Gristmill (Free subscription) | 5 hours ago
By David Roberts Obama spoke at the Brandenburg Gate yesterday; 100,000 people were expected, 200,000 showed up. This is the moment when we must come together to save this planet. Let us resolve that we will not leave our children a world where the oceans rise and famine spreads and terrible storms devastate our lands. Let us resolve that all nations -- including my own -- will act with the same seriousness...
The Huffington Post (Free subscription) | 07/23/2008
grist.orgThe following is an elaborated version of the brief talk I gave at my Netroots Nation panel.The U.S. economy is in serious trouble, mired in...
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/22/2008
By David Roberts "I'm not a big believer. I think you're going to get a rude awakening as to the value of the East and West coasts when it's opened up and when it's put up for sale. When it's put up for sale, I think you'll be surprised at the price you get for the tracts." -- legendary oilman T. Boone Pickens , speaking to Congress on U.S. offshore drilling
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/22/2008
By David Roberts In response to my rant about Gore on Meet the Press , a certain boss of my acquaintance asked me what questions I would have asked. Here are a few: High gas prices have created extraordinary pressure for a short-term political response, which Republicans are providing with their drilling campaign. What is a better political and substantive alternative? Why did you do so little to...
Cafe Hayek (Free subscription) | 07/23/2008
Both Bryan Caplan and David Friedman think the purpose of boarding pass numbers is to get the people on the plane more quickly. They both want the people in the back to get on first. They are surprised that the...
Talking Chop (Free subscription) | 07/22/2008 | Sports
With some FireJoeMorgan.com spice to it: New Criterion For Being Good At Baseball: YOU MUST IMPRESS David O'BRIEN --- Snap-billed mreetwass From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The snap-billed mreetwass is a legendary creature with the body of a unicorn, the tail of a griffin, the face of a Korean person, and the wings of a leprechaun (if a leprechaun had wings). The mreetwass feeds on DVDs of the...
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/21/2008
By David Roberts Netroots Nation was a blast. It's great to meet and hang out with people you spend all year interacting with as names on emails and blog posts. (As a side note, it's been my experience that most people are more pleasant, interesting, and funny in "meatspace" than you would think from their online personas. I guess we should all remember that about people who drive us nuts on blogs...
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/18/2008
By Holly Richmond Who's that grizzled chap in the plaid? It's our own David Roberts, on a panel earlier today titled "Debunking the Issue Silo Myth: Why the Broader Progressive Movement is Green," at Netroots Nation . His part is about 14 minutes into it:
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 5 hours ago
By David Roberts Following up on this -- I think the Democrats have made a specific and costly error. Consider the following Republican argument: Americans are hurting from high gasoline prices; politicians must act. Therefore, it's the responsibility of Congress to lower gasoline prices. Therefore, we must open up new areas to oil drilling. Democrats have accepted No. 2, but they're trying to fight...
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/24/2008 | Sciences
By David Roberts Republicans have mastered a political technique that seems to work on Democrats every time: the projection of strength. No matter the issue, when it comes up for dispute Republicans claim that Americans support their position; they claim that Democrats are out of touch with ordinary folk; they claim that Democrats are on defensive; they put forward bill after bill, press release after...
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/24/2008
By David Roberts Today, 50 governors -- if you're counting, that's all of them -- sent a letter to Congress (PDF) asking that the tax credits for renewable energy be extended by at least five years: Renewable energy plays an important role in our nation's energy security, and governors have pioneered a wide array of innovative energy policies in their states. To supplement state efforts, governors...
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/23/2008
By David Roberts Reading around on reactions to the latest oil shale hubbub, I keep seeing conservatives saying that greens against dirty energy development are opposing "American jobs." It's important that everyone involved in fighting oil shale -- and other drill-and-burn energy policies -- understand something simple: the U.S. energy sector has very low "labor intensity." That is to say, fossil...
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/23/2008
By David Roberts The following is an elaborated version of the brief talk I gave at my Netroots Nation panel . The U.S. economy is in serious trouble, mired in a period of slow growth and high prices -- i.e., stagflation. Worse, high prices can largely be traced to escalating fossil fuel costs that are almost certain to continue rising for the foreseeable future. Our trade debt is enormous, as we,...
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/23/2008
By Gar Lipow David Roberts comments ruefully on the lack of a clean energy coalition for progressives to join, and on the lack of common talking points on clean energy -- which allows the right eat our lunch on drilling. I've argued in the past that links between greens and progressive are more effective than trying to win the conservative movement over (though individual conservatives should be welcomed)....
Gristmill (Free subscription) | 07/23/2008 | Other
By David Roberts For years, the Teamsters have supported opening the Arctic Refuge and other protected areas to oil drilling; they ran ads bashing John Kerry on it in 2004. So it is a Very Big Deal that the Teamsters have just come out and rejected drilling as a solution to the energy crisis . At an event in Oakland, Calif., Teamsters General President Jim Hoffa said that drilling won't do anything...
