Month: February 2005

Critics of President Bush’s plans for social security reform often hide their reflexive opposition to all things Bush behind a mask of “original intent”, claiming that the system has always been intended to make workers support retirees, so there’s something blasphemous about the private account system that makes everyone accountable for his own retirement. So let’s look at FDR’s actual intent, as expressed in this letter he sent to Congress in 1935:

In the important field of security for our old people, it seems necessary to adopt three principles: First, noncontributory old-age pensions for those who are now too old to build up their own insurance. It is, of course, clear that for perhaps 30 years to come funds will have to be provided by the States and the Federal Government to meet these pensions. Second, compulsory contributory annuities which in time will establish a self-supporting system for those now young and for future generations. Third, voluntary contributory annuities by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age. It is proposed that the Federal Government assume one-half of the cost of the old-age pension plan, which ought ultimately to be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans.

According to the Original Design, the Ponzi Scheme should have ended in 1965, and we should be well into a system of self-supporting annuity plans.

The question the reflexive critics really should be asking is why we aren’t.

Overall, the turnout looks higher than expected, according to the Washington Post:

Election officials said they expect the final results to show a higher-than-expected turnout among the nation’s 14 million eligible voters, although Sunni Arabs are believed to have voted in much smaller numbers than the Shiites or Kurds.

But allegations are surfacing about vote-counting issues in Mosul:

Sunni politicians complain that voting irregularities in Mosul, Iraq’s third largest city with a mostly Sunni population, deprived many Sunni Arabs, as well as Kurds and Christians, of their right to vote. The election commission has sent a team to Mosul to investigate.

It’s probably not as bad as Seattle, but these things do have to be investigated.

New York Times says polling places in Kurdish parts of mainly-Sunni Mosul were closed:

A member of the election commission, Safwat Rashid, a 59-year-old lawyer from Sulaimaniya, in the Kurdish region, was evasive about the turnout, implying it might end up significantly lower than the initial estimate. The figure has been see-sawing as a result of protests being fielded by the commission about irregularities in the voting and in some of the counting. There was also a dispute in Mosul involving large numbers of would-be voters in mainly Kurdish districts who had found polling centers closed, or with too few ballot papers to accommodate an unexpectedly large number of voters. “Only God Almighty knows the final turnout now,” Mr. Rashid said.

This is too much like Seattle, home of the Great Northwestern Coup of 2005, for comfort.

Instapundit makes a couple of salient points:

Another blast from the past: Harry Reid used to support Social Security reform: “Most of us have no problem with taking a small amount of the Social Security proceeds and putting it into the private sector.”

Interestingly, so did FDR: “In a written statement to Congress in 1935, Roosevelt said that any Social Security plans should include, ‘Voluntary contributory annuities, by which individual initiative can increase the annual amounts received in old age,’ adding that government funding, ‘ought to ultimately be supplanted by self-supporting annuity plans.'”

Now that’s a real blast from the past. Is it “ultimately” yet?

Indeed, and our condolences for his being fired from The Apprentice last night. Better luck next time and all that.

The first ten percent of votes counted in Iraq show al Sistani’s United Iraqi Alliance comfortably ahead of Allawi’s ticket, by about a 3-1 margin. LA Times has the same story, but WaPo, USAT, and WSJ are silent; not as silent as Riverbend who still hasn’t acknowledged any election took place, but silent about the numbers.

Perhaps ole Riverbend’s in Marin County after all.

UPDATE: OK, the WaPo has updated with an AP version of the same basic story as the others, just a little less emphasis on dead Marines than the sensationalist LA paper.

UPDATE: The Washington Post reports that overall turnout was higher than expected. Bummer, lefties.

Bush gave a confident, solid, and somewhat uplifting speech on two important themes, while Democrats offered a laughably sad rebuttal consisting of a Vegas politico bleeding for the children and a Frisco pacifist pretending to rattle the saber for national defense while main-lining botox.

Forecast: 50 years of Republican government.

For a more elaborated review, see Jeff Goldstein, and for a more emotional one, see Roger L. Simon:

Like him or not, George Bush has done something never before done in human history by anyone I can think of — bring democracy to a faraway country that didn’t have it by force of his own will (because there’s no way this would have happened had he not been elected). No one, not even Roosevelt, can say as much.

Polling-wise, 86% had a positive reaction.

Mickey Kaus sees the silver lining in John Kerry’s dismal and pathetic appearance on Meet the Press:

P.S.: Patriot of the Week Award goes to Sen. John Kerry for appearing on Meet the Press and being just as petty, negative, solipsistic (“I laid out four steps”), self-serving, inarticulate and semi-delusional as his many reluctant supporters feared he might be in office, thereby allowing millions of Democrats and independents to feel more comfortable with their president and putting in place the preconditions for a vast, bipartisan coming-together surge of national unity! … A deeply satisfying performance. … He could have been good! But no–he chose instead to sacrifice his own popularity for his country. …

Good point.