George W. Bush says that Social Security is in crisis, and if we don’t act fast and let people invest money privately, the fund will go bust. It’s the only way,

2005? Or 1978?

The War Room comments on a Talking Points Memo article: during W’s unsuccessful 1978 run for Congress, W warned that Social Security was going to go bust in 10 years.

Hmm, I don’t myself remember the Social Security Crash of 1988, but maybe it just wasn’t reported by the liberal media. Or maybe it was that

Congress tackled the problem, approving a two-percentage point increase in Social Security taxes that guaranteed the program’s solvency for decades.

Decades? Best estimates say that this shored things up for nearly a century. But now that we’re apparently facing another “crisis”, do we hear Bush recommending a similar plan? Of course not. It isn’t even on the table. All that we’ve got is private accounts, private accounts, private accounts as the only way to set things right.

Condoleezza Rice was confirmed 85 to 13. While that’s still overwhelmingly in her favor,

…Rice drew more opposition than any secretary of state in recent history. The only other recent secretaries of state to draw significant opposition were Henry Kissinger with seven no votes in 1973 and Alexander Haig with six no votes in 1981, according to the Senate Historian.

Colin Powell, her predecessor, was confirmed unanimously.

Twice as many “no” votes as a war criminal. Way to go, Condi!

Though they have been legally sanctioned by the State of Vermont for many years, you’re not even supposed to mention the existence of gay couples, according to our new Secretary of Education.

Despite that, some station has decided to send copies of the show in question to member stations anyway. But hey, it’s the PBS station in the middle of one of them Communist, terrorist-coddling blue states.

(news via Anise, links via Metafilter)

The Left Coaster: Senate Democrats Lay Out Opposition Agenda This Morning

I’m confused. This article would seem to be about some political party known as “The Democrats” acting as if they have both spines and brains.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid will do something this morning that an opposition party is supposed to do: Senate Democrats stopped playing defense and will begin playing offense by setting forward an ambitious agenda of their own. In a conference call earlier this morning, Reid’s staff announced their top ten priority bills for the 109th Congress, and they address many of the needs accumulated by this country but ignored by the White House the GOP Congress under Bill Frist and Denny Hastert.

If you’re like me, one of the most appalling revelations from Fahrenheit 9/11 was that there were massive protests during the 2001 inaugurations – and I had heard nothing about this at the time. Huge crowds jeering and throwing eggs, to the point that Bush had chosen his limo over the traditional walk.

Well, this time the media appear to have regained a semblance of the balls they once used to have, as this CNN clip shows.

(warning: audio NSFW)

Remember, folks, taxpayer money goes toward this kind of research.

(Thanks to Kevin for the link)

Ladies and gentlemen, the silver lining o’ the day: the Bush administration is now officially one-half over. There’s more of it behind us than in front of us.

Scalia To Synagogue – Jews Are Safer With Christians In Charge

Antonin Scalia, the man most likely to be our next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, turned history on its head recently when he attended an Orthodox synagogue in New York and claimed that the Founders intended for their Christianity to play a part in government. Scalia then went so far as to suggest that the reason Hitler was able to initiate the Holocaust was because of German separation of church and state.

The Associated Press reported on November 23, 2004, “In the synagogue that is home to America’s oldest Jewish congregation, he [Scalia] noted that in Europe, religion-neutral leaders almost never publicly use the word ‘God.’”

“Did it turn out that,” Scalia asked rhetorically, “by reason of the separation of church and state, the Jews were safer in Europe than they were in the United States of America?” He then answered himself, saying, “I don’t think so.”

There seems to be something going on in DC today. We’ll keep you updated if anything newsworthy is actually taking place.

The following headline appeared today on CNN.com:

Poll: Nation split on Bush as uniter or divider

Regardless of what people think, if the nation is split, don’t we pretty much have an objective answer?

A little sick of how easy it is to buy a $2 magnet made in Malaysia and thus claim you “support” our troops?

Try out these ribbons instead.

(Thanks to Mur for the link.)

At least, that’s the opinion of the great Senator Boxer. Check out (and sign) her petition.

Had you called the State of Mississippi Tax Commission yesterday, you’d have heard this.

(Stolen from Adam, who posted this on his blog but not here.)

There’s yet hope: the Smoking Gun has published letters to Mikey Powell about the “Desperate Housewives” football ad – not complaints, but complaints about the complaints!

It appears that no matter how hard you shill for the GOP, if you write lyrics about taking drugs and pimping Barbara Bush, you don’t get asked to sing after all.

Go on, America! Eat it!

You have to.

I know politics yields lots of chances for a second coming – let us not forget that Nixon lost the election in 1960 – but
this guy? Really?

(As a side note, what the hell is it with people with weird first names and Congress? I don’t mean obvious ones like “Barak”; I mean “Newt”, “Orrin”, “Zell”, “Erskine”, “Strom”…)

Congress has officially passed the “Junta Act”:

(emphasis added)

With no fanfare, the U.S. House has passed a controversial doomsday provision that would allow a handful of lawmakers to run Congress if a terrorist attack or major disaster killed or incapacitated large numbers of congressmen…
Usually, 218 lawmakers – a majority of the 435 members of Congress – are required to conduct House business, such as passing laws or declaring war.
But under the new rule, a majority of living congressmen no longer will be needed to do business under “catastrophic circumstances.”
Instead, a majority of the congressmen able to show up at the House would be enough to conduct business, conceivably a dozen lawmakers or less.

The Poor Man: Re-Runs

I’ve been in a malaise since the election, but it’s time for that to stop. We’ve got work to do, and it should absolutely involve making sure this lunacy never, ever, ever happens under our flag again.

About.com presents The Top 10 Bushisms of 2004.

(Thanks to Coleen for the link.)