FactCheck.org is back, shilling for privitization

[Cocoa]

they took a little break while the privitizers were accusing AARP of being homo-loving traitors, but they're back just in time to protect the privatizers from the meanies at the "liberal democratic group Campaign for America's Future."

http://www.factcheck.org/article310.html

False Attacks Over "Windfalls" to Wall Street


New information turned up by FactCheck.org shows that the type of private Social Security accounts being proposed by President Bush would yield very little profit to the securities industry, contrary to persistent claims of a potentially huge "windfall" to Wall Street.

What we have discovered is that the model for Bush's accounts -- the Federal Thrift Savings Plan for federal workers -- actually paid securities firms a net total of only 16 cents for every $10,000 in workers accounts. The TSP had refused to make that information public -- until now. It shows that fees actually being paid to Wall Street are hundreds of times smaller than some critics had assumed.

For that reason and others we find that ads run in Louisiana by the liberal Democratic group Campaign for America's Future are grossly misleading. The group is accusing Republican Rep. James McCrery, who is chairman of the Social Security subcommittee and a supporter of Bush's private accounts, of "corruption" for accepting campaign donations from Wall Street, which it falsely claims will "profit most" from private accounts.

[PROGRESSIVE1]

1. Factcheck is part of the Annenberg School which was...

funded by Annenberg the Republican! I'd like to see them shut down.

[LoZoccolo]

2. You'll have to show that that's not true to make a point.

I'm against the privatization for other reasons, but I've known for a while that they'd model it after the thrift savings plan.

[Cocoa]

3. I completely disagree

that is exactly the wrong way to approach FactCheck-style deception, imo, and this is why I'm calling attention to FactCheck.

If you look at individual FactCheck.org items, you may find them to be accurate, or "true" as you say. (Actually, in quite a few cases, FactCheck gets the facts egregiously wrong, but set that aside...)

The deceptive nature of FactCheck.org is the way its standards vary drastically between the conventional politics on the left and the outrageous Orwellian Bush lies.

They exaggerate the democrats' deceptions, and minimize the Bush lies.

[liveoaktx]

4. Baloney-as someone on Olbermann said, when you have money

passing through hands, some of it *sticks*. It may not be huge individual profits, but pennies add up (Remember the movie Office Space?)-and it would affect every working person in this country.