WSJ: Declining Defense Obama's budget does cut one federal department.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123595811964905929.html

For all of his lavish new spending plans, President Obama is making one major exception: defense. His fiscal 2010 budget telegraphs that Pentagon spending is going to be under pressure in the years going forward.

The White House proposes to spend $533.7 billion on the Pentagon, a 4% increase over 2009. Include spending on Iraq and Afghanistan, which would be another $130 billion (or a total of $664 billion), and overall defense spending would be around 4.2% of GDP, the same as 2007.

China sees smaller defense boost amid economy woes

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jGQDE0Z2LbFGRirzDQTs81WGjXlAD96N9FLG1
China announced a nearly 15 percent rise in military spending on Wednesday — a smaller boost than in previous years — as the national legislature prepared to open its annual session with a focus firmly on overcoming the country's brewing economic crisis.

The 14.9 percent increase in defense spending is the lowest in three years, a possible reflection of shifting priorities amid plans for a 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus package and a 850 billion yuan ($124 billion) spending boost to expand and revamp an inadequate health care system.

****Patriotic Imperative: Jon Stewart unmasks CNBC

BuzzFlash.com does a great job of listing Jon's great political segments Tue-Fri.  DON'T MISS THEM.  INDISPENSABLE EDUCATION AND INSIGHT.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=220252&title=cnbc-gives-financial-advice

China's defence spending to touch $70 billion in 2009

http://www.instantnews.net/chinas-defence-spending-to-touch-70-billion-in-2009.aspx
BEIJING (AFP): Notwithstanding the global financial crisis, that's forcing governments to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on fiscal stimulus packages, the communist regime in China has set aside a whopping $70.2 billion to upgrade its military might this year.

China announced today its defence spending would rise by 14.9 per cent in 2009 but insisted that its expanding military might posed no threat to the rest of the world. The rise is slightly smaller than last year's increase of 17.9 per cent.

Obama's defense budget sacrifices U.S. primacy

http://shadow.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/03/03/obamas_defense_budget_sacrifices_us_primacy

The Obama defense budget is neither the disastrous downturn that most analysts predicted, nor the boost the administration claims. What it is, though, is plenty worrisome. The president is fond of saying that we need to make long-term "investments" in worthy national goals. Well, his defense budget is no such investment in our national defense.

While the administration is certainly funding short-term military needs, it appears willing to sacrifice long-term U.S. military superiority. We should not forget that, even if China's GDP is no longer growing at 8-9 percent each year, even a five percent annual growth will enable Beijing to continue to modernize and expand its military capability over the medium to long term, while the current U.S. defense budget clearly limits our capability over the same time frame.

***Sector Snap: Aerospace and Defense stocks fall

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/02/ap6114419.html

Shares of aerospace and defense companies fell along with the broader market Monday as a Goldman Sachs analyst predicted defense spending will peak next year, but another analyst recommended investors buy shares of Lockheed Martin Corp. as fears of reduced U.S. military contracts are overblown.

Shares of the Bethesda, Md.-based Lockheed Martin have dropped 23 percent from Feb. 21 to Feb. 27. Analyst Peter Arment of Broadpoint AmTech said the decline was based on concerns that President Barack Obama will cut defense spending.

Social Security chief hopeful on system's solvency

http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2009/03/02/ap6113851.html
Social Security chief hopeful on system's solvency

StartL SLOWING DDDOOOWWWNNNNN

At long last I've done the right thing and returned a laptop I was borrowing.  Should have done it many months ago.  Was not right to keep it so long.
The impact?  I lose half my daily computer time because the time at the Peace Vigil, well, now that is out.  Yes, I can hear the cheering from some.  In any case that is the deal, so all of my 4 sites will suffer.  It is a funny God we have.  Or does something like this happen because we IGNORE that God?

***Peter Orszag and Eric Cantor. Luke and Darth. [Are you on the sidelines?]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/ThisWeek/Story?id=6983403&page=2
OMB Director Peter Orszag and Republican Whip Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., on "This Week with George Stephanopoulos"

POWER SHIFT 09. "And the children shall lead us." SL finds hope for the first time. As sliver.

Don't miss this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrvLSv6ylw4

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Start Loving ... WAGE LOVE OR DIE
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StartL, JUST SAW YOU ON NEWS CHANNEL 8 - CLIMATE ACTION / MARCH / PLANT LOCK DOWN

START,

JUST SAW YOU ON NEWS CHANNEL 8, TWO MINUTES AGO :)

AND ACTRESS DARRYL HANNAH. ON THE COAL BURNING ISSUE!

WASHINGTON — More than 2,000 clean-energy activists converged at a coal-fired power plant on Capitol Hill on Monday for a protest they billed as the largest display of civil disobedience on the climate crisis in U.S. history.

Willing to be arrested for their cause, they encircled and blocked entrances to the plant, which powers the U.S. Capitol and House and Senate office buildings.

But this particular plant may be the least of the protesters' worries.

Less than a week before the rally, congressional leaders requested the plant's full conversion to natural gas. Organizers were taking credit.

"There are no gifts in this world," said Vermont author and environmentalist Bill McKibben told a cheering crowd. "There is only organizing and movements and people doing what it takes to make change happen and that's what we're doing."

http:// www .usatoday.com/ tech /science/environment/2009-03-02-global-warming-protest_N.htm

 

 

NICHOLAS

******Foggy Bottom to Get Much Bigger $$ Hike Than Pentagon Under Obama Budget

http://www.skeeterbitesreport.com/2009/03/foggy-bottom-to-get-much-bigger-hike.html
In Another Break From Bush, President Aims to Make Good on His Campaign Pledge to Strike a Balance Between 'Soft Power' and 'Hard Power' in Pursuit of U.S. Foreign Policy; Budget for State Department Is Hiked by 10 percent, While Defense Department Sees Only a 1.4 Percent Increase

*****The Push to Downsize Defense

http://www.truthout.org/022709A
 As President Obama released his budget outline for fiscal year 2010 on Thursday, recommending about $664 billion in defense funding, a determined group of progressive Congress members and activists pushed for a marked change in the way the US spends those dollars. Led by Rep. Barney Frank, the group advocates a 25 percent cut in military spending, to be accomplished by eliminating wasteful and obsolete programs, reducing active nuclear warheads and withdrawing from Iraq in an efficient and timely manner.

Obama Ready for Battle With Budget Critics [He's a fool if he thinks we are going to join him. Right?]

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/02/28/obama_ready_for_battle_with_bu.html?hpid=topnews
"I know these steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business," Obama said. "And I know they're gearing up for a fight as we speak. My message to them is this: So am I."