Who Cares for the American Veteran?

We in the US celebrate our Veterans this weekend and Monday. It's a tradition that we've embraced since the bloody end of World War I. It's about remembering, heralding, and supporting our military veteran.

The trouble comes in when it's more in words than in action.

We sadly don't have the best history of supporting our armed forces outside of wars. We have been slow learners.

by Henry Alexander Ogden

After the American Revolution there was a good deal of discontent in the military. Pay was getting delayed. And there were serious questions about if soldiers would get the pensions they had long been promised. The Treasury was low on cash. Congress was divided on what to do, some eager to renege on the pensions. It lead to a conflict among the army that was stationed in Newburgh, NY. Fear was growing that the Continental Army could pick up arms and go to war against the fledgling government. Some were eager to use the discontent to their ends. George Washington worked to keep things stable and then, with an official end to hostilities, disbanded the army. To an extent pensions were paid, but many were unhappy and many were left without. The focus of support was on those veterans that were disabled. It proved a continuing problem. Twenty some years later new law was made to help homeless veterans of the war, but it proved hard to actually get the aid.

Then in the years after the Civil War veterans again found themselves in need of support. Again, veterans struggled to get aid. In states like New York, there were thousands of homeless veterans. The efforts to help veterans led to the formation of groups like the Grand Army of the Republic, which advocated for veterans. And these groups were needed, as it was a fight to get support. Though Lincoln did get support to form National Asylums for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. -- Also, Confederate veterans were not recognized by the federal government as veterans (But that's the kind of loaded issue you end up with when you have a civil war.).

Things did improve. During the later part of the 19th century some new laws went into place opening up aid to larger numbers of those veterans injured (the burden put on veterans to get help was lessened some). Also a general pension was created to act as a fund for future expansions of pension needs (i.e. future wars). In 1912 the Sherwood Act was passed. This allowed veterans of the Civil War and Mexican-American War to get pensions due to old age.

Then after World War I returning veterans found some aid in slowly expanded laws to help insure them for death. Also $60 discharge allowance was established. Other interest taken was to help rehabilitate and offer job training for veterans that were disabled.

In the years after the war, most of the national veterans service were consolidated into the Veteran's Bureau, then it became Veteran's Affairs.

Then when the Great Depression began, it hit veterans hard, a bonus was created. But it was meant to be paid slowly. Large sums of the money was paid in Certificates of Service, which would mature in 20 years. Veterans found they couldn't survive on it. So 10's of thousands began to march, and began what became known as the Bonus March, or the Bonus Army. They made their way to Washington DC, and then camped. Part of the reason they came was to rally for a bill that would have offered them bonuses to survive. This bills was defeated in Congress. After this, they decided to stay and make there presence and problems known.

There were questions of the health and safety in the camps. But in the camps a level of order was maintained. People needed to register. Those that registered needed to show that they had been honorably discharged from service. The ex-soldiers worked to keep order. And then they built sanitation facilities to try and keep things healthy.

But there was also a dislike of the fact they wouldn't leave and were creating bad publicity for the government. They weren't just dissipating as demanded. So President Hoover authorized General Douglas MacArthur to march on the camps with the 12th Infantry, the 3rd Cavalry, and 6 tanks (under the command of Major George Patton). First the cavalry charged the crowds. Then, firing tear gas into the encampment, the infantry entered, bayonets attached to their rifles. They drove out the veterans and their families (because this camp was full of women and children as well). In the process the camps were burned to the ground, and the property of the protesters was destroyed. (Dwight Eisenhower was MacArthur's aide at this time. He wrote the report on the incident for MacArthur.)

In the years that followed, Congress finally passed law to immediately authorize payment to veterans of World War I. And under the New Deal, many of the veterans found employment and support.

It was at the end of WWII that we found ourselves (as a country) a lot more interested in the futures of our wartime veterans. This is when the GI Bill came into being. This offered a wide range of support and opportunity to returning veterans. Money to buy homes. Support to get an education. Money to start businesses. One year of unemployment support. It had and has a large impact on the veterans, and the country as a whole.


But it took a long road to get to the GI Bill. During the post WWI arguing over bonuses many said, that it was insulting to think you have to pay people to go to war. Apparently, it should be an honor to die or be traumatized for your country. Insulting. But this was the attitude.

Still, it became clear that just offering a small stipend to people who you ask to go fight, kill, and die for you is unacceptable. If we are going to have a military, if we are going to be at war, then the armed services and veterans are due the means to come home, reintegrate, and take a valued part in society.


So, now let's look at ipmacts that some think are acceptable for our service people today.

As we've seen this November, SNAP (food stamp) support has been cut. And additional cuts are being pushed in Congress. Add to this the contempt thrown at SNAP users, by conservatives in the United States, that aren't disabled or dare own things like air conditioning.

The thing they are choosing to be oblivious of is that of those using SNAP, 5000 are active duty military with family. As well, up to 900,000 veterans are in need of SNAP in any given month. In discussing the impact earlier, we could see that families on SNAP were often struggling. And the new cuts are making things far rougher. In 2012, $99 million in SNAP support was used by military families and disabled veterans

These SNAP recipients, as active duty personnel with family and homes, are exactly the people that conservatives consider as scroungers and cheats. These are the people that opponents of social aid are eager to shame and ostracize.

And the reality that conservatives sadly choose to ignore is that all the social programs they abhor are programs that many veterans need, as do many active duty personnel (not to mention conservative voters). Medicaid, social security, food stamps, cuts to all these and more impact and hurt American veterans. All the conservative states that are currently refusing to expand Medicaid are dealing a blow to all the veterans who struggle to get by in their states. It's shameful.

Another area in which US service personnel are being hit is in access to military benefits. This year the Department of Defense finally agreed that gay married couples should receive the same benefits as heterosexual married couples. It was a long time in coming

But conservative state governments are working to keep these benefits from gay members of the National Guard. Specifically, 6 governors are. Oklahoma. Texas. Mississippi. Georgia. West Virginia. Louisiana. These are largely federal funds. But they are attempting to block the payments from being made. At this point, the money coming directly from the federal government will have to be processed specially for gay couples. But money and people tied to the state government will be denied. The idea they are embracing is that they have a right to discriminate and deny support to families based on their sexual orientation, even if they are in the armed services. So the National Guard is being used as a political football by these Republican governors.


Suicides are a continuing issue in the  military. There were 350 suicides throughout the armed services last year. Around 8,000 veterans committed suicide last year. Those in and out of service struggle with the stress and impact of their service. There are personal issues at work, dealing with infirmity, and other stressors. And the VA struggles to stay on top of these issues, as does the Pentagon.


And I also wanted to come back to the specter of homelessness. The plight of the homeless veteran persists. This is an ongoing issue that our society is struggling with. Let's look at some of the facts:

• Veterans between 18 and 30 are twice as likely as the rest of the population to find themselves homeless. (8% of the overall population versus 17% of all veterans)
• Over half of homeless veterans are disabled.
• Half suffer from some form of mental illness.
• Two thirds deal with substance abuse.
• Veterans on average find themselves homeless longer than the rest of the population.
• At any time there are around 76,000 homeless veterans sleeping on the streets.
• 1.5 million veterans are deemed to be at-risk of homelessness.

In a country that likes to talk about exceptionalism, about being the greatest country, about supporting the troops, this is unacceptable and interminable. And too many of us just accept this, and other social troubles. We need to work to make things better.




We have improved how we treat and view our veterans and soldier. But we can still do far far better.

REBLOGGING: Veterans Day / Remembrance Day - What's it all about?

Let's look back and remember a post about why we pause to look back and remember veterans and those lost in war.

Later today, I look at some of the ways that veterans and those in service are "remembered" this year.

Veterans Day / Remembrance Day - What's it all about?

November 11th is almost upon us. In the United States we talk about Veterans Day, come November. In the United Kingdom, and it's commonwealth, they talk about Remembrance Day.

Now on programs and at many events people often say, when talking to veterans, that "they honor their service." Which is a thoughtful and good thing to say, but it seems to have become a rote response. A formality before moving on. Say the magic words and think no more on it.

Veterans Day in the US can be the same, have the day out, go to a parade, and move on with little thought. Though hopefully for those of us with family still serving, or having finished, we think on it more.

So, while we do have many large issues to deal with, it is important to understand why we have this day set aside. To remember, and to not ignore lessons and obligations we have as a nation and as a people.

This day of remembrance comes out of the end of World War I. Then it was called Armistice Day. To celebrate the Armistice, an end of hostilities, that was agreed to in 1918. It would fall on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of that year (Someone was in love with some symbolism.).

So a peace was struck. It came in the wake of a global war. It came after the deaths of around 20 million. The war, unsurprisingly shook many. It was a maddening experience. And then there was peace.

In November of 1919, the year after Armistice, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first Armistice Day. And in 1938 Congress to passed law to make every November 11th Armistice Day, to promote world peace. And this, in 1954, was rename Veterans Day to expand those remembered to all veterans, including those that had just served in World War II.

And the tradition continued on from there. Date has shifted back and forth. Laws and proclamations were made. But from the start, this has been an act of remembering those that lost their lives fighting for their country, and those that return home.

REUTERS/Chris Roussakis

In the United Kingdom the traditions hold more to the original Armistice Day. King George V in November of 1919, like it was in the United States. England has taken on a number of continuing traditions to this day. Among those most notable is the image of the poppy. The red poppy is commonly worn, as a lead up to Remembrance Sunday, which was set as the 2nd Sunday of November (This was meant to prevent disrupting the war time services during World War II.). The poppy use is tied to the poem, by John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blow 

Between the crosses, row on row, 

That mark our place; and in the sky 

The larks, still bravely singing, fly 

Scarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the Dead. Short days ago 

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, 

Loved and were loved, and now we lie 

In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe: 

To you from failing hands we throw 

The torch; be yours to hold it high. 

If ye break faith with us who die 

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow 

In Flanders fields.

The image conjures the image of the dead across the battlefield. The image of blood. The image of the cost paid in war. A cost that must be remembered, and learned from.

So at 11 AM on Remembrance Sunday, their are two minutes of silence through the country, to remember the costs of war. This is initiated by the of a field gun firing on the Horse Guard Parade, then ended by firing again. Then the Royal Marines have buglers play out "Last Post."

And at Cenotaph in London a ritual of laying flowers:

Wreaths are laid by Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke of Cambridge, the Prime Minister, leaders of major political parties and former Prime Ministers, the Foreign Secretary, the Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and fishing fleets and the civilian services....After the ceremony, a parade of veterans, organised by the Royal British Legion, marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes.

This procession means a lot to those that have served and suffered for their countries. Also for those that mourn family and friends that have passed.

These rituals can be important to supporting us to remembering what has come to past. WWI was a horrible scaring event. It was an event that should leave anyone with a loathing of going to war. But we still have seen war come, and those who to eagerly call for it. And those that returned from WWI, and other conflicts, have many times not gotten the treatment or respect they deserve from government (The GI Bill was a major change to the treatment veterans received for service.).

So I can only hope as we go into Veterans Day and Remembrance Sunday tomorrow, we think about why we do have veterans, what has been asked from them, and how we look at them (How we really look at them, not what we say for appearance.) and how we treat them (How many think about the Veterans Administration or the related services much?).

And also learn. Stats and facts to think on for Veterans Day:

• Veterans are 50% more likely to be homeless than other Americans.
• 75,000 veterans are homeless on any various night in the years.
• 1% of Americans serve in the military, and 20% of all US suicides are veterans.

Get more informed:

• Department of Veteran's Affairs
• VA - Veteran's Day Information
• VA - Homeless Veterans
• National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
• National Alliance on Mental Illness - Veterans and Military Resource Center

Remembering Hedy Lamarr

Today would be Hedy Lamarr's birthday. When she's remembered it's usually for her time in Hollywood, or the recurring joke in the movie Blazing Saddles.

And that is sad. Beyond the acting, she was a brilliant mind. She was a scientifically minded person. An inventor. Past the call of fame, she wanted to use her brains to make her ideas come to life.

And at home, she did that. Her most successful work was in developing a means to use frequency hopping in controls, the controls of torpedoes. Her ideas weren't taken that seriously, though she gave the technology to the US Navy. And from there others took the technology and in later decades made use of it in so many different technologies, right down to what is in your home today (including Bluetooth technology).





So let's be sure to remember this inventor. Remember what she did for science. And, encourage and inspire future inventors around you.

Republicans have turned the old Political Dance into a game of Keep Away

David Brooks, did another of his dull columns, lamenting the dance that president and the Republicans in Congress are in the midst of. Oh, he's not completely wrong. There is regularly some dance going on between the parties in Washington, when they have to share power. A rumba. A twist. A bit of the forbidden (on the the GOP convention floor) dance.

But, as always, Brooks ignores what is happening for what he likes the sound of. Where Brooks sees a dance floor and dance, there's actually playground. And the GOP is disrupting a cracking good game of kickball, so they can play Keep Away. And they've decided that the president is "it".

So now, as we gently slide into sequestration like one slides into a warm bath, let's look back at the folks some complain the president just isn't properly negotiating and compromising with.

But first, a little music. Something to hum as we think of the GOP. "Whatever it is, I'm against it."



"Whatever it is, they're against it!" - Yes. My play on the song.

But, as conservatives and timid news folk will claim, "They aren't opposed to things just cause Obama is for them!"

Newt Gingrich:

“An Obama plan led and driven by Obama in this atmosphere with the level of hostility towards the president and the way he goads the hostility I think is very hard to imagine that bill, that his bill is going to pass the House.”

What is it that the president does to "goad" the GOP? You know, he talks. He offers an idea. He acts like he's president. You know, the usual insufferable things. Sadly, Gingrich voiced what the GOP was trying not to out and out does. They won't work with the president. They've spent four years trying to block as much as they can, stonewall negotiations, and then they seek to brag to supporters about it. Repeatedly bills have passed through Congress, and the president mentions he approves of it...and it's dead in the water. They've polled the GOP to see this effect. What they've found is when they support certain ideas and bills, when they are told the president also supports them, most of them will oppose the idea. Just that simple.

The Hagel nomination. Their is a certain way the cabinet gets picked. The president offers up a candidate and the Senate confirms. It usually goes like this. Not always though. Sometimes their is a serious issue with the choice. A flaw. An issue of suitability  And in those cases the nomination faces challenges. Many times this leads to reevaluating the candidate. And that's how the system should work. But with Hagel, like with Susan Rice earlier, the walls went up instantly in the Senate Republican ranks. They were determined to bar confirmation. They went so far as to eagerly believe in a made up group called Friends of Hamas, as it gave reason to call Hagel a threat. But this and the claims of being anti-Semitic or having a deep secret waiting to emerge just were not cutting it. But, by god, the Republicans tried to make it work.

And it doesn't end there. So many positions across the executive branch sit vacant still. Many judicial posts are not getting filled, Congress refusing to act on the offered candidates. You'd think that the GOP was hostile to government.

The past three years of budget talks! I previously linked to a piece on how the GOP leaders have talked down efforts to cut spending. As the president has made cuts, or agreed to cuts, the Republicans continually turns around looks into a camera and cry out, "The president won't cut spending!" It is just amazing. More than the way they never have something new say, or bring to the bargaining table, this fact makes them an actual broken record. The same speeches keeps coming out of their mouths.

Whether the president makes cuts or not, Cantor, Boehner, and McConnell will go on TV and say the president just wants to balloon the budget. It doesn't matter. They seem incapable of being serious.

It's like their some comedic troops...Like they're the...

NO!

I am NOT going there. The Marx Brothers are awesome. Cantor, Boehner, and McConnell suck.

Instead let's just leave with some final words from the great Will Rogers.




But why leave it at that? A bit more insight from nearly one hundred years back.

Veterans Day / Remembrance Day - What's it all about?

November 11th is almost upon us. In the United States we talk about Veterans Day, come November. In the United Kingdom, and it's commonwealth, they talk about Remembrance Day.

Now on programs and at many events people often say, when talking to veterans, that "they honor their service." Which is a thoughtful and good thing to say, but it seems to have become a rote response. A formality before moving on. Say the magic words and think no more on it.

Veterans Day in the US can be the same, have the day out, go to a parade, and move on with little thought. Though hopefully for those of us with family still serving, or having finished, we think on it more.

So, while we do have many large issues to deal with, it is important to understand why we have this day set aside. To remember, and to not ignore lessons and obligations we have as a nation and as a people.

This day of remembrance comes out of the end of World War I. Then it was called Armistice Day. To celebrate the Armistice, an end of hostilities, that was agreed to in 1918. It would fall on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of that year (Someone was in love with some symbolism.).

So a peace was struck. It came in the wake of a global war. It came after the deaths of around 20 million. The war, unsurprisingly shook many. It was a maddening experience. And then there was peace.

In November of 1919, the year after Armistice, President Woodrow Wilson declared the first Armistice Day. And in 1938 Congress to passed law to make every November 11th Armistice Day, to promote world peace. And this, in 1954, was rename Veterans Day to expand those remembered to all veterans, including those that had just served in World War II.

And the tradition continued on from there. Date has shifted back and forth. Laws and proclamations were made. But from the start, this has been an act of remembering those that lost their lives fighting for their country, and those that return home.

REUTERS/Chris Roussakis

In the United Kingdom the traditions hold more to the original Armistice Day. King George V in November of 1919, like it was in the United States. England has taken on a number of continuing traditions to this day. Among those most notable is the image of the poppy. The red poppy is commonly worn, as a lead up to Remembrance Sunday, which was set as the 2nd Sunday of November (This was meant to prevent disrupting the war time services during World War II.). The poppy use is tied to the poem, by John McCrae:

In Flanders fields the poppies blowBetween the crosses, row on row,That mark our place; and in the skyThe larks, still bravely singing, flyScarce heard amid the guns below. 

We are the Dead. Short days agoWe lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,Loved and were loved, and now we lieIn Flanders fields. 

Take up our quarrel with the foe:To you from failing hands we throwThe torch; be yours to hold it high.If ye break faith with us who dieWe shall not sleep, though poppies growIn Flanders fields.

The image conjures the image of the dead across the battlefield. The image of blood. The image of the cost paid in war. A cost that must be remembered, and learned from.

So at 11AM on Remembrance Sunday, their are two minutes of silence through the country, to remember the costs of war. This is initiated by the of a field gun firing on the Horse Guard Parade, then ended by firing again. Then the Royal Marines have buglers play out "Last Post."

And at Cenotaph in London a ritual of laying flowers:

Wreaths are laid by Queen Elizabeth, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Duke of Kent, the Earl of Wessex, the Duke of Cambridge, the Prime Minister, leaders of major political parties and former Prime Ministers, the Foreign Secretary, the Commonwealth High Commissioners and representatives from the Royal Navy, Army and Royal Air Force, the Merchant Navy and fishing fleets and the civilian services....After the ceremony, a parade of veterans, organised by the Royal British Legion, marches past the Cenotaph, each section of which lays a wreath as it passes.

This procession means a lot to those that have served and suffered for their countries. Also for those that mourn family and friends that have passed.

These rituals can be important to supporting us to remembering what has come to past. WWI was a horrible scaring event. It was an event that should leave anyone with a loathing of going to war. But we still have seen war come, and those who to eagerly call for it. And those that returned from WWI, and other conflicts, have many times not gotten the treatment or respect they deserve from government (The GI Bill was a major change to the treatment veterans received for service.).

So I can only hope as we go into Veterans Day and Remembrance Sunday tomorrow, we think about why we do have veterans, what has been asked from them, and how we look at them (How we really look at them, not what we say for appearance.) and how we treat them (How many think about the Veterans Administration or the related services much?).

And also learn. Stats and facts to think on for Veterans Day:

• Veterans are 50% more likely to be homeless than other Americans.
• 75,000 veterans are homeless on any various night in the years.
• 1% of Americans serve in the military, and 20% of all US suicides are veterans.

Get more informed:

• Department of Veteran's Affairs
• VA - Veteran's Day Information
• VA - Homeless Veterans
• National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
• National Alliance on Mental Illness - Veterans and Military Resource Center

Remember, remember, the 6th of November…No, really, REMEMBER!

It’s the 6th tomorrow. 

ELECTION DAY! 

If you haven’t vote, if you haven’t gotten involved…WAKE UP!!!

It’s time to get out to your polling place. Commit to voting.

As busy as the president is he’s gotten around to voting.

Yeah. He’s traveling the country, talking to everyone, dealing with natural disasters, AND…voting.

Michelle Obama does a beautiful job breaking down the numbers. A few votes on one block could tilt this election. Every vote matters. You matter.

And remember all the people affected by this election and benefiting from President Obama’s leadership. Including, but not limited to…

LGBT:

Women:

College students:

Latinos:

Republicans:

Those concerned about foreign policy:

Every tax payer:

Get out and vote by tomorrow. It matters. You matter. And to continue through recovery, and protect and guarantee the rights of all Americans, vote for Obama and help hold back a roll back of progress, reform, and rights.

We need you tomorrow.

VOTE.

Debate 2: Obama talks to America, Romney talks out of his ass.

As I noted in my last post, I over tweeted myself and got booted.

eh

So let's look at this debate we had tonight between President Obama and Mitt Romney. This time we had a town hall format debate. Which means that the candidate stand up, occasionally sitting on a stool (Word out is Romney practiced this hard the last few days.) and receive questions for different people and answer. The idea is to be more informal and offer more back and forth, which we got. This format was not, it seems, well suited to Romney, who became quite pissy and grouchy, with people calling him out on lies and bad math.

Also, following on Martha Radditch, Candy Crowley finely proved herself as a moderator. While both candidates at times went longer than they should have, or (Mitt) had added goes at the other (Obama), overall, she kept them on point, and worked to keep them reasonable. She even took a blatant attempt to lie about a major foreign policy issue and put it straight.



Quick and simple. Obama did talk about acts of terrorism. Romney and the GOP may want to pretend otherwise, but no.

Of course. The Right Wing is eager to fight over this, like with Fast and Furious, the minutia of the issue is all they have to hope can, in some way, smear and bring down the president. It is pathetic. But, look who leads this charge:

They just want to quibble. "Obama didn't really really say it right. For shame."

But this is what they have, and what Romney brought. And Obama gave a sober answer the question of who takes responsibility when deaths happen as president. And it was bad for Romney, who clearly looked like a man never without someone to shift blame onto.

And I could go into the discussion that went into women's health, but the President blew Romney out of the water on that.

And he pulled out the Apology Tour BS. Who does this work with? Are the undecided impressed by it? He just flung it out sadly. Last gasps of that line? Maybe? Please?


Other oddities:

Binder of Women. 
To explain how Mitt really got the issues of women in the workplace and the trouble of getting fair pay, Romney hearkened back to when he was hiring as governor. I knew as Obama was talking this would be tricky for Romney, he has so little connection to people trying to get paid properly. So instead he just talked about, gosh, trying to get some women into government.

And that, apparently, required a binder of women who he could pick from. Flattering, right? Also, apparently neither he nor his advisers had any women around them that seemed like immediately obvious choices to work with Mitt. Odd that (No it isn't.).

Also imagine did he also need binders to figure out if any Hispanics, Blacks, or Asians were available to serve. And what about at Bain and the Olympics? No binders then? No interest in that sorted diversity business at the time?

Source - http://gifwich.tumblr.com/post/33748343150

And, yes, Romneys Binders (at @RomneysBinders on Twitter) now exists. The wonder of Twitter.

Gun violence arises from single parent homes.
Another weird bit from Mitt. He seemed to go off when talking about gun control and gun violence and point at single parent homes as a major problem. Also education. Weird. And easily critiqued.

It may seem odd that Romney tried to point at the under educated and single family kids here, unless you remember my previous post on dog whistles. To the GOP, and the people that think like Romney, the problem is "those people" who come from broken homes and get themselves a good education...you know, those...urban folk. Those...type. ...Romney is talking about black people! He thinks the problem is among blacks, and his friends at the NRA would like you to think that as well...regardless of how many white guys shoot up groups of people.

Oh, yeah, he also tried desperately to pivot on to Fast and Furious.

Remember that? It was the go nowhere conspiracy/scandal that the GOP was trying to foist on the president, before they got around to trying to turn the assassination in Libya into the new one.

Wow. He tried to plop out 2 scandals over 90 minutes, and got big fails on both accounts.

Answer to jobs going overseas? Make us more desirable to business -- Which want cheap labor, low regulation on safety, and an easier time dumping waste. Paradise.

So Romney had a ready answer to address job loses to other countries. Make America more palatable to business.

What business likes in China, currently, is the very low wages they have to pay. They also don't have to give health care support. Also, they can work people quite hard for longer periods of time.

Sweat shops. That is the Romney America. We either work cheaply  with little free time, and low a standard of living, or we get, as Romney apparently sees it, what we deserve. Lovely, isn't it?

He also wants to take on China (snert). He'll take on their currency. He'll shake his finger at them. He'll really shake things up...He'll get nothing done.

As well, apparently, now the Chinese currency is growing closer to parity to the US dollar already. There's a long way to go, but the shift is underway.

And, noted by Think Progress, the tax plan that Romney has presented makes it easier for business to exit the United States. And, as we stand, our effective corporate tax rate is the lowest in the developed world.

Also, Trickle Down Government? I know Frank Luntz loves his little terms. And going after the all too accurate description of their economic philosophy, Trickle Down Economics, must be so fun for them. But is this resonating with anyone. The only people who probably remember it's origins are bitter Reaganites who are already sold, and those that remember how telling the original term was. Odd desperate choice.

Immigration, if only Obama cared.
Romney tried to sell the idea that Obama has been silent for four years on immigration. That is patently false. In 2009 he had a immigration bill in Congress. But Republicans were staunchly opposed, and some Democrats joined in, killing the bill. And with the efforts now with the DREAM Act, it got to the point where Obama just had to act on his own, thanks to the feet dragging of Republicans.

Also.

Fake sympathy from Romney. That isn't winning plan for the Hispanic vote.

To end the night, Mitt tried to share what voters don't know about him.

And to start off, he, for some reason, started to list off his resume to the audience. ...Honestly, it made me flashback to the last episode of The Thick Of It, when two advisers to the DoSAC minister are being made to justify why they shouldn't be forced to resign in the wake of a scandal. And one, Phil Smith, just starts rattling off, in a distracted panic, his job description.

It was kind of sad to watch...I mean in the episode of the TV show. Here it was almost funny.

Then he kept saying we don't have to settle. Again and again. Because, a vote for Mitt Romney isn't settling at all.

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

So?

Are We Better Off Now Then We Were Four Years Ago?

Think Progress has some charts to remind us how things have changed for the better over these last four years.

Here's one chart:

Under Democratic leadership a steep fall has been shifted. After heavy losses, economically, we are returning. We have a distance to go. But the turnaround and success we've had so far comes from Democratic efforts, despite Republican roadblocks. Turning things back over to those that drove us into the red, who promise now they've learned their lesson...That is mad.

We are coming back, as we'll see with Barack Obama and Four More Years.

The standard Mitt Romney Foreign Policy Get Together

Amazingly, some people are still unaware how laden Mitt Romney is with advise and advisers that carried over from the George W Bush administration. If you didn't know before, you do now. John Bolton and many others are pushing and filling Mitt's heads with dreams of unfunded mandates, and glorious, world shaping, war.

Here's some secretly taken video from one of Mitt's Foreign Policy sessions:



They are still dancing and singing about it right now.

Not forgetting those in bondage.

It's 2012, an election year. It is a hard fought scrap we are in, between opposing governing philosophies, and the rhetorical pitch is only going to rise as we head into October and November.

But that is no excuse for us to be oblivious to problems that still sit on the desk, unconsidered and unanswered.

Guantanamo. GITMO.

It's slang. It's a meme. It's like a thing parent's lord over little children's heads to get them to go to bed.

But, we know well enough, it is real. And it is ours.

What use to be our little base in another nation, became our beachhead on a front in the Cold War, and now, it's America's Devil's Island. But we don't seem to care or be interested in what it says of us, or what it makes us. 10 years ago most of us decided to hit snooze on addressing this. And we've continued to just ignore it, waiting for it to just be normalized (like so many shifts in the last decade).

Yes, I'm sure (More of an open legal process would help we say "know.") their are bad people that are being detained there. There are also people who seem to be innocent, or who's culpability seems slight. As a just society this should weigh on us. More than that, it should spur us to act to right things for those wrongly held (Some for around a decade!) and to be sure those that have engaged in criminal or war acts see proper justice.

But worse than the fact people are sitting in limbo for years on now, some are not going to make it to having their grievances fully answered.

Adnan Farhan Abdul Latif was cleared for release in 2009, by a task force set up by the Obama administration. But three years on, he was still waiting. That was on top of the seven years he had already been held before this, coming to nearly a third of his life. But he won't know freedom as he was found dead in his cell this month.

The Justice Department had fought release for years for Latif and others. Then it is proving hard to find countries willing to take even those deemed innocent. The result indefinite detention for the guilty and innocent.

Beyond trying to lay blame on a party, a president, or nation...What do we do with this policy? What do we do now? How do we make things right for those held wrongly? How do we right what accepting these detentions all these years has done to us?

YES, it is an election year. We have an economy to bolster. We have nutters who want to get their hands on our military, and on women's uteri. We have big issues to address and fight over.

But there are also people now sitting for up to a decade in cells, waiting for us to give a damn. At some point we have to get around to giving a damn.

Full Metal Mitt

High ya, you youngins. Once long in the mists of time their was a magical time known an 'Nam.

Oh, it was a grand old times. You had all the drugs you wanted. Listened to the Rolling Stones all the time. And got to hand out with Charlie Sheen, Mel Gibson, Robin Williams, Marlon Brando, and Tom Hanks.

It was great. If you don't believe me, talk to all the Republican leaders and pundits who will go on at no end about the war...and how much they just WISH they could have gone over and served, but...

If you ever thought the numerous antigay/secretly gay Republican was getting ridiculous. Look at the most war hawkish on them, and their own willingness to serve in a time of war. Limbaugh has a butt pimple. Cheney, was married...and I have kid now! Gingrich, same as Cheney. Bush, he served...what?

Look, I don't begrudge someone not wanting to fight in a war. I don't want to kill anyone. I don't want to die. War sucks. But unlike these guys, I don't claim otherwise. I and a lot of other people don't feel the need to wax rhapsodical about glory, victory, and duty. If we need to fight and war, fine. But let's not bullshit about it, okay?

So let's consider are new possible national leader, Willard Mitt Romney. What's he say about Vietnam? He couldn't go. But not to worry, he longed to be there. If only. Trouble is, he had to go to school (remember Animal House) and then he had to go to France, to convert people to his religion. So, you know, he had a good reason to skip war. So he asked for and took 4 deferments to stay out of it.

Let's look at Mitt's statements on this:

1994

“It was not my desire to go off and serve in Vietnam, but nor did I take any actions to remove myself from the pool of young men who were eligible for the draft,” Romney told the newspaper.

2007

“I longed in many respects to actually be in Vietnam and be representing our country there, and in some ways it was frustrating not to feel like I was there as part of the troops that were fighting in Vietnam.”

Mitt changed his tune, as he changed his audience. Shocker, I know.

But, Mitt in Vietnam? That'd end well.

Is that a rock exploding in your pocket or are you...Oh.

You may have heard an interesting story last week of the lady who picked up some rocks on the beach, placed them in her pants pocket, and later found that they exploded...even if you didn't, that's the story, and it happen.

It does sound quite bizarre and funny, but the woman suffered burns when it happen, leading her to being placed in a hospital. What has been determined is that it is the result of the rock being coated in phosphorus.

... By Friday, California environmental health officials had an answer, or at least part of one: two of the rocks were covered in phosphorus, an element that’s known for igniting into a fierce white flame when it’s exposed to air. Near as they can tell, as long as the rocks were wet with seawater, the phosphorus didn’t ignite, but after they’d dried out in the woman’s pockets over the course of the day, the phosphorus reacted explosively. 

...

So...that can happen... Still, glad that was cleared up so as to prevent other wild stories of the exploding rocks of California...granted rocks can be caused to blow apart in other ways so it isn't the strangest of stories.

What isn't clear yet is where the phosphorus came from.

The most common way more reactive phosphorus is found is within the military, where it is used quite often in flares, though it has also been made use of as a deadly weapon. So there is so interest now about if some flares washed up on the beach, or if there is another, possibly natural, answer.

If this does come from old or more recent ordinance, it would be a wise thing to try and clean this stuff up to prevent further injuries.