Great video. Great Candidate in Josh Segall. Watch the video and read below to find out more about one of my favorite races this cycle (AL-03). Josh is a 29 year old candidate that we have to rally behind.

Medicare Improvement for Patients and Providers Act of 2008

McSame Sh*it, Different Day McSame AWOL, AGAIN, on another crucial vote.  McSame didn't 'show up' to vote on the original Medicare bill, or the veto over ride, thereby default, 'supporting' Bush's opposition/veto.

First, John McCain tried to take credit for Webb's GI Bill after vigorously opposing it. Then George Bush followed suit.

Now Mike Turner (R-OH), who voted against the bill, is also claiming support and credit for its passage. Think Progress documents his statements:

It is our responsibility to provide [veterans] with more than just recognition for their service: we must also make certain that they have the skills they need to accomplish their next mission once they return to civilian life. That is why I was proud to support recently passed legislation that expanded the Montgomery GI bill to provide more funding for veterans to receive a college education. [...]

With the huge impact the GI bill has had on America and the debt that we all owe our nation’s veterans in mind, I was proud to support recent legislation that dramatically expanded the scope and scale of the educational benefits available to our veterans. [...]

I am proud to have supported legislation that will directly provide this benefit for military families and look forward to further working on their behalf in the future.

Webb's GI Bill may well turn out to be the most popular piece of legislation not supported by conservatives ever.

So I've sort of become the unofficial GI Bill guru in my unit. I was extremely excited when HR 2642 passed, and I have been trying to help people understand how their benefits might change under the new system. The VA finally posted a new FAQ (http://www.gibill.va.gov/s22.htm) , and much to my horror, under the VA's interpretation the new bill, some of my co-workers and I may lose a substantial portion of our benefits. I have sent the VA an email, and am yet to get a response. I will update when I receive one. Here's the letter:

Bush Praises McCain for "Working Hard" on GI Bill that BOTH of them Opposed

Original Story with Video:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...

ACTION: Please take time to Call Senator Webb's offices and demand that he call out Bush for this absolute LIE.  

Think Progress has the story of how George W. Bush and John McCain, both outspoken opponents of Sen. Jim Webb's "new G.I. Bill," which was signed into law in the new Iraq war supplemental (BTW, did you notice that that passed? $160 billion in no-restrictions war money?), are now slapping each other on the back and taking credit for it:

The bill is a result of close collaboration between my administration and members of both parties on Capitol Hill. ... I want to thank members who worked hard for the GI Bill expansion, especially Senators Webb and Warner, Graham, Burr, McCain. This bill shows that even in an election year, Democrats and Republicans can come together to stand behind our troops.

Horseshit, of course. Hell, McCain didn't even show up for the vote on the damn thing.

But isn't it curious that we could see this happen (repeatedly, no less) right before our very eyes, and yet top Democratic strategists can simultaneously believe that voting for Republican FISA and other "national security" bills will actually "neutralize the issues" and shield Dems from attacks?

I guess anything can happen in a world where nobody blinks when the President of the United States and the man he hopes will be his successor both flip-flop that shamelessly. But it makes you wonder why anybody thinks of Republicans as bound by logic.

While the Republicans are busy figuring out whether they can just attack Democratic FISA supporters on FISA anyway, they're wasting no time attacking them on everything else:

Freedom's Watch, a conservative-aligned independent group, is sponsoring radio ads in 16 congressional districts -- bashing Democratic incumbents for their alleged culpability for sky-high gas prices.

"These Members, who claim to be leaders, have gone on vacation and failed to do anything to address the pain people are feeling at the pump and in their wallets," said Carl Forti, director of issue advocacy for the group. "They have done Nancy Pelosi's bidding and repeatedly stood in the way of increasing domestic oil production and exploration, when they should be listening to their constituents."

The targeted Dems?

LA-06 - Rep. Don Cazayoux
MS-01 - Rep. Travis Childers
TX-22 - Rep. Nick Lampson
KS-02 - Rep. Nancy Boyda
WI-08 - Rep. Steve Kagen
TX-23 - Rep. Ciro Rodriguez
OH-18 - Rep. Zack Space
NH-01 - Rep. Carol Shea-Porter
AZ-05 - Rep. Harry mitchell
CA-11 - Rep.Jerry McNerney
GA-08 - Rep. Jim Marshall
FL-16 - Rep. Tim Mahoney
NY-20 - Rep. Kirstin Gillibrand
AZ-08 - Rep. Gabrielle Giffords
PA-10 - Rep. Chris Carney
PA-11 - Rep. Paul Kanjorski

All but Shea-Porter [CORRECTION: and Kagan!] voted "yea" on the FISA bill. Enjoy the rewards!

Hey, at least it's not a FISA attack. Yet.

My thanks go out to Virginia Senator Jim Webb on getting the new and improved GI Bill passed by Congress and having it signed into law today:  

On Monday, June 30, President Bush signed into law landmark legislation introduced by Senator Jim Webb (D-Va.) to provide post-9/11 veterans with comprehensive educational benefits. Last week, the legislation was overwhelmingly passed by both the House of Representatives and Senate.

Senator Jim Webb introduced this bill eighteen months ago on his first day in office. The bipartisan measure-- principally cosponsored by Sens. Chuck Hagel (R-NE), Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ), and John Warner (R-VA), has unprecedented support from all major veterans' organizations, in addition to strong bipartisan support in Congress, with a House vote of 416 to 12, and a Senate vote of 92 to 6.

I'm not sure exactly how the Bill has been fleeced, but I know the education aspect still remains.

So a big thank you to everyone who has signed petitions along the way, I felt it was of utmost importance that our returning vets had a good chance towards a career when they come home, together people such as yourselves from many different blogs and sites got active and we were heard. Even when such high ranking people such as Senator John McCain staunchly opposing the measure and a Geroge W. Bush threatened veto against it, the American people have spoken.

With tremendous support and overwhelming passage in both Congress(256-166) and the Senate (75-22 McCain was a no show) and a reversal of the veto threat by the President, our returning vets now have a fighting chance.

It's a very exciting day for us here at the Tom Udall for Senate campaign.  The Associated Press reports that President Bush has signed the Webb GI Bill into law:

The new GI Bill essentially would guarantee a full scholarship at any in-state public university, along with a monthly housing stipend, for people who serve in the military for at least three years. It is aimed at replicating the benefits awarded veterans of World War II and more than doubles the value of the benefit — from $40,000 today to $90,000.

The GI Bill measure, authored by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., had such extraordinary support from both Democrats and Republicans that White House objections were easily overridden. The bill also allows veterans to transfer their benefits to their spouse or a child, an idea Bush has championed.

We wanted to thank all those on DailyKos who made a difference by signing Tom's letter to President Bush asking him to sign this bill, which we diaried here and here.

Yesterday General Wesley Clark attacked McCain, stating being shot down and tortured in Vietnam did not qualify him to be president.  This true.  Its also political poison.  McCain is the original Swiftboat victim.  The tactics Bush used to such success against Kerry were first used against John McCain in the pivotal 2000 South Carolina Republican primary.  And victimhood is a powerful force in this election cycle. Victimhood saved Hillary Clinton's campaign in the New Hampshire primary, and Barack Obama's in South Carolina.  McCain edged out Huckabee in the 2008 South Carolina on victimhood.  Numerous surrogates suffered the axe because they made true but offensive statements. By attacking McCain's POW experience we simply give him one line of attack.  But thanks to the New GI Bill, we can make McCain the victimizer and turn the tables on him.

OMG!  did you just hear Bush take credit for the GI Bill!  I heard that McCain took credit for this bill at a town hall recently but today George Bush gave credit to McCain in a national press conference.  WTF!  here is the quote
"I want to thank members who worked hard for the GI Bill expansion especially Senators Webb and Warner, Graham, burr, McCain"

CALL ON SEN. JIM WEBB TO CALL OUT MCCAIN ON HIS LIES about supporting his GI Bill. McCain was caught on tape in a town hall espousing his support for this bill which he helped kill and opposed because he thought it would reduce retention rates, contrary to the evidence.

call Jim Webb's Offices telling him to come out against McCain more strongly and about McCain lying about supporting his GI Bill today.

Here is McCain taking credit for the GI Bill which he helped kill:

i have no idea why jim webb isnt politicizing this goldmine of a gaffe.  if obama does it he'll get painted as not patriotic. jim webb needs to come off and criticize mccain on this.

Not only did John McCain miss the vote on Webb's GI bill, he actively opposed it as overly generous.

But little things like facts don't get in the way of McCain.

Today, in Ohio:

I'm happy to tell you that we probably agreed to an increase in educational benefits for our veterans that not only gives them  increase in their educational benefits, but if they stay in for a certain period of time than they can transfer those educational benefits to their spouses and or children. That's a very important aspect I think of incentivizing people of staying in the military.

Then again, maybe he just forgot his previous stand.

A week ago, I received a suspension from the moderators on one of the professional sites I frequent.  To be fair, I deserved it.  What happened?  This site has a section for political discussion on their message board, and in a discussion of the Iraq war, one of the other posters pushed many of my buttons.  Their comment was responding to the repetitive deployments and stress that the military was experiencing - this person said "Well, they volunteered for the military, so they knew what they were getting into."  

What got me suspended was my response - I promptly let this person know in no uncertain terms what I thought of that comment, and then digressed into a dissection of their intelligence and ethics.  Which, according to the rules of the board, I shouldn't have done.  

Now that I've had time to calm down and think more about it, I realized that this poster was simply repeating what seems to have become a standard line from the Bush Conservatives - "They volunteered."

Today has been a day of clear contrasts in the Presidential Race and the Texas Senate Race.

I just have a problem with the McCain flip-flop and spin on his support of the GI Bill. Especially when he knows better. The first part of my diary talks about this issue.

Rick Noriega leaves the campaign trail for the better part of two weeks for active duty and his opponent is hypocritically whinning about about politics as usual. The second part of my diary deals with this.

Let me preface this by saying that I am not paid by the Noriega campaign and have no official affiliation with them.

If I reach this goal this weekend I will pledge $400 of my own money this cycle to Noriega and $100 to other candidates on my page. If I can raise an additional $1500 in the next two weeks, I will pledge another $500.  

Let's help Rick. Click on my thermometer orlink here to my page

I thought hard on whether this merited a "posted without comment". Really I did. But then the deep feelings of nausea came in waves from my inner realms and I couldn't help myself.

Ladies and gentleman, we don't want our soldiers running away from the armed forces and we CERTAINLY can't afford to give them all sorts of college tuition benefits and what-have-yous. In fact, it's so hard to keep them in these days, we've partnered up with Dale Earnhardt Jr. to help us stem the tide.

The first report was from the AP, but since they don't like bloggers to use them or link to them, we'll just talk about the facts of their story without burdening them with the traffic. We'll send it to other, friendlier and more web-savvy sources instead.

The news: A deal has been struck on the House side to move an Iraq funding bill.

Details are still emerging, but initial reports (from that news source that doesn't like links) said only that an agreement had been reached, and that the package would include approximately $165 billion in funding for military operations, plus the Webb "GI bill" provisions, Midwest flood relief, and an unemployment benefits extension.

As time -- here measured in mere minutes -- passed, new details emerged. A second AP report that they also don't want links to hinted that Bush was backing away from his earlier threats to veto war funding that was accompanied by significant restrictions on its use, and unemployment benefits that went to people who had worked less than 20 weeks out of the previous year. Bush had also ruled out a provision Blue Dogs had insisted on to pay for the GI bill, that being a 1/2% surtax on top-earning taxpayers.

That seemed rather curious, until a report in The Hill cleared it up:

The compromise bill will include about $165 billion in funding for the Iraq war with no conditions, such as banning torture or blocking a "status of forces agreement" between the Bush administration and the Iraqi government.

It will include a new program, called the "new GI Bill," to pay the college tuition of Iraq and Afghan war veterans, which will be transferable to family members. The cost of the program will be added to the federal deficit, because there will be no offsetting tax increase.

It will extend unemployment benefits by three months, but will require recipients to have worked at least 20 weeks, a requirement Democrats had sought to shorten.

Mmmm, yeah. That smells like a deal to me! In exchange for agreeing to accept $57 billion more for the Iraq war, Bush was willing to allow Democrats to drop their demands for a ban on permanent bases, torture and the SOFA and their demands on expanding eligibility for unemployment benefits. It really must be said that he's truly a generous man.

Should be an interesting vote, if both the Blue Dogs who said they wouldn't vote for GI bill provisions that weren't budget neutral and the 70 other Members who said they wouldn't vote for war funding that didn't have withdrawal language all stick to their guns.<sup>*


*</sup> Note to McCain campaign: This is not a statement on firearms policy.

UPDATE: The text of the rule they're going to use isn't available yet, but here's how that "interesting vote" is going to be managed. First, the House will have to pass H. Res. 1281, reported from the Rules committee yesterday, which:

Waives clause 6(a) of rule XIII (requiring a two-thirds vote to consider a rule on the same day it is reported from the Rules Committee) against any resolution reported from the Rules Committee on the legislative day of June 19, 2008, providing for consideration or disposition of a measure making supplemental appropriations for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008

Then they're going to have to cobble together a procedure that waives PAYGO rules so they can shoehorn in the GI bill provisions, and allows for separate votes on the various provisions -- the war money, the GI bill, the unemployment benefits, etc. -- and then have a final vote on a package that includes whatever provisions get a majority along the way.

The end result will be that the progressives can vote against the war money but for the rest of the stuff, the Blue Dogs can vote against the GI bill but for the rest of the stuff, thereby producing a different majority for each of the provisions, and then everybody can throw up their hands and vote for the final package, which will represent "the best we could do despite my opposition to provision X, Y or Z."

Happy C-SPAN viewing, everybody!

Quite possibly the worst campaign video I've ever seen. Another reason to support Rick Noriega.

See Video below as well as rec this blog

Austin Statesman article click here

For every contributor to my page tonight I will match $5 for each contribution. Click my thermometer for a link.