5/15/2008 - Supporting the Troops, Bush Administration Style | |
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"Hey! We're getting too many soldiers and marines with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and it's costing us too much money! So, please, stop diagnosing it!!!"
That's the suggestion given by a VA hospital’s PTSD program coordinator in March.  ("R/O" means "rule out".) If, like my wife, you have a loved one who spent time in Iraq and is now home dealing with PTSD on a minute-by-minute basis, this should outrage you to the point of wanting to stomp someone. I think the best part is where they say "We really don't have time to do the extensive testing that should be done to determine PTSD." So, fuck it, just downgrade it to Adjustment Disorder and save us all a lot of time and money, eh? Jon Soltz, an Iraq War Veteran and Chairman of VoteVets.org says this about it:
Support the troops my ass. This is despicable. The fucker that sent that email needs to be immediately fired and then thrown to the masses for some "citizen justice". I'm just pissed... | |
5/15/2008 - texican Said... |
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Unreal. It is beyond unconscionable to deny treatment and benefits to those in need. As a veteran, this just leaves me speechless. |
5/16/2008 - Aielman Said... |
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And yet there are people who insist we let the government take care of everyone's health needs...the same government who's fucked up the VA for 40 years.
The VA should be dismantled, every adminstrator in it fired, and a new organization set up in its place...something administered by veterans with a budget in trust that cannot be touched, by law, for any other purpose. Course it's a Bush adminstration problem, although it's convenient to bash him over it. It's systemic. It's a VA problem. One that's existed since shortly after the Korean War. Some scandal arizes...the fire the current director...the press stop paying attention...and 5 to 10 years later, usually right after some conflict somewhere, the press gets ahold of a new story, and people come out of the wordwork to point the blame again. The whole system is flawed...and it needs to be replaced. What will be really interesting to watch is how, while it's Bush's fault now, it won't be Obama's fault later if he pulls off the election. |
5/16/2008 - texican Said... |
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On the surface, this is a VA problem. Lord only knows whether this directive was generated higher up, or if it was just this douche trying to take matters into his own hands.
As for the VA, it is at the mercy of federal funding. The quality was crap for many years, until there was an upswing in the very early 90's. Then funding was slowly whittled away until it reached it's present state. I can't remember the last administration that actually gave a damn about the VA (Reagan maybe?...IDK...) I really like Aiel's idea of an untouchable trust and a total revamping of the VA structure. |
5/16/2008 - Eclectablog Said... |
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Funny. Everything that happened in the federal government under Clinton was, is and remains Clinton's fault but when crap happens under Bush's watch, well, gee, it's not his fault. Right. Whatever.
He got us into this war that has resulted in a dramatic upswing in the numbers of fatalities, life-changing injuries and long-term, hard-to-see damage like PTSD. He crows day and night about "supporting the troops" but when push comes to shove, his administration is found severely and continuously wanting. All hat and no cattle as usual. Can't fault your idea for fixing it, though. Very sound and reasonable. Make it so, Aiel, make it so. |
5/16/2008 - texican Said... |
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I'm not saying that the current state of the VA is Clinton's fault, but he did have a hand in gutting the military. The VA suffered as well. The Bush administration could have fixed things, but it didn't. It made things worse. You'd think that, with all the spending that fool has done, Bush would have spent a little cash to handle the influx of disabled and troubled vets that his course of action has created.
Due to a career-ending injury, I spent quite a bit of time dealing with the VA medical system. I still do. I was injured in '93, around the time that the VA was being lauded as a model for medical efficiency. Today, there are some branches where things work better than others, but, by and large, the system has fallen on hard times. |
5/16/2008 - Eclectablog Said... |
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It's my feeling that the military people dealing with the VA have very little voice, probably because there are so few of them (relative to the general population) and because they are, technically-speaking, part of the same government that is screwing them so perhaps less likely to raise their torches and pitchforks in protest. Because their voices are muted in this way, they get far too little attention and are even ignored in large part.
It's shameful and, no matter how one feels about the war and Bush, it's something everyone should be positively outraged about. I know I am. |
5/16/2008 - texican Said... |
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I couldn't agree with you more. |
5/16/2008 - LadyVisine Said... |
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This news doesn't surprise me one bit. Having spent the last 11 years, as the wife of a disabled veteran, I've learned a lot about how that [dis]organization operates. When Clinton was in office, the VA told Spouse that if we remained married for a minimum of 8 years, then if/when he died, the surviving spouse would be entitled to 80% of his pension. Now that Shrub is in office, guess who gets less than 43%? What really sucks, is that every time the VA gets a huge chunk of change, they usually go out and refurbish the furniture and very little of the funds go directly toward the medical care these veterans need. Spouse learned that there is actually a desk, within the VA administration, where some guy/gal gets paid to stamp "DENIED" on applications for benefits, just so the process will take a little longer. One can only assume the VA is hoping the veteran will die before the application is finally accepted.
As for the veterans not speaking up, they are... but the system continues to drag their feet. |
5/16/2008 - Eclectablog Said... |
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I think it's less that the vets aren't speaking up than that they aren't being heard, Kimmi. I'm really sorry that the two of you were/are put through so much pain by this agency. It's a travesty, for sure. |
5/17/2008 - LadyVisine Said... |
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Tonight, Obama was in Sioux Falls, SD and his visit/speech was televised. Wednesday, I went to the courthouse and changed my registration from Republican to Independent. As long as Daschle isn't going to be the VP, he just might have convinced me today. |
5/17/2008 - Eclectablog Said... |
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Really, no kidding? Well day-um, that's great. Welcome aboard, Kimmi :) |
5/17/2008 - indigomoonarts Said... |
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How did you get a copy of this e-mail and if you got one how come it wasn't brought to the attention of someone that CAN do something about it (assuming there is)?
How do you know it's real. I am not saying that this isn't happening, I just know that there are so MANY fake things on the internet.... that's all... |
5/18/2008 - bitzky Said... |
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This reminds me of my mother's deal with the Social Insurance Office here. The government wanted to cut down on social expenses so they changed the guidelines for diagnosing long-term sicknesses. My mother, who has leukemia, ended up being diagnosed by... a psychiatrist, who didn't see any degree of disability in her. Fortunately we have appealed and it was overturned.
Appeal, appeal, appeal. Bury them in paper, I say! |
5/18/2008 - Eclectablog Said... |
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Jana, it was Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) and VoteVets.org that got the email and they are publishing it far and wide. Even Barack Obama is now calling for an investigation.
It's now been picked up all over the place (CBS News, the AP, the Washington Post, the New York Daily Times, the Army News, etc.) |
5/19/2008 - Aielman Said... |
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probably because there are so few of them (relative to the general population)
There's 24 million vets in the US. That's a pretty good chunk...roughly 8.5 percent of the current population. They need better lobbyists...because there are more vets then there are than the total number of either Hispanics or African Americans of voting age in the US...and yet they have a fraction of the power of either group. Everything that happened in the federal government under Clinton was, is and remains Clinton's fault but when crap happens under Bush's watch, well, gee, it's not his fault. Right. Whatever. He's just as responsible as Bush was, and just as blameless. Neither one of them had a helluva lot to do with internal VA policy. And Congress approves the VA budget...not the Whitehouse. If you're pissed about their budget, talk to Pelosi and Reid. I haven't seen what's happened to the VA budget since the democrats took over in congress, but up to 2005, their budget increased 37% from 2001...28% higher than the previous 4 year cycle. |
5/19/2008 - LadyVisine Said... |
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the last time the VA got a huge increase in their budget, they spent a majority of the funds on new office furniture and very little of that increase went towards the veterans. Most veterans would gladly sit in the rickety old chairs and see improvements in the benefits & healthcare, than to continue getting their denial letters from some swank new office. |
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Name: Mr. E (get it?) Location: Ann Arbor-ish, Michigan, USA, Earth EFx2Blogger since: September 19, 2007 |
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Some folks sleep on a problem, but you can camp on one as well. Camping is for the mind what a high-speed run on the highway is for a car. It tends to blow out all the sludge that accumulates in the type of urban driving most of us are forced to do in order to earn a living.-- Tim Cahill
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