Jan. 13, 2005 - 21:14 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

New Dictionary

Who can be trusted anymore to come out with the actual, unblemished, unvarnished news ? I wonder if there is anyone left that can and will do it. Seems as if some of the folks I used to consider as being on the Rabid Republican Right are also trying to tell us something. And as well Molly Ivins and some of the other people who are classified as "Them Stinkin' Give Away Liberals," as if liberal is an obscene four letter word, are desperately trying to out the truth.

George Will's column in the The Washington Post printed in today's Rocky Mountain News seems to bring out some facts that should bring about correction, not just face lifting but a complete change-about. In Full:

Government's Hard Sell

"In communist East Berlin, one sign of the government's swollen self-regard was the cluttering of public spaces with propaganda banners by which the government praised itself for providing socialism. In Washington today, the Department of Education buiding is an advertisement, for its occupants. Eight entrances are framed by make-believe little red schoolhouses labeled "No Child Left Behind." High on the building's front are two other advertisements for that 2002 law: large banners hector passersby to visit the Website NoChildLeftBehind.gov."

This building-as-billboard is the workplace of those eager beavers who had this brainstorm: Let's pay a million taxpayer dollars to a public relations firm to manufacture enthusiasm for No Child Left Behind, including a $241,000 payment to columnist and television talk-show host Armstrong Williams for his praise of the legislation. The eager beavers are long on energy but short on judgment."

"Just 10 years ago Washington trembled because many Republicans who had won in the cymbal-crash elections of 1994 had vowed to abolish the Education Department. Education they said, "Is a quintessentially state and local responsibility. But soon Republicans in Congress and a Republican president were deepening Washington's reach into education. In 1996 Republican appropriators gave the department a 15.7 percent increase in discretionary spending. And No Child Left Behind increased federal education spending more than any increase requested by President Clinton, who was the teacher's unions' poodle." "Some of that money went to Williams."

"When conservatives break with their principles, they seem to become casual about breaking the law too. Last year the General Accounting Office accused the Department of Health and Human Services of illegal spending when it distributed fake "news" videos which were used by 40 local stations around the country. In them the many benefits of the new Medicare prescription drug entitlement were "reported" by a fake reporter whose actual status -- an employee of an HHS subcontractor -- was not revealed. The English language version of these "video news releases" concluded, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting." This scofflaw enterprise was an appropriate coda to the lawless making of this law. Republican leaders traduced House procedures by holding open the vote for three hours, giving them time to pressure sensibly reluctant legislators."

"And the Justice Department says the Bush administration broke no law when the Medicare program's chief actuary was told he would be fired if he gave Congress his estimate that the program's 10-year cost would be a third more than the $400 billion the administration claimed."

"The GAO has frequently had occasion to insist that taxpapyers' money cannot be used when the "the obvious purpose is 'self aggrandizement' or 'puffery'" Last week it had another occasion, chastising the Office of National Drug Control Policy for also disseminating fake news videos."

"It is difficult to calculate how many billions of dollars the government spends on indefensible, if not illegal, self-promotion. Democrats, too, have violated the spirit, and perhaps the letter, of various laws that contain language such as "no part of any appropriation contained in this Act shall be used for publicity or propaganda purposes not authorized by the Congress" and appropriated funds may not be used "in a general propaganda effort designed to aid a political paty or candidates." But conservatives should be less agressive than Democrats in using taxpayers' money to try to mold taxpayers' minds."

"It is impossible to draw, with statutory language, a bright line between legitimate informing and illegitimate propagandizing by government. What is indispensable is common sense, and that is atrophying as this lawyer-ridden nation sinks deeper into the delusion that sensible behavior can be comprehensively codified."

Obviously government leaders must try to lead by persuading the public. But government by the consent of the governed should not mean government by consent produced by government propaganda.Unfortunately, as government's pretensions grow, so does its sense that its glorious ends justify even the tackiest means."

"Eight decades ago, in a Washington not progressive enough to think that it could or should superintend primary and secondary education, the president set a tone that today's government -- a leviathan with Attention Deficit Disorder -- could usefully emulate. "Mr. Coolidge's genius for inactivity," wrote columnist Walter Lippmann, "is developoed to a very high point. It is far from being indolent inactivity. It is a grim, determined, alert inactivity." After the debacles of hired and faked journalists, we need a contagion of Coolidgeism, begining in the Education Depatment, if it is educable.

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My opinions are that Mr. Will lays it on the line I think. Which indicates to me how far our present "upper echelon" disregards common sense, law and the needs of the people. Trying to sell us a version of The Brooklyn Bridge that has been built on clouds in the sky.

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Then today Paul Krugman of the New York Times has a few things to say.

Bush At Helm And Building Speed For The Iceberg Ahead

In Part:

"Last week someone leaked a memo written by Peter Wehner, an aide to Karl Rove, about how to sell Social Security privatization. The public, says Wehner, must be convinced the current system is heading for an "iceberg." "Its the standard Bush aministration tactic: invent a fake crisis to bully people into doing what you want. One thing I haven't seen pointed out, however, is the extent to which the White House expects the public and the media to believe two contradictory things."

"The administration expects us to believe that drastic change is needed, and needed right away because of the looming cost of paying for the baby boomer's retirement."

"The administration expects us not to notice, however, that the supposed solution would do nothing to reduce that cost. Even on the most favorable assumptions, the benefits of privatization wouldn't kick in until most of the baby boomers were long gone. For the next 45 years, privatization would cost much more money than it saved."

"Advocates of privatization almost always pretend that all we have to do is borrow a bit of money up front, and then the system will become self-sustaining. The Wehner memo talks of borrowing $1 trillion to $2 trillion to "to cover transition costs." Similar numbers have been widely reported in the news media. But that's just the borrowing over the next decade. Privitization would cost an additional $3 trillion in its second decade, $5 trillion in its third decade and another $5 trillion in its fourth decade. By the time privatization started to save money, if ever, the federal government would have run up around $15 trillion in extra debt."

"These numbers are based on a Congressional Budget Office analysis of Plan 2, which was devised by a special presidential commission in 2001 and is widely expected to be the basis for President Bush's plan."

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One last quote from Mr. Krugman, ""Even in the unlikely case, privatization woudn't even begin to reduce the budget deficit until 2050, This is supposed to be the answer to an imminent crisis ?"

My opinions on all this are that we are being lied to from all sides. A preemptive war in Iraq, the basis for which was the supposed stash of weapons of mass destruction by Saddam, and when it became apparent they didn't exist, the cover up was, "He hid 'em." "Well, he was a bad guy anyhow and we suspect that he would have hurt us somehow, sometime.

Then the tax cuts for the biggies, what true justification can that have ?

My big question of the night, how can privatization be of any benefit to the average person without making huge bundles of cash for the stockbrokers and their ilk ? How could this illegitimate child give any control to what a future social security recipient can invest, in what ? What backup plan other than another raise in taxes to Joe Q. Public exists ? Manditory charitable donations ?

Possibly to try to define what the heck is happening to our country, we need one heck of a big New Dictionary . . . . . . . . .

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