Courtesy Scientific American:

Not many years ago, there wasn’t enoughwind power coming from the Great Plains to worry about. Now there is, and lots of people are worrying.

A group of mostly East Coast utility companies calling itself the Coalition for Fair Transmission Policy fears that the prime conditions in the Great Plains will make the region’s wind power too cheap for its members to compete with, unless developers there are made to pay the costs of moving wind power eastward.

Influential natural gas producers and generators in Texas are worried. They are demanding that the state’s wind developers share the costs of backup natural gas generators that must pick up the slack when the wind doesn’t blow. The gas industry, threatened by state policies that promote wind power, is asking regulators to impose penalties on wind generators that can’t deliver scheduled energy when the wind dies down.

And last week, four senators representing New York, Ohio, Montana and Pennsylvania proposed to deny federal clean energy grants to wind developers that buy blades, turbines and other components from abroad.

“It is a no-brainer that stimulus funds should only go to projects that create jobs in the United States rather than overseas,” Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said, pointing at a proposed Texas wind farm whose backers include a Chinese power company.

Some renewable policy advocates say the problem has less to do with China and more with on-and-off-again federal energy policies, and arguments over how to pay for the vast expansion of transmission lines needed to maximize wind power delivery. Instead of looking at foreign rivals, members of Congress should start with a look in the mirror, says this side in the debate.

-Source.

See Related Article.

NY Times

Over the coming months, as many as 1.5 million jobless Americans will exhaust their unemployment insurance benefits, ending what for some has been a last bulwark against foreclosures and destitution.

Because of emergency extensions already enacted by Congress, laid-off workers in nearly half the states can collect benefits for up to 79 weeks, the longest period since the unemployment insurance program was created in the 1930s. But unemployment in this recession has proved to be especially tenacious, and a wave of job-seekers is using up even this prolonged aid.

Tens of thousands of workers have already used up their benefits, and the numbers are expected to soar in the months to come, reaching half a million by the end of September and 1.5 million by the end of the year, according to new projections by the National Employment Law Project, a private research group.  Source

Think Progress

Yesterday on CNN, host Wolf Blitzer asked Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) about the state of the Louisiana economy. Jindal quickly boasted that he was “proud” of his state’s job growth and “economic development.” Given Jindal’s apparent belief that the recession is over in his state, Blitzer then asked if he was willing to give Obama “some credit” for the $3.2 billion dollars Jindal is accepting from the Recovery Act:

BLITZER: Are you ready to give the president of the United States some credit for turning — helping to turn this economy around?

JINDAL: Look, I love what he says. And I — I do have a lot of skepticism about, in D.C., the fact they think that we can spend our way into prosperity, borrow our way into prosperity. Now they want to tax our way into prosperity. [...]

Source

Banks Paid $32.6 Billion in Bonuses Amid U.S. Bailout

By Karen Freifeld
Bloomberg.com
July 30, 2009

Citigroup Inc., Merrill Lynch & Co. and seven other U.S. banks paid $32.6 billion in bonuses in 2008 while receiving $175 billion in taxpayer funds under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, according to a report by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo.

In the report, the state analyzed 2008 bonuses at nine banks that received TARP financing from the U.S. government. New York-based Citigroup and Merrill, since taken over by Bank of America Corp., received TARP funding totaling $55 billion, Cuomo said in his report.

Read the rest of the article…

Think Progress

By Nate Carlile at 4:00 pm

On ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) argued that the $787 billion stimulus package “hasn’t helped yet. … What I proposed is, after you complete the contracts that are already committed, the things that are in the pipeline, stop it.” Watch it:

YouTube Link
Source Article

On May 28, 2009, I called into Bob Kincaid’s program to refute the FAUX news lie, that Democrats were targeting republican-owned car dealerships for closure. I relayed the local news articles which stated how very large, long-time dealerships were having their franchises pulled, while the dealerships republican Ohio State Senate President Bill Harris founded, were able to keep both their GM and Chrysler licenses.

One dealership I expressed utter confusion over having their franchise pulled, was a company called Spitzer. It’s nearest location is in the county directly beside the one I live in. I grew up listening to their ads on the radio.  Their presence in this part of Ohio is quite large. Frankly, I was outraged to learn that Spitzer was losing its Chrysler franchise, when the little rinky-dink franchise Bill Harris’s namesake bears was keeping theirs.

Be it known to all and sundry, that I no longer feel this way.

This afternoon, I ran across an AP article, which talked about some 14 Chrysler dealers testifying in court, questioning the decision to close their franchises. Among those were Alan Spitzer, whose family began the Spitzer dealership over 100 years ago. Initially, I was happy to read that he was there, and standing up to what I surely thought were closings based on political influence, since after all, he’s not the President of the Ohio State Senate. In fact, I was so impressed with his activism, that I decided to swing past his website and find an email address, so I could let him know that I was rooting for him.

When I got to his website, that’s when my love affair with Alan Spitzer ended.

At the top of his website, there is a message to their Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep customers, stating their business plan to continue providing service for them. But the very last sentence shook me back to reality, just like a needle being pulled across an old vinyl record. That sentence reads:

Please contact President Obama and tell him to stop these closings and let the free market, which makes America great, control their fate.

At first I thought “He couldn’t possibly be blaming the loss of his Chrysler franchises on President Obama, could he??” I then noticed a link to a “special” message to that same group of customers. I clicked on it, and quickly got my answer. It reads, in part:

Auto Dealer Jack Fitzgerald from the DC area stated it very well. You can see his complete interview with Greta Van Susteren from On the Record seen on Fox News.

<snip>

(Referring to President Obama again) Ask him to listen to you, the people. Ask him to watch or listen to the Jack Fitzgerald interview.  We need to make him aware of the grave mistake they will make if they continue down this course of action.

(The video Spitzer talks about is here)

Perhaps Mr. Spitzer needs to take another look at this video, because Mr. Fitzgerald lays the blame at the feet of Chrysler’s management, where it rightfully belongs, rather than trying to pin it on President Obama. What’s also surprising, since this is a FAUX news piece, is that there is NO union bashing or blaming. Mr. Fitzgerald does well to point out that Ford Motor Company is NOT in the same boat as Chrysler and GM.

Incidentally, and this is often an overlooked fact, while the UAW (United Auto Workers) are always blamed as being the downfall of General Motors, Chrysler employs UAW members as well, and they’re never cited as being part of Chrysler’s downfall. Ford also employs UAW members, and Ford is not seeking a bailout, or a bankruptcy, nor are they closing any of their dealerships. So how can the UAW screw up GM so badly, but when it comes to Chrysler’s demise, the same UAW isn’t even mentioned, and the same UAW gets no credit for Ford being on seemingly stable ground? If you need more proof that these companies are driven by management decisions, and not the old evil unions, I wouldn’t know where else to tell you to go look for it.

But back to Spitzer. His attempt to blame President Obama for losing his franchise is, when you cut through all the hyperbole, nothing more than tax day TEA party crap. Spitzer’s repeated “free market” mantra is proof that he clearly blames all that’s wrong in his world on the “big guvmint libruls”, and everything that’s right in his world is because he’s a “self-made” man. I’d be willing to bet that Mr. Spitzer would claim that losing his franchises is proof of the Obama administration “micro-managing” the automobile industry.

Here’s a brief connection: Keith Olbermann slammed Ohio repiglican Congressman Jim Jordan for saying that because of Obama’s micro-management of the car industry, that the GM plant in Ontario, Ohio (Mansfield) is closing. Jordan then wanted Obama to exercise some of the micro-managing he was just complaining about, and keep the plant open. Yeah, really. It’s enough to make you rub your eyes. Mansfield, Ohio is home to one of the Spitzer Chrysler dealerships that has lost its franchise. It must be something in the water. Spitzer, by asking people to contact President Obama, rather than Chrysler Corporation, obviously feels the President has some power to micro-manage the auto industry. In a way, I wish Obama would do what he’s being accused of. Then he could set the salaries for car dealers too, just like he did for the Wall Street banksters. He’d keep your business open, but he’d tell you what a fair salary is. Is that a deal, Mr. Spitzer?

I’ll try to wrap this up. (I heard that!)

I had previously thought that republican Ohio Senate President Bill Harris’s dealerships got to keep their franchises, because of his political clout, and that the Spitzer dealerships were a victim of that. While that may very well still be true, the fact remains that Harris and Spitzer are two hucksters, working the same side of the street. Both are ardent free marketeer supporters. The free market’s goal is to push down wages, while driving maximum profits to those at the top, as tax-free as possible. Both are quick to blame the Democratic Party for failed economic policies that didn’t work when Ronnie Raygun implemented them, and stood no chance of working when Bushco decided it was time to try it again. He who lives by the sword, shall die by it.

Mr. Spitzer, the “free market” you endorse is just chuck full of business opportunities, or at least that’s what you’d have us believe. If losing your franchises is going to impact your ability to earn a living, then perhaps you should do what millions of workers have had to do, as a result of your “free market” philosophy – find a new job!

As for this Buckeye, you couldn’t get me to buy a gumdrop from you, if you were the last one selling them.

-Sue and the Ranting Keyboard

Russia:

Russia has been eagerly looking forward to the G20 summit – not because of Gordon Brown, but for the first meeting between presidentsBarack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev.

The encounter between two men widely seen as pragmatists is likely to see the beginning of a new, slightly improved era in US-Russian relations. Under their predecessors, George Bush and Vladimir Putin, ties sank to their most dismal level since the cold war.

Russian officials concede that Obama won’t give Moscow everything it wants. The lengthy shopping list includes an end to Nato expansion, the scrapping of the US missile defence shield in Europe and a new strategic arms reduction treaty.

On the G20 agenda, Russia will side with the Germans and other Europeans who oppose US-British plans to drag the world out of recession by further spending. It supports German chancellor Angela Merkel’s call for greater market regulation rather than a further co-ordinated stimulus package.

Moscow also backs China’s idea of creating a new global reserve currency alongside the dollar – an idea the EU has rejected. Given the weakness of Russia’s crisis-hit economy, though, the new man in the Kremlin isn’t in much of a position to impose his ideas on others.

Brazil:

The G20 meeting has been pushed off the front pages of Brazilian newspapers by more immediate local concerns.

Instead of debating the global economic slump and the intricacies of the IMF, South America’s largest economy has been pondering pressing domestic issues: a four-day drug war in Rio de Janeiro, the training sessions of Brazil’s national football team and the latest federal police crackdown on a multi-billion dollar corruption scheme. In taxis, restaurants and front rooms across the country the talk has been of shoot-outs, kick-ups or kickbacks rather than toxic assets or protectionism.

Lord Mandelson’s musings on the Brazilian economy made the headlines earlier this month, during the business secretary’s visit to Sao Paulo. “The situation here … is not as serious as in many other countries,” Mandelson told business leaders in Brazil’s economic capital, Sao Paulo, echoing the much-criticised words of the president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last year that the impact of the crisis in Brazil would be a “ripple”.

With industrial production down nearly 19% in December and about 700,000 jobs shed between November and February this year, not everyone is convinced. But Lula’s popularity remains high, at over 60%, and, for now at least, the financial crisis is seen as a reasonably distant prospect, if not exactly a “ripple”.

France:

The global financial crisis has seen France revert to its long-standing mistrust of free markets, globalisation, capitalism and “fat cat” bosses. Nicolas Sarkozy – who was elected on the most free market platform France had ever seen, saying the country’s problem was that it was not taking enough risks or borrowing enough along US or British lines – has changed his tone and adopted a rhetoric that has seen him caricatured as Karl Marx. The French model of high social protection, cautious banks and a population sceptical of credit cards hasn’t spared France the crisis, but the country has not yet suffered a banking collapse like that of Britain or Ireland.

As Sarkozy arrives at the G20, with very low popularity ratings at home, his biggest demand is greater international regulation to clamp down on the excesses of capitalism. He doesn’t want more stimulus packages, but a more “moral” capitalism. This is crucial among public opinion in France, where the financial crisis has seen record public support for strikes and street demonstrations, a rise in extreme protests such as taking bosses hostage, and a surge of support for the extreme left. Currently, the two men most trusted in France to “change things” are Sarkozy and Olivier Besancenot, a postman and one-time Trotskyite who heads the New Anticapitalist party. “If we don’t want to play the anticapitalist game, capitalism must stop being a caricature of itself,” the president has said.

Gael Sliman, a director at pollsters BVA, said the French public had given up expecting much from international politicians or summits like the G20 but if strong initiatives were taken on regulation, public opinion could react well. “I’m not going to associate myself with a world summit that decides to decide nothing,” Sarkozy has warned.

-Article continued here, courtesy The Guardian (UK).