CosmicBills

.... And yet, 35 Billion was spent on projects without executive or congressional oversight. I don't know any businessmen who would let 11% of their budget triple without any accountability. That's bad business. That's a lot of waste. And a lot of money. Keep spinning.

A tank isn't. 35 BILLION into the black budget is certainly unaccountable. And the black budget wasn't paying for tanks. Again -- this is just words strung together without context or relevancy. It's tangential even to your own point. I tell myself I'm an idiot on a daily basis. Just not on this topic. Are you sure the A-10 wasn't built by NASA. Might want to double check that. You're right ... the Apollo missions had nothing to do with NASA or winning the Cold War.

OC says he did. Which has been my only argument. I'm not trying to make him sound weak. I've said, several times, that I think he was right to do what he did. ... So many jokes to make here but I'll be good. I was in no way trying to tear Reagan down. I'm quite fond of his presidency.

Never said it had anything to do with that. Just an interesting quote from someone who was there that I hadn't heard before.

To be fair, just because you didn't show up at the latest fan club meaning doesn't mean they don't exist. Look, I took a picture from the last group session: http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_l9537hXTjX1qbqhlq.jpg

In Reagan's first 6 years the black budget tripled to over 35 Billion -- 11% of the total defense budget. Black budgets, by definition, do not have oversight and no accountability. So, once again, you're wrong. The rest of your dribble is off the point and has no bearing to the conversation. But by all means, keep talking to yourself. Not accounting for the defense spending, Reagan increased government spending 2.5% over his 2 terms and doubled the national debt. Money talks and bullsh*t walks -- regardless of your partisan blinders, Reagan did not run a waste free military. And if you bother to read any of the man's own words on the subject you'd understand what he meant when he said "peace through strength". It's ironic that the the biggest tools used to defeat the Soviet threat weren't from the free market playbook but instead were big, pricey, government run programs -- NASA and the military.

It's an old subject, but the first time I've heard Wiley talk about it. On Wiley's radio show here in LA they were discussing the Tebow vs Sanchez debate and whether starting Tebow would mean the end of Rex Ryan in New York. Wiley was asked by John Ireland what he would do if he was Rex Ryan and Woody Johnson walked into his office and told him to start Tebow over Sanchez. This is what Wiley said (transcribed poorly): "Ralph Wilson did the same thing to us in Buffalo with Wade Philips. Wade Phillips walks into our locker room and says, 'Look, we're going to start Rob Johnson the last game of the season, in a meaningless game where we rest Doug Flutie.' We say 'fine.' Rob Johnson goes out there throws three touchdowns, three hundred yards and the owner says I want to see that money out there on the field in the playoffs. Wade Philips next week says, 'Guys, we have a change at quarterback' and we looked at him -- I mean you should have heard this locker room. Everyone starts screaming, 'What the hell?! What are you talking about' ... chain of command. We were all with Fluite. We had won 10 games with him. But chain of command." Every failure this team has had, and every success, starts and ends with one man. Karma is a B word. http://espn.go.com/espnradio/losangeles/play?s=la (In the noon block, somewhere around 12:07 mark)

It smells suprisingly like burning felt and stage glue...

Oh, it's well done from a technical standpoint for sure. And bold. It just uses every manipulative cinematic technique in the book -- all in thirty seconds. It's also horrifically ironic. Only in America can a family sitting down to dinner as a family, with a roof over their head, be used as a political ploy to make the viewer afraid. It's film school 101. ... But it's no Big Bird. So I should just shut up about it. :lol:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8mynrRd7Ak&feature=player_embedded

Mitt courting Ann's future sister-wife.

:lol: And I thought Romney's last ad was bad...

Every piece of the plan had to be accountable? Put the crack down.

Is the privatization of the space industry as exciting to anyone else as it is to me? I love me some NASA but opening up the playing field is going to yield some amazing benefits a few generations down the line.

Wiggle, wiggle, wiggle. Avoid what I'm talking about and try to change the argument to what you want. That's your whole shtick. Let's stay focused on the issue here. Your argument was Reagan ran the military like a business man where, and I quote, "waste would not be tolerated". So, let's stay on that point. How do you monitor waste in a budget that has no oversight?

A hammer? This isn't MDP's defense budget, it's Reagan's. In this case it doesn't matter what I believe or OC believes. It matters what Reagan believed. And he did not believe that military spending was a budgetary concern. If it wasn't a budgetary concern then how was it run like a business? Crazy partisans like OC like to believe that Reagan was this strict financial conservative -- but he wasn't when it came to the military and intelligence. Any attempt to argue otherwise is just straight up false. But partisan hacks have to find a way to spin Reagan's military spending. How else can they explain how a fiscal conservative could adopt a big government policy to defeat a communist empire? The truth is the world is not black and white. There are many shades of gray. Military spending doubled under Reagan. But there's congressional oversight on that budget and thus some accountability. However the black budget tripled under Reagan -- all without oversight. The black budget dwarfed that of the regular defense budget, meaning the majority of defense spending under Reagan was done without any oversight whatsoever. Not any from the executive and certainly not any from congress. There isn't one CEO in America that would triple his budget without any oversight and expect to keep his job. You think Jack Welch would just hand the R&D department at GE a blank check and take them at their word when they promised not to waste it? Of course not. If what OC said was true, that Reagan ran the military like a business, then Reagan is the WORST business man in the history of bad business men. But that's the thing, what OC is saying is just untrue. Reagan NEVER saw defense as a budgetary issue. He had to talk the talk (for the Soviets and his own base) about reducing waste in the military -- but he certainly did not walk the walk nor have any intention to. He believed defeating the soviet threat was the most important thing his presidency could do, regardless of his fiscally conservative nature. Reagan sought to defeat the Soviets by making them run a sprint rather than a marathon. And he won.

I'm not mocking the ad as a leftie. I'm mocking the ad as a filmmaker. That's what's so hilarious about it.

Okay, so I've known for some time you can't write but now I know you can't read. Reagan's philosophy was that military spending was NOT a budgetary issue. To say otherwise, as you tried to in your original post (before sidestepping and changing the issue in this new post) is false. He did not care about waste in military spending because spending more than the soviets, regardless of the success of the military program, was the plan. Thanks for keeping it real.

The thing is...

:o I am STUNNED by that ad. That's not real, right? That's a joke... that's someone making fun of a political ad, not a real political ad, right? Holy sh*t, I love this country.

What about this equation: YouTube video+Mayans+Buddy Nix-Southern Drawl = Superbowl I think if you and I sparked up together, we might just solve the mystery of the universe. Or destroy the space time continuum. Either way, I'm in. PS: I'm sure this isn't news for anyone else, but tonight is the first time I've ever typed "continuum". Google tells me there are two "U"s in the word but that has to be a joke, right? Back to back "U"s?? That's gotta be some kind of conspiracy.

Simply awesome.

Both made good points. Both also dipped into the talking point well. But in terms of entertainment value, it was worth it for me. I laughed a lot and both guys were good sports.

Just watched John Stewart debate Bill O'Reilly. It was quite hilarious. Only down side is it's 5 bucks... but if anyone's curious the link is: http://www.therumble2012.com

:lol: I'm only 10 minutes into the Coast to Coast radio segment about it and they're already teaching me stuff! Did you know that the large hadron collider is actually a star gate?! Or that there are giants living in the caves in Afghanistan?! Why am I just learning about this NOW?!