All of that was bad enough, but now the scam is getting even more extreme, more transparent. Faced with the dilemma of how they could possibly justify their year-long claimed support for the public option only now to fail to enact it, more and more Democratic Senators were pressured into signing a letter supporting the enactment [...]
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
War Is a Racket is the title of two works, a speech and a booklet, by retired U.S. Marine Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, one of only 19 people to be twice awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor, in which Butler frankly discusses from his experience as a career military officer how business interests have commercially [...]
Filed in Documents, Notable, Quotable
|
Also tagged Afghanistan War, american empire, Anti-War, Authoritarianism, Civil War, Congress, Corporatism, Fascism, Gulf War, House, Imperialism, Interventionists, Iraq War, Korean War, Law, Liberty Bonds, Major General Smedley Darlington Butler, Military, Nation-Building, Nationalism, Spanish-American War, USMC, Vietnam War, War, War Profiteers, WW1, WW2
|
Plumlee and other pilots have testified to Congress that they were working for a secret U.S. military intelligence operation that clandestinely sent them from the United States to bring back the so-called damaged and disappeared weapons for retrofitting and repair.
“When the weapons were repaired and tested at China Lake and Twentynine Palms, in California, they [...]
Filed in News Blurbs
|
Also tagged Arms Trafficking, California, CFR, CIA, Colombia, Costa Rica, Covert Landing Strips, DEA, DOD, Drug Trafficking, El Salvador, Gary Hart, Homicide, Investigations, Iran Contra Affair, John Kerry, Kiki Camarena, Latin America, MCAS El Toro, Mexico, Military, Murder, Narcotics, Nicaragua, NSC, Operation Penetrate, Pentagon, Robert Tosh Plumlee, Tosh Plumlee, Unmarked Planes, USMC, Whistleblower, White House
|
The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has issued a strong warning to the Defense Department over plans to award $1 billion in new contracts to the firm formerly known as Blackwater, accusing managers of the private security company of lying to win lucrative jobs in Afghanistan.
Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) also cited a history of [...]
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
So what’s happening here? How come Republicans who can’t imagine spending money on health care reform are more than willing to spend it on job creation?
The answer is that, for all GOP talk about how Washington has to stop spending, for all the talk about how there is no money to do anything, for all [...]
Thursday, February 11, 2010
Senator Franken questions Brian Roberts, CEO of Comcast; Jeff Zucker, CEO of NBC, and Dr. Mark Cooper, the Director of Research Consumer Federation of America.
Franken’s toughness and savvy was on display last week at a hearing on the proposed $30 billion mega-merger between Comcast and NBC Universal.
In his feisty opening statement, Franken said: “I worked for NBC [...]
On Thursday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)introduced a bill aimed at getting 10 million new solar rooftop systems and 200,000 new solar hot water heating systems installed in the U.S. in the next 10 years.
Cleverly titled the “10 Million Solar Roofs & 10 Million Gallons of Solar Hot Water Act” (.pdf), it would provide rebates that [...]
You’ve heard plenty about the big banks’ role in the Great Recession, but their headaches are about to get worse.
At a packed hearing today, the Senate investigations subcommittee led by Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) shed new light on banks’ negligence and wrongdoing—and this time it’s not credit-default swaps or derivatives but money laundering and arms dealers. The [...]
Filed in News Blurbs
|
Also tagged Angola, Bailouts, Bank of America, Banking, Carl Levin, Citibank, Corporatism, Corruption, Crime, Financial Sector, Great Recession, HSBC, Lobbyists, Money Laundering, Shell Corporations
|
Thursday, February 4, 2010
Senator Chris Dodd, the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, scolded Wall Street representatives at a hearing Thursday for sending “an army of lobbyists whose only mission is to kill the common-sense financial reforms” needed by the public. “The fact is,” Dodd said, “I am frustrated, and so are the American people.” He charged that [...]
Filed in News Blurbs
|
Also tagged AIG, Bailouts, Banking, Bonuses, Christopher Dodd, Congress, Corporatism, Executive Compensation, Financial Sector, Goldman Sachs, Great Recession, Lobbyists, Reform
|
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
John McCain in 2006: “And I understand the opposition to it, and I’ve had these debates and discussions, but the day that the leadership of the military comes to me and says, senator, we ought to change the policy, then I think we ought to consider seriously changing it because those leaders in the military [...]
Filed in News Blurbs
|
Also tagged Carl Levin, Civil Rights, Credibility, DADT, Homophobia, Hypocrisy, Joe Lieberman, John McCain, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Judgment, LGBT, Military, Republicans, Saxby Chambliss, Tattoos
|
You might not have heard, because almost nobody reported it, but new clean-energy projects attracted more global funding in 2008 than fossil-fuel projects did. For the first time ever, investors put more money in solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower than in fuels that must be burned, according to a U.N. report. And when venture-capital funding [...]
I’ve been thinking a little more about the Supreme Court’s decision. This ruling gives foreign powers more rights than U.S. citizens. Imagine that! Aramco, a corporation owned by the Saudi Arabian government (whose citizens attacked the U.S. on 9/11/2001 from their base in Afghanistan), will have enormously more influence in choosing your senator than you [...]
Filed in News Blurbs
|
Also tagged Arlen Specter, Campaign Finance Reform, Citizens United v FEC, Congress, Corporatism, Courts, Dick Durbin, House, John Roberts, Law, SCOTUS
|
As the Senate works to craft a shield law, one crucial issue is determining who is a journalist. In other words, whose promises of confidentiality deserve protection?
For me, it’s always instructive to go back to the founders when addressing questions like these. Who did they have in mind when they drafted a 1st Amendment that [...]
Filed in Journalism, News Blurbs
|
Also tagged Bloggers, Citizen Journalists, Confidentiality, Corruption, Freedom of Press, Journalism, Journalists, Media, Reporters, Shield Law, Ted Kaufman, Whistleblowers
|
Monday, December 28, 2009
Speculation about Lieberman’s motives has focused on his connections to the insurance industry in Connecticut, home to 72 insurance companies with more than 65,000 employees, the highest concentration of insurance industry jobs in the U.S., and an annual payroll of more than $6 billion in 2007, according to report by Janet Kaminski, an attorney with [...]
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Here is a graphic representation of the choice lawmakers face:
via Wonk Room » Reasons Not To Kill The Senate Bill.
Listening To
