Yesterday I slept late, ran a few errands and did some volunteer paperwork. I considered going by the demonstration in pioneer square, but my COPD was flaring up, and I had to return home. I’m current on replies. Tomorrow I will be engrossed in the Church of the Ellipsoid Orb.
Jig Zone Puzzle:
Today it took me 3:29 (average 4:16). To do it, click here. How did you do?
Short Takes:
From LA Times: A paper special U.S. peace envoys David Hale and Dennis Ross presented to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday that was supposed to sway him away from going to the United Nations was what caused Abbas to take a final stand in favor of going, according to Nabil Shaath, a member of Abbas’ Fatah Central Committee.
I understand that the paper favored Israeli retention of settlements built on Palestinian land. Clearly, since the paper had the opposite effect as desired, the State Department under Clinton has little understanding of the region.
From Politico: Administration officials assert that “Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President” by Ron Suskind is infested with errors, both big (what they characterize as misquotations and distorted narratives) and small (several names, a birth date, a publication date, an employer, an unemployment rate, etc.) and gives a distorted and inaccurate picture of the White House under Obama.
This is the book that revealed that Geithner ignored Obama’s order to break up Citibank. While I have no doubt that the work contains minor errors, Suskind’s reputation is quite good, and I have difficulty believing that he would include such a claim without source checking it.
From Boston Globe: Most of the top Republicans running for president are embracing plans to partially privatize Social Security, reviving a contentious issue that fizzled under President George W. Bush after Democrats relentlessly attacked it.
There is only one valid way to reform Social Security. Scrap the cap!
Cartoon:
10 Responses to “Open Thread–9/18/2011”
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4:15
Tea-publicans want to give us the freedom to die.Isn’t that nice?
You beat the average!
The freedom to go under without help.
I do not like the payroll deductions tax break at all. It’ll just fuel republican idiocy.
Congress has progressively raised the age at which a person can collect full ss benefits. As I understand form AARP, the boomers are scared that if they don’t start collecting at 62, they’ll never get to collect at all. Heart attacks, cancer, other fun stuff. Possibly raising the bottom age to 63 wouldn’t hurt as much and hold off some of that. Yeah, I’ve got mine, but I now feel guilty about not waiting until I was 63. Truth be told, I was afraid I’d never collect any ss if I waited until “full” retirement age. I can’t afford to pay it back now, which is the only way to change it after you start.
And, of course, raise the cap. Heck, take the cap off entirely!
I agree.
I got mine early, due to disability, but I’ll fight for everyone else’s.
3:29 A tie! Unfortunately it does not help my score. I am 81 out of 261 (310).
Today I’m tough to beat.
This is kind of interesting: An interactive graph detailing both the number and type of abortion restrictions ranked by state. Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kansas and Utah are the most draconian; and Maine, Washington, New Mexico, Hawaii and D.C are most pro-choice.
http://www.remappingdebate.org/map-data-tool/growing-set-state-abortion-restrictions-visualized?page=0,0
Interesting tool, Nameless. Fortunately Oregon is not on the list.
Palestine — I just started reading Son of Hamas by Mosab Hassan Yousef, the oldest son of Sheikh Hassan Yousef, one of the founders of Hamas. It is an inside view of the deadly terrorist group Hamas. One of the first things he says in the book is that the West will have difficulty understanding Palestinians because everything is wrapped up in history, in Islam, in the attitudes of the people. The author, born and raised in the Mulim faith, converted to Christianity after reading the Bible and seeing the message of love which from his experience was not there in Islam. Whether he supports the creation of the Palestinian state, I yet do not know, but I know that I do because it represents in my western mind, the freedom to be. As Mahatma Gandhi said “An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it.” and “An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.” Here is a link to a short interview. http://sonofhamas.com/
“Confidence Men: Wall Street, Washington, and the Education of a President” by Ron Suskind — I still agree with Tom that Geithner should be gone. As I said, me wonders if he was a bought and paid for Republican in Democrat’s clothing.
Social Security — “. . . partially privatize Social Security . . . ” into a corporation dominated by Republicans? It will be gone in no time! I believe it was Reich that said at this point there was about a 26 year sustainability right know. Kill the cap on income taxes and like contributions, and it could last a lot longer.
TomCat, love the cartoon. This cartoon reminds me of a comment from a few days ago which went something like this: A man is drqwning about 100 feet from shore. To rescue him, a Democrat would throw 100 feet of rope; a Republican would throw him 50 feet of rope and expect him to take responsibiliity for himself and swim to the rope; a Libertarian would throw the rope in his car and leave; and the Teabagger would make sure no was watching and then get down and pray. However, I can also see your explanation above. To me, anyone in the masses who votes Republican are nothing more than lemmings throwing themselves off a cliff.
Sounds like a fascinating read.
Amen!
I liked that too.