Wuzzatigan?

Let me get this straight. Back in December under the last administration GM came to Washington for a hand out. GM was, it was said, too big to let fail.

 

Then later, under the current administration, more bailout was added to that, the taxpayers took property interest in the company, the UAW took more interest (talk about a conflict of interest).

 

And now that it is even bigger, GM is going through what?

 

Bankruptcy!

 

What was all that about?

Jim Grasley

 

 

Out of the Frying Pan...

President Obama today talked about transferring the remaining Gitmo detainees to other countries. I hear there are about 48 prisoners remaining. He wants to send them to countries like Saudi Arabia...

 

And he thinks Guantanamo was abusive? Once the detainees enter a Saudi prison, no one will ever see or hear of them again.

 

Or perhaps they will come to a maximum security facility in the US. Two things are going to happen there. Either they are going to get shivved on the yard, or they are going to open a radical training center in C-block.

 

Now as to security. Jihadists who may have wanted to spring their buddies from Gitmo had to get by either Castro or the Marines. But if the detainees come to, say, San Quentin? It is a relatively minor problem to walk up to the gates and make trouble. And I don't even want to think about visiting day.

 

Every President makes a few gaffs in the first year. And there is no "good" solution to Gitmo. If they weren't jihadists and radicals when they went in, they are now, after years of detainment. But we need to think clearly about how bad they really have it at Guantanamo, and whether our compassionate solutions are not many times worse for them, and more to the point, for all of us.

 

The Triumph of Style over Substance

The media on both right and left fall into a fit whenever the President meets a new world leader. Did he shake hands? Did he bow? How low was the bow? Did it involve a cheek buss?

 

Granted, it is a measure more important than the First Lady's wardrobe choices, but still in the realm of style and symbolism.

 

When are we going to focus on what is actually said to these leaders? And if we knew, would it then be a matter of substantive policy bulwarks, or merely the latest daily verbal stylings, full of sound and fury, but in the end signifying nothing?

 

 

 

And Your Point Is...

Today's report about the emergency room abuses in Ausin, TX was of course shocking. That 9 individuals could rack up 2700 ER visits in six years pushes the limits of credulity. Do these people have no life?

 

But then we begin to ask questions.  Where are you going to take this story?

 

Well, of course we need nationalized health care to limit these abuses. Don't you see how broken the healthcare system is? The national evening news suggested controls to stop abuses so "legitimate" ER cases would get their due attention.

 

There is one reason these abuses happened, and it doesn't have to do with the 3 homeless people or the 7 mental people among the 9 "offenders"

 

In a word, the reason is EMTALA, the law that says persons presenting to ERs across the nation MUST be treated without regard to ability to pay. It is a federal regulation, an unfunded mandate from the national healthcare system.

 

Of course the healthcare system is broken. My only question is, who made it broke?

 

 

 

Where Do You Plug This Thing In?

It's been reported that battery powered vehicles use more energy per mile traveled than gas only vehicles. It costs energy to generate energy, there is a large loss in long distance transmission, more in step-down to usable voltages, more yet in battery charging, and finally some inevitable inefficiency in the electric car itself.

Nevertheless, some put electric car energy efficiency at 25%, and conventional vehicle running at 25mpg at 15%. And gasoline has transmission overhead of its own, too, in the form of tank trucks. [check Cecil Adams' article at http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2759/are-electric-cars-really-more-energy-efficient]

Of course, if you live in the Pacific Northwest and use Hydro-power, bully for you. If you are next door to Nevada Solar One and can jack into that source, terrific.

The problem no one is talking about is generation capacity. We are using all the power we make now to power our ipods, air conditioners, traffic lights, beer coolers and super computers, etc. In California the Public Utilities Commission has forced the utility companies to dismantle excess power generation facilities. Surplus assets. Deregulation. Does anyone remember rolling blackouts? Flex your power now?

So everyone puts a Tesla or a Volt in the garage and then what? There is not enough generation capacity in the international power grid to ramp up even a partial replacement of the gasoline used in our cars. Would somebody please build a new power plant in California?

Anyone...?

Anyone at all...?

Exceutive FIAT

When the car companies started beggng alms at Washington, I remember people saying we had to keep GM, Ford and Chrysler afloat because of jobs and because we clearly had to have something to drive.

 

At the time I thought it silly. Has Toyota actually shipped a car to the US in the last decade? My wife's Chevy Prizm was built 114 miles from here at a Toyota plant in Fremont, CA. Built in America by Americans for Americans to American (no wait, California) standards in a Japanese plant.

 

I thought at the time that just the thing to would be big three bancruptcies followed by reorganization followed by acquisition by Toyota or Mercedes. If Detroit can't run a car company someone else will.

 

But now I see the wisdom of this new paradigm. US tax payers (not us per se, but the next generation of tax slaves) dump billions into an industry whose management can't find its socks. Then we turn around and give Chrysler GRATIS to Fiat.

 

Fiat!?

 

Hey, maybe Zastava has grown tired of making Yugos and wants to take a crack at the Explorer.