Happy Belated Veterans Day

I could write up a post full of flowery praise and stirring eulogies, but I prefer to make a promise: to honor those who served by supporting lawmakers who work hard to make sure our vets get the services they need, and try to keep the men and women who serve this country out of useless bloody wars. Support Our Troops is an easy thing to say. What we need is less talk and more action.

We can start right here:

Today is Veteran's Day, and six years ago, Saxby Chambliss perpetrated one of the more cowardly and despicable attacks on a veteran in recent political history, accusing multiple-amputee Max Cleland of disloyalty and producing an ad connecting him to Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden (the core of the charge was because Cleland favored union rights for Department of Homeland Security employees, by the way - so it was an anti-union smear as much as it was a national security smear).

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I will say that Saxby Chambliss is at least consistent. His contempt for veterans in the political arena is matched by his opposition to them on the floor of the Senate, voting against funding for the new GI Bill, traumatic brain injury research, proper amounts of time between deployments, and dozens of other initiatives.

Now, Chambliss is facing Jim Martin, an Army veteran who served one tour of duty in Vietnam. Neither candidate reached 50% in the November election, so there is a December 2 runoff scheduled. Barack Obama is sending aides to Georgia to work on the campaign, which will undoubtedly come down to turnout, and now it's our turn. On Veteran's Day, bloggers are having a national day of action to raise money and awareness for Martin. There are scattered events planned across the country, but you can visit this ActBlue page and give to Martin directly. Considering that not just McCain but Mike Huckabee and even Sarah Palin are scheduled to rush to Chambliss' aid, it's a chance to humiliate them once again.

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Help out Jim Martin today.

Bloggers for Martin

I've had enough of chickenhawks smearing our vets to win elections. I've had more than enough of those chickenhawks yawping about how wonderful our servicemembers are while voting down the bills that would give vets the actual support they need.

Let's give Jim Martin a leg up, and show that we really do support our troops.