Exporting Our Way to Stability

The Cross of Iron

“Charity begins at home—not in Asia for Corporate America.”–Flavio

Exporting Our Way to Stability (Excerpt from NYT)

By: BARACK OBAMA

“The great challenge of our time is to make sure that America is ready to compete for the jobs and industries of the future. It can be tempting, in times of economic difficulty, to turn inward, away from trade and commerce with other nations. But in our interconnected world, that is not a path to growth, and that is not a path to jobs. We cannot be shut out of these markets. Our government, together with American businesses and workers, must take steps to promote and sell our goods and services abroad — particularly in Asia. That’s how we’ll create jobs, prosperity and an economy that’s built on a stronger foundation.”—Barack Obama

Last night, my note to “Pesky Friends” on the Udall-Lujan millions of dollars invested in military pork provoked consternation and shock. Below Mary Anne Wisnewski, a friend and nurse in Albuquerque comments. She lives right next to Kirtland AFB. Add Kirtland to Cannon. See Carol Miller’s comments inserted. See the Udall-Lujan PDFs on taos-friction.com.  In the New York Times, there is an op-ed piece by Barack Obama on his reasons (or excuses) for going to India. When I hear the word “export” today, I think about jobs lost, empty stores, and vacant manufacturing facilities in America.

How well is the Afghanistan export program of blood and treasure working for you?

An economist on Amy Goodman’s Democracy Now, analyzed the announcement by Bernanke’s Federal Reserve Bank and its 600 billion dollar contribution to liquidity. Apparently, the credit is aimed at allowing American corporations and banks to speculate on foreign–not domestic–investments. Analysts say Americans want to extend the war on the ground to the financial markets. Great.

Prior to the beginning of empire building–in the post WWII era–we focused on our own natural resources and our own people. CEO salaries were reasonable—the inequality of the wealth gap miniscule. Before we can compete in a world where we are falling behind in education, health care, and interior infrastructure, we need to get our house in order. Cheap talk and travel to foreign capitals by pols is no substitute for concrete action.

Udall and Lujan’s short term jobs associated with weapons of mass destruction and the military build-up in New Mexico offers immediate gratification to the few. We New Mexicans want back our third job—the one we lost when the trickle-down stopped. Contrary to their liberal and even populist pronouncements, Lujan and Udall are sacrificing the New Mexico economy on the Cross of Iron.

Local Military Challenges

As Nurse Mary Anne Wisnewski points out and Los Nortenos know, the military will soon be training a few hundred feet above us.

Independent health-care analyst Carol Miller laments the lack of representation in Congress: “The Udall list, “no war project left behind,” really shocked me. It was the longest earmark list I have ever seen. Check out all the high-tech crowd control weapons coming out of Albuquerque. I hope to have time to see how many of these are campaign contributors, like Sherman McCorkle in the attached.”

More From Carol Miller:

Between hundreds of millions for the Becthel-LA bomb plant and all this war pork I feel I have zero representation in Congress.

I am pressing the media (you count) to stop calling the nuclear bomb factories national labs. I am allegedly going to be mostly retired soon and this topic is one of the first I want to write. They are not labs anymore, they are all privatized bomb manufacturing plants; LA = Bechtel, Sandia = Lockheed, Savannah River = Westinghouse, complete list attached.

We live in the belly of the belly of the beast.

Carol

PS I am recruiting candidates for 2012. We need very strong voices to step up the plate, not my lonely voice in the wilderness.

From Mary Anne Wisnewski

Lujan’s‘s numbers are chump change compared to Udall’s.

Living close to Kirtland AFB is making our lives increasingly miserable with the unrelenting droning of jet engines, the helicopters rattling the windows of our house, the screaming jets at 7AM.  There are some small pieces of plaster coming out of my living room ceiling.  There is a huge crack through a wall right to the outside.  Some days are fairly quiet.  But there are times when all day long we are feeling assaulted, and now, with the appropriation of these funds, we can rest assured that this activity is going to not just continue but actually accelerate.

There has been discussion about increased flights over Taos coming from Cannon AFB.  We can hear and see a large increase in training activity coming from Kirtland here in Albuquerque.  So I ask, “Who are ‘we’ getting ready to bomb next?”

The Military-Industrial Complex marches on!  Progress to go along with that side of pork!

Here’s what I received and then forwarded, after modification, to everyone I know who lives in NM last week.  Several folks wrote letters.  Maybe you can send this out to all your peeps, Bill.  Thanks for the heads up.  Mary Anne

Dear Friends,

This is really serious.  Cannon AF Base in Albuquerque is proposing to establish a Low Altitude Tactical Navigation (LATN) area for various planes and helicopters to practice  flying, in the mountainous areas of northern NM and southern CO, at night, at 200 ft. elevation, 3 flights per night.  The proposed area is as far south as Albuquerque, as far north as Aspen, as far west as Farmington, and as far east as Pueblo, and includes all the mountain  ranges in between.  They have had only four comment meetings in CO, and  four in NM, and who knows if the small mountain towns were even notified? The comment period was extended to Nov. 15 (it was only about 3 weeks), and they are only planning to do an EA (Environmental Assessment), not an EIS (Environmental Impact Statement).  You can log on to their website at www.cannon.af.mil and read more about the LATN , and see the map.

If you care about this issue, and care about preserving the beauty and silence of the mountains, please tell your friends in Crested Butte, Aspen, Paonia, Telluride, and  any other towns in the area, and please send comments to 27SOWPublicAffairs@cannon.af.mil .

Rob and I live right down the street from Kirtland AFB and right now the noise level is already intolerable.  We are woken up in the mornings with the sounds of jets screaming over the house.  Then there are the helicopters.  The windows rattle.  We have huge cracks forming.  The decibel level is deafening!  Now, they will be doing this at NIGHT!  It will surely disturb your sleep!

PLEASE, PLEASE if everyone just took FIVE SHORT MINUTES and sent a comment to the Public Affairs at Cannon AFB it would be a lot of comments!  This issue is definitely going to affect you!  Forward to all your friends!