CEI Weekly: CEI Starts Gore Debate Fundraiser

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
November 20, 2009


>>[Video] CEI Encourages Al Gore to Debate on Global Warming
In an attempt to convince Al Gore to change his mind about refusing to debate, CEI has started a new campaign called the Pledge-a-Dollar-to-Debate campaign. This campaign will allow individuals to pledge money to Al Gore should he choose to debate Lord Monckton. Check out the video and send your pledges to: [email protected].


>>Shaping the Debate
Health Care is Not a Right
Iain Murray and Roger Abbott’s Article in the Washington Examiner Opinion Zone

VAT Would Be One Big Tub of Trouble
Wayne Crews and Ryan Young’s Op-ed in the Investor’s Business Daily

Congress, Tobacco, and a President Who Lights Up
Sam Kazman’s Article in Cigar Magazine

Climate Charter
Myron Ebell’s quote in the San Jose Mercury News


>>Best of the Blogs
Harvard Medical School Dean Gives ObamaCare a “Failing Grade”
by Hans Bader
The Dean of Harvard Medical School just gave the Obama health care plan a “failing grade,” saying it will harm America’s health and finances, and hamper the medical innovation needed to save patients’ lives. Dean Jeffrey S. Flier writes, “In discussions with dozens of health-care leaders and economists, I find near unanimity of opinion that, whatever its shape, the final legislation that will emerge from Congress will markedly accelerate national health-care spending rather than restrain it. Likewise, nearly all agree that the legislation would do little or nothing to improve quality or change health-care’s dysfunctional delivery system.”

Labor’s Day at the Federalist Society
by F. Vincent Vernuccio
Workers may get violent if their wages are cut. The United Auto Workers union (UAW) has a monopoly and was an anchor on the Big Three U.S. automakers. These two ideas were professed by two labor leaders at the recent Federalist Society Convention in Washington, D.C. There may be violence, says Damon A. Silvers, Associate General Counsel for the AFL-CIO and Deputy Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel for TARP. Silvers spoke on last Friday’s panel “Labor: Wall Street, Labor Unions, and the Obama Administration: A New Paradigm for Capitol and Labor?” Speaking to the panel, he claimed economic downturns which cause people to have their wages cut, can have devastating results.

Making Broadband Accessible: Innovation, Not Intervention
by Ryan Young
FCC regulators want to provide wider and cheaper broadband access by subsidizing it, raising taxes, and forcing network owners to share their network infrastructure with competitors.
A few things the FCC should consider: Subsidies don’t make broadband access any less expensive. They just change who pays for it. In this case, that would be anybody with a phone.

Not Sure What DDT Does to Birds, But I Know How it Helps People
by Michael Fumento
There’s been much in the news lately about the brown pelican being delisted as an endangered species since its recovery from the effects of DDT. I happen to know people whose work I trust who disagree as to whether DDT actually thinned bird eggshells and thus led to declines in various species. That said, all of them are agreed as to the value in saving lives in poor areas – including parts of Africa today.


>>Liberty Week Podcast
Episode 69: Feed the World With Property Rights
We start by pigging out on swine flu statistics, putting off action on global warming and wagging our finger at a corrupt judge. We proceed with the fight between Intel and AMD and wrap up with an interview with CEI Senior Fellow Gregory Conko on how to end world hunger.


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Charles Huang

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Competitive Enterprise Institute

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