Government (In)Action

A short glimpse into the state of the nation as we close the book on summer 2011 finds a country mired in a zero-growth economy with just over 9% of the eligible workforce sitting on the sidelines. Add to that a dismal housing forecast which predicts record numbers of homes entering the foreclosure stage and you’ve got yourself a reason to feel slightly uneasy about not only your future but the future of those retirement plans you’ve been funneling into that diminishing 401K for the last few years.

In a nutshell, times are hard, things are bad and man, we could really use a knight in shining armor to come riding into town with a message of “Hey, don’t you worry, things are gonna be alright!”

Well, thank God for the United States Government because here they come, right on cue and wow, do they have a plan for us.

You may have heard whispers in the wind about a Jobs Bill which the president put to congress last week. Might have seen that stirring speech he gave as part of the pre-game hype before the NFL kicked off last week? To recap that all you gotta know is if congress passes this bill we can all look forward to a reborn economy and brighter days ahead.

Sounded good to me and being of the sort who likes to offer an even chance to back a claim I thought the bill might be worth reading to see how this brighter tomorrow is to come about. 451 sections of legalese spread over 199 pages later I think I can offer an insight as to what this bill means, how it’s supposed to work and who it’s going to benefit. So let’s dive in and see what the latest version of an American Stimulus Package is all about.

First off, the thing is a spending bill. It plans on dropping over $450,000,000,000 into the American economy in the hope 1.9 million people will find gainful employment as a result. And if the bill does nothing else I will admit its free use of all those zeros at the end of every expenditure do an effective job of placing some hard to swallow reality to the thing. A billion dollars really is an extremely impressive amount of money.

So we’ll spend $450,000,000,000 to fix the economy. Okay, sounds like a plan. Anybody who has looked around the country over the last decade can certainly reel off a list of projects that could use some cash and I wonder what kind of pride and unity could be gained from a bold idea like “Let’s go to the moon!” or “Let’s build a railroad from New York to LA which takes six hours to get there!” could do so yeah, I’m intrigued.

But for anyone out there who thinks this “Jobs” bill is about setting a bold national plan to rebuild the country and have physical testaments to what we’ve done along the lines of 1930’s depression projects like the Hoover Dam or the citizen labor brigades of the Civilian Conservation Corps is going to be sadly disappointed. Because unless you work for the government, or were recently laid off by the government, this plan is most likely not going to touch you in the slightest.

There are jobs in the bill, don’t forget that. It’s just the jobs they’re primarily talking about are the ones cops, firemen and teachers hold. Public sector jobs. And I’m all in favor of teachers, cops and firemen but I do kinda wonder if we really and truly need all the cops we currently have. I mean, I see at least two cops (at good hourly wages) working highway roadwork details as I do for every cop doing something (anything) else. And when we’re as strapped as we are do we need to spend those types of wages on what, in all reality, is not much more than a work zone flagman?

I’m just saying, we’re in a very serious national state of peril right now and as such, could we maybe look around for areas to streamline instead of jacking up the status quo?

Okay though, what else is in there? Surely there’s a plan to put people to work, isn’t there? Get some things lined out, identify some areas where improvements are needed and set some systems to attack the issue?

Well, one doesn’t need to look farther than America’s decaying infrastructure to locate some areas where immediate improvements are needed. Our highways, bridges, levees, rural roads, etc…are in dire need of repair or outright rebuild. The congressional study sighted by the bill itself says we’ll need to spend $2,200,000,000,000 (that’s trillion) over the next five years alone just to raise our infrastructure to an “adequate” level. So there’s $27,000,000,000 set aside for highway spending, $2,000,000,000 on airports and $2,000,000,000 on Amtrak. Good start, right? Well, aside from the Amtrak thing. We did that already with Stimulus One and travel by rail in America is still 3rd Class anyway you look at it.

But take a look into the highway plan. That’s a lot of money so somebody should be in control of how it’s spent and where it goes, right? Well, this is where the government of The United States of America truly displays its excellence. What will we do?

Create another layer of bureaucracy, of course!

So let me introduce you to the American Infrastructure Finance Authority. There’s going to be a board of directors, a CEO, full slate of senior management and office space in DC. Now I will say, these are a few of the actual jobs which the bill will manage to create but again, I don’t think these jobs are for the average Joe American. They’re presidentially appointed and subject only to a Senatorial consent.

It will be under this authority where the money will be distributed. They’ll be in charge of a huge budget and will make loans of that money to those they feel worthy. Not such a terrible idea but then, remember the $550,000,000 given to that solar company out in California with Stimulus One? The company that was supposed to lead the way in a new field of Amer-I-CAN technology?

Yeah, that money’s gone. Company went bankrupt two weeks ago.

Government bureaucracy just doesn’t have a great track record so my confidence is less than stellar when it comes to this latest government plan.

Moving on though we see a little organization called Project Rebuild which will get $15,000,000,000 to spend on urban clean up. 66% of this 15 bill is going to the HUD who is tasked to fill the ranks with low income labor to ‘clean up’ urban blight. Correct me if I’m wrong but haven’t we been doing this for like, what forty years? Been downtown lately? Still looks kinda grim, don’t it?

But there is some positivity in this part too. There’s $1,500,000,000 in grant money available to those who wish to train the labor force. But unless you can prove you’re only going to train low income people you won’t see any of this cash. The 2 Billion set aside to subsidize labor is restricted to hiring either the unemployed or low income adults.

A few years ago I worked construction in the low income neighborhoods of Richmond, Virginia. Worked for a crew on an HUD contract and we employed some of the ‘low income’ types the government speaks so fondly of. We’d have plenty of work to do but the ‘hand out’ labor force we were assigned weren’t eager to work or proud to do so. They refused to invest in tools (hammer, tape measure), failed to listen to instruction and were not of the sort who could be counted on to show up for work five days in a row. And a nine am start time for us meant 10:30 to them.

I’m not saying the lower income population should be left out in the cold and ignored, I’m just saying when we’re tasked with rebuilding the economy we might have better success if we set our sites a little higher and looked to employ those who actually want to work as opposed to those who are more than content not to.

I mean, the 99 week extension of unemployment benefits the bill provides should be enough to cover them anyway, right? I still scratch my head at the irony of a Jobs Bill which sets aside billions to keep people unemployed but then there is much to this world which I fail to comprehend.

Anyway, I could go on but I would imagine of the thirty or so people who began to read this there’s probably less than half of you left. So let’s hit a conclusion and see what happens from here.

Is this a good bill? No, it won’t do a thing to fix the economy. About all you’ll ever see of this government waste will be those pretty road construction signs saying “Your tax dollars at work! American Jobs Act of 2011!” Other than that you can kiss this cash goodbye.

But should it be passed into law? Yes, it should. Because at its root this bill is nothing but a political toy, a campaign chip. Obama and The Left put this ridiculous scam together with the belief it will be held up by a republican congress. When the republicans miss the boat on this (as they will) the Obama re-election crew can give us 14 months of speeches about how they had a plan to fix the economy but the republicans refused to ‘help the American people…”

So pass the sunuvabitch and put it back on the clowns in charge. Expect another year of 9% unemployment and let this administration hang itself with its own rope.

And remember this, your own indifference and refusal to look into what our government does is how we got to where we are. And as long as they can rely upon ignorance and apathy we can expect nothing less than more of the same…

September 11 and The Shadow Theory

September 11…Bring The Theories

I love conspiracy theories. Love the sound of Black Ops, Shadow Government and the thought of nefarious little schemers plotting for global control from underground bunkers. Magic bullets, secret wars and puppet masters pulling strings as they profit from our compliance.

But proving a theory isn’t as easy, or as sexy, as taking the baton and running with it. We’ll mark the tenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks this year and ten years on we’re still trying to figure out the who, what, why and how it all went down. Some buy the ‘accepted’ version of events while others don’t or won’t. Compelled to question, forced to refute and unsatisfied with the overall picture the 9/11 Conspiracy Theorists have made the claim it was not an Islamic motivated attack on America to spread a global jihad but an inside job planned and executed by those who sat in the power seats at the millennial turn.

I’m with it. I get it. I hear the noise and lend an eager ear to see if something’s there. And I dig through the rhetoric, peel back the layers and work my mind through history to see what the truth really is. And if it’s possible to back it, stack it and prove it.

And maybe what I’m saying here will make a little sense and sway some opinion. Regardless, I welcome the challenge and ask only if I’m wrong, to please verify my errors and provide evidence of contrarian support.

To begin, I believe September 11, 2001 was a coordinated attack on America by an organized, well funded and highly motivated terrorist network based in the Afghanistan caves with a tentacle reach through Europe and into the United States. In short, I’m buyin’ the advertised opinion. But I get the unease which follows the story and I’ve dug through the pieces to fight for truth and refute the other view.

So come on along and let’s see where you stand and if you’ll bite my bait or still swear allegiance to the sexier side of history.

To begin, let’s look into the ‘Conspiracy Theory’. Let’s take a peek and see what all the fuss is about and how something can get so twisted and bent out of shape. In a nutshell, according the 9/11 Truther movement, September 11 was a coordinated, government attack on America for the purpose of starting a foreign war for personal profit. Our own government planned the attack, sent in the planes, wired the buildings for controlled collapse, fire-rocketed the Pentagon and shot down Flight 93 to lull the citizenship into terrified compliance with their secretive strategy to enter America into an endless war for the control of oil and the formation of an authoritative state.

In other words, Dick Cheney planted detonation devices in the World Trade Center so that Haliburton would receive billions in government war contracts.

Now that’s what I call a sexy story. And I wish it were true. I wish it could be proved and I wish we’d rise up, throw the shackles of oppression from our shoulders and sling those perpetrators from the nearest branch.

But I can’t.

I can’t because I cannot find a single shred of verifiable fact to support the story. On the other hand, there’s a pretty well established trail of historical support to make a sound argument that a nest of radical Islamists got highly offended by the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in the fall of 1989 and gleefully fought a guerilla war against them which sent shockwaves of unity throughout the Muslim world and, after being shunned by the Saudi government with their voluntary offer to take care of Saddam in 1990-91, set out on an Islamic Jihad against the western world to fight for an Islamic state, free of the foreign infidel.

That’s the history side of the show and while there’s a lot to back it up that ain’t why you’re here reading this. We want to take the Truther Movement, hear their argument and then see if holds the water.

So let’s dive on in and sort some of this out, shall we?

Now, we’re not going to look at the big picture and try to find proof of Cheney’s wickedness or attempt to locate sources with knowledge of detonators laid throughout the World Trade Center complex or even try to come up with an explanation of where the 9/11 planes disappeared to or how, once the Iraq War was started, it actually brought down an administration instead of giving it permanent secret powers so hold on to your horses for the immediate present.

For now we’ll take the 9/11 Truther ‘evidence’ and see where it goes.

There is no shortage of websites and pamphlet proof to back the 9/11 claims of conspiracy. But they do, for the most part, follow some tasty newsbytes and singular events which then lead to the growing suspicions. Think about the JFK assassination and how the ‘Magic Bullet Theory’ was too hard to swallow and thus made for a reasonable assumption that something had to be amiss. That’s where this movement took its root.

And among the bullet point discrepancies which litter the internet there are a couple which stand out for their peculiarities. We’ll look at those and go from there.

WTC 7 was a controlled collapse, Flight 93 left a debris field, no plane hit the pentagon, jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to melt steel and the towers came down due to secondary explosions planted prior to the attacks.

On their own these are pretty wild claims. Bundled together they can pose a host of questions but like most things, if you peel the layer back and look at it from the source things begin to make more sense.

And again, all this starts because the Truth varies from what the government has told us. Remember, we aren’t asked to think for ourselves but to blindly accept what they’d like us to believe.

And while I’d like to believe my health care costs will go down, Social Security will be there for me, we went to war to bring ‘democracy to Iraq’ and the Department of Homeland Security is well-tuned, efficient machine of bureaucracy…well, I already bought the Brooklyn Bridge and it never got delivered.

Anyway, here we go. In no particular order let’s debunk some theories.

Jet Fuel Doesn’t Burn Hot Enough To Melt Steel: No. It doesn’t. But 9/11 Truthers want us to believe the government is telling us the jet fuel which started the fires in the Twin Towers melted the steel trusses and brought the buildings down. In fact, all the jet fuel on the site is generally considered to have burned off within ten minutes of impact.

So if jet fuel didn’t melt the steel trusses what did? Well, first off, the steel didn’t melt. It did expand, it did weaken and it did fail but it didn’t melt. The planes’ impact pushed vast amounts of combustible material into the buildings (chairs, rugs, desks, etc…) and the ensuing fire was estimated to have reached 1832 degrees Fahrenheit (Popular Mechanics). A fire of that strength could soften the trusses enough to fail, thus forcing the floors above to collapse upon themselves and each pan-caked floor below would fail in rapid succession. This pan-cake effect also accounted for the ‘explosions’ which sounded very much like a controlled detonation not unlike something we’d see on great television shows like “When Buildings Collapse”.

WTC North and South Were Controlled Collapses: Uhhh, no they weren’t. They were actually quite out of control and quite different from each other. But let’s say for the sake of argument they were controlled collapses and they were brought down by previously planted explosives (that damned Dick Cheney!).

The overwhelming video evidence marks the point of initial building failure. You can clearly see the steel exterior of the buildings snap as their supports give way. I believe they snapped due to weakened steel caused by the fire from the planes’ impact but hey, let’s say there were explosives attached to the vertical supports and they were ignited in sequence to begin the reaction.

Well, this has to mean the planes were precisely sent to their corresponding floors to ignite the diversionary flames which then masked the explosions…So hey pilot, while you’re flying that massive jet into a building (on live TV in the case of the South Tower) make sure you park it exactly between the 94th and 98th floors (North Tower) and the 78th and 84th floors of the South Tower so we can synchronize the collapse, alright?…

Both Frontline and National Geographic, among many others, have video evidence of the collapse beginning at these locations so…well, I’ll leave it at that.

WTC 7 Was A Controlled Collapse- Well, of course. It had to be. Why? Well, because there’s a recording of an NYC Fire Chief saying into his walkie-talkie “Pull It” a few minutes prior to the collapse. ‘Pull It’ of course, is a term used by demolition crews to announce the firing of the detonators during a demolition. While it can also be used as a phrase to ‘pull’ any personnel from a flaming building that wouldn’t support our claim that Bush Lied and People Died, would it?

The collapse itself is questioned though. Far too neat to be the result of a huge chunk of falling debris and a fire which burned out of control for nearly five hours. Of course the unique design of WTC 7 and the way its support columns were located (and subsequently taken out by the afore mentioned falling debris) wouldn’t make much scientific sense (sarcasm) but then who needs science when we’re talkin’ ‘bout Shadow Governments, right?

Flight 93 Was Shot Down- One part of the 9/11 Truther movement I find so amazing is the incredible ability of our own government (the ones who brought you the TSA! And Medicaid!) to operate with such pin-point precision during hours of remarkable chaos. So, Flight 93 (the final plane) was shot down on its way to Washington. Why? Well, to prevent it from hitting the White House…or the Capitol Building.

Now this one is one I’d actually like to believe. I mean, the government, knowing we’re under attack by elements willing to kill us, can flip into action and rustle up a fighter to knock the offending missile from the sky. And while this is probably the one aspect of the Truther movement the government wished were true it simply did not happen because without the transponder on Flight 93 (those bastards turned the locators off) we had no idea where this thing was exactly. But due reports of a ‘debris field’ found several miles away at Indian Lake it could have only meant one thing…which was the plane was shot down.

Turns out the ‘debris field’ story originated from a single article on CNN.com written on September 13, 2001 which did reveal the presence of debris 3 miles from the Flight 93 crash site. The debris in question? Paper, tatters of clothing, seat fabric…that sort of thing. The same kind of things which could get carried by the wind after a catastrophic impact…

Oh, and the ‘white plane’ seen in the area which of course shot 93 down? That was a corporate jet from the Wrangler company obliging the FAA and landing at nearby Greensboro Airport. Air traffic control asked it to investigate during its descent and it diverted its flight plan to take a ‘look see’ which it did and reported from 1500 feet that yes, there was a pretty large hole in the ground.

Pentagon Ws Hit By A Rocket- Well, no it wasn’t. A plane flew into the building and shredded itself on the re-enforced concrete (which explains why you don’t see an outline of a plane on the exterior). But since there was no video imaging of the impact it could only mean the US Military fired a rocket at itself to…to…wait a minute…to throw suspicion off! Yeah, close enough.

Plane residue, tail section and the black box were all retrieved from the Pentagon site but…well, that doesn’t help us out ‘cause damn it! We want some conspiracy goin’ on!

Anyway, there’s a start. I understand it doesn’t sound as cool as the Shadow Government but hey, truth is sometimes lamer than fiction. And I know there’s room to pick and pull the story above apart and I welcome the discussion but if we are to argue let’s try to argue these points as well. Gimme some opinion on these questions:

1. If 9/11 was a conspiracy and the planes weren’t commercial aircraft then where did those planes (and passengers) go? Where?
2. If demolitions were planted in the towers (and let’s at least agree they had to be at the impact floors) how were they not noticed prior to 9/11? The South Tower impact zone was right at the 78th floor Sky Lobby, one of the most trafficked areas in the entire building…how they’d go unnoticed?
3. Please explain away the Islamic Jihad…
4. No really, explain how Mohammed Atta and Co. were taking flight classes, living in America and being associated with radical Islamists well before September 11…
5. Please explain the 1993 WTC attack and how that fits, or doesn’t fit into the method and mayhem of Al-Quaida
6. Explain the assassination of Northern Alliance general Ahmad Shah Masoud on September 9, 2001…a key opponent to Al-Quaida whose strategic removal hindered the Northern Alliance’s leadership during the ensuing retaliation by Western forces…
7. Please provide a motive for 9/11 to be an ‘inside job’…why would anybody think this would be a worthwhile idea?


Anyway, hopefully this will get us started. I welcome the rebuttals but let’s make sure we’re using fact, not opinion. Give me the verifiable proof to support your stance. I’ll listen, I’ll expand. I’ll take it with respect and we can debate intellectually.

But bring the argument and make it stand.

Live Free Or Die,

Jed Dunham
July 16, 2011

Sources consulted include: CNN, PBS Frontline, CBS News, National Geographic, Time Magazine and Popular Mechanics…also, 911truth.org, infowars.com and 911 Loose Change.

Friday Prayers and Change in The Middle East

"Egypt? Isn't that where they have all those pyramids?"

Yes. Yes it is...

So maybe you heard they have a little 'sumpthin sumpthin' going on over there these last few days? Maybe you've heard enough to start asking yourself "Why do I keep hearing about this?" Maybe you want to know why it's starting to matter and, to be more specific, why it's going to matter to you?

For starters pretty much anything that happens in the Middle East is going to have an impact on your daily life. There's that whole oil thing which, I must admit, I'm pretty dependant on. Then there's that Suez Canal which allows a significant portion of the world's commercial shipping traffic to flow through thus saving the arduous circumvention around the Horn of Africa. And, if memory serves correctly, there's still that situation involving global terrorism which, difficult as it may to be to admit, is centered on a belief in radical Islam.

So when a hard party rule that's kept the status quo in the world's most populous Arab country begins to ride the wave of revolution threatening both our valued ally (despot though he may be) and, far more importantly, a fragile peace with Israel...well, maybe you start getting the idea.

But what's it mean? Why now? Who's who and how did it come to this? And of far more interest, what happens next?

Well, nobody really knows what happens next but by the time your eyes have scrolled this deep into the story we may begin to see the direction the ball will roll. Friday Prayers will probably make the global headlines and might even be bench-marked as the moment when it all began to change in the Middle East. That's about 24 hours from now.

A best case scenario might mean a transfer of power and a peaceful move to a representative democracy where the good of the people comes before power, wealth and might. Could be a moment for us all to link arms, drop a few bars of 'Kum-Bay-Yah' and marvel at how cool it was to actually give peace a chance.

But, like they say in Vegas, "Good Luck With All That."

It could be the start of a worst case scenario which, in the darkest hours, means the tearing up of the fragile peace treaty with Israel, a ground war in the region and, if lunacy gets an upper hand, the first nuclear device detonated in anger since early August of 1945...

So yeah, you might say this is kind of a big deal.

So take a peek back and follow the story and let's see if we can't make our own conclusions on the subject. To refresh, a few weeks ago, mid December, a young Tunisian man who couldn't find work, couldn't pay the bills and was kept down by a government that lived by the principle "It just ain't about you" felt pushed enough that the only way out was to voice a protest. So he doused himself in gasoline and lit the match. Publicly. And The People dug it. Said, "Damn, man! If that cat has the stones to do that then I'll do this."

And thus began the Middle Eastern Twitter Revolution of 2011 which resulted in a dictator being overthrown by the populace. There was bloodshed, there was strife and the young man did eventually die. But Tunisia changed it's own history and things are looking up for them.

So The People got excited and said "Why not try that for ourselves?...well, aside from that whole lighting ourselves on fire thing..." And the streets of the region began to fill as the oppressed united their voice and called for Change.

Enter the Egyptians and despised president Hosni Mubarak. Apparently he's not so generous with the two billion dollars we Americans fork over annually to keep him from invading Israel or allowing his compadres to do so. Which is a bit odd since 1.3 of those billions are sent directly to the Egyptian military, but that's another story for another day.

Anyway, Mubarak's time is up. Or is it? The people want him gone, that much is certain. But the military hasn't weighed in yet (wait for Friday Prayers). And Mubarak's answer to The People of sacking his cabinet and promising to leave office in September just hasn't been enough to sway the protest back underground.

So what is a dictator to do? Well, he doesn't want to leave power, that much he's shown. And while the world praises the military's restraint (wait till Friday) and the protest turn towards violence the world wonders who will fill the stage once Mubarak is gone.

That's quite the question because if Egypt goes democracy then so will the region and that is something nobody thought possible. But it might not go straight democracy. Could go hard line Islamic much like Iran did in 1979 and thus the parallels are drawn. That's a fear because again, it threatens the peace with Israel which threatens everything as we know it.

I don't see that parallel though. I see a similarity along the lines of another major revolution from our modern era which has changed our world more than any other event aside from 9/11.

Beijing. June, 1989. Everybody thought the wind of change was swirling there too and that The People! would rise and rule. Then, the Communists split the opposition, made a deal with the military, sent in the tanks and Squash! so went democracy in China...

That's what I see here. Could be wrong. Hopefully I am. But the longer Mubarak stays in power the stronger he becomes. And that military? Those 468,000 active duty troops who control some 1/3 of the Egyptian economy? Well, maybe they've been silent because there's some deals being made. Deals like, "Hey, I'll give you the top spots in my new cabinet and you keep me in power, capaiche?"

So keep it tuned these next few hours. When prayers let out there could be some very serious action going on in the streets of Egypt.

And if Mubarak is still in power come Monday...well, then he may be in power for a long time to come and thus the Middle East may swing deeper into hard line rule and farther from a democratic styled government.

It's major world history and it's happening right now...