billions

All posts tagged billions

Cataclysmic times tend to produce revelations about the circumstances that have brought people to the unimaginable destructions which have killed so many people: Which in this case, if this continues to remain untreated will kill billions more!

This involves something that has crept quietly into and throughout the entire population of the planet—and yet this diseased-flaw has still not even been noticed—yet! Whether we are talking about corporations, or governments or religions in every case the flaw lies in the relationship between a so-called higher authority and ourselves. And in virtually every such relationship today the filthy rich assume the mantle of authority and dictate harshly to everyone else (who is of course automatically beneath those with this artificial authority). In other words we have “KEEPERS” that make all our decisions for us, while “we” are expected to remain silent and just follow whatever orders we are given. In other words no matter our actual-age, we are all expected to behave like children forever looking to a higher authority for everything that is needed or anything that we MUST DO, to remain in good standing with our surrogate parental authorities—no matter how WRONG the cold and inhuman dictates might be.

When you take a step back and look at the world you cannot help but SEE that the bulk of the global population has always been treated like children with no volition of their own.

When the black-plague wiped out a third of the civilized world in old-world Europe: The surviving art world spent a hundred years painting and drawing skeletons and DEATH. The Catholic Church lost huge masses of people who suddenly realized that they had not been “protected” by their “god.” These “children’ began to question everything from that point forward, and they began to understand that the answers they needed did not come from heavenly beings nor did their lives depend upon some higher human control system—the truth was that we are each responsible for whatever we decide to do with our own gift of life. Once that Rubicon had been crossed, real life and the responsibilities that go with it began again, for those that declared their INDEPENDENCE from the whisperings of prophets who’s actual existence depends on gifts from those they “advised” and not from the sweat or the blood they expended to live their own lives.  Continue Reading

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Pentagon has wasted more than $30 billion on contracts in Iraq and Afghanistan due to shoddy management and a lack of competition, an independent inquiry said.

In its final report to Congress due to be released Wednesday, the bipartisan Commission on Wartime Contracting warns that waste and fraud have undermined American diplomacy, fomented corruption in host countries and tarnished the US image abroad.

“Tens of billions of taxpayer dollars have been wasted through poor planning, vague and shifting requirements, inadequate competition, substandard contract management and oversight, lax accountability, weak inter-agency coordination, and subpar performance or outright misconduct by some contractors and federal employees,” the co-chairs of the panel, Christopher Shays and Michael Thibault, wrote in the Washington Post.

“Both government and contractors need to do better,” said the commentary published Monday.

The report comes amid mounting pressure in Washington to scale back defense spending and waning public support for the Afghan mission after nearly a decade of war.

The US military increasingly has turned to private companies since the September 11, 2001 attacks, with the contractor workforce at times surpassing 260,000 people — a roughly one-to-one ratio with troops deployed. Continue Reading

The New York Times
9:56 PM EST June 15, 2011

The White House, pushing hard against criticism in Congress over the deepening air war in Libya, asserted Wednesday that President Obama had the authority to continue the military campaign without Congressional approval because American involvement fell short of full-blown hostilities.

In a 38-page report sent to lawmakers describing and defending the NATO-led operation, the White House said the mission was prying loose Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s grip on power.

In contending that the limited American role did not oblige the administration to ask for authorization under the War Powers Resolution, the report asserted that “U.S. operations do not involve sustained fighting or active exchanges of fire with hostile forces, nor do they involve U.S. ground troops.” Still, the White House acknowledged, the operation has cost the Pentagon $716 million in its first two months and will have cost $1.1 billion by September at the current scale of operations.

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Deborah Dupre

Cannot take democracy to Libya without safeguarding democracy at home

Monday, in a 248 to 163 vote, the US House of Representatives turned on President Obama by invoking the War Powers Resolution to prohibit funding U.S. military operations in Libya. The House adopted an amendment to a military appropriations bill to end what some Congressional leaders have called Obama’s dictatorship and behaving like a king.

Congressional leaders have expressed dissatisfaction at U.S. President Barack Obama’s decision to begin and to continue a war on Libya without congressional authorization, a serious violation.

According to U.S. law, the president must seek congressional authorisation to send US troops into combat. He failed to do that and is, therefore, in violation of the War Powers Act and the U.S. Constitution. (See embedded Press TV Youtube video on page left.)
Under U.S. law, the resident must also withdraw forces within 60 days if Congress did not authorize the military action.
Al Jazeera reported Tuesday that the military appropriations amendment, introduced by Democratic representative Brad Sherman (D – CA) invokes the War Powers Resolution, the 1973 law limiting presidential powers on sending troops into combat zones abroad without Congressional consent.  Continue Reading