Social Security: The only crisis is the Republicans' attempt to destroy it
USA Next, a ten-year old ultra-conservative right wing slush-fund direct mail marketer of fear, has hired the veterans of the successful Swift Boat smear ads to attack AARP, in order to limit their effectiveness in fighting the Republican efforts to destroy Social Security with a "privatization" scheme.
thereisnocrisis.com has released the first draft of a research report on USA Next that describes the sleazy ties of criminals, white supremacists, fake journalists, illegal pharmaceutical company contributions, Karl Rove and George Bush to the dishonest network of ultra-conservative groups attacking AARP as "liberal."
USA Next plans a $10 million campaign attacking the nation's largest retiree organization, AARP, an opponent of Bush's proposal. One of its first efforts was an Internet ad linking the AARP to support for homosexual marriage.
The reason, said Charles Jarvis of USA Next, is simple: "They are the boulder in the middle of the highway to personal savings accounts." When Jarvis was asked to explain the ad, he said that AARP hasn't taken a position supporting benefits for the military while USA Next has. So AARP hates the military?
The Washington Monthly called USA Next's United Seniors Association, a self-styled AARP rival, "a soft-money slush fund for a single G.O.P.-friendly industry: pharmaceuticals." [NYT]
Charlie Jarvis, who runs USA Next, was formerly an executive with James Dobson's Focus on the Family, which advocates extreme discipline against dogs and children, and recently attacked Sponge Bob Square Pants for promoting the gay lifestyle. The ad above "first appeared Monday on the Website of The American Spectator, a conservative magazine."
The United Senior's Association, which was recently fined over half a million dollars for lying repeatedly by claiming to be part of the Social Security Administration in direct mail, has also proposed privatizing Medicare. The group has ties to Ken Lay, former criminal chairman of Enron, and George Bush.
Via Social Security: There is no crisis, Talking Points Memo, and Daily Kos
Update: fixed some links, added cartoon-bashing.
