Is Energy Independence a Pipe Dream?

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John Cassidy:

Although the Democratic and Republican energy plans differ widely, their underlying rationale is the same. In 2003, the United States consumed some twenty million barrels of oil a day, of which slightly more than half was imported from abroad, much of it from the Persian Gulf. By 2020, according to the Department of Energy, domestic oil producers will be meeting less than a third of United States needs, and the Gulf countries will be supplying up to two-thirds of the world?s oil. ?This imbalance, if allowed to continue, will inevitably undermine our economy, our standard of living, and our national security,? the Bush Administration?s National Energy Policy Development Group warned in a May, 2001, report. ?But it is not beyond our power to correct. America leads the world in scientific achievement, technical skill, and entrepreneurial drive. Within our country are abundant natural resources, unrivaled technology, and unlimited human creativity. With forward-looking leadership and sensible policies, we can meet our future energy demands and promote energy conservation, and do so in environmentally responsible ways that set a standard for the world.?

via Ed Cone
Read Daniel Yergin’s The Prize for an excellent “panoramic history of oil”.

Ray Kurzweil on slowing down the aging process

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Leslie Walker:

Inventor Ray Kurzweil takes 250 nutritional supplements a day in his quest to live long enough to reap the benefits he expects from biotechnology. He says he’s trying to reprogram his body, as he would his computer.
“I really do believe it is feasible to slow down the aging process,” Kurzweil told Technology Review magazine’s Emerging Technologies Conference at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology here last week. “We call that a bridge to a bridge to a bridge — to the full flowering of the biotechnology revolution.”

A look at 527 Groups

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Financial Data on 527 Groups
Section 527 political organization must file Form 8872 quarterly with the IRS listing their contributions received and expenditures. OpenSecrets.org has mined these IRS filings and produced a wonderful web site with helpful lists, including:

Forms 8872 filed by ? 527 groups are searchable on the IRS web site. Here are the most recent Forms 8872 filed by some of the “major players” in the 2004 election on both sides of the aisle:

Democrat-Backed Groups:

  • America Coming Together
  • America Votes
  • Billionaires for Bush
  • Media Fund
  • MoveOn.org Voter Fund
  • Sierra Club Voter Education Fund

    • Republican-Backed Groups:

  • Club for Growth
  • Leadership Forum
  • Progress for America Voter Fund
  • Swift Boat Veterans for Truth
  • Taxpayers for Conservative Government

    • For further web commentary, see PLI’s How Fast Can A Swift Boat MoveOn? Election 2004 And The 527 Groups and Corporate Political Activities 2004: Complying with Campaign Finance, Lobbying & Ethics Laws.

    Via Taxprof

    Publicly financed Stadiums: Dallas says no to a giveaway

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    Gary Cartwright:

    THE POSSIBLE RETURN OF THE DALLAS COWBOYS to their 1960 birthplace at Fair Park seemed so right that you just knew it was going to go wrong. Until the Cowboys moved to an Irving freeway intersection in 1971, they were Dallas’s team?all of Dallas, not just the rich suburbs?and certainly not America’s team. But with the announcement in August that the team’s new home would be Arlington, which isn’t even in Dallas County, the dream died, doomed by the laws of physics: the collision of an irresistible force like Cowboys owner Jerry Jones with an immovable object like Dallas mayor Laura Miller and the political inertia that resulted.

    I applaud UW Grad and current Dallas Mayor Laura Miller’s realistic position on this. Quite different than the local Miller Park fiasco….. Background links: Alltheweb | Clusty | Google | Teoma | Yahoo

    Japan: one Gigabit/sec for $40 a month

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    Norie Kuboyama and Tomomi Sekioka:

    Softbank, the second-largest provider of high-speed Internet access in Japan, said Monday that Yahoo Japan and Softbank BB would start offering a new optical fiber-based broadband service. Softbank will provide the service at speeds of up to one gigabyte per second and charge users ?4,200, or $38, a month, the company said in a statement.
    (Surely this is a typo — the word here has to be Gigabit.)
    Softbank and NTT, the nation’s former state monopoly for domestic telephone services, are competing to become Japan’s largest provider of high-speed Internet access . . . NTT last week said that it would cut its basic monthly fee by ?50 in order to compete with Softbank and KDDI, Japan’s second-largest mobile phone company.

    Via David Isenberg