As the Failed Policies of this Administration have brought this Country in the direction of Irrelevance on the World Stage no matter Power of Military we think we have!
Richard Rodriguez book: Brown: The Last Discovery of America
Saturday, January 05, 2008
Richard Rodriguez: What America Missed
As the Failed Policies of this Administration have brought this Country in the direction of Irrelevance on the World Stage no matter Power of Military we think we have!
Richard Rodriguez book: Brown: The Last Discovery of America
Friday, January 04, 2008
Success in Iraq?
Let's make sure all of our candidates know that we are not distracted by the bright shiny surge success chatter.
"It's the War," Says Iowa to Hillary
from Michael Moore
January 3, 2007
Friends,
There was no doubt about it. The message from Iowa tonight was simple, but deafening:
If you're a candidate for President, and you voted for the war, you lose. And if you voted and voted and voted for the war -- and never once showed any remorse -- you really lose.
In short, if you had something to do with keeping us in this war for four-plus years, you are not allowed to be the next president of the United States.
Over 70% of Iowan Democrats voted for candidates who either never voted for the invasion of Iraq (Obama, Richardson, Kucinich) or who have since admitted their mistake (Edwards, Biden, Dodd). I can't tell you how bad I feel for Senator Clinton tonight. I don't believe she was ever really for this war. But she did -- and continued to do -- what she thought was the politically expedient thing to eventually get elected. And she was wrong. And tonight she must go to sleep wondering what would have happened if she had voted her conscience instead of her calculator.
John Edwards was supposed to have come in third. He had been written off. He was outspent by the other front-runners six to one. But somewhere along the road he threw off the old politico hack jacket and turned into a real person, a fighter for the poor, for the uninsured, for peace. And for that, he came in a surprise second, ending up with just one less delegate than the man who was against the war from the beginning. But, as Joshua Holland of AlterNet pointed out earlier today, Edwards is still the only front-runner who will pull out all the troops and do it as quickly as possible. His speech tonight was brilliant and moving.
What an amazing night, not just for Barack Obama, but for America. I know that Senator Obama is so much more than simply the color of his skin, but all of us must acknowledge -- and celebrate -- the fact that one of the whitest states in the U.S. just voted for a black man to be our next president. Thank you, Iowa, for this historic moment. Thank you for at least letting us believe that we are better than what we often seem to be. And to have so many young people come out and vote -- and vote for Obama -- this is a proud moment. It all began with the record youth turnout in 2004 -- the ONLY age group that Kerry won -- and they came back out tonight en force. Good on every single one of you!
As the only top candidate who was anti-war before the war began, Barack Obama became the vessel through which the people of this Midwestern state were able to say loud and clear: "Bring 'Em Home!" Most pundits won't read the election this way because, well, most pundits merrily led us down the path to war. For them to call this vote tonight a repudiation of the war -- and of Senator Clinton's four years' worth of votes for it -- might require the pundit class to remind their viewers and readers that they share some culpability in starting this war. And, like Hillary, damn few of them have offered us an apology.
With all due respect to Senator Obama's victory, the most important news out of the caucus this evening was the whopping, room-busting turnout of Democrats. 239,000 people showed up to vote Democratic tonight (93% more than in '04, which was a record year), while only 115,000 showed up to vote Republican. And this is a red state! The Republican caucuses looked anemic. The looks on their faces were glum, tired. As the camera followed some of them into their caucus sites, they held their heads down or turned away, sorta like criminals on a perp walk. They know their days of power are over. They know their guy blew it. Their only hope was to vote for a man who has a direct line to heaven. Huckabee is their Hail Mary pass. But don't rule him out. He's got a sense of humor, he's downhome, and he said that if elected, he'd put me on a boat to Cuba. Hey, a free Caribbean vacation!
Bottom line: People have had it. Iowa will go blue (Happy Blue Year, Hawkeyes!). Whomever your candidate is on the Dem side, this was a good night. Get some sleep. The Republicans won't go down without a fight. Look what happened when Kerry tried to play nice. So Barack, you can talk all you want about "let's put the partisanship aside, let's all get along," but the other side has no intention of being anything but the bullies they are. Get your game face on now. And, if you can, tell me why you are now the second largest recipient of health industry payola after Hillary. You now take more money from the people committed to stopping universal health care than any of the Republican candidates.
Despite what your answer may be, I was proud to sit in my living room tonight and see you and your family up on that stage. We became a bit better tonight, and on that I will close by saying, sweet dreams -- and on to that other totally white state of New Hampshire!
Yours,
Michael Moore
MMFlint@aol.com
MichaelMoore.com
Thursday, January 03, 2008
How The Wealthy Stick You With the Bill
Listen Now [38 min 41 sec]
Fresh Air from WHYY, January 3, 2008 · Investigative reporter David Cay Johnston explores in his new book how in recent years, government subsidies and new regulations have quietly funneled money from the poor and the middle class to the rich and politically connected.
Cay Johnston covers tax policy for The New York Times, where he won a Pulitzer Prize for his reporting on that beat. His previous book, Perfectly Legal: The Covert Campaign to Rig Our Tax System to Benefit the Super Rich--and CheatEverybody Else, was a best seller.
The new book, which expands the inquiry beyond tax policy into a whole range of regulatory machinery, is titled Free Lunch: How the Wealthiest Americans Enrich Themselves at Government Expense (and StickYou with the Bill).
March 2008 - Be There, Anywhere!!
Peace Organizations Plan Week of Actions for 5th Anniversary of Occupation of Iraq
Numerous peace and justice organizations, including student groups taking advantage of Spring Break, are making plans for a week of actions from March 12th to 19th to mark the end of the fifth year of U.S. occupation in Iraq. Events will culminate in a national day of actions on March 19th, the fifth anniversary of the invasion. Congress members will be home on break, and activists hope to organize nonviolent civil disobedience actions in all 435 congressional districts, as well as nonviolent actions in Washington, D.C., focused on war profiteers.
Building up to the 19th, groups are organizing a week of activities focused on Washington, D.C., and beginning with a day of lobbying and nonviolent civil resistance in Congress on March 12th, combined with a rally and lobbying on the 12th opposing the occupation of Iraq and the U.S. military's plans for Africa.
From March 13th to 16th in Washington, D.C., Iraq Veterans Against the War has organized a forum for veterans to testify about their experiences in Iraq. Groups around the country will hold local events in support of this action.
On March 17th and 18th in Washington, D.C., citizen activists will train in nonviolence in preparation for the 19th, while also training in lobbying and proceeding to lobby congressional staff. The 18th has been declared "Take Back the Constitution Day" and will feature events throughout the city all day and into the evening demanding an end to the occupation, an end to torture, and the immediate impeachment of Cheney and Bush.
Details on these events and the organizations involved are posted at Resist In March
Organizations involved in one or more of the week's events include: Activist Responce Team (A.R.T), AfterDowningStreet.org, Backbone Campaign, Black Leadership Forum, Camp Casey Peace Institute, CODEPINK Women For Peace, Common Ground Collective New Orleans, DC Chapter of IVAW, Democracy Rising, Democrats.com, Global Network, Gold Star Families for Peace, Grassroots America, Hip Hop Caucus, Our Spring Break, Progressive Democrats of America, TransAfrica Forum, United for Peace and Justice, Voters for Peace, Washington Peace Center, and World Can’t Wait – Drive Out The Bush Regime!
Soldier:"Hey Buddy Can You Spare Your Underpants?"
What The F**K!!
This Country? can't even Afford to Supply our Military personal, in Combat Theaters it sent them to while cheering about bombing others to 'Freedom' and 'Democracy', under our terms, with enough Underwear!
Here you have Combat Soldiers in a War Theater of Occupation, many living under conditions where they can't even shower, let alone Wash Clothes, using up their Allotment of undergarments and having to buy more 'With Their own Money'!
Project Underwear Needs Your Help
Often times, soldiers throw away two or three pairs of underwear while on a mission because there is no way to wash.
And
Don't forget about the ladies serving in Iraq. They also need donations of underwear.
This drive started on Christmas Eve and collected some 40bags of underwear, I'm assuming garbage bags.
W.Va. woman collects underwear for son's National Guard unit
Brown says U.S. Army soldiers often throw away two or three pairs while on a mission because there's no way to wash. While the Army issues underwear, soldiers have to buy extras after using up their allocation.
As the Country apparently finds nothing wrong with the 'president' and his 'puppet', which is which, hint: one smiling Rules.
Can't seem to find enough of our hired representatives who are willing to uphold the Constitution and Hold Those Responsible for their Corruption and Guilt!
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
New Years Resolution For 08: IMPEACH!
had a dose of reality this year with the help of the White Rose Coalition and LANIC (Los Angeles National Impeachment Center) protesting to call for the impeachment of Cheney and Bush.
Video by Voice of Americans 2008
NEED ONE SAY MORE!!
Penny Coleman - Suicide Epidemic Amoung Vets
By Penny Coleman, AlterNet. Posted January 2, 2008.
A testimony at congressional hearings in response to increasingly ominous reports of soldier and veteran suicides.
On Dec. 12, at 10 in the morning, I was sitting in room 345 of the Cannon House Office Building, as Rep. Bob Filner called to order the Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on "Stopping Suicides: Mental Health Challenges Within the Department of Veterans Affairs."
The hearings were in response to increasingly ominous rumors of soldier and veteran suicides (which the DoD and the VA have continued to deny), culminating in the dramatic CBS News report about veteran suicides released in late November. Finally, an entity with some insider clout had produced some hard numbers that attest to an epidemic of monstrous proportions. Even so, the bad guys, like Dr. Ira Katz, who is head of mental health at the VA, quibble about whether or not this is "an epidemic" or a "major problem." "Why hasn't the VA done a national study seeking national data on how many veterans have committed suicide in this country?" Katz was asked by the CBS reporter. "That research is ongoing," Katz replied, looking a lot like Lucy promising not to snatch the football away again.
So, on Dec. 12, I and three other citizens found ourselves scheduled for the morning panel: Mike and Kim Bowman, whose son Tim, a veteran of the Iraq war, took his own life a year ago; Ilona Meagher, author of Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops
; and me -- all of us, by the way, suicide survivors. We were to be followed by a second panel consisting of Katz and fellow apologists, who were supposed to eviscerate the CBS report and skewer us with their conflicting numbers. Without, of course, appearing callous, slimy or cruel.Mike Bowmen spoke first, his wife Kim sitting beside him. Kim didn't speak, but kept her hand on Mike's back. It was such a simple gesture, but one that spoke volumes: Mike is capable of doing the talking, because Kim makes it possible. They are absolutely there for each other. And for their son's memory. And for all the other parents who have already -- or will someday -- have to find ways to survive a death like Tim's.
The Bowmans are devastated. Their grief is huge and terrible, and together they have found ways to give public meaning to their personal tragedy. Aside from giving such an inspiring human face to statistics so awful anyone would want to become numb and turn away from them, Mike mined his own experience and his son's for those moments that had seemed most senselessly counterproductive if not just plain stupid. You can read the whole of his testimony on the Veterans Affairs Committee website, but two points, at least, I think are worth sharing. This first reminds me of those rebate offers that make things sound like such a deal, but are really so complicated and time-consuming to fill out that they know you'll never do it: The VA currently protests that it can't possibly be asked to take responsibility for veterans who have not registered with the system. They don't know where to find them. Well then, Mike asked, "Why isn't the VA sitting there when they get off the bus?" Why don't they have somebody … with a computer and a desk, registering them before they can go home? They're coming out of combat. You know that they're going to need help. Sign them up right there. That way, you know where they are, you know who they are, and they're in the VA system right away. Don't make it so that the soldier has to go to the VA. Make the VA go to the soldier." So simple. So obvious.
Mike's other point was a simple intervention into military culture, and one that would go a long way towards undermining the age-old stigma that is the main reason soldiers don't ask for the help they need: Instead of shunning or punishing a soldier who admits to a combat stress injury and asks for help, hold him or her up as a model. "Grab that soldier and thank him for saying, 'I'm not OK' and promote him," he said. "A soldier that admits a mental injury should be the first guy you want to have in your unit because he may be the only one that really has a grasp on reality."
When Mike and Kim Bowman finished, the entire hearing room came to its feet, and one after another, the committee members fell all over themselves thanking them for their courage and identifying with their pain. Even the Republicans, though they couldn't quite hide their compulsion to hold soldiers responsible for their own pain. One of my favorites, Rep. Cliff Stearns from Florida, "in all candidness," told Mike Bowman, "You coming here is good for us, but it's probably good for you to talk about it." And then did himself even one better when he suggested that perhaps Mike and Kim hadn't quite lived up to their responsibility as parents. "The building up of the self-esteem is the key," he said, "and the parents somehow have to convince him or her that everything is going to be all right, we're going to work through it. And in this case it didn't happen, and so, tragic and sad." Gag me, Cliff.
Steve Buyer, the ranking Republican on the committee, shared a story about losing a childhood friend to suicide. "And there were no signs. There were no risk factors, he said. "It was just one of these bizarre strikes of the mind to just -- I don't have the answers." Knock, knock, Steve. It does seem that spending time in a combat zone is, in and of itself, a risk factor that screams to be taken seriously. But Steve isn't in an entirely conciliatory frame of mind. "As we delve into this issue, we have to also be very sensitive," he said, "because I recognize there are anti-war advocates that also want to say that these individuals that then therefore commit suicide, who have worn the uniform, are somehow victims. And that's not right either."
As one of the anti-war advocates he is referring to, I would like to point out that he is conflating two entirely different positions: anti-war and anti-this-war. The two are not mutually exclusive (and I am a proud example of that), but they are different, and pretending they are not is simply disingenuous. As disingenuous as it would be for me to call him pro-war, if I could be persuaded to sink so low.
In fact, aside from anti-war activists, the other thing that seems to terrify this crew is socialized medicine. The VA, properly funded, could actually serve as an example of how universal health care might work. In practice, it has been bearded to look like just any old hospital, replete with exclusionary practices that are a caricature of the most extreme behavior of a private insurance company gone mad.
When after two hours, congressman Bob turned the mike over to me and then to Ilona, we did our best. We did not shame ourselves. In fact, we both had important things to say and (very much to our relief) we said them well. But the Bowmans were a hard act to follow.
The second panel, however, didn't seem to have noticed. Anything. All Katz and crew wanted to talk about were the fine new programs that the VA has inaugurated -- programs that, as Filner repeatedly interrupted to point out, obviously are not enough to stem this outbreak of despair. Filner didn't even try to disguise his frustration and impatience with these apologists who complained bitterly about how mean CBS was being about sharing their research and the creative new outreach plans they have come up with to bring psychically injured veterans into the system: The agency, according to Katz, is writing a letter that should go out this week or next to all veterans, raising these issues." Right, Dr. Katz. A letter.
After only two of the four panel members had given their testimony, Filner cut the hearing short: "Throw this away and talk to the Bowmans, talk to Ms. Coleman, talk to Ms. Meagher, and say, What are we going to do about these issues? You're not doing that. I mean, you had the advantage of listening to them. Respond to them ... I still don't know what you're doing for those people ... You have not done the job. We're going to have another hearing on this. We're going to have another hearing on this. And I want you to come back with a better report. This is not very useful."
That was, I admit, a sweet moment.
There are countless examples, one more painful than the next, of ways this administration has cut corners on soldiers' and veterans' healthcare. They have, with consummate cynicism, decked themselves in yellow ribbons, mandatory lapel pins and cheap jingoistic rhetoric while simultaneously sucking and siphoning off the VA's already inadequate resources. Mike Bowman's testimony alone is a devastating indictment of those policies. And yet Katz continues to insist, as he did repeatedly during these hearings, that the VA has adequate resources to manage a crisis the parameters of which they have yet to determine and the measures to be taken that might actually intervene in the mounting death toll not yet articulated.
I have hope that good things will come of these hearings, but if they did nothing else, they made a few things very clear. For one, the VA is a system in crisis. It has been deeply underfunded for way too long. It has a bureaucratic system that is adversarial to veterans. And though it employs many dedicated and humanitarian care providers, it is led by a bunch of flunkies who say whatever they think they can get away with to avoid taking responsibility for those Americans who honorably enlisted to defend their country.
The hearings also made it perfectly clear that people like me, a pro-peace activist, can find common cause with a military family like that of Mike and Kim Bowman. The Bowmans still support this war, at least in part because they need to believe that their beloved son died for a reason. I cannot support this war, but I too have a beloved son. I cannot begin to imagine the heat of the rage I would feel had my son died as a result of stupid bureaucratic neglect and mismanagement, not to mention skimping. I may not be in favor of this war, but I am fierce when it comes to taking care of those we sent to fight in our name. The architects of the war and those who implement their policies at the VA have to wake up in the morning and look at themselves in the mirror. With the deaths of so many of our children on their hands, I wonder how they manage.
Penny Coleman is the widow of a Vietnam Veteran who took his own life after coming home. Her latest book, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War
, was released on Memorial Day, 2006. Her blog is Flashback.Tuesday, January 01, 2008
2007 A Year of Advancements and Dissapointments
unlike the previous Congress, Investigate and hold Hearings, way too numorous to list all.
We have some seeking to find the answers to all the wrongs committed by an administration
shown time and again to be Incompetant and Corrupt! And we have many, who once controlled,
playing the Obstructionists on every issue raised.
These Obstructionists were extremely lax in
their roles as the peoples representatives when they did hold that control, and will continue to be so,
we would have already seen a change in their ideology, whatever the hell that is!
One Extremely Important Issue that stood out, of the previous Congress, and the Media didn't even question,
as they were beating the War Drums, and using three words 'Support The Troops' to marginalize
anyone questioning the Policies of the Administration, was 'What About The Troops?'.
We all know the facts of sending a Modern Military, ill equiped, built as a Conventional Warfare Force,
when many were telling them that Wars are no longer Conventional, they all become Guerilla/Insurgent Wars,
as citizens of invaded countries stand up to the invading forces to protect their countries and their people,
and some fight back for Power and Control to fill the Voids created by Invasions!
There was one Congressional Investigation and Hearing that stood out, near the end of the year,
which I'll get to shortly, about what Should have been considered Front and Center as the Drums of War were
beating louder and louder and well into our Invasion of an Innocent Country and Peoples.
First we get some year end reports of the most important issue that will define what the future holds,
War, and the Creation of More Hatreds towards Us and this Country!
We get this report from the BBC Crunch year ahead for Iraq
The country ended 2007 on a high.
Or did it really, reports of violence against the citizens of Iraq are down as are the deaths of the occupying forces,
but they are still happening.
We have the politicals trying to sell us the reason is completely because of the 'Surge', of U.S. forces into Baghdad and a few other area's of the country.
Yet the "Surge" was sold, to us and the world, as a means to give the Iraqi Government some space to come together and govern.
And there have been many warnings that if the security gains are not underpinned by political and economic measures, they risk being squandered.
Even General Petraeus keeps saying
"but cautioned that security gains were “tenuous” and “fragile,” requiring political and economic progress to cement them."
As others point out
it is not hard to imagine a much grimmer scenario, such as:
*bickering Iraqi politicians fail to rise above their differences and agree vital legislation, which is already months behind schedule and would weld the country together
*as US forces start to thin out to pre-surge levels by July 2008, al-Qaeda begins to make a comeback
*Sunni "local security" forces established by the US, clash with Shia militias, which laid low until the American grip loosened
*Iraq disintegrates into sectarian strife, perhaps descends into unequivocal civil war.
And as stated by US ambassador, Ryan Crocker.
"You're certainly not going to hear from me that al-Qaeda is defeated and that victory is at hand,"
The violence is down because
by the end of the year, around 80,000 Sunni youths were on the US payroll as local guards looking out for al-Qaeda infiltrators.
This had a big effect in pacifying troubled Sunni areas such as Anbar province and parts of Baghdad.
But I keep getting this nagging feeling, maybe because of experiance in another of our Invasions, Vietnam, that we are funding and training at least some that will once again turn their guns and experiance on our forces to rid themselves of their occupiers as well as their own countrymen to fill the vacume of power and rule!
And I'm not the only one.
But the campaign is unfinished, with frequent violence in areas to the north of the capital, and displaced Islamist radicals surfacing at Mosul in the far north too.
Many of the Sunni vigilantes have Shia blood on their hands, and their emergence as virtual militias has raised fears of future sectarian battles if things go wrong.
On the Shia side of the equation, the order given in August by the Shia cleric Moqtada Sadr to his Mehdi Army militia to halt hostilities for six months had a big effect in reducing violence.
What happens if Sadr calls off the ceasefire, or his factions abandon him, one of the biggest reasons for the violence being down?
Whichever way it goes, for better or for worse, Iraq will be a very different place in a year's time.
On the other front, seems to have become the Forgotten War, by this Country it's Media and our Representatives, yet our Military Personal are being sent into that Theater on mutiple tours as they are being sent into Iraq, going from one to the other over and over, we have this year end report from the Army Times.
U.S. casualties in Afghanistan hit record
Afghanistan in 2007 saw record violence that killed more than 6,500 people, including 110 U.S. troops — the highest level ever in Afghanistan — and almost 4,500 militants, according to an Associated Press count. Britain lost 41 soldiers, while Canada lost 30. Other nations lost a total of 40.
The AP count is based on figures from Western and Afghan officials and is not definitive. Afghan officials are known to exaggerate Taliban deaths, for instance, and NATO’s International Security Assistance Force does not release numbers of militants it killed, meaning AP’s estimate of 4,478 militant deaths could be low.
“Al-Qaida, Taliban and other militants have really become a regional problem,” he said. “If in 2008 the U.S., NATO in general, is unable to make any notable differences in the [Pakistani] tribal areas, the situation in Afghanistan will not get better.”
Add that last to what is to become of our Supported Dictator, in Pakistan, and the growing Hatreds in Iraq and that whole Region, and you see the Future we may have Created through the Extremely Failed Policies, a Future our Children, and theirs, will be Living!
We have a Broken Military, Stressed out beyond the Breaking Point, as well as a Nation, at least the few citizens paying Any Attention, who Recognize what we have created and what may be the results of!
That Military has been showing signs of what that Stress is creating, within it's ranks as well as to the families of.
Just one of the signs is Suspected Army suicides set record
A record number of soldiers — 109 — have killed themselves this year, according to Army statistics showing confirmed or suspected suicides.
The deaths occur as soldiers serve longer combat deployments and the Army spends $100 million on support programs.
"Soldiers, families and equipment are stretched and stressed," Gen. George Casey, Army chief of staff, told Congress last month.
The highest number of Army suicides recorded since 1990 was 102 in 1992 — a period when the service was 20% larger than today.
Since Sept. 11, 2001, records show that 128 soldiers have killed themselves while serving in Iraq or Afghanistan.
One was:
One was Spc. Travis Virgadamo, 19, of Las Vegas. His family said he was on suicide watch but was eventually taken off, and his gun was returned. "That night he killed himself," says his grandmother, Kate O'Brien, of Pahrump, Nev.
O'Brien says her grandson desperately wanted to come home.
"He would say, 'Grandma, pray for me.' " she says. "What good is somebody (to the war effort) that is under such stress?"
You can Help one Veterans Group fight for the Iraq and Afgan Veterans as well as the many other Veterans who served this Country
Dec. 31: Help VCS Fight Bush Veto of Wounded Warrior Bill
Today's message is our last effort this year to raise money so Veterans for Common Sense can fight for our soldiers, our veterans, our national security, and our civil liberties. We need you now more than ever because President George W. Bush announced he will veto the Defense Bill that contains our critical "Wounded Warrior" reforms that fix many of the problems that caused the terrible Walter Reed scandal.
That Congressional Hearing, mentioned above, was held on December 12th, and examined how the Department of Veterans Affairs can help to Reduce the Number of Suicides among returning Active Duty forces, including the National Guard and Reserves. After a report, that frankly was widely known/suspected by many before finally being published, by CBS News
The hearing, called Stopping Suicides: Mental Health Challenges Within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs was held by the House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
You can visit the link above or follow these links, below, to the opening Statesments and Witness Testimony of All who participated in this Extremely Important House Hearing:
Opening Statements
**Hon. Bob Filner Chairman, and a Representative in Congress from the State of California
**Hon. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin, a Representative in Congress from the State of South Dakota
**Hon. Harry E. Mitchell, a Representative in Congress from the State of Arizona
**Hon. Cliff Stearns, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida
Witness Testimonies
**Panel 1
**Mike and Kim Bowman, Forreston, Illinois, (Parents of Specialist Tim Bowman, U.S. Army, Illinois National Guard, Bravo Troop, 106th Calvary)
**Panel 2
**Ms. Penny Coleman, Rosendale, New York, Author,, Flashback: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Suicide, and the Lessons of War
**Ms. Ilona Meagher, Caledonia, Illinois, Author, Moving a Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops
**Panel 3
**Ira Katz, M.D., Ph.D., Deputy Chief Patient Care Services, Officer, Office of Mental Health, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
**Accompanied by:
**Robert Rosenheck, M.D, Director, Division of Mental Health Service and Outcomes Research, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
**Lawrence Adler, M.D., Director, Mental Illness Research Education Clinical Center, Veterans Integrated Services Network 19, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
**Frederick C. Blow, Ph.D., Director, Serious Mental Illness Treatment Research and Evaluation Center, Ann Arbor Veterans Affairs Center for Clinical Management Research, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
**Kara Zivin, Ph.D"., Research Health Scientist, Health Services Research and Development, Veterans Health Administration, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
**Panel 4
Statements for the Record
**Michael Shepherd, M.D., Physician, Office of Healthcare Inspections, Office of Inspector General, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs
**Joseph L. Wilson, Deputy Director, Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission, American Legion
**Joy J. Ilem, Assistant National Legislative Director, Disabled Veterans of America
**Mr. Todd Bowers, Director of Governmental Relations, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America
**John Driscoll, Vice President of Operations and Programs, National Coalition for Homeless Veterans
**Richard F. Weidman, Executive Director for Policy and Government Affairs, Vietnam Veterans of America
View this Very Moving Video Cut of Mr Bowmans Testimony:
On the same day another hearing was held by the House Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations covering Outpatient Waiting Times in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) at the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Currently, the VA reports that 95 percent of outpatient appointments are scheduled within 30 days of the date requested by the patient. However, the VA Office of Inspector General (IG) has questioned the accuracy of the data provided by VA.
You can visit the link to find the statements and testimony of this hearing.
Do we want to help minimize what we have already created, than Get The Troops The Hell Out Of Iraq, Now, and Take Care Of Them and Their Families!
Engage the Neighbors of that Country to help their fellow residents of the region Rebuild and Create a Stable Country in Iraq, that is Our Responsibility to Fund, instead of all the bravado hate messages, of those and theirs not being sent to fight as well as their supporters, who created this disaster and cheered it on and still are!
What should have been on the Table, as the War Drums were beating, was the Monies and Support for those returning from the Battlefields created, not the lame excuses after everything started breaking, i.e. Walter Reed, that Reed was closing in a few years anyway! Where was the Administration and Previous Congress members on these Issues knowing, as they should have except for their total incompetance, what was to come!
I'll tell you where, the same place they are Now, Obstructing!
As to Afganistan, it may already be way too late, but they deserve the Promises Made to be kept! Help them Financially rebuild after their years of Wars! Help their Government help the people the way all governments should! There are many other issues, by the World community, that can be brought to the Afgans to stem the tides of Hatreds that have only grown over these last few years.
But now much hinges on what happens in an unstable Pakistan, which wouldn't have been if the World, especially the U.S., had stayed the course in Afganistan in the first place, and kept All of their Promises to that country!!
Monday, December 31, 2007
"We Cannot Recognize Our Country" and Neither Can Anyone Else!
December 31, 2007
There are too many moments these days when we cannot recognize our country. Sunday was one of them, as we read the account in The Times of how men in some of the most trusted posts in the nation plotted to cover up the torture of prisoners by Central Intelligence Agency interrogators by destroying videotapes of their sickening behavior. It was impossible to see the founding principles of the greatest democracy in the contempt these men and their bosses showed for the Constitution, the rule of law and human decency.
It was not the first time in recent years we’ve felt this horror, this sorrowful sense of estrangement, not nearly. This sort of lawless behavior has become standard practice since Sept. 11, 2001.
The country and much of the world was rightly and profoundly frightened by the single-minded hatred and ingenuity displayed by this new enemy. But there is no excuse for how President Bush and his advisers panicked — how they forgot that it is their responsibility to protect American lives and American ideals, that there really is no safety for Americans or their country when those ideals are sacrificed.
Out of panic and ideology, President Bush squandered America’s position of moral and political leadership, swept aside international institutions and treaties, sullied America’s global image, and trampled on the constitutional pillars that have supported our democracy through the most terrifying and challenging times. These policies have fed the world’s anger and alienation and have not made any of us safer.
In the years since 9/11, we have seen American soldiers abuse, sexually humiliate, torment and murder prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq. A few have been punished, but their leaders have never been called to account. We have seen mercenaries gun down Iraqi civilians with no fear of prosecution. We have seen the president, sworn to defend the Constitution, turn his powers on his own citizens, authorizing the intelligence agencies to spy on Americans, wiretapping phones and intercepting international e-mail messages without a warrant.
We have read accounts of how the government’s top lawyers huddled in secret after the attacks in New York and Washington and plotted ways to circumvent the Geneva Conventions — and both American and international law — to hold anyone the president chose indefinitely without charges or judicial review.
Those same lawyers then twisted other laws beyond recognition to allow Mr. Bush to turn intelligence agents into torturers, to force doctors to abdicate their professional oaths and responsibilities to prepare prisoners for abuse, and then to monitor the torment to make sure it didn’t go just a bit too far and actually kill them.
The White House used the fear of terrorism and the sense of national unity to ram laws through Congress that gave law-enforcement agencies far more power than they truly needed to respond to the threat — and at the same time fulfilled the imperial fantasies of Vice President Dick Cheney and others determined to use the tragedy of 9/11 to arrogate as much power as they could.
Hundreds of men, swept up on the battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq, were thrown into a prison in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, so that the White House could claim they were beyond the reach of American laws. Prisoners are held there with no hope of real justice, only the chance to face a kangaroo court where evidence and the names of their accusers are kept secret, and where they are not permitted to talk about the abuse they have suffered at the hands of American jailers.
In other foreign lands, the C.I.A. set up secret jails where “high-value detainees” were subjected to ever more barbaric acts, including simulated drowning. These crimes were videotaped, so that “experts” could watch them, and then the videotapes were destroyed, after consultation with the White House, in the hope that Americans would never know.
The C.I.A. contracted out its inhumanity to nations with no respect for life or law, sending prisoners — some of them innocents kidnapped on street corners and in airports — to be tortured into making false confessions, or until it was clear they had nothing to say and so were let go without any apology or hope of redress.
These are not the only shocking abuses of President Bush’s two terms in office, made in the name of fighting terrorism. There is much more — so much that the next president will have a full agenda simply discovering all the wrongs that have been done and then righting them.
We can only hope that this time, unlike 2004, American voters will have the wisdom to grant the awesome powers of the presidency to someone who has the integrity, principle and decency to use them honorably. Then when we look in the mirror as a nation, we will see, once again, the reflection of the United States of America.
Sunday, December 30, 2007
Says It All!!
Esther Sparks of New Orleans wrote this song "Peace." It's on her album "Esther and the Protesters."
3901 with Today and Tomorrow till Month Ends
I was hoping that I wouldn't find a need to Update that original post after the month of December ends!
But I will with a heavy heart!
U.S. Deaths Confirmed By The DoD: 3901
Reported U.S. Deaths Pending DoD Confirmation: 0
Total 3901
DoD Confirmation List
Latest Coalition Fatality: Dec 26, 2007
This found at Huffington Post
December 29, 2007 07:34 PM EST
As of Saturday, Dec. 29, 2007, at least 3,901 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count. The figure includes eight military civilians. At least 3,175 died as a result of hostile action, according to the military's numbers.
The AP count is three higher than the Defense Department's tally, last updated Friday at 10 a.m. EST.
The British military has reported 174 deaths; Italy, 33; Ukraine, 18; Poland, 21; Bulgaria, 13; Spain, 11; Denmark, seven; El Salvador, five; Slovakia, four; Latvia, three; Estonia, Netherlands, Thailand, Romania, two each; and Australia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, South Korea, one death each.
In Honor:
1st Lt. Jeremy E. Ray 26 1st Squadron, 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment Houston, Texas Died of wounds suffered when an enemy attacked using a homemade bomb in Kanaan, Iraq, on December 20, 2007
Pfc. George J. Howell 24 1st Battalion, 87th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team, 10th Infantry Division Salinas, California Died of wounds suffered when his vehicle was attacked by a homemade bomb in Riyadh, Iraq, on December 21, 2007
Sgt. Bryan J. Tutten 33 1st Squadron, 73rd Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 82nd Airborne Division St. Augustine, Florida Died of wounds suffered when a homemade bomb exploded near his position during combat operations in Balad, Iraq, on December 25, 2007
Sgt. Peter C. Neesley 28 3rd Squadron, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division Grosse Pointe Farms, Michigan Died of an undetermined cause in a non-combat environment in Baghdad, Iraq, on December 25, 2007. The circumstances surrounding his death are under investigation.
I will add the above names to the original after the end of the month, and I Hope and Pray there will be No More To Add in these last two days, and even fewer in the coming months of the New Year!
Help for Wounded Warriors and Veterans
by: brianwl
There are two internet forums I highly recommend for those going through the MEB/PEB process and for Veterans
dealing with claims processing and benefits with the VA.
The first is Physical Evaluation Board Forum .
All help on the site is free.
This site is run by a former Army JAG who was a Soldier's Advocate in front of the PEB.
He's done a great job of setting up the site and the amount of information he provides is simply awesome.
This site should be passed on to any service member who is being put through the MEB/PEB meat grinder.
They have rights and they need to know what they are.
The second site is Veterans Benefits Network.
Another awesome site.
All information is free and the purpose of the site is to help people with the claims process and dealing with the VA in general.
Any Veteran who is disabled at any % would benefit from the vast knowledge base of this site.
I visited both for quick looks and will add them to my list of sites to pass on, especially to our new generation of brothers and sisters.
Hope others do same!
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