It has been a Republican mantra for decades that private enterprise is more efficient than government. In 2005 President George W. Bush led the charge to privatize Social Security. Between the collapse of Enron and the banking system can you imagine where we'd be if he hadn't failed? When the same president led us into the war in Afghanistan his administration used private security contractors, mercenaries - many of whom are not American citizens, to provide security for supply convoys and military bases. When President Bush led us into the war in Iraq his administration further privatized the war effort by using mercenaries to protect state department personnel leading to the alleged atrocities by Blackwater guards at Nisour Square where 17 innocent Iraqi civilians were killed.
During that same period President Bush appointed two new members to the Supreme Court. Those two members recently joined with three other activist judges from the right in a decision that effectively privatizes the United States Congress and Presidency. The decision in the Citizens United vs. the FEC which allows corporations both domestic and foreign to effectively purchase federal elected officials could well be the most enduring legacy of the George W. Bush administration.
Populist activists from the right and left, like the Tea Party and MoveOn.org should make common cause to call for a constitutional convention as provided for by Article V of the U.S. Constitution to reverse this disastrous decision by amending our constitution.
(Are you Right Wingnuts SURE you wanna keep up with the game of "Gotcha ACORN"? - promoted by boadicea)
Representative Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) told Salon's Glenn Greenwald,
The amount of money that ACORN has received in the past 20 years altogether is roughly equal to what the taxpayer paid to Halliburton each day during the war in Iraq,"
Representative Grayson picked up on the legislative overreach in the rushed legislation and pointed out that in the extraordinary attempts to de-fund ACORN, Congress passed a law that may de-fund many unintended contractors. He asked the Project on Government Oversight (POGO) to sift through its database to find which contractors might be caught in the ACORN net.
Wouldn't it be amazing if a hundred years from now historians wrote about the ACORN scandal and how the resulting panic had the unintended consequences of dismantling the military industrial complex?
(If your wallet feels unaccountably lighter-here's one reason why. - promoted by boadicea)
According to a piece written in The Huffington Post U.S. military contractors in Iraq have charged the American taxpayers $85. billion for services rendered.
It should come as no surprise to any informed person that these outsourced services are not any less costly than those that could have been provided by the U.S. military.
Worse, these military contractors are responsible for the accidental deaths and shootings of more than a few of our U.S. military.
Are the hired contractors typically incompetent Republican heckofajob brownies or are they simply outright criminals?
It is hard to tell the difference between ineptitude and crime under W. rule.
One must understand the ideology that drives the Republican Party's quest to wage war and, at the same time, enable contractors who are given a free ride to rob our nation's piggy bank.
Our President has vetoed the SCHIP bill and many GOP lawmakers agree with W.
What a pathetically sad and embarrassing day for all of America. What kind of people have we become?
It is obvious to me that the GOP mantra du jour is "save the fetus, hate the born child" especially the child who is born into an economically disadvantaged or struggling family. Only a bunch of calloused, hypocritical, mean spirited and loathsome lawmakers would have voted against this bill.
Let's not forget whom these cruel monsters are when it is time to go to the voting polls. If they hate poor children, they also hate health care services for impoverished senior citizens, reduced interest college loans for middle and working class families, increased veteran's benefits and any program, for that matter, that would throw a life line to the working poor of this "rich" nation. No, these hypocrites instead support big oil, insurance, pharma and they fully embrace the military/industrial complex, i.e. Halliburton, Black Water, et al.
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. Even worse, the government can no longer carry out one of its most basic core missions: to fight and win the nation's wars. Instead, the massive outsourcing of military operations has created a dependency on private firms like Blackwater that has given rise to dangerous vulnerabilities.The dark truth about Blackwater
The idea of privatization of American public and governmental functions has been at the center of the neo conservative movement and over the last decade has been presented as the cure for everything that ails us from Social Security to Medicare, prison administration to public education, law enforcement and even the waging of war.
This idea that private enterprise can accomplish governmental functions more efficiently, at less cost while providing better service is, of course absurd and, in fact, is nothing but an enormous lie, and, like all enormous lies, if repeated often and loudly by the right authority figures and affirmed in "scholarly" studies performed by the Heritage or American Enterprise think tanks, it will take hold and seem, to a sizable portion of the uncritical public, to be the truth, simply because they have heard it so many times from so many familiar voices.
The marketing/propaganda professionals of the Cheney /Bush administration have carefully studied their Goebbels and know that the truth is what they can sell to those gullible enough to believe it especially when delivered in a climate of xenophobic, racist or religious fear, and due to the fact that a large percentage of our citizenry are either unable to look at their government and the wider corporate culture which largely dictates public policy, with a properly suspicious eye, or simply doesn't give a damn as long as no one threatens to take away their snowmobiles, shotguns and cheap access to the mind numbing inanity of popular culture and celebrity, the great lies become public truths and "common knowledge."
Seven years ago the people of this country nearly elected a federal administration that came to office expressing a hatred of government and an intention to reduce the size and influence of it in regulating the affairs of the ruling capitalist class, while at the same time charting a course to invade the lives and privacy and reduce the fundamental freedoms of the lesser classes. How anyone could expect those who despise government and representative democracy to govern effectively and efficiently is well beyond my understanding.
After their near election and illegal appointment to the highest offices in a government that they had absolutely no respect for, Cheney and Bush along with their corporate mafia criminal associates began to strip the federal regulatory agencies of dedicated professionals who took the job of regulating business and industry in the interest of public health and safety seriously, and started replacing them with industry cronies who simply stopped enforcing the laws so that businesses could achieve greater profits.
Blackwater, already accused of being both trigger happy and out of control, has now created another incident for which American soldiers will likely end up paying. I don't pretend to know all the details. This may have been a righteous shoot , but the very fact that these guys operate outside of the framework of the American military in terms of rules of engagement and conduct make this almost irrelevant . With a bad reputation, ill will from the troops and the Iraqi civilian population, the judgement on the street will be swift and negative. Things are so bad now , I don't think Blackwate can make it worse, but surely this won't help us.
Eeeewwwww! What a fucked-up American capitalist response to Easter! Imagine - eating the Cross.
And then here, lookee here:
Republican Cheesecake
Maybe there should be a new line of anatomically correct dolls made for little Christian girls, based on the photo. Sorta like "Airforce Barbie", this would be "Christian Law School Monica".
I have not blogged about them in months, but this is too over the top. The Blackwater private army folks are now suing the lawyer who is trying to hold them accountable for the SNAFU in Fulljah that got 3 of their guys killed. Ironically, this news breaks as 5 more of their their guys die in a helicopter crash (shoot down??) in Iraq.
longer carry out one of its most basic core missions: to fight and win the nation's wars. Instead, the massive outsourcing of military operations has created a dependency on private firms like Blackwater that has given rise to dangerous vulnerabilities.
