This is outrageous.

Anti-war vets have been banned from marching in the 11th Veterans Day Parade in Long Beach.

A participation application filed by Iraq Veterans Against the War, Veterans for Peace and Military Families Speak Out was turned down because organizers want Saturday's parade free from politics.

"They do not fit the spirit of the parade, the spirit being one of gratitude for what the veterans have done," said Martha Thuente, coordinator for the nonprofit Veterans Day Parade Committee.

"We do not want groups of a political nature, advocating the troops' withdrawal from Iraq," she added.

Banning veterans from a Veterans Day parade? Really? Yet pro-war veterans from VFW and the American Legion were allowed to march. Perhaps this should come as little surprise considering the ongoing effort to marginalize the voices of veterans or members of the military who want to end the war ("phony soldiers" anyone?) when those are the very voices we should be heeding. This sentiment was crystallized for me in an e-mail blast I received today from DFA:

Veterans Day is an important day to reflect on our veterans, and their sacrifices. I've done some reflecting myself.

My name is Elliot Anderson, I'm a marine Afghanistan vet and I first started volunteering with Democracy for America when I attended the Nevada training in February of this year.

I think it's high time we stop making combat veterans and disabled veterans unnecessarily. In Iraq, it's high time to let the civil war we are mediating run its course, and get our troops out of the crossfire. Here at home it's high time to stop the drum beat of war with Iran.  It isn't helping veterans to send them overseas into un-just wars.

The best way to pay tribute to our veterans is to make sure "we stop making combat veterans and disabled veterans unnecessarily." It's so simple. In addition, it's imperative that we honor their service by taking care of them upon their return. Those forces who think paying tribute to our veterans means cheerleading war have let down our veterans. Again, from Anderson.

For a lot of our homeless veterans they have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and are unemployable.  In the meantime because of the neglect of the veterans administration there is a backlog for claims which can take up to 6 months to fix. So what is an unemployable veteran supposed to do for 6 months? The answer, of course, is end up on the streets.

Let's resolve this Veterans Day to remember our veterans 365 days a year and unlike the right wing, continue to put our money where our mouth is. Everyday you can make a difference in a veteran's life. May I suggest a fantastic organization which gets vets off the streets and rehabilitates them?

You can help today at:

http://www.usvetsinc.org

I hope today and over the weekend you were able to pay tribute to those who are serving and who have served. Anderson offers us a reminder of the importance of listening to our veterans and paying tribute to them not just one day a year, but every day.

As I wrote last week, the Dirty Trick initiative to steal 20+ of California's electoral votes for the Republican candidate is back from the dead, and with just 2 weeks left to gather hundreds of thousands of signatures, they've got a funder lined up in Rep. Darrell Issa, the man behind the recall.

Lucas O'Connor provides some background over at Calitics:

Issa, who represents the 49th Congressional District, is one of the richest people in Congress, making a fortune off the Viper car alarm (step back, you are too close to the vehicle).  Issa is a veteran of throwing gobs of personal money into campaigns.  He dropped $12 million of his own money to lose the Republican Senate primary in 1998.  He was a bit more successful in 2003 when he dug into his wallet for $1.6 million in personal cash to fund the signature gathering for the Gray Davis recall which, when asked if it was worth it earlier this month, he said "Yes, of course."  Well, Rep. Issa is ponying up the big bucks again, lining up behind Dirty Tricks in its hour of need.

According to the Riverside Press Enterprise, the amount of money Issa is donating remains "fluid" but will likely be well under the $1.6 million he gave to the recall effort. But no matter how much he donates to this latest scheme, if we've learned one thing since 2003 it's not to underestimate the right-wing's capacity for dirty tricks.

So this time we're ready, because if there's one thing Issa didn't have to deal with in the recall effort it was an organized opposition; things are different now. Thanks to my colleagues at the Courage Campaign, the California netroots is mobilized against this initiative, no matter how many lives it has. We killed it once, we'll kill it again and we have Bradley Whitford on board to help us.

Check out his latest video in support of our effort:

But we are going to need some help. If this thing gets on the ballot, it's going to take millions of dollars to defeat it, money and effort that should be going to electing and re-electing California Democrats. That's why it's so important to help our early effort to keep the initiative off the ballot in the first place. If you can, contribute at the Courage Campaign's ActBlue page and as always check out NoDirtyTricks.com for ongoing updates.

Update [2007-10-31 22:11:20 by Todd Beeton]: Ahh, was just alerted to this article in The Hill, in which Issa claims his donation isn't terribly large at all.

"I have made a small contribution [to the campaign behind the proposal]," said Issa, who refused to disclose exactly how much he gave. He did say the amount was in the tens of thousands of dollars, not hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Issa also confirmed that he would additionally provide access to his own extensive fundraising network, which includes e-mails, as well as home addresses, of those who helped out in the 2003 recall.

Getting this on the ballot is going to require at least $2 million. What do they have up their sleeve?