Unbelievable

So, I'm reading Rep. Paul Ryan's discussion of his plan to "save" Social Security which involves private accounts. He made this assertion which I thought was pretty astonishing:

Evaluating legislation I introduced last year, the chief actuary of Social Security determined that large accounts would even erase Social Security's $10.4 trillion unfunded liability — what the program promises today's workers but cannot pay. To deal with the "transition costs" of diverting money into private accounts, we should make offsetting cuts in other government spending.

I thought, wow! He must have a really impressive plan if it actually does that. So, I took a look at the plan to see exactly how the rather meaningless $10.4 trillion "unfunded liability" gets erased.

He erases it by mandating transfers from the general fund whenever necessary.

Problem solved!


...to be clear, I don't think that funding trust fund shortfalls out of general revenues is a bad idea, but it's a way to "solve" the "problem" by acknowledging that it doesn't exist.

Morning Thread

Chat away.

Wanker of the Day

Jeff Greenfield.

JEFF GREENFIELD, CNN SR. ANALYST (voice-over): If you don't notice that the great majority of NBA players are black, you almost surely have a vision problem. More than 75 percent of the players are African American.

You might also notice that in general, in general, black ballplayers play a different style of game than their white counterparts. The dribbles, the drives, the slam dunks just don't seem the same.

But does this tell us anything about genetic hard-wired distinctions? That's at best an Olympic-sized leap. And, speaking of the Olympics, ever since 1968, the marathon run at the Olympics and just about everywhere else has been dominated by the Kenyans, specifically Kenyans who come from the Calingen (ph) tribe.

Altitude, diet, tradition, socioeconomic factors explain much but an article in a scientific journal last fall says that such success also points to a possible genetic component. Now, does that make you a bit uncomfortable?

Or, what about the fact that as biologist David Page (ph) has written, the genetic difference between males and females absolutely dwarfs all other differences in the human genome and that one of the most obvious differences is that the average man is substantially stronger than the average woman. (on camera): We're uneasy about such assertions because we know our past when so-called experts blithely asserted complete falsehoods about racial, gender and ethnic differences designed to perpetuate, even encourage blatant discrimination.

Jews were not as smart as gentiles. Blacks were genetically linked to primates. Women were incapable of rational thought. They were also said, by the way, to be incapable of sexual enjoyment.

(voice-over): So, no wonder Harvard President Larry Sommers got into hot water for suggesting that innate differences might explain the (UNINTELLIGIBLE) of women among professional scientists or engineers. The problem lies in the fear that acknowledging these differences could lead to certain social policies.

For instance, if most women are weaker than most men, it tells you absolutely nothing about allowing women to be firefighters but it may mean there will be a lot fewer women in the ranks. In New York City where women have been taking the same test as men for more than a decade, there are 28 females in a force of more than 11,000.

By contrast, the U.S. Army holds men and women to distinctly different standards. A 21-year-old man must to at least 40 pushups, for women it's 19, gender-norming critics call this. No women in combat units, the brass reminds them, so maybe the tests don't have to be exactly the same.

But this discussion gets even more intense in matters of race. Why do black students tend to under perform in academic settings even when those students come from affluent, stable families?

Peer pressure not to achieve, the legacy of discrimination, low expectations from their teachers that could undermine their own self- confidence? And, if we acknowledge this, does that somehow imply that everything from affirmative action to outreach programs are doomed to failure?

We live in a time when we're fully prepared to acknowledge, even laugh about differences in how we walk and talk and mate and pray and raise our kids but the whole conversation is so loaded with our knowledge of past ugliness it's no wonder we approach the topic as though we were walking through a minefield.

Jeff Greenfield, CNN, New York.

No Shame

There's a lot of chatter these days about how blogging's all about "collecting scalps" and that the right wing bloggers are better at it. Well, I never knew that was what blogging was for - I don't judge the success of this blog by the big events, it's the day to day small influences on the discourse that I'm proud of.


But, as for the basic question -- why do right wing bloggers manage to hound people into retirement and left wing bloggers don't? Well, one reason is that right wingers and the people who employ them have no shame. Jonah Goldberg continues to write for the Washington Times, despite the fact that no decent person should have any association with a publication that regularly publishes the ravings of avowed racists, especially one who is married to its managing editor. Another one of its editors, we shouldn't forget, is also a racist southern secessionist who once wrote:

[T]he media now force interracial images into the public mind and a number of perfectly rational people react to these images with an altogether natural revulsion. The white person who does not mind transacting business with a black bank clerk may yet be averse to accepting the clerk as his sister-in-law, and THIS IS NOT RACISM, no matter what Madison Avenue, Hollywood and Washington tell us.

Jonah doesn't mind getting money from racists, and the racists in charge don't mind paying for his column. And, Jonah complains about anti-Semitic emailers (which, if true, should be complained about) but has little to say about the Times accepting numerous ads for anti-Semitic outlets.

There's no way to shame these people into resigning because no one involved has any sense of shame.

And I didn't even get into the views of the guy who actually OWNS the Moonie Times...

Dear Aaron Brown and Howie Kurtz

This is not my blog.


Love,


Atrios

Gonna Party Like It's 1998

Regarding the latest Gannony goodness, Digby says:

So many questions so few answers. Just why did JimJeff get such special treatment? It's not like they didn't already have a bunch of ready made shills to ask softball questions. Les Kinsolving's been throwing partisan bombs for years. They certainly didn't need JimJeff to transcribe RNC talking points when they have the Beltway Boys to do it on national television.

Scotty said that the president called on JimJeff of his own volition. A coincidence? Or did someone request that JimJeff get a special treat that day?

And has it ever been logical that this nobody from a vanity web site would get access to the Plame story? Why him? JimJeff claims that he never actually saw the Plame memo, yet he clearly knew of it. Could it have been pillow talk?

I don't have a clue. But, I do know that if this were 1998, we'd be knee deep in congressional investigations into the gay hooker ring in the White House. Every news crew in the DC area would be camped out on JimJeff's front lawn. A wild-eyed Victoria Toensing and panting Kelly Ann Fitzpatrick would be crawling up on the Hardball desk rending their silk teddies and speaking in tongues while Matthews'exploding head spun around on his shoulders.

But, it isn't 1998 and it will probably not even be mentioned. And I'm not a Republican so I don't think, as they would, that it's necessary to dig into every single White House staffer's sex life to find out who leaked a confidential memo to a gay hooker.

As a Democrat, however, if gay hookers are running around the White House I do find it somewhat frustrating that we have to put up with this shock and horror bullshit from the right wing about average Joe and Jane gay person wanting to get married and have a family. Please.

It's odd that the media is suddenly skittish about this. Would they run under the table if it came out that on her free weekends Dana Bash could be rented out for the small sum of $1200? The Daily News said he quit due to a "gay prostie link" before there was any evidence of such a link. I wonder if they'll even follow up now that there's evidence he is indeed a "gay prostie."


And, the Editors chime in with what the real story is:

Think about it: what are the chances that a media whore like Gannon would turn out to be an actual whore? It's impossible. It boggles the mind how infinitely unlikely this is. It's like if you found someone pirating CDs, and it turns out he actually had a peg leg and a parrot on his shoulder and sailed around the Caribbean saying "arrrrrr!" and plundering booty. You wouldn't believe it. But there it is: impossible, but true. Impossible truths are miracles, and only God can work miracles. Ergo, God exists. Q.E.D.

The rest of the story is that God prefers his metaphors about as subtle as a David Byrne art concept or, equivalently, getting clocked on the head with a cinderblock. Yeah, "whore". It's a "big suit", David. We get it already. I think brainless plankton on Neptune get the symbolism here. Jesus.

De-Googled

Now here's an interesting development. I've been banished from the Googleverse. This website will not appear in any searches.


...to be clear, I'm not saying there's necessarily anything malicious here. Google changes its search algorithms regularly, etc... And, it appears that if one tries hard enough the site will pop up. But, the degree to which I've suddenly been "disappeared" is rather interesting...

Home

Thanks for those who helped out while I was on the road. I did manage a couple extremely exciting posts while I was at the airport, but apparently blogger ate them. Bad blogger. Normal service is returning.

Open Thread

Hope you've all had a good V-Day.

Stay steely.

Even tonight's NewsHour is having a segment on blogs and their effect on the media.

Open Thread.

Man, you guys sure are obsessed with Jeff Gannon. (Completely harmless sound file.)

Democratic Policy Committee Investigates the CPA

Everyone else seems to be chipping in while Atrios is out, so I guess it's time for me to do my bit.

Check out the fine work of the Democratic Policy Committee chaired by Senator Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND). The committee is investigating the way the Coalition Provisional Authority handled billions of your tax dollars (and monies in the Development Fund for Iraq that belong to the Iraqi people), a topic that Republicans in congress have chosen not to investigate.

Four individuals are providing testimony before the committee today.

Franklin Willis, who served the CPA as Deputy Senior Advisor for Iraq’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications,and as Senior Aviation Official July - Dec. 2003.

[W]as waste of taxpayer’s and Iraqi DFI [Development Fund for Iraq] dollars what it had to be? Were inefficiencies at a high level inevitably mandated by the circumstances? I would give a firm“No” to both questions.

Click here for coverage of Willis' desription of how the GOP-connected security firm Custer Battles was paid with $2 million in cash stuffed in a gunny sack.

Alan Grayson, an attorney who represents whistleblowers in a civil suit filed against Custer Battles. A suit the Justice Department has declined to join, even though the suit alleges that Custer Battles defrauded the CPA of millions of your tax dollars, because the Department claims the CPA is not an agent of the U.S. government.

I wish that I could tell you that the Bush Administration has done everything it could to detect and punish fraud in Iraq. If I said that to you, though, I would be lying. In our case, the Bush Administration has not lifted a finger to recover tens of millions of dollars that our whistleblowers allege was stolen from the Government.

Steve Ellis of Taxpayers for Common Sense, who demolishes the DOJ's rationale.

The rhetorical argument that the Coalition Provisional Authority is not a U.S. federal agency and therefore need not be subject to oversight and increased congressional scrutiny exists only to avoid further accountability and oversight. We believe this debate was settled when the President signed the Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Actfor the Reconstruction of Iraq and Afghanistan on November 6, 2003. The Conference Report accompanying this legislation describes funding the CPA “in its capacity as an entity of the United States government,” and further states that any unused funds “shall be transferred back to this appropriations.”

Don North, a journalist hired to help create the CPA's Iraqi Media Network.

My Iraq journalist friends tell me that CPA’s “Code of Conduct,” which bans “intemperate speech that could incite violence,” is “selective democracy,” similar in spirit if not in effect to censorship by Saddam Hussein. Iraqi journalists also tell me they suspect it was at the urging of CPA that the Iraqi Governing Council banned Al-Jazeera and Al Arabiya satellite news from its news conferences for two weeks last October, which only served to further diminish credibility for the council, already regarded with suspicion by many Iraqis. Since then, Al Arabiya’s office in Baghdad has been closed bythe CPA and the Governing Council.

Click here to read about how the the Iraqi Media Network became an "irrelevant mouthpiece" for the U.S. Coalition Provisional Authority.

If you're not outraged by now then you're not paying attention.

No True Glory

Harrison Ford is making a film called "No True Glory: The Battle of Fallujah":

Ford is set to play Jim Mattis, the General who led the US assault on Fallujah following the murder of four Americans.

"No True Glory: The Battle for Fallujah" was written by former marine and assistant secretary of defence for international security affairs Bing West.

Based on the description it looks like the film will be about the first battle of Fallujah last spring, not the second one last November. I wonder if the film will mention that the U.S. lost that particular battle.

(hat tip to Nur al-Cubicle)

Youngbyon, Iran

Who knew that Iran and North Korea were in the same place?

CNN has two different stories about bad countries and their nuclear plants. They have supposed aerial photos of those nuclear plants.

The photos are of the the same damn plant.

Now, will CNN tell us who fed them at least one bogus photo?...

The Perfesser

Idiot.

More Gannony fun soon.

Lucianne's Little Boy Hates Feathers

Jonah didn't really mean that he was afraid to go fight in the war he supports. Nor did Jonah really mean that his little girl deserves a father with arms and legs any more than the little girls of all those fathers already over in Iraq or at Walter Reed. Nor did Jonah mean that financing his comfortable lifestyle was more important than the lifestyles of many reserve families who make real sacrifices so that their wife or husband can continue to serve term after term in Iraq. So, it's not really very clear exactly WHAT Jonah did mean. One thing, however, is crystal clear. It turns out that what Johan REALLY meant was that he just doesn't appreciate any criticism at all.

So, please, all you mean people. Quit emailing white feathers to Jonah. Really. Right now. He really doesn't appreciate them. It's Valentine's Day. It would be evil to keep sending those feathers to Jonah.


Thanks to attaturk and Tena for the headsup.

These People Screw Up Everything They Touch

Gee, it was impossible to see this one coming at us like a freight train barreling down the tracks. Tomorrow, when the sun rises in the East, the morons at the WH will profess themselves completely shocked. Hey, Americans! Here's a clue, free from me to you: the neo-cons haven't been right about one single thing. You need to kick them to the curb soonest!

The NYT Does Oscar Wilde

Wow. The NYT finally figured out that running giant deficits might not be such a great idea..

*******

The Importance of Being Earnest

Published: February 14, 2005


For all its talk of deficit reduction, President Bush's 2006 budget is a map of reckless economic policies and shows how they have backed the United States into a precarious position in the global financial markets.

Mr. Bush needs to convince foreign investors that he's serious about cutting the budget deficit. Here's why: Each day, the United States must borrow billions of dollars from abroad to finance its enormous budget and trade deficits. Without a steady stream of huge loans, the country would face rising interest rates, higher inflation, a dropping dollar and slower economic growth. The lenders want to see less of a gap between what the government collects in taxes and what it spends, because a lower budget deficit always eases a trade deficit. A lower trade deficit also implies a stronger dollar. And a stronger dollar would reassure foreign investors that dollar-based assets remain their best choice.

As it is, their belief is being sorely tested: in 2003, the European Central Bank lost $625 million to the weak dollar and reportedly stands to lose $1.3 billion for 2004. Japan's central bank, which has the world's largest foreign stash of dollars - some $715 billion - could lose an estimated $40 billion if the dollar weakened to around 95 yen, a level many analysts expect to see this year.

******

In circles less glamorous than those occupied by Oscar and the NYT, we call this shutting the barn door after the horse is already out. But, hey, everyone got to spend their tax cut at Walmart, right?

Wanker of the Day

Jonathan Weisman

Eating and Drinking Went on Late into the Night...

Grammys. Pizza Pizza. Purgatory or Inferno? We report, you decide.

Oh, and crazy bread for everybody.....