News Bits 1/27

President Bush promised son of assassinated Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri that the killers will be held accountable. This is interesting. It could play out like the vow to fire anyone involved in Plamegate....unless its Dick Cheney and Carl Rove. Or it could play out like how we account for Iraqi civilian deaths: "We don't do body counts." And that’s why majority of the nation thinks we're on the wrong track.

Prospects are grim for a Democratic filibuster on Alito. Kerry is trying hard, but Harry Reid isn't. Just after I complimented him.

Our economy is growing at the slowest pace in three years. Don't fret though, I'm confidant something will be found wrong with these numbers, because taxes are at a low point for the last three years. Everyone knows that as taxes go down, the economy explodes! Or was it implodes...

Mayor Bloomberg rallied for the Federal government to provide universal healthcare today. Not directly, but he complained of the future $50 billion that healthcare will cost the city. He gave no stats as to how many years that would be spent over, but a staggering number indeed. But if the cost is spread among the entire population, and for-profit hospitals are closed, and the government can barter with drug companies on prices- we may have a cheaper system like the rest of the civilized world, as discussed by Dom.

Palestinian terror-linked group Hamas won the election yesterday, creating an international stir. One thing on the bright side, yet to be discussed, is the benefits to democracy. Much has been said to President Bush spreading democracy, and then pointing out this election as a bad effect. At least, around the middle east, fringe groups will feel confident that whoever receives the most votes wins. No one has asked for a revote to oust Hamas. We need to embrace, and hopefully tame Hamas if there is hope for peace. Removing them would remove faith in democracy.

And I always like to point out something good that George Bush does. He increased funding for development of hydrogen powered vehicles to $119 million (from $88 million one or two years ago). What bothers me about his plan though, is that car companies have said they can make hydrogen cars at close to the cost of today’s cars-if they could sell 500,000 a year. This requires an infrastructure, including refueling and hydrogen production. This would cost $18 billion to give 50% of Americans access to hydrogen refueling (we're giving a total of $1.7 billion over the next few years, for all hydrogen research). We have a long way to go, but the President is starting. I'm sure we'll hear more during the State of the Union address next week.