I am watching this encore presentation now - very powerful.
You can (and should) watch it online.
The next president of the United States will inherit a foreign policy nightmare: wars on two fronts, an overstretched military, a resurgent Taliban and a reconstituted Al Qaeda based far from America's reach.
In The War Briefing, award-winning FRONTLINE producer Marcela Gaviria and correspondent Martin Smith offer harrowing on-the-ground reporting from the deadliest battlefield in the mountains of Afghanistan, and follow the trail to the militant safe havens deep inside the Pakistani tribal areas, probing some of the most urgent foreign policy challenges facing the next president.
"The situation is worse; there's no question about that," says Ronald Neumann, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 to 2007. "Provinces close to Kabul are now having incidents that didn't have incidents before. And to my mind, that is clearly a strengthening insurgency."
The War Briefing begins in the mountains of northeastern Afghanistan, where FRONTLINE embedded with Bravo Company, a unit posted on one of Afghanistan's deadliest fronts. Bravo Company comes under fire almost daily. Attacks have reached an all-time high, now making Afghanistan a deadlier battlefield than Iraq. Often called the "forgotten war," top U.S. commanders concede that the next president will inherit a security situation that has deteriorated markedly over the last two years.
December 30, 2008
Bloomberg Aide Drops Kennedy Push
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg's top political aide, Kevin Sheekey, "is pulling back on his lobbying campaign to propel Caroline Kennedy into the U.S. Senate because 'it wasn't working,'" the New York Post reports.Said the source: "They tried to take everybody else out. It didn't work. They were out there way, way too early."
BW: A Hazy Forecast for Green Jobs
Whether or not a "green" stimulus will create millions of American jobs is hotly debated by economists. Many executives and experts say the most effective policy to push America toward a clean, efficient energy future is putting a price on emissions of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, thus raising the price of energy. That's a tough sell now to Americans struggling to pay their bills. There's also a danger that the government could steer investments to the wrong technologies. Remember synfuels, President Jimmy Carter's experiment to reduce dependence on foreign oil?
Fear not where the ideas come from
In speeches and policy statements, Obama has repeatedly emphasized a need to maintain America's technology leadership in the world and to invest government funds to do so. His campaign platform declared that government policy must "foster home-grown innovation" and "help ensure the competitiveness of United States technology-based businesses." Two of his favorite proposals — roundly endorsed by technology industry leaders and university scientists — are to double federal funding for basic research over the next several years and to train many thousands more scientists and engineers.
But such steps would likely amount to well-intentioned but misguided policies that risk doing more harm than good, according to Amar Bhide, a professor at the Columbia Business School. In a new book, "The Venturesome Economy" (Princeton University Press), Bhide makes a detailed argument that contradicts the prevailing view of expert panels and authors who contend that the nation's prosperity is threatened by the technological rise of China and India, and that America's capacity for innovation is eroding. To arrest the decline, they insist that more scientists and engineers, and more government spending on research, are sorely needed
But such steps would likely amount to well-intentioned but misguided policies that risk doing more harm than good, according to Amar Bhide, a professor at the Columbia Business School. In a new book, "The Venturesome Economy" (Princeton University Press), Bhide makes a detailed argument that contradicts the prevailing view of expert panels and authors who contend that the nation's prosperity is threatened by the technological rise of China and India, and that America's capacity for innovation is eroding. To arrest the decline, they insist that more scientists and engineers, and more government spending on research, are sorely needed
NYT: Agency Predicts a Return of Triple-Digit Oil Prices
The International Energy Agency, which advises industrialized nations on energy policy, warned that the supply shortfalls that pushed oil prices into triple-digit territory this year are far from resolved, and could lead to a new period of high prices.
But even with the lowered demand forecast, the agency warned that the period of lower prices may not last as producers fail to increase oil supplies to meet the developing world’s rising needs. It expects prices to average more than $100 a barrel through 2015, and possibly rise to $200 a barrel by 2030.
But even with the lowered demand forecast, the agency warned that the period of lower prices may not last as producers fail to increase oil supplies to meet the developing world’s rising needs. It expects prices to average more than $100 a barrel through 2015, and possibly rise to $200 a barrel by 2030.
NYT: Energy Goals a Moving Target for States
In hopes of slowing global warming and creating “green jobs,” Congress and the incoming administration may soon impose a mandate that the nation get 10 or 15 percent of its electricity from renewable sources within a few years.
Yet the experience of states that have adopted similar goals suggests that passing that requirement could be a lot easier than achieving it. The record so far is decidedly mixed: some states appear to be on track to meet energy targets, but others have fallen behind on the aggressive goals they set several years ago.
Yet the experience of states that have adopted similar goals suggests that passing that requirement could be a lot easier than achieving it. The record so far is decidedly mixed: some states appear to be on track to meet energy targets, but others have fallen behind on the aggressive goals they set several years ago.
December 29, 2008
NYT: Money and Lobbyists Hurt European Efforts to Curb Gases
The EU started with a high-minded ecological goal: encouraging companies to cut their greenhouse gases by making them pay for each ton of carbon dioxide they emitted into the atmosphere.
But that plan unleashed a lobbying free-for-all that led politicians to dole out favors to various industries, undermining the environmental goals. Four years later, it is becoming clear that system has so far produced little noticeable benefit to the climate — but generated a multibillion-dollar windfall for some of the Continent’s biggest polluters.
But that plan unleashed a lobbying free-for-all that led politicians to dole out favors to various industries, undermining the environmental goals. Four years later, it is becoming clear that system has so far produced little noticeable benefit to the climate — but generated a multibillion-dollar windfall for some of the Continent’s biggest polluters.
USAT: Obama's 'green dream team' is warmly received
One is a Nobel Prize winner overseeing research of alternative energy. The three others all have one thing in common: experience working for the Environmental Protection Agency.
LAT: Debate over Sunrise Powerlink may be near decision
In the rural, arid flatlands near the Salton Sea, CalEnergy Generation is sitting on what California needs.
The Imperial County company taps steam heat from deep within the Earth's crust to generate clean electricity, enough to light 238,000 homes.There's more where that came from. But whether further development of renewable energy ever happens at this Calipatria operation and dozens of proposed projects in California's hinterlands may depend on what goes on in San Francisco, maybe as soon as today.
The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on a controversial transmission project known as the Sunrise Powerlink. The $1.9-billion high-voltage line would stretch more than 100 miles from Imperial County to San Diego, linking power plants in the desert to coastal cities hungry for their energy
The Imperial County company taps steam heat from deep within the Earth's crust to generate clean electricity, enough to light 238,000 homes.There's more where that came from. But whether further development of renewable energy ever happens at this Calipatria operation and dozens of proposed projects in California's hinterlands may depend on what goes on in San Francisco, maybe as soon as today.
The California Public Utilities Commission is scheduled to vote on a controversial transmission project known as the Sunrise Powerlink. The $1.9-billion high-voltage line would stretch more than 100 miles from Imperial County to San Diego, linking power plants in the desert to coastal cities hungry for their energy
FT: The outsider's oracle
In the buzzy, scruffy warren of offices in New York from which Nouriel Roubini runs his economics aggregration and commentary website, one of the young cyber-serfs has taped a New York Post story about the boss to the chalky wall. "NYU Playboy Warns: Econ Party's Over", the sub-heading declares, next to a photograph of a smiling, open-shirted Mr Roubini, sandwiched between two attractive young women.
LAT: Energy dispute over Rockies riches
A titanic battle between the West's two traditional power brokers -- Big Oil and Big Water -- has begun.
At stake is one of the largest oil reserves in the world, a vast cache trapped beneath the Rocky Mountains containing an estimated 800 billion barrels -- about three times the reserves of Saudi Arabia.
Extracting oil from rocky seams of underground shale is not only expensive, but also requires massive amounts of water, a precious resource crucial to continued development in the nation's fastest-growing region.
At stake is one of the largest oil reserves in the world, a vast cache trapped beneath the Rocky Mountains containing an estimated 800 billion barrels -- about three times the reserves of Saudi Arabia.
Extracting oil from rocky seams of underground shale is not only expensive, but also requires massive amounts of water, a precious resource crucial to continued development in the nation's fastest-growing region.
NYT: Coal is returning to home furnaces
Coal is making a comeback as a home-heating fuel.
Problematic in some ways and difficult to handle, coal is nonetheless a cheap, plentiful, mined-in-America source of heat. And with the cost of heating oil and natural gas increasingly prone to spikes, some homeowners in the Northeast, pockets of the Midwest and even Alaska are deciding coal is worth the trouble.
Problematic in some ways and difficult to handle, coal is nonetheless a cheap, plentiful, mined-in-America source of heat. And with the cost of heating oil and natural gas increasingly prone to spikes, some homeowners in the Northeast, pockets of the Midwest and even Alaska are deciding coal is worth the trouble.
LAT: Charging ahead to push electric cars
A Palo Alto start-up company wants to electrify the global auto industry, one place at a time.Better Place created a stir last month when it announced an ambitious plan to install thousands of electric-car charging sites and battery-replacement stations around the Bay Area.
The idea is to jump-start the adoption of electric vehicles by providing places where people can easily charge them, leading, the company's founder hopes, to a reduction in global dependence on oil.Better Place and its competitors are betting that providing a variety of charging choices will help overcome the chicken-and-egg question that bedevils electric cars -- which do you build first, the cars or the infrastructure to keep them running?
If they succeed, the result could be the upending of Detroit's century-old business model -- an objective that Better Place founder Shai Agassi calls Car 2.0.
The idea is to jump-start the adoption of electric vehicles by providing places where people can easily charge them, leading, the company's founder hopes, to a reduction in global dependence on oil.Better Place and its competitors are betting that providing a variety of charging choices will help overcome the chicken-and-egg question that bedevils electric cars -- which do you build first, the cars or the infrastructure to keep them running?
If they succeed, the result could be the upending of Detroit's century-old business model -- an objective that Better Place founder Shai Agassi calls Car 2.0.
December 8, 2008
Zogby poll for the 2012 GOP Presidential nomination
A new poll shows Alaska Governor Sarah Palin in the front with 24%, followed by former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney at 18%, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal at 16%, former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee at 10%, former New York City Mayor Rudy Guiliani at 5%, and Texas Congressman Ron Paul at 3%
June 27, 2008
The Next China Storm - Nudging the Asian dragon into an agreement to cut its greenhouse-gas emissions wouldn't be easy.
Sat. Jun. 28, 2008
by Ronald Brownstein
SHANGHAI--To drive through the Yan'an tunnel that separates the old neighborhoods of Shanghai from the new Pudong district is to travel not so much through space as through time. Pudong's science-fiction skyline of massive and exotically shaped office towers gleams like a postcard from the 22nd century.
Bill Emmott, the former editor of The Economist, writes in his insightful and deeply reported new book, Rivals, that "the shift in economic and political power to Asia" remains "the most important long-term trend in world affairs." Shanghai is a monument in glass and steel to the power of that judgment.
Shanghai is also a monument to the environmental challenge that dynamism presents. Its streets are perpetually clogged with cars and trucks. Its skyscrapers demand vast supplies of electricity for cooling and lighting. The sky often droops over the city--heavy and gray. In all these ways, Shanghai testifies to the pressures that have propelled China past the United States as the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide and the other gases linked to global warming. Finding ways to balance China's need for energy to fuel its growth with the imperative to reduce those emissions worldwide is what promises to be the next great challenge in America's relations with this vast and vibrant power.
Today those relations are relatively placid. Despite intermittent flare-ups over trade and human rights, China has provoked remarkably little discussion in the 2008 presidential campaign. And although interest in the American election is considerable in China as well as in Japan, conversations last week with business leaders, academics, and international-affairs analysts in both nations found surprisingly little concern that its outcome will matter much to the region.
In both countries, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama has stirred excitement among many young people. But in both nations, many observers think that elite opinion tilts toward presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. That's largely because, in Shanghai and Tokyo alike , President Bush is given credit for maintaining positive relations with China and Japan simultaneously--no easy task. He is also credited with opening doors to India, the region's third giant, and easing (however fitfully) tensions with North Korea. A senior Chinese foreign-policy analyst expressed a view common among the experts I met with in Tokyo as well: "In terms of Asia policy, whether there is a President Obama or a President McCain, [he] will largely carry on the legacy from President Bush."
That could be true in many ways (although a President Obama, given the constituencies important to him, would inevitably pressure China on trade and human rights more than Bush or McCain). But in one significant, and combustible, respect, the Asian expectation of continuity is misplaced.
Bush, because he opposes mandatory cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, made it easy for China (and also India) to reject limits as well. But Obama and McCain are committed to compulsory U.S. reductions. And both recognize that Congress is unlikely to approve such limits unless China and India accept (as Japan already has) an international agreement to reduce their own emissions.
Nudging China into such an agreement wouldn't be easy. The frustration over the country's environmental degradation is growing, especially among younger Chinese. But the sheer scale of China's economic transformation makes carbon reductions a daunting challenge: The International Energy Agency recently projected that China and India alone will account for nearly half of the world's increased energy use through 2030. And after Bush exerted so little pressure on China, even that nation's experts on U.S. politics seem genuinely surprised that the next president might turn up the heat on global warming.
Although China now leads the world in total greenhouse emissions, America's per capita pollution remains nearly four times as great. With that in mind, the next president will undoubtedly offer China carrots on climate change, like the farsighted 10-year agreement on environmental cooperation that Bush signed with Beijing this month.
But the next president will also be more willing than Bush has been to brandish sticks, such as the proposal in this month's failed Senate climate bill to eventually impose a "carbon tariff" on imports from nations that don't limit greenhouse emissions. That prospect stunned and disturbed the Chinese. Their reaction suggests that the (relative) tranquility in U.S.-China relations today may be just the calm before a climate-induced storm.
by Ronald Brownstein
SHANGHAI--To drive through the Yan'an tunnel that separates the old neighborhoods of Shanghai from the new Pudong district is to travel not so much through space as through time. Pudong's science-fiction skyline of massive and exotically shaped office towers gleams like a postcard from the 22nd century.
Bill Emmott, the former editor of The Economist, writes in his insightful and deeply reported new book, Rivals, that "the shift in economic and political power to Asia" remains "the most important long-term trend in world affairs." Shanghai is a monument in glass and steel to the power of that judgment.
Shanghai is also a monument to the environmental challenge that dynamism presents. Its streets are perpetually clogged with cars and trucks. Its skyscrapers demand vast supplies of electricity for cooling and lighting. The sky often droops over the city--heavy and gray. In all these ways, Shanghai testifies to the pressures that have propelled China past the United States as the world's largest emitter of carbon dioxide and the other gases linked to global warming. Finding ways to balance China's need for energy to fuel its growth with the imperative to reduce those emissions worldwide is what promises to be the next great challenge in America's relations with this vast and vibrant power.
Today those relations are relatively placid. Despite intermittent flare-ups over trade and human rights, China has provoked remarkably little discussion in the 2008 presidential campaign. And although interest in the American election is considerable in China as well as in Japan, conversations last week with business leaders, academics, and international-affairs analysts in both nations found surprisingly little concern that its outcome will matter much to the region.
In both countries, presumptive Democratic nominee Barack Obama has stirred excitement among many young people. But in both nations, many observers think that elite opinion tilts toward presumptive Republican nominee John McCain. That's largely because, in Shanghai and Tokyo alike , President Bush is given credit for maintaining positive relations with China and Japan simultaneously--no easy task. He is also credited with opening doors to India, the region's third giant, and easing (however fitfully) tensions with North Korea. A senior Chinese foreign-policy analyst expressed a view common among the experts I met with in Tokyo as well: "In terms of Asia policy, whether there is a President Obama or a President McCain, [he] will largely carry on the legacy from President Bush."
That could be true in many ways (although a President Obama, given the constituencies important to him, would inevitably pressure China on trade and human rights more than Bush or McCain). But in one significant, and combustible, respect, the Asian expectation of continuity is misplaced.
Bush, because he opposes mandatory cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, made it easy for China (and also India) to reject limits as well. But Obama and McCain are committed to compulsory U.S. reductions. And both recognize that Congress is unlikely to approve such limits unless China and India accept (as Japan already has) an international agreement to reduce their own emissions.
Nudging China into such an agreement wouldn't be easy. The frustration over the country's environmental degradation is growing, especially among younger Chinese. But the sheer scale of China's economic transformation makes carbon reductions a daunting challenge: The International Energy Agency recently projected that China and India alone will account for nearly half of the world's increased energy use through 2030. And after Bush exerted so little pressure on China, even that nation's experts on U.S. politics seem genuinely surprised that the next president might turn up the heat on global warming.
Although China now leads the world in total greenhouse emissions, America's per capita pollution remains nearly four times as great. With that in mind, the next president will undoubtedly offer China carrots on climate change, like the farsighted 10-year agreement on environmental cooperation that Bush signed with Beijing this month.
But the next president will also be more willing than Bush has been to brandish sticks, such as the proposal in this month's failed Senate climate bill to eventually impose a "carbon tariff" on imports from nations that don't limit greenhouse emissions. That prospect stunned and disturbed the Chinese. Their reaction suggests that the (relative) tranquility in U.S.-China relations today may be just the calm before a climate-induced storm.
February 26, 2008
Sharper Image gift cards: It's nice to have some Leverage
A recent survey revealed that approximately 27% of gift cards are never redeemed. In 2006, that came to over $8 billion in gifts that ended up going back to retailers. The most common reasons that respondents cited for not using their cards included that they never had time to shop or that they never found anything they liked.
Well, you can now chalk up another reason. In a follow up to last week's story about Sharper Image's decision to file for bankruptcy, the high-end retailer announced on Friday that it will no longer accept store gift cards, gift certificates, or merchandise credit.
This means that if you are currently holding any of these items, it is probably worthless. The bright side is that you may have a legitimate claim against Sharper Image's bankruptcy estate; the downside is that Wells Fargo is in line ahead of you, and it probably wants its $20 million back. You can fight over the remaining scraps. If any.
On the other hand, if you got your gift card through Leverage, an online gift-card retailer, you may be in luck. Yesterday, the website announced that it now extends bankruptcy protection to all cards purchased through its site. In other words, if you are holding a Sharper Image gift card that was purchased through Leverage, you can transfer your balance to any other retailer that Leverage works with.
Additionally, Leverage has features to allow you to easily purchase cards, check your gift card and rewards card balances, and transfer money from one company to another. You can even earn interest on your gift cards!
I'm not a huge fan of gift cards (I don't have time to go shopping! I can never find anything I like!), and I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that buyers now need to get bankruptcy insurance to protect their gift cards. Like Sharper Image's bankruptcy, gift card bankruptcy insurance seems like an ominous portent of an economic downturn.
That having been said, if I buy a gift card, I'm definitely getting it from Leverage!
WalletPop: Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and co-author of Military Lessons of the Gulf War and A Chronology of the Cold War at Sea.
Well, you can now chalk up another reason. In a follow up to last week's story about Sharper Image's decision to file for bankruptcy, the high-end retailer announced on Friday that it will no longer accept store gift cards, gift certificates, or merchandise credit.
This means that if you are currently holding any of these items, it is probably worthless. The bright side is that you may have a legitimate claim against Sharper Image's bankruptcy estate; the downside is that Wells Fargo is in line ahead of you, and it probably wants its $20 million back. You can fight over the remaining scraps. If any.
On the other hand, if you got your gift card through Leverage, an online gift-card retailer, you may be in luck. Yesterday, the website announced that it now extends bankruptcy protection to all cards purchased through its site. In other words, if you are holding a Sharper Image gift card that was purchased through Leverage, you can transfer your balance to any other retailer that Leverage works with.
Additionally, Leverage has features to allow you to easily purchase cards, check your gift card and rewards card balances, and transfer money from one company to another. You can even earn interest on your gift cards!
I'm not a huge fan of gift cards (I don't have time to go shopping! I can never find anything I like!), and I'm not sure how I feel about the fact that buyers now need to get bankruptcy insurance to protect their gift cards. Like Sharper Image's bankruptcy, gift card bankruptcy insurance seems like an ominous portent of an economic downturn.
That having been said, if I buy a gift card, I'm definitely getting it from Leverage!
WalletPop: Bruce Watson is a freelance writer, blogger, and co-author of Military Lessons of the Gulf War and A Chronology of the Cold War at Sea.
February 18, 2008
February 14, 2008
What the Huck does for cash...
Gov. Mike Huckabee is headed to the Cayman Islands this weekend to give a paid speech. 'I have to make a living,' he told reporters in Wisconsin yesterday, per AP. 'I do that through my writing and my speaking.'
February 12, 2008
January 28, 2008
Who did you have breakfast with last week?
Blogger Robert Scoble was invited by Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook to a breakfast with Pakistani President, Pervez Musharraf while all three were in Davos.
Makes my breakfasts with my pal VS at The Four seem pedestrian - even with The Four's legendary toast service.
Makes my breakfasts with my pal VS at The Four seem pedestrian - even with The Four's legendary toast service.
Tom Petty's LA
There exists in sound a map of Los Angeles, filled with song-lyric street names, neighborhoods, beaches, bars, empty spaces and spaces between spaces. It's a chart that follows more than 30 years in the life and work of Tom Petty, a longtime resident of the city and an undercelebrated rock & roll icon who finally appears to be getting his due. LA Weekly
Pretty cool map and insights into this artist and city.
Pretty cool map and insights into this artist and city.
Seth Godin: Who are these people?
If you look at the numbers, you soon realize that a huge portion of the population apparently:
Has read two books in the last year, Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code
Uses only two websites, Google and Facebook
Visits only a few blog posts a day, and every single one of them is on the home page of Digg
Watches only two or three TV shows, including the Super Bowl
Eats only at McDonalds
Watches only incredibly snarky or juvenile videos on YouTube
Mass phenomena are tricky things. It's true, the typical American reads exactly one book a year. How are you going to predict which of the 75,000 books published are going to be that book?
You can't.
Many bloggers seem to be on a perpetual hunt for the front page of Digg. Sure, it brings you hordes of eyeballs, but then they turn around and leave. What's the point of that, really?
I think that are plenty of tips you can follow to optimize your offering for this fickle mass group. But it's still a crap shoot. Doesn't it make more sense to incrementally earn the attention of a smaller, less glitzy but far more valuable group of people who actually engage with you? And the best part is, your odds of success are a lot better.
Has read two books in the last year, Harry Potter and The DaVinci Code
Uses only two websites, Google and Facebook
Visits only a few blog posts a day, and every single one of them is on the home page of Digg
Watches only two or three TV shows, including the Super Bowl
Eats only at McDonalds
Watches only incredibly snarky or juvenile videos on YouTube
Mass phenomena are tricky things. It's true, the typical American reads exactly one book a year. How are you going to predict which of the 75,000 books published are going to be that book?
You can't.
Many bloggers seem to be on a perpetual hunt for the front page of Digg. Sure, it brings you hordes of eyeballs, but then they turn around and leave. What's the point of that, really?
I think that are plenty of tips you can follow to optimize your offering for this fickle mass group. But it's still a crap shoot. Doesn't it make more sense to incrementally earn the attention of a smaller, less glitzy but far more valuable group of people who actually engage with you? And the best part is, your odds of success are a lot better.
Power to the People
Mountain Dew ramps up "Dewmocracy" game with a multiplayer online game campaign, which involves consumers in the quest for the next Mountain Dew flavor, is set to hit a new level when viral voting begins in February at its dewmocracy.com Web site. With the updated campaign, consumers may select three new flavors that will be included in a nationwide product sampling in July. The winning flavor will hit the market by November. Advertising Age
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