My unlikely new Social Security hero

Yesterday, during a Democratic forum, Governor Tom Vilsack suggested that Social Security should be indexed to prices instead of wages to extend the program's solvency. From his campaign blog:

I believe that Social Security and Medicare are too important to ignore. We have to fix the long-term solvency and we have to consider a variety of options. I talked about some of those options yesterday.

And why not? All that price indexing means is that the Social Security benefit paid out to retirees today will have the same purchasing power as in the future. See, wasn't that easy? Apparently not for some blogs on the Left who reflexively oppose any Social Security reform where the current path to bankruptcy shall not be challenged. For example, here's an odd criticism towards egalitarianism:

Or, in short: within 80 years or so, Social Security becomes a program in which no one gets more than what the poor get today.

Yeah, the rich deserve more!

AARP discovers that Americans want more taxes

Since President Bush started his effort to reform Social Security, the seniors lobby AARP has fought personal accounts tooth and nail. But even the vaunted AARP can't escape the numbers, so today we find this improbable headline on Politico: "AARP to push for Social Security fix"

Don't get too excited, especially if you're under 30. The AARP polling arm called 1,514 people and - surprise, surprise - a majority agree with the AARP's position that Social Security can be saved if we just raise taxes yet again:

Of eight possible options, a majority of respondents favored three measures that would raise revenue for Social Security in some fashion: increasing the income cap to $150,000; increasing the payroll tax by 0.5 percent for both workers and employers, and changing the benefit formula to make the program more progressive.

Efforts to raise the retirement age, change the longevity index, cut benefits for new retirees and implement modified price indexing were opposed by large margins.

Let's recap: one of the country's largest lobbying groups, whose sole purpose is to influence federal policy to funnel cash to seniors, sponsors a survey on Social Security. That survey finds that Americans don't want their benefits cut but are willing to let other people (the rich and young) pay for them. This is the gimme gimme logic of eight-year-olds, not eighty-year-olds. At least it should be.

Extra - FactCheck analyzes AARP's temporary Social Security fixes.

The Libby case goes to jury - Macsmind: "Plame Game - Game Over"

Looking into the future - Mark Steyn sees the demographic storm gathering in Europe: "One of the reasons why Europe’s in for the perfect storm – unaffordable entitlements on declining human capital dependent on alienated self-segrating Muslim immigrant populations – is because of the size of public pensions liabilities."

Religion of peace update

From LGF: "Honor killing in Britain"

After Mrs Riaz’s father died she “suddenly felt less beholden to Mohammed”, a friend said. “She started to develop her own circle of friends and allowed the girls to express themselves in a more western way.”

She began to work with women who felt suppressed by Asian culture and many saw her as a role model for young Asian women.

You can see where this is going.

The Dixie-crats strike a'gin! - Texas Rainmaker notes that the Arkansas state flag commemorates the Confederate States of America and then-governor Bill Clinton issued proclamations honoring Jefferson Davis and Robert E. Lee. All this wouldn't be so intriguing if not for Hillary's latest stir-up on the South Carolina state flag.

John Kerry's just making stuff up again

I realize it's fashionable to blame President Bush for every malady under the sun, but here's another example of Senator Splunge taking a point too far instead of just shutting up. From Inc magazine's interview with the sometime Senator:

What else can the government do to foster entrepreneurship?

The most important thing is start-up facilitation. That can be in the form of capital programs, networking, mentoring, and other opportunities. Another way is through micro-lending. It's a shame to see that program under so much stress with this administration.

Emphasis added. Really now, what evidence does Kerry have that the Bush administration is deliberately putting the screws on micro-loans? Or is it just the standard coda for every left-wing statement to tack on a dig at Bush? Considering that throughout much of Dubya's presidency the prime rate has been at near-historical lows - and thus credit is easier to obtain and afford - it would suggest that Kerry's response is just his typical brand of Brahman bull.

That's what you call a monopoly - From Fox News: "XM, Sirius Agree to Blockbuster Satellite Radio Merger" There's not a chance that the FCC would allow for the only two satellite radio providers to merge.

Silly fun - The local paper savaged "Night at the Museum" but it was perfect President's Day zaniness, complete with Teddy Roosevelt. Mickey Rooney - at age 87 - plays a crotchety old security guard, bless his soul.

Amazing Race update - Who cares?

Well, I got a couple of comments and Emails wondering why I haven't done an Amazing Race All-Stars update. Here's why:

Rob & Amber from Survivor, Survivor All-Stars, and the seventh season of TAR - who have already won a million dollars in Survivor - are back yet again. There's not a whit of spontaneity here: every word that tumbles out of Rob's Boston mouth is designed for the television camera only. Somebody on another team said that America is tired of Rob and Amber and he's exactly right.

Uchenna & Joyce - They won a million dollars on TAR7 and now they get another chance. Why? Among 100 former teams, I guess there were no other couples that deserved a second try.

David & Mary and Charla & Mirna - Easily two of the most annoying teams in the history of the show. They should have given Kris & Jon or Lena & Kristy another roll in the hay (inside joke).

Anyway: here's the 411. Teams started out from Miami and had to go to Ecuador. Find a restaurant and sleep for the night. Leave at staggered times in the morning for some big national park where it's recommended that teams enter through the North Gate. (Foreshadowing!)

At the park, it's the Detour: teams may either search the park for parts of a military uniform or lasso a horse and cut its hooves. Except they don't have to lasso the horse and the local cowboys do all the hard work, so nobody does the uniform search. Some teams, naturally, enter through the South Gate and it takes them an extra hour to get to the task. Kevin & Drew from season one get a flat tire and continue to drive on it anyway, probably figuring that the TAR production staff will pay for the new axle. In the end, the odious Rob & Amber come in first, John Vito & Jill are eliminated and Kevin & Drew just barely make the cut for the next leg.

Extra - If you want a more enthusiastic review, check out Kris's take. Also, Pat has a good review for all you TAR fans.

Un-fare - From Fox News: "Muslim Cabbie Charged With Running Over Students After Religious Dispute" You know, Dad always said not to discuss politics or religion in polite company. He never said anything about getting run over.

Harvick edges out Martin to win the Daytona 500


In a finish that would have been rejected by a Hollywood hack as too contrived, Mark Martin was nosed out by 0.02 seconds by Kevin Harvick to win the Daytona 500. It was Martin's 23rd attempt to win the NASCAR classic and his best chance since leaving Roush Racing last year after a twenty-year partnership.

My NASCAR fantasy team was cremated after Kurt Busch crashed into race leader Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin was forced off-track by Jimmie Johnson, and Kyle Busch wrecked on the final turn. Still, the new batch of TV commercials were pretty good.

Sunday morning lineup - Only Late Edition sounds worth watching as Harry Reid and Mitch McConnell go head-to-head (I think).

Quote of the Day - The Washington Post doesn't hold a high opinion of the man Nancy Pelosi wanted for House majority leader: "Mr. Murtha's cynicism is matched by an alarming ignorance about conditions in Iraq." And here's more from Decision '08 and Q&O.

Hillary stands her ground

I dislike so many things personally and politically about Hillary Clinton, but here's a twist I didn't see coming: she's simply not going to apologize for her Iraq war vote. From the NY Times: "Clinton Gives War Critics New Answer on ’02 Vote"

Yet antiwar anger has festered, and yesterday morning Mrs. Clinton rolled out a new response to those demanding contrition: She said she was willing to lose support from voters rather than make an apology she did not believe in.

No more pandering from a Clinton? Hard to believe. But, as always, there's the political motive:

Indeed, Mrs. Clinton believes that reversing course on her vote would invite the charge of flip-flopping that damaged Mr. Kerry or provoke the kind of accusations of political expediency that hung over Al Gore in 2000 and her and her husband, President Bill Clinton, in the 1990s, several advisers said. She has argued to associates in private discussions that Mr. Gore and Mr. Kerry lost, in part, because they could not convince enough Americans that they were resolute on national security, the associates said.

But can Hillary? Sure, she's sat on the Senate Armed Services committee, but I'm not sure if that's the kind of experience that convinces voters you're ready to be Commander-in-Chief.

Je ne parle pas francais

A would-be hijacker was subdued in the Canary Islands when the pilot realized he didn't speak French:

Along the way, speaking to the hijacker, the pilot realized the man did not speak French. So he used the plane's public address system to warn the passengers in French of the tactic he was going to try: brake hard upon landing, then speed up abruptly. The idea was to catch the hijacker off balance, and have crew members and men sitting in the front rows jump him, the Spanish official said.

The pilot also warned women and children to move to the back of the plane in preparation for the plan , the official said.

It worked. The man was standing in the middle aisle and he fell to the floor, dropping one of his two pistols. Flight attendants then threw boiling water from a coffee machine in his face and at his chest, and some 10 people jumped on the man and beat him, the Spanish official said.

Ouch. Boiling water on top of a beating? That's Walker Texas Ranger justice.

The great big nothing

Up in New Hampshire, two Democrats aiming to occupy the White House admitted that the non-binding resolution on Iraq is just a waste of time:

Even as House members solemnly voted on what some called a historic resolution condemning the Iraq war, two Democratic presidential contenders campaigning in New Hampshire yesterday dismissed the vote's importance.

Governor Bill Richardson of New Mexico said the Democrat-led House and Senate were "wasting" their time debating nonbinding resolutions over troop deployment levels because such resolutions would do little to change the situation in Iraq.

"Look, I served in Congress for 15 years, so I know what they are trying to do," Richardson said in an interview. "I know this is getting a lot of headlines, but it does nothing to change the reality in Iraq or the fact this president is just not listening to them."

Meanwhile, another Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Christopher J. Dodd of Connecticut, told business leaders at a "Politics and Eggs" breakfast in Bedford that he believed the nonbinding resolutions wouldn't do much to change Iraq.

"This was debating about debating," said Dodd. "The fact is we need a new policy in Iraq, and none of these resolutions do that."

Thanks for the heads up, Dodd.

Free speech for me, but not for thee - This is a new one: a blogger edits a comment and then defends the censorship because the comment was an "elitist swipe." Because, you see, being liberal means never having to say you're sorry. (And here's more from Patterico.)

Fitzmas update - Mickey Kaus notes that the "Man who's always wrong" predicts that Scooter Libby will be found guilty. We'll know soon enough.

The Iraq "debate" - From Politico: winners and losers in the House speech marathon.

Sucks to be in the majority

Here's Harry Reid whining about those durn Republicans blocking a vote on the meaningless non-binding Iraq resolution:

"We demand an up-or-down vote," Reid said Thursday. "The resolution says we support the troops and oppose the escalation of the presence in Iraq. We're determined to give our troops and the American people the debate they deserve."

Sure, as long as that debate doesn't include any mention of GOP-sponsored resolutions. Hey, good luck with that Harry.

Update: Oh no! Harry Reid is going to make Senators work on Saturday. On Saturday! "After four years of fighting in Iraq, and two weeks of trying to force senators to debate the conflict, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid yesterday wheeled out the ultimate weapon: he ordered his colleagues to work on Saturday." All that's left now for the Republicans to do is shut down the Senate and the cycle of pettiness will be complete.

The Fiscal Wake-Up tour

It's making the rounds in the critical primary state of New Hampshire. From the Boston Globe: "Fiscal wake-up tour's inconvenient truth"

..it came courtesy of David Walker, the country's comptroller general, Bob Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, Isabel Sawhill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and Alison Fraser, director of economic policy studies at the Heritage Foundation , who are tilling the ground for truth as part of the "Fiscal Wake-Up Tour."

Their message was stark: With the boomers set to begin retiring, the long-term costs of Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security will soon start to explode -- and unless this country deals with those expenses, huge problems lie ahead.

"Whether you are liberal, conservative, middle of the road, Democrat, Republican, Independent, the numbers don't add up," says Bixby. "It's a matter of arithmetic, not ideology."

Testify, brother.

Religion of peace update

Riddle: Why did the mosque's imam cancel the Friday prayer service?
Answer: Because he was angry that Iraqi security forces found the mosque packed with assault rifles.

We're from Beacon Hill and we're here to help take your money

"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience." - C.S. Lewis

From the Boston Globe: "Patrick targets pension systems"

Governor Deval Patrick is proposing a tough new mandate for the state's cities and towns: If your pension system isn't performing, we're taking the money and investing it ourselves.

As part of a municipal relief package Patrick is to unveil today, approximately one-third of the state's 107 public pension funds would be forced to turn over nearly $5 billion in assets for investment by the state.

It's for your own good.

Drive fast, turn left

I'm behind on the news today because I was consumed with the NASCAR Fantasy draft today. Here's my team for the 2007 season:

Denny Hamlin
Kasey Kahne
Kurt Busch
Kyle Busch

Not bad!

What's an election projector to do in his off-time? - Scott Elliott breaks from politics to write a long post about the current trends in global warming: "The Kyoto treaty, if fully enacted, will produce only a 0.07 degree Celsius reduction in the projected temperature increase by 2050 at the estimated cost of 100 to 400 billion dollars to the United States each year."

Extra - From Wizbang: "Global warming - it ain't happening"

Can you put a price on love? - According to this Forbes article, Americans will spend $17 billion on heart-shaped Valentine's Day stuff.

We're all welfare queens (and kings) now


Almost too good to excerpt, I beg you to read Robert Samuelson's "The Stubborn Welfare State" posted over on Real Clear Politics. Because of a dearth of political courage, we've now reached a moment in budgetary history where all we can do is stand back and watch the expanding blob of entitlement spending:

Annual budget debates are sterile -- long on rhetoric, short on action -- because each side blames the other for a situation that neither chooses to change. To cut spending significantly, conservatives would have to go after popular welfare programs, including Social Security and Medicare. To raise taxes significantly, liberals would have to go after the upper-middle class, a constituency they covet (two-thirds of all federal taxes come from the richest fifth). Deficits persist, because neither side risks its popularity, and indeed, both sides pursue popularity with new spending programs and tax breaks.

It might help if Americans called welfare programs -- current benefits for select populations, paid for by current taxes -- by their proper name, rather than by the soothing (and misleading) labels of "entitlements'' and "social insurance.'' That way, we might ask ourselves who deserves welfare and why.

We could consider all of federal spending and not just small bits of it. But most Americans don't want to admit that they are current or prospective welfare recipients. They prefer to think that they automatically deserve whatever they've been promised simply because the promises were made. Americans do not want to pose the basic questions, and their political leaders mirror that reluctance. This makes the welfare state immovable and the budget situation intractable.

As I've noted before, those promises will be kept until they're not and then it will be too late for gradual changes.

It's a Bizarro World Fitzmas assessment

Talk Left says Libby may walk: "Once the jurors try to figure out motive, even though it's not a necessary element of the charged crimes, I call a draw. Fitz just didn't establish motive beyond a reasonable doubt."

But Tom Maguire sees hope for the prosecution: "For symmetry's sake, I think Fitzgerald has a chance, too."

Going up - MIT student invents Batman-style rope ascender: "A 23-year-old inventor has come up with a tool to give mere mortals the powers of a superhero: the ability to zoom up a rope as fast as 10 feet per second and scale the side of a building." The Army has already ordered some prototypes for would-be Spidermen.

North Korean kabuki dance - From the WashPost: "Under the agreement, North Korea will close and "seal" its main nuclear reactor at Yongbyon within 60 days in return for 50,000 tons of fuel oil, as a first step in its abandonment of all nuclear weapons and research programs."

Hours after the agreement, the Norks announced they would close the reactor "temporarily" in exchange for 1,000,000 tons of fuel: "In a sign of potential problems to come, North Korea's state news agency said the country was receiving 1 million tons of oil for a "temporary suspension" of its nuclear facilities -- and failed to mention the full disarmament for which the agreement calls." Yeah, whatever.

Six zeros - Congrats to Will Franklin for hitting one million visitors.

All your income are belong to us

Notice a trend? From MSN "The best and worst states for taxes" here are the top and bottom five on the list with percentage of total federal, state, and local taxes. Also, if you look at the list, you'll know why I never buy my gas in Connecticut:

1. Connecticut - 35.9%
2. New York - 35.1%
3. New Jersey - 34.3%
4. Washington - 33.7%
5. Minnesota - 33.6%

46. Tennessee - 28.2%
47. Oklahoma - 28.2%
48. Mississippi - 28.0%
49. Alaska - 27.9%
50. Alabama - 27.5%

Surprisingly, Massachusetts just missed the top 5, landing at #6. Hooray?

Muqtada Al-Sadr flees Iraq

This seems like good news, possibly a direct result of the surge. Of course, he's all but admitted that he's just going to lay low in Iran until the heat is off:

Anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr has fled his Baghdad stronghold for the friendly confines of Iran's capital, FOX News can confirm via a senior United States official.

Al-Sadr left Iraq within the past few weeks out of fear for his safety and security and is with family in Tehran, where he has visited before, the official said.

His move comes as coalition forces crack down on the insurgency in Baghdad and ahead of the arrival of 21,500 U.S. troops sent by President George W. Bush to quell sectarian violence.

Let's just chalk it up as positive propaganda for now.

Honest Abe - I'm just too tired tonight. In honor of America's greatest president, here's the White House biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Happy birthday sweet 16 - Here in America, teenage girls waste their energies chatting on cell phones and painting toenails. Meanwhile, in Iran, a sixteen-year-old girl has discovered nuclear energy in her own home! Either that or President Dinner Jacket is off his meds again.

Massachusetts sets up monopoly; acts stunned when price shoots up

It's the same old story: when there's only one supplier for a certain commodity and no competition to drive down prices, it's the consumer who always suffers. This is true even when the commodity is blood and the supplier is the Red Cross:

Massachusetts is the only state that does not allow any private groups other than the Red Cross to collect or distribute blood. Although the Red Cross cannot charge for the blood itself, the not-for-profit can charge hospitals a fee to cover the costs of collecting, testing and distributing blood.

The state's hospitals say the law gives the Red Cross a virtual monopoly and drives up prices. The hospitals are pushing a bill to allow other groups to compete for the blood business.

Hospitals in Massachusetts are spending up to 25 percent more per unit of blood than hospitals in other states, a cost that forces up the price of health care when the state is trying to rein in the cost of health insurance, he said.

"There's no competition," he said. "That means contracts for blood are basically a take-it-or-leave-it proposition."

And since we're talking about monopolies, this letter writer to the WashPost has precisely pinpointed the national boondoggle that is ethanol. Everybody wants clean-burning fuels, but national policy is set up to protect the corn growers first:

Feb. 1 letter writer Jon C. McKenzie correctly suggested that sugar cane is a far more efficient source for ethanol than corn. But we can't use sugar for ethanol in the United States because Congress maintains a massive sugar subsidy program that keeps the price of sugar here roughly double the world price, too expensive for ethanol production. And similar political favoritism prevents us from importing ethanol (or sugar to make it) from Brazil. We impose a 54-cents-per-gallon tariff on sugar ethanol and strictly limit sugar imports. Consumers and taxpayers pick up the tab, and multimillion-dollar agribusinesses reap the benefits.

Exactly right. If we're serious about ethanol, Congress should eliminate the corn monopoly and allow for free competition to benefit everybody (except for politicians who have to travel to the Iowa caucuses.)

Two years experience - Surprising nobody, Barack Obama announced his candidacy for the Presidency today. I have nothing against the guy and prefer him a million times more than Hillary, but I just don't think America is going to vote to make him Commander-in-Chief because he's charismatic. This is exactly the same argument I made against single-term Senator Handsome John Edwards.

Good eatin' - History's 10 greatest banquets

No new Social Security taxes - In a companion piece to my post below, Donald Luskin echoes why raising the FICA tax is a bad idea:

What's worse, a tax hike actually does very little to make Social Security sustainable. It just buys time. We'll just have to come back and raise taxes again at some point. The tax hike in the 1983 reform didn't create lasting solvency, did it? And we don't even need to raise taxes to rescue Social Security. We just have to wean ourselves from the wage-indexed benefit growth promised under current law. Benefits can grow at the rate of inflation without higher taxes -- but not at the rate of wage-gains.

My opposition to an increase in Social Security taxes is fundamental: at some point, Americans have to decide that the program is just not worth the money. When Social Security was started, the original tax rate was 2%; now it's 12.4% and 70% of American pay more in FICA taxes than in federal income taxes. It's time to say: enough.

Driving while distracted - First, Vermont came for my coffee mug. Then they came for my satellite radio. Then they came for my cell phone. Now they say I can't drive while checking out hot babes on the side of the road! Is this still America?

P.S. - Please excuse my use of a Holocaust reference to make a political point.

What media bias? - Ace on the Washington Post's reporting of the Pentagon's intelligence review: "Confirmation bias," they call it-- the press simply will run anti-Republican stories that ought to sound a little implausible or sketchy because, to them, they sound pretty darn reasonable. Such "facts" are "self-checking" -- they just prove themselves by how wonderfully they fit in with the liberal worldview."

Hot Air eviscerates the WashPost's late-day correction "WaPo quasi-retracts page-one story about Feith Iraq/AQ intel": "This is a "correction" in the same way Crocodile Dundee's knife was a knife."

Nice birthday cake - Happy first "official" birthday to Maggie's Farm.

The telcom industry as Icarus - A couple years ago, my company was (briefly) part of Lucent. Today, the merged Alcatel-Lucent company announced that it's slashing 12,500 jobs. Whew - dodged that bullet.

Quote of the Day - From Kabul's Mullah Abdul Rauf: "Music is not banned in Islam but to get enjoyment from music is banned."

This must make for some interesting reviews on Afghanistan Bandstand: "It's got a rhythmic beat that you can't dance to." (Hat tip: Mark Steyn)

Negotiate the way we want, jerks

From ABC News "Efforts to set up benefits talks sputter":

Back-channel efforts by the White House and Capitol Hill Democrats to begin trying to negotiate a solution to the fiscal problems of Social Security and other federal benefit programs appeared to collapse Wednesday.

There's a shocker. It seems that the White House has taken tax increases off the table:

But Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., accused the White House of acting in bad faith at a panel hearing that turned acrimonious over White House Budget Director Rob Portman's unwillingness to acknowledge that tax increases should be part of any fix for Social Security's long-term problems.

Unlike the President, those fair-minded Democrats are willing to discuss all options to reform Social Security, as long as they're the right options:

Senator Max Baucus of Montana, the chairman of the Finance Committee, a critical venue for any Social Security plan, said he too believed the president must give up his private accounts before serious talks could occur. If so, he added, "I'm more than open, if the president is truly willing to look at all options."

Classic.

Extra - Thank heaven the government didn't impose those high-return personal savings plans on us.

NASCAR 2007

From Fox Sports: "The times in NASCAR, they are a changin'"

From the cars - changes in shape and manufacturers - to the competitors to the way the series will be promoted, this season will represent the furthest departure from racing's roots since strictly stocks took to the Carolina clay in 1949.

Included in the mix-up this year is the Car of Tomorrow, the Junior drama, and the introduction of Toyota into the previously All-American lineup.

Anna Nicole Smith dies, lawyers rejoice - There's the pending paternity suit for Smith's newborn child, the fight over the rest of Howard Marshall's fortune, along with potential criminal and/or civil cases over Smith's son's untimely death in September.

Ben on the operating table - I had no idea that the new season of "Lost" starts tonight.

Air America update - The liberal radio network has sold for a bargain basement price of $4.25 million. Brian Maloney asks: "If you've been following our reports for any length of time, however, you may be wondering why the liberal talk radio network carries any real value at all. Where are the assets?"

In Iraq - From Fox News: "Baghdad Security Crackdown Begins"

Zimbabwe enters the Twilight Zone

Things are getting worse - faster - in Zimbabwe as hyperinflation sucks the life out of the economy. Two weeks ago, all the civil workers in the country received a 300% pay raise which was immediately swallowed up by skyrocketing prices:

Pay increases have so utterly failed to keep pace with price increases that some Harare workers now complain that bus fare to and from work consumes their entire salaries.

After chasing away the white farmers, Zimbabwe is facing starvation, so the government is trying to help keep the tractors running:

Seeking to revive farm production, for example, the government sells gasoline to farmers at a bargain rate of 330 Zimbabwe dollars per liter - and farmers promptly resell it on the black market for 10 times that, leaving their fields idle.

Despite acceptable rains, one international aid official said, Zimbabwe’s corn crop is currently lagging behind last year’s - and that harvest was among the worst in history.

But have no fear. Robert Mugabe (who blames his countries problems on a "Western plot") has a unique approach to the hyperinflation ravaging his country. He simply made it illegal:

The central bank's latest response to these problems, announced this week, was to declare inflation illegal. From March 1 to June 30, anyone who raises prices or wages will be arrested and punished. Only a "firm social contract" to end corruption and restructure the economy will bring an end to the crisis, said the reserve bank governor, Gideon Gono.

Sounds like a plan.

The speech by Mr. Gono, a favorite of Mr. Mugabe, was broadcast nationally. In downtown Harare, the last half was blacked out by a power failure.

D'oh!

Hot debate - Jeff Jacoby on "Chicken Little and global warming": "Climate-change hyperbole makes for dramatic headlines, but the real story is both more complex and more interesting. Chicken Little may claim the sky is falling. A journalist's job is to check it out."

To read article, funny translations of English happy China time


In anticipation of the Beijing Olympics, China is cleaning up their imperfect English translations that have bemused travelers. From the Wall Street Journal: "Tired of Laughter, Beijing Gets Rid Of Bad Translations - Many Expats Regret Loss Of Wacky English in Signs; 'Slippery Are Very Crafty'"

For years, foreigners in China have delighted in the loopy English translations that appear on the nation's signs. They range from the offensive ("Deformed Man," outside toilets for the handicapped) to the sublime (on park lawns, "Show Mercy to the Slender Grass").

You don't want to know what they used to call the new "Hospital of Proctology."

Soon to be unemployed on West 43rd Street - Newsbusters: "NY Times Iraq Reporter Corrects Russert: 'American Troops Were Greeted as Liberators'"

Alone with his conscious - Joe Lieberman as "The Lorax"

Reining in entitlements

Yes, President’s Bush 2007 budget is massive, a full trillion dollars over the budget he submitted in his first year in the White House. But his lack of fiscal conservatism is mitigated by a meaningful approach to Medicare reform. Here’s National Review’s editorial "Entitlement Credit":

The reality, though, is that it doesn’t much matter whether the budget is balanced in 2012 or 2013, or whether the deficit in 2010 is $90 billion or $150 billion. The true crisis lies in the long-term unfunded liabilities of our entitlement programs. Bush's budget begins to grapple with this fact by reducing the subsidies to upper-income retirees for services they receive under parts B and D of Medicare. Parts B (outpatient services, as contrasted with hospital visits) and D (the prescription-drug benefit) are not covered by the payroll tax, and retirees must currently pay a premium for them. Bush’s plan would use means testing to adjust premiums more appropriately based on a recipient's ability to pay. There is no good reason retirees who could easily pay their own premiums should receive public assistance that dumps trillions of dollars in liabilities onto future generations.

And it is trillions. Bush’s changes to Medicare would, over the next five years, save some $66 billion; other savings would raise that number to just under $96 billion. These are not impressive numbers in the context of the overall budget. But over the long term, Bush's plan would slice $8 trillion - or more than 20 percent - off of Medicare’s $39 trillion unfunded liability. That is nothing to scoff at.

I don’t focus on Medicare as much as Social Security but the fact is that Medicare's unfunded liability is projected to rise at a much higher rate than Social Security. This is a step in the right direction.

No room for debate on ManBearPig - Professor Timothy Bell calls the global warming "the greatest deception in the history of science." And this is beyond dispute: "Sadly, my experience is that universities are the most dogmatic and oppressive places in our society."

Extra - Don’t let these numbers and facts on ethanol confuse you either.

Was this trip necessary? - Republicans block debate on meaningless non-binding resolution, celebrate with non-alcoholic beer.

More - From RCP blog "McConnell 1, Reid 0"

Water = good Super Bowl - Wow, after the first-ever opening kickoff return for a touchdown and the rugby scrum of four turnovers in just the first quarter, the game was great.

Best commercial: the Bud Light spot where the couple driving on a desolate road picks up a hitchhiker with Bud Light...and an axe. But he's got Bud Light! (The axe is just a "bottle opener.")

Let it rain - There's a 50% chance of rain in Miami today, which would mean that we might have the first-ever Superbowl played on a wet field. Maybe it will be a good game for once.

Somewhere, a kid is wearing a "Buffalo Bills, Superbowl champs" T-shirt - The NYT tells us where all those other baseball caps and T-shirts go: "In some parts of the world, the Seattle Seahawks are the reigning Super Bowl champions, the Buffalo Bills are the last great football dynasty and Tom Brady is some frustrated quarterback from New England who can never win it all. So say the T-shirts and the caps worn in Niger, Uganda and Sierra Leone."

Religion fills a gap in China

From the Economist: "Religion in China - When opium can be benign"

Many local governments in rural China are mired in debt. Recent central government efforts to keep peasants happy by abolishing centuries-old taxes have not made life any easier for these bureaucracies. With their revenues cut, rural authorities have found it ever more difficult to scrape together money for health care and education. So they are only too happy to allow others to share the burden of providing these services - even the Black Dragon, whose 500-year-old temple was demolished by Maoist radicals during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. Now officials in Yulin, the prefecture to which Hongliutan belongs, give the temple their blessing.

It would seem that Communist China is communist in name only: first capitalism takes hold and now religion is being allowed. It's like watching the second half of "Animal Farm."

Sunday morning lineup - "Face the Nation" will focus on the Super Bowl. But "Meet the Press" promises to be the most fun with "Two Americas" John Edwards waging class warfare while defending his 29,000 square foot home.

Oddly missing: "Gimme some money" by Spinal Tap - Theme songs for Democratic candidates

Extra - From Wind Rider: "Hillary announces robbery plans"

Other than that, how was the play Mrs. Lincoln?

Very little hope escapes from the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. From the Boston Globe: "Report says Iraq could be torn apart - Analysts see fleeting chance for stability"

The report by President Bush's top intelligence analysts said that if the violence continues to get worse, there are three possible outcomes: The country will disintegrate into three separate enclaves (Sunni, Shi'ite, and Kurdish), a strongman will seize power, or anarchy will set in, bringing with it "the greatest potential for instability."

Although the report holds out hope for a national reconciliation, it also states that all progress towards that goal could unravel with a high profile attack.

Update - A high profile attack like this: "At Least 121 Killed in Homicide Bomb Attack at Baghdad Market"

Bear with me - After a couple months of badgering, Google finally broke me down and I switched over to the "new" Blogger account. I guess this means there's a Blogger strip on top now and the formatting I copy over from MS Word is wack. Hooray for progress.

Social Security ripoff – Coyote Blog does the math and finds that if Social Security taxes were placed into a very conservative account with a 5% return, it could purchase an annuity at retirement that pays four times what Social Security offers. “Fine, let's call it a retirement program. Well, as a retirement program, it is a really, really big RIPOFF.” (Hat tip: Willisms)

Liberal thinking, encapsulated

The Boston Globe objected to Jim DeMint’s swipe at Ted Kennedy in an editorial today titled “The Big Dig slur.”

This comparison makes no sense. The artery/tunnel project, for all its troubles, is finally done, and the federal government capped its contributions seven years ago. DeMint's tax cuts would cost the government money it could use on other highway projects year after year.

So there you go: a tax break for small businesses could have gone to Washington where it would be used to pay for successful projects like the Big Dig. What a compelling argument.

Is there anything that E-mail can’t do? – “Ding! Time to throw your drawers in the dryer. That's the message University of Iowa students can now receive by e-mail. Thanks to software installed along with new high-efficiency washers last fall, the school's dormitory residents can receive e-mail alerts when their laundry cycles have finished.”

Americans are spending like it’s the Great Depression

Which it is not, but people gotta have stuff:

People once again spent everything they made and then some last year, pushing the personal savings rate to the lowest level since the Great Depression more than seven decades ago.

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that the savings rate for all of 2006 was a negative 1 percent, meaning that not only did people spend all the money they earned but they also dipped into savings or increased borrowing to finance purchases. The 2006 figure was lower than a negative 0.4 percent in 2005 and was the poorest showing since a negative 1.5 percent savings rate in 1933 during the Great Depression.

…

Whatever the reason for the low savings, economists warn that it the phenomenon exists at a particularly bad time with 78 million baby boomers approaching retirement age. Instead of building up savings to use during retirement, baby boomers are continuing to spend all their earnings.

That’s OK: the Boomers will just vote to take all my money once theirs runs out. Seriously though, although economists tie the spending binge to a run-up in real estate and investment portfolios, I think it’s because credit has become so pervasive and accessible that Americans just purchase goods without thought to the cost or consequences.

College is no place to be exposed to different viewpoints – Here’s John Leo in City Journal with “Free Inquiry? Not on campus.”

Survey time – Our friends at Real Clear Politics (who throw me a link once in a while) are asking readers to take a survey for them. And, yes, I consider RCP one of my favorites.

July 21, 2007 - A date that will surely live in publishing history when the last Harry Potter book will be released.

Chris who? – Here’s Jay Leno on Connecticut’s senior senator: “Christopher Dodd said over the past few weeks he's been having a conversation with the mirror about running. The bad news? Today, the guy in the mirror came out in favor of Barack Obama.”

More confusion – According to AJ Strata it emerged in the Scooter Libby case today that Joe Wilson’s 2002 trip to Niger debunked his own report from 1999? Huh?

Tom Maguire bandies up the reviews of Judith Miller’s memory problems but concludes: “But the gist of her story - Libby discussed Plame with her before he claims to have heard and absorbed it from Tim Russert on July 10 or 11 - remains as a problem for the defense.” Next up: Matt Cooper who apparently makes Judy Miller look like Edward R. Murrow.

The hidden costs of health care

Robert Samuelson looks at health care proposals across the U.S. and here in the People’s Republic of Massachusetts:

Look at Massachusetts. Last year, then-Gov. Mitt Romney made headlines bysigning legislation to cover all the state's uninsured. The law required that those whose income exceeded three times the federal poverty line buy "affordable" insurance (those with incomes below that threshold would be subsidized on a sliding scale). Romney suggested that annual premiums for a single worker might total $2,400. But when insurance companies recently provided real estimates, the cost was much higher: $4,560. Is it sensible policy to force workers making $30,000 -- about triple the poverty line -- to spend almost a sixth of their pretax income on health insurance, as opposed to food, rent or transportation? Good question.

And one that should have been studied, answered, and considered before Romney plunged headlong into legislation affecting millions of Bay Staters. Also, Samuelson gives praise to President Bush’s dead-on-arrival proposal for reform plan, if only because it seeks to reveal the true cost of health care to Americans, who don’t see (and don’t care) as long as employers are picking up the tab.

Shortest presidential campaign ever – Joe Biden just adores the sound of his own voice and this is what happens. Of course, a year ago I revealed why Biden could never be President.

And remember this quip from Dave Barry? “The U.S. Senate reaches an agreement ending a stalemate over the confirmation of Bush-appointed judges, thus avoiding the so-called ''nuclear option,'' under which Sen. Joe Biden would be allowed to ask a question, thereby shutting the federal government down for months.” Heh.

The Muslim problem in England – It’s not getting any better: “British Police Arrest 8 Allegedly Plotting 'Iraq-Style' Kidnapping” Expat Yank is on the scene and reports the intended victim is a Muslim soldier who had served with the British army in Afghanistan.

Rollin’ rollin’ rollin’ – CNN Money: “Economy grows more than expected - GDP posts healthy 3.5% annual growth rate for the fourth quarter, up from 2% gain in third quarter.”

Drunk Ted gets zinged over the Big Dig

Ted Kennedy has been wallowing in his bloated self-regard lately, castigating Republicans for failing to move fast enough on the minimum wage bill working through the Senate. We’re an evil lot, fulminates Ted, brimming with “hostility to working families.” The holdup is that Senate Republicans want to attach tax breaks to small businesses which would be adversely affected by the wage increase. How much would such a tax break cost? Senator Jim DeMint demonstrated:

Then Senator Jim DeMint, a South Carolina Republican and a leading critic of wasteful government spending, brought to the Senate chamber a poster-sized chart depicting two piles of cash.

One pile, labeled $8.3 billion, was the value of small-business tax cuts that Republicans want to include in a minimum wage bill. The other pile, slightly larger, representing $8.5 billion, depicted the federal contribution to a certain controversial public works project in Kennedy's home state.

"This is just a chart that compares the amount of what some of us would call pork-barrel spending, what we call the Boston Big Dig," DeMint said. "The federal government's part of bailing this out is $8.5 billion."

He said that $8.3 billion in tax cuts would help create jobs for thousands of workers across the country.

DeMint's stunt speaks to the lingering resentment in Congress over the Big Dig, the massive construction project with a runaway budget that cost federal taxpayers $8.55 billion before lawmakers shut off the money spigot in 2000.

Yeah, now I have to pay for it. Thanks Ted!

Vista is out - Run for your lives!

Panic on the streets of London – OMG, the human race has only ten years left to save the planet. Here’s a debate just begging for another Simon-Ehrlich wager.

Nifty – Right Wing News re-designs. I prefer to stay with the "Classic" Blogger look.

NO extended warranties – From the Consumerist: “10 shopping tricks that stores hate” (HT: Fark)

Silly season for scientists – Iain Murray on the Union of Concerned Scientists own brand of junk science: “The fact that these so-called scientists went ahead regardless exposes them for the partisan media manipulators they are.”

Meanwhile, Dartblog perfectly nails the high-minded “debate” on climate change, you Exxon-lovin’ Christian.

Extra – From ABP: “Anonymous government scientists send Waxman into a tizzy”

More memory mishaps at Scooter’s trial

Yesterday at the Scooter Libby trial, Ari Fleischer testified that he told (then) Time reporter John Dickerson and NBC reporter David Gregory about Valerie Plame’s relation to Joe Wilson. Well, John Dickerson doesn’t remember it and David Gregory isn’t talking.

Today, Judith Miller remembered stuff that never came up in her initial testimony to the grand jury:

In his most telling foray, [defense attorney] Jeffress asked how she could testify that Libby was agitated on June 23 when she couldn't even remember the meeting in her first grand jury testimony. He played a tape of a broadcast interview in which she had said "it's really easy to forget details of a story you're not writing." She testified she never intended to write a Plame story herself.

More problems for the Fitzgerald case: according to the peerless Tom Maguire, Miller isn’t willing to name other sources that may have discussed the Plame-Wilson connection. It seems she, um, forgot:

Miller is being asked by the defense about other sources for Wilson and Plame news and claims she does not remember them.

Tom’s assessment: “I smell mistrial.”

More – Even left-leaning Salon can’t hide it: “Scooter Libby's defense team is finally drawing blood, and it belongs to former New York Times reporter Judith Miller.”

Gotta run - I'm getting a "virus threat detected" here. Time to scan.

A retirement in poverty?

From the Motley Fool: “You won’t retire because you can’t”

Instead of traditional pensions, most of us now have 401(k) plans at our jobs. But in general, we're not making sufficient use of them. According to the CRR, "Median 401(k) assets, including IRAs, for workers in their 50s are just $60,000."

Think about that. If you have $60,000 socked away at age 50 and it grows by the market average of 10% annually until you hit 65, it will grow to about $250,000. You might make some additional contributions along the way, but even so, that's not so much to live off of in your golden years -- particularly considering that you're only supposed to withdraw 4% per year from your savings in order to make them last. At that rate, your retirement savings are kicking out just $10,000 per year to you. Not good.

Of course, most retirees will have other assets to draw upon, most likely a primary residence. Still, considering that corporate pensions can disappear (think United) and Social Security is lurching towards bankruptcy, Americans would do better to err on the side of caution.

Five stars: "Little Miss Sunshine"


What a great movie! Of course, you can't go wrong with a road movie but the characters, forced to interact in the crucible of a VW bus, take this film to another level. Check it out: I hope it wins the Oscar for Best Picture.

Update (1/29) - LMS wins the Screen Actors Guild award for "Best Ensemble" - essentially Best Picture.

Losers of a feather – I know I said I wasn’t going to write about John Kerry anymore…and I’m not! So go read MacRanger on that traitorous jerk. Glenn Reynolds adds: “Like Jimmy Carter, he'll never forgive America for rejecting him, and he'll console himself with the approval of America's enemies.” More from Hot Air.

Bad – Your airplane steward asks: “Is anyone onboard a doctor?”

Worse – Your airplane steward asks: “Is anyone onboard a pilot?”

(Hat tip: Fark)

The elusive tune - I'm a real music lover with hundreds of CDs overflowing my shelves. Since ITunes came around, it's been a vital tool to fill in the gaps in my music collection.

One song I can't seem to get my hands on is "Clair" by Gilbert O'Sullivan. It's not offered on ITunes, nor does it show up on any of those Seventies compilation CDs, unlike "Alone Again (Naturally)" and "Get Down." Normally, I would just purchase O'Sullivan's greatest hits but it appears that record is available only as an "import" and costs around $30 on Amazon. Even on EBay, O'Sullivan's CDs are available only from the UK with a delivery cost higher than the CD itself.

It's like there's a conspiracy to keep me from hearing O'Sullivan's creepy ode to his manager's daughter.

The song remains the same

From the Boston Globe: “Six-figure pay for care plan overseers - Salaries at new state agency stir concern”

Employees of the new state agency established to provide health insurance to the state's low-income residents have been hired at an average salary of $111,000 a year, with 12 of the 22 staff members making more than $100,000 and six earning more than Governor Deval Patrick and his Cabinet secretaries.

The state's landmark universal healthcare law, approved last year to provide affordable coverage to the state's approximately 500,000 uninsured residents, has created a bureaucracy with a salary scale like that of the Massachusetts Turnpike Authority or the Massachusetts Port Authority, two quasi-independent agencies that Patrick and former governor Mitt Romney have railed against for their overly generous compensation packages.

What a shocker: a new government agency is (already) rife with overpaid pols and inherent waste. Thanks for the good intentions.

Inconvenient choices - Charles Krauthammer on energy independence: “Our debates about oil consumption, energy dependence and global warming are not meant to be serious. They are meant for show.”

Hate the war, love the warrior – The Senate unanimously confirmed General Petraeus even though every Democrat and a few Republicans are vocally against the strategy he supports. Kate O’Beirne suggests the reason why: “Because Gen. Petraeus is an experienced, credentialed, credible advocate of the new strategy, Senators have no interest in tangling with him. When you're playing at being a military strategist you sure don't want to go up against the real thing, so better to have an unpopular commander-in-chief be the face of the new mission rather than the veteran general who will be in command.”

Extra - More on the Petraeus hearings from Q&O.

Maneuvering on the minimum wage – Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) tried to introduce an amendment to the pending minimum wage bill that raises the minimum by $2 in each state. That’s because several states, where the cost of living is higher, already have state-mandated minimum wages. For example, the new federal minimum wage would help exactly nobody in Massachusetts because the baseline wage is already $7.25/hour. Shouldn’t we help Bay Staters whose cost of living is much higher than, say, people in Alabama? No! say the Democrats, calling the amendment a “poison pill” which must be code for “we want to squash economic freedom in the red states.”

Extra - Captain Ed on another minimum wage "distraction."

Is this trip necessary? - Hugh Hewitt: “Fight the Biden resolution”

I have to confess that I’ve never heard of a filibuster of a non-binding resolution.

Right back at-cha! – In a shameless example of circular linking, I have to highlight this paragraph from Bulldog Pundit’s post referring to my post on public pension costs in the Bay State:

I know this isn’t the “sexiest” of topics, but in terms of impact on the lives of everyday people, it is the one you will likely be feeling most directly in the form of higher taxes, since legally these promises cannot be taken away from current retirees (nor should they).

Yes, yes, testify brother! On local, state, and national levels, our legislators and leaders have made increasingly expensive promises that simply cannot be kept. I know discussions of pension reform and demographic shifts are as stimulating as an Ambien chased with red wine, but it’s these meat-and-potatoes issues that will determine the long-term fiscal health of our government.

“Refreshed” memory – The Scooter Libby perjury trial this week featured two prosecution witnesses with *ahem* “evolving” memories of the events around the Wilson-Plame nothingness. Considering that this trial is anchored on Libby’s recollection of events, it’s not making for a strong case. As Tom Maguire notes: “Geez, and these are the prosecution witnesses.”