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Bush Threatens to Veto Webb's GI Bill

Speaker Pelosi's office has put out a statement noting that in a press conference at the Rose Garden earlier this week, President Bush threatened to veto the Iraq War Supplemental if Sen. Webb's GI Bill was attached to it:

Bush Administration Rejects Bipartisan Veterans Measure

Opposes New GI BILL to Restore a Free College Education to Veterans,

Grow the Middle Class, and Invest in our Economic Future

As a bipartisan coalition of members of Congress came together with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans to press for a new GI Bill to provide full college scholarships to returning service members yesterday, the Bush Administration said no.

In a letter, Defense Secretary Gates declared his opposition: “Gates also restated long-standing Pentagon opposition to GI Bill educational benefits that are too generous, making it more likely for service members to leave the military to attend college. “Serious” retention issues are expected if benefits exceed the average monthly cost for a four-year public college, including tuition, room, board and fees, Gates said.” [Army Times, 4/30/08]

President Bush also warned at a Rose Garden news conference that he would veto any additions to the Iraq Supplemental spending bill, even as Democratic leaders consider whether to include the GI Bill as an amendment to Mr. Bush's $108 billion supplemental request for 2008 war spending. "I will not accept a supplemental over [$108 billion] or a supplemental that micromanages the war," he said.

Republican Former Senate Armed Services Chairman John Warner calls the Pentagon's opposition "very thin and tenuous." "The flip side of that is putting a big piece of cheese out there will induce more qualified people to join just to get this. It should be a tremendous incentive for recruitment.” [Politico, 4/ 30/08]

This measure will offer the 1.7 million brave men and women who have served in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan educational benefits, on par with those provided to veterans of the World War II era -- making military service more attractive, and strengthening our sagging economy. The original GI Bill launched millions of families on a course of prosperity and toward achieving the American Dream—and set the American economy on the right course after a draining war.

Once Again, Bush Administration Turns its Back on Veterans:

President Bush has a long record of opposing efforts to help our veterans:

  • Opposed A Bigger Military Pay Raise. Last year, the Bush Administration opposed the House-passed Defense Authorization bill – objecting to a range of provisions including those that increased military pay by 3.5 percent calling it “unnecessary.” (The Administration proposed a 3 percent increase.) Ultimately, Congress enacted this increase into law.

  • Opposed Ending the Disabled Veterans Tax. In 2003, President Bush threatened to veto the National Defense Authorization Act over this provision. That year, the White House was forced to drop its opposition, as Congress passed legislation that took a first step in ending the disabled military retirees.
  • Opposed TRICARE for Reservists. In 2003, Secretary Rumsfeld recommended that the President veto the defense bill if TRICARE for Reserve forces was included. In 2006, the Defense bill finally included TRICARE for Reservists.

May 1st, 2008 12:12pm
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The Pentagon's Sleight of Hand in Crafting War Propaganda

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As an Internet Organizer for Progressive Future, I've been busily spreading the otherwise buried reports of the atrocities and abuses committed by military contractors in Iraq. As outraged as they made me, I had to wonder why these stories failed to reach the mainstream American public. Now I know why.

In an extensive article on the front page of Sunday's New York Times, David Bartow exposes how the Pentagon recruited, groomed, prepped and, one may go so far as to say, bribed a team of "military analysts." This team consisted of retired military men, defense lobbyists and private contractor representatives, who were then unleashed upon the mainstream media to deliver manipulated testimony on the war. Highlights of the detailed investigation of the Pentagon's highly strategized manipulation of war reporting are as follows:

-Well before the September 11th attacks, the Pentagon was already preparing a system for achieving what inside officials called "information dominance" to sell the case for an Iraq invasion.

-Participating analysts in the program were courted by Pentagon insiders through briefing sessions during which lavish treatment was extended upon the team; analysts were paid $500 to $1000 per television appearance on one condition: they were not to quote their briefers directly or disclose the extent of their contact with the Pentagon.

-Multiple "Iraq tours" were set up for the analysts to "see what the situation was really like." These trips were planned detail by detail, down to the minute, to ensure none of the war's negatives were exposed. Private contractor representatives took advantage of these tours to set up lucrative contracts for their companies' services in Iraq.

-Analysts who were quoted as giving testimony that could be construed as negative toward the administration were promptly fired.

-Further tactics used to sway public opinion included paying columnists to write favorably about the administration, distributing false news segments to local TV stations, and covertly paying Iraqi newspapers to publish coalition propaganda.

The Pentagon is doing more than just keeping taxpaying Americans and our troops in the dark about what's really going on in Iraq. They are deliberately distorting the information that reaches us to cover up the abysmal failures of the war.

Ironically, while the administration uses the claim of defending American security abroad as justification for the war, they have stripped the American people of our personal security. They are attacking our freedoms at home first by tapping our phones, and now by interfering with the free press that is foundational to a free society. Join Progressive Future's campaign to repair these breaches to our freedom of information by signing our Petition for an Open Press, targeting the news networks and calling for the removal of any "military analyst" whose conflicts of interest prevent him or her from unbiased reporting.

April 21st, 2008 6:24pm
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5 Years, 4 Thousand U.S. Deaths and $500 Billion Later...

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Whether you measure it by the lives that have been lost, the sap of taxpayer money, the loss of accountability or the breach of the numerous laws and institutions that make up the foundation of our country, the Iraq War has cost us. It is astounding that our leaders have the stomach to be aware of all these costs and can still look us in the eye and tell us this war has been anything but an abominable failure. Here are the highlights of the latest befuddlements in the Bush administration's handling of the war:

*The end of March saw the bloodiest two-week period we have experienced since September 2007, resulting in the loss of 25 American lives in fourteen days. That week, on the same day a roadside bomb claimed over 50 lives, Dick Cheney and John McCain visited Iraq; McCain told CNN, “We are succeeding. And we can succeed, and American casualties overall are way down.”

*A lawsuit waged against KBR regarding the senseless death of Sgt. Ryan Maseth due to negligence in electrical wiring has uncovered details that the private contracting company's failure to fix reported faulty wiring led to the deaths of at least eleven other troops.
Details probing into the suicide of Army Colonel Ted Westhusing in Iraq found that greed and corruption in the attitudes and behaviors of his commanders was a contributing factor to his emotional distress. One of his commanders? David Petraeus.

*On March 11th, the Senate Appropriations Committee held a hearing on waste, fraud and abuse of American tax dollars in Iraq, which described corruption in contracts as “widespread” and “rampant,” and found that “poor accountability has resulted in thousands of weapons provided by the U.S. to Iraqi security forces being stolen, looted, or otherwise provided to insurgents and militias to use against U.S. troops.”

It's too late to get our money back. But its not too late to demand that our leaders use our tax money in a responsible manner that contributes to, not undermines, our security. Progressive Future has launched a brand-new website to provide our supporting activists with the tools and resources necessary to launch an all-out campaign to change the direction of our country. This new site includes features such as a weekly cartoon like the one above, daily updated news you can use, recent outrages, and direct action opportunities, like our petition to call for contractor accountability. Join Progressive Future in taking back our country.

April 15th, 2008 5:35pm
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The Future Is Ours

(NOTE: Originally published Nov 5th, 2004 on musicforamerica.org.)
It's official, the "kids didn't show up" spin is bull:

Despite long lines and registration snafus, voters under age 30 clocked the highest turnout percentage since 1972. The good news is that America's young people are more engaged in politics than at any time in two generations. Aging cynics have been quick to blame the kids for a host of political lapses, but the cynics have it wrong.

What's more, in battleground states -- where MfA and a host of others did the bulk of their work -- turnout was above 60%, and broke for Kerry by an average of almost 20 points.

Florida? Ours.
Ohio? Ours.
Colorado? Ours.
Virgina? Missouri? Arkansas? Ours.

Our generation did it's part and then some, and most of us will stick with it. Our choice was Kerry by a landslide. The future belongs to us, not the moral minority. Some in the media don't quite get it. If you see people bitch about our performance, send a letter to the editor to set the record straight. We should all be damn proud of what we've accomplished.

I posted this over on the Daily Kos, probably the highest-traffic liberal blog on the planet. It got to the front page and there are more than 300 comments. See what people are saying.

Here's what the electoral vote map looks like for our people. Read it and weep, Karl:

Young Voter Map

June 26th, 2006 5:30pm
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We Don't Need Bush to Fix Our Culture

(Ed Note - Originally published in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer on June 24, 2004)

At a recent news conference President Bush declared it was his job to change our culture -- to replace a "do what feels right" mentality with an "Era of Responsibility." The image is comic; one could almost imagine Bush wearing a trucker hat emblazoned "Jesus is My Homeboy" as he spoke. Well, on behalf of the culture he so desperately wants to reform, thanks, but no thanks, Mr. President.

Don't get me wrong; responsibility is a good thing. It's just that a man who evasively describes his first 40 years of life by saying "I did some irresponsible things when I was young and irresponsible" doesn't really have the credibility to tell anyone how to live their life. Especially when his conception of responsibility has less to do with personal accountability and more to do with a punitive, fundamentalist version of morality. The hypocrisy reeks and our generation has grown up with a knack for sniffing it out.

June 15th, 2006 4:05pm
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