Great, BLUNT Video here: Support Our Troops
“…support for the young men and women in uniform despite the mistakes of our politicians.” Dave Von Ebers:
VIDEO- Special BLUNT: Support Our Troops | The Political Carnival.
Veteran’s Friend
This is just a news release but the word should be spread about this great guy:
State Rep. Chris Turner Named Legislator of the Year by the Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars
First Freshman to Receive Prestigious Award
AUSTIN – Today State Representative Chris Turner was named “Legislator of the Year” by the Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). With over 90,000 members and 403 posts across the state, the Texas VFW is the largest veterans organization in the state. The award was presented during the opening joint session of the annual VFW state convention.
According to the Texas VFW, Turner is the first freshman legislator to receive this award.
“Representative Chris Turner has been a staunch advocate for our state’s veterans and their families,” said Roy Grona, Texas VFW State Adjutant-Quartermaster. “Because of his work and leadership on veterans issues, more Texas veterans are getting the help they need and deserve.”
“I am incredibly honored and humbled by this recognition,” Turner said. “The Texas Veterans of Foreign Wars are the true heroes to the 1.7 million veterans in our state. I am proud of the work we did to pass the lottery scratch-off bill, which is benefitting countless veterans across the state of Texas.”
During the 81st Legislative Session, Representative Turner authored and passed several pieces of legislation benefitting veterans and their families. Most notably, Turner authored House Bill 1299, creating a scratch-off lottery ticket to benefit the Permanent Fund for Veterans’ Assistance (FVA). The FVA provides grants to aid veterans and their families in times of financial need and support PTSD counseling and other veterans’ services. The lottery ticket was released on November 9, 2009 and has raised over $5.5 million for the FVA.
Turner, who was named “Freshman of the Year” by the bipartisan House Veterans Caucus and given the “Leadership Award” from the Texas Veterans Commission and “Legislator of the Year” by the Vietnam Veterans of America, Texas State Council, also passed legislation requiring institutions of higher education to designate a financial aid specialist to be trained on issues related to veterans’ programs, including the GI Bill and the Hazelwood Act.
He was also the House sponsor of legislation to allow state employees, who are members of military reserves or National Guard, to continue to accrue their sick and vacation leave time while they are on active military duty
Camp Victory, Iraq 10K Shadow Run
Run with our troops in Iraq for Veterans everywhere. Nancy can use your help with this one. The Thursday evening might not be ideal, but everyone can sign up or buy a t-shirt and run wherever you’re at. But Jamie and I could use your company: Camp Victory, Iraq 10K Shadow Run.
Over 500 soldiers from Ft. Hood who are stationed at Camp Victory, Iraq are running a 10K sponsored by Operation Honor Our Heroes (http://www.honorheroes.org). Communities from the Greater Austin area as well as Ft. Hood & III Corps will be gathering to show support and appreciation for those soldiers from the Central Texas area stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan right now as well as the rest of our Armed Forces. We will be broadcasting the event in Iraq live on the Jumbo Tron here at the Round Rock Athletic Complex in Round Rock for everyone to see. So, come out and support our troops and catch a glimpse of the soldiers overseas at Camp Victory. We will “Shadow” their run simultaneously at the Stadium. This event is free to the public unless participating in the untimed or chip timed 5K or 10K Run. The Run will start at 9:30 P.M. CST to coincide with the 5:30 A.M. start in Iraq. If you cannot be with us here in the Austin area, please feel free to run/walk wherever you live.
Camp Victory, Iraq 10K Shadow Run.
Free Round Rock Express tickets will be given to the first 500 registrants!
How was your Fourth of July this year?
How was your Fourth of July this year?
Mine was great. The Fourth is my favorite holiday. It is at a better time of year than most for me (I like the hot weather) and contains fewer of the commercial pressures that we’ve put on other holidays. There are no religious overtones one way or another and even FOX news hasn’t started a “War on the Fourth” campaign that I know of.
I like the patriotic music so much that I tape “A Capitol Fourth” on PBS to play back later and have to fit at least one 1812 Overture in there someplace. I love watching fireworks but am satisfied to let others risk burning down apartment hedges and expensive telephone cables (not that I’d know anything about that). This year I wasn’t even subjected to some singer trying to imitate a crack addicts’ warbling of the Star Spangled Banner. Just sing it please, and let me hear those horns and drums.
This year I visited the Fort Hood Freedom Fest, even ran in the little 5K Run/Walk sponsored by the post. It’s a great little carnival and celebration of the troops and family readiness groups that hawk drinks and ice cream. They even had Captain America walking around the fairground. The marvelous First Cavalry Division Horse Detachment rode an impressive demo. There was an impressive skateboarding demonstration including Jon Comer, an inspirational and talented skater who has a prosthetic leg.
I had a great cookout supper with old friends from my Army days. I was able to brag about my daughter preparing to graduate from Advanced Individual Training at Fort Leonard Wood and we laughed and admired motorcycles and tattoos. We missed those separated by distance, like the great Shane in Iowa. He used his GI Bill to get an education and is a manager in a factory, involved in his community, about to be married, and is living the story of America’s newest Greatest Generation. We missed troop commanders, platoon leaders, and the squadron commander, training thousands of others in California and about the finest officer one could imagine. We told stories of the greatest command sergeant major to ever exaggerate a story or shout “woo-hoo” as he ran to the sounds of the guns. Any gun. Any where!
In a scene typical of probably too many military reunions we encouraged and listened to the youngest trooper at the table. Blown up twice in the same day in January 2007, he struggles with Post Traumatic Stress and other injuries. There was a sense of fatalism about him. ”I think the VA is just trying to wait me out,” he said, holding his daughter from a marriage struggling with the changes that he’d undergone. We’d each had our own experiences with the VA and they cover a wide range. I’ve been extremely well treated by the VA and even the recommendations made that I was highly dubious about have proved to be true. Tom’s now into his second year of waiting for an appeal to a case where the VA’s ratings disagreed with their own recommendations. It’s ridiculous and shouldn’t happen in a modern system. The same for my friend Adam, who has proved the worth of the Vocational Rehab program by attending the Motorcycle Mechanics Institute and becoming immediately employable and highly praised. But when he sought medical care covered under the program, the Corpus Christi VA clinic wouldn’t even in-process him properly.
Between the ribbing and the ribs, each of shared some part of our story with Ryan. And he seemed to take a little heart. I don’t know how his story will turn out. He has many struggles ahead, but I thought it was good that men decades older than him would share their stories and tears and medicine troubles to support and encourage him. And he seemed to listen and to lighten up just a bit. He proudly told me about his IAVA shirt and I was happy to tell them about the Padres game and the Miller HighLife promotion and the legislative trips and fixes planned. In many ways, this small group hit so many of the notes that IAVA tries to play.
It’s been seven years for me since my Fourth was spent sleeping on a HMMWV hood and we were putting together our first hot meal in Iraq. It’s not been seven since Leif Nott died in a hail of fire down the road from that HMMWV or Chris Cutchall was hit by an IED riding in an unarmored HMMWV. For the nearly quarter million American troops spread around the world and not eating Adam and Addy’s chicken and banana pudding, it might have been a trying day. But for me, it was a great Fourth of July and I am very grateful to everyone that made it possible.
Superhighway To Hell
Sounds like the AlterNet but I think this may be a scarily prescient article. Just one more shitty thing we leave to the next generation?:
Companies like Google and Facebook are pioneers in the areas of profiling and search inversion, but the Internet’s nature (distributed, standards-based, open to all) makes it easy for others to follow their lead. Any Web company that owns servers storing user information can participate in profiling, as can any network service provider providing the pipes.
Profiling will take off fast for another reason: It’s legal. It doesn’t have to be an invasive activity. It’s not necessary, for example, to read e-mails or listen in on Skype calls in order to create prescient profiles. “Patterning”–or knowing which sites users visit, with whom they communicate, and how often–provides companies with more than enough data to create a valuable user profile.
Axis of Justice calls out Toronto
I guess Miami should be very proud to have the abusive behavior of local governments named “The Miami Model”
The Toronto police even went one step further this year, claiming that they were arresting people on a just-recently-passed law prohibiting people from getting near the official security fence. People were outraged that this new secret law was passed and not publicized. Until it turned out there was no such law. Yes, police made up their own law, arrested people for breaking it, and then admitted that they’d lied about the whole law thing anyway.
Mashing up federal stats with maps – Nextgov
Fun!
Data.gov, the federal government’s clearinghouse of downloadable information, plans to release new gadgets that will enable the public to easily create mashups of maps and statistics, according to officials working on the enhancements.
via Data.gov’s next big thing: Mashing up federal stats with maps – Nextgov.
US to business: “Take our weapons – please”
This is a real problem and Scott highlights the problem of allowing contractors to keep software proprietary. He doesn’t have to point out what happens when a company that designs weapons and is then acquired by a foreign company, or off-shored – and then we’ve lost control. This problem is bubbling much as the crappy home loan problem bubbled. Eventually someone will be crying “whodathunkit?” John Scott thunk it – that’s who.
For years, the U.S. military has been losing an asymmetric battle that involves not improvised explosive devices, bullets or al-Qaida, but instead swarms of defense industry contractors seizing control of taxpayer-funded ideas because government policy and regulations were engineered to buy iron and steel, not to deploy a software-based military.
Calling an idiot an idiot – a new strategy for the War on Scary Terror Monsters?
I’ve long maintained that your suicide bomber is not the brightest star in Allah’s heaven. This article is great and calls into question the strategy of turning these religious idiots into some kind of supermen. Short of actually starting a speed dating culture in these countries, pointing out how desperately stupid and uncool it is may be a great way of discouraging further jihad-ism. Just in case you think this article exagerattes, please note that Ghulam Sakhi, a “senior Taliban commander” (read: cowardly, bigoted idiot) was killed trying to hide in women’s clothing last week. Ooh – that’s honorable eh?
it’s fair to say that the Taliban employ the world’s worst suicide bombers: one in two manages to kill only himself. And this success rate hasn’t improved at all in the five years they’ve been using suicide bombers, despite the experience of hundreds of attacks—or attempted attacks. In Afghanistan, as in many cultures, a manly embrace is a time-honored tradition for warriors before they go off to face death. Thus, many suicide bombers never even make it out of their training camp or safe house, as the pressure from these group hugs triggers the explosives in suicide vests
via The Case for Calling Them Nitwits – Magazine – The Atlantic.
