Our Obscene, Huge, Immoral Defense Spending

Think our government spends too much? 

Sure you do.

So let's cut the spending that is the biggest, most wasteful, most irresponsible segment of all that spending. 

Fight to cut funding for the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD). It's absurdly bloated, it's immoral, it's obscene, it isn't even accounted for, they get so much money. They cannot and do not even account for all they get and spend.

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Halliburton, Iraq and the fact that it still matters

George Orwell had it more right than we knew

"The leader needed a permanent war." --"1984"

And he certainly found it. In fact, he "found it" with a few wars--terrorism, Iraq, Afghanistan and the Middle East, for the oil we want and need.

Nice, huh? Crazy thing is, we all went along for the ride, too.

What the US Military is and does, among the good work

Nine minutes and 54 seconds of details from the Iraq War the government and military don't really want us to pay attention to. This includes information on Pfc Lavena Johnson from right here in Missouri--Florissant--who was killed by "friendly fire". According to Wikipedia, " She was the first female soldier from Missouri to die in Iraq." We owe Pfc Johnson and all the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan far more than what they're getting. We need to know what our government and military is doing, all in our name. We need to bring them home. Links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LaVena_Johnson; http://lavenajohnson.com/; http://lavenajohnson.com/2009/05/sbs-dateline-on-lavena-johnson/; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr1iOxS2T7w

Senator Claire does it again!

Word out today shows our own former-auditor, now-Senator Claire McCaskill wrote a letter, along with another Senator, Susan Collins (R, Maine) saying "the Pentagon has done little to collect at least $100 million in overcharges paid in deals arranged by corrupt former officials of Kellogg Brown & Root, the defense contractor, even though the officials admitted much of the wrongdoing years ago, two senators have complained in a letter to Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates."

It went on: "The letter also said that the Army had almost completely failed to move away from the monopolistic nature of the logistics contract that has paid the contractor, now called KBR, $31.3 billion for logistics operations in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan.

Yow. You go, Senator! Stand up for us. Get that money.

And while this is terrific, what's particularly disturbing is that this seems to point out that our government has not only turned too much over to "the military-industrial complex", as President Eisenhower warned us, all those decades ago, but it's far worse than that: "Their letter is likely to revive allegations that the Pentagon has become so close to KBR, and relies so heavily on it, that there is little inclination or incentive to discipline the company, in response to either Congress or critics outside the government."

So our government, through the Pentagon, is so closely tied to KBR and private corporations that the people representing us don't stand up for us against outright wrongdoing on the part of the companies.

God help us.

These Senators are also pressing for the DoD and the Pentagon to competitively bid more work, in order to both save money and get the most for our finances.

It only makes sense but they aren't cooperating.

"To the irritation of KBR’s critics, the Army has generally upheld the bills the company has submitted to the military, even when the Pentagon’s own auditors have questioned the amounts."

The situation is as bad as has been suggested and suspected. The cynics are proven right.

At least we have Senators McCaskill and Collins to push for the right thing.

It looks as though we need to elect more auditors to Congress. Between this letter and her refusal to create wasteful, expensive "earmarks", she sure seems to be doing the right things.

Link to story:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/world/americas/04contract.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

It's a small window, and it's closing

We've all watched the price for gasoline--both the price per gallon and per barrel, on the world markets.

We know it's gone from too high to ridiculous. The ridiculous part was when it hit $147.00 per barrel on those world markets, due mostly to speculation and people successfully, unfortunately, making a killing in the market.

Well, it fell to a bit less than $35.00 per barrel at one point and now it's back up to around $43.00 per barrel.

I have said several times that I should have--heck, we all should have--been very sarcastic, cynical and opportunistic back in 2000, when "W" and his cabal were about to take over, and invested heavily in oil and Halliburton stocks.

It only made sense.

We would have made a TON of money.

Of course, it would have been on the backs of the American people and the world but then we could have done some good with it.

So anyway, now, here we are, back in about the same situation.

If and when the world economy turns back around and people sense a "bottom" to the markets and economies start coming back, you can be sure people will start speculating--and speculating wildly--on oil, the price of oil and the oil markets.

There are a whole lotta' people out there who would like to make at least some of the money back that they've lost in these last months.

And that's where our government's plan to add $1.00 in tax or fee or whatever you want to call it comes in.

This should happen and it should happen now. It should happen right away.

It won't but it should.

This $1.00 per gallon could, would and should, then, be put to use getting us freer from Middle East oil. Parts of it could and again, would be given back to the American consumer but the rest would be used to get us onto renewable energy sources and so, again, out of the Middle East.

This would also, as I've written before, help clean up our environment, since it would be based on clean fuel and would help reduce the carbon dioxide being fed into our atmosphere so less climate change, God willing.


This, then, is what should happen, in a smart world--a perfect world.

It won't, though.

Not in a million years.

We haven't got the political fortitude to do it.

We haven't got the guts.

The politicians haven't got the guts.

In the first place, they'd all say it would just keep us in a recession--or worse. And actually, I'll admit, given that we're in financial and economic territory we've never been in before, it may even be true. (It shouldn't be, however, because of the returning of a good protion of the $1.00 per gallon to American consumers).

So the price of oil was outrageously high.

It came down.

And now it's creeping back up.

If and when the economy comes back, hold onto your hats.

It's gonna get ugly.

And expensive.

On a brighter note, if/when you see the bottom of the market, this time, buy lots and lots of oil stocks.

It starts to come out now

Now that W and the Dick are no longer able to keep the lid on all their shenanigans--and that of Halliburton and KBR--the information and truth starts slowly coming out.

It's being reported just now that the Army has officially declared that "An Army investigation calls the electrocution death of a U.S. soldier in Iraq 'negligent homicide' caused by military contractor KBR Inc. and two of its supervisors."

More: "the manner of death for Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth, 24, has been changed from accidental to negligent homicide because the contractor failed to ensure that 'qualified electricians and plumbers' worked on the barracks where Maseth died."

I'm thinking there was a high likelihood that there were orders from the White House or the Vice President's mansion or somewhere that said this kind of thing was to be referred to as "accidental", as long as the Bush Cabal was in power.

So this is how it starts.

I think there is going to be a great deal more information coming out about our government and what was--and was not--done and by and to whom in the next several months.

It's not going to be pretty for the clowns who were in power, either.

You might want to sell that Halliburton stock about now.


Link to original story online here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090122/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_contractors_electrocutions