"Gimme an F " : TAP looks at Bush's "free" press issue.

[madfloridian]

http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=9265

"Democrats need to do some rethinking, sure. But they need to fight, too. "
By Michael Tomasky
Web Exclusive: 02.28.05

"Well, it was delightful to read last week that President Bush believes in a free press and vital opposition.

In Russia.

Here in the United States, the story is different. His administration turns three willing journalists into paid propagandists. At the same time, it turns a propagandist into a journalist by giving him access to the White House’s daily press briefings. Meanwhile, a top administrator of the Social Security Administration -- an arm of the government that is supposed to remain scrupulously free of public partisanship -- goes on a pro-privatization tour with four Republican officeholders, saying his role is simply to inform the American public, but failing to explain why he’s informing only that portion of the American public that’s represented by Republicans. And finally, one of the administration’s most slavish congressional henchmen, Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, subpoenas the tax documents of an organization that had the bad judgment to send a representative before his committee to say not what he and the administration wanted to hear about the “Clear Skies” initiative but what the organization actually thought. And these are just the examples that have come to light in February....."

SNIP..." Which brings us back, as most everything does these days, to Social Security.
Now that the administration sees that its privatization show has bombed in Peoria and will need Democratic votes by the time it gets to Broadway, it will start using conciliatory rhetoric and talking about bipartisanship. There are a handful of Democrats who always fall for this

If these Democrats “compromise” on Social Security, they need to face consequences. I’d like to think Howard Dean, more impressive than I’d expected so far in his first two weeks as party chairman, is having one of his people secretly looking into whether primaries against Democratic senators in 2006 -- in states like, oh, let’s say Connecticut, to pick one out of the air -- are a live option if those senators compromise on Social Security.

This is a moment of truth for Democrats. The Social Security fight is symbolic of a larger struggle in which the ascendant right is trying to remake the nation in its own image. The nation, despite giving Bush 51 percent of its vote, is admirably resistant to this push in many ways. The Democrats had better represent this resistance....."

[CoolOnion]

1. Free Press

Hey, Russia, we don't have a "free" press--we pay big money for it!

[wtmusic]

2. Look for Holy Joe to lead the way of the appeasers

Dean should find a way to just kick him and Zell out of the party.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

3. .