This and That

A lot going on, and not a lot of time to blog. Some quick hits:

• Georgia's move to restrict stem cell research and in vitro fertilization is bad news for parents struggling to have children and for scientific research.
  
• Surprise, Surprise. North Carolina, which has its act together on rail and transportation, stands to get $8 billion (yes, with a "B") for inter-city, high speed rail. That would be enough to fund the brain train as well as commuter rail to Lovejoy and Cobb County, the last time I checked. Georgia legislative leaders please take note about the power of actually having transportation plans in place and a dedicated funding source.
  
• UGA professor Larry Nackerud stirred up a hornets' nest with his comments on ICE raids in the Athens paper yesterday. It boggles my mind that in this economy (with unemployment approaching 10%) that there are still people out there who want us to go out of our way to accomodate those who enter our country illegally rather than using the valid, legal processes.
  
• In "Confessions of a Tax Man," blogger Grift Drift has a great post on why a move to "change the rules" for legislators with tax troubles doesn't make a lot of sense. That said, I do believe there certainly should be no special exceptions for elected officials.
• Georgia desperately needs a solution for trauma care, and super speeder fines are one of the easier solutions. No brainer. The only real question is why there isn't a trauma care center closer to Athens than Grady Hospital in Atlanta. We probably can't afford one.
  
• Jim Thompson and the guys nail it here. It is about time our legislators toned down the rhetoric and started really working to address our budget challenges. It only took 25+ days of work to get there.
• David Brooks, my other favorite columnist, is at it again, offering up way too much practicality for most Republicans to handle. Guys, despite what Rush says, being "Dr. No" is not going to win us the next election. Nor will waiting on the President to fail.
  
• In case you missed it yesterday, some Georgia legislators want to move the state back to the gold standard. If tax dollars were used to draft this bill the legislators should be reported to Casey Cagle.
• Any predictions on how the largely conservative Bulldog nation would react to having the brother in law of the president as our next hoops coach?
  

My Dad and Tom Friedman on GM: No Bailout

It's not often that my Dad and Tom Friedman focus on the same topics, but it happened this weekend. While riding to the Oconee County Landfill to haul off some brush (it's time to prune for all you gardeners out there!), Dad and I talked about the waste of trying to bailout American automakers, who have been making worse products that the competition for the better part of 30 years.

Friedman tackled the same issue and cuts to the core in his latest column.

Reading the news that General Motors and Chrysler are now lining up for another $20 billion or so in government aid — on top of the billions they’ve already received or requested — leaves me with the sick feeling that we are subsidizing the losers and for only one reason: because they claim that their funerals would cost more than keeping them on life support. Sorry, friends, but this is not the American way. Bailing out the losers is not how we got rich as a country, and it is not how we’ll get out of this crisis.

Friedman continues on to characterize GM as a wealth destruction machine, and proposes that instead of giving another $20 billion to automakers, that we invest it in companies that might actually help prepare our nation for the future. He's absolutely right, you know. Not only would the returns would be much higher, but the cathartic process for America's automakers could move ahead, and this is a positive.

Friedman's column also made me think about our state's investments in science and technology. Some of the programs we run in Georgia are easy targets for axe wielding budget writers, particularly those programs not easily understood by legislators or with long pay-off horizons. They shouldn't be.

In conversations with State Rep. Bob Smith (R - Watkinsville), he expressed that he has plans to staunchly defend any Georgia investments in research and technology. Since he is the chair of the Subcommittee on Higher Education Appropriations in the House, this carries some weight. I absolutely applaud him for that.

As I told him, I think investments in higher education at all levels are critical in Georgia, and should be prioritized over most other needs in state government. We are working to fix our secondary education schools, we cannot risk damaging our higher education system through silly cuts to core programs or failing to invest in our most promising areas of research and technology.

While locally, our investments focus on agriculture, biotechnology, infectious diseases and various related disciplines, Friedman makes a strong case for investments in alternative energy, where apparently the financing has locked up along with the financial markets.

That is how taxpayer money should be used to stimulate: limited financing, for a limited time, targeted on an industry bristling with new technology start-ups that, with a little push from Uncle Sam, won’t just survive this crisis but help us thrive when it is over. We need, and the world needs, an America that is thriving not just surviving.

Wherever our dollars go, they need to go somewhere that has strong potential for moving our country forward, not keeping us tied to the hidebound, oil dependent ways of the past. Given our research expertise in Athens and statewide, Georgia can make a similar contribution by continuing to improve agricultural production and discovering new ways to fight disease and improve the lives of the world's citizens.

P.S. For all the readers who were no doubt wondering, Dad and I had a successful trip to the Oconee Landfill, where he seems to be on a first name basis with the guy who manages the scales. For a mere $5, our overstuffed family pick-up full of Crepe Myrtle and Water Oak branches was deposited and will be either buried and recycled or mulched and given away. The OC landfill is best deal in town, unless you live in the city. If you live in the city, the minimal taxes you pay to cover your trash pick up, safety, and curbside leaf and limb pick-up are the best deal in town.