Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan ... so the Navy flyover of four F-18 jets during the Superbowl (over an enclosed stadium no less) could have cost as much as $450,000. Again, when someone in the GOP flags this kind of wasteful spending, I'll believe they mean it when they say they want to do something about the budget deficit. This sort of waste is explained away as "a recruitment tool" but it's simply unnecessary waste. Since it involves the military, however, it's impolite (bordering on unpatriotic) to bring up such a thing.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^Agreed, when it comes to funding wars, money is never an issue. When it comes to providing for unemployed and uninsured Americans, then money is always too tight to mention.
Originally Posted By ecdc Lawrence O'Donnell had a great bit on how football is tax payer funded. Tax payers foot the bill for stadiums across the country and, time and time again, they never get their money back. They demolished stadiums in New Jersey, for two teams in New York, and then built brand new ones at 100% tax payer expense even though the old ones still had hundreds of millions in debt. When are Republicans going to start screaming about that?
Originally Posted By ecdc Oh, and Bill Maher's new rule last week was fantastic, comparing baseball to football. Football, he noted, had socialist elements because the money brought in from TV revenue is shared somewhat equally by all the franchises, so it's why teams like Green Bay and PIttsburgh have a shot at the Superbowl title, while in baseball, teams keep all the money, so you end up with the Yankees buying their way to a title while smaller teams, year after year, are left behind. It was funny and interesting.
Originally Posted By fkurucz ^^^Not only that, but the NFL rewards poor performance. Basement dwellers in the NFL get rewarded with choice draft picks. Compare that with European soccer leagues: end up in the basement and you get DEMOTED to a minor league.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>it's simply unnecessary waste. << It distracted from Christina Aguilera's performance of the National Anthem. Worth every nickel.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Recordings of that performance could make many of the military's weapons obsolete.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I watched the SB, and I didn't even realize they had a flyover. Was it a "blink and you miss it" thing? It's a domed stadium... wouldn't they have to cut from Aguilera to the flyover for literally a second or two, then cut back? How much PR "bang for the buck" (pun intended) could they possibly get from that?
Originally Posted By davewasbaloo That is a gross waste of tax payer's money. Another reason to hate pro sports. and I already do.
Originally Posted By mele I'm right there with ya, dave. I just do not get the appeal...well, most of the time, anyway.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan If the NFL, NASCAR and all the rest find value in having military flyovers, then why shouldn't they pay the NAVY or Air Force to have them do it? Why should taxpayers fund these things? It's just funny to me that there in the heart of Red State America, where supposedly people are fed up with big government waste, here you have the military flying planes from Virginia to Texas for a 2 second flight over an enclosed stadium and that's not seen as a problem at all.
Originally Posted By vbdad55 When are Republicans going to start screaming about that? --- well the things they are yelling about receive no attention either- like the unaffordability of the government pernsion systems that has the states bankrupt. However another party gets themajority of the votes from teachers unions and government workers as evidenced in the last Illinois election where the governor won3 of 105 counites but eeked out a few thousand vote win the thing is both parties have their sacred cows they don't want to hear anything about- the ultimate loser is the taxpayer
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>both parties have their sacred cows<< But the GOP's sacred cow eats up the lion's share of the budget. Iraq and Afghanistan compound the enormous expense. And yet, Republicans like to pretend that they are about fiscal responsibility.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder "...wouldn't they have to cut from Aguilera to the flyover for literally a second or two, then cut back?" That's exactly what happened.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 I guess I blinked and missed it. Or perhaps I was dipping my tortilla chip into Jerry's truly AWESOME guac (olive oil - makes all the difference), and focusing on the guac bowl for two seconds did the trick.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan That must be some guacamole! It was able to divert your attention from $450,000 worth of military firepower flying over an enclosed stadium. Now I want chips and dip. The flyover was supposed to make me want to join the military but instead, it only makes me want tortilla chips and guacamole. (But in fairness, very few things don't make me want tortilla chips and guacamole).
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <That must be some guacamole! > It is. I'd almost call it... well... Holy. {ducks for cover}
