Economy Down, Military Recruitment Up

Well the military is not complaining about the latest bad news on the economy, they are seeing an increase in recruitment numbers lately. With jobs being hard to find and college tuition is as high as ever, it is no wonder young people are turning to the military for opportunity. This from the Washington Post:

Some of the largest investment firms on Wall Street are gone. The country's auto industry is on the verge of collapse. Banks are shedding jobs. But in these doom-and-gloom times, there is someone who's hiring: your local military recruiter.

The economic downturn and rising unemployment rate are making the military a more attractive option, Pentagon officials say. In some cases, the peace of mind that comes with good benefits and a regular paycheck is overcoming concerns about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which any new enlistee is likely to join.

"There's no way to sugarcoat it: We're a nation at war," said Lt. Col. Michael Bennett, who commands the Maryland Army National Guard's recruiting battalion. "But we offer a stability of income that a lot of employers can't guarantee right now."

The active-duty Army, which like other branches has increased benefits and added recruiters, said last month that it had recruited more than 80,000 soldiers during the past fiscal year, the third year in a row it has met its recruiting goals. Good news for the Army has coincided with terrible news elsewhere. The unemployment rate has jumped from 4.8 to 6.5 percent in the past 12 months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. During that time, the ranks of the unemployed grew by 2.8 million, to 10.1 million.

:::

Meanwhile, recruiting has become even more vital as the military plans to expand so it can relieve the strain on troops and their families. The active Army is to grow by 65,000 soldiers, to 547,000, by 2010. And the Marine Corps is to add 27,000, for a total of 202,000, by 2011.

When are Americans going to say, ENOUGH! You know it sounds good, giving young kids an opportunity to go to college and a steady paycheck but it's bullshit, the young folks they are recruiting are going to be used as cannon fodder for the government's wars of aggression. We wouldn't need so many recruits if we didn't get in tangled in so many unnecessary wars and we didn't try to maintain this US military empire around the world.

The military is preying on poor and under privileged young people. I believe the government should provide opportunities to young people to learn job skills and to go to college through various national service programs but not just the military and all young people from all classes should be required to serve the country in some capacity.

Why Is Poverty And Poor People Ignored During Elections?

You notice both presidential campaigns are quick to talk about middle-income
working people and the middle class families but neither will discuss the
concerns of low-incoming working people and neither will dare utter the
word "Poverty".

The U.S. Department of Labor Statistic reports that one in eight Americans
lives in poverty, which is defined as an income less than $20,000 for a
family of four. Nearly 30 percent of households are low-income, which means
an income below $40,000 for a family of four. If you do the math, 90 million
Americans are considered low income or "lower-class" and 39 million of those
are living in poverty.

90 million people are a huge voting block, you would think candidates from
both party would be jumping through hoops to cater to that large number of
potential voters but they don't.

So why do politicians often mention the "middle class" rather than "the
middle and lower class." Would not they want to be more inclusive?

Once upon a time, Democrats presented themselves as champions of the poor,
but they continued to get trounced in presidential elections. Candidates
such as Walter Mondale and Michael Dukakis during the 1980s were depicted as
"liberal" and "out of touch." Many members of the middle class, especially
the upper-middle class, displayed a backlash against the lower class. Thus
came the emergence of the more conservative New Democrats, led by Bill
Clinton, who won in 1992 with his "forgotten middle class" theme.

Since then, the issues of poor people are pretty much left off the table.
Think about it. When was the last time we saw a candidate campaigning in a
ghetto?

Harvard University's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public
Policy conducted the "Vanishing Voter Project." Among the findings: "The
decline in (voter) participation has been concentrated among Americans of
low income. Although a class bias in turnout has been a persistent feature
of U.S. elections, the gap has widened to a chasm. The voting rate among
those at the bottom of the income ladder is only half that of those at the
top."

In this 2 party political system we have in America, there are two ways to
get your issues into the national political dialog. 1) Contribute large
amounts of money - The Business Community, AIPAC, NRA, Upper Class Voters,
etc. 2) Be a large dedicated voting block - White Evangelicals, gun owners,
white middle class voters, etc.

Now lower class voters may not be able to donate too much money, but they
should at least be voting. If 50, 60, or 70 percent of lower class people
voted, and voted on economic issues rather than divisive social issues, they
may be able to get people in power that care about their issues. But if they
give up then you get people like Reagan, the Bushes, McCain who only care about
the rich and you get Democratic candidates who refuse to discuss your issues
for fear of scaring off a more dedicated group of voters.

Source

THE UNITED STATES PRISON-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Excerpt: The United States has less than 5% of the world’s population, but we incarcerate 25% of all the prisoners in the world. We leave China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, and all the other nations we like to look down our noses at far in the dust. We not only lockup more of our citizens than all totalitarian nations, we even lockup more people than China which has more than 4 times the number of Americans, and India which has almost 4 times the number of Americans, and Iran COMBINED. The US not only leads in the numbers of prisoners but far outpace China when measured per capita. We rank 1st among all nations with 715 prisoners per 100,000 people. China, ranks 71st with 119 prisoners per 100,000 people.

According to a report released by the Bureau of Prison Statistics, one out of every 32 adults in the United States was in prison, in jail, on probation, or on parole at the end of 2005.

US leaders love to point out China as a violator of human rights and their penchant for slave and prison labor. While it’s principled to point out abuses by the Chinese, Americans should also recognize that slavery is not only legal in the US, it’s also practiced. The 13th Amendment authorizes it, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” The key word here is “except” and being convicted of a crime in the United States is that exception.

In today’s America, drug laws have become the new Jim Crow laws, the prison/industrial complex has become the new plantation, and the warden has become the new overseer. America’s newest slaves aren’t picking cotton. They’re assembling computers, making women’s lingerie, booking airline flights over the phone, telemarketing for major corporations, and doing all kinds of tasks that free Americans used to be employed at doing. What appeared to be a normal plant closing by U.S. Technologies when it sold its electronics plant in Austin, was actually the company relocating its operations to a nearby Austin prison. One hundred and fifty “free” employees lost their jobs to the new slaves.

African-Americans are the most loyal constituency the Democratic Party has, but the Democratic Party will not adequately address this critical issue for fear of being seen as “soft on crime.” Thus, the Democratic Party itself perpetuates the stereotype. The biggest explosion of Americans going to prison happened under Bill Clinton. Under Clinton, more people went to federal and state prisons than under any president in American history. Clinton also signed a bill that prevented U.S. Sentencing Commission amendments to equalize the penalties for crack and powder cocaine from taking effect.

The disparities in sentencing and probation are well-known and were certainly known to Bill Clinton. Then Attorney General Janet Reno said the sentencing disparity is unfair. "Clearly I think should be equalized with respect to possession offenses," she said. "And equally clearly, I don't think the 100-to-1 ratio is fair." She also said that people who provide powder cocaine to those who cook it into crack should get "the more appropriately stiff sentence than the person who distributes the crack.” Under Clinton, the federal 3 strikes law was enacted and many states soon followed with similar legislation of their own.

A People’s Revolution in New Orleans - So begins the Civil War in the United States

"The New Orleans City Council has unanimously voted to move ahead with the demolition of 4,500 units of public housing. Under the plan, the city’s four largest public housing developments will be razed and replaced with mixed-income housing. Hundreds of people were turned away from the City Council meeting with pepper spray and tasers. Many were arrested."

The Rich Are Getting Richer Faster, Much Faster

The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows.

The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher.

The total income of the top 1.1 million households was $1.8 trillion, or 18.1 percent of the total income of all Americans, up from 14.3 percent of all income in 2003. The total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly equal to that of the bottom 166 million Americans, analysis of the report showed.

******

Link

Gee, I wonder how that happened, who's responsible for this trend. It's seems the Reagan Legacy lives on unchallenged. Welcome to the New World order folks.

US falls from 11th to 42th in Life Expectancy

Except

A combination of expensive health insurance and an ever-increasing rate of obesity appear to be behind a startling fall by the US in the world rankings of life expectancy

Despite being one of the richest countries in the world, America has dropped from 11th to 42nd place in 20 years, according to official US figures.

Dr Christopher Murray, head of the Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, said: "Something's wrong here when one of the richest countries in the world, the one that spends the most on health care, is not able to keep up with other countries."

-Snip-

The decline reflects the disparity in wealth.The life expectancy of African Americans is 73.3 compared with 77.9 for whites. For African-American males, it is even shorter: 69.8.

-Snip-

The drop is also due to improved health care, nutrition and lifestyle elsewhere in the world. Countries with longer life expectancy include most of Europe, Japan, Singapore and Jordan.

-Snip-

The US also has a higher infant mortality rate than many other countries: 6.8 deaths for every 1,000 live births. The worst life expectancy figures are in Africa, with Swaziland at the bottom, at 34.1 years.

-Snip-


Just another sad example of what happens when you allow the Republicans to control the political debate and set the agenda in this country.