Ever since I bought my iPod I have used it more to listen to audio books than I have for music and one of the books was Molly Ivins ‘Bushwhacked”. The book is very funny and I thought that I would look online to see if I could find out more about her writing and sure enough she has a column. This one is about how Bush says one thing like how much he appreciates the military, and he should because they are fighting and dying in HIS war, and then he goes and cuts immenent danger pay from $225 to $150 a month and also reduce the family seperation allowance from $250 to $100 per month. I guess thats not really as bad as when he tried to deny National Guard and Reservists access to health coverage. Eh, what the hell, they are only over in Iraq and Afghanistan getting shot at and blown up, why the fuck would THEY need health benefits? If they want health benefits they should get a REAL job!
Just before Memorial Day, Veterans Affairs Secretary Anthony Principi said, “Our active military respond better to Republicans” because of “the tremendous support that President Bush has provided for our military and our veterans.” The same day, the White House announced plans for massive cuts in veterans’ health care for 2006.
Last January, Bush praised veterans during a visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The same day, 164,000 veterans were told the White House was “immediately cutting off their access to the VA health care system.”
My favorite in this category was the short-lived plan to charge soldiers wounded in Iraq for their meals when they got to American military hospitals. The plan mercifully died a-borning after it hit the newspapers.
Bush really knows how to honor those who died or were horribly wounded on foreign beaches on the anniversary of D-Day, he treats the men and women who love this country enough to put themselves in harms way like dogs. What is the health and welfare of a vetran or a soldier when compared to big fat tax breaks for his rich pals? Hmmm, a prosthetic leg and glass eye for a marine with a bronze cross or a semesters tuition at Yale for Muffy or Tad? With a War President like this who needs enemies?
Decisions, decisions.
Posted on 06/11/2004 at 03:23 AM 
“Brutha’s body toppled forward almost gracefully, smacking into the table. The bowl overturned, and gruel dripped down onto the floor.
And then Brutha stood up, without a second glance at his corpse.
‘Hah. I wasn’t excpecting you,’ he said.
Death stopped leaning against the wall.
HOW FORTUNATE YOU WERE.
‘But there’s still such a lot to be done...’
YES. THERE ALWAYS IS.
Brutha followed the gaunt figure through the wall where, instead of the privy that occupied the far side in normal space, there was…
...black sand.
The light was brilliant, crystalline, in black sky filled with stars.
‘Ah. There really is a desert. Does everyone get this?’ said Brutha.
WHO KNOWS?
‘And what is at the end of the desert?’
JUDGEMENT.
Brutha considered this.
‘Which end?’
Death grinned and stepped aside.
What Brutha had thought was a rock in the sand was a hunched figure, sitting clutching it’s knees. It looked paralyzed with fear.
He stared.
‘Vorbis?’ he said.
He looked at Death.
‘But Vorbis died a hundred years ago!’
YES. HE HAD TO WALK IT ALL ALONE. ALL ALONE WITH HIMSELF IF HE DARED.
‘He’s been here for a hundred years?’
POSSIBLY NOT. TIME IS DIFFERENT HERE. IT IS...MORE PERSONAL.
‘Ah. You mean a hundred years can pass like a few seconds?’
A HUNDRED YEARS CAN PASS LIKE INFINITY.
The black-on-black eyes stared imploringly at Brutha, who reached out automatically, without thinking...and then hesitated.
HE WAS A MURDERER, said Death. AND A CREATOR OF MURDERERS. A TORTURER. WITHOUT PASSION. CRUEL. CALLOUS. COMPASSIONLESS.
‘Yes. I know. He’s Vorbis,’ said Brutha. Vorbis changed people. Sometimes he changed them into dead people. But he always changed them. That was his triumph.
He sighed.
‘But I’m me,’ he said.
Vorbis stood up, uncertanly, and followed Brutha across the desert.
Death watched them walk away.”
-Terry Pratchett
Small Gods