Draft or no Draft

A young friend who is of draft age recently wrote a blog about the possibility of a draft and his attitude about the draft inspired me to right this blog. http://lifewithmikeredd.blogspot.com/
The United States' all-volunteer military should be seen as a remarkable achievement. It has provided a large, well-motivated, adaptable, and high-quality armed force. Countries that maintain conscription do so as much for social as military necessity and I do agree with Congressman Rangel when he said, "I truly believe that those who make the decision and those who support the United States going into war would feel more readily the pain that's involved, the sacrifice that's involved, if they thought that the fighting force would include the affluent and those who historically have avoided this great responsibility." He is right we would not so easily get in to some illegal war if there was a true draft without deferments. In Vietnam there was a draft but only for the poor or the affluent that chose to serve. The otherwise well connected or rich could find a deferment, Dick Chaney found five, or a convenient medical deferment, Rush Limbaugh found a cyst on his ass, or slot in some safe state side assignment, Dubya’s daddy found one for him in the Texas Air National Guard. While there is little historical support that volunteers perform any differently than conscripts. All soldiers do better when they believe in what they are doing and a national draft is only beneficial if only true medical or mental deferments or applicable.
According to the results of the First Comprehensive National Survey on the Draft:
32 % seek deferment
20 % would seek deferment
43 % of draft age Americans, say they would serve.
32 % of parents would want their child to avoid serving
08 % percent would encourage child to seek deferment
71 % of Americans are concerned about the capacity of the military to meet overseas' commitments and defend the United States from attack.
58 % are concerned about the possibility that the United States could be headed for a military draft in the near future.
51 % of Americans believe that the war in Iraq was not worth the cost.
63 % say that the draft is likely to be reinstated if there was another terrorist attack on U.S. soil;
65 % say likely if terrorist cells spread and troops are needed to prevent future attacks;
76% say likely if two or more of these events occur at the same time.
71% said women would be included
65 % said it would allow for student deferrals
61% said it would operate on a lottery system
Full report at; http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=35174

Give Veterans Greatest Priority for Funding

In recent congressional budget hearings, funds to study ways to prevent and cure battle-created brain damage have been reduced by approximately 50%. At a time when American soldiers are still being injured in the "war against terror," what is the message being sent by Congress when lawmakers claim to lack the funding to deal with war injuries? Ralph Hall voted for the bill that includes this callous budget cut. Shame on him. He should know better.

President Bush has not submitted an adequate budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs since he took office. Year after year, he has offered budgets that have sought to make veterans pay more out of their own pockets for health care. The Bush Administration has dramatically increase co-payments for prescription drugs, proposes various methods of generating additional revenue that artificially reduces the demand for VA health care. They use false projections so that they can claim budget increases. Examples of this include the counting of revenue from co-payments and third-party insurers as part of the President's request now a standard practice for the Administration, and shifting retirement funds from another government agency.

Now is the time for the Democratic majority in Congress to rid themselves of the influence of lobbyists and corporations who are interested only in enriching those who need enriching the least and who profit from the illegal war in Iraq. Now is the time for a change from the callousness of the present Administration and the soon to be ex majority of Congress. We must make sure that the new Congress gets back to taking care of the people we asked to risk life and limb to protect our freedoms. We must demand that these brave men and women have earned the greatest priority for government spending.

Bigot Back for the GOP

Trent “The Bigot” Lott is back. Wow, it is downright stupefyin the Repulseicans are showing their true colors again, and it is cracker white. The choice of their leader in the senate is telling. Who did they say will lead them? A good old southern fried bigot who worshiped at the throne of the all time hypocrite and noted bigot Strom “The Pecker has no Conscience” Thurman that’s who. Just when you thought they may have turn a corner on diversity and inclusion with the likes of Colon Powell and Condi Rice in their party, they make a giant u-turn right back to the days of the KKK. They say it is just political and that Trent Lott can handle the Democrats power base in congress better than anyone else. They need a strong force to be reckoned with to battle the Dems. The American people only see a bigot returning to power. The Democrats in congress are rejoicing at this choice. The politics of the past are not what the elections were about and the choice of the GOP to lead them in the Senate shows me just how out of touch with the electorate they really are.

Wanna be Blue wants to know what you think.

Farmers Branch, Texas has taken several steps to deal with illegal immigrants.
How much would you like your city to follow Farmers Branch's lead?
What other actions do you think local governments should take?

For background, Farmers Branch has decided to:
Make English the official language of the city.
Require landlords to check immigration status of potential residents before they sign a lease.
Work closely with the federal government to cross-check people in its jail with federal databases tracking illegal immigrants wanted on federal warrants.

Phone Cards for the Troops

THE GRAYSON COUNTY DEMOCRATIC PARTY

The Grayson County Democratic Women presented a check for $2,025.00 to the Women's Auxiliary of the VFW in Sherman Thursday evening to purchase and distribute phone cards for the troops. Verizon matched the amount by sending 200 - 60 minute prepaid phone card worth $10 each which will also be distributed by the VFW. The Grayson County Democratic Women raised the funds thru 3 bake sales across the county. KXII channel 12 TV covered the presentation. Christina Johnstone presented the check and phone cards to Margaret Webber, president of the Auxiliary. Ms. Johnstone said that 100% of the money raised will go toward purchasing phone cards for the troops and with the Verizon cards the total proceeds amounted to $4,025.00. She thanked Susan Meyer & Lynn Duggan for their special contributions and all the volunteers for donating their time, talents and baked items in making these bake sales such a success. Special thanks went to the people Grayson County for purchasing baked goodies and making generous contributions to this wonderful cause. She said the bake sales will be a yearly event. Ms. Johnstone said, "It's important to the troops to know that we are behind them, and it's important the community and each individual that participates in this sort of thing because it's just a heartfelt blessing that you receive."

Secure The Vote

Like many areas of Texas my county, in order to comply with the Help America vote Act, passed after 2000, chose an electronic voting system without a paper trail. The Direct Recording Electronic voting system (“DRE”), ES&S iVotronic, the system chosen, has recently been sited as vulnerable to an electronic attack and poses a real danger to the integrity of national, state, and local elections.

In 2005, the Brennan Center for Justice convened a Task Force of internationally renowned government, academic, and private-sector scientists, voting machine experts and security professionals, to conduct the nation's first systematic analysis of security vulnerabilities of the most commonly purchased electronic voting systems. Their conclusion; Voting systems without voter verified paper trails do not have available to them a powerful countermeasure to software attacks and post election audits that compare paper records to electronic records. Read their report summary at http://www.civilrights.org/issues/voting/lccr_brennan_report.pdf

CNN anchor Lou Dobbs has devoted 10 nights of coverage throughout the month of June 2006 to the vulnerabilities of paperless voting machines. His coverage concluded that in 2004 only 27% of voters cast their ballots on voting machines in states requiring a paper trail. But this year, 65% of voters have a paper trail or are about to have one. Paper trails are now in the majority. Texas has no such requirements and the decision require them is left to local officials.

A bill before congress H.R. 550 – the Voter Confidence and Increased Accessibility Act, would require paper trails in every voting machine in the nation. Please urge your representative in Congress to take up the fight for passage of this bill. This should be a bipartisan issue since it is about the integrity of each election conducted on these machines.

As the Brennan Center for Justice said, "These machines are vulnerable to attack. That's the bad news. The good news is that we know how to reduce the risks and the solutions are within reach."