The cast of characters here at Energy Matters suffer from a clear obsession for saving energy.
WASHINGTON — I left the Glenn Beck rally worried that I didn’t have much of a story.
WASHINGTON — There are times when I flirt with the notion that the country would be better off with divided government.
WASHINGTON — Congress has acted, after a cruel delay, to renew the extension of unemployment benefits. Those who are unemployed through no fault of their own will be eligible to collect benefits for as long as 99 weeks. This is an awfully long time, and it raises the question: Is Congress subsidizing slackers? To put it in a slightly less provocative way, do the beefed-up benefits encourage people not to work?
WASHINGTON — Elena Kagan, no surprise, did not live up to the Kagan standard of openness in answering questions during her confirmation hearing. Mitch McConnell did not live up to the McConnell standard of deference in voting against her.
WASHINGTON — Stop procrastinating. That is always good advice, and always hard to heed. But in some situations procrastination is more damaging than others. One of those involves getting the country’s fiscal health in order. The latest advice to stop procrastinating — or, perhaps more important, the latest explanation of why procrastinating will only make matters worse and the fix that much more painful — comes courtesy of the Congressional Budget Office, and its new report on the long-term budget outlook (http://tinyurl.com/25a7chn).
WASHINGTON — If I were President Obama, I’d be seriously rethinking James Clapper’s nomination to be director of national intelligence. At the very least, I’d call him in — along with the umpty-ump other intelligence chieftains — and order up another look at the serious problems with the sprawling intelligence bureaucracy exposed by The Washington Post.
WASHINGTON — I owe Sarah Palin an apology.
WASHINGTON — As a matter of policy, President Obama’s nomination of Donald Berwick to oversee Medicare and Medicaid was inspired: Berwick, co-founder of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, is the country’s leading evangelist for the proposition that it is possible to deliver higher quality medical care at a lower cost. He’s not only preached that gospel; he’s shown that it can be translated into reality.
WASHINGTON — And sometimes, life imitates farce.
WASHINGTON — What is this, middle school? I was all set to sit down and write about women in politics, and applaud Tuesday’s results, when off pops the new Republican nominee for senator from California, Carly Fiorina, with a comment that takes you back to the cattiness of the school cafeteria.
To my dear friends and patients of my Lopez and San Juan Island communities (Orcas and Shaw please don’t feel left out, it’s just I don’t know as many of you.)
WASHINGTON — “You don’t have to drink. You just have to pay.”
