Do you have a reference to back that up? From what I've read, the earth's distance to the center of the galaxy doesn't change much (it is and has been like 26,000 light years).

Charles Ponzi went to prison because he stole money from people. Social Security is a pension system, and it's been one of the best pension systems in this country's history. It's overhead has been low, and it has a huge surplus. Social Security is not going bankrupt any time soon. If we leave it as is, it will last for about another 25 years. After that it will probably be able to pay 75% of benefits through the end of this century. We had to tweak it in the 80s and we'll need to tweak it again so that it will last more that 25 years.

I think you read that wrong. If you count the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the number is like 5%. This is lower that the average SINCE WORLD WAR II. The US had a lot of history before World War II, and during most of it defense spending was usually between 1% and 2% of GDP and was only above 4% during the Civil War and World War I. http://www.usgovernmentspending.com/downchart_gs.php?year=1792_1940&view=1&expand=&units=p&log=linear&fy=fy12&chart=30-fed&bar=1&stack=1&size=l&title=&state=US&color=c&local=s

The unemployment rate when Bush left office was 7.8% and rising rapidly. http://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000

My problem with Palin isn't her (lack of) intelligence, but her ego. She seems unable to admit when she's wrong. Anybody who thinks "What did you learn today?" and "What newspapers and magazines do you read?" are gotcha questions is not fit to be President.