A new report on Social Security and Medicare says they will begin paying out more than they take in in taxes sooner than expected. Social Security could be depleted by 2037.

2037 is ages from now. I think we should leave social security alone. I certainly don't want to pay more in social security taxes for reduced benefits, which is one suggestion made by the report:

Social Security could be brought into actuarial balance over the next 75 years with changes equivalent to an immediate 1.6 percent increase in the payroll tax (from a rate of 12.4 percent to 14.4 percent) or an immediate reduction in benefits of 13 percent or some combination of the two. Ensuring that the system remains solvent on a sustainable basis beyond the next 75 years would require larger changes because increasing longevity will result in people receiving benefits for ever longer periods of retirement.

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If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. That was the Government's attitude in the Liberty City, Fla. "Sears Tower" plot terror trial. Two juries didn't convict the defendants, but today, a third jury convicted five and acquitted one.

After two previous mistrials, a federal jury Tuesday finally reached verdicts in the Bush-era terrorism case of six Miami men charged with conspiring with al Qaeda -- convicting five and acquitting one.

...The indictment charged the Liberty City Six with four counts of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization; provide material support to terrorists; destroy buildings with explosives; and levy war against the U.S. government in a seditious act.

A seventh defendant was acquitted in the first trial. The Government deported him to Haiti anyway. So what was different in this trial? [More...]

Fingerprint analysis is often thought to be a foolproof science -- an opinion Brandon Mayfield doesn't share. Mayfield, you may recall, was detained after the FBI mistakenly determined that his fingerprints were found on a bag linked to the bombing of a train in Madrid.

Research conducted by British psychologist Itiel Dror explains how the power of suggestion can taint the supposedly "foolproof" science of fingerprint identification.

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Glenn Greenwald:

Ever since he was released from Guantanamo in February after six years of due-process-less detention and brutal torture, Binyam Mohamed has been attempting to obtain justice for what was done to him. But his torturers have been continuously protected, and Mohamed's quest for a day in court repeatedly thwarted, by one individual: Barack Obama.

Dick Cheney calls for transparency on torture. Barack Obama covers it up. It makes no sense.

Speaking for me only

Your turn.

This is an Open Thread.

The Hill reports:

Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.) has called on the intelligence community to declassify documents showing what certain members of Congress were told about harsh interrogation techniques employed in the war on terrorism.

. . . Hoekstra's letter is the latest step in a campaign to associate Pelosi with the harsh interrogation techniques used on terrorism suspects. The hope is to tie up potential probes into Bush administration officials over what some on the left call wrongdoing during the war on terrorism.

Hoekstra says "The American people should be given the full picture on what was known and agreed to on Capitol Hill on a bipartisan basis about the enhanced interrogation program[.]” Sounds good to me. Time for a Truth Commission.

Speaking for me only

Digby points to the execrable Harold Ford's conversation with Chris Matthews on torture and concludes:

The argument against torture is slipping away from us. In fact, I'm getting the sinking feeling that it's over. What was once taboo is now publicly acknowledged as completely acceptable by many people. Indeed, disapproval of torture is now being characterized as a strictly partisan issue, like welfare reform or taxes.

More . . .

In a federal lawsuit filed last week in Los Angeles, the Federal Trade Commission accused Golden Empire Mortgage Inc. of violating the Equal Credit Opportunity Act by charging Latino borrowers higher interst rates and fees than it charged non-Latino whites.

The FTC alleged that the problem stemmed from Golden Empire's practice of giving its employees and branch managers wide leeway to make more money by charging "overages," higher fees and interest rates than the borrowers qualified for. The complaint alleged that the practice resulted in Hispanics being charged more because of their national origin.

In other words, loan officers had discretion to write loans at a higher interest rate or to charge greater up-front fees than the borrower's credit-worthiness and the lender's underwriting risk dictated. The loan officer would keep a piece of the excess charge as compensation. The FTC alleges that Golden Empire made no effort to monitor its loan officers to assure that they weren't targeting Latino borrowers when they used their discretion to charge higher interest rates and fees.

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I'm just heading to bed, so I know lots of you early birds will be looking to express yourselves on a variety of topics before I get up. Here's some space for you to do just that. All topics welcomre.

Check out the new Artists for Innocence campaign launched by the Innocence Project.

The Innocence Project Artists’ Committee is a group of writers, directors, actors, visual artists and musicians who support the Innocence Project and are helping raise awareness about wrongful convictions.

Members of the Artists’ Committee lend their talent and voice to the Innocence Project’s vital work in a variety of ways. They help raise awareness and money to free innocent prisoners, they speak out about the need to prevent wrongful convictions, and they integrate these issues into their art.

Among the artists involved: John Singleton (Bobak Ha’eri), Amy Brenneman, John Grisham, Paris Barclay, Helen Mirren, Trent Reznor, Paul D. Miller aka DJ Spooky, Stephen Colbert, Matthew Modine (David Shankbone), Nia Long, Zooey Deschanel, Bob Balaban (Lisa Ross), Morgan Spurlock (David Shankbone), Dave Eggers,and Nora Ephron

The British Press is awash in reports that Texas Billionaire Sir Allen Stanford, under investigation by the SEC, caught breaks in prior investigations due to his working for the DEA as a confidential informant into money laundering. More from the Independent and the BBC.

U.S. District Court Judge Sam Kent was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison today for obstructing justice in the investigation of sexual harassment claims against him. Prosecutors had asked for 36 months.

He was granted a voluntary surrender and will report to prison next month.

Kent has asked for early retirement and is still being paid his salary. His salary continues until he resigns or is impeached. He was on the bench for 18 years.