OUR PRIMARY EMPLOYMENT AGENCY

Senate panel OKs $604 billion defense bill

The Associated Press

WASHINGTON — A Senate panel has approved a $604 billion defense spending bill that reverses proposed Pentagon cuts in Air Force personnel and equipment.

The Appropriations defense subcommittee approved the bill by voice vote Tuesday. The measure would provide $511 billion for the base budget and $93.3 billion for the war in Afghanistan in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1.

The bill is nearly $29 billion less than current spending.

The legislation provides $800 million to halt the Air Force's planned cuts.

In its budget proposal, the Pentagon called for a cut of 5,100 from the Air National Guard, 3,900 from active duty and 900 reservists as well as 134 aircraft. That proposal met stiff resistance from the nation's governors and members of Congress.

My Take:  The Pentagon is now our primary employment agency in America.  You want a job - then get on-board the killing train.  Yesterday I had a call from a "Small Business Association" staffer in California who heard me on KPFA radio.  He said he was interested in how the mega-aerospace corporations are getting the big bucks and what would the small business community need to do to get a piece of the action?

I told him they had the wrong strategy.  I took him to the UMASS-Amherst Economics Department study on the U.S. Employment Effects of Military & Domestic Spending Priorities. I wanted him to see that the real job creation his association seeks isn't going to come from corporations moving production oversees or from endless war contracts. It's got to come from domestic investment that is now being poured down the Pentagon rat hole.  I think he got my point.

My friend Andre Brochu from Sweden (who grew up in Maine and during Vietnam War went to Sweden as a war resister) writes today and closes with, "Take care!  Remember that the next mosquito could be a MAV (micro aerial vehicle).  A MAV swatter is like a fly swatter. I trust not too much damage would be done to the mosquito drone. Maybe none at all. Maybe I should put up some sticky fly strips instead. Less chance of hurting the darling.  If they track me down I might have to hide  in the embassy like Assange until they can find a diplomatic pouch big enough to get me out of  EU/NATO."

 Please remember that Keep Space for Peace Week will be October 6-13, 2012.