Austin's mayor Duncan has already spent $1 million promoting his scheme to have cars suck up electricity at night so they can act as power stations in the daytime. zFacts supports conservation, but this just makes conservationists look like idiots.  read more

It's just like unscrambling eggs. In May 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority, sent Saddam's army home with their guns and sacked the rest of the Baathist party. Out of work, many joined the insurgents. This was known ... read more

Can we do it with corn?  Using 20% of our corn crop, we are 98.5% as energy dependent as ever. And it costs a fortune. This is straight from the pro-ethanol US Dept. of Agriculture, Jan. 2007. On top of that, they forgot that ethanol uses up natural gas—and causes more energy imports. The fact is we're only 1.1% more independent. The real purpose is just to buy farm votes. The USDA doesn't think read more      (zFacts on ethanol)

In 2006, ethanol saved 0.054% of US greenhouse gas emissions. A 100-fold increase would bring us to 5.4%, still not enough. But 20% of the 2006 corn crop was used for ethanol, so a 100-fold increase would require 20 times the entire 2006 corn crop, and cost a fortune. These numbers are 50% more optimistic than those from UC Berkeley's Sustainable Energy Lab. They are not read more      (zFacts on ethanol)

You hear a lot about the energy it takes to make ethanol. Is it more than you get from the ethanol produced, or is it less. Is the energy balance positive or is it negative. Enough! It doesn't matter. It's not energy we care about. What matters is (1) energy imported from dangerous places, and (2) greenhouse gases. Here' why neither matches the energy balance.  ... read more      (zFacts on ethanol)

The "Coalition" suffered more hostile fatalities in the first 50 days of year five than during the first 50 days of the invasion (source). The surge is not a plan, it's just 20% more of the same. The problem is still Dick Cheney. From the start, he's had no idea what he was doing (quotes).

In Baghdad, a rocket exploded near the US embassy in the fortified Green Zone during Mr Cheney's visit. A spokeswoman for Cheney said "he was not moved" as a result of the explosion. The AP reports that the latest attacks have been unnerving because of ... read more

From the Wall St. Journal: "This isn't a sudden change in Mr. Bush's economic philosophy, but rather a change in tactics. Top White House economic officials still don't consider today's inequality -- the growing share of income going to those at the top -- an inherently bad thing; they believe it simply reflects the rising rewards accruing to society's most skilled and productive members.

Let's see, "rising rewards to the most skilled." Nothing about them getting more skilled or working harder, they're just getting "rising rewards" for being "most skilled." Of course, economists define "most skilled" to mean those who make the most money. How about some rising rewards for those who work harder, or have middle level skills?

The graph tells us all those in the bottom half have gone nowhere lately, and you can bet the middle hasn't done much better. It's the top 5% getting richer. —WSJ, 3/26/07.

Austin's mayor Duncan has already spent $1 million promoting his scheme to have cars suck up electricity at night so they can act as power stations in the daytime. zFacts supports conservation, but this just makes conservationists look like idiots. Duncan forgot to include the $10,000 battery costs. How? By forgetting that using the batteries wears them out. He assumes no wear and tear, the cars have batteries anyway, so they are free.

In reality, hybrid batteries are long lasting only because they are not heavily used. They are rarely fully discharged and normally charge only to 60% so they have room for regenerative breaking energy. Here's a rough cost analysis. The new Prius batteries hold 1.8 kWh of electricity. Bought at night and sold in daytime this might save 7¢. These batteries are pretty much the same as in your laptop and are pretty well kaput after 1200 full cycles. That's an electricity saving value of $84. The Prius batter costs over $3000.

The problem is that once cars are used as power stations every day, their batteries will no longer last the life of the car and will have to be replaced at huge cost to the car owner. Excerpts from Wall St. Journal ♦ Battery life

Bush tells us the Iraqis don't want us to leave. That's about right. Only 30% want us to leave immediately. But figure this out. 94% of the Sunnis think its acceptable to shoot at US troops, but 44% want us to stay till things settle down. Why? So they can shoot at us?

Probably not. Although 94% think that's fine, the Sunnis are afraid of the Shiites and think we provide some protection. They don't want us to stay because they like us.

Here's another mystery. Only 6% of Sunnis want an Al Qaeda style religious government. So why have they been supporting Al Qaeda? Same answer. They like Al Qaeda shooting at the US and the Shiites. Al Qaeda would have almost no support in Iraq (6% of about 18% Sunnis is only 1% of the population) if the US left and the Sunnis had some territory they felt safe in.   ABC Polls

It works just like unscrambling eggs. In May 2003, the Coalition Provisional Authority, sent Saddam's army home with their guns and sacked the rest of the Baathist party. Out of work, many joined the insurgents. This was known to be mistake by all but Cheney's neocons even before it was carried out. Finally, the US is backing a law to reverse the blunder.

Shiites who dominate the Iraqi parliament, claim the point is to put Baathists back into key positions of power. This makes some sense as Saddam's army cannot be re-hired, nor can most former government employees, since the goverment has been completely reorganized and re-staffed.

The Iraq "surge" is about Iran, and began Oct 3, when the Eisenhower carrier strike group left for the Gulf. Bush announced a second carrier deployment in his Surge speech. That's over 20,000 men right there, and they are of no use in Baghdad.

Kissinger, a contributor to the surge plan, has just explained that "American forces are in Iraq to prevent the Iranian[s] from dominating the energy supplies of the industrial democracies." Cheney still wants to attack Iran, and his secret Iran/Syria Operations Group is likely working on it.

The danger is Cheney's incompetence. He and the neocons have driven Iraq policy from the start and blundered at every turn with disastrous consequences: Risk from terrorism is up. Al Qaeda has sprung up in Iraq. Iran's president is now a fanatic. He and Hezbollah's leader are now the most popular men in the Islamic world. We are losing Afghanistan.  Why sacrifice for more of Dick's blunders?