Really? My tax dollars? I hate to sound like a tea bagger, but

[TalkingDog]

CUT THAT SHIT OUT!!!


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/07/AR2011020705610.htmlY

There were..."four Navy F-18s flying over the stadium - with its retractable roof closed? Everybody inside could only see the planes on the stadium's video screens. It was strictly a two-second beauty shot. Know what it cost taxpayers? I'll tell you: $450,000."

[Lucian]

1. I agree.

Wasteful spending.

[hedgehog]

2. If there's $450,000 lying around that needs spending so bad - I have an idea

"the aid proposed in the (New York State) budget that will be granted to the Fulton City School District will include a dip of approximately $2.2 million in aid. "

http://palltimes.com/articles/2011/02/02/news/doc4d48b07f1a9f8944344903.txt

We'll be cutting programs and laying off teachers - we've already lost our Latin language curriculum.

[PoliticAverse]

3. KHOU.com article on the issue...

http://www.khou.com/news/texas-news/Super-Bowl-flyover-costs-taxpayers-450000-115109249.html

[Doctor_J]

49. Heh. All the teabaggers in the comments sections think it's just great!

Fucking lying, hypocritical morons.

[RandomThoughts]

4. they are trying to hide in a house

logically
Take Me To The River
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZmwqJfOd2v8

Talking Heads "Burning Down the House"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNnAvTTaJjM





Blinded by the Light by Manfred Mann's Earth Band
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eg8cDmi7-U8


and I am due beer and travel money, and many experiences.


What is your house made of?

I got stones.

Loreena McKennitt - The Mummers' Dance
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0B7sH5QLyXY

Fire proof
Hammer Fall - Hearts on Fire
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k25X8RAjJ00


side note
All wing in formation Strike Eagle target locks.

[Auggie]

5. I was thinking the exact same thing

You sound like a pragmatic taxpayer to me

[NNN0LHI]

6. $450,000 doesn't sound extravagant for a couple seconds of fine entertainment to me

Wait a minute, did I just say that?

Quick, someone hit me about the head with the soft end of a two-by four and try to beat some sense into me.

:spank:

Don

[Glassunion]

10. Isn't that about what Charlie Sheen pays for hookers? You know... For a few seconds of entertainment

[pacalo]

7. Bill Jerry Jones for it!!!!!

:grrr:

[Lars77]

8. If they dropped napalm i'd watch it

[Nevernose]

9. Remeber when they spent 3 mil on studying magic mushrooms?

And proved that psylocibine mushrooms, did, indeed, make people feel "more spiritually aware?"

I like science. No, I fucking LOVE science. But for 3 nillion taxpayer dollars they could have just asked me about the 'shrooms and I would have told them.

[saras]

31. Yes, but think how many people got to try the mushrooms...

I know, for three million you could probably got a lot more people to take mushrooms. But they'd probably be people who have already taken them.

Personally I'd have given the money to MAPS

[Nevernose]

34. That's really cool

I had no idea such an organization existed. I may just have to dig up my wallet and make a donation. It won't be three million dollars, but still.

[tinymontgomery]

38. No body asked me about 'shrooms either

also remember when they spent millions why sailors smoke more and drink more while deployed. I could have told them for 10 bucks.

[bbinacan]

11. It doesn't bother me.

Why do I care if their flight time is done over a stadium or a barren desert or ocean. Besides, I like flyovers.

[spanone]

12. multiply that by every game played in the nfl....they do it every sunday/every game

that's a shitload of stupid money and it has nothing to do with teabaggers

[ManiacJoe]

32. Every Sunday/every game -- not even close.

[TheCowsCameHome]

13. Well, it IS the Super Bowl

That's what the defenders of the waste of money will say.

I agree with the OP.

[localroger]

14. Too bad they didn't spend $4.50

...on some sheet music for the national anthem.

[bbinacan]

16. You got that right! n/t

[madinmaryland]

15. Half a million for a short flight? BTW, the link is dead.

Thanks!

[bbinacan]

17. The flight came in from VA. n/t

[BeeBee]

18. It was a huge audience and was probably worth every penny

as a recruiting tool for the air force.

[customerserviceguy]

27. The only flaw in your logic

is that this was the Navy.

[BeeBee]

48. Damn me and my lack of military knowledge! n/t

[WatsonT]

28. Do we need to work on recruiting?

Last I checked we had by far the most powerful military in the world and 2nd in size only to china (which has 4 times our population).

I think we could afford to tone it down a bit.

Let me restate that: we can't afford to not tone it down a bit.

[BeeBee]

47. My point was that a 30 second ad during the Super Bowl

costs around $3,000,000.00. The Navy got a lot of bang for their buck for only $450,000.00.

I never said I support the fly-over just that in the larger scheme of things and exposure they got the money was relatively well spent.

[11 Bravo]

19. They would be flying training hops in any case. Non-issue.

[hfojvt]

22. I think so too

Since they do a fair amount of flying around just for training, the actual extra cost is probably nothing.

[tammywammy]

24. +1 n/t

[darkstar3]

43. If this was a training hop, then I wouldn't have a problem.

If this was scheduled specially and not a substitution for a training hop, then it's waste.

(Frankly, I have a problem with military involvement at a massive corporate sponsored event, so the money really isn't at issue for me, but speaking strictly about the OP I have to say that I hope you're right about this being not-so-wasted training.)

[WCGreen]

20. Let the NFL pay for it....

Fuck, we pay for all their stadiums and they want a tax payer funded show on top of that?

[drmeow]

51. AMEN! n/t

[demigoddess]

21. I agree, and I am liberal too.

some of these things are just plain stupid and wasteful.

[obxhead]

23. Wonder how many life saving transplants could have been

performed for that money?

The priorities for our tax dollars is repulsive.

[customerserviceguy]

25. I'm curious how somebody arrived at the $450,000 figure

Surely, the aircraft didn't hold that much fuel. And the pilots were already on the US Gov't payroll. Are they figuring depreciation on the F-18's in this?

Surely, the Blue Angels cost way more than that, and they're an acknowledged recruiting tool. Why can't this be considered in the same light?

[Glassunion]

33. About 25% of that figure is fuel.

The DOD says that they cost on average of $17,000 an hour for an F15. B2 Bombers go for about $42,000 an hour.

So about $109,000 in fuel and the rest is in support of the flight.

Support of a flight can include:
Air Traffic, Maintenance, Logistics, Planning, Flight Crew, Ground Crew, etc...

The cost to the taxpayers comes out of the branch's training budget. It is also a recruiting tool.

So, if you are worried our pilots would be unprepared to fly an attack over a huge coliseum you can rest easy.

[customerserviceguy]

35. Whew!

Yes, it's a relief that our pilots have the training to fly over a sports stadium.

But weren't the support crew also already on the US military payroll? Or was this paid overtime?

[Glassunion]

36. I don't know. I could not find the specifics from the DOD.

[customerserviceguy]

37. I have a feeling that the only 'real' cost

was the fuel, plus a bit of maintenence on the aircraft, which can also be attributed to training time.

If you figured the depreciation on your car for every trip you made in to work, and added the proportional cost of your auto insurance, you could make that trip look like it cost a couple hours of your after-tax labor on that job. But you're probably going to have that car, anyway, even if you were to take the bus to work on any particular day.

[Glassunion]

39. Yep. But to a different point the DOD has been known to pay thousands for

a toilet seat here and there as well.

[customerserviceguy]

40. True, they're good at wasting a buck here and there!

This is not the most egregious waste they do, can we agree on that?

[WatsonT]

26. That's a good paying job

for many years.

Say 90,000 with pay and benefits for 5 years.

[Arkana]

29. Let's be serious for a second.

Where do we get the idea that taxpayer dollars should only go to things taxpayers like? Lots of them don't like tanks or fighter jets, even more don't like Congress.

If this principle were applied equally, we could kiss the National Endowment for the Arts goodbye.

[darkstar3]

30. There is a difference between disliking what your taxes are spent on,

and recognizing massive tax revenue waste, especially when everyone and their brother is talking about spending cuts.

[TalkingDog]

41. Pegged it. Especially when they are cutting funding for kids, schools, etc. n/t

[Odin2005]

42. This shit is so damn dumb.

BS theatrics.

[Hippo_Tron]

44. I know you hate to sound like a tea bagger, but quite frankly you do

Yes I know, you're going to say it's Pentagon spending and right wingers never complain about that, therefore it's different. But I don't think it is.

What you're doing is perpetuating the stereotype that the government wastes taxpayers money because they can. The reality of this is that the decision to do this was likely very well thought out and went through several layers of bureaucracy. I'm sure there are several people at the Pentagon who have written extensive memos about how many people this recruits for the military and how the costs are offset by the fact that the pilots need to get training hours anyway.

Whether it's you complaining about the F-18's, Sarah Palin complaining about fruit flies, or Bobby Jindal complaining about volcano monitoring it all contributes to the same perception of "gubmnit taking my hard earned money and spending it frivolously".

Now I'm not saying that the Pentagon doesn't need a budget cut. It most certainly does. But giving anecdotal examples of spending you consider to be frivolous and saying "they should do without these" is not only a poor way of arguing your case, it's also degrading to the hard working men and women at the Pentagon. A better argument would be to say that given our deficit problem, we simply can't afford to spend as much on the military as we have been spending. We need to cut it x% and we'll leave it up to the Pentagon to decide if they want to stop flying the F-18's at the Superbowl or close down a base somewhere.

[Electric Monk]

45. Yeah, and the chicom might've attacked right then, in which case we'd have been ready!

So there!@

[ehrnst]

46. The Super Bowl Sponsors should be paying for that part of the show.

Not taxpayers.

[raouldukelives]

50. I think we should put as much jet fuel exhaust

in the atmosphere as we possibly can.