Subject: Social Security

We contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like
a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the
handle.--Winston Churchill

SOCIAL SECURITY:

Franklin Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the
Social Security (FICA) Program. He promised:

1.) That participation in the Program would be
completely voluntary,

2.) That the participants would only have to pay
1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into
the Program,

3.) That the money the participants elected to
put into the Program would be deductible from their
income for tax purposes each year,

4.) That the money the participants put into the
independent "Trust Fund" rather than into the
General operating fund, and therefore, would only be
used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program,
and no other Government program, and,

5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees
would never be taxed as income.

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and
are now receiving a Social Security check every
month -- and then finding that we are getting taxed
on 85% of the money we paid to the Federal
government to "put away," you may be interested in
the following:

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from
the independent "Trust" fund and put it into the
General fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the
Democratically-controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax
deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social
Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the
"tie-breaking" deciding vote as President of the
Senate, while he was Vice President of the U.S.

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving
annuity payments to immigrants?

MY FAVORITE :

A: That's right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic
Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at
age 65, began to receive SSI Social Security
payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments
to them, even though they never paid a dime into it!

Then, after doing all this lying and thieving and
violation of the original contract (FICA), the
Democrats turn around and tell you that the
Republicans want to take your Social Security away!

And the worst part about it is, uninformed citizens
believe it!

...on real limits: The netherworld of bad behavior is down a notch lower where Anony and Chong have been. No reflection, no consideration, just hubris-driven, highly charged ranting. Obscenity, spam, and name-calling for no reason.

"I finally have access to the internet again. I’m sitting here reading an AP story titled: US-Iraq Battle Touches on Syrian Border. For some reason, the MSM [Main Stream Media] apparently still thinks we’re fighting Iraqis. Perhaps they’re out of touch…. Perhaps they’re cowering to threats…. Perhaps they have an anti-American agenda. The truth is that we haven’t been fighting against Iraq since the Spring of 2003. What we have been fighting are the variety of Islamofacist hoards attempting to take control of a freshly liberated Iraq and return it to the previous era of oppression and cruelty.

"Why don’t they report that we are fighting WITH Iraqis? Why don’t they report that a significant number of “insurgents” and “militants” are made up of Syrians, Jordanians, Saudis, Pakistanis, Egyptians, and Iranians? Why don’t they report how these guys terrorize the local Iraqi populace with horrific torture, rape, and murder? Why don’t they report how the “militants” set hospitals on fire, or hide in schools, or grab children on playgrounds and use them as human shields?

"At one time I gave lefty and MSM types the benefit of the doubt. No longer. I have seen what goes on around here first hand and I know much of the MSM has seen it too. If they haven’t – they aren’t doing their job. I think they want us to lose. I think they want Iraq to lose. I think they are propaganda puppets of nihilist chaos..."

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT WORK

"The next time a politician or activist whines about cutting 'necessary' spending from the federal budget, consider the federal grant Vermont wasted by putting 'Buckle-up in Vermont' ads on billboards deep in New Hampshire and Massachusetts.

"Washington gave Vermont $24,000 to raise its seat belt usage rate, which was nearly 80 percent last year. Vermont's governor's highway safety program decided to spend the money on billboards - you know, those big outdoor signs Vermont bans from the roadsides of major highways.

"The story gets dumber from there. There were no available billboards in Vermont. So instead of sending the money back to Washington Jeannie Johnson, coordinator of the governor's highway safety program, bought ads on billboards in New Hampshire and Massachusetts - billboards nowhere near the Vermont border."

- Manchester Union-Leader editorial, 5/26/05

FILI-BLUSTER POP QUIZ!!!

A burglar breaks into your house and steals $500. Outraged, you declare, "I am going to put new locks on the doors, install an alarm, and sue that burglar to get my money back!"

The burglar, who happens to be your next door neighbor, asks, "Don't you think that's a little extreme?"

You hesitate, "Well...uh...I don't know...."

The burglar proposes: "How about this? I'll give you back $300. You promise not to change the locks or install an alarm, and don't go to the cops with this. In return, I promise that I won't break into your house and steal from you anymore unless I really, really need the money."

If that sounds like a good deal to you, you may be qualified to be a Republican member of the Senate.

- by Owen Courreges at www.lonestartimes.com

DUMBING DOWN OUR KIDS

"I am a retired Computer Scientist and have taught CS at the university level for over 20 years. The quality of student has been steadily declining. The last class I taught, a third-year class in a computer language called C++, I had to fail half the class. One student comes particularly to mind. She handed in slightly over half of her lab work, and the labs were all several weeks late. She failed both the mid-term and the final.

"When she failed the course she said to me, 'I don't know why I failed. I tried my best.' This student had gone through school believing that it was not necessary to achieve, only to try. Trying ones' best is, of course, purely subjective. Where once students were taught to strive for excellence, they are now being taught that results do not matter, only trying. It's OK to fail. Don't bother to learn from your mistakes and do it right; forget it and just move on."

- George J. Dekelbaum

STUPIDITY VIRUS STRIKES BRITISH DOCTORS

"A team from West Middlesex University Hospital said violent crime is on the increase - and kitchen knives are used in as many as half of all stabbings. They argued many assaults are committed impulsively, prompted by alcohol and drugs, and a kitchen knife often makes an all too available weapon.... The researchers say legislation to ban the sale of long pointed knives would be a key step in the fight against violent crime."

- BBC News, 5/26/05

A TALE OF TWO ABUSES

"Abuse at Abu Ghraib prison - where no one was killed or even hurt - was given massive attention; Saddam's mass graves precious little. The news media's double standard is clear..."

- Columnist Jack Kelly

DEATH OF A MARINE
By Jeff Jacoby
The Boston Globe
Sunday, May 29, 2005

Monday night, in a special Memorial Day broadcast of ''Nightline," Ted Koppel will call the roll of the more than 900 US troops who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan during the past 12 months. As each name is read, viewers will see a photograph of the fallen soldier. Executive producer Tom Bettag says the program is meant to remind Americans, ''regardless of their feelings about the war, that the men and women who have given their lives in our behalf are individuals with names and faces." When ABC aired a similar "Nightline" in April 2004, it was accused in some quarters of trying to inflame antiwar sentiment for political purposes. In the event, it proved a solemn and respectful tribute, and there has been no controversy this year.

Long lists of soldiers killed in wartime can have great emotional power, as anyone who has been to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington can attest. However dignified and moving, though, in the end such a listing can really describe them only as a group: *They wore the uniform and died in the service of their country.* But who they were individually, how they served, what they left behind -- that is more than a catalogue of names can convey.

So here is the story behind just one of the names ''Nightline" will enumerate on Memorial Day: Sergeant Rafael Peralta of Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 3d Marines. He was killed in action on Nov. 15 during Operation Dawn, the epic battle to retake the Sunni stronghold of Fallujah.

What follows is chiefly based on an account by Marine Lance Corporal T.J. Kaemmerer, a combat correspondent who took part in the operation that cost Peralta his life. Reports also appeared in the Los Angeles Times, The Marine Corps Times, The San Diego Union Tribune, and on ABC News.

On the day he died, Rafael Peralta was 25 years old, a Mexican immigrant from San Diego who had enlisted in the Marines as soon as he became a legal resident. He earned his citizenship while on active duty and re-upped in 2004. He was a Marine to the core, so meticulous that when Alpha Company was training in Kuwait, he would send his camouflage uniform out to be pressed.

He was no less passionate about his adopted country: His bedroom wall was adorned with a picture of his boot camp graduation and replicas of the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. ''Be proud of being an American," he wrote to his kid brother Ricardo, 14. ''Our father came to this country and became a citizen because it was the right place for our family to be." It was the first letter he ever wrote to Ricardo -- and the last. It arrived in San Diego the day after he died.

The Marines of the 1/3 were on the front lines in Fallujah, purging the city of terrorists in house-to-house combat. As a platoon scout, Peralta could have stayed back in relative safety. Instead, as was often the case, he volunteered to join the assault team.

On the morning of Nov. 15, one week into the battle for Fallujah, his squad had cleared three houses without incident. They approached a fourth, kicking in two locked doors simultaneously and entering both front rooms. They found them empty. Another closed door led to an adjoining room. As the other Marines spread out, wrote Kaemmerer, ''Peralta, rifle in hand, tested the handle." It wasn't locked. He threw open the door, preparing to rush in -- and three terrorists with AK-47s opened fire. He was shot multiple times in the chest and face. As he fell, severely wounded, he managed to wrench himself out of the doorway to give his fellow Marines a clear line of fire.

The gunfire was deafening. To the sound of the terrorists' AK-47s was added the din of the Marines' M16 rifles and Squad Automatic Weapon, a machine gun. The battle was raging, with Peralta down and bleeding heavily and the other Marines firing at the enemy in the back room, when, in Kaemmerer's words, ''a yellow, foreign-made, oval-shaped grenade bounced into the room, rolling to a stop close to Peralta's nearly lifeless body."

As the other Marines tried to flee, Peralta reached for the grenade and tucked it into his gut. Seconds later, it exploded with such force that when his remains were returned to his family for burial, they were able to identify him only by the tattoo on his shoulder. His five comrades-in-arms, shielded from the worst of the blast by Peralta's last act as a Marine, survived.

** ** ** **

''Right now, people are really nice and everything," Peralta's 12-year-old sister Karen told a reporter 10 days after her brother's death. ''But I know that when it comes to later on, they are going to forget him. They're going to forget about him."

No, Karen. The Marines, always faithful, do not forget their heroes. And neither does the grateful nation that pauses to honor them this week -- the nation Rafael Peralta loved so deeply, and for which he gave his last full measure of devotion.

Don't bother to learn from your mistakes and do it right; forget it and just move on.

...not one protest has taken place anywhere in Muslim world over mass murders, desecrations and dismemberments of hundreds of innocent Muslims by Muslim suicide bombers in Iraq in last month...no fatwa from outside Iraq condemning indiscriminate mass killings by jihadists, many from Saudi Arabia...

THE TITLE IX CRUTCH

"What's the difference between the WNBA (women's basketball league) and (Indy race-car driver) Danica Patrick? For one thing, she looks like a woman, and they don't.

"Then there's Title IX - affirmative action for useless women's sports no one cares about, like water polo and crew. WNBA players had Title IX to succeed, but are in season nine of extreme failure. Danica Patrick - the rookiette race-car driver who came in fourth at Sunday's Indy 500 - didn't have Title IX. They don't have it in racing. The IRL only has that amazing non-governmental program, called, 'The Free Market.'

"And unlike the WNBA, Patrick competes against the men on their own turf. And is succeeding."

- Columnist Debbie Schlussel

THE MOUTH THAT ROARED

"Well, Republicans, I guess, can (stand in line at the polls waiting to vote) because a lot of them have never made an honest living in their lives. But for ordinary working people, who have to work eight hours a day, they have kids, they got to get home to those kids. The idea of making them stand for eight hours to cast their ballot for democracy is wrong."

- DNC Chairman "Howling" Howard Dean

NO HIDDEN MOTIVE HERE, RIGHT?

"The top leadership of Amnesty International USA, which unleashed a blistering attack last week on the Bush administration's handling of war detainees , contributed the maximum $2,000 to Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign. Federal Election Commission records show that William F. Schulz, executive director of Amnesty USA, contributed $2,000 to Mr. Kerry's campaign last year.... Also, Joe W. 'Chip' Pitts III, board chairman of Amnesty International USA, gave the maximum $2,000 allowed by federal law to John Kerry for President."

- Washington Times, 6/2/05

THANK THE FRENCH?

"At 448 pages, the proposed EU constitution is longer than the telephone directories in most big cities. It is more of a Socialist manifesto than a constitution...

"But the French voted against the EU constitution because it wasn't socialist enough. They feared the free-market ideas prevalent in Eastern Europe could threaten their 35-hour workweeks, six weeks of annual vacation, and heavy subsidies for agriculture and inefficient industries.

"...It isn't often we owe the French a round of applause. They deserve a big hand now, even though they did the right thing for the wrong reasons."

THE TROUBLE WITH DEMOCRACY

"The trouble with democracy, for Europe's elites, is that every now and then the people won't do as they are told.... When the people say what their leaders don't want to hear, it's best to ignore them, Europe's best and brightest think. Countries that vote no (on the EU constitution) will have to hold additional referenda until they deliver the 'right' answer, said Luxembourg's Jean Claude Juncker, who holds the EU's rotating presidency."
- Columnist Jack Kelly

LIBERAL NIRVANA

"Forgive me for making a blunt and obvious point, but events in Western Europe are slowly discrediting large swaths of American liberalism. Most of the policy ideas advocated by American liberals have already been enacted in Europe: generous welfare measures, ample labor protections, highly progressive tax rates, single-payer health care systems, zoning restrictions to limit big retailers, and cradle-to-grave middle-class subsidies supporting everything from child care to pension security. And yet far from thriving, continental Europe has endured a lost decade of relative decline."

- New York Times columnist David Brooks

TURNER-VISION

"Who won the Cold War? By now most people agree that it was largely Ronald Reagan, Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, though some still claim that Mikhail Gorbachev let the good guys win. But CNN founder Ted Turner insists that much of the credit should go to...CNN founder Ted Turner.

"Ted Turner-founded CNN reports: 'Turner, not known for his modesty, credited his own efforts for helping to end the Cold War, and noted that he launched the Goodwill Games in 1986 as a way to ease international tensions through sports competition. 'I thought, between sports and news and television and friendship, that you could end the Cold War and, by God, we did,' he said.'

"CNN adds that Turner 'acknowledged that the size of his role is unclear.' It seems pretty clear to us."

- James Taranto, Best of the Web, 6/2/05

Uncovered: The Whole Truth about the Iraq War
Lieutenant General William E. Odom, U.S. Army (Ret.) – “This is far graver than Vietnam. There wasn't as much at stake strategically, though in both cases we mindlessly went ahead with the war that was not constructive for US aims. But now we're in a region far more volatile, and we're in much worse shape with our allies." How did we get into this mess? Check out the documentary that MoveOn.org helped launch.

"The Western European standard of living is about a third lower than the American standard of living, and it's sliding."

"European output per capita is...about on par with Arkansas."

Hello,

I'm writing to ask you to join me in signing a MoveOn PAC petition demanding real answers from President Bush regarding the "smoking gun" Downing Street Memo.

To help get the truth about why we invaded Iraq, please sign this letter today.

http://www.moveonpac.org/tellthetruth/

The Downing Street memo is called a "smoking gun" because it contains the minutes from a British cabinet meeting in July of 2002, 6 months before the war began. During that meeting high ranking British officials reported that the Bush administration admitted it was already determined to invade Iraq, and was "fixing" intelligence about WMD's to justify the war.

This, of course, contradicts everything President Bush has told us about how he chose war as a last resort, and made that decision because he thought he had solid intelligence about the Iraqi WMD threat.

Bush has refused to even respond to the memo, but after Tony Blair's visit this week the pressure is really building. Representative John Conyers of Michigan is gathering 500,000 signatures and comments from American voters to take directly to President Bush at the White House gates and demand real answers. Please sign today and help get out the truth.

http://www.moveonpac.org/tellthetruth/

Thanks!

Hillary Clinton Book Rushed Into Print;
Vanity Fair Report Due Out

NewsMax has learned that a new book about Hillary Clinton is being rushed into print months ahead of schedule and Vanity Fair magazine will soon publish an excerpt of the work.

Publishing insiders say the book and its revelations could destroy her bid to run for the presidency in 2008.

The tell-all book by Edward Klein, "The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It, and How Far She'll Go to Become President," was originally slated for publication in September.

Editor's Note: NewsMax will be among the first to offer this book - reserve your copy - Go Here Now.

But the publisher, the Sentinel imprint of the Penguin Group, has moved up the publication date to June 21 due to the "intense interest and speculation" generated by several media reports on the book, Sentinel spokesman Will Weisser told NewsMax.com.

Vanity Fair will beat the embargo with a special excerpt due out June 5, a source close to the publisher said.

The Drudge Report sparked interest in the book with an online story quoting a source close to author Klein as saying, "The revelations in it should sink her candidacy."

The online report created a storm of interest in "The Truth About Hillary" on talk radio, the Web, and cable chat shows.

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough claimed, "Its contents are top secret, but the sources say the revelations inside could torpedo Hillary Clinton's chances at a run at the White House."

The Washington Times followed with a report claiming the book will make new, nasty revelations about Hillary.

"Rumors that the book 'won't be pretty' and is brimming with 'new dirt' have circulated in the New York press for the past four months," the Times said.

The book's sensational revelations about Sen. Clinton may be difficult for her spin operation to torpedo.

Klein is no conservative hatchet man. He's the former editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine and author of the "The Kennedy Curse," "Farewell, Jackie" and several other best sellers.

Klein came under fire, however, for "The Kennedy Curse," a book about JFK Jr. That delved into the personal lives of John and his wife, Carolyn, detailing extramarital affairs and drug use.

A source familiar with Klein's book said his Hillary book will similarly offer a rare and provocative glimpse into the personal lives of the Clintons.

Promotional material released by the publisher of the 336-page Hillary Clinton book states: "Just as the Swift Boat Veterans convinced millions of voters that John Kerry lacked the character to be president, Klein's book will influence everyone who is sizing up the character of Hillary Clinton."

The promo discloses that Klein "draws on rare access to inside sources to reveal what Hillary knew and when she knew it during her years as first lady, especially during her husband's impeachment.

"It will also prove that she lied to America in her best-selling autobiography 'Living History.'"

Get your copy of "The Truth About Hillary" - Go Here Now

Check out NewsMax's FREE Offer for this new book - Go Here Now

"Click It supporters say tougher seat belt laws will help make highways even safer, but the nationwide trend toward safer streets has continued with or without them. Take New Hampshire, the only state without an adult seat belt law. Drivers there actually enjoy the nation's fourth-safest roads.

"...[T]he central folly of seat belt laws [is that they] don't protect safe drivers from dangerous drivers; they protect careless people from themselves. Beltlessness does not cause accidents and...one driver's decision to go beltless does not make anyone else less safe. Most importantly, running down seatbelt scofflaws keeps officers away from more important public safety duties."

- Columnist Ted Balaker in Reason Online

"The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling on medical marijuana gives new meaning to the term 'high court.' The decision was as loopy as the crowd at a Grateful Dead show. One does not have to be in favor of legalizing marijuana to lament the decision. Marijuana was not really the issue. States' rights were."

- New Hampshire Union-Leader editorial

"(Republicans are) a pretty monolithic party. They pretty much all behave the same, and they all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party."

- Democrat Party Chairman Howard Dean on Monday

"Yes, you heard that right. Howard Dean is accusing Republicans of being white. We most assuredly are not jiving you: Howard Dean - scion of Park Avenue, former governor of Vermont, a state that is 96.8% people of pallor - is faulting Republicans for being white, even though he himself is whiter than an albino polar bear with dandruff. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black!"

- James Taranto of Best of the Web

"Gregory Despres arrived at the U.S.-Canadian border crossing at Calais, Maine, on April 25 carrying a homemade sword, a hatchet, a knife, brass knuckles and a chain saw stained with what appeared to be blood. U.S. Customs agents confiscated the weapons and fingerprinted Despres. Then they let him into the United States.

"The next day, a gruesome scene was discovered in Despres' hometown of Minto, New Brunswick: The decapitated body of a 74-year-old country musician named Frederick Fulton was found on his kitchen floor. The man's head was in a pillow case under the kitchen table. His common-law wife was found fatally stabbed in a bedroom.

"Despres, 22, immediately became a suspect because of a history of violence against his neighbors. He was arrested April 27 after police in Massachusetts saw him wandering down a highway in a sweatshirt with red and brown stains. He is now in jail in Massachusetts on murder charges, awaiting an extradition hearing next month."

- Associated Press, 6/8/05

Racially, white Americans are more Republican, 34 percent to 29 percent. Blacks are staunchly Democratic, 65 percent to 6 percent and Hispanics are slightly less Democratic, 40 percent to 20 percent. The survey doesn't have statistics for Native Americans and Asian Americans, likely because those groups have relatively small populations numbers, skewing poll results.

You know the story: For years now a relatively small fraction of American households have been garnering an extreme concentration of wealth and income as large economic and financial institutions obtained unprecedented levels of power over daily life. In 1960 the gap in terms of wealth between the top 20 percent and the bottom 20 percent was 30-fold. Four decades later it is more than 75 fold. (See Joshua Holland, AlterNet, posted 4/25/05 ) 
 
Such concentrations of wealth would be far less of an issue if everyone were benefiting proportionally. But that's not the case. Statistics tell the story. Yes, I know—statistics can cause the eyes to glaze over, but as one of my mentors once reminded me, "It is the mark of a truly educated man [or woman] to be deeply moved by statistics."

Let's see if these statistics move you.

While we've witnessed several periods of immense growth in recent decades, the average real income of the bottom 90 percent of American taxpayers - that's a heap of people - fell by 7 percent between 1973 and 2000. (ibid )

During 2004 and the first couple of months this year, wages failed to keep pace with inflation for the first time since the 1990 recession. They were up somewhat in April, but it still means that "working Americans effectively took an across-the-board pay cut at a time when the economy grew by a healthy four percent and corporate profits hit record highs as companies got more productivity out of workers while keeping pay raises down." (ibid )

Believe it or not, the United States now ranks the highest among the highly developed countries in each of the seven measures of inequality tracked by the index. While we enjoy the second highest per capita GDP in the world (excluding tiny Luxembourg), we rank dead last among the 20 most developed countries in fighting poverty and we're off the chart in terms of the number of Americans living on half the median income or less. http://www.tompaine.com/articles/20050606/losing_the_american_revolution.php

    Working families have seen little if any progress over the past 30 years. Adjusted for inflation, the income of the median family doubled between 1947 and 1973. But it rose only 22 percent from 1973 to 2003, and much of that gain was the result of wives' entering the paid labor force or working longer hours, not rising wages.

    Meanwhile, economic security is a thing of the past: year-to-year fluctuations in the incomes of working families are far larger than they were a generation ago. All it takes is a bit of bad luck in employment or health to plunge a family that seems solidly middle-class into poverty.

    But the wealthy have done very well indeed. Since 1973 the average income of the top 1 percent of Americans has doubled, and the income of the top 0.1 percent has tripled.

    Why is this happening? I'll have more to say on that another day, but for now let me just point out that middle-class America didn't emerge by accident. It was created by what has been called the Great Compression of incomes that took place during World War II, and sustained for a generation by social norms that favored equality, strong labor unions and progressive taxation. Since the 1970's, all of those sustaining forces have lost their power.

    Since 1980 in particular, US government policies have consistently favored the wealthy at the expense of working families - and under the current administration, that favoritism has become extreme and relentless. From tax cuts that favor the rich to bankruptcy "reform" that punishes the unlucky, almost every domestic policy seems intended to accelerate our march back to the robber baron era. http://www.nytimes.com/auth/login?URI=http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/10/opinion/10krugman.html&OP=2a749a59/nwmenQ5EWQ3AqQ23WW5Q2BnQ2B..Q3En.7nj.nWGQ20bQ20Wbnj.KQ23ZXEDb|Q515Ek

DOBBS: Are you surprised when you focus on the two deficits we just talked about, the trade deficit, and the budget deficit? The budget deficit is 3.6 percent of our GDP. The trade deficit is reaching just almost 6 percent of GDP. And the president is talking about reforming Social Security. Does that surprise you?
BUFFETT: Well, it's an interesting idea that a deficit of $100 billion a year, something, 20 years out, seems to terrify the administration. But the $400 plus billion dollars deficit currently does nothing but draw yawns. I mean the idea that this terrible specter looms over us 20 years out which is a small fraction of the deficit we happily run now seems kind of interesting to me. There is no question that the Bush Administration is ignoring the most serious economic problems facing America and that they are more interested in ideological driven issues. The most serious fiscal issues are: the General Fund deficit, the current account / trade deficit, and health care. Why are we talking about Social Security?

RAQ: PRIME MINISTER'S MEETING, 23 JULY

Copy addressees and you met the Prime Minister on 23 July to discuss Iraq.
This record is extremely sensitive. No further copies should be made. It should be shown only to those with a genuine need to know its contents.

John Scarlett summarised the intelligence and latest JIC assessment. Saddam's regime was tough and based on extreme fear. The only way to overthrow it was likely to be by massive military action. Saddam was worried and expected an attack, probably by air and land, but he was not convinced that it would be immediate or overwhelming. His regime expected their neighbours to line up with the US. Saddam knew that regular army morale was poor. Real support for Saddam among the public was probably narrowly based.

C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

The share of the nation's income earned by those in this uppermost category has more than doubled since 1980, to 7.4 percent in 2002. The share of income earned by the rest of the top 10 percent rose far less, and the share earned by the bottom 90 percent fell.

The result is.....well, you guessed it, a declining Democratic minority that just can't sell what it's offering and wants to re-invent itself. Why does something need re-inventing? WHEN IT DOESN'T WORK IN THE FIRST PLACE

THE MEAN DEAN SCREAM MACHINE

"Last week's scandal was Deep Throat. This week's scandal is Dean's Throat. And, apparently, Dean likes the taste of his own foot."

- Ron Bonjean, spokesman for House Speaker Denny Hastert (R-IL)

"Leading Democrats tell the American people that they don't agree with the nasty rhetoric after each Dean cheap shot. John Edwards says Howard Dean is just one voice. Unfortunately for Democrats, Howard Dean is the loudest."

- House Majority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)

"Howard Dean reminds me of one of these old soldiers from previous wars you find in a cave somewhere that still hasn't caught up with reality."

- Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS)

"Howard Dean...has the sense of humor you expect to find in Vermont, which is not really a state but a collection of cheese and craft boutiques squeezed between New York and New Hampshire. The winters are so cold in Vermont that summer, which arrives in August and sometimes lasts for nearly a week, never can quite thaw everything and the governor's sense of humor remains locked in ice the year 'round."

- Wes Pruden, Pruden On Politics, 6/10/05

THE DUMKOPF

"According to the Boston Globe, Kerry received four times the number of Ds in his freshman year alone (than Bush received in four years of college) - one each in geology, and political science and two in history classes. If I have read this correctly, Kerry appears to have refused to release his Navy records not because of medical data which might have supported the Swiftboat Veterans claim that some or all of Kerry's injuries were minor, but because they contained an official record of his barely mediocre grades.

"Kerry could have chopped the Swiftboat Veterans advertising and word-of-mouth campaign off at the knees at any point by releasing these records, but he was more concerned that he would lose his standing as the intellectually superior candidate in the race than in responding to the attacks. Senator Kerry is one of those people who is more concerned about how he looks while doing his job, than he is in the job he is doing. A clear majority of American voters understood that."

- Rich Galen, Mullings, 6/9/05

(If I were a Dem I'd be pretty peeved about this)

OINK! OINK!

"There should never be another tax increase in this country unless and until our congress moves to end, completely and permanently, the orgy of pork spending that we witness year after year.

"Pork spending for 2005 reached $27 billion dollars. That's a 19% increase over the previous year. We could smother our bandwidth telling you of some of these pork projects --- but how about $70,000 for the paper industry hall of fame? Is there any excuse in the world for using the police power of government to seize $70,000 from the person who worked for that money... All to spend on the paper industry hall of fame?"

- Talk show host Neal Boortz

THROUGH THE SUPREME COURT LOOKING GLASS

"The commerce clause in Article One of the Constitution could hardly be clearer in limiting federal power to commerce 'among the several states,' not within a state. But in Gonzales v. Raich (medical marijuana), a 6-to-3 majority has stretched 'commerce to mean just what they choose it to mean -- far enough to let the faraway feds, not the close-to-the-people state governments, decide whether their ailing residents should be allowed to grow their own medicine under a doctor's care.

"...(T)he Supreme Court reasserted federal authority in Gonzales v. Raich on Monday, even in the 11 states that now permit marijuana when it is recommended by a doctor. The people in those states have spoken, and the Supreme Court told them to shut up."

- Columnist Clarence Page

"(Federal drug czar John P.) Waters takes the position that it is not medically established that marijuana uniquely grants the touted relief. Nothing is more infuriating to a person who has been relieved of crippling nausea than to be told he has not been relieved."

- Columnist William Buckley Jr.

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MOVIN' OUT TO THE FRINGE

"...MoveOn's events should be viewed by the media the same way events by the John Birch Society or Lyndon LaRouche are: They may be interesting but they are seldom relevant."

- John Fund in Political Diary, 6/10/05

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THE "HIGH" COURT'S LIBERALS

"The Supreme Court's liberal bloc -- Stevens, Ginsburg, Souter and Breyer -- ensured Monday with the support of Justices Kennedy and Scalia that people sick from cancer treatment will have to think first about a house call from the federal drug police before using marijuana to relieve their symptoms.... Liberalism to cancer patients: Drop dead.

"...If the Court's four liberals had ruled in favor of state laws allowing medical marijuana, which federal law forbids, that precedent would have helped conservative efforts to reduce federal clout in other areas, such as environmental authority in the West.... Liberals with cancer should take solace in knowing they will be vomiting to save the snail darter."

- Wall Street Journal columnist Dan Henninger

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ILLEGAL ALIEN MURDERER CHEATS THE CHAIR

"Denver District Attorney Mitch Morrissey has agreed to spare the life of suspected cop killer Raul Gomez-Garcia in return for having him extradited to the United States. Mr. Morrissey charged him late Thursday with second-degree murder and criminal intent to commit murder in the first degree, instead of first-degree murder, in order to ensure that the suspect will stand trial in Denver.

"Mr. Gomez-Garcia, 20, was captured June 4 in Mexico in the Mother's Day slaying of Denver Detective Donald Young and the shooting of Detective John Bishop, who survived. Killing a police officer is considered an aggravating circumstance in Colorado that would carry with it the possibility of the death penalty. But Mexico's tough extradition policies prevent authorities from extraditing Mexican citizens who would face the death penalty or life in prison without parole in the United States.

"...The suspect was initially identified as Raul Garcia-Gomez, but authorities said Thursday that his name was actually Gomez-Garcia. He had been living in Denver for less than a year after entering the country illegally from Mexico."

- Washington Times, 6/11/05

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SLAVERY REPARATIONS

"For a host of reasons, reparations are a terrible idea -- unjust, illogical, and dangerous. Living white Americans bear no culpability for slavery, and living black Americans never suffered from it. It would be unthinkable to make individuals responsible for the wrongdoing of their distant ancestors, or to require them to enrich the great-great-great grandchildren of the victims.

"The overwhelming majority of nonblack Americans have no family connection to slavery in any case -- most of us are descended from the millions of immigrants who came to this country after the Civil War. But reparations advocates aren't interested in abstract arguments about justice and history; they are interested in extracting money from deep-pocketed corporations.

"...America long ago paid the price for slavery: a horrific Civil War that killed 620,000 soldiers, more than half of them from the North. It is as vile to insist that white Americans today owe a debt for slavery as it would be to insist that black Americans owe a debt for freedom. What the reparations extremists are demanding would make a mockery of historical truth and inflame racial strife. Their cynicism is toxic, and corporate America had better find the courage to say so."

- Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby

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DEPENDS ON YOUR DEFINITION OF "FAIR"

"The (Canadian) universal health-care system--while considered one of the fairest in the world--has been plagued by long waiting lists and a lack of doctors, nurses and new equipment. Some patients wait years for surgery, MRI machines are scarce and many Canadians travel to the United States for medical treatment. In most Canadian provinces, it is illegal to seek faster treatment and jump to the head of the line by paying out of pocket for public care. Private health clinics have sprouted up even though they are technically illegal, though the provincial governments tend to look the other way."

- Associated Press

Proof's in the pudding bro - we can both ultimately find some data somewhere to support our respective positions....

While we've witnessed several periods of immense growth in recent decades, the average real income of the bottom 90 percent of American taxpayers - that's a heap of people - fell by 7 percent between 1973 and 2000. (ibid )

During 2004 and the first couple of months this year, wages failed to keep pace with inflation for the first time since the 1990 recession. They were up somewhat in April, but it still means that "working Americans effectively took an across-the-board pay cut at a time when the economy grew by a healthy four percent and corporate profits hit record highs as companies got more productivity out of workers while keeping pay raises down."

America... Just a nation of two hundred million used car salesmen with all the money we need to buy guns and no qualms about killing anybody else in the world who tries to make us uncomfortable.
Hunter S. Thompson

4. Alice L. Walton
Net worth: $18 billion (down)
Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart (WMT, news, msgs)
Personal: Inherited, 55, divorced
Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas
Undergraduate: Trinity University of San Antonio, Bachelor of Arts/Science
Only daughter of Sam Walton (d. 1992), legendary merchant who opened first discount store in Rogers, Ark., in 1962. Took Wal-Mart public 1970; explosive growth. Wal-Mart now world's largest retailer, with more than 5,000 stores. Alice raises horses on Texas ranch, not active in company. Retail giant now selling softer side after barrage of criticism over poor worker benefits, strong-arming suppliers. Family donates via Walton Family Foundation.
4. Helen R. Walton
Net worth: $18 billion (down)
Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart (WMT, news, msgs)
Personal: Inherited, 85, widowed, four children
Hometown: Bentonville, Ark.
Undergraduate: University of Oklahoma, Bachelor of Arts/Science
Widow of Sam Walton (d. 1992), legendary merchant who opened first discount store in Rogers, Ark., in 1962. Took Wal-Mart public 1970; explosive growth. Wal-Mart now world's largest retailer, with more than 5,000 stores. Helen not active in company. Retail giant now selling softer side after barrage of criticism over poor worker benefits, strong-arming suppliers. Family donates via Walton Family Foundation.
4. Jim C. Walton
Net worth: $18 billion (down)
Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart (WMT, news, msgs)
Personal: Inherited, 56, married, four children
Hometown: Bentonville, Ark.
Youngest son of Sam Walton (d. 1992), legendary merchant who opened first discount store in Rogers, Ark., in 1962. Took Wal-Mart public 1970; explosive growth. Wal-Mart now world's largest retailer, with more than 5,000 stores. Though not active in company, Jim is president of Arvest, Arkansas' biggest bank. Retail giant now selling softer side after barrage of criticism over poor worker benefits, strong-arming suppliers. Family donates via Walton Family Foundation.
4. John T. Walton
Net worth: $18 billion (down)
Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart (WMT, news, msgs)
Personal: Inherited, 58, married, one child
Hometown: Bentonville, Ark.
Son of Sam Walton (d. 1992), legendary merchant who opened first discount store in Rogers, Ark., in 1962. Took Wal-Mart public 1970; explosive growth. Wal-Mart now world's largest retailer, with more than 5,000 stores. Serves as a director. Retail giant now selling softer side after barrage of criticism over poor worker benefits, strong-arming suppliers. Family donates via Walton Family Foundation.
4. S. Robson Walton
Net worth: $18 billion (down)
Source: Retailing, Wal-Mart (WMT, news, msgs)
Personal: Inherited, 60, divorced, three children
Hometown: Bentonville, Ark.
Undergraduate: University of Arkansas, Bachelor of Arts/Science
Graduate: Columbia University, Doctor of Jurisprudence
Eldest son of Sam Walton (d. 1992), legendary merchant who opened first discount store in Rogers, Ark., in 1962. Took Wal-Mart public 1970; explosive growth. Wal-Mart now world's largest retailer, with more than 5,000 stores. Serves as Wal-Mart chairman. Retail giant now selling softer side after barrage of criticism over poor worker benefits, strong-arming suppliers. Family donates via Walton Family Foundation.
http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/invest/forbes/P61243.asp

Selling out small business is the american way

Sam Walton (d. 1992), legendary merchant who opened first discount store in Rogers, Ark., in 1962

Memo: U.S. Lacked Full Postwar Iraq Plan
Advisers to Blair Predicted Instability

By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page A01

A briefing paper prepared for British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top advisers eight months before the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq concluded that the U.S. Military was not preparing adequately for what the British memo predicted would be a "protracted and costly" postwar occupation of that country.

The eight-page memo, written in advance of a July 23, 2002, Downing Street meeting on Iraq, provides new insights into how senior British officials saw a Bush administration decision to go to war as inevitable, and realized more clearly than their American counterparts the potential for the post-invasion instability that continues to plague Iraq.

While corporate america and people who've inherited wealth prosper beyond your wildest dreams under republican politics, your schools are rotting from the insides out, and your farmland and natural resources...the very air you breath....it is all being auctioned off or destroyed. Your children inherit a record deficit, your grandparents are being culled from the herd: yet these two partisan hacks want to abstract: suffering and sacrifice is wonderful...so long as its someone else's. And while lower and middle class soldiers are dying over some bullshit hunk of sand, in an illegal war of our chosing, these two "patriots" make cynical remarks about the liberal press, defend christian fascism, and bush totalitarianism. For them, christianity and the free-market are indistinquishible. At their church, CEOs and robber barons have their place in stained glass.

A lot of people seem so interested in what happened and I dont usually have alot of time to tell them..so for everyone who wants to know what happened..here goes..

On friday the...12 I think it was at around 1810 we had set up a VCP (vehicle check point) on the main highway here in iraq. We had just set up and we were trying to get the cars to come up, because whenever we just stop in the middle of the road, the cars stay back about 200 meters or else we shoot them. (by the way we ride around iraq in LAVs, light armored vehicles..they hold 4 of us scouts in the back, im sure you can look up a pic on google) anyways, we were waving our hands trying to get the cars to come when finally a gray opel car comes up..no one following behind..and then it starts to speed up a little. So me and my sargent, he was the first one guiding the cars in the baracades up to the search team and then myself behind him about 20 meters, start waving our hands to slow down..and then he speeds up. So I think somethings weird and then he all of a sudden turns into a direct course with my sargent so I raised my rifle, aiming in on the driver, when he explodes. The first explosion went about 15 meters from me, 5 meters from my sargent. I was blown down on the ground and to the side of the road. I got up and saw my saw gunner, who was behind me about 10 meters on the deck on the side of the road. I quickly ran to him turning him over and found that he was okay. So I ran back up to the road because I knew my sargent had to be hurt pretty bad. I ran back up to the road and all there was, was shrapnel and smoke everywhere. I started runing towards where I last saw my sargent when a second car, a white suburban came through the smoke using it as a smoke screen. The driver quickly saw me and turned right towards me. In all honesty, I stopped for a split second and thought to myself, "goodbye". I then turned around and tried to run away to the side of the road when he exploded right as I turned. I was blown back about 10 meters on to the side of the road, where it is a hill. I hit the deck and rolled down the rest of the hill when I got back up and again saw my saw gunner, and this time I knew he was hit. I quickly did what assesment I could and treated him, calling for the rest of my marines to come help. I then told my saw gunner that he was not serious and I needed to get back up to the road, for fear that my sargent was hurt even worse now. I ran back up to the road and looked around but I didnt see him. I thought he had been blow to pieces. I then saw him in the median of the road on his belly. I ran towards him and saw that he had a big chunk missing from his left buttcheek. I quickly treated him and did what I could until my marines came to help. I then started running back and forth treating my marines when some of them kept chasing me around trying to stop me because they said I was bleeding too. I did not stop until one of them, one of my combat lifesaver marines that I trained, pinned me to the ground and cuz my leg pant to expose the wounds I had on my leg. I did not want to feel it so I said im okay and tried to get back to my marines, but he and the rest of the marines wouldnt let me. The rest of my marines took care of what they could, calling in the medivac helo and making an LZ. Luckily another platoon arrived on scene, brining another corpsman to help my marines. We were all medivaced out on helo to our base and then to the air force theater hospital in balad, iraq. I sustained shrapnel injury to the side of my left knee, but none in my joint or bones. My saw gunner had a piece of shrapnel go through his thigh, just above the greater trocanter. And my sargent suffered the worse. A very big piece of shrapnel in the butt, along with one next to his lower spine, broken bones in his right foot, and a lot of pain. He was flown to germany on saturday night and I have no further word on his condition.