Does Gerlach Agree?

If the Republicans take control of Congress, the are planning on shutting down the Government.  This includes closing VA facilities.  This is what Rep. Lynn Westmoreland (R-GA) has to say:

WESTMORELAND: If we hold the line, if we get those courageous men and women to be part of our majority. If we say look, the American people we’re listening to the American people, this is what we’re going to do. If government shuts down, we want you with us. We want you with us. We gotta have you because later on you all will call us and say look I didn’t get my check. Daddy can’t go to the VA. You know, the National Parks are closed. We need to be sure that you are with us because let me tell you this, all Americans need to understand. We need to understand this and I hope you can help share this analogy with people. Just as when you talk about what is going to possibly happen, you know I was unfortunate to cut myself with a chainsaw. I don’t know how many of you have cut yourself with a chainsaw. Chainsaw is not the cleanest instrument if you’re going to cut yourself. […] He said this is going to sting a little bit and it hurt like crazy. But you know what, if he didn’t clean out that wound, it would have never healed. I would have got gangrene. I would have died from it. And what has happened with this country, we have put bandaids on things that need to be cleaned out. It’s going to take some pain for us to do the things that we need to do to right the ship.

ListenWestmoreland .

The most disturbing part of this audio is the cheering and clapping of the people that Westmoreland is speaking to.  Nothing but selfish and greedy people that don’t care about the welfare of others.

What’s Gerlach’s thoughts on this?  Will he shut down the VA?   Will he withhold Social Security checks?  Speak up, Jim.  We need to know what you have to say about shutting down the Government.

And Jesus wept.

What is Jim Gerlach hiding from his Constituents

Let’s take a look at Jim Gerlach’s voting record and who sends him money.  One thing that I noticed is that Jim Gerlach has voted time and time again against Veterans.  Shame on him.

Proposed increased funding for Veterans’ programs and billions of dollars for Veterans’ services. [H Con Res 312, Vote #141, 3/13/08; SCR 21, Vote #377, 5/17/07; H Con Red 99, Vote #212, 3/29/07]

He is anti-choice. He also opposed an amendment to promote family planning that would reduce abortions. The Philadelphia Inquirer, 10/06; HR 2764, Vote #533, 6/21/07]

Gerlach received the largest FEC fine in Pennsylvania history; He was forced to pay $120,000 for misreporting more than $2 million in campaign contributions. [The Philadelphia Inquirer, 4/12/07]

Voted to increase burden of pharmacy co-pays on military families. [HR 5112, Vote #139, 5/11/06]

Supported earmarked funds for catfish disease, grape research, and lobster research. [HR 2419, Vote #238, 5/1/08; HR 3161, Vote #809 and #810, 8/2/07; HR 3093, Vote #735, 7/26/07]

Gerlach on government waste: “I work everyday to eliminate…government waste in Washington.” But Gerlach’s taxpayer-funded mail was criticized for being “campaign literature,” and he was condemned for using “taxpayer money to support officeholders.” [The Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/8/06]

He voted against providing housing assistance, grants, and loans for working families suffering with foreclosure. [HR 5818, Vote #299, 5/8/08]

Voted against removing tax breaks for Big Oil. [HR 4297, Vote #121, 5/3/06]

Repeatedly voted against helping low income families heat their homes while energy costs were on the rise. [HR 3010, Vote #321, 6/24/05; HR 2863, Vote #668, 12/19/05; S 2320, Vote #66, 3/16/06; HR 4939, Vote #59, 3/16/06]

Taxpayers in Gerlach’s Congressional District will pay $1.8 billion for total Iraq war spending approved to date. For the same amount of money, we could provide 439,811 people with health care for one year. [National Priorities Project]

Voted to cut Medicaid and Medicare by billions of dollars, imposing large burdens on poor families and seniors. [S 1932, Vote #670, 12/19/05]

Despite the fact that Pennsylvania lost nearly 25% of its manufacturing jobs since NAFTA, Jim Gerlach voted for the passage of CAFTA in 2005. [HR 3045, Vote #443, 7/28/05; Public Citizen]

Before the CAFTA vote, Gerlach received an influx of Pro-CAFTA PAC money – $251,703 from Jan-Sept. 2005 – more than doubling the amount of money he received from such PACs in the past. [Public Citizen]

Voted to cut housing and emergency funds for hurricane victims, and opposed strengthening levees. [HR 1427, Vote #389, 5/22/07; HR 2206, Vote #333, 5/10/07; HR 4939, Melancon Amendment, Vote #51, 3/16/06]

Voted for a $70 billion tax cut bill that was called a “windfall for the rich” and designed to “benefit a sliver of the population that doesn’t need the help.” [HR 4297, Vote #135, 5/10/06; The Washington Post, 5/11/06]

In Their Boots…

The Republicans talk about John McCain’s war experience. John McCain spent most of his Vietnam military time as a POW. Not to make light of that, but John McCain didn’t spend much time in direct combat. George W Bush spent his military time during the Vietnam War pretending to be a combat pilot and then when he tired of that, he went AWOL and was protected by his father’s rich and influential friends. Barnacle Dick Cheney, well, lets just say he had a “doctor’s excuse”.

And then there is “Support Our Troops” which is nothing more than a yellow ribbon magnet made in China. The media has been ignoring our troops and Bush and Cheney certainly don’t discuss the troops. And McCain, well, he was against the Webb military bill before he was for it and never showed up to vote for the bill. His fundraiser was more important than voting to support our troops.

For these veterans, there was no avoiding combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. Here is their story.

There’s a new website, In Their Boots, which will have weekly live Internet shows. I’ll let the producer explain.

Over the past several months, as we gathered our staff and began to meet the men and women who have served, we knew that it would be a privilege to be able to share the stories of these servicemembers and their families so that the other 99% of the US population can better understand what is happening to our troops when they return from war.

We wanted to do something different than our usual short videos with this project, so we developed an idea for a LIVE internet-based show and decided to call it In Their Boots to let the audience know they would be hearing the information from the servicemembers’ points of view.

The show premieres today, Wednesday July 2nd, at 4pm Pacific/5 Mountain/6 Central/7 Eastern at www.intheirboots.com. The stories are riveting and the show will be broadcast LIVE. You will have the opportunity to hear the stories from these servicemembers, learn about organizations that are helping, and find out how you can help as well.

The show will be broadcast from our brand new studio (it was a beauty parlor just 2 months ago), not quite finished since we are still doing some fundraising, but looking pretty good. Since it is LIVE, we invite you all to join the discussion and become part of webcast history by asking our interview guest a question, live, “on the air.”

We are proud of what we have put together and we hope that you all tune in to see this. Please let us know what you think of it as well. And if you miss any part of the episode, be sure to check it out on our site: www.intheirboots.com. We plan on producing a new episode every Wednesday, live at 4pm Pacific.

I hope to hear from you soon. As always, thank you for your support.

Best,
Jim Miller
and the Brave New Foundation team

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Brave New Foundation is supported by members like you, please consider making a donation. Our videos are available via email, RSS, YouTube and iTunes here.

We are located at 10510 Culver Blvd., Culver City, CA 90232 and info@bravenewfoundation.org

Take the time to visit and make a donation.’

UPDATE: Then there is this…

The Real John McCain

Do you want to know how other Vietnam Vets and POWs think and feel about John McCain? Is John McCain really a hero or just the self-centered son of a Navy Admiral that spent 5 years in a POW camp along with hundreds of other American POWs. Dr. Butler wrote an article for Military.com about his experience as a POW and his experience as a freshman cadet at the navel academy during the time that McCain was a senior cadet.  According to people that know him, John McCain has always been reckless.  My guess is that John McCain has some very real anger issues.

Here’s a link to what other Vietnam Veteran POWs have to say about the real John McCain. It’s worth reading.

More on McCain and his involvement with the USS Forrestal fire in 1967.

John McCain was known to be reckless.  Reminds me of the boy Bush in his younger years.  The only difference is that John McCain served in Vietnam whereas the coward boy Bush decided Vietnam was something he wanted to skip participating in.

A Dollar Fifty Patriot

A Dollar Fifty Patriot

 

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or why I don’t celebrate memorial day)

 

Monday is officially Memorial Day. This weekend, however, our nation’s beaches will be full of laughing half-naked tourists looking to shake that pale, white tone of skin they earned through a winter full of Thanksgiving, Christmas and Superbowl dinners. The stores will be full of shoppers eager to make a penny on a buck savings on cheap, dime-store plastic items they really don’t need. Backyards will be spent grilling and barbecuing cholesterol laden foods which will inevitably cause a night’s worth of painful indigestion. Alcohol will be consumed by the gallons to be rewarded by a Monday or Tuesday morning hangover. All to remember our fallen dead.

Memorial Day is to be celebrated as a day of remembrance; to honor those who have fallen in the service of our country. Originally started to remember the dead of the Civil War, the holiday has grown to encompass all of the wars of the 19^th, 20^th ,and now 21^st century. Overall, including the Revolutionary War, some 1.2 to 1.3 million men and women have answered the call and have paid the ultimate price for their country.

On Memorial Day, everyone feels patriotic. Flags, not ordinarily seen during the year, will come out in droves. Kids will paint their faces in red,white and blue colors and people will pat a veteran, one whom they probably never would have talked to otherwise, on the back to say, ‘good job’. Everyone can be a patriot and for a ‘buck fifty’ you can buy those cheap yellow decals to put on your car that says, “I support the troops”. For one day, everyone can feel as if they’ve done their part.

But have they?

It’s nice that you take a day to honor our serviceman who’ve died for our nation, even when our nation was in the wrong, but what about the other 363 days?

Ask anyone on the street if they know what happened in Iraq today and you’ll get a “I don’t know” answer. Ask about Afghanistan and you’ll get a response of ‘where’s that’?

Ask a person on the street how many have died in the Iraq War and you’ll get a range of answers from about a hundred to ten thousand (4,069 as of last week). But while they cannot remember how many fell in battle this month they sure as hell can tell you who is still standing on American Idol or how many rebounds a NBA player made or homeruns their first baseman hit.

You see, I don’t think that America is feeling the sting of this war enough. Other than having to pay over $4 bucks for gas, they just aren’t feeling this war as our parents and grandparents did in Viet Nam or the Second World War. I don’t see rationing of any kind. I don’t see posters asking you to buy war bonds. I don’t see recruiters on the streets or a lottery being held to determine the draft. I do, however, see a lot of people at Starbucks and with heavy shopping bags at local malls.

Where’s the love?

“I support the troops” this funny, little decal, made in China, says but do you really? When is the last time you even visited a military base? When is the last time you ever visited a hospital to comfort the wounded? Do you even know that many returning veterans are still not receiving the care they deserve? How about our troops in the field? How are they?

While we come home to the safety of our homes, our soldiers live in the field, sleeping on the ground, in the cold, dusty, hard sands of Iraq and Afghanistan. Showering is a luxury and hot meals ever more while people back home are stopping off at McDonald’s on their way home or stuffing themselves at Red Lobster.

Patriotism is much more than waving a red, white and blue flag or having a yellow decal on your car. It’s much more than voting Republican or joining the American Legion. It’s much more than talking big at a bar, fueled by alcoholic liquid courage, about how many Iraqis you’d kill if you were there. If you belief in it that much, you should do something about it.

Talk, my friends, is cheap.

Patriotism, my dear, unforgiving countrymen, is about sacrifice which very few are willing to perform.

Sacrifice means giving up something freely for another. In America, I just don’t see much of that. You may call me bias, but as I walk through the Center City portion of Philadelphia, that famed City of Brotherly Love, I am still ashamed of the growing number of homeless people which many of us here pass on by without a second glance. By the way, the number of homeless veterans (Iraq and Afghanistan) is growing at an alarming rate. It stands currently at 1 in 4 but looks to go even higher.

So, I ask, where is your support?

Employers continue to look the other way at a returning vet. Why? Because they are afraid of having to pay the bill if our returning soldier should suffer effects of PTSD or incur a recurring health problem. It’s better just not to hire them than to have to get involved. So, our vet, our returning hero, comes home to no job, finding himself collecting unemployment and welfare. In an instant, he went from hero to bum.

Where is your support?

Why are there no cries when our President refuses to grant a GI Bill to repay those who’ve served their country with benefits to go to college? Why are people not ringing the phones off the hooks of our Senators and Representatives? Why aren’t people holding our politicians responsible for how our vets and soldiers are being treated?

I just don’t think you are getting it people.

But, I guess people need to feel their comforts; to be a part of something even when they are not. They need to drown themselves in a 12 pack of Bud or a face full of hamburger. They need to walk around with blinders on. To continue living their lives as if nothing is wrong. To wrap themselves around their flag and bang their drums and talk their talk of devotion and duty from the safety of their home.

That dollar fifty patriot must sure feel good about themselves.

I can’t celebrate Memorial Day anymore. It’s a fake holiday with a fake sense of patriotism. I won’t celebrate it because I feel that we should be remembering our soldiers every day and not just once a year.

America, be proud!

Welcome home boys! Fire up the grill!

phillyblues@paforchange.com

Thank You Uncle Sam But No Thanks

I have to tell you a little about myself. I served twenty years in the Armed Forces in service to my country. I joined the U.S. Navy during the last year of President Reagan’s administration and retired during President George W. Bush’s. During that time, I volunteered for the Gulf War (my orders to the USS Nassau were suspended when my own unit, USS Wasp, received orders to join the war effort. The war ended before my ship was to sail but I did participate in refugee operations), the Kosovo Campaign (where I was decorated with a Navy Marine Corps Achievement medal) and even volunteered for the Iraq War; which I was deployed to in support of twice. For my service in Iraq, I was given a promotion, a Navy Commendation Medal, and both the Global War on Terrorism Service and Expeditionary Medals.

I was a very dedicated sailor during my time. I gave 110% towards everything I was involved in even when I did not agree with the mission I was assigned to. I did this because I felt it was my duty to do so. I believed that this is what was expected of me when I rose my hand and said, “I do solemny swear …”

I have never been a fan of sick call. I thought that sick call was for the walking wounded, those who spent their weekends getting drunk only to face hangovers on Monday morning. If I got a sniffle, I took some Tylenol. A headache; some aspirin. An ache or pain; I sucked it up. Suffer from depression? I saw a counselor at Family Services on my own time. Again, this is what I thought I was supposed to do. As time wore on my service time began to take a toll on my body. My knees ached from walking upon steel decks and climbing ladders. I developed sleep apnea and Restless Leg Syndrome (RLS) which, at times, can be so painful that walking becomes difficult. During the last two years of my service, I couldn’t postpone it anymore … I took a trip to sick call.

I was placed on Requip for my RLS and after several sleep exams, given a C-Pap to deal with my apnea.

I expected that the U.S. government, who I had supported so loyally, would take care of me when I retired (oh, by the way, thank you for the plaque which has my name misspelled on it.)

I was wrong.

I received a letter in the mail just the other day from the Veterans Administration. In the letter, I was told, in a overly worded 3 page document, that I had been denied my medical benefits upon review of my medical record. I was denied my benefits, not because they (my ailments) do not exist, but because my medical record wasn’t documented enough. In a nutshell, I didn’t complain loudly enough while I was on active duty.

So much for trying to live up to an image.

Since I left the service I have found employment hard to near impossible to come by. With all the talk about PTSD, it seems that no one wants to hire a veteran because they (HROs) fear that if we ‘snap’ while working for them, they might have to pay for our medical bills. I have a meager retirement that is divided between paying my bills and an alimoney check. I’m left with less than 50 bucks in my bank account after all of this. That’s not enough to pay for health insurance.

So, after serving my country for twenty years I have a box full of medals, citations and awards and that is about it.

I don’t even hear from the ‘guys’ I worked with anymore. They don’t want to hear from me.

I have the thanks of a grateful nation who is so ungrateful that they won’t even give me a job and they consider me a liability.

They were happy to send me to war but won’t even look me in the eye during an interview to say “I’m not going to hire you”. They save that for the form letters and messages left on answering machines or no message at all.

I’m now nothing more than a ghost; a mere shadow of what I was which I am not even sure exactly what that was.

I feel a bit betrayed by all of this and, for all my loyalty, I don’t understand this betrayal. I had your back, why didn’t you have mine?

I was a puppet; a marionette, taught to dance the dance my puppeteers made for me.

So, with no further ado, please allow this former Gulf War, Kosovo and Iraq War Veteran to tell the VA and my dear, dear Uncle Sam, Thank you for all that you have, and have not done for me, but also, No thank you.

If I had my dithers, I’d disown my uncle right here and now.

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