I don't read much celebrity news, so it's kind of a surprise to me that it's Jonathan! who is making the movie about the Florida Recount. This combines two of my obssessions in a convenient package.
Larry Flynt, editor and publisher of Hustler magazine, just told FOX Business Network’s Neil Cavuto that he’s “hoping to expose a bombshell� that will stand “Washington and the country on its head.� Within the next week or two, he says his magazine will expose a sex scandal of huge proportions involving a prominent United States Senator. Flynt refused to comment on the Senator’s political affiliation, but alluded that he or she is a Republican.
And, no, a tell-all from Vitter's hooker doesn't count.
In an interview after the hearing, Representative Hinchey discussed the disconnect between official government reports and the reality facing working families. He noted that the unemployment rate does not include workers who have become so discouraged that they’ve given up looking for a job.
And the most popular measure of inflation, the Consumer Price Index, does not include the cost of energy or food, “the two most significant aspects of the increased cost of living for the American people.�
This isn't true. The CPI does include food and energy; the "core inflation" measure does not. It seems increasingly likely that the Fed puts its hands over its ears and says "NA NA NA I CAN'T HEAR YOU" when it comes to the CPI and focuses almost entirely on the core inflation rate when thinking about its monetary policy decisions, and because of this press accounts tend to focus on the core inflation rate as the only thing that matters.
But the CPI does include food and energy costs, and it is the CPI, not the core CPI, which is used to calculate things such as cost of living increases for Social Security benefits (well, specifically a slightly modified measure called CPI-W is used, but it too includes food and energy).
Whether or not the index is calculated appropriately is another question, but it doesn't exclude those things.
The problem with Obama wanting to deal with "Social Security crisis" is that this political debate has long been waged under the Village rules, which include the lie that there is some kind of "crisis."
As long as any discussion about Social Security is framed with crisis rhetoric, a sensible discussion about possible changes to the program (utterly unnecessary, except for dealing with current underfunding of its administration) cannot be had.
The other part of the Village con job is that while they know it's "necessary" to raise payroll taxes in order to increase the Trust Fund, they don't believe in the Trust Fund. A typical Village story about the money in the fund looks something like this:
The most recent government forecast says that in 2017, Social Security trust funds will begin paying out more in benefits than it takes in. In 2041, the trust funds will be empty, and benefits will have to be cut.
The first sentence is completely irrelevant and the second is highly misleading. It's true that if projections were spot on and general funds weren't used to cover any shortfalls, benefits would "have to be cut" relative to currently promised benefits, but even those "cut" benefits would be higher than what current retirees get today, because as wages grow generally in the US, retiree benefits grow modestly as well.
KABUL, Afghanistan - Six U.S. troops were killed when insurgents ambushed their foot patrol in the high mountains of eastern Afghanistan, officials said Saturday. The attack, the most lethal against American forces this year, made this year the deadliest for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since the 2001 invasion.
The troops were returning from a meeting with village elders late Friday afternoon in Nuristan province when militants attacked them with rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, Lt. Col. David Accetta told The Associated Press.
PRESIDENT BUSH: Congress is not getting its work done.
FOREMAN: From Iraq to domestic programs, Democrats face White House vetoes and little support from Republicans on Capitol Hill.
PELOSI: I know that Congress has low approval ratings. I don't approve of Congress because we haven't done anything --
Actual Pelosi quote:
I know that Congress has low approval ratings. I don't approve of Congress because we haven't done anything to -- we haven't been effective in ending the war in Iraq...
Since I visited with you last I have shot a pilot and eight episodes of television on my wonderful little art house show we like to call "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." (Those of us in the know call it "Terminator: the Sarah Connor Chronicles" for short.) Unfortunately, I've only locked picture on the pilot and each one of those other eight precious little diamonds is now sitting uneasily in an editing bay like a toddler whose parent has passed out on the couch from too much Vicodin.
In this case, the couch is the picket line and the Vicodin is my vow that I will do NO WORK on my show until the strike is finished. No writing, no editing, no sound mixing, no casting, no notes calls, no publicity, no NOTHING.
What will happen to our work of the last year? Couldn't tell you. Ask the AMPTP. It's their show now, along with a hundred other shows whose creators and showrunners have chosen to walk the picket line instead of doing their producer duties.
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