Healthcare

Yes or so it seems. But the Real Message is to Bring Them Home, all the troops, or if the Country wants these Wars of Choice then more need to join or restart the draft, Immediately, and No Deferments!

by Linda Milazzo

Photo by Hagen for News Blaster, NY Daily News

I've always believed in unions. I come from a long line of union members: steel workers, sanitation workers, office workers, police, fire, you name it. They're all in my family. My American family typifies the American working class. In fact, if all the unions represented by my family were to strike for a week, the whole country would suffer. Construction would stop. Crime would go undeterred. Fires would go unextinguished. And in my case, students would go untaught. Yes, I, too, am a union member. I'm a teacher.

Aug. 24, 2010 - A Defense Department task force devoted to preventing suicide in the military presented a grim picture of the trend Tuesday, with suicides rising at a near steady pace even as commanders apply various balms to soothe a stressed, exhausted fighting force.

The military has nearly 900 suicide prevention programs across 400 military installations worldwide, but in a report released Tuesday, the task force describes the Defense Department's approach as a safety net riddled with holes.

Last year, 309 men and women slipped through.

In 2008, 267 service members committed suicide. In 2007, the number was 224.

Timothy McVeigh, convicted of killing 168 people in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City, was parented by Irish Catholics. He referred to himself as agnostic yet wrote to a friend, prior to his crime: “I have come to peace with myself, my God and my cause.” McVeigh didn’t explain his concept of God. He did, however, request a Mass and a Catholic chaplain as his execution neared.

Are you wondering where I’m going with this?

Straight to Ground Zero and the Cordoba Initiative’s proposed building of an Islamic center within a couple of blocks of the huge hole where the World Trade Center once towered. Straight to confront the firestorm of opposition to a plan that includes a prayer room, an athletic center, culinary school, and art studios.

What if members of the Catholic Church wanted to build a center within a few blocks of the Oklahoma City National Memorial? I doubt there’d be a problem.

But we are living a problemathon.

Border Patrol sees spike in suicides

16 August 2010 - After a bad day on the job as a Border Patrol agent, Eddie DeLaCruz went home and began discussing with his wife how to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Then he casually pressed his government-issued handgun under his chin and pulled the trigger.

Snip

A month later, one of DeLaCruz's colleagues at the Fort Hancock border post put a bullet through his head, too.

Snip

The job, which starts at about $37,000 a year, has changed dramatically since the hiring surge began. Two years ago, an agent at a busy border station might have processed 150 illegal crossers a day.

Pentagon slow to clean up bases, report says

16 August 2010 - After more than 20 years of disagreements the Defense Department is still resisting orders from the Environmental Protection Agency to clean up Fort Meade and two other military bases.

Pollution cleanup at Fort Meade in Maryland, New Jersey's McGuire Air Force Base and Tyndall Air Force base in Florida remain in the early stages with little long term progress, according to a Government Accountability Office report set for release this week. (See the full report below.)

by Linda Milazzo

By Dave Lindorff

NBC/Wall St Journal Poll: 40% say country worse off since Obama, 31% say better
Federal Reserve Board: US economy is stalling again
NY TImes: “White House Memo: First Wave of Weary Aides Heads for the Exits”
Labor Dept.: New jobless claims hit record not seen since February 20

It’s a grim sign for the Obama administration that droves of staffers are pulling up stakes and looking for jobs elsewhere, not even waiting until the mid-term elections are over. Gone is Christina Romer, chair of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, going is White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, gone is communications spokeswoman Linda Douglass, gone is Budget Director Peter Orszag, gone is White House Counsel Gregory Craig. Even the president’s senior political adviser, David Axelrod, widely credited with having engineered his primary and election victories, is said to be ready to leave.

We'll see, as us older Vets know full well, but it isn't only within the Military Branches nor the Veterans Community, It's The Country That Needs The Wakeup Call!!

Army Strives to Reduce Suicide, Mental-health Issues

Aug. 8, 2010 – The Army is striving to reduce soldier suicides and mental-health problems by giving troops more dwell time between deployments, identifying tell-tale symptoms more quickly and eliminating the stigma of seeking help, the Army vice chief of staff said today.

Army Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli recapped findings of a task force he commissioned to reduce soldier suicides and mental-health problems during an interview with Christiane Amanpour on ABC’s “This Week.”

The 'Agent Orange' of these occupations, that's literally as some of these soldiers are suffering from exactly the same extreme physical ailments of the same chemicals, and more, of the defoliants only this time they were sucking in smoke and air from these burn pits, as are the citizens occupied and especially downwind and the ground contamination left from the burns!

Ailing vets sue over smoke from trash fires in Iraq, Afghanistan

'You'd cough up black stuff, and you couldn't seem to catch your breath'

U.S. Army soldiers from the 23rd Infantry Regiment burn garbage at K-wal combat outpost in the village of Shakarat, in Diyala province, in this Dec. 24, 2007.

And the Country 'Sacrifices', even though it didn't clamor for nor want to, especially the so called tea party types, not a peep while yelling about everything, their media sponsors and the think tank funders as well as their leaders, though they say they don't have any, wink, wink!!!!

VA Obligates Last of its Recovery Act Funds to Help Veterans

August 5, 2010 $1.8 Billion Investment Improves Care and Services for Veterans

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) committed the last of its $1.8 billion in Recovery Act funds July 31, one of the first federal agencies to achieve that milestone. Projects at more than 1,200 sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico will increase access to health care and services to Veterans, while creating jobs and stimulating the economy.

AIR DATE: Aug. 4, 2010

Heroin-Related Crimes Surge in Wisconsin

SUMMARY

As part of NewsHour Connect, which showcases the best of public broadcasting from around the country, Frederica Freyberg of Wisconsin Public Television reports on the surge of heroin-related crimes there. Continued: Transcript

 

Disparities Remain a Challenge in U.S. Health Care System, Say Experts

ScienceDaily (July 26, 2010) — Racial and ethnic disparities remain a challenge for patients in the U.S. health care system, the American College of Physicians (ACP) said in an updated paper. Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health Care, Updated 2010, an update to a policy paper that was originally released in 2003, outlines recommendations on how to close the gap between racial and ethnic minority patients and their white counterparts.

Testvets {Mike (Beetle) Bailey's Blog}! A never ending, and usually unknown by those soldiers being tested, fact of the Military as they have extremely easy to use subjects where results can be turned over to the private sector for profit {especially in these times of private contractors and what's already surfaced as to}, in the many cases over the years this has taken place on many issues, some still unknown and even denied happened.

Pentagon questions drug study on troops

Misconduct is alleged in tests using wounded

Study: military children have higher levels of stress, behavioral problems

August 03, 2010 Fighting a war a world away is hard on parents, but can be tougher on their children.

 

The Rand Study: Children on the Homefront: The Experiences of Children from Military Families

This is Not the way to treat soldiers who've already been in theater, and in these occupations of choice, more then once and more then just one theater, and already showing the suffering from the trauma's and stresses of war, seeing, doing and knowing about which brings on the nightmares of PTS from those extreme trauma's of 24/7 war and occupation!

Military keeping traumatized soldiers in combat zones

8/1/2010 Army says it's better to treat soldiers 'in theater,' others say it only helps stretched military

The Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee has scheduled a hearing to examine the reasons and evidence used to add these three conditions to the list of presumptive diseases related to Agent Orange exposure.

Jul-31-2010 The President signed the War Supplemental yesterday. In that bill is the $13.4 billion in funding for the three newly designated presumptive diseases related to Agent Orange exposure.

What does this mean for veterans who have already filed and those waiting to file on these conditions? The money is now in place and the authorization to spend it needs to be completed. The House overwhelmingly passed the VA/Military Construction Authorization bill earlier this week and now the Senate must do the same. The House version authorizes the money for these new conditions.

If this stands as true and not properly cleaned up then the problems still exist as we've seen with the following generations of Vietnamese since our use during the occupation of!

Army Probes Its Use Of Agent Orange In Md. City

Jul 30, 2010 FREDERICK, Md. (AP) ― The Army says it's searching internal records for details on outdoor spray testing of Agent Orange at Fort Detrick in Frederick.

A Fort Detrick spokesman said Friday that the Maryland Department of the Environment asked the Army about the tests. The Veterans Administration says they were conducted there in the 1940s and '50s. Continued

President 43 will be 49 on August 4 and Mrs. 43 has e-mailed with a request. I’m sure many of you received the appeal.

Michelle says: “Every year, our family tries to come up with a fun way to wish Barack a happy birthday.”

The hostess of the White House continues with: “This has been a big—and hectic—year for him.” Duh.

Here’s some of the penciling on Barack Obama’s dance card.

A surge of militarism.

A surge in Afghanistan.

A surge in troop deaths.

A surge in suicide among veterans.

A surge in WikiLeak-ing of US war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan.

A surge of droning in Pakistan.

A surge in civilian slaughter.

A surge of hatred.

A surge of mercenaries.

A surge in the insurgency.

A surge in war spending.

A surge of warmongering greed.

A surge of rhetoric to attack Iran.

A surge of wink wink to Big Insurance and Big Pharma.

A surge of uninsured.

A surge of oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

I just can't think of anything more to add, as not only myself but many others have stated over and over thousands of times in these years, to the three reports and link to the study then are stated within them!

This is a 10MB, 370page pdf download, you can visit the Army site by click the graphic or the link.

Army Health Promotion, Risk Reduction and Suicide Prevention Report

Hexavalent chromium case: Iraq contractor cut deal for lawsuit immunity

July 13, 2010 American taxpayers -- and not KBR-- will likely pay if the war contractor is found to have harmed Oregon Army National Guard veterans who say they were exposed to cancer-causing chemicals in Iraq. The startling details emerged in documents related to a U.S. District Court hearing Monday that illuminate the secretive world of defense contracting.

Documents show that within days of the 2003 Iraq invasion, Kellogg, Brown and Root delivered an ultimatum to the Pentagon:

Either the Army cover the potential cost of any soldier or civilian killed or harmed on a KBR project – or the defense contractor would not carry out its no-bid contract restoring Iraqi oil.

Returning vets suffering stresses of war are getting help, but needs are still enormous.

July 24, 2010 A poignant story in last Sunday's Chronicle drew attention to the plight of Houston-area veterans — in this case, an Iraq veteran coping with finding himself homeless, alienated, confused and angry to the point that he found himself attacking his own mother and spending four days in jail - all within six months of his Army discharge.

As reported by Lindsay Wise, the soldier, Jacobí Montgomery, from Beaumont, eventually found help at the Veterans Administration in Houston, where he was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), depression, apnea and insomnia.

The story is all too familiar with returning vets - the invisible wounds of PTSD, traumatic brain injuries and depression.

While this might be a great help for a few, mostly non combat in theater vets, I'm more then abit leery of having civilian professionals that have never served in the military let alone in an occupation theater diagnose military personal who have. They are fine for possible diagnosis in the civilian populations, which eventually will help them better understand Post Traumatic Stress from the trauma's and stresses of war suffered either directly or indirectly from a combat theater, thus understanding civilian PTS, but I have been watching as many keep trying to come up with the magic pill or magic instant cure while disregarding all that has been done by the few and mostly War Veterans, and some civilian dedicated professional and non professionals, of the past three plus decades.

"Weapons of Mass Destruction {WMD}" has become the new mainstream term of this new century in condemning others, as well as and connected to criminal terrorist acts, to give reason for invasions and occupations, not to mention to make sure it scares the bejeebish out of the masses {same as the Cold War Nuclear threat}. As those using the term to justify an invasion, reigning terror on mostly innocent people, War of Choice, while using the many different WMD's of War that have always existed and been perfected as well as adding new developed WMD's to the stockpiles of destructive weapons and trauma's of War. At the same time worrying about criminal terror element, foreign or domestic, stealing the makings of the same WMDs the advanced nations are developing.

Program Equips Law Enforcement and Clinicians with Tools to Understand Military Veterans

Veteran Experts Launch ‘Combat to Community’ Training.

"Our goal is not to give veterans a ‘get out of jail free card,’ but rather to make sure that the population is understood. Because veterans make up less than one percent of the population, there is often a lack of cultural competency"

July 20, 2010

More veterans are returning from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, some struggling with transition to civilian life and the invisible wounds of war.

A Priority for Hillary Clinton in Vietnam

Walter Isaacson and Lt. General Phung Khac Dang, Vice President of the Vietnam Veterans Association are briefed on dioxin containment work at Danang Airport

21 July 2010 The last stop on Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's Asian tour this week is Vietnam, where she will discuss among other things an enduring remnant of the war, the after-effects of Agent Orange. The U.S. government belatedly recognized the impact of the deadly defoliant on American troops, but has resisted accepting responsibility for the damage the chemical inflicted on the Vietnamese with birth defects still evident decades after the end of the war.

This actually came to me through the DoD Military Medical Digest for Military Health System e-mail updates when new is added to the list, who says change can't happen!!

U.S. Government to Gulf War Vets: DROP DEAD!

Video Clip Part 1 of 6: Click to Watch

MDMA (Ecstasy)-Assisted Psychotherapy Relieves Treatment-Resistant PTSD, Study Suggests

ScienceDaily (July 20, 2010) — MDMA (±3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine, also known as Ecstasy), may one day offer hope for individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), even people for whom other treatments have failed. Clinical trial results out July 19 in the Journal of Psychopharmacology suggests that MDMA can be administered to subjects with PTSD without evidence of harm and could offer sufferers a vital window with reduced fear responses where psychotherapy can take effect.

Record number of Army suicides in June

7/15/2010 Officials have been grappling with how to identify, treat soldiers at risk

The U.S. Army on Thursday reported a record number of suicides in a single month among active duty, Guard and Reserve troops, despite an aggressive program of counseling, training and education aimed at suicide prevention.

Suicides for the first half of the year are up 12 percent over 2009. In June, 32 soldiers are believed to have committed suicide, including 21 on active duty.

The June report came as the Army also released a 20-minute training video on suicide prevention titled, "Shoulder to Shoulder — I will never quit on life." Continued