Breaking Point: Obama and the Death of the Democratic Party

By Jane Hamsher
According to both the Washington Post and the New York Times, Obama is proposing cuts to Social Security in exchange for GOP support for tax hikes. Lori Montgomery in the Post:

 At a meeting with top House and Senate leaders set for Thursday morning, Obama plans to argue that a rare consensus has emerged about the size and scope of the nation's budget problems and that policymakers should seize the moment to take dramatic action.  As part of his pitch, Obama is proposing significant reductions in Medicare spending and for the first time is offering to tackle the rising cost of Social Security, according to people in both parties with knowledge of the proposal.

And Jay Carney's carefully chosen weasel-words today do not contradict this:

 "There is no news here - the President has always said that while social security is not a major driver of the deficit, we do need to strengthen the program and the President said in the State of the Union Address that he wanted to work with both parties to do so in a balanced way that preserves the promise of the program and doesn't slash benefits."

Nobody ever says they want to "cut" Social Security or Medicare. They want to "save" it.  Just ask Pete Peterson, he wants to "save" it. Likewise AARP.  They don't want reduced benefits for senior citizens, they want to "preserve" it for future generations.  If they have an enormous customer base they can market private "add-on" accounts and other retirement products to when Social Security goes bye-bye, I guess that's just a happy coincidence.

Breaking barriers

Hong Kong: one of the most crowded cities in the world Hong Kong is currently carrying out its first mental health survey.

It is expected to take three years but preliminary findings show the region's mental health services to be inadequate.

Only 1% of Hong Kong residents are currently receiving mental health treatment but the need is thought to be far higher.

In 1997 Hong Kong transferred from a British colony to a region with special status under Chinese rule.

Caught between the traditions of Chinese culture and the westernising influence of 137 years of British rule, the city has experienced dramatic political, social and economic change leaving some of its most vulnerable citizens out in the cold.

Linda Lam is Chief Editor of the Hong Kong Journal of Psychiatry. She believes that the provision of mental health services in the city is way below need.

"We don't have figures for the prevalence of most psychological disorders in Hong Kong but like most developed cities there are estimates that anxiety and depressive disorders would be over 10%.

"If we project this to Hong Kong then our mental health needs would be tremendous."

It is widely assumed among mental health professionals in Hong Kong that mental illness is vastly under-diagnosed.

Why Does Clarence Thomas Get Away With Breaking the Law, As His Wife Shills for Wealthy Right-Wingers?

By Nancy Goldstein

When it comes to the financial and ethical improprieties of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni, there is only bad news and worse news. That's true not only in terms of what they've done but because there's so little reason to believe they'll ever be held accountable for their active role in tainting our judiciary with the money and influence of their wealthy, conservative GOP patrons.

The latest outrage is that Ginni Thomas is embarking on a new career: lobbyist for right-wing causes. But that's just the most recent in a string of recent news items concerning the Thomases' fast-and-loose ways with the law. It begins with a January 22 Los Angeles Times piece that reported Justice Thomas' failure to include his wife's source of income on his financial disclosure forms for the past two decades. These forms are essential to assessing whether a justice might face a potential conflict of interest when causes or individuals associated with his/her spouse come before the court. Thomas hastily amended his reports after Common Cause brought attention to the years between 2003-2007 when Ginni Thomas earned $680,000 working for the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank funded by, among others, the foundations of the Koch brothers, the Coors family and Richard Mellon Scaife.