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The Old Shell Game
In the February 21 edition of Newsweek, Robert Samuelson makes it pretty clear that the old shell game is being revived by the Bush Administration.
You've never heard of Flemming v. Nestor, but it's a 1960 Supreme Court decision that demolishes the Bush administration's case for borrowing vast amounts to pay for its proposed "personal" Social Security accounts. The White House has crafted a clever bit of intellectual camouflage to do what's politically convenient: create a new government benefit to the personal accounts—-at no obvious cost. True, borrowing is a cost, but it's largely hidden from the public. It's not as conspicuous as a tax. What we have here is an exercise in mass deception that, in a weird way, is encouraged by a public that prefers to be deceived rather than face the difficult choices posed by Social Security or the government's budget.
Now, there's little doubt in my mind that Samuelson is perfectly correct when he says that the administration is engaging in an exercise in mass deception. But I take issue with his generalization that the public prefers to be deceived. I disagree.
In order for the public to prefer to be deceived, they would have to have a choice between the truth and deception. Where's the truth hanging out these days? Not on television news. Timmy Russert can't seem to get straight the difference between life expectancy at birth and life expectancy at 65, despite being corrected. CNN anchors and reporters continue over a period of two days to report the mistaken idea that workers cannot " pass their Social Security retirement benefits on to their heirs." In fact, surviving spouses and children can all obtain benefits based on the lifetime payroll taxes paid by a deceased parent or spouse.
And finding the truth about Social Security in the print media is like looking for a plot in a Pam Anderson movie. A February 11 editorial in the Washington Post gave some support to the President's idiotic piratazation scheme and claimed that the plan would be "financially neutral for the government". Oops, they left out the trillions of dollars in transition costs from the editorial. Would you consider that financially neutral for the government? I wouldn't.
On and on and on, examples of misinformation and disinformation are thrown at us with alarming frequency. There is an excellent website dedicated to separating fact from fiction called Media Matters for America. I am on their e-mail list. I get at least ten items a day from them, correcting the mistake the media has made. And that just covers the obvious ones. And that's just one website that serves that function. Lies and distortions are so prevalent, we need multiple websites just to categorize and manage all of them.
American people would prefer to be deceived? How can we possibly know that when they are rarely treated to the truth?
Thank goodness for Media Matters. They aren't always correct, but they've done a great job of pointing out biases and inaccuracies.
We have had so many deceptions of late. The WMD, the lack of clarity on the 9-11 investigation, not to mention the Orwellian nature of how the environmental regulations are being re-written and/or unenforced.
The Social Security push has the potential to be the biggest transfer of money from the general public to the wealthy ever--and that's saying something considering the Bush shifting of the tax burden increasingly from the wealthiest to the middle and lower income families.
The NeoCONS have really tried to CON everyone. But they overplayed their cards on Social Security. A little light has peeked through...Hmmm...lot's of people are starting to NOTICE they're LIARS.
Now with their PROPRANDA news coverage, even more are understanding.
Take notes and deliver the message! This is how we'll beat them in 06.
I think that in some cases, forcing people to see the truth is not always enough.
Repugs are trying to make people live in a “different world” because their principles simply dont fit practically or ethically into the real world. But unfortunately, their "different world" has worked-- people voted for bush because they would rather be deceived and think that bush is a hero who could do nothing to prevent 9/11, than accept the truth that he neglected our safety. In this case, showing them the truth was not enough. We could tell them over and over with all the evidence there is that bush is NOT the hero they wanted to see him as. But these people choose deception because it so much nicer to believe that your president is a great man, than to accept the truth. I think our job in the election was to show these people a THIRD choice. Our job was to show them that yes, the truth is that bush is incompetent, etc., BUT there IS still integrity and leadership in government (Kerry) and he can take us to greater things than ever before. I think we (especially many of the people on this blog!) did succeed in doing this to a great extent. ...but obviously not enough.
But its not too late to show that third choice to people who have chosen to be deceived. Obviously, its important to make sure they know the truth. But if the truth isnt very pretty, they will still pick denial unless we show them the optimistic side of the truth.
I guess what im trying to say is that WE know that "the high road may be harder but it leads to a better place." We've just got to do a better job of showing people the "better place," so they will take the high road- that is, so they will accept the truth.
~American people would prefer to be deceived? How can we possibly know that when they are rarely treated to the truth?
Posted by Casey Morris at February 17, 2005 05:30 PM
~Now THAT'S the truth!
For those among us who watch, read, listen & de-bunk, our outrage-level is off the charts, trying to make sense of the insanity we know as the bu$h/cheneyInc era.
I have long ago passed "outrage overload". But I personally know many people, otherwise intelligent people here in middle-America, who are just not paying attention. Do they not care, or is it that they just don't have the time or take the time to look past what is spoon-fed?
They don't equate many of the difficulties and much of the misery in their lives with policies coming from WashDC. That astounds me! It also makes me wonder = if I care too much, why do they seemingly care so little about what their government leaders are doing, in their name?
Each day, every day, when there is always, always more bu$h-stink to wade through & de-bunk, I can't help but wonder.....
If I am so outraged about all the constant bu$hlies and deceptions....imagine, just imagine how John Kerry must feel. If I am out-raged from a distance, he is privy to a LOT more info than I will ever know, about the true agenda of the bu$hcheney regime. John Kerry continues to stand up for a better life for all Americans. My respect for JK continues to grow.
The Bush Doctrine
If the war in Iraq is the 'practical' expression of George Bush's theology of liberty and freedom, the world is in serious trouble.
by Jim Wallis
Since the first inauguration in 1789, each president has referenced God in his inaugural address. After taking the oath of office, George Washington ad-libbed the final words, "So help me God." Every president since has done the same in the oath.
The question has never been whether religious language will be used in presidential inaugurals, but how. In perhaps the most famous, Lincoln’s second inaugural address, God was invoked not to bless the nation, or give any triumphal comfort to either side in the Civil War, but rather to call the nation to penitence. In doing so, he showed a preference for humble reflection over easy certainty, accountability over blessing, repentance over confidence. That was missing in George W. Bush’s second inaugural, which was rather full of a religious sense of both confidence and mission.
For an evangelical Christian, George W. Bush does not seem to have a well-developed sense of sin - at least as far as the nation is concerned. In his speech, President Bush expressed a far-reaching commitment to "liberty" and "the force of human freedom" in the world - values that most Americans, religious or not, would readily affirm. The president has often rightly acknowledged that "freedom" is a gift from God, not the possession of any nation. But his remarkable speech announced that the role of deciding if, when, and where freedom will be defended belongs to the United States of America; America is on a religious mission to protect freedom, and George Bush is freedom’s vicar.
Read more at...
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=magazine.article&issue=soj0503&article=050351
Anyone looking for a good laugh, go see Ron Chusid's latest post on LUTD... still ROFLMAO
Public Service Announcement - http://www.lightupthedarkness.org/blog/default.asp?view=plink&id=390
Hey!
Ron's post reminds me of the good ol' days on the Kerry blog, when we used to have the Troll Threat Level announcements from the Office of Blogland Security!
Cowardly Yellow remains true to this very day!
Cant wait for the truth to begin seeping out, and the White House can go to Fecal Brown!
Same crap, different day.
Posted by: Marc Trager at February 17, 2005 07:07 PM
That's a really good article, really interesting about the difference in the way Lincoln and bush referenced God.
and Marc, i also remember the Troll Threat Levels from blogland security. good times.
all we have to do to get the truth out is BE THE MEDIA!
... and don't forget, John Kerry referenced that very same Abraham Lincoln passage during his acceptance speech at the DNC, in an obvious swipe at Dumbya's perverted use of religion.
"I don't want to claim that God is on our side. As Abraham Lincoln told us, I want to pray humbly that we are on God's side."
--John Kerry, DNC acceptance speech, 7/29/04
Once again, John Kerry was correct.
Casey... an outstanding thread header. And kudos to Media Matters.
This is from a speech Teddy Roosevelt gave. I think it is very relevant.
"The Man with the Muck-rake"
"In Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress” you may recall the description of the Man with the Muck-rake, the man who could look no way but downward, with the muck-rake in his hand; who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor.
In “Pilgrim’s Progress” the Man with the Muck-rake is set forth as the example of him whose vision is fixed on carnal instead of on spiritual things. Yet he also typifies the man who in this life consistently refuses to see aught that is lofty, and fixes his eyes with solemn intentness only on that which is vile and debasing. Now, it is very necessary that we should not flinch from seeing what is vile and debasing. There is filth on the floor and it must be scraped up with the muck-rake; and there are times and places where this service is the most needed of all the services that can be performed. But the man who never does anything else, who never thinks or speaks or writes, save of his feats with the muck-rake, speedily becomes, not a help to society, not an incitement to good, but one of the most potent forces for evil.
There are, in the body politic, economic and social, many and grave evils, and there is urgent necessity for the sternest war upon them. There should be relentless exposure of and attack upon every evil man whether politician or business man, every evil practice, whether in politics, in business, or in social life. I hail as a benefactor every writer or speaker, every man who, on the platform, or in book, magazine, or newspaper, with merciless severity makes such attack, provided always that he in his turn remembers that the attack is of use only if it is absolutely truthful. The liar is no whit better than the thief, and if his mendacity takes the form of slander, he may be worse than most thieves. It puts a premium upon knavery untruthfully to attack an honest man, or even with hysterical exaggeration to assail a bad man with untruth. An epidemic of indiscriminate assault upon character does not good, but very great harm. The soul of every scoundrel is gladdened whenever an honest man is assailed, or even when a scoundrel is untruthfully assailed.
At the risk of repetition let me say again that my plea is, not for immunity to but for the most unsparing exposure of the politician who betrays his trust, of the big business man who makes or spends his fortune in illegitimate or corrupt ways. There should be a resolute effort to hunt every such man out of the position he has disgraced. Expose the crime, and hunt down the criminal; but remember that even in the case of crime, if it is attacked in sensational, lurid, and untruthful fashion, the attack may do more damage to the public mind than the crime itself. It is because I feel that there should be no rest in the endless war against the forces of evil that I ask that the war be conducted with sanity as well as with resolution.
The men with the muck-rakes are often indispensable to the well-being of society; but only if they know when to stop raking the muck, and to look upward to the celestial crown above them, to the crown of worthy endeavor."
...so basically Teddy Roosevelt is calling for journalists, authors, and reporters to stop at nothing to expose the corruption in government and big business- provided that they never lie or sensationalize what they write about. These journalists were actually called "the Muckrakers" during the Progressive Era, and more recently, i guess you could describe Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as Muckrakers. Actually, I guess perhaps you could count Michael Moore as a Muckraker... exposing the corruption in the bush administration.
...but really WHERE ARE THE MUCKRAKERS TODAY?!?!?! more than ever, we desparately NEED journalists, reporters, authors, film-makers to expose the corruption of bushco. but all i see are phoney journalists who get payed off by the white house... and then the rest of the media pretty much sits back and gives bush a free ride.
we need more of the man with the Muckrake.
(if you want to read the rest of TR's speech:http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/teddyrooseveltmuckrake.htm)
oops! here: http://www.americanrhetoric.com/speeches/teddyrooseveltmuckrake.htm
More Social Security Tax May Add Billions
1 hour, 11 minutes ago Top Stories - AP
By LAURA MECKLER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON - Increasing Social Security taxes for the wealthiest Americans could raise more than $100 billion a year — enough to shore up the retirement system's finances for 75 years, pay for President Bush's plan for private accounts, or part of each.
As it is, only the first $90,000 of a workers' wages are subject to the tax, but Bush says he's willing to consider changing that.
Raising taxes, even if on the rich, is a risky political proposition. Both Republicans and Democrats distanced themselves from the idea Thursday.
"I don't know too many Republicans who are interested in doing that," said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. "I personally see this as one of the least attractive options."
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said his party would be attacked for advocating tax increases if it embraced the idea. "We're not going to fall for that," he said.
continue~
http://tinyurl.com/4pyhe
Negroponte Draws Criticism South of Border
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=589&u=/ap/20050217/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/negroponte_central_america&printer=1
Teach Your Children Well
You who are on the road
Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself
Because the past is just a good-bye
Teach your children well
Their father's hell did slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they pick the one you'll know by
Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you
And you (Can you hear and) of tender years (do you care and)
Can't know the fears (can you see we) that your elders grew by (must be free to)
And so please help (teach your children) them with your youth (you believe in)
They seek the truth (make a world that) before they can die (we can live in)
Teach your parents well
Their children's hell will slowly go by
And feed them on your dreams
The one they picks the one you'll know by
Don't you ever ask them why
If they told you, you would cry
So just look at them and sigh
And know they love you...
Dear Johnny and Jane America,
We are so sorry (NOT) to leave you and your children's children's children's children drowning in a turbulant sea of so much debt...but you raised them, and though they'll have to take care of you when you are older...don't sweat it...they can do the same to their own kids!
Love George W. and Laura Bush
What a freaking nightmare...
I am convinced the Neocons are trying to force a return to some fundamentalist traditional life-style by forcing families to live together...many generations under one roof...thinking it will make us all revert to the past survival methods of a time long since gone...they will not be happy until we all plow the ground with sticks and eat our children while they stuff their pockets with the blood money they have stolen from the American and Irai people...BASTARDS!
What?
Did I say something?
Just thinking out loud...
We can pry the gold bars from his cold dead hands but all the money in the world will never make G.W. a man...
Got Gall?
Carpe Diem!!!
And flush the turds down the drain where they belong...
Vive la Revolution!!!
You Mean the the Bush administration's Department of Energy can't afford a sound environmental policy...
Say it ain't so...
BUDGETS
Contract Pact and Cuts Hit DOE Cleanup Budget 2/21/2005
By Mary B. Powers
WASTED? DOE will pay contractor $548 million for Idaho plant. (Photo courtesy of BNFL)
Cleaning up contaminated sites and troubled cleanup contracts is costing the U.S. Dept. of Energy more these days. DOE has agreed to pay BNFL Inc. up to $550 million to resolve outstanding contract issues at two former weapons production cleanup sites, just as the Bush administration has proposed cutting the agency’s fiscal 2006 cleanup budget by a nearly equal amount.
---------------------------snip--------------------------------
More>>>
http://enr.construction.com/news/bizLabor/archives/050221.asp
An interesting perspective:
“The downside is the web is contributing to the decentralization of information so that people can choose their own news, and facts, based on their ideology. I can see us reaching a point where conservatives get their news exclusively from Free Republic and liberals get it from World-o-Crap, and we're living in parallel universes.â€
http://199.249.170.220/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000807442
I talked to someone from my Dem Cell who unfortunately missed our dinner with Karen Bradley last night - she was so bummed - she read her calendar wrong.
Anyway, she had been to the Congressman McDermott talk on Social Security & other issues & Dennis Kucinich was a surprise guest. & he's having another Town Meeting on Social Security when he's back in town Saturday.
& now we're planning to try to get as many speakers as possible to talk about Social Security & what we need to do when we have our 3rd anniv. rally r/t the Iraq war.
She also heard that Soros & Buffet may be getting involved in media (a project) - I hope.
Apologies if this has been posted 50,000,000 times - I'm kind of out of the loop during the work week:
Senators Kerry, Boxer and Clinton ready major press conference on electoral reform
Kerry, Boxer, Clinton team with Tubbs-Jones on electoral reform
RAW STORY
Sen. John Kerry will announce that his campaign email list has generated 35,000 phone calls to Republican members of Congress demanding electoral reform during a 12:45 p.m. press conference Thursday, RAW STORY has learned.
Senator Kerry’s press office confirmed that he would be joined by Sen. Clinton and Sen. Boxer. Sen. Boxer was the only senator to challenge the results of the 2004 presidential election. Boxer contested Ohio’s electoral votes.
The
senators will be joined by Rep. Stephanie Tubbs-Jones (D-OH), the House member who joined Boxer in challenging Ohio’s votes. The members said they believed Ohio’s voting process had been shoddy at best, that African Americans had been discouraged from voting, and that in some instances President Bush had erroneously been given votes.
Congressman John Conyers (D-Mich), the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee who spearheaded an investigation by into Ohio’s troubled voting process, hopes to attend but is currently engaged on the House floor discussing a bill.
A spokeswoman for Sen. Kerry would not say whether the senator would be introducing legislation.
(followed by comments, some of which I thought were "dumb")