Reactions to story from The BRAD BLOG

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  GOP Record on Veterans

  http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=9675
  58 days ago in My Left Nutmeg :: Where Connecticut Dems Scratch That Progressive Itch · Authority: 198

  As we remember the nation's war dead and veterans today, let's take a look at how Connecticut's Congressional delegation has honored their service. Here are the voting scorecard ratings from the Disabled American Veterans. There are no ratings yet for Chris Murphy and Joe Courtney, but we can look at those with longer records. Republicans like to talk a good game with veterans at this time of year, but their records tell a story of profound cynicism. John Larson 92% Rosa DeLauro 93% Chris Shays 43% Chris Dodd 94% Joe Lieberman 94% And here are the records of our recently ousted delegation members for the same period of time (2000-2006). Rob Simmons 53% Nancy Johnson 40% And, finally, the last set of ratings from the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. John Larson B+ Rob Simmons C+ Rosa DeLauro A- Chris Shays B Nancy Johnson C+ Chris Dodd A- Joe Lieberman B+ Hmm. Notice any trends? Even though Republicans have been hard at work lately to make sure that veterans don't vote, they may hear from the better informed veterans at election time. DAV records: % calculations are mine, did not count missed votes or votes that were not scored by DAV.
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  War and Its Human Costs

  http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2008/05/war-and-its-human-co...
  71 days ago in Michael Alan Leon: MAL Contends . . . · Authority: 75

  Update: The Suffering of Soldiers -War has its costs, no matter how skillfully and cravenly Bush and his regime try to hide them. Thanks to Vets for Common Sense. Also, please see its link to the editorial: New Front in Republican War on Voting: Disabled American Veterans via The Brad Blog.In the face of what has been given by so many, it's worth noting some leading chickenhawks via SourceWatch: "Chickenhawks" Notable Chickenhawks [too many to list, so here's the biggest of all]: Rush Limbaugh Bill O'Reilly
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  Big Dan's Big News May 11, 2008

  http://bigdanblogger.blogspot.com/2008/05/big-dans-big-news-...
  73 days ago in Big Dan's Big Blog · Authority: 12

  I didn't see this in the papers today! Why not? Bush Department of Defense spokesman apologizes for CREMATING U.S. TROOPS AT PET FACILITY!!! The Republican "War on our Troops" and the Republican "War on Voting" continues! ● Bush Admin War on U.S. Troops Continues: Pentagon Contracts Pet Crematorium for Fallen Service Members. Conservative Media Begin Plans to Ignore Incident as Soon as Possible... ● Fallen U.S. troops cremated at ‘Friends Forever Pet Cremation Service.’ Listen to this classic "newspeak": One of the crematoriums is "not co-located"...where the fuck do they come up with these words? They use them to confuse you! "NOT CO-LOCATED"!!! Like "mis-remembered", "mis-heard", etc... He should've said, "We did not not not not not cremate 'our heroes' in a pet crematorium....." The first question by a reporter, basically, was asking what the apology is for? Did they or did they not cremate soldiers' remains in a pet crematorium. Watch the fun! This is exactly his answer to that: "We have absolutely no evidence whatsoever at this point that any human remains were at.....at all, ever mistreated....were ever not cremated....were they were supposed to be cremated...ummmm...that said, the secretary believes that it is inappropriate....uhhhhh....even if though.....uhhhhhh.....permissible under the rules and regulations....aaaaahhhhhhhhh.......to cremate....urrrrr....ahhhhhh.....our fallen....OUR HEROES....IN A FACILITY THAT ALSO CREMATES PETS!" Did you ever see Saturday Night Live or the Onion News? That's what this is like! ● New Front in Republican War on Voting: Disabled American Veterans. Now that they've made it as difficult as possible for those pesky 90-year-old nuns to cast votes, it's time to make sure that vets injured and disabled in Iraq and Afghanistan have as difficult a time voting as possible. The Republican War on Voting, as directed by Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush out of the White House, continues to continue. The new front: Disallowing registration drives, by non-partisan organizations at Veterans Administration facilities. That, despite an order issued in late April by the Department of Veterans Affairs that they would allow such activity, in compliance with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993. ● WASHINGTON (AP) -- Increasing numbers of U.S. troops have left the military with damaged bodies and minds, an ever-larger pool of disabled veterans that will cost the nation billions for decades to come - even as the total population of America's vets has begun to shrink. Despite the decline in total vets - as soldiers from World War II and Korea die - the government expects to be spending $59 billion a year to compensate injured warriors in 25 years, up from today's $29 billion, according to internal documents obtained by The Associated Press. And the Veterans Affairs Department concedes the bill could be much higher. ● REPUBLICAN PUSH-POLLS: My brother is a registered independent in a suburb of Atlanta, GA. Yesterday, he received a letter and questionnaire from the Republican party. The letter contained his (independent) registration number, and addressed him as Fellow Republican. The questionnaire was a push poll of the nastiest variety. Sample questions: Should Republicans do everything they can to prevent liberal Democrats from repealing the USA Patriot Act and other important laws that help our intelligence agencies protect America? Should we do everything we can to stop Democrats from weakening border security? Should Republicans fight for a balanced budget? (why start now?, LOL) ● Last September, the U.S. Office of Special Council (OSC) opened an investigation “into whether partisan politics were a factor in the Justice Department’s prosecution of former Democratic Alabama governor Don Siegelman on corruption charges in 2006.” But a memo written last January by OSC career investigators has revealed that OSC chief Scott Bloch — whose office and home were recently raided by the FBI — ordered the Siegelman case closed, “saying that he had not authorized it.” According to the memo, Bloch also diverted focus and attention from other high profile cases, including the political activities of former White House aide Karl Rove and DoJ’s hiring practices: Here's how "The Republican Noise Machine" works: Make up something false about your opponents and then broadcast it throughout your "echo chamber" of Drudge, FOX "news", Limbaugh, Hannity, O'Reilly, etc...and claim it stems from a "non-partisan" media watchdog group...that isn't "non-partisan"... ● Earlier this week, the Business & Media Institute (BMI) – a right-wing front group founded by Brent Bozell – spliced and doctored an NPR interview of Al Gore in order to allege that Gore said something which he did not. The organization published a false headline which blared that Gore called the Myanmar cyclone a “consequence” of global warming. In the NPR interview, Gore asserted that melting polar ice caps — not cyclones — were a “consequence” of global warming (which is unequivocally due to global warming). BMI inverted Gore’s comments to make it seem like his remarks about the cyclones followed from his remarks about “the consequences of global warming.” Yesterday, Fox News promoted the doctored clip to make the same false allegations about what Gore actually said. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Obama campaign calls its "Vote for Change" voter registration drive a mere voter registration drive. Nothing to see here, folks, except for ordinary people helping ordinary people gain the franchise. But it's more than that. The Vote For Change program will lay the foundation for Obama's general election get-out-the-vote efforts. Obama aides won't say much more, but I gather that the campaign is constructing an incredibly elaborate online interface to allow its more than a million donors and volunteers to directly persuade their neighbors through a variety of media. Names gathered from the voter registration effort will be merged with names gathered through Obama's primary efforts and the names off of the Democratic Party's integrated voter file as well as lists purchased from outside vendors. On election day, Obama might have more than a million individuals volunteering on his behalf. That should scare the beejeesus out of the McCain campaign and the RNC. ● Pay To Attention To Obama's Voter Registration Drive ● Vote For Change ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEPA: Mom joins critics of Judge Ciavarella: WILKES-BARRE – When her 14-year-old son was arrested three years ago, Tracy Stair said she planned to hire an attorney to represent him at his juvenile court hearing, but was stunned by the response of the lawyer she contacted. “He told me it would be a waste of my time and money,” Stair said. “He would go if I wanted him to, but he wouldn’t be able to speak.” Stair, 36, of Dorrance Township, said she couldn’t understand why an attorney would say such a thing – until the day she and her son appeared before Luzerne County President Judge Mark Ciavarella in juvenile court. “We went before the judge and the hearing was over in 90 seconds,” she said. “He asks you a question. You answer it and it’s ‘book ’em. Get him out of here.’ The next thing I knew, he was sent away for three months.” ● They dug deeper and learned that 50 percent of youths who appeared before Ciavarella in juvenile court in 2005 and 2006 were not represented by an attorney. It was, attorney Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center said, an egregious violation of juveniles’ rights, and it prompted the center to file a petition last week with the state Supreme Court seeking to overturn more than 500 juvenile court dispositions. Other Judge Ciavarella classics: ● Sam Guesto has been hired for a newly created court director job, which means he will remain a Luzerne County employee when he officially ends his job as county chief clerk/manager today. Many county workers had predicted the court job was created for Guesto. Court of Common Pleas President Judge Mark Ciavarella has denied that, saying the position is warranted and that he would choose the most qualified applicant. Guesto’s hiring takes effect today, and he will be paid $78,159.80 annually, according to the court order issued by Ciavarella Thursday afternoon. Frank Vita, the brother-in-law of Court of Common Pleas senior Judge Mike Conahan, was paid $1.1 million to prepare the psychological evaluations since 2001, county records show. Court of Common Pleas President Judge Mark Ciavarella has said the thoroughness and length of Vita’s reports make him an asset. Ciavarella deferred comment on funding questions to court human resources director Paul McGarry, who previously oversaw probation services. ● A state Welfare Department official warned Luzerne County officials last fall that the county was spending too much money on overly lengthy juvenile offender psychological evaluations, county Human Services Director Joe DeVizia verified Friday....THE FRICKIN' JUDGE'S BROTHER-IN-LAW!!!!!!!!!! ● Local Green Party picks nominee for president. Luzerne County faction chooses former Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney as choice. WILKES-BARRE – Luzerne County’s Green Party on Saturday nominated former six-term Georgia congresswoman Cynthia McKinney as the party’s choice for president.

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