BlueTip

Aviophobia. But it's selective. Airplanes? No fear. Viewing deck of the Space Needle. Big Yes. Tall roller coasters. No. Bridges. Yes. Have any of you seen the Mission Impossible movie that's been on cable a lot lately. I think it's called Ghost Protocol. The scene where they cut the window out of that hotel room in Dubai about 100 stories up. I get sick to my stomach even watching that scene. Weird.

He's one of the very few on the Right that I would consider voting for.

The Republicans are spending right along with the Dems so you can't really just blame the President for that.

Put yourself in the position of running DOD or State or being The President. Our compound in Benghazi is attacked. What is your first reaction? The first thing you do is get any and all military assets in the Mediterranean Sea/Africa/Italy moving in that direction. You can always have them turn back if not needed. You obviously can’t tell immediately how long the attack will continue. The movie is called ’13 hours’. From what I’ve read the accounts are that the attack of the compound and then the CIA annex lasted between 7 and 9 hours. But you don’t wait to find that out. You call on any assets you have immediately. You don’t wait to make that call unless you’re an absolute moron. I just did a quick scan of U.S. military installations in the area and we have bases in Italy, including Naples where the Sixth Fleet is based. From Naples, Italy to Benghazi is 685 nautical miles. An F16 can fly 800-900 mph. An F14 can fly 1500 mph. So even if they’re at the base and not out in the Med, any navy jets could be in Benghazi in well under an hour after the attack started, if scrambled immediately. The CIA guys (former Seals) asked for air support as they were leaving to head to the compound (according to their statements). And it didn’t arrive... Top CIA officer in Benghazi delayed response to terrorist attack, US security team members claim | Fox News There have been stories from various military sources floating around that there was laser targeting going on at the compound. So maybe some military assets were scrambled and were staying over the Med until getting approval, which never came obviously. According to multiple sources including the Washington Post, Amb. Stevens was still alive as of 10:30pm local time, an hour after the fighting started. If these CIA assets/contractors were allowed to head to the Compound immediately perhaps they could have saved more lives. We’ll never know for sure. But to make no effort to save them is inexcusable and, dare I say, un-American. If you want to learn more, read the timeline at factcheck.org. Benghazi Timeline If you’re into the whole storyline that Clinton/Obama put out about a movie causing the attack, there’s some interesting stuff in there such as this: Sept. 11, 11:12 p.m.: Clinton sends an email to her daughter, Chelsea, that reads: “Two of our officers were killed in Benghazi by an al Qaeda-like group: The Ambassador, whom I handpicked and a young communications officer on temporary duty w a wife and two young children. Very hard day and I fear more of the same tomorrow.” “Sept. 12: Clinton delivers a speech at the State Department to condemn the attack in Benghazi and to praise the victims as “heroes.” She again makes reference to the anti-Muslim video in similar language... Clinton: “Some have sought to justify this vicious behavior, along with the protest that took place at our Embassy in Cairo yesterday, as a response to inflammatory material posted on the Internet. America’s commitment to religious tolerance goes back to the very beginning of our nation. But let me be clear — there is no justification for this, none.” “Sept. 12, 3:04 p.m.: Clinton calls then-Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil and tells him, “We know the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack — not a protest.” An account of that call was contained in an email written by State Department Public Affairs Officer Lawrence Randolph that summarizes the call between the two leaders. The email was released by the House Benghazi committee.”

Whether or not the exact words 'stand down' were used or not doesn't really matter. By doing nothing, State/WH gave an implicit (possibly explicit) stand down order. If we had assets in the area mid-way through the attack then they were in the area before the attack. State & White House watched the events in real time, and there could (should) have been a call immediately for any and all military assets or Spec Ops to proceed. Even a couple fly overs might have been enough to deter some of the attackers. Instead we let them fend for themselves.

It's coming from the few survivors of that night. They've each said that the CIA station chief took a call and relayed to them that they were ordered to 'stand down'. They waited and then went anyway. Were they interviewed as part of the investigation?

That's fantastic what he did with the Nobel prize money.

I really doubt the movie will be political. Hillary's name probably won't even be mentioned. But we now have email evidence that the military was preparing to respond. And the guys who were on the ground (see previously referenced news article) said as much. So why didn't the military come to their aid? And who gave that order? It could come only from State (Hillary) or the White House (Obama). The military doesn't decide on its own when to enter a foreign country.

http://nypost.com/2016/01/09/we-were-left-behind-the-benghazi-soldiers-tell-all/

I wouldn't say the sky is falling. But results are mixed at best.

You are correct that food stamps usage has grown forever. But the title of this thread refers to the 'last few years'. I didn't take that to have anything to do with Clinton. And that question implies things are great. But they're not. Several aspects of our lives are worse. Blame Obama or don't. I don't care. The Obama administration has deported more illegal immigrants than any recent administration. I did read that the other day. So do you view that as a good thing or bad? I also noted on facebook this morning that 'OccupyDemocrats' whoever that is, claims that Obama is responsible for the teen pregnancy rate dropping the last few years. I'm not sure what they attribute that to. Truly.

In 2008, the year before President Obama took office, the number of food stamp recipients was 28,233,000 million at a total annual cost of $37,639,640,000. That's $37 billion dollars. In 2015, food stamp recipients totaled 45,767,000, a 62% increase over the 2008 total. The annual cost of the food stamps in 2015 was $75,859,880,000 which is a 96% cost increase. http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/pd/SNAPsummary.pdf

Yeah clock operator just killed Clemson. Should have had the opportunity to run one more play before kicking.

Does anyone know the polling methodology for either the USA Today or Reuters polls? Phone live interview or automated phone or internet?

Already sent an email. i think I've over paid in prior years because of this problem. Don't want to make the same mistake again.

Thanks. That makes sense to me as well.

I'm hoping we have enough expertise here in BGP to help me with a stock/income question. My employer gives me stock each year as a bonus. It vests two years later. When I sell stock my employer shows the total value of the stock sold as regular income on my W2 and the administrator withholds at the bonus rate. To keep it simple let's say I have one share that vests when the value is $200/share. Then at some point in the future I sell that share at $300. As I mentioned above, the $300/share value shows up on my W2 as regular income in the year I sell the stock. So do I pay regular income tax on the full $300 and also pay capital gains on the $100 increase in value? My real question is do I pay both regular income tax + capital gains tax on the incremental $100 in value? Thanks.

Unemployment is just one piece of the puzzle showing how poorly the economy has done for most of us under Obama. The wealth gap has grown. Income inequality has reach the worst point it has been during my lifetime. Go to this link on income inequality by the Census Bureau: https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/inequality/ Select the “H2 All Races” report. It shows how income is spread across each 20th percentile income group in the country. So it’s the bottom 20% of earners, then 20-40%, etc. You’ll see that under Obama the top 20% are receiving a higher % (bigger piece of the pie) than ever before (reporting goes back to 1967). And under Obama the bottom 20% are receiving the smallest % they’ve ever received. Same for the 20-40% group (lower middle class). But, hey, the stock market is up. It’s been a very Republican presidency I guess. If you pull the “H2 Black” report you’ll see things are even worse for black Americans. Black labor participation has fallen off greater than white. Black home ownership…same thing. Black income…same thing. So Merry Christmas everybody.

Let’s look at the unemployment rate. I pulled up the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It’s the November 2015 report, the most recent available. http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf The following data is quoted from that report. Current civilian population is 251,747,000, current civilian labor force in the US is 157,301,000 and the official unemployed number is 7,937,000. That comes out to the 5.0% rate that has been quoted recently. Here’s a direct quote: “In November, the unemployment rate held at 5.0 percent, and the number of unemployed persons, at 7.9 million, was essentially unchanged. Over the past 12 months, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons are down by 0.8 percentage point and 1.1 million, respectively. Among the major worker groups, the unemployment rates for adult men (4.7 percent), adult women (4.6 percent), teenagers (15.7 percent), whites (4.3 percent), blacks (9.4 percent), Asians (3.9 percent), and Hispanics (6.4 percent) showed little or no change in November.” Note that the white unemployment rate is 4.3% and black 9.4%. This gap has not improved during Obama’s presidency. The quoted 5.0% unemployment rate is a political number. It can be manipulated to make unemployment appear higher or lower than actual. The key is the participation rate and how BLS excludes unemployed folks after a certain period of time. So they can manipulate the denominator. Here’s a historical look at the participation rate in the US… United States Labor Force Participation Rate | 1950-2015 | Data | Chart You can see it growing through the 60s and 70s with population growth and more women entering the work force. When Reagan left office the participation rate was around 66% and stayed in the 66-67% range during the Bush, Clinton, and Bush2 presidencies. So the participation rate had settled into a regular range of participation with basically everyone in the market that wanted to be in the market. If you look at that graph you can see a dip at the end of W’s presidency to 66% flat, then it falls off the table during Obama’s presidency to its current level around 62%. So BLS started eliminating more people from the official unemployment rate though they are clearly unemployed and would prefer to be working. The way to equalize the unemployment rate is to include those folks that are being excluded. If today’s participation rate was at 66% which is the demonstrated norm, the number of unemployed would be 16,789,020. That’s more than double the 7.9MM that BLS quotes. The unemployment rate is really 10.1%. (If anyone is interested I can show you the math.) And the black unemployment rate is really 18%.

Airing of grievances

Beautiful

If they're good why do always seem to occur on the way out the door?

I was in Rupp for that game (student at the time). The loudest I've ever heard Rupp was on that tip in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PM4MBKjg0qk

Glad Chicago finally got in, for their early stuff when Kath was still around... This is the suite Ballet for a Girl in Buchannon (including Make Me Smile and Colour My World) [video=youtube;8p-yiT1KF9I]