I'm still at the Joint Readiness Training Center at Fort Polk, Louisiana.  We're finishing up and getting ready to head back to Fort Bragg in the next few days.

I recently gave an update on my PCS move to 82nd Airborne. I've learned that I am definitely deploying to Iraq "sometime around November."

We're about to leave for dinner so this Diary will be short and sweet.

UPDATE: I just got back from seeing a the play Peter Pan in Raleigh. I didn't expect this to make the Rec list! Thanks, everyone for such an overwhelming show of support. And the select few who had something negative to say is no skin off my back, so no worries. I'm not leaving until around November so I'll still be around for a while. Between now and then I'll periodically be sent to various different training sites and schools.

Today when I first saw the headlines and saw the cover I had the same "WTF" reaction that most people had. But then...

A couple diaries ago I wrote that I'm PCSing (permanent change of station) back to Fort Bragg, NC with the 82nd Airborne.

I'm sure most of you are on Barack Obama's email list (yes, that includes you Scarlett Johansson). If you're not, you need to go to his website and sign up.

I have to admit, I just delete a lot of the emails I receive. But this time I'm glad I chose to open it. For those of you who haven't here it is in a nutshell.

Since March 10th, 2006 I've been on recruiter duty in California. Now I get to go back to Fort Bragg, North Carolina where I met my wife. She's happy that she gets to go back to her family. My family (particularly my mother) is sad because this is where I grew up, and they liked having me around. In the end though I'm looking forward to going back to my real job.

The only issue where John McCain scores higher than Barack Obama in the polls is National Security. I think it's pretty clear this is for two reasons. The Republicans tend to exude bravado in their rhetoric, which tends to make people feel 'safer', if you will. The mind set of "don't F--K with us, we'll protect you."

But also his military experience plays a significant role. Let's examine that for a minute.  

EDIT: This diary has been updated to accurately reflect the capacity in which John McCain served. I apologize for the discrepancy.

ISM

On MYDD there seems to be a lot of tit-for-tat about Hillary Clinton and sexism in the media, sexism here and sexism everywhere. The subject has also been brought up a few times on Dailykos and the conversation has gotten bit snippy at times. But thankfully, overall, Dailykos does seem to have a lot more harmony amongst its members. The sexism debates seem to be a popular theme on MYDD and it often gets ugly.

Yes, I'm doing one. With a twist because there's a few subjects I want to address.

I'm not sure how we're going to counter this but ideas are welcome. We're in trouble. :o(

I'm off to the beach in a little bit. I've decided to donate a recurring $10 per month to Obama's campaign. Before I leave I want to write a quick plug to encourage others to do the same.

Obama is trying to give the power back to us, the regular Joe's. Let's use it. Please donate whatever you're comfortable with, even if it's only $5 per month.

Being a longtime military member and also being a Democrat has given me a rather unique perspective.

The military has always been viewed to be very... Republican. This has been kind of a soar subject for me because I take great pride in serving my country and I take great pride in my beliefs.

I've tried to figure out why, and I can only come up with three anecdotal reasons.

On MYDD "upstate girl" posted a diary talking about what is allegedly an internal memo leaked from the McCain Campaign. I'm going to post the memo below, but for further details please visit her diary, as I don't want to plagiarize her hard work.

Ordinarily I would never fish for Rec's because that's, well, icky. But I think this is important for true unity.

Did anyone else notice at the hearings the Clinton camp kept calling Obama's name omittion a "failed strategy"? They unknowingly admitted Clinton flat-out lied and nobody picked up on it.

I wrote my first mydd diary and I figured I would cross post it and open the discussion here as well. It doesn't seem to sway any opinions, I guess I'll have to work harder :o)

http://www.mydd.com/...

I'm a relatively new member of mydd. I migrated over from dailykos, which I learned about from the "Colbert Bump". My screen name on dailykos is the same.

This is my first diary so I'll start by introducing myself. I'm a 34 year old, long time Democrat currently serving in the US Army. I spent 6 years in the Marine Corps reserves, during which time I worked in the semiconductor industry. I joined the US Army in October of 2003 as an Airborne Infantryman. Having served with the 82nd for two years, including one tour in Iraq, I came down on orders to recruiter duty :o( I'm currently wrapping up my time in recruiting and next month I report back to the 82nd :o)

For my first diary I wanted to discuss the FL and MI situation because I feel there's a misunderstanding. I think many Clinton supporters believe the argument against seating them as-is is about punishment. In my opinion that's the furthest thing from the truth. In actuality (ironically) the issue is about voter fairness.

A few diaries have been made exposing a controversy over Marines passing out coins in Fallujah inscribed with a verse from a Christian bible. Having spent six years in the Marine Corps reserves, and now over four years active duty US Army I KNEW this was not sanctioned by the US military. So I decided to look further and stay on top of the story. At first I suspected insurgents were gaining sophistication and implementing PSYOPS (psychological operations).

As expected there were some who automatically went into reaction mode, believing this is a larger scale, secret operation to convert the Muslim world to Christianity. PLEASE give those of us more serve more credit than that. We do have a brain, save the few idiots that can be found in any large organization.

I want to buy whoever made this video a beer.

I wrote a previous diary about McCain deliberately twisting Obama's words on Pakistan. But now I'm seriously wondering if he even understood what Obama was saying.