Nearly 10,000 of the biggest donors to Republican candidates and causes across the country will probably receive a foreboding “warning” letter in the mail next week.

The letter is an opening shot across the bow from an unusual new outside political group on the left that is poised to engage in hardball tactics to prevent similar groups on the right from getting off the ground this fall.

Led by Tom Matzzie, a liberal political operative who has been involved with some prominent left-wing efforts in recent years, the newly formed nonprofit group, Accountable America, is planning to confront donors to conservative groups, hoping to create a chilling effect that will dry up contributions.

“We want to stop the Swift Boating before it gets off the ground,” said Mr. Matzzie, who described his effort as “going for the jugular.”

The warning letter is intended as a first step, alerting donors who might be considering giving to right-wing groups to a variety of potential dangers, including legal trouble, public exposure and watchdog groups digging through their lives.

I've got a pic (below) that I took in Loving, Tx that had me scratching my head. Unusual museum? Pondering the past? Wax? Metal? What the hell is it!?

A quick story you might find interesting. I've added another business adventure as I attained my state of Texas Automobile dealers license. Yep, I can now consider myself moving up to used car salesman. At the Dallas auction I frequent (weekly), there is about 3,000 vehicles auctioned off with an average time of about 30 seconds per vehicle. I buy large trucks and SUV's and average a nice profit retailing to people that will continue to purchase those units. You know the type- construction workers, large families, people that tow and haul things, safety conscious people, folks that must go places where cars can't, people that liberals haven't got a clue even exists. And those vehicles are now a bargain on both ends (wholesale and retail).

I'm doing my part to expand the economy and the auction is an adrenalin rush (or could be the noxious vapors from the lines of vehicles idling in the buyers lanes). Either way it's fun and I have increased my carbon footprint at least 10 fold and plan to increase it more...Vaarooomm!!

...remember this the next time someone calls for an end to partisanship, for working together to solve the country’s problems. It’s not going to happen — not as long as one of America’s two great parties believes that when it comes to politics, stupidity is the best policy.

Which suggests the Krugman approach to marital bliss:

Husband: “You know, Dear, there seem to be some problems in our marriage. Can’t we cooperate like we used to?”

Wife: “I would very much like to. What do you suggest?”

Husband: “Never mind. It’s not going to work because you’re stupid.”

I was just fiddling with my legal pad and Zebra pen (ain't technology great) and in roughly 15 seconds came up with the following figures:

Barry Obama, from Illinois, wants 1,000,000 new electric cars on the road (out of 150 million vehicles rolling today). OK, let's do the math:

1,000,000 cars with 160 hp (1.6*35 KW=50 KW) engines

50,000 mega watts

= 60 new nuclear reactors to provide the power.

If we replace all 150 million cars on the road today, that then take 150*60 = 900 new nuclear reactors to provide the electricity (today there are 104 US reactors).

Of course, these figures are approximate, but what do I know.

Update 3 [8/10/2008]... Reader Carl Meijer responds to Mackison:

Doesn't this analysis assume that these new vehicles are going to be driven 24 hours a day? In which case, the number of nuclear reactors is out by an order of magnitude.

My fifteen second analysis assumed constant operation of the cars. Do another five seconds of thought: make the assumption of 5% duty cycle (1.2 hours/day), and we're down to 3 new nuclear reactors for the 1,000,000 new electric cars, and 450 new reactors for the whole fleet.

From another source, there has been consideration of siting naval reactors on military bases to provide uninteruped power.

And then there's the case of California- shutting down the 900 MWatt reactor near Sacremento and replacig it with 9 MWatt of solar power. What's happening with the Diablo Canyon power plant?

Well, I have a question for Mr. Meijer. Are the cars going to be driven enough to need to be plugged in every day (hopefully in the late evening during off-peak hours)? If so, how much electricity does it take? Then we can multiply that by the number of such cars to find the load factor. I notice that Mr. Meijer, unlike Mr. Makison, includes no numbers to support his assertions.

Perhaps Mr. Obama intends to just wave his Magic Policy Wand (TM) and everything will be just ducky. Maybe inflating our tires will displace enough usage to power the cars, but I'd rather see some numbers. Pony up, Meijer.

Take a look at California's power need and see what adding a few tens of thousands of plug-in cars might do there.

I do have a proposal, though. Those who support Obama's policy can sign up, and anytime there's a brown out possibility they can have their power shut off until the problem passes. I expect to see Carl Meijer's name heading the list, since he's so certain we won't need more power sources.

Posted by Donald L. Luskin at 4:54 PM | link