What the Republicans and the Blue Dog Democrats

Are all about. War, yes. Soldiers, no.:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday postponed consideration of a bill that would continue funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan as a bloc of conservative Democrats balked at the high cost of including several of Pelosi's favored domestic spending programs.

Pelosi (D-Calif.), who also faces Republican stalling tactics in protest of unusual parliamentary procedures, predicted that the complaints of "Blue Dog" Democrats would be addressed and that the bill eventually would receive unanimous support from Democrats.

"I am very confident that, next week, we will come to the floor with a bill that has the full consensus of the Democrats and hopefully can attract a large number of Republicans, as well," she told reporters.

The Blue Dogs have objected to the creation of a program that would guarantee veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan a year of in-state college tuition for each year served in the war zones. The Blue Dogs said the House had not found any additional money, through spending cuts or tax increases, to pay for the program, a violation of pay-as-you-go rules imposed by House Democrats in early 2007.

[snip]

President Bush has announced his opposition to any bill that contains veterans' benefits and unemployment insurance in addition to the war funds.

Yet without question, there is more than enough money to pay for Bush's Eternal War on a Noun and all the defense contractors, mercenary groups, and militias that are involved. Nice to see what their priorities are.

What a difference a day makes

And what a difference this preznit makes:

The Guard troops have been told that in order to be eligible for the education benefits they expect, they had to serve 730 days in Iraq. They served 729.

Nearly half the members of one of the longest serving U.S. military units in Iraq are not eligible for a more generous military educational benefit, with some falling one day short of eligibility. [...]

All 2,600 of the soldiers, who returned this year from Iraq, are eligible for money for school under the GI Bill. But nearly half discovered they weren't eligible for a more generous package of benefits available to other soldiers.

Minnesota's congressional delegation is apoplectic, and the Army has vowed to look into the matter, but the troops are understandably suspicious that they were deliberately brought home after 729 days so the Pentagon could deny them GI Bill benefits.

Keep an eye on this one.

I'm sure it was just coincidence! The Bush administration and the Pentagon wouldn't do that to our brave soldiers who risked their lives to fight for liberty and justice.... They would pay the highest possible wage! They would make sure our soldiers had the best equipment and the best armor! They would put our wounded soldiers into the best hospitals with the latest technology! They would honor the dead by letting the public view their caskets as they came home. They would have politicians attend the funerals. They would build a memorial to those that fell in battle that reminded people of the reasons why they fought and why they had died. And because Bush has claimed this is the fight of the century, a fight to preserve our way of life and to protect our nation, a fight of good against evil, obviously Bush has activated the draft.

Bush has done all these things, right? ... RIGHT?

No? NO??

There it is, folks, as plain as day. Bush does not give a flying fuck about our soldiers, the protection of this nation, the spread of democracy.

What he cares about is denying soldiers benefits so that he can give more money to his cronies.