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Friday, January 01, 2016
Why You Should Vote For Bernie Sanders
Forget about the polls and what they tell you is the Democrat Queen of the party. The polls are all skewed because that data is skewed. If you were asked if you like hot dogs over hamburgers and then they asked you the topping for each, that is how polling is done. Do you like potato with dinner or pasta? What vegetable do you serve most with dinner? Do you prefer cooking a meal that will make a ton of dishes to wash or just one dish? Would you vote for someone that is going to make a mess in the kitchen or just have the kitchen sink clean itself? Would you support someone that delegates the clean up of the kitchen after dinner to only be the woman in the household?
Polls are pushed in the direction of what the survey wants to find. Then that data is released to the public as our heartbeat on America when it comes to politics. I have never been polled in my entire life! Have you?
The Bernie Sanders campaign for President is not about him. It is about you and me. The poor slobs working 40 or 50, or even 60 hours a week just to break even. On top of that we have our spouses doing the same amount of hours in their jobs. And at the end of the week when the bills are paid we have nothing left over. All we have left is love and that goes a long way but it doesn't pay the bills.
Bernie Sanders is fighting for our nations pride in front of a wall of money hungry barons that support her royal majesty of the DNC. She is not electable. Hillary Clinton is not trustworthy. Her positions change to whatever her opponent say. She is the me too candidate with name recognition. Every single position Bernie Sanders has spoken about she flipped and was suddenly for. Hillary was for the TPP until Bernie Sanders was against it. She was against gay marriage for decades and flipped for the campaign. She was for the Keystone Pipeline till Bernie was against it. The list goes on for the "Me Too" campaign of Hillary Clinton.
Bernie Sanders is blacked out by the main stream media but not by the people. We have facebook and twitter and every other social media in the world. The truth lies in the hands of we the people to elect a President that will fight for the middle and lower classes. Every campaign rally he speaks at is larger than life with the crowds that come to hear him speak. Many are true supporters and some are crossover Republicans. This fight is real. If our messenger, Bernie Sanders, if he is blocked out then so are you. Your voice and your vote does not matter. How do you feel about that? Are you ready to say enough is enough? What can you do? Share the hell out of social media post and this one as well if you want you country back from the billionaires that own it now. Share the hell out of every post!
Bernie Sanders does not have SUPPER PAC. He isn't begging the billionaires for money. He is relying on us. We need to have his back and support him with our vote and our ten bucks a month or whatever you can afford to do. Go to Berniesanders.com and donate if you really want your America back.
Following the election after Iowa is enlightening and educational to this Biden junkie. As much as I loved Joe Biden for President I am finding the Obama camp more to my liking without Joe in the race for President. Obama’s approach to the election is not about a divided America but a United America with a common purpose. Serving all Americans and what they need first.
There is no red state or blue state or division in his speeches and he reaches out in unity for all. That principal is something that people from all walks of life can vote for and believe in that Barack Obama and his message of change is what we need as a nation. From over at Liberal Values, Ron Chusid has this great video and read on Barack Obama’s victory in Iowa…
With about 98% of the vote in from the Iowa caucus, I project Barack Obama will be elected the next President of the United States.
Sure, a lot can still happen between now and November, but baring a major change it is difficult to see any other result. Edwards’ populism won’t sell in many states outside of Iowa, and having lost her aura of inevitability, support for Clinton is likely to hemorrhage. Dodd and Biden both withdrew, and Richardson performed too poorly to be a serious candidate. As for the general election, the record turnout of 227,000 in a state that went for George Bush is just one sign of the advantage the Democrats have. Some questioned the model used by The Des Moines Register that estimated 200,000 attendees but this number was greatly surpassed. By comparison, the turnout in 2004 was 125,000.
Not only did Obama win the caucus, he “won” in the post-caucus speeches. Clinton’s speech sounded like a speech of the Democratic Party past. John Edwards’ speech was the Dean scream put to words, showing yet again Edwards would never be elected president. Barack Obama gave the speech which would be expected not only by the leader of the Democratic Party, but by the president of all the people of the United States. The Republicans might be able to beat Hillary Clinton. I believe they would have beaten John Edwards. They will have a hard time beating Barack Obama.- Liberal Values
In America we need to stand up for ourselves and vote for change simply because the Congress will not act if we do not send our elected candidates to speak for us. This is a time for great change in our nation and the only way it will happen is by voting for change.
President Bush and his crew of political thugs have convinced the American people that there are two sides to every issue and if you are on the opposing opinion then you are anti-American. With us or against us mentality works in the school yard but not in the world we adults have to leave as a legacy to our children or grand children. Living under the cloak of perpetual Republican fear because the toughest kid on the block should never talk to the political leaders of other nations because they do not agree with us is isolationist and the fast track for our nations failure.
When the folks on the right side of the aisle talk about making your life just a little bit better they are talking about the top three to five percent of income earners. When Barack Obama talks about making your lives a little better he is talking to you and I that are struggling just to pay the mortgage or the rent and fill the gas tank of the family car. He is talking about the future and ending the tyranny of oil, the energy crisis that is crippling Americans at the pump or the oil heating tank in not just your home but your business. He is talking about change and change only comes from listening to inventors and people with innovative ideas that will cripple the domination and strangle hold that the oil industry and markets hold over Americans every single day. From that perspective, his love for our country and all of our people is genuine and unquestionable.
As for those that would question his patriotism or desire to end the war in Iraq he has a time line. Iraq is free, Iraq will have sixteen months to get its own house in order and our troops will be out. Much like Ronald Reagan let the Iranians know that he would not tolerate hostage takers as President, the result was freed hostages during his inauguration.
One thing is sure as we all live here in America and go about our lives is that the state of our nation is in trouble. The perception of America is no longer the defender of freedom. We are supposedly the police of the world and we can not be that for all nations. We as a nation need to put the Teddy Roosevelt big stick down and listen to the people of the world that used to be our friends. Selling fear is easy, selling the answers to overcome that fear is someone you need to listen to. We are not the ugly Americans but that is the perception around the world of our nation and of you. Can we change that? I don’t think we have a choice.
America is not just about Americans. We are the beacon of light to the world and many times we might get it wrong on world politics but we have the innate ability to prove that change is possible. When our nation is right, then we can all do amazing things for the world. When we are wrong and our President has a twenty eight percent popularity rating then we can and will initiate change by voting accordingly. We are not red states or blue states, we are Americans. If we want our government back then we need to stand up for change. It is that easy and that simple and Barack Obama is right!
Thankfully, the rising sun in the east will gradually warm our nation to hope over desperation with the eventual replacement of King George in the White House. No offense to all our British friends intended. Here in America, since 9/11, we have been living under a dictator that even an election that replaced political leadership in both houses of Congress did not deter the President. Signing statements continue and future generations will see his laws stricken down as un-constitutional.
History will prove out that George Bush was the worst President of all time simply because he thought he was omnipotent and without question. He is the third rail of Republican politics and you do not see too many advertisements with him hugging the candidates from his own political party do you? He is the equivalent to the persona non grate in the (stolen) election of Al Gore for President where Bill Clinton could not step on the welcome mat because he was never invited. While Bill Clinton sold out the respect of the office he served, George W. Bush sold out his nation to the highest bidder. No matter what good they each have or had done as President, the perception is the rule.
We as a nation need hope and for that matter many of the current candidates for President do not deserve even remotely the chance at serving in an office that represents you and I to the world. If you want to send your sons and daughters off to war for the next eight plus years then by all means vote for a candidate that thinks King George is right! Make sure you have a huge cemetery plot picked out because any war in the Middle East will take a couple thousand years to settle. History is funny that way. Fight them there or fight them here works till there is nobody left here to send there. It’s a fanatical religious war that has been going on since the times of Jesus Christ and it is not going to end any time soon. Supporting our military to protect our shores and not some desert goat grazing argument between feuding tribes is questionable with some of these candidates for President. Top three MSM dictated winners from both parties are clueless but rhetoric buys votes.
Who has a plan that makes sense to get our nation back to what matters at home? You have to ask yourself if your opinion can be bought and if so for what price? Can your vote be bought in one breath and your rights sold in the next sales pitch as an American citizen? You can read in the papers every single day the amount of self esteem that the big three of each party are willing to sell. Character is replaced by what you want to hear but the truth is not. The truth never goes away no matter how you try to bob and weave around it. It’s like serving fried fish for dinner on Friday. Somehow it still lingers in the house on Monday. How can you vote for a person that is supposed to support all of the American people when they blow off one states voters to fight for another states on yet another day?
It’s amazing how the comparison of many of the top three leaders advertisements is so much like buying sliced deli meats at the supermarket. You can buy the mass produced product that was sliced months ago with a use buy date or you can vote for quality deli meat that you saw sliced and delivered to your hand one on one. It isn’t pre packaged and you have to buy what they tell you that you need, you can pick what you want. The top three in both parties are those pretty packages of meat and the rest are sliced to your liking as an American. I recommend custom cut slices and only the amount I need.
This post is being written during the Iowa Caucus, I have no clue who will come out the winner or loser in the race for President but I can hope that the folks of Iowa saw through the sales pitch of the top three from each party and tossed them all to the curb. That may not be what happens but it is the process that has begun to replace the Dictator in Chief. That I am truly thankful for.
Seeing how all of the main stream media television is for the most part delegating Joe Biden’s run for President to the last sentence in every single news broadcast then I guess it is up to the “New Media” to really report the facts. Joe Biden is forming a wave of support and frankly I do not believe that even his own campaign knows that the Biden Tsunami is coming. Much like a Tsunami, the tremors and shocks of the earthquake from all over the United States on the internet and all the blogs supporting him will hit Iowa alone on January 3rd.
Could I offer you a list of blogs writers that are supporting Joe Biden? I can think of four not including myself that have thrown up videos, did posts on or mentioned him as the only person worth voting for in the next Presidential election. That is just my little part of the blogging world. We are breaking three thousand visitors a month here at Papamoka Straight Talk. This is all free media and advertising for Joe Biden, we are not getting paid for this effort and we do not want his money. That is not the case with every single newspaper or television station in Iowa or New Hampshire. You can tell by the major evening news stations that Biden is not spending his hard earned campaign donations with them. “Oh and Joe Biden was in Iowa today.” HUH?
Here is what is really happening according to the Joe Biden camp…
The estimated 250 people at Biden's campaign rally cheered and waved signs, manufactured and homemade, in a scene more typical of the events of Democratic front-runners. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna shock the hell out of you," Biden said over the din of a cheering crowd Saturday night in an uncharacteristically short speech. He spent less time selling himself and more time answering questions from the audience.
In a working-class city with a strong Irish and Catholic influence, Biden appeals to people, said Teri Goodmann, Iowa co-chairwoman for Biden's campaign. "In spite of people's desire to have the first African-American, the first woman, the first Hispanic, the reality of our lives is that we have a tremendous demand right now in this job for someone who has experience in foreign relations," she said."- Des Moines Register
Then there is this one…
Take, for example, the Joe Biden event I attended last night in Council Bluffs, about ten minutes after I drove out of the Omaha airport. At least 150, maybe 200 people gathered in an Elks Lodge, during the dinner hour, on a week night with the thermometer reading 18 degrees to hear...Joe Biden! And it was vintage Biden....This went on for two hours and came to an end only when Brother Jim had to literally drag the candidate to a waiting car. At no point did the audience grow restless or bored. After each answer, five or six more hands shot up. The interest was avid and, in fact, Biden's biggest applause line of the night had nothing to do with the usual sort of pandering, bur rather when he vowed that in a Biden administration he would outlaw all forms of torture."- Huffington Post
And then this…
To complicate matters today, the ground in central Iowa was blanketed with snow by early morning, and the highways surrounding Des Moines were littered with cars that had slid off the road. But about 100 people crowded into a public library meeting room to listen to Biden speak.
"He's an honest, good man. He tells it like it is," said Glenda McIntire of Waukee, Iowa. She said she's a long-time supporter. "It's been uphill all the way, but the first time we met here we probably had 15 people. When I see him in person I get revved up again."- Guardian Unlimited (UK) Or this on the MSM just ignoring Biden even exists...
Immediately after the assassination of Benazir Bhutto the front page story in the Washington Post about Pakistan and the presidential campaign did not even mention Joe Biden, the only candidate who seriously distinguished himself on the Pakistan crisis.
Upon reflection, the Washington Post editorial page, which has supported Bush on the Iraq war as Pravda supported Leonid Brezhnev, followed up with a lead editorial on candidates and Pakistan, which, incredibly, did not even acknowledge of Joe Biden.
Here is why the major media, including the daily newspapers, has lost such credibility with the American people and in the case of insider print media, so many subscribers who moved their business to internet sites, including this one.- The Liberal Journal
This is going to be an uphill battle to get the word out for Joe Biden by January 3rd but it is not a mountain. We can all do this and if you can’t stand the main stream appointed front runners on the Democrat side of the process then by all means speak up loud and clear. One of the things that I love about Biden besides all of his life experience, political experience and personal candor is the where the majority of the money for his campaign is coming from. Ten bucks here, fifteen bucks here and twenty bucks from over here. There are not to many thousand dollar a plate dinners scheduled in his past or current campaign. That speaks volumes as to whom is really behind the Biden campaign and it isn’t Wall Street or special interest groups. I’m off to box up a couple of dozen rolls of paper towels for the Biden Tsunami in Iowa and New Hampshire.
Bloggers for Biden, leave a link in the comment section and I’ll toss up a Bloggers for Biden list in the sidebar of this site. And for those of you who think the other candidates running for President are not scared of Joe Biden then you have to see this amazing video from YouTube.
Catch the wave and surf it out all the way to the White House in 2009! Four out of five Dentist recommend Joe Biden. Bill Gates will pay you $1000 if you forward this post to ten friends. And some guy in Africa is willing to give me a piece of the action on $30,000,000 from his deceased fathers uncle who was some big wig in the government and all the money he embezzled we can split. Okay, I made up the Dentist thing, the Gates payment and the millions from Africa but you can believe in Joe Biden. That is a sure thing! Check him out at Joebiden.com
When it comes time to sorting out the wheat from the chaff in presidential politics I’m having a little more faith in the people of Iowa lately. While the main stream media is declaring Hillary or Mitt the winner in Iowa I have it in full confidence that the people of Iowa have their own opinion.
Daily polling numbers are changing and those that were on top for months are finding themselves sliding into the cheap seats at the opera. I chalk it up to the people of Iowa are slowly coming close to a decision on whom is real and who is Memorex.
Those pesky Iowans are ruining this election for all of the people that should be on top. I’m thinking and dreaming of life in the homes of the candidates that are now no longer number one in the polls and it is so very clear to me. Damn it they spent freaking millions on you farmers (Stereotype) and this is how you show your appreciation.
Hillary has probably beaten the day lights out of Bill every single night of the week for his comments on Iraq. Spousal abuse knows no boundaries and this isn’t the first time she’s kicked his ass.
Mike Huckabee is running from one shopping center to the next like a madman stuffing dollar bills in the Salvation Army kettles to show his thanks. Whispering all the way “Holy Crap, I can’t believe these idiots are buying the minister routine.”
Mitt is off to his hairstylist because only she knows him. Maybe he can spill his guts on the whole Mormon issue while he gets that unibrow finally dealt with. Then again the nails are looking just atrocious and that girl is a great listener.
Barack Obama is going to have a heavy hangover because the truck load of Champaign and Sam Adams (Harvard thingy) will be flowing heavy as he surpasses her Majesty Clinton in the polls. That and the fact that somebody stole the hubcaps off Hillary’s limo and she immediately blamed the Obama camp. Real story is that Bill Clinton did it to get back at her for the kick in the groin just for good measure for the Monica incident.
Joe Biden is still flipping burgers over at the local diner in Des Moines because he needed the money. Don’t laugh, Bill Richardson is one of the nastiest customers, he likes his burgers cooked just so. For the record, Joe did not spit in the special sauce. Don’t believe everything you read.
Speaking of tempers, Johnny McCain is probably still reciting one hundred times a night… “I will not show anger, I will not show anger, I will not show anger… Oh screw them bastard’s!” He made it to three tonight and that is an improvement. He’s calling Don Imus to see how the hell he handles anger management issues.
Don’t even start me on Denis Kucinich and his babe of a wife. Lucky. She must like guys with big thoughts and stuff like that. Either that or she likes how he can pull anything out of his pockets. How does he do that? Then again there is that alien from outer space theory out there. Denny is from Mars and she is from Venus thingy. I think I read that in the National Enquirer or something.
Ron Paul is surfing the net. He is a Ninja of Google and the art of hanging ten with his grass roots organization. He’s responding at this very minute to email number 29,873,478 if he is actually running for President of the United States. He answers all of his emails personally.
Rudi is back at the hotel blaming wife number three and number two and of course he can’t leave out wife number one. Then again maybe he can get some real dirt on Huckabee. Did he ever get drunk off the communion wine and did he pay tax on it? There has to be an angle to nail that so called minister on. Nobody in New York City has secrets and Arkansas can’t be all that different.
The screams of terror from the Dodd household can be heard from blocks away as he once more proves that men in his position should not be changing diapers if he is to be truly taken seriously.
Damn cat woke me up from my dream again. Why does he always attack my feet when my REM sleep is at its peek? Anyone have a Tums? Apparently, the indigestion of the evening meal gave me night terrors and Hillary Clinton was winning in Iowa. No matter I liked the Gene Kelly episode of Huckabee dancing in the rain with all of those bells ringing.
***** This post was comedic in content and none of the situations dictated actually happened in real life. Allegedly! I’m a Blogger and I have dreams. Some people sleep walk, I sleep type.
Once more the nation is facing $3 gasoline and home heating oil over speculation and what some would think is market manipulation. While the market and its volatility are soaring out of control you can almost here the cash registers ringing non stop for all of the friends of President Bush. With his lack of action on behalf of the lower classes of America he is proving the point made by thousands of political writers like yours truly that he is a puppet President.
This man that claims to be a great listener is tone deaf when it comes to the people that can least afford the greatest inflationary market driven product in the world. Oil and the price of it effects practically every product made in the United States. From your vegetables getting from the fields in California to the local supermarket in New England, to anything made with plastics. Take a break, look around you computer desk or just around your living room. The wires insulated with PVC that burn the lamps that you read or watch television by are oil based. The cabinet to your television, the keyboard of your computer and most of the parts inside of it, stereo, DVD player, surround sound speakers, the sneakers on your feet, the bottled water container that you drink because it supposed to be good for you. Just for giggles make a list, when you get over one hundred items in your living room, move to the kitchen. Take a deep breath and get ready for writers cramp. All of them are oil based products in one form or another. Everything in our society is linked to oil and the higher the price goes it seems the wider the smirk on W gets.
Along comes the favored Democrat Senator from New York that is also running for W’s office. She calls out for the tapping of our nations Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to let the markets know that the situation is out of control and releasing millions of barrels onto the open market will impact prices by negating the rumor that there is a supply problem. By the way, there is no supply problem. There is a free for all market problem where investors and Wall Street are manipulating the price of oil to make yet another killing. Line up for the firing squad because you are the one facing the bullets from W’s buddies. Just empty your checking account and insert it at the nearest gas pump and you will not be harmed. You will be damned cold this winter but frost bite never killed anyone. I may be wrong on that last fact so don’t quote me. Over at Reuters they have this to say on what the political beat is on tapping the SPR…
Clinton urges Bush to tap oil reserves Thu Nov 8, 2007 4:11pm EST
By Tom Doggett
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton called on the Bush administration to tap into the government's emergency crude oil and heating oil reserves to boost supplies and lower prices.
"I urge the President to release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve and the Northeast Heating Oil Reserve to send a signal to the market and ease concerns about low crude oil stocks that are driving prices higher," Clinton said in a statement posted on Wednesday on her campaign Web site.
The price of U.S. crude oil hit a record $98.62 per barrel on Wednesday at the New York Mercantile Exchange and the average price consumers paid for home heating oil reached a record $3.11 per gallon this week, partly from concerns about tight petroleum supplies this winter.
Energy Department data also showed this week was the first time that the retail prices for heating oil, gasoline and diesel fuel all topped $3 per gallon at the same time.
The Bush administration has repeatedly said that the crude oil and heating oil reserves should only be used to offset major supply disruptions and not to manage energy prices.- Reuters
I’m thinking this is more of the same political crap shoot that both parties play but one side is looking out for the people that will set the thermostat this winter at 62 and hope the oil tank lasts ten or eleven days longer. The other side of the aisle is shoveling cash so fast into the bank that the blizzard of 78’ in New England looked like a flurry.
President Bush will never interfere with the oil industry because that is his background and his monetary base for being elected twice. If you asked yourself what was the greatest way to increase the price of oil seven years ago it would be total unrest in the Middle East. BINGO!
Personally, I’m not a fan of Hillary Clinton but if she is the only one asking the President to release the SPR then that is one form of leadership that those of us in the middle and lower classes are glad to hear. How much more are we to do without for Exxon Mobil, Shell and Chevron to rake in another multi billion dollar quarter of profits? If it gets her some votes for doing so, then it was a smart political move on her part. If you vote your wallet then you have to think twice this election because one party will be raping it and the other will be trying to stop the crime before it happens.
Thirty years from now when the records of what this President did to this nation on behalf of his friends in big oil will be revealed and President Warren G. Harding will no longer be known as the most corrupt President ever. Insert a W plaque at the hall of shame. Right next to him will be Marie Antoinette.
Back in the day, running for President of the United States of America was not defined by the character of your bank roll but by the character of the person running for the office. If I lived in Iowa or New Hampshire I would no doubt see the evidence of what a bank roll campaign is all about on my television every other commercial. Air time is not cheap and money talks non stop into your living room but it isn’t the real deal when you think about it.
My impression from the MSM is that the candidates for the most part are reacting to what people want to hear and not offering much when it comes to what they need to hear. Running campaigns on popularity polls rather than personal convictions is convenient and easy if you have a campaign war chest that can fend off the latest double speak of your opposing candidates.
I was reminded by a close friend that in the past you had to have a history of real leadership. Kennedy was not only the son of a millionaire but he was also a man that served his nation in a time of war that did not work out for the best but he lead his crew to safety. Wrong or right, he lead. Eisenhower lead our troops through the most difficult possible war in our modern history and with that leadership came the loss of many lives, some if not all he felt personally responsible for. Wrong or right decisions he lead our nation as a General out of WWII.
You tell me what sacrifices in life that any of the candidates other than Senator McCain have made to be worthy of speaking on the stump to be President of the United States? This is not an endorsement for McCain, I thank him for his service in the military and in the Senate but his style of leadership does nothing for me. I’m by no means saying that you have to have served in our military to be our nations President but you have to have the ability to show leadership other than a damn sound bite on the television in the form of an advertisement. I’ll go one better, all the rehearsed answers during the debates do not sound genuine given the time limitations of the debate process.
I’m of the firm opinion that if you want to be my President then you had better know what you stand for on all of the issues. Flip flopping like Mitt Romney has for decades, dodging questions on Social Security like Hillary Clinton or giving lip service to our nations security by many of the other candidates does not fly with me. Our next American President needs to have a very well rounded background to heal our nations wounds and bring the country back from self destruction. Not just at home but around the world as well. This President will not only have to command respect around the world but also have the astute knowledge that humility is also an American virtue.
Tell the voters what you will do and let the chips land where they will. I’m looking at the stack of well polished, well groomed and highly educated people running on both sides of the equation and to me there seems to be just one true star amongst them all. When you look at all of the campaigns from the perspective of what really matters to you and your family then you come away with a very different perspective of the so called front runners. It almost seems as if most of them went down to the college store and picked up the cliff notes copy on how to be the next President. We do not need the best jingle, the best photo op or the best speech to let us know who a real leader is, we see it in their actions. We need someone with plans, the ability to work both sides of the political spectrum, and of course the ability to communicate the needs of all of the people so that it makes sense to all of the people.
Our nation is at war, our soldiers are coming home in not just coffins but in broken bodies and the solutions needed to help the ones that lived is more important than any of the candidates think. When our nation cares for its warriors wounded in battle then it is caring for itself as well. Contact your possible choices for President and ask them about fully restoring wounded Veterans medical coverage for life and follow your heart with your vote.
Can Hillary Clinton be the best what the DNC has to give? Or is Barack Obama up for it? Toss aside the rest of the Democrat Candidates. I'll miss Bill Richardson but he has not gotten the game that is politics. All I am seeing is the me too candidates and it is not exciting the mains stream press by any means.
With the drive for super primary days in the future the field of political candidates in both parties will clear quicker than last call at the corner bar. The selection process has now been hi-jacked by the need to be first in the selection of candidates and that ends up with just one result.
Who can cash a billion dollar check made out by the next office holder of the White House?
Belly up to the bar special interests... both parties included. Sad.
This story that the Concord Monitor reported on is one that will have your “Live Free or Die” blood boiling. Apparently, the New Hampshire National Guard will only bend so far when it comes to the troops serving our nation and their own personal need to make sure that their child is safe. When the safety of the child is evident to the local police and Mom is in Iraq serving our nation then rules have to bend. This Mom is on her second tour of duty in Iraq but according to her military superiors you can only stretch the patience of the military black and white rule book so far. No matter what the circumstances are.
Here is what the Concord Monitor has to say about this…
Guard member faces prison
AWOL soldier left for her daughter Leave Runs out before case resolved
By Joelle Farrell Concord Monitor staff June 03. 2007
A New Hampshire National Guard soldier could face up to five years in prison on desertion charges for leaving Iraq to gain custody of her 7-year-old daughter.Spc. Lisa Hayes, 32, of Rindge, was serving her second tour in Iraq when she was notified of two violent incidents between her ex-husband and his live-in girlfriend. Hayes's ex-husband had primary guardianship of their daughter, Brystal Knight.
Hayes, a soldier serving with the 3643rd Security Forces, asked for emergency leave in February to attend a court hearing and gain custody of Brystal. But the court proceedings aren't over yet, and Hayes's leave expired in March. Hayes has asked for a hardship discharge from the Guard, saying there is no one else to care for Brystal.
"I can't serve my country at my daughter's expense," she said. "I have to be here. There's no going back."
The National Guard helped Hayes file paperwork for the discharge and offered assistance from the family support program for deployed soldiers, said Lt. Col. Francine Swan, a lawyer with the Guard. Hayes's commander, Capt. Tony Gagnon, extended her leave three times to prevent her from entering AWOL status. He told her in a March 5 correspondence that she needed to better inform her superiors in Iraq about what was going on.
First Sgt. Michael Daigle, a spokesman for the state National Guard, said custody disputes during a deployment are not unusual, and the Guard tries to help whenever possible. He said Hayes has forgone assistance and ignored counsel, leading the Army to take action.- Concord Monitor
Let me be the first to say that this is not just a military problem but a New Hampshire Court problem. In the Live Free or Die state the speed of justice is right up there with molasses in the middle of winter. It just doesn’t flow. Expedience in justice could have been given to this woman and her child knowing that her service to our nation and our military is of utmost importance.
I honestly think that the National Guard could have cut her some more slack given the nature of her and her child’s situation and requested that her so called family need leave be added to the end of her actual tour of duty. It seems that there is more to this story and there is. Apparently, according to a close friend that called in to 96.9 FM talk radio to Eagan and Braude Show in Boston, Spc. Hayes went over her immediate commanders to get her leave of absence and that just might have pissed off the local good old boys.
When a wrong is present and your immediate report refuses to acknowledge your personal emergency then I commend Spc. Hayes for going over their heads. What parent would not do the same thing given the same situation.
How do we stop a train wreck that is about to happen here and save the little girl and her Mom that served two tours in Iraq? We call the state Congressional Members in New Hampshire and bitch. We call the Governor of New Hampshire and bitch. We call the State Senators of New Hampshire and bitch.
When a Mom that is in the military would risk her career for her children and her immediate reports don’t see the trees for the forest then there is a wrong that seriously needs to be righted.
