The fight to privatize Social Security

[ndebord]

This from U.S. News & World Report

Social Security 2.0: Coming in 2007?

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/biztech/articles/061024/24social.htm


"In a television interview last weekend, President Bush said Social Security reform was "still alive" and again declared that it would be one of his top goals when the next Congress convenes."

[Judy G. Russell]

"In a television interview last weekend, President Bush said Social Security reform was "still alive" and again declared that it would be one of his top goals when the next Congress convenes."The man is simply out of his mind. What part of "no" doesn't he understand???

[Lindsey]

The man is simply out of his mind. What part of "no" doesn't he understand???
This is the strategy these guys pursue. They keep pushing the same things over and over and over and over again until they find a chink and finally manage to slip it in, no matter what kinds of underhanded tactics they have to resort to in order to accomplish that.

You would think, though, that an issue that brought any momentum he had coming out of the 2004 election to a complete halt would give them pause before they tried pushing it again.

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

You would think, though, that an issue that brought any momentum he had coming out of the 2004 election to a complete halt would give them pause before they tried pushing it again.Let's hope the election results end up giving them pause indeed. (My sister Kacy and I both have gotten our absentee ballots in case they're needed with her schedule.)

[Lindsey]

(My sister Kacy and I both have gotten our absentee ballots in case they're needed with her schedule.)
Good idea indeed! Close Senate races in both states, and every vote is critical. I wish I could file an absentee ballot myself, just to reassure myself that it won't meet with some computer glitch with no paper trail to check against! But Virginia doesn't allow that without some clear necessity for it. :(

Oh, speaking of computerized voting machine glitches (except that this was more of a human glitch):

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/10/24/111047/27

--Lindsey

[Jeff]

Good idea indeed! Close Senate races in both states, and every vote is critical. I wish I could file an absentee ballot myself, just to reassure myself that it won't meet with some computer glitch with no paper trail to check against! But Virginia doesn't allow that without some clear necessity for it. :( --Lindsey

The County Clerk here, while publicly and in the paper was assuring people that the new voting machines are "safe", also and in the same article strongly recommended voting absentee. No reason for the requested ballot necessary.

- Jeff

[Lindsey]

No reason for the requested ballot necessary.
I wish it worked that way in Virginia. I think eventually they are going to have to change it to allow people to elect to vote via absentee ballot. It's not like 200 years ago, when people often never ventured more than 10 miles away from where they were born during their entire lives. These days, it's not unusual for people to spend hours just commuting back and forth to and from work every day (especially in Northern Virginia), and it's a real hardship to try to get to the polls on a work day, especially if the turnout is heavy and the lines are an hour or more long.

--Lindsey

[Lindsey]

"In a television interview last weekend, President Bush said Social Security reform was "still alive" and again declared that it would be one of his top goals when the next Congress convenes."
By the way, Nick, Josh Marshall, who hopped on the issue as soon as it was brought up in December of 2004, continues to follow the "Social Security phase-out" proposals pretty closely. See, for example, this post (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010605.php) on the mother ship, and this post (http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/oct/27/il_06_roskam_top_flight_social_security_bamboozler _distorts_duckworts_s_s_position) by one of the bloggers in TPM Cafe's "Election Central."

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

Oh, speaking of computerized voting machine glitches (except that this was more of a human glitch)Oh for cryin' out loud... That's damned ridiculous!

[Lindsey]

Oh for cryin' out loud... That's damned ridiculous!
Yeah, I think that's the general consensus in the blogosphere, too.

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

I hope the Webb people do a great job with the signs around those counties... This could be turned into quite a campaign ploy for him.

[Lindsey]

I hope the Webb people do a great job with the signs around those counties... This could be turned into quite a campaign ploy for him.
Meanwhile, the Allen camp is proclaiming itself shocked, shocked, by the sex scenes in Webb's novels, never mind that John McCain (among others) heartily endorsed them at the time they were published.

And then Allen has the gall to run adds scoring Webb for making personal attacks.

I never liked George Allen. Now I positively despise him.

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

And then Allen has the gall to run adds scoring Webb for making personal attacks. I never liked George Allen. Now I positively despise him.Let's hope Virginia's electorate sees through this...

[Lindsey]

Let's hope Virginia's electorate sees through this...
I'd like to think so, but I know altogether too many people like my parents that just take it as a matter of faith that anything a Republican says is the absolute truth, and anything a Democrat says is a lie. And that the facts don't bear that out has no impact on them whatsoever. If the facts don't support what they believe, then the facts must be wrong.

--Lindsey

[Judy G. Russell]

I'd like to think so, but I know altogether too many people like my parents that just take it as a matter of faith that anything a Republican says is the absolute truth, and anything a Democrat says is a lie. And that the facts don't bear that out has no impact on them whatsoever. If the facts don't support what they believe, then the facts must be wrong.I hear you, but remember last year's Governor's race...

[Lindsey]

I hear you, but remember last year's Governor's race...
I guess I wasn't as suprised by that as people from outside the state seem to have been. Fact is, the Republican candidate wasn't all that strong, and he made some mistakes in the course of the campaign. The chief thing that surprised me was that Russ Potts, the independent candidate, turned out not to be a factor; Kaine won with a majority of the votes, not just a plurality.

The dynamics of this race are quite different. Allen, doofus though I think he is, is nevertheless a popular politician in Virginia; there's no third party challenge to draw votes away from the Republican candidate; and Webb is not the charismatic campaigner that Kaine is, though I will say I think he has improved since the start of this campaign season. He made a terrific appearance at a recent GOTV rally answering Allen's criticism of his writings. (Video here (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010648.php) -- his answer to Allen's attacks starts at some point before 4:44.)

(Oooooh! Here's (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010677.php) an encouraging post. Maybe I really am being overly pessimistic. But I don't count the Republicans out until they are down by double digits.)

--Lindsey

Ha! Freudian slip, I guess--I just proof-read my message; I had left the "l" out of "Republican" in the last sentence...)

[Judy G. Russell]

I don't count the Republicans out until they are down by double digits.)Too true...

[ndebord]

By the way, Nick, Josh Marshall, who hopped on the issue as soon as it was brought up in December of 2004, continues to follow the "Social Security phase-out" proposals pretty closely. See, for example, this post (http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/010605.php) on the mother ship, and this post (http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/oct/27/il_06_roskam_top_flight_social_security_bamboozler _distorts_duckworts_s_s_position) by one of the bloggers in TPM Cafe's "Election Central."

--Lindsey



Thanks. Hadn't seen that. I just got done reinstalling W98se once again, as W2000 hit a rootkit (I think, being a rank newbie there, I'm not sure what happened, but did have great help on trying to resolve several issues, but ended up with a NT kernel error and a non-bootable OS. Am happy to be back where I know what is going on. <sigh>

Latham over at Harper's, calls this administration a regime and considers it the first attempt at proto-fascism, or some such moniker.

[Lindsey]

Latham over at Harper's, calls this administration a regime and considers it the first attempt at proto-fascism, or some such moniker.
LOL!! Why does that not surprise me? Louis Latham has made no secret of his total contempt for the Bush administration from Day One (maybe even Day Minus Thirty).

I tend to agree with Latham, incidently, even if sometimes he expresses himself with a little more astringency than I am entirely comfortable with.

--Lindsey

[ndebord]

LOL!! Why does that not surprise me? Louis Latham has made no secret of his total contempt for the Bush administration from Day One (maybe even Day Minus Thirty).

I tend to agree with Latham, incidently, even if sometimes he expresses himself with a little more astringency than I am entirely comfortable with.

--Lindsey

Lindsey,

Astringent! That's as good a description of the man as one could wish for!

<wry grin>

[Lindsey]

Astringent! That's as good a description of the man as one could wish for!
One thing for sure: he knows how to make words sting!

--Lindsey