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 -

Message to the 'chickenhawkette' and her daddy

For the last couple of days I've been trying to put together my thoughts on the recent claims by one liz cheney, she don't deserve caps for name. But as this royally pissed me off when it first aired I kept getting madder and madder trying to write something, not being a writer adds to that, and I just had way to much hitting my mind to say to her and anyone else. But low and behold I found a piece by another Veteran that says allot of what I wanted and figured I can link to his while adding the links I wanted to.

This is what I first started out with and kept changing:

Did your dad threaten to remove you from his will, liz, and all that blood wealth reaped especially as he was second{?} in leadership of this Nation? You, like your dad, show how little you understand about our Military, and those that serve in it, as well as what National Security is! But you do seem to want, like your dad, to keep putting out those reminders for us who do understand both, especially those of us who have served and especially serving under failed policies by civilian and some military leaders, 'Nam '70-'71.

The Military personal, especially the NCO's and Grunts expect and cherish the one elected as their Commander - In - Chief to show them that he/she respects the service they do for Country and Constitution, that which we take an Oath to Protect, and that he/she really understands that service as he/she serves in the civilian capacity and not dodging the bullets of the wars they are sent to fight and occupy others countries especially as these occupations are of choice not need!

National Security does not mean invading countries, then occupying them, and killing tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, trying to force an ideology on them you want them to embrace. The killings and maiming's create hatreds and enemies of not only those ordering the invasions and occupations but the people of the country they lead, especially when those giving the orders say 'oops' by calling the tens of thousands of innocent children, women and men killed and maimed 'collateral damage' nothing to see here so lets keep moving on!

10.29.09 President Honors Fallen at Dover Arrival


This is what you, and now the other talking heads, like your buddy rush, are trying to use as your political salvo, pure political propaganda, against a Commander in Chief paying Honor and Respect to the returning caskets of those killed Fifteen Soldiers and Three DEA Agents on the worse casulty loss day in the worse casulty month during this still relative new Administration in Afghanistan, something your father and his puppet never did in the time of either Occupation they Ordered!!

LIZ CHENEY: I don't know why he went to Dover. I think that clearly it is very important for a commander-in-chief whenever he can, in whatever way possible, to pay tribute to our fallen soldiers, our fallen military, folks, but I think, you know, what President Bush used to do was to do it without cameras, and I don't understand sort of showing up with the White House press pool with photographers and asking family members if he can take pictures. I mean, that's really hard for me to get my head around. I think it's an honorable and important thing to pay tribute, there's no greater sacrifice people make to the nation. It was a surprising way for the president to choose to do it. I would also point out that the best way to pay tribute to those who have sacrificed is to win the war.

There's a simple meme I've used since I came back from 'Nam, that being my last year of my four serving in the U.S. Navy and doing so all on shore bases as a 'GunnersMate', that meme is 'nixonian verbal spitting' on military service members and veterans, following those who did so towards us as we returned and continues to this day, even by veterans who served with us then but hang with their denials. With just that statement above you unload that 'Verbal Spitting'! Right from that first sentence then moving quickly into using the, unfelt by you, expected double speak and spin meme's of fake support for those serving in the military and veterans of as you use them in your propaganda salvo spin.

Watch the video above, for you and your extremely bad fake journalist and so called expert friends, there isn't any White House Press Corps at this solemn show of Honor and Respect to the fallen, the pictures and that video are what everyone sees, it's then passed onto the press at the Parents of the Fallen's request, the ones that don't want their sons or daughters casket shown publicly Aren't!! Notice also, the lighting in the video is that found on the tarmac of the airfield, no flood lights, no stage lights to highlight who are assembled. This is what the Dover 'Old Guard' and Dover Command along with other Air Force Base duties.

Not only did your father and his puppet Never Meet A Returning Plane, with the caskets of those killed in their two occupations, this is what they were doing at the time as to others, Elected Representatives of The People { Back in '08 I put up a post after Senator Biden was chosen to run with Barack Obama as VP, this is part of that post with the pertinent links} :

Back a few years ago I went Absolutely Livid, have many many.................... times from the first beat of the War Drums, this time while watching the CBS 'Face the Nation' Sunday show. While the blood had rushed to my head I waited, impatiently, for the transcript to come up on their site. When it finally did, I quickly copied and pasted it to an e-mail and sent it out, but that didn't quell the Absolute Rage. I wanted more who hadn't seen it to get as Pissed as myself so I tried thinking of online News outlets, some just coming into being, to further trying to get this report out to as many eyes and minds as possible, one was a fairly new outlet, the Huffington Post. A few hours later, to my surprise, and still Royally Pissed at what was reported, I receive an E from the Huffington Post that they were going to run with it, saw very little that day and ensuing days from the MSM about this incident as told by Senator Biden to Bob Schieffer.


Huffington posted it on June 20, 2005 at 10:11 PM {you gotta love google, I didn't keep the story, but a quick search and there it was}


Sen. Biden: 'I'm Not Allowed To Be There When The Flag-Draped Casket Comes In' ...

On CBS News's "Face the Nation" yesterday, Senator Joseph Biden (D-Del.) told Bob Schieffer that the Defense Department policy forbids him from paying his respects to fallen soldiers as their coffins return to the US through the Dover Air Force Base in Delaware. Though no cameras and no press would accompany him, Biden said he had to receive express permission from the Pentagon to join a grieving family that had requested his presence as they met their deceased son who died in a car bomb in Iraq.

"I'm allowed in the military base. I'm not allowed to go to the mortuary," he said.

The CBS Transcript of that show in PDF, they don't have that video clip in their archives.

Now here's the piece from a brother veteran posted on October 30th '09 :

The following brought to you via Veterans Today: Military Veterans and Foreign Affairs Journal online website.

WINGNUT OF THE WEEK: LIZ CHENEY, How Dare You! Who are you anyway?

When dead American soldiers were brought back in secret, in shame, it was at the orders of Vice President Cheney. Cheney planned the Iraq invasion even before the election and well before 9/11. The Cheney's testimony before the 9/11 Commission is filled with things like, "We never thought anyone would attack America, we knew nothing, nothing, nothing....never expected anything at all."

Cheney ordered the phony intel that took us into Iraq. Cheney overruled the generals who told us the war would go on for years and cost thousands of lives Cheney sent troops to war with poor body armor, defective weapons and protected against IEDs by canvas doored Humvees. When our troops had poisoned water and were electrocuted in their barracks, it was Haliburton, Cheney's company that did it. When 5 years passed with too few troops, it was Cheney in control.

It was Cheney's war plan that brought America to the brink of total defeat in Afghanistan. Dick and Lynn Cheney, among the biggest war profiteers in American history are now pointing their blood stained fingers in blame at others. Now they have their pointless spawn playing attack dog too?..>>>Rest Found Here

When Gordan does a rant he really does a rant!!

By the way little liz, wasn't daddies fifth deferment, while we were serving in 'Nam, because of your mom being pregnant with you?

Being the woman? you pretend to be, meaning oh so tough and oh such an expert {why you even pop up on the fake news shows}, there's a series at the New York Times you should follow, I doubt you even have heard of it or if so haven't given it a thought, why, because it's Reality, you know that real world you don't live in:

A Combat Role, and Anguish, Too

For Vivienne Pacquette, being a combat veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder means avoiding phone calls to her sons, dinner out with her husband and therapy sessions that make her talk about seeing the reds and whites of her friends’ insides after a mortar attack in 2004.

As with other women in her position, hiding seems to make sense. Post-traumatic stress disorder distorts personalities: some veterans who have it fight in their sleep; others feel paranoid around children. And as women return to a society unfamiliar with their wartime roles, they often choose isolation over embarrassment.

Many spend months or years as virtual shut-ins, missing the camaraderie of Iraq or Afghanistan, while racked with guilt over who they have become.

Snip

Some psychiatrists say that women do better in therapy because they are more comfortable talking through their emotions, but it typically takes years for them to seek help. In interviews, female veterans with post-traumatic stress said they did not always feel their problems were justified, or would be treated as valid by a military system that defines combat as an all-male activity...>>>Rest Found Here

Women at Arms

A record number of women are coming home from war with post-traumatic stress disorder. Four years after leaving Iraq, Shalimar Bien explains her continuing struggle.

Women at Arms
The Psychological Scars

Articles in this series explore how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have profoundly redefined the role of women in the military.
Previous Articles in the Series

A series many should visit and read.

I'll close with two heartfelt, and more reality, recent video's on your senseless, and certainly no feelings for the Fallen Soldiers or any for that matter, political propaganda salvo's, using the fallen soldiers with your fake concern for and with no honor nor compassion for them or their families!





Oh and could you do me a favor. When you read this, I know you won't but one of your little cult followers will, could you pass this on to another pure 'chickenhawk draft dodger' from our time, along with your dad, that being the mouth rush limbaugh, after all he's using your meme's and ramping them up to fill that empty airspace he takes up on that radio show of his.

Arlington West 6yrs.: Nov 3rd 2003 - Nov. 3rd 2009

November 3rd will be the sixth anniversary of the first installation of Arlington West on the beach. Veterans For Peace Chapter 54, the Jim and Shirley Kennedy Chapter will set it up with friends on Sunday, November 1st and mark the sixth year that it has been installed on the first Sunday in November by citizens volunteering their time and talent to this community project to demonstrate the true cost of war.
It was set up weekly for five years but has been once monthly for the last year, being the first Sunday of every month.

Citizens who wish to help the Veterans For Peace and friends with this effort should come between 7am and 9am for set up or at 3pm for takedown. We set up Arlington West in fair weather only to protect the memorabilia left by families of the fallen. Arlington West Santa Barbara was the original but has inspired similar displays across the USA.

The first Sunday of November 2003, a group of local activists erected 340 wooden crosses on the beach immediately west of Stearns Wharf, marking the death of U.S. servicemen and servicewomen in Iraq.

Outraged that the Bush administration had barred U.S. media from photographing returning coffins containing the war dead from Iraq, founder Stephen Sherrill, along with a small group of local activists, erected the first installation of what has become widely known as the Arlington West memorial. “I didn’t feel that the American people were mindful of the terrible price we were paying – and were about to pay – for the invasion and occupation of Iraq,” says Sherrill. “The statistics in the newspapers were just tiny little numbers, too easy to breeze over.” Since the first installation of about 340 crosses in November of 2003, the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq has grown beyond 3,500. Every Sunday morning, members of Veterans for Peace and volunteers from the community, place crosses in the sand by Stearns Wharf in Santa Barbara, CA, in remembrance of those whose lives have been sacrificed in Iraq. Hundreds of observers from across the nation and around the world visit Arlington West every week. To date, there have been approximately twenty duplications of the original Arlington West all across America, including their weekly “sister memorial” in Santa Monica, CA.

In the intervening years since the memorial started, Veterans for Peace members and volunteers have effectively transformed what began as an angry anti-war protest into a genuine memorial — somber, chilling, and irresistibly moving. The memorial has been deliberately de-politicized in an effort to make Arlington West a non-threatening experience for everyone, regardless of their political affiliation. Gone are the placards denouncing George W. Bush that were there in the beginning. In their place are flowers, flags, and the names of the dead attached to the crosses and posted on makeshift bulletin boards. The crosses are planted in straight, tight rows, covering over an acre of beach that every Sunday make a stunning visual statement. In the background, the sound of “Taps” can be heard playing nonstop from a nearby recorder. At sunset, the music ends and the crosses are taken down, packed up, and stored away until the coming week.

Adjacent to one of the most heavily traveled intersections in Santa Barbara, Stearns Wharf has always been a favorite place for tourists to stroll. But now, it has also become a place where friends and relatives of the deceased can pay their last respects. “Until you’ve held a weeping mother in your arms who has lost her child – or worse, her only child – in Iraq, it’s difficult to grasp the enormity of the pain and the sorrow and the grief that has resulted from this war that WE started,” says Sherrill. Everyone involved with Arlington West has a similar story to tell. Nearly a thousand of the crosses have been visited by friends, comrades, or loved ones. “We never realized it would get so gigantic,” says Pat Chamberlin-Calamar. “Every time I place flowers by a cross, I say a little prayer.”

10.29.09


The Commander In Chief of the Military pays Honor and Respect to the Fallen as they are returned to this Country together from the Deadliest Day in the Bloodiest Month for the Military in Afghanistan under this still relatively new Administration.

Washington's Wars

October 30, 2009

A Bill Moyers Essay

Matthew Hoh: "I wish people would refute what I'm saying."

On October 29th 2009 the PBS News Hour had a discussion with Matthew Hoh the State Department Official who resigned over the Afghan War.

Ex-State Department Official Explains Exit Over Afghan War Strategy

A few of Matthews points made during their discussion and the video of same:

Matthew Hoh Former State Department Official
I believe it's only going to fuel the insurgency. It's only going to reinforce claims by our enemies that we are an occupying power, because we are an occupying power.

JUDY WOODRUFF: After five months serving with the State Department in Afghanistan, Matthew Hoh became the first U.S. official known to resign in protest against American policies there.

In his September 10 letter of resignation, revealed this week in "The Washington Post," the former Marine captain said: "I fail to see the value or worth in continued U.S. casualties or expenditure of resources in support of the Afghan government in what is, truly, a 35-year-old civil war."

Hoh's resignation was greeted more in sorrow than in anger by the State Department. Special Envoy Richard Holbrooke said -- quote -- "We took his letter very seriously because he was a good officer."

Mr. Hoh joins us now:

MATTHEW HOH: I don't believe al-Qaida will come back.

I believe that, since 2001, al-Qaida has evolved. They have turned into, as I like to say, an ideological cloud that exists on the Internet and recruits worldwide. They -- if you look at the attacks al-Qaida has been successful with over the last seven, eight years, including attacks on 9/11, they weren't conducted by Afghans or Pakistanis.

And a lot of the preparation and training, it took place in Western Europe or even here in the United States. So, I don't think al-Qaida has any interest in ever tying itself again to a geographical or political boundary. I think they're content to exist as they have evolved. And they are a threat, and they should be our priority. We need to defeat them.

But, again, 60,000 troops in Afghanistan does not defeat al-Qaida.

"The idea that we're losing somebody's son or somebody's husband is dying to support a regime that's profiting off of our aid money is criminal. It's wrong."

MATTHEW HOH: Sure. And I wish people would refute what I'm saying. I have seen that criticism, but I have not seen anyone tell me why it's not a civil war.

I have not seen anyone tell me how stabilizing the Afghan government will defeat al-Qaida. I have not heard anyone tell me how keeping 60,000 troops, or 80,000, or 100,000 troops in Afghanistan will stabilize Pakistan. So, I haven't heard the answers to those questions.

As for the criticisms about my age or that I was only there for five months, I was there for five months. I was in two parts of the country. I worked with as many local people as I could. And I listened as much as possible.

At that point, what I wrote -- first off, what I wrote in my resignation letter, there's not a novel or unique thought in that. Those are thoughts shared by military officers and State Department officers as well. My concern is not how are we fighting this war, but why are we fighting this war...>>>Rest of Transcript {and audio & video links} found here

Matthew Hoh's Resignation Letter to the State Department

The Thin Gray Line: Afghanistan



The Thin Gray Line: The Education of Lt. Jake Kerr a U.S. Military outpost in Afganistan on the border with Pakistan.

October 29th 2009 0n NPR's All Things Considered they also have a discussion with Matthew Hoh:

A Sudden Exit Driven By An 'Irrational' War

A former Marine captain who became the first foreign service official to publicly resign in protest over the war in Afghanistan says staying in the country is not in America's interest.

"The losses of our soldiers do not merit anything that comes in line with our strategic interests or values," Matthew Hoh, who signed on as a foreign service official in Afghanistan after fighting in Iraq, tells NPR's Melissa Block.

Hoh resigned last month after spending five working months in Afghanistan. In his resignation letter, he said he had "lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purpose of the United States' presence in Afghanistan."...>>>Rest found here

You can listen with this link which brings up the NPR player.

Toll of War

At Dover, Obama feels toll of war

Hours after a personal encounter with the grim cost of war, President Barack Obama said Thursday the sight of 18 flag-covered cases holding the remains of Americans killed this week in Afghanistan can't help but influence his thinking about sending more troops overseas.

"It was a sobering reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices that our young men and women in uniform are engaging in every single day, not only our troops but their families as well," Obama said from the White House, reflecting briefly on his surprise middle-of-the-night trip to Dover Air Force Base to observe the return of the fallen Americans to the United States.

Speaking softly and somewhat haltingly, Obama said losses such as these are "something that I think about each and every day."..>>>

Kerry on Afghanistan

I'll start this out with a short clip of a speech Senator, and brother 'Nam Veteran, Kerry gave on his return from a fact finding and diplomacy trip to Afghanistan. In this clip, in just a couple of sentences, he lays out the reality as to what one leading 'chickenhawk', and to many war criminal, has been blathering lately. Though Kerry doesn't mention it also speaks as to what that chief 'chickenhawk's' spokesperson, his daughter, fast becoming the leading 'chickenhawkette', has also been spreading around, allowed to and rarely, if ever, challenged.



Kerry, like many especially us who served in Vietnam, have had some four decades to better understand how extremely wrong government policies, especially as to invasions leading to occupation, can go wrong and in the video cut above states how the recent past was built on failed policy after failed policy after failed policy........... as well as ignoring the original intent policy of why we sent our military into that region of the world. It all stopped having anything to do with the criminal terrorist attacks on this country as the civilian and military leadership set their sites on Iraq, many feel was their main purpose to begin with, and they were given a reason to engage.

After Senator Kerry's speech he had a sit down discussion that aired on the PBS News Hour last night giving more insight to his fact finding visit to Afghanistan.

Sen. John Kerry
"If are you going to ask some kid to put his life on the line...I think we all have an obligation to make certain we have maximized the ability to be successful."

Kerry: Afghan Troop Push Goes 'Too Far, Too Fast'

Margaret Warner speaks with Sen. John Kerry about his recent trip to Afghanistan to persuade President Hamid Karzai to accept a runoff election.

Snip

MARGARET WARNER: You said in your speech today that General McChrystal's plan goes too far too fast.

Are you talking about the troop levels or his basic overall strategy of counterinsurgency?

SEN. JOHN KERRY, D-Mass.: The breadth of the reach of the counterinsurgency that he wants to start with and the number of troops to do it immediately. That doesn't mean you might not get there, ultimately, Margaret.

But I think you have got to show people like me and others that we have the civilian capacity to come in under underneath those troops, and the governance that's going to allow us to hold on, and the Afghan army members who will be in there with you, so it's not an American face; it's an Afghan movement immediately.

I think those three ingredients are critical. And we just don't have that sufficiently there to say, oh, boy, let's just go deploy this number of troops now.

MARGARET WARNER: So, are you suggesting to the president that he simply defer a decision on additional troops? Are you...

SEN. JOHN KERRY: No, I think the president could conceivably make the decision with -- and in many ways. He could put in some troops. He could put in a lot of troops. He could do, you know, any number of options.

But I'm trying to suggest that the standard that you use before you put them out into combat and clear an area and start to hold an area and actually implement the counterinsurgency component itself, I think you need those ingredients, or you are going to fail.

MARGARET WARNER: But the ingredients you lay out, some kind of effective local and national governance, Afghan security forces, a much better coordinated U.S. civilian effort, I mean, those are big projects, aren't they?...>>>You can watch or listen to and read the rest of the transcript at this link

Or watch the discussion in this player {it's just shy of eleven minutes}:



There's a meme used far to often to justify the wants of the few who seek to enhance their power, wealth or extremist views or whatever goes on in their heads by using military's, ours especially, to force those views on others, even including those they supposedly represent. That meme is "Freedom isn't free!", frankly it is,freedom is found within each of us supposedly intelligent human beings, freedom doesn't come by extreme force and terrorizing others, invading and occupying, dictating policies they must follow, creating more hatreds thus enemies seeking retaliations, especially from the young who grow up during the destructive occupations.

This morning we get this report:

U.S. official resigns over Afghan war

Foreign Service officer and former Marine captain says he no longer knows why his nation is fighting

Snip

"I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States' presence in Afghanistan," he wrote Sept. 10 in a four-page letter to the department's head of personnel. "I have doubts and reservations about our current strategy and planned future strategy, but my resignation is based not upon how we are pursuing this war, but why and to what end."

The reaction to Hoh's letter was immediate. Senior U.S. officials, concerned that they would lose an outstanding officer and perhaps gain a prominent critic, appealed to him to stay.

U.S. Ambassador Karl W. Eikenberry brought him to Kabul and offered him a job on his senior embassy staff. Hoh declined. From there, he was flown home for a face-to-face meeting with Richard C. Holbrooke, the administration's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan.

"We took his letter very seriously, because he was a good officer," Holbrooke said in an interview. "We all thought that given how serious his letter was, how much commitment there was, and his prior track record, we should pay close attention to him."...>>>Rest Found Here

Matthew Hoh is seeing what many of us saw during our years of Vietnam and many have started to see over these past years as to Afghanistan and Iraq, especially in Afghanistan after we left to invade Iraq. What purpose is there still occupying that country, there's only one purpose that can be sought, giving security to the people, who don't want us there, and try to give security to NGO's coming in to help rebuild though under a corrupt government and lax Afghan security, lax mainly because it's their own countrymen they will be forced to fight.

The Taliban are growing, or those we label Taliban, in numbers because of the rise in hatreds towards us especially due to our now nine year destructive occupation of Afghanistan, our bombing in Pakistan by robot planes killing and maiming more civilians then so called high value targets, our creation of hatreds from invading and occupying Iraq causing the hatreds to grow towards us in the whole region, we are no longer seeking out nor fighting the ghost enemy al Qaeda, or those we label as belonging to, though their numbers are also growing and probably seeking what the Taliban aren't outside the region terror attacks!

This Country was left with a huge host of problems and failed policies by the previous administration, very difficult problems that really can't be corrected but can be minimized, Hopefully. Even as CiC these extreme failed policies in Afghanistan and Iraq are not only up to President Obama these were laid at our feet qwith the blood on all our hands, we are the ones the hatreds are being lashed out at not just our government nor it's leaders, it is what the next generations will be left to deal with, these are the legacy and world we are leaving them!!

If interested Laura Flanders will be airing a discussion tonight at Eight PM on her Grit TV stream which then will be archived:

GRITtv with Laura Flanders » EVENT: WOMEN AMONG WARLORDS: Rebuilding Afghanistan

We hear a lot about women in Afghanistan, but their voices too often are silenced. On Tuesday, October 27, join GRITtv host Laura Flanders at CUNY’s Center for Place, Culture and Politics with Afghan activists Malalai Joya, the first female Afghan parliamentarian, Awista Ayub and Nasrine Gross to discuss their work rebuilding their country.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009 at 3:00 PM
Skylight Room (9th floor)

If you can’t make the event, don’t miss our Tuesday show on Afghanistan, featuring Malalai Joya and Nasrine Gross, right here at 8 PM.

Sen John Kerry Slams Dick Cheney

For Obama/Afghanistan Criticisms



Kerry's supposed to be on the PBS News Hour tonight, 10.26.09, to talk about Afghanistan!

You'll be able to view the video, or listen in audio and read the transcript after the show or tomorrow.

Obama Shout Out to Operation Free

President Obama gives a shout out to Operation Free in today's speech on clean energy and climate change.

$3,000 Immediate Checks to be Handed (literally)

This is gonna be short but Real Sweet!!

I want you to go over to VetVoice and visit a post Richard Smith just placed with all the good news of How This New Veterans Administration, under the Obama Administration, Really Works!!

Richard starts the long subject title with what I've got in mine, then leads into this:

To Vet Students Who Haven't Received Benefits

Leading in with this:

Hopefully, that is the first of many headlines we'll see like that, which I can't imagine seeing in the last Administration....Read the Rest Here

Richard Smith, the OIF/OEF Vet who posted the above I'm linking back to, at VetVoice, added another post explaining further the lead up to this decision by the VA.

Now the Veterans administration, and congressional committee's have been coming out with a flurry of announcements, especially once Shinseki was seated.

Go take a visit and read about the above, and to just make this abit longer here's some other news:

VA praises Phila. nursing home after 2008 problems

Slowly correcting the extreme foulups of the previous administration and that incompetent corrupt leadership, especially as to the VA while they started and waged two occupations!!

Seven months after a devastating report detailing degrading and dangerous conditions at the Philadelphia veterans nursing home, an unannounced inspection by regional VA officials found "dramatic improvements."

Michael E. Moreland, network director for the Department of Veterans Affairs region, said his team had talked to every resident and many families, checked medical charts, and examined residents during an inspection in May....>>>Read Rest Here

And this:

Valley Va Hospital

Veterans making another push for Valley VA hospital

Doctors were still digging shrapnel out of Ramiro Galvan’s legs nearly 30 years after he was hit by a mortar blast in Vietnam.

The mortar blew off his calf and sent Galvan in and out of service hospitals for several months before he was discharged in 1970.

The 63-year-old San Benito resident returned home to Cameron County, where he has counted his blessings ever since that his injuries weren’t much worse.....>>>>

Lets All give them a Hand, Especially if you're in Texas, they didn't March earlier this year for Nothing, and Texans you can vote on helping them get this Long Needed Facility!!!

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

Saturday Night Live

This Is Your Community Too!!

Is Anybody Listening?

Many have already heard about the kids from Pomona California Village Academy High School, many have probably caught their little eight minute video that has launched them into the National Spotlight and Political Debate on what this Country is now going through. But this isn't new it's just affecting many more kids and families now, with more added each day. Kids can't learn and achieve any dreams they might have if their families are struggling and their living those struggles daily.

Last night on the PBS News Hour they showed a report on these kids and their videoed thoughts and feelings, that report is directly below.

Correspondent John Larson
Produced by: Karen Foshay; Edited by: Alberto Arce, Michael Bloecher, "Lil" Joe Whiting
Published On: March 19, 2009 4:41 PM

KCET SoCal Connected

It was a class project born out of a discussion of the American Dream. Five months later, it made it into a speech given by President Obama. “it” is an eight minute video titled, “Is Anybody Listening.” It’s the first person accounts of students struggling with foreclosures, hunger and the threat of becoming homeless.



The video feels like a twenty-first century version of a Dorothea Lange portrait. One student told us his American dream is modest - to have a refrigerator full of food. The goal of making the video was to get the attention of the nation’s leaders, specifically the President. It took a few months, but just last week, the video made it to the White House and President Obama told the students in a speech he is listening and promised to fight for their right to the American Dream. Although there is no assurance the President’s promise will change the lives of these Pomona kids, they are hopeful and for now are declaring “mission accomplished.”

If you are interested in helping the teenagers in the video, please contact Rick Motz at Village Academy High School, (909) 397-4900×2600.

KCET SoCal Connected Homepage

KCET SoCal Local

We live in an economic ideology called capitalism. We are taught that if we work hard, and in any job, develop the skills needed we can prosper and advance. Capitalism is supposed to be a system of sharing the profits of the work that goes into the making of or the services rendered. A bottom up economy, hard work, quality products and services, the bottom line grows and all should share in the benefits of that growth, from the top down.

These kids are no different than kids before them or that will come. All are endowed with gifts, each unique. Some will want and need the further education afforded in our universities and colleges, others will want to put there gifts to the test in many area's of employment, hobbies, and lives. All will continue to learn the lessons of life by living and growing. Most will find they have even more gifts as they mature. Most will want, and should get, the respect for what they do in their lives and in what they do in their working lives.

In just 8 minutes, the students from Village Academy High in Pomona articulated the struggles of millions of Americans. They did it by making a video called, "Is Anybody Listening?" and you'll be surprised to find out who is.

Is Anybody Listening - Where It All Began

Some how we've allowed that system to corrupt itself, businesses buying out smaller businesses to make huge corporations thus taking competition away by shutting down some as they absorbed others discarding the workers as they expanded, the money changers and business executives started reaping huge wages, benefits and business perks worried more about the money side and the investor than in quality product and customer service. This has left those producing he work with falling starter wages and stagnation in growth wages no matter how much is givin to their jobs as prices of commodities have risen.

The kids from Village Academy High in Pomona get the chance to meet President Obama.

Obama Visit

We once had a growing economy, workers had to fight for some of their share, and continue fighting, but it did grow, their was a sharing in the success on all levels.

How do I know, I grew up in it and than joined it. Workers would get raises on their quality of work, where most worked became their second families, their would be pretty much regular raises, I've known small investors, who did so on long term investing in companies, that reaped more wealth from those investment, than what they're meager wages produced, able to leave huge sums to their children. I watched as small businesses grew into larger and larger corporation, not through buyouts but quality work and service.

As our new President says, and many understand, a strong economy is bottom up not top down, if there really is that much money at the top for the money changers and business executives than that's where it's frozen, as the workers have become commodities to be brought in or discarded according to number figures on paper, everything is tossed aside for a bottom line percentage.

Bill Moyers Journal - Economy

March 20, 2009

Bill Moyers sits down with socialist historian Mike Davis for his critique of the government's response to the economic crisis and how he thinks it compares to Roosevelt's New Deal. Mike Davis is a writer and historian, who currently teaches creative writing at University of California, Riverside.

Watch the discussion

More about Mike Davis.

"We need more protests. We need more noise in the street. At the end of the day, political parties tend to legislate what social movements and social voices have already achieved in the factories or the streets or in the civil rights demonstration."

American Dissenters Dissident voices from Tom Paine to Ralph Nader.

Bill Moyers talks with Marta Peláez, president and CEO of Family Violence Prevention Services, Inc., a domestic abuse shelter in San Antonio, TX, for perspective on the human face of the economic downturn and how it may be pushing more families over the edge.

Watch the discussion

More about Marta Peláez

"Last year, at this same time, I had 68-70 on my daily census, women and children. Today, I just called this morning, we had 184 women — 114 of those people are children."

How to Safeguard Your Community Against Domestic Violence

What's One Thing Needed.......

Workers must once again unite, we've seen enough obscene behavior from the money changers and those they help as well as our representatives.

One place leaders can and should come from is the ranks of our returning soldiers, already well disciplined, many with great leadership qualities, and having experienced the worse man can bring on his fellow man.

We will find business and rank and file workers, leaders all, within those ranks!

Barack O'Bama {for st. patty's day}

There's no one as Irish as Barack O'Bama {this is the YouTube video, no embed available}

Official music video from the Corrigan Brothers. Sing along with the karaoke lyrics and trace Obama's Irish roots!

Corrigan Brothers

No One as Irish Alternative - performed by Erins Own

Michelle: "It Hurts!!", "It Hurts!!"

I went over to ABC News to see if they had posted a video report that I caught last night, never got to that as this is what I found, and will be airing this morning on GMA.

Exclusive: 'It Hurts,' Says First Lady of Military Families on Food Stamps

First lady Michelle Obama wants military families to know they have a friend in the White House, she told "Good Morning America's" Robin Roberts in an exclusive interview today at Fort Bragg, N.C. -- her first network television interview since her husband took office.

"It hurts. It hurts," the first lady said of hearing about military families on food stamps. "These are people who are willing to send their loved ones off to, perhaps, give their lives -- the ultimate sacrifice. But yet, they're living back at home on food stamps. It's not right, and it's not where we should be as a nation."

It is so refreshing to actually watch as those in this new administration, especially the First Family members, speak the words of the real needs that should have come from those in the previous administration, especially as to anything connected to our Military and their Families as we sent them into two, now long running, occupations! All they gave us, and our soldiers as well as their families, were "Go Shopping!" and 'Magnetic Ribbons'!

And when they do you can read the dedication to those words and thoughts in the faces of those speaking, and the want to Really make a difference by doing what already should have been but wasn't even thought of.

Mrs. Obama's comments to ABC News followed an emotional private meeting with military families at Fort Bragg. The first lady traveled to North Carolina to hear their stories about the support services that are available to them and what can be done to better serve those who serve their country.

"I think that's one of my jobs, is to try and shed some light on some of these issues," she said, "to not just be in that conversation with military spouses and hear those stories, but to take that information back to the administration to share it with the nation, so that we can think again about how we can better support these families."

Working with and for military families is at the top of the first lady's agenda as she settles into her new role in the White House -- so for her first trip outside of Washington, she chose to highlight the struggles of the nation's servicemen and servicewomen.

The Military and their Families can really believe they have more than just a Friend in the White House, and that what wasn't before will be fought for to be now!

Lets hope the Country follows their Lead, especially as to this generations New Veterans, it hasn't since after World War II, and the Veterans Administration administrative offices have been nothing but political appointee's, from the very top down, and especially these last eight years as they vigorously sent our troops into two Wars, Incompetence and Corruption Reigned!

Michelle Obama begins advocacy as first lady

First lady Michelle Obama reads to children at the Prager Child Development Center at Fort Bragg, N.C., where she met with relatives of service members.
FORT BRAGG, N.C. (AP) — The nation owes not only gratitude but tangible assistance to the nation's military and their families, and she'll make that a focus of her time in the White House, first lady Michelle Obama says.

Underscoring her commitment to the plight of America's military families, Mrs. Obama used a trip to Fort Bragg as a stage for her first television interviews since the inauguration. One with ABC's "Good Morning America" was to air Friday.

In the interview she said she wanted military families to know they have a friend in the White House.

On the local news here they showed a short clip of Michelle reading to the children. See the cute young lady standing next to her in the above pic, this is one youngster that will never forget this meeting, in the clip she seemed to be constantly talking to Michelle, touching her, and striving to savor the moment. Michelle kept smiling as she gave her answers to her questions and wrapped her arm around her. All the kids were enjoying this moment and Michelle's reading to them.

A footnote:

Here's Really Hoping

The obstructionist 'rushlicans' will Not Stop the Real Need to move forward in Giving Our Veterans that which should have always been, What They Are Owed For Our Service To Country especially after their Wars of Choice!!

PBS NewsHour Interview with President Obama

Obama Assesses Iraq Strategy, Challenges of New Presidency, this brings up the video's.

After a major policy announcement that the U.S. combat mission in Iraq will end next year, President Obama spoke with Jim Lehrer about Iraq, Afghanistan and the challenges of his new presidency. Watch the full interview on Friday's NewsHour.

Newsmaker: Obama Outlines Goals for Afghanistan, Iraq

In a speech Friday at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina, President Barack Obama set a timetable for U.S. combat troop withdrawal in Iraq by 2010. The president discusses his military strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan with Jim Lehrer.

Full Transcript

Almost completely forgot about this, they're airing some of it now!

Press Release from the Veterans Administration

2010 Budget Request Strongly Supports VA Programs

Funding Plan Improves Access, Modernizes Technology

WASHINGTON (Feb. 26, 2009) – President Obama's first proposed budget for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) expands eligibility for health care to an additional 500,000 deserving Veterans over the next five years, meets the need for continued growth in programs for the combat Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, and provides the resources to deliver quality health care for the Nation’s 5.5 million Veteran patients.

Don't Forget the Iraqi Refugees

REFUGEES INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES CAMPAIGN URGING OBAMA TO HELP IRAQI REFUGEE

Washington D.C. - As President Obama works to stabilize Iraq, he must be sure to comprehensively address the Iraqi refugee crisis. Five million Iraqis have been uprooted by conflict, forced to leave everything behind. They have sought refuge within Iraq, Syria, Jordan and other neighboring countries. They are running out of resources with little opportunity for employment; access to food, heath care, education and other essential services is extremely limited. The conditions for Iraqis to return home safely do not exist, and millions of Iraqi refugees are unlikely and unwilling to return to Iraq in the foreseeable future. The U.S. administration must lead international efforts to meet the long-term needs of displaced Iraqis. Failure to assist Iraqis will have dramatic impacts on security inside Iraq.

The campaign features a petition urging the Obama administration to:

1. Assist Iraqi refugees.

2. Ensure a safe, voluntary return home when possible.

3. Pressure Iraq to meet its responsibilities to its own people.

4. Increase resettlement for those who can't go home.

Supporters can sign the petition here or when you click on the top link the petition, with intro video, loads to sign.

Contact Information:
Sara Fusco
Refugees International Site
Phone: 202-828-0110, ext.204
Sara at Refugee International

US Involvement in Afghanistan, Past, Present & Future

President Obama is speaking before a joint session of Congress Tuesday night in what is being described as the first State of the Union address of his presidency. While the economy is expected to dominate the agenda, Obama will also talk about his top foreign policy initiative: the war in Afghanistan. Last week, Obama ordered an additional 17,000 US combat troops to Afghanistan. The new deployments will begin in May and increase the US occupation force to 55,000. Today, we spend the hour looking at US involvement in Afghanistan with five guests: Anand Gopal, Afghanistan correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor; Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould, authors of Invisible History: Afghanistan’s Untold Story; Gilles Dorronsoro, visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace; and documentary filmmaker Kathleen Foster. [includes rush transcript]

Democracy Now - Watch/Listen/Read 2.23.09

"Holding On"

Joy's original thought was that it was a song for mothers of challenged children, particularly single moms, like her. While in the process of getting the music transcribed on the computer in June of '07, it occurred to her that it also might appeal to the wives and mothers of veterans returning from war with TBI and PTSD.

Kristian Lei - Holding On


The full story of how the song came to be is on Joy's blog: Joy Dawning

There's a short writeup, where I found out about the video, at the Honolulu Advertiser

Music Video by Kristian Lei singing Holding On with Joy Dawning [words and music] and Henry Mochida [Director]. Produced by HDology, LLC. (C) 2009 Joy Dawning Publishing, LLC

A 'Nation' Honoring It's Fallen, Past Due

This started out as just a 'to be comment', with the NPR report just below, updating the reports surfacing about the revisit of the policy on our returning soldiers killed in action in the two combat theaters. I kept finding abit more so included, along with an upcoming HBO presentation, this coming weekend, of a documentary on the journal written by an officer as he accompanied a soldier back to his family and community.

Rethinking Media Coverage Of Fallen Troops

Talk of the Nation, February 17, 2009 · President Obama has indicated that the Pentagon will review a policy banning the press from photographing the remains of U.S. troops returning to the states in flag-draped "transfer cases" at Dover Air Force Base. The ban has been in effect since the Gulf War in 1991.

John Barry, national security correspondent for Newsweek, once attended the unloading of the coffins from a C-17 at Dover. He writes that witnessing "an event so moving in its intimacy and restraint" made him feel like an intruder.

Listen In

Below is an earlier discussion right after President Obama made his statement as to the new Administration looking in to this policy of hiding the return of our fallen.

Ban On Media Coverage Of Military Coffins Revisited

All Things Considered, February 11, 2009 · A longtime Pentagon policy bars the media from covering the arrival of coffins carrying the military's dead. But that may change under the Obama administration.

Listen In

At the University of Delaware, professor Ralph Begleiter, a former CNN correspondent, has fought unsuccessfully in the courts for the release of government photos taken at Dover. He says it's an important element of the story of any war.

"What I'm about to say, I say with the fullest respect of the family members who have made that sacrifice by giving up their family members," Begleiter said. "I would say the people who die make that sacrifice not solely for the families but also for the nation. So it's not just a matter of privacy for the families. It's a matter of national grieving."

This is also an earlier NPR show and discussion on this important topic:

After Death, a Soldier's Journey Is Not Over

Talk of the Nation, April 7, 2008 · Writer Chris Jones followed a soldier's body from Baghdad to its final resting place in the soldier's hometown of Scottsburg, Ind. Jones discusses the long journey in "The Things That Carried Him," a detailed article in Esquire magazine about the transfer of remains.

Listen In

Esquire magazine "The Things That Carried Him", By Chris Jones.

When we joined the Military, along with all the papers to sign and more, we took an Oath, and Oath that stays with all who serve, wether one stays in or finishes his or hers enlistment, the Oath and the Experinces never leave:

I, [name], do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will 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 on which I am about to enter. { So help me God }

This is the same Oath but for the officers who serve:

I, [name], do solemly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State (Commonwealth, District, Territory) of ___ against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the Governor of the State (Commonwealth, District, Territory) of ___, that I make this obligation freely, without any mental reservations or purpose of evasion, and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the Office of [grade] in the Army/Air National Guard of the State (Commonwealth, District, Territory) of ___ upon which I am about to enter, { so help me God.}

You serve for Country and Constitution and deserve to be Honored, right or wrong the decisions of the civilian and military leadership, by the Country, and they must know the true cost of that service especially after being sent into conflicts far from home!

Grief for War Dead Shrouds Casket Photo Ban
Military Families Want Sons' and Daughters' Stories Told -- but Privacy Respected

Insets, from left to right: A1C. Elizabeth N. Jacobson, LCpl. Justin Mark Ellsworth, Pfc. Brandon Sapp and Sgt. Patrick McCaffrey. Back, in this Department of Defense photo soldiers drape U.S. flags over the caskets of members of a Black Hawk helicopter crew killed in Kuwait in 2005.

"His life was the American middle-class dream," said his mother, Nadia McCaffrey, 63, a veterans' rights activist who lives in the house her son left in Tracy, Calif. "He didn't realize war could happen."

The family was besieged by the press nonstop for 10 days, and because they had so many unanswered questions about their son's death, they allowed the media to join them when Patrick's body arrived in Sacramento.

"The day my son left for Iraq he was hoping to make a difference," his father, Bob McCaffrey, told ABCNews.com. "He left behind his children, his wife and his own life. We are not going to hide him when he comes home."

The McCaffrey's decision defied a longstanding military ban on photographing the caskets of America's war dead -- a policy that had been enacted in 1991 during the first Gulf War. Many mistakenly believe that it was President George W. Bush who enacted the ban.

"It's like they're hiding the service members killed in action," said McCaffrey, 64, of Bella Vista, Calif. "It disgusted me from the beginning."

Below is a part of a previous post:

Film tells story of final journey for soldier

We as a Nation, for these past 7plus years, have not been allowed to Honor the Returning Soldiers killed while serving this Country in these Two Theaters of Occupations, and because of that few know or even think about the real cost of War, especially Wars of Choice!

President Obama has now said he will be revisiting that policy, set by those who sent our Military into both Theaters.

GILLETTE, Wyo. — It was just one soldier’s story. Lance Cpl. Chance Phelps, 19, was killed in an ambush outside of Baghdad on Good Friday 2004. Within the next week, his body would be escorted from Iraq, across the Atlantic Ocean and across most of the United States to his hometown of Dubois in northwest Wyoming.

To national audiences, it was one more military casualty.

But like every soldier felled in battle, Chance left behind a world of connections: family, friends and a small Wyoming town devastated by his loss. The man who accompanied his casket from Philadelphia to Dubois, Lt. Col. Michael Strobl, provided a glimpse into that world by journaling the cross-country trip.

Premiered at the Sundance Festival on January 16th 2009, and will air on HBO in February 2009.

A ‘behind-the-scenes’ clip from the Sundance premier of Taking Chance.


"Taking Chance" trailer


Chance Phelps Foundation

HBO airing dates and times, airing through the 1st of March.

Weapons programs re-branded as jobs programs

Military industry appeals to job-loss fears Pt2/2



Part 1of2 Will Obama slash the military budget?
Pentagon fighting to maintain military spending

Will Obama slash the military budget?

Will Obama Cut War Waste and Military Misappropriations?

There has been much speculation as to the new President's orientation toward the US military budget, which has been estimated at a total cost of one trillion dollars per year. As government spending takes center stage in Washington, President Obama is being called on by some to cut the military budget, an idea that has been largely absent from US politics for many years. Nancy Youssef explains how this is affecting the mood inside the Pentagon, while Miriam Pemberton debunks the supposed defense spending 'cut' that has been seen in various media reports of late.

How will the 'Taliban', 'Emboldened', republican Congressional Critters vote on the Iraq and Afghanistan War Funding Now?

Estimated Costs of U.S. Operations in
Iraq and Afghanistan and of Other Activities
Related to the War on Terrorism - PDF

This is money not spent for Americans on highways, bridges, schools, energy, health care, jobs, fire fighters, police, etc., nor has it been for the still ongoing occupations.

The 2 trillion dollars, Plus(with interest Plus), is on top of 2 trillion dollars Plus worth of tax cut given by republicans and the bush administration to the wealthiest of us all, no questions asked, and loudly cheered on by their supporters, the Huge majority not being of that elite class, but still thinking there's some sort of 'trickle down'.

Under cheney/bush/goper Incompetency: Inquiry on Graft in Iraq Focuses on U.S. Officers

Federal authorities examining the early, chaotic days of the $125 billion American-led effort to rebuild Iraq have significantly broadened their inquiry to include senior American military officers who oversaw the program, according to interviews with senior government officials and court documents.
Court records show that last month investigators subpoenaed the personal bank records of Col. Anthony B. Bell, who is now retired from the Army but who was in charge of reconstruction contracting in Iraq in 2003 and 2004 when the small operation grew into a frenzied attempt to remake the country’s broken infrastructure. In addition, investigators are examining the activities of Lt. Col. Ronald W. Hirtle of the Air Force, who was a senior contracting officer in Baghdad in 2004, according to two federal officials involved in the inquiry.

SNIP

Prosecutors have won 35 convictions on cases related to reconstruction in Iraq, yet most of them involved private contractors or midlevel officials. The current inquiry is aiming at higher-level officials, according to investigators involved in the case, and is also trying to determine if there are connections between those officials and figures in the other cases. Although Colonel Bell and Colonel Hirtle were military officers, they worked in a civilian contracting office.

SNIP

Former American officials describe payments to local contractors from huge sums of cash dumped onto tables and stuffed into sacks as if it were Halloween candy.

“You had no oversight, chaos and breathtaking sums of money,” said Senator Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who helped create the Wartime Contracting Commission, an oversight board. “And over all of that was the notion that failure was O.K. It doesn’t get any better for criminals than that set of circumstances.”

In one case of graft from that period, Maj. John L. Cockerham of the Army pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $10 million in bribes as a contracting officer for the Iraq war and other military efforts from 2004 to 2007, when he was arrested. Major Cockerham’s wife has also pleaded guilty, as have several other contracting officers.
In Major Cockerham’s private notebooks, Colonel Bell is identified as a possible recipient of an enormous bribe as recently as 2006, the two senior federal officials said. It is unclear whether the bribe was actually offered or paid.

SNIP