Pentagon loses $6.6 Billion. So what?!

I just stopped by Raw Story to see the top headline is over some $6.6 billion the Pentagon has lost in Iraq.  Excuse my French, but big fucking deal. 

Let me explain why I'm a little less than impressed with media coverage of what I consider to be a relative non-event.  Relative to what?  How glad I am you asked!

How about relative to $2.3 TRILLION?  That's right.  Trillion with a T. 

That's how much money Donald Rumsfeld announced the Pentagon had lost on September 10, 2001.  Notice the date.  Yep.  The day before most Americans, if not the world, were duped into believing 19 Arab Islamists with box cutters hijacked 4 jetliners and used them to attack the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon itself.  That $2.3 trillion was upstaged after only a single day. 

You don't hear about that missing money.  Hell, you probably never heard about it to begin with unless you just happened to be paying attention to the news on September 10.  I was personally more concerned with the Monday Night Footbal match up between my Denver Broncos and my New York Giants. 

But now the Pentagon sees fit to create a news story out of $6.6 billion missing in Iraq.  Let's put these two figures in perspective for you.  Adjusted for inflation, that number would be more than $2.9 trillion today.  $6.6 billion goes into $2.9 trillion 439.39 times.  Did you read that last sentence? 

$6.6 billion goes into $2.9 trillion 439.39 times.

Let me ask you something.  What sort of false flag attack and subsequent cover up do you think $2.9 trillion could buy?  A War Machine can kill a lot of innocent human beings with that kind of scratch. 

If the Pentagon thinks $6.6 billion is a big deal - so big they're actually speaking out about it - why did they never have a cow over a figure 439 times the size?  Where did the money go?  That's a lot of your dollars.  In fact, according to CBS News, that's more than $8,000 for every single person in America, including children and others who don't pay taxes.  I'm not even sure I'd paid $8,000 in taxes before 9/11.  That's a lot of your money, just up and missing. 

Do you care yet?

And ask yourself what purpose it serves for the Pentagon to make note of this missing money.  Who benefits?  I don't have a clue, but I think it's an important question. 

Don't you?

Alvin Greene

How long until Alvin Greene folds and admits 1) He's a plant, 2) He has no idea what he's doing, 3) He's done none of the campaigning he says he has, and 4) Who gave him the money to file?

I Gotta Start Designing Fonts!

It might not be my calling, but jeez-oh-peet there's apparently stupid money in designing fonts. For instance, Alright Sans costs $300 for the full set! It's hardly different from every other sans serif font out there, and the lowercase g's are completely different from standard to italic versions.

How is anyone supposed to afford that? Why?

God bless Dafont.com!

Cancers from Environment 'Grossly Underestimated'. Do You Care Yet?

"Environmental carcinogens are responsible for a far greater number of cancers than previously believed -- a fact that suggests eradicating these environmental threats should be a priority for President Obama -- according to the report of a presidential advisory panel.
"The Panel was particularly concerned to find that the true burden of environmentally induced cancer has been grossly underestimated," wrote the authors of the report, "Reducing Environmental Cancer Risk: What We Can Do Now."

"The panel urges you most strongly to use the power of your office to remove the carcinogens and other toxins from our food, water, and air that needlessly increase health care costs, cripple our Nation's productivity, and devastate American lives," the report's authors wrote in a letter to President Obama."

So...not only is all our man-made pollution destroying ecosystems and effecting climate change (Yes, I meant to use the word "effecting" and not "affecting". You can't out-grammar nazi a grammar nazi.), but it's making us all sick. Creating disease in our bodies, more than we knew. That adds up to health care costs. Oh - that's your money! Do you care yet?

Read more...

Compromising the Compromised Compromise

So there's a Democrat in the White House and both houses of Congress have Democratic majorities. Right? I could SWEAR that's where things stood last time I checked. So why do these people continue to whittle down health care reform?

Health care costs too much. Businesses can't afford to provide it for their employees. State governments are having a hard time providing it to their employees. Stand alone citizens are having a difficult time providing it for themselves. The people who can't afford it, just don't have it and have to hope they don't need it. Ever.

But the companies in the health care game are raking it in.

In my view, health care should not be a business. There should not be a health care "market". As a species, I feel we owe it to ourselves to provide for ourselves the best care for the health and survival of the body so that we can experience life. I think we should make it a human RIGHT.

Easiest way to do that? Single payer system. We pay taxes, taxes pay for health care. For ALL. Just because.

But of course the real world requires a compromise. Enter the Public Option. Compromise #1. Allow citizens to opt in to a government-run option to compete with insurance companies to help bring the cost of health care down. Because THAT's the problem, you'll remember. It looked like we were going to get the public option when the reform package left the House of Representatives.

But it got scrapped in the Senate. Apparently The Club thought it would be too popular and successful and their Owners would lose too much money. They say it's an unwanted intrusion into the health care system. Unwanted by whom? If it's unwanted, it won't get used and is therefor not a problem. The problem is it IS wanted! A Survey USA poll shows up to 77% of Americans WANT THE PUBLIC OPTION!

So they decided instead of a public option, they'd at least open up Medicare to younger citizens and help cover a FEW more people than today. Not even close to substantial reform, but it's something. Compromise #2.

But TODAY there's talk that Dems are scrapping THAT, too! They're apparently afraid they won't get the package passed before Christmas. They're more worried about getting it done before an arguably arbitrary date than they are giving the American people what they want and deserve! Compromise #3.

So I'm confused. After this, where is the reform in health care reform? What's going to substantially change, at all, let alone reduce the cost of providing health care to companies and individuals in this supposed greatest nation on the planet with the supposedly best health care system?

There's no reform left. It's all been compromised away by a bunch of frightened little schmucks who have the power to do real good for the people of this country but are too scared of how it hurts their shot at reelection. Or perhaps they're worried about losing the GREAT HEALTH CARE that comes with being a legislator at the federal level?!

Where is there an incumbent (after all, they're ALL incumbents) who will put the good of her/his constituency above their personal political ambitions? One could say it's incumbent upon them.

I swear if substantial health care isn't passed because this group of bastards sold us all out, I will be a VERY loud voice for firing every one of them. Every last one, regardless of party - because as you know the American Deviant is an independent voter. Emphasis on voter.

They're failing us.