Intelligence, Please…

Today, like most days, was full of action in the news – from the political to the nonsensical – how’d you like the Afternoon Reading edition? Would it be more helpful to you in an email format, and have me return to writing? Use the comments section to let me know what you think!

WAIT, WHO’S THROWING THE TANTRUM HERE? – Seems like Joe Scarborough acted like the professional here and walked away from Kos before things got too heated…and now here’s Moulitsas, on the wrong side of the fence, bitching about Scarborough…still:

Look, it’s been good for Daily Kos to have me on, but it’s not my favorite medium, I’m often uncomfortable, and part of me would be grateful if I never had to do a TV spot again. I did as much MSNBC as I did because I like and respect Keith Olbermann and Ed Schultz. If they decided they didn’t want me on anymore, I’d be perfectly okay with that. However, I do think it’s noteworthy when I’ve been booted from the network because of a Scarborough temper tantrum.

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LEADERSHIP FROM THE WISDOM HOLE – Yesterday, it was my girlfriend Emily who nailed my funny bone when I  needed it…today, it’s web cartoonist Scott Meyer:

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JOHN NASH, EAT YOUR HEART OUT…AND TAKE YOUR MEDS BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THIS – The newly-created U.S. Cyber Command (CYBERCOM), one of the unified combatant commands under the Joint Chiefs, designed to wage war on the Internet has a secret code embedded into its logo/crest…and Wired will give you a t-shirt if you can crack it:

The newly formed U.S. Cyber Command is supposed to centralize and focus the military’s ability to wage war over the internet, but so far it’s basically famous for brain-teasers. The command’s fancy logo contains a super-secret code in its inner gold ring: 9ec4c12949a4f31474f299058ce2b22a. Though some people noticed the code late last month, Wired’s Threat Level blog picked it up this morning and announced a contest, with a free t-shirt going to the first reader to crack the code open.

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FROM THE BUMP TO THE BUN – Washington DC sports fans now have someone other than Alexander Ovechkin to cheer – rookie phenom and Washington Nationals starting pitcher Stephen Strasburg, who boasted 14 K’s in his major league debut. Stras-mania has driven the creation of “Strasburgers” at many eateries in town, and Washingtonian Magazine has their mitts on who’s a straight fastball, and who’s a slider:

Just like everyone else with any business sense in Washington, restaurants are jumping on the Stephen Strasburg craze. But as Strasburgers flood the market, how can foodies tell the aces from the minor-leaguers? We visited three area restaurants to rate their burgers for taste, presentation, and creativity—also known as “Strasburgness.” In each category, we ranked them from 1 (bottom) to 14 (tops) in honor of the phenom’s debut game with 14 strikeouts.

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CELL PHONES GET CREEPIER EVERY DAY – If you thought geolocation data was a threat to privacy, read about this little phone that literally tracks your movement:

Engineers at Japan’s KDDI phone corporation have announced a new kind of mobile technology that tracks “even the tiniest movement” of users, according to the BBC. Strapped to your wrist, it would log every tiny detail of your arm’s movement and beam it back to a centralized command center. And we both know how your arm was moving around 11 p.m. when “Co-Ed Confidental” came on Cinemax.

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FILE UNDER “THINGS I WASN’T REALLY WONDERING ABOUT TODAY” – Scientific American pours praise on poop processing:

The point isn’t so much that what happens to our sewage reaches into every crevice of our culture. The point is that once you’re managing it instead of wishing it away, sewage turns out to be a pretty good thing.

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FAIR AND OPEN HYPOCRISY – Blogger, wonk, and Republican operative Michael Turk catches Free Press in some net neutrality astroturfing…I mean, did someone really say this would be a good strategy?

According to an article in The Daily Caller today, groups that Free Press listed as signatories to its pro-net neutrality agenda not only didn’t sign it, but had no recollection of ever being asked.

People working with groups like the Dr. Pepper Museum and Operation Catnip were asked why they support net neutrality. They could offer no explanation as to how their names, and those of their organizations came to be on the letter. This article comes on the heels of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation making a specific request to be removed from the letter after it found itself as an unwitting signatory.

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WELL, THIS ISN’T GOING TO WIN ME ANY FRIENDS – Yesterday I cited a Pew Research Center study on how the recession has impacted Americans. It found:

While nearly all Americans have been hurt in one way or another, some groups have suffered more than others. Blacks and Hispanics have borne a disproportionate share of both the job losses and the housing foreclosures.

Today, I find the New York Times reporting on another Pew Research Center study on mobile web use:

The image of the affluent and white cellphone owner as the prototypical mobile Web user seems to be a mistaken one, according to a report published Wednesday by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Center.

The study found that African-Americans and Hispanics continue to be more likely to own cellphones than whites and more likely to use their phones for a greater range of activities.

…

Younger people and people living in households making less than $30,000 a year are increasing their mobile Web use at particularly fast rates, he said, and the African-American and Hispanic populations are younger and poorer relative to the white population.

Here’s the nasty part: liberals are often champions of poor minorities in the wealth disparity fight, and conservatives tend to tout personal responsibility as virtue, and favor equal opportunities to succeed over equal results of varying degrees of effort. So if Blacks and Hispanics have been most impacted by job losses (which nobody can really control), and housing foreclosures (the result of mortgage default, which Democrats blamed in 2008 and 2009 SOLELY on predatory lending, which exists), but they are also using web-capable phones, which indubitably include smart phones with expensive data plans and paid applications…whose fault is the wealth disparity?

Can a smartphone bill really have that much of an impact on a budgeted mortgage payment? It’s no secret that I have an HTC Incredible – I got it free with a New-Every-Two upgrade (that means I took the personal responsibility to suffer the BlackBerry Curve for two years so I wouldn’t have to pay for my next phone), but I pay about $140 per month – and I don’t use any paid applications. Really quick math says that a $150,000 home, which seems about right – correct me if you disagree – with a 30-year mortgage at 3% fixed (I know that’s very low and fixed mortgages aren’t a predatory practice) has somewhere around $500 per month payments…my phone bill would be a third of that. Someone earning $30,000 a year is taking home, at best, about $2,000 per month. My phone bill is almost a tenth of that.

I don’t know what the smart thing to say here is, so I’ll quit with the analogy. Like I said, that will probably be as unsettling for some to read as it was for me to write. I’m not making any causal arguments, but it’s something to think about.

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A LITTLE MORE CRISPY AND BUBBA, PLEASE – My Nashville Predators renew an agreement with FOX Sports Tennessee for another 4 years of coverage. Dirk Hoag at On The Forecheck raises an important point:

The big thing to keep an eye on this fall is to what extent HD broadcasts increase. The overall commitment to increase the number of games covered overall (from 55 last year, and 30 of those were HD) is excellent, however. Slowly but surely, we’re inching closer to 100% HD coverage of the Preds!

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O, COME ALL YE TEA-FUL – Conservative activism resource group FreedomWorks has announced a major blogger conference this coming September, which spans three days leading up to the Second Annual 9-12 Rally (the first was the brain child of FOX News host Glenn Beck):

FreedomWorks has worked hard to be a resource for activists, and we’re now trying to extend a hand to bloggers. There will be no registration fee this year, and it is open to all bloggers (and those who facilitate them). Feel free to pass along to blogger friends!

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WE’RE NOT REALLY LOOKING FOR A POLITICAL HOME; WE JUST WANT TO BE LEFT ALONE – All the same, the folks at Reason Magazine are hosting a debate on where libertarians “fit,” a debate that will no doubt showcase the oratory prowesses of the Cato Institute’s Brink Lindsey, National Review‘s Jonah Goldberg, and FreedomWorks’ Matt Kibbe…RSVP is required, so if you’re a libertarian or conservative (or just plain interested) inside the Beltway, make sure to register:

What: A “Where Do Libertarians Belong?” debate between Cato Institute Vice President Brink Lindsey, National Review Editor-at-Large and American Enterprise Institute Visiting Fellow Jonah Goldberg, and FreedomWorks President Matt Kibbe.

When: Monday, July 12, 6.30-8:30 pm

Where: Reason’s DC HQ, 1747 Connecticut Avenue NW, Washington DC 20009. (Two blocks north of Dupont Circle; take Red Line Metro to Dupont Circle North exit.)

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HARVARD vs. PRINCETON…YOU DECIDE – Harvard economist Greg Mankiw (a former advisor in the Dubya White House) gets his wonk on and takes Princeton economist Paul Krugman (a New York Times columnist and frequent contributor on Real Time with Bill Maher) to task for calling stimulus opponents “logically incoherent”:

A coherent objection to this line of argument might be the following: If the government borrowed the money to spend, it would need to eventually pay the money back. That means higher future taxes, on top of the future tax increases that President Obama already will need to impose to finance his spending plans. Higher future taxes reduce demand today for at least a couple reasons. First, there are Ricardian effects to the extent that consumers take future taxes into account when calculating their permanent income. Second, those future taxes are not likely to be lump-sum but will be distortionary; it is plausible that at least some of those future tax distortions may adversely affect the incentive to invest today.

That is, businesses may be reluctant to invest in an economy that they expect to be distorted by historically unprecedented levels of taxation in the future.  The more the government borrows, the higher taxes will need to go, the more distorted the future economy will be, and the less attractive is investment today.

I am pretty sure Paul would not find this line of argument persuasive.  As far as I can tell from reading his commentary over the years, he does not believe that the distortionary effects of taxes are particularly large and so they do not figure much into his policy analysis.  But many other economists (and I suspect many stimulus-skeptics like the tea-partiers) believe that taxes have significant incentive effects and can prevent the economy from reaching its full potential.  Their argument seems logically coherent, even if it relies on a different set of parameter values for the relevant elasticities than Paul believes to be true.

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IF I WAS EYEBALLS-DEEP IN COLOMBIAN PRIMO, I’D PROBABLY BE WEARING A DONKEY SUIT TOO – A Flickr gem from the US State Department:

Their caption: "Actors from the Andrés Carne de Res restaurant join the celebrations at the U.S. Independence Day “State Fair” Community Event at the U.S. Embassy Bogotá in Colombia, on July 2, 2010."

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COULD IT BE BECAUSE THEY SUCK EQUALLY? – Obama’s approval rating has tanked, but Democrats and Republicans are in a dead heat on the 2010 Generic Congressional Ballot:

The latest results are based on Gallup Daily tracking for the week ending July 4, with no interviewing on the Independence Day holiday. Gallup historical trends suggest that a slight Republican lead on the generic ballot among registered voters — or even a statistical tie — would translate into sizable Republican seat gains in Congress on Election Day, given their typical advantage in voter turnout.

Overall enthusiasm for voting in the 2010 midterm elections held steady in the latest weekly average, with 30% of registered voters saying they are very enthusiastic, although this is down from the higher enthusiasm levels of late March and April. Republicans continue to hold a significant edge on this potentially important indicator of voter turnout rates. The current 13 percentage-point GOP enthusiasm lead is similar to the average 17-point lead the party has held since March.

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That’s all for tonight, folks – keep the feedback coming!

These posts have been generating some good traffic and interest, so we’re going to try an afternoon edition:

GORE-FEST? MORE LIKE BORE-FEST – No, not former Vice President Al Gore – who has been lighting up the news in recent weeks – we’re talking about the running of the bulls in Pamplona, SPAIN. Nobody died this year, but 2 people were hospitalized:

An 18-year-old man from Melbourne, Australia, suffered an eye injury and a 20-year old Spaniard suffered multiple contusions, Navarra state government said on its web site. Both were hospitalized but their injuries were not considered serious. They were identified only by their initials.

WHEN PASSIONS BECOME OBSESSIONS – This guy must really have wanted a souvenir foul ball (or was it a home run ball? Or was he just drunk?):

A male fan fell from the second-deck club level and into the lower bowl at the Ballpark in Arlington in the fifth inning of the Rangers’ 12-1 win over the Indians on Tuesday. The incident delayed the game 16 minutes as ballpark personnel tended to him and four other injured fans.

The fan flipped over the railing before landing on his back in section 35, which is roughly a 30-foot drop.

ARABS HAVE BEEN BLOWING THE JEWS UP FOR A LONG TIME – Or, according to this story, at least for 100 years:

The Israel Antiquities Authority says workers doing restoration at the city’s historic stone walls were digging through crushed stone when they found a ”fist-sized chunk of metal.”

The antiquities agency said on Wednesday the workers concluded it was a grenade hidden there about 100 years ago.

THIS PROBABLY WON’T HELP THE OIL INDUSTRY’S CASE – So, if nobody is watching…are other ones leaking?

More than 27,000 abandoned oil and gas wells lurk in the hard rock beneath the Gulf of Mexico, an environmental minefield that has been ignored for decades. No one — not industry, not government — is checking to see if they are leaking, an Associated Press investigation shows.

TEHRAN WATERFALLS? THINK AGAIN – Iran’s culture ministry has outlawed “business up front, pleasure in the back” mullets:

Here in the U.S., however, the mullet lives on–even now, perhaps, as a new symbol of freedom.  MacGyver, Andre Agassi, Michael Bolton, Billy Ray Cyrus, and other mullet pioneers should all be proud.  The Chicago Tribune, meanwhile, has a posted a helpful slideshow documenting some of the more notable mullets of our time.

NO WONDER WE CAN’T AFFORD SHUTTLES – As if a new video game (yesterday’s Evening Reading) or a web site design (today’s Morning Reading) weren’t enough of a distraction, the folks at NASA have stopped to weigh in on the design of soccer balls being used in World Cup play:

The aerodynamics experts (at least we hope they’re experts) of the American space agency have said that the 440-gram ball becomes unpredictable when propelled at over 44mph, resulting in the unnatural swerves and deviations that have been plaguing footballers this year. So there you have it, England, Italy and France: a rock solid excuse to pin your lackadaisical exhibitions of mediocrity this year — it was the ball’s fault.

YOU INSOLENT LITTLE PRICK – Some asshat Colgate grad thinks a $40k insurance adjuster job is beneath him, in a recession era when 10 million Americans would probably trample him like an old lady at WalMart just to get an interview:

Rather than waste early years in dead-end work, he reasoned, he would hold out for a corporate position that would draw on his college training and put him, as he sees it, on the bottom rungs of a career ladder.

NEVERMIND, SCOTT NICHOLSON, I’M GONNA LET HANK AND BOBBY HILL FINISH YOU OFF – Conservative blogger Ben Domenech weighs in on arrogance and laziness vs. skid row:

This morning, I read in the New York Times about one of these Americans, Scott Nicholson — the difference with Mr. Nicholson being that he has never been employed, and in fact turned down a $40,000 a year job because he thought it beneath him. Mostly, the Colgate grad is unemployed because of lack of self-actualization.

Young Mr. Nicholson’s story brings to mind “The Texas Panhandler,” an episode of King of the Hill, wherein Hank’s son Bobby discovers that it’s much easier and more profitable to hang out with a group of lazy twentysomething hipsters “begging” on a street corner than it is to work in a real, and rather humiliating, job. But Bobby eventually discovers the value of hard work, and breaks the truth about the hipsters to the passing crowd.

FEAR LEADS TO ANGER, ANGER LEADS TO HATE, HATE LEADS TO SUFFERING – STAR WARS creator George Lucas should heed the prescient warnings of Jedi master Yoda and drop this petty charade:

George Lucas wants to force a laser company to stop making a new, high-powered product he says looks too much like the famous lightsaber from his classic sci-fi series. Lucasfilm Ltd. has sent a cease-and-desist letter to Hong Kong-based Wicked Lasers, threatening legal action if it doesn’t change its Pro Arctic Laser series or stop selling it altogether.

TALK ABOUT A GAME-CHANGER – Apparently sports finishes influence electoral outcomes:

The researchers looked at the election results from 20 years’ worth of presidential, senatorial and gubernatorial races. And they found that a home-team win before the election gave the incumbent a boost of almost two percentage points. The more beloved the team, the bigger the bounce.

WHAT KIND OF MICKEY MOUSE OPERATION ARE THEY RUNNING OVER THERE, ANYHOW? – Disney makes a splash in teaching English overseas:

The company told the Financial Times it sees its fledgling language schools— it has 11 in Shanghai and Beijing— as a way to garner $100 million in pre-tax profits over the next five years. It hopes to open almost 150 schools.

NOT WHAT CHRIST MEANT WHEN HE SAID “SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN AND COME UNTO ME”* – His Holiness revises an edict on handling sexual abuse cases in the Catholic Church:

The revisions will double the statute of limitations on accused priests to 20 years from the alleged victim’s 18th birthday, the people said.

In addition, the revised decree will broaden the legal authority to Vatican officials to prosecute priests accused of abuse, the people said. The Vatican is expected to announce the revisions “within the next two weeks,” one person said.

The measures, which were reported Tuesday on the website of the National Catholic Reporter, represent the first legal shift to take place at the Vatican since the outbreak of abuse reports across Europe earlier this year.

*Bonus points to the reader who identifies the reference.

THE SKY IS THE LIMIT ON SOLAR – Check out this live-stream of a 24-hour solar-powered flight.

CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTION IS SOOOOO 1960′S – Transparency is important, but classified is classified – and this little terd is getting exactly what he deserves:

Private Manning, who served with the Second Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division, based at Contingency Operating Station Hammer, was arrested in May and transferred to a military detention center in Kuwait after the military authorities said he had revealed his activities in online chats with a former computer hacker, who turned him in.

Private Manning now faces an Article 32 investigation, the military’s equivalent of a civilian grand jury, into charges that he mishandled classified information “with reason to believe the information could cause injury to the United States.”

That investigation could lead to administrative punishments or more likely, given the gravity of the charges, a court-martial.

Officially he has been charged with four counts of violating Article 92 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice for disobeying an order or regulation and eight counts of violating Article 134, a general charge for misconduct, which in this case involved breaking federal laws against disclosing classified information.

TIME TO STEP UP YOUR IT SECURITY, PENTAGON – Private Manning and Wikileaks aren’t solely to blame for the Pentagon’s lax security practices:

Among Robin’s social networking accomplishments: She scored connections with people in the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the CIO of the NSA, an intelligence director for the U.S. Marines, a chief of staff for the U.S. House of Representatives, and several Pentagon and DoD employees. The profiles also attracted defense contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and Booz Allen Hamilton.

Lockheed and other firms made job offers to Robin, some inviting her to dinner to discuss employment prospects. “I was surprised at how people in her same command friended her — people actually in the same command and the same building,” Ryan says.

SPEAKING OF TRANSPARENCY, THANKS FOR MESSING IT UP FOR THE REST OF US, ROLLING STONE – POLITICO has the memo from the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD, at the Pengaton), providing guidance on future military interaction with press.

DRUNKEN AUTO-PILOT? – Megan McArdle is on the case of technology making us dangerously lazy:

But as Tom Vanderbilt chronicled in his book,Traffic, (and at shorter length on his blog) you can sometimes actually reduce traffic accidents by making driving harder; people who feel uneasy are less likely to make inattentive mistakes.

IDEOLOGICAL CONSISTENCY – Conservative Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner backs conservative Rep. Thad McCotter’s proposal to scrap the Republican Policy Committee, and save the American taxpayers a few bucks…and to possibly set Boehner up for a Speakership this November:

Republican Policy Committee Chairman Thad McCotter’s plan to eliminate his own leadership office is viewed by some GOP sources as a proxy power play intended to strengthen Minority Leader John Boehner’s hand.

The Michigan Republican circulated to rank-and-file Republicans a treatise on the superfluity of his own job Tuesday, less than a week after surprising several top House Republicans by presenting the proposal at a leadership meeting.

In it, McCotter argues the RPC and its $360,000-a-year budget are a waste of taxpayer money, particularly because Boehner has “designated working groups, which have employed existing staff resources and proven quite successful.” The use of ad hoc advisory panels is a page out of the playbook former House Speaker Newt Gingrich used to consolidate power by going around existing committee structures.

DEATH AND – New legislation dropped just before July 4th recess wants to tax your Internet purchases:

Among the more controversial bills introduced was one offered by Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., that would address a long-standing concern from state and local officials about the loss of sales tax revenues from Internet sales. As a result of a 1992 Supreme Court ruling, retailers are not required to collect sales taxes from customers in states where they do not have a physical presence. While the ruling applied to catalog sales, it has since been extended to online sales.

Rep. Rick Boucher, D-Va., also introduced legislation last week that addresses online taxes, but his measure would bar states and local jurisdictions from imposing “multiple or discriminatory” taxes on the sale or use of digital goods and services, such as downloaded music or software, to ensure they are not treated differently than the same physical goods. Under the bill, taxes could only be imposed on the retail sale or use of digital goods or services.

Some online retailers have argued that requiring them to collect sales taxes from customers in states where they do not have a physical presence would pose a logistical burden for them, particularly small businesses who would be required to keep track of sales taxes in each state and locality.

COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM, UK-STYLE – British PM David Cameron has launched investigations into torture allegations made against British forces who have been coalition members in the War on Terror:

The prime minister had promised the inquiry during this year’s election campaign, saying it was needed to end the uncertainty around the country’s role in the alleged torture of British nationals since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

INDIES GIVETH, AND INDIES TAKETH AWAY – You could argue that swaying millennial independents in 2008 is precisely what propelled President Obama to victory…well, now less than half of them approve of the job he’s doing…music to my ears.

I WONDER IF I CAN TALK EMILY INTO LIVING BY THE SEA – In an effort to cut costs and help reduce the deficit (or budget over-runs…you know, whatever…po-tay-to, po-tah-to) the General Services Administration has put 11 lighthouses up for sale:

Though some of the government’s lighthouses still help guide ships in the night, others are no longer in operation, and a 2000 law requires the government to find suitable owners for the defunct structures.

I’M PRETTY SURE IT WAS “SUPERSTAR” AND NOT “PORN STAR” – This one should really drive the Religious Right batty:

The July issue of Playboy’s Portuguese edition features an unexpected figure on the cover: None other than Jesus Christ, who frolics with three different nude women within the pages of the magazine.

AND THE FIRST THING MEN DO IN THE MORNING IS DRAIN THE LIZARD – Mashable has a behavioral study on young women’s Internet habits:

Young women are becoming more and more dependent on social media and checking on their social networks, according to a new study released earlier today by Oxygen Media and Lightspeed Research. In fact, as many as one-third of women aged 18-34 check Facebook when they first wake up, even before they get to the bathroom.

AND HERE I THOUGHT THE INTERNET WAS JUST FOR TRASH-TALKING – The whizzes over at Pew Research find that the Internet really is changing our lives, in ways we may not readily notice:

The social benefits of internet use will far outweigh the negatives over the next decade, according to experts who responded to a survey about the future of the internet. They say this is because email, social networks, and other online tools offer ‘low-friction’ opportunities to create, enhance, and rediscover social ties that make a difference in people’s lives. The internet lowers traditional communications constraints of cost, geography, and time; and it supports the type of open information sharing that brings people together.

SHOCKER: BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS COOKS THE BOOKS ON UNEMPLOYMENT FIGURES – Quick! Somebody blame George W. Bush! After all, conservatism is dead! Right?…right?

Much of the coverage of the June labor market reportreleased on Friday focused on the drop in the unemployment rate, from 9.7 to 9.5 percent, or the 83,000 private-sector jobs created. But the headline numbers hid the reason for the dip in unemployment: not more jobs, but fewer workers. Walker, like 652,000 others across the country, is jobless and has not looked for a position during the past four weeks — and therefore has officially been reclassified as a “discouraged” worker, a person “marginally attached to the labor force,” rather than an unemployed one.

Facts are hard, aren’t they, Democrats?

GOOD THINGS HAPPEN WHEN THE FREE MARKET IS ALLOWED TO WORK – Wholesale giant Sam’s Club, a subsidiary of WalMart is entering the small business loan industry. Of course, in the eyes of the law, this will classify WalMart (at least in part) as a financial lending institution, and new financial reform legislation will make it subject to new statutory provisions…but I can’t see this as anything but a step in the right direction for the economy:

The loan program, which Sam’s Club calls the first of its type, is aimed at boosting business for a Wal-Mart unit that is trying to raise its profile among the small businesses that make up a good deal of its clientele.

BREAKING: LEWIS BLACK IS ANGRY ABOUT STUFF…IN OTHER NEWS, THE GRASS IS GREEN AND THE SKY IS BLUE

Thanks for your feedback on this new format for posts – see you before bedtime!

Lots of interesting items today…let’s jump in:

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YOU MIGHT START HEARING US HERE - Social media blog Mashable passes along the announcement that WordPress.com (the blogging platform that powers this site) now has a capability for users to phone in audio content to their sites:

The new feature is powered by Twilio, a cloud-based platform for building communication and voice applications.

The feature isn’t anything revolutionary — Livejournal has supported similar functionality for years. However, it should make for thousands of interesting, late-night posts in the near future.

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WE VOTE FOR LAND-LINE TELEPHONES - The folks at PC World have a countdown of 10 technologies that should be extinct (but aren’t).

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SHOCKER: LEFTIST DISSONANCE ON ECONOMY - Despite his eager bloviations back in 2009 that the Democrats should use reconciliation to pass a stimulus spending bill, the staff assistants of liberal blogger Ezra Klein of the Washington Post’s WONK BOOK report today that the stimulus, in fact, didn’t work…not even a little:

…the numbers depict a sluggish economy in which nearly 15 million people are out of work and job growth is mediocre. There is little evidence that a dip back into recession has begun. But the chances of a strong, self-sustaining expansion that can significantly improve the job market — which seemed a real possibility during the spring — are now slim.

…

The confused outlook is causing paralysis on Capitol Hill, since the recovery is neither strong enough to provoke a turn toward deficit reduction, nor weak enough to lend momentum to President Obama’s push for more economic stimulus. As Congress prepared to leave town for the week-long Fourth of July break, even funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was bogged down by the broader election-year squabble over spending.

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IS THERE AN ECHO IN HERE? – Noah Millman at The American Scene blog catches progressive Matt Yglesias of the Center for American Progress’s blog Think Progress (also Beltway butt-buddy of Ezra Klein) in a spot of more economic dissonance:

Your answer to our economic situation is that we need to ramp up government spending to stimulate consumer demand to increase employment. It’s not important to be efficient in how we deploy our stimulus money; it’s much more important just to get people buying stuff and making stuff for people to buy.

Your answer to the problem of climate change is that we need to substantially increase the price of carbon so that consumption patterns change and we all buy less stuff that is very carbon-intensive and either spend more of our income on non-carbon-intensive goods and services or simply live lives of greater overall leisure without so much emphasis on getting and spending. The government should do what it can to ease the economic pain of the transition, but some short-term economic pain is a reasonable price to pay for saving the planet.

I think the tension between these two positions should be obvious. I think Matt would reconcile that tension by saying that, no, he doesn’t really think that ramping up government spending on justanything is a good idea – he thinks we should ramp up spending on things that would help make the transition to a greener economy, even if this means sacrificing a bit of stimulus.

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COLOR ME SURPRISED – Just days after making a splash in the early goings of free agency, it appears as though Nashville Predators GM David Poile has inked talented-but-enigmatic right wing Sergei Kostitsyn (formerly of the Montreal Canadiens) to a one-year deal worth $550,000…which comes in just under the $575,000 obligation to heavyweight enforcer Wade Belak…for you hockey fans out there, Jeremy K. Gover has the goods.

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GREAT, SOMETHING ELSE TO KEEP UP WITH – Yahoo! has a new almost-constantly-streaming political blog, The Upshot! I think I’m going to start ending all my sentences with exclamation points so I can be like Yahoo! (see what I did there?)

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WHEN TWO WORLDS COLLIDE – In the aftermath of the shocking announcement that atheist author and Vanity Fair editor Christopher Hitchens is undergoing treatments for esophageal cancer, rabbinical author and speaker David Wolpe waxes philosophical and nostalgiac about his debate tours with Hitchens. An excellent read:

We began our acquaintance in New York in November 2008, when Temple Emanu-el, reputedly the largest synagogue in the world, invited us to debate each other. At a reception before the event, we were approached by someone who noted one of the blurbs on the back of my book: “Wolpe answers these challenges with such kindness and thoughtfulness that even Christopher Hitchens might find his heart warmed.” The man asked Hitchens: So, did it warm your heart?

“Oh, no,” Hitchens replied, holding the book up for skeptical inspection. “My heart is far too reptilian for that.”

Well, hello to you, too.

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WHAT CUTTING THE SHUTTLE PROGRAM GAVE US – NASA apparently has released a new PC game…because that’s important, right?

NASA’s latest endeavor to educate people on space exploration has taken them to the world of video games.

The space agency has released a new PC video game available through Valve Software’s Steam service called Moonbase Alpha.

The game, which features single-player and multiplayer components, places players inside an astronaut suit, as they must rebuild a lunar base crippled by a meteor strike.

To complete the objectives leading to the revival of the base, players will use a variety of tools include mobile robotic repair units and a lunar rover.

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SPEAKING OF STAYING ON IMPORTANT TASKS – Senator John Kerry takes a time-out from climate legislation and other sausage-making to hit up supporters for their votes to get Boston Red Sox infielder Kevin Youkilis from the MLB All-Star ballot to the AL roster.

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REMEMBER WHEN LIBERALS SAID THE TEA PARTY WAS A FRINGE MOVEMENT? – I guess all paradigm-shifting things start out as loony…because now that nearly 1/3 of Americans are sympathetic to the Tea Party, you can’t really call it “fringe” anymore. You have to accept that it’s mainstream:

According to a new USA Today/Gallup pollfinds three in 10 Americans describe themselves as Tea Party supporters. What’s less clear, the survey reports, is just what it means to support the Tea Party. The poll pretty much confirms what recent election results have proven about the Tea Party: It’s less an organized political party and more of a conservative ideological movement.

In many respects, the Gallup results show that the Tea Party is basically Republicanism operating under a different name. A majority of Tea Party supporters describe themselves as Republican—62 percent call themselves “conservative Republican” and 17 percent say they are a “moderate or liberal Republican.” Just 6 percent say they are independent, while 15 percent say they are Democrats.

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TEA PARTY, SCHMEA SCHMARTY – Republican obstructionism will help them win in 2010, notes liberal blogger Greg Sargent:

Poll after poll shows that majorities think the GOP is more interested in obstructing the Obama/Dem agenda than in reaching a good faith compromise. Yet amid all the gridlock Congress’s overallapproval is at historic lows, and the generalized anti-incumbent fervor is expected to hurt Dems in the midterms. Indeed, in recent months the GOP has tied or bested Dems in the generic Congressional matchup.

Republicans will argue that this shows that the public wants the GOP to stall the Dem agenda. But I think something else is going on: People don’t seem aware that the GOP, in addition to wanting to obstruct the Obama/Dem agenda, is successfully doing so in the Senate through the skillful application of fundamentally undemocratic procedural tricks. The press has largely failed to inform the public of of this fact, and when it does, people tune it out as so much Beltway white noise. Result: The GOP is paying no price whatsoever for obstructionism, and may well reap rewards from it.

It really has to suck to be a Democrat right now.

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BUT IT DOESN’T STOP THERE; TELL THEM WHAT ELSE THEY’VE WON, JOHNNY – Taegan Goddard prophesies that the GOP will win more gubernatorial races than in any election year in 90 years:

Smart Politics says the latest public opinion polls give Republicans the advantage in 28 of 37 states with gubernatorial races this November. If these results hold, the GOP would win more gubernatorial seats in 2010 than they have in any election cycle since 1920.

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PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN, WHERE AT LEAST I KNOW I’M FREE – This saddening, maddening, and horrific tale should mortify anyone with even a shred of emotive capacity:

The “mutilated torso” of Pasikali Kashusbe, who worked at Bishop Christopher Senyonjo‘s LGBT advocacy group Integrity Uganda, a group dedicated to mobilizing against homophobia, was found a half kilometer away from the farm where his head was found in a latrine pit, a week after he went missing. His torso was found without genitals.

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CONGRESSMEN ARE FROM MARS… – Because they don’t understand technology, say industry execs:

Some call it Capitol Hill’s own “digital divide” — the growing gap in understanding between lawmakers responsible for resolving the tech community’s most pressing issues and the industry leaders who first call attention to these issues.

The gap is all the more worrisome to tech industry leaders because of the speed with which new devices and practices are clashing with old ways of doing business.

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…TECH INDUSTRY EXECS ARE FROM VENUS – Because they don’t understand politics and policymaking, says Jim Harper at the Cato Institute:

It’s worth noting Tech’s thorough misapprehension of Washington, D.C. as well. Judging by how they act, most tech executives have all the insight they could pick up from Schoolhouse Rock. It seems cool and helpful to come to Washington and give money, so they do, encouraging the bears to rip open their cars looking for peanut butter.

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PRAISE BE TO FORD* – Stanford joins Berkeley in controversial gene testing of students:

This week, the University of California, Berkeley will mail saliva sample kits to every incoming freshman and transfer student. Students can choose to use the kits to submit their DNA for genetic analysis, as part of an orientation program on the topic of personalized medicine. But U.C. Berkeley isn’t the only university offering its students genetic testing. Stanford University’s summer session started two weeks ago, including a class on personal genomics that gives medical and graduate students the chance to sequence their genotypes and study the results.

* Bonus points to the reader who gets the reference.

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NO WONDER MY BATTERY KEEPS DYING – I must be in the 6%:

A significant percentage of U.S. smartphone users aren’t using data at all, while the top 6% of users are gobbling up half of all data consumed, according to Nielsen.Released this week, a study of 60,000 mobile phone bills found a huge disparity between heavy data users and the many smartphone owners who use their handsets almost exclusively just for voice calls and texting.

…

The study found that average data consumption jumped some 230% from about 90 MB a month in the first quarter of 2009 to 290 MB a month in the first quarter of 2010. More surprising is the finding that the percentage of smartphone owners using less than 1 MB a month actually decreased during the period. “That,” said Entner, “means about 20 million current smartphone users are hardly using data.”

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Barring breaking news, creative impulses, or something else pressing, I’ll see you bright and early!

HEALTHY, WEALTHY, AND WISE – If you’re up early reading this, you rule the world, writes Philip Delves Broughton at the London Evening Standard:

Evolution has produced a range of humans capable of being alert to danger at every hour of the day. Our experience confirms these findings. We all know people who love to be at work bright and early, with a cup of coffee to hand and decisions to make, and others who would rather stumble through the day until reaching a state of relaxed clarity around dusk, when their minds are purring.

The problem is that those with the genetic gift of “morning-ness” tend to be more highly rewarded. Morning-ness is perceived as a sign of activity and zest, whereas evening-ness implies laziness and loafing. How often did we have to see David Cameron on one of his early-morning runs to get the idea that here was a leader of potency and vigour? How different would it have been if he slunk out of bed to work, then exercised at around 8pm? Could a Prime Minister be elected today who worked like Churchill, reading, writing and thinking in bed before getting out of it at noon?

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DEMOCRATS CONTINUE TO LOSE JOBS, CONTINUE TO THINK OBAMA’S AGENDA WORKS – The Pew Research Center has an interesting report out, “How the Great Recession Has Changed Life in America“:

While nearly all Americans have been hurt in one way or another, some groups have suffered more than others. Blacks and Hispanics have borne a disproportionate share of both the job losses and the housing foreclosures. Young adults have taken the biggest losses on the job front. Middle-aged adults have gotten the worst of the downturn in house values, household finances and retirement accounts. Men have lost many more jobs than women. And across most indicators, those with a high school diploma or less education have been hit harder than those with a college degree or more.

Whether by choice or necessity, many Americans have already significantly scaled back their pre-recession borrow-and-spend habits. According to government data, household spending has gone down, savings rates have gone up, consumer credit has remained stable and mortgage debt has plunged during this recession.

…

Blacks and Hispanics are more upbeat than whites. The young are more optimistic than middle-aged and older Americans. And Democrats are more upbeat than Republicans, even though Democrats have lower incomes and less wealth and have suffered more recession-related job losses.

…

One likely explanation for these seemingly counterintuitive patterns is that in an age of highly polarized politics, Democrats and Republicans differ not only in their values, attitudes and policy positions, but, increasingly, in their basic perceptions of reality.

With regard to young people losing their jobs, recall: increases in the minimum wage do NOT help the unemployed or the working poor. The recent increases in the minimum wage, after Democrats took control of Congress in 2006, should be filed under the growing list of failed Democratic policies.

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THANKS, BUT NO THANKS – In another indication that Democrats bet the farm on their agenda, and will now lose because of it, the Washington Post’s POST POLITICS reports that Wall Street develops a huge case of buyer’s remorse:

The drop in support comes from many of the same bankers, hedge fund executives and financial services chief executives who are most upset about the financial regulatory reform bill that House Democrats passed last week with almost no Republican support. The Senate expects to take up the measure this month.

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ENOUGH MONEY FOR A HOCKEY TEAM – The White House has released its annual salary data for 2010, and Emily Long at Government Executive has the breakdown on how they’ve decided to spend this $39 million payroll:

The administration is required to submit payroll statistics to Congress annually. In 2010, 437 White House full-time employees account for nearly $35 million in salary spending. One part-time staffer earns $21,000, and 31 temporary workers on detail from other agencies earn a combined $3.8 million.

Twenty-four senior officials earn $172,200, the highest salary for full-time personnel. White House senior advisers David Axelrod and Valerie Jarrett, along with Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, Jon Favreau, the president’s speechwriter and Carol Browner, director of the Office of Energy and Climate Change Policy, are included in the top pay grade. Two detailees, Timothy Love and Michael Hash, each earn $179,700 — the highest salary among the 470 employees included in the data. Love and Hash both work on health care issues, and their titles are policy director and deputy director, respectively.

Rank-and-file employees such as analysts, staff assistants and schedulers earn between $40,000 and $60,000, while special and deputy assistants to the president and other advisers make lower six-figure salaries. Three staffers earn nothing for their work. On average, White House employees earn nearly $83,000.

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GOD DAMMIT, BARRY, WE’RE PISSED OFF…WHY AREN’T YOU? – Benedict Carey at the New York Times thinks Barack Obama needs to get in touch with his feelings (yes, seriously):

The longing for President Obama to vent some fury at oil executives or bankers may run far deeper than politics. Millions of people live or work with exasperatingly cool customers, who seem to be missing an emotional battery, or perhaps saving their feelings for a special occasion. People who — unlike the mining operators in the gulf — have a blowout preventer that works all too well.

Sang-froid has its place, especially during a crisis; but so does Sigmund Freud, who described the potential downside of suppressed passions. Those exhortations being directed at the president could be just as easily be turned on countless co-workers, spouses, friends (or oneself):

Lose it. Just once. See what happens.

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THOSE POOR RATS – Eggheads at Yale University have achieved a breakthrough in lung regeneration, using lab rats:

It’s an early step toward one day building new lungs: Yale University researchers took apart and regrew a rat’s lung, and then transplanted it and watched it breathe.

The lung stayed in place for only an hour or two, as the scientists measured it exchanging oxygen and carbon dioxide much like a regular lung. Still, the work is a step in the science-fiction-sounding hunt for ways to regenerate damaged lungs, although lead researcher Laura Niklason cautions that it may be 20 or 25 years before a build-a-new-organ approach is ready for people.

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HOW ABOUT BETTER PARENTING? – Yale is Yale, and the University of Central Florida has a program designed to ferret out cheaters:

No gum is allowed during an exam: chewing could disguise a student’s speaking into a hands-free cellphone to an accomplice outside.

The 228 computers that students use are recessed into desk tops so that anyone trying to photograph the screen — using, say, a pen with a hidden camera, in order to help a friend who will take the test later — is easy to spot.

Scratch paper is allowed — but it is stamped with the date and must be turned in later.

When a proctor sees something suspicious, he records the student’s real-time work at the computer and directs an overhead camera to zoom in, and both sets of images are burned onto a CD for evidence.

Taylor Ellis, the associate dean who runs the testing center within the business school at Central Florida, the nation’s third-largest campus by enrollment, said that cheating had dropped significantly, to 14 suspected incidents out of 64,000 exams administered during the spring semester.

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And finally, People Magazine delivers their list of favorite actor portrayals of American presidents (both real and fictitious) and they poll to see who you think is best:

Call it civic duty or patriotic pride, Hollywood is no stranger to showing support for the red, white and blue. Actors and filmmakers alike have produced films about protecting and defending our country against everything from terrorists to aliens to giant astroids. Whether based on real-life leaders or leaders created by a screenwriter’s imagination, some of screen’s heaviest hitters have taken their turn portraying the President of the United States. But who served the office best?

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That’s it for now – see you around dinner time!

Let’s be clear about something here. Greece does not have a spending problem. Greece has a central bank problem.

Here in America, we have fared just fine spending egregious amounts of coin on all sorts of things, from bank bailouts to Iraqi wars to Social Security and all manner of things in between. France has done much of the same thing, as have the governments of most major countries. This has caused no problems for any of us, and has made me realize that spending must not be a major problem if everyone is doing it. All is well if we have a central bank to continue funding our spending habit, and our Federal Reserve has most graciously continued assisting us in our spending needs by giving us more currency with which to do this.

So, if history has proven that spending whatever we want is fine, then I must conclude that spending does not damage economies. Greece spent, then their central bank (i.e., the ECB) turned on them. Taking an extreme form of logic as my weapon here, I must conclude that Greece has a central bank problem. The ECB and IMF, in a fit of sheer insanity, have demanded that Greece partake in new austerity measures. What does austerity look like, you might ask?

Greek Austerity

Austerity is the kind of thing that makes people firebomb cops. I want you to think real hard about that. Imagine a cop who hasn’t given you a ticket, hasn’t done anything but stand in front of a building making sure no one gets in. Now imagine the kind of situation where that cop gets firebombed, just for standing in front of a building. Austerity breeds insanity.

Austerity is when the government realizes it doesn’t have money to do anything but provide power and water to you and yours. Maybe. No unemployment checks. No subsidized public transportation. No public schools. No subsidized student loans. No retirement checks. No food stamps. All the people who want to talk to me about the need for American austerity have no idea how much of their entire life is partially subsidized by the government in an attempt to keep you in a state of mind where you won’t throw firebombs at policemen.

I believe that the Greek crisis, coupled with the Audit the Fed measures in Congress, are the first shots in what could potentially become a major issue for the world to face. We aren’t ready to let go of the Fed because we aren’t ready for the Fed to let go of us. So, until you’re capable of growing your own food – don’t talk to me about the end of the Fed. We aren’t ready for it.

(author’s note: My masters is in Historic Preservation, so I studied a bit about urban planning. Unbeknownst to many, what I do (or did, and will do again) is actually a big part of urban planning and economic development. This is probably the first of many blogs about this topic because I find it so interesting! To be honest, I don’t care to read about politics which is why my blogs have been about drag queens and meatwiches. However, I do like to read intellectual theories (the movers and the shakers) and their analysis of today’s economic climate. So as I read up on it, I’ll let you know what I find. It’s fascinating stuff, I promise.)

Imagine a world where you wake up, put on a comfortable outfit, walk into work without fear of being reprimanded for following someone else’s antiquated rules of “professionalism,” and start your day doing a job that you absolutely love. This is a job where you are free to be creative, free to speak your mind (politely, mind you), free to object, free to contribute; a job with little fear of your ideas being squelched by upper management. Now, step outside of your office, or studio, or apartment and look around you. People are skateboarding, biking, running, having conversations, sharing ideas, producing a creative energy that makes people want to live and stay in your city. People are happy. Everyone is free to be themselves; to be creative. This in turn, produces innovative technology, and art, music, and breakthroughs in science…

Does this sound too good to be true? Some people think it might be.

Richard Florida doesn’t. He’s the guy that came up with this utopia dream. Florida, who has a PhD in urban planning from Columbia University has researched and studied for years the theory that a rise in the creative class is shifting the economy. Like right now at this moment. And it is imperative that we prepare for it. What is the creative class? According to Mr. Florida, it is composed of scientists and engineers, university professors, poets and architects, and also includes “people in design, education, arts, music and entertainment, whose economic function is to create new ideas, new technology and/or creative content.” If you don’t fit into this category, no worries, the crux of Florida’s argument is here is that EVERYONE has that capability of being creative. Nobody is exempt. For example, you might be an electrician. This doesn’t mean you don’t have new ideas to contribute to the titillating world of light bulbs and wall wires. Because we know you do!

Why is there a shift? Well, Mr. Florida takes us back to the year 1900, when more than half of the population in the U.S. worked in or around agriculture. A few people worked in the industrial center and less than 5% worked in the creative industry (this includes design, art, entertainment, culture, etc.) As time went on, more and more people left the farm and started working in factories and in more city-based areas. By 1950, more than half of the population worked in the industrial segment of the economy. Farming became more mechanized as technology was growing. But still there was less than 10% of the population working in the creative sector of the economy. The technology boom of the 1980s to the mid 2000s created 25 million new jobs in the creative industry. Manufacturing jobs were and are still declining in number. (And farms? What are farms? ) Currently about a third of the jobs today are creative jobs: science, design, research, art, to name a few. According to Mr. Florida, this recent shift in the economy has changed the kind of communities we want to live in, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the…way we do our hair…

Now, to prepare ourselves for this paradigm shift, change starts at the local level. Cities must abide by Mr. Florida’s “3 T’s: Technology, Talent, and Tolerance.” Technology is important for obvious reasons. Talent must be encouraged and young people must be welcomed and supported, not turned away from employers from lack of experience. These young people have new ideas and fresh energy! Why turn them away? It is also imperative that cities become open-minded and willing to accept all people: gay, straight, Mexican, Irish, black, white…whatever. As Mr. Florida notes, one of the great things about America is the fact that this country was the first to open its doors to immigrants. That’s how we got people like Carnegie, Einstein, Pulitzer, etc. These people all helped shape America and they came from other places! After all, we are the melting pot!

OH MY GOD. Isn’t this fascinating??!!

So, in a nutshell, Richard Florida is this guy who came up with this idea that the “creative class” needs to be nurtured and enticed to different cities throughout the country. This creative energy will then somehow increase productivity, create jobs, stimulate economic growth and lift America back to its feet!! Instead of creating dividing lines, Florida is suggesting that this creative energy will break barriers and create productive conversations that come up with solutions to this big ole mess we made with our economy.

Now, I know that this theory isn’t fool proof. But think about it for a minute; let it marinate. Thoughts?

Next blog: Why people don’t like Richard Florida.

[Blogger's Note: I began this sometime last fall before COP15, but lost track before the holidays; despite my time management ineptitude, these topics are still as timely as ever.]

James Murdoch, son and heir-apparent to conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch, argued near the end of 2009 in the Washington Post that conservatives and conservationists make natural allies…or at least they ought to. It’s a refreshing read, too, because with both major parties playing Alinsky politics it’s easy to forget that, aside from the sum of our available natural resources, our future economic growth and cultural-historical legacy are on the line. In the interest of full disclosure, I have been a fisherman since I could hold a rod and reel, I’m a habitual recycler-reuser-reducer, I really appreciate having had the good fortune to visit some really cool places during my short time thus far on the planet, and I firmly believe that there’s an economic opportunity here – involving the free market – that we don’t (or shouldn’t) want to miss.

Follow me: author David Pink argued in one of his books that right-brained people will rule the world one day. Certainly we can’t get along without the analytical types, but it’s the creative ones – the technological innovators – that have ushered man through various epochs across time and which policy makers seem to agree are the backbone of the American economy (this, by the way is true; small firms’ marginal costs of production are lower than those of larger firms). Pink’s argument goes something like this (and I’m paraphrasing here, not directly quoting):

Raise your hand if you own an iPod.

Lots of you? Good. Keep your hands up.

Now, keep your hands up if you knew you wanted one before they ever had been invented.

No more hands? I didn’t think so.

How could you possibly know you’d want a thing before it came to be? It’s the people thinking about what you want before you know you want it who really transform society – these are the people that reshape and redefine paradigms in a society.

This argument extends to green products, technology, and sustainable services. Glenn Beck may have assassinated Teddy Roosevelt’s character on live television at CPAC this year, but like my good friend J.R. Lind (@jrlind on Twitter) at Nashville Post Business once reminded me, sustainability is good business. Something tells me ol’ Teddy would be awfully proud of today’s Republican Party if they could find a way to get on board with sustainability-as-economic-policy ethos. It’s just going to require re-framing the debate to some degree.

Personally, I liked the way President Obama put it in his State of the Union address:

I don’t like the way the President and progressive Democrats are going about shaping and “solving” the problem…but I liked the way the President put it: whether or not the science is settled is not the chief issue here – there’s an economic opportunity to be had, and in the wake of an unemployment around 10%, it’s time for the Congress to act. We on the Right agree that bad science should not inform policy, but it’s equally important to remember that policy activists and elected officials are NOT scientific experts (unless by coincidence), and to paraphrase Dr. Richard A. Muller, PhD (Physics) the falsification of one area of data does not discredit an entire theory en masse. The Right is terrified that going green will mean capitulation to a radical socialist agenda [sic]; the most devout opponents of anthropogenic warming theory will reject any and all green movements. Of course, new regulatory schemes should be opposed, but it’s possible to look at conservation through our own lens.

Republicans won a major concession in the State of the Union, when President Obama included nuclear energy in his energy strategy. Nuclear power plants will help provide safe, renewable energy, and will create some jobs. Wind and solar will take a similar nibble out of the jobless numbers – but wind turbines are expensive and inefficient, and solar panels will get more expensive before they get cheaper.

The Right needs to go further. Falling back on small government and low tax rhetoric, too, simply won’t fill the bill – the average American doesn’t take our high polemic seriously anymore (beyond sharing our disdain for the sitting Democratic government – we should recognize that this could only be temporary). Republicans have plenty of momentum in their favor, and, like Rep. Paul Ryan, can seize this opportunity before sliding backward into campaign mode this year. Here’s the good news: it’s entirely possible to be green and pro-business all at once.

The government contracting apparatus provides the perfect setting for a pilot program to see the benefits of sustainability, with minimal impacts to the private sector. Last fall, President Obama signed an executive order establishing sustainability goals for greening up facilities and processes across the federal government, including prime and subcontractor goods, facilities, and practices. Contracting and procurement reform in this area – since it has to take place anyway in order for businesses to comply with as-yet undetermined standards and definitions – is our chance to establish a tiered, incentive-based approach to green business. Rather than allowing the federal government to bludgeon businesses everywhere by standing up new regulatory apparatuses with cap-and-trade schemes, the Right should prop up a reformed procurement system which gives preference in the awards process to contractors who meet certain tiered sustainability goals.

This is also a nice way for traditionally pro-Big Business Republicans to throw a nice-sized bone to small businesses, since the marginal costs of pollution abatement are lower for small firms than they are for large firms; the costs of risk-taking in green innovation are also smaller. The conclusion of this policy approach is a set of sustainability practices in the contracting environment (no pun intended) which can be voluntarily extended into commercial markets by companies who see real long-term benefits from sustainability in procurement space – just like John Q. Public who never knew how awesome the iPod would be before it was invented. Small businesses thrive, costs are lowered, small and large businesses collaborate, and the government is largely kept out of interfering with commercial markets – we merely reform a legacy process for the purpose of achieving a policy objective that has several fringe benefits. There are long-term political benefits to this strategy as well, as there is clearly a well-expressed demand for green products and investments/practices.

We – and certainly I – are a long way off from having an exhaustive, comprehensive approach for going green, framed within the context of our own ideological narratives. But it’s not altogether impossible with a little bit of creative thinking. We don’t have to agree on the science of global warming, but we should probably start from the same basic assumption that sustainability is good for business. Finally, we need to remember that we have a real chance to wrestle this issue away from the Left, but we have to act quickly and intelligently, and remember that committing to this policy arena is not capitulation if we come to the table with our own detailed approaches. Here’s hoping we have a champion on to take the reins and lead the Right into a new era.

Cross-posted at TheNextRight.com