Town Hall Video

Andy at Residual Forces has video up from the Town Hall meeting with Congressman John Kline. If you do not have the time (or the bandwidth) to watch the nearly two hours recorded I recommend that you watch Merrilee Carlson's remarks, SSG Thul's read remarks (link at RF is not working I will add as soon as AAA fixes it) and the remarks from the Iraqi national who was pleading for us to remain in Iraq. If you are not moved to tears by the end of their remarks.....well I don't know what to say.

Q&A Time Part 2

Questions again in italics.

Why are we still there when people like General Petraus says that the war can not be won militarily?

JK - the war can't be won ONLY by the military. We need a military and political solution along with oil sharing and everything else. Prime Minister al Maliki made some mistakes (mistakes were made by a lot of people including President Bush & Prime Minister al Maliki). al Maliki turned only to fellow Shia (including al Sadr) and now he sees that was a mistake. We need all pieces working in unison in order to be successful. Iraq Study Group recommendations ARE being implimented which is helping. The Iraq Army is making big progress, but there are big problems with the Iraqi Police which is not helping.

Saddam did not bomb the World Trade Centers - Osama bin Laden did. We should be going after bin Laden and we are not. We (the anti-war protesters) are not unpatriotic (even though you refuse to honor a Gold Star Mother because she happens to be the Anti-Cindy Sheehan) and we are tired of being called that (we will be addressing THIS in a later post). We are sick and tired of people who say the support the troops not voting for bills that help the troops. You voted for only one bill that helped the troops - I am not making this up (well yes you are but....). Your actions are dispicable.

JK - I understand and appreciate your feelings. Just as you dislike being called unpatriotic, I dislike being called dispicable. Pandamonium broke out at this point. The speaker (who was almost back to her seat in the middle of a row) raced back to the person holding the mic, yanked it out of her hand and yelled "I did not call you that". (Ed. - While technically she is correct, everyone knows (even the Junior Logician gets this) that calling someones action despicable is the same as calling the person dispicable. Her intent was crystal clear.) Someone yelled "sit down and let him speak" someone else yelled "let her talk" which was answered with "SHE ALREADY DID!" At that point, the moderator finally took control of the floor again - although there was much grumbling from the floor.

An Iraqi National spoke next and his words were powerful.

"I am an Iraqi National living here in the US for three years. I never imagined that I would ever see democracy in action like I am seeing tonight! We want the same democracy and freedoms that you have here. I want to address the concerns. I started working for the American Army when the war first started. I had to move here 3 years ago under political asylum because the insurgents threatened me and my family. We love and admire all American soldiers and we are in awe of those who died on our behalf. People who say we are not helping do not know what is going on in Iraq. We are helping and we are in danger because of it! To the speakers who say this is a religious war - this is not Christian versus Islam. To those who say bring the troops home now I say - GIVE US A CHANCE!!! WE NEED IT AND WE WANT IT! If you pull out now it will be a sign to those who wish to harm you that you are weak."

The last question was about war funding but I could not write anymore (plus I had to get a drink of water as I had a really bad tickle in my throat). All in all it was a very productive and informative meeting. I will have one more post that is just observations of the night and then pictures!

Q&A Time

Questions will be in italics.

Congressman Kline started off the Q&A session by answering a few of the questions that were asked during the comments (ed. how he remembered these without taking notes amazes me as I know I could not have remembered).

Regarding the question about Congressman Murtha's call for a draft, Congressman Kline said he would not support that. Our troops today are the best ever (with all apologies to the WWII generation). Regarding NCLD, Congressman Kline said that he was disappointed with the funding levels for NCLB as well as special education (based on the federal mandates) that that NCLB was getting reviewed as it is up for renewal. Several are pushing for NCLB to be applied to high schools, but the congressman is opposing that as it is not fully functionable in it's current format and until it is we should not expand it. Congressman Kline added that he thought NCLB was an over-reach by the federal government. Regarding the defination of terrorism (this was brought up by one of the commentors that I did not quote) Congressman Kline said that saying we are fighting "terrorism" is wrong because there is no real defination of what "terrorism" is. He said that there rare all new people (representing the US Government) in Iraq - from the ambassador on down. With the new people has come a new direction and they (General Petraus and his leadership team) deserve the opportunity to succeed. We should not make it illegal for the troops to win the war!

One questioner got up with a series of questions that were all over the board. He lead off with figures from a debunked Lancet report that says that there are 40,000+ dead Iraqi's alone as a result of the war. He wanted to know why we don't here about the number of insurgents killed (body count)? What about the WMD's? What about President Clinton who said that Saddam was an issue? Why don't we hear about the faulty intel?

JK - there was some pretty horrific (his wording) intel at first. I think the 9/11 Commission addressed that. Not to bash President Clinton, but there was an erosion of human intelligence during his administration. There was no malice on President Clinton's part (regarding the intelligence) and there were no lies on the part of President Bush. Why no body count? The daily body count (during Viet Nam) was disasterous policy. The President's senior advisors and I voiced the opinion that we should not do that. It (the daily body count) was the wrong thing to do.

An activist for the South Suburban Labor Advisory Council asked Congressman Kline why he did not support the Employee Free Choice Act - after detailing harassment that she (and her fellow coworkers got) when they tried to unionize a print shop.

JK - The coersion and intimidation by an employer that you experienced IS illegal. Coersion and intimidation by a union IS illegal. I voted against this Act because it took away the employees right for a private ballot in this kind of a vote. The private ballot is a hallmark of our society and the employees deserved to know that no one, not their employer, not the union and not their fellow co-workers would know how they voted!

What are you doing to strengthen the border?

JK - Last session Congress approved additional border guards and partially funded them (ed. - they should have FULLY funded the new guards). We funded fence sensors and the building of a 700 mile fence. Our problem right now is that the US government has not credibility (when it comes to border enforcement). Until we have credibility on border enforcement, we can not have guest worker programs or anything else.

Can you comment on the news report that the US government is actively trying to destabilize the Iranian government by funding excursions from Pakistan into Iran?

JK - I have not seen the report so I don't know the full context, but that corner of Iran/Pakistan/Afghanistan is very unstable. It is not under Pakistani, Afghani OR Iranian control. It is a source of concern for all three governments and part of the reason why the Taliban is resurging there.

The rising cost of college tuition is a concern for many people. What is your plan to address this issue?

JK - short of imposing price controls (which is impractical in this situation) we are doing what we can. The last Congress took $12B from the Student Loan Administration Program for more Pell Grants and to reduce the interest rates on loans. Congress is actively looking for a solution and if you have one I would love to hear it. (From the audience "Roll back the tax cuts" which got lots of hoots and hollers from the lefties and a hissed "YES" from the Code Pink lady next to me). Congressman Kline laughed and said "you will be happy to know that this Congress is working on the largest tax increase in history (which drew boos from the righties).

We are hearing many different reports about what happened to get us into Iraq and what is going on now. It is hard to know what to believe. Do you support complete investigations into what got us here and how things are being handled?

We have made some progress, but not enough. One recommendation (from the 9/11 Commission) was to reorganize Congress. The Republican leadership from the last session didn't want to do it because it was "too hard". The Democrats campaigned that they would impliment ALL the 9/11 Commission Report recommendations but once they got into power they said "except this one". We are working on it.

What is the goal (for Iraq)? It should be getting the troops OUT NOW (emphasis the speakers). We are not getting cooperation from the Iraqi civilian population. When are the Iraqi's going to be ready to take over for us?

Surprising and amazing progress is being made in places like the al Anbar Provence (Western Iraq). We ARE getting cooperation from the local sheiks who got tired of al Qaeda killing their people.

continued in the next post!

Comments part two

The next person to speak was Merrilee Carlson a Gold Star Mother. Her son Michael was killed saving the lives of members of his unit who were trapped in a submerged Bradley. Her words were haunting (especially to the mother of a son).

"On my son's 22nd birthday (February 14) my son got on a plane for Iraq...he never saw his 23rd birthday. On 9/11 he was finishing boot camp...he was mad that we were attacked like this - on our home soil and even madder still that we allowed this to happen. We OWE IT to our troops to let them finish the job." (emphasis hers)

When she sat down, 2/3 of the audience rose to applaude her and her son. One third not only didn't stand, they didn't applaud.

The next speaker rose on behalf of Sgt Thul, who couldn't attend himself as he is still on duty in Iraq. He read portions on the Star Tribune editorial that Sgt. Thul wrote:

"I won't pretend to speak for everyone in uniform over here, and in fact no one ever could. There are as many opinions in the military as there are in the civilian world. But I can tell you that a majority of U.S. troops want to stay in Iraq and finish the mission. How do I know this? Two ways.
The first is anecdotally, from the men and women I work with and talk to every day. I have yet to meet someone who thinks the long-term good of the United States and the Middle East would be served by an immediate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Many of us are tired and frustrated and miss our families and just want to go home. But we want to go home after transferring our area of responsibility to another unit, whether it is U.S. or Iraqi. We don't want to abandon our posts.
The second way I know that my fellow soldiers want to stay is that they have been saying so in a petition to Congress. At the AppealForCourage.org website, more than 1,500 service members in less than a month have signed an appeal for redress, the officially authorized method for the military to ask Congress to right a wrong, asking Congress to stop calling for retreat and to support our mission.
Day after day we see and hear our elected leaders in Washington telling us that the war is already lost or that it is not winnable. Nothing could be further from the truth. The essence of the military mission here is really quite simple. Train the Iraqi army and police to do the job that we are currently doing, give them the reins, and then take our leave. It is a slow job, but steady progress is being made. Already entire provinces of Iraq are under Iraqi military control. In more than 70 percent of the country, the Iraqi army and police are in the lead."

He then went on to advise Congressman Kline that it was their intention to present the Appeal for Courage Petition for Redress FIRST to Congressman Kline in the hopes that he would present it to Congress.

The next speaker (a self professed "scholar of history") then got up to express her "deep concerns" that we were losing our civil rights. She then called the prior two speakers remarks SPIN! (emphasis all mine). The murmers from the crowd were audible!

Ed. - let that sink in for a moment. The remarks and the experiences of our troops in the field who actually believe in what they are doing is SPIN to the anti-war crowd! What does that tell you about the depth of their "support" for the troops. It is clear to me that they ONLY support the troops as long as the troops are usefull tools to advance their agenda and if the troops DARE to disagree with them then the TROOPS are the ones engaging in spin.....oh my goodness....where is my duct tape?

The next speaker rose asking that we observe an minute of silence to honor Michael Carlson and all the Minnesota soldiers who lost their lives in the war. Classy way to defuse a tense moment.

The next speaker, a Viet Nam vet rose to thank the congressman for taking questions, remarking that when Candidate Coleen Rowley had Congressman Murtha in town for her, they did NOT allow questions to be asked. He then remarked that this was a legal war based on the August 2002 war vote which was based on the 1998 Iraq Liberation Act. He then asked if we were going to recognize Iran's violations of the Geneva Convention (ed. - a clear reference to Iran's taking those British sailors hostage) and if Congressman Kline supported Congressman Murtha's call (on the Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer) for a military draft.

That was the last of the comments. I would like to remind you that per my first post, there was no preset order of speakers so the order that these comments came in was pure happenstance.

Report from the Town Hall - Comments

As MDE, Kevin and Joe Tucci have already reported, the first hour of yesterday's town hall meeting was specifically for comments directed toward the Congressman. The people spoke, the politician LISTENED! Here are some of the comments from last night (I will try to keep the editorial remarks to a minimum).

The first comment of the night was from a Chaska resident who was an educator. Her concern (ed - one that is shared by many including parents of school children) was on the No Child Left Behind Act. She (ed- righty IMHO) called NCLB an unfunded mandate and wanted to know what Congress was going to do to correct that.

Our first anti-war comment of the night came from another Chaska resident who mentioned that the latest Minnesotan to die in this "misguided adventure" (Daniel Olson) was just announced. The commentor wanted to know how many Iraqi have been trained and when would they be able to take over? (ed. - I will be referring back to this later). The commentor then said that he was president of the group "Veterans for Peace" and demanded an immediate withdrawal of the troops. Approximately 3-4 dozen audience members stood at these remarks. Meanwhile there was polite applause from the rest of the audience. These remarks were followed by an Eagan resident who remarked on governmental "cronyism" and the gross mismanagement of funds by Paul Bremer and the Iraqi Government.

The next set of comments were about Islam, with a retired naval commander from Prior Lake commenting on how our government and the American people were ignorant of the threat of Islam - how Islam is a religion of War, not peace and how they were compelled to lie to infidels (Taqquiya) which lead to an Apple Valley minister who commented that Christianity had their moments of savegry (ed - true enough but that was centuries ago - we outgrew it!). He said that we should "respect Islam" (ed - well respect IS a two way street sir).

The anti-war comments were interrupted by a couple of folks who wanted to comment on the Union Free Choice Act - one supporting Congressman Kline's vote on the bill, the other against it (ed - this is how the evening seemed to go)

A woman from Apple Valley wanted to comment on Executive War Powers. She said that it always seemed like we were at war with SOMETHING like terror or poverty or drugs or immigration so doesn't that give the President unlimited powers forever? ED - talk about your mis-intepretation of the War Powers. She clearly does not realize that Presidential War Powers only (let me repeat that) ONLY come after Congress has officially declared WAR on an opponent. These powers do not apply in the war on poverty or drugs because there is no official Congressional declaration of WAR!

A Liberian national then got up to speak about extending their temporary sanctuary (this deserves it's own post).

Several more comments went back and forth on the war (including one with a call to extend Guard benefits) then one lady (who obviously was NOT paying attention when our moderator laid out the format for the evening) demanded that we be allow to "question" the Congressman.

The next batch of comments are so important that I am moving them to their own post.

Reports from the Town Hall meeting

I just wanted to get a couple of quick hit impressions down about last night's town hall meeting with John Kline. I took copious notes and I will spend some time today putting them into a single coherent post.

Both sides were fairly equally represented. The town hall meeting was open to ALL issues so we did get a couple of intelligent questions about issues other than Iraq, but we all knew why the majority was there and the questions reflected it.

We heard from the usual suspects on the left but we also got to hear from a Gold Star Mom (Merrilee Carlson) and from Powerlines Sgt Thole from Chaska. Sgt. Thole's rep read from his 3/17 Star Tribune editorial and informed Congressman Kline that they were going to present his office first with the Appeal for Courage Petition (if you are active duty you need to check the site out).

I shot almost a full roll of film at the protest prior to the town hall meeting that I will be getting developed today so I should have pictures this afternoon. Stay tuned for further updates!

Health care for vets

Much has been said about the growing controversy surrounding the Veterans Administration Medical system of late. Whether it is in DC or here in Minnesota, our veterans are not getting the care that they deserve. The Logical Husband is former US Army. He has been out for 17 years now. This is nothing new.

After the Logical Husband left the military, he went to work in telecommunications. As the result of a couple of job transfers, he (and I) ended up working at the VAMC in Madison Wisconsin. The VAMC Madison was under scrutiny the year we went there because several veterans had died from heat stroke in the 8th floor ICU that previous summer. We saw a lot of good and bad things at the VA when we worked there. To the point where the Logical Husband told me that if he ever got injured on the job or had a heart attack, he wanted me to grab him by the ankle and drag him over to the adjacent University Medical Center!

With that in mind, I think I hit upon a solution to the problem. What the US Government needs to do is they need to put more money into the VA system. Oh I can hear you know..."OK Miss Conservative Know-it-all Hypocrit - where are you gonna get the money?" Well, if you listen to the Democrats there is only a limited, never changing pool of money that we can use. So my solution is to take the medical dollars that the being spent every year to provide free health care to illegal immigrants and give it to the veterans that have sacrificed their health for the country! Just think what an additional couple of hundred million dollars in the VA system could get these wounded heros.

I have nothing against these illegal immigrants, but these veterans deserve to have the best of health care, given what they have been through. If the illegals need health care, well then they can buy it like the rest of us.

However, I know our friends on the left will be quick to reject that idea...just as they are quick to lay the blame for a 50 year old problem at the foot of President Bush.

House ditches troops

I don't usually write about these things and for a good reason. However, what happened in DC Friday and Saturday are extrordinary events and need to be treated as such.

The American Legion, an organization of which the Logical Husband IS a member, issued a press release in the aftermath of the historic House anti-troops vote. (H/T AAA)

"The leader of the nation’s largest wartime veterans’ organization provided the following statement in response to the House vote disapproving the President’s decision to deploy more than 20,000 additional combat troops to the Iraqi theater.“Congress may consider its vote today on H. Con. Res. 63 to be non-binding, but veterans of previous wars and those in the field of combat right now consider Congress’s action to be a betrayal of trust and the first step toward surrender to the terrorists who caused this war in the first place." (emphasis mine)

Democrats like Rep Pelosi and Rep. Murtha will try to paint H.R. 63 as everything but an anti-troops resolution, but the troops see it for what it is....a slap in the face and the first step toward defeat.

"This war didn’t just start with the invasion of Iraq. It’s been going on for decades. It’s been going on in Republican and Democrat administrations and Congresses.
It isn’t about partisan politics. It’s about America. It’s about all of us, and especially those who are at this moment risking their lives on the field of battle.
Americans are not the enemy here. The terrorists and all of those governments that support them are the enemy. We must never forget that. "

Leave it to the Legion to remind Americans of the very recent history that the media and the Democrats would just as soon you forget.

"And, equally important, we must never forget the primary lesson learned in Vietnam: you cannot separate the war from the warrior.
Congress can talk all it wants to about how it supports the troops. But its actions set the table. The message they sent today to the frontline is that America is preparing to cut and run. We essentially told our fighting men and women that ‘we have taken step one in the plan to cut reinforcements, to cut armaments, and to withdraw any support you need to complete your mission" (emphasis again mine).

When will the American people (and especially the political classes) get this simple statement of fact!

"The Speaker characterized it succinctly when she said, “(t)his legislation will signal a change in direction that will end the fighting and bring our troops home.’
What she failed to add was ‘… in defeat, and without completing the mission they were trained to complete and ready to win if only America had not given up before they did.’
The American Legion and the American people find this to be totally unacceptable and we will do everything within our power to ensure that our troops are not used as political pawns by a Congress that lacks the will to win.”

There is not much else left to say - other than God bless and watch over our troops...because their government has ducked out on them!