The new Nuze

I like Neal Boortz's daily riff in Neal's Nuze. He's a talk radio guy and more libertarian than full-on right-wing nutter. Here's one of his "intemperate thoughts" from today:

Yesterday ... once again ... I asked my listeners to tell me one thing that The Poodle [that would be John Kerry -- TKM ] has ever done in his entire life -- just one thing -- that shows him to be qualified to be president of the United States. The only thing that people can mention .. and I do mean the only thing .. is his service in Vietnam. His accomplishments there, like his three paper-cut purple hearts, are open to some question ... and he hasn't done a damned thing since then?

But then there are people who say that any man who can arrange to be kept by two different women -- not one, but two -- who have hundred-million-dollar net worths certainly shows some extraordinary ability. How that would transfer to the presidency, I don't know. Do you think The Poodle might be able to get foreign countries to send us foreign aid? Maybe he can get the UN to start writing us checks!

I'm not disputing Kerry's heroism or his purple hearts. I didn't serve, I won't dump on the controversy surrounding one of the three purple hearts he received. But Kerry lacks two things: any significant personal political achievement since Vietnam (and getting elected Senator doesn't count -- he has 99 equals and 48 of them on his side of the aisle); and any connection between his basic premise and the conclusion he wants the electorate to reach -- that is, the Vietnam-hero as qualification for the Presidency is pure rubbish.

Instead, the despairing fact of military service is that it does not specifically prepare veterans for civilian life. This is why over 1/2 of homeless are military veterans and more than 1/2 the military-vet homeless are Vietnam vets.

I worked with homeless and indigent vets in my first year of law school at the Veterans Legal Services Project, which is now part of the Shelter Legal Services Foundation. I saw how the veterans had enormous difficulty adjusting to civilian life once they had been discharged. To say that military heroism, of itself, qualifies you for the office that makes you the Leader of the Free World is fantasy.

By the way, the Shelter Legal Services Foundation is a great organization and I hope anyone who reads this will click the link, wander around their website and donate. My work for them is still the best thing I've done in my legal career.