Dfens:

I personally think the zombies took over the Pentagon about 30 years ago, and he’s more proof:

The U.S. military isn’t ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and National Guard forces don’t have the equipment or training they need for the job, according to a report. Even fewer Army National Guard units are combat-ready today than were nearly a year ago when the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves determined that 88 percent of the units were not prepared for the fight, the panel says in a new report released Thursday. The independent commission is charged by Congress to recommend changes in law and policy concerning the Guard and Reserves. The commission’s 400-page report concludes that the nation ‘does not have sufficient trained, ready forces available’ to respond to a chemical, biological or nuclear weapons incident, ‘an appalling gap that places the nation and its citizens at greater risk.’ ‘Right now we don’t have the forces we need, we don’t have them trained, we don’t have the equipment,’ commission Chairman Arnold Punaro said in an interview with The Associated Press. ‘Even though there is a lot going on in this area, we need to do a lot more… There’s a lot of things in the pipeline, but in the world we live in – you’re either ready or you’re not.’ – Los Vegas Sun

Of course, this should come as no surprise to anyone. We can’t even commit enough troops to a couple of third world crap holes to do the job. We have to hire more mercenaries than we have troops in the field to get that job done. What a damn pussy country we’ve become! Maybe we’re all infected with that virus that makes rats want to commit cat-suicide. We suck.

Dfens:

Personally I think the erosion of our industrial and economic might is the single biggest threat there is to the security of this nation. The fact that terrorist nations are gaining access to every aspect of our society by buying thier way into our corporations is a huge turning point in the security of this nation. We are turning over to hostile foreign nations a capability that countries like the Soviet Union once had to use extensive espionage resources to accomplish. It’s no wonder we act like a nation of zombies when our news media and many of our politicians are controlled by foreign countries. Hitler didn’t have as complete control over the news media in Germany as these foreign contries have in propogandizing the US.

Discussing U.S. financial vulnerabilities, [U.S. National Director of Intelligence Michael] McConnell voiced ‘concerns about the financial capabilities of Russia, China and OPEC countries and the potential use of their market access to exert financial leverage to political ends.’ Russia was positioning itself to control an energy supply and transportation network from Europe to East Asia. China’s global engagement was driven by a need to access markets and resources, McConnell said. A weak U.S. dollar had prompted some oil suppliers to ask to be paid in other currencies, or to delink their currencies from the dollar. ‘Continued concerns about dollar depreciation could tempt other producers to follow suit,’ McConnell said. – Reuters

Dfens:

Pretty soon it won’t matter if you want the US to be a part of a world government or not. In fact, what you want won’t matter period. Enjoy voting while you can.

DOBBS: … in the United States. Critics fear those governments could become increasingly influential as they buy large stakes in everything from the NASDAQ stock market to critical defense technology and they are also warning there are no guarantees about those government’s intentions, as Christen Romans now reports. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ROMANS (voice-over): Bad bets on sub prime mortgages have left marquee financial companies desperate for cash. Middle Eastern and Asian governments have it thanks to America’s massive appetite for imported oil and manufactured goods. China has invested billions in Bear Stearns and Morgan Stanley. Singapore has shored up Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, Merrill also tapping Kuwait, South Korea and wealthy Saudi investors. Each investment just under the threshold to trigger examination by U.S. authorities, yet the usual concerns about the intentions of the government are notably silent. SEN. JIM WEBB (D), VIRGINIA: We’re seeing some sort of willful turning of the blind eye to potential dangers here. And we need as a government to examine very carefully the national interests that is at risk here. ROMANS: Some say the uneasy reality is beggars can’t be choosers, but… SEN. EVAN BAYH (D-IN), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: We should not sell our sovereignty for any price, so we should welcome the capital. We want the investments. It strengthens our economy, but governments are different than private investors and from time to time governments will have interests other than simply maximizing their profits. ROMANS: What those profits are we don’t know except for Norway’s Sovereign Wealth Funds they don’t disclose performance, assets or objectives. The Treasury Department puts Sovereign Wealth Fund holdings at $2.5 trillion and growing by a trillion dollars a year, reaching according to one forecast, $13.4 trillion in a decade, roughly the size of the entire U.S. economy today. PROF. KEN ROGOFF, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: If we’re really bothered by the Sovereign Wealth Funds and we don’t like the idea that they’re buying up so much of our assets, then we ought to figure a way to raise our savings rate so that we’re not running these giant trade deficits because of that at the end of the day is what’s pouring money into the rest of the world that’s coming back in the form of these Sovereign Wealth Funds. ROMANS: He says without their infusions of cash, the financial crisis in this country today would be far worse. (END VIDEOTAPE) ROMANS: The Treasury Department and the president just last week downplayed concerns about the intentions of Sovereign Wealth Funds saying above all the United States is open for international investment and will remain so. Even critics say this country is frankly in no position to turn down foreign government investment into U.S. infrastructure, into U.S. companies because of our trade deficits and our current situation. DOBBS: Well as the good professor pointed out, and it’s nice to hear Harvard breaking with orthodoxy, at least in his case, suggesting that we have to look at these trade imbalances, which I have been says literally for years and years. Now the trade debt is over $6 trillion. The fact is that Henry Paulson and this economic team and this failed administration in terms of economic policy, they have to say whatever they can about this money because without that foreign capital we have institution after institution that simply insolvent. ROMANS: And there’s also this feeling, Lou that many people say with no evidence they’re anything but long-term investors in the capital system… DOBBS: In the case of the Sovereign Wealth Fund? ROMANS: Right. Exactly, that they’re just your average long- term investor with hundreds of billions of dollars, we don’t even know how much money is out there, that there’s been no evidence that they’re trying to do anything to — you know untoward at this point but there still are those questions out there that national interests can sometimes trump investment interests and we just haven’t seen that yet. DOBBS: In every country of course but this where the national interest is never considered by any part of our government or corporate America. Thank you very much, Christine Romans. – Lou Dobbs, CNN transcript