Today, nine members of Iraq Veterans Against the War testified before the Congressional Progressive Caucus about their experiences fighting in the Iraq war. Kristofer Goldsmith, who served Sadr City and was stop-lossed after returning home, revealed that he had attempted suicide and was discharged. The discharge forced him to forfeit the educational benefits promised under the GI bill and thus his “one hope and dream” to go to college:

I was stop-lossed. My one hope and dream in the military was to go to college after I went through Iraq. I attempted suicide. I never deployed a second time. Because of that I received a general discharge. I lost my college benefits, the $40,000 promised to me in the Montgomery GI Bill, I will not be eligible to receive. And currently there is a Senator in Congress currently running for president, who is fighting to kill our Webb GI bill. And I’m one of the soldiers who will never get that money.

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Of course, Goldsmith is referring to Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), who has steadfastly opposed Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) bipartisan attempt to dramatically expand educational benefits for returning veterans. In fact, McCain’s own watered-down alternative, which reserves the most generous benefits to those who serve at least 12 years, would exclude soldiers like Goldsmith who suffered physical or psychological problems that made serving 12 years impossible.

The Pentagon also sees no problem with excluding soldiers like Goldsmith from reaping educational rewards. Just recently, a Pentagon spokesman criticized Webb’s bill for providing full educational benefits to soldiers “after only two years of service.” He said that “six years would show a commitment to service” — a commitment the Pentagon apparently thinks Goldsmith, who could not serve for a full six years, never demonstrated.

On Fox News’s The O’Reilly Factor last night, Bill O’Reilly attacked Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas by calling him “one of the most despicable Americans in the country.” Noting that Moulitsas writes a column for Newsweek, O’Reilly compared him to white supremacist David Duke:

And Newsweek magazine, by the way, has legitimized [Moulitsas] by giving him a columnist position. I talked to the editor by email, and I said I can’t believe that you’re — that’s like hiring David Duke. Again, I use Duke too much, but I have to — the level of hatred coming out of that website is unprecedented. Isn’t it?

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Last year, O’Reilly attacked the YearlyKos convention — which was named after, but not sponsored by Moulitsas — by saying it was like “a David Duke convention.”

After directing his caucus to vote “present” on a $162.5 billion proposal to continue funding the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — a move that effectively killed the bill — House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) said on the floor of the House today that, “we’re playing political games on the backs of our troops.” Watch it:

On MSNBC’s Hardball tonight, right-wing radio host Kevin James attempted to defend President Bush’s comments comparing Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) to Nazi appeasers because he favors talking with our enemies. James compared Obama to Neville Chamberlain, about whom James could only cry: “He’s an appeaser!”

Matthews pressed James at least 19 times over five minutes to simply explain what Chamberlain had done in 1938 and 1939 to make him an “appeaser.” James could only shout his talking point over and over, prompting Matthews to threaten to end the interview:

MATTHEWS: You don’t know what you’re talking about, Kevin. You don’t know what you’re talking about. Tell me what Chamberlain did wrong.

JAMES: Neville Chamberlain was an appeaser, Chris. Neville Chamberlain was an appeaser, all right? [...]

MATTHEWS: I’ve been sitting here five minutes asking you to say what the president was referring to in 1938 at Munich.

JAMES: I don’t know.

MATTHEWS: You don’t know, thank you.

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Matthews was trying to prompt James to explain that Chamberlain signed the Munich agreement with Hitler in 1938, which allowed Hitler to occupy part of Czechoslovakia in exchange for peace with Britain.

Matthews rebuked his clueless guest — and the entire Bush administration — for being “blank slates in terms of history”:

You don’t understand there’s a difference between talking to the enemy and appeasing. What Chamberlain did wrong, most people would say, is not talking to Hitler, but giving him half of Czechoslovakia in 1938. That’s what he did wrong. Not talking to somebody. Appeasement is giving away things to the enemy.

Matthews’s other guest, Mark Green, advised James: “When you’re in a hole, stop digging.”

Today, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warmly welcomed President Bush during his visit to the country. “He is a great leader, a great friend, a source of inspiration,” Olmert said of Bush in a speech. Reuters notes that during the speech, Bush “appeared to well up with emotion.” Dan Froomkin writes:

Could it be that despite the outward signs of confidence, all the criticism being heaped upon President Bush is getting to him? It’s sheer speculation, of course, but how do you explain why the president, welcomed to Israel with adulation, started to cry while being praised by a fellow world leader who expressed seemingly sincere admiration.

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“Bush has cried many times during his presidency — when he’s met with the families of dead soldiers, after 9/11, at disaster scenes. But this was different. In this case, it seems his tears were for himself,” Froomkin adds.