Hi. Ralph Nader, whether as prospective candidate or in his historic role as Truthdigger of the 20th Century can be counted upon to further uniquely the critical analyses Scheer and Jackson present here. -Ed
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20070206_bush_budget_delivers_the_bacon/ Truthdig 2/06/07 Bush Budget Delivers the Bacon By Robert Scheer President Bush's outrageous military budget has nothing do with fighting terrorism but everything to do with pumping up the profits of the administration's generous political donors in the defense industry. So, the question is: Will the Democrats have the guts to stop this betrayal of the public trust? Ever since some lunatics, mostly citizens of our longtime ally Saudi Arabia, used $3 knives to hijack four planes on the same morning, President Bush has exploited our nation's trauma as an opportunity to throw trillions of dollars at the military-industrial complex to build weaponry for a Cold War that no longer exists. That is the subtext of the more than $700-billion defense appropriation requested by Bush in his budget, released Monday. Sure, it includes $141.7 billion explicitly dedicated to fighting "the global war on terror"-but that much-abused phrase falsely encompasses the invasion and occupation of Iraq, a country that had nothing to do with the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or the perpetrator, al-Qaida. In fact, that amount rises to $235.1 billion when the additional supplemental funds to cover Iraq for the remainder of this budget year are added in. At least in Iraq, we created enemies we can now fight. The bulk of the rest of the military portion of the federal budget, $481.4 billion for the Defense Department and an additional $22.5 billion for other departments' defense programs, is intended to fight an enemy of advanced military power that is nowhere to be found-not even among the dreaded "Axis of Evil" nations. For example, this budget allocates billions to continue building stealth aircraft designed to evade Soviet defenses the ex-superpower never managed to create. The United States' military budget is greater than that of the next 14 biggest military spenders combined. Even if not one additional dollar is allocated to the advanced weapons systems now in the works, there is not a nation on Earth that would dare challenge U.S. dominance in the air or on the seas for decades to come. The enormous imbalance in U.S. military spending is not about defense but rather profit. As Dow Jones' MarketWatch reports, "Wartime spending has helped the big defense contractors post healthy fourth-quarter earnings with strong prospects for 2007. The new budget suggests the defense industry hasn't yet peaked, analysts said." In fact, U.S. defense spending now rivals that of the Reagan weapons buildup at the height of the Cold War. Yet, there remains no plausible explanation of what these weapons programs have to do with defeating terrorists. Indeed, the spending priorities of the Bush administration indicate a continued mindless indifference to the lessons of 9/11, as outlined by the bipartisan 9/11 commission. Instead of using a surgeon's precision and a detective's diligence to excise the malignancy of terrorism, Bush's heavy-handed militarism has inflamed the very religious and nationalist passions terrorists thrive on. The president's "war" analogy obscures the fact that our "enemies" do not have an army, but rather a cause. No, the Bush budget makes sense only as a slush fund for the defense industry execs and stockholders, a group also blessed by Bush's tax cuts. As Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., put it, the budget request "uses deception to hide a massive increase in debt and its priorities are disconnected from the needs of middle-class Americans." In Bush's defense, he is just paying off a political debt: Donations of $200 or more from defense industry individuals and PACs to Republicans have averaged $10 million in the past three election cycles, according to the nonpartisan, nonprofit Center for Responsive Politics. Unfortunately, even though the Democrats consistently receive only half as much in political payola from the military contractors, they have seemed just as slavishly loyal to the industry's lobbyists. So the test for the recently victorious congressional Democrats will be to resist the temptation to go along with a patriotic-sounding military budget that may produce jobs in their districts and campaign contributions in '08 but that has nothing to do with fighting terrorism. If they go the craven route, they will once again join this president in wasting our nation's resources by pretending to fight a world war against a militarily sophisticated enemy that exists only as a contrivance of his speechwriters' rhetoric. *** http://www.suntimes.com/news/jackson/index.html War Privatization is Public Scandal By Jesse Jackson Chicago Sun-Times - February 6, 2007 They guard U.S. officials. They patrol the Green Zone, the U.S. headquarters in Iraq. They supply the food, the oil, clean the barracks and fix the machines. They aren't U.S. soldiers; they are private contractors. The Bush administration has privatized war. The second- biggest army in Iraq consists of armed security forces supplied by private contractors. They act above the law -- and with unclear lines of authority. They work abroad, so they are largely beyond the reach of U.S. law. On contract from the U.S. government, they are beyond the reach of Iraqi law, as established in an order issued by the U.S. Authority there before turning power over to the Iraqi government. When the Abu Ghraib prison torture scandals were revealed, private security forces and interrogators were at the center of it. But none was held accountable. The British have followed suit. The British charity, War on Want, reported last year that there are three British private security guards to every British soldier in Iraq. Congressional investigators are about to unearth massive abuses and corruption in Iraq, but the mercenaries operate across the world. In 1998, for example, DynCorp security agents in Bosnia were implicated in a sex-slave scandal. The firm quickly recalled at least 13 agents; none faced criminal prosecution. The modern-day mercenaries also operate largely free of government scrutiny or oversight. Companies, unlike government agencies, are not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and often stonewall congressional inquiry. Under President Bush, the use of private contractors generally has doubled to about $400 billion a year in 2006, as the administration is driven by a philosophy to privatize everything it can. Finally, with Democrats reviving congressional oversight, questions are being asked. Contractors claim to provide savings and efficiency because of the benefits of competition. In fact, the GAO suggests, in most areas, the contractors have little competition. Sole-source, no-bid contracts are the rule, not the exception. The contractors -- as we saw in the bribing of Rep. Duke Cunningham and the other scandals of the DeLay Congress -- spend millions wining, dining and rewarding the legislators who provide them with their immensely profitable contracts. The top 20 service contractors, according to the New York Times, have spent nearly $300 million since 2000 on lobbying and have donated some $23 million to political campaigns. The whole thing gets incestuous. The Times reports that in June, the General Services Administration, short of employees to review cases of incompetence and fraud by federal contractors, hired a private contractor to do the investigation. The contractor -- CACI International -- had itself barely avoided suspension from federal contracting for its role in Abu Ghraib. For the GSA, CACI supplied six people -- at $104 an hour -- more than $200,000 per person annually. These private armies may themselves become a problem. The Guardian reports on a bizarre plot in Equatorial Guinea, where 67 foreign mercenaries were arrested in what may have been a foiled attempt to overthrow the dictator of that oil-rich nation. If privatization doesn't produce savings and offers such scope for abuse, why has it continued to grow? Part of the reason is simply the animus for government by modern day conservatives. Part of it is political grandstanding. President Clinton, for example, boasted that he had cut the size of the federal bureaucracy -- even as those cuts were feeding a cancerous growth of contracting out vital services. The problem now is that the government lacks the capacity to control its contractors -- and has begun contracting out that oversight. The Congress has begun a great debate about our policy in Iraq. But it is vital that they investigate -- as Sen. Joe Biden and Rep. Henry Waxman have promised -- the privatization of war. This must be brought under control before the Congress finds itself -- like the Roman Senate at the end of the Roman Republic -- faced with mercenary armies that are out of control. (c) Copyright 2007 Sun-Times News Group Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that will help them to interpret the world and to change it. Submit via email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe: www.portside.org/subscribe Search the archives: www.portside.org/archive *** RALPH NADER COMES TO LA AREA WITH A NEW BOOK and DOCUMENTARY FILM ABOUT HIM Thursday, Feb. 8th, Friday Feb. 9th & Friday, Feb. 16th As Featured on Today's Democracy Now!.... A new documentary about a different kind of presidential candidate that's just been released. It is called "An Unreasonable Man" - and is about the long-time consumer advocate, lawyer, author and two-time presidential candidate - Ralph Nader. He is the author of a new book about his life titled "The Seventeen Traditions." "A PROBING AND INFORMATIVE DOCUMENTARY." -A.O. Scott The New York Times ************************ Ralph Nader's New Book Seventeen Traditions Book signing Feb 8, WHERE: Dutton's Bookstore Brentwood1 1975 San Vincente Blvd Los Angeles, Brentwood WHEN 7pm, Thursday, February 8 WHAT: Ralph Nader will talk about his new book Seventeen Traditions and book signing. ******************** West Coast Premiere of a Hollywood Documentary about Ralph Nader An Unreasonable Man at Nuart in West LA WHEN: Friday, February 9 4:30pm West Coast Premiere of An Unreasonable Man, A Hollywood Documentary about Ralph Nader 7:15pm Ralph Nader, Directors, Henriette Mantel and Steve Skrovan, and 9:55pm cast from movie will take questions after 4:30 and 7:15 show Ralph will introduce 9:55 show, Directors and cast will take questions (shows runs from Feb 9-16) WHERE: Landmark Nu Art Theater 11272 Santa Monica Boulevard, just west of the 405 Freeway West Los Angeles -landmarktheatres.com (310) 281-8223 ************************ WHEN: Friday, February 16 Pasadena Premiere of An Unreasonable Man WHERE: Laemmle Theater One Colorado Complex 42 Miller Alley Old Pasadena 626-744-1224 www.laemmle.com Volunteers Needed: Help spread the word Call Alfonso at 213-841-6042 or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] ******* MORE ABOUT: An Unreasonable Man - synopsis www.anunreasonableman.com In 1966, General Motors, the most powerful corporation in the world, sent private investigators to dig up dirt on an obscure thirty-two year old public interest lawyer named Ralph Nader, who had written a book critical of one of their cars, the Corvair. The scandal that ensued after the smear campaign was revealed launched Ralph Nader into national prominence and established him as one of the most admired Americans and the leader of the modern Consumer Movement. Over the next thirty years and without ever holding public office, Nader built a legislative record that is the rival of any contemporary president. Many things we take for granted including seat belts, airbags, product labeling, no nukes, even the free ticket you get after being bumped from an overbooked flight are largely due to the efforts of Ralph Nader and his citizen groups. Yet today, when most people hear the name "Ralph Nader," they think of the man who gave the country George W. Bush. As a result, after sustaining his popularity and effectiveness over an unprecedented amount of time, he has become a pariah even among former friends and allies. How did this happen? Is he really to blame for George W. Bush? Who has stuck by him and who has abandoned him? Has our democracy become a consumer fraud? After being so right for so many years, how did he seem to go so wrong? With the help of exciting graphics, rare archival footage and over forty on-camera interviews conducted over the past two years, "An Unreasonable Man" traces the life and career of Ralph Nader, one of the most unique, important, and controversial political figures of the past half century. MORE ABOUT: Seventeen Traditions by Ralph Nader http://www.harpercollins.com/books/9780061238277/The_Seventeen_Traditions/index.aspxown My boyhood in a small town in Connecticut was shaped by my family, my friends, our neighbors, my chores and hobbies, the town's culture and environment, its schools, libraries, factories, and businesses, their workers, and by storms that came from nowhere to disrupt everything. . . . Yet childhood in any family is a mysterious experience. . . . What shapes the mind, the personality, the character? So begins this unexpected and extraordinary book by Ralph Nader. Known for his lifetime of selfless activism, Nader now looks back to the earliest days of his own life, to his serene and enriching childhood in bucolic Winsted, Connecticut. From listening to learning, from patriotism to argument, from work to simple enjoyment, Nader revisits seventeen key traditions he absorbed from his parents, his siblings, and the people in his community, and draws from them inspiring lessons for today's society. Warmly human, rich with sensory memories and lasting wisdom, it offers a kind of modern-day parable of how we grow from children into responsible adults-a reminder of a time when nature and community were central to the way we all learned and lived. ********** TO LISTEN/WATCH/READ GO TO: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/02/05/1532248 Monday, February 5th, 2007 Democracy Now! In a moment, we'll take a look at a new documentary about a different kind of presidential candidate that's just been released. It is called "An Unreasonable Man" - and is about the long-time consumer advocate, lawyer, author and two-time presidential candidate - Ralph Nader. He is the author of a new book about his life titled "The Seventeen Traditions." . Ralph Nader, ran for president in 2000 as a candidate on the Green Party ticket. In 2004 he ran for President as an Independent. He is a long-time consumer advocate and the founder of many organizations including the Center for Study of Responsive Law, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), and Public Citizen. Ralph is also the author of many books - his latest is titled, "The Seventeen Traditions." #### --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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