Tomorrow is the big day that we (my film crew and I) set off for Memphis to begin work on our Documentary, Beale Street Blue. Posting could be light to non-existent for the next three weeks, although I anticipate that I will be able to post updates on our progress as we slog though quite a few consecutive 14 hour days. As always, I urge you to keep checking back every day. That’s what keeps me going—knowing that you are reading.
The Republican “Sky is Falling” Crowd Is Hard at Work Trying to Convince Us that Social Security Won’t Be There For Us When We Retire.
They Lie.
“Tan Man” John the Boner, the Asshat Republican leader in the House, was all “Woe is Us” the other day about Social Security and suggested that if we just raise the age of eligibility age to 70, all of our problems would be solved. This, of course, is utter and complete bullshit.
Here’s some truth to lift your spirits:
Five Myths About Social Security:
Myth: Social Security is going broke.
Reality: There is no Social Security crisis.By 2023, Social Security will have a $4.3 trillion surplus (yes, trillion with a 'T'). It can pay out all scheduled benefits for the next quarter-century with no changes whatsoever.After 2037, it'll still be able to pay out 75% of scheduled benefits--and again, that's without any changes. The program started preparing for the Baby Boomers retirement decades ago.Anyone who insists Social Security is broke probably wants to break it themselves.
Myth: We have to raise the retirement age because people are living longer.
Reality: This is a red-herring to trick you into agreeing to benefit cuts.Retirees are living about the same amount of time as they were in the 1930s. The reason average life expectancy is higher is mostly because many fewer people die as children than did 70 years ago.
What's more, what gains there have been are distributed very unevenly--since 1972, life expectancy increased by 6.5 years for workers in the top half of the income brackets, but by less than 2 years for those in the bottom half. But those intent on cutting Social Security love this argument because raising the retirement age is the same as an across-the-board benefit cut.
Myth: Benefit cuts are the only way to fix Social Security.
Reality: Social Security doesn't need to be fixed.But if we want to strengthen it, here's a better way: Make the rich pay their fair share. If the very rich paid taxes on all of their income, Social Security would be sustainable for decades to come.Right now, high earners only pay Social Security taxes on the first $106,000 of their income.
But conservatives insist benefit cuts are the only way because they want to protect the super-rich from paying their fair share.
Myth: The Social Security Trust Fund has been raided and is full of IOUs.
Reality: Not even close to true.The Social Security Trust Fund isn't full of IOUs, it's full of U.S. Treasury Bonds. And those bonds are backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.
The reason Social Security holds only treasury bonds is the same reason many Americans do: The federal government has never missed a single interest payment on its debts. President Bush wanted to put Social Security funds in the stock market--which would have been disastrous--but luckily, he failed. So the trillions of dollars in the Social Security Trust Fund, which are separate from the regular budget, are as safe as can be.
Myth: Social Security adds to the deficit.
Reality: It's not just wrong -- it's impossible!By law, Social Security funds are separate from the budget, and it must pay its own way. That means that Social Security can't add one penny to the deficit.
I have no idea what it’s going to taste like, but I’m going to serve it ala mode. This is the first pie I’ve cooked in years. Somebody gave a me a bunch of beautiful South Carolina peaches so I peeled ‘em and put them up. I’ll let you know tomorrow how it tastes.
On March 21st, 2003 (the first full day of Shock and Awe in Iraq) after an all-night flight from New York City, I found myself on a Brasilian beach, totally mesmerized by the sheer brilliance of the colors—the color of the water, the trees, the flowers, the earth and, of course, the Brasilians themselves with their beautiful, coffee-colored skins and their dangerously skimpy beach attire (or non-attire as some would say.)
I asked a beautiful Brasileira who spoke just a spattering of English what beach on the Island was most popular with the locals. She told me that the natives congregated in droves every weekend at a place called Bar do Chico on the east side of the island. To my utter delight, I found that small piece of heaven the next morning and it changed my life. The proprietor, Fransisco 'Chico’ Daniel, was an octogenarian native of the island with a very large family (13 children and myriad grandchildren, nieces and nephews, etc.) He supported his household mostly as a fisherman— but had more or less retired in his mid sixties to run this little oceanfront bar and grill.
As it turned out, I settled in there in Campeche for almost five years. I visited Seu Chico’s restaurant almost every Saturday and Sunday, and lots of weekdays too. You might say, I became a 'Chicorite' regular, and thereby a sort of local in my own right. I cooked a whole hog for Chico's 84th birthday party in 2004, and from that day forward, the old man and his family adopted me as their own.
I’ll write more about my adoptive father, 'Seu Chico,' some other time (There is a lot to tell.) but today’s post is an obituary—not for the man (he’s still doing fine at 90) but for the beautiful, eclectic, little fisherman’s hut, which he had converted into a rustic, seaside bar. Nestled in the dunes of a beautiful, wide stretch of white sand, Bar do Chico was situated almost directly across from Ilha de Campeche, a small, uninhabited island about three hundred yards out in the Atlantic Ocean.
Ilha da Campeche
Sadly, I got a message yesterday that my beloved Bar do Chico had finally been razed to the ground by the state's bulldozer last week.
This was the culmination of years of negotiation and controversy. The problem is that the Brasiliansare very protective of their sand dunes. Unlike us, (we’ll build on piers right out into the sea) the Brasilians understood years ago that once the dunes are gone the beach is sure to follow. So it was illegal to build or inhabit any structure that was not hundreds of feet from the shoreline and well back of the dunes. But because Seu Chico’s fishing hut had been there for so many years, the bar was more or less “grandfathered” in for a time. That did not, however, stop the state from threatening to knock it down. Every spring, some bureaucrat would show up with a "this property is condemned" notice and would post a sign with a date certain that they were coming to destroy the place. But every time they showed up with their bulldozers and dump trucks to do the terrible deed, they would find hundreds of Chico’s family and his faithful customers holding hands in a huge circle around the whole building-- a human shield barring the big machines from their task. Each year, there was dramatic news coverage of the whole thing and the bar was saved for another season. But this time, there had been no warning. The g-men just showed up early one morning and razed the building to the ground before anybody knew what was happening.
I really don’t know if I will ever get back to Brasil or not. But one thing is certain: if I do manage to survive long enough to get back there, I will certainly go for a swim right in front of Ilha da Campeche and I will think about my old friend, Seu Chico and my Brasilian family, the beautiful Daniels of Campeche.
"One of the things Obama's been doing is deliberately trying to increase the percentage of our population that is dependent on government...For example, do you know what was the second biggest demographic group that voted for Obama? Obviously the blacks were the biggest demographic, ya’ll know what was the second biggest? Unmarried women. 70% of unmarried women voted for Obama. And this is because when you kick your husband out, you've got to have Big Brother Government to be your provider. And they know that. They've admitted it. And they have all kinds of bills to continue to subsidize illegitimacy, which is now nationwide, running at 41%. 1.7 million babies were born in our country illegitimately last year. The Obama administration wants to continue to subsidize this group because they know they are Democratic votes. Republicans never could have given the amount of money they are going to get. And as Ronald Reagan said, if you subsidize something you are going to get more of it, and if you tax it you're going to get less of it!" [Applause]
Take a good look, Sarah Palin. This is you a in a few short of years. This crazed old woman has not learned a goddamned thing since she burst onto the public stage thirty years ago with Jerry Falwell and Anita Bryant. RACIST, WINGNUT-GODBAG to the core.
For an elegant treatment of these ravings see the great Digby's column today.
Amazing Trove of Ansel Adams Glass Plate Negs Rescued From the Fate of Many.
Ansel Adams, photographing in Yosemite National Park from atop his car in about 1942.
Ansel Adams Negatives Bought At Garage Sale For $45
Worth At Least $200 Million
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP)
Attorney Arnold Peter says a trove of old glass negatives bought in California for $45 has been authenticated as the work of iconic photographer Ansel Adams, worth at least $200 million.It was believed the work had been destroyed in a fire decades ago.
The negatives were bought 10 years ago at a garage sale in Fresno by painter Rick Norsigian, who noticed they resembled Adams' famed photographs of Yosemite and hired Peter to assemble a team of experts.
Note to all of my brothers and nieces and nephews: If you let my thousands of negatives, transparencies, internegatives and prints get to a yard sale, I will come back to haunt you. I know I ain’t no Ansel Adams, but… just sayin’.
As hard as it is to believe, hundreds of thousands of old glass plate negatives were sold for scrap glass and used in greenhouses all over the country (including most of those exposed by Civil War photographer Matthew Brady and his many assistants.
(and a hat tip to my cousin, Bob Compton in New Orleans)
In 1984, photojournalist Steve McCurry was in an Afghan refugee camp in Pakistan. He followed the sound of voices to a tent where he found a group of girls. "I noticed this one little girl off to the side that had his incredible set of eyes that seemed almost haunted — or very piercing," he tells NPR's Audie Cornish.
McCurry snapped a picture that ended up on the cover of National Geographic'sJune 1985 issue.
"The Afghan Girl" became one of the magazine's most widely recognized photographs — and one of the century's most iconic. To get that shot, McCurry used a type of film that has become iconic in its own right: Kodachrome.
The film, known for its rich saturation and archival durability of its slides, was discontinued last year to the dismay of photographers worldwide. But Kodak gave the last roll ever produced to McCurry. He has just processed that coveted roll at Dwayne's Photo Service in Parsons, Kan. — the last remaining location that processes the once-popular slide film.
Count this photographer as one who will miss the richly beautiful Kodachrome.
Photograph: Sicilian Seascape by O'Neal Compton c. 1997
Matt Garza, of the American League Tampa Bay Rays, faced the minimum of 27 batters on his way to a no-hitter against the Detroit Tigers last night.The Rays, who have themselves been no-hit twice this season, won the game 5-0.
Oddly enough, both pitchers took no-hitters into the sixth inning last night. Detroit pitcher Max Scherzer did not give up a hit until Rays centerfielder, Matt Joyce hit a grand slam home run.
Garza’s was the fifth no-hitter of the season (sixth if you count Andres Gallaraga’s no-hit gem that Umpire Jim Joyce blew on a play at first base with two outs in the ninth.
This is mighty good for baseball, methinks. Perhaps, as I noted after the All-Star game, the age of Steinbrenner really has passed. As pitching becomes more and more dominant against un-juiced lineups, it just seems as though the influence of money in the game is slightly less noticeable. For the most part, big payroll teams (Yanks, Red Sox, White Sox, Dodgers, etc.) have not really come up with the strongest pitching performances in the big leagues this year (the one exception being the Philadelphia Phillies, who have just this year raised their total player payroll by a cool $30 million.)
This is the third time this season that the Rays have been involved in a no hitter. Oakland's Dallas Braden tossed a perfect game against Tampa Bay on May 9, and Arizona right-hander Edwin Jackson threw 149 pitches for a no-hitter against the Rays, his former team, at Tropicana Field on June 26.
The other no-hitters this season were both perfect games (one by Philadelphia’s Roy Halladay and the other by Colorado’s Ubaldo Jimenez.)
This post washobbled together using reporting by the Associated Press.
