Some of the day’s best reads:
- Christian Wolmar on the administration’s flawed high-speed rail plan: “Yet the $8 billion set aside for high-speed rail in his 2009 stimulus package, split among 31 states, includes only two genuine high-speed rail projects — in Florida and California. And even that money will do little more than kick-start the schemes.”
- Resources for the Future has a new study (PDF) on cost estimates on environmental regulation: “We found that EPA and other regulatory agencies tend to overestimate the total costs of regulations; their estimations of the per-unit of pollution eliminated by regulations tend to be more accurate, however.”
- Dan Yurman on building grassroots support for nuclear loan guarantees: “By the time Congress gets around to voting on the new $36 billion in loan guarantees, the 2010 mid-term elections will be fast approaching. This is a big enough item that grass roots groups have an opportunity to ask candidates for office where they stand on the measure.”
- Peter Beinart on the Iraqi elections: “The crucial statistic about the future of Iraqi democracy is this: On Election Day 2010, Iraq hosted 90,000 American troops. By law, the next time Iraqis hold a national election that number will be zero.”
- Truman National Security Project’s Rob Diamond on Glenn Beck and the Special Operations Warrior Foundation: “The Special Operations Warrior Foundation is now serving as a financial front man for the right-wing, Fox News demagogue that is Glenn Beck.”
