Louis

I have been unable to discover who pays for the mercenaries we call private security contractors. Is it covered by DOD, USAID, State or who? If it not in the DOD budget, is it disclosed as part of the cost or are we burying this as well? If it is not in DOD, why are we paying so much for the military and then paying them on top of that? It is especially troublesome in that our tax dollars have payed for the training of these mercs while they were part of our military. Now they are, in essence, beyond the rule of law in most cases yet we pay them. Why do we have as many private mercs or in some cases more than we do military in Iraq and Afghanistan? Doesn't it bother anyone that these companies will sell their services to the highest bidder and are willing to go anywhere that profit can be made? And another issue is that while we are setting up programs to "win the hearts and minds" with the military these mercs are free to attack and kill at will with few repercussions. It defeats the whole purpose of embedding troops in villages to get cooperation. It furthers the image that we are the barbarians and create more hate and discontent. Any thoughts?

Is this money shown in a budget? Does it come from the DOD or from some other source? Why are we paying these firms to provide security and at the same time paying the military (much less) to do what should be a military function. With the largest mlitary budget in the world, why is it necessary to pay another force to provide this service? Why isn't this being considered for cuts in budget discussions?

The republican have proposed legislation which will remove enforcement of the Clean Air Act from the EPA. Is this just a bone for the corporate sponsors of legislators or is there some legitimate reason for this? I can't believe that allowing these regulations to be removed can have a logical purpose. I feel certain that the coal industry is sending sacks of money to their congressional shills even as we read this. But can anyone provide even a halfway reasonable excuse for this? Won't this allow power plants and factories to ignore all of the regulations which restrict pollution if they know the federal gov't won't do anything and the local governments are too poor to spend the money for a protracted legal fight to protect the community and residents? Or is this just more political payoffs?