THUMBS UP TO:
Supporting troops with more than ribbons
U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., has received the Military Coalition’s Award of Merit for steering his Post-9/11 GI Bill into law. As a result, America’s servicemen and women will have educational benefits not unlike our World War II veterans.
The consortium of 35 military and veterans groups presents this top honor to individuals who have championed the causes of pay and benefits improvements for military families.
“This new program is about properly honoring service to one’s country, and taking care of the people who have taken care of us,” Webb said in a news release.
Webb introduced the Post-9/11 GI Bill on Jan. 3, 2007, his first day in office. Signed into law on June 30, 2008, the landmark legislation pays for college educations.
Signing up more people to vote
Bristol YWCA deserves thanks for its recent voter registration event that was aimed at registering first-time voters.
More than 400 new voters have registered since January, according to Bristol Va., Voter Registrar Penny Limburg. Citizens have until Oct. 4 to register to vote in the Nov. 4 election.
Virginia is considered a swing state in the presidential race and both Sen. John McCain and Sen. Barack Obama are making repeated trips to the Old Dominion. If you are not already registered to vote, you’ve got three weeks to do it.
THUMBS DOWN TO:
Ignoring population for politics
That’s what the Tennessee Republican Party did Tuesday when it issued a press release decrying Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen for not doing what his Alaska counterpart did – sell the state executive’s luxury jet. Instead of comparing apples to oranges, though, it made repeated geographic comparisons between Tennessee and Alaska but ignored population differences.
The state GOP criticized Bredesen’s use of a state plane and noted that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin had put the state jet “up for sale on eBay.” That part is true. But the jet didn’t sell on eBay.
Alaska taxpayers spent $2.7 million on the plane and Palin was forced to sell it through a private broker for $2.1 million. Still, we applaud her cost-cutting effort.
The Tennessee GOP’s reach comes when it says Alaska is 16 times larger than Tennessee and then quotes the distance between major cities and miles of paved road, the implication being that Bredesen could easier drive Tennessee than Palin could Alaska.
That’s true, but the release ignores the fact that Tennessee has 10 times the population of Alaska, which means that Bredesen has 10 times the constituents that Palin has and, thus, a need to visit more often.
It’s a meaningless comparison and a mere ploy to attack a governor from the other side of the aisle.
Press passes as campaign signs
Sen. Barack Obama’s staff needs to learn to separate the news media from campaign supporters.
During his visit to Lebanon, Va., on Tuesday, the Obama campaign did what it did in June when Obama visited Bristol, Va., and what it always does: issue press passes that double as slogans: “CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN,” the media credentials say in large block letters.
The Obama staff also uses reporters’ e-mail addresses to spam them daily with double-digits pleas for fund-raising and support.
This is a practice that makes every self-respecting journalist queasy and should be discontinued immediately by Obama’s team. John McCain does it, too.
Enough!
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