Fuzzy Math

I'm no mathematician... However, even if I'm way off on a couple figures, this holds together pretty well...

1.) It costs the U.S. about $1 MILLION to keep 1 troop in Afghanistan for 1 year. (widely reported) For this exercise, I'm assuming soldiers in Iraq cost about the same.
2.) In 2010, there will be over 102,000 troops in Afghanistan.
3.) There are still 130,000 troops in Iraq.

This is excluding thousands of 'support troops' and other differently classified soldiers, so I'm rounding up to 250,000 troops deployed in our wars. At $1 MILLION per soldier, I'm looking at
$250,000,000,000 in 2010.

4.) There are 15.4 MILLION unemployed in the U.S. as of November. (10% unemployment) These people wish they could have a job, just about any job would be fine.

Conclusion:
We could give over 2/3 (10 MILLION) of the unemployed people in our country meager $25,000 a year jobs paid directly out of the government coffers if we weren't mired in 2 foreign wars that have relatively little to do with defending our country.
Don't get me wrong: $25,000 a year is nothing, but it would bring our unemployment under 5% and get them working until industry can offer them better jobs. Which industry could give them better jobs faster if they were employed and able to buy some things.

Think of what we could do if we had 10 MILLION extra government employees for a year. Sure, most of their time and efforts would be wasted in bureaucratic red tape, but even our government couldn't squander all that time without doing something good.

I'm not saying this is a wise idea. I'm just musing on what we might have done differently with our money...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Assault with a deadly... Snowball?

In what should have been nothing more than a guy getting his Hummer stuck in the snow and paying for a tow truck to get him free quickly turned into an event that required the dispatch of several cops who probably could have better served the public in a state of emergency snow storm.

Detective Bailer (The correct spelling of the officer's last name was not give at the scene or by those 'investigating' the incident) got his Hummer stuck in the snow in Washington D.C. near a group of locals enjoying a friendly snowball fight. As you can imagine, having just witnessed a Hummer driver dumb enough to get his gigantic truck stuck in a few inches of snow, the snowballers decided he needed to be a part of the fight.

Little did they know that this guy was an armed off-duty police officer with a hair-trigger temper about to have a tantrum. After getting pelted with snowballs, he figures the only way to fight back is by waving his gun around to really let these unarmed civilians know who is boss.

What really blows my mind is that by the end of the video, it appears they intend to arrest a guy. If you watch closely, I can almost guarantee the detective was unable to tell who actually threw snowballs at him and who were actually innocent bystanders. Evidence be damned, somebody had to get arrested...

THIS is whyDCpaystaxes.

watch it happen: DC - Cop Waves Gun at Snowball Fight! (YouTube)

Unencrypted transmissions

I know that most of us Americans think of the terrorists and insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan as dirty little men living in caves who only come out to hump camels or blow themselves up.

We also like to think of our own military as the most technologically advance fighting force on Earth with all the trinkets and gadgets a smart military could hope for.

If any of this is even remotely true, can someone PLEASE explain to me why our 'enemies' are able to sit back and sip on some chai while enjoying live streaming videos from our unmanned drones? Doesn't it kind of set us back a bit when they can hack into one of the most advanced weapons of the most advanced military to see what we see? Wouldn't you move Bin Laden to a new cave when you can see that the cave he is in now is being watched?

I gotta wonder how long before they can take over control of the drones and use them against us.

BILLIONS of dollars on advanced technology that scared men in caves can hack into with minimal effort...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: Iraq insurgents 'hack into video feeds from US drones' (bbc)

TRY VIAGRA

Here's another one of those things where I agree with the spirit of the law, but find it really fucking ridiculous that our Representatives and Senators have nothing better to do than to legislate what we in the land of the free can and cannot do.

Since Congress is bored with the economy, health care, war, other war, social injustice, environment, failing infrastructure, a country hemorrhaging manufacturing jobs, etc. etc., they decided it was time to tackle one of the truly monumental issues of our time:
Loud commercials.

Perhaps they could legislate that all remote control manufacturer's make a bigger mute button instead?

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Read more: US moves to ban 'excessively noisy' TV advertisements (bbc)

Nothing to see here, move along, professional policework being conducted

That one will set some taxpayers back a couple bucks...

From many, to few: Home Edition

Congratulations fellow non-home owning taxpayers! It appears that we will once again be able to spend our hard earned taxes on something that will have absolutely zero benefit to us! Yay!

I tried. I tried to be a liberal. I've always been a conservative at heart after growing up in an area that was heavily supported by state welfare checks. But I like people and think that everyone having a fair shake in life is a noble cause. And, for some crazy reason, I don't think that the whole world should believe in the same god as me. Which, as we all know, if you don't believe in Rush's god, then you don't belong in the republican party.

But to announce that billions of taxpayer dollars should be spent on tax credits for people who make their home more energy efficient blows my mind. These people already have homes! By no means does that make them rich, but what the hell do I care if someone 5 states away decides to re-insulate their attic next summer? Why does money, given to the government by all taxpayers, need to get spent on a select portion of the rest? We've already given them significant tax breaks when they bought the home. We've already bought and installed energy efficient windows for them in 2009.

Hell, I'd feel better if we were to create a plan where we help people with inefficient homes buy better homes so we can move some homeless people into the old homes. Next time you find yourself complaining about a drafty window, think about how drafty a cardboard box under an overpass must get! [en: I'd feel better, but I'd still be bitchin' about it...]

This plan is not official and was merely a suggestion by POTUS. One who apparently thinks that hiring a handful of illegal immigrant carpenters to install doors made in China so that homeowners are more ready to heave a sigh of contentment is a good way to stimulate the economy.

Still better than George W[MD] Bush!

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Read more: Obama’s ‘Cash for Caulkers’ May Help Insulation Sales, Dow Says (BLOOMBERG)
P.S. - Well, fucking bully for Dow!

Midwest day of rest for car dealerships

Can anyone fathom why most of the states in the Great Lakes Region have taken the time to write up, debate, and vote on whether or not car dealerships should be allowed to set their own hours? At least Michigan, Illinois, Iowa, Indiana, and Wisconsin have made it illegal for car dealerships to conduct business on Sundays.

I can't imagine the scenario that made this the important issue that had to be dealt with that day...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Fish Kill before the fish get killed

One of my biggest pet peeves is when the government sues itself. In this particular situation, it is two different governments, but we're pretty much supposed to be on the same side.

Michigan is going to sue Illinois to demand closure of the Chicago locks until the Asian Carp problem is cleared up in Illinois' waterways.

First off, they have a valid point. Everything that can be done should be done to prevent the asian carp problem, even if it costs industry big money. While Illinois has spent plenty of money on trying to contain the problem, including a fish kill last night and a high tech system that was supposed to shock the fish into turning back, the problem is real.

And of course we all know that Illinois lacks the political will to do something Chicago doesn't want to do.

But do we really have to pay a bunch of lawyers to figure it out for us? Shouldn't we instead spend the same amount of money and bring the two states' Departments of Natural Resources together? Maybe get some federal employees besides judges involved?

A quote from the article below:
A spokesperson for the Illinois Department of Natural Resources says they are aware of the potential legal action but will "let the lawyers sort it out."

Great! The DNR says, fuck it. We give up.

Are we really so incompetent as a society? Are we going to let the natural ecosystems of the largest freshwater lakes on the planet be destroyed? Because an invasive species of carp was imported to eat algae out of the Gulf of Mexico?
You're serious. To solve the problem we're going to let lawyers get rich off the government while dragging out the case for as many billable hours as possible? While various agencies that ought to take charge of the situation play a game of 'Not It'?

And people wonder why I have little faith in humanity...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: Michigan Considering Lawsuit Against Illinois Over Asian Carp Spread(wkzo)