DEMOCRACY NOW! – “The United States is in an information war, and we are losing that
war,” said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week as she
praised Al Jazeera’s dedication to “real news.” To win the war, Clinton
called for expanding U.S. propaganda TV and radio broadcasts overseas.
At the same time, public broadcasting and community media are under
attack in the United States. Last month, the House voted to eliminate
all financing for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by the year
2013. We speak to Robert McChesney, co-founder of Free Press, and
broadcast highlights from Amy Goodman’s three-day “Don’t Ice Out Public
Media” tour in Colorado.
MEDIA ROOTS- This is a Media Roots TV interview conducted by Abby Martin with Cindy
Sheehan, mother who has made the ultimate sacrifice and fearless
anti-war activist. She relays her powerfully lucid point of view in a
candid interview at her home on February 6th, 2011.
MEDIA ROOTS- Media Roots sits down for a short conversation with Chris Hedges, an American journalist, author, and war correspondent. Hedges
gives a sobering take on American culture, relaying a grim
yet powerful perspective on the current political and societal state of
the US.
PRESS TV– American citizens are paying large amounts of money each year for U.S. defense spending, which can be used for domestic spending, Steve Breyman, assistant professor at the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute said.
“Each and every citizen in the United States – man, woman and child – pays some $5,000 or so per year for U.S. defense spending much of which is associated now with the two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan”, he told Press TV’s U.S. Desk.
If the federal government had not spent some $1 trillion on the wars, that money would have been available for “domestic spending including the balance in the budget,” Breyman said. “You can have healthy public finances or you can have war but you can’t have both,” he added.
In Iraq and Afghanistan, some 200,000 people are employed by subcontractors.
By the end of 2008, the U.S. had spent approximately $900 billion in direct costs on Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Some experts estimate indirect costs such as interest on the additional debt will exceed the direct costs. Red Ice Creation
However, prominent economics professor Joseph E. Stiglitz says the true cost of the Iraq war is beyond $3 trillion. Washington Post
According to the Congressional Budget Office, defense spending grew 9% annually on average from fiscal year 2000-2009.
In Iraq, reconstruction efforts have been plagued by poor management, mishandling of reconstruction funds, inadequate coordination with Iraqis and widespread attacks on construction sites and contractors as documented by the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR). NYT
A 2005 report stated that nearly $9 billion of reconstruction fund was lost by the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA). CNN
ASSOCIATED PRESS – Republicans in the Wisconsin Assembly took the first significant
action on their plan to strip collective bargaining rights from most
public workers, abruptly passing the measure early Friday morning
before sleep-deprived Democrats realized what was happening.
The vote ended three straight days of punishing debate in the
Assembly that made it the longest continuous session in Assembly
history.
But the political standoff over the bill — and the monumental protests at the state Capitol against it — appear far from over.
The Assembly’s vote sent the bill on to the Senate, but minority
Democrats in that house have fled to Illinois to prevent a vote. No one
knows when they will return from hiding. Republicans who control the
chamber sent state troopers out looking for them at their homes on
Thursday, but they turned up nothing.
“I applaud the Democrats in the Assembly for earnestly debating this
bill and urge their counterparts in the state Senate to return to work
and do the same,” Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, said in
a statement issued moments after the vote.
The plan from Republican Gov. Scott Walker contains a number of
provisions he says are designed to fill the state’s $137 million
deficit and lay the groundwork for fixing a projected $3.6 billion
shortfall in the upcoming 2011-13 budget.
The flashpoint is language that would require public workers to
contribute more to their pensions and health insurance and strip them
of their right to collectively bargain benefits and work conditions.
Democrats and unions see the measure as an attack on workers’ rights
and an attempt to cripple union support for Democrats. Union leaders
say they would make pension and health care concessions if they can
keep their bargaining rights, but Walker has refused to compromise.
Tens of thousands of people have jammed the Capitol since last week
to protest, pounding on drums and chanting so loudly that police
providing security have resorted to ear plugs. Hundreds have taken to
sleeping in the building overnight, dragging in air mattresses and
blankets.
PRESS TV