Can you imagine working for a company that has a little
more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:
* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the last year...
Can you guess which organization this is?
Give up yet?
It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group
that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest
of us in line.
I wanna work there!!!...
I wanna work there!!!...
I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
- Robert McCloskey
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
- Emo Philips
- Robert McCloskey
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
- Emo Philips
That's why none of their kids are in iraq with some of my former students.
These kids are (or were) in Iraq....let's keep it real.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Joe Wilson gets regular progress reports on the Iraq war from generals and Pentagon officials as a member of the House Armed Services Committee. But since February, the most meaningful battlefield updates have come from his son Alan, an Army National Guard intelligence officer in Iraq.
Often as Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, sat in lengthy House hearings this year, the soldier's e-mails would arrive on his BlackBerry messaging device, which he would pass down the row to committee colleagues. The short missives about daily life in Iraq often gave Wilson and his colleagues more of a real-world view than they received from the top brass.
When Capt. Alan Wilson, 31, arrived home in Columbia on Wednesday for two weeks of R&R before returning to Iraq, he brought a laptop filled with photos. One showed a fiery blast after a truck in his convoy hit a napalm-laced improvised explosive device near Mosul. Miraculously, no one was injured. But "it really brought it close to home when I saw the photos," Wilson says — "particularly the fireball."
Headlines declared November the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the invasion of Iraq last year. But few in Congress have a personal connection to the war. Wilson is among a handful of members with children or other relatives who have had, or soon will get, a firsthand experience.
Fewer than one-third of the 535 members of Congress have served in the military, compared with 77% in 1977. The end of the draft in 1973 is most often cited for the declining number of veterans in Congress. It also helps explain why so few children of lawmakers serve in uniform.
Filmmaker Michael Moore highlighted the lack of well-connected children serving in Iraq in his controversial movie Fahrenheit 9/11 last summer. At the time, he cited Sen. Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, as the only member of Congress with a child deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. Army Staff Sgt. Brooks Johnson, 32, served two infantry tours in Iraq, including the initial invasion from Kuwait to Baghdad. He's now a recruiter in Dixon, Ill.
But others have been, remain or are about to be in harm's way.
Besides Wilson, whose son was called up three months after starting a new job as an assistant county prosecutor, four other Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have more than a professional interest in Iraq. They are:
• Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the committee's powerful chairman. His son, Marine 1st Lt. Duncan Duane Hunter, 27, was an artillery officer during the first battle of Fallujah and recently returned from a seven-month tour in Iraq.
• Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri. His son Perry, 25, is a Marine combat engineer who is expected to deploy to central Iraq early next year. It's a "sobering" prospect, says the elder Akin, a former Army combat engineer.
• Rep. John Kline of Minnesota. Maj. John Daniel Kline, 34, is an Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot whose 101st Airborne Division battalion is expected to be sent to Iraq next fall.
• Rep. Jim Saxton of New Jersey. His nephew, a Marine rifleman, recently served seven months in Iraq.
WASHINGTON — Rep. Joe Wilson gets regular progress reports on the Iraq war from generals and Pentagon officials as a member of the House Armed Services Committee. But since February, the most meaningful battlefield updates have come from his son Alan, an Army National Guard intelligence officer in Iraq.
Often as Wilson, a South Carolina Republican, sat in lengthy House hearings this year, the soldier's e-mails would arrive on his BlackBerry messaging device, which he would pass down the row to committee colleagues. The short missives about daily life in Iraq often gave Wilson and his colleagues more of a real-world view than they received from the top brass.
When Capt. Alan Wilson, 31, arrived home in Columbia on Wednesday for two weeks of R&R before returning to Iraq, he brought a laptop filled with photos. One showed a fiery blast after a truck in his convoy hit a napalm-laced improvised explosive device near Mosul. Miraculously, no one was injured. But "it really brought it close to home when I saw the photos," Wilson says — "particularly the fireball."
Headlines declared November the deadliest month for U.S. troops since the invasion of Iraq last year. But few in Congress have a personal connection to the war. Wilson is among a handful of members with children or other relatives who have had, or soon will get, a firsthand experience.
Fewer than one-third of the 535 members of Congress have served in the military, compared with 77% in 1977. The end of the draft in 1973 is most often cited for the declining number of veterans in Congress. It also helps explain why so few children of lawmakers serve in uniform.
Filmmaker Michael Moore highlighted the lack of well-connected children serving in Iraq in his controversial movie Fahrenheit 9/11 last summer. At the time, he cited Sen. Tim Johnson, a South Dakota Democrat, as the only member of Congress with a child deployed to Afghanistan or Iraq. Army Staff Sgt. Brooks Johnson, 32, served two infantry tours in Iraq, including the initial invasion from Kuwait to Baghdad. He's now a recruiter in Dixon, Ill.
But others have been, remain or are about to be in harm's way.
Besides Wilson, whose son was called up three months after starting a new job as an assistant county prosecutor, four other Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee have more than a professional interest in Iraq. They are:
• Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, the committee's powerful chairman. His son, Marine 1st Lt. Duncan Duane Hunter, 27, was an artillery officer during the first battle of Fallujah and recently returned from a seven-month tour in Iraq.
• Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri. His son Perry, 25, is a Marine combat engineer who is expected to deploy to central Iraq early next year. It's a "sobering" prospect, says the elder Akin, a former Army combat engineer.
• Rep. John Kline of Minnesota. Maj. John Daniel Kline, 34, is an Army Black Hawk helicopter pilot whose 101st Airborne Division battalion is expected to be sent to Iraq next fall.
• Rep. Jim Saxton of New Jersey. His nephew, a Marine rifleman, recently served seven months in Iraq.
Positive vibes brah...positive vibes.
I never said it was brand-new dingo. Nor necessarily a 100% accurate truth. Really, you have to question most anything you recieve in an email or read on the internet, see on t.v. or hear on the radio, read in a newspaper...etc.
It is funny though. Even if it is 5 years old (or more, I mean, how certain are you that the "original post" was original even then?) I wonder how different it is today?
Also, in general, when you want to talk about miliary enrollment all sorts of statistics can get pushed around. From what I see though, the great majority of those in positions in which they are likely to be killed while in service come typically from the most disadvantaged sectors of our society. Sectors not typically demographically represented in the Congress.
It is funny though. Even if it is 5 years old (or more, I mean, how certain are you that the "original post" was original even then?) I wonder how different it is today?
Also, in general, when you want to talk about miliary enrollment all sorts of statistics can get pushed around. From what I see though, the great majority of those in positions in which they are likely to be killed while in service come typically from the most disadvantaged sectors of our society. Sectors not typically demographically represented in the Congress.
I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.
- Robert McCloskey
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
- Emo Philips
- Robert McCloskey
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing.
- Emo Philips
-
longlegsrule
- Posts: 1799
- Joined: Sat Jan 25, 2003 7:21 pm
