Links 9-7-11

*Thomas Friedman writes that Obama's jobs speech tomorrow is an excellent time for some truth-telling.  He writes about a recent column that argues dictatorships and democracies are failing for the same reason: they're not telling the truth to their citizens.

Can you remember the last time you felt a national leader looked us in the eye and told us there is no easy solution to our major problems, that we’ve gotten into this mess by being self-indulgent or ideologically fixated over two decades and that now we need to spend the next five years rolling up our sleeves, possibly accepting a lower living standard and making up for our excesses?

He also uses the upcoming 9/11 anniversary to compare our nation's response to 9/11 to our nation's response to the cold war: "we used the cold war and the Russian threat as a reason and motivator to do big, hard things together . . . We used the cold war to reach the moon and spawn new industries. We used 9/11 to create better body scanners and more T.S.A. agents."

*Local cigarette smokers have found a loophole in the tobacco tax laws.  Since only manufactured cigarettes are taxed, they can visit local tobacco shops, purchase tobacco and rolling papers, and put them in the new tobacco rolling vending machines.

*An op-ed from Sunday argues that research has found that happier workers work harder but that this seems to be forgotten by companies and bosses.  More specifically, the simple act of making progress contributes more to worker satisfaction than any other factor . . . but supporting progress was ranked dead last by managers when surveyed as important motivators for their employees.

*What's the best way to tell how badly damaged a location is during hurricane season?  The Waffle House Index has been suggested.