Jonesy

In addition to optimizations, we could slaughter some bloat - like the Homeland Security Department. It is completely redundant. The U.S. government already = the Homeland Security Dept., and there is no propaganda involved with the name.

cheapseats

I only caught a couple minutes of a public radio segment on Osama bin Laden the other day, and it was like a splash of icy water.

While we acknowledge that our Government is up to no good six ways from Sunday, and while we get it that our presence in the Middle East incites the need for us in the Middle East...to the staggering and shameful profit of a conscienceless Few...we are obliged to remember that there IS a credible threat posed to Americans by whatever is the politically correct term for Bad Guys who hate us and mean us harm.

It is true that we have our OWN Bad Guys who don't mind hurting us to increase a profit, but it's strictly business. There are also Other Bad Guys who want to hurt us on misguided principle...it's personal.

Osama bin Laden belongs to an extraordinarily wealthy family...he is the renegade. It was at the posh school at which he was being educated in England...in the long tradition of Other wealthy sons and daughters being educated in England...that he was pointedly identified and courted, by an instructor, for the Brotherhood of Islam.

It is rather a death-to-the-infidel rogue sect. Remember the bin Ladens who were flown safely out of America while everyone not killed at Ground Zero was stranded on the ground? The ones who still come and go? Osama bin Laden is their black sheep. He's on a WHOLE different path, and has been since he was CHOSEN, as a teenager.

The security of our country IS at issue. We WANT security, though I agree about a name change after The Gut leaves.

We DON'T want Blackwater. We want our military to be well equipped and well-paid, however, like the Blackwater mercenaries. I'd say 'and trained like,' except I have it from two active military that Blackwater lets the U.S. Armed Forces do the training..."best of the best," I'm told...THEN they recruit.

We wanted a fence, for instance, years ago. NOTHING suddenly catapulted it to Terry Schaivo urgency, NOTHING warranted Congressional dispensation to Michael The Gut Chertoff to ignore any and all laws in its construction.

Congress is mad as hatters, or Congress is chicken period shit period. As ever, we are confronted with the lesser of two evils.

Our entire library of alphabet agencies is riddled with duplication and replication, absurdity and abuse, complication and corruption...I could come up with alliterative evil twins all day.

More bullshit = more federal employees.

Do all of them have automatic raises, like Congress?

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Jonesy

Of course, when people rely more on government they rely less on themselves (and the Universe). Excessively amassing so-called 'national security' is actually not in the nation's best interests. It is even worse when you spend 50x more than is truly needed.

All the campaign hype has drowned out the Bush evils in immediate need of correction (such as the military commissions act, the patriot act, and the various executive 'orders' or whatever the fuck). If your employee enacted these sorts of measures, you would fire them instantly.

cheapseats

It is one of the core problems with Communism. If everyone is quote-unquote-equal, getting paid the same whether they work hard or hardly work, whether they work smartly or stupidly...hey, human nature is human nature...there is no motivation to put forth any special effort. You can't get ahead. Put it on cruise control. In fact, slack off whenever you can.



Agreed. But it is important to distinguish between protection and aggression. Protection has a greater the-more-the-merrier quotient than does aggression...no doubt, how we got addicted to insurance.



I know, alas, but visionary Democrats spied an opportunity to first tackle the age-old gender and race bugaboos. You can understand their optimism, after seeing how effective we have been at fixing age-old problems in the Middle East.

Shame, really, that there are only 24 hours in a day...we coulda probably cured cancer and AIDS, overhauled welfare and education, divined universal healthcare, resolved illegal immigration, improved veterans' benefits, rebuilt our infrastructure, revamped our telecommunications, revolutionized alternative energy and spearheaded emissions reductions if we'da just had a little more time.

Pie in the sky? It's what's for dinner. Coming soon, cake.

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BillCosby

First we don't let them.......

You have an assumption here I don't necessarily agree w/. FIrst not all poor ppl are criminals so stop that bs off the top...

Committing a crime is a moral &/or ethical/social/legal problem not a financial one. Rich ppl commit crime like every one else...

If that was the case places like Bangladesh would be full of criminals.....

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

Rollerball

Save your breath. I think Jonesy has everyone on Ignore. Same as he did with his teachers in school, all news sources and any other place that might reference real information from the real world.

Living inside his head and figuring out the whole world from there is much easier.

BillCosby

Hey that sounds a lot like brain science.................... ROFLMAO!!!!!!

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror

Rigged

That would explain why he doesn't answer...lol

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Rigged

Ah HA! a statement! That is a very good idea, they attempted to do that some years ago when they all but eliminated block grants in the 1980s. I think that was a good idea, however I think the entire spending mechanism really needs a good over haul. Starting with the incomprehensible tax code and the less than transparent way congress conducts its business (i.e. pork-barrel, earmarks, tit-for-tat, whatever you want to call it).

You lost me here chief...lay off the fortune cookies

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BillCosby

Iget responses from him all the time..... Maybe that is just because I nominated him for president.......????

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Preventive war is not war!!!!Counter-terror is not terror