sam
Army Suicides Up As Much As 20 Percent
Sam Stone came home to his wife and family after serving in the conflict overseas and the time that he served had shattered all his nerves and left a little shrapnel in his knee. But the morphine eased the pain and the grass grew round his brain and gave him all the confidance he lacked with a Purple Heart and a monkey on his back.
[chorus] There's a hole in Daddy's arm where all the money goes and Jesus Christ died for nothing, I suppose little pitchers have big ears, don't stop to count the years sweet songs don't last too long on broken radios
Sam Stone's welcome home didn't last too long He went to work when he'd spent his last dime and Sammy took to stealing when he got that empty feeling for a hundred dollar habit without overtime. And the gold rode through his veins like a thousand railroad trains and eased his mind in the hours that he chose while the kids ran around wearing other people's clothes.
[Chorus]
Sam Stone was alone when he popped his last balloon climbing walls while sitting in a chair. Well, he played his last request while the room smelled just like death with an overdose hovering in the air. But life had lost its fun and there was nothing to be done but trade his house that he bought on the GI bill for a flag-draped casket on the local heroe's hill. [Chorus]
-John Prine
The fact that that song was written during Vietnam and still makes sense just illustrates the fact that we need to learn how to take care of vets with PTSD.
No one should live a haunted life because they volunteered to serve their country.
I make no claims supporting his news coverage. I agree, it's not the most even-handed stuff I've ever heard. I just think the Special Comment section of his show is amazing.
And to be quite honest, that's my reason for supporting Obama over Clinton. She's so polarizing that the Fox news crowd wouldn't let her get anything done.
Oprah will swing the female vote Barack's way
bethany says:
"Well said, Sam."
Thank you.
I suppose I could weigh in on how I feel on the actual topic. Will Oprah singlehandedly swing women, and thus probably the election, to Obama? Probably not. But she's still a good endorsement.
Oprah will swing the female vote Barack's way
cubby says:
"I'm a little more than curious about this. Does anyone else have a problem with Oprah - someone who is seen as a big leader of sorts in this country - backing a black MUSLIM who will not salute our flag or pledge allegiance to it? When I read or hear about Barrack (Hussein) Obama I see "African American" in the same sentence. I think people are choosing not to see the fact that he is Muslim and was raised his whole life MUSLIM. He swore in on the Kuran, not the Holy Bible. I'm sorry, what country is this, oh yeah, THE U.S. of A!!! Let's start thinking about which candidate is going pledge his allegiance to OUR FLAG and all that it stands for!!!!"
Cubby, welcome to Politicalbase. While you technically were writing on the "opinion" section of the site, please don't issue crap like that.
For example, if you are to look at Mr. Obama's article on Wikipedia, it pretty much says he's not a "MUSLIM!!!" but is in fact a "Christian: (United Church of Christ)" Here's the article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_obama. Could you honestly not do the 15 seconds of research to find out that what you said was utterly false?
And, yes, he is African-American, fool.
He, nor his father, recieved radical muslim teachings.
The holy book of Islam is the Koran, not the "Kuran". We'll hope that was a typo.
Since he is in fact Christian, I find it hard to believe that he was sworn in on a Koran. (Or maybe he was sworn in on a "Kuran." Whatever a "Kuran" is. I'll imagine it is a small dog.) But if he did, what's wrong with that? We are, as you put it,"the U.S.ofA!!!!!" That's the point of this whole expirament we started over two hundred years ago: You don't have to be of any particular religion to hold public office.
You, sir, are an uninformed bigot, and are the most detrimental thing to America's democracy.
And Obama does pledge to the American flag. He's an American. That's why he can run for president.
And he's doing more for America than you ever will, sir.
So, we could sit here forever and debate whom is benefitting from the Bush tax cuts, but I think that it's bad when, in the next 10 years, if things keep going like they are, that the only thing the American government will be able to do is pay interest on its loans. Even if you believe in small government, I think that we can agree that no government isn't the solution.
We either need to 1) end the tax cuts, which you don't benefit from unless you are in the top 1% of wage earners, which you aren't. (17% of Americans think they are in the top 1% of wage earners.) And one of the following: 1) Stop spending money in Iraq, or 2) start making sacrifices, which include taxing the rich.
In no other time of war in American history have taxes been cut, and in World War II, things were rationed. (Support the troops: use less gas.) Georgie Porgie doesn't get to have it both ways: a war and tax cuts for his fat friends.
A little Roll call: Were you convinced by Bush Co. in ~2003?
I didn't fall for it. I knew darn well that there were no WMDs. Oh, yeah. When that happened, I was 11.
Pedestrians are threatening? Consider them targets.
I agree, jdubb.
That law sounds a lot like one in my home state of Missouri, called the Brady Bill, that allows a person to shoot a robber with deadly force, in the house or when the robber is stealing your car.
I have several problems with this idea.
1) As a people, we have decided that robbery is not a capitol offense. Robbery has been made, in effect, in Missouri, a capitol offense.
2) In our nation, we have a system of judges and juries to determine whether or not a person is guilty, and whether or not this person should die for their crime. The Brady Bill has effectively thrown out the legal system of the Decent State of Missouri.
3) This bill is a instrument of the NRA-butt-kissing Republicans to use fear of a robber to gain support.
4) The main support that proponents of the Brady Bill and others like it use is that, if a robber feels that it is likely that the house he is about to rob is armed, that he will not rob that house. That makes sense to the non-burglars in the Missouri Legislature, but the criminal mind does not work like the normal mind. The criminal mind does not see consequences. If it did, it would not rob a house, and thus not be a criminal mind in the first place. But the criminal mind only sees the criminal burgling the Plasma TV, and goes ahead with the crime.
So, effectively, we have said that it's all right for a redneck hick in Missouri to determine, my means of gun ownership, whether or not a person should die for trying to steal his TV.
Will Barack Obama's speech at the Jefferson and Jackson Dinner forum in Iowa this week, considered by many to be his best since the 2004 Democratic National Convention oration, push him in the polls? Here's the clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tydfsfSQiYc
It's truly an inspirational speech. If he can follow this up with a bunch more like it, he may be on his way to coming back to win the nomination.
Let's Learn From Our Mistakes Going In
Bethany, I thought I could get away with just saying my statistics, but you called my bluff. Turns out, I can do even better than that. Here's a September 2007 poll in which 57% of Iraqis say it is acceptable to attack American forces. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6983027.stm
Perhaps the 53% of Iraqis who you say want us to stay want us to stay so they can keep attacking us. (joke)
This poll also states that 93% of Sunnis feel it is justified to attack Coalition forces. As morn says, this is a war of ideas. But the way to win a war of ideas is not to invade the nations of the people whose hearts and minds you are trying to win. I agree that we must win the War on Terror by convincing the moderate muslim that we are not their enemy, but how is keeping American forces in Iraq accomplishing this? I argue that it is doing the direct opposite. We are affirming everything the extremists say about Americans wanting to kill Islam. We need to get out before we can win this war on ideas.
Morn, you are misinformed to think Iraq is part of the war on terror. Saddam did not harbor al Qaeda. He hated them. He probably saw them as a threat to his power. Here's what I think this war was about. George Bush and his cabinet planned for war, and that planning gave the plan the momentum it needed in the minds of the President and his cabinet to be put into action. I don't think the President really took a step back and said, "Do we really need to do this?" It may have been a really tough decision for him. I hope it was, and that these stories of ulterior motives are false. But I think his mind was simply, perhaps unconsiously, made up about going into the nation, and that's why we are there.
Please do not call my party the "democrat party." We are the Democratic Party. To steal a line from someone, (John Stewart?) how would you like it if I called your party the Republican Party? And furthermore, the Democratic Party wishes to find the best solution for the Iraqi people and the American people and enact that situation as quickly as possible. Some Democrats feel that the best solution would be to leave. While you portray that as Cutting and Running, I think the true fool is the one who cannot he has lost.
Lastly, the point of my last post, Bethany, was to say that there aren't any good exits in Iraq, but that staying there forever without changing strategy is the worst option of all. So, yeah. Of course those options I listed are bad. And do you want to say that the deeply divided factions of Iraq will someday put down their guns and join at a table of brotherhood, with the American armed forces at the table as well, if we just stay for another year? Or two? Or three? Or a hundred?
Whoops. I've a vegetable today, jdubb. Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arWJ358tZgU Sorry. Peace, Sam
I happened upon Keith's Special Comment for November 4th or 5th on YouTube. Here's the link.
I've always known Keith to be a smart, articulate guy with views towards bettering America, but this video is an expose in passion and what America should be. We need a whole lot of people saying these things. (Not just about Republicans. Let's fight deciet and medioctrity in government whenever they happen.)
I suggest that everyone watch the Countdown (I can't. I don't have cable.), or at the very least do some YouTubing on him.
Lots of people who call in to talk radio shows start by saying "Sean Hannity, you're a great American." I've always thought that is stupid. Playing Toby Keith and Supporting the Troops does not make you a great American. So I always say that (usually), no one is a greater American than anyone else. But KO has me seriously reconsidering that stance.
Whether you agree or disagree with his views...
Yep, he's pretty much a jerk. He should just shut up.
Let's Learn From Our Mistakes Going In
I agree, jdubb. Keith, if you can't afford real advertising, please don't pollute my threads with your rather lame attempts at a presidential campaign. Also, Keith, please don't imply that we can't solve the energy crisis and go to Mars at the same time. The fact that much of the technology that could get us to Mars would probably be implemented into sustainability efforts on Earth (such is the nature of the space program), to think that America cannot solve two problems at once is shortsighted, insulting to America, disproven by history, and possibly a falsity put forward by the Bush Administration (It would benefit him for America to think that we can't investigate possible high crimes of Presidents or solve Global Warming while fighting a war on terror). Keith, you look old enough to remember July 1968, when we sent a man to the moon. Can you remember what else was going on at that time? Well, let's see... Vietnam, the Cultural Revolution, the Civil Rights movement, and one of the most tumultuous presidential elections in history. Oh yeah, and the Hee-Haw show premiered on CBS. We can fight in Iraq, (or stop, as I advocate), free ourselves of foreign oil, and save the planet at the same time. We fought the Germans and the Japanese at the same time. We can solve two problems at once, man. Your shortsightedness has turned me cold on your quaint little campaign, my friend.
Let's Learn From Our Mistakes Going In
I question your poll. I have heard of a poll that 80% of Iraqis want us to leave, and that 47% feel it is justified to kill Americans. I heard of my poll a while back, though, so yours may be better.
I often cite a Thomas L. Friedman op-ed in the New York Times that says, among other things, that a gradual pullout will not work. The situation will detreriorate in areas that we no longer have the strength to mantain psuedo-order in. We're All In Or All Out, as the title of the Friedman piece says.
Bethany, do you really think the situation in Iraq can improve? We've been there for years, and the situation is deteriorating. I honestly think we can say that the situation will not improve.
I think we have five options in the region. 1. Stay. That's no good. 2. Attack Iran. I've already talked about that in this topic. 3. Drop Iraq like a hot potato. That option has problems, but I think it will, in the end, come out well for the States. 4. Split it up. That could solve the problems, but they could just keep fighting. 5. Install a military dictatorship. That can have its own problems, based on America's less-than-stellar history of backing people in the Middle East.
George Bush knows that none of these options will be very good or graceful, and is thus leaving the problem to be solved by the next administration, so that the Clinton administration will take all the heat for whatever happens in the country.
Should we bring back a different kind of draft?
Some of the most prosperous countries in the world have a cumpulsory community service period. The Swiss Army, for example, is mainly a community service organization in which all Swiss men must serve.
When you think about the idea that most of what made this country great a number of decades ago centered around lots of people building big things, it's amazing to think about what the millions of 18-or-so year-old people could do for this nation. And it's even more amazing to think what those young men and women could learn about being a productive citizen and an American when doing this community service. I'm sure that it would help us with our little obesity epidemic as well. I think it would truly be an exhibit of the greatness of America. The government could also get projects done without having to pay full price for labor.
Do a little research into JobCorps, an institution funded by Congress that teaches young criminals and low-income people a trade and citizenship skills in order to get their lives back on track. http://jobcorps.dol.gov/about.htm
We lack only one thing: governmental willpower. The willpower to institute a system, and the willpower to end the war that is keeping us from funding such a program.
Well, If You Want to Be Like France,
I was just inserting a little bit of facecious irony with the bits about France. It's just that a whole bunch of people who want us to instate a policy that happens to be a French policy also resent France.
Actually, I support a European system of bilingual education. There will be definite educational benefits in addition to cultural and practical benefits. I also do not support English becoming the National Language, because I feel it betrays our heritage as a "melting pot" culture. I acknowledge that many of the immigrants at the beginning of this century labored laborously to learn our language, but keep in mind that many of them used their native tongue for a long time after they came here.
And I mean President Bush would be screwed because he can't speak English. (We need a President who's fluent in at least one language.)
Why should a man with his life on the line get more justice than a man with a few years (or months) on the line? Can we say, "Well, we could do the test to make sure you're guilty, but you're only going away for 20 years, so it's not worth it?"
Is is called for in every circumstance? No. But rather than complain about the speed and cost of DNA testing, perhaps the government should fund Research and Development to develop faster, cheaper DNA sequencing methods.
When America says that justice is not worth the cost, that is when our country falls. Maybe not as a nation, but as America.
Well, If You Want to Be Like France,
All official documents in France are in French. It is the national language. (Never mind that they have a great many speakers of other languages, including Italian on their southern border. But of course, people who insist that their customers order in English probably also encourage them to order Freedom Fries.
I understand that small business establishments often do not have the resources to offer services in two languages.
We will have to decide whether we will make English the only language spoken, or if we will switch to a system of receiving many years of secondary-language (Spanish) education in public school. Most countries in the world teach their students multiple languages for the length of their educations. To be honest, I have met exchange students from Germany who were better at speaking English than some Americans I deal with.
As one last jab, if English were made the national language, President Bush would be screwed.
