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Looking for a Political Job?
Check out the great new job listings over at Political Job Hunt.

A special offer for this week only: If you’re looking to hire someone, get 20% off a new 30 day job listing by simply entering the discount code “congress.”

Massachusetts Republicans Avoid Primary
Massachusetts Republicans “gave an overwhelming endorsement” to Charlie Baker (R) for governor at their state convention over the weekend, giving him “a massive margin that forces GOP rival Christy Mihos out of the race and frees him from what could have been a bitterly divisive primary battle,” the Boston Globe reports.

Baker won 89% of the delegate votes, while Mihos got just 11%, falling well short of the 15% threshold needed to qualify for the September primary ballot.

Ways and Means Testimony
Yesterday I testified to the House Ways and Means Committee regarding clean energy finance and tax policy. You can find my testimony here….



United States House Committee on Ways and Means – Economic – House Ways & Means Committee – National Budget – Taxation

Annotating the Congressional Letter Affirming US-Israel Relations
I received a note today reacting to a set of Congressional letters reaffirming US-Israel relations from Sama Adnan, executive director of the new political action committee advocating for Palestinian interests, NewPolicy.org. He notes that 24 US Senators and 102 House…


Middle East – United States – State of Israel – Warfare and Conflict – Israel-Palestine

Blackburn Won?t Endorse Bachmann?s ?Gangster Government? Rhetoric
On Thursday, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) referred to the government as a “gangster government,” telling a group of conservative activists, “We’re on to them. We’re on to this gangster government. And we are not going to let them have their way.” The following day, President Clinton — who has drawn parallels between the Oklahoma City […]

On Thursday, Rep. Michelle Bachmann (R-MN) referred to the government as a “gangster government,” telling a group of conservative activists, “We’re on to them. We’re on to this gangster government. And we are not going to let them have their way.” The following day, President Clinton — who has drawn parallels between the Oklahoma City bombing incident in 1995 and the current atmosphere of right-wing, anti-government hatred — took aim at Bachmann’s comments. “They are not gangsters. They were elected. They are not doing anything they were not elected to do.”

Clinton said people involved with “hatriot” groups like the Oath Keepers and the Three Percenters may take the wrong lessons from irresponsible rhetoric. “Ninety-nine percent of them will never do anything they shouldn’t do, but there are people who advocate violence and anticipate violence,” he warned. Fortunately, some of Bachmann’s conservative colleagues are heeding Clinton’s warning. This morning, during an appearance on Meet The Press, Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) — also a strong supporter of the Tea Parties — refused to endorse Bachmann’s “gangster government” rhetoric:

GREGORY: Do those kinds of words, April 19th is coming up, which is the anniversary of the Oklahoma City Bombing, when an anti-government person who was obviously a sociopath attacked the federal government. When you describe a “gangster government,” do you think that is over the line and inappropriate in our political discourse?

BLACKBURN: It would not have been a choice in words that I made. And what we have to realize is that any time you have large public gatherings, whether it is a group from the left, or a group from the right, you’re going to have lots of individuals with different opinions who show up.

Watch it:

This wasn’t the first time Bachmann has described the government as “gangster.” In June of 2009, Bachman took to the floor of the House and declared, “We have gangster government when the federal government has set up a new cartel and private businesses now have to go begging with their hand out to their local — hopefully well-politically connected — congressman or their senator so they can buy a peace offering for that local business.” In May of 2009, Bachmann compared Washington, D.C. to “enemy lines” and urged her supporters to become “armed and dangerous” and fight a “revolution” against cap and trade legislation.

Clinton: If Obama Offers Peace Plan, ?I Will Support It?
Discussing the Middle East peace process on ABC’s This Week, host Jake Tapper asked former President Bill Clinton whether he thought it was “time for President Obama to put a peace plan on the table,” as has been reported the administration is considering. Clinton responded that, while he was “reluctant to give him public advice,” […]

Discussing the Middle East peace process on ABC’s This Week, host Jake Tapper asked former President Bill Clinton whether he thought it was “time for President Obama to put a peace plan on the table,” as has been reported the administration is considering. Clinton responded that, while he was “reluctant to give him public advice,” if President Obama “decides to do it I will support it”:

CLINTON: Let me answer you this way, because I don’t want to do anything to foreclose their options. The argument against doing that is that the current Israeli government, with its current coalition, would almost certainly reject it. And the argument is that this makes us look weak. But I think they [the Israelis] may decide it’s more important to have clarity. And to do something that may be an action-forcing event that would bring them back to the table, if he [President Obama] decides to do it I will support it. And I think that if he decides to do it he should acknowledge that they may come up with a deal that’s slightly different from the one he proposes. But we need to do something to deprive both sides of any excuse not to engage in serious negotiations.

Watch it:

President Clinton also described how the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, in addition to driving extremism in the Middle East, tends to crowd out other, more positive developments in the region. “Half of the energy coming out of all this organization and money-raising for terror comes out of the allegations around the unresolved Palestinian issue,” Clinton said. “If there were a Palestinian state working in partnership with the policies Mr. [Salaam] Fayyad is following in the West Bank, it would be a whole different world”:

CLINTON: All the Arabs would identify with Israel, they’d have a political and economic partnership, the whole economic basis of the Middle East would shift from oil to ideas. Look at what the Saudi Arabians are doing, they’re building six new towns. The UAE wins the international competition for the clean energy agency, and they’re gonna build a carbon-neutral city. In the UAE. And nobody thinks about this — Dubai is the only country with huge amounts of imported workers that’s actually passed legislation to give these immigrant workers a better deal in the Middle East, they have women in the government, they have a joint public-private decision making process — nobody knows anything about. Why? Because of the Palestinian-Israeli thing.

How could the Syrians stay out there alone, cooperating with the Iranians and letting Hezbollah people travel through Syria, and doing all the things they do? If there were a peace for the Palestinians, they would have to come along with the rest of the Arab states, and there would be a peace between Israel and Syria. This is a huge deal. So the fact that the president is putting new energy into this and taking personal responsibility for it, and trying to get them back to the table, that’s the most important thing.

In the popular children’s story The Little Engine That Could, “I think I can, I think I can” is a mantra that is repeated throughout. The little blue engine that was willing to try to take a stranded train to its destination despite difficult terrain, might be a good metaphor for the sputtering U.S. economy.

There appears to be growing sentiment that the train is leaving the station in terms of the recovery, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t significant headwinds still in place. A persistently high unemployment rate and a lack of lending are two of the big ones.

Both will keep economic growth rates below potential in the near-term, says Tom Porcelli, U.S. market economist with RBC Capital Markets in New York.

Another headwind he has been highlighting for some time is the lack of optimism by small business. It accounts for roughly half of economic output, large enough that we should pay close attention to what they are saying, Mr. Porcelli notes.

The trough in small business confidence (as measured by the NFIB survey) is one year behind us, but it has yet to move all that much. The index has risen about five points to 87. Following the sharp recession of the 1970s and 1980s, the index was up by 15 points on average a year after the trough, and it stood at an average of approximately 102.

“It seems obvious small business owners currently remain worried,” Mr. Porcelli says, labeling concerns such as poor sales – “a great counterpoint to the improvement seen in consumer spending.”

During the past year or so, the NFIB “poor sales” index has increased along with retail sales. The economist says this suggests that small business owners are not benefitting from the rise in sales.

“If indeed the train is leaving the station… we think it’s leaving small business behind.”

Jonathan Ratner

Materials: Images of IKEA products

Description: A while ago I designed a pop-up paper house using exclusively Ikea products: all the furniture, obviously, but also all the accessories, sheets, framed artwork, towels, lights, even the floor treatment came from their store. My idea, of course, was to become rich and famous. I would show Ikea my work, they would hail me as a brilliant designer and give me lots of money to design a new house each year, to match their yearly catalogue. It seemed like the perfect idea for them: if mass produced this could be a very inexpensive toy, it is completely wholesome even though it blatantly promotes their products, it folds flat for storage not just in the store but also for the end user (and we all know how obsessed Ikea is with flat storage), plus they could come out with a new house every year and tap into kids’ natural tendency to hoard and collect!

Sadly, my dreams did not come true. I just got an unsigned form letter informing me they weren’t interested in whatever it was I had sent them. When I wrote back asking if I could use their images to sell the house on my own they didn’t even bother reply, so I went back to the drawing board and stripped my house of everything which is recognizably Ikea.

So here is the Ikea hack which isn’t. If you’d like to build the house you can (by following the links you can get templates with precise instructions), but the book or PDF download no longer contains Ikea stuff. But you know what? It’s much nicer now! (these photos are of the old Ikea version)

~ Katherine Belsey

See more of Katherine’s pop-up paper Ikea house

by Richard T. Stuebi

As a class, new energy technologies have proven to be quite difficult to successfully commercialize. Often, they must surmount substantial technical, scientific and engineering risks to get from concept to the market. And, to prove at scale and expand to broad application, very large sums of capital are typically required.

Accordingly, many private sector capital sources — venture capitalists, private equity firms, corporations, and banks — are wary of funding new energy technologies on their own. Put another way, for the clean energy economy to emerge in a major way in the coming decades, the public sector will have to participate in new and significant ways in financing the development and deployment of new energy technologies. Innovative public-private partnerships in the capital arena will be essential. And, given the massive amount of dollars required, these programs will have to be Federal to score any major successes.

For the most part, Federal engagement in the financing of new energy has been historically limited to various subsidies embedded in the tax code, such as the production tax credit for large-scale renewable energy projects or investment tax credits for customer-sited renewable energy or energy efficiency investments.

More recently, stemming from the Energy Policy Act of 2005, the Department of Energy has been authorized to provide loan guarantees underlying private sector loans for projects employing new energy technologies.

Although somewhat effective, clearly the Federal programs to complement the private sector in financing new energy technology development and deployment have not had impact anywhere near the magnitude that pretty much everyone but guardians of the status quo desires.

To that end, both the Markey-Waxman bill that passed the House last year and the Bingaman bill being floated in the Senate include the creation of a Clean Energy Development Administration (CEDA), whose purpose would be to provide debt capacity that is otherwise inaccessible to innovative energy technologies.

Ordinarily, I’m not a big fan of new government bureaucracies. Indeed, a CEDA might not be necessary if the pricing signals for clean energy were set in a manner that induced the appropriate level of investment in RD&D. However, without political will to take on energy pricing — i.e., taxes and carbon policies — it’s clear that finance capacity for clean energy is currently inadequate, and that only a player of the heft of the Federal government can make any meaningful dent in improving the situation.

Perhaps Wall Street agrees as well. Two finance industry leaders — Eric Fornell, the Vice Chairman of Investment Banking for J.P. Morgan Chase (NYSE: JPM), and Mark Heesen, the President of the National Venture Capital Association — recently wrote a thoughtful article providing both support and words of wisdom in establishing a CEDA.

Richard T. Stuebi is a founding principal of NorTech Energy Enterprise, the advanced energy initiative at NorTech, where he is on loan from The Cleveland Foundation as its Fellow of Energy and Environmental Advancement. He is also a Managing Director in charge of cleantech investment activities at Early Stage Partners, a Cleveland-based venture capital firm.

Content provided by and all rights reserved to CleantechBlog.com. Also check out http://www.cleantech.org

O paulista Roberval Andrade da equipe Scania Corinthians Motorsport venceu neste domingo (18) o Grande Prêmio Petrobras, segunda etapa do Campeonato Sul-Americano e Brasileiro de Fórmula Truck, no Autódromo Nelson Piquet de Jacarepaguá no Rio de Janeiro. Roberval venceu de ponta a ponta conseguindo driblar um calor de aproximadamente 33 graus centígrados. “Mesmo confiando na preparação que fizemos com o nosso caminhão, tive que manter atenção redobrada por causa do calor, o óleo e a sujeira na pista e ainda a pressão dos concorrentes”, contou o vencedor da primeira prova da Fórmula Truck no Rio de Janeiro. “Estou muito feliz em ficar para a história como o primeiro vencedor da Truck no Rio”, comemorou Roberval que deixou seu voto de otimismo aos jornalistas cariocas na Coletiva de Imprensa para o movimento pela restauração do autódromo de Jacarepaguá.

Foi a primeira vitória do Corinthians no esporte à motor, que tem equipes tambem na Stock Car e na GT Brasil.

Fotos: Orlei Silva

Fonte: Fórmula Truck

Supreme Court still resists pressure to televise proceedings
As two Supreme Court justices submitted to their annual, gentle congressional interrogation last week, it seemed for the briefest of moments that there might be movement on the most perennial of questions about the court: whether its proceedings will ever be televised.

Halter’s challenge energizes Lincoln’s Senate reelection campaign
When Arkansas Lt. Gov. Bill Halter announced on March 1 that he would enter the Democratic primary against Sen. Blanche Lincoln, many political observers viewed it as the beginning of the end for the incumbent.

Mine blast means new realities for West Virginia Democrats in Congress
In southern West Virginia, it used to look as if three Democrats, who have served in Washington for a combined 115 years, had figured out the delicate, occasionally violent politics of Appalachian coal.

Abortion rulings could bring scrutiny of possible Supreme Court pick Wood
CHICAGO — If President Obama nominates U.S. Circuit Judge Diane P. Wood to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens, social conservatives say they intend to make her rulings on abortion rights the primary point of contention.

You’d think iPads might be banned by schools because they distract students, but George Washington University and Princeton University have both put the kibosh on them because their Wi-Fi networks are way overloaded since the launch. More »

It’s not the Nexus One on Verizon that everyone has been waiting for but if early reviews are to be believed it’s better. The Droid Incredible is now available for pre-order through Verizon, with in-store availability on April 29. The Droid Incredible is the HTC Android handset that takes the Nexus One and makes it better with an updated camera and the HTC Sense interface.

Podcast co-host Matt Miller has been playing with an Incredible for a few days and he is duly impressed.

The HTC DROID Incredible performed flawlessly for me over the three days I tested it and it was extremely fast and responsive. I loaded up almost 30 3rd party applications thanks to the ability to sign into the Android Market with my account and found them all to perform well.

The Droid Incredible looks to be the best phone currently on the Verizon network, especially if you are partial to the Android platform.

Related research from GigaOM Pro (sub req’d):

Marketing Handsets in the Superphone Era

According to our source, BMW Group is planning a five-door version of the Mini Cooper for the United States. The source said that BMW recently held a consumer study group around the United States where they showed visitors a prototype of what a future 5-door Mini Cooper would look like.

We’re not sure if Mini plans on using the standard chassis for the new 5-door Mini or plans on sharing components with the new Mini Countryman crossover. However, like the Mini Countryman, the 5-door Mini hatch is expected to remain a four-seater.

It was reported last year that Mini is planning a 5-door Volkswagen GTI fighter. If given the green light, the 5-door Mini hatch would be built alongside the Mini Countryman at the Magna Steyr factory in Austria and won’t appear much before 2012.

– By: Omar Rana

Após a revelação do Fluence Z.E Concept durante o Salão de Frankfurt de 2009, a Renault apresenta a versão definitiva do Fluence Z.E., que será comercializada em 2011 na Europa e em Israel. O Renault Fluence Z.E. será o primeiro sedã elétrico do seu segmento a ser vendido em série.

Para a Renault, o veículo elétrico é uma solução de ruptura que permite oferecer mobilidade para todos com emissões zero. Associados à política ambiental Renault eco², a gama de veículos elétricos Renault Z.E. (Zero Emission – Emissão Zero) é destinada à comercialização em massa, visando progressos reais em termos ambientais.

Sistema de recarga
As baterias de Fluence Z.E podem ser recarregadas através de três formas diferentes:
– Através de uma tomada doméstica de 220V, para uma duração compreendida entre 6h e 8h. Esta forma de recarga é especialmente adequada para a noite ou durante um dia de trabalho, pois permite se beneficiar das tarifas reduzidas oferecidas em alguns países, para um consumo fora dos horários de pico.
– A partir de terminais de recarga rápidos de 400V, que permitem uma recarga em 30 minutos aproximadamente.
– Com o sistema de troca de bateria “Quickdrop” (troca de baterias), que permitirá substituir a bateria do veículo em 3 minutos aproximadamente, em estações dedicadas.

Fonte: Renault

Man Should Be Free to Love the Earth
Mark Landsbaum, OC Register
I'm an environmentalist. I love trees, having squeezed nearly two-dozen evergreens and deciduous onto our normal-size, suburban tract-house lot. My bride and I are rarely happier than when digging in dirt to plant another truckload of flowers and shrubs.Camphors and clinging rose vines are among God's most glorious creations. I flinch at the site of strip-mined hillsides, and can't get enough of wild, yellow mustard flowers that carpet Southern California's rolling hills after spring rains.

For an Activist President, Court Emerges as Obstacle
Peter Baker, NYT
WASHINGTON — They are two of the smartest men of their generation, both magna cum laude products of Harvard Law School, both cerebral and charming and ambitious. They vaulted to the highest offices in the land after just short stints at the next level down, and each was seen initially as a conciliator only to lead on the strength of his own majority.Many years after their campus days in Cambridge, Mass., President Obama and Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. have emerged as the intellectual gladiators in a great struggle over the role of government in American society. In this moment…

How Big a Government Do We Want?
Robert Samuelson, Newsweek
“There is always an easy solution to every human problem — neat, plausible and wrong.”– H.L. Mencken Receive news alertsThe value-added tax has become the designated panacea for massive federal budget deficits. It's touted by think-tank economists and mentioned by congressional leaders. A VAT could, it's said, raise stupendous amounts of money, which, Lord knows, are needed to cover projected deficits. A VAT is likened to a “national sales tax,” so once in place, most Americans would barely notice it — just as they barely notice state and local sales taxes….

Real Reform Must End Too Big to Fail
Thomas Hoenig, New York Times
LAST week, I visited Santa Fe, N.M., and spoke to one of America’s many Main Streets: more than 300 small-business owners, real estate developers, artists, bankers and other citizens. A good number of them, experiencing the fallout of the financial crisis and feeling the stress it put on New Mexico’s banks, were angry and frustrated.You see, New Mexico’s financial institutions were not too big to fail. They were never invited to meetings and told to accept financing from the Troubled Asset Relief Program. As a result, banks and residents of Santa Fe, like those…

[JURIST] Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Monday criticized the violent and repressive conditions in southern Somalia that have been implemented by the Islamist group al-Shabaab. HRW interviewed more than 70 victims and witnesses, concluding that while some areas of the country under al-Shabaab rule are more stable when compared to areas under control of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG), that stability comes at a steep price. The report details the use of harsh punishments including beatings, amputations, and executions without due process for the victims. Women have been particularly affected by al-Shabaab rule and the implementation of harsh measures in the name of Sharia law. According to the report:
Freedoms women took for granted in traditional Somali culture have been dramatically rolled back. In many areas, women have been barred from engaging in any activity that leads them to mix with men—even small-scale commercial enterprises that many of them depend on for a living. Al-Shabaab authorities have arrested, threatened, or whipped countless women for trying to support their families by selling cups of tea. In many areas, al-Shabaab officials require women to wear a particularly heavy type of abaya, a traditional form of Islamic dress that covers everything but the face, hands, and feet. Women who fail to do so are often arrested, publicly flogged, or both.HRW also criticized the TFG and African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) for their roles in the continuing violence in Mogadishu, stating, “ll sides are responsible for laws-of-war violations that continue unabated in Mogadishu. Many Somalis confront indiscriminate warfare, terrifying patterns of repression, and brutal acts of targeted violence on a daily basis.”Somalia has endured a lengthy civil war and several rounds of failed peace talks since the collapse of its last civil government in 1991. Last July, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights indicated that human rights violations committed during recent Somalian conflicts may amount to war crimes. In an attempt to avoid violence in Mogadishu, the Somali parliament voted last April to adopt Islamic Sharia law as part of a cease-fire agreement with the country’s Hizb al-Islamiya and al-Shabaab rebels. Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed had previously expressed his support for the adoption of a moderate form of Sharia as part of peace talks with the rebels.

Ver los proyectos presentados al Desafío Abredatos creo que permite asegurar sin ninguna duda de que estamos ante algo grande en lo que al movimiento pro datos abiertos se refiere en España. El “Open Data” es uno de los exponentes de las nuevas vías que tiene la sociedad civil para reclamar su rol en la democracia frente a las administraciones: acceso a los datos que estas poseen y la capacidad de organizarlos, agregarlos y permitir a los ciudadanos acceder a una información que en la práctica está oculta tras una maraña de formatos y burocracia.

El desafío Abredatos es, junto a los esfuerzos del gobierno vasco, la punta de lanza de un movimiento al que como sociedad vamos a tener mucho que agradecer en los próximos años. No hay más que ver el potencial de los proyectos presentados para entender que el debate sobre “Open Data / datos abiertos” no es tecnológico sino sobre las nuevas formas de activismo por el que la sociedad civil puede vigilar al poder y ofrecer servicios a los ciudadanos.

Han escrito más y mejor sobre Abredatos, Furilo, Antonio Más, Torres Buriel y Barrera y JJ (en vídeo)

Valery is an illustrator who does a really sweet work on the Piro wall clock.

“Basically, I purchased the PIRO wall clock from Ikea since I really liked its design. Also, since the frame is made out of wood, I thought it would be easy to tint or paint to personalize the product even more.

Once unmounted, I spray glued my illustration right on the top of the numbers, let it dry and there you go! A nice illustrative wall clock to display my illustration work.

I actually tried this with many Ikea wall clocks before but it was really hard to disassemble them without breaking anything. I hope you will enjoy this hack.”

If you love it, her clocks are available for purchase here. Or simply visit her website.

Do you tweet?
Talking about tweeting, I’ve never been really big on Twitter, though I created a personal account some years ago.

But if you like to be updated on Ikeahacker via Twitter, you can connect with me @ikeahacks. You’ll get the latest blog posts whenever there is an update and maybe, just maybe, some tweets about what I am having for lunch. Hmm. Maybe not.

According to three company sources, Fiat will offer a four-door version of the 500 subcompact in North America. The four-door version of the Fiat 500 will arrive in Europe at the end of 2011 but timing for the United States is still uncertain.

Later this week, Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler and Fiat, and other executives will outline Fiat’s 5-year plan in Turin, Italy. The plans for a four-door 500 may or may not be announced, sources say, but it has been approved.

The Fiat 500 will be available in North America with a 1.4L Multiair engine in the 4th-quarter of 2010. Chrysler recently announced that it will also offer a pure electric version of the Fiat 500 in the U.S. in 2012.

Fiat 500:

– By: Kap Shah

Source: Automotive News (Subscription Required)

Looking for that perfect private hospital in denmark? Well have a look here at Privathospital. In denmark there are quite a lot of good water purifiers. But the best is this Kalkproblemer go have a look at the service. When ever you wanna get in to DIY you need prober clothing. Visit this shop for the best erhvervsbeklædning! Having problems with your windshields in the car in denmark, why not have a look here at one neat and fine proffesional! Just go see Autoglas and say hi from me… Last but least, if you ever find your self looking for a container, this is one place i can recommend!

Tags: Kalk, kalkproblemer, erhvervsbeklædning, arbejdsbeklædning, Container, containere, privathospital,

Susan Boyle has scrapped a planned tour of Australia in order to “rest” before recording her second album, The Daily Telegraph reported this week.

Boyle’s reps have decided the Scottish songbird needs time to recuperate from promotional tours of the US and Japan before heading back into the studio to work on the follow-up to her 2009 international smash hit debut, I Dreamed A Dream.

“Regrettably, we have had to make the tough decision to postpone our Australian visit for the Logies in May,” her manager Andy Stephens said. “We want to apologize to all Susan’s Australian fans and look forward to coming to Australia later in the year.”

Boyle rose to fame after appearing on the UK talent show Britain’s Got Talent last year.