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GM’s Schizophrenia: Europe vs America

By Joe Romm on Mar 16, 2007 at 2:20 pm

Here’s an interesting bit of trivia: ‘General Motors is one of the leading users of renewable energy in the North American manufacturing sector, with renewable energy sources representing about 2 percent of its energy use.‘

So why is GM reducing the energy consumed in its factories and not its cars?

A possible answer could be found in Geneva, where GM unveiled the Corsa OPC, a small sports coupe with distinguishing fuel economy. It’s fast, it’s efficient, and it has no future in the U.S. because our car market is so different than that of Europe that GM is not even bothering to introduce the car here.

The Washington Post points this out in their article “Why You Can’t Buy This Car“, which discusses the dual personalities the car manufacturing company indulges on either side of the Atlantic. The primary differences are gas prices (we pay $2.50 versus costs upward of $5/gallon for gasoline in Europe) and our thirst for all things huge – cars, SUVs, and trucks.

There is also the issue of politics. Certainly one thing to keep your eye on this Congress is the push on CAFE standards, which is causing some of the big guys to throw their weight around on Capitol Hill.

Politics

Was Cummins fired as political retribution?

By Amanda Terkel on Mar 16, 2007 at 2:17 pm

Yesterday in an interview, ousted U.S. attorney Bud Cummins raised the possibility that the Justice Department may have fired him because he decided to investigate “alleged corruption by Republican officials in Missouri amid a Senate race there that was promising to be a nail-biter.” In Jan. 2006, Cummins began looking into allegations that Gov. Matt Blunt (R) had “rewarded GOP supporters with lucrative contracts.” By June, the Justice Dept. had fired him. “Now I keep asking myself: ‘What about the Blunt deal?’” said Cummins.

UPDATE: In a message to TPMmuckraker, Cummins clarified, “I do not know of any connection whatsoever to the Missouri investigation and my firing. I am not asking myself (or anyone else) about that.”

Security

CIA Director Hayden: ‘Wilson Was Covert’

By ThinkProgress on Mar 16, 2007 at 1:52 pm

During House hearings today, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) announced that CIA Director Gen. Michael Hayden recently told Reps. Henry Waxman (D-CA) and Silvestre Reyes (D-TX) that there was no doubt Victoria Plame Wilson was covert. Cummings — relaying what Waxman had told him — said that Gen. Hayden expressed clearly and directly, “Ms. Wilson was covert.”

Cummings also asked Wilson to respond to the specific claim, made by Victoria Toensing and others, that Plame had lost her covert status because she “had not been stationed abroad within five years.” Cummings asked, “During the past five years, Ms. Plame, from today, did you conduct secret missions overseas?” She answered, “Yes I did, congressman.”

Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/03/toensingvid.320.240.flv]

Transcript: Read more

Yglesias

Triangulation Time!

By Matthew Yglesias on Mar 16, 2007 at 1:47 pm

I sometimes think I should write more blog posts about Nation articles. Where else, for example, will you find someone deciding that March 2007 is an opportune moment to attack the United Nations from the left as just another instrument of American power. That’s not the argument I would make, but there’s much more truth to Perry Anderson’s view of the matter than to the Martin Peretz critique of the UN as a Franco-Arab tool for the oppression of Jews or the Charles Krauthammer notion of the UN as a Lilliputian effort to tie down the mighty Gulliver.

The way I see it, the United Nations has long been a central part of the effort to construct a viable liberal world order. Such a world order would serve an enlightened account of American interests, but would also serve the interests of the overwhelming majority of the world’s people. At its best, postwar American foreign policy has been aimed at using our country’s considerable economic and military power to try to create and sustain a liberal world order. Ideally, that view would face equal-and-opposite attacks from the right and the left and thus stay in the driver’s seat. In recent years, however, the Nationish vision of a country that sticks to a fairly strict posture of self-defense has become incredibly marginalized in political and media circles opening the door for unilateral militarism to start governing the country in a consistent way rather than being a present-but-submerged element in a basic sound policy.

Media

“Clinton Did It, Too!”

By Matthew Yglesias on Mar 16, 2007 at 1:43 pm

You may have heard this defense of the administration’s conduct in purgegate, and you may have heard the refutations, but I just now saw that the Bush administration itself didn’t think Clinton did the same thing and left that insight in writing.

Politics

Snow on Bush involvement: ‘Anything’s possible.’

By ThinkProgress on Mar 16, 2007 at 12:51 pm

Just out from the AP:

The White House on Friday backed off its earlier contention that then-White House Counsel Harriet Miers first raised the idea of firing U.S. attorneys — an act that led to a firestorm of criticism of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

“It has been described as her idea but … I don’t want to try to vouch for origination,” said White House press secretary Tony Snow, who previously had asserted Miers was the person who came up with the idea. “At this juncture, people have hazy memories.” [...]

Asked if Bush himself might have suggested the firings, Snow said, “Anything’s possible … but I don’t think so.” He said Bush “certainly has no recollection of any such thing. I can’t speak for the attorney general. I want you to be clear here: don’t be dropping it at the president’s door,” Snow said.

Yglesias

Sick

By Matthew Yglesias on Mar 16, 2007 at 12:28 pm

I’m looking forward to reading Jonathan Cohn’s forthcoming book, Sick very much. Timothy Noah says it’s great. I’m told you’re not supposed to judge a book by its cover, but you have to admit that his cover looks pretty awesome.

Politics

CAUGHT ON TAPE: Gonzales Lies Under Oath

By Amanda Terkel on Mar 16, 2007 at 12:27 pm

As ThinkProgress noted earlier this week, on Jan. 18, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee, under oath, that the Bush administration never intended to take advantage of a Patriot Act provision that allows the President to appoint “interim” U.S. attorneys for an indefinite period of time, without Senate confirmation.

I am fully committed, as the administration’s fully committed, to ensure that, with respect to every United States attorney position in this country, we will have a presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed United States attorney.

The Washington Post published a front-page story yesterday on these remarks. ThinkProgress has located video of Gonzales apparently lying to Congress. Watch it:

[flv http://video.thinkprogress.org/2007/03/justice18.320.240.flv]

But Justice Department emails from Dec. 2006 released this week show that Gonzales’s then-chief of staff Kyle Sampson intended to use this provision to make an end-run around the Senate:

There is some risk that we’ll lose the authority, but if we don’t ever exercise it then what’s the point of having it?

As the Post reported yesterday, “Gonzales has declined to address the apparent contradictions in detail, saying only that he was unaware of the specifics of the plan that Sampson was orchestrating.” Asked on Wednesday if he thinks any Bush officials have committed perjury, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) said, “We’ll find that out.”

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Transcript: Read more

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