Senators Obama (D-IL) and McCaskill (D-MO) will introduce legislation to fix Walter Reed mess

And George Bush thinks we should have a "study." That's nice. I can tell you right now what his study is going to find. 600,000 disability claims backlogged and going nowhere fast. Kind of funny that Bush is now ordering a study when Tony Snow blew off the entire question about Walter Reed today, and the general heading Walter Reed said the Post story was basically a lie. I want hearings. More from Reuters. Read More......

Dad writes letter to the editor seeking donations for son's body armor

Smart dad. Because we know what will happen to his son at Walter Reed if he gets injured.

What the hell is going on in our country? These are the kids going over for the surge. I'm just speechless. Read this letter to the editor in today's Sparta Independent (NY):

To the Editor:

I have a son going to Iraq this summer. I was able to afford to buy state-of-the-art body armor for his protection. Unfortunately there are many parents that are not able to afford this body armor.

My son’s outfit has 24 Marines. Two parents, including myself, have purchased this armor. Five others have been sponsored. The families of all the Marines in the unit have banded together to raise the additional money for the other 17 Marines.

The military has body armor available, but it’s heavy and not state-of-the-art. There is a company called Pinnacle Armor, out of California, that sells armor called Dragon Skin. This is what we have chosen for our sons. We need to raise $102,000 to outfit these 17 Marines. It’s approximately $6000 per Marine.

Any and all donations are welcome.

For more information please call Jesse Roe at xxx-xxx-xxxx.

Jesse Roe
Newton

And by the way, this answers a burning question I've had since last year. A number of folks on the right had been saying "it's a lie, our troops HAVE the body armor they need, and in fact, it's so heavy they don't want to wear it anyway in the hot desert heat." It didn't hit me until I read this letter that this may actually be true, all of our troops DO have body armor - sure, it's the WRONG body armor that they can't use... Read More......

Brits announce they're out of Iraq

CNN just said that the White House is claiming that this is a sign of our success in Iraq. Great, if there's so much success, then when are we leaving? Oh that's right, it's so successfull we're sending another 40,000 men and women. More from AP. Read More......

Hillary now using Bush talking points, says fellow Dems don't care about the war on terror

Who is this woman? Because she sure as hell isn't the same Senator from New York who I was willing to give a fair shake to just one month ago. Now she's doing her best Dick Cheney/Ken Mehlman impression about how leading Democratic candidates for the presidency don't care about the war on terror. What?

Here's what Mrs. Clinton just said in South Carolina:

In response to an audience member’s question about the war — one of eight she fielded — Clinton said America faces a dire threat from terrorism.

“To underscore a point, some people may be running who tell you we don’t face a real threat from terrorism,” she said. “I’m not one of them. We have serious enemies who want to do us serious harm.”

Some people? Would those be the same mythical "some people" who George Bush and the Republicans always cite when they want to claim that Democrats don't care about fighting the war on terror, that we don't care about America? What are we going to hear next from Senator Clinton, that her Democratic opponents hate the troops?

But let's give Hillary a fair shake. Tell us, Mrs. Clinton, who are the Democratic presidential candidates who apparently are traitors and don't care about defending our country against the terrorists? I want names, now. Because either you're a liar, or we have traitors running for president and you know who they are but won't tell us.

This is beyond belief.

It started two weeks ago when Hillary claimed that her special experience as the Senator from New York during September 11 (even though she was in DC that day) somehow gave her special insight in to the Iraq war vote.

"As a senator from New York, I lived through 9/11 and I am still dealing with the aftereffects," Clinton said. "I may have a slightly different take on this from some of the other people who will be coming through here.... I do think we are engaged in a war against heartless, ruthless enemies," she said. "If they could come after us again tomorrow they would do so."

She implied that day that she might have a different take on the war on terror from her other Democratic opponents because she lived through September 11, and apparently they didn't.

It continued with James Carville making the same allegation a few days later:

Clinton voted for the war, even though other senators who had been given the same faulty intel she had, voted against it: "But they weren't from New York," [Carville] said. "Their state wasn't hit. They didn't have to deal with the grief of these 3,000 people."

This fed speculation that linking September 11 to Iraq, and suggesting that Hillary had some kind of unique experience that day that other Democrats didn't have, was a carefully crafted talking point the Clinton camp was now using.

Today, we know for a fact that this IS a new talking point of the campaign.

I don't care how Hillary voted in 2002. I don't care if she apologizes or says she made a mistake. What I do care about is the political Advent calendar that is Hillary's ever-changing position on the war. Pick a day, pop a chocolate, and get a new and ever-more exciting soundbite from Hillary. If it's Tuesday, it must be Al Qaeda (or should I say "Madrassah"?)

You see, Hillary is the only one who thinks America faces a threat from terrorism, when in fact, it's the Democratic party that faces an ever-growing threat from Hillary Clinton. Read More......

One mom's horrific day in Baghdad

From Editor & Publisher:

A few months ago, the McClatchy bureau in Baghdad -- from which some of the best reporting on the war (going back to its Knight Ridder days) has emerged -- launched a blog featuring dispatches by some of its native-born correspondents. Their first names are deleted for security reasons....

Feb. 12:

We were asked to send the next of kin to whom the remains of my nephew, killed on Monday in a horrific explosion downtown, can be handed over. The young men of the family, as was customary, rose to go.

NO! cried his mother. Isnt my son enough?? Must we lose more of our youth?? You know there are unknowns who wait at the Morgue to either kill or kidnap the men who dare reach its doors. I will go.

So we went, his mum, his other aunt and I.

I was praying all the way there.

I never thought a day would come when it was the women of the family, who would be safer on the roads. All the men are potential terrorists it seems, and are therefore to be cut down on sight. This is the logic of today, is it not? To kill evil before it even has a chance to take root.

When we got there, we were given his remains. And remains they were. From the waist down was all they could give us. We identified him by the cell phone in his pants pocket. If you want the rest, you will just have to look for yourselves. We dont know what he looks like.

Now begins a horror that surpasses anything I could have possibly envisioned . We were led away, and before long a foul stench clogged my nose and I retched. With no more warning we came to a clearing that was probably an inside garden at one time; all round it were patios and rooms with large-pane windows to catch the evening breeze Baghdad is renowned for. But now it had become a slaughterhouse, only instead of cattle, all around were human bodies. On this side; complete bodies; on that side halves; and EVERYWHERE body parts.

We were asked what we were looking for, upper half replied my companion, for I was rendered speechless. Over there. We looked for our boys broken body between tens of other boys remains; with our bare hands sifting them and turning them.

We found him millennia later, took both parts home, and began the mourning ceremony.

Read More......

House Rules Committee Chair Louise Slaughter writes Pentagon, demanding answers on Walter Reed vets scandal

She's the chair of the House Rules Committee. And she's pissed. From Slaughter:

"Supporting our troops begins with giving them a mission that makes sense and that doesn't needlessly jeopardize their lives," the Congresswoman continued. "It ends with an unconditional commitment to men and women who have made sacrifices few of us can fully appreciate. If this Administration is going to order soldiers into battle, then it has no right to stand on the sidelines when they come home. We need a serious evaluation of the care being given to our veterans, and must immediately address holes and gaps in a system that can't afford either."

"Critics of the President's escalation of the war are told that they can't both support the troops and oppose their mission," Rep. Slaughter added. "I think that you can't support the troops if you send them into battle without proper armor, or deny them critical medical care and counseling after they are injured. That is the definition of hypocrisy, and our wounded soldiers are paying the price."

Read More......

Iranian claims: turnabout is fair play?

Last week, two major bombings hit Iran, one at a girls school and the other at a military installation. The latter attack was deadly, with dozens of casualties, and a firefight followed the former. Because of Iranian secrecy, little is known about the attacks, but an Iranian separatist group claimed responsibility for the blasts.

They claimed responsibility, in fact, through the MKO, a terrorist organization reportedly based in . . . Iraq. Iranian separatist/terrorist groups are splintered, with alphabet-soup designations including MKO, PMOI, and NCRI, interconnecting at various (and disputed) points. The bottom line, though, is that some terrorists targeting Iran -- mostly native Iranian -- are now basing operations in Iraq, including groups at least tangentially connected to last week's bombings. And somehow we're shocked -- shocked! -- that Iran would want to influence these events in Iraq.

As a special little tweak, Iran is claiming that the explosives used in the attack against Iranian military were manufactured in . . . wait for it . . . the U.S. This claim is, of course, unverifiable, but by the standards of our current administration, I guess our government just purposefully attacked Iran, or something. Yikes. Read More......

Walter Reed statement: Washington Post article is a lie

We've just received a copy of a letter sent by the general running Walter Reed to the entire staf. He needs to be fired, now.

To the Staff of WRAMC from MG Weightman
This letter is to address the issues that were raised in the Washington Post articles this weekend concerning the treatment of patients at WRAMC, specifically their outpatient care and administration. First and foremost, I want to assure all of the staff that I do not believe that there is the "other" Walter Reed. I firmly believe that we deliver the same level of world class healthcare to all of our patients and their families, regardless of whether they are inpatients or outpatients. I see that same level of competence and compassion regardless of what clinic or ward that I visit. I see you taking the same pride and honor in caring for our Nation's sons and daughters day in and day out. We have treated over 6000 OIF/OEF patients at WRAMC since 2002 and the vast majority of them are delighted with our care. We get a lot of visitors daily at WRAMC and they have numerous interactions with our patients and families. They have many opportunities to express both their satisfaction and dissatisfaction, and therefore I feel confident that we, as a staff, have both accurate and frequent feedback from our patients which is overwhelmingly positive. Because of this, I do not believe it is accurate to portray our outpatient population as being "invisible" to the public.

Information for this article was covertly obtained over more than 2 years by reporters who did not wish to bring their findings to the leadership for action. Many of the issues that were raised in the articles have been resolved or mitigated. A survey of outpatients done in our Brigade last month showed that only 2.6% of them expressed dissatisfaction with the administrative aspect of their care; certainly not the picture painted by the recent articles. We have numerous forums to obtain feedback from all of our patients and their family members because it is important for us to know, at all times, how our customers perceive their treatment. They are the reason we exist; their care and satisfaction must remain our highest priorities.

Having said that, I believe that the WP articles give us an opportunity to improve in many areas and I challenge all of you to help me fix both clinical and administrative areas that are not meeting the expectations of either our patients or their family members. We must be especially sensitive to their needs and actively seek their worries and concerns. We must never be accused of being complacent and resting on our well deserved reputation for being the crown jewel of the military health system. Our reputation must be earned every day with each and every patient. Over the next month, we will have numerous visitors who will be inquiring into the issues raised by the WP articles. I encourage all staff to be proactive and engage these visitors when approached. Tell them of the many wonderful things that you do, but do not shrink from admitting where we can be better and telling them what we are doing to get better. It is only through this process of constant self evaluation and challenge that we will be able to meet the needs of our patients.

Thanks to all of you for the dedication, compassion and professionalism that you bring to work every day. We will emerge from this most recent challenge a stronger and better medical center that can take pride in the care it gives to all of our patients.

Warrior Care!

Heckuva job, Brownie. Read More......

Bush to injured Iraq vets at Walter Reed: Don't talk to us about it

Outrageous. Just when you thought the Walter Reed veterans abuse scandal can't get any worse, it does. Today the Bush Administration disavowed any responsibility for what's happening to wounded soldiers at the army hospital, which is basically a straight shot up 16th Street from the White House.

White House spokesman Tony Snow got pummeled today at the White House briefing over the shabby treatment the soldiers are receiving at Walter Reed. But, he was unfazed. You see, it's not the White House's problem, and they don't intend to take responsibility for fixing it.

We've all seen the Bush Administration talk about supporting the troops endlessly. They use our soldiers as political props all the time. But, despite the shabby treatment wounded troops are getting right here in DC, at the supposed flagship hospital, the Bush team didn't say, "this is an outrage and we're going to fix it." No, Tony Snow punted.

Snow told the press corps that if they wanted to know what was going on at Walter Reed, those responsible for working on the problem "work on the other side of the river." In other words, it's the Pentagon's fault, and the Pentagon's responsibility for fixing it -- as if George Bush has no say over what the Pentagon does (or no desire). C'mon. They work for Bush over at the Pentagon, they are PART OF the Bush Administration.

The Bush White House takes NO responsibility for what's going on at Walter Reed. They take no responsibility for fixing things. The White House didn't need to say it was their fault, they simply needed to say "this is outrageous, we're taking over." But they didn't.

George Bush and the Republicans simply do not support our troops. It's beyond outrageous. Read More......

American Legion silent on new reports of abuse of America's veterans

The American Legion's Web site home page is very telling for what it doesn't say.

The most prominent thing on the Web site is a statement castigating Democratic House leaders for expressing disapproval of Bush's new "surge" plan for Iraq. And I quote:

“Congress can talk all it wants to about how it supports the troops. But its actions set the table. The message they sent today to the frontline is that America is preparing to cut and run. We essentially told our fighting men and women that ‘we have taken step one in the plan to cut reinforcements, to cut armaments, and to withdraw any support you need to complete your mission.’"

Tough talk about supporting the troops. So you'd expect the American Legion to have something to say about the fact that 600,000 veteran disability claims are backlogged and going nowhere at Walter Reed. And about the fact that our troops are routinely treated like dogs while living at Walter Reed and after they're discharged. Or about the fact that the top guy at Walter Reed in charge of helping funnel private donations to help our troops is now being investigated for wrongdoing. You'd really expect that the American Legion home page might have something to say about this gross injustice to America's war veterans.

But you'd be wrong.

Here's the American Legion home page:



And here's the American Legion's bitter statement about the surge vote in the Congress. It even throws some anti-Bill Clinton jabs in there. But not a word about the mistreatment of our troops. Well, that's not totally true. In addition to claiming that Democrats are the ones abusing our troops, the American Legion closes with this rather self-referential statement:

“The American Legion and the American people find this to be totally unacceptable and we will do everything within our power to ensure that our troops are not used as political pawns by a Congress that lacks the will to win.”

Nor should they be used by an American Legion that somehow appears to lose its tongue when Republicans are the ones harming our vets. Read More......

Al Qaeda and Osama are back, and they're not in Iraq

From Josh Marshall:

You've probably seen today's report in the Times about the al Qaida resurgence along Pakistan's lawless frontier with Afghanistan. This should hardly be a surprise not only because of the Taliban's comeback in Afghanistan but much more importantly because of the de facto ceasefire with al Qaida militants and their backers that the Pakistani government recently agreed to.

But it gives the current debate over Iraq a renewed clarity. The whole endeavor in Iraq is no more and no less than a grand national joke we are playing on ourselves. We're having a clownish debate over Iraq as the center of a war on terror while the actual people -- in many cases, it would seem, literally the same people -- who plotted the 9/11 attack are on the rebound. How can anyone credibly deny that if most of our ground forces and budget weren't tied down in Iraq we would be far better able to react to this genuine threat?

And we are unwilling to shift course because we can't come to grips with what has already happened.

Read More......

President of Gambia cures AIDS... with his own homemade potion

People like this are no better than genocidal dictators, and should be treated as such. (And by that, I don't mean that George Bush should sell him weapons and Donald Rumsfeld should go shake his hand.) From Sky News:

The man is HIV positive, but after a few sessions of this treatment: a rub down with the cream, a splash on the face with another potion and a drink of a murky looking liquid, the President claims he'll be cured.

He's already treated dozens of his people with his traditional medicine, succeeding, he says, where modern medical science has failed.

Sceptics are not welcome.

"Who do I have to convince?" he demanded, jabbing his finger towards me.

"The World?" I suggested....

This 'cure' is sponsored by The Gambia's Department of Health....

The Minister, Dr Tamsir Mbowe, did not think that would be a problem.

"One hundred per cent the President can cure everyone. It is absolutely medically proven," he said....

President Jammeh cures Aids on Thursdays and Asthma on Saturdays, the rest of the time he runs the country he's ruled for 12 years.

Read More......

"New Conservative majority" on Supreme Court rules for Phillip Morris

A sign of things to come from the Supreme Court. CNN just reported that the Supreme Court, in a 5-4 decision, ruled in favor of Phillip Morris and threw out a $79.5 million judgment for punitive damages as "excessive."

Just this morning, the LA Times reported that the Court is heading towards a Scalia-led majority:

It has been two decades in the making, but this is the year Justice Antonin Scalia, the Supreme Court's most outspoken dissenter, could emerge as a leader of a new conservative majority.

Between now and late June, the court is set to hand down decisions in four areas of law — race, religion, abortion regulation and campaign finance — where Scalia's views may now represent the majority.

Supreme Court justices are the ultimate political appointments. They're life-long appointments. And, their legacy lives on long after the President who appointed them. We'll be facing some ugly decisions from the Scalia court.

(Hat Tip to Think Progress for the link). Read More......

Republican "consumer safety" ignored lead in child lunchboxes

Is it really asking for too much to expect the Republicans to help out consumers instead of their corporate contributors? How low can the GOP sink by allowing vinyl lead-laden lunch boxes to be sold to America's children? The crime is bad enough, but when previously asked the the research behind their approval of the toxic lunch boxes, they played the "we need to protect manufacturers business" card and acted against the best interest of American children.

Once again, thanks to the Freedom of Information Act, the details are now emerging:

"They found levels that we consider very high," said Alexa Engelman, a researcher at the Oakland, California-based Center for Environmental Health, which has filed a series of legal complaints about lead in lunchboxes.

"They knew this all along and they didn't take action on it. It's upsetting to me. Why are we, as a country, protecting the companies? We should be protecting the kids. I don't think in this instance they did their job."

Said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-California: "I am concerned that the CPSC has failed to protect children from an unnecessary hazard they have known about for some time. We should protect our children by banning lead in all children's products."

Although these test results are only now being aired publicly, the CPSC did provide them to the Food and Drug Administration last summer. The FDA's reaction was completely different from the CPSC's. In July 2006, after receiving the test results, the FDA sent a letter to lunch box manufacturers warning them that their lead levels might be dangerously high and advising them that the FDA might take action against them because the lead would be considered a food additive if it rubbed off onto kids' lunches.

"The lunchboxes containing the lead compounds may be subject to enforcement action," said the letter.

In response to the FDA warning, Wal-Mart stopped selling soft lunchboxes with vinyl liners, and offered refunds to customers who wanted to return the ones they already had.

So here you have it: consumer protection by Wal-Mart and hollow threats by our own government. While I appreciate Wal-Mart's action, their own record is dubious and this is merely one outlet. What is the matter with the GOP political appointees who are so uninterested in consumers? Read More......

Senior Walter Reed official under investigation because of Wash Post investigation

The guy was in charge of directing private donations to help injured and maimed soldiers. But the allegation is that while he was heading up that job he was also running his own foundation where he, allegedly, was steering potential donors who walked in the door planning to give money to help the injured troops. The allegations go on to say that the guy spent so much time running his foundation that he simply let a lot of the vets and their families languish.

Yeah, I'm sure nobody had heard this guy was trouble until the Washington Post came calling last week. And actually, the guy says he told his superiors what he was doing "from the beginning." Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, who is in charge of Walter Reed, says it's just not true.

All of this can be settled with a few congressional subpoenas and some testimony under oath. Read More......

Tuesday Morning Open Thread

Lots of attention in the media to Brittany Spears. They're giddy about her "breakdown." Poor thing. She's only a multi-millionaire pampered, spoiled superstar. Not so much attention from the media to American soldiers who are suffering breakdowns from PTSD and the other after effects of their service in Iraq. Have to give a hat tip to Imus. Apparently, he's been on this subject for awhile and was in full rant mode this morning.

There was no plan for the Iraq war. And, the Bush Administration clearly has no plans to deal with how the war impacted our troops. They just say they support the troops. But, talk is very cheap from George Bush.

Get cranking. Read More......

Australia to go green with lightbulbs

Say goodbye to the old fashioned, wasteful incandescent bulbs in the land down under. With the cost savings of the new bulbs, the old ones just don't make any sense. Starting in 2009, the inefficient bulbs will no longer be an option in Australia. Read More......

Stop & Shop confirms customer data was stolen

So the PR-spin master from Stop & Shop was either completely clueless or just insincere when he did his best to dismiss the problem that was announced yesterday. I understand that being honest is not always easy with corporate types, but c'mon. The latest spin is equally silly, as they proclaim "no problems with stolen data yet" even though the thefts only occurred within the last few weeks.

Stop & Shop said customer information, including personal identification codes for cards, was confirmed stolen from supermarkets in Coventry and Cranston, R.I. The company said it had found evidence that card readers were tampered with in a similar way at four other stores in Seekonk and in Bristol, Providence, and Warwick, R.I.

Though the company is not detailing how, they are suggesting that the thieves somehow accessed the card readers and were grabbing the details as customers checked out at the stores. Read More......