How about raising the cap, and rolling back Bush's tax cuts to the
rich? How about getting out of Iraq, which is only a cash cow for
American contractors who are getting rich off American taxpayer dollars
AND the Iraqis oil? How about finding the missing $BILLION$ in Iraq
(see below)? How about replacing both the surplus that Bush
squandered and replenishing what was stolen from the SS trust fund?
How about preventing Bush and Congress from spending any of the
surplus, now and forever? Bush spent something like the $164 BILLION
surplus that was in it last year.
The American people want the govt to bail social security out. Like
in 1983, only ***** the raising of the retirement age. There aren't
enough jobs for able-bodied young Americans - there won't be work for
all of the elderly, who aren't in great physical shape, who will need
money to live on.
The only reason young people think that there won't be anything in
social security for them is because they've been propagandized to
believe it. The Conservative modus operandi has been the old Herrman
Goerring axiom: "If you repeat a lie loudly and repeatedly, it becomes
the truth."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0205-05.htm
Politicians have been saying it for years so that when the time came
that there would be a shortfall, the people wouldn't mob Congress with
torches.
The American people want the services and programs that they get from
the govt. Most Americans don't understand that their retirement has
been stolen to pay for the wars, the military build-up, corporate
welfare, giving corporations a free ride, etc. Politicians haven't been
candid about the fact that they are paying for not only the programs
that Americans want, but also the military machine and clandestine
programs that brought terrorism to our door on 9/11/01 with the social
security trust fund.
http://www.squadron13.com/JackDresser/seedsofterrorism.htm
http://www.nthposition.com/alltheshahsmen.php
Politicians have been allowing the rich, the corporations to get off
paying for this safe and orderly democracy, in which they have been
able to make fortunes.
Bush, the MisManager-
This is how Bush can't be trusted with American taxpayer dollars:
U.S. Said to Pay Iraq Contractors in Cash
A journalist who helped Iraq form a new broadcast network in 2003
testified Monday that U.S. occupation officials were more interested in
airing their own activities than stories essential to Iraqis.
By LARRY MARGASAK
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A journalist who helped Iraq form a new broadcast
network in 2003 testified Monday that U.S. occupation officials were
more interested in airing their own activities than stories essential
to Iraqis.
Don North, who served as a U.S. government adviser to the Iraqi Media
Network, said the network became an irrelevant mouthpiece for the U.S.
Coalition Provisional Authority.
The network was given "a laundry list of CPA activities" to cover
instead of stories on security, the lack of electricity and jobs, said
North, an independent journalist.
North testified at a hearing of the Senate Democratic Policy Committee,
a party organization. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., head of the panel,
said Democrats had asked Republican-led Senate committees to conduct
hearings on U.S. waste and missteps in Iraq but the GOP chairmen
refused.
In addition to North, another former U.S. adviser in Iraq _ Frank
Willis _ testified he thought he was in the Wild West in 2003 as he
watched colleagues pull $2 million in fresh bills from a vault and
stuff them in a contractor's gunnysack.
North told the hearing he wanted the media network to be like the
Public Broadcasting System in the United States. Instead, he said, U.S.
authorities told him "we were running a public diplomacy operation" for
the occupation government.
Willis testified that cash payments that weren't stuffed in sacks were
made from a pickup truck that bore the name of Iraq's grounded airline.
American authorities thought the vehicle would "meld into the
environment," Willis, said.
Much of the money was Iraqi funds, Willis said.
Army Lt. Col. Joseph Yoswa, a Defense Department spokesman, said the
occupation authority "strived earnestly for sound management,
transparency and oversight." He said U.S. funds were subject to
"contract and accounting practices required by U.S. law." Separate
standards applied to the Iraqi money, he said.
Yoswa said he could not comment on the testimony about the Iraqi media.
Monday's hearing was designed to spotlight the waste of money in Iraq
by the former occupation agency, the Coalition Provisional Authority.
Because Iraq had no functioning banking system in 2003, money was kept
in a basement vault in CPA headquarters, a former palace of Saddam
Hussein.
Officials from the CPA, which ruled Iraq from June 2003 to June 2004,
would count the money when it left the vault, but nobody kept track of
the cash after that, Willis said.
"In sum: inexperienced officials, fear of decision-making, lack of
communications, minimal security, no banks and lots of money to spread
around. This chaos I have referred to as a 'Wild West,'" Willis said in
testimony submitted to the Democratic Policy Committee.
"This isn't penny ante. Millions, perhaps billions of dollars have been
wasted and pilfered," said the chairman of the Democratic panel, Sen.
Byron Dorgan of North Dakota. He said the hearing was arranged because
the Republicans who run Congress have declined to investigate fraud,
waste and abuse in Iraq.
James Mitchell, spokesman for the special inspector general for Iraq
reconstruction, said in an interview that cash payments in Iraq were a
problem when the occupation authority ran the country, and they
continue during the massive U.S.-funded reconstruction.
"There are no capabilities to electronically transfer funds," Mitchell
said. "This complicates the financial management of reconstruction
projects and complicates our ability to follow the money."
The Pentagon, which had oversight of the CPA, did not comment in
response to requests Friday and over the weekend. But the administrator
of the former U.S. occupation agency, L. Paul Bremer, in response to a
recent federal audit criticizing the CPA, strongly defended the
agency's financial practices.
Bremer said auditors mistakenly assumed that "Western-style budgeting
and accounting procedures could be immediately and fully implemented in
the midst of a war."
When the authority took over the country in 2003, Bremer said, there
was no functioning Iraqi government and services were primitive or
nonexistent. He said the U.S. strategy was "to transfer to the Iraqis
as much responsibility as possible as quickly as possible, including
responsibility for the Iraqi budget."
Iraq's economy was "dead in the water" and the priority "was to get the
economy going," Bremer said.
Also in response to that audit, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman had
said, "We simply disagree with the audit's conclusion that the CPA
provided less than adequate controls."
Willis, who served in the State and Transportation departments during
the Reagan administration, worked in Iraq during the last half of 2003
and said he was responsible for civilian operations at Baghdad's
airport.
Describing the transfer of $2 million to one contractor's gunnysack,
Willis said: "It was time for payment. We told them to come in and
bring a bag." He said the money went to Custer Battles of Middletown,
R.I., for providing airport security in Baghdad for civilian
passengers.
Willis' allegations follow by two weeks an inspector general's report
that concluded the occupying authority transferred nearly $9 billion to
Iraqi government ministries without any financial controls.
The money was designated for financing humanitarian needs, economic
reconstruction, repair of facilities, disarmament and civil
administration, but the authority had no way to verify that it went for
those purposes, the audit said.
Willis concluded that "decisions were made that shouldn't have been,
contracts were made that were mistakes, and were poorly, if at all,
supervised, money was spent that could have been saved, if we simply
had the right numbers of people. ... I believe the 500 or so at CPA
headquarters should have been 5,000."
http://www.federalnewsradio.com/index.php?sid=179867&nid=78&template=...
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