God Damn. Just God Damn...

[cherokeeprogressive]

We're spending four hundred forty thousand billion gazillion dollars per week on what...? WHAT? What the fuck is the return on what monies we're spending on war?

What the fuck is the return on what monies we're spending on... shit... WAR?

What the fuck is the return?

I'll tell you... NADA. I would add to that this statement: If we didn't spend so much on war, we could spend more on humanity.

Americans suffer. Americans go without. We as a group have the capacity for so much good. Not only here in THIS country, but around the world.

It's time to demand an end to foreign excursion and occupation. It's time to DEMAND cuts to this country's military budget in favor of helping the AVERAGE AMERICAN, be they black, white, red, yellow, gay, straight, or otherwise.

It's time to stop fooling ourselves. OUR MONEY IS BEING SPENT ON WAR.

I don't give a FUCK who the President is. I don't care if he or she is tall, short, gay, straight, black, white, or FUCKING PURPLE. I've got a fire. I say we hold his/her feet to it. Not just until he/she says OUCH; I say we hold those feet to the fire until they BLISTER.

Anyone who thinks the 2012 General Election will bring us change, or hope, or ANYTHING different from what we have now is DAFT.

I'm disappointed. I'm dissilusioned. I've been sold a bill of goods that was TOTALLY different from what the salesman said I could expect... and I'll tell you what: I'M FUCKING PISSED. I feel like I just bought a used car.

It's time for "Change". It's not time for "Change We Can Believe In..." It's time for change that isn't a campaign slogan... It's time for change we can feel, touch, see, and benefit from.

Would that someone might try to convince me I could hope for these things from a second Obama Administration other than by ridiculing me.

Hope. Change. Campaign slogans... They're all the same.

[emilyg]

1. k/r

[CaliforniaPeggy]

2. My dear cherokeeprogressive...

I hear your eloquent rage, and I say how much I agree.

It's not just a used car...it's a trashed used car.

Recommended.

[Donnachaidh]

3. stripped, trashed, burned out hulk in ruins. n/t

[Mendocino]

43. I thought I bought a Prius

but got a 72 Pontiac wagon that gets 9mpg, leaks oil, has an eight track, dirty windows and bald tires.

[CrispyQ]

46. "...has an eight track..."

:D

That made me laugh.

[SwampG8r]

140. dont laugh too hard

i rode in his car and the 8 trac is stuck in the first traack and he only has donnie and maries greatest hits
we get it we get it shes a little bit country and hes a little rock and roll we get it

[Art_from_Ark]

146. I think I might have ridden in that car

The song that really grated on my nerves was "And they call it puppy loooooooooove, just because we're in our teens..."

[YOHABLO]

118. Hmm?

An 8 Track? That's so funny.

[bjobotts]

72. War profiteers selling gas to American troops at $1000/gal in Afganistan under contract.

[bjobotts]

73. This is where the spending cuts should be focused...not Medicare etc.

[bjobotts]

75. The defense dept lost over $1.3 trillion yet refused to be audited?

[bjobotts]

76. We could pay the mortgage for every American on just what the Pentagon "loses".

[earcandle]

86. THAT is illegal. Audits are required to protect the people's treasury. What dickhead is not doing

his job?

[Divernan]

96. Congress gave Pentagon until 2017 to get its books in order.

Last year the Pentagon confessed that it is one of a very few Cabinet-level agencies without a "clean" financial audit opinion. Weighty overhead costs and misaligned strategies persist in the Defense Department as a consequence.

Many organizations wrestle with failing an audit, but the Defense Department lacks the data even to begin one. This shortcoming creates tangles throughout the department, but its core knot is in operations and maintenance.

Always a very opaque account, it has become even more confused over the past 10 years as resources for combat operations have been rolled in with finances for base maintenance, an expert from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office told Mulvaney. Today it is virtually impossible to make simple judgments such as whether a fuel purchase is for a troop transporter in Kandahar or a lawn mower at Fort Bragg.

Congress, meanwhile, decided in 2009 that the Pentagon needs to get its books in order but that it could wait until 2017. Six years from now, of course, the fiscal crisis either will be over or past the breaking point.

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/07/17/1346980/for-some-pentagon-spending-theres.html#ixzz1SOeXT6Ma

[defendandprotect]

123. Thanks for the info -- Important enough to be a separate OP -- !!

Didn't know any of that, btw -- !!

[earcandle]

141. Just got to balance the bank statements and put transactions where they belong. What is hard about

that?  

[Prana69]

144. That's 6 years, during which some very creative accouting will be done.

To hide the money trail and bury the evidence...

P69

[lib2DaBone]

99. The missing money issue was buried forever on 9/11...

the missile that hit the pentagon (err, I mean Airplane) hit the Navy Accounting Office where these bookkeeping records were destroyed.

[earcandle]

142. Bulldung... the bank has copies of every transaction. I can rebuild a set of books from bank records

and so can they.  Americans are so easy to dupe.  They don't
think very clearly.

[polichick]

80. That's right - and if this prez wasn't in it up to his eyeballs just like the others...

He'd end the charade.

[defendandprotect]

125. +1 -- and don't think we'll hear our "free press" raise any of those questions ... !!!

[Cal33]

92. You and I won't see any returns on these mad crazy wars, but the

the greedy corporate executives and generals and admirals-- also called the
Military/Industrial Complex by Eisenhower -- most definitely will.

[Prana69]

145. yep, it's stock standard "privatise the gains, socialise the losses" n/t

[Raksha]

102. Yeah...otherwise known as a LEMON! n/t

[emmadoggy]

126. A lemon. nt

[CakeGrrl]

4. You can start by changing the makeup of CONGRESS.

You act as if the Executive branch is solely responsible for determining where the money is spent. There are three branches of Congress.

Teabaggers are calling the shots in the House of Representatives. Republicans aren't afraid to filibuster in the Senate.

Get Progressives in Congress and flush out the Republican element. That'll go a long way.

[Divernan]

16. And you act as if Obama is a figurehead and a powerless wimp.

He controls the state department and foreign diplomacy. He administration is desperately pushing to keep American troops in Iraq indefinitely, notwithstanding crowing that he's ended the war in Iraq. He approved the CIA's drone attacks on Libya and denies that constitutes a war.

Obama is three times the "War President" that W was.

Doesn't that sand you've got your head buried in irritate your eyes?

[Jakes Progress]

40. That is their only defense of his actions.

They support a powerless, impotent talking doll. And they seem proud of it.

[Divernan]

85. Sadly, he is neither powerless nor impotent - he's following his own agenda -

He's a very bright man who knows exactly what he's doing. The rewards he seeks are not to be found by following traditional Democratic values. He's a third way, new Democrat.

[KoKo]

41. Obama’s Bush-League World Is the Obama National Security Team a Pilotless Drone? By Tom Engelhardt

(I read this article cross-posted from "The Nation" this morning and it made me sick about Obama's Drone War Plans. It's chilling what's going on and the power behind it all) :-(


Is the Obama National Security Team a Pilotless Drone?
By Tom Engelhardt

George W. who? I mean, the guy is so over. He turned the big six-five the other day and it was barely a footnote in the news. And Dick Cheney, tick-tick-tick. Condoleezza Rice? She’s already onto her next memoir, and yet it's as if she's been wiped from history, too? As for Donald Rumsfeld, he published hism emoir in February and it hit the bestseller lists, but a few months later, where is he?

And can anyone be surprised? They were wrong about Afghanistan. They were wrong about Iraq. They were wrong about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction. They were wrong about what the U.S. military was capable of doing. The country imploded economically while they were at the helm. Geopolitically speaking, they headed the car of state for the nearest cliff. In fact, when it comes to pure wrongness, what weren’t they wrong about?

Americans do seem to have turned the page on Bush and his cronies. (President Obama called it looking forward, not backward.) Still, glance over your shoulder and, if you’re being honest, you'll have to admit that one thing didn’t happen: they didn’t turn the page on us.

They may have disappeared from our lives, but the post-9/11 world they had such a mad hand in creating hasn’t. It’s not just the Department of Homeland Security or that un-American word “homeland,” both of which are undoubtedly embedded in our lives forever; or the Patriot Act, now as American as apple pie; or Guantanamo which, despite a presidential promise, may never close; or all the wild, overblown fears of terrorism and the new security world that goes with them, neither of which shows the slightest sign of abating; or the National Security Agency’s surveillance and spying on Americans which, as far as we can tell, is ongoing. No, it's scores of Bush policies and positions that will clearly be with us until hell freezes over. Among them all, consider the Obama administration’s updated version of that signature Bush invention, the Global War on Terror.

MORE OF AN EXCELLENT but CHILLING READ OF THE DRONE PLANS for the FUTURE at.....


http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/175416/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_making_earth_a_global_free-fire_zone/

[Divernan]

95. Chilling read - please post it as an OP

Obama, Petraeus and Panetta - the Three Horsemen of the Apocaplypse

[whathappened]

134. don't ya feel

don't you feel these fookers are still in the back ground , there way to quite , these fookers are crooks and killers , they just did'nt fold up there tents and retire , these fookers love power , ya there out there with the whole other mess of them fookers , pulling strings on our money , fook all them to hell , there should be a puplic hanging

[MissDeeds]

49. Well said

It's hard to understand how even the most avid Obama supporter can justify his wars. They are indefensible.

[liberation]

62. It depends on the day of the week

some days he is powerless, other days he has done more than any other president in history.

When the context is a negative. He is never to blame, as it is always the fault of congress. He is however to be praised whenever something positive happens, and congress role to be ignored.

[treestar]

66. Geez just read the Constitution

No one said the POTUS is powerless, he shares it with Congress, the Judiciary and the states.

People keep acting like it all goes to the President. It does not. We've known that since 4th grade. Most of us, anyway.

[Divernan]

83. You are DEAD wrong. POTUS controls the State Dept. & foreign diplomacy.

I'm assuming you can read and understand simple English.

The only way you can any longer defend Obama is to ignore the substance of what is posted, and twist and distort the criticisms leveled toward him.

Did I say he was powerless? NO
I repeat, did I way he was powerless? STILL NO.
And yet a third time: I DID NOT SAY HE WAS POWERLESS.

Did I say he does NOT share power with the Congress, judiciary & the states? THAT WOULD BE ANOTHER BIG, FAT NO!

Your other insult was that anyone who had completed 4th grade would agree with your view of presidential powers.
I'm not going to alert on the insult. I will reply to it.

I have a law degree. I'm a licensed attorney and officer of the court. I worked for 10 years for the Democratic Caucus in my state's legislature. Part of my job was to review proposed bills for issues of constitutionality. Before that I was a professor of law.

So, FYI, I have not only READ the Constitution, I have TAUGHT the Constitution, and as a government attorney (now retired), and as a current elected official in my local government, I take an oath every year to UPHOLD and DEFEND the Constitution of the United States.

All you bring to the table is whining and distortion. Obama has left you twisting in the wind.

[Caretha]

127. Plus 1 million trillion

I have been waiting a very long time to see someone put that loud mouth know nothing in their place.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart Divernan.

[earcandle]

88. The facts are the facts... thanks for reminding us. Is this a do or die response for Obama, or is

he really a war president by choice?

[Divernan]

94. He's spreading his Drone War beyond AlQaeda and headed for Northern Africa

See the link in post 41 above:
Here are just a few paragraphs from it - just the permissible number of 4. It is a horrifying read of the history of the War on Terror, and of how Obama is racheting it up.

In other words, if Bush’s crew is long gone, the world they willed us is alive and well. After all, there are reasonable odds that, on the day you read this piece, somewhere in the free-fire zone of the Greater Middle East, a drone “piloted” from an air base in the western United States or perhaps a secret “suburban facility” near Langley, Virginia, will act as judge, jury, and executioner somewhere in the "arc of instability." It will take out a terrorist suspect or suspects, or a set of civilians mistaken for terrorists, or a “target” someone in Washington didn’t like, or that one of our allies-cum-intelligence-assets had it in for, or perhaps a mix of all of the above. We can't be sure how many countries American drones, military or CIA, are patrolling, but in at least six of them -- Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, and Iraq -- they have launched strikes in recent years that have killed more “suspects” than ever died in the 9/11 attacks.

That may not sound so ominous, but best guess: the Global War on Terror is soon likely to be on the march across North Africa, heading south. And recent Obama national security appointments only emphasize how much the drone wars are on Washington’s future agenda. After all, Leon Panetta, the man who, since 2009, ran the CIA’s drone wars, has moved over to the Pentagon as secretary of defense; while Bush’s favorite general, David Petraeus, the war commander who loosed American air power (including drone power) in a massive way in Afghanistan, is moving on to the CIA.

On his first visit to South Asia as secretary of defense, Panetta made the claim that Washington was “within reach of strategically defeating al-Qaeda.” Perhaps it won’t surprise you that such news signals not a winding down, but a ratcheting up, of the Global War on Terror. Panetta, as Craig Whitlock of the Washington Post reported, “hinted of more to come, saying he would redouble efforts by the military and the spy agency to work together on counterterrorism missions outside the traditional war zones of Afghanistan and Iraq.”

More to come, as two men switching their “civilian” and military roles partner up. Count on drone-factory assembly lines to rev up as well, and the military’s special operations forces to be in expansion mode. And note that by the penultimate page of that CT strategy summary, the administration has left al-Qaeda behind and is muttering in bureau-speak about Hizballah and Hamas, Iran and Syria (“active sponsors of terrorism”), and even the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

[mcollier]

133. Notice how US Troops are pulling out according to PLAN....

[TheKentuckian]

20. You do realize we have held the Congress for seriously like 65 out of 75 years or something?

You further realize we can only vote in our districts and our states?

You also understand that the Senate is structurally a fiasco that can only be really dealt with by changing the Constitution (which the small states will never allow), an even distribution of the population across the country, or revolution?

You also get that the Supreme Court is not an operationally oriented branch and really just decides if what the Executive and Legislative branches do is kosher, so they have a fairly limited impact on this particular discussion?

[cherokeeprogressive]

24. I'd venture a guess that if the President stepped up to the podium and said

"It's time for this to end...", and by this I mean America's thirst for war, no one who wanted to keep his or her seat in the House or Senate would stand in his way.

[onyourleft]

25. More Liberals in Congress so that...

...they, too, can be ignored?

[Enthusiast]

35. Can we really hope to

overcome the corporate money? I've sent Kucinich, Brown and others contributions but I can't hope to send enough. That god damned citizens united! Ruled on by an obviously corrupt supreme court. This nation is starting to suck.

[freshwest]

56. +1,000

[liberation]

61. Yeah, we should elect more Democrats

like the last time when they had both houses and the presidency, when wars were ended, and oh wait...

[earcandle]

87. Agreed!

[July16th-20th]

5. NASA could have made MUCH better use of that money.

Recommended.

[pipi_k]

26. Lots of people think NASA and the space program are

worthless, but they forget...or don't even know...that many of the things we use and take for granted today came about because of NASA.

Memory foam

Scratch-resistant lenses

Cordless tools

etc.

[Enthusiast]

38. I remember when they would cite

actual positive returns on the NASA investments. Now they won't mention it because TPTB want to privatize space exploration to profit the few. We subsidized the technology that these few will benefit from for free. You know, the few assholes like the Koch Brothers.

[proud2BlibKansan]

42. Tang!

And microwaves.

[sce56]

57. Sorry but Microwave ovens were not developed from the space program.

http://www.gallawa.com/microtech/history.html
"Like many of today's great inventions, the microwave oven was a by-product of another technology. It was during a radar-related research project around 1946 that Dr. Percy Spencer, a self-taught engineer with the Raytheon Corporation, noticed something very unusual. He was testing a new vacuum tube called a magnetron, when he discovered that the candy bar in his pocket had melted. This intrigued Dr. Spencer, so he tried another experiment. This time he placed some popcorn kernels near the tube and, perhaps standing a little farther away, he watched with an inventive sparkle in his eye as the popcorn sputtered, cracked and popped all over his lab."

That was radar experimentation not space travel. And besides all that Microwaves are not healthy to cook with they destroy the nutrients & vitamins in the food another leading cause of obesity in this country.

Microwave Ovens Destroy the Nutritional Value of Your Food
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_6463.cfm
By Mike Adams
NewsTarget/Truth Publishing, August 6, 2007
Straight to the Source

The rise of widespread nutritional deficiencies in the western world correlates almost perfectly with the introduction of the microwave oven. This is no coincidence. Microwave ovens heat food through a process of creating molecular friction, but this same molecular friction quickly destroys the delicate molecules of vitamins and phytonutrients (plant medicines) naturally found in foods. One study showed that microwaving vegetables destroys up to 97% of the nutritional content (vitamins and other plant-based nutrients that prevent disease, boost immune function and enhance health).

In other words, eating raw broccoli provides you with natural anti-cancer medicine that's extremely effective at halting the growth of cancer tumors. But microwaving that broccoli destroys the anti-cancer nutrients, rendering the food "dead" and nutritionally depleted. There's even some evidence to suggest that microwaving destroys the natural harmony in water molecules, creating an energetic pattern of chaos in the water found in all foods. In fact, the common term of "nuking" your food is coincidentally appropriate: Using a microwave is a bit like dropping a nuclear bomb on your food, then eating the fallout. (You don't actually get radiation from eating microwaved foods, however. But you don't get much nutrition, either.)

[liberation]

63. "There's even some evidence to suggest that microwaving destroys the natural harmony in water"

Could you please point at some actual evidence to such claim, and by evidence I mean scientific peer reviewed articles in a credible journal.

[The Big Vetolski]

77. OK, so the space program didn't invent microwave ovens. And ...

what does this argument that somehow microwaved food is hazardous to our health have to do with this thread, anyway?

Never mind. You want a concrete example of what the space program contributed? You are looking at it right now. Brought to you by the integrated circuit.

[DissedByBush]

129. Absolute fearmongering BS

"The rise of widespread nutritional deficiencies in the western world correlates almost perfectly with the introduction of the microwave oven."

Because the microwave brought with it a generation of low-nutrition, high-fat quickie foods.

"One study showed that microwaving vegetables destroys up to 97% of the nutritional content"

I'll bet in this study they cooked the vegetables far more than necessary.

"This is no coincidence. Microwave ovens heat food through a process of creating molecular friction, but this same molecular friction quickly destroys the delicate molecules of vitamins and phytonutrients (plant medicines) naturally found in foods."

Microwaving produces the same results as steaming. It's actually better than boiling because nutrients don't flow out into the water, instead remaining in the food.

"Using a microwave is a bit like dropping a nuclear bomb on your food, then eating the fallout. "

Microwave radiation is non-ionizing. It has none of the ill effects of the ionizing radiation of a nuclear bomb. This is pure fearmongering.

Of course, notice the source. I expect nothing less.

[Enthusiast]

36. No question

Then, at least, we would gain from trickle down technology, instead of trickle down...............nothing.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

58. Trickle down blood.

Great song and an accurate and disturbing social commentary.

Trickle Down by Bruce Cockburn & Andy Milne

Lyrics:

Picture on magazine boardroom pop star
Pinstripe prophet of peckerhead greed
You say 'Trust me with the money -- the keys to the universe'
Trickle down will give us everything we need

Brand new century private penitentiary
bank vault utopia padded for the few
And it's tumours for the masses coughing for the masses
Earphones for the masses and they all serve you

Trickle down give /em the business
Trickle down supposed to give us the goods
Cups held out to catch a bit of the bounty
Trickle down everywhere trickle down blood

What used to pass for education now looks more like ignoration
Take the people’s money and slip it to the corporation
Yellow rain golden shower pesticide firepower
Summon feudal demons of sweatshop subjugation

Workfare foul air homeless beggars everywhere
Picturephone aristocrats lounge around the pool
Captains of industry smiling beneficently
Leaking hole supertanker ship of fools

Trickle down give me the business
Trickle down supposed to give us the goods
Cups held out to catch a bit of the bounty
Trickle down everywhere trickle down blood

Take over takedown big bucks shakedown
Schoolyard pusher offer anything-for-profit
First got to privatize then you get to piratize
Hooked on avarice- how do we get off it?

Trickle down give me the business
Trickle down supposed to give us the goods
Cups held out to catch a bit of the bounty
Trickle down everywhere trickle down blood

Trickle down give me the business
Trickle down supposed to give us the goods
Cups held out to catch a bit of the bounty
Trickle down everywhere trickle down blood

Trickle down

[Enthusiast]

106. Thanks! nt

[FirstLight]

6. Fuckin' - A!

I am SOOOOOOO right there with you on all of the above. :banghead:

but since the rage and feeling oif futility are just not helping, I am trying to realize that everything breaks down at one point, and that we are fooling ourselves if we think that the 'old world thinking' is going to continue to get us anywhere...

better to focus on what i can do here in my own backyard, in my own community, and just be adaptable

because things are never going to get back to 'where they were' before the wars and the 2008 crash. It's a broken system/machine beyond repair and the ones who think they are going to fix it keep pocketing the parts...

so we have to build our own way and stop playing by their rules. the rest will really take care of itself to some degree, the warmongers will have their own implosion to deal with...

[girl gone mad]

7. k & r

[Melissa G]

8. War is a drain on the country's time, treasure and talent.

We lose and maim people, all in service of filling already rich people's overflowing pockets.

Enough. There are far more important things to do.

[NNN0LHI]

9. Problem with that is the only place hiring is the army

I have seen this happen before too. During the 1980's my best friend and I both got laid off the same day. It was a long lay off. His wife lost her job too. They had bigger bills than we did. They had bought a house and lost that after about a year. They lost both their cars. It was a real mess.

Only place back then that was hiring was the army too. He joined up in his early 30's. I couldn't believe it.

I think it is the jobs now too.

Don

[Divernan]

17. Between privatization of military functions & our failed economy, there's backup to enlist

One guy posted on DU recently that his daughter tried to enlist in the Navy and was told there is at least a one year wait. I know another guy whose apparently healthy and reasonably intelligent son was turned away by the Army.

[Desertrose]

10. Yes!! K&R

Why spend that money killing people when we could be spending it on helping people.

It is just plain illogical.

Wars benefit only a few and harm many millions...helping humanity makes much more sense no matter how you slice it.

When will we ever learn?

[pscot]

11. Amen, brother!

[eleny]

12. We're supposed to believe that it's keeping us safe

[krabigirl]

109. Yeah, too bad it does the opposite.

[latebloomer]

13. I'm pissed too

that war is the untouchable elephant in the room.

It seems we must keep financing endless, unquestioned wars, no matter who the president is.

They all seem to be bought and paid for.

No reason to think that this would change with a second administration.

[Initech]

14. Not only that - the only thing this war seems to be for is profit.

[Kablooie]

15. That's what it's really all about. Pouring American tax dollars into corporate pockets.

A lot of major corporations get a huge percentage of profit from the war budget.
They are extremely influential in politics so the money keeps on flowing out to kill people.
(They kill ignorant foreigners, not Americans, so it's alright.)

[Enthusiast]

39. Exactly.......nt

[liberation]

64. This war?

War has always been, for the most part, about profit.

If there was no money to be made in war, whether it be in the form of war machinery, lad, natural resources, and asset annexation/invasion, etc., war would go the way of the dodo.

But remember, it takes two to tango: sociopathic leaders all to willing to send the young to die, and a brainwashed population all to willing to sign up to die. I always loved that saying: imagine there was a war, and nobody showed up.

[XanaDUer]

18. It's another part of the shock doctrine

to transfer wealth from us to them. That's pretty much it. And, as long as they dress it up with fear, Mom-apple pie- and God-type stuff, just enough Americans will go along with it until, finally, they realize it's too late.

[NorthCarolina]

19. Damn; Great Post! Recommend. n/t

[DirkGently]

21. "Investment" is the new business-friendly term . What dividends, from war?

[Yon_Yonson]

22. Have congress initate the DRAFT, start showing the flag draped coffins

and have the media start reporting on the true cost of these fucking wars

[midnight]

23. Our Money is being spent on wars, and tax cuts for the bankers and their owners...

[TBF]

27. But but but it would cut into Shell's profits if they had to do their own

negotiating for oil... So instead these big corporations give campaign money (and lord knows what else) and our military takes care of the dirty work for them.

[grahamhgreen]

28. The fact that Obama is now going to support the war pigs by punishing grandma is

sociopathic.

That fact that he refuses to put the war and killing on the table is pathetic.

It tells me he stands for the opposite things that I do.

Kick! Thanks for the post!

[Hawkowl]

37. +1000 .nt

[Fearless]

52. +1

[Myrina]

29. Kicked and wholeheartedly Rec'd

I've said it before: POTUS gives me the same feeling as if I was a newlywed and came home early from work one day to find my spouse in bed with someone else(s) ... totally betrayed and lied to.


:wtf:

[Shadowflash]

30. There's no profit in humanity

And that's the bottom line. War is profitable for the powers that be.

[Zorra]

31. "OUR MONEY IS BEING SPENT ON WAR"

3 of them.

Any questions?

[Arby]

32. We all agree with you

unfortunately, the lunatics (plutocrats) control of the asylum (Congress) ...

[Enthusiast]

33. Damn straight!

DAFT is a good word.

[WinkyDink]

34. Depends on whose perspective you're asking from. Cheney's? YESSSS! Bush's? Yee-Haw! G.E.'s? Score!

Etc.

[Jim_Shorts]

44. They are spending about 60% of the discretionary budget on things that go boom

Its completely insane.

Do you know that hollywood has to get the ok from the pentagon before they can make a war movie? Have to make sure we get the propaganda right.

[Vinca]

45. Change that isn't a campaign slogan. Amen to that.

[humanityisfree]

47. I'm with you

I'm looking to my third party remedies fall of 2012.

[Beam Me Up]

48. The world is run by a class of criminally insane psychopaths. Get rid of that entire class

and the people they own who protect them and run businesses and governments for them or get used to it.

[inna]

60. Exactly. Cf. "Political Ponerology". nt

[MissDeeds]

50. K&R

a thousand times

[Fearless]

51. "It's time for change we can feel, touch, see, and benefit from." +10000

[Chimichurri]

53. $2 billion a week on war and they're going after our Social Security next.

[Jakes Progress]

54. There is a return on our war investment.

Every day we spend there, every million we spend there, we create another hundred haters of America. Some legacy.

[totodeinhere]

55. You can vent about it all you want, but it won't do you any good.

Yes, you will get a lot of recs on this board, but that's about it. In 2012 our choice will be between Obama and someone arguably worse. And if Obama is reelected he will instantly become a lame duck who won't have to worry about reelection. Then watch out because there will no nothing to stop him from moving even more to the right. He won't even have to throw us a few bones then. And by 2016 it will probably be a Republican's turn to walk into the White House and make it worse yet.

[tularetom]

59. It isn't the lack of positive change from Obama that bothers me

It's the lack of EFFORT to make a positive change.

After what we thought we were voting for the past three years have been a gigantic letdown as we watched the guy who promised us change we could believe in deliver the same old shit.

Even when he had majorities in both houses of Congress there wasn't much enthusiasm apparent in the White House for stirring things up. We all blamed Rahm Emanuel, blue dog Democrats, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the media, but I think we were all aware within the first year that we'd been scammed.

You aren't alone. Anybody in this country with half a brain is pissed. Even people like myself who were already cynical about politics are disgusted.

Apparently things weren't bad enough during the bush administration to make people insist on change. So I guess things will have to get a lot worse before they get better. Hope we as a nation can survive.

[amborin]

65. K&R

[IcyPeas]

67. protests?

I was watching a political thriller on tv last night called 7 days in May. The movie started out with people picketing and protesting holding signs outside the White House. And I thought - why isn't there more of this right now? - signs saying Stop the War - end the deficit, Screw the Bankers and CEO's, etc. Why are there no protests? What does it take? During the campaigns there are bunches of people holding up signs for their candidate. These took place once or twice a week in my neighborhood. But protesting outside the White House is very visible. I sometimes feel like I am sitting here on DU not doing anything except getting mad. I have contacted the White House thru their website regarding stopping the war and ending the deficit and I got a form reply.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact


the war is maddening - truly -- it's MADNESS.

[swilton]

79. + 1,000

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1495200

[IcyPeas]

115. I want one here in L.A. that I can attend. I wish it was nationwide

in every major city. There are hundreds of thousands ( in most major cities) who agree with us. We need to show ourselves.

NO MORE WAR.

I wouldn't have heard of this unless you mentioned it here. thx

[roberto IS beto]

68. Noam Chomsky is right

The only real difference between "Republican" and "Democrat" is which public relations firm they use.

[IcyPeas]

69. White House contact here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact

please use it.

[Hubert Flottz]

70. 2 48" pipelines in Afghanistan, oil in Iraq and "protection"

for the Holy Land and the Saudis. "We" need a platform in the middle east to stage further military operations from, in order to be able to move ahead with the neocon plan, to control that part of the world and to provide protection for Israel and OPEC/EXXON. That four billion a week is the price America pays for the protection of our good friends in the Middle East. In return we get people spying on us, pouring bribes into our political system in order to get what they want and to gouge us for the price of every barrel of oil we use, regardless of whether that oil comes from a domestic source or from abroad.

[Name removed]

71. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[swilton]

74. October 6, 2011

OPEN LETTER: THE U.S. OCTOBER 2011 MOVEMENT STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH OUR GLOBAL ALLIES

Inspired by the courageous, nonviolent uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Bahrain, Yemen, Greece, Spain, and elsewhere, people in the United States have come together to form the October2011 Movement. This fusion of peace, social justice, environmental, student, and immigrant rights organizations is in solidarity with all who seek a peaceful, just, and sustainable future and stands ready to engage in its own campaign of nonviolent resistance beginning in Washington, D.C., this October.

http://october2011.org/welcome

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x1235538

[Orsino]

78. They have finally trained us not to question eternal war.

The massive protests of old are no more.

[Taverner]

81. I cannot rec this thread enough

[valerief]

82. Rich people get richer. That's the only reason for war anyway. nt

[earcandle]

84. A rant one can be proud to repost!

[SaveAmerica]

89. The return is Negative Nada based on lives ruined, if you ask me

[SaveAmerica]

90. And I agree with you 100%, we need to draft the demands and take them to our reps.

[L0oniX]

91. War is a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed and now

...a possible old age life in the streets and sooner death.
"Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children." - Dwight Eisenhower

[Autumn]

93. K/R I'm with you all the way, and I just have no hope

anything is going to be any different in a second term.

[OwnedByFerrets]

97. Killing things....its the "American Way"

[Guilded Lilly]

98. I desperately wish I COULD give you hope...

I ran out last month. Seriously.

My country. OUR country is a lie. We have hidden behind the illusion of patriotic pride while our country has trashed every single citizen's life through war, war losses, healthcare strangling,theft, hatred and slow slow death of any kind of success that good capitalism has brought us. There is always a handful of elites who want to squeeze any good there is out of a democratic society and change it into greed, power and souless cruelty.

Those who do care, do not have the power anymore.

I miss my hope.

Right now all I can cling to is the lame knowledge that "they" too shall die someday. That is something they cannot avoid/buy/change.

yet

[DesertFlower]

100. well said. nt

[Raksha]

101. K & R Wow...just WOW!

Now that's tellin' it like it is!

[proReality]

103. A big K&R!!! n/t

[Paper Roses]

104. Well said and I agree! n/t

[Fire1]

105. Yawn. n/t

[krabigirl]

107. ....

[Forkboy]

111. Unintentionally, you've made the perfect post for this thread.

It sums up why America is so fucked up in one single word. Very well done. :thumbsup:

[krabigirl]

108. K & R. This country has gone mad. Nt

[HCE SuiGeneris]

110. I rabidly share your anger.

Thank you for taking the time and effort to put on 'paper'.

K&R

[KansDem]

112. We haven't always agreed on certain views and issues...

...but I agree with you 100% on this!

K&R

[democrank]

113. K & R K & R K & R K & R K & R K & R K & R K & R K & R K & R

K & R

[DeSwiss]

114. K&R n/t

[The Wizard]

116. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oAX5H8K3bVo

[Taft_Bathtub]

117. Well said n/t

[shanti]

119. K&R!

i so wish we didn't have to spell it out like this, but it needs to be said!

[YOHABLO]

120. This may make you want to vomit.

Listen to this so called "expert" Ann Coulter on Fox. Sorry, I know.

http://video.foxnews.com/v/1062128345001/after-the-show-show-raise-debt-ceiling

She is so full of it.

[Doctor_J]

122. A Fox News link. How much did you get paid to post this?

Or do you paid by how many people click on the link? Please explain how that works before you get tombstoned.

[Name removed]

121. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MrMickeysMom]

132. put some thought into your own, you ditz

Shall we all hit the "alert" button for you calling people "retarded" or do you have something of significance to add.

If you don't like the language, then just skate on over to another thread instead of calling people retarded.

[cherokeeprogressive]

136. Hooked YOU like a fish though, didn't it.

[Doctor_J]

143. Uh, no that was the 200+ rec's

[Creideiki]

124. But, but, but...He got the Peace Prize! So he can't be a warmonger, right?

Right?

[defendandprotect]

128. Perpetual war/War Profiteers only do us harm, but they exist and it's ...

something that most Americans don't come to understand easily --

basically it's behavior that turns the world upside down --


When was the last time we heard Obama speak of the suffering of Americans -- of our

3 million or more homeless -- 26 million unemployed -- many without benefits of health care

options.

Deregualtion of capitalism set us all up for this depression --

It was a financial coup on citizens -- workers/taxpayers -- by elites.


It's clear that we have no leverage over our elected officials -- only corporations do.


Personally, I don't think we're hearing enough from posters like you --


Anyone who thinks the 2012 General Election will bring us change, or hope, or ANYTHING different from what we have now is DAFT.

Agree --

Liberals are a huge voting bloc --- we need to come together to discuss 2012 --


But voting for the "lesser evil" will only do what it's always done --

i.e., move the Democratic Party further to the right -- and Congress further to the right.

[Plucketeer]

130. Ten Thousand, Gazillion RECs!!!

I'm SO GLAD to see a thread pointing up what America's REAL spending (shit - spending's ass - BORROWING!) problem is. It's time to go to DC and start knocking some heads together. Pair one GOP head to one DEM head and SMACK them together!!! ENOUGH!!!! with the damned war-making! Enough!!!

[MrMickeysMom]

131. Not a thing I'd disagree with... but if we want change...

well... answer me this:

HOW do you get change with an entrenched political system that has not been forced to reform campaigns?

Today, I hear NPR in the background tell me about another candidate for Consumers who isn't as "controversial" as Elizabeth Warren. WTF?!? She was never controversial - that's another code word for, "We're never going to be anything different than each other in this 2 party system".

This system has failed us and we continue to respond by not going to vote in significant numbers. What came first?

If the political system as truly failed... then WHAT IS NEXT? (Oh, and by the way, I won't mention a "controversial movie" here that points to this very obvious conclusion because it's too much for the mods).

So... How do we get people to vote so that we can have something or someone who we can believe in?

I'm with you.... I'm just asking...

[cherokeeprogressive]

135. "How do we get people to vote so that we can have something or someone who we can believe in?"

If we could figure out the answer to that question, they'd build monuments in our honor not only here in the United States, but the world over.

Sometimes I wonder if we shouldn't demand the resignation of every Senator or Rep who has served more than x number of years, and start over with term limits.

[MrMickeysMom]

137. If we did that... it couldn't stop there...

It's like Paul Tsongas said back in 92, when talking sense to the American public through his Concord Coalition - "The most important issue is campaign finance reform".

I think he was absolutely right, rest his soul.

[cherokeeprogressive]

138. Concur. n/t

[StarsInHerHair]

139. KICKETY KIK SINCE IM TOO LATE TO RECC