"The President visited DeSoto Next Generation Solar Energy center, billed as the largest solar photovoltaic center in the country. The company's 90,500 solar panels are able to generate about 42,000 megawatt hours each year, but the project cost $150 million to build and only provides power to 3000 homes, prompting critics to say the administration doesn't have an overall energy strategy."
I have no objection in principle at all about these cuts in pay. This is not intrusion into free enterprise. These enterprises are not private or free. They are wards of the state. They ran themselves into the ground, and they are now partially or largely owned by the government.
So the government has every right to intervene and dictate salaries.
But the question is a practical one. Is it smart if you're a shareholder in the company, as we all are, and thinking of its future and the ability to repay the loan, is it smart to institute a cut this drastic?
The obvious danger is that if the cut is too large, it will induce the people who run it and who presumably know how to run it to go elsewhere.
So, to me, it is a practical decision, and the fact that Obama was hands-off on this and he left it in the hands of someone who's an expert in this area I think is the right decision. Obama is not an executive. He is not a businessman. He ought to leave it to Feinberg, who in these negotiations has become expert, so I think it was handled the right way.
May 16, 2008
http://afp.google.com/article/
Pitching his message to Oregon's environmentally-conscious voters, Obama called on the United States to "lead by example" on global warming, and develop new technologies at home which could be exported to developing countries.
"We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times ... and then just expect that other countries are going to say OK," Obama said.
"That's not leadership. That's not going to happen," he added.
"He's from Hawaii, O.K.?" said Mr. Obama's senior adviser, David Axelrod, who occupies the small but strategically located office next door to his boss. "He likes it warm. You could grow orchids in there."
]]>Twenty-three percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday say that Cheney is the country's worst vice president, when compared with his predecessors.
An additional 41 percent feel that Cheney is a poor vice president, with 34 percent rating him a good number two.
Notice the last comment. 34% say he is a good "number two". I couldn't agree more. If someone asked me if I thought Cheney was a good number two, I'd answer enthusiastically in the affirmative and carefully describe which "number two's" I've personally expelled that he most reminds me of.
Add all those numbers up and 64% think he is a failed VP and 34% think he is merely a piece of crap. My faith is restored.