FOXNews: Raise Social Security Age to 70 to Pay for War?

This is typical GOP rhetoric. Social Security is the FICA payroll tax that has nothing to do with US Income Tax. Social Security is more like a forced savings plan. Cutting Social Security (SS) benefits will not increase government revenues to pay for the war in Afghanistan that George W. Bush started.

At age 70, the average male would have about 14.9 years of life left. At age 60, the number would be 22.4 years according to the US Census bureau in 2006. The average American who retires at age 60 would have worked at least 40 years to reap the benefits of SS for the next 20 years.

Remember, you are not eligible for SS until age 62 so subtract two years from the 22.4 years. Under the Boehner Plan, an American would have to work 50 years to collect SS benefits for the next 15 years.

Why would the GOp even go there? Well, several billionaires recently met on Wall Street to develop plans to privatize Social Security. Anxious to realize the corporate profits of a privatized Social Security, and frustrated with President Bush's failure to convince the American public, these billionaires want Americans to disregard their best interests in support of Wall Street.

If you want a peek at what would happen under a privatized Social Security plan, look what happened to Americans who lost their jobs in the great Recession and tried to use their 401K plans to make ends meet. Many found up to one third of the 401K's plan' funds disappeared because there is no regulation of 401k management fees.

When Margaret Thatcher was the UK's PM, she privatized Social Security and it was an unmitigated disaster for the UK's senior citizens. Today, the UK version of the Social Security pension is about half of what seniors in the US get because of the horrible conservative privatization experiment with Social Security that went awry.

Social Security FICA tax is regressive. Because the tax has been capped over the years, the tax has been primarily paid by the Middle Class and the poor. The cap is now $108,500 and will need to be raised or the FICA tax reformed because Bush refused to raise the cap after he was elected in 2004.

It would make sense to lower the overall percentage of the payroll tax, tax one's complete income and to eliminate the cap altogether as Medicare is taxed.

This would assure the most affluent Americans are paying more into the Social Security trust fund who are being let off of the hook with the tax cap. This is why John Boehner doesn't think the affluent should get social Security.

You can be assured the GOP will never let this happen unless the affluent are also excused from paying the Social Security FICA tax altogether. It's when you start putting tax exemptions and loopholes into Social Security that the program will begin to fail.

Obama has also suggested a $250,000 FICA donut that would exempt the first $250,000 of income from FICA. This would, off course, shift the Social Security tax burden to the affluent. It is the opposite of how we fund Social Security today.

Gallup: Democratic Affilation is stable in current poll

by Jeffrey M. Jones

PRINCETON, NJ -- For the first time since President Barack Obama took office, the percentage of Americans identifying as Democrats or leaning Democratic held steady in a quarter's worth of Gallup poll data. 

Prior to the second quarter of 2010, the percentage aligning themselves with the Democratic Party had declined at least slightly each quarter since early 2009.

Quarterly Averages in Party Identification and Leaning, 2009-2010 Gallup Polls

With 46% of Americans identifying either as Democrats or as independents who say they lean to the Democratic Party, and 43% identifying as Republican or leaning Republican, Democrats now hold a 3 percentage-point advantage in party affiliation.

The percentage of Americans who initially identify as Republican, the party's core supporters, has held steady at 27% or 28%.

Rightardia comment:  This indicates the 2010 elections will be close. Obama will reactivate organizing for America  (OFA ) to keep the Democratic party started. America is in a hole and all the GOP is offering the same old stale solutions that failed when Ronald Reagan was president: the deficit politics of tax cuts for corporations and the affluent.

Huffington Post: Spain Beats Portugal To Reach World Cup Quarterfinals

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Spain and Portugal played toe to toe the first half. In the second half, Spain dominated the game with crisp passing and finally broke through Portugal's defense. Striker David Villa finally did it.

Villa scored off his own rebound in the 63rd minute, giving the European champs a 1-0 victory. This put Spain into the World Cup quarterfinals.

Villa took Xavi Hernandez' heel pass and struck a left-footed shot that was saved by Portuguese goalkeeper Eduardo.

He then fired the rebound with his right foot off the underside of the crossbar and into the net as he fell to the ground.  This was his fourth goal of the tournament.

"It was one of my best goals because it got us through to the next round," Villa said. "Keep scoring so we can keep going."

Spain plays Paraguay in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Spain was expected to win the world cup four years ago, but failed in that quest. Spain could take the world cup this year.

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Bad Republican Apples

The first one is Rick Scott,  who is running in the Florida GOP primary for governor.

A clearly frustrated and angry Rick Scott lashed out at a Republican activist who called him an "unindicted co-conspirator" and asked him to explain the $1.7 billion health care fraud at his former hospital chain during a Q&A session at a GOP breakfast in Tampa.

It was a question Scott often gets on the campaign trail. But this woman set him off.

WOMAN: “In one of your opening comments you said that you wanted to fix Medicaid/Medicare on the state level. Is that kinda ironic when we have the whole Columbia/HCA health care situation that you really haven’t explained quite well? My understanding was that you were an unindicted co-conspirator and that that $1.7 billion payback that your company had to do to the government?


“Could you explain how you want to fix it when you were a part of the problem?"
SCOTT: "Sure. Well first of all I was never even questioned, and I was never charged, so…”


WOMAN: [Interrupting] “That’s what an unindicted co-conspirator is.”

Need Rightardia say more?  The sad part of this story is that slack-jawed Florida Republicans will probably nominate this man for governor in the next Florida primary. 

Then there is Adrian Calvo, the Clearwater slum lord and radio host. Where does the GOP get these people? 

While campaigning for the state House of Representatives, property owner and radio host Fabian Calvo has touted his skill in running a $20 million real estate company that spans the state. Says Calvo:

I am a successful small-businessman who believes state government should be run like a business . . . This is the type of leadership that is needed in Tallahassee, leadership from the small business world, people that have created jobs, paid payrolls, balanced budgets."

Renters and former property managers of Calvo say that's precisely his problem. He's a slumlord, they say, alleging he fails to pay his debts and lets property degrade into disrepair. Two ex-employees are taking him to court.

Calvo, whose company Calvo Management International owns 500 apartments and houses nearly 1,000 tenants across six counties, said the criticism is a baseless attempt at slander or blackmail.

sources: http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/radio-host-and-florida-house-candidate-fabian-calvo-is-slumlord-critics-say/1027956 and http://blogs.tampabay.com/buzz/2010/06/rick-scott-gets-angry.html

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Speed up Ubuntu Linux Ethernet connections

Rightardia uses BrightHouse Lightening at home but noticed that the Internet speeds seemed to be about half of what it should be.

We also noticed that the Ethernet connections dropped several times a day which was annoying. Our technical editor, Wirehead, decided to set up a static connection rather than use the Automatic Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP).

If your Ubuntu System has set to use DHCP, you will want to change it to a static IP address.

There is a way to use Ubuntu's GUI to make the change to a static IP address. Start by adding a new Wired connection.You may have to check the connection information in the Network applet if you have more than one Ethernet card to see which one is active.

Here we can se that the active DHCP connection is eth1.

Next disable the DHCP connection by unchecking 'connect automatically. Cut the MAC address form the active connection and paste it into the new static connection.

Shakira gets the World cup

(June 29) Singing the official tournament song "Waka Waka' for the World Cup has got Shakira feeling all sporty.

The singer admits she never understood the appeal of soccer before, but now she can't get enough. (June 29)

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Huffington Post: DNC Urges Activists To Film GOP

Sam Stein stein@huffingtonpost.com | HuffPost Reporting

The Democratic National Committee will debut on Tuesday a new web-based feature that will empower Democratic activists to serve as "trackers" of Republican candidates throughout the country.

In a move that could add a broad new element of accountability to elections , the DNC is encouraging its followers to upload video, mail pieces or audio recordings of GOP officials to a DNC-run site.

If carried out as planned, the new online tool could drastically alter the landscape of the 2010 elections, with campaign functions contracted out to hundreds of free volunteers. At a minimum, it is a vivid illustration of the modern-day campaign, where a slip-up by a candidate caught on video could have profound impacts on his or her electoral prospects.

Aides freely admit that the goal is to create another "Macaca moment" -- in which former Senator George Allen (R-Va.) famously doomed his reelection hopes by belittling an opposition videographer with a racial slur.

"Macaca was a game-changing event, not only for that race but for others," said Shauna Daly, research director at the DNC who is overseeing the new project.

Certainly it showed people a side of George Allen they hadn't seen before. They just hadn't been exposed to it. And the town halls last summer were amazingly eye-opening to people and video played a major role in it. ... We know that people have cameras everywhere now, whether it is your iPhone or a 200-dollar HD minicam that can take great video. This is something not exclusive to campaigns anymore.

Dubbed "The Accountability Project," the site, which is being emailed to the DNC's massive email list on Tuesday, will serve as a digital library for Democratic officials both state-based and in Washington, D.C. Users are given instructions on how to film a campaign, upload the video, submit copies of mailers or attack ads, record robocalls and place that audio on the web.

An official with the DNC will monitor the submissions in addition to cataloging the content. It will be largely left to interested parties -- reporters, ostensibly, included -- to sort through the information for the more newsworthy or inflammatory bits.

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Wikipedia word of the day: Misology

Misology is defined as the fear or distrust of reason or logic. In that sense, it is the hatred of argument or debate or even speech. It is also defined sometimes as anti-intellectualism. A misologist would be an anti-intellectual.

In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates comments on misology by comparing it with misanthropy.

Just like someone might love and trust all human beings but when deceived by one man can grow to dislike all humanity, so can someone who trusts in reason or logic grow to distrust it when he sees that it can be misused to support any stance.

A person who uses any opportunity to make a point, even if contradicts an earlier statement is called a sophist. A sophist is someone who will speak out both sides of their mouth whenever it is convenient.

In the text, Socrates warns Phaedo of the dangers of misology. According to Plato, the way to guard against misology is to select first arguments or theses wisely, after much research and study, so as not to be proved false later.

The word misologist was coined in 1870, and became popular through Benjamin Jowett's famous translation of Plato's Dialogues: "As there are misanthropists or haters of men, there are also misologists or haters of ideas." (Dr. William Long)

Kant, in Fundamental Principles of Moral Philosophy, wrote that "Misology is the hatred of reason."

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Supreme Court agrees that university can block Christan group that discriminates against sexual orientation

June 28, 5:20 PMSan Diego Church & State ExaminerAnna Cheuvront

June 28, 2010 – The Supreme Court backed non-discrimination today in Christian Legal Society v. Martinez ruling. This case that questioned whether the University of California Hastings School of Law had the right to deny the Christian Legal Society (CLS) official recognition. The law school sought to hold back official recognition because of CLS' discriminatory membership policies, a move that also prevented CLS from receiving university funding.

School attorneys cited a CLS policy that requires voting members to sign a statement of faith. The statement requires members to abstain from “unrepentant participation in the advocacy of a sexually immoral lifestyle.” The school claimed by denying persons of different beliefs and sexual orientations the right to participate violated the school’s non-discrimination policy.

The Supreme Court agreed in a 5-4 ruling that the Hastings Law School had the right to deny official recognition. In the Court’s opinion written by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the majority agreed that “In requiring CLS – in common with all other student organization – to choose between welcoming students and forgoing the benefits of official recognition, we hold, Hastings did not transgress constitutional limitations.”

The Court majority further added that “CLS, it bears emphasis, seeks not parity with other organizations, but a preferential exemption from Hastings’ policy.”

source: http://www.examiner.com/x-52777-San-Diego-Church--State-Examiner~y2010m6d28-Supreme-Court-backs-UC-Hastings-for-denying-Christian-Legal-Society-official-recognition

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BBC: GOCE satellite views the Earth's gravity

The Gravity Field and Steady-State Ocean Circulation Explorer (Goce) satellite is at the front of this armada of scientific and environmental monitoring spacecraft. 

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