Steve's personal weblog

Interesting flotsam on programming, Java, .NET, Configuration Management, and the geek lifestyle.

Monday, September 06, 2004

Active Duty Military Attending the RNC || kuro5hin.org: A recent report filed by the Associated Press contained a startling bit of information: About 15 percent of the 4,800-plus delegates and alternates to the convention in New York are veterans, organizers said Monday. An additional 3 percent are active military personnel. This report was displayed prominently on the Republican National Committee's website, and lauded gleefully by the fine folks at Free Republic, among others. As it turns out though, it's actually not such a good thing to have active-duty military anywhere near a political convention - if you value your democracy. In fact, up until just a few days before the convention, it was quite illegal for active-duty military even to attend. And yet, there it was in black and white. Active duty military members were not only attending, but participating as delegates in the RNC. How could this happen? An interesting article. One of the questions I had as I was reading it though, was how the Democrats were able to get that whole phalanx of generals up there. A lot of them were retired, but I don't think all of them were. What are the regs for retired military, and their participation in the democratic process?