Say Anything Blog

From South Dakota Politics: For those keeping score at home: Afghanistan, Iraq, Ukraine, Palestinian Authority, Egypt (maybe) and now a…...

Jeff Jarvis has been defending himself a lot lately. It appears to be increasingly hard to be a patriotic Democrat.…...

As I'm sure you're all aware comments have been weird all day today. Some of them have been mangled by…...

ABC (AP) - Two-thirds of those who say they're doing an excellent job of preparing for retirement support Bush's plan…...

ABC (AP) - A suicide car bomber blasted a crowd of police and national guard recruits Monday as they gathered…...

One of our frequent contributors wrote, in this post, a short quiz which, I believe, he thinks will show your…...

Columbia Spectator - Last February, Columbia students spent Black Heritage Month protesting a series of racially charged incidents on campus…...

Getting rid of Saddam militarily was always the right thing to do, and was something that had to be done…...

Howard Dean speaking in Kansas: "The issue is not abortion," Dean told the closed-door fund-raiser. "The issue is whether women…...

Uh oh... WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.N. officials fear the sex-abuse scandal among peacekeepers in Africa is far more widespread and…...

I understood Canada's decision not to take part in our missile defense system (though I'm not entirely convinced its the…...

Democratic Talk Radio exists to, according to its website, "spread the message of the Democratic Party and to provide an…...

A terrific column today in U.S. News by John Leo. Here's an excerpt. Liberals have been slow to grasp the…...

TruthOut - Kerry-Edwards 2004 has just made two filings in the Ohio recount case currently pending before Federal Judge Edmund…...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Iraqi security forces captured Saddam Hussein's half-brother and former adviser, government officials said Sunday, dealing a blow…...

If you watch the latest Ward Churchill temper tantrum, you'll see that he hits Raj Chohan of CBS4 News Denver…...

A while back a reader suggested that I do another caption contest. Always one aiming to please my readers, here…...

Those who are opposed to President Bush's Social Security reforms often tell us that there is no crisis facing the program. In support of that statement they tell us that the date the President has given us for when Social Security will reach critical mass, approximately a decade or so from now, is really just the point at which Social Security will cease to have a surplus and will have to start paying out of its trust fund. Which sounds reasonable enough, until you find out what exactly this "trust fund" is all about. PARKERSBURG, W.Va. - The Social Security trust fund really does exist --� nestled in the bottom drawer of an unremarkable government file cabinet. It's in a pair of white loose-leaf notebooks holding plastic page covers. Each caresses a piece of paper representing a bond worth a staggering amount of money. Say, $8,577,396,000.00 ($8.577 billion), due on June 30, 2013, with 6.5 percent interest. . . . "The paper is symbolic," says Pete Hollenbach, spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Public Debt, the creation of a 1994 law that anticipated the current debate about Social Security's solvency and whether the trust funds held anything more than IOUs. As the computer era flowered, Congress passed legislation requiring the Treasury to create a "physical document in form of bond, note or certificate of indebtedness, rather than accounting entry." Or, in other words, a big fat IOU for $8+ billion. That's the safety net that Democrats want you to believe exists. But the government will surely pay it back when we need it, right? Well of course they will if we reach that point, but who's money do you think the government uses to pay off such debts? The people's money of course. Any way you cut it the American people get the pointy end of the stick. If we stay with the current system we're either going to get a big tax hike or a major cut in Social Security benefits. Which isn't to say that President Bush's plan is the best one out there. I certainly don't like the way he's talking about raising taxes to accomplish it, but given the hopeless reality of the current situation doesn't it behoove Democrats to at least offer an alternative? There are plenty of alternatives to Bush's plan floating around, why aren't they latching on to one of these? I'll tell you why: Its because they're playing partisan politics with this issue. They don't want to see Social Security fixed during a Republican administration. Regardless of how bad the situation is, they want to push it off until a time when they can fix it under a Democrat administration. And frankly, that's more than a little bit appalling....

Hmm... NEW ORLEANS -- A federal judge ruled Friday that Congress and legislative bodies can open their sessions with prayers,…...

Hmm... WorldNetDaily - A Republican lawmaker in Maine has introduced a bill to prohibit abortions based on the sexual orientation…...

For those of you who would like a simple list of many of the terrorists we are at war with,…...

Earlier I did a post about Hunter Thompson's suicide questioning some of reactions to his decision to kill himself. I…...

The Telegraph has a great interview with Colin Powell. The whole thing is worth reading, but this part from the…...

I know the Bureau of Economic Analysis is supposed to be both competent and non-partisan. So it must be merely…...

I have long been of the opinion that the liberation of Iraq and subsequent establishment of democracy there would serve…...

These guys... ...are crazy. Kind of makes me homesick though....

Matt Drudge has some ratings up for various cable news shows. Here's the list with the ratings. FNC O'REILLY 2,181,000…...

Hmm... NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Location and hours flexible, pay good. The job may seem onerous to some, however: watching…...

Big News - Iraq's successful election last month appears to have reinvigorated interest by some non-U.S. nations in supporting Washington's…...

What the... From Fox News: Tonight ... "The O'Reilly Factor" is on from Los Angeles! Is the mainstream media treating…...

Hmm... TOPEKA, Kan. - Before his selection as DNC chairman this month, Dean said he would bolster local and state…...

It looks like former Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge will be joining Home Depot's board of directors. Which isn't all…...

Rocky Mountain News has an in-depth description of Hunter Thompson's last day before he committed suicide. Its very detailed and…...

Did you know that Ward Churchill, in addition to being a hateful America-basher, is also an artist? Here's an example…...

Back in November of last year Kevin Sites, a journalist/photographer embedded in Iraq, released video which appeared to show a…...

Salon - Ordinarily, revelations that a former male prostitute, using an alias (Jeff Gannon) and working for a phony news…...

Ever wanted to have a video run-down of all the sex, violence and just plain nasty stuff that was played…...

BRATISLAVA, Slovakia (AP) --� It was a firm presidential handshake. But technically speaking, since he didn't take off his gloves, President Bush didn't press the flesh when he greeted top Slovak officials. And that was an apparent violation of protocol in Slovakia, where leaders always shake with bare hands. The wardrobe malfunction caused a stir Wednesday night in Slovakia, where Bush's arrival for Thursday's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin was shown live on national television. Deana Lutherova, an expert in Slovak manners and protocol, said Bush's failure to remove his black leather gloves when greeting the country's president, prime minister and other dignitaries was unheard of here. Bush kept the gloves on even when shaking hands with the Slovak leaders' wives. First Lady Laura Bush also remained gloved at Bratislava's airport Wednesday night, when the temperature was just above freezing. A call to the State Department's protocol office inquiring what U.S. guidelines say about gloves and handshaking at the highest levels was not immediately returned. Scandalous....

Lets hope he didn't have tacos. Sent to me by my friend Ryan, who tells me that he's done this…...

A young girl in Great Britain was thought by doctors there to have Bulbar Palsy, a condition that prevents you…...