Selfish Hedonist

I know giddiness is highly unseemly, but in my woozy still-a-little-drunk-from-last-night state, I can't help in the revelry I'm feeling over how bad this Social Security fiasco is fucking up the rightist weirdos running this country. As I slowly sunk into consciousness this morning, I had the distinct pleasure of watching the zaniest crazefest I've ever seen on Fox News.

See, they've got this show apparently on Saturday mornings called like "Dollar$ and ¢ent$" dedicated to looking at the market, the economy - you know, money matters. After some boring talk about multibillion dollar industries, they got to the fun stuff: Social Security. The segment was called "The Cost of Freedom!!!" so I knew right away I'd be entering into a bizarro world of rhetoric and obfuscation (before I knew the topic was SS).

So the cute-ish blondie girl hosting the show was joined by SIX guests. All six of them, to a man (and one woman) had the EXACT SAME MESSAGE for the viewers at home:

1. Social Security is in deep, deep trouble
2. Not fixing Social Security will single-handedly destroy the U.S. economy
3. (George Bush has a great GREAT plan to fix Social Security)
4. Congress is a bunch of sissy fraidy-cats for not taking care of Social Security and the hard choices reform will ask of us
5. Congress is using the baseball steroids hearings to stall for time and take attention away from the real issue, Social Security, which they should be working on, and supporting privatization, because it's in such trouble, but they're afraid to, because Congress is run by a bunch of people who just want to SPEND YOUR MONEY and destroy Capitalism and spend all that money on Medicare
6. THERE'S WORK TO BE DONE! WHY ARE THEY FOCUSING ON WHAT SOME STUPID ATHLETES MAY OR MAY NOT HAVE DONE!!!!!! SOCIAL SECURITY WILL KILL US ALL!!!

It was full-blast. And it left no doubt in my alcohol-addled head that they know they're losing. To point fingers at a Republican Congress that has never passed a bill Bush didn't not-veto, it's clear they're taking their talking points direct from someone higher up, whether Rove or Rush I don't know.

The funny thing is, I agree with them for the most part. Congress is using Terri Schiavo, the baseball hearings, anything they can to avoid the political poison bill that is Social Security privatization. Bush is losing bad on Social Security and he is trying to take down the rest of the party with him. He's getting his talking heads to blame "Congress."

Fox News most likely believes that in their viewers minds, "Congress" = Democrats.

Thanks to Social Security, in 2006 that just might be the case in reality.


UPDATE: Wow, they're not subtle! I found the show, actually called "Bulls and Bears," on the Fox News site. "The Cost of Freedom" is the name of their Saturday morning block of propaganda hard-hitting news dealing with economic stuff. The segment on Social Security was called "$tock $abotage?". These people are true morons.

Bulls and Bears

Saturday at 10 a.m. ET
Repeats Mondays at 4 a.m. ET

"Bulls & Bears" returns for another show with the investible information you need to become a smarter investor.

$tock $abotage? Social Security needs to be fixed or else the economy will suffer! That's what Fed head Alan Greenspan said last week. But many Democrats still insist nothing needs to be done right away. Are Democrats trying to hurt the economy and stock market? We'll go inside the Trading Pit with:

• Gary B. Smith, columnist for RealMoney.com
• Pat Dorsey, director of stock research at Morningstar.com
• Tobin Smith, editor ChangeWave Investing
• Scott Bleier, president of HybridInvestors.com
• Joe Battipaglia, chief investment officer of Ryan Beck Co.
• Bob Beckel, Democratic strategist (give me a fucking break)

Morons.