fuck bitching about rush you baffoons.....figures no one mentions this idiot. amazing that he speaks this way to our men and women in uniform.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLuMWiQ6r2o

he should have said you end up the secretary of defence.

YouTube's blocked here at work. Care to paraphrase the transcript PLSKTHX?

basically...

if you go to school and do good you will get ahead in america, if not you will end up in iraq

and thats almost word for word...

"if you don't do well in college, you'll end up stuck in iraq", when addressing some students.

I've said it so many times but this past election was low point in American History for presidential candidates.

Inflammatory? Definitiely.
Inappropriate? Certainly.
Inaccurate? Um...

I don't think it's a secret that military service is a great option for 18 year olds who didn't do well in high school.

I like Kerry. And I'm not quite sure he's totally wrong in what he said.

try to justify it all you want......but its LUDACRIS

I'd still rather have him than bush though.

It's no different than saying "most criminals are blacks." Sure there's some truth in it but it's not fair to say nor completely acurate. Saying either thing is incredibly dumb.

Well, there's no way we can determine whether Kerry's speech was "ludacris" without having the facts. Personally, I'd like to know the cumulative high school GPA of all soldiers currently in Iraq. Or the percentage of high school dropouts in Iraq.

To clarify: niether my father, my brother, my uncle, nor my grandfather were anything but above-average / exceptional students in highschool, and all did serve / are serving.

However....

man you guys are unbelievable....

not to mention this idiot is a public servant. its not like franken or letterman said it....

should NOT have been said.

no if ands or buts

wasn't it until very recently that the military wouldn't even take high school dropouts?

Timis, you're making it bigger than it really is. You're judging him on what is a 10 second portion of his speech. Nobody knows what he said immediately after that or before it.

Personally, I think he was making the point that if you don't do well in college, that you leave your fate in our peoples' hand. And Iraq is the perfect current example of that.

Kerry is not the first to say something that some find inappropriate about Iraq or will be the last. I've become immune to it.

Here's an interesting report from the Heritage Foundation on who is enlisting in the military. It uses census and other data to identify the origins of recruits in addition to statistics the military provides. Here's the conclusion:

http://www.heritage.org/Research/Nation ... a06-09.cfm

Overall, the wartime recruits are more similar than dissimilar to their civilian counterparts. The all-volunteer force displays near proportional representation of income backgrounds. Whites serve in approximate proportion to their population, although representation of minority groups varies. Recruits must meet educational standards, and the military provides resources for furthering education to those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to attend four-year colleges. Although rural representation is disproportional, the military offers the opportunity to gain new skills and enter industries that are not available in rural areas.

With regard to income, education, race, and regional background, the all-volunteer force is representative of our nation and meets standards set by Congress and the Department of Defense. In contrast to the patronizing slanders of antiwar critics, recruit quality is increasing as the war in Iraq continues. Although recent recruiting goals have been difficult to meet, re-enlistment is strong and recruit quality remains high. No evidence supports arguments for reinstating the draft or altering recruiting policies to achieve more equitable representation.

It would be interesting to go back and get comparable numbers from the Vietnam era, when we had a military draft. My own sense is that today's volunteer military is more representative of the country than the draft military of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Heritage report refutes utterly the statement made by John Kerry yesterday at a rally for California Democratic gubernatorial nominee Phil Angelides. Kerry was talking about education and segued into Iraq: "You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and do your homework, and make an effort to be smart, uh, you can do well. If you don't, you get stuck in Iraq." John McCain has come roaring back with a response:

Senator Kerry owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education. Americans from all backgrounds, well off and less fortunate, with high school diplomas and graduate degrees, take seriously their duty to our country, and risk their lives today to defend the rest of us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere. They all deserve our respect and deepest gratitude for their service. The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night. Without them, we wouldn't live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express insensitive, ill-considered, and uninformed remarks. That pretty much says it all.

No different than looking at the numbers of black people in jail or arrest reports. The face value of it is probably true but that sterotypes all servicemen and women. I know tons of people who did well in school and enlisted. Colleges have ROTC programs for chrissakes. One of my wife's good friends did ROTC at Tulane, served in Iraq, was entering UT MBA school until he got a job offer from a NYC investment firm he couldn't pass up. Is it fair to sterotype him into that category?

That's my guess, as well. He's probably pointing out that the current administration is particularly adept at picking clean America's socioeconomic carcass. I don't think he's telling people who don't go to college that they are too stupid/worthless to do anything but join the military (not that such a voluntary course of action should be considered stupid/worthless). It's more a case of, "beware what they'll do to you if you don't seize your own future."

I wasn't making a statement either way, Tanner. I was merely making a point that there's no way to determine whether what Kerry said is ludicrous or not. Anyone who claims to know for sure is at best generalizing.

1. I judge him on being a dolt long before this.
2. We judge politicans all the time on a 10 sec sound bite.
3. Iraq is not the boogie man, it does not gobble up misbehaved kids. And the last time I checked we're not drafting anybody let alone poor students. The list of millionaires is filled with poor students (from all shades fo the economic rainbow) who made it without serving in the military.
4. I bet you disregard Trent Lott for a 10 sec sound bite without knowing anythiing else about him.

It's in the "shouldn't have been said" camp, but I don't see yet how it's something heinous. But I didn't click the link. I want to understand.

And let me also add that I believe military service is a noble calling for those who choose to do so. I think what we're dealing with here are those people who ordinarily would not have chosen to enlist, but are presented with that as their only viable option, due to their socioeconomic lot in life.