Freeze Frame

Mass media reporting on the all-important Social Security debate is turning out to be mere stenography. The media, as usual, are reporting what Bush says about Social Security as though that were the truth. The media are not doing enough independent research to either substantiate or disprove Bush's claims. When Bush says that Social Security will be flat broke by 2042, this lie is presented as fact in news stories. As we all learned during the build-up to the Iraq war, if a lie is repeated often enough in the media, it becomes accepted as the truth. Social Security is a well-run federal program. Millions of retirees, survivors and people with disabilities rely on Social Security. The Bush plan will result in benefit cuts for recipients who rely on it, yet brokerage firms will reap big, new profits from management fees and commissions. Besides, we already have individual retirement accounts in which people can invest: They are called IRAs. ...

The United States of America has been successfully overthrown and the vast majority of citizens do not even realize it. This ignorance is a testament to the enormous influential mix of television news punditry and public relations. The formula is simple: Just repeat your message over and over in the mass media, denounce your critics as deranged and unpatriotic...and the meek will follow. The new United States of America has nothing to do with the principles of freedom and democracy that the nation was founded upon. Rather, the new United States is all about unbridled imperialism, privatization and militarization. Public monies are being shifted from the public sector -- which funds education, food programs, jobs programs, health programs and Social Security -- to the private sector, which includes big business, military contractors and the stock market. In other words, the people's money is being withdrawn from social programs and deposited into the bank accounts of the ri...

William Clay Ford, Jr. Board of Directors Ford Motor Co. P.O. Box 685 Dearborn MI 48126-0685 Dear Mr. Ford: After reading disturbing reports that the Ford Motor Co. was planning to destroy the all-electric Rangers it produced for fleet and lease customers, I am pleased to hear that the company reversed its position. Although I drive a gasoline Ranger, I have heard nothing but good things from owners of the electric Rangers and I would certainly be interested in an all-electric Ranger myself. With world oil reserves dwindling rapidly -- and some estimates predicting a supply of just 20 to 40 years at the present rate of consumption -- it makes sense from a business perspective to begin phasing-in both all-electric and fuel cell vehicles now. Unfortunately, the corporate mindset of today is to secure the world's remaining oil reserves, especially ANWR and the Caspian Sea area, for the U.S. market, even if this means the deaths of many thousands of people in Iraq, Iran...