This month, nearly all U.S. troops in Iraq will come home — except, of course, for the 4,500 who died there.
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney launched the Iraq war in March 2003 based on lies and misinformation. Soon it turned into a brutal occupation. Besides the 4,500 troops killed, more than 30,000 Americans were wounded, and at least 100,000 Iraqis were killed, most of them civilians.
The war cost us more than $1 trillion, while the cost to our international relations and our own democracy is immeasurable. Think of the words that Bush and Cheney have added to our lexicon: Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, extraordinary rendition, Blackwater, WMD, Halliburton, waterboarding and more.
Bush and Cheney now boast about their misdeeds in this misbegotten war.
Social Justice: Current Affairs, Business, Politics, and all the reasons in the world to Thrive on Creative Discontent!
Showing posts with label veterans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label veterans. Show all posts
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Monday, November 21, 2011
Jobs for Americans; Social Justice Now!!!
Mike McCarry, a 59-year-old veteran who juggles two jobs to make ends meet.
Mike talks about the veterans portion of President Obama's jobs plan -- the piece that Congress passed earlier this month thanks in part to your work, and that the President signed into law today.
But the fight for American jobs continues, and many in Congress -- including almost every single Republican -- still refuse to do the right thing for teachers, cops, firefighters, and middle-class families like they did for our vets.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/share/vets-jobs-video?source=20111121_jk_full&utm_medium=email&utm_source=obama&utm_campaign=20111121_jk_full
It can be easy to get discouraged when members of Congress put party before people and block legislation that would help American families.
But you didn't let up in the fight for our veterans' future. The bill that went to the President's desk for his signature today -- which provides tax credits for small businesses that hire unemployed veterans -- is proof that Congress can still come together and act when Americans demand it.
Here's what's next: After Thanksgiving, the Senate will vote on extending President Obama's payroll tax cut, which puts $1,500 in the pockets of the typical middle-class family.
It's the provision that Mitt Romney called a "little band-aid." But $1,500 wouldn't be a band-aid for me or Mike McCarry -- and probably not for you either.
Our job right now is to make sure Congress does the right thing again.
Mike talks about the veterans portion of President Obama's jobs plan -- the piece that Congress passed earlier this month thanks in part to your work, and that the President signed into law today.
But the fight for American jobs continues, and many in Congress -- including almost every single Republican -- still refuse to do the right thing for teachers, cops, firefighters, and middle-class families like they did for our vets.
http://my.barackobama.com/page/share/vets-jobs-video?source=20111121_jk_full&utm_medium=email&utm_source=obama&utm_campaign=20111121_jk_full
It can be easy to get discouraged when members of Congress put party before people and block legislation that would help American families.
But you didn't let up in the fight for our veterans' future. The bill that went to the President's desk for his signature today -- which provides tax credits for small businesses that hire unemployed veterans -- is proof that Congress can still come together and act when Americans demand it.
Here's what's next: After Thanksgiving, the Senate will vote on extending President Obama's payroll tax cut, which puts $1,500 in the pockets of the typical middle-class family.
It's the provision that Mitt Romney called a "little band-aid." But $1,500 wouldn't be a band-aid for me or Mike McCarry -- and probably not for you either.
Our job right now is to make sure Congress does the right thing again.
Friday, November 11, 2011
Occupy Wall Street: CEO of Goldman Sachs makes $16,000/hour while Unemployment for Young Vets hit 30% and is Rising!!!! God Bless America…
On Veterans Day in America, it’s sobering to realize just how badly the job market has turned against the men and women who fought in Iraq and Afghanistan.
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data: while the job market is slowly improving for most Americans, it’s moving in the opposite direction for Gulf War II vets (defined by the BLS as those on active duty since 2001). The youngest of veterans, aged 18 to 24, had a 30.4 percent jobless rate in October, way up from 18.4 percent a year earlier. Non-veterans of the same age improved, to 15.3 percent from 16.9 percent. For some groups, the numbers can look a good deal worse: for black veterans aged 18-24, the unemployment rate is a striking 48 percent.
That 18-24 category only covers 320,000 veterans.
“The numbers don’t lie,” says Ryan Gallucci, deputy legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Washington. “The new veterans are going into the unemployment pile.”
The skills issue is particularly troubling. Hiring is strongest in jobs that require specialized education, and weakest for blue collar jobs, says Stephen Fuller, a professor of employment and economics at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. Even military jobs that are in the right ballpark for growth industries — say, software or electronics technician — may involve specialization that doesn’t readily apply to Silicon Valley’s Web 2.0 or software-services jobs.
So ponder this America. A young Marine goes over 2011, to having missed his kids birthdays, his wife probably having cheated on him, no work, and bills to pay. the recruiters hipe about skills easily transferrable to the civilian sector are just BS. But we have 1,400 billionaires/millionaires who paid zero ($0) taxes in 2010.
Wake up!!! Civilization is based on the premise of community = communal responsibilities; communities take care of those who sacrifice for them = this was even true in the stone age....
U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics employment data: while the job market is slowly improving for most Americans, it’s moving in the opposite direction for Gulf War II vets (defined by the BLS as those on active duty since 2001). The youngest of veterans, aged 18 to 24, had a 30.4 percent jobless rate in October, way up from 18.4 percent a year earlier. Non-veterans of the same age improved, to 15.3 percent from 16.9 percent. For some groups, the numbers can look a good deal worse: for black veterans aged 18-24, the unemployment rate is a striking 48 percent.
That 18-24 category only covers 320,000 veterans.
“The numbers don’t lie,” says Ryan Gallucci, deputy legislative director for the Veterans of Foreign Wars in Washington. “The new veterans are going into the unemployment pile.”
The skills issue is particularly troubling. Hiring is strongest in jobs that require specialized education, and weakest for blue collar jobs, says Stephen Fuller, a professor of employment and economics at George Mason University in Arlington, Va. Even military jobs that are in the right ballpark for growth industries — say, software or electronics technician — may involve specialization that doesn’t readily apply to Silicon Valley’s Web 2.0 or software-services jobs.
So ponder this America. A young Marine goes over 2011, to having missed his kids birthdays, his wife probably having cheated on him, no work, and bills to pay. the recruiters hipe about skills easily transferrable to the civilian sector are just BS. But we have 1,400 billionaires/millionaires who paid zero ($0) taxes in 2010.
Wake up!!! Civilization is based on the premise of community = communal responsibilities; communities take care of those who sacrifice for them = this was even true in the stone age....
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
US Veterans Unite under Occupy Wall Street Flag to take back America
Today on Wall Street, the New York City chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War and dozens of other uniformed veterans known as "Veterans of the 99%" began massing at 11:15 a.m. near Wall Street, where Occupy began Sept. 17. They marched through the financial district to the Occupy Wall Street encampment about a half mile away.
Several wearing their service uniforms, paused outside the New York Stock Exchange, chanting; "We are veterans. We are the 99%," and "corporate profits on the rise/soldiers have to bleed and die.
Several wearing their service uniforms, paused outside the New York Stock Exchange, chanting; "We are veterans. We are the 99%," and "corporate profits on the rise/soldiers have to bleed and die.
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