covered some of these stuff but not in depth enough. Gotta love those noise panels and on top of it, Ratigan's sub, when he's on vacation, is one of those corporate drones who proclaims "we must" destroy SS and Medicaire for the "sake of the budget", of course no mention that one could balance the budget in a heart beat with some taxes.
I did it in no time by repealing the Bush tax cuts, adding both a transaction tax on Wall Street flash trades and then adding a VAT (low, like 2% or something).
Bam, balanced budget, imagine that. We'll have to point that out with some budget game.
Spitzer was also bringing in some reality and of course CNN cancelled him. CNN cancelled anyone who actually says anything, if you notice.
Agree or disagree with whoever that person is, but the pattern is to cancel anyone who talks about the real issues.
I cannot believe I am reading this. A paleo-conservative gets that the cheapest way out of health care costs is single payer. Congrats.
Although I've seen this 22% unemployment rate bandied about and I do not know where it's coming from. I need real calculations, even estimates and I will assume they are adding in those not in the labor force who are really wanting a job somehow in that number.
Not to say that there is not a jobs crisis, there sure as hell is, but I'm a stickler for accuracy.
The corporate media is the PR shop for the Money Party. They love obfuscation and phoney drama.
I get a kick out of watching Ed and the other one, can't recall her name right now. They make these appeals to Obama as though Obama might change. Obama is doing exactly what he was put in there to do. When will they get the message and tell the people - this is a scam. They will do that on their last show ever on MSNBC or any other major network. Silly drama, cynical. No wonder their viewership never tops 2.0 mil, if that. O'Reilly has the same low numbers, btw. It's the big storyline to justify the big rip off.
This is just like healthcare "debate" where they fill up the airwaves with nonsensical nothingness to pass a health care lobbyist filled wish lists in the end.
It's absolutely disgusting the media doesn't point out the fact SS is solvent, fine and good example of legislation refusing to allow Medicaid/Medicare to negotiate prices.
If you notice the only ones up for getting squeezed on health care are the actual doctors.
First, some of the debt is from various deals with our favorite bankers. Tax collection does seem to be a problem, that said, the focus is exactly what is happening generally. "Powers that be" are out to destroy social safety nets, period and are using any crisis to do it.
As a result, Greece's economy imploded, just as "austerity" would implode the United States.
Yes, the IMF is one of the driving forces demanding sovereign states dismantle their social safety nets.
How Greece got that way is multi-fold, some is structural, some are the banks, some is the financial crisis and a lot is due to the imploding economy generally, i.e. negative growth or contraction.
Frankly this plan, at least the debt part, sounds much better to me than what I've seen to date...
but this hidden agenda, happening right here, right now, under the guise of "debt ceiling" to destroy social safety nets, unions, wages, middle class incomes
it the most outrageous scam of this Century.
That's the bottom line, using crisis to squeeze what little is left from workers to MNCs and the super rich.
Recently I wrote up a Federal Reserve Governor who called it as it is, income inequality is literally eroding the U.S. economy.
So with the IMF involved, I assume the American taxpayer is on the hook for some of this too.
Who was forced out of their job, who is in jail, for allowing Greece to borrow so much? I've been reading that their tax collecting is still miserable, tax fraud still very high. Why don't they go looking -- really looking -- for money the government is owed, instead of borrowing more?
"I think they [Dorgan and Webb] bailed on running for office not because they might lose but because they had no choice in the Senate except to be swamped and overcome with corruption." Robert Oak
No doubt it's frustrating for an honorable person in the Congress these days, but that's always been the case. Still, I would prefer that they had stayed and continued the good fight, as Leahy does or as the late Robert Byrd did until his death.
Overturn of personnel in the Congress (or in the White House or in the courts), unless highly selective, accomplishes nothing. We badly need honorable politicians who can rise above the media circus non-issues and distractions -- populist politicians who can connect directly with the people. Otherwise, populism has no chance, and the alternative (corporatism) wins by default.
I think the the huge fund-raising effort required is a bigger factor in these decisions than is the difficulty of combating corrupting influence -- although of course these two factors are not unrelated.
As an example of the process, when Rep. Peter DeFaxio (D-OR 4) a few years back considered running for the Senate, he announced that he just did not want to spend almost all of his time, almost every day, for more than a year .... on the phone and in person begging for money to the point that he would have no time for anything else. He stated that he had investigated the situation and was dead certain that was what was required for a well-known (throughout Oregon) member of the U.S. House to run for the Senate -- total dedication to fund raising on a personal level. None of it would be easy for DeFazio, who was well known for his opposition to free trade deals since NAFTA and before and his criticism of inefficient military procurement. On the other hand, DeFazio has never been defeated in his 4th District, despite that the seat is targeted, year after year, by the Republican National Committee.
Of course everything has been made that much worse by the Citizens United deciision.
Short of an effective third party, the one thing that voters can hope to do is to keep the ones who are proven true and throw our the ones who have been proven otherwise. Aside from voting, the big thing that voters actually can do is turn off the network teevee news and start searching out true journalism such as EP to understand what is going on. They won't miss anything, really, because they will soon hear it all from friends who still watch the junk. Amazing, how that opens up your understanding of the media brainwashing that runs the minds of so many Americans.
"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Finally, voters can work within each state to assure a hard paper audit trail in elections, with automatic random sampling to be hand-counted in each election regardless of how close or far-apart the result is. Democracy: NOT a spectator sport!
BTW: I suspect that a factor for Webb must be that he decided to support off-shore oil for Virginia and knew he would lose the support of many voters and organizations for that reason. I am not second-guessing his decision, it may be in the best interests of Virginia, but I do know that it would have had a predictably negative affect on his chances for re-election as a Democrat in 2012, had he chosen to continue. He would have found himself in a squeeze between RNC $$$ and kneejerk environmentalists crimping his populist style with Democrat voters.
There were a slew of Senators trying to do something, Bryon Dorgan, Jim Webb and they all didn't run.
It's such a pattern I think they bailed on running for office not because they might lose but because they had no choice in the Senate except to be swamped and overcome with corruption.
Dorgan was all over private contracts and lose money in the Iraq war, to no avail despite the billions and billions of dollars lost that he investigated.
to this extent. Sorry but the corporate cash cow that is destroying the U.S. from within I think is much more important.
Not that Murdoch's stranglehold on media and it's power and spin isn't important, but when have we heard a huge hearing on how Bill Gates managed to get his own Senate "hearing", where he "testified" a slew of lies to a committee?
That seriously happened. See any worker get their own personal Senate hearing describing the destruction of work culture in the U.S.?
Yes, shredders are very useful after the money is gone. Unfortunately, shredders are probably all made in China, including those purchased by the Pentagon!
Well, now that the government CAN, at long last, prosecute fraud, where are the actual prosecutions? Back in early 2009, we had the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, led by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) which had no problem turning up all kinds of evidence of fraud. However, as noted by Robert Oak, there doesn't seem to be any paper trail!
The Commission found "buildings unfit for use ... weapons and money gone missing ... overuse of cost-plus contracts, high contractor overhead expenses, excessive contractor award fees ... a skeletal, half-built shell ... even though the United States spent $40 million on the now-halted $73 million project" ... but no paper trail!
Meanwhile, Sen. Webb announced in May that he will not be running again in 2012. And, more recently, he has introduced legislation to allow oil and natural gas exploration and production off of the Virginia coast.
A billion here, a billion there ... pretty soon it adds up to real money.
Which is the worstest? -- the oil lobby, the FIRE lobby, the media lobby or the military-industrial complex?
According to OpenCongress, WEFA was reported out of the Judiciary Committee, 25 July 2008. After that, OpenCongress under heading "Recent News Coverage" says, as follows:
Hmmmm, no news coverage found for this bill at this time.[Webpage is undated but is what appears now for WEFA .] This means that this this bill has not yet been mentioned on a publicly-searchable news website by either its official number ... or title ... As soon as that changes, our daily automated search across the Web will catch it and include it here.
A similar result for govtrack.us/congress. Nothing anywhere about that the idea went anywhere.
A provision authored by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) to suspend the statute of limitations for prosecuting wartime contracting fraud will become law when the President signs a continuing resolution that includes the fiscal year 2009 defense appropriations bill, which was passed by the Senate Saturday.
The language, introduced by Leahy in April as the Wartime Enforcement of Fraud Act (WEFA), has received bipartisan support. The bill was reported by the Senate Judiciary Committee in July, and Leahy successfully worked to adopt the bill as an amendment to the defense appropriations bill earlier this year. The provisions will give the government the ability to prosecute cases of fraud during a time of war, and close a loophole in a World War II-era law that has prevented the government from seeking criminal prosecution for individuals and companies who have delivered defective products or overbilled for their services.
“With passage of this bill today, Congress has taken action, as it has in the past, to protect the American taxpayer and make sure the money spent to support the troops is not wasted by fraud and corruption,” said Leahy. “The President should now sign this bill to show the American people that we will do all we can to investigate and prosecute those who would undermine our troops and steal from the taxpayer during times of war.”
Closing the loophole in the 1942 law will allow the government to prosecute wartime fraud in Congressional-authorized conflicts, including those in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Billions of dollars have been awarded to companies that failed to deliver satisfactory products in the ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, including faulty ammunition and unsafe bullet proof vests, potentially endangering the lives of American troops. Leahy also added provisions of the Wartime Enforcement of Fraud Act in the National Defense Authorization Act. The funding bill and the Leahy-authored extension on the statute of limitations for wartime fraud will now be sent to the President for signature.
Did President Bush sign the 'National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008' and the 'Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009'?
Yes, President Bush did sign those two acts, complete with "signing statements" (emphasis added)indicating that he did not consider his administration to be bound by the law. "You can't make the Decider prosecute fraud when he finds it to be in the national interest!" He also indicated his satisfaction with other provisions that somehow made their way into the legislation, lifting the "legislative moratoria on oil and gas leasing on significant portions of the Outer Continental Shelf and the prohibition on the completion of regulations for commercial leasing of oil shale."
Statement by the President on H.R. 2638, the "Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009"
Today I have signed into law H.R. 2638, the "Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009." The Act, consisting of five divisions, consolidates into a single Act several appropriations bills. It provides through emergency supplemental appropriations additional Fiscal Year (FY) 2008 resources needed for relief and recovery from hurricanes, floods, and other disasters, and other supplemental appropriations.
The Act also includes full-year FY 2009 appropriations for the Department of Defense and the Department of Homeland Security and for Military Construction and Veterans Affairs. Furthermore, the Act provides FY 2009 appropriations to continue operations of the Federal Government through March 6, 2009, for projects and activities not otherwise covered in the full-year bills. This Act lifts the legislative moratoria on oil and gas leasing on significant portions of the Outer Continental Shelf and the prohibition on the completion of regulations for commercial leasing of oil shale, which will allow us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil.
I am disappointed that the Congress passed a long-term continuing resolution. There is much work to be done, and the Congress should not adjourn for the year without finishing important business on spending, taxes, and free trade agreements.
Finally, this legislation contains certain provisions similar to those found in prior appropriations bills passed by the Congress that might be construed to be inconsistent with my Constitutional responsibilities. To avoid such potential infirmities, the executive branch will interpret and construe such provisions in the same manner as I have previously stated in regard to similar provisions.
GEORGE W. BUSH
THE WHITE HOUSE,
September 30, 2008.
President Bush Signs H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 into Law
Today, I have signed into law H.R. 4986, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. The Act authorizes funding for the defense of the United States and its interests abroad, for military construction, and for national security-related energy programs.
Provisions of the Act, including sections 841, 846, 1079, and 1222, purport to impose requirements that could inhibit the President's ability to carry out his constitutional obligations to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, to protect national security, to supervise the executive branch, and to execute his authority as Commander in Chief. The executive branch shall construe such provisions in a manner consistent with the constitutional authority of the President.
This has been going on for a long time. A great book demonstrates this reality: War is a Racket by U.S. Marine Major General Smedley D. Butler.
It works like this: (1) we have a sacred cause, (2) no expense is too great when serving the sacred cause, and therefore, (3) it would be treasonous to demand an accounting of the expenditures incurred in serving the sacred cause.
The truth is the opposite, following either common sense or the advice of the classic Chinese military thinker, Sun Tzu:
(1) If we cannot win a war quickly, we should not get into it.
(2) Expenses must be carefully controlled or the nation will exhaust itself in the war effort, with the result that the nation will be conquered, sooner or later (whether it admits this reality to itself, or not).
(3) The more sacred the cause, the more treasonous NOT to demand an accounting of the expenditures.
Time after time since World War II, the U.S. has experienced ... well, let's just say the word 'victory' would not be indicated.
You might suppose that someone would conclude that war profiteering, aside from being bad for the U.S. Treasury, is also bad from the point of view of the military's mission -- assuming that the military's mission is to win wars.
During World War II, Senator Harry Truman held hundreds of hearings on war profiteering, saving taxpayers an estimated $15 billion (in 1940s dollars). There used to be laws specifically defining and directed at war profiteering.
U.S. Rep. Neil Abernathy (D-HI), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007, which passed (Oct. 9, 2007) 375 to 3 (53 abstaining). A similar bill (S.B. 119) was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier in 2007, but there was never a vote in the Senate despite strong support from Sen. Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. (The Senate bill had 21 cosponsors, all Democrats and not including Senator Obama.) That was it for the first session of the 110th Congress.
The second session of the 110th Congress gets more complicated. Sen. Leahy and Sen. Grassly (R-IA) together introduced the Wartime Enforcement of Fraud Act (WEFA) which then became Leahy provisions in a defense authorization act and later, in a supplemental appropriations bill. It's one of those things that Robert Oak explains as requiring hours of research -- yes, it does. I am noting and quoting, below in a 'reply', sources for what was enacted in 2008 in the way of WEFA -- namely, closing a loophole that had allowed fraud connected with undeclared wars (wars under a War Powers Resolution). NProbably mainly thanks to the persisitence of Senator Leahy, the government can now prosecute fraud even in Iraq and Afghanistan! According to a PDF from Leahy's office:
The language adopted by the Appropriations Committee [later placed into the "Consolidated Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009" or into the "National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008"] creates a new tool for federal prosecutors to combat war profiteering and provide clear authority to prosecute those who exploit times of war or national emergency to commit fraud. It would also, for the first time, make it a crime for contractors to materially overvalue goods and services with the specific intent to excessively profit from war, military actions or relief or reconstruction activities.
In 2009, Rep. Abernathy (clearly not satisfied with what had been signed by President Bush in 2008) reintroduced the bill as the War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2009, but it never made it out of the House Judiciary Committee. So much for the 111th Congress.
Now we have the wonderful 112th Congress, Tea Partiers and all ... so we're seeing real change now, aren't we?
Yeah, right. The new House leaders find it objectionable even to require military contractors to come clean about their donations to campaign funds of members of Congress ... that would be abridging the freedom of speech of war profiteers!
War is a racket. This doesn't mean that everyone involved in the military is a crook, or even that most involved in the military are crooks ... most people, even civilians, tend to be kind-hearted and well-intended ... but in its totality, war is a racket.
"War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means."
This is yet another shocker headline, so why I'm putting it in a comment.
Of course they are, since they need to be prepared if it happens, and it just might, but for a weak or two as these idiots with their game of chicken, target social security, don't raise the ceiling by August 2.
Once the consequences appear and people are about to riot, they will increase it.
Think Progress has managed to squeeze out a few details and beyond what this post talks about, they are screwing Americans on social security, it looks like some of this is about accounting fake outs.
I'm waiting until I can gather enough details to write it up as a post.
True investigative journalists are worth their weight in gold ... value rising by the day.
Will any of it make a difference?
I don't know. But the more people pay attention to reality the better off the country will be. Maybe some day politicians will actually be confident that they can speak out on the basis of reality and hope to be re-elected.
Robert Oak has found some exceptions, but for the most part, I find mainstream teevee and radio news to be nothing but a source of delusional thinking, clearly part of a program to promote systematic ignorance among U.S. citizens.
A source for the flim-flam reported by corporate media is the confusion between housing starts and permits taken out while localities are still keeping their impact fees extremely low. In many cases, taking out a permit or a number of permits (subdivision) doesn't seriously mean "new housing starts," rather a hedging strategy anticipating that local governments are increasingly pressed to return to earlier higher permit fees.
Thanks for link to Calculated Risk. Also thanks for WSJ story on recent Reis report.
"I know where I am, I see the same homes, over and over, being pushed by realtors, some ongoing for 2 years now... " --- Robert Oaks
Yes. I see the same thing. I know of places that could have sold for cash two years ago, but the seller (bank) preferred to accept a down pending financing, and then the financing apparently fell through. And then that cycled around again, maybe after six months and then some more to wait out the winter!
There has been some actual movement this year, with folks moving in to stay -- residences that were vacant for some time -- but it doesn't add up to a market.
Thanks for link to Angry Bear story on Zillow, which asks what should Zillow do? I don't think Zillow should do anything to 'correct' their system, just steady out. People understand Zillow for what it is, very useful in general, but this is a buyer's market (to say the least).
The thing is, if you're selling, you really always need just that one motivated buyer. Which means that you have to make that one buyer happy. No use pretending otherwise.
Banks and realty agents definitely do seem to be in a delusional dance.
Brokers and agents are hurting but sometimes can make insider deals to keep going.
Banks? They just can't stand marking to market, it's too much of a loss, so they do what they can to rig the market.
covered some of these stuff but not in depth enough. Gotta love those noise panels and on top of it, Ratigan's sub, when he's on vacation, is one of those corporate drones who proclaims "we must" destroy SS and Medicaire for the "sake of the budget", of course no mention that one could balance the budget in a heart beat with some taxes.
I did it in no time by repealing the Bush tax cuts, adding both a transaction tax on Wall Street flash trades and then adding a VAT (low, like 2% or something).
Bam, balanced budget, imagine that. We'll have to point that out with some budget game.
Spitzer was also bringing in some reality and of course CNN cancelled him. CNN cancelled anyone who actually says anything, if you notice.
Agree or disagree with whoever that person is, but the pattern is to cancel anyone who talks about the real issues.
I cannot believe I am reading this. A paleo-conservative gets that the cheapest way out of health care costs is single payer. Congrats.
Although I've seen this 22% unemployment rate bandied about and I do not know where it's coming from. I need real calculations, even estimates and I will assume they are adding in those not in the labor force who are really wanting a job somehow in that number.
Not to say that there is not a jobs crisis, there sure as hell is, but I'm a stickler for accuracy.
The corporate media is the PR shop for the Money Party. They love obfuscation and phoney drama.
I get a kick out of watching Ed and the other one, can't recall her name right now. They make these appeals to Obama as though Obama might change. Obama is doing exactly what he was put in there to do. When will they get the message and tell the people - this is a scam. They will do that on their last show ever on MSNBC or any other major network. Silly drama, cynical. No wonder their viewership never tops 2.0 mil, if that. O'Reilly has the same low numbers, btw. It's the big storyline to justify the big rip off.
This is just like healthcare "debate" where they fill up the airwaves with nonsensical nothingness to pass a health care lobbyist filled wish lists in the end.
It's absolutely disgusting the media doesn't point out the fact SS is solvent, fine and good example of legislation refusing to allow Medicaid/Medicare to negotiate prices.
If you notice the only ones up for getting squeezed on health care are the actual doctors.
First, some of the debt is from various deals with our favorite bankers. Tax collection does seem to be a problem, that said, the focus is exactly what is happening generally. "Powers that be" are out to destroy social safety nets, period and are using any crisis to do it.
As a result, Greece's economy imploded, just as "austerity" would implode the United States.
Yes, the IMF is one of the driving forces demanding sovereign states dismantle their social safety nets.
How Greece got that way is multi-fold, some is structural, some are the banks, some is the financial crisis and a lot is due to the imploding economy generally, i.e. negative growth or contraction.
Frankly this plan, at least the debt part, sounds much better to me than what I've seen to date...
but this hidden agenda, happening right here, right now, under the guise of "debt ceiling" to destroy social safety nets, unions, wages, middle class incomes
it the most outrageous scam of this Century.
That's the bottom line, using crisis to squeeze what little is left from workers to MNCs and the super rich.
Recently I wrote up a Federal Reserve Governor who called it as it is, income inequality is literally eroding the U.S. economy.
So with the IMF involved, I assume the American taxpayer is on the hook for some of this too.
Who was forced out of their job, who is in jail, for allowing Greece to borrow so much? I've been reading that their tax collecting is still miserable, tax fraud still very high. Why don't they go looking -- really looking -- for money the government is owed, instead of borrowing more?
"I think they [Dorgan and Webb] bailed on running for office not because they might lose but because they had no choice in the Senate except to be swamped and overcome with corruption." Robert Oak
No doubt it's frustrating for an honorable person in the Congress these days, but that's always been the case. Still, I would prefer that they had stayed and continued the good fight, as Leahy does or as the late Robert Byrd did until his death.
Overturn of personnel in the Congress (or in the White House or in the courts), unless highly selective, accomplishes nothing. We badly need honorable politicians who can rise above the media circus non-issues and distractions -- populist politicians who can connect directly with the people. Otherwise, populism has no chance, and the alternative (corporatism) wins by default.
I think the the huge fund-raising effort required is a bigger factor in these decisions than is the difficulty of combating corrupting influence -- although of course these two factors are not unrelated.
As an example of the process, when Rep. Peter DeFaxio (D-OR 4) a few years back considered running for the Senate, he announced that he just did not want to spend almost all of his time, almost every day, for more than a year .... on the phone and in person begging for money to the point that he would have no time for anything else. He stated that he had investigated the situation and was dead certain that was what was required for a well-known (throughout Oregon) member of the U.S. House to run for the Senate -- total dedication to fund raising on a personal level. None of it would be easy for DeFazio, who was well known for his opposition to free trade deals since NAFTA and before and his criticism of inefficient military procurement. On the other hand, DeFazio has never been defeated in his 4th District, despite that the seat is targeted, year after year, by the Republican National Committee.
Of course everything has been made that much worse by the Citizens United deciision.
Short of an effective third party, the one thing that voters can hope to do is to keep the ones who are proven true and throw our the ones who have been proven otherwise. Aside from voting, the big thing that voters actually can do is turn off the network teevee news and start searching out true journalism such as EP to understand what is going on. They won't miss anything, really, because they will soon hear it all from friends who still watch the junk. Amazing, how that opens up your understanding of the media brainwashing that runs the minds of so many Americans.
"Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
Finally, voters can work within each state to assure a hard paper audit trail in elections, with automatic random sampling to be hand-counted in each election regardless of how close or far-apart the result is. Democracy: NOT a spectator sport!
BTW: I suspect that a factor for Webb must be that he decided to support off-shore oil for Virginia and knew he would lose the support of many voters and organizations for that reason. I am not second-guessing his decision, it may be in the best interests of Virginia, but I do know that it would have had a predictably negative affect on his chances for re-election as a Democrat in 2012, had he chosen to continue. He would have found himself in a squeeze between RNC $$$ and kneejerk environmentalists crimping his populist style with Democrat voters.
There were a slew of Senators trying to do something, Bryon Dorgan, Jim Webb and they all didn't run.
It's such a pattern I think they bailed on running for office not because they might lose but because they had no choice in the Senate except to be swamped and overcome with corruption.
Dorgan was all over private contracts and lose money in the Iraq war, to no avail despite the billions and billions of dollars lost that he investigated.
to this extent. Sorry but the corporate cash cow that is destroying the U.S. from within I think is much more important.
Not that Murdoch's stranglehold on media and it's power and spin isn't important, but when have we heard a huge hearing on how Bill Gates managed to get his own Senate "hearing", where he "testified" a slew of lies to a committee?
That seriously happened. See any worker get their own personal Senate hearing describing the destruction of work culture in the U.S.?
Not on your life.
Yes, shredders are very useful after the money is gone. Unfortunately, shredders are probably all made in China, including those purchased by the Pentagon!
Well, now that the government CAN, at long last, prosecute fraud, where are the actual prosecutions? Back in early 2009, we had the Commission on Wartime Contracting in Iraq and Afghanistan, led by Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) which had no problem turning up all kinds of evidence of fraud. However, as noted by Robert Oak, there doesn't seem to be any paper trail!
The Commission found "buildings unfit for use ... weapons and money gone missing ... overuse of cost-plus contracts, high contractor overhead expenses, excessive contractor award fees ... a skeletal, half-built shell ... even though the United States spent $40 million on the now-halted $73 million project" ... but no paper trail!
Meanwhile, Sen. Webb announced in May that he will not be running again in 2012. And, more recently, he has introduced legislation to allow oil and natural gas exploration and production off of the Virginia coast.
A billion here, a billion there ... pretty soon it adds up to real money.
Which is the worstest? -- the oil lobby, the FIRE lobby, the media lobby or the military-industrial complex?
2nd session, 111th Congress
According to OpenCongress, WEFA was reported out of the Judiciary Committee, 25 July 2008. After that, OpenCongress under heading "Recent News Coverage" says, as follows:
A similar result for govtrack.us/congress. Nothing anywhere about that the idea went anywhere.
However, Sen. Leahy's website has a press release from 2008 --
Did President Bush sign the 'National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008' and the 'Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009'?
Yes, President Bush did sign those two acts, complete with "signing statements" (emphasis added) indicating that he did not consider his administration to be bound by the law. "You can't make the Decider prosecute fraud when he finds it to be in the national interest!" He also indicated his satisfaction with other provisions that somehow made their way into the legislation, lifting the "legislative moratoria on oil and gas leasing on significant portions of the Outer Continental Shelf and the prohibition on the completion of regulations for commercial leasing of oil shale."
Signing statements are from CoherentBabble.com --
This has been going on for a long time. A great book demonstrates this reality: War is a Racket by U.S. Marine Major General Smedley D. Butler.
It works like this: (1) we have a sacred cause, (2) no expense is too great when serving the sacred cause, and therefore, (3) it would be treasonous to demand an accounting of the expenditures incurred in serving the sacred cause.
The truth is the opposite, following either common sense or the advice of the classic Chinese military thinker, Sun Tzu:
(1) If we cannot win a war quickly, we should not get into it.
(2) Expenses must be carefully controlled or the nation will exhaust itself in the war effort, with the result that the nation will be conquered, sooner or later (whether it admits this reality to itself, or not).
(3) The more sacred the cause, the more treasonous NOT to demand an accounting of the expenditures.
Time after time since World War II, the U.S. has experienced ... well, let's just say the word 'victory' would not be indicated.
You might suppose that someone would conclude that war profiteering, aside from being bad for the U.S. Treasury, is also bad from the point of view of the military's mission -- assuming that the military's mission is to win wars.
During World War II, Senator Harry Truman held hundreds of hearings on war profiteering, saving taxpayers an estimated $15 billion (in 1940s dollars). There used to be laws specifically defining and directed at war profiteering.
U.S. Rep. Neil Abernathy (D-HI), chair of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced the War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007, which passed (Oct. 9, 2007) 375 to 3 (53 abstaining). A similar bill (S.B. 119) was approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier in 2007, but there was never a vote in the Senate despite strong support from Sen. Leahy (D-VT), chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. (The Senate bill had 21 cosponsors, all Democrats and not including Senator Obama.) That was it for the first session of the 110th Congress.
The second session of the 110th Congress gets more complicated. Sen. Leahy and Sen. Grassly (R-IA) together introduced the Wartime Enforcement of Fraud Act (WEFA) which then became Leahy provisions in a defense authorization act and later, in a supplemental appropriations bill. It's one of those things that Robert Oak explains as requiring hours of research -- yes, it does. I am noting and quoting, below in a 'reply', sources for what was enacted in 2008 in the way of WEFA -- namely, closing a loophole that had allowed fraud connected with undeclared wars (wars under a War Powers Resolution). NProbably mainly thanks to the persisitence of Senator Leahy, the government can now prosecute fraud even in Iraq and Afghanistan! According to a PDF from Leahy's office:
In 2009, Rep. Abernathy (clearly not satisfied with what had been signed by President Bush in 2008) reintroduced the bill as the War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2009, but it never made it out of the House Judiciary Committee. So much for the 111th Congress.
Now we have the wonderful 112th Congress, Tea Partiers and all ... so we're seeing real change now, aren't we?
Yeah, right. The new House leaders find it objectionable even to require military contractors to come clean about their donations to campaign funds of members of Congress ... that would be abridging the freedom of speech of war profiteers!
War is a racket. This doesn't mean that everyone involved in the military is a crook, or even that most involved in the military are crooks ... most people, even civilians, tend to be kind-hearted and well-intended ... but in its totality, war is a racket.
"War is not an independent phenomenon, but the continuation of politics by different means."
Karl von Clausewitz ( brainyquote.com )
This is yet another shocker headline, so why I'm putting it in a comment.
Of course they are, since they need to be prepared if it happens, and it just might, but for a weak or two as these idiots with their game of chicken, target social security, don't raise the ceiling by August 2.
Once the consequences appear and people are about to riot, they will increase it.
Think Progress has managed to squeeze out a few details and beyond what this post talks about, they are screwing Americans on social security, it looks like some of this is about accounting fake outs.
I'm waiting until I can gather enough details to write it up as a post.
I see that Bush is still ahead in the 'Which is worser?' contest.
And it looks more and more like that our choice in 2012 will effectively be .... another Bush or more of the Bush-lite!
Let's see, which will I vote for ... Worse or Worser? Bush-like or Bush-lite?
It looks like the American people are waking up, listening and valuing truth speakers.
True investigative journalists are worth their weight in gold ... value rising by the day.
Will any of it make a difference?
I don't know. But the more people pay attention to reality the better off the country will be. Maybe some day politicians will actually be confident that they can speak out on the basis of reality and hope to be re-elected.
Robert Oak has found some exceptions, but for the most part, I find mainstream teevee and radio news to be nothing but a source of delusional thinking, clearly part of a program to promote systematic ignorance among U.S. citizens.
A source for the flim-flam reported by corporate media is the confusion between housing starts and permits taken out while localities are still keeping their impact fees extremely low. In many cases, taking out a permit or a number of permits (subdivision) doesn't seriously mean "new housing starts," rather a hedging strategy anticipating that local governments are increasingly pressed to return to earlier higher permit fees.
Thanks for link to Calculated Risk. Also thanks for WSJ story on recent Reis report.
"I know where I am, I see the same homes, over and over, being pushed by realtors, some ongoing for 2 years now... " --- Robert Oaks
Yes. I see the same thing. I know of places that could have sold for cash two years ago, but the seller (bank) preferred to accept a down pending financing, and then the financing apparently fell through. And then that cycled around again, maybe after six months and then some more to wait out the winter!
There has been some actual movement this year, with folks moving in to stay -- residences that were vacant for some time -- but it doesn't add up to a market.
Thanks for link to Angry Bear story on Zillow, which asks what should Zillow do? I don't think Zillow should do anything to 'correct' their system, just steady out. People understand Zillow for what it is, very useful in general, but this is a buyer's market (to say the least).
The thing is, if you're selling, you really always need just that one motivated buyer. Which means that you have to make that one buyer happy. No use pretending otherwise.
Banks and realty agents definitely do seem to be in a delusional dance.
Brokers and agents are hurting but sometimes can make insider deals to keep going.
Banks? They just can't stand marking to market, it's too much of a loss, so they do what they can to rig the market.
Angry Bear has a nice post over viewing Zillow's estimates of how home sellings overprice their homes by 12-14% above real market value.
Wishful thinking. I know where I am, I see the same homes, over and over, being pushed by realtors, some ongoing for 2 years now...
as the foreclosure maps mushrooms, yet the banks are holding onto most of those properties, not putting them out on the market.
It's so delusional with local real estate agents refusing to realize their cash cow has left the farm.
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