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$22
By Beverly Gage
$18.45
$23
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A look at the day’s political happenings, including Romney budget specifics and why the 2012 Congress could be one of the worst ever.
Posted on Aug 15, 2012
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By David Sirota — For most of President Obama’s term, Republicans have ignored the millions of jobs the Congressional Budget Office says the 2009 stimulus legislation created and instead argued that the government is incapable of boosting employment. Now the same GOP is barnstorming the country telling us the government can, in fact, create jobs—lots of them.
Posted on Aug 10, 2012
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bbc.co.uk
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Republicans weren’t the only ones irked at our nation’s leader this week. President Obama has also ruffled some feathers in the Chinese government with his newly hatched military strategy, which he announced in a rare news conference at the Pentagon on Thursday, and which apparently strikes the Chinese as a potentially unwelcome display of U.S. prowess on their side of the globe.
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AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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On Thursday, President Obama dropped in at the Pentagon to outline some sizable changes he’s making to America’s defense strategy in this last year of his first elected term. His plans will no doubt lay him open to criticism on the campaign trail, but at least it seems to make room for the possibility of focusing funds on the home front.
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DonkeyHotey (CC-BY)
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Talks between congressional leaders charged with coming up with a plan by Wednesday to cut the national deficit by $1.2 trillion have descended into squabbling and finger-pointing, suggesting that automatic cuts to domestic programs, Medicare and defense spending—rather than a mix of cuts and tax increases—are inevitable. (more)
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DoD
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The Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (also known as the “supercommittee,” because it is made up of equal parts Republican, Democrat, House and Senate) was set up to cut $1.5 trillion from the budget. Though military enthusiasts make a great show of worry for defense spending, they have little to fear ... (more)
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Flickr / Ryan Vaarsi
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Gus Speth, environmental lawyer, former Clinton adviser and founder of the Washington, D.C.-based World Resources Institute, who was arrested Sunday at the White House while protesting a proposed oil pipeline, has some bad news for American optimists. (more)
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U.S. Air Force / Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald
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With the U.S. already maxing out the credit card with roughly a trillion dollars a year on defense spending, America’s weapons industry has been forced to look elsewhere for buyers. Luckily for the military-industrial complex, there’s an eager salesman in the White House.
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By Andrew Bacevich, TomDispatch —
In defense circles, “cutting” the Pentagon budget has once again become a topic of conversation. Americans should not confuse that talk with reality.
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By Eugene Robinson — Republicans who feign attacks of the vapors and fainting spells over the big, scary deficit would be more convincing if they didn’t begin with the insane premise that defense spending should be sacrosanct.
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Do left-leaning Americans have something against the Constitution? That’s but one suggestion that conservative guest commentator Jennifer Rubin makes on this week’s edition of “Left, Right & Center,” and needless to say, it doesn’t go over so well.
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U.S. Air Force / Staff Sgt. Michael B. Keller
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The Pentagon’s budget is only about half of what the U.S. spends on war and defense. If you add costs like nuclear weapons and the medical care of wounded soldiers, the figure tops $1 trillion. Robert Higgs has the math to prove it.
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By Eugene Robinson — I come not to bury the manifesto issued last week by President Obama’s debt-reduction commission, but to praise the most welcome of its ideas: Slash defense spending along with everything else.
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AP / Rodrigo Abd
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By Robert Scheer — It’s over for the U.S. in Afghanistan, but that doesn’t mean the death and destruction are about to stop. Quagmires don’t just go away. However, the signs are everywhere that the American course in that nation is doomed.
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DoD / Cherie Cullen
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The most important fact in the New York Times report on Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ spending cuts comes 15 paragraphs in, when we learn that the U.S. will still spend more than ever on the military, more than all other countries combined, more than under President Bush. (continued)
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AP / Susan Walsh
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The good news, for those awaiting the repeal of the military’s oppressive “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, is that the House of Representatives on Friday voted in favor of lifting the policy. However, it’s far from a done deal ... (continued)
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AP / Pablo Martinez Monsivais
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In a move that some are praising as a major victory against the powerful weapons lobby, President Barack Obama was able to cut out several expensive programs, thus cutting down on defense spending, in the new $680 billion dollar military bill he signed Wednesday. However, before we get too excited, let’s be clear here: That’s still $680 billion, after all.
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DoD / Master Sgt. Kevin J. Gruenwald, USAF
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By Robert Scheer — I’ll believe it when it finally happens. But the news that Congress might actually stop production of a high-tech, job-generating and, most of all, high-profit weapons system because it fills no legitimate national security function is a considerable victory for President Barack Obama and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, as well as for logic.
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The economy’s not the only thing that “Left, Right & Center” co-conspirators Matt Miller, Tony Blankley and Robert Scheer are thinking about this week, but it’s a biggie again, as are the Obama administration’s announcement about defense spending and the changes under way in American foreign policy. Also: Somali pirates!
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foreignpolicy.com
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A hawkish speech by President Dmitry Medvedev may signal a massive overhaul and escalation of the Russian military. Fears of a growing threat posed by NATO have pushed Russian officials to plan a modernization of the country’s conventional and nuclear forces by 2011.
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AP photo / Gerald Herbert
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By Robert Scheer — War doesn’t pay, nor does imperial ambition. This proposition should be evident to anyone who has paid attention to the fivefold increase in the price of oil since George W. Bush took office. The principle of nonintervention is neither liberal nor conservative in orientation, and at the inception of the Republic it was accepted as a commonsense.
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“Democracy Now!” host Amy Goodman sat down with Truthdig Editor Robert Scheer on Friday to discuss his new book, “The Pornography of Power: How Defense Hawks Hijacked 9/11 and Weakened America.” Watch as Scheer explains the metaphor behind the title, how the U.S. government spends more on defense than the rest of the world combined, and how some key players in Washington took 9/11 as a “license to steal.”
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Guantanamo Prisoner’s Case Demonstrates Unfairness of Military Commissions
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