Discussion for article #237285
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A 9th grade dropout…an impressive accomplishment, bro.
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The next time you hear a politician scream that we HAVE to increase the defense budget, hand them this article and ask the question that NEVER gets answered: “How much is enough? How about you make do with what you have and then prepare for a 5% cut next year. Time to get lean and mean.”
Also, don’t forget that wonderful period when the Bush team in Iraq was throwing football sized blocks of $100 bills around the room and the Pentagon admitted it could not account for $8 billion of its Iraq budget.
This has been another edition of “Why we can’t have nice shiny things.”
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The waste would be laughable, except for the fact that they are/were stealing from me, you, our children, the future, etc…
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Well, it is all just ‘folding money’ to the Pentagon…
A microcosm of the entire Bush Presidency. Still doesn’t top a former horse show judge being put in charge of leading the entire Louisiana coastal region out of the horrors of Katrina. Heckuva job, Brownie!!
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Anyone worried about the fiscal prospects of future generations would continually question the need for $600+ billion DoD budgets into infinity.
In fiscal year 2015, military spending is projected to account for 54 percent of all federal discretionary spending, a total of $598.5 billion. Military spending includes: all regular activities of the Department of Defense; war spending; nuclear weapons spending; international military assistance; and other Pentagon-related spending.
https://www.nationalpriorities.org/campaigns/military-spending-united-states/
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It is difficult to notice anymore, but we are in deep.
But think of all the jobs they created.
Ah…the magical hand of the free market working its wonders again. Yet another example of how well it works to privatize the government. I’ve never understood the rationale that somehow having the government pay a private middle man to do its job is somehow going to make things more efficient.
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I find it difficult to believe that Illinois is a million miles away from Afghanistan.
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soon to be a motion picture. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arms_and_the_Dudes
I thought this story sounded familiar… see the archived Rolling Stone article (also by Mr Lawson) from 2011 http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/the-stoner-arms-dealers-20110316
Spoiler alert… they got caught and are (supposedly) out of the arms business. But, still a well told and fascinating story.
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I’m dumbfounded.
Now THIS is why we have an NRA and a Second Amendment that must be interpreted so broadly that no records of gun sales need be kept for even passing (let alone prying) regulatory eyes.
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This is presented as an article, but is apparently a handful of paragraphs from a book – none of which is mentioned at the top of the post.
This is bad form, TPM.
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He should be a GOP presidential candidate, competing against Scottie Walker.
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I had read that too.
This seemed so ridiculous then-- yet so typical of Bush Administration machinations.
jw1
> The Army’s team consisted of half a dozen matronly women dressed in frumpy skirts and sensible shoes.
Remember this story well and it certainly merits a fuller telling, but really, was this description necessary?
Well, transgender is all the rage right now. Perhaps he (she) was just ahead of the curve.
Or belongs to a Lodge.
That explains the filler. It reads like a screen play pitch. Humor and Kumar: Lords of War