Cass Sunstein confirmed by Senate as director of information and regulatory affairs for Barack Obama

Cass Sunstein confirmed in 57-40 vote

Cass Sunstein confirmed as  the new Director of Regulatory Affairs and Information for  the Barack Obama administration . A little known but powerful agency within the Office of Management and Budget .In what was a rocky process that took longer than expected because of numerous delays from Congress , the Senate voted today 57-40 in favor of Sunstein . 

Cass Sunstein's nomination was held up while members of the Senate studied his articles on animal rights and the second Amendment . Sunstein proposed in one of his articles that animals should be allowed to sue their owners . 

As I wrote earlier Cass Sunstein was not a favorite choice of mine but he may work out none the less . 

Cass Sunstein ran into trouble after being put on Glenn Beck's hit list , which is not good after what happened to Van Jones . Mark Lloyd the FCC Diversity czar is also on that list . This week, Beck called Sunstein "the most powerful invisible man you'll ever see."

Cass Sunstein likes to use cost benefit analysis to determine costs and benefits of lrge projects . It is not an exact science because everybody  uses different input factors and variables but it can be a good guide to determine cost of large scale projects . 

One of the more infamous cases of cost benefit analysis involved the Ford Pinto . In the case of the Ford Pinto (where, because of design flaws, the Pinto was liable to burst into flames in a rear-impact collision), the Ford company's decision was not to issue a recall. Ford's cost–benefit analysis had estimated that based on the number of cars in use and the probable accident rate, deaths due to the design flaw would run about $49.5 million (the amount Ford would pay out of court to settle wrongful death lawsuits). This was estimated to be less than the cost of issuing a recall ($137.5 million) [16]. In the event, Ford overlooked (or considered insignificant -this is one of those inputs or variables I talked about) the costs of the negative publicity so engendered, which turned out to be quite significant (because it led to the recall anyway and to measurable losses in sales).

NEW : Comment High Lights Video , I will choose several great comments from each article that I will mention on video and embed in article . Leave a good comment on one of my  articles and if chosen I will discuus it and your favorite website in my comment summary on  Video. Try to get your comments in as soon as article posts so your in the running .Follow me on Twitter  to know immediately when  articles are posted . I am currently in process of producing a comment high light video for  each article . a  little way for me to show my gratitude to you the reader. Whether liberal , or conservative it does not matter .As long as it's news worthy I will mention YOUR COMMENT . Leave a favorite website or blog and I'll mention that too. We get lots of traffic at the Michelle Obama Examiner column. Check out Mark Lloyd FCC Diversity czar article to see how it works.