posted September 19, 2010 02:24 PM         

I wanted to update my brain on the dollars and lives /livelihoods involved with our presence around the world. The U.S. never leaves a country once occupied. We have troops in Germany, Korea and elsewhere. I do not think the announcement of the combat mission being completed and troops moving to Afghanistan has fooled anyone into thinking that troops will not be in the Gulf for the end of time, combat or not. And soldiers will still die- combat or not.

One media person asked why electricity has not been added to Iraq, with all of the improvements, electricity might be the most important- yet only a very few people in a very few areas have uninterrupted electric service. It was a good question.

The page is chock full of hyperlinks that I am slowly working my way through.

The cut n paste will not have these hyperlinks so pls check it out...

The writer is asking those within the complex to walk off the job. I have to say I find that pretty ludicrous unless the workers have already found employment outside of the system. No one will do it, particularly in these troubled times, why should they? And here is my *but* it would be remarkably effective if enough Numbers would find other employment within say a month or so....it is an interesting thought.

By Diana Lee
August 20, 2010

UNIORB: REALITY CHECK: POLITICS

Like all complex adaptive systems, empires function in apparent equilibrium for some extended period and then succumb to - not slow or gradual - but swift and sudden collapse. Entrenched in imperial overstretch, perpetual wars, and insolvency, the U.S. empire has already begun the process of self-destruction.

You know the United States is on its way to collapse when you see signs of economic meltdown, rampant political corruption and social decay spreading across the land.

Let’s look at some disturbing facts on the domestic front:

· state and local budget cuts - reducing many transit systems service, switching off city streetlights, replacing paved roads with gravel or other rough surfaces, shutting down public libraries, and shortening public school days.

· housing crisis - more than 2.8 million homes foreclosed or repossessed by banks in 2009, adding to millions of lost homes of the previous years and fueling the dramatic growth of tent cities everywhere.

· unemployment - over 17 million people left jobless and millions more on part-time work instead of full-time; unemployment rate hovering around 10%.

· bailouts for the rich - trillions of people’s tax money used in bailouts for big corporations and financial institutes while Wall Street awarded itself bonuses over $20 billion in 2009.

· corrupt judicial system - the U.S. Supreme Court granted corporations constitutional right to pour money into elections; the Department of Justice protected its own lawyers who authorized illegal torture.

· political corruption -13,739 registered lobbyists in 2009, about 35 lobbyists for every single member of the Senate and House of Representatives. Democrats and Republicans are so similar nowadays - both parties selling out to big business.

· big brother watching - wide-spread of illegal surveillance through cameras in public and private places, airport searches with harmful body scans, computer access, phone intercepts, and tracking records from credit card purchases.

· prison nation - the highest percentage of people imprisoned in the world:
over 2.3 million prisoners, about one in every hundred Americans behind bars.

· poor educational achievement - ranked 12th among developed nations for people with college degrees, falling behind Canada, South Korea, Russia, Japan, New Zealand, Ireland, Norway, Israel, France, Belgium and Australia.

· poor health care system - the most expensive in the world but ranked dead last in performance in comparison to six other developed countries: Australia, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom. The U.S. health system came in last in accessibility, patient safety, coordination, efficiency, and equity.

MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

The purpose of war throughout the history of Western Civilization and up to the present moment has been to conquer people and rob their resources. You could throw in “fight for their way of life”, geopolitical standing, religion, “terrorism,” or whatever reason the proponents of war could conjure up - the bottom line is still for overpowering other nations and stealing their resources. Such is the nature of many past and present Western global leaders, who have turned their own nations into megalomania - driving for power, wealth and omnipotence all over the world under the dark forces of military-industry-complex.

When wars are fought for profit, the danger arises from mixing the greed of corporations with the power for world dominance of the military. The Military Industrial Complex in the U.S. is a strong alliance of corrupt politicians, the militarists, and defense contractors that perpetuates the vicious cycle of creating, producing and deploying weapons on a large scale for current and future wars.

The insidious trio relies on each other for legal, financial and military support to carry out extermination, expansion and exploitation of other countries - thus, becoming a formidable force for global destruction.

Let’s look at some of the facts on the funding and related expenses of the military and the emerging, menacing presence of the Pentagon in the government:

· U.S. defense budget climbed from $298.9 billion in 1991 to $447.4 billion in 2006, not including $100 billion spent in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. For 2011, the U.S. defense budget nearly doubling to $708 billion.

· spending $700 billion directly on military per year - almost half the military spending of the entire world.

· responsible for 865 bases in more than 40 countries and overseas U.S. territories, according to 2008 Pentagon inventory.

· over 446,000 active troops deployed in 46 countries and territories; 1,470,000 troops deployed in 150 countries and over 1,460,000 reserve forces.

· increasing influence of the Pentagon over intelligence community, national security and foreign policies of the U.S.

· 70% of the intelligence budget going to private contracts; nearly 25% of the federal budget going to contracts in the private sector under the direction of the Department of Homeland Security and Office of National Intelligence.

· increasing incompetence and unreliability of the President’s private army, CIA, as it turns over many of its functions to the private sector.

Make no mistake, military-industrial complex has no interest or place for Peace. The driving factor for military-industrial complex to thrive is the continuation of wars and creating more wars.

It’s not surprising that the U.S. military has extended its war plans into outer space with the creation of nuclear powered space laser weapons, known as “the National Missile Defense System” which is nothing more than a PR ploy for setting a stage for future space warfare.

WHAT COULD AMERICANS DO?

Without a doubt, the government is no longer working for Americans but for big businesses. Without a doubt, the overstretched military wild spending and fighting ongoing wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, and “war on terror”, has bankrupted America. Without a doubt, the “change” President Obama had promised is nothing more than empty rhetoric, but the continuation of King Bush’s “despot reign.”

The 1776 Declaration of Independence declared that it is OUR RIGHT AND DUTY to carry out a revolution -

"But when a long Train of Abuses and Usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a Design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their Right, it is their Duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security."

Often we don't realize the power we have within for change. We wait for others to guide us or wait for events to hit home before taking any action. Standing alone won’t bring any results, but standing together will bring about a sweeping change and a transformation that is sorely needed at this time in history.

posted September 19, 2010 03:28 PM         

If i thought the DHS had become Orwellian by 2006 imagine what it is now? Well, we do not have to imagine, if you combine the Military/ Pentagon with the DHS you could in fact feed those needy in the world. And eradicate homelessness in our own country. And that includes those that prefer the streets. Gosh where is Dervish, I miss her posts, she would trim me up right quick.

posted September 20, 2010 02:42 PM         

and after all a great many of our soldiers joined the RESERVES in order to get job training for when they came home...they don't seem to be using those skills to help iraq regain some semblance of civilization, perhaps they could be used here to revive our crumbling infrastructure and improve our technology standing...
but it seems that anything we spend at home is considered WASTE spending while throwing it away overseas is considered admirable.

posted September 20, 2010 07:04 PM         

There was a whole lot of talk about funding when that bridge collapsed in MN - the one by Zala, attention soon wandered though.

With CO Springs announcing a few weeks ago [and earlier this year] that they were going to start cutting services [emergency] Fire / Rescue + Police trimming hours and layoffs their was a brief return to that dialog that was quickly shunted aside by the 24 /7 news cycle that churns but tells us less??
Unless you hunt for stuff yourself if it is not directly related to your municipality you may never hear of it.

Also what ever became of #2Bush deploying military to train for National Emergencies...there was a big stink about that as it is unconstitutional for the military to act in or on domestic matters.

I keep hearing about high speed rail too, when is that going t happen?

hey, here is a joke for you

quote:

---

The Pope took a couple of days off to visit the rugged mountains of Alaska for some sightseeing. He was cruising along the campground in the PopeMobile when there was a frantic commotion just at the edge of the woods.

A helpless Democrat, wearing sandals, shorts, a ‘Save the Whales’ hat and a ‘To Hell with Bush’ T-shirt, was screaming while struggling frantically and thrashing around trying to free himself from the grasp of a 10-foot grizzly.

As the Pope watched in horror, a group of Republican loggers came racing up. One quickly fired a 44 magnum into the bear’s chest. The other two reached up and pulled the bleeding, semiconscious Democrat from the bear’s grasp. Then using long clubs, the three loggers finished off the bear and two of them threw it onto the bed of their truck while the other tenderly placed the injured Democrat in the back seat.

As they prepared to leave, the Pope summoned them to come over. ‘I give you my blessing for your brave actions!’ he told them. ‘I heard there was a bitter hatred between Republican loggers and Democratic environmental activists but now I’ve seen with my own eyes that this is not true.’

As the Pope drove off, one logger asked his buddies ‘Who was that guy?’

‘It was the Pope,’ another replied. ‘He’s in direct contact with Heaven and has access to all wisdom.

‘Well,’ the logger said, ‘he may have access to all wisdom but he doesn’t know squat about bear hunting! By the way, is the bait still alive, or do we need to go back to Massachusetts and get another one?

---

posted September 29, 2010 12:33 PM         

With 9 years gone since 9/11 many of us have come to realize that we will be thinking about, and reading about 9/11 for the rest of our lives. This is the `who shot Kennedy,` the `did we really land on the moon`? to the X degree.

In some ways this year was harder to look back. one of the reasons might be the astrology. The cycle of lunar nodes specifically [in that] it takes nine years for the nodes to trade places. In 2001 the NN was in early Cancer, this year early Capricorn. This is a pretty special year astrologically, we have quite a bit of significant astrological moments, and once in a lifetimes, and all the rest. The nodes are one of the most telling in all of astrology, and one of the easiest to understand. This can be called [kind of] the year of the Aries point, pretty much all the signification has to do with direct contacts, the t-square or the cross to the aries point. Everyone is feeling it no doubt. I know this time of year [demi return] when the Sun transits in opposition to N-Sun is often revelatory. this year particularly so as everything, and I do mean everything, is on a high wire. Towards the end of the month it will be a Meet me at the Crux.... It has been really difficult to process and try to stay centered.
My first name sabien is the airplane making a nose dive -- so I am so stranger to this, in fact astrology has taught me that I actively seek it.

So on to the post=>

quote:

---

Nine years ago we surrendered freedom for 'safety' and declared war on an emotion: terror.
Bush the Younger had systematically dismantled the programs and protections that Americans counted on in emergencies, but we didn't notice because we weren't expecting any emergencies. And then it happened, televised on a clear September morning. The planes came, the Towers fell. We were shocked that anyone would want to wound us, horrified that the sanctity of our shores had been breached. We looked for answers and found the easy ones, the kind of simplistic mythology we tell our children to lull them to sleep: don't worry about a thing -- America is a shining city on a hill and Daddy's got a gun.

The "Global War on Terrorism" (GWOT) directed against Al Qaeda launched in the wake of 9-11 is evolving towards a full-fledged "war of religion", a "holy crusade" directed against the Muslim World.
Alas, the war on terror was not the effortless crusade we expected. And now, nine years later, we might ask the potent question that always cuts to the chase: are we better off today?

---

from

.Published on Tuesday, September 7, 2010 by CommonDreams.org
The United States of Fear
by Bill Quigley

Since September 11, 2001, fear has been the main engine of change in the United States. Who would have thought that across the US, where people boast that it is the home of the free and the land of the brave, people would gladly surrender their freedom and liberty because they so fear terrorism?

• Who would have thought that the US would allow, much less pay for, the National Security Agency to intercept and store 1.7 billion emails, phone calls and other communications – every single day – and pay for 30,000 people to listen in on phone conversations in the name of fighting the fear of terrorism?

• Who would have thought that people across New York City, where people are proud of their diversity, would fear construction of a mosque and community center downtown?

• Who would have thought that people across the US, where people argue that they helped bring down the wall that separated East and West Germany, would so fear their neighbors to the South that they support construction of a wall of separation with Mexico?

• Who would have thought that some of the highest lawyers in the land would write memos illegally authorizing the torture of people in the name of making the US safe?

• Who would have thought that Democrats would compete with Republicans to try to keep the globally shameful Guantanamo prison open so that people inside the US would not have to fear having living near prisons with alleged terrorists in them?

• Who would have thought that people in New York City, a place where people admire their own toughness, would fear having criminal trials of alleged terrorists in their city?

• Who would have thought that in the US, where people take pride in the constitutional independence of the judiciary, those judges would turn down the case of Maher Arar, who was captured in the US and flown out to a Syrian prison to be tortured, because they fear that even looking at the case would interfere with national security?

• Who would have thought that the people of the US would fear to have Uighurs, members of persecuted ethnic minority who struggled for their freedoms against China, allowed to live even temporarily in the US?

• Who would have thought that the people of the US would so fear the possibility of the Taliban ruling Afghanistan and the false possibility of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, that we would send our sons and daughters to die by the thousands in Iraq and Afghanistan?

• Who would have thought that there once was a US president who said “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself – nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance…”?

You tell me what happened to the land of the free and the home of the brave since September 11, 2001.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DImb7jvSbaw&feature=player_embedded

posted September 30, 2010 09:06 PM         

ref=home#!/video/video.php?v=159216125164

i don't agree that there is nothing we can do, but it ain't easy when everyone is fighting amongst themselves. and i don't believe that everyone in politics is a stooge either, though it can be hard to tell who is and who isn't.

posted September 30, 2010 10:00 PM         

Starting with the take away message from ABS's poster, to me it is saying speak up.
The loudest voices are being heard the last 14 or more months.

And I am FB challenged I cannot read the link.... usually with FB I can read the front page of the link, but in this case not.

and I forgot to post what the video was. I posted a PSA for the faces of the american Muslim.

Where is ABS Moon? I can channel Kat occasionally I am sure of it, two fishy moons. ABS 10* Taurus is well placed for me.

10 degrees is prominent in your chart I see yikes I need to write on your KTAA about that mars/neptune/NN to moon to pluto yod of yours.
I hope ~Zala wrote the prescription for that, come to think maybe you gave her a prescription!

I saved this sea horse for the cute factor and he has been languishing in the depths of the hard drive for awhile, time to turn the light on.

posted September 30, 2010 10:04 PM         

Yeah, and something else I discovered recently. The asteroid of my birth first name, is conj. my pluto

This explains a great deal.

Oh yes, and also, my provoking quesiton is: Think of the subject that Eisenhower was talking about in his farewell speech...

Food for thought.

------------------
We justify ourselves each time we take a breath...

posted October 01, 2010 09:13 AM         

Anyway I went back to the original post and started clicking on hyperlinks and where the heck was I when-> this happened?

#2 [more affectionate than W] set the wheels in motion to `serve` more than 2 terms?
I do not hate and or despise the last Prez btw, I feel you have to personally know someone to go there...anyway while not being overly fixated w/ crimes and misdemeanors of the W reign I keep finding out more of them!

Now some of you might think in the grand scheme of things this is wayyy down the list, and your right it is. Didn't Bloomberg fix it with both the popular [vote] and by his record so he could serve again? winning the day and changing the rule?

well anyway, I sure missed H.J 24

quote:

---

The 22nd amendment as reprinted on the FindLaw website reads as follows.

Section 1. No person shall be elected to the office of the President more than twice, and no person who has held the office of President, or acted as President, for more than two years of a term to which some other person was elected President shall be elected to the office of the President more than once. But this Article shall not apply to any person holding the office of President when this Article was proposed by Congress, and shall not prevent any person who may be holding the office of President, or acting as President, during the term within which this Article becomes operative from holding the office of President or acting as President during the remainder of such term.

Section 2. This Article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States within seven years from the date of its submission to the States by the Congress.

Annotations
Limitation of Presidential Terms

''By reason of the lack of a positive expression upon the subject of the tenure of the office of President, and by reason of a well-defined custom which has risen in the past that no President should have more than two terms in that office, much discussion has resulted upon this subject. Hence it is the purpose of this . . . [proposal] . . . to submit this question to the people so they, by and through the recognized processes, may express their views upon this question, and if they shall so elect, they may . . . thereby set at rest this problem.''

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