http://www.openmarket.org The Competitive Enterprise Institute Blog Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:14:45 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Today in her column, The Wall Street Journal's Kimberley Strassel explains the Obama EPA's censoring of an internal study that questioned the scientific foundation for the administration's climate change policies. The report, written by Alan Carlin, a senior analyst at the EPA's National Center for Environmental Economics, was released last ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/03/epa-whistleblower-in-the-wall-street-journal/ "Obama stands with tyrants," writes the Washington Times. "When thousands of Iranians flooded the streets of Tehran protesting a rigged election and were beaten and shot down by pro-regime thugs, the president bided his time before making a series of noncommittal statements. He seemed to hope it would all ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/02/obama-stands-with-tyrants-sides-with-chavez-castro-against-honduran-democracy-newspapers-say/ As the ethanol industry sees its prospects flounder, it has sought the help of an actual general to stem the public backlash against its uneconomic, environmentally harmful product. Reports Fortune: Reporting for duty in ethanol's counterattack: Wesley Clark, the retired four-star general and former NATO commander, who signed on in February ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/02/rocket-fuel-not-corn-in-your-tank/ Until it was publicly-exposed, the Washington Post was selling its access to the White House to lobbyists. As Politico reported, "For $25,000 to $250,000, the Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off-the-record, nonconfrontational access to 'those powerful few' — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and the ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/02/washington-post-sells-white-house-access-to-lobbyists-and-misreports-obama-health-care-facts/ Reuters today reported that an internet player on EVE -- a popular virtual world game -- stole virtual money, cashed it in for real money and now is banned from the game. According to the rules of the game, if the player, Ricdic, had stolen only the online money he wouldn't ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/02/lesson-dont-mix-real-and-virtual-worlds/ Three-time champion and Boxing Hall of Famer Alexis Arguello was found dead of a gunshot would this morning, at his home in Managua, Nicaragua, of which he was mayor, in what authorities are calling a suicide. What political repercussions, if any, Arguello's death may have remains to be seen, ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/01/alexis-arguello-rip/ The eleventh in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state. Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the Consumer Product Safety Commission ($63.25 million 2008 budget, 401 employees). CPSC’s latest rule latest proposal would require: each manufacturer of a durable infant or toddler product to: ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/01/regulation-of-the-day-saving-the-children-from-durable-products/ With every passing month, the United States falls further behind the global leaders in broadband Internet access thanks to a combination of market and policy failures...Our broadband problem is becoming a crisis. - Free Press, 2006 Much ink has been spilled over the claim that the US is "falling behind" in broadband. ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/01/americas-ranking-crisis/ It is truly amazing to me that some people who call themselves “liberal,” “progressive,” and “tolerant,” are so irrationally afraid and intolerant of anyone who holds a differing viewpoint to the degree that they feel the need to lash out, discredit and attempt to purge them from the intellectual discussion ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/01/progressive-intolerance/ The Federal Trade Commission seems to think so. A fresh set of proposed Federal Trade Commission guidelines, if approved this summer, would potentially allow the agency to police the relationship between bloggers and advertisers, forcing bloggers to disclose any revenue, gifts, or freebies they have received for publishing consumer reviews ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/01/can-the-blogosphere-be-regulated/ My innocent, childlike faith in the wisdom of the Internet has been ruthlessly shattered. Drag Me To Hell, which received widespread raves and a coveted 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, could not have been more disappointing. When unoccupied by grade school barf humor, director Sam Raimi spends most of his time pushing ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/01/to-hell-in-an-handbasket/ Banks will now be pressured to make even more risky, low-income loans. Obama has sent to Congress his proposal to create a politically-correct Consumer Financial Protection Agency. "The agency would be in charge of enforcing the Community Reinvestment Act, a law that prods banks to make loans in ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/01/more-risky-low-income-loans-obama-asks-congress-to-create-a-harmful-consumer-financial-protection-agency/ Best line this week -- should be a slogan for health care debate: "If you like public housing, you will love public health care." Read the opinion piece "Parsing the health reform arguments" by George Newman in the Wall Street Journal today for concise rebuttals of oft-repeated claims about government health ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/01/if-you-like-public-housing-you-will-love-public-health-care/ Not content with repealing welfare reform through the job-killing stimulus package, and proposing a massive marriage penalty in the tax code, Obama and his Congressional allies are now planning to make married and widowed taxpayers subsidize benefits for which they are not eligible, such as payments to households with out-of-wedlock ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/07/01/more-welfare-and-subsidies-for-broken-homes-from-obama-and-democratic-leaders/ Eager to sustain his regulatory whirlwind, President Obama is now calling for efficiency standards for household and business lighting.  As if the climate-themed energy rationing bill that just blew through the House wasn't enough, the White House now wants to force lamp and light bulb manufacturers to make their products ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/06/30/obamas-call-for-light-bulb-regulation-not-a-new-or-bright-idea/ President Barack Obama rode into the White House promising open and honest government. So why did his administration bully a career official at the Environmental Protection Agency into silence? Last week, the Competitive Enterprise Institute released a 98 page report written by Alan Carlin, a 38 year veteran of the EPA, ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/06/30/obama-silences-science-is-this-the-change-we-were-promised/ Honduras removed its bullying, autocratic President after he began behaving as a dictator, and its Congress replaced him with a less power-hungry member of his own political party. Now Obama is joining the Cuban dictator Castro and Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez in demanding the Honduran ruler's return. This ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/06/30/obama-backs-dictatorship-in-honduras/ The tenth in an occasional series that shines a bit of light on the regulatory state. Today’s Regulation of the Day comes to us from the U.S. House of Representatives (435 employees, $4 trillion budget). The Waxman-Markey cap and trade bill that passed the House last week contains 397 new regulations, according ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/06/30/regulation-of-the-day-cap-and-trade/ CEI President Fred Smith yesterday expressed all of our condolences on the death of Washington Times Commentary editor and veteran Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Mary Lou Forbes. I was a colleague of Mary Lou's when I worked at the Washington Times' magazine Insight. She could always tell a great remembrance of her ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/06/30/goodbye-mary-lou-tribute-to-a-great-journalist-and-editor/ Welcome to Episode 49 of the LibertyWeek podcast, in which your host Richard Morrison is joined by recurring guest co-hosts Jeremy Lott and William Yeatman and special guest interviewee Hans Bader. We begin with discussion of the abominable Waxman-Markey cap-and-trade bill, the scandal of suppressed science at the EPA and ... http://www.openmarket.org/2009/06/29/libertyweek-49-censoring-science-at-the-epa/