World War II - Taxes then, taxes now

About 600 metric tons of unexploded ordnance dropped in Germany during World War II is still being found each year!

Most recently they found and diffused two bombs, one from the UK and one from the US, in the riverbed of the Rhine as the water levels continue to fall.

Precautions taken while diffusing the bombs include:

• Around 20,000 people evacuated (including hospitals, nursing homes and a prison)
• Shelters set up with 12,000 beds
• A fleet of 500 emergency response vehicles were standing by
• Sandbags and pump re-routing of the Rhine to provide a dry workspace
• Roads and rails in the area were closed
  
• Of course there is the munitions team that diffused the bombs

We paid for the duds in the '40s, they're paying for them now...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.
read more:WWII bomb in Rhine near Koblenz successfully defused(bbc)

Has anyone seen my experimental aircraft?

Wherever you go, there we are.

I'm not sure exactly how much I spent on it or what it was for, but I bought an experimental aircraft and the Department of Defense lost it.

I guess I'll just have to build another one... How else can I attack any target on the planet in under an hour?

I won't even mention the rocket fuel needed to launch this sweet ride...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.
read more:US military loses contact with hypersonic aircraft(bbc)

Vetting presidential qualifications at every level of government

Lt Col Terrence 'More capable to judge than my entire command chain' Lakin refused his orders to deploy to Afghanistan. He refused his orders based on the popular hysterical conspiracy theory that Obama isn't eligible to be president. He stated that he would ONLY deploy once Obama's original birth certificate was released and verified.

I guess that this guy is able to spot a faker better than each and everyone of his superior officers, including the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense himself. Screw the state of Hawaii for producing a certified birth certificate and whatever federal government group responsible for vetting the applications for being put on the ballot that OK'd Obama's election. Screw the fact that all of his co-workers and the entire country is OK with the evidence provided thus far. After all, this evidence only shows how far-reaching Obama's power to conduct this conspiracy is.

No sheep to no sham, Lakin stood his ground and refused to deploy. No matter that his orders came from a higher ranking officer whose qualifications aren't in question. Apparently, we are to assume that his orders were personally delivered by the president and that Lakin was the only person that could bring an end to the madness.

My favorite part is once the court martial got underway. Lakin realized that the only thing his douchebaggery has gotten him was his 15 minutes of [Fox News] fame, the end of his career, and a potential jail sentence. Suddenly, he can be heard saying its OK if his demands are refused because "I don't want it to end this way, I want to continue to serve."
Maybe you should have thought of that before you refused to do your job.

Court martial proceedings, potential jail time, and wasting the military's time on grooming a high level officer who can't be counted on to do what is asked of him.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.
read more:'Birther' army doctor Lakin convicted for not deploying(bbc)

Saving Private Ryan - The shopping list

A US plane fell apart over Libya. The two man crew ejected to safety.

But they were in a bad place and they had just crashed their ride.

In the events that followed, the various forces were involved

Consumed:
1 EA F15E Strike Eagle Fighter Jet (+ weapons)
2 EA 500 lb laser guided bombs

Deployed:
2 EA AV-8B Harriers
1 EA F16 Fighter Jet
1 EA KC-130 Fuel Tanker
2 EA MV-22 Ospreys
2 EA CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters
1 EA Platoon of Quick Reaction Marines
1 EA Flight to undisclosed location in Europe

All that and we only saved one of the 2 guys. The other one was found by Libyan Rebels and kept safe until he could be flown out to the aforementioned undisclosed location.

Cost of doing business!

THIS is whyipaytaxes.
read more:Timeline: U.S. forces hurried to rescue of two stranded airmen(cnn)

PS - Anyone wonder how the hell 2 laser guided bombs were consumed in a rescue mission? A group of Libyans were approaching one of the pilots, so one of the Harrier Jets dropped the bombs in between the Libyans and the pilot.
5 Libyans were injured by shrapnel from the explosion.
I did mention that the other pilot was saved by Libyans, right? Good thing we didn't bomb them too...

No one here, eh?

You may have seen some of the stories about countries frantically trying to evacuate their citizens from Libya. Oh the costs involved...

But a real champion crew from Canada have managed to earn the Least Valuable Rescue Flight Award. In spite of having 213 Canadians registered at their embassy as wanting to get the fuck out, this crew landed at Tripoli and took off again without picking ANYONE up.

While no one really knows anything yet, the only official response at this time is that they were unable to find any Canadians or citizens of 'like minded countries' waiting at the airport. I'd be willing to bet the crew never even got off the plane, staying only long enough to refuel for the flight home.

They also say the conditions on the ground were dangerous.
Yeah. We get that... Isn't that kinda the reason you went there in the first place?

Rescue flights saving themselves from the hostile territory they visit...

THIS is whycanadianspaytaxes.
read more:Canadian rescue plane leaves Tripoli with no passengers(bbc)

Good money after bad

I don't know what I'm going to do when I grow up, but its gonna be BIG!

You can look long and hard, but it is unlikely you'll be able to find a more shining example of government waste. As with most government waste, this project was started with the best of intentions. 10 years and $6.5 BILLION(£4.1 BILLION) later, I'm not so sure those good intentions were followed through on...

The project is the Nimrod MRA4. It is the last combat airplane Britain developed. The intent was to be able to patrol the Atlantic Ocean looking for submarines. The plan was to build 9 planes total.

Then the new government took over. With 1 plane completed and ready to fly and 3 planes at 90% complete, the government decided it would save itself from $3.19 BILLION in operating costs to kill the program immediately.

$6.5 BILLION already spent on the project. Kill it now to save $3.19 BILLION.

Lets recoup costs?
1.) 1 was complete, 3 were almost done, we can sell them, right?
Wrong - We don't want the folks who want them to have them. The folks we don't mind having them have no realistic need for them. Plus, its a very specific plane. To finish production and to maintain it in use would require its own specialized workforce.
2.) At least we're gutting them for parts, right?
Wrong(ish) - They're trying, but most everything on these planes are already truly obsolete. Remember, they were designed 10 years ago. According to a guy at the Ministry of Defense, you wouldn't put some of these components in a Play Station let alone a modern military aircraft.
3.) Just stop progress and store it until economies and budgets are restored to ridiculous levels, that'll save the money, right?
Wrong - Remember, these planes are already so obsolete, we can't even use most of the components. Plus, storing a project of this magnitude still requires a big building and crews to keep it up. Just throwing it in a garage out back ain't gonna work.
4.) We're not just going to cut it into pieces and sell it as scrap metal, are we?
You Betcha.

Spending $6.5 BILLION on a project and destroying the results...

THIS is whybritspaytaxes.

read more:Why smash up a brand new spy plane?(bbc)

The cost of freedom

Of course maintaining the largest military in the world is gonna cost some dollars, but this is still a fun figure:
The Pentagon's budget for 2012 is expected to be $553 BILLION.

I expect it'll be worth every penny.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Don't ask. Period.

Studying, debating, legislating, enforcing, re-debating, more studies, more legislating, now enforcing who exactly it is we are comfortable putting in harm's way to ensure my quality of life.

Sure he can spot the extremist in a crowd of muslims from 100 yards, but did you hear where he sticks his dick at night? Has anyone told Congress about this guy? I certainly don't want him taking a bullet for me!

Even a step in the right direction costs our money.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Visit Beautiful Afghanistan!

Seriously... When are people going to learn that war zone does not equal vacation destination?

Between multiple people trying to do one man protests, Journalists thinking they can get the scoop, and the doorknobs hiking in Iraq[n], the State Departments of the world are being run ragged just trying to rescue their citizens from their own actions.

Now there is a Scotsman trying to set up a vacation company (bbc) that will take you mountain climbing in Afghanistan. Don't get me wrong, its in a relatively safe part of Afghanistan, and they sure could use the tourism, but... ...

All I'm saying is that anyone gets abducted on one these vacations, their home government really needs to let them stay hostages. If someone really wants to climb a mountain on their vacation, there are a whole bunch of mountain ranges that are NOT IN A WAR ZONE!

Rescuing mis-guided citizens from their own actions...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Stealing from our citizens

Why do we pay taxes?

To defend our Air Force Reserves recruitment efforts when they steal songs from the American music industry to play during their Super Bowl ads.

Though, I'm not sure what will cost more:
The legal defense and resulting fines for using a White Stripes song without authorization (which will cost more than licensing it the proper way)
-OR-
Running Super Bowl ads.

Seriously. How is it OK that government agencies are vying for the multi-MILLION dollar ad spots during the Super Bowl? I know they have a working budget for recruiting, but this doesn't seem like the best way to spend it to me...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: White Stripes battle US Air Force over Super Bowl ad(bbc)

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.

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)

Extortion on a grand scale

The Mafia can only dream of such numbers...

Where to start... Where to start...

Ok. As we all know, we pay private security firms in our current wars to help get shit done without having our enlisted men do it all. How this is cheaper than doing it ourselves isn't really clear, but apparently, this is the only way we can get our wars done. Whatever.

So far, so good.

In Afghanistan, the US and other forces decided that since we're pumping countless tons of cold hard cash into private hands to help run this public war, we should spend a little of that money to Afghan contractors. For example, one of our trucking contracts makes up:
5% OF AFGHANISTAN'S GDP!

So far, so good. Kinda wise even. Since we're throwing away bills by the ton, why not put some of it towards keeping our bored enemies busy. Too busy working to join your little jihad.

Problem is, there aren't enough Afghans in the country to actually do the kind of security work that is needed to truck shit around their country. Even without a war going on, the [lack of] roads and mountains make trucking in this area difficult at best.

So far, getting a bit murky.

In order to get the trucking done that they need to, they take a pallet or two of the tons of cash we gave them and spend it on protection money from local warlords. Its generally a pay per truck sliding fee scale thing.

So far, ... Wait. Aren't these the same local warlords that make up and support the Taliban?

Yes. A large portion of the money we pay to Afghans to haul our shit around their country goes straight into the hands of the Taliban. In fact, it is believed that this makes up a significant portion of the Taliban's war budget.

Take a minute. Let that soak in...

We invade a country, then give it the money needed to fight back. This is worse than paying them to not shoot at us as we did in Iraq. I mean come on... Didn't we already learn all this a few decades ago as the Fed brought the Mafia down to a tolerable level of power? Paying someone to not attack you only gives them more money and power to demand that you pay them more next time!

I don't even want to spend much time thinking that while we are assisting in paying the Afghans not to attack other Afghans that there is that much more money around to attack Americans instead.

Without us, they couldn't afford to fight us.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

read more: Private contracts drive Afghan economy (marketplace)

Oil for sale

Now that we've spent $683,942,908,585.08 (according to the zFacts ticker and links to the left at the top of this page at 2:22AM CST) on 'liberating' the Iraqis, its time they start reaping some of this fine Oil Money they been hearin' all about.

What do we get in return? Shoes thrown at us.

The Headline Reads:
Iraqi oil for sale in TV auction(bbc)
A goddamn auction between giants such as Royal Dutch Shell and Exxon Mobil for the rights to rape and pillage the land and oil reserves being aired on TV. This must be an exciting moment for them. (The Iraqis) (Well, the suits too...)

Aw fuck it.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Here's some fun quotes:
The US budget for Iraq in FY 2007 came to $4,988/Iraqi. This is triple Iraq's per-person GDP. It's like spending $121,000 per person ($484,000 per family of 4) in the US. Why not just bribe the whole country?

"If we don't stop extending our troops all around the world in nation-building missions, then we're going to have a serious problem." — George W. Bush, Jan. 2001

What happened to kicking somebody's ass and taking their stuff? All the war, none of the spoils?

Tradin' Paint (Part 2)

Last month I had a good hearty laugh when the French and British decided to run their subs into each other. Good times indeed.

However, At least their collision was:
1.) between 2 different navies
2.) in relatively friendly waters
3.) between subs that were actively trying to be discreet.

When the US does it, we do it in style.
We run into OURSELVES, we hit a submarine with a boat, and we do it all off the coast of Iran.

You can't buy this kind of humor! US navy vessels collide in Gulf (bbc)

Oh, wait.... We just did.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Tradin' Paint (aka When Subs Collide)

Sometimes, its just the genius of the rank and file government employees that'll set us back a couple mil from time to time...

Nuclear subs collide in Atlantic(bbc)

It was the Brits vs. the French. No injuries, no unexpected nuclear explosions. Just a couple of strangers in the night, exchanging paint.

Am I the only one a bit nervous knowing that there are so many nuclear subs in the water they'll occasionally run into each other even with todays navigation systems?

THIS is whybrits&frenchpaytaxes.

An arm and a leg

Multiply that times thousands, toss in thousands of deaths, and you get the cost of politicians putting their careers ahead of their jobs.

The military knew in 1994 that humvees were, as they called it, a "deathtrap."
However, while considering a different fleet of safer vehicles,
The Pentagon didn't develop such a fleet because championing the vehicles wasn't seen in the '90s as a "good career move," said John Pike of Globalsecurity.org. The military had spent hundreds of millions on Humvees and drawn-out ground wars were seen as a thing of the past, he said. (usat)

And, of course, that brilliant strategist and great humanitarian Donald "Go to war with the Army you have" Rumsfeld and his cronies ignored the boys on the ground in 2005.
Combat Development Command did not create a plan to field the vehicles or obtain funding for them despite receiving an urgent request from field commanders in Iraq for MRAPs in February 2005.(usat)

Its all under investigation now, but I imagine there are a lot of pretty bold men and women that had the balls to defend their country (even if many of them didn't realize what that meant) wishes they would have investigated it up front.

The military politicians in the pentagon in pursuit of the American dream at the cost of thousands of other Americans' Dreams...

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Thanks Israel! (Worldwide taxes epilogue)

Gaza rebuild 'to cost billions'(bbc)

Yes fellow taxpayers of the world, you are about to donate BILLIONS to the re-election campaign of the powers that be in Israel. They decided to have themselves a fancy little war against a mostly unarmed and fenced in population to prove to their constituents that they are tough on... ... Well, I'm not sure what they think they proved. Hamas is still up and running and able to resume launching rockets at their leisure.

Unless you consider bombing UN schools, murdering hundreds (I've heard thousands) of civilians, then paying to re-build it all a worthy price to pay for destroying a couple of tunnels. Next time, try cement, or a little dynamite. No need to drop bombs from the sky on children.

THIS is whyweallpaytaxes.

Israel vs. the UN (Worldwide taxes at work Part 3)

Its a shame, but not my problem that the Israelis are killing off innocent Palestinians by the hundreds. There are a host of other blogs talking about how these innocents deserve it for voting for the wrong leaders and how Israel are a bunch of jackasses for thinking they can stop terrorism by terrorizing people. I'm not going to go there.

What I do want to know is:
What do we have to do to get Israel to stop attacking the U.N.? Last night, they attacked the UNs relief agency in Gaza and it is now on fire.

Gaza pounded amid push for truce(bbc)

Like I said in my first post about this: My taxes have gone to purchase many of Israel's weapons which are now being used to destroy UN facilities which is funded by taxpayers around the world.

THIS is whyipaytaxes.

Worldwide taxes at work (Part 2)

Not only are the Israelis bombing UN run schools, but they are also taking direct shots at the UN staffers on the ground trying to deliver aid!

I hope it was just some good old fashioned Friendly Fire and that this isn't a sign that the Israelis have just gone completely nuts... Maybe the UN folks they shot at were Arabs?

UN suspends Gaza aid operations(bbc)

THIS is whyipaytaxes.