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CEI Podcast — December 8, 2010: What’s Driving Ethanol Subsidies
CEI Research Associate Brian McGraw takes a look at what's behind the federal government's multi-billion dollar subsidies for ethanol.
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Afternoon Links: December 8, 2010
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Small Brewers’ Big Mistake in Colorado
In Colorado, the only place one can purchase alcoholic beverages over a strength of 3.2 percent alcohol by volume to take home is in a…
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Vincent Vernuccio on the Federal Pay Freeze
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Does Wikileaks Have a First Amendment Case Against Joe Lieberman?
Amazon made headlines last week when it abruptly cut off service to Wikileaks, allegedly on the grounds that the site had violated Amazon's…
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Supreme Court to Hear Wal-Mart v. Dukes
The Supreme Court voted to hear Wal-Mart v. Dukes, granting Wal-Mart’s petition for certiorari. The Supreme Court will decide whether a class-action rule…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Anonymous’ Operation : Payback campaign defends Wikileaks, downs MasterCard website: “Online supporters of whistleblowing website Wikileaks are fighting back…
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Wikileaks’ Assange to Australian Times: “I’m Not Sorry”
Julian Assange wrote an op-ed in the Australian Times today essentially saying, “I’m not sorry”: I grew up in a Queensland country…
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Afternoon Links: December 7, 2010
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People Do What You Pay Them to Do
This seems like an obvious statement. But Big Government is shocked — shocked! — when it pays doctors to perform surgeries instead of taking time for…
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Deal to Explode Deficits by $900 Billion Will Burden States and Employers With More Unemployment Costs
President Obama and Republican leaders reached a deal to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years — and temporarily reduce social security payroll taxes…
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Why D.C. Metro Escalators Are Always Broken: Incentives Matter
For Washingtonians wondering why Metro is always on the fritz, check out my piece over at The Examiner about how WMATA unions pay employees…
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Allure of the Seas: A Nation of “Why Not?”
The newest, largest cruise ship in the world set sail on its maiden voyage this week. Crewmembers tout the Allure’s motto: “A Nation of Why…
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Pro-Trade Country Songs — Oak Ridge Boys Beat Brad Paisley
Over at Cato@Liberty, David Boaz points to a post by Chris Cardiff on RootedinProsperity.com praising a song and video of country superstar Brad…
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Senator Grassley Supports Selective Tax Increases
A press release from Senator Grassley (R-Iowa), “U.S. Sen Grassley: Tax revenue doesn’t grow on Christmas trees”: The mid-term elections delivered a clear message. Americans…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Sharpton: FCC should threaten radio stations carrying Rush [Video]: “If the left can’t get Rush by reviving the Fairness Doctrine, maybe the…
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Printing Money Troubles
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Afternoon Links: December 6, 2010
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Fuzzy Math on Foreign Aid Shows Why Spending Cuts Are Difficult
Most Americans want to increase government-to-government transfers ten-fold from current levels while also cutting them in half.
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Seattle Land-Use Regulation Liberalization Redux
Stephen Smith of Market Urbanism responds to my response to his question, asking if I thought Seattle’s proposed land-use liberalization bill was a…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Wave Goodbye to Internet Freedom: “The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is poised to add the Internet to its portfolio of regulated industries.
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Unemployment Jumps to 9.8 Percent; Stimulus and New Regulations Wipe Out Jobs
Unemployment has jumped to 9.8 percent. The population has grown recently, but the number of jobs has remained virtually flat. The White House…
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Can EPA Regulators “Solve” the Obesity Problem?
Your New Year resolution might involve diet and exercise but according to news sources, that might not shrink your waistline. They say man-made chemicals called…
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CEI Weekly: The Federal Pay Freeze That Isn’t
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Afternoon Links: December 3, 2010
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Sunday Brunch in New York City
You can find a lot in New York City that you can’t find anywhere else in the world. But if you’re in New York and…
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The College Debt Bubble: Is It Ready to Explode?
“Is the College Debt Bubble Ready to Explode?,” asks Laura Rowley at Yahoo! Finance. College tuition has skyrocketed much more than housing did during…
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From Poor and Sick to Healthy and Rich
I'm always impressed with creative, compelling ways to use data to tell a story. And this story is one of the most important in human…
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Let Ethanol Tax Credit and Tariff Expire — Congress “Can Do Good Just by Doing Nothing”
CEI colleague Marlo Lewis skewers the ethanol tax credit and the tariff, due to expire at year-end. Lewis points out that letting the 45¢…
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The Censuring of Charles Rangel
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: WikiLeaks switches to Swiss domain after attacks: “WikiLeaks was forced Friday to switch over to a Swiss domain name, wikileaks.ch, after a…
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Senate Leaders Violate Constitution in Pushing Through Costly Food Safety Modernization Act
The House and Senate passed different versions of the Food Safety Modernization Act, which would ratchet up costly regulations of farms and food processing. (Greg…
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Brian McGraw on China’s Green Economy
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Homeland Security Violating Due Process and Free Speech In Internet Power Grab?
Law professor David Post notes that the Department of Homeland Security is seizing entire domain names, not to protect national security, but to enforce…
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Colorado to Ban Light & Low-Calorie Beer in Bars?
Next year bars and dine-in restaurants in Colorado might be forced by law to stop selling light, low-calorie, and low-alcohol beers. Any beer…
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Bob Barr Still Supports Ethanol Subsidies
In a piece on The Hill’s Congressional Blog, former Republican congressman and the 2008 Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr expresses support for the…
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Seattle Land Use Liberalization Bill Fails to Address Key Problems
Stephen Smith of Market Urbanism asked me what I thought of proposed legislation in Seattle that would remove some restrictions on land use…
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Federal Pay Freeze Discussion: Pointlessly Partisan
This week the White House announced its brave new plan to fix the economy: Freezing the salaries of federal employees. But wait! This is…
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Federal Register Hits 75,000 Pages
At its current 327-page per day pace, the 2010 Federal Register would be 81,560 unadjusted pages long.
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Google To Punish No-Good Sites With Revised Search Ranking: “Google’s method of ranking of search results took a hit last week in…
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$7 Billion or More in New Taxes for Virginians Under EPA Mandate
The EPA told Virginia earlier that it would impose costly measures on Virginia Counties, measures so costly that they would result in record property…
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It’s World AIDS Day; Is it the “Forgotten Epidemic”?
World AIDS Day has rolled around again, amid charges by C. Everett Koop that “HIV is no longer on the public’s radar screen, and…
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EPA at 40 — Doing an End-Run Around the Legislative Process
The Environmental Protection Agency is 40 years old. It came into being under a Republican president, Richard M. Nixon, and opened its offices on…
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Afternoon Links: December 1, 2010
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Obama’s Federal Pay Freeze That Wasn’t
No one seems happy with President Obama’s announcement that he plans to freeze pay rates of the federal work force. The right claims that…
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Do You Want the IRS Doing Your Taxes?
The income tax is a pain in the neck. The obvious solution is the simplify the 70,000-page tax code. But some are proposing to have…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: FCC chairman to propose plan for net neutrality: “The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission plans to announce Wednesday…
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European Commission Should Leave Internet Search Alone
Today, the European Commission opened a formal antitrust investigation into Google to probe allegations that the firm rigged its search engine to discriminate against…
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CEI Podcast — November 30, 2010: Food Safety, Washington-Style
CEI Senior Fellow Greg Conko looks at the major provisions of the food safety bill that the Senate is voting on today.
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Vincent Vernuccio on TSA Unions
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Naked Body Scanners — Coming to a Neighborhood Near You!
Well, you can forget the airports-only naked body scanners — they’re now coming to a neighborhood near you. Forbes reports that…
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The War on Terror, the TSA, and Useful Partisans
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Afternoon Links: November 30, 2010
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Real Estate Development and Generation Y
Over the Thanksgiving holiday, I came across this article in Urban Land magazine, “Housing Gen Y: The Next Challenge for Cities,” by John McIlwain. In…
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STREET SIGNS WITH ALL CAPS ARE GIVING LOCAL GOVERNMENTS A HEADACHE
The federal government has managed to create a new regulation that will put even more local governments in the red. Apparently, bureaucrats have determined…
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CEI Weekly: Frankenfoods Are Here to Stay
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Happy 80th Birthday, G. Gordon Liddy!
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Christian group asks Apple to reconsider app suspension: “A Christian organization that recently had its Apple iPhone app removed from Apple’s…
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An Intrusive, Ineffective, Unionized TSA?
Much has been written about the backlash against the TSA’s intrusive new screening methods. Law professor Jeff Rosen has argued that they violate…
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Online Gambling in New Jersey Could Cause WTO Disputes
New Jersey is on the verge of becoming the first state in the U.S. to explicitly legalize online gambling in an attempt to keep…
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Afternoon Links: November 29, 2010
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America’s Wealthiest County Used Bailout Money to Give Teachers a Paid Vacation
The richest county in America, Loudoun County, Virginia, used money from the Obama administration’s $10 billion teacher-bailout program to give teachers a…
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TSA Backlash Directed at Failed Screening Methods, Not Airport Security
Contrary to what mouth-frothing Obama apparatchiki claim, critics of the current TSA screening practices are not hyper-partisan corporate shills. Nor are we irrationally…
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Unions Still Hampering Free Trade
Watching politicians stammer on in attempts to justify short-sighted policy never gets boring. The interview referenced by Wall Street Journal columnist Mary Anastasia O’Grady…
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Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats class action settlement
In the Kellogg’s Frosted Mini-Wheats class action settlement, class members (those who purchased the cereal on certain dates in 2008 and 2009) who submit…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Comcast: Internet service restored after regional outage: “Officials at Comcast Sunday night said they did not know what caused disruptions in its…
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More Burdensome to Pay Rent Than to Be a Mortgage Deadbeat
Under government mortgage bailout/modification programs, the mortgage payments of many delinquent borrowers were cut to 31 percent of income, even for borrowers with high incomes and big…
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A Little Holiday Gothic to Start Your Holiday
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Taxpayers Pay Three Times for Special Interest Litigation
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Federal Government Subsidizes Obesity and Wealthy Urbanites
In the Washington Examiner, David Freddoso explains how the federal Department of Health and Human Services spent $766,000 of your tax dollars to help…
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WTO: For Trade Imbalances, Use Value Added For a More Accurate Picture
The World Trade Organization’s annual report released today is well worth reading, not only for the data on recent trade flows, economic and unemployment…
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How Property Rights Saved the Pilgrims After the First Thanksgiving
In Reason Magazine, Nick Gillespie and Meredith Bragg write about how the establishment of property rights among the pilgrims made them more “industrious” and…
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A New Course for Wild Tigers
A New York Times editorial highlights a struggle faced by the wild tiger, noting its population is down to approximately 3,200 from a high…
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TSA Sexual Harassment: Disappointing, but Not Surprising
Woman: TSA Agents Singled Me Out For My Breasts…
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TSA Exempts Politicians from Body Scans and Pat-Downs
Don't like dealing with the TSA's body scanners or pat-downs? Consider getting into politics.
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Wipeout: When Your Company Kills Your iPhone: “A few weeks ago, Amanda Stanton’s iPhone suddenly went black.” 34% of all malware…
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TSA Roundup
The Thanksgiving travel rush is officially underway.
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Afternoon Links: November 23, 2010
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The Case for Private School Vouchers
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Obama Includes Toyota, Hyundai and Kia in 75,000 Jobs “Created” by GM Bailout
This post was coauthored by CEI Research Associate Andrew Kwiatkowski As we write, President Obama and Vice President Biden are doing a victory lap…
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Crony Capitalism, the TSA, and Insider Trading
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“Model” Foreign Aid Recipient Uses Foreign Aid to Repress Its Citizens
Ethiopia is considered a model recipient of foreign aid by international aid agencies, since it uses much of the aid on its people, rather than…
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Two GOP Senators Say Get Rid of Ethanol Subsidies; Gore Says His Support for Ethanol Subsidies a Mistake
In the Washington Post’s “Plum Line” column today Greg Sargent focuses on two GOP senators’ campaign to get rid of the ethanol subsidies that…
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CEI Podcast — November 23, 2010: The Crusade Against Alcohol Energy Drinks
Baylen Linnekin, author of the recent CEI On Point "Extreme Refreshment Crackdown: The FDA’s Misguided Campaign Against Alcohol Energy Drinks" looks at the recent push…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: Facebook censors, cracksdown on breastfeeding photos: “In one of the photos that keeps getting Emma Kwasnica’s Facebook account suspended, the Montreal-based mother…
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High-Speed Rail in China: On Track for Failure
In recent years, Western media reports have been filled with fawning descriptions of China’s investment in high-speed bullet trains: “China Leads World In High-Speed…
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Press coverage
Not often that you see class actions discussed on ESPN.com, but Tuesday Morning Quarterback gave us a shout-out for our objection in the Classmates…
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Anti-Terrorism: A Political Auto-Immune Disease?
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Afternoon Links: November 22, 2010
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No Sense in Maryland’s “Dime-a-Drink” Tax Increase
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Entitlement America? Who Has More Disposable Income?
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Unions’ Shifting Lame Duck and NLRB Agenda
With Democrats losing control of the House of Representatives and a substantial number of seats in the Senate, organized labor’s hopes of seeing its legislative…
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Alcohol Industry Infighting Leads to Wacky and Costly Regulation
If the ban on alcohol-containing energy drinks tells us anything, it’s that American alcohol policy continues its tradition of being very wacky. If you…
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Six Ways Congress Can Fix COICA Copyright Bill
Over at the Technology Liberation Front, I discuss the “Combating Online Infringements and Counterfeits Act” (COICA), which the Senate Judiciary Committee unanimously…
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Minnesota AFL-CIO Pushes for Wisconsin “High-Speed” Rail
I’m currently in my home state of Minnesota, a place known to non-lefty residents as the People’s Republic of Minnesota, a place where the state’s…
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Al Gore Backtracks on Corn Ethanol
Whoops. Turns out Gore thinks he made a mistake; it wasn’t such a good policy in the first place. Who would have known that politicians,…
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Obesity Letters Assume Parents Can’t See Their Children
A school district in Arizona is implementing a controversial program that has the world talking: they will be weighing students and sending notes home…
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Morning Media Summary
Tech: FCC chief on net neutrality: Trust me: “FCC chairman Julius Genachowski now finds himself caught between unfulfilled promises made to the tech…
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GM IPO Raises Billions, But Company Faces Hidden Challenges; Bailout Still Not Repaid
General Motors raised more than $20 billion in an initial public offering (IPO) this week, selling millions of shares owned by the federal government,…
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Regulation of the Day 160: Sleeping in Public
In Roselle Park, New Jersey, it is against the law to fall asleep in public.