I commented on Mr. Smith's blog.

http://dagblog.com/arts/friday-afternoon-birthday-party-haikulodeon-15615

Mr. Smith writes Haikus.

Anyway, I am worried about omens.

So I reproduce my comment here so that I might be heard by more Dagbloggers.

I am selfish!

But I like people and such.

Do not get me wrong. [Read more]

It was reported yesterday that Senator Begich, (D) Alaska, introduced his bill on Tuesday to build up, not tear down, Social Security!

Begich's office says the bill would extend the solvency of the program for about 75 years, instead of until 2033, which is when reserves now are estimated to be exhausted. [Read more]

Public conversation in and around Washington D.C. is currently preoccupied with the question of the fiscal cliff.  And rightly so, for very big things are at stake. Not least whether or not a political crisis will tip the economy back into recession, and whether an election result that mandated a tax increase on the rich can still be negated by Republican intransigence. Whether the fiscal cliff is a real one or a manufactured one,[1] and if real whether it can be circumvented without lasting damage to vital welfare programs,[2] all that remains momentarily unresolved – and as such, the legitimate subject of a daily deluge of argument. [Read more]

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

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Blogger detained for anti-government writings; dies in custody. Head of cyber department fired, 7 officials arrested. Justice & democracy.

Uncharged detainee dies in custody of drug overdose; after unsupervised autopsy, body kept in storage until after general election, when organs have rotted out, at which time remains sent back to Yemen. Permanent war on terror, business as usual.

Suicide? Murder? Fuhgiddaboudit. Held 11 years without charges, ordered released by a judged, held anyway... [Read more]

Despite some engaging guest performances including the much-reported reunions with former bandmates Bill Wyman and Mick Taylor, the core quartet didn't hit top speed until the show's second half. When they did, they were untouchable.

-Paul Sexton @ Billboard.com, November 26, 2012

As Danny and The Juniors foretold in 1958:

After watching the Food Channel all last week (my porn site is out of commission once again! Some streaming problem.), I have come up with the perfect feast for our national feast day: [Read more]

I understand the limitations of my contributions on matters pertaining to Israel and the Middle East, and in particular, Israel.  I accept that, accept my own responsibility for that, and yet, given the excessive bias I perceive against the Jewish State in places where I tend to hang out, I probably won't change and almost always wind up looking at myself in the mirror and am satisfied with what I see.  Yes, the Middle East, like life, is not linear. [Read more]

I now endorse…………………….

Eliminating the cap on social security:  

All agree this would eradicate any shortfalls for decades.  (Yes, this could equate to as much as 14-15% in additional contributions by the wealthiest, but this could be somewhat alleviated in the future by prudent offsets.)

Amending the total Medicaid contribution from 1.45% for both employer and employee (2.9%) of earnings to 1.95% each (3.9%) regardless of wages – there is no cap:

I do believe this is an example of where we all need to pay a share.  It also is an equal distribution – part of offset for social security cap removal which will to a greater degree impact the wealthiest.

*Already planned (but not implemented) is The Medicare-funding Hospital Insurance Tax, currently at 1.45 percent, will increase by 0.9 percentage point for higher earners, another provision of health reform. The increase will apply only to income that's in excess of $200,000 for single taxpayers and $250,000 for those married and filing jointly.

Currently, only wages and other labor income are subject to the Medicare tax. But under current law, unless changed, investment income will be subject to Medicare taxes starting next year. Yes, this needs to be implemented. [Read more]

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Wow, the group of hackers known collectively as "Anonymous" are claiming that in the 2012 Presidential election, they stopped Karl Rove from changing the vote totals in three key states, including Ohio ... and that Rove got away with it in 2004, by diverting the official Ohio servers to a Republican owned server for 90 minutes which changed the vote totals from a Kerry lead to a Bush lead.  No wonder Rove went ballistic when Fox called Ohio for Obama on election night.  And could this be the real reason all those GOP pundits were so confident predicting a Romney landslide?   [Read more]

Well, I blew it - I thought with the number of green-on-blue attacks and the complete collapse of our efforts there, plus the pointlessness after getting OBL in Pakistan - that we'd start cutting and running right after election day.

Boy was I wrong. Now we're negotiating a Status of Forces Agreement to stay there after 2014, and did I mention Drugs! DRuGs!! DRUGS!!! That's right, Afghanistan is once again essential to our War on Drugs, which has had greater longevity than our War on Terror.

(I'm shocked, shocked I tell you, to find out the Afghanis are growing poppies on the sly) [Read more]