The U.S. defense budget is enormous because of what it is actually required to defend. Yes if we were to limit it’s size to what is necessary for protecting our landmass and population it could be much smaller but would not be able to carry out the bulk of it’s actual missions. America’s wealthiest 1% travel freely and have important economic interests all over the planet. These interests need to be protected very often by force of arms. Whether it’s overthrowing democratically elected governments for trying to negotiate too tough a deal with multinational resource companies or coercing foreign governments into creating better business environments by allowing abusive labor and environmental practices it all requires very expensive big stick diplomacy. The U.S. military’s cost just to protect the shipping lanes so American jobs can be safely exported to take advantage of rock bottom wages is more than the entire military budget of most other nations.

The guys in this video are not NYPD they are pot-bellied campus cops. If any one of them has a masters degree in anything unless it is from a kook pot Christian College I’ll eat my hat.

But seriously I would like to hear your opinion of this over the top para-military transformation of American law in enforcement.

Had a bad experience there? Sorry about that. Perhaps Humboldt State would have been a better fit for you.

The comments in bay area papers supporting the police are so over the top that they do the police image far more harm than good. I suspect that is their real objective.

Training civilian police in outlandish military tactics has been the real bread and butter for companies like Blackwater aka Xe. Even the most piss ant of small town sheriff departments or rent a cop community college police forces seems to have their own heavily armed SWAT teams these days. DHS picks up the tab for training and equipment and the temptation to inappropriately use all the those new toys is very great.

This is just starting to filter into the MSM…. very shocking video obtained by the Guardian.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/18/occupy-oakland-police-beating-veteran?newsfeed=true

UC Davis is the most academically elite campus in the UC system. I can just imagine the envy and resentment that builds up in the academically challenged community college educated redneck cops employed by the system. It was ill advised for Chancellor Katehi to let them off the leash so that they could act out their revenge fantasy on the students.

No an injunction can only be used to prevent an action. After the fact it’s just a long and expensive legal grind.

I think that Bloomberg and Kelly’s plan to ignore the court order, clear out the park and then present the Judge with a fait accompli that will force her to declare the purpose of the hearing moot.

W.C. Fields walks into a bar, sits down and asks the barkeep, “say did I spend $50 in here last night?” Barkeep, “why yes you did”. W.C. Fields, “Thank God! I thought I’d lost it”

U.S. State Department officials will remain relatively safe because the Iraqi government is very unlikely to allow them or their security contractors to move beyond the walls of their huge embassy prison.

You are right on. It is probable time to let the Supreme Court decide if the state can regulate political speech and the right of assembly. We already know the state cannot control political spending so I hope the Supremes will feel a need to be consistent.

Remember that for every 100k manufacturing jobs lost their will be 6 hedge fund manager jobs created. In terms of national income it is a wash.

I have tried to put the best spin on the U.S. military motives. They may be trying to prevent the cluster fuck that will result from an out of control heavily armed frat boy private army run by the Department of State next year.

“The Gulf countries, and the UAE in particular, don’t have a lot of military experience. It would make sense if they looked outside their borders for help,” an Obama Administration official said. “They might want to show that they are not to be messed with.”

Given the tinderbox situation caused by the democracy uprisings of the Arab Spring I cannot possible imagine an Administration official making a more ignorant and inflammatory statement.

When a confident sounding Bankster with an MBA and expensive suit working for a big reputable bank tells a high school drop out Walmart cashier she really can afford that house on her minimum wage salary shouldn’t SHE have been the one to have known better?

The Navy in San Diego has for a few years now been paying hefty sums of taxpayer money to Blackwater(xe) to provide the kind of very basic training for Sailors that Navy personnel should be more than capable of doing in house. Sen Webb made a written request to Sec Gates for an explanation and Gates promised to look into it. As far as I know nothing came of that request.
Even though Eric Prince had a short stint as a SEAL in San Diego I think Buzzy Krongard was the real “rainmaker” who convinced the Navy to shell out the $millions.

As for Wind Zero the DOD controls huge areas of land in inland California plus 30 miles of coast line at Camp Pendelton. That they feel the need to pay big bucks to use private land for training is ridiculous.

The Modern sham that is Dubai could not exist without the teaming masses of Asian workers brought in to do every last bit of physical labor. The people who build the cities are not allowed to live in them but must commute from huge, squalid, non-air-conditioned camps in the desert. These workers have no rights and are treated as sub-human but also far out number UAE’s native population. It has often proved to be a very bad idea to become so dependent on people that you treat very badly. So I suspect the real purpose of Eric Prince’s mercenary army is to protect UAEs rulers in case their massive foreign under-class goes all “Arab Spring” and demands to be treated like human beings. I imagine that the “Iranian threat” along with it’s implied opportunity to kill lots of Muslims was just a carrot they used to attract psycho Eric Prince. This is obviously a disaster stamped “made in America” waiting to happen and I’m absolutely gob-smacked that anyone in the U.S. government would think it’s a good idea.