Social Security plan backed in new poll
Mood:  party time!
Topic: News

Social Security plan backed in new poll

Most likely voters continue to support President Bush's proposal to let younger workers invest some of their Social Security payroll taxes through personal accounts, a new survey finds.

The poll by independent pollster John Zogby for the Cato Institute, which is being released today, found that when voters understood the benefits of personal investment accounts, including a better financial rate of return than the current system, the Bush plan was supported by 52 percent of Americans and opposed by 40 percent.

"The thing that is compelling in this poll is that this is the response you get when you use a positive approach on Social Security reform," Mr. Zogby said. "If you use the 'Chicken Little, sky-is-falling' approach, then voters understand that something has to be done, but don't see the connection between personal accounts and fundamental reform of Social Security."

"There are a large number of voters, especially those under 50, who don't think they are getting the best possible deal from Social Security," he said.

As in past surveys on the president's personal-accounts proposal, strongest support comes from younger voters under age 30, who embrace the idea by a margin of 66 percent to 23 percent.

Support declines somewhat among voters between 30 and 50, with 58 percent in favor versus 37 percent who oppose it.

Voters over 65 oppose personal accounts 52 percent to 40 percent and those over 70 oppose them by 55 percent to 38 percent.

The survey also contained a warning for the Democrats about how their opposition to any reform of the Social Security system is playing with the electorate.

"By an overwhelming 70-22 percent margin, voters believe that opponents of President Bush's proposals for Social Security reform have an obligation to put out their own plan for reforming the program," including 55 percent of Democratic voters, Mr. Zogby said in a report of his findings.

Among supporters, the most popular reason for supporting private accounts was, "It's my money; I should control it," Mr. Zogby said. "This was true for every group except African-Americans, who chose inheritability as their biggest reason for supporting accounts."

The poll's results suggested that Mr. Bush's proposal would be much more popular if he focused "on the points in this poll," Mr. Zogby said in an interview.

"Nobody can understand or relate to the system's insolvency in 2043. But it wins a majority when the issue is raised as a matter of choice and as a positive opportunity," he said. "If it's pitted as just Social Security reform because it is becoming insolvent, that's not enough."

Among the poll's other findings:

♠ Support was strongest (57 percent to 36 percent) in the "red states" that Mr. Bush carried in his 2004 re-election. Support split more evenly (48 percent to 44 percent) in the Democratic "blue states" that Sen. John Kerry won.

♠ Voters by 62 percent to 30 percent remained deeply skeptical about Social Security's promise to pay future benefits. Skepticism was highest among younger voters, with more than 70 percent saying they doubted that the system would be able to pay their benefits when they reached retirement age.

The poll of 1,006 likely voters was conducted May 23-25 and has a margin of error of 3.2 percentage points.

Washington Times ~ Donald Lambro ** Social Security plan backed in new poll

Bush's Fault: Consumer Confidence Rebounds
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: News

Chart shows consumer confidence for the past 12 months. >>>>>

Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Rebounds

NEW YORK - Consumer confidence unexpectedly rebounded in May after declining in April, as worries about the economy and jobs eased, a private research group said Tuesday. But another closely watched report that tracks Midwestern manufacturing activity dropped in May, spooking Wall Street.

The Conference Board said that its Consumer Confidence Index rose to 102.2 from a revised 97.5 in April. The reading was much better than the 96 that analysts had expected, which would have been a decline from the original April reading of 97.7.

The consumer confidence index is now at the highest level since it reached 103 in March.

"Consumer confidence improved in May, gaining back nearly all of the ground it lost in April," said Lynn Franco, director of The Conference Board's Consumer Research Center, in a statement.

Economists closely track consumer confidence because consumer spending accounts for two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity.

Still, stocks fell Tuesday as the disappointing reading of economic activity in the Midwest appeared to outweigh rebounding consumer confidence.

The Purchasing Management Association of Chicago announced that its index of business activity in that area dropped to 54.1 in May from 65.6 in April and 69.2 in March. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in manufacturing, while a figure below 50 means contraction.

The Chicago indicator is considered a precursor of the national assessment to be released by the Institute of Supply Management on Wednesday.

Mark Vitner, senior economist at Wachovia Corp. in Charlotte, N.C., said that the upbeat report on consumer confidence didn't "mark any sea change," and he was more concerned about the Midwestern manufacturing report.

He noted that while the decline brought in line what he has been seeing with the other regional economic surveys, the drop, nevertheless, was still "pretty startling."

"It's not a good idea to get excited about any one number, but this is an eye-opening report," he said.

Vitner said that he expects the sharp decline will show up in the national report issued by the Institute of Supply Management in June, since the indicator lags by about a month. In any case, if the figure falls below 50, he expects that would cause the Federal Reserve to hold off raising the federal funds rate.

As for consumer confidence, Vitner added, "Consumers are still taking a fairly cautious view on the economy's near-term economic prospects, but they are feeling a little better now that gasoline prices can come down."

Vitner noted that higher gasoline prices give consumers "a general sense of unease" because they tend to be associated with "tough economic times."

The big worry still is a volatile job market, which is improving but still lagging, he said.

Employers stepped up hiring in April, adding a better-than-expected 274,000 jobs, as the nation's jobless rate held steady at 5.2 percent. The Labor Department is expected to release job figures for May this Friday. Analysts are expecting an increase of 180,000 jobs and an unemployment rate of 5.2 percent.

One component of the consumer confidence report, the Expectations Index that measures consumers' outlook over the next six months, improved to 92.5 from 86.7. The Present Situation Index, which is more than 26 points higher than a year ago, increased to 116.7 from 113.8.

The Conference Board's gauges are derived from responses received through May 23 to a survey mailed to 5,000 households in a consumer research panel. The figures released Tuesday include responses from at least 2,500 households.

Consumers' assessment of current conditions was more upbeat in May than in April. Those saying that business conditions are "bad" edged down to 16.8 percent from 17.6 percent. Those claiming conditions are "good" was virtually unchanged at 26.5 percent.

The employment picture was mixed. Consumers saying jobs are "hard to get" increased to 24.2 percent from 22.9 percent, but those claiming jobs are "plentiful" rose to 22.6 percent from 20.4 percent.

Consumers' expectations for the next six months, which had been losing ground since January, reversed course in May. Those anticipating business conditions to improve increased to 18.6 percent from 17.7 percent, while consumers anticipating business conditions to worsen slid to 9.5 percent from 9.9 percent.

The outlook for the labor market was also more positive in May. Those expecting more jobs to be available in the coming months rose to 14.9 percent from 14.0 percent, while those anticipating fewer jobs fell to 15.9 percent from 18.4 percent. The proportion of consumers expecting incomes to improve in the months ahead rose to 17.2 percent from 16.8 percent.

In midday trading, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 48.32, or 0.46 percent, to 10,494.23.

Broader stock indicators also declined. The Standard & Poor's 500 index was down 5.51, or 0.46 percent, at 1,193.27 and the Nasdaq composite index was off 8.82, or 0.42 percent, at 2,066.91.

Yahoo News ~ Associated Press - Anne D'Innocenzio ** Consumer Confidence Unexpectedly Rebounds

''Business Terrorists'' using Americans with Disabilities Act to line pockets
Mood:  don't ask
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

The ADA has inspired an industry of opportunists who offer a choice of ‘consulting services’ to avoid lawsuits or the lawsuits themselves. This smacks of protection money, like those demanded by gangsters so your store windows stay unbroken.

Businesses Come Together To Fight Disabled Lawsuit Abuse

The Americans with Disabilities Act has opened countless doors to those with disabilities. But the ADA has also opened doors to abuse.

Ron Wilson and Byron Chapman (l-r, pictured here) claim to be disability rights activists. But critics say the pair seem more interested in helping themselves.

Wilson and Chapman together have filed more than 100 ADA lawsuits in Sacramento federal court in just the past four years. In some cases, the lawsuits come without warning.

"Matter of fact they never even talked to us prior to filing suit," says Bud Fanning, owner of Bud's Pub & Grill in downtown Dixon. Fanning was sued in federal court by Byron Chapman because the step from the sidewalk into the restaurant was two-and-a-half inches too high. "I paid $10,000 to settle plus I still owe $20,0000 to my lawyer," Fanning told News10.

For some business owners, the veiled threat of a lawsuit arrives in a handwritten letter.

"I got the letter," explains Denise Del Piccolo, owner of Vicini's Pizzeria in Vacaville. Vicini's opened in a brand-new, handicapped accessible building just three years ago. But last month, Del Piccolo received a letter from Ron Wilson describing his visit to the restaurant as an "emotional experience." The letter suggested Del Piccolo "acquire a person who is knowledgeable" in disabled access issues.

"He does offer that service to people," Vacaville businessman Tom Phillippi told News10. Phillippi contacted Wilson after seeing one of the letters. "The number he quoted to me was $75 an hour, he'll do the consulting," Phillippi said. "You pay him $75 an hour as a consultant and you won't necessarily face him in court."

Murillo's Mexican Restaurant in Vacaville also received one of the letters from Ron Wilson after the owner had already spent $100,000 to make the restaurant more accessible. Francis Murillo can barely contain her anger when talking about it. "Our doors are electrical doors. We have to have so many tables to meet the handicapped requirement. The [restroom] stall is wide enough you can waltz in there," Murillo points out. "Now he's saying that we have not complied, that we need to do more."

A Sacramento-based disabled rights activist told News10 lawsuit abuse hurts broader efforts to gain access. "We all live in our communities and we need to resolve problems together and certainly not profit by any of them," said Ramona Garcia of Resources for Independent Living. "That is not right." Garcia said during her entire life as an advocate for the disabled, she's only filed one lawsuit, and that was after repeated attempts to resolve the issue amicably.

So many Solano County businesses have been impacted by ADA lawsuits, and the threat of them, that the Vacaville Chamber of Commerce has organized a task force to try to make it stop. Businessman Tom Phillippi is the committee chairman who told News10 he plans to raise a half-million dollars to fight lawsuit abuse.

"It's a multi-pronged strategy," says Phillippi, a civil engineer. Part of the problem, he explains, is the lack of coordination between the federal Americans with Disabilities Act requirements and state and local building codes. The Solano County business commmunity will try to persuade the state to standardize access requirements to eliminate the gray area that can lead to abuse.

The chamber of commerce ADA task force will also target Ron Wilson and Byron Chapman individually by trying to get a court order declaring the pair "vexatious litigants." The designation would severely limit their ability to file future lawsuits.

Neither Wilson nor Chapman responded to a request for comment from News10.

Vicini's Pizzeria is among the businesses gladly contributing to the legal fund after getting one of the Wilson letters. "He's a business terrorist," says Denise Del Piccolo. "I want to get this man because he's hurting people and I just don't want him to do this to anyone else."

KXTV News 10 ~ Sacramento / Stockton / Modesto ** Businesses Come Together To Fight Disabled Lawsuit Abuse

California Dems want to outlaw thick textbooks
Mood:  silly
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

A law just passed the California State Assembly passed a bill that states that text books must be no larger than 200 pages in length.

Assembly sticks nose into textbooks

Maybe Democrats in the state Assembly should just go ahead and write textbooks for California's students. They're so confident they know what constitutes a good one.

For instance, who knew that making a textbook longer than 200 pages was such a bad idea that there needs to be a law against it?

Well, 42 Assembly Democrats knew. On Thursday they approved AB 756, a bill by Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, that says: Neither the State Board of Education nor a local school district "may adopt instructional materials that exceed 200 pages in length."

Textbooks, the bill's supporters argued, should sum up the basics and then refer students to the Internet and to libraries for the rest. Plus, shorter is lighter and cheaper.

Maybe. Their assumption doesn't seem that obvious to us. It seems like something that ought to be decided -- just brainstorming here -- by actually reading each proposed textbook, as opposed to laying down an arbitrary limit.

The bill doesn't jibe with other instructions (some from the Legislature) that textbook publishers have been getting to avoid textbooks that are just dry columns of words. They must be full of pictures and charts. And in each subject, they have to cover the state's comprehensive curriculum requirements. This makes them longer.

The bill now goes to the Senate.

A few weeks ago, the Democratic leader in the Senate, Don Perata of Oakland, held a news conference to say that his colleagues were committed to more funding for education and less interference in day-to-day decisions.

For more money, they need the cooperation of Republicans. Democrats will be slightly more likely to get it if they show some resolve on the second half of the promise by killing some Legislature-knows-best bills. May we suggest a place to start?

Mercury News ~ Knight Ridder ** Assembly sticks nose into textbooks

Veterans memorial park vandalized
Mood:  irritated
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Vandals defaced a memorial at the Irving Veterans Memorial Park sometime before Sunday morning. The spray-painted words read: 'The price of freedom.' >>>>>

Veterans memorial park vandalized

Irving: Official says cost of replacing plaques could top $1,000

IRVING – Andy Greenwood planned to honor veterans by visiting the Dallas-Fort Worth National Cemetery on Sunday.

He never made it. As he passed the Irving Veterans Memorial Park, he noticed something that made him stop: graffiti.

At some point before Sunday morning, someone spray-painted the words "the price of freedom" on a wall with veterans' names.

The vandalism, discovered the day before Memorial Day, perplexed Mr. Greenwood.

"I agree with what they spray-painted on the wall, but I just don't understand why they'd go about something that way," the Irving resident said.

A sidewalk in front of the marker was also vandalized with spray-painted words.

Bob Moffatt was at an Irving coffee shop raising money for new additions to the park when he heard the news. As the chairman of the park committee that raises money and takes care of the memorial, he was disappointed to see the vandalism – especially on a holiday weekend set aside to honor veterans.

"It's always disheartening to see someone have such little respect for something that's supposed to mean something," Mr. Moffatt said.

The park opened Memorial Day weekend last year. It honors all veterans, but those whose names are on the walls were Irving residents who died while in the military.

The names are displayed on brass plaques on a 9-foot-tall stone wall. The park's first phase, next to Irving Central Library, includes flags, a plaza and a brick walkway. It cost about $225,000. Organizers established the park committee seven years ago to raise money and search state and federal records to find names.

It's the first of at least four phases of the $2.1 million project. Park organizers hope to raise money to add a fountain, bronze statues, a time capsule and a world map that shows key battles.

Now the focus is on repairs.

Mr. Moffatt said he believes he'll be able to get the spray paint off the marble portion of the memorial. But he's afraid the plaques will have to be replaced, which could cost more than $1,000, he said.

"We've been doing this for seven years, and we've been doing it with small change," Mr. Moffatt said.

He said the park has routinely been targeted by thieves who steal letters from the park's name off the back of the memorial wall. But the spray-painted messages were frustrating to find, he said.

"I couldn't believe it," Mr. Moffatt said. "This is more than graffiti. Someone had no more love for our country or the men who died for us than that."

Finding the defaced memorial changed Mr. Greenwood's weekend plans.

"I never did get to the D-FW cemetery because it put a damper on my whole day," he said.

(Origional story requires registration)
Dallas Morning News ~ Brandon Formby ** Veterans memorial park vandalized

Chirac faces prosecution on a range of corruption charges when he leaves office
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

French Prosecutors say the nation’s recent corruption cases go right to President Jacques Chirac. They are biding time until he leaves office and is no longer immune from prosecution.

French Prosecutors Eye Chirac

Prosecutors in France are waiting for President Jacques Chirac to leave office so they can investigate corruption charges against the controversial French leader.

"Several prosecutors we talked to would love to have him," Fox News Channel's Greg Palkot reported on Monday. "But as long as he's in the president's chair, he's immune to any prosecution."

Once Chirac leaves office, however, "he could be prosecuted on a range of corruption charges," Palkot said.

Prominent Chirac allies have been on trial in France since March, accused of rigging public works contracts to arrange millions of dollars in kickbacks to Chirac's political party.

The trial, which is expected to run until the end of July, implicates four former ministers and spotlights one of several scandals that have come to light from Chirac's tenure as Paris mayor from 1977-1995.

The investigation was opened in 1997. Chirac has just 22 months before his second term ends.

Efforts are currently under way to arrange "something special for Chirac to preserve his immunity," Palkot said. "So far, those efforts have failed."

NewsMax.com ~ Carl Limbacher ** French Prosecutors Eye Chirac

Swearing Steaming Screaming: Clintax White House as Hot House; New WashPost Book
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Lib Loser Stories

NEW CLINTON BOOK: THE LIES, THE FIGHTS, THE INSULTS

Summer starts with a bang as veteran WASHINGTON POST reporter John Harris traces the emotional highs and lows of the Clinton presidency.

THE SURVIVOR: BILL CLINTON IN THE WHITE HOUSE drops this week from RANDOM [the book ranked #9,527 on AMAZON's sales parade Monday afternoon], but the DRUDGE REPORT can now sneak:

♠ Bill Clinton was so upset that his weight-loss regimen in 2000 was not working that he made his aides release a bogus number after his annual Navy physical to make him five pounds lighter. (pg. 394)

♠ Hillary taunted her husband's aides as being wimps by not fighting hard enough on Whitewater - "JFK had real men in his White House!" (pg. 108)

♠ Tipper Gore was so disgusted in 2000 with Bill and Hillary that she stayed cloistered in a holding room instead of going to a New York reception with major Democratic fund-raisers where the Clintons would be. "No, I'm not doing it," she snapped to an aide. "I'm not going out there with that man."

♠ The first conversation between Clinton and Gore after the Lewinsky story broke. Clinton is shouting at Gore, "This is a fucking coup d'etat!" Gore just stared back blankly. pg 313.

♠ Former White House counter-terrorism chief Richard Clarke on the record hitting Clinton for not having the guts to fire FBI director Louis Freeh, who Clarke called a major obstacle on anti-terrorism policy. "He should have just fired Freeh and taken the shit it would have caused." (pg. 408)

The POST plans two jumbos on Tuesday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE.

One story from Harris will outline Hillary Clinton's presidential preparations.

MORE

Swearing Steaming Screaming -- White House as Hot House

From pages 356-7 of THE SURVIVOR: BILL CLINTON IN THE WHITE HOUSE by John F. Harris, national correspondent for the WASHINGTON POST:

Context is Sally Quinn's article from 11/98 explaining why the Washington Establishment was appalled by Clinton's behavior during Lewinksy.

Some time afterward the president was going over papers with his staff on the upcoming Presidential Medal of Freedom awards. Spontaneously, he launched into a little riff for his assembled aides. His nominee for the prestigious award this year would be none other than the famous [Watergate editor] Ben Bradlee, husband of Sally Quinn.

The aides looked on in puzzled amusement.

"Anyone who sleeps with that bitch deserves a medal!" he explained.

Drudge Report Exclusive ** NEW CLINTON BOOK: THE LIES, THE FIGHTS, THE INSULTS

Lawmakers Belatedly Disclose Trips
Mood:  chatty
Topic: Funny Stuff

Lawmakers Belatedly Disclose Trips

WASHINGTON - Scrutiny of Majority Leader Tom DeLay's travel has led to the belated disclosure of at least 198 previously unreported special interest trips by House members and their aides, including eight years of travel by the second-ranking Democrat, an Associated Press review has found.

At least 43 House members and dozens of aides had failed to meet the one-month deadline in ethics rules for disclosing trips financed by organizations outside the U.S. government.

The AP review of thousands of pages of records covered pre-2005 travel that was disclosed since early March. That's when news stories began scrutinizing DeLay's travel, prompting lawmakers to comb through their files to make sure they had disclosed their travel.

While most of the previously undisclosed trips occurred in 2004, some date back to the late 1990s. House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer recently disclosed 12 trips, the oldest dating back to 1997.

Stacey Bernards, a spokeswoman for the Maryland Democrat, said the office searched the files after the travel issue was raised initially by "Republicans doing opposition research to deflect from their own ethical issues."

Hoyer's undisclosed trips were nearly doubled by Rep. Ellen Tauscher (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., with 21. Rep. Luis Gutierrez (news, bio, voting record), D-Ill., reported 20 past trips and Rep. Elijah Cummings (news, bio, voting record), D-Md. reported 13.

Republican and Democratic House members were nearly equal rules violators in failing to disclose their personal trips within 30 days after the trip's completion. There were 23 GOP members, 19 Democrats and 1 independent, all of them months or years late in their reporting to the House public records office.

Staff members for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., disclosed 11 prior trips, while staff members for DeLay, R-Texas, had 4. Rep. John Linder (news, bio, voting record) of Georgia, a former chairman of the House Republican campaign organization, belatedly filed 9 trips, as did Rep. Maxine Waters (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif.

The volume of unreported trips surprised the former chairman of the House ethics committee, Rep. Joel Hefley (news, bio, voting record), R-Colo.

"I didn't realize the extent of the problem," Hefley said. "There is no particular sanction (for tardiness) if you come back and file. They get lax. They don't think about it.

"People will be more aware now. The ethics committee will be more aware that it's a problem."

A spokesman for Gutierrez said the seven-term lawmaker did not know of his obligation to file the required travel disclosure reports.

"In late April, the congressman approached our staff to ask why in the news he was reading all this information about trips," spokesman Scott Frotman said.

Cummings spokeswoman Trudy Perkins said the original reports were sent to the House's public records office on time throughout 2004, using an internal mail system. They never made it to the public files.

"It was our understanding they were on file. It was odd, certainly," Perkins said.

Hayley Rumback, press secretary for Tauscher, said, "A recent review of our travel records showed that while all travel was properly disclosed on annual financial disclosure statements, some additional travel disclosure forms were not filed. We have corrected this oversight."

The travel in question is not for official government trips known as CODELS, shorthand for Congressional Delegations.

The special interest trips are usually financed by corporations, trade groups, think tanks, universities and others. They often pay for first-class commercial seats or provide corporate jets for lawmakers.

Many trips combine speeches, seminars and fact-finding tours with golf, sightseeing, shopping and accommodations at first-class hotels — often in foreign countries.

"This sudden rush to file reports on previously undisclosed trips is certainly filling many pages of congressional passports," said Kent Cooper, head of the PoliticalMoneyLine Internet site that tracks political donations and travel.

Some lawmakers and staff members wrote apologetic letters to the House ethics committee.

Rep. John Boehner (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, said he discovered "my staff had failed to submit a travel disclosure" for a trip to Scotland in August 2004, an error made "during a staff transition."

Elizabeth Greer, an aide to Rep. F. Allen Boyd (news, bio, voting record) Jr., D-Fla., took responsibility for not filing her documents after a trip to Kenya in December 2004. She said she completed the form soon after the trip, but "found it still buried on my desk recently. It simply slipped off my radar screen and found its way to the bottom of a pile."

One late filer, Republican Rep. Melissa Hart (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, is a current member of the ethics committee who could make judgments on DeLay's travel.

DeLay has asked the committee to review his travel, following allegations that a lobbyist paid for some of his trips despite a ban on such payments.

"Someone had done a story and incorrectly listed my travel," Hart said in an interview, explaining what led her to check her records. She found an unreported trip she made to Hungary and Germany last November.

Popular destinations listed in the tardy disclosures included Amelia Island, Fla.; New York City; San Juan; San Francisco; San Diego; Miami and Las Vegas. Foreign sites included Cuba, Taiwan and Israel.

Among the most expensive trips:

♠ Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah and his wife, Amy, traveled to Australia last November, listing a combined airfare of $24,804 paid by the American Australian Association. The nonprofit group says it is devoted to strengthening relations between the United States and two allies, Australia and New Zealand. Matheson said meals and lodging were picked up by the Australian government, but no amounts were specified.

♠ Rep. Bob Beauprez, R-Colo., and his wife, Claudia, traveled to Israel and Spain last November and December, listing the cost at $21,226. The travel, for participation in a Jerusalem conference, was financed by the Michael Cherney Foundation. The organization has various charity projects in Israel, including help for victims of suicide bombings.

♠ Rep. John Linder, R-Ga., and his wife, Lynne, traveled to Israel and Jordan in January, 2004 at a cost of $19,650. Linder said the trip, sponsored by The Jerusalem Fund, was designed to promote international understanding.

Waters, the California Democrat, insisted her late reports were unrelated to DeLay's troubles, and blamed those who paid her way.

"Sometimes they run late because the people who are responsible for inviting you have to get you all the receipts and they are so slow," Waters said.

On the Net: Travel reporting documents

Yahoo News ~ Associated Press - Larry Margasak / Elizabeth Wolfe ** Lawmakers Belatedly Disclose Trips

Voters become more likely to vote GOP when income reaches $ 23,700
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

The Dems are losing the middle class and, with it, any hope of federal majorities. The tipping point, the income level where white voters choose GOP over Dem is $ 23,700.

The Democrats' Class Struggle

This is the kind of headline Democrats have come to expect from their opponents: "Middle Class Voters Reject Democrats at the Ballot Box." But this time, the charge comes from inside the party, in a new report issued by the centrist group known as Third Way.

The study represents a slap in the face at Democrats who pride themselves on being the party of working families and a challenge to party leaders as they prepare for next year's midterm elections and the 2008 presidential race.

"Rather than being the party of the middle class, Democrats face a crisis with middle-income voters," the study argues.

"The 45% of voters who make up the middle class -- those with household incomes between $30,000 and $75,000 -- delivered healthy victories to George Bush and House Republicans in 2004."

The study is based on Third Way's analysis of 2004 exit polls. Among the five principal findings are that white middle-income voters supported President Bush by 22 percentage points. The study concluded that the "economic tipping point -- the income level above which white voters were more likely to vote Republican than Democrat -- was $23,700."

Black voters supported the presidential candidacy of Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) and House Democrats by significant margins regardless of their income levels, but white middle-class voters tended to vote more like wealthy voters. "Democrats were not competitive at all among the white middle class," according to the study.

The report also contained alarming news for Democrats about Hispanic voters. The more Hispanics move into the middle class, the less they vote Democratic.

Based on the analysis of exit polls, Kerry's margin over Bush among Hispanics with household incomes below $30,000 was 21 percentage points, but among those with incomes between $30,000 and $75,000, it was 10 points.

"Democrats talk and legislate a great deal about issues that they believe are of concern to the middle class, such as better schools, affordable health care and job security," the report concludes. "This has not translated into middle-class votes."

Show Me the Beef

This week's stem cell debate brought some great moments in American oratory.

The mixed-metaphor prize goes to Rep. David Joseph Weldon (R-Fla.), for saying, "I ask you, where is the beef? Show me the money!" The cheap shot award goes to Rep. Fortney "Pete" Stark (D-Calif.), who said, "I do not need a lecture from the majority leader on moral and ethical leadership." The recipient of that barb, Rep. Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), earns honorable mention for co-opting the other side's rhetoric: "We have an opportunity today to speak truth to the power of biotechnology."

The Political Life Cycle

"We've gone from the news cycle to the spin cycle and now we're trying to get to the business cycle."

-- Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.), trying to move beyond the judicial nominee standoff.

Washington Post ~ Dan Balz / Dana Milbank ** The Democrats' Class Struggle

David Horowitz says Dems nearly communists
Mood:  cheeky
Topic: Yahoo Chat Stuff

Author David Horowitz in an interview and new book claims that Marxist influences have taken over the Dems and that the party has become nearly communist. He compares the Democratic Party to Stalinists and says they have adopted some of the principles and viewpoints of the Italian fascists.

Horowitz: Marxism Dominates the Left Today

Communism is alive and well, says "The End of Time" author David Horowitz.

And he should know. The son of Communist parents and a former Communist himself, he has crusaded against the Marxist left on college campuses and written books exposing the influence of the left on America's political culture.

In an exclusive interview with NewsMax.com, Horowitz spoke about his new book and the Marxist domination of today's Democratic party.

In his book, Horowitz writes about his views on life and death, and explains his belief in the destructive nature of Utopia-driven ideologies, noting: "The desire for more than is possible is the cause of greater human misery than any other."

He places Communism in that category, and recalls how his father devoted his life in the pursuit of "more than is possible." Horowitz explains how since leaving the party he has devoted his life to fighting Marxism in all its forms, not as a conservative ideologue, but as a seeker after truth and the meaning of life.

"'The End of Time' is not a political book," Horowitz told NewsMax.com. "It's a philosophical book and while it talks about political themes, it does so from a very foundational point of view. It's not a book for people who want to know what I think about the judicial nominations."

In our interview, as he did in "The End of Time," he stressed his belief that far from being a threat in the past, Communism is a real force in American politics today.

NM: In your book you write about Communism and its appeal. Is communism still alive today?

DH: Communism is alive and well.

NM: Is it alive and well in the Democratic Party?

DH: The Democratic party is very close to being the [Communist-controlled Progressive] party of Henry Wallace.

NM: In other words, a Marxist Party?

DH: In my book "Unholy Alliance" I laid out what I called the mind of the left and showed the absolute continuity of the critique of capitalism in America between 1940 and 2003. Today's left sees the world pretty much in the same terms as the Stalinists did.

What has happened is that it has lost its faith in the working class, so its agenda is entirely negative. They've dropped the dictatorship of the proletariat and they all say they're democrats, but so did Lenin.

The vast bulk of the American left is a Communist left and they've introduced some fascist ideas like "identity politics," which is straight out of Mussolini. They don't talk about the working class, they talk about women and race. There's not much that they've learned from the history of the 20th century.

NM: In Whittaker Chambers' book "Witness" he saw this struggle as being either the great social wars of the 20th century, or the wars of faith.

DH: Chambers was a believer and I'm an agnostic with a great respect for believers. But the Islamic radicals are believers and it's not a secular belief, it's a religious belief.

There are believers who come both in secular and religious forms and they think they can take the work of salvation in their own hands.

These are all liberation theologians whether they are on the left or the right, and they are extraordinarily dangerous people precisely because they think they are in some ways talking to God or doing his work, and if you are doing God's work, it would justify anything.

I think you have to do what's right but without proposing to yourself that you can save the world.

NM: But don't we have some responsibility for doing what we believe is right?

DH: Yes. There's a passage in the book where I deal with my wife April talking about my "mission." My mission is a personal mission – to undo what I did as a leftist, to witness to the truth that I learned and to try to save even if it's only one or two individuals. That's what I do.

There are things that are beyond me. You have to think of Mohammed Atta or Timothy McVeigh – I wouldn't go blowing up federal buildings even for an end that I thought was good. They thought that what they were doing was noble.

One has to fight the good fight but one shouldn't delude oneself into thinking of oneself as a redeemer. Leftists – they call themselves "progressives" - are the arch reactionaries. When they get into arguments they are rude, they step on you, they kick you in the groin and they would kill you if they had the opportunity - you can see it in their passions. That's the sign of people who are intoxicated with their own self-righteousness. You don't really see that with conservatives.

NM: Is that what we are seeing now in the battles on Capitol Hill? It seems to be sheer hatred on the part of the left.

DH: That's because they think they are saving the world from the devil, which is us.

NM: Are the young being indoctrinated into Marxism?

DH: There's an unbelievable number of people on the campuses indoctrinating kids in the worst prejudices of the left. There are a lot of people of faith on campuses, but they are blacklisted from being on the faculty.

NM: How deep has this indoctrination gone?

DH: The Democratic party has never been such a left wing party and I think that comes directly out of the campuses. The whole Howard Dean campaign is what shifted the Democratic party to the far left. You had three Democratic front-runners - Kerry, Edwards and Gephardt - who were all supporters of the war until the Deaniacs came along. And who were the Deaniacs? They were the campus Communists.

The reason you have a blacklist and the reason you have indoctrination, which you've never had before on such a scale, is that you have the generation of the 1960s radicals who to avoid the draft and keep organizing against the war stayed in school and got student deferments and went on to became professors.

They are not academics, they're political activists. Do you think the woman who invited Susan Rosenberg, a convicted bomber, to be a visiting professor at Hamilton and followed that by inviting Ward Churchill – the closest thing to a campus terrorist guerilla – is an academic? Do you think she's a scholar? She's actually the daughter of a Communist lawyer, Victor Rabinowitz, whose closest friend is Leonard Boudin, another Communist whose daughter Cathy was a Weather Underground terrorist.

These people have infiltrated the academic world and converted it and largely captured the Democratic party in the process.

NM: The Democrats' objections to certain judges nominated to the federal bench are the result of their being pushed very hard by their prime supporters, which is the abortion industry and the gay lobby, and in many ways don't they seem to have been captive to that as much as they are captive to a leftist agenda?

DH: I don't see the abortion or gay lobbies as special interest groups. I see them as just part of the left. The gay lobby is not interested in gay people – they care about their radical agenda. The same thing with the abortionists.

Take another group, the feminist lobby. When Bill Clinton started abusing women you didn't hear a peep out of them because their agenda isn't women – their agenda is getting their people into power. Because what they are about is changing the world.

In SDS (Students for a Democratic Society) they used to say "The issue is never the issue, the revolution is the issue." That's the way I look at this. This is a power struggle. It's not about judges, it's not about abortion - it's to stop the Bush agenda.

Here's Janice Rogers Brown, a black female, daughter of a sharecropper. Everything in their overt agenda should lead them to say, "This is great! We care about the equality of women. Half the country is Republican. We have a Republican black woman. Now those racist Republicans will have to respect a black woman."

But that's not what their agenda is. The way they see it is, ‘My God, if the party of Satan gets a black woman in there, they will fool people into thinking they are not the party of Satan.' So the cause is what it's about. The issue is never the issue, the issue is always the revolution.

NM: How would you define the Bush agenda?

DH: From the standpoint of the left? They are psychotic these days. They are living in an alternate reality. They make no sense whatever when they are talking about Bush.

As a conservative, I think the man has risen to the hour in terms of the war on terror. He's very Churchillian in that. This is what he'll be remembered for. He saved us an enormous amount of grief and he's done it against unbelievable odds and in the face of the most horrific attacks on a sitting president in history.

If we hadn't gone to war when we did, Saddam's weapons laboratories would be booming; he would be funding terrorists and arming them all over the world; Gadhafi would still have his chemical weapons lab, the largest in the third world, and he'd have his nuclear weapons lab; there wouldn't be a democracy movement in the Middle East; it's very possible that Pakistan would now be an Islamic nuclear state; and the United States would have been so weakened it would have incited much challenge to its power. It's hard to imagine what would have happened.

The reality is that we haven't been attacked since 2001. There's not a living human being who would have bet on September 12, 2001 that we would not be attacked again on our own soil in four years. All of that is due to George Bush and his aggressive war on terror. He's one of the great figures of recent times.

NM: Your wife April is apparently a believer. She made the statement that when she gets to the afterlife she wants you to be there, and she's afraid that if you don't believe you won't be there. Has she had any impact on you in that respect?

DH: You can't make somebody a believer. She wanted me to open my heart, so yes, she has had an impact – I will keep my heart open.

NM: Is "The End of Time" your last will and testament?

DH: "Hopefully that's premature. When you reach your 60s as I did when I began this, you can see the horizon coming. I have a passage in the book where I talk about how 20 years is like a lifetime. Well, 80 is pretty old even these days. It's time to think about those things. It's a book for people who have reached a certain age."

Newsmax.com ~ Phil Brennan ** Horowitz: Marxism Dominates the Left Today