Time Of The Essence

Josh Marshall on the Social Security “crisis”:

The program is in such a dire state of crisis, it would seem, that every time the bean counters run the numbers, its solvency seems assured even further into the future.
As in Iraq, you start to understand that there is a Social Security crisis. The longer President Bush waits, the more likely it is that even rosier numbers will come out on Social Security’s long-term financing.
There really isn’t a moment to lose.

Indeed. Generally, a president wants to push a major bill through quickly because the longer it takes to pass, the stronger and more organized its opponents become. In this case, Bush is confronting not only an opposition, but also reality. Better act quickly before the two join forces.

Enshrining Freedom

Commission a sculptor:

The man replacing the mayor of Baghdad — who was assassinated for his pro-American loyalties — says he is not worried about his ties to Washington.
In fact, he’d like to erect a monument to honor President Bush in the middle of the city.
“We will build a statue for Bush,” said Ali Fadel, the former provincial council chairman. “He is the symbol of freedom.”

I wonder what the over/under odds would be on number of days that would stand intact.

Knox County’s First Felony Animal Abuse Case

Sickening:

In a calculated campaign of domestic violence, a Knoxville man broke the neck of his stepdaughter’s puppy, suffocated it and then laughed as he presented the dead animal to the girl and her mother, a warrant alleges.

One wonders if prison is sufficient punishment for such a creep.

Ouch

Bloggermann smacks around “Focus on the Family” regarding SpongeBobGate.
This excerpt addresses the threat of the “pro-Homosexual” agenda:

More importantly, at some point, some of these people are going to wake up to find that the great secular assault they see on their children was, in fact, a bogeyman created to hide their own bad parenting. If they can’t convince their own kids of the appropriateness of their religion and values, then the religion, the values, or the convincing, must not have been very good. Ask my folks if I was an easy sell – yet most of my tenets turn out to have been their tenets – not my teachers’, not television’s, not the secular world’s.
It goes back to the core of the Dobsonian point of view here: the fear of the “pro-Homosexual” agenda. That may be the way he delicately phrases it, but it is not shared by most of his followers who emailed me. They were clearly angry that there was no anti-homosexual agenda. And one of the most fascinating things about the studies of homosexuality in this country is that while there is still debate between the creationists and the environmentalists, I’ve never heard anything suggesting that a child is more or less likely to be gay, depending on whether he’s taught not to hate nor be intolerant, of gays.

Indeed.