TAP found this interesting little ditty:

I don't find myself agreeing with Republican representative Dan Lungren very often, but this strikes me as a great idea. He's sponsored legislation offering a $1 billion prize to the first American automaker able to create, market, and sell 60,000 cars that get 100 mpg. He explains, "[c]ompetition for a prestigious prize is far more likely to get results than government programs aimed at anticipating and funding 'winners.' Although occasionally effective, federal subsidies are paid before an industry proves it can achieve what it set out to do, and all too often such subsidies are given to the politically influential, not the meritorious. But prize money is paid out only when the goal is achieved."

Quite right. I'd quibble with leaving this to American automakers -- if the intent is to popularize the car rather than subsidize politically influential corporations, other companies should get to play. Maybe the prize can be limited to the first company that develops, builds, and sells the automobiles in America (the Japanese makers, after all, are opening tons of domestic production plants). Nevertheless, it's a good concept, and the sort of outside-the-box thinking that could generate some interesting, unexpected results. 

My initial reaction is that this is the beginning off a very good idea (see, I’m not a partisan!). As is Ezra’s suggestion to open it up to outside innovators (not likely in a GOP congress).

However, there has to be a better yardstick for success than simply selling 60,000 cars. Otherwise, for a billion dollar handout, they will simply get rich investors to foot the bill and buy the damn things.

I still think the idea is good in principle. However, a more sound end goal ought to be the ability to manufacture within a 'reasonable' price range. This doesn't have to be the kind of thing everybody can afford (the free market should take care of the inflated price over time). However, it should be no more than, say $50,000.

Also, acceptance of the award should imply a mandatory agreement to freely share the technology.

So much for doing this on the cheap. By the end of the year, we will have spent a half a trillion dollars on Iraq and Afghanistan (mostly Iraq). That’s a mighty big number and I have a hard time wrapping my mind around it. So I put together this little comparison:

• Total in integer form is $500,000,000,000.00 (man that’s a lot of zeros)
• It comprises 42.5% of the total U.S. GDP (yes, nearly half!)
• It is 38.5% of the global debt (enough for the U.S. to forgive all bilateral debt)
• Is enough to completely fund pre-war Iraq for nearly 6 years!
• Enough to fund 15% of entire U.S. power requirements (30 times more than ANWR projections)
• We could give $83 to every man, woman, and child on the planet (in many countries, people subsist on less than $1 per day).
• It is enough to produce 250,000,000,000 bushels of corn (enough to give every man, woman, and child 42 bushels of corn)
• We could have built 100,000 new schools (enough to build 500 nice, modern, full-sized schools in every single country in the world)
• Or for that matter, 500 modern hospitals (enough to give every country on Earth 2-3 new, modern, fully-equipped hospitals)
• Or why not just build 10,000,000 modern homes? (large enough to house 50,000,000 people comfortably)

If we would have done any one of these with the money instead, I very much doubt that bin Laden would find anyone willing to pick up a gun and shoot Americans. But then again, I’m just a nutty liberal.

In the spirit of this week’s poll, I posted this over at Kos and got some funny responses. Here’s a few of my favs:

• Help Mommy, Cheney shot grandpa in the face!
• Help! Mom! The CDC wants to innoculate me against HPV!
• Help! Mom! The pollution is making me sterile!
• Help, Mom! I somehow became President!
• Help, Mom! I'm having an affair with a colored! (Depiction of Georgie in bed with Condi.)
• Help mom! myritlinprescriptionranoutIcan'tfindmysoccercleatsmyipodisdeadourscienceteachersaid
  dinosaurswererealtheliberalswantttakemygunsawayandwearegoingtobelateformydance
  recital!
• Help Mom! I've Been Left Behind!
• Help! Mom! I'm pregnant! because abstinence-only sex education left me without useful information on birth control.
• Help! Mom! The Coathanger Got Stuck!
• Help! Mom! I Need a Ride Across State Boundaries!
• Help! Mom! I Need a Parental Consent Release Form!
• Help! Mom! The Nearest Clinic is 16 Hours Away!
• Help! Mom! I Discovered I'm a Sexual Being!
• Help! Mom! I Decided Not to Be Frigid Like You!
• Help! Mom! Jesus is a Lousy Lay!
• Help! Mom! The Thought of Liberals Regaining Control of Congress Just Made Me Sh*t Myself!
• Help Mom! There is a scarey lady with a manly Adam's apple screaming at Liberals!
• Help Mom! I have a giant chunk of debt as my birthright!
• Help Mom! The beach is now at our front door!
• Help Mom! I have no health insurance!
• And for equal gender representation: Help Dad! Mom Doesn't Understand She Has To Be Subservient To You!

Keep 'em coming and I'll keep passing them along to the publisher!

How dare these guys put a check on Bush’s fledgling dictatorship. Don’t they know we’re at war?

AmericaBlog has a nice rundown on House Dems putting the smack down on the GOP’s efforts to stifle the free press:

Rep. Maloney (D-NY)
"The Republican party has become masters of cut and run, cutting from the issues so that they can run for re-election in November. This resolution is a diversion. If it was really about condemning leaks of classified information, it would also mention Valerie Plame, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby. As the Member of Congress representing the district that suffered the greatest loss of life on 9/11, I believe that combating terrorism is a serious bipartisan issue, not a one-sided, last-minute, take it or leave it, Republican-only, political campaign stunt."

Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY)
"They've called the disclosure of the swift anti-terrorist program a disgrace, they've accused a newspaper that first wrote it, the the New York Times, of forcing its "arrogant elitist left-wing agenda" on the rest of the country. If all of this is true, I have no choice but to conclude that our President, President Bush himself, is a disgraceful, arrogant left-wing elitist, because it was Mr. Bush who leaked the story."

Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA)
"Let's be honest. We are here today because there hasn't been enough red meat thrown at the Republican base before the Fourth of July recess. That's why we are here. So just in the nick of time we have H.Res. 895."

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA)
"Others have said yes, it's true that the terrorists learned from Bush Administration statements that we were tracking their financial activities. But apparently they didn't know that that involved banks. Did they think we were going through their pockets? I mean, how can you acknowledge that people knew that they were being tracked financially but no, it didn't involve bank records."

Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
"Maybe it's the devil who makes them do this. We have flag burning, proposal for constitutional amendments, we have gay marriage, proposals for constitutional amendment, yet, when it comes to the basic freedom and liberty of this country, the press, we are presented with a resolution that condemns them, that's all it does, it doesn't sanction, it condemns them, it's our opportunity to vent and say little things about The New York Times."

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI)
"Well, there may be some motive that is political about the selective crying out about information. The swift story bears no resemblence to security breaches, disclosure of troop locations or anything that would compromise the security of individuals."

Rep. John Dingell (D-MI)
"They tell us that they're protecting our civil liberties while they're tapping our phones and spying in our libraries and looking into our bank accounts. They tell us to trust us on everything. They tell us to trust us on -- trust them on everything because they're protecting their civil liberties. Well, I don't think I can trust this administration to protect my civil liberties and those of the people that I serve."

Also, Enjoy this video of Pelsoi:

From August:

For those of your keeping score, here's the current tally:

Nice rundown on Mercado’s campaign in Mexico. Plus, top 10 reasons why we should be watching Mexico’s election. Also, check out this nice little piece on our lefty neighbor to the south.

Justice Department lies about signing statements.

Bush cutting social benefits to pay for his incompetence.

Katherine Harris is listening to the voices in her head.

Pakistan: we don’t need advice from your failing nation.

GOP thinks I should pay my taxes twice. So much for the double-taxation argument they trotted out for capital gains a few years back.

Pinko-commie Gore on TDS.

Hat tip to FirstDraft:
  

We join our heroin in a parallel universe on a small planet known as Earth in an outer spiral arm of the Milky Way Galaxy. This is the story of an intrepid author of children's books who is despondent over the barrage of liberals attempting to thrust their crazy Judeo-Christian values upon the unsuspecting youth. Determined to counter their evil influence, our heroin takes it upon herself to publish a series of counter-indoctrination manuals designed to help the innocent children learn the benefits of corruption, greed, and malice. Her debut titles include:

By the way, in case you missed it, this is not satire. The publishing company is World Ahead Publishing, a publisher of conservative books which just recently launched a children's division known as Kids Ahead.

So let's help them out in any way we can. Take a moment and vote in the newest poll for our heroine's next title. And feel free to leave comments to suggest any future titles which I'll be sure to pass along to the publisher.

UPDATE: Kevin Drum's readers beat me to the punch with these little gems:

Help! Mom! There's a Homosexual in My Closet!(...hmmm, not quite right. Too many hidden meanings.)

Help! Mom! There's a Catholic Priest in the Rectory!(...again, no. People could read something into that.)

Help Mom! There are DEA Agents in my Viagra stash!

Help! Mom! A village in Texas lost its idiot!

Help! Mom! There's a Doughnut Hole in Grandpa's Prescription Drug Coverage!

Help Mom! I can't remember the Ten Commandments!

Help! Mom! The Religious Right Won't Stop Sniffing My Panties!

Help! Mom! I've got two moms!