I saw a great article in an Australian newspaper today about urinal etiquette. It got me to thinking: 

·       Short guys are not allowed to use the tall guy urinal. In many restrooms there are two urinals – one for six foot and above and one for those, are a little south of there. I hate walking up to the urinals and seeing some short guy at the tall urinal. You know what, Skippy, if you to pee upward, you’re at the wrong urinal.

·       Don’t talk. Don’t ask how I’m doing. I’m doing better now that I’m going to the bathroom, alright? And no, I don’t care how you’re doing.

·       Don’t try to crawl into the urinal. Sometimes when I walk up and stand next to a guy who is already there, he leans in so far he has to be getting wet. Don’t flatter yourself, no one is going to peek.

·       That said, don’t stand too far away. I hate guys who stand a foot or more away. No one is impressed Bud – everybody in the room has one. 

I need to impart this wisdom to my son one day.

But are they patriotic?When they want to have mandatory prayer in school, they want to abolish the separation of church and state. They want this country to be a Christian nation. But
America was founded on the principal of freedom of religion. So if they want to undermine a principal of our country, how can that be patriotic?  I say it’s decidedly un-American. There are plenty of countries with an official religion.
Iran, for example. Perhaps they should move there. Or shut up. I vote for moving.  Of course, they are not in the military. They support the troops in that they play Halo on Xbox, but they aren’t interested in serving themselves. Joining the military is just not something that children of privilege do. Why should they waste their glorious minds on mundane tasks such as keeping our country free?They like restaurants, but that doesn’t mean they will ever work in one of them.

Young RepublicansTwo words that will piss off, really piss off, a progressive American. To start with the personal, these budding neo-cons almost always come from privilege. In other words never having working a day in their life (and no, life guarding at the country club does not count), they enter college sure of their superiority.They are certainly superior to the Mexican immigrant who scraped their plates at the restaurants and the people who build their parents’ McMansion in the ‘burbs.Never having worked an honest day, they somehow feel they have some illuminating wisdom of the world. They expound on immigration (against), the war (for), taxes (against), the environment (against).

Joe says wants to un-do the
Iraq authorization

Democratic senators, our own Joe Biden leading the pack, are about to propose legislation to repeal Bush’s authorization for the war in
Iraq.  http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/22/AR2007022201743.html It’s about time.The public elected democrats because we want our kids out of
Iraq. We don’t want non-binding resolutions, we don’t want to send a message to Bush. We want out of
Iraq.If you lack the spine to fulfill the public’s wishes, then kindly get out of the way.  John Kerry said “I’ve had enough of non binding.” Good for him. We need to keep the pressure on our leaders to get us the hell out of
Iraq.You know, I called Biden’s office about a week ago and told him to get us out of
Iraq and now he presents this legislation. Coincidence? Surely not. I’ll go ahead and take complete credit for his actions.Let’s see if Carper supports this bill. He’d better. The phone number at his office is (202) 224-2441. 

NCOs are at fault

Like most military blunders, the buck is stopping way, way down the food chain at Walter Reed. In a press conference yesterday, the Army brass said part of the problem with poor conditions for the heroes at Walter Reed was the soldiers were keeping food in their rooms.Of course, they were amputees who could not get across base to the mess hall, but why let facts get in the way of blaming some poor PFC? (For you young Republicans, a PFC is a low-ranking member of the Marine Corps). 

Why fix when we can spackle?

It appears that they are fixing and spackling everything that doesn’t move, but is that the real problem at Walter Reed?

The real burr under the saddle was the bureaucratic BS that they had to deal with. BS like spending over a year waiting for discharge, workers losing forms and heroes not able to attend therapy because some mythical form has not been filled out.This is the real problem. But spackle is a lot easer than overhauling an entire system. So get out the putty knives, boys, we got us some work to do (For you young Republicans, putty knives are typically one of the tools used to apply spackle). From a salon.com article:   For family of some soldiers who have gone through the grinding process of trying to get good outpatient care and fair compensation at Walter Reed, the press conference was frustrating. “The building is not the issue,” said Annette McLeod, whose husband, Spec. Wendell McLeod Jr. waited four months for Walter Reed to diagnose his traumatic brain injury. “It is the treatment,” she said. Annette had to give up her job to help take care of her husband and push the Army to recognize her husband’s ailments, and the McLeods fought with the Army for months over disability payments.From that same salon.com article:Steve Robinson, director of Veterans Affairs at Veterans for America, has been visiting soldiers at Walter Reed and at other installations across the country since the beginning of the war. He calls the situation a national failure. Robinson said the Pentagon is now focusing on mice droppings, in hopes that the real, and much more complicated story, will go away. “They were happy to talk about mice and mold because that is something they can clean up,” Robinson said. “What we are talking about is a systemic problem where soldiers are left unattended in the barracks. They are sharing medications. They are drinking like alcoholics,” and waiting for treatment, he said. “Those without families are isolated. And they are up against the largest, most complicated worker compensation claim process in the world today, which is the military discharge process.”  States say no escalation       Where our national leaders fear to tread, some state legislatures have boldly taken action. State houses across the country are passing bills that demand their congressional delegatin vote against any escalation of the war in
Iraq.http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0222/p03s03-usfp.htmlI wonder if
Delaware will do that. It probably won’t help that much, but it certainly can’t hurt. If our county council can take a vote on Terri Schiavo, then perhaps our state reps can take the time to vote on the biggest issue of our generation.  What do you say legislators, do you want to do something to stop those military funerals in
Delaware? 

Tom Chapman named chief cat herder

Named the head of the Sussex County Democrats, Chapman will be a strong leader for the party. He’s a great guy. I used to teach with him at
Seaford, and he is respected by both the kids and his fellow teachers. That’s a feat achieved by few teachers, and is a great measure of a person. I wonder if his career of motivating lethargic 16 year olds has prepared him to turn this county from red to blue.http://www.deldems.org/ht/d/sp/i/725551/pid/725551 

This just in

Defense Sec’y Gates just announced a panel that will investigate the problems at military hospitals. The video is at www.crooksandliars.com.Panels and commissions are just a fancy and expensive way to put off taking any action. But maybe this one will come through. 

Iran Intel is full of lies

Just we suspected – the facts presented by the war pigs concerning Iran’s nuclear weapons programs were not correct.

In other words, Bush is feeding us another load of crap about imminent threats.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,,2019235,00.html

Turns out the IAEA inspectors have looked at these purported weapons sites and found nothing.

Will the Bush administration step forward now and say “Hey, Good News, there are no nuclear weapons programs in Iran. Inspectors are finding nothing. So we can stand down our invasion plans.”?  Do you think they will report this at all, or just pretend it doesn’t exist.

My Momma said I should always expect the best from people. We’ll see.

Sending GIs to war without guns

Remember when we all got mad about the troops not having armor on the Humvees? Well, get ready for some more well-placed outrage. The surge of troops is going to speed up re-deployment of troops to Iraq who are not slated to go back for three years or more.

But now that Bush has decided that a surge is the way to go, these National Guard troops are publicly saying that they don’t have enough – are you ready – rifles. That’s right, our troops, our heroes in uniform are about to be sent to Iraq without basic items like rifles.

This is from the New York Times:

Capt. Christopher Heathscott, a spokesman for the Arkansas National Guard, said the state’s 39th Brigade Combat Team was 600 rifles short for its 3,500 soldiers and also lacked its full arsenal of mortars and howitzers.

Here is the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/22/washington/22military.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Need directions to the enlistment office?

Prince Harry, the third in line for the British crown is going to ship off to Iraq. What a class act. He refuses to stay home while others fight. He is serving as a tank commander, even – so he’s won’t be in the rear with the beer. He is throwing his class privileges to the side and serving his country.

Jenna and Barbara Bush?

 Not so much.

Yesterday, I closed with the (hopefully) provocative question, “What are we going to do about it?”

The flower of CYA is in full bloom today as a lot of people scramble to fix the problems at Walter Reed. Or at least make it look like they are. My party is the first to act in helping the soldiers. They are lining up to co-sponsor legislation aimed at fixing the conditions for our wounded soldiers, and many are writing letters to the secretary of defense demanding action be taken.

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/Frontpage/021607/soldiers.html

When it comes to bold action, there’s nothing like a strongly-worded letter. You go.

The letters, and the legislation will probably work. For a little while.

The fact is, Veteran’s health care has always been substandard. Go to the Veterans Hospital in Wilmington, and tell me how it compares, just in looks, to Christiana Care.

Shouldn’t our heroes from past wars receive at least as good medical care as some MBNA person with good insurance?

But while our president has been happy to wave the flag and declare himself a patriot, his administration has been cutting veterans benefits since he arrived in office. I will say this again –the President has been cutting Veteran’s benefits since he arrived in office.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070212/ap_on_go_pr_wh/bush_budget_veterans

But that’s okay for the flag-waving, never-served, smooth-handed patriots in the Republican party. They Support the Troops, but as for individual soldiers? Not so much. That poor specialist who has to re-learn the alphabet because of a brain injury? Suck it up. But hot damn let’s order us some more of those mega submarines and fighter airplanes.

Today I called Biden, Carper and Castle and asked the poor unpaid interns who answered the phones the same question, “What is _________ doing to fix the problems at Walter Reed?”

None of them had an answer for me, and I hung up feeling as though my effort was a waste.

Carper is retired Navy, for God’s sake. He should be out in front on this issue. He should be leading tours of Walter Reed, showing the poor conditions. Hell, Tom, take the money we were going to spend on the National Park in Delaware and give these soldiers some quality health care.

And as for Castle, he should ask the heroes lying in mold-covered hotel rooms trying to recover from the war whether they want quality rehabilitation or new dollar coins?

This afternoon, I was looking at one of those “Support our troops,” magnets while sitting at a stoplight.

Soldiers struggle to get better at Walter Reed, have to suffer the indiginities of a system desgined to spit them out after their usefulness is done, and yet people think that a magent made in Hong Kong helps the troops somehow.

The amputee who has to walk/stumble from one inefficient paper pusher to another, receives no help from your magnet.

 The magnets are not the problem, obviously, but it’s a symptom of how little we actually support our troops. There is a severe disconnect between the public and our armed forces. Most of us do not know anyone who is serving in Iraq. Consequently, we are not aware of their sacrifice, excedpt for the news reports of various bombings in Iraq.

Which is how we can end up with a situation like we have at Walter Reed. We have heroes, the best that America has to offer, being mistreated and spit out by our government. That’s right, OUR government is mistreating these young men and women.

Please read this article in the Washington Post if you have not already. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/17/AR2007021701172_pf.html

We need to demand it stops.

What are we going to do?