By now you've heard about the terrible tsunami that hit Japan. Now just in case you're wondering... the Republican's proposed budget would severely cut tsunami monitoring.
In fact, in his response to President Obama's State of the Union address, Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-La.), derided the stimulus for including "$140 million for something called volcano monitoring." And more recently, the continuing resolution passed by the GOP House, the one that just failed in the Senate, reduces funding for the federal agencies that monitor and react to disasters just like the one that hit Japan.
If that 8.9 earthquake had hit off the coast of Oregon, the teabagger mentality would have led to thousands of lives, lost. So instead of cutting the real pork in our budget - for example, the profligate spending on the war machine, including $327 million paid to Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), a Halliburton subsidiary, for "theater transportation" of supplies and war materials for US forces occupying Iraq. In reality, many of those trucks carried no cargo whatsoever, as they crisscrossed Iraq more than 100 times putting their civilian drivers, and the soldiers who sometimes guarded them, in the way of bullets and IEDs. During peak months, as many as a third of all truck deliveries, amongst mostly 30-truck convoys, were reportedly empty.
I submit that anyone who tries to cut funding that would save American lives, and supports funding for companies like Halliburton and KBR - are unpatriotic. How can we support a company who's President was convicted of bribery? That's right, Albert Stanley, a former President of Kellogg Brown and Root (KBR), of Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty to helping orchestrate a scheme involving $182 million in bribes paid to secure engineering, procurement and construction contracts for a Nigeria LNG project. What's more, Halliburton has fled to the United Arab Emirates at a time when it is being investigated in the U.S. for bribery, bid rigging, defrauding the military and illegal profiteering. It was forced to divest all of its ownership interest in its scandal-plagued KBR subsidiary, notorious for overcharging the military and serving contaminated food and water to the troops in Iraq. If you choose to vote Republican, remember that these are they guys you're supporting.
If you'd like to get involved please visit engagedspirit.com - a new social network that all about changing the world for the better - and let's see if we can incubate something beautiful together. Thanks!
For more on this subject, check out: http://www.slate.com/blogs and http://www.halliburtonwatch.org/
