Ohio Blues

I'm pretty disappointed this morning. I really thought Paul Hackett would win the Congressional seat in Ohio last night. I know that it's a really Republican district and all, and that the race was super-close, but still... You'd think in this era of "support the troops" that people would support an Iraq war veteran. Oh, but wait. I forgot. He's a Democrat so he is not worth supporting. Interesting that Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are all in favor of respecting and supporting "our brave men and women" and fall all over themselves kissing the butts of any serviceperson who calls in to the their shows, but they feel okay with trashing one of these people and besmirching their reputation if he doesn't believe the same things they do.

I was reading a message board the other day where a similar thing was happening. A Republican was complaining about the bumper sticker "I support the troops, but I don't support Bush." He was arguing back and forth with an active duty serviceman because the serviceman was praising the bumper sticker as 'telling the truth' about how most of the troops feel. He pretty much was spewing bile and calling the serviceman "pathetic" and a "disgrace," merely for expressing his opinion. Of course, the Repug had never been in the service, so that was interesting, too.

Here's one of the things the serviceman wrote: "I'm active duty. I'm speaking out against the President. Like most of my comrades, I know very well my life is on the line for some a$$hole's oil reserves. I also know my tour will pay for my college and give me a shot at a decent life. That's why I'm here. That's why we're all here. Thank God for people who have the intelligence to see that supporting us is the opposite of supporting that chimpanzee in the Oval Office."

Well, unfortunately, Chimpanzee put the troops there, and while I'm sure that they cannot openly be defiant of their commander in chief (rather than secretly defiant on the Internet), many of them are probably feeling pretty bitter. I mean, we have so much money as a nation and we can't make sure these people have adequate protection while they're in Iraq cleaning up the mess we all made? To me, that's what supporting the troops is. Make sure these guys have kevlar, for crying out loud. How about some new equipment that doesn't malfunction? The Operation Truth web site is very illuminating; it's written by people who have returned from Iraq and their true stories. www.optruth.org I should add that to our list of links.

Unfortunately, you can't fit all of that onto a yellow ribbon.

Back to the Hackett race -- I heard this morning that the places where Hackett was the least popular was in the 'exurbs,' the areas that are beyond the established suburbs where they are building all of the gated communities and McMansions. Draw your own conclusions.