Bloom box

I had written about energy solutions on July 15 2008 - Just reminded of while i was browsing today, i have found this on CBC News - 60 minutes which i like to add here as list of creative ideas:

Link to Last post:
http://myrandomviews.blogspot.com/2008/07/few-creative-ideas.html

In the world of energy, the Holy Grail is a power source that's inexpensive and clean, with no emissions. Well over 100 start-ups in Silicon Valley are working on it, and one of them, Bloom Energy, is about to make public its invention: a little power plant-in-a-box they want to put literally in your backyard.

You'll generate your own electricity with the box and it'll be wireless. The idea is to one day replace the big power plants and transmission line grid, the way the laptop moved in on the desktop and cell phones supplanted landlines.

It has a lot of smart people believing and buzzing, even though the company has been unusually secretive - until now.

They have few impressive names as first clients: Google, Fedex, eBay, Walmart,Staples to list some.

Review is good and is a working technology...

Oh and here is the link to CBS for this article: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6228923n

Biden Says...

In yesterday Health summit:

BIDEN: "I'm always reluctant, after being here 37 years, to tell the people what the American people think. I think it requires a little bit of humility to be able to know what the American people think. But ‑‑ and I don't. I can't swear I do. I know what I think. I think I know what they think. But I'm not sure what they think."

So does it mean, he is admitting after 37 years (Experienced VP of no experience - President) he has no clue what American people thinks.

I have put it here - you decide...

State of the Helathcare Bill

I am blamed to copy paste the content from Fox (And Friends)... I have found this on one news website - guess who is saying this, And i mean Guess don't Google:

Overall health care reform bills passed by the House of Representatives and the Senate are unpopular. 48 percent saying lawmakers should work on an entirely new bill with .Twenty-five percent of people questioned in the poll say Congress should pass legislation similar to the bills passed by both chambers, and a quarter saying Congress should stop all work on health care reform.

The survey indicates nearly half of all Democrats say Congress should pass legislation similar to the bills passed by both chambers, with nearly 4 in 10 Democrats saying Congress should start from scratch and just 1 in 10 saying lawmakers should stop all work on health care.

A majority of Republicans questioned, 54 percent, want Congress to start from scratch, with just under 4 in 10 saying lawmakers should halt work on health care reform and just 6 percent saying Congress should pass into law the current legislation.

Fifty-two percent of Independents want Congress to start work on a new bill, with 27 percent saying lawmakers should stop all work, and 18 percent saying that the current legislation should be passed into law.

The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall survey

Poll was conducted February 12-15, with 1,023 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points for the overall survey.

Not sure, when majority of people is oppose to what Washington is doing, why do supposedly elected representatives are doing what they want and not what public want? And that is My View memo....

George W. Obama!!!!!

According to a new Rasmussen reports poll—only 22% of Americans strongly approve of the job President Obama is doing as president. That’s the lowest in his presidency. 41% strongly disapprove—a 19 point gap. Overall his approval is floundering at only 45 percent while 54 percent disapprove.

And all of this with a level of support from the press that a Republican could only dream of. Remember the complaints about George W Bush? He was barely paying attention to what was going on. He was always on vacation playing golf. It was so prominent that Michael Moore made Bush playing golf the trailer of Fahrenheit 9-11.

Yet—in the first 9 months of his first term—Obama had already played as much golf as Bush had in almost 3 years. The media? Largely silent. Maybe they were being quiet so that they wouldn’t disturb the President’s drive on the 5^th hole. Shhhhhhhhh.

But President Obama doesn’t only set records on the links (and of course, in spending.) Let’s go back to the Bush administration again. Throughout his presidency we were told by the media that his administration was far too closed. There was no access to the president. He just wouldn’t face reporters.

Fast forward to Obama. He has now broken George W Bush’s record —and has gone 216 days without a formal press conference. The last one he had? Remember the disaster of the “police acted stupidly” press conference? Now, I guess if that were my last press conference, I might go 216 days without another too. But, where is the press on this? I know they don’t care about being fair to conservatives, but shouldn’t they at least be concerned about being treated fairly themselves?

Boom and Bust Economy

Time is hard, and every one has to tight the belt in this hard time..

I just want to say one thing:
As Americans come to grips with the deepening economic crisis, it might help to remember that the American economy is one of incredible highs followed by difficult lows. Every economic boom in this country has been followed by an equally dramatic bust, and if history is any guide, this too shall pass.

History lesson - US Economy



This is just a picture, please visit this link you can see interactive graph and learn about each period of time of Boom and Bust of US Economy

http://www.nydailynews.com/money/useconomytimeline/index.html

Pelosi lashes out at President

Nancy Pelosi had some harsh words for the President on the lack of jobs - even though the unemployment numbers dipped slightly. Pelosi told the President he was the worst since Herbert Hoover on jobs adding, "Job losses are taking a real toll on the financial security of American families" while noting that "while the national unemployment rate dropped slightly, it still stands at a near record high."

Only one problem: these were Pelosi's words to President Bush in 2003. Ooops.....

Source:
http://www.house.gov/pelosi/press/releases/Aug03/prWherearetheJobs080103.html

Let me give some information to Ms. Pelosi, may be she can change the date and resend this memo to President Obama too.

3.6 Million jobs are lost in last 13 months - last i checked 3.6 million is more than 3.2 million...

Here is graph for comparison:



Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/06/job-loss-chart-what-36-mi_n_164828.html

Lobbyist or not Lobbyist: that is the question

This reminds me of Shakespere when I heard this in State of the Union Speech. On the other hand, don't Exceptions proves the rule... or may be... A lobbyist a day helps keeps accountability away.

The Times of India claimed that Barack Obama had appointed seventeen lobbyists to high government positions in the first 14 days of his administration. Politico provided a list of twelve of these, a handy reference with which we can start building our lists of “exceptions” to the Obama Administration Ethics Policy:

Here are former lobbyists Obama has tapped for top jobs:

• Eric Holder, attorney general nominee, was registered to lobby until 2004 on behalf of clients including Global Crossing, a bankrupt telecommunications firm [now confirmed].
• Tom Vilsack, secretary of agriculture nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year on behalf of the National Education Association.
• William Lynn, deputy defense secretary nominee, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for defense contractor Raytheon, where he was a top executive.
• William Corr, deputy health and human services secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until last year for the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, a non-profit that pushes to limit tobacco use.
• David Hayes, deputy interior secretary nominee, was registered to lobby until 2006 for clients, including the regional utility San Diego Gas & Electric.
• Mark Patterson, chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, was registered to lobby as recently as last year for financial giant Goldman Sachs.
• Ron Klain, chief of staff to Vice President Joe Biden, was registered to lobby until 2005 for clients, including the Coalition for Asbestos Resolution, U.S. Airways, Airborne Express and drug-maker ImClone.
• Mona Sutphen, deputy White House chief of staff, was registered to lobby for clients, including Angliss International in 2003.
• Melody Barnes, domestic policy council director, lobbied in 2003 and 2004 for liberal advocacy groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, the American Constitution Society and the Center for Reproductive Rights.
• Cecilia Munoz, White House director of intergovernmental affairs, was a lobbyist as recently as last year for the National Council of La Raza, a Hispanic advocacy group.
• Patrick Gaspard, White House political affairs director, was a lobbyist for the Service Employees International Union.
• Michael Strautmanis, chief of staff to the president’s assistant for intergovernmental relations, lobbied for the American Association of Justice from 2001 until 2005.

This doesn’t count Tom Daschle, who never registered as a lobbyist but got paid millions for his political connections in pursuit of preferential treatment for his clients in the health-care industry. The AP notes this in today’s look at the Lobbyist Administration:

Sloan and others said embarrassments over Daschle, one of several top Obama appointees with a history of influencing government for clients, should not detract from the president’s first-day vow to sharply limit the role of lobbyists in his administration.

Daschle, a former senator tapped to head Health and Human Services, is not technically a lobbyist. But he was paid more than $5.2 million over the past two years as he advised health insurers and hospitals and worked in other industries such as energy and telecommunications.

Fred Wertheimer of Democracy21 is one of Washington’s best-known advocates of more open and honest government. He called Obama’s executive order “unprecedented and almost revolutionary in nature” and “a direct attack on the culture of Washington and the way business is done here.”

“A few waivers will not undermine it,” he said, provided they are justified and limited.

Limited? kind of governing philosophy is that, if not a big “For Sale” sign on the White House, at least according to Obama’s own anti-lobbyist rhetoric on the campaign trail?

Wertheimer demonstrates all that is wrong with these ersatz watchdog groups who really only are interested in partisan outcomes. Can anyone seriously believe that Wertheimer would have had the same orgasmic reaction if George Bush had written that ethics policy and spent every day afterwards violating it? Does he really expect anyone to believe that words matter more than action?

Well, the media might buy it, gauging by their coverage of this issue, but perhaps not for long. If the AP has started to point it out, even this mildly, others may soon follow.