http://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyunderground/message/3877
*ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER INNOCENT FAMILY SLAUGHTERED BY THE EMPIRE * ** *Far too often we see a story somewhere about innocents being slaughtered by US or NATO forces, and citizens have been numbed to accept it as routine. Because there is so much to report censored out of the mass media (or badly distorted, requiring a fact check), we often pass on these stories ourselves for lack of room, though it pains us to read them. This morning Glenn Greenwald follows up his piece yesterday, "The Imperial Mind," by isolating on the most recent family blown to bits <http://www.salon.com/2012/05/27/the_authoritarian_mind_2/singleton/> in Afghanistan, in the name of bringing freedom and democracy, or whatever the most recent official "justification" scam might be, as the ruling transnational investors make billions of dollars from the endless wars. The war criminals running the Empire serve those investors by ensuring we create as many "terrorists" as are needed to keep the profitable wars going, from the sons surviving their mother's deaths, and the fathers surviving the deaths of their children, who will seek revenge in keeping the profits flowing. * ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *EGYPT HAS NO PRESIDENTIAL POWERS DEFINED * ** *One thing missing from the endless mass media reporting about the Presidential election in Egypt is that the part of the Constitution defining the powers of the president has not been written, so the contest may be irrelevant. /IPS News/ has a good piece on this <http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=107931>, this morning. The ruling generals likely will wait to see who wins the contest, and then define the powers of that office according to how well that person serves them. As a client state of the Empire, they have learned well how to create the illusion of democracy. This is an important story because the courageous people of Egypt sacrificed so much in their protests last year, an important event in the international Occupy movement. * ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *ROSEANNE BARR FOR PRESIDENT * ** *In our continuing coverage of the public interest candidates (as opposed to the corporate duopoly candidates) we link to an interview with Roseanne Barr <http://www.alternet.org/election2012/155586/roseanne_barr_on_presidential_run%3A_two_major_parties_are_a_%27bunch_of_prostitutes_who_work_for_big_money%27/?page=entire>, who is running for the Green Party nomination. Previously we've run articles or linked to articles about Jill Stein, also running for the Green nomination, Rocky Anderson, running as the Justice Party candidate, and Stewart Alexander, running as the Socialist Party candidate. We are unlikely to endorse a candidate, but think citizens should be allowed to see the platforms of those candidates censored out of our mass media because they represent the public interest rather than the one percent. The corporate media will not ask questions which reveal anything akin to the desires of the majority of voters, and you will not see any of this coverage in the mass media of the Land of the Free. * ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers have a great Memorial Day radio program this morning <http://www.mixcloud.com/ClearingtheFOG/> dedicated to the censored peace issue missing from our mass media in all their glorification of war on behalf of their masters, who profit so extensively from it (may not be up until tomorrow, but you can listen live <http://www.weactradio.com/> at 11 a.m.). Thirty years ago I spent a great deal of time interviewing retired admirals and generals for Physicians for Social Responsibility. All of them said we were making weapons systems that have little or nothing to do with defense, and that the primary purpose of nuclear weapons is to make profit, since it is not possible to defend a person with a nuclear weapon. They could speak freely because they were retired-- active duty flag officers would be fired in a heartbeat for making similar statements. Nothing has changed since then. Nuclear warheads are still made to justify strategic bombers, ICBMs and strategic submarines at a cost of hundreds of billions of wasted dollars over time. Our system stinks of corruption. Hundreds of billions of dollars could easily be cut from our national defense budget annually with no impact on the defense of the United States. At /LUV News/ we have recommended cutting out all foreign military bases, which number something like a thousand, for a great place to start moving toward a just society. On this Memorial Day I think of all my fellow combat vets who died for capitalist greed, and believe the best way to honor them would be to dramatically slash the war budget, end the wars, and bring the troops home while creating a society which works for the hundred percent, rather than the one percent --Jack Balkwill ** **Memorial Day Thoughts on National Defense Spending** <http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/27-1> **** **by Robert Reich** **** **** **** **We can best honor those who have given their lives for this nation in combat by making sure our military might is proportional to what America needs** **** **** **The United States spends more on our military than do China, Russia, Britain, France, Japan, and Germany put together. ** **With the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, the cost of fighting wars is projected to drop -- but the "base" defense budget (the annual cost of paying troops and buying planes, ships, and tanks -- not including the costs of actually fighting wars) is scheduled to rise. The base budget is already about 25 percent higher than it was a decade ago, adjusted for inflation.** **** **** **One big reason: It's almost impossible to terminate large defense contracts. Defense contractors have cultivated sponsors on Capitol Hill and located their plants and facilities in politically important congressional districts. Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, and others have made spending on national defense into America's biggest jobs program. ** **So we keep spending billions on Cold War weapons systems like nuclear attack submarines, aircraft carriers, and manned combat fighters that pump up the bottom lines of defense contractors but have nothing to do with 21st-century combat. ** **For example, the Pentagon says it wants to buy fewer F-35 joint strike fighter planes than had been planned -- the single-engine fighter has been plagued by cost overruns and technical glitches -- but the contractors and their friends on Capitol Hill promise a fight. ** **The absence of a budget deal on Capitol Hill is supposed to trigger an automatic across-the-board ten-year cut in the defense budget of nearly $500 billion, starting January. ** **But Republicans have vowed to restore the cuts. The House Republican budget cuts everything else --- yet brings defense spending back up. Mitt Romney's proposed budget does the same. ** **Yet even if the scheduled cuts occur, the Pentagon is still projected to spend over $2.7 trillion over the next ten years. ** **At the very least, hundreds of billions could be saved without jeopardizing the nation's security by ending weapons systems designed for an age of conventional warfare. We should shrink the F-35 fleet of stealth fighters. Cut the number of deployed strategic nuclear weapons, ballistic missile submarines and intercontinental ballistic missiles. And take a cleaver to the Navy and Air Force budgets. (Most of the action is with the Army, Marines and Special Forces.) ** **At a time when Medicare, Medicaid, and non-defense discretionary spending (including most programs for the poor, as well as infrastructure and basic R&D) are in serious jeopardy, Obama and the Democrats should be calling for even more defense cuts. ** **A reasonable and rational defense budget would be a fitting memorial to those who have given their lives so we may remain free.** **** **http://www.commondreams.org/view/2012/05/27-1** **** ** ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *To join the Liberty Underground news service email [email protected] "join" for a subject* ** *You may also join our talk group athttp://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/ <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/libertyundergroundtalk/>if you would like to participate* ** *email: [email protected]* ** *Tell your friends about /LUV News/ because some people just don't get it* [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! 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