Meanwhile back in the REAL world...

[LynnTheDem]

Ezra Klein asks, "What sort of mindless utopia do we inhabit that the headline story for weeks could boil down to 1) was a war-hero badly injured and 2) was he in Cambodia on Christmas or did he risk his life there a few weeks later? How many of our people are employed that we can ask this? How many of our children are healthy and covered in case of disaster?" These are good questions. Last time I checked, the picture wasn't quite rosy enough in the USA to afford us the luxury of spending our time and enregy debating whether Al Gore invented the inter -- er, whether Michael Dukakis hates the flag -- er, whether John Kerry is 20 times or only 10 times the patriot that George Bush is.

But it's always been this way, or it least it has been for the past twenty years or so. Since the mid-'80s, the GOP has demonstrated a seemingly absolute compulsion to focus elections on God, gays, and guns, and to avoid talking about bread and butter issues unless backed into a corner. And for good reason. Every day, it seems like there's a new outrage, either at home or abroad, that would alienate yet a few thousand more voters from Bush -- if the media wasn't so focused on the non-story du jour.

I want to focus today on just one of these overlooked outrages, one which will negatively affect millions of Americans. Nancy Pelosi quite rightly describes it as "the largest middle-class pay cut in history."

Superb DKOS with lots of links. Read it and let's get back to the REAL world which is quietly falling apart while we argue over how much blood qualifies for medals.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/8/25/114131/622