Where is the "Supplementals" for the monies needed for the returning troops and the veterans who served this country?
Where have the present Administration and the previous Congresses been as these present day Combat Troops return home and many needing that which this Country promised them in fullfilling their Contracts with us?
The previous Congresses held the power of the purse, held the power to investigate, held the power of oversight, where were they as everything concerning the returning military was completely falling apart, AWOL!
Why aren't those who still call themselves republican{?} screaming for their representatives accountibility, after all they hold themselves extremely high as to Patriotism, Strong on Defense, and Flag Waving, Magnetic Ribbon, only ones Who Truely "Support The Troops" and are the real americans, or is that amerikans!!
Directly below is an NPR, local to Charlotte NC, show on Charlotte Talks.
This group of Afgan/Iraq Vets are fighting for an Education Bill for all Combat Vets.
The link leads you to the archive page. This should stay up a few weeks than you might have to use date and title to find this show.
Monday April 30,UNCC Iraq War Veterans
We revisit an outstanding group of UNCC students who served in the military in Iraq and Afghanistan. Members of the UNCC Iraq Veterans' Club will talk about their experiences in the conflicts as well as their assimilation back to civilian life here in our region.
Guests
Major Jack McKinley (Retired), U.S. Air Force
Sergeant Juan Euvin (Retired), U.S. Army, founder and President of the UNCC Veterans' Club
T.J. Rose, Veterans Service Specialist, Mecklenburg County Veterans Service Agency
This link was working fine before, To Listen to show, they now apparently are having a glitch in it as they have this "Note: Technical problem - audio starts 4:06 minutes into the interview." posted at the site. It does start at the 4:06 mark.
If above doesn't work try this link which downloads and brings up player, though same glitch.
This is a real good show and I'm positive these fine young Veterans aren't the only ones organizing, of the present generation, and fighting for what they were told would be there for them and what they deserve from the Country they served. How do I know, it's tradition now for All of us Veteran's, healthy and not, since Korea, because Country "Doesn't Support Fully Those Who Serve It"!
Visit their site to find out more about them, and if in North Carolina throw your Support behind their New Battles! If not find a local group, near you, and do same.
For without the Civilian Population doing what it should and promised by contract to do, another generation of Combat Veterans will be an even more costly burden on same!
Now as I continue keep in mind whom and what had total control of the federal government for the past 6yrs. and as for the congress even longer! When , in the present, blame is being called for "Supporting The Troops" in the Supplemental, what does that mean, one only "Supports The Troops" in Theater or does Country have a Duty to "Support The Troops" Completely! Where was "Total Support" in the previous Congresses and present Administration while we had Two Theaters of War Operations Raging?
The link below is another NPR program, listen in to find out how the Military is maintaining their recruiting goals, it's your Military and Monies.
Against the Odds, Army Meets Recruiting Goals
by Guy Raz
Morning Edition, May 1, 2007 · The U.S. economy is getting stronger, and the war in Iraq is getting more unpopular. Normally that spells trouble for military recruiters. But for nearly two years, the Army has managed to meet or exceed its recruiting and retention goals.
Listen to Report
This one, below, I found very interesting and with a number of great points by both Diane Rehm and Robert Hormats:
Robert Hormats: "The Price of Liberty" (Times Books)
An international financing expert draws on history for lessons about how to finance the current War on Terrorism.
Guests
Robert Hormats, vice chairman of Goldman Sachs, he has served in numerous presidential administrations and is a former member of the board of directors of the Council on Foreign Relations.
Listen in Real Audio
Listen in Windows Media
To continue with what is said in the top Charlotte Talks show, lets see what more is really going on.
NPR - The World: War Anniversary
Anchor Lisa Mullins speaks with Washington Post Pentagon correspondent Thomas Ricks about the war in Iraq, four years after President Bush declared that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended."
Listen in Windows Media
With above and individual cases below.
War's Lasting Toll on the Mind
A large number of war veterans seek help for mental health problems.
"They kept badgering me," said former Lance Cpl. Jeremy Williams, of his fellow marines "[They said] 'What, are you crazy from Iraq?' -- making me feel like it was all my fault when I had gone to Iraq a third time."
His wife too has experienced the stigma associated with PTSD.
"I've actually had people laugh at me," said Christina Williams. "How can you laugh at me? You don't understand why our children don't understand why daddy is so mad all the time."
Jeremy Williams' anger is a symptom of his post-traumatic stress disorder. He and his wife filed for divorce three times before they got counseling.
Experts warn it is a looming public health crisis.
"The risk is worse than Vietnam," said Dr. Joseph Bobrow, a psychologist and director of the Coming Home Project. "We've gotta get to work, because the problem will become astronomical, and we are completely unprepared for it."
***
At a Berkeley, Calif., church, veterans and their families gathered for their second weekend retreat sponsored by the Coming Home Project.
Watch The Video Report of Above
And these:
For One Couple, Struggle to Find Better Care Led to Relocation
For veterans in rural areas, care hard to reach
Mental health worsens as deployments lengthen
And from today's, 5-4-07, NPR 'Here and Now show, this on site report:
Pentagon Report Spotlights Mental Health Disorders
Pentagon says that more than a third of active duty troops and military veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan suffer from mental health disorders. Kelly Kennedy, a reporter with the Army Times, briefs us on the report's details.
Listen to this Short, but Informative, Report
Deployments strain troops' mental health
5-4-07
Pentagon panel warns overburdened system could fail to meet needs.
With the war escalating in Iraq, a Pentagon task force is calling for more money to provide treatment and preventive care for troops suffering from psychological problems.
Watch Video Report
Troops having a Problem with the Realities of War, Drug 'em! Than send them back out on Patrol after that great sleep!
Drug Helps War Veterans Sleep
According to a new study, the drug Prazosin improves sleep and reduces traumatic nightmares in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder. "This is the first drug that has been demonstrated effective for PTSD nightmares and sleep disruption," said the study's leader, Dr. Murray A. Raskind of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, Washington. Prazosin is a widely-used hypertension drug and is sold the brand name Minipress. Three larger studies of the drug are either underway or scheduled to begin soon.
Medical system snares wounded warriors
And not only Military Troops suffering from the Hell Of War Theaters.
U.S. diplomats returning from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder
With that last, keep in mind, or bring forward in your mind, what the Iraqi People, Hundreds of Thousands, who are now Living in Hell On Earth are going through, the ones that Survive that is!!! Think some might be Royally Pissed Enough to defend Their Country and rid it of the Occupiers?
Patrick Yoest
Congressional Quarterly
May 01, 2007
Wounded Vets, Broken System-pdf
Data the VA released in February confirmed that active duty service members are nearly twice as likely as reservists to have claims approved. "The result is devastating and scandalous," said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense and a former project manager at the Veterans Benefits Administration. "The VA should immediately and aggressively investigate this problem and then correct it."
And there are So Many More reports, such as the ones above, which came about this week alone. So many that it's impossible for anyone to have been able to view them All!
In the reports below we find out what has been going on in the VA System while Wars Rage and the Maimed return!
Find out what is going on within a Veterans Facility near you, I'm sure this isn't issolated!
VA hospital bonuses come despite poor patient care, deaths
Top N.C. hospital officials got $335,000
STELLA M. HOPKINS
The VA paid bonuses of more than $335,000 to some of its top N.C. hospital managers during years when they received reports of poor patient care and suspicious deaths.
Executives at the Salisbury veterans hospital were rewarded with bonuses in 2004 and 2005, as VA officials investigated unexpected deaths.
Regional VA managers in Durham also received bonuses during that time. And they received bonuses as the Asheville veterans hospital struggled with staffing shortages that investigators found caused poor care. The Asheville nursing home unit also had been ordered in 2004 to suspend admissions after a patient died.
Bonuses for Incompetence, while I wonder where were the 'Medals Of Freedom' also!
Mismanage Your Department, Short Change War Vets -- Get $33,000 Bonus
'Money Is Going to the Wrong Spot'
Veterans React to Big Bonuses at the VA
The VA doled out $3.8 million worth of bonuses last year as scandals emerged about the agency.
Lawmakers Want VA to Explain Bonuses
Congressional leaders demanded that the veterans affairs secretary explain hefty bonuses for senior department officials involved in crafting a budget that came up $1 billion short and jeopardized veterans' health care.
You've just read abit about the Incompetence being Rewarded, soak this one in:
VA Cited Eight Years in a Row
VA was recently rated by an independent research center as having one of the best annual performance reports in the federal sector for the eighth year in a row. Called "Eighth Annual Performance Report Scorecard: Which Federal Agencies Best Inform the Public?" the new report by the Mercatus Center of George Mason University found VA's reports are "rich in information on efforts to improve programmatic and managerial performance." VA published its latest performance and accountability report in November 2006. The Department's report can be found on the Internet So take a look for yourself.
And who says the Government isn't Completely Honest to those they work for! Now what other little falsehoods are they laying on us to look Competent and Leading us forward!
Well Paul Rieckhoff, of IAVA has an answer to the above report and they put it on, where else, YouTube:
Rewarding Incompetence
IAVA is featured in this ABC News Segment on reports that despite being underfunded, underprepared and plagued with problems, the VA recently rewarded generous salaries to many of its top executives.
*****
From an IAVA E-Letter
For those of you who can't keep track of all the different ways returning troops are getting the run-around, here's a quick recap of what we saw in 2005:
++In their budget request for 2005, VA based their numbers on the data from 2002 -- before the war in Iraq even started. As a result, they expected only 23,500 new veterans to seek services, instead of the 103,000 new veterans who returned from war needing care. So the VA asked Congress for $1 billion less than they would actually need.
++While local facilities were flooded with new veterans and forced to ration care, VA bureaucrats spent six months telling a concerned Congress that there wasn't a problem. As late as summer 2004, VA Secretary Nicholson assured Senate leadership that "the VA does not need emergency supplemental funds in FY 2005." Eventually, the VA finally admitted the billion-dollar shortfall and requested emergency funding, but not before thousands of veterans were affected by the six-month budget crunch.
One wonders why the Administration hasn't been asking for Supplementals for Military Health Care Costs as their Debacle grew, overwelming the system with the Maimed!
Now a little look, again, at the Military Health Care System. And keep the thought in mind "Who had Total Control over the Federal Government the past 6yrs, while Two War Theaters were Raging?", the purse, the investigative powers, the complete oversite of all operations!
Money, Neglect Cited in Walter Reed Ills
Too Little Funding, Too Little Attention Blamed for Problems at Walter Reed
Going into the fifth year in Iraq we get this:
Pentagon Forms Committee to Oversee Walter Reed Repairs
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Wednesday that the military has formed a committee to oversee improvements to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center. The co-chairman of the independent review group, Togo West, details the responsibilities of the new committee.
Streaming Audio
Now as we grow the ranks of Combat Veterans the trend seems to be another Deja - Vu of our past conflicts from Korea forward.
Insult to Injury
New data reveal an alarming trend: Vets disabilities are being downgraded
While most recent attention has been paid to the issues at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, veterans advocates say that a more grievous problem is an arbitrary and dysfunctional disability ratings process that is short-changing the newest crop of veterans.
If you read the above this next snippit should make you wonder, as I did, under what criteria were these federal retired judges called back into service, anything like the DOJ hirings?!?!
Veterans Court on Record-Setting Pace
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims began calling up retired federal judges to help the court deal with an unprecedented caseload, and new data show that it may be paying off. In the past six months, the court has decided more cases than it did during the entire year before. During the second quarter of this fiscal year, the court issued almost 2,000 decisions -- averaging over 650 per month. The court is still on pace to issue over 4,800 decisions this year, the highest output level in the court's history.
To learn more about veterans claims, visit the Military.com Legal Matters Section.
Now somebody told me that Military.com has abit of a rightwing swing. I would say it's more of a propaganda feel good righthand swing, just abit.
And as it continues one could only expect what the head republican{?} would do as to "Supporting The Troops", this:
Bush Vetoes Bill with $1.8 Billion for Wounded War Veterans
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Senator Murray's Statement on Bushes Veto of the Supplemental Appropriations Bill:
Murray says: "Four years ago today the President stood among our troops to declare an end to combat operations in Iraq . Now he stands alone in denying them the support and leadership they need."
By the way 1.8 Billion is only a drop in the bucket, a bandaid, of the actual costs needed now and well into the future!
I want the above, and more, brought up at Every National Political Debate, both parties, that means you who are still calling yourselves republican, also!
I want to hear the above brought up with the talking heads, and pols going head to head, when discussion comes around to Supplementals for the War but not for the Returned Warriors!
I want to see National Political ads asking the questions of Why this has been going on while we had Two Conflict Theaters Raging!
I want to hear anyone, especially those on an Independant or Democratic ticket, running for National Office, asking the Right Questions about Why!
And what I Really Want, is for the American People to Stand Up and FIRE this Whole Corrupt, Incompetent Administration with Absolutely No thoughts or language that might give to escaping any possible Criminal Indictments from their Actions, and that includes All the underlings hired by this Administration!!
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