As angry as I am at this series of events, I'm not shocked. And I know that nothing will ever be done about it.

Protesting, writing letters to your Congressmen, sharing videos on different websites...none of this will help. This type of atrocity will never go away, no matter how much we complain.

War is hell, and fools here think that it's okay as long as we're in American heaven.

Keep shopping or the terrorists win, right?

It isn't complacency that keeps this going, it's the overwhelming history of the military/industrial complex pursuing the goals of capitalism--to overthrow the world in the quest for God, gold, and guns.

Those people died in vain, as did many of their fellow men, women and children. And we all paid for it. But that's just the way it is and always will be.

A more apt question might be, "Why do so many Democrats discuss polls from Media Matters as if they had credibility?"

To be frank about this - why lie when the truth is better? Back in the 00s, Democrats created a whole bunch of talking points about Bush, Rove & their agenda items. Horror stories of the military industrial complex, deficits, debt, neocons, and such were easy to sell to the left because there was some truth to it. Bush did hike military spending, increase the deficit, run up debt, and philosophically tilted towards pro-Israel foreign policy. There was meat on the Democrat propoganda bones. Like all demagogues, there was ridiculousness mixed in - but the core wasn't all that off the mark.

"Lies about Obama..." So far they aren't so much lies as they are very slight exaggerations. The GOP says Obama is socialist, is running up unsupportable debt, is taking over key industries, wants single-payer health care, energy taxes, illegal amnesty, and so on. So far I'm not seeing anything that disproves those as 'lies' any more than Democrats were 'lying' about Bush.

As far as I can tell, what the GOP is saying about Obama's agenda is just about spot on. The icky health care bill is indeed designed to wipe out private insurance and redistribute wealth while not saving money at all. Obama is warming up to hit the entire US with pointless energy taxes next. He's already leaking talking points for illegal amnesty. He's already 'bailed out' big labor pension plans using the TARP money, and is looking like he's out to use more funds to bail out other labor goons including the Teacher's union & state pensions. The CBO just released a projection that by 2020, 90% of the entire nation's GDP will be needed to meet government obligations. Please explain how the GOP is wrong in their analysis of Barak Obama as a radical leftist, socialist, big government tax & $pender who is well on the way to ruining the economy.

As long as we all swallow the fact that we are killing on behalf of corporate profits, I have no problem with allowing our men and women in uniform to become more detached from the killing and safely on our own soil. Focus your anger on the bullshit happening in Washington DC on behalf of the military industrial complex, not the technology that keeps our people safe and their targets more precise.

If there was an actual team in the aircraft, would it be more palatable for you? If this kill required a squadron to punch through enemy lines and pull the trigger up close after mowing down hundreds of people in between, would you be happier?

Fight the root of the evil, not the improving tactics.

@dag, I think it's a mix of both. Republicans may be unanimous and vociferous about it, since the whole chest-thumping tough guy image is part of how they appeal to their base, but the people who wind up on the committees that write the defense budgets are all getting a flood of money from the military-industrial complex, regardless of whether they're Democrats or Republicans.

There's also the whole problem Republicans have with economics. According to them, government spending cannot possibly create jobs...unless they're defense contracts, or unless it's spending that brings money into their district. Preferably it's both. It's a politically safe way for them to bring pork back to their district, while pretending to be against wasteful government spending.

The defense companies know that, which is why they intentionally designed the F-22 program so that construction of the planes would involve parts being made in 48 different states. Makes it hard to vote to kill the F-22 program when for 96% of the Senate a vote to kill it will also cost their state jobs.

Very valid points as to why they may want to keep the electronics off the gun itself. But both the weather device and the targeting computer are run by the second man.>> ^Drax:
>> ^handmethekeysyou:
I'm sorry, you have a weather device, the output of which you manually input into the targeting device? This is evidence of the wastefulness of the military industrial complex. Take the weather device, stick it on the targeting device. There, I just saved you 2 very important minutes.

At a guess part of the reason for this is the gun's recoil could damage the sensitive equipment, plus the gun could at times be camouflaged under some form of light cover and not in a good position (to low) to take an accurate wind reading.

Look. If you're American, and don't approve of the methods of the military industrial complex securing a dependable workforce... Say so now.

And a squad car will be on it's way to pick you up and find drugs in your house shortly.

>> ^handmethekeysyou:
I'm sorry, you have a weather device, the output of which you manually input into the targeting device? This is evidence of the wastefulness of the military industrial complex. Take the weather device, stick it on the targeting device. There, I just saved you 2 very important minutes.


At a guess part of the reason for this is the gun's recoil could damage the sensitive equipment, plus the gun could at times be camouflaged under some form of light cover and not in a good position (to low) to take an accurate wind reading.

I'm sorry, you have a weather device, the output of which you manually input into the targeting device? This is evidence of the wastefulness of the military industrial complex. Take the weather device, stick it on the targeting device. There, I just saved you 2 very important minutes.

^ Domestic spending is a great idea.

Not at the federal level. Domestic federal programs are routine failures and outstrip military spending at a 4 to 1 ratio. Parenthetically, the US military budget partially subsidizes the DOMESTIC spending budgets of Europeans. I agree with US defense cuts, starting with Western Europe.

With domestic spending, we cook the steak, and actually get to eat it.

Government solutions are bureaucracies - insular, self-serving, rife with waste, riddled with cronyism, and ineffective in process. The first priority of a public program is the inflation of its own budget. Effective programs by definition reduce the budget of the program. Therefore, public spending has no incentive for excellence, or even basic competence. There are good people within such systems, but all too often the biggest obstacle to them doing a good job is the very program they work for. The 'military industrial complex' is a popular target, but the 'domestic public complex' does more damage to society.

Domestic issues are not 'public' issues. They are moral issues solved at the individual level. Such problems cannot be served effectively by amoral, disinterested, 3rd removed parties such as government programs. To really tackle the social needs of a people then there are only two known methods with proven track records... Personal morality and individual freedom. Neither solution is indemic to a government based approach. Government distances itself from personal morality, and is inherently in opposition to individual freedom. This is why public programs fail - for they attempt to address moral issue amorally, and restrict freedom where more freedom is needed.

huge areas of working and proven political policies

Such as? I know some people say that leftist policies are successful. I wouldn't call them that. Public programs cede freedom to a central authority and require massive taxation, regulation, and cost controls to exist. For example, "Public medicine" achieves its so-called universal coverage by taxation and denied/delayed care. It is not an improvement on a free system. It does not supply 'better' care. It is not 'less expensive'. For it to be a 'working, proven policy' it would need to be shown to be demonstrably superior at all levels to a free-market solution. I await with eagerness the proof of that claim. The only 'proofs' are the opinions of wonks. My position is that a free-market solution will always be superior because it returns freedom to people. The opportunity cost of lost freedom is a dirty, hidden cost of all left-wing policies that they never really like to discuss.

good reply netrunner. What about this: The most important part of policy is the trillions of dollars spent.

And that's going to the banks and the military industrial complex.

>> ^ReverendTed:
This piece isn't about hedonism, it's a metaphor for the American Military-Industrial Complex.


you see you should find this in museum and then place that on the description. not only would it be a usfull way of perceiving it but if the artist started with that in mind and ended up with what he did it would make them a very skilled artist.

>> ^ReverendTed:
This piece isn't about hedonism, it's a metaphor for the American Military-Industrial Complex.


It's a guide for geeks on how a vagina works.

This piece isn't about hedonism, it's a metaphor for the American Military-Industrial Complex.

Fuck two parties.

Fuck stereotype.

There are good liberals: Kucinich, Grayson, and that bald guy. I can't remember his name, the one that talked about martial law. Franken seems like a smart fellow, and he reminds me of Lewis Black.

There are bad conservatives, like the whole of those fuckers that voted against Franken's amendment to make felonies non arbitrary offenses.

But I am more of a New Hampshire type Libertarian and I cannot stand the current system as it is. The 2nd amendment is one that should not be infringed upon, but is used by the ignorant to push some very stupid ideas. Half of these people I would think haven't a clue what it is like to use a weapon in defense, or offense. I cannot stand police intimidation, and I cannot stand this unjust fear of the Justice System. Or Private Prison Systems! Now we have private police officers!

I have to say, you fools keep arguing about right and left while these great injustices are perpetrated on our tired, our poor, our retched refuse, our homeless, and tempest-toss.

You want true liberty? Or a place to truly have your Liberal, Conservative thought? Start with ending the Federal Reserve. Then move on to the lobby. Then move on to the Military Industrial Complex. Remove the monetary cost to get elected to Office the monetary cost that stops the poor from being a part of the system.

But most of all! Break these goddamned Stereo types: Right, Left, Moderate, Statist, Centrists, Libertarian, and so on. Fuck that we are United States Citizens fucking act like it.

blankfist, you're nuts. He's not a warmonger, he's very aware of the military industrial complex and only acknowledges that the federal government's top priority should be national defense. It used to be the only reason we actually needed a federal government.

Foreign terrorists don't deserve the protection of our Constitution because they're not american citizens, they're prisoners, it doesn't apply to them. Doesn't that make any sense to you?

Like his father, he realizes that US military interventionism was the reason 9/11 happened. Ron Paul was also in favor of going into Afghanistan (and voted likewise). The problem is that it turned into occupation, instead of the military just going after Al Qaeda and those responsible for the attacks.