I keep telling Durbin, the Democrats need to roll out the footage of the Bushies and the MSM promising the American people that the war in Iraq wouldn't cost us a cent.

They're literally smoking in the boys room, smoking dicks! I'm so happy that we spent our money/future/honor so wisely. Where's the prez when you want to give him a big hug?

argh!

They're probably smoking dope. That would be another behavior that they condemn in anyone else, but that they engage in themselves.

"What are they smoking?"
Nothing.They're heavily into the pharmaceuticals.

But as we all know, the Bush administration is 99.9% efficient and corruption free, so that means only about $2,400,000,000 of that has gone into someone's pocket.

What are they smoking?
These Republican jokers are on crack!

Beyond sick.

Just another nail in the US coffin. Just wait until China...and to a lesser extent, Japan...decide they want their money.

This country is about to become one giant f**ked up place. Last one out, turn out the lights.

Ha HA! Couldnt happen to a nicer country. Karma is a bitch eh?

Every Democratic candidate for every office coming up for election in 2008 had better use this hearing in their campaign ads and when they go out and talk about the war and how much it is costing. The fucking Republicans DID NOT EVEN SHOW UP!!!!! Get ready for new employment asholes.

I can't help but wonder how many solar panels or wind turbines 2.4 trillion dollars could have bought and how many manufacturing jobs it could have created in America.

Or maybe, instead of GM, FORD & Chrysler closing multiple plants the US could have helped them become they leader manufacturers of electronic cars. Instead, we've got Honda building new plants in America.

U.S. politicians are beholden to oil interests and the politicians are holding America hostage to the status quo rather than innovating and creating a better future for it's citizens and the world.

Frodo @ 17:

Ha HA! Couldnt happen to a nicer country. Karma is a bitch eh?

Wish I could argue with you Frodo. As a society we've brought this upon ourselves through our inaction, greed and complacency.

Yep, payback is a bitch but before you get too smug just remember we still have a bunch of maniacs controlling the most deadly arsenal of WMDs in the world. You'd better hope things don't get too bad for us, 'cause if they do those fools are just likely to use some of that crap and then the whole world takes it in the shorts.

Think positive, peaceful thoughts for all of us. Maybe we can slide through these tremendously dangerous times without some freak pushing the button.

greg white @ 21:

I can't help but wonder how many solar panels or wind turbines 2.4 trillion dollars could have bought and how many manufacturing jobs it could have created in America.

Or maybe, instead of GM, FORD & Chrysler closing multiple plants the US could have helped them become they leader manufacturers of electronic cars. Instead, we've got Honda building new plants in America.

U.S. politicians are beholden to oil interests and the politicians are holding America hostage to the status quo rather than innovating and creating a better future for it's citizens and the world.

Whats the Dems vision of whats best for America?

Still waiting.

"Fuck, I've never been this depressed or felt this hopeless. Not during the Vietnam War, not during the fabled Carter "malaise". Not even while Ronnie Raygun was sinking us into a deep debt that it took the senior Bush and Bill Clinton 12 years to dig us out of. I'm glad I'm getting old because this is no longer a country where there's the young can be hopeful.

Sad, but true. I'd hate to be a kid growing up in this country. Talk about starting out with two and a half strikes. Unreal. A country of optimism and hope is being bitch-slapped into a country of failure and depression. I truly don't see the situation changing. That mountain of debt is beyond staggering. And like I mentioned earlier, just wait until China and Japan demand their repayment. I think you could be looking at the next Soviet Union. A rusty relic of a once glorious past.

And don't think for one second the rest of the world won't enjoy every second of it. They will finally have the bully on its knees...and they're ready to pound the ever-living shit out of the US. And I don't blame them at all.

Frodo @ 17:

Ha HA! Couldnt happen to a nicer country. Karma is a bitch eh?

Frodo-This is similar to sanctions. The people who will be hurt by this the most will be the little people, the hoi polloi, not the fuckwits who caused it.

Don't blame us all-for starters, this GDCSing bunch of criminals seized the country in 2000. They were never elected.

Welcome to the United States of China.

My flu is affecting my typing today, in case you were wondering.

emerald @ 24, I was thinking much the same thing -- how much Iraqi oil could we have bought and paid for on the free market with that $2.4 trillion? Surely enough to tide us over for a few years while we switch to renewables? (That was sarcasm, in case it didn't come through.)

Geez, relax people.

The oil revenue will pay for the war.

We will be greeted as liberators and welcomed with open arms because the insurgency is in its last throes.

Besides, the mission is accomplished.

If you want to help your country, go shopping.

L.A. Confidential @ 25:

greg white @ 21:

I can't help but wonder how many solar panels or wind turbines 2.4 trillion dollars could have bought and how many manufacturing jobs it could have created in America.

Or maybe, instead of GM, FORD & Chrysler closing multiple plants the US could have helped them become they leader manufacturers of electronic cars. Instead, we've got Honda building new plants in America.

U.S. politicians are beholden to oil interests and the politicians are holding America hostage to the status quo rather than innovating and creating a better future for it's citizens and the world.

Whats the Dems vision of whats best for America?

Step one: Learn how to add. This 'cost' for the war comes from.....BushCo! And it's way, way, way off.

Still waiting.

That's RIGHT for you!!! If you support the RIGHT this is what you get...I hope you enjoyed your ass humping, please tune in tomorrow for anther exciting episode of "What's going on now?" the game show that where you the audience will loose your own money!

spit take @ 32:

L.A. Confidential @ 25:

Whats the Dems vision of whats best for America?

Still waiting.

Haven't been paying attention?

Yeah, you're right. It's much better to ignore complex proposals for healthcare, education, diplomacy, responsible use of military, etc., etc. etc. and just pretend they don't exist.

After all, those complex proposals are... well, complex, right?

The Dems are to busy giving Bush everything he wants rather then forcing him to invest these initiatives.

L.A. Confidential @ 36:

The Truth Hurts @ 27:

"Fuck, I've never been this depressed or felt this hopeless. Not during the Vietnam War, not during the fabled Carter "malaise". Not even while Ronnie Raygun was sinking us into a deep debt that it took the senior Bush and Bill Clinton 12 years to dig us out of. I'm glad I'm getting old because this is no longer a country where there's the young can be hopeful.

Sad, but true. I'd hate to be a kid growing up in this country. Talk about starting out with two and a half strikes. Unreal. A country of optimism and hope is being bitch-slapped into a country of failure and depression. I truly don't see the situation changing. That mountain of debt is beyond staggering. And like I mentioned earlier, just wait until China and Japan demand their repayment. I think you could be looking at the next Soviet Union. A rusty relic of a once glorious past.

And don't think for one second the rest of the world won't enjoy every second of it. They will finally have the bully on its knees...and they're ready to pound the ever-living shit out of the US. And I don't blame them at all.

I'm pretty much with you. We're falling apart.

Seriously, come on now.

Yes, this hurts. Our innocence is finally lost -- forever. You can't just think of Vietnam as a fluke. Bummer.

But the young are always optimists. And this country has shone, and can still shine as the very land of idealism. That's what this country has always been about. But do you really thing that every other country in the world hasn't already been through this once with a corrupt leader? Or even a dozen times?

Good lord, just look at the history of the Brittish Empire, and their legacy even today. We screwed up, no doubt about it. So we don't have a perfect score, and we're human. So what, we can still lead the world by example. Technology for clean energy. Human rights. And yes, world peace.

The United States can still, is DEMANDED still, make a huge contribution to these areas. Quite simply we can make an impact on them like NO other country right now.

We are and should be frustrated, but just work towards a better future -- right now -- in your own life until things turn around nationally. We aren't fallen apart yet, and won't be as long as ever day my fellow Americans, regular folks, work so hard to stay strong, live well, respect each other, and (eventually) hold these people accountable.

Freedom is never free, and soldiers aren't the only ones that must fight for it.

Sounds about right. Dollar devaluation from the 2.267 trillion a leading economist predicted in December.

http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/12855294/national_affairs_the...

The dems ain't any better than the pubes. Both love the war (they fund it dont they), love the tax cuts for the rich (heard one talk repeal lately), couldn't care less about YOUR son or daughter getting all fucked up in Iraq (none of their kids are over their and their ain't gonna be a draft, and even if there was, theirs ain't goin), don't give a shit about your health problems (get PRIVATE ins. and make our big contributors RICH), blah, blah, blah. The list is endless. I get the feeling that a few of the people on this blog actualy do give a shit, but most just bitch for sport. This country is a fucked up piece of shit that deserves whatever it gets. We treat the rest of the world like shit, some day the bill will come due....

Another way to look at it is that it's about $1million per Iraqi. Think we could have bribed them or that much?

Man, this thing ate my smart-ass comment.

Besides all the crap reasons BushCo. has come up with for his war in Iraq; if truth be told it is for oil, of course, and his intention to literally bankrupt the USA. I believe the neocons want to bankrupt the nation so that all we can pay for is our national security. They hate all FDR programs, public schools, etc. The pro-lifers want death for everybody except for zigots.

What a bunch of cowards! They can't even show up to hear the horrible truth. Why does any Democrat ever feel that he/she has to apologize to this warmongering evil party? Bush may have divided our country so deeply that no one will be able to put us together again. It is two Americas, the war loving, humanity hating ones and the other Americans who range from angry to confused by it all. How could George Bush destroy everything in seven years? He is the new plague! How can we wait one more year to solve this problem? We'll be 20,000 feet under and submerged in debt!

Lollimom @ 22:

Frodo @ 17:

Ha HA! Couldnt happen to a nicer country. Karma is a bitch eh?

Actually, the people are mostly nice.

Yes, what goes around, comes around. Especially for those who get a giddy delight at laughing at the troubles of others, like you did.

LOL, I am sure the Iraqi dead and maimed will take solace in the fact that the people, from the country which has managed to bring hell on earth in a most undeserved of fashion, are real nice stand up kind of people. You know the kind of society which asks pretty please as they bomb the shit out of you.

And them native Americans were marveled about how nice those pale faces were as they stole their land and decimate their numbers. I mean those reservations sure are nice!

And the Mexicans are so happy to be working for peanuts for those nice Americans. The nice stand up folk that took half of Mexico and now consider them Mexicans illegals in the very own land their ancestors used to own!

And it looks as if the nice American people can find the billions to pay for bombs, and not a single cent to pay for the health care of their very own children. I am sure most foreigners sure do wish they were as nice as the masses of Americans who are not only OK with having a for profit health care, but would rather insert white hot iron rods up their rectums that contemplate a single of their precious tax dollars being put to use to help someone else.

Of course, the nice American folk who re-elected Bush. Who have managed to prosecute exactly 0 people in this criminal cabal, and yet they have one of the largest inmate populations on earth. The same people who are OK with having the right to bear arms, execute people, yet consider health care to be a privilege not a right. You know the same bunch of merry fellows who claims to be the most religious society on the industrialized world but donates the least to charity on a per capita basis. It is sure the hallmark of niceness to be the nation who spends more on weapons than the rest of the top military powers combined. You know the same people who owe the most money to the UN, and who are all to happy to piss on the Geneva Convection, torture people since they are soooo nice, and pretty much give the middle finger to international treaty after treaty.

We obviously must have a different definition of "nice," in the rest of the English speaking countries I think they use the word "assehole." Yeah, I am sure them foreigners are scared shitless about laughing at the karma of a nation of selfish assholes that has been pissing on every body else's heads for the better part of a century.

As the old adagio goes, you reap what you sew. Good luck! There are some great American people, nice, educated, worldly, and compassionate. They are it seems a minority, God bless their souls having to be surrounded by such collection of uneducated, selfish, maroons. Yeeehhaaaaaa!

cleo @ 56:

What a bunch of cowards! They can't even show up to hear the horrible truth.

Well, it should not come as a surprise as that is textbook right wing MO; "If you ignore it, it doesn't exist."

I want my $8,000 back! I never said you could kill people with my money!

Jo @ 51:

Why do the Republicans want to destroy this country and our Constitution? That's what I can't understand. Because it is destroyed. It's not a decent place anymore. It's like one big prison camp where the prisoners think they can just walk away anytime. But we can't. No one wants us. We have become lepers. I don't think we deserve this. We have worked hard, played by the rules, sent our kids off to college to get a good job. But the jobs have gone. And we go to the store and find toys, food and clothing, things we used to make, made in China or East Bunglefuck. Even expensive brands are now made in foreign lands where the wages are pennies an hour and the working conditions are, well, like slavery. And no regulations. Is this what we are to become? Just another slave-wage state?
Even Hitler never had it so good as Bush. He only dreamed of the possibilities. Bush is living them.

It's so bad that I heard Cuban and the Dominican Republic turned away American boat people.

Jo @ 51:

Why do the Republicans want to destroy this country and our Constitution? That's what I can't understand. Because it is destroyed. It's not a decent place anymore. It's like one big prison camp where the prisoners think they can just walk away anytime. But we can't. No one wants us. We have become lepers. I don't think we deserve this. We have worked hard, played by the rules, sent our kids off to college to get a good job. But the jobs have gone. And we go to the store and find toys, food and clothing, things we used to make, made in China or East Bunglefuck. Even expensive brands are now made in foreign lands where the wages are pennies an hour and the working conditions are, well, like slavery. And no regulations. Is this what we are to become? Just another slave-wage state?
Even Hitler never had it so good as Bush. He only dreamed of the possibilities. Bush is living them.

Too True.......I can't think of one country that still has a favorable view of us....

swarmofkillermonkeys @ 65:

Dr. Who @ 59:

CALBLUE61 @ 55:

emerald @ 24:

now that's a good one, haven't heard that one before....hahaha

Actually he offered to get the heck out of dodge if the US was to pay him and his family for a nice subsidy, errr exile. I think the figure was a bit over $100 million. Now... I am no business man, but I think that Bush must have missed that class about cost effective investments during his MBA days of wine and roses.

There must have been few people who can rival the stupidity of the average American. $2trillion and all they got is some stupid yellow ribbon made in China. No wonder the economy is in the shiter. With business "visionaries" like Bush at the helm! Of course, Bush and his cronies have made out like bandits from this little adventures. Probably the single biggest funneling of public capital into a few private hands. In other parts of the world that is called robbery. Americans however, as I said, for the most part are hell bent in setting some sort of record for collective stupidity. Mussolini ended up sleeping like a vampire for stealing far less....

"There must have been few people who can rival the stupidity of the average American. "

Yes, well I'd just like to take this opportunity to say, "fuck you too sweetheart". You know, as an average American.

It is funny, though, that you accuse Americans of all being stupid, apparently resent that fact that his country exits, and paint Mussolini as a saint by comparison. Well, without America (warts and all) you'd have him. Or rather, you'd have had the syphilitic, insane Hitler, after Germany crushed Mussolini like a bug. Certainly all of Europe would have fallen, had we stayed neutral as everyone wanted to. (Turns out we guessed right to intervene on that one. But you can't be right all the time).

But why stop there? Since America is made up of ALL nationalities on earth, and is still one of the most tolerant countries to have existed (again, warts and all), why not go even further back and insult all the Danes, Russians, Greeks, Iraqis, Maori, Navajo, Australians, Peruvians, Japanese and on and on?

Babbling about historical wrongs really doesn't have jack to do with the "average American" today. We are diverse, and (here's a real shocker) can end up with really bad leadership. Guess that just doesn't happen in other countries, huh?

Perhaps you can enlighten me on the spotless background of your own country then? Well? Where is it that you live that you can throw such rocks at others? Where they passive in the face of great evil toward others? Were they ever shamefully aggressive of others or even their own people?

Nevermind, the answer is "yes", wherever you live. That's called being human. It doesn't have anything to do with being American. And it is entirely possible that America will withdraw and become isolationist again, allowing some other smart ass to lead world affairs.

You might want to be careful what you wish for.

Good on ya Swarm.....I'd like to know where this asshat lives.....just for comparison

Boy oh boy that's alot of borrowed money.

PurplePatriot @ 10:

Yet there were congressional measures taken to condemn MoveOn.org, and to rename french fries to freedom fries.

What in holy hell will it take before this country's people wake up and take it all back?

You said it and excellent question!!!

Right on! @ 72:

PurplePatriot @ 10:

Yet there were congressional measures taken to condemn MoveOn.org, and to rename french fries to freedom fries.

What in holy hell will it take before this country's people wake up and take it all back?

You said it and excellent question!!!

believe me....want to but nobody is listening.

Where are the efficiency experts when you need them?

WE ARE A NATION OF WAR CRIMINALS

mudshark @ 69:

tHeGaMeOfLiFe @ 67:

Who are the people who think the US was innocent before chimpy's war?

GTFOOH

And what country is?
You've been here long enough to know how we feel...you know "Stolen Election" and all.What do you think these people have been trying to achieve.We go back decades.....and we'll be here for decades more.....we can't always win...certainly not when the opposition resorts to criminal tactics....we are nothing more than the voice of the working class people......you know.......no one.

I was referring to another poster. I was too lazy to go back and find the post.

This war is not costing us a penny! Doesn't cost us our conscience or lack of sleep, doesn't cost us any sacrifice of our wealth or lack of shopping at the mall. The Iraqi people should be please that we are using their wealth to pay for every bullets and bombs on their land. Now the un-war part is costing us dearly, with the repeated reconstruction of the public infrastructure. Building cheap shoddy unsafe building with no accountability of where the money was spent has been very costly with no end in sight nor any action to rectify the stealing. Paying for Mercs to tear up the trust and faith of our soldier to the Iraqi people is costing us so much still.

I think this country is done for, as its not the lying of our govt leader from both side that bother me, its the blatant in your face lies that they don't even care what the people think.

Cmon guys! its just like racking up the debt on your credit card, then declaring bankruptcy! The debt just disappears! Its a cinch! Its a sure-fire thing!

Sure makes me glad our Dem congress-jellyfish are bipartisanly working with the Repugs to fund this. I have nothing better to do with $8000. /sarcasm

It's official: The cost of the war in Iraq is OBSCENE!!

IMPEACH BUSH NOW!!!

They are stealing our money right in front of our faces! Bush and his buddies are so blatant in their insatiable desire for money and power, yet we continue to watch and do nothing.

Will they ever stop feeding off of the humble masses? How can we get control of our government back? Why can't anyone stop this madness? (/rant)

The actions of the Bush Administration are unbelievably evil, low, greedy, unethical, and of course, ILLEGAL.

Thats a shitload of cash.

I think Americans really need to put 'trillion' into perspective

Then imagine, if possible, converting your national debt to pennies.

O.U.C.H

swarmofkillermonkeys @ 66:

"There must have been few people who can rival the stupidity of the average American. "

Yes, well I'd just like to take this opportunity to say, "fuck you too sweetheart". You know, as an average American.

Oh, my... do you kiss with that potty mouth?

It is funny, though, that you accuse Americans of all being stupid, apparently resent that fact that his country exits, and paint Mussolini as a saint by comparison. Well, without America (warts and all) you'd have him. Or rather, you'd have had the syphilitic, insane Hitler, after Germany crushed Mussolini like a bug. Certainly all of Europe would have fallen, had we stayed neutral as everyone wanted to. (Turns out we guessed right to intervene on that one. But you can't be right all the time).

Thanks for proving my point. Rather than build a straw man argument (I never claimed Mussolini was a saint btw). So let me make a pictorial representation:

My point -----> ..... (flying at supersonic speed)
Your head -----> O

But why stop there? Since America is made up of ALL nationalities on earth, and is still one of the most tolerant countries to have existed (again, warts and all), why not go even further back and insult all the Danes, Russians, Greeks, Iraqis, Maori, Navajo, Australians, Peruvians, Japanese and on and on?

Yawn... There is a difference between "nationality" as in cultural background, and "nationality" as in which country you are a citizen of. For the most part, if you are born in the US of A, you are... surprise an "American" (Although I am sure people who live in other parts of this continent may have issue with the term, but that is neither here nor there). You are not a "Dane" or a "Russian" or whatever. And this may come as a surprise but people back in the old country do not consider you part of their culture, you are a foreigner to them. In the same sense that it is not the fault of your parents if you are stupid, I would recommend that you spare me of the "proxy" implications.

BTW, Tolerant is in the eye of the beholder, if you are a WASP, sure. If you were Black, Hispanic or native American up to recently, well... I can attest that they don't really have the same concept of "tolerance." Still I find it ironic that you hide behind the poor native Americans as I were insulting them. Now that is brave!!!!

Babbling about historical wrongs really doesn't have jack to do with the "average American" today. We are diverse, and (here's a real shocker) can end up with really bad leadership. Guess that just doesn't happen in other countries, huh?

Perhaps you can enlighten me on the spotless background of your own country then? Well? Where is it that you live that you can throw such rocks at others? Where they passive in the face of great evil toward others? Were they ever shamefully aggressive of others or even their own people?

blah, blah, blah. Sure get on your high horse. But be careful from up so high you seem to have missed the whole point. And here is a shocker: I am American, warts and all, air force brat to boot.

There is a difference with ending up with a bad leadership, and tolerating that bad leadership. Which is what this country has done at large. He was re-elected, wasn't he?

If Americans were such tolerant luminary beacons of freedom, peace and enlightenment. Please, do you care to explain how on earth this country ended paying almost 2 trillion of dollars for a war based on a power point presentation, which was so bad, full of inconsistencies and plagiarized to the point of being laughable... except that hundreds of thousands of people have ended dying as a result of this prevalent stupidity.

Shit stinks everywhere, it is just that a lot of Americans feel that their farts actually smell of roses.

The population of a country, which has preemptively killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians --while spending billions of dollars it does not have in the process-- all for an cassus belli that was based on lies, innuendos and what ifs that would only have worked on people with the average analytical skills of a second grader, has a lot of issues to address the least of which is worrying about the fact of people pointing the obvious shitty karma that we have brought on ourselves.

Nevermind, the answer is "yes", wherever you live. That's called being human. It doesn't have anything to do with being American. And it is entirely possible that America will withdraw and become isolationist again, allowing some other smart ass to lead world affairs.

You might want to be careful what you wish for.

Since I did not wish for anything, I don't particularly care for your stupid ass threats. Oooooh, the bogey man!

If you think that calling a spade a spade is an insult, then just grow a thicker skin... that the wafer thin epidermis some of you seem to posses.

Ramone @ 89:

Thats a shitload of cash.

I think Americans really need to put 'trillion' into perspective

Then imagine, if possible, converting your national debt to pennies.

O.U.C.H

That is more than the average worker earns in a week.

WASHINGTON (Thomson Financial) - The total cost, including debt servicing, of the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could reach 2.4 trln usd by 2017, a report by the Congressional Budget Office found.
http://www.forbes.com/afxnewslimited/feeds/afx/2007/10/24/afx4256132.html

That on top of the trillion dollar a year defense budget.

http://www.independent.org/newsroom/article.asp?id=1941

I love fiscally responsible wingnuts.

This is so sad.

I take it the 2.4trillion doesn't include the cost incurred by other countries who have participated in this illegal war?

And it doesn't take into account the cost of recovering the dead and helping the injured when they return home.

And it definitely doesn't include the thousands of deaths, injured, displaced troops and civilians.

And what was this war about again?

Surely the Repukes aren't supporting this heavy cost in dollars and blood just because Bush Jr had a vendetta to get back at Saddam Hussein cos "he tried to kill my daddy"???

I'd rather accept it being for the oil - cos this other reason SHOULD be grounds to try him and his gutless team in the Hague!

C'mon Nancy - you got power - get stuck into them!!!

Sadly she and the Dems will roll over and allow this war to continue and the costs to escalate to unspeakable levels!

Shame on the USA and their gutless coalition of the willing.

This "war" is a blight on humanity! WARS do not solve anything. Just capture the dictators who start them and tell their supporters to put down their arms!!!!

$3.4 billion a year to each to state from 2003 to 2017 to build, improve and maintain electrified mass transit systems, that is the total. Instead we fund the military industry to kill for the oil industry.

That number is a complete fantasy of optimistic wishful thinking. It's going to be many times that number. For one thing, the 2.4 T doesn't include interest on all the money that is being borrowed, because the entire thing was put on the national Visa card. It doesn't consider how uncontrolled, mushrooming debt causes inflation. Has anybody noticed how the dollar is becoming worthless on the world exchanges( to such point that its heretofore liquidity is becoming meaningless)? This cost is going to become so great, and it is being spent by people who have asolutely no intention of ever paying off the debts that are financing this, that it could easily collapse our economy and drag down the global economy with it.

And the people don't care.

Notice that 2.4 is the expected total debt thru 2017. Unless someone plunks down that amount in 2017, the debt will continue to increase at the prevailing interest rate from then into eternity.
The deficit going down is meaningless, only a surplus could help reduce the national debt, unless some moron decides to refund any surplus to his rich cronies.

Comment 100 - Does that include the Marshall Plan?

So the War on Unarmed Brown People Who Live in The Same Region of the World as the Actual WTC Terrorists has cost us more than the Korean War, more than Vietnam, and is on its way to the silver medal against the biggest war of all time, in which we were the biggest spender?

Gotta hand it to Republicans, they sure can sweat the small stuff, like preventive healthcare for children, and get extravagant as they like handing out welfare to rich fat "Christian" white boy defense contractors. So that's what they mean by "compassionate conservatism" - compassion to conservatives.

Allen McDonald, El Galloviejo® @ 6:

Of course Governor Bush ( his last elected office ) could always use his execuhtiv privlidge
or a sighnin statement to tap Social Security funds in order to temporarily satiate his
necrophilia.

Naw, he couldn't do that. The Democrats in Congress wouldn't stand for it.

On the other hand......

Allen McDonald, El Galloviejo®

wake the fuck up he spent all 78 billion last year on it He put an IOU in the coffin though

The financing of war is the only legitimate debt the country should have.

Jerry @ 42:

Lollimom @ 22:

Frodo @ 17:

Ha HA! Couldnt happen to a nicer country. Karma is a bitch eh?

Actually, the people are mostly nice.

Yes, what goes around, comes around. Especially for those who get a giddy delight at laughing at the troubles of others, like you did.

Voting Bush in twice isn't generally considered nice..........

Being behind starting this war (what was it initially 70% for killing everyone in the middle east ?) wouldn't be either .... not revolting and over throwing the government could be considered "not nice" as well.

As for "most" (mostly nice), most of the times I've been there (all over the country) and "most" of the people I've met Just keep going on about how the USA is the best in the world at everything and everyone should shut up and be grateful that they are around and worship them....
{snip}

I heard a comedian the other say saying he was looking at a sign that said "God bless America" thinking :

"Now, see that, there is the issue right there, if that said God bless the world we would live in a much nicer place".

Except for the part about electing Bush twice, I completely agree, Jerry. The thing is, they flat out don't have the votes, so they cheat. Massively. But they think that, since they're making the rules, anything they do is legal.

Naomi Klein's recent book, The Shock Doctrine, is a brilliant illumination of this MO. They can't implement their "Shock Therapy" measures democratically, so they've done it by force. With torture and economic shock therapy, the goal is to terrify people into a state of complete openess to imprinting, like a hatchling. They then impose themselves as false gods on our psyches, our souls, against our will.

I appreciate your sentiment. Before you get to feeling all self-righteous, please note that we all share the assumption of an atomized self: we think we exist apart from that which gives rise to us. This is where research psychology meets Buddhism meets politics.

The binary, Divide-and-Conquer-ratio-making-mind is stringing out this line of words you are reading right here right now. Please note that, by the nature of drawing a line, 3 things seem to appear: Side A, a Line (of data, pixels, words, and reasoning), and Side B. They appear in a field that begins and remains _indivisible_.

That's us. That's We, the indivisible People. We find our common ground in the spaces in between.

This is the psychophysiology behind the infamous "Us vs. Them" effect. It's just our brains playing tricks on our minds. We imagine steep and deep divides between our cellves and our groups that aren't really there. We terrorize ourselves, we fear our own shadows. Then we retaliate by sending "superior" firepower into that illusory gap, and are amazed when we kill women and children and the elderly, as if killing young men was ok. Or we make plans to store radioactive waste under Yucca Mountain for 50,000 years--no shit, that's what the Department of Energy says they are planning to do. But there simply is no Away where things disappear after we throw them 'away.'

By imagining our selves to be absolutely divided at some point one from another and from our environment, we cut our selves in two and then wage war on our other half.

This is an attribute of binary thinking. No one is immune from it. The answer is to realize our sovereign indivisibility from within. No one can deny you a freedom that arises from within.

Just to get a wild idea of this cost I will give you an example from a paper that I wrote more than ten years ago. In 1996 dollars the U.S. had spent over 4 trillion dollars to develop, deploy, and maintain its nuclear weapons. Translated, this would amount to spending a million dollars a day for almost 11,000 years. That's right, 11,000 years. And this took America 50 years to do. As you can see by the article Iraq, in 4 years, has cost over half that sum. Figure out the current cost of the war in daily dollars and it is staggering and possibly not recoverable for many generations. Plain and simple, war is insane.

What are they smoking?

It sure ain't Kind.

Tony @ 112:

I'm sorry, I can't read your blog anymore. I'm so pessimistic and cynical it's affecting my personal life. Thank you for blogging and goodbye

You see? Exactly what I'm talking about.

I almost forgot!

You asked "What are they smoking?", well I'll tell you.

Children.

"Or, you know, ensure free public education through high school for every child on earth for a few decades."

Note, that is with the leftovers, $2.4T is way too much money for that.

Oh did you hear, Dumbledore is gay.