One more time.  This compilation of political positions and comments is that of guest milblogger The Crawfish.  He alone is responsible for it’s content.  The management and staff of vajoe, the advertisers, the voters in tonight’s Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island primaries, the people stuck in airports around the country because of weather delays, the fans of the English Premier League and the Champions League, and all of my former dart shooting teammates have nothing to do with the content, and would probably call me nuts anyway.  Then again, I can appreciate that term, since it is the most famous quote from a Brigadier General during all of WW2: To the German Commander, NUTS!, signed, the American Commander.  God Bless the memory of Anthony MacAuliffe and the Battling Bastards of Bastogne.

In case you’re new to this three-part series, the management of The Swamp has decided that the GOP, in general, and John McCain, in particular, have kicked the conservative base to the curb.  The Crawfish, since he’s still on active duty for another 24 months, cannot run for the Presidency, but he and the management have come up with their own party and platform, in theory at least.  It is called The Crawfish Party Platform, but some folks have complained about the party name.  Hey, when we can really make a run for it, we’ll give it a better name.

Topics in our Party Platform include (in no particular order):National Defense

10th Amendment Commission

Clean Bill Committment

Line Item Veto

The Fair Tax

Entitlement Programs

Foreign Aid

Glo-Bull Warming

What the First Amendment Really Says

Federal Courts and Their Jurisdictions

UnConstitutional Departments, Agencies, and Bureaucracies

Budget

End Social InSecurity Fairly

The English Language

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Embassy Security

Border Control and Immigration

National Primary Plan

Campaign Finance Reform

Diversity and Multiculturalism

Self-reliance and Responsibility

Political Correctness

Disaster Relief

Abortion

Prisoner’s Rights

The War On Terror

Israel and the Palestinians

Energy Policy

Minimum Wage

Legal Reform

Honesty in Governmental Votes

The Second AmendmentTaking Care of Those Who Are Disabled

A Constitutional Amendment to Fix the 14^th Amendment

In parts 1 & 2 of this series, we went over the first 24 planks.  We proudly present the remaining 10: 

Prisoner’s Rights: Prison inmates have the right to life, adequate food and water, and to not be tortured. Other than that, they have no rights. No right to cable TV and exercise. The only TV channels allowed will be C-SPAN networks, CNN, FOX News, a local weather channel, a local news channel, and a prison information channel. No right to libraries unless for education research. No right to air conditioning (if our troops overseas can stand the elements, so can inmates). If the prisoner has as much private space as a sailor on a destroyer, then there is no overcrowding. Prisoners will be expected to work for 10 hours per day for the government, and this can be anything from furniture manufacture to chain gangs along the highway. Prisoners not on death row or serving life sentences without parole will be expected to complete high school equivalence if they do not have a diploma, and work toward a trade school certificate or an Associate’s degree. While pursuing their education, their work shifts will be cut in half. No right to endless appeals over piddly stuff. If sentenced to death, they have the right to one appeal per court level. If they are convicted of a state offense, their appeals end with the state supreme courts, as does their life. If convicted of federal crimes, their appeals can go to the Supremes, but only once, and all appeals must be completed within 2 years of the original verdict. The War On Terror: This is not politically correct to state, but it is a religious war. One side admits it, but our side is afraid to admit it. Islam declared war on the rest of the world when the Prophet Mohammed commanded that all non-believers (infidels) be converted, enslaved (dhimmitude), or put to the sword. The war has been going on for over 1300 years. It will not end until the world is entirely subjected to Sharia Law or Islam is exterminated. That’s not a pretty thought, but it is the plain truth, so if you don’t like it, get over it. As for the illegal combatant prisoners at Guantanamo, they do not meet the requirements set forth in the Geneva Accords for prisoner of war status, therefore they can be tortured, held indefinitely, or even summarily executed. Sucks to be them.

Israel and the Palestinians: There were no such things as ‘Palestinians’ until the 60s. Mostly, they were arabs living in Jordan whose leadership angered the Jordanian government (Yassir Arafat escaped into exile disguised as a woman). Their ‘movement’ began when they got kicked out of Jordan. If they had been peaceful, they could have had a pretty good life in Israel, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, or wherever they wanted to be, but no. They demanded that Israel become theirs. Our Party believes that if the Palestinians want a homeland of their own, they should negotiate for land that is currently part of some arab nation. Israel is small enough for its own self. It doesn’t need to get smaller. The arab nations have plenty of land. As for Israel’s borders, the 1968 attempt at exterminating Israel by the arab nations was a war of aggression. When you start one of those wars and lose, you don’t get back land that you got run out of. Syria lost control of the Golan Heights when Israeli forces fought back the invaders. Jordan lost the West Bank and their part of Jerusalem. Egypt lost Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula. Israel has since given Egypt the Sinai in return for peace, and because they really didn’t want it anyway. Gaza, Golan, and the West Bank are properly Israeli until such a time as Israel freely gives them away. Until then, Israel is free to do whatever they want in those areas. If they wish to set up lots of settlements, that’s their prerogative. If they wish to expel all of the ‘Palestinians’, they are free to do so. If any more rockets or missiles are fired into Israel from Gaza, the IDF should be free to wipe out all of Gaza. If the arabs don’t like it, they can take the ‘Palestinians’ in themselves. If Hezbollah strikes from Lebanon, the IDF is within its rights to turn southern Lebanon into a sheet of glass.

Energy Policy: The various left wing groups in America have completely screwed up our energy policy. They complain about pollution from electricity plants, but won’t allow power companies to build new, clean, efficient plants, especially nuclear plants. Our Party will give the green light to companies to build new power plants. They complain about not enough alternative energy sources, but won’t allow wind farms because they kill a couple of birds per year and they spoil Teddythedrunk(D-Chappaquiddick)’s view when he goes sailing. We will give the energy companies the go ahead to work on alternative energy forms and means of production. They complain about oil refineries, but won’t allow new, more efficient, cleaner ones to be built. They complain about the price of fuel, but won’t allow the refineries to be built or oil and natural gas drilling. We will open ANWR and the areas off the California and Florida coasts to drilling. We will wean ourselves off of the oil from the Middle East and Venezuela. They complain about the price of gasoline, but each state demands different gasoline formulas for summer, fall, winter, and spring. We will convene a meeting of the environmental regulatory agencies from the states to get them to agree on formulas to be used around the country, so production is simplified. They complain that government demands on the auto industry and gas mileage aren’t high enough. Our Party will say that the free market will decide what kind of cars the auto industry will produce. If consumers press for higher mileage and different fueling options, the companies will make it happen. Our Party will reject Kyoto and all follow-on enviro-nut treaties, especially if they call for the destruction of our economic base while doing nothing about other nations that pollute more, such as China and India. It’s not that we hate the environment. Our Party believes in responsible use of resources and attempting to do things ‘greener’, but we will not mandate that through the strong arm of the government.

Minimum Wage: Since there is no place in the Constitution where the federal government has the authority to have any say in the private business contracts between employer and employee, the federal minimum wage would be one of the first things axed by the 10^th Amendment Commission, but only if our Party doesn’t move to kill it through the courts beforehand.  This also goes for equal opportunity employment and every other government intrusion into businesses.  If Billy-Bob, Jim-Bob, and Bubba, the Redneck Cousins, want to run a sporting goods, bait, and beer store somewhere in the South, and they know their clientele will be a bit on the racist and sexist side, it is their right as the business owners to hire only white Southern males to work there.  The ACLU, of course, will send a black female to apply for a job and, when she’s rejected, they’ll file suit claiming discrimination.  The cousins shouldn’t have to fear that kind of lawsuit, nor should they have to hire someone that would be a detriment to their business just because of some equal opportunity law.

Legal Reform: Getting rid of our litigious society will require a lot of work, but step one is real tort reform in the form of Loser Pays. If you bring forth a lawsuit, and you cause a company or person to spend thousands of dollars to defend themselves (or be forced to settle out of court because the expense of fighting the case would bankrupt them), you should be taking the risk that if you are in the wrong, you must pay the other side for their legal fees and trouble. As far as the insanity defense goes, the Party recommends that “not guilty by reason of insanity” be changed to “guilty, but insane.” By this verdict, the person is determined to have committed the act, and punishment/confinement is based on the mental state. This will get rid of the ridiculousness of someone getting off with a few months in a counseling center and no criminal record if they commit a major crime in front of 23 witnesses and 2 video cameras on the corner of Main and Commerce at high noon on Wednesday because they claim to be “schizo-bananas.” The concept of “personal responsibility” shall be included in all legal transactions. Each person is responsible for their own actions, and cannot use society, PTSD, social deprivation, slave status of a great-great-great-great grandparent, etc., as a defense for non-social or anti-social actions, unless that person can show, without a doubt, that his situation is unique, and why others, who overcame similar situations, were aberrations. The designation of “hate crime” is to be removed from the books. Thought is not a chargeable offense. This designation only serves to foster a victim-oppressor relationship as hate crimes have been defined as committed only by (white) (male) (straight) against (non-white) (female) (homosexual) (specifically designated minority group). All crimes of violence should be thought of the same, and the amount of hate in the perpetrator is the same no matter the status of the victim. Lawyers, as officers of the court, are to be reminded that the release of a guilty person is, to society, as great a miscarriage of justice as the conviction of an innocent one, and they shall be held equally culpable for both. There shall be no “sealing” or “closing” of a police or criminal record when a juvenile offender reaches the age of maturity. A person’s criminal record is their criminal record no matter the age, since you can’t change the past.

Honesty in Governmental Votes: It has become a practice among some in Congress and the Senate to have their vote changed in the record if that vote was not vital to the passing or defeat of the bill. This is done so the member’s official voting record can be changed to reflect a different stance on a controversial vote in order to please certain constituents. If a member casts a vote, that is it!

The Second Amendment: The right to keep and bear arms is vital to this nation. Not only are all citizens under the age of 45 automatically part of the militia, according to US Federal Code, but our Party believes in the old saying, “An armed man is a citizen, and an unarmed man is a subject.” The Second Amendment makes it clear that this is an individual right not to be violated. Citizens have the right to firearms for self-defense, hunting, militia duties, and to make sure our government never turns tyrannical nor do the socialists throw out the Constitution. Any jurisdiction that has any kind of gun ban (hand gun bans in DC and Chicago are eminent examples) is in violation of the Constitution.

Taking Care of Those Who Are Disabled: The ending of entitlement programs would only be for those people who are functional and can work. People who are physically or mentally disabled to the point where they cannot do a job will be taken care of. THAT is the only type of handout that the American taxpayer never has a problem with. We will work with charitable organizations to make sure disabled Americans have food, shelter, and the care they need. People with disabilities that don’t quite meet that mark, but that are severely impairing, will get partial assistance, but not if that impairment is from their own actions, such as alcohol or drug use. This is as close as our Party will get to George W. Bush’s “compassionate conservative” label.

A Constitutional Amendment to Fix the 14^th Amendment: Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment begins, “Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.” This is the clause that has given us the term “anchor baby” in reference to illegal aliens who cross the border and pop out a baby, in an American hospital paid for by American taxpayers, and the child automatically becomes a US citizen and cannot be kicked out of the country. The parents cannot be kicked out either, as they cannot leave the baby behind. This must end. The Party proposes a new Constitutional Amendment that will clearly state that automatic citizenship shall only be conferred upon a baby that is born in the USA to parents who are in this nation LEGALLY!

Once again, this post is by guest blogger The Crawfish.  It represents HIS views, and his alone.  The staff of vajoe, the management of vajoe, the advertisers of vajoe, the other bloggers of vajoe, and all of the readers and posters of vajoe, along with most of the civilized world have washed their hands of him and consider him to be, well…in need of some help!  The final portion of this manifesto will be published early next week.

Part Two of Three

A little refresher here.  The Swamp’s management has decided that there’s no political party this year that adequately adheres to conservative and Constitutional principles.  We have therefore produced a document sure to cause liberal heads to implode, the 2008 Crawfish Party Platform.   

Topics in our Party Platform include (in no particular order):

National Defense

10th Amendment Commission

Clean Bill Committment

Line Item Veto

The Fair Tax

Entitlement Programs

Foreign Aid

Glo-Bull Warming

What the First Amendment Really Says

Federal Courts and Their Jurisdictions

UnConstitutional Departments, Agencies, and Bureaucracies

Budget

End Social InSecurity Fairly

The English Language

Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Embassy Security

Border Control and Immigration

National Primary Plan

Campaign Finance Reform

Diversity and Multiculturalism

Self-reliance and Responsibility

Political Correctness

Disaster Relief

Abortion

Prisoner’s Rights

The War On Terror

Israel and the Palestinians

Energy Policy

Minimum Wage

Legal Reform

Honesty in Governmental Votes

The Second AmendmentTaking Care of Those Who Are Disabled

A Constitutional Amendment to Fix the 14^th Amendment

In Part One of our essay, we explored the first 7 topics.  We will now go for a bit longer posting and print the next 16 topics, ending with the big political bugaboo called abortion:

Glo-Bull Warming: There’s a reason why Algoracle won the Nobel Peace Prize. It is because his fantasies and lies are unworthy of the Nobel Prize in SCIENCE! Most REAL scientists, climatologists, and meteorologists agree that the Gorons and their scripture, The Holy Goran, are full of it. Glo-Bull warming is caused by cyclical action of THE SUN! Hey, our Party is all for conservation and using the earth’s resources wisely. We even want to reduce pollution. We’re just not going to wreck the US economy to do so on behalf of science fiction.What the First Amendment really says: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.” So what does that mean? Does that mean that a local city council is forbidden to put a Manger Scene at City Hall in December, or a borough cannot put up a Menorah in a park? Of course not. Any federal court rulings that have forbidden those actions fail to take into account the first five words of the Amendment. “CONGRESS SHALL MAKE NO LAW” has absolutely nothing to do with the actions of any state, county, parish, or municipality in the USA. Those government entities are not Congress, so the federal courts have absolutely no say in the matter. The federal courts have also not paid attention to “or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” They have taken the “establishment clause” to the extreme of saying it applies to almost any governmental acknowledgement of religion in America. What that Amendment really means is that there will be no official national religion along the lines of those seen in Europe in the previous few centuries. It does not mean that we cannot make it very clear that we are a predominantly Judeo-Christian nation, and that we will not accept muslims trying to bring about Sharia Law or any of their plans of dominance. Actually, it does mean that Sharia Law is banned. The third clause is also vitally important, and has been nullified by an illegal law in the past few years. “or abridging the freedom of speech”, which was described by the authors of the Constitution in The Federalist Papers, means that political speech cannot be stifled at all. McCain-Feingold did just that. It must be overturned.

Federal Courts and Their Jurisdictions: The First Amendment stance brings us to another related subject. Why is it that the federal courts are involved in so many aspects of life in the USA that the Constitution doesn’t allow the federal government to have a say in? In 1981, Wesley Cook (who took the muslim name of Mumia Abu-Jamal to show his hatred for America and white people) murdered Philadelphia Police Officer Daniel Faulkner. The State of Pennsylvania charged him with the state count of capital murder and a state jury convicted him, sentencing him to death. The state appellate courts and state supreme court upheld the conviction and sentence. Federal courts stepped in and have tied things up ever since. Since this was a STATE case, the federal courts have no jurisdiction whatsoever. The day after the state supreme court upheld the sentence, the needle should have been inserted. This is just one of thousands of cases from every year that make their way into federal courts but should never have done so. This must end!

UnConstitutional Departments, Agencies, and Bureaucracies: There’s a lot of bloated bits of government that need to simply be ended immediately. Show us in the Constitution where a Department of Education is authorized. How about the Housing and Urban Development. If it is not a government function as outlined in the Constitution with federal spending authorized by the Constitution, then this Party will call for its immediate end.

Budget: Ending unConstitutional programs and government entities, along with rejection of earmarks and wasteful spending proposed by Congress, will allow our budget to be in surplus even if we beef up military spending. Tax revenue will soar under the Fair Tax Plan, especially if we get rid of illegal aliens and give their jobs to those currently leeching off the taxpayers in the forms of welfare, food stamps, free slum/ghetto housing, etc. The only thing that would cause that surplus to be drained would be the five year plan to end Social Security, but once that’s over, the surpluses would be here to stay.

End Social InSecurity Fairly: There is absolutely no reason for the government to be running a Ponzi scheme as a mandatory governmental retirement program. A 1% return on that kind of investment is horrid. The people of America should be in charge of their own money. They can do better for themselves. Our plan would end this fiasco, but in a way that is fair to all who have put in their money over the years. Anybody who is currently receiving benefits would have the choice of staying in the program or getting the remainder of what they paid in to the system returned to them. In Year One, American citizens who are aged 57 and above would receive refunds for every penny they have ever put in, with interest from the time it got put in. Year Two would see refunds for folks 49 and up. Year Three would have citizens 40 and above investing their own money. Year Four has the 30 and older citizens rejoicing. Year Five has all remaining citizens getting their money back. These ages could be adjusted after more studies to make the impact on our budget even across the years. Note that non-citizens don’t get anything. Oh well, that’s another bonus for being a real American.

The English Language: All government forms, with the exception of ones dealing with immigration, customs, tourist information, and international relations/business, shall be printed in English Only! Why are voting ballots printed in over 100 languages? To be authorized to vote, you must be a citizen. To become a citizen, you must be able to speak English. Our campaigns are conducted in English. Anyone who doesn’t speak English cannot get the proper information on the issues and the candidates. Don’t give us that tired equal opportunity line of reasoning. They have equal opportunity to learn English. People who desire to control and function within the official public sector of this nation need to do so in the language of the nation. Not being conversant in common or conventional English places an immense burden on the individual, their segment of society, and the community as a whole, and condemns otherwise talented and capable persons to secondary or lesser status. In short, English needs to become the official language of the United States of America.

Embryonic Stem Cell Research: If private companies wish to do that research, they can do so. The big issue is federal funding of this research. If this research showed any real promise, the pharmaceutical companies would be falling all over themselves to do it, and they could fund it themselves. There’s absolutely no need for government funding.

Embassy Security: In late February of 2008, the US Embassy in Belgrade, Serbia, was invaded and torched. The Marines there did nothing to prevent this action. They were acting this way on orders of the State Department, which was doing its own impression of the administration of James Earl Carter, as per usual. The Crawfish Party would tell the Marines to act as Marines. Any invasion of sovereign US territory is to be repelled. The government of Serbia is also to blame, and they would have received some unfriendly attention, along with having the distasteful task of cleaning up all of those bodies that the Marines disposed of.

Border Control and Immigration: The Crawfish Party supports legal immigration. Illegal aliens are invaders of our nation and will not be treated nicely. They take American jobs from Americans, without paying proper taxes. They commit crime on a level similar to the leeches of our public housing ghettos. Gangs like MS-13 are very dangerous, and many of them are made up entirely of illegal aliens. They overload the public medical facilities and don’t pay the bills. Their hordes of children are a drain on our public education system. The Crawfish Party would seal the borders tight, get rid of the illegals that are here, hammer businesses that harbor and hire illegals, punish “sanctuary” cities, and push for a Constitutional Amendment to end the anchor baby problem. To seal the border, a 12 foot tall chain link fence would be erected the length of the border, approximately 7 inches within the border (with properly guarded openings along the Rio Grande for irrigation and livestock water use). Another 12 foot tall chain link fence would be 15 feet inside of the first. The purpose of these fences would not be to hold back the illegals, but to slow them down and make them good targets for the watchtowers 100 yards back every ¼ mile or so manned by Marines, National Guardsmen, and Marine-trained riflemen. This would have the added benefit of feeding the wildlife along the border. Underground listening devices would also be placed to detect tunneling. Deportation would start happening on a large scale, with plenty of raids on suspected illegal alien work sites. Of course, many of the illegals would start returning to their homelands of their own accord because the jobs would dry up and all benefits currently available to illegals, including education and hospital care would END. Businesses that are found to have illegals on their payroll will face serious penalties, as will the company owners and the people in charge of hiring. The penalties would definitely include prison time, and they would go up based on the severity of the violations and would skyrocket for repeat offenders. “Sanctuary” cities and municipalities would see an immediate end to all federal funds coming their way, to include the cancellation of any federal contract with any business in said municipality. The only federal funds coming in would be for military recruiting.

National Primary Plan: Our Party makes the following proposal for the primaries of all parties to use. It would make things simpler while making all states meaningful in the process, so the bickering between the states could end. For starters, no candidate could file for election or start up any campaign machinery or do any fundraising until 366 days before the election (election year is always a leap year). In January of election years, the traditional starters of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina would happen. In February, a primary Tuesday would be held that would include enough states to bring the total committed delegate count to about 15% of the total in each party. At this point, the bottom feeding candidates would be dropped. Another round of approximately 15% would happen in March, again eliminating candidates. The third round of 15% would happen in April, and the fourth round in May. At this time, about 60% of the delegates would be committed, with the likelihood of any candidate having clinched being remote, so the remaining states still have a big say in the results.   Now, there would be only two or three candidates remaining in each party. They would have 2 months to campaign over the rest of the nation before the final primary day in mid-July. The conventions would occur in late July and early August, with the parties currently not occupying the White House going first.

Campaign Finance Reform: Our Party has one major plan to change how campaigns are financed, besides the repeal of the unConstitutional McCain-Feingold. Individuals, organizations, and businesses can only contribute to candidates running in the district/state that the individual lives or works in, or the organization/business has a branch in. Foreign and anonymous contributions are not allowed. All contributions are to be posted on the campaign’s website within 24 hours.

Diversity and Multiculturalism: This is The Big Thing on college campuses, businesses, and government entities. It is also huge for the media. It is a bunch of dung. We have a National This Month and a National That Month all over the calendar, along with special days honoring everything that makes us different from each other. It is time to STOP celebrating diversity and multiculturalism, and all of the other anti-white, anti-Christian, anti-male, anti-heterosexual, anti-moralistic, anti-folks who actually earn enough to PAY taxes, anti-legal American, anti-American stuff. Diversity didn’t make us a great nation. What made us great are the things that give us UNITY, so let’s celebrate them!

Self-reliance and Responsibility: Our nation has become a nation of victims and leeches. Too many of our people constantly have their hand out. Everybody wants something for nothing. Most of them are Democrats. You cannot watch television during the daytime and not get bombarded with commercials for lawyers. People will sue over ANYTHING! This is because our society tells people that they are never responsible for their own actions and lack of success. Nobody is willing to actually WORK for a living anymore.  This nation became great because Americans grabbed hold of life, took risks, and worked their butts off until they could support themselves and their families.   

Political Correctness: Screw it! If your skin is thin, move to France.

Disaster Relief: Many on the left side of the aisle have railed about the lack of response from the federal government after hurricane Katrina. This is in spite of the fact that the federal government has spent over $200,000 per resident for relief and recovery down there. We say the government has spent too much! If you live in a hurricane strike zone, you’d better have good insurance, because it isn’t the government’s job to make your life better after the storm. As for the immediate response and the problems in New Orleans, their local and state governments let them down. State law called for a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans and points south 72 hours ahead of a Category 3 or higher hurricane strike. Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin ignored that law, then blamed Bush. Mississippi got hit harder than Louisiana, but folks there, led by Governor Haley Barbour, evacuated as necessary, then rolled up their sleeves and got to work with the attitude of “we’ll make it better than it was!” They didn’t whine in the national press about Bush not supporting them. They are Real Americans.

Abortion: Since this is a party platform, this issue is mandatory. Roe v Wade is the single worst case of Constitutional Law ever. The Supreme Court magically came up with some Constitutional ‘right of privacy’ that isn’t in the Constitution, and then they made it a reason to create federal law about baby killing. Jeffrey Dahmer killed and ate young men in the privacy of his apartment, but he was still a murderer. What does privacy have to do with killing babies? No Constitutional federal laws were in play, so the case should never have gone to the Supremes. It was a state law that was in question, so it should have stayed in the state courts. There is absolutely no reason for an American taxpayer to pay for an elective abortion. This will not cause women to “be forced to return to back alley abortionists” as the normal unhinged argument goes. Rather it simply means that they will be required to bear the burden of their own choice instead of having the taxpayers pay.

Our friends at VA Mortgage Center.com (who helped us with Charity for Charities and have a nice milblog in their own right) released a video today outlining some of the benefits of the VA Home Loan Program. You can watch it on YouTube here - VA Loan Video.

With the ‘housing crisis’ we are currently living through, it’s most important for qualifying Veterans and Active-Duty members to be aware of their options. Don’t forget to look into what the VA program might be able to do for you upon purchasing or even refinancing a home.

And heck, everyone loves a good time-waster video (especially if you are bored at work). Might as well learn a few things in the process. Give it a look and come on back to VA Joe!

 Fixing the money thing!

We have tackled many topics regarding your personal finances, however it’s time we tackled the pending financial disaster in America.

Today the stock market fell once again. Sound familiar?

Remember 2000 to 2003?

The stock market has fallen more than 1000 points in the last month, most of that in one week. Is this just another minor market correction?

Why are the cost of goods going up at an alarming rate? Why are there so many forclosures on new homes? Why with so little unemployment are we seeing the kind of economic indicators we saw during the Carter administration? Should I be alarmed? What can I do to protect myself from a financial disaster if one should occur.

Joe intends to tackle these issues in this blog.

Lets look at some of the factors that have contributed to the unsettling times we are facing.

High national debt,the highest in history. High personal debt, also the highest in history. The blog host shows stastistics on his website that are alarming regarding personal debt and national debt.

Someone has to pay the piper.

Home forclosures are at a national record. In my sons 4 year old new home subdivision 1 out of every 5 houses is abandoned,  in forclosure or severely behind on their payments.

Why?

Builders, bankers, realtors and their lobbies influenced the Government to modify lending rules several years ago to keep the housing boom going. The lenders were able to get people approved for loans that 2 0r 3 years earlier they would not have approved.

Buyers with considerable credit challenges were approved and the builders and realtors were thrilled. They could now get people in homes that they would not have qualified  for before.

The problem comes in that the buyers were already in excessive debt and we just added hundreds of thousands to the burden. When you buy a new home the real estate taxes are based on the LAND only the first tax year.The second year the payment including taxes and insurance went up considerably. The third year,the loans were not fixed interest and the interest went up and so did the payment.

Buyers who were struggling to make the payment initially now were unable to make them at all.Thus forclosures! In many new home subdivisions people are just walking away from the home in the middle if the night.

The housing and mortgage industries are in a panic.The stock market is affected and so on and so forth.

Oh what tangled webs we weave in an effort to deceive!

 

 THE STOCK MARKET

In 1960 only 2% of Americans owned stocks.

Then came the Mutual fund!

Today most Americans have Mutual funds through employer retirement plans like 401k’s, 403b’s, 457’s, IRA’s, and Roth IRA’s.

What does that mean?

The stock market is vastly overinflated.

 Before mutual funds, the only people who owned stocks were people of means who were able to pay someone to watch, move, buy and sell on their behalf continuously.

Today the American people have been lied to by the brokers and agents who sell these mutual funds at big commissions and continued (Trail commissions ) even when the market goes down!

When the experts sell the mutual fund, owners are told to buy because the market is so good. When the market is low and the experts know what and when to buy the mutual fund brokers say again, buy now because the funds are a good value.

In other words, no matter what is happening they are giving you the exact same advice.

Sound a bit suspicious to you?

When in 2000 -2003 the market began it’s largest loss in history. The advice was exactly the same. It will come back, don’t worry!

Well, they were right! The market did come back.  Over all, the average holder of mutual funds and stocks had vertually NO GAIN for 7 years!

How often can you afford those kind of setbacks?

Now, with the largest one week loss in the history of the stock market earlier this month what do you suppose the advice of the mutual fund dealer is? Same old, Same old!

Why are we not suprised? They don’t want to give up those hefty commissions.

The stock market is more volatile than ever in it’s history and we predict a much longer and much larger loss than in 2000 -2003 over the next several years.

Can you afford it again?

What then should we do?

Lets start by using some of the common sense that our Government, Realtors, Builders , Bankers and Investment brokers seemed to have left on the Table of the BIG COMMISSION!

Start by developing an aggressive strategy to pay off all consumer debt!

First, make sure you have at least $2,000.00 in the savings accounts for immediate emergencies.

Then attack the debts one at a time starting with the highest intrest rate and going down.

Don’t add a little to each debt. Take all the extra money you can free up monthly and attack them one at a time!

Stop paying into retirement plans and eliminate consumer debt first.

That flies in the face of conventional wisdom due to the employers contribution.

Don’t let greed destroy you! Pay off the debt!!!

If a major economic downturn, recession or worse happens you will be on top and not at the bottom!

The choice is yours!

 

You can keep on doing the same thing you are doing now in whch case if the above happens you will be destroyed financially.

Or you can do something different.

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results.

Are you willing to bet we are wrong?

 

Joe Money Matters is a section of the VAJoe Blog to ask for quick financial tips and advice from an expert with more than 20 years experience in counseling families to live without debt and to reach there financial potential. Please leave comments on this Blog. You can learn more about the Joe Money Matters advisor at his website. The posts and comments by JoeMoneyMatters reflect his two decades of financial counseling expereince. VAJoe.com does not endorse any financial strategies, but offers this blog as a service to its site members for discussion.

This post was contributed by Marilyn Aagaard Martin from www.mmartinbooks.com.

Several months ago my daughter invited me to accompany her on a two-day business trip to Washington, D.C. I readily accepted. And early on the first Saturday in February of 2005, Laura and I flew out of Orlando headed for Dulles Airport. We had two extra days to tour our nation’s capital. I was excited not only to spend time and see the sights with Laura, but also to fulfill a personal vow I made twenty-four years ago
when the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was erected.

Stashing our luggage in our hotel room about three hours later, we set out for Pennsylvania Avenue, both eager to begin our visit in the city of memories. We wandered for hours. As I walked down the steps of the Lincoln memorial my emotions began to build. My long-held promise was nearing an end, for just across the way was the granite wall.

“Sir,” I addressed a guard near the entrance, “I graduated high school along with a tall, redheaded soldier whose name I’m sure is engraved on the wall.” Supplying his last name, I asked if they were listed in alphabetical order. The guard explained they’re listed by the war year, the month, and then the day of the week in which a man died.

(more…)

Mr. Ahmadinejad is coming to my neck of the woods in Iraq (h/t McClatchy Watch).  I’m all about diplomacy as opposed to war, but it’s hard for the Iraqis to have dialogue with a guy who denies the holocaust and thinks there is no homosexuals in the country.  It sort of puts him in the nutjob category.  You can peruse the softer side of a theocracy on Mr. Ahmadinejad’s blog, but I remain skeptical.  Keep an eye on this one and standby to throw up the BS flag.

 

Pronounce it right, you Western infidels!

My name is John, I am a veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom with the Army Reserves. I was one of the lucky people who was activated from inactive reserves (IRR).  I also am a financial analyst and (until recently) I had bad credit. On December 18th I closed on a house I bought using a VA loan. The news lately had me pretty scared! I was worried that I would never get approved with my credit because of the sub prime market situation. I did a little research and a little hard work and I was able to get approved. With this blog I hope to inform you not only how to get a VA loan but also how to make your credit score look a little better!

Your Credit Report

The first time I had checked my credit report I was in my late 20’s and I just knew it was bad…plain and simple! I was the guy in college that would get credit cards, max them on pizza, and not pay…that was just the beginning! I didn’t mention my student loans I skipped out on! A few years later I was starting a successful career, my wife was about to become an RN, and we were renting a house. We started to look at homes and found one we liked. We spoke to the builder’s mortgage company and they offered us a 10% interest rate. Obviously we knew we had to wait! I went home and logged onto https://www.annualcreditreport.com. This is a site that gives you access to the 3 major credit reporting companies. From here you can access your credit report from each of the 3 companies once a year for free. Remember, this is your credit report…not your credit score! They may charge you a small fee to view your credit score. I pull my report and pay for the score at least twice a year. They also might sign you up for a credit monitoring service free trial. Make sure you cancel if you do not want the service! I cancel the day I pull my report so I don’t forget!The first time you pull your report it might seem like you are reading a foreign language.  Review your negatives and make sure you recognize them. If you see anything on your report that you do not recognize then you can report it and it may be removed from your report. I don’t know if it is legal so check before you do it (in other words don’t blame me if it is illegal and you are busted) but I fought every negative on my credit report.  I was shocked at some of the things that were removed! Clean it up the best you can (pay off some of the small debts).

Tips on improving your credit score

Ok so you see an ad in the paper where they will fix your credit for you…I don’t trust them! You can do it on your own a lot cheaper! The first step which I already mentioned is to dispute your negative items on your credit report. You can do this online or by sending a letter registered mail to the address on your credit report,  I just did it online. Second you need to get new positive credit. The first step I did was to get a high interest, high annual fee credit card. Orchard Bank is who approved me, there are a few others like them.  Don’t max it out, but use it for gas or something that isn’t too hard to pay quickly if you need to! Anther trick is to get a loan. I read an article about a website that is like eBay for loans. Visit http://www.prosper.com (if you join though my referral page you’ll get a $25 discount on your loan http://www.prosper.com/join/djohn78). The way prosper works is you create an ad (like on eBay) saying how much money you want and what interest rate you are willing to pay and that’s it! The lenders will see your credit history condensed. They will not see your score but they will see your rating. Lenders (who would be the buyers in the eBay example) see your ad and they bid on your loan. The nice thing is the bidder always wins! You can get a loan for $1000 and have 10 people bid $100. You now owe those people $100 (plus interest) each! Prosper will direct deposit the money into your checking account (minus a small fee). To make yourself more marketable you can sign up to have your payments come out of your bank automatically (just the minimum payment). You can also make additional manual payments. Every time a payment is made, it is split among the lenders. 

Be Patient

Good credit scores are all about history so there is not a way to turn a score of 522 into a 615 in a month. It does take time. However small steps like this spread out over a year will make a big difference, they want to see a good payment history. If you are going with a VA loan there may be some other tricks that I’ll get to in the next section.

Getting the VA Loan

I’m not going to go into the steps of getting a VA loan, VA Joe has a good section on that, this is more about getting approved for the loan! Your mortgage company will be able to customize this for you but here are the basics. The VA is very forgiving when it comes to credit. You can have 10 maxed out, never paid credit cards from 10 years ago and it may not effect you. The VA looks more at history then they do score. They are mostly worried about the last 24 months. You don’t want to have any missed payments in that time frame. We had a couple of payments that were late in that time frame and our mortgage broker told us to write a letter to the underwriters telling them why we were late. Come up with a better excuse then “I forgot to pay” you may need to use your imagination!  This is just an outline of what you need to know, again your mortgage broker will be able to customize this plan for you.

When should I start investing?

The popular belief in our culture today is that we should start investing as early as possible.

Generally speaking that is true, howeve , we want to look at the whole picture before jumping off the bridge.

1. Do I have a sound budget?

      If not, delay starting investments until you have identified where the money is coming from.

2. Do I have any debt?

     If you have a sound budget and debt is restricting your discretionary money,

     then start a systematic debt reduction plan. there are many books on the subject.

     The guest bloger ’s website has a free debt reduction planning area.

     Pay down or pay off all consumer debt before tackling investments.

     Paying consumer debt at the same time as investing is counter productive.

      What you earn and more may be eaten up by the interest you pay.

 

How should I choose what kind of investments to use?

 

We will not be going into great detail here in this blog on specific investment vehicles.

There are several basic groups of investments.

Savings

The most popular and widely known is a savings account at our local bank.

Everyone should have at least $2,000.00 in a savings account for emergency purposes.

You might choose to have more, but at least $2,000.00.

Bank or Savings and Loan savings accounts are relatively safe and earn a relatively small return. They are totally liquid and simple to understand and easily accessed.

Money market accounts pay a little more interest and generally are still very liquid.

They can usually be opened at your local bank.

Certificates of deposit (CD’s) yield greater returns the longer you commit to keeping them. CD’s are less liquid and have substantial penalties for early withdrawal.

Securities

Stocks, bonds,  and commodities are traded in the market. They offer potentially higher yields and potentially greater risk. These are purchased through licensed securities brokers or agents.

Mutual funds are the most common and widely known of security market sensitive investments.

Seen most often in 401k’s ,403b’s, 457’s and so forth ( Employer- employee based retirement/ savings plans. They are also used to fund many IRA’s and Roth IRA’s.

Mutual funds are intended to somewhat minimize risk through diversification ( spreading risk) while still affording the invester the possibility of greater gain.

Mutual funds make up probably the bears share of securities today and are easily purchased through employer plans, banks and brokers.

 

Caution! you should be aware there is a substantial risk of loss in these areas of investment. They should not be purchased without considerable caution.

 

Insurance based investments

Among this catagory of investments are annuities and insurances.

Annuities are broken down into 2 major catagories, Fixed and Variable.

Fixed annuities are generally very safe and produce a lower yield. A relatively new catagory of annutiy is the fixed indexed annuity. Still very safe while showing a very promising yield.

 Variable annuities are funded with mutual funds and have a substantial risk while affording a greater potential gain.( They generally have high fees and “hidden” fees).

Single Premium Life insurance has some unique benefits like tax minimumization or elimination and no risk earnings vary from policy to policy, but are generally good.

They are most often used to pass the death benefit along to beneficiaries and avoid or reduce the tax on the death benefit.

 

There are many other details and topics far too lengthy to explore on this forum.

Contact several advisors before deciding. Each, of course, will be happy to give you their perspective. Do not be rushed!

 

Joe Money Matters is a section of the VAJoe Blog to ask for quick financial tips and advice from an expert with more than 20 years experience in counseling families to live without debt and to reach there financial potential. Please leave comments on this Blog. You can learn more about the Joe Money Matters advisor at his website. The posts and comments by JoeMoneyMatters reflect his two decades of financial counseling expereince. VAJoe.com does not endorse any financial strategies, but offers this blog as a service to its site members for discussion.

Army Physical Disability Evaluation System (APDES)16 March 2007 

 

What You Need to Know About the Physical Disability Evaluation System Overview of the Department of the Army’s Physical Disability Evaluation System 

Each year the Army Physical Disability Evaluation System (PDES) separates thousands of Soldiers who are found unfit for continued military service. This guide answers a few general questions about the Department of the Army’s PDES.

Overview of the Department of the Army’s Physical Disability Evaluation System. 

The Secretary of the Army is charged with assuring the fitness of Soldiers, and separating or retiring those who become unfit to continue military service because of physical disability. The law provides benefits for eligible Soldiers whose military service is cut short due to a service-related disability incurred in the line of duty.

The United States Army Physical Disability Agency (USAPDA) manages the Army’s PDES and acts on behalf of the Secretary of the Army.  USAPDA is a Field Operating Agency of the Army Human Resources Command (HRC) and is headquartered in Washington DC at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.  In addition to the USAPDA HQ at Walter Reed, the agency has three Physical Evaluation Boards (PEBs), located at Walter Reed, Ft. Sam Houston, TX, and
Ft. Lewis, WA.  The PEBs are administrative boards that determine whether a Soldier’s disability prevents his/her continued performance in the Army. The PEB is comprised of two types of boards (Informal and Formal) that review medical and performance evidence to make determinations of fitness or unfitness to continue military service.

It is important to understand that this is a performance-based system.  Simply because a Soldier has a medical condition does not mean that the Soldier cannot continue to serve on active duty or in the Reserve Component. It is the impact of that medical condition upon the Soldier’s ability to perform duties appropriate to his/her rank and branch/MOS that is important. A Soldier with a serious medical condition can be found fit within the limits of his/her profile for continued service if the evidence supports that finding.

 

If the PEB determines that a Soldier is unfit to continue military service, and finds that the Soldier is eligible for disability benefits, the PEB determines the percentage of the Soldier’s disability compensation using Department of Defense Directives (DoDD) and Instructions (DoDI), Army Regulations, and current Army policy in conjunction with the Department of Veterans Affairs Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD). Depending on the severity of the illness or injury, the Soldier receives either permanent or temporary disability retirement or disability severance pay.

The Army only rates those medical conditions that result in the Soldier being determined unfit for continued military service.  The Department of Veterans Affairs generally rates a Soldier for all conditions incurred in or aggravated by military service.  Therefore, it is not uncommon for a former Soldier to receive a higher combined disability rating from the DVA than the PEB combined disability rating.

The PEB makes determinations of: • Fitness or unfitness to continue military service; • Eligibility for disability compensation;• Disability codes and percentage rating;• Disposition of the case; • Whether or not the injury or illness is combat-related.

 

When is a Soldier unfit to continue military service?

A Soldier is unfit to continue in the Army when the preponderance of evidence demonstrates that one or more physical and/or mental condition(s) significantly interferes with the Soldier’s ability to perform the duties of his/her office, grade, or rank. The PEB makes the decision on fitness by balancing the extent of a Soldier’s condition, as shown through objective medical and performance evidence, against the requirements and duties that the Soldier may reasonably be expected to perform in his/her branch/MOS and grade.  The mere fact that one or more medical conditions exist does NOT constitute an unfit determination.

The inability to deploy CANNOT be the sole basis for determining unfitness per DoD Instruction.

Typical medical evidence used by the PEB includes: • A narrative summary written by the Medical Evaluation Board (MEB). • History and treatment of the specific injury or illness. • Results of laboratory, x-ray, MRI, CAT scan, and other specialized tests. • Current Physical Profile • All referrals to physicians, specialists, and sick call (health record). • Type and frequency of medication. • Results of physical exam completed within past six months. 

Typical performance evidence includes: • Me