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.
Dwight D Eisenhower
Dwight Eisenhower’s presidency is probably better remembered less for what he did than for what he said while heading for the exit. In a nationally televised address on January 17, 1961, only four days before John F. Kennedy’s inaugural, Eisenhower warned of the dangers of “undue influence” exerted by the “military-industrial complex.” He cautioned that maintaining a large, permanent military establishment was “new in the American experience,” and suggested that an “engaged citizenry” offered the only effective defense against the “misplaced power” of the military-industrial lobby.
For much more click on:
AllBusiness.com/… and
http://www.h-net.org/… (the speech)
For Eisenhower videos click on:
google.com/search?q=eisenhower….
We don’t want an America that is closed to the world.
What we want is a world that is open to America.
George H. W. Bush
“Whose life would be on my hands as the commander-in-chief because I, unilaterally, went beyond the international law, went beyond the stated mission, and said we’re going to show our macho?
We’re going into Baghdad. We’re going to be an occupying power — America in an Arab land — with no allies at our side. It would have been disastrous. We don’t gain the size of our victory by how many innocent kids running away — even though they’re bad guys — that we can slaughter. … We’re American soldiers; we don’t do business that way.”
For much more click on: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/George_H._W._Bush
“If We Don’t Learn Our History, We’re Doomed to Repeat It”
Why Americans Can’t Learn from History
Click on:
huffingtonpost.com/carol-smaldino/why….
Government, Politics, USA, War
Dwight D. Eisenhower, George H. W. Bush, History, President, United States
I’m sure the teabaggers in DC today will be thanking Obama and the Democratic Congress for overcoming GOP obstructionism and lowering taxes to their lowest level in 60 years?
“The American people need to be reminded that 98 percent of Americans got a tax cut last year,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Wednesday.
Reid was referring to the impact of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, otherwise known as the stimulus — essentially, the only Obama policy to really impact people’s 2009 tax returns. In fact, tax refunds reached an all-time high this year in part because of the stimulus, the president said in his weekly address on Saturday. Meanwhile, taxes are at their lowest levels in 60 years, according to William Gale, co-director of the Tax Policy Center and director of the Retirement Security Project at the Brookings Institution.
“The relation between what is said in the tax debate and what is true about tax policy is often quite tenuous,” Gale told Hotsheet. “The rise of the Tea Party at at time when taxes are literally at their lowest in decades is really hard to understand.”
For more click on these links:
http://www.dailykos.com/
Americans paying less taxes this year despite Tax Day rhetoric …
Tax Rates At Their Lowest Point In 60 Years Is A Problem | FDL …
Apr 15, 2010 … We pay less tax than many Europeans countries with their …. rest of the budget for several decades, it is BS on that count as well. … The 400 richest people in America had an effective tax rate in 2007 of just 16.6%. …
Congress, Government, Politics
Barack Obama, Harry Reid, Tax, Tea Party
Story by Matt Lasio, CNC News
After a woman in the audience railed against the possibility of being put in prison for not obtaining health insurance under the Democrat’s new law, Coburn dismissed her remark and questioned the accuracy of Fox News reports on health care reform.
“The intention is not to put any one in jail. That makes for good TV news on Fox but that isn’t the intention,” Coburn responded.
Then, the Republican senator, who was an arch-foe of the Obama health care bill, defended the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi against character attacks.
While discussing his policy disagreements with Pelosi Coburn said “she’s a nice lady,” which brought hisses and hoots from the crowd. But Coburn flatly rejected the crowd’s animosity towards the liberal speaker.
To read and listen to more click on:
http://www.pri.org/politics-society/top-gop-conservative-coburn-slams-fox-news1940.html
Government, Politics
Fox News Channel, Health care, Nancy Pelosi, Tom Coburn
OUR DEARLY BELOVED SENATOR GRAHAM
(In SC we are so proud of him)
On Meet the Press this morning, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) urged President Obama to veto the $410 billion FY09 omnibus budget because it has too many earmarks. Host David Gregory quickly pointed out that Graham’s friend and colleague, John McCain, has been highlighting Graham’s own $950,000 earmark for a convention center in Myrtle Beach, SC. Graham then pivoted from attacking earmarks to defending them
“I voted to take all earmarks out, but I will come back in the new process and put that back in,” Graham insisted, saying that the convention center is important to stimulate the local economy. “I think I should have the ability as a United States senator to direct money back to my state as long as it’s transparent and it makes sense.”
For more click on: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/08/graham-flip-earmarks/
Senator Graham Republican Welfare Queen
Lindsey, Lindsey, Lindsey. How long do you think you’ll be able to get away with this game, hon? It’s astounding to watch you defending your virtue with one hand – and grabbing as much pork as possible for your state with the other.
As Mark Karlin puts it, it’s like foreclosing on a bakery and demanding a free cake.
We need to stop this kind of hypocritical grandstanding. Here’s a good idea, via The Political Carnival:
In essence, Graham is saying he opposed the “Main Street Job Creation Act” even though it would be political suicide not to distribute the money to the voters of his state. He was joined in rabid obstruction of the bill by his fellow Republican, Senator Jim “Stonewall Jackson” DeMint.
As BuzzFlash Editor Mark Karlin proposed a couple of weeks back, the state of any senator who opposed the “Main Street Job Creation Act” should only receive half their allotted funds. If both senators opposed the bill, the state should receive no federal allotment from the legislation.
That way, hypocrites such as Lindsey Graham couldn’t grandstand their zealotry and then pass out the goodies that they fought against.
In fact, Graham represents one of the many GOP Neo-Confederate states that receives more money from the federal government than their citizens pay in taxes. That sort of makes South Carolina a welfare state as far as the Union is concerned.
As for Lindsey Graham, he’s become a talk show regular spouting GOP talking points – and then practicing the chronic hypocrisy of being a Republican welfare king for his constituents.
For more click on:
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/sen-lindsey-graham-republican-welfare
Graham defends earmarks on ‘Meet the Press’
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham defended earmarks he inserted in the federal budget, including one U.S. Sen. John McCain, Graham’s close friend and the 2008 Republican presidential nominee, listed as one of the “10 Porkiest” projects in the budget.
Graham has also urged President Obama to veto the budget Graham says has too much pork.
Earmarks are one-time spending items members of Congress insert in the budget that are typically sent to projects and programs in their own states.
Graham earmarked $950,000 for the Myrtle Beach Convention Center. He has by one count 37 earmarks in the federal budget.
“I voted to take all earmarks out, but I will come back in the new process and put that back in,” Graham said on the show. “Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, we’re trying to build an international airport, an international convention center and open up a new interstate highway to diversify Myrtle Beach’s economy.”
Here is the exchange from the “Meet the Press” transcript.
For more Click on:
http://thestatecom.typepad.com/ygatoday/2009/03/graham-defends-earmarks-on-meet-the-press.html
Government
Jim DeMint, John McCain, Lindsey Graham, South Carolina, United States, United States Senate
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