On the 29th of July an extremely important think tank report, paid for by the government, came forth from the Rand Corporation, a favorite of the Pentagon on National Security matters.

I heard the report early that morning on a news blip on NPR and went over to the Rand Site and found the report. I than posted about it on a number of sites as well as sent it out, all with back links.
There was also a link for a Congressional Briefing to be held on that day on the report.

Progressive Americans, that’s a joke. Barack Obama promised change and one of the first things he did after clinching the Democratic nomination, was to continue the rhetoric of the Bush Administration. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I feel like a knife has been driven through my heart, and I didn’t even support him! The truth is what’s happened to this country? I’m no fool, I know that we have been involved in toppling unfriendly governments and have started imperialistic wars for a long time now. The difference between then and now is that America no longer looks after just it’s “interests”, it wants control of everything.

Abstract. During a “Freedom Rally” in recognition of Ron Paul, (R-TX) and in opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the founder of Scholars for 9/11 Truth explained why the anti-war movement and the 9/11 truth movement should be more closely linked, since exposing the truth about 9/11 destroys the justification for those wars.

Crossposted from Docudharma

Remember when they were an opposition party?  Remember when they were on our side?  I’m sure most of you have noticed by now that they just aren’t anymore.

When we evaluate the facts, the use of private military contractors appears to have harmed, rather than helped, the counterinsurgency efforts of the U.S. mission in Iraq, going against our best doctrine and undermining critical efforts of our troops.

I was reading a paper on astrophysics when I suddenly made a connection which may explain our government and how it now operates. The Universe is a vast place, billions of years old and not filled with, but with a plenitude of stars of various sizes and types.  These are formed into galaxies, which are formed of clusters of stars, dust from which new stars are born, nebulae, etc.

Americans have been driven by fear, lies, and the propaganda of the profoundly ruthless into a collective hysteria, a madness that has been exploited by its authors to manipulate us into a devastating and unjust war – and there’s another even bigger one coming up.  What is so amazing is that even the ‘leaders’ on our side of the aisle are acting as though it is all perfectly acceptable – entirely and indisputably sane.  They have bought into the patently false GWOT meme and are shamelessly chugging the Kool-Aid in public like a bunch of drunken power whores.

The first in a series detailing, in decreasing order of importance, what I feel needs to be done to move America back to the progressive ideal. Cross-posted from Brad's Brain

For fiscal year 2007 the United States is spending $439.3 billion dollars (pdf) on the military, specifically the department of defense. Doesn't sound like much, does it? But this figure's a little misleading. First we need to factor in what is being spent in Iraq, which for some reason doesn't get included in the "military spending" figures. It's supposed to be around $110 billion, but some say it will be higher. Still we're not there. The CIA and various other "defense" operations are unconstitutionally protected from disclosing budgetary figures. They are all funded from what's called the "black budget," and it's estimated at around $1.1 trillion a year, a complicated number because it's not merely subtracting known expenditures from total revenues. (Read the report for more details on this.) So all told we spend around $1.6 trillion dollars a year on our military apparatus. It's long been known that we spend more on the military than all other nations combined, but that's without the black budget. With that factored in, we hold a 3:1 advantage.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


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I happened to catch the followup to Daniel Zwerdings previous reports about the treatment of Combat Soldiers returning from Iraq and Afganistan and Foghting the Demons, better known as PTSD!

With all we now know about what Combat can do to many of those who serve We Haven't Learned A Damn Thing.

We are witnessing the end of an era.  The great American experiment in democracy is over.

It is now clear, the Military Industrial Congressional Complex has usurped the power of the people and cemented its control over our government.