Pentagon War Spending Hits $685.7 Billion: GAO

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pentagon spending on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and to fight terrorism elsewhere has reached $685.7 billion since 2001, a U.S. government watchdog agency said on Monday. The Government Accountability Office, or GAO, said...

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Letter to Obama, Congress re. Iraq and Afghanistan

(From my local newspaper)

In March 2003, the United States invaded Iraq with the blessing of a misguided U.S. Congress. Today it is widely acknowledged by the world that the case made for our invasion was a fabrication of lies and propaganda at the highest level of government.

Today there are over 150,000 U.S. troops remaining in Iraq and more than 50 military bases. Our troop withdrawal has been extended to August 2010 and we will continue to have a large number of our troops in Iraq far into the future.

Life in Iraq is a grim proposition for millions who are grieving dead and injured family members. Massive bombing has caused irreversible destruction. Many are still without electricity, clean water, sanitation, medical care and even basic shelter. Schools have been destroyed and advanced education interrupted.

Recent reports from Iraq describe a tragic situation where hundreds of thousands of war widows and orphans are destitute and forced into begging and prostitution.

Their reality is in sharp contrast to the country club-like atmosphere of the Green Zone where American and foreign opportunistic business is conducted. Visiting congressional and military leaders often have no contact with the average Iraqi.

The United States plans to greatly increase troops in Afghanistan. Many thoughtful scholars, who understand the history of this area and its diverse tribal leadership, believe that massive military escalation is not the way to win the people's hearts and minds. It is equally disturbing to hear of the many U.S. bombings inside the border of Pakistan. Civilians are the frequent "accidental" target in both of these regions.

Members of Voices of Peace of Battle Creek are asking Congress to rethink the use of military force in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Iraq war has wasted hundreds of billion of dollars and caused countless deaths and suffering.

Instead, direct our U.S. government's resources toward peaceful negotiation and humanitarian work and towards building an international partnership to help these people reconstruct their lives, country and government.

U.S. Military Examiner: The Troops Aren’t Coming Home

I crunched the numbers and thought you might want to link to this article which shows that in September 2009, Barack Obama will have more combined troops in Iraq and Afghanistan than George Bush did a year before.

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Fox News still #1 in brain-washing Americans

Fox remains on a mountain above its two closest competitors, with its prime-time audience in March more than that of MSNBC and CNN combined. "The O'Reilly Factor" has done particularly well, keeping more of its postelection audience than anything else on CNN and MSNBC.

Through Wednesday, Fox was averaging 2.73 million prime-time viewers in March. MSNBC had 1.16 million and CNN had 1.14 million. The March ratings period ends Friday, and it's doubtful CNN will be able to overcome MSNBC.

From the Houston Chronicle:

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ent/celebrities/6346592.html

Exec says Coleman donor ordered $100K payments

Latest coverage of the recount between Democrat Al Franken and Republican Norm Coleman for Minnesota's U.S. Senate seat. The former finance chief of a Texas company controlled by Nasser Kazeminy, a close friend of former Sen. Norm Coleman, said in a deposition last week that Kazeminy ordered $100,000 in fees be paid to a Minneapolis insurance agenc

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The Death and Life of Great American Newspapers

The collapse of journalism threatens democracy itself--that's why we need a government rescue.

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Levin to Release Full Declassifed Report On Detainee Torture

The full declassified version of a Senate Armed Services Committee report on the treatment of detainees, set for release as early as next week, is 200 pages, contains 2,000 footnotes, and will reveal a plethora of new information about the roles played by senior Bush administration officials in adopting a policy of torture.

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Call-in Day for Healthcare in the Budget

Healthcare For All in The Budget: This week, Congress is working to pass the budget resolution or blueprint for federal spending. . The President included $634 billion in his budget as a down payment on health care reform. This is an historic commitment and a vital first step toward achieving quality, affordable health care for all in 2009. Without this funding, healthcare reform that includes access to affordable, quality healthcare for everyone will not be possible. We’re calling upon the Members of Congress to: - Support President’s Obama’s $634 Billion allotment for healthcare reform. - Develop a strong, public healthcare program that provides quality, affordable health coverage for all. Everybody In and Nobody Out! Specific Tactics: Phone calls, phone calls, phone calls. These calls can be done in two ways: Phone Call Tactic #1: Our partners at Health Care for America Now! (HCAN) has set up a click and call link, simply follow the attached link: http://tools.advomatic.com/8/budget

Phone Call Tactic #2: You can connect via the following 1-800 to the Capitol Switchboard to be put in touch with specific Members of Congress: 1-888-436-8427

Molly Ivins warned about the banking collapse in 1999

10 years ago, the late, great Molly Ivins saw potential disaster in Phil Gramm's repeal of the Glass-Steagall act. In a prophetic 1999 column, Ivins calls bankers "among the stupidest people on God's green earth", predicting that Gramm's legislation would result in abusive institutions that were "too big to fail."

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Now Citigroup Is Building A $10-Million New Executive Suite!

Citigroup Inc. plans to spend about $10 million on new offices for Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit and his lieutenants, after the U.S. government injected $45 billion of cash into the bank.

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AIG staff: We deserve this money

AIG’s new management team last year proposed that its employees give up their “retention” bonuses, or at least reduce them. The response from the 370 or so employees set to rake in $450 million in bonuses through 2010? Take a hike.

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Washington knew AIG was preparing to pay bonuses

WASHINGTON – Cue the outrage. For months, the Obama administration and members of Congress have known that insurance giant AIG was getting ready to pay huge bonuses while living off government bailouts. It wasn't until the money was flowing and news was trickling out to the public that official Washington rose up in anger and vowed to yank the mone

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Red Cross Described Torture at CIA Jails.

The International Committee of the Red Cross concluded in a secret report that the Bush administration's treatment of al-Qaeda captives 'constituted torture,' a finding that strongly implied that CIA interrogation methods violated international law, according to newly published excerpts from the...

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Obama will try to block executive bonuses at AIG

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090316/ap_on_go_pr_wh/aig_outrage

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer Tom Raum, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 18 mins ago

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama declared Monday that insurance giant American International Group is in financial straits because of "recklessness and greed" and said he intends to stop it from paying out millions in executive bonuses.

"It's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay," Obama said at the outset of an appearance to announce help for small businesses hurt by the deep recession.

"How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat," the president said.

A.I.G. Paying $160 Million in Bonuses After Federal Bailout

An Obama economic adviser described the A.I.G. situation as “outrageous” but said the government had limited ability to scale back the bonuses.

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UK:Secret Emails Show Iraq Dossier Was 'Sexed Up'.

The evidence are piling against Blair and his manipulation of "intelligence" to justify the Iraq war...

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$18.4 Billion In Post-Bailout Bonuses and Counting!

After getting $125 billion in taxpayer bailouts, the top officers at Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, and three other banks agreed to forgo their 2008 bonuses. Now they’re awarding billions to their troops. Can government “claw back” that money?

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Where Were The Media As Wall Street Imploded?selling out!!

There are plenty of people to share the blame for the collapse of the nation's financial system. But whether the media played an appropriate role in reporting on the health and status of the financial industry is a tough question. Some argue coverage was overlooked; others say it was incomplete.

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Rightwing Economics Departments Unswayed by Crashing Economy

Free market theory, mathematical models and hostility to government regulation still reign in most university economics departments. James K. Galbraith, economist at the Univ. of Texas, who has frequently been at odds with free marketers, said, “I don’t detect any change at all.” Academic economists are "like an ostrich with its head in the sand."

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AIG stock under $1

Ron Paul Wants Millions for Ear Marks (Pork)

But although the libertarian-leaning Republican from Lake Jackson cast a vote against the massive spending measure, his fingerprints were on some of the earmarks that helped inflate its cost. Paul played a role in obtaining 22 earmarks worth $96.1 million.

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Bank Nationalization: Still A Radical Idea?

It is a bit odd to watch Barack Obama, who aspires to finally end the era of Reaganomics, spend his early weeks in the White House swatting away calls for nationalization from decidedly Republican quarters. Lindsey Graham, a Republican senator from South Carolina, recently said that, given the depth of the credit crisis, he wouldn’t rule out nationalizing banks. Alan Greenspan went further a few days later. “I understand that once in a hundred years this is what you do,” Greenspan, an Ayn Rand disciple before he was a central banker, told The Financial Times.

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