Meatstick Opinion: Hillary's Public Service Academy

Hillary has recently spoken about a new idea she has to create a national "Public Service Academy" that would be set up similar to the United States Military Academy. She told a crowd of Democrats yesterday:

"I'm going to be asking a new generation to serve," she said. "I think just like our military academies, we need to give a totally all-paid education to young men and women who will serve their country in a public service position."

I actually think this is a decent idea when taken at face value. I have worked for and with civilian run Department of Defense organizations and the lack of young, intelligent employees is staggering. In fact, the average federal civilian age is 47 and 44% of federal employees are eligible for retirement in the next 5 years. For whatever reason (probably money) young American students don't seem to be attracted to a long life of federal service.

I have some issues with her idea. For one, she is proposing it be placed under the control of the Department of Homeland Security. I think that department already has a big enough job and more important things to worry about. Also, it is estimated that it costs $500,000 to send a student to a service academy for 4 years. Since Hillary's academy would be funded 80% by the government and then subtract roughly $100,000 for military training that wouldn't be involved in a civilian academy, we are looking at around $300,000 per student. When you multiply that by 1,000 students per class you are looking at $300,000,000 for the cost of one graduating class. There have been serious efforts in the past to close the other service academies for this very reason. The only thing that have helped keep them open is their history and what they have done for our country. This new public service academy doesn't have a long history and tradition on their side. Also, Hillary proposes that each student be required to serve as a public servant for 5 years after graduation (similar to the military academies 5 year service obligation). West Point officers are leaving service after their five years at the highest rate in history. From the Boston Globe:

According to statistics compiled by West Point, of the 903 Army officers commissioned upon graduation in 2001, nearly 46 percent left the service last year -- 35 percent at the conclusion of their five years of required service, and another 11 percent over the next six months. And more than 54 percent of the 935 graduates in the class of 2000 had left active duty by this January, the statistics show.

If the new public service academy had graduates leaving public service at rates like West Point, would all this effort to start the school really be worth it? I agree with Hillary that our country needs to come up with a plan to attract young professionals to public service, but I don't think that starting a new academy is really the answer.

Meatstick Proof: Wrigley Field = Gay Bar

There is an old saying in baseball that goes, "Wrigley Field (home of the Cubs) is the world's biggest gay bar."

This video might prove it. Watch what happens to #16 (Aramis Ramirez) after the old, white guy moves out of the way:

Meatstick News: Soldier Suicide

At least 116 soldiers have committed suicide while in Iraq.

It is important to note that none of these are cases that happened after a soldier returns home from Iraq. These are simply numbers of soldiers that have committed suicide in Iraq.

This is a staggering number and I think it is symbolic of some of the larger issues our Armed Forces will be facing as a result of the war in Iraq.

Meatstick Fact: I Wrote Mine Before Huffington Wrote Hers

This is kind of weird. Arianna Huffington, the creator of one of the most famous liberal blog sites, wrote almost the exact same thing that I did in her blog post yesterday about being aware of generals. I just want to make it clear that I wrote mine first. Her post is timed at 4:56 PM EST, mine is dated 4:44 PM EST. See for yourself:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/bush-sets-the-table-for-s_b_58018.html

She might want to find a new line of work when a junior varsity blogger like me beats her to the punch!

Meatstick Opinion: Don't Always Trust Generals

If you have been paying attention to the Iraq war you have undoubtedly heard George Bush claim that we need to trust and listen to our generals in regards to the outcome of the surge. Here is a recent quote by Bush:

''My job . . . is to say to David Petraeus, 'I trust your judgment, I trusted you going in and I trust you now.' '' He calls Petraeus ''the most credible person in the fight at this moment.''

And here is another quote by Tony Snow:

"Now, if you take recommendations about how to proceed, along with the President's determination to follow the advice of generals, then you have the prospect that there may be some shift in posture or strategy based on the realities on the ground."

The administration likes to tell us we must listen to generals because they realize that the majority of Americans are clueless on military operations. Using generals as a facade, the administration can dodge questions and then try to make us believe that we are all stupid when it comes to the situation in Iraq...and the generals will set us straight.

Well, beware from now on when you hear anything about generals "on the ground." It turns out that there is a high ranking, 3 star general that is about to be stripped of his stars because of the way he misled the investigation into the death of NFL star, Army Ranger Pat Tillman. According to ABC News 7 officers in all will be punished:

The most severe punishment is planned for Lt. Gen. Philip Kensinger. Kensinger is accused of misleading investigators about when he knew the truth about circumstances surrounding Tillman's death.

My point here is that generals are people too and they can and do make mistakes. So, the next time you hear President Bush throw out something like, "we need to listen to our generals on the ground," please take that statement at face value.

It's just unfortunate that President Bush didn't trust generals back in 2003 before the war when 4 star General Shinseki was asked how many soldiers would be needed for the impending invasion of Iraq:

I would say that what's been mobilized to this point -- something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We're talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that's fairly significant, with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so it takes a significant ground- force presence to maintain a safe and secure environment, to ensure that people are fed, that water is distributed, all the normal responsibilities that go along with administering a situation like this.

Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Wolfowitz didn't listen to their general. Shinseki retired shortly after and NO senior officials from the administration were present at his retirement ceremony.

Meatstick Fact: Health Benefits of Red Wine

They say that one glass of wine a day is good for you. That may be true. One thing I know for sure is that 11 glasses of wine a day is not good for you.



This is all, goodnight.

Meatstick Opinion: This Guy Is Cool

This guy might actually be cooler than Dennis Kucinich:

Meatstick News: Democrat On Strike

I was in the car for 13 hours yesterday. With my satellite radio broken I was forced to hit the scan button on my terrestrial radio 900 times as I drove through the various farm towns throughout Northern California and Oregon. I quickly realized that this is how AM radio breaks down in rural areas:

60% Christian, religious channels

35% Conservative talk shows

4% Sports talk
1% Other

This left me in a bad spot since I'm just a tad liberal and haven't been to church in a while. While I do love sports, I get sick of hearing about Barry Bonds, Michael Vick, and ARod, which are the only things sports radio stations talk about.
I'm thankful I had the other 1% to keep me sane along the way. On one of these 1% stations I heard a very interesting interview with a man named John Morgan. Morgan is a lawyer from Orlando who has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Democratic party over the last few years. Morgan recently decided to go on "strike" as a Democrat because he is fed up with their handling of the Iraq war since the Democrats have taken control of Congress. The Miami Herald has a good article about his story that can be found here. Here are a few quotes from the article:

Orlando trial lawyer John Morgan, who has personally given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats and helped raise much more, is so fed up with his party's failure to stop the war in Iraq that he canceled an upcoming fundraiser at his home. Take $250,000 and kiss it good-bye.
''I told Chuck Schumer, I'm through,'' he said, referring to the New York senator who heads the Democratic Party's fundraising arm for the Senate. ``As a Democratic donor, I am going on strike.''
Morgan is considering full-page ads in the New York Times, Washington Post and USA Today to encourage other donors to join his boycott, disgusted with the latest effort by Democratic senators to stop the war by pulling an all-nighter.

I'm just a single, insignificant member of the Democratic party. My only way to show my disgust with the war in Iraq is my stupid website. It was a huge relief for me when I heard the story of John Morgan. Here is a guy who has so much money and influence that Chuck Schumer is calling him at his home. People like John Morgan have the ability to make the leaders of the Democratic party realize that people are fed up with any politician who doesn't end the war, regardless of their political party. Hopefully there are many more John Morgan's out there doing their part behind the scenes to make Democrats realize that nobody is giving them a free pass because they have a (D) next to their name.

Meatstick Game: What Do They Have In Common?

What do the following people have in common?

Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi
NBA Star, Lebron James
Iraqi Prime Minister, Nuri al-Maliki
Republican Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell

All of these people will be taking most of the month of August off.

The House of Representatives calendar says the "Summer District Work Period" is Aug 6th-31st (they come back just in time to take a 3 week vacation for Labor Day). The Senate allots vacation from Aug 6th-Sep 3rd. Similarly, the Iraqi parliament will be off the whole month of August. I guess that only makes sense since we helped them form their government. I hope they get Labor Day off too!

I'm just glad General Patreus isn't taking the month of August off since he is supposed to deliver a groundbreaking assessment of the "surge" in September.

Meatstick Opinion: Draft College Republicans

This is hilarious and scary all at the same time. More hilarious though.

Max Blumenthal goes to the College Republican Convention with his videocamera. What he comes away with is priceless. There is no doubt in my mind that if we had a draft, this war would be over tomorrow. See for yourself:


Untitled from huffpost and Vimeo.

Meatstick News: The War Goes On

The vote on the Iraq withdrawal came down to a 52-47 vote. Unfortunately that is 8 less than the 60 needed to bring the issue to a serious vote. This bill, approved by 3 REPBULICANS, would have started troop withdrawal in 120 days, with all troops removed by the end of April 2008.

The vote turned out pretty much as expected. Nobody believed that the bill would pass with 60 votes in favor. However, as I read through the dissenting opinions I came across a few good quotes courtesy of Kentucky Republican Senator, Mitch McConnell. He was quoted as saying:

“We’ve been down this road before. When the President decided to change course in Iraq last year, Democrats said his new strategy wouldn’t work. They called it a failure before it began. And now, just one month after that strategy became fully manned, they’re calling it a failure again — even as it’s started to show signs of military success."

What the hell does Mitch McConnell know about military success? Mitch McConnell entered active duty military in July of 1967. He proceeded to serve approximately 5 WEEKS before he was medically discharged from the Army. Sure, every Senator is entitled their own opinion about the issues, but Mitch McConnell knows as much about military success as the Cubs know about World Series success.

This is an old website, but definitely a good one. It shows the military service, mostly lack thereof, for many of the hard line supporters of the war in Iraq:

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0434,robbins,56166,1.html

Meatstick News: Iraq Video and Article

My friend Marc sent me a great article and video that goes along with it. Marc was my roommate in Iraq for a year. This article is about our old unit (brigade), the 3rd Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. Marc and I are both out of the Army, but our old unit is on their 14th month of their current deployment (the second deployment in 3 years).

If you don't have the time to watch the video in the upper right hand corner AND read the article, then I would ask you to please just take the 2 mintues and watch the video. It is a pretty powerful look into the lives of these soldiers and they end up speaking very freely about what they think of their current mission in Iraq.

For those of you that would like to claim "liberal media bias" please realize that this story and video comes from the words of the soldiers themselves, not some liberal reporter.

Here is the link to the article:

The video is in the upper right hand corner.

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3383389&page=1


Taking 2 minutes to watch this is the least you could do today.

Meastick Idea: Self Made Bumper Stickers

I have an idea to make my own bumper sticker for the upcoming election. Here are some of the ideas I had:

"Barack Obama didn't turn me into a liberal, George W. Bush did"

"If Republicans are against wasting tax dollars, then why did the government pay Halliburton $90 dollars a day for me to eat doughnuts every morning when I was in Iraq?"

"Sometimes I hope Hillary wins so that Republicans know what it's like to get sick to your stomach every time you see the President."

Please feel free to think of some good ones on your own and let me know what you come up with!

Meatstick Picture: This is What a Horse's Ass Looks Like

Here is what happens when an Irish dude goes to the beach and tries to put sunscreen lotion on himself:

Meatstick Question: Why Does the Military Vote Republican?

During my five years in the military I often felt uncomfortable around the majority of my peers whenever the topic of politics came up. More often than not I was the lone liberal in a sea of conservatives. Being a Democrat in the military is like being the Jewish kid at public school during Christmas, or like being a White Sox fan at Wrigley Field during a Cubs game, or like being the person in the group who doesn't like wine when you are on a trip to Napa Valley. Sometimes I would try to explain to others around me that it makes no sense for people in the military to support Republicans but most times I would just keep my mouth shut and realize that they have been brainwashed and I wasn't going to change their mind. Most people in the military I talked to were Republicans long before Sept 11th. I assumed that they thought all Democrats wanted to take away their hunting rifles and let gays get married. Then came Sept 11th. That terrible event in history, along with the war in Iraq, oddly seemed to only strengthen their beliefs because soldiers felt that Republicans were sending them off to protect the American soil.

A few days ago Jim Webb, a Democrat from Virginia, gave a speech in reference to an amendment he was proposing to the Defense Authorization Act. You can read his moving speech at this site. Senator Webb has a long military history (US naval academy graduate, Vietnam veteran, former Secretary of the Navy) and is the father of a Marine who has served in Iraq. He simply wanted to attach an amendment to the current Act that would allow soldiers to have as much time at home that they served overseas. For example, if your unit was deployed in Iraq for 14 months, you would have at least 14 months at home until the next deployment. Furthermore, he was trying to get reservists three times the amount of time home that they spent overseas. This bill is clearly a non-partisan issue that supports the soldiers and their families. This is not a Republican or Democratic issue.

Yesterday, Republican Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader, and his fellow Republicans were successful in striking down this amendment and never giving it the chance to see the light of day. He was quoted as saying he was pleased that the amendment "failed to advance to a final vote."

Sadly, I had to dig around to find out about this in the news. It wasn't talked about on any of the major "news channels." For example, a friend told me that Bill O'reilly started off his show by talking about the San Diego Padres having a "gay day" at the ballpark. I don't have much hope, but hopefully someday the people in the military will wake up and realize that Republicans don't really support them and their families.

Meatstick History: First Person To Run out of Gas in a Prius??

I am on vacation in San Diego. My wife and I drove from Seattle in 3 days staying at friends' places along the way. On Friday we accomplished something truly remarkable in hybrid history. We ran out of gas (and battery power) just north of Los Angeles. The Prius gave us warning well in advance that we were low but we decided to power on and make it to an In N Out Burger before filling up. The next thing I knew I was running down the highway in Santa Clarita, CA looking for a Shell station. In 98 degree heat I found the station. This was 1.5 miles later and after I lost 15 pounds that I can't really afford to lose.

The Prius brand is having a rough time in Cali this week. First Al Gore III gets arrested going 100mph with weed in a Prius and then I run out of juice on the highway in one.

To top it off...there is no sun in San Diego, the sunniest city in America. However, San Diego is still nicer with no sun than 98% of America with all the sun in the world.

Meatstick Results: SICKO

The results are in for this weekend at the box office. SICKO was ninth in total gross. However, it was only being shown at 441 theaters compared to Ratatouille (whatever the nut that is) being shown in 3,940. When you look at the average number of people per theater, SICKO jumps up to number two on the list, just behind Ratatouille (whatever the shit that is). SICKO averaged an impressive $10, 204 per theater with Ratatouille coming in at $11,986.

Meatstick Article: Bush Piece in Washington Post

The Washington Post has an excellent article here that gives a good look at how George Bush's policies are affecting his personal life.

Take a minute to read the article. It's a little long but worth the time.

Here was the most interesting part of the article. A quote from Michael Novak, a theologian who has participated in private conversations with Bush:

Much of the discussion focused on the nature of good and evil, a perennial theme for Bush, who casts the struggle against Islamic extremists in black-and-white terms. Michael Novak, a theologian who participated, said it was clear that Bush weathers his difficulties because he sees himself as doing the Lord's work.

Here is the problem. Bush thinks he is doing "the Lord's work." That is exactly what the Islamic terrorists believe. If you listen to web videos of freedom fighters in the Middle East you will find that they are also doing "the Lord's work."
I feel cheated and deceived because when I was serving in Iraq nobody ever told me that I was doing the Lord's work. I guess I should be glad the Army gave me an M-16 instead of a Bible to protect myself.

Thank the Lord this guy only has a year and a half left in office.

Meatstick Opinion: I like Kucinich

I care most about the war in Iraq. This is what Kucinich would do if elected:

1. Announce that the US will end the occupation, close the military bases, and withdraw.
2. Announce that existing funds will be used to bring the troops and the necessary equipment home.
3. Order a simultaneous return of all U.S. contractors to the United States and turn over the contracting work to the Iraqi government
4. Convene a regional conference for the purpose of developing a security and stabilization force for Iraq.
5. Prepare an international security peacekeeping force to move in, replacing U.S. troops, who then return home.
6. Develop and fund a process of national reconciliation.
7. Restart programs for reconstruction and creating jobs for the Iraqi people.
8. Provide reparations for the damage that has been done to the lives of Iraqis.
9. Assure the political sovereignty of Iraq and making sure that their oil isn't stolen.
10. Repair the Iraqi economy.
11. Guarantee economic sovereignty for Iraq
12. Commence an international truth and reconciliation process, which establishes a policy of truth and reconciliation between the people of the United States and Iraq.

If this stuff sounds good to you, think about Kucinich for President...