"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."
-- Sinclair Lewis
Wednesday, November 11, 2020
Midnight Meme Of The Day!
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by Noah
Today is Veterans Day. On Veterans Day, we celebrate our living military veterans, the ones who came back to us. Many are healthy. Many are physically and/or mentally unhealthy to varying degrees. All are considered "suckers and losers" by Donald Trump and, apparently, by those who support him and work for him in his administration. They even call him the Commander-in-Chief, even if, in his and their eyes, he is the Commander-in-Chief of "suckers and losers."
Full Disclosure: I did not serve. Timing mattered. For a couple of reasons, I would have been rejected if called anyway so I never had to face the decision of what to do. I do remember a couple of the older guys in my immediate neighborhood coming back from Vietnam, one an Army Private 1st Class, the other a Marine Sergeant. Both said we had no place being there but they certainly didn't think of themselves or the comrades who died right next to them as "suckers or losers." Several guys in my hometown died in Vietnam. No one I know considers them to be "suckers or losers," at least no one I associate with. The idea that anyone would is way, way beyond appalling and should disqualify a person from holding office, yet 80,000,000 Americans seem to have no problem with that at all.
To all who did serve, we at DWT, thank you for your service, and I dare say, so do you readers. I hope so.
by Noah Thank a veteran today, an actual veteran, not that nutball Traitor Don The Bone Spurs Con who spends millions of our taxpayer dollars on self-serving parades where he celebrates Revolutionary War soldiers capturing airports. Always keep in mind that there is at least one man who considers Trump to be his personal soldier. His name is Vladimir Putin and he will always thank Trump for handing him Syria and trying so hard to hand over Ukraine. How long before he makes our president an honorary general in the Russian army? Happy Veterans Day!
If Florida Voters Want Another Senator Like Marco Rubio They Can Elect David Jolly Or Patrick Murphy
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It must be frustrating for Alan Grayson, in his run for the open Florida Senate seat that Rubio is giving up-- see the clip of Grayson above explaining Rubio's dreadful Senate record to Chris Hayes-- to have Wall Street's Senator, Chuck Schumer, pushing Wall Street's favorite candidate in the primary, "former" Republican Patrick Murphy. Murphy may be a dullard-- he was recently named among the least effect members the House-- but Schumer is as shrewd and manipulative as he is loaded down with bankster cash. Between his bro-mance with Schumer and his deep family roots in the GOP, Murphy knows how to blatantly lie to voters. Like Rubio, Murphy is also lazy and doesn't like doing any work. His biggest campaign contributors are from the Finance Sector (who gave him an astronomical and unprecedented $2,260,848 in just 3 years). Rubio has been out cozying up to big donors instead of doing any work in the Senate-- and work in Congress means working on committees. Ironically, last week, Murphy played hooky from the House Financial Services Committee, the committee where he regularly serves Wall Street interests and kicks his Florida middle class constituents to the curb, but when it came to 13 important votes last Wednesday, he disappeared. The markups were so important that they started Tuesday and went into Wednesday but it looked like Patrick, like Rubio, was out kissing up to potential contributors instead of doing the work Florida taxpayers pay him to do. I called and e-mailed Murphy's office to ask why he missed those 13 votes and, of course, couldn't get an answer. Another Democrat on the committee told me, in confidence, that whether or not Murphy was at a fundraiser, he probably didn't want to vote because his normal routine of voting with the Republicans for the Wall Street agenda-- while very remunerative-- could cause him problems with Florida voters. And, it's true, I've noticed that since he got into a primary fight with Grayson, his normally Republican voting record has turned slightly more Democratic. I guess Schumer told him to play up to Democrats for a little while. This morning I got a fundraising e-mail from his campaign making ridiculous claims in the vein of having "championed the middle class and fought to expand Medicare, strengthen Social Security, defend women’s rights, and protect the environment against climate change." Much of that is just flat out false. He didn't just vote against the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Progressive Caucus budgets that do attempt to expand Medicare and strengthen Social Security, he even voted against the official Democratic Party budget, which attempts to fight back against GOP attempts to weaken Social Security and Medicare! 31 right-wing Blue Dogs and New Dems voted against the official Democrat budget with Murphy and 10 of them were defeated or forced from office in the next election. Instead, Murphy thinks he should be promoted! And as for Murphy's absurd claim to be protecting the environment, not only did he vote 6 times for the Keystone XL Pipeline-- including for a far right-wing scheme to remove President Obama from decision-making capacity (one of the only Democrats to go so extreme)-- he was also one of the only Democrats to join his Republican polluter buddies in favor of drilling off Florida's coast! No wonder he refuses to debate, Grayson-- he's petrified of being called out on his unending liars about his record. In the end the pathetic Republican shill for Wall Street was reduced in his fundraising e-mail to whining that he’s "a Floridian, through and through, born and raised in Florida," referring to Grayson having not been born in Florida. OK, Patrick isn't lying about that so kudos to Patrick. Only problem is that almost 2/3s of Floridians weren't born in the state but moved there because they preferred living there. Does Murphy think that 64% of the people who live in his state are somehow not as good as he is? He also claimed he's the "most electable," meaning he can get Republicans and Republican-leaning independents to vote for him. That's an interesting argument but it doesn't hold any water. The Republicans are likely to nominate a David Jolly, who is only slightly less conservative than Murphy is-- so it will be a turn-off/lesser-of-two-evils election for Democrats, many of whom just won't vote, while conservatives will look at the two candidates and pick the actual Republican instead of the former Republican who they are likely to figure out is a transactional opportunist-- and completely beholden to the hated Chuck Schumer.
UPDATE: And Speaking Of Jolly, Since It's Veteran's Day I don't know how many insipid congressional e-mails I got today from members who never served babbling on about their well wishes for those who did. Alan Grayson sent a very different kind of Veteran's Day e-mail, some of which I've relocated below:
My GOP opponent David Jolly has a plan to gut the Veterans Administration, but he doesn’t want you to know it. And he sure doesn’t want me to tell you about it. In July, Jolly introduced H.R. 3183, which privatizes the Veterans Administration’s healthcare system, forcing taxpayers to pay for healthcare outside that system. As is the Tea Party custom these days, Jolly gave it the Orwellian title of the "Veterans Healthcare Freedom Act." (If he introduced a bill that would triple homelessness, Jolly would call it the "Freedom to Sleep Under a Bridge Act.") Jolly couldn’t get anyone in Florida to report on it, but he did get the right-wing Boston Herald, formerly owned by Rupert Murdoch, to do some stenography on it. Then he got an invitation to the Boston Herald’s radio show. He talked extensively about his privatization bill, extolling the bill’s "Freedom Card," which (judging from Jolly’s description) would magically transform veteran care into medical paradise. Then this Q&A transpired:
Boston Herald: "[Instead of privatization,] some people would like to see the VA just dismantled on federal level, and just provided in the 50 states. So every state where a soldier comes from, that’s where he goes or she goes, to get their healthcare. They feel like it’s just more manageable, you know, to do it in a more smaller [sic] scale. . . . Could that be another solution to fixing the VA, basically dismantling it on the federal level, and bringing it back to the state level?" David Jolly: "You know, it may be, because government never gets into services and reduces cost and reduces size. It always increases costs and increases inefficiency."
So Jolly wants to dismantle the VA, but he’s agnostic about how to do it: (1) privatize; or (2) devolve to the states. I called out Jolly on that, because dismantling the VA would be a disaster for veterans. That’s why thousands of us signed our petition to tell Jolly that we won’t allow him to gut veterans benefits. (Jolly’s BFF, my Democratic Primary opponent Patrick Murphy, was silent.) Here is Jolly’s utterly evasive response: "An attack by Alan Grayson is a badge of honor for a conservative." And: "I won’t dignify his particular charges with a response." And I’m "unreasonable." We’re seeing a lot of this strategy from GOP candidates this year: deny, decry, and lie. If it’s "unreasonable" to stand up to vicious Republican attempts to gut veterans benefits, then I guess I am guilty as charged. Because our troops deserve first-class care, both in the field of battle, and then at home-- we promised it to them, and they’ve earned it. No one has the right to try to take that away, even David "I Know All About Veterans Because I Once Worked For One" Jolly. You tell me if that’s unreasonable.
You can help keep unreasonable conservatives like Patrick Murphy and David Jolly out of the Senate by helping elect an unflinching progressive-- Alan Grayson, here.
Politicians Seek To Stab Veterans In The Back On-- What Else?-- Veterans Day
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John Mica (R-FL), no friend of veterans
Today, every candidate and every congressmember who ever managed to get their grubby paws on my e-mail address-- both parties-- sent out Veterans Day greetings. They were all pretty much the same pious ass-kissing, many from conservatives who expect the most from the military and who had actually voted against veterans over and over again. A Daily Kos diarist, War on Error, delineated 7 bills to benefit veterans that conservatives killed in Congress:
H.R. 466-- Wounded Veteran Job Security Act-- This bill would actually provide job security for veterans who are receiving medical treatment for injuries suffered while fighting in defense of their country. It would prohibit employers from terminating employees who miss work while receiving treatment for a service-related disability.
H.R. 1168-- Veterans Retraining Act-- This bill would provide for assistance to help veterans who are currently unemployed with their expenses while retraining for the current job market.
H.R. 1171-- Homeless Veterans Reintegration Program Reauthorization-– This bill would reauthorize programs in support of homeless veterans, to assist them with job training, counseling, and placement services through the Department of Veterans Affairs through 2014.
H.R. 1172-- Requiring List on VA Website of Organizations Providing Scholarships for Veterans which does nothing more than direct the Department of Veterans Affairs to include information about scholarships for veterans.
H.R. 1293-- Disabled Veterans Home Improvement and Structural Alteration Grant Increase Act of 2009-- Here’s another bill in support of those who have fought for their country, passed by House Democrats and blocked from becoming law by Republicans.
This would increase the amount paid by the VA to disabled veterans for necessary home structural improvements from $4,100 to $6,800 for those who are more than 50% disabled, and from $1,200 to $2,000 who are less than 50%, disabled. This means, if a veteran lost the use of his legs in service of his country, the country will pay for the wheelchair ramp so that he can live at home.
By the way, the last time this ceiling was lifted was in 1992. There isn't even a fiscal reason for being against this bill, as the total cost of this bill, according to CBO estimates, would be a “whopping” $20 million. That's about a quarter (25 cents) per family of four.
H.R. 1803-- Veterans Business Center Act-- This bill would set up a Veterans Business Center program within the Small Business Administration, which would specialize in such programs as grants for service-disabled veterans, help them develop business plans and secure business opportunities. In other words, folks, it would create jobs and offer opportunities those who have fought in defense of our country.
H.R. 2352-- Job Creation Through Entrepreneurship Act-- This bill essentially combines a number of other bills that Republicans had blocked in the Senate previously, and adds a few elements. The bill would again establish a Veterans Business Center Program;… it would establish a Military Entrepreneurs Program
Or let's look at the SNAP program, through the eyes of Jonathan Capehart, and how the drastic cuts conservatives are pushing are disastrous for almost a million veterans.
According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), “in any given month, a total of 900,000 veterans nationwide lived in households that relied on SNAP [Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program] to provide food for their families in 2011, a previous analysis of Census data estimated.” The cuts to that benefit result from the expiration of a temporary increase in the food-stamp program through the Recovery Act of 2009. CBPP translated the economic impact of the benefit reduction into jaw-dropping dollars and cents.
The coming benefit cut will reduce SNAP benefits, which are already modest, for all households by 7 percent on average, or about $10 per person per month. Without the Recovery Act’s boost, SNAP benefits in fiscal year 2014 will average less than $1.40 per person per meal.
That CBPP analysis highlighted the importance of SNAP for veterans.
Many veterans returning from service face challenges in finding work.
While the overall unemployment rate for veterans is lower than the national average, the unemployment rate for recent veterans (serving in September 2001 to the present) remains high, at 10.1 percent in September 2013. About one-quarter of recent veterans reported service-connected disabilities in 2011, which can impact their ability to provide for their families: households with a veteran with a disability that prevents them from working are about twice as likely to lack access to adequate food than households without a disabled member.
Veterans who participate in SNAP tend to be young, but their ages range widely: 57 percent of the veterans in our analysis are under age 30, while 9 percent are aged 60 or older.
Buck McKeon, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee-- a dedicated warmonger and the recipient of the second most bribes from military contractors and arms makers than anyone else in Congress ($1,456,600), was one of the 217 Republicans who voted for draconian cuts to veterans on food stamps. Same for his pal, John Mica in Florida, who has taken $238,604 from arms makers and war contractors.
Instead of sending out the same sappy, pious Veterans Day greetings that every other person running for Congress sent out, Mica's opponent, Nick Ruiz, took a real departure. Unlike just "the men and women from this district are an incredible national resource-- leaders with the convictions to fight for our ideals," Ruiz called out Mica for his unwillingness to support what veterans really want and need:
"On Veterans Day, I think it bears mentioning that while Rep. Mica and the GOP are offering their lovely wishes for veterans and their families-- behind their backs, Rep. Mica and the GOP are plotting the very worst pro-poverty agenda America has ever seen, that specifically insults veterans and their families by kicking them when they are down. Hundreds of thousands of veterans rely on SNAP funding-- the House Republican version of the farm bill removes millions of people from SNAP-- including 170,000 veterans. For the House GOP and Mr. Mica to act as if they care about veterans and their families, while literally voting to take food out of their mouths is disingenuous and Anti-American. We must do better than that for veterans and their families."
Help Nick replace Mica in the House of Representatives. Central Florida deserves better.
America's Fighting Men And Women Did Their Duty; We Need To Live Up To Our Obligations To Them
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Miss McConnell was booted out of the Army after one week for groping a private's privates. He's been getting revenge ever since
Maybe last week you saw the vicious attack by self-entitled 1%-er Steve Womack (R-AR) against decorated war hero Ken Aden. That's typical of the 1%-er attitude towards working people-- including working people who go off to fight, bleed and die in their unjustifiable corporate wars in horrible places like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yes, typical! These young men and women are expected to go over and do the dirty work for the 1% and the political whores like Dick Cheney, who love sending other men and women's sons and daughters to fight in their wars. Oh, yeah-- and Willard Mitt Romney.
Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney on Wednesday defended his five sons' decision not to enlist in the military, saying they're showing their support for the country by "helping me get elected."
Romney, who did not serve in Vietnam due to his Mormon missionary work and a high draft lottery number, was asked the question by an anti-war activist after a speech in which he called for "a surge of support" for U.S. forces in Iraq.
Right-wing extremist Jim DeMint (R-SC) sent the military/veterans community a great big middle finger yesterday for Veteran's Day, the ONE senator to vote against the government trying to help returning vets find work. The Senate voted on Jon Tester's amendment yesterday, and it passed 94-1, even DeMint's usual followers abandoning him to his own demented lunacy. I wonder why he didn't rush to the defense of the Bush Administration's policy of throwing dead American soldiers into a Virginia landfill.
When she was in Congress, Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) was the staunchest defender of military men and women and veterans on the House Armed Services Committee, where she served on the Military Personnel subcommittee. Today is Veteran's Day and I can't think of a more appropriate person to talk about what our society owes our veterans than Carol, who is running to regain her seat against pathetic corporate shill Frank Guinta. Please read her guest post and consider giving her a hand.
America Must Keep Its Promises to Those Who Serve
-by Carol Shea-Porter
When veterans and military folks hear “Thank you for your service” messages from Congress this Veteran’s Day, after they say “Thank you,” they need to say something else as well-- “Do you support cutting my benefits?” They need to ask both parties that same question, and be prepared to dig deep to find the truth. As Congress casts around to cut spending, they have been tempted to tamper with these hard-earned benefits, and that would be detrimental not only to the individuals involved, but also to our military and our nation.
I first have to confess that, while my husband does not collect any benefits nor does he use the VA health care system, I am more than a neutral observer. Almost every man in my family served, my husband grew up on military bases, and I met and married him while he was in the Army, so I was a military spouse. I am proud of them and the millions of others who have answered America’s call. I also know what these men and women and their families sacrificed to answer that call. While it is an honor to serve, they continuously experience so many challenges. Leaving loved ones, moving the family frequently, accepting difficult assignments because they cannot turn them down, fighting wars that strain marriages and often terrify the children-- all these situations leave lasting scars. Troops and their families miss birthday celebrations, weddings, births, and funerals. Americans owe more than words of thanks, and we know it. That’s why you never hear citizens demand that we cut the military and veterans benefits. People know that they were earned.
Americans are actually upset when they find out that troops and vets are not receiving excellent treatment. Remember when they found out that conditions at Walter Reed and other military facilities were bad? I was serving on the House Armed Services Committee, and constituents were outraged and wanted us to fix it fast. When Congress passed the new GI Bill of Rights to help this new generation go to college after serving in a war zone, Americans were very supportive. When we passed the largest increase in funding in history for the Veterans Administration (VA), there was wonderful bipartisan support, as there should be. And now, hopefully, there will be bipartisan resistance to any partisan or bipartisan effort to shrink benefits.
What benefit cuts are being considered? The Veterans of Foreign Wars has a list called the “10 for 10” plan, saying that Congress or the Pentagon wants to cut 10 benefits to pay for 10 years of war. This list includes increasing healthcare premiums for retirees, increasing pharmacy fees for troops, families, and retirees, freezing military pay, and ending government subsidies to military commissaries. The worst idea on this list is to eliminate the 20-year military retirement plan. Those in uniform and their families always look forward, whenever they are at their most challenging points, to “going home” someday, with a secure pension alongside that heartfelt thank you. That pension also happens to be a terrific recruiting and retention incentive for the volunteer military, and it is ridiculous to change that. As American Legion National Commander Fang Wong said, “If our leaders in Washington are intent on making military life like the private sector, then that’s the path our young people will choose-- the private sector!” My husband’s November issue of MOAA’s Military Officer states, “This isn’t just about equity. It’s about an attack on the core elements that sustain the quality career force.”
These are responsible, patriotic organizations. These organizations are full of good people from all different backgrounds and different political beliefs who loved this country enough to serve it. They still love our country and care deeply about its well-being and financial security. But they believe that in America, a deal is a deal, and they want our country to live up to its promises. They also know the risks if Congress tries to cut benefits to our military personnel and retirees and to our veterans. Congress and the Pentagon must listen.
"Canadians believe in peace in no small part because they make a point of stopping, once every year, to truly ponder the cost of war -- to look their veterans in the eyes, and take in the damage, and thank them. And, perhaps, to ask forgiveness for asking so much."
It's not a hard date to remember: November 11, 11/11 at 11:00. A whole bunch of people died because some genius decided to set that time for the suspension of hostilities on the Western Front of World War I. (I know there's a figure for the number of people who died for this little bit of historical cuteness, but I can't lay hands on it right now.)
It used to be Armistice Day, but then in 1954 was transformed into Veterans Day -- with, officially, no apostrophe [not "hyphen," as I wrote originally; boy, when those brain cells start dying . . .], I learn from Wikipedia -- celebrating all veterans. Unless we don't actually celebrate it, that is.
In Canada, Sara Robinson tells us in her remarkable post (which you should really read in full at the link above), they celebrate Remembrance Day:
Most Canadian cities have permanent spaces designed specifically for Remembrance Day exercises. Even small towns boast a downtown park dominated by a tall and stately stone cenotaph, a memorial obelisk that is the centerpiece of the day's events. On November 11, these parks are full to the edges, because nobody, no matter how anti-war, misses the event. (In 2006, the CBC reported the dismal news that only two-thirds of Canadians had attend some kind of Remembrance Day exercises. The horror.)
And it's a show worth showing up for. Brass and bagpipe bands march. The Mounties turn out in their scarlet coats. Old men stand a bit straighter in their regimental jackets and kilts, their chests full of medals, to receive their nation's honor once again. Brilliant red poppies bloom on the lapel of every dark coat as the poem "In Flanders Fields" (written by Canadian officer John McCrae, and inscribed in the memory of every Canadian schoolchild) is read aloud. Families come together, and go out for lunch after. Every civic group and church comes forward to present a wreath in memory of Canada's fallen soldiers, in a procession that can last well into the afternoon and ends with enormous piles of greenery and poppies banking the monument. And at 11:00 sharp, the entire country -- in streets, in stores, everywhere -- comes to a dead halt, observing a full two minutes of national silence honoring the moment that the Armistice began, and World War I came to an end. . . .
Tomorrow, as the city falls silent at 11 am, I will marvel -- as I do every year -- at the fullness with which peaceable Canadians embrace the sacrifices of war, and the unconflictedness of their feelings toward their veterans. This is the country that is known, more than any other, as the world's peacekeepers. Their whole culture is built around conflict avoidance; that scrupulous gentleness and politeness goes bone-deep, and there is no doubt in most of their minds that war usually entails far more mindless waste than it does noble and worthy sacrifice. And yet, there they are, standing for hours in the November wind and rain, coming out once again to honor those who fought in a war that wasn't even really their own. At first, this seemed like a massive contradiction. But last year, during that long quiet minute, I finally understood.
It is not a contradiction. In fact, Remembrance Day and Canadian pacifism are two essential parts of one consistent whole. Canadians believe in peace in no small part because they make a point of stopping, once every year, to truly ponder the cost of war -- to look their veterans in the eyes, and take in the damage, and thank them. And, perhaps, to ask forgiveness for asking so much. They gather at the cenotaphs to remind themselves and their children of what is lost, and how precious life is, and how very important it is not to allow those kinds of conflicts to get started in the first place. It is that annual willingness to come back, year after year, and unflinchingly take stock of the prices paid that drives their determination to pursue peace. If they failed to remember, to open their hearts to their grief as thoroughly as they do, their commitment to peace might not be so strong. Those who don't remember the past are doomed to repeat it.
Sara notes that, except among veterans, Veterans Day slipped down the American memory hole in the wake of Vietnam. ("We were so conflicted about that war that any holiday about war did more to divide us than it did to bring us together"). And then in the Reagan era what was left of the holiday was "captured by pro-military groups, and voices promoting peace were shut out of the discussion."
And I think that's a loss. I suspect there's a direct relationship between the near-invisibility of Veterans' Day and the near-invisibility of our support for our veterans -- or our awareness of the true costs of our current wars. It's a lot easier on our corporate masters if we spend the day shopping the Veterans' Day sales at the mall, rather than spending it standing out on Main Street listening to our veterans' stories and confronting the actual flesh-and-blood consequences of our leaders' decisions. The devaluation of Veterans' Day is of a piece with the way the Bush Administration brings fallen soldiers home in the dead of night, or embeds reporters, or cheats veterans out of their benefits. It's all a distraction, another inducement to look the other way. For all the talk of "supporting our troops," the last thing they want is for us to gather by the thousands in the park, and be sobered into silence once again by the magnitude of the sacrifice these men and women are making.
My Canadian experience suggests that a heartfelt willingness to stop, remember, and honestly reckon the cost can bring tremendous moral gravity and authenticity to progressive arguments for reason, diplomacy, and peace. Beyond that, it's a lot harder to ignore the needs of our veterans when you see their proud faces out there, every November 11, accepting the nation's thanks. You're forced to realize that once a year isn't enough; that they are part of your community, and their day-to-day care is a community responsibility. The "thanks" rings hollow if you're not backing up the words with real and constant support. If we stopped the country for a full day just to look at all that, as the Canadians do, I think the things we'd see would change the terms of our conversation about war forever.
In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below.
We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved, and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields.
Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.
Here's one way to celebrate Veterans Day: Help toss that sack of garbage Saxby Chambliss out of the Senate -- "Do It for Max!"
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"Do It for Max"
by Ken
Or is that an insult to garbage?
You recall surely that Saxby Chambliss's campaign for reelection to the Senate from Georgia fell short of the state-mandated 50 percent, and he faces a December 2 runoff against his unexpectedly strong challenger, Jim Martin. With turnout typically falling off precipitously in a runoff, this should normally be a cakewalk for an incumbent, especially with the president-elect no longer on the ballot.
I'm hoping otherwise -- and understand that I'm speaking here strictly for myself. I'm hoping that off his 47 percent showing in the general election, Martin's campaign may attract a heap more attention. What's more, there are no other races with a claim on finite attention and resources. This seems to me a crusade worthy of everyone's attention.
I don't claim to know everything there is to know about Jim Martin, but from what I do know, he seems a pretty darned good candidate, maybe as good as we can hope for from Georgia. And most important, I'm told his race has the enthusiastic blessing of former Sen. Max Cleland.
And I guess for me this race isn't just political, it's personal, even moral. Because, you'll recall, the unspeakable Chambliss seized that Senate seat in 2002 with a campaign of lies that prefigured the just-past national Republican campaign. And specifically, he somehow conned Georgia voters by impugning the patriotism of Cleland, a war hero if there ever was one.
Okay, he probably didn't con that legally required majority of Georgia voters. There seems general agreement that the election was "won" via machine-rigging vote fraud. You know, a classic Republican victory. Still, Chambliss got enough votes to be in a position to steal the election.
And we get one more chance at the monster -- the last one for another six years. Yes, it would be nice to have one more Democrat in the Senate, and one less Republican, especially this extreme a Republican. But even that isn't quite what this is about.
Senate Guru celebrates Veterans Day with a post contrasting Jim Martin's strong history of military service and support for veterans with Saxby Chambliss's unsurprisingly dreadful record. Basically, the senator seems to support veterans by playing a lot of golf -- something of a miracle in that his terrible knees prevented him from serving in the military in Vietnam.
