Must-read column by Paul Krugman

[wakemewhenitsover]

...In addition to misrepresenting his goals, Mr. Bush repeatedly lied about the current system. Oh, I'm sorry - was that a rude thing to say? Still, the fact is that Mr. Bush repeatedly said things that were demonstrably false and that his staff must have known were false. The falsehoods ranged from his claim that Social Security is unfair to African-Americans to his claim that "waiting just one year adds $600 billion to the cost of fixing Social Security."

<snip>

...the campaign for privatization provided an object lesson in how the administration sells its policies: by misrepresenting its goals, lying about the facts and abusing its control of government agencies. These were the same tactics used to sell both tax cuts and the Iraq war.

And there are two reasons to study that lesson. One is to be prepared for whatever comes next on Mr. Bush's agenda....

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/15/opinion/15krugman.html

[Erika]

1. Bush neocons same old same old

How to transfer the wealth from the middle class to the upper class is his biggest concern. For all he cares, the lower income people can starve.

[barb162]

2. Krugman is the best

[wakemewhenitsover]

4. True. Bob Herbert too.

[barb162]

8. oh yes, he's wonderful

[Skittles]

3. LIED - THANK YOU

I want people to just SAY IT already - bush does not "mislead" or "misrepresent" - he is g.d. liar - not just repeating shit his handlers feed him with no understanding - he knows g.d. well he is a LIAR

[electropop]

6. I'm tired of the pussy-footing too. Say it: LIAR LIAR LIAR

George W. Bush is a LIAR. Everything he says is a LIE. Except when he says he would prefer to "go on with life" rather than talk with a mother whose son could not.

[faithnotgreed]

5. thank you (again) mr krugman

and there should be a lot more responses to this thread

[spooky3]

9. agreed--and kick

[faithnotgreed]

11. ill agree with you and kick right back

[girl gone mad]

7. The administration is saying they...

plan to redouble efforts to privatize SS after Bush's vacation.

That ought to be, um, interesting.

[KoKo]

10. Krugman has given us the "Frame" to fight against the Tax Code Revisions

with just that sentence.


"Bush wins by using a pattern of: "misrepresenting his goals, lying about the facts and abusing control of government agencies."

Can you just hear this repeated by Dems on any of the Pundit Shows over and over and over and over. And...if THEY won't do it, it's up to US to do it.

[Peace Patriot]

12. Paul Krugman is a wonderful columnist. He is factual and truthful, and

ALWAYS views economic issues from the perspective of the greatest good to the greatest number of people--a real populist! He has refreshed and inspired me throughout the Bush junta. And he has only failed me once--when he went on vacation just after 11/2/04, and said nothing about the stolen election, by which I presumed that he had drunk the DLC/DNC koolaid that, despite a number of problems in the election, George Bush was honestly elected.

In my view, we simply cannot just keep rehearsing horror after horror after horror that this regime is inflicting upon us. We must look at causes. And when you look at the causes, one item stands out from all the rest: Major Bush donors and supporters counted all the votes in '04 on electronic machines using "trade secret," proprietary programming code--code so secret that not even our elected secretaries of state are permitted to review it. There was NO transparency and NO verifiability in the last election. None. And there were major indications that the result produced by Bush's electronic voting machine company buddies at Diebold and ES&S was wrong.

How the Democratic Party let that happen is a story of corruption among our state/local election officials and other public representatives in the billion dollar new electronic voting machine industry, as well as some parts of cowardice and war profiteering. We need a BIG BROOM, friends. And the Republican Party is not the only one that needs a serious housecleaning.

If you want a snapshot of how the electronic voting machine companies are corrupting our public officials, check out this hogfest at the Beverly Hilton last week, sponsored by Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia--a week of fun, sun and high-end shopping for election officials from around the country (and they're not just Republicans!):
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

How about a column of Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia*, Paul?

-----

After authorizing purchase of Sequoia electronics for California elections, former Republican CA Sec of State Bill Jones and his chief aide Alfie Charles are now working for....guess who?

[Peace Patriot]

13. P.S. Californians then elected Dem Kevin Shelley as Sec of State. He

banished "revolving door employment" in his office, attempted to hide herd on the more corrupt county election officials (bipartisan), sued Diebold for the lies they told about the security of their machines, and decertified the worst of Diebold's machines (the touchscreens) prior to the 2004 election. He also demanded to see their "trade secret," proprietary software. They got rid of him fast (a "secret dossier" type black op), and now we have a Schwarzenegger appointee as Sec of State, who has packed his advisory panel with Republican lawyers and promoters of electronic voting. Tell me that control of the vote count with these election theft machines is not among the highest priorities of the Bush Cartel!

[wakemewhenitsover]

14. Man, I would love to see Paul Krugman weigh in on why...

...exit polls, which Jimmy Carter said were the only fair way to monitor elections, have been disparaged.