Sens. Ben Nelson & Lincoln Chafee appeared on Meet the Press, and discussed Social Security.

Download | play

transcript

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Mississippi
Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut debated Social Security on Late Edition

Download | play

Dodd seems to have a firm grasp on the issue, and exposes the problems that Trent Lott and the Republicans have over Social Security. He easily explains a solution to Social Security without private accounts.

Dodd:...It's dead on arrival...It's not just democrats that you mentioned, there's a lot of republicans who will never vote for this, and that's why this president hasn't even put it on paper yet, will all due respect to a democratic proposal, where's the presidents?

If you just reduced the president's permanency of the tax cuts from over 11 trillion dollars to 9 trillion over the next 75 years, pick up 2.2 trillion dollars, you've solved the solvency problem..

Notice the rhetoric has changed now from the republicans. No mention of "we are in a crisis" and Social Security is going "bankrupt."

'It's Human Carnage'

via JSonline: Tragedy puts spotlight on small, obscure church

A man neighbors described as quiet and devout opened fire Saturday on a group of men, women and children attending a weekly church service at a Brookfield hotel, killing eight people - including himself - and seriously wounding four others.... " 44, of New Berlin, was suffering from depression and was upset about a taped sermon he had heard a couple of weeks before by one the church's chief evangelists, Roderick C. Meredith. "

Meredith, the church's presiding evangelist, warned in a February sermon of the urgent need to prepare physically and spiritually for the "end time," according to a text of the sermon on the church's Web site.

The serman was emailed to me. Are You PREPARED? By Roderick C. Meredith... "I also want to strongly encourage our subscribers—especially the Americans—to prepare for a financial emergency that may strike our nation within a very few years. Although I am certainly not a financial expert, I do have access to many very reliable news sources. Right now, more and more news reports are warning of an impending financial collapse that may devastate the United States within the next several years! Note carefully a few highlights from a September 12, 2004 article by Carolyn Lochhead in the San Francisco Chronicle:

The long-term budget projections are just horrifying,’ added Leonard Burman, co-director of tax policy for the Urban Institute. ‘I’ve got four children and it really disturbs me. I just think it’s irresponsible what we’re doing to them.’ …. So each of us should carefully consider what lies ahead, and get our own financial house in order....read on

What roll has this speech played in Ratzmann's actions? The "end times" prophecies are prevalent in many religious doctrines and booksales are through the roof in tackling this subject right now. It seems common practice for religious leaders to talk about government policies, candidates and judicial nominees to their congregations in a way that I have never seen before. As the days go on, hopefully Ratzmann's rampage will be just part of the lunatic fringe. Let's hope.

(update:

Terry Ratzmann's Homepage

It's called carnivorous plants. I believe this is his page) hat tip danny

Shiite-Kurd Talks Collapse

via the All Spin Zone

I'm not quite sure why anyone thought this "coalition" thing was ever going to work anyway. And for my money, as long as convicted con man and Jordanian fugitive Ahmed Chalabi is still in the game, the whole thing remains a Negroponte-controlled farce.

From Reuters:

Talks between Kurdish leaders and a Shiite bloc to form the next Iraqi government have collapsed three days before the country's first fully elected parliament meets, senior politicians said today...

...Ahmad Chalabi, a leading member of the Shiite bloc, the United Iraqi Alliance, returned empty-handed on Saturday from a trip to Iraqi Kurdistan to try and save the proposed Kurdish-Shiite alliance.

...Kurdish politicians went further, saying the Shiite alliance was trying to blame them for the crisis that has paralysed decision-making in a country plagued by guerrilla bombings and starved of investment needed for rebuilding.

Meanwhile, the bloodbath continues.

Americans feel strongly that good government depends on openness with the public, with seven out of 10 people concerned about government secrecy, a new poll says. The poll, conducted by Ipsos-Public Affairs for Sunshine Week, a coalition of media organizations and other groups pressing for government access, found that more than half of Americans believe government should provide more access to its records.

Even more — 70 percent — are either "somewhat concerned" or "very concerned" about government secrecy. Nearly as many felt access to public records was "crucial" to good government..read on

Is the public finally catching on? John Dean wrote his book entitled: Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush : In Dean's estimation, the secrecy with which Bush and Dick Cheney govern is not merely a preferred system of management but an obsessive strategy meant to conceal a deeply troubling agenda of corporate favoritism and a dramatic growth in unchecked power for the executive branch that put at risk the lives of American citizens, civil liberties, and the Constitution.

Real Time with Bill Maher has been troubling since it's new season started. Let me know if you agree. I'll get into it a little deeper as I watch the show a few more times, but I did enjoy his New Rules.

Download | play -New Rules

via NY TIMES

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) -- Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration has acknowledged making several videos masquerading as news stories to promote its agenda, creating an uproar from Democrats and labor leaders in a controversy parallel to one ignited by the Bush administration. ``When the governor produces official government propaganda and tries to fake it to look like news it's very, very corrosive to democratic values,'' said Barry Broad, a labor lobbyist who compared it to efforts by totalitarian regimes. ...read on

The list keeps on growing and growing and growing....

Cool show. Rachel Luttrell is a better looking J Lo. I had to laugh when SciFi advertised a film called "Mansquito" Who thinks up these titles?

I tivo'd it. lol

(update: I have to admit that I tried to watch this show. I thought it would be a lame horror program, but it quicly turned into a lame love story between the Mansquito and the Shesquito. Using the glorious tivo fast forward button, I did catch the begining transformation of a hot chic into a bug. Not a very pretty sight. The Mansquito killed everone in his path to find his beloved Shesquito. Unfortunately for him, the Shesquito didn't like his come on line and when a Shesquito means no, she really means no! Utimately the Mansquito was destroyed by the Shesquito and hopefully there will not be "Mansquito II-Looking for Love in all the wrong places"

The White House, the courts and the Federal Communications Commission all took hits from broadcast journalists Thursday night, who said they were feeling under fire from a manipulative and even malicious government. NBC News President Neal Shapiro set the tone, telling a roomful of top journalists gathered for the Radio-Television News Directors Foundation awards dinner in D.C. that the press is under attack as never before from the executive and judicial branches, which he says are pursuing journalists with "actual malice" just for doing their jobs. It's time to "sound the alarm," he said. That call was picked up by other speakers and punctuated with applause from the crowd. read on

Sex Scandal At Guantanamo: As if the situation at Guantanamo isn't messy enough, there is now a sex scandal involving senior military officers who were running the prison, reports CBS National Security Correspondent David Martin.

The colonel in charge of prison operations, a Lt. colonel who commanded the military police guarding the prisoners, and another lieutenant colonel who commanded the soldiers responsible for base security have all been relieved of duty. They are accused of committing adultery with a female Navy Lt. and a number of female civilian contractors. read on