Napolitano is a Disgrace - Resign.

Janet Napolitano is a disgrace. resign.

After twisting the Department of Homeland Security into a Homeland State Police and insulting America's Veterans, Napolitano offered a smirk and an off-hand attempt to brush off her remarks and then added a confirmation of her mission to curb American Civil Rights.


"Let me be very clear: We monitor the risks of violent extremism taking root here in the United States," Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano said in a written statement.

"We don't have the luxury of focusing our efforts on one group; we must protect the country from terrorism whether foreign or homegrown and regardless of the ideology that motivates its violence."


Resign, you hack!

Leo Veterans Observance -Friday November 7 at 11AM -Leo Piper David McKee Leads the Way

Leo High School's David McKee '46 - the Dean of Stockyard Kilty Pipe Band - opens the Leo Veterans Observance tomorrow by piping in the Colors.

Come over to Leo High School -Leo High School site of Veterans Observance on Friday, November 7th, 2008 @11:00 A.M

Contact - Mr. Pat Hickey -Director of Development (773) 224-9600,ex.#16

Leo High School, Leo Alumni Association, Windy City Veterans, The Burbank, Illinois Unit of the Marine Corps League, The Veterans Leadership Program, American Legion Giles Post #87, & Chicago Commission on Human Relations will hold a special Veterans Memorial Observance at the Leo War Memorial in the school’s courtyard. , Leo High School President Robert W. Foster & Vice Principal Frank Wilson (USMC ret.) will direct the observance which features presentations by Veterans, wreath - laying by Richard Furlong, President of the Alumni Association , Mrs. Rochelle Crump - Veteran and Asst. Director for the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services.

It is the Veterans who make this event special.

Leo High School erected a memorial in 1965 to the many Leo men who have died serving America in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and the Windy City Veterans of Chicago updated the engraved names and constructed permanent lighting for the memorial. Last year more than two hundred persons joined the 220 Leo students in honoring America’s war fallen.

John Fardy (Leo 1940) was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic sacrifice during World War II. Mr. John Houlihan (Leo ‘41) served in the Marine Corps as did Mr. Dick Prendergast and twenty (20) more of his classmates from the Class of ‘43. Many Leo men have been decorated for heroism, including Mr. Jim Farrell (Leo ‘61), Mr. Jack Farnan, (Leo ‘63), and Mr. Jim Furlong ( Leo ‘65), all members of the Leo Hall of Fame and highly decorated Vietnam Veterans. The late Mr.Thomas Stack (Leo ‘61) organized the first welcome home to the Veterans of Vietnam. Mr.Tom Stack won two Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars in Vietnam.
Another highly decorated Vietnam Veteran, Gen. George Muellner, USAF (ret.) graduated from Leo, flew more than 600 combat fighter missions, commanded many fighter commands, and developed the STAR communications weapon system for Operation Desert Storm. Gen. Muellner is now the VP for Boeing Corporation’s Stealth Projects. Chicago Police Officer Eric Lee ( USMC) was killed in the line of duty several years ago and is remembered in Leo High School's Hall of Fame.The Veterans Memorial Observance, as always, will be held in the school courtyard located on 79th Street.

John McCain - Backs America's Veterans - He is One!

A recent article states that Veteran support for John McCcain is no sure thing, but John McCain's Presidency is sure thing for vets - here is Senator McCain's Program for Veterans:

America owes its liberty, its prosperity, and its future to our veterans who have dedicated their lives to protecting our great country. John McCain has fought to honor our national commitment to our veterans who have given their careers and livelihoods to ensuring our freedom. He believes we must provide for service members and their families while they serve, we must help those who return from combat to adjust to civilian life, and we must honor and never forget the service of those who do not return.

John McCain has been a leader in Congress, fighting for all those who serve and their families, improving veterans' health care, providing veterans with the benefits they have earned, easing their transition to civilian life, and honoring the fallen.


PROVIDING FOR OUR SERVICE MEMBERS

John McCain believes that meeting the needs of our service members who defend us is our obligation and is essential to our national security. He worked to increase pay scales for servicemen and women during both the Persian Gulf War and the current War on Terror and to increase enlistment and reenlistment bonuses for reservists and guardsmen. He also sponsored bills to give special tax relief to deployed service members and to set up overseas savings programs for the men and women fighting in the Gulf War.

HONORING THE SERVICE OF RESERVISTS AND GUARDSMEN


"For my part, I would simply affirm that the sacrifices borne by veterans deserve to be memorialized in something more lasting than marble or bronze or in the fleeting effect of a politician's speech. Your valor and your devotion to duty have earned your country's abiding concern for your well being. I am, I assure you, committed to honoring that debt."

John McCain, Remarks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, 3/7/95



The nation's reserve personnel have been a vital component of the Global War on Terror, with reservists serving side-by-side with active duty members in Iraq, Afghanistan, and around the globe. John McCain believes that the fundamental role of reservists has changed over the last decade, and given their invaluable role and the tremendous sacrifices that these men and women have made, they should receive additional benefits than those that they have traditionally been granted.

For this reason, John McCain has supported legislation to expand retirement benefits for reservists, supported provisions to expand eligibility for health care benefits for reservists and their families, and sponsored legislation to grant survivor benefit payments to the spouses of reservists who die during or as the result of training.

IMPROVING VETERANS' HEALTH CARE

John McCain believes that America's veterans who dedicated themselves to protecting our country deserve the highest quality health care. He is committed to ensuring that veterans' health care programs receive the funding necessary to provide the quality health care our veterans need and deserve. He has worked to ensure that the Veteran's Administration provides care for all eligible veterans, no matter where they live or what they need. In addition, John McCain has fought to ensure that retired servicemen and women have meaningful access to affordable health care.

Funding Veterans' Health Care

John McCain has voted repeatedly, throughout his career, to ensure that the Veteran's Administration health care programs receive the funding necessary to serve our veterans. He has supported numerous funding increases, initiatives to make the VA more efficient, and proposals to give higher pay to VA doctors in order to recruit and retain high quality physicians and dentists.

Expanding Veterans' Access to Health Care

John McCain has worked to ensure that geography does not prevent veterans from receiving the care they have earned. He supported measures to allow veterans in remote areas of Alaska to get care at existing facilities run by the Indian Health Service or tribal organizations. He also rallied support for a demonstration project to send mobile health centers to remote locations where veterans need care. In addition, he sponsored legislation that would ensure that health care funding is distributed fairly, and that eligible veterans in all regions of the country can equally access high quality health care.

Serving the Special Health Care Needs of Veterans

John McCain understands that veterans face a broad array of health challenges, many of which disproportionately afflict our former service members. He has fought to ensure that veterans receive health care that reflects their unique needs.

For this reason, John McCain advocated for guaranteeing health benefits to veterans who have been exposed to radiation. He also worked to advance studies on the health effects of exposure to Agent Orange and to give disability benefits to veterans with cancer and other health problems caused by Agent Orange. He supported efforts to provide veterans with treatment for tobacco related illnesses and substance abuse problems, and he sponsored legislation to cover mental health care in military retiree health plans. John McCain has also been a leading advocate for providing veterans with hospice benefits.

Health Care for Retired Veterans

John McCain believes that all military retirees, even if they are not eligible for VA health care, should be provided with meaningful access to health care. The federal government should ease the burden of health care costs on those people who have dedicated their careers to protecting our freedom. He has supported allowing military retirees to remain eligible for CHAMPUS or TRICARE military health care programs even when they reach the age of 65 and are eligible for Medicare. He has also consistently supported efforts to give military retirees tax breaks to help pay health insurance premiums, and he has opposed placing user fees on military retirees for using military medical facilities.

PROVIDING VETERANS WITH THE BENEFITS THEY HAVE EARNED

John McCain strongly believes that it is our duty as a nation to provide our veterans, who dedicated their careers, risked their personal safety, and sometimes sacrificed their lives in order to protect us, with the benefits that we have promised them and that they have earned.

John McCain has voted consistently to increase funding for veterans' benefits, recognizing that the people who serve our country should get priority over the disgraceful amounts of spending on corporate subsidies and wasteful pork barrel spending. He also pushed for various initiatives to ensure that veterans who are eligible for benefits know what they are entitled to and have the resources to obtain their benefits.

CARING FOR OUR DISABLED VETERANS

John McCain has been a leading advocate in the Senate for disabled veterans throughout his entire career. He fought for nearly fifteen years, introducing numerous bills, to ensure that veterans with service-connected disabilities can receive the retirement benefits that they have earned, as well as the disability compensation benefits that they are entitled to. He has also worked to ensure that veterans can have their disability claims processed in a timely manner, working with the VA to rectify its huge backlog of claims and providing additional resources for that purpose.

John McCain believes very strongly that service members who suffered permanent injuries in service to our nation should not be forced to give up their disability compensation in order to collect their retirement pay. For this reason, John McCain has been a staunch supporter of repealing the historic ban on receiving both disability and retirement pay at the same time. Over the past few years, John McCain has successfully pushed for provisions to compensate disabled retired veterans for this disparity. Now, because of his efforts, veterans with severe combat-related disabilities are able to collect their retirement and disability compensation at the same time. John McCain will continue to fight for equal treatment of disabled veterans under the retirement system. In an effort to help disabled veterans with their health care, he cosponsored a measure to allow disabled veterans to be enrolled in the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, the same health insurance offered to Senators and Congressmen. He has also supported higher payments to disabled veterans and survivors of veterans who died because of service connected injuries.

John McCain has worked to increase VA resources for paralysis research, and he spearheaded an effort to establish a Blind Rehabilitation Center in Tucson, Arizona to help the 1,200 vets on waiting lists for rehab services for the blind.

A LEADING ADVOCATE FOR GULF WAR VETERANS

John McCain has always been a leader on veteran's issues, and Congress has often looked to him, particularly during times of conflict and war. On January 31, 1991, Senator Bob Dole appointed John McCain Co-Chairman of a task force to make recommendations to the Senate regarding effective policies to help the men and women and their families who served in Operations Desert Shield/Storm. John McCain worked with his colleagues to identify the most beneficial proposals, including doubling veteran and service member life insurance benefits, the establishment of a death gratuity payment for Persian Gulf service members, housing loan benefits for Gulf War veterans, expanded reemployment rights, and providing readjustment counseling for veterans.

EASING THE TRANSITION TO CIVILIAN LIFE

John McCain believes that we must do what we can to smooth the transition for veterans from military to civilian life. He has strongly supported educational and job counseling programs to help veterans get civilian employment. He has worked to provide new educational assistance for reservists. He also fought to extend the availability of G.I. bill education benefits for Vietnam veterans, and to expand flight training benefits to more veterans. In addition, John McCain is a strong supporter of the Troops-To-Teachers Act, a program to train veterans to become teachers, and introduced legislation to extend the program. John McCain also believes that we must provide more assistance to veterans who are recently discharged and has worked to extend unemployment and vocational training benefits for veterans.

John McCain has also been a strong advocate for those veterans most in need. He has supported numerous bills to help homeless veterans by providing them with counseling, independent living training, and residential treatment programs so that they can address and overcome those ailments that plague many homeless veterans, such as post-traumatic stress disorder and substance abuse.

PROTECTING VETERANS FROM FINANCIAL LOSS

John McCain has also worked for a number of other financial protection and relief provisions for service members and veterans. He supported amendments to the bankruptcy reform bill that would protect veterans from being denied bankruptcy claims if they incurred their debts while defending our country. He also sponsored legislation to extend the tax filing deadline for Gulf War service members. In addition, he pushed for legislation to protect veterans from scam artists and loan sharks who would prey on low income veterans by offering them a small amount of "fast cash" to sign over their veteran's benefits.

PROVIDING FOR THE FAMILIES OF OUR FALLEN HEROES

John McCain believes that in addition to our national duty to provide benefits to veterans who return from combat, we must honor those who do not return and provide for their families with a death gratuity benefit and meaningful life insurance coverage. During the last two major military conflicts, John McCain worked to increase death gratuity payments. He cosponsored legislation to double the death gratuity payment in 2003 for service men and women who are killed in the War on Terror. He also sponsored legislation during the first Gulf War to increase the death gratuity payment, and to double the soldier and veterans' group life insurance.

In 2007, after learning about problems that the families of some service members killed in combat were having accessing the death gratuity payment, John McCain introduced legislation to allow service members to designate who they want their benefits to go to in the event of their death. John McCain has also worked to increase the survivor benefit plan for widows or widowers of retired veterans.

HONORING THE SERVICE AND SACRIFICE OF OUR PAST AND PRESENT VETERANS

John McCain has worked throughout his time in Congress to fulfill our nation's solemn duty to honor those veterans who sacrificed their lives to protect our liberty. In 2006, he sponsored legislation to immortalize the Mt. Soledad Veterans Memorial as a symbol honoring veterans of the Korean War.

He also advocated for the creation of a number of other veterans' memorials, including a memorial to honor disabled veterans and the National Native American Veterans' Memorial. He sponsored legislation to create National Medal of Honor Sites to honor recipients of the Medal of Honor. He worked to create Arizona's only National Memorial Cemetery in Phoenix, and he authored legislation to ensure that veterans have honor guards at their funerals.

The article linked to my post title is filled with American Veterans's comments - all pretty supportive of John McCain - Why the Funny Title!

John McCain Honors Troops but Chicago Anti-War Lawyer Plays the Law to Beat Young Marine out of Damages

Marine McNulty's Car damaged days before deployment to Iraq by Chicago Anti-War Lawyer


Blackfive Website Manager Bill Burden and his beautiful Bride


Iraq War Vet Bill Burden and his Ride



John McCain served - understatement that -and continues to Honor those who serve. I support John McCain. Other Americans Honor Veterans and Servicemen and some do no such thing.

Some people, whom American men and women defend with their very lives and limbs, use American Freedoms to whatever they feel compelled to do in the name of Free Speech in order to protest the military. American Law is defended by the military and well it should be; however, a Chicago lawyer decided that he could destroy the property of an American serviceman, in order to make 'his statement' about what he believes to be an unjust war. Now, that lawyer will use the Laws, being defended by thousands of young Americans in harm's way, to avoid the costs of little protest.

This is from a Veteran who runs a website in support of America Service People and Veterans rights - www.blackfive.net

Click on my post title for Chicago Veteran Cavalryman William Alexander Burden's story which I deliver second hand to you good folks.

Bill Burden is a Patriot!

Marine Sgt Mike McNulty is on activation orders to Iraq (second tour). On December 1st, 2007, Mike went to visit a friend in Chicago before deploying to say goodbye. In order to get to his friend's residence, and keep in mind that Chicago is a myriad of diagonal and one-way streets, the front entrance (right way) to the one-way street was blocked. Mike, being a Marine, overcame and adapted by driving around the block to the other end of the street and backing up all the way to his friend's place.

While saying goodbye, at about 11am, he noticed a man leaning up against his car. Mike left his friend's apartment and caught the man keying his car on multiple sides. After caught in the process, the man told Mike, "you think you can do whatever you want with Department of Defense license plates and tags". (In Illinois you can purchase veteran, Marine, or medal plates. Mike has Illinois Marine Corps license plates.) During the exchange, he made additional anti-military comments.

Mike called the Chicago police and had the man arrested. A citation against the man was issued for misdemeanor criminal damage to private property.

Read Bill Burden's full account of the action and the subsequent pettifogery of the lawyer in avoiding the costs encumbant upon his 'personal protest.' Bill gives you name of the lawyer and the Police Report as well.

Protest and Civil Disobedience requires that the protester face the consequences of his statement or criminal action - unless of course that protester is an ambulance chaser.

Honor Our Veterans At Leo High School on November 9th at 11AM- Honor All Who Serve!

For Immediate Release: Leo High School site of Veterans Observance on Friday, November 9th, 2007
@11:00 A.M

Contact - Mr. Pat Hickey -Director of Development (773) 224-9600

Leo High School, Leo Alumni Association, Windy City Veterans, The Burbank, Illinois Unit of the Marine Corps League, The Veterans Leadership Program, American Legion Giles Post #87, & Chicago Commission on Human Relations will hold a special Veterans Memorial Observance at the Leo War Memorial in the school’s courtyard. , Leo High School President Robert W. Foster & Vice Principal Frank Wilson (USMC ret.) will direct the observance which features presentations by Veterans, wreath - laying by Richard Furlong, President of the Alumni Association , Mrs. Rochelle Crump - Veteran and Asst. Director for the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services.

Sadly - The Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs no longer participates in this Annual Veterans Observance. In August, when we begin the planning for the event, Director Duckworth's Office informed Leo High School that 'the Director had other plans for that date and that Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs would not be participating.' When I called for follow-up I asked, 'Leo High School can expect no help from Illinois Department of Veterans Affairs?' and was told ' good luck with your event.' It is not mine - this event belongs to the Veterans.

It is the Veterans who make this event special.

Leo High School erected a memorial in 1965 to the many Leo men who have died serving America in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam and the Windy City Veterans of Chicago updated the engraved names and constructed permanent lighting for the memorial. Last year more than two hundred persons joined the 320 Leo students in honoring America’s war fallen.

John Fardy (Leo 1940) was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor for his heroic sacrifice during World War II. Mr. John Houlihan (Leo ‘41) served in the Marine Corps as did Mr. Dick Prendergast and twenty (20) more of his classmates from the Class of ‘43. Many Leo men have been decorated for heroism, including Mr. Jim Farrell (Leo ‘61), Mr. Jack Farnan, (Leo ‘63), and Mr. Jim Furlong ( Leo ‘65), all members of the Leo Hall of Fame and highly decorated Vietnam Veterans. The late Mr.Thomas Stack (Leo ‘61) organized the first welcome home to the Veterans of Vietnam. Mr.Tom Stack won two Silver Stars and three Bronze Stars in Vietnam.
Another highly decorated Vietnam Veteran, Gen. George Muellner, USAF (ret.) graduated from Leo, flew more than 600 combat fighter missions, commanded many fighter commands, and developed the STAR communications weapon system for Operation Desert Storm. Gen. Muellner is now the VP for Boeing Corporation’s Stealth Projects. Chicago Police Officer Eric Lee ( USMC) was killed in the line of duty several years ago and is remembered in Leo High School's Hall of Fame.

The Veterans Memorial Observance, as always, will be held in the school courtyard located on 79th Street.

The Public is invited to share in this Observance.

Click on my Post Title for More on the Leo Alumni and Leo High School!

McCain Is For Those Who Serve

"For my part, I would simply affirm that the sacrifices borne by veterans deserve to be memorialized in something more lasting than marble or bronze or in the fleeting effect of a politician's speech. Your valor and your devotion to duty have earned your country's abiding concern for your well being. I am, I assure you, committed to honoring that debt."

John McCain, Remarks to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, 3/7/95


Only one candidate seems to make sense, because that candidate speaks in plain English. John McCain talks to the issues important to American Voters. As an American who understands service, John McCain speaks from the heart on issues important to voters.

Click on my post title for john McCain's views on Veterans issues.


For ALL Veterans and Public Service Employees

Plan to attend the

LEO HIGH SCHOOL VETERANS OBSERVANCES

11 AM - Friday, November 9th
at

Leo High School
7901 S. Sangamon Street
Chicago, IL 60620

Contact - Pat Hickey at (773) 224-9600 extension # 16

Call to Order
Invocation
Raising of the Colors
Wreath Laying
Remarks by Leo High School Seniors; Rochele Crump - Veterans Affairs for DCFS; Rich Furlong Leo Alumni Association & others
Taps
21 Gun Salute
Reception in Leo Cafeteria