Lawmakers get an earful about Social Security plan

"When [U.S. Rep. Chris] Chocola, R-Ind., asked Cass County residents what they thought Washington should do about the fact that the [Social Security] program will not collect enough in taxes to pay out all its promised benefits to retirees, the answers were not what he -- or President Bush -- would like to hear.

One man called for rolling back the tax cuts Bush enacted.

Several women said the United States should stop spending so much on wars and disaster aid in other countries.

Others argued that if U.S. companies stopped moving jobs overseas, there would be more workers paying into the Social Security system.

As for Bush's main proposal -- allowing younger workers to divert some of their Social Security taxes into personal investment accounts -- the applause came when Camden resident Pete Wagoner told Chocola: "It's the entirely wrong way to go.
...
At a Muncie meeting Thursday, when Rep. Mike Pence tried to talk about other governments -- such as Chile -- that have adopted private accounts, a constituent shouted out: "Oh, Chile! There's a good model!""

As the Indiana paper covers the skepticism with which consituents greet the Bubba Bush plan for gutting Social Security, they also cover the reactions from the Republican snake-oil salesmen:

"[Pence said] 'Clearly, public understanding and comprehension of what the president is proposing has got to grow significantly for us to move legislation in Congress this year.'

In other words, people need to suddenly get a lot stupider over night and believe the Republican horse-hooey. But with the Bush track record of deceit, the Bubba administration has lost the benefit of the doubt several times over. Fool me three times ...

The New York Times > Week in Review > Putting God Back Into American History

"'Isn't it interesting that we have all been trained to recognize the two least religious founding fathers?' Mr. Barton asked, pointing to Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin in a painting on the wall. 'And compared to today's secularists these two guys look like a couple of Bible-thumping evangelicals!' Even Jefferson signed letters 'in the year of Our Lord Christ,' Mr. Barton told the group. 'What would happen if George Bush did that? They'd rip his head off!'"

The hooeey is poured on thick by Bubba Barton and his Christian cretinism. Who is he kidding? W finishes every speech with "God bless America", W's Uhmerican version of "Deutschland Uber Alles" and no one calls him to task. He pushes "faith-based initiative" funding and no one calls him to task. The man stomps on the Constitutional separation of church and state and gets away with it.

But no! Bubba Barton wants more!

Democracy Now! | Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) on the Iraq War & the Bush Presidency

HUNTER S. THOMPSON:

I don't really know Iraq. I made a point of getting to know it a lot better. It was a very advanced, progressive country, had, what, 90% literacy, health care for the whole entire population. They were doing well, prosperous, high literacy. Many more book stores per capita in Iraq than there are in this country. Many. No more. We bombed their children. We killed their husbands and wives and we bombed them, and we saw her, and we're going to do it again. Just random killing like that, mass killing to force a population to get rid of Saddam so we can move in and take over and control the oil, God damn it, if that's not evil, I don't know what would be. You know, Bush, he’s really the evil one in here. Well, more than just him. We're the Nazis in this game, and I don't like it. I'm embarrassed and I'm pissed off. Yeah. I mean to say something and I think a lot of people in this country agree with me. A lot more never say anything. We'll see what happens to me if I get my head cut off in the next week by -- it's always unknown Bush [inaudible] strangers who commit suicide right afterward. No witnesses. They have a new kind of crime.

Mark Crispin Miller Examines Mainstream Media's Blind Eye Towards the Gannongate Sex Scandal

"Clinton's sex life was fair game.... Although it wasn't all that interesting, let's face it--it was a consensual affair with Monica.... It made Mike Isikoff's career, gave Maureen Dowd innumerable columns, and pushed the likes of Matt Drudge and Lucianne Goldberg into prominence.

Now Bush's White House is embroiled in a sex scandal that is both more sordid and more serious.... This involves not just a huge security lapse, but what appears to be yet one more case of the Bush White House illegally deploying propaganda tactics through the institutions of the Fourth Estate.

Now Bush's White House is embroiled in a sex scandal that is both more sordid and more serious than anything involving Clinton's infamous libido. This involves not just a huge security lapse, but what appears to be yet one more case of the Bush White House illegally deploying propaganda tactics through the institutions of the Fourth Estate."

So where's the media hype. I know that this is the wrong reason to impeach Bush -- I know that he should be dragged in front of US courts for lying to the country -- but this error is still stronger than Watergate and has the extra gay-prostitution bait to fire up the unrighteous right.

Anyone seen any liberal press lately?

Good-bye Hunter S.

I was just breaking into a semi-cognitive waking state this morning when the news hit me: Hunter S. shot himself at his home in Aspen. The news was in French but the feeling was very American, the feeling that one more symbol of excellence, of freedom, of revolt, of life/liberty/happy pursuit of craziness had just gone dark. Hunter, how could you? You'll be missed.

The big question for me is still looming: at what age do I tell my son and daughter that I adore his books? Can I explain this to them? I know that my folks couldn't understand it. Is this part of my schizophrenia, of my role-playing?

So many things that Hunter stood for were reprehensible: he certainly wouldn't make a very good neighbour. Just imagine shotgun golf in the backyard next door!

Yet Hunter knew how to put into vivid words the angst, the fear and loathing that the established order inspires in *everyone* -- 'cept that *everyone* has been conditioned to ignore the fear and loathing. Hunter shocked us out of the conditioning, shocked us into seeing truth and sometimes beauty in the struggle against the established hypocrisy. He made us feel of the power of the individual. A modern-day Thoreau, a hip-hop Kerouac, Hunter S. made us feel the trends of the day and put them into the repugnant perspective that they deserved.

The Gannongate story shows us just how much today's press has become a whipping-boy to corporate and political greed. The text of the story reads like a Hunter S. screed: imagine the gay-prostitute-ridden presidential press corps gone amuck with a list of CIA undercover operatives for political gain! Even Hunter couldn't have imagined such a twisted story at the highest levels of the US government. Maybe that's what did Hunter in: the truth had gotten even crazy than Hunter's embellishments and yet nobody cared! (I sure the hell left the US for the same reasons: for me, it was either get out or scream bloody murder reading the NY Times every morning.)

Hunter's demise seems to steepen that slippery-slope down a soapy plank into totalitarian everyday life. Have a nice big-brother day!

Reuters.com | New Tapes Say Bush May Have Smoked Marijuana

"President Bush indicated in interviews secretly taped by a friend before he became president that he had used marijuana but would not admit it for fear of setting a bad example for children."

Reuters isn't afraid to put the dirt in the headline. Bill Clinton and Bubba Bush have more in common that they like to talk about.

The Nashua Advocate | Gannongate Scenario

The Nashua Advocate has a scenario that, if true, would probably be the end of the Bush Administration. If not outright impeached, he'd at least be disowned by the so-called Christian coalition.

A Plausible Scenario: Gay Prostitute Guckert Used Ties To/Dirt On White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan to Gain Unprecedented White House Access


Other folks are putting the links together:

Was the "outed" fake journalist the real "outer" of Valery Plame?

Interesting request by Louise Slaughter and John Conyers:

Rep. Slaughter Calls on Special Prosecutor to Investigate Gannon's Role in Plame CIA Document Leak Scandal

The outing of Valery Plame is one of the most severely punishable federal crimes, close to treason, decried by Bush Père.

He may not be the outer, but he was certainly "outed" himself:

The scoop is in Scoop, a New Zealand journal.

A Gay Prostitute Inside Bush's Inner Media Circle

Truth is so much stranger than fiction.

Conservative Voice | Jeff Gannon Highlights

Pretty interesting read about Jeff Gannon (Jim Guckert) and his journalism.

Headlined highlights:

"Kerry's Alleged Intern Identified" (gratuitous rumor claiming extramarital affair)

"Kerry Could Become First Gay President" (gratuitous ad hominem)

"Put Abu Ghraib 'in proper perspective'" (why is this such a big deal?)

nytime.com | The White House Stages Its 'Daily Show'

"By my count, 'Jeff Gannon' is now at least the sixth 'journalist' (four of whom have been unmasked so far this year) to have been a propagandist on the payroll of either the Bush administration or a barely arms-length ally like Talon News while simultaneously appearing in print or broadcast forums that purport to be real news. Of these six, two have been syndicated newspaper columnists paid by the Department of Health and Human Services to promote the administration's 'marriage' initiatives."

The uncovering of the covert "Ministry of Information" is showing an operation even bigger than I had expected. Is anyone up in arms about this?

Add this to the recent findings that most high-school students in the US believe that newspapers should clear reports through the government and you have the makings of a full-flown totalitarian administration. At least the Russians knew that they were being lied to: Americans seem to prefer to say "lie to me, Bubba Bush, we feel better than way."

Later on, in the "things may be worse than they seem" department:

The money that paid for both the Ryan-Garcia news packages and the Armstrong Williams contract was siphoned through the same huge public relations firm, Ketchum Communications, which itself filtered the funds through subcontractors. A new report by Congressional Democrats finds that Ketchum has received $97 million of the administration's total $250 million P.R. kitty, of which the Williams and Ryan-Garcia scams would account for only a fraction. We have yet to learn precisely where the rest of it ended up.

Hoping that the NY Times will find out. Like going to war on false pretenses, this story is so much bigger than Watergate. We may not have to wait four more years after all. With Cheney as president, would things be better? At least no one would believe his lies, not like they do with the "village idiot".

The New Yorker | Beneath the Veil

"Q: [...]as you say in your piece, American reactions were strange [to the French law against overt religious symbols in schools].

Q: Two weeks after the law was passed, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote a dissent in a Supreme Court decision that upheld the rights of states to refuse public money to Bible students. His dissent said, basically, that the decision of the court to refuse this money was no less benign than the French way of thinking. He and Clarence Thomas were the only dissenters. About a month later, John Ashcroft filed a friend-of-the-court brief on behalf of a veiled Muslim schoolgirl who had been suspended from elementary school in Oklahoma, citing very specifically the godless example of the French. So there are two ends of the seesaw, clearly, in terms of what the obligations of a republic are to the religious beliefs of its citizens."

And there you have it, folks. Instead of the Attorney General defending the US Constituation, instead of the Supreme Court interpreting the US Constitution, we have these men arguing against the US Consitution. And how do they argue this? By decrying French.

Which goes to say that France is exemplary in its upholding of democratic principles and separation of church and state. France is the bad example -- France must be hated!

The New York Times > Washington > Administration Is Warned About Its 'News' Videos

"The comptroller general has issued a blanket warning that reminds federal agencies they may not produce newscasts promoting administration policies without clearly stating that the government itself is the source.

Twice in the last two years, agencies of the federal government have been caught distributing prepackaged television programs that used paid spokesmen acting as newscasters and, in violation of federal law, failed to disclose the administration's role in developing and financing them.

And those were not isolated incidents, David M. Walker, the comptroller general, said in a letter dated Thursday that put all agency heads on notice about the practice.

In fact, it has become increasingly common for federal agencies to adopt the public relations tactic of producing 'video news releases' that look indistinguishable from authentic newscasts and, as ready-made and cost-free reports, are sometimes picked up by local news programs. It is illegal for the government to produce or distribute such publicity material domestically without disclosing its own role."

The undeclared Ministry of Information is here!

csmonitor.com | Did US military target journalists in Iraq?

"While media organizations say reporters not targeted, they charge US troops are killing journalists 'because of negligence or indifference. ... And when journalists are killed, the military often seems ... unwilling to launch an adequate investigation or take steps to mitigate risk.'"

The CNN head was fired for suggesting that the US Army targeted journalists. Yet most of the world, outside of the US, knows that far too many journalists have been killed under suspicious circumstances by the US Army.

Reuters.com | Ocean, Arctic Studies Show Global Warming Is Real

"'The debate over whether or not there is a global warming signal is now over, at least for rational people,' he said.

The report was published one day after the United Nations Kyoto Protocol took effect, a 141-nation environmental pact the United States government has spurned for several reasons, including stated doubts about whether global warming is occurring and is caused by people.

Barnett urged U.S. officials to reconsider.

'Could a climate system simply do this on its own? The answer is clearly no,' Barnett said.

But then no one has accused the Bush administration of being rational.

Le Monde.fr : Le jubil� de la Citro�n DS

Le Monde.fr : Le jubil� de la Citro�n DS

50 years ago that the Citroen DS made its first appearance. The DS, the "goddess", that sleak aerodynamic beauty with hydraulic suspension, self-adjusting headlights (over bumps and around corners), that feel of riding on a cloud. That break with tradition, that image of modernity.

Seen in many movies, recently used as a car of the future in "Gattaca".



Still a reference in the matter. A final holdout for grace against the bestial SUVs.

Chicago Tribune | CNN exec quits after comments on killings

CNN's top news executive resigned Friday following weeks of scrutiny over comments he made that have been interpreted as an accusation that the U.S. military deliberately targeted journalists in Iraq.

[...]

At Davos, Jordan said he knew of at least 12 journalists who had been killed deliberately by U.S. troops in Iraq, according to accounts by observers published in The Wall Street Journal and a Web log devoted to the World Economic Forum. (The session was taped, but no transcript has been released.) Though Jordan quickly backpedaled from the accusation in the face of challenges from others present, including Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), his comments were almost immediately seized on by critics of CNN.


Jordan was only repeating a "fact" that many folks are already aware of. However, in the fantasy-based political world of the United States of America, facts are not important, only ideology. Another lesson by an American newsman and journalist. Others will be sure that they don't make the same mistake.

AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Your Money or Your Life

"The Health Affairs study [...] concluded that the average medical debtor was a 41-year-old homeowning woman, with children and at least some education. The study also found that a majority of middle-class debtors had health insurance both when they first grew sick and at the actual time they filed, another surprise. Insurance alone, it turns out, doesn't prevent medical bankruptcy, because it is often too porous to provide a real buffer against the financial burden of a serious illness.

'A lot of people were bankrupted because of co-payments, deductibles or uncovered services, which added up to thousands of dollars in bills,' says Steffie Woolhandler."

The real story in the US health care system: work-related health insurance doesn't work. It's time for universal health coverage in the US. Works great here in France.

NewsFromRussia.Com Bankruptcy in return for health

"Illness and medical bills contributed to roughly half the personal bankruptcy filings in 2001, affecting as many as 2.2 million Americans, a new Harvard study says.
More than 75 percent of the filers had insurance, but many of them lost coverage during their illness, the research showed.
The study, which appears in the Feb. 2 issue of Health Affairs, provides a rare -- and stark -- glimpse into the medical causes of bankruptcy in the United States.
People who succumb to medical debt are mostly middle-class or working-class people who own their own homes and have at least some college education, the study found.
With the cooperation of bankruptcy judges in five federal districts, the study authors distributed questionnaires to debtors at their mandatory meetings with court-appointed trustees. A total of 1,250 questionnaires -- 250 per district -- were collected, providing data on demographics, housing and specific reasons for filing bankruptcy, reports the Forbes.
According to ABC News, Half of all U.S. bankruptcies are caused by soaring medical bills and most people sent into debt by illness are middle-class workers with health insurance, researchers said on Wednesday.
The study, published in the journal Health Affairs, estimated that medical bankruptcies affect about 2 million Americans every year, if both debtors and their dependents, including about 700,000 children, are counted.
'Our study is frightening. Unless you're Bill Gates you're just one serious illness away from bankruptcy,' said Dr. David Himmelstein, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who led the study.
'Most of the medically bankrupt were average Americans who happened to get sick. Health insurance offered little protection.'
The researchers got the permission of bankruptcy judges in California, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Texas to survey 931 people who filed for bankruptcy.
NR"

In the US, the unacknowledged truth is much scarier than fiction.