politricks and other distractions

Advice to Veterans on Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend is a lot of things. It's a time to celebrate having survived winter and spring and gotten to summer. It's a weekend of picnics and newly opened swimming pools and having your sisters visit from far away places. [ed. note: it's news like this that makes me happy my DC sister is already on a plane headed here right now.]

But in reality, it's a weekend to honor veterans who have given their lives in our wars.

It's crazy that, as we celebrate our veterans' sacrifices, we get this piece of news, that MILLIONS of them have had their personal identity information compromised. And not only that, but the government took WEEKS to spread the news, so there's no telling what's happened to their credit ratings, their bank accounts, their records...

Happy Memorial Day, Vets!!

As a survivor of identity theft twice in my life, here's my wise advice to veterans this weekend: GO SHOPPING WITH YOUR CREDIT CARDS. Go now, while you can still claim someone else did it. Go wild. Spend to your limit. All you'll be liable for is $50. And when Visa and Mastercard come looking for you, simply tell them to go to the government for reparations. They f***ed up, they should pay your bills.

Call it a teensy little bit of payback for their cutting your benefits, for closing schools on bases, for keeping female soldiers from being able to get Plan B (emergency contraception), and for finding ways to discredit each and every one of you who runs for office against any Republican with power. Remember the Alamo, Omaha Beach, the USS Indianapolis, but also remember the smear campaigns against Max Cleland, John McCain and John Kerry.

This isn't an administration that values its veterans, so do your best to make them pay.

And while you're spending those hard-lost dollars, might I suggest these bits of subversive shopping? Get back at the Christian conservatives by plunking down your $9 for the DaVinci Code. Have coffee first, however. It's boring.

Then, head on over to anyplace selling CDs and buy the Dixie Chicks album. It's literally flying off the shelves (the cashier asked me why everyone was buying it), and your purchase will be a nice slap in the face to all those Clear Channel DJs who think they're un-American. Um, actually, they're quintessentially American. My God, they even play country music.

And if you can't get to Vegas to be with all us bloggers who are trying to shake things up, at least go buy Crashing the Gate and read about how people are taking back politics in this country, one byte at a time.

Be a patriot. Enjoy Memorial Day. Have a beer and a tofu pup on me.

And take a veteran shopping!

posted by dcnative @ 10:18 AM