Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Update on EEStor Expansion

Based on Lyle Dennis's lazy reporting yesterday, I was forced to call up Cedar Park's Phil Brewer this morning and ask for clarification of his remarks from yesterday. (I'm just kidding Lyle! :-) ) While he acknowledged his quote from yesterday, I pointed out to him the permit of occupancy provided in September and he acknowledged he was unaware of it.

"Well ok. My mistake. Everything doesn't go through my office when it comes to issuing permits. I was mistaken when I said that then. "

Thank you, Mr. Brewer.

Please note, it must be hell on people like Brewer to have to deal with this internet circus that is following EEStor. He's been extremely patient under the circumstances which I greatly appreciate.

Another Day, Another Puff Piece about the Department of Energy

It's a sad day for Journalism. Despite the fact that the USA is experiencing an unprecedented increase in federal government spending as part of a stimulus program, there are no worthy investigative reporters doing ANYTHING AT ALL to tell the story.

Instead, in their infinite Wisdom, the jokers at the WashingtonPost have allowed the federal bureaucrats to write an article about what else? Bureaucrats. Who else could paint such a rosy picture of stimulus spending while quoting Cathy Zoi but not asking about Al Gore's White House lobbying effort recently disclosed?

In the article, Steven Chalk is quoted on the topic of stimulus spending. He says his team's motto is "Spend fast, but spend well." Oh really, Mr. Chalk? How do you go about spending well? What do the processes look like? Who makes the decisions? How are they made? How does your process handle disagreement? What are the key criteria for picking one proposal over another? How many of your choices have been made to firms who haven't made enormous recent campaign donations or spend millions on lobbying? What guidelines protect the American taxpayer from donations to venture capitalists?