Shinseki, Gates Address Unprecedented Forum

VA, DoD Host National Mental Health Summit

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) are hosting a first-of-its-kind national summit to address the mental health care needs of America’s military personnel, families and Veterans, harnessing the programs, resources and expertise of both departments to deal with the aftermath of the battlefield.

“This is about doing what is best for those who serve this country and using every federal, state and community asset to do it,” said Secretary Shinseki. “We’re proud of the people and the organizations who have stepped up today to make sure everyone who fought for this country gets a fighting chance for a sound mind and an independent life.”

The summit, which opened today at the Capital Hilton in Washington, D.C., invited mental health experts from both departments, Congress, the president’s cabinet and more than 57 non-government organizations to discuss an innovative, wide-ranging public health model for enhancing mental health for returning service members, Veterans, and their families.

Snip

VA operates the largest mental health program in the nation. VA has bolstered its mental health capacity to serve combat Veterans by adding thousands of new professionals to its rolls in the last four years. The department also has established a suicide prevention hotline (1-800-273-TALK) and Web site available for online chat at Suicide Prevention Lifeline-Veterans....>>>

Gates: Injured troops face too much red tape

Calls their paperwork 'frustrating, adversarial, and unnecessarily complex

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that troops injured in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan continue to face too many bureaucratic hurdles.

Paperwork alone for them can be "frustrating, adversarial, and unnecessarily complex," Gates said.

Gates spoke at a mental health summit with Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki. By appearing publicly together, they sought to reinforce their commitment to tackling veterans' health issues and the stigma associated with seeking mental health care.

Snip

Shinseki said veterans from the recent wars are coming homes with "invisible wounds" that are just as debilitating as physical traumas sustained on the battlefield.

"Who's vulnerable? Everyone," Shinseki said. "Warriors suffer emotional injuries as much as they do physical ones."...>>>

Sept. 18, 2009 is National POW/MIA Recognition Day

POW/MIA Day honors heroes

The flag of the National League of Families of American Prisoners of War and Missing in Southeast Asia will be flown over the White House, the U.S. Capitol, the departments of State, Defense, and Veterans Affairs, the Selective Service System Headquarters, the World War II Memorial, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, the Korean War Veterans Memorial, and national cemeteries across our country.

This black and white banner, symbolizing America’s missing, is a stark and powerful reminder to people around the world that our nation will keep faith with those who have served and sacrificed, that we will not rest until we receive the fullest possible accounting of every American missing in service to our country.

Sept. 18, 2009 is National POW/MIA Recognition Day. I ask all citizens to join me in honoring former American prisoners of war and those whose fate is still undetermined. I also encourage you to remember with special sympathy and concern the courageous families who maintain their steadfast vigil and who persevere in their search for answers and for the peace that comes only with certainty................Read The Rest Here

Please join us for this solemn, poignant and important event. We must let every nation know that we will “never forget!”

A powerful resource for additional information regarding this important issue may be found at the Department of Defense Web site: Defense Prisoner of War/Missing Personal

As MoJo Calls It: A Few Good Kids?

The Pentagon in the Classroom

We were saying what was actually going on but those doing it kept denying, as they passed on the talking points to their public mouths and those were carried forward by the flocks, that relished in being led, on any online board, right wing feeding troth site, and in reply's wherever they could be placed.

No child left behind.... the battle lines?

How the No Child Left Behind Act allowed military recruiters to collect info on millions of unsuspecting teens.

This was just more from the cheney/bush cabal acts against the country, and their growing list of proof of crimes against this Nation and Our Constitution, no one was safe, especially our children, needed to fill the ranks of bringing democracy? to others by extreme force!!

John Travers was striding purposefully into the Westfield mall in Wheaton, Maryland, for some back-to-school shopping before starting his junior year at Bowling Green State University. When I asked him whether he'd ever talked to a military recruiter, Travers, a 19-year-old African American with a buzz cut, a crisp white T-shirt, and a diamond stud in his left ear, smiled wryly. "To get to lunch in my high school, you had to pass recruiters," he said. "It was overwhelming." Then he added, "I thought the recruiters had too much information about me. They called me, but I never gave them my phone number."

Nor did he give the recruiters his email address, Social Security number, or details about his ethnicity, shopping habits, or college plans. Yet they probably knew all that, too. In the past few years, the military has mounted a virtual invasion into the lives of young Americans. Using data mining, stealth websites, career tests, and sophisticated marketing software, the Pentagon is harvesting and analyzing information on everything from high school students' GPAs and SAT scores to which video games they play. Before an Army recruiter even picks up the phone to call a prospect like Travers, the soldier may know more about the kid's habits than do his own parents.

Gee now who was that that foretold the coming future, and how close were the predictions of this thought of "Big Brother!"!!

Recruiters hit pay dirt in 2002, when then-Rep. (now Sen.) David Vitter (R-La.) slipped a provision into the No Child Left Behind Act that requires high schools to give recruiters the names and contact details of all juniors and seniors. Schools that fail to comply risk losing their NCLB funding. This little-known regulation effectively transformed President George W. Bush's signature education bill into the most aggressive military recruitment tool since the draft..........Read Rest Here

Now why does this Vitter name ring a bell, hmmmm, known but only important as to show what a total snake and lackey to his masters, not those he's hired to represent, is capable of doing while under the guise of being a family values man.

The MoJo article is from David Goodman who is a contributing writer for Mother Jones and coauthor {with wife Amy} of "Static: Government Liars, Media Cheerleaders and the People Who Fight Back". For more of his stories, click here.

Bagram Detainnee Abuse

Ex-detainees allege Bagram abuse

Wednesday, 24 June 2009 Allegations of abuse and neglect at a US detention facility in Afghanistan have been uncovered by the BBC.

Former detainees have alleged they were beaten, deprived of sleep and threatened with dogs at the Bagram military base.

The BBC interviewed 27 former inmates of Bagram around the country over a period of two months.

The Pentagon has denied the charges and insisted that all inmates in the facility are treated humanely.

All the men were asked the same questions and they were all interviewed in isolation.......

Amnesty 'shocked' by Bagram claims

Wednesday, 24 June 2009 A BBC investigation has uncovered allegations that prisoners were abused and humiliated at the US-run Bagram military base in Afghanistan.......

"RESOLUTION: The Torture Song" By David Ippolito



The rally in Washington, D.C., on Torture Accountability Action Day, Thursday, June 25, 11 a.m., John Marshall Park.

More here: That Guitarman from Central Park

Pentagon lost control of billions

In Merc Contracts in the name of GWOT

As members of Congress gather this week to investigate the growing corruption and greed withing corporate mercenary firms and the Pentagon, initial reports going to Congress are that the Defense Department has failed to provide adequate oversight over tens of billions of dollars in contracts to support military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, says a new report by an independent commission investigating waste and fraud in wartime spending.......Rest Here

War Profiteering {Blood Wealth} & GitMo

Def. Sec. Robert Gates: Radical Overhaul of the Pentagon's Arsenal

Pentagon Chief: Why I Tore Up the Army's 'Future'

Of all the hard choices Defense Secretary Robert Gates had to make in his radical overhaul of the Pentagon's arsenal, the toughest, he tells Danger Room, was the decision to gut Future Combat Systems, the Army's $200 billion effort to design a fleet of next-generation tanks and troop carriers.

"Most difficult of all of these for me was the FCS program," Gates says in a Pentagon conference call. "I actually didn't make up my mind once and for all on it until this weekend."

This link brings up Windows Media Player for conference call.

At the end of this phone conference, which last about thirty five minutes, the Defense Secretary talks about the Military and Veterans, as well as their families, care monies that have been off budget, or not even thought of or included, and in the supplementals these years of these two occupations, which now will be included in the Defense Budget, nothing hidden, we hope!

**********

And the mindset should Always Be: "War as a very last resort!!"! No Wars Of Choice Which Damages Our Nations Security And Moral Standing!!

Knowingly Exposed Soldiers To Toxic Waste

Pentagon Knowingly Exposed US Soldiers To Toxic Waste: Leaked Memo {Under cheney/bush}

The Pentagon allegedly endangered U.S. soldiers by implementing and covering-up dangerously toxic waste-incineration practices at Balad Airbase in Iraq during years past, as revealed in a leaked Air Force memo [PDF]. Raw Story, which first reported the leak, writes this:

The document, written by an environmental engineering flight commander in December of 2006 and posted on Wikileaks on Tuesday, details the risks posed to US troops in Iraq by burning garbage at a US airbase. It enumerates myriad risks posed by the practice and identifies various carcinogens released by incinerating waste in open-air pits.

The PDF Air Force Memo

Oregon veteran disabled by Iraq's 'Agent Orange'

The soldiers worried about Saddam Hussein loyalists, not the dust.

Dust coated the Oregon Army National Guardsmen's combat boots and caked their skin as they protected Halliburton KBR contractors restoring oil flow in Iraq in 2003. Dust poofed from the soldiers' uniforms as they crowded into vans at the end of the day and shared tents at night.

When the dust blew onto Spc. Larry Roberta's ready-to-eat meal, he rinsed the chicken patty with his canteen water and ate it.

Six months later, doctors discovered the flap into Roberta's stomach had disintegrated. Six years later, the Marine and former police officer can no longer walk to the mailbox or work.

Rest Here

Iraq's and Afghanistan's 'Agent Orange'


Some wounded soldiers ‘punished for injuries’
Authorities hold sick, disabled troops to same standards as the able-bodied

Advocates for wounded soldiers question whether the tough-love approach is an effort to get rid of soldiers considered unlikely to return to regular duty.

"It creates a hostile environment where soldiers buckle and take a low-balled disability rating and benefits just to get out when they can," said retired Army Lt. Col. Mike Parker.

The Warrior Transition system was established two years ago to improve treatment of wounded soldiers after the scandal over shoddy conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.

The War Comes Home

That's the subject title of this post by The War Comes Home that I'm bring a part of here, video and a snippet.


The War Comes Home from New America Media on Vimeo.

President Obama may want to end the war in Iraq and beef up troops in Afghanistan, but another battle is brewing on the homefront. In January alone, 24 soldiers were believed to have committed suicide. Journalist Aaron Glantz, author of "The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle against America's Veterans" discusses veterans' struggles in America.

PTSD: Hoping Their Stories Help!

Pentagon hopes stories help troops with PTSD

During the wars of 5 B.C., the ancient Greeks would perform plays about conflict for audiences of soldiers.

Some dealt with the psychological toll of combat on warriors, long before the coining of the phrase "post-traumatic stress disorder."

This closes the report:

Servicemembers interested in telling their stories as part of the campaign can send an e-mail to:
DCoE Real Warriors

Army: 24 Suspected Suicides in January '09

This is just being reported,

Army reports alarming rise in suicides last month

There has been a small sprinkling of reports about the Military Suicides in the last couple of months, most of those found only if one is hitting a number of news outlets but not making National News, even as those who serve do so for the Country not a Community located near a base or where their from.

The Army is investigating a stunning number of suicides in January — a count that could surpass all combat deaths on America's two warfronts last month.

According to figures obtained by The Associated Press, there were 24 suspected suicides in January, compared to only four in January of 2008, six in January of 2007 and 10 in January of 2006.

Questions, once again, and I say that as a 'Nam Veteran, we who've watched this all before, have been rising as to why the numbers are going up and the causes. As it says above we have Two Theaters of occupations ongoing, with multiple tours by many in both theaters, add now the collapsing economy, the still lacking help for trauma brought back from service in these theaters and stress of being away from family and home on extended tours over and over, the strains on marriages and the family as a whole, misuse of addictive substances to deal, and other factors I'm sure.

"The trend and trajectory seen in January further heightens the seriousness and urgency that all of us must have in preventing suicides," Gen. Peter Chiarelli, Army vice chief of staff, said of the new monthly number Thursday.

The 24 suspected January suicides include seven confirmed and 17 still being investigated. Usually the vast majority of suspected suicides are eventually confirmed, and if that holds true it would mean that self-inflicted deaths surpassed the 16 combat deaths reported in all branches of the armed forces in Iraq, Afghanistan and other nations considered part of the global war on terror last month.

Most of the reports one might catch rarely give a reason or cause, just that a soldier, or veteran, especially a young recent vet, has been found dead, rarely giving a followup or unless local to the original the followup is not seen.

The Military is Broken, that's not to say those serving are not doing so Honorably, but once again, because of Wars and Occupations of Choice, the systems surrounding those serving are stretched past the breaking point and only little relief is forth coming quickly!

These problems were forecast by many of us that they would occur, no one listened, no one took the lead in even bringing them up as the beating of the war drums grew and grew and we're now six and seven years still occupying.

Army official: Suicides in January 'terrifying'

Army Releases January Suicide Data; Re-emphasizes Efforts

Army sees significant rise in January suicides

Soldier suicides up for 4th consecutive year

Army suicide prevention

A Few Earlier Reports on Shinseki from today

Shinseki pledges top-down review, change

"I intend to ... demand the highest levels of integrity, transparency and performance in leading the department through the fundamental and comprehensive change it must quickly undergo," Shinseki said. "There's a long tradition of VA providing leadership in medicine, of setting standards in many fields. Where we lead, we must continue. Where we do not, we must regain that leadership."

Paperwork among VA chief's priorities

The newly appointed head of the Department of Veterans Affairs said Wednesday the department needs a fundamental change in how it handles its paperwork.

Eric Shinseki described a Sisyphean task for caseworkers trying to plow through the backlog of files to make decisions on veterans' claims.

Members of the committee peppered Shinseki with questions about the VA's handling of mental health issues. The secretary said that much progress has been made in understanding traumatic brain injuries (TBI) and post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) since he served in Vietnam, but there is plenty more to do.

"I am now watching all of our efforts to understand PTSD, TBI, substance abuse amongst our veterans and have a better appreciation of what we put my comrades through when we came back" from Vietnam, he said. "None of these programs were available, in fact. None of these terms were in vogue then. We still don't understand enough. We are still learning."

The chairman of the committee, Rep. Bob Filner, D-California, expressed frustration that screenings for the disorders were done through a self-evaluation, rather than through medical examination, and he implored Shinseki to change that.

ABC News End of Last Month Report

Military Suicides at a 30-Year High


Suicide Rate Reflects Toll of Army Life

With Suicides at a 30-Year High, Army Vows to Address Problem

In 2008 alone, the Army reports there were at least 128 confirmed cases of suicide, more than a dozen of which are still under review.

U.S. Army Suicides Highest In 3 Decades

 

And this is just reports on the Army, nothing yet on any possible Marine numbers.

Bring Them Home, And Take Care Of Them When They Return, Full Care!!

The Invisible Injuries of the Invisible Ranks: A Military Spouse

Earlier today I received an e-mail from an on line friend, she is the wife of a military serviceman now serving in Iraq, she is also very active in support of her fellow spouses and the families as well as returning OIF and OEF military personal seeking needed help but finding the going sometimes extremely troubling, confusing or denied.

Many of us Veterans have found her and she us and have gotten to know her through our own advocacy of our brothers and sisters. Some are working directly with her and she with them.

She has written a very personal letter, part of the title I used above is the one from her letter to us, of her experiences and feelings, as a military spouse, and while posting it on a few sites it has now found it's way to a number of other sites.

This is what I received earlier, I've added the links.

Military spouses are often called the silent ranks, but sometimes it seems as though we are invisible too. On top of that, when our service members go to war and we hold down the home front, many of us carry our own burdens, make our own sacrifices, and sometimes, have own invisible wounds.

Michelle Obama has said that she is going to focus on the needs of military families. Given that focus, I thought my latest blog was particularly timely: Military Spouse Press

This blog was also posted on Military.com, but I wanted to draw your attention to our blogging site, Military Spouse Press. Anyone can register and post their own thoughts and experiences and comment on the blogs of others. In 2009, let us continue to encourage and inspire one another to be strong for the service members we love, the families we love, and the country we love.

Carissa Picard, Esq.
President
Military Spouses for Change
P.O. Box 216
Copperas Cove, TX 76522
Military Spouses for Change

Those of you reading who might be spouses of or even family members might want to bookmark not only Carissa's group site but also their interactive blog Military Spouse Press, you can also join that site and interact with posts and comments with the other spouses using it now. It's not an extremely active site but there are some great posts and information to be found there, and the more joining in the more support that will generate for everyone.

I won't add much to what Carissa wrote, just give you some cuts from, and encourage you to visit the link above or this Truthout Link where it is also now posted to read what she wrote in it's entirety.

Carissa S. Picard stands at the entrance to Fort Hood, Texas. Picard is the founder and president of Military Spouses for Change. (Photo: Erich Schlegel / Dallas Morning News)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."
~Margaret Mead

"A 2008 RAND study reports that at least one in five soldiers are returning from war with PTSD. When are they going to do a study on the spouses and children left behind in these wars? The ones who self-medicate or are prescribed anti-depressants {parent and child alike}, who can never look at the world or the Army or themselves the same way again? What have we lost in service to this country?

We are only a third of the way through my husband's deployment and I can already identify our wounded. Am I the only one paying attention?"

Expectations

I don't know what military life was like before 9/11, but I can tell you what it is like now: and it isn't quirky and wacky and "just like civilian life but different." There is a reason Sarah Smiley {a female Dave Barry} is a Navy wife and Jenny {the cartoon} is an airman's wife: Army and Marine wives have less to laugh about.

In March 2008, The Associated Press reported that 72 percent of Iraq deaths were Army, 24 percent were Marine, two percent were Navy and one percent was Air Force. These percentages obviously reflect who is being deployed the most; i.e., who is being exposed to combat and who isn't.

Casualties of War

My ex-husband called me the other day and asked me what a "Blue Star wife" was. I explained that it was a wife whose husband was serving in combat.

Then I asked him if he knew what a Gold Star wife was. Of course he didn't.

"That's a wife whose husband has died in combat."

"Wow," he replied, "that's, uh, kind of sick, isn't it?"

I laughed. I knew what he meant. The "Gold Star" comes across as a quasi-cultural "WAY TO GO!" for the surviving family member (as the term technically applies to the entire family). And let us not forget the "Silver Star" for the family of a service member wounded in a war!

A Call to Arms

Nothing prepares you for war. There is no training center for spouses. You are either going to make it or you won't.

They're Not Waving, They're Drowning

In June, the parade of terribles begins. News from the front: soldiers being electrocuted in the showers, self-inflicted gunshot wounds, 10-year-old suicide bombers, sexual assaults on female soldiers.

I am learning not to worry about that which I cannot control {i.e., the life or death of the father of my children}, although much of your time will be spent listening and validating the feelings and experiences of others: your soldier-spouse, your warrior-children.

For example, when a soldier deploys to combat, those of us at home eventually get "the call."

The call comes when his {or her} veneer of strength has cracked. When something really bad has happened; when he {or she} has witnessed {or done} something that he/she was not prepared for or expecting to be upset by; when the surreal becomes real and that reality comes crashing down upon them with crushing force.

Nothing prepares you for this call, and you will usually hang up hurting and feeling totally useless.

Like I said you should read this whole Letter to Us from One who is Sacrificing. And if you can visit the Military Spouses for Change site and offer any help you might be able to, as they are not only spouses of and family of they also Sacrifice their time and energy for those others who are serving!

As Carissa signs off her e-mails:

"Patriotism is proud of a country's virtues and eager to correct its deficiencies; it also acknowledges the legitimate patriotism of other countries, with their own specific virtues. The pride of nationalism, however, trumpets its country's virtues and denies its deficiencies, while it is contemptuous toward the virtues of other countries. It wants to be, and proclaims itself to be, 'the greatest,' but greatness is not required of a country; only goodness is."
Sydney J. Harris

MoJo: The Pentagon's PTSD Denial

How killing scars soldiers—and their loved ones.

In the spring of 2002, an Army major named Peter Kilner submitted an unusual essay to Military Review, a journal published by the Combined Arms Center in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Kilner argued that combat leaders have an obligation to justify the killing their soldiers do. "Soldiers who kill reflexively in combat will likely one day reconsider their actions reflectively," he wrote. "If they are unable to justify to themselves that they killed another human being, they will likely, and understandably, suffer enormous guilt" that could balloon into post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). Top brass who ignored the issue, he concluded, were "treating their soldiers as commodities, not as persons."

SNIP: Read Rest Here

Coming Home - 60minutes Sunday 11-02-08

Reservists' Rocky Return To Job Market
60 Minutes Report Also Examines Costs Borne By Employers Of Deployed Citizen Soldiers

Coming Home

Citizen soldiers returning from active military duty are entitled by law to get back their old jobs or at least the same salaries, but many are still having trouble. Leslie Stahl reports.

With the Pentagon relying so heavily on the National Guard and Reserve to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan - 650,000 have been called for active duty since 9/11 - the least you'd expect is that after they serve, they get their old civilian jobs back.

There's a law, called USERRA (Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act), that says their employers have to take them back at the same pay.

But what 60 Minutes correspondent Lesley Stahl found is that despite the law, thousands of guards and reservists come home to find themselves demoted or penalized, or out of a job completely.

Digg It Here

"Another Walter Reed-Type Scandal"

Soldiers at the military hospital languished in part due to incompatible databases and dismal record keeping. Welcome to the Pentagon's $20 billion medical-records boondoggle.

The above subject title is a report, over at Mother Jones, I couldn't think of a better title than used, really, written by Niko Karvounis who, according to the Mother Jones info at the end, is a program officer at The Century Foundation, where he researches health care, among other issues and is a regular contributor to HealthBeatBlog.org.


It's one of those "Here we go again, on the incompetence and arrogance, of those that were placed on the public payroll under this corrupt and totally incompetent administration and arrogant wanna-be top CEO, only in his dreams, and complacent GOP congress up till the previous election!".


I still can't figure out the why so few, if any, are not running against the policies, or actually the non-policies of the previous GOP controlled congresses, under which six years were under total GOP control, from the administration on down.


Even if there were complicity from the Democratic side the voting records and the Congress records are a mother load of information on an Ideological Policy that can and should not exist in a Free and Democratic Government, even covering the Economics of the Capitalism that was set forth, showing up, not just recently as in yesterday, but right along.


But this is more about what many should be bringing in to the public discussion, especially those who would be freshmen/women in the Congressional Races.


This is, once again and the list is so long, about what the previous 109th Congress didn't do, nor care about, as they were beating the drums of war, their claim to a strong national security, and they with their surrogates were calling us, who were warning them and the majority of this country what was coming, across the whole spectrum, every childish and treasonous name they could muster in their double speak of hypocrisy, lies, and propaganda!

In February 2007, William Winkenwerder Jr. announced he was stepping down from his post as assistant secretary of defense for health affairs following a press conference in which he downplayed the Walter Reed scandal as a mere "quality-of-life experience." In the months that followed, it seemed clear that Winkenwerder's negligence may have been partly to blame for the deplorable conditions at the military hospital. Now, more than a year and half after his departure, Winkenwerder's legacy lives on in a multibillion-dollar Defense Department medical-records management system that many military doctors believe is fatally flawed. One military physician, speaking anonymously, calls it "another Walter Reed-type scandal."

He goes on to explain the Armed Forces Health Longitudinal Technology Application, or AHLTA, that begin in 1997. Who got the contract for it, complaints about it etc..

The military stuck with the system until November 2005, when Winkenwerder, who oversaw all DOD health care, held a press conference rechristening the system "AHLTA." "We have put a new name on what we are doing because it is not a 'version two' of anything, but an entirely new system," he said. But AHLTA was CHCS II, warts and all—and a new name couldn't hide the program's problems.

Over the course of AHLTA's implementation period, which has continued through this year, military doctors have grown increasingly disgruntled with the system. They complain that AHLTA is difficult to use, error prone, and slow, and that it has too many nonsensical tics such as an inability to capture patient data unless the patient stays in a hospital overnight.

More about the failings but also about the success of a program that the VA had already been using for the past 25yrs. and integration problems of this new system with the old and who suffers from the many problems.


And here's the key to their failed ideology and policies:

But Winkenwerder championed the private-sector solution. Like many Bush administration appointees, Winkenwerder was plucked from industry. An MD/MBA, he never served in the military and was a vice president of Blue Cross Blue Shield, New England's largest private health insurer, before arriving at the DOD. Winkenwerder was proud of his corporate pedigree: During his nomination process, he told the Senate that "coming from the private sector, I am…confident in the ability of private health care contractors to [provide]…high quality services." (Winkenwerder did not respond to an interview request.)

Right, and we've been watching how the once World Envied Private Sector, businesses and workers, often knocking heads but moving forward with the best in modern innovations and technologies for an advanced society that this planet has experienced in a long time, has sunk to it's own corruption, greed, arrogance, self indulgence, apathy, false superiority,....................................................................., the list is just to long, but a total lack of common sense, critical thought and extremely bad business practices should be added.


It isn't about pride of innovation nor quality products it's about wealth and the road to easy money garnered off the backs of the working masses who still try and get a pride and self worth out of what they do.

The AHLTA debacle hasn't come cheap. So far the Pentagon has invested an estimated $5 billion of taxpayer money in the project. This figure includes the original Integic contract and other corporate handouts such as a $67.7 million follow-up contract for "monitoring" and "management" with Northrop Grumman—which bought out Integic shortly before AHLTA was announced—and another $12.3 million to Northrop and Booz Allen Hamilton for aid in assessing how AHLTA and VistA can share data.

We're talking about the so called false impression given of a Strong National Security by a group of, so many names and descriptive words come to mind, extremely incompetent fools, who Never seem to give a crap about anyone but those in their circles, even than turning on the ones who get caught in their web of greed and corruption, using that phrase "Strong On National Security and Defense" to only enhance their power and greed on their Use of those they send into Wars of Choice and the long running Destructive Occupations than Short Change Them when they return. These War of Choice only helping to create a Weak National Security so they can use that as their excuse for the continuation of Perpetual Conflict and Criminal Terrorism!


Niko Karvounis has more, with important backlinks, that should be read, But I'll place a couple of more cuts of thought:

But making these systems interoperable will come at enormous taxpayer expense: Casscells says the price tag for convergence will be another $15 billion over the next several years, putting the total cost of AHLTA somewhere in the realm of $20 billion—four times what the government had originally budgeted for the entire AHLTA process. "There's been plenty of blame to go around," Casscells said at a forum on military health care last month. "Nobody's gonna like it."

Privatization, ain't it great, especially when nobody complains, and those that do are marginalized on the extreme!

For his part, Winkenwerder, who boasted that the system "works" and "is improving care" in an October 2007 interview, is still touting the success of AHLTA. His profile at Deloitte Consulting, where he serves as a senior adviser, proudly claims that he oversaw "the world's…most sophisticated electronic health record system."

But that's what this society and it's modern capitalist ideology is all about, not what you know, but who you know, and how to pad your resumes with lies, but if you know the right folks, Who Cares!!!!

Rape in the Military:

Congress Charges Cover-Up

Congress takes on the Department of Defense in the first oversight hearing held this year by the subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs on sexual assault in the military. Dr. Kaye Whitley, Director of Sexual Assault and Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) failed to show at the hearing despite being subpoenaed. Her "no show" left some members accusing the DOD of a cover up.

Col. Ann Wright

Sexual Assault in the Military: A DoD Cover-Up?

There was quite a struggle in Congress this week. The Department of Defense refused to allow the senior civilian in charge of its Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office (SAPRO) to testify in Thursday's hearing on sexual assault in the military. Rep. John Tierney, chair of the House Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, angrily dismissed Principal Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Michael Dominguez from the hearing when Dominguez said that he, the DoD chief of legislative affairs and the chief of public affairs, had ordered Dr. Kaye Whitley, chief of SAPRO, to refuse to honor the subpoena issued by the subcommittee for her appearance.

DoD official booted from sex assault hearing

The Pentagon's No. 2 personnel and readiness official was admonished and dismissed from a House subcommittee hearing on sexual assault in the military Thursday after admitting that he had directed a key subordinate not to appear.

Tierney said Whitley would be subpoenaed and that Dominguez's decision showed disrespect to the two women who had testified moments earleir - one a rape victim, one a rape/murder victim's mother - as well as other victims and the subcommittee itself.

Sex Assaults Against Women in Military 'Epidemic'
GAO Report: Sexual Assaults and Rapes in Military Under-Reported by Half


A look at slayings of 3 military women in 7 months



Rapists in the ranks
Sexual assaults are frequent, and frequently ignored, in the armed services.



Oversight Hearing on Sexual Assault in the Military
More information and video clips at The Gavel

The Pentagonization of US life

Nick Turse and Tom Engelhardt of Tomdispatch.com, in the second part of their interview to Pepe Escobar, talk about the ramifications of militarism in American life - how over 100 contractors are now in the Pentagon's payroll. This is closely connected to the way the Bush administration expanded militarization abroad through the worldwide US "empire of bases." The backlash was inevitable. Engelhardt says the Bush administration "may have single-handedly given birth to a multipolar world."

The Complex: How the Military Invades Our Everyday Lives

"I’M HERE FOR THE PHOTO OP - I'M THE CiC -THE DECIDER"

Once again the old say "A picture speaks a thousand words" can pop into ones mind.

Thomas, over at G.I. Special - Military Project starts out his latest News Letter with the following recent photo of 'The War pResident'.

He captions the above with the following:

The disgusting, dishonorable rat traitor piece of shit Bush ignores the salute from soldiers at a review of the Army's 82nd Airborne Division, May 22, 2008, at Fort Bragg, N.C. {AP Photo/Charles Dharapak}

While that's a tad, just a tiny tad, bit harsh for me I do have to agree with his description!

The CiC not paying attention to the troops, many having multiple tours in his Occupations of Choice, with Bragg having to redo their Base Memorial for the fallen as they had no more room to add to the names, seems to just like giving silly snickers to those snapping his photo's, or waves to no one in particular. Even the CiC Nixon showed at least a tad bit more respect for those serving under his command as wrong as he was, unless of course you were military personal and veterans totally against his war mongering policies, he used the government agencies to spy on you than.

But you see the bushy is one tough hombre, or so he would like everyone to think, the ones that don't use that gift. As to his soldiering Tough doesn't come to mind. For most of us 'Nam Vets, untill we see the purged documents of his missing service records from the Champagne Guard Unit his connections got him into, He's Still AWOL! And any wingers, don't give me the simplified "But he got an Honorable Discharge," crap, they all did, wether they attended training or not, unlike many in regular guard units!

And how are things going in his Occupation of Choice in Iraq:

I received the latest MoJo {Mother Jones} newsletter last night. Always interesting commentary can certainly be found at MoJo.

The following was their question in the newsletter:

Has anyone seen $15 billion in reconstruction funds? If so, the Pentagon's Inspector General is looking for them.

And it refers to this: Billions of Dollars Unaccounted For in Iraq, Pentagon IG Reports

They start the commentary out with the following:

Want to see a signature worth $320 million? Click here (PDF). It belongs to Jack Gardner, an official with the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, who in July 2003 authorized that amount to be transferred to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance for the payment of Iraqi salaries. There are no other records of the transfer, just Mr. Gardner's John Hancock. Now that's power.

I added the {PDF} just so's you wouldn't think that by clicking the link all you see is someones John Hancock, it's more than that.

There's abit more with some backlinks of interest.

And it closes with this:

To date, Pentagon auditors have referred 28 cases to criminal investigators.

So to change the subject, as this corrupt administration finds extremely easy to do for the short term memory of most of the populace, lets bury it and instead blame those being occupied:

"In our estimation, the theft, conversion or other misappropriation of U.S.-provided funds and supplies by Iraqi government officials severely undermines our troops' mission in Iraq," Dorgan and Whitehouse wrote. "It is even more outrageous when these resources are diverted to our enemies and help finance, arm and equip attacks against American soldiers."

"Hello" is there anyone home in that bubble we call our capital Washington? It's your Puppet Government in Iraq! We Occupy their country! We're not only Morgaging the next couple of our generations treasury, we're creating the conditions for threats on the National Security of the Country and it's Citizens, no matter where they may be! why do you think your puppet government are going along with your extreme failed policies, their going to make sure we stay for as long as possible, your corrupt buddies there are reaping wealth from your dangerous stupidity! They're going to funnel some of the monies to their supporters and militias to keep the danger level high and to hell with the innocents, their own country children, women and men, the ones who haven't already fled the carnage!

Now who might just be one who puts an end to your Debacle/Quagmire and your puppet government in Iraq:

According to an AP dispatch, Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani is inclined to issue a series of fatwas declaring what amounts to a defensive jihad against the occupying US troops. The Ayatollah's spokesman Abdul Mahdi Karbala'i, recently said that Sistani was against the Maliki government offensive on the Mahdi Army in Basra and Sadr city.

Sistani, and the other religious leaders, all sects, can not only quickly enhance the carnage and battles towards the occupiers, they can also issue decree's that would greatly deminish a sect on sect civil war, that's been a fact right from the beginning, same can go towards Afganistan.

And as this is Memorial Day Weekend what are the, mostly chickenhawk, magnetic ribbon, goldstar bandaid, rush and fox news cheerleaders doin on the Homefront, well some are going out for an American Staple, McDonalds is so passe:

$175 Hamburger on Menu at Wall Street Burger Shoppe

If you thought dropping $81 on a hamburger at The Old Homestead was enough to prove you’ve arrived, think again, hayseed – New York’s newest culinary status symbol, the “Richard Nouveau” burger at Wall Street Burger Shoppe, is going to cost you over twice that. They’re charging $175 for the experience, but money’s no object when it comes to showing the other hedge-funders you’ve completely lost touch with reality, right?

Now one report about the above pretty much covers the state of this society we've created:

21/05/2008 By Annika Burgess, Macquarie Radio Network
A hamburger with the lot and then some, on sale in New York, will cost you a whopping $180.
The New York restaurant is tempting wealthy customers with a burger made of Kobe beef, topped with gold flakes, black truffles, a thick slab of seared foie gras and aged Gruyere cheese.
Wall Street Burger Shoppe co-owner Kevin O’Connell told CNN, the pricey item has been a hit with customers.
“What I heard honestly is a man who said he was giggling while he ate it, and this is not the type of guy who looks like he would giggle much.”
Described as a ‘work of art,’ the burger flecked with gold is said to be popular with Wall Street Gordon Gekko-types.

Now I'm not a picky eater, I just like need food and have it taste good to the buds, there isn't much I find offensive to eat and I don't care how it's arranged on a plate. But I'd like you to get a picture of eating a $180 hamburger flecked with gold, and the rest from above. Now as nature would have it our food goes in one hole, the mouth, and the body uses some for living and energy, the rest comes out another bodily hole, got the picture.

Now if these greedy souls stay to form they'll crap in little porta potties, search through their waste and grab those gold flecks. Get enough, after way too many status burgers, they could melt the flecks down to form little gold coin size trinkets and get a few bucks back.

And are these souls concerned about our misadventures of death and destruction, not the least!!

Happy Thoughtful Memorial Day

And as we close in on the political party conventions, especially the Republican one, lets not forget how the 'Strong on National Defense" group, at least that's what they'd like everyone to think as they create more Hatreds and Enemies of our Country so they act strong?, "Support Our Troops", especially us 'Nam Vets:

The Iraq Billions Easter Egg Hunt

I just received the latest MoJo {Mother Jones} newsletter. Always interesting commentary can certainly be found at MoJo.

The subject title, above, was used as their leadin to the commentary linked below.

The following was their question in the newsletter:

Has anyone seen $15 billion in reconstruction funds? If so, the Pentagon's Inspector General is looking for them.

And it refers to this: Billions of Dollars Unaccounted For in Iraq, Pentagon IG Reports

They start the commentary out with the following:

Want to see a signature worth $320 million? Click here (PDF). It belongs to Jack Gardner, an official with the now-defunct Coalition Provisional Authority, who in July 2003 authorized that amount to be transferred to the Iraqi Ministry of Finance for the payment of Iraqi salaries. There are no other records of the transfer, just Mr. Gardner's John Hancock. Now that's power.

I added the {PDF} just so's you wouldn't think that by clicking the link all you see is someones John Hancock, it's more than that.

There's abit more with some backlinks of interest.

And it closes with this:

To date, Pentagon auditors have referred 28 cases to criminal investigators.

Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC) Working With Iraqi Insurgents??

Two days ago Brandon Friedman, of Vote Vets and Vet Voice posted this: Congressman McHenry Violates OPSEC; Endangers Troops and followed with this: McHenry Endangers Troops; Tries to Hide Evidence

The video this 32 year old non military service member of congress was also picked up by a few other sites as well, but no mainstream that I could find. I took Brandons posts, others probably did as well, and sent them to a number of people, I also sent, just the links, to McClatchy which also owns the Charlotte Observer.

Wether my send, or that coupled with others sending, or they found it themselves, McClatchy picked it up and printed, also in the Observer and their other papers I'm sure.

Brandon has the post up at Vet Voice: Media Picks up on McHenry; Pentagon Gets Involved with the linkbacks to McClatchy and the Charlotte Observer articles, but a couple of snippets:

Pentagon tells lawmaker not to air Green Zone video again

The Pentagon told a North Carolina lawmaker Tuesday that he couldn’t re-air a video he'd shot in Baghdad after accusations surfaced that he breached operational security in detailing enemy rocket attacks.

Rep. Patrick McHenry faces accusations his video breached security

"The bottom line is that whoever launched that strike could take the information McHenry provided and use it to kill Americans in the Green Zone," wrote Brandon Friedman, vice chairman of VoteVets.org, a veterans advocacy group that has called for troop withdrawal and promoted veterans for political office.
"This is why professionals operating in a combat zone are trained not to reveal any battle damage after an attack."

Now this youngster, a rubber stamper for administration policy, never in the military himself, but a chest thumper of his toughness on using others in the Failed Policies of the Continuing Occupation, has made statements deploring Exactly what he himself finally did!

Brandon has those links, and more, at the first two posts, as well as a great writeup on the media pickup in his post today.

This little 'chickenhawk' needs to be brought back to his home and strapped to his perch, not Sitting in the Halls Of Congress and Committing Treason Directly From A Combat Theater, wether ne knew it or not!!!

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

"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

Some Powerful Articles like 'Pentagon Breaks with White House'

Greyhawk had this posted at ePluribus about the Military breaking ranks with the White House on the propaganda about the Successful Surge with only this one snippet

"Don't let the quiet fool you," a senior defense official says. "There's still a huge chasm between how the White House views Iraq and how we [in the Pentagon] view Iraq. The White House would like to have you believe the 'surge' has worked, that we somehow defeated the insurgency. That's just ludicrous. There's increasing quiet in Iraq, but that's happened because of our shift in strategy - the 'surge' had nothing to do with it."

And just a few sentences, so I followed the link. Here's abit more to hopefully get you to drop over to the Asia Times online and read the rest.

According to them this is Part 1

and we also find this

Moreover, these officers contend, the insurgency might not have put down roots in the country after the fall of Baghdad if it had not been for the White House and State Department - which undermined military efforts to strike deals with a number of Iraq's most disaffected tribal leaders. These officers point out that the first contact between high-level Pentagon officials and the nascent insurgency took place in Amman, Jordan, in August of 2003 - but senior Bush administration officials killed the talks.

A second round of meetings, this time with leaders of some of al-Anbar province's tribal chiefs, took place in November of 2004, but again senior administration officials refused to build on the contacts that were made. "We made the right contacts, we said the right things, we listened closely, we put a plan in place that would have saved a lot of time and trouble," a senior Pentagon official says. "And every time we were ready to go forward, the White House said 'no'."

I'll leave you with those, the rest you can find here

After you come back from the above report you might want to pay a visit to this Counter Punch editorial by By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS The Empire That Must Be Obeyed asking this question "What Gives the US the Right to Claim a Moral Monopoly Over the World?" and leading off with this:

"The first use of nuclear weapons must remain in the quiver of escalation as the ultimate instrument to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction."
Five Western military leaders.

I read the statement three times trying to figure out the typo. Then it hit me, the West has now out-Owellled Orwell: The West must nuke other countries in order to prevent the use of weapons of mass destruction! In Westernspeak, the West nuking other countries does not qualify as the use of weapons of mass destruction.

Got ya wondering? Than trip on over and read, he's also got a link to the statement by these five western military leaders!

Then there's a great writeup on the upcoming Iraq Veterans To Testify at Their Own 'Winter Soldier'
Organizers Model Event After Vietnam Investigation


Vietnam veteran John Kerry testifies before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971.

But while the investigation itself may have made little immediate impact, its disclosures would reverberate for decades. “We learned the meaning of free fire zones, shooting anything that moves, and we watched while America placed a cheapness on the lives of orientals,” a 27-year old Navy veteran, John Kerry, told the Senate about what Winter Soldier uncovered. The bitterness that testimony sowed in other Vietnam veterans, who felt betrayed by Winter Soldier, stayed alive through 2004, when the so-called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth falsely maligned Kerry’s service record as payback. Now, with another intractable conflict proving to be another defining moment in American history, some veterans of the Iraq war intend to take up the Winter Soldier banner. On March 13, Iraq Veterans Against the War, an organization inspired by Vietnam Veterans Against the War, will convene at the National Labor College just outside of Washington to say, in so many words, that it’s all happening again.
“What’s happening now is no different than over the past five years,” said Geoff Millard, 27, the president of the group’s Washington chapter. “It’s the result of systematic problems in the way we fight an occupation. It’s not that we’re going to outline these huge atrocities. It’s how the systematic nature of occupation is oppression.” This time around, Winter Soldier will have what its predecessor didn’t: digital video to back up the charges.

Organizers estimate that perhaps 45 to 55 Iraq veterans, and some from Afghanistan, will testify to such “terrible things” at Winter Soldier. Liam Madden, 23, a Marine veteran of Iraq who’s now a student at Northeastern University, came up with the idea for a second Winter Soldier in late 2006 with his fellow IVAW members Aaron Hughes in Chicago and Fernando Braga in New York. “The people I’ve talked to who are testifying are going to talk about their experiences in Iraq, how they’re put in positions to harm the people of Iraq and harm the image of America because of the position they’re put in, and the complete injustice involved in that,” Madden said. “Other people will talk about how a run-of-the-mill day in Iraq is. It adds up to a checkpoint here, a house raid there, a house raid there, a house raid there, to a population of Iraqis who can’t tolerate you any longer.”
The project’s interview and verification committees are just getting started. But glimpses of the expected testimony are beginning to emerge. One of the early interviewees, a medic, told IVAW about treating a two-year old shot in the thigh by U.S. soldiers, and witnessing “the mutilation of the dead,” according to Jose Vasquez, 33, a former Army sergeant who heads Winter Soldier’s verification team. The public should expect to hear about “unnecessary killing of noncombatants on the battlefield,” said Vasquez, an anthropology graduate student at the City University of New York. (Vasquez himself filed as a conscientious objector after finding himself unable to participate in the Iraq war.) Indeed, a frequent theme among group members in interviews has been the intensity of manning checkpoints, where Iraqi civilians can die for simply not approaching a checkpoint slowly enough to reassure an apprehensive soldier who doesn’t speak their language.

Now the organizers have this to say:

Yet the organizers of Winter Soldier will consider the event a failure if it appears to blame soldiers and Marines for the war.

It's the Occupation not the Military Personel, except for the Extreme Few, as it was in 'Nam and any Conflict, many devestating incidents are Not Atrosities or War Crimes, but it really doesn't matter how We Define Anything after we invade and occupy, it's the Perception of those we Invaded and their lands we Occupy, just as it would be if it were us!

This report gives you an insight to both sides of thought about this upcoming event of Winter Soldier, you can also get more over at Vet Voice in a post by ArmySergeant, he's Active Duty and one of the organizers.

While you're over there you might want to read this one as well PTSD Is Brought On By Days Like These, it's of an incident that might just bring a shiver to your spine!

And don't miss this one at Vet Voice as well Homeless and Facing Prison: An American Tradition, as a matter of fact you should pay a daily visit for some Great insight from Active Military personal and Veterans, this sight is growing and many of the reads are well worth it.

Change?
Real Change
By William Rivers Pitt
I put a dollar in one of those change machines. Nothing changed.
- George Carlin

Also if you have a Blog or Website you may want to add An Eternal Flame Widget to it:

Follow This Link
to the Eternal Flame that you can leave on your blogs or sites Until The Troops Are Home and All Are Taken Care Of.

It was made by "notlightnessofbeing" who posts at a few of these sites as well as maintaining a blog.

Visit link and Copy the Code to Paste into your sites, as I put it on mine and our VFP Chapter site, and that's where it'll sit, Till We Bring Them Home and Take Care Of Them!!