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Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kevin Rose who wrote (165263)	4/3/2010 1:00:18 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	1 Recommendation Respond to of 173976

The Sack Lunches I put my carry-on in the luggage compartment and sat down in my assigned seat. It was going to be a long flight. 'I'm glad I have a good book to read. Perhaps I will get a short nap,' I thought. Just before take-off, a line of soldiers came down the aisle and filled all the vacant seats, totally surrounding me. I decided to start a conversation. 'Where are you headed?' I asked the soldier seated nearest to me. 'Petawawa. We'll be there for two weeks for special training, and then we're being deployed to Afghanistan After flying for about an hour, an announcement was made that sack lunches were available for five dollars. It would be several hours before we reached the east, and I quickly decided a lunch would help pass the time... As I reached for my wallet, I overheard a soldier ask his buddy if he planned to buy lunch. 'No, that seems like a lot of money for just a sack lunch. Probably wouldn't be worth five bucks. I'll wait till we get to base.' His friend agreed. I looked around at the other soldiers. None were buying lunch. I walked to the back of the plane and handed the flight attendant a fifty dollar bill. 'Take a lunch to all those soldiers.' She grabbed my arms and squeezed tightly. Her eyes wet with tears, she thanked me. 'My son was a soldier in Iraq ; it's almost like you are doing it for him.' Picking up ten sacks, she headed up the aisle to where the soldiers were seated. She stopped at my seat and asked, 'Which do you like best - beef or chicken?' 'Chicken,' I replied, wondering why she asked. She turned and went to the front of plane, returning a minute later with a dinner plate from first class. 'This is your thanks..' After we finished eating, I went again to the back of the plane, heading for the rest room. A man stopped me. 'I saw what you did. I want to be part of it. Here, take this.' He handed me twenty-five dollars. Soon after I returned to my seat, I saw the Flight Captain coming down the aisle, looking at the aisle numbers as he walked, I hoped he was not looking for me, but noticed he was looking at the numbers only on my side of the plane. When he got to my row he stopped, smiled, held out his hand and said, 'I want to shake your hand.' Quickly unfastening my seatbelt I stood and took the Captain's hand. With a booming voice he said, 'I was a soldier and I was a military pilot. Once, someone bought me a lunch. It was an act of kindness I never forgot.' I was embarrassed when applause was heard from all of the passengers. Later I walked to the front of the plane so I could stretch my legs. A man who was seated about six rows in front of me reached out his hand, wanting to shake mine. He left another twenty-five dollars in my palm. When we landed I gathered my belongings and started to deplane. Waiting just inside the airplane door was a man who stopped me, put something in my shirt pocket, turned, and walked away without saying a word. Another twenty-five dollars! Upon entering the terminal, I saw the soldiers gathering for their trip to the base. I walked over to them and handed them seventy-five dollars. 'It will take you some time to reach the base.. It will be about time for a sandwich. God Bless You.' Ten young men left that flight feeling the love and respect of their fellow travelers. As I walked briskly to my car, I whispered a prayer for their safe return. These soldiers were giving their all for our country.. I could only give them a couple of meals. It seemed so little... A veteran is someone who, at one point in his life, wrote a blank check made payable to 'The United States of America ' for an amount of 'up to and including my life.' That is Honor, and there are way too many people in this country who no longer understand it.'

To: Kevin Rose who wrote (165263)	4/3/2010 1:02:08 PM
From: Hope Praytochange	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Congress Sees No Boost After Reform Passes By DAVID BRODER While terrorist bombs were blowing up in the Moscow subway, Washington, D.C., was enjoying a week of unusual peace and quiet. Congress was in recess and the tumult and shouting were blessedly muted. Newspapers that pursued various members of the House and Senate through their town hall meetings found an oddly mixed reaction, with the accolades and brickbats coming from predictably partisan corners and no consensus about the accomplishments or outrages of this historic session. It is hard to remember now in the spring of 2010 that less than two years ago, when the country faced the task of electing a new president, the finalists were all members of the U.S. Senate. Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain outdistanced all their rivals, setting the stage for Obama and Joe Biden to become the first all-Senate tandem to win since John F. Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson. In 2008, no credential worked better for the ultimate position in national leadership than being a member of Congress. Today, most opinion polls agree that fewer than 20% of the voters approve of the job Congress is doing. Despite passage of a health care reform bill that will surely win a place in the history books along with an economic stimulus and education aid measures that are large by any measurement, the prestige of the legislative branch has sunk to a historic low. Why the failing grades? Part of it is the broad public reaction to the spectacle the lawmakers have made of themselves these past 15 months. Most Republicans I have talked with say they are convinced that their outnumbered legislators have done the right thing by denying virtually all their votes to Obama and using every device possible to slow down or derail his agenda. Most of the Democrats I interviewed are just as certain that the folks in the White House and the speaker's office were justified in pushing the health care bill ahead to final passage in the face of polls showing most voters were opposed. But the partisanship on both sides was itself a turnoff to independents. They were the people who had taken Obama seriously when he said he wanted to move Washington beyond the recriminations of the George W. Bush years. Regardless of their views on health care — or the economy or education or anything else — they are turned off by the inability of both parties to overcome their parochial concerns and find agreement on steps to curb the joblessness and debt that are consuming the country. The other thing that strikes me about the conversations I've had recently in Florida and Texas, the anchors of the Sun Belt, is the way the health care legislation is perceived by those on opposite sides of the debate. Despite Obama's best efforts to convince his listeners that, broadly speaking, they will benefit personally as the legislation goes into effect, most of those I've encountered believe it is being done for someone else. The president and his Democratic allies argue that, for the first time, youths will be able to be covered on their parents' policies until age 26 and no one will be barred by a pre-existing health condition. But for the millions who already are insured — to some extent — by policies issued through their workplace and who worry mainly about the costs, it still sounds like someone else is being helped. And those 31 million uninsured who for the first time will have protection? They are definitely someone else. This is not a selfish country, and when Medicare was expanded in 2003 to cover seniors' prescription costs, there was no backlash — even though it was not paid for. But the country was not in a deep recession at that point and the sensitivity to borrowing and the national debt was not what it is now. This is a country that is feeling the pinch. It has little or no tolerance for politics as usual. And it is skeptical of anyone claiming to offer good deeds. That's why Congress is in trouble.