Severe earthquake in Indonesia has no effects on Shiavo case

A severe earthquake measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale which struck Indonesia on Tuesday had 'little or no effect' on the Terri Schiavo case, the 24-hour news networks confirmed today.

The networks made the announcement to explain why they had for the most part retained their massive media presence outside Ms. Schiavo's hospice in Florida while offering scant coverage of the Indonesian disaster, which has so far resulted in a death toll topping 1,000.

'While the Indonesian earthquake appears to be a disaster of unspeakable magnitude, it is difficult to see it having any lasting impact on the Schiavo story,' one network source said. 'The public trusts us to deliver Schiavo news on a 24-hour-a-day basis and we do not intend to betray that trust.'

Consistent with that mission, the networks today asked the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for an emergency ruling that would keep the Schiavo story alive at least until May sweeps.

Joining in the appeal was the Rev. Jesse Jackson, who told reporters today that 'we must do everything in our power to keep these television cameras rolling.'

'There is no rational reason for disconnecting these TV cameras as long as they are pointed at my face,' Rev. Jackson said. 'As long as there is publicity, there is hope.'

Elsewhere, to pay his respects to the late Johnnie Cochran, former football great O.J. Simpson said he would take one day off from looking for the real killers of his wife Nicole."

Source: The Borowitz Report

God Blasts Tom Delay

'Enough is Enough,' Says Almighty

In a rare public appearance that leading theologians called 'extraordinary,' God held a press conference in Washington on Sunday to disavow the recent words and deeds of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas).

The normally reclusive Ruler of the Universe took the unusual step of speaking to reporters to blast Rep. DeLay for repeatedly invoking His name in political fundraising appeals.

'I usually don't like to shoot my mouth off about every little thing that bugs me,' the surprisingly outspoken Supreme Being said. 'But enough is enough.'

After complaining about Rep. DeLay's unauthorized use of His name in fundraising pitches, God warned the Texas congressman to discontinue the practice at once 'or else.'

When asked if He intended to strike Rep. DeLay with a lightning bolt, God replied with a terse 'no comment,' but later said, 'I've been known to smite people in the past, and I'm not prepared to take smiting off the table.'

Hours after God's press briefing concluded, a spokesperson for Rep. DeLay issued a one-sentence statement saying that the congressman and the Almighty remain on good terms and that he hoped to have God's support in the 2006 midterm elections.

But Dr. Harland Minter of the University of Minnesota's School of Divinity said that Rep. DeLay would be well advised to heed God's words of warning: 'It means a lot that God took the trouble to hold a press conference, especially on His day off.'

Elsewhere, a new poll shows that a majority of Americans favor disconnecting Pat O'Brien's telephone. "

Source: The Borowitz Report

Social Security alternate fix

"After receiving only muted support for his sweeping proposals to overhaul Social Security, President George W. Bush attempted to sweeten the pot today, offering all retirees the opportunity to serve in Iraq.

With most insiders calling the president's proposal for individual investment accounts dead on arrival in Congress, the White House hopes that Mr. Bush's offer of guaranteed military service to all retired Americans will find more favor.

Speaking at a rally in Detroit today, the president told his audience, 'In the year 2054, the Social Security trust fund will be bankrupt, but the war in Iraq will be alive and well.'

Under his new plan, the president said, upon reaching the age of 59 every participant in the Social Security program would be offered the opportunity to begin basic training for what Mr. Bush called 'the adventure of their lives.'

According to the president, retirees would be 'totally free to choose' which Iraqi city they would like to patrol from a list of twenty cities including Baghdad, Tikrit, Fallujah, and oil-rich Kirkuk.

Mr. Bush added that the average retiree serving in Iraq would earn approximately $1500 a month, which would be boosted to $1800 if the retiree should somehow stumble across weapons of mass destruction.

In Washington, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz said he was 'intrigued' by the notion of spending his retirement years in Iraq but that he had decided to run the World Bank instead.

Elsewhere, antiwar protesters across Europe marked the second anniversary of President Bush ignoring antiwar protesters across Europe."

Source: The Borowitz Report

Bush Diplomacy

Keep building those bridges

Battle lines hardened yesterday over President Bush's nomination of Paul D. Wolfowitz to become president of the World Bank, as U.S. officials pressed for swift approval by the bank's board and some European officials vowed to resist.

The deputy defense secretary's nomination, already hugely controversial because of his role as a key architect of the Iraq war, drew fresh denunciations in European capitals, where critics fumed that Washington had failed to consult other member countries of the bank before springing its choice on them. By tradition, the United States gets to pick the bank's president, but the decision must be approved by the board, which has always operated by consensus.

Thursday Night Poker follies

Well another evening of poker has come and gone. Last night proved what I think is a truism; "It is better to catch cards at the end of the night than at the beginning".

I treaded water for a while but was badly beaten on a few hands, usually with top pair and good to great kicker going down to a sneaky two-pair. Shit happens. Still, I managed to avoid buying in until much later in the evening despite the bad beats. At one point my hand count ran badly in the negative, down almost seven to two, but eventually evened up by evening's end with 18 hands played (that's on the high side for me), nine for, nine against. I did seem to catch a fair amount of paint during the evening but it didn't pay off until quite late.

Fortunately for me the hands that I did win featured larger pots than those I lost. A few seconds of hesitation convinced KK that I'd tripped up in one hand (I think I had bottom pair). The hand that really turned things around was against JL. The details are hazy but I believe I was BB and raised with AQ pre-flop (although I'm not sure if that's the case, I may have just played it from there). The flop came down A-Q-X, giving me two pair and pairing his Q-10. I bet out $3 I think and he called, there might have been one caller behind us but I don't think that was the case. Another Q peeled off on the turn, boating me and giving him trips. I was a afraid that if I bet too big I would scare him off so I did my best Brando and hesitated a bit then bet out $2. I should have known he was pleased since he'd already moved a stack of reds out of his tray and he was itching to throw them in. He immediately raised me $4 (he wanted to go $8 but was told that wasn't allowed, I would have made an exception for him for this hand though) and I re-raised him $4. The river was a blank and I bet out $4, he called and that was all she wrote. I ended the evening up $61 and put myself further into the black. Not bad for an evening that started out poorly.

Homeland Insecurity

US Debt to China growing daily

"The excessive tax cuts for the rich, combined with a total lack of discipline on spending by the Bush team and its Republican-run Congress, have helped China become the second-largest holder of U.S. debt, with a little under $200 billion worth. No, I don't think China will start dumping its T-bills on a whim. But don't tell me that as China buys up more and more of our debt - and that is the only way we can finance the tax holiday the Bush team wants to make permanent - it won't limit our room to maneuver with Beijing, should it take aggressive steps toward Taiwan.

What China might do with all its U.S. T-bills in the event of a clash over Taiwan is a total wild card that we have put in Beijing's hands."

CIA's Assurances On Transferred Suspects Doubted

No kidding

"Another U.S. government official who visited several foreign prisons where suspects were rendered by the CIA after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, said: 'It's beyond that. It's widely understood that interrogation practices that would be illegal in the U.S. are being used.'
The CIA inspector general recently launched a review of the rendition system, and some members of Congress are demanding a thorough probe. Canada, Sweden, Germany and Italy have started investigations into the participation of their security services in CIA renditions.
The House voted 420 to 2 yesterday to prohibit the use of supplemental appropriations to support actions that contravene anti-torture statutes. The measure's co-author, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), singled out renditions, saying 'diplomatic assurances not to torture are not credible, and the administration knows it.' "

Duh department

Greenspan admits he got it wrong over Bush's tax cuts

"The chairman of the US Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, has admitted he made a mistake in 2001 when he defended President George Bush's tax cuts, which led to the turnaround of a large budget surplus at the end of the Clinton presidency to a budget deficit this year of more than $US400 billion ($506 billion).

Instead of a projected surplus of $US5.6 trillion by 2011, the budget deficit is now expected to be $US4 trillion by that date if the tax cuts become permanent.

Dr Greenspan's defence of the tax cuts was always viewed as highly unusual for a Reserve chairman who is mandated to be non-political and whose main responsibility is to determine US interest rates and help keep inflation in check.

But Dr Greenspan has long been seen as a partisan figure by Democrats and was described last week by the Senate minority leader, Harry Reid, as the "biggest political hack in Washington".

Interesting article on tax cuts

To Trump Bush on Taxes

The 2001 tax debate was just a warm-up. The real sweepstakes will come as the administration pursues comprehensive and permanent tax reform. Progressives must do more than argue against the president's additional tax cuts. They need to offer their own comprehensive reform plan. They must also seize the moral high ground on this issue. Comprehensive tax reform should be based on three principles: a commitment to fairness, rewarding hard work and the belief that a good tax system must be easy to understand. In addition, reform should aim to promote new opportunity and shared prosperity for the middle class, which only come through economic growth.

Damn, I'm in the wrong business

Pentagon Audit Questions Halliburton's Costs in Iraq

Pentagon auditors found more than $100 million in questionable costs in one section of a massive, no-bid Halliburton Co. contract for delivering fuel to Iraq, according to a summary of their report released yesterday by congressional Democrats.

The audit faulted Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown & Root Inc. for providing cost data that did not match its accounting records, and for failing to negotiate lower prices for fuel from a Kuwaiti supplier. The audit also described as "illogical" a case in which KBR reported it had purchased liquefied gas for $82,100, and then spent $27.5 million to transport it.

That must have been one hell of a truck.

China and our debt

Red Debt Threat illuminated

Apparently owing China billions is no big deal. In fact, China may want to prop up our dollar since they're owed so many of them.

Our long national nightmare is over

Federal Regulators OK Desperate Housewives MNF striptease

It's safe to watch television again. Our government is on it.

The skid ends

Well my two week skid ended last night, finishing up $17. Even though my ratio of hands won to hands lost was quite good (8-3), the hands where I dropped ended up having a higher amount of cash in them, which ate into my final totals. QQ going up against AA and the nut flush draw not coming. In each instance I probably should have dropped the hands. Fortunately the rest of the evening went pretty well.

Tracking the evening's events makes for interesting information when it's all said and done. Since I have been keeping records on average I've been winning hands at around a 2:1 ratio. Last night I saw several instances where I could have flopped two pair by staying in with marginal cards, but attempting to hit on those will eventually bleed out my money in blind after blind, hoping for a long-shot. It's rare that I have the highest winning total for an evening but it's also rare for me to be dipping deep into my bankroll.

Bankruptcy Bill illustrated

Fair and balanced defined

On Fox News, No Shortage of Opinion, Study Finds

In an interview, Fox's executive daytime producer, Jerry Burke, says: "I encourage the anchors to be themselves. I'm certainly not going to step in and censor an anchor on any issue. . . . You don't want to look at a cookie-cutter, force-feeding of the same items hour after hour. I think that's part of the success of the channel, not treating our anchors like drones. They're, number one, Americans, and number two, human beings, as well as journalists."

CNN spokeswoman Christa Robinson says the study "reaffirms what anyone watching CNN already knows: CNN's reporting is driven by news, not opinion." MSNBC declined to comment.

Nothing like stacking the deck

Warning: Ethics-Free Zone

"Last week's tumultuous events cap a year in which the committee took the extraordinary step of issuing three admonitions to House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), infuriating the majority leader and his supporters. In the aftermath, the ethics panel's chairman, Rep. Joel Hefley (R-Colo.), and two other committee Republicans were removed and replaced with those more loyal to the Republican team. In addition, the GOP leadership did its best to neuter the committee by rewriting the rules for the new Congress. When their own members were too embarrassed to go along, the leadership was forced to backtrack on some of the most egregious changes. It left in place three others, leading to the current standoff. "

Tired of ethics, remove those who disagree with you and change the rules. Bravo!

Think outside the box

"Acknowledging the legal barriers to torturing detainees in U.S. custody, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales confirmed today that the Justice Department was exploring the feasibility of torturing prisoners in outer space.

According to a Justice Department memo, lawyers for the department are exploring whether interrogation methods banned by the Geneva Conventions would be legal if used on a space station orbiting the earth, or perhaps on the moon.

The memo validated rumors that the Bush administration was actively planning to begin launching detainees from Guantanamo Bay into orbit in order to expand the menu of available interrogation options.

Under the plan, the detainees would be reclassified as 'detastronauts' and would no longer be protected by international law, but rather by the somewhat less defined rules of outer space.

In Washington, Mr. Gonzales denied that the memo represented a shift away from his earlier disavowals of torture, arguing that torturing prisoners in zero gravity conditions was merely a case of 'thinking outside the box.'

'The United States government steadfastly maintains that torture is never appropriate,' Mr. Gonzales said, 'on this planet.'

But according to Dr. Tammy Nabel, a professor of astrophysics at the University of Minnesota, torturing prisoners in outer space may be 'easier said then done.'

'There are major challenges inherent in torturing prisoners in zero gravity,' Dr. Nabel said. 'For one thing, it's really hard to make those hoods stay on.'

Elsewhere, in an effort to boost the anemic ratings of its boxing reality show 'The Contender,' NBC announced today that the winner would beat up the winner of 'American Idol.'"

Source: The Borowitz Report

Europeans Investigate CIA Role in Abductions

Those pesky Europeans and their human rights thingies.

A radical Egyptian cleric known as Abu Omar was walking to a Milan mosque for noon prayers in February 2003 when he was grabbed on the sidewalk by two men, sprayed in the face with chemicals and stuffed into a van. He hasn't been seen since.

The Bush administration has received backing for renditions from governments that have been criticized for their human rights records, including Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan, where many of the suspects are taken for interrogation. But the administration is getting a much different reception in Europe, where lawmakers and prosecutors are questioning whether the practice is a blatant violation of local sovereignty and human rights.

More powerful than the Curse of Patrick?

The Curse of Mister Hand.

This curse is powerful enough to effect the lives and livelihoods of whole professional sports organizations. How does it work, might you ask? Quite simply, any team wearing Black and Gold loses in my presence. I cannot explain it but there it is. While the underdog Habs were battling the Bruins and down 3-1 in the playoffs, a lead that heretofore had never been relinquished, it was my presence at the Fleetcenter that fateful night that turned the tide against the Cromagnon like Bruins and led to their eventual stunning collapse and exit from the playoffs. I almost blew it when the final game was played in Boston and I had the option to go. I opted to stay home instead and watch it on TV. That decision kept the game close for two periods until the natural talent of the Canadiens proved too much for their knuckle-dragging, mouth breathing competitors. Apparently the curse has a maximum effective radius.


Typical oafish Bruin? Or hapless victim of demonic forces?

It also works on the Providence Bruins. Witness their incredible losing streak when I'm in the building, now at four games-every one I've been to this season-much to the chagrin of KK, who has now taken to odd personal hygiene habits, unwashed underwear, sweaters worn inside-out, jerseys worn, jerseys not worn, beer samplers drank in exactly the same order, lucky parking spots, lucky seats and lucky sections. None of it matters. At the end of the evening he leaves crushed and broken-hearted, tears freezing on his cheeks shouldering aside little old ladies as he barrels past them in his haste to get away from the Dunkin Donuts Center. So blinded by grief his poor newlywed bride must throw herself across the hood of his car, TJ Hooker-like, to prevent him from leaving without her. Who could blame him? It's all more than any mortal man could bear.

Alas, the curse does have its own victims of friendly fire, witness the Steelers loss to the Patriots this season. Their earlier regular season victory over the Pats was, of course, not televised, giving my curse no active feed to the team in black and gold. I know I should have been anywhere but in front of a television when they played the AFC championship game, but I thought perhaps the fact that it was in Pittsburgh would mean they were outside effective curse radius. It proved a foolhardy decision on my part. On the bright side I anticipated the possibility that the curse would work against my team and so bet heavily on the Pats and enjoyed a nice windfall which helped to cushion the blow.

So fans of the Bruins, Steelers, Penguins and Pirates beware. You'll never know when I'll be watching or attending. I might even be sitting next to you and when the puck flashes past your goalie and you moan and curse the fates, I'll smile and know it was all me.

Welfare vs. Wall St.

Interesting article on Social Security

The idea of personal accounts is that Wall Street should triumph over the welfare state. Just the opposite might occur: The welfare state would triumph over Wall Street. The money flowing into personal accounts would not be invested according to the "free market." Individuals wouldn't have the freedom to invest in Microsoft, General Electric or eBay. Instead, it would be invested according to rules made by Congress, influenced by politics. There would be unrelenting pressure from interest groups, "experts" and public opinion.

The danger is that investment decisions would become unduly politicized and that the economy would consequently suffer. The rules governing which stocks could or couldn't be purchased for personal accounts might become irrational or counterproductive. The reason is that what personal accounts aim to accomplish is inherently difficult, perhaps impossible. The economic and social roles of Wall Street and the welfare state are fundamentally opposed. The attempt to blend them through personal accounts would create massive contradictions.

The role of Wall Street is to move investment funds to their most productive uses. If the process works well, the economy expands, living standards rise and the stock market advances. But inevitably there are losers, because Wall Street is an exercise in collective risk-taking. A free market means continuous trial and error.

By contrast, the welfare state is an exercise in collective risk reduction. It strives to provide some security -- aka the "safety net" -- against life's misfortunes and the economy's upsets. It aims to protect society's poorest and weakest members. We have many welfare programs. Social Security is the largest and most popular.

How to avoid ethics investigations

Change the rules

The committee met in secret for 2 1/2 hours. It was the first meeting since House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) replaced the chairman and two other members with lawmakers more loyal to the leadership. "These rules undermine the ability of the committee to do its job," Rep. Alan B. Mollohan (W.Va.), the panel's top Democrat, said in an interview after a 5 to 5 vote that stalemated action. "An ethics committee has to do a good job if it's going to do any job at all."

Duh.

Poker Night Thursday

Down $3 this evening which is what I should have been on Monday. I did catch better cards tonight but momentary lapses in concentration and play will cause small wins to turn into small losses. If you do play tight it is all the more important to maximize the money taken in hands where you are strong. Conversely, it is just as important to know when to drop when in hands that get expensive where you're on a long shot draw to something that may not even be the nuts.

To wit;

• When you have A-5o (a hand I wouldn't normally play in the first place to avoid the very scenario below) and the flop pairs your ace with a combination of low cards, there's a good chance that anyone who remains with an Ace will have a better kicker, so you're way behind in the hand no matter how you slice it. Best to drop it unless you have a straight draw (which I did) in which case calling is fine, unless you do so on the river when your straight did not hit and you're left with top pair and crappy kicker. In this hand I was third best losing out the SC who wound up making his first of back to back sets of fours and JL's A-Q.
• When you have K-K and the flop gives you a set coupled with a possible flush draw, you MUST raise, re-raise and continue betting on the turn and river. Minimally you must make the flush drawer pay to see his cards while creating a bigger pot if your set holds up or the board pairs and boats you. In this instance I played the flop correctly, raising then re-raising when someone raised behind me, but checked on the turn (huge mistake) allowing JL to get a free shot at what I assumed was a flush draw. When the flush draw was complete on the river I checked as well, which ended up costing me a potential $8.

That said, being more or less even at the end of the evening, even after taking two pretty bad beats (A-J going down to A-5 when the latter makes two pair on the turn or the same card completing my straight while it flushes someone else).

Apparently I was a wet blanket on the evenings festivities, as the fireworks from the previous Thursday did not materialize this week. I am proud to be the luke warm water that flows around the table, slowing down the mob mentality's collective hysteria. In the end, the success or failure of an evening of poker resides soley on the shoulders of the host, who must encourage loose play in order for there to be fun. If he would play in a few more hands, or any hands for that matter, perhaps more fun would be had by all.

Budget fun

Numbed to the Numbers

"With programs such as health care for the poor and food stamps on the chopping block, with deficits piling up year after year, it's a skewed, reckless move to extend tax cuts that primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans."

Redistricting Rampage

What happens when the majority goes awry

Confining redistricting to census years only makes sense.

What are they thinking department

New US ambassador to United Nations named

Is John Bolton the right man to lead this effort? Having served as assistant secretary of state for international organization affairs from 1989 to 1993, Bolton may be deemed qualified, but his record on multilateral issues is alarming. He told the Wall Street Journal that "the happiest moment of his government service" was when the Bush administration renounced the treaty on the International Criminal Court. Bolton led the administration's withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, scuttled an important biological weapons protocol and weakened an international agreement to limit small-arms trafficking. On these issues, Bolton's positions at least reflected administration policy.

But Bolton holds many strong views that diverge sharply from current U.S. policy. He described the United Nations as "a great, rusting hulk of a bureaucratic superstructure . . . dealing with issues from the ridiculous to the sublime . . . ." More important, he maintains that the United States has no legal obligation to pay its U.N. dues.

Once a paid consultant to the Taiwanese government, Bolton favors Taiwan's independence and its full U.N. membership -- a dangerous position in light of cross-straits tensions and our efforts to obtain Chinese pressure on North Korea. Will Bolton set aside his support for a Taiwanese U.N. seat while manning the U.S. seat on the Security Council?

Finally, Bolton criticized any " 'right of humanitarian intervention' to justify military operations to prevent ethnic cleansing or potential genocide." One must wonder how forcefully he will work to halt what the administration deems genocide in Darfur.

Sounds like the right guy for the job. Why don't they appoint an oil executive to head up Alaska conservation?

Monday Night Poker

Well that which goes up must come down. After a nice five week run I became impatient and sloppy last night and dropped $55 at the table. There were still positives to be taken from it but in the end the bankroll suffered. The proportion of winning hands to losing hands was almost exactly reversed from the previous week. On the plus side, even with the reversal, I only lost half as much as I'd won with the reversed ratio so I was taking in larger pots when I won than when I lost.

There were a few hands which hurt my bankroll significantly. I didn't play any more hands than I normally do, but was more obstinate about staying in when hands that I did have failed to hit. I then kept throwing money in, hoping to get that one card that would make my hand, almost always dumb. I also stayed around with high cards when the flop was clearly not in my favor. I can only surmise that I was on tilt from the previous week and expected to continue with the same run, no matter what the circumstances. Had I played smarter I probably could have finished even. The cards were not hitting for me, and of the few pots I did take down I had to bluff at most to get people out of them, one of the benefits of having a rep as a tight player at the table I guess. We'll have to see what the next round holds.

Tax Cuts Lose Spot On GOP Agenda

You suppose they're finally getting it?

It's amazing what happens when more money goes out than comes in. You may even have to put aside your rhetoric because some things just don't make sense. Kudos to those GOP lawmakers who aren't so blinded to fiscal reality.

'Nuking' Free Speech

Interesting editorial by Senator Byrd

President Bush has renominated 20 men and women to the federal bench, seven of whom the Senate rejected last year. To force a vote on these nominees, some senators are hoping to launch a parliamentary weapon aimed at the heart of open and extended debate. By a simple majority vote, a Senate filibuster on judicial appointments would be "nuked" for all time.

It starts with shutting off debate on judges, but it won't end there. This nuclear option could rob a senator of the right to speak out against an overreaching executive branch or a wrongheaded policy. It could destroy the Senate's very essence -- the constitutional privilege of free speech and debate.

Senate Democratic Leader Blasts Greenspan

It's about time

He okayed Bush's tax cuts for the rich, then bemoans the deficit and figures that cuts in social programs is the best way to take care of it. Hello?

Bankruptcy Slavery Bill

If you're in Connecticut or and area with a Democratic Senator you can use this form to send a letter to your Senator about this issue.

Credit Card Firms Won as Users Lost

Poor Providian, whatever will they do?

According to papers in her recent bankruptcy, McCarthy discovered at about the time of her husband's death in 2003 that the couple had a $4,888 balance on a Providian Financial Corp. Visa card and another $2,020 balance on a Providian Mastercard.

Over the two years from 2002 until early 2004, when she filed for bankruptcy, McCarthy charged an additional $218 on the first card and made more than $3,000 in payments, the court papers show. But instead of her balance going down, finance charges — at what the bankruptcy judge termed a "whopping" 29.99% rate, together with late fees, over-limit fees and phone payments fees — pushed what she owed up to more than $5,350.

In the case of the second card, the papers show that McCarthy charged an extra $203 and made more than $2,000 in payments, but again fees and finance charges pushed the balance up.

In Cleveland, a municipal court judge tossed out a case that Discover Bank brought against one of its cardholders after examining the woman's credit card bill.

According to court papers, Ruth M. Owens, a 53-year-old disabled woman, paid the company $3,492 over six years on a $1,963 debt only to find that late fees and finance charges had more than doubled the size of her remaining balance to $5,564.

When the firm took her to court to collect, she wrote the judge a note saying, "I would like to inform you that I have no money to make payments. I am on Social Security Disability…. If my situation was different I would pay. I just don't have it. I'm sorry."

Judge Robert Triozzi ruled that Owens didn't have to pay, saying she had "clearly been the victim of [Discover's] unreasonable, unconscionable and unjust business practices."

I'm afraid these credit card companies will go under if we don't control this riff-raff.

Ownership Society translated

Bush's Own Goal

A new Bush campaign ad pushes the theme of an "ownership society," and concludes with President Bush declaring, "I understand if you own something, you have a vital stake in the future of America."

Call me naïve, but I thought all Americans have a vital stake in the nation's future, regardless of how much property they own. (Should we go back to the days when states, arguing that only men of sufficient substance could be trusted, imposed property qualifications for voting?) Even if Mr. Bush is talking only about the economic future, don't workers have as much stake as property owners in the economy's success?

But there's a political imperative behind the "ownership society" theme: the need to provide pseudopopulist cover to policies that are, in reality, highly elitist. The Bush tax cuts have, of course, heavily favored the very, very well off. But they have also, more specifically, favored unearned income over earned income - or, if you prefer, investment returns over wages. Last year Daniel Altman pointed out in The New York Times that Mr. Bush's proposals, if fully adopted, "could eliminate almost all taxes on investment income and wealth for almost all Americans." Mr. Bush hasn't yet gotten all he wants, but he has taken a large step toward a system in which only labor income is taxed.

The political problem with a policy favoring investment returns over wages is that a vast majority of Americans derive their income primarily from wages, and that the bulk of investment income goes to a small elite. How, then, can such a policy be sold? By promising that everyone can join the elite.

Right now, the ownership of stocks and bonds is highly concentrated. Conservatives like to point out that a majority of American families now own stock, but that's a misleading statistic because most of those "investors" have only a small stake in the market. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that more than half of corporate profits ultimately accrue to the wealthiest 1 percent of taxpayers, while only about 8 percent go to the bottom 60 percent. If the "ownership society" means anything, it means spreading investment income more widely - a laudable goal, if achievable.

But does Mr. Bush have a way to get us there? There's a section on his campaign blog about the ownership society, but it's short on specifics. Much of the space is devoted to new types of tax-sheltered savings accounts. People who have looked into plans for such accounts know, however, that they would provide more tax shelters for the wealthy, but would be irrelevant to most families, who already have access
to 401(k)'s. Their ability to invest more is limited not by taxes but by the fact that they aren't earning enough to save more.

The one seemingly substantive proposal is a blast from the past: a renewed call for the partial privatization of Social Security, which would divert payroll taxes into personal accounts. Mr. Bush campaigned on that issue in 2000, but he never acted on it. And there was a reason the idea went nowhere: it didn't make sense.

Social Security is, basically, a system in which each generation pays for the previous generation's retirement. If the payroll taxes of younger workers are diverted into private accounts, there will be a gaping financial hole: who will pay benefits to older Americans, who have spent their working lives paying into the current system? Unless you have a way to fill that multitrillion-dollar hole, privatization is an empty slogan, not a real proposal.

In 2001, Mr. Bush's handpicked commission on Social Security was unable to agree on a plan to create private accounts because there was no way to make the arithmetic work. Undaunted, this year the Bush campaign once again insists that privatization will lead to a "permanently strengthened Social Security system, without changing benefits for those now in or near retirement, and without raising payroll taxes on workers." In other words, 2 - 1 = 4.

Four years ago, Mr. Bush got a free pass from the press on his Social Security "plan," either because reporters didn't understand the arithmetic, or because they assumed that after the election he would come up with a plan that actually added up. Will the same thing happen again? Let's hope not.

As Mr. Bush has said: "Fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - can't get fooled again."

Boring Poker

Thursday Night Poker contains an interesting passage which asks why people play poker at low-stakes home games. It can't be to amass wealth or provide a secondary income, since usually the swings up or down are under $100. So what are the elements that make for a fun evening?

The response to that question will be different for every person that answers it. I can only speak for myself of course and have to surmise what others get out of it, and they must get something since people tend to come back and play (when they've been invited).

I like winning. Winning is good. Winning is always better than losing. Always. I like to do things that increase my odds of winning. Not just in poker but in anything I'm going to do. If you're going to keep score, why would you not try your best to do well? Golf, tennis, hockey, games, the principle applies the same in each case. And if I can't win then I like to end an evening knowing I've played well. Does that mean that I've won a lot of money? It can on occasion, although if it's because I've just caught cards and rivered people all over the place with reckless play, it's not as satisfying for me. I know that's the opposite of what some people think but on the occasions where that has happened (let's say pocket fives becomes a boat on the river, beating out what had been top pair the whole hand and a flush on the river) I can enjoy raking the chips into my tray but I realize that I probably had no business being in that hand and that if it played out again ten times, heck, a HUNDRED times, it will happen again once or twice if I'm lucky. In other words, I know in the back of my head I played the hand wrong and have stolen money that probably should have resided in someone else's tray. Playing that way will eventually lead me to lose money and in the long run a lot of money if I'm not careful. And as much as poker is an enjoyable social exercise, capping it off by going home with more cash than what you showed up with makes the evening far more enjoyable.

Some cannot understand that. Playing tight is 'boring'. Now why they would care how someone else plays I have no idea, since it doesn't affect them in the least, but that's another discussion. For them the excitement is the feeling of being in a hand that they have no business being in and catching that miracle card, the bigger the longshot the better, and raking in a big pot that someone with the better hand the whole time was busy pumping up. For them the emotional high of being way up or way down is far more intoxicating than the monotony of folding hand after hand because they're not getting pocket Aces. There is some pleasure taken in 'irking' other people at the table because of the good luck you've received (or the bad luck they've received, depending on how you look at it). You're hoping that luck will catch them out while you have something good.

Insomuch as they can't understand the appeal of playing tight (boring), I think of it as quite the opposite. What fun is it to play every hand, throwing money around willynilly with any two cards, from any position without any thought process? I would think that if you've made up your mind to do that you can certainly put your brain on neutral and coast. That's boring. Play any two cards and eventually you'll hit something that will pay you. It may even pay big. In the meantime you can bemoan how 'lucky' other people are getting when it seems like they keep catching flop after flop, not realising that they're probably playing a fraction of the hands you are.

Poker is one long session. It begins the first time you sit down at a table and ends when someone is delivering the eulogy. Keeping that in mind helps get you through those evenings when nothing comes and you've dropped $80 and helps keep you from getting too full of yourself when you've won $80. I've grown to enjoy the nuances that take place in the game, much of that comes from the cast that participates each week, bringing a different personality and style to the table. I don't think I'd have the same appreciation for those nuances if I played an 'exciting' game. I certainly wouldn't need hour long post-mortems in my office with KK if all I had to contribute was, "Yeah, I played any two cards. I don't know what happened, but they hit and I won." Playing with discipline requires patience and thought, more like chess than the lottery. With rare exceptions I won't be the big winner at the table, but the corollary to that statement is that I've rarely left the table leaving my entire bankroll in other's hands. And when I look at the spreadsheet and see black, and lots of it, I know I've had an exciting time.

Closer to the truth than it should be department

Thank God they're there to tell it like it is.

"The scorched-earth battle over the future of Social Security got a little nastier today with the release of a new television ad in which the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacked the Vietnam War record of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).

The Swift Boat Veterans, dormant in the months following the 2004 election, called their anti-AARP ad 'our finest work to date.'

In the controversial commercial, a swift boat veteran named Davis Debrew claims to have served on the same swift boat as the AARP during the Vietnam War.

'While the rest of us were in the front of the boat shooting at the Vietcong, the AARP was in the back of the boat talking about how to bankrupt Social Security,' Mr. Debrew says.

But within hours of the commercial's first airing, the AARP disputed Mr. Debrew's claims, arguing that there was no way a retirees' organization numbering 35 million members could ever have fit on a craft as small and light as a swift boat.

The ad was released just as a new study from the Brookings Institution found that the money spent on anti-AARP ads, if invested in Social Security instead, could keep the program solvent until the year 2200.

In response to the Brookings study, swift boat veteran Debrew said, 'I served on the same boat as the Brookings Institution, and when it came time to shoot at the Vietcong, they were no help at all.'

Elsewhere, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein blasted U.S. officials for arresting his half-brother but offered them the name and address of his mother-in-law. "

Source: The Borowitz Report

Best ignore this since we've got that whole Social Security crisis to deal with

Health care tab ready to explode

Let's see; bin Laden attacks the US, invade Iraq. North Korea has nukes, threaten Iran. Healthcare system approaching a shambles, look to tackle Social Security.

Perhaps Bush just has a short attention span.

The nation's tab for health care — already the highest per person in the industrialized world — could hit $3.6 trillion by 2014, or nearly 19% of the entire U.S. economy, up from 15.4% now, a sobering government projection says.

By 2014, the nation's spending for health care will equal $11,045 for every man, woman and child, up from $6,423 each this year, says the report released Wednesday by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Those numbers are not adjusted for inflation.

While the growth of health insurance premiums will continue to slow, the annual increases will still exceed growth in workers' disposable income. More could become uninsured as a result.

Tom Ridge joins Home Depot board

At first I couldn't see the connection, but then...

Ridge is quite familiar with home-improvement projects. He was instrumental in a short-lived run on duct tape in early 2003, when he encouraged Americans to turn to the sticky substance and plastic sheeting as protection against terrorists using chemical and/or biological agents.

Bankruptcy Bill considered

Cut and dried case of people milking the system? Not so fast.

Listen to Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law professor and one of the most learned and powerful critics of the bill. Testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee in early February, Warren argued that the proposal "assumes that everyone is in bankruptcy for the same reason -- too much unnecessary spending."

"What does that mean in practice? "A family driven to bankruptcy by the increased costs of caring for an elderly parent with Alzheimer's disease is treated the same as someone who maxed out his credit cards at a casino," Warren said. "A person who had a heart attack is treated the same as someone who had a spending spree at the shopping mall. A mother who works two jobs and who cannot manage the prescription drugs needed for a child with diabetes is treated the same as someone who charged a bunch of credit cards with only a vague intent to repay."

Consider the double whammy that this Congress could end up imposing. At a moment when the president is proposing cuts in Medicaid and when many Americans are losing part or all of their health insurance coverage, citizens who fall into medical-financial hell are being told it will be much harder for them to win relief from bankruptcy judges.

U.S. Must Charge Padilla With Crime or Release Him

Why don't they just charge him?

"A federal judge in South Carolina ruled yesterday that the Bush administration lacks statutory and constitutional authority to indefinitely imprison without criminal charges a U.S. citizen who was designated an "enemy combatant."...

"The decision yesterday, which the government has vowed to appeal, was the shoe that dropped again. One of Padilla's attorneys, Donna Newman, said the "court ruled that the president does not have the power to seize an American citizen on American soil and hold him indefinitely without a charge. That shouldn't be big news, but it is. . . . It confirms our belief that the Constitution is alive and well and kicking. The system works."

Things I learned last night

1. I love my car. Driving home in last night's snow storm with many of the backroads unplowed, I had absolutely no problem getting around. Even up the steep incline of my unplowed driveway, I rode into my garage like I was on dry pavement. Beautiful.

2. I'm glad I have a garage.

3. When you are winning, poker is about playing decent cards, paying attention to your position at the table and who is in the hand with you and playing the odds. When you're playing any two cards and losing it's all about luck.

4. One man's cursed piece of plastic is another man's road to multiple boats.

5. A set of nines beats top pair. A-K beats A-Q. And I owe MS an apology, I actually did clear over $100. I miscounted and I hope he forgives me & still loves me.

6. A small pocket pair will lose to a bigger pocket pair, especially if the bigger pocket pair becomes a set. Learn to dump it.

7. Keeping track of hands played puts everything in perspective.

8. I've been lucky for five consecutive weeks.

9. Dan Harrington is a genius, even if his hat looks funny.

10. Not knowing where you are, what your cards are, who's betting, what the bet was , whether you've called or raised or what the chips are worth does not preclude you from winning.