Most of you got Brian's comment on Social Security. One thing he said stood out to me:

"I feel that we should definitely defend SS, but I must say that I do begrudge paying it since the reports on its solvency make me think that I will never see any return on the investment." Brian

Actually this makes me think about the failure of our media in that the idea that Social Security is insolvent falls right in line with Iraq having nukular weapons and being an imminent threat to the US. Social Security is doing fine. Even though Bush robs it blind every day to cover his war and tax refunds for very wealthy people, taken by itself, there will need to be only minor adjustments for things to run smoothly for the next nearly fifty years! Saint Paul Krugman makes this exceedingly clear as he rips Alan Greenspan for lying about it.
I don't think folks realize what is actually being proposed....Bush is not proposing to give you back your SS payments! He is proposing to confiscate them! To use them to reduce the deficit he created by giving tax cuts to rich folks.... Duh!!!

Nice guys, Those Bushies! How many of you remember Rod Serling?.......

Imagine, if you will, a large and powerful man stand before you holding weapons that can reduce your entire body to mush in seconds. He points into a metal box indicating that you should enter. Your hands and feet are bound together so that it is difficult for you to comply with his demands...but you do so as best you can. How did this happen to you?

Welcome to the Twilight Zone!

While on a legal visit to a foreign country, You are taken prisoner and told that you have been identified as having met with the worst terrorist on the planet and will be taken to a remote foreign country to be tortured and interrogated. When You plead your innocence and ask for your consulate, you are forced into a shipping container with 300 other prisoners. It is closed up and there are no air holes to allow the men inside to breathe. Someone takes pity on the suffocating men and shoots holes onto the container, ostensibly so they can breathe, but several are killed by the bullets as a result. Of the 300 men inside the metal box, only 20 survive. You are one of the "lucky" ones who lived.

You are held in a tiny cell in solitary confinement for three months. You are never allowed to contact anyone who can prove you are innocent. No one from your country is told you are there. You are held in shackles that will not allow you to stand up straight and "interrogated" over 200 times with such brutality that you eventually confess to being somewhere you know that you weren't. You are so mentally and physically broken that when someone finally comes and removes your chains and tell you to walk out of your cell, you are too frightened to move and have to be dragged out!

Why are you being released? The spy agencies of your own country have discovered that one of their citizens is being held prisoner in violation of the Geneva Conventions and all international law and after investigation they confront your captors with irrefutable evidence that you were not even in the country at the time they claim you committed the heinous act of "Having a conversation with a terrorist." You are innocent of everything! You have been imprisoned, beaten, tortured, brutally chained, and psychologically abused to the point that, after you return to your own country, you cannot sleep in your own bed at your own house even after you have been found to be completely innocent. The last and possibly greatest indignity to be perpetrated upon you is that your captors demand that you sign a document absolving them of wrong doing and agreeing to say nothing about your experience. You refuse, even though it may mean that you will go back to your cell.

It was only after intense pressure is brought by the diplomatic agencies of your home country, that you were released. They were going to hold you even though you had been proven to be innocent but eventually became afraid of the international scandal that was bound to occur.

Thank you for visiting American soil! We hope you enjoyed your stay at Guantanamo. Have a safe trip back to England.

This is the picture that is emerging and will add to the world view of America.

This next story is not going to die. It continues to present the picture of a man who has no business leading America:

‘‘We've released the president's complete military records, with the exception of his medical records, and they speak for themselves.”

Well no, they haven't. Even considering Bush's records were cleansed by folks who worked for Bush when he was Governor of Texas, there is information they are refusing to admit to. Check this! They are stonewalling:

The bureau's chief historian said he couldn't discuss questions about Bush's military service on orders from the Pentagon.


‘‘If it has to do with George W. Bush, the Texas Air National Guard or the Vietnam War, I can't talk with you,” said Charles Gross, chief historian for the National Guard Bureau in Washington, D.C.


Rose Bird, Freedom of Information Act officer for the bureau, said her office stopped taking records requests on Bush's military service in mid-February and is directing all inquiries to the Pentagon. She would not provide a reason.


Air Force and Texas Air National Guard officials did not respond to written questions about the issue.


James Hogan, a records coordinator at the Pentagon, said senior Defense Department officials had directed the National Guard Bureau not to respond to questions about Bush's military records.

Records show Bush had a ‘‘secret” security clearance for Cold War fighter-interceptor missions and was certified ‘‘combat-ready” to engage Soviet bombers.


In April 1972, at the same time the military began drug and alcohol testing for the first time, Bush stopped flying the F-102, and according to White House documents, did not take a required physical in May. He was formally suspended in September 1972 for failing to take the test. What followed was a period in which Bush sporadically attended Guard drills, according to White House documents, and spent the summer in Alabama.

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/breaking-news-story.asp?submitDate=200431401040

It's all fun! At least it is fun when it isn't tragic....And this is the guy who is so mistreating our military that they are refusing to reenlist. Bush is in the process of destroying the Volunteer Army and will have to reinstate the draft. Is that what you folks want?

Anybody see Rumsfeld get nailed on Face the Nation yesterday? They nailed him on his lie about the "Imminent threat" He says they never said that and they nailed him with several direct quotes. Good to see the media growing testicles!



Peace!

Steve