Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Enlisted Soldiers Oath

 Enlisted Oath: I, ___, do solemnly swear  (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same;  and that I will obey the orders of the president of the United States and the orders of  the officers appointed over me, according to regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God. 

 Officer Oath

Officer Oath: I, A.B., do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.  

http://www.airpower.au.af.mil/airchronicles/apj/apj02/win02/keskel.html

Senate/House Oath

 do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
http://www.emailyoursenator.com/oath.html

Recent news has put the spotlight on Rove, Gonzales, and the rest of the White House aids……has anyone put this one together yet?

Haliburton has just moved or is moving its headquarters to Dubai……Dubai is in the United Arab Emirates……..the United States does not have an extradition treaty with the United Arab Emirates……..hmmm…has anyone checked Cheney’s passport, bank accounts, realty holdings?

 http://www.usextradition.com/bilateralex.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_extradition_treaties

Learned this the other day in one of my Hort. classes….very disturbing to a certain extent. My little house is a 748 sq ft bungalow with a 2 car garage about the same size. When I got done with this equation, my total water shed for 1 in. of rain was 932 gallons, times that by my areas total rain fall and we got roughly 26,000 gallons for the whole year. How does your home/workplace fair? Plug in your numbers below and you’ll have a jaw dropper just like I did.

Okay,

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17218342/ At Mologne House, a struggle to recover. War survivors wrestle with military bureaucracy, personal demons

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17160574/ Forced to battle the system at Walter Reed

For those of you that read these stories and think, damn republicans, I want you to stop and think for a minute….for this to have gotten this bad, this system was falling in disrepair long before this. It does not excuse the fact, just like our own health care system and education system, we the American people allowed our government to do this to our veterans, our sick, and our children. The last of the patriots, that last of the free thinkers was WWII when according to one author (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16906168/) 10% of the population served in the armed forces. But these people also fought for their rights, stood up for themselves and took it upon themselves to keep our government honest.

Now, according to this author, you’d have to knock on 200 doors before you’d find a family affected by the Iraq War. 200 doors….that is 1/2 of 1% of our nations population. The same probably goes for health care and education. If it doesn’t effect me, it doesn’t matter - our congress and senate and president and all his council are those people. They are one of those 199 doors.

Please call your congress person and tell them you do not want Vietnam revisited……fund our VA’s, fix the system, digitize our soldiers records, take responsibility for the people you broke.    

Senate Armed Forces Committee http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/committees.tt?commid=sarme
House Armed Forces Committee http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/committees.tt?commid=hsecu

Thank you

Military Spouse
2nd Deployment Eminent

Forget your football, basketball and baseball teams….a new fantasy league has started here in Minnesota. I haven’t figured out all the rules etc. But it see  ms like a novel way to get people interested in bills, congress, and the legislative process.

Go to http://minnesota.publicradio.org/projects/2007/01/fantasy_legislature/ and check it out.

What do you think?

I have always understood and felt that history plays a big part in our culture. That supposedly, “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it”. However, when history itself has become video games, movies, and now TV commercials, our culture and our future will never learn when it is no longer taken seriously.

 

For those of you that have not seen Rosa Parks and Katrina victims selling Chevy Silverados for GM, please take a look at the following links.

 

This first one is a 24-30 sec promo on the GM website. Look in the lower left had corner for “Our Country, Our Truck” http://www.chevrolet.com/silverado/

 

This link is from Auto Blog and posts two commercial videos, one before editing and one as it was aired Saturday night 10/14 during one of the NFL football games. (I actually saw the entire thing Sat. and was guppy mouthed at the end of it) http://www.autoblog.com/2006/09/26/our-country-our-truck-vids-debuted-no-nukes/

 

Some/most Americans were appalled when politicians used 9/11 footage for campaign material and now it is anything goes. Nothing will shock or torment the new generation of leaders for this country, and am afraid of what the outcome will be.

Two stories came out today. Rumsfeld, Rice OK plan to train Lebanese army http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14171553/ and Military must have proper equipment to be effectivehttp://starbulletin.com/2006/08/03/editorial/editorial01.html.

Most of the Nat’l Guard troops in this area, are either waiting for their Korean/Vietnam era vehicles to be replaced, or the ones that they already took to Iraq once to come back from being gone over in Kansas, Oklahoma, or some other God forsaken Army parking lot in the middle of no where. The reason for this is because the Army doesn’t have the money to ship it to the NG Unit or the State doesn’t have the money to have it shipped.

Anyway enough of that temper tantrum. Why must we be the world’s savior when we can’t take care of ourselves. When the war in Iraq started and the possibility of my husband going was great, I said to myself “Okay, finish the job.” then when the first group of Nat’l Guard members from our area went and this nation went up in arms because they/we were lied to, I thought to myself “They are doing good things over there, water systems, schools, clinics, hospitals up and running. Help to get mayors elected and more.”. The more bad that came out of Washington, the less I had to hold on to as to how I was able to stand behind that uniform. I could stand behind the man…….He’s a good man, my husband ,and so are his guys, my guys. But I can not find a reason for us (US govt) to sink further into this.

Jim talked about clarity today. I used to know what my job was as a military wife and mom. Now what? My husband and son aren’t defending this country’s freedom. They are plastic GI Joe’s in some huge sandbox run amuck. They aren’t defending America, border patrol could do that if these guys were home. There never was a good guy in this war(s).

Don’t give me it’s my patriotic duty, or that I knew this when I married him and all that bull crap. I am very clear where I stand on that. Our president and his seven horseman are sending our men and women to their deaths, sending Middle Eastern women and children to their deaths, and diverting funds to pay for all this from our states and sending more women, children and elderly to their deaths.

Thanks for listening

There is a campaign in my area promoting Instant Run-off Voting (IRV). From what I am able to understand, it is supposed to be better in that it makes candidates show majority rules, promotes clean campaigns, in that, candidates have a wider audience and will have to focus on the issues and policies and not the “slander” type ads/discussions. It is also supposed to eliminate the “wasted vote” because the voter will vote regardless but not for the lesser of two evils or not at all for that particular office.

True? Not True? Will a system give us a better government?

Thanks

Laurie O