Iceburner

Actually when I posted this, I didn't care who was in the white house. The sitimulus was praised by obama and congress as the answer to our problems. It failed, and it failed bad...and as the leader who signed off on it he holds responsibility. So again, how can you say this was money well spent? How has this helped our country, and if this is one of the things he promised would work, how can you believe his other promises? Repub or dem I think the country needs to hit reset n throw em all out. Im thrilled they finally passed the STOCK act...who knew trading on insider info was illegal. The morals and ethics our govt is running with are beyond horrible, and if we don't have a moral or ethical compass in our govt our country is fucked

So, how can you argue with these facts? Three Years Of Failed Policies $825 BILLION WORTH OF BROKEN PROMISES THE STIMULUS FAILED TO KEEP UNEMPLOYMENT BELOW EIGHT PERCENT PROMISE: Obama’s Economic Advisors Crafted A Stimulus Bill They Predicted Would Keep Unemployment Below Eight Percent. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) Obama Released A Graph So “The American People Can See Exactly What This Plan Will Mean For Their Families, Their Communities, And Our Economy.” “I asked my nominee for Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Christina Romer, and the Vice President-Elect’s Chief Economic Adviser, Dr. Jared Bernstein, to conduct a rigorous analysis of this plan and come up with projections of how many jobs it will create – and what kind of jobs they will be. Today, I am releasing a report of their findings so that the American people can see exactly what this plan will mean for their families, their communities, and our economy.” (President-Elect Barack Obama, The President Elect’s Radio Address, 1/10/09) BROKEN: Congressional Budget Office: Unemployment Has Remained Above Eight Percent For The Longest Stretch Since The Great Depression. “The rate of unemployment in the United States has exceeded 8 percent since February 2009, making the past three years the longest stretch of high unemployment in this country since the Great Depression.” (“Understanding And Responding To Persistently High Unemployment,” Congressional Budget Office, 2/16/12) The Unemployment Rate Has Remained Above Eight Percent For A Post-WWII Record 36 Straight Months Since The Stimulus Was Passed. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/17/12) The Unemployment Rate Peaked At 10.0 Percent In October 2009. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/17/12)Obama’s Advisors Made Projections About How Many Jobs The Stimulus Would Create That Were Dead Wrong Obama Said His Advisors Conducted “A Rigorous Analysis” With Projections Of “How Many Jobs It Will Create – And What Kind Of Jobs They Will Be.” OBAMA: “I asked my nominee for Chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, Dr. Christina Romer, and the Vice President-Elect’s Chief Economic Adviser, Dr. Jared Bernstein, to conduct a rigorous analysis of this plan and come up with projections of how many jobs it will create – and what kind of jobs they will be.” (President-Elect Barack Obama, The President Elect’s Radio Address, 1/10/09) Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 26,000 Jobs In The Mining Industry By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Mining Industry Had Lost 9,600 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 678,000 Jobs In The Construction Industry By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Construction Industry Had Lost 971,000 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 408,000 Jobs In The Manufacturing Industry By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Manufacturing Industry Had Lost 811,000 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 158,000 Jobs In The Wholesale Trade Industry By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Wholesale Trade Industry Had Lost 242,000 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 604,000 Jobs In The Retail Trade Industry By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Retail Trade Industry Had Lost 199,700 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 50,000 Jobs In The Information Industry By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Information Industry Had Lost 189,000 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 214,000 Jobs In The Financial Activities Industry By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Financial Activities Industry Had Lost 225,000 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 499,000 Jobs In The Leisure And Hospitality Industry By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Leisure And Hospitality Industry Had Lost 41,000 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 11,000 Jobs In The Utilities Industry By The End Of 2010.. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Utilities Industry Had Lost 10,200 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 98,000 Jobs In The Transportation And Warehousing Industry By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Transportation And Warehousing Industry Had Lost 107,400 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)Obama’s Advisors Predicted The Stimulus Would Create 244,000 Government Jobs By The End Of 2010. (Christina Romer and Jared Bernstein, “The Job Impact Of The American Recovery And Reinvestment Plan,” 1/9/09) By The End Of 2010, The Government Had Lost 319,000 Jobs. (Bureau Of Labor Statistics, Accessed 2/16/12)The Stimulus Has Fallen Far Short Of What Obama Predicted, Even He Admits That To Richard Wolffe, Obama “Also Admitted That The Enormous Sums Of Money” In The Stimulus “Had Fallen Short.” “Yet he also admitted that the enormous sums of money had fallen short. ‘If we’re honest, part of the controversy also is that despite the extraordinary work that has been done through the Recovery Act, millions of Americans are still without jobs. Millions more are struggling to make ends meet. So it doesn’t yet feel like much of a recovery. And I understand that. It’s why we’re going to continue to do everything in our power to turn this economy around.’” (Richard Wolffe, Revival: The Struggle For Survival Inside The Obama White House, 2010, p. 155) FactCheck.org: “It’s Accurate To Say The Stimulus Has Failed To Live Up To Initial Expectations.” “CBO's high estimate is still short of the 3.5 million jobs that Obama had said would be created by the end of 2010, so it's accurate to say the stimulus has failed to live up to initial expectations. White House advisers wrongly estimated that the stimulus would bring the unemployment rate down to 7 percent — though they also thought the rate without the stimulus would be lower than it actually is, and they made clear that ‘substantial uncertainty’ surrounded those estimates.” (Lori Robertson, “Dueling Economic Ads,” Fact Check, 6/30/11)

I find it funny nobody mentions the common day swastika examples I gave....how dare those hindu assholes use that nazi symbol...and fuck being politically correct, I am angry!!

Take your tax return and go fly with Sarah! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JWfOXyj-SWk funny, i've seen a few AFF 1 and tandems make the same face...but she has better form

that sucks, i just got bumped up a tax bracket I need to find loopholes to save money

Or hell, while we are at it, get rid of the Marine Corps sharpshooter badge for pistol/rifle marksmanship because it looks like the iron cross http://www.soldiercity.com/military-shooting-badges.html

the media is going way overboard here. SS=Scout Snipers, yes they did have a flag that resembled the nazi symbol, but hell, here's another one that is used by many cultures...lets get our media to fry every culture that uses this because it was once used by the nazi party! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

Yes there are more combat troops than the Marines, but i spoke of surveys i knew personally of, because i am a Marine, and i have read most of the Marine publications of this. And those publications said that the majority of the combat arms MOSs in the Marines were strictly against the repeal of DADT, the Commandant of the Marines was against it, yet it passed, and we are going with it. And just because there were more laws with segregation doesn't mean that this isn't a test (all be it on a smaller scale) with the repeal and open acceptance of homosexuals. My comparison was with the last major (unless you can point out another that i've missed) change in military policy which lead to a change in federal policy. I'd be willing to bet 1 years pay on the fact that if this goes over well in the military it will go over in the federal statutes in the near future.

Here's some links on Marine's oppisition to DADT in the Marines: http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/news/2010/12/ap-dont-ask-dont-tell-121410/ http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/11/27/Marines_Most_Resistant_to_DADT_Repeal/ And i wish i didn't throw away the Marine times article that showed the poll results, but yes, COMBAT MOS's did not want a repeal of DADT. Non-Combat MOS's had little issue with it....which was my point stated in my first point. You answered your own question. Just as the Jim Crow laws existed, there are laws banning homosexuals from the rights of straight people. If homosexuals are accepted in the military, then the federal govt. will have no choice but to begin to accept them in mainstream society.

I'd also like to point out that a written statement in the military does hold more weight than someo civilian statement to the press....written statements in the military that are false can be punished under the UCMJ, and thus are a legal document. Is he really stating that the PAO of a ship is risking his career by making this statement? Or more or less trying to unfu@k a left wing conspiricy to prove Bush Jr was the root of all evil in the universe and never right about anything? Glad to see the current administrations policy on Iraq is working so well, and the telling the talibs we will be gone by 2014 is sure to make Afghanistan a peaceful country! Funny story, i actually had one of my Terps from Afghanistan send me an e-mail asking me to write the state department and ask to not pull out of Afghanistan because it would all but guarentee his (and his families) death. But what would he know.

Being white i actually applied for a scholarship through the Negro College fund, and had i had enough $ would have claimed they were being racist, but needless to say i didn't get any money. I also applied to an all black school, and got my only rejection letter....and here i was told getting a 33 on the ACTs would get me into any school i wanted

I'm not saying DADT was a good thing, because it did deny a select few of the military (or perhaps more than a select few) some of the perks of life. However, when the majority of combat arms MOS's stated it would be a detriment to unit cohesion if overturned, i found it surprising when it passed and was put into effect. That being said i think it's a larger play on society, if it works in the military then the federal govt will have no choice to back it in mainstream society, and legalize gay marriages throughout the nation. Again, i'm not saying this is good or bad, because i personally dont care, just saying i think the military is being used as an "experiment." The military has, IMO, done this before with the Montford Point Marines in 1941 began the desegregation of the Marines, and then the US society caught on to the change in the following decades.

Did you carry and AK to cover you tracks? How many innocent people did you witness having their lives taken? No, we didn't carry an AK, nor would we. I would like to say i ran a tight crew, and we actually cared about the people over there. A few bad apples from the Army that are facing criminal trials doesn't represent the whole of the American forces. I also witnessed no civilians being killed by my Marines or by my ANA counterparts. As a matter of fact, i did witness many shops, bazaars, and entire villages open up to the civilians in my AO. Hell, in one of the villages around Marjah the civilians loved us, helped us find IED's, and were upset when my team had to leave. I wont go into details about specific areas, but if you want to see for yourself i hear this is a great time of the year to go over there.... And I am sure the Canadians are doing nothing as well. SkyDekker, i did not work with Canadians, or ever see them in my AO. I was making a comment about the ones that i did work with, but guess i should have listed the countries i did see (most of which were other smaller/less popular nations that i have helped train their military on past deployments). I am sure the Canadians pull their weight as well, as they have been a good ally from what i have read about. No insult ment in the previous post...i simply never saw any of them there.

Let me start by saying i didn't read all of the posts in this thread, but having just returned from there 2.5 weeks ago, i figured i'd respond. There is a lot of money wasted there, but not how many of you (and myself) would think. First, the majority of the countries helping us there are doing jack shit, and we still pay for a lot of their supplies. In my opinion, the only countries that helped over there were the Brits, Ausies, and believe it or not Croatians. The Jordanians there spent the majority of the time in the MWR using our internet, eating a ton of food (it was even a joke from one of the base commanders (i moved around a lot on a transition team) that when they left we'd have more chow) and they also deployed w/out weapons to one of the FOBs i was on, the Romanians refused to participate in any base defense operations because they were not allowed to "actively participate in the war," and the list goes on. On another note, a lot of the civilian contracting is a complete cluster fuck. You have the major contractors sub-contracting to people who continue to sub-contract all the way down to where they can have local nationals do the buisness....and at every step you have price inflation. I stayed in a 10 million dollar building, where the roofs leaked, there were no windows that acutally opened, and the foundation was cracking....Also, just about every contractor i saw was driving in a nice SUV/Truck, which they get new every year (or at least i was told by a group of contractors i worked with for a bit). If we really wanted to cut the cost of the war, we should be less politically correct and stop paying for a coalition that really only has a couple countries who give a fuck, and cut back on the contractors. The budgets they get are rediculous. Lastly, working with the ANA (Afghan National Army) was a complete eye-opening experience. In less than 1 month, i saw my Kandak get out fitted with over 6 million dollars worth of gear, all brand new, which was often better than some of our gear. Their weapons were made even shittier than i would have expected...they use American weapons, but many of the metal parts are replaced with plastic, and not hard plastic. The ANA .50 cals we took out broke every time they fired, because some of the pins could not handle the recoil of the weapon system. The majority of the ANA would take the gear with little or no training and break it (i think of a D-7 dozer that was amazing, but they broke it the first day they recieved it because everyone wanted to drive it, and we could only stop so many before the Kandak CO ordered one of his troops to move it). The ford pickups we get them cost about 16K a piece. Some smart people said they should last on average about 2-3 years....but the actual life cycle of the trucks was right around 6 months, and that was with my mechanics working their asses off. The most dis-heartening thing i heard came from an Army 2-star who said (when talking about a comm Kandak that was to be formed up, with some really high speed gear and little training (like sat comms, sat dishes, etc) "It doesn't matter if they are trained Captain (talking to me)...we are going for quantity not quality. As soon as there are insert number here ANA and ANP (police) then we can finally get the fuck out of here." Having worked with my ANA for a long time, gone on patrols, gotten in fights with them, I was irate that this was coming from the top. They are going to be set up for failure, and in my opinion, the majority of US senior people there dont give a shit as long as they can get home in time. There were few that showed me they actually cared about the ANA and what happened to them after we left.

thanks for the help everybody!

I'm currently deployed in Afghanistan and one of my Marines is trying to get his wife a skydive for a birthday present...being the only skydiver in the group he asked me where she could go/who he can contact. Because of the "blazing fast" internet connection i was able to get onto, i cant really do searches (took me 15 mins to log into dz.com)...so if you can PM me a location near Panama City Beach Florida or an e-mail/phone number i'll try to get a satalite phone for him to call and set it up, or steal some army dudes internet again. Semper Fi Iceburner

Having been there when the current POTUS was on base, I personally refused to go to his speech, as did many of my Marines. A lot of other Marines were told to go to it...which could have been part of the reason for lack of response (beside the fact they were at attention). Personally, this President simply does not have the same respect from the troops as the other President. But, as previously posted, neither did a lot of other Dem Presidents....

So you saying i'm fat eh?? Only way i'll be gettin to orange anytime soon would be to drop the canopy off...leaving for deployment soon. Afterwards though, i'll be stationed near there again, so i'll be a regular.

I have a Saber2 120, about 300 jumps, DOM of 08/2007 and was wondering what a good asking price would be. Serious question, so please dont respond "i'll give ya 5 bucks for it."

Semper Fi Marines...i was fortunate enough to be here for this birthday(still remember the last one transiting the Suez where the navy Captain wouldn't even come out to celebrate)....was supposed to deploy last weekend, but unfortunatly (my wife would say different) it got put on hold for 1.5 months.

I would like to point out that our military is does not swear loyalty to the President, but to our constitution....for what it's worth. We agree to obey orders from the President, but they must be legal orders...

wow, didn't know what it really was till i read the comments....gotta get my mind outta the gutter i guess

just got back from the dz this weekend and saw a couple amazing night swoops...that being said they were very experienced...if you can't swoop extreemly well during the day, dont attempt at night...should be common sense.

sounds almost too good to be true...if you are still around in a year or so when i finish up my time in the Corps i will def. look into it, if you still need some help. Good luck, blue skies, and remember to throw a boogie

i'm from lejeune and make a trip to raeford whenever i can get away from the Corps for a weekend....congrats on getting your liscense. Send me a PM, i'm always looking for someone to split the cost of the trip with.