the burden to the middle class. Back in the Bush administration, he rarely met a boondoggle he didn’t embrace. On…
How the U.S. manages to waste $165 billion in food each year
Each year, about 40 percent of all food in the United States goes uneaten. It’s just tossed out or left to rot. And that’s a fairly large waste of resources. All that freshwater and land, all that fertilizer and energy — for nothing. By one recent estimate, Americans are squandering the equivalent of $165 billion…
First Lady Announces 125,000 Veterans and Military Spouses Hired Through Joining Forces
Earlier today, I joined with First Lady Michelle Obama at Naval Station Mayport near Jacksonville, Florida as she announced that 2,000 companies had hired or trained an amazing 125,000 veterans and military spouses in the past year through Joining Forces. This effort, combined with policies and legislation put in place by the President have resulted…
License plates scanned at border, data shared with car insurance group
As public scrutiny continues to mount against the use of license plate readers (LPRs) across the country, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has now released government documents showing that such data, which includes precise GPS location, date, and timestamps, in addition to the plate in question, are shared with an auto insurance umbrella organization. The documents, published on Tuesday…
CBO: If nothing changes, we’re in for another recession
Usually the release of Congressional Budget Office economic and budget projections is as dull as that phrase makes it sound. But not these economic and budget projections, released today by the CBO. The main takeaway is that if we go over the fiscal cliff — that is, if we let the Bush tax cuts and…
Poll: Majority Of Voters Say Medicare Needs Only Minor Changes Or None At All
A new round of polls finds that although voters have a slightly favorable view of GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney’s pick for vice president, running mate Paul Ryan’s Medicare plans are viewed with a greater degree of skepticism. The Wall Street Journal: In Tight Race, Romney Faces Hurdles At a time when the campaign has…
Rep. Steve King: Minority Students “Feel Sorry for Themselves”
On Tuesday, trackers from the super-PAC run by the progressive phone service provider CREDO grabbed footage of King at a town hall meeting in Le Mars lamenting that minority students are falling for a communist victimization narrative promoted by student organizations. King, who recently sponsored a bill to make English the national language, launched into an extended rant…
Guns Enthusiasts Keep Starting Wildfires in Utah
The cause of one of the fires is still being determined, but KSL News reported over the weekend that target shooters had been seen in the vicinity of one of them, and a target shooter admitted to starting another one of the fires. Guns may not kill people, as the argument goes, but apparently they…
Paul Ryan Cosponsored All the Most Extreme Anti-Abortion Bills
Over his career in the House, GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan has endorsed a number of measures that would limit or completely bar abortion in the United States. Although Ryan’s anti-abortion credentials have gotten plenty of coverage since he was announced as Romney’s veep choice, the full extent of the measures he’s endorsed is breathtaking, and includes…
How’s Medicare Playing In The Florida Senate Race?
News outlets report on how Medicare is shaping the much-watched Florida Senate race as well as how this year’s House candidates that are physicians also tend to be Democrats. Politico: Medicare Shaping Tight Florida Senate Race Rep. Paul Ryan didn’t just inject Medicare smack into the presidential race in swing-state Florida. He also created a new…