TT`s Lost in Tokyo : obama

Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize; "What For?" asks green group

TokyoTom — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 12:45:00 GMT

Pres. Obama has apparently been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize this morning "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," but there appears to be a few on the left who feel that the award is undeserved.

I copy below an interesting message that I just ran across in my Inbox from the group Green Change; the message - which looks like it could have been written by a libertarian group! (or Glenn Greenwald) - also appears on their webpage:

This morning, President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize "for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples," the Nobel Committee said.

Why?

Did Obama bring peace to Iraq?

No. He continues to station 124,000 U.S. troops there, with tens of thousands deployed perhaps indefinitely.

Did he bring peace to Afghanistan?

No. He has escalated the war there, and is part responsible for the scores of civilian deaths that have occurred there. He has done this despite that most Americans now believe the Afghan war is "not worth fighting."

Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of the Nobel committee said in an interview that "Obama has as president created a new climate in international politics." Has Obama done anything singular to stop the worldwide crisis of climate change?

No. He has spent little or no political capital on the climate crisis, and still refuses to publicly commit the U.S. to strong actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Jagland said that "The Nobel Committee has in particular looked at Obama's vision and work toward a world without atomic weapons." But on this issue, Obama is merely implementing the ideas of the more conservative foreign policy minds of our nation, including Henry Kissinger.

Did he beat the swords of the giant U.S. defense budget into plowshares of peace?

No. In fact, he will soon approve the largest defense bill in our nation's history.

Has he brought home the troops scattered across the world stationed to maintain our empire?

No.

Has he stopped our nation's scandalous weapons trade?

No. The U.S. has expanded its weapons trade. We now supply 2/3rds of the world's foreign armaments.

Did Obama sign the cluster munitions treaty to ban cluster bombs, because 98% of cluster bomb casualties are children?

No. The U.S. has not signed the cluster munitions treaty.

Has Obama brought home the army of mercenaries we have stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan?

No. He has expanded the ranks of these mercenaries to 250,000.

There are millions of people across our world who spend their blood and sweat every day for peace -- real peace. Each and every one of them deserves the Nobel Peace Prize far more than Barack Obama.

Best,

Gary Ruskin
Co-founder
Green Change

P.S. If you like our work, please help us reach our $25,000 fundraising goal by 12/31. Donate $15 or whatever you can today.

So why WAS Obama awarded the Peace Prize? A cynic might wonder if it was given to put moral pressure on Obama not to become even more bellicose (towards Iran), and perhaps to encourage him to achieve more.

Obama uses climate change concerns to mandate a slimming of government energy use and carbon footprint

TokyoTom — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:42:00 GMT

I`d like to see how conservatives can figure out how to bitch about Obama`s new executive order. From WaPo on Monday (Juliet Eilerin)

The federal government will require each agency to measure its greenhouse-gas emissions for the first time and set targets to reduce them by 2020, under an executive order signed by President Obama Monday.

The measure affects such things as the electricity federal buildings consume and the carbon output of federal workers' commutes.

"As the largest consumer of energy in the U.S. economy, the federal government can and should lead by example when it comes to creating innovative ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase energy efficiency, conserve water, reduce waste, and use environmentally-responsible products and technologies," Obama said in a statement. "This executive order builds on the momentum of the Recovery Act to help create a clean energy economy and demonstrates the Federal government's commitment, over and above what is already being done, to reducing emissions and saving money."

Each agency must report its 2020 emission targets to the Council on Environmental Quality within 90 days.

Administration officials said they could not estimate the federal government's carbon footprint, since it has never been measured before, but the government ranks as the nation's largest energy consumer. It occupies nearly 500,000 buildings, operates more than 600,000 vehicles and employs more than 1.8 million civilian workers.

Under the executive order, all federal agencies will have to meet a series of environmental targets over the next decade. They include 50 percent recycling and waste diversion by 2015; a 30 percent reduction in vehicle-fleet petroleum use by 2020; and a 26 percent improvement in water efficiency by 2020.

President George W. Bush signed an executive order in 2007 that asked four agencies to draw up regulations to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from cars and trucks by the end of his administration, but didn't ask for specific targets. His move came after the Supreme Court ruled that his administration did not follow Clean Air Act requirements in not regulating greenhouse-gas emissions from motor vehicles.

Okay, I got one: if it applies to "defense" spending, how dare Obama cripple our ability to defend America!

Steve Milloy criticizes GE’s "smart-meter profiteering" via green mandates, but ignores state grants of "public utility" monopolies

TokyoTom — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 02:54:00 GMT

Anti-enviro gadfly Steven Milloy has a new blog post up that rightly skewers the green mandates that are providing a taxpayer-funded stream of business and profits to GE. Notes Milloy:

GE announced today that utility giant American Electric Power (AEP) will purchase 110,000 smart meters from GE. And just how is AEP managing to buy all these smart meters? President Obama and Congress are making us pay for them.

On Sep. 1, AEP applied to the Department of Energy for $75 million in federal stimulus money for the smart meter purchase.

It’s a good thing that GE’s Immelt sits on Barack Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board — how else would the Department of Energy know to direct smart meter purchases to GE?

Of course, AEP isn’t the only conduit for sending federal stimulus money to GE. So far about 50 utilities have applied to DOE for a piece of the almost $4 billion in stimulus money earmarked for smart meter projects.

From an Austrian perspective, what`s wrong with this post? The simple fact that Milloy isn`t interested in problem-solving, but in bashing greens, Dems and GE. If he were a problem-solver, he would be a little less partisan and would devote a little more effort to throw light on some of the underlying factors that fuel green concerns and utility mandates, such a the little problem that states have prevented the development of free power markets by granting "public utility" monopoly status to local power providers, as I have noted in a number of posts.

A problem-solver might also devote some time to examining the entanglement of the state with other rent-seeking corporations, such as the coal producers; but those trapped in partisan, rent-seeking games are often good only at seeing the flaws of those whom they criticize, while ignoring the way that they themselves are co-opted by other rent-seekers.

I left Steven the following comment:

Steven I think your criticism of GE is fair, but it`s clearly lacking in context.

Where`s your post criticizing the states for their continuing grant of monopoly status to “public utilities”, which is the chief reason why there is no free market in providing power to consumers? With a free markets, we`d have seen smart meters like GE`s years ago, and there would be no basis for all of these “green power” mandates.

Obama-Man Can! Laugh (and cry) at this spoof by Canadian comedian Greg Morton

TokyoTom — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 02:04:00 GMT

A buddy sent me this and I just had to pass it on: (Please visit the site to view this media)...(read more)

Executive compensation: Robert Wenzel sees a "United States of Obama"; I see people too frazzled to give a screwdriver to a those who only have a hammer

TokyoTom — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 08:54:00 GMT

Robert Wenzel has a couple of posts up on his blog that rightly ring alarm bells about the plans of the Obama administration to seek legislative changes that would allow regulators to oversee executive compensation (1) in the financial sector ("...(read more)

Bob Murphy, the Heritage Foundation and "green jobs" - ignore coal! We only pay attention to rent-seeking from greens/the left

TokyoTom — Fri, 08 May 2009 13:26:00 GMT

Bob Murphy has recently noted that he is busy at work, doing yeoman`s work in fighting the good battle against stupid "green" or "clean" jobs that the Obama administration and some enviros are pushing. This is fine as far as it goes...(read more)

A note to the American Conservative Union on "Obama's Political Prosecutions of Opponents"

TokyoTom — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 04:47:00 GMT

Although Pres. Obama had earlier indicated he had no intention or interest in pursuing criminal or other public investigations into possible criminal wrong-doing in connection with acts of torture auuthorized by the Bush administration , Obama is now...(read more)

Who are the misanthropes - "Malthusians" or those who hate them? Rob Bradley and others resist good faith engagement despite obvious institutional failures/absence of property rights

TokyoTom — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 17:53:00 GMT

In a series of posts at the self-declared "free market" blog of the fossil-fuel energy industry funded Institute for Energy Research , energy expert Rob Bradley (former Ken Lay speechwriter and Enron policy wonk) explores his dark forebodings...(read more)

Empowering power consumers: Google beta tests software to give consumers real-time info

TokyoTom — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 09:34:00 GMT

"If you cannot measure it; You cannot improve it." -- Lord Kelvin Consistent with its mission to "organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful," Google , whose climate change-related efforts...(read more)

Update from Rob Bradley: My BOOKS prove that I`m a free-marketer! (That`s why I`m free to boost fossil fuels and bash enviros on my blogs!)

TokyoTom — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 09:55:00 GMT

I noted in a previous post that Rob Bradley , CEO of the Institute for Energy Research and lead blogger at MasterResource , has cheered on big coal and bashed what he calls "Malthusian anti-energy crusaders", but ignoring while he does so the...(read more)

Rob Bradley cheers on coal, but are all those who want to better manage commons and environmental impacts "Malthusian" idiots, or only in the case of coal?

TokyoTom — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:54:00 GMT

Rob Bradley has a new post up at MasterResource , cheering on big (and now "clean") coal, which has apparently received assurances from the Obama administration - after being bad-mouthed by NASA scientist Jim Hansen , Steven Chu and Obama himself...(read more)

It's finally beginning to look alot like Fitzmas - for corrupt Dems: Illinois Gov. Blagojevich arrested for trying to auction Obama's Senate seat

TokyoTom — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 05:27:00 GMT

US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald , who disappointed by bagging only Cheney 's assistant Scooter Libby in connection with the White House planned unmasking of CIA agent Valerie Plame , is in the news again - this time to the cheers of Republicans - as...(read more)

Beggar's Banquet: a note on bailouts to the NYT's Tim Egan

TokyoTom — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 13:23:00 GMT

Timothy Egan , reporter, acclaimed book author and current columnist at the New York Times , posted an honest and understandably confused piece last week , in which he called for a temporary end to the frenzy of Bush-era socializations and wealth-transfers...(read more)

Fein on Iraq: Obama should unilaterally limit Presidential discretion by rejecting the AUMF

TokyoTom — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 05:34:00 GMT

Good idea, Bruce , but do you really expect Obama to bite, and thereby drastically reduce his own discretion? Obama already has George W. Bush and Congress to blame for the war - what important advantage does he gain by claiming the AUMF was an unconstitutional...(read more)

Progressives urge Obama to invest in fast reactors to recycle nuclear "waste"

TokyoTom — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:48:00 GMT

Is the Progressive Policy Institute signalling an Interest by Obama in making greater use of nuclear power? A November 7 press release, the PPI specifically urges in the headline that "Dealing with Nuclear Waste; America Must Emulate France's...(read more)