REAL NEWS AND POLITICS!!!

VOTE THEM OUT OF OFFICE!!!

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 05:39:42 GMT

VOTE THEIR SORRY, SPINELESS, "DO ~ NOTHING" AZZES OUT OF OFFICE!!!

FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 681 (Democrats in roman; Republicans in italic; Independents underlined)

      H R 1424      YEA-AND-NAY      3-Oct-2008      1:22 PM
      QUESTION:  On Motion to Concur in Senate Amendments
      BILL TITLE: Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008

	Yeas	Nays	PRES	NV
Democratic	172	63
Republican	91	108
Independent
TOTALS	263	171

---- YEAS 263 ---

{VOTE THESE BASTARDS OUT OF OFFICE!!!}

Abercrombie
Ackerman
Alexander
Allen
Andrews
Arcuri
Baca
Bachus
Baird
Baldwin
Barrett (SC)
Bean
Berkley
Berman
Berry
Biggert
Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)
Blunt
Boehner
Bonner
Bono Mack
Boozman
Boren
Boswell
Boucher
Boustany
Boyd (FL)
Brady (PA)
Brady (TX)
Braley (IA)
Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine
Buchanan
Calvert
Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)
Cannon
Cantor
Capps
Capuano
Cardoza
Carnahan
Carson
Castle
Clarke
Cleaver
Clyburn
Coble
Cohen
Cole (OK)
Conaway
Cooper
Costa
Cramer
Crenshaw
Crowley
Cubin
Cuellar
Cummings
Davis (AL)
Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)
Davis, Tom
DeGette
DeLauro
Dent
Dicks
Dingell
Donnelly
Doyle
Dreier
Edwards (MD)
Edwards (TX)
Ehlers
Ellison
Ellsworth
Emanuel
Emerson
Engel
Eshoo
Etheridge
Everett
Fallin
Farr
Fattah
Ferguson
Fossella

Foster
Frank (MA)
Frelinghuysen
Gerlach
Giffords
Gilchrest
Gonzalez
Gordon
Granger
Green, Al
Gutierrez
Hall (NY)
Hare
Harman
Hastings (FL)
Herger
Higgins
Hinojosa
Hirono
Hobson
Hoekstra
Holt
Honda
Hooley
Hoyer
Inglis (SC)
Israel
Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)
Johnson, E. B.
Kanjorski
Kennedy
Kildee
Kilpatrick
Kind
King (NY)
Kirk
Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)
Knollenberg
Kuhl (NY)
LaHood
Langevin
Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)
Lee
Levin
Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)
Lewis (KY)
Loebsack
Lofgren, Zoe
Lowey
Lungren, Daniel E.
Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)
Markey
Marshall
Matsui
McCarthy (NY)
McCollum (MN)
McCrery
McGovern
McHugh
McKeon
McNerney
McNulty
Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)
Melancon
Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary
Miller, George
Mitchell
Mollohan
Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick
Murtha
Myrick
Nadler
Neal (MA)
Oberstar
Obey
Olver
Ortiz

Pallone
Pascrell
Pastor
Pelosi
Perlmutter
Peterson (PA)
Pickering
Pomeroy
Porter
Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)
Putnam
Radanovich
Rahall
Ramstad
Rangel
Regula
Reyes
Reynolds
Richardson
Rogers (AL)
Rogers (KY)
Ros-Lehtinen
Ross
Ruppersberger
Rush
Ryan (OH)
Ryan (WI)
Sarbanes
Saxton
Schakowsky
Schiff
Schmidt
Schwartz
Scott (GA)
Sessions
Sestak
Shadegg
Shays
Shuster
Simpson
Sires
Skelton
Slaughter
Smith (TX)
Smith (WA)
Snyder
Solis
Souder
Space
Speier
Spratt
Sullivan
Sutton
Tancredo
Tanner
Tauscher
Terry
Thompson (CA)
Thornberry
Tiberi
Tierney
Towns
Tsongas
Upton
Van Hollen
Velázquez
Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)
Wamp
Wasserman Schultz
Waters
Watson
Watt
Waxman
Weiner
Welch (VT)
Weldon (FL)
Weller
Wexler
Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)
Wolf
Woolsey
Wu
Yarmuth

---- NAYS 171 ---

Aderholt
Akin
Altmire
Bachmann
Barrow
Bartlett (MD)
Barton (TX)
Becerra
Bilbray
Bilirakis
Bishop (UT)
Blackburn
Blumenauer
Boyda (KS)
Broun (GA)
Brown-Waite, Ginny
Burgess
Burton (IN)
Butterfield
Buyer
Capito
Carney
Carter
Castor
Cazayoux
Chabot
Chandler
Childers
Clay
Conyers
Costello
Courtney
Culberson
Davis (KY)
Davis, David
Davis, Lincoln
Deal (GA)
DeFazio
Delahunt
Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.
Doggett
Doolittle
Drake
Duncan
English (PA)
Feeney
Filner
Flake
Forbes
Fortenberry
Foxx
Franks (AZ)
Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)
Gillibrand
Gingrey

Gohmert
Goode
Goodlatte
Graves
Green, Gene
Grijalva
Hall (TX)
Hastings (WA)
Hayes
Heller
Hensarling
Herseth Sandlin
Hill
Hinchey
Hodes
Holden
Hulshof
Hunter
Inslee
Issa
Jefferson
Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)
Jordan
Kagen
Kaptur
Keller
King (IA)
Kingston
Kucinich
Lamborn
Lampson
Latham
LaTourette
Latta
Linder
Lipinski
LoBiondo
Lucas
Lynch
Mack
Manzullo
Marchant
Matheson
McCarthy (CA)
McCaul (TX)
McCotter
McDermott
McHenry
McIntyre
McMorris Rodgers
Mica
Michaud
Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)

Moran (KS)
Murphy, Tim
Musgrave
Napolitano
Neugebauer
Nunes
Paul
Payne
Pearce
Pence
Peterson (MN)
Petri
Pitts
Platts
Poe
Price (GA)
Rehberg
Reichert
Renzi
Rodriguez
Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher
Roskam
Rothman
Roybal-Allard
Royce
Salazar
Sali
Sánchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta
Scalise
Scott (VA)
Sensenbrenner
Serrano
Shea-Porter
Sherman
Shimkus
Shuler
Smith (NE)
Smith (NJ)
Stark
Stearns
Stupak
Taylor
Thompson (MS)
Tiahrt
Turner
Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)
Visclosky
Walberg
Walz (MN)
Westmoreland
Whitfield (KY)
Wittman (VA)
Young (AK)
Young (FL)

whatreallyhappened.com

Tags: no bailout, congress, wallstreet welfare, dubya gump, votem them out of office

THE "DICK" CHENEY IS TRYING TO "REWRITE" HISTORY!!

Tue, 30 Sep 2008 09:46:02 GMT

September 16, 2008

Starving the Archives

THE "DICK" CHENEY AND HIS RECORDS???

By BINOY KAMPMARK

What are we going to do about old Dick’s subterfuge and an office he did much to undermine during his time in power???

All sorts of conjecturing has been taking place about how best to deprive the archival records of the US Vice President’s papers under the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

The man is scurrying behind a wall of legal protections and gathering a group of friends to achieve that devilish enterprise.

According to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, an argument being made by the Office of the Vice President, archivists and the National Archives and Records Administration, is rather cunning, if severely flawed. Dick is, in fact, a member of Congress.

Startled??? Let’s go back a bit. Since an executive order in 2001, President Bush declared that the PRA applied to ‘executive records’. What executive order 13233 did should have been a warning to devotees of the paper trail: the public record was effectively being closed.

As the American Library Association put it (Press Release, March 1, 2002), the order of November 1, 2001 ‘effectively invalidates the Presidential Records Act.’

Now the PRA was a creature of necessity, passed in 1978 to combat the attempts of an ever-paranoid, larcenous President Nixon to conceal his records.

The records of Presidents and Vice Presidents, the public was told, would be their property – ‘we the people’ would be able to assert that abstract yet powerful ownership over the deliberations of the White House.

At the waving of his pen, Bush put pay to that, a legislative emasculation librarians and archivists have yet to recover from.

Cheney’s response to has been one of self-exclusion: he is not, one is suddenly surprised to find out, part of the executive.

We are told, curiously, that the Vice President is somehow part of a different arm of government. That may well be Congress, which will come as a surprise to many representatives on the Hill.

Cheney has offered, to add to his other philosophical meditations, a rather idiosyncratic interpretation of the separation of powers doctrine.

One can only wonder what the old Baron de Montesquieu might have thought about that.

According to CREW, the archivist has added to this legal conundrum. Not only is Dick apparently an appendage of Congress, the congressional records amassed during his time in office are his personal effects. He may do with them as he wishes. The result is predictable. Paper trails will vanish.

There will be no obligation to keep them as a public record. True to form, the Bush administration, even in its post-administrative phase, will intrigue and obscure, deceive and deny.

Privileges in high office can be such a dangerous thing. When it comes to records, the case of Nixon v Administrator of General Services 433 US 425 (1977) comes to mind.

While the argument there covered the Presidential office, rather than that of the Vice President (non-executive, according to Cheney), the issues covered there bear repeating.

While a degree of constitutional privilege protecting various records is important (that much was acknowledged by the Court), the presumption can be overcome by demonstrating some ‘specific need’ for those particular records to be accessible.

In Cheney’s case, Iago of the administration, that need should be obvious. The danger in Cheney’s case is that such records will become as rare as an Iraqi arsenal of weapons of mass destruction.

CREW has attempted to circumvent Cheney’s measures of concealment by seeking an order that will preserve these records pending a lawsuit assessing the legal merits of the Vice President’s actions.

The shredding machine is being readied, and the lawyers of CREW are busy preventing it from being used. Cheney, in the meantime, might well want to consider running for Congress after the expiration of his term. That is, after all, where he claims he belongs.

Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College, Cambridge. Email: bkampmark@gmail.com.

counterpunch.org

Tags: dubya gump, dick cheney, history, corruption, dictatorship, archives

MCSHAME AND THE "POW" COVER ~ UP!!!

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:52:10 GMT

MCSHAME AND THE "POW" COVER ~ UP???

McCain and the POW Cover-up

The "war hero" candidate buried information about POWs left behind in Vietnam

By Sydney H. Schanberg

Very few Americans are aware of the POW story and of McCain's role in keeping it out of public view and denying the existence of abandoned POWs. That is because McCain has hardly been alone in his campaign to hide the scandal. Continue

informationclearinghouse.info

Tags: MCSHAME, POW COVER~UP, VIETNAM, MCCAIN IS NO WAR HERO, GOP, REPUBLIKKKAN PARTY

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 19:22:45 GMT

A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS!!!

Tags: DUBYA GUMP, BAILOUT,CHENEY, GOP, AIPAC, ISRAELI LOBBY, PNAC, DICTATORSHIP, CORRUPTION, NEW WORLD ORDER

FEMA REJECTED WATER, FUEL, ETC., AND CUT EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS LINE FOR NEW ORLEANS!!!

Sun, 18 Sep 2005 03:56:17 GMT

FEMA turns down water, fuel
for New Orleans, cuts area's
emergency communication line!!!

by Scott Shane, The New York Times

Sept. 4, 2005 [Day 7]

As the Bush administration tried to show a more forceful effort to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, government officials on Sunday escalated their criticism and sniping over who was to blame for the problems plaguing the initial response.

While rescuers were still trying to reach people stranded by the floods, perhaps the only consensus among local, state and federal officials was that the system had failed.

Some federal officials said uncertainty over who was in charge had contributed to delays in providing aid and imposing order, and officials in Louisiana complained that Washington disaster officials had blocked some aid efforts.

Local and state resources were so weakened, said Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, that in the future federal authorities need to take "more of an upfront role earlier on, when we have these truly ultracatastrophes."

But furious state and local officials insisted that the real problem was that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which Mr. Chertoff's department oversees, failed to deliver urgently needed help and, through incomprehensible red tape, even thwarted others' efforts to help.

"We wanted soldiers, helicopters, food and water," said Denise Bottcher, press secretary for Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco of Louisiana. "They wanted to negotiate an organizational chart."

Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans expressed similar frustrations. "We're still fighting over authority," he told reporters on Saturday. "A bunch of people are the boss. The state and federal government are doing a two-step dance."

In one of several such appeals, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, Democrat of New York, called on President Bush on Sunday to appoint an independent national commission to examine the relief effort. She also said that she intends to introduce legislation to remove FEMA from the Department of Homeland Security and restore its previous status as an independent agency with cabinet-level status.

Mr. Chertoff tried to deflect the criticismof his department and FEMA by saying there would be time later to decide what went wrong.

"Whatever the criticisms and the after-action report may be about what was right and what was wrong looking back, what would be a horrible tragedy would be to distract ourselves from avoiding further problems because we're spending time talking about problems that have already occurred," he told Tim Russert on "Meet the Press" on NBC.

But local officials, who still feel overwhelmed by the continuing tragedy, demanded accountability and as well as action.

"Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired?" asked Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish, south of New Orleans.

Far from deferring to state or local officials, FEMA asserted its authority and made things worse, Mr. Broussard complained on "Meet the Press."

When Wal-Mart sent three trailer trucks loaded with water, FEMA officials turned them away, he said. Agency workers prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and on Saturday they cut the parish's emergency communications line, leading the sheriff to restore it and post armed guards to protect it from FEMA, Mr. Broussard said.

One sign of the continuing battle over who was in charge was Governor Blanco's refusal to sign an agreement proposed by the White House to share control of National Guard forces with the federal authorities.

Under the White House plan, Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré would oversee both the National Guard and the active duty federal troops, reporting jointly to the president and Ms. Blanco.

"She would lose control when she had been in control from the very beginning," said Ms. Bottcher, the governor's press secretary.

Ms. Bottcher was one of several officials yesterday who said she believed FEMA had interfered with the delivery of aid, including offers from the mayor of Chicago, Richard M. Daley, and the governor of New Mexico, Bill Richardson.

Adam Sharp, a spokesman for Senator Mary L. Landrieu, Democrat of Louisiana, said the problem was not who was in command. FEMA repeatedly held up assistance that could have been critical, he said.

"FEMA has just been very slow to make these decisions," Mr. Sharp said.

In a clear slap at Mr. Chertoff and the FEMA director, Michael D. Brown, Governor Blanco announced Saturday that she had hired James Lee Witt, the director of FEMA during the Clinton administration, to advise her on the recovery.

Nearly every emergency worker told agonizing stories of communications failures, some of them most likely fatal to victims. Police officers called Senator Landrieu's Washington office because they could not reach commanders on the ground in New Orleans, Mr. Sharp said.

Dr. Ross Judice, chief medical officer for a large ambulance company, recounted how on Tuesday, unable to find out when helicopters would land to pick up critically ill patients at the Superdome, he walked outside and discovered that two helicopters, donated by an oil services company, had been waiting in the parking lot.

Louisiana and New Orleans have received a total of about $750 million in federal emergency and terrorism preparedness grants in the last four years, Homeland Security Department officials said.

Mr. Chertoff said he recognized that the local government's capacity to respond to the disaster was severely compromised by the hurricane and flood.

"What happened here was that essentially, the demolishment of that state and local infrastructure, and I think that really caused the cascading series of breakdowns," he said.

But Mayor Nagin said the root of the breakdown was the failure of the federal government to deliver relief supplies and personnel quickly.

"They kept promising and saying things would happen," he said. "I was getting excited and telling people that. They kept making promises and promises."

As originally published

When Wal-Mart sent three trailer trucks loaded with water, FEMA officials turned them away, he said.

Agency workers prevented the Coast Guard from delivering 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel, and on Saturday they cut the parish's emergency communications line, leading the sheriff to restore it and post armed guards to protect it from FEMA, Mr. Broussard said.

In a clear slap at Mr. Chertoff and the FEMA director, Michael D. Brown, Governor Blanco announced Saturday that she had hired James Lee Witt, the director of FEMA during the Clinton administration, to advise her on the recovery.

Nearly every emergency worker told agonizing stories of communications failures, some of them most likely fatal to victims.

Police officers called Senator Landrieu's Washington office because they could not reach commanders on the ground in New Orleans, Mr. Sharp said.

Unknownnews.org

DUBYA GUMP'S LEGACY ~ SCREWING TAXAYER'S MONEY!!!

Sun, 21 Sep 2008 19:10:54 GMT

DUBYA GUMP'S "LEGACY" OF SCREWING TAXPAYER MONEY!!!

Bush’s Legacy Of Squandering Taxpayer Money

Yesterday, President Bush announced his $700 billion plan to buy out troubled financial institutions.

{WTF??? I DON'T MY HARD EARNED TAX DOLLARS GIVEN TO TO CORPORATIONS TO BAIL THEM OUT OF THEIR FINANCIAL PROBLEMS!!! WHAT ABOUT HOMELESS AMERICANS THAT HAVE LOST THERI JOBS AND HOMES??? WHAT ABOUT OUR HOMELESS AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ, AND VEITNAM VETS??? WHAT ABOUT HOMELESS KATRINA VICTIMS??? ETC..}

Demanding enormous faith in his administration’s stewardship, the plan “would place no restrictions on the administration other than requiring semiannual reports to Congress, granting the Treasury secretary unprecedented power to buy and resell mortgage debt,” and to hire outside firms “to help manage its purchases.”

{OUR SO~ CALLED DEMOKKKRATIC, DO ~ "NOTHING" CONGRESS SHOULD BE "FIRED," ESPECIALLY " THAT B*TCH, PELOSI," AND "REID"!!! THEY JUST "RUBBER ~ STAMP" EVERYTHING THAT "RETARD" DUBYA GUMP WANTS!!!}

Further, the proposal provides no oversight mechanism: {TIME TO "DOWNSIZE" CONGRESS, "NOW"!!!}

Sec. 8. Review: Decisions by the Secretary pursuant to the authority of this Act are non-reviewable and committed to agency discretion, and may "NOT" be reviewed by any court of law or any administrative agency.

Bush is demanding unprecedented control over billions of dollars — with no oversight. His history of mismanaging taxpayer dollars should make Americans skeptical of his buyout plan:

{CONGRESS REALLY TO GET UP OFF THEIR SORRY AZZES, AND DO THEIR GAWD DAMN JOB!!! DUH???}

IRAQ RECONSTRUCTION

-$142 million wasted on reconstruction projects that were either terminated or canceled. [Special Inspector General for Iraq, 7/28/08]

-“Significant” amount of U.S. funds for Iraq funneled to Sunni and Shiite militias. [GAO Comptroller, 3/11/08]

-$180 million payed to construction company Bechtel for projects it never finished. [Federal audit, 7/25/07]

-$5.1 billion in expenses for Iraq reconstruction charged without documentation. [Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction report, 3/19/07]

-$10 billion in spending on Iraq reconstruction was wasteful or poorly tracked. [GAO, 2/15/07]

-Halliburton overcharged the government $100 million for one day’s work in 2004. [Project on Government Oversight, 10/8/04]

KATRINA

-Millions wasted on four no-bid contracts, including paying $20 million for an unusable camp for evacuees. [Homeland Security Department Inspector General, 9/10/08]

-$2.4 billion in contracts doled out by FEMA that guaranteed profits for big companies. [Center for Public Integrity investigation, 6/25/07]

-An estimated $2 billion in fraud and waste — nearly 11 percent of the $19 billion spent by FEMA on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita as of mid-June. [New York Times tally, 6/27/06]

-“Widespread” waste and mismanagement on millions for Katrina recovery, including at least $3 million for 4,000 beds that were never used. [GAO, 3/16/06]

DEFENSE CONTRACTS

-A $50 million Air Force contract awarded to a company with close ties to senior Air Force officers, in a process “fraught with improper influence, irregular procedures, glaring conflicts of interest.” [Project on Government Oversight, 4/18/08]

-$1.7 billion in excessive fees and waste paid by the Pentagon to the Interior Department to manage federal lands. [Defense Department and Interior Department Inspectors General audit, 12/25/06]

-$1 trillion unaccounted for by the Pentagon, including 56 airplanes, 32 tanks, and 36 Javelin missile command launch-units. [GAO, 5/18/03]

Given Bush’s history of gross fiscal mismanagement — including an unprecedented number of no-bid contracts and Bush’s resistance to closing fraud loopholes or increasing oversight of contracts — why should Americans trust another $700 billion to his care???

Paul Krugman writes, “Let’s not be railroaded into accepting an enormously expensive plan that doesn’t seem to address the real problem.”

UpdateMatt Stoller has some reactions from anonymous Democratic members of Congress.

thinkprogress.org

Tags: dubya gump, dictatorship, fraud, waste and asbuse, congress, iraq funding

KUWAIT GAVE IDAHO A "GIFT" OF 6,000 TONS OF "RADIOACTIVE" SAND!!!

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 19:14:30 GMT

HOW DID 6,000 TONS OF "RADIOACTIVE" SAND

FROM KUWAIT END UP

IN IDAHO???

Tags:

SCIENCE/HEALTH

On April 26, 2008, the BBC Alabama arrived in Longview, Washington carrying 6700 tons of Kuwaiti sand.

The sand had become "CONTAMINATED" WITH "DEPLETED" URANIUM when U.S. military vehicles and munitions caught fire at Doha Army base in Kuwait during the 1991 Gulf War.

The depleted uranium was being repatriated. The sand was a "GIFT" of the Kuwaiti government.

{WTF??? WITH FRIENDS LIKE THESE, WHO THE HELL NEED ENEMIES???}

How 6,000 Tons of Radioactive Sand from Kuwait Ended Up in Idaho

Tags:

Webmaster's Commentary:

How special!???

whatreallyhappened.com

Tags: dubya gump, depleted uranium, science, health, kuwait, deception, idaho

JUST IN CASE YOU "MISSED" THIS TID BIT OF INFO!!!

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 10:37:16 GMT

In Case You Missed It!!!

Breaking The Silence

Video Documentary By John Pilger

A hard hitting special report into the "war on terror". Click to view

informationclearinghouse.info

Tags: illegal wars, so ~ called war onterror??? , dubya gump, dictatoship

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 06:20:59 GMT

HIDDEN CASUALITIES OF

WAR!!!

Suicide, post-traumatic stress disorder and depression haunt hundreds of thousands of soldiers back from Iraq and Afghanistan. But as Eric Ruder reports, the U.S. government has tried to minimize the crisis.

July 4, 2008 | Issue 675 [2]

A YEAR and a half ago, Scott Eiswert, a specialist in the Tennessee Army National Guard, returned from Iraq, only to face an escalating battle with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

When he learned that his unit would deploy again soon, he felt he could no longer stave off the pain. On May 16, his wife Tracy and his three daughters discovered his body after he shot himself in the family's home.

Pfc. Jason Scheuerman left a note nailed to his barracks closet in Iraq. "Maybe finally I can get some peace," wrote the 20-year-old man. Then he stepped inside the closet and shot himself.

His parents only found out about the note after a yearlong fight to cut through military red tape and discover what happened to their son.

Scott and Jason are just two of the thousands of military personnel whose service in Iraq and Afghanistan plunged them into a place so dark that they took their own lives.

In fact, the number of suicides among veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan now likely exceeds the number of troops killed in combat.

Nearly one in five soldiers deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan--about 300,000--report symptoms of PTSD or major depression upon returning home, but only about half seek treatment, according to a Rand Corporation study released in April.

Based on known suicide rates for similar patients, "It's quite possible that the suicides and psychiatric mortality of this war could trump the combat deaths," according to National Institute of Mental Health director Thomas Insel, who is the government's top psychiatric researcher.

But even "MORE APPALLING" than the "HUMAN TOLL" these wars are "CLAIMING" even after troops leave the battlefield is the military's SHAMELESS COVER ~ UP" of the extent of the problem--and its effort to "DENY" veterans the health care they deserve when they

return.

The Pentagon officially reports that about 30,000 troops were seriously wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

But USA Today found at least 20,000 cases of traumatic brain injury (TBI) not reported by the Pentagon when the newspaper conducted its own study and filed numerous requests for data under the Freedom of Information Act.

The Rand Corporation study found that 320,000 personnel may have experienced a TBI in Iraq or Afghanistan, but only 43 percent said they had ever been evaluated by a physician for the

injury.

As for PTSD, the Pentagon officially acknowledges that 38,000 veterans have been diagnosed with it since 2003--so if the Rand study of 300,000 soldiers with PTSD is accurate, that means some 260,000 have either not sought treatment, not been diagnosed or simply aren't being counted by the military.

This isn't surprising, given the culture of "DENIAL" that pervades the military and veterans health care system.

In April, for example, an e-mail surfaced from Ira Katz, deputy chief patient care services officer for mental health at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), acknowledging that 1,000 veterans under VA care attempt suicide every month.

On average, 18 veterans commit suicide in the U.S. every day, and four of those are veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

"Shh!" begins the e-mail from Katz. "Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it???"

Another troubling e-mail from a VA official came to light in May. Norma Perez, a leading psychologist at a facility for veterans in Texas, wrote to staff members in March directing them to "DIAGNOSE" PTSD "LESS FREQUENTLY" because PTSD patients can receive government disability payments for their condition.

{OUR VETERANS "DESERVE" BETTER!!!}

"Given that we are having more and more compensation-seeking veterans, I'd like to suggest that you refrain from giving a diagnosis of PTSD straight out," wrote Perez in the message to mental-health specialists and social workers. Instead, she continued, "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."

{WTF??? ADJUSTMENT DISORDER??? CAN YOU BELIEVE THIS SH*T??? OUR AFGHANISTAN AND IRAQ WAR VETS "DESERVE" BETTER!!!}

A diagnosis of adjustment disorder is considered less severe and isn't typically compensated like PTSD, for which veterans are eligible for disability payments of up to $2,527 a month, depending on the severity of their condition.

"It is "OUTRAGEOUS" that the VA is calling on its employees to "DELIBERATELY" "MISDIAGNOSE" VETS returning veterans in an effort to cut costs," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which released the memo to the media.

{PEOPLE SHOULD "STOP" JOINING THE MILITARY!!!}

"Those who have risked their lives serving our country deserve far better."

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SCOTT EISWERT had stopped going to the VA for PTSD treatment before his suicide, and the disregard for vets under its care was one reason "WHY," according to Stacy Hafley, an advocate for military families who is helping the Eiswert family get back on its feet.

"He didn't feel like it was helping," said Hafley in an interview. "He thought they were leaning toward saying that his issues were 'family problems,' and not PTSD. So he stopped going, which is fairly common and symptomatic of PTSD.

"I've heard it so many times, and my husband, who also suffers from PTSD, did the same thing. So many feel that the VA is either trying to overmedicate or understate the scope of the problem, and neither of those is particularly helpful. They get frustrated, leave and don't come back."

Hafley underscored the chief problem facing an understaffed VA: "The VA is trying to build a million-dollar home with a penny, and it can't be done," she said.

The VA has an annual mental health budget of $3.8 billion, which U.S. officials contend is a substantial amount. But the U.S. spends this much every 11 days to keep U.S. forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan.

In late June, Bush signed a new supplemental war spending bill, approved by Democrats and Republicans in both houses of Congress. The bill allocates an additional $162 billion of spending that will last into the middle of 2009, well into the term of Bush's successor.

While the bill increases spending on GI education benefits, it contains nothing for expanding the budget for military health care.

"The recent war funding bill was passed to go clear through the spring of 2009, which was clearly a political ploy to not have to deal with war spending right before the election, given that both candidates are sitting senators," explained Hafley.

"I feel like they are PLAYING "POLITICAL GAMES" WITH THE LIVES OF OUR LOVED ONES. WE SHOULD "NOT" BE TOLERATING THAT!!!

{AMEN!!! I SECOND THAT "EMOTION"!!!}

This has been going on for years. These aren't new problems. These are the "SAME" PROBLEMS "VIETNAM VETS" have been facing for decades."

Hafley is right. Fighting wars by skimping on compensation for the soldiers who must fight them is a tried-and-true strategy of every commander in chief.

Successive Democratic and Republican administrations stood in the way of compensation for Vietnam veterans struggling with PTSD and Agent Orange exposure.

The Clinton administration dragged its feet when tens of thousands of veterans of the 1991 Gulf War struggled to get compensation for the dizzying array of symptoms they were experiencing, such as frequent immune system disorders, birth defects, cancer, chronic fatigue, loss of muscle control, headaches, dizziness and loss of balance, memory problems, muscle and joint pain, indigestion, skin problems and shortness of breath.

Today, the military is employing a different arsenal to keep its overstretched military inthe field at bargain-basement prices.

"For the first time in history," according to a cover story in the June 16 issue of Time, "a sizable and growing number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants to calm nerves strained by repeated and lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The medicines are intended not only to help troops keep their cool, but also to enable the already strapped Army to preserve its most precious resource: soldiers on the front lines.

Data contained in the Army's fifth Mental Health Advisory Team report indicate that, according to an anonymous survey of U.S. troops taken last fall, about 12 percent of combat troops in Iraq and 17 percent of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope."

{WTF???}

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

CHRIS LeJEUNE, who returned home in May 2004, began struggling with depression while on a 15-month deployment to Iraq. The uncertainty about the mission itself weighed heavily on his conscience and contributed to his condition.

"When you search someone's house, you have it built up in your mind that these guys are terrorists, but when you go in, there's little bitty tiny shoes and toys on the floor--things like that started affecting me a lot more than I thought they would," LeJeune said.

When LeJeune sought counseling, he got a prescription for antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications, but not much else. "In the civilian world, when you have a problem, you go to the doctor, and you have therapy followed up by some medication," said LeJeune.

"In Iraq, you see the doctor only once or twice, but you continue to get drugs constantly."

And that's if you're lucky enough to see a mental-health professional. According to Time, about a third of troops in Iraq and Afghanistan say they can't see a mental-health provider when they need one.

Adding to the frustration facing the loved ones of veterans seeking help is the "UNRESPONSIVENESS" of every level of government to the

crisis.

Seeking to break the logjam, two veterans' organization filed suit to ask a federal judge to order changes to how the VA delivers care to veterans. The suit sought redress for the lack of mental health care services, the long delays for appointments, and the four-and-a-half year backlog of cases in which veterans are appealing for a higher disability rating than was issued by VA doctors.

But the judge refused to grant the order, saying the plaintiffs were demanding nothing short of "a complete overhaul of the VA system."

Hafley can think of only one other measure that would work better than a complete overhaul. "Quite frankly," she said, "the best thing they could do to stop the overload at the VA is end the war, bring the troops home and stop creating more troops with PTSD who are at risk of suicide or having addiction problems. Adding more money into the VA does help the ones who are already home, but every day, new ones are being created.

"That influx is going to continue. Spending more money is just a temporary fix. They aren't stopping the bleeding. And that's the problem that brought us where we are now."

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What else to read

The Rand Corporation's study "Invisible Wounds of War" [3] compiles information on veterans suffering from PTSD, TBI and major depression. The Rand site also has links to pamphlets with advice for individuals and families trying to cope with post-deployment stress.

To find out more about the Eiswert family and how you can help, go to the E-4 Scott Eiswert Memorial Fund [4].

In "Disposable heroes," [5] published in the International Socialist Review, Pham Binh covered the struggle of soldiers to get the government to devote adequate resources to compensating them for their service.

The Citizen Soldier [6] Web site is an excellent resource for active-duty soldiers looking for news and advice about their rights. Soldiers can also contact the GI Rights Hotline [7] Web site, or call 877-447-4487 from the U.S., 415-487-2635 from outside the U.S., or 06223-47506 from Germany.

Tags: iraq war vets, afghanistan war vets, vietnam war vets, PTSD, VA, dubya gump