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Obama issues do-or-die warning on recession
Ewen MacAskill, Guardian
President-elect Barack Obama set out an apocalyptic vision of America's economic future yesterday as he warned Congress to speed up adoption of his New Deal-style stimulus package.

"We start 2009 in the midst of a crisis unlike any we have seen in our lifetime - a crisis that has only deepened over the last few weeks," Obama said in a speech attended by governors and mayors.

He portrayed an America in which jobs are disappearing at rates not seen since the 1930s, businesses are struggling, manufacturing is at a 28-year low and families are unable to pay bills and mortgages.
(9 January 2009)

A $2 trillion bet on powering America
Steve Hargreaves, CNNMoney
The stimulus plan might jump-start investments, which could drastically change how we use electricity.
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For years we've been hearing about the nation's crumbling and outdated electricity grid.

The 2003 blackout that plunged 50 million people into darkness was a wake-up call. Then this summer T. Boone Pickens, who's planning on investing billions in building wind farms, called for massive investments to revamp our nation's aging grid, so that it can handle wind power distribution.

On Thursday, President-elect Barack Obama called for a similar investment, perhaps billions, to begin work on a new "smart" electric grid to replace the nation's old, fragmented and inefficient system.

"We'll also do more to retrofit America for a global economy," Obama said in a speech stumping for the passage of a massive government stimulus plan to jumpstart the economy, expected to pass Congress in the next few weeks. "That means updating the way we get our electricity by starting to build a new smart grid that will save us money, protect our power sources from blackout or attack, and deliver clean, alternative forms of energy to every corner of our nation."
(8 January 2009)

Greening the Ghetto
Elizabeth Kolbert, New Yorker
Can a remedy serve for both global warming and poverty?
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A few months ago, Van Jones, the founder and president of a group called Green for All, went to visit New Bedford, Massachusetts. His first stop of the day was the public library, where someone had assembled an audience of about thirty high-school dropouts. They leaned back in their chairs, hands in the pockets of their oversized sweatshirts. A few appeared to be stoned.

Jones, who is forty, is tall and imposing, with a shaved head and a patchy goatee. He wears rimless glasses and favors dark clothing. On this particular day, he was wearing a black turtleneck, black jeans, black boots, and a charcoal jacket. He was introduced by a community organizer and aspiring rapper, who described him as “a leader with answers,” a “genius from the hood, similar to our own,” and a youthful version of Barack Obama. When it was his turn to speak, Jones rejected the lectern that had been set up for him, saying that it reminded him too much of college.

“I love Barack Obama,” he said. “I’d pay money just to shine the brother’s shoes. But I’ll tell you this. Do you hear me? One man is not going to save us. I don’t care who that man is. He’s not going to save us. And, in fact, if you want to be real about this—can y’all take it? I’m going to be real with y’all. Not only is Barack Obama not going to be able to save you—you are going to have to save Barack Obama.”
(12 January 2009)

Porn industry seeks federal bailout
Rebecca Sinderbrand and Mark Preston, CNN via political ticker
Another major American industry is asking for assistance as the global financial crisis continues: Hustler publisher Larry Flynt and Girls Gone Wild CEO Joe Francis said Wednesday they will request that Congress allocate $5 billion for a bailout of the adult entertainment industry.

“The take here is that everyone and their mother want to be bailed out from the banks to the big three,” said Owen Moogan, spokesman for Larry Flynt. “The porn industry has been hurt by the downturn like everyone else and they are going to ask for the $5 billion. Is it the most serious thing in the world? Is it going to make the lives of Americans better if it happens? It is not for them to determine.”

Francis said in a statement that “the US government should actively support the adult industry's survival and growth, just as it feels the need to support any other industry cherished by the American people."
(7 January 2009)
Insert witty comment HERE. -BA