“It’s probably at this point somewhere in the ballpark of $750 million.”-Robert Gates, U.S. Defense Secretary
Pentagon officials originally said the operation against the Libyan government, would cost $604 million. Now Pentagon officials predict the ongoing war will cost U.S. taxpayers $40 million per month, if it doesn’t escalate.
“There is no change in our policy to carry out the Japan/U.S. accord steadily.”-Yukio Edano, Chief Cabinet Secretary
On May 12, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano, said Japan will stick to the plan. This after U.S. Congressman reneged on a promise to move a USMC base on Okinawa.
For decades the people of Okinawa have wanted the removal of the Futenma Air Station. One of the reasons has been the crimes, including rape, committed by U.S. Marines and sailors. In 2006 the U.S. and Japan signed an agreement to move the air station.
One option was to merge the Marine Corps Air Station with the USAF Kadena base, also on Okinawa. But even that plan is being questioned by U.S. Congressman. The main issue is money, apparently the United States doesn’t have enough money to move an air base.
On May 11, the President of Romania got a visit from USAF General Duncan J. McNabb. Was it because the Romanian government agreed to let the United States base a “missile shield system” in their country? No, it was because, in a quietly done deal, Romania agreed to be used as a transit point for troops and supplies going to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Two bases shall be used for the “multi-mobile” operations. General McNabb thanked President Traian Basecue for the agreement.
President Basecue hinted at U.S. money for Romania: “I am thanking you for the attention granted to Romania’s infrastructure.”
If the U.S. is supposed to leave Iraq at the end of 2011, and then Afghanistan in 2012 (as originally stated), then why do they need to establish new “multi-mobile” (quoting Gen. McNabb) bases to support operations in those countries?
Days after the U.S. and China signed an agreement to promise to work together, a Chinese company announces they will spend $161 million building an aluminum plant in the U.S.
Shandong Nanshan Aluminum company will open an extrusion plant in Lafayette, Indiana. If there are no complications with the deal, they hope to start building the plant next year. It could employ 150 people, and produce 40,000 tons of aluminum per year.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, said the United State needs to get its troops out of Iraq by the agreed date of December 2011.
Zebari denied that the Iraqi government was working with the U.S. to keep troops past the 2011 deadline. Recently Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maiki said that the only way U.S. troops could stay is if the U.S. and Iraq agreed to a new withdrawal date.
Also recently, Russian and Iraqi officials announce deals that include military equipment. Iraq might be trading one military super power for another, getting a better deal from the Russians.
Facebook officials are asking the Federal Election Commission to exempt them from U.S. election law. The law Facebook doesn’t like; disclosing who paid for political advertising on their website.
Facebook’s arguments are really weak. In a written explanation, Facebook says by disclosing who paid for the ad, it would make the ad bigger, and they don’t want bigger ads. Also, Facebook tried to compare their political ads to things like bumper stickers and t-shirts.
How much bigger would the ad be, when it includes the name of who paid for it? Also, comparing bumper stickers and t-shirts to paid political ads is comparing apples to oranges. One is given away, or even sold, to supporters, the other is a paid advertisement.
What is the real reason Facebook doesn’t want to disclose who pays for political ads on their website?
The agreement has a lot of strong sounding words and phrases, like “comprehensive” and “concrete plans”.
Here’s what the Obama administration said; China and the U.S. need “a cooperative partnership that is comprehensive in scope, cooperative in nature, and yields positive achievements that benefit our people.”
Basically China, and the U.S., spent a lot of taxpayer money to sit around and tell each other their woes, and why don’t we just get a long. Then they signed a long winded agreement that basically says ‘we promise’.
What has been going on is being called “cooperation talks”. Basically the U.S. is in big debt, China holds most of that debt, China wants a piece of the U.S. action, the U.S. doesn’t want them to have any, but the U.S. owes China trillions so they try to make happy happy joy joy talk so we don’t go to war, or, so that China doesn’t dump all their trillions of U.S. bonds all at once.
The Brown’s Ferry nuke plant in Alabama, is under investigation by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Investigators say a cooling system failure is of “high safety significance”.
Last October the plant had a cooling valve problem, in reactor 1, that cause it to shut down. Operators say the valve is fixed. But there are concerns especially since the Brown’s Ferry plant is similar to the GE designed Fukushima Daiichi plant in Japan.
Also, Brown’s Ferry Reactor 1 had been shut down for 22 years before being put back into operation in 2007.
Starting in 2012, Florida will cut back the maximum number of weeks that unemployed people can collect benefits.
This is not to save the state money, but the corporations. Like Idaho, companies in Florida are the ones who pay into the unemployment system. Florida lawmakers said by reducing the number of weeks a person can collect benefits, it will reduce the cost to the companies paying into the unemployment plan.
In Idaho, companies actually get a refund at the end of the year, if they don’t have over a specific number of unemployment claims filed against them. The idea is to encourage companies not to let workers go, but it hasn’t helped reduce Idaho’s high unemployment, which is holding steady at 9.7%.
Standard & Poor’s cut Greece’s credit rating, downward 2 points, after Greek officials announced they needed more bailout money.
The S & P’s rating now puts Greece below investment grade. S & P’s also says that Greece will need a waiver on repaying most of its current loans (that means they don’t think Greece can pay).