DENVER – The only consensus in the progressive community on energy is that the federal government needs to be spending a lot more money subsidizing alternative energy. Even the amount of money needed is in dispute. The far left Apollo Alliance is calling for $500 billion over ten years while Barack Obama is proposing a relatively modest $150 billion over ten years. The actual size of the spending only really matters if you care about the size of the debt we will pass on to our children. The more immediate …
DENVER – Google CEO Eric Schmidt told an audience here at The Big Tent that the most common question he gets when he travels abroad is why Google insists on “supporting American hegemony.” Schmidt explained that “free speech is not a universal value” and that Google’s commitment to open accessible information is “seen as so obviously American worldwide.” Big Tent host Rachel Maddow earlier pressed Schmidt on Google’s cooperation with China, but Schmidt insisted that the way they worked with Chinese censors (by marking where each censored word or sentence …
DENVER — The sponsors of The Big Tent are definitely taking good care of us bloggers at the Democratic National Convention this week. Bloggers are provided three free meals a day, free smoothies, and after around 1 p.m. free beer. This doesn’t even include all the purveyors of organic snack products roaming around offering samples. Organic chocolate is a little grainy, but still quite delicious. The only problem is that everything mentioned above comes in some sort of packaging. That’s when you run into the trash police. Whenever you want …
DENVER — One of Barack Obama’s only legislative accomplishments in the U.S. Senate is the Legislative Transparency and Accountability Act, which passed in September 2007. When he announced his candidacy in Springfield, Ill., Obama called the bill “the most sweeping ethics reform since Watergate.” Critics from left and right, however, have called it a chilling threat to free speech. This is something to boast about? Obama’s ethics bill sounds good on paper: “strict bans on receiving gifts and meals from lobbyists; new rules to slow the revolving door between public …
DENVER – The left’s relationship with domestic fossil fuel production is growing curiosor and curiousor. Despite Sen. Hillary Clinton’s (D-NY) prime time billing, Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer gave the best received speech last night. It was supposedly on renewable energy, but Schweitzer also said: “we have cut more taxes for more Montanans than any time in history, increased energy production at the fastest rate in the history of Montana.” And where did that ‘fastest rate’ of ‘increased energy production’ come from? Wind accounts for less than 1% of our nation’s …
DENVER — Tonight former President Bill Clinton is supposed to deliver a speech on the official Democratic National Convention theme, “Securing America’s Future.” It is still unclear whether Clinton will stick to his assigned topic, or if he will go off message and defend his presidential legacy. Part of that legacy is the beginning of the online left, specifically MoveOn.org, which was created in 1998 to help defend Clinton from impeachment. MoveOn has since expanded its policy portfolio far beyond sexual harassment lawsuits, and its claimed 3.2 million members are …
DENVER — Ever wonder what promotional materials a non-profit group dedicated to a “sustainable” society might give away at a major convention? Well, take a peak at the official promotional bag (above) for Progress Now’s Big Tent and wonder no more. The lefty magazines, I understand, but that it is a lot of plastic to be giving away for a “sustainable” world. Also, I couldn’t give that Bluetooth ear piece away fast enough. My favorite item was that book there in the middle: It’s too bad things didn’t work out …
DENVER — We always knew the left loved big government central planning of the economy, but we never knew how much they loved it. Also on Bob Kuttner’s “Take Back America: The Economy” panel here in The Big Tent were United Steelworkers President Leo Gerard and Green for All founder Majora Carter. In addition to Kuttner’s “Apollo scale” investment in alternative energy, Gerard called for a “Marshall plan” for green collar jobs and Carter called for a “Green New Deal.” The idea that markets can privately order themselves is completely …
DENVER — American Prospect editor Robert Kuttner doesn’t just foresee huge new deficits in Barack Obama’s administration. He is cheering for them. At an afternoon panel in the Big Tent titled, “Take Back America: The Economy,” Kuttner said, “We need deficits.” Kuttner explained that they are necessary when “an economy is about to go off a cliff.” So where does Kuttner want Obama to funnel his massive new deficit spending? He wants “Apollo scale” investment in alternative energy (no word from Nancy Pelosi if this includes natural gas) and “public …
DENVER – Speaker Nancy Pelosi held a press conference today at Denver’s downtown Union Station and, believe it or not, she came to praise Richard Nixon. It’s not his birthday or anything, but in her continued attempt to find any traction for her energy policies Pelosi praised President Nixon for embarking on his Project Independence in 1974. Nixon was the last American president to implement prices controls on the American economy, and Pelosi had nothing but great things to say about his post OPEC oil embargo efforts to make the …
