Veterans

Again some more loving from Bush for our vets:

A top White House official weighed in Thursday with renewed veto threats against rival House and Senate Iraq funding bills, saying add-ons for veterans and the unemployed were unacceptable.

Most significantly, Jim Nussle, director of the White House budget office, said that a plan by House Democrats to add unrelated legislation at a cost that could reach $51 billion over the next decade, would provoke a veto even though they are popular politically. The items he cited include extending unemployment benefits, at a cost of $16 billion over two years, and boosting education benefits under the GI Bill.

I would love to see Congress muster up enough votes to overturn the veto. Will the Republicans stand up for the veterans, or will they give them the proverbially "fuck you" that George Bush extends to them?

No shock - we always knew he was a coward:

While O'Reilly wouldn't face the vets on the streets, their plight also escaped smarmy O'Reilly producer Jesse Waters, who wore Gucci loafers and a goofy smirk as he asked the vets if they had heard the comments firsthand, and then chided them about not traveling to Dallas to confront Mark Cuban about the depiction of G.I.s in his film "Redacted."

"We're here to talk about Bill and his comments," one vet said, holding his ground.

Waters' cohort, who refused to give his name, said, "I'm completely unfazed by this," as he stared into his BlackBerry.

While the group wasn't allowed to meet or see O'Reilly, Waters eventually did accept the binder of 17,000 petitions on the pundit's behalf.

That's how FOX supports our troops, by ignoring the ones who served and are in troubled times. Osama thanks you Fox!

While the right pounds their chests and and has their little wargasms, it's easy to forget that war actually has consequences

he New York Times found 121 cases in which veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan committed a killing in this country, or were charged with one, after their return from war. In many of those cases, combat trauma and the stress of deployment — along with alcohol abuse, family discord and other attendant problems — appear to have set the stage for a tragedy that was part destruction, part self-destruction.

Three-quarters of these veterans were still in the military at the time of the killing. More than half the killings involved guns, and the rest were stabbings, beatings, strangulations and bathtub drownings. Twenty-five offenders faced murder, manslaughter or homicide charges for fatal car crashes resulting from drunken, reckless or suicidal driving.

This is a very long article by the New York Times, but one that merits a good reading. Sadly the ones who really need to read it are the same ones wanting even more war.

As well as their living conditions:

Reports of a rising death rate and rooms spattered with blood, urine and feces at the Armed Forces Retirement Home prompted the Pentagon yesterday to begin investigating conditions at the veterans facility in Northwest Washington.

The Government Accountability Office warned the Pentagon this week that residents of the home "may be at risk" in light of allegations of severe health-care problems. Residents have been admitted to Walter Reed Army Medical Center with "the most serious type of pressure sores" and, in one case, with maggots in a wound, according to a GAO letter sent to the Defense Department.

And Joe found this piece from Military.com:

The review was conducted by directors of individual VA facilities around the country and compiled in a 94-page report to Nicholson. It found that 90 percent of the 1,100 problems cited were deemed to be of a more routine nature: worn-out carpet, peeling paint, mice sightings and dead bugs at VA centers.

The other 10 percent were considered serious and included mold spreading in patient care areas. Eight cases were so troubling they required immediate attention and follow-up action.

Some of the more striking problems were found at a VA clinic in White City, Ore. There, officials reported roof leaks throughout the facility, requiring them to "continuously repair the leaks upon occurrence, clean up any mold presence if any exists, spray or remove ceiling tiles."

In addition, large colonies of bats resided outside the facility and sometimes flew into the attics and interior parts of the building.

When I worked for a private ambulance service we had the contract to do the VA transports for the Cincinnati area. I was in numerous facilities around this part of the country and they all were run down. That was 15 years ago. I can only imagine how bad they are now.

More than a day after the WaPo exposes the horrible way some of our wounded soldiers are being treated at Walter Reed and we still don't even have mention of it from the right-wing blogs. Yup - these poor soldiers are no longer of any value to them because they aren't out there "killin some brownies".

Meanwhile, John has dug up an interesting article where Bob Novak at least showed some interest in the way our veterans were being treated.

This is absolutely appalling. People go to fight in Bush's bullshit war, then loose limbs and this is how he treats them:

Perks and stardom do not come to every amputee. Sgt. David Thomas, a gunner with the Tennessee National Guard, spent his first three months at Walter Reed with no decent clothes; medics in Samarra had cut off his uniform. Heavily drugged, missing one leg and suffering from traumatic brain injury, David, 42, was finally told by a physical therapist to go to the Red Cross office, where he was given a T-shirt and sweat pants. He was awarded a Purple Heart but had no underwear.

David tangled with Walter Reed's image machine when he wanted to attend a ceremony for a fellow amputee, a Mexican national who was being granted U.S. citizenship by President Bush. A case worker quizzed him about what he would wear. It was summer, so David said shorts. The case manager said the media would be there and shorts were not advisable because the amputees would be seated in the front row.

" 'Are you telling me that I can't go to the ceremony 'cause I'm an amputee?' " David recalled asking. "She said, 'No, I'm saying you need to wear pants.' "

David told the case worker, "I'm not ashamed of what I did, and y'all shouldn't be neither." When the guest list came out for the ceremony, his name was not on it.

This goes hand in hand with what I said yesterday about these war bloggers not giving a shit about our soldiers. They support Bush no matter what and undoubtedly will support him on this too. I know Bush most likely wasn't directly involved, so he has a couple of days. If he wants to prove any care for the troops at all then he will address the nation and announce the termination of people that make these decisions, along with the termination of the people in charge at Water Reed. If not then he has an eternal hell to burn in, along with Malkin and the rest.

(h/t AmericaBLOG)

John has all the details. This guy should not only be fired, but also charged with treason. Treating our soldiers, who have gone to fight in this bullshit war, like this is a crime. And where are the "we love the troops and you don't" right-wingers on this? They are silent as usual. They are just as bad as Weightman.

Sunday's Washington Post gives us this rosy look into how our veterans are being treated:

Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan's room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.

This is the world of Building 18, not the kind of place where Duncan expected to recover when he was evacuated to Walter Reed Army Medical Center from Iraq last February with a broken neck and a shredded left ear, nearly dead from blood loss. But the old lodge, just outside the gates of the hospital and five miles up the road from the White House, has housed hundreds of maimed soldiers recuperating from injuries suffered in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These are conditions that were allowed to come to being under a Republican controlled Congress with a Republican President. The Republicans in the Senate won't even talk about the war these guys are fighting in, then if they get hurt they get subjected to this? This is a moral outrage! Democrats need to fix this now - not because it will help them politically (even though it will), but because it is the right thing to do.

Oh and don't forget - Bush wants to cut even more money from veterans this year. He don't give a shit about them, except for the fact that they are playing in his little "war game" he has been dreaming of since the 90's.