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Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
04/10/09
04/10/09
04/10/09
04/10/09
It would be like carrying around an elephant-gun for protection from wildlife... in Manhattan.
04/10/09
would you kill htat?!
04/10/09
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04/10/09
and Rush is not a source of anything but bullshit.
04/10/09
And the military budget is being cut, at least on paper. The Bush admin used the baseline military budget for normal operational expenses, and then special/supplemental appropriations for war fighting and one expenses. Obama has called this "dishonest" (despite the fact he intends to do the same into the forseeable future). Whether is is or not is debatable, but the point is while his baseline budget will increase, the other appropriations will be dramatically cut, meaning the total amount of cash projected to go to the military will be reduced. But don't let facts stand in the way of a good joke/administration spin. And I'm sure those missile defense systems won't be needed, Obama will put on some Marvin Gaye and charm the nukes right off the Norks, and then they'll all have a sing along with the Somali pirates. Yay.
04/10/09
04/10/09
Could it be that Steward's jabs are getting too close to exposing the ridiculousness of the situation?
The problem may not be whether the missile defense system are needed or not, but whether they will actually work even when needed. At this point, some Marvin Gaye and some charm appears to be just as effective as a system that can't even find the side of a barn, let alone hit it.
04/10/09
No it couldn't. In addition to being a comedian, Jon Stewart is a citizen. And he's a citizen with more reach and access than most (Giz doesn't link to the opinions of my Uncle Carl three times a week). He lectures journalists on their ethics without wondering why those journalists can't ask hard questions. They can't because of people like him. Whether he labels it as such, his show is just as much of a news source than any other mainstream news organization, if not more so. And Stewart puts on a clown nose and says 'I excepted from my own rules because I'm a clown. I do everything a journalist does, I use all of the trappings to my advantage, I opine constantly, but at the end of the day, because I choose not to apply this label to myself, then the rules don't apply to me.' Which is either extremely disingenuous or extremely naive.
During the '04 campaign John Kerry wouldn't do any hard news shows, but he did TDS, because he knew it would be a friendly venue. So Kerry gave the appearance of having been interviewed by a news anchor, when what he got was on-air verbal fellatio from Stewart In the midst of the Swift Boat issue, when Kerry could've been given the chance to clearly state his case, Stewart asked "So how you holding up?" One question, right before the play-out music, no chance for a response, on the biggest controversy of the biggest election (to that point) in recent history, Stewart's the only one given a chance at a public question, and he fucking doesn't bother. Jim Cramer wishes he got such a pat on the head. Stewart Had a candidate for POTUS, and he tossed him softballs. And because Stewart was available and tossing softballs, no journalists that looked like he might do a hard interview had a shot. Stewart's show (and Rush and Glenn Beck, et al.) makes venue shopping by politicians much more viable. And it lowers the standard for everybody, since TV is a business. If you want the big, rating bonanza interview, you better not bring any more heat than TDS. The fact that progressives go apoplectic over Fox News' bias, and then want to offer Stewart tongue baths from their virgin daughters is a sign of cognitive dissonance on a mind boggling scale. Fine, Fox News is officialy declared a comedy channel, therefore all bets are off, right? Right.
04/10/09
04/10/09
04/10/09
04/10/09
Essentially, we'd be giving up a lot of our air superiority for an enormous savings in defense spending. Can it be overcome more cheaply, with, as Stewart notes, a little less porcine spending? Sure.
But will cutting it altogether contribute to American military deaths? Probably. And that's an unfortunate problem in the construction of any budget.
04/10/09
I get the cutting of the Army's Future Combat Systems - the program was massive, going nowhere fast and America's present qualitative edge in ground combat vehicles is a lot more secure than in the air. If we do have to fight a major power like China or Russia, it will be in the air and at sea - any land war is likely to be against low-tech forces like Iraq, Iran or the Norks - and I say this as a former Army guy - the Army's stuff is good enough, whereas the Air Force has to keep pushing the technical envelope.
04/10/09
04/10/09
But I actually agree that canceling the F-22 sucked, yeah it ran over-budget and took too long, but it is pretty much done at this point. So we're going to give up and stop signing checks when the project is ~95% complete.
And don't even get me started on the F-23, what a chunk of commercialized BS. VERY WELL PUT GANN - "The term jack of all trades, king of none comes to mind." Not to mention the fact that they are going to be sold to pretty much any country that can afford them, so air combat is a spec racing series now? WTF?
04/10/09
04/10/09
Until then STFU...
04/10/09
damn.
04/10/09
04/10/09
I was thinking of the CBU-97 sensor-fuzed weapon.
04/10/09
04/10/09
Un-manned drones, however, are seriously cool and have applications in today's wars.
Keep in mind that the Bush team had the Comanche helicopter and next generation rifle programs canceled for less honorable reasons.
04/10/09
At least the facebookers seem to be doing a better job of policing their own...
04/10/09
but a reporter??? nah...that's impossible.
04/10/09
O'Reilly, is that you?
04/10/09
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04/10/09
Stewart rocks. =)
04/10/09
Of course. We wouldn't want to spend all that money on defense. The small countries we rolled over didn't have any air force so lets just get rid of ours. Great idea...
And then if things heat up with the Chinese, North Koreans, Serians (who actually have a pretty decent air force) or any other nation who doesn't really like us, we can kiss our air supremacy goodbye. Would be a bitch trying to fight a war to defend South Korea or another of our allies without controlling the air. The F-22 is for shooting down other countries airplanes before they can cause havok on our navy and ground targets.
You are a moron.
04/10/09
04/10/09
And then if things heat up with the Chinese, North Koreans, Serians (who actually have a pretty decent air force) or any other nation who doesn't really like us, "
STOP RIGHT THERE!
04/10/09
02/24/09
02/24/09
Nope, I have to drag around some huge $350 dollar gadget that I can't do anything with except read books/RSS. I have to worry about battery charges, weather, damage, air port screenings, etc.
02/24/09
02/24/09