Observative Tiger

Thanks to: Pan Man

—————– Bulletin Message —————–

From: Aristocutionor Date: May 25, 2008 1:09 PM

—————– Bulletin Message —————–
From: Give my Republic back
Date: May 25, 2008 5:17 AM

—————– Bulletin Message —————–
From: circa.. 1967
Date: May 25, 2008 2:05 PM

Discuss this story Print This Post E-Mail This Article

Published on Friday, May 23, 2008 by the McClatchy Newspapers

How We Can Really Honor Our Veterans
by Joseph L Galloway

Memorial Day is upon us again, and the more traditional towns will be flying flags and hosting parades and holding ceremonies to honor the million American soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen who’ve fallen in the wars of history and in the wars of today..

It is good to honor the fallen and to comfort the families and friends who mourn one among them whose death broke their hearts..

This year, however, I’ll depart from tradition and ask that we reflect less on our fallen comrades who are at peace, and more on those veterans — especially those from our wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — who are alive and need our help..

How strange that today in our country, in a time of war, battles are raging over the need for medical care, educational benefits, employment opportunities and assistance for those who’ve served honorably and come home to begin new lives in a nation they risked their lives to defend..

The shameful thing is that most of those battles are being waged against the very government, the very bureaucracies, the very politicians who sent those young men and women to war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Maybe the right word here isn’t shameful, but criminal..

On Capitol Hill, our lawmakers debate the pros and cons of a new GI Bill that would provide our latest combat veterans with education benefits at least equal to those that their grandfathers received when they came home from winning World War II..

Our president has threatened to veto that bill if Congress passes it. The Republican candidate to succeed him, Sen. John McCain, a veteran and former prisoner of war himself, refuses to support that GI Bill and offers a watered down, cheaper substitute.<.

The Pentagon and the Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, a former university president, oppose better educational benefits for veterans, for fear that offering them might entice more young troops to leave the service for the campus..

This is odd, coming as it does from a president who talks a lot about supporting our troops, from a senator who draws a 100 percent military disability pension and from a former college president who surely knows the value of higher education..

Others among us wage endless battles and rage against the very agency charged with providing medical care, disability pensions, mental health care and counseling and, yes, the parsimonious educational benefits for all who’ve served and sacrificed for our country — the Veterans Administration (VA)..

In recent months, VA officials have been caught providing false statistics that far understate the true number of veterans, old and young, who commit suicide. They’ve ordered doctors to diagnose fewer cases of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to substitute a diagnosis of a lesser, temporary stress disorder..

The young people marching home from war and trying to rejoin civilian society, get a job and start a life aren’t having much luck, either. The government’s own statistics show that fully a quarter of returning veterans are employed in jobs that pay wages that put them below the poverty line, or less than $21,000 a year if they’re single..

Marine Maj. Gen. (ret.) Matt Caulfield of Oceanside, Calif., knows that the young men and women leaving military service today are the finest he’s ever known in a long career in uniform — yet they’re having a hard time finding good jobs..

“The CEOs and chairmen in industry all say how their companies want to hire veterans,” Caulfield told me. “But this is simply not translating downward to the people who do the interviews and make the hiring decisions. A veteran is someone alien to your average corporate hiring manager, who is a 28-year-old woman with a college degree..

Caulfield, a veteran of two combat tours in Vietnam, said that government and industry are both failing miserably in providing job opportunities for this new generation of veterans. He called it a scandal when some of the best and brightest and most motivated of their generation are consigned to jobs flipping burgers or, worse, to the street corners in big cities where they hold up cardboard signs that advertise: “Homeless Veteran — Will Work for Food..

So let’s review the bidding here this Memorial Day..

Let’s all pay lip service to Support Our Troops. But if we want to be honest, we should edit those yellow-ribbon bumper stickers to say Support Our Troops — As Long As It Doesn’t Cost Anything..

Let’s acknowledge that this new generation of soldiers and Marines is amazingly motivated and talented. They’re expected to be good killers, good diplomats and ambassadors of American goodwill who operate under impossibly complex rules of engagement in impossibly dangerous and deadly environments..

But if they come home wounded, their brains rattled by the huge IEDs of the new way of war, and if they suffer the horrors of PTSD nightmares and flashbacks, let’s dump them on the streets with the least amount of help and benefits possible, as cheaply as possible..

For sure we don’t want to improve their chances, better their future prospects, by offering them the same college benefits we gave their grandfathers six decades ago. God help us if they all get college degrees and figure out what we’ve done to them..

Joseph L. Galloway, a military columnist for McClatchy Newspapers, is the co-author, with Lt. Gen. Hal Moore, of “We Were Soldiers Once … and Young,” a story of the first large-scale ground battle of the Vietnam War..

© 2008 McClatchy Newspapers

Let it go for 2008…by T. D. Jakes

There are people who can walk away from you.

And hear me when I tell you this!

When people can walk away from you: let them walk.

I don’t want you to try to talk another person into staying with you,
loving you, calling you, caring about you, coming to see you, staying
attached to you.

I mean hang up the phone.

When people can walk away from you let them walk.

Your destiny is never tied to anybody that left.

The bible said that,

They came out from us that it might be made manifest that they were
not for us.

For had they been of us, no doubt they would have continued with us.

[1John 2:19]

People leave you because they are not joined to you. And if they are
not joined to you, you can’t make them stay. Let them go.

And it doesn’t mean that they are a bad person, it just means that their
part in the story is over. And you’ve got to know when people’s part
in your story is over so that you don’t keep trying to raise the dead.

You’ve got to know when it’s dead. You’ve got to know when it’s over.

Let me tell you something. I’ve got the gift of good-bye. It’s the
tenth spiritual gift, I believe in good-bye. It’s not that I’m hateful,
it’s that I’m faithful, and I know whatever God means for me to have,
He’ll give it to me. And if it takes too much sweat I don’t need it.

Stop begging people to stay.

Let them go!!

If you are holding on to something that doesn’t belong to you and was
never intended for your life, then you need to ..LET IT GO!!!

If you are holding on to past hurts and pains .. LET IT GO!!!

If someone can’t treat you right, love you back, and see your worth…
LET IT GO!!!

If someone has angered you ..LET IT GO!!!

If you are holding on to some thoughts of evil and revenge ..LET IT GO!!!

If you are involved in a wrong relationship or addiction ..LET IT GO

If you are holding on to a job that no longer meets your needs or
talents .. LET IT GO!!!

If you have a bad attitude…LET IT GO!!!

If you keep judging others to make yourself feel better…LET IT GO!!!

If you’re stuck in the past and God is trying to take you to a new
level in Him…LET IT GO!!!

If you are struggling with the healing of a broken relationship….LET IT GO!!!

If you keep trying to help someone who won’t even try to help themselves.. LET IT GO!!!

If you’re feeling depressed and stressed …LET IT GO!!!

If there is a particular situation that you are so used to handling
yourself and God is saying “take your hands off of it,” then you need
to… LET IT GO!!!

Let the past be the past. Forget the former things.

GOD is doing a new thing for 2008!!!

LET IT GO!!!

Thanks Tanya and C.o.BeLLa♠ for finding this!

In this time of wars and rumors of wars, I find it appropriate to introduce you to one of the all time best rated war movies, an animation entitled "Grave of the Fireflies". Unlike most western movies that have a happy ending, this has an eastern ending…where all the characters die. Grab a box of clean ex and be prepared to have your emotions pulled as this tragic story told from a Japanese point view, of WWII, unfolds and expresses just why war is a terrible thing. A reminder that in war no one wins…except war profiters like the Bush family…of whom has been directly involved in at least 4 wars including WWI, WWII, Desert Storm, and the "Iraqi Liberation". It is people like them that make others produce movies like Grave of the Fireflies. I feel truly blessed to live in such a beautiful land with so many opportunities. One that is not ravaged by war. This November please remember that the Presidential nomination is not a popularity contest. It is one of the greatest freedoms to exercise your right to vote for one of the most powerful positions on earth. Electing an individual that opposes war and desires to bring our troops home, to protect this Land of the Free and Home of the Brave, is a decision that is up to you. After viewing this film, I hope you are as moved and as encouraged as much as I am…to make the right choice…not only in November but each and every day of our plentiful and freedom filled lives. T_T

.. Online Videos by Veoh.com

Impeachment: An Overview of Constitutional Provisions, Procedure, and Practice

Synopsis of Articles of Impeachment Against Vice President Richard B. Cheney

"Articles of impeachment exhibited by the House of Representatives of the United States of America in the name of itself and of the people of the United States of America, in maintenance and support of its impeachment against him for high crimes and misdemeanors." Impeachment: An Overview of Constitutional Provisions, Procedure, and Practice February 27, 1998 Elizabeth B. Bazan Legislative Attorney American Law Division Congressional Research Service - The Library of Congress Summary The impeachment process provides a mechanism for removal of the President, Vice President, and other federal civil officers found to have engaged in "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors." The Constitution places the responsibility and authority to determine whether to impeach and to draft articles of impeachment in the hands of the House’ investigation, but the ultimate decision in all instances as to whether or not impeachment is appropriate rests with the House. Should the House vote to impeach and vote articles of impeachment specifying the grounds upon which impeachment is based, the matter is then presented to the Senate for trial. Under the Constitution, the Senate has the unique power to try an impeachment. A conviction must be supported by a two-thirds majority of the Senators present. A conviction of any one of the articles of impeachment brought against an individual is sufficient to constitute conviction in the trial of the impeachment. Should a conviction occur, then the Senate must determine what the appropriate judgment is in the case. The Constitution limits the judgment to either removal from office or removal and prohibition against holding any future offices of "honor, Trust or Profit under the United States." The precedents in impeachment suggest that removal may flow automatically from conviction, but that the Senate must vote to prohibit the individual from holding future offices of public trust, if that judgment is also deemed appropriate. A simple majority vote is required on a judgment. Conviction on impeachment does not foreclose the possibility of criminal prosecution arising out of the same factual situation. The Constitution precludes the President from extending executive clemency to anyone to preclude their impeachment by the House or trial or conviction by the Senate. ———————————————————————————-

Supporting Documents for H Res 333 http://kucinich.house.gov/spotlightissues/documents.htm

Click here to view the Dick Cheney Impeachment Poll http://www.usalone.com/cheney_impeachment.php