Veteran Has Had It With Republicans: ‘Don’t You Dare Thank Me For My Military Service’

Despite billing themselves as patriots, it’s no secret that the Republican Party has little sympathy for U.S. soldiers once they get home. While conservative lawmakers were practically giddy about sending troops in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration, they have no interest in making sure those men and women who sacrificed for those wars are well taken care – consistently voting against providing them medical or financial relief.

For Republicans, this is about as far as “respecting” the troops goes:

And certainly not as far as this:

Nor do Republicans seem to feel any inclination to help non-hypothetical POW Medal of Honor recipients. In fact, the average veteran faces a Congress that is working its hardest to give them as little support as possible.

Recently, a Facebook post made by a man named Jim Adams puts his finger on what a lot of veterans are probably feeling when they watch as politician use them as political props to help their poll numbers, but won’t “thank them for their service” by, say, ensuring veterans don’t go hungry, or go without access to mental health help, or even ensure that they have a roof over their heads at night.

In short: If you are one of tens of thousands of homeless veterans, actions speak far louder than empty words.

Sadly, when many Republicans talk about members of the armed services making a “sacrifice” for their country, they seem to think that part of the package is abandoning them when they get home. Rather than put even a single cent towards helping, they’d rather cut spending and kill programs. Especially if – like last year’s senate veteran bill – it was supported by President Obama. Political gamesmanship over human decency is the GOP default position.

That bill, for example, would have expanded medical, educational and other benefits for veterans, many of whom come back from war injured inside and out. It was so important that almost every major veterans group in America spoke out in favor of it. The Veterans of Foreign Wars even penned a letter to Congress and the public noting the benefits this bill would give soldiers:

If signed into law, this sweeping legislation would expand and improve health care and benefit services to all generations of veterans and their families. Most notably, it would expand the current caregiver law to include all generations of veterans and provide advance appropriations to ensure monthly compensation and pension as well as education payments are protected from future budget battles. The bill also offers in-state tuition protection for recently transitioned veterans, improves access to mental health and treatment for victims of sexual assault in the military, and authorizes construction of more than 20 Community Bases Outpatient Clinics to serve veterans in rural and remote communities.

It was shot down by Senate Republicans because Democrats wouldn’t allow them to add an amendment designed to derail Obama’s Iranian peace talks. If you’re wondering what Iran has to do with giving healthcare to veterans – it doesn’t. Just one more time the Republicans saw an opportunity to use the lives of soldiers as bargaining chips, to hell with the consequences.

Jim Adams, and other veterans like him, have a right to be fed up with Republican lawmakers. Being used is no fun for anyone, but to put yourself in danger to defend your country only to have politicians throw you under the bus while pretending to care – that’s an atrocity.

First Lady Michelle Obama’s new project – ending homelessness for American veterans.

Our FLOTUS is an amazing woman, wife, and mother. She’s brilliant. She’s a fashion icon. She’s the role model we’ve been asking for. And yes, I’m a HUGE fan.

Now that she has us eating better and exercising more with LetsMove.gov, Mrs. Obama is shifting her attention to another societal ill – getting our homeless veterans off the streets and into the homes they deserve. These real-life heroes should never have to worry about having a roof over their heads.

“The image of even one of these heroes sleeping out in the cold, huddled up next to an overpass — that should horrify all of us,” Mrs. Obama said (1). “Because that’s not who we are. And the truth is, we know that there are simple steps that we can take — whether that’s in business or government or in our communities — to prevent and solve these kinds of problems.”

We’ve read the stories about Phoenix and Salt Lake City stepping up to help their respective homeless veteran populations. Los Angeles’ Mayor Eric Garcetti has signed on to participate in the Mayors Challenge to End Veterans Homelessness. (Side note: I am from Winston-Salem, NC. While we get more than our fair share of negative political attention these days, I am very proud to say that the first NC Mayor to sign up for this challenge was my very own, Mayor Allen Joines(2).) Click here to see if your Mayor has signed on.

The Department of Veteran Affairs reports there’s been a 24% reduction in homelessness among Veterans since 2010. That report was released in November of 2013, so presumably that number is even higher. Here’s hoping this Challenge crushes that percentage.

Footnote 1: LA Times

Footnote 2: Allen Joines helps the First Lady’s campaign for homeless veterans.

Veterans Day Tribute

Thank a Vet!

"If you see a veteran, go on up and shake their hand. Look them in the eye. Say those words that every veteran deserves to hear: 'Welcome home. Thank you. We need you more than ever to help us stay strong and free.'"

Man seeks his gay partner’s federal VA benefits

The ceremony was meticulously planned, befitting a wedding where one of the grooms is a self-professed Virgo with obsessive-compulsive leanings.

A roving Austin Powers impersonator posed for photos with guests as a pair of dolphin ice sculptures glistened. A singer, dressed as Adam Sandler from the movie “The Wedding Singer,” crooned “Grow Old With You” as the couple walked down parallel aisles. After the vows, 24 monarch butterflies fluttered away while a party bus idled outside to haul any over-imbibed guests back home.

That 2003 union of Joe Krumbach and Jerry Hatcher, however, was missing one crucial detail: a marriage certificate that was legal.

The ceremony — officiated by a rabbi and witnessed by more than 200 guests at Salty’s restaurant in West Seattle — took place long before Washington state voters approved same-sex marriages beginning Dec. 6, 2012. Instead, Krumbach and Hatcher could only register as domestic partners.

That distinction today has become a legal hitch in Krumbach’s $80,000 claim against the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Hatcher, a decorated Vietnam veteran, died in 2008. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in June 2013 that denying federal benefits to same-sex married couples was unconstitutional, Krumbach applied for retroactive survivor’s benefits as Hatcher’s widower.

Earlier this month, the VA again rejected Krumbach’s claim for so-called dependency and indemnity compensation. The tax-free money is paid to survivors of service members who die on duty or who were disabled from service-related causes. Hatcher, who died of liver disease, was declared 100 percent disabled because of his post-traumatic stress disorder.

The reason for the denial, the VA said, is that Hatcher died four years before Washington legalized same-sex marriage. The couple never got a chance to get hitched again, or have their domestic partnership automatically rolled over to marriage this June under the new state law.

Krumbach acknowledges his might be a quixotic fight, but he believes the VA’s ruling smacks of injustice. He and Hatcher committed to each other to the full extent allowed them at the time, and Krumbach says he’s being financially penalized for being gay.

“If I had a vagina, and my name was Josephine, this would not be a discussion,” the Vashon resident said. “What is the definition of marriage? It’s a contract.”

Last Monday, Lambda Legal, a national advocacy group for lesbians, gay men, bisexuals, transgender (LGBT) people, filed a petition seeking to overturn a recent VA directive on how to comply with the Supreme Court’s ruling. In a filing with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., Lambda accuses the VA of discrimination by limiting benefits to gay couples only if they live and married in a state where same-sex marriages are legal. That policy excludes couples who marry in a state where it is legal but live elsewhere.

Lambda filed the petition on behalf of the American Military Partner Association, a support network for LGBT service members and their families.

Susan Sommer, an attorney for Lambda Legal, said the petition likely won’t apply to Krumbach’s case. Hatcher’s death, she said, eliminated the chance to convert the couple’s status to legally married.

Krumbach, who turns 48 this week, insists his case has merit. He holds to Martin Luther King Jr.’s faith that the shift to justice is inexorable. All the same, Krumbach concedes that for him and Hatcher, the world may have changed a little too late.

It was only in 2006 that Washington State Supreme Court upheld the ban on gay marriages under the state’s 1998 Defense of Marriage Act, concluding that the Legislature was “entitled to believe that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers procreation, essential to the survival of the human race.”

Today Washington and 18 other states have legalized same-sex marriages. Three more recognize civil unions or domestic partnerships. Yet a majority of Americans still live in states that define marriage as between a man and a woman, according to Third Way, a nonprofit policy group that promotes moderate political agendas.

“I cannot help but wonder how many ‘me’s’ there are out there,” Krumbach said.

Krumbach spent more than two decades working as a mortgage lender and is past president of Seattle Mortgage Bankers Association. A detail hound (“I don’t do sloppy”), he can recall the smallest memories of his 19 years with Hatcher, whom he called an ancient soul.

They met in 1989 at the now-shuttered Ritz Cafe on Capitol Hill after Hatcher “rescued me from someone who wasn’t going to take no for an answer.” Krumbach had recently moved to Seattle after attending Washington State University. Hatcher was a 41-year-old Vietnam vet with two Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars and the Army Commendation for Valor. He had co-owned Dante’s, a bar and restaurant in the University District.

Krumbach said he is waging a moral, not financial, battle. Hatcher fought for his country, and Krumbach believes the country owes him on Hatcher’s behalf. He wants the right to be buried next to Hatcher in Arlington National Cemetery. The $80,000 would come in handy, too, as Krumbach has not earned a regular paycheck since being laid off as a loan officer at Evergreen Home Loans in 2011.

Most of all, Krumbach said he’s challenging a flawed system so others won’t have to.

“Every wave starts with a ripple. If in (Jerry’s) name I can make it better for the next guy, I have succeeded.”

VA Taken to Court over Same Sex Marriage Recognition

The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is being taken to court over it continuing to deny some spousal benefits to military same-sex couples who live in states where same-sex marriage is banned despite the Supreme Court striking down Section 3 of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA).

The American Military Partner Association (AMPA) is bringing the action through its legal counsels Lambda Legal and Morrison and Foerster LLP who filed a law suit against the VA on Monday in the Federal Circuit Court.

‘Gay and lesbian veterans have served their country and risked the ultimate sacrifice to fulfill their duty to this nation,’ Lambda Legal director of constitutional litigation Susan Sommer said.

‘Married veterans and their spouses, wherever they live, need critical veterans benefits, earned through years of often perilous service, to take care of their families. No member of our community should be left behind just because their home state continues to discriminate against their marriage.’

AMPA president Stephen Peters, a Marine veteran and spouse of an active duty Marine, said it was unacceptable that a branch of the US Government still discriminated against some gay and lesbian military service people.

‘It is simply unacceptable to see AMPA’s members not only discriminated against in their home states where their marriages are disrespected but also turned down by the federal government for basic veterans benefits for their spouses,’ he said.

‘Our members will be denied pension and survivors benefits, home loan guarantees, and other earned veterans benefits.’

AMPA’s lawyers will argue that the Supreme Court finding Section 3 of DOMA to be unconstitutional requires the Department of Veterans Affairs to treat same-sex couples equally regardless of whether their state allows same-sex couples to marry.

‘Having weathered the federal government’s past, longstanding discrimination against them, lesbian and gay veterans and their families find themselves once again deprived of equal rights and earned benefits by the government they served and the nation for which they sacrificed,’ their petition to the court states.

That Time When a Punk Army Poser Got Called Out by Two Military Veterans

It would be assumed that impersonating a military official would be illegal due to the lack of respect for those who actually have fought for this country in war. That, surprisingly, is not the case.

The imposter, whose identity has not been revealed, wasn’t even questioned by police as to why he was dressed in military clothing on the San Joaquin Delta College campus this week. What’s worse is that the man who did serve and questioned the imposter was the one arrested.

A video of the confrontation, including Army Veteran Kristopher Vieira and an Army Ranger, was posted on YouTube Wednesday. The two veterans called out the unnamed man who was wearing Ranger, E.O.D. and 101st Airborne tabs.

The veteran got arrested, and the punk army poseur did not.

Vieira was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace. The imposter got off scotch-free, due to his “freedom of expression.” Vieira stated that he felt disrespected as a veteran for someone who has never served nor gone through boot camp to falsely represent the military.

“It strikes a nerve when someone goes around faking that uniform. It’s very disrespectful.”

Delta authorities said that it is not illegal to wear a military uniform as long as the imposter is not using the uniform to obtain benefits. The peace wouldn’t have been disturbed had the imposter not disrespectfully misrepresented the military, but once again the victim is to blame and arrested.

Afghanistan Vet to Open Carry Freaks: ‘Defend Liberty Where it Counts — in a Combat Zone’

Tom Young, an Air National Guard veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, had a few choice words for the Open Carry ammosexuals in a recent Huffington Post opinion piece he wrote Wednesday.

Young begins the piece by explaining the number of gun activist plans to celebrate American freedom by a show of weapons: three events planned in Texas, another in Salida, Colorado, and a Citizens for Liberty gun march in Pennsylvania are all on the menu. This is to say nothing of all the causal displays of arms that Open Carry is noted for. And while Young says that he can think of many ways to celebrate liberty, “intimidating my neighbors with guns isn’t one of them.”

He states that Open Carry makes us look more like a Third World country than “the world’s leading democracy,” and relays his experiences at Bagram Air Base. He explains that because of the threat of a “green-on-blue” attack — Afghan soldiers or police turning their weapons on Americans — nearly every U.S. service member on base was required to have a loaded weapon on their persons at all time.

Then he dives into the main thrust of the piece and promptly rips Open Carry, the NRA, and the hatriot movement a new one:

It felt surreal to see soldiers and airmen off duty, kicking back and watching a movie, with M4 carbines on their shoulders or M9 pistols at their sides. Though they faced far more danger than anyone back home in the U.S., not one of them seemed as angry as some in the armed “patriot” movement. 

Which begs a question for the folks toting assault rifles into the local coffee shop or Home Depot parking lot: Why are you defending liberty in a stateside coffee shop instead of where it counts, in a combat zone? 

Some of these right-wing activists use words like “tyranny” and “oppression.” But ever since 9/11, there’s been plenty of call for people willing to fight true tyranny. During my two decades in the military, I visited countries where people had lived under such tyranny. They knew they’d been oppressed; they didn’t need talk radio blowhards to tell them so. When you see real tyranny, it’s unmistakable, and it looks nothing like the United States, the most free and prosperous nation on the planet.

There are those in the open carry movement who have spent time in the military, and I thank them for their service. But there are others who need to realize that bringing a Glock into Starbucks doesn’t make you a freedom fighter. 

So, if you want to carry a weapon and wear tactical clothing, here’s an idea: Go see a recruiter. The weapons and cool clothes are free. 

Of course, he adds that they might find it a bit challenging, saying that “‘it’ll take more commitment than shooting a few holes in a paper target whenever you feel like it. It’ll take more time than slapping a ‘Don’t Tread on Me’ sticker on your windshield.”

He closes with a powerful finish, smashing their “freedom fighter” delusions: “You’ll take an oath to follow lawful orders and defend the Constitution. All of it, not just the parts you like.”

Afghanistan Veteran on Food Stamps Writes Letter to ‘Caring’ Conservatives

Some people measure a society’s condition by the lifestyles of the rich and famous — and those people are usually the rich and famous. For the rest of humanity, a society’s success is measured by the living conditions of the poorest. And who exactly the “poorest” are.

This letter, posted on September 19th by a combat veteran named Jason, speaks volumes of what American poverty looks like on the side streets of our society, and of the people who sleep on them.

“My name is Jason. I turned 35 less than a week ago. My first job was maintenance work at a public pool when I was 17. I worked 40-hours a week while I was in college. I’ve never gone longer than six months without employment in my life and I just spent the last three years in the military, one of which consisted of a combat tour of Afghanistan. 

Oh, and I’m now on food stamps. Since June, as a matter of fact. 

Why am I on food stamps? 

The same reason everyone on food stamps is on food stamps: because I would very much enjoy not starving. 

I mean, if that’s okay with you: 

…Mr. or Mrs. Republican congressman.

…Mr. or Mrs. Conservative commentator.

…Mr. or Mrs. “welfare queen” letter-to-the-editor author.

…Mr. or Mrs. “fiscal conservative, reason-based” libertarian.

I do apologize for burdening you on the checkout line with real-life images of American-style poverty. I know you probably believe the only true starving people in the world have flies buzzing around their eyes while they wallow away, near-lifeless in gutter. 

Hate to burst the bubble, but those people don’t live in this country. 

I do. And millions like me. Millions of people in poverty who fall into three categories. 

Let’s call them the “lucky” category, since conservatives seem to think people on welfare have hit some sort of jackpot: 

Those living paycheck to paycheck? They’re a little lucky.

Those living unemployment check to unemployment check? They’re a little luckier 

Those living 2nd of the month to 2nd of the month? *ding* We’ve hit the jackpot! 

The 2nd of the month being the time when funds gets electronically deposited onto the EBT card, [at least in NY] for those who’ve never been fortunate enough to hit that $175/month Powerball. 

I fall into the latter two categories. But I’ve known people recently - soldiers in the Army – who were in the first and third. They were off fighting in Afghanistan while their wives were at home, buying food at the on-post commissary with food stamps. 

And nobody bats an eye there, because it’s not uncommon in the military. 

It’s not uncommon – nor is it shameful. It might be shameful how little service-members are paid, but that’s a separate issue. 

The fact remains anyone at a certain income level can find it difficult from time to time to pay for everything. And when you’re poor you learn to make sacrifices. Food shouldn’t be one of them. 

The whole concept is un-American. People living here, in the greatest country on Earth, with the most abundant resources, should be forced to go hungry because of the intellectual notion of fiscal conservatism and the ideological notion of self-reliance.

Are you fucking kidding me? 

I didn’t risk my life in Afghanistan so I could come back and watch people go hungry in America. I certainly didn’t risk it so *I* could come back and go hungry. 

Anyone who genuinely supports cutting food stamps is not an intellectual or an ideologue –they’re a bully. 

And nobody likes a bully. Except other bullies. 

It’s time for regular Americans to stand up to these bullies. Not cower in the corner, ashamed of needing help. Because if there’s one thing life has taught me, it’s that you never know when you’ll be the one in need.”

There are some who despise the American poor because in their minds, you’re not “poor” unless you look like this:

But the people who look like that live in the poorest nations on Earth. We can’t start applying those standards to our own society, because that’s the quickest way to become just like them. Standards slip from the bottom like a foundation sliding downhill. In America, we’re rarely OUT of food…we’re just out of food that won’t kill you.

Say what you will about the idea of “American exceptionalism,” but we have to draw the line somewhere. We have to draw the line at a place that we will not accept…a place we can look at and say “We’re better than THAT.”

Intellectuals like Rand Paul don’t see us as a society…they see us as a Petri dish for their thought experiments. And because they’re smart, a certain number of idiots will stand behind them.

But when we start believing that these guys

are fighting to come home to the living standards of these guys

then we truly have lost everything that it means to be American.

We owe soldiers like Jason a better nation than that.

Absolutely Nothing: A Veteran’s Savage Indictment of the Iraq War

All we fought for in Iraq.

All we fought for in Iraq is on the cusp of vanishing.

That’s what Mitt Romney says.

We fought for. We fought for. We.

Oh, so it’s we now, is it, Mitt?

We.

I must have missed you over there, but it was a busy place. We. The guy who helped set up “pro-draft” rallies and yet somehow managed to avoid service in Vietnam is upset about losing what “we” fought for? We.

Yeah, fuck you, Mitt.

And you’re all welcome to quote me on that.

Somebody stepped into my office yesterday and asked how I felt about it. He wanted to know how I felt about “losing” Iraq.

How do I feel about losing all we fought for?

I don’t know.

First, I’m going to need somebody to explain to me exactly what it was that we were fighting for.

What was it? What is it that we gained, according to Mitt Romney? And what is on the cusp of vanishing? What is that? No, really, somebody please explain it to me.

Because I’d love to know.

The Real Veterans Scandal: 258,000 Have No Healthcare Thanks to GOP Governors

While the GOP/Tea Party fiddles, blaming Obama for everything that’s wrong, our Veterans are dying. This is the same Congress where the majority have never served in the military.

First we send soldiers to fight our wars and we promise them we’ll take care of them. Then we don’t provide them with adequate protection while they’re in combat. Just as a reminder, at the onset of the “no real weapons of mass destruction war in Iraq.”  The Bush administration routinely sent soldiers into combat without adequate combat gear.  Consequently many of the veterans today are those who were sent to war ill prepared.  Now we’re denying them adequate medical care and basic living necessities like food and shelter.

There isn’t one problem with Veterans, there are multiple problems that our Veterans are facing. And according to the American Community Service survey in March 2013…

“Analysis of the 2008-2010 American Community Survey (ACS) indicates that 535,000 uninsured veterans and 174,000 uninsured spouses of veterans—or four in 10 uninsured veterans  and one in four uninsured spouses—have incomes below 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL) and could qualify for Medicaid or new subsidies for coverage under the Affordable  Care Act (ACA).”  

Remember this is the Congress that will go to any lengths to discredit President Obama – regardless of whom them hurt.  And they call themselves Patriots.  The Republican controlled congress voted down jobs bills which included veterans; the same R-Congress cut unemployment benefits which affects Veterans; and 23 Republican states are refusing to expand Medicaid. Veterans can qualify for Medicaid especially since the VA (which is routinely underfunded by Congress) can’t handle all the medical needs of our soldiers.

And what are Americans doing about it? Any ideas?

Bernie Sanders Slams Tea Party Idiot Marco Rubio for Voting Against Veterans’ Benefits

“It’s not who you are underneath — it’s what you do that defines you.” Of all the recent one-liners in recent movie history, this line from Batman Begins may be the most profound. One of the oldest questions in philosophy is “how do we define ourselves?” Bruce Wayne would say we’re defined by our actions — our observable behavior and impact on the world. Others would say we’re defined by our intentions, because we can’t always know what effect our actions will have. But how much good does the self-definition of intention do in the real world, where material effects matter? Well, we want to answer that question for you. Does that answer your question?

The GOP and its Tea Party core have long defined themselves in terms of support for veterans; a convenient base, if you’re counting on the strength of arms to maintain power. But that self-definition, that intention, has long since given way to the action of selling veterans out at the drop of a dollar. After all, what are veterans if not leeches…wards of the state, welfare queens sucking our nation dry of dollars reserved for precious corporate tax breaks?

Koch-friend Marco Rubio has long been more of the Courtney “use once and destroy” Love school of thought regarding veterans than most. Rubio, along with the rest of the GOP, have developed a rather stunning habit of pandering to veterans from one hole, and speaking out to block every effort to care for them with the other. Most recently, Rubio was one of 41 Senate Republicans to block the passage of a bill that would have improved veterans’ benefits.

The reason that all but two Republicans (excepting Dean Heller and Jerry Morgan) blocked the vote was that Harry Reid would not permit an up or down vote on a rider that imposed sanctions on Iran. This completely unrelated bit of poison was none other than Mitch McConnell’s contribution to the bill. When he was denied his sanctions, he and his fellow Republicans scuttled the entire veterans’ bill in protest.

McConnell and his cronies were immediately slammed by almost every involved party, not least of which being the American Legion veterans’ association. Jon Stewart put in his two cents, but Bernie Sanders levied the most damning attack of all right on the floor of the Senate.

Idaho Veteran Offers Burial Plot So Lesbian Vet Can Be Buried Next To Her Wife

Last week we reported on Madelynn Taylor (above), a 74-year-old U.S. Navy veteran from Boise, Idaho, after the Idaho Veterans Cemetery refused her request to be buried with her wife Jean Mixner, who died in 2012. Taylor, who served in the Navy for six years, says this is her home state and the only place she wants to be buried, next to her wife, whom she legally married in California in 2008.

Barry Johnson, a fellow veteran, heard about Taylor's story, and is offering her his burial plot.

Taylor writes in the Idaho Statesman:

As a lifelong Idahoan and a 27-year Army veteran of two wars, I've worked beside heterosexuals, gays, lesbians and bisexuals. I've really never wanted to hear about anybody's sex life or sexual preferences, one way or another. Besides, everybody more or less knew who is who regardless, and I don't recall anybody in the military ever saying a thing about it. Never.

Frankly, the only thing traumatic about the policy change for our armed forces of allowing gays to openly serve our country was all the media making a big deal about it. It didn't change a thing for any of us doing the job. Serving in uniform has always been about earning trust and has never been about sexuality.

Johnson says "the right word escapes [him]" for the injustice and discrimination Taylor is facing:

Then we have Madelynn Taylor, who seems like one heck of a lady. She cared for another person with all her heart and had to watch that person die. She is a veteran. She loves her country. She wants her partner by her side and she wants to eternally rest among veterans in the state she made home.  

Madelynn, you deserve that.

I'll tell you what. I will donate the plot I earned in the Idaho State Veterans Cemetery to you and Jean. I am happy to give my fellow veteran that small peace of mind. And I do it to honor all the great Americans I've served with along the way - gay, straight, whatever. (I don't know whether it is possible to donate my plot, but I am quite sincere about my willingness to do so.)

Read Johnson's full editorial HERE.

Idaho Won't Allow 74-Year-Old Gay Navy Veteran to Be Buried with Her Wife

Madelynn Taylor, a 74-year-old U.S. Navy veteran from Boise, Idaho, is speaking out after the Idaho Veterans Cemetery refused her request to be buried with her wife Jean Mixner, who died in 2012, KBOI reports:

She went to the Idaho Veterans Cemetery and asked officials to reserve a spot for interment, along with her partner's ashes. The cemetery allows spouses of veterans to be buried or interred with them.

They said no.

"I'm not surprised." Taylor said. "I've been discriminated against for 70 years, and they might as well discriminate against me in death as well as life."

A spokesperson with the Division of Veterans Services told KBOI 2News that they "have to abide by the Idaho state constitution," which only recognizes marriage between a man and a woman.

"I don't see where the ashes of a couple old lesbians is going to hurt anyone," Taylor said.

Taylor, who served in the Navy for six years, says this is her home state and the only place she wants to be buried, next to her wife, whom she legally married in California in 2008.

GOP Thanks The Troops By Gutting Food Stamps For 170,000 Veterans

Apparently the GOP thinks veterans haven’t sacrificed enough after deciding to cut roughly 170,000 vets from food stamps.  If you’re a Republican politician,  it is just so much easier to find the biggest flag pin you can find and get a photo-op in front of as many people in uniform as you can. But once the photo-ops is over, it’s pull yourself up by the combat boot stars (or more likely eat them for sustenance). It seems House Republicans decision to go all evil dead with a chainsaw to the food stamps program, cutting $40 billion and booting 2.8 million people off the program next year, includes 170,000 veterans. But they’re still free to continue fighting our commerce wars, as that program will never lose a penny.

Civilian life for a veteran is no walk in a poppy field and cutting food stamps doesn’t help.

Much too many returning veterans succumb to homelessness. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs reports that 131,000 veterans are homeless on any given night, with twice that many falling into homelessness over the course of a year. And it doesn’t get much better for the countless vets experiencing brain injuries and PTSD, as they’re at an even greater risk of becoming homeless.

So what does the GOP do for veterans?

Back in 2007, when the paste-eater in chief was in office and running around deciding things on aircraft carriers, our troops were languishing at Walter Reed.  At the Walter Reed medical facility, moldy ceilings, leaky plumage, rodent infestations were among some of the thank yous for  soldiers that the Bush Administration had sent to fight a neocon wet dream.  Well, it’s a good thing they learned their lesson, right? The fact remains that returning veterans have the hardest time at adjusting to civilian life and finding work more so than anyone else. In fact, unemployment for veterans who have served in the past decade is at an astonishing 10 percent, That’s roughly 3 points higher than the national rate.

The common culprit behind such woefully high unemployment for veterans is war-related trauma, with roughly a quarter of recently returning vets claiming disabilities.  Consequently, a great many of veterans rely heavily on food stamps while they’re rebuilding their lives, or picking up where they left off. But you know the GOP mantra: sacrifice for the rest, handouts for the rich. Maybe the US military uniform should be a Brooks Brother pin-stripe suit instead.

Calif. town putting roof over wounded GI's head

When Jerral Hancock came home from the Iraq war missing one arm, with another that barely worked and a paralyzed body that was burned all over, he was a hero to this Mojave Desert town that wears its military pride on its sleeve.

Soon he was being called upon to use his one remaining hand to cut ribbons and wave to people during parades. Then, after everyone had gone home, Hancock would too. That's where he would be forgotten by all but his two young children and his parents.

That was until the students in Jamie Goodreau's U.S. history classes learned how Hancock had once gotten stuck in his modest mobile home for half a year - "like being in prison," he recalls - when his handicapped-accessible van broke down. Or how the hallways of his tiny house were so narrow he couldn't get his wheelchair through most of them.

They would fix that, Goodreau's students decided, by building Hancock a new home from the ground up. One that would be handicapped accessible. It would be their end-of-the-year project to honor veterans, something Goodreau's classes have chosen to do every year for the past 15 years, usually raising $25,000 or $30,000 for veterans charities and a celebratory dinner.

This time, however, the stakes would be much higher.

It's six months later now and the students have closed escrow on a $264,000 property. Blueprints have been drawn up for the new dwelling and the students plan to break ground next month.

"We had no doubt that it could be done," Lancaster High School senior Joseph Mallyon says with a smile as he sits in Goodreau's classroom on a recent afternoon with several of his fellow students. "Now there are some people in the community. You know, the older people, the people who have jobs, who go through life every day and know the harsh reality of things.

"Those people doubt us. But we just accept it and say, `Watch what we can do.'"

After Goodreau's students shocked Lancaster and neighboring Palmdale by raising $80,000 in four months - mainly by holding yard sales, pizza nights and peddling things like T-shirts and refrigerator magnets - the whole community began to get involved.

Big box stores are offering discounts on building supplies. A construction contractor has volunteered to pitch in when the building begins. An architectural firm provided the blueprints. The real estate agent waived her commission. The credit union at nearby Edwards Air Force Base is kicking in money from new loans it writes.

Even the inmates at the local prison held a sale of their art work and donated the proceeds.

"It's really just amazing," says J.D. Kennedy, a local field representative for Congressman Howard "Buck" McKeon.

An Iraq war veteran himself, Kennedy met Hancock after he learned the former Army specialist had been stuck in his home when the oversized van that accommodates his wheelchair broke down and he couldn't get the 70 miles to the nearest Veterans Affairs hospital to see a dentist to fix his teeth, which were rotting from the effects of the painkillers he must swallow each day.

Kennedy's boss, who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, pressed the VA to reimburse local doctors and dentists who agreed to treat Hancock whether they were paid or not. Then Goodreau, who met Hancock at the annual Pride of the Nation Day, invited him to tell his story to her students.

He recounted it again on a recent desert-hot fall afternoon as he sat shirtless in his living room, making no effort to hide the burns that still scar his body. A prosthetic arm sat unused on a counter because, Hancock says with a grin, it's heavy and hard to use - and it looks even scarier than no arm at all.

Hancock was driving a tank through the streets of Baghdad on May 29, 2007, when the vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device that blew a hole through its armor and set it ablaze. A chunk of shrapnel lodged in his spine, paralyzing his legs so that he couldn't get out. It happened on his 21st birthday.

"Yeah," says the laconic former soldier who somehow never lost his sense of humor. "That part really sucked."

Due to leave the military in a few months, he'd bought a mobile home near his mother's place in Lancaster. It was small but a good first home for a young guy with a wife, two kids and a dog. But he hadn't planned on coming home in a wheelchair.

After his wife left him and his 9-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter, his mother and stepfather became his caretakers.

In the Antelope Valley, he quickly became well known. The area, tucked into the farthest northeast corner of Los Angeles County and dotted by Joshua trees and sagebrush, is immensely proud of its ties to the military. The Air Force's B-1B bomber was built here and it was at Edwards Air Force Base that legendary test pilot Chuck Yeager became the first person to fly faster than the speed of sound.

The area, Kennedy says, contains more veterans per capita than any other place in the country.

Thus Hancock was honored often at public events. But after the fist bumps of hello and goodbye (he can't quite use his hand to shake someone else's), people would go their own way. They assumed, some said, that anybody that badly hurt must have a huge support group behind him. Hancock admits he let them think that.

"I don't like to complain," he says quietly, adding the recurring dreams of burning to death in a tank were bad enough without revisiting them while awake.

Then Goodreau's students took up his cause. He'd met her at several veterans events and trusted her enough to open up to them.

Since then, he says, the nightmares have pretty much stopped as helping the students with their effort has given him a sense of purpose. He is stunned by the magnitude of their effort.

"They gave up their last summer of high school for me," he says in a voice filled with awe.

Actually, they gave up even more. Goodreau's veteran projects normally end with the summer. This year's group, whose members have already collected their A grades, vowed to continue the project they call Operation All The Way Home until Hancock has a new roof over his head, hopefully by next summer.

When asked why she's continuing, Nicole Skinner, 17, who graduated in June and is now a college freshman, laughs.

"Just look at him, man. Many people these days are complaining about their lives and you look at him and what he's been through, and he's still smiling and all. He's not complaining," she says, "He's just so motivating."

Gay combat vet who lost leg in Iraq booed by anti-gay protesters in San Antonio

A highly decorated openly gay Iraq war combat veteran was booed by a crowd of anti-gay protesters during his speech to the San Antonio City Council meeting Wednesday evening.

Eric Alva

Former Marine Staff Sergeant Eric Alva — a San Antonio native who was the first American service member seriously injured in the Iraq War when he stepped on a land mine in March 2003 and lost his right leg — was speaking in favor of a proposed addition to the city’s non-discrimination law that would add protections for sexual orientation, gender identity and veteran status.

But as Alva began to deliver his remarks, many in the crowd of approximately 200 people attending the council meeting began to boo.

Alva left the podium visibly shaken telling the crowd;

“To all you people that preach the word of God, shame on you because God loves me, like the day I laid bleeding on the sands of Iraq and that’s why he saved me,” Alva told the crowd as left the podium, still visibly shaken from the crowd’s reaction.

Later on Facebook, Alva wrote:

“Well I just left city council chambers and I feel like crying. I have never seen a city so divided and hateful towards each other. All of man kind should be ashamed. I already spoke and even some of the religious groups even boo’ed me as I spoke. Such disrespect as they preach the word of God.”

Prior to the council session, local anti-gay rights advocate Pastor Charles Flowers of the Faith Outreach Center led a prayer vigil and demonstration outside City Hall where he told the crowd, “Let them vote ‘no’ to this ordinance, and ‘yes’ to the reign of the kingdom of God.”

The San Antonio city clerk’s office said the council is expected to vote on the ordinance on September 5.

Watch Scott Walker’s Police Illegally Arrest A Marine Veteran & Desecrate His Flag

Friday was the second day of the police crackdown to rein in daily protests at the Wisconsin Capitol building seeking to bring attention to Koch-sponsored Governor Scott Walker’s unprecedented attacks on Wisconsin's labor unions, minorities, the public sector, and the middle class.

After illegally declaring the peaceful demonstration an “unlawful assembly” the Wisconsin Capitol, which are under Walker’s control, have attempted to quell the demonstration by sending out waves of officers to unnecessarily arrest several peaceful protesters.

In the video below, they go as far as to arrest a completely peaceful US Marine Corps veteran, who had not yet been arrested, for “resisting arrest”, although he was simply standing there with a bandanna tied over his mouth, ensuring that he couldn’t possibly have been arrested for saying something disrespectful or threatening towards the police.

Adding insult to injury and providing a very fitting example of Governor Walker’s un-American trampling of his constituents First Amendment rights, the arresting officers either intentionally or inadvertently(it’s not clear in the video) stepped all over this ex-Marine’s American flag, trampling and desecrating it for all to see.

It’s important that all of America sees this video, so everyone can see just how brutal and un-American Scott Walker’s reign of terror is. Please do your part by sharing this literal trampling of American First Amendment Constitutional Rights on social media forums.

Legislation Proposed to Restore Honor to Veterans Discharged from Military for Being Gay

U.S. Representatives Mark Pocan (D-WI, pictured) and Charlie Rangel (D-NY) on Wednesday announced legislation that would restore honor to gay and lesbian service members discharged from the military because of their sexual orientation by upgrading their records to reflect honorable service, Pocan's office announced on Wednesday:

The “Restore Honor to Service Members Act” is about more than upgrading a piece of paper. Every form of discharge previously given out prior to the repeal of “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” carries with it consequences that can follow a service member for his or her entire life. While the character of discharge varied, many members received discharges that were classified as other than honorable or dishonorable, particularly prior to the implementation of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy in 1993.  In many states, a dishonorable discharge is treated as a felony, and service members receiving a general discharge, a lesser offense, can encounter grave difficulties acquiring civilian employment. All were barred from reenlisting in the military. Depending on the discharge received, service members may also be blocked from voting, unemployment benefits, participating in the GI Bill or receiving veteran benefits such as health care, VA disability, and ceremonial burial rights at military cemeteries.

The “Restore Honor to Service Members Act,” turns the current broad review policy outlined in a memo from the Under Secretary of Defense into clear and settled law. It ensures all services members who were previously discharged because of their sexual orientation receive a timely, consistent and transparent review of their records so that gay veterans who served honorably have their records rightfully upgraded to honorable.  It also removes any indication of a service member’s sexual orientation from the record, so they are not automatically “outed” to those accessing their record and protects against future discrimination by decriminalizing consensual relations between same sex couples, bringing military law in line with Supreme Court rulings.

Said Pocan:

“As we celebrate the considerable progress we’ve made toward full equality in our military, we cannot forget about those who continue to suffer because of the discriminatory policies of our past. Our legislation ensures that gay veterans who selflessly served our country no longer live with tarnished records that prohibit them from receiving the recognition, benefits and honors they deserve. By enshrining the implementation of the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” repeal into law, our country can finally close this dark chapter of our history and move forward.”