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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Selectric II who wrote (14370)	6/7/2004 1:15:37 PM
From: Doug R	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

"...spend the same percent of a dwindling economy..." That absolutely means they were spending LESS. So how does USSR spending LESS mean that MORE spending in the US was anything other than lining the pockets of the MIC?

To: Selectric II who wrote (14370)	6/7/2004 1:19:20 PM
From: Doug R	Respond to of 173976

$1 Trillion Missing by Tom Abate The Department of Defense, already infamous for spending $640 for a toilet seat, once again finds itself under intense scrutiny, only this time because it couldn't account for more than a trillion dollars in financial transactions, not to mention dozens of tanks, missiles and planes. The Pentagon's unenviable reputation for waste will top the congressional agenda this week, when the House and Senate are expected to begin floor debate on a Bush administration proposal to make sweeping changes in how the Pentagon spends money, manages contracts and treats civilian employees. The Bush proposal, called the Defense Transformation for the 21st Century Act, arrives at a time when the nonpartisan General Accounting Office has raised the volume of its perennial complaints about the financial woes at Defense, which recently failed its seventh audit in as many years. "Overhauling DOD's financial management operations represent a challenge that goes far beyond financial accounting to the very fiber of (its) . . . business operations and culture," GAO chief David Walker told lawmakers in March. WHAT HAPPENED TO $1 TRILLION? Though Defense has long been notorious for waste, recent government reports suggest the Pentagon's money management woes have reached astronomical proportions. A study by the Defense Department's inspector general found that the Pentagon couldn't properly account for more than a trillion dollars in monies spent. A GAO report found Defense inventory systems so lax that the U.S. Army lost track of 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units.

To: Selectric II who wrote (14370)	6/7/2004 1:33:55 PM
From: Skywatcher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

It collapsed under the WEIGHT OF COMMUNICATION AND CONTACT WITH THE WORLD...something that was just a normal evolution with the telecom age and the age of computers and travel.... something that China has been able to hold back until the last few years and they too are falling to the promise of capitalism....Reagan created the environment of fear of the Soviets based ONCE AGAIN ON FAULTY INTELLIGENCE.....as their entire infrustruction was crumbling and all Ronnie Raygunn could tell us was that they were the EVIL EMPIRE..... and spent everyone's tax dollars on MORE USELESS INDUSTRIAL MILITARY GARBAGE that put our children into debt CC

To: Selectric II who wrote (14370)	6/7/2004 1:55:27 PM
From: Kevin Rose	Respond to of 173976

The Soviet way of life needed an 'evil empire' to justify their oppressive way of life. They villified America as that evil empire for decades. The Soviets kept such a stranglehold on information that the Soviet people believed much of the propaganda. The miserable economic conditions were caused by the Communist system. People had no motive for individual initiative or for working harder than the guy next door. To get ahead, people had to subscribe to the corrupt system. The effort/reward system was all screwed up. Surely you don't believe that Soviet Communism itself was viable, do you? I know people who visited and lived in the Soviet Union before Gorbachev, and they describe it as a miserable way of life. Once they saw that a better way existed, THEY pushed on the wall until it came down. PS why do most of those on the right seem to reach for a Coulter argument (no facts, opinions only, then rip with the insults, e.g. 'political hatemonger')?