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Friday, April 22
Harkin Town Hall Meetings on Social Security
by
Caroline Vernon
on Fri 22 Apr 2005 05:49 PM CDT
 Harkin Town Hall Meetings on Social Security
by Caroline Vernon
Senator
Tom Harkin will be holding a series of town hall meetings this week-end
in order to discuss the future of Social Security.
Local
forces in favor of privatization are targeting these meetings in order
to put pressure on him to support Bush’s proposal, regardless of the
fact that a recent Des Moines Register poll revealed that 65% of Iowans
oppose privatizing Social Security. Let’s rally together and send a
message that we support the Senator’s efforts to protect such an
important social program.
Please recruit your friends and family members and encourage them to attend one of these town hall meetings:
Saturday, April 23 - 10am
St. Ambrose University
Rogalski Center
Davenport
Saturday, April 23 - 1pm
Grant Wood Area Education Agency
4401 6th St SW
Cedar Rapids
Saturday, April 23 - 3:45pm
Mason City Public Library
225 2nd St SE
Mason City
(please use entrance by double garage doors)
Sunday, April 24 - 12:30pm
Northwest Community Center
5110 Franklin Ave
Des Moines
“Social
Security is an important lifeline for Iowa’s seniors, people with
disabilities and family members of deceased recipients. We can
strengthen Social Security in a bi-partisan way with reasonable
moderate steps, but we need to do it right. There is no excuse to rush
into a plan that will drive up debt and cut benefits for Iowa’s seniors
and people with disabilities.”
– U.S. Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA)
Grassley Pushing SS Phase-Out
by
Chad Thompson
on Fri 22 Apr 2005 10:59 AM CDT
 Grassley Pushing SS Phase-Out
The New York Times reports today on Chuck Grassley's stance on Social Security phase-out: we're going to push it, whether you like it or not.
The
Senate Finance Committee chairman, Charles E. Grassley, said Thursday
that he would try to produce a Social Security bill with the support of
Republicans alone, in an effort to jump-start a legislative effort now
stymied by solid Democratic opposition.
Mr. Grassley, whose committee will
play the lead role on Social Security, acknowledged that it was a risky
strategy and that he would need to attract some Democratic support once
the bill reached the full Senate, if not sooner. But he said, with some
frustration, that he had been unable to get the Democrats on his
committee to enter into negotiations unless he renounced President
Bush's proposal to create private investment accounts in Social
Security.
Mr. Grassley said he would not do
that. As a result, he said, "I'm going to put together a
Republican-only bill as a first step to getting bipartisan support
because I can't lose time waiting for the Democrats to come to the
table."
What this means: Grassley will push a bill containing all of the
plans that are opposed by Democrats - and if the polls are to be
believed - the general public.
(From the Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll: "The president is more than halfway through a 60-day tour of the
nation to discuss his plans to add personal accounts to Social
Security, and already has made a stop in Cedar Rapids. But the latest
poll shows that just 26 percent of Iowans approve of his efforts to
change Social Security, while 65 percent disapprove.")
It's pretty obvious by now that Grassley has no interest in
representing his constituents on this matter. Drop him a note or
give him a phone call. Sen. Grassley's contact information is
here: http://grassley.senate.gov
(Josh Marshall also posted about Sen. Grassley's recent statement.)
The Privatization of America's Public Lands
by
Linda Thieman
on Fri 22 Apr 2005 06:55 AM CDT
 The Privatization of America's Public Lands
by Bill Berkowitz, AlterNet.org
As
corporations and privateers gear up for Earth Day, environmental
activist Scott Silver aims his gaze at one of the most overlooked
developments in the anti-environmental arsenal - the growing trend of
privatization on America's public lands.
Over its
35-year history, Earth Day - originally established during the
pre-Watergate days of the Nixon administration, and celebrated on April
22 - has devolved from a day set aside for careful consideration of the
planet to a rather free-ranging and amorphous series of public
celebrations and civic activities, many sponsored by multinational
corporations. At EarthDay.gov, the Bush Administration is hailing Earth
Day as "a time to celebrate gains we have made and create new visions
to accelerate environmental progress."
In an
era where the Bush administration characterizes its environmental
agenda as "common sense" environmentalism [Editor's note:
rahahahahahahahaha], there are a slew of front-burner issues that will
likely get short shrift on Earth Day including global warming, drilling
for oil in the Artic, new legislation aimed at lifting the ban on
offshore oil and gas drilling in the U.S., and increasing threats to
the water we drink and air we breathe.
One issue that will definitely not get much attention is the growing trend toward privatizing America's public lands. Privatization
is one of the most "insidious and all-encompassing developments" that
will ultimately force Americans to "pay to play," at recreation areas
all across the country, says Scott Silver, the executive director of Wild Wilderness, a Central Oregon-based environmental organization.
(Read the interview with Scott Silver here.)
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