Not so long ago, “Big Government” was so out of favor that Democratic President Bill Clinton announced its era had come to an end. A decade later and it seems there’s no end in sight to the swelling of our federal government. The Republicans proved themselves greedy and incompetent and did little to rein in [...]

And this idea comes from no less than the Conservative government…
Canadians will be offered bicycles, public transit passes or cash if they agree to scrap their old gas-guzzling vehicles, the government said on Wednesday.
Ottawa says five million of the 18 million cars and trucks in Canada were made before 1996, when tougher emissions standards were [...]

CQ has an interesting story…
The 14 smallest states and six U.S. territories “pod” would always vote first, but no earlier than the third week of February in presidential election years.
The other three pods — comprising nine, 16 and seven states — would rotate their voting positions every four years. The ordering of the pods [...]

Very interesting development that could help address the big bio-fuel scam we’re currently being sold.
From CNN:
ANTHONY, Texas (CNN) — Texas may be best known for “Big Oil.” But the oil that could some day make a dent in the country’s use of fossil fuels is small. Microscopic, in fact: algae. Literally and figuratively, this is [...]

Larry Lessig and Joe Trippi announced this Thursday what Change Congress will be.
Here’s more from Wired…
The professor wants legislators to promise to do four things which he says will reduce the influence of money on policymaking: To promise not to accept money from lobbyists and political action committees; support public financing of elections; commit to [...]

What if we gave every American baby a savings account with $5,000 in it? We then allowed their parents to contribute more, tax free, until the child is college age. The child could withdraw the money between the ages of 18 and 25 to pay for college, start a new business or buy a home. [...]

“Skepticism of Mr. Obama’s “post-partisan” politics is partially developed out of a sinister second meaning appropriated by bandwagon “agents of change” — pushing an agenda through a unified government with little to no opposition. It’s not partisan because there is only one side. Yes, they could get a lot done. They could also do a lot of damage.“

Jonah Goldberg, author of the provocative new book Liberal Fascism is upset at how his book has been received. He believes most critics are missing his main point which is:
[T]o the extent that fascism of any kind will come to America, it will do so in the guise of something “progressive.” Indeed, American progressives, particularly [...]

Perhaps the market is indeed trying to digest what an Obama presidency and a unified single party Democratic government will mean for 2009.

What is the real story? It is not about whether GWB or LBJ is the biggest spender. It is not about whether Republicans or Democrats are bigger spenders. It is not about whether GWB is hypocritically claiming to be an advocate of fiscal responsibility. The real story is about what happens to spending under divided vs. single party control of the federal government.

Stephen Sliviniski, economist, author of Buck Wild, Director of Budget Analysis for the Cato Institute, and DWSUWF favorite, comments on recently released CBO budget estimates in “Finally, Some Not-So-Bad News on the Budget” posted at Cato@Liberty:

The big surprise in the Congressional Budget Office mid-year budget estimates released today isn’t that the year-to-year deficit [...]

I host a (more or less) monthly compilation of posts and articles on the subject of divided government at Divided We Stand United We Fall. The August Carnival of Divided Government Quîntus Decimus - Special Dog Days of Summer Edition was updated today. I’ll just highlight two recent links here -
Bruce Bartlett is [...]

In Wednesday’s post about a new redistricting algorithm, I focused on the technical specifics of the proposed method, and the pros and cons that made it different from previous proposals.
I deliberately avoided delving into all the standing arguments about how best to draw districts, largely because I’ve discussed them in tedious detail before. But judging [...]

Certainly there is a fairness problem with broadcasters, but if we look at this problem objectively, we see it cannot be solved by dealing with the broadcasters alone. The bigger problem resides in the listeners, watchers, and readers…

As long as the bulk of the electorate remain polarized and balanced, even a small percentage libertarian swing vote organized around divided government will be enough for libertarians to wield the biggest swinging political “hammer” in town.

Today I announce that I am switching my party affiliation from Democratic to Republican.

Eight months after the American electorate in their collective wisdom saw fit to install divided government in Washington DC, the investor class seems to be enjoying it more and more.

In this edition, as in all of the CODGOV series, we select volunteers and draftees from the blogosphere and main stream media on the singular topic of government divided between the major parties

The next edition of the Carnival of Divided Government TERTIUS DECIMUS - Special Memorial Day Weekend Fishing Edition, will be cross-posted at Donklephant and at DWSUWF on Memorial Day, May 28, 2007.

Seriously, you have to look at this. Each floor moves independent of one another so the shape is constantly changing. AND, it creates enough wind power to power 10 buildings like it.

WSJ has more:
In a design to be unveiled today in the oil-rich emirate, David Fisher, an Italian-Israeli architect, has dreamed up a 68-story combination [...]