We Really Are In Trouble
by James Glaser
December 14, 2009

Sunday morning I watched a morning news program as two United States Senators, one was Joseph Lieberman, tell the moderator that they had no idea what was in the spending bill they were about to vote on. They are going to borrow and spend about a trillion dollars, but they admitted they don't know what they are going to spend this money on. Meanwhile, Congress is raising our debt ceiling by almost two trillion dollars so they can continue to borrow and spend.

One would hope our media would be able to tell us what is going on, but we can't trust them either. Here is an example of what I mean. Almost every news channel has its own military analyst. NBC news has retired General Barry McCaffrey. It has been reported that General McCaffrey has been on ten times in the last month talking about President Obama's buildup in Afghanistan. One of the programs he appears on often is Hardball with Chris Mathews. Mathews introduces the General as being a retired general, but that isn't the whole truth. The truth is that "retired" General McCaffrey is now employed by DynCorp International. That is a company that has made and continues to make millions, maybe billions off our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Forbes Magazine reports that Dyncorp will make about 53% of its annual revenue of $3.1 billion from their work for the Pentagon in Afghanistan. From that money they will be able to pay General McCaffrey his salary and bonuses.

So, the media, and not just NBC, but every news group, puts on retired military officers to explain to us what is going on in our wars. These retired military men have a vested interest in keeping our wars going. The media knows this, but conveniently neglects or refuses to tell us up front about their experts' conflict of interest.

I am sure the same thing happens with reports on health care, wall street, and reports on our own government. The fix is in, and the media is part of that fix.

Meanwhile, you and I are given phony reports about our government and what they are doing. Yes, we are in trouble, and I can't think of anyone or any entity that is trying to help us out.




Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source


BACK to the 2009 Politics Columns.