President of Fabricated Crises: WP....really powerful.

[madfloridian]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2304-2005Jan11.html

SNIP.."President of Fabricated Crises

By Harold Meyerson
Wednesday, January 12, 2005; Page A21

Some presidents make the history books by managing crises. Lincoln had Fort Sumter, Roosevelt had the Depression and Pearl Harbor, and Kennedy had the missiles in Cuba. George W. Bush, of course, had Sept. 11, and for a while thereafter -- through the overthrow of the Taliban -- he earned his page in history, too.

But when historians look back at the Bush presidency, they're more likely to note that what sets Bush apart is not the crises he managed but the crises he fabricated. The fabricated crisis is the hallmark of the Bush presidency. To attain goals that he had set for himself before he took office -- the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the privatization of Social Security -- he concocted crises where there were none.

So Iraq became a clear and present danger to American hearths and homes, bristling with weapons of mass destruction, a nuclear attack just waiting to happen. And now, this week, the president is embarking on his second great scare campaign, this one to convince the American people that Social Security will collapse and that the only remedy is to cut benefits and redirect resources into private accounts.

In fact, Social Security is on a sounder footing now than it has been for most of its 70-year history. Without altering any of its particulars, its trustees say, it can pay full benefits straight through 2042. Over the next 75 years its shortfall will amount to just 0.7 percent of national income, according to the trustees, or 0.4 percent, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That still amounts to a real chunk of change, but it pales alongside the 75-year cost of Bush's Medicare drug benefit, which is more than twice its size, or Bush's tax cuts if permanently extended, which would be nearly four times its size....."

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. kick

[AwakeAtLast]

2. .

[burn the bush]

3. k ick

[Gloria]

4. This should be on Page 1, not A21...but I'll take it....

he even uses the words "disinformation" and "propaganda"...who would believe it.

[mattclearing]

31. In all fairness, all opinion pieces go there.

And I'm sure few people hate the Post quite like I do.

[yardwork]

34. Gloria might have meant that the Post should be covering this as news

rather than opinion.

After all, it was news when Bill Clinton did this or that. Why aren't the bush lies news?

[mattclearing]

39. The Post likes to tone down its criticism to the point of unreadability.

They bury things in the last paragraph, turn leads into footnotes, use boring language, etc. Remember the NYT story on election fraud? It's simply an excuse to say they didn't ignore it. If they could, they would.

[Nothing Without Hope]

5. Encouraging! I hope more powerful pieces like this are coming

Because otherwise B* will destroy and plunder Social Security just as he as everything else he has touched. It cannot be allowed.

[blm]

40. SEND IT TO YOUR LOCAL PAPERS. ASK THEM TO RUN THE COLUMN.

Great article, mf.

Nominated for home page.

[chomskysright]

53. 21 points why Bush's SS plan stinks....

I keep adding to this as associated with sources.

I intend this to be a program of innoculation: get ready for the Rovian media blitz. Use this however you desire as far as I am concerned. I have simply organized the information from a variety of helpful sources. marsha hammond, phd



21 REASONS WHY PRESIDENT BUSH'S PLAN FOR SOCIAL SECURITY IS A BAD IDEA AND IN FACT IS MISLEADING :
(WAYS TO INNOCULATE YOURSELF AGAINST THE ONCOMING MEDIA BLITZ):
A story of how Social Security is not like a 'pig in a python' (but that's what Bush and company are telling you)
We are being scammed to pay for the war on Iraq & associated deficits


You will notice that points have references; see those references at the end of these points. This is not intended to be an 'academic presentation'; thus, the URL's which you can check for yourself.



1. WHO WANTS THE CHANGE AND HOW WILL THEY 'FRAME' THE ISSUE? Wall Street wants privatization in order reap a windfall profit. Everyone else should be very suspicious. If the stock market goes down, your benefits go down.

This is what you will hear from Bush and company: "right now we are on an unsustainable course." They say, 'its unfixable as it is.' They will say: 'the problem will just grow and grow as more and more boomers come on board to obtain their Social Security benefits.' They will say: "the trust fund is empty.

Quite the contrary: Social Security funds are actually increasing and....and will actually expand for 10 more years because of the interest it receives from Treasury bonds. Could it be that Bush and company are worried because, "the government has already used the annual surpluses to finance its operating deficits." (Edmund L. Andrews; The New York Times ; Monday 10 January 2005)

That's right: Bush and company have used the surplus which usually accumulates along with the principal money in order to do something about the deficit that they have created over the past 4 years.



2. EVERYONE SEEMS TO BE SURPRISED: WAS THIS 'TWEAKING' OF SOCIAL SECURITY MEANT TO TAKE PLACE PERIODICALLY? : YES "What people forget is that the baby boom is not like a pig in the python," said Kent Smetters, an associate professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and a former senior official in Mr. Bush's Treasury Department. "If you just balance it over the next 75 years, it just means we have to come back and do the same thing all over again about 15 years from now," Professor Smetters said. (Edmund L. Andrews; The New York Times ; Monday 10 January 2005)



3. WHY ARE WE BEING TOLD WE NEED TO 'DO SOMETHING ABOUT SOCIAL SECURITY'? The nation's baby boomers start to retire at the end of this decade and relatedly the cost of retirement benefits is expected to rise much faster than payroll taxes from active workers. Obviously, payments become higher with each generation of retirees, even after accounting for inflation. By 2042, the trust fund will have used up its reserves and payroll taxes will cover only about 70 percent of the promised benefits.


4. WON'T WE HAVE TO PAY FOR CHANGING TO PRIVATE ACCOUNTS?? HOW MUCH WOULD IT COST US? : the Bush administration deems the current system, with its average monthly benefit of $955, as too generous (that's less than $12,000/ year). The Bush Administration wants to cut benefits by more than 40% to help pay the trillions of dollars that would be needed for the creation and maintenance of private accounts. http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=41481

This doesn't make sense given that now Social Security is the most efficient government system ever instigated, utilizing only 1% of the overall funds to manage the monthly Social Security payments for millions of people. More than 99 percent of Social Security's revenues go toward benefits, and less than 1 percent for overhead. The Social Security System is legally separate from the rest of the budget. Bush wants to discontinue that. This will make it difficult it not impossible to track in terms of is the Social Security money really being used for other purposes like making war on Iraq.

Where's all that money right now? "The Social Security trust fund has accumulated more than $1.5 trillion in reserves, held in Treasury bonds." (Edmund L. Andrews; The New York Times ; Monday 10 January 2005)



5. WHO IN BUSH'S ADMINISTRATION IS DRIVING THE MATTER? Karl Rove, Bush's right hand man: He is attempting to convince the public that Social Security is 'heading for an iceberg." )http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6791950)


4. WHY WOULD KARL ROVE WANT TO PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY? Rove sees it as : “one of the most important conservative undertakings of modern times,....“We need to establish in the public mind a key fiscal fact: right now we are on an unsustainable course,” the e-mail said. “That reality needs to be seared into the public consciousness; it is the precondition to authentic reform.....government and toward giving greater power and responsibility to individuals,” said Wehner, the director of White House Strategic Initiatives. " Who is this Wehner? : Peter Wehner, the deputy to White House political director Karl Rove. Thus, Rove is attempting to continue the line of 'getting government out of your lives' which is a recipe to allow corporations unbridled power and individuals no retirement through Social Security. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/679195


5. WHAT STRATEGIES ARE BEING UTILIZED IN ORDER TO CONVINCE THE PUBLIC OF THE NEED FOR PRIVATIZATION OF SOCIAL SECURITY?: "The administration has suggested that it would be justified in borrowing some $2 trillion to establish private accounts because doing so would head off $10 trillion in future
Social Security liabilities. It's bad enough that the $10 trillion is a highly inflated figure, intended to overstate a problem that is reasonably estimated at $3.7 trillion or
even considerably less. Worse are the true dimensions of the administration's proposed ploy, which were made painfully clear in a memo that was leaked to the press last week. Written in early January by Peter Wehner.".....(Rove's right hand person): http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/opinion/10mon1.html?ex=1106369074&ei=1&en=81cd3e12f07545a0


6. WHAT WOULD ACTUALLY TAKE PLACE RE: THIS PRIVATIZATION EFFORTS PER BUSH/ ROVE / THE REPUBLICANS? : "Revamping the system to allow investment accounts would not shore up the future finances and would make the financial picture worse. The administration is considering borrowing $1 trillion to $2 trillion to continue paying benefits to current retirees while tax revenue is diverted into personal accounts, called transition costs, Wehner's e mail said (per this article, this e mail was verified by the White House). Separately, to address the future financial shortfall, the administration is looking at plans to cut future promised benefits, by 46 percent in some cases, with investments expected to make up the difference." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/679195


7. WHO ELSE UNDERLINES THAT THIS IS WHAT WOULD ACTUALLY OCCUR? : " The real impact of President Bush's Social Security privatization scheme: massive cuts in promised benefits. The White House is expected to propose a new system of calculating Social Security benefits called "price indexing." The technical change would mean "cutting promised benefits by nearly a third in the coming decades" – with even deeper cuts in the future. For example, if the "price indexing" change is made, "a retiree in 2075 would receive 54 percent of the benefits now promised." David C. John, a Social Security expert at the conservative Heritage Foundation called the proposal "very much like sticking your hand in a wasp nest.": American Progress Action Fund" <[e-mail]


8. WHAT ARE SOME POINTS THAT YOU MIGHT EXPECT TO HEAR FROM BUSH AND THE REPUBLICANS? Talk about: PRICE INDEXING: The current method of calculating Social Security benefits is adjusted to reflect the standard of living when a person retires. That means when your benefits are calculated based on your average earnings, the salary you made 25 years ago is adjusted upwards to reflect the overall rise in wages (wage growth) since that time. The "price indexing" plan, expected to be proposed by Bush, would make that adjustment based on the rise of consumer prices – essentially the inflation rate. Since wages rise much faster than inflation, that means your newly adjusted salary will be lower. The end result is far lower benefits for every new generation of retirees. If this system had been in place since Social Security's inception, people today would be retiring with a benefit tied to the living standard of the 1930s, when 40 percent of households lacked indoor plumbing.: [e-mail]


9. WHAT ELSE CAN WE EXPECT TO COME OUT WAY RE: THIS PUSH FOR PRIVATIZATION? : You will hear talk about how it will be cheaper in the long-run to privatize at least part of Social Security. Specifically, White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan claims, "The cost is $10 trillion if we do nothing. So what you're talking about would be a significant savings over those costs." There are two problems with this argument. First, the $10 trillion figure grossly distorts the modest long-range deficit of the Social Security program by projecting that shortfall over eternity. (There is no shortfall at all until 2052. Projections beyond 2052, obviously, are extremely unreliable.) Second, and more fundamentally, "borrowing $2 trillion to fund individual accounts does nothing to reduce Social Security's long-term deficit." Under the Bush plan the long-term deficit is reduced through deep benefit cuts.: [e-mail]


10. WHAT ARE SOME OTHER MATTERS ASSOCIATED WITH RETIREMENT SAVINGS THAT WILL BE BOUGHT UP? The Thrift Savings Plan: what is it land what might be the downsides of such a model, which could be part of the Rovian onslaught?
the Thrift Savings Plan could serve as a possible model for personal investment accounts in Social Security.
Numerous readers said the two programs are unrelated and that the TSP, which relies on federal payroll systems for its basic operation, cannot be replicated on a scale as large as Social Security. Others said a column about the plan failed to stress that the TSP is a voluntary savings program that supplements Social Security, a tax-based program. Cavanaugh's paper (The paper, "Feasibility of Social Security Individual Accounts," was published by the AARP Public Policy Institute. AARP is opposing Bush's plan), for example, says that personal accounts in Social Security will cost more to manage than those in the TSP, in part because the TSP can rely on hundreds of federal agencies to administer payroll deductions and provide retirement planning and other services.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61607-2005Jan9.html?referrer=email


11. SO THE THRIFT SAVINGS PLAN APPEARS TO WORK FOR LARGER PERSONAL INVESTMENT ACCOUNTS, YES? The paper also points out that TSP operates on a progressive fee system (usually 60 cents per $1,000 account balance) so that holders of the higher account balances absorb part of the cost of maintaining smaller accounts. Such a fee system would not work in Social Security because too many accounts would be small, the paper contends. Social Security relies on the government to absorb inflation and market risks, while the TSP shifts those risks to individual investors, Cavanaugh writes. "Attempts to combine these two fundamentally different programs are like mating a bear with a bee -- somebody is going to get hurt," he concludes.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61607-2005Jan9.html?referrer=email


12. WHY DOES WALL STREET WANT THE CHANGE? In the background, beyond private accounts, are various proposals to cut guaranteed Social Security
benefits in the future.


13. BUT WE WILL NEVER HAVE ANOTHER DEPRESSION AS IN 1929: wrong: In 1973-74, the stock
market lost 48 percent of its value. The stock market is a very dangerous place to put money



14. WHO DOES NOT WANT THE CHANGE? (1) AARP, the nation's largest seniors organization, is coming out
strongly against President Bush's plan to allow private individual accounts
within Social Security. (2) On January 10, 2005, a NY Times Opinion piece stated this: "In this and other ways, the administration is manipulating
information - a tacit, yet devastating, acknowledgement, we believe, that an informed public would reject privatizing Social Security." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/opinion/10mon1.html?ex=1106369074&ei=1&en=81cd3e12f07545a0


15. HOW MUCH WOULD IT COST TO PRIVATIZE SOCIAL SECURITY? transitioning to private accounts could cost $2 trillion. See above information also.


16. TO REVIEW, WHERE WOULD THAT MONEY COME FROM? our taxes will have to be increased to make Bush's proposed plan work.


17. THEY TELL US THAT SOCIAL SECURITY IS BROKE OR GOING BROKE?: With all the clamoring about Social Security, a simple fact has been obscured: the Social Security budget is currently running a surplus; [e-mail]


18. OTHER COUNTRIES MUST HAVE SOCIAL SECURITY AND MAYBE THOSE ARE BETTER? wrong: Chile's system, management fees are around 20 times as high. A privatized system will take money from your Social Security check.


19. SHOULD YOU BE WORRIED THAT YOU WILL NOT HAVE SOCIAL SECURITY? Nothing is going to change, in terms of benefits, for people near your retirement age.


20. WHO TAXED SOCIAL SECURITY TO BEGIN WITH? Ronald Reagan, a Republican, began the taxation on Social Security in 1983.


21. IF WE ARE GOING TO 'FIX IT' HOW DO WE KNOW WHAT TO DO AS RELATED TO WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IN THE PAST TO 'FIX' IT? "If you compare its position now with its position at the time of the last reforms in 1977 and 1983, it's clearly better," Professor Diamond said. "Even then, it was readily fixed without radical reforms, and it's obvious that can be done again." (a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a co-author of the book "Saving Social Security.")





There is no Social Security crisis, just as there were no weapons of mass destruction. Social Security has provided a lifeline to millions of Americans with
millions of checks, and in more than 60 years has never missed a payment—and this track record can continue. Social Security is basically a sound system
that can meet 100 percent of its obligations for the next 39 years, and with responsible changes it can continue to do so indefinitely.

"Social Security is not a crisis for which enormous borrowing, huge benefit
cuts and risky private accounts are a solution. Rather,
it's a financial problem of manageable proportions,
solvable without new borrowing by a combination of modest
benefit cuts and tax increases that could be distributed
fairly and phased in over several decades, while
guaranteeing a basic level of inflation-proof income for
life." http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/opinion/10mon1.html?ex=1106369074&ei=1&en=81cd3e12f07545a0


And don't forget: It remains a fact that 30% of the votes in this national election were cast, and 80% of the votes were compiled, by three private companies, owned and controlled by conservative Republicans.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/articles/05/01/12_give.html




REFERENCES:




Edmund L. Andrews; The New York Times ; Monday 10 January 2005:

HTtp://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=41481

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6791950)

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/10/opinion/10mon1.html?ex=1106369074&ei=1&en=81cd3e12f07545a0


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61607-2005Jan9.html?referrer=email


[e-mail]

[Nothing Without Hope]

57. This is superb. When you feel ready, it should be posted

in a thread of its own and, hopefully, promoted to the home page. There are probably other online places for it to consider as well.

Thank you!

[mike_c]

6. kicked and nominated....

Excellent!

[Proud2BAmurkin]

7. Do you know the OTHER word for "President of fabricated crisis"?

"LIAR"

[GreenPartyVoter]

37. Yep

----------------------------------------------------------
Save our country one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[LynnTheDem]

8. EXCELLENT!

"To attain goals that he had set for himself before he took office -- the overthrow of Saddam Hussein, the privatization of Social Security -- he concocted crises where there were none."

"...this presidency, more than any I can think of, has relied on the classic tools of propaganda. Indeed, it's almost impossible to imagine the Bush presidency absent the Fox News Network and right-wing talk radio.

And the good little rightwingnut brownshirts are so PROUD of their being CONNED and DUPED and TRICKED by the PROPAGANDA!

"I can't think of one, however, so fundamentally invested in the spread of disinformation -- and so fundamentally indifferent to the corrosive effect of propaganda on democracy -- as Bush.

[grasswire]

9. write to the reporter

Let him know you support his speaking truth to power. His email is at the bottom of the article.

[ohtransplant]

13. Done! n/t

[madfloridian]

14. I just did.

:hi:

[madfloridian]

10. "The blurring of fact and fiction".....oh, yes. How great this is.

"With the blurring of fact and fiction so central to the Bush presidency's purposes, is it any wonder that government agencies ranging from Health and Human Services to the Office of National Drug Control Policy have been filming editorial messages as mock newscast segments, complete with mock reporters, and offering them to local television stations?"

This is a beautiful thing to read.

[d---mad2]

11. "The fabricated crisis is the hallmark of the Bush presidency"

NUFF SAID

[Straight Shooter]

16. Welcome to DU, d---mad2

:hi:

[ohtransplant]

12. Maybe the fog is lifting.

If so, we'll see more of the MSM ditching the kool-aid and noticing (for the first time) the Emperor's wearing no clothes. We can only hope.

One article won't suffice. For Amurkins to notice, this has to repeated over and over, from electronic as well as print media. This is going to be a long fight. Buckle up. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

Great post!

[Straight Shooter]

15. Maybe the Social Security issue will be like grabbing a tiger by the tail

I hope it turns around and chews bush up and spits him out.

George W. Bush, the obtuse, hopelessly out-of-touch buffoon. "Fabricated crises" is a classic term if I ever heard one and I hope it sticks.

[e-mail] :thumbsup:

[Hebegirl]

62. A Sliver of Hope

I have a small reserve of hope that maybe, just maybe shit will finally reach maximum capacity and blow back in *'s face. Especially this social security debacle. Social security was never intended to be a pension (which of course is a soon to be archaic concept, what with all the bankruptcies and bad debt, and companies getting out of their pension agreements...) it also isn't meant to be a 401K or IRA. So what? The American consumer hasn't been encouraged (or taught) to save, so we should make the social insurance program their personal IRA. Not!!

[The_Casual_Observer]

17. Nice to see that this guy gets it.

lets hope chimp shot his wad at Iraq, and now nobody will believe him about any of this other shit.

[yazsir]

18. kick

[newyawker99]

64. Hi yazsir!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[UCLA Dem]

19. where the hell were articles like this 4 months ago??

instead the fucking media squandered its time spinning its wheels about swiftboat junkies and that fucking cbs natl. guard report.

:mad:

[ClayZ]

21. Can't get this song out of my head

Doin' the Perp Walk
© 2004 Jim Hinde / Folkbone Productions


World leaders are trying to beseech Bush.

All of my friends are trying to defeat Bush.

I’ve even seen some signs that tell me to impeach Bush.

That ain’t gonna cut it for me.

I won’t be happy ‘til I see him do the perp walk.

Handcuffs and leg irons swingin’ to the perp walk.

Bright orange jumpsuit, stylin’ for the perp walk,

On his merry way to cell block D.

He raided my National Treasury.

Invaded a nation’s sovereignty.

That’s why I won’t be happy ‘til I see him do the perp walk

Exiting the White House, shuffling to the perp walk.

Live on TV, smirkin’ to the perp walk.

That’s democracy for me.

Lest we neglect the Bush Administration,

That gang hell bent for world domination.

Live at The Hague for their humiliation.

That is what I’d truly like to see.

‘Cause I won’t be happy ‘til I see ‘em do the perp walk.

Rove and Rummy marching to the perp walk.

Colin and Johnny dancing to the perp walk,

Getting finger printed on TV.

They acted preeminently,

Searching for those WMDs.

And now I won’t be happy ‘til I see ‘em do the perp walk.

Condoleezza Rice practicing the perp walk.

Bunker bust Cheney and make him do the perp walk.

That’s democracy for me.

But we won’t stop there, with this administration.

Set a precedent for future generations

To not be messin’ with the Peoples reputation.

And that’s the way it oughta be.

If you mess with us you get to do the perp walk.

Don’t matter if you’re rich you get to do the perp walk.

Especially Richard Nixon should have had to do the perp walk.

It’s what we call equality.

That’s the hallmark of grass roots liberty,

And U.S. Constitutionality.

So you Supreme Court Judges ain’t immune to do the perp walk.

Senators and Congressmen take turns to do the perp walk.

This whole damn government may learn to do the perp walk.

That’s democracy for me.

[yardwork]

36. Perfect!

[snippy]

30. Good question. n/t

[obnoxiousdrunk]

46. The media is

busy researching the Brad pitt Jennifer Anniston break up.

[Systematic Chaos]

20. I sent the author an e-mail thanking him for this essay.

I also congratulated him on this thread's nomination to our front page. :) I wonder if he spends any time here?

[Andromeda]

22. It's starting to happen.

More articles will be written and words spoken addressing the arrogance and deception of this administration.

Maybe this country will finally wake up.

[leftchick]

23. Whoa!!

This is the best thing I have read in AGES!!!

[cthrumatrix]

24. where is the "media voice" questioning the obvious.... are they $$$paid

to be stupid....?

They are letting shrub lie/mislead americans all day.

[OutsourceBush]

25. I think the WP is a media voice and I think RW dictator Bush is in...

Deep dodo!

Kinda like Hilary and healthcare.

Even if he does pull this sh&t off he is going to piss off sooo many people. There won't be a republican elected to office for the next 50 years.

[Disturbed]

26. Maybe the Silverspoon Sociopath...

has come to the end of his rope. Many Paleo Conservs are balking at this SS scam.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

27. Didn't Harold Meyerson do the piece titled Wal-Mart Nation?

It was about a year ago now.

It's good the Post printing him again. We need a lot more like this.

on edit: I should point out that the Post did not print Wal-Mart Nation. I don't want to mislead anyone accidentally. :)

[Tyler Durden]

28. Nice, but do you actually think this will do ANYTHING?

Bush and his meme's cover Page 1, while the lies and the thefts are relegated to the trackless interior that I am beginning to think that only we read.

I see this becoming another "THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO TAKE YOUR GUNS" or other such bullshit. Cripes, I mean these people are using paid propaganda (Armstrong Williams et al) and NOTHING has happened. Or WILL happen.

I hate to be a wet blanket, but until I hear this being disussed on a daily basis on the whore news services, I don't think any of it's going anywhere.

[spanone]

43. Hey, it's gotta start somewhere. WaPo is a pretty powerful paper

Remember watergate?

[Paradise]

29. Thank you so much, madfloridian.

I thanked the author, as well. :)

[SheepyMcSheepster]

32. kick

:kick:

[leesa]

33. And lying to get us into a war is treason. Imagine that!

[Laurab]

35. "President of Fabricated Crises" how perfect

far better than "President of the United States". Fabricated is another word for LIES - maybe sounds a little nicer. To see Shrubco and the word propaganda linked in the msm is hopeful, I don't care what page it's on.

:kick:

[brokensymmetry]

38. PFC Bush -

Great article! And a new title for the emperor! PFC - pResident of Fabricated Crises.

Spread the word!

:kick:

[Al-CIAda]

41. Good article, too bad the author didn't include 9/11 as a created crisis

...because it was.

[spooked911]

50. sorry, I didn't notice you posted this before me!

[spanone]

42. Heady criticism for the WaPo

Kick

[indepat]

44. When your entire agenda is but one large lie after another, fabrication,

mixed with reichous mendacious sanctimony, is the standard operating procedure.

[jhain]

45. it's a start

hell, it's a good start if we can get it out there...

I think my bp just came down a few points...

off to write some people...

[CWebster]

47. Will history record

that few Democrats stood up and yelled foul at the concocted crisises and fear mongering - or were they cowering or intent on destroying the ones in their own ranks who would stand up and not be party to it?

When the money is raised through the corporations, the dance is to the corporation's tune.

What's good for oil and Wall Street runs the show.

Will history take note?

[wicket]

48. fantastic article!!!

[spooked911]

49. 9/11-- most likely another crisis manufactured by the Bush team

[spooked911]

51. Meyerson is really really good-- I'm glad the WaPo picked him up

[AuntiBush]

52. Thank you Myerson! Kick!

Double Kick!

[greyfox]

54. This is amazing -- this is the day!

http://sf.indymedia.org/uploads/the_road_to_tyranny__34...

Download this 2 and a half hour film... doesn't take long at all... and watch it.. how can ANYONE not vote to impeach and jail Shrub and cronies?

[Raksha]

55. GREAT editorial!!!

I just sent the author an e-mail expressing my appreciation. Here it is:

Dear Mr. Myerson,
This is just a quick note to thank you for writing that excellent editorial, "President of Fabricated Crises" in today's Washington Post. The phrase "fabricated crisis," in and of itself, is such an apt description of the way the Bush regime operates that it deserves to become part of the language, as I have no doubt that it will. And you are so right that it applies to the fabricated "Social Security crisis" just as much as to Saddam Hussein's nonexistent WMDs.

I think, however, that it may not be quite so easy to sell this one to the American people, for the very reason that this is NOT the first fabricated crisis of the Bush presidency. I believe even the most of gullible of his supporters may begin to detect a pattern, especially since this is an issue that concerns every American directly. I hope I'm not being overly optimistic here.

I especially love your last paragraph: We've had plenty of presidents, Richard Nixon most notoriously, who divided the media into friendly and enemy camps. I can't think of one, however, so fundamentally invested in the spread of disinformation -- and so fundamentally indifferent to the corrosive effect of propaganda on democracy -- as Bush. That, too, should earn him a page in the history books.

Don't worry, Mr. Myerson...IT WILL!

Sincerely,
xxxxx

[madfloridian]

56. A cute response from the author, Meyerson.

When I write newspapers I often put "From the heart of Jeb Country" after my signature.

I got this back from the writer, Meyerson.

"Mail from Jeb Land much appreciated.

Many thanks,
Harold Meyerson"

[MsMagnificent]

58. A Question

I'm FAR from an expert (sadly) on government and especially Social Security issues, but a certain thought has been popping into my head and I wonder if it's legitimate -- PLEASE if anyone knows post a reply so I know if it's worth following up on or a fallacy

This recurring thought is that, as SS stands now, there is no 'sluice' to drain funds... I mean, right now or indeed at any time, with the accountability we have now;, there are X amount of dollars in the funds (Nationally, or in general) and it has to balance.
i.e. If money were to just somehow be drained ...well, it couldn't, not unless there is a clear paper trail back to whatever certain department or department head.
Conversely, once the money is deposited into 'balance-variable' or 'gambling-type' accounts (sorry I do not have the proper terminology); it would be easy, or easier, to siphon off money and pretty well hide WHO or HOW the money 'came up missing'.

Sadly, that's the "Faith" I have in the titular "Leadership" and "responsibility" we have in this fucking White House:
Crooks to end all crooks!
I was literally nauseous when I saw the NYT article saying what a GREAT THING it was that the Fuckers at WorldCom
who stole HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS had to pay
AN ENTIRE 18 MILLION out of "THEIR" money!
Excuse me, but isn't THEIR MONEY comprised of the MOTHERFUCKING HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS THEY STOLE?!
So HOW is the (comparatively) paltry 18 million to be repaid such a Great Thing??!

*sigh* I never used to swear like this.
I could memorize an unabridged dictionary and STILL not be able to verbalize the depth of my outrage, so apologies -- swearing is my current, last, ONLY resort.

[karlrschneider]

59. kick

:kick:

[buddhamama]

60. Kennedy spoke on the fabricated crises

in his speech today to the NPC.
excellent piece!

edited spelling

[hollowdweller]

61. I am so happy to see the other side of the story, unlike Iraq.

maybe we can head this off.

[Vidar]

63. Great article. Thanks for posting.