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POPSVets for Obama When Senator McCain fails to show on the Senate floor for the vote to pass the new GI Bill and attends a fundraiser instead, Veterans should begin to see the true picture of the man – laurels and all. When questioned on his non-support and absence from this historic vote, John McCain did not explain his opposition, he simply lashed out that he would not be lectured by a man that never served. I don’t know any Veteran that would so readily wield their military service as a weapon to simultaneously deflect and then attack a legitimate question. Perhaps Senator McCain would have accepted lectures from the other 92 Senators who did show up to support the bill, or perhaps he would have accepted lectures from the Veterans of Foreign Wars who demanded the passage before McCain’s attempt to back into supporting the bill.
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POPSMcCain Doesn't Disagree that We Might Need a Draft
Jon Soltz, Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org said, "At least Senator McCain is being honest. A vote for him is a vote for the draft. Period. Unless Senator McCain radically changes his worldview, there would be a draft to implement his plans." Soltz added, "When you take into account his indefinite military commitment to Iraq, his desire to send more troops to Afghanistan, record lows in recruiting and retention, and possibly more wars he is looking to get into, like "Bomb Bomb Bomb" Iran, his numbers don't add up without a draft. Whether America likes it or not isn't relevant - a draft is the only way to do everything Senator McCain wants to do. I give him points for being honest and upfront, though, that we're going to need a draft if he is elected." This isn't the first time that Senator McCain has hinted at a reinstitution of the draft if he is elected. Asked on September 29, 2007 in New Hampshire about the draft, McCain said he would "consider it."
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POPSA Tale of Two Johns We? Out of the 92-6 vote, two senators were not present. One of them was Ted Kennedy, who is home recovering from brain surgery. The other was John McCain. Even John Cornyn was faux-brave enough to vote "yea" after his defiance was stomped out of Congress like a flaming bag of dog shit. Time and time again, John McCain has been a detriment to troops and veterans, not only for his disastrous plans for Iraq but for the curtailing of benefits soldiers receive when they come home. His loyalty no longer resides with fellow veterans but to slick D.C. politics. I know you're not reading this, Senator McCain, but we'll be watching for more of the same.
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POPSThe War Over Veterans’ Benefits The Arizona senator’s own war service doesn’t exempt him from criticism on this one. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama called him “one of the few senators of either party who oppose this bill because he thinks it’s too generous” — a characterization that just barely stands up to fact-checking.* *http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/482/ (barely true) Fodder for Congressional Races Keep an eye on the re-election efforts of Republicans Steve Chabot in Ohio, Tom Feeney in Florida and Randy Kuhl in New York. They’re targets in two different holiday-week advertising attacks – radio commercials paid for by the campaign arm of House Democrats and television ads brought to you by the liberal group Americans United for Change. In the TV spot World War II-era images give way to modern ones. “Supporting our troops isn’t about politics – it’s about patriotism,” the announcer says. “Tell Steve Chabot to put the needs of our veterans first.”
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POPS McCain And The G.I. Bill As this helpful Boston Globe piece explains, the original bill was curtailed during the relative peace of the 1980s, capping benefits at just under $10,000 per year. The new bill, which Webb introduced with Chuck Hagel and Frank Lautenberg and which John Warner has cosponsored, would raise the cap on the benefit to match the cost of the most expensive public university or college in any given state.
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POPSWhat a Novel Idea This, as I experienced for 20+ years, has come to fruition. Wow. Give the ladies and supporters a break. Then, maybe, retention might improve. I applaud this author.
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POPSMore Gestapo--big $$$$ Pentagon documents released by the ACLU show that the DOD monitored the activities of a wide range of peace groups, including Veterans for Peace, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Code Pink, the American Friends Service Committee, the War Resisters League, and United for Peace and Justice. The organization said the Pentagon’s misuse of the TALON database is just one example of increased government surveillance of innocent Americans. “It cannot be an accident or coincidence that nearly 200 anti-war protests ended up in a Pentagon threat database,” said Ann Beeson, the ACLU’s Associate Legal Director. “This unchecked surveillance is part of a broad pattern of the Bush administration using ‘national security’ as an excuse to run roughshod over the privacy and free speech rights of Americans.”
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POPSThe myth of low enlisting numbers It's amazing that the media would go so far as to push the misconception that military recruiting is low. Most of our guys know what's at stake, unlike the rest of the country. Amy Proctor is a military wife, and knows the scoop. Check out the rest of what she has there about the leftist myths promulgated by the MSM and the facts that rebut them.
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POPSDon't Just Take My Word For It: Soldiers Speaks Out On The 15 Month Extension
(Please go to the link and read full article) I was lucky. When my husband was in Iraq the last time, we were told to expect him to be gone for up to 18 months (since there had been a history of other troops being extended), but he got home within a year and we were relieved. Some others we had heard about, not so much. Some of them got home and were told to GO BACK right away, since their unit had got extended AFTER redeployments began! So when hubby came home, there were a few weeks (while we waited for his whole battalion to redeploy) where I was anxious about whether or not he could be recalled. Like I said, we got lucky. But, you will have to excuse me if I don't hold my breath on the whole "12 months" at home "promise" since that was a "promise" from day one of the Iraq war, that over time has been slowly whittled away as to be meaningless. My hubby is going back after less than a year and that's if they leave on their original schedule. I hear they are leaving sooner.