John Stewart last night

[rwork]

Showed clip of AWOL holding his Town Hall meeting to discuss Soc Sec.John mentioned that this was a hand picked crowd.Awol was his usual stumbling self when he does'nt have his tele prompter.He talked to an Afro American next to him and said A.A.'s don't live as long as white people so they would really get a big benifit by being able to invest a portion of their S.S.early in life.It is amazing that you never see these @$#% up's on network tv.

[LiberalEsto]

1. Call it "censored tv"

instead of "network tv." That's a way of reframing it.

[Dhalgren]

6. Good framing! "Censored TV" - I love it and will use it!

[elehhhhna]

2. re: black men not collecting Soc Sec.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=2945066

[gordianot]

8. Awful negligence and abuse.

Who says Repub's are not savvy to Social Engineering?

[mdhunter]

3. A semi related note

A recent study about the true cost of smoking, per pack, had to take into account ways in which smoking actually benefitted society.

The authors were forced to conclude that since smokers die earlier, and don't draw as many payments, their social security contributions were a net gain for society.

If I recall smoking still cost over $10 a pack though. The principle is the same, die young, help the rest of us out. That doesn't excuse his saying so on national TV, however, especially in the context of race, and especially in the context of race when the system you're selling is a lie.

[grumpy old fart]

5. Off the subject, but I never thought the tobacco companies should have ...

folded their tents so fast when several states sued them. Lost in the added health care costs the states sought to recover was the fact that the states collected billions of dollars in "sin" taxes on the cigs, and were complicit in the distribution......in addition to the early death savings you cite...

[mdhunter]

7. Ooooh, state's complicity, I like that.

I'd never thought about their revenue stream and the interest they might have had to keep it going.

I had thought that states awarded settlements, like NC, that made the growing and processing of tobacco a main industry were at least somewhat duplicitous in that regard. They didn't seem to mind killing other people so long as it provided jobs, but once the jobs started to dwindle, suddenly the health of North Carolians was of grave concern.

I have a small violin around here somewhere.

[grumpy old fart]

4. And the poor guy sitting next to *....

looked like, "I have no idea what you're trying to say. But, can I have $240,000 to promote it?"

[In Truth We Trust]

9. Lewis Black "Back in Black" Rocks!

he did a piece on the 1/6 challenge which was quite funny and more than overdue.

[skypilot]

10. African-Americans aren't going to live as long...

...so they might as well blown their hard-earned money on the stock market.:eyes: Dickhead.

[JDPriestly]

11. I don't understand

What does Bush mean? Is Bush suggesting that young people who put their money into privatized accounts would be allowed to withdraw it at a younger age than they would be able to draw on Social Security? Does he mean that a person who dies before the official age for drawing on Social Security will "own" the money in a private account and be able to bequeath it to someone else?

Bush plans to borrow money to fund the privatization. Where does he propose to get the money to pay back that money? From the profits of the privatized accounts? What if there aren't any, or not enough? From increased payroll deductions into the system? If so, why bother with privatization? Why not just increase the payroll deductions and cover the Social Security shortfall that Bush is predicting? Has Bush explained how he is going to pay back the money borrowed to fund his privatization plan?

Compare Bush's plan to a life insurance policy. Most policies don't pay anything if you die before the age at which the policy matures. Policies that pay cash if you live beyond that date cost a lot of money. Has Bush thought this through at all?

[AllyCat]

12. He doesn't have to pay back that money.

By the time it's time to pay the piper, he will be long gone and the American people will forget about it as it just becomes part of the anonymous bubble called the national debt.