bush attacks Social Security from another angle...

bush will do anything he can to take Social Security from Americans. Since he is failing in his effort to destroy it, it seems his next option is to try and take it away from people through other means, regardless of how much these people are likely to need it. Yes, they may be deadbeats as far as student loans, but there is more to it than that.

Yahoo! News - Court to Hear Dispute Over Student Loans:
"When Congress passed the HEA in 1991, it eliminated the 10-year time limit on the government's right to seek repayment on defaulted student loans by seizing payments to individuals.

However, the Debt Collection Act created an exception to that rule for Social Security payments. Congress eventually amended that law to allow the seizure of Social Security payments, but then left intact — either inadvertently or not — a separate provision that continued to set a 10-year time limit.

When the case is heard in the court's next term beginning in October, justices will decide what Congress ultimately intended when it made the series of revisions to the two laws.

Billions of dollars are at stake. There is nearly $7 billion in delinquent student loan debt, half of which is more than 10 years old, according to the Bush administration's Supreme Court filing. A 10-year time limit would substantially hinder government collection efforts, since most debtors don't receive Social Security until retirement age, it stated.

Lockhart's attorneys countered that a ruling for the government puts at risk the 'ability of some of the most impoverished Americans to meet their daily needs' through their Social Security nest egg.

The case is Lockhart v. U.S., 04-881."

Think about how this could be used if it were applied to the credit card industry? It may only be applicable for the government to chase overdue student loans for now, but could you envision bush slipping a law in to a bill that would extend this sort of attack on the poor that bush BIG GOVERNMENT enjoys on to BIG BUSINESS? After the last huge blow to Americans' interests that bush handed to credit card companies, I see this as the future of radical right wing GOP legislation...

Is DeLay's Policy Director Jumping Ship?

A senior member of Tom DeLay's team is leaving his side at the same time that DeLay is getting hammered with investigations. Does anyone else see this as a rat scurrying off of a sinking ship?

Yahoo! News - DeLay: She'll Be Missed; Majority Leader's Policy Director Joins K-Street Firm:
"Sullivan had been with DeLay for over six years and was elevated to policy director for the Majority Leader at the beginning of 2003. Prior to that, she served as DeLay's senior appropriations adviser, developing and implementing the House leadership's appropriations and budget strategy as well as coalition strategies with grassroots groups and members of Congress. She was a key member of DeLay's leadership team throughout, as the point of contact between House leadership and Senate leadership while policy director and as the leadership contact for Republican members in the appropriations process during her stint as senior appropriations adviser."

You have to figure that things are not looking too good in the DeLay camp. His supporters deserting him, even the shills in the media that used to love him have a hard time not noticing the illegal and unethical things he has been doing doing, and just as the Department of Justice is stepping into the investigations a senior member of his team jumps ship for a Law firm. Maybe Sullivan thinks she and DeLay will need legal help in the near future?

DROP THE HAMMER ON DELAY!