You have to go back a long, long way in American history before you come to a place where you find incidents like this happening an average of once every two weeks.This escalating level of violence is adding data points to a potentially emergent pattern that we need to be looking at and preparing for. So far, there are at least five things I'm particularly concerned about.... read more »
Somewhere in the middle regions of Barack Obama's Herculean to-do list is a task that's defeated many of his predecessors: taming the runaway Pentagon budget. But will Obama's attempt at reform be any different from all those that have gone before?... read more »
If the neocons are to be believed, Ahmadinejad's theft of the Iranian elections — and his continuing crackdown on dissent — are not the results of internal dynamics in Iran, but rather of the words of conciliation spoken by President Obama prior to the vote.... read more »
"With an effective date of August 1st, this means that not one troop will benefit from this deployment reduction until August 2009--seven months into the next Presidential administration." -- VetVoice's Brandon Friedman, 4/10/08read more »
Actually, the president’s 2009 budget is way out of balance, throwing money at the military and on feared future terrorist threats while shortchanging the everyday security needs of the American people. The budget cuts homeland security grants to state and local governments by 48 percent — a whopping $2 billion. That includes a 79 percent cut in the largest state homeland security grant program, a 60 percent cut to firefighters, a 56 percent cut to transit security grants, and a 48 percent reduction to port security grants. Plus, the office that investigates waste, fraud and abuse in the Department of Homeland Security is being cut $7 million.
If the administration was really focused on homeland security, the Department of Homeland Security, with a proposed 6.8 percent budget increase, to more than $50 billion — would be able to adequately fund programs for first responders who are not only at the front lines of reacting to a disaster, but are at the first lines of prevention as well. The administration would also fund the dozens of other initiatives — from crime-prevention programs at the Department of Justice to youth programs at the Department of Education — that contribute to making our nation safer but whioh have been given the cold shoulder by conservative government.read more »
The U.S. Government Accountability Office reports that it will take years and cost about $200 billion to repair or replace equipment that was worn out or broken in the Iraq war.
The Pentagon’s budget accounts for more than half of all “discretionary spending”— that is, half of everything the federal government spends after paying for entitlements like Social Security and Medicare, and interest on the national debt. .
It's common knowledge that a president — but above all a Democratic president — who tried to de-escalate a war like the one now expanding in Afghanistan and parts of Pakistan, and withdraw American troops, would be so much domestic political dead meat. This everyday bit of ingrained Washington wisdom is, in fact, based on not a shred of evidence in the historical record. We do, however, know something about what could happen to a president who escalated a counterinsurgency war.read more »
In the parlance of our times, the term idiocracy means a nation run by idiots — and the term idiot is defined by the dictionary as “an utterly foolish or senseless person” who exhibits “a mental age of less than three years old.” If there remained any flicker of hope that we aren’t turning into a full-on slobbering idiocracy, that hope was snuffed out last week by two of the Washington intelligentsia’s most respected voices.read more »
Cross-posted from Tomdispatch.com.
So you thought the Pentagon was already big enough? Well, what do you know, especially with the price of the American military slated to grow by at least 25% over the next decade?
Forget about the butter. It's bad for you anyway. And sheer military power, as well as the money behind it, assures the country of a thick waistline without the cholesterol. So, let's sing our praises of perpetual war. We better, since right now every forecast in sight tells us that it's our future.
read more »
Recently reported in the New York Times, Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) hopes to win Senate support for climate change legislation by linking global warming with national security. Long time hawk and former Sen. read more »
As I’ve written prior, the very expensive F-22 fighter jet program will likely end when Congress passes the defense authorization later this year. Its demise though came only after a hard fight between the Obama administration and Congress. read more »
Facing a stern veto threat from President Obama, the Senate voted to strip funding for the F-22 Raptor jet on Tuesday. The contentious vote came after the House authorized F-22 funding, and amid weeks of pushback between Administration officials and members of Congress – the former looking to rein in wasteful defense spending, the latter backed by the defense lobby. read more »
Ignoring earlier recommendations of the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, the 2010 defense bill throws funding lifelines to failed weapons systems slated to be cut. Resisting the call to reform, the House Armed Services Committee showcased their protection of the defense lobby instead. read more »
Marcy Wheeler hosted a panel on torture at the AFN conference featuring Rep. Jerry Nadler and Christopher Anders of the ACLU, in which Nadler set forth a couple of ideas that are illuminating about the thinking among political players on the subject.
Marcy writes about one of them here:
Yesterday, Jerrold Nadler announced he will hold a hearing on state secrets on Thursday. read more »
Congressional Republicans are marginally more popular and significantly less contagious than the swine flu. Even conservatives are keeping their distance. House leader John Boehner's perpetual tan has become a presidential punch line. Senate leader Mitch Dr. No McConnell is known only for obstruction. Ideologues like Rush rush to fill the leadership vacuum, seeking to purge the party of any lingering moderates. It's gotten so bad that neo-con Bill Kristol suggests that leading presidential candidates for 2012 might well be the oft disgraced Newt Gingrich and..gulp.. Darth Cheney himself.
read more »When progressive House Democrats were blocked from a floor vote on their proposal requiring an exit strategy for our Afghanistan military mission, and several in turn voted against funding for the mission, McClatchy Newspapers concluded, "the anti-war crowd remains as impotent as it was during the Bush years." read more »
1825 K Street, NW, Suite 400, Washington, DC 20006
202-955-5665 (tel) | 202-955-5606 (fax) | institute.ourfuture.org
home | donate | search | contact us | your privacy
