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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for January 22, 2013

by u60uurf Posted on January 22, 2013

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U.S. Army Soldier from the 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division pulls security next to a M2 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicle during Decisive Action rotation 13-03 on Jan. 19, 2013 at the National Training Center in Fort Irwin, Calif. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Eric M. Garland II.

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We’re Still at War: Photo of the Day for January 22, 2013

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Atomic Scientists: Humans Still Pretty Close to Self-Annihilation. Drink!

by u60uurf Posted on January 15, 2013

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Last year, the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved the minute hand on its “Doomsday Clock” one minute closer to midnight. This year, the group of scientists decided to keep the symbolic timepiece at 11:55, signaling that its members don’t believe things are getting any better when it comes to global annihilation.

The clock, which has been around since 1947, was created to symbolize the threat of nuclear power, but now also represents other man-made threats to humanity.

Back in 2010, the group was optimistic, as it elected to set the clock back by one minute. But this year the group says that the world has been consumed by economic threats, to the detriment of other pressing issues like nuclear proliferation and climate change. Members of the BAS wrote a letter to President Barack Obama citing those concerns, and asking him to “partner with other world leaders to forge the comprehensive global response that the climate threat demands, based on equity and cooperation across countries.” They wrote:

2012 was the hottest year on record in the contiguous United States, marked by devastating drought and brutal storms. These extreme events are exactly what climate models predict for an atmosphere laden with greenhouse gases. 2012 was a year of unrealized opportunity to reduce nuclear stockpiles, to lower the immediacy of destruction from weapons on alert, and to control the spread of fissile materials and keep nuclear terrorism at bay. 2012 was a year in which—one year after the partial meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station—the Japanese nation continued to be at the earliest stages of what will be a costly and long recovery.

The group also noted that Obama’s next term provides another opportunity to address these issues:

“We have as much hope for Obama’s second term in office as we did in 2010, when we moved back the hand of the Clock after his first year in office,” said Robert Socolow, chair of the Science and Security Board at BAS. “This is the year for U.S. leadership in slowing climate change and setting a path toward a world without nuclear weapons.”

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Atomic Scientists: Humans Still Pretty Close to Self-Annihilation. Drink!

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Fixing a broken gas tax could fix broken roads

by u60uurf Posted on January 11, 2013

Fixing a broken gas tax could fix broken roads

By Susie Cagle

Too many people are driving too many dang efficient cars in the Pacific Northwest lately, and Washington and Oregon have had enough. Between those efficient cars and a population that’s just generally driving less, gas tax intake has fallen nationwide, meaning less money for road maintenance and repairs that all cars (and bikes!) need. Now some states are looking at new ways to make up the difference.

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Starting next month, Washington will begin taxing electric vehicle owners $100 per year, though with about 1,600 electric cars in the state, that’s not likely to fill those empty coffers. In Oregon, lawmakers are considering a proposal to tax through a flat fee like Washington or by taxing drivers of fuel-efficient cars based on the number of miles they drive. (A new report to the Washington state legislature says a mileage tax there would be “feasible.”)

Some say that taxing based on vehicle miles traveled, or VMT, will be the gas tax of the future not just for West Coast hippies, but for everyone. From CNBC:

Either way, what’s happening in the Pacific Northwest is raising a number of questions. The primary one being: Is it only a matter of time until anybody owning a car or truck is paying a special tax based on how much they drive their car?

Supporters of VMT or per mile taxes point out that electric car and even hybrid car owners are paying nothing or very little to help maintain state roads.

Take a look at the Washington electric vehicle tax and compare it to the state’s current gas tax of 37 cents per gallon. If somebody drives an internal combustion car that gets 30 MPG and they average 12,500 miles driven each year, they’ll pay about $154 a year in state gas tax. By comparison, electric car owners will be paying less at just $100 per year.

On the flip side, critics of VMT or per mile taxes say it’s hypocritical of state governments to promote electrical vehicle ownership and then turn around and tax those who are the “early adopters”.

It might be nice if states provided other incentives for more efficient vehicles, but that’s not really the spirit of the gas tax. If its goal were penalizing and shaming us over fossil fuels, I could understand this annoyance, but it’s not! It’s how we fund our roads. Not that we couldn’t use some shaming, but we could really use some investment in crumbling infrastructure. This is how taxes work! (USA! USA!) We all use the roads, so let’s please all pitch in to fill the potholes. You can still do that while feeling righteously smug, Volt drivers.

Susie Cagle writes and draws news for Grist. She also writes and draws tweets for

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Fixing a broken gas tax could fix broken roads

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Republicans Do Know Jack. Maybe a Little Too Well.

by u60uurf Posted on January 10, 2013

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Last year, Republicans managed to sucker Bob Woodward into believing that the reason they had gotten frustrated with OMB director Jack Lew during the debt ceiling negotiations was that the guy just wasn’t willing to deal. “Jack Lew said no 999,000 times out of a million,” Boehner told Woodward. Then he corrected himself. “999,999. It was unbelievable. At one point I told the president, keep him out of here. I don’t need somebody who just knows how to say no.”

This self-serving fairy tale has entered Washington DC lore, but it’s so at odds with Lew’s previous reputation that it hardly bears scrutiny. Matt Yglesias knocks it down:

But it emerged over the course of the negotiations that John Boehner and other Republicans kept trying to kick Lew out of the room to make a deal. That’s because what Boehner wanted to do was make a deal in which spending cuts would be balanced by flim-flam, and Lew kept saying that the flim-flam didn’t work mathematically. To put a balanced package together, Lew insisted that you needed to have real revenue-increasing tax hikes not just “tax reform” and handwaving. This kept spoiling the party, so Boehner wanted to make deals with Daley—with the political fixer rather than the budget guy. But ultimately you couldn’t get a deal done, because you can’t just smuggle a deal past the OMB.

Pretty much all the evidence suggests that this is exactly what happened. The sticking point in the debt ceiling talks was never Jack Lew, nor was it Barack Obama’s supposed aloofness or poor negotiating skills. It was taxes. Full stop. In the end, the deal breaker was twofold: (a) Boehner wanted nothing more than a smoke-and-mirrors tax increase based on dynamic scoring pixie dust, and (b) he balked when Obama tried to increase his tax ask after the Gang of Six announced a bipartisan deficit plan that included $1.2 trillion in increased taxes.

Deficit negotiations between Obama and Boehner have always foundered on taxes, one way or another. The tea party zealots in the House simply won’t support tax increases of even a dime, and Boehner can’t make them. It’s never been clear to me whether Boehner sincerely wants to make deals and just can’t get his caucus to agree, or if he’s always known that taxes are off the table but is pretty good at spinning reporters into believing that he really tried his best.

In any case, keep this mind when you read about the inevitable Republican kvetching over Lew’s nomination as treasury secretary. It’s mostly just invented nonsense. They don’t like being embarrassed by a guy who keeps trying to drag them back into reality when the subject is budget numbers. That’s what this is really about.

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Republicans Do Know Jack. Maybe a Little Too Well.

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