Obama: U.S. auto fuel efficiency lacking
DETROIT - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Monday faulted U.S. automakers for failing to do what foreign manufacturers have accomplished in producing fuel-efficient vehicles.Uttering words not often spoken in Detroit, Obama said U.S. energy policy must change in order to help domestic automakers answer the rising global demand for efficient autos.
"For years, while foreign competitors were investing in more fuel-efficient Publishtechnology for their vehicles, American automakers were spending their time investing in bigger, faster cars," the Illinois senator told business and political leaders.
Obama said his plan encourages domestic automakers to make fuel-efficient hybrid vehicles by giving them health care assistance for retirees. Federal financial assistance would cover 10 percent — up to $7 billion — of automakers' annual legacy health care costs through 2017, under Obama's plan, which would require automakers to invest at least half of their health care savings into technology to produce fuel-efficient cars.
As a second choice, Obama's plan would provide $3 billion to automakers over 10 years to help retool plants to make fuel-efficient cars and trucks. [READ MORE]
John Edwards: Union man
John Edwards believes a new labor movement is the answer to the country's great divide. Should corporate America be afraid of him?
FORTUNE Magazine
by Nina Easton, Fortune Washington bureau chief
(Fortune Magazine) -- No one was paying much attention to John Edwards in February 2006, when a historic contest for control of Congress was getting underway and the 2008 presidential race was still a sliver of light on the horizon. But Danny Glover was. He had to. For three days the Lethal Weapon star and the one-term Senator were glued to each other's sides like a pair of mismatched LAPD cops as they traveled across the country to lend support to hotel workers and their unions on the eve of a threatened strike.At the time, Glover was the veteran of poverty politics; Edwards was still a rookie in training. So Glover, who prides himself on his ability to sniff out poseurs and users, warily scrutinized the carefully coifed politician from North Carolina. "There's real humility and false humility," Glover says. Which was Edwards?
In Boston, he watched Edwards listen to the plight of a single mother, an Italian immigrant who had managed on a hotel maid's pay to raise four children and send each one to college. In Chicago, Edwards took a lesson in the back-breaking work of lifting 113-pound mattresses and changing luxury duvets weighed down by piles of pillows and shams.
In L.A., the former Senator arrived overscheduled and tired, but impressed labor leaders when he readily agreed to squeeze in an extra meeting with a group of kitchen workers on their break.
The rich lawyer with the soft Southern accent bonded comfortably with this unseen servant class. Like a juror on one of Edwards's personal-injury cases, Glover found himself falling under the trial lawyer's spell. As the duo walked into a meeting of 60 African-American community leaders in downtown L.A. to make the case for greater black support of unions, the deal was sealed. "He was able to talk with them, not up to them or down to them," Glover recalls. "Here was a man who sincerely had empathy." [READ MORE]
MUSIC
North Atlantic post new demo
According to Punknews.org, Veritas Lux Mea favorite The North Atlantic have posted a new track online, and in a recent blog, more demos are promised to be posted. Additionally, the group is requesting feedback from listeners:
"We've been bad to you...and by bad, I don't mean a real prick, but just a little...inattentive. So, we've decided that we're gonna post new songs that we've been demo-ing and working on, for about a week at a time, and see what y'all think of them. The first one doesn't have a name yet--I'm not promising anything, but send ideas."
You can check out the the untitled demo at the band's MySpace page.
The group's last release was 2006's well-received Wires in the Walls.
Other tracks by The North Atlantic:
The North Atlantic - "Scientist Girl"
The North Atlantic - "Drunk Under Electrics"
Ear Candy
I heard the remix of Feist's "My Moon My Man" on WOXY yesterday and it made me want to dance or stop working, maybe both. If you haven't heard it yet, you can stop by Dodge's pad and check it out. We also like this track:
Feist - "Sea Lion Woman (Live FM4 show)"
A little Interpol for your hump day is never a bad thing:
Interpol - "Roland (Black Sessions)"
Neither is some Modest Mouse:
Modest Mouse - "Trucker's Atlas"