US May Be Holding Iraqi Women Hostage

CIA Leak Case Hits Dead End

Homeland Insecurity: Nuclear Plants Open to Attack

Santorum: Frist Will Go Nuclear

I bust on them when they lay down I should give them a knod when they take a stand:

Ok, bush has been saying that there is nothing in the social security trust but useless IOUs. Never mind that this is because he took all the surplus to give tax breaks to the ultra rich. Well those useless IOUs are actually US Treasury Bonds. A special kind of US treasury bond "This is the most privileged of Treasury bonds issued to Social Security, redeemable at any time at full face value, unlike any other bond that they issue. "

This an incredible speech from DeFazio Representative from Oregon:

But the President did say today something extraordinary, in Parkersburg, West Virginia, and suggested something unconscionable. The President said, ``There is no trust fund.'' And then he went on to suggest that our Nation might not honor its debt to Social Security. This is what the President said does not exist. Let me read from this. This is a Social Security Trust Fund bond, considered the best investments in the world, U.S. Treasury Bond. This is the most privileged of Treasury bonds issued to Social Security, redeemable at any time at full face value, unlike any other
bond that they issue.

These are the most privileged of their bonds. The President says it is nothing but an IOU. Well, here is what it says: This bond is incontestable in the hands of the Federal Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund. The bond is supported by the full faith and credit of the United States. And the United States is pledged to the payment of the bond with respect to both principal and interest.

The President questions that? He is questioning whether we are going to repay our most privileged debt to Social Security. We have $7.9 trillion of debt. He is adding to it at a record rate, borrowing $1.3 million a minute. Who is he saying we are going to repay and not repay?

Are we going to repay the Chinese but not the Social Security Trust Fund? Are we going to repay President Bush, he happens to have some U.S. Treasury Bonds in his personal portfolio, but not the Social Security Trust Fund? Are we going to repay other wealthy investors around the world and in the U.S., but not the Social Security Trust Fund? We are going to selectively default on our debt.

Suggesting something like that, if the bond markets believed the President, the dollar would drop to near zero tomorrow, and there would be an economic catastrophe, but they do not believe him. They know this is just politics and rhetoric on his part. There is no intention of the Government of the United States defaulting on its debt.

Read the entire thing at Atrios Blog



Another good one from Pelosi:

'And what [Bush] is saying now to the American worker: "We will honor our debt to the Chinese and the Japanese, but we are treating you differently. We are not honoring our debt to you."

Read More at the DailyKos


But I can't let that be said without this:

"Republicans like Lieberman more than Dems" - More at DailyKos

# posted by Jon Easton : 9:30 PM  0 comments

Stop the Republicans from Killing the Filabuster

Stand with Senate Democrats against this Republican abuse of power: Click Here.
- Democrats.gov

See the ad - and count yourself among those personally supporting its message. Click Here
- John Kerry

Help get rid of Delay

Ask your Representative to stand up against Tom DeLay’s abuses.
- True Majority

Please sign our petition urging Congress to remove DeLay from his leader post at the link below.
-Moveon.org

Stop the nomination of William Myers III

William Myers III, a former mining industry lobbyist, is President Bush's nominee for a court that's supposed to help protect the beautiful, scenic areas in America's West. And if we want to keep the West wild, we need to act quickly.
- League of Conservation Voters

Tell congress that we need an exit strategy with a timeline.

As it considers another $82 billion for Iraq, Congress needs to insist that America has an exit strategy from Iraq with a timeline, that we do not construct permanent bases in Iraq and that we end war profiteering by corporations. Please sign our petition urging Congress to act today.
- Moveon.org

Republican Senator Fans Flames of Courthouse Violence

Military Recruiters Targeting Minority Teens

FBI Wants Greater Search Powers

9/11 Aftershocks Hit Canada, Mexico Travel Rules

The minutemen vigilante border patrol is fizzling out nicely. It’s kind of fun to watch these right wingnutters fall on their face while they also piss off everyone [the border patrol and local towns]. We have to give credit to the mainstream media for pumping up this spectacle. Let’s just hope no one gets hurt. Check out Marc Cooper's Blog for the story.

Speaking of illegal immigration…. It turns out illegal immigrants pay as much as 7 BILLION per year toward social security [yet as you know they draw no benefits]. which means they are hugely responsible for the solvency of social security. Furthermore a NY Times article states:

While it has been evident for years that illegal immigrants pay a variety of
taxes, the extent of their contributions to Social Security is striking: the
money added up to about 10 percent of last year's surplus - the difference
between what the system currently receives in payroll taxes and what it doles
out in pension benefits.

More then any republican scheme illegal immigrants are “bolstering” social security. I thought they were only responsible for cheap strawberry.

Fourth man indicted in Republican phone-jamming scheme

There was an article in "The American Prospect" about how the protest movement is hurting liberals. This blog debunks that assertion and shines lights on the real reasons why it is being made. This is a good argument to counter all those people who think good politcs is quitely and respectfully stating policy. It reminds me of the times when I have tried to take part in political action only to be told by some organizational type to modify my actions to what they considered appropriate levels. [no hand made signs, be nice to reporters, etc]

Here is a quote from the blog:

I don't know who this group of hippie protester strawmen are in Kevin
Mattson's cautionary tale in this months Prospect, but I've not had the pleasure. I don't think there exists a vast number of nostalgic baby boomers and utopian youngsters out there who are planning to launch another Summer of Love, unless he's specifically talking about the anti-Iraq war protests, which of course, he is, but won't admit it. That's because those war protesters weren't trying to hop on
a nostalgic magic carpet ride back to the days of Hanoi Jane, they were
participating in a worldwide protest about a very specific unjust war being
launched by an illegitimate president --- a war which the "fighting liberals"
like he and Peter Beinert foolishly endorsed.

Here is another:

My instinctive reaction to this entire line of paranoid ramblings about the
wild and crazy lefites making a big scene and ruining everything is that if this
guy thinks that a bloodless, wonkish liberalism is ever going to compete with
the right wing true believers he's got another thing coming. American liberalism
grew out of a passionate progressivism and a worldwide union movement, both of
which featured plenty of "protest politics" in their day. And if he thinks that
the modern GOP's political might hasn't drawn much of its power from pulpits and
talk radio demagoguery, then he hasn't been paying attention. Nobody does
political theatre better than the right wing.

And another:

I don't know where this vast horde of reborn hippies worshipping at the feet of
Jerry Rubin are but I do not see them. What I do see is modern political
activism that is demanding change in modern ways. It seems to me that it isn't
"the left" that is nostalgic for the past, it's these centrists who for reasons
I cannot fathom have decided that their grandfather's political methods are the
ticket to political dominance in the 21st century.

Read the whole thing here

Bush's NRA Friends Let Terrorists Buy AK-47s

Oil Prices Race to All-Time Peak

Your Social Security Number on Sale for $35

Rebels Hit Abu Ghraib, 44 American Casualties

Panel: US Ignored Work of UN Arms Inspectors

Did Bolton Try to Intimidate Spies?

Will brought this topic up with a post about SB30. I found this great link while doing some research of my own. It lists all the pro-choice and anti-choice legislation in New Hampshire. It is now a permanant link on our sidebar under the heading "Favorite NH Political links"

This just in: WMDs nowhere to be found in Iraq. Come on. I don't think it took a commission to tell the United States that there was no evidence of WMDs. Further, this commission stated the intelligence community was "dead wrong". Again, I am so surprised. Is it just me, or should the democrats be all over this? Shouldn't we be lining up the high ranking officials who flat out lied to the US? Why aren't we? Why do we continue to let Bush get away with murder?

The report also calls for a complete overhall of the intelligence system. What about the people who make the decisions? To me, that's one of the most important places where change needs to occur. This is just me venting, but come on! We should be all over this! This is just one more example of the dems dropping the ball on a situation that we need to take advantage of, not just for political reasons but for the safety or our country and our troops. As my good friend Willy would say, GET ACTIVE!!

Government Wiretaps, Secret Searches Up 75 Percent

Yucca Mountain Data Falsified

Bolton Faces Stiff Fight Over UN Nomination

Interesting topic that was brought up at the Coos County Democrats meeting today. It's called "welfare dumping". It's where a town sends it's welfare recipents to another towns so the new town has to pay for the welfare. This report on this issue [from New Hampshire Public Radio]makes it out to be an innocent problem of the system. Saying that people choose to move for cheaper housing. I disagree. I think they are encouraged to move.

Here is the article http://www.nhpr.org/view_content_pfv/8291/

I am looking for more information on this issue and on bills in the legislature.

Here is an article that Rueben Rajala forwarded to me. It's a great article about what republicans do right and what dems need to do. He is collecting and sending out tons of good articles like this. Email him to have him put you on his forwarding list.

A Party Inverted By BILL BRADLEY

Here is a quote about what the republicans do right:

To further the party's ideological and political goals, Republicans in the
1970's and 1980's built a comprehensive structure based on Powell's blueprint.
Visualize that structure as a pyramid.

You've probably heard some of this before, but let me run through it again.
Big individual donors and large foundations - the Scaife family and Olin
foundations, for instance - form the base of the pyramid. They finance
conservative research centers like the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute
and the Intercollegiate Studies Institute, entities that make up the second
level of the pyramid.

The ideas these organizations develop are then pushed up to the third level
of the pyramid - the political level. There, strategists like Karl Rove or Ralph
Reed or Ken Mehlman take these new ideas and, through polling, focus groups and
careful attention to Democratic attacks, convert them into language that will
appeal to the broadest electorate. That language is sometimes in the form of an
assault on Democrats and at other times in the form of advocacy for a new policy
position. The development process can take years. And then there's the fourth
level of the pyramid: the partisan news media. Conservative commentators and
networks spread these finely honed ideas.

At the very top of the pyramid you'll find the president. Because the
pyramid is stable, all you have to do is put a different top on it and it works
fine.

Here is a quote about what the dems do:

To understand how the Democratic Party works, invert the pyramid. Imagine a
pyramid balancing precariously on its point, which is the presidential
candidate.

Democrats who run for president have to build their own pyramids all by
themselves. There is no coherent, larger structure that they can rely on. Unlike
Republicans, they don't simply have to assemble a campaign apparatus - they have
to formulate ideas and a vision, too. Many Democratic fundraisers join a
campaign only after assessing how well it has done in assembling its pyramid of
political, media and idea people.

Good Reading, thanks Reuben

factcheck.org has been an awesome resource. They have meticulous picked apart both right wing and left wing misleading statements and ads. And frankly they have been a refreshing sort of reality check on my own recent run away partisanship.

However I started to get annoyed with them during the 2004 presidential election. It seemed to me that they would find a HUGE lie in an ad by the bushies and then to show they weren’t bias they would spotlight a slight exaggeration by the Kerry side [the mainstream media's standard MO]. I thought, at the time, I was too engaged in the pro-Kerry effort to see things clearly.

Well the last 2 notices from factcheck.org have just been too ridiculous or detached from reality for me to endure. They are either intentionally going after the progressives to silence right wing critics are they are no longer the bastions of objectivism they once were or prehaps some third thing which is far less interesting.

Atrios is right, this is such a bogess thing to “fact check” they’ve got to be kidding.

Most recent factcheck.org Notice:

"A Fictional View of the Filibuster

Liberal group’s ad features movie hero Jimmy Stewart. But historic reality was often ugly.

Summary

A $5-million TV ad campaign by People for the American Way portrays the Senate filibuster as a noble tool of American democracy. The ad uses footage from Frank Capra's classic 1939 movie "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" - a famous scene in which the hero, played by James Stewart, engages in a 23-hour filibuster to prevent his expulsion from the US Senate on trumped-up corruption charges.

Real-life filibusters are another matter, however. They can be used for good or evil. In fact, segregationist Southern senators used filibusters to preserve the poll tax and block civil rights and anti-lynching legislation for generations. Among the real-life practitioners were the late
Senators Strom Thurmond of South Carolina and Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi."

Click here for the full article:

So let me get this straight, it’s misleading to say that the filibuster, a traditional tool of the minority voice in congress, is a noble tool of America democracy because it has been used in the past by racist senators. So I assume that we can no longer refer to the office of presidency as a "noble office of a democratic government" because it has been occupied by bush.. not to mention Reagan, Nixon, Bush sr, etc.

This is Factcheck.orgs Previous Notice about AARP's anti-privitization ads:

“The group's latest TV ad passes off Social Security's problems as minor; claims Bush's solution would demolish the program.

Summary

AARP's latest TV ad shows a suburban home being flattened to repair a clogged kitchen sink, and claims that the creation of individual accounts would "dismantle Social Security" and "lead to huge benefit cuts."

The ad is intended to be humorous but presents a distorted picture. It both understates Social Security's financial problems and misrepresents the effect that individual accounts would have.

Social Security's problems are more serious than a stopped-up drain. And the system isn't about to sink like the Titanic, either, as an earlier ad by Bush supporters says. Social Security is more like a home being eaten slowly by termites."


Click here for the full article:

NO the ad doesn’t underestimate the problems of social security. IF we do nothing in 2052 seniors will get 80% of promised benefits. THAT’S IF WE DO NOTHING!!!

And I don’t think it underestimates personal accounts either. But I guess a card board box and canned cat food is objectively better than a demolished house. I mean, the ad didn’t say whether or not you owned the land the house was on.

The credibility of factcheck.org is “more like a home being eaten slowly by termites.”

Here is where to look for the voting record for SB121. It's not posted yet it seems. Maybe the need a view days to get the info online.

http://www.gencourt.state.nh.us/ns/rollcall/rollcallsearch.asp