And no, I am not making this up. It just comes with a cutesy name typical of DCSpeak - "Congressional Unmanned systems caucus".
http://unmannedsystemscaucus.mckeon.house.gov/
The progressive caucus promotes progressive policies, the blue dog caucus promotes a$$wipes for corporations (in the name of "centrism" or "moderation"), bicycle caucus promotes biking. SO what does the drone caucus do?
http://unmannedsystemscaucus.mckeon.house.gov/...
The mission of the U.S. House Unmanned Systems Caucus is to educate members of Congress and the public on the strategic, tactical, and scientific value of unmanned systems; actively support further development and acquisition of more systems, and to more effectively engage the civilian aviation community on unmanned system use and safety.
.....
3. Work with the military, industry, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and other stakeholders to seek fair and equitable solutions to challenges created by UAV operations in the U.S. National Air Space (NAS);
.....
The phrase "seek fair and equitable solutions" (bolding mine) jumped at me and Orwell is probably rolling in his grave. Maybe relatives of those innocent civilians killed in wedding parties in Afghanistan can appeal for some justice?
Seems like an awesome Jobs program for those poor drone makers. And hey, more wars to deal with the enemies created by our guvmint raining death on innocents by means of drones. Which means more profits for the "defense" companies.
And the "killer" about the caucus? It is bipartisan !!!. Check here for the membership :
http://unmannedsystemscaucus.mckeon.house.gov/...
Another of the stated goals of the caucus reads as follows :
5. Support policies and budgets that promote a larger, more robust national security unmanned system capability.
So the decision to rescind the use of drones (seriously folks, I $hit you not!!) in RNC 2012 at Tampa comes as a temporary setback :
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/...
Yeah, "it can't happen here", right? With drones being deployed on the Mexican border to deal with undocumented Mexicans crossing into US, we can't be so sure. It is hitting home closer and closer. What goes around comes around. Whether it is running roughshod of the laws (international/national), torture, indefinite detention, neoliberal policies, eventually it all hits home. After they are tried and tested abroad.
And let's not forget that our President's favorite hi-tech "toy" is the drone. And watch the "anti-war" hero Howard Dean drooling over drone warfare (and Jeremy Scahill smacking him down) here.
Who says the 2 parties can't agree on anything? They agree on raining death. All our bipartisan national insecurity policy has is a hammer so everything looks like a nail. Let me end with a classic quote on bipartisanship by the awesome George Carlin :"The word bipartisan means some larger-than-usual deception is being carried out”.