PRESIDENTS’ DAY…Here’s more underhanded propaganda for you:

A New Target for Advisers to Swift Vets

February 21, 2005 from the New York Times

WASHINGTON, Feb. 20 – Taking its cues from the success of last year’s Swift boat veterans’ campaign in the presidential race, a conservative lobbying organization has hired some of the same consultants to orchestrate attacks on one of President Bush’s toughest opponents in the battle to overhaul Social Security.

The lobbying group, USA Next, which has poured millions of dollars into Republican policy battles, now says it plans to spend as much as $10 million on commercials and other tactics assailing AARP, the powerhouse lobby opposing the private investment accounts at the center of Mr. Bush’s plan.

“They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts,” said Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next and former deputy under secretary of the interior in the Reagan and first Bush administrations. “We will be the dynamite that removes them.”

Though it is not clear how much money USA Next has in hand for the campaign – Mr. Jarvis will not say, and the group, which claims 1.5 million members, does not have to disclose its donors – officials say that the group’s annual budget was more than $28 million last year. The group, a membership organization with no age requirements for joining, has also spent millions in recent years vigorously supporting Bush proposals on tax cuts, energy and the Medicare prescription drug plan.

So far, the groups dueling over Social Security have been relatively tame, but the plans by USA Next foreshadow what could be a steep escalation in the war to sway public opinion and members of Congress in the days ahead.

If you want to read the whole article, go to
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/politics/21social.html?hp&ex=1109048400&en=31aa371bb47479ad&ei=5094&partner=homepage

This kind of stuff worked to defeat health care reform in this country. Let’s see if it works this time. I think they’ve got a much tougher battle now, because it seems like the majority seems to be against Social Security privatization. But I never underestimate the power of bullshit bombardment.

By the way, current numbers for the war:

American soldiers dead: 1477
American soldiers wounded: 10,968 (official count, though estimates including non-combat injuries and illnesses total 12,000 )
Civilian Dead: 16,0000-18,0000

Have you seen anything about that in YOUR local paper?

MOVIE LINE OF THE DAY:
(Apocalypse Now)

Kurtz: You’re nothing but an errand boy sent by grocery clerks to collect the bill.