Late Night is for Night Owls

About to head to bed here in a bit, but thought I’d share this beautiful manufacturing job by TPTB:

04.2012 Social Security is rushing even faster toward insolvency, driven by retiring baby boomers, a weak economy and politicians’ reluctance to take painful action to fix the huge retirement and disability program.

The trust funds that support Social Security will run dry in 2033 — three years earlier than previously projected — the government said Monday.

There was no change in the year that Medicare’s hospital insurance fund is projected to run out of money. It’s still 2024.

I kept that last bit in there because it’s relevant to what I’m about to remind you of:

09.2011 WASHINGTON — The centerpiece of President Obama’s job-creation plan, a proposal to further reduce Social Security taxes, is emblematic of a package of modest measures that some economists describe as helpful but not sufficient to lift the economy from its malaise.

In his speech on Thursday night, Mr. Obama asked Congress to cut the amount that workers must contribute toward Social Security benefits, extending an existing measure, and to reduce, for the first time, the matching payments that employers are required to make.

The cuts, which would deprive the government of about $240 billion in revenues next year, are the largest items in the president’s $447 billion job-creation plan, which includes payments to unemployed workers, incentives for companies that hire workers and increased federal spending on infrastructure.

Bolding mine. We discussed this at the time. If I recall correctly, the argument went like this: “Oh lookey! Obama delivering on a Grover Norquist/GOP promise to slowly kill Social Security.” The opposition was, like, “Awesome. Eleventy-dimensional chess!” You tell me who was right. #SawThisComing

Moral of the story? Every year Obama is in office, we lose another year of Social Security. We can’t afford 4 more years.

PS: The reason the Medicare date didn’t change is because those taxes weren’t cut, if that wasn’t obvious enough.

This is an open thread.

Barking up the wrong tree

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Via Ace of Spades:

Va. investigates voter fraud

Results of an ongoing Virginia State Police investigation of voter registration irregularities from the 2008 general election may signal a more significant voter fraud issue than some state lawmakers realized.

As Virginia legislators hotly debated a voter ID bill that narrowly passed the General Assembly, many were unaware of a state police investigation that, so far, has resulted in charges against 38 people statewide for voter fraud. Warrants have been obtained for a 39th person who can’t be located.

A majority of those cases already have resulted in convictions, and 26 additional cases are still being actively investigated nearly 3½ years after the state Board of Elections forwarded more than 400 voter and election fraud allegations from 62 cities and counties to Virginia State Police for individual investigation.

“We believe these complaints ran the gamut from voter registration fraud issues through potential fraud at the polling place on Election Day,” said Donald Palmer, secretary of the Virginia Board of Elections, who was appointed by Gov. Bob McDonnell in February 2011. “We do not have specific numbers on how the complaints broke down. However, (the state board of elections) is aware that arrests have been made over the past few years for individuals engaging in voter registration fraud.”

Palmer added that recent indictments obtained by the Richmond commonwealth’s attorney’s office for voter fraud and the results of the state police investigation “remind us that unfortunately, fraud does exist in Virginia’s elections.”

Many opponents of the voter ID law maintained that there was no evidence of widespread election fraud in Virginia, and the law would suppress the vote of minorities and others who don’t have adequate identification. About 3.7 million Virginians voted in the 2008 election.

Richmond had by far the largest number of voter-fraud cases opened by state police — 124 — followed by Fairfax County with 37, Chesterfield and Prince William counties with 20 each, Alexandria with 19, Henrico with 17 and Petersburg with 13, according to state police data requested by the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

A total of 194 cases statewide where police determined a violation likely occurred have been closed because the commonwealth’s attorneys in those localities declined to prosecute those individuals, police said.

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For years the Democrats have been telling us to oppose voter identification laws because they claim they are unnecessary and racist. They claim they are racist because people of color are more likely to be poor and poor people are more likely to lack the requisite identification needed to vote under the proposed voter ID laws. But official identification remains cheap and easy to obtain for the vast majority of people and even welfare recipients need such identification to obtain benefits.

The Democrats also claim that voter ID laws are unnecessary because voter fraud is extremely rare. Now it turns out that may not be the case. I’m one of those people who prefers data to anecdotal evidence, but if voter fraud is not being investigated and/or prosecuted, where will accurate data come from?

I think the Democrats are barking up the wrong tree. As long as the laws provide adequate alternative ways that proper identification can be obtained by all eligible voters, what’s the hang-up?

Instead of showing us examples of eligible voters who can’t obtain ID they should spend their time and energy figuring out how to get it for them.

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Trapped in 1963

Touré Neblett

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Touré Neblett:

Inside the Racist Mind
The fact that you may honestly believe you are not biased does not free you from unconscious racism

After a recent event where I spoke about racial identity, a white woman sidled up to me, leaned in close so no one near us could hear, and said, “I’m racist.” Many people would be repelled. I was entranced. Here was someone who could tell me first hand how the racist mind worked. Social scientists have done studies on Klansmen and Neo-Nazis but those sorts of people are outliers, socially and mentally, while this woman was the sort of person you might encounter on a normal day. She seemed indicative of the sort of racist mind we’d be mostly likely to meet. She seemed normal. So I decided to talk to her and find out how her mind worked.

Studies show most people have some sort of prejudice or bias. “Decades of cognitive bias research demonstrates that both unconscious and conscious biases lead to discriminatory actions even when an individual does not want to discriminate,” write Michelle Alexander in her book The New Jim Crow. “The fact that you may honestly believe that you are not biased against African Americans, and that you may have black friends and relatives, does not mean that you are free from unconscious bias. Implicit bias tests may still show that you hold negative attitudes and stereotypes about blacks even though you do not believe you do and do not want to.” Part of the problem is the monsoon of negative messages about blacks coming at Americans which makes being non-racist almost like mentally swimming upstream.

Still, most people today are ashamed to be racist and know to do their best to never reveal it. So after this woman at the event told me she was racist, I said, “Really?!” in a way that indicated I wasn’t offended and that she could feel comfortable to speak freely. She did.

“I just have these thoughts,” she said, almost whispering into my ear. I felt like she was confessing as if I were her priest. “My mind just goes places. I can’t control it. I know it’s wrong but I can’t help myself. I say, Don’t think like that! But it’s what people told me when I was younger.” Then she leaned back and someone else said hello and our moment of penance concluded.

I wanted to hear more but I had heard enough to understand. She had mental habits based on ideas implanted long ago that had taken root in her subconscious. She’s got various stereotypes and biases firmly lodged in her long-term memory where she stores things like how to ride a bike. That’s why the thoughts feel like they come at her automatically and beyond her control—“My mind just goes places.” At this point, unlearning those perceptions would be as hard as unlearning bike-riding—if there were near-constant media messages and social reinforcements about how to ride a bike. And yet society has also taught her that she should be ashamed to judge people in this way. It’s sad that she knows she should not think racist thoughts but cannot stop herself because the lessons were learned and reinforced so well.

[...]

Some people suggest that the multiracial embrace of Barack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, Michael Jordan, Will Smith and others portends the end of racism. But this, as the writer Arundati Roy says, is like the President pardoning one turkey before Thanksgiving and then eating another—and America eats thousands. The human mind is complex enough to integrate hypocrisy and contradictions. There have long been extraordinary blacks who succeeded far more than the vast majority and were accepted as special. The racist mind need not hate every black person it encounters, and indeed not hating all may serve as a valuable safety valve, releasing pressure and proving to the mind itself that it is not racist. Few people want to think of themselves as bad or evil.

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Ever get involved with someone who is still carrying baggage from one or more previous relationships? I’m talking about someone with more issues than National Geographic.

Her ex(es) cheated on her so you will forever pay the price. It doesn’t matter that you never cheated or that you bend over backwards to demonstrate your innocence and fidelity.  She knows you are guilty and she’ll keep digging until she finds the proof.

Slavery and Jim Crow segregation are two of the ugliest chapters in our nation’s history. The only thing worse was the genocide we committed upon the Native Americans.

But please excuse me if my feelings of shame for those historic events is limited. I didn’t do it. I wasn’t even born until 1960. All the relatives I have been able to trace came to this country after the Civil War and none of them lived in Jim Crow states. I feel no guilt over things that were committed by other people before I was born.

I wasn’t taught racism as a child. I cannot recall ever hearing my mother, grandmother or step-father ever using racial epithets or suggesting that blacks and other people of color were not equal to us. The school system in my hometown was fully desegregated by 1967. Everyone attended the same high school.

The last time I had thoughts I couldn’t control I was in puberty and the thoughts were sexual in nature rather than racist. The guilt I felt associated with those thoughts had a lot to do with why I quit going to church.

When James Byrd, Jr. was murdered by three white supremacists down in Texas, I felt sickened and outraged. But I had not one single thought nor tiniest feeling of sympathy for or connection to the animals that did it.

Let’s assume for a moment that Mr. Neblett is correct and most white people are unconsciously racist. What can we do about it?

We fought a war to end slavery. A lot of political capital was spent to end segregation. We passed new laws and constitutional amendments to make everyone equal under the law. We made racism socially unacceptable. As even Mr. Neblett admits, racial bigotry is considered a thing to be ashamed of nowadays. So what else do we still need to do?

I’m serious – is there some law we still need to pass? Are there reparations we still need to make? What will it take to end our national penance for the past?

Because I am sick and tired of being blamed for the words and actions of other people. And I am sick and tired of being judged by the color of my skin by people like Touré Neblett.

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Breaking news:

George Zimmerman released on bond in Trayvon Martin killing

George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who shot an unarmed teenager, was released from jail about midnight Sunday, two days after a Florida judge set his bond at $150,000.

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Doggone Funny

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Here’s a collection of Obama eats dog cartoon and photoshops. Post your favorite jokes and tweets in the comments.

This is an open thread.