Here’s how you can do it.

1. Manage the creation of Voter ID cards. This can be accomplished by setting up temporary voter registration sites throughout the state, especially in impoverished neighborhoods.
2. Make the new Voter ID card free. That’s right, free. That way you can’t disenfranchise ANYONE.
3. Hire additional poll workers to staff registration booths at each local precinct on election day to include ID card machines. As long as those intending to vote can provide the same proper identification as before SCOTUS upheld the Voter ID decision, let them get a Voter ID card with picture.

Now this kind of plan is going to piss off the folks that wanted Voter ID in the first place, but I totally understand that. When your goal is to make the whole process harder for the poor and poverty-stricken, then the upholding of this decision by the Supreme Court allows you to realize that goal. My plan aims to make it easier for the citizens of Indiana to get those ID cards. I don’t think I need to mention that original bill was sponsored by Republicans.

The problem with the original legislation is NOT that it requires ID. See, that’s a nice little fable that Republicans use to make it seem that Democrats want anybody to be able to vote whether they can legally or not. But, alas, that’s not the case. Our (read Democrats’) problem with this legislation is two-fold:

• It costs money to get a State or Federal ID card. Those with limited incomes sometimes can’t afford it. For example, here in Wisconsin, a new State ID or Drivers License costs $28.
• People with limited incomes often have no transportation to get them to DMV sites to obtain an ID card in the first place.

What I try to accomplish with my plan is to eliminate those two burdens on the populace. Plain and simple. I have no problem with requiring ID that ensures you are who you say you are, thus limiting the possibility of voter fraud, but the law as written will disenfranchise a hell of a lot of voters who traditionally happen to vote Democrat. But I guess the Republicans who sponsored and voted for this bill don’t really give a damn about that.

It’s so much fun playing with the candidates’ platforms that somebody couldn’t resist the following parody. For those users as unfortunate as myself, the form of the following parody email will look disturbingly familiar. A site called Gastaxscam.com has taken 2 of the candidates’ positions on offering a gas tax holiday and posted it as a fake spam email. Here’s an excerpt:

CONFIDENTIAL/URGENT POLITICAL PROPOSAL

Dear Sir

First we must solicit your confidence in this issue. This is by virtue as being utterly confidential and “top secret”.

We are SENATOR HILLARY CLINTON, the wife of the former United States head of state, PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON, and also SENATOR JOHN MCCAIN, friend and associate of current head of state PRESIDENT GEORGE W BUSH. We got your contact through business inquiries as we were searching for contacts of a citizen who can help save our and our family’s political careers since our country has been frustrating us.

Check out the whole thing here: http://gastaxscam.com/

Found this over at Badtux’s place and had to give it a try.

 
Created by OnePlusYou

…That didn’t have to be. Now I could have titled this post Tears of a Clown, in reference to the visible tears that streamed down President Bush’s face while reading the Medal of Honor citation, but I think that would have taken the focus off of a most-deserved recipient, Michael Monsoor. Michael Monsoor was a Navy SEAL who showed the utmost dedication to his fellow SEALs as well as outstanding courage in throwing himself on a live grenade in order to save his brothers.

Navy SEAL Michael A. Monsoor had fast thinking to do when a live grenade came out of nowhere to bounce off his chest: Take the clear path to safety that he had but his comrades didn’t, try to toss it safely away, or throw himself on top of it.

With barely an instant’s hesitation on that Iraqi rooftop, Monsoor took the last course, sacrificing his life to save the men around him.

[snip]

In reading the citation, President Bush visibly was crying and rightly so. It was his war, his decisions, his fool’s errand to send our troops to Iraq to find non-existent WMDs, stop the smoking gun in the form of a mushroom cloud, (why did he choose to go to Iraq again?).

I say Bush crying is a good thing. Hopefully it goes to show that he is now feeling remorseful for the over 4000 young men and women who’ve perished in this war. Maybe he is finally feeling the weight of all those lives lost on his head, but I doubt it. I’m sure he still thinks we were justified to go into Iraq, topple the government of a sovereign nation, and destroy the country in the process despite all of the evidence to the contrary. Thankfully, he is only months away from leaving office. I hope that each one of these 4000+ lives weighs on his conscience each and every day he is “clearing brush” on his property in Texas when he leaves office.  I want their senseless deaths to haunt him for the rest of his life. I want him to think about all the wounded, American & Iraqi, for the rest of his life especially those with PTSD. Most of all, however, I would hope that when he dies and goes to heaven, he gets to face every one of those young men and women his decisions helped to kill needlessly if, for no other reason, than to answer their questions of Why?

In conclusion, I am genuinely proud to call Michael Monsoor a brother-in-arms. His selfless sacrifice is in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Navy. As a SEAL, he was definitely one of the best of the best. He was also awarded the Silver Star for pulling a wounded teammate to safety in May 2006. This guy was about as selfless as they come. If you had to die, I only wish it would have been for a legitimate cause such as Afghanistan instead of Iraq. [author's note: Please click the below link to read the rest of the article.]

Quoted article courtesy of Yahoo! News: Bush Gives Medal of Honor to Navy SEAL

All hail the Torture President, George W. Bush!

In one more sign of his obvious asshattery, G-dub, that’s what I like to call him, G-dub, vetoed a bill outlawing the use of torture, or as the Whitehouse likes to call it, enhanced interrogation techniques. Waterboarding specifically. What the Army and Marine Corps can’t do per the Army Field Manual, Bush wants to allow the CIA to do. If it ain’t good enough for the Army to use, the CIA sure as shit shouldn’t be doing it either.

We all know that Bush ain’t the brightest crayon in the box, but how fucking stupid do you have to be to not understand that confessions given under duress are UNRELIABLE?I seriously hope that our elected representatives in Congress overturn this veto. Come on, Dems, do what we sent you there to do!

Read about Bush’s veto HERE.

The Beer Prayer

Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink.
Thy will be drunk,
(I will be drunk),
At home as in the tavern.
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill against us.
And lead us not to incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers.
For thine is the beer, The bitter and The lager.
Forever and ever,

Barmen

 Laughter really is the best medicine. I’m feeling a million times better than I was with my last post. I happened across the below picture while perusing the intertubes (Thanks, Sen. Stevens!) and found it gut-bustingly-hilarious. Wrong on so many levels, but hilarious nonetheless. So thanks to all of you that were wishing me a speedy recovery. And to those who wished I’d just die I send the sentiments of the picture below.

…but I don’t think I need more cowbell. At least not yet.

I’ve been feeling under the weather since Wednesday. After finally heeding my wife’s proddings on Friday, I went to the doctor. Doc says I have severe bronchitis bordering on walking pneumonia. Great, isn’t it? Anyway, I kinda knew what I had anyway. I just needed to go through the motions so I could get the powerful drugs to kill this shit I have. 

Being a FORMER SMOKER (Yay, me!), I know all of the little signs your body gives you before it goes down the road toward becoming really sick. The tightening of the chest. The dry hacking cough that produces little if any phlegm. etc. Most of it hit me Wed. night. It started with the symptoms I just described coupled with a fever. For two straight days the coughing got worse and the fever kept going up. When I went to the Dr. on Friday, I clocked in with a 102 degree temp. Since that undoubtedly killed off some brain cells (only the slow weak ones though!), I must say I’m feeling a bit smarter now. Thankfully, the medicine the Dr. prescribed coupled with some over-the-counter remedies, is working quite nicely. I hope to be done with this crap sometime this week.

So besides waiting on this miserable winter to end, that’s how I’ve been lately. How about you?

Although it’s a Navy phrase, I think a fitting one for my friend, Lurch. Lurch was my colleague over at Main & Central, a site written by a group of fellow veterans concentrating on military and veterans issues. Besides Barndog, Lurch was the only other member without his own blog. As a result of that, M&C becames his soapbox so to speak. And what a soapbox it was! Lurch’s commentary on issues of vital interest to veterans was almost always right on the money. His commentary on other issues ran the gamut from humorous to damn-near guffaw-producing. Unlike a few of the other folks I know throughout blogtopia, I did not really “know” Lurch. I never got the chance to meet him, talk to him, or even trade a few emails back and forth. However, I will call him my friend. We both, along with most of the rest of Left Blogistan, espoused many of the same views when it came to Iraq, politics, and even life in general. You will be missed brother.

The story of James Blake Miller is one that has been told numerous times in the past few years beginning with the initial photos in hundreds of newspapers that dubbed him the “Marlboro Marine”. Yet the story alone fails to do justice to what Blake is experiencing. Nor do the pictures. Blake is yet another victim in the senseless War in Iraq. Another veteran cursed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.

I’ve written before about this subject and will continue to write about it until there are no more of our nation’s military personnel afflicted with it. PTSD is a silent killer that drives those suffering from it damn near crazy. Insane, you might say. Throughout every single combat action in the history of the United States, there has been at least one soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine that has felt the cold effects of PTSD.

Part of the problem is that we don’t know enough about it to be able to provide effective mental health care to those who have it. Many studies have been done that identify the causes of this mental affliction as being “traumatic event(s)” hence the T in PTSD. But deep down I think the problem is more than just traumatic events. It goes straight to the heart of morality, ethics, and even in some cases spirituality. Almost from birth we are taught to do unto others as we’d have them do unto us, be kind, be respectful, don’t kill, don’t fight etc. Yet, in war, the fighting man or woman is sometimes, most times even, forced to do the opposite of these things. And usually for a purpose laid out by those who never see the front lines or experience the horrors of the battlefield firsthand. That’s what makes PTSD such a wicked disease. The findings of most studies indicate that PTSD is actually a natural response to unnatural events. While true, that explanation just barely scratches the surface. It IS a natural response, but makes the person suffering from it question everything about themselves. And that is what makes PTSD so hard to treat.

For Marines, and I’m sure pretty much every other military member be they US or otherwise, you are taught to believe you are invincible, stronger than your enemy. You are taught that failure is not an option. There are many different cliches out there that reinforce this ideal of being somehow superhuman in your abilities. When it absolutely, positively has to be destroyed overnight: Marines. …And on the 7th Day when God rested, we overran his perimeter and stole the globe and we’ve been running the show ever since. And while the military does teach you that your body can accept much more punishment than your mind thinks it can, you are still human and suffer the same fallibilities as other humans. What isn’t taught is how to trick your mind or at least separate your actions from what you’ve been taught all your life (life is sacred, thou shalt not kill, etc.), not that that can be done successfully. Sure some soldiers are able to try and justify their actions and/or response, but many are not. This is why many veterans turn to alcohol, drugs, and other self-medicating techniques to try and mask this so-called natural response.

In closing, I’d like to say that I’d like to meet Blake Miller. Not in the hopes that I could “fix” him because once a thing has been seen or experienced, it can’t be unseen. Rather, I’d just like to talk to the guy and be his friend. Although by now he has requests for so many interviews I can see why he just wants to be alone. In the story I saw about him, most of his biker friends ARE his friends specifically because they don’t question, they just accept. Many of them have been through what he’s been through as well. I just hope he’s able to get the help he needs. I hope all of our service personnel with PTSD get the help they need.