It's kind of illogical gymnastics necessary to sustain an unsustainable argument.

The kind you aren't good at. Although you do try.

How do you rate your credibility, neocon? You in plus territory yet, or still falling?

The US military spends more on thier budget for defense than ALL other countries combined.

The good news is that not all of it is used to subjugate the world.

A lot of it is simply wasted:

More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.

"According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions," Rumsfeld admitted.

$2.3 trillion - that's $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.

"We know it's gone. But we don't know what they spent it on," said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/01/29/eveningnews/main325985.shtml

Doesn't that make you feel better?

Yeah, me neither.

It's worth pointing out of course that Bush has outspent every President since LBJ when it comes to descretionary (non-military) spending on all manner of social programmes and initiatives

Really?

Got any evidence?

Didn't think so.

Contrary to what Faux News may tell you, tax cuts for the obscenely wealthy aren't really anti-poverty programs.

It's clear that your objective in posting here has been to convince everybody that you're a vicious neocon thug.

But you've already accomplished that several times over.

What's left for you here? Do you have the additional goal of disrupting the conversation of people who aren't brutal right-wing barbarians?

Black Posters: This is a nothing issue!!! Glenn is creating a"race card pulp fiction excercise"

Really?

What makes you say that?

Please cite evidence and present a rational argument. Frankly, I don't believe you can do it. You never have before.

Most of the posters here then point out all the external costs for fossil fuels that are essentially subsidies for those industries.

Good points. They do not, however, effect the supply-demand equation. Sorry. Ball's analysis has substance. For all the goodness of solar, that market might tank because of those unfeeling balance sheet entries. Note: external costs are called external because balance sheets have no place for them.

And yet, they're still costs.

They do not go away just because they're externalized, or subsidized, or ignored. Those costs must still be paid. And our society does pay for them, directly or indirectly.

What you're doing is providing an apology for rigging the supply/demand equation. You should stop doing that.

Level the playing field and let honest market forces prevail, and solar power wins.

Actually, I think Americans are ready to assume a role in the world that is not based on being overarmed bullies protecting corporate thieves looting the resources of third world countries.

Actually, I think Americans are persuaded that global coercion, robbery, and mass murder are good things.

That's certainly the way the country votes. Although it's possible a majority of Americans aren't aware that they're complicit in global coercion, robber, and mass murder, probably because the actual victims of the military-industrial complex aren't Americans.

At least not yet. Probably getting saved for last.

Glenn is playing the "niggers are coming siren race card" he has selected a few extremist right wing bloggers to give some validity to his race bait nonsense.

Such a remarkable mischaracterization of GGs post.

You don't really suppose anybody really believes this kind of lying spin, do you?

Glenn a white gay male has zero street cred in the Black community

Why? Because a WASP neocon like yourself, posing as an African-American, says so?

You don't even fake it well. It's more of a caricature. "Street cred"? You're kidding, right?

My point was, and is, in a nutshell, that even though American military might has been misused frequently, thats not a good argument for getting rid of it.

There you go again: wrongly assigning the extreme position to your interlocutor. He never said anything about "getting rid of it". You did. And you did it dishonestly.

And you do it again:

I wish "people like you" would realize that the world is not black and white.

And yet, you do believe it's black and white - worse, you believe it's America's place to be the world's policeman, seeing no other alternative, even though there are alternatives:

Rest assured, if America gave up its role as preeminent military power, somebody else would step in to take our place. China? Russia?

I've heard this argument before - it's a favorite with neoconservatives.

You're losing your credibility. And you're beginning to smell like a neocon.

I am a Black male

Not possible.

What is true is that you're a WASP neocon posing as a black male for the purpose of attempting to discredit a rather obvious set of observations on the part of GG because they contradict lying Republican propaganda.

You can punch out now.