This is live video sent back from the Quarantine the Kochs rally in Rancho Mirage about an hour and a half ago. John Amato is on the scene and has called me a couple of times with updates. There are about 1500 people or so there, peacefully protesting the convocation of billionaires at the Rancho Las Palmas resort. The purpose of the meeting is to figure out how to impeach Obama and take over our government in order to preserve their wealth, justice, and liberty at the expense of ours. Glenn Beck was the keynote speaker last night, and Eric Cantor was also on the guest list. (Full list here (PDF))

Remarkably, there are scores of riot police guarding the driveways into the resort. The last report I've seen says 25 people have been arrested. Here's a shot posted earlier today:

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At the end of that video you'll see more of them, even.

Andrew Breitbart has evidently caught the fever. It’s been reported that he’s hanging out with the protesters. Too lazy to walk, he’s sporting shorts and rollerblades. Be afraid. In his usual less-than-forthright manner, he claims “internal emails from organizers necessitate riot police.” Mmmhmmm.

John will be writing up a much longer and more interesting post than this one, I'm sure. But for now, I thought it important that we see the exercise of OUR right to free speech and assembly, too.

I have more photos and links on my liveblog. Nancy Goldstein is covering it for TheNation here, the local CBS station has a nice article here, and you can follow the Twitter hashtag #UncloakKoch. The organizers of the rally are Common Cause, TheOther98.com, and California Nurse's Association.

Here's David Dayen's report. His twitter stream was one of the best for real time updates.

Social Security Trustees report that social security will be able to make full payments until 2037(pdf). Tax receipts will dip below outlays before then, but this is precisely why the Social Security program has taken in more money than it needed, so that it could handle baby boomer retirement and increased life spans.

Any projection which goes out 27 years is so incredibly reliant on the embedded assumptions about growth, employment and lifespans that it amounts to a fiction. It is, at best, a guess.

Increase growth by just a little bit and the entire "problem" goes away. Get rid of the taxation cap so the rich are not capped in what they pay and the entire problem goes away. Assume higher employment, and the entire problem goes away. Assume a reduction in inequality, and the problem goes away.

The US has a number of problems which are at or near crisis, such as employment, inequality and healthcare costs, to name just a few. Social Security is not one of them. It isn't even close, and politicians and billionaires like Pete Peterson who are trying to gin up a crisis should be ashamed of themselves.

If they want the US budget more in order they should look at health care, where single payer could cut costs by at least a third, and at the military, where real spending has doubled since the end of the Clinton administration.

Or they should work on increasing employment and increasing wages for ordinary people. That's a crisis.

Instead of dealing with real problems, instead of tackling the medical industry or the military-industrial complex, instead of fixing the job situation, they want to steal money from old people.

Billionaires for Wealthcare! Watch these clever folks dupe the unwitting teabaggers. (thanks to Bob Cesca)

Open thread below...

From the same spoiled brats who brought you Billionaires for Bush and crossposted by our friends at Brave New Film and their new project, Less Jobs, More Wars. **

**Corrected to properly attribute video.

Corrente: Progressive policies will always be vehemently opposed by the Conservative Movement and the winger billionaires because progressive policies are not in their economic interests.

The Agonist: It seems like the only way we can get people to fight alongside of us in this "War on Terror" is to pay them.

Dahlia Lithwick: The Bush administration's dumbest legal arguments of the year

apostropher: Hey assh*le, you're using my word!

Pam's House Blend: Is Bhutto's murder related to illegal immigration? Huck, thinks so...

OFF THE BEATEN PATH: Morning Martini, Akkam's Razor, Calculated Risk, black agenda report, Real Clear Politics

Hey folks. I'm still Manila Ryce from The Largest Minority signing in for Mike.

T. Boone Pickens of BP Capital Management is feeling mighty stupid and it's not just because he was named after a steak house. No, it's because Pickens is soon to owe John Kerry 1 million dollars if he can disprove even one Swift Boat allegation. Doesn't it feel good seeing billionaires lose money to lowly millionaires like you and me?

As a follow up to Nova's "Judgment Day: Intelligent Design on Trial", Happy Jihad's House of Pancakes covers the conservative rage over the episode's misrepresentation of Intelligent Design as a religious belief and not a scientific one. No matter how many fundamentalist Christians insist that Intelligent Design is indeed science, the scientists just won't listen.

Tommy Boy Friedman has come up with the best combination since nuts & gum. Obama & Cheney in '08! After Bush leaves office, Cheney's trigger finger is gonna get cold. Freidman apparently thinks Obama's butt is ripe for the puppetmaster to strongarm.

Some advice to the conservatives out there: Insulting someone by calling them a "communist" just doesn't carry the same level of stigma that it did in the 1950's. This is especially true when said person is simply suggesting that we follow our constitution and impeach Cheney (I hope that won't affect the unity ticket mentioned above).

Zeno presents us with probably the most uneven match I've ever seen - Dinesh D'Souza vs Mark Twain! D'Souza bases his solid belief in God on the fact that he can make a mess whenever he feels like it. There's no doubt that he does, and his article is just one example, but I think D'Souza's actions prove the existence of Satan rather than God.

Got submissions? Email me at John (dot) William (dot) Harrison (at) Gmail (dot) com

Matt Taibbi: Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush's Billionaires

O'Reilly is really-really worried about MSNBC's ratings.

MediaBistro:

The letter to NBC chairman Bob Wright says: "We, the undersigned, are becoming increasingly concerned about the well-being of MSNBC and, in particular, note the continuing ratings failure of the program currently airing weeknights on that network at 8:00 PM EST.

Daily Kos has the full letter up: "Seriously. Bill O'Reilly wants NBC-Universal to fire Keith Olbermann and replace him with Phil Donahue who hosted the 8pm show prior to Olbermann's hiring..."

Bill is really fired up. We are already on "Day 5" of the Neal Gabler watch. O'Reilly is trying to get him fired from FOX so he might as well give a little advice to Bob Wright. I'm sure Keith already has a segment done for tonight on this one.

Jane says:

"When you think of the towering achievements in the Falafosphere already chalked up by Al Franken, David Letterman and now Keith Olbermann, our "organized smear website funded by radical left-wing billionaires" seems quite insignificant."

Unclaimed Territory: The Bush justification for law-breaking...

The Bulldog Manifesto: Iran hails "first Islamist Arab state" in Iraq...Virtual Matter: Iraqis march, say elections were rigged...

Christmas in Iraq: Troops share their stories...

Roger Ailes: Couple year-end quizes. You guys oughta tear these up.

Off the beaten path: Bring It On ~ clipmonkey ~ Billionaires For Bush ~ Petty Larseny  ~ State of the Day ~ AgitpropCouple year-end quizes. You guys oughta tear these up.

Off the beaten path: Bring It On ~ clipmonkey ~ Billionaires For Bush ~ Petty Larseny ~ State of the Day ~ Agitprop~ The First Church of The NeoCon ~ Simply Left Behind...also, The Heretik has moved, but he's still heretical.

~ The First Church of The NeoCon ~ Simply Left Behind...also, The Heretik has moved, but he's still heretical.