Supporting the Troops?

McCain and Dubya continue to work against a new GI Bill for veterans of the War on Terror.

Sorry, I was just waiting for all the Right Wing Outrage. Carry on.

Gold Star Families

Since my Memorial Day column was posted, I've noticed several hits on the site from people searching for names on the list. If you came here following the name of a loved one, first, please accept my deepest sympathies for your loss. Even though the column and this blog are occasionally irreverent, I am always mindful of the sacrifices made by those in uniform and I am eternally grateful for their service. After seeing all these hits, it occurred to me that merely listing name, rank and hometown is rather impersonal (though necessary due to space considerations). If you know someone on the list and would like to share something about them, just to help the rest of us know them a little better as human beings, please feel free to do so. Thank you.

A Hero Passes

Billy Walkabout (Cherokee), the most decorated Native American from the Vietnam War era, died of complications from Agent Orange poisoning on March 7.

Preserve & Protect

Two parallel scandals, in Austin and Washington, DC, illustrate how the Republican philosophy of Social Darwinism inevitably leads to criminal neglect of at least two segments of society whose protection should be our top priority: children and veterans. In Washington, the despicable treatment of wounded veterans at Walter Reed is merely the tip of the iceberg, a mere symptom of the Bush Administration's delusion that Iraq would be a "splendid little war." True, the Secretary of the Army has been thrown under the Congressional bus, but it's not just Walter Reed--the VA is riddled with bureaucratic idiocy and indifference.
Meanwhile, in Austin, the Texas Youth Commission stands revealed as a chamber of horrors, where pedophile guards are protected and the State is shielded against any meaningful civil liability for the callousness that allowed it all to happen.
Under what passes for conservative "thinking" these days, the weak are to be despised. Any suffering they bear is their own fault, God's judgment against them for moral failure. This must be true, because the reverse (the wealthy are clearly wealthy solely because God has shown them favor) is the cornerstone of the unholy blasphemous union between Right-Wing Christianity and Right-Wing Crony Capitalism. Wounded veterans of the Iraq Debacle must be hidden from view, for they are living reminders that the Dear Leader is, in fact, a mere mortal. Besides, Walter Reed might shine an uncomfortable light on the GOP mania for privatization, a mania that is also implicated in the TYC scandal. And children, whether they are the uninsured children of working families or juvenile offenders in custody, can be ignored because the sins of the parents are the sins of the children. Besides, children don't vote and they don't donate money to candidates. These scandals should come as a surprise to no one; they are the inevitable result of the anti-Christian, un-American economic philosophy that undergirds the modern Republic Party: money talks.

Supporting the Troops?

Soldiers recuperating at Walter Reed are apparently being punished for "causing trouble" and are being ordered to avoid the media. A similar press crackdown is underway at other bases and facilities. Reprehensible. Idiocy like this makes me sick to my stomach. Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the former commander at Walter Reed who knew about this problem IN 2003 should be immediately brought up on charges of dereliction of duty. And Jim Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, should be fired on the spot, especially after his smarmy, unctuous, ass-covering appearance on "Good Morning America."
But that won't happen. Nothing will happen, because this Administration has the average two-year-old's understanding of responsibility and consequences. At best, the Bush White House has shown criminally negligent ineptitude in caring for the soldiers it claims to support; at worst, it has demonstrated unvarnished contempt for those wounded in this catastrophic trainwreck of a war. Nothing will happen; Dubya will never face justice. He will not be impeached. He will leave office, make tons of money pimping for assorted corporattions, and operate his Library/Fascist Twit Think Tank squatting at the edge of the SMU campus. Since there will be no justice done (in this world, at least), all we can do is pray that January 20, 2009, gets here as fast as possible and that Dubya manages not to completely destroy the country in the meantime.

UPDATE: Soooo...they fire the commander at Walter Reed (a good start) and replace him with...General Kiley? Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? What, was Nurse Ratched not available?

Supporting the Troops?

If you want yet another comparison with Vietnam, the US Government is systematically ignoring and warehousing wounded (in mind and body) veterans. Where's the Right Wing outrage? Who on the Right is complaining as Bush prepares to slash Veteran's funding yet again in order to pay for tax cuts for multi-millionaires?


Hat tip to Shakespeare's Sister.

Veterans Day--Always Remember

National Native American Veterans Association