Jim;
You don’t mean “Bloodthirsty” ?
Playing with bloodthirsty is a ***** due to the happiness penalty for colonization (-10). IIRC, UPC 3 only gives you +6 in addition to your standard happiness increase.
You need to build troops, loads of troops. Stop colonizing for a while and use 2-3 turns for building policetroops (+2 for each trooper) on every planet. Pretty soon your guys will be like happy puppies again.