Monday, September 1, 2008

Veterans, who voted for you?

You can assume all you want that McCain will support the veterans in this country because "he's one of you" but when he had the chance to prove it, he voted against you. This election is too important for veterans to just ignore the facts. We've seen enough of how McCain really feels when it comes to veterans and our families. We've seen the facts and heard what he claims. The truth it, the two do not add up. Anyone can make a speech and say he cares, but when it came down to proving it, he failed.

Haven't we had enough failures when it comes to those who serve? There are more and more of us everyday trying to get wounds taken care of that were caused because members of our families were willing to lay down their lives for the sake of this nation and then ended up having to fight the government to have them taken care of. Aren't you tired of being last on the "to do list" when the people with the power to take care of veterans make their plans?

Did you also know under GOP "leadership" of Bush, the VA had less doctors and nurses working than there were after the Gulf War even though there were two active military campaigns producing more wounded veterans needing care? Did you know under Bush with McCain patting him on the back that Nicholson returned money unspent when veterans were being turned away from the VA and ended up committing suicide because of PTSD being untreated?

Did you know he was against the new GI Bill and said it was just too generous? Then he didn't even bother to show up to vote, but turned around and said he supported it.

Did you know that if you are a veteran, but did not go into combat, McCain thinks you should seek medical care some place else? In his eyes, you don't even deserve the little he's willing to support. He says it is to ease up the backlog but when it came to increasing the funding to take care of the veterans, he was against it. He's voted too many times against veterans and it's time for all of us to make sure we vote for the people who do support us instead of just the ones who support making more of us. McCain has been all for sending the men and women who serve into war, but he is the last one to take care of those he wants to send. Did you know he was already talking about sending troops into Iraq right after 9-11 when everyone else was getting ready to send troops in Afghanistan?

When it comes to the veterans of this nation, they cannot afford to support someone who has betrayed all of us, the veterans and their families. McCain seems to feel as if you owe him your votes but he never seemed to feel he owed you his.


Aug 21, VCS in the News: Senator McCain's Plan to Privatize Veterans' Healthcare

Aaron Glantz


Inter Press Service News Agency

Aug 21, 2008

August 21, 2008 - If John McCain is elected the next U.S. president, wounded veterans could be in for a world of hurt.

On the campaign trail, the Republican's presumptive nominee has talked of a new mission for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and argued that veterans with non-combat medical problems should be given vouchers to receive care at private, for-profit hospitals -- in other words, an end to the kind of universal health care the government has guaranteed veterans for generations.

"We need to relieve the burden on the VA from routine health care," McCain told the National Forum on Disability Issues last month. "If you have a routine health care need, take it wherever you want, whatever doctor or health care provider and get the treatment you need, while we at the VA focus our attention, our care, our love, on these grievous wounds of war."

The Republican senator argues that giving veterans a VA card that they can use at private doctors would shorten the long wait times many veterans face in seeing government doctors, who are nearly universally viewed as among the best in the world.

A recent study by the RAND Corporation found that "VA patients were more likely to receive recommended care" and "received consistently better care across the board, including screening, diagnosis, treatment and follow up" than that delivered by other U.S. health care providers.

Virtually all veterans groups oppose McCain's plan. The Veterans of Foreign Wars' national legislative director has said the VA card would "undermine the entire system".

According to the Centre for Responsive Politics, Democrat Barack Obama has received nearly six times as much money from troops deployed overseas at the time of their contribution than has Republican John McCain.

This may seem odd to some since McCain is a former naval officer, prisoner of war, and Vietnam War veteran.

However, Paul Sullivan, a Gulf War veteran and executive director of the non-partisan Veterans for Common Sense, says that for McCain, free market ideology is more important than providing care for former soldiers.

"Ideologues like John McCain and George Bush hate the fact that the VA exists," Sullivan told IPS, noting that the Republican candidate also wants to partially privatise social security and offer private school vouchers to students currently enrolled in public schools.

"They hate the fact that there's a functional example out there of the government providing better care at a lower cost than the private sector," Sullivan said. "The problem that the VA faces now is that the Bush administration failed to hire enough doctors and disability claims adjusters when they chose to go to war with Iraq. If these doctors had been hired, the VA would be an example of the government doing good work. Bush and McCain don't want the public to see that."

McCain has also never spelled out what he means by a "combat injury", leading many veterans worried they could be left out in the cold.

"If I'm driving a Humvee in Iraq and a roadside bomb explodes and I veer off the road and crush my arm and end up losing it and needing a prosthetic, is that a combat wound according to Sen. McCain?" asked retired Air Force Colonel Richard Klass, the president of the Council for a Livable World's VETPAC, which has endorsed Obama.

Official Pentagon policy calls such an incident a non-combat injury. Technically speaking, the only soldiers "wounded" in combat are those hit by direct enemy fire. As of Aug. 5, Department of Defence statistics showed 32,799 U.S. soldiers had been "wounded" in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another 10,685 had sustained "non-hostile" injuries which required a medical evacuation, while 29,881 were classified as "ill" enough to be airlifted out of the war-zone.

Veterans are also sceptical of McCain's plans because as a senator, he has repeatedly voted against fully funding veterans' health care. In 2005 and 2006, McCain voted against expanding mental health care and readjustment counseling for service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, efforts to expand inpatient and outpatient treatment for injured veterans, and proposals to lower co-payments and enrollment fees veterans must pay to obtain prescription drugs.

McCain's vote also helped defeat a proposal by Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow that would have made veterans' health care an entitlement programme like social security, so that medical care would not become a political football to be argued over in Congress each budget cycle.

Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) gave him a D+ when they scored his voting record (whereas Obama got a B+). He's voted with the interests of Disabled American Veterans only 20 percent of the time.

"If McCain would work to properly fund VA care, there would be no issue about a VA card," said Larry Scott, who edits the website VAWatchdog.org. "McCain, by wanting to give vets private care, is walking away from the VA and ignoring the problem. He is admitting that he will not properly fund the VA to the level where it can care for all qualified vets. "

Scott is sharply critical of the VA's often cumbersome and ineffective bureaucracy, but like most veterans' advocates, believes the VA system needs to be strengthened. He sees McCain's plan as a way to phase out the government's commitment to those who've served.

"For every vet who would get a VA card, that would be one less vet using the VA," he wrote in an e-mail to IPS. That "would mean, in a short period of time, a smaller budget, fewer locations...and the eventual dismantling of the best health care system in the country."

*IPS Correspondent Aaron Glantz is author of the upcoming book "The War Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans".
http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/articleid/10972


These are some of his other votes

08/02/1996 Minimum Wage Increase bill
HR 3448 Y Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(76 - 22)

But he was against it first.
07/09/1996 Minimum Wage Increase bill
HR 3448 N Bill Passed - Senate
(74 - 24)


Voted for the lobbiest
08/02/2007 Lobbying and Donation Regulations
S 1 N Concurrence Vote Passed - Senate
(83 - 14)

Voted against the troops getting rest between deployments which every expert said was needed for their sake.
09/19/2007 Time Between Troop Deployments
S Amdt 2909 N Amendment Rejected - Senate
(56 - 44)

Voted against this one which ended up passing except for 2 votes
12/13/2001 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002
S 1438 N Conference Reported Adopted - Senate
(96 - 2)

But he was for it before he was against it.
10/02/2001 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002
S 1438 Y Bill Passed - Senate
(99 - 0)

01/26/1996 Authorization bill FY96, Defense Department
S 1124 N Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(56 - 34)


12/19/1995 Authorization bill FY96, Defense Department
HR 1530 N Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(51 - 43)

Voted against this one too when only 13 others agreed with him.
09/22/1995 Military Construction FY96 Appropriations bill
HR 1817 N Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(86 - 14)

Voted against Pell Grants
10/25/2005 To Increase The Maximum Federal Pell Grant Amendment
HR 3010 N Motion Failed - Senate
(48 - 51)

05/22/2008 GI Bill and Other Domestic Provisions
S Amdt 4803 NV Amendment Adopted - Senate
(75 - 22)


Voted against this one too when only 10 others agreed with him.

04/25/2002 Securing America's Future Energy (SAFE) Act of 2001
HR 4 N Bill Passed - Senate
(88 - 11)

Voted against taking care of the poor

10/26/2005 Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program Amendment
HR 3010 N Motion Failed - Senate
(54 - 43)


07/29/2005 Energy Policy Act of 2005
HR 6 N Conference Report Adopted - Senate
(74 - 26)


06/28/2005 Energy Policy Act of 2005
HR 6 N Bill Passed - Senate
(85 - 12)

Voted against cutting dependency on foreign oil
06/16/2005 Reduction in Dependence on Foreign Oil
HR 6 N Amendment Rejected - Senate
(47 - 53)


06/16/2005 Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) Amendment
HR 6 N Amendment Adopted - Senate
(52 - 48)


06/14/2005 Environmental Effects Caused by Ethanol Amendment
HR 6 N Motion to Table Agreed - Senate
(59 - 38)

Health, before 2000 voted majority yes, but after 2000 voted majority no

05/22/2008 GI Bill and Other Domestic Provisions
S Amdt 4803 NV Amendment Adopted - Senate
(75 - 22)


01/22/2008 Defense Authorizations Bill
HR 4986 NV Bill Passed - Senate
(91 - 3)


10/01/2007 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008
HR 1585 NV Bill Passed - Senate
(92 - 3)


02/02/2006 Tax Rate Extension Amendment
HR 4297 N Motion Rejected - Senate
(44 - 53)


11/17/2005 Additional Funding For Veterans Amendment
S 2020 N Motion Rejected - Senate
(43 - 55)


10/05/2005 Health Care for Veterans Amendment
HR 2863 N Motion Failed - Senate
(48 - 51)

06/27/2003 Medicare Prescription Drug Benefit bill
S 1 N Bill Passed - Senate
(76 - 21)

11/03/2005 Medical Assistance and Prescription Drug Amendment
S 1932 N Amendment Adopted - Senate
(54 - 45)


11/03/2005 Hurricane Health Care for Survivors Amendment
S 1932 N Motion Rejected - Senate
(48 - 51)



http://www.votesmart.org/voting_category.php?can_id=53270

WWII Veteran Marine’s Wake Island valor properly recognized

Family, supporters seek to have Marine’s Wake Island valor properly recognized
Sixty years after his honorable discharge from the Marine Corps, Ralph Holewinski still has his military mindset. The military has reasons for awarding him a Bronze Star instead of the Navy Cross, he says, and it’s not his place to challenge those in charge.

"Ralph’s humble — too humble," said his younger brother, Ernie Holewinski. "He says, ‘Whatever [medal] anyone got on Wake Island, justly or unjustly, got what they deserved.’"

But everyone knows what Holewinski did. He’s in all of the books. What he did was legendary.

But valor alone hasn’t garnered Holewinski the honor that legislators, litigators, historians, Wake Island veterans and family members say he deserves. While the 87-year-old’s World War II combat experience is long over, the fight for higher recognition is ongoing for those who know him.

Holewinski’s supporters are global and diverse — from Eric Holewinski, Ralph’s nephew and a Navy chief petty officer in Misawa, Japan, to Gregory Urwin, a Temple University history professor in Pennsylvania.

"I remain determined to lend all the aid in my power to see that Ralph receives proper honors from the service that counts his deeds among the proudest moments in its history," Urwin said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes. "Every Nov. 10, Marines name Wake Island as one of their most cherished battle honors. This man did more than most of his fellow Marines to make that possible. The Corps and the Navy Department should connect the dots and rectify this long-standing wrong."

Although Holewinski was always "very modest" about what he did, Eric Holewinski read of his uncle’s valor in the history books.
click above for more

China earthquake:Bodies of mother protecting child found in rubble


The poignant moment rescue workers found the bodies of a mother protecting her child beneath the rubble of an earthquake

By Wil Longbottom
Last updated at 12:54 AM on 02nd September 2008

Rescue workers looking for survivors in the rubble in China's southwest region have found the heartbreaking bodies of a woman protecting her child in a collapsed house in Lixi.

The death toll from the earthquake in the Sichuan province has hit 38, two days after the most recent in a series of tremors.

An appeal for temporary housing and tents has been launched today after the earthquake, which measured as high as 6.1 on the Richter scale, left tens of thousands homeless.
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Donations allow wounded vets to take a golf swing

Donations allow wounded vets to take a golf swing

By DANIELA FLORES
Associated Press Writer


TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- Brian Coleman was never in the service and has no ties to the military. But when he began looking for a cause to support after his retirement, he decided helping wounded veterans was the way to go.

Now the 62-year-old, who splits his time between Madison and Bradenton, Fla., spends anywhere from 35 to 70 hours a week running Golf Supports Our Troops, a nonprofit that raises money to donate golf equipment to military hospitals and rehabilitation facilities.

"My intent was not to teach these guys to be golf pros," Coleman said. "It was to have some fun, maybe get golf into their recovery, but it was the health benefits of the equipment that I thought would be interesting."

Coleman retired from the graphic arts/printing field eight years ago, but after two years of boredom, decided to start a small golf company. Then, a year and a half ago, he decided he'd had enough. Left with a huge inventory, he thought he could do something good with it and Golf Supports Our Troops was born.
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San Diego VA PTSD program is a mess

VAOIG REPORT: SAN DIEGO VA'S PTSD PROGRAM IN DISARRAY

-- No full-time director...

Clinicians doing research while trainees handled clinical duties...

Staff didn't follow-up on appointment no-shows.



Executive Summary

The purpose of this inspection was to review allegations regarding the Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Program at the VA San Diego Healthcare System (VASDHS):
We substantiated that the designated Medical Director of the PTSD clinical team (PCT) and the PTSD Program does not function as a full-time director. At the time of our review, the Medical Director was only available for program management and clinical care 0.5 days per week and spent the remainder of his time on research studies. In light of the salient role of PTSD treatment in veteran mental health care and the increasing number of recently discharged veterans and Vietnam era veterans seeking VA mental health services, the substantial presence of a clinician-administrator appears to be reasonable and warranted.

In the absence of valid workload and productivity data, it appeared that generally, the PTSD Program is able to meet requests for group or individual evidence-based therapy. However, during times of higher volume, the demand exceeds the ability to provide individual therapy slots.

go here for more

http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfaug08c/nf083008-1.htm

India:Kashmir, Conflict's Psychological Legacy

In Kashmir, Conflict's Psychological Legacy
Mental Health Cases Swell in Two Decades
By Emily Wax
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, September 1, 2008; Page A09

SRINAGAR, India


Suraya Qadeem's brother was one of the Kashmir Valley's brightest students. Handsome and disciplined, he had been accepted into a prestigious medical school in Mumbai. But just weeks before Tahir Hussain was to pack his bags, the 20-year-old was shot dead by Indian forces as he participated in a peaceful demonstration calling for Kashmir's independence.

At his funeral, Suraya Qadeem, also a medical student, wept so hard she thought she might stop breathing. Seventeen years later, she spends her days counseling patients in Indian-controlled Kashmir who have painfully similar stories.

In the sunny therapy rooms of a private mental hospital here in Kashmir's summer capital, Qadeem listens to young patients, nearly all of them children scarred by the region's two-decade-old conflict. Most suffer from depression, chronic post-traumatic stress disorder, drug addiction and suicidal tendencies in numbers that are shockingly high, especially compared with Western countries.

Srinagar, a scenic lakeside city nestled in the foothills of the Himalayas, once had among the lowest mental illness rates in the world. But in 1989, leaders of the region's Muslim majority launched an armed separatist movement, one of several said to have been backed by predominantly Muslim Pakistan, which has fought two wars with Hindu-majority India over Kashmir since India's partition in 1947. Srinagar became a battleground as hundreds of thousands of Indian troops quelled the uprising. The fighting has left a powerful psychological legacy.

The number of patients seeking mental health services surged at the state psychiatric hospital, from 1,700 when the unrest began to more than 100,000 now. Last year, they were treated at the hospital or the recently opened Advanced Institute of Stress and Life Style Problems, where Qadeem works.
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Tragedy as Groton MA father dies trying to save daughter

Father drowns in Chatham rescue attempt
Man dies during swim in Maine
By Matt Collette
Globe Correspondent / September 1, 2008

A 46-year-old Groton man drowned yesterday at Lighthouse Beach in Chatham after attempting to rescue his 10-year-old daughter, who was swept into the ocean by strong currents, while a 68-year-old Lowell man died during a swim in Sebago Lake in Maine.

The two deaths came on a busy holiday weekend day that also saw several ocean rescues and the Coast Guard responding to reports that a man had slipped off a raft at Winthrop Beach. As of last night, the Winthrop search had been suspended, with Coast Guard officials saying an unmanned raft had probably blown into the ocean from shore.

Thomas McDonald, 46, of Groton, was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital yesterday afternoon. He lost consciousness swimming after his daughter, who had been overcome by waves at the beach and swept out to sea, Chatham officials said. The girl and two women who swam out to assist in the rescue were pulled from the water by Chatham Harbormaster patrol boats.

"It's just tragic, he was doing a valiant thing trying to go after his daughter who was caught in the current," said Chatham harbormaster Stuart Smith. "I don't know the man but he was certainly one brave individual. "

Smith praised the responders for their quick action and called Tanya O'Donnell, a 17-year-old Harwich lifeguard who swam 100 yards to the girl and stayed with her until patrol boats arrived, a hero. "Quite frankly, without her intervention, we might have lost the girl," Smith said.
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Modesto man tries to amputate own arm

Modesto man tries to amputate own arm
Sun Aug 31, 2:34 PM ET



MODESTO, Calif. - Police say a man tried to cut off his own arm at a restaurant in Modesto, Calif., because he thought he had injected air into a vein while shooting cocaine and feared he would die unless he took drastic action.

Authorities say 33-year-old Michael Lasiter rushed into the Denny's restaurant late Friday and started stabbing himself in one arm with a butter knife he grabbed from a table.

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linked from RawStory

Life of Civil War veteran linked to living today

A great example of how one life matters to so many.

Kenneth City man discovers a part of himself in a forgotten Civil War survivor
By William R. Levesque, Times staff writer
In print: Sunday, August 31, 2008


KENNETH CITY — A Confederate bullet smashed into Cornelius Ridgeway's left breast and lodged near his heart during an 1864 battle in Virginia, another bloody day in the Civil War.

So many things could kill a person then. Infection. Disease. An operation to remove a bullet long before the days of blood transfusion.

As a Delaware native with a mix of Indian, black and European blood — locals called them Delaware Moors — Ridgeway had been allowed to join only an all-black regiment.

More than a century later, records provide tantalizingly few clues about the then 22-year-old's year in a hospital, except that he survived. A wound like his was usually fatal. If Ridgeway had died in that hospital, much that followed would have been different, much would have been lost to history.

A white Pinellas County resident born long after that Civil War battle knows this well. His name is John Carter.
go here for more
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/war/article791095.ece

Dereliction of Duty McCain’s record on veterans’ issues

Dereliction of Duty
McCain’s record on veterans’ issues is shocking and awful
By Cliff Schecter
Features > September 1, 2008
Dereliction of Duty
McCain’s record on veterans’ issues is shocking and awful
By Cliff Schecter
Presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) talks to World War II veteran George Dusdenbury on Jan. 18, in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
McCain's record on veterans' issues paints a picture of a man who has been willfully negligent when it comes to providing for his former brothers and sisters in arms.

At a town hall meeting in Denver in early July, a Vietnam veteran asked presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) why he had opposed increasing healthcare for veterans whenever Congress had taken up the issue over the past six years. McCain virtually ignored the man’s question, dissembling his opposition to an updated GI Bill for veterans. After the questioner challenged McCain’s response, the senator reacted as he usually does when queried beyond his comfort level: He got visibly angry.

Because McCain is running for president almost solely on his biography as a war hero, he can’t — and won’t — allow the slightest doubt to linger about his dedication to soldiers both past and present. It didn’t matter that the vet simply wanted to know how McCain — himself a former soldier and prisoner of war — could oppose important healthcare legislation for veterans. In fact, he didn’t even ask McCain about the GI Bill that he opposed, which had been supported by a bipartisan group of 75 senators, including Republican veterans Chuck Hagel (Neb.) and John Warner (Va.).

Most notably, McCain also testily responded to his inquisitor that he had “received every award from every vets organization.”

The problem is, not only is that assertion not true, but McCain’s record on veterans’ issues paints a picture of a man who has been willfully negligent when it comes to providing for his former brothers and sisters in arms.

As Iraq War veteran and former Democratic congressional candidate Paul Hackett says, “Here is a guy who touts himself as a friend of veterans, but his history shows just the opposite. How can someone who cares about our men and women in the armed services vote against the GI Bill or veterans’ healthcare?”
go here for more
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3864/dereliction_of_duty/

What makes all of this worse is the fact McCain enjoys the very thing he does not want all other veterans to have. Doesn't matter to him at all as long as he gets his "share" and all he feels he earned. After all, he was a POW and the rest, well they did not suffer as much as he did, so they should be on their own. This is proven when he says he wants the non-combat veterans treated by civilain doctors with "health care cards" instead of the VA.

For all the veterans still supporting him just because "he's one of them" they need to understand that he is far from one of them when he uses them instead of fights for them.