I hope you enjoy the new WesPAC website at our new URL -- www.securingamerica.com! Our goal was to design and develop a new site that makes it easy for you to stay connected to the issues and candidates that WesPAC is supporting -- and a place you'll want to return to frequently to join the dialogue.

I just wanted to point out a few new features. First, you'll notice that we've set up the "WesBlog" -- a central place for the WesPAC staff and me to keep you up to date and invite your participation in some key projects

David Gregory of NBC pressed President Bush about his Social Security plan, or lack of...

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(Please link to http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/03/16.html#a1938 for the video)

David: Mr. President, you say you're making progress in the Social Security debate. Yet private accounts, as the centerpiece of that plan, something you first campaigned on five years ago and laid before the American people, remains, according to every measure we have, poll after poll, unpopular with a majority of Americans. So the question is, do you feel that this is a point in the debate where it's incumbent upon you, and nobody else, to lay out a plan to the American people for how you actually keep Social Security solvent for the long-term?

PRESIDENT: First of all, Dave, let me, if I might correct you, be so bold as to correct you, I have not laid out a plan yet, intentionally. I have laid out principles, I've talked about putting all options on the table, because I fully understand the administration must work with the Congress to permanently solve Social Security. So one aspect of the debate is, will we be willing to work together to permanently solve the issue. Personal accounts do not solve the issue...

Bush admits to not having a plan and also acknowledges that private accounts will not help the solvency of Social Security. Gone is the talk about Social Security going bankrupt, and is in crisis.

The one about how 26 inmate deaths may be homicide

via Blogenlust

From the NY Times, US Military Says 26 Inmate Deaths May Be Homicide:

At least 26 prisoners have died in American custody in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2002 in what Army and Navy investigators have concluded or suspect were acts of criminal homicide, according to military officials.

, officials said, showing how broadly the most violent abuses extended beyond those prison walls and contradicting early impressions that the wrongdoing was confined to a handful of members of the military police on the prison's night shift. read on

This is his opening statements to the press.

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On Connected today, Craig Crawford debates Terry Jeffrey, editor from Human Events about the staged Townhall meetings President Bush is staging for his Social Security tourand the fake news that the White House is producing.

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What Crawford calls questions to Bush, Jeffrey calls hecklers.

LOS ANGELES - A jury acquitted tough-guy actor Robert Blake (news) of murder Wednesday in the shooting death of his wife four years ago, a stunning verdict in a case that played out like pulp fiction...read on

via Daily Howler

On Sunday, Will made a plainly inaccurate claim in his Washington Post op-ed column. He said Social Security would be running shortfalls as early as the year 2012:

WILL (3/13/05): Today the government is partially funded by that surplus of Social Security tax revenue over outlays, a fact disguised by politicians talking rot about Social Security being an "insurance" program with a "trust fund" in a "lock box." But between 2011 and 2016, Social Security outlays will exceed revenue by $32 billion, and the sums will rapidly increase during the cascading retirements of baby boomers.

Say what? read on

We'll need a score card to track how much mis-information is being put out there. Maybe we'll set up an NCAA bracket.

WASHINGTON - Amid the backdrop of soaring oil and gasoline prices, a sharply divided Senate on Wednesday voted to open the ecologically rich Alaska wildlife refuge to oil drilling, delivering a major energy policy win for President Bush. The Senate, by a 51-49 vote, rejected an attempt by Democrats and GOP moderates to remove a refuge drilling provision from next year’s budget, preventing opponents from using a filibuster — a tactic that has blocked repeated past attempts to open the Alaska refuge to oil companies ...read on

We are reaching out to all bloggers. We have started another page that's called Mike's Blog Roundup, that we mentioned a few days ago. It's just up and running and eventually we'll work the kinks out, but we want any blogger to submit their blog for consideration to be included in the roundup. Of course " add me to your blogroll" isn't a post. We decided to do this a few weeks ago before I came across this article and others like it about the hows and whys of linking articles from the most read blogs and the linking to blogrolls ect... E-mail Mike FinnsAgain@aol.com Hopefully this will be a forum so that some new voices may be heard.

I have asked for tips and stories before and have received many responses from non-bloggers and bloggers alike. Please still send what you consider a good story to Crooksandliars@gmail.com as well.