Obama Takes Power Over the Life or Death of American Citizens
by James Glaser
April 8, 2010

Just for starters, a headline from Glenn Greenwald's Salon column of April 7, 2010:

"Confirmed: Obama Authorizes Assassination of U.S. Citizen"

So, now the President of the United States is the judge and jury. We thought George Bush was bad. Sure, George might have had some people killed, or maybe we should make that, sure, George might have had hundreds of thousands killed, but they were foreigners. Does that make a difference?

Now, Barack Obama is going to add to that type of killing. Our new President, is going after Americans, too. He believes he has the power over life or death for citizen and non-citizen alike. If that doesn't scare you, I don't know what will.

*****

Unbelievable Things, From Where Else.... Washington

CRS: Health Law May Allow Viagra Coverage for Sex Offenders
By John Stanton
Roll Call Staff
April 7, 2010, 12:42 p.m.

The Congressional Research Service confirmed in a memo Wednesday that rapists and sex offenders may get federally subsidized Viagra and other sexual performance enhancing drugs under the recently passed health care reform law—information that Republicans charge will haunt Democrats in upcoming elections.

In 2,700 pages they had to be hiding some things.

Here, for instance, are some figures offered in a Washington Post piece by Lieutenant General James H. Pillsbury, deputy commanding general of the U.S. Army Materiel Command, who is deeply involved in the "drawdown of the logistics operation in Iraq": "There are... more than 341 facilities; 263,000 soldiers, Defense Department civilians and contractor employees; 83,000 containers; 42,000 vehicles; 3 million equipment items; and roughly $54 billion in assets that will ultimately be removed from Iraq."

That was from a column on Common Dreams, by Tom Engelhardt, and the scope of our war in Iraq is pretty unbelievable don't you think?

The Defense Logistics Agency shipped 1.1 million hamburger patties to Afghanistan in the month of March 2010 (nearly doubling the March 2009 figure). Almost any number you might care to consider related to the Afghan War is similarly on the rise. By the fall, the number of American troops there will have nearly tripled since President Obama took office; American deaths in Afghanistan have doubled in the first months of 2010, while the number of wounded has tripled; insurgent roadside bomb (IED) attacks more than doubled in 2009 and are still rising; U.S. drone strikes almost doubled in 2009 and are on track to triple this year; and fuel deliveries to Afghanistan have nearly doubled, rising from 15 million gallons a month in March 2009 to 27 million this March. (Keep in mind that, by the time a gallon of gas has made it to U.S. troops in the field, its cost is estimated at up to $100.)

This should be no surprise, just like George Bush, Barack Obama is a War President. War Presidents wage wars and they make those wars bigger if they can get away with it. I guess they think bigger is better.

The latest posting from the Treasury Department shows the National Debt has increased over $2 trillion since President Obama took office.

The debt now stands at $12.6 trillion. On the day Mr. Obama took office it was $10.6 trillion.

If you are going to be a War President, you have to be willing to spend some money. Those figures on Obama's spending come from CBS News.

About 3.5 million US residents (about 1% of the population), including 1.35 million children, have been homeless for a significant period of time. Over 37,000 homeless individuals (including 16,000 children) stay in shelters in New York every night. This information was gathered by the Urban Institute, but actual numbers might be higher.

I have to believe that the number of the homeless has to be going up as fast as the number of foreclosures is rising.

You can jump around the internet and look up almost any problem in America today and see that our problems are only getting bigger. How many bad bridges do you think there are? The Federal Highway Administration says there are 182,730 bridges rated deficient.

Washington doesn't hide all the bad news, and I guess that makes us more free than most countries, but for sure the American media is not putting any of the things I have quoted on the front page or making it the top story on the nightly news.

However, Americans know what is going on, and that is why according to the Rasmussen Poll taken in March of this year, 68% of the country thinks Washington has us on the wrong track.

Our politicians either don't care what the American people think, or they don't know what we think. They are insulated from us. Last summer they got a little taste of how the American people feel when they had town hall meetings to discuss health care, but those meetings did nothing to change their minds.

We know that Washington is heading in the wrong direction, but Washington pats itself on the back, thinking they are on the straight and narrow. The only recourse we have is this fall's election.

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