THE GOP ISSUES VETERANS A MIDDLE FINGER SALUTE... AND A VERY HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY

Today the Associated Press and Ipsos released a new poll, showing, among other things, that most Americans have now realized that a- Bush is a lying sack or shit and b- that Bush's ethics leave a great deal to be desired. Most Americans no longer believe anything he says about Iraq or about the scandals that are rocking his corrupt regime. Most of the ones who still believe his lies are white Southern religionist delusionals. Only 42% said they approve of Bush's handling of foreign policy and terrorism, his lowest rating yet in the only area where he has been able to deceive people the longest. AP quoted Rich Bond, a Missouri conservative who was once chairman of the Republican Party, "To use an unfortunate metaphor, Iraq is a roadside bomb in American politics."

So Bush flies up to the Poconos to give a combative Veteran's Day address, attacking critics of his failed policies and making absurd promises about "victory over terror," whatever childish concept that's supposed to represent. Afterwards radio announcers speculated whether or not he was hopped up on drugs. The nation's biggest Iraq War Veterans' organization, OpTruth.org, expressed "disappointment" with Bush's idiotic and partisan speech. The Executive Director of OpTruth, Paul Rieckhoff, stated that "those of us who fought in Iraq deserve to know why we became Veterans in the first place." He renewed his call for an independent investigation into BushCo's manipulation of pre-war intelligence, a call most Americans agree with.

Meanwhile Kenneth L. Stephens of Veterans Against the Iraq War had very different ideas about how to support our troops than those expressed by Bush or other chicken-hawks who brought us into this disastrous occupation. "Being a Marine and Viet Nam veteran myself, I do not support the policy of going to war based on false and inaccurate statements made by this administration; I do not support sending our brave men and women into battle without the appropriate armor; nor do I support the way this war has been prosecuted. In other words, I do not support the policy of this 21st-century Viet Nam. But having said that, I do support our troops, and as a demonstration of that support, I will speak out and fight vigorously against the abuse of our troops and the failure of honesty in this administration by their deliberately hiding the true human cost of this war."

And, just in case there are people still not getting the point that Republican politicians don't give a rat's ass about American military personnel or veterans, Tom DeLay's handpicked chairman of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, Steve Buyer, a rightist loon from Indiana, announced that for the first time in memory "veterans service organizations will no longer have the opportunity to present testimony before a joint hearing of the House and Senate Veterans' Affairs Committees." Another vets organization, the Disabled American Veterans issued an outraged press release calling the GOP's move "an insult to all who have fought, sacrificed and died to defend the Constitution."