June 5, 2004

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  One of my favorite Presidents has died today, at age 93 (the same age my aunt was when she died). Ronald Reagan passed away after suffering many years with Alzheimer’s disease, one of the most debilitating diseases, because it affects the mind.

  
  

  Why do I consider Mr Reagan as having been a good President? For one, he gave the military its first raise in MANY years. This raise at the time enacted actually put the military pay within reach of bringing service members out of poverty levels.

  
  

  Anti-Reaganites love to dis him, saying he was nothing more than an actor & knew nothing about politics. They’re VERY wrong! Ronald Reagan, when involved with the Screen Actors Guild, as its president, was extremely instrumental in stopping the McCarthyism & ‘Red Scare’ activities during that time. He put a stop to the ‘witch hunts’ taking place not only within the acting community, but our nation as a whole.

  
  

  Lots also claim he was ineffective. Wrong again. He had escalated the peaceful relations with other nations. Also during his watch, the US economy was the most stable it’s been in our country’s history. Some would say this is a result of activities set up by the previous Administration. Wrong again, because Reagan held the office for EIGHT years, giving ample time for for his workings to take effect, rather than waiting for the next Administration. If you judge an Administration’s merit based upon what happens within the economy AFTER they leave office, just look at what our country is going through economically after EIGHT years of Clinton, compounded by the devastating effects of an inept, money-grubbing current President, who’s reduced the maximum earnings for calculating poverty levels, making hundreds of thousands of families ineligible for assistance programs who used to be able to get some help to support their families & raise their children.

  
  

  “Despite Reagan’s aversion to taxes, the corporate tax rate doubled during his tenure as California governor, and the top personal income rate jumped by nearly 60 percent.” Taxes where they belong, but are no longer, under policies set by the current Administration. And money in the pockets of the many, instead of the few.

  
  

  And Bush wants to be re-elected? He wants the Veterans’ votes? HAH! GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!! http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5120982/ I say he should follow the same Voters’ history as his inept father, who started our nation on its downhill economic & world relations spiral.

  
  

  Tell me… how do they expect to retain ’cohesive’ forces with older soldiers who were only looking forward to retirement, but are now being forced not only to stay in beyond their retirement date, but to be shipped out to critical zones, where fighting continues to this day? Are they hoping that these older service men & women get killed, so the government only pays the death benefit & maybe the small death pension, instead of years of retirement compensation at 50% of the soldier’s pay?

  
  

  “Death Gratuity,” (a one-time payment of $12k for the death of a military member to survivor/s) http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourcesContent/0,13964,30873–1,00.html

  
  

  “Death Pension” (currently $911/month [do I see an odd number there?] for qualifying surviving, non-remarried spouses & $229/month for each qualifying child).  http://www.military.com/Resources/ResourceFileView/Veterans_Dependents_DIC.htm

  
  

  I did a calculation for an E-1 with under 4 months of service, home-based in Texas. Gross pay, with Basic Allowance for Housing = $2,209.50. Imagine an E-5 or above’s pay, at 20 years of service & take 50% of that for retirement. The base pay is $2,367.90 for an E-5 with over 18 years of service. This does not include additional pay benefits available under specific conditions, which can nearly double the amount a service member receives, but is not included for retirement calculations.

  
  

  Also not taken into consideration is the fact that if the service member retires, alive, & goes on into the general work force, is the additional monies s/he contributes to the family while still receiving retirement compensation. Mr Bush, give our service men & women the retirement at the time of their QUALIFIED choosing they so much deserve! Forcing them to continue only generates discontent & possible errors committed out of emotional stress. There’s little cohesion when someone’s pissed-off!

  
  

  After playing with the mil pay calculator I found, I became shocked at how poor the members with LOTS of time in service is. An E-5 over 18 years gets only a little more than $100 more than an E-5 over six years of service. YIKES! That’s an increase of only approximately $11/year! Something’s seriously wrong with time in service base pay increases! What I determined is that pay caps for differing ranks at different times. An E-5′s base pay caps at 10 years of service. An E-4′s at 8 years, etc. Not much incentive to stay in, if they don’t make rank, which opens only when a service member at the higher rank makes the next rank, leaves the service or dies (openings limited per specialty… MOS; ie: trying to make rank as a Mess Specialist [Navy] sucks!). The higher the rank one’s going for, the fewer the ‘billets’ available, so many well qualified personel become stuck in lower ranks.

  
  

  I tried for 4 years to go from an E-5 to E-6. During my last try, before I got out, there were only 231 billets available for my rating (specialty/MOS) Navy-wide. These ended up going to people who had multiple awards, like MEDALS, which, due to my GENDER (could not enter a billet considered combat-related, nor training for such), were unavailable to me (mostly combat related, when I served during ‘peace time’ from 1981-1988). There’s more to this story, but I won’t go into that now. Just realize that because I was a female, many doors were slammed in my face once I was stationed in our nation’s capital, but beginning with Navy schools. Bitter? YOU BET! Equal opportunity did NOT exist in my Navy career path.

  
  

  Oh, yeah, & by the way, Iraq interim government doesn’t want our troops to leave. HELL YEAH, they don’t! It means OUR men & women stay in harms way, rather than THEIR troops! Think about it!

  
  

  Another thing… notice I listed my service as occuring from 1981-1988. These were REAGAN years & PEACE time!

  
  

  Finally, some words of truth from the mouth of our current President:  http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5145581/site/3000001/  ‘President Bush mourned Ronald Reagan Saturday as a great American who “leaves behind a nation he restored and a world he helped save.” He called Reagan’s death “a sad hour in the life of America.”…

  
  

  ‘Bush said Reagan “had the confidence that comes with conviction, the strength that comes with character, the grace that comes with humility, and the humor that comes with wisdom.”

  
  

  ‘Bush said that during the years of Reagan’s presidency, the nation “laid to rest an era of division and self-doubt and because of his leadership the world laid to rest an era of fear and tyranny.”’

  
  

  Finally, some words Mr Bush said that I can agree with & support with all of my being. Too bad the Bush’s have reinstated the last comment, like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, fear & tyranny threaten to envelope this world & our nation under his watch.

  
  

  Out of the mouths of babes:  http://www.bushin30seconds.org/view/06_small.shtml

  • 7:17 pm
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