A look back at some of our most meaningful columns, and why they are still important today.
(1) Death Panels in America: The Untold Story of the Thousands Who Die Each Year at the Whim of the Health Insurance Industry
(2) It’s the Space Race of the 21st Century..and the E.U. Increases Its Lead.

1) After Cheney, 2) The Secret Details of Obama’s Afghan Plan, 3) Corn Ethanol: A Growing Disaster, 4) New US-India Green Partnership Improves Prospects for Global Climate Deal, 5) Historic: U.S. to pledge emissions target!

If we’re going to reduce our emissions by 17% before 2020, the reduction has to come from somewhere. There is so much talk of making changes in the transportation sector through hybrid cars or hydrogen and electric car technologies that are not yet ready for mass consumption. I’m wondering what happened to the discussion on instituting high speed rail in the United States?

After Cheney
This is a brilliant profile of Joe Biden. I had the privilege of seeing him speak last weekend at Iowa’s Jefferson Jackson dinner, the first time since he became Vice-President. He has stayed grounded and is still the same old “Joe” despite the transformative role he is playing in the Obama administration and in [...]

The Secret Details of Obama’s Afghan Plan
Les Gelb, who I rarely agree with but always find to be an interesting read has used his insider sources to go slightly further than what most mainstream media sources have confirmed. We know that there will be a troop increase of 30,000-36,000 and a change in strategy. Yet [...]

Corn Ethanol: A Growing Disaster
I have long said that corn ethanol is not smart policy, not even as a stopgap and increasing the amount of corn ethanol is gasoline is not a smart move. The United States has an abundance of corn, but that does not mean that we should turn it into ethanol. Sugarcane [...]

New US-India Green Partnership Improves Prospects for Global Climate Deal
In a guest post to Climate Progress, a leading blog on climate-related issues, Julian Wong of the Center for American Progress discusses the bilateral deal that the United States and India reached on green issues, largely mirroring what the United States agreed to with China just [...]

Anybody? Please? Well maybe I’m talking to the wrong crowd. After reflecting a bit on the current political debates surrounding health care reform and climate change legislation, I’ve come to one conclusion: our so-called “problem solvers” – Democrats in congress and the White House – need to take art lessons. For starters, they need to [...]

So progress is slow and invariably disappointing but, for the first time ever, the U.S. will make a pledge to the world community to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. The pledge will be to reduce U.S. emissions by approx. 17% below 2005 levels by 2020 and 83% by 2050.
Senator John Kerry calls this a “game [...]

Happy Thanksgiving! Like many of you I am thankful today for the health of both myself and my family. I am thankful for my generally good fortune and the supportive group of friends I have. Instead of preparing the dish that I am bringing to a potluck Thanksgiving dinner later today, I’m writing about the accomplishments of the Obama administration that I am thankful for. Make no mistake; there are a lot of them.