Thom,

I believe you said the cap on Social Security is $250,000 and removing it would fix the long term outlook. I think the cap is $106,800 for 2011. I read that if the program followed through with the wage percentage at the time it was set up the cap would be about $180,000 when inflation was calculated into the program. At that rate which is less than the $250K you cited the program would not face any long term deficits. The fix needed is to set the cap at the rate equivalent to what it was at the programs inception. Inflating the numbers used for discussion of the problem adds to people's anxiety.

I think that what we are confronting is a new paradigm for empire. This new form is not necessarily country centric but instead controlled by a small cartel of the internationally wealthy 1%. They maintain their control by using corporations and banks to manipulate capital, while utilizing political structures, media and military force to manage people.

The big issue is that our good friends in Ohio are balloting on the very same electronivc voting machines that appointed GWB43 to a second term. The reversal of re/TEApublican asshattery all depands on Diebold and Sequioa being overwhelmed by democracy in action.

FALSE WE paid for SS & medicare thru our taxes Millions like me paid double SS taxes as self employed. DOUBLE ! Any society that ignores weakest sickest and children is destined to fail as we are unless we wake up and see what GOP Baggers really want GOP # 1 vow was not jobs but to break Obama. ! And to cut SS & medicare that keeps millions of seniors from going without basic needs . Most on medciaid are kids and old & sick who spent all they had and are in nursing homes. GOP wants to gut all that so huge corps / billionaires can get even more cuts & more loopholes and more deregulation that brought us to brink of 2008 deep depression. By the way Ohio Gov Kasich was a Wall St banker Then a FOX' commentator ' That should disqualify him from any elected office which requires honesty integrity & honor . People failthfully watch Fox GOP show and .listen to 800 con radio Rush wannabees. talk shows. that lie smear & spread rumors. .No other Pres except Clinton had to deal with this much hate & lies, and vile name calling. NO other Pres had to take on 28 yrs of Reaganomics Bush 1-2 GOP deregulation, amnesty with open borders for cheap labor, massive debt- 2 long unfunded failed wars based on lies & profits.. killing maiming making more enemies than ever Bushs Iraq war helped Bin laden recruit 1000's more terrorists I voted for Reagan that Charming old guy who spoke of " Shining City on a Hill ' Well that never came to fruition did it ? We got trickle down Reaganomics , deregulation, lack of safe guards, union busting, top tax rate down to a new low 28 % from....75 % - good jobs overseas with tax cuts to boot ! Reagan sold guns to Iran then lied about. it.

Hey, this is great! Imagine the odds of this happening.
Do you know the park in NYC that the Wall Street protesters are occupying?
Zucotti Park.
DId you know this park is not owned by the city?
It is owned by Brookfield Properties.
Who was just hired by Brookfield Properties as an attorney?
Vice President Joe Biden's son.
Who sits on the board of Brookfield Properties?
Mayor Bloomberg's live in girlfriend.
Now, guess what company just recieved some of the last of the Obama Stimulus $$$$$$$.
Thaaaaaaaaaaaaat's right, Brookfield Properties.
Isn't life great!

Interesting implications in Mississippi:

1. Every fertilized egg should now be eligible for life insurance - a huge new market.

2. Every menses will need to be medically checked for a fertilized egg from a spontaneous abortion, which is fairly common and normally unknown. This will be expensive and a boon to medical laboratories. Of course the law will open the door to some kind of manslaugter charges for when the embroyo fails to attach. Looks like a boon for lawyers as well.

Me and my wife Bobbi went to the Voters Site to cast our vote in Taylor Michigan today. Bobbi showed the Voting Administrator her Driver's License and was sent forward, and I presented my Voter Identification Card sent to me from the City Clerk of Taylor, and signed by me. I was turned down and asked to present my Driver's License. Of course, I dug into my wallet and presented my Driver's License...

What's up? What further proof do I need to prove beyond the Voter Identification Card?

Thank you 2950-10k! I suppose it must have something to do with the fact that the rich, being in the minority (not just the top 1% but also those percentages approaching 1% as well), know that unless they control the propaganda, they would have a harder time hording all of that wealth. They need us to believe that they are all more deserving of wealth than the rest of us. And they have their drooling and adoring minions to be a kind of buffer working in their behalf.

Their disinformation schemes include diverting attention away from the fact that they are totally milking us dry while we are told that it is a lazy and undeserving poor who are a on welfare...or medicare...or social security.

Well, I don't know about the first one but many of us have put a lot of our money into the later two and we deserve to reap the benefits of having contributed all our working lives. We have all paid our taxes and we deserve better roads and bridges and infrastructure. But the Wall Street controlled government and military has just p!$$ed it all away on illegal and wasteful wars. The rich just want to get their grubby hands on those "entitlement" funds in order to throw them into the casino-capitalism-bubble-bursting machine.

I was listening to an interview of Catherine Austin Fitts (former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Housing/Federal Housing Commissioner under Bush) on a recent Guns and Butter podcast and she tells a very revealing story of how those she sat in high-level meetings with (Wall Street and Government entities) who were actually openly talking about and planning outright illegal activities and hatching plots to commit fraudulent financial activities and using foul language to show their contempt for the law. These people are gangsters and are very brazen in how they react to laws that restrict their ability to steal from the people. They've already tried to poison Ms. Fitts a couple of times. Of course the sinister laughing hyenas just try to make fun of her..calling her names.

I think history will label the last 30 years as the Gangster Bankster Years...or Gangster Bankster Era...lets hope we find an "Elliot Ness" to clean it all up again. Obama, quite constrary to being who we thought he was...was certainly no 'Elliot Ness' but more of a 'Judas Iscariot'. But I think the people have had enough...as we are seeing in the streets of America. We need to keep the pressure on...or nothing will change and it will get worse.

Reply to 17....Palindromedary:I reposted to clarify my Cato ref. before seeing your reply, didn't want you to think I ran off and joined the Libertarians, although I had a lengthy and respectful debate with a few at the last Occupy Protest I attended. It looks like you got my point anyway. I think a distinction needs to be emphasized between just what an entitlement means in relationship to what corp. welfare is. The latter is totally a free ride, entitlements however are as you indicated something sensible societies collectively agree to pay for. I'm 53 and have paid in for 37 years now, with 14 more to age 67. I think after 51 years of paying in I will be more than "entitled" but if someone less fortunate was unable to go the distance for whatever legitimate reason I'm happy they have a safety net. We are all vulnerable to lifes uncertainties and never know when we may need help. Maybe the unregulated capitalists feel threatened by a not for profit socialized system that has worked well for decades and see a need to end its natural expansion before 99% of us end up as happy as the Scandinavians!

Thom,

I am still looking forward to someone in politics today or even a person with the wealth of Warren Buffet who can shock our nation out of its ambiviant behavior that describes our political environment. We all know the issues, global warming, sustainable energy vs. fossil fuels, corporate profits vs. society stakeholder ship, inequality of capital, debt and deficits, education and infrastructure spending. The malaize that the Reagan Revolution caused that halted the New Deal/Great Society Generation in it's tracks and polarized the two major political parties took 30 to 40 years to impregnate our culture. Special interest, unregulated political funding and the media hype of today turns our center off; only the core of each party seem engaged and they just say no to any compromises, speak blindly into the camera's of the status quo and continuously undermined their patriotic, social and political obligations to our countries future generations.

We need to awaken the center, we need to turn that ambiviant behavior not only into social action but we must set our agenda and goals to correct the course of meandering from our self greed and selfishness of these past four decades and direct it to how we can mobilize our new partners in the center to join us. The 99% set the alarm clock of action but with winter setting in we need to avoid the snooze button and create a functional action plan.

I would prefer to have use of the Democratic Party minus the Blue Democrats as a part of that caucus become that leadership but, we need Obama to think outside the box and actually create the coalition of 60+ Dems and 39- Rep in the Senate with 260+ D in the House to be able to work through the next 12-16 years to turn back towards prosperity as a nation and a people.

I was born in 1957, when I was a kid I did not understand the social issues of Civil Rights, Medicare and the functions needed to protect our country from our capitalist form of economy and the need for regulation. But now I see we need specifically directed regulation to protect banking from imploding, from the continuous use of fossil fuels with a energy tax to enable the next generation of solar, wind and thermal sustainable energy resources.

How do we bring the center to this awakening? How do we create an atmosphere of collaboration within our political system? I find it very ironic that we won the Cold War only to self destruct with self interest, greed, and anger turned inwards. Our attitudes towards immigration, hate towards our government and the paranoid small minority of 18th century socially handicapped when it comes to protecting a women’s right to choose, gay marriage and our new Jim Crow Laws to disenfranchise a faction of our citizens from being able to vote.

Who will become the Koch Brother's equivalent in power brokering a social and political ground game to save ourselves from self destruction? I'm looking, listening and ready to go to work.

JND

Well said.