Social Security head: Program fraying from neglect

STEPHEN OHLEMACHER | Associated Press | Yahoo News | February 14, 2013

WASHINGTON (AP) — Outgoing Social Security Commissioner Michael J. Astrue has some parting shots for Congress, the White House and advocates for seniors. They have all “really walked away from Social Security,” he says, leaving the program “fraying because of inattention to its problems.”

Instead of making the hard choices to fix Social Security’s financial problems, policymakers “use it as a tool of political rhetoric,” Astrue said.

Astrue, 56, has headed the federal government’s largest program since 2007 — he was nominated by former President George W. Bush. By law, Social Security commissioners serve six-year terms, so President Barack Obama will now have the opportunity to choose his own nominee, who must be approved by the Senate. Astrue’s last day on the job was Wednesday.

The trustees who oversee Social Security say the program’s trust funds will run dry in 2033, leaving Social Security with only enough revenue to pay about 75 percent of benefits. Already the program is paying out more in benefits than it collects in payroll taxes.

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Why Employers Won’t Fire People If We Raise The Minimum Wage To $9

Igor Volsky | Think Progress | February 14, 2013

Republicans are responding to President Obama’s proposal raise the federal minimum wage by arguing that requiring businesses to pay their workers at least $9 an hour would lead employers to shed jobs or increase prices and pass the costs onto consumers.

“When you raise the price of employment, guess what happens? You get less of it,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) said at a House Republican press conference on Wednesday. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) agreed, explaining that “the impact of minimum wage usually is that businesses hire less people.” It’s a fairly logical and simple argument: increasing the cost of labor causes competitive employers to cut employment or hours to make up for the additional cost, hurting the very low-skilled workers that the policy was designed to benefit in the first place.

The problem? What sounds perfectly reasonable in theory doesn’t actually hold up in the real world and the overwhelming empirical consensus shows little if any effect of the minimum wage on employment.

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Why The Minimum Wage Is A Women’s Issue, In Three Charts

Annie-Rose Strasser | Think Progress | February 14, 2013

During Tuesday night’s State of the Union, President Obama called on Congress to raise the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9 per hour. Not only is the proposal potentially good for business, but, according to a report released Wednesday from the Center for American Progress Action Fund, raising the minimum wage would also be a pillar for women’s rights. Here’s why, in three charts:

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Chuck Hagel Filibuster Draws Cries Of Hypocrisy From All Sides

Joshua Hersh | Huffington Post | February 14, 2013

 

WASHINGTON — As the nomination of Chuck Hagel for secretary of defense is caught up in a Republican filibuster, the self-serving use of the tactic is getting a second look.

Hagel’s nomination, which has stalled over GOP concerns about his views on Israel and extensive inquiries into his speeches and past affiliations, is due for a vote by the full Senate on Friday. But with Republican senators using parliamentary procedure to force a supermajority vote to end debate, Democratic leaders fear they don’t have the 60 supporters they need to confirm him.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) took the floor on Thursday to demand an up-or-down vote on Hagel, a former Republican senator himself.

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Vatican Secrets: After Pope Benedict Resignation Bombshell, Talk Of Head Injury, Retirement Residence, Pacemaker

VICTOR L. SIMPSON | Huffington Post | February 14, 2013

VATICAN CITY — For an institution devoted to eternal light, the Vatican has shown itself to be a master of smokescreens since Pope Benedict XVI’s shock resignation announcement.

On Thursday, the Vatican spokesman acknowledged that Benedict hit his head and bled profusely while visiting Mexico in March. Two days earlier the same man acknowledged that Benedict has had a pacemaker for years, and underwent a secret operation to replace its battery three months ago.

And as the Catholic world reeled from shock over the abdication, it soon became clear that Benedict’s post-papacy lodgings have been under construction since at least the fall. That in turn put holes in the Holy See’s early claims that Benedict kept his decision to himself until he revealed it.

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Grand jury being assembled to hear evidence against Va. hate group leader

LGBTQ Nation | February 14, 2013

LEESBURG, Va. — A special prosecutor appointed to look into allegations of official misconduct by Loudoun County, Va., Supervisor Eugene Delgaudio (R-Sterling, Va.) has begun impaneling a grand jury to review evidence as part of an ongoing criminal investigation.

Eugene Delgaudio

Delgaudio, 58, is head of the organization “Public Advocate of The United States,” a non-profit group that advocates against LGBT rights, and has been named as an anti-gay hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC).

He has been accused of using county resources to benefit his political campaigns

Potential jurors were convened Tuesday, February 5, in Loudoun County Circuit Court, where a judge told them that the grand jury was being assembled to look into allegations against Delgaudio, reported The Washington Post.

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With GOP Filibuster, Chuck Hagel’s Rocky Road Continues

Former U.S. Senator Chuck Hagel arrives for a meeting with U.S. Senate  Appropriations Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 7, 2013.

Senate Republicans filibustered President Barack Obama’s nominee to be the  next Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, by a razor thin vote of 58-39 Thursday,  with one senator voting present. But all hope for Hagel is not lost. Just  because they still want more time to debate their former Republican colleague’s  nomination, doesn’t mean that Hagel’s confirmation is dead.

At least three Republican senators – John McCain, Lindsey Graham and Richard  Burr – said that they simply want more time and intend to vote for cloture – a  parliamentary procedure that ends a filibuster by limiting debate to 30 hours  that requires a supermajority of 60 votes – when the Senate returns from recess  the week of Feb. 25. “I will oppose cloture because debate should continue  and when we get back – unless there is a bombshell – I’ll vote for cloture and  move on to his nomination,” Graham said on the floor of the Senate on  Thursday.

(MORE: Hagel’s Hearing: Profoundly Depressing)

The key in Graham’s statement is the “bombshell.” Republicans still hoping to  kill Hagel’s nomination will surely spend the next week combing over his past  speeches looking for just that. Senator Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, has been  demanding that Hagel disclose more information about the speeches he’s given  since leaving office in 2009. One potential hurdle seemed to emerge early  Thursday in reports that Hagel at one time called the State Department “an  adjunct to the Israeli Foreign Minister’s office” in a 2007 speech at Rutgers University. Jewish groups immediately called on Hagel to explain  himself.

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Singapore couple goes to court to abolish anti-gay sex law

Dan Littauer | Gay Star News | February 14, 2013

A gay couple in Singapore seeking to abolish a long-standing law banning gay sex had their case heard in court today.

The court case was heard just days after a former department store manager sued his boss for alleged discrimination against gays.

The two cases highlight how members of Singapore’s LGBT community have become increasingly vocal, demanding changes in the city-state’s attitudes toward homosexuality by speaking out against discrimination and raising legal cases to challenge the law.

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Putting the Pope Out to Pasture

KELLY JEAN COGSWELL | Gay City News | February 13, 2013

It’s finally curtains for the inauspicious reign of Pope Benedict the Whatever, who resigned Monday citing health concerns as the reason for breaking a 600-year-old tradition of serving until death. I suspect he was just sulking after his attempts to “protect” straight marriage in France were soundly defeated.

Or maybe he was finally diagnosed with extreme irony deficiency. What else could you call it when a guy spends half his time trying to minimize man-on-boy sex abuse by priests and the other half using any platform at hand to condemn perfectly consensual adult homosexual relations and equality under the law? Or for attacking American nuns as radical feminists, just because they prioritized issues like poverty and social justice over homos at the altars and desperate girls in abortion clinics?

I’d dance a little gay jig in the slush outside the door, but God knows who they’ll slip in there next. There are predictions younger cardinals will go for a pope from a nation like Ghana or Honduras to court Catholics in developing nations. The outgoing pontiff doesn’t get a vote, but in the past he’s said choosing an African pope for the first time would “send a splendid signal to the world” about the universality of the Church. On the other hand, he didn’t exactly stack the papal deck with likely candidates.

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Panetta Announces New Partnership Status, Benefits

ARTHUR S. LEONARD | Gay City News | February 14, 2013

In response to growing demands from advocates for gay and lesbian military service members, the Defense Department on February 11 announced a new list of benefits that will be made available to their same-sex domestic partners and spouses.

The list is comprised of more than 20 benefits, including the Dependent ID cards that allow access to military bases, commissary and exchange privileges, the availability of family support services, and joint duty assignment opportunities. The benefits, announced by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, who is departing the administration, builds on a more modest group made available in the 17 months since the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy came to an end.

“Taking care of our service members and honoring the sacrifices of all military families are two core values of this nation,” Panetta said. “Extending these benefits is an appropriate next step under current law to ensure that all service members receive equal support for what they do to protect this nation.”

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