Obama Gets More Money from Troops than McCain
Barack Obama’s fundraising advantage over John McCain extends to U.S. military personnel, both active duty and in general:
According to an analysis of campaign contributions by the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contributions than has Republican John McCain, and the fiercely anti-war Ron Paul, though he suspended his campaign for the Republican nomination months ago, has received more than four times McCain’s haul.
Despite McCain’s status as a decorated veteran and a historically Republican bent among the military, members of the armed services overall — whether stationed overseas or at home — are also favoring Obama with their campaign contributions in 2008, by a $55,000 margin. Although 59 percent of federal contributions by military personnel has gone to Republicans this cycle, of money from the military to the presumed presidential nominees, 57 percent has gone to Obama.
The Devil went down to Georgia
I’m not going to pretend to have any insider knowledge of the Georgian/Russian conflict over South Ossetia, which is why I’ve stayed mum about the topic. Balloon Juice has a good rundown of events today, and the Newshoggers have been tracking the story for almost a week now. Between reading them, Wikipedia, and a random Power Line post that was informative though maybe delusional in that “Let’s kick former commie ass!” rightwing kind of way, I’m left with a few questions…
Disabled Veterans’ Group Tells Cheney To Shove It
A disabled veterans’ group has cancelled a visit from Dick Cheney because His Royal Highness demanded security arrangements the vets felt were “Draconian and unreasonable“:
Vice President Cheney’s invitation to address wounded combat veterans next month has been yanked because the group felt his security demands were Draconian and unreasonable.
The veep had planned to speak to the Disabled American Veterans at 8:30 a.m. at its August convention in Las Vegas.
His staff insisted the sick vets be sequestered for two hours before Cheney’s arrival and couldn’t leave until he’d finished talking, officials confirmed.
“Word got back to us … that this would be a prerequisite,” said the veterans executive director, David Gorman, who noted the meeting hall doesn’t have any rest rooms. “We told them it just wasn’t acceptable.”
When Cheney spoke to the group in 2004, his handlers imposed the same stringent security lockdown, upsetting members, officials said.
Many of the vets are elderly and left pieces of themselves on foreign battlefields since World War II, and others were crippled by recent service in Iraq and Afghanistan. For health reasons, many can’t be stuck in a room for hours.
“It was a huge imposition on our delegates,” added David Autry, another Disabled American Veterans official.
Autry said vets would’ve had to get up “at Oh-dark-30 and try to get breakfast and showered and get their prosthetics on.”
Once inside, they “could not leave the meeting room, and the bathrooms are outside,” he said.
Cheney’s office acknowledged the security requests, but insisted he is sensitive to combat veterans’ needs.
A Stunningly Dishonest Campaign Ad
Here is John McCain’s campaign ad accusing Barack Obama of blowing off wounded American troops in Germany so he could go to the gym:
U.S. Army Disavows E-mail That Claimed Obama Snubbed Troops in Afghanistan
We already know how easy it is to start a smear campaign via e-mail. Here is another illustration of that fact, but beyond that, this account of an “Obama-snubbed-the-troops” narrative that was untrue from start to finish demonstrates that visual evidence like the much-reviled “campaign op” videos and photographs can actually help to expose a vicious lie. See the last paragraph of this quoted article from Military Times for what I’m talking about.
Traveling Back in Time To Justify the Surge
Here’s the bottom line about McCain’s verbal typos: People would not make so much of them if McCain’s statements on foreign policy made sense in a larger, general context. Obama sometimes misstates facts that obviously he knows, out of exhaustion (like “57 states”), but he does not make extended statements or speeches about foreign policy that are substantively and factually wrong.
“Standards in Our Society Have Changed Over the Years”
Here’s an investigative series from the Sacramento Bee that might rate a Pulitzer nomination. The Bee spent a year researching the civilian and military records of U.S. service members, “focusing on those who entered the services since the Iraq war began and those linked to in-service problems.”
Questioning the Unquestionable
That’s the apparent shitstorm we have slated for the day; is it kosher to question John McCain’s military experience in the context of this election season? That’s exactly what General Wesley Clark did yesterday on Face the Nation, and John Aravosis took it about three hundred steps further when he brought up the propaganda film that McCain participated in.
Now, I think John may have taken things a touch far, but in general, and this goes against much of what I’ve been saying in recent months, I think you have to question McCain’s service.
Supporting the Policy, Not the Troops
Cernig points to an article in Time magazine about the growing use of anti-depressants among U.S. troops on active duty in Iraq as well as those who have returned home.
HR 6023: Freedom to Serve Act of 2008
I just saw this linked as a Featured Post at Memeorandum. The link goes to the text of the bill; there is no separate commentary. The title of the bill is misleading; it’s more accurately called the “Freedom to Recruit Act of 2008.” But of course “freedom to serve” sounds better.
The Daily Show Attacks GI Bill Opponents
You know you’ve lost the PR battle when The Daily Show turns you into the butt of one of their segments, but this is just priceless. In an email I received today from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America mailing list they had a little clip worth spreading around.
So go ahead McCain, claim you’ve got the high ground on the troops and defense. They might have something different to say on the matter.
BTW: You are on their mailing list, aren’t you?
Freedom Is Slavery; Slavery Is Freedom
There have been scattered news reports in the U.S. media about the Iraqi government’s objections to signing the so-called Status of Forces Agreement, which will give the United States a legal rationale for being in Iraq for the next [fill in the blank with the number of your choice] years. So Patrick Cockburn’s Independent article earlier this week isn’t totally brand new information. But Cockburn’s piece is much more specific than the other reports I’ve seen, and also the sourcing is much more direct: Details of the plan, which Bush administration officials have been trying to keep very closely guarded, were leaked to the British paper:
Lessons Learned
Who said this?
In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, I watched helplessly as the Bush administration led America into a strategic blunder of historic proportions. It became painfully obvious that the executive branch of our government did not trust its military. It relied instead on a neoconservative ideology developed by men and women with little, if any, military experience. Some senior military leaders did not challenge civilian decision makers at the appropriate times, and the courageous few who did take a stand were subsequently forced out of the service.
Suicide Rate in Army Continues To Go Up
I found this video at the Chicago Tribune while I was researching my post below about anti-U.S. street demonstrations in Iraq. We have read and heard about military suicides all too many times before, but it does not get less upsetting.
I tried to embed the video but it doesn’t work, so just go to the text link and you can watch it from there.
Anti-U.S. Street Demonstrations in Baghdad
This is what Iraqis think about a permanent U.S. military presence in Iraq:
Thousands of Iraqis filled the streets of Baghdad’s Sadr City neighborhood this afternoon to demonstrate against a long-term United States presence in Iraq, the first significant anti-American rally in the massive Shiite slum in more than two years.
As American helicopters hovered overhead, young and old men and even children flowed out of their weekly Friday prayers and began burning American flags and chanting “no, no to America” and “yes, yes to independence.”
Overly Law-Minded Judge at Gitmo Is Fired
The chief judge in charge of Guantanamo ‘war crimes trials’ has summarily fired one of the trial judges, Army Col. Peter Brownback III, after Brownback refused to set a trial date in the case of a Canadian detainee because the prosecution was refusing to provide the detainee’s defense counsel with his medical and interrogation records. The LAT article about the dismissal suggests that it was motivated in part by the government’s strong desire to fast-track the show trials for political reasons:
Americans Have Been Saved From Terrorist Scarves
Dunkin’ Donuts has decided to take the path of least resistance: