you know not EVERY hero has a penis

our women veterans (and currently serving) need health care as well. they DESERVE it. let's make sure they get it (the male veterans and currently serving healthcare could be WORLDS BETTER too). let's make sure they ALL have it


Female Veterans Fight for Healthcare
The VA starts to adjust a system designed for a male military
By Amanda Ruggeri

As debate heats up over healthcare reform, military veterans are fighting for another kind of improvement: the expansion of health services for female vets.

Nearly 8 percent of the veteran population is female. But the Department of Veterans Affairs' health system was designed for a male military, and it shows. A Government Accountability Office report released this month found that two of 19 facilities audited did not offer even basic gender-specific services like cervical cancer screenings, and none fully complied with the VA's policy on privacy for female veterans. Overall, "none of the facilities had fully implemented VA policies pertaining to women veterans' healthcare," the report said. Critics say those shortfalls have deterred women from using the system. And statistics bear that out. While 22 percent of male veterans use VA healthcare, 15 percent of women do..........

second class citizens so it's no surprise we're

second class soldiers is it? not to me
Why Are Women Still Treated Like Second-Class Soldiers?
By Helen Benedict, The Nation

Editor's Note: This article is adapted from The Lonely Soldier: The Private War of Women Serving in Iraq (Beacon Press).

Army specialist Mickiela Montoya was standing silently in the back of a Manhattan classroom while a group of male Iraq war veterans spoke to a small audience about their experiences as soldiers. It was November 2006, and she had been back from Iraq for a year, but was still too insecure to speak out in public. Anyway, the room was full of men, and Montoya had learned that a lot of men aren't much interested in listening to military women.

"Nobody believes me when I say I'm a veteran," she said that day, tucking her long red hair behind her ears. "I was in Iraq getting bombed and shot at, but people won't even listen when I say I was at war. You know why? Because I'm a female."

Montoya, who grew up in a Mexican family in East Los Angeles, served in Iraq for eleven months, from 2005-2006, with the 642nd Division Aviation Support Battalion. She was only 19 back then, but by the time she turned 21 she was as bitter as any old veteran, not only because of the lack of recognition she was receiving as a combat vet but because of the way she had been treated as a soldier--by her comrades, the army and by the Department of Veterans Affairs........

it seems the vets are happy with this decision

and it seems i am too. oh and retired general eric k. shinseki is himself a wounded vet

Obama Picks Shinseki to Lead Veterans Affairs

By Philip Rucker

Washington Post Staff Writer
President-elect Barack Obama today will introduce retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as his nominee to head the Department of Veterans Affairs, bringing to his Cabinet a career military officer best known for running afoul of the Bush administration by questioning the Pentagon's Iraq war strategy. .................
..........

Notably, Shinseki led the Army at the same time that Gen. James L. Jones, Obama's pick for national security adviser, commanded the Marines. Both questioned Wolfowitz's presumptions, before the war in Iraq commenced, about how the fighting would go, and they argued that the Pentagon was being too optimistic in its planning and should prepare thoroughly for worst-case scenarios.

In a 12-page private letter he wrote to Rumsfeld in June 2003 just before stepping down as chief of staff, Shinseki said: "People are central to everything we do in the Army. Institutions don't transform, people do. Platforms and organizations don't defend the nation, people do. . . . Without people in the equation, readiness and transformation are little more than academic exercises." The letter was never publicly released; The Washington Post obtained a copy this August........

they are treated like nothing more

than a steamin' pile o' shite. they are sent into harm's way without one wink of sleep lost. they are expected to fight an unjust, immoral and illegal war. they are expected to withstand snipers and bombs and seeing their friends get blown away. they are expected to see the inhabitants of iraq with little to no electricity, no jobs, little food. they don't know who is friend or who is foe.

and when they come home, they get this:
Doctor Urged Fewer Diagnoses of PTSD

By Christopher Lee Washington Post Staff Writer
The physician in charge of the post-traumatic stress disorder program at a medical facility for veterans in Texas told staff members to refrain from diagnosing PTSD because so many veterans were seeking government disability payments for the condition.
"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," Norma Perez wrote in a March 20 e-mail to mental-health specialists and social workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs' Olin E. Teague Veterans' Center in Temple, Tex. Instead, she recommended that they "consider a diagnosis of Adjustment Disorder."
VA staff members "really don't . . . have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD," Perez wrote. ...........

another - 'this story speaks for itself'

Bush admin official favored "Jesus" over paying Vet Benefits
by Eternal Hope
That is what Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary Daniel Cooper thought; he has resigned under pressure for his extremism.
Another high-ranking George W. Bush administration official has resigned. The Department of Veterans Affairs Undersecretary for Benefits Daniel Cooper quit Thursday amid mounting criticism over a backlog of disability claims for injured veterans that runs six months long and an appearance he made in a fundraising video for an evangelical Christian organisation where he said Bible study was more important than doing his job.
Cooper has been under fire for using his office to proselytise for evangelical Christianity ever since he appeared in a 2004 fundraising video for Christian Embassy, which carries out missionary work among the Washington elite as part of the Campus Crusade for Christ.
In the video, Cooper says of his Bible study, "It's not really about carving out time, it really is a matter of saying what is important. And since that's more important than doing the job -- the job's going to be there, whether I'm there or not." ..........

this starts with ONE story

out of how many, we really can't even guess (unfortunately). it's the story of Marine Lance Cpl. James Jenkins. his very brief life, then his death. i blame king george and his court for lance corporal jenkins' death. they have committed crimes against humanity and they must be held accountable. it's a long article with ugly facts.
Denial in the Corps

Kathy Dobie
Marine Lance Cpl. James Jenkins is buried in the same New Jersey cemetery that he used to run through on his way to high school, stopping at the Eat Good Bakery to get two glazed doughnuts and an orange juice before heading off to class. When his mother, Cynthia Fleming, visits his grave, she looks over the low cemetery wall at not only the bakery but the used-car lot where James used to sell Christmas trees during the winter and the nursing home where he worked every summer and says, "Lord, son, you're on your own turf." James, who died at 23, is buried in Greenwood Cemetery; the owners told Cynthia they're proud to have him there. ......

we cannot continue to allow this to happen

to our heroes. period

VA's performance on benefits slips or is unchanged The Department of Veterans Affairs fell farther behind this year in its attempts to give veterans timely decisions on their disability claims, new records show.
The latest numbers are in an annual report the VA prepares for Congress detailing a range of short- and long-term goals for its disability, health and other benefit programs. Overall, the agency either has fallen behind or has made no progress in improving its performance in more than half of what it lists as its key goals.
In the benefits measure the VA has said is "most critical to veterans" — the speed of processing disability claims — the agency lost ground for the third year in a row.
Moreover, McClatchy has found that the VA put a positive spin on many of its numbers, and in two instances provided Congress with incorrect or incomplete figures..........

By Chris Adams McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON —

this is unacceptable

no arguments. unacceptable. there is only ONE person accountable and he can't even give a speech unless it is phonetically spelled out.

why i ask myself, WHY WOULD ANYONE currently join the armed forces? if i KNEW there was an almost 100% probability i would be sent to iraq, i would most likely be at the very LEAST wounded and i would NOT (again, if i made it back alive) receive the care i NOT ONLY NEEDED BUT WAS ENTITLED TO AND DESERVED. why would i join?

oh and why is king george taking ANY days off when our men and women are suffering? why isn't anyone asking him that? that's the FIRST thing i'd ask him. hey king george, it's kinda ballsy to take vacation time when our troops lives are on the line, no? why are you taking ANY
time off then?
instead of everyone running around and taking votes on or over an ad moveon.org put in the newspaper, shouldn't our congress and senate be CONCERNED WITH THE WELL BEING OF OUR TROOPS? SOMETHING TANGIBLE? asswipes

and a special shout out to tim ngo

Months After 'Wash Post' Walter Reed Revelations -- and Official Promises -- GAO Finds Not Enough Done

By Hope Yen, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON Months after pledging to improve veterans care, the Bush administration has yet to find clear answers to some of the worst problems afflicting wounded warriors, such as delays in disability payments and providing personalized care, investigators say.A report by the Government Accountability Office, released Wednesday, offers the first preliminary assessment of improvement efforts initiated by the Pentagon and Veterans Affairs Department after revelations in February of shoddy outpatient treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.The report found that even though the Army has touted creation of more personalized medical care units so that wounded veterans don't slip through the cracks, nearly half -- or 46 percent -- of returning service members who were eligible did not get the service due to staffing shortages.The report said after 10 years of review, the Pentagon and VA still remain far away from having a comprehensive system for sharing medical records as injured veterans move from facility to facility.And despite months of review by no less than eight congressional committees, a presidential task force, a presidential commission and the Pentagon and VA itself, the government has no apparent solution for reducing severe delays of 177 days, on average, in providing disability payments.....

NOT ONE DAY

these returning troops should not wait ONE DAY for treatment. no red tape, no shite. TREAT THEM

VA Secretary Cites Backlog of Claims

By Hope Yen Associated Press
Outgoing Secretary Jim Nicholson acknowledged yesterday that the Department of Veterans Affairs is struggling to reduce backlogs in disability claims from Iraq war veterans.
Delays in processing disability payments reach up to 177 days, and Nicholson, in addressing Congress for a final time before stepping down Oct. 1, said the department has hired 1,100 new processors to cut that waiting time.
Even with the new staffing, Nicholson told the House Veterans Affairs Committee, VA can hope to reduce delays only to about 145 to 150 days -- assuming that the level of compensation and pension claims does not spike higher........

i have a finding for you

and there's no red tape. you don't have to wait for my finding, i'll give it to you right now.

CUT OUT AL THE BULLSHITE AND THE DEAD WOOD AND GET OUR VETERANS (and i mean ALL of our vets, not just those from iraq and afghanistan) THE CARE THEY NEED RIGHT NOW. fire the asses of those not doing their jobs. get people in there who know what they're doing (they are out there). stop giving bonus money to those in administration that do NOT deserve it. make it EASY for our heroes

Overhaul Urged in Care for Soldiers
Dole-Shalala Commission Wants Bush to Act Quickly


By Steve Vogel Washington Post Staff Writer

A presidential commission examining the care given to wounded U.S. service members yesterday recommended "fundamental changes" aimed at simplifying the military's convoluted health-care bureaucracy and overhauling the veterans disability system for the first time in more than half a century.
The commission, led by former senator Robert J. Dole (R-Kan.) and former Health and Human Services secretary Donna E. Shalala, met with President Bush at the White House yesterday morning to brief him on their findings and to press him for quick action. "We left there feeling the ball's in their court now," Dole said............

severe and chronic

that is the condition of some of our returning (not even counting the ones still serving in the middle east). in need of IMMEDIATE treatment.

king george sent these men and women into harm's way. not only has he NOT attended ONE funeral, HE is NOT doing anything to help those returning home in pieces (physically as well as mentally). i read the other day (and i didn't post it because i didn't want to use someone's name - who had died in this evil, unjust, immoral and illegal war) he met with the parents and girlfriend (or wife, i've forgotten) of a solider killed in iraq. yeah, king george gave the family a few medals - and my favorite part COLORING BOOKS FOR THE KIDS. yeah, if i was a child and king george sent my father into iraq to be killed i know how i'd feel if he then turned around and gave ME coloring books........... at any rate, THE LEAST KING GEORGE AND HIS COURT CAN DO IS SHUT THE F**K UP ABOUT EVERYTHING ELSE AND GET THESE MEN AND WOMEN THE TREATMENT AND HELP THEY NEED. AND DO IT NOW

The War Inside
Troops Are Returning From the Battlefield With Psychological Wounds, But the Mental-Health System That Serves Them Makes Healing Difficult

By Dana Priest and Anne Hull

Army Spec. Jeans Cruz helped capture Saddam Hussein. When he came home to the Bronx, important people called him a war hero and promised to help him start a new life. The mayor of New York, officials of his parents' home town in Puerto Rico, the borough president and other local dignitaries honored him with plaques and silk parade sashes. They handed him their business cards and urged him to phone.
But a "black shadow" had followed Cruz home from Iraq, he confided to an Army counselor. He was hounded by recurring images of how war really was for him: not the triumphant scene of Hussein in handcuffs, but visions of dead Iraqi children.........

............At a low point, he went to the local Department of Veterans Affairs medical center for help. One VA psychologist diagnosed Cruz with post-traumatic stress disorder. His condition was labeled "severe and chronic." In a letter supporting his request for PTSD-related disability pay, the psychologist wrote that Cruz was "in need of major help" and that he had provided "more than enough evidence" to back up his PTSD claim. His combat experiences, the letter said, "have been well documented."
None of that seemed to matter when his case reached VA disability evaluators. They turned him down flat, ruling that he deserved no compensation because his psychological problems existed before he joined the Army..............

and senator obama you are surprised because?????????

i do thank you for having the guts to question the appointment. it doesn't matter though. king george and his court are going to continue to ignore laws, ignore a moral code of conduct and most importantly IGNORE HUMAN SUFFERING THEY PERSONALLY ARE CAUSING

they don't give a flying yoo hoo. they don't. the sooner WE ALL realize that and IMPEACH THE BASTARDS the better

OUT OUT OUT get them OUT OUT OUT NOW

Obama questions Bush over VA nominee

Following a Salon.com article published yesterday, which revealed that President Bush's nominee for the Under Secretary for Health at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Michael Kussman, led a task force that found serious problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center as early as 2004, Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) has sent a letter to Bush expressing concerns about the nomination.
According to Salon.com, the report revealed that wounded veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were "frustrated, confused, sometimes angry" at the care they received at Walter Reed.
"The report shows that top VA officials were involved in the focus group process back in 2004. Michael Kussman, then the acting deputy undersecretary for health, was co-chair of the VA's Seamless Transition Task Force, which produced the final report," wrote Salon.com on Wednesday. "Not only is Kussman still at the VA, but he is also in line to be promoted."
Kussman was also in charge of Walter Reed in the late 1990s..........