Keep Up The Pressure on Social Security

This is just a quick hit on Bush's Social Security debacle. Rumors are floating around the blogosphere that Sen. Joe Lieberman is squishy on Social Security, and that he may be playing around with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) on a plan for coming up with a "bipartisan compromise" that would help Bush with his private account baloney. If Lieberman actually does such a thing, his famous "Joe-mentum" ought to carry him directly out to the unemployment line and the losing end of a Democratic primary.

If any readers live in Connecticut, or know anyone who lives in Connecticut, it is essential that a major e-mail/letter writing campaign be mounted to make sure that Lieberman does not go over to the dark side on this issue. I really think that Bush stepped in something unpleasant by making this the big issue kicking off his second term. It is essential that the Democrats stand together in refusing to throw him a lifeline.

Sen. Rick "Mad Dog" Santorum recently held a forum on Social Security, where his enthusiastic supporters started up a chant of "Hey, hey, ho, ho, Social Security has got to go." This was a major embarrassment to Santorum because his supporters had articulated precisely what most Americans believe is the true Republican agenda on this issue. We've got to make sure that no Democrat -- including Senator Joe -- gives the Republicans any pretext of "bipartisanship" for what they are really trying to do.

Just When I Thought I Was Out, They Pull Me Back In

Notwithstanding my last post about wanting to take this blog in new directions, I just can't stop myself from writing about some of the more outrageous things that the Bushies are doing. And, since you hear so little about it in the mainstream media, I feel as though I have an obligation to keep getting the stories out to my readers.

Item: Bush's trip to Europe has been hailed throughout the U.S. press as some sort of diplomatic triumph. If you read what is being written about it in the European press, however, you get a somewhat different perspective. A great story appeared in Der Spiegel (which can be viewed online in English at www.spiegel.de) about the Bushies' plans for holding a "town meeting" in the Rhineland city of Mainz. The Germans were apparently quite enthusiastic about this, thinking that they would have an opportunity for a genuine, first-hand exposure to real old-fashioned American democracy!

The Bushies, however, had another idea. Bush's handlers asked the German organizers of the town meeting how they were planning on screening the participants in the event and how they would go about filtering out any thorny questions that Bush did not want to hear. The Germans were quite shocked by this, and said that if this was to be a free forum, it should be unscripted and open to all questioners. The German Ambassador to the United States told the Bushies, "Don't get upset with us if they ask angry questions."

Bush's folks didn't get upset at all. They just canceled the town meeting, and instead set up a carefully orchestrated "young leaders" forum (closed to the press and the public) consisting of 20 young German corporate executives carefully chosen by the conservative Aspen Institute.

It's a hell of a situation when we've got to rely on Germans to explain to us how democracy is supposed to work.

Item: Those good old Swift Boat veterinarians aren't going away. Charlie Jarvis, the genius behind the ads, is now heading up an outfit called USA Next which is trying to promote Bush's Social Security demolition plan by attempting to do to the AARP what the Swifties did to Kerry. Their first foray into the public arena was to run a series of ads saying that the AARP wants to abandon our troops in Iraq and promote gay marriage. Nothing like getting to the crux of the Social Security debate!

Jerome Corsi, the author of the disgusting Bush campaign publication "Unfit For Command," which effectively accused Kerry of cowardice and treason, is now coming out with a book asserting that the Democratic Party is being funded by Iranian mullahs and that the Democrats are giving nuclear secrets to the Iranians. Corsi's claim is based on the fact that a New York investor who made contributions to Kerry's campaign originally came from Iran. How's that for solid proof! How does Corsi deal with the fact that this individual is a strong opponent of the mullahs who came to this country because he was fleeing from religious tyranny? Details, details.

This individual is now threatening a lawsuit against Corsi. Lawsuits may well be the only weapon we have against the lying right-wing media. In the immortal words of my profession, "Sue the bastards!"

New Directions

Just a note to my loyal readers: I'm going to be moving in slightly different directions in my future blogs. I plan on continuing my political focus, but I'd like to get a little beyond Bush-bashing. In particular, I'd like to give some more thoughts about where the Democratic Party ought to go in the years ahead. I think that it all does fit in under the general heading, "Truth vs. Bush," but with a slightly broader scope. In any event, I'll so my best to be interesting.

Who Was That Masked Man?

Those of you who get your news primarily from the mainstream (i.e. "liberal") media probably haven't heard too much about the saga of Jim Guckert/Jeff Gannon. Guckert/Gannon was the fake "correspondent" for a fake news service called "Talon News" who got credentials to attend and ask questions at White House press conferences. An excellent summary of the story appears in Joe Conason's recent column in the New York Observer, which can be read online at www.observer.com.

In a nutshell, the story is that Guckert/Gannon (real name Guckert, fake name Gannon) posed as a reporter who was regularly called upon by press secretary Scott McClellan to lob softball questions that were invariably nothing more than screeds against the Democrats. Guckert/Gannon's fake "news service" was in fact a front for a Texas-based Republican website called GOPUSA.com. I have previously written about the viciously anti-Semitic attacks this website published about George Soros. (See, "Jewish Voters: Looking Before Leaping Into Bed With The GOP", Sept. 8, 2004).

Guckert/Gannon came to national attention when Bush himself called on the fake reporter for a question at Bush's January 26 press conference. Apparently, it's not enough that Bush only has press conferences about as often as Bill O'Reilly puts down his loofah, and that Bush's handlers pre-screen the questions so that Bush doesn't have to tax his alleged brain too much, but in addition, Bush has to have planted Republican hacks posing as reporters being the ones serving up the questions. Guckert/Gannon asked Bush a question about how he could possibly work with Democrats in Congress who were obviously "out of touch with reality." As one would expect, Bush really wrestled with this mind bender.

Guckert/Gannon's performance at this last press conference was so over the top that some people started to ask questions about who this partisan jackass really was. Since then, as Conason reports, some interesting tidbits about Guckert/Gannon have come to light, including the following:

(1) Guckert/Gannon may have been involved with gay escort services and websites promoting gay pornography;

(2) Guckert/Gannon planted a false story on the internet during the election campaign, claiming that Kerry's "intern girlfriend" had taped an interview with a major television network supposedly substantiating her affair with the Senator;

(3) Guckert/Gannon told former Ambassador Joseph Wilson that he had access to classified CIA files relating to Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame;

(4) Guckert/Gannon worked closely with GOP operative Morton Blackwell, the great humanitarian who came up with the charming idea of distributing Purple Heart Band-aids at the Republican Convention mocking John Kerry's Vietnam War service.

If you are a follower of the so-called "liberal media," you probably haven't heard anything about most of this. The New York Times has carried almost nothing about the Guckert/Gannon story, and the television news has largely ignored it.

Which brings us to Conason's very appropriate comment about the whole affair:

"Imagine the media explosion if a male escort had been discovered operating as a correspondent in the Clinton White House. Imagine that he was paid by an outfit owned by Arkansas Democrats and had been trained in journalism by James Carville. Imagine that this gentleman had been cultivated and called upon by Mike McCurry or Joe Lockhart -- or by President Clinton himself. Imagine that this 'journalist' had smeared a Republican Presidential candidate and had previously claimed access to classified documents in a national-security scandal."

You can certainly imagine that in such a scenario you would not be hearing what you are hearing from the mainstream media now: the sounds of silence.

Footnote: The morning after I first posted this blog, Maureen Dowd ran a column in the New York Times about the Guckert/Gannon affair. Maybe something's going to filter out after all.

The President Is An Idiot

The official White House website (picked up by Daily Kos) includes the following transcript of Bush's remarks at a recent "town meeting" to promote his Social Security demolition plan:

"THE PRESIDENT: Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.

"Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.

"Okay, better? I'll keep working on it."

You can't make this stuff up. The man's just a fool, and that's all there is to it. If he didn't have family connections, he'd be lucky to be packing bags at the local Piggly Wiggly.