I know that I take this personal because I am one of them. Again there are groups of people going after the military. Complaining that they are paid too much and/or the retirement package is too generous. I know my opinion is biased but I still say BULL SHIT (sorry mom) to both complaints.
I only did 20 years and had to struggle to get there because my back was and still is very bad. The military is a young person job. You can’t stay in until you are 65 unless you are a general. Even if you are in support like I was you still have to train and let me tell you it was not easy. If you are unable to train you will be kicked out. It’s called a medical discharge or retirement.
People want to cheer for the troops but they don’t want to pay them. I’m not talking about everyone, just those that are complaining. They will wear the ribbon or bumper sticker saying “Support the Troops” but when it comes to funding they say “NO”. I will be the first to say that we spend too much money on defense. By that I mean building way too many airplanes and tanks and not enough body armor. Where most countries have 500 planes we have 5000. I believe we are planning for a type of war that will likely never happen. Like when the country was founded the way war was fought is not the way we did it. The British lined up and marched out in the open. We hid behind trees and took cover. We were in violation of the rules of war. We had no choice because we were outnumbered and they were well trained. It was a new type of fighting and the British were not prepared for it. We need to be prepared to fight any type war and we will always need troops.
I say that because the people that I’m talking about continue to push for more aircrafts and tanks but then want to cut the pay and benefits of the troops. When they do this it’s not just the active duty they want to cut but the retired as well. Our contracts are not like they are with a company they are as if they were written in sand. They can be washed away and rewritten after completion of service. My fear is that the military pay and benefits may be reduced to the point that we don’t have enough people to make a career out of it.
As it is now were don’t have enough people. Look at our military now. We have very young men and women doing 7 and 8 tours in combat. They do this for VERY little money. That is so very WRONG. No one should be asked to risk their lives that many times in (as with everything that I write) my opinion. The suicide rate for active duty is higher than it has ever been. Stress takes its toll on you no matter how strong you are. There is a reason these people are killing themselves. The military is not an easy gig.
It’s not just the wars they have to deal with. They have training for their job (medic, computers, mechanic…) but also training to be a soldier (weapons, chemical warfare, hand to hand combat training…). They have to exercise to stay in shape. Then they have to deal with PCS (permanent change of station) about every 2 to 3 years. Then you throw in a few TDY (temporary duty) assignments every year or so. Not to mention the Deployments like to Iraq and Afghanistan. The military is not easy by any means. Now we have these crazy people saying we are too nice to them.
I had someone tell me that it’s not right that I could do 20 years and retire. They said you can’t do that in any other job. Well the military is not like any other job. It’s a job that most people choose not to do but everyone needs. I thought about trying to go into detail and tell them why but then thought, what’s the point. You know how it is when you talk to someone that has their mind made up before the conversation began. People complain about the price of insurance until they need it. It’s easy to complain about the military when you have never served in it. If my mother didn’t read this I would have lots of colorful word to use about the people that complain because this really gets under my skin. So I will just say the military have 20 year retirement because physically people can’t do much more than that.
It’s painful when you go into a contract with your government and you complete your end of the bargain then your government changes what they agreed to. It’s as if they kicked you in the balls then said thank you.
To those people that want to change the military benefits and think we are paid too much, YOU’RE WELCOME.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Monday, September 5, 2011
Voter Suppression
Voter suppression as defined by Wikipedia: Voter suppression is a strategy to influence the outcome of an election by discouraging or preventing people from exercising their right to vote. It is distinguished from political campaigning in that campaigning attempts to change likely voting behavior by changing the opinions of potential voters through persuasion and organization. Voter suppression instead attempts to reduce the number of voters who might vote against the candidate or proposition advocated by the suppressors. Some may say that Wikipedia is a leftist organization but I think that definition is spot on and doesn’t mention any political parties.
When President O’bama won in 2008 with the large support of the black and youth vote, it put fear in the hearts of Republicans. Rather than trying to change the minds of those voters they choose to restrict their voting rights. Almost every state in the union has or is trying to make changes to its voting laws since President O’bama was elected. People like to say that we are ALL equal but there is a large group of people out there that would disagree. They don’t want a Democrat in the White House but a black one, hell no.
I thought the Jim Crow south days were long gone but this Tea Party group of Republicans have other plans. They are trying to bring those days back. They don’t see voting as a right that should be extended to all citizens. They fear the black, youth and elderly voters. Why else would you turn away a voter with a state school I.D. card and accept someone with a hunting license? That is a question I would like for my Republican readers to answer for me. I know most people will not admit to being Republican but I need an answer.
The Tea Partiers (Republicans) say they want to take their country back and this is how they plan to do it. They want to deny as many Democratic voters of their right to vote as possible. They sell it to the public by saying they are trying to stop voter fraud. When you look back through history the cases of voter fraud can't hold a candle to voter suppression. Yet Republicans set their sights on this one and they are trying to sell it to the nation. The Republican plan appears to be; if the people don’t like what we are saying then we will remove their ability to voice their opposition. That is the New Tea Party’s idea of democracy.
Every citizen should be allowed their right to vote. That’s what a democracy is. When your message is wrong you have to cheat to win. We need to protest these changes. Maybe the O’bama administration will stand up and fight this attempt to change federal law. Based on his past actions I would not hold my breath. He talks a good game but that’s about it. We need a President that will be on the side of the little people and will not allow their rights to be taken away. Maybe I am asking too much of him.
Click on this link and look at the states that are trying or that have already made changes to the voting laws.
http://www.future5000.com/wire/49569/
Also take a look at this website.
http://movetoamend.org/
and this one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression#Methods_of_voter_suppression
Look at what the Tea Party has done without any information. Imagine what we can do with a lot.
Voters are dangerous and informed voters are lethal.
When President O’bama won in 2008 with the large support of the black and youth vote, it put fear in the hearts of Republicans. Rather than trying to change the minds of those voters they choose to restrict their voting rights. Almost every state in the union has or is trying to make changes to its voting laws since President O’bama was elected. People like to say that we are ALL equal but there is a large group of people out there that would disagree. They don’t want a Democrat in the White House but a black one, hell no.
I thought the Jim Crow south days were long gone but this Tea Party group of Republicans have other plans. They are trying to bring those days back. They don’t see voting as a right that should be extended to all citizens. They fear the black, youth and elderly voters. Why else would you turn away a voter with a state school I.D. card and accept someone with a hunting license? That is a question I would like for my Republican readers to answer for me. I know most people will not admit to being Republican but I need an answer.
The Tea Partiers (Republicans) say they want to take their country back and this is how they plan to do it. They want to deny as many Democratic voters of their right to vote as possible. They sell it to the public by saying they are trying to stop voter fraud. When you look back through history the cases of voter fraud can't hold a candle to voter suppression. Yet Republicans set their sights on this one and they are trying to sell it to the nation. The Republican plan appears to be; if the people don’t like what we are saying then we will remove their ability to voice their opposition. That is the New Tea Party’s idea of democracy.
Every citizen should be allowed their right to vote. That’s what a democracy is. When your message is wrong you have to cheat to win. We need to protest these changes. Maybe the O’bama administration will stand up and fight this attempt to change federal law. Based on his past actions I would not hold my breath. He talks a good game but that’s about it. We need a President that will be on the side of the little people and will not allow their rights to be taken away. Maybe I am asking too much of him.
Click on this link and look at the states that are trying or that have already made changes to the voting laws.
http://www.future5000.com/wire/49569/
Also take a look at this website.
http://movetoamend.org/
and this one
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_suppression#Methods_of_voter_suppression
Look at what the Tea Party has done without any information. Imagine what we can do with a lot.
Voters are dangerous and informed voters are lethal.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Can't Change Facts
Why can’t people admit when they say or do something that was wrong? “I was wrong” is something that you will never hear our leaders say. That goes for both parties. It even goes for lots of regular people. Like the guy who said that in 1776 ALL people were equal. Everyone knows that was not true in the United States. You can’t say that a slave was equal to his master in a rational conversation. You can have a play on words to worm your way out but it doesn’t change the facts. Rather than admit that they are wrong people will try to change rational thought.
I wonder if we are to blame. Are we putting too much pressure on people to be perfect? People are going to make mistakes. Sometimes it is not even a mistake it is just something they overlooked. That was the case in the 1776 comment. When I corrected him I was wrong in what I wrote. I said in my comment to him that “all WHITE men were created equal”. That was not true at all. During that time if you were a poor white man you were not equal to a rich white man. I have no problem saying “I was wrong”. My wife tells me all the time when I am wrong. It’s not a big deal. This “always right” mindset is even more prevalent in elected office and I feel that we are to blame.
My reason for bringing this up is because I was watching the former Vice President pushing his book on TV for the past few days. He appears to have no regret for anything. There were a mountain of things (in my opinion) that his administration did wrong and he is okay with all of them. I am only going to list a few because I try to keep my posts short. The BILLIONS of dollars that the Clinton administration left in surplus was given away. They were warned about the attack that happened on 9-11 that cost 3000 lives. BILLIONS of dollars went missing in Iraq and to this day is still unknown. The Torture of prisoners that they renamed “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”. The invasion of Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction. The outing of the CIA agent. Allowing Osama to escape when they had him in Tora Bora. The mess in New Orleans with hurricane Katrina. The list goes on and on.
Why can’t they just say “we messed up”? We all or most of us know they made mistakes. They just continue to do what they were doing and pretend that everything is fine. If we let them get away with this stuff it tells the next person that this is the way we do things.
My biggest fear with all of the things the Bush administration did is the torture of prisoners. Just because they changed the name does not mean the rest of the world did the same thing. When Cheney was asked if the things they did to prisoners were done to an American service member would it be okay? He said we were justified. He knows he is a war criminal and the rest of the world knows it. My fear is that someone from the Bush administration is caught outside of the United Stated and arrested and charged for war crimes it will put the current President in a tight spot. What could the U.S. do about it? We can’t change the facts. Are we going to say it wasn’t torture because we changed the name? I don’t think that would fly outside this country.
I wonder if we are to blame. Are we putting too much pressure on people to be perfect? People are going to make mistakes. Sometimes it is not even a mistake it is just something they overlooked. That was the case in the 1776 comment. When I corrected him I was wrong in what I wrote. I said in my comment to him that “all WHITE men were created equal”. That was not true at all. During that time if you were a poor white man you were not equal to a rich white man. I have no problem saying “I was wrong”. My wife tells me all the time when I am wrong. It’s not a big deal. This “always right” mindset is even more prevalent in elected office and I feel that we are to blame.
My reason for bringing this up is because I was watching the former Vice President pushing his book on TV for the past few days. He appears to have no regret for anything. There were a mountain of things (in my opinion) that his administration did wrong and he is okay with all of them. I am only going to list a few because I try to keep my posts short. The BILLIONS of dollars that the Clinton administration left in surplus was given away. They were warned about the attack that happened on 9-11 that cost 3000 lives. BILLIONS of dollars went missing in Iraq and to this day is still unknown. The Torture of prisoners that they renamed “Enhanced Interrogation Techniques”. The invasion of Iraq because they had weapons of mass destruction. The outing of the CIA agent. Allowing Osama to escape when they had him in Tora Bora. The mess in New Orleans with hurricane Katrina. The list goes on and on.
Why can’t they just say “we messed up”? We all or most of us know they made mistakes. They just continue to do what they were doing and pretend that everything is fine. If we let them get away with this stuff it tells the next person that this is the way we do things.
My biggest fear with all of the things the Bush administration did is the torture of prisoners. Just because they changed the name does not mean the rest of the world did the same thing. When Cheney was asked if the things they did to prisoners were done to an American service member would it be okay? He said we were justified. He knows he is a war criminal and the rest of the world knows it. My fear is that someone from the Bush administration is caught outside of the United Stated and arrested and charged for war crimes it will put the current President in a tight spot. What could the U.S. do about it? We can’t change the facts. Are we going to say it wasn’t torture because we changed the name? I don’t think that would fly outside this country.
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