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<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>And………what do you think
he is actually going to do? I predict that just like the Gaza
Massacre there will be a lot of words……and then some more words and
then there will be no sound and the stupid American public(including people on
this list) will be satisfied and things will go on as usual………..no
one will be held accountable. What operates here is that “force works”
and the more violent the better because that is what the poltical elite
(Neo-Cons, Neo-Zionist, AIPAC) believe. We must submit to Jewish supremacist
ideology or die. <o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=2 color=navy face=Arial><span style='font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<div>
<div class=MsoNormal align=center style='text-align:center'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>
<hr size=2 width="100%" align=center tabindex=-1>
</span></font></div>
<p class=MsoNormal><b><font size=2 face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font size=2
face=Tahoma><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma'>
discuss-bounces@paa-tx.org [mailto:discuss-bounces@paa-tx.org] <b><span
style='font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>BART BOYCE<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Thursday, January 08, 2009
10:23 AM<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> <st1:PersonName w:st="on">graham2639@mindspring.com</st1:PersonName>;
PAA discussion<br>
<b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> Re: [PAA-Discuss] Obama
Taps Spending Watchdog, Eyes Social Security</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:
12.0pt'><o:p> </o:p></span></font></p>
<table class=MsoNormalTable border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=0>
<tr>
<td valign=top style='padding:0in 0in 0in 0in'>
<p class=MsoNormal><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt'>Thank you Kris ,<br>
<br>
The War based economy is central to most all our problems today <br>
in my admittedly limited <i><span style='font-style:italic'>weltanschauung .</span></i><br>
"anything War can do , Peace can do better."<br>
hope you and Ron might be at PAA tonight .<br>
PAA relishes your keen imput !<br>
b<br>
<br>
--- On <b><span style='font-weight:bold'>Thu, 1/8/09, Ron and Kris Graham <i><span
style='font-style:italic'><<st1:PersonName w:st="on">graham2639@mindspring.com</st1:PersonName>></span></i></span></b>
wrote:<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='margin-bottom:12.0pt'><font size=3
face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'>From: Ron and Kris
Graham <<st1:PersonName w:st="on">graham2639@mindspring.com</st1:PersonName>><br>
Subject: Obama Taps Spending Watchdog, Eyes Social Security<br>
To: "Ron and Kris Graham" <<st1:PersonName w:st="on">graham2639@mindspring.com</st1:PersonName>><br>
Date: Thursday, January 8, 2009, 10:09 AM<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<div id=yiv4442981>
<div>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:bold'>Obama should
strongly consider closing all <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>
military bases on foreign soil and ending the occupations of <st1:country-region
w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> . He should also
slash the bloated military budget by at least 90%. I don’t think
he’ll do any of those things. We are not defending ourselves against
anybody. We have been conducting offensive wars for years now. Let’s
face it the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
economy is a war based economy. Until the <st1:country-region w:st="on">U.S.</st1:country-region>
government stops spending taxpayer monies on wars and bailouts, the <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> budget
will never be balanced. Obama would rather eyeball federal social programs
like Social Security and Medicare for cuts rather than cutting the military
budget. What more can one expect from a neoliberal war hawk who has stated
that the <st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region>
“war” was a dumb war and the “war” in <st1:country-region
w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Afghanistan</st1:place></st1:country-region>
is the “right war”?</span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:bold'> </span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:bold'>Kris</span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:bold'> </span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:bold'><a
href="http://www.truthout.org/010809O" target="_blank"><u><font color=blue><span
style='color:blue'>http://www.truthout.org/010809O</span></font></u></a></span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:bold'> </span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<h3><b><font size=4 color=black face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:13.5pt;color:black'><a href="http://www.truthout.org/010809O"
target="_blank"><u>Obama Taps Spending Watchdog, Eyes Social Security</u></a></span></font><o:p></o:p></b></h3>
<p class=articledate><b><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span
style='font-size:12.0pt;font-weight:bold'>Thursday 08 January 2009</span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Washington
- Pointing with concern to "red ink as far as the eye can see,"
President-elect Barack Obama pledged Wednesday to tackle out-of-control
Social Security and Medicare spending and named a special watchdog to clamp
down on other federal programs - even as he campaigned anew to spend the
largest pile of taxpayer money in history to revive the sinking economy.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> The
steepness of the fiscal mountain he'll face beginning Jan. 20 was underscored
by stunning new figures: an estimate that the federal budget deficit will
reach $1.2 trillion this year, by far the biggest ever, even without the new
stimulus spending.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> The
incoming president has walked this same tightrope each day this week -
advocating fiscal discipline and taxpayer largesse together at nearly every
turn, though in every case with little detail to back it up. With less than
two weeks to go before taking the helm at the White House, he'll make the
same pitch on Thursday, delivering a speech laying out why he wants Congress
to quickly pass his still-evolving economic plan.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Last
year's <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region>
deficit set its own record, but that $455 billion will be dwarfed by this
year's. The new estimate, by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office,
represents more than 8 percent of the entire national economy.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Still,
Obama said "an economic situation that is dire" requires immediate
and bold action with unprecedented tax cuts and federal programs. More bad
news is expected Thursday and Friday on <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place
w:st="on">U.S.</st1:place></st1:country-region> layoffs, and stocks
plummeted anew on Wednesday, wiping out gains from the first week of the new
year.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Obama
gave his first ballpark estimate of the total amount of the stimulus package
expected to emerge from negotiations between his team and Capitol Hill,
saying it is likely to hover around $775 billion over two years. That's about
$400 billion less than outside economists have said might be needed to jolt
the economy but at the top of the range that Obama aides and congressional
leaders have discussed publicly.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> "We're
going to have to jump-start this economy," Obama said. "That's
going to cost some money."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> The
president-elect said concerns about increasing the deficit to unmanageable
levels swayed him against the higher figures advocated by some.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> House
Speaker Nancy Pelosi also pressed for passage of a recovery bill, though the
mid-February timeline she offered represented another slip in the date by
which the package would be ready for Obama's signature. Initially, the goal
was to have it finished by the time he takes office a week from next Tuesday.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Obama's
repeated emphasis amid the stimulus talk on a need for spending control is
aimed in part at attracting more support from deficit hawks in Congress.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> He
said Wednesday, without details, that his initial budget proposal next month
will include "some very specific outlines" of how he plans to
tackle spending. That extends to the ballooning and so-far unsolvable fiscal
problem presented by the Social Security and Medicare programs, which Obama
promised would be "a central part" of his deficit-reduction plan.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> The
stimulus package is expected to easily pass Congress, now controlled by solid
Democratic majorities in both houses. But since it is the first major
legislative test of an administration that promised to usher in a new era of
bipartisan cooperation, and a measure of such enormous scope and import,
Obama doesn't want to see it approved on a merely party-line vote.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> On
Wednesday, he made good on a campaign promise and introduced his choice for a
new White House post he is creating: chief performance officer. Nancy
Killefer, a professional efficiency expert, is charged with scouring the
federal budget to eliminate programs that don't work and improve those that
do. Obama called her appointment "among the most important that I will
make."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> "We
committed to changing the way our government in Washington does business so
that we're no longer squandering billions of tax dollars on programs that
have outlived their usefulness or exist solely because of the power of a
lobbyist or an interest group,"<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Killefer,
the director of a management consulting firm and a former assistant treasury
secretary will be Obama's hatchet woman, with power to recommend directly to
him the slashing of programs and projects government-wide. She'll help
agencies set performance standards and hold managers accountable.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> But
she also will run up against a long history of other chief executives' similar
promises under different titles that have fallen short.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> She
said the bureaucracy's entrenched problems have taken decades to develop and
will take time to fix. But she said it would be different this time. "I
have seen it done," Killefer said at Obama's side.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Obama
has to give Congress in early February a budget request - at least the bare
bones of one - covering spending for the next fiscal year. Because that's so
soon after he takes over the executive branch of government, his submission
won't be anything like the usual one that fills several volumes and hundreds
of pages.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Pelosi,
speaking before the House Democratic Steering and Policy Committee, offered
her own assurance that the stimulus plan would be responsible and that
Democrats are committed to long-term fiscal discipline.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> Economist
Martin Feldstein joined others talking to the congressional panel to endorse
the need for a big short-term spending package. But he also warned against anything
that could create a spending habit and swell the deficit even further.
"There should be an exit strategy," he said.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> For
all the talk of belt-tightening, minority Republican leaders sounded only
cautiously optimistic.<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p><font size=3 face="Times New Roman"><span style='font-size:12.0pt'> "We
cannot borrow and spend our way back to prosperity when we're already running
an annual deficit of more than one trillion dollars," House Republican
leader John Boehner of <st1:State w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ohio</st1:place></st1:State>
said. "I was pleased to hear the president-elect say yesterday that we
need to stop just talking about our national debt and actively confront
it."<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='mso-margin-top-alt:auto;mso-margin-bottom-alt:auto'><b><font
size=2 color=black face="Comic Sans MS"><span style='font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Comic Sans MS";color:black;font-weight:bold'> </span></font></b><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
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</td>
</tr>
</table>
<p><font size=2 face=Arial><span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial'>No
virus found in this incoming message.<br>
Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com<br>
Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.5/1881 - Release Date: 1/8/2009 8:13
AM</span></font><o:p></o:p></p>
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