Clipmarks | masbury's clips

Why is military spending highest since WWII?

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 03:08:39 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Hi-tech cold-war toys in development. One thing's sure: if we get them, we'll use them on a few thousand poor suckers. Meanwhile Lieberman crusades for deep water submarines that, coincidentally, are made in his home state, but serve no strategic purpose.

Clip Source: www.truthdig.com

Indefensible Spending

What should be the most important issue in this election is one that is rarely, if ever, addressed: Why is U.S. military spending at the highest point, in inflation-adjusted dollars, than at any time since the end of World War II? Why, without a sophisticated military opponent in sight, is the United States spending trillions of dollars on the development of high-tech weapons systems that lost their purpose with the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago?

The Pentagon’s budget for fiscal year 2008 set a post-World War II record at $625 billion, and that does not include more than $100 billion in other federal budget expenditures for homeland security, nuclear weapons and so-called black budget—or covert—operations.

We are talking high-tech war toys designed to fight a Cold War enemy that no longer exists

Since President Bush’s first year

Defense Department has doubled its future planned investment in those ultra-pricey weapons from $790 billion to $1.6 trillion

Tags: military, defense

US holding terror suspects on prison ships?

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:55:02 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Far from prying eyes, treatment said to be worse than Gitmo

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

US accused of holding terror suspects on prison ships

According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, said: "They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers. We will eventually reunite these ghost prisoners with their legal rights.

"By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them."

200 new cases of rendition since 2006, when

Bush declared that the practice had stopped.

Tags: gitmo, torture

Clinton winning "popular vote"? Don't believe it.

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 02:12:47 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: Add in all the details that her campaign omits, and you'll get the real figure.

Clip Source: www.dailykos.com

So pulling it ALL together (drumroll please):

When you use Clinton's own criteria and apply that criteria fairly, Obama clearly wins the so-called "popular vote".

Of course, there's only ONE math that matters:

But as long as her campaign wants to distribute misleading (and frankly dishonest), cherry-picked "popular vote" figures, I wanted to set the record straight.

Tags: clinton, obama, elections, politics

Poll: Name recognition wins Puerto Rico primary

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 22:39:47 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: With few hard feelings among supporters of either

Clip Source: www.rawstory.com

Hillary Rodham Clinton had far greater name recognition than Barack Obama in Puerto Rico, giving her a big advantage in the Democratic presidential primary Sunday, according to a poll for The Associated Press and television networks.

The survey also found that — unlike in recent primaries on the U.S. mainland — neither side's voters had a particularly harsh view of the other candidate.

Fully one-third, or 34 percent, of likely voters said they hadn't heard enough about Obama to express an opinion about him. Only 16 percent said that about Clinton, the former first lady and current U.S. senator from New York, a state with many Puerto Ricans.

Only one in five Obama backers viewed Clinton unfavorably and one in seven Clinton supporters gave Obama an unfavorable rating.

Tags: clinton, obama, elections, news

Ahmadinejad's hold on power "slipping badly"

Sun, 01 Jun 2008 21:08:18 GMT

clipped by: masbury
clipper's remarks: More pragmatic speaker elected; likely to find agreement with the West

Clip Source: www.time.com

Are Ahmadinejad's Days Numbered?

Ali Larijani projected a presidential bearing as he accepted his election as speaker of Iran's parliament on Wednesday — a vote that boded ill for President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Larijani, a high-profile arch-rival of the President, addressed global themes in his address to the opening session of the Majlis

While Iran's insistence on its right to enrich uranium unites all major factions in the country, Larijani represents a more pragmatic approach to handling the issue, aimed at finding agreement with the West and avoiding confrontation.

makes two things clear: President Ahmadinejad's hold on power is slipping badly, and next year's Iranian presidential election race is now wide open

Prominent politicians and clerical figures have begun distancing themselves from Ahmadinejad and rallying around Larijani

Ahmadinejad has alienated many in his own conservative camp with an arrogant personal style and erratic economic and foreign policies

Tags: iran