Need some help refuting spam from an old friend. Can't let this pass, but want to remain friends.

This is it. :eyes:
So far all I have to say to him is that I am a lifelong Democrat, and imho the Republicans with hearts of stone are the problem. The more I look at this the more I am sorry that he suppressed his mailing list, because I'd love to hit Reply All and have it mean something.

Hekate
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RETRIBUTION IS LESS THAN ONE YEAR AWAY!
Take a look at this and just remember elections in November 2010.

1. U.S. House & Senate have voted themselves $4,700 and $5,300 raises.
2. They voted to NOT give you a S.S. Cost of living raise in 2010 and 2011.
3. Your Medicare premiums will go up $285.60 for the 2-years
4. You will not get the 3% COLA: $660/yr.
5. Your total 2-yr loss and cost is -$1,600 or -$3,200 for husband and wife.
6. Over these same 2-years each Congress person will get $10,000
7. Do you feel SCREWED?
8. Will they have your cost of drugs - doctor fees - local taxes - food, etc., decrease?
9. NO WAY.

Congress received a raise and has better health and retirement benefits than you or I.

• Why should they care about you?
• You never did anything about it in the past.
• You obviously are too stupid or don't care.
• Do you really think that Nancy, Harry, Chris, Charlie, Barnie, et al, care about you?

Send the message to these individuals --- 'YOU'RE FIRED!'

In 2010 you will have a chance to get rid of the sitting Congress: up to 1/3 of the Senate and 100% of the House!

Make sure you're still mad in November 2010 and remind their replacements not to screw-up.

It is ok to forward this to your sphere of influence if you are finally tired of the abuse. Maybe it's time for Amendment 28 to the Constitution.

28th Amendment will be as follows:
"Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives, and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States."

Let's get this passed around, folks - these people in Washington have brought this upon themselves! It's time for retribution. Let's take back America ..

If you don't forward this to all your friends you're just part of the problem of national apathy.

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seems like half of du wants obama and the democrats to fail too. :(

may be premature.

Watching them fail is not the same as wanting them to fail.

What a fucking pantload!

I"M NOT VOTING FOR OBAMA! I'm not helping the Dems ONE BIT. They're not getting one dime. I'm not voting, not canvassing, not volunterring, not doing ANYTHING 'cause I don't ike what he did didn't do for ME and my "pet thing". wah waaah waaah.

And the "pet thing" or "pony" thing is another pantload. There are plenty of issues to be legitimately disappointed with the way this administration has handled them.

The "didn't get my pony" strawman is getting tedious.

to stfu.

Interesting how all these Pubbies are concerned about their socialized programs all of a sudden. Idiots are on my last nerve.

It isn't just that I'm in the company of so many of those who (largely) share my beliefs. No, this DU is an incredible database of very knowledgeable people! I urge all here to read that book, "The Wisdom Of Crowds", and they'll begin to understand what I mean.

I've known this guy since we were both in grade school, and he has always amused me by his creative pursuit of the almighty dollar -- starting with paying paper boys his age to loan him their bags of coins overnight so he could search for collectible coins to sell to adult collectors.

Well, somewhere along the way he became a Republican, but on the rare occasions our paths cross he still amuses me, not least because he gets a kind of gleam in his eye when he sees me. I like the guy.

I do want to remain friends, and I delete the harmless sentimental religious spam he sends. But this....

Anyway, thanks a bunch.

Hekate

Funny, not too many freepers thought the bill didn't do enough.

The key is in the first word. RETRIBUTION. They want REVENGE for losing. It has nothing to do with policy. Your friend is a Republican who is complaining about not getting an increase in SS? About high medicare rates? About raises for the House and Senate? These are not Republican positions. Not sure what your friend thinks is going to happen if the R's take over again.

The House and Senate cannot by law give "themselves" raises. If Congress folks got a raise, it's because the previous Congress authorized it. That's the law. Your friend should provide proof of what he's saying instead of just parroting what someone else with a rather obvious agenda is peddling to him.

He seems rather exercised about how Congress has screwed up in the last year; where was he for the period from 2001 through 2007, when a lot of mischief was perpetrated under Republican rule? Missing in action? Because we're still paying pretty stiff penalties for two ill-considered invasions perpetrated under Republican stewardship. If we turn out the Democrats, what makes him think the Republicans are going to be doing the American people any favors? They surely haven't in the past.

You don't have to call him a nitwit, but the signs are pretty evident.

One time $250.00 payments to seniors and disabled vets (because there were no COLAs) were voted down by Congress.

"RETRIBUTION IS LESS THAN ONE YEAR AWAY!
Take a look at this and just remember elections in November 2010."

Elections are for choosing leaders, not for punishing real or imagined wrongs. In other words I'm not willing to shoot myself in the foot because I'm mad at government.

"1. U.S. House & Senate have voted themselves $4,700 and $5,300 raises."

Haven't heard that. Please cite a source. If true: good. That makes them a little less beholding to corporate interests.

"2. They voted to NOT give you a S.S. Cost of living raise in 2010 and 2011."

Again, give a source. Like you, I lament the decline in what little socialism this country has. Some people need our help just to survive and it is a damning observation that we don't do it.

"3. Your Medicare premiums will go up $285.60 for the 2-years"

No they won't. I'm still stuck in the corporate insurance racket where the patient is just a commodity.

"4. You will not get the 3% COLA: $660/yr.
"5. Your total 2-yr loss and cost is -$1,600 or -$3,200 for husband and wife.
"6. Over these same 2-years each Congress person will get $10,000"

My previous remarks apply to this too.

"7. Do you feel SCREWED?"

Always

"8. Will they have your cost of drugs - doctor fees - local taxes - food, etc., decrease?
"9. NO WAY."

I agree. That's why we need universal, single payer insurance. But, as you say, we have been screwed.

"Congress received a raise and has better health and retirement benefits than you or I."

Yup.

"• Why should they care about you?
"• You never did anything about it in the past.
"• You obviously are too stupid or don't care.
"• Do you really think that Nancy, Harry, Chris, Charlie, Barnie, et al, care about you?"

Who are Chris, Charlie and Barnie? Anyway, the Congressional Democrats are the only ones who have tried to do anything for the average person. It is the Republicans in the Senate and a few conservative Ds that are jamming up the works. You really should stop blaming those who are on your side and focus on those who are entirely under the control of rich interests.

"Send the message to these individuals --- 'YOU'RE FIRED!'"

Or, you can fire those who are on the take, who have bought their offices with corporate money.

"In 2010 you will have a chance to get rid of the sitting Congress: up to 1/3 of the Senate and 100% of the House!
"Make sure you're still mad in November 2010 and remind their replacements not to screw-up."

Voting 'mad' or based on other irrational considerations is what got us into this mess. Choosing leaders should be done with the utmost sobriety and circumspection.

"It is ok to forward this to your sphere of influence if you are finally tired of the abuse. Maybe it's time for Amendment 28 to the Constitution."

"28th Amendment will be as follows:
'Congress shall make no law that applies to the citizens of the United States that does not apply equally to the Senators or Representatives, and Congress shall make no law that applies to the Senators or Representatives that does not apply equally to the citizens of the United States.'

That's a good idea. I would love to have the same health care coverage as Congress. Understand that the folks you mentioned above are the most likely to agree with you on this matter.

"Let's get this passed around, folks - these people in Washington have brought this upon themselves! It's time for retribution. Let's take back America .."

Again, an election is not about retribution. And the only way to take America back from the obscenely rich men who essentially own it is to get the big money out of electioneering.

"If you don't forward this to all your friends you're just part of the problem of national apathy."

You presume too much. Hardly anyone is apathetic. They feel and are powerless.

If you want to keep this person as a friend, I suggest that you just delete the email and go on about you're business. That's probably what the rest of the people on his email list are doing. I get plenty of right-wing mail and I just delete it as it comes. I'm not going to waste my time refuting garbage that someone thinks is clever. Life's too short.

Dear friend,

I like you. I will always be your friend but I do not care for forwarded cut-and-paste emails, especially political ones. I would prefer to hear from you on a personal level. I want to know how you're doing and how things are going with your life. Those are the kinds of emails I hope to receive from you, my friend. Please respect my wish - no forwarded emails.

Sincerely,
me

I generally go to snopes, although I don't seem to see this particular screed there. Then I do a reply all with whatever I've gleaned about the utter inaccuracy of original email.

I almost never get things like that any more.

The problem is the money they are paid by the people they are supposed to be regulating.

I want those bastards working for me, but they don't. Their congressional salary is a small drop in the bucket.

... I actually had a couple of people thank me one time, because I dared to stand up to the "Sit down and shut up" (if you don't believe America is a Christian Nation) spam that was making the rounds during the Bush-Cheney years. I went point by point, with footnotes, and concluded by saying that inasmuch as my people started arriving here in 1620, with hefty doses of more recent immigrants along the way, that I had no intention of shutting up. But then that spam struck me as a lot more offensive than this one.

Hekate

I used to get RW spam forwarded to me by my father. After de-bunking with snopes and "reply all" I stopped getting them.

make them prove to you their info is accurate before you spend any time trying to rebut.

Sid

~~~~~~~~~ MAYBE SHOULD KEEP THIS REMINDER, INSTEAD

I wish you hadn't suppressed your full mailing list, because this is something I'd love to hit "Reply All" on! ;-)

First let me say that while I respect everyone's right to their own opinions, facts are another matter.

One fact is that starting with the sainted President Ronald Reagan, we have had 30 years of relentless pushing for de-regulation by Congressional Republicans and their megacorporate allies. By the time President George W. Bush was done with us, the FDA alone had been set back a century, to the days when Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle" almost made Teddy Roosevelt throw up.

Another fact is that Democratic President Bill Clinton, the guy who couldn't keep his zipper up, left our economy in robust shape, with a budgetary surplus to beat the band. By the time George W. Bush was done with us, THAT was certainly history.

President Barack Obama entered office with the country in the worst shape I have seen it in my lifetime. Good luck to him, is all I can say.

Apathetic? Not me! I've been a Democrat since the first time I voted, and have been continuously active in my community in one capacity or another my whole adult life. I'm currently Vice Chair of my County's Civil Service Commission.

But that's just me. FactCheck.org already got this spam in January and checked it out, with the following well-researched results.

Enjoy!

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http://www.factcheck.org/2010/01/retribution-fabrication/

FULL ANSWER

This rant is timely: It is hitting e-mail inboxes just as the first Social Security checks of 2010 are being prepared. But it’s not accurate. It combines two false claims we’ve addressed before, adds some made-up figures and tosses in an appeal to defeat all members of Congress who are up for reelection in the fall.
We take no position on whether any House or Senate member deserves reelection or defeat, but the fact is they are all being falsely accused by whoever wrote this.

No raise: House and Senate members have not voted to give themselves raises. The $4,700 and $5,300 figures are made up out of whole cloth. The true figure is $0. As we reported last year, Congress voted to freeze its own pay for 2010. Any pay raise for 2011 will take place automatically under existing law, unless Congress votes to freeze its pay again before then.
Update, May 17, 2010: There will be no House or Senate raise for 2011 either. Congress passed, and the President signed, H.R. 5146, which eliminates the automatic adjustment in pay for Members of Congress that would have taken place in 2011.

No vote: Congress did not vote to deny a Social Security cost-of-living increase this year, or next. The lack of a COLA results from the fact that the Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W) declined (mostly as a result of volatile oil prices), as we explained in detail last September. Congress does not vote on annual Social Security benefit levels. They have been set by a formula set in law since 1975.
No $285.40 premium increase: The message claims that "your Medicaid premiums will go up $285.60" over two years, but that’s nonsense. Medicaid is a state-federal program for low-income persons, and premiums (where they exist) are set by states, not Congress.The author confuses this program with Medicare, the program that covers persons over age 65. And the fact is, most Medicare premiums haven’t gone up this year at all. For 73 percent of seniors, the basic Medicare Part B premium remains at $96.40 per month.And for all but a few of the rest, the increase will be $14.10 per month. Over two years that comes to $338.40, not $285.40. For details, see the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services announcement of Oct. 16.
The message makes reference to a “3% COLA” that would amount to “$660/yr.” That may be a reference to a bill introduced in September by Republican Rep. Walter B. Jones of North Carolina to grant an "emergency" 3 percent Social Security increase for 2010. That bill did not attract any cosponsors or come to a vote in the Ways and Means Committee, however. And Jones estimatedthat the average increase would amount to $35 per month, which doesn’t come close to $660 over a full year. That number, we conclude, is pulled from thin air, just like the claim that Congress voted itself a $10,000 pay raise spread over two years.
– Brooks Jackson
Sources
"The History of COLA," U.S. Social Security Administration. undated Web page. Accessed 11 Sep 2009.
"Social Security Announces 5.8 Percent Benefit Increase for 2009" press release. U.S. Social Security Administration. 16 Oct 2008.
"Cost-of-Living Adjustment Must Be Greater Than Zero," U.S. Social Security Administration. Web page accessed 11 Sep 2009.
"Status of the Social Security and Medicare Programs; A SUMMARY OF THE 2009 ANNUAL REPORTS; Social Security and Medicare Boards of Trustees," U.S. Social Security Administration. 12 May 2009.
Barry, Patricia "Part B Premiums in 2010: Frozen for Many, Higher for Some: No Social Security cost-of-living increase next year means higher costs for some beneficiaries and states." AARP Bulletin Today 7 May 2009.
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. CMS ANNOUNCES MEDICARE PREMIUMS, DEDUCTIBLES FOR 2010. 16 Oct 2009.
Omnibus Appropriation Act. Public Law 111-8, 111 Mar 2009.

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Well done!