Democrats want to take all our money and return to us one dime out of each dollar.
Republicans want to take all our money and give it to corporations and the wealthy.
Neither is acceptable!
Campaign 2010
Countdown to Congressional Elections
The most effective way to restrict democracy is to transfer decision-making from the public arena to unaccountable institutions: kings and princes, priestly castes, military juntas, party dictatorships, or modern corporations.
Noam Chomsky, M.I.T. emeritus Professor of Linguistics
If Cook and the others are the kind of people we are not only accepting into our armed forces but also promoting to the rank of officer, then our standards for accepting people into our military has dropped to a new low. They certainly aren’t the kind of people I would trust to protect my country. [...]
The defense department’s portion of the budget for 2008 was nearly 17% of the total budget. That means that 70% of the defense budget was spent on contactors. [...]
The US Army has decided to save us taxpayers some money. They have sent letters to 27 former Alaskan natives who served as Territorial Guards during WWII that the pay increase the natives recently received will be revoked. [...]
According to the Washington Post, Veterans Corp. executives spent money on such things as $2,400 at an upscale steakhouse in Washington D.C. over a two night period, and $380 per night in a luxury hotel in Dallas, Texas. Their air travels have been in first class, and their two top executives were compensated with almost one-quarter of their total federal funds. [...]
Barack Obama and Admiral Michael Mullen, Joints Chiefs of Staff chairman, had their first meeting at the end of November. Evidently, it was a one-on-one meeting with no fanfare; just a “get to know you” meeting. Mullen said afterwards it “felt very good, very positive”.
Retired Major General William Nash has said “open and serious debate versus ideological certitude will be a great relief to the military leaders”. In reference to what it was like to serve under President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, Nash said “the joke was that when you leave a meeting, everybody is supposed to drink the Kool-Aid. In the Bush administration, you had to drink the Kool-Aid before [bold added] you got to go to the meeting”. Continue Reading » »
Last year President Bush convinced the Democratic controlled congress to authorize sending Special Ops forces into Iran to “gather information”, according to the latest issue of The New Yorker Magazine. Most top military leaders are concerned about this, in that they are afraid Bush will use this opportunity to authorize an air strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities. Even Defense Secretary Robert Gates warns of the consequences if Bush stages a preemptive strike. He said “We’ll create generations of jihadists, and our grandchildren will be battling our enemies here in America”. Continue Reading » »
Time, in partnership with CNN, has published an article entitled “How Much Did Rumsfeld Know?“. The article is an exert from a book that Army General Ricardo S. Sanchez wrote entitled “Wiser in Battle: A Soldier’s Story“. Sanchez says that Rumsfeld showed him a memo in April of 2006 that Rumsfeld had written which said that he, Rumsfeld, has absolutely no knowledge that CENTCOM (Central Command) and CFLCC (Coalition Forces Land Component Command) was to be withdrawn from Iraq in May & June 2003, or that he knew that Sanchez was in charge after the withdrawal. Continue Reading » »
Defense Secretary Robert Gates says he has heard senator’s concerns “loud & clear” about spending US taxpayer dollars on Iraqi reconstruction while Iraq banks their billions of oil dollars. Gates has got the Pentagon to agree to cut $171 million from their budget for building new police stations in Iraq. Continue Reading » »