Veterans: WRONG Direction for Funding {once again}

<------- Remember these? They were a big joke and joy for a group still calling themselves republicans and happened as the Country were sending Military Troops into war once again, wars that still continue, and never a real apology for their joke. I'll bet some of them still have some handy to be used and laughed about when their need arises to do so as they wave the flag and condemn others who don't agree with them. Oh and while they seem to get joy about Soldiers being wounded in our wars and awarded the "Purple Heart" these were pointed directly at a brother In-Country Vietnam Navy Veteran, my tour there, as a Navy GunnersMate 3rd, was my last year of my four '70-'71.

Or how about the many forms of these ------->
Till they quickly blew off the SUV's and other vehicles never to be replaced, only ones you'll see now are the very rare bumper stickers that only weather will remove after they fade out to much effort needed to remove by the owners.

Or who can forget these --------><--------, that any who wore suits, especially representatives hired by the people, if they didn't wear were called unpatriotic, unsupportive of our soldiers and veterans, even enemy sympathizers and much more, why the FOX couldn't stop supposedly reporting on these traders of the U.S. and {non}Americans.

In the previous election did anyone hear any mention by the so called great movement of royally pissed off americans, corporate sponsored and corporate media hyped, still, TEA Party and their many talking heads as to any Demands for Finally 'Sacrificing' as Soldiers are still sent into two conflicts, their families waiting for their return, and those who survive come back as Veterans of their Military Service to the Country. I didn't, all I heard once again were 'tax cuts' which every time I've heard these last some forty years, as a Veterans Advocate and Activist, says the Country doesn't want to pony up for the results of it's Wars and our brother and sister veterans will continue facing an underfunded Veterans Administration and be in constant catch up mode which in the long run constantly costs more to give what is owed and promised. One of the results of that around the country, contributing to as well is the collapsed economy from failed economic and business practices the past thirty years, has been the cutting back or shutting down of local Veterans offices that help the millions of Veterans coop with the system and the paperwork etc. needed to get that promised help as it took the past four years to finally start not only catching up with what wasn't done but bring the VA into the 21st century.

With the directly below article keep in mind this is decades long, under funding of the Veterans Administration, and in the recent times and two wars the 108th and 109th Congresses sought cuts or did relatively nothing, not only for veterans but even military care and more, as they rubber stamped everything else related to these two long running destruction and occupations of others, their Wars of Choice, costs off the books and on borrowed monies. Afghanistan stopped being about anything related to 9/11 with the first drum beat pointed at Iraq!

The WRONG Direction for Funding the Needs of America's Veterans

Feb. 17, 2011 -- On Monday, February 14, House Republicans introduced a Continuing Resolution (H.R. 1) to fund the federal government for the last seven months of the fiscal year while cutting $61 billion in current year spending. The bill proposes to cut $2.6 billion in funding provided to care for America's veterans. Leaders of VA's largest union, the American Federation of Government Employees, stated that the reductions threaten the health care and benefits delivery services provided by VA employees.

"This Nation is engaged in military operations and conflicts across the globe," said AFGE Secretary Treasurer J. David Cox. " The strength of our fighting force and the safety of our Nation depend on our ability to care for America's veterans. Proposals to decrease spending for veterans during a time of war are dangerous, short-sighted, and just plain wrong."

And as pointed out above, in short because there's much more, it's pointed out with this:

This is not the first time that a Republican-led House of Representatives has irresponsibly cut funding for America's veterans. From 2003 to 2006, VA health care funding did not increase, co-pay increases were proposed, and investment in much-needed research to provide the best care for veterans suffering from unknown injuries languished. Since 2007, the Democratic Congress increased health care funding to begin to address the uphill battle of providing appropriate care and access to all generations of veterans. These resources allowed VA to better immediately address needs of returning veterans, expand access, increase support for veteran caregivers, address the urgent mental health care needs of veterans, expand veteran homelessness prevention and care, and invest in research for maladies attributed to military service. {continued}

Now when the 110th Congress came in they had an awful lot to catch up on as to Veterans and Military Personal and their families, I posted about some of that here at my site and elsewhere. That carried over to the 111th Congress, not only as to catching up but finally Congressional investigations and many hearings in both Houses of Congress. They not only started to finally try and help the veterans and families of the current conflicts and military service but also took on decades long ignored problems of us older veterans.

With the present Administration also came a change in leadership at the Veterans Administration. With that change, and the support of this Administration and Congress, came one of the few appointee's to run the agency that isn't doing so in any political terms, there have been a couple over the decades but much of what they wanted to bring about was blocked by the congresses of those times, with I might add the Countries support. A leader who is pro-active and not re-active to the veterans needs and concerns. He in turn brought in a like minded group to help him administer the agency and in these past two years plus have accomplished the needed issues of now and the long needed of the past decades, with still much more to do to bring the agency into a smoother running operation and beyond the already technology of the 21st century. And this new leader, retired General Shinseki, was re-leaved of duty by the previous administration and their supportive congress and citizen supporters.

The Veterans Administration, over the past couple of years, was greatly helped in reaching some much needed goals with extra funding, the Country didn't even realize they finally were actually 'sacrificing' a tiny bit, with the funds of the Recovery Act in trying to stem the collapsing economy, these needed investments and projects will have long term effects on the communities, around the Country, that they can be found as well as much needed help for the veterans in and around these communities and their families. Here's just one report from the VA on just those recovery funds from 2010.

Yesterday the VA released another short report on just those needed investments from the Recovery Act.

VA Observes Recovery Act Anniversary With More Progress Nationwide

18 February 2011 - On the second anniversary of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced that Recovery Act funds are playing a major role this year in advancing much-needed infrastructure and other construction nationwide to benefit our Nation’s Veterans.

“This will be a banner year for VA in serving more Veterans more efficiently in more places,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “We are pleased to be able to improve buildings and expand the capacity of VA’s health care network and national cemeteries to serve Veterans.” {continued}

They are even going Green, upgrading older facilities and adding those to the newer projects which will save money, i.e. tax monies oh teabagger friends, which can be used for better care and needs of these new brothers and sisters as well as us old vets.

The 'tepublicans' are back in the House, expect more false arguments about tax cutting, their supporters parrot as they fear demanding more for their labors of their stagnated or falling wages and benefits and now are joining their corporate sponsors in trying to bust all the unions of the hard working American people, which will bring about cuts in more then just the Veterans Administration budgets, again, and the growth of talk of 'privatizing', that still coming after the collapsed economy, the deadly and destructive oil drilling explosion in the Gulf, all the recalls covering many products and on and on, to continue.

This is not related to above but is related to what happened as to these two wars and those serving and the beneficiaries of those killed in them, Time Is Running Out, and with the new congress I really don't foresee another extension so pass this on:

March 4 is Final Day to Claim ‘Stop Loss’ Pay

Feb. 18, 2011 – People whose military service was involuntarily extended or whose retirement was suspended between Sept. 11, 2001, and Sept. 30, 2009, have until March 4 to file for retroactive payments of $500 for each month of their extended service under the “Stop Loss” policy.

The deadline ends the second extension for eligible people to apply to receive the retroactive pay.

“This is a timely payment for services already rendered,” said Lernes "Bear" Hebert, the Defense Department’s director of officer and enlisted personnel management. “It’s a no-strings-attached program -- one where they fill out a simple form and attach a few documents [to show] their service.” {continued}

If you know someone or think someone that deserves this hasn't filed for please ask them, asking don't hurt, not only for the soldiers stopped lossed but the beneficiaries of the fallen stop lossed soldiers!

VA & HUD Issue First-Ever Report on Homeless Veterans

Assessment Key to Preventing and Ending Homelessness

WASHINGTON – February 11, 2011 - For the first time, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Housing and Urban Development today published the most authoritative analysis of the extent and nature of homelessness among Veterans. According to HUD and VA’s assessment, nearly 76,000 Veterans were homeless on a given night in 2009 while roughly 136,000 Veterans spent at least one night in a shelter during that year.

This unprecedented assessment is based on an annual report HUD provides to Congress and explores in greater depth the demographics of Veterans who are homeless, how the number of Veterans compare to others who are homeless, and how Veterans access and use the nation’s homeless response system. HUD’s report, Veteran Homelessness: A Supplement to the 2009 Annual Homeless Assessment Report to Congress, examines the data in the department’s annual report to Congress in-depth.

“With our federal, state and community partners working together, more Veterans are moving into safe housing,” said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki. “But we’re not done yet. Providing assistance in mental health, substance abuse treatment, education and employment goes hand-in-hand with preventive steps and permanent supportive housing. We continue to work towards our goal of finding every Veteran safe housing and access to needed services.”

Last June, President Obama announced the nation’s first comprehensive strategy to prevent and end homelessness, including a focus on homeless Veterans. The report, Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness, puts the country on a path to end Veterans and chronic homelessness by 2015; and to ending homelessness among children, family, and youth by 2020. Read more about the Administration’s strategic plan to prevent and end homelessness in America.

Key Findings of

Opening Doors: Federal Strategic Plan to Prevent and End Homelessness {continued}

First-Ever Report on Homeless Veterans -

"CASKET IN GRAVE REMAINS UNKNOWN,"

Millions in contracts, no work completed

An Arlington National Cemetery official keeps sending work to the same small group of associates, with few results

Sept. 29, 2009 | A top official at Arlington National Cemetery steered millions of dollars to a handful of contractors operating a series of different companies over the past several years. When the contractors would leave one company and start another, the official would hire them again, yet the work they were hired to do has never been completed. The firms have ostensibly worked since 2003 to computerize burial records at the cemetery, but to date, despite receiving as much as $5.6 million, they have produced almost nothing in return.

The small group of contractors, all favored by Deputy Superintendent Thurman Higginbotham, includes one currently facing more than a dozen counts of child sex offenses and a company that a cemetery information technology manager felt was so unqualified to handle sensitive private data that the manager resigned in disgust.

Snip

For example, Salon reported this past summer on workers who went to bury a service member in an active part of the cemetery only to find unknown, unmarked remains already there even though paper records said the grave was unoccupied. The cemetery at first claimed such things do not occur. When Salon produced the grave card labeled "CASKET IN GRAVE REMAINS UNKNOWN," and photos of the unmarked grave, the cemetery admitted the error -- but insisted that is the only case.

In a 2008 report to Congress, the cemetery admitted to poor record-keeping across the cemetery, including Section 60, the final resting place of troops killed in Afghanistan and Iraq. "There are numerous examples of discrepancies that exist between burial maps, the physical location of headstones, and the burial records/grave cards," the report admits. Despite that admission and the claims of current and former employees, top cemetery officials insist the correct remains are always beneath the headstones above them.....>>> Rest Found Here

SNL: "You Lie!"! How Did It Develope?

Saturday Night Live

DAV Virtual March on Washington

The March Has Begun



Welcome to the Virtual March on Washington for Veterans

“Million Claims March.”

The YouTube player here is showing the videos in a certain order, but feel free to jump around by clicking on the video if you want to pick and choose. But every message here contains important information. Also, there are links in several of the video descriptions that you might find informative.

Thank you for marching with us and for standing up for veterans!

Before you proceed, please register for the march. It is free and only asks for your name, e-mail address and ZIP code.

Visit the Virtual March Site for much more information.

This Country needs to finally stand up for those who serve, by helping to bring the Veterans Administration into the 21st Century in the Technology needed, we've been playing catchup for far to long causing higher costs and extreme delays. This isn't only in the Veterans Administration but across the spectrum of the Government Agencies.

The blame doesn't just rest in any Executive Administration nor Congress, though there are some who voice support for us Veterans but Obstruct when the needs are placed into legislation. The blame lies with the Country, the majority that don't serve and don't want to sacrifice anything, that causes more costs and hardships over the years from our Wars of Choice, it's long past time to remedy the countries self created problems.

Lets make sure we keep our representatives to their words "In Our Names", but they are only hired to represent, It's Up To The Country To Really Support!

We have a President and Congress, that Congress has been playing catchup the last couple of years correcting what wasn't done nor even thought about as to the military and veterans, Now that are not only trying to fix what wasn't done in the leadup to and continued occupations of two countries over these past eight years but trying to push the Veterans Agency into the twenty first century and bring not only the care and need for quicker resolution to benefits owed but by doing so bringing the cost of operating the agency down.

Press Release Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/

The following resolution was adopted by the Democratic National Committee on Friday, September 11th, 2009 in Austin, Texas.

Resolution Commending Democrats for Delivering a New Direction for America's Servicemembers, Veterans and Military Families

Submitted by: Christine Pelosi, California; Don Fowler, At-Large/South Carolina; Alice Germond, DNC Secretary/West Virginia; Steven K. Alari, California; Belkis Leong-Hong, At-Large/Maryland; Barbara Easterling, At-Large/Virginia; Ben Jeffers, Louisiana; and James Zogby, At-Large, District of Columbia

WHEREAS, Democrats promised a new direction for America's servicemembers, veterans and military families, who have demonstrated great patriotism and sacrifice in their commitment to keeping us safe and free; and,

WHEREAS, in the first 200 days of the 111th Congress and the Obama administration, Democrats have kept this promise, beginning with the FY 2009 Supplemental Appropriations bill that provides our troops with planning, equipment, and leadership to wind down the Iraq war, changes strategy in Afghanistan; and, makes retroactive payments to over 185,000 service members whose enlistments were involuntarily extended since the 9/11 terrorist attacks; and,

WHEREAS, Democrats directed specific aid to servicemembers, veterans and military families in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act: the stimulus package provided veterans direct and indirect aid, adding up to $15.8 billion. Disabled veterans received direct benefits in the form of one-time payments of $250 and all businesses can now claim a tax credit for 40 percent of the first $6,000 of wages paid to unemployed veterans. In addition, the stimulus included renovation to national cemeteries and veterans medical facilities, grants to build new veterans care

facilities and money to improve VA benefits administration; and,

WHEREAS, Democrats have led the charge to successfully pass and implement the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and recently expanded the Post-9/11 GI bill benefits to cover the full cost of a college education for all children of fallen U.S. servicemembers; and,

WHEREAS, Democrats have passed, and President Obama has signed legislation that provides mental health screenings and more veterans healthcare resources than at any other time in the 77-year history of the Veterans Administration; and,

WHEREAS, House Democrats have passed legislation to strengthen national security by bolstering State Department resources to prevent conflict and failed states around the world; authorizing a 3.4% pay raise for our troops; expanding support for military families such as health care and housing; investing 15% more than 2009 for medical care, benefits claims processors, and facility improvements; and permitting veterans medically retired from active service to receive both military retirement and Veterans Disability Compensation.

THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the DNC commends the successful leadership by President Barack Obama and the Democratic Congress to provide a new direction for servicemembers, veterans and military families, and to deliver bipartisan results that make a real difference in their lives, and pledges that Democrats will never waver in our support for our servicemembers, veterans and military families.

SOURCE Democratic National Committee

ceney/bush Quit al Qaeda Hunt

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

And now Liz Cheney has been coming out trying to explain this potential illegal issue and misuse of executive power. Now that she opened her mouth, prior to today, about this issue, It Would Behoove Us To Add Her Name To Any Investigation!

What did daddy's little girl know, she was trying to explain it yesterday, especially not being an employee of nor attached to the CIA, and when did she know it, and if she knows enough to be the spokesperson for this then why does she know Anything while our Representatives don't and it took a few months later before the new Director of the CIA found out, is she Now playing the dangerous coverup game and thus another possible witness to a possible crime against our Laws!!!!

"Torturing" the Moral Soul of America!

This week on Al Jazeera's Fault Lines, Josh Rushing joins a panel of experts in front of a live studio audience for a town hall debate on torture. We will ask what it will take to dismantle the Bush administration's legacy of torture and if those responsible will be held to account.

June 1, 2009
Bush's torture legacy Pt.1

Fault Lines: Panel of experts in front of a live studio audience for a town hall debate on torture


June 1, 2009
Bush's torture legacy Pt.2

Fault Lines: Panel of experts in front of a live studio audience for a town hall debate on torture

Two Important Veterans Congressional Hearings

Yesterday, 5.19.09 in the morning, at the U.S. House Committee on Veterans Affairs there were two important hearings. In the morning there was this Gulf War Illness Research: Is Enough Being Done?

This is an issue rarely mentioned since Gulf War I, just like ours, Agent Orange, the country, government, and possible business ties to, are pushed into the dark, and silence of denial, as those who served in these theaters suffer, as do their families.

If you would like to watch and listen to you can click on this link to bring up the House Player for the archived hearing, you should be able to read the opening statements at the above site link.


Yesterday afternoon this hearing followed the one above, another very important hearing, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Care: The Crown Jewel and Best Kept Secret

As the subject title of the hearing states, The Crown Jewel and Best Kept Secret, especially coming out of the previous incompetent administration and congresses, but especially the administrations of these agencies built on political appointies who bring in their own political ideology administrations to run them, and the last decade has brought about the same that was found by us returning from Vietnam, only now we've had Two Theaters of Occupation they sent Soldiers into.

If you would like to watch and listen you can click on this link to bring up the House Player for the archived hearing, and you should be able to read the opening statements at the site link above.


While at the House Veterans Site I caught a hearing that is scheduled for today, 5.20.09, The Growing Needs of Women Veterans: Is the U.S.Department of Veterans Affairs Ready?

Their is no information, other than the subject title of the hearing, at the site. Nothing on who may be testifying nor if it will be streamed, it is a Full Committee Hearing. It takes place at 10AM this morning and isn't listed on C-Span nether. Now yesterday afternoons hearing also wasn't listed to be streamed but it was as many went over to check and it came on. If you want to see if it will be you can use this link for the Player at 10am, I'm going to check, and hopefully they will be streaming this important hearing as well!!

UpDate: The hearing today, just above, was streamed but in audio so will probably be archived in same at same link. But one of the women soldiers, now veteran, who testified has a post up at VetVoice:

The Growing Needs of Women Veterans: Is the VA Ready? by: Kayla Williams author of "Love My Rifle More than You: Young and Female in the U.S. Army"

This morning, I was honored to speak on the Hill. I've touched on some of the same themes before, and will continue to push the importance of addressing the needs of women veterans. I'd love to hear your .........

The Jay Bybee Problem

How did Jay Bybee breeze through an unusually easy confirmation hearing for his appointment to the Federal Appeals Court in February 2003? Not a single Democrat questioned Bybee at the session, and the brief proceedings soon became a love-fest between Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah and Jay Bybee. "I've seen a lot of people around here, and I don't know of anybody who has any more ability than you have," states Sen. Hatch in a typical exchange featured in this report.

 

Just six months prior to the hearing, Jay Bybee had signed legal memos providing cover for CIA agents torturing detainees -- yet Congress voted him to a lifetime on the federal bench. How did this happen? And what will become of Judge Bybee now?

 

VFP: “Congress Must Face Escalating Military Suicides"

Press Release

Veterans For Peace

February 12, 2009 CONTACT: Mike Ferner 419-729-7273

Michael T. McPhearson 314-303-8874

Veteran Organization: “Congress Must Face Escalating Military
Suicides. Bring the troops home now!” PDF

The United States military is scrambling to head off what has turned into an epidemic of suicides. As reported
on CNN, 24 service members killed themselves in January of this year, six times as many as in January of last
year. 2008 was the fourth consecutive year of increases in soldier suicides.

Veterans For Peace Executive Director Michael McPhearson said this is not a surprise to him. “It is tragic. It is
the culmination of years of continuous deployments and general stress the Armed Services have been put
under because of an invasion and subsequent occupation that should have never happened.”

The Army Times reports that Army Secretary Pete Geren has ordered a February 13, 2009, one day halt to
recruitment activities also known as stand-down of the Army’s entire recruiting force and a review of almost
every aspect of the job in the wake of a wide-ranging investigation of four suicides in a Houston Recruiting
Battalion.

Mike Ferner, Veterans For Peace’s National President stated, "I don't want to see anybody in Washington shed
one tear for the families surviving these suicides as long as Congress continues to fund these wars and the
President continues to deploy more troops. You put people through combat; you get suicides and PTSD related
violence back home. That's the simple equation Congress and the President cannot ignore."

One vivid example of this equation comes from the Houston Chronicle, which reported in a May 18, 2008 that
an Army investigation attributed the 4 recruiter suicides to a combination of work environment, stress and
personal issues. The latest was the March 6, 2007 death of Sergeant Nils Aron Andersson who shot himself in
the temple less than 24 hours after his wedding to Cassy Walton. Cassy killed herself the next day.

McPhearson went on to add; “Nils Anderson’s death was nearly two years ago and the Army is just reacting to
the 4 deaths in one Battalion. They should have seen these 24 deaths in January coming. Veterans For Peace
is asking our members to visit with their Congressional Representatives and Senators next week to discuss
these suicides, that the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan contribute to the deaths and how our economy
must transition from a reliance on war spending to human needs spending. We look to Congress to take these
suicides seriously and stop spending our taxes on war. Bring all our troops home now.”

# # #

Founded in 1985, Veterans For Peace is a national organization of men and women veterans of all eras and duty stations
spanning the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and current Iraq wars as well as other
conflicts cold or hot. It has chapters in nearly every state in the union and is headquartered in St. Louis, MO. Our
collective experience tells us wars are easy to start and hard to stop and that those hurt are often the innocent. Thus,
other means of problem solving are necessary. Veterans For Peace is an official Non- Governmental Organization (NGO)
represented at the U.N.

Veterans For Peace

Former POW Philip Butler: Prosecute Bush

Phillip Butler: Congress must prosecute Bush

01/14/2009

I , Phillip Neal Butler, having been appointed a midshipman in the United States Navy, do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic, and to bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office upon which I am about to enter, so help me God.

I first took this oath in 1957. Upon graduation from the Naval Academy in 1961, I had the honor of repeating the oath as I was commissioned as an ensign. I served 20 years as an active duty commissioned officer. During that time, I became a naval aviator, flew combat in Vietnam, was shot down over North Vietnam on April 20, 1965, and became a prisoner of war.

I was repatriated Feb. 12, 1973, having served 2,855 days and nights as a POW — just short of 8 years.

The Vietnamese were not signatory to international treaties on treatment of prisoners. They pronounced us "criminals" and freely used torture, harassment, malnutrition, isolation, lack of medical care, and other degradations during our captivity. I was tortured dozens of times. But I often thought of our Constitution and the higher purpose we served—a purpose that helped me resist beyond what I thought I'd ever be capable of. We POWs often reminded each other that our country would never stoop to torture and the low level of treatment we were experiencing at the hands of our captors.

This oath, the same one sworn to by all officers, government officials, presidential cabinet members, senators and representatives of our nation, has had a powerful affect on me. It has given me an over-arching purpose in life — to serve the greatest and most influential legal document ever written. The only different oath is specified for the president. Constitutional Article II, Section 1 (8.) mandates that he or she will "... preserve, protect and defend the Constitution."

So what in the world happened during the eight years of the Bush administration? He and his subordinates trampled our precious Constitution and the rule of law into the ground while our elected members of Congress have stood idly and complicitly by. Our highest elected officials have utterly failed in their duty of greatest responsibility.

During these years, we have seen gross attempts to institutionalize torture. Our Article VI (2), commonly known as the "supremacy" clause, clearly states that treaties made shall become "the supreme law of the land," thus elevating them to the level of Constitutional law.

The Geneva Convention relative to the treatment of prisoners, ratified in 1949, says, "No physical or mental torture, nor any other form of coercion may be inflicted on prisoners of war to secure from them information of any kind whatever. Prisoners of war who refuse to answer may not be threatened, insulted, or exposed to any unpleasant or disadvantageous treatment of any kind." This and numerous other ratified treaties clearly stipulate that "prisoners" is an inclusive term that is not limited to any nation's uniformed combatants.

Gross Bush administration crimes, in addition to authorizing torture, include: 1) the use of "signing statements" to illegally refrain from complying with laws; 2) authorization of the illegal suspension of habeas corpus; 3) authorization of wire-tapping and other intrusive methods to illegally spy on American citizens; 4) unilateral declaration and pre-emptive conduct of war in violation of U.S. Constitution Article I, Section 8 (11).

The violations have reduced our nation to the level of international pariah. We no longer set the example for other nations. We no longer stand on a firm foundation.

I despair when I think of the personal sacrifices made by so many in U.S. wars and conflicts since 1776. Our forefathers would surely be angry and disappointed. I think they would call for redress by punishing those who are guilty.

The only way our nation can right itself is for Congress to prosecute the perpetrators of these crimes.

I therefore call on my elected representatives in the Senate and House to bring criminal charges against President George Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, legal counsel William J. Haynes and David Addington, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, and potentially other high officials and uniformed officers. There is no other option if they are to carry out your responsibilities.

This was adapted from a statement Butler recently provided to Congress. He was a light-attack carrier pilot in 1965 when he was shot down over North Vietnam, where he spent eight years as a prisoner of war. He was awarded two Silver Stars, two Legions of Merit, two Bronze Stars and two Purple Heart medals. He later earned a doctorate in sociology from UC-San Diego and completed his Navy career in 1981. He founded and owned a management consulting and professional speaking business. He lives in Monterey.

VA Hospitals Investigation

Disability Rights Advocates has been conducting an investigation into VA hospital access.


While their investigation is being targeted on the Veterans Care issue with the below recent report we can see that the Military Care issue, i.e. Walter Reed and More, is still having the same problems that finally came forward through great investigative reporting and shouldn't have existed nor still exist as to care for the returning active duty Military Personal especially from these theaters of occupations.


Mold infests Okla. barracks for wounded

LAWTON, Okla. — Mold infests the barracks that were set up here a year ago for wounded soldiers after poor conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center triggered a system wide overhaul, soldiers say.

Military and Veterans Care were a major issue for us returning Vietnam Veterans, a Major Issue!


While things improved, through the fights for change that the veterans brought to the Veterans Administration they've never changed enough for those who sacrifice their years and lives for service to the country. And far to often those changes have slipped back into the problems that existed before and the need to fight for the improvements is once again waged, over and over and over................., as we Veterans are finding we are Re-Fighting the battles once again for another generation of Military Personal and Military Veteran, with the help of caring civilians, caring civilians who's numbers are way to small in a society that owes much more to those who serve it for it's National Security.


When this country supposedly switched to a Professional Military many thought every facet would be Professional, especially as to care, we're once again finding a failed system, a failed system lacking the funding and administration that still stays a political tool of party politics and apathy of the civilian population.


In these present times All of this should have been set into place, starting to upgrade the Military and Veterans hospitals and clinics, well before Any Invasion of anothers country, and we have two long running occupations, was started, by the Previous Congresses who were beating the Drums Of War, and the Civilian Population should have Sacrificed and Supported these upgrades as they were Supporting the coming Invasions and occupations.


The problems Finally coming to light in the present Congress, that are Finally conducting the Investigations and Over site, we hire our representatives to do, are once again being shown as they were before, Failed Civilian and Military Leadership playing the same Political Games with those who serve this country and the country not willing to support the military personal and demand these problems are correctly fixed. They are coming about due to the Privatizing of the 'Preventive Maintenance', once taken care of with the ranks of the military, but now farmed out to private firms for profit, many publicly owned. They are happening because of the Political Appointed leadership and hiring of political personal in the administrations under them, not being hired due to knowledge of how to administer the government programs but on political ideology.


If still active duty and under the military physical and mental care, especially from either theater of occupation, and find problems with or difficulties in yours and others care, and your chain of command doesn't seem to be taking care of these problems, you should also contact DRA to help in their investigation, the above report shows the need!


This Country Owes It's Military and Veterans of!


Now to the battle, Again, and the DRA information:

As background, DRA is one of the two law firms that challenged the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) practices in failing to adequately treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and we also have a longstanding interest hospital access for individuals with disabilities. We have brought and successfully settled several lawsuits addressing hospital access, including an action against Kaiser and one against Sutter Health, which runs a large hospital chain in Northern California. We are also working on hospital access issues in other parts of the country. Now, Disability Rights Advocates is conducting an investigation of whether or not VA hospitals and clinics are accessible to patients with physical disabilities, specifically those who use a wheelchair or have other mobility limitations, and those who are blind or deaf. We would like to hear from disabled veterans who use VA hospitals and clinics about their experiences at these facilities.


We have come up with a list of the features that are part of this investigation. This list will provide veterans with more information about us and what we are looking for. We are asking for your help by posting this flier on your website and distributing it to your membership.


Please post and email as you see fit, and feel free to encourage others to forward the notice as they think appropriate.


I'm happy to discuss the investigation in greater detail with you or anyone else, both to clarify any questions and to discuss potential additional involvement. You can reach either me or Melissa at the number below. We really appreciate your help.


Thank you in advance for your assistance with our outreach.


Best,

Stephanie A. Biedermann

Arthur Liman Fellowship Attorney

Disability Rights Advocates
2001 Center Street, Third Floor
Berkeley, California 94704-1204
510.665.8644
510.665.8716 (TTY)
510.665.8511 (Fax)
Stephanie A. Biedermann

The following is the most recent file that I recieved from DRA and Stephanie and Melissa.

ATTENTION VETERANS WITH DISABILITIES


What: Disability Rights Advocates is conducting an investigation into the accessibility of VA hospitals and clinics around the country.

Who: If you have a mobility disability, a vision disability, a hearing disability, and/or a Traumatic Brain Injury, we would like to hear about your experiences.

Why: You are entitled to full access to VA hospitals and clinics and reasonable accommodations, whether or not your disability is service connected. We want to make sure that you are able to access VA medical facilities and services.


Architectural Barriers: Can you access VA hospitals and clinics? This includes all physical access to buildings, including entrances, parking lots, elevators, restrooms, waiting rooms, exam or treatment rooms, laboratories and pharmacies.

Access to Medical Equipment: Can you independently access medical equipment? This includes exam tables, exam chairs, scales, diagnostic testing equipment (such as x-ray machines, MRI machines, CT scans or Pet Scans), rehabilitation equipment, and other diagnostic treatment devices.

Experiences with the Staff: Have the people staffing VA hospitals and clinics been able to respond to your needs as a person with a disability? This includes information about whether the staff was knowledgeable and helpful in responding to any obstacles you may have faced due to your disability, whether architectural, communication related, or otherwise.

To set up at time to talk about your experiences at VA hospitals and/or clinics, please email VA Access, or call toll-free at 800/332-6177 (or TTY at 510/665-8716). None of the information you provide us will be disclosed without your permission.

DRA is one of the two law firms that is challenging the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ (VA’s) practices in failing to adequately treat veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and we also have a longstanding interest in ensuring disabled individuals’ equal access to medical care. For more information about DRA, please visit DRA Legal.

I have uploaded the files I've received from DRA to an online file sharing site, you will find the links to each below. You can download these files to your computers and use them yourself or to pass along to others who might aid in DRA's research and investigation.



This link will give you the most recent file, posted above in the quote box.


This link gives you a PDFile previously received and passed along


This link gives you a RTFile also previously received and passed along


Please use the files above to help in the DRA research and investigation, not only meant for Veterans and Military personal, and their families, but also in seeking the help of the civilian population who may observe problems that Disabled Veterans and Military personal might be experiencing in their care that the country owes them.


Improving Military and Veterans care, as it should have always been, will help in the Improvements needed in the countries population as a whole and care of!

Kucinich's fight to impeach Bush - Part I

July 16, 2008

American News Project: Kucinich's Fight to Impeach Bush - Part I : Rep. Dennis Kucinich continued his seemingly quixotic crusade to impeach President Bush last week. But with Speaker Pelosi suggesting the House Judiciary Committee may hear his argument, Kucinich might get his day very soon.



From VetPax

The sponsoring organizations are the three metro area chapters of Veterans For Peace (New York City, Tappan Zee, and Northern New Jersey), the Clarence Fitch Chapter of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Military Families Speak Out, Iraq Veterans Against the War, and the Veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. Actvities have been endorsed by Black Veterans for Social Justice, Veterans for Common Sense, Citizen Soldier, New York City Labor Against War, September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, and Gold Star Families For Peace.

Judiciary Committee will begin hearings on Friday, July 25th

We've got a shot at letting the world know that we've finally summoned the courage to get the facts about an 8 year run by a murderous gang of international thugs into the World's consciousness

NON Believers, take notice: WE CAN DO THIS!

We Vets met w/ Conyers on June 11, July 9, and we'll be at the hearings on the 25th.



However, we still need 10's of thousands of calls, all across America, to pump up the D's, and THE 9 COURAGEOUS "R's" who voted CORRECT, today ( 229 D's, & 9 R's YEA; 179 R's, 1 D NAY ) {NV=6 D & 11 R }

By the way, an important part of the Hearings, on July 25th will be about "Yellow Cake", WMD, etc...
For our 4,120 KIA, and the 100's of thousands of Iraqi's killed by the Administrations lying & murderous policies, GET UP, & RAISE HELL!

From AfterDowning Street

Congressman John Conyers has informed Veterans for Peace that he will hold the hearing we've been pushing for at 10 a.m. on Friday the 25th of July. He has not yet confirmed that publicly, but another member of the Judiciary Committee has confirmed it to me. Our job is to make it as much as possible an impeachment hearing and then to insist on a real impeachment hearing. The 9% Congress will only hurt itself by advertising Bush and Cheney's crimes together with their own failure to move impeachment forward. Impeachment would revitalize Congress and even the Democratic Party, and it's our job to make that crystal clear. Read Dave Lindorff's take on this.

NO LIES RADIO will broadcast LIVE the Winter Soldier hearing on Capitol Hill

Thursday May 15th at 6am Pacific - 9am Eastern - 01:00 GMT Repeated this Saturday May 17th at 9am Pacific - 12 Noon Eastern - 16:00 GMT Click Here to Listen and or save for thursdays hearings, also on graphic below.

NO LIES RADIO will broadcast LIVE the Winter Soldier hearing on Capitol Hill, where nine members of Iraq Veterans Against the War will testify under oath before the Congressional Progressive Caucus about rules of engagement, the killing and abuse of civilians, the use of drop weapons, and the true consequences of the troop "surge". The coverage of the special hearing to the Congressional Progressive Caucus will be hosted by Aimee Allison and Aaron Glantz of KPFA, part of the team that recently was nominated for a Project Censored award for KPFA's coverage of the Winter Soldier gathering in Silver Springs, Maryland this March.

Hearing participants will include CPC Co-Chairs Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey, Barbara Lee, and Maxine Waters.

This broadcast is another program in NO LIES RADIO/KPFA/Pacifica's recent coverage of returning veterans' issues, including "Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan" and "The Crisis in Veterans' Healthcare."

IVAW Testifiers: Jason Lemieux, Former Marine Corp Sergeant Scott Ewing, Former Army Cavalry Scout Geoffrey Millard, Former Army National Guard Kristofer Goldsmith, Former Army Sergeant Vincent Emanuele, Former Marine Corp James Gilligan, Former Marine Corp Corporal Adam Kokesh, Former Marine Corp Sergeant Sergio Kochergin, Former Scout/Sniper Marine Corp Luis Montalvan, Former U.S. Army Captain

Iraq War Vets to Testify in Congress

Viewing the Hearing Live:

IVAW is still in negotiations with CSPAN to cover the hearing live. Check Capital Hearings for the schedule. IVAW will also post the video of the hearing shortly after its conclusion.

Winter Soldier '71, Winter Soldier '08 Testimony, Congress May 15th

I was still in 'Nam, counting down the days, real short, in returning back to 'The World' and my discharge after 4years of service, when 'Winter Soldier Investigation '71' took place.

The Congressional Testimony than would follow the Detriot testimony of my brother 'Nam Vets who had already returned from that Debacle and Occupation!

Sadly the Country that said, almost as one {many of us 'Nam Vets said we would never allow again} we would remember the lessons of, We Didn't, and history repeats!

Winter Soldier Investigations '71

The soldier who saw hell

Winter Soldier is a harrowing film in which Vietnam veterans confess to atrocities. How did it come about? John Patterson finds out

Shattering testimonies... Winter Soldier

His testimony was shocking, yet he still believed in the war. The year was 1971 and Scott Camil, a marine just back from 20 months in Vietnam, wanted to talk about what he had seen and done there: "My testimony involves burning of villages with civilians in them, the cutting off of ears, cutting off of heads, torturing of prisoners, calling in of artillery on villages for games, corpsmen killing wounded prisoners ... "

In agonising, often sickening detail, Camil talked about these things for a long time. David Grubin, whose camera was filming the marine, was stunned. Grubin had come to Detroit, Michigan, to film three days of testimony by soldiers, marines and airmen who had recently returned from south-east Asia and were anxious to speak publicly about war crimes and atrocities they had both witnessed and committed. Named in homage to a Tom Paine remark about "summer soldiers and sunshine patriots", the Winter Soldier Investigations were organised by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, in which future Senator John Kerry was a leading figure. "Camil's testimony was a total shock to me," Grubin recalls. "I was so innocent and naive. I went along with strong political convictions, and it became a profound emotional experience."
Winter Soldier - the documentary about the investigations that Grubin was helping to make - would have a profound effect on Camil, who later wrote that it was "more pivotal to me than any experience in my life except for Vietnam". He added: "It was the way the film-makers conducted their interviews that made me think, look at the big picture, and understand that the Vietnamese were humans. They asked the right questions, and I owe them a debt of gratitude."

We, a Nation who's inhabitants come mostly from immigrants of other countries {we tried our damdest to exterminate the natives of this land}, mostly europe, at first, but now from all over the world, are roots are everywhere, seem to think that because we were born in this country we are somehow Superior to those who live everywhere else. We Aren't, we are the same Human Animals as all the others that exist around this planet! And we most certainly are not any more moral nor tolerant than others.

The shattering testimony continued: beheadings, heads on pikes, ears traded for beers, disembowelment, mass rapes, the murder of children for throwing stones at troops, of the elderly, of anyone in the so-called "free-fire zones". The long-haired, bearded vets look like hippies, not soldiers, but they have seen and done things that have put them way beyond peace and love, or tears of regret.

When sent to Create Hell we do as we readily accuse others of, make that Hell Worse and True to it's Meaning!

After a few arthouse showings in 1972, Winter Soldier simply disappeared. When the movie was rereleased in the US in 2005 - partly in response to attempts, in the 2004 election, to smear John Kerry over his war record - a special screening was held, with the crew and the vets. "We didn't realise that the theatre was also filled with Afghanistan and Iraq vets," says Kopple. "The Iraq guys got up and spoke with the Vietnam vets, and their stories were so similar, the cadences of their voices were exactly the same. It was remarkable."

War and the Warrior never change, just the bodies that are sent to invade and occupy!

In March this year, Winter Soldier: Afghanistan and Iraq was convened in Silver Spring, Maryland. Much of the testimony, from 200 veterans, offered a chilling echo of its Vietnam forerunner. It was filmed by David Zeiger - who directed Sir! No Sir!, an extraordinary history of insubordination, mutinies and troop rebellions in Vietnam - so it should be in good hands. The only mainstream news outlet that bothered to show up was the Washington Post.

·Winter Soldier is out now!

VFP E-Bulletin - Winter Soldiers Testify Before Congressional Progressive Caucus

On May 15, members of Iraq Veterans Against the War will testify under oath about the realities of the illegal occupations in Iraq - providing the Congressional Progressive Caucus with an important and critical tool to make their long-standing promise{PDF} to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq a reality now.

Congress will have the opportunity to hear the testimony first offered publicly in March of this year at Winter Soldier: Iraq & Afghanistan, when over 45 members of IVAW shared eyewitness accounts of the occupations before their peers, their families and the American public just outside our nation's capitol at the National Labor College. Over 30 hours of testimony was made available live online, over the radio and via cable television that weekend, and remains available in broadcast quality footage at the IVAW website.

By bringing Winter Soldier finally inside the Capitol, IVAW hopes to further encourage veterans to tell their stories to Congress and the public at large. Congress has heard from their fellow politicians, from the pundits and the generals, but not until now have they heard from the average boots on ground soldier who has been asked to fight this occupation largely alone. Bringing Winter Soldier to The Hill will bring the voices of constituents too long silenced before their elected representatives, while Congress debates (more than likely for the last time during the Bush-Cheney administration) the funding for the Iraq occupation.

Please support the Winter Soldier testifiers by calling Progressive Caucus members today!

There are Progressive Caucus members in nearly every state. Urge them to listen carefully on Thursday and show their support for the troops by bringing them home now. Call yours today and ask:

(1) What are you doing to insure a timeline is created that will bring all the troops home, and when do you expect that clock to begin?

(The Caucus released a statement in September of 2007 in opposition to any future bills or amendments that would not include a 6-month timeline for the removal of all troops.)

(2) What are you doing to increase funding and ensure universal access to adequate health care for all returning veterans?

(3) How are you informing your constituency about the Winter Soldier Eyewitness accounts?

If you are interested in attending, please read this {PDF}

Corrupt Government - Totally Corrupt!!

What is this Country waiting for?

This is Our Government, those in Washington work for Us!

Little georgie likes to say "His Government", it ain't his, He Works For Us, as do everyone appointed and hired to federal jobs!

The Government we have isn't just Incompetent, It's Totally Corrupt!

And it isn't only those hired to Represent that have no Backbone, it's this Whole F**cking Country!

What's got my dandruff up, I just caught this: Ex-State officials allege corruption in Iraq

Something we've already known, And Done Absolutely Nothing About, only this gets abit deeper than the War Profitteers:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Bush administration repeatedly ignored corruption at the highest levels within the Iraqi government and kept secret potentially embarrassing information so as not to undermine its relationship with Baghdad, according to two former State Department employees.

Coming from two civil servants who seem to understand who they are working for, one Arthur Brennan and James Mattil.

Brennan said that a congressional staffer visiting Baghdad couldn't talk with staffers because they were too busy.

What were they busy doing in Baghdad:

the staffers were watching movies at the embassy and on their computers. The staffers' workload had been cut dramatically because of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's "evisceration" of Iraq's top anti-corruption office, he said.

And Condi is still around?

The State Department's policies "not only contradicted the anti-corruption mission but indirectly contributed to and has allowed corruption to fester at the highest levels of the Iraqi government," Brennan told the Senate Democratic Policy Committee.

Want to find out about the Office of Accountability and Transparency, there's a few sentences about this as well as Iraq's Joint Anti-Corruption Committee

"Since we have done so little (to undercut corruption), it's easy to see why the government of Iraq has not done more," said Mattil, who left the accountability office last October after having served for a year as its chief of staff. "We have demanded no better."

And how much has this cost our kids, hell the treasury was emptied way back, this comes to the tune of some 18 Billion, all on the credit card the Occupation is running on!

"One would have expected that our own government would have been doing everything it could to support" Iraq's anti-corruption efforts, said Dorgan, D-N.D.
But "that was simply not the case. On the contrary, our own government contributed to the culture of corruption," he added.

Hey everyone, just go shopping with the bailout monies, for retailers and credit card companies, you think is a tax rebate, that's on your kids dime as well, and don't forget to tune into your favorite reality show, after that stick head back up a**hole, where it's been since allowing your Country to Crash!!!!!

As those who Serve are Killed and Maimed, as the country We Destroyed suffers more Destruction, Death and Maiming, In Our Names!

Help for Veterans

The following came in on a google news alert I have on Nadia McCaffery who's son, Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey, was killed nearly five years ago in Iraq. The reason I use the alert is that Nadia, and her Daughter-in-Law have been slowly growing the dream of helping other Veterans returning from the Theaters of War suffering from PTSD and TBI, her son was a medic. Their dream, in her sons honor, is called Veterans Village

This report doesn't cover 'Veterans Village' but Nadia was asked about her thoughts on this Congressional Bill.

House subcommittee passes amendment to help veterans keep their homes with a larger loan guaranty limit.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs loan guaranty limit was $144,000 — an unrealistic low, Siebold said. With the amendment to the veterans act, that limit may soon match the newly upped Federal Housing Administration loan limit of $729,750.

“It’s basically like the government is your co-signer,” said Siebol, who lives in Stockton. “It makes the loan a lot less risky.”

Now what is the response from an insider in the loan industry:

“It’s a lot of hoopla,” said Hinrich, a Tracy lender, “a bunch of window dressing — a chance for politicians to earn bragging rights.”

Well maybe he's right, than again if he feels like that the question is why isn't he, and others, helping these legislators tweak the bill to better help out these returning combat vets. many of those in the loan industry are a big part of the problem. They managed to tweak the loans, coming up with very questionable loan packages, in order to enhance the bottom lines for their own wealth but especially for the wealth of those who invested in these packages, not worrying at all about those being sold the loans who possibly couldn't afford to pay them off, and many of them jumped on board in the questionable selling of these loan packages.

And how does Nadia feel about this legislation:

Before her son left on his fatal mission, he took out a second loan on his Palo Alto home.

“He didn’t want his wife to go through financial troubles,” McCaffrey said of her son.

But when he got killed, McCaffrey and her daughter-in-law were left to foot the bill. After learning of the higher-limit veterans’ loan guaranty, McCaffrey said she hopes she can refinance and lower the monthly payments for her daughter-in-law.
“It would be a great relief to us,” McCaffrey said today. “And I know so many people who can benefit from this.”

In this article they also talked to a disabled Marine corps veteran.

Today, Siebold and his peers face the ugly consequences: default, foreclosure and, in some cases, homelessness.

In another article about this bill they have this to say:

The lower figure is useless in Northern California, especially in the Bay Area where housing prices are among the highest in the nation.
"I've heard from reservists who have been deployed multiple times, saw a big loss in pay and they get in trouble with their home loans," McNerney said.

Now this is the bill coming out of committee:

Congressional Legislation Veteran Home Loan Guaranty Improvement Act of 2008
Bill # H.R.4884

Cosponsor Total: 21
(last sponsor added 04/23/2008)
21 Democrats

About This Legislation:

To amend title 38, United States Code, to make certain improvements in the home loan guaranty programs administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.
Introduced by Representative Bob Filner.

Did anyone notice what I quickly saw? Who the original sponsor was and the 21 co-sponsors, this should make it clearer:

Arizona

Raul Grijalva (D 7th)
04/08/2008

California

Barbara Lee (D 9th)
04/10/2008


Gerald McNerney (D 11th)
03/13/2008


Bob Filner (D 51st)
12/19/2007

Guam

Madeleine Bordallo (D At-Large)
04/08/2008

Illinois

Janice Schakowsky (D 9th)
04/08/2008

Maine

Michael Michaud (D 2nd)
02/07/2008

Minnesota

Tim Walz (D 1st)
04/10/2008

Nevada

Shelley Berkley (D 1st)
04/14/2008

New Hampshire

Carol Shea-Porter (D 1st)
04/08/2008

New Jersey

Robert Andrews (D 1st)
03/10/2008


Donald Payne (D 10th)
03/10/2008

New York

John Hall (D 19th)
04/10/2008

Ohio

Betty Sutton (D 13th)
04/10/2008


Zack Space (D 18th)
04/14/2008

Pennsylvania

Robert Brady (D 1st)
04/08/2008

South Dakota

Stephanie Herseth Sandlin (D At-Large)
04/23/2008

Texas

Silvestre Reyes (D 16th)
04/08/2008


Ciro Rodriguez (D 23rd)
04/10/2008


Solomon Ortiz (D 27th)
04/08/2008

Vermont

Peter Welch (D At-Large)
04/08/2008

Now my question is, Where are all those Lapel Flag Pin Wearers with an 'R' following their names? You know the ones I mean, the ones who were loudly beating the Drums of War when they had total control over the Washington based Government. The ones, through their mouth pieces and supporters, were calling Any who Opposed the coming Failed Policy Unpatriotic, Traitors, and every name their think tanks could muster. The ones, while having All That Control, never once mentioned nor held Congressional Committee meetings to come up with the monies and legislation needed for the returning Military Personal they were Sending Into Two War Theaters of Occupation. The ones who were blocking any want and need of Congressional committee meetings and hearings that the minority party were trying to hold, the ones that managed to hold hearings were relagated to basement meeting rooms with no 'R's' to be seen.

Instead they were just Rubber Stamping anything that came out of the administration, No Questions Asked, and the Military Personal, and their Families, were Never Even Thought Of, Especially the Reservist and Guard members yanked from civilian life and jobs to fight in Conflicts for the War Profitteers of Wall Street and the Private sector!!

Why isn't there By-Partison Bills, with Huge Majority Support, to Help these returning Combat Vets in All Their Needs, and Where Is The Public's Outrage on the Treatment of these returning men and women We Sent Off To Destroy and Occupy Others Countries?

Grilling Petraeus

Above title comes from MoJo, short for Mother Jones, for those not in the know.

It covers this:

Washington Dispatch: We asked a dozen national security experts what Congress should ask the top military commander in Iraq at this week's hearings. Here's what they came up with.

There's a short introduction, before the panel asks their questions. In the intro we are reminded of what Petraeus gave as an answer the last time:

But when Republican Senator John Warner asked Petraeus if the Iraq War "makes America safer," the general replied, "I don't know, actually. I have not sat down and sorted [it] out in my own mind."

Ought to be real interesting what answer he gives this time!

From the invasion, and building these five, now plus, years, I could tell him We Are Not Safer! Reason we have now created more Hatreds and Enemies out of Tens Of Thousands of Iraqi's, and probably as many in the region, that Didn't Exist Before!!

I would also point out that there seems to be a Nationalist group that is beating him at his expertise, Counter Insurgency, and we saw that Explode these last couple of weeks and continue, as the Iraq Government? and the U.S. are still trying to quell that Nationalism, with the Iraqi Government? threatening to not allow this group, never minding all the others, to participate in the coming elections, Hell Of A Democracy We Gave Them!

The dozen National Security Experts participating in giving the questions are:

Andrew Bacevich, professor of history and international relations at Boston University

Larry Johnson, former CIA and State Department intelligence official

Wayne White, head of the State Department's Iraq intelligence team 2003 to 2005 and an adviser to the Iraq Study Group

Juan Cole, professor of history at University of Michigan

Sam Gardiner, retired Air Force colonel and expert on military strategy

A research professor at a military institute who asked not to be named

David Isenberg, military affairs analyst and adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute

A former intelligence analyst who handled Middle Eastern issues for years and who asked not to be identified by name

Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell

Gordon Adams, professor of U.S. Foreign Policy at the School of International Service, American University

Retired Colonel W. Patrick Lang Jr., former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency's human intelligence service

A former Army colonel and planner who asked not to be identified

Take a trip over to MoJo to view the questions they asked and see if you think they are better than

The questions he received from the legislators were mostly softballs. (Neither senators Hillary Clinton nor Barack Obama were impressive when questioning Petraeus.)

the Congressional Questions last time

This time is a Huge Question Mark coming from a Congress not following the Will Of The People!

Max and the Marginalized
Has the following MP3 in a Post over at Vet Voice

A song for the Petraeus briefing

Q & A
In the year and change since the upswing
With circumstances largely in the dark
The questioners are lining up with the clipboards
I'm sure you'll hit their softballs out of the park

So get some magic markers and draw a happy face
And cross out all your notes from the past few days
The counter hits 4,000 and it counts and counts away
If they had a chance to ask, what would they say?
In Q & A

You'll recommend against reductions
I'm afraid it's more than they can stand
Someone get a page to bring you water
To wash that blood off of your master's hands

A confident demeanor and the medals on your coat
Give googly eyes to the fourth estate
If someone happens to ask you if it's worth the price we've paid
When you answer think of those who've gone away
In Q & A

Max and the Marginalized are the only rock band in the progressive blogosphere, and therefore the best one! They write and record a song a week and post them on The Huffington Post.

"Victory means exit strategy, and it's important for the president to explain to us what the exit strategy is," - George W. Bush, Texas Gov., 1999

" What does it matter to the dead, the orphan, and the homeless whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or the holy name of liberty or democracy?"
- Mohandas K. Gandhi

" Wars, conflict, it's all business. One murder makes a villain. Millions a hero. Numbers sanctify."
-Charlie Chaplin

And so from the spectre of the summer soldier who shrinks from the hard truths and his country's crises, comes the Winter Soldier who will not look away.

RNN News asks: "Time for Cheney 'Impeachment' Hearings?"

Richard French of RNN, regional News Network, out of New York's Hudson Valley aired a report, on January 3rd, after a sitin at Congressman Jerry Nadlers office.

Richard French of RNN News on growing movement for Cheney Impeachment.


And asks the Question: Time for Cheney 'Impeachment' Hearings?


Than yesterday, January 7th, they had another, updated report, after George McGovern's Op-Ed on 'Impeachment' on Sunday. This one carry's some of the original parts, from above report, but adds parts of what McGovern had said as well as an interview with Ray McGovern about the Charges for Impeachment.

From the 'Richard French Show'

On RNN TV New Yorks Hudson Valley
With Ray McGovern

Penny Coleman - Suicide Epidemic Amoung Vets

Journalist Tells Congress About Suicide Epidemic Among 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.