United States News Digest

California Budget Deficit Grows, Along with Arnie's Nose

SACRAMENTO, April 30 (EIRNS)—California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a well-known liar and degenerate, has been playing games with the figures his office has been circulating on the state's budget deficit. The only thing which is clear from these reports, is that the deficit is continuing to grow. With the release date for his revised budget set for May 14, he has been disseminating conflicting figures. When a reporter for the Sacramento Bee called him on it yesterday, his office could only say, "We don't have a hard number right now."

The latest figure given out by his office is that the deficit for fiscal year 2008-09, which begins on July 1, will be a staggering $20.2 billion (out of a state spending plan of $101 billion). When pressed, an aide said that this shortfall is above the $7 billion in spending cuts already imposed through mid-year spending changes made at the beginning of this year!

Does this mean that the state deficit is actually approaching $28 billion? Political insiders are reporting that there exists an "Armageddon option," in which the George Shultz-run Schwarzenegger is demanding cuts significantly above the 10% across-the-board cuts he has already insisted are necessary. Further, revenues continue to fall, as corporate profits are declining, foreclosures soar, and job cuts are increasing, in both the public and private sector.

In his State of the State address in January, Schwarzenegger said that he will be "fiscally responsible," even though he knows that his brand of so-called fiscal responsibility means people will die as a result of his austerity measures. When will California Democrats—and non-psycho Republicans—finally step forward, and demand the removal of Schwarzenegger, for the most gross incompetence in the history of the state?

Congress Grants Gold Medal to British Agent Suu Kyi

April 27 (EIRNS)—Demonstrating once again why its approval by the American population rivals that of the hated President Bush, the U.S. Senate voted unanimously April 25 to grant British intelligence agent Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar the Congressional Gold Medal. This is the same award granted to the Nazi-loving Dalai Lama last year, in the run-up to the violent revolt in Tibet March, unleashed by the Dalai Lama's controllers.

The Dalai Lama was historically controlled by the Britain's top Tibet profiler Hugh Richardson, who, as British consul in Tibet from 1936-50, ran the effort to defend "traditional Tibetan culture" (feudal slave society) and to drive China out of its sovereign territory. Upon returning to London, when the Chinese re-asserted sovereignty in 1950, Richardson trained a new generation of colonial agents, including Michael Aris, who became the British agent over the Himalayan nations, and married Aung San Suu Kyi. Suu Kyi was then sent back into Myanmar to be the "axe-handle" (as the Myanmar government calls her) for the British axe, to break up Myanmar.

The British colonial supporters in the U.S. Congress are showing their colors again.

Will Congress Save NASA's Manpower and Intellectual Infrastructure?

May 4 (EIRNS)—NASA is facing a decimation of its workforce, which is the human capital that is required for any Moon/Mars mission. This, thanks to the criminal policy of the Bush Administration, to retire the Space Shuttle fleet in 2010, without providing enough funding to fly its replacement, until five years after that. The five-year hiatus in the U.S. being able to launch people into space has been attacked by the Congress, and by NASA Administrator Mike Griffin.

The human infrastructure in the manned space program, concentrated at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, and the Johnson Space Center in Houston, is under threat. In early April, NASA's Associate Administrator for Space Flight told Congress that more than 8,000 contractor jobs in the space program could be lost. The Kennedy Center could be facing cuts of 80%. The Michoud Assembly plant in New Orleans, which built stages of the Saturn V Moon rocket, the fuel tank for the Shuttle, and will build stages for a new launch vehicle, could lose as many as 1,300 of its 1,900 jobs.

Last year, Congressional supporters led a failed attempt to increase NASA's FY08 budget, to shorten the five-year gap between the end of the Shuttle, and the start of the Orion spacecraft. On April 29, a bipartisan group of 30 Representatives, sent a letter to House leaders, urging at least a $1 billion increase in NASA's FY09 budget. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), on the Appropriations Committee, is pushing for the increase, with colleague Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.).

As the 1960s Apollo program wound down, to be replaced by the counterculture and Malthusian pessimism, the impact on NASA's scientific leadership and highly skilled workforce was dramatic. Tens of thousands lost their jobs. Rates of divorce, suicide, and alcoholism in communities near the Kennedy Space Center shot up, as whole towns were abandoned. NASA administrator Mike Griffin has warned that without adequate support for the next steps in space exploration, the most priceless resource in the space program will be lost, again—its people.

U.S. Nuclear Expert Rebuts Cheneyac on North Korea

April 30 (EIRNS)—Dr. Sig Hecker, the unofficial "inspector" of the North Korean nuclear program, publicly repudiated the view of the Cheneyacs in Washington. Hecker, the former head of the Los Alamos National Labs, a center for the development of the U.S. nuclear weapons, has visited North Korea five times since 2004, and the Yongbyon nuclear facility three times, including this past February. In a presentation at John Hopkins SAIS today, Hecker reported in very strong terms that the North Koreans have been open to revealing their nuclear facilities, and have gone a long way to dismantling those facilities, as specified in the series of agreements worked out in the Six Party talks. He noted that the U.S. has been far less forthcoming in living up to its part of the deals.

James Lilly, former U.S. ambassador to China and a fanatic opponent of the diplomatic agreements worked out by Ambassador Chris Hill in the Six Party talks (which Vice President Dick Cheney tried to sabotage at every turn), challenged Hecker, ranting about the North Korean regime's use of "all nefarious means to raise money for their nuclear program," their "pathological fear of outside forces," and their "damn the torpedos" approach to proceeding with nuclear weapons. Hecker responded forcefully: "I do not consider what they are doing to be 'damn the torpedos,' not even close. If they were 'damn the torpedos' they would not be shutting down their facilities, making it close to impossible to revive it."