DBM.

Thanks for the links.

800-1000 bases! But no dinero for health care. Like is America greaat or vat?

Omop,

I couldn’t agree more ... see my update from July 31 at 1:03 am.

I should point out though that your 150 base estimate is way out.  Try 800 that they’re allowed to tell us about.  The number is probably over 1000.

Have a look at http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175091/chalmers_johnson_baseless_expenditures

and http://www.tomdispatch.org/post/175101/chalmers_johnson_dismantling_the_empire

DBM

Back at you. At the present the security of the citizens of the USA is the responsability of the Armed Forces ( the DAILY cost of military in Iraq is estimated to be around $ 260 million dollars and $70 million for Afghanistan). Experts claim that the US has over 150 military bases scattered around the world in addition to the above. As far as domestic security/protection there is the FBI; state and local police.

You be the judge about good or bad. Its intriguing to read that for some Americans there is a need for a “special/foreign” protection above and beyond let alone the legality of their actions.

You mean Muslim “terrorists”, correct?  Of course white Americans couldn’t possibly be “terrorists”, could they?

As already stated, the “war on terror” is a total sham (as is the official 9/11 fairy tale) to justify the police state that we’re well on our way to becoming. 
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/07/28/police.stimulus/index.html

And the reason we haven’t been “attacked” since 9/11 is because those who REALLY did 9/11 haven’t decided to attack us yet again. But they will. And when they do, you can say goodbye to what sliver of rights and privacy you currently have. You’ll never be free again. Orwell will be weeping in his grave.
http://rawstory.com/08/news/2009/07/31/whistleblower-bin-laden-was-us-proxy-until-911/

Omop,

Are you saying that this is a good thing or a bad thing?  Do you think this indicates that the DHS is money well spent or not?

Americans who possibly have decided that America’s Homeland Security is NOT a surplus.

  IDF Vets Train U.S. Jews to Protect Their Communities

by Maayana Miskin
Follow Israel news on and .

(IsraelNN.com) Starting in late July, a group of Israeli combat veterans will be holding a training camp in New York to teach advanced self-defense techniques to Jews in U.S. communities. An increasing number of American Jews have expressed interest in the program following a wave of anti-Semitic incidents worldwide over the past year, organizers report.

The group calls itself Kitat Konenut New York – a reference to the “rapid response teams” active throughout Judea and Samaria. Rapid response teams in Israel, comprised of local civilians who are IDF veterans, have often been the first on the scene of terrorist attacks and other emergencies, and have prevented casualties.

It was founded in 2006 in response to a shooting attack at a Jewish center in Seattle, Washington. One woman was murdered in the attack, and several others were wounded.

Kitat Konenut in action (Israel news photo: Kitat Konenut)

The group is apolitical, and does not take part in demonstrations. “Our agenda is to protect Jews,” says group member Yonatan Stern.

However, the group does have a firmly held political belief. “We believe in the constitutional right to bear arms,” Stern says. Kitat Konenut encourages all American Jews to learn how to use weapons, and to purchase their own firearms for self-defense.
Trainees learn the IDF’s unique martial arts style, known as Krav Maga, and learn to identify suspicious objects and dismantle improvised explosives. They are also trained to use a variety of both non-lethal and lethal weapons, including assault rifles and sniper rifles. Trainers review techniques to deal with situations ranging from knife fights to urban warfare.

Training this year will begin on July 31 and conclude on August 9.

Perhaps Night-Gaunt ... but I think we are at a critical point now.  I agree that the changes that started with Reagan and have continued at an irregular pace under every president since have been largely designed to soak the general public for the benefit of the rich and powerful. 

But now I think the public are wrung-out.  “Productivity gains” (sometimes technical, sometimes procedural, but usually ways of getting people to work harder and longer for the same pay) have reached a point where there is nothing much left to give.  The financial and health industries have screwed as much or more out of people than they can afford to give.  The only government expenditures not under attack are military expenditure (but not on soldiers ... on profitable high-tech boondoggles) and perhaps bail-outs for the rich.

Something could well change about now.  The parallels with the 1930’s are not exact but FDR certainly acted in part because the threat of rebellion was not unthinkable.  That threat won’t appear this year or next but it will in the next few years unless there are enough people with foresight in power who choose to address the issues.

What comes out of the current Healthcare changes will be indicative.  If the result is some sort of change which is an improvement but still guarantess the insurance and pharmaceutical industries their massive profit margins, then that will not release any pressure on the public.

Ditto the changes to military spending.

Ditto the necessary changes to the financial system.

Yes, Obama has come in at a critical moment.  It will be interesting to see if he is remembered as Hoover (who tried not to change) or FDR (who made changes which led to the most prosperous period in the U.S. history).

That hs is stuck trying to make these changes in a situation where the immediately previous administration has saddled the government with massive debt is merely a complicating factor to an already tough challenge.

I see no Communism just fascism, socialism for the corporation and the rich who own them. That is the way it is, and Glen Beck is steering people down the wrong track. Obama is following the same track as laid down by Reagan and carried forward through democrats and republicans to today. He is reinforcing what the Bush/Cheney Axis of Evil had done. It is layered and augmented over time. The ultimate purpose is to denigrate an destroy the republic.

By hippie4ever, July 30 at 8:05 pm

“Off topic but I wondered if Obama got along better with the respected scholar Mr. Gates, or that fascist cop, ol’ Whatshisname, who lies through his teeth?”

Thanks for the chuckle hippie4ever…

My final answer is that he got along much better with Mr. Gates, if only because he’s known him for a while, probably as another respected scholar. (both of them being African-American scholars associated with Harvard) In fact, IF I remember correctly from a recent article here, Obama was a student of Charles Ogletree, who is attorney and personal friend/colleague to Prof. Gates.

So, they’re all black, and all affiliated with Harvard…a reminder that we’re in the 21st Century now, since I sure wouldn’t have been able to write this 40 years ago.

That’s the part that the facist/racist cop just hasn’t been able to accept, which is why he has to lie through his teeth, and in official records. He’s not alone of course.

That’s my final answer.

It’s curious how the DHS lauds itself for all the attacks that didn’t happen and can’t be specifically defined, explained or otherwise because of NATIONAL SECURITY. The DHS is for the purpose of distributing corruption proceeds through the government to businesses with further corruption to follow, like to politicians.

I can never understand why some victims of murder are more important than other victims of murder, depending on the mindset of the monster who kills them.

What’s the difference between someone who yells allah akbar, and blows themselves and 10 other people, to a “lone maniac” who screams that the Obama is coming to get his guns, and has a high capacity magazine and shoots 10 people at a Burger King?

Detroit’s murder/assault rate dwarfs that of Northern Ireland since the “troubles” began in the early 70’s.

Which has gotten more attention/money/political capital? - a stupid low casualty foreign civil war (with bombings!!!) or the high casualty anarchy of the domestic murder epidemic?

Well then in keeping with the way things are going in this thread I can tell you I have actually seen Homeland Security up close and in uniform. Black with minimal insignia but the blue, green and white logo of the DHS on the shoulder. Their vehicles are white with a diagonal blue broad stripe on the passenger doors of their cruisers.

Though they could be dressed in pinstripes and it wouldn’t matter as to their power over us. That is what is important.

The only reason for a North American Command is to use military force over us eventually. If Obama really was for good change and not bad change to fascism he would defund it the next time the bill came around. He won’t.

Mr. Pfaff, what of *justifiable* homicides?

What hippie4ever, Folktruther, and ChaoticGood have said about this topic gets to the gist of it. “Homeland Security” is a prime example of very creep branding, it invokes the phrase “jackbooted goon” almost instantly.

Methinks the U.S. had a large extremely well-funded defence force in the first place.  Somewhere along the line they forgot to focus on Defence and, instead, started to garrison the rest of the world and to engage in serial military escapades in order to justify massive expenditures on armaments.

Then, in the absence of any credible defence, the country was successfully attacked in 2001.  What to do?  Well, the Defence Department could have been redirected to its original purpose but instead, a whole new pot of gold was co-opted and a second Defence Department was created and given the eerily Nazi name “Homeland Security”. 

It may well be that all this money would be better spent (as the article implies) on avoiding road deaths or allergic food reactions.  It is more likely that it will continue as a massive boondoggle until the next crisis when a new slightly different department will be created to consume some more government money.

... unless of course the Chinese want their money back.

If Janet Napolitano was really doing her job Lawrence Summers and Timothy Geithner would be under arrest and all those Mexican laborers who flew those planes into the ...ooooops, I hope that info wasn’t CLASSified!

The “War on Terror” is a sham, just like the “War on Drugs” and the “War on Poverty”.  It is Orwellian because each war has produced more of the thing that the war was supposed to supress.  These lies are readily accepted by those whose hatreds of Muslims, Drug addicts and poor people are supported by the “Wars”.
The “Wars” make it acceptable to hate those “not like us”.

Terrorism is a fraud, a small world probblem that could be handled by a small police force.  The War on Terrorism is pure fakery intended to mask a war on Muslim countries to steal their oil reserves.

And to establish a police state in the US to maintain the rising class inequality and destituion.  Obama’s new Homeland Secruity head is suggesting that we inform on each other to make us more Secure.  All despotic states rely on their people policing each other, and the Bush-Obama state is no exception.

And a significant fraction of Americans are falling for it, including Progressives.  Urged on by the historical racism of the US, now directed at Muslims.

Yikes! My system crashed. Meant to correct to say “Nazi terminology.” There’s a lot of this in language now; it’s really creepy. GW Bush introduced the noun “Homeland” and also those snappy Presidential backdrops for their latest imperialist wars, or their latest campaign of disinformation. It began in the Pentagon and spread.

Off topic but I wondered if Obama got along better with the respected scholar Mr. Gates, or that fascist cop, ol’ Whatshisname, who lies through his teeth?

“Homeland Security” is a Nazi phrase.