CNN: this really makes the Haiti earthquake hit home - must-see tear-jerker of little girl who was alive and they were rescuing her...and she died!
"Needless Deaths" in Haiti
CNN's Anderson Cooper is doing just as good of a job on the Haiti earthquake as he did on Katrina and the Tsunami. MSNBC and CNN's coverage of the Haiti earthquake is BLOWING AWAY FOX "news"s coverage. Rightwing media just doesn't do "HUMANITARIAN DISASTERS", it's not in their repertoire to be human. FOX "news" is "NOT READY FOR PRIME TIME" when it comes to stories with global significance.
MORE Haiti earthquake coverage:
During a humanitarian crisis, you can count on the HATE and IGNORANCE of rightwing media to embarrass the good people of the United States.
U.K. Guardian: Rush Limbaugh enters race to the bottom on Haiti. That Rush Limbaugh could claim the Haitian tragedy was 'made to order' for Obama shows how crazed the US right has become
Rush Limbaugh/Clear Channel must be held accountable for racial, sexual slur and hate tirade on Haitians
Rush Limbaugh: Don't Donate to Haiti Victims
Maybe Limbaugh has laid what was left of his credibility to rest.
Roger Ebert: Rush Limbaugh should be "horse-whipped" for his comments.
Tuesday's devastating earthquake in Haiti continues to bring grim news. Estimated death counts range from the tens of thousands to more than 100,000. Haiti's capital and largest city, Port-au-Prince, sustained massive damage: its hospitals -- all of them -- destroyed or rendered unusable, the presidential palace and a United Nations mission flattened. Damage to Haiti's airport, seaport, roads, power supplies, and other utilities has exacerbated the suffering and hindered relief efforts.
Public and media reaction to the tragedy has been swift and in many cases admirable. Record-setting donations have poured into the Red Cross -- $4 million via text message alone. Some 30,000 people contributed another $2.6 million to Clinton Foundation relief efforts in just 24 hours. Much of this support can be attributed to the quick and powerful distribution -- by both old media and new -- of news, information, and photos relating to the earthquake. Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook have been a valuable source of information, as have news organizations that scrambled to cover the tragedy. (The Business Insider has a good round-up of those efforts, with links to several useful resources.)
But much of the conservative media elite has reacted quite differently.
Fox News Channel's highest-rated shows, for example, all but ignored the disaster, according to a new Media Matters study:
On January 13, Fox News' three top-rated programs for 2009 -- The O'Reilly Factor, Hannity, and Glenn Beck -- devoted a combined total of less than 7 minutes of coverage to the earthquake in Haiti, instead choosing to air such things as Beck's hour-long interview with Sarah Palin, Bill O'Reilly's discussion of Comedy Central host Jon Stewart, and Sean Hannity's advocacy for Massachusetts candidate Scott Brown's Senate campaign.
REPORT: Top Fox News programs devote scant coverage to Haiti earthquake
FOLLOW-UP REPORT: Beck and Hannity again devoted little coverage to earthquake in Haiti
LA Times: Fox drops the ball in Haiti coverage
Outside of Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel, Fox News doesn't do foreign coverage. Period. But Fox News' abdication of its news gathering responsibilities is not new. The cabler did the same thing in the wake of the 2004 tsunami.
FLASHBACK: Fox News gets blown away - Fox's weak coverage of the tsunami in South Asia proves that when it comes to stories with global significance, the nasty, partisan network isn't ready for prime time.
Fox News and Haiti
O'Reilly ignores Haiti to cover whaling, wild horses and Jon Stewart
Fox Nation equates temporary protections for Haitians in the U.S. with "Amnesty" for "Illegal Aliens"
MSNBC's top rated shows SMASH FOX "news"s top rated shows on Haiti earthquake coverage:
MSNBC's Matthews/Olbermann/Maddow vs. FOX's Beck/O'Reilly/Hannity on Haiti earthquake coverage:
MSNBC's Keith Olbermann SLAMS rightwing media on Haiti:
Rush Limbaugh's latest Psycho Talk on Haiti - "U.S. military is 'MEALS ON WHEELS'":
Limbaugh: Obama will use Haiti to boost credibility with "light-skinned and dark-skinned black community in this country"
Rush Limbaugh looks for a job.
Rush Limbaugh looks for a job.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eTkQ2mnn-ZE
There's a difference between having a liberal or conservative slant...AND LYING!!!
ReplyDeleteFox & Friends falsely reported Obama proposed "15 percent tax" on banks
http://mediamatters.org/research/201001150005?
Celente-Fascism Is Coming To America
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwleSJcglXw
Down With Atheism
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDZByHHmnsg
Fox knows its market. They know their viewers don't give a shit about poor black people in any other country. Fox knows they are playing to the faux-christian market.
ReplyDeleteHOLY SHIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteSheep gives birth to human-faced lamb
http://current.com/items/91920224_sheep-gives-birth-to-human-faced-lamb.htm?xid=45
Was the sheep's owner from the South???????????????
Republicanism is a mental illness:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/aug/13/usa.redbox
Texas Oil Man: US Should Plunder Iraqi Oil
ReplyDeletehttp://existentialistcowboy.blogspot.com/2009/10/texas-oil-man-us-should-plunder-iraqi.html
Yes,.. but what is a guy to do ?
ReplyDelete+++++++++++++++++++++
I breastfeed my dog
Monday 4th January 2010
How do you stop your dog from barking? Breastfeed her, of course. It worked for Suzanne Morgan, 32, anyway.
It was sod's law. I'd just got my daughter, Tasha, off to sleep, now, my dog, Dixie, was barking like mad to be fed. I opened the kitchen cupboard, only to see there wasn't a single tin of dog food left. I felt like crying. Worst of all, I knew Dixie wouldn't shut up until she'd filled her stomach.
'We must have something,' I said, as I peered inside the fridge.
Then I spotted the bottles of breast milk I'd expressed earlier that day.
Admittedly, Tasha, 17 months, was quite old to still be breastfeeding, but I loved the bond it gave us, so I'd decided to carry on. It was free, too, which was good, because since I'd split up with her dad, Ted Collins, 35, when she was 3 months old, money was tight.
I'd always produced more milk than Tasha could drink, so I'd got into the habit of keeping some in the fridge for when I left her with a babysitter.
http://www.pickmeupmagazine.co.uk/imageBank/cache/5/51reallifeSuzanne1_e_21235a1c391f4b6e2ce013029b231756.jpg
http://www.pickmeupmagazine.co.uk/real_lives/I_breastfeed_my_dog_article_293284.html
Ker Than
ReplyDeletefor National Geographic News
January 13, 2010
The magnitude 7 earthquake that struck Haiti yesterday is the strongest earthquake to hit the region in more than two centuries, geologists say.
HAITI EARTHQUAKE PICTURES
* Devastation on the Day After
* Aerial Views of the Earthquake Damage
While earthquakes are not uncommon in the Caribbean island country, the recent Haiti earthquake's intensity surprised experts.
"It's quite strange" from a historical perspective, said Julie Detton, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey.
Haiti is part of the island of Hispaniola, which also hosts the Dominican Republic. The last major earthquake to strike Haiti's side of the island was in 1860.
Yesterday's initial earthquake, which struck at about 5 p.m. local time yesterday, spawned dozens of aftershocks, about 15 of which were magnitude 5 or greater.
Whether the earthquake could trigger other major quakes is not known.
"It's not something that we can project is going to happen," Detton said.
"But definitely if you're moving two [plates] in one area, you're building up stress and strain in another."
(Also see: "Haiti Earthquake, Deforestation Heighten Landslide Risk.")
Haiti Earthquake: Seismic Stresses
The Haiti earthquake was caused by the release of seismic stresses that had built up around two tectonic plates.
The motions of these plates create what are known as strike-slip faults, where two sections of Earth's crust are grinding past each other in opposite directions.
"The Caribbean plate is moving eastward with respect to the North American plate," Detton said.
More at link,..
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2010/01/100113-haiti-earthquake-red-cross/
Outside of Iraq, Afghanistan and Israel, Fox News doesn't do foreign coverage. Period. But Fox News' abdication of its news gathering responsibilities is not new. The cabler did the same thing in the wake of the 2004 tsunami.
ReplyDeleteThe HAARP project was started in 1993 and is funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy, the University of Alaska, and the Defense Advanced Researched Projects Agency or DARPA. The HAARP site consists of 180 antenna units to create an effective radiated power of 3,981MW. To put this in perspective, a house`s power consumption is measured in the number of kilowatts used in one hour, also written as kWh. With this notation, the equivalent of 3,981MW in kilowatts is 3,981,000 kilowatts! Needless to say, this is an extremely high powered signal that the HAARP site can produce.
ReplyDeleteWhat can this power do for a country? Well let`s get some more details. The HAARP site broadcasts in the frequency range of 2.8 and 10 MHz which falls in the range above AM radio`s allocation of 540kHz to 1600kHz, yet still under the Citizen`s Band frequency of 26 " 27MHz. HAARP has been speculated to be able to discover areas where oil, gold, and other resources are located by using a resonating frequency that the resource is known to have, shot into the earth to determine the location of these resources.
Of course, with HAARP`s power and frequency range, one of the main reasons for the HAARP project is to alter the performance of surveillance and communications systems. The HAARP instillation shoots frequencies into the ionosphere to temporarily remove the protective layer of the atmosphere in small areas that allows the sun`s solar winds to penetrate through the ?hole` that is poked in the ionosphere by the HAARP installation.
With the power to change the face of the earth`s atmosphere, there is a potential to affect the weather, destroy instillations on the ground, destroy orbiting satellites, and there`s even been a proposition of mind control at the right frequency and power. Also, with HAARP able to beam frequencies at extremely intense power may even have the potential to create disturbances in the earth`s stability. With the example of the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse in 1940 due to the wind that hit the resonating frequency of the bridge, ultimately resulting in an earthquake-like effect before the bridge was completely destroyed.
If the wind can get to the frequency required to cause an earthquake effect on a bridge, imagine what a controlled frequency at extremely high powers could potentially cause if it were to hit the resonating frequency of certain elements in the earth. The wind`s effect on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge was an example of the catastrophic effects possible when the correct frequency was hit, even without much energy. Knowing the resonating frequency of the earth`s components could then potentially be used as a weapon that may cause an earthquake, not due to the normal shifts of the earth`s tectonic plates, but rather due to the earth`s resonation from a high powered, adjustable antenna installation.
With power like this, there are definitely some ethical question it brings up. Should men try to play the role of a god and alter the factors of the earth that man has never been able to take control of? If it can produce an earthquake, would it be ethical to use it where there could be innocent people affected by the quake`s catastrophic movements? These are just a few of the questions that may be more than we can answer with any certainty but should definitely be considered if an installation like this can harvest such incredible power.
HAARP is showing lots of promise to help many people by being able to give rain when needed, find resources that could help bring prosperity to a country and many other potentially beneficial applications. However, as Lord Acton is remembered to have said Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely ?. Is the world ready for an installation of this power? Can men handle a tool of this magnitude? I suppose only time can tell, but this is a testament as to how our civilization is progressing, and what tools and super weapons are being developed.
http://thesop.org/science/2009/02/15/a-haarp-striking-a-powerful-chord-earthquake-machine
MSNBC's Matthews/Olbermann/Maddow vs. FOX's Beck/O'Reilly/Hannity on Haiti earthquake coverage:
ReplyDeletehttp://4.bp.blogspot.com/_VizIrBQwA8w/S1HE3taSB9I/AAAAAAAAIPc/MDoFgGSQqCo/s1600-h/earthquake+coverage+by+show.jpg
World Bank forcing free market policies on poor countries like Haiti - then allow (price supported) cheap imported agricultural products into the country by open trade policies - this decimates the local farmers who can no longer make a decent living. This in turn forces farmers to sell their land and congregate into the ghetto areas of the big cities - looking for cheap housing, food and limited employment. This is a dream situation for capitalists robber barons looking for poor exploitable next to slave labor who are forced to live in a state of perpetual squalor.
ReplyDeletehttp://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=4713
January 14, 2010
ReplyDeleteUS Quake Test Goes “Horribly Wrong”, Leaves 500,000 Dead In Haiti
By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
A grim report prepared by the Russian Northern Fleet for Prime Minister Putin is stating today that the catastrophic earthquake that has devastated the Island of Haiti was the ‘clear result’ of a United States Navy test of one of its ‘earthquake weapons’ planned to be used by the Americans upon the Persian Nation of Iran but had gone ‘horribly wrong’.
The Northern Fleet has been monitoring US Naval movements and activities in the Caribbean since 2008 when the Americans announced their intention to re-establish their Forth Fleet that had been disbanded in 1950, and which was responded to by the Motherland when later that year a Russian flotilla led by nuclear powered cruiser Peter the Great began their first exercises in this region since the ending of the Cold War.
Though virtually unknown to the American people, the use, and perfection, of earthquake weapon technology has a decade’s long history that began with the former Soviet Unions exploding of a 10 megaton nuclear bomb in September, 1978 and then ‘redirecting’ its shockwave towards Iran where it resulted in a catastrophic 7.4 magnitude earthquake, an event which hastened the downfall of the US backed regime headed by the Shah.
This attack upon Iran by the Soviets was countered by the Americans in April, 1979 when they unleashed one of their newly developed ‘atomic powered’ earthquake weapons against the former communist Nation of Yugoslavia which resulted in a 7.2 magnitude earthquake.
More at link,..
http://www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1322.htm
The Illuminati/Intelligentsia are a devious and demonic lot,.. if evil happens don't put the act beyond them,.. especially if it gives them more power and places more money in their robber baron pockets and the pockets of their brethren.
ReplyDeleteMaybe,.. not certainly,.. but worthy of passing consideration and comprehension.
Haitian Shock Doctrine:
Here's what maybe happening here: They could have wrecked the place with our tax dollars through HAARP - [Haiti]. (Like EXX$$on/Royal Dutch $$$hell/Briti$$$$h Petroleum used lower class and middle class American tax dollars [Military/Industrial Complex] to gain control of Afghan/Iraqi pipeline/petrol resources). They could be rebuilding the place with our charity dollars - (Haiti), and then they get a free military base to do it all over again in another country. Countries fall like dominoes. All because of a fantastic new secret weapon.
HAARP could be a fucking cash cow, folks, and we are all suckers because we can't fathom the science or Machiavellian strategies. They may be gearing up to use it as the ultimate depopulation tool, so the Illuminati can have a clean earth. In this case 2012 would be all about HAARP.
Some say,.. No,.. No,.. no breathing, eating, walking, sleeping - human being could be so ruthless and utterly cruel.
Ask your self why Haiti, Haiti is a independent black nation, a threat to american imperialism, defeated the colonizers in the past, and has been an enemy to the government control structure for years. Earthquakes are caused by plate tectonics shifting, impossible giving the geographical location of port au prince.
ReplyDeleteIs HAARP Causing The Earthquakes, Volcanoes to Erupt and The Ice to Melt? Are these random, naturally occuring events or controlled events?
Earthquakes can be heralded by changes in the ionosphere the earths upper atmosphere on the edge of space. Just before the earthquake struck Sichuan province in China there were odd visual disturbances and they were caught on tape. One puzzle is that the colors in the Chinese clouds were upside down from a normal circumzenithal halo red pointing toward the horizon and blue to wards the Sun, instead of the other way round.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BR6O3kJTqaI&feature=player_embedded
On the next link scroll down,..
http://phoenixaquua.blogspot.com/2010/01/haiti-earthquake-raises-haarp.html
HAARP: Modifications in the natural balance - to gain an upper hand, realize more power, and achieve both military superiority and advantage.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nPusHeDlBxQ&feature=player_embedded
Hmmmmmm......
ReplyDeletePAT ROBERTSON VOODOO DOLL! Proceeds Go To Haiti relief.
ReplyDeletehttp://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=190365539998&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123#ht_500wt_1182
http://blogslut.com/whackapat.html
ReplyDeleteBigDan's new hobby,..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZHHZxP5g68
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BycfYU6E6Ds
Those guys are insane!
ReplyDeletehttp://bluebear2.blogspot.com/2010/01/crash.html
This is shameful, disgusting and pathetic - that a fascist Rethug may take Ted Kennedy's former senate seat.
ReplyDeleteWhen you tell your progressive base to fuck off and bear hug and worship the soft neo-fascist corporatist/conservative DLC crowd this is what you get,... Edward M. Kennedy's old senate seat is about to be taken by a tea bagging/hyper-fascist Rethug,.. in the bluest of blue states - Massachusetts. Once again the Demos capture defeat from the jaws of victory.
Thank you Rahm Emmanuel - you DLC'd the Democratic Party to advance the interests of Israel. Obama ought to dump Rahm's ass, dump Geithner, dump Summers, dump the Wall Street cheer leading team from his administration, re-regulate Wall Street and stop handing out US taxpayer dollars to these bankster robber barons, stop the hemorrhaging of American jobs, dump the Afghan/Iraqi/Iran/Yemen war mongers, allow prosecution of the banksters who crashed the American/World economy for their benefit and self enrichment and bring team bu$$hCo/cheney up on charges for shredding the US Constitution, circumventing world treaties, violating the Geneva Conventions, war crimes, illegal wars and other acts of treason.
Democrats have to distinguish themselves from Rethugs - if Demos become carbon copies of Rethugs - why in the helll would you vote for the Demo and get a stealth Rethug, you might as well vote for the Rethug and get an in your face up front fascist/corporatist who will vote against your best interests to flagrantly enrich themselves - or the true blue Demos will just sit the elections out and not lift a finger to campaign for Demos who act and vote in DC - just like the Rethugs do all the time.
November 2010 & 2012 will be a Demo blood bath - because Rahm transitioned the Demo Party into the kinder and gentler fascist corporatist robber baron party that worships the DLC and no longer cares about the middle class, blue collar workers, and the issues of importance to the common women and men.
++++++++++++++++++++++++
I've been told reliably that Martha Coakley's internal poll for Friday night showed Republican Scott Brown leading by two points, 47 to 45 percent. Her campaign's three-night average for Friday, Thursday and Wednesday is the same -- a 47 to 45 lead for Brown.
This is, obviously, not great news for the Democratic nominee. But it does suggest that Brown's momentum -- which took him from a double-digit gap to the lead in Coakley's poll in about a week's time -- has been arrested. On Wednesday night, Coakley's poll put her ahead by two, 46 to 44. On Thursday night, Brown surged ahead by three, 48 to 45. And on Friday, it was back to a two-point race. In other words, a nail-biter on Tuesday looks likely.
UPDATE: As a friend points out, the Friday night numbers probably don't take into account Coakley's latest well-publicized gaffe, when she seemed to forget that Curt Schilling -- who at one point flirted with running in this race -- had played for the Red Sox. It may be silly that baseball IQ could have anything to do with a Senate candidate's election prospects, but that's where we are.
http://stevekornacki.blogspot.com/2010/01/latest-coakley-internal-brown-2.html
Easily Hacked Voting Systems to be Used in MA Special Election for the U.S. Senate
ReplyDeleteWorld/National News
Written by Nathan Barker and Brad Friedman <<<<<<=======================================================================
Next Tuesday's Special Election for the U.S. Senate seat in Massachusetts looks to be coming down to the wire. Surprising pundits in what had previously been thought to be a cakewalk for State Attorney General Martha Coakley, the Democratic candidate hoping to fill the seat of the late Senator Ted Kennedy, Republican state Senator Scott Brown has come on strong in the final days of the campaign.
But as the election looms, tempers flare, money is poured into the contest from all sides, and Democrats sweat out what should have been a safe seat for them - a Democrat named Kennedy has held that particular seat for more than the last 50 years - questions about whether the election results can be trusted have already emerged in a race where the stakes couldn't be higher.
As the 60th "filibuster-proof" Democratic U.S. Senate seat hangs in the balance - and the party's healthcare reform bill and other key legislative hopes along with it - fears are mounting that the final vote tallies could be as questionable as they were in the recent NY-23 Special Election for the U.S. House. Perhaps even more so.
http://www.gouverneurtimes.com/st-lawrence-news/54-worldnational-news/10625-easily-hacked-voting-systems-to-be-used-in-ma-special-election-for-the-us-senate.html
Oh cool - it's still Saturday!
ReplyDeleteAnother day off, Thanks Big Dan!
No,..no,.. It doesn't work like that BB-2.
ReplyDeleteJeez,.. BigDan is going to fuck the best laid plans that made hyper-capitalism so successful and great.
You can't give the working man a three day week-end to relax with the family and have fun. Capitalists know you want your labor resources to work like dogs 24/7 to the point of utter exhaustion,.. that way they can't act in unison or unionize to advocate for their common best interests and/or seek more benefits.
Your lucky you get two days off - having enjoyed your week-end - now get the fuck back to work !!!
He should be docked an hours pay - just for that snide remark,.. 3 day week-end.
An honest attempt to enter the next dimension,.. well,.. can't say he didn't try.
ReplyDeletehttp://i.imgur.com/EcGYq.gif
BigDan just got a new pickup truck,.. it has one of those quick Hemi engines under the hood.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.loadedtruck.com/truckpics/truck3.jpg
Another reason not to outsource American jobs to lower wage people coming here from India, they now want to be exempt from having to pay into the social security system and having that match taken from their wages. This is a backdoor attempt to phase out social security for American elderly, much the same way the right is constantly nibbling and biting at the right for women to chose an abortion - expect social security to be munched on and munched on around the edges until the fascist corporatist right-wingers erases American's access to social security retirement benefits.
ReplyDeleteBesides how the hell is America to remain competitive in the world marketplace if capitalists are encumbered by the economic ravages of forced contributions into the social security retirement program. The capitalists will say - "Either dump social security entirely - and stop the forced employer match payment into the social security program - or continue to watch American jobs relocate overseas".
A race to the bottom - on fucking steroids/cocaine/and amphetamines of naked greed.
++++++++++++++++
India to push US on social security pact
Source: The Times of India
In a move that could nip the current Indo-US bonhomie in the bud, the Indian government is likely to link progress on the social security agreement with the US to that of the Bilateral Investment Promotion Agreement (BIPA). The ministry of overseas Indian affairs will be taking up the matter with the ministry of external affairs.
The government has been pursuing the social security agreement — that will allow Indians working under short-term contracts in the US to secure exemption from contributing to the American social security system — since 2006 without much success.
... The US social security system mandates 40 quarters of contribution to earn any benefit which is considered grossly inequitable as the visa regime that governs the residence and work permit of non-immigrants in the US allows a person a maximum stay of six years in case of H1B and seven years in case of L1 visas. Government sources said this was not in line with the international practice in social security anywhere in the world.
More at link,..
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/India-to-push-US-on-social-security-pact/articleshow/5462979.cms
Social Security in America is about to become extinct.
ReplyDelete"The deal on the debt limit allowed senators to head home while preserving Republicans' opportunity to debate the debt limit increase before President Obama's State of the Union speech next month...
The agreement sets up a Jan. 20 vote on a longer term debt limit expansion, which would raise the ceiling to about $13 trillion. It would include votes on several Republican amendments on that date, as well as related Democratic amendments. The amendments will need 60 votes to pass.
The most closely watched may be an amendment offered by Senate Budget Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and ranking member Judd Gregg, R-N.H., creating a special commission to recommend binding steps to reduce entitlement spending."
The amendment that Conrad and Gregg are pushing is to create a binding commission to reduce your Social Security. Seems the billionaire Pete Peterson has conned some idiot Senators (and of course a slew of ConserveDems and RepubliCONS in the House) to do away with Social Security. This is how the billionaire plans to steal your your social security dollars:
This creates a binding commission so that Congress can only vote up or down. Whatever the commission recommends must be voted on without any amendments. This is how Ronnie Raygun and Greenspan managed to borrow from the Social Security Trust Fund so that instead of keeping the $3 Trillion (That's T for Trillion) of social security surplus liquid and available, they borrowed it and spent it in the general fund. A nonpartisan commission headed by Greenspan recommended that middle class and poor nearly double their tax rate (while reducing the amount the rich paid in).
So, now that you have paid for both your parents and your own retirements it should be there for you, right?.
But the money you paid into Social Security will disappear if this commission that Conrad and Gregg are pushing has its way (by the way Obama likes this plan too). A binding commission does not answer to voters, baby boomers or anyone else. They can decide whatever they want, including stripping you of your well earned retirement money and/or benefits put away in the Social Security Trust Fund. This is nothing but a bait and switch. You paid in for 25 years and now they are telling you you are not entitled to what you have paid for. How is this any different then defaulting on loans we owe to China or Japan?
Contact your Senator before the 20th and don't let them steal our Social Security retirement money yet again. Let them know we are watching and will hold them responsible even if they try to hide behind a commission.
http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1209/122909cdam1.htm
This article appeared in the March 2, 2009 edition of The Nation.
ReplyDeleteGoverning elites in Washington and Wall Street have devised a fiendishly clever "grand bargain" they want President Obama to embrace in the name of "fiscal responsibility." The government, they argue, having spent billions on bailing out the banks, can recover its costs by looting the Social Security system. They are also targeting Medicare and Medicaid. The pitch sounds preposterous to millions of ordinary working people anxious about their economic security and worried about their retirement years. But an impressive armada is lined up to push the idea--Washington's leading think tanks, the prestige media, tax-exempt foundations, skillful propagandists posing as economic experts and a self-righteous billionaire spending his fortune to save the nation from the elderly.
..These players are promoting a tricky way to whack Social Security benefits, but to do it behind closed doors so the public cannot see what's happening or figure out which politicians to blame. The essential transaction would amount to misappropriating the trillions in Social Security taxes that workers have paid to finance their retirement benefits. This swindle is portrayed as "fiscal reform." In fact, it's the political equivalent of bait-and-switch fraud.
Defending Social Security sounds like yesterday's issue--the fight people won when they defeated George W. Bush's attempt to privatize the system in 2005. But the financial establishment has pushed it back on the table, claiming that the current crisis requires "responsible" leaders to take action. Will Obama take the bait? Surely not. The new president has been clear and consistent about Social Security, as a candidate and since his election. The program's financing is basically sound, he has explained, and can be assured far into the future by making only modest adjustments.
But Obama is also playing footsie with the conservative advocates of "entitlement reform" (their euphemism for cutting benefits). The president wants the corporate establishment's support on many other important matters, and he recently promised to hold a "fiscal responsibility summit" to examine the long-term costs of entitlements. That forum could set the trap for a "bipartisan compromise" that may become difficult for Obama to resist, given the burgeoning deficit. If he resists, he will be denounced as an old-fashioned free-spending liberal. The advocates are urging both parties to hold hands and take the leap together, authorizing big benefits cuts in a circuitous way that allows them to dodge the public's blame. In my new book, Come Home, America, I make the point: "When official America talks of 'bipartisan compromise,' it usually means the people are about to get screwed."
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090302/greider