Quote of the Day – “Either it’s going to happen in the next eight to nine months, or it won’t happen for the next eight to nine years.” Senator Chuck Grassley on Social Security reform (hat tip: GOP Bloggers)

What media bias? – One of my fave bloggers, Lorie Byrd, has an article in the American Spectator on the signs that media bias has ended. Nicely done, Lorie! Check it out.

Krugman loses the top partisan spot

Don Luskin points out (here and here) that in his most recent article, NY Times columnist Paul Krugman actually attacked a Democrat: “Stop the presses! Paul Krugman, America's most dangerous liberal pundit, has taken the nearly unheard of step of criticizing a Democrat in his latest column in the New York Times!”

Clearly this was a bald-faced tactic to bring down his partisanship ranking on Lying in Ponds and it did not escape their notice: “Paul Krugman dropped from first to third in the partisanship rankings after yesterday’s uncharacteristically mixed column on Social Security. There were six negative Democratic references (compared to 18 for all of 2004), including three to Joe Lieberman. It did not qualify as a crossover column, because it mostly criticized Republicans (surprise!). Still, the column is a big departure for Mr. Krugman, who has not been this critical of Democrats for anything, even for being too cooperative with Republicans, in at least a couple of years.”

How you know Wolfowitz was a good choice for the World Bank: The NY Times and Europe are upset.

Stupid addictive game – my top score is 6059

Then he took his wife’s private jet to her Idaho mansion


Associated Press: “Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., argued that more oil would be saved if Congress enacted an energy policy focusing on conservation, more efficient cars and trucks and increased reliance on renewable fuels and expanded oil development in the deep-water Gulf where there are significant reserves.”

A welcome new blog: Updates on the Cedar Revolution (hat tip: Brainster)

The Beltway Buzz has a lot of good stuff today - add it to your bookmarks.

You want Social Security polls? We've got polls. It looks like most Americans - for some wacky reason - think the system needs reform. Go figure!

Dems promise to obstruct the Senate. GOP: “What else is new?”

Why the sudden hysterics by Harry Reid and the Senate Democrats over the potential rules change to overcome filibusters on judicial nominees? Why are they, in the words of Mark, “puffing their hair…like alley cats” and promising to scowl intensely at Republicans in the Senate chamber? Well, if you believe the American Spectator, it’s because it looks like the Senate Republicans are really going to take the “nuclear option”:

Reid's urgency may be the result of a closed-door -- what some Republican staff called secret -- Senate Republican caucus luncheon on Tuesday afternoon. Rumors were circulating in the Capitol's halls and on K Street that the subject of the luncheon was when and how the nuclear option would be used in the very near future.

The Democrats have promised to slow the Senate’s business with procedural motions if the Republicans force through the rule change to override filibusters on judicial nominees.

I used to be against the rules change, but now I want to see what happens when the Democrats go ballistic. I’m sure the “government shutdown” tactic will work out just as well for them as it did for Newt Gingrich. Plus, we can enjoy the hypocrisy of Kennedy, Schumer and that Constitutional scholar Robert Byrd, who will all deliver frothy, podium-pounding jeremiads against the imperious Republicans.

Amazing Race 7 update – In which I give in and learn to like Rob

Teams starts out from Santiago, Chile and must drive a marked car to the Andes mountains in Argentina. However, the cars are all in a parking garage that doesn’t open until 5am so everybody is bunched up. The route marker warns us that there’s a Yield ahead and we see some teams discussing the prospect of putting Team Survivor at a disadvantage. However, after several hours of driving, Rob & Amber arrive at the next route marker first so the scheming became moot. All teams are heading from Santiago, Chile to Puente Vieja, Argentina high in the Andes mountains and we see an incredible serpentine highway heading up up up.

Well, all teams except two. At only twenty minutes into the show, it’s pretty clear that either Team Mom/Son or Team Friends Forever will be in last place. Susan & Patrick spend almost two hours trying to find the highway out of Santiago (!) while Debbie & Bianca drive over two hours past the exit for the mountains. They finally figured something was wrong with their internal compass when they saw the ocean (!!!). Here’s a travel tip: if you’re trying to find the mountains, turn around when you reach the beach.

Once in Puente Vieja, all the teams pass up the Yield and head for the Detour: Paddle or Pedal. Teams must either paddle seven miles down a river or bike the same distance over some train tracks; everybody picks paddle except for Team Spicoli. About halfway through, one of the brothers gets a flat tire and they have to walk the rest of the way hauling a mountain bike. After finishing the course, the teams head to a traditional Argentinean ranch where they rip open the next route marker...

Roadblock: one member from each team must consume four pounds of meat that might be served in a Andean barbecue. (The wife and I turn to each other, eyebrows raised. Four pounds? No way.) Team Showtunes arrive first followed closely by Team Survivor and right away you can tell it’s going to be a huge struggle. Alex (of Lynn & Alex) keeps at it, but Rob turns to Amber and asks what happens if he opts not to complete the Roadblock. It’s a four hour penalty from the time the next team arrives. Rob immediately quits, convinced that even with the penalty, he would finish ahead of other teams trying to cram 64 ounces of charred cow.

I’ve never seen an Amazing Race team benefit from taking a penalty. But, man, Rob is thinking outside the box. And not only does he skip the task, he convinces other teams that they cannot finish it either. This logic works wonders on small-stomached Deana and the elderly Meredith who also decide to take the penalty. Once these teams followed Rob’s strategy, Team Survivor was guaranteed at least a seventh place finish. It was – boy it pains me to say this – brilliant strategy. Rob, I tip my Red Sox cap to you sir.

Exhibiting the iron stomach of Chip (season 5), Uchenna finishes eating his meat and Team Africa is briefly in first place and on their way to the Pit Stop. But Alex finishes soon afterward and Team Showtunes also head to the Pit Stop at an Argentinean ranch. Somewhere along the way, Team Africa takes a wrong turn and Team Showtunes hit the TAR shower mat as Team #1. Uchenna and Joyce arrive minutes later as team #2. They’re followed soon afterward by the other teams that finished the meat, Team Spicoli and Team America. The three teams that took the penalty arrive soon afterward, leaving Team Mom/Son and Team Friends Forever at the barbeque. The ranch hands have graciously positioned buckets in case one of the racers needs to, um, empty the contents of his/her stomach.

The final two teams realize that taking a penalty is no longer an option so it’s an eating contest to the end between whiny Patrick and determined (but too thin) Debbie. Patrick involuntarily throws up and this must have freed up some space in the stomach because sometime later he finishes and Team Mom/Son head to the Pit Stop where they arrive as Team #8. Team Friends Forever finally make it in, but they are eliminated from the Race.

Final standings – Leg #3

#1 – Team Showtunes – Lynn & Alex
#2 – Team Africa – Uchenna & Joyce
[five other teams]
#8 – Team Mom/Son – Susan & Patrick
#9 – Team Friends Forever – Debbie & Bianca – ELIMINATED

Next week: Rob continues to scheme. A Roadblock on horseback.

Am I a dork? Be honest - A little piece of trivia about your favorite blogger. If I should happen to be in the cereal aisle at the supermarket, I always point to a certain box and say to my wife: "Kix just keep getting harder to find."

Social Security roundup

Michael Tanner from CATO writes “Senator Reid has no Social Security plan”: “Harry Reid needs to tell the American people what he plans to do about the looming Social Security crisis. If Reid plans to raise taxes to prop up Social Security, or cut benefits, he should tell us so. If he has another idea, he should share it with us. But fearmongering is not a Social Security plan.”

David Brooks has “A Requiem for Reform”: “If Social Security reform fails - and obviously I hope this obit becomes obsolete - it will be many years before any sort of big entitlement reform will come up again. The parties will keep playing chicken, and we will soon find ourselves catastrophically buried under our own debt.”

Stephen Moore on “Raiding Retirement”: “It may be that the only way to stop this raid on our retirement dollars would be to deposit the money into privately owned worker accounts. If workers have the dollars in their personal accounts, there is no way Congress can get at the money to (mis)spend on other activities.”

and finally: “GOP chairman says Congress will pass Social Security bill, voters will penalize Democratic foes.”

Happy two-year blogoversary to Matt Margolis! I spoke to Matt on the phone once. I think it was right after the third Presidential debate and I was convinced that Bush had sealed the election. I was very excitable on the phone and I think his response was: “Are you going to post anything tonight [on Blogs for Bush]?” All business, that guy. Now if I could only get onto his blogroll.

UNrepairable – From the Boston Globe: “The unfixable UN”

Preparing the “nuclear option” - Driving the home today, I heard Harry Reid on the Ed Schultz radio show bitterly complaining how the Republicans were about to overturn 200 years of Senate rules. He was, of course, talking about how the Republicans are preparing to make a rule change to overcome the Democrats’ filibusters on judicial nominees. It seems that Chuck Schumer and the Donks suddenly discovered a clause in the Constitution that allows for filibusters where none existed before. Now they’re outraged that the GOP would overturn their extra-Constitutional maneuver with another parliamentary maneuver.

You are not reading this! – Protein Wisdom has the Iraqi Information Minister explaining the demonstrations in Lebanon. (Hat tip: RWN). I miss that guy.

Social Security accounts Lite

I missed an excellent George Will article from the Sunday WashPost. In “Lindsey Graham’s Good Idea,” Will praises the idea of raising the cap on taxable income (“it hardly blurs the distinction between conservatism and Bolshevism”) to help pay for a gradual transition to personal accounts. This is a devil’s bargain and I suppose it depends on how badly the Republicans want to push for the accounts. My feeling is that we have to draw the line on taxes instead of giving in to “just a little bit more” every time.

The Democrats' implausible contention is that Social Security, a response to the 1930s, needs no serious rethinking, even though in 1935 retirement, as currently understood, was largely a luxury of society's upper crust. And even though Social Security takes income from the working young who are funding family formation -- buying houses, educating children -- to subsidize, in many cases, the long-term leisure and recreation of the not-very-elderly majority of Social Security recipients who could work but choose instead to begin drawing benefits at 62. And even though the age cohort of Americans over 65 is significantly more affluent than the cohorts under 55.

Democrats have no reform ideas, but they have a slogan -- "Fix it, don't nix it." The spectacle of adults chanting such childishness is embarrassing, especially because their chant mimics their recent slogan about the government's system of racial preferences, "Mend it, don't end it," which meant: Change nothing.

A better idea to tamp down transition costs might be to limit personal accounts to Americans under 30 and cap the contributions to 2% of income. Since this is the very demographic in danger of automatic benefit cuts in 2042, twenty-somethings can build up a nest egg for 37 years that will more than compensate for the 27% benefit cut required by law when the Social Security trust fund goes bankrupt. We need to open the door just a little and make everybody in America part of the investor class.

The beginning of the end for the Big Dig

Me in November 2004: “Despite Massachusetts officials’ strong protestations to the contrary, I’m starting to believe that it’s only a matter of time before the Big Dig is closed down as a safety hazard. Give it a couple years of band-aid measures and bureaucratic delusion.”

Today’s Boston Globe – Doubt aired on safety of I-93 tunnels: “The engineering specialist who led the investigation into leaks in the Big Dig says he can no longer say with confidence that the Interstate 93 tunnels are safe to drive in, according to a letter obtained by the Globe.”

That’s $15 billion of your money, America.

“We are coming to liberate our country”


Massive anti-Syrian protest held in Beirut: “Hundreds of thousands of opposition demonstrators chanted "Freedom, sovereignty, independence" and unfurled a huge Lebanese flag in Beirut on Monday, the biggest protest yet in the opposition's duel of street rallies with supporters of the Damascus-backed government.”

It’s big – “The rally, perhaps the biggest anti-government demonstration ever staged in the Arab world, was the opposition's bid to regain momentum after two serious blows: the reinstatement of the pro-Syrian prime minister and a huge rally last week by the Shiite group Hezbollah.”

Speaking of Joe Lieberman

Here's a blurb from "The Unbranding" in the New Yorker:

Lieberman is a study in the dangers of steroidal muscularity, becoming an outlier in his own party. (He has edged to the right as his running mate in the 2000 election, Al Gore, has moved leftward.) His fate was sealed with a kiss, planted on his cheek by Bush, just after the President delivered his State of the Union address. “That may have been the last straw for some of the people in Connecticut, the blogger types,” Lieberman told me. But he is unapologetic about his defense of Bush’s Iraq policy, saying, “Bottom line, I think Bush has it right.”

The fuzzy slipper brigade strikes again!

Nattering nitwits of negativity

Here’s Sebastian Mallaby excoriating the Democrats for the absence of their solutions to Social Security in “The Missing Proposal”:

Last year Democrats impaled themselves on the Iraq war. They were so anxious to denounce the invasion that they failed to acknowledge the most basic point of all: that, having waded into Iraq, the United States could not leave prematurely. By attacking the Bush policy relentlessly, Democrats sounded negative. By refusing to say clearly that they would finish the Iraq job, they sounded irresponsible.

Now Democrats risk making the same mistake on Social Security. They are so anxious to denounce private accounts that they fail to acknowledge the most basic point: Social Security has a serious deficit. The Post reported Friday that nearly every Democratic senator refuses even to contemplate the Bush proposals. But the Democrats have no proposal of their own. They sound negative and irresponsible.

A must-read. I’ve been striking the same tone for months and so far only Joe Lieberman seems to recognize the trap the Democrats are setting for themselves.

What liberal media? - From those biased hacks at Fox News Columbia University: “U.S. media coverage of last year's election was three times more likely to be negative toward President Bush than Democratic challenger John Kerry, according to a study released Monday.”

A pajama-clad army of freedom writers

Are bloggers the modern-day Voice of America? Writing in the Boston Globe, Hampton Stephens declares that bloggers have had a profound impact on recent positive world events and could hold the key to liberalization in Iran. From “Uncle Sam’s Blog”:

Although the international blogging phenomenon is in its infancy, Internet trends spread fast, so US foreign policy makers would do well to take notice soon. A chief aim of public diplomacy has always been to foster liberal political culture where authoritarian states are attempting to snuff it out. President Bush clearly believes America's interests are served by the spread of freedom and democracy. To that end, US policy makers should recognize blogging as a perfect tool to promote the proliferation of independent democratic voices.

And there’s this: “Iran's ruling mullahs are clearly worried.” Tremble before us!

That’s some sweet irony there – From Scrivener: NY Times employees get a small taste of the future of Social Security and Medicare

InDC Journal on right-leaning blogs: We like to talk amongst ourselves

We also post more, link more, and have more overall popularity than the Lefties, who aren't superstars of ideological cross-linking either.

Another one! – Happy 2nd blogoversary to Business Pundit

More Rice than a Chinese lunch special - Mark Kilmer has the Sunday morning lineup and it looks like Condi is making the rounds

New signs on the Arab street

Here’s Tom Friedman in Sunday’s NY Times:

From Baghdad to Beirut, the Middle East has seen a series of unprecedented popular demonstrations for democracy. There were, however, two street protests in December that got virtually no coverage, but were just as important, if not more. One took place in the Egyptian Nile Delta town of Mahalla and the other in the Suez Canal city of Ismailiya. Both of these raucous Egyptian demonstrations, which involved marches, strikes, denunciations of the government and appeals to Parliament, were triggered by President Hosni Mubarak's decision to sign the first substantial trade agreement with Israel since Camp David. That decision brought Egyptian workers from both areas into the streets. They were furious. They were enraged. Why?

They were not included in the new trade deal with Israel.

Now, that's a new Middle East.

Let’s hope so.

Fark reviews a book on the French diet: "Book discovers how the French stay so thin. Involves different lifestyles and food choices, and an exercise regimen of raising both hands above head frequently." Heh-heh.

What’s so great about taking away my kids’ college fund?

As James Lileks likes to say, the following is full of “screedy goodness” so if you don’t want to hear me rant about Social Security (again) then skip on down. But I’m going to vent on this: I’m whole-heartedly sick and tired of hearing about how Social Security is either “the greatest social program ever” or the “greatest government program of all time” or some other laudatory balderdash.

First of all, Democrats make it sound like the enactment of Social Security was some great moment in history, such as the building of the Panama Canal or the cure for polio. Even as a piece of legislation, it’s remarkably pedestrian: take money from younger workers and give it to destitute seniors. During a time when the FICA tax was merely 2% and seniors were devastated by the Great Depression, Social Security met a need during a troubled time.

Now Social Security is an anachronism. If Congress tried to pass legislation today asking Americans to give up 12.4% of their paycheck, nobody would support it. Yet the FICA tax has creeped up over 70 years because Americans have been heard the mantra that Social Security is the “greatest program ever.” Now 80% of Americans pay more in the FICA tax than in income tax and there’s talk of – yet again – raising the payroll tax. To which I respond: not one more cent. I’m trying to raise my own family and, as far as I’m concerned, I do not bear any responsibility to further supplement the lifestyle of healthy, well-off seniors.

The U.S. government has made promises it simply cannot afford to keep. It’s time to cut future benefits, perhaps indexing them so that the truly needy still receive a full benefit. But we cannot keep raising payroll taxes and punishing younger workers no matter how “wonderful” Social Security is portrayed to an audience that no longer believes it.

P.J. O’Rourke writes: “Kerry loves the mainstream media…and has contempt for the American people”

Today’s conundrum for the anti-war left - Saddam Hussein offered a $2 million bribe to the UN’s chief weapons inspector to doctor reports on weapons of mass destruction. The weapons he didn’t have. (Hat tip: Blogs for Bush)

Breaking: Brian Nichols is in custody

Rampage - U.S. Customs Agent Found Dead in Atlanta – It seems extremely likely that the killer is the same man who murdered three people in the Atlanta courthouse. It's also extremely likely that this guy can't be reasoned with and is going to go down in a hail of bullets.

Update: The Astute Blogger did indeed comment on the area comparison between ANWR and the Neverland ranch yesterday. Check it out.

More on ANWR – By way of Red State and Ex-Donkey, it looks like the Senate Budget Committee fought back an attempt to strip oil exploration in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the energy bill. This means ANWR exploration cannot be filibustered and, as a budget provision, only requires a majority vote.

From Occam’s Toothbrush: Putdown of the Week

I run hot and cold with Chris Matthews but sometimes he has a shining moment when he cuts to the quick. Nice one.

An issue Jesse Jackson hasn’t exploited yet: minority horticulturists. Sigh…

Happy 1st birthday to Mass Backwards!

Fat cats in Congress are playing ostrich with Social Security

The Poliblogger doesn’t find the rhetoric on Social Security particularly helpful:

I don’t care if it qualifies as a crisis or merely a problem – how does relabeling it as a ‘non-crisis’ remove the problem? This is simply renaming the issue and hoping that no one notices that the 800 lb rabid gorilla ithat you’ve now labeled a ‘non-crisis’ is still outside the front door, waiting for you to peek out. Naming the gorilla Fluffy does not help you because sooner or later, you still have to poke your head out.

Steven thinks the problem is politicians are ignoring the math and somehow coalescing around the idea that Social Security is still “manageable” – the way a third-grader “manages” a Rottweiler walking through a hot dog forest. (Too much animal imagery – ed.)

On Ebay: The American flag that flew from the crane at the Pentagon after 9/11. The bids are approaching $400K. (Note to seller: was it necessary to use so! many! exclamation points!?! Yes, it’s a piece of American history! But tone it down a little, please?) Hat tip: Say Anything

Is that guy still around? – John Kerry, owner of multiple SUVs that aren’t his, has not been busy installing solar panels to any of his five mansions. But he doesn’t want to drill for oil in ANWR either and he’s going to “call out” President Bush on energy policy. I’m sure Dick Cheney is heaving a heavy, evil laugh at the thought. Kerry’s opportunistic hypocrisy hasn’t escaped the New England Republican.

Backed into a corner – Mort Kondracke: “Expect Mideast foes of freedom to stage violent counterattacks.”

George Will says it’s time to disband the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights citing, among other reasons, “Almost everything designated a "civil rights" problem isn't.”

Matt Hoy has a good Social Security post, attacking Krugman and citing FactCheck (just like I did a couple days ago.)

Solvency is job #1

It looks like President Bush is shifting gears on Social Security reform. He’s not necessarily giving up on personal accounts and the “ownership society” but it looks like he’s being realistic to the problem at hand:

President Bush rejected any "Band-Aid solutions" that do not permanently solve Social Security's future fiscal problems, switching his focus Thursday from touting personal accounts to the program's long-term solvency.

"We need to solve this issue now and forever. The longer we wait, the worse it gets to solve it," Bush said from the stage of the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts.

When Dubya says “the sky is blue” (i.e. Social Security is on a problematic path) what will the Democrats say in response? There’s no problem with the sky until 2042? President Bush still has the upper hand in this debate because he’s been honest about the need for reform. Personally, I’d still like to see a small optional pilot program for personal accounts. We’ll see.

Coming around

Jeff Jacoby in the Boston Globe: “The Arab Spring”

''IT IS time to set down in type the most difficult sentence in the English language. That sentence is short and simple. It is this: Bush was right."

Thus spake columnist Richard Gwyn of the Toronto Star, author of such earlier offerings as ''Incurious George W. can't grasp democracy," ''Time for US to cut and run," and, as recently as Jan. 25, ''Bush's hubristic world view."

The Axis of Weasel is crying uncle, and much of the chorus is singing from the same songsheet.

Even Jon Stewart worries about ideological implosion.

Social Security crossroads

Robert Novak thinks a compromise plan may be in the works:

[Senator Robert] Bennett's plan would attack the unmistakable Social Security funding deficit by cutting benefits, graduated to hit hardest in upper income brackets. There would be no tax increase. President Bush's proposed voluntary personal accounts as part of Social Security would be written into law but would not go into effect for five years, when George W. Bush would no longer be president.

Hardly a month ago, it was inconceivable that Bush would accept such a watered-down proposal. But now, it is probably the most that can be hoped for. Whether the Republicans declare victory, such a proposal will shape partisan politics into the future.

“Watered-down?” This would be a huge victory for President Bush just by establishing the concept of individual accounts (they would start as an add-on with the option to move payroll taxes later) and avoiding a tax increase. Let the Democrats think they’ve scored a win here. In fact, ignore everything I just said.

Right after all - John Hawkins has a cornucopia of pre-war predictions about the long-ranging consequences of elections in the Middle East. An excellent roundup.

Granddad liked his Social Security, dagnabbit

Former Labor Secretary, and failed Massachusetts politician, Robert B. Reich has an article in USA Today that is steeped in mawkish, personal nostalgia yet devoid of any serious discussion on Social Security. Here’s the opening paragraph that would have been crossed out in heavy red marker by any self-respecting high-school paper editor:

My grandfather lost all of his savings in the Great Crash of 1929. He never trusted the stock market after that. But he kept working, and by the time he retired, he had a tiny nest egg. It still wasn't enough to retire on. He and my grandmother relied on the Social Security checks they got every month. Granddad died at the ripe old age of 91.Only years later did I understand that those checks didn't come from Granddad's own payments into Social Security. They came from the Social Security contributions of my father and mother's generation, made during their working lives.

Maw and Paw were thrilled to turn over that money to Grandpa, who would sit in his rocking chair and spin yarns about his life on the farm. And, of course, nothing has changed in the past 50 years since Pappy was smoking his pipe that could diminish those hagiographic memories of egg creams and Ebbets Field.

Sentimental tripe, all of it, without a redeeming passage. Reich should be justifiably embarrassed.

Not big fans

Here’s the Columbia Journalism Review on a certain CNN segment:

Television isn't the medium we usually turn to for in-depth coverage, so when we flip on one of the cable networks, our expectations are appropriately low.

On rare occasions, however, there is TV news so witheringly bad, so excruciatingly empty, it makes us want to gnaw through the cable feed with our teeth in order to escape from it.

CNN's "Inside the Blogs" segment is one such occasion.

Yeow-ch!

Whistling past the Iraqi ballot booth - Q&O fisks the Boston Globe: “Robert Kuttner argues in the Boston Globe that the apparent struggle for freedom that's starting to break out in the Mideast is just a clever illusion fostered by the Neocons. And even if it isn't, it has nothing to do with anything George W. Bush did.” That lucky Chimpster!

Dan Rather skedaddles – I really didn’t have much to add to the whole CBS/Rather/Memogate saga that hadn’t been said better by many others. RatherBiased has been a relentless haranguer and they have their “Last Word” tonight.

Extra: Lorie has some additional thoughts on Dan’s departure. Courage.

Walter Williams details “More Social Security deceit.” Pay special attention to the explanation on how the 6.2% tax your employer pays is really a tax passed on to you.

A dissenting opinion - Kris at Dummocrats has an Amazing Race update

Amazing Race update – Mucho rapido, por favor

Teams started out from Lima, Peru and hiked over to the bus station to catch a bus to Arequipa, known as the “White City.” The first bus appears to leave at 6:20 but Rob of Team Survivor finds a security guard who tells him a later bus has fewer stops and arrives sooner. Rob then bribes the guard to keep the information secret, but this subterfuge is discovered and the other teams are not amused.

Once in Arequipa, the teams hit the first Roadblock of the Race: one team member must shine five pairs of shoes on the street. Everybody finishes relatively quickly and the ten teams are separated onto two flights to Santiago, Chile.

In Chile, teams make their way to a statue of the Virgin Mary for their next clue, which is a Detour: Shop or Schlep. Teams must make a choice between shopping for a bunch of ingredients for a Chilean recipe (easy, but finding produce could take time) or carrying 180 books to the Library of Congress (strenuous, but straightforward). This one seems like a coin flip in terms of time required to finish. Most of the younger teams carry books eight blocks down the street while the others search for fish and vegetables in a local food market.

Boy, I don’t like Rob of Team Survivor, but the man can stack books. He loads all 180 books onto a handcart and Rob and Amber make it to the Library far ahead of everybody else. The next clue tells them to head to the Pit Stop where they arrive (dammit) as Team #1. They win a trip to the Caribbean where they can enjoy themselves and roll around in the money they won on Survivor. Did you know they were on Survivor? Yes, Survivor, that lesser reality show.

Team America (Ron & Kelly) takes two trips with the handcart but arrive next, followed closely behind by Team Karate (Ray & Deana). With (almost) all the book carriers completed, we get to see the other Teams buying three kilograms of fish. Funny thing: the fish weighed the required 3kg at the market, but at the restaurant it only weighs 2.9kg! More fish! Team Showtunes (Lynn & Alex) are outraged that they were cheated out of a couple ounces and start yelling at the fish mongers. They’re shooed away in a blizzard of Spanish profanity and macho arm-waving.

Anyway, through some taxi misadventures, Team Spicoli and Team Paris & Nicole are bringing up the rear and somebody’s going to be eliminated. The California brothers Brian and Greg haul books while Megan and Heidi (surprise!) play to their strengths and go shopping. It’s always hard to tell who’s really ahead and behind at this point because TAR always tries to keep viewers guessing with video editing. However this time we see both teams pull up in their respective taxis side-by-side at the Pit Stop. It’s a foot race up some steps to a fountain and Team Spicoli edges out the blondes by only seconds.

Final standings – Leg #2:

#1 – Team Survivor – Rob & Amber
#2 – Team America – Ron & Kelly
#3 – Team Karate – Ray & Deana
[five other teams]
#9 – Team Spicoli – Brian & Greg
#10 – Team Paris & Nicole – Megan & Heidi – ELIMINATED

Next week: Rob, who was on Survivor, competes. Other teams may also be present.

Once you learn how to fake sincerity, everything else is easy

Wash Post: “Social Security Stance Risky, Democrats Told - Bush Could Outflank Their Rigid Opposition”

"Why has the public not taken out their anger on the congressional Republicans and the president?" they [Democratic pollsters James Carville & Stan Greenburg] added. "We think the answer lies with voters' deeper feelings about the Democrats who appear to lack direction, conviction, values, advocacy or a larger public purpose."

Other than that, they’re a swell bunch!

Images from the Cedar Revolution


As more than 70,000 Lebanese thronged Beirut in the largest demonstration against Syria and its president, Bashar Assad, since protests began last month, Syrian soldiers drove east yesterday from the Lebanese mountain posts they have held for decades. But no deadline was set for their complete withdrawal.

Boston Globe story here. Something’s going on in all corners of the world (hat tip: Instapundit).

From the WashPost: "Mideast Strides Lift Bush, But Challenges Remain"

FactCheck: False attacks over “windfalls” to Wall Street

New information turned up by FactCheck.org shows that the type of private Social Security accounts being proposed by President Bush would yield very little profit to the securities industry, contrary to persistent claims of a potentially huge "windfall" to Wall Street.

What we have discovered is that the model for Bush's accounts -- the Federal Thrift Savings Plan for federal workers -- actually paid securities firms a net total of only 16 cents for every $10,000 in workers accounts. The TSP had refused to make that information public -- until now. It shows that fees actually being paid to Wall Street are hundreds of times smaller than some critics had assumed.

For that reason and others we find that ads run in Louisiana by the liberal Democratic group Campaign for America's Future are grossly misleading. The group is accusing Republican Rep. James McCrery, who is chairman of the Social Security subcommittee and a supporter of Bush's private accounts, of "corruption" for accepting campaign donations from Wall Street, which it falsely claims will "profit most" from private accounts.

Read the full analysis. The “Wall Street fat cats” angle has always been cynical demagoguery aimed to denigrate personal accounts. What does it matter if financial firms take a small fee as long as they return a profit far and above the paltry payback Americans receive with Social Security? I’ll take my chances with Wall Street, along with the millions of workers who put their faith into 401(k)s.

Lileks on the “all your money are belong to us” crowd – “This is the lamest argument I’ve heard for the do-nothing-ever-nowhere-anytime approach that seems to characterize the opposition these days, but at least it tells you where some opponents of private accounts reside. It’s not Social Security they love, I suspect, it’s what it represents. It’s not socialism as they’d like, but it’s all we’ve got. In their vision of society, all obligations to one another are equal – at least that’s the presumption from which their ideas flow.”

Even Zimbabwe – After single-handedly destroying what used to be known as the "breadbasket of Africa," strongman Robert Mugabe is allowing a genuine election later this month. My bold prediction: no matter what happens, Mugabe will still be in power by this time next month (or dead).

Nothing to say, nowhere to go

As predicted, the Democrats appearing on the Sunday morning news shows didn’t offer much in ways of solutions for Social Security. The “Tenacity Award” goes to Fox News moderator Chris Wallace who tried – repeatedly – to get House minority leader Nancy Pelosi to offer up something, anything, that resembles a proposal:

WALLACE: Congresswoman Pelosi, you complain — and I think there's some legitimacy to it — about where is the president's plan, but Democrats like to say that Social Security is a hallowed Democratic idea, created by FDR. Where is your plan?
WALLACE: The other side is accusing the Democrats of being obstructionists, of having no ideas of their own...
WALLACE: My question is, the Democrats — it's their plan, Social Security — what is your idea of how to solve the long-term solvency issue?
WALLACE: What's your plan?
WALLACE: What's your plan to solve the long-term solvency?
WALLACE: But I just want to make sure, Congresswoman Pelosi, you know, we're talking about Social Security, the Democratic social program. I didn't hear anything about raising taxes. I didn't hear anything... about cutting benefits. There doesn't seem to be any plan that you are offering to solve the long-term solvency.
WALLACE: But there's a problem now. I'm asking you, do you have an answer?

She didn’t.

Extra: Here’s Kate O’Beirne on “Meet the Press” on the mood shift in the White House:

They're encouraged by polls this week, showing large majorities, some 65 to 72 percent saying, you know, Social Security really does have a serious fiscal problem. They see some movement on the part of Democrats who are now saying, "Well, maybe there are some things we ought to be doing."
And they're also encouraged by polls showing a narrowing in the gap on the question of which party you trust on Social Security. Democrats have long had a very big advantage there, but it's getting narrower so the Republicans are feeling a little more confident. And you heard Senator McConnell say even the Democracy Corps, James Carville's advising the Democrats, "The Republicans are beating you on seriousness. You can't just keep saying no." So the Republicans, the White House certainly, feels as though that's an environment that benefits them.

Interesting times.

Born under a bad song

The other day while listening to my beloved satellite radio, the Sixties channel was counting down the top 6 hits from February 1968; in fact, the very week I was born. So the #1 song in America on that auspicious day was "Love is Blue" by Paul Mauriat. Here's how Billboard describes the song: "Love is Blue" by Paul Mauriat is the only American number one single to originate in France." Oh the shame.

The Sunday gabfest - Mark Kilmer has the lineup for the Sunday morning shows tomorrow. Looks like we're in for a lot of discussion on Social Security. If anybody hears a Democrat (Kennedy, Pelosi, Boxer, etc.) make a specific proposal to save Social Security, please E-mail me or leave a comment. My prediction, of course, is that they’ll only attack the President’s plan. I know! I’m going out on a limb.

Pressing on - From Time magazine: Sticking to his Plan - Bush has a knack for succeeding when critics predict doom. Is the battle for social security any different?

Senate rules are sacrosanct! Unless they’re not (such as when it helps Democrats).

Do Something versus Do Nothing - Two sides stump on Social Security

“Evangelical Christian Nazis Are Leading Us To An Environmental Apocalypse” - From Logical Meme: Bill Moyers unhinged

Mort Kondracke: “Bush can win the Social Security fight. Here’s how.”

Whither Social Security?

The WashPost is concerned about a “Social Security breakdown” that leaves behind either no reform at all, or bad policy:

The Social Security discussion is heading in the wrong direction because it is starting from the wrong principle. The fundamental questions that Congress and the administration ought to be tackling are, first, how to put the program on a sound footing, and second, how to do so while protecting those in greatest need. The administration is dangling the prospect of personal accounts without advancing a proposal to achieve solvency. The Democrats are closing their eyes and sticking their fingers in their ears. Neither approach will get us very far.

I agree that President Bush has not adequately elucidated the hard choices that will go with personal accounts. But how irresponsible are the Democrats? They’re currently on the “do nothing” tour that will lead to automatic benefit cuts in 2042 (see graph below).

Stupid timewaster – my record is 15.2 seconds so far

Amazing Race 7 discussion

Have I been too critical of the first episode of the new season? A lot of the hardcore fans on the Television without Pity forum see the silver lining where I only saw the cloud: no “model” couples, a picturesque countryside (mountains of Peru), racing without too much “bunching” and challenging tasks. OK, I can dig it. But then part of me is irredeemably annoyed by the presence of Survivor’s Rob and Amber, who by the way were on Survivor, didja know? I just wish some other “regular” couple had the opportunity for a million dollars that they had…twice (now thrice).

Parapundit has a good Social Security review, except it veers off into biomedical research for reasons that seem tenuous to me.

Finally, some good news from the Big Dig

There are at least 40 places in Boston’s Big Dig where fireproofing material has been damaged. No problem! The tunnel system leaks so much water, there’s little chance of a fire breaking out: “Water leaks in the Big Dig have damaged fireproofing material in at least 40 areas along the tunnel's ceiling, according to Big Dig officials, who launched a survey of the roadway after a chunk of the material fell onto the Interstate 93 breakdown lane during Monday evening's commute.” Oh, yeah, watch out for that falling insulation.

Just what is going on at the Los Angeles Times? Go to That Liberal Media and keep scrolling.

Bizarro World update – Daniel Schorr writes “Bush may have had it right” on Iraq

We need a Texan with big ears to show us graphs on TV

Remember Ross Perot? That nutty dwarf captured almost a fifth of the national vote in 1992 by appearing on television and flipping through some charts on the U.S. budget and the national debt. President Bush should take note and highlight this graph from the 2004 report by the Social Security Trustees:


That, and many other relevant graphs, are listed in the report section titled “Projections of future financial status.” And here’s a section from the conclusion of that report:

The projected trust fund deficits should be addressed in a timely way to allow for a gradual phasing in of the necessary changes and to provide advance notice to workers. The sooner adjustments are made the smaller and less abrupt they will have to be.

Sounds perfectly reasonable. Let’s not kick the problem down the road yet again.

Me no want save

Here’s an asshat on Slate who is against personal savings accounts for the most insipid reason: he doesn’t want to think too much.

Social Security is our little taste of this freedom. The world adds and adds. Social Security subtracts. It simplifies life. Social Security is "Social" and "Secure" instead of "Individual" and "At Risk." That's what is so maddening to people on the right, the Ayn Randers, the libertarians.

They look down on the rest of us. They think of us as slugs. We aren't living authentically until we worry as much as they do.

Yes, that’s right, we live for it! Nothing gives “us” greater pleasure than flipping a nickel into a tin cup and thinking “Dumb bastard should have invested in Exxon.” Oh, it’s sublime superciliousness and, behind gilded doors, we laugh laugh laugh.

Rick Santorum on Social Security - "On the Democratic line that there's no major problem: "Even among seniors, it's not working."

AKRI? (Another Karl Rove invention)

I’m going to have to start a category for activists on the Left that are so self-destructive and counter-productive to the Democrats, that they must be secretly working for Karl Rove. First there was Terry McAuliffe, then Howard Dean, who is also in cahoots with MoveOn.

So who is MoveOn? Consider this: Howard Dean finished first in the MoveOn primary. Number Two wasn't John Kerry or John Edwards -- it was Dennis Kucinich. Listing the issues that resonate most with their membership, Boyd and Blades cite the environment, the Iraq War, campaign-finance reform, media reform, voting reform and corporate reform. Somewhere after freedom, opportunity and responsibility comes "the overlay of security concerns that everybody shares." Terrorism as a specific concern is notably absent. As are jobs. As is health care. As is education.

Dennis Kucinich! Man, that brings back memories. Good times, good times.

A comprehensive Amazing Race 7 prediction on Dummocrats. Nice analysis, even though Team Redneck is gone.

Mideast roundup

From the Economist - Something stirs: “Two years after the invasion of Iraq, the Arab world is beginning to show tantalising signs of change. But it is too early to talk of a year of revolutions, as the three prime exhibits being used to make the case for democracy—Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine—are in many ways special cases”

Tom Friedman is optimistic: “But what makes me more hopeful today is precisely what made me hopeful that the Iraq war might work out, and that is the number of Arab-Muslim youth I've encountered since 9/11 who have urged me to keep writing about the need for democracy and reform in their part of the world.”

K-Lo on the Corner finds one of these reform-minded Arab youths in Egypt: “If seriously implemented, these steps will transform Mubarak's legacy. Along with events in Lebanon, Iraq and Palestine, it may well usher in an Arab spring of freedom, one long overdue.”

And finally, there’s Mark Steyn on “The Right Side of History.”

The curious case of American Cattleman Association vs. Modern Bride (ROTF hat tip to Q&O)

"Something's got to give," he said. "We have to find a better model."

WashPost: “Greenspan urges action on Social Security”

But in some of his most forceful language on the subject, Greenspan argued that lawmakers should consider introducing private accounts because the current Social Security system is outdated. He repeated that he believes the nation has promised retirees more benefits than it has the resources to deliver. And he was explicit about the potentially negative economic consequences of trying to meet those obligations.

If nothing is done, Greenspan predicts “very grave difficulties” between 2015-2025. For the record, here is the full testimony.

Extra - Matt Margolis beat me to the punch on Blogs for Bush.

Overheard inside a Ramadi bunker

Why so glum? Get happy!

Boy, reading the WashPost this morning, you’d think that the effort to reform Social Security is dead on arrival:

That a politician as closely allied to the White House as [Senator Bill] Frist would even raise the possibility of putting off the [reform] proposal until next year -- possibly dooming it -- was an unexpected blow to the administration.

Oh no! The WashPost WH Briefing further defined it as a “Losing Fight?” while Republican leaders in the House sounded downright defensive. Mickey Kaus deadpanned: “It may be too early to declare Bush's plan dead, but it's not too early to stop declaring it's too early to declare Bush's plan dead.” Meanwhile, the Minuteman says: “Mostly dead is partly alive.”

To borrow a line from Mark Twain, news of reform’s death is greatly exaggerated. Congress is still barely back in session after the winter break, the inauguration, and whatever vacation they had last week. There have been no formal proposals put before either the House or the Senate. The only “debates” on the issue have been in front of partisan audiences on both sides of the issue. Somewhere down the road, there will be a bill in Congress, debate and many clashes on “Meet the Press.”

All of this benefits the reform effort because the magnitude of the entitlement problem will be made clear, forcing the Democrats into two positions, both untenable. Either they must declare there is no problem or that there is a problem; this latter position requires them to take a stand on a solution. Americans simply will not tolerate a party that sits on its collective hands while criticizing reasonable reforms to insure the long-term solvency of Social Security.

But what if Democrats are successful in filibustering or otherwise sinking reform? It would be a Pyrrhic victory at best because in either 2008, or 2018, or 2042 (depending on how you define the predicament we’re in) America will be square-face with a runaway entitlement problem that will require drastic action including massive tax increases and benefit cuts. When the U.S. government is forced into that corner, the wisdom of “fixing the roof while the sun shines” will be all too obvious.

Extra - Patrick Ruffini and I are on the same wavelength: “Victory is in reach”

Campus news

George Mason University decided not to spend $35,000 in Virginia’s state funds and cancelled a speech by Richard Perle. Result: the Phi Beta Kappa honor society pulled out of a proposal to open a chapter at GMU citing concerns about “academic freedom.”

Whoops! Did I say Richard Perle. I meant Michael Moore. But I’m sure the exact same concerns would have been raised for a conservative speaker.

CNN Flops, Fox Surges, and Letterman lists the Top Ten other changes at CNN

Amazing Race 7 update: TAR jumps the shark

Here’s a quote posted on the front page of Jump the Shark:

"What makes this show so great is that (for the most part) it's the real people - not the people that are STILL trying to make it in Hollywood (i.e. Rob & Amber). This is a true Jump the Shark moment."

There’s no argument here: the “stunt casting” of Survivor alumni Rob and Amber has cast a pall over the show that won’t be lifted until they’re gone. The other Teams openly resent them (esp. Patrick) and Rob’s heavy Boston accent is like a cheese grater over the cochlea.

Well, let me do a brief recap from the top of my head. The teams started out from Long Beach, California and headed to Lima, Peru. Once there, they had to go to some square in the middle of the city. Even though they were on a later flight, Rob & Amber raced ahead because they found somebody who recognized them from Survivor and agreed to help them. The other teams – handicapped by their lack of television exposure – had to find their own way.

Now the teams need to take a bus to some place called Ancon. Team Friends Forever (Debbie & Bianca) find the bus station muy rapido because one of them speaks fluent Spanish. Off to some beach where teams must sift through mounds of sand to find plane tickets for three flights that leave the next day at staggered times. Several teams stupidly dig away at the 7:40am flight mound without taking 20 seconds to walk over and notice there are tickets in the 7:00am mound. No matter: these flights are delayed leaving the race to the three teams on the 6:00am flight.

All teams head high into the mountains to Cuzco, Peru where the altitude immediately slows everybody down. It’s a marked taxi to a snack bar (why?) and then to a zip line. Everybody is shown screaming in that classic “I can’t believe I’m doing this” style central to every TAR episode. Once off the zip line, there’s a Detour: Llamas or Baskets (although I think they called it “Herd” or “Haul.”)

Teams must either lead two llamas to a marked pen about a hundred yards away or carry two large baskets two-thirds of a mile to a market. All the young teams carry the baskets while dressed in traditional Peruvian garb. The others herd llamas which really do spit when they’re angry and we see Patrick from Team Mom/Son catch quarts of llama saliva as he shoves them into the pen.

After the Detour, teams take a truck to an open air market to find the next clue: go to the church in Cuzco for the Pit Stop. Teams Mom/Son, Friends Forever, and Survivor are far ahead so it’s a three-way race at this point and it mostly depends on who has the craziest taxi driver. Debbie & Bianca make it first and win $10,000 each (!). Wow – it looks like the TAR producers want teams to race for first instead of just avoiding last place. Speaking of which: Team Redneck, Ryan and Chuck, come in last and are eliminated. This marks the second season in a row where the team I picked at the start couldn’t even make it past the season premiere (right, Avi & Joe?).

Next week: Team Showtunes (Lynn and Alex) argue over the size of their snapper and everybody hates Rob.

Final standings – Leg #1:
1 - Team Friends Forever – Debbie & Bianca
2 – Team Mom/Son – Susan & Patrick
3 – Team Survivor – Rob & Amber
[Seven other teams]
11 – Team Redneck – Ryan & Chuck – ELIMINATED

The Amazing Race 7 starts tonight

No posting tonight since I’ll be watching the kickoff of the latest Race. (Lorie, set your VCR!) Since they were fairly popular, I’ll be posting updates again for this season. The teams are a mixed bag, much more diverse than the monopoly of “pretty couples” that dominated the last Race. Unfortunately, one of the couples is Rob and Amber from multiple Survivor seasons. Why? They need more exposure? They need another million dollars? This publicity gimmick was a stupid idea that essentially robbed another worthy Race team (thousands and thousands apply) of a Race slot.

Well, I’ll keep an open mind but frankly I’m hoping Rob & Amber beat a quick departure. The new Race starts at 9pm EST tonight – catch it from the beginning and you’ll be hooked.

The Fiscalator! - Via the Tax Professor, the Cato Institute has released their report cards of the nation’s governors and graded them on fiscal policy. #1? Ah-nold!

Strangely evocative - From Ace: Original quotes of Ward Churchill

War, what is it good for? Jay Tea runs down the list, so far. Scott on Election Projection also has some optimistic thoughts on recent developments in the Mideast. (Oh, let’s throw in this link also. It’s all good) Meanwhile, Spear Shaker is posting the latest revolution odds.

I can’t visit Hoystory with those banners up. At least take down the photograph of Krugman. Geez.

Mark Steyn says “I told you so” - “The Arabs Berlin Wall has crumbled” – “Three years ago - April 6 2002, if you want to rummage through the old Spectators in the attic - I wrote: "The stability junkies in the EU, UN and elsewhere have, as usual, missed the point. The Middle East is too stable. So, if you had to pick only one regime to topple, why not Iraq? Once you've got rid of the ruling gang, it's the West's best shot at incubating a reasonably non-insane polity. That's why the unravelling of the Middle East has to start not in the West Bank but in Baghdad.”

That year of reckoning keeps tiptoeing up

From “Why Greenspan’s glum about Social Security”

In two days of grilling about Social Security, Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan put an important date on our calendars: 2008.

That's when he believes problems may begin with Social Security.

[snip]

The answer is one word: cash. Greenspan is not following government accounting. He worries that market expectations of excessive new government borrowing will have an impact on interest rates and the economy. He wants to increase the pool of domestic savings so we can sustain investment and reduce our dependence on foreign lenders. Unless we do, he expects higher interest rates.

So here’s another argument for personal accounts: they’ll boost domestic savings and help to temper the rise in interest rates when the crunch comes.

Almost forgot to mention – Hey, how about that Greg Biffle? In the NASCAR equivalent of Joe Namath guaranteeing a Super Bowl win, Biffle declared that he would be leading by the fifth lap and would win the Auto Club 500. He did.