Friday, October 17, 2003

Squalor
Here is just another reason why we shouldn't be spending $87 billion to rebuild Iraq: ["Sick, wounded U.S. troops held in squalor "].

"I have loved the Army. I have served the Army faithfully and I have done everything the Army has asked me to do. Now my whole idea about the U.S. Army has changed. I am treated like a third-class citizen," said Sgt. 1st Class Willie Buckels, a truck master with the 296th Transportation Company. Buckels served in the Army Reserves for 27 years, including Operation Iraqi Freedom and the first Gulf War.


Money to build hospitals in Iraq but our soldiers have to wait weeks to see a doctor. This is supposed to be the administration that supports the fighting men and women of our arm forces?

Just when you thought it was safe...
Jerry Springer might run for governor: ["Springer May Run for Ohio Governor"].

Miller lashes out at his party
Georgia Sen. Zell Miller criticizes Democrats in a new book he has released entitled "A National Party No More: The Conscience of a Conservative Democrat": ["Miller book calls Democrats out of touch"]. Note this important part of the story about why his friend Max Cleland lost reelection in 2002, a defeat some Democrats are blaming on Republican-controlled and rigged voting machines in Georgia:

Miller also blames the party for contributing to last year's defeat of his fellow Georgia Democrat, Sen. Max Cleland. Cleland was leading in the polls several weeks before the election, but his acquiescence in his party's push for more labor rights for workers in the then-planned Homeland Security Department allowed Republicans to criticize him as being opposed to national security, Miller said.

However, Cleland was right for taking this position. The Bush Administration was wrong to take away the organizing rights of Homeland Security workers. The same way they were wrong about cutting military and combat pay. If Democrats lose taking these positions versus not truly supporting the troops and federal employees, then there isn't anything they can do.

Slapping FoxNews
Thanks go out to Dan Kennedy of the Boston Phoenix for posting this on his Media Log: ["Fact-Free News"].
Ever worry that millions of your fellow Americans are walking around knowing things that you don't? That your prospects for advancement may depend on your mastery of such arcana as who won the Iraqi war or where exactly Europe is? Then don't watch Fox News. The more you watch, the more you'll get things wrong.