The GOP will

CUT Social Security

and

RUN up the deficit.

It should be repeated as often as possible.

Were these remarks made after the Supreme Court ruling against Guantanamo? If so, I'd suggest that this is a ploy to distract pundits when the government is on the back foot.

We see this all the time here in Australia under the Howard government. Whenever the government here is embarassed in some way, in no time at all some controversy in a different area will be manufactured to let the original issue die down. Howard is incredibly adept at these kinds of stunts, and it stands to reason that his friends in the Whitehouse might borrow a few plays from his book.

Hey Joe, I guess the Democrats missed this speech or perhaps endorse it. Hard to tell. Do you think they read Salon? I s'pose you are friends with DAOU (as in the Daou Report) but are you as demoralized as most of us who carre about the future that he sold out to H. Clinton? Do you guys know how reviled she is? I am not talking a Kerrylike frustration ...she will keep people, dems and independents alike from the polls. You guys neee new blood from outside the beltway or outside the hallways of the powers that be. Anyway, I love your succint and cut to the quick comments. Thanks. Sheila Burke, Eagle River, Alaska

Glanced over the NYT headlines and, naturally, saw no mention of Bush's social security remarks. Unless the MSM picks this up, Democrats will continue to flounder.

Sheila, thanks for mentioning Hillary. I couldn't agree with you more! The Beltway and MSM are totally out of touch on this. Hillary is loathed by the Right, and despised by the Left. In essence, she is the Republican's best hope to retain the White House.

And Putin wasn't paid enough at the Crawford Ranch.

Let's get the GULAG from Huntsville to GITMO where we have our very own SS.

DEMOCRACY NOW Go Team Go.

DAMN, did we catch that Flu, or was it the Anthrax or merely Fear Factor bound up with Duct Tape and Plastic?

Still in the USA Ma!

Are the democrats even aware of this speech by Bush? Why aren't they seizing this opportunity to slay the Repugnent Republicans? I think we ought to keep talking about this until we get some traction from those complacent twits.

So here we are four months out. On Iraq and Social Security the Democtrats have the majority of people behind them. Even the troops support the Democratic position on Iraq. The Republicans are in knots over immigration and their president is a severely damaged item. Inspite of the incessant whine from the right wing noise machine, there is even a glimmer of hope that the Democrats have grown a backbone. Jim Webb and Jack Murtha led the troops on beautiful counter-attacks that have stopped crass Republican efforts to paint Democrats as being disloyal or weak. The winds of change are blowing, but the question remains: can the Democrats run a successful election campaign? It's depressing that no Democrat made any noise about Bush's comments on Social Security plan this week. This should be at the center of Democratic efforts. "GOP Hands off Social Security." Obvioulsy, the GOP is going to play the xenophobia card hard in this election. If the Democrats can't throw an issue or two at the people that has the same emotional appeal or shows that they deserve to be an effective and responsible opposition party, they are going to lose, again.

I couldn't help but notice that absent republican party talking points and directives, this article and the people quoted in it call a spade a spade. The alternative that Bush proposes is a PRIVATE account. In the wake of Enron, FEMA, and the clear inabiity of the gov'ment to effectively regulate any private indudustry (See the EPA and Christine Todd Whitman), the Republican machine aided by the MSM excised all refrences to private acounts from the lexicon in favor of "personal accounts." As Bush brings this portion of the aenda back to the forefront, it will be interesting to see how quickly this issue is re-framed.

Why don't the Dems ever DO anything? How can so many be SO pusillaminous.Could it be that they don't WANT to do/say anything? Kerry didn't try very hard to defend himself after the Swift Boat ads. The only thing that makes me believe that we have a two party system, is that there seems to be discord in D.C.. And I question that. The bastards in Washington have us by the short hairs; the next boondoggle after the Personal Accounts,will be the Missle Defense System, aka, during the Reagan administration, Star Wars. Forget billions, Haliburton or subsidiary will make trillions.

The right wing has been out to get rid of every trace of the New Deal, including Social Security, since Roosevelt and the Democratic Congress pulled the nation out of the crippling depression brought about directly by Republican endorsed and sponsored business practices. They refuse to look at the facts that these programs, along with other such "parasitic" (their words) programs as the FHA, the GI Bill, student aid and guarantees for student loans, have built up a strong middle class. This has been the engine of growth for America. If the ineffective "leader"in the Oval Office wants to try again to bring down Social Security and put OUR money into the hands of his Wall Street friends, just as a way of proving that he can do something (anything) that his father couldn't, all I can say is: "Mister Bush... BRING IT ON!" He will fail in yet another endeavor, and will leave office with his enormous Oedipus Complex still unresolved.

Why is Social Security called an "entitlement" or "parasitic" program. As long as I have worked I have PAID taxes into the Social Security and Medicare program along with my state pension plan. That's a big chunk of my paycheck. Privitized accounts cannot possibly earn the

investment interests of the combined contributions. This is another effort by the politicians to cheat the American citizen.