Thirty-Thousand On A Toilet Seat?

Written by The Indy Voice


When I first heardrepparttar news thatrepparttar 138358 Bush administration was going to be closing military bases I was initially gleeful. The prospects of disillusioned Republicans danced in my head. I imagined allrepparttar 138359 thousands of service men and woman who bought intorepparttar 138360 Bush bullshit finding out thatrepparttar 138361 guy they thought they knew had just indefinitely relieved them. I thought back to allrepparttar 138362 comments by allrepparttar 138363 pinhead conservatives who tried to paint Kerry asrepparttar 138364 anti-defense candidate.

"He voted against this piece of hardware and this billion dollar gadget that's guaranteed to kill thousands. Oh,repparttar 138365 horror!"

The horror indeed. I remember looking atrepparttar 138366 records ofrepparttar 138367 dark lord Cheney when he was a congressman, and Powell and Bush I back inrepparttar 138368 day when they were championingrepparttar 138369 "peace dividend" and advocating cuts inrepparttar 138370 military that were much deeper than what Kerry voted against. I knowrepparttar 138371 hypocrisy and thought that nowrepparttar 138372 predominantly Republican military would find outrepparttar 138373 truth.

Then reason kicked me inrepparttar 138374 head. No news is ever good news, with Bush loose. Sure they're saying that we're going to save $48 billion dollars over 20 years but my question is where are they going to spendrepparttar 138375 savings. After all this "conservative" President isrepparttar 138376 most spendthrift commander-in-thief this country has ever known.

Let me take a couple of guesses. How about battle-field nuclear weapons, or mayberepparttar 138377 fantasy program that continues underrepparttar 138378 assumption that it's wise to spend trillions of dollars inrepparttar 138379 stratosphere for a sci-fi wet dream known as "Star Wars" targeted at stopping Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles?(It's a dream because if it ain't 100% perfect it don't matter) Or better yet, another war or Republican directed government waste that funnels off profit to private companies atrepparttar 138380 expense ofrepparttar 138381 taxpayers? After all they are Republicans and this is your money we're talking about.

Another thing struck me as odd. Isn't it strange that there is only going to be a savings of $48 billion over 20 years when they're proposingrepparttar 138382 closing of 180 bases and we spend well over $400 billion a year onrepparttar 138383 military? I mean where is allrepparttar 138384 rest ofrepparttar 138385 money going. That's only $13,333,333.34 dollars per base, per year. We spent $420.7 billion onrepparttar 138386 military last year not includingrepparttar 138387 expenditures for Iraq and Afghanistan (don't get me started). So where didrepparttar 138388 rest ofrepparttar 138389 $418.3 billion go?

If I'm doing my math correctly and assuming thatrepparttar 138390 military budget stays atrepparttar 138391 present amount overrepparttar 138392 next 20 years that means that we'll spend well over $8 trillion protecting this great nation (byrepparttar 138393 way we kicked King George's ass without a standing army or navy and more recently got our asses kicked not once but twice by 3rd world nations).

$48 billion is like .6% ofrepparttar 138394 total budget.

Let me say that again:

The budgets for 180 bases forrepparttar 138395 next 20 years equals .6 (YES THAT'S POINT 6) %(PERCENT) ofrepparttar 138396 total military budget.

So my question is where is allrepparttar 138397 rest ofrepparttar 138398 $7,952,000,000,000 (SEVEN TRILLION, NINE-HUNDRED AND FIFTY-TWO BILLION DOLLARS) going to be spent if it's not being spent on military bases?

Chew on that but here'srepparttar 138399 list of where it's not going to be spent:

Alaska Kulis Air Guard Station

Arizona Air Force Research Lab, Mesa Allen Hall Armed Forces Reserve Center, Tucson

Arkansas El Dorado Armed Forces Reserve Center Stone U.S. Army Reserve Center, Pine Bluff

California Armed Forces Reserve Center Bell Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Oakland Defense Finance and Accounting Service, San Bernardino Defense Finance and Accounting Service, San Diego Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Seaside Naval Support Activity Corona Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, Detachment Concord Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Encino Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Los Angeles Onizuka Air Force Station Riverbank Army Ammunition Plant

Connecticut Sgt. Libby U.S. Army Reserve Center, New Haven Submarine Base New London Turner U.S. Army Reserve Center, Fairfield U.S. Army Reserve Center Maintenance Support Facility, Middletown

Delaware Kirkwood U.S. Army Reserve Center, Newark

Florida Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Orlando Navy Reserve Center, St. Petersburg

Georgia Fort Gillem Fort McPherson Inspector/Instructor, Rome Naval Air Station Atlanta Naval Supply Corps School, Athens U.S. Army Reserve Center, Columbus

Hawaii Army National Guard Reserve Center, Honokaa

Idaho Navy Reserve Center, Pocatello

Illinois Armed Forces Reserve Center, Carbondale Navy Reserve Center, Forest Park

Indiana Navy Marine Corps Reserve Center, Grissom Air Reserve Base, Bunker Hill Navy Recruiting District Headquarters, Indianapolis Navy Reserve Center, Evansville Newport Chemical Depot U.S. Army Reserve Center, Lafayette U.S. Army Reserve Center, Seston

Iowa Navy Reserve Center, Cedar Rapids Navy Reserve Center, Sioux City Navy-Marine Corps Reserve Center, Dubuque

Kansas Kansas Army Ammunition Plant

Kentucky Army National Guard Reserve Center, Paducah Defense Finance and Accounting Service, Lexington Navy Reserve Center, Lexington U.S. Army Reserve Center, Louisville U.S. Army Reserve Center, Maysville

No One Expects The Inquisition

Written by The Indy Voice


I was just thinking aboutrepparttar ludicrous nature ofrepparttar 138357 Republicans killingrepparttar 138358 filibuster. Something struck me as odd when I was reading an email onrepparttar 138359 subject. You seerepparttar 138360 use ofrepparttar 138361 filibuster started in 1806. For those of you keeping score that would be 199 years ago. I thought torepparttar 138362 recent debate about removingrepparttar 138363 word "God" fromrepparttar 138364 pledge of allegiance. During a discussion with a European mate I was enlightened torepparttar 138365 fact that most ofrepparttar 138366 free world doesn't have a pledge and they look at us and consider our pledge to be a wee bit scary. I guess it kind of reminds them ofrepparttar 138367 nationalism that allowed Hitler to murder 30 million people on their continent.

Anyway, I was thinking that in a country with a political climate as bizarre as ours why would conservatives push so strongly to keeprepparttar 138368 word "God" inrepparttar 138369 pledge when they don't feelrepparttar 138370 need to keeprepparttar 138371 filibuster. I decided to look intorepparttar 138372 history ofrepparttar 138373 pledge and found, of all things, irony. First of all, according to Kerby Anderson's Commentariesrepparttar 138374 pledge was only written in "1892 by Francis Bellamy, a Baptist minister who also embraced many socialist ideas." The original writing DID NOT includerepparttar 138375 word "God." In fact, "God" wasn't added until 1954. That's just 51 years ago. Most people I know are older than that!

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