Monday, February 07, 2005
Would you like some Censorship(tm) on your Freedom(tm)?
Now, just in time for, well, winter, comes a delicious new topping for Freedom(tm) frozen desserts: Censorship(tm). (Mmmm.... Censorship(tm))
It works like this: try to take Dear Leader's ramblings at face-value, and you may get a threatening letter from Dear Leader's thugs implying your station may be sued. You see, Dear Leader carefully chooses his words to ensure you remain as confused as he is:
If you try to use the free press to translate Dear Leader's speech into clear policy consequences (e.g., switching from wage-indexation to price-indexation will lower SS costs by, you know, cutting benefits), you will get an Orwellian message from your friendly Freedom(tm) fascists at the RNC.
The RNC letter tastes like marzipan, and goes great with any of the tasty Freedom(tm) flavors on the market.
All kidding aside, if this had happened fifteen years ago, everyone on the left and most of the right would be furious. But people are now accustumed to Bush bullying the press, deriding his tens of millions of opponents as out-of-the-mainstream and un-American.
Just imagine what a hand-picked Bush Supreme Court would do to the Bill of Rights.
It works like this: try to take Dear Leader's ramblings at face-value, and you may get a threatening letter from Dear Leader's thugs implying your station may be sued. You see, Dear Leader carefully chooses his words to ensure you remain as confused as he is:
Because the -- all which is on the table begins to address the big cost drivers. For example, how benefits are calculate, for example, is on the table; whether or not benefits rise based upon wage increases or price increases. There's a series of parts of the formula that are being considered. And when you couple that, those different cost drivers, affecting those -- changing those with personal accounts, the idea is to get what has been promised more likely to be -- or closer delivered to what has been promised.
'Does that make any sense to you? It's kind of muddled. Look, there's a series of things that cause the -- like, for example, benefits are calculated based upon the increase of wages, as opposed to the increase of prices. Some have suggested that we calculate -- the benefits will rise based upon inflation, as opposed to wage increases. There is a reform that would help solve the red if that were put into effect. In other words, how fast benefits grow, how fast the promised benefits grow, if those -- if that growth is affected, it will help on the red.
'Okay, better? I'll keep working on it.'
If you try to use the free press to translate Dear Leader's speech into clear policy consequences (e.g., switching from wage-indexation to price-indexation will lower SS costs by, you know, cutting benefits), you will get an Orwellian message from your friendly Freedom(tm) fascists at the RNC.
The RNC letter tastes like marzipan, and goes great with any of the tasty Freedom(tm) flavors on the market.
All kidding aside, if this had happened fifteen years ago, everyone on the left and most of the right would be furious. But people are now accustumed to Bush bullying the press, deriding his tens of millions of opponents as out-of-the-mainstream and un-American.
Just imagine what a hand-picked Bush Supreme Court would do to the Bill of Rights.
