Iraq vet suffering PTSD snaps, takes out sister, mother, self.
Army Spec. Abel Gutierrez. That was his name. George W. Bush is responsible for these three deaths just as he's reponsible for so many others. And there is no hell after he dies, just darkness, just like for the rest of us. There is no hell, other than the one George W. Bush created on Earth for our soldiers (amongst many other man-made hells), and GWB as a fortunate son will never experience that.
-- Badtux the Cursing Penguin
Support our troops this Memorial Day by kicking them out on the streets once we're finished destroying them in combat. U S A! U S A! U S A! Fuck yeah!
-- Badtux the Disgusted Penguin
Senators blast VA mental health system for failing our veterans. 20% of all suicides are now veterans, even though veterans are less than 12% of the general population. And the Senate's solution to this problem is... to scold the VA?
Look: the VA is supposed to "fix" its mental health system (presumably by hiring more mental health professionals), and is supposed to pay for these new doctors by, uh, wishful thinking? Senator, quit short-changing the VA and give them the money they need to do their job. Whining about how they're not doing their job when you're not giving them the money to do their job is just dishonest grandstanding.
-- Badtux the Military Penguin
Hey, veterans. Look, we know the VA has a backlog of hundreds of thousands of claims and you're not getting the treatment you need for your PTSD, brain injury, side effects of chemical exposure, or whatever. And look, we know you have twice the chance of being one of the long-term homeless as none-veterans, and that 25% or so of the long-term homeless are veterans, and that more veterans are dying every day of suicide or high-risk behavior (motorcycles etc.) than die in Iraq and Afghanistan in combat.. And hey, Preznit Obama's Catfood Commission came back and said we need to cut the deficit by cutting the veteran's benefits that you earned by doing shit that the civilians didn't want to do (can't get their lily-white hands dirty with those nasty "guns" and "bombs" and shit, and living in the dirt for months at a time? Horrors!). But look, we got a day set aside just for you! Now, isn't that just so special?
-- Badtux the Snarky Penguin
"Soldiers Get Strange", by Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Jason is a kinda doughy youngster who, in person, sounds kinda goofy. But when he gets up on that stage and sings a song like this, he's damn well serious. The Drive By Truckers pulled him in as a guitarist when their prior guitarist left and Jason stepped in and not only played guitar, but contributed some of the best songs on the three albums he was with the Truckers. Now Jason's on his own, touring, touring, touring, never staying in any city more than two days at a time. I suppose some people have so many things happening in their head that they can't stand to stay in one place too long for fear that something will explode.
-- Badtux the Merry Christmas Penguin
You are not a person, you are a "resource", to consume, deplete, then throw away. That is how it works here in the Corporate States of America, there are no human beings in the eyes of these venal corporate executives, only "resources" to use and consume and drain then throw away when the resource is depleted. And since these evil assholes now run our government as well as our corporations, that's what they're doing to our veterans too -- using them, consuming them, depleting them, then throwing them away to die on the streets.
Yet people will go to a corporate restaurant rather than a local restaurant, will buy corporate music rather than support local musicians, will buy corporate prepackaged food made of compressed pig offal rather than fresh food from a local farmers market or butcher shop, vote for the corporate candidate rather than the honest man who isn't in the pay of the corporate sociopaths, and so on and so forth. We are participating in our own dehumanization. Is that some sick shit, or what?
-- Badtux the Disgusted Penguin
In Iraq:
1.6 Million Deployed, 4,232 Killed,
30,981 Wounded, 180,633 Disability Claims, 2,095 Compensated.
The 30,981 wounded figure is those that the DoD officially recognizes as being wounded "in combat". The actual figure is more than four times that total. If you lose your arm because you were driving a supply truck and an IED went off next to the truck, you are not listed as being wounded "in combat" because you are not a combat soldier and nobody was shooting at you (being blown up, apparently, does not count as being shot at). Similarly, if you were in the loo at your base and a mortar shell falls near you and blows off all three of your legs, you aren't counted as "wounded in combat" because you weren't "in combat" -- you were in the loo. The DoD has been using all sorts of stratagems of that sort to deny veterans the compensation and medical care they deserve for serving in a war zone. It's important to know that, when you look at the difference between wounded, disability claims, and compensated in the numbers above. It is a disgrace and should be front-page news in every newspaper in America, yet for some reason, is not...
-- Badtux the Military Penguin
President-Elect Obama selects retired Army Gen. Eric K. Shinseki as his Secretary of Veteran's Affairs. Shenseki is most famous for estimating that it would take several hundred thousand troops to stabilize Iraq in the aftermath of an invasion -- and being forced out by Rumsfeld when he told the truth to Congress.
Honesty. Competence. And someone who doesn't underestimate the size of the tasks ahead of him. Exactly what we need for making sure our veterans get everything they need.
As for those wondering why Shinseki (or any of a number of other retired generals) are not in the running for Secretary of Defense: There is a tradition, backed by law, that you don't put a retired general as SecDef unless at least ten years have passed since he has worn the uniform. That is to prevent a Praetorian Guard situation. The civilian leadership is in charge of the Pentagon, not the generals, and a general swapping his uniform for a business suit in order to lead the Department of Defense is not the sort of thing that should happen in a democracy where the military is under civilian control.
-- Badtux the News Penguin
