Veterans

The Post-Dispatch has the exciting story today of the resurrected Missouri Veterans History Project, a program that preserves the stories and recollections of veterans.  Previously, the program was coordinated by the office of Lt. Governor Peter Kinder at a cost of $1,400 per video, or about $550,000 per year.  Honoring and saving the stories of veterans is obviously an important goal, but in a time of serious budget cuts, it was hard to justify the great cost that went entirely to one firm with a spotty track record who just happened to have associates who made campaign contributions to Kinder.

So Kinder just bagged it.

As noted in the Post-Dispatch, the program's website still has Kinder's call for citizens to contact legislators and ask for the money to be reinstated (without explaining what should be cut instead), and #PDK moved on to silly lawsuits, fighting back against Lefty Jew Hatred, and standing up to fascists on the radio. 

Enter Rep. Rep. Jill Schupp (D-Creve Coeur), Mizzou's Journalism School, the State Historical Society of Missouri and devoted volunteers.  They've come together and are announcing a reconstituted program tomorrow in Columbia.  Volunteers and J-school students are now compiling the videos, at a negligible cost to taxpayers.

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Sen. Brad Lager should check the record before going too far in suggesting that everyone thought the previous cost to taxpayers was absurd. "The only person who thinks that it's reasonable to spend $1,400 per video is the guy getting paid," he told the Post-Dispatch.

Kinder most certainly thought that sum was reasonable, and he had the support of some Republican colleagues int he House. In fact, you can still see Kinder's call for support on the MissouriVeteranStories.org website, still see his staff's calls for full funding on Twitter, and still watch the video created by the program (presumably also at taxpayer expense) and then posted to his campaign's YouTube Channel during the middle of the budget debate.

It's a bad day when your spokesman says that Americans who were drafted and served in Vietnam aren't "proud Americans."  The Star's Steve Kraske explains:

In discussing veterans who have signed up to support Republican Vicky Hartzler, the 4th District Missouri congressional candidate, Hartzler spokesman Steve Walsh said this to a Springfield radio interviewer:

“This is not exactly a group made up of people who might have been drafted, served in Vietnam for a year and hated it, and then came back and said bad things about their country like John Kerry.

“These are people who actually are proud Americans and are supporting Vicky Hartzler.”

Democratic incumbent Ike Skelton was having none of it. Campaign spokesman Jason Rauch said Hartzler owed veterans an apology.

“Many patriotic Americans were drafted and served our country in Vietnam and, like generations of veterans before them, they returned from war to become leaders in their communities,” he said.

In May, Rep. Jo Ann Emerson falsely claimed that 8th District opponent Tommy Sowers "never commanded anybody" in the Army, and therefore does not have a perspective worth respecting regarding the federal 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy.  This was a remarkably dumb thing for Emerson to say; Sowers was an Operational Detachment Commander in Iraq and led a combat engineering platoon in Kosovo.

So when the VFW endorsed Emerson despite this smear, it did not sit well with the folks at VoteVets.org:

So why did the VFW endorse Jo Ann Emerson, who openly smeared the service of her opponent, a former Special Forces Major? Well, as you read above, VFW claims that Emerson has been a "great friend to Veterans". But, really, how great of a friend has she been?

• Since she began her current reelection campaign, Emerson received an "A" rating from IAVA. However, her previous grade from than organization was a "C+". Additionally, since 2001 Emerson has not received a rating of higher than 50% from any Veterans organization. Notably, Emerson received a 0% score from DAV in 2003 and 2004.
• In 2008, Emerson supported the watered down "new G.I. Bill", which provided far less benefits then the bi-partisan Webb-Hagel bill that ultimately passed and serves Veterans today.

Two new videos from Rep. Ike Skelton's YouTube channel from this week's floor discussion on H. Res. 1385, a resolution "recognizing and honoring the courage and sacrifice of the members of the Armed Forces and veterans."

The Missouri House Veterans Committee voted 6-5 yesterday against a proposal by Rep. Stephen Webber (D-Columbia) that would pay deployed state employees the difference between their regular pay and their military pay

Committee Chairman David Day (R-Dixon) opposed the bill because it would single out those on active military duty for "special treatment."

I have a real concern with separating out one relatively small segment and saying, "We’re going to give you this special safety net that we’re not going to provide anyone else."

If any segment of the population is undeserving of special treatment, it's those self-absorbed nogoodnicks on active duty. At least they kept the special treatment for deployed politicians intact.