the email I just sent all my family and friends who are from - or in - "real america" (esp. swing states)

From: electionyearweltschmerz
To: all my friends
Re: the people fighting this war are donating to Obama 6 to 1

Hi everyone,
I guess I'm crafting a political mass-email -- sorry for the intrusion. It's just that I read this amazing figure this morning and have been obsessed all day with the opinions of U.S. military personnel about the Presidential election. Here's the figure: American service members stationed overseas are giving 6 TIMES more money to Obama's campaign than they are to McCain's!
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/troops-deployed-abroad-give-61.html

Also, the Disabled American Veterans, the service and advocacy group for injured veterans' issues, gives Obama an 80 percent approval rating to McCain's 20 percent.
http://capwiz.com/dav/scorecard.xc?chamber=S&session=1092&votescorecard=true

This research frenzy on my part was inspired by reading an interview with and watching the speech of Jon Kuniholm, a 37 year old Marine captain who lost his right arm in Iraq, who spoke at the convention in Denver last week. Here he is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g17yKwhwYvw

And here's the article, which is pretty great:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/2008/09/08/080908ta_talk_packer


I just didn't know that Obama's support among active duty military people and vets was so hugely organized and pronounced till today. The more I research this stuff, the more I keep finding adamant critiques of the Bush administration and impassioned military support for Obama. These guys -- VoteVets.org -- http://www.votevets.org/index_html -- are a group of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars of the past 5 years. Their website has TONS of criticism of the Bush administration and of John McCain from active-duty service members and their families. They have a slate of veteran and pro-vet candidates for races all over the country, and data on tons of candidates' voting records. They've "implored" John McCain to show up and vote for the 21st century G.I. Bill -- which Obama worked to get passed.

You guys know I don't even know anything about the military, and this just carries enormous persuasive weight to me. These are the people who are risking their lives, who are faced with the task of carrying out America's foreign policy, whatever our elected officials decree that it is. It is literally their asses on the line, and they're working them off to elect Obama President. If you know people -- family, friends, especially if they live in swing states -- for whom the opinions of the troops and injured veterans might be a deciding factor in how they will vote and how they will tell their friends to vote, TELL THEM these facts. Tell them about the 6-to-1 Obama campaign contributions from the front lines, and the Disabled American Veterans' scorecard. Or even forward this email to them... I think it really says a lot about which candidate can be trusted to give us what we actually need.

This last video is one of the most amazing things I think I've ever seen: a career Navy guy who was a P.O.W. with McCain in Vietnam, only he was there for eight years, who's going public saying that not only does that experience, being a prisoner of war, mess people up to the point that you really wouldn't want someone who'd been through that in a position of such stress -- he says John McCain was so angry and impetuous that it would get him into trouble at the Naval Academy, before he was ever shot down.
Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KjsEs46C70
The political site that's publicizing his experience:
http://therealmccain.com/butler/

So, I hope ALL Y'ALL (correct usage) *do something* with this info, whether it's tell relatives and friend or forward it -- in whole or in parts -- or just keep it in mind and don't let misinformation go un-corrected...

love from California - I miss you guys!
[electionyearweltschmerz]

PS - one last thing I ran across -- regarding Bush's attempt to beat Obama to the punch by announcing today that he'll bring 8,000 troops home by the time he's out of office already -- by far the most telling response I've seen to the announcement is from True Military Wives Confessions -- http://truemilitarywivesconfessions.com/ (what can I
say?! I started reading True Bride Confessions last year and got carried away...):

09/ 9/08 12:50 PM | category: Deployments | 2 me toos
that combat brigade was ALREADY leaving in February-ish of next year.

rolls eyes

So, to tell America it'll be "early" is just stupid. It's 15 friggen months after they deployed. I know, I've been COUNTING DOWN THE DAYS.

I don't wanna hear it