West Virginia Personal Options: Fill & Download for Free

The nation has had some great political figures. It also has had several politicians who have tarnished the office they have held and have ultimately been a blot on US Politics. Take this guy here.Robert Byrd - The Longest Serving Senator in the history of the Union.Robert Bryd (1917–2010) Source: Byrd tops earmarkers listByrd (birth name Cornelius Calvin Sale Jr.) served as Senator for West Virginia from 1959 until 2010. A tenure in the Senate that went from the presidencies of Eisenhower to Obama. Prior to this Byrd also was a member of the House of Representatives (1953–1959).A leading figure in the Democratic Party, Byrd was involved in the capacity of Secretary of the Democratic Caucus (1967–1971), Senate Majority Leader, Senate Minority Leader, President pro tempore of the United States Senate (2007–2010) and President pro tempore emeritus. He enjoyed three periods as head of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations - the standing committee that has jurisdiction over what is considered discretionary spending.Robert Byrd giving Hillary Clinton the seal of approval Source: FACT CHECK: Hillary Clinton Kissed by Former Klan MemberWhy then should Robert Byrd be regarded in a very negative light?Well the arguments are numerous but I will distill it down to three critical items:An association with rampant pork barrel spending;His history of racism;A very strong partisan stand on foreign policy.Pork Barrel SpendingAs Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on Appropriations Byrd helped to ensure that billions of dollars of Federal funds went to his home state of West Virginia. He was duly rewarded by the electorate and has (to date) over thirty education institutions, technology centers, research laboratories and even a telescope named after him. A further nine centers are named after his wife..In addition, Byrd used his position of power to ensure that Federal buildings including the FBI’s Criminal Justice Information Center, the United State’s Coast Guard’s Maritime Center (unusual as WV is not a coastal state) and the firing range for U.S. Customers and Border Protection were all built in West Virginia, with the required federal funding.Citizens Against Government Waste described Byrd as the "Prince of Pork" . He was the first legislator to bring in $1 billion dollars for his home state and was duly awarded with the title of "Porker of the Year" in 2002″ by the same group.As late as 2009 Byrd was up to his old tricks winning funding for - you guessed it - the Robert C. Byrd Highway aka “West Virginia's Road to Nowhere.”The highway initiative was driven by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 but is universally seen as lacking any relevancy in the management of traffic.Corridor H - The Road to Nowhere Source: 'Road to nowhere,' as CNN calls it, gets more money in latest appropriations billsRacismThe fact that the Democratic Party was the home for racist whites is not new. George Wallace was a Democrat and the party was the political organization of choice for KKK members. Ku Klux Klan members in United States politics - WikipediaFDR turned a blind eye to this when he nominated Hugo Black, a leading anti-Catholic voice and KKK member to the Supreme Court. Bryd himself was a member of the KKK in the 1940s and is believed to have recruited over 150 members to this toxic organization (he was elected to the position of Exalted Cyclop).In 1944, Byrd himself had this to say in a letter to Sen. Theodore Bilbo (D-MS).I shall never fight in the armed forces with a negro by my side ... Rather I should die a thousand times, and see Old Glory trampled in the dirt never to rise again, than to see this beloved land of ours become degraded by race mongrels, a throwback to the blackest specimen from the wilds. (Source 1)Two years later he wrote a letter to the Grand Wizard of the KKK:"The Klan is needed today as never before, and I am anxious to see its rebirth here in West Virginia and in every state in the nation."Byrd later denounced his earlier membership in the KKK with this feel good statement“(I) was sorely afflicted with tunnel vision—a jejune and immature outlook—seeing only what I wanted to see because I thought the Klan could provide an outlet for my talents and ambitions.”However Byrd's actions in the Senate reflected his racist early years, when it came to his infamous filibustering of the 1964 Civil Right’s Act. In order to obstruct the passing of this revolutionary act Byrd filibustered the bill personally for 14 hours, citing biblical scripture justifying segregation and using pseudo-scientific race arguments to further his position. In the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act he went one step further upping the fillibuster to 15 hours.After the passage of these bills though Byrd apparently ‘changed his mind’. How genuine this was is a topic for debate. Washington Post journalist, Eric Pianin argues that “like other southern and border-state Democrats of his time … (he) came to realize that he would have to temper his blatantly segregationist views and edge toward his party’s mainstream if he wanted to advance on the national stage.”However old habits die hard. Byrd opposed the nomination of Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court and was a strong critic of Martin Luther King.Byrd to this day was the only senator to vote against the nominations of both Clarence Thomas and Thurgood Marshall to the U.S. Supreme Court. In 2005 Byrd tried to block President Bush’s nomination of Condoleezza Rice for Secretary of State.Back in 1975 when President Gerald Ford talked about taking in Vietnamese refugees Bryd made his infamous “barmaids, prostitutes, and criminals.” remark with respect to the admission of the refugees. FORD ASKS NATION TO OPEN ITS DOORS TO THE REFUGEESProgressives have bent over backwards to redeem him on these fronts. In fact he was often seen as the party’s elder statesmen. This comment made by Byrd in an interview in 2001 didn’t help.“They’re much, much better than they’ve ever been in my lifetime … I think we talk about race too much. I think those problems are largely behind us … I just think we talk so much about it that we help to create somewhat of an illusion. I think we try to have good will. My old mom told me, ‘Robert, you can’t go to heaven if you hate anybody.’ We practice that. There are white niggers. I’ve seen a lot of white niggers in my time. I’m going to use that word. We just need to work together to make our country a better country, and I’d just as soon quit talking about it so much.”He later apologized for words that Kwesi Mfume, then NAACP President, described as ‘repulsive’.Top Senate Democrat apologizes for slur.Foreign PolicyIn terms of foreign policy Byrd was as partisan as they come. Opposing an initiative on one front if it was GOP driven and then endorsing similar action when it came from his own party. He was (and is) by no means the only politician to play this game, but Byrd took it to a new level. It was a key feature of his long tenure in office.For example Byrd opposed George Bush’s military option action during the 1991 Gulf War, but had no problem championing the use of military force in Haiti, Bosnia and Kosovo when it was directed by Bill Clinton.In 1964 he voted in favor of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution — that give Lyndon Johnson the right to use force in Southeast Asia without a formal declaration of War by Congress.However in 1973 with a GOP President in office Byrd predictably reversed course advocating for the War Powers Resolution Act - which stated that a President could only send troops into combat on abroad once such an initiative had been authorized by Congress. His support of the latter (which I personally agree with) seemed to have been lost on his protege Barack Obama who dispatched US Troops to Libya without Congressional approval.In 1999 Byrd, during the Clinton Presidency, Byrd voted in favor of deploying a National Missile Defense system. However during the Reagan era he was a strong opponent of missile defense.Byrd triangulated the worst aspects of American politics - monetary waste and kickbacks, race driven initiatives and partisanship in foreign policy. His long career in office was testament to this. While there have been others who have been guilty of these sins in one or two domains, Byrd mastered all three and seemingly got away with it. If ever there was a case for term limits in the Senate, Robert Byrd made it with both word and action.Sources:Robert C. Byrd | United States senatorByrd’s passions: Poetry, power and home-state porkHow Do West Virginians Spell Pork? It's B-Y-R-DList of places named after Robert Byrd - WikipediaCivil Rights Filibuster EndedPianin, Eric (June 19, 2005). "A Senator's Shame: Byrd, in His New Book, Again Confronts Early Ties to KKK". The Washington Post. pp. A01. Retrieved October 3,2006.Katznelson, Ira (2005). When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History Of Racial Inequality In Twentieth-century America. Norton. p. 81. ISBN 0-393-05213-3.FACT CHECK: Hillary Clinton Kissed by Former Klan MemberTop Senate Democrat apologizes for slur

If you want special forces, don't go 18X and don't go active duty.Go National Guard with a REP 63 Contract.The REP 63 is designed for civilians pursuing the Green Beret.Under the REP 63 Enlistment Option, recruits are guaranteed the opportunity to “Try Out” for Special Forces as part of their initial training pipeline (right alongside those 18Xs).Joining with the REP 63 option requires dedication to a personal fitness routine, self discipline, and consistent habits.Between Basic Combat Training and the Special Forces Preparatory Course (SFPC), you’ll be in training for 21 weeks before attending the Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS). SFAS is 3 weeks and is the determining factor on whether you will continue with onto the Special Forces Qualification Course (SFQC).If you quit or aren’t selected, you won't be stuck with an 11B MOS and tossed in the 82nd Airborne or ETSd to Alaska like the other 18Xs, instead you will be re-assigned to a position in the Special Forces support group with an MOS you choose. While in the support group, you will brush shoulders with Green Berets who will help you prepare to attend SFAS again, barring any unique circumstances.Active duty guys will talk trash on the National Guard, but only because they're not Special Forces.I recommend joining the 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne) headquarted in Utah. They have detachments in Colorado, California, Washington, West Virginia, Ohio, Rhode Island and Texas. But there's also the 20th Special Forces in Alabama with detachments in Mississippi, Florida, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Kentucky. Both are National Guard units and offer the REP 63 Contract.

I have not given up a child for adoption, but my story is from the other side. I was adopted as a baby, struggled with the what ifs and questioning my whole life. I was raised in an amazing family, supportive, encouraging, loving. But I always felt something was missing. When I was 23, and pregnant with my first child, I managed to find some of my birth family on Facebook. My uncle connected me with my birth mom and we spoke on the phone for the first time ever on my 23rd birthday. That summer, I went to visit them for 2 weeks. It was amazing. My half sister and half brother and I don't look alike, but our personalities are very similar. All the questions I'd never had answers to were finally answered. I found out why my mom had put me up for adoption, which was always one of my biggest issues, since I knew she had kept her two older children. She was 21, with three kids, and my dad was incredibly abusive, to the point he'd tried to kill us both while she was pregnant with me. She chose the best option she could. If she's kept me, she would have been forced to allow my dad to be part of my life, and she didn't know if his abuse would carry over to me too. She didn't feel I would be safe with him in my life. I was adopted at 3 weeks old and raised by a doctor and nurse, with a large extended family, and got a great education. I was the first in my birth family to attend college. When I met them, my birth mom was living in a small, ramshackle cabin in the middle of nowhere West Virginia on disability and clearly struggling. I was able to almost instantaneously come to terms with everything I'd wondered and worried about my whole life. My two families were so drastically different, but they both loved and cared about me. The best experience in all of this came the summer after I met them. I decided to go visit for the whole summer, I drove there from California with my son and dog. When it was time to leave, my adoptive mom came out to fly home with my son, so I could drive more easily. I spent two days with my son and both of my moms. They had amazing conversations, filled in blank spots for each other, and it felt like they'd always known each other, even though they had never talked or met. After that, they would talk on the phone once a week, and my adoptive mom would sometimes send them money if they were struggling to pay their $300 in rent and sent them enough to cover a couple months of bills for Christmas. My adoptive mom passed away from cancer at the end of 2013, but I'm glad they were able to meet and form a relationship. I think it brought some significant closure to both of them, and myself.