Why I quit the military in disgust after 32 years ...

I became a member of MoveOn.org while William Jefferson Clinton was still 42nd President of the United States. While I did not vote for G. W. Bush, I was in uniform serving in the Nation's Capitol during his second Inauguration, and when the Coast Guard needed to draft a contingent to march in the Inaugural Parade I volunteered. The military is all about service to the country, not to any one man or woman.

It was the start of my disgust. All during the election campaign of 2004, my federal government computer system and email was filled with right-wing, illegal "funnies" and other crap attacking Democratic candidates, and most especially, Senator John Kerry. But when those shipmates so fond of making fun of Teresa Heinz Kerry's foreign accent and her millions, or calling all of us Democrats cowards while hiding comfortably behind their emails, faced the thought of suiting up and marching before Der Fuhrer in the wintry cold and wetness of a Washington January 20th ... well you should have heard their excuses for reasons not to participate. Much like a dog lapping back it's own vomit.

My disgust was even further incensed when, in what was the clearest national choice of Good vs. Evil in a Presidential Campaign (evar!) the Supreme Court of this land licked Mr. Bush's boots and threw out the Florida challenges. Never mind the outright fraud in Ohio, or the disenfranchised black and other color voters in the South. Senator Kerry served his country once again and dropped any further court challenges. The election was stolen.

John Kerry, a man of money, family connections, and priviledge, grabbed an M-16 rifle in the jungles of Vietnam when his country asked him to. Grabbed the rifle and chased the enemy into the brush and pulled the trigger. Again and again and again until the pieces of flesh flew.

Max Cleland left two legs and one arm in Vietnam. Then he came home, picked himself up with his remaining arm, and served the military veterans in this country with great distinction as the head of the Veteran's Administration, and later as Senator from the state of Georgia. And was beaten for re-election in 2000 by an opponent who got a deferment from the draft and dared to compare Senator Cleland to Osama bin Laden because Cleland did not follow orders like a Good German and vote for creation of the Department of Fatherland Security like he was told to.

Because Karl Rove, Rush "excuse me, I have a boil on my ass" Limbaugh, the President who only wore his National Guard uniform as a costume, and the rest of their ilk stopped at nothing to smear the integrity of opponents who actually served in the military in order to win elections.

You want to know why I quit the military in disgust? Paul Begalia in the Huffington Post

This.

Goddamn right I am mad and this time this shit will not play.

My $100 contribution to MoveOn went in tonight.

-Phillip