Author: Jonathan Schwarz

Usually I like to mix a little analysis in with my crude abuse. But in this case I’ll just say: good job, moron.

Democrat Barack Obama said Sunday he will push for higher Social Security taxes if elected, viewing it as the best option for improving the retirement program’s finances…during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Obama said taxing more of a person’s income was the option he would push for if elected president. He objected to benefit cuts or a higher retirement age.

“I think the best way to approach this is to adjust the cap on the payroll tax so that people like myself are paying a little bit more and people who are in need are protected,” the Illinois senator said.

“That is the option that I will be pushing forward.”

Obama has tried to draw contrasts between himself and front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton on Social Security, saying on the stump and in TV ads that she has dodged tough questions about its finances.

Obama said some tough decisions will be in order because Social Security is the most important social program in the country.

“It’s not sufficient for us to just finesse the issue because we’re worried that, well, we might be attacked for the various options we present,” he said.

I’m happy to explain the numerous different ways Obama is being a moron here, if anyone isn’t familiar with them already. For now, however, I’ll just make this point: wow, he’s a moron.

According to Gareth Porter, the intelligence agencies and Dick Cheney’s office have wrestled to a tie on Iran:

The US National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran has been held up for more than a year in an effort to force the intelligence community to remove dissenting judgments on the Iranian nuclear program. The aim is to make the document more supportive of Vice President Dick Cheney’s militarily aggressive policy toward Iran, according to accounts provided by participants in the NIE process to two former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officers.

But this pressure on intelligence analysts, obviously instigated by Cheney himself, has not produced a draft estimate without those dissenting views, these sources say. The White House has now apparently decided to release the “unsatisfactory” draft NIE, but without making its key findings public.

For your enjoyment, here are the conclusions of the two government “investigations” of whether the Bush administration pressured the intelligence agencies on Iraq. First, the Senate Intelligence Committee:

The Committee did not find any evidence that Administration officials attempted to coerce, influence or pressure analysts to change their judgments related to Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction capabilities.

And the WMD Commission:

The Commission found no evidence of political pressure to influence the Intelligence Community’s pre-war assessments of Iraq’s weapons programs.

Look for the reports on how there was no pressure re Iran in early 2011.

EARLIER: How George Bush’s speeches on Iran reveal this ongoing subterranean battle within the government.

Arthur Silber has been following the case of several dozen high school students in Berwyn, Illinois who’ve been threatened with expulsion for participating in an anti-war protest on school grounds. His first post is here. A follow up explains the five lessons the students are being taught by the adults in charge.

A Chicago Tribune story runs down the story basics, and reports that yesterday’s scheduled school board vote on whether to approve the expulsions has been postponed. They’re likely feeling the pressure of public attention. You can endorse a petition in support of the students, now with over 6,000 signatures, here.

This is an unusual rhetorical gambit from Alan Dershowitz:

Marginal Democratic candidates certainly benefit from moving to the left on national security issues, but serious candidates–candidates who want to have any realistic chance of prevailing in the general election–must not allow themselves to be pushed, shoved or even nudged away from a strong commitment to national security.

Consider, for example, the contentious and emotionally laden issue of the use of torture in securing preventive intelligence information about imminent acts of terrorism…

There are some who claim that torture is a nonissue because it never works–it only produces false information. This is simply not true, as evidenced by the many decent members of the French Resistance who, under Nazi torture, disclosed the locations of their closest friends and relatives.

You know, I was on the fence there about torture, until Dershowitz pointed out it really worked well for the Nazis! Color me convinced!

Did you know a bipartisan group of six congressman have introduced a bill strengthening the 1973 War Powers Act? Neither did I. While this is perhaps the most important issue there is if you care about boring old things like democracy, it’s gotten embarrassingly little attention online and almost none in the regular media. The best, in fact, is an impressively honest column by George Will.

If you want to know more, I’ve stuck additional details about the bill over here.