Wall Street

How much has our war mongering Really cost this Country? Have searched on and off these years looking for reports on the real costs of building the so called coalition, especially related to Iraq, but also the private citizens who reaped War Profiteering Blood Money in this Country and elsewhere, could this faucet of information finally start opening!!!

CIA paid Liverpool buyout tycoon millions...to use his jet for 'torture' flights

Paid by the CIA: Philip Morse, right, with ex-U.S. president George Bush Sr.

By Dave Lindorff

Candidate Barack Obama, running for president, vowed to end the ludicrous Pentagon policy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which, since it was established in 1993 by President Clinton has required gay and lesbian members of the uniformed services to hide their sexual orientation or be drummed out of the service.

In 2009, just installed in the White House, President Obama reiterated that the policy “doesn’t contribute to our national security.”

But now that a federal judge has ruled the policy to be unconstitutional, and has more recently issued an injunction barring the Pentagon from enforcing it, the president has responded not by deciding to let the court order stand, thus ending this particular form of discrimination against gays and lesbians, but rather by appealing the decision in an attempt to reverse it.

This is a case of the President/Commander-in-Chief following his own pathetic political policy of “Don’t Act, Don’t Lead.”

By Dave Lindorff

There are calls in this election season for establishing a moratorium of some sort on home foreclosures, and a number of large banks have even voluntarily stopped, at least until after Election Day, on foreclosing on houses. That’s fine as far as it goes, but what about the millions of homes that have already been lost or stolen over the past several years?

Crimes manufactured in laboratories

Oct 8, 2010 - IT was the lot of the United States (US) Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton last week to render a similar soul-wrenching apology as her husband, Bill Clinton did 13 years ago on behalf of ‘God’s Own Country’. In 1997, the humanist Clinton stood before the world and profusely apologised for White America’s use of Black Americans as guinea pigs during experiments on syphilis.

Snip

Speaking of 'teabagger' types {wingnuts} Not Demanding Sacrifice, this is printed in the UK Guardian, Not The U.S. Press!

Veteran affairs: now we must serve them

Uncle Sam is glad to wave the flag when sending soldiers to war, but patriotism means doing right by our veterans, too

Jesus Bocanegra, of McAllen, Texas, in front a painting of himself done while he was serving in Iraq in 2006. Bocanegra has been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, a result of his service in Iraq in 2003-04; an attempt to attend college was thwarted by his nervousness with crowds, a common symptom of PTSD. Photograph: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

NEWSMAKER INTERVIEW AIR DATE: Oct. 5, 2010

Consumer Czar Warren Sees Transparency in Banking as Top Priority

SUMMARY Elizabeth Warren, the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, talks to Jeffrey Brown about the goals of her new agency and how she plans to empower Americans to make better financial choices.

Transcript

By Michael Caddell

It’s too late for Mr. Goldsmith, for former Kansas City, KS Police Detective Max Seifert and hundreds of thousands.

This past week Bank of America and several other giant banks are halting foreclosures across many states.

But we have already witnessed our courts turned into vast paper mills churning out foreclosures and lawsuits from credit card companies, the public servants turned into collection agencies for the easy credit vultures preying on the gullible, the desperate and the stupidly poor and greedy--and nobody’s talking about people getting back homes already stolen by those corrupt operations. Ultimately, all we’ve gotten has been a national circular firing squad, without competent leadership or investigators. The institutions once used to punish the violent, or to protect the vulnerable, instead have become a gargantuan legal hammer smashing the lives of millions into what may be years of grinding of poverty.

By Betsy Ross

The Democrats keep calling me. They’re asking for money. It’s understandable, I guess. Ever since voting for Dick Gregory’s Freedom and Peace Party presidential campaign in 1968, I’ve pulled the Democratic lever and even actively campaigned for Gore, Kerry, and especially for Obama.

Not a big-time donor, I made small contributions routinely. Not a campaign organizer, I put in weekly stints at the phone bank, where I happen to be very effective. Not a media pundit, I jawboned my friends, including my highly skeptical editor, to vote for the dude.

It’s paying volunteers like me who help win elections. Yet, many of us grassroots activists share a sense of mounting despair, anger, and profound disillusionment with the present administration, adding up to a far bigger threat to Democrats than the Tea Baggers can muster. Yo! We’re your base. Labor, women, minorities, young people, and progressives – remember us?

Look what’s happening:

More Explosive Proof of the War Of Choice Waged In Our Names to Reign Destructive Terror on another Country!!!

Britain held secret war talks with U.S. general 11 months before Iraq invasion

2nd October 2010 - America's most senior general flew into Britain for top secret talks on the invasion of Iraq 11 months before the attack on Saddam Hussein’s regime.

Details of the classified meeting, held at RAF Brize Norton, Oxfordshire, suggest Tony Blair’s Government was involved in detailed discussions about toppling the Iraqi dictator earlier than previously disclosed.

American General Tommy Franks flew in to the base in April 2002 to attend a summit meeting called by the then Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon.

Snip

Does America Want to Know the Real Cost of War?

30 September 2010 - On Thursday, September 30, 2010, House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs Chairman Bob Filner (D-CA) conducted a hearing on the true cost of war. Economists, veteran advocates, retired military leaders, and veterans and their families discussed the real life consequences of war, not just in financial terms but in the practical reality of day to day living. The hearing specifically focused on the rising estimates of the cost of veterans’ care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), how veterans and their families have coped with post-combat life, and how the government could prepare to keep the promises made to America’s fighting troops and veterans.

CONVERSATION AIR DATE: Sept. 29, 2010 Former Labor Secretary Reich: Bush-Era Tax Cuts 'Hurt Quite a Lot'

SUMMARY

In the last of the series of conversations about whether to extend Bush-era tax cuts for any, all or some Americans, Robert Reich, who served as secretary of labor in the Clinton administration, explains why he believes they should not be extended.

Transcript

And they made sure they created enough of the 'ghost enemy', international criminal terrorist, to give them their wealth and power producing War for themselves and theirs, done in our names and using our sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, relatives and friends!

US unable to document any payments for Abu Ghraib

26 September 2010 - Fending off demands that he resign over the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld told Congress he had found a legal way to compensate Iraqi detainees who suffered "grievous and brutal abuse and cruelty at the hands of a few members of the United States armed forces."

To remind people, even before the tax cuts were signed the gas prices started rising, not just a few pennies a gallon but many pennies then dollars, the peoples small tax cut, with stagnated wages, went out everyone's tailpipes, as well as heating costs, as fumes on just one fill up, the rest of that transfer of the treasury into the hands of the few then became their bottom lines and corporate/investor rising wealth that They received the huge tax cuts on!

The Friday Podcast: We Found A Socialist!

17 September 2010 - Despite what you may have heard, Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats aren't socialists. And the top Republicans in Washington aren't free-market libertarians.

But given how freely everybody's throwing those terms around these days, we're wading in to get a deeper understanding of what they really mean. {read rest}

I got sick and tired of hearing stuff like this years ago, real sick and tired, looking for funds or cash strapped!

This is soooooooo simple, now you folks Pay Attention!!

Give the Damn Bill To The American Public, Finally, for Everything Owed, and Start Collecting for What's Owed going Back to the Korean Conflict, even for our passed on brothers and sisters, at least those that left families, Got That!!!

And Quite Your Freakin Whining, 'chickenhawks'!!

Lawmakers seek ways to pay for GI Bill upgrades

Sep 18, 2010 - Improvements in the Post-9/11 GI Bill may have to be put off until next year if lawmakers cannot find a way to pay for changes, a key House lawmaker has warned.

When crumbling, neglected infrastructure leads to gas explosions, bridge collapses, and other disasters.

Policymakers and politicians like to advocate infrastructure spending as an economic boost—most recently President Obama, who on Sept. 6 proposed a $50 billion spending package aimed at roads, rail, and more. Backers say spending on transport and the like is smart because it offers a good return on investment for stimulus and means we’ll be ready for development in the future. But as the Sept. 9 gas-line explosion in a San Francisco suburb shows, fixing our aging infrastructure is arguably as urgent a matter as any.

And without a full Health Care Bill in place!

In U.S., 13% More Have Gov't Healthcare Since Recession Began

September 15, 2010 - More than one-quarter of American adults reported having government health insurance (Medicare, Medicaid, or military/veterans' benefits) in August. This number is up 13% since Gallup and Healthways started tracking the measure in January 2008, a month after the recession began. At the same time, 9% fewer Americans are covered through their employer.

By Dave Lindorff

Faced with the bad, but hardly surprising news, that poverty has increased in the US on his watch, to a record level not seen since before President Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1965, President Obama is declaring that the answer to poverty and joblessness is economic growth.

He's wrong, but, as they say on NPR's "Marketplace" program, "But first, the numbers."

By Dave Lindorff

It’s no surprise that the Obama administration and the Democrats in Congress are trying to claim that the recession (which they blame on Bush and Cheney) is over and that the economy is slowly returning to health thanks to their efforts at economic stimulus. At least those highly dubious claims get challenged by Republicans, who can be relied on to counter with evidence to the contrary, and to claim that the economy is in a slump thanks to Democratic policies.

The problem comes when the media, which are supposed to be skeptics, start playing economic cheerleaders, and providing the public with false information and false hopes.

Not just there as many on this planet, consumers and businesses, have moved to others after the past decade, some returned in the last few years but they're now watching the rhetoric here and you can bet they are paying attention!!

In Latin America, U.S. exports are losing market share

September 6, 2010 - Here's something that should be sounding alarm bells in Washington: Latin American countries — which have long been big buyers of U.S. goods — are increasingly making a larger chunk of their purchases from other parts of the world.

While U.S. exports to the region are growing, in some cases significantly, their percentage of Latin America's overall imports is shrinking. To put it in economists' jargon, U.S. exports are losing market share in Latin America.

When ever you hear Anyone speaking about Tax Cuts, especially that they create jobs but that's another issue, what they are saying is that they had no problem Rubber Stamping Everything for Their Wars of Choice and Now They Once Again Don't Want To Pony Up In Keeping The Promises Made To Those They Sent and Are Still Sending, DeJa-Vu all over again!!

The true cost of the Iraq war: $3 trillion and beyond

September 5, 2010 - Writing in these pages in early 2008, we put the total cost to the United States of the Iraq war at $3 trillion. This price tag dwarfed previous estimates, including the Bush administration's 2003 projections of a $50 billion to $60 billion war.

With the construction industry in the toilet across all aspects and across the country believe me I know what this country has been ignoring, we have a big problem with doing that on a whole host of issues {like sending military into invading then long occupations and not listening to them thus not caring for many when they return}, for decades should have been at least more than just started to be taken care of {some states and communities did use stimulus monies for just that but once no money preventive maintenance, or replacement, once again stops} as the collapsed economy started and those with the wealth {that's how most of theirs is made with breaks given on taxes enhanced development packages just to attract companies and much much more} should be main contributors to upgrading our Deteriorating Infrastructure, and it ain't just bridges and roads!!

By Dave Lindorff

One of the great mantras of the modern economics profession is that markets know best, and that the collective "wisdom" of investors is generally correct.

I've never really believed that, having spent years writing about business and finance. In fact, my interviews with market strategists, Wall Street economists and portfolio managers have convinced me that it's the rare investor or analyst who has done much serious reading of history, political science or even economics and finance for that matter. Sure, some people can be very good at analyzing the worth and the potential of a specific company, but when it comes to macroeconomic trends, most of the explanations you get are very narrowly focussed and ignorant, showing little concern for or understanding of the great drivers of history, economics or politics.

29 August 2010 - A $40 million prison sits in the desert north of Baghdad, empty. A $165 million children's hospital goes unused in the south. A $100 million waste water treatment system in Fallujah has cost three times more than projected, yet sewage still runs through the streets

As the U.S. draws down in Iraq, it is leaving behind hundreds of abandoned or incomplete projects. More than $5 billion in American taxpayer funds has been wasted — more than 10 percent of the some $50 billion the U.S. has spent on reconstruction in Iraq, according to audits from a U.S. watchdog agency.

Remind the beckers and hockey puck herds, Today, what they want to go back to is the Total Incompetence of the previous administration and the repub congresses then and before which brought the Example of Katrina's Devastation, in this Country, to the people of the Gulf!!

That they were blaming everyone else as they Supported that Incompetence, not only as to that but the emptying of our treasury, two wars and occupations of choice, tearing apart the constitutional rights of this country, the destruction of the economy {though that was coming with the con of trickle down capitalism anyway, the affore mentioned just hastened it and made it worse} and Oh So Much More.........................................!!

By Dave Lindorff

It’s time for us progressives to stop playing defense on Social Security.

We’ve watched the retirement system suffer years of attacks by conservatives and by class traitors in the Democratic Party. We have seen the retirement age raised since 1983 from 65 to 67, and the cost-of-living calculation altered so that our benefits have declined in value over time, while the tax rate on working people has risen.

It’s time to stop fighting rear-guard actions and to go on the offense.

By James Ridgeway

President Obama’s Deficit Commission is all smoke and mirrors. Its members are making a big show of laboring over ”painful” choices and considering all options in their quest to bring down the deficit. But  inside the Beltway everyone knows what’s going to happen: The commission will reduce the deficit on the backs of the old and the poor, through cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Some opponents have taken to calling it the Cat Food Commission, since that’s what it’s victims will be forced to eat once the commission gets done slashing away at their modest entitlements.

In fact, the true intent of the Deficit Commission was evident before it was even formed. That intent was only driven home when Obama appointed as its co-chair Alan Simpson, a former Republican senator from Wyoming who is well known for voicing, in the most colorful terms, what Paul Krugman calls the “zombie lie” that old-age entitlements will soon bankrupt the country.

By Dave Lindorff

New York Times columnist and economist Paul Krugman, in his column today, is right to expose the attacks on Social Security as being the work of right-wing ideologues eager to destroy a government program that works, backed by cowardly Democrats who want to show their fiscal “responsibility” by getting tough with future pensioners.

But he doesn’t go the extra step to point out that this program, founded 75 years ago as a cornerstone of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, could be much more fair and even generous to elderly and disabled retirees, and also placed on a much sounder economic footing, by a few simple reforms that would not cost most people a penny, or require hard working folks to work one day longer before retiring.