The End of the American Century?

[dungeonbaby]

 

 

The link is a documentary that sheds light on issues our military (mainly Marines) have to deal with while working with the Afghanis. At 23:00, a USMC Major, direct advisor to the Afghanistan police leadership, talks about working with Afghani police leadership who disappear as they please or kidnap little boys. You can see the Major visibly wrestling with reality of his situation.

As of 2014, we still have 38k Americans over there and your money goes to these ventures. This year alone we've already lost eight Americans in Afghanistan. I think people tend to forget about our engagements overseas. Just a humbling reminder that we are ALL still invested in a state of affairs beyond our daily lives and thy sweetheart, Justin Bieber. If (and since) we're more concerned with his likes, this post is appropriately placed onto this thread subject.

 

It's a good point, and a very telling thing that the general public is more passionate about Justin the Beaver's antics than where exactly their money goes or, more accurately, where their hardworking neighbor's money goes. Short attention spans, self-entitlement, and a deterioration of values, making the solid American work ethic a thing of the past, is going to spell America's demise. Recently, American pundits on a BBC panel were calling America the indispensable partner, not the superpower.

On a lighter note, maybe you should start sending fans of marijuana over, use trainers on the same wavelength as some of the PB commanders? Heal a few people with the abundance of the substance.

 

 

Anyway.

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

http://www.thedailyb...me-too-big.html

 

When the war on terror has lost the founder of Blackwater, counterterrorism efforts could be in real trouble. Why Erik Prince thinks the national security state has become too big.

Erik Prince is not the kind of man one expects to make the case for slashing U.S. intelligence and military budgets. After 9-11, his company, Blackwater, expanded exponentially, winning contracts to protect diplomats and politicians in Iraq and to train and work with CIA paramilitary teams hunting terrorists.

 

In an interview Monday, Prince said the national security state he once served has grown too large.

 

"America is way too quick to trade freedom for the illusion of security," he told The Daily Beast. "Whether it's allowing the NSA to go way too far in what it intercepts of our personal data, to our government monitoring of everything domestically and spending way more than we should. I don't know if I want to live in a country where lone wolf and random terror attacks are impossible 'cause that country would look more like North Korea than America."

 

Today Prince is out of the contracting business and is promoting a book telling his side of the Blackwater story. To be sure, he accuses Democrats of abusing state power to wage a political war on him and the media of aiding and abetting that campaign.

 

 

 

Prince's new book, Civilian Warriors, recounts in detail the battles Prince waged in the last decade over his company. He writes, for example, about a conversation at one point with his accountant, who claimed an IRS auditor told him that he was never under such pressure to get someone as he was in the case of Prince. He takes shots at the left-wing lawyers who brought civil suits related to the incident at Nisour Square, a traffic circle in Baghdad where Blackwater contractors killed 11 Iraqis. Prince says the evidence shows the incident was a firefight and not, as his critics alleged at the time, a massacre of an unarmed crowd. And he complains that the media coverage of Blackwater was biased and often wrong.

 

But despite attacking Blackwater's many critics in the book, Prince also sounds a bit like them when discussing what he considers President Obama's counterterrorism policies.

 

131118-lake-prince2-embed

Erik Prince at Blackwater's offices in Moyock, N.C. (Gerry Broome/AP)

"I am all in favor of killing terrorists," Prince said. "But the fact that [Anwar] al-Awlaki was killed and his 16-year-old son, born in Colorado, was killed with no due process other than that he got on the 'k*ll list' is troubling to me." The Obama administration has claimed that Awlaki, an American citizen who was killed in a drone strike in 2011, was an operational leader of al Qaeda's affiliate in Yemen.

 

Prince said he believes al-Awlaki's son was deliberately targeted in a second strike after the one that killed Awlaki. The Obama administration has said that strike was not targeting Awlaki's son, but someone else.

 

"I don't know if I want to live in a country where lone wolf and random terror attacks are impossible 'cause that country would look more like North Korea than America."

Prince also said the over-reliance on drone warfare in the Middle East and South Asia would likely reap "a bitter harvest," because of the scale of collateral damage from drone strikes. He said it was wiser to send in small teams to such denied areas to find and target terrorists, or outsource this kind of work to local surrogates.

 

Prince was most animated on the subject of the military and intelligence budgets.

 

"The left wants to protect social programs, the right wants to protect defense and intelligence spending and all the rest. I say the defense and intelligence world will be better off with a smaller budget. They would be less encumbered by bloat and able to maneuver the way they used to be able and not trip over themselves," he said.

 

Prince said the case of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, a Nigerian national who nearly blew up an airplane full of passengers on Christmas Day in 2009, illustrated this case. "If it wasn't for a sweaty groin, that airplane would have blown up," Prince said. "His father warned the CIA station in Abuja, they ignored intercepts, State Department never did a thing with his visa." Prince said that despite $80 billion a year in spending, U.S. intelligence had nothing to do with thwarting the Nigerian national.

 

Today, Prince said, he is focusing his business on expanding markets in Africa. He said he will never work for the U.S. government again. When asked if he would run for president, Prince said there was no chance that he would. For now he is not that focused on presidential politics at all. But when that election cycle does roll around, Prince said, "I will support vigorously whoever commits to reduce the size of government the most."

 

----------------

 

interesting read

 

whether it's the rant of a businessman who's losing business, a lot of it still rings true.

 

Why is the guy doing a 180? Even if he's losing business, is this a reason for him to change his long-held beliefs regarding America's war on terror?

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

It's a good point, and a very telling thing that the general public is more passionate about Justin the Beaver's antics than where exactly their money goes or, more accurately, where their hardworking neighbor's money goes. Short attention spans, self-entitlement, and a deterioration of values, making the solid American work ethic a thing of the past, is going to spell America's demise. Recently, American pundits on a BBC panel were calling America the indispensable partner, not the superpower.

 

On a lighter note, maybe you should start sending fans of marijuana over, use trainers on the same wavelength as some of the PB commanders? Heal a few people with the abundance of the substance.

 

 

Anyway.

 

***

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was sickening to see all those Bieber fans hanging outside his hotel room. The guy in the video was right. This Bieber has become the role model of America's youth. Is it any wonder why there's a deterioration of values? This all started when laws were passed which restricted parental control (euphemism for getting whacked in your butt for misbehaving.) Recently, another kid shot several people in a mall in Maryland before killing himself. Senseless shootings by kids seems to be on the rise.

 

I don't think the solid American work ethic is a thing of the past but it's slowly getting there. The Bieber phenomenon is one of those things that contributes to the erosion of American values.

 

There are still many patriotic Americans out there (such as manilatonightfan) who value duty over rights. May their tribe increase.

Edited January 27, 2014 by oscartamaguchiblackface

[Larry]

Why is the guy doing a 180? Even if he's losing business, is this a reason for him to change his long-held beliefs regarding America's war on terror?

 

because he's losing business.

 

Blackwater used to be the military contractor of choice, and now with drones etc, a lot of those efforts have cut into his pie.

 

he's a businessman period. he's no patriot.

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

because he's losing business.

 

Blackwater used to be the military contractor of choice, and now with drones etc, a lot of those efforts have cut into his pie.

 

he's a businessman period. he's no patriot.

Sour grapes huh?

[maxiev]

So here I was watching the State of the Union address contesting to the imminent closure of Guantanamo and my attention gets diverted to the sensationalism of why Deniece didn't press rape charges, wondering if she still wants the pipe.

 

 

*I just deemed myself as a small fragment that is contributing to the fall of the American century in doing so.

I suppose some stories are just more "juicy."

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

This is too true to be funny.

 

The next time you hear a politician use the word 'billion' in a casual manner, think

about whether you want the 'politicians' spending YOUR tax money.

 

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that into some perspective in one of its releases.

 

A.

A billion seconds ago…

it was 1959.

 

B.

A billion minutes ago…

Jesus was living on earth.

 

C.

A billion hours ago…

our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.

 

D.

A billion days ago…

no-one walked on the earth on two feet.

 

E.

A billion dollars ago…

was only 8 hours and 20 minutes, at the rate our government is spending it.

While this thought is still fresh in our brain, let's take a look at New Orleans...

 

It's amazing what you can learn with some simple division.

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) was asking Congress for250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans.

 

Interesting number... What does it mean?

 

A.

Well... If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman and child) you each get $516,528

 

B.

Or... If you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787

 

C.

Or... If you are a family of four, your family gets $2,066,012

 

Washington, D.C.

 

HELLO!

Are all your calculators broken??

Building Permit Tax

CDL License Tax

Cigarette Tax

Corporate Income Tax

Dog License Tax

Driver's License Tax

Federal Income Tax (Fed)

Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA)

Fishing License Tax

Food License Tax

Fuel Permit Tax

Gasoline Tax

Hunting License Tax

Inheritance Tax

Inventory Tax

IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax)

IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax)

Liquor Tax

Luxury Tax

Marriage License Tax

Medicare Tax

Property Tax

Real Estate Tax

Service charge Taxes

Social Security Tax

Road Usage Tax (Truckers)

Sales Taxes

Recreational Vehicle Tax

School Tax

State Income Tax

State Unemployment Tax (SUTA)

Telephone Federal Excise Tax

Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax

Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Tax

Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax

Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax

Telephone State and Local Tax

Telephone Usage Charge Tax

Utility Tax

Vehicle License Registration Tax

Vehicle Sales Tax

Watercraft Registration Tax

Well Permit Tax

Workers Compensation Tax

And to think, we left British Rule to avoid so many taxes!!!

 

STILL THINK THIS IS FUNNY?

 

Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago...

And our nation was the most prosperous in the world.

 

We had absolutely no national debt...

We had the largest middle class in the world...

And Mom stayed home to raise the kids.

 

What happened?

 

Can you spell 'politicians'?

 

And I still have to press '1' For English!

 

What has happened to our country?

 

I hope this goes around the USA

at least 100 times

 

That sure are a lot of taxes. But at least they're not stolen by senators like they are over here.

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

Here's another thing US President Barrack Obama has to decide on. Imagine the President of the United States is getting involved in an issue regarding this Justin Bieber punk.

 

http://celebrity.yah...-173904761.html

 

 

White House weighs petition to deport Justin Bieber

 

Washington (AFP) - As if Barack Obama didn't have enough problems to deal with already, his administration now is being asked to weigh in on the grave matter of Justin Bieber's bad behavior.

 

By midday Wednesday (1700 GMT), a petition on the White House website calling for the deportation of the Canadian-born teen idol had garnered 103,000 names -- easily surpassing the threshold of 100,000 signatures required for presidential consideration.

 

"We the people of the United States feel that we are being wrongly represented in the world of pop culture," says the petition, created by one "J.A." in Detroit on January 23, the day Bieber was busted in Miami Beach for impaired driving and illegal drag racing in a flashy Italian sports car.

 

"We would like to see the dangerous, reckless, destructive and drug-abusing Justin Bieber deported and his green card revoked. He is not only threatening the safety of our people but he is also a terrible influence on our nation's youth. We the people would like to remove Justin Bieber from our society."

 

The White House website hosts citizens' petitions on other, more heady issues such as the legalization of marijuana and a pardon for National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

 

"Every petition that crosses the threshold will be reviewed by the appropriate staff and receive a response," assistant White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said.

 

But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki cautioned that the petition program "doesn't always determine a step will be taken, it's more of another opportunity for the voices of the American people to be heard."

 

There was no comment from Bieber himself, who according to gossip websites was back in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a weekend beach break in Panama.

 

Bieber, 19, is understood to be living and working in the United States under a renewable O-1 visa for entertainers, rather than a green card for permanent resident status.

 

It remains unclear whether Bieber's visa to stay in the United States would be affected by his arrest.

 

Now out on bail, Bieber is due back in Miami for a court appearance on Valentine's Day, when he will also also face charges of resisting arrest and using an expired driver's license.

 

Police in Los Angeles are pursuing their own investigation into an earlier incident in which Bieber allegedly hurled eggs at a neighbor's house.

[sonnyt111]

Here's another thing US President Barrack Obama has to decide on. Imagine the President of the United States is getting involved in an issue regarding this Justin Bieber punk.

 

http://celebrity.yah...-173904761.html

 

 

White House weighs petition to deport Justin Bieber

 

Washington (AFP) - As if Barack Obama didn't have enough problems to deal with already, his administration now is being asked to weigh in on the grave matter of Justin Bieber's bad behavior.

 

By midday Wednesday (1700 GMT), a petition on the White House website calling for the deportation of the Canadian-born teen idol had garnered 103,000 names -- easily surpassing the threshold of 100,000 signatures required for presidential consideration.

 

"We the people of the United States feel that we are being wrongly represented in the world of pop culture," says the petition, created by one "J.A." in Detroit on January 23, the day Bieber was busted in Miami Beach for impaired driving and illegal drag racing in a flashy Italian sports car.

 

"We would like to see the dangerous, reckless, destructive and drug-abusing Justin Bieber deported and his green card revoked. He is not only threatening the safety of our people but he is also a terrible influence on our nation's youth. We the people would like to remove Justin Bieber from our society."

 

The White House website hosts citizens' petitions on other, more heady issues such as the legalization of marijuana and a pardon for National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

 

"Every petition that crosses the threshold will be reviewed by the appropriate staff and receive a response," assistant White House spokesman Matt Lehrich said.

 

But State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki cautioned that the petition program "doesn't always determine a step will be taken, it's more of another opportunity for the voices of the American people to be heard."

 

There was no comment from Bieber himself, who according to gossip websites was back in Los Angeles on Wednesday after a weekend beach break in Panama.

 

Bieber, 19, is understood to be living and working in the United States under a renewable O-1 visa for entertainers, rather than a green card for permanent resident status.

 

It remains unclear whether Bieber's visa to stay in the United States would be affected by his arrest.

 

Now out on bail, Bieber is due back in Miami for a court appearance on Valentine's Day, when he will also also face charges of resisting arrest and using an expired driver's license.

 

Police in Los Angeles are pursuing their own investigation into an earlier incident in which Bieber allegedly hurled eggs at a neighbor's house.

That is where good parenting comes in. The parent is the role model. In Bieber's case he had a very poor role model.

 

And there are lots of kids out there with very bad parents. These are the types who will gravitate towards someone like Justin Beiber.

 

 

[oscartamaguchiblackface]

That is where good parenting comes in. The parent is the role model. In Bieber's case he had a very poor role model.

 

And there are lots of kids out there with very bad parents. These are the types who will gravitate towards someone like Justin Beiber.

Agreed. Hope he gets deported. He's on the road to self-destruction. Might be a flaw in his character. Could be immaturity. Or it could just mean he's stupid.

[dungeonbaby]

Decisions, decisions. State of The Union or a good book and a tumbler of Glenlivet?

 

 

So here I was watching the State of the Union address contesting to the imminent closure of Guantanamo and my attention gets diverted to the sensationalism of why Deniece didn't press rape charges, wondering if she still wants the pipe.

 

 

*I just deemed myself as a small fragment that is contributing to the fall of the American century in doing so.

 

haha. sometimes even bright minds need a break from cerebral calisthenics. although one wonders what a gossip thread is doing in these parts. this Cornejo girl's name, though, reminds me of an 80s joke, the one where a father names his children Deniece, Denephew, etc.

 

as for the SOTU, i can see why Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of delivering the address in person, deeming it too reminiscent of a King's speech. i tend to think of its modern incarnations as utterly useless except as a way to induce deep sleep.

 

i'm still waiting for our generation's Jefferson, or Washington, or Lincoln.

[Ryuji_tanaka]

haha. sometimes even bright minds need a break from cerebral calisthenics. although one wonders what a gossip thread is doing in these parts. this Cornejo girl's name, though, reminds me of an 80s joke, the one where a father names his children Deniece, Denephew, etc.

 

as for the SOTU, i can see why Thomas Jefferson discontinued the practice of delivering the address in person, deeming it too reminiscent of a King's speech. i tend to think of its modern incarnations as utterly useless except as a way to induce deep sleep.

 

i'm still waiting for our generation's Jefferson, or Washington, or Lincoln.

You do know that Obama is under a delusion that he is the second coming of Lincoln, right? that is why is trying to provoke a 2nd US Civil War domestically, and WWIII internationally.

[dungeonbaby]

You do know that Obama is under a delusion that he is the second coming of Lincoln, right? that is why is trying to provoke a 2nd US Civil War domestically, and WWIII internationally.

 

you mean he imagines himself a Republican? didn't he liken himself to FDR last time around?

 

seriously, though, while I don't believe he is trying to provoke a real war, he is certainly proving to be a most divisive president.

[Bugatti Veyron]

You're practically saying that Obama wants to be an anti-christ transcending the likes of Genghis Khan, Hitler, and Napoleon. Also, Obama wouldn't be able to instigate an international war when he already has a civil war in his hands. You wouldn't have the wherewithal to start a world war when you already are internally weakened.

Yeah that would be like having your cake and wanting to eat it too.

[dungeonbaby]

You're practically saying that Obama wants to be an anti-christ transcending the likes of Genghis Khan, Hitler, and Napoleon. Also, Obama wouldn't be able to instigate an international war when he already has a civil war in his hands. You wouldn't have the wherewithal to start a world war when you already are internally weakened.

 

he may not be instigating it, but you could argue that the world is less safe today, with US' enemies emboldened by what is generally seen as weak leadership, and a populace that is weary and worried about its own economy.