January 2012

CEI Weekly: Safety Board Proposes Cell Phone Ban for Drivers

by Nicole Ciandella on December 16, 2011

in Odds & Ends

CEI Weekly is a compilation of articles and blog posts from CEI’s fellows and associates sent out via e-mail every Friday. Also included in the weekly newsletter is a brief description of CEI’s weekly podcast and a feature on a major CEI breakthrough made during the week. To sign up for CEI Weekly, go to http://cei.org/newsletters.

CEI Weekly

December 16, 2011

>>Featured Story

The National Transportation Safety Board is pushing for a nationwide ban on all “nonemergency” use of cell phones by automobile drivers. CEI experts released a joint statement explaining why the ban would be ineffective at best. Read the statement here.

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Media Neglect NLRB Overreach

by Trey Kovacs on December 16, 2011 · 5 comments

in Labor, Politics as Usual

The notorious Boeing vs. NLRB lawsuit is settled. Unfortunately, only Big Labor and the Obama administration gain from the Boeing and IAM agreement.

Boeing chose to submit to union demands in order to save their $1 billion investment in South Carolina and end the legal battle, as they suspected the NLRB would not drop the case until Boeing agreed to a contract with IAM.

Although the agreement works out for Boeing and workers in South Carolina, the case sets a dangerous precedent for future labor disputes. Now employers know the NLRB will blatantly side with Big Labor and strong-arm companies into concessions during collective bargaining. Regrettably this allows Big Labor to accuse employers of trumped up charges while the NLRB covers the legal costs.

The Obama administration sent a clear message to the business community: special interests determine policy. The message undoubtedly will be heard, creating a chilling effect on businesses and discouraging U.S. investment.

However, mainstream media coverage buries these details below the fold. The headlines describe Republicans as getting worked up over nothing. Or that everything worked out and the controversy is over. Not surprisingly, the texts of mainstream reports hold opposing views from their headlines and primary sources.

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Today’s Links: December 16, 2011

by Nicole Ciandella on December 16, 2011

in Odds & Ends

OPINION

JORDAN WEISSMAN: “The Dark Side of America’s Growing Social Safety Net”
“By now, we’ve all gotten used to the fights on Capitol Hill about extending unemployment benefits. Each time they’re about to expire, Democrats line up to renew them. Meanwhile, at least a few Republicans rise up to object. Their argument: By writing checks to the jobless, we’re making it less likely that they’ll go out and find work. ”

BJORN LOMBORG: “Going to Extremes”
“Global warming activists like to cite extreme weather as one of the main reasons that we must take firm action on global warming. No hurricane or heat wave passes without a politician or activist claiming it as evidence of the need for a global climate deal, like the one that just got postponed until the end of the decade in Durban, South Africa.”

KIMBERLY STRASSEL: “Why Ron Paul Can’t Win”
“Ron Paul is, in many ways, the ideal candidate for a conservative electorate hungry for a principled GOP nominee. Ron Paul will never be the GOP nominee. For this, Mr. Paul has himself to blame.”

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FDA Needs to Act on Internet and Social Media Policy

by Greg Conko on December 16, 2011

in Health and Illness, Healthcare, Nanny State, Regulation

Way back in September 2009, the Food and Drug Administration announced that it would begin using the social media site Twitter to share news and other information about drug safety and regulation. “Messages on Twitter provide consumers, healthcare professionals, the pharmaceutical industry, and others with timely information on new drug approvals, safety alerts, compliance actions, and consumer information,” the announcement said.

It was curious that FDA mentioned the pharmaceutical industry. You see, drug and device companies have been feeling their way around the Internet and other new media, including Twitter, for several years without substantive guidance from the FDA. That’s important because, under the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, there’s a lot that’s not permitted, but nobody’s quite sure what is and what isn’t. And if the industry guesses wrong, they could subject themselves to some pretty harsh civil and criminal penalties.

As Ed Silverman at Pharmalot explained in an op-ed posted yesterday, the agency has been promising for years that it would develop of a formal policy on the matter. As early as 1996, the FDA held a public meeting (see reference at the bottom of this document) to discuss issues related to the advertising and promotion of medical products on the Internet. Then, in November 2009, the agency held another public meeting, with the promise that it would soon thereafter develop guidance or other policies that addressed Internet promotion and social media. But, as Silverman notes:

“the guidelines didn’t appear in the wake of the meeting. And they didn’t appear by the end of 2010, despite an unofficial FDA deadline to push something out by New Year’s Day. And then the agency missed another deadline, this one on March 31. By mid-year, FDA officials said they would stop setting deadlines.”

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Santa Claus: Conservative

by Matt Patterson on December 15, 2011 · 4 comments

in Odds & Ends

In a world awash in socialism and socialist agitators (I’m looking at you, Occupy Wall Street, MSNBC…) it’s good to know at least Santa Claus is kicking it old school. That’s right, Saint Nick is a conservative through and through, in spite of the red get-up.

Think about it: Santa doesn’t distribute toys in the willy-nilly, every-one’s-a winner liberal fashion. No, sir, you have to earn your toys from him — through decent behavior. Naughty boys net no toys. If Santa were a liberal he would give everyone a toy, whether they deserved it or not, and it would be the same toy, shoddily assembled by some government bureaucrat instead of crack private-sector elfin expertise.

Which brings us to another point — Santa is obviously independently wealthy (excellent capitalist creds) and is therefore able to write off his yearly sojourn as a massive and merry act of philanthropy, perfectly in keeping with the conservative philosophy of private charity over government largesse.

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A Reprieve For NASA Commercial Crew Contractors

by Rand Simberg on December 15, 2011 · 2 comments

in Space

There has been a great deal of concern over the past few months among the potential providers of crew services to NASA over their stated plans to shift the efforts of the Commercial Crew Program from successful Space Act Agreements, that had been so successful in the Commercial Orbital Transportation Services program, to a more traditional procurement approach. Under the Space Act Agreements, the providers had the flexibility to come up with their own solutions without a lot of NASA oversight, and were only paid when they actually achieved the specified milestones, reducing risk for the taxpayer. However, NASA was concerned that this approach wouldn’t provide them with sufficient assurance that they would get systems designed to meet their exacting safety and mission-success requirements for transport of astronauts to the International Space Station, and they had accordingly decided to move to a standard (though still fixed price) contract under the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) for the next phase of the program. Many in the industry objected, fearing that this would increase both development and operational costs not only for NASA flights, but commercial ones as well. In fact, Elon Musk, CEO and founder of one of the leading potential providers, went so far as to threaten to withdraw from the program if NASA pressed forward with the change. Nonetheless, NASA had announced that it would be issuing a Request For Proposal (RFP) on Monday under the new procurement rules for the program, with planned selection and awards next summer.

Well, Mr. Musk won’t have to make good on his threat for now. This morning, Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s Associate Administrator for Space Operations, announced in a press conference that that the RFP wouldn’t be released on Monday, and that the agency has decided to stick with the Space Act Agreements for the next phase of the program, for almost the next two years. In response to questions from the press, he said that NASA hadn’t changed its mind as a result of industry pressure, but rather because they hadn’t gotten as much funding as they had anticipated when making their original procurement plans earlier in the year. NASA had requested $850 million for the program for 2012, but in its “minibus” appropriations bill last month, Congress gave the agency less than half of that, only $406 million. Gerstenmaier, of course, made sure to thank Congress for what it had provided, noting that it was more than they had ever had for the program, and that earlier versions of the bill had less (in one case, zero).

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Obama’s Transparency War Targets Climate Skeptics

by David Bier on December 15, 2011 · 4 comments

in Energy, Environment, Features, Global Warming, Transparency

President Obama ran on a platform of transparency. He praised whistleblowers. “Such acts of courage and patriotism,” he said, “should be encouraged rather than stifled.” He was intensely critical of the Bush administration that “ignored public disclosure rules.” The president and his staff have both said, “This is the most transparent administration in the history of our country.” Yet his administration has been even more secretive and hostile toward public disclosure than the previous. He has cracked down on whistleblowers (and the journalists who they leak to) more than any other administration in history. He has brought nearly double (5) the number of indictments against whistleblowers than all previous administrations combined (3), and is currently working on another.

On top of this war on whistleblowers, the president has fought Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. “Two years into its pledge to improve government transparency,” the Associated Press reports, “the Obama administration handled fewer requests for federal records from citizens, journalists, companies and others last year even as significantly more people asked for information.” In November, Obama’s Justice Department proposed a rule that would allow them to lie about the existence of documents that were of national security concern. Last month, CEI’s Chris Horner called the administration the “most secretive ever,” and listed many ways in which under Obama, FOIA requests have been thwarted in the most underhanded ways.

Today, Horner has reported new outrages in Obama’s transparency war. He writes that “the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), Criminal Division, is working with United Kingdom police to pursue the leaker of the 2009 and 2011 ‘Climategate’ emails. I have learned that last week DOJ sent a search-and-seizure letter to the host of three climate-change ‘skeptic’ blogs. Last night, UK police raided a blogger’s home and removed computers and equipment.” He continues:

The leaked records derailed “cap-and-trade” legislation in the U.S. and, internationally, as well as talks for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol. The emails and computer code were produced with taxpayer funds and held on taxpayer-owned computers both in the US and the UK, and all were subject to the UK Freedom of Information Act, the U.S. Freedom of Information Act and state FOIA laws.

They also were being unlawfully withheld in both the UK (by the University of East Anglia) and the U.S. (Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including stonewalling me for two years, and three other requesters for longer).

The hunt involving U.S. and UK law enforcement agencies is now escalating. On Wednesday night UK time, six detectives with the UK police (Norfolk Police Department) raided the home of at least one blogger, removing his equipment to look for clues to the identity of leaker “FOIA 2011.”

On December 9, DOJ sent a preservation letter under 18 U.S.C 2703(f) to the publication platform (website host) WordPress. This authority authorizes the government to request an Internet Service Provider (ISP) to preserve all records of a specific account for 90 days while the feds work on a warrant.

Norfolk PD affirmed to the subject of at least one of their raids that this international law enforcement hunt is for the leaker, meaning not for those whose acts the leaker exposed by making public emails containing admissions in their own words.

View the whole article here.

Crushing Student Loan Debt to Pay for Useless “Educations” that Provide Only Paper Credentials, Not Knowledge

by Hans Bader on December 15, 2011

in Economy, Employment, Legal, Politics as Usual, Zeitgeist

Student loan debt is rising at an exponential rate, as an illustration at the Daily Dish shows (at this link). A college tuition bubble has driven up tuition at a far faster rate than housing prices ever rose during the housing bubble (as a graphic at Instapundit shows). Students’ crippling debt keeps them from buying homes, and thus depresses the collapsed housing market even further.  Federal spending on student financial aid drives up tuition while shrinking the economy. A frightening “student loan debt clock” shows student debt exceeds $964 billion and is rising by thousands of dollars every second.

Law Professor Paul Campos says that legal education is a scam:

Our modal law professor is a man or woman who knows very little about the actual practice of law in any form, given that he or she spent very little time — increasingly, at more elite schools, literally no time — practicing law before entering the legal academy. This fact means that to a significant extent the leaders of our profession (let us call our hypothetical specimen Professor Leader) have to spend much of their time in class bullshitting. This is a natural consequence of the fact that the rhetorical posture of Prof. Leader requires him to represent to his students that is teaching them how to be lawyers. But Prof. Leader knows nothing about being a lawyer. Hence, he must bullshit — he does not lie to his students about how to be a lawyer (doing so would require him to know how to be a lawyer, while attempting to deceive his students regarding the substance of that knowledge); rather, he “talks without knowing what he is talking about.”

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Today’s Links: December 15, 2011

by Nicole Ciandella on December 15, 2011

in Odds & Ends

OPINION

CARRIE BUDOFF BROWN & DARREN GOODE: “Does Politics Trump Science in the Obama W.H.?”
“President Barack Obama turned it into a campaign-trail talking point: He would end the Bush administration’s’“war on science.’ But four years later, as the White House shifts into reelection mode, Obama is facing the same attacks he leveled against his Republican predecessor: He is putting politics ahead of science.”

IAN MACKENZIE: “Just How Fast is the Information Age Moving?”
“THERE’S A GOOD chance you don’t know anyone who’s not on Facebook. After all, it currently has 800 million users, and projections based on historical data of its growth (it’s been expanding in a linear fashion) suggest that it will hit 1 billion by July 2012. That’s roughly 1/7th of the world’s population.”

VICE MAGAZINE: “North Korean Labor Camps” (VIDEO & ARTICLE)
“And so began the worst 48 hours of my life, which ended with the FSB (the modern version of the KGB), the local militia, plainclothes police, and assorted thugs removing us from the train and placing us into custody. Finding myself wishing for Billy and his ability to effortlessly sort things out, I texted him that the FSB had detained us. He replied, ‘Of course they have. Just leave.’”

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CEI Podcast for December 15, 2011: Drilling for Roads

by Ryan Young on December 15, 2011

in Mobility, Podcast

Have a listen here.

Land-use and Transportation Policy Analyst Marc Scribner looks at House Republicans’ “drilling for roads” proposal and finds it wanting. Under this proposal, the federal government would allow more fossil fuel extraction from federally owned lands, as well as offshore. Some of the revenue would go into the federal Highway Trust Fund. This would politicize transportation even more than it already is, and would lead to adverse consequences.

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