Right again Mr. Friedman!

Tom Friedman, as always, nails it right on the head:

"President Obama has chosen not to push for a price signal for political reasons. He has opted for using regulations and government funding. In the area of regulation, he deserves great credit for just pushing through new fuel economy standards that will ensure that by 2025 the average U.S. car will get the mileage (and have the emissions) of today’s Prius hybrid. But elsewhere, Obama has relied on green subsidies rather than a price signal. Some of this has really helped start-ups leverage private capital, but you also get Solyndras. The G.O.P. has blocked any price signal and fought every regulation. The result too often is taxpayer money subsidizing wonderful green innovation, but with no sustainable market within which these companies can scale.

Let’s fix that. We need revenue to balance the budget. We need sustainable clean-tech jobs. We need less dependence on Mideast oil. And we need to take steps to mitigate climate change — just in case Governor Perry is wrong. The easiest way to do all of this at once is with a gasoline tax or price on carbon. Would you rather cut Social Security and Medicare or pay a little more per gallon of gas and make the country stronger, safer and healthier? It still amazes me that our politicians have the courage to send our citizens to war but not to ask the public that question."

His new book is out too. It's been an interesting read thus far, although I'm only about 10% of the way in right now.

PolitiFact.com: Glenn Beck's Greatest Hits (and Misses)

Don't let the door hit you on the way out Glenn! In case you were wondering:

"Of our 23 fact-checks of Glenn Beck, here's the breakdown: True, 2; Mostly True, 1; Half True 5; Barely True, 4; False, 6, and Pants on Fire, 5."

The scary part is his 11 out of 23 'False' or 'Pants on Fire' is actually a better percentage of accuracy than Michele Bachmann (and she's running for President!)

Factcheck.org on Michele Bachmann

Is it just me or is everything this woman says completely nuts?

"Liar, liar, pants on fire" (At least 70% of the time.)

PolitiFact.com did a tally of Michele Bachmann's statements that they have rated since 2009. Of the 23 statements, 16 were rated either "False" or "Pants on Fire". So basically when she says something newsworthy, she's lying 70% of the time. A 30% success rate might be great for a major league hitter but not for someone who is trying to be taken seriously as the leader of 300,000,000 people. Additionally, FactCheck.org weighed in with some of her more dubious statements.

Of course, her supporters will probably do what Sarah Palin's supporters did and try to change what the truth really is. At what point does it stop being politics and start being a religion?

Playing chess among checkers players...

The details of the budget cuts are coming out and the Right isn't happy about it. A key blurb from the article:

"The full details of Friday's agreement weren't being released until overnight as it was officially submitted to the House. But the picture already emerging is of legislation financed with a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially "score" as savings to pay for spending elsewhere, but that often have little to no actual impact on the deficit.

As a result of the legerdemain, Obama was able to reverse many of the cuts passed by House Republicans in February when the chamber passed a bill slashing this year's budget by more than $60 billion. In doing so, the White House protected favorites like the Head Start early learning program, while maintaining the maximum Pell grant of $5,550 and funding for Obama's "Race to the Top" initiative that provides grants to better-performing schools."

Before everyone jumps off the deep end, this is actually the first example of true compromise in a long time. One important aspect of negotiation is to allow your adversary to back out of the deal without losing face. The adversary for Obama here wasn't the Rebpublican leadership but rather the Tea Party. This deal allowed John Boehner to get it passed with the votes he needed and the votes Harry Reid needed in the Senate without Boehner having to rely upon the Mike Pences and Michele Bachmanns of the world.

This also allowed Pence and Bachmann to continue kowtowing to the Tea Party by voting 'Nay' on the continuing resolution.

See, everybody wins!