I'm Getting The Tax Kicked Out of me

The government's spending commitments exploded by 25 percent in 2008, putting taxpayers more than $1 trillion in the hole even before the astronomical costs of the economic bailout were taken into account, according to an annual report released Monday by the White House.

Hoping Against Hope

American Scofflaw

Okay. I resist making a lot of predictions, or presenting a lot of theories that I can't tie back directly to an article in a mainstream news source.

You should notice that the majority of the articles I post come from established news organizations. I believe this makes it harder to dismiss the stories, though the wing-nuttiest can always find a reason to dispute the facts. This blog is not aimed at them. It's aimed at the moderates of both parties, the libertarians, the independents.

However, I'm going to make a prediction here and now that will put me squarely in the "wild-eyed leftist" camp to some. If I'm right I'll have called it early. If I'm wrong, well you can just say that I was off on a "crazy liberal conspiracy theory" and I'll have a little egg on my face.

Here it is: Bush and Cheney will not cede the White House, regardless of the outcome of the 2008 election.

There I said it. They will take military action in Iran. They will do this in the guise of wise and benevolent protectors of the nation, assuring that it is "just until the crisis is over", but they will not give up power.

Am I crazy? Could be. I'd love to be wrong, but if I had told you 10 years ago that we would go to Iraq with no credible evidence, that we'd be caught torturing Iraqi's at Abu Ghraib, that we'd be holding people without charge in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, suspending Habeas Corpus, the Vice President claiming he is not subject to the laws governing the Executive Branch, the failure of Hurricane Katrina, and on and on...you would have said I was crazy then too.

At a minimum, we are going to war with Iran. What happens after that? Well, you have my "wild-eyed leftist" prediction.

Do I really believe this? I'm not sure that I do. On the other hand, I don't think you can rule it out.

Salon Reports: Kill 'em All, Let God Sort it Out

Last month, Salon published a story reporting that U.S. Army Pfc. Albert Nelson and Pfc. Roger Suarez were killed by U.S. tank fire in Ramadi, Iraq, in late 2006, in an incident partially captured on video, but that an Army investigation instead blamed their deaths on enemy action.

Now Salon has learned that documents relating to the two men were shredded hours after the story was published. Three soldiers at Fort Carson, Colo. — including two who were present in Ramadi during the friendly fire incident, one of them just feet from where Nelson and Suarez died — were ordered to shred two boxes full of documents about Nelson and Suarez.

One of the soldiers preserved some of the documents as proof that the shredding occurred and provided them to Salon. All three soldiers, with the assistance of a U.S. senator's office, have since been relocated for their safety.

Free-Spending? Moir??

American Scofflaw

Free-spending U.S. consumers?

Note the implication that this economic mess is somehow all our fault. No mention of two wars based on lies that impoverished the nation.

No mention of the millions of high paying jobs moved to foreign nations and the government tax credits handed out to corporations to make it easier!

No mention of the fact that the "money" spent by consumers is created out of thin air by the Federal reserve, a private bank with a license to counterfeit and the enthusiasm to do so at every opportunity!

No mention of a corporate culture that turned its back on manufacturing and dreamed of Enron-esque manipulations that made money pour from the skies without actually having to do anything for it!

No mention of Wall Street speculators who drove the price of stocks into the stratosphere even as their real value sank.

No, the economic crash is all the fault of Americans who bought a backyard BBQ on credit.

Where Them Treats?

This is Your Government Speaking

American Scofflaw
I warned you that the government was planting this nonsense in order to use it to ridicule the 9-11 investigators.

Loose Change Debunked

Loose Change is perhaps the most popular September 11 conspiracy-theory video, with its various editions reportedly logging more than 10 million web views. The most recent version, Loose Change Second Edition Recut, had more than 5 million web views as of March 2007.

Despite the video’s extraordinary popularity, its claims are so absurd that they are considered an embarrassment by other conspiracy theorists, some of whom have written lengthy critiques of the video’s most outlandish claims.

Loose Change makes very sloppy mistakes in support of its false claim that a missile, not a plane, hit the Pentagon on September 11, 2001. The video mistakes two different sections of the large hole caused by the airliner for the entire hole and, ironically, features photographs that actually disprove its “small hole” theory.