So here is the rest of the story on the teen aged dancer and two black dudes.

Thanksgiving is done, time to start the Christmas Wars.

Slate.com does a funny about websites.

Enjoy

http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/low_concept/2013/10/how_google_facebook_or_microsoft_might_fix_the_obamacare_website.html


Given all the trouble with the Obamacare website, we wondered why America’s biggest Internet companies haven’t volunteered to help fix it. (OK, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer team did, sort of, in a recent Tweet, which they then deleted.) Surely Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, or Microsoft could design a more reliable site than the tangle of federal contractors who have bungled healthcare.gov. On the other hand, we can also envision a few drawbacks. Here’s how we imagine the site might look if each of those companies tried their hand at remaking it in their own images.

Survey from the Democratic National Committee.....WTF?

Listed 16 issues they wanted me to rank as to importance.

On list: worried about North Korea.

Not on list: Climate Change, environmental concerns.

I'm going with Sanders and socialists.

Thinking clearly about what a decrease in SS benefits would mean to majority of country.

Stumbled upon this when looking into net worth statistics for America.

http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/07/poorfinances/balance/index.shtml#_Toc181605853



Quote: The role of Social Security and Medicare in net worth. Estimates based on the Survey of Consumer Finances, as presented above, do not include Social Security or Medicare benefits. Social Security and Medicare benefits are difficult to measure (as discussed in the Appendix) and are not always considered assets in the same sense as private pension benefits or other investments. Social scientists debate whether Social Security and Medicare benefits constitute actual wealth. Recipients do not have property rights over their benefits, benefit levels and eligibility could be changed through legislation and/or regulation at any time, and benefits cannot be borrowed against or in many aspects bequeathed. Moreover, in the case of Medicare, the level of benefits received is dependent on the frequency and intensity of the medical services used. However, workers who pay into Social Security and become disabled receive disability benefits and survivors of working parents who pay into Social Security and die receive survivors’ benefits until the children reach age 18.[9]

Social Security and Medicare benefits alter the net worth picture substantially, if considered wealth. Together, they are the major source of wealth for most low- and middle-income families and over 90 percent of wealth for families with incomes below $25,000 (Kennickell and Sunden 1997; Lerman 2005). Similarly, Steuerle and Carasso (2004) find that Social Security and Medicare benefits comprise roughly 90 percent of households’ expected wealth for households in the bottom two wealth deciles (exhibit 20). Social Security and Medicare benefits are not just important for low-income households; they comprise half or more of households’ expected wealth for nearly 70 percent of households (the first through seventh deciles). Housing wealth, on the other hand, does not make a real contribution to total wealth until the sixth or seventh decile.[10] The bottom line is that, while very difficult to value — especially for younger households — Social Security and Medicare benefits, when considered wealth, contribute a substantial amount to household balance sheets in retirement.

Exhibit 20.
Mean Value and Composition of Household Net Worth Ages 51-61 by Net Worth Decile, 1992

Exhibit 20. Mean Value and Composition of Household Net Worth Ages 51-61 by Net Worth Decile, 1992. See text for explanation.

Note: Private pension (which includes DB and DC pensions), Social Security, other financial (which includes IRA and Keoughs), and housing wealth data
come from Moore and Mitchell (2000), based on a sample of households from the Health and Retirement Survey in which at least one member was age 51-61 in 1992.
Medicare wealth is from Steuerle and Carasso (2004).

I think all cat and kitten threads should state so in the title.

It would save a lot of clicks and time.

Those who are interested in reading about cats and kittens could go straight to the threads saving all the reading of the political crap on the DU and those who are not so interested in cats and kittens could just avoid them .....

What do you think? Do we need a cat and kitten forum?

Websites are slowed as 40 Million uninsured turn to Insurance exchanges to get health care.

Surprised? Not me.

Sea surface temps highest in 150 years.

Seems things are heating up. Recent record was in 1951, a couple of years before hurricane Carol.

Fish are confused...Fishermen don't care...want permission to fish til the fish are gone.

http://www.mvtimes.com/2013/05/01/sea-surface-temps-reach-highest-levels-150-years-15330/

http://news.providencejournal.com/business/2013/04/fishermen-protest-cuts-in-catch-limits.html/

OK! Time to review the Boston Bombing story.

There's been a lot of reporting but not so much on what of what was reported still stands.
DU; Help me out. Back it up with a link if possible.

1. Who did what at the 7-11 store? Any video to back it up?

2. Was MIT cop responding to a call, or just sitting in the car? Have we witnesses to that shooting?

3. Was a gun found on either suspect?

4. Did the younger brother show up at car repair place wanting his Mercedes "Right now" on Tuesday? Was it his Mercedes?

5. Were the two suspects in different cars when they stopped to throw bombs in Watertown?
Where were they coming from? What kind of cars? Honda and ????

6. Did they have guns and shoot at the police in Watertown? How many Police were there at that point.

7. Did the suspect climb out of boat by himself, or was he down and out at that point?

8. Were there really bombs strapped to either suspect? Pictures?

Thanks for the help on this.

Business control of the image?: Plenty of pictures of carnage for bombing....

Not one picture of classrooms in Newtown.

Gun control ready for defeat this week.