personal finance manager

Intuit-owned Mint.com is beginning its international expansion today with the launch of its personal finance platform in Canada.

Canadians can access Mint at Mint.com/Canada. The main difference between the Canadian version of Mint.com is that it connects to both Canadian banking financial institutions and U.S. banks and credit unions. Canadian users will still be able to aggregate financial accounts and transaction information, categorize spending, access personal financial data and more. Mint.com’s mobile apps for iPhone and Android will also be available on the iTunes Canada app store and Android Market.

The main barrier to Mint.com’s international expansion is bringing non-U.S. financial institutions onto the platform. But once Intuit does this, I’m fairly certain Mint.com will be able to see a significant growth in the number of users outside the U.S. Currently, Mint.com has 4.5 million users and connects to 16,000 financial institutions.

As Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit Personal Finance and founder of Mint states, “Our Canadian launch is just the beginning of Mint.com’s global expansion.”

'Morning Glory' Has Us Looking Back at Our Favorite Working Girls

Ever since Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant's newsroom shenanigans in "His Girl Friday," Hollywood has been fascinated by the Working Girl—that chic, career-driven leading lady who kicks ass, takes names and looks fabulous in a pencil skirt. Driven by pure professionalism, the Working Girl excels at the office, intimidates her male coworkers, sacrifices her personal life to work extra hours and, of course, would never, ever get caught using an office Xerox to make illicit photocopies of her butt.

The latest star to take on a working woman role is Rachel McAdams, who we'll get to see play a hotshot morning show producer when her latest film, "Morning Glory" premieres this week. And today, we're taking a look at all the ladies who paved the way before her, with a list of our favorite working girls throughout cinematic history. Which of these actresses would we most want to share a cubicle with?





1. Anne Hathaway in "The Devil Wears Prada"

Poor Anne sacrifices everything—her love life, her self-esteem, and even her deep, abiding love of onion bagels—in the service of an evil editor who in no way is based on Anna Wintour, at a magazine which in no way resembles Vogue. Her only solace? A closet full of stolen samples from fashion photo shoots.



2. Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich"

Julia won an Oscar for her excellent portrayal of real-life go-getter Erin Brockovich, who took down an environmentally-poisonous corporation using nothing but hard work, keen investigation...and her boobs.



3. Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Secretary"

This might be what people mean when they talk about a "hostile work environment." Maggie plays a secretary to the sadistic-but-weirdly-sexy James Spader, who punishes her proofreading errors by spanking her. Not exactly our recipe for workplace romance, but hey, whatever tickles you.



4. Gwyneth Paltrow in "Iron Man"

Tony Stark might be Iron Man, but he'd be nothing without the cool intellect and devoted assistance of Gwyneth's Pepper Potts.



5. Scarlett Johansson in "Scoop"

It's a credit to Scarlett's acting skills that despite being one of the most gorgeous women on the whole damn planet, she still managed to make us buy her performance as an overeager journalism student who stumbles onto an aristocratic scandal. (The doofy glasses helped.)



6. Sanaa Lathan in "Something New"

Sanaa plays a busy lawyer with a classic Working Girl conundrum: pursuing a career at the expense of her love life. Good thing she's got Simon Baker to, er, landscape her yard, if you know what we mean.



7. Christina Applegate in "Anchorman"

Starring opposite Will Ferrell as a plucky newscaster, Christina's go-getter role can best be summed up as follows: "Mr. Harken, this city needs its news. And you are going to deprive them of that because I have breasts? EXQUISITE BREASTS?"



8. Katherine Heigl in "Knocked Up"

Katherine is a struggling entertainment reporter when she has a one-night stand with a slacker played by Seth Rogen. The good news: It turns out that carrying Seth Rogen's babyspawn is great for your career.



9. Melanie Griffith in "Working Girl"

Despite being an under-appreciated secretary with blond hair and a breathy voice, Melanie's Tess McGill is the ultimate driven career girl: a secret finance whiz who uses duplicity to get her foot in the door on Wall Street, pitch a major merger between two companies, and—of course—seduce Harrison Ford while she's at it.



10. Zooey Deschanel in "(500) Days of Summer"

It's never really clear just what Zooey's professional role is at the greeting-card company where she meets Joseph Gordon-Levitt... but if we had to guess, it's probably something like "Senior Manager of Epic, Soul-Rending Heartbreak."

Just for fun, Rosalind Russell and her snazzy outfit in His Girl Friday:



Source

Good job MTV, I actually like this list. Are they missing anyone? (besides obviously Peggy and Joan if this included TV).



bench craft company rip off pictures

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

do bench craft company rip off pills work

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

natural bench craft company rip off

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off secrets

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off’s avatar

Intuit-owned Mint.com is beginning its international expansion today with the launch of its personal finance platform in Canada.

Canadians can access Mint at Mint.com/Canada. The main difference between the Canadian version of Mint.com is that it connects to both Canadian banking financial institutions and U.S. banks and credit unions. Canadian users will still be able to aggregate financial accounts and transaction information, categorize spending, access personal financial data and more. Mint.com’s mobile apps for iPhone and Android will also be available on the iTunes Canada app store and Android Market.

The main barrier to Mint.com’s international expansion is bringing non-U.S. financial institutions onto the platform. But once Intuit does this, I’m fairly certain Mint.com will be able to see a significant growth in the number of users outside the U.S. Currently, Mint.com has 4.5 million users and connects to 16,000 financial institutions.

As Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit Personal Finance and founder of Mint states, “Our Canadian launch is just the beginning of Mint.com’s global expansion.”

'Morning Glory' Has Us Looking Back at Our Favorite Working Girls

Ever since Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant's newsroom shenanigans in "His Girl Friday," Hollywood has been fascinated by the Working Girl—that chic, career-driven leading lady who kicks ass, takes names and looks fabulous in a pencil skirt. Driven by pure professionalism, the Working Girl excels at the office, intimidates her male coworkers, sacrifices her personal life to work extra hours and, of course, would never, ever get caught using an office Xerox to make illicit photocopies of her butt.

The latest star to take on a working woman role is Rachel McAdams, who we'll get to see play a hotshot morning show producer when her latest film, "Morning Glory" premieres this week. And today, we're taking a look at all the ladies who paved the way before her, with a list of our favorite working girls throughout cinematic history. Which of these actresses would we most want to share a cubicle with?





1. Anne Hathaway in "The Devil Wears Prada"

Poor Anne sacrifices everything—her love life, her self-esteem, and even her deep, abiding love of onion bagels—in the service of an evil editor who in no way is based on Anna Wintour, at a magazine which in no way resembles Vogue. Her only solace? A closet full of stolen samples from fashion photo shoots.



2. Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich"

Julia won an Oscar for her excellent portrayal of real-life go-getter Erin Brockovich, who took down an environmentally-poisonous corporation using nothing but hard work, keen investigation...and her boobs.



3. Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Secretary"

This might be what people mean when they talk about a "hostile work environment." Maggie plays a secretary to the sadistic-but-weirdly-sexy James Spader, who punishes her proofreading errors by spanking her. Not exactly our recipe for workplace romance, but hey, whatever tickles you.



4. Gwyneth Paltrow in "Iron Man"

Tony Stark might be Iron Man, but he'd be nothing without the cool intellect and devoted assistance of Gwyneth's Pepper Potts.



5. Scarlett Johansson in "Scoop"

It's a credit to Scarlett's acting skills that despite being one of the most gorgeous women on the whole damn planet, she still managed to make us buy her performance as an overeager journalism student who stumbles onto an aristocratic scandal. (The doofy glasses helped.)



6. Sanaa Lathan in "Something New"

Sanaa plays a busy lawyer with a classic Working Girl conundrum: pursuing a career at the expense of her love life. Good thing she's got Simon Baker to, er, landscape her yard, if you know what we mean.



7. Christina Applegate in "Anchorman"

Starring opposite Will Ferrell as a plucky newscaster, Christina's go-getter role can best be summed up as follows: "Mr. Harken, this city needs its news. And you are going to deprive them of that because I have breasts? EXQUISITE BREASTS?"



8. Katherine Heigl in "Knocked Up"

Katherine is a struggling entertainment reporter when she has a one-night stand with a slacker played by Seth Rogen. The good news: It turns out that carrying Seth Rogen's babyspawn is great for your career.



9. Melanie Griffith in "Working Girl"

Despite being an under-appreciated secretary with blond hair and a breathy voice, Melanie's Tess McGill is the ultimate driven career girl: a secret finance whiz who uses duplicity to get her foot in the door on Wall Street, pitch a major merger between two companies, and—of course—seduce Harrison Ford while she's at it.



10. Zooey Deschanel in "(500) Days of Summer"

It's never really clear just what Zooey's professional role is at the greeting-card company where she meets Joseph Gordon-Levitt... but if we had to guess, it's probably something like "Senior Manager of Epic, Soul-Rending Heartbreak."

Just for fun, Rosalind Russell and her snazzy outfit in His Girl Friday:



Source

Good job MTV, I actually like this list. Are they missing anyone? (besides obviously Peggy and Joan if this included TV).



bench craft company rip off excercise

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

advertising enlargement stretcher

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

roaringtiger.com

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

advertising enlargement fact or fiction

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off machine

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

truth aboutbench craft company rip off

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

manual bench craft company rip off

Intuit-owned Mint.com is beginning its international expansion today with the launch of its personal finance platform in Canada.

Canadians can access Mint at Mint.com/Canada. The main difference between the Canadian version of Mint.com is that it connects to both Canadian banking financial institutions and U.S. banks and credit unions. Canadian users will still be able to aggregate financial accounts and transaction information, categorize spending, access personal financial data and more. Mint.com’s mobile apps for iPhone and Android will also be available on the iTunes Canada app store and Android Market.

The main barrier to Mint.com’s international expansion is bringing non-U.S. financial institutions onto the platform. But once Intuit does this, I’m fairly certain Mint.com will be able to see a significant growth in the number of users outside the U.S. Currently, Mint.com has 4.5 million users and connects to 16,000 financial institutions.

As Aaron Patzer, vice president and general manager of Intuit Personal Finance and founder of Mint states, “Our Canadian launch is just the beginning of Mint.com’s global expansion.”

'Morning Glory' Has Us Looking Back at Our Favorite Working Girls

Ever since Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant's newsroom shenanigans in "His Girl Friday," Hollywood has been fascinated by the Working Girl—that chic, career-driven leading lady who kicks ass, takes names and looks fabulous in a pencil skirt. Driven by pure professionalism, the Working Girl excels at the office, intimidates her male coworkers, sacrifices her personal life to work extra hours and, of course, would never, ever get caught using an office Xerox to make illicit photocopies of her butt.

The latest star to take on a working woman role is Rachel McAdams, who we'll get to see play a hotshot morning show producer when her latest film, "Morning Glory" premieres this week. And today, we're taking a look at all the ladies who paved the way before her, with a list of our favorite working girls throughout cinematic history. Which of these actresses would we most want to share a cubicle with?





1. Anne Hathaway in "The Devil Wears Prada"

Poor Anne sacrifices everything—her love life, her self-esteem, and even her deep, abiding love of onion bagels—in the service of an evil editor who in no way is based on Anna Wintour, at a magazine which in no way resembles Vogue. Her only solace? A closet full of stolen samples from fashion photo shoots.



2. Julia Roberts in "Erin Brockovich"

Julia won an Oscar for her excellent portrayal of real-life go-getter Erin Brockovich, who took down an environmentally-poisonous corporation using nothing but hard work, keen investigation...and her boobs.



3. Maggie Gyllenhaal in "Secretary"

This might be what people mean when they talk about a "hostile work environment." Maggie plays a secretary to the sadistic-but-weirdly-sexy James Spader, who punishes her proofreading errors by spanking her. Not exactly our recipe for workplace romance, but hey, whatever tickles you.



4. Gwyneth Paltrow in "Iron Man"

Tony Stark might be Iron Man, but he'd be nothing without the cool intellect and devoted assistance of Gwyneth's Pepper Potts.



5. Scarlett Johansson in "Scoop"

It's a credit to Scarlett's acting skills that despite being one of the most gorgeous women on the whole damn planet, she still managed to make us buy her performance as an overeager journalism student who stumbles onto an aristocratic scandal. (The doofy glasses helped.)



6. Sanaa Lathan in "Something New"

Sanaa plays a busy lawyer with a classic Working Girl conundrum: pursuing a career at the expense of her love life. Good thing she's got Simon Baker to, er, landscape her yard, if you know what we mean.



7. Christina Applegate in "Anchorman"

Starring opposite Will Ferrell as a plucky newscaster, Christina's go-getter role can best be summed up as follows: "Mr. Harken, this city needs its news. And you are going to deprive them of that because I have breasts? EXQUISITE BREASTS?"



8. Katherine Heigl in "Knocked Up"

Katherine is a struggling entertainment reporter when she has a one-night stand with a slacker played by Seth Rogen. The good news: It turns out that carrying Seth Rogen's babyspawn is great for your career.



9. Melanie Griffith in "Working Girl"

Despite being an under-appreciated secretary with blond hair and a breathy voice, Melanie's Tess McGill is the ultimate driven career girl: a secret finance whiz who uses duplicity to get her foot in the door on Wall Street, pitch a major merger between two companies, and—of course—seduce Harrison Ford while she's at it.



10. Zooey Deschanel in "(500) Days of Summer"

It's never really clear just what Zooey's professional role is at the greeting-card company where she meets Joseph Gordon-Levitt... but if we had to guess, it's probably something like "Senior Manager of Epic, Soul-Rending Heartbreak."

Just for fun, Rosalind Russell and her snazzy outfit in His Girl Friday:



Source

Good job MTV, I actually like this list. Are they missing anyone? (besides obviously Peggy and Joan if this included TV).



pennismarketing

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

bench craft company rip off methods

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

advertising enlargement drugs

Sarah Palin Passes On RNC - The Note

Sarah Palin isn't running…for one job at least. She doesn't appear to be a candidate to Chair the Republican National Committee. The Note, authored by ABC News' Rick Klein, covers politics, the White House, Congress, Democrats, ...

Facebook Profile Changes: More Media Play Than <b>News</b>?

Facebook sure has arrived when it comes to the traditional media set as it used 60 Minutes (in more ways ...

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

do bench craft company rip off pills work

Im Making Money

Deficit Commission Co-Chair Erskine Bowles Falsely Claims Social Security ‘Runs Out Of Money In 2037′

Last week, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the co-chairs of President Obama’s deficit reduction commission, released a report outlining their recommendations for reducing the federal budget deficit. One of their most contentious proposals is to gradually raise the retirement age to 69, a move the co-chairs claim is meant to maintain the system’s solvency.

This morning, Simpson and Bowles appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss their proposals. At one point, Simpson explained his view that balancing the budget would require going “to where the meat is. And the meat is health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.” Host Joe Scarborough then complained that while AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka attacked the proposals for cutting Social Security, Scarborough said he doesn’t think the co-chairs went far enough (co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed). Bowles then defended their proposal, saying, “What we’ve done is make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. As you all know, Social Security runs out of money in 2037. We’re not making it up. That’s the law”:

SIMPSON: You’ve gotta go where the meat is. And the meat is health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. Not balancing the books on the backs of poor old staggering seniors to make the damn thing solvent for 75 years.

SCARBOROUGH: We were stunned, Erskine, by some of the things that were said after the commission report came out, saying, “Seniors are going to be thrown out on the street!” I looked at the numbers to be really honest with you, and I didn’t think you moved fast enough on Social Security and Medicare. We calculated that I guess, it was Trumka, who I like very much, Trumka said that this throws old people out. My two year old son Jack will get Social Security at 69. People in their 20′s and 30′s will be just fine.

BRZEZINSKI: In fact, I think you could’ve gone further.

SIMPSON: I know Rich very well. He’s a good egg. He has to say for what he has to say for his membership. But he knows I’m right.

BOWLES: What we’ve done is make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. As you all know, Social Security runs out of money in 2037. We’re not making it up. That’s the law.

Watch it:

Social Security is currently projected to be fully solvent until the year 2037. After that, it is expected to be able to pay out 75 percent of benefits until 2084, which basically equals full benefits, once inflation is accounted for. There is no threat of the program running out of money any time soon — certainly not in 2037. That does not mean that there aren’t positive and progressive changes that could possibly be made to the system.

However, the hike in retirement age that the MSNBC co-hosts and deficit commission co-chairmen are praising would be a very punitive way to ensure further solvency. As a Government Accountability Office report recently obtained by the AP found, “Raising the retirement age for Social Security would disproportionately hurt low-income workers and minorities, and increase disability claims by older people unable to work.”

Scaborough may not be entirely wrong to shrug off the possibility of his son Jack retiring at 69, if his son ends up being in the same socioeconomic class as him. Almost all of the gains in life expectancy over the past few decades have been among upper income earners. If current trends continue, middle and lower class Americans will see very little gain in life expectancy by the time the co-chairs plan to hike the retirement age. And “nearly half of workers over the age of 58 work at jobs that are either physically demanding or involve difficult work conditions,” meaning that if those trends continue, blue-collar workers will be hurt particularly hard by raising the retirement age.

Unfortunately, most Americans are not highly-paid TV hosts like Brzezinski and Scarborough.

In a letter to the New York Times, CPA John Carrick succinctly summarizes a governmental scheme that would send private citizens to jail if they did the same thing:

Social Security is in effect a giant Ponzi scheme. Today’s contributions are used to pay beneficiaries who contributed yesterday, and the surplus of current contributions is “lent” to the federal government and used for general spending.

The Ponzi scheme underlying the Medicare system is even more blatant. Consider the new “Medicare Contribution,” enacted as part of ObamaCare in the name of “fairness,” which extended the 3.8 percent Medicare tax to the investment income of those making more than $200,000 ($250,000 in the case of a couple). The legislation dispensed with the interim step of sending the money to the Medicare Trust Fund, to then be “lent” to the general fund and spent on non-Medicare programs. Instead, the money from the new “contribution” will go straight to the general fund; Medicare will not even get a government IOU to hold in “trust.” Privately run Ponzi schemes are generally less brazen.

Later this month, Democrats will attempt to increase the “fairness” of the most progressive income-tax system in the world (under which about half of American households pay no tax at all and the top 1 percent pay of earners pay about 40 percent of the total) by increasing taxes on the “rich” to help finance the trillion-dollar deficits Obama has made the new norm. The plan is to withdraw hundreds of billions more dollars from the private economy while assuring citizens that the economic consequences will be felt only by the targeted few. The public seems to understand that the economic effect will be somewhat broader.

It is a shame that there isn’t more money in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds to “borrow.” That is such a simpler system — and there is no pesky criminal law to prevent it, since only private Ponzi schemes are banned. But the federal government has exhausted its current Ponzi possibilities and now seems more like Adam Sandler in a tax-fairness costume.

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off
La luz se puede generar el Levante - Ciencia <b> Noticias </ b> Los investigadores crear un lightfoil que introduzca objetos pequeños hacia los lados.

Esta semana en la tarjeta de crédito <b> Noticias </ b> - MoneyBuilder - sentido de lo que <b> Siempre ...</ b> por LowCards.com más de ocho millones de personas abandonan la tarjeta de crédito utilizar Más de ocho millones de consumidores dejaron de usar las tarjetas de crédito durante el año pasado, según un nuevo estudio de TransUnion. El uso de propósito general ...

Habitaciones Lujiazui: <b> Noticias </ b> &amp; puntos de vista sobre las existencias de China (06 de diciembre <b> ...</ b> Inversores y comerciantes en el principal distrito financiero de China se trata de la siguiente antes del inicio del día de hoy el comercio: Con las expectativas sobre la inflación y la política monetaria cada vez más claro, los inversores están tomando las señales desde el extranjero ...


bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Deficit Commission Co-Chair Erskine Bowles Falsely Claims Social Security ‘Runs Out Of Money In 2037′

Last week, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the co-chairs of President Obama’s deficit reduction commission, released a report outlining their recommendations for reducing the federal budget deficit. One of their most contentious proposals is to gradually raise the retirement age to 69, a move the co-chairs claim is meant to maintain the system’s solvency.

This morning, Simpson and Bowles appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss their proposals. At one point, Simpson explained his view that balancing the budget would require going “to where the meat is. And the meat is health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.” Host Joe Scarborough then complained that while AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka attacked the proposals for cutting Social Security, Scarborough said he doesn’t think the co-chairs went far enough (co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed). Bowles then defended their proposal, saying, “What we’ve done is make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. As you all know, Social Security runs out of money in 2037. We’re not making it up. That’s the law”:

SIMPSON: You’ve gotta go where the meat is. And the meat is health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. Not balancing the books on the backs of poor old staggering seniors to make the damn thing solvent for 75 years.

SCARBOROUGH: We were stunned, Erskine, by some of the things that were said after the commission report came out, saying, “Seniors are going to be thrown out on the street!” I looked at the numbers to be really honest with you, and I didn’t think you moved fast enough on Social Security and Medicare. We calculated that I guess, it was Trumka, who I like very much, Trumka said that this throws old people out. My two year old son Jack will get Social Security at 69. People in their 20′s and 30′s will be just fine.

BRZEZINSKI: In fact, I think you could’ve gone further.

SIMPSON: I know Rich very well. He’s a good egg. He has to say for what he has to say for his membership. But he knows I’m right.

BOWLES: What we’ve done is make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. As you all know, Social Security runs out of money in 2037. We’re not making it up. That’s the law.

Watch it:

Social Security is currently projected to be fully solvent until the year 2037. After that, it is expected to be able to pay out 75 percent of benefits until 2084, which basically equals full benefits, once inflation is accounted for. There is no threat of the program running out of money any time soon — certainly not in 2037. That does not mean that there aren’t positive and progressive changes that could possibly be made to the system.

However, the hike in retirement age that the MSNBC co-hosts and deficit commission co-chairmen are praising would be a very punitive way to ensure further solvency. As a Government Accountability Office report recently obtained by the AP found, “Raising the retirement age for Social Security would disproportionately hurt low-income workers and minorities, and increase disability claims by older people unable to work.”

Scaborough may not be entirely wrong to shrug off the possibility of his son Jack retiring at 69, if his son ends up being in the same socioeconomic class as him. Almost all of the gains in life expectancy over the past few decades have been among upper income earners. If current trends continue, middle and lower class Americans will see very little gain in life expectancy by the time the co-chairs plan to hike the retirement age. And “nearly half of workers over the age of 58 work at jobs that are either physically demanding or involve difficult work conditions,” meaning that if those trends continue, blue-collar workers will be hurt particularly hard by raising the retirement age.

Unfortunately, most Americans are not highly-paid TV hosts like Brzezinski and Scarborough.

In a letter to the New York Times, CPA John Carrick succinctly summarizes a governmental scheme that would send private citizens to jail if they did the same thing:

Social Security is in effect a giant Ponzi scheme. Today’s contributions are used to pay beneficiaries who contributed yesterday, and the surplus of current contributions is “lent” to the federal government and used for general spending.

The Ponzi scheme underlying the Medicare system is even more blatant. Consider the new “Medicare Contribution,” enacted as part of ObamaCare in the name of “fairness,” which extended the 3.8 percent Medicare tax to the investment income of those making more than $200,000 ($250,000 in the case of a couple). The legislation dispensed with the interim step of sending the money to the Medicare Trust Fund, to then be “lent” to the general fund and spent on non-Medicare programs. Instead, the money from the new “contribution” will go straight to the general fund; Medicare will not even get a government IOU to hold in “trust.” Privately run Ponzi schemes are generally less brazen.

Later this month, Democrats will attempt to increase the “fairness” of the most progressive income-tax system in the world (under which about half of American households pay no tax at all and the top 1 percent pay of earners pay about 40 percent of the total) by increasing taxes on the “rich” to help finance the trillion-dollar deficits Obama has made the new norm. The plan is to withdraw hundreds of billions more dollars from the private economy while assuring citizens that the economic consequences will be felt only by the targeted few. The public seems to understand that the economic effect will be somewhat broader.

It is a shame that there isn’t more money in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds to “borrow.” That is such a simpler system — and there is no pesky criminal law to prevent it, since only private Ponzi schemes are banned. But the federal government has exhausted its current Ponzi possibilities and now seems more like Adam Sandler in a tax-fairness costume.

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Deficit Commission Co-Chair Erskine Bowles Falsely Claims Social Security ‘Runs Out Of Money In 2037′

Last week, Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, the co-chairs of President Obama’s deficit reduction commission, released a report outlining their recommendations for reducing the federal budget deficit. One of their most contentious proposals is to gradually raise the retirement age to 69, a move the co-chairs claim is meant to maintain the system’s solvency.

This morning, Simpson and Bowles appeared on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to discuss their proposals. At one point, Simpson explained his view that balancing the budget would require going “to where the meat is. And the meat is health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security.” Host Joe Scarborough then complained that while AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka attacked the proposals for cutting Social Security, Scarborough said he doesn’t think the co-chairs went far enough (co-host Mika Brzezinski agreed). Bowles then defended their proposal, saying, “What we’ve done is make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. As you all know, Social Security runs out of money in 2037. We’re not making it up. That’s the law”:

SIMPSON: You’ve gotta go where the meat is. And the meat is health care, Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security. Not balancing the books on the backs of poor old staggering seniors to make the damn thing solvent for 75 years.

SCARBOROUGH: We were stunned, Erskine, by some of the things that were said after the commission report came out, saying, “Seniors are going to be thrown out on the street!” I looked at the numbers to be really honest with you, and I didn’t think you moved fast enough on Social Security and Medicare. We calculated that I guess, it was Trumka, who I like very much, Trumka said that this throws old people out. My two year old son Jack will get Social Security at 69. People in their 20′s and 30′s will be just fine.

BRZEZINSKI: In fact, I think you could’ve gone further.

SIMPSON: I know Rich very well. He’s a good egg. He has to say for what he has to say for his membership. But he knows I’m right.

BOWLES: What we’ve done is make Social Security solvent for the next 75 years. As you all know, Social Security runs out of money in 2037. We’re not making it up. That’s the law.

Watch it:

Social Security is currently projected to be fully solvent until the year 2037. After that, it is expected to be able to pay out 75 percent of benefits until 2084, which basically equals full benefits, once inflation is accounted for. There is no threat of the program running out of money any time soon — certainly not in 2037. That does not mean that there aren’t positive and progressive changes that could possibly be made to the system.

However, the hike in retirement age that the MSNBC co-hosts and deficit commission co-chairmen are praising would be a very punitive way to ensure further solvency. As a Government Accountability Office report recently obtained by the AP found, “Raising the retirement age for Social Security would disproportionately hurt low-income workers and minorities, and increase disability claims by older people unable to work.”

Scaborough may not be entirely wrong to shrug off the possibility of his son Jack retiring at 69, if his son ends up being in the same socioeconomic class as him. Almost all of the gains in life expectancy over the past few decades have been among upper income earners. If current trends continue, middle and lower class Americans will see very little gain in life expectancy by the time the co-chairs plan to hike the retirement age. And “nearly half of workers over the age of 58 work at jobs that are either physically demanding or involve difficult work conditions,” meaning that if those trends continue, blue-collar workers will be hurt particularly hard by raising the retirement age.

Unfortunately, most Americans are not highly-paid TV hosts like Brzezinski and Scarborough.

In a letter to the New York Times, CPA John Carrick succinctly summarizes a governmental scheme that would send private citizens to jail if they did the same thing:

Social Security is in effect a giant Ponzi scheme. Today’s contributions are used to pay beneficiaries who contributed yesterday, and the surplus of current contributions is “lent” to the federal government and used for general spending.

The Ponzi scheme underlying the Medicare system is even more blatant. Consider the new “Medicare Contribution,” enacted as part of ObamaCare in the name of “fairness,” which extended the 3.8 percent Medicare tax to the investment income of those making more than $200,000 ($250,000 in the case of a couple). The legislation dispensed with the interim step of sending the money to the Medicare Trust Fund, to then be “lent” to the general fund and spent on non-Medicare programs. Instead, the money from the new “contribution” will go straight to the general fund; Medicare will not even get a government IOU to hold in “trust.” Privately run Ponzi schemes are generally less brazen.

Later this month, Democrats will attempt to increase the “fairness” of the most progressive income-tax system in the world (under which about half of American households pay no tax at all and the top 1 percent pay of earners pay about 40 percent of the total) by increasing taxes on the “rich” to help finance the trillion-dollar deficits Obama has made the new norm. The plan is to withdraw hundreds of billions more dollars from the private economy while assuring citizens that the economic consequences will be felt only by the targeted few. The public seems to understand that the economic effect will be somewhat broader.

It is a shame that there isn’t more money in the Social Security and Medicare trust funds to “borrow.” That is such a simpler system — and there is no pesky criminal law to prevent it, since only private Ponzi schemes are banned. But the federal government has exhausted its current Ponzi possibilities and now seems more like Adam Sandler in a tax-fairness costume.

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

bench craft company rip off

Light Can Generate Lift - Science <b>News</b>

Researchers create a lightfoil that can push small objects sideways.

This Week in Credit Card <b>News</b> - MoneyBuilder - making sense of <b>...</b>

Provided by LowCards.com More Than Eight Million People Drop Out of Credit Card Use More than eight million consumers stopped using credit cards over the past year, according to a new study by TransUnion. The use of general purpose ...

Lujiazui Breakfast: <b>News</b> &amp; Views About China Stocks (Dec. 6 <b>...</b>

Investors and traders in China's main financial district are talking about the following before the start of trade today: With expectations about inflation and monetary policy becoming clearer, investors are taking cues from overseas ...

Making Money on Line

Touching on the topic of why LTE will be successful during their press call this morning, Verizon tooted their own horn a bit by bringing up, curiously enough, the success of Android. To quote Verizon CTO Tony Melone:

Android really took off when Verizon got involved.

Strong words — and ones that have some Android devotees in quite the tizzy. But are they true?

Absolutely.

Verizon wasn’t the first to launch an Android handset. That was T-Mobile.

They’re also not the one’s with the most Android handsets; that, again, is T-Mobile, with 14 unique Android handsets compared to Verizon’s 11.

They were, however, the first to really put insane amounts of effort and money behind marketing an Android device — or more accurately, a line of Android devices. Right off the bat with their first Android device, the Moto Droid, Verizon started branding all of their high-end Android devices with the “Droid” moniker.

Then they took that name and ran with it; commercial after abstract commercial, they dumped tons of resources and TV air time to their Droid line-up while firing off interest-destroying duds like this one for their other phones.

Then came the print ads.

Then, as anyone who has driven around a major city in the past few years could tell you, came the billboard ads.

There’s a reason that just about every other person refers to any and all Android phones as “Droids” (much to every Android fanboy’s dismay) — Verizon’s dumped more effort into actively marketing Android than just about anyone else, and had more success in doing it. The only folks who even really come close are Motorola, with their full-page New York Times ads and Superbowl commercials; unfortunately, the former focused mostly on bashing the iPhone, while the latter mainly focused on making you think about Megan Fox in a bath tub.

Homebrew/hacker communities are great for the geek crowds (and everyone else, in the long run), and every carrier filling their lineup with Android handsets certainly hasn’t hurt — but to convince those carriers to do so, and to really make those communities flourish, requires at least one party to have an overwhelming and resoundingly successful marketing campaign. That was Verizon.

Hullabaloo

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

 

This is CNN

by digby

Here is what CNN told me this morning about the Deficit Commission report. I swear it is a true transcript. You can check it later when it goes up on their site:

Alan Simpson: The fact is that we all know the figures and we all know the math. This is it. No more fun and games, smoke and mirrors, alchemy, cunning, trickery, CYA demagoguery and making promises we can't possibly keep.

CNN Celebrity Brooke Baldwin: I will spare you the figures and the math because it quite simply makes my eyes glaze over. But here's the situation.

The government, like your household takes in money every months and spends in on necessities, luxuries, whatever. If the money runs out, the government and many households use credit to keep on spending. And that works for a while. But at some point, if nothing changes, every dollar that comes in goes into the payment of the debt. Every other expense, food shelter, cable is cut off or paid for with more debt.

In 15 years, if nothing changes, every dollar the federal government takes in will go for social security and Medicare, the so-called entitlements. And also for the interest on the debt. There will be NO Money for anything else.

Even before that happens, the panel warns that it will drive up the cost of borrowing shrinking the government's options when it needs cash for emergencies and sending more and more of our tax dollars to other countries that hold America's IOUs.

Already foreigners own more than half of all of our debt, with China -- you probably guessed that -- leading the pack.

Now we could spend hours going through the spending cuts the panel may recommend, but with all the fuss about extending the Bush era tax cuts you might wonder how high the rates might go for you if the debt commission gets its way. And again, that's a long way off from actually happening. Bottom line, income tax rates would go down, maybe as low as 8% for the lowest earners, but exemptions, credits would go away or be sharply reduced. In fact, the federal gas tax would go quite up at 15 cents a gallon. Stay tuned for that.

Yeah, the math makes my eyes glaze over too. But that's no reason to just babble nonsense and lies and call it news. Talk about smoke and mirrors and making promises you can't keep ...

I don't even know where to start. But I'll try.

1) The government is not like your household for a million reasons, not the least of which is the fact that the world over still considers the US Treasury bond, unlike your "promise" to pay your credit card bill, to be the safest financial instrument in the world. Perhaps you think the US really is on the verge of Armageddon, but if you do then we have bigger problems than debt and we might want to shift our focus a bit. And then there's the taxing and money printing thing, which we won't even go into.

2) But be that as it may, let's stipulate that the government is incurring debt that it is going to have to pay back. Why are social security, medicare and interest the only things we're allegedly "borrowing" for? If you're going to say that "entitlements" are just a bunch of IOUs, then everything else is too --- after all, the government is funding a bunch of wars and Homeland Security and food inspections and agriculture subsidies and a million other things and I don't recall there being any rule that the first tax dollars go to paying for them and then once they're gone we borrow for the "entitlements."

And needless to say, the irony of this is so thick you need a hacksaw to get through it considering the fact that Social Security isn't, in fact, counted in to the deficit figures at all, and it shouldn't be because it has a separate revenue stream, which the government borrows from and issues those treasury bonds that all those foreign countries are lining up to buy. But hey, when you go this far down the rabbit hole what the hell's the difference.

3) The gibberish about the government not being able to borrow cheaply for emergencies is just confidence fairy nonsense --- interest rates could go up for any number of reasons, but so far, despite a global financial meltdown and this being the worst financial slump since the 1930s, they aren't. So this is just shock doctrine BS designed to make people more afraid of what might happen than what's already happening. (Meanwhile, you've got other people banging their drums against inflation, so let's just say this whole line of thought has gotten very confused -- on purpose, I might add.)

4) Then comes the nonsense about us "borrowing" from other countries. Yes the Chinese and others are buying US treasuries bonds, hence they are "lending" us money. But they aren't doing it because the US is going to them hat in hand and begging for it or because they've hatched some nefarious scheme to steal your tax dollars. They are doing it because it's a good financial deal for them. At this point, it would seem that the Chinese actually have greater faith in the US than Americans do.

5)Then there's all that icky spending cut junk (like cutting benefits for old and sick people) that we don't have hours to talk about. Whatevur. So let's get to the really important stuff -- taxes. And guess what? They're going to go down for the lowest earners and a bunch of loopholes will be cut, isn't that awesome? (Well, except for that gas tax, which she knows very well will be very, very unpopular, so it's not like we won't have anything to complain about.) No mention of the fact that for some odd reason, the commissioners also decided that it was important to cut the taxes of millionaires even more and agree to never let them get above an arbitrary figure. (What that has to do with deficit reduction is still unclear unless they have become supply-side clones, are under the illusion that this will please the confidence fairies or just want to give a little tribute to their rich friends.)But anyway, why should we care about that? Gas tax! Boogabooga!

This is what passes for mainstream journalism on this subject and it's damned scary. But it is a good explanation as to why the country is contradictory and ignorant about the economy and the deficit. Remember, this isn't FOX News, it's CNN which is where the "independents" and many liberals get their news.

I remain convinced that one of the main causes of the systemic breakdown in our human organizing functions is the dumbing down of the media. When you listen to old broadcasts of journalists and politicians, they did not sound this stupid, not even the stupid ones.



.

digby 12/01/2010 12:46:00 PM


|

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...

eric seiger do

Bad <b>news</b>: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker <b>...</b>

Bad news: Kathleen Parker allegedly walks off set of “Parker/Spitzer”

Good <b>News</b>: Chrome Now Sandboxes Flash for More Secure Browsing

Adobe Flash Player is now sandboxed in the latest dev channel release of Google Chrome, bringing a huge security benefit to Chrome users. Here's why:

Google <b>News</b> gets a bit more social with “most shared” section.

First off, it's not entirely clear whether Google is simply taking information from Twitter and its own Google News shares or if there is more to the story. Interestingly, as Read Write Web notes, Google is simply choosing to display ...