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[Presidential Election Thread] All Hail the Liberty Rooster.
Posts
How about single moms, you clueless entitled twit?
Edit:
I hate it that satire is more believable than life.
Stop the world, I want to get off.
Ed & Larry : "Doesn't matter."
I recently was gifted a thing in Steam. If it was from you, thank you very much!
(It's a fake quote @Just_Bri_Thanks)
Yeah this. It would be economic warfare before it became anything else, as China's entire industrial boom has been on the back of american demand for cheap goods.
Why is that better?
Ed & Larry : "Doesn't matter."
I recently was gifted a thing in Steam. If it was from you, thank you very much!
It's not what keeps us from going to war, but its what keeps a new cold war from happening. It is why the Republicans are wrong with all their fear mongering and shit.
But like I said,
AMFE's Crazy Conservative Views start here.
If it makes you feel any better, of all the Crazy Conservative Views™ someone can hold, wanting to hold off reducing military personnel as a last step is probably one of the more reasonable ones.
STEAM: Gasman1220 | My Backloggery
That was terrible satire, in my opinion. It was presented way too realistically, and with an editorial slant that has no place in the genre.
I agree with this. This is a sensible solution to the problem.
The government can and should create jobs. Where are thousands of soldiers, sailors, marines, and airmen going to go? If we were honestly going to stand down large portions of the military I think we should retrain them and put them to work on public works projects, from the expansion of public transportation and broadband internet penetration to the rebuilding of our national infrastructure and the renewal of our aging energy grid and power generation. Fix your bridges and roads, make sure everyone has access to cheap, fast public transportation, make America the number one country for high-speed internet access, switch 60% of our power generation needs over to nuclear, and then talk to me about what our military should be doing elsewhere. I'm all for meeting our international responsibilities, but we've put off nation-building at home for too long.
Even then, it only really happens between two groups that we don't have close ties with (ie, Iran vs Iraq, etc.) This is a good thing overall. Thankfully, with the exception of a minority of warhawking congressionals, the US leadership is more than happy to have a benign role in world affairs, especially post-Iraq. This does not diminish our need to maintain the military gulf that we have.
We do need to spend smarter, and have a better budgeting system in place. We should reward our military commanders for coming in under budget, not punish them (Currently unused spending is cut from the next budget, making it a "Spend it or Lose it" system). We need to cut down on useless RnD, and pork barrel projects. The F-22 project was a major failure almost entirely because of the way it was built, with parts manufactured all over the nation at a ridiculous cost. We need to stop giving out Cost + % contracts. It should be up to the contractors to come in and bid fairly (omg Free Market!) and not scrap and re-award contracts ad naseum.
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Those are the kinds of reforms I'd like to see, too.
:^:
They'll probably still fly.
If faith is just a silent tribute, mine is just a desperate act.
That whole guarantee'd job after graduation still stands...but it's no longer immediate. It's a nightmare.
Also the idea behind the Obama's military restructuring is fairly sound IMO. Scale back on the aspects that A) we currently don't need to maintain our status and B) that we can train up in a short time. Then focus the budget on maintaining the force projection we want, maintain and building things that we can't acquire in a short time period (heavy equip [ex tanks, aircraft ships] & specialized units that take a long time to build), while also have the personnel in place to quickly train up needed personnel if the shit hits the fan. I can't remember how long it takes train basic infantry, but with good force projection, you should have enough time for it in the event that sometimes initiates shit against us.
I'm just hoping they'll get to work on scaling back some of the privatization that is costing us money. I'm pretty sure we've been ripped off with some of the R&D that was kept around as pork. I'd have to read up on the various R&D where that has happened but I'm wondering if giving the military a veto-like power when it comes to actually doing R&D and the implementation of R&D projects would help any. I'm thinking that might be a mixed bag since they might opt to always fund all projects since Congress is giving them the money but cut out the shit that we saw with the F22 project (as in the F22s still get build but the assembly is done in the most cost effective manner rather than the most pork effective manner. Things like private security and mercenaries, well we really shouldn't be spending any money on that shit because we're training troops who could do that stuff.
-As for cookiegate. Mitt better be careful, piss off 7-11 too much and they could prove to be the most pro-Obama and anti-GOP platform this fall. They numerous location, open 24/7. All they need to do is stop carrying pro-GOP literature and start displaying lots of pro-Obama, pro-Democrat and anti-republican literature in easy to see spots for low prices. Not to mention they could start training the cashiers to be effective at running get out the vote drives while ringing up the gas & over-priced goods that people purchase from them. :rotate:
So what's your workable, non hyperbolic solution Mr "All We Need are Nukes and SpecOps"? : P
I think too many people think warfare is like a game of Risk and they just need to hold out for the turn where they can cash in their cards for more reinforcements.
If that were true Australia would be the dominant military power in the world.
They don't have Indonesia, yet.
I don't know, while easy to defend you only get two soldiers for the whole continent. And if you're playing by the rules those soldiers have to go in Australia so they can't help you anywhere else.
That being said, the Army, and armed forces in general are currently scaling back through numerous means.
First the Army is cutting back about 50,000 soldiers. Not through direct firing, but reducing the availability of reenlistment options for jobs that are over strength. Those that want to reenlist have to perform better than their peers. Weak performance means you will not have the option to reenlist, done on a case by case basis by their commander.
Also, it's much easier to kick out soldiers who have patterns of misconduct. You used to need a long, properly documented counseling packet to prove a pattern, now it can be as few as two or even one in certain cases to force a solder out of service.
Basic training (8 weeks for normal soldiers and 12 for infantry) will also be raising their standards back to prewar levels.
Promotion criteria has gotten stricter as well as how long a person can stay at a certain rank without promotion before being removed from service.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head. None of this is really new, I joined before 9-11, so it's just going back to how he Army was prewar levels. Naturally a lot of the stricter rules were lightened due to keeping up wartime numbers.
I can't speak from a wasted penny standpoint, I'm more of rubber meets the road kinda guy. I do know that some cocks in Congress thought it would be funny to gut our retirement by a fuckton as well as push back when we start receiving benefits. I don't think it has been officially shot down yet. I don't know about you guys, but I personally wouldn't fuck with the money (and family by proxy) of 500,000 war vets. It would be a very bad idea IMO.
Let's Play Mass Effect - Set 6 Updated 9/8/2012
No, you hide in Australia and just build up and build up and then start working your way out like a damn supervirus.
'I think there's still some blood left in this stone!'
Like, there's nothing to take from them.
That's the bigger problem.
WHY can such a large percentage exist where they cannot pay taxes, not HOW can we raise their taxes so I don't have to pay more.
Well, they do pay taxes, on everything they buy and consume. But yeah, I hate that god damn statistic every time I hear it because it's so blatantly ignorant of a simple reality. They're poor as dirt.
And I bet many of them would have no problem paying taxes if it meant a good steady job with decent wages so they could support their families and themselves.
Oh hell yes, I'm absolutely sure the people saying it realize exactly what they're saying. But the GOP really wants statements like "45 percent don't pay income taxes" to disperse out into the public discourse
Indeed, but I mean specifically income taxes, as did J Cockburger C Untman.
At least Cantor specifically mentioned income tax (I question his numbers though, as I would out of the mouth of any of his ilk), but too many just spout off the 'they don't pay taxes'
No, it is not.
So you're voting for Obama? After all, he has 4 years of experience being president. Seems pretty relevant to the job of being president for another 4 years.
Would it be bad taste to start getting in politicians' faces about things that happened to them in the past that was out of their control?
"BDSM is such a disgraceful scar on American society. People whipping, hitting, electrocuting each other for sexual 'pleasure.' BUT I'M SURE JOHN MCCAIN IS INTO THAT."
It already is up to the contractors to bid fairly, for the most part. Proposal writers aren't psychics. Shit happens, requirements change, and suddenly you need more money to make it happen. That's just how R&D works.
The contracting process needs reforms
, but removing cost+ isn't one of them. A more effective rating system, and a more effective means for contract officers to bar known parasites from bids is what's in order.[edit] Sorry, you said cost+%. Those actually are incredibly stupid.
What is McCain even referencing?