Bigots afraid of being publicly known as such

There were many bigots associated with the passage of proposition 8 in California, with most of the funding coming from the LDS (Mormon) Church.  

Due to an open initiative in California, all campaign contributions are publicly disclosed.  Obviously, with the unpopularity of proposition 8, some business owners and individuals are receiving scorn from prop 8 detractors now that their names are out there for all to see.

A judge has recently upheld the law, which I consider to be a good one.  Everyone should know where the money is coming from in any political contest, be it a ballot initiative or a presidential election.

There are many wealthy Californians who are on the wrong side of history on this issue.  It is analogous to finding out a business or individual fought against civil rights legislation in the 60s, or voted for George Wallace.

And if I knew that a business had greatly contributed to Prop 8 fundraising, you can bet I'd boycott them.

The first defense cuts

Barack Obama promised to cut ineffective programs, in order to save money that should be spent on domestic ails.  One favorite target of Libertarians like myself is the defense budget, a bloated monster that consumes half a trillion dollars per year.  

And Obama wants to cut it by 10%, or $50B+.  Weapons programs appear to be the likely target.  An example of that would be the missile defense shield we are thinking of deploying in Poland, despite the fact that missiles aren't generally shot at our country.

Another F-bomb on NBC

Charles Gasparino says "fuck" while on CNBC.  He was talking about how stupid it is for Wall Street firms to pay bonuses in the current economic conditions.

The Buy American Clause

The stimulus bill that is currently moving through congress includes a provision that requires that infrastructure projects use only American iron and steel.  Some complain that this will harm American jobs that work in the import/export business.

I disagree that this is unfair.  I think that in this case, it is not a tariff against foreign goods since the federal government is paying the bill.  If they are paying the bill, it should be up to them what materials are used.

Paying for tax preparation

I filed my taxes today. Adding up state and federal, the total cost to file was $0. Now, I did add a $10 (audit support), just in case. But the actual filing of the taxes was free.

Recently, the free-file programs were extended to all taxpayers, not just those who are below a certain income level. I personally like the H&R Block online system.

If you have a very complex tax situation, you'd probably want to hire someone to do your taxes. But if you make under $250,000 a year, I doubt you have a complex tax situation. Filing online will take you about 2 hours as long as you have all your paperwork ready.

One thing to watch out for, is that while federal filing is free, H&R Block and others will try to charge you $30 for state filing. Don't buy it. Once you've got your 1040, just go to your state's website and input the necessary information. State forms are generally much more simple than the federal.

In summary, if you are still paying an accountant to do your taxes, you're throwing money down the toilet. Doing it yourself is a great way to save money in the current economy.

Auto Progress

Finally, the jobs bank is dead.

 

http://freep.com/article/20090129/BUSINESS01/901290396

Bush tries to ban Roquefort

One of George W. Bush's final orders included slapping a 300% tax on Roquefort cheese.  This is a very good cheese that I sometimes enjoy and I think this tariff needs to be rescinded.  It is a blue cheese made from unpasteurized sheep's milk and a special type of mold.

For some reason, a lot of ignorant Americans (like Mr. Bush) do not like France.  I don't understand why, because I have visited the country many times and found the people to be extremely pleasant.  With Mr. Bush, it is most likely that he is angry because the French were right about not going into Iraq.  So he decides to make it harder to buy one of the products that they happen to sell.  

Now, the United States does claim that the reason they are putting this tax on the cheese is because the EU will not accept our hormone laden beef.  However, I myself try to not consume beef from cows injected with hormones so I can't blame them for it.  They are not rejecting all American products, just the ones that happen to be of questionable quality.  It would be like us banning lead toys from China, and the Chinese getting upset.

A Tale of Two Restaurants

Today, Starbucks reported that it missed earnings and will be cutting jobs, closing stores.

Two days ago, McDonald's said it will be opening 1,000 new stores.

In the past couple of years, Starbucks has lost billions of dollars in value, with McDonald's gaining. Is one's loss the other's gain? While it would appear so, I suspect not.

I have to confess, I like both restaurants. McDonald's is not as good as Burger King, Arby's or others, but it feeds you on the cheap. However, if I want a cup of coffee, I'll go to Starbucks and get some Pike. Other places make their coffee much to weak for me. I'm also a big fan of the Doubleshot, iced or in a can, or even +energy.

The problem is that Starbucks exploded. They went from being a small chain of Seattle shops to opening thousands of stores per year. There are so many Starbucks near me that two of them are within a 5 minute walk.

Starbucks thought it could emulate its cool, hip, yuppie, liberal formula (which fits me perfect) in the middle of America. I'm telling you, Starbucks in Oklahoma cannot be very popular.

Here's what I see as the endgame. Right now Starbucks is introducing breakfast foods. McDonald's is introducing coffee. While they will each be relatively popular, imagine if a Starbucks could sell an Egg McMuffin, or a McDonalds sold cups of Pike and Doubleshots.

Within 3 years, Starbucks will be a subsidiary of McDonalds. They will still have some standalone stores (that sell McDonald's breakfast products), but by and large, they cannot stay independent.

There's always Caribou.

Gmail is now perfect

Google has just made an update to Gmail that takes it from excellent to just about perfect: offline access.

It is now possible to read and compose mail in your web-based Gmail account even when you don't have internet access.  All from the best web-based client.  The only thing that Apple's Mail.app and Thunderbird had the Gmail didn't was offline access.  Gmail has always had the best features, interface and search options.  

To enable offline access you must enable Labs from Settings.  Instructions are in the link above.

Friedman's plan for peace

Thomas Friedman envisions a 5 state, 4 point plan for peace in the Middle East.  Most interestingly, it is an Arab solution that effectively shuts out Iran.

Another reason not to eat HFCS

Its loaded with mercury.

The Al Arabiya Interview

President Obama has given his first interview as president to a rather unconventional media outlet, Al Arabiya, the main competitor of Al Jazeera (whose RSS feed I subscribe to and sometimes read, as it is quite an interesting, though biased, news source for the Middle East).

I think it is a whole lotta nothing that Obama gave his first interview to an international media outlet, though I understand why he did.  First of all, he has given dozens of interviews to Fox News, CNN, MSNBC and others to this point.  The fact that he is now the President does not change the interview all that much.  Second, reaching out to an international audience shows that he is not some American hick and understands there is a whole world out there.  Third, and most importantly, he sees that there is a need for us to have a conversation with the Muslim and Arab world, for it is this type of outreach that will go a long way toward breaking stereotypes of Americans.  Especially when it is an American with the middle name of Hussein who says that Israel has a right to self-defense.

Some highlights (all quotations are of President Obama):

"I told him is start by listening, because all too often the United States starts by dictating -- in the past on some of these issues --and we don't always know all the factors that are involved. So let's listen. "

"..what I want to communicate is the fact that in all my travels throughout the Muslim world, what I've come to understand is that regardless of your faith -- and America is a country of Muslims, Jews, Christians, non-believers -- regardless of your faith, people all have certain common hopes and common dreams."

Full interview transcript here.

The argument against CA fuel economy standards

As the Obama administration appears ready to allow CA to impose its own emissions standards on auto manufacturers, there is a lot of chatter if that is the best solution.  The main argument against state specific fuel standards is that it may force automakers to provide different cars for each market, thereby increasing manufacturing costs.  Opponents of the state specific proposal would rather just raise the gas tax.

I think that both moves are important.  If one state decides that it wants to limit pollution and feels that the federal standard is lacking, it should be able to.  However, I agree that adding $2/gallon to the federal gas tax would probably be the smart move in the long term.  It would not be difficult to add 50 cents a year for 4 years to the gas tax, such that in 2013-2014, a gallon of gas would cost around $4, given today's prices.  This would surely force manufacturers to come out with more efficient models and entice consumers to buy them.  

Yes he is (on youtube)

Many predicted that President Obama would have to ditch his weekly youtube addresses in order to comply with White House privacy rules.  Thankfully, he and his staff had the foresight to quickly changed their policies to allow uninterrupted youtube addresses.

His first address promises a variety of forthcoming programs designed to stimulate our economy.  

I'm particularly happy about this part of his address:

I know that some are skeptical about the size and scale of this recovery plan. I understand that skepticism, which is why this recovery plan must and will include unprecedented measures that will allow the American people to hold my Administration accountable for these results. We won’t just throw money at our problems - we’ll invest in what works. Instead of politicians doling out money behind a veil of secrecy, decisions about where we invest will be made public, and informed by independent experts whenever possible. We’ll launch an unprecedented effort to root out waste, inefficiency, and unnecessary spending in our government, and every American will be able to see how and where we spend taxpayer dollars by going to a new website called recovery.gov.

An impossible task?

Friedman's analysis on how to get all sides to the table in the Middle East boils down to this:

all we need to do is rebuild Fatah, merge it with Hamas, elect an Israeli government that can freeze settlements, court Syria and engage Iran — while preventing it from going nuclear — just so we can get the parties to start talking.

Is this even possible?  Israel is about to put Likud back into power, which would be like the US electing Dick Cheney as president.  Iran has been quiet lately, but it is obvious they are funding Hamas.  And Fatah is too afraid of Hamas to do anything meaningful.  As Friedman suggests, Saudi Arabia and Egypt may be able to help as honest brokers, but only time will tell.

Fuel economy standards may be going up soon

President Obama is planning to reverse another Bush administration policy.  This policy prevented California from adopting more strict fuel standards than the federal government.  Since California (and other states that pledged to follow it) represent a huge chunk of the American economy, they would effectively dictate the fuel economy standards.  And this is definitely not a bad thing, since Detroit automakers have been pumping out low MPG cars for many years.  This would simply hasten the progress toward 35 MPG fleet-wide.