by Dave Lindorff

When the financial markets started coming undone earlier this week,
the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve stepped in, and with $85
billion of our money (actually our children's money,
since they borrowed it from China and Saudi Arabia), bought foundering
AIG, the world's largest insurance company, and assumed its colossal
pile of crap debt.

That didn't help, and the stock market crashed further, falling to
levels not seen in three years. Banks, meanwhile, stopped lending,
figuring to just hold onto their money and try to weather the crash.
The US Treasury and the Fed stepped in again, this time pumping nearly
$300 billion more of our money into foreign money markets, and getting
European and other governments to do the same in an effort to get the
credit markets open again and to stop the stock market swoon. That was
on top of some $700 billion already spent on bailouts.

By Dave Lindorff

That deafening silence you hear coming from the McCain campaign is
straight-talkin’ John touting his plan for privatizing Social
Security...not.

With Wall Street banks falling like dominoes, a hundred billion dollars vanishing overnight, and the Treasury
Department scampering about trying to prop up failing enterprises
from Bear Stearns to Fannie Mae, and with domestic and global equity
and bond markets swooning, Americans are afraid to open those envelopes
that come every quarter telling them the value of their hard-earned
401(k) retirement plans.

No wonder John McCain isn’t touting privatizaton these days.

Bush and his cronies are out to destroy our country (and others, too!) in pursuit of his "One World Order." This is part of a huge fascist plot to undermine democracies - including our constitutional republic.

For those who think this is extremist, take a look at a former thread about the NAFTA Superhighway.

And to those who continue to wave the flag patriotically, however thoughtlessly, don't think It Can't Happen Here. Don't think "This can't be happening!" It can, and is.

Maybe, finally, the immigration issue will cause our neighbors on the other side of the aisle to take time to look at the issues, not as right vs. left, but rather as right vs. wrong, even as Pat Buchanan writes "His" (Bush's) "refusal to defend and secure the borders is well-nigh impeachable....Time to lock and load."

Opponents of the Immigration Act are gathering in a March for America and are petitioning in accordance with Jefferson's Manual.

Despite the pervasive media buzz, the 109th Congress did little about social security insecurity. Now comes the good news that a dedicated group of retired military enlisted personnel prevailed in their three-and-a-half-year long pursuit for public disclosure of Bush’s U.S.-Mexico Social Security Totalization Agreement.

At a time when American citizens, especially the bulge generation of baby boomers, are increasingly uneasy about what part of their retirement income they can depend on social security to provide, Bush is preparing to sign into law without Congressional approval (though Congress would have 60 days to vote to reject it) the U.S.-Mexico Totalization agreement negotiated in June, 2004.

On December 7, I proposed a wealth surtax to pay for all past and future costs of the Iraq Occupation - not because I support a wealth surtax, but because I believe it would end the occupation in a nanosecond because wealthy Americans would never be willing to pay for it.

Never could I have imagined that George Bush is also proposing to tax the rich!

Of course, Bush is trying to con Democrats into supporting Social Security privatization - something no Democrat who wants to be re-elected will support.

WeDemocrats In order to stimulate an active interest in government affairs, to restore TRUST of our government, to foster and perpetuate the idea of FREEDOM and principles of a Democratic Nation and to provide for our people through administration of the highest degree of justice, FAIRNESS and social welfare, do associate ourselves together as an official progressive grassroots organization, of the Progressives' Democratic Party. Auxilary groups on Democrats.org and BarackObama.com.
What will help Democrats win elections will be a surge in grassroots energy and a reengaged corps of activists who are working to take their party and country back. 6,236 - IN ALL 50 STATES AND DC!!! It’s a Fantastic Start.
Join this group!

Ron McBride

http://www.WeDemocrats.org

ron@wedemocrats.org

Join WeDemocrats at: http://www.wedemocrats.org/dadamail/mail.cgi/list/maillist/

Social Security turned 70 yesterday. And to almost everyone's surprise, the nation's most successful government program is still intact.

Just a few months ago the conventional wisdom was that President Bush would get his way on Social Security. Instead, Mr. Bush's privatization drive flopped so badly that the topic has almost disappeared from national discussion.

Many pundits and editorial boards still give Mr. Bush credit for trying to "reform" Social Security. In fact, Mr. Bush came to bury Social Security, not to save it. Over time, the Bush plan would have transformed Social Security from a social insurance program into a mutual fund, with nothing except a name in common with the system F.D.R. created.

(LA Times) MILWAUKEE -- As President Bush resumes his cross-country campaigning to promote his vision of Social Security restructuring, it's no secret that he's relying on outside organizations to help provide the supporting cast.

Yet a memo circulated this week among members of one group, Women Impacting Public Policy, illustrates the lengths to which the White House has gone to make sure that the right points are made at the president's public appearances.

PFAW has set up a text message system to counter the expected "NUKULAR" Option...
"Stop Nuclear Strike with a Cellular Spike!" Create anti "Nuclear" reaction with your mobile phone.

With the Nuclear Option’s timing in Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s hands, there won’t be enough warning to send out an email alert the moment he drops the bomb on the Senate. But we can deliver a text message straight to your mobile that embeds a Senate phone number based on your state. With just a couple pushes of the button we'll instantly deliver you, and thousands of others, to the halls of power, right before the vote. This groundbreaking new technology will create a spontaneous rebuttal – and we need you to be part of it! Sign up now.

From Progressive Dems of America, via "SarahLee" over at KOS, comes this gem. Seems ol' Bill Frist needed some new shoes, only thing was, the shoe store was downstairs in the building where Americans United to Save Social Security's office is housed... Apparently the ad hoc demo started out with "Between 35-50 people from Americans United and the Campaign for Americas Future demonstrated against and spoke to Frist who said he support the President's plan which includes privatization and middle class benefit cuts..."