She-Who-Will-Not-Be-Named was in full vapid idiocy

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my_left_foot

You don't get to decide what's in someone elses best interests.

in reply to FredLaMotte

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#ixzz1FcOZe8CJ
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my_left_foot

Wars and weapons mean 75 percent of our federal budget is spent on U.S. armed presence and threats

Perhaps on Planet Molly Gibbs but here on Planet Earth our federal military budget is less than 20%. That includes salaries, pensions, housing and other necessities for hundreds of thousands of military personnel including things like sensitivity training and other ridiculous programs people like you insist upon.

Considering that the military and the defense of our nation is really the only responsibility the federal government has, 80% of our federal tax dollars is a pretty good lump of cash for those things that the federal government has no business spending our money on.

You're welcome.

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#ixzz1FcPBc5GZ
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my_left_foot

Here are a few more items included in that 20% military budget:

On March 5, a U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules cargo plane delivered another $30,000 of emergency relief supplies -– including water containers and pumps -– to flood-devastated eastern Bolivia, where 70,000 families have been affected by months of heavy rainfall. The United States has donated nearly $1 million in disaster assistance since Bolivia declared a national emergency.

• On February 26, U.S. military engineers in Assamo, Djibouti, a village near the Ethiopian border, surveyed a site for a new water well scheduled to be dug in April, part of an ongoing project to aid communities in the Horn of Africa region.

• For nine days in late February, a team of 20 Air Force medics provided health care for more than 6,500 people La Pita, El Sol and Santa Teresa, Nicaragua, while an Army veterinary team vaccinated more than 3,300 animals for farmers in 10 communities. Follow-on medical teams are working in Nicaragua through mid-March.

• On February 18, U.S. Marines and Navy construction crews completed a new elementary school for 100 children in General Santos City, the Philippines, as part of a 10-day visit called Project Kaibigan –- Tagalog for “friendship” –- in which more than 1,000 American military people helped build or renovate schools in three communities.

• In January, a U.S. military medical team spent three weeks in Choculeta, Honduras, where they saved the lives of four newborns, performed 167 major surgeries and conducted 500 medical exams at the regional Hospital del Sur.

• In Afghanistan’s Khost province, many U.S. troops at Forward Operating Base Salerno spend their off-duty days volunteering to help treat patients at the base’s burn clinic. In the region’s harsh climate, hundreds of people are burned each year from exploding heaters in their homes. The U.S. military treats patients at its on-base clinic and has trained Afghan medical specialists to set up a burn clinic outside the military base.

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#ixzz1FcPSsnyk
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Cronus

You're right that our military machine has been, and can be, used for good purposes. But I sense your very selective observations reveal a biased perception of our military. Can you comfortably claim that our military has never done wrong? Can you comfortably claim that there's not massive government-style waste and fraud within the military budget? By the way, 20% of the federal budget is a huge pile of money.

• in reply to my_left_foot

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#ixzz1FcPkZmju
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my_left_foot

Well, since the letter writer claims that 75% of our federal budget is spent on armed presence and threats when it's not I simply pointed out that it's a lie and gave a few examples to back that up.

If you choose to tangent the discussion, by all means!

It just won't be with me.

• in reply to Cronus

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#ixzz1FcQ2ghYV
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Cronus

Tangent the discussion? The title of the LTE is "Precious tax dollars wasted on war." I claim there's government-style waste and fraud within our military budget, and that IS right on topic.

Feel free not to discuss issues at hand. You have the right to remain silent.

• in reply to my_left_foot

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#ixzz1FcQJkiaq
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my_left_foot

Except that's not what I said.

But by all means, carry on!

• in reply to Cronus

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#disqus_thread#ixzz1FcQbfE4j
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Cronus

http://www.thefreedictionary.c...

You said to me, "If you choose to tangent the discussion, by all means!"

To tangent the discussion, is to be irrelevant. Follow the link and read definitions 2 and 3.

What's your definition of tangent?

• in reply to my_left_foot

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#disqus_thread#ixzz1FcRiDKYo
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my_left_foot

Straying to something other than what *I* was engaging in.

You replied to me specifically.
I SAID:

If you choose to tangent the discussion, by all means!

It just won't be with me.

And I mean it here now, too.

• in reply to Cronus

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#disqus_thread#ixzz1FcSR7wFA
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Cronus

Well, I beg your pardon then. But I never strayed from the subject of the
LTE we're all posting under. Are you ever wrong?

• in reply to my_left_foot

Read more: http://www.theolympian.com/2011/03/03/1564199/wasting-precious-tax-dollars-on.html#disqus_thread#ixzz1FcSp8D3I
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