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POPSChalmers Johnson on the "Pentagon Bailout" "There has been much moaning, air-sucking, and outrage about the $700 billion that the U.S. government is thinking of throwing away on rich New York bankers who have been ripping us off for the past few years and then letting greed drive their businesses into a variety of ditches. In fact, we dole out similar amounts of money every year in the form of payoffs to the armed services, the military-industrial complex, and powerful senators and representatives allied with the Pentagon. "
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POPSAnyone Remember the Cost of The Wars? Estimates of the true long-term costs of the President's war of choice, including payments of health care and veterans benefits into the distant future, soar into the budgetary stratosphere. They range from the Congressional Budget Office's $1-2 trillion to an estimate by economists Joseph Stiglitz and Linda J. Bilmes of up to $4-5 trillion. So we're talking somewhere between one-and-a-half and seven bailouts-worth of taxpayer dollars flowing into the morass of disaster, corruption, and carnage in Iraq. As Chalmers Johnson, author most recently of Nemesis: The Last Days of the American Republic, the final volume of his Blowback Trilogy, has pointed out for years, the Pentagon, the military-industrial complex, and America's wars are in the process of bankrupting us.
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POPSGreedy Bankers Power Hungry Govt Officials So we are to see the boast of Bush bubble burst before it reaches the shores of Africa leave alone victims of HIV/Aids and Malaria. Ahh these rotten politicians ... promises are made to surely break them.
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POPSMark Morford on all the Numbers making us dizzy
Read the colmn, here's a bit more: but it's best not to think about it too much. Fair enough? I know, it's tough not to feel a little shaken, unnerved, openly disgusted. A $700 billion bailout of a Bush-gutted economy by an already nearly bankrupt U.S. Treasury? Two trillion for a failed war in Iraq? Ten trillion in national debt and a $480 billion budget deficit (not counting the $700B for the bailout and it could be much more) and a record trade deficit, with all those numbers nearly double (if not far more) of what they were in 2001? Why, you'd almost think someone -- or maybe an entire administration, perhaps the most irresponsible in modern U.S. history -- was largely to blame. But they're not! Because they're just numbers! Like these: 47 million Americans without health insurance (up 30 percent from eight years ago). The U.S. dollar now worth roughly half of its 2001 value. More than 150 signing statements challenging over 1,100 provisions of federal law from a president
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POPSMaliki Blames Bremer; and the Larger Story continued; "The Iraqi administration and all government offices are suffering the consequences of Paul Bremer's mistakes," he said. Following the 2003 war on Iraq, Bremer served as the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority and exercised power over the civil administration. He is widely criticized over the insurgency in Iraq that has partly resulted from his reportedly unilateral decision to formally dissolve the Iraqi army in May 2003. The comments by al-Maliki came after Time magazine reported that Bremer had embezzled $9 billion of the oil-rich country's reconstruction budget.
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POPSSome of the smears
Palin only supports abstinence to be taught in sex-ed!" This claim is usually followed by a super classy comment about her daughter and the use of contraception, but the premise is false. Palin hasn't said she doesn't want condoms discussed in sex-ed, calling their discussion "relatively benign." "I'm pro-contraception, and I think kids who may not hear about it at home should hear about it in other avenues. So I am not anti-contraception. But, yeah, abstinence is another alternative that should be discussed with kids. I don't have a problem with that," Palin said. Hers is hardly an extreme point of view in America today. "If she cares about children with special needs, then why did she cut spending on them by 62 percent?" Actually, Palin almost tripled their funding in only three years from $26,900 per student to $73,840 per student. Incidentally, the amount of government money you spend on a specific group doesn't equal the amount you care for that group, but that's an
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POPSAn Anti-Imperialist Foreign Policy
The nation is now governed by powerful interests who have purchased their position of control. It is in their interests to keep people afraid and angry at some foreign enemy. Even better for them is a worldwide, never-ending war on terror. This is the perfect war for the military-industrial -congressional complex. The people are beginning to wake up to the disastrous effects of the current policies. Ultimately, as the dollar declines in value, other countries and investors who have been buying U.S. debt instruments will discontinue their purchases. At that point, the government will not be able to keep the printing presses going to continue to finance this enormous military machine. All empires eventually collapse because of the high cost of maintaining an empire by force. "The budget should be balanced. Public debt should be reduced. The arrogance of officialdom should be tempered, and assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed, lest Rome become bankrupt." - Cicero
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POPSPutin Makes His Move Putin's aggression against Georgia should not be traced only to its NATO aspirations or his pique at Kosovo's independence. It is primarily a response to the "color revolutions" in Ukraine and Georgia in 2003 and 2004, when pro-Western governments replaced pro-Russian ones. Ever since, Putin has been determined to stop and, if possible, reverse the pro-Western trend on his borders. He seeks not only to prevent Georgia and Ukraine from joining NATO but also to bring them under Russian control. He seeks to carve out a zone of influence within NATO, with a lesser security status for countries along Russia's strategic flanks. That is the primary motive behind Moscow's opposition to U.S. missile defense programs in Poland and the Czech Republic. His war against Georgia is part of this grand strategy. Putin cares no more about a few thousand South Ossetians than he does about Kosovo's Serbs.
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POPSFreeeeeedom! of Information (National Security Archive) So much information, great site! National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Books provide online access to critical declassified records on issues including U.S. national security, foreign policy, diplomatic and military history, intelligence policy, and more. Updated frequently, the Electronic Briefing Books represent just a small sample of the documents in our published and unpublished collections. A tax-exempt public charity, the Archive receives no U.S. government funding; its budget is supported by publication royalties and donations from foundations and individuals. On March 17, 2000, Long Island University named the National Security Archive as winner of a Special George Polk Award for 1999 for "piercing self-serving veils of government secrecy" and "serving as an essential journalistic resource."
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POPSIt only took 8yrs ! But WHY NOW ? If only he had approve this at the beginning of his term,then maybe he wouldn't have the money to start a "WAR" he really believes America gave him a "big blank check" to play with.
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POPSGreen ‘Peace Party’ positions against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars compared to pro-occupation Clint “The occupation of Iraq will continue whether a Democrat or a Republican moves into the White House in January 2009,” said Jason Wallace, Green candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 11th District <http://www.electwallace.us> and a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War <http://ivaw.org/index.php>. IVAW has announced ‘Winter Soldier’ (March 13-16), a four-day event bringing together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan <http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier>. “The ILWU action planned for May 1 is evidence that working people are impatient with vague promises to end these wars. Will Ms. Clinton or Mr. Obama endorse the ILWU protest and pledge to call home all US military personnel immediately?” “By calling the Iraq War a matter of military preparedness and botched strategy, Democrats are sidestepping the premise of the war,” said Bob Kinsey, Green candidate for the US Senate in Colorado <http://www.kinseyforsenate.org>. “While it’s true that
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POPSOreGon Green Candidates get Ready “The overwhelming majority of the damage done, from war to attacks on democratic rights, came with the votes of the Democrats in Washington,” Olmsted points out. “It is time for the building of a party that can be the voice of the majority to fight for our interests. Then we have a chance for real change.” (www.newmenu.org/ore gongreens4congress.)
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POPSHYPERINFLATION (read, watch, learn) In late 1923, Germany undertook a monetary reform creating a new unit of currency called the rentenmark. The German government promised that the new currency could be converted on demand into a bond having a certain value in gold. Proponents of the standard answer argue that the guarantee of convertibility is properly viewed as a promise to cease the rapid issue of money. An alternative view held by some economists is that not just monetary reform, but also fiscal reform, is needed to end a hyperinflation. According to this view a successful reform entails two believable commitments on the part of government. The first is a commitment to halt the rapid growth of paper money. The second is a commitment to bring the government's budget into balance. This second commitment is necessary for a successful reform because it removes, or at least lessens, the incentive for the government to resort to inflationary taxation.
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POPS"Generation Kill" brings the Iraq war to the TV viewer From the producers of "The Wire" With its $550 billion budget and 1.5 million troops, the military might seem a mechanized colossus of precision-guided violence, give or take a few bad apples and errant artillery shells. But if you have served in the military or written about it from the inside, you know that on the unit level it is filled with men and women of vastly different motivations and skills. The Marines in Generation Kill are intelligent and dimwitted, panicked, sensitive, racist, comic, homicidal, brave. It is a wonder when things go according to plan. "You know what happens when you get out of the Marine Corps?" says one of the characters. "You get your brains back."
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POPSFACT: US economy does better under Democrats Graphic proof: Democratic admins usually bring growth in jobs, GDP, and stock values; Repub admins bring deficits, greater gap between rich and poor. If blue-collar Americans ever understand this, it'll be mighty bad news for Republicans.
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POPSObscene Military Budget is much biger than Reported Legally see the article for the cuts behind the figures here: Now, imagine that, due to a little more Pentagon/Bush administration wizardry, even this black budget estimate is undoubtedly a low-ball figure. One reason is simple enough: The proposed $541 billion Pentagon 2009 budget doesn't even include money for actual wars. George W. Bush's wars are all paid for by "supplemental" bills like the $162 billion one Congress will soon pass -- so the Department of Defense's $34 billion black budget skips "war-related funding." This means that even the overall figure for that budget remains darker than we might imagine (as in "black hole"). The Pentagon not only produces stealth planes, it is, in budgetary terms, a stealth operation. If honestly accounted, the actual Pentagon yearly budget, including all the "military-related" funds salted away elsewhere, is probably now more than $1 trillion a year.
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POPSObscene Pentagon Budget disappearing down the Rabbit hole of corruption Money Problems The Pentagon has its work cut out for it. Keeping track of its more than half trillion dollar budget and the hundreds of billions more in war spending is no easy task. There is bound to be some slippage here and there. But the Pentagon’s Inspector General’s Office recently reported to Congress that the Pentagon is unable to account for nearly $15 billion earmarked for the Iraq reconstruction effort. In a May report to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the Inspector General’s Office highlights $7.8 billion paid to contractors for everything from telephones to trucks without any support documentation—like a check for $5.6 million to an Iraqi contractor. For what? No one knows. Or the $32 million doled out to build a facility for the Iraqi military. Never built. Why not? No one knows. One reason that money just seems to disappear is that there are not enough people watching the books. While the Pentagon budget has soared in the past seven years,
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POPSMurtha Blocks Iraq Funding to pass a funding bill, and Democratic leaders refuse to bring for a vote clean legislation that would pass with largely Republican support. Nevertheless, Murtha believes it's appropriate to nickel and dime the Pentagon, while holding up long-term funding. Service members, including those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, and essential civilians would serve without pay, while nonessential civilian employees would be furloughed, the department said. But don't worry: Congress supports the troops.
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POPSGOP Senator, VA Secretary Disrespect Troops on Memorial Day What Stevens is really saying is that today's troops are unpatriotic--that they're only in it for the money and the college. And while Stevens' "mass exodus" theory has been thoroughly discredited by the Congressional Budget Office, the true irony of the situation lies in the fact that Stevens earned his own college degree after World War Two by using the same GI Bill he's aiming to prevent today's veterans from receiving. In today's military lingo, this makes Senator Stevens a "Blue Falcon" or a "Bravo Foxtrot." At the same convention, VA Secretary James Peake--who is already under fire for the cover-up of an extraordinary number of veteran suicides and for overseeing an organization that may not be taking PTSD seriously--showed a stunning lack of situational awareness by discounting recent media reports and think tank studies by suggesting that fewer returning vets actually had PTSD than is commonly thought.
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POPSWhy is military spending highest since WWII? Hi-tech cold-war toys in development. One thing's sure: if we get them, we'll use them on a few thousand poor suckers. Meanwhile Lieberman crusades for deep water submarines that, coincidentally, are made in his home state, but serve no strategic purpose.
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