Excuse me but WTF is WRONG with this picture? IMPEACH. NOW.

[LynnTheDem]

Veteran's Benefits HURT NATIONAL SECURITY says Pentagon

Veteran's benefits are "Congress' generosity;

In fact the Republicans are so desperate to cut veterans’ benefits they have started attacking fellow Republicans who want to preserve current benefit levels. The Wall Street Journal reports that "the House Republican leadership took the unusual step of stripping New Jersey Rep. Christopher Smith of his chairmanship of the Veterans Affairs Committee" for pushing "so aggressively for veterans benefits that he at times threatened to oppose their spending plans – and President Bush’s – unless more retiree benefits were included."

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/12861

Lockheed Martin to Build New $1.7 billion Presidential Helicopter

The Department of Defense announced today that the team led by Lockheed Martin Systems Integration, Owego, N.Y., has been selected to build the new presidential helicopter (VXX) based on its U.S. 101 medium lift helicopter.

This $1.7 billion, cost plus award fee contract will launch the VXX program’s system development and demonstration phase during which the program will integrate a “system of systems” with a modern, in-production aircraft to provide the president with safe and reliable helicopter transportation.

http://www.defenselink.mil/releases/2005/nr20050128-2037.html

WAKE UP, America. WAKE the F*CK UP.

[FlemingsGhost]

1. Americans are fools.

Fear has a way, you know ...

[shadowknows69]

27. It's just that we're uninformed as a whole

it's hard to get people to raise constructive outrage towards policy when they only hear about it in hindsight. CNN doesn't report that a decision is about to be made on helcopter companies, only which one was chosen after the fact. The majority of the US isn't as anal as some of us watching congressional hearings. I think CSPAN should be required viewing. How about a daily national briefing distributed to every citizen just listing basically "what your GOV is doing this week" including listing all bills and schedules for votes in congress, presidential press conferences etc. Here's an even more radical idea. All adult citizens have to take a simple, weekly current events/process of government test. sufficient consecutive failures and your citizenship or right to vote is revoked. Hey, your duties as a student were based on a pass/fail system why not citizenship. Because as I see it, I'm a good American because I make it a priority to be informed and involved in my country's future. There are too many out there who just don't care screwing it up for the rest of us.

[ultraist]

2. Selfish bastards

:evilfrown: :nuke: :evilfrown: :nuke:

[cry baby]

3. $70 million per helicopter, 23 of them. Death benefits of us soldier

$12,000. WTF is wrong, why isn't anyone screaming about this except us?:shrug:

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Nobody knows

on MSM. According to the average American citizen everything is fine and dandy. It's so disgusting. I wrote to my congressman last night expressing how I was angry about how our veterans were being treated when the right claims Christianity and all that. Instead of this helicopter why not armor and care for our military? Ugh!

[low_phreaq]

4. $6 billion?

This article says the total contract is $6 billion!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/01/28/presidential.helicopter.ap/index.html

WTF does he need 23 of them for?

[cry baby]

5. The 1.7 billion is for the 23 helicopters decked out like Marine One

An extention of the contract is for a bunch of other helicopters of other types in the amount of 6 billion.

Edited to provide a link to some info:http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/1004/101804nj1.htm

[RBHam]

6. Support the troops...until they're killed or discharged...

George Bush the First called the soldiers OFU's...

One Fodder Units...

[Kali]

7. Do you have a link to the WSJ interview

mentioned in the first article?

[LynnTheDem]

8. Sort of...

I can't get in; something's going on w my computer, it's talking over 5 mins just to open a link!

Go to here;

http://users1.wsj.com/lmda/do/checkLogin?a=t&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Fpage%2F0%2C%2C2_0233%2C00.html%3Fpage%3D2_0233

And to Edition 1/25/05

hth!

[Kali]

14. not a subscriber

any chance of a cut and paste of part of the article - I think we are allowed 4 paragraphs?

[LynnTheDem]

17. I'll try...

My computer I am about to throw thru the window! I'm STILL trying to open the link! :wow:

[klyon]

25. do you run spybot or ad-aware

your computer is probably overloaded with junk that has been put in by advertisers that track your every move. These things never leave just keep running where you can't see them. I had over 150 running and my machine barely worked. I cleaned them out and run both these programs every couple of days to keep it clean, also DU is a target for special programs, some may even be DOD, that want to know what we are talking about here. We could have terrorist lurking you know. Big Brother Is Watching Us. I think the right fears us and have sent disrupters to waste our time and space. You might need help getting downloads if your computer is not running good. A friend gave them to be on CD, they are free software by the way.

KL

[LynnTheDem]

20. Kali I can't get in!

I've asked another friend who is also a subscriber if she can get in and do a copy & paste. For you & I both, lol! Maybe WSJ is just updating or maintenance...

[yurbud]

9. Dems need to say why do vet benefits hurt more than tax cuts for rich?

[zann725]

11. So now he's got fancy new Yacht, Limo and Helicopter

While millions go to bed hungry, homeless, and jobless, with no healthcare or pension.

We are truly a Third World Dictatorship now.

[Clark2008]

13. I think we can start a new phrase

First world dictatorship.

We still have most of the world's wealth, as a whole, but the degrees in difference are all too pronounced.

However, it shant be long until we're third world.

[underseasurveyor]

12. Everything.

Everyfuckingthing is wrong with this picture.

I'm such a cynic anymore on the surface it's outrageous yes, but it seems to me to be more of their well thought out, layed out, and orchestrated game plans. Their operating pattern is the same only the issue at hand changes.

It will eventually appear that bush is the one that is 'fighting for' veterans benefits when we know damn well the exact opposite is true.

[Lindacooks]

15. Well, that rounds out the Chimperator's transportation

nicely, what with the Presidential yacht.

America as we know it is gone.

[porkrind]

16. This is disgusting.

$1.7 billion? WTF? Why can't he use a modified military copter that is already designed and built? This is absurd. We have a pResident who thinks he's a monarch.

[davepc]

18. It already is

http://www.airforce-technology.com/projects/us101/



this is the Italian version, already in service in Europen militarys.




proposed US executive version, not yet built.

[davepc]

19. The helo isint planned on being deployed untill 2009

"The VXX program was accelerated in 2003 with a currently planned IOC in fiscal year 2009."

Unless their's a change to the Constitution, George Herbert Walker Bush will never fly in it as President of the United States.

[WillowTree]

21. George Herbert Walker Bush...

....will never fly in anything as President of the United States again, constitutional amendment or not. Hasn't for several years now. (Sorry, I couldn't resist.)

[LynnTheDem]

24. Yep ever since he permanently lost his pilot's license & was grounded

In fact he lied about that very thing when he said "And I continued to fly with my unit for several more years".

bush was permanently grounded 18 months after receiving his pilot's license.

Such a liar of a bastard, isn't he.

[Catch22Dem]

28. Actually willowtree was talking about Bush Sr.

But you're totally right about Jr. being a lying, grounded, coke head, awol, piece of shit. (I was paraphrasing your words.) ;)

[WillowTree]

22. The article also says...

....that the helicopters currently in use are as much as 30 years-old and can no longer be updated to accommodate the technology currently required for a presidential helicopter. Under the circumstances, and since the current occupant of the Oval Office will not derive any benefit from it, it's rather difficult to see how the fact that the DoD is arranging at this time for such future replacement can be attributed to his ego or desire for creature comforts. The next president, whomever he or she turns out to be, will be the first to have use of the new craft.

[Disturbed]

23. A Pres. that thinks he is a King?

No he doesn't think that he is a king. He knows that he is a king.

[Darranar]

26. So we're spending more than twice the money spent to help the victims...

of the tsunami on a HELICOPTER for the "president"?

What is he, God?