Primary the bastards

Social Security uses the CPI-W (Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers) to determine the cost of living increases.  While this is applicable to the population at large, it understates the fact that the older you are, the more you consume medical services.  As the fastest growing portion of that cost of living, this tends to understate the actual increase that retirees face in their cost of living.

This of course leads to the common problem among those social security recipients with the least supplemental income.  That is the question, do I buy food, medicine, or heat this month?  Which of these can I do without?

Now comes a proposal to use a different index for social security index,  the 'chained-cpi'.  This tends to understate the actual increase in costs even more.  It does not kill social security, it just makes it slowly wither away until it becomes so insignificant that nobody will object when it finally dies.

But the big lie is that this has anything at all to do with deficit reduction.  Social Security has not caused one penny of our current deficit.  And at the current rate of growth, it will be 20 years before it does become an issue.  And that 20 years could become 'the foreseeable future' if they would only eliminate the cap on wages subject to Social Security.

Now you would expect that the right would lie to you about why social security should be squeezed out of existence.  But when the same people who swore to defend it start talking this way, then there is only one alternative.  Primary them.

Every representative who calls themselves a Democrat that votes in favor of this lie should face a primary challenge from the left when they next come up for election.  And every Democratic voter should let their representative know that is the price they will pay for betrayal.

Every one of them campaigned on "Social Security is off the table".  Now the president has crumpled like a cheap suit, and many in the party are starting to waffle on their commitment.  Either they were lying to us all along, or they really are that stupid.  But if only I could get Obama into a poker game then I'd be set, and wouldn't need the Social Security.

Politicians of all stripes rely on your short memory.  Don't let this one slip by.  If they will screw you this way, there are no limits to what they will do to you.

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News Flash! Muslim, marxist president!

There is a story circulated about Lyndon Johnson.  I don't know if it is true or not, but it makes for a good illustration.  Johnson was in a congressional race, and he told his campaign manager to leak a story to the press that his opponent was a homosexual, or made it a habit of having sex with farm animals (I have seen both versions of the story). 

His campaign manager was shocked.  'We can't say that, Lyndon,' he said. 'It's not true.'

Johnson replied 'Of course it's not, but let's make the bastard deny it.'

Anyway, the current round of rumors makes me think of that.

I always thought that Marxism is essentially anti-religious.  Now be it far from me to let a little thing like truth spoil a good rumor, but I think we can leave that Marxist part out for now.  But it is the denying part that I wonder about.

Lets invent a few rumors, just for the sake of discussion.

Sarah Palin is a closet lesbian.  She has known about this since she was a teenager, but made the decision to try and blend in because she feared being ostracized by her family and friends.

Newt Gingrich is a pagan.  Despite courting the religious right, he has been a pagan since his college days, and still meets at solstice to dance naked in a circle with a group of trusted friends.

George Bush is actually half black.  Even his brother Jeb does not know he is the progeny of an affair that his father had with a household servant.  When the baby was born with white features, George W and his wife came to an accommodation with the servant, and the baby was raised by the two of them.  George knew his mother as a family friend until his 21st birthday, when his father revealed the truth to him.

OK, these are all interesting rumors.  They would all stir up a huge amount of press.  But this is the important point.  Whether they were true or not, it doesn't matter, and the act of denying them, attaches more importance to them than they deserve.

So what if Sarah Palin was gay?  Well sure, there are elements in our society that would have a problem with that, but that would be their problem, not based on any fact.  Sarah will still be a shrill, brainless politician lacking the courage and will to do the job the Alaskan people elected her to do.  Being gay would change nothing related to her abilities,qualifications, or suitability to hold higher office.

Newt Gingrich a pagan?  Well, he has already demonstrated he is a hypocrite, preaching family values while serving his wife divorce papers as she was in the hospital with cancer.  So pretending to be a Christian to pander to the Christian right is no different.  It doesn't mean anything, it neither qualifies nor disqualifies him for anything.

George Bush half black?  What would that have to do with anything at all?  Would anybody even care?

Now I don't think that Obama is a Muslim.  But why should being a Muslim be an issue?

Oh, and the first major terrorist attack on American soil, wasn't that the Oklahoma City bombing?  Wasn't the bomber a Christian?  Should I be concerned if Obama is a Christian?  After all they blew up a building with a day care center in it!

It is the fact that anybody cares one way or another, that is what bother me.

What would you say?

OK, I copied this from the website for the Ed Shultz show.  I heard this when I was listening to the radio on my way to play some softball, and I found the idea intriguing.

You're downtown, in a major hotel. You step into the elevator at the lobby level. You press 7. The elevator stops at 2. The doors open. In step four tall men. Black suits. Crew Cuts. Earpieces. And behind them, The President of the United States. He's moving from a holding area on the 2nd floor, to his speech in the ballroom on the 10th floor. You're getting out on the 7th floor. The president smiles and reaches out to shake your hand.
And the question posed was this.  You got at most two minutes where you have the undivided attention of the President of the United States.  What do you ask him or tell him?

So I thought about for a while.  What would I say?  There is so much to say and two minutes are such a small amount of time.  So I settled on this.

Mr. President, when you took office, we were in deep shit.  The economy had been driven to ruin with a completely unnecessary war and massive deregulation, compounded by ignoring many of those regulations that remained.  It was a process begun by Ronald Reagan and continued by each successive administration.  The American people needed someone to kick ass and take names.  Instead they got a health care bill written to benefit the insurance companies instead of the people who elected you.  You backtracked on Guantanamo and the Patriot Act.  You have not reinstated the Glass-Steagall Act, and the loan modification program has been a dismal failure.  We needed FDR and you gave us Jimmy Carter.   Mr. President, if you intend to implement any meaningful change, you are running out of time.

So, there you have it, my elevator speech.