http://www.fantasylandmedia.org
Each week, we cover the stories that are just left out of the US propaganda machine. News that the people in charge, the corporations and your government want keep from the public eye.
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McClatchy Newspapers:
"WASHINGTON — When congressional cost-cutters meet later this year to decide on trimming the federal budget, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq could represent juicy targets. But how much do the wars actually cost the U.S. taxpayer?
Nobody really knows. The National Priorities Project estimates the total financial cost of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars at over $1.23 trillion (http://costofwar.com. Nobody really knows.
Yes, Congress has allotted $1.3 trillion for war spending through fiscal year 2011 just to the Defense Department. There are long Pentagon spreadsheets that outline how much of that was spent on personnel, transportation, fuel and other costs. In a recent speech, President Barack Obama assigned the wars a $1 trillion price tag.
But all those numbers are incomplete. Besides what Congress appropriated, the Pentagon spent an additional unknown amount from its $5.2 trillion base budget over that same period. According to a recent Brown University study, the wars and their ripple effects have cost the United States $3.7 trillion, or more than $12,000 per American."
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2011/08/16-3
-->Most American's know that our federal and state budgets are terribly out of balance. This Brown University study explains why our government is broke, and it's the war, stupid. The NY Times did not cover this story.
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National Security Archive:
"TOP SECRET CIA 'OFFICIAL HISTORY' OF THE BAY OF PIGS: REVELATIONS...In perhaps the most important revelation of the entire official history, the CIA task force in charge of the paramilitary assault did not believe it could succeed without becoming an open invasion supported by the U.S. military. On page 149 of Volume III, Pfeiffer quotes still-secret minutes of the Task Force meeting held on November 15, 1960, to prepare a briefing for the new President-elect, John F. Kennedy: 'Our original concept is now seen to be unachievable in the face of the controls Castro has instituted,' the document states. 'Our second concept (1,500-3000 man force to secure a beach with airstrip) is also now seen to be unachievable, except as a joint Agency/DOD action.'
This candid assessment was not shared with the President-elect then, nor later after the inauguration..."
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB355/index.htm
-->Interesting to learn that the CIA lied to President Kennedy about the Bay of Pigs invasion. Just how many of our foreign policy decisions are made by the CIA rather than by our elected officials? The question will never occur to readers of the NY Times; our newspaper of record didn't print this story.
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Free Press:
"AT&T's plan to take over T-Mobile is about gouging consumers, destroying a competitor and firing an estimated 20,000 American workers.
We at Free Press have warned about this from day one. Now, one of AT&T's own lawyers has confirmed it. He inadvertently leaked a letter that reveals the merger has nothing to do with expanding AT&T's coverage to 97 percent of the country – the main argument the company has made to gain Washington’s support – and everything to do with eliminating the cheaper T-Mobile option from the marketplace (and laying off half of its workforce) to pad company profits.
The truth is out. Every AT&T argument about the supposed benefits of this merger has now been proven wrong. As AT&T's case unravels, we must keep up the pressure and urge Washington to stop supporting a deal that is so harmful to workers, consumers and our economy."
http://act2.freepress.net/go/5575?akid=2759.8935889.ToPRpf&t=3
-->The NY Times is not interested in narratives that are critical of giant corporations. Nor is NPR. The coverage by both "liberal" news sources is heavily weighted by AT&T's official statements on the merger.
