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Monday, January 31, 2011

Just Stay


I received this in an email from my sister Mary and I can't help but think that there is a rare but remote chance that it is true. People are funny and Marines are even funnier when it comes time to simple actions for another person. God bless our men and woman in uniform and SCREW YOU Michele Bachman when you think about screwing over our nations veterans!

A nurse took the tired, anxious serviceman to the bedside.

"Your son is here," she said to the old man. She had to repeat the words several times before the patient's eyes opened.

Heavily sedated because of the pain of his heart attack, he dimly saw the young uniformed Marine standing outside the oxygen tent. He reached out his hand. The Marine wrapped his toughened fingers around the old man's limp ones, squeezing a message of love and encouragement.

The nurse brought a chair so that the Marine could sit beside the bed. All through the night the young Marine sat there in the poorly lighted ward, holding the old man's hand and offering him words of love and strength. Occasionally, the nurse suggested that the Marine move away and rest awhile.

He refused. Whenever the nurse came into the ward, the Marine was oblivious of her and of the night noises of the hospital - the clanking of the oxygen tank, the laughter of the night staff members exchanging greetings, the cries and moans of the other patients.

Now and then she heard him say a few gentle words. The dying man said nothing, only held tightly to his son all through the night.

Along towards dawn, the old man died. The Marine released the now lifeless hand he had been holding and went to tell the nurse. While she did what she had to do, he waited.

Finally, she returned.. She started to offer words of sympathy, but the Marine interrupted her.

"Who was that man?" he asked.

The nurse was startled, "He was your father," she answered.

"No, he wasn't," the Marine replied. "I never saw him before in my life."

"Then why didn't you say something when I took you to him?"

"I knew right away there had been a mistake, But I also knew he needed his son, and his son just wasn't here. When I realized that he was too sick to tell whether or not I was his son, knowing how much he needed me, I stayed."

"I came here tonight to find a Mr. William Grey. His Son was Killed in Iraq today, and I was sent to inform him. What was this gentleman's Name?"

The Nurse with Tears in her eyes answered. "Mr. William Grey"

And that my friends is how veterans feel about one another and their families. They love their brothers in service and care for them beyond the point of being in service to our nation. It is a blood that can't be given but earned and that is something Michele Bachmann and her ilk will never understand.

I'm not a Marine but I am the son of a man that served as a medic caring for Marines. God bless the Marines and all that serve our country.

Papamoka

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Friday, January 28, 2011

Bachmann to Screw over Veterans


The picture to your left is of the cemetery in Normandy France which best sums up how Michele Bachmann (R-Minnesota) would like to see how all veterans are treated. You are better off dead and buried than wounded and needing lifetime care for your service to your country.

There are literally thousands of useless government programs that can be cut, shut down, eliminated, and torched, but the batshit loon, Michele Bachmann from Minnesota thinks that going after disabled Veterans benefits is the best way to cut government expenditures. She’s all for God and Country, defending our homeland from terrorists but when it comes time for the wounded people that need care that served in our nation’s military, she will give them the one finger salute every chance she gets. Isn’t that just so Tea Party Patriotic?

Tea party favorite Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has unveiled a plan for cutting $400 billion in federal spending that includes freezing Veterans Affairs Department health care spending and cutting veterans’ disability benefits.

Her proposed VA budget cuts would account for $4.5 billion of the savings included in the plan, posted on her official House of Representatives website.

Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense, said cutting veterans’ health care spending is an ill-advised move at a time when the number of veterans continues to grow as troops return from Iraq and Afghanistan. Sullivan said he finds it difficult to see how VA could freeze health care costs without hurting veterans. – Air Force Times

Apparently, the congresswoman thinks that her stating that veterans are a drain on the federal government is a plus to her Tea Party buddies. After all, she is only looking to cut the cost of government for the people that most need our nation’s gratitude and help when they stood in the line of fire for our freedom.

How about jumping on board Congresswoman Bachmann with Democrats to end the two wars that are causing the enrollment of new veterans that need benefits?

For a full list of all the things she wants to cut/eliminate… you can go to her congressional page. CLICK HERE! It’s a screw you to everyone including veterans, farmers, education, the environment, homeland security, job training, the elderly, and eliminating the nations entire transportation systems. It’s a total screw you package without any common sense. Typical batshit crap from the dipshit Bachmann.

And our Veterans are pissed off. This from the VFW site...

VFW Will Defeat Bachmann Plan

"No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress."

WASHINGTON, D.C., January 28, 2011 America's oldest and largest major combat veterans' organization announced it will do everything within its power to defeat a plan introduced by Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) to cut $4.5 billion from the Department of Veterans Affairs.

"No way, no how, will we let this proposal get any traction in Congress," said Richard L. Eubank, the national commander of the 2.1 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars of the U.S. and its Auxiliaries.

Amen to that VFW!

Papamoka

***CROOKS AND LIARS is linking in... Thank you Mike!
***
Gun Toting Liberal is linking in... Thank you Gunny!

UPDATE 2/5:
Bachman Backpedals on VA CUTS

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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Congress to Consider State Bankruptcy


(Reuters) - Legislation that would allow U.S. states to file for bankruptcy will likely be introduced in Congress within the next month, Newt Gingrich, the former speaker of the House of Representatives and a powerful Republican party figure, told Reuters on Friday.

Is Newt Gingrich nuts or right on the money? Should states like California, New York, Illinois, and others be allowed to belly up to the bankruptcy court with tens of billions of debt?

Will people that retired from or work for these states all lose their pensions because the state never fully funded them? Will this or will it not open the flood gates of litigation for other states to walk away from bigger than life debt like the Big Dig in Massachusetts? What about the potential loss of reliable state public works contractors for future projects? And what about the union agreements of existing state workers, do those all get trashed?

One thing that is certain, none of the states that could benefit from this kind of legislation are interested in it because the downward side of the bankruptcy would bankrupt the political leaders that choose to use it. If you honestly think about it from a politician’s point of view, democrat or republican, would you want your name and political party synonymous with “State of (insert state name here) Bankrupt” as a Governor? Would your state political party leaders even let you as their Governor consider filing bankruptcy on behalf of your state? No, and HELL NO!

The way that this “State’s Bankruptcy” legislation will go down in the congress is that the Republican’s will pass it in the house and the Democrat’s will kill it in the senate. Then they will each politically spin it so they look like the ones defending the American peoples pocketbook. In the meantime the states with a serious accounting problem will still be in the toilet. Why don’t they just forget about all that wasted time debating it and figure out a realistic way to get the troubled states back on their feet? I’ve said it right here once before that politicians don’t really care about taking care of the actual problem, they just care about blaming the other side for it.

Last thought, Newt, you have been out of public service since 1999, just shut the hell up.

Papamoka

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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Memeorandum Goes Fox News


Is it just me or has the Google search engine equivalent for political news known as Memeorandum gone all right wing politics like Fox News? Granted the latest news cycle is all about things happening in the right side of the political aisle but my thoughts are that the news from Memeorandum has been hijacked. Spin is spin and it is what it is.

It almost seems that every post that they point you toward lately is and has been extremely right wing. Just saying. I’ll be looking for a new source for political news. I hear that Real Clear Politics is good. Checking them out and will keep you posted.

Papamoka

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Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Blood Libel Meaning


Sarah Palin put out a Facebook statement regarding the horrific events in Arizona and the death of far too many innocent people at the hands of a madman at Congress woman Giffords gathering. Having actually read the whole speech from Sarah Palin I honestly have to say that I think she was actually right on message. And this opinion is from a true blue blood Democrat.

Vigorous and spirited public debates during elections are among our most cherished traditions. And after the election, we shake hands and get back to work, and often both sides find common ground back in D.C. and elsewhere. If you don’t like a person’s vision for the country, you’re free to debate that vision. If you don’t like their ideas, you’re free to propose better ideas. But, especially within hours of a tragedy unfolding, journalists and pundits should not manufacture a blood libel that serves only to incite the very hatred and violence they purport to condemn. That is reprehensible. – Facebook

We live in a time when politics and the debate of just life in America is very harsh and cold. Political pundits with a microphone or television show will spin it to blame an opposing political party for the actions of a madman simply because they can. The pay for such so called political valor is high. I have to say that I have followed Sarah Palin online to see what she has to say and she used the term “Blood Libel” appropriately to describe the idiots behind the microphones. I believe that would be a “bitch slap” to Rush Limbaugh from the former Vice President Candidate from Alaska. She wasn’t looking to hurt anyone with the statement other than tell the shock jocks to shut the hell up.

Even Alan Dershowitz, the Harvard Law Proffesor agrees with me...

The term “blood libel” has taken on a broad metaphorical meaning in public discourse. Although its historical origins were in theologically based false accusations against the Jews and the Jewish People,its current usage is far broader. I myself have used it to describe false accusations against the State of Israel by the Goldstone Report. There is nothing improper and certainly nothing anti-Semitic in Sarah Palin using the term to characterize what she reasonably believes are false accusations that her words or images may have caused a mentally disturbed individual to kill and maim. The fact that two of the victims are Jewish is utterly irrelevant to the propriety of using this widely used term. – Big Government

Sarah Palin said nothing that was offensive unless you speak a language that is lost to the ages. Now I have to go throw up for defending her speech. I hope that she never has a more clear and to the point speech ever again.

Papamoka

***Crooks and Liars linking in... Thank you Mike!

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Saturday, January 08, 2011

The Google Information Age


How many times have you heard someone in the course of your day say something like “I don’t know, look it up on Google?” People in sales use Google to research potential new customers in markets they never thought to tap before. People in purchasing use Google to find parts and product that are hard to source for manufacturing. Lawyers and people that think they can represent themselves in court use Google to look up old law cases and precedent. People even use Google to research whatever medical ailment they have. In my own day to day observations, Google-ing happens far too many times that I have to conclude that our information source for knowledge has gone from the hard cover of books and looking things up in any given reference to something as simple as a point and click Google search.

Welcome to the Google information age. Like it or not, it’s here to stay.

Word to the newly graduating class of 2011, being a librarian is not a long term employment position that is long for this world. Google might be hiring if you can use those same skills to help them out with what I’m sure will be the next level of information technology. Googlepedia’s! No door to door salespeople needed. Just point and click.

Papamoka

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