Military could be swing vote in '04

The Atlanta Journal Constitution ^ | November 30, 2003 | SCOTT SHEPARD

[BOOTSTICK]

Bush has an electorial lock, just as Reagan did in 1984. Bush will win the entire south, 2/3 of the midwest, and N.Y.
and will do so regardless of the Milit. vote.

[R. Scott]

This is more than offset by all the terrific things Bush and the Republicans have done for retired, disabled, and just plain normal, veterans

Right!

[R. Scott]

Hopefully. As much as I dislike some of the Republican policies, the Democrats (AKA American Socialist Party) is even less desirable. The Active Military has traditionally been a Republican voting block due largely to the traditional Democrat’s blatant disrespect for them.
Neither party shows much actual respect for veterans and retirees – except for the occasional tossed bone and lip service when politically necessary. We’re just too small a voting block to wield much power.

[edwin hubble]

Could you explain the Disabled Veterans Tax?

I pay about the same in taxes per month but am not subject to this tax.

[fightin kentuckian]

If, as many have said, people vote their pocketbook. Try this on for size.

Under Clinton the gap between military pay and civilian pay had grown to 13.5 percent. And pay raises were capped at .5 percent below, I SAY AGAIN, .05 PERCENT BELOW the rate of inflation, guaranteeing that the gap would grow.

Under Bush, the gap has decreased to about 5.5 percent (in less than three years) and the pay raises have been capped at .5 percent above, ABOVE, the rate of inflation.

Also, the pay scales have been reworked to favor mid career and Sr NCOs and mid career officers. This was done without affecting pay raises for anyone else.

Another thing, now we are soldiers doing a soldiers job instead of these endless and thankless peace keeping missions where we were nothing more than UN lackeys with wishy washy rules of engagement that was sure to get us killed, all for a blue helmet. We finally have a purpose and are doing the job that we were trained to do.

Believe me, many soldiers know where their bread is buttered and will vote for Bush. As long as Bush gives us the tools to do what we have to and stays out of our way when we're doing it, he can't go wrong. (However, if he promised to close the pay gap in the next year, that wouldn't hurt at all)

[KarlInOhio]

The Dems were trying to get ballots that were not postmarked before the election but received after the election disqualified. Hell, they even tried to get those received before the election disqualified because they weren't postmarked.

That points to some things that need to be fixed in the military's handling of mail. First, every absentee ballot should be postmarked. Second, in lieu of a postmark, perhaps a dated signature from someone (higher officer maybe) should be accepted. Third, a big push should be made to get those in the military to send in absentee ballots earlier (listen to the Dems howl about that one. "Bush orders military to vote for him"). The Dems took aim at a problem in verifying the date a ballot was sent. We need to fix that hole so they can never try to use it again.

Now if we could just fix the thousand and one methods of vote fraud the Dems use every election.

[Marie]

Openly claiming there will be a direct correlation between a pay increase and a vote is pretty cynical.

But it's true. Under Cliton (oops... did I misspell that?) we were taken down to a skeleton crew and didn't see an honest cost of living adjust for YEARS. His administration showed nothing but contempt for our service members. In the last three years our paychecks, housing and morale have all risen sharply. (Whoopie! E-5's can get off WIC and food stanmps!) The only way things will conitnue to get better for us is if the POTUS stays put. The soldiers and families who have dedicated our lives (and lifestyles) to defending our country owe a LOT to Bush, personally.

[TrueBeliever9]

Before Clinton's Secretary of Defense - Cohen - left office he issued an order to stop voting on many military installations. How he and Clinton determined which forts, bases, camps, etc. they wanted to enforce that the military could not vote on them I do not know. I do know that this will make it very difficult for many of our military to vote as they will have to go off base.

Information Technology Association of America

http://www.itaa.org/

Is the leading the effort for electronic voting and this is what they want to enforce upon the military. Harris Miller, President, is a good friend and huge supporter of the Clintons. He works closely with Bill and Hill.

[TrueBeliever9]

PING see the post above

[TrueBeliever9]

For your archive

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[VOA]

bump

[cardinal4]

In fact, the military might have become yet another special interest group of swing voters to be wooed in tight elections.

This is pure Barbara Streisand. What will render the military vote a "swing" vote, will be the massive fraud perpetrated by the Dems. They know the military would never vote for Hillary or Gore, so they have to be squelched, lost, stolen or made unusable. I can just picture some liberal dem secstate of a red state saying," Sorry folks, the military absentees got rained on, we cant use'em!"

[R. Scott]

The Disabled Veterans Tax is referred to by the administrations as “concurrent receipt”.
I retired disabled after over twenty years of military service. Because of this my VA disability payment is subtracted from my Army retirement. The reasoning is that we are paid for our disability with the tax break given for being disabled.
This reasoning applies only to military retirees. If a civil servant retires disabled both the disability and the regular retirement is drawn.
If I had left the military at nineteen years and worked civil service – or any other job – it would not be subtracted and my nineteen years of military service would be counted as federal service towards retirement. Only military retirees must forfeit the VA disability payment.
I have been informed by the Whiter House that my $1560 a month makes me “well off”.

[DLfromthedesert]

They won't run the late Scoop Jackson. But they could probably count on his vote.

[Sparta]

I've heard Hillary's sock puppet, General Wesley Clark, is about as popular in military ranks as a skunk at a picnic.

I know troops who fought under him in the Balkans and they can't wait to vote against him. And they have some very uncomplimentary things to say against him.

[Criminal Number 18F]

Note that the only two reps of veteran's groups quoted are two Democrat-aligned fringe groups, the VVA (which descended from the wing of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War which was not overtly Marxist, and which has a long history of being led by phonies and wannabees) and some group of "Veterans for Apeasement in Iraq" or some such essentially Democrat, white-flag outfit.

The VVA is responsible for a lot of people's misconceptions of Vietnam vets as drugged out, homeless losers. They can always produce a batch of drugged-out scraggly-bearded losers in camouflage on demand for a press event -- it's damn rare to find a veteran in the batch, let alone a Vietnam veteran.

Funny that none of the several much larger groups (American Legion, VFW, Amvets, DAV) were asked for their opinion. Maybe they were and it didn't fit into this opinion piece.

The idea that the active military would support surrender bunnies like Dean or a stands-for-nothing appeasenik like most of the rest of the Nine Dwarves (a term that is insulting to Micro-Americans) is a candidate for Pipe Dream of the Week. My advice to hopeful partisans like Scott Shepard of the AJC: "put down the bong and come out with your hands up!"

d.o.l.

Criminal Number 18F

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!!

[Lysandru]

Will someone ask the clown who wrote this article just what in the f*** Democriminals have done for America's fighting men and women?

This is pure progaganda. It must be tougher and tougher to be a Democrat in today's armed forces.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the ping!