Bush Lies Again

During the fall of 2002, six months before the US invasion of Iraq, the Bush Administration was dismayed by polls showing that very few Americans favored a preemptive strike against Iraq over the possibility that that country possessed weapons of mass destruction. So Bush, Cheney, etc. decided to tell Americans what they wanted to hear to make them change their minds: that they were certain that Iraq had WMDs. That certainty, of course, was the Big Lie: and it worked. To make things interesting, they even claimed that Saddam Hussein had something to do with 9/11. Support for an Iraq invasion shot up, nearly doubling before the late March 2003 incursion that begun a war with no end in sight.

Now they’re at it again.

Republican lawmakers returned from their winter recess shocked by the reaction of even their Republican supporters to Bush’s proposed Social Security reform package. Their message, as a friend summarized the other day, was simple: we want our shit. Don’t take away our shit.

Stupidass Congressional Democrats ought to hold tight against any GOP plan on Social Security, since the party’s obvious intention is to begin a process that would ultimately lead to the system’s elimination. But where there are Democrats there are suck-ups and compromisers, and this debate–a sure winner for Dems if they could maintain solidarity–is no exception. Lifting my (sarcastic) suggestion from the a few weeks back, they’re proposing “add on” personal accounts. In other words, Social Security would remain unaffected, but people could also open tax-free personal investment accounts (like IRAs) that they could invest in equities and other securities. The Republican plan for personal accounts would take away 4 percent of current benefits and replace them with personal accounts.

Bush’s plan is unpopular. No one wants to replace a 100 percent sure thing with a 96 percent sure thing and a 4 percent casino chip. Moreover, once this process starts it won’t be 4 percent. It’ll soon be 10, 20, 50, 100 and–poof!–the last major middle-class entitlement program will be gone, just like that.

So what does Bush do when the facts don’t work in his favor? He lies, like he did to con us into Iraq. At a forum pimping his Social Security plan, the New York Times reports, he said: “See, personal accounts is an add-on to that which the government is going to pay you. It doesn’t replace the Social Security system.”

The Times continues its report:

In fact, the personal accounts would offset a portion of the existing Social Security benefit and, its proponents argue, enhance it. Mr. Bush has proposed letting younger workers divert up to 4 percent of their taxable income into personal accounts – a move that detractors say would cost trillions in transition costs and ruin the underpinnings of the system.

This kind of writing is what drives thinking Americans crazy. In fact, it’s not only “detractors” who say transition costs would run into the trillions. The White House says they will. There’s no dispute on this point. At least they call Bush on lying about add-ons–but the “in fact” is a little too subtle for my tastes, or for most readers to notice while skimming the piece over their morning coffee.

Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said Mr. Bush was not embracing the alternate plan, which he said would amount to creating an entirely new program outside Social Security. Instead, Mr. Duffy said the president used the term “add-on” to describe his own proposal. “Social Security is facing its own problems and the president’s mission is to save Social Security,” Mr. Duffy said.

In other words, Duffy says, Bush is using the term add-on, which is gaining some traction, to describe his own original proposal–one to which add-ons were conceived as a counterproposal. If treasonous columnist Robert Novak is correct, however, Bush’s attack on Social Security is doomed in the Senate. The sad thing about this fiasco is that Social Security really does have long-term structural issues to address. By stooping to his usual ghetto tactics of working to further enrich his wealthy investment banker pals, he has made it harder for some future president to fix the program.

Another Bush Voter Shows His Stripes

Yesterday’s hate mailer SirRosis675@aol.com is back:

Scum,
If you want a clash, please be my guest. I’m a Nihilistic misanthrope who has no soul. So if you think siccing your minions on me will cause me any anxiety,you are very wrong. I don’t have feelings,remorse or any conscience to speak of. So tell your followers to keep the e-mails coming to me…it’s only more fuel for the fire.I don’t solicit them,so I consider them a nuisance…my response will be directed the proper party,not the peons.
Where were you on June 18,1984? A beautiful Monday for America
How about November 3,1979 or May 4,1970…great days indeed.
Your Pal,
Sir Rosis

May 4, 1970 was the Kent State Massacre. That one I know off the bat.
Oh, and: dude, you know the email rules here. Send me shit like you did yesterday and you’ll have to share it with the world. Find some other squishy liberal to use as your personal punching bag.

then he sent this:

Son of a French Cunt,

Wow, Scarborough? Holy mother of shit you are desperate! You gotta be kidding me if you go on a flyweight show like that. MSNBC has test pattern ratings,but for good enough for your low ambitions. No wonder your father split…first,he knocked up a frog cunt(if you’re gonna fuck a French hole cover your pecker,you never know what viri French cunts carry) and secondly he must have had ESP to see what a load of vomit you would turn into. Keith Haring would be proud. He’s probably in Hades right now blowing a Haitian…just like he did when alive. Hey Liberace,go draw your silly cartoons. You probably are a card carrying NAMBLA member who goes to comic book conventions looking for 8 year old weenis. Wake up..you’re a homo. Hope the new and improved HIV gets ya…Millions of dead fags can’t be wrong!

And he probably has a flag on his bumper.

Apparently he’s also been sending similar missives to those FORs who wrote him:

Ted:

This guy is a racist. He claims he is not white supremicist, but he was hateful and spiteful.
Quick question:
One of his e-mails said “Warriors…come out and play” and referred to a comment I made at IMDB which gave my city location. Should I be concerned?

I dunno. The early 1970s film reference could be interpreted any number of ways. Death threats should always be taken seriously, even though few of them are ever acted out upon. It only takes one nut, after all.

BTW, I was not initially insulting. I simply sent him Michael Ventura’s article on America by the numbers. That was when he shot back with the racist insults.

I have blocked him, and unfortunately, I accidently erased the e-mails, so I have nothing on him. My usual feeling is such people are more hot air than anything, but as you have dealt with death threats far more than I have, I thought I would ask. Non of his e-mails suggest a death threat. That subject line seemed to imply some sort of threat.

Sorry to bother with such triviality. I just thought I would try something to support you.

Blocking him was the right thing to do, and thanks for the reminder. I’ll do that right now. You should know this, however: he has an AOL account and is therefore totally traceable should he decide to do anything stupid. This is yet another reason that online anonymity should be proscribed: it has been repeatedly abused by phishers, violent emailers, etc. I hate to have to come to this conclusion, since online privacy would be the ideal situation in a perfect world. Unfortunately too many people have turned the Internet into the Wild West.