THE HEADLINES

A Northrop Grumman drone (Flickr)

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U.S. DEFENSE CONTRACTORS CAN SEE THEIR FUTURE, AND THAT FUTURE IS FILLED WITH DRONES. 

(Los Angeles Times)

An outgrowth of the United States military and intelligence community’s increasing reliance on unmanned aerial drones is the huge chunk of business now made up by drone aircraft for America defense contractors. Foreign nations see what America has done with unmanned equipment and now they want some of the same technology for their own military and intelligence needs. Corporations like Northrop Grumman that already assemble drones for the U.S. military are only too happy to oblige, but they are faced with long-standing restrictions on the export of drone technology to other countries.Defense companies are beginning to fight the virtual ban and petition the government to allow them to sell drones overseas as the potential orders pile up. Besides the risk to national security that was justification for the drone sale ban in the first place, military experts say the increase of drone use by the U.S. and other powers could be dangerous in that it makes the decision to go to war easier when merely programming a flying robot is all that is necessary.

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BILL CLINTON AND GEORGE W. BUSH HAVE AN ODD TAKE ON THE TERM “DISASTER RELIEF.” 

(Global Research)

It has been well over two years since as massive earthquake rocked Haiti and left hundreds of thousands dead and many more homeless or living in the streets. After the traditional flurry of celebrity and media-driven relief efforts and millions of dollars promised by foreign nations, the aid has all but dried up for the Haitian people. What little financial assistance on its way to the devastated island is bound to be of little comfort to the 500,000 people still displaced and homeless after the temblor. The Clinton-Bush Haiti Fund, a joint project of the two most recent former American presidents, has announced it used $2 million of financial contributions meant for Haiti relief to “invest” in the Royal Oasis Hotel project in Port-au-Prince, a 10-story luxury hotel catering to foreigners and including five-star restaurants and art galleries. Western media is hyping the hotel as a way of bringing “thousands of investors” to the “air conditioned” rooms of the Royal Oasis.

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CONGRESS TAKES A “STEP BACKWARD” ON TRANSPORTATION WITH NEW HIGHWAY LEGISLATION THAT PROTECTS THE SUV-FRIENDLY STATUS QUO.

(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

After months of wrangling between Democrats and Republicans in the House and Senate, Congress passed a new transportation spending bill last week that earmarks $20 billion for road and infrastructure repairs. With many experts claiming that the totality of needed infrastructure repairs and improvements in America would cost $2 trillion or moire, the recent action by Congress is even less than the proverbial drop in the bucket. More discouraging than the limited investment is what is in — or is not — in the bill. Environmentalists and public transit advocates are angry at the reduction in funding for fuel conservation programs, bike and pedestrian projects, as well as investments in clean transit that they say merely perpetuate the reliance on big cars and SUV’s that has degraded the nation’s highway infrastructure in the first place . Critics call the new highway bill a “step backwards” or at best a temporary fix that will keep the country “bumping along for the next two years.” 

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TEXAS REPUBLICANS TAKE A STAND FOR “FIXED BELIEFS” AND “PARENTAL AUTHORITY”

(Talking Points Memo)

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In a document filled with the usual conservative trappings, the 2012 Texas Republican Party official platform also endorses some highly controversial and strangely puzzling positions on education policy. The plank gaining the most notoriety is a verse stating the party’s opposition to teaching students critical thinking skills and other “values clarification” methods that the official platform condemns as a means of forcing “behavior modification” onto students and challenging both their fixed beliefs” and “parental authority.” For instance, teaching about climate change, evolution, or any other curriculum widely regarded as unquestioned fact could violate such a standard and be views as unlawful “behavior modification” of those students or parents of students do not believe in such science. Texas GOP officials say the inclusion of a plank against “critical thinking skills” was a mistake, and that it will be removed in the 2014 official platform document.