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GRITtv: The F Word: Leaders of War
Who says the president is failing to show leadership? In one area at least, there's no sign of flag or falter. If anything, the administration's only becoming more forthright. Sad to say, that area is military build-up. Last year, the White House made a big deal of cutting a weapons program -- the F-22 fighter jet, for example -- but the cuts conveniently obscured the growth in spending on unmanned aircraft or drones -- the weapons that Pakistanis say killed dozens of civilians in twelve attacks last month -- 43 for every alleged Al Qaeda operative. This year, the president dispensed with the window dressing. No big deal about cuts -- except on the domestic side. While the administration has record $3.8 trillion budget cuts or freezes spending on domestic programs, it requests $708.3 billion for war. That's a $14.8 billion increase over what we're spending now. $548.9 billion for "regular" war, plus $159.3 billion for spending in Afghanistan and Iraq. And oh yes, the administration is asking Congress to increase spending on the US nuclear arsenal by more than $7 billion dollars over the next five years -- despite that pledge to cut the US arsenal and seek a nuclear weapons-free world. In my view, the quote of the day comes from the CEO of a military contractor-funded policy group. Loren Thompson tells Tuesday's New York Times, "The defense industry is pleased but bemused. It?s been telling itself for years that when the Democrats got control it would be bad news for weapons programs. But the spending keeps going on.? Take that you Nobel committee... And to think some complain about Democrats suffering from a lack of direction. The F Word is a regular commentary by Laura Flanders, the host of GRITtv which broadcasts weekdays on satellite TV (Dish Network Ch. 9415 Free Speech TV) on cable, and online at GRITtv.org and TheNation.com. Follow GRITtv or GRITlaura on Twitter.com.
Email this pageGRITtv: Feb. 2, 2010
Yesterday, Laura called our attention to the strange tale of the attempt at bugging Senator Mary Landrieu's New Orleans office, noting the stories uncovered by indie reporters connecting the dots between the ACORN sting, the break-in, and funding flowing into universities from the nation's intelligence agencies--as well as right-wing organizations. David Price of Counterpunch and Lindsay Beyerstein of the Media Consortium joined us to talk about the disturbing layers to this story, and discuss where it goes next. Last week, rebel historian, best-selling author, and lifelong activist Howard Zinn passed away at age 87. We speak with four people whose lives, careers, and activism were shaped by his work: poet Staceyann Chin, author of The Other Side of Paradise: A Memoir, progressive sportswriter Dave Zirin, Nation contributor and author of several books, including A People's History of Sports in the United States, and teacher, actor and activist Brian Jones. Benjamin Jealous is the youngest-ever head of the NAACP, but he has a long history with the organization--he is the fifth generation of his family to be involved. He joined us to remember Howard Zinn and to discuss the importance of knowing your own history and the history of the everyday men and women around us, the ones who shaped movements like the Civil Rights movement and continue to press for social justice the world over. Zinn's work has been translated into nearly every format imaginable: we also have the history of the American empire told through cartoons and narrated by Viggo Mortensen. Chevron oil company has contributed for years to devastating environmental damage in Ecuador and the Amazon region. Citizens of Ecuador call on new Chevron CEO John Watson to do the right thing and help clean up the damage his company has caused. Finally, we continue to bring you stories from the Haiti earthquake recovery from the students at the Cine Institute in Jacmel. In this video, we hear stories of rescues during the aftermath of the quake.
