The New York Observer has some fascinating details of how wealthy Rudy Giuliani has become since leaving the Mayor's office.

Mr. Giuliani has become a tycoon. In a 2002 divorce filing, he estimated his income from paid speeches alone—unadulterated Rudy— at $8 million. His business, dismissed at first as a resting place for his political ambitions, grossed tens of millions of dollars last year with more than 50 employees and marquee clients like Merrill Lynch. A sense of the firm’s scale emerges with the fact that it recently acquired a midsize investment bank with 140 employees. On March 29, Mr. Giuliani announced that he’d also become a partner in a Houston law firm.

My favorite tidbit is that he charged $100k for giving a tsunami aid speech in South Carolina in February - forking over $20k of his fee as a chartiable contribution -- when other celebrities like Clinton, George Bush I and George Clooney donated their time. The author writes it is indicative of his lack of understanding of sensitive political issues:

by TChris

More than 100 organizations have asked the Dept. of Health and Human Services to take down a new website that dispenses helpful advice like this:

"If you believe your adolescent may be gay, or is experiencing difficulties with gender identity or sexual orientation issues, consider seeing a family therapist who shares your values to clarify and work through these issues."

In addition to describing sexual orientation as a "lifestyle," the website promotes abstinence while downplaying the effectiveness of condoms. The organizations are asking the Department to provide accurate information, including the need to use effective contraception if (or rather, when) kids decide to have sex.

by TChris

A group of former diplomats, including some who served under Presidents Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and Bush the First, joined to oppose the nomination of John Bolton as United Nations ambassador. Their letter to Richard Lugar, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, explains their position.

The former diplomats ... took issue with what they said was Bolton's view that the United Nations is valuable only when it directly serves the interest of the Unites States. They also said Bolton, currently undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, has an exceptional record of opposing efforts to enhance U.S. security through arms control and has worked for Taiwan as a paid researcher and has said Taiwan should be treated as a sovereign state. They said that "his past activities and statements indicate conclusively that he is the wrong man for this position."

The Senate committee will hold hearings on the nomination in early April.

by TChris

The religious right, hoping to tear down the wall that keeps a respectful distance between church and state, is working "to win control of local government posts and Republican organizations" in Ohio.

In a manifesto that is being circulated among church leaders and on the Internet, the group, which is called the Ohio Restoration Project, is planning to mobilize 2,000 evangelical, Baptist, Pentecostal and Roman Catholic leaders in a network of so-called Patriot Pastors to register half a million new voters, enlist activists, train candidates and endorse conservative causes in the next year.

Pastor Russell Johnson of the Fairfield Christian Church takes credit for the election of a half dozen congregants to local political offices, including Fairfield County Sheriff Dave Phalen. Here's a taste of things to come if Johnson has his way in statewide elections:

Sheriff Phelan's official letterhead now reads, "With God, all things are possible."

Some Republicans fear that the efforts of religious extremists to move the party even farther to the right will alienate voters, leading to Republican losses. The Restoration Project supports Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell, the most conservative of three Republicans seeking to replace Bob Taft as governor in 2006.

President Bush's approval rating has dropped to 45%, its lowest level ever. Is it social security, the deteriorating economy or the Terri Schiavo case?

Most likely, all three:

The new poll found the largest drop for Bush came among men, self-described conservatives and churchgoers. "You have to wonder if people didn't feel that the president and the Congress couldn't be spending their time working on Social Security and other problems," said Charlie Cook, editor of the non-partisan Cook Political Report.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (MD) responds to the Trustee's social security report and says it confirms there is no crisis and that the President is delaying bipartisan action by pushing his private-account proposal. You can read the report here.

The Agonist has a roundup of blogger comments on the Trustee report.

• Atrios
• Max Sawicky
• Kevin Drum
• Democracy Guy
• Just Another Bump in the Beltway
• Matthew Yglesias and Tapped
• Bob Brigham at There is No Crisis
• Josh Marshall

Also,

Brad deLong and Brad Plummer [hat tip Burnt Orange Report.]

President Bush comes to Denver today to push his social security plan. A leading Yale finance economist says,

Nearly three-quarters of workers who opt for Social Security personal accounts under President Bush's "default" investment option are likely to earn less in benefits than those who stay with the traditional Social Security system.

A new paper by Yale University economist Robert J. Shiller found that under Bush's default "life-cycle accounts," which shift assets from stocks to bonds over a worker's lifetime, nearly a third of workers would bring in less in benefits than if they remained in the traditional system. That analysis is based on historical rates of return in the United States. Using global rates of return, which Shiller says more closely track future conditions, life-cycle portfolios could be expected to fall short of the traditional system's returns 71 percent of the time.

by TChris

Promises are easier to make than they are to keep. That's particularly true when the promise is to remain abstinent. Teens who make the pledge often start searching for loopholes, and that, according to a new study, explains why they are just as likely to acquire sexually transmitted diseases as are other teens.

The latest study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health, found that teens pledging virginity until marriage are more likely to have oral and anal sex than other teens who have not had intercourse. That behavior, however, "puts you at risk," said Hannah Brueckner, assistant professor of sociology at Yale and one of the study's authors.

The pledging group was also less likely to use condoms during their first sexual experience or get tested for STDs, the study found.

Of course, if teens were taught about safe sex options in addition to the benefits of abstinence, they'd be less at risk -- but that doesn't matter to the "abstinence only" crowd. An earlier report questioning the value of "abstinence only" education is discussed here.

How low can you go? How about bringing your 80 year old mother along on your Socical Security Road Show to reassure seniors that their social security benefits are safe.

Too bad most seniors don't have the Bushco family fortune behind them so they too won't suffer when it turns out to be a lie.

Monday will be Bush and Beauprez day in Colorado when the President brings his traveling social security road show to Denver. Progress Now has scheduled some alternative events.

Please also join Colorado Progressive Coalition, AFL-CIO and the Colorado Alliance for Retired Americans on Monday, March 21, 2005 at 12 noon for a protest at the Colorado State Capitol's West Steps (200 East Colfax Avenue, Denver).

Tickets are free for the Bush event.

PICK UP TICKETS TODAY - FRIDAY, MARCH 18TH beginning at 12:00 noon (bring photo ID)
Where: Congressman Bob Beauprez's Office
4251 Kipling Street, STE 370
Phone: 303-940-5821

When: the road show is this Monday, March 21st
Doors open at 2:30pm
Where: Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum
7711 East Academy Boulevard, Lowry

Former Attorney General John Ashcroft has a new job - teaching at a Christian university.

He'll be a part-time professor at a Christian university run by television evangelist Pat Robertson. Ashcroft, 62, will begin teaching a one-week course on "leadership in times of crisis" on April 4 at Regent University in Virginia Beach. Jay Sekulow, a Regent University trustee, said the former attorney general will teach a two-week version of the same course during the college's summer, fall and spring semesters beginning this year. Ashcroft also will lecture on national security law.

President Bush today acknowledged at his press conference that he has no plan for social security.

THE PRESIDENT: First of all, Dave, let me, if I might correct you, be so bold as to correct you, I have not laid out a plan yet, intentionally. I have laid out principles, I've talked about putting all options on the table, because I fully understand the administration must work with the Congress to permanently solve Social Security. So one aspect of the debate is, will we be willing to work together to permanently solve the issue.

....I'm not interested in playing political games. (Laughter.) I'm interested in working with members of both political parties.

Colorado Congresswoman Diana Degette calls him on the carpet (received via e-mail.):