Bush: Elites "Didn't Think I Could Read a Book, Much Less Write One"

http://politics.blogs.foxnews.com/2010/10/08/bush-elites-didnt-think-i-could-read-book-much-less-write-one
 On Thursday former President George W. Bush spoke about his life in the public and was quoted stating, "I have written a book. This will come as a shock to some of the elites. They didn't think I could read a book, much less write one." The book will be about the decisions he made while he was in office, giving the people an opportunity to "walk in his shoes" so to speak. Although the former President has been the subject of criticism by the Democratic party as well as his successor President Obama he declined any comments saying that "You're not going to see me out opining or offering my critique. Frankly, I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president criticize his successor." Bush also stated that he doesn't miss the limelight and that he has no desire to be in the press, on the news, or on television. However, the former President will be back in the spotlight once 1.5 million copies of his book hits shelves November 9th. There was one thing that Bush missed about being President, the dessert chef.

72,000 Checks Sent to the Dead

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/10/07/stimulus-checks-sent-dead/

I must say when I first saw the title of this article I was hooked before I even read the first line! My first thought was how could the Social Security Administration make such a mistake, as I began reading the article this become very clear. In February 2009 89,000 stimulus checks of $250 were sent out to dead as well as incarcerated Americans, this mistake was made because the checks were mailed before the SSA had the information on the deaths of 55,000 of the recipients. The other 17,000 checks were mailed because the SSA did not process the death records they had received. In May of 2009 another 17,000 checks were mailed to recipients who were incarcerated, but not all the payments were against the law. The spending of social-security funds not belonging to you is illegal but that didn't stop over half of the checks sent out from being taken, only 41,00 of the social-security payments were returned. The SSA didn't make any kind of provisions that would allow them to get the checks that were accidentally distributed, so out of the combined total of $22.3 million only $12 million were returned. Although the SSA was pleased that the majority of the funds were distributed properly the report received criticism from Republican Senator  Tom Coburn of Oklahoma. “This report highlights the broader problems with the Recovery Act itself,” said Coburn, in a statement. “At a time like now, when nearly $350 billion in waste, fraud and abuse in the federal government annually has been reported and our national debt closing in on $13.5 trillion, these findings represent the epitome of congressional stupidity and a total disregard for accountability."