Here in the United States, Monday is Memorial Day, when we honor those who have fallen to protect our country. As a way to celebrate this day, the Daily Kos website is running a poll for more moderate veterans running against neocons for seats in Congress. The winner will get a web page put together at ActBlue, which can be a major boost to their campaign funding.
As it happens, one of the vets they have on the poll is my friend Lt. Colonel Hal Bidlack. A few months back I wrote a post in support of Hal, who’s running for Congress as a moderate Democrat in the reddest of red districts in Colorado. The incumbent is an ultra-far-right guy, Doug Lamborn, who is at best a rubber stamp for the President, and at worst… Well. Lamborn was one of the very few people who voted against the GI Bill that went through Congress last week, a bill designed to increase benefits for veterans including more money for veteran education after service – a bill which Bush has promised to veto, and for which both houses of Congress have enough votes to override. [Edited to add: A commenter below says that I am implying here that Bush et al. are voting against this bill because they don’t want veterans to get benefits. To be clear: Bush has stated he will veto this bill because it spends too much. That is absurd, and if you think otherwise, I have a phrase for you to memorize: we are spending 20 million dollars per hour on the War on Terror. Remind me again: are we safer?]
Lamborn needs to go, and Hal would make a great Congressman, so I voted for him on the Daily Kos poll. Now let me be clear: I am not asking for a run on the poll for Hal. Seriously. I am asking that you go there, check out the candidates, and vote if you feel strongly about one over the others (I did some spot checking and they seem to be good folks running against bad ones). I think we could use more veterans in Congress, veterans who actually care about other veterans.
So head over there and vote.
Tip o’ the Air Force beret to ARealGirl.
