I’m extremely late with this for a couple of reasons. One, I was busy all weekend, and two, I was still writing it. I did not intentionally forget Veteran’s Day. Our nation’s veterans and all military personnel are always on my mind.  This year, I have decided to honor a group of our nation’s veterans that seem to rarely get the honor they deserve: World War One veterans. By doing so, the following poem holds none of the anger I feel toward our government about the ongoing War in Iraq and the lack of support veterans of that conflict are getting with regards to PTSD.

Veteran’s Day 

Ev’ry year we celebrate

brave men and the ground they stood.

Like the Marines defending France’s Belleau Wood.

 

They all bravely manned their posts

as hot lead around them flew.

Germans called them Teufel Hund and now we do too. 

 

Heroes boxed up and sent home,

selflessly their lives they gave.

Flowers laid to honor them still adorn each grave.

 

Mem’ries of each brave man lost,

flood our minds both night and day.

Each brave, young man remembered ev’ry time we pray.

 

We will never forget them,

and their honor we will shield.

Never forget the men that lay In Flanders Fields.

Happy Birthday, fellow Marines! The United States Marine Corps is 231 years old today! As is the custom at any Marine Corps Birthday Ball, we always begin by reading the first Marine Corps Birthday message from MajGen John A. Lejeune:

On November 10, 1775, a Corps of Marines was created by a resolution of Continental Congress. Since that date many thousand men have borne the name “Marine”. In memory of them it is fitting that we who are Marines should commemorate the birthday of our corps by calling to mind the glories of its long and illustrious history.

 

The record of our corps is one which will bear comparison with that of the most famous military organizations in the world’s history. During 90 of the 146 years of its existence the Marine Corps has been in action against the Nation’s foes. From the Battle of Trenton to the Argonne, Marines have won foremost honors in war, and is the long eras of tranquility at home, generation after generation of Marines have grown gray in war in both hemispheres and in every corner of the seven seas, that our country and its citizens might enjoy peace and security.

 

In every battle and skirmish since the birth of our corps, Marines have acquitted themselves with the greatest distinction, winning new honors on each occasion until the term “Marine” has come to signify all that is highest in military efficiency and soldierly virtue.

 

This high name of distinction and soldierly repute we who are Marines today have received from those who preceded us in the corps. With it we have also received from them the eternal spirit which has animated our corps from generation to generation and has been the distinguishing mark of the Marines in every age. So long as that spirit continues to flourish Marines will be found equal to every emergency in the future as they have been in the past, and the men of our Nation will regard us as worthy successors to the long line of illustrious men who have served as “Soldiers of the Sea” since the founding of the Corps.

John A. Lejeune

Major General Commandant

So with that said, have some cake and enjoy your 231st birthday! I know I will!

…GONE!

Hey Hey, Ho, Ho,

Donald Rumsfeld has to go!

And gone he is, just a few scant hours after Nancy Pelosi annouced that Rumsfeld has to go in order to move in a new direction on Iraq, she got her wish. What the American people got, was one more lie from Bush. Last weekend, President Bush was asked if there were any plans to replace Dick Cheney or Don Rumsfeld. The response was that:

President Bush says he wants Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney to remain in his administration until the end of his presidency.

Yesterday, however, the President pretty much admitted to lying in his press conference(from Think Progress):

REPORTER: Last week you told us Secretary Rumsfeld would be staying on. Why is the timing right now, and how much does it have to do with the election results?

BUSH: You and Hunt and Keil came into the Oval Office and asked me to question one week before the campaign. Basically, are you going to do something about Rumsfeld and the Vice President? The reason why is I did not want to make a major decision in the final days of the campaign. The only way to answer that question, and get it on to another question, was to give you that answer.

Personally, I feel that Bush was right in saying that there really was no other way to answer that question without “showing his hand” so to speak. And major personnel changes in the last days of an election that already appeared to be going bad for your party, was probably not the wisest thing to do. So while I sit here and point out another lie in the long line of them that Bush has told, I’m not really all that pissed about it. He did what just about any other politician would have done in that situation. The question that Bush needs to be asked now is:

WHY DIDN’T YOU GET RID OF RUMSFELD SOONER?

That’s the question that needs answering. Because had Bush replaced Rumsfeld when the first calls for his resignation came in, we may not have near as many American and Iraqis dead today.

Tip of the hat to Crooks and Liars, Think Progress, CNN, and the Washington Post.

First, let me say WOO HOO! The Democrats and the country showed Republicans last night that we’re sick and damn tired of “stay the course” corrupt Republicans. Having won back 28 seats in the House shows that the American people are tired of politics a usual from the GOP. Races that I thought were going to be close were announced by 10:30pm CST last night. Yesterday’s election results mean that America can now begin to move forward and provide a much needed check on President Bush and his Administration.

With that said, however, I am also experiencing a bit of regret as well. I regret that I didn’t do more to help advance equality here in my state of Wisconsin. In Wisconsin, and all across the country on Tuesday, people voted to legislate discrimination. I’m talking about the various gay marriage amendments on the ballot. Here in Wisconsin, the ballot measure was very difficult to understand as written on the ballot so I’m sure there were numerous people that voted in a way they didn’t want to. I’m not calling that fraud or anything else other than asshattery on the part of our state legislators for the way they worded the amendment. I’m also sure most people in WI did not know prior to the election that our state constitution already defines marriage as between a man and a woman! The key part of the proposed amendment was written to expressly forbid non-heterosexual relationships from becoming legally recognized. The specific part of the amendment that does this is this: “It provides that only a marriage between one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as a marriage in this state and that a legal status identical or substantially similar to that of marriage shall not be valid or recognized in this state.”

I also regret not doing more to help out with local and national candidates. Like most of the folks who read this site, I get all the emails from most of the top Democrats and the associated committees. I could helped with phone banking, area canvassing, and other get out the vote activities. I promise to do more next time around. For those of you who did, I want to say thank you. Your efforts directly help shape the way this election turned out. With the final Senate race expected to be decided today, we could very well have a great start to getting our country back on the right path. As soon-to-be-Speaker Pelosi has said, now is not the time for revenge, but rather a time for conciliation and “…partnership, not partisanship”.

So with that, let’s all work together to resolve the major issues facing this country. Let’s work together to make America great again.

On Tuesday, Americans across the country go to the polls to vote. The issues to be voted on should be pretty familiar to most of us by now: the War in Iraq, Stem Cell Research, Gay Marriage, etc. Every person should do their part to get out and vote, Republicans and Democrats alike. Personally I hope more Dems than Repubs turnout but that’s just the partisan in me. Like the title of this post implies, we must vote as if our lives depend on it because in a way, they do. This is our chance to stop the bleeding, so to speak. This is our chance to make our voices heard by those elitist men and women in the hallowed halls of Congress. This is our chance to once again prove that ours is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people.

For the past 5 years we have seen right after right, civil liberty after civil liberty trampled under the feet of those who currently hold the majority in our government. We have seen, in these past five years, an unjust war begun based upon unsubstantiated intelligence, the writ of habeas corpus suspended, the sanctioning of torture, and the warrantless wiretapping of U.S. citizens with no Congressional oversight. We have seen well over 2800 of our nation’s finest young men and women fight and die in a foreign country. We have seen thousands of our nation’s poorest die in one of the worst natural disasters to ever hit this country. We have seen state legislatures across this great land attempt to legalize discrimination. We have seen our nation’s elderly become confused when trying to understand Medicare Part D. We have even seen some of them no longer able to pay their premiums because they hit the “donut hole”.

Every one of these issues in some way affects our way of life, and in the case of our elderly their lives themselves. I’ll be one of the first to tell you that Democrats don’t have all the answers. Nor are they as squeaky-clean as a freshly mopped floor. But the current crop of Democrats running are the best bet for turning our country around and getting us back on the right path. On Tuesday, we have a chance to break the Republicans grip on 2 (3?) branches of our government. As Gordon points out, now is not the time to vote for 3rd party candidates. As harsh as that sounds, it’s true. A vote for a weak 3rd party candidate is one less vote for Democrats and one more vote for Republicans. That could potentially mean that Republicans retain Congress.

So I’m begging you, get out and vote Democrat on Tuesday. You don’t like some of the ballot initiatives in your respective district, don’t vote for them, but please, if you still believe that we can be the greatest country on Earth, vote for Democratic candidates. Vote as if your life depends on it!

[bumped to keep it on top]

But his wife ain’t having none of it! Way to take one for the team, Ted! Literally! Although the his marriage isn’t ruined, Haggard does however prove a “Radical Gay Agenda”. [/sarcasm off]

Hypocrisy reared its ugly head again this week when Rev. Ted Haggard of the New Life Church in Colorado Springs, CO was forced out of the closet by a man he was paying to have sex with on a regular basis over the past three years.

Here is a man who many considered to be a very devout Christian who openly advocated for a Constitutional Amendment banning gay marriage or “anything similar to marriage”. He had almost weekly phone calls with the Whitehouse along with other evangelical leaders. Yet, unbeknownst to his wife, children or his congregation, he was engaging in homosexual acts behind closed doors. The depths of this man’s hypocrisy is amazing to me. Mike Jones, the man with whom he was having sex, decided to blow Haggard’s cover due to his hypocrisy in supporting bans on gay marriage. Regardless how hard they try, churches are never going to be able to “stamp out” homosexuality. It has been around since the beginning of time and will continue to be here long after we’re all gone. Unlike these evangelical and fundamentalist organizations, I don’t find homosexuality deviant, just different from heterosexuality. I’ve long advocated for equality when it comes to the legal recognition of gay relationships. You either relegate the term “marriage” to the church and let them define it as one man and one woman and let the states provide for equal legal protections and benefits for 2 person relationships, OR you define both heterosexual and homosexual relationships as “marriage” within the confines of the law. Plain, simple and it affords both groups with equality in the eyes of the law. Now why can’t folks like Haggard, Dobson, LaBarbera, Perkins, Wildmon, etc. get that through their thick skulls?

Ok, following up on my last post about the political ad the Dems should be running, how about giving the Dems a theme song too? If I wasn’t so lazy(and wasn’t at work), I’d try to put this song to a more appropriate video, perhaps noting Republican failings these past 5 years. But what the hell. Here ya go!

 Don’t forget to vote Tuesday, November 7th!

The following is pilfered from DBK at Blanton’s and Ashton’s who swiped it from Cathy from Canada.

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This video sums up a lot of what is wrong with the Republican Party these days AND why we need to get out and vote for a change on Tuesday. There is a lot more riding on this mid-term election than on elections past. Besides the different initiatives on various state ballots, this is our chance to send a strong, clear message to President Bush and the Republican Party: YOU ARE WRONG! WRONG ON TAXES, WRONG ON THE WAR IN IRAQ, WRONG ON IMMIGRATION REFORM, WRONG ON THE WAR ON TERROR, AND WRONG FOR AMERICA!

Do your part to help get out the vote by talking to your friends, relatives, and neighbors and urging them to get out and vote on Tuesday (Republicans, you guys get your own day to vote: Wednesday! Just kidding, calm down.) You can also volunteer for phone banking and canvassing through various Democratic organizations.

DON’T FORGET TO VOTE TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7TH!

By now, most of the mainstream media have reported on John Kerry’s “botched joke“. Here’s what he said:

The controversy started Monday when Kerry, speaking at a rally for California gubernatorial candidate Phil Angelides at Pasadena City College, said: “You know education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Regardless of intent, that had to be one of the most asshatted things he’s said this election period. Here’s what he was supposed to have said:

Afterward, a Kerry aide explained that the senator had “mangled” a prepared statement, which was actually supposed to be a barb at Bush: “Do you know where you end up if you don’t study, if you aren’t smart, if you’re intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq.”

Now I’m not a seasoned politician nor have I given public speeches(yet), but to screw up a prepared “joke” in such a way is something Kerry, in all his years in Congress, shouldn’t have done. It’s not that damn hard to read from a prepared speech, assuming of course he had the speech in front of him as most public speakers do. I completely agree with his sentiment from the prepared remarks, but the way it came out gave a swiftboat-load more ammunition to a faltering GOP.
But since this week’s winner is actually Kerry AND Bush, I figured I’d draw on Bush’s comments about Kerry’s statement:

“The senator’s suggestion that the men and women of our military are somehow uneducated is insulting and shameful,” Bush said. “The men and women who serve in our all-volunteer armed forces are plenty smart and are serving because they are patriots — and Senator Kerry owes them an apology.”

What’s insulting and shameful is how Bush and the rest of the GOP is spinning this non-issue. I also want to point out that this is a much different John Kerry than in the run-up to the 2004 Presidential Election. He actually fought back after Bush’s comments. Here’s what Kerry had to say about that:

“I sincerely regret that my words were misinterpreted to wrongly imply anything negative about those in uniform, and I personally apologize to any service member, family member or American who was offended,” Kerry said in a statement Wednesday.

“As a combat veteran, I want to make it clear to anyone in uniform and to their loved ones: My poorly stated joke at a rally was not about, and [was] never intended to refer to any troop,” he said.

In the statement, the four-term senator continued to assert that the GOP was using the gaffe to distract voters from its own shortcomings.

“It is clear the Republican Party would rather talk about anything but their failed security policy,” he said. “I don’t want my verbal slip to be a diversion from the real issues. I will continue to fight for a change of course to provide real security for our country, and a winning strategy for our troops.”

Bush himself has made plenty of verbal gaffes in his 5 years as President. Among them are these fine bits of speechifying:

“There’s an old saying in Tennessee - I know it’s in Texas, probably in Tennessee - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - you can’t get fooled again.”

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004

The second specifically got a lot of outrage from the reality-based community, but very little from the right-wing. I wonder why not. Taken at first glance—as the GOP has done with Kerry’s comments—it would appear that Bush is calling for the government to find new ways to hurt the U.S. and its citizens. Of course, I’m not foolish enough to think that’s what he meant, but the sentiment is the same.

So with that, I crown both Bush and Kerry Co-Asshats of the Week.

Hat-tip to Shakespeare’s Sister and Gordon.