Last year's Big Lie was a grab for oil; this year's is for our Social Security trillions
Social Security ain't broke, so don't fix it, tweak it
Also in this issue
- BUSH'S PROPAGANDA MILL
- THE SEC SURRENDERS
- THE IRONY OF NEOCON THEORY
- BIOWILLIE
- THE GOOD AND THE BAD OF PILLS
What the hell's happening here? Why is my bank in the tank? And my house and job? And my retirement money? Even my state's teetering on the brink of broke! Who did this to us? Fair questions, but we're not getting honest answers. 
THE SEC SURRENDERS
In 2002, outrage erupted over the raw ugliness of CEO greed at Enron, WorldCom, Tyco, and so many others.
George W, feeling the political heat, denounced their greed and installed a new sheriff at the SEC, the agency in charge of protecting shareholders and the larger public from out-of-control corporate chieftains. But two and a half years later, the CEOs are no longer running away. Instead, they're running the SEC.
To quell the outrage, the SEC had proposed a mildmannered reform requiring that boards of directors that supposedly serve as a check on CEO actions not be entirely chosen by CEOs. Large shareholders would be allowed to put forth their own independent nominees for a couple of board seats.
Good grief, shouted the CEOs in unison. The Bolsheviks are coming! They mounted a massive lobbying campaign with Bush and Congress to get the SEC to stop putting limits on their totalitarian rule—and last year Bush himself joined them, flush as he was with campaign cash from CEOs. Sure enough, in February 2005 SEC officials meekly ruled that this proposed reform had become "stale" with the passage of time, so they dropped it.