Advocating Progress
think-progress:

Veteran unemployment is at its lowest level in more than three years. 

think-progress:

Veteran unemployment is at its lowest level in more than three years. 

demnewswire:

Welcoming Home Our Veterans

Since day one, President Obama has made it a priority to keep the sacred trust we hold with those who wear the uniform of the United States and their families. 

In advance of the President’s remarks at the VFW Convention in Reno, Obama for America released this video that discusses the President’s commitment to keeping our nation’s sacred promise to our veterans. This video highlights a St. Louis parade organized to welcome our servicemembers home from Iraq.

Learn how President Obama continues to better serve those who have served this nation and how you can get involved with Veterans and Military Familes for Obama: http://OFA.BO/ooJZtN

somepolitics:

Never have I ever been so disgusted with a politician’s blatant disregard for a certain group of people. It’s astounding how he has no shame in essentially admitting that he thinks gay people are not as equal as others.

cognitivedissonance:

Police pepper-spray protesters who object to the recently-opened unmanned drone exhibit at the National Air and Space Museum

Here’s one protester explaining why:

Reporters have claimed only one person was actually sprayed, but I think it’s pretty clear it’s more than one. Even if you’re aiming at one, more than one will be hit in a crowd of people.

Here’s the street medic treatment for pepper-spray exposure to the mouth and eyes. I’ve seen this used and it is effective. I’m disgusted that I feel like this is necessary information to know if you’re an activist. 

If this kind of brutality does not end, it really will be no justice, no peace. The police must be held accountable, but as Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out, that’s unlikely.

I haven’t made it my practice to listen to the cheers and the boos and try to correct the people on their expressions of their view,” Romney said in a video clip from Think Progress, seeming to issue a new personal policy on what he will and won’t do during debates.

Romney on Booing: Audience Was Expressing Its View | News | The Advocate

Mitt Romney doesn’t think he should tell the audience not to boo the gay soldier…

(via cornachio)

So what Mitt Romney is basically saying, is that he and his fellow Republicans don’t support the U.S. military. The military operates as a unit. Not as one individual here and one there. In order to operate as a unit, they even have special rules and regulations that they have to follow that restricts their freedoms. (Ironic, isn’t it?)

Things that we take for granted, such as hair length or how much we weigh are things that are restricted/regulated for members of the military. This allows them to operate and function as a unit.

You can’t say “I support all the soldiers, except for the gay ones”. It doesn’t work that way.

So, what’s it gonna be Republican Party? Are the people who “boo” gay soldiers just a small extremist fringe of your party or do they speak for the Republican Party as a whole?

(via truth-has-a-liberal-bias)

I haven’t made it my practice to listen to the cheers and the boos and try to correct the people on their expressions of their view,” Romney said in a video clip from Think Progress, seeming to issue a new personal policy on what he will and won’t do during debates.

Romney on Booing: Audience Was Expressing Its View | News | The Advocate

Mitt Romney doesn’t think he should tell the audience not to boo the gay soldier…

(via cornachio)

cognitivedissonance:

One in three U.S. veterans of the post-9/11 military believes the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were not worth fighting, and a majority think that after 10 years of combat America should be focusing less on foreign affairs and more on its own problems, according to an opinion survey released Wednesday.

The findings highlight a dilemma for the Obama administration and Congress as they struggle to shrink the government’s huge budget deficits and reconsider defense priorities while trying to keep public support for remaining involved in Iraq and Afghanistan for the longer term.

Somehow, I don’t think the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is the morale issue… 

We don’t believe in the kind of smallness that says it’s okay for a stage full of political leaders — one of whom could end up being the president of the United States — being silent when an American soldier is booed. We don’t believe in that.

We don’t believe in standing silent when that happens. We don’t believe in them being silent since. You want to be commander in chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it’s not politically convenient. We don’t believe in a small America. We believe in a big America — a tolerant America, a just America, an equal America — that values the service of every patriot.

President Barack Obama (via high-femme-diaries)

My respect for this man just tripled.

(via fuck-republicans)

tartantambourine:

The GOP presidential debate in Orlando produced a profile in courage and nine profiles in cowardice. The profile in courage came courtesy of the brave active-duty solider named Stephen Hill serving in Iraq who chose the Republican debate as the opportunity to come out to his fellow servicemen and the nation via video. He was, of course, marking the newfound freedom to do so granted by the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. And he was greeted with a chorus of boos from people in the conservative crowd who don’t like his kind. The profiles in cowardice came from the nine presidential candidates on stage who chose to stand through the insult to a military man serving in a war zone, struck dumb by their political calculations. This was an opportunity to speak out in favor of civil rights, to condemn a basic lack of kindness in the crowd, to stand up for our fighting men and women serving in harm’s way.

As I’ve said many times before, two of the bravest soldiers I’ve ever known were gay. At least a couple of gay friends have also been Republicans over the years; it’s hard to imagine how they still could vote for the GOP.

Sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military”? That will be a surprise to the men and women, of every orientation, who love, marry, and become parents while serving. We have an all-volunteer military whose health relies on its strong ties to civilian life — not a praetorian guard of eunuchs. Does Santorum think that “the military” is a collection of battle scenes in an action movie? Surely not; his father worked for the Veterans Administration, and so he must know better. He also ought to know that there is no “special privilege” here, just the possibility of serving without the special obligation of lying, and the same knowledge other soldiers have that the person they love most might be able to be handed a folded flag if they die. Or is the word “gay” so strong for Santorum that it blotted out the word “soldier