September 28, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

Disrespecting the military

There are some conservatives who claim they love the military and respect our veterans while cutting their benefits, sending them off to die in needless wars without proper equipment, and literally insulting them on their jobs. Primary among these hypocrites are the idiots at Fox News — who scream about how Obama’s coffee salute demeans the military while then, within a few minutes, making sexist and demeaning comments about the military.

Jon Stewart describes it better than I ever could (start around 4:00 in). Sorry, WordPress won’t let me embed the video: http://thedailyshow.cc.com/videos/b7hxzd/the-way-we-war

Veterans aren’t standing for it either. In an open letter to Fox News, they write:

Thus the skill of women as fighter pilots is well established. And before you jump to the standby excuse that you were “just making a joke” or “having a laugh,” let the men amongst our number preemptively respond: You are not funny. You are not clever. And you are not excused. Perhaps the phrase “boys will be boys”—inevitably uttered wherever misogyny is present—is relevant. Men would never insult and demean a fellow servicemember; boys think saying the word ‘boobs’ is funny.

June 16, 2014 by Michael A. Ventrella

We can afford the wars, just not the veterans

Senator Jeff Sessions has never met a war he didn’t like. Iraq? Afghanistan? No problem! Don’t worry about how we’ll pay for it.

But the veterans who served in those wars? Taking care of them, as we promised? Well, that’s an “entitlement” that we should not be spending money on.

And you know, ultimately spending up to $6 trillion dollars is a bit much, especially with our deficit. I can see why he was against such a huge amount. Oh, wait. My bad. $6 trillion is the estimated total cost of the Iraq war. How silly of me. That’s different. Sessions had no problem voting for that.

Republicans who claim to be “fiscally conservative” rarely are — they are against tax rates that would balance the budget because it would hurt huge corporations and their rich friends and the only thing they ever want to cut are government services to people. It’s rare to find one who would cut a military plane or tank we don’t need.

And the ones who claim to “support our troops” often only do so until they enlist. After that, they won’t spend money so our troops can have the armor or medical benefits they need. (It’s kind of like how they are “pro-life” at least until the baby is born, at which time, you’re on your own.)