Eisenhower's "Cross of Iron" speech.

In 1953 President Dwight Eisenhower spoke of his  concern for the level of spending consumed by the Military Industrial Complex.  The following is part of that appeal.

For Your Information

Please be advised I am closing down this blog and continuing on another blog; "Journal: APG".
That address is;  "journalgriffin.blogspot.com".

I hope some people will look in from time to time and respond.

Thank You.

Voting Rights

Back in the days of Jim Crow in the states of the old confederacy, the former enslaved population was denied the right to vote by literacy tests, and poll taxes and if that wasn't enough there was always the KKK to intimidate and murder.  Now it must seem to some like nothing has changed with the policy of felony convictions-for offenses that are non-violent-for a large number of black men who do not regain their franchise even after their debt has been paid, and the effort to deny blacks, poor and senior citizens voting rights due to failure to have a picture ID.  That plus the fact that a number of black males have been openly murdered recently with no penalty for those who do the killing, that the image of the KKK can not be far away.

Some Thoughts

Is there a connection between the Citizens United supreme Court ruling and the issue of IRS audits of groups claiming tax exempt status?  The Citizens United ruling decided that corporations are "people" and to deny them the right to spend on political campaigns would be to deny them freedom of speech; a First Amendment violation.  That ruling says organizations-backed by corporations and run by unnamed individuals-could spend unlimited amounts to defeat a candidate for political office.  My question then is, why should those organizations then get a tax exempt status?  Why should they not pay taxes on their profits?  The IRS then questions those organizations about their tax exempt claim and some people go ape shit.   

Some Thoughts

Priorities are important in life.  We must pay the rent before going on vacation.  So it seems the government should pay for the care of homeless vets, inner city decay, schools, and jobs well before granting millions of dollars to some corporation to "explore" space.

Why does a half of the Second Amendment protect just about anybody who wants to buy just about any kind of weapon, while the entire Fourth Amendment does not protect my electronic mail from being read by just about anybody in government or business without a warrant or any probable cause to believe I am breaking the law?  

( I am working on a new blog idea here; in case anyone is reading.  Hell, at least the NSA reads my stuff.  BTW, go fuck yourself.)

NSA Spying

Some of my thoughts on this issue.  First, a question.  How does a political conservative-one who distrusts big government-not then oppose a big government program to massively spy on ordinary Americans phone, e-mail and other means of communication?  This is what the NSA surveillance program is and I don't see how liberals and conservatives would not both be opposed.  Second is a position taken by congressman John Boehner on a radio talk show the other day.  He said that the individual who leaked this info-one Snowden-committed a "giant violation of the law" by doing so.  But how is the spying itself not a giant violation of the law.

Military Spending

Near the end of February of this year the Pentagon announced that they were "grounding: the new jet fighter fleet-the F-35-due to a "cracked engine blade".  That's 51 planes.   I can picture the scene in the war room.  One general turns to another and says, "do you know what this means?".  "It means the fucking thing doesn't work", as Christopher Lloyd said in the movie Back to the Future.  This "is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons program at a cost of nearly $ 400 billion".  I wonder what we could have gotten with $ 400 billion?  Maybe some classrooms and teachers for them, or hospitals in inner cities, or road construction and bridge repair, maybe more police or more libraries.  No.  Instead we got zilch, nada, bupkis, squat, zero.  But you can bet  some CEO's walked away with millions in bonus money or stock options.  

(Source:  "Pentagon Grounds Fighters: in The Record on 2/23/13)