There is no such thing as Clean Coal

I saw this ad played on TV a half dozen times in the hour or so I watched last night.



Yes, the coal plants today are cleaner than the burning of coal 100 years ago, but they are far from clean. The proposed coal plants in Iowa would do nothing to capture the carbon that causes global warming, doesn't capture the mercury that pollutes our water and makes fish unsafe to eat, and do not limit the emittance of small particles that cause athsma. There is no such thing as clean coal right now.

Generation Iowa Recommendations to Stop Iowa's Brain Drain

Yesterday, the Generation Iowa Commission released updated recommendations to keep young people in Iowa.

The commission's report identifies Iowa's strengths, such as being one of top five importers of college students, and that at least 21 percent of Iowans having a college degree. It also identifies the state's weaknesses, such as being among the leading states in the loss of college-educated people, losing those residents at the fourth-highest rate in the nation. The report also cited the state's low wages - ranking nine-out-of-10 in a 10-state region - with wages that are 20 percent lower than the national average. [..]

The group presented a list of initial recommendations to lawmakers last spring. On Wednesday, it issued a second report with four additional recommendations on what can be done to attract and retain more young people in Iowa.

Those include:

-Providing more opportunities for young Iowans to be involved in state boards and commissions.

-Creating more high-wage, higher-education jobs.

-Expanding the Iowa Department of Economic Development Internship program for young Iowans in higher-education-oriented growth industries and link top Iowa college students with internships in small- and medium-sized businesses.

-Expanding education benefits for the AmeriCorps program to attract service-minded and educated young professionals.

Here are the recommendations from last spring from the Generation Iowa Commission.

Hell of an Empire

From Political Wire...

"For a bunch of small-government Republicans, these guys built a hell of an empire."

-- An Obama transition team member who worked in the Clinton White House, quoted by the New York Times, "who has now stepped back inside for the first time in eight years."

John Kerry Speaks about the Need for High Speed Rail

John Kerry speaks about the need for high speed rail at a townhall meeting in Cambridge...

Discussing a Single-Payer Health Care System

Sen. Baucus (D-MT), the chair of the Senate Finance committee, will be at the forefront of the discussions on health care. Baucus said yesterday that the only option that is off the table is a single-payer health care system.

Left in the West, a progressive blog in Montana, had two good posts up yesterday about a single-payer health care system.

Jay Stevens looks at Baucus' plan in Single-payer Health Care v. the Baucus Plan, while Matt Singer takes an in depth look at the difficulties of getting a single-payer health care system passed in Separating Wheat from Chaff on Health Care Policy. He gives these two reasons why...

• Transforming 16% of the Economy is Hard. This is the first argument. Our health care system is simply larger and more complex and more costly than any system in the world. That means that any mistakes we make in the transition are magnified. It means thinking through the details is crucial. What gets covered? What isn't covered? Who processes the claims? Simply because these decisions are made by a government agency instead of by an insurance company, there is no reason to expect that the answers become clear overnight.

  These aren't the only difficult questions. Health insurance companies employ a lot of people. Do we nationalize them, merge them, and start through a round of layoffs? Do we build a national health insurance company and leave the Blues fighting for the high-end scraps (I think it'd be difficult to envision a scenario where the U.S. government literally prohibits private insurance or paying for some forms of care out-of-pocket) and watch as round after round of layoffs commence? How do we evaluate risk models? How do we experiment with cost controls?

• Transforming 16% of the Economy Overnight is Painful. It's hard enough to figure out how to transform the economy, but there is no way to do it without causing massive harm, unless you're looking at a 20-year timeline, or so. Again, the folks in private sector health insurance will largely be let go. Hospital billing departments will also downsize. That's where the administrative savings come from. But these administrative savings, as large as they may be, simply aren't what is ultimately going to make or break the bank when it comes to the higher costs of American health insurance.

  If reining in administrative costs isn't the panacea, but it could be a major source of pain, the question has to be -- why would we try to do it overnight?

A new health care policy will be a hot topic in the first couple years of the Obama administration and I hope to discuss health care at great lengths here.

Chime in with your thoughts.

The Sarah Palin Movie

Canada's Coup?

I have been extremely busy at work this week, so I haven't paid much attention to what is going on in Canada (even thought it seems like pretty big news politically).

This diary at Open Left does a great job of explaining the situation in Canada.

Canada's three Opposition parties have united to replace the governing Conservative Party with a Liberal/NDP formal coalition just six weeks after voters returned the CPC to power with a near parliamentary majority. This is a stunning turn of events.

First off, it isn't a fait accompli just yet, because there is the technical but vital minor detail that Stephen Harper is still Prime Minister, and until the Governor General fires him, or Parliament passes a vote of non-confidence, this historic agreement between three opposition parties is just so much paper and could fall apart in a flash.

What Happened?

Harper started this by overreaching. In the weeks prior, his government has been sticking to a Hooverism line on maintaining the federal budget surpluses, including the finance minister speculating about selling off some major federal assets.

Tomorrow's Slums

A large number of foreclosures, high gas prices, and a greater demand for walkable neighborhoods could make today's suburban homes into tomorrow's slums.

For 60 years, Americans have pushed steadily into the suburbs, transforming the landscape and (until recently) leaving cities behind. But today the pendulum is swinging back toward urban living, and there are many reasons to believe this swing will continue. As it does, many low-density suburbs and McMansion subdivisions, including some that are lovely and affluent today, may become what inner cities became in the 1960s and ’70s—slums characterized by poverty, crime, and decay. [...]

If gasoline and heating costs continue to rise, conventional suburban living may not be much of a bargain in the future. And as more Americans, particularly affluent Americans, move into urban communities, families may find that some of the suburbs’ other big advantages—better schools and safer communities—have eroded. Schooling and safety are likely to improve in urban areas, as those areas continue to gentrify; they may worsen in many suburbs if the tax base—often highly dependent on house values and new development—deteriorates. [...]

But much of the future decline is likely to occur on the fringes, in towns far away from the central city, not served by rail transit, and lacking any real core. In other words, some of the worst problems are likely to be seen in some of the country’s more recently developed areas—and not only those inhabited by subprime-mortgage borrowers. Many of these areas will become magnets for poverty, crime, and social dysfunction.

And They Said That Debate Sucked

The Des Moines Register debate before the caucuses was remembered for a horrible job from the moderator.

However, this clip will be remembered now that Hillary Clinton has official be named Sec. of State in the Obama administration...

5% of Iowa's Children Without Health Insurance

The State Legislature made a goal last session to provide health care insurance to every child in Iowa and it shows from having the 2nd lowest rate of uninsured children of any state.  However, to insure the rest of Iowa's children it looks like they will need help from the federal government.

From Radio Iowa...

A new analysis concludes just over five percent of kids in Iowa are uninsured. "Families U.S.A." executive director Ron Pollack says his group's analysis covers data from 2005, 2006 and 2007, so there are probably more uninsured kids in Iowa today due to this year's economic downturn."

Iowa has the second-lowest rate in the country of uninsured children so Iowa does a lot better than other states across the country," Pollack says, "but it's still no consolation for the 38,000 in the state who are uninsured." Nearly all of the 38,000 uninsured children in Iowa live in a family where at least one parent works full-time, all year long and Mike Owen of the Iowa Policy Project says that's significant."These are children in working families," Owen says. 

"These are children in families that do not have access to health care coverage through their employment."  In March of 2009, the federal government's support of state children's health insurance program will expire and Congressman Leonard Boswell, a Democrat from Des Moines, expects the new president to support extending it.

Watch Out for Toxic Toys This Holiday Season

Daily Kos had this story over the weekend about the Bush administration's loose interpretation of a law to protect children from toxic toys.

Congress in August passed a landmark consumer safety law that raises standards for toys and virtually bans several hormone-like chemicals called phthalates in products for children under 12.

Lawmakers wanted toys with the controversial chemicals to be off the market when the law takes effect Feb. 10, according to a statement from Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., co-author of the ban.

Last week, however, a staff attorney at the agency responsible for carrying out the new regulations — the Consumer Product Safety Commission — released a legal opinion stating that stores may continue to sell toys with phthalates, as long as those items were made before Feb. 10. That could allow toys with phthalates to remain on the shelves for years, with no way for parents to know which toys contain the chemicals, Feinstein says.

Good luck shopping for toys this Holiday season!

Republicans Pick Up House Seat in District 37

Art Staed (D-Cedar Rapids) lost his bid for reelection as the results of the recount in House District 37 by just 13 votes. Republican Renee Schulte was announced the winner yesterday.

Final results showed Schulte with 8,628 votes and Staed with 8,615 votes, according to Linn County Auditor Joel Miller. The three-member recount board began its work Sunday, Nov. 23 and worked all week, only taking a break for Thanksgiving Day.

Democrats will now hold a 56-44 advantage in the upcoming legislative session. Democrats picked up 6 seats, but but lost 3 seats they previously held, for a net of 3 seats.