US Newswire: " Fed up with a president that has socked it to them with skyrocketing drug costs, record-breaking Medicare premium increases and threats to privatize Social Security, older Americans are kicking off the Presidential Debate season Wednesday, Sept. 29, by protesting George Bush's anti-senior, anti-family policies with a nationwide sock rally. The Alliance for Retired Americans is sponsoring the "Socked Out Seniors" Washington, D.C., and cross-country rallies to call attention to George Bush's failure to protect and preserve programs vital to the safety and security of seniors and their families. All socks collected at the rally will be delivered to the White House. "

Alliance for Retired Americans reports "The first session of the 108th Congress was a direct assault on the quality of life for America's retirees, according to the results of the Alliance's 2003 Voting Record. The 2003 Voting Record reports that 56% of lawmakers in the House and 58% of those in the Senate received failing scores; only 13 Senators and 114 Representatives scored a perfect 100 for their senior-issue votes. Overall, findings from the annual Voting Record reveal an alarming number of elected officials who voted against seniors." Among the 13 senators with a perfect 100% pro-senior score were Kerry and Edwards!

"We've all seen the video clips of Bush II trying to take advantage of a population he under-guess-ta-mates. CNN or MSNBC will show him shaking hands with our elders while he lies to them about how much he cares about them. There he is in some senior center lying about what he plans to do about prescription drug costs… Then we see him talking about 'smoking out bin Laden' and somehow tying in the high cost of health care for seniors as some kind of patriotic national security issue. Meanwhile, those same seniors are watching HMO's pulling out of insuring them while Baby Bush looks for more ways to reward those companies in the name of fighting 'terra-ism.' Meanwhile, our elders continue to have to make the choice between medication and eating every month. Although the logic behind Bush's attempted manipulation of your grandparents can be confusing at best, they're not fooled." So writes W. David Jenkins III in America Held Hostile.

"We have all seen the Wal-Mart commercials on our television sets where they show senior citizens working in their stores. From looking at these commercials, these seniors look like a happy bunch. They seem happy to be interacting with the younger generation, feeling productive, and getting out of their homes. That is because for the most part across America, many of our seniors are truly isolated. But through these commercials is Wal-Mart deceiving the American consumer on the true state of affairs facing our senior citizens? Are these seniors truly happy after a lifetime of working hard, to be doing so in their golden years?" So writes Mary MacElveen.

Laura Litvan writes in the Bloomberg Report, "Democrats are counting on senior citizens to help them win control of the [House] in the November elections... Democrats see an opening for support among senior citizens, who vote more often than other age groups and who are becoming a greater percentage of the population. An April 22-24 poll... found that Democrats had a 12-point advantage over Republicans on 'strengthening' Social Security, a top issue among seniors, and a 15-point advantage on improving health care. In the last non-presidential election, 60 percent of registered voters age 65 or older cast ballots, compared with 42 percent generally. This year, seniors will likely cast 28 percent of the vote, up from 20 percent in 2000." Shrub said, 'You can only fool some of the people some of the time, and those are the ones I need to focus on.' Forget about Seniors, Shrub -- they see right through your lies!

We're not talking about Democrats.com for the moment. No, we're talking about the revitalized AARP. With older Americans often working longer and staying healthier, the AARP is repositioning itself as an advocate for change. Fortunately for us, for the most part they support progressive positions when it comes to issues like Medicare and Social Security.