Knee Deep in the Hooah!

Today’s Jackass of the Day award is going to an entity. I know that is a little different and unprecedented, but it’s necessary. Today’s recipient is the Los Angeles Times for the following article:

(excerpt)

John McCain gets tax-free disability pension

LINK

The disclosure of the Navy benefit for injuries incurred as a Vietnam POW may raise fitness questions.

By Ralph Vartabedian,
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 22, 2008

Sen. John McCain has long said he is in robust health and is strong enough to hike the Grand Canyon, but he also is receiving what his staff Monday termed a “disability pension” from the Navy.

When McCain released his tax return for 2007 on Friday, he separately disclosed that he received a pension of $58,358 that was not listed as income on his return.

On Monday, McCain’s staff identified the retirement benefit as a “disability pension” and said that McCain “was retired as disabled because of his limited body movements due to injuries as a POW.”

McCain campaign strategist Mark Salter said Monday night that McCain was technically disabled. “Tortured for his country — that is how he acquired his disability,” Salter said.

Certain types of military and veterans pensions are either partially or completely tax-exempt, depending on the seriousness of the disability. In McCain’s case the exemption is 100%. <snip>

The article goes on to argue that this information (which by the way, McCain was upfront and honest about) somehow puts him in a less capable light since he receives a disability compensation from the military.

OK, now for the smack down.

First of all, as the mother of a war Veteran and the wife of an Officer Candidate who sustained a serious injury in training — an injury that certainly left him disabled for a period of time, I want to let the LA Times know that they totally, and utterly suck for even bringing this up, and they suck doubly for trying to use it against McCain by making him look like he is less of a Candidate due to the physical diabilities that he acquired while he was a POW and was suffering torture at the hands of US enemies. Let me guess, you support the troops, right?

Does this argument somehow mean that Roosevelt was less of a President because he had asthma? What now? Are you somehow implying that a person with paralysis, and who is wheelchair bound, should not run for President? Would you even have the audacity to write a newspaper article about how a wheelchair bound person’s disability somehow makes him less able to serve in the capacity as President of the United States? I never realized that the LA Times had a thing in for disabled Veterans.

John McCain has limited physical movement due to the torture he endured while he was a POW. The reason that he has a tax exemption and a disability rating from the military is because the military has a much different standard of rating disability than the civilian world does. In order to serve in the military you have to be in pretty darned good shape. The majority of Presidential Candidates — past and present, would not last a week in Ranger school or in boot camp on Sandhill. The reason that McCain is considered disabled by the military is because the injuries he sustained prevented him from being able to fulfill the military’s PT and fitness requirements, and those injuries were not going to heal past a certain point. This does not mean that he is so disabled that he can not fill the role of something like, oh say, Senator — nor does it mean that he is somehow less physically able to fill the role as President.

Shame on you LA Times. You are intentionally exploiting the wounds of a POW war hero for a political reason. I am sure that Senator McCain has endured more pain than the majority of Americans will ever understand. For that he should be hailed as a man of strength and a man of courage instead of a man who is somehow unfit to stand against the challenges of being President.

Tags: Jackass of the Day, looney leftists, military, politics, veterans //