Deadliest Month {so far}

August Deadliest Month for U.S. Troops in Afghanistan

As August becomes the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, post-election tension continues to increase. A Washington Post reporter provides an update from Kabul.



You can find the Transcript, Audio and Video Feed, for above, at this link.

Exclusive: On Pakistan's Khyber Pass
ABC News' Martha Raddatz Travels Through Pakistan to Afghanistan With a Convoy

The Khyber Pass is one of the most dangerous routes from Pakistan into Afghanistan. ABC News' Martha Raddatz traveled with a NATO convoy along the route.
(Martha Raddatz/ABC News)

It is only about 30 miles from Peshawar, Pakistan, to Afghanistan's border where the Torkham Gate that divides the border is built. But it is 30 miles of the steepest, most white-knuckle driving you can imagine.

Think 2,000 feet up, on only dirt and gravel in some places, where guard rails are rare, and two or three trucks compete for space that can accommodate only one.

Throw in the fact that roadside bombs and mortars still can be a threat, militants still hide in the hillsides above you and you get the idea what kind of drive this is.......The Rest Found Here

The Khyber Pass


UNHCR operation in Afghanistan

UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie is appealing for more international support for Afghan refugees who are returning home. The acclaimed American actress visited UNHCR operations in Kabul and the eastern province of Nangarhar, where she heard from Afghans who are struggling to rebuild their lives after years in exile. Many face continued insecurity and rising food prices.

cheney/bush cabal Quagmire!!

Stopped being anything about 9/11 after they started the Drums of War of Their Choice towards Iraq and pulled troops and rebuilding monies out of, now it's just adding to the Hatreds towards Us and Our Policies!!

"Death was all over the place"

For those that Still don't get what War does to a Human Being, and not only those fighting, nor understand the same happens to civilians who experience extreme trauma, like the recent reports about the young girl kidnapped and now found almost two decades later, Read This Short Article!!

Friday August 28, 2009

World War II veteran can finally open up about horrific battle- "Death was all over the place"

John Landry, 85, in the kitchen of his Thetford Township home, Landry fought for the NAVY in WWII as a top turret gunner and as a ground soldier in the battle of Okinawa in Japan. Landry has never talked about his experiences during the battle of Okinawa until recently, when he decided he wanted to tell his story "I didn't talk about the war because I didn't want people to hear about it, " Landry said.

He wasn't even supposed to be there.

John Landry never spoke about the island, the scattered bodies, the smell of death -- but six decades later, nightmares of one of the bloodiest battles of World War II woke him up from his sleep soaked in sweat.

"They were things I could never talk about, but it's time I told it like it was," said Landry, 85, whose buried memories began haunting him after he saw scenes of the Iraq war on television.

"I don't want to leave this world and take it with me."

Snip

"The things that went on on that island are things you never forget," Landry said. "Death was all over the place."

Except for a long time, Landry did manage to push down those memories.

Only recently have the long-blocked scenes started to come back to life.

He can suddenly see mothers clutching babies and leaping off cliffs into the water. He can see the natives fleeing into caves engulfed by fire minutes later from grenades.

"What got me was these people were trying to get away from us, and it was their island," he said. "I hadn't seen the destruction we were doing from the air. Now I'm on land and I'm seeing the bodies, the kids. I could smell burning flesh, which is something if you ever got near it, you never forget."

Snip

The father of five sons said Okinawa scenes have started coming back in bits and pieces, many times through nightmares.

"I'm lost and I can't get to where I want to be," he said of his dreams. "I think it's because I don't want to do what I have to do. I don't want to wake up in a foxhole or in the dirt."

He has finally began sharing with his family the details he had intentionally forgotten.

Many, never having problems with the realities they lived through, burying them deep in their minds, from WWII to Korea to 'Nam, and all between them, to the present past were starting to relive, in their minds,their own experiences long withheld within, as these two occupations started and continued, some right from 9/11, Our Brothers, and those the country ignores!!

Watch: Money-Driven Medicine

This week, 8.28.09, on Bill Moyers Journal: Money-Driven Medicine

Produced by Academy Award winner Alex Gibney (TAXI TO THE DARK SIDE, ENRON: THE SMARTEST GUYS IN THE ROOM) and based on Maggie Mahar's acclaimed book of the same name, MONEY-DRIVEN MEDICINE reveals how a profit-hungry "medical-industrial complex" has turned health care into a system where millions are squandered on unnecessary tests, unproven and sometimes unwanted procedures, and overpriced prescription drugs.

California Newsreel: Money Driven Medicine has more information and clips, like this trailer:



Watch Nightline's feature (8/11/09) on Money-Driven Medicine


Maggie Mahar's Book: Money-Driven Medicine: The Real Reason Health Care Costs So Much

Synopsis:
'

Why is medical care in the United States so expensive? For decades, Americans have taken it as a matter of faith that we spend more because we have the best health care system in the world. But as costs levitate, that argument becomes more difficult to make. Today, we spend twice as much as Japan on health care — yet few would argue that our health care system is twice as good.

Instead, startling new evidence suggests that one out of every three of our health care dollars is squandered on unnecessary or redundant tests; unproven, sometimes unwanted procedures; and overpriced drugs and devices that, too often, are no better than the less expensive products they have replaced.

How did this happen? In Money-Driven Medicine, Maggie Mahar takes the reader behind the scenes of a $2 trillion industry to witness how billions of dollars are wasted in a Hobbesian marketplace that pits the industry's players against each other. In remarkably candid interviews, doctors, hospital administrators, patients, health care economists, corporate executives, and Wall Street analysts describe a war of ''all against all'' that can turn physicians, hospitals, insurers, drugmakers, and device makers into blood rivals. Rather than collaborating, doctors and hospitals compete. Rather than sharing knowledge, drugmakers and device makers divide value. Rather than thinking about long-term collective goals, the imperatives of an impatient marketplace force health care providers to focus on short-term fiscal imperatives. And so investments in untested bleeding-edge medical technologies crowd out investments in information technology that might, in the long run, not only reduce errors but contain costs.

In theory, free market competition should tame health care inflation. In fact, Mahar demonstrates, when it comes to medicine, the traditional laws of supply and demand do not apply. Normally, when supply expands, prices fall. But in the health care in............

Veterans "Death Book"? Not!! {UpDated}

As brought to you by their "Dear Leader" of their Political Cult:

Today Rush Limbaugh used Ted Kennedy’s death to keep pushing the “death book” tale, that claim being spread on the right that Obama’s veteran’s agency is distributing manuals urging veterans to hurry up and die.

And the followers of, strong on "National Defense" meme's, "Support the Troops" symbols and the cheerleaders of "Wars of Choice" as they show that support for those of us who actually serve:



And what do us brothers of 'Nam think:

Veterans Group Blasts Right Wingers Pushing “Death Book” Claim As “Cruel” To Veterans

That’s unsightly enough on its own. But it turns out Rush’s broadside comes a day after the Vietnam Veterans of America, a national advocacy group, defended the manual and strongly denounced “death book” claims as “hysteria” and as “cruel” to veterans themselves.

“This booklet was developed with guidance from clerics, and it addresses options most of us and our loved ones will have to sort through as we live our final years,” the group said in a little-noticed statement that was sent my way. “To play politics with veterans’ end-of-life choices is not only irresponsible politically, but it is cruel.”...........

Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA)

IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Press Release

August 25, 2009

No. 09-027

Contact:
Mokie Porter
301-585-4000, Ext. 146

Health Care Reform Hysteria:
‘Death Book’ Scare Tactics Inexcusable

(Washington, D.C.) – “Health care reform is a legitimate topic for discussion and debate,” said John Rowan, National President of Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA), “but it is outrageous for some partisans to politicize the debate by targeting veterans with blatant scare tactics.

“The issue du jour is the so-called Death Book for veterans,” Rowan said. In an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, the person who headed the office of faith-based initiatives for the Bush White House attacked ‘Your Life, Your Choices,’ a 52-page booklet of end-of-life options to be considered by veterans and their families that has been given out by the VA as per federal law. This booklet, developed in 1997 when Bill Clinton was President, was given to veterans and their families, if requested, under a directive in 2007 from President Bush. It was updated last month, under President Obama.

“This booklet was developed with guidance from clerics,” Rowan said, “and it addresses options most of us and our loved ones will have to sort through as we live our final years. To play politics with veterans’ end-of-life choices is not only irresponsible politically, but it is cruel. We agree with Congressman Joe Sestak, a retired Navy Admiral, who is outraged at the ‘Death Book’ charges and has called them ‘inexcusable.’

“It is our hope that sane minds reject fear-mongering, and that veterans recognize these scare tactics for what they are,” Rowan said.
-- 30 --

Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) is the nation's only congressionally chartered veterans service organization dedicated to the needs of Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA's founding principle is “Never again will one generation of veterans abandon another.”

Controversy prompts Sestak to criticize Specter

That would seem to bolster Sestak’s assertion today that Specter has over-reacted to Towey’s assertions.

“As a Veteran, I read with deep concern an editorial entitled ‘The Death Book for Veterans,’ which accuses the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) of deliberately sending Veterans a ‘hurry-up-and-die message’ with a pamphlet on living wills and end-of-life care,” Sestak said.

“Anyone may criticize — and, indeed, suggest improvements to the pamphlet — but to seriously allege that an honest effort by the VA that sincerely helps families plan for the most difficult emotional experience of their lives is a ‘death book’ is counter to the public’s and Veterans’ interest,” Sestak said.............

UpDate:

Veterans DEMAND Apology!!!

Veterans Demand Apology from GOP and FOX for Lies About VA

August 27, 2009 - The claim that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a manual encouraging veterans to "commit suicide," made by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, is an asinine assertion with no basis in fact.

Steele made the charge two days ago (August 25th) on FOX News. Steele's egregious comments are an outrageous slander against VA designed to create an atmosphere of mistrust and fear among the millions of our veterans who rely on the VA for medical care. Veterans demand an apology from Steele and FOX News.

"Let me be absolutely clear, Steele lied. There is no VA manual encouraging veterans to commit suicide," said Paul Sullivan, the executive director of VCS, a non-profit based in Washington, DC providing advocacy for veterans, especially veterans with mental health conditions.

Here is the full text of Steele's comments:..........

GWU Edu. NSA: The CIA's Vietnam Histories

On the heals of What were they hiding? concerning the torture policies of the cheney/bush administration/CIA/Private Contractors/Military, the George Washington University National Security Archives brings a slew of documents on the CIA and Vietnam conflict years, before our invasion, during and after.

The CIA's close relationship with Ngo Dinh Nhu, chief political adviser to his brother President Ngo Dinh Diem, is demonstrated by the presence of CIA officer Paul Harwood and his spouse at the confirmation ceremony for the Nhu's daughter Le Thuy. From left: Ngo Dinh Nhu, Mrs. Paul Harwood, Le Thuy, Bishop Ngo Dinh Thu, with Nhu's son Qunh, son Trac, {CIA officer} Paul Harwood, Madam Nhu." {Source, The CIA and the House of Ngo, p. 26}

The CIA's Vietnam Histories

Newly-Declassified CIA Histories Show Its Involvement in Every Aspect of the Indochina War

Washington, D.C., August 26, 2009 - The Central Intelligence Agency participated in every aspect of the wars in Indochina, political and military, according to newly declassified CIA histories. The six volumes of formerly secret histories (the Agency's belated response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request by National Security Archive senior fellow John Prados) document CIA activities in South and North Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia in unprecedented detail. The histories contain a great deal of new material and shed light on aspects of the CIA's work that were not well known or were poorly understood. The new revelations include: {Link brings you the rest, to the brief descriptions and documents links.}

On the right side you'll find a description titled: "A TALE OF OBSESSIVE SECRECY" starting with,

Before addressing the substance in the new CIA histories it will be useful to pause and consider what this case also shows about the U.S. Government's broken system for declassifying and releasing records. In actuality, this CIA release was not at all a voluntary contribution to American history, but was compelled by a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request. Filed in 1992, that FOIA request may be the longest running case in the CIA's files, and its treatment shines a blinding light on how the agency handles its statutory duty to release records.........................

That you might want to read the rest of.

It continues with a brief synopsis of John Prados book on Vietnam Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975

The CIA's Vietnam Story

The Central Intelligence Agency's Vietnam war history actually begins in 1950, when agency officers moved to French Indochina as part of the United States legation in Saigon. During the French war in Indochina the CIA's involvement grew to encompass a base in Hanoi but not much more, since the French did not encourage CIA activity. The French tamped down further after an incident in which CIA officers were revealed as reaching past them to open channels to Vietnamese nationalists. When the lands of Indochina—Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia—became independent "associated states" the CIA expanded its activity somewhat, and during the last year of the French war, 1953-1954, agency involvement grew considerably as the French were obliged to accept U.S. assistance with unconventional warfare activities as a condition of expanded military aid from the Eisenhower administration, and with the use of CIA proprietary aircraft of Civil Air Transport (later Air America) in Laos and at Dien Bien Phu.......................

Between the Torture documents and reports, still coming in, and this new addition on the CIA's involvement in Vietnam, for years, there is a whole host of information to absorb. But their archives don't stop with these, they've been researching and archiving a whole host of issues, especially on National Security for a long time, and will be adding much more, so explore.

After our failed policies concerning Vietnam it will be more then interesting to one day read of the lead up to our numerous failed policies in the regions of Afghanistan, support and supplying the Mujahadeen then walking away, and Iraq. Especially concerning Iraq and our connections, through the CIA and more, with Saddam's reign leading up to and including the First Gulf War then to Operation Iraqi Freedom, OIF, and continuing, along with 9/11 and Operation Enduring Freedom, OEF! Maybe they won't trickle out many years later, hopefully for the rest of the World we'll get the facts and truth much earlier, but us 'Nam Vets will probably mostly be long gone.

Lets hope that what this Country, if it still exists, didn't learn from 'Nam, it will Finally absorb from these times, OEF and OIF, and stop the few from pushing for these War and Occupations, of others, Of Choice! But unlike 'Nam, these times will bring blowback on our country and citizens!

Veterans Owed Apology

Michael Steele Owes an Apology to Veterans

To knowingly and intentionally tell our Veterans such a blatant lie, that their own government is encouraging them to commit suicide, is unconscionable and reprehensible. Only a truly sick mind could make such a statement. Unfortunately, the sick mind making the statement is one of the most prominent members of the Republican Party in the United States...........Read Rest Here

About the author:

A Democrat in Baldwin Park (Orlando, Florida) writing about my views on politics, and occasionally, other matters of interest to me. Retired Navy. Retired DHS. Now just retired.

All those, not only Steele, owe that Apology to us Vets!! Trying to once again Use Us for their political propaganda, as well as some for pure profit motives, is as it always has been close to a criminal act, it's pure 'verbal spitting' on those who serve highly used since 'Nam even with symbols! Like the 'purple heart bandages' that brought smiles and laughter to a certain political group! Many using this now are the 'chickenhawks' of our time and now, while still staying strong in support of our failed policies of two occupations, are sitting on the sidelines of both, rarely even mentioning them or the soldiers, the 'chickenhawks' of today, using a soldiers sacrifice to country to further political spin and propaganda!

If there's to be talk about "death books" and "death panels", for the fear factor, then talk about the reality of both, the insurance companies that practice both with vigor and to save the bottom lines of as well as the obscene compensations of their executives and investors!!

What were they hiding?

Their arguments have always been, and continue to be especially from their propaganda machines, TV and Radio, that what they did was cleared by the administrative lawyers, as I heard one say this morning "Highly experienced Lawyers!", and they were are then legal!

The George Washington University National Security Archives have posted up the reports, side by side, from the Bush administration, in May 2008, and the newly released same report from the Obama administration, August 24th 2009.

A side-by-side Comparison of the Bush and Obama Versions of the CIA Inspector General's Report on Torture

Posted - August 25, 2009

Posted below is a side-by-side comparison of the Bush and Obama administration versions of the 2004 CIA Inspector General Report on Torture..............To View Visit Here

So if this was all legal, and they were comfortable to carryout these practices, In This Countries Name, what were they hiding when they redacted so much in their release of!

From the University E-Report sent on 8.25.09:

Washington, DC, August 25, 2009 - Today, the National Security Archive posted a side-by-side comparison of two very different versions of a 2004 report on the CIA's "Counterterrorism Detention and Interrogation Activities" by Agency Inspector General John Helgerson. Yesterday, the Obama administration released new portions of the report including considerably more information about the use of torture and other illegal practices by CIA interrogators than a version of the report declassified by the Bush administration in 2008.

New revelations include:

* Details on "specific unauthorized or undocumented torture techniques," including the use of guns, drills, threats, smoke, extreme cold, stress positions, "stiff brush and shackles," waterboarding, mock executions and "hard takedown."

* A look at the legal reasoning behind the Agency's use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" and the development of Agency guidance on capture, detention and interrogation.

* A brief discussion of the history of the CIA interrogation program, including the "resurgence of interest in teaching interrogation techniques" in the early 1980s "as one of several methods to foster foreign liaison relationships."

* The conclusion that, while CIA interrogations had produced useful intelligence, the "effectiveness of particular interrogation techniques in eliciting information that might not otherwise have been obtained" is not "so easily measured."

The National Security Archive also announced today the publication of the Torture Archive -- more than 83,000 pages of primary source documents (and thousands more to come) related to the detention and interrogation of individuals by the United States, in connection with the conduct of hostilities in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as in the broader context of the "global war on terror." The goal of the Torture Archive is to become the online institutional memory for essential evidence on torture in U.S. policy. {JS: my highlighting}

With support from the Open Society Institute and the JEHT Foundation since 2006, this initial launch of the Torture Archive includes the complete set of declassified Combatant Status Review Tribunal and Administrative Review Board files from the Pentagon, and thousands of documents resulting from FOIA litigation brought by the American Civil Liberties Union, the Archive and other plaintiffs. The Torture Archive will continue to add documents as they are released through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) litigation or Executive discretion.

The National Security Archive

The Torture Archive

There's a wealth of information right at the finger tips, with backlinks and your own ability to take it even further.

Playing For Change Band Tour Highlights

This episode is a combination of live performance clips, behind-the-scenes footage, and artist interviews from the Playing For Change Band's 5-city promotional tour earlier this year. By watching this episode, you'll get a great sense of what the PFC Band is all about, and a slice of life from the individual musicians who make it such a special experience. We hope you enjoy this piece, and share it with your friends and family!

Episode Four: Broken Soldier

This is Where We Take Our Stand - The Series

Broken Soldier

Broken Soldier from Displaced Films on Vimeo.

Why are so many veterans coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan psychologically damaged? Is it the natural trauma of war, or the product of military whose mission is to occupy and suppress the civilian population? Zolie Goodman recounts the racism against Iraqis imbued in his unit, while Kris Goldsmith reveals the hatred that finally made him a “broken soldier,” caught in the endless web of the Veterans Administration. And the parents of Jeffrey Lucey mourn their son, one of thousands who could no longer live with what he had become............

Episode Five: This is Not Human Nature will launch September 7, 2009.

Episode Six: No Longer a Monster will launch September 20, 2009.

Army Trains For Battle For Mental Health {UpDated}

Sunday, NPR Morning Edition, 08.23.09 {4min 5sec.}

Daniel Zwerdling, of NPR, continues his outstanding research into and reporting on the Army's, and the Military's, care of returning soldiers suffering from PTSD and other possible mental problems developed as to serving in these wars and occupations.



Top link brings you to the transcript, and if you do a search at their site under Daniels name you'll find the many previous reports by him and related on these issues.

They can try all the training idea's that pop into their heads, extreme trauma situations bring on post traumatic stress, be it combat, living in combat theaters, or in someone's life, that's the reality.

You can't 'train' against trauma's that haven't happened yet, the individual experiences seen and done, unless you want to develop ways to turn intelligent humans into living robots or develop, as we already have with flying drones, robots that destroy other's in our wars of choice.

It's not 'before training', it's finding the best ways to take care of those who have developed what once wasn't within them, be it from war or in civilian experiences, but now exists in different levels in those we send to invade and occupy.

War's are the total opposite of anyone's upbringing, especially in civil societies, hell military training is in the preparation of turning one into a soldier to defend ones country. Traumatic experience of combat, and even living within, of all that happens, and the stress of 24/7 possibility of what's coming taxes the minds and the reality humans live in and by as intelligent beings. Mental problems develope from those experiences, being lived over and over in ones mind. They don't only happen to someone considered not strong of mind, even those we would least expect, the so called strong, develop the stressor's that can trigger the reliving of these experiences, sometimes fatally.

War's should not be fought of choice, choice of a few we have as our leaders, civilian and military, not by civil societies! War's should be as we have always stated but rarely followed in our modern history, fought as an Absolute Last Resort! And the results of War's, physical and mental problems of, not only as to the soldiers who we send but those we invade and occupy, should stand right alongside the Absolute Last Resort we should have as our policies as a Leading Nation on this Planet!

If this society and country wants to Cheer on these War's of Choice then be Ready to Pony up the Extreme Costs of the Failed Policies Followed!! And that doesn't just mean in monetary costs but also in the cost of a weaken security to it's citizens, no matter where they are or go, from the blowback!

Veterans forsake studies of stress

Stigma impedes search for remedies

Researchers testing ways to treat the psychological wounds of war among Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are encountering a serious roadblock: a shortage of willing study participants.

A strong stigma in the military associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is blamed for the reluctance of combat veterans to take part in a pair of treatment programs being evaluated by staff from the Veterans Administration in Boston at facilities in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, study directors said................

This doesn't help, especially as the country was extremely slow in even listening to our brother's returing from 'Nam and the veterans who started coming forward from WWII and Korea over these many years!!

UpDate: This just hit my inbox

PTSD Compensation Rules

Secretary Shinseki Moves to Simplify PTSD Compensation Rules

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is taking steps to assist Veterans seeking compensation for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

“The hidden wounds of war are being addressed vigorously and comprehensively by this administration as we move VA forward in its transformation to the 21st century,” said Secretary Shinseki.

The VA is publishing a proposed regulation today in the Federal Register to make it easier for a Veteran to claim service connection for PTSD by reducing the evidence needed if the stressor claimed by a Veteran is related to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity. Comments on the proposed rule will be accepted over the next 60 days. A final regulation will be published after consideration of all comments received.....................

Great advancement on this issue and once again long overdue!!

The "Death Book" For Veterans {UpDated 2}

How Conservatives Got The Facts Wrong On Their Latest Obsession

The latest conservative obsession - dutifully spread via Sarah Palin's Facebook page - is marked by the same alarmism and factual inaccuracy as the hysteria over "death panels."

According to this tale, America's veterans are being steered into ending their lives via a "death book" distributed by the government.

Snip

They failed to mention that the so-called "death book" contains the same advance-care planning required of all health care organizations under federal law, has been in use since 1997 and was developed with the input of interfaith ministers.

And over at VetVoice:

Former Bush Faith Based Advisor: Veterans Should Kill Themselves Using My Easy 5 Point Checklist!

I feel like I've been brainwashed into pulling the plug already. Really, if the document was really trying to get veterans to pull the plug on themselves, then first suggesting to them that their life should be prolonged at all costs is a pretty stupid way to do it........

This new spin, propaganda, started making the rounds a few days ago, once again those who didn't demand increases in military and veterans care funds, while beating the drums of wars of choice louder and louder, as their talking heads and little 'purple heart bandage' lovers did as well { not to mention the 75% of the public support for}, are reverting to spin scare tactics 'swiftboating' veterans, i.e. using vets as their fodder of false propaganda!!

UpDate:

Looney Tunes Coming to Congress

Specter Calls for Hearings on End-of-Life Care Guide for Veterans

The guide, called 'Your Life, Your Choices,' was suspended under the Bush administration but has been revived under the current Department of Veterans Affairs.

Sen. Arlen Specter on Sunday called for hearings to scrutinize a guide for veterans' end-of-life care which one former Bush official says sends a "hurry-up-and-die" message to injured troops.

The guide, called "Your Life, Your Choices," was suspended under the Bush administration but has been revived under the current Department of Veterans Affairs.

Jim Towey, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, told "FOX News Sunday" that the pamphlet makes injured veterans feel like a burden, encourages the severely injured to die and should be tossed out.................

Talk about Wasting the Taxpayers Money, now this ex-rushlican wants to hold hearings on the Spin Propaganda!! What Doesn't He Get!!

UpDate 2

"Death Book For Veterans"

FOX News Chis Wallace Interviews Veterans Administration's Tammy Duckworth About "Death Book For Veterans" - 08/23/09

And in typical FOX (not the) News fashion Wallace refuses not only to Not Understand what is being said but Refuses to Listen to what is said, more then once! Wallace, that's called crap or scum journalism, i.e. propagandizing!!