Lying For Republicans and Other Dummies

Saving Social Security: A Guide to Social Security Reform has been published by the House and Senate Republican Conferences as a guide for Republicans to market privatized accounts for the Social Security system.

The document is filled with suggestions for communicating with constituents such as, "Talk in simple language: Your audience doesn't understand financial jargon," and "Offer an alternate reality."

View the first several pages of the 103-page document.

View or download the entire document in PDF format(2mb).

Now You Know

Word of the Day for Friday February 4, 2005

pukka, also pucka \PUHK-uh\, adjective:
1. Authentic; genuine.
2. Good of its kind; first-class.

"He talks like the quintessential pukka Englishman and quotes Chesterton and Kipling by the yard and yet he has chosen to live most of his adult life abroad."
--Lynn Barber, Bell, book ... and then what? [1]The Observer, August 27, 2000

"If he does not have a house, the government gives him a pukka residence, not a... shack on the pavement but a solid construction."
--Salman Rushdie, [2]The Ground Beneath Her Feet
_________________________________________________________

Pukka comes from Hindi pakka, "cooked, ripe,"
from Sanskrit pakva-, from pacati, "he cooks."

When In Doubt, Crack Open A Cold One

Saved By the Beer

02:00 AM Jan. 29, 2005 PT
When in doubt, crack open a cold one. A Slovak man, trapped in his car under an avalanche, did just that. He couldn't dig his way out, since the snow would just fill the vehicle before he could reach the surface.

But Richard Kral realized if he drank all 60 half-liter bottles of beer he had with him, he could melt the snow with his own urine. It worked, and four days later rescue teams found a drunken Kral staggering around the Slovak Tatra mountains.

"It was hard and now my kidneys and liver hurt," said Kral. "But I'm glad the beer I took on holiday turned out to be useful and I managed to get out of there."

OK, Feminazis, let's see YOU do that!

This Year's 16 Words

"Sixteen Word" Contest sponsored by Think Progress

"Everyone remembers the classic 'sixteen words' from the 2003 State of the Union that came back to haunt the Bush Administration - 'The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.'"

"What sixteen words from tonight’s State of the Union will come back to haunt President Bush tonight?" Readers' suggestions

"America’s prosperity requires restraining the spending appetite of the federal government."

“The United States has no right, no desire, and no intention to impose our form of government on anyone else.”

“…holds the growth of discretionary spending below inflation, and stays on track to cut the deficit in half by 2009.”

“And so we must join together to strengthen and save Social Security.”

“We will make sure that your earnings are not eaten up by hidden Wall Street fees. “

“We have no desire to dominate, no ambitions of empire. Our aim is a democratic peace.”

“[T]he whole world now knows that a small group of extremists will not overturn the will of the Iraqi people.”

"...in the year 2027, the government will somehow have to come up with an extra 200 billion dollars to keep the system afloat..."
[ Why would we want to do that in 2027 when we could spend 2 trillion now instead? --Comment by Kristen — February 3rd, 2005 @ 1:21 am ]

"Today, Iran remains the world’s primary state sponsor of terror - pursuing nuclear weapons while depriving its people of the freedom they seek and deserve."
[ what about Saudi Arabia, home of the 9-11 crew; what about Pakistan, which did nothing to the new-cu-lar scientist who distributed new-cu-lar secrets to terrorists and roque states around the world?
-- comment by me ]

“Because a society is measured by how it treats the weak and vulnerable, we must strive to build a culture of life.”
[ wouldn't 10s of 1000s of innocent Iraqi women and children be vulnerable, if not innocent?
-- my 2¢ worth]

“And best of all, the money in the account is yours, and the government can never take it away.” (laughter)

"You’ll be able to pass along the money that accumulates in your personal account, if you wish, to your children..or grandchildren"
[he forgot to mention the requirement that you purchase an annuity with your "personal account" funds; annuities have long had a bad reputation as investments; this is in part because they are heavily front-end loaded and often have annual fees(they charge to cut you a check from your own account)
-- me, again ]

“We have to move ahead with courage and honesty, because our children’s retirement security is more important than partisan politics.”

“Justice is distorted, and our economy is held back by irresponsible class-actions and frivolous asbestos claims…”

“human life is never bought and sold as a commodity.”

“…we will make it easier for Americans to afford a college education, by increasing the size of Pell Grants.”
[ I agree with many of the suggestions above, but this one is also a most dubious lie…as the size of the grants went south last year. Even if he made ‘em bigger, would they be as big as they once were?
-- Comment by paul — February 3rd, 2005]

“I urge Congress to pass legislation that makes America more secure and less dependent on foreign energy.” (raucous laughter)

"My Clear Skies legislation will cut power plant pollution and improve the health of our citizens." (tee-hee)

What he didn’t say that will come back to haunt him:
Eroding dollar.
Lack of prestige in world
Stagnation of job market
Unaffordable health care.
Record # filing for bankruptacy
650 billion balance of payment deficit
427 billion projected federal deficit
US. household deficit at 10 trillion.
[ Comment by Mary Transue — February 3rd ]

[ referring to the 55+ crowd ]
"Do not let anyone mislead you. For you, the Social Security system will not change in any way."

What he said: "Home ownership is the largest it has ever been."
What he didn't say: "Our population is the largest it has ever been."

“To keep our economy growing, we also need reliable supplies of affordable, environmentally responsible energy.”

“The principle here is clear: a taxpayer dollar must be spent wisely, or not at all.“

“…and show young men an ideal of manhood that respects women and rejects violence.”
[ except for interfering with women's reproductive decisions and gleefully engaging in war ]

The truest of the true: the problem is that the words from the Bush Administration never come back to haunt them; they come back to haunt U.S. citizens and the world.
[ Comment by Geri Weisman — February 3rd, 2005 ]


[ I heard the speech. I figured out “Cong-gerse", “teer-knee", “tare-bull", and even “lid-er-see,” but what the h*** is a “You-ray-nian"? ]

Those Choppers Were NOT Chopped Out Of Wood

George Washington's famous false teeth, are commonly believed to have been carved of wood. The truth now be told, the spring-operated dentures were constructed of gold, ivory, lead, and real teeth (both human and animal).

Lead??????

California Secedes from Bushland

California's Secession Letter:

Dear President Bush:

Congratulations on your victory over all us non-evangelicals. Actually, we're a bit ticked off here in California, so we're leaving. California will now be its own country. And we're taking all the Blue States with us. In case you are not aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois, and all of the North East.

We spoke to God, and She agrees that this split will be beneficial to almost everybody, and especially to us in the new country of California. In fact, God is so excited about it, She's going to shift the whole country at 4:30 pm EST this Friday. Therefore, please let everyone know they need to be back in their states by then.

We get the Governator, stem cell research and the best beaches.
So you get Texas and all the former slave states.

We get Elliot Spitzer.
You get Ken Lay.
(Okay, we have to keep Martha Stewart. We can live with that.)

We get the Statue of Liberty.
You get OpryLand.

We get Intel and Microsoft.
You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard.
You get Old Miss'.

We get 85% of America's venture capital and entrepreneurs.
You get all the technological innovation in Alabama.

We get about two-thirds of the tax revenue.
You get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our divorce rate is 22% lower than the Christian coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families.
You get a bunch of single moms to support, and we know how much you like that.

Did I mention we produce about 70% of the nation's veggies?
But heck, the only greens the Bible-thumpers eat are the pickles on their Big Macs.

Oh yeah, another thing, don't plan on serving wine from California, Oregon, or Washington at your state dinners.
From now on it's imported French wine for you. Ouch, bet that hurts!

Just so we're clear, the Country of California will be pro-choice and anti-war.

Speaking of war, we're going to want all Blue States citizens back from Iraq.
If you need people to fight, just ask your evangelicals. They have tons of kids they're willing to send to their deaths for absolutely no purpose. And they don't care if you don't show pictures of their kids' caskets coming home.

Anyway, we wish you all the best in the next four years and we hope, really hope you find those missing weapons of mass destruction. Seriously. Soon.

Sincerely,
California

IRAQ: Some Just Voted for Food

Source: IPS-Inter Press Service

BAGHDAD, Jan 31 (IPS) - Voting in Baghdad was linked with receipt of food rations, several voters said after the Sunday poll.

Many Iraqis said Monday that their names were marked on a list provided by the government agency that provides monthly food rations before they were allowed to vote.

”I went to the voting centre and gave my name and district where I lived to a man,” said Wassif Hamsa, a 32-year-old journalist who lives in the predominantly Shia area Janila in Baghdad. ”This man then sent me to the person who distributed my monthly food ration.”

Mohammed Ra'ad, an engineering student who lives in the Baya'a district of the capital city reported a similar experience.

Ra'ad, 23, said he saw the man who distributed monthly food rations in his district at his polling station. ”The food dealer, who I know personally of course, took my name and those of my family who were voting,” he said. ”Only then did I get my ballot and was allowed to vote.”

”Two of the food dealers I know told me personally that our food rations would be withheld if we did not vote,” said Saeed Jodhet, a 21-year-old engineering student who voted in the Hay al-Jihad district of Baghdad.

There has been no official indication that Iraqis who did not vote would not receive their monthly food rations.

Many Iraqis had expressed fears before the election that their monthly food rations would be cut if they did not vote. They said they had to sign voter registration forms in order to pick up their food supplies.

Their experiences on the day of polling have underscored many of their concerns about questionable methods used by the U.S.-backed Iraqi interim government to increase voter turnout.

Just days before the election, 52 year-old Amin Hajar who owns an auto garage in central Baghdad had said: ”I'll vote because I can't afford to have my food ration cut...if that happened, me and my family would starve to death.”

Hajar told IPS that when he picked up his monthly food ration recently, he was forced to sign a form stating that he had picked up his voter registration. He had feared that the government would use this information to track those who did not vote.

Calls to the Independent Electoral Commission for Iraq (IECI) and to the Ministry of Trade, which is responsible for the distribution of the monthly food ration, were not returned.

Other questions have arisen over methods to persuade people to vote. U.S. troops tried to coax voters in Ramadi, capital city of the al-Anbar province west of Baghdad to come out to vote, AP reported.

IECI officials have meanwhile 'downgraded' their earlier estimate of voter turnout.

IECI spokesman Farid Ayar had declared a 72 percent turnout earlier, a figure given also by the Bush Administration.

But at a press conference Ayar backtracked on his earlier figure, saying the turnout would be nearer 60 percent of registered voters.

The earlier figure of 72 percent, he said, was ”only guessing” and ”just an estimate” that had been based on ”very rough, word of mouth estimates gathered informally from the field.” He added that it will be some time before the IECI can issue accurate figures on the turnout.

”Percentages and numbers come only after counting and will be announced when it's over,” he said. ”It is too soon to say that those were the official numbers.”

Where there was a large turnout, the motivation behind the voting and the processes both appeared questionable. The Kurds up north were voting for autonomy, if not independence. In the south and elsewhere Shias were competing with Kurds for a bigger say in the 275-member national assembly.

In some places like Mosul the turnout was heavier than expected. But many of the voters came from outside, and identity checks on voters appeared lax. Others spoke of vote-buying bids.

The Bush Administration has lauded the success of the Iraq election, but doubtful voting practices and claims about voter turnout are both mired in controversy.

Election violence too was being seen differently across the political spectrum.

More than 30 Iraqis, a U.S. soldier, and at least 10 British troops died Sunday. Hundreds of Iraqis were also wounded in attacks across Baghdad, in Baquba 50km northeast of the capital as well as in the northern cities Mosul and Kirkuk.

The British troops were on board a C-130 transport plane that crashed near Balad city just northwest of Baghdad. The British military has yet to reveal the cause of the crash.

Despite unprecedented security measures in which 300,000 U.S. and Iraqi security forces were brought in to curb the violence, nine suicide bombers and frequent mortar attacks took a heavy toll in the capital city, while strings of attacks were reported around the rest of the country.

As U..S. President George W. Bush saw it, ”some Iraqis were killed while exercising their rights as citizens.”

Remote Town Finally Wired To Phone Service

Mink, La., gets first phones and first telemarketing call on same day.
The Associated Press
Updated: 8:23 a.m. ET Feb. 1, 2005

NEW ORLEANS - After living almost 50 years without a telephone, 83-year-old Alma Louise Bolton can now plan on spending a little less time on the road.

“If we needed to borrow something, like a cup of sugar, we walked to see if we could get it,” Bolton, whose nearest neighbor is 1½ miles away, said Monday as she described life without telephones. “If we wanted to talk to anyone we walked there, or drove if it was too far.”

Bolton’s town in rural Louisiana had been one of the last places in the nation without telephone service, but that all changed Monday when phones were finally hooked up in Mink, a settlement of about 15 families. Gov. Kathleen Blanco ushered in the town’s new era in communications with a ceremonial phone call to Bolton.

The community celebrated with a fish fry Monday — gathering at a church and dishing out catfish, okra, hushpuppies and slaw to about 100 residents, friends, public officials and others.

BellSouth Corp. spent $700,000 — or about $47,000 per phone — to extend about 30 miles of cable through thick forests to Mink, about 100 miles south of Shreveport. Phone customers around the state will cover the cost by paying a small monthly charge on their bills.

Cell phones had operated in Mink, but only in a few locations.

Some residents had the old style, bulky portable phones. Called “sack phones,” they were more powerful than most cell phones and would work at the crossroads store — next to the trash bin.

“You used to see people gathered around there making calls,” said Julian Ray, 57. “But they were analog phones and that service is done with Feb. 1. So we got the new phones just in time. We’re going to get together there on Saturday and dump those old phones into that Dumpster.”

But it didn’t take resident Elaine Edwards long to find out that not all calls were fun.

“It wasn’t 15 minutes after that phone was in before a telemarketer called me,” Edwards said. “But that wasn’t really a problem. I just told him I wasn’t interested and hung up.”"

Is The Economy Going To Hell In A Handbasket?

From no less an expert than David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States:

"Simply put, our nation’s fiscal policy is on an unsustainable course. As long-term budget simulations by GAO, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and others show, over the long term we face a large and growing structural deficit due primarily to known demographic trends and rising health care costs."

"Continuing on this unsustainable fiscal path will gradually erode, if not suddenly damage, our economy, our standard of living, and ultimately our national security. Our current path also will increasingly constrain our ability to address emerging and unexpected budgetary needs."

Excerpted from The Long-Term Fiscal Challenge, Highlights from a GAO Forum.

It's Deja Vu, All Over Again

How long will it be until some new Bush Biotch makes a statement comparable to "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

How Many .... Does It Take To Screw? In a Light Bulb

"Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb. Its conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are a delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?"

Boosted from Hoffmania!