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Why Submit to Blackmail When Bribery Is Available?

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President Bush says hes not going to submit to blackmail by North Korea, but apparently he has nothing against bribery because hes now offering North Korea fuel, food, and an easing of U.S. sanctions in return for North Koreas promise not to produce nuclear weapons. Unfortunately, the president and other members of the federal government, including most members of Congress, just dont get it: North Korea wants nuclear weapons to deter or protect itself from a U.S. attack! And who can deny that that is a very rational fear, especially given the U.S. governments arrogant and pretentious interventionist foreign policy in which it intends to preemptively attack and invade evil nations anywhere in the world for the purpose of effecting regime change? After all, dont forget: Bush has already publicly announced that North Korea is a charter member of his axis of evil and that he loathes North Koreas dictator Kim Jong Il for starving his own people. Moreover, there are ...

Shades of Operation Condor

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The CIA’s assassination plan, which it chose to keep secret from Congress, brings to mind Operation Condor, a similar plan run by DINA, which was Chile’s counterpart to the CIA under the dictatorial regime of military strongman Augusto Pinochet. After Pinochet took power in a coup, his agents proceeded to round up communists and other opponents to his regime and torture, sexually abuse, rape, indefinitely incarcerate, and kill them, without any trials or due process of law. It was during that time, in fact, that the CIA, which supported Pinochet, played a role, as yet undetermined, in the murder of a young American journalist named Charles Horman. Pinochet knew that his war on communism, however, could not be limited to Chile, given that communists were located all over the world. Thus, Chile, along with other South American right-wing regimes, established Operation Condor, a secret program of ...

Repealing, Not Reforming, Social Security, Part 2

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What, then, do we do about Social Security? There are three general alternatives. The first is to tinker, while keeping Social Security essentially as it is. The second is to privatize the system by paying off current retirees and mandating private retirement contributions. The third is to simply repeal Social Security. First, tinkering with the Titanic. Most establishment defenders of Social Security advocate some combination of higher taxes and lower benefits. One could raise the retirement age (currently set to go to 67 in the year 2027), adjust the Consumer Price Index (which some economists argue overstates the cost of living by .5% to 1.5% a year), abolish early retirement (now available at age 62), or reduce benefits (cap the cost of living adjustment, for instance). Alternatively (or simultaneously), one could hike taxes, either raising the FICA levy or increasing income taxes on Social Security benefits (currently half ...