Showing posts with label Spending. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spending. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Monday, February 23, 2009
Obama Expands Missile Strikes Inside Pakistan
NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — With two missile strikes over the past week, the Obama administration has expanded the covert war run by the Central Intelligence Agency inside Pakistan, attacking a militant network seeking to topple the Pakistani government.
Read Entire Piece - also - The Drone War
Opinion: I always thought "covert" meant secret. How secret is something I read about in the NY Times?
I'm troubled that once again the executive branch of our government is waging an undeclared war. This is not surprising, since Obama said in the campaign that he would do this. Militarizing Afghanistan didn't work for the Brits or the Soviets, we will fare no better.
And our military will be squandered in this pointless war. Deaths and casualty counts will continue. By violating the sovereignty of Pakistan we risk expanding this war such that we may see the return of the draft (another horrendous evil). How will we know when we have succeeded?
Thursday, February 12, 2009
Militarizing Police Depts. With Your Bailout Money
George Orwell, call your office !
by texpat · 02/11/2009 1:57 pm
If prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, then city mayors follow a very close second. In fact, it occurs to me they may be the spiritual offspring of the aforementioned liaisons. Whenever there is loose change or unclaimed dollar bills laying around, mayors can smell them a mile away and if a Sugar Daddy offers free cash, they never stop to question what the vigorish might be. The urban emperors, suburban commissars, the hack and the highbrow, the Republican and Democrat, the apolitical and amoral, the exurban apparatchiks all assemble to line dance down Pennsylvania Avenue like ladies of the evening on the way to a golden score with Big Daddy.
The United States Conference of Mayors has assembled the most ridiculous and repulsive example of government excess I think I have ever seen. Here is a PDF file of the document which stretches to 344 pages. One of the most alarming features of this civic gluttony is the gift list request for funds to buy military SWAT assault equipment for police forces like the examples offered here by Texas blogger and Reason.com contributor, Trey Garrison:
Frisco wants $125,000 for an armored vehicle and $200,000 for a mobile command vehicle. You know, for all that gang tank warfare going on up in Frisco.
McKinney wants $5 million for SWAT toys and stuff.
North Richland Hills wants $51,000 for volunteer patrol volunteers. Let’s throw in $10 for a dictionary so they can look up the word “volunteer.”
Irving wants $5 million for biometric scanners, digital cameras, RFID scanners — nothing Big Brother there.
Grand Prairie wants $1.25 million for nicer landscaping around the public safety building.
And finally, Arlington is really gearing up for urban warfare. Arlington wants $1.6 million for SWAT toys including more equipment for those deadly but camera-friendly no-knock raids, $56,000 for military grade carbines, $625,000 for unmanned aerial surveillance drones, and $130,000 for “covert ops.”
Here is the “Public Safety” wish list from the US Conference of Mayors.
Radley Balko, of The Agitator and contributing editor of Reason, offers these galling examples of cops gone Rambo:
• Sparks, Nevada wants $600,000 to purchase a “live fire” house its SWAT team can shoot up, and another $420,000 for a SWAT armored vehicle.
• Pleasanton, California wants $250,000 to buy a vehicle for its SWAT team.
• Gary, Indiana wants $750,000 for a host of “modernization” upgrades to its police department, including “sub-automatic machine guns” and an “armored vehicl” [sic].
• Hampton, Virginia wants a whopping $3.5 million for “Air Tactical Unit Support and Equipment,” which I’m pretty sure means they want a sweet helicopter for the SWAT team.
• Ottawa, Illinois (population: 18,307) wants $60,000 to purchase, among other things, five “tactical entry rifles.”
• Glendale Heights, Illinois wants $96,000 to purchase red light cameras, and another $67,000 to hire someone to monitor them.
• Toward a more Orwellian America! The following cities requested stimulus funds to supplement, initiate, or upgrade public surveillance camera systems: Brockton, Massachusetts; Buffalo, New York; Burnsville, Minnesota; Caguas, Puerto Rico; Cerritos, California; Columbia, South Carolina; Compton, California; Homestead, Florida; Hormigueros, Puerto Rico; Indianapolis, Indiana; Inglewood, California; Lewiston, Maine; Lorain, Ohio; Lynn, Massachusetts; Marion, Ohio; Merced, California; New Rochelle, New York; North Richland Hills, Texas; Oakland, California; Orange, New Jersey; Orem, Utah; Orlando, Florida; Pembroke Pines, Florida; Ponce, Puerto Rico; Riverdale, Illinois; Shreveport, Louisiana; Silver City, New Mexico; Sumter, South Carolina; Tallahassee, Florida; Warren, Ohio; and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina requested just under $85 million in security-related stimulation. But top prize goes to Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is asking the rest of the country to stimulte its economy with a whopping $135 million in public safety-related requests.
All in all, America’s mayors asking for a little over $5.5 billion in public safety “stimulus.”
The city of La Porte, Texas has applied for $700,000 to build a “Lifestyle Center” while the city of Houston wants a whopping $175,000,000 to build the “Metro Houston Intermodal Terminal” in downtown Houston. I could go on, but I am nauseated by reading these documents. Readers will have to carry on in my absence while I try to recover.
by texpat · 02/11/2009 1:57 pm
If prostitution is the world’s oldest profession, then city mayors follow a very close second. In fact, it occurs to me they may be the spiritual offspring of the aforementioned liaisons. Whenever there is loose change or unclaimed dollar bills laying around, mayors can smell them a mile away and if a Sugar Daddy offers free cash, they never stop to question what the vigorish might be. The urban emperors, suburban commissars, the hack and the highbrow, the Republican and Democrat, the apolitical and amoral, the exurban apparatchiks all assemble to line dance down Pennsylvania Avenue like ladies of the evening on the way to a golden score with Big Daddy.
The United States Conference of Mayors has assembled the most ridiculous and repulsive example of government excess I think I have ever seen. Here is a PDF file of the document which stretches to 344 pages. One of the most alarming features of this civic gluttony is the gift list request for funds to buy military SWAT assault equipment for police forces like the examples offered here by Texas blogger and Reason.com contributor, Trey Garrison:
Frisco wants $125,000 for an armored vehicle and $200,000 for a mobile command vehicle. You know, for all that gang tank warfare going on up in Frisco.
McKinney wants $5 million for SWAT toys and stuff.
North Richland Hills wants $51,000 for volunteer patrol volunteers. Let’s throw in $10 for a dictionary so they can look up the word “volunteer.”
Irving wants $5 million for biometric scanners, digital cameras, RFID scanners — nothing Big Brother there.
Grand Prairie wants $1.25 million for nicer landscaping around the public safety building.
And finally, Arlington is really gearing up for urban warfare. Arlington wants $1.6 million for SWAT toys including more equipment for those deadly but camera-friendly no-knock raids, $56,000 for military grade carbines, $625,000 for unmanned aerial surveillance drones, and $130,000 for “covert ops.”
Here is the “Public Safety” wish list from the US Conference of Mayors.
Radley Balko, of The Agitator and contributing editor of Reason, offers these galling examples of cops gone Rambo:
• Sparks, Nevada wants $600,000 to purchase a “live fire” house its SWAT team can shoot up, and another $420,000 for a SWAT armored vehicle.
• Pleasanton, California wants $250,000 to buy a vehicle for its SWAT team.
• Gary, Indiana wants $750,000 for a host of “modernization” upgrades to its police department, including “sub-automatic machine guns” and an “armored vehicl” [sic].
• Hampton, Virginia wants a whopping $3.5 million for “Air Tactical Unit Support and Equipment,” which I’m pretty sure means they want a sweet helicopter for the SWAT team.
• Ottawa, Illinois (population: 18,307) wants $60,000 to purchase, among other things, five “tactical entry rifles.”
• Glendale Heights, Illinois wants $96,000 to purchase red light cameras, and another $67,000 to hire someone to monitor them.
• Toward a more Orwellian America! The following cities requested stimulus funds to supplement, initiate, or upgrade public surveillance camera systems: Brockton, Massachusetts; Buffalo, New York; Burnsville, Minnesota; Caguas, Puerto Rico; Cerritos, California; Columbia, South Carolina; Compton, California; Homestead, Florida; Hormigueros, Puerto Rico; Indianapolis, Indiana; Inglewood, California; Lewiston, Maine; Lorain, Ohio; Lynn, Massachusetts; Marion, Ohio; Merced, California; New Rochelle, New York; North Richland Hills, Texas; Oakland, California; Orange, New Jersey; Orem, Utah; Orlando, Florida; Pembroke Pines, Florida; Ponce, Puerto Rico; Riverdale, Illinois; Shreveport, Louisiana; Silver City, New Mexico; Sumter, South Carolina; Tallahassee, Florida; Warren, Ohio; and Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
Winston-Salem, North Carolina requested just under $85 million in security-related stimulation. But top prize goes to Tulsa, Oklahoma, which is asking the rest of the country to stimulte its economy with a whopping $135 million in public safety-related requests.
All in all, America’s mayors asking for a little over $5.5 billion in public safety “stimulus.”
The city of La Porte, Texas has applied for $700,000 to build a “Lifestyle Center” while the city of Houston wants a whopping $175,000,000 to build the “Metro Houston Intermodal Terminal” in downtown Houston. I could go on, but I am nauseated by reading these documents. Readers will have to carry on in my absence while I try to recover.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
CNBC Guest Talks About Plunge Protection Team
CNBC guest Scott Nations starts talking about the Plunge Protection Team and the propagandists go crazy saying that it is a conspiracy theory when the President's Working Group on Financial Markets which has been given the nickname the Plunge Protection Team is a real group formed after the Stock Market Crash of 1987. It is not a conspiracy theory. Source Rogue Government
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Who voted yes, and who voted NO.
This NYTimes map presents a good breakdown of the Republican (red) and Democrat (blue) votes against the bailout (sellout) bill. The representatives that voted for the bill are represented in gray.
To see more detail click here.
I urge you to actively campaign against those who voted for the sellout bill in the coming election.
But check this out! The FED is going to bail them out anyway.
Get ready for hyperinflation.
To see more detail click here.I urge you to actively campaign against those who voted for the sellout bill in the coming election.
But check this out! The FED is going to bail them out anyway.
Sept. 29 (Bloomberg) -- The Federal Reserve will pump an additional $630 billion into the global financial system, flooding banks with cash to alleviate the worst banking crisis since the Great Depression.
The Fed increased its existing currency swaps with foreign central banks by $330 billion to $620 billion to make more dollars available worldwide. The Term Auction Facility, the Fed's emergency loan program, will expand by $300 billion to $450 billion. The European Central Bank, the Bank of England and the Bank of Japan are among the participating authorities.
The Fed's expansion of liquidity, the biggest since credit markets seized up last year, came hours before the U.S. House of Representatives rejected a $700 billion bailout for the financial industry. The crisis is reverberating through the global economy, causing stocks to plunge and forcing European governments to rescue four banks over the past two days alone.
Get ready for hyperinflation.
Show us the tax money
A message from Carla Howell, The Committee for Small Government chair, on opening up the state budget books in Massachusetts:
This strikes me as a great idea for Washington.
This strikes me as a great idea for Washington.
No more help, please
By Stephen Fairfax
While the Billionaire Bailout was narrowly defeated Monday, its certain there will be more attempts to saddle all Americans with the bad debts of people who paid themselves $40 billion annually in dividends, plus massive bonuses, stock options (now worthless) and huge salaries.
As small business owners, my wife and I are fascinated by the concern shown by our political leaders for us and our colleagues. The dire warnings of the past few days frequently include phrases like "small business owners need credit to grow their business, send their kids to college, and save for their retirement." How one saves for retirement by borrowing is never explained. Others claim that small businesses will not be able to pay their employees if they don’t have access to easy credit.
Nearly all of these pronouncements come from people who know little or nothing about running a small business. Few Washington politicians have earned a single free-market dollar in honest commerce, and if they did it was generally long ago. Self-appointed "business leaders" are in fact little more than well-paid lobbyists for very large businesses that use government regulations and laws to place small business owners at a disadvantage. They do not speak for us or any small business owner we know.
There's more, and it's well worth the reading. Read the rest.
While the Billionaire Bailout was narrowly defeated Monday, its certain there will be more attempts to saddle all Americans with the bad debts of people who paid themselves $40 billion annually in dividends, plus massive bonuses, stock options (now worthless) and huge salaries.
As small business owners, my wife and I are fascinated by the concern shown by our political leaders for us and our colleagues. The dire warnings of the past few days frequently include phrases like "small business owners need credit to grow their business, send their kids to college, and save for their retirement." How one saves for retirement by borrowing is never explained. Others claim that small businesses will not be able to pay their employees if they don’t have access to easy credit.
Nearly all of these pronouncements come from people who know little or nothing about running a small business. Few Washington politicians have earned a single free-market dollar in honest commerce, and if they did it was generally long ago. Self-appointed "business leaders" are in fact little more than well-paid lobbyists for very large businesses that use government regulations and laws to place small business owners at a disadvantage. They do not speak for us or any small business owner we know.
There's more, and it's well worth the reading. Read the rest.
Friday, September 26, 2008
Thursday, July 3, 2008
Monday, June 16, 2008
Suicidal Spending
This presentation does an excellent job of explaining the fiscal problems facing our country. Watch the presentation While you're there be sure to check out the rest of the information and charts.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Why the US has really gone broke
Source: Le Monde Diplomatique - Chalmers Johnson
The world’s top 10 military spenders and the approximate amounts each currently budgets for its military establishment are:
Rank Country Military budget
1. United States (FY 2008 budget) $623bn
2. China (2004) $65bn
3. Russia $50bn
4. France (2005) $45bn
5. United Kingdom $42.8bn
6. Japan (2007) $41.75bn
7. Germany (2003) $35.1bn
8. Italy (2003) $28.2bn
9. South Korea (2003) $21.1bn
10. India (2005 est.) $19bn
World total military expenditures (2004 est) $1,100bn
World total (minus the US) $500bn
Our excessive military expenditures did not occur over just a few short years or simply because of the Bush administration’s policies. They have been going on for a very long time in accordance with a superficially plausible ideology, and have now become so entrenched in our democratic political system that they are starting to wreak havoc. This is military Keynesianism — the determination to maintain a permanent war economy and to treat military output as an ordinary economic product, even though it makes no contribution to either production or consumption.
Read the entire piece
The world’s top 10 military spenders and the approximate amounts each currently budgets for its military establishment are:
Rank Country Military budget
1. United States (FY 2008 budget) $623bn
2. China (2004) $65bn
3. Russia $50bn
4. France (2005) $45bn
5. United Kingdom $42.8bn
6. Japan (2007) $41.75bn
7. Germany (2003) $35.1bn
8. Italy (2003) $28.2bn
9. South Korea (2003) $21.1bn
10. India (2005 est.) $19bn
World total military expenditures (2004 est) $1,100bn
World total (minus the US) $500bn
Our excessive military expenditures did not occur over just a few short years or simply because of the Bush administration’s policies. They have been going on for a very long time in accordance with a superficially plausible ideology, and have now become so entrenched in our democratic political system that they are starting to wreak havoc. This is military Keynesianism — the determination to maintain a permanent war economy and to treat military output as an ordinary economic product, even though it makes no contribution to either production or consumption.
Read the entire piece
Friday, March 14, 2008
Ron Paul warns of Worldwide Economic Collapse
Delivered on the floor of congress March 12, 2008. This clip runs just over 6 minutes. Watch the video
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