Bad AARP!

Josh Marshall reports that the Social Security phase-out is in serious trouble. I didn't think it would pass, but I'm glad to hear it just the same. Guess that's why the president is so desperate he's siccing the Swift Boat guys onto the AARP. (It's at the bottom of that article.)

Odds & ends

I'm not entirely sure why this bugs me so much. I think that I still think of the network news as the last bastion of serious TV journalism, despite considerable evidence to the contrary, and so further evidence that I am wrong depresses me. And they seem to be trying, at least, to take a serious look at the UFO question. I think it would bother me less if they hadn't done it during sweeps, though.

A bibliography of blogs. I haven't had time to take a good look at this, but I think it's interesting that it exists. (I don't know if anybody else will think it's interesting. Remember that I was a librarian once.)

This sucks, part 2

Remember ChoicePoint and their don't-worry-it's-all-cool attitude? (If not, see a couple of entries back.) Well, guess what? It's not so cool. 700 identity thefts & counting.

Corporate America at its finest.

The good news is that 38 Attorneys General (is that the correct plural?) have now weighed in on behalf of their states, and there are some people taking a hard look at regulating these bozos. Be nice if somebody'd thought of that sooner, but better late than never, I guess.

Social insecurity

More on Greenspan, from the NYT. (Registration probably required, but you know that.)

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More on those retirement accounts:

Under an approach similar to one Mr. Bush is advocating, retirement benefits wouldn't change at all for workers or retirees 55 and older, and wouldn't change very much for workers now in their 40s or early 50s. But for younger workers, particularly today's teenagers or those in their 20s who would spend their entire working lives under the new system, Social Security would be very different.

They would continue to pay 12.4% of their wages into Social Security, split evenly between employer and employee, but they could divert up to 4% into a private account. When upper-wage workers in this younger cohort retire in mid-century, 85% or more of their total Social Security benefits -- the traditional program plus what they draw from their private accounts -- would come from that private account.

-- from yesterday's Wall Street Journal (here, but it's a pay site so you probably can't get to it)

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Apparently the American public isn't really buying it either. (That's the WSJ again, but I think that link is a free one.)

Quote of the day

It's one thing to be all things to all people — quite another to be all things to all people at the same time and in the same sentence.

-- ABC's The Note, talking about Alan Greenspan

This sucks.

Hackers infiltrated the database of ChoicePoint, a credit reporting company, and thousands of Califonia residents are being notified, but if you live outside California and your data was compromised, don't expect to hear from them. California is the only state with a law requiring notification, so only California residents are being notified.

Nice PR work, ChoicePoint.

(Originally found via Rebecca's Pocket.)

W is for Wonderful

I should remember to read Tom Burka more often:

Makers Of Zoloft To Create New Pill Based On Bush's Outlook

...preliminary research indicates that the so-called "W is for Wonderful" pill will induce a state of blissful, ignorant euphoria among its users. The idea for the pill arose after polls showed that a whopping 77 per cent of the American people who watched Bush's address felt that "all was right with the world" after hearing the speech.

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Also, it seems like people have been saying forever that Microsoft is dying, but I think maybe these days there's a little more cause to take it seriously.

Chairman Dean

A message from the new Democratic Party chairman. (And keep reading for his plan for the Party, below that.)

Galveston boy makes good (maybe)

(I forgot to post this earlier in the week.)

Tilman Fertitta (of Landry's Restaurants) buys the Golden Nugget in downtown Vegas.

How much you want to bet there's a Rainforest Cafe in there within a year or two?

Just another quote

I love Harper's Weekly Review.

George Bush delivered his State of the Union address. He said the country was "confident and strong," then announced he would reduce or eliminate 150 government programs. He called Social Security "a symbol of the trust between generations," then discussed proposals for the reduction of its benefits and an increase in the retirement age. He suggested that his tax cuts be enshrined in perpetuity and that "the spending appetite" of the federal government should be restrained.

No wardrobe malfunctions here!

You can see the ad that Budweiser "decided" not to air here. (Depending on who you ask, either Anheuser-Busch pulled the ad voluntarily or the NFL pulled it for them.) Anyway, it's funny.

Surprise! we're cutting your budget!

Budget Plan Includes Steep Cuts

WASHINGTON -- President Bush sent Congress a $2.57 trillion budget plan Monday that seeks deep spending cuts across a wide swath of government from reducing subsidies paid to the nation's farmers, cutting health-care payments for poor people and veterans and trimming spending on the environment and education.

"It's budget that sets priorities," Mr. Bush said after a meeting with his cabinet. "It's a budget that reduces and eliminates redundancy. It's a budget that's a lean budget." The president acknowledged it would be difficult to eliminate popular programs but he said programs must prove their worth. "I'm very optimistic."

Boy, there's a shocker.

Jobs

From Friday's "Evening Wrap" in the WSJ Online:

OK, so maybe the U.S. job market isn't so hot after all.

After weeks of indicators hinting that nonfarm payrolls had added 200,000 jobs or more in January, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said today that employers added just 146,000 jobs in the month. For good measure, the BLS also trimmed its estimates of payroll growth in November and December. In the past three months, monthly payroll growth averaged just 137,000 jobs, significantly less than the average for all of 2004 and possibly not enough to keep up with the natural growth of the labor force. The unemployment rate fell to 5.2%, the lowest level since the fall of 2001, but largely because so few people looked for work. Labor-force participation was the lowest since 1988. Hours worked, a closely watched measure of labor demand, also fell.

Economists were disappointed by the numbers, but some promised better times ahead, saying that the dashboard indicators -- jobless claims, purchasing managers' surveys, etc. -- calling for strong growth in January would prove right eventually. "We suspect that weather-related factors may have helped depress the employment and hours results for January," Morgan Stanley economists David Greenlaw and Ted Wieseman wrote in a note.

But some economists believe it may be time to lower expectations about the labor market, which has for years promised runaway job growth but delivered much less. "It's an old issue in life: if you continue to be disappointed by something in your life, you either change your perceptions or you will continue to be disappointed," said Wachovia Securities chief economist John Silvia. Mr. Silvia believes that structural changes in the economy, including entrenched productivity improvements and a shortage of educated workers, have kept hiring tepid and will continue to do so through 2005.

Meanwhile, however, labor costs for employers continue to rise, along with other rising input costs, pinching profit margins and threatening inflation. That means the Federal Reserve may feel compelled to keep raising interest rates, even though it may have little control over such costs as health care and energy. "The most difficult thing to handicap is how the Fed will react," said Richard Yamarone, chief economist at Argus Research.

(I'm posting it in its entirety because it's not that long and you can't actually read it online unless you subscribe.)

Back for real, maybe

I'm getting increasingly interested in the whole Social Security mess, so I may start posting more often - although don't expect me to post every day or anything.

Talking Points Memo seems to be following it all in great detail... possibly in greater detail than I'm really ready for, even. I love this quote from the governor of Arkansas, though:

I don’t think anyone pretends it solves the long term issue of solvency. It’s trying to address methods to improve the system and broaden the base of how it is funded.

Funny, sure did sound like the President was pretending exactly that a couple of days ago.

State of the state

President:

I will listen to anyone who has a good idea to offer

Oh, uh-huh. Because he has such a good track record of listening to people who don't agree with him.

I give up, I just can't keep my mind on this. Either it depresses me, or puts me to sleep.