This is sadly all to typical of the government in general, and GB in particular. While we spend billions on war and destruction, in the name of “national security” (the US government has spent over $350,000,000,000 on a war in Iraq alone), the root causes of our troubles are hardly addressed. Eradication of poverty, inequality, ignorance and the protection of the environment worldwide are the only real solutions.

These goals can be accomplished, but will require the mobilization of armies of volunteers working toward goals like those set forth in initiatives like The Millennium Development Goals (MDG), an initiative the US has pledged to support along with most other nations of the world. GB’s budget priorities undercut efforts to improve, even save, people’s lives, and diminishes US national security.

Weapons, stealth bombers…how about putting proper armor on our 500 humvees roaming the streets of Baghdad with our troops - so precious to Republicans now arguing in the House as to their preciousness - that are STILL without proper armor.  Apparently, properly arming humvees is not profitable for the merchants of death.

This administration lies about the new budget, no way can Bushie Boy figure out how much this war is going to cost in money and the boys/girls who must die to support an unwinable war.  But he has to keep the people who profitited most for his tax relief program, as if the rich people need relief, the people who need relief are those who loose their job to outsourcing and the outsourcing of jobs also effect those who graduated from college, so what do they do say it is the falut of the illegals so send them back and everything will be honkey dorey, please don’t sell the okey doke to me, this president who has not any experience running a country has less experience putting together a budget just ask the people about the donut hole, the mess he made of Medicare the mass confusion that is still going on, the people who benefit from this mess is a corporation the drug corporation and he does not want to reduce the cost of drugs, what he wants is the insurance companies to make profit on the backs of senior citizens, and if Social Security goes broke, it is because this government has stolen the money put aside for social security and used it instead on an illegal war, if health insurance is taken away from the workers, their jobs are outsourced and when they become a senior where to the dispossed go, do we build tents on government land?  No the government lands are given away to the wellconnectedd the oil is taken from the oil companies for a small amount or maybe even obtained free, in the mean time what is left is an polluted environment, of course the rich will just go to another country until they run out of a place to go, then of course there will be no United States of America.

What’s the concern? Bush is doing us a favor by helping bring the USA to its knees.
When was the last time this country was up to any good? WWII?
Also if the “American people” whoever they are still put up with this ( and they do obviously) they get what they deserve.

Comment #52314 by L.Gordon on 2/07 at 2:25 pm

“The Bush Administration is coming apart at the seems. Slowly, the American people are beginning to realize what has been perpetrated upon them and the rage is ONLY BEGINNING.”

I don’t know. I think your presidents have been a disposable commodity of the military industrial complex for decades. Bush is a moronic sap who could no more turn off this corporate Frankenstein than the American public has been able to turn off Bush.

This complex has only grown with time and now its merged with the judical industrial complex of homeland civilian security and police forces and penal institutions. The globalization of this is inevitable if not already well underway.

The mental block or fog of suspended disbelief of vast numbers of people in the face of this makes it seems like the mental equivalent of malware has infected people’s minds and is spreading like a virus. To me this seems far worse than any sci-fi scenario involving our destruction by a Sky-net or absorption into a Borg collective. If for no other reason than its so pathetic.

Try again see if this gets through.  Yes alot of red faces when Putin of Russia told the three stooges Macain, Gates and the senator for Israel Lieberman some home truths about the power the USA craves.  The Russians certainly have no problems, they have Europe by the balls with their control of gas and oil. They also announce that in no way will they chase the US military budget using 30% of their GDP.  The US will spend 25 times MORE than Russia and it reckons it’s a peace loving nation. What baloney.

But watch out you war mongers.  If Russia goes to bed with China and they certainly do have the money from all those sales of plastic junk to the US. Then that very same money will be used to finance a fat response to the US. Ironic eh using your money for this purpose. That of course is assuming this dud currency doesn’t finally collapse before these events take place.

It was with pleasure as I watched the expressions on the faces of Gates, Macain and the senator for Israel Lieberman as they had to sit and listen to the words of Russias Putin.  He told em straight what he thought about the US arms build up and the truth really hurt those scumbags.  In case you want to know why Putin is getting riled it’s because the US is now spending 25 times more than Russia on military hardware.  And as the Russian defense secretary said afterwards… we’re not going to make the same mistakes as we made before and spend 30% of our GDP on weapons to keep up with the USA.

Just chew on this. Russia right now has Europe by the short and curlies with the supplies of gas and oil. And should the US continue with this madness of wanting to take over the world then the Russians next partner may well be China!  If that happens all that money spent by the USA on plastic toys and barbie dolls currently thrown into China, can be used very well to equal the race that the US is trying to encourage.  Nice one eh?  Spending your money to ultimately flatten you!  The big difference is that the US may have the money but it doesn’t even begin to match the population of China and Russia combined and all those Nato heroes sitting in Europe won’t even have the gas to fly those shiny F16s they bought on credit!

Good observations all around on this thread. It would be good if we could have a virtual national convention online. The technology is there to spread democracy—exactly the reason to suppress it!;0)Yes, America is a plutocracy, but doesn’t there seem to be a tinge of desperation behind the actions of the Bush administration? It makes me wonder if their backers are scared they’re losing it all. Bush is accelerating it in a way, but the American Empire is ending, that’s assured. Why, it’s in the Wealth of Nations, every nation has its time, and that time ends eventually.

With two carrier battle goups patrolling off Iran waiting for a provocation (ala the Gulf Of Tonkin) a such as hitting a mine (one of our own) or being rammed by a Iranian ship, this Defense budget will be but a downpayment on the death and destruction the US Government will unleash on Iran.

Profit and also power, that’s what drives these madmen.  Mad, that is, in the sense of Dr. Strangelove and patriots to the very same cause.  As to their showing “a mindless indifference to the lessons of 9’11”?  More likely it’s staged and their dumb-ass routine is being carefully scripted.  As are these budget cuts in health, education and other life-enhancing services, “Sorrry, we’d like to help, but, you know, there’s this perpetual war on terror.” 

Why do they get away with it?  We trust them, that’s why.  We’ve been conditioned to.  So much so that we actually trust them when they tell us there are weapons of mass destruction, even though there’s this gut-feeling that tells us it’s a lie. 

We even trust them when they tell us that they need a half-trillion dollars or so for defense, just in case some nation decides to challenge America for control of the world.  Only there’s no such nation.  Which means they’re setting us up for a virtual war.  Which would be whatever they scripted it to be. 

Yet we keep trusting them.  Real trust too.  Nothing virtual about it.

What makes me think Big Oil is behind this? It always comes down to Big Oil.

Well I guess America has a choice. We sit and watch the rest of the world test weapons, fire missles , and sell each other the tools of war.
We sit and watch country after country trying to develope nuclear capabilities.

We can throw up our arms, sit on our hands, and hope the rest of the world plays nice. Or, we can arm ourselves to the teeth, and let them know that we won’t be taken.

America’s military can not be beat by any army on earth. The concept of defeat only exists in the minds of some Americans. And defeatism has become a thriving business in America.

FROM http://www.unity08.com:

Did You Know?
* 99% of American voters have no say in who is on the ballot for President in November. (A tiny percentage of voters in Iowa & New Hampshire do.)
* In the 2004 presidential election, only 34 states or territories had primaries.
* Less than 7,000 voting delegates participated in the 2004 National Conventions of the Democratic and Republican parties.

Had enough of this kind of politics? Sign up to be a Founding Delegate.

OUR THREE GOALS:

We The people Will…
1. Elect a truly bipartisan Unity Ticket to the White House team in 2008.
2. Make history by nominating the next President and Vice-President through the first ever online, virtual convention.
3. Demand a focus on crucial issues by creating a New American Agenda.

I politely disagree. The midterms appear to have mothballed that contention, but we have to keep pushing the politicians. Eternal vigilance. The Founding Fathers didn’t want most of the people to have the rights of property owners, we won the right to vote just over a century ago. Enfranchisment didn’t occurr until after the Civil War, well-into the 1870s-90s alongside the labor struggle of that time. Brutal times. The fight against unaccountable power has never been easy, and never will.

The pimping at the Bush/Cheney White House just goes on, and on, and on, and on . . . .  I didn’t even know there was such a think as a “defense industry trade show.”  What the hell are they showing, cluster bombs with exploding shrapnel?  What next, a torture chamber trade show with high tech waterboards? 

And these government teat suckers are the same hypocritical whores who decry the evils of big government.  Oh wait, they only mean welfare, public schools, social security, medicare, etc.  You know, things that real people need.

Anyone who can look at a defence budget that big and still call Bush a hopeless failure has no idea what they’re talking about.

Or, more importantly, they have no idea what Bush is about.

The beauty of such an absurdly huge defence budget for global defence contractors is that now Russia, China, India, Israel and Pakistan, will now all escalate their military build-ups.

And all this weaponry will have to be used eventually, so it can be replaced. But against who? A Russia-China alliance, perhaps?

As Scheer says in his headline, Bush has delivered the bacon. In fact, Bush has delivered the whole pig, and more, a whole farmyard full of fat, juicy pigs.

Oink, oink.

In response to comment #52573 by DennisD on 2/08 at 6:44 pm

Hopefully we the people can be rallied to demand a reformation, not a revolution.  The powers have always given a little when threatened but now a sea change is needed.

Scheer entirely ignores the critical ongoing deficiency in US military equipment in Iraq.  The rolling stock is worn out and broken, patched together and unreliable.  Most of it, in particular so-called up-armored HUMVEEs, is so deficient that it has opened the door to so many casualties that America has become “war weary.”

My son and more than 2,100 other young men are dead because the Department of Defense has failed to provide adequate force protection equipment.

War breeds waste because it is the most wasteful pursuit of man.  Let’s quit worrying about which cat gets fat and equip our soldiers like we mean it.

Bu$h Inc. is just doing what he was elected to do. I can’t believe anyone is surprised anymore. My condolences to anyone who thinks their vote still matters. The founders of this country fought for our right to vote - we’ll have to fight again to have it matter.

Yes, it is obvious war profiteering, so let’s prosecute them for it. But it has to be done cautiously, impeachment is almost impossible to prove, and the same goes with treason. When form Vice President Aaron Burr tried to foment an insurrection in New Orleans (he and his group of mercenaries were caught before they could act), and was tried in March of 1807, and was acquitted at his treason hearing by Justice Marshal.

Fascinating new information about 9-11

http://politicsmusicandboatsohmy.blogspot.com/

So, the question is: Will the Democrats have the guts to stop this betrayal of the public trust?

No, the question is when pundits and columnists are going to recognize that the Beltway’s two party system is a fraud, our partisan politics little more than Kabuki theater, and that the formal party organizations are empty shells.  Can we dispense with this nonsense now?

The military budget presented to congress for approval by the mass murderers in power is not only outlandish, it is obscene!  I say how dare Bush, Inc. even conceive of such unconscionable waste of our resources while his own people suffer for everything from health care to putting food on their tables; if they any longer have a table.  This is the most unscrupulous scam we’ve been hit with thus far.  DO THEY NOT REALIZE IT IS THE PEOPLE’S MONEY THEY’RE PASSING AROUND AS IF IT GREW ON TREES?  The best interests of the people who work at the growing rate of TWO jobs, to keep the Washington machine spinning, is the last consideration on their agenda.  We have been ripped-off big time since GW Bush was seated in the Oval office, but this military budget is unbelievable, inconceivable and totally unacceptable.  Forget the debates blocked by his ass licking republicans in congress.  It is imperative that our democrats say, “no, Mr. President, your spending and killing spree is over, done with and zilch as of NOW!”

America is becoming a third world country under this regime of self appointed royalty who practices tyranny against it’s own people.  America is no longer a democracy because of a leadership that is indecent and without conscience.  Frankly, I would like to see the two Bush daughters forced to do military duty in Iraq.  I’d lay odds that America’s role in this conflict would come to a schreeching halt.  But then, who knows if he is even capable of caring for his own offspring.

Bush, Cheney, Rove and Rice should be subjected to trial at the Hague for the murder of approximately 400,000 innocent Iraqis and the deaths of our own youth.  I am not one for the death penalty but if anyone ever deserved it, it is this bunch of rogues.

Both Hitler and Hussein were victims of brutal upbringings.  Hussein withstood torture at the hands of his own Mother and turned over to an uncle at a very young age who was trained in the art of brutallity.  He was forced to committ his first killing at aged 10.  Our president was born into a family of great wealth and prestige.  His wish was their command and he never wanted for anything.  Yet, in comparing the three, in my opinion, he is the worst.  What, in his background could have compelled him to grow up to become heartless and without conscious?  I wonder often if he ever thinks of all the Iraqi children his war has killed and maimed and left orphaned.  I seriously doubt it.

Everyone posting should take note of the fact that Eisenhower’s admonition originally referred to the
“Military Industrial Congressional” complex. In the interest of bipartisanship (whatever that is), he removed the Congressional reference.
We live in a fascist military dictatorship, whether we recognize it or not.

I love the stuff you write.  But why do do you have to repeat the government’s 9/11 myth. 

“Ever since some lunatics, mostly citizens of our longtime ally Saudi Arabia, used $3 knives to hijack four planes on the same morning..”

America: Freedom to Fascism
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4312730277175 242198

You absolutely have to see Aaron Russo interviewing former IRS commissioner Sheldon Cohen. Once you understand the Federal Reserve System (and the IRS), politics in the US makes sense. There is no division between the elite Republicrats. They all serve the same masters. Democracy was done away with in 1913 (both the Federal Reserve Act and the IRS Act were passed that year, coincidence?). But then again, I am not sure it ever existed.  Remember who it was that had a right to vote when this nation was established; landed gentry.  America is mostly myth.  Liberals unfortunately will never wish an end to the current monetary system as they have the majority of their assets in the all mighty dollar (gotta love the 401k plans). And so that means they they are complicit in dollar hegemony.  Can’t win, don’t try.

Robert Sheer asks “So, the question is: Will the Democrats have the guts to stop this betrayal of the public trust?”

Hell no!! Both parties are corrupt.  Our government: Where corruption is normal, bribery is legal. Corporations directly and indirectly nominate and control congress, the president, and most judges.

Our democratic republic has become a satiric facade.  Until elections are publicly funded and lobbying with money is banned, to believe we have a government of the people, by the people and for the people is neurotically delusional.

A reformed Democratic Party would offer by far the best chance to lead the reformation.

I just love these articles where some author posits the simple questions of 1. why do we spend so much on a cold war military? and 2. just who do we think we are gonna fight with it?

Why not just speak the truth and announce that the enemy is simply the American people.  Those at the very top are not about to give up a single penny and, as we’ve learned, the rules do not apply to them so why shouldn’t they make life for the rest of us as difficult as possible.

Most everything accomplished since 9/11 has been directed towards the American people.  The war in Iraq just helps to cover up the fact that spying is ok, torture is ok, secret prisons are ok, habeas corpus isn’t necessary, Geneva Conventions are outdated, and the president can declare anyone he wishes to be an enemy combatant and lock that person away (or worse) forever. 

Gonna go protest?  Dress for the heat because the Pentagon’s new microwave weapons are great for crowd control.  Don’t forget your earplugs (they wont help) because the new sound canons really let freedom ring.

Well, the problem is partly the indifference of the American people.  Figure it out.

How much is the military industrial complex spending per election cycle?  The article says ten million dollars.

Seventy-six million people voted in the last election.  Sixty percent of voters are opposed to the War in Iraq.  Seventy-six million times sixty percent is 45 million.

If forty-five million voters each contributed a dollar to election campaigns in the name of peace, the War Lobby would be overwhelmed. 

One dollar every two years, or fifty cents a year.  That’s what we’re surrendering our peace and freedom for.

By the way, the Defense Budget is costing us approximately $9000 a year per voter, but who’s counting?  Not you, apparently.

yeah Comment #52269 by Renee!! Under those same Millennium Development Goals we could eliminate global poverty with a mere $19 billion annually until 2015.  Now that is doable considering the $484.1 billion Renee mentioned!

The priorities of the budget are clear and heart-sickening. Health and Education funds are reduced while we feed a bloated military that has no real enemies.  It’s such a sad commentary on our values.
To quote William s. Coffin, “. . had the world spent for the poor one million dollars every day since the birth of Jesus Christ, it would have spent but one half of what the Reagan administration spent in five years on the U.S. military alone.”  Bush, of course is out of the ball park.

In 1981, the norwegian poet and socialist Georg Johannesen wrote (about his critic of US/NATO policy since 1948): “All I say can be proven wrong - the day the US reduces it’s military spending.”

So far he hasn’t been proven wrong. On the contrary, he was right and is. As also when he wrote the same year (1981): “The cold war was pure summer heat compared to what is now coming towards us.”

In his 2003 state of the union speech George W Bush “Lied” when he said; Iraq had 25,000 liters of Anthrax, 38,000 liters of Botulinum Toxin, and 500 Tons of Sarin; also Mustard and VX nerve agents. (these quantities were made up – no source was mentioned)  Bush also “Lied”  stating that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Vice President Cheney “Lied” when he said; Iraq has a Nuclear Weapons program that is making progress. Secretary of State Colin Powell “Lied” when he said; Iraq had “Biological Weapons Laboratories” on rails and Chemical Weapons Bunkers. 
(an absolute falsehood)
Ex deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz (now President of The World Bank)  “Lied” when he stated that Saddam Hussein had Nuclear Weapons of Mass Destruction ready to attack the United States.
He was the prime architect, designer of the excuse for invading Iraq – the Weapons of Mass Destruction.  Paul Wolfowitz, represents Israel, more than our United States.
No one would have agreed to launch a full scale war on Iraq without the sensationalizing of this “made up nuclear threat.” When asked what he had to say about this sensational lie, Paul Wolfowitz responded quote!  I don’t have to !
It is blatantly obvious in view of the exorbitant cost of the Iraqi War (projected to be $468 Billion) that he deliberately drove the point home, that War was inevitable, in order to raise the National debt, so “The unconstitutional Federal Reserve Board” could collect the prime rate of interest, for the loans to support the War. He is an American Jew and is arbitrarily representing the best interests of the State of Israel.  He is the prime responsible person for our involvement in the “Middle East Crisis.”  The second most responsible person is George W Bush an autocratic/dictatorial President with the mentality of a spoiled teenager. This man will go down in history as the creator of the Illegal Iraqi War.
A war that is placing America in serious risk of a future “Economic Collapse.” 
The Seven Governors of “The Federal Reserve Board”  are celebrating the collection of the behemoth amount of “Prime Rate Interest.”  Israel gets Billions per year, in aid and guaranteed loans from the United States of America; while Mr. Paul Wolfowitz is basking in his appointment to new President of “The World Bank.”
For what ? Other purpose, did King David create “The Treasures of Zion.”
ps. The US can purchase the Federal Reserve for 450 million dollars (it’s in the bill).
HOWEVER;nobody dares to move to terminate the FED.

The “Federal Reserve Board’s activity, was passed by Congress on 23rd December 1913 - AD - while opposing congressmen were away for the Holidays. It was “then” to be a temporary measure’ because it threatened, our American principles, favoring the Wealthy at the expense of the poor. At the birth of The Federal Reserve Board (with tears in his eyes) President Woodrow Wilson said quote!  I have inadvertently ruined my country.
This my friends is “the true nature” of the religious, Seven Governors and the private-non govt. “Federal Reserve Board” - the Treasures of Zion.
The Twelve district’s twelve “Federal Reserve Banks”  are also “Private” non government Banks” which may be, controlled and owned by the Twelve tribes of Israel. 
As/per the US Constitution, “only” the Congress can authorize and create US Currency; the “creation and control” of US currency cannot be delegated. It is done by constitutional subterfuge.
Here is how it is done;
The FED writes an “uncashable check” for the amount of the loan (there is no transfer of funds, or anything of value) it only authorizes The US Treasury to print Fiat paper money called ” Federal Reserve Notes ” to cover the amount of the check.  ( Fiat paper money not backed by Silver or Gold. )
Then; US Taxpayers pay the IRS tax burden plus the prime rate interest they charge us for the use of our own currency. The FED gets the prime rate interest for nothing!
That; is why US Taxpayers have to work 16 hour work days, to make ends meet.
Jonathan

Wasn’t Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex prophetic? In combination with the religious right, the complex has had some remarkable success in turning the USA into a “fortress under siege” by exploding the 9/11 farce (and with due respect, Mr. Scheer, any discerning high-schooler, as previous contributors rightfully mentioned, recognizes the official 9/11 explanation for a fairy tale, alongside the contentions that an abortion is a premeditated murder, that one chooses to be gay, that acting on Global Warming is premature, or that God may have created the universe 4000 years ago).

The “fortress under siege” syndrome gives popular support to a bellicose and bullying attitude, challenging existing adversaries of the USA (Iran, North Korea, Cuba) and inciting new ones to rise (Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador). This, in turns, allows making the war permanent, ensuring the welfare of military contractors and catering to the fundamentalist need to split people into us versus them, saved versus unsaved, Christian warriors versus devilish terrorists. Of course, US-based oil companies also get some competitive advantages. One aspect of this strategy may be unfolding before our eyes: North Korea has nuclear weapons, but the Bush administration tries hard to ignore it and threaten Iran instead. Many military contractors must hope that North Korea acquire the capability of delivering a nuclear weapon to the United States, or at least Japan; they may be lavishly spending on federal campaigns to avoid a North Korean regime collapse and fend off any attempt to assign a high priority to appeasing Comrade Kim.

Finally, the “fortress under siege” syndrome gives the government a convenient excuse to repress dissenting voices; the infamous Patriot Act could only be the benign precursor to what would come if a serious war broke out. The first measures would clamp on criticism of the wisdom of the war, and could eventually extend to just about any aspect of governmental operation, providing a convenient cover for all-out corruption.

It remains to be seen how long this will last. Signs that “we the people” are getting tired of this escalation of aggression and repression are becoming evident. But the catalyst for a stiff U-turn may be no other than the widespread acknowledgement that most of the 9/11 attacks is only a bad-taste farce by the federal government. How long will mainstream media and Congress be able to keep ignoring it?

Vote early this year. Cast your ballot on April 15th.

Thank you Robert for spelling it out so clearly (and I STILL miss your column in the L A Times!).

My heart goes out to all those wasting thier time and energy trying to figure out which senate version of the non-binding resolution will pass and which congressperson will introduce this and that BS…

The writing is on the wall: our lawmakers (Dems and Repubs) are committed to war-making for all the reasons Robert explains above. Thier livelihood depends on appeasing the 1% of the US who benefit from the war and ignoring the 60-70% who want it to end.

“Bush Budget Delivers the Bacon”

Right, Bacon to you and I and Filets to the fat cats at the top. Even the fat cats in Iraq.

Buck Fush and the horse he rode in on (insert Republican party here).

The Bush Administation has only one goal - it’s raison d’ etre: the empowerment of the rich through the marginalization, if not the outright destruction, of the middle class in order to return the country to a pre-Roosevelt economy.

The Bush Administration is coming apart at the seems. Slowly, the American people are beginning to realize what has been perpetrated upon them and the rage is ONLY BEGINNING.

The evidence - the November elections clearly showed the dawning of this awarness.  Woe be to those who have aided this viscious and criminal Administration and those who “sit on their hands” and do nothing to discover and prosecute who are in power to do so.

In his farewell address to the nation President Eisenhower wisely admonished “Beware of the military-industrial complex”. Sadly, the country ignored his advise and his greatest fears are now happening but even more so.

The number of the impoverished is rapidly increasing and the real incomes of those in the middle class is in a steady decline. The only ones in our population who are prospering are the wealthy. The price being paid for their prosperity is to be found in the blood of young Americans being sacrificed daily in Iraq as well as in America’s current decent into third world status.

From: LibertyPost.org-

What Happened?
At first I thought this funny…then I realized the auful truth. Be sure to read all the way to the end.

Tax his land, Tax his bed, Tax the table at which he is fed.
Tax his tractor, Tax his mule, Teach him Taxes are the rule.
Tax his cow, Tax his goat, Tax his pants, Tax his coat.
Tax his ties, Tax his shirt, Tax his work, Tax his dirt.
Tax his tobacco, Tax his drink, Tax him if he Tries to think.
Tax his cigars, Tax his beers, If he cries, then Tax his tears.
Tax his car, Tax his gas, Find other ways To Tax his ass.
Tax all he has, Then let him know That you won’t be done Till he has No dough.
When he screams and hollers, Then Tax him some more, Tax him till He is good and sore.
Then Tax his coffin, Tax his grave, Tax the sod in which he is laid.
Put these words upon his tomb. “Taxes drove me to my Doom…”
When he’s gone, Do not relax, Its time to apply The inheritance Tax.

Accounts Receivable Tax, Building Permit Tax, CDL license Tax, Cigarette Tax, Corporate Income Tax, Dog License Tax, Federal Income Tax, Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA), Hunting & Fishing Tax, Food, Water, Tax, IRS Interest and Penalty Tax (Tax on top of Tax), etc, etc, etc,etc,etc, TAX…

Not one of these taxes existed before the Federal Reserve, and 16th & 17th Amendments were forced upon the people. Our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

What happened? We better find out and stop it.

But don’t worry be happy! Our elected officials took a “Oath of Office” to look out for us.

And now were missing over $14 Billion in Iraq, our DOD is impossable to audit.

The one paragraph here that I think needs re-writing is that Saudi Arabians hijacked airplanes and started all this muck & mire that we can’t help ourselves out of. No intelligent person, after watching and reading all the 911 conspiracy research on the web, can seriously think this scenario was not worked out by exactly the military marketeers who are reaping the fantastic rewards. The next item to expose here is how the Federal Reserve System actually works. All this “money” is created out of nothing; nothing except power and complicated laws of mumbo jumbo. All to force a future of mindless slavery and drudgery for billions of people who work all day for less and less purchasing power. The fewer and fewer elite transcend like gods to heights of luxury, based in effect, on debt and death. Where is the light to the end of this awful tunnel? At least let us read facts and truths about this reality. Some truthiness & factiness, PLEASE! Is class war the only looming answer…? It might just be unavoidable since our civilization is so fundamentally flawed as to show us no out but doom.

”....lunatics with $3.00 knives….” did 9/11 just like gawdalmighty sent Katrina to punish The Big Easy for being too….well, easy.  Robert Scheer pretty much wrecks his credibility parroting the party-line here.  Maybe, as he says in the Chris Hedges interview right next door, he is simply “naive.”  Maybe, though, the real truth is just too terrifyingly all-encompassing to be dug-up and examined by still relatively comfortable Americans with no stomach, really, for truth’s uglier features. 

In any event, a people so deeply in-denial about the near-terminal condition their condition is in is probably doomed already to degrees of institutionalized degradation beyond the wettest dreams of even Alberto Gonzalez and his ilk, and the “rapture” mongers, who all expect to evade the lethal draughts of “end-times” koolaid, if not exactly by means of the same dodges.  More fools they, it is dead-certain to turn out.

Those posters here who bemoan the looting in broad daylight of “taxpayer money” might take a look at the bills in their own wallets…..every one of which says on its face it belongs to the privately-owned “Federal Reserve.”  What’s being stolen is not people’s “money.”  It is their very lives.  And like Robert Scheer here, nearly all of ‘em stand stupidly still for the fleecing and the wholesale slaughter, laying the blame partly on some pre-fabricated Saudis and partly on their own greedy home-grown predator classes, instead of where it belongs…..in their own complicit selves.

Theamericanpeople are trapped in a self-glorifying self-image that makes them suckers for every con-artist who’ll pander to their infantile need for acceptance and approval.  The only way out of this trap is to grow-up.  The only way out of the mess they’ve made of our living room is to clean it up.  It is surely no coincidence that those two “processes” must go hand-in-hand.  Otherwise their obituary will read something like, “Died prematurely of self-inflicted consumption.”   

Don’t say us Indians never warned you, either.  It’s only that just like George A. Custer and George W. Bush, you “have no ears.”

HokaHey!

Down with the military-industrial complex!

The Bush Administration is requesting $484.1 billion for the Department of Defense in Fiscal year 2008 and is $49 billion more than the current level.  Comparatively, in 2006 only $1.77 billion was allotted to the Millennium Challenge Account which promotes global development in impoverished countries.  The projected budget for 2007 will be the same as 2006.

Robert again emphasizes the real reason for this ‘war’. It is hugely profitable for the military industrial complex and the US multinational corporations which are essentially the same. The US is simply a modern Rome with its imperialistic ambitions that instead of politically conquering countries, it conquers them by military force or threats of military force so as to subjugate them for its economic avarice.

The key difference was the wars of Rome were mainly paid for by their wealthy and a tax on the counquered citizenry. In the US, the wars are primarily paid for by the poor and middle class of its own nation. These corporations besides doing business without restraints in other countries also make obsene profits at the expense of Americans that can better use their money for food, healthcare and other necessities.The sad truth is that the wealthy involved with the military industrial complex are inflicting devastating economic and physical casualities on its fellow Americans. You thought the war was just in Iraq.

Everything should blame on Cheney because Bush doesn’t know anything. We have feeling that Cheney is president and not Bush. Chimpanzees are still chimpanzees !

The article says:

“The bulk of the rest of the military portion of the federal budget, $481.4 billion for the Defense Department and an additional $22.5 billion for other departments’ defense programs, is intended to fight an enemy of advanced military power that is nowhere to be found—not even among the dreaded “Axis of Evil” nations.”

It has been my long-time “IMHO” that they are all crazy (long before Bush). And I’m on information and psychological overload from what they are doing now. I keep wondering where in the H*LL they got their perspectives and rationale.

I think I may have cracked up now. I read the above and wondered: “Maybe they all know about Alien Invaders or some other “mysterious” enemy, or they have become “hosts” (aka sci-fi) to some dark monster ... or, possibly ...

Someone slipped something into the water at the last national Republican convention.

Sorry about that, but the tension on this stuff is starting to get to me. I do suspect/believe the Administration’s true goal is to escalate the war and all the other crises ... not alleviate or diminish them, and definitely must be stopped.

I also hope more and more will start realizing what is happening and help to stop it.

The Democrats will have the guts to stop the betrayal of the public trust ?? I don’t think so. The only Americans in the last 40 years with guts were the Yippie revolutionaries !!!

The financial facts in Scheer’s article demonstrate the effectivenes with which the corporatocracy has seized control of America’s productive capacity.  The U.S.‘s enormous capital-generating ability used to serve the people.  Big Finance, Big Military, Big Pharm, Big Media, Big Ag, and Big Politics saw America as a “soft target” ripe for a hostile takeover, a takeover from within.  No matter which party is in power, the corporatocracy controls the Congress, the Judiciary, and the Executive.  America was once a Democracy, but it is no longer.  “We the People” has been replaced by “We the Corporations” and the sooner we citizens and our pundits like Mr. Scheer wake up to the fact the sooner we’ll take our nation back and make it operate for the benefit of our lives, liberties, and pursuits of happiness.

Scheer has it right, as usual. The power elite , along with the neocons, want the present conditions to continue, and they control the Congress and the Admin. Don’t expect any improvements, but do expect more of the same, including a war with Iran, and then Syria.

“Unfortunately, even though the Democrats consistently receive only half as much in political payola from the military contractors, they have seemed just as slavishly loyal to the industry’s lobbyists.”

Jeez! You’d think those guys would wise up and at least demand more payola! I’m beginning to think they ain’t got no smarts!

The author has it right except that he misses who is getting the money.  Living in Huntsville,Alabama area as I do, the defense industry effects are something that also needs serious discussion. 

There is no reality to the defense contractors locally growing and getting a great fortune.  The trade policy of the Bush Administration has exported most of the jobs. Even the few contracts like MEADS (Lockheed Martin) are largely European. Actually what is going on is a device to extract the fortune of America and to send it to foreign agents where the money can be stolen from the US taxpayers without account. 

Actually America isn’t even getting defense here. The USA is actually constructing another matrix for an endless cold war as our technology is exported beyond our controls to construct powers and adversaries that will give us competition, complete the endless threat condition and terrorize Americans into shelling out their entire fortune into these international corporations.  (Read Pirates)

So this is supposed to be a surprise!
America has long been a military state. The only way we decrease unemployment and fuel the economy is to go to WAR!
Mr. Bush and the Congress Be they OLD OR NEW members have sold this country out.
We have only one domestic policy. Take as much money as possible to use it for the war.
The vote in 2006 has made no change. I will take money from lobbyist says one Democrat…some NEW ethics! Another Impeachment is not an option.
All this proves on thing, in order to operate in Washington you must pass Liar 101. Promise the world pre-election and then let power corrupt.
2008 will be no different because Congress is waiting our tax dollars almost as quickly as Bush.
Congress does nothing but argue over rhetoric, just what Bush wants. His plan continues to work. He has taken democracy to the level of dictatorship!

Beyond the obvious allocations to big defense contractors, has anyone actually calculated the amount of money that has moved from public sector to the corporate sector? Every bullet, and every bandage, consumed in the war in Iraq has profit attached. There is profit in tearing down the nation, and profit in building it back up again. The extra pay given the military translates to Chevys and disposable diapers.  It seems that one of the adminstration’s greatest accomplishments has been finding ways to loot taxpayer coffers and put this money into private hands. The cost of the war is also the profit of the war. And what an extraordinary sum that must be.

It is a sad commentary indeed that no one really seems to care that perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians are dead because of a war that should never have taken place. And, now they talk of invading Iran for the very same reasons as Iraq. Are the Zionists controlling events and making these things occur or is the military industrial complex caught up in the never ending pursuit of profits at all cost? Perhaps it is both of them working together to make the lives of Middle Easterners miserable and chaotic. Maybe simple hegemony and control of oil supplies are factors as well. But, to continue to spend hundres of billions of dollars of taxpayer’s money for this modern version of imperialism is difficult to watch. It has no end of course because the people do not even control their own government anymore.  Sad isn’t it that the world’s only super power has to conduct itself in the way that it does.

Mr. Baydala

This is such an enormous amount of money its hard to put it into perpective.  Since I don’t deal with numbers this large on a regular basis ( my checkbook doesn’t require it ) I could hardly fathom it.  If 1 billion is 1,000 millions then 700 billion is 700 one thousand millions! So we could realistically distribute 1 million dollars to 700,000 people each year, or maybe $100,000 to 7 million people each year!  And this is just our defense budget….

It’s nauseating when you think that parents of soldiers were buying their children body-armour, soldiers’ vehicles were not adequately armoured and we were sending “aid” packages to soldiers so they would have toothpaste and cookies!

How well we could take care of our soldiers…if only we actually DID!

While these war profiteers are filling their coffers, people are dying needlessly everyday because of them.