Daily Archives: August 25, 2011

08/25/11

Which Way for American Military Power?

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta recently called U.S. support for the NATO mission that’s helping opposition forces make progress against Moammar Gadhafi’s regime Libya an example of the international cooperation that will be critical in the future.

In my opinion, under leftist Leon Panetta, the US military will be re-prioritized. The military’s role will shift from defending the US and its allies from attack, to becoming more of an active police force for the United Nations under the Responsibility to Protect doctrine.

Defensive missile systems and nuclear hardware will be de-emphasized in favor of more mobile ground attack forces, with corresponding air and naval support.

We saw this happen in New Zealand under the socialist Clark government of 1999-2008. Our protective Air Strike wing was disbanded, while our special forces and regular infantry were sent into places like East Timor on UN missions to shore up budding socialist regimes.

The left doesn’t want the US to be able to defend itself. They don’t want the US military under the direction of the US Congress – God forbid! Its full of Republicans, some are even conservatives and patriots! The left wants US might and muscle turned into a an international police force, under the direction of the United Nations – where incidentally former New Zealand Prime minister Helen Clark now holds the number 3 position.

I believe the recent action in Libya, should be viewed in this light.

From the American Forces Press Service

“It is a good indication of the kind of partnership and alliances that we need to have for the future if we are going to deal with the threats that we confront in today’s world,” Panetta told students during addresses at both the Naval Postgraduate School and Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center.

Panetta said he is particularly proud of the mission the United States performed as a NATO partner in Libya, including the establishment of a no-fly zone to help protect the Libyan people.

“It is a credit to the great job of nations working together on a common mission – something that is absolutely essential if we are to provide security in the future,” he said.

This support and assistance, he said, has been “part of the key in being able to help the opposition forces there ultimately be able to succeed.”

Panetta expressed hope that the opposition will succeed and NATO will have completed its mission. “It’s clear that the opposition has made significant gains. It’s clear that the regime forces are collapsing and that Gadhafi’s days are numbered,” he said.

The United States continues to monitor events, but the situation remains dangerous and “very fluid,” he said.

“In many ways, the future of Libya is in the hands of the Libyans,” Panetta told the assemblies, echoing President Barack Obama. “We hope that they will decide that it is important to establish stability and important political reforms for the future after 40 years of Gadhafi.”

The Arab Spring, the name given to recent revolutions for democracy throughout the Middle East, is bringing change and in many cases, turmoil to the region, Panetta said. But it also offers “a chance to make that part of the world a better region, one that enjoys some of the values and some of the reforms and some of the political opportunities that we have in this country,” he said.

Neglecting to mention of course that the entire Arab Spring has been directed from the beginning by communists and Islamist extremists.

Americans are famous for their unabashed patriotism and support for their men and women in uniform. Will the left be allowed to turn those admirable qualities into servants of evil?

08/25/11

Did Hedge Funds Throw The 2008 Election?

By: Jeff Lukens
NewsVine

Hedge fund traders had a great year in 2008. That year, hedge fund short sellers were instrumental in the spike in fuel prices, the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers, the banking crisis, and the stock market collapse. While extremely wealthy hedge fund traders engineered each of these calamities, and made billions of more dollars short selling each one, the American people collectively lost trillions of dollars in the value of their homes and savings.

And, as amazing as it is, no one went to jail. Why? Well, perhaps it is because in 2007 the perpetrators had some laws changed to their liking. And perhaps it is because these people are politically connected to the Obama Administration and Congressional liberals. Our government is protecting them, and there needs to be a public investigation into this matter.

The hedge fund short sellers who were at the root of the mayhem are found primarily at the Managed Funds Association (MFA), the so-called “voice of global alternative investment community.” MFA members include George Soros, John Paulson, Jim Chanos, James Harris Simons, and others.

When Democrats took control of Congress in January 2007, MFA lobbyists soon began pressuring Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox to remove safeguard regulations that provided the conditions for stable markets. Such regulations had been in place since 1938. Cox eventually yielded to their requests to repeal the uptick rule, circuit breakers, and trading curbs. The Federal Accounting Standards Board also instituted mark-to-market accounting. Short ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) were introduced that year as well. Collectively, these changes fomented the resulting financial disaster.

The next year was a tumultuous one for investors. Early in 2008, the stock market was trending lower as news of the subprime mortgage crisis began to unfold. In July, oil prices spiked to $147 per barrel sending ripples through the economy. One of those ripples was to hit Lehman Brothers. The double whammy of subprime mortgages and soaring oil prices put them under.

On Monday, Sept 15, Lehman filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy while other lending institutions lined up like dominoes teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. On Thursday of that week, a $550 billion electronic run on banks occurred within an hour or two, going mostly to offshore accounts. Instantly, there became a liquidity crisis within the banking industry. In an unprecedented move, the Treasury and the Federal Reserve had to act together to stop what had become a full-fledged panic. No one has ever investigated who withdrew the money or to where it went.

Up to that week, John McCain was ahead of Barack Obama in some polls by about 3 percent. By Oct. 10, the S&P 500 Index had lost 25 percent of its value from what it had been a month before and the McCain campaign was doomed. Hedge fund short sellers effectively handed the election to Barack Obama.

Declining markets occur all the time. It would be an outrage to the American people if someone were to induce a market panic in the midst of a presidential campaign. Could this be what happened in 2008? We may never know for sure. The evidence is at best circumstantial. This could possibly be the perfect crime of all time. The question we need to ask ourselves now is whether we are exposed for this to happen in 2012?

Among MFA members, George Soros is the most well known. He has made his fortune by short selling and then pouring his private wealth into shadow organizations to subvert various nations. Hastening a market meltdown to give the election to Barack Obama would fit with his pattern of profiting while destroying the social order of his target country. His financing of the Democrat Party and hundreds of 527 organizations collectively has become a “Shadow Party” unto themselves. While profit and control motivate most hedge fund executives, Soros also has an ulterior motive to hasten a New World Order.

Another Soros associate is John Paulson. Paulson has contributed financially to both major political parties. He too has made billions by shorting collateralized mortgage debt securities, and then waiting for the financial institutions to collapse a few months later.

In his book, Wizards of Wall Street, Zubi Diamond detailed how the hedge fund short sellers operate in private. According to Diamond, the hedge fund short sellers are predators who feast on companies and economic sectors that can be pummeled “by market manipulations through collusion and unrestricted short selling.” Hedge fund traders, Diamond notes, can drive prices down and then drive them back up, all within a 15-minute period. Unlike mutual funds, this is an unregulated industry with many traders located offshore, outside the jurisdiction of the United States.

In 2010, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law, which did little about regulating the hedge fund short sellers.

Diamond explains:

“The only financial reform needed today is to regulate and monitor the hedge funds and the hedge fund short sellers, some of them which are registered off-shore to avoid scrutiny. These global operators, with investors who remain mostly anonymous, must be compelled to register with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), publicly disclose their positions in the markets, and maintain accounting and trading records for a period of 10 years so their activities can be monitored and scrutinized. Just like mutual funds, they must be prohibited from engaging in day trading activities.”

Much of the financial damage happened because of the mark-to-market rule, and because there was no uptick rule, no circuit breakers, and no trading curbs. They changed these regulations in 2007, meaning that the risk of investing has been borne by common investors “as the hedge fund short sellers operate with impunity looting the invested capital of American families.”

On March 9, 2009, the mark-to-market accounting rule was reversed, and (perhaps not so coincidentally) the S&P 500 Index happened to hit a low that same day, and more than doubled over the next two years.

The MFA’s short selling in 2008 was mostly legal because few laws were in place to stop them. And in the high-speed world of electronic trading, little evidence exists to convict them. The ways of hedge fund traders will not change until there is a public investigation, and we return regulations at least to what they were in 2006.

Perhaps we should consider the recent market volatility as the start of the 2012 campaign. Expect a wild ride as we count down to the election.

Jeff Lukens is a staff writer for the New Media Alliance, a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass-roots media outlets. He can be contacted at www.jefflukens.com

08/25/11

Beck Issues Call for ‘Human Responsibility’ Movement; Departs Jerusalem for South Africa; Death Threats to Beck and Event Participants

From: Knowledge Creates Power

BECK ISSUES CALL FOR ‘HUMAN RESPONSIBILITY’ MOVEMENT; DEPARTS JERUSALEM FOR SOUTH AFRICA

Scroll down for video and links to full text of Beck’s speech and Declaration of Rights & Responsibilities.

The heat of the afternoon sun in Jerusalem could not match the fervor of Glenn Beck’s “Restoring Courage” call to follow a “pillar of fire” in pursuit of the truth and wisdom.

After months of preparation, the controversial event unfolded smoothly with Beck telling the large crowd, “I have been asked: What can you teach Israel about Courage? My answer is simple. Nothing. Then they ask: Why are you coming to Israel? Because, I say: In Israel, you see courage.”

Beck described the world as “confused,” and pointed to flash points in Europe as signs of societies losing touch with philosophical moorings:

“In Europe, the great nations of the past – Greece, Italy, Spain, Britain – are falling into chaos and violence.

We have raised up a generation who cannot tell the difference between what they owe society and what society owes them.

They interviewed the rioters in England. Why, they were asked, are you stealing shoes or televisions. “Because,” the rioters said in response, “because we deserve them.”

We may think: Oh, how different are today’s youth! But the young merely imitate their parents. They have seen how the world reacts to evil – with indifference. They watch, they learn, they imitate. What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.”

Anti-Beck protests chanted from outside the Old City walls, but groups of pro-Beck Israelis countered with signs and songs of their own.

Beck challenged the live crowd and those watching on his new GBTV network to read what he is calling a Declaration of Rights & Responsibilities:

In order to continually experience life, liberty and happiness as promised, nature’s God demands obedience to His law to protect those rights.

This is where we have fallen short and therefore, in order not to lose the blessings of freedom, the people of the world must turn from the sole focus on rights, and recognize the inherent and required responsibilities that we have.

Among the responsibilities to which we must adhere to maintain our God given rights are honor, courage and vigilance.

Over time, we believe that these basic human responsibilities have been trampled, and replaced with degradation, fear and apathy.

Saying that “it didn’t take a prophet to see these things,” Beck described his growing concern that turbulent world affairs would bode ill for Israel:

“And so this year, when I saw Tunisia’s and Egypt’s rulers crack and fall and the world called it the Arab Spring, I said: Where could this be going? And behind these revolutions was a familiar force, a force that will place those nations under a new pharaoh. And that force, I said, would come up to the borders of Israel. And so it has.

We are not at the mercy of these events. We can alter the course of history. We can stand against the dangerous arc of this story.

But we need people who are willing to speak truth. We need inspiration. We need a model to follow.”

You can read the full declaration here.

For the full text of Beck’s speech and additional video clips click here.

Beck said that at the conclusion of his speech he would leave that instant for South Africa:

“Some people call Israel an apartheid state. I reject that. And so immediately following this program I will fly to South Africa, which is where apartheid actually existed. I will broadcast from Cape Town tomorrow morning to remind the world what the evil of apartheid really looked like.

And I will learn from the people who conquered the hatred, ignorance and bigotry and who chartered a peaceful course for a new South Africa.

Then on Friday I will fly to South America to plead the case of human responsibility to a group of nearly 5,000 local leaders from all over the continent and ask them to join me in standing in defense of Israel, the Jewish people and responsibility.

Finally on Sunday, I will speak to 5,000 Americans in Dallas, Texas. I have chosen to end my week in the town where I will headquarter the charitable division of my company, Mercury One. Dedicated to the idea that one man, inspired by one God, makes a difference. This trip will end where a global moment begins.”

While Glenn Beck’s Restoring Courage event in Israel appeared to go off without a hitch to those watching, he revealed on radio Thursday that he and his team were forced to make last-minute changes because several confirmed participants faced threats, including threats on their lives.

Beck said that the choir scheduled to perform canceled just days before the finale after they were called into a meeting last Friday and told they would be dismissed, and would probably never work again, if they contributed their talents. Despite being in full support of the program, they decided that the consequences were just too great.

The choir that performed, then, was “cobbled together” after the original choir canceled on Sunday.

Several others suffered similar threats, including death threats.

“I have to tell you some of the stories that I wasn’t able to tell you before and let’s start with this,” Beck explained while broadcasting from South Africa. “Yesterday, if you watched the broadcast on GBTV, if you watched the whole event that unfolded at the Temple Mount, what you may not know is how many people canceled at the last minute, and not because they were, you know, ‘I’m not going to stand with him,’ none of that. The reason why they canceled is because they were under death threat.”

In fact, Beck revealed that an Arab participant couldn’t even sing words when he took the stage. Instead, he could only utter melodic moans — anything else could have cost him his life.

“I don’t blame them for this at all,” Beck said regarding those who decided to pull out. You can listen to him explain the threats and the changes below:

Video: Glenn Beck Radio From Cape Town South Africa

Which 2012 candidate ‘STOOD WITH Israel’?

Only one of the announced GOP Presidential hopefuls made the trip to Glenn Beck’s three-day “Restoring Courage” event in Israel. You can see who visited the Western Wall and attended the big event HERE.

It is Also the One Year Anniversary of Beck’s Restoring Honor Event in Washington D.C.

Time to stand up and be counted!! Link arms my friends… link arms!!

08/25/11

What is a Matricula Consular Card?

From: Knowledge Creates Power

LOOK WHAT YOU HAVE ALLOWED CONGRESS!!!

The Santa Ana, CA, Mexican Consulate set up a mobile Mexican Matricula Consular ID center on UNITED STATES PUBLIC SCHOOL PROPERTY – Capistrano School District (one of the most conservative parts of Califormia) at the Adult English Language Development Center located at 31351 Camino Real, San Juan Capistrano, CA.

The fee is $27 per matricula consular application.

When the Minutemen arrived at the Capistrano School District Adult School there was a hub of activity. A mobile Mexican Consulate center was in full swing.

Legal resident Mexicans have U.S. issued green cards for identification.

Mexican Consulate Mobile Matricula Consular Center

Mexican Nationals in the U.S. ILLEGALLY do NOT have a green card and therefore need a Mexican matricula consular identification card – matricula means: of a like group and consular means: from a consulate.

Mexican government ID transactions on U.S. public school property.

Box of matricula consular application forms on US public school property.

One Minuteman

After the Minutemen had been onsite for about an hour and a half, the mobile center was shut down – above photo.

Once Minutemen began to observe and report, documenting and photographing, the Mexican Nationals no longer ventured forth to the center and many, who had been in attendance, left the mobile center.

MEXICAN DIPLOMAT TELLS MINUTEMEN – LEAVE!

The Mexican diplomat, above, would not give us her business card or her name.

The Mexican diplomat, above, approached the Minutemen as the Minutemen were peacefully strolling about – on United States public school property – observing and taking photos of the event.

Minutewoman – peacefully assembling on public school property.

The Mexican diplomat repeatedly said, “This a private event for Mexicans only… You cannot be here… I am telling you nicely as I do not want to call the police. Please leave.”

Minutemen assembled on U.S. school property.

Minuteman Project National Rally Spokesman Raymond Herrera said to the Mexican diplomat, “No, we will not leave. We are guaranteed freedom of assembly under OUR Constitution.”

I said to the diplomat, “The U.S. should adopt Mexico’s immigration policy.”

“Oh,” she agreed. “Mexico has a very good immigration policy.”

Mexican diplomat south side of the mobile center.

The Mexican diplomat was particularly vexed by our photographing of the event. “DO NOT TAKE PHOTOS,” she commanded repeatedly.

Minutemen stated that in the USA, we have the right to photograph in public.

“No, you cannot take photos,” she insisted. Herrera and the diplomat then entered into a lengthy discussion in Spanish.

GANG MEMBER with application in hand.

The man, above photo, displayed gang hand signals and yelled out “THIS IS OUR TERRITORY!” The Mexican diplomat witnessed and seemingly approved of the gang member at the “Mexican Only” event.

He appeared to be filling out an application – in his left hand above. Many have informally been told that in the Hispanic community only gang members wear black shoes. Note in the photo above, the only man in black shoes is the self-professed gang member.

The Minutewoman, above, had been quietly photographing…

DIPLOMAT ASSAULTS!

Mexican Diplomat has a matricula consular card in her hand.

Suddenly the door above opened and the Mexican diplomat came out yelling. The photo above is just before she lashed out.

To our utter amazement, the diplomat started to strike out at the Minutewoman! We were in a state of shock. As she yelled, she struck across the Minutewoman’s lower right jaw and lip, several times.

The Minutewoman above, in her left hand, used her sign as a shield, while pulling her camera back from the assaulting Mexican diplomat.

Ten minutes after the assault, the Minutewoman still had a “stinging” sensation on her lip and jaw area.

POLICE ARRIVE

Police arrived after the assault.

The police said they had been called by the consulate as they had reported that the Minutemen were inside the building yelling and pushing about. We never entered the building and had been quietly moving outside, on school property.

Herrera spoke with officers then requested they interview the diplomat.

Per the officer’s request, the diplomat came forward.

“They must leave,” she said to the officer. But the officer replied, “No, this is a public school and they can be here.”

The diplomat then said that we must stop photographing them. “Ma’am,” the officer informed her, “You are in a public area and they can photograph.”

The officer then asked her, “Do you have the paperwork to use this facility.” “Yes,” she replied.

“I would like to see it,” the officer said.

“I don’t have the paperwork with me,” she said back to him.

“I would like to see your identification,” the officer said.

“No, you can’t,” she said to the officer. The officer at this point followed her inside the building. “I have no identification with me. I did not drive, “she finally said as the officer pursued the issue. At this point, the door shut and the officer remained inside of the building.

OFFICER ON THE PHONE

After the officer spoke with the diplomat, he returned to his vehicle and spoke on his cell phone for about 15 to 20 minutes.

After he hung up, he met with us. He said the consulate did not have paperwork, but that he had spoken to the individual who had granted the use of the school. He said that we could continue to assemble on the school property.

He appeared sympathetic about the Minutewoman assault, but said the Mexican Consulate staff had diplomatic immunity.

CONSULAR VEHICLE

Mexican consular vehicle.

Please share.

Americans must know what is happening behind our backs, in our own country!!

What is a Matricula Consular card?

Matricula Consular cards are identification cards issued by the Mexican government to mainly illegal immigrants living in the United States.

Currently, more than 350 financial institutions accept Matricula Consular cards as proof of identification thereby allowing thousands of illegal immigrants to have access to mainstream U.S. financial services.

Share this… Because the news media won’t.

What One Generation Tolerates, The Next Generation Embraces or Pays For!

08/25/11

Documentary: Death Camps in Nazi Croatia

From: 1389 Blog

If you want to understand the Balkans, you need to know about this dark chapter in our history that has been very effectively covered up. Few people in the West are aware of the mass slaughter of Serbs, Jews, Roma, and others in Nazi Croatia and other Axis-occupied territories in the Balkans, even though an abundance of evidence exists.

No, this is NOT a general indictment of the Roman Catholic Church. It IS an indictment of the Third Reich.

Jasenovac – The cruelest death camp of all time

(Uploaded by Hot4Truth)

Part 1/6

Part 2/6

Part 3/6

Part 4/6

Part 5/6

Part 6/6

Originally published on 1389 Blog.

08/25/11

A Thought On The Socialist

By: Garry Hamilton

So, I was thinkin’ about the mindset of the Socialist.

Not the man-in-the-street socialism beneficiary, but the architect and implementor of socialism. Like, for instance, Big O and his masters and minions.

They insist that the end result of their planning and your sacrifices will be the realization of an ideal, a perfection of sorts.

Unfortunately, if they simply came out and told the truth about their objectives and their methods and the actual consequences of it all, very few of those whose sweat and blood fuel this ideal would want any part of it. And so the Socialist is obliged to lie, for it is the efforts and toil of the productive that must provide the wealth that powers the engine of benefit for the unproductive, and the industrious man will not abide it. Eventually, the engine of socialism will not only provide benefit for the unproductive, but also the force needed to extort the needed wealth from the now reluctant producers.

So it is that the Socialist insists that his perfection can be attained by defrauding socialism’s benefactors until they are no longer able to withstand the forces that will enslave them.

Fraud and slavery are, on their very face, no part of anything perfect.

Thus the Socialist is both dishonest and deluded: he knows he must lie to attain his perfection, bought with coercion of the labors of the honest and diligent which — in his perfect world — they would willingly contribute, but which he knows they never will and which, therefore, he must take by force.

In this fashion, he hopes for the ultimate in justice: equal benefit for all, provided by the gentlest possible slavery of the productive few.

Justice built on injustice. An oxymoron that’s the product of a commitment to an impossible ideal.

Socialism. Brought to you at gunpoint by delusional liars.

Update: The narcissistic delusions of Leftists *UPDATED*

08/25/11

Family of Helicopter-Ambushed SEAL Speaks Out, Needs Our Attention

By: Arlen Williams
Gulag Bound

The Vaughn family speaks from their hearts.  Billy Vaughn, father of the slain SEAL Aaron Vaughn spoke out as a true patriot.

There are wolves out there and Aaron explained it to me.  And you know it’s really strange Matt, that ninety some odd days ago SEAL Team Six had a big victory and possibly sheep in high places said things that made many of us very uncomfortable. And now, some ninety some odd days later, SEAL Team Six has suffered a terrible tragedy.


Video: “Incredible Interview With Deceased SEAL’s Family“

Let us give these families and their extraordinary grievance our attention.

No, this is not a political football.  It is a crisis in national security.

Knowing there are members of the subversive and terrorist-supporting Muslim Brotherhood within the White House, an investigation must be made.

America must open its eyes.

Please see:

Muslim Brotherhood in Our White House and the Murders of SEAL Team Six

 

They protect us; we must protect them. They need our action.

08/25/11

Treason? Communist Controlled “Peace Movement” Amps Up Pressure for Defense Cuts

By: Trevor Loudon
New Zeal

Judith LeBlanc is one of the vice-chairs of the Communist Party USA and chairs it’s Peace and Solidarity Commission, the Party body charged with controlling the  US “peace movement” and liaising with foreign governments and organizations…

Judith LeBlanc, terrorist leader Yasser Arafat, 2002

LeBlanc is currently the national field organizer for Peace Action, the country’s largest grassroots peace organization with 100,000 members across the country. She is also formerly the national co-chair of the nationwide “peace” umbrella group, United for Peace and Justice.

The Communist Party’s aim, through the “peace movement,” is essentially to weaken US Defense capabilities to the advantage of Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea and other sworn enemies of the United States of America. In more honest times, this would have been called what it is – treason.

Writing on the Communist Party website Political Affairs, LeBlanc outlines how the “peace movement” should respond to recent initiatives by far leftist Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and a Defense review being carried out by leftist Democrats Barney Frank and Ron Wyden and Republican Congressmen Walter Jones and Ron Paul.

Something is missing in the swirl of news reporting on the debt ceiling deal struck on August 2 by the Congress and the President for close to $1 trillion in cuts in discretionary programs over the next decade.

Will the 56 percent of discretionary spending that goes to the Pentagon take a hit in the name of deficit reduction?

The short answer is not necessarily, not unless we are ready to rumble.

Even the Senate Armed Services Committee leaders Sens. Carl Levin and John McCain have no idea what the deal does to the Pentagon budget.

The cruel irony is the debt ceiling deal exempts spending on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, even though war costs are one of the biggest factors driving up the national debt by over a trillion dollars.

Caps have been set for “security and non security” spending. The cuts will follow. The security category lumps together the Pentagon with the State Department, Veterans Affairs, Homeland Security and nuclear weapons systems.

Right now cuts to the Pentagon budget are not guaranteed. It is threat. Without a grassroots rumble the ax won’t fall on the Pentagon or weapons of mass destruction, it will land on veteran’s benefits or diplomatic efforts.

It’s a fight, not a discussion…

Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta released a statement stirring up fear about the threat of across the board cuts if the “sequester mechanism” took effect and the Committee of 12 Congressional representatives fail to reach a compromise on how to make the next $1.5 trillion in cuts.

He also said,”We must be accountable to the American people for what we spend, where we spend it, and with what result. While we have reasonable controls over much of our budgetary information, it is unacceptable to me that the Department of Defense cannot produce a financial statement that passes all financial audit standards.”

That’s our mandate to rumble. The Pentagon and the Congress must be made accountable to us for what they cut, spend and the result. Pouring scarce resources into Pentagon is not a jobs program.

Unemployment has become a constant. CNBC, the business news website, reported on August 2, “The job cuts were up 60 percent from June, and 59 percent higher than the 41,676 layoffs recorded in July 2010. It was the largest monthly total since March 2010, and the first month this year that the government was not the biggest job cutter.”

Cuts in “non security” discretionary spending means layoffs. The 26 million people unemployed or underemployed in our communities can’t afford for that to happen…

So let’s rumble during the August Congressional recess. Take the facts to our Congressional representatives. We can and must cut the Pentagon budget to fund jobs and services in our communities.

Although the The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, the bipartisan commission chaired by former Senator Alan Simpson and Erskine Bowles, did not have many recommendations to cheer about, but they got one thing right. Cutting military spending is possible.

They proposed closing one third of US bases around the world as an immediate savings. Not only is it a wise budget cut, it fits with how US foreign policy needs to change in the 21st century. We can’t afford a militarized foreign policy of endless wars and occupations and the modernizing of nuclear weapons systems.

In The Hill, Tom Colina, the research director at Arms Control Association wrote, “By carefully reducing our nuclear forces and scaling back new weapon systems, the United States can save billions. Moreover, by reducing the incentive for Russia to rebuild its arsenal, these budget savings can make America safer.”

In June, 2010,the bi-partisan Sustainable Defense Taskforce initiated by Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), working in cooperation with Rep. Walter B. Jones (R-NC), Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), and Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), proposed ways to cut Pentagon spending in their report “Debt, Deficits and Defense: A Way Forward.” It can be done if the political will is mustered.

That’s where the peace and economic justice movements come in: generating the political will.

Along side of the misery of the budget cuts, there is an opportunity to win real cuts in military spending…

The President said in April when he announced his framework for dealing with the federal budget that “we’re going to have to conduct a fundamental review of America’s missions, capabilities, and our role in a changing world.”

New movements are taking the opportunity for such a fundamental review and a change in the spending priorities. On August 4, the AFL-CIO issued a statement, “Fake Political Crisis and Real Economic Crisis- A Call for Leadership and Action.” The AFL-CIO Executive Council said, “It doesn’t have to be this way. There are real solutions to the job crisis, but real solutions require government action.”

They also noted, “There is no way to fund what we must do as a nation without bringing our troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. The militarization of our foreign policy has proven to be a costly mistake. It is time to invest at home.”

It’s going to take a an adamant, militant grassroots rumble to demand demilitarization of US foreign policy, to end the insanity of endless and countless wars draining the scarce resources needed for people, the world over, to have jobs and a decent life.

There it is people. The Communist Party USA, a long time friend of Russia, China, Cuba, North Korea and countless radical and terrorist groups in the Middle East, Asia and Latin America, wants you to lower your national defense capabilities.

They are going to mobilize their minions in the “peace movement” to ensure that US defense cuts are both broad and deep.

They have President Obama on their side. they have a Secretary of Defense who has hobknobbed with the far left for decades, they have supporters in both aisles of Congress. All they need now is public opinion and US defense readiness will go into a possibly fatal decline.

I dare call this treason.

What do you call it?