What We Know

A Little 4 A.M. Perspective

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 12:39:00 +0000

Current U.S. Population............295,571,458
Total Reported Bush Votes..........62,040,606
Total Reported Kerry Votes.........59,028,109

Percentage of U.S. population that voted for George W. Bush - 21%
Percentage of U.S. population that voted for John Kerry - 20%

Glad They've Got Their Priorities Straight

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Tue, 01 Mar 2005 01:20:00 +0000

Rolling Stone reveals the clearest evidence yet that we have officially entered Bizzaro world:

When the Federal Communications Commission fined Clear Channel Communications $27,500 last year for each of eighteen incidents of "indecent material" spouted by shock jock Howard Stern, it sure seemed like a lot of money. But in retrospect those fines look like chump change. On February 16th, the Bush administration won House approval for a bill that would raise the maximum FCC fine to $500,000 per violation. Under the new measure, Clear Channel -- and Stern himself -- could each have been fined a total of $9 million.

"Free expression and First Amendment rights are the real target of this legislation," declared Rep. Bernie Sanders (Ind-Vt.) during the debate over the bill. "This is not what America is about."

A review of fines levied by other federal agencies suggests that the government may be taking swear words a bit too seriously. If the bill passes the Senate, Bono saying "fucking brilliant" on the air would carry the exact same penalty as illegally testing pesticides on human subjects. And for the price of Janet Jackson's "wardrobe malfunction" during the Super Bowl, you could cause the wrongful death of an elderly patient in a nursing home and still have enough money left to create dangerous mishaps at two nuclear reactors. (Actually, you might be able to afford four "nuke malfunctions": The biggest fine levied by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission last year was only $60,000.)

If Bush has his way, Howard Stern may soon have a tough choice to make: Tell a sex joke on the air, or dump toxic waste in New York's drinking water while willfully placing an employee at risk of injury or death? No wonder the foul-mouthed host is moving to satellite radio, which falls outside the authority of the FCC.

Couldn't Have Said It Better Ourselves

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Sun, 27 Feb 2005 16:36:00 +0000

And from Pat Buchanan no less. Go figure.

A conservative knows not whether to laugh or weep, for Mr. Bush has just asserted a right to interfere in the internal affairs of every nation on earth. Why? Because the “survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands.” But this is utterly ahistorical. The world has always been afflicted with despots. Yet America has always been free. And we have remained free by following the counsel of Washington, Jefferson, and Adams and staying out of foreign quarrels and foreign wars.

Who is feeding the president this interventionist nonsense?

The president now plans to hector and badger foreign leaders on the progress each is making toward attaining U.S. standards of democracy. “We will persistently clarify the choice before every ruler and nation—the moral choice between oppression, which is always wrong, and freedom, which is eternally right.” This is a formula for “Bring-it-on!” collisions with every autocratic regime on earth, including virtually every African and Arab ruler, all the “outposts of tyranny” named by Secretary Rice, most of the nations of Central Asia, China, and Russia. This is a prescription for endless war. Yet as Madison warned, “No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”
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The 9/11 killers were over here because we are over there. We were not attacked because of who we are but because of what we do. It is not our principles they hate. It is our policies. U.S. intervention in the Middle East was the cause of the 9/11 terror. Bush believes it is the cure. Has he learned nothing from Iraq?

In 2003, we invaded a nation that had not attacked us, did not threaten us, and did not want war with us to disarm it of weapons it did not have. Now, after plunging $200 billion and the lives of 1,400 of our best and bravest into this war and killing tens of thousands of Iraqis, we have reaped a harvest of hatred in the Arab world and, according to officials in our own government, have created a new nesting place and training ground for terrorists to replace the one we lately eradicated in Afghanistan.
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America “goes not abroad, in search of monsters to destroy,” said John Quincy Adams, “She is the well-wisher to the freedom and independence of all. She is the champion and vindicator only of her own.” Under the tutelage of Jacobins who call themselves idealists, Bush has repudiated this wise core doctrine of U.S. foreign policy to embrace Wilsonian interventionism in the internal affairs of every autocratic regime on earth. We are going to democratize the world and abolish tyranny.

Giddy with excitement, the neocons are falling all over one another to hail the president. They are not conservatives at all. They are anti-conservatives, and their crusade for democracy will end as did Wilson’s, in disillusionment for the president and tragedy for this country.

Fossils: God's Hoax

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Wed, 16 Feb 2005 20:29:00 +0000

How God must be laughing at this story:

Human Fossils Dated to 195, 000 Years

A new analysis of bones unearthed nearly 40 years ago in Ethiopia has pushed the fossil record of modern humans back to nearly 200,000 years ago -- perhaps close to the dawn of the species.

Researchers determined that the specimens are around 195,000 years old. Previously, the oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens were Ethiopian skulls dated to about 160,000 years ago.

Genetic studies estimate that Homo sapiens arose about 200,000 years ago, so the new research brings the fossil record more in line with that, said John Fleagle of Stony Brook University in New York, an author of the study.

Silly scientists, don't you know that God planted all those fossils in order to trick humans into believing in evolution.

Why?

Not a fucking clue. But wouldn't that have to be the argument used by creationists to explain them? I mean there are litterally millions of these things with more being found every day. From single cell organisms, through dinosaurs, to early man, hundreds of millions of years of history have been excavated and studied in schools and museums across the world. If you truly believe that the world was created by God 10,000 years ago, how do you possibly explain them, unless they were planted there on purpose by the All Knowing to deceive us?

If anybody's got a different justification for their existence, I'd love to hear it.

Next Stop Syria

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 18:33:00 +0000

Now that we have pulled our Ambassador out, the time for "diplomacy" has officially passed. Not that these idiots would know diplomacy if it bit them on the ass. From The Dreyfuss Report:

The Bush administration’s crosshairs shifted east decisively yesterday, from Iran to Syria, and that country is now the chief target for the neocons and their friends. With Iraq now firmly in the anti-Syria camp and under U.S. tutelage, it seems like the time has come for implementation of part two of the grand design laid out in the famous “A Clean Break” memo, written by Richard Perle, Douglas Feith et al., which you can read (if you haven’t read it lately) here.

The assassination of Rafik Hariri, the Saudi-connected billionaire, could have been carried out by any number of factions—from personal, business enemies of Hariri’s, Hezbollah, other Shiite factions, Syrian intelligence, Israeli intelligence, Iran and even some factions in Iraq. To believe that Syria did it—thus making itself is the instant target of U.S. wrath—seems ludicrous. More likely, to speculate, it seems that the murder was carried out specifically as a provocation to embarrass Syria and to provide Washington with a pretext to do what it wants to do anyway: Regime Change II.

The chaos in Iraq makes chaos in Syria more likely. In Iraq, the Shiite fundamentalists, the Chalabi Iraqi National Congress, and both Kurdish parties have it in for Syria, which they blame for harboring leaders of the (mostly Sunni) Iraqi resistance. It is a no-brainer that various Iraqi factions are already plotting against Syria. Kurds and fundamentalists have been causing trouble in Damascus for two years now, and both will get support from Iraq, under its new regime.

The Bush administration—with no evidence—is already blaming Syria for Hariri’s death. It is in line with a Wall Street Journal editorial on Feb. 7, cited in this column, then, called: “Warning to Damascus.” The White House officially thundered against “the Syrian occupation” of Lebanon yesterday, and an unnamed administration official told the Times: “We’re going to turn the heat up on Syria, that’s for sure.”

Don't be surprised if subsequent military action against Syria is couched as us "assisting" Iraq (a country with about 12 fully trained soldiers).

Even His Faith Is Bullshit

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Tue, 15 Feb 2005 04:50:00 +0000

For a president who can't stop talking about how down he is with the J.C., stories keep trickling out that point out how much bullshit that really is. Like the fact that he rarely goes to church. And then there's this from Dubya's Deputy Director of the Faith-Based Initiative:

Four years ago, while visiting a small urban charity, President Bush launched the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. He called it "one of the most important initiatives" of his administration.
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Sadly, four years later these promises remain unfulfilled in spirit and in fact. In June 2001, the promised tax incentives for charitable giving were stripped at the last minute from the $1.6 trillion tax cut legislation to make room for the estate-tax repeal that overwhelmingly benefited the wealthy. The Compassion Capital Fund has received a cumulative total of $100 million during the past four years. And new programs including those for children of prisoners, at-risk youth, and prisoners reentering society have received a little more than $500 million over four years--or approximately $6.3 billion less than the promised $6.8 billion.

Unfortunately, sometimes even the grandly-announced "new" programs aren't what they appear. Nowhere is this clearer than in the recently-announced "gang prevention initiative" totaling $50 million a year for three years. The obvious inference is that the money is new spending on an important initiative. Not quite. The money is being taken out of the already meager $100 million request for the Compassion Capital Fund. If granted, it would actually mean a $5 million reduction in the Fund from last year.

This isn't what was promised.

Amen

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Sun, 13 Feb 2005 22:40:00 +0000

Thomas Friedman asks the right questions:

By adamantly refusing to do anything to improve energy conservation in America, or to phase in a $1-a-gallon gasoline tax on American drivers, or to demand increased mileage from Detroit's automakers, or to develop a crash program for renewable sources of energy, the Bush team is - as others have noted - financing both sides of the war on terrorism. We are financing the U.S. armed forces with our tax dollars, and, through our profligate use of energy, we are generating huge windfall profits for Saudi Arabia, Iran and Sudan, where the cash is used to insulate the regimes from any pressure to open up their economies, liberate their women or modernize their schools, and where it ends up instead financing madrassas, mosques and militants fundamentally opposed to the progressive, pluralistic agenda America is trying to promote. Now how smart is that?

Don't Forget About Poland

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 05:18:00 +0000

The President sure hasn't. And if you wonder why Poland is one of the few remaining members of the bogus Coalition of the Willing, wonder no longer.

President Bush told President Aleksander Kwasniewski of Poland on Wednesday that he would ask Congress for $100 million to modernize the Polish military, part of a program of support for a new NATO ally that has more than 2,000 soldiers in Iraq.
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According to ABC News, President Bush is asking Congress to set up a $400 million fund to reward nations that have taken political and economic risks to join U.S.-led coalitions in Iraq and Afghanistan. The White House announced the fund, dubbed the "solidarity initiative," after Bush's meeting Wednesday with Aleksander Kwasniewski, the president of Poland, a nation that is to receive one-fourth of the money. The $400 million request is part of the $80 billion supplemental war funding request Bush will send to Congress next week.

Where I come from this is called paying people to be your friend.

Watch

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 01:39:00 +0000

this.

Diplomacy - A definition

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Fri, 11 Feb 2005 01:21:00 +0000

From The American Heritage Dictionary

Diplomacy: di·plo·ma·cy. n.
1. The art or practice of conducting international relations, as in negotiating alliances, treaties, and agreements.
2. Tact and skill in dealing with people. See Synonyms at tact.

I looked and I looked and I looked and nowhere could I find the word diplomacy used to mean "make things worse by threatening a crazy meglomaniac with invasion" as our new Secretary of State did just yesterday. And this from a woman who swore under oath that now was the time for diplomacy.

Is anyone surprised that North Korea's Dear Leader didn't take Condi's method of diplomacy lying down?

I really think somebody needs to come up with the Bush Administration Dictionary. Where War is Peace and Debt is Ownership, etc. Anybody in?

Read

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 23:36:00 +0000

this

A Confederacy of Dunces

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 03:15:00 +0000

Despite falling out with U.S., Chalabi still a player in the new Iraq

Aargh!

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 23:52:00 +0000

Didn't Condi just say that we have no plans to invade Iran at this point? It was like two days ago, right? Hell, I know that we live in a fast changing world, but even so, we went from 0-60 pretty fucking fast on this one. What am I talking about? Oh, just Rice threatening to invade Iran. The money quote:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Iran must live up to its international obligations to halt its nuclear program or "the next steps are in the offing." "And I think everybody understands what the 'next steps' mean," Rice told reporters after a meeting with NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials.

What happens when you mix a pathological liar with a schizophrenic? You get the Bush Administration.

Inside Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Wed, 02 Feb 2005 03:14:00 +0000

Post-election wisdom from Back to Iraq:

The insurgency is not over. The Sunnis and middle-class former Ba'athists are still resentful and suspicious. An old friend of mine who was a Ba'athist, but mainly so he could get a job, is bitter and morose, feeling that now there are two occupations. “One from the Americans and one from the Iranians,” he said. The Sunnis are terrified of their old enemy, and List 169, the Sistani-blessed list, does have a number of people on it with serious ties to Iran. The country is still a mess, with deteriorating services like water and electricity. This is not to say they can't be overcome, but this is not a time to declare victory.

Be sure and mention all this to the war-boosters, who are, dorkily, coating their fingers with blue ink as a sign of solidarity “with the Iraqi people.” Hm. I don't remember them doing that for Afghanistan... Why don't they just 'fess up and say they're giving the finger to us doubters? This is not solidarity; it's a taunt along the lines of, “We were right, nyah nyah!” instead of a celebration of democracy. Make no mistake: Sunday was not a validation of Bush's policies. Most Arab states would like to have democracy, yes, but not at the barrel of a gun, which is how it came here. If the choice is being invaded, occupied and force-fed controversial elections that might lead to civil war versus working at democratic reforms at their own pace and in their own way, I suspect most Arabs would choose the latter. And who could blame them? Iraq is not an example to emulate.

The Bottom Line On Social Security

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 17:14:00 +0000

From Paul Krugman:

"...any growth projection that would permit the stock returns the privatizers need to make their schemes work would put Social Security solidly in the black."

It really is that simple.

Two Tons of Dumb

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Tue, 01 Feb 2005 05:24:00 +0000

[P]olls consistently show that a plurality of Americans believe that God created humans in their present form about 10,000 years ago, and about two-thirds believe that this belief should be taught along with evolution in public schools.

These findings set the United States apart from all other industrialized nations, said Dr. Jon Miller, director of the Center for Biomedical Communications at Northwestern University, who has studied public attitudes toward science. Americans, he said, have been evenly divided for years on the question of evolution, with about 45 percent accepting it, 45 percent rejecting it and the rest undecided.

In other industrialized countries, Dr. Miller said, 80 percent or more typically accept evolution, most of the others say they are not sure and very few people reject the idea outright.

"In Japan, something like 96 percent accept evolution," he said. Even in socially conservative, predominantly Catholic countries like Poland, perhaps 75 percent of people surveyed accept evolution, he said. "It has not been a Catholic issue or an Asian issue," he said.

Indeed, two popes, Pius XII in 1950 and John Paul II in 1996, have endorsed the idea that evolution and religion can coexist. "I have yet to meet a Catholic school teacher who skips evolution," Dr. Scott said.

Repeat after me. The world was not created by God 10,000 years ago. Want proof? Go to a museum. Read a book. Stop scaring science teachers into avoiding the subject when they teach biology. Otherwise, we're going to end up with a country chock full of stupid.

Garrison Rocks

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 07:37:00 +0000

Some much needed humor. Listen here. It's long but it's worth it.

In Name Only

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 06:58:00 +0000

While the images of Iraqis celebrating today's vote were heartening, stories like these show how far removed from actually democracy this election was:

At the Al-Khazrajiya school in the city's old quarter, Najat Ridha, 48, was ushered into a classroom and handed two ballots, one for the national assembly and another for the local provincial council.

An election worker suggested she vote for list 285 headed by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi and a local list headed by governor Duraid Kashmula.

She ticked the boxes obligingly and walked out - just as Zahra Ibrahim, 60, did before her.

"I really just did what they asked me to do," she said as the Iraqi national anthem crackled on a loudspeaker in the background.

Similar scenes unfolded at the Al-Fadhila school on the west side as men and women, perplexed over what the list numbers stood for, were offered suggestions and a helping hand by election workers.

"I want to vote for Allawi and Yawar," said a frustrated Fatima Hashim, 50.

Both Dr Allawi and interim President Ghazi al-Yawar, himself from Mosul, head competing lists for seats on the national assembly, but were popular choices in the city because of their high profile.

The lists, which only bear numbers and not candidate names for the most part, were published only two days before.

At a polling station in the New Mosul neighbourhood, Mahasin Ahmed, 37, a school teacher, wanted to vote for Yawar, a tribal leader, but did not know that his list number was 255 and neither did the election worker helping her.

He suggested she vote for list 188 because it had "tribes" in the title.

"I found most of the election workers unqualified and I observed many irregularities," said Guevara Yokhana, 34, a Christian running in the local elections, who visited seven of the 20 polling stations on the city's east side.

He said a lack of ballot papers sparked riots in the town of Qaraqush as thousands of furious Christians and Kurds realised they were unable to vote.

Quote of the Day

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 05:28:00 +0000

The myth [of evil] encourages people to believe that they are good and will remain good no matter what, even if they perpetrate severe harm on their opponents. Thus, the myth of pure evil confers a kind of moral immunity on people who believe in it...Belief in the myth is itself one recipe for evil, because it allows people to justify violent and oppressive actions. It allows evil to masquerade as good."

~ Roy Baumeister: Evil: Inside Human Violence and Cruelty

Remind you of anyone?

Show Me The Money

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Mon, 31 Jan 2005 01:55:00 +0000

I've misplaced a twenty or two in my day, but $9 billion? The Guardian has the scoop.

Inside Iraq

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 04:46:00 +0000

From Baghdad Burning:

Bleak Eid...
It's the third day of Eid. Eid is the Islamic holiday and usually it’s a time for families to get together, eat, drink and celebrate. Not this Eid. This Eid is unbearable. We managed a feeble gathering on the first day and no one was in a celebratory mood. There have been several explosions- some far and some near but even those aren't as worrisome as the tension that seems to be growing on a daily basis.

There hasn’t been a drop of water in the faucets for six days. six days. Even at the beginning of the occupation, when the water would disappear in the summer, there was always a trickle that would come from one of the pipes in the garden. Now, even that is gone. We’ve been purchasing bottles of water (the price has gone up) to use for cooking and drinking. Forget about cleaning. It’s really frustrating because everyone cleans house during Eid. It’s like a part of the tradition. The days leading up to Eid are a frenzy of mops, brooms, dusting rags and disinfectant. The cleaning makes one feel like there's room for a fresh start. It's almost as if the house and its inhabitants are being reborn. Not this year. We’re managing just enough water to rinse dishes with. To bathe, we have to try to make-do with a few liters of water heated in pots on kerosene heaters.

Water is like peace- you never really know just how valuable it is until someone takes it away. It’s maddening to walk up to the sink, turn one of the faucets and hear the pipes groan with nothing. The toilets don’t function… the dishes sit piled up until two of us can manage to do them- one scrubbing and rinsing and the other pouring the water.

Why is this happening? Is it because of the electricity? If it is, we should at least be getting water a couple of hours a day- like before. Is it some sort of collective punishment leading up to the elections? It’s unbelievable. At first, I thought it was just our area but I’ve been asking around and apparently, almost all of the areas (if not all) are suffering this drought.

I’m sure people outside of the country are shaking their heads at the words ‘collective punishment’. “No, Riverbend,” they are saying, “That’s impossible.” But anything is possible these days. People in many areas are being told that if they don’t vote- Sunnis and Shia alike- the food and supply rations we are supposed to get monthly will be cut off. We’ve been getting these rations since the beginning of the nineties and for many families, it’s their main source of sustenance. What sort of democracy is it when you FORCE people to go vote for someone or another they don’t want?

Allawi’s people were passing out pamphlets a few days ago. I went out to the garden to check the low faucet, hoping to find a trickle of water and instead, I found some paper crushed under the garden gate. Upon studying it, it turned out to be some sort of “Elect Allawi” pamphlet promising security and prosperity, amongst other things, for occupied Iraq. I'd say it was a completely useless pamphlet but that isn't completely true. It fit nicely on the bottom of the cage of E.'s newly acquired pet parakeet.

They say the borders are closed with Jordan and possibly Syria. I also heard yesterday that people aren't being let into Baghdad. They have American check-points on the main roads leading into the city and they say that the cars are being turned back to wherever they came from. It's a bad situation and things are looking very bleak at this point.

It's amazing how as things get worse, you begin to require less and less. We have a saying for that in Iraq, "Ili yishoof il mawt, yirdha bil iskhooneh." Which means, "If you see death, you settle for a fever." We've given up on democracy, security and even electricity. Just bring back the water.

Bush Dollars

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 04:35:00 +0000

From MSNBC:

One simple way to figure the budget impact of Bush’s first term is to look at how much new Treasury debt the government has sold to make up for the deficits since he took office. In Jan. 2001, the total Treasury debt held by the public stood at $3.9 trillion. As of Wed. Jan. 19, the figure was $4,423,975,930,565.56 (or $4.4 trillion.)So regardless of whether you attribute this increase to tax cuts or war spending (or both), the U.S. government is $500 billion further in debt after Bush's first term.

As for the second term, the outlook isn’t much better. A lot depends on whether tax cuts scheduled to expire at the end of the decade are made permanent -– and on when U.S. troops finally leave Iraq. Last June, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the final bill for the war could hit nearly $400 billion. The CBO figures the accumulated federal budget deficits will hit $2.3 trillion by the end of the decade. And the White House’s own estimates for the second term estimates the total Treasury debt held by the public will reach $5.5 trillion by 2008. (See Table 20, bottom of the page.) That would put the accumulated price tag for both terms at around $1.6 trillion, or a little over $200 billion a year.

That's not counting the White House plan to overhaul Social Security. Until the details of the proposal are formally unveiled, it's impossible to say what it will cost. But if some payroll taxes are diverted to individual accounts (the main idea behind the plan), Congress would have to kick in more money to pay for people who are already retired or expect to do so soon. That could easily add another $1 trillion or more to the Bush deficits.

i-toons

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Sun, 23 Jan 2005 04:32:00 +0000

Booh Hooh, He Lied To You, Too

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 04:48:00 +0000

Folks at Redstate are up in arms about Bush and those gay people

President to Conservatives: Screw You
By: Augustine · Section: Social Issues

On the domestic front, Bush said he would not lobby the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment outlawing same-sex marriage. -The Washington Post

In one interview, the President has effectively undercut the entire movement in favor of traditional marriage - a movement that in no small part helped re-elect him in November.
- - - -
President Bush needs to decide what kind of President he is going to be in his second term. Is he going to be the kind of President who does what he says, or is he going to be the kind of President many of us thought John Kerry would be - one who oftentimes knows what is right, but lacks the will or the basic honesty to stand by his word?

Meow. Somebody pass the popcorn. This should be fun.

Bush Lies (I Know, Like What Else Is New?)

noreply@blogger.com (Fin) — Mon, 17 Jan 2005 04:33:00 +0000

A good article on the Social Security "crisis" (cough, "bullshit") from Time Canada:

At another appearance intended to promote federal standards for testing high school students, Bush went off script to warn a group of teenagers, “The system will be bankrupt by the year 2040.”

That sounds pretty scary—except that it’s not true. What will actually happen in 2018, according to the Social Security trustees who oversee the program, is that the money paid out in benefits will begin to exceed the amount collected in taxes. And since Social Security will run a surplus until then (and has been running one for some time), it has billions available that it can tap to fill the gap. Even under conservative estimates, the system as it stands will have enough money to pay all its promised benefits until 2042 and most of its obligations for decades after.

What’s more, even if you take the President at his word—that a crisis and bankruptcy are fast approaching—the introduction of private accounts does nothing to slow that process. On the contrary, it makes things worse, by diverting payroll taxes from current retiree benefits and bringing the end of surpluses that much closer. Given all that, what is the President after?