Day: September 18, 2008

Candidates And Science

What follows is a digest of their answers, as posted by Science Debate 2008. The private group, in an effort endorsed by leading scientific organizations, has worked since November to get candidates to articulate positions on science policy. The full answers are at www.sciencedebate2008.com.

iencedebate2008.com.

INNOVATION Mr. Obama calls for doubling federal budgets for basic research over a decade and supports broadband Internet connections “for all Americans.” Mr. McCain stresses policies to provide “broad pools of capital, low taxes and incentives for research in America,” as well as the streamlining of “burdensome regulations.” Mr. McCain also said Congress, “under my guiding hand,” adopted wireless policies that “spurred the rapid rise of mobile phones and WiFi technology.”

CLIMATE CHANGE Both candidates talk of human activities’ warming the planet, with Mr. McCain saying that they “threaten disastrous changes” and Mr. Obama that “they are influencing the global climate.” In terms of 1990 levels of carbon emissions, Mr. McCain would ultimately have the nation’s output drop by 60 percent and Mr. Obama by 80 percent.

ENERGY Mr. Obama would increase federal investment in clean energy by $150 billion over a decade, including research on alternative fuels and conservation. Mr. McCain would speed the building of 45 new reactors and make government “an ally but not an arbiter” in developing alternative energy sources.

EDUCATION Both candidates advocate policies to develop a highly skilled workforce, partly with cash incentives for teachers. Mr. McCain would put $250 million into a program to help states expand online education.

NATIONAL SECURITY Mr. Obama would put his administration “on a path” to doubling federal spending on basic defense research. Mr. McCain is much less specific, speaking of ensuring “that America retains the edge.”

GENETICS RESEARCH Both laud the potential benefits and point out the social dangers, with Mr. Obama saying he backed the recently passed Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act. Mr. McCain speaks of “a new green revolution” in food development.

STEM CELLS Both support federal financing for embryonic stem cell research.

SPACE Both candidates say they want to revitalize space exploration, with Mr. McCain calling for “new technologies to take Americans to the Moon, Mars and beyond.” He also suggests possibly extending the space shuttle’s life. Mr. Obama would re-establish a White House Space Council to coordinate all the nation’s space efforts, including ones intended to aid understanding of climate change and expand “our reach into the heavens.”

This is just my small way of letting the voter know where each of the candidates stands on certain issues.  Maybe it will help them make an informed choice in november.

Candidates And Health Care

This is a piece written by Perry Bacon Jrin The Trail In WaPo
Barack Obama and John McCain are both proposing more than $100 billion a year in spending for health care, but the candidates’ plans have vastly different goals, and vastly different outcomes. New studies from the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center and the policy journal Health Affairs suggest that Obama’s proposal would eventually cover more than 34 million of the roughly 47 million Americans currently without insurance, while McCain’s would cover at best 5 million uninsured.

Obama’s plan relies on a variety of measures to reduce the number of uninsured, such as increasing the number of people in programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, requiring all children to have insurance and offering subsidies for people who cannot currently afford insurance.

Obama’s plan was crafted with the intention of creating universal health insurance, although both studies suggest some people would remain uninsured. McCain, meanwhile, touts his plan as one that will rely more on the consumer market to reform health care.

Currently, the value of a person’s health care plan is not taxed, creating essentially a subsidy by the government for health care. McCain would tax health benefits while creating a $5,000 tax credit — $5,000 for families or $2,500 for individuals — to subscribe for insurance coverage. The studies assume that millions of Americans will use this credit to purchase health care and that some businesses will drop employees from their health insurance plans, resulting in some people losing insurance as well.

Both proposals would face an uphill climb to becoming law. Virtually all congressional Democrats are opposed to McCain’s health care vision, which they believe would destroy the employer-based health care system and replace it with one that benefits the young and healthy but not people who are older or sick. (Health insurance companies charge much higher prices for people who are older or have chronic illnesses.)

With the federal budget deficit increasing and a huge list of other projects already proposed, it’s not clear that a Democratic Congress would push through Obama’s health-care plan either. Some congressional Democrats are already touting more modest goals, such as making sure that all children have health insurance.

A very simple look at both candidates and their health care proposals and now you decide which is best.

Green technology Is Starting To Take Off

“Green chemistry” start-up Genomatica on Tuesday said that it has developed a process to use sugar, rather than petroleum, to produce a common industrial chemical.

The announcement, timed to coincide with the GoingGreen conference in San Francisco this week, is a milestone for the company which made a business strategy shift last year from developing software for genetic engineering to licensing specially designed micro-organisms.

Its first product is a bacteria tuned to turn sugar during fermentation into 1,4 Butanediol (BDO), a chemical used as an additive to textiles and car bumpers. The company expects to have its first customer next year.

By using sugar from sugar cane as a feedstock, industrial chemical companies can get a cheaper alternative to petroleum-derived chemicals, while investing in processes that are less polluting and nontoxic, said Genomatica CEO Chris Gann.

Gann said that the Genomatica uses simulation software to determine the most expedient way to customize E coli bacteria. Then genetic engineers manipulate genes so that the organisms grow while producing the desired characteristics.

He said that its process will be cost-competitive with petroleum-based products even if the price of crude oil goes down to $50.

I Am Weary: Info Ink Op-Ed

Yes, I said weary!  The economy is in a tailspin with the ground rushing up to meet it quickly.  And yet the media has all these partisan surrogates on to talk the talking points.  It is nothing short of political bullshit.  They, regardless of which camp is speaking, is blaming the other.  Repubs say that Wall Street reform was brought to the Congress for 8 years and not one Dem was signed on.  Dems say that it is the disastrous policies of the Repubs that have lead to this crash.

So who do you believe?  A suggestion–NEITHER.  Only when they start talking specifics and stop the obfuscation of the issue will the “real” story be known.  Maybe the media should ask “real” economists what caused the burn and how to fix it.  These people the media are interviewing, the surrogates, get a cheat sheet on the talking points and that is what you get.  Not the “whole” truth, not necessarily a lie and not clarity just what each camp wants the media to hear and report.

Yes, the media is playing a large roll in this election.  They, journalists, are unhappy with bloggers, why?  Bloggers are not controlled by some media corporation and most likely are telling the truth, whereas the media is allowing the camps to dictate the message to the voter.

So yes, I am VERY weary of the media and their complacency in the obfuscation of the issues, especially the economic crash and burn we are experiencing right now.

Palin On Specifics

First of all there are none…not ever…nowhere.

From MSNBC’s First Read

At last night’s town hall meeting in Michigan, NBC/NJ’s Matthew E. Berger reports, Palin offered to be quizzed on foreign policy issues, but did not give her specific qualifications on international affairs. She was asked what “specific skills” she would bring to the White House on international issues. She responded by saying she was prepared and has the confidence to be vice president, but did not enunciate them. “I have that readiness and if you want specifics with specific policy or countries, go ahead, you can ask you can play stump the candidate if you want to,” she said. “But we are ready to serve.”

McCain picked up where she left off, reminding the audience that she is commander of the Alaskan National Guard and had been involved in the construction of the natural gas pipeline in Alaska. He also mentioned that her eldest son is being shipped to Iraq, but mistakenly said he was going as part of the Guard. Track Palin enlisted last year in the Army.

His stay in the army should solve all the economic probs, huh?

Connectile Dysfunction

Sorry for the dlay, but since Katrina my area has had the worse internet connection possible.  They say they are upgrading, but that sucks because it means that I have to work thru my “connectile dysfunction”

Today will be a short day…sorry to all those that are regular readers.