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Sunday, May 27, 2012

Today's POW/MIA Newsletter is done


OFF THE WIRE
Please take a moment or more to remember those who fought so diligently for our freedoms and who made the ultimate sacrifice!
Thank you... reminder, this is one of the worst weekends of the year for accidents of all types, so please be safe!

 
SEMPER FI~
Dear Animal Advocates,

Each branch of the Armed Forces uses military working dogs (MWDs) in service to the country. Many of these intelligent, loyal animals serve alongside our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, where they have prevented countless injuries and saved lives.

Unfortunately, these heroic dogs are currently classified as “equipment” by the U.S. Department of Defense. This classification not only trivializes these animals’ contributions, it also makes it difficult to transport dogs serving in foreign lands back to the United States for adoption once they’re ready for civilian life.

The Canine Members of the Armed Forces Act will remedy this issue by reclassifying MWDs as “canine members of the armed forces” and instituting programs to assist with their placement and veterinary care after retirement from service—all without using federal funds. This legislation seems like a no-brainer, and yet the bill has only seven cosponsors in the Senate.

 
   
 
What You Can Do We need to generate greater support for the Canine Members of the Armed Forces Act in the U.S. Senate. Please visit the ASPCA Advocacy Center online right now to email your two U.S. senators in Washington, D.C., and urge them to cosponsor the bill.

Thank you, advocates, for standing up for America’s military working dogs.

www.aspca.org/militarydogs

 
 


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OBAMA SLASHES MILITARY HEALTHCARE YET BUILDS $750,000 SOCCER FIELD FOR GUANTANAMO TERRORISTS
The Obama administration is set to jack up military health insurance premiums by 345% and slash $12.9 billion worth of active duty and retiree Tricare coverage. Yet the very same day, plans were revealed to build a state of the art $750,000 soccer field for the terrorists being held at Guantanamo Bay.
Obama's plan is to cut $1.8 billion from Tricare, the military's health insurance and medical system, in the fiscal 2013 budget, and a whopping $12.9 billion by 2017. Administration officials told Congress that the goal of the increased fees is to force military retirees out of military health coverage and instead onto the rolls of the ObamaCare system, including all that goes with it – Death Panels, Independent Payment Advisory Boards, the works.
Meanwhile, Fox News discovered that the administration is currently in the process of building a state of the art $750,000 soccer field for the terrorists held at Guantanamo. The detainees will now have a choice of three recreation centers while they "suffer" through their detainment.
Since when does America put the comfort of terrorists above the needs of the men and women who put their lives on the line every single day to keep us free?
Thankfully, some Congressmen are standing strong for our Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Marines. "We shouldn't ask our military to pay our bills when we aren't willing to impose a similar hardship on the rest of the population," Rep. "Buck" McKeon, (R-CA), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. "We can't keep asking those who have given so much to give that much more."
Our military men and women raised their hand and swore an oath to protect us. In return we agreed to take care of them and their families while they fought, bled and suffered for US. Fax Congress now. Tell them NO CUTS TO MILITARY HEALTHCARE

DMV Offended by Vet's Vanity Plates


http://www.military.com/news/article/dmv-offended-by-vets-vanity-plates.html?ESRC=eb.nl 
DMV Offended by Vet's Vanity Plates

Virginian-Pilot
They were seven letters on the license plates: ICUHAJI.
Phonetically, it could be read, "I see you, Haji."
To the Department of Motor Vehicles, the message was considered offensive to Arab Americans and grounds for the tags' revocation.
But to a former sergeant in the U.S. Army, the plates sent a message of support for the soldiers who served with him during two tours in Iraq.
Sean Bujno of Chesapeake, who was honorably discharged in 2009, is appealing last month's decision by the DMV to revoke his plates. In Circuit Court documents, he contends that DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb violated his free-speech rights and his 14th Amendment right to due process.
"The government can't be charged with deciding what we can and cannot say," said Andrew D. Meyer, Bujno's attorney. "There are going to be people who don't like a certain message, but that is why there is the First Amendment."
He said the plates were on his client's car for more than four years before the DMV asked for them back.
He added that the plates were not meant to be offensive.
"Haji" is a common -- and often derogatory -- term used by U.S. soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan to refer to Arab people. But Meyer also noted its historic definition: "A person who has made a pilgrimage to Mecca," or the hajj.
Meyer, who declined to make Bujno available for an interview, said his client has expanded the meaning to include all U.S. soldiers who have served in Iraq.
"He's not intending it to mean Arabs," he said.
A DMV spokesperson declined to comment on Bujno's case, citing state privacy laws.
In general terms, Melanie Stokes explained, the DMV screens all requests for personalized tags to make sure they don't violate eight guidelines. One of the filters is whether the plate would disparage or offend people by ethnicity or race.
She said staff members run the personalized messages through a computer program that compares them with a list of objectionable messages, including objectionable passages spelled backward.
"If in any way questionable, the personalized message then goes before a diverse committee of DMV employees who determine whether the message should be declined or revoked," she wrote in an email.
The manager of the DMV's Special Plates Work Center makes the initial call. The DMV commissioner handles internal appeals.
Meyer said he is not arguing whether the state has the legal right to deny vanity tags.
Rather, he is claiming that DMV Commissioner Richard Holcomb abused his discretion in Bujno's case. Meyer says Holcomb took into account a bumper sticker on Bujno's car and a previous application that Bujno had submitted to the DMV for a personalized plate.
Meyer said the bumper sticker reads: "God bless our troops, especially our snipers." He declined to say what Bujno had previously requested for a personalized plate.
According to the DMV's website, the department "may consider bumper stickers, decals, magnets, pictures and/or any other material affixed to the vehicle which would influence how a person viewing the license plate would interpret the message."
Abed Ayoub, legal director for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, praised the DMV.
He viewed the plate as an overt threat against Arab Americans -- especially in the context of the bumper sticker.
"What else could he mean? I mean, we aren't hiding," he said.
Ayoub went on to question how people would feel if the license plates referred to black people or Jewish people.
"What if it was ICUJEW? Would we tolerate that? Absolutely not," he said.
Meyer said his client has no desire to "inflame any racial division."
"The military is a brotherhood," he said. "The plate was a showing of support for those over there."