This is from US Senator Kent Conrad's office and being sent to his constituents:
Last week, the Department of Veterans Affairs announced new regulations to simplify the process for veterans to claim service connection for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Specifically, the regulation reduces the amount of evidence required for VA claims adjudicators to find a connection if the PTSD claimed is consistent with the circumstances of the veteran's service.
Last month, I was proud to tell you about how the Senate passed a resolution I sponsored to designate June 27, 2010, as National PTSD Awareness Day, in honor of North Dakota National Guard Staff Sergeant Joe Biel, who took his life in April 2007 after returning from his second tour in Iraq. These new guidelines prove the VA's recognition of the fact that PTSD is real and must be taken seriously.
To learn more about PTSD and locate facilities offering assistance, visit the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD at http://www.ptsd.va.gov. And click here to learn more about how Senator Conrad is working to ensure North Dakota's veterans receive the thanks and assistance they deserve.
Veterans in need of immediate assistance can call the Veterans Health Administration Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 and press 1.
A number of e-mails have come in asking about PTSD. Especially now that the White House and House of Rep split is known. That is part of what I was writing about, yes. The Glory Hog in the Oval Office is not up for re-election this November. Many members of Congress are (all members of the House are) and for him to steal their thunder? That's insane. He should be helping his own party get elected, he's the head of the Democratic Party. Instead, he's on a vanity trip still try to grab credit for things he never did.
But it's been a busy week and I've also not had time to return a call from a friend who does not like the PTSD changes -- or doesn't support them fully, I should say -- and she's a veteran and I think women veterans have been screwed over to some degree with the new guidelines. So there's that. But there are things I would have loved to have had time for in the last two weeks and haven't. Kelly Vlahos had a strong column at Antiwar.com that I was hoping to note. (It may get noted tomorrow. It will be noted because it's a topic we have to again return to.) Joy of Resistance had a great show that I was hoping we could note. This week Law & Disorder has a great show as well. And there are a hundred other things going on.
Despite all that, I was going to make tonight's entry a Thomas Friedman type thing. "I talk to cab drivers!" Hopefully with less frothy at the mouth than Friedman, but who knows. It wasn't going to be a cab driver actually, but a flight attendant whose son is serving in Iraq. I'll write about that for one of the news letters. I think it's important but something else came up which really goes to how the wars continue and how we get stabbed in the back over and over regardless of who is in the White House.
Stanley Kutler has a column that's all over the net (here for at Madison's Capitol Times) and, really, what is the point?
It's not often that you read such a lengthy column -- I count 1197 words -- and still can't figure out the point.
The column, as written, would have a point . . . if Hillary Clinton were president.
Hillary's not president.
So all these policies being called out? Whose responsible for them? That would be Barack Obama.
Hillary, to read the column, is a globe trotting imperialist. Okay, that's what you're presenting. Let's see it backed up. Hillary isn't president. So if Hillary is doing the work of empire, she's doing it for the president. And where does Barack get called out in this 1197 word column?
No where.
Two paragraphs on Hillary the imperialist. A few 'come on, Barry's for Barack.
Sigh. Remember his 2002 speech. Sigh. Dumb wars. Come back to the liberal left, Barry O, Barry O.
When was he ever apart of it?
Never. Stanley Kutler is one more person doing damage control for Barack. I'm sick of it. His column is about being upset with what the administration is doing (has continued) but his harshest words are for Hillary Clinton.
Repeating, Hillary isn't president. I wish she were. But she's not. If I can accept it, so can you, Stanley Kutler.
Accepting it means she's no longer your whipping boy/girl. Accepting it means you take out your disappointment and anger on the person responsible: Barack Obama.
I am so sick of the Stanley Kutler's, so scared of their own shadows, unable to critique Barack. Remember these losers in 2007? Barack was the candidate! Let him get the nomination! And then we'll hold his feet to the fire!
He was gifted with the nomination (he didn't earn it and history will always remember that even though in real time so many tried to ignore that fact). An then we heard: Let him win the (general) election! Then we'll hold his feet to the fire!
And then we still didn't see any feet being held to the fire.
We heard a lot of, "He's only been president for a month! . . Six months! . . . A year! . . . A year-and-a-half!" America has no jobs but it's got plenty of excuses as to why that isn't Barack's fault. Nothing's Barack's fault. The poor little baby. He's just a victim, you understand, not the most powerful person in the world.
When you have the nuclear codes, please pay attention, you are no longer a victim. When you can attack any country at will, you are no longer the victim. You are no longer truth-to-power. You are the establishment and, in Barack's case, you are leader of the War Party.
You are not a victim.
The real victims today? Try integrity. Try logic.
Barack Obama is a War Hawk who has continued two wars and started drone attacks in Pakistan.
Hillary may or may not approve of his decisions. But she's not the one making these decisions. The one making the decisions is Barack Obama.
And not because mean, old Rahm is threatening to dunk Barry's head in the toilet!
No, Barack makes these decisions because these are the policies he supports and these are the ideals he holds dear.
He is not left. He never was. He talked like a Republican the entire time he campaigned -- he still does. He was lucky that a bunch of White Loud Mouths on the Left (for whatever reason) took a fancy to him and decided to whore for him. They're the only ones in the Democratic Party that truly support what Barack supports. They are the same ones who try to force the Dem Party ever to the right.
He didn't, he insisted, want to refight the battles of the sixties.
The battles of the sixties?
You mean liberation? You mean equality?
Not wanting to 'refight'? That's Republican talk, that's Michael Tomasky talk. It's not left talk. The sixties are crowning moment for the left. They aren't something to run from. They were popular in real time and they're popular today.
The advances made during that period regularly demonstrate strong support in polling. What's the matter with the Left? Too much Tom Frank and not enough Ellen Willis, for one thing.
Ellen got it. Ellen grasped the ahistorical nature of Thomas Frank and his loony tune adventures in text. But let's pave over reality, let's ignore reality. That's how you end up with Barack Obama. And it's how you write a really bad, 1197 word column that can't even clearly call out the person responsible for the policies you allegedly find appalling.
It's over, I'm done writing songs about love
There's a war going on
So I'm holding my gun with a strap and a glove
And I'm writing a song about war
And it goes
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Na na na na na na na
I hate the war
Oh oh oh oh
-- "I Hate The War" (written by Greg Goldberg, on The Ballet's Mattachine!)
Last week, ICCC's number of US troops killed in Iraq since the start of the illegal war was 4412. Tonight it remains 4412.
The e-mail address for this site is common_ills@yahoo.com.
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