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There's a Sucker Born Every Minute
This is the latest installment of my weekly series for the tired, poor, huddled masses who dot the charred American political landscape. I have read your letters and feel your pain. May god bless you all. You are my people.
-- Polly
Dear Polly Sigh –
I live in Omaha, Nebraska, and the President came here recently to discuss his plan to privatize social security. I attended the meeting, but didn’t really come away with very much information about the plan. The President kept saying that it would make Social Security stronger, but I’m not clear on how taking money out of the system will make it stronger. Shouldn’t they be trying to put money into the system? This seems kind of obvious. Am I missing something?
Confused Omaha Worker
Dear COW:
These are complex issues, and cannot be addressed using common sense. I think President Bush has made that clear.
On its face, it may seem strange that taking money out of the system would make it stronger, but George Bush has assured us that’s the case. And to illustrate the truth of this, I’ll give you an example: Let’s say you’ve got $5000 dollars in the bank. You probably don’t, because most Americans aren’t saving any money these days, but let’s pretend that you do. So you’ve got this $5000 in the bank. Now you could just keep that money for an emergency, or for an expense that you know is coming like, oh say, putting Junior through welding school or placing your mommy in a special home with the world “Golden” or “Sunny” in the name. With me so far? Ok.
So you’ve got your pathetic little pile of money, and you work 3 jobs, like this brave American single mom, Mary Mornin, at the Omaha Bush event you attended. (the president thought she was hilarious!).
You try to make your nest egg bigger over the next few years cuz you know mommy and Junior are counting on you. And here’s where it gets hard to grasp for folks like you. Because the money is just sitting there, nobody at a brokerage house is making commissions on it. Not a dime, bucko. That means the money isn’t circulating in the stock market crowd. They’re not getting any. Mr. Bush finds this very upsetting, because a lot of these people are personal friends, and like all great men, he’s extremely loyal to his friends.
So here’s the President’s point. You should let mommy and Junior take personal responsibility like our sent-from-God-President does every day. You see, Joe, we’ve become a society that’s all messed up with each other’s business. Everybody paying for everybody else’s stuff. And that’s just not right. Why should you be expected to put money into social security for SOMEONE ELSE to use?? Now some people will say that other people have put money into the system that you will use. Really? Prove it. This is exactly what the president was talking about in your fair city the other day.
Mommy and Junior should take responsibility for their own lives, and let you take money from the system for yourself, because then you will ‘own’ your retirement, Cow. Ultimately, assuming the stock market grows continuously for the next 50 years, Junior will get MORE money when you’re dead. See the beauty here? It’s all about being a part of an ‘ownership society.’ Yeah, taking the money out now means mommy’s on her own, but how much time does she really have? And what does ‘quality of life’ mean when you’re 70, Cow? Let’s be candid. Her time has passed, really, don’t you think? And so has the idea that each generation works to provide a national safety net for all citizens. It’s like being polite to strangers, or helping the elderly cross the street... It’s what was. It’s a new America, Cow. Take the money and don’t get all mucked up trying to figure out if it’s the right thing to do.
Patriotically Yours,
Polly
I heard the darndest thing on Chris Matthews' show last nite (the 2-minutes I could stand to watch). He and Tucker Carlson essentially agreed that the SS debate is a win-win for Shrub even if his plan doesn't pass. Apparently the mere fact that Shrub was brave enough to go after a governmental pillar as sacred as SS is a win for him. So this, I guess is how Repubs are preparing to handle defeat on this, put out there that it took guts to go after it in the first place. Now ain't that some sh*t? When a Dem president loses a fight with Congress it's called, well a loss. When Shrub does it's heroic. Unreal. The sad part is that the MSM media will buy it hook line and sinker.
BTW...Matthews and Tucker thinks Shrub's SS scam will pass thru. They said that if SS comes to a vote ShrubCo will "corral" the opposing Repubs in a room and they will not let them leave until they change their vote. And I'm sure that usually entails ShrubCo reps saying to them: what can I do in order for you to change your vote. Both he and Tucker seemed to someone admit that it wasn't necessarily a good thing that they conducted business in this matter, but Matthews especially seemed to admire it. You know he goes ga-ga for that macho strong arm crap that ShrubCo pulls.
First!
Ex-Detainee Says He Was Tortured
By RAYMOND BONNER
Published: February 13, 2005
SYDNEY, Australia, Feb. 12 - Mamdouh Habib still has a bruise on his lower back. He says it is a sign of the beatings he endured in a prison in Egypt. Interrogators there put out cigarettes on his chest, he says, and he lifts his shirt to show the marks. He says he got the dark spot on his forehead when Americans hit his head against the floor at the prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.
After being arrested in Pakistan in the weeks after Sept. 11, 2001, he was held as a terror suspect by the Americans for 40 months. Back home now, Mr. Habib alleges that at every step of his detention - from Pakistan, to Egypt, to Afghanistan, to Guantánamo - he endured physical and psychological abuse.
The physical abuse, he said, ranged from a kick "that nearly killed me" to electric shocks administered through a wired helmet that he said interrogators told him could detect whether he was lying.
Speaking publicly for the first time since he was freed two weeks ago, Mr. Habib, a 49-year-old Australian citizen born in Egypt, also described psychological abuse that seemed intended to undermine his identity - as a husband, a father and a Muslim man. At Guantánamo, he said, he was sexually humiliated by a female interrogator who reached under her skirt and threw what appeared to be blood in his face. He also said he was forced to look at photographs of his wife's face superimposed on images of naked women next to Osama bin Laden.
Mr. Habib's claims of mistreatment and torture cannot be confirmed, yet many are in line with accounts from other former detainees, as well as from human rights reports and from some government agents involved in the detention system. In addition, Australian officials confirm Mr. Habib's movements during his confinement, including his imprisonment in Egypt, where his lawyers say the United States sent him for harsh interrogation through a process known as rendition.
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/13/international/middleeast/13habib.html
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=1&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A vegetable truck rigged with explosives blew up Friday outside a Shiite mosque northeast of Baghdad, and gunmen sprayed automatic fire into a bakery in a Shiite district of the capital in sectarian violence that killed at least 23 people.
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/3034495
Republicans in hot seat for donations to DeLay
Democratic House leaders say the pair should be removed from the Ethics Committee
http://www.insidebayarea.com/sanmateocountytimes/oped/ci_2565996
An unhealthy silence comes from military medics
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_re_as/us_nkoreahttp://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=2&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_re_as/us_nkorea
U.S. Refuses One-On-One North Korea Talks. Why? Because the Last Four Years of Ignoring Them Worked So Well? Bush and Condi Better Wake Up and Smell the Nuclear Flowers. 2/12
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scientists10feb10,0,4954654.story?coll=la-home-nation
More than 200 scientists employed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they have been directed to alter official findings to lessen protections for plants and animals, a survey released Wednesday says.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=512&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_go_co/democrats_bush&printer=1
WASHINGTON - Senate Democrats demanded Thursday that President Bush (news - web sites) order a halt to personal attacks on the party's leader, Sen. Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), and expressed regret that they had failed to mount a stronger defense for his defeated predecessor.
http://news.ncmonline.com/news/view_article.html?article_id=9b9b5406a6ff54ecf15ecaae19e53d58
Black Democrats Tuesday assailed President George W. Bush’s proposed budget, calling the $2.57 trillion spending plan “disappointing” and saying drastic cuts in education, food programs and literacy initiatives will create serious hardships for blacks across the nation.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1409591,00.html
Domestic gibberish
Bush's incoherence on home affairs reminds us that pre-9/11 he was the most unpopular president
http://www.alternet.org/rights/21189/
This is an excerpt from 'The Torture Papers: The Road to Abu Ghraib (Cambridge University Press),' edited by Karen J. Greenberg and Joshua L. Dratel.
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/business/11WIRE-CNN.html?ei=5094&en=aadf7b2b9d19b393&hp=&ex=1108184400&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position
NEW YORK (AP) -- CNN chief news executive Eason Jordan quit Friday amidst a furor over remarks he made in Switzerland last month about journalists killed by the U.S. military in Iraq.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1479363,00.html
'I'm more scared of going out with these guys than fighting insurgents'
They have a reputation for spraying bullets all around them if fired on, and two Americans have been killed by such stray rounds. “I’m more scared of going out with these guys than clashing with the insurgents,” an American trooper says. “They have no concept of identifying friendlies, and let loose at anything.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/12/politics/12clarke.html?ei=5094&en=20dfc8ea10b55dd0&hp=&ex=1108270800&partner=homepage&pagewanted=print&position
The 13-page proposal presented to Dr. Rice by her top counterterrorism adviser, Richard A. Clarke, laid out ways to step up the fight against Al Qaeda, focusing on Osama bin Laden's headquarters in Afghanistan. The ideas included giving "massive support" to anti-Taliban groups "to keep Islamic extremist fighters tied down"; destroying terrorist training camps "while classes are in session" and then sending in teams to gather intelligence on terrorist cells; deploying armed drone aircraft against known terrorists; more aggressively tracking Qaeda money; and accelerating the F.B.I.'s translation and analysis of material from surveillance of terrorism suspects in American cities.
http://www2.cbs5.com/localwire/localfsnews/bcn/2005/02/11/n/HeadlineNews/MCPHERSON-NOMINATED/resources_bcn_html
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger today appointed Santa Cruz political stalwart Bruce McPherson to replace Kevin Shelley as secretary of state.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-scientists10feb10,0,4954654.story?coll=la-home-nation
More than 200 scientists employed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service say they have been directed to alter official findings to lessen protections for plants and animals, a survey released Wednesday says
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/nyc-fams0211,0,6253545.story?coll=ny-nynews-headlines
Expressing outrage Thursday, family members of 9/11 victims called on the federal government to probe why it didn't act on intelligence warning of terrorist hijackings in the months before the World Trade Center was destroyed.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021205C.shtml
C.I.A. Operation in Iran Failed When Spies Were Exposed
By Greg Miller
The Los Angeles Times
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021205Y.shtml
Changing Minds, One at a Time
By Howard Zinn
The Progressive
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021105A.shtml
Once upon a time, working the White House Press Briefing Room was the crown jewel of mainstream political journalism beats. That was it; short of reporting live from under the President's desk or nailing down an interview with the ghost of Abraham Lincoln, you weren't going to get a better gig if you were a political reporter
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021105H.shtml
The Iraqi Prime Minister Seeks an Alliance with the Kurds to Save His Job
By Cécile Hennion
Le Monde
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021105L.shtml#1
Let us stand back in awe at the Bush administration's genius. Few administrations in our history have been more successful in setting the terms of the political debate. None has been as skilled at getting its facts accepted as plausible even when they are not. None has looked so principled, even when it said one thing while doing another.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/021105G.shtml
WASHINGTON -- A Halliburton Co. shipment of radioactive material went missing in October but the company didn't alert government authorities until this week, Nuclear Regulatory Commission officials said today. The material -- two sources of the element americium, used in oil well exploration -- was found intact Wednesday in Boston after an intense search by federal authorities. NRC and Halliburton officials say the public never was in danger
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12223462%255E601,00.html
THE Howard Government has defied US efforts to dissuade the European Union from lifting its 15-year arms embargo on China, which Washington fears could transform the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,12234498%255E1702,00.html
BRITISH Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he'll do his "damnedest" to open a dialogue with the United States in the coming months to tackling the issue of global warming.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,1407040,00.html
Last autumn, while Pentagon lawyers were writing memos suggesting that Mubanga may not have had any involvement in terrorism at all and may not have been given a fair hearing, the Guantanamo authorities subjected him to the harshest treatment in his 33 months in Guantanamo, with three brutal assaults by the 'Instant Reaction Force' riot squad for trivial violations of the camp rules.
http://www.9news.com/acm_news.aspx?OSGNAME=KUSA&IKOBJECTID=036d123a-0abe-421a-0134-10ba88669545&TEMPLATEID=0c76dce6-ac1f-02d8-0047-c589c01ca7bf
Fort Carson amputee returning to Iraq for second tour of duty
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-arnold12feb12,0,3276726.story?coll=la-home-headlines
SACRAMENTO — In a fiery speech to Republican faithful Friday evening, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ridiculed Democrats as wasteful spending "addicts" who have been taking "sleeping pills," and he characterized California's problems as stemming from "evil."
http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_1661221,00.html
Harare - President Robert Mugabe on Friday sharply criticised US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, saying she was a "slave" to white masters in Washington who had branded Zimbabwe an outpost of tyranny.
http://www.latimes.com/services/site/premium/access-registered.intercept
Texas GOP moves to exempt itself from law
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=668&u=/ap/20050210/ap_on_bi_go_ec_fi/economy&printer=1
WASHINGTON - The U.S. trade deficit ballooned to an all-time high of $617.7 billion last year, pushed by soaring oil prices and Americans' insatiable appetite for everything foreign, from cars to toys and food.
Kangaroo
~~this is today's editorial from the Baton Rouge, LA Advocate~ The Advocate is the 2nd largest circulation newspaper in the state. I was stunned to see this, this is quite brave from an editor in this red southern state, in an area that calls itself "bush-country".
Coffins remind us of war's cost
Louisiana has been seeing a lot of something lately that the Bush administration prefers to hide -- flag-draped coffins fresh from Iraq.
At least 32 military service members from Louisiana have died in Iraq, including 14 members of the National Guard.
The war in Iraq began almost two years ago. Guardsmen from Louisiana got to Baghdad about three months ago. The Associated Press recently reported that combat in the Iraq war had taken the lives of more Guardsmen from Louisiana than from any other state.
Since 1991 news media have been banned from covering the arrival of remains of military personnel at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where bodies are prepared for burial before being shipped to hometowns. Shortly before the war in Iraq began in 2003, the Pentagon issued guidelines for U.S. military installations around the globe, prohibiting coverage of "the movement of remains at any point." The White House has said that its policy is intended to protect the privacy of families of the fallen.
The real reason President Bush doesn't want Americans to see pictures of flag-draped coffins is obvious, and it has little or nothing to do with the privacy of families. Bush clearly fears that such pictures will erode support for the war in Iraq. The war, however, is not overwhelmingly popular, in spite of the no-picture policy regarding coffins.
Pictures of flag-draped coffins and grieving families are stark reminders of the human cost of war. That cost is something all of us should bear in mind, regardless of whether we support or oppose the war.
When American military personnel come home in coffins, as Louisiana National Guardsmen have recently, the reality of war in a faraway land comes home with them.
Pictures of grieving Louisiana families put human faces on the suffering of those who never see battle but are left behind on the home front. War ceases to be something happening only to other people on the far side of the globe.
War is a bloody business in which people are maimed and killed. There is no getting around that human cost. No one should try to hide it, and none of us should be allowed to forget it.
We believe Americans vary in their reactions to pictures of flag-draped coffins. For some, such pictures might generate or reinforce opposition to the war. For others, they might inspire patriotism and determination to see the war through.
Whether this war is worth its cost in American lives is a decision for the people. Regardless of whether pictures of flag-draped coffins inspire opposition to the war or support for it, the public should see them.
When a man or woman is killed while serving in the U.S. military, that sacrifice should be publicly recognized. It shouldn't be hidden by the government, and it shouldn't be forgotten by the people.
http://www.2theadvocate.com/cgi-bin/printme.pl
Posted by: on.to.victory4Dems at February 12, 2005 04:00 PM
Those photos they don't want us to see are here:
http://www.thememoryhole.org/war/coffin_photos/dover/
You know, Tweetie and Bow-Tie can say my ass is small, but that doesn't make it fit into the jeans that I wore in high school.
And if this was such a brilliant win-win for the Repukes, you wouldn't have Denny Hastert and Ken (Gannon's Gay, I'm not, really) Mehlman, at odds with one another over this. And you wouldn't have Ken Mehlman sending out a "pump 'em up" memo to the entire mailing list of the RNC.
No, I think Tweetie and Bow-Tie are being their usual Pundidiot selves.
You, on the other hand are brave and noble for enduring that crapola. I find that I am only able to endure it by reading the transcript, and then trying to relate what they are saying to either rational discourse, or the English language. Fo course, their commentary is related to neither, but reminds me of what the poster Feeling Fabulous said in the Soapbox in the forum under the title Lamentations, about how these guys sound like three babies on the floor speaking gibberish that only they can understand.
Meanwhile, the Press Corpse continues to sleep their way through the entire 9-11 Report proving our secretary of State is a Liar, and there is quite possibly an illegal nexus between Scott McClellan and L'Affair de Plame.
I see that it is nearing the cocktail hour and after having read the news today, I am ready for a valium and a martini. Who's pouring?
Sorry, that post was in response to Florida Dems observations on the Tweety Show, with sidekick Bow-Tie Boy.
Well, get this!
Not only has the President been making the rounds to visit the folks in the states where they are trying to get the Dem Senators to buckle, the Republican Party is now running TV ADS on the stations in my red state he recently visited.
Guess what the ads say?
SAVE SOCIAL SECURITY - MAKE IT STRONGER -
NO DIFFERENCE IN YOUR BENEFITS IF YOU ARE
UNDER 55.
Orwellian language, Lakoff page 22.
CORRECTION:
Please make that:
NO DIFFERENCE IN YOUR BENEFITS IF YOU ARE OVER
55.
Posted by: florida dem at February 12, 2005 03:40 PM
Florida Dem,
Several days ago on CM's Hardball, Joe Scarborough said he thought Bush would get about 25 percent of what he wants on SS and he could declare victory. I think they'll be happy if they can make any inroads at all. For them it's a start, a wedge, and they've been pretty good at taking a long view.
As for Bush strong-arming GOP legislators, he made that clear when he said publicly that there will be "political consequences" for those who don't support him.
The House GOP leadership sent a clear message that loyalty and discipline will be enforced when it canned two committee chairs who didn't toe the line (Hefley on the ethics committee, who pursued DeLay too vigorously, and Chris Smith on Veterans Affairs, who had opposed Bush's cuts to veterans' health care). To re-inforce the message, both lost not only their chairmanships, but their seats on the committees (in Smith's case, a seat he had held for 24 years). And to find someone to replace Smith, they dug down to the fourth-ranking Republican on the committee (Steve Buyer) to find someone who could be trusted to be loyal enough to the President in cutting veterans' benefits.
These signals made it very clear that loyalty and discipline will be enforced. Those who cross the line will be punished in all sorts of ways (for example, bills they introduce will never see the light of day, and their campaign support might jjust evaporate).
On the carrot side, Bush promised to give political cover to GOP congress members by stumping on SS and deploying his campaign organization in their districts.
Recent reports indicate that dems, in response, also are playing hardball, with some who are "squishy" on SS being warned of severe consequences for disloyalty.
It looks like the title of CM's show is especially appropriate this session . . .
Bob,
I suspect this is why they also gave Unka Karl the phony promotion. Messaging, warnings, call it what you will.
In the meantime, there is an excellent short piece by Robert Riech that brings up a point about SS that I hadn't even considered...
Here's the teaser.
Right now, there are more baby boomers putting money into the Social Security system than there are retirees taking out from it. That means there's a surplus—extra money! But you probably haven't heard what it's being used for, says former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. Here's a hint: Bush's record-breaking deficits are actually a lot larger than you think.
And here's the link:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/boomers_budget_and_a_socalled_bust.php
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/
Kangaroo
Spin,
I think a lot of people, including us, are confused about they way social security revenues are accounted for in the budget. But as annoying as it was hearing Al Gore repeat, "laaaahhhk baaaaahhhx," I can't help being very nostalgic about the idea . . .
~keeping a watchful eye on Sen Lindsey Graham, R-SC on SS~ he wants to be the "deal-maker"
Senate Newcomer Leads Social Security Deal
http://tinyurl.com/4qb5v
~today's NY Sen Chuck Schumer's Democratic response
on Social Security
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/politics/3036903
~from the Times of India!
US conducting independent inquiry into Iran assesment
WASHINGTON: US intelligence agencies are conducting an independent inquiry into their assesments about Iran's nuclear programme, in order to avoid embarrasment similar to the failed search for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq, which was cited as the reason for dethroning its ruler Saddam Hussein.
continue~
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1019195.cms
Posted by: florida dem at February 12, 2005 03:40 PM
Well, I was gonna say its a good thing that the media is already preparing for a bush loss on SS, but then Matthews thinks it'll pass? Ugh- its no suprise that he admires bush's dirty tricks. The man is just plain unscrupulous.
Right now, there are more baby boomers putting money into the Social Security system than there are retirees taking out from it. That means there's a surplus—extra money! But you probably haven't heard what it's being used for, says former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich. Here's a hint: Bush's record-breaking deficits are actually a lot larger than you think.
And here's the link:
http://www.tompaine.com/articles/boomers_budget_and_a_socalled_bust.php
Posted by: spinnaker at February 12, 2005 05:12 PM
Thanks, spinnaker! I'm a fan of Robert Reich, and this is a very interesting article...
A lot of dems are calling for the obvious fix for SS -- roll back tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, and SS is guaranteed into the next century.
Calling it "my idea," Jay Rockefeller talked about this in WVA:
Jay Has Own Plan For Social Security
http://theintelligencer.net/news/story/0212202005_new1jay.asp
A companion story has two dems -- Ted Strickland of OH and Alan Mollohan of WVA agreeing with Rockefeller, while a Republican Rep., Ney of OH,
without committinjg to a position, talks of working for a bipartisan solution:
Lawmakers Weigh In on Plan
http://theintelligencer.net/news/story/0212202005_new2lawmakers.asp
Posted by: Bob Evans at February 12, 2005 05:22 PM
BushCo already gutted Social Security's surplus to pay for his deficits that resulted from his tax cuts. He now needs a way to pay Peter for robbing Paul, while lining the pockets of his buddies on Wall Street who have been itching to get their grubby paws on the SS funds for years.... ANY "fine-tuning" that might have to be done with SS can just wait until AFTER BushCo is long out of office. There is enough debt already being passed on to our children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren and succeeding generations to come, all thanks to BushCo......
It's Medicare that needs fixing because BushCo's pharmaceutical industry and medical industries and insurance industry buddies who are garnering the most from the Medicare changes BushCo made..... Now, that's something that really does need some fixing, big time!
Meanwhile his oil company buddies are now embarrassingly rich (see the previous link about that story that someone posted). Gee, but why aren't they offering to put money back into the US treasury since they benefited from BushCo's tax cuts? Or lower oil prices, or give fuel oil to the poor and working poor.... or any number of things they could do with their embarrassing profits that could be useful to people (make your own list)....
WOW I just read bush's conversations with the people in Omaha:
THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?
MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that.(Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)
how out of touch can he get? perhaps bush should try actually working his job for a change. ...or no, that could be devastating. yikes.
Nonny,
Dems know that Medicare is the more urgent issue, but it's not a choice between addressing one or the other -- they're doing both. Dealing with Medicare with initiatives like the Wyden/Snowe MEND Act. Though some have counseled doing nothing on SS this year, dems seem to be pursuing what seems to be a good strategy of going after it now, while Bush's tax cuts are on the table.
The Jay Rockefeller story I linked earlier shows an approach that dems can use to good effect in every state. From that story:
Rockefeller cited numbers stating that West Virginia and its residents depend more on Social Security than any other state.
About 406,000 West Virginians receive Social Security benefits. As many as 64 percent receive these as retirement benefits, while others are survivors of benefactors or the disabled, according to Rockefeller.
As for the tax cuts, those most likely to benefit are those earning at least $300,000 annually, he said.
Only about 6,000 West Virginians receiving Social Security would qualify.
"I would be one of them," Rockefeller acknowledged. "But I think I can make it without it (the tax cut).
"If I have to choose between helping 400,000 West Virginians or 6,000, I have to go with the 400,000," he said.
http://theintelligencer.net/news/story/0212202005_new1jay.asp
Progressive orgs like our democracy cells can use the same kinds of comparisons to confront Republican legislators. We can reverse those idiotic tax cuts and fix SS while just saying "no" to privatization.
The story line is this:
The social security taxes we pay creates a surplus that is being used to finance tax cuts for the very wealthy. They take the money and become richer. But when we retire, we can't call in all those loans made from our social security trust fund to finance the deficit which pays for the tax cuts to the wealthy.
Why is it so hard for the red states to smell the scam!!
THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?
MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that.(Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)
All in favor of impeachment just for lying about being compassionate, say "AYE".
Hey red states, still think he's "just like me"?
There's a wonderful diary at dKos, "A Hug From John Kerry," That was brought to my attention by Mass in a comment on the lightupthedarkness.org blog. This is worth reading:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/12/174812/691
THE PRESIDENT: You work three jobs?
MS. MORNIN: Three jobs, yes.
THE PRESIDENT: Uniquely American, isn't it? I mean, that is fantastic that you're doing that.(Applause.) Get any sleep? (Laughter.)
Posted by: NativeTexan4Kerry at February 12, 2005 06:32 PM
IN READING that entire Mornin/Bush bit: and IN REREADING IT: I just think Ms. Mornin was
a plant. TAKE A GOOD LOOK at the framing going on in that entire bit. Not the least of which
was President Bush naming her experience as
"Uniquely American", and "Fantastic". (Ms. Mornin should be PROUD she is working three jobs, just shows what good work ethic she has, and how patriotic she is.) She forgot to mention that they are part-time jobs at very low wages, and she doesn't get any health insurance at any of them because she can't get 40 hrs. per week. She forgot to mention that she doesn't work her three jobs because she wants to work three jobs, but because she HAS to, to keep her roof over her head and her power on, and that she is one pay-check away from a shopping cart.
THIS IS EVIL.
Plant or not, that is the kind of doofus remark $hrub makes at every turn, like a borg implant... I mean, anyone with a shred of decency or compassion would NOT make a joke or veiled patriotic reference to anyone working three jobs.
I wouldn't call it evil, I'd call him an @$$hole.
But that's just me.
You and me, both, Marc! Kinda reveals what we're gonna get from this President, though, doesn't it? Having to work three jobs . . .
The Meathead Proposition
Another Irrefutable Argument Against Privatizing Social Security
If Meathead can figure this out, why can't W?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17605-2005Feb11.html?nav=hcmodule
Marc,
Exactly my point. Only I don't think it was merely a "doofus remark", I think it was a set up question, and a set up answer ~ what Lakoff refers to as an opportunity for "framing".
But that's just me.
How 'bout we settle for an evil a$$hole?
How 'bout we settle for an evil a$$hole?
Posted by: Truth Shall Prevail at February 12, 2005 07:20 PM
I can live with that... or can I?
Marc,
It just depends on how small a cardboard box you can live in . . .
New media association:
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/index.php?p=63 Alternative Press Association
Local press conference - other communities might consider taking this approach:
More for War – Forget You! Press Conference Monday, Feb. 14 9 AM Room BE1110, SCCC
Seattle-area leaders from all levels of government, as well as education and health care experts, will explain in detail how President Bush’s proposed 2005 budget damages the local region.
Topics will include the plight of local governments in the face of vanishing federal funds, impacts of federal cuts on local veterans programs, threats to the public schools, impacts on availability of health care and social services, and the moral implications for a society that embraces the spending priorities of President Bush.
Attendees at the press conference will include:
• Jim McDermott, U.S. Congress, Seattle’s 7th District
• Larry Gossett, County Council, 10th District
• Nick Licata, Seattle City Council
• Sally Soriano, Seattle School Board
• Sunil Aggarwal, MD/PHD candidate and president of Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility
Truth Shall Prevail:
You will appreciate this from my mom in ND re. Social Security - "There is a surplus for social security because more your age pay in than the number of those my age get checks. Bush is stealing the surplus and doesn't intend to pay it back. That's because it's payback time for Bush to the cronies on Wall Street who moved heaven and earth to get him into power."
She also said he would veto the whole Senate if he had to & keep his Medicare drug program (she refuses to have a drug card even though she has survived breast cancer for 8 years), because he owes the pharmaceutical company a favor, and that he wants to get as many of us on prescription drugs as possible, including kids.
Posted by: DiAnne at February 12, 2005 08:16 PM
LOL!
She doesn't mince words does she?
I have an elderly gentleman here that tickled
me at election time: "That goddamn Bush gets in again, and he'll blow us ALL up."
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/2/12/174812/691
The Hug from Kerry entry on Kos mentioned above. I'm sitting here sobbing with gratitude. If you've been a fan, as well as supporter, you need to read it.