Tag: military industrial complex

Jan 07 2010

Turning Point

I have reached a personal turning point at the beginning of 2010, a year when I was young, I was certain I would meet George Jetson. I’ve been involved in political blogging for about two years now. Certainly not long compared to the impressive seven or so years some can claim, but enough to have brought me to my turning point. I’m a pretty quick study and in some ways this whole experience, among my life experiences, is similar to my dabbling with Christianity in my twenties. A couple years of that and I was also saying, “OK, I get it, what’s next?”

Why have I reached a turning point? I guess the number one reason would be effectiveness. I like to be effective in what I do and I don’t like to waste my time. I don’t need these blogs as a hobby or to feel part of a community. Life is too short. Reason number two is that I am just not into electoral politics. I’ve never campaigned for a candidate, donated money, or been involved in electoral politics in any way other than this brief interlude on the toobs. Since my anti-establishment days in the late sixties to early seventies, I just never bought into the system. Donating money in particular has always seemed sacreligious to me in a way, in how it acquiecses to that system. That isn’t going to change for me.

Life took over since those days and family and career prevented me from investing much time in politics. For those that denigrate the hippies for losing their mojo and joining the establishment, I can just say, the times were a changing after the Vietnam war. The pace of society and the machinations of the political propaganda system simply didn’t allow for another common rallying point after the war, other than the environment. As with many, I got married and had kids. What then were my choices? Go live in a commune and name my kids Moonbeam and Sunshine, or go ahead and get my piece of the American pie. I chose the pie, not that I don’t have regrets.

Then, American dream accomplished, kids grown and out of the house, I had time to check out politics on the internet. From Atari Pong to political blogging in the blink of an eye. Quite an interesting experience for sure, and certainly very educational. Not just from what I learned from other people, but how it instigated me to learn more on my own.

Dec 11 2009

“The war in Afghanistan is a RACKET” — Kucinich on the floor

The war in Afghanistan is now officially a racket.    We are paying the Taliban, literally paying them American dollars, so that they won’t attack our “contractors” supplying our troops.    

So that we can go fight the Taliban.

Go figure.

It’s a racket for everybody, the contractors, the Taliban, everybody but the poor bastards who have to fight this useless fight, and the American taxpayer who, it appears, will shell out a couple of Trillion dollars (yes, Trillion with a “TR”) to keep the scam going for another 10 to 15 years.

The truth hurts.

Kucinich also makes it clear that the war is unconstitutional in the first place.

Looks like Obama is just another tool of the M.I.C. and we were all punked.

Dec 07 2009

The Change; Hope

CdPnkHplss

copyright © 2009 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

It is said, as individuals, we can achieve all we conceive, if only we truly believe.  President Barack Obama once knew this.  He lived this veracity.  Indeed, candidate Obama’s audacity and accomplishments gave Americans hope.  When Barack Obama reached for the sky he realized what no one thought he could. The electorate was energized.  People came to expect the country was in for a change.   Now, it seems Mister Obama is bogged down by what Eisenhower understood, concerns of the Military Industrial Complex.  

The intricacy of the Armed Forces mission does not confine itself to forceful martial escalation.  Nothing escapes the wide reach of combative nation building.  Lives are lost.  Limbs crushed.  With bullets ablaze, brains are battered or blown to smithereens.  Hope suffers.  Hearts are hurt.

Nov 28 2009

Nationwide protests this week against Afghanistan escalation (UPDATE)

It’s about time for a substantial anti-war movement to start in this country – and with Obama probably announcing an escalation of 34,000 troops to Afghanistan (in addition to the 20,000 he already sent), there is no better time than now.  A leading anti-war organization, World Can’t Wait, is holding protests around the nation.

Throughout next week, there will be protests in (this list will probably include more cities by the time the protests start – and you can always organize a protest yourself!):

Nov 24 2009

How about some Holiday-week OUTRAGE?!

My things seem chill here.   Everybody seems to be in a groovy frame of mind, maybe it’s the holidays, maybe we’re all just high on cold medicines (I know I am, I’ve got a nasty one), maybe it’s just longer nights and the shorter days ….

But too bad.  I’m gonna hit you over the head with an article that will PISS YOU THE HELL OFF.

Oct 30 2009

Hey, Didn’t John McCain LOSE the Election?

I am a war criminal; I bombed innocent women and children”



-John McCain

From the treatment by the corporatist whore mainstream media you would think that John McCain was somehow still relevant. In the latest example the old loser and self-admitted war criminal is whoring himself out to the lazy cretins who masquerade as journalists in shilling for the escalation of the war in Afghanistan. McCain is ordering President Obama to make the decision on sending more troops into the meatgrinder NOW. I have to say that the ongoing forum for this asshat who has become a fixture on the Sunday morning bloviation circuit and as much a frontman for the Military Industrial Complex as the old phony Ronald Reagan was for the rising fascist tide is rather astonishing but not unpredictable. Anyone with any sense at all learned long ago not to trust a goddamned thing that the pocket media has to say even if they never even heard of Operation Mockingbird.

Oct 19 2009

Ike Skelton Pushes For More War in Afghanistan

Cross-posted at Dkos, MyDD, OpenLeft, and FDL.

——–

In today’s WaPo, Ike Skelton, Chair of the House Armed Forces Committee, teamed up with everyone’s favorite former Democrat, Joe Lieberman, on an op-ed for more war in Afghanistan called Don’t Settle for Stalemate in Afghanistan.

The president was right to call the war in Afghanistan “a war of necessity.” Now it is time to treat it as such and commit the decisive force that will allow Gen. McChrystal to break the Taliban’s momentum as quickly as possible.

And

Here at home, we must stabilize public support by convincing an increasingly skeptical American people that the Afghan war is in fact winnable.

.     .

It comes as no surprise that Ike and Joe are in favor of treating our Armed Forces to more $#!t sandwiches and crap burgers in Afghanistan.  Ike and Joe have been talking it up for quite a while.

Sep 27 2009

The pure hypocrisy of our pols on Acorn

Jeremy Scahill is, to my mind, the finest journalist working today.   There are very few real journalists left, I could probably count them on one hand, and Scahill is simply on fire.  

I wanted to share his latest, from his website where he simply destroys the whole notion of ACORN being any kind of a real scandal.

Here is the jist of his article:


How could any sane person put even the wildest allegations against ACORN up against the systematic misconduct and criminality of war corporations and gigantic multi-nationals?

This, considering the way the media has covered this, the way our politicians have such a terrible, palpable fear of any real Democracy that they all, including our complicit Democrats, have decided that Acorn is the real enemy and worthy of being punished, to the point where they are trying to pass legislation called “The Defund Acorn Act”.

If you just put ACORN up against Blackwater, the charges are absolutely ludicrous.   Acorn received $53 million over 15 years, most of which went to support housing for low-income people.   Blackwater has received over a BILLION in government contracts in the last few.  

And check this out:


The GOP smear machine tries to link ACORN to prostitution. Beyond the hypocrisy of Republicans denouncing prostitutes (long history of using them), do they really want talk of prostitution? One former Blackwater employee recently stated in a sworn declaration that Blackwater owner Erik Prince “failed to stop the ongoing use of prostitutes, including child prostitutes, by his men.” Another former employee described “having young girls provide oral sex to Enterprise members in the ‘Blackwater Man Camp’ (in Iraq) in exchange for one American dollar.” (PDF links to these affidavits are here) Even if ACORN did provide inappropriate tax advice to a prostitute, is that really on the same level as this conduct being conducted on a huge US government contract? If you think these are just the allegations of disgruntled employees, read the Justice Department’s perspective on Blackwater’s crimes and how its men “specifically intended to kill” Iraqi civilians as “payback for 9/11.”

As Scahill notes in his previous work on the website, Where is the “Defund Blackwater Act”?     Where, indeed?    Supposedly Democratic and supposedly liberal and supposedly “for the people” Barack Hussein Obama has decided to keep using Blackwater until, well, god only knows how long.   Yet what do we hear about in the press?   How bad and terrible and corrupt Acorn is.  

Nobody talks about defunding the real criminals, others of which are mentioned here:


Beyond the question of innocent until proven guilty, these questions must be asked of Democratic lawmakers who support this punitive legislation against ACORN: Where is your legislation to defund the companies whose men are indicted by actual, real life prosecutors for manslaughter; who are accused by the IRS of tax fraud and whose North Carolina compound has been raided by the ATF for possessing unauthorized, automatic weapons? What about the move to defund KBR, which has provided polluted drinking water to US troops and installed faulty electrical wiring that has resulted in the electrocution deaths of US soldiers? What about the move to defund the massive US-funded mercenary force DynCorp in Iraq, Colombia and Afghanistan? A company whistleblower alleged that in Bosnia he “witnessed coworkers and supervisors literally buying and selling women for their own personal enjoyment, and employees would brag about the various ages and talents of the individual slaves they had purchased.” What about defunding Armor Group, which employed security guards at the US embassy in Kabul who were throwing fraternity-style parties, complete with disgusting hazing of new recruits in the form of alcohol shots off of butt cracks and the fondling of genitals?

You really just need to read the whole thing.   I can’t possibly do it justice in lame attempts to paraphrase.    And read the rest of his stuff, too, give his site a visit.   He’s amazing.   We need hundreds of Jeremy Scahills in the world, sadly there is just one.

Sep 17 2009

Obama Scraps Central European “Missile Defense”!

The Wall Street Journal is reporting what would be maybe the best move, yet, by the Obama Administration:

The White House will shelve Bush administration plans to build a missile-defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, according to people familiar with the matter, a move likely to cheer Moscow and roil the security debate in Europe.

The U.S. will base its decision on a determination that Iran’s long-range missile program has not progressed as rapidly as previously estimated, reducing the threat to the continental U.S. and major European capitals, according to current and former U.S. officials.

This is a brilliant move, on several levels, the first and foremost being that “missile defense” is an enormously expensive farce that has yet to come close to being a proven technology. Despite billions upon billions poured into the coffers of its various contractors. Beyond that, though, merely attempting to put even an ostensibly advanced weapons system in Central Europe, in nations that were once part of the former Soviet Union’s buffer zone, was seen as a blatant provocation to Russia, thus politically enabling the hard line Putin regime. As explained by the BBC:

Sep 17 2009

A Way to Pay for Healthcare You Will Never Hear Debated

Recently we have all heard during the health care debate about the cost of health care reform and its impact on the deficit. Suddenly the right cares about the spending and its impact on the deficit (holy crap where were these deficit hawks during the tax cuts WHILE starting a multi trillion dollar war?).

Well I have looked at the numbers and I want to bring up a way to pay for health care which is as simple as could be, yet you will NEVER hear anyone on either the left or the right bring up…

Ok, so the estimate for the cost of HCR are roughly 900 billion over 10 years. That is roughly 90 Billion a year, so where can we find 90 Billion a year?

I say we take it directly from the US Military’s budget.

Look at the chart below:

We spent over 700 BILLION dollars last year on our military industrial complex. As you can see the closest any country in the world who comes close toour level of spending is China at a bit less than 200 Billion a year. Hell all of Europe combined only spends 289 Billion a year.

So don’t you think we could find in the 700 billion a year (or over 8 trillion over 10 years as the media would explain it if they explained military spending in the same way they are explaining the cost of Health Care reform)a small pittance of only 90 Billion for our Health Care stability and security?

Of course this seems to be a source of funding no one would ever bring up or debate.

And of course we can’t say we weren’t warned:

Crossposted at Daily Kos

Sep 11 2009

Happy 8th Anniversary – Now Investigate 9/11!

Last night when I was watching the NFL grand kickoff festivities it just amazed me on how much more extravagant that the bread and circuses become as the American empire enters the stage of terminal rot. Eaten from within by looters using the full power of the state to confiscate the tax dollars of the American citizens for their financial gambling schemes and to throw anyone into a for profit prison gulag system who dares to complain about it as well as the termites and maggots like Rep. Joe Wilson who proudly serve as the guardians of the fascist oligarchy. Of course there is the menace of rising demagogue Glenn Beck and the full might of the shadow government that is all too happy to have a money loser as an ace propagandist, liberals extol the virtues of the boycotts by Beck advertisers but it doesn’t mean jack fucking shit – the Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Washington Times has been a huge money loser practically since its inception but it’s true value is as a forum to distort and mold public opiniong, a launching pad for the slime, swill, sleaze and lies that reverberate throughout the right wing echo chamber media. Former Vice President Henry A. Wallace said it best:

The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism.

Sep 01 2009

Health Care Desperation

Recently, with what is seemingly the whole political world anxiously awaiting the outcome of the so-called reform of health care in America, I’ve started to feel desperate, lonely, and hopeless.  And I’m as far from a teabagger as you can get!

If you’ve got two eyes and a brain, it’s impossible not to see that the corporate domination of our government is ruining any chance of true universal health care coming out of the “Obamacare” bill.  Pharmaceutical companies, the insurance industry, and their partners-in-crime shoved single-payer off the table and now they’re trying to do the same with the public option, a kind of single-payer-lite that is the last hope of many progressives for decent reform.  Obama and a majority of the Democrats in Congress have not been able to stand up to special interests enough to really protect the interests of the American people.  And perhaps they don’t want to.

Load more