Bush Social Security and Public Opinion Polls
As usual Bush made claims that were inaccurate and untrue. Social Security is NOT in jeopardy of going Bankrupted. At Worse in 40 years payments will be reduced to 70%. I have 40 years to prepare for this so I can live with it. If Congress wishes to tweak Social Security like it did in 1983 it can. The liability we face in 40 years is less than what was faced in 1983.
The real issue is Bush and his selling out American's Future to get Elected. Bush gave away the Social Security Funds when he gave the tax cuts to the Richest Americans. The Irony is that they are the ones who will be the least affected by a Social Security short fall or the US governments inability to honor the obligation of the US Government Bonds Social Security will redeem to pay retirees. That is the real issue.
It is not Social Security that will be Bankrupted, it will be the US Government.
Sean Lewis
Virtual Truth
New York City
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
Sunday, February 20, 2005
The US Government will go Bankrupt, NOT Social Security
The US Government will go Bankrupt, NOT Social Security
Sean Lewis
February 3 2005
The US Government will go bankrupt, not Social Security. There I said it, but someone had to.
Bush is hiding the fact that his fiscal economic plan of tax cuts, tax refunds, deficit spending and pre-emptive war agenda has put the US on the verge of Bankruptcy.
The Social Security Trust Fund has a surplus of 1.8 Trillion Dollars invested in US Government Bonds earning interest. Social Security will not be issuing funds greater than it is taking in until 2018 or later. At that point Social Security should be able to begin to Redeem the 1.8 Trillion PLUS in US Government Bonds.
Does this sound insolvent to any one?
So what is the REAL issue?
The emperor has no clothes.
Bush has hidden the severity of the National Deficit and the National Debt by cooking the Government Books.
Bush has taken the Social Security Receipts we all pay every day in our paychecks and has replaced them with US Government IOU's.
Those IOU's are representation of cash available to pay the Baby Boomers once they start retiring. When do they start retiring? In 3 years beginning 2008. The Baby Boomers will start cashing in those US Treasury Bonds or IOUs. Problem is, there is no money to pay back the IOUs.
You see the Treasury is running in the Red, we do not have the money to finance all of the Expenses of the US Government NOW! How will Bush find the funds to start paying off the Baby Boomers IOUs? By issuing more IOUs to someone else!
Think of it this way. You are a bank and depositors make monthly deposits for safe keeping. The bank however is not making enough money to pay it's bills, so it dips into the deposits and 'borrows' money with unsecured IOUs saying it will pay back the loans with interest once things turn around. Buts things do not turn around, they only get worse. To not pay the bills would bring ruin to the bank, so the bank 'borrows' even more money from the depositors! Now a vicious cycle has begun. Outwardly all is well, however one day the depositors begin to no longer make deposits, but begin to withdraw their funds with interest! Now the Bank faces not only a short fall to pay existing Bills because fewer funds are coming in, but also the amount going out has increased. The only way to make ends meet is to issue additional unsecured IOUs to individuals outside the Bank. As more people retire the greater the escalating unsecured IOUs grow. This is the house of cards Bush has built.
How has this happened?
Bush has not vetoed one single spending bill.
Bush has given tax cuts in a time history has shown taxes should be raised. We are at war, and in every instance of war in the past Presidents understood the importance of keeping the War Chest full to finance the Troops.
Believe it or not the Countries financing the American War on terrorism are the Chinese, the French, The Germans, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many other countries that voted against the invasion of Iraq. How? They are buying the US Government Bonds that Bush is issuing to pay for the Deficit that Social Security is now financing.
Talk about hat in hand!
Bush needs to change Social Security because under the guise of reform Bush can 'borrow' funds to hide the impending financial incompetence of this Administration. If Bush does not 'reform' Social Security BEFORE 2008 the US citizens will see the Republican incompetence NAKED in it's raw ugly epochal squandering. Bush had everything a President could ask for, A strong economy, A strong low unemployment rate, strong GDP growth, A hard won Surplus. With this Bush could have paid BACK Social Security and the unfunded liability of Medicare, yet another 2008 issue that had a dirty sloppy overpriced band aide applied. Instead Bush has placed this the US on the slippery slope to financial ruin.
Bush needs to fix the real problem, The National Deficit and The National Debt. Bush needs to allow the ill advised tax cuts to sunset. If Bush does not deal with the real issue, Republicans being fiscally irresponsible, not only will Bush and the Republican Party go down in flames but so will the US dollar, the US standard of living, the US economy and the US.
OK now how do we solve this?
Social Security needs to be tweaked, but it is not broken.
For Social Security to continue paying out benefits all that needs to be done is this.
Increase the SS payroll deduction by 1/2 to 1%.
Increase the annual SS payroll deduction cutoff to $120,000.
Means test payouts to retirees.
Gradually increase the retirement age to 70.
Allow new workers entering the labor market to have the OPTION of having ADDITIONAL funds taken out of their payroll checks to be applied to the Private Accounts.
Investments in the Private Accounts are limited to these options:
Money Market
US Treasuries
INDU index fund
SPY index fund
QQQQ index fund
Gold/Silver/Platinum
All or any option in combination will keep SS solvent for decades to come. As it stands SS will continue for decades without and changes.
Virtual Truth
Sean Lewis
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
Sean Lewis
February 3 2005
The US Government will go bankrupt, not Social Security. There I said it, but someone had to.
Bush is hiding the fact that his fiscal economic plan of tax cuts, tax refunds, deficit spending and pre-emptive war agenda has put the US on the verge of Bankruptcy.
The Social Security Trust Fund has a surplus of 1.8 Trillion Dollars invested in US Government Bonds earning interest. Social Security will not be issuing funds greater than it is taking in until 2018 or later. At that point Social Security should be able to begin to Redeem the 1.8 Trillion PLUS in US Government Bonds.
Does this sound insolvent to any one?
So what is the REAL issue?
The emperor has no clothes.
Bush has hidden the severity of the National Deficit and the National Debt by cooking the Government Books.
Bush has taken the Social Security Receipts we all pay every day in our paychecks and has replaced them with US Government IOU's.
Those IOU's are representation of cash available to pay the Baby Boomers once they start retiring. When do they start retiring? In 3 years beginning 2008. The Baby Boomers will start cashing in those US Treasury Bonds or IOUs. Problem is, there is no money to pay back the IOUs.
You see the Treasury is running in the Red, we do not have the money to finance all of the Expenses of the US Government NOW! How will Bush find the funds to start paying off the Baby Boomers IOUs? By issuing more IOUs to someone else!
Think of it this way. You are a bank and depositors make monthly deposits for safe keeping. The bank however is not making enough money to pay it's bills, so it dips into the deposits and 'borrows' money with unsecured IOUs saying it will pay back the loans with interest once things turn around. Buts things do not turn around, they only get worse. To not pay the bills would bring ruin to the bank, so the bank 'borrows' even more money from the depositors! Now a vicious cycle has begun. Outwardly all is well, however one day the depositors begin to no longer make deposits, but begin to withdraw their funds with interest! Now the Bank faces not only a short fall to pay existing Bills because fewer funds are coming in, but also the amount going out has increased. The only way to make ends meet is to issue additional unsecured IOUs to individuals outside the Bank. As more people retire the greater the escalating unsecured IOUs grow. This is the house of cards Bush has built.
How has this happened?
Bush has not vetoed one single spending bill.
Bush has given tax cuts in a time history has shown taxes should be raised. We are at war, and in every instance of war in the past Presidents understood the importance of keeping the War Chest full to finance the Troops.
Believe it or not the Countries financing the American War on terrorism are the Chinese, the French, The Germans, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many other countries that voted against the invasion of Iraq. How? They are buying the US Government Bonds that Bush is issuing to pay for the Deficit that Social Security is now financing.
Talk about hat in hand!
Bush needs to change Social Security because under the guise of reform Bush can 'borrow' funds to hide the impending financial incompetence of this Administration. If Bush does not 'reform' Social Security BEFORE 2008 the US citizens will see the Republican incompetence NAKED in it's raw ugly epochal squandering. Bush had everything a President could ask for, A strong economy, A strong low unemployment rate, strong GDP growth, A hard won Surplus. With this Bush could have paid BACK Social Security and the unfunded liability of Medicare, yet another 2008 issue that had a dirty sloppy overpriced band aide applied. Instead Bush has placed this the US on the slippery slope to financial ruin.
Bush needs to fix the real problem, The National Deficit and The National Debt. Bush needs to allow the ill advised tax cuts to sunset. If Bush does not deal with the real issue, Republicans being fiscally irresponsible, not only will Bush and the Republican Party go down in flames but so will the US dollar, the US standard of living, the US economy and the US.
OK now how do we solve this?
Social Security needs to be tweaked, but it is not broken.
For Social Security to continue paying out benefits all that needs to be done is this.
Increase the SS payroll deduction by 1/2 to 1%.
Increase the annual SS payroll deduction cutoff to $120,000.
Means test payouts to retirees.
Gradually increase the retirement age to 70.
Allow new workers entering the labor market to have the OPTION of having ADDITIONAL funds taken out of their payroll checks to be applied to the Private Accounts.
Investments in the Private Accounts are limited to these options:
Money Market
US Treasuries
INDU index fund
SPY index fund
QQQQ index fund
Gold/Silver/Platinum
All or any option in combination will keep SS solvent for decades to come. As it stands SS will continue for decades without and changes.
Virtual Truth
Sean Lewis
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
Two important facts about Social Security no one mentions
Two important facts about Social Security no one mentions
Sean Lewis
The Baby Boomer Generation site is a source for trends, research, comment and discussion of and by people born from 1946 - 1964.
So with this is mind the Baby boomers born in 1946 will retire 65 years after they are born, 2011. they will live on average of 77 years. So they will no longer be an issue after 2033. The Baby Boomers in 1964 will retire in 2034 at 70. Lets say they live to 82, so after 2046 they are no longer an issue.
Now the consensus is that Social Security will begin to be in trouble as of 2042. How? For 45 years baby boomers have been paying into Social Security. This money is the money they will be drawing out for only 12 years on average. If the money they were putting in was only getting 3% above the rate of inflation, that means in 45 years it should have increased by 188% with out compounding. With compounding there will be more. There should be enough money.
Add to this that as of 2034 the number of retirees drawing Social Security will have peaked and by 2042 the numbers will actually begin to fall, this is still before the 2046 'bankrupt' date when Social Security will only be able to pay 70% of benefits owed.
Can any one say 'Motivation through fear'?
Can any one say 'WMDs'?
Can any one say 'misrepresentation of the facts'?
OK now the math.
Deductions for Social Security and Medicare taxes—The 2005 Social Security tax rate, for both employees and employers, is 6.2 percent on wages up to $90,000.
OK so for 45 years a worker and his employer have been putting aside a combined amount 12.4% lets can it lower because it wasn't this much originally. So lets say 7%. So for 45 years 7% of your check has been put away at 3% plus inflation.
Now the formula is Retirement=(((annual pay X .07) Plus 3% inflation) over 45 years)
$6.95
Retirement payout=((Retirement/12 year life expectancy)/12 months a year)
$0.048
Being that you only need 60% of what you were earning at retirement the numbers work. I purposefully left out real dollars because I am dealing with imaginary numbers.
So let me explain. At the end of 45 years you should have 695% of what your average annual wage was paid into Social Security. You would then receive 4.8% of this value monthly for the next 12 years.
0.07
$0.14
$0.22
$0.30
$0.38
$0.46
$0.55
$0.64
$0.73
$0.82
$0.92
$1.02
$1.12
$1.23
$1.34
$1.45
$1.57
$1.68
$1.81
$1.93
$2.06
$2.20
$2.34
$2.48
$2.62
$2.78
$2.93
$3.09
$3.26
$3.43
$3.60
$3.78
$3.97
$4.16
$4.35
$4.56
$4.77
$4.98
$5.20
$5.43
$5.66
$5.91
$6.16
$6.41
$6.68
$6.95
Sean Lewis
Virtual Truth
New York City
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Sean Lewis
The Baby Boomer Generation site is a source for trends, research, comment and discussion of and by people born from 1946 - 1964.
So with this is mind the Baby boomers born in 1946 will retire 65 years after they are born, 2011. they will live on average of 77 years. So they will no longer be an issue after 2033. The Baby Boomers in 1964 will retire in 2034 at 70. Lets say they live to 82, so after 2046 they are no longer an issue.
Now the consensus is that Social Security will begin to be in trouble as of 2042. How? For 45 years baby boomers have been paying into Social Security. This money is the money they will be drawing out for only 12 years on average. If the money they were putting in was only getting 3% above the rate of inflation, that means in 45 years it should have increased by 188% with out compounding. With compounding there will be more. There should be enough money.
Add to this that as of 2034 the number of retirees drawing Social Security will have peaked and by 2042 the numbers will actually begin to fall, this is still before the 2046 'bankrupt' date when Social Security will only be able to pay 70% of benefits owed.
Can any one say 'Motivation through fear'?
Can any one say 'WMDs'?
Can any one say 'misrepresentation of the facts'?
OK now the math.
Deductions for Social Security and Medicare taxes—The 2005 Social Security tax rate, for both employees and employers, is 6.2 percent on wages up to $90,000.
OK so for 45 years a worker and his employer have been putting aside a combined amount 12.4% lets can it lower because it wasn't this much originally. So lets say 7%. So for 45 years 7% of your check has been put away at 3% plus inflation.
Now the formula is Retirement=(((annual pay X .07) Plus 3% inflation) over 45 years)
$6.95
Retirement payout=((Retirement/12 year life expectancy)/12 months a year)
$0.048
Being that you only need 60% of what you were earning at retirement the numbers work. I purposefully left out real dollars because I am dealing with imaginary numbers.
So let me explain. At the end of 45 years you should have 695% of what your average annual wage was paid into Social Security. You would then receive 4.8% of this value monthly for the next 12 years.
0.07
$0.14
$0.22
$0.30
$0.38
$0.46
$0.55
$0.64
$0.73
$0.82
$0.92
$1.02
$1.12
$1.23
$1.34
$1.45
$1.57
$1.68
$1.81
$1.93
$2.06
$2.20
$2.34
$2.48
$2.62
$2.78
$2.93
$3.09
$3.26
$3.43
$3.60
$3.78
$3.97
$4.16
$4.35
$4.56
$4.77
$4.98
$5.20
$5.43
$5.66
$5.91
$6.16
$6.41
$6.68
$6.95
Sean Lewis
Virtual Truth
New York City
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
The Hitler Concept It is not about killing the Jews, it is about gaining Power and controlling the population.It is the Bush Doctrine, the Bush Covena
The Hitler Concept
It is not about killing the Jews, it is about gaining Power and controlling the population.
It is the Bush Doctrine, the Bush Covenant, the NEW Right.
Define what they mean by Hitler Concept.
SHARLET: A loyal leadership cadre, which is interesting because guys like Hitler and Stalin were famous for purging, but they seem to focus on a couple of guys. "If two or three agree" is a phrase they use a lot. If you can get together and focus you can accomplish anything. You don't need to sway the electorate. You don't need to convert everyone to Christ. Everyone doesn't have to believe in Christ, and that's where they differ from other fundamentalists. Some fundamentalists really distrust them for that. [They say] "We need to convert everyone, the high and the low." The Family says, "No we don't need the high." All these guys Hitler, Lenin, Pol Pot and Osama bin Laden is another guy they cite a lot, are guys who understood the power of a political avant garde. That's what they mean by the Hitler Concept. Also keeping your message simple, and repeating it again and again because there is only one message and it is "Jesus Loves." You can express lots of different things with that term.
Anthony Lappé is Excutive Editor of _GNN.tv_ (http://www.gnn.tv/) . He has written for The New York Times, New York, Details, and Salon, among many others. _http://www.alternet.org/story/16167/_ (http://www.alternet.org/story/16167/)
Sean Lewis
Virtual Truth
New York City
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
It is not about killing the Jews, it is about gaining Power and controlling the population.
It is the Bush Doctrine, the Bush Covenant, the NEW Right.
Define what they mean by Hitler Concept.
SHARLET: A loyal leadership cadre, which is interesting because guys like Hitler and Stalin were famous for purging, but they seem to focus on a couple of guys. "If two or three agree" is a phrase they use a lot. If you can get together and focus you can accomplish anything. You don't need to sway the electorate. You don't need to convert everyone to Christ. Everyone doesn't have to believe in Christ, and that's where they differ from other fundamentalists. Some fundamentalists really distrust them for that. [They say] "We need to convert everyone, the high and the low." The Family says, "No we don't need the high." All these guys Hitler, Lenin, Pol Pot and Osama bin Laden is another guy they cite a lot, are guys who understood the power of a political avant garde. That's what they mean by the Hitler Concept. Also keeping your message simple, and repeating it again and again because there is only one message and it is "Jesus Loves." You can express lots of different things with that term.
Anthony Lappé is Excutive Editor of _GNN.tv_ (http://www.gnn.tv/) . He has written for The New York Times, New York, Details, and Salon, among many others. _http://www.alternet.org/story/16167/_ (http://www.alternet.org/story/16167/)
Sean Lewis
Virtual Truth
New York City
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Job growth -- is this it?
Job growth -- is this it?
Here is a classic example of revisionist history of the Republicans. Bush promised that his tax cuts would produce 5 million new jobs. Sadly he has barely broke even and wants to cuts taxes even more.
The man received gentleman C's in college. Was a Legacy enrollment and based on 9/11 Iraq and North Korea doesn't get thinks right.
Medicare and Social Security are examples of his fixes. A lie of costs in Medicare with a sweet heart deal for the drug companies. A 'fix' for Social Security that is really a 'fix' for the federal Government unable to honor it's debt commitment to Social Security in redeeming it's US Bonds. Why, because Bush negated the fix of the Clinton Administration, surpluses paying down the National Debt and building reserves to pay for the upcoming Social Security payments.
Sean Lewis
Virtual Truth
New York City
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Here is a classic example of revisionist history of the Republicans. Bush promised that his tax cuts would produce 5 million new jobs. Sadly he has barely broke even and wants to cuts taxes even more.
The man received gentleman C's in college. Was a Legacy enrollment and based on 9/11 Iraq and North Korea doesn't get thinks right.
Medicare and Social Security are examples of his fixes. A lie of costs in Medicare with a sweet heart deal for the drug companies. A 'fix' for Social Security that is really a 'fix' for the federal Government unable to honor it's debt commitment to Social Security in redeeming it's US Bonds. Why, because Bush negated the fix of the Clinton Administration, surpluses paying down the National Debt and building reserves to pay for the upcoming Social Security payments.
Sean Lewis
Virtual Truth
New York City
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
A 'Lean' Budget? A 3.6% increase is 'austere'? BushSpeak = Truth is Fiction
A 'Lean' Budget?
A 3.6% increase is 'austere'?
BushSpeak = Truth is Fiction
Sean Lewis
February 18 2005
The more I listen to Bush describe his policies and programs, the more I find myself looking for the lies of omission, misrepresentation of facts, and the hidden issue that if the public truly knew would never have voted for Bush, the first time!
Take this 'Lean' Budget. Since Bush has come into office Government spending is up 38%. The current budget is $2.57 Trillion, not including the cost of the war on terror, making the tax cuts permanent, and Social Security Reform.
I thought Conservative Republicans were about SMALLER GOVERNMENT, Fiscal Responsibility and less Government intrusion? Bush 'says' he is about these values, yet ALL his actions are the opposite.
The Medicare 'Fix' that Bush forced passage on by keeping the vote open beyond the Congressional time limit to 'secure' the needed votes, was anything but a fix. The Administration also misrepresented the cost of the 'changes'. Bush claimed the costs would only be $400 Billion, however true costs will be $724 Billion, a fact that was suppressed under threat of employment termination to anyone who 'spilled the beans'.
Medicare is in worse shape NOW after the fix than Social Security. In Fact Medicare's drug entitlement program by itself has an unfunded liability twice as large as the entire Social Security deficit. This is the program that was structured so that no negotiations to reduce medical costs are allowed by law by the US Government. The Largest user of such services.
Bush has gone as far as to say that he would veto any attempts to make the Medicare Drug Entitlement Program more fiscally responsible or cost effective. Who then is truly benefiting from this law? The Drug companies, one of Bush's major contributors.
This gives you a window to the truth of Bush and his policies and programs.
Back to the budget.
If Bush truly wants a lean and austere Government budget he should simply put a mandate that requires that ALL budgets be reduced by 4% which would be inline with his State of the Union Speech of reducing the National Deficit by 50% in 4 years. All meaning All, Entitlements, Military and Discretionary Spending.
This would represent true Fiscal reform and responsibility. This is also why it will never happen, no hidden agenda just honest reform with no political pandering. AKA Leadership with backbone.
Sean Lewis
Virtual Truth
New York City
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
A 3.6% increase is 'austere'?
BushSpeak = Truth is Fiction
Sean Lewis
February 18 2005
The more I listen to Bush describe his policies and programs, the more I find myself looking for the lies of omission, misrepresentation of facts, and the hidden issue that if the public truly knew would never have voted for Bush, the first time!
Take this 'Lean' Budget. Since Bush has come into office Government spending is up 38%. The current budget is $2.57 Trillion, not including the cost of the war on terror, making the tax cuts permanent, and Social Security Reform.
I thought Conservative Republicans were about SMALLER GOVERNMENT, Fiscal Responsibility and less Government intrusion? Bush 'says' he is about these values, yet ALL his actions are the opposite.
The Medicare 'Fix' that Bush forced passage on by keeping the vote open beyond the Congressional time limit to 'secure' the needed votes, was anything but a fix. The Administration also misrepresented the cost of the 'changes'. Bush claimed the costs would only be $400 Billion, however true costs will be $724 Billion, a fact that was suppressed under threat of employment termination to anyone who 'spilled the beans'.
Medicare is in worse shape NOW after the fix than Social Security. In Fact Medicare's drug entitlement program by itself has an unfunded liability twice as large as the entire Social Security deficit. This is the program that was structured so that no negotiations to reduce medical costs are allowed by law by the US Government. The Largest user of such services.
Bush has gone as far as to say that he would veto any attempts to make the Medicare Drug Entitlement Program more fiscally responsible or cost effective. Who then is truly benefiting from this law? The Drug companies, one of Bush's major contributors.
This gives you a window to the truth of Bush and his policies and programs.
Back to the budget.
If Bush truly wants a lean and austere Government budget he should simply put a mandate that requires that ALL budgets be reduced by 4% which would be inline with his State of the Union Speech of reducing the National Deficit by 50% in 4 years. All meaning All, Entitlements, Military and Discretionary Spending.
This would represent true Fiscal reform and responsibility. This is also why it will never happen, no hidden agenda just honest reform with no political pandering. AKA Leadership with backbone.
Sean Lewis
Virtual Truth
New York City
VirtualTruth@aol.com
Founder Open Debate Forum
OpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
The best source for porn on TV, PTC Parents Television Council
The best source for porn on TV, PTC Parents Television Council
See for yourself.
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/SurrealLife.asp
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/medium.asp
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/bostonLegal.asp
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/lawki.asp
CBS Reairs Teen Orgy Party
NBC's The Tonight Show welcomes the new year with the f-word
Watch the new Dentyne Fire TV Ad
South Park - Whore off - Comedy Central
Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy comments that "Hopefully I have made it possible for somebody on broadcast television to do a rear-entry scene in three years. Maybe that will be my legacy."
What shows to watch?
WORST
1. Everwood
WB/9:00 Monday – not ranked last season
With its Norman Rockwell-style opening and small town sensibility, Everwood gives every appearance of being a family drama, but it's nothing of the kind. It centers on the family of Andrew Brown, a successful New York brain surgeon who moves his teenage son Ephram and eight-year-old daughter Delia to Everwood, Colorado after the death of his wife.
What makes Everwood problematic is the careless and irresponsible treatment of sexual issues – especially when the teenaged characters are involved. In one story arc from this season, high schooler Ephram fell in love with his little sister's college-aged baby-sitter. The two eventually sleep together, and in the season's final episode, she reveals to Dr. Brown that she is pregnant with Ephram's child. Rather than have Ephram face up to his responsibility -- to learn the serious consequences of his decision to become sexually active -- Dr. Brown instead gives the woman money and sends her away and makes her promise not to tell Ephram about the baby. In another episode, Amy Abbott, the teenaged daughter of Dr. Brown's competitor Harold Abbott goes to Dr. Brown for some birth control. Dr. Brown gives it to her without ever informing Dr. Abbott of what he did. Such content might be more excusable in a series that was intended for and marketed to adult audiences, but Everwood's reckless messages about sex without consequences are expressly targeted to impressionable teens.
2. That '70s Show
Fox/8:00 Wednesday – not ranked last season
Set in a small Wisconsin town during the 1970s, That '70s Show follows a group of teens as they learn to deal with parents, sex, and drugs. The characters include Eric, an average kid from a blue-collar family; and his friends Hyde, the political radical; Donna, Eric's girl-next-door love interest; the handsome but dimwitted Kelso; the pretty and snobbish Jackie; and Fez, a sexually frustrated foreign-exchange student.That '70s Show earns second place on our Worst list this year for its casual and irresponsible treatment of teen sex and drug use, which are depicted as risk- and consequence-free. This season's storylines included Kelso getting a girl pregnant after a one-night stand and Donna walking in on Eric while he is masturbating in her bathroom.
3. Fear Factor
NBC/8:00 Monday – ranked #5 last season
Riding high on the culture's obsession with what is shocking or uncouth; Fear Factor continues to push the envelope with its disgusting and physically dangerous stunts. Competitors -- which this season included kids, couples, siblings, models, and Miss America contestants -- come ready to do absolutely anything for $50,000. NBC touts Fear Factor as family-friendly, but it does not depict healthy competition; instead it depicts a new low in Americans' endless pursuit of money.
Family Fear Factor was a disturbing new addition to this franchise, as viewers uncomfortably watched parents encouraging their children to taunt and torment other children; cursing; and putting undue pressure on their young children to win. One child was even sucked beneath a raft being pulled by a speedboat while performing a stunt; his mother continued on with the stunt rather than check on his safety.
Other stunts this season included drinking the fluid squeezed from cow eyeballs; drinking lard blended with cow parts and rancid milk; escaping from handcuffs and a plastic body bag while submerged in a pool; driving a car onto a moving semi while blindfolded; sucking fluid from cow intestines and then drinking the fluid; eating pig uterus; launching a car over a train; drinking a maggot-and-fly milkshake; and escaping from a bug-filled body bag inside a morgue drawer. Language continues to worsen, as does sexual innuendo, largely because more and more episodes center on scantily clad female contestants.
4. Two and a Half Men
CBS/9:30 Monday – first season
Promiscuous jingle-writer Charlie's life is turned upside down when his divorced brother Alan and young nephew Jake move into his home. Charlie's overpowering libido, unfortunately, trumps any impulse to be a responsible role model to his young nephew. There are constant references to the steady stream of one-night stands parading in and out of Charlie's bedroom. As for female role models, there aren't any. Women in this sitcom consist of the bimbos Charlie sleeps with, then discards; Alan's shrewish, vindictive, gold-digger of an ex-wife; and Alan and Charlie's wealthy, materialistic and youth-obsessed mother.
Despite the presence of a precocious youngster, episodes of this show are decidedly not for children. Scenes have depicted a woman massaging Charlie's genitals under the table at a business meeting; Charlie masturbating; and Charlie and Alan's mother sleeping with a man who used to be a woman who Charlie slept with prior before her gender reassignment surgery. To make matters worse, ten-year-old Jake is often included in these adult situations. In one episode, he walked in on Charlie in the shower with a girlfriend; in another he drew pictures of one of Charlie's girlfriends wearing buttocks-baring underwear after he saw her dressed that way while they were eating breakfast.
5. C.S.I. (Crime Scene Investigation)
CBS/9:00 Thursday – ranked #1 last season
A series about crime-scene investigators is bound to deal with some distasteful subjects, but C.S.I. takes it a step further by providing graphic depictions of decaying bodies, grisly crime scenes, dissections, flashbacks of brutal rapes and murders, and kinky and bizarre sexual fetishes. Such content would be bad enough at 10:00 p.m., but this series airs at 9:00 (8:00 in the Central and Mountain time zones), with reruns often airing during the Family Hour.
This season, episodes have included storylines about a murder within a "swingers" community, fur fetishists who have sex while wearing animal costumes, and vampirism. Other graphic scenes from this season include a severed head being delivered in the mail, teenagers having sex on a roller coaster, and teenagers killing another teen with hammers at a construction site.
6. The Surreal Life
WB/9:00 Thursday – not ranked last season
Six B-list celebrities share a house for a couple of weeks as cameras film their daily interactions, a la The Real World. The premise in and of itself isn't necessarily problematic; the executives at the WB, however, made sure there would be plenty of salacious material by casting adult film star Ron Jeremy; former Baywatch babe Traci Bingham; and Real World party girl Trishelle Cannatella. One episode featured a backyard barbecue Jeremy hosted for his porn-industry colleagues, with cameras capturing plenty of footage of half-naked porn stars. In another episode, the six housemates spent a day at a nudist camp. Once again, camera crews made sure they captured plenty of footage of the nudists lounging and playing volleyball. If that wasn't bad enough, throughout the show's run, Bingham and Jeremy played on ongoing game of "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours." Most episodes, in fact, seemed to contain at least one scene in which Bingham tries to get Jeremy to remove his pants. Language was also extreme, with each episode featuring numerous bleeped obscenities. Although The Surreal Life won't be returning to the WB next season, it isn't going away. VH1 picked-up the series.
7. Girlfriends
UPN/9:00 Monday – ranked #7 last season
Girlfriends has earned comparisons to HBO's Sex in the City for its frank treatment of the sex lives of four friends living in Los Angeles.
No subject seems to be off-limits for Girlfriends. Script writers will mine any topic for a cheap laugh, no matter how tacky. One episode this season, for example, had Joan telling her boyfriend she had a yeast infection to get out of having sex with him. In another, Joan's friend Sharon recommends classes at "Mama Gina's School of Womanly Arts," saying, "Oh Joan, those classes are wonderful. I highly recommend 'Owning your Orgasm.' And it's a prerequisite for 'Finding Your Vagina.'"
8. Las Vegas
NBC/9:00 Monday – first season
What can you expect from a show about Sin City, but sex, sex, and more sex? Las Vegas, a new drama about the staff of an upscale casino, delivers just that along with plenty of foul language and a little violence thrown in for good measure. All manner of debauchery takes place while Ed Deline, formerly of the CIA, and his sexy staff work to maintain order and keep the money flowing.
From the opening scenes of the first episode, which included Ed catching his daughter having sex with his young protégé and a couple having sex in an elevator knowing full well the elevator was equipped with a security camera, this series has used every cheap sexual gimmick imaginable in a desperate attempt to lure viewers. One episode from this season featured a fictitious senator, famous for his morality-and-virtue platform, secretly coming to Vegas to blow off steam. He is shown in a lewd position with an apparently nude stripper while watching other women strip. On another episode the casino hosts an indoor wet T-shirt contest in which the contestants' nipples can be seen beneath the transparent t-shirts. Yet another installment depicts Mike, the valet, solving a heist case in the stripper suite while two half-naked blonds gyrate on a pole. Needless to say strong sexual innuendo can be found in just about every episode, and as long as there are strippers and alcohol on the Vegas Strip, the content of this show won't change.
9. Will & Grace
NBC/9:00 Thursday – ranked #8 last season
Will and Grace began as a sitcom about the friendship between a gay man and his best friend, a quirky straight woman. Over the last few seasons its focus has changed ever so slightly to make more room for the bawdy banter supporting characters Jack and Karen are famous for. This shift opened the door for an even higher level of crude innuendo and graphic anatomical references, both hetero- and homosexual, all of which is especially inappropriate given that episodes of Will & Grace often air during the Family Hour.
Karen gives an especially offensive description of her body in one episode and later in the season her kinky relationship with Lyle becomes a main source of comedy. Infidelity also remains a common storyline. Karen continues to feud with her husband's mistress; Will's mother agrees to share her husband with his mistress; and Leo cheats on Grace. Will's sexuality is always a hot topic: his lone female lover claims he was the best she'd ever had; a lesbian wants to sleep with him; and a nickname recalls a certain sexual practice. This show continues to rely on indecency as a source of edginess and thus will continue to rank among the worst shows for family audiences.
10. Cold Case
CBS/8:00 Sunday – first season
This is a perfect example of a very adult-themed series airing in an inappropriate time slot. Cold Case is a drama about a Philadelphia police detective who delves into old murder cases with a fresh eye. Stories are often told in flashback, recounting graphic murders and other violent crimes.
During its freshman season, Cold Case aired scenes of a teenaged boy beating his girlfriend to death with a tennis racket; teenaged boys picking up prostitutes; and a woman being beaten to death with a car antenna. Disturbing plots included a case in which a nun accidentally kills an orphan and buries him anonymously in a field; an adult man who has his son bring young teenaged girls to the house so the father can rape them; and teenaged boys at a military school who murder the coach who molested them.
For more information
For a comprehensive, day-by-day listing of prime time network television shows, visit our Family Guide. The Family Guide is the most comprehensive source of information about prime time broadcast fare from a family-values perspective - and it's the only content-based guide in existence. The PTC rates each show using an easy-to-follow traffic-light rating system: red, yellow, and green. The Family Guide contains all the information you need to make informed viewing decisions for your family. And while you're there check out the other PTC family resources, including recent television studies, film and television reviews, and a whole lot more. You can even get involved in our local grassroots efforts. Let's do all we can to improve the quality of entertainment.
Remember ...
Our children are watching
The Parents Television Council707 Wilshire BoulevardLos Angeles, California 90017(213) 629-9255 / (800) 882-6868
Sean LewisVirtual TruthNew York CityVirtualTruth@aol.comFounder Open Debate ForumOpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
See for yourself.
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/SurrealLife.asp
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/medium.asp
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/bostonLegal.asp
http://www.parentstv.org/PTC/clips/lawki.asp
CBS Reairs Teen Orgy Party
NBC's The Tonight Show welcomes the new year with the f-word
Watch the new Dentyne Fire TV Ad
South Park - Whore off - Comedy Central
Nip/Tuck creator Ryan Murphy comments that "Hopefully I have made it possible for somebody on broadcast television to do a rear-entry scene in three years. Maybe that will be my legacy."
What shows to watch?
WORST
1. Everwood
WB/9:00 Monday – not ranked last season
With its Norman Rockwell-style opening and small town sensibility, Everwood gives every appearance of being a family drama, but it's nothing of the kind. It centers on the family of Andrew Brown, a successful New York brain surgeon who moves his teenage son Ephram and eight-year-old daughter Delia to Everwood, Colorado after the death of his wife.
What makes Everwood problematic is the careless and irresponsible treatment of sexual issues – especially when the teenaged characters are involved. In one story arc from this season, high schooler Ephram fell in love with his little sister's college-aged baby-sitter. The two eventually sleep together, and in the season's final episode, she reveals to Dr. Brown that she is pregnant with Ephram's child. Rather than have Ephram face up to his responsibility -- to learn the serious consequences of his decision to become sexually active -- Dr. Brown instead gives the woman money and sends her away and makes her promise not to tell Ephram about the baby. In another episode, Amy Abbott, the teenaged daughter of Dr. Brown's competitor Harold Abbott goes to Dr. Brown for some birth control. Dr. Brown gives it to her without ever informing Dr. Abbott of what he did. Such content might be more excusable in a series that was intended for and marketed to adult audiences, but Everwood's reckless messages about sex without consequences are expressly targeted to impressionable teens.
2. That '70s Show
Fox/8:00 Wednesday – not ranked last season
Set in a small Wisconsin town during the 1970s, That '70s Show follows a group of teens as they learn to deal with parents, sex, and drugs. The characters include Eric, an average kid from a blue-collar family; and his friends Hyde, the political radical; Donna, Eric's girl-next-door love interest; the handsome but dimwitted Kelso; the pretty and snobbish Jackie; and Fez, a sexually frustrated foreign-exchange student.That '70s Show earns second place on our Worst list this year for its casual and irresponsible treatment of teen sex and drug use, which are depicted as risk- and consequence-free. This season's storylines included Kelso getting a girl pregnant after a one-night stand and Donna walking in on Eric while he is masturbating in her bathroom.
3. Fear Factor
NBC/8:00 Monday – ranked #5 last season
Riding high on the culture's obsession with what is shocking or uncouth; Fear Factor continues to push the envelope with its disgusting and physically dangerous stunts. Competitors -- which this season included kids, couples, siblings, models, and Miss America contestants -- come ready to do absolutely anything for $50,000. NBC touts Fear Factor as family-friendly, but it does not depict healthy competition; instead it depicts a new low in Americans' endless pursuit of money.
Family Fear Factor was a disturbing new addition to this franchise, as viewers uncomfortably watched parents encouraging their children to taunt and torment other children; cursing; and putting undue pressure on their young children to win. One child was even sucked beneath a raft being pulled by a speedboat while performing a stunt; his mother continued on with the stunt rather than check on his safety.
Other stunts this season included drinking the fluid squeezed from cow eyeballs; drinking lard blended with cow parts and rancid milk; escaping from handcuffs and a plastic body bag while submerged in a pool; driving a car onto a moving semi while blindfolded; sucking fluid from cow intestines and then drinking the fluid; eating pig uterus; launching a car over a train; drinking a maggot-and-fly milkshake; and escaping from a bug-filled body bag inside a morgue drawer. Language continues to worsen, as does sexual innuendo, largely because more and more episodes center on scantily clad female contestants.
4. Two and a Half Men
CBS/9:30 Monday – first season
Promiscuous jingle-writer Charlie's life is turned upside down when his divorced brother Alan and young nephew Jake move into his home. Charlie's overpowering libido, unfortunately, trumps any impulse to be a responsible role model to his young nephew. There are constant references to the steady stream of one-night stands parading in and out of Charlie's bedroom. As for female role models, there aren't any. Women in this sitcom consist of the bimbos Charlie sleeps with, then discards; Alan's shrewish, vindictive, gold-digger of an ex-wife; and Alan and Charlie's wealthy, materialistic and youth-obsessed mother.
Despite the presence of a precocious youngster, episodes of this show are decidedly not for children. Scenes have depicted a woman massaging Charlie's genitals under the table at a business meeting; Charlie masturbating; and Charlie and Alan's mother sleeping with a man who used to be a woman who Charlie slept with prior before her gender reassignment surgery. To make matters worse, ten-year-old Jake is often included in these adult situations. In one episode, he walked in on Charlie in the shower with a girlfriend; in another he drew pictures of one of Charlie's girlfriends wearing buttocks-baring underwear after he saw her dressed that way while they were eating breakfast.
5. C.S.I. (Crime Scene Investigation)
CBS/9:00 Thursday – ranked #1 last season
A series about crime-scene investigators is bound to deal with some distasteful subjects, but C.S.I. takes it a step further by providing graphic depictions of decaying bodies, grisly crime scenes, dissections, flashbacks of brutal rapes and murders, and kinky and bizarre sexual fetishes. Such content would be bad enough at 10:00 p.m., but this series airs at 9:00 (8:00 in the Central and Mountain time zones), with reruns often airing during the Family Hour.
This season, episodes have included storylines about a murder within a "swingers" community, fur fetishists who have sex while wearing animal costumes, and vampirism. Other graphic scenes from this season include a severed head being delivered in the mail, teenagers having sex on a roller coaster, and teenagers killing another teen with hammers at a construction site.
6. The Surreal Life
WB/9:00 Thursday – not ranked last season
Six B-list celebrities share a house for a couple of weeks as cameras film their daily interactions, a la The Real World. The premise in and of itself isn't necessarily problematic; the executives at the WB, however, made sure there would be plenty of salacious material by casting adult film star Ron Jeremy; former Baywatch babe Traci Bingham; and Real World party girl Trishelle Cannatella. One episode featured a backyard barbecue Jeremy hosted for his porn-industry colleagues, with cameras capturing plenty of footage of half-naked porn stars. In another episode, the six housemates spent a day at a nudist camp. Once again, camera crews made sure they captured plenty of footage of the nudists lounging and playing volleyball. If that wasn't bad enough, throughout the show's run, Bingham and Jeremy played on ongoing game of "I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours." Most episodes, in fact, seemed to contain at least one scene in which Bingham tries to get Jeremy to remove his pants. Language was also extreme, with each episode featuring numerous bleeped obscenities. Although The Surreal Life won't be returning to the WB next season, it isn't going away. VH1 picked-up the series.
7. Girlfriends
UPN/9:00 Monday – ranked #7 last season
Girlfriends has earned comparisons to HBO's Sex in the City for its frank treatment of the sex lives of four friends living in Los Angeles.
No subject seems to be off-limits for Girlfriends. Script writers will mine any topic for a cheap laugh, no matter how tacky. One episode this season, for example, had Joan telling her boyfriend she had a yeast infection to get out of having sex with him. In another, Joan's friend Sharon recommends classes at "Mama Gina's School of Womanly Arts," saying, "Oh Joan, those classes are wonderful. I highly recommend 'Owning your Orgasm.' And it's a prerequisite for 'Finding Your Vagina.'"
8. Las Vegas
NBC/9:00 Monday – first season
What can you expect from a show about Sin City, but sex, sex, and more sex? Las Vegas, a new drama about the staff of an upscale casino, delivers just that along with plenty of foul language and a little violence thrown in for good measure. All manner of debauchery takes place while Ed Deline, formerly of the CIA, and his sexy staff work to maintain order and keep the money flowing.
From the opening scenes of the first episode, which included Ed catching his daughter having sex with his young protégé and a couple having sex in an elevator knowing full well the elevator was equipped with a security camera, this series has used every cheap sexual gimmick imaginable in a desperate attempt to lure viewers. One episode from this season featured a fictitious senator, famous for his morality-and-virtue platform, secretly coming to Vegas to blow off steam. He is shown in a lewd position with an apparently nude stripper while watching other women strip. On another episode the casino hosts an indoor wet T-shirt contest in which the contestants' nipples can be seen beneath the transparent t-shirts. Yet another installment depicts Mike, the valet, solving a heist case in the stripper suite while two half-naked blonds gyrate on a pole. Needless to say strong sexual innuendo can be found in just about every episode, and as long as there are strippers and alcohol on the Vegas Strip, the content of this show won't change.
9. Will & Grace
NBC/9:00 Thursday – ranked #8 last season
Will and Grace began as a sitcom about the friendship between a gay man and his best friend, a quirky straight woman. Over the last few seasons its focus has changed ever so slightly to make more room for the bawdy banter supporting characters Jack and Karen are famous for. This shift opened the door for an even higher level of crude innuendo and graphic anatomical references, both hetero- and homosexual, all of which is especially inappropriate given that episodes of Will & Grace often air during the Family Hour.
Karen gives an especially offensive description of her body in one episode and later in the season her kinky relationship with Lyle becomes a main source of comedy. Infidelity also remains a common storyline. Karen continues to feud with her husband's mistress; Will's mother agrees to share her husband with his mistress; and Leo cheats on Grace. Will's sexuality is always a hot topic: his lone female lover claims he was the best she'd ever had; a lesbian wants to sleep with him; and a nickname recalls a certain sexual practice. This show continues to rely on indecency as a source of edginess and thus will continue to rank among the worst shows for family audiences.
10. Cold Case
CBS/8:00 Sunday – first season
This is a perfect example of a very adult-themed series airing in an inappropriate time slot. Cold Case is a drama about a Philadelphia police detective who delves into old murder cases with a fresh eye. Stories are often told in flashback, recounting graphic murders and other violent crimes.
During its freshman season, Cold Case aired scenes of a teenaged boy beating his girlfriend to death with a tennis racket; teenaged boys picking up prostitutes; and a woman being beaten to death with a car antenna. Disturbing plots included a case in which a nun accidentally kills an orphan and buries him anonymously in a field; an adult man who has his son bring young teenaged girls to the house so the father can rape them; and teenaged boys at a military school who murder the coach who molested them.
For more information
For a comprehensive, day-by-day listing of prime time network television shows, visit our Family Guide. The Family Guide is the most comprehensive source of information about prime time broadcast fare from a family-values perspective - and it's the only content-based guide in existence. The PTC rates each show using an easy-to-follow traffic-light rating system: red, yellow, and green. The Family Guide contains all the information you need to make informed viewing decisions for your family. And while you're there check out the other PTC family resources, including recent television studies, film and television reviews, and a whole lot more. You can even get involved in our local grassroots efforts. Let's do all we can to improve the quality of entertainment.
Remember ...
Our children are watching
The Parents Television Council707 Wilshire BoulevardLos Angeles, California 90017(213) 629-9255 / (800) 882-6868
Sean LewisVirtual TruthNew York CityVirtualTruth@aol.comFounder Open Debate ForumOpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Which would you rather have? Tax Cuts and Refunds or Social Security and Medicare?
Which would you rather have?
Tax Cuts and Refunds or
Social Security and Medicare?
Sean Lewis
February 18, 2005
Short Term gratification vs Long Term responsibility. This is what this question is really about. This is what Bush campaigned on. One he gave lip service to, and the other one he delivered.
Bush was right when he said the Surplus was our money. Bush just failed to mention that the surplus represented our future Social Security checks.
Bush won the Presidency by buying it with Government Checks. Government Checks that were ours to begin with, since it was our Social Security Money.
Now Bush is 'fixing' Social Security. A program that was never broken, but because of Bush's fiscal policy, the program is essentially broke.
How?
If you believe Bush it was because when Social Security was first instituted there were 17 employees contributing for everyone retiree.
The fact of omission however was that the unused surplus was invested in US Treasuries for when the disparity would become what it is now. This is why TECHNICALLY Social Security is flushed with $1.8 Trillion in US Government Bonds and will be self sufficient until 2042.
But because of the Deficit created by the Bush Tax cuts, there are no Government Funds to honor the redeemed Social Security Treasury Bonds.
So I ask the question again.
Which would you rather have Tax Cuts and Refunds or Social Security and Medicare?
Sean LewisVirtual TruthNew York CityVirtualTruth@aol.comFounder Open Debate ForumOpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
Tax Cuts and Refunds or
Social Security and Medicare?
Sean Lewis
February 18, 2005
Short Term gratification vs Long Term responsibility. This is what this question is really about. This is what Bush campaigned on. One he gave lip service to, and the other one he delivered.
Bush was right when he said the Surplus was our money. Bush just failed to mention that the surplus represented our future Social Security checks.
Bush won the Presidency by buying it with Government Checks. Government Checks that were ours to begin with, since it was our Social Security Money.
Now Bush is 'fixing' Social Security. A program that was never broken, but because of Bush's fiscal policy, the program is essentially broke.
How?
If you believe Bush it was because when Social Security was first instituted there were 17 employees contributing for everyone retiree.
The fact of omission however was that the unused surplus was invested in US Treasuries for when the disparity would become what it is now. This is why TECHNICALLY Social Security is flushed with $1.8 Trillion in US Government Bonds and will be self sufficient until 2042.
But because of the Deficit created by the Bush Tax cuts, there are no Government Funds to honor the redeemed Social Security Treasury Bonds.
So I ask the question again.
Which would you rather have Tax Cuts and Refunds or Social Security and Medicare?
Sean LewisVirtual TruthNew York CityVirtualTruth@aol.comFounder Open Debate ForumOpenDebateForum@groups.aol.com
We are Americans first. Not black or white, conservative or liberal, Republican or Democrat. We are Americans first. Until this fact is understood we will be a nation divided and ineffective. We need to forget our differences and stop blaming each other for the errors of the past. We need to be non partisan about the future of this country. Our greatest enemy is from within. We have turned upon each other. . We need to change our old way of business as usual and be united for the common good. Which is, we are all Americans first.
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
Can Christians Justify the invasion of Iraq
Can Christians Justify the invasion of Iraq
and the death this caused?
Sean Lewis
February 18, 2005
As a Christian one of the commandments I follow is thou shall not kill. As a soldier, I justified killing enemy combatants with the reasoning of neutralizing an immediate threat to myself and to my family and finally my nation.
When I die and I am standing before Saint Peter I can say with clear conscience that I only killed in self defense. That the killing was necessary to protect myself, family and my way of life.
President Bush said Iraq was a threat to the US because of WMD's. We invaded Iraq on President's Bush assurances that if we did not those WMD's could be used against the US. 100,000's of deaths have resulted from this invasion. Yet there were no WMD's.
When these Christian soldiers die and they are standing before Saint Peter, what will they say? Has Bush Damned these men and woman to Hell? Or is this Bush's penance to pay?
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
and the death this caused?
Sean Lewis
February 18, 2005
As a Christian one of the commandments I follow is thou shall not kill. As a soldier, I justified killing enemy combatants with the reasoning of neutralizing an immediate threat to myself and to my family and finally my nation.
When I die and I am standing before Saint Peter I can say with clear conscience that I only killed in self defense. That the killing was necessary to protect myself, family and my way of life.
President Bush said Iraq was a threat to the US because of WMD's. We invaded Iraq on President's Bush assurances that if we did not those WMD's could be used against the US. 100,000's of deaths have resulted from this invasion. Yet there were no WMD's.
When these Christian soldiers die and they are standing before Saint Peter, what will they say? Has Bush Damned these men and woman to Hell? Or is this Bush's penance to pay?
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
Is THIS really an issue? 'The Simpsons' Dives Into Gay Marriage Controversy
'The Simpsons' Dives Into Gay Marriage Controversy
(Feb. 19) — At a time when the culture wars have singed such animated characters as SpongeBob SquarePants and PBS's Buster, the Fox network's "The Simpsons" is gleefully thrusting itself into the crossfire.
This Sunday, Springfield — the fictional town where the show is set — will legalize same-sex marriage.
What's more, one of the main characters on the show will come out as a homosexual. (This is a carefully guarded secret that has caused much speculation on blogs and in chat rooms.)
The executive producer of "The Simpsons," Al Jean, says the show is not endorsing same-sex marriage. He points out that not all of the characters in the show support the legalization — and that many of those who do just hope it will bring in tourist dollars.
In the episode, the town creates a tourism advertisement with the lines: "Gay-o, it's OK-o/Tie the knot and spend your dough/Gay-o, come and stay-o/Visit our Web site for further info."
Some Christian conservatives say the show is yet another example of how "Holly-weird" (as many of them call it) has become increasingly disconnected from average Americans.
"I think television is becoming obsessed with homosexuality," says Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America. "In fact, I wouldn't put it past people to dig up re-runs of 'Happy Days' and have the Fonz come out as gay."
Saints or Sinners?
This, however, is not your average skirmish in the culture wars. While some Christian conservatives are upset, there's less criticism this time. In part that's because "The Simpsons" — unlike "SpongeBob Squarepants" and "Postcards from Buster" — is not aimed directly at children. In part, it's because many evangelicals have long embraced "The Simpsons" for its high religious content.
The show has one of the few born-again Christian characters on television: Ned Flanders. He's Homer Simpson's sometimes dopey next-door neighbor — who often comes off as the most sympathetic character on the show. Some evangelicals have adopted him as a mascot of sorts.
Orlando-based religion writer Mark Pinsky wrote a book called "The Gospel According to the Simpsons" that explores the ways in which the show examines moral and spiritual issues. Some evangelicals use the book and the show to teach religion to young people.
"There are too many intelligent, discerning Christians and evangelicals who have adopted the show, who like the show," says Pinsky. "I think it would be too dangerous, frankly, too marginalizing, for other leaders of the Christian Right to attack it."
An example of the internal debate this has caused among conservatives can be found on the Web site FreeRepublic.com. One contributor calls Sunday's "Simpsons" episode "disgusting." She's rebutted by a self-described Christian conservative who says the show has "more churchgoing than has been on TV since the '50s."
Some hope that — even though same-sex marriage is such a divisive issue — viewers can, for a half hour at least, put aside their differences and just laugh.
Copyright 2005 ABC News. All rights reserved.
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
(Feb. 19) — At a time when the culture wars have singed such animated characters as SpongeBob SquarePants and PBS's Buster, the Fox network's "The Simpsons" is gleefully thrusting itself into the crossfire.
This Sunday, Springfield — the fictional town where the show is set — will legalize same-sex marriage.
What's more, one of the main characters on the show will come out as a homosexual. (This is a carefully guarded secret that has caused much speculation on blogs and in chat rooms.)
The executive producer of "The Simpsons," Al Jean, says the show is not endorsing same-sex marriage. He points out that not all of the characters in the show support the legalization — and that many of those who do just hope it will bring in tourist dollars.
In the episode, the town creates a tourism advertisement with the lines: "Gay-o, it's OK-o/Tie the knot and spend your dough/Gay-o, come and stay-o/Visit our Web site for further info."
Some Christian conservatives say the show is yet another example of how "Holly-weird" (as many of them call it) has become increasingly disconnected from average Americans.
"I think television is becoming obsessed with homosexuality," says Robert Knight of Concerned Women for America. "In fact, I wouldn't put it past people to dig up re-runs of 'Happy Days' and have the Fonz come out as gay."
Saints or Sinners?
This, however, is not your average skirmish in the culture wars. While some Christian conservatives are upset, there's less criticism this time. In part that's because "The Simpsons" — unlike "SpongeBob Squarepants" and "Postcards from Buster" — is not aimed directly at children. In part, it's because many evangelicals have long embraced "The Simpsons" for its high religious content.
The show has one of the few born-again Christian characters on television: Ned Flanders. He's Homer Simpson's sometimes dopey next-door neighbor — who often comes off as the most sympathetic character on the show. Some evangelicals have adopted him as a mascot of sorts.
Orlando-based religion writer Mark Pinsky wrote a book called "The Gospel According to the Simpsons" that explores the ways in which the show examines moral and spiritual issues. Some evangelicals use the book and the show to teach religion to young people.
"There are too many intelligent, discerning Christians and evangelicals who have adopted the show, who like the show," says Pinsky. "I think it would be too dangerous, frankly, too marginalizing, for other leaders of the Christian Right to attack it."
An example of the internal debate this has caused among conservatives can be found on the Web site FreeRepublic.com. One contributor calls Sunday's "Simpsons" episode "disgusting." She's rebutted by a self-described Christian conservative who says the show has "more churchgoing than has been on TV since the '50s."
Some hope that — even though same-sex marriage is such a divisive issue — viewers can, for a half hour at least, put aside their differences and just laugh.
Copyright 2005 ABC News. All rights reserved.
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
In Secretly Taped Talks, Glimpses of Future President
In Secretly Taped Talks, Glimpses of Future President
Author, Former Aide to Bush's Father, Disclosed Tapes' Existence
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, The New York Times
WASHINGTON, (Feb. 20) - As George W. Bush was first moving onto the national political stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend who secretly taped some of their private conversations, creating a rare record of the future president as a politician and a personality.
In the last several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former aide to Mr. Bush's father, disclosed the tapes' existence to a reporter and played about a dozen of them.
Variously earnest, confident or prickly in those conversations, Mr. Bush weighs the political risks and benefits of his religious faith, discusses campaign strategy and comments on rivals. John McCain "will wear thin," he predicted. John Ashcroft, he confided, would be a "very good Supreme Court pick" or a "fabulous" vice president. And in exchanges about his handling of questions from the news media about his past, Mr. Bush appears to have acknowledged trying marijuana.
Mr. Wead said he recorded the conversations because he viewed Mr. Bush as a historic figure, but he said he knew that the president might regard his actions as a betrayal. As the author of a new book about presidential childhoods, Mr. Wead could benefit from any publicity, but he said that was not a motive in disclosing the tapes.
The White House did not dispute the authenticity of the tapes or respond to their contents. Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said, "The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend." Asked about drug use, Mr. Duffy said, "That has been asked and answered so many times there is nothing more to add."
The conversations Mr. Wead played offer insights into Mr. Bush's thinking from the time he was weighing a run for president in 1998 to shortly before he accepted the Republican nomination in 2000. Mr. Wead had been a liaison to evangelical Protestants for the president's father, and the intersection of religion and politics is a recurring theme in the talks.
Preparing to meet Christian leaders in September 1998, Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead, "As you said, there are some code words. There are some proper ways to say things, and some improper ways." He added, "I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement."
But Mr. Bush also repeatedly worried that prominent evangelical Christians would not like his refusal "to kick gays." At the same time, he was wary of unnerving secular voters by meeting publicly with evangelical leaders. When he thought his aides had agreed to such a meeting, Mr. Bush complained to Karl Rove, his political strategist, "What the hell is this about?"
Mr. Bush, who has acknowledged a drinking problem years ago, told Mr. Wead on the tapes that he could withstand scrutiny of his past. He said it involved nothing more than "just, you know, wild behavior." He worried, though, that allegations of cocaine use would surface in the campaign, and he blamed his opponents for stirring rumors. "If nobody shows up, there's no story," he told Mr. Wead, "and if somebody shows up, it is going to be made up." But when Mr. Wead said that Mr. Bush had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Mr. Bush replied, "I haven't denied anything."
He refused to answer reporters' questions about his past behavior, he said, even though it might cost him the election. Defending his approach, Mr. Bush said: "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
He mocked Vice President Al Gore for acknowledging marijuana use. "Baby boomers have got to grow up and say, yeah, I may have done drugs, but instead of admitting it, say to kids, don't do them," he said.
Mr. Bush threatened that if his rival Steve Forbes attacked him too hard during the campaign and won, both Mr. Bush, then the Texas governor, and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, would withhold their support. "He can forget Texas. And he can forget Florida. And I will sit on my hands," Mr. Bush said.
The private Mr. Bush sounds remarkably similar in many ways to the public President Bush. Many of the taped comments foreshadow aspects of his presidency, including his opposition to both anti-gay language and recognizing same-sex marriage, his skepticism about the United Nations, his sense of moral purpose and his focus on cultivating conservative Christian voters.
Mr. Wead said he withheld many tapes of conversations that were repetitive or of a purely personal nature. The dozen conversations he agreed to play ranged in length from five minutes to nearly half an hour. In them, the future president affectionately addresses Mr. Wead as "Weadie" or "Weadnik," asks if his children still believe in Santa Claus, and chides him for skipping a doctor's appointment. Mr. Bush also regularly gripes about the barbs of the press and his rivals. And he is cocky at times. "It's me versus the world," he told Mr. Wead. "The good news is, the world is on my side. Or more than half of it."
Other presidents, such as Richard M. Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson, secretly recorded conversations from the White House. Some former associates of President Bill Clinton taped personal conversations in apparent efforts to embarrass or entrap him. But Mr. Wead's recordings are a rare example of a future president taped at length without his knowledge talking about matters of public interest like his political strategy and priorities.
Mr. Wead first acknowledged the tapes to a reporter in December to defend the accuracy of a passage about Mr. Bush in his new book, "The Raising of a President." He did not mention the tapes in the book or footnotes, saying he drew on them for only one page of the book. He said he never sought to sell or profit from them. He said he made the tapes in states where it was legal to do so with only one party's knowledge.
Mr. Wead eventually agreed to play a dozen tapes on the condition that the names of any private citizens be withheld. The New York Times hired Tom Owen, an expert on audio authentication, to examine samples from the tapes. He concluded the voice was that of the president.
A White House adviser to the first President Bush, Mr. Wead said in an interview in The Washington Post in 1990 that Andrew H. Card Jr., then deputy chief of staff, told him to leave the administration "sooner rather than later" after he sent conservatives a letter faulting the White House for inviting gay activists to an event. But Mr. Wead said he left on good terms. He never had a formal role in the current president's campaign, though the tapes suggest he had angled for one.
Mr. Wead said he admired George W. Bush and stayed in touch with some members of his family. While he said he has not communicated with the president since early in his first term, he attributed that to Mr. Bush's busy schedule.
Mr. Wead said he recorded his conversations with the president in part because he thought he might be asked to write a book for the campaign. He also wanted a clear account of any requests Mr. Bush made of him. But he said his main motivation in making the tapes, which he originally intended to be released only after his own death, was to leave the nation a unique record of Mr. Bush.
"I believe that, like him or not, he is going to be a huge historical figure," Mr. Wead said. "If I was on the telephone with Churchill or Gandhi, I would tape record them too."
Summer of 1998
The first of the taped conversations Mr. Wead disclosed took place in the summer of 1998, when Mr. Bush was running for his second term as Texas governor. At the time, Mr. Bush was considered a political moderate who worked well with Democrats and was widely admired by Texans of both parties. His family name made him a strong presidential contender, but he had not yet committed to run.
Still, in a conversation that November on the eve of Mr. Bush's re-election, his confidence was soaring. "I believe tomorrow is going to change Texas politics forever," he told Mr. Wead. "The top three offices right below me will be the first time there has been a Republican in that slot since the Civil War. Isn't that amazing? And I hate to be a braggart, but they are going to win for one reason: me."
Talking to Mr. Wead, a former Assemblies of God minister who was well connected in conservative evangelical circles, Mr. Bush's biggest concern about the Republican presidential primary was shoring up his right flank. Mr. Forbes was working hard to win the support of conservative Christians by emphasizing his opposition to abortion. "I view him as a problem, don't you?" Mr. Bush asked.
Mr. Bush knew that his own religious faith could be an asset with conservative Christian voters, and his personal devotion was often evident in the taped conversations. When Mr. Wead warned him that "power corrupts," for example, Mr. Bush told him not to worry: "I have got a great wife. And I read the Bible daily. The Bible is pretty good about keeping your ego in check."
In November 1999, he told his friend that he had been deeply moved by a memorial service for students who died in an accident when constructing a Thanksgiving weekend bonfire at Texas A & M University, especially by the prayers by friends of the students.
In another conversation, he described a "powerful moment" visiting the site of the Sermon on the Mount in Israel with a group of state governors, where he read "Amazing Grace" aloud. "I look forward to sharing this at some point in time," he told Mr. Wead about the event.
Preparing to meet with influential Christian conservatives, Mr. Bush tested his lines with Mr. Wead. "I'm going to tell them the five turning points in my life," he said. "Accepting Christ. Marrying my wife. Having children. Running for governor. And listening to my mother."
In September 1998, Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead that he was getting ready for his first meeting with James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, an evangelical self-help group. Dr. Dobson, probably the most influential evangelical conservative, wanted to examine the candidate's Christian credentials.
"He said he would like to meet me, you know, he had heard some nice things, you know, well, 'I don't know if he is a true believer' kind of attitude," Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush said he intended to reassure Dr. Dobson of his opposition to abortion. Mr. Bush said he was concerned about rumors that Dr. Dobson had been telling others that the "Bushes weren't going to be involved in abortion," meaning that the Bush family preferred to avoid the issue rather than fight over it.
"I just don't believe I said that. Why would I have said that?" Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead with annoyance.
By the end of the primary, Mr. Bush alluded to Dr. Dobson's strong views on abortion again, apparently ruling out potential vice presidents including Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Gen. Colin L. Powell, who favored abortion rights. Picking any of them could turn conservative Christians away from the ticket, Mr. Bush said.
"They are not going to like it anyway, boy," Mr. Bush said. "Dobson made it clear."
Signs of Concern
Early on, though, Mr. Bush appeared most worried that Christian conservatives would object to his determination not to criticize gay people. "I think he wants me to attack homosexuals," Mr. Bush said after meeting James Robison, a prominent evangelical minister in Texas.
But Mr. Bush said he did not intend to change his position. He said he told Mr. Robison: "Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off the bat. One, I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"
Later, he read aloud an aide's report from a convention of the Christian Coalition, a conservative political group: "This crowd uses gays as the enemy. It's hard to distinguish between fear of the homosexual political agenda and fear of homosexuality, however."
"This is an issue I have been trying to downplay," Mr. Bush said. "I think it is bad for Republicans to be kicking gays."
Told that one conservative supporter was saying Mr. Bush had pledged not to hire gay people, Mr. Bush said sharply: "No, what I said was, I wouldn't fire gays."
As early as 1998, however, Mr. Bush had already identified one gay-rights issue where he found common ground with conservative Christians: same-sex marriage. "Gay marriage, I am against that. Special rights, I am against that," Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead, five years before a Massachusetts court brought the issue to national attention.
Mr. Bush took stock of conservative Christian views of foreign policy as well. Reading more of the report from the Christian Coalition meeting, Mr. Bush said to Mr. Wead: "Sovereignty. The issue is huge. The mere mention of Kofi Annan in the U.N. caused the crowd to go into a veritable fit. The coalition wants America strong and wants the American flag flying overseas, not the pale blue of the U.N."
As eager as Mr. Bush was to cultivate the support of Christian conservatives, he did not want to do it too publicly for fear of driving away more secular voters. When Mr. Wead warned Mr. Bush to avoid big meetings with evangelical leaders, Mr. Bush said, "I'm just going to have one," and, "This is not meant to be public."
Past Behavior
Many of the taped conversations revolve around Mr. Bush's handling of questions about his past behavior. In August 1998, he worried that the scandals of the Clinton administration had sharpened journalists' determination to investigate the private lives of candidates. He even expressed a hint of sympathy for his Democratic predecessor.
"I don't like it either," Mr. Bush said of the Clinton investigations. "But on the other hand, I think he has disgraced the nation."
When Mr. Wead warned that he had heard reporters talking about Mr. Bush's "immature" past, Mr. Bush said, "That's part of my schtick, which is, look, we have all made mistakes."
He said he learned "a couple of really good lines" from Mr. Robison, the Texas pastor: "What you need to say time and time again is not talk about the details of your transgressions but talk about what I have learned. I've sinned and I've learned."
"I said, 'James' - he stopped - I said, 'I did some things when I was young that were immature,' " Mr. Bush said. "He said, 'But have you learned?' I said, 'James, that's the difference between me and the president. I've learned. I am prepared to accept the responsibility of this office.' "By the summer of 1999, Mr. Bush was telling Mr. Wead his approach to such prying questions had evolved. "I think it is time for somebody to just draw the line and look people in the eye and say, I am not going to participate in ugly rumors about me, and blame my opponents, and hold the line, and stand up for a system that will not allow this kind of crap to go on."
Later, however, Mr. Bush worried that his refusal to answer questions about whether he had used illegal drugs in the past could prove costly, but he held out nonetheless. "I am just not going to answer those questions. And it might cost me the election," he told Mr. Wead.
He complained repeatedly about the press scrutiny, accusing the news media of a "campaign" against him. While he talked of certain reporters as "pro-Bush" and commented favorably on some publications (U.S. News & World Report is "halfway decent," but Time magazine is "awful"), he vented frequently to Mr. Wead about what he considered the liberal bias and invasiveness of the news media in general.
"It's unbelievable," Mr. Bush said, reciting various rumors about his past that his aides had picked up from reporters. "They just float sewer out there."
Mr. Bush bristled at even an implicit aspersion on his past behavior from Dan Quayle, the former vice president and a rival candidate.
"He's gone ugly on me, man," Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead. Mr. Bush quoted Mr. Quayle as saying, "I'm proud of what I did before 40."
"As if I am not!" Mr. Bush said.
Sizing Up Opponents
During the primary contest, Mr. Bush often sized up his dozen Republican rivals, assessing their appeal to conservative Christian voters, their treatment of him and their prospects of serving in a future Bush administration. He paid particular attention to Senator John Ashcroft. "I like Ashcroft a lot," he told Mr. Wead in November 1998. "He is a competent man. He would be a good Supreme Court pick. He would be a good attorney general. He would be a good vice president."
When Mr. Wead predicted an uproar if Mr. Ashcroft were appointed to the court because of his conservative religious views, Mr. Bush replied, "Well, tough."
While Mr. Bush thought the conservative Christian candidates Gary L. Bauer and Alan Keyes would probably scare away moderates, he saw Mr. Ashcroft as an ally because he would draw evangelical voters into the race.
"I want Ashcroft to stay in there, and I want him to be very strong," Mr. Bush said. " I would love it to be a Bush-Ashcroft race. Only because I respect him. He wouldn't say ugly things about me. And I damn sure wouldn't say ugly things about him."
But Mr. Bush was sharply critical of Mr. Forbes, another son of privilege with a famous last name. Evangelicals were not going to like him, Mr. Bush said. "He's too preppy," Mr. Bush said, calling Mr. Forbes "mean spirited."
Recalling the bruising primary fight Mr. Forbes waged against Bob Dole in 1996, Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead, "Steve Forbes is going to hear this message from me. I will do nothing for him if he does to me what he did to Dole. Period. There is going to be a consequence. He is not dealing with the average, you know, 'Oh gosh, let's all get together after it's over.' I will promise you, I will not help him. I don't care."
Another time, Mr. Bush discussed offering Mr. Forbes a job as economic adviser or even secretary of commerce, if Mr. Forbes would approach him first.
Mr. Bush's political predictions were not always on the mark. Before the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Bush all but dismissed Senator John McCain, who turned out to be his strongest challenger.
"He's going to wear very thin when it is all said and done," he said.
When Mr. Wead suggested in June 2000 that Mr. McCain's popularity with Democrats and moderate voters might make him a strong vice presidential candidate, Mr. Bush almost laughed. "Oh, come on!" He added, "I don't know if he helps us win."
Mr. Bush could hardly contain his disdain for Mr. Gore, his Democratic opponent, at one point calling him "pathologically a liar." His confidence in the moral purpose of his campaign to usher in "a responsibility era" never wavered, but he acknowledged that winning might require hard jabs. "I may have to get a little rough for a while," he told Mr. Wead, "but that is what the old man had to do with Dukakis, remember?"
For his part, Mr. Wead said what was most resonant about the conversations with Mr. Bush was his concern that his past behavior might come back to haunt him. Mr. Wead said he used the tapes for his book because Mr. Bush's life so clearly fit his thesis: that presidents often grow up overshadowed by another sibling.
"What I saw in George W. Bush is that he purposefully put himself in the shadows by his irresponsible behavior as a young person," Mr. Wead said. That enabled him to come into his own outside the glare of his parents' expectations, Mr. Wead said.
Why disclose the tapes? "I just felt that the historical point I was making trumped a personal relationship," Mr. Wead said. Asked about consequences, Mr. Wead said, "I'll always be friendly toward him."
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
Author, Former Aide to Bush's Father, Disclosed Tapes' Existence
By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK, The New York Times
WASHINGTON, (Feb. 20) - As George W. Bush was first moving onto the national political stage, he often turned for advice to an old friend who secretly taped some of their private conversations, creating a rare record of the future president as a politician and a personality.
In the last several weeks, that friend, Doug Wead, an author and former aide to Mr. Bush's father, disclosed the tapes' existence to a reporter and played about a dozen of them.
Variously earnest, confident or prickly in those conversations, Mr. Bush weighs the political risks and benefits of his religious faith, discusses campaign strategy and comments on rivals. John McCain "will wear thin," he predicted. John Ashcroft, he confided, would be a "very good Supreme Court pick" or a "fabulous" vice president. And in exchanges about his handling of questions from the news media about his past, Mr. Bush appears to have acknowledged trying marijuana.
Mr. Wead said he recorded the conversations because he viewed Mr. Bush as a historic figure, but he said he knew that the president might regard his actions as a betrayal. As the author of a new book about presidential childhoods, Mr. Wead could benefit from any publicity, but he said that was not a motive in disclosing the tapes.
The White House did not dispute the authenticity of the tapes or respond to their contents. Trent Duffy, a White House spokesman, said, "The governor was having casual conversations with someone he believed was his friend." Asked about drug use, Mr. Duffy said, "That has been asked and answered so many times there is nothing more to add."
The conversations Mr. Wead played offer insights into Mr. Bush's thinking from the time he was weighing a run for president in 1998 to shortly before he accepted the Republican nomination in 2000. Mr. Wead had been a liaison to evangelical Protestants for the president's father, and the intersection of religion and politics is a recurring theme in the talks.
Preparing to meet Christian leaders in September 1998, Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead, "As you said, there are some code words. There are some proper ways to say things, and some improper ways." He added, "I am going to say that I've accepted Christ into my life. And that's a true statement."
But Mr. Bush also repeatedly worried that prominent evangelical Christians would not like his refusal "to kick gays." At the same time, he was wary of unnerving secular voters by meeting publicly with evangelical leaders. When he thought his aides had agreed to such a meeting, Mr. Bush complained to Karl Rove, his political strategist, "What the hell is this about?"
Mr. Bush, who has acknowledged a drinking problem years ago, told Mr. Wead on the tapes that he could withstand scrutiny of his past. He said it involved nothing more than "just, you know, wild behavior." He worried, though, that allegations of cocaine use would surface in the campaign, and he blamed his opponents for stirring rumors. "If nobody shows up, there's no story," he told Mr. Wead, "and if somebody shows up, it is going to be made up." But when Mr. Wead said that Mr. Bush had in the past publicly denied using cocaine, Mr. Bush replied, "I haven't denied anything."
He refused to answer reporters' questions about his past behavior, he said, even though it might cost him the election. Defending his approach, Mr. Bush said: "I wouldn't answer the marijuana questions. You know why? Because I don't want some little kid doing what I tried."
He mocked Vice President Al Gore for acknowledging marijuana use. "Baby boomers have got to grow up and say, yeah, I may have done drugs, but instead of admitting it, say to kids, don't do them," he said.
Mr. Bush threatened that if his rival Steve Forbes attacked him too hard during the campaign and won, both Mr. Bush, then the Texas governor, and his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, would withhold their support. "He can forget Texas. And he can forget Florida. And I will sit on my hands," Mr. Bush said.
The private Mr. Bush sounds remarkably similar in many ways to the public President Bush. Many of the taped comments foreshadow aspects of his presidency, including his opposition to both anti-gay language and recognizing same-sex marriage, his skepticism about the United Nations, his sense of moral purpose and his focus on cultivating conservative Christian voters.
Mr. Wead said he withheld many tapes of conversations that were repetitive or of a purely personal nature. The dozen conversations he agreed to play ranged in length from five minutes to nearly half an hour. In them, the future president affectionately addresses Mr. Wead as "Weadie" or "Weadnik," asks if his children still believe in Santa Claus, and chides him for skipping a doctor's appointment. Mr. Bush also regularly gripes about the barbs of the press and his rivals. And he is cocky at times. "It's me versus the world," he told Mr. Wead. "The good news is, the world is on my side. Or more than half of it."
Other presidents, such as Richard M. Nixon and Lyndon B. Johnson, secretly recorded conversations from the White House. Some former associates of President Bill Clinton taped personal conversations in apparent efforts to embarrass or entrap him. But Mr. Wead's recordings are a rare example of a future president taped at length without his knowledge talking about matters of public interest like his political strategy and priorities.
Mr. Wead first acknowledged the tapes to a reporter in December to defend the accuracy of a passage about Mr. Bush in his new book, "The Raising of a President." He did not mention the tapes in the book or footnotes, saying he drew on them for only one page of the book. He said he never sought to sell or profit from them. He said he made the tapes in states where it was legal to do so with only one party's knowledge.
Mr. Wead eventually agreed to play a dozen tapes on the condition that the names of any private citizens be withheld. The New York Times hired Tom Owen, an expert on audio authentication, to examine samples from the tapes. He concluded the voice was that of the president.
A White House adviser to the first President Bush, Mr. Wead said in an interview in The Washington Post in 1990 that Andrew H. Card Jr., then deputy chief of staff, told him to leave the administration "sooner rather than later" after he sent conservatives a letter faulting the White House for inviting gay activists to an event. But Mr. Wead said he left on good terms. He never had a formal role in the current president's campaign, though the tapes suggest he had angled for one.
Mr. Wead said he admired George W. Bush and stayed in touch with some members of his family. While he said he has not communicated with the president since early in his first term, he attributed that to Mr. Bush's busy schedule.
Mr. Wead said he recorded his conversations with the president in part because he thought he might be asked to write a book for the campaign. He also wanted a clear account of any requests Mr. Bush made of him. But he said his main motivation in making the tapes, which he originally intended to be released only after his own death, was to leave the nation a unique record of Mr. Bush.
"I believe that, like him or not, he is going to be a huge historical figure," Mr. Wead said. "If I was on the telephone with Churchill or Gandhi, I would tape record them too."
Summer of 1998
The first of the taped conversations Mr. Wead disclosed took place in the summer of 1998, when Mr. Bush was running for his second term as Texas governor. At the time, Mr. Bush was considered a political moderate who worked well with Democrats and was widely admired by Texans of both parties. His family name made him a strong presidential contender, but he had not yet committed to run.
Still, in a conversation that November on the eve of Mr. Bush's re-election, his confidence was soaring. "I believe tomorrow is going to change Texas politics forever," he told Mr. Wead. "The top three offices right below me will be the first time there has been a Republican in that slot since the Civil War. Isn't that amazing? And I hate to be a braggart, but they are going to win for one reason: me."
Talking to Mr. Wead, a former Assemblies of God minister who was well connected in conservative evangelical circles, Mr. Bush's biggest concern about the Republican presidential primary was shoring up his right flank. Mr. Forbes was working hard to win the support of conservative Christians by emphasizing his opposition to abortion. "I view him as a problem, don't you?" Mr. Bush asked.
Mr. Bush knew that his own religious faith could be an asset with conservative Christian voters, and his personal devotion was often evident in the taped conversations. When Mr. Wead warned him that "power corrupts," for example, Mr. Bush told him not to worry: "I have got a great wife. And I read the Bible daily. The Bible is pretty good about keeping your ego in check."
In November 1999, he told his friend that he had been deeply moved by a memorial service for students who died in an accident when constructing a Thanksgiving weekend bonfire at Texas A & M University, especially by the prayers by friends of the students.
In another conversation, he described a "powerful moment" visiting the site of the Sermon on the Mount in Israel with a group of state governors, where he read "Amazing Grace" aloud. "I look forward to sharing this at some point in time," he told Mr. Wead about the event.
Preparing to meet with influential Christian conservatives, Mr. Bush tested his lines with Mr. Wead. "I'm going to tell them the five turning points in my life," he said. "Accepting Christ. Marrying my wife. Having children. Running for governor. And listening to my mother."
In September 1998, Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead that he was getting ready for his first meeting with James C. Dobson, founder of Focus on the Family, an evangelical self-help group. Dr. Dobson, probably the most influential evangelical conservative, wanted to examine the candidate's Christian credentials.
"He said he would like to meet me, you know, he had heard some nice things, you know, well, 'I don't know if he is a true believer' kind of attitude," Mr. Bush said.
Mr. Bush said he intended to reassure Dr. Dobson of his opposition to abortion. Mr. Bush said he was concerned about rumors that Dr. Dobson had been telling others that the "Bushes weren't going to be involved in abortion," meaning that the Bush family preferred to avoid the issue rather than fight over it.
"I just don't believe I said that. Why would I have said that?" Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead with annoyance.
By the end of the primary, Mr. Bush alluded to Dr. Dobson's strong views on abortion again, apparently ruling out potential vice presidents including Gov. Tom Ridge of Pennsylvania and Gen. Colin L. Powell, who favored abortion rights. Picking any of them could turn conservative Christians away from the ticket, Mr. Bush said.
"They are not going to like it anyway, boy," Mr. Bush said. "Dobson made it clear."
Signs of Concern
Early on, though, Mr. Bush appeared most worried that Christian conservatives would object to his determination not to criticize gay people. "I think he wants me to attack homosexuals," Mr. Bush said after meeting James Robison, a prominent evangelical minister in Texas.
But Mr. Bush said he did not intend to change his position. He said he told Mr. Robison: "Look, James, I got to tell you two things right off the bat. One, I'm not going to kick gays, because I'm a sinner. How can I differentiate sin?"
Later, he read aloud an aide's report from a convention of the Christian Coalition, a conservative political group: "This crowd uses gays as the enemy. It's hard to distinguish between fear of the homosexual political agenda and fear of homosexuality, however."
"This is an issue I have been trying to downplay," Mr. Bush said. "I think it is bad for Republicans to be kicking gays."
Told that one conservative supporter was saying Mr. Bush had pledged not to hire gay people, Mr. Bush said sharply: "No, what I said was, I wouldn't fire gays."
As early as 1998, however, Mr. Bush had already identified one gay-rights issue where he found common ground with conservative Christians: same-sex marriage. "Gay marriage, I am against that. Special rights, I am against that," Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead, five years before a Massachusetts court brought the issue to national attention.
Mr. Bush took stock of conservative Christian views of foreign policy as well. Reading more of the report from the Christian Coalition meeting, Mr. Bush said to Mr. Wead: "Sovereignty. The issue is huge. The mere mention of Kofi Annan in the U.N. caused the crowd to go into a veritable fit. The coalition wants America strong and wants the American flag flying overseas, not the pale blue of the U.N."
As eager as Mr. Bush was to cultivate the support of Christian conservatives, he did not want to do it too publicly for fear of driving away more secular voters. When Mr. Wead warned Mr. Bush to avoid big meetings with evangelical leaders, Mr. Bush said, "I'm just going to have one," and, "This is not meant to be public."
Past Behavior
Many of the taped conversations revolve around Mr. Bush's handling of questions about his past behavior. In August 1998, he worried that the scandals of the Clinton administration had sharpened journalists' determination to investigate the private lives of candidates. He even expressed a hint of sympathy for his Democratic predecessor.
"I don't like it either," Mr. Bush said of the Clinton investigations. "But on the other hand, I think he has disgraced the nation."
When Mr. Wead warned that he had heard reporters talking about Mr. Bush's "immature" past, Mr. Bush said, "That's part of my schtick, which is, look, we have all made mistakes."
He said he learned "a couple of really good lines" from Mr. Robison, the Texas pastor: "What you need to say time and time again is not talk about the details of your transgressions but talk about what I have learned. I've sinned and I've learned."
"I said, 'James' - he stopped - I said, 'I did some things when I was young that were immature,' " Mr. Bush said. "He said, 'But have you learned?' I said, 'James, that's the difference between me and the president. I've learned. I am prepared to accept the responsibility of this office.' "By the summer of 1999, Mr. Bush was telling Mr. Wead his approach to such prying questions had evolved. "I think it is time for somebody to just draw the line and look people in the eye and say, I am not going to participate in ugly rumors about me, and blame my opponents, and hold the line, and stand up for a system that will not allow this kind of crap to go on."
Later, however, Mr. Bush worried that his refusal to answer questions about whether he had used illegal drugs in the past could prove costly, but he held out nonetheless. "I am just not going to answer those questions. And it might cost me the election," he told Mr. Wead.
He complained repeatedly about the press scrutiny, accusing the news media of a "campaign" against him. While he talked of certain reporters as "pro-Bush" and commented favorably on some publications (U.S. News & World Report is "halfway decent," but Time magazine is "awful"), he vented frequently to Mr. Wead about what he considered the liberal bias and invasiveness of the news media in general.
"It's unbelievable," Mr. Bush said, reciting various rumors about his past that his aides had picked up from reporters. "They just float sewer out there."
Mr. Bush bristled at even an implicit aspersion on his past behavior from Dan Quayle, the former vice president and a rival candidate.
"He's gone ugly on me, man," Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead. Mr. Bush quoted Mr. Quayle as saying, "I'm proud of what I did before 40."
"As if I am not!" Mr. Bush said.
Sizing Up Opponents
During the primary contest, Mr. Bush often sized up his dozen Republican rivals, assessing their appeal to conservative Christian voters, their treatment of him and their prospects of serving in a future Bush administration. He paid particular attention to Senator John Ashcroft. "I like Ashcroft a lot," he told Mr. Wead in November 1998. "He is a competent man. He would be a good Supreme Court pick. He would be a good attorney general. He would be a good vice president."
When Mr. Wead predicted an uproar if Mr. Ashcroft were appointed to the court because of his conservative religious views, Mr. Bush replied, "Well, tough."
While Mr. Bush thought the conservative Christian candidates Gary L. Bauer and Alan Keyes would probably scare away moderates, he saw Mr. Ashcroft as an ally because he would draw evangelical voters into the race.
"I want Ashcroft to stay in there, and I want him to be very strong," Mr. Bush said. " I would love it to be a Bush-Ashcroft race. Only because I respect him. He wouldn't say ugly things about me. And I damn sure wouldn't say ugly things about him."
But Mr. Bush was sharply critical of Mr. Forbes, another son of privilege with a famous last name. Evangelicals were not going to like him, Mr. Bush said. "He's too preppy," Mr. Bush said, calling Mr. Forbes "mean spirited."
Recalling the bruising primary fight Mr. Forbes waged against Bob Dole in 1996, Mr. Bush told Mr. Wead, "Steve Forbes is going to hear this message from me. I will do nothing for him if he does to me what he did to Dole. Period. There is going to be a consequence. He is not dealing with the average, you know, 'Oh gosh, let's all get together after it's over.' I will promise you, I will not help him. I don't care."
Another time, Mr. Bush discussed offering Mr. Forbes a job as economic adviser or even secretary of commerce, if Mr. Forbes would approach him first.
Mr. Bush's political predictions were not always on the mark. Before the New Hampshire primary, Mr. Bush all but dismissed Senator John McCain, who turned out to be his strongest challenger.
"He's going to wear very thin when it is all said and done," he said.
When Mr. Wead suggested in June 2000 that Mr. McCain's popularity with Democrats and moderate voters might make him a strong vice presidential candidate, Mr. Bush almost laughed. "Oh, come on!" He added, "I don't know if he helps us win."
Mr. Bush could hardly contain his disdain for Mr. Gore, his Democratic opponent, at one point calling him "pathologically a liar." His confidence in the moral purpose of his campaign to usher in "a responsibility era" never wavered, but he acknowledged that winning might require hard jabs. "I may have to get a little rough for a while," he told Mr. Wead, "but that is what the old man had to do with Dukakis, remember?"
For his part, Mr. Wead said what was most resonant about the conversations with Mr. Bush was his concern that his past behavior might come back to haunt him. Mr. Wead said he used the tapes for his book because Mr. Bush's life so clearly fit his thesis: that presidents often grow up overshadowed by another sibling.
"What I saw in George W. Bush is that he purposefully put himself in the shadows by his irresponsible behavior as a young person," Mr. Wead said. That enabled him to come into his own outside the glare of his parents' expectations, Mr. Wead said.
Why disclose the tapes? "I just felt that the historical point I was making trumped a personal relationship," Mr. Wead said. Asked about consequences, Mr. Wead said, "I'll always be friendly toward him."
Time will tell all the Truth.
VT
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