veterans issues

Faye Fiore, Los Angeles Times

A majority disapprove of the president's handling of the war in Iraq and are more in line with the views of the general public.

Families with ties to the military, long a reliable source of support for wartime presidents, disapprove of President Bush and his handling of the war in Iraq, with a majority concluding the invasion was not worth it, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll has found.

By now most of you will probably have read either this short post on BlueNC, or the initial post at DailyKos.

Well, I gave the guy a call, to talk about exactly what is intended and what is needed.

I have a dear friend in Fuquay-Varina. She is the youngest child and six years ago brought her aging but still very active parents up from Florida to live with her. In those six years her parents (75 & 80) have had medical emergencies and issues like anyone who's reached such an admirable age would have. Along with those medical challenges has come frustration upon frustration with a system that seems to be getting more and more difficult for her folks to navigate, year on year.

My friend is like I used to be. For her, fun is sitting around on the weekend anywhere -- fishing, watching football, reading the paper -- and bitching about politics. But voting is as far as the need to do anything ever went for her. She's never written her Congressman or gone to a Democratic meeting or joined a political group or donated money to a campaign. (Full disclosure: I got her to come to the John Edwards homecoming in CH.) She is, however, very sincere about her voting, does her research and votes whenever they give her the chance. She and her folks really like their Congressman -- couldn't be happier with him. Still, a big boil-over for her and for so many truly average, solidly middle of the road Americans like her and her parents and her sisters is in process as I write. They are tired of hearing talk. They're ready for action. They will cheer when they finally get it. Loudly.