Social Security

SOCIAL SECURITY – THE LENINIST STRATEGY: How has Social Security privatization, once an unspeakable notion on Capitol Hill, moved to the top of President Bush's agenda? As the Los Angeles Times reports, nothing less than a twenty-year right-wing "economic education campaign" inspired by the work of Russian Bolshevik Vladimir Lenin. "Our reform strategy involves what one might crudely call guerrilla warfare against both the current Social Security system and the coalition that supports it," Heritage Foundation analysts Stuart Butler and Peter Germanis wrote in a 1983 Cato Journal article titled "Achieving a 'Leninist' Strategy." Today, as President Bush musters support for his plan, he is able to draw "on a deep reservoir of resources – including policy research, ready-to-hire experts and polling on how to discuss the issue – that conservatives have created over the last 20 years." And despite the fact that conservative predictions about Social Security's financial collapse have proven false, and that the privatization model in Chile they hold with high regard has left Chileans worse off, the "education campaign" continues.

SOCIAL SECURITY – "YOU CAN'T GET OUT WHAT YOU CAN'T PUT IN": When the president starts bemoaning the life expectancy gap between minority groups and whites, it should give us hope that our government is finally going to begin tackling health care access, community violence, high unemployment, disparate wages, and other social ills. It should not be a ploy to garner support for an ill-fated Social Security plan. Unfortunately, President Bush has decided to step up his privatization rhetoric by taking advantage of a sad statistic: the discrepancy between the life expectancy of blacks and whites. In fact, President Bush neglects that some of the actual realities of life for blacks in America – lower wages and a higher chance of disability – are part of the reason why "the [Social Security] program may actually benefit blacks more than whites." And analysts from the AARP, economic scholars, and the Social Security Administration's own actuaries agree with this conclusion. As economist Jeffrey Liebman stated, "If the problem we're trying to address is African-Americans having lower life expectancy, increasing their retirement benefits and their ability to pass wealth on to their children is not the way to do that." In response to President Bush's latest Social Security sales tactic, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY) replied, "It is one of the cruelest things that I have ever read, and I regret that it comes from the office of the president."

'The haves and the have-mores'

"US influence in the world is largely negative and view Americans negatively as well"
Al-Ahram Weekly | International | 'The haves and the have-mores'

No Principle, Just Interest

Being American now means thinking you can always have what you want when you want it. So what if we're mortgaging our paychecks to the folks at Visa and our country to the folks in Beijing? Let us eat cake.
MSNBC - No Principle, Just Interest

Dick (Go Fuck Yourself) Cheney reinforces his douchebag image

International news from swissinfo, the Swiss news platform: "Cheney criticized for Auschwitz attire"

Design your own hell!

Design your own hell!

Iraq: This election is a sham

Iraq: This election is a sham: "In any event, virtually no Iraqis, not even those benefiting from the American presence, see the superpower either as a friend or as a promoter of human rights and democracy. Each U.S.-dictated self-governance milestone has therefore backfired, just like the current election has, generating wider support and bloodier attacks by an insurgency that has grown more effective in thwarting American ambitions.
Despite its search for greater legitimacy for its preferred Iraqi leadership, the United States has studiously avoided the UN Security Council, since it knows most of its members abhor what is being done to Iraq (but have found it easier to keep their counsel and let this adventure self-destruct).

Debt For Everyone

Think the budget deficit is too large, but not really something you should worry about? Think again, says former labor secretary Robert Reich. The deficit may be so large as to seem abstract, but it translates to higher prices on everything you buy. Our economy is steadily slowing down, choked by debt—all so tax cuts for the rich can become a permanent fixture.
TomPaine.com - Debt For Everyone

The Parrot In The Bathroom / Our dog-loving columnist finds the bird life surreal indeed. And you thought your cat was strange

Mark Morford provides a bit of welcome relief from the insanity served up daily from our nations' capitol.
The Parrot In The Bathroom / Our dog-loving columnist finds the bird life surreal indeed. And you thought your cat was strange

The Black Commentator - Rice Arrives Just In Time To Oversee U.S. Decline

The Black Commentator - Rice Arrives Just In Time To Oversee U.S. Decline - Issue 123: "The Bush men (and woman) loot the American treasury and threaten world order in the service of corporations that have already abandoned their U.S. nationality, and now seek to destroy the sovereignty of all other nations. They have initiated a war against everyone.
Civility cannot long exist where savages rule. In questioning the perennial prevaricator Condoleezza Rice, Minnesota Senator Mark Dayton found it impossible to keep up the pretensions of the upper chamber. 'I don't like impugning anyone's integrity, but I really don't like being lied to,' Dayton said. 'Repeatedly, flagrantly, intentionally.'
The entire planet is rejecting blatant American lies and aggression, and actively conspiring to undermine United States military, economic and political domination. This aggression now has a new face that of a Black woman. We are saddened at the historical irony, but so be it. "

White House Memo: Bush Finds a Backer in Moynihan, Who's Not Talking

The New York Times > Washington > White House Memo: Bush Finds a Backer in Moynihan, Who's Not Talking
The administration is pressing for accounts that would be financed out of the payroll tax levied on workers; the accounts would replace part of the benefit paid to retirees by the government. Mr. Moynihan favored accounts that would be layered on top of Social Security, paid for by taxes on top of those directed into Social Security, to supplement the government benefit payment.

Education chief rips PBS for gay character

Thirty six GI's die today in Iraq but this shit gets headlines! First it was SpongeBob Squarepants and now its animated Buster. Have these people nothing else to concern themselves with?
MSNBC - Education chief rips PBS for gay character

A Degrading Policy (washingtonpost.com)

A Degrading Policy (washingtonpost.com)

Writer Backing Bush Plan Had Gotten Federal Contract (washingtonpost.com)

Of course $21,500 is chump change compared to the Armstrong Williams ripoff of $241,000.
Writer Backing Bush Plan Had Gotten Federal Contract (washingtonpost.com): "But Gallagher failed to mention that she had a $21,500 contract with the Department of Health and Human Services to help promote the president's proposal. Her work under the contract, which ran from January through October 2002, included drafting a magazine article for the HHS official overseeing the initiative, writing brochures for the program and conducting a briefing for department officials. "

No On Gonzales

For Alberto Gonzales to put the "law of the Whitehouse" above the law of the land is an affront to every American. He should not be confirmed as Attorney General.
Daily Kos

Bush Wants $80B More for Iraq, Afghan Wars

Get out your checkbooks folks. Here comes bush with his tin cup and billion dollar handouts for Halliburton and his war machine cronies.
Yahoo! News - Bush Wants $80B More for Iraq, Afghan Wars

Gonzales: Did He Help Bush Keep His DUI Quiet?

MSNBC - Gonzales: Did He Help Bush Keep His DUI Quiet?

New Strategy on Social Security (washingtonpost.com)

With Some Risk, Bush Officials Invoke Clinton, Moynihan
New Strategy on Social Security (washingtonpost.com)

A Bunch of Krabby Patties

"SpongeBush SquarePants!

We can only hope that Dr. Dobson doesn't pick up on the resemblance. SpongeBob, as his song goes, "lives in a pineapple under the sea/absorbent and yellow and porous is he!" SpongeBush lives in a bubble in D.C./absorbent and shallow and porous is he!"
The New York Times > Opinion > Op-Ed Columnist: A Bunch of Krabby Patties

Missing Money: Mystery in Iraq as $300 Million is Taken Abroad

I would bet that bush/cheney/rummy know exactly where the loot is and who got it. Who else has control of aircraft in and out of Iraq but the US military?
The New York Times > International > Middle East > Missing Money: Mystery in Iraq as $300 Million is Taken Abroad

Ground Control to Mr. Bush

One has to wonder when the 50+ million morons who voted for bush will suddenly realize they voted against their own self interest. Will it be when their own job goes to China?
Ground Control to Mr. Bush -- In These Times
Inauguration: Lifestyles of the Rich and Heartless

Due to $17 million worth of inaugural security – paid for by the city of Washington, D.C. – the Progress Report is unable to access its office. Never fear – it takes a lot more than that to keep us down. We put this list together for you ahead of time. Your regularly scheduled Progress Report returns tomorrow.

A look at this week's festivities by the numbers:

$40 million: Cost of Bush inaugural ball festivities, not counting security costs.

$2,000: Amount FDR spent on the inaugural in 1945…about $20,000 in today's dollars.

$20,000: Cost of yellow roses purchased for inaugural festivities by D.C.'s Ritz Carlton.

200: Number of Humvees outfitted with top-of-the-line armor for troops in Iraq that could have been purchased with the amount of money blown on the inauguration.

$10,000: Price of an inaugural package at the Fairmont Hotel, which includes a Beluga caviar and Dom Perignon reception, a chauffeured Rolls Royce and two actors posing as "faux" Secret Service agents, complete with black sunglasses and cufflink walkie-talkies.

400: Pounds of lobster provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the exclusive Mandarin Oriental hotel.

3,000: Number of "Laura Bush Cowboy cookies" provided for "inaugural feeding frenzy" at the Mandarin hotel.

$1: Amount per guest President Carter spent on snacks for guests at his inaugural parties. To stick to a tight budget, he served pretzels, peanuts, crackers and cheese and had cash bars.

22 million: Number of children in regions devastated by the tsunami who could have received vaccinations and preventive health care with the amount of money spent on the inauguration.

1,160,000: Number of girls who could be sent to school for a year in Afghanistan with the amount of money lavished on the inauguration.

$15,000: The down payment to rent a fur coat paid by one gala attendee who didn't want the hassle of schlepping her own through the airport.

$200,500: Price of a room package at D.C.'s Mandarin Oriental, including presidential suite, chauffeured Mercedes limo and outfits from Neiman Marcus.

2,500: Number of U.S. troops used to stand guard as President Bush takes his oath of office

26,000: Number of Kevlar vests for U.S. soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan that could be purchased for $40 million.

$290: Bonus that could go to each American solider serving in Iraq, if inauguration funds were used for that purpose.

$6.3 million: Amount contributed by the finance and investment industry, which works out to be 25 percent of all the money collected.

$17 million: Amount of money the White House is forcing the cash-strapped city of Washington, D.C., to pony up for inauguration security.

9: Percentage of D.C. residents who voted for Bush in 2004.

66: Percentage of Americans who think this over-the-top inauguration should have been scaled back.