CREDIBLE BUT NOT SPECIFIC!

(Richard Esposito, Rhonda Schwartz, Mathew Schecter, Green Bay Press Gazette)

(Fareed Zalaria, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Frazer Chronicle)

 

An article this morning in the Green Bay Press Gazette caught my eye, and how couldn’t it, How Safe Do You Feel? What with all the talk about terrorists, and terrorist attacks here in the United States. Thankfully the article was about home safety against fires. The headline and accompanying article gave some in depth tips and common sense ideas on how to escape a fire in apartment complexes, (Green Bay has been the site of two in recent weeks.)

 

I am, at the present time working on a blog that will carry with it some astounding statistics with regards to shootings that occur in the private sector throughout the country. I find the thought process of needless random shootings a kind of bizarre look into the soul of our societal fabric. Stay tuned, it’ll take some time…..and I’m on vacation from July 29, through August 5.

 

Maturity is what we all are supposed to achieve with advancing age, but somehow, here in American, for some, maturity never seems to arrive at the station…..that train simply goes right by the depot, leaving a major portion of our country searching for a semblance…..a nugget, a speck of maturity.

 

To me, maturity is a kind of coming of age; it’s a mix of life’s experiences, formal education, and a heavy dose of common sense. Maturity does not come easy, and some people never ever gain the trait, yet whether we are mature, or just silly and frivolous, we all have to deal, one with another.

 

FRIVOLOUS SHEEP

September 11, 2001, when the terrorists who had commandeered those jet liners and crashed them into the Pentagon and the world trade center buildings, life as we had known it was over. The change took less than a day and has been a festering sore every sense. “Heads will roll, and people will pay,” that wasn’t said, but it should have been, instead President Bush said that “those people who wish us ill will are put on notice right now,” You play with the bull, you’re going to get the horn.

 

Of course our political leaders didn’t say it quite that way, but it’s what they meant, or my opinion of the entire Bush regime is flawed. In the days and weeks after the September 11 attack, our governments begin a constant blitz of almost mis-information. And as we all know, the Bush White House shifted gears and pointed to Iraq as a major player in the twin towers attack.

 

The message is the massage continues to this day, it can be felt throughout all of our security efforts from the border patrols, to the protection of our president, to the mall cops that patrol the video machines in the nation’s malls.

 

I thought maybe cooler heads would emerge from the McCain, Obama and Romney, Obama election runs, but I was wrong. I knew everybody knew that McCain was not the answer to our problems in the White House after two terms of Bush. And even though I voted again for Obama, I didn’t feel real satisfied …..but Mitt Romney, surely you jest!

 

THE COLD WAR HAS RUN HOT AND COLD

For whatever reason, Americans seem to need a war, an event, or situation that we seem to rally for, and to give our support to. The United States was attacked on September 11, 2001 of that there is no doubt, and the cost in lives was heavy, more than 2,900 deaths and 6,000 injured.

 

Our wrath was understandable, our attack of Afghanistan was in retribution for the loss of American lives, and the world applauded and supported are effort to bring to an end an oppressive lifestyle and attitude. However that feeling was in response to a justified response to an act of war. But like the man said, how long are you going to milk this instance before you switch teats.   

 

John McCain’s fate was sealed during the Bush administration with every lie that was told after 2002 during the run-up to the Iraqi invasion. The Bush people told so many whoppers it’s a wonder that McDonalds didn’t seek an injunction because of product infringement with regards to their Whopper, (which would taste so good right now).

 

The Bush administration has been responsible for, and we are suffering because of, the insidious way that it (the administration) practiced their governance, spending on defense like drunken sailors, that in many aspects, left the country bankrupt. We aren’t trusted throughout the world, it’s a fact, and it’s one of the reasons that we have replaced Russia as a cold war opponent with the terrorist threat.

 

I will say one thing for Barack Obama; he was saddled with by far the largest financial crisis as he assumed office. Bush spent trillions of dollars on the war effort, and he will go down in history one day as the most ridiculous of all presidents, it’s going to be his legacy, but sadly we’ve paid for it, some more than others.

 

ISN’T IT TIME TO TAKE STOCK

As a responsible people we need to stop this merry-go-round, take stock and head off into a different direction before it’s too late. I’m not sure that we have the time, current activity, and our misdeeds can make for a cruel bed partner.

 

I keep harping week after week about the average man taking charge of his life; it’s really the only way that in the end, we will survive. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, I do not particularly care about the future generations, the generation before mine sure as hell didn’t give much of a care for me, yet surprise, surprise, I survived…..so will they.

 

We need to take stock because it’s the right thing to do, and because it is way over due, and we need to bring these jerks to justice. George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Don Rumsfeld, and whoever else it might be deemed necessary.

 

That said…..realistically, we need to take stock so that we can move on into a more predictable way of operation. We need it, our kids and grandkids need it, and the world needs it. What-do-ya say?

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

BY GOLLY THEY’RE AT IT AGAIN!

(David Egert, Associated Press, Detroit Free Press, Livingston Daily)

(Charles Coleman, USA TODAY, Huffington Post, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any crazier…..it did, another proposed sports arena where people’s tax dollars go to help financially subsidize a professional venue…..then are charged to attend a game or other events like concerts, car shows, or other sports contests. Read on, cause you ain’t gonna believe who is tapping the poor old taxpayers.

 

The Detroit Red Wings are going to build a brand spanking new arena in the downtown to help revitalize the area…..forgetting the fact that downtown Detroit resembles a demilitarized zone…..I’ve been there, I know. And let’s face the facts of life…..hockey is not a black man’s sport…..and who populates the downtown area…..let me put it as delicately as possible…..the color ain’t blue!

 

The inhabitants of the inner city need a hockey arena like they need another burned out hulk of a building, they need help…..all kinds of help, but a hockey building, sorry Mr. Ilitch, you and your Red Wing hierarchy don’t seem to have a clue on this one.

 

The city of Detroit just last week filed for chapter 9 bankruptcy protection because they can’t pay past debt, or the current day to day operational costs. Included in the bankruptcy filing is an $18 billion dollar city employee pension fund payout that might be in jeopardy.

 

The city of Detroit has made a load of financial promises, past leaders have entered into a lot of agreements; have made a lot of decisions that cost huge amounts of money. But at the same time that the city made these debts that go out to close to 2040 and beyond, revenues have been shrinking. Contract agreements made with Detroit’s retirees require support years and decades into the future, projected in many cases to a minimum of 30 out.

 

Detroit’s industrial base and its metropolitan area have been reeling for more than sixty years in a kind of free-fall towards where the city finds itself in 2013. The high point for the population number was during the 1950 census when the city population was listed at 1,849,586, and the metro 3,219,256. However beginning with the 1960 census, the population figures began to show a steady migration to the suburbs, and a declining city population.

 

THE DECLINE

Detroit was long a major population center and a major engine of worldwide automobile manufacturing and the city has gone through a continuing economic decline. Like many other cities, Detroit saw it’s a decline in population beginning in the 1950’s, lasting to today.

 

The decline in manufacturing and in employment opportunity and growth and real wages has lead to severe urban decay and thousands upon thousands of empty homes and buildings throughout most of the inner-city.  Some areas of the city are sparsely populated, resulting in the city having difficulty providing the most simple of municipal services.

 

A lack of city services, (quick response by fire and police) has caused an exodus in some areas to more populated sites, and the city of Detroit is actually encouraging these moves through the removal of street signs, and overnight security street lighting.

 

 

Detroit has been a proud city, a city of firsts with regards to the automobile industry, and also has been a lightning-rod for opportunity for southern black people as well as immigrants of Polish, German and Greek nationalities.

 

The opportunities, the automobile industry and the wages and benefits that were part and parcel of that golden age seem long over. I was in downtown Detroit two years ago, and the city had a stench, a smell that reminded me of death.  I have driven to freight destinations throughout the city, and the suburbs, visiting many old buildings and warehouses that, although were in ill repair, still had a kind of air, and if you looked, you could see the past glories, almost hear the chatter of workers coming and going, and doing the work of automobile or some other products.

 

A NEW PUCK ARENA

I’m not sure where Mike Ilitch is coming from, oh I understand a new hockey arena with all the bells whistles would increase the Ilitch sports empire, (he owns the baseball Tigers) and I think that he, truly likes the city of Detroit, and cares where it’s going…..but tax money to help construct a sheet of ice, maybe its priority check time!

 

Since we’re talking about priorities, maybe this board should take stock of the financial shape Detroit is in right now. At the present time there are more than 300,000 parcels of property within the city limits that taxes aren’t being paid on, that’s a little more than 50% of the properties that lay vacant, unkempt and unoccupied.

 

The board which is in Lansing, Michigan, (state capitol) is the Michigan Strategic Fund, (MSF) board, which Wednesday, July 24^th approved issuing up to $450 million in bonds to finance construction of a $650 million project that would include a new arena for the Detroit Red Wings hockey team and other events plus $200 million more in the 45-block area between downtown and Midtown.

 

To move the project forward the city, state and the Olympia Development, (owned by Mike Ilitch) would have to complete a concession management agreement that would commit to the Red Wings playing there for the next 35 years with a 12 five-year options to follow.

 

The way that I read the above paragraph is that for the next 95 years, upon competition of the new arena, the Red Wings would be contractually bound to play at their new digs until the year 2112 (the completion date of the new facility is figured to be 2017). Given the attitude and the track record of every sports team owner today…..the usual length of use that an arena or stadium gets is…..at most, half as long as the Red Wings would be bound to a new Detroit hockey venue.

 

Now I’m no expert…..is anybody, but this deal smacks of pie in the sky thinking, if the planets are aligned, if the rivers don’t rise, and if all the ducks are in a row, the success of this project, which would cost a total of $650 million, ($284.5 million would come from taxpayers, and $365 million from the Red Wings) would be in use for, I’ll say it again, ninety five years sorry but I’m leery of anything after twenty or thirty years.

 

The arena itself would cost $450 million, and the financing would be 58% public and 42% private. For the $299 million ancillary retail, office and retail and residential projects in the development area, funding would be 88.5% private and 11.5% public.

 

 

 

 

ALL THE RIGHT PEOPLE ON BOARD FOR THE MISCONCEPTION

Count them on the fingers of one hand, Michigan Governor Rick Snyder, Wings owner Mike illitch, the Michigan Strategic Fund, Detroit’s Downtown Development Authority…..and a whole bunch of Republican law makers. And worse yet, the hockey fan of the greater Detroit area.

 

You see, hockey fans are unlike any in the entire sporting world, rabid almost describes them…..but not quite, unless you call a kind of fanatical booster of the Wings somebody who throws a dead octopus on the ice after a Red Wing goal, personally I call that person bizarre, and in need of some inpatient care!

 

Hockey teams, and their host cities have a built in fan base that usually doesn’t wavier, for a city like Detroit (Hockey Capital), there is a core-base of maybe 30 or 40 thousand people who inadvertently attend a hockey match as few as once or twice a season. However there are probably 15 or so thousand who own season tickets, and are rabid in their support.

 

So you end up with those 30 or 40 thousand fans and a million or so, like me who check out the scores, have a passing interest, but wouldn’t walk across the street to attend a game at their arena. In the end, what it boils down to is the tax payer helping private industry, the pucksters in their drive for a better playing venue, and then, to top it off, the puck industry charges these same tax payers to come into their facility.  Who they are, I’m not sure, I mean do the Red Wings own the facility, or do the taxpayers?

 

LET’S TAKE A REAL LOOK AT REALITY

Here in a nutshell are reasons to reject any public funding of stadiums and arenas:

A. Providing public subsidies for private stadiums or arenas is corporate welfare.

B. Negligible economic benefits for a new sports venue, these places don’t create additional funds, they simple more them around.

C. Today the average cost of a new facility is about a half billion dollars, and it only creates about $80 million in long term benefits.

D. Can drive down wages because a sports team creates so few fulltime jobs.

E. In the long term does not increase attendance, nor does a new stadium or arena increase on ice or field performance.

F. Actually diverts recourses from funding priorities each and every time a new professional sports venue is built.

 

What a new hockey arena will do is to secure Rich Snyder’s legacy, but I’m not sure how much of a price tag Michigan voters should put on that aspect of the governors life. Jennifer Granholm was a hell-of-a lot better looking than the current top boss of Michigan, with the exception of that mole on her right cheek.

 

With Detroit going into Chapter 9 protection, I think a better time for a new hockey arena in downtown Detroit might be…..oh sometime after the 12^th of never. These politicians really need to get their act together before the whole damn state is pushed into declaring some sort of bankruptcy protection.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

THE ISSUE LEAVES ME BREATHLESS!

(Atlantic Wire, Christian Science Monitor, National Journal)

(MRC-NewsBusters, Weakonomics, Ira Stoll, Cleveland Plain Dealer)

(Heritage Foundation, San Mateo Daily Journal, Frazer Chronicle)

 

Tackling the issue is tough, you need to know a little bit about what you’re talking about, some issues take longer to research…..and this is one of those issues. People on both sides of the aisle have an almost maddening opinion. It may be the law of the land, but some people sure as hell don’t act that way, and that is one thing that I just can’t understand.

 

The issue has needed repair for years and years, it’s been confronted, fixes have been suggested, everyone seemed to have weighed in with some sort of fix, yet we struggle with the issue continue,  and very little has ever been resolved. I started taking note of the issue some twenty or so years ago, and at that time I wasn’t what you could call and activist, but even back then I knew something would need to be changed.

 

What am I talking about…..health insurance, and the battle that seems to be going on every day in the halls of our government. This is serious my friends, how serious, well let me count the ways:

1. 1,147,271 words

2. 906 pages long

3. 55 page “health care education reconciliation act of 2010

4. 700 directives for HHS and other agencies to implement Obamacare

5. 1,093 pages of regulations

And there’s more, my fingers just got tired, and I now have a splitting headache from reading all the crap that makes up the overall care act.

 

OBAMACARE IS THE LAW OF THE LAND

I don’t get it, Obamacare has been passed into law, it’s ratification was debated, haggled over, and demonized, (remember the death squads,) what is the lightening rod dispute, is it the employer with 50 or more employees, or is that bogus argument that are rights are being trampled?

 

Obamacare won’t affect me; I’m retired, on Medicare and pay a separate supplement…..and if all else fails, there’s always Medicaid. For me the system works pretty well, I however do understand that for others in my age bracket, an extended illness, or a medical malady, there simply isn’t enough insurance.

 

I was listening to Rush Limbaugh yesterday, and he was lamenting about how Obamacare takes people’s rights away…..(they won’t be able to choose their own health carrier) and it got me to thinking, I have automobile insurance, I have life insurance, I have property insurance, flood insurance, and I have a medical supplement insurance policy. If I’m covered, (like I think I am) why would I care where I go, who I talk with or where I send my monthly, or quarterly payments?

 

I don’t give a fat rats behind where I get the insurances that I figure I need, I only worry that I’ll be able to afford them. So when somebody comes along with the old sob story about government taking my rights away, I’m reminded about former President George W. Bush and his insurance policy that didn’t have a bid competition involved…..was there anything funny going on?

 

 

 

 

Look, with regards to Obamacare, there are several issues going on that, even though we don’t quite get it, these issues could submarine the act altogether. It’s the small businessman who has gotten away with murder for years with regards to employee benefits…..these people are master corner cutters!

 

YOU’D BETTER START READING BETWEEN THE LINES

The biggest single issue regarding Obamacare and its implementation throughout the United States is twofold, on the one hand you’ve got small business crying all the way to the bank, and threatening to downsize their workforce because they can’t afford Obamacare. These people…..who really are the salt of the earth, are worried about a dip in their take-home pay.

 

I don’t blame them, they initiated (in most cases) the business, took a chance, and worked their fingers to the bone keeping afloat early in their business’s history. They deserve every single penny that they can get, and maybe even a bit more. Their attitude is “I took all the chances, worked nights and week-ends, and now the Fed is gonna tell me I’ve gotta provide health insurance, you must be out of your fricken mind.”

 

I empathize with these people and their attitudes…..however it’s not the way it’s gonna be, Obamacare is the law of the land…..and you can’t fight city hall. Every single 50 and above employer can afford to pay for employee’s health insurance.

 

You don’t expect me to really believe that you are that poor of a businessman, you are the wanna-be Captains of industry. Aren’t you the same guy who drives around in his big black 4 wheel-drive SUV and has a big motor home in his back yard? Sure you are…..and you can afford to pay the ticket for the Obamacare initiative.

 

And if some of you Captains of industry can’t afford the program, you’d better get out of whatever it is you do, and hook up with a business that can provide healthcare for his employees. That by far is the weakest of the arguments against Obamacare, the it’ll “break my bank, and force me to downsize.” My retort, do not let the door hit you in the behind on the way out.

 

I have friends without employee provided health insurance, and a couple have almost gone broke attempting to pay their health care bills. I also know people who use a hospital’s emergency room like it’s their health care provider…..which it ain’t. We are picking up that cost in all kinds of inflated costs that hospitals pass on to those of us with legitimate health coverage.

 

So in a way we are paying for universal or federal government health care, read between the lines, you’ll be surprised. Do you know how sick and tired I am when a politician talks about government being poor administrators of government benefits? Isn’t that like the pot calling the kettle black, I mean those people that bad-mouth Obamacare are part of the solution, hell they’re part of the problem.

 

OFF YOUR BUTT AND ON YOUR FEET, OUTTA THE SHADE AND IN THE HEAT

Politics 101, Obamacare is the law of the land, so why don’t we all get behind the act, began to understand it…..(even just a little bit) and make the damn thing work. I do not agree with small business mandated to provide health insurance to its employees. The only thing that business must provide is a safe, clean and pleasant environment to work in, with the potential for the employee to earn an honest wage for his/her work.

 

 

 

Everybody needs to have health insurance, this isn’t 1850, or 1900, where the old doctor took a pig for delivering a baby, or stitching up old Pete after he fell out of the wagon on the way to church, or on the way home from the saloon.

 

It’s clear that the Obama administration is having almost second thoughts about the act because they’ve already suspended parts of it for a year. Probably the most controversial of the plan is the employer supplying the insurance…..and it’s a part that has been pushed back a year.

 

Gee “Prez” grow a pair and get the damn thing implemented…..man-up big boy, politicking isn’t always cutting ribbons, kissing babies, and giving keynote speeches before yet another chicken dinner. Parts of the plan are undoubtedly good, while others need a load of  fiddling with…..it’s okay, Rome wasn’t built in a day.

 

Will everybody pay more taxes, absolutely, can it be any other way, the Federal Government doesn’t have any money, the fed doesn’t go out and generate an income, so it’ll be up to us, kind of like pulling the United States out of the middle 1950’s and into the 21^st century.

 

Nowhere in the Constitution of the United States does it talk about mandatory medical care and treatment for all Americans. Hell even back in the 1770’s there was the rich and the poor, but as times changed, as people became more aware, it simply followed that health care was an important factor in our lives, and that there were people who were unable to afford a program.

 

I guess I’ll put it to you the best way I know how, what would you do with your next door neighbor if they were sick and needed care…..let them die? Probably not, Obama and his crew designed a plan that is inclusive, it may not be the best…..but it’s what we have, and it’s the law of the land!

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!

OH BOY, SYRIA HERE COMES G.I. JOE!

(Kevin Baron, Los Angeles Times)

(Frazer Chronicle)

 

The next objective…..militarily for the United States might be Syria, does that surprise you, it really doesn’t me, I’ve been watching the activity there, and my old sniffer smells a U.S. rat…..the C.I.A. which has been training certain military aspects to battle whoever they are directed too by the agency.

 

Do you know anything about Syria…..well, I like many in the U.S. know little about the country, its people, economy, or most important…..in today’s world, the oil and natural gas reserves. Seems like we don’t go anywhere unless there’s the sweet smell of oil. Syria is not a major player in crude production, although the government is attempting to reinvigorate their search.

 

Syria was one of those Ottoman empires, till 1918, then French, then proclaimed the Kingdom of Syria in 1920, then the State of Syria under a French mandate in 1924. Then in 1930, established as the Syrian Republic, merging with the states of Jabal, Druze, and Alawites, was declared Syria in 1946 independence from France.

 

In September, 1961 recessed from the United Arab Republic, and finally in 1963 the Ba’ath party takes power and has given the country its first extended period of stability with regards to the country’s governmental proceedings.

 

There are 22,530,746 people living in Syria, the country’s gross domestic product was $107,831 billion in 2012, with a per capita income of $5,100. The Syrian area is in a word, old, with a traceable history to about 10,000 BC, and was one of the centers of Neolithic culture (pre-pottery), where agriculture and cattle breeding appeared for the first time in the world.

 

The country and its people have what one might call a long and illustrious history of human achievements, as well as a history of being dominated by invasions from the Arab world. The Canaanities, Phoenicians, and Arameants as part of the general disruption and exchanges associated with the Sea People. The Phoenicicians settled along the coast of Northern Canaan (Lebanon). Egyptians, Sumerians, Assyrians, Babylonians and Hittites variously occupied the strategic ground of Syria during this period, the land between their various empires being marshland.

 

NOW BEFORE WE GO TOO FAR

Let me make one thing clear, the above named peoples, or states, and those tribes or nations that occupied Syria are as foreign sounding to me as I’ll bet they are to you. Oh sure some of the words spark a memory of the Old Testament, but by and large I’m as much in the dark as you-all.

 

I included the above history for one reason, to possibly enlighten us all about the extreme age of the Middle Eastern world’s history. Some of the inhabitants of Syria can be traced back thousands of years…..and they don’t need Wal-Marts, or Targets to survive, they’ve been rolling along in their sedentary lifestyles for literally thousands of years.

 

Invasion to these people is a ho-hum deal, it’s like really, again, another invading people, “go ahead, get it over with already.” And then they go on about their daily mundane lives, and wait for the new invaders to get tired, or go broke…..and then go back to wherever it was that they came from, it’s in their blood.

 

For whatever reason, we simply don’t get it…..unless you figure Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein, we invade for a multitude of reasons, attacking in the same time tested way of waging war, and forgetting that this is the 21^st century, and waging war has changed.

 

We as a nation, as a people, people that harbor a certain level of thinking with regards to a democratic society, and what can be derived from that society have yet to come to grips that democracy isn’t for everybody, and peoples around the world are hip to our devious plans!

 

HERE COMES THE INVESTIGATIVE REPORTS, AND THE GENERALS

Scholars and think tank people, humanitarian observers, people that are partial to particular elements of the Syrian nation all weigh in on what is going on in Syria today. Without a doubt, some of these people have the best of intentions at heart…..however they can muddy the waters of clear thinking on a foreign issue.

 

Whenever somebody hollers human rights, genocide, displaced war victims, people in Washington come out of the woodwork looking for photo-ops, catch phrases, and a baby or two to kiss. In short they are dangerous, they’re like a squeaky wheel, and we all know that a squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

Syria has been operating under all kinds of regimes for thousands of years, and will continue until the final rapture, of that I have no doubt. Cooler heads need to take charge of the situation and our foreign policy.

 

In an open letter released yesterday, July 22, 2013, Joint Chief of Staff General Martin Dempsey gave five options that the United States militarily could carry out in Syria’s civil war. Now General Dempsey seems like a good man, probably highly intelligent, with a wealth of military experience that speaks of his position, rank, and age.

 

However General Dempsey is…..a general in the military of the United States, and is answerable directly to the president of the United States. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, with little exception, military people do not have a good reason to duck or dodge an impending military situation, it’s kind of like shiver me timbers, and roll out the caissons!

 

The last time I checked, the United States was kind of war-weary, and in fact reeling from military stages in several different hot spots around the world. And that reeling sensation isn’t even addressing the loss of life or the U.S. treasury.

 

It’s the old standard of military activity:

 

a. train and equip

b. bring in U.S. military to oversee training now handled by the C.I.A.

c. air-strikes, missiles fired from outside Syria

d. no-fly zone

e. controlling Syrian W.M.D.’s

 

The costs, a mere $500 million to train, equip and bring U.S. soldiers, (300 to 3000) into safe areas to assist in the war making effort. The overall cost of the effort…..$1 billion dollars a month!!!!! Can I get a witness, how in hell can that be, could old General Dempsey really be serious…..I think so.

HAVE A NICE DAY!

DEFENSIVE SPENDING IS OFFENSIVE!

(USA TODAY, William Goodfellow, Steve Clemons Reuters)

(McClatchy Newspaper, Christian Science Monitor, Frazer Chronicle)

 

This could really be entitled Three Faces of an Opinion, because the USA TODAY has incorporated an opinion based on information provided by John Sopko, special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, Alan Estevez, assistant secretary of Defense, (Logistics and Material Readiness), and Peter Lavoy, acting assistant secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs.

 

The third opinionier would be your friendly editor and chief…..me, your old procrastinating blogger who sits on an issue until it causes a bed sore under his saddle blanket…..and he just has to weigh in with his personal thoughts and convections.

 

My wife, my personal editor and chief tells me that I write in too much of a narrow scope, and I retort with my pat answer, “I write about stuff, sometimes two, three and four times because I think it’s an important issue, and until it’s changed, it, (the issue) needs to be addressed.” Anyways it’s my blog, and I’ll do whatever the hell I want regarding the subject matter.

 

I devote approximately 55% of my blogging time on wars, and war related situations that are without a doubt are the direct result of the wars that the United States wages. Without exception the United States justifies its war making activity because of the good that will result in freeing people from oppression, dictatorships, hunger, and instilling a better way of life.

 

Nobody wants war…..right…..wrong, at least in the United States, it seems like it’s the more is better syndrome. I do know this…..first hand, war creates employment, war creates opportunity for the capitalistic corporations of our country and war has a galvanizing effect on our form of government, nobody wants to seem unpatriotic…..so everybody jumps on board the war wagon!

 

THE JOHN SOPKO FINDINGS AND OPINION

Who the hell is John Sopko, well I found that he was many things to many different people, but mostly he was known to piss of the Mafia in Cleveland, Ohio. Back in 1982 Sopko brought the Mafia and the Cosa Nostra to its collective knees, effectively ending the reign of terror and corruption in the city wrought by the criminal element.

 

You’d think that taking on an organization with the clout of the Mafia, surviving, and in fact ending the criminal reign would be enough for anyone. But apparently side-stepping bullets is part of what makes Sopko tick. Tick would actually be a key word, because John Sopko is now ticking off the Pentagon with another investigational effort.

 

Currently Sopko is U.S. Inspector General for the reconstruction effort in Afghanistan, and it seems, like in Cleveland, Ohio, he has run into another corrupt situation, again from the top to the bottom of the authority ladder. In February of this year, the Kabul Press criticized Sopko saying that the corruption that he uncovered was trivial and simplistic compared with the ways of the Washington beltway.

 

And now, Sopko in a speech in May mentioned the fact that Afghanistan will have to stand on its own once U.S. troops leave next year, but that problems with theft, bribery, corruption could derail an otherwise valiant effort. Coupled with the theft, bribery and the corruption elements that are already prevalent, the U.S. Defense Department, and the Agency for International Development is spending billions hoping things will turn out well!

Some of Sopko’s findings:

a. Defense department spent $34 million dollars on a headquarters building that hasn’t been used, and a Marine commander said he “didn’t want or need the building”.

b. Pentagon is spending more than $700 million dollars on Swiss and Russian planes, even though there aren’t enough Afghani pilots to fly them, or mechanics to maintain them.

c. Built four incinerators at a cost of $11.5 million for solid waste…..but only two are in use, and some of the waste is being burnt in an open above ground pit.

d. An Afghan contractor was hired for the construction of a courthouse which was put together so poorly that it was deemed uninhabitable, and needed to be torn down…..and the original contractor put in a bit to tear his work down.

e. Pentagon hired Afghani contractor to install culvert grates to deter the Taliban from inserting explosives under the roadway traveled by U.S. soldiers. The grating system in many cases was either put in improperly, or not at all, leading to at least 2 U.S. soldiers deaths.

 

The complaint list is sizable and growing, yet the Pentagon continues in what seems their wasteful ways, and although they agree with some of Sopko’s findings, they (of course) disagree with others. Congress has a role in the maze and mess that seems to have dogged Iraq and now, Afghanistan.

 

Of course there is a harsh environment and often unreliable allies in Afghanistan, but to dump gobs of money, taxpayer’s money, into such an environment by our own government seems strange at best. No matter the condition the seeming serial breakdowns in basic planning, oversight and accountability are unacceptable. And who signed off on the above mentioned projects…..the Defense Department can’t say, they are…..Defensive about the probing questions!

 

CAN I GET A SECOND OPIONION

After eleven years of military operations and sacrifices, our national security interest in a stable Afghanistan that is never again a base for terrorists remains as great as ever. The American people can feel confident that we will fulfill this mission; your Department of Defense will continue to be good stewards of the resources provided by Congress and taxpayer’s.

 

The efforts are paying off: Afghan forces are now conducting nearly all combat operations and have security lead in nearly all parts of Afghanistan. While spending U.S. taxpayer money on Afghan forces is a difficult sell in our current fiscal environment, in the long term, it is a sound investment in our national security. These expenditures with robust oversight are critically important to ensuring stability after the international forces depart the country.

 

Auditors, both internal and external, to the Defense Department play a key role in oversight and closely with the Pentagon to ensure programs and activities are properly implemented. These organizations, (internally and externally) conduct dozens of audits and investigations every year including: how we measure the effectiveness of Afghan forces: whether major contracts are delivering intended results: and whether contracts are awarded in accordance with the law.

 

Make no mistake, we spend a significant amount of time both conducting oversight and being the subject of oversight. Where problems are identified, we take corrective actions that may include updating policies and regulations. There has been a significant enhanced contract management and oversight In Afghanistan. And we never forget that we ultimately answer to the American taxpayer.

 

 

A FINAL ALL INCLUSIVE OPINION

I seldom refer to verbatim verbiage regarding opinions, or stating facts or figures, I have found that cutting through all the bull-crap, and getting to the bottom line of what people mean is more effective…..at least for me. But Estevez and Lavoy’s opposing view to what John Sopko had to say was…..well comical, and they both, (Estevez, and Lavoy) get paid for their jobs, and hence, their opinions…..I’d sure like a piece of that action.

 

Look everybody with a pinch of intellect understands that the Pentagon…..actually our DEFENSE DEPARTMENT spends our money in varying degrees. Without doubt, the Pentagon spends more money on more unnecessary things than any other governmental department that we as taxpayers support. No wonder they come calling every year with their hats in their hands, heads bowed and looking like the poor little whipped neighborhood kid.

 

Wasteful…..the Pentagon invented the word, devised its use, and refined how the word can be gamed. In January of 2013 it was reported that $6.8 million on nonexistent equipment, or 30,000 vehicles had been paid for by the U.S. or us, whichever way you want to spell it. The Inspector General…..Sopko, sited the $6.8 million was for payment on the vehicles…..and maintenance, on……….air, cause they never existed.

 

Oversight…..oversight…..oversight, (oh where have you gone), oversight…..oversight…..oversight, where has a huge portion of the appropriations that were allocated by Congress, that the taxpayer paid for, and that the Pentagon spent, into the hands of unscrupulous hands of the greedy unrelenting bottom feeders of war.

 

You can see them on every street corner in the run-up to a military conflict, hat in hand, and a condescending smirk because they know it’s about time to go back to work and collect another fat paycheck courtesy of good old Uncle Sam. And our military defenders, and those on Capitol Hill who worry about being called unpatriotic if they deny a military request for bombs, bullets, tanks, planes, and ships.

 

It’s time for a re-think,  I think, what Estevez and Lavoy failed to include in their opinion of the Afghan war, the facts and opinion of Inspector General Sopko and the feelings of the American people was a statement like my old friend Condoleezza Rice said in the weeks and months before the invasion of Iraq,

“Do you want to see a mushroom cloud over New York, or Washington?”

 

 The poor lady was delusional, President George W. Bush was delusional, and clearly Vice President Dick Chaney was delusional. And now we’ve come down to it, people like Alan Estevez and Peter Lavoy are delusional. But there worse than Rice, Bush, or Cheney, Estevez and Lavoy are still trying to sell a message that has been rebuffed and debunked several years ago with iron clad evidence that the whole Iraq and Afghanistan situation are a big fat joke…..by now, pretty much a joke on the American public.

 

HAVE A NICE DAY!