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This year, 2011, marks the beginning of baby boomers receiving Social Security checks and they should be alerted of past perennial Republican attempts to partially privatize the program. Heaven forbid that plans prevail to invest a certain amount of those checks in the stock market, as many pension plans have taken a bath in the current meltdown. While there have been past GOP plans to partially privatize the program, fortunately they have all failed. So far the Social Security trust fund remains tempting for the gamblers and other risk takers on the market. As a Detroiter, I remember the Great...

After a seven-month retirement, Helen Thomas has a new journalism gig: columnist for the Falls Church News-Press in Virginia, as the ARLnow blog in Arlington, Va., reports. The 90-year-old retired from Hearst newspapers in June after a media uproar over controversial comments she made about Israel. That move sent shock waves through the press corps and left White House reporters scrambling to see who'd get Thomas' front-row seat in the briefing room. So why'd the News-Press give her another chance?

Former White House correspondent and columnist Helen Thomas’s anti-Semitic remarks haven’t stopped the Society of Professional Journalists from eliminating or renaming its “Helen Thomas Lifetime Achievement Award,” which recognizes individuals “for a lifetime of contribution to the journalism profession.” SPJ, which has come under fire for recommending that journalists use the phrase “undocumented workers” rather than “illegal immigrants,” still advertises the award named for the disgraced former Hearst Newspapers columnist. The group reportedly considered eliminating or renaming the award following Thomas’s original remarks — when she said Israelis should “get the hell out of Palestine” — but has yet to...

Pro-Israel activists launch all-out war against Helen Thomas and American Arabs It is all out war between Jews and Arabs. Make no mistake about it. American Jewish organizations have launched a vicious campaign to silence Helen Thomas, the 91 year old, 80 pound champion of Palestinian and Arab rights who fearlessly has chosen to take on one of the most powerful organizations in America. Thomas has criticized and denounced Zionism, a political movement with headquarters in new York City. The purpose of the organization is to champion the interests of a foreign country, Israel.

Can't post the article due to copyright issues. So, here's a link: http://www.freep.com/article/20101208/NEWS01/101208012/Helen-Thomas-calls-group-s-criticism-of-opinions-intimidation-

Just in case one tended to think that Helen Thomas’ anti-Semitic rant last June was just a momentary lapse or comment taken out of context, her latest public appearance puts the case for her bigotry beyond doubt. The Detroit Free Press reports on Thomas’ remarks at a workshop that focused, ironically, on anti-Arab bias. She told the group that “Zionists” control US foreign policy and “other institutions,” and that they own Hollywood, Wall Street, Congress, and the White House

Six months after her legendary journalism career ended when she said that the Jews should leave Israel and "go home" -- comments she later apologized for -- Helen Thomas will give the keynote address at a workshop hosted by Arab Detroit. The event is called "Images and Perceptions of Arab Americans: The New America: Mom, Apple Pie, and Arab Bashing."

In the opening of ABC's "World News," anchor Dianne Sawyer says Helen Thomas retired because of "age and outrage." No mention of her anti-Semitic remark.

GLENN: I think we have to start with Helen Thomas. Didn't think those words would ever come out of my mouth. Here's Helen Thomas on Israel. REPORTER: Any comments on Israel? We're asking everybody today. HELEN THOMAS: Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine. REPORTER: Ooh. Any better comments than that? HELEN THOMAS: Remember these people are occupied and it's their land, not German, it's not Poland. REPORTER: So where should they go? What should they do? HELEN THOMAS: Go home. REPORTER: Where's home? HELEN THOMAS: Poland, Germany. REPORTER: You say Jews go back to Poland and Germany....

<p>WASHINGTON -- Say it isn’t so, Mr. President. You surely are not going to make a deal with Republicans to cut Social Security benefits, are you?</p> <p>Here’s word from The Nation Magazine: “The President intends to offer Social Security as a sacrificial lamb to entice conservative deficit hawks into a grand bipartisan compromise in which Democrats agree to cut Social Security benefits while Republicans accede to significant tax increases to reduce government red ink.”</p>

Helen Thomas at White House briefing: "The initial reaction to the flotilla massacre, deliberate massacre, an international crime, was pitiful. What do you mean you regret something that should be so strongly condemned, and if any other nation in the world had done it, we would have been up in arms? What is this ironclad relationship where a country that deliberately kills people."

WASHINGTON -- At last! President Barack Obama held a full-scale White House news conference Thursday, his first since July 22. His record on presidential news conferences has been abysmal. True, he held a forgettable news conference on Feb. 9, the day the government was shut down because of blizzards. Very clever. He is considered a great communicator. So what’s the deal? He is surely well-primed on the issues and headlines of the day. Speeches and well-placed interviews won’t cut it. He should be quizzed, as he was Thursday by reporters trying to get to the bottom of the Obama administration’s...

WASHINGTON -- Afghan President Hamid Karzai got a close look at the cost of war and American sacrifices last week in a rare travel schedule for a visiting head of state. The administration of President Barack Obama rolled out the red carpet as a peace offering to gloss over the public friction that caused the proud Karzai earlier this year to threaten to join the Taliban -- the enemy. Or is the enemy al-Qaida? Or both? Between meetings with administration officials, the Afghan leader’s orientation visit included a trip to Walter Reed Army Medical Center where wounded U.S. soldiers from...

An Eloquent Defense Of American Democracy Obama Also Notes Harshness Of Public Discourse Helen Thomas, Hearst White House columnist WASHINGTON -- The U.S. is so divided that it seems to me that the nation has lost its compass. Even in times of national crisis, including the Great Depression, World War II, the Vietnam War and a string of scandals such as Watergate, the political center has held together. But now I’m not quite so sure. President Barack Obama has been most conciliatory as he seeks the middle ground on a host of issues, even to the point of caving to...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama needs to wake up to the fact that the nation’s school systems are going down the drain. Thousands of teachers are facing a payless summer. Millions of school children are looking at a drop in educational standards and bigger classes. We are depriving students of their right to a decent education. Granted that school systems are under state control, the federal government needs to step up and help them overcome their financial woes. Aren’t the schools too important to fail? U.S. priorities are to spend billions every week for the unjustified and unexplained wars in...

WASHINGTON -- Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell met with two dozen top Wall Street executives recently and got his marching orders: Just say “no” to any new regulations designed to prevent another Great Recession, the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression in the 1930s. But something happened soon afterward. Faced with the politically tough strategy of defending Wall Street amid widespread public anger, McConnell stepped back and has begun talking about how a bipartisan bill to regulate Wall Street is likely to emerge from the Senate. I bet he got some strong advice from fellow Republicans, especially those facing...

WASHINGTON -- The forthcoming departure of Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is a great loss to the country, especially to progressives. Stevens, a Republican, was appointed to the high court in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. Over the next 35 years, he grew in office and eventually adopted liberal views about the death penalty, abortion rights, protection of gay rights and curbing executive power. Stevens is brilliant, eloquent, outspoken and unafraid to change his mind, as evidenced by some of his votes on the court. He voted in favor of affirmative action, after first questioning it. He declared that...

WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama is learning to be a strong president. Yes, he can. When Obama took office, it wasn’t clear whether he had any firm principles. This perspective grew when he seemed oblivious to the harsh reality that Republicans weren’t going to sign on to his health care plan, no matter what. Obama became the Great Compromiser when he watered down his original concepts in a vain effort to appease his opponents, even though they had zero interest in working with him. The president had a light-bulb moment, at least publicly, earlier this week when he was interviewed...

WASHINGTON -- Billions are being spent for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but we have stingy budgets for the stubborn needs on the home front. Thousands of teachers have been laid of, schools closed and homes foreclosed all over the country. Banks are holding back on loans to small businesses and the jobless rate remains stubbornly high. Call it a "recession" or a "depression," we know there is great deprivation in the lives of millions, especially those who have lost their jobs. In many ways, President Barack Obama has run up against a Republican iron curtain in his attempts...

WASHINGTON -- Finally! President Barack Obama has at last zeroed in on the greedy health insurance companies and their opposition to health reform. It’s about time. The president also seems to have awakened the public to the fact that congressional Republicans have mounted a solid wall of resistance to serious efforts at improving the American health care system. Obama is now in the final chapter of his year-long effort to win legislation that would make health insurance affordable and accessible to more Americans, 46 million of whom lack coverage. The Republicans have been admirable for their party discipline: They have...