Six Ways America Is Like a Third-World Country Our society lags behind the rest of the developed wor
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Oh, quite far behind..but who knows?? Nations have their own ways of 'sharing'....
Imagine what will be the scene if Talibans acquired drone technology or grasped an atom bomb from somewhere ?? Talibans have learnt to make small weaponry, land mines and bombs....they seem to be good copy cats..........
A FURTHER PERSPECTIVE
WE’RE STILL GOING BACKWARD
America has yet to recover from the Recovery Summer of 2010.
By Ralph R. Reiland – 4.18.13
Send to Kindle
It was nearly three years ago, June 2010, that the Obama administration billed the coming season as “Recovery Summer.”
To pump up the administration's hot-air balloon of optimism about an economic turnaround that supposedly was just around the corner, President Obama flew to Columbus, Ohio, to do a photo op with workers in hard hats and to celebrate the groundbreaking of a “shovel-ready,” stimulus-financed highway project.
Actually, the shovels were never “ready.” The president's visit to Columbus came nearly a year and a half after the $787 billion stimulus bill was signed into law.
“Stimulus-financed construction is set to explode this summer: 10,700 highway projects should be under way next month, up from just 1,750 last July,” reported the New York Times on June 18, 2010. “States expect to weatherize 82,000 homes this summer — 27 times the number of homes that were weatherized last summer, when the program got off to a slow start. And there will be 2,828 clean-water projects under construction, a twentyfold increase over last year.”
I suppose it's not all bad that people in 82,000 houses got their windows caulked for nothing during Recovery Summer. That's better than if the government had spent the money on drones to spy on gun clubs.
The free caulking and duct tape program was funded by a $5 billion supplemental appropriation in the stimulus bill for the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP).
To qualify, WAP recipients had to have incomes at or below 200 percent of the government-established poverty line.
We're now way past the 82,000 houses that were to be federally weatherized during the Recovery Summer of 2010. In September 2012, the Department of Energy celebrated the weatherization of the one millionth home.
Joining the celebration, the Center for American Progress (“Progressive Ideas for a Strong, Just and Free America”) said that those truckloads of complimentary Fiberglas, duct tape, and caulking were “a key part of the strategy to jump-start the economy” plus “it helps avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.”
If they spent $5 billion to weatherize a million houses, that's an average of $5,000 per retrofitted residence, and federal reports show that people in another 37 million residences are income eligible to receive the federally supplied weatherization.
The Department of Energy stated that recipients of the weatherization program would save an average of $1.10 a day on their energy bills, or enough to buy almost half of a super-sized sugary drink, except they're becoming illegal.
Nearly three years since Recovery Summer, we're $16.8 trillion in the hole, the median household income is lower than in 2010, we're stuck in a jobs depression, one in six Americans is living in poverty, and millions of workers have gone missing from the workforce.
“The Labor Department reported that the U.S. labor force — everyone who has a job or is looking for one — shrank by 500,000 people in March,” reported the Washington Poston April 6. “That brought the civilian labor force participation rate to 63.3 percent in March, its lowest level since May 1979.”
Bottom line: There was no 2010 Recovery Summer and we're still going backward. GDP growth in the last quarter of 2012 was a near-nothing 0.4 percent, down from the anemic growth rates of 1.8 percent in 2011 and 2.2 percent in all of 2012.
WE’RE STILL GOING BACKWARD
America has yet to recover from the Recovery Summer of 2010.
By Ralph R. Reiland – 4.18.13
Send to KindleIt was nearly three years ago, June 2010, that the Obama administration billed the coming season as “Recovery Summer.”
To pump up the administration's hot-air balloon of optimism about an economic turnaround that supposedly was just around the corner, President Obama flew to Columbus, Ohio, to do a photo op with workers in hard hats and to celebrate the groundbreaking of a “shovel-ready,” stimulus-financed highway project.
Actually, the shovels were never “ready.” The president's visit to Columbus came nearly a year and a half after the $787 billion stimulus bill was signed into law.
“Stimulus-financed construction is set to explode this summer: 10,700 highway projects should be under way next month, up from just 1,750 last July,” reported the New York Times on June 18, 2010. “States expect to weatherize 82,000 homes this summer — 27 times the number of homes that were weatherized last summer, when the program got off to a slow start. And there will be 2,828 clean-water projects under construction, a twentyfold increase over last year.”
I suppose it's not all bad that people in 82,000 houses got their windows caulked for nothing during Recovery Summer. That's better than if the government had spent the money on drones to spy on gun clubs.
The free caulking and duct tape program was funded by a $5 billion supplemental appropriation in the stimulus bill for the Department of Energy's Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP).
To qualify, WAP recipients had to have incomes at or below 200 percent of the government-established poverty line.
We're now way past the 82,000 houses that were to be federally weatherized during the Recovery Summer of 2010. In September 2012, the Department of Energy celebrated the weatherization of the one millionth home.
Joining the celebration, the Center for American Progress (“Progressive Ideas for a Strong, Just and Free America”) said that those truckloads of complimentary Fiberglas, duct tape, and caulking were “a key part of the strategy to jump-start the economy” plus “it helps avoid the most catastrophic consequences of climate change.”
If they spent $5 billion to weatherize a million houses, that's an average of $5,000 per retrofitted residence, and federal reports show that people in another 37 million residences are income eligible to receive the federally supplied weatherization.
The Department of Energy stated that recipients of the weatherization program would save an average of $1.10 a day on their energy bills, or enough to buy almost half of a super-sized sugary drink, except they're becoming illegal.
Nearly three years since Recovery Summer, we're $16.8 trillion in the hole, the median household income is lower than in 2010, we're stuck in a jobs depression, one in six Americans is living in poverty, and millions of workers have gone missing from the workforce.
“The Labor Department reported that the U.S. labor force — everyone who has a job or is looking for one — shrank by 500,000 people in March,” reported the Washington Poston April 6. “That brought the civilian labor force participation rate to 63.3 percent in March, its lowest level since May 1979.”
Bottom line: There was no 2010 Recovery Summer and we're still going backward. GDP growth in the last quarter of 2012 was a near-nothing 0.4 percent, down from the anemic growth rates of 1.8 percent in 2011 and 2.2 percent in all of 2012.
So why do you support the taliban then?
I don't support them...
In my opinion grievances must be addressed and solution sought for the problems..Warring isn't good...It kills innocent people more than the criminals themselves
In the Name of Democracy: American War Crimes in Iraq and Beyond (American Empire Project)
A riveting documentary anthology that examines a deeply disturbing question: Is the United States guilty of war crimes in Iraq?
Until recently, the possibility that the United States was responsible for war crimes seemed unthinkable to most Americans. But as previously suppressed information has started to emerge—photographs from Abu Ghraib; accounts of U.S. attacks on Iraqi hospitals, mosques, and residential neighborhoods; secret government reports defending unilateral aggression—Americans have begun an agonizing reappraisal of the Iraq war and the way in which their government has conducted it.
Drawing on a wide range of documents—from the protocols of the Geneva Convention to FBI e-mails about prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay to executive-branch papers justifying the circumvention of international law—In the Name of Democracy examines the legality of the Iraq war and the occupation that followed. Included in this powerful investigation are eyewitness accounts, victim testimonials, statements by soldiers turned resisters and whistle-blowers, interviews with intelligence insiders, and contributions by Mark Danner and Seymour Hersh.
The result is a controversial, chilling anthology that explores the culpability of officials as well as the responsibilities of ordinary citizens, and for the first time squarely confronts the matter of American impunity.
A riveting documentary anthology that examines a deeply disturbing question: Is the United States guilty of war crimes in Iraq?
Until recently, the possibility that the United States was responsible for war crimes seemed unthinkable to most Americans. But as previously suppressed information has started to emerge—photographs from Abu Ghraib; accounts of U.S. attacks on Iraqi hospitals, mosques, and residential neighborhoods; secret government reports defending unilateral aggression—Americans have begun an agonizing reappraisal of the Iraq war and the way in which their government has conducted it.
Drawing on a wide range of documents—from the protocols of the Geneva Convention to FBI e-mails about prisoners held in Guantánamo Bay to executive-branch papers justifying the circumvention of international law—In the Name of Democracy examines the legality of the Iraq war and the occupation that followed. Included in this powerful investigation are eyewitness accounts, victim testimonials, statements by soldiers turned resisters and whistle-blowers, interviews with intelligence insiders, and contributions by Mark Danner and Seymour Hersh.
The result is a controversial, chilling anthology that explores the culpability of officials as well as the responsibilities of ordinary citizens, and for the first time squarely confronts the matter of American impunity.
They died in a host of horrific ways. They were killed by insurgents’ deadly targeting or mangled in the dangerous equipment with which they worked. The causes of death include hostile rocket-propelled grenade fire and the improvised explosive devices that have been responsible for roughly half of all deaths and injuries in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their deaths were also the result of truck rollovers and other vehicle crashes, electrocutions, heatstroke deaths, friendly fire, and suicides in theater.
Official Pentagon numbers recognize only some of the war dead, however. Uncounted are the many troops who return home and kill themselves as a result of war wounds such as PTSD. The military does not report suicides among non-active duty reservists, and the Department of Veterans Affairs still does not report suicides among all veterans, resulting in dramatic underreporting of the scale of the problem.
While the mortally wounded US soldier is the “gold standard” of war deaths for many Americans, the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan have produced fatalities among large and unrecognized numbers of private contract workers. In late 2012, the 110,000 DoD contractors in Afghanistan outnumber the uniformed US troops there. While contractors have been killed in large numbers, a full and accurate accounting has not yet been done by the Pentagon. At minimum, approximately 3,000 contractors working for the US have been killed in the two war zones; the true number is likely much larger. This is the consequence of the fact that the majority of US contractors are the citizens of other countries, many of whom appear not to have had their deaths or injuries reported. (Page updated as of March 2013)
US War Casualties – Afghanistan (by date)
http://citizenjournalistreview.wordpress.com/us-war-casualties-afghanistan-by-date/
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(This page is continually updated as data is released. You are welcome to go to our home page and leave comments.)
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There have been 3439 coalition deaths – United States 2320, Albania 1, Australia 40, Belgium 1, Canada 158, Czech 5, Denmark 43, Estonia 9, Finland 2, France 86, Georgia 27, Germany 54 Hungary 7, Italy 48, Jordan 2, Latvia 3, Lithuania 1, NATO 15, Netherlands 25, New Zealand 11, Norway 10, Poland 38, Portugal 2, Romania 21, Slovakia 3, South Korea 1, Spain 34, Sweden 5, Turkey 14 and United Kingdom 453 in the war on terror as of May 16, 2014 – have been reported by the government. At least 19,722 personnel have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.
http://citizenjournalistreview.wordpress.com/us-war-casualties-afghanistan-by-date/
105 Votes
(This page is continually updated as data is released. You are welcome to go to our home page and leave comments.)
There have been 3439 coalition deaths – United States 2320, Albania 1, Australia 40, Belgium 1, Canada 158, Czech 5, Denmark 43, Estonia 9, Finland 2, France 86, Georgia 27, Germany 54 Hungary 7, Italy 48, Jordan 2, Latvia 3, Lithuania 1, NATO 15, Netherlands 25, New Zealand 11, Norway 10, Poland 38, Portugal 2, Romania 21, Slovakia 3, South Korea 1, Spain 34, Sweden 5, Turkey 14 and United Kingdom 453 in the war on terror as of May 16, 2014 – have been reported by the government. At least 19,722 personnel have been wounded in action, according to the Pentagon.
This increased US support has coincided with a dramatic escalation of the conflict between local Pakistani insurgents and their government. It is difficult to know how many have died in Pakistan since 2004 due to the violence and how many of those are civilians.
Most of the fighting is concentrated in the Northwest, near the border with Afghanistan, but the bloodshed not infrequently affects civilians throughout Pakistan. Sectarian conflict targeting the country’s minority Shia population has been on the rise in recent years. A March 2013 car bombing in Karachi killed 45 and wounded 146.
At least 50,000 Pakistanis (combatant and non-combatant) have been killed since 2004 and more than 40,000 have been injured during that period by the various parties to the conflict. This does not include the likely deaths of tens of thousands more combatants — both insurgents and Pakistani government forces. Given the pace of the fighting in 2011, several thousand more have likely already been killed and wounded.
The US began its semi-covert campaign of drone strikes in 2004 to kill Al Qaeda and Taliban forces based in Northern Pakistan. These strikes have killed about 3,000 people, including many civilians, as of March 2014. The arguments about how many of the dead are civilians are nearly as intense as the disputes about the legality of the strikes. Many legal scholars regard them as clear violations of international law.
The Taliban, Al Qaeda, and members of other militant organizations have killed thousands of civilians in Pakistan using suicide attacks, assassination, and ambushes.
The Pakistani Security Forces have also killed civilians with mortars, direct fire, and with bombs as they target militants in several major offensives in the Swat Valley and neighboring districts. In some years, it appears that Pakistani security forces were responsible for the majority of civilian killings.
The US has provided direct and overt security aid and reimbursement to Pakistan since the September 11 attacks to a total of more than $14 billion. The US has also trained Pakistani military forces and provided military equipment to Pakistan including tanks, missiles and helicopters which have been used in these offensives.
The burden of war is also evident in the number of Pakistanis who are both internally displaced and who have sought refuge in other countries. Although the exact numbers are difficult to determine, millions of Pakistanis have been pushed from their homes in the last several years. Specifically, in 2012, a half million Pakistanis are reported internally displaced in the northwest region of Pakistan, because of fighting, many staying in the many camps for internally displaced people there. (Text updated as of March 2014)
What grievances do terrorists have and who cares what they are...you are a terrorist supporter
Attachments
You are warring against them, you ought to know what they want if you think you know what YOU want
You are an extremist...a senseless buffoon calling other's names
According to the Chinese Horoscope you can succeed in the milk business.
Here is some 'equipment' for you to dash into the 'dairy business' and spill curds and wheys!!
Its your claim the terrorists have grievances that should be heard not mine.
What are these grievances MAZ
The hate the West for our successes while their own culture has backslid into darkness one century after another.
Their religious foundation is based upon a pedophile war lord masquerading as a Prophet which probably explains a lot of the extreme and aberrant sexual conduct of his worshipers.
Pakistan is not Iraq.
I've stated before in this forum, Iraq should not have been invaded.
War crimes committed by the US did occur.
But, if Pakistan hadn't nurtured the al Qaeda network in it's beginnings and funded the attack on the US ( 9/11 ) there probably wouldn't have been the rationale to invade Iraq.
So while the US was culpable concerning Iraq, war definitely should have been waged against Pakistan from the time the first Trade Tower fell.
Pakistan is not a true ally.
Pakistan is now a convenience to the ending of it's once own terrorist network that took on an independent life of it's own.
Pakistan suffers from it's own design.
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