From USA TODAY:

At his 2006 confirmation hearing to become secretary of Defense, Robert Gates set the tone for his leadership with two words. “No, sir,” he replied when a senator asked whether U.S. forces were winning in Iraq. With that single crisp answer, Gates blew away three years of windy doublespeak about the Iraq War, signaling that the new Pentagon chief would be refreshingly honest and blunt.

Whether he’d also be competent and effective was less clear. But four-and-a-half years later, Gates, who leaves office today to return to private life, has turned out to be one of the most successful and widely admired Cabinet members of the modern era, one of those rare senior leaders who make us wonder why more can’t be this good.

Why did Gates excel? For one thing, his primary motivation appeared to be public service, not self-promotion or empire building. Gates, a former CIA director and university president, was sufficiently non-partisan to become the only Defense secretary in history to have served presidents of different parties, Republican George W. Bush and Democrat Barack Obama…

Click here to read the full article.

From the DAILY BEAST:

There was no shortage of eye-popping statistics at CGI’s jobs summit here in Chicago on Wednesday. But as the second day of the conference begins, perhaps the most shocking stat  heard so far is that there are more than three million job openings in America today.

“Posted job openings… are being filled only half as fast as they were filled in every previous recession since World War II,” said former President Bill Clinton.

If all the posted jobs in America were suddenly filled, the unemployment rate would fall by at least 3 percent—enough, perhaps to make a significant psychological impact, both for the business climate and for voters in the 2012 presidential election.

“We can argue all day about how to create new jobs,” said former Georgia Labor Commissioner Michael Thurmond. “But we’re overlooking the fact that there are jobs…that are not filled. We talk too much about what we don’t have, and we haven’t focused our efforts on what we do have.”

Click here to read the full article.

EDITOR: The Watchdog’s co-workers report it is very difficult to find people to fill job openings.  One cause is that many who could find work exploit provisions for long term unemployment compensation.    Executives and professionals have no monopoly on greed!   Part of the tragedy of our time is the wide spread, but not universal,  attitude of ‘every man for himself.’

From NEWSMAX:

President Barack Obama came out swinging at Congress, blaming both parties in both Houses for getting the country into the debt crisis in a bid to deflect criticism about his own leadership…

The President warned those in Congress looking forward to a long summer break that they are going to have to “cancel things” and stay in Washington until a deal on raising the $14.3 trillion debt limit is reached as, he said, the Aug. 2 deadline set by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is real and there would be serious implications of the parties cannot compromise. “This is urgent,” he said…

“I’m President of the United States and I want to make sure I’m not engaging in scare tactics. I try to be responsible and somewhat restrained, so folks don’t get spooked. But Aug. 2 is a very important date.”

Click here to read the full article.

In warfare, when you are winning, you do not let up, but press your advantage on as many fronts as possible. Overkill is necessary to break the spirit and demoralize the enemy. The 100 year battle of Capital and Labor is very nearly over and the vanquished middle class, born largely in the struggles of the labor movement, are now required to give back their borrowed personal and institutional gains.

Capital is triumphant! Factories move to the cheap labor markets of the third world; as many services, as can be, are outsourced in a similar fashion. Governments are denied needed revenues to fulfill their constitutional mandate to “promote the general welfare”. Individualism has triumphed over solidarity and we are all, increasingly, on our own.

College education is being priced out of the market for millions, and a crumbling infrastructure will ensure the look and feel of the third world, which our long forgotten inner cities have already succeeded in becoming . Gay marriage is a side show of progress when so many millions cannot afford to marry, establish secure homes, and raise their children in dignity and hope.

For all practical purposes God has not so much died as he has become irrelevant, along with the sneered at religious values of justice and fair play. These have been replaced with the quasi religion and value system of free market social Darwinism   ..  often supported by spineless traditional religions eager to accommodate powerful financial and institutional forces who worship this other god

And it’s not simply that we have lost hope. We just don’t believe in hope anymore or anything else other than what we can put in our pockets and keep. Someone once said that the US could easily be defeated from within. All you had to do was pay half the people to kill off the other half. There are many ways to kill people. Our congress, our corporations, and institutions have been going down that road for years. Witness the religious warfare that floods and pollutes our public airwaves.

From USA TODAY:

Dads who have kids at home work more — not less — than men who don’t, according to a new report about men’s increasing work-family conflict.

These fathers work, on average, 47 hours a week, compared with 44 for men who either don’t have children or don’t live with them, or whose kids are older than 18. And 42% of the dads with kids under 18 at home work an average 50 or more hours a week; only 33% of the other men work such hours.

“Men are working longer to bring in more money for their families,” says Ellen Galinsky, president of the non-profit Families and Work Institute, which produced the report. “In open-ended questions … their answers were about earning more money. I think the breadwinner image is a part of it, particularly for men with children.”

Click here to read the full article.

From ALJAZEERA:

The French military has confirmed that it air dropped weapons early this month to Libyan rebels fighting in the western part of the country.

Colonel Thierry Burkhard, a spokesperson for the French general staff, told Al Jazeera on Wednesday that the military had dropped assault rifles, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenade launchers to groups of unarmed civilians it deemed to be at risk.

Earlier in the day, the Le Figaro newspaper and AFP news agency reported that France had dropped several tonnes of arms, including Milan anti-tank rockets and light armoured vehicles…

Click here to read the full article.

From the FINANCIAL TIMES:

Bank of America has set aside $14bn to meet investors’ claims that loans packaged in mortgage-backed securities before the financial crisis failed to meet promised underwriting standards.

The provisions will wipe out BofA’s profits during the second quarter and underline the high price the bank is paying to move beyond the crisis and its disastrous 2009 acquisition of Countrywide Financial…

Countrywide, a home lender, has accounted for more than $25bn in losses at BofA. In settling a meaningful slice of its potential investor claims, BofA also brings clarity to one of the more difficult issues facing the bank and Brian Moynihan, its chief executive…

Click here to read the full article.

From the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS:

…In 2004, a flamboyant Oklahoma City multimillionaire took out his hefty checkbook for what you could call the political equivalent of a wildcat well – and he struck a gusher, right here in Pennsylvania.

The $450,000 in campaign checks that energy mogul Aubrey McClendon wrote that fall helped elect a man he said he’d never even met – a relatively obscure GOP candidate for Pennsylvania attorney general, Tom Corbett.

That investment arguably changed not just the history but also the political direction of the state. The influx of cash helped Corbett narrowly win the closest attorney general’s race in Pennsylvania history and propelled him toward the governor’s mansion, where he has now pledged to turn the Keystone State into “the Texas of the natural-gas boom.”

Click here to read the full article.

The debt ceiling is very likely unconstitutional and Obama could remove it.

In this article a former Reagan and Bush(I) Treasury official says debt ceiling is unconstitutional: “Furthermore, it’s worth remembering that the debt limit is statutory law, which is trumped by the Constitution which has a little known provision that relates to this issue. Section 4 of the 14th Amendment says, ‘The validity of the public debt of the United States…shall not be questioned.’”

The constitutionality of the debt ceiling is also discussed here where it reports that senators are starting to mention the debt ceiling is unconstitutional.

KZ

EDITOR: The time and place for deciding spending is the budget process.   The debt ceiling has been routinely raised over a hundred times over the past five decades.  Right wing conservatives are holding our national honor and fiscal integrity at ransom rather than debating their issues in the proper forum.

“Senators Propose Raising Medicare Entrance Age to Cut Costs” reports:   “Two U.S. senators known for having independent streaks are proposing to overhaul Medicare by raising the eligibility age by two years and requiring the wealthy to pay more out of pocket for care.

“Senators Tom Coburn, the conservative Oklahoma Republican known for objecting to legislation, and Joseph Lieberman, the Connecticut independent and former member of the Democratic caucus, introduced their proposal today. The government projects Medicare, the U.S. health insurance program for the elderly and disabled, will run out of funds to pay full benefits in 2024…”

WATCHDOG: Joe Lieberman “independent”? He’s the senator from Hartford, Connecticut, the insurance company capital of the country.   Lieberman was responsible for eviscerating much of the benefits of the proposed Obama Care in exchange for his critical vote to override a Senate filibuster.

As the article goes on to point out:  “The senators’ proposal would limit the scope of those policies, though insurers would now have a new market of people ages 65 and 66 years old to sell coverage.” The government portion of national health insurance which covers over 50% of the population has 2% administrative costs, as compared to over 15% to 20% for the private sector.  So raising the age limit means less efficiency,  but greater profits for Lieberman’s constituents.

No wonder our nation is spending over 5% more of our Gross National Product with mediocre results than any other advanced economy.

Growl!