The Military

Among the first things we need to determine is whether Vice President "Bite Me" considers this a "big f--king deal.”

"Bite Me" is the name an aide to Afghanistan military commander Gen. Stanley McChrystal gave to Mr. Biden, if we are to believe a new piece in Rolling Stone by freelance reporter Michael Hastings. Hastings was apparently given close access to McChrystal and his crew, and it is certainly a big f--king deal for them. Read more...

A.B. Stoddard gets the opinion of Democratic and Republican strategists Chris Kofinis and John Feehery on Gen. Stanley McChrystal's comments about the administration's Afghanistan strategy that will be revealed in an upcoming Rolling Stone article. 

Note to a friend on 2012:

Marty: We are at the moment in a political trough; the benign phase of the “electricity” in the political cycle. This is an organic counterflow to the fierce peak that came about by years of war under Bush and Cheney. That was a vastly difficult transition — from peaceful pursuits to strenuous warfare virtually overnight after 9/11. When Wes Clark ran for president in 2004, he said to a small group of us here in New Hampshire: “Bush’s war is not America’s war, but in five years it will be.” By 2012 it will be.

By far the most respected institution in America today is the military. Polls show that people trust the military more than the Congress, the president, major corporations, the church, Hollywood, the postal service and just about anything else you can think of.

Our troops are currently fighting two big wars (one in Afghanistan, the other in Iraq) and a bunch of smaller conflicts around the globe. The president recently deployed 1,500 National Guardsmen to the Southwestern border to help fight illegal immigration, over the objections of Republicans, who wanted to triple the number. Some want the military to help fight the battle against the Gulf Oil spill. Others want to call out the troops to help secure inner cities racked by violence (more specifically, Chicago).

I stand with groups representing heroic troops, patriotic veterans and America's military families and oppose exempting auto dealers from the consumer-protection provisions of the financial bill.

This is a new low, even by the low standards of what money can buy in Washington. On Monday the United States Senate voted to exempt auto dealers from the consumer protection provision of the bill. As supporters of our troops, military families and veterans know well, there have been cases of auto dealers ripping off military families and active-duty troops.

The deal with these are that rank-and-file employees know what's going on and how to do better.

Some simple tech enables people to discuss ideas and get them to the boss.

I just finished meeting with a bunch of VA employees from around the country, including nurses, doctors, claims processing (eligibility) guys, etc. They really know the system, and I learned a lot.

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Archived under: The Military

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The folks at the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America helped get this bill passed, a big deal since it addresses IAVA's key recommendations for female veterans and caregivers of severely disabled veterans.

What this means for veterans and their families:

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Archived under: The Military

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The deal is that the Iraq & Afghanistan Veterans of America really does cover the backs of vets of the current wars.

They're working with Congress to genuinely support the troops, not just talk about it.

So, I came home last week to hear that traffic in Washington was going to be completely screwed up because of some nuclear weapons summit.  

Nuclear weapons summit?  

Are you kidding me?