DISQUS

islalvr · 1 year ago

John, Please correct your headline of this post to read, "taken to task," not taking to task. Thanks!

jr · 1 year ago

McCain doesn't want the troops to have money for college while he collects 58k in disability while having a wife that is worth 100 million dollars and a six figure senate job. The media will ignore McCombover's 9 figure safety net and pretend he relates to the troops finances

moreleesafer · 1 year ago

McCombover<--- I love it!

Dave of the Jungle · 1 year ago

Bush and McCain are each a national disgrace.

KarenMrsLloydRichards · 1 year ago

This could be a HUGE issue in Obama's favor in the GE.

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

I assume the troops are no longer strong supporters of the war, since the pentagon long ago quit releasing those surveys showing xx percent of troops in favor of the war--but I have no clue why many if not most of the troops still like Bush.

Stockholm syndrome, perhaps?

grandma · 1 year ago

Military Chief Warns Troops About Politics

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has written an unusual open letter to all those in uniform, warning them to stay out of politics as the nation approaches a presidential election in which the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan will be a central, and certainly divisive, issue.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/26/us/politics/2...

yea...shut the troops up while refusing to pay up...

Bush and McCain are sickening

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

Meanwhile, they keep them force fed a diet of Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

Yeah, "no politics in the military."

Bullshit.

sherifffruitfly · 1 year ago

Methinks "Fortunate Son" was written 40 years too early.

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

Actually, I think it's always the same story.

grandma · 1 year ago

Even Texas Republicans such as Dallas Rep. Pete Sessions are distancing themselves from President Bush.

The president, Mr. Sessions told a group of eighth-graders visiting the Capitol last week from Akiba Academy in Dallas, "is doing everything he thinks is correct," and yet "the American people are fed up.... we've lost the House and Senate, and everybody hates George Bush."

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/26/everybody-h...

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

That's good.

I remember when Tennessee's new Repub Senator Bob Corker talked to a group of Tennessee Repubs awhile back and said something like "This may get me in trouble, but it doesn't really seem like the President has much understanding about what's going on in Iraq."

Cracked me up.

grandma · 1 year ago

Whether or not McCain and his allies were right on the merits -- it is by no means obvious that they were not -- there is no denying that the Virginia Senator has successfully maneuvered the presumptive Republican nominee into the profoundly unpopular position of being against a measure designed to honor the service and the sacrifice of veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The question is no longer whether Barack Obama should select Jim Webb as his nominee. It is whether he can justify not doing so.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily...

OlderAndWiser · 1 year ago

I actually heard an apologist for Bush say the different between the post WWII GI Bill and today's troops is that WWII soldiers were draftees and these are "volunteers." Ergo, they don't deserve the same treatment.

I remember the phrase "Never volunteer" coming from WWII GIs...they weren't called the "Greatest Generation" for no reason, you know.

Many of today's troops come from economically hard-pressed families and they are being exploited by a regime that cares not a whit for them. If it's not obvious to them by now, and they're getting a letter from the Joint Chiefs of Staff not to "get political" they should at least know they're fodder for these criminals, and nothing more.

bumpkis · 1 year ago

And the refrain...they didn't volunteer to die for Israel and Big Oil is not be heard.

hawkseye · 1 year ago

Hey, give Bush a break! He gave up golf.

tlsintx · 1 year ago

what are these GOPer goofs thinking? If you're going to start phony wars, at least put up the money for the ones who get sent to do the fighting for you.

I heard on NPR this morning about the high incidence of PTSD among returning veterans and the horrible negligence of the VA in handling this - they're actually telling military docs not to diagnose PTSD because it's too expensive to treat. War is horrible enough by itself, but to treat vets like this is unspeakable.

naschkatzehussein · 1 year ago

Yet elsewhere, the NYT is so gushing over McCain. I full expect them to endorse him over Obama in November.

Chipmaker · 1 year ago

Of course they oppose it -- an uneducated electorate serves Republican purposes.

Someone tell McCain it can be paid for by cutting taxes, he'll slobber all over it under that premise. Doesn't have to be true, just sound good to him.

DCinDC · 1 year ago

McCain and Bush want to lock the troops into an economic situation which they can never escape from.

Happy_Housewife · 1 year ago

Paying for college for veterans? What will they want next: Showers that might not electrocute them? Clean drinking water? Decent medical?

You give them an inch, they take a mile. They should just be happy that they don't have to pull KP duty anymore.

renee · 1 year ago

This story (about a boy with Asperger's Syndrome being "voted out of his class") hits awfully close to home--I don't even know what to say. Too angry, and sad. But I've linked to people who do have some insightful things to say
http://howardempowered.blogspot.com/2008/05/thi...

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

A diary about that story was recommended up on DailyKos today too.

bumpkis · 1 year ago

Anyone remember Vietnam Vets against the war on campus? The ones who actually did jungle time and came back as students? I suspect they are trying to avoid this type of situation...after all, can't have former GI's speaking the truth to the young and impressionable.

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

Good point.

McCain doesn't want them to "poison the well," so to speak.

unrepentant_expat · 1 year ago

Hey McCain, go ahead and be generous, a good share of those soldiers will be dead before this and your wars are over. It'll give you a little something to celebrate on Memorial Day.

Dave of the Jungle · 1 year ago

Obama / Webb 2008

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

Obama/Webb 2008

gonzalez · 1 year ago

Lets keep pushing. Sound great to me.

osage · 1 year ago

McCain is a pandering traitor to every man and woman risking their lives in Bush's Iraq fiasco and in an undermanned Afghanistan. Evidently, McCain believes that a man and or woman who "survives" their first tour of duty in a war zone hasn't risked "enough" to "deserve" maximum educational benefits. Perhaps he believes that American soldiers have more than one life to give for their country.

gonzalez · 1 year ago

McSame is opposing the bill because he want his name on it. These two idiots don't want any military bill with democrat names on it. Everything is political for these two asses.

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

Bush and McCain are wrong, according to a Pentagon study:

Supporters of Webb and Hagel's bill dismiss McCain's concerns about the retention issue. While the Congressional Budget Office estimates that the bill would cause a 16% drop in re-enlistment rates across all four branches of the military, the same study also predicts a 16% uptick in new recruits attracted by the benefit.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,...

Or, maybe, Bush and McCain know they're just blowing smoke, and they don't want the troops to have these benefits for some other reason?

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

Correction: That was a CBO Study, not a Pentagon study.

Bush_Bites · 1 year ago

OT:

Hillary's drinking again.

http://embeds.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/05/26/danc...

yellowelephant · 1 year ago

Yes, there is a legitimate perspective about NCO retention, etc., but here's the REAL REASON why President Bush and Senator McCain don't want to send our heroes to college:

They don't want to have to inspire more real American patriots, starting with their strongest supporters (and campaign contributors) to Be A Man! Enlist!

Draft Young Republicans! Help Enlist the College Republicans!

Operation Yellow Elephant

queerunity · 1 year ago

and we keep thanking john mccain for his service yet he doesnt wanna thank others
http://www.queersunited.blogspot.com

Ben Dover · 1 year ago

George W. Bush has never demonstrated anything but contempt and hatred for our soldiers. To Bush, our soldiers may as well be made of plastic for his own personal amusement in his own personal Middle East sandbox. It's the only way and place where he feels all manly, and stuff.
All Hail St. George der Liberator!

And McCain?

Well, there's just no excuse for McCain.

Stevens · 1 year ago

And just where is Bill O'Reilly in all this as he claimed he would go after anyone who stood in the way of this GI Bill passing...no ifs, ands or buts.

Instead O'Reilly is giving McCain and Bush a pass. So much for O'Reilly's credibility.

bullitt · 1 year ago

Hillary took aim at the wrong candidate! George W. is a draft dodging son-of-a-bitch and John McCain was lucky that his father and grandfather were born before him. He's a fucking loser........like his asshole buddy George W.

Rob Mule · 1 year ago

Wouldn't want those troops gettin all uppity an wanting modern barracks an housing with frills like plumbing and paving glass...would yah??? Jeez, could cut into the war complex profit margin...

Rab · 1 year ago

Shrub and McStain, a couple of chumps, one is a chimp.

blackwolf · 1 year ago

Someone, anyone, explain to me why every American isn't in the streets rioting over this. This is no joke! I've been trying to get a grip on why people become complacent for the better half of my life.

cowboyneok · 1 year ago

How about the gays and lesbians they have discharged for being truthful about being gay?!!? If they truly want to do something about retention why do they continue to support the "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" policy? Let me get this straight. They don't want to give too many educational benefits because they are afraid of soldiers leaving the service but they are MORE THAN HAPPY to promote the "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" policy and force gays and lesbians who proudly serve our country. If McCain is TRULY worried about retention then he needs to SUPPORT ending "Don't Ask/Don't Tell" they can't keep having things both ways!!!

Besides, how fair is it they force us gays and lesbians out (I was one of the ones discharged for being gay) and then further punished because I couldn't continue to serve and rack up time in service?

Happy_Housewife · 1 year ago

For Bush, "the troops" are only REALLY awesome when they're dead: Pay off that death benefit, and they're out of your hair forever. Give 'em an education, and they might start thinking. Those liberal college professors and all that...

And God forbid we should get another generation that believes in getting ahead because of merit, instead of inheritance.

cybergal619 · 1 year ago

Memorial Day or not, who gives a flying fuck what Chimpie has to say about anything!! He's always been a waste of good air and McFlipFlop either can't remember or what he said yesterday or is playing HRC's game of snag the constituants. They're both disgusting.