Partisan Hacks-Why I'll Never Be One

Ann Coulter has finally done it. She's succeeded in pissing me off. Well, ok, she done it once before, with her statements about the 9/11 Widows, who, according to her, were the first women she had ever seen "enjoy their husbands deaths so much".

Well, her latest salvo tops even that one. She has now gone way over the top by putting the blame for the recent scandal of the Walter Reed Outpatient Treatment Center-on the Democrats.

Yep, according to Annie, this whole mess would have never come about if only those evil Democrats did not insist on civil service protections for federal employees. Because of this, you see, it's impossible for all practical purposes to fire any government employee, therefore they can merrily draw their pay while doing diddly squat while Building 18 is overrun by rodents and mold gathers on the walls. She even implies that in the event that they were ordered to correct any such problems that might arise, they could just pretty well tell their supervisors to go suck eggs.

She then goes on to remind us that when former Senator Max Cleland, a decorated Vietnam War veteran-and double amputee as a result of his service in that conflict-ran for re-election in 2002, he was accused by the Republican Party of being a terrorist sympathizer for having the temerity to insist that federal employees of the newly created boondoggle-err, Department of Homeland Security-be granted the same civil service protections as all other federal employees.

Those goddamned labor loving Democrats!! Don't they know that federal employees are mere worker ants, and should be fired at the drop of a hat if they don't toe the line and do what the fuck they're told-sort of like federal prosecutors?

Actually, Anne misses the mark, like all partisan hacks do. This ain't the fuck about Democrat versus Republican. It's about the welfare of our fucking veterans. Oh, wait, I'd better not use the word welfare, that might be misconstrued. Anybody with a brain knows the only people that have a right to fucking welfare are multi-national corporations and illegal immigrants.

Ok,then, it's about the well being of our veterans. You know, the people that have been sent to a fucking stupid ass unnecessary war and are in a great many cases returning sans legs, arms, faces, scrotums, and sanity. Yeah, the ones the GOP loves so much yet just can't agree to funding embryonic stem cell research that might cure them. After all, that might prevent the births of multiple thousands of potential "souls" that can then be saved, and then sent to be yet more fucking cannon fodder.

Those are the ones this is about, not the fucking Democrats, not the fucking Republicans. It's about taking care of the ones that are supposed to be taking care of us.

It's not about casting blame, it's about demanding solutions to the red tape and bureaucracy that BOTH parties have encouraged and nurtured over the decades which in turn has resulted all too often in this kind of horseshit.

Baaaaad Anne. Baaaaad Anne.

Military Discipline Not Too Much To Ask FOR our Soldiers and Veterans

I used to feel bad that I had never joined the military (though there were valid health reasons for this), but after what I have been seeing and hearing the last few weeks, my guilt has evaporated like the morning dew on a warm spring day. No country, people, or ideology is worth putting up with the treatment our soldiers and veterans have been putting up with as recently reported by the Washington Post pertaining to the outpatient treatment center of Walter Reed Hospital, known as Building 18.

It is the duty of the American soldier to accept his assignments with no complaints, and as well trained as they are, it is hard to break that cycle of obedience once they are returned to what passes for a semblance of normal life. Therefore, it is no surprise that they offered not a lot of complaints due to their treatment.

What is surprising and disgusting is that when these complaints were made, they were most of the time not looked into, and what times they were they were generally swept under the rug.

Actually, this is a systemic problem that goes well beyond our recent era of the Iraq War and the “war on terror”, this is a problem of long duration, one that I am actually somewhat familiar with through family members.

One relative with advanced dementia and prostrate cancer was refused admittance to a VA Hospital, though after some wrangling and threats he was finally taken in-for one night. He died two weeks later. They tried then to stiff his widow for the hospital bill he had incurred from the necessity of his stay at an area hospital after all the other times he was refused admittance, even though he had been an out-patient there for years. By the time he was correctly diagnosed, he was too far gone.

Another relative was lucky enough to receive 30 per cent disability due to work related back problems, while a general whom he had some familiarity with received full 100 per cent disability after his back went out, due to assuming a rigid posture throughout the entirety of a transcontinental flight.

It’s who you know, and who you are. No wonder they call them grunts. Severe discomfort will do that to you.

Add to this the fact that most of the people sent to Iraq these days are not adequately trained or equipped for the job they are expected to perform, and are kept way past their normal terms of enlistment without adequate leave, or psychological counseling and other therapy, and you have a situation that is only going to get worse in the long run, no matter how shiny the veneer they throw temporarily over the surface to pretty it up, till the next big story breaks.

For now, in the meantime, let's hear it for the Washington Post, who in at least this one instance lived up to their obligations, though it took them long enough.