SAR #11043

The revolution was televised.

Help Wanted: The United States has immediate openings for loyal despots, high pay plus enormous upside potential. Prior experience with secret police and enhanced interrogations required.

Balancing Act: The December US trade balance was -$40.6 billion. Paying for foreign oil and the negative trade balance with China account for the entire deficit. For the year the trade deficit amounted to $497.8 billion, up 33% from last year.

Battering Order: With at least 20 more countries on the wannabe list, revolution withdrawal does not seem to be a problem. The pro-democracy alliance in Algeria is expected to defy ban on demonstrations and take to the streets by the thousands. An additional 10,000 police have joined the 20,000 already stationed in Algiers. Train and bus service has been curtailed in an attempt to keep people from gathering in the city. In Yemen 'security forces' quickly convinced a protesting group of about 3,000 people that overthrowing that dictatorship wasn't on the day's agenda.

A penny saved... Switzerland has reportedly frozen Mubarak's assets – rumored to be $70 billion - in that country's secretive banks. Do we get a refund?  Do the Egyptians?

Nutshell: Americans young and old overwhelming support Social Security — because it works. But if it bleeds it leads and if it's not bleeding the media is not above sticking the knife in and turning it, with misinformation and political agendas (if they are not the same thing). Before we embrace “fixing” the program, we must remember that Social Security provides over 50% of income for two out of every three seniors, and without it most elderly Americans would live in poverty.