While many folks cheered the recent passage of the new GI Bill, a red flag was raised on 9/13/2008 when the Bush administration's managed Veterans Administration announced it planned to outsource the technical aspects of the bill to private contractors.   Read More »

In the 1977 interview of former President Nixon, David Frost had taken a defensive position, nit-picking Nixon and, with skillful questioning, brought him close to accepting responsibility for the Watergate disaster: "I gave them a sword," Nixon acknowledged, "and they stuck it in, and they twisted it with relish, and if I had been in their position I'd have done the same thing."   Read More »

S2026, the Agent Orange Equitable Compensation Act introduced by Senator Daniel Akaka (D-HI) on 9/6/2007 read twice and referred to the U.S. Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs with no co-sponsors (1) would negate the August 16, 2006 decision, in which the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims (CAVC) upheld the Haas v. Nicholson decision and ruled against the Veterans Administration law suit, holding that Vietnam veterans who served in the waters off Vietnam are entitled to disability benefits for diseases related to exposure to Agent Orange. (2) S2026 would also make moot, the U.S. District Court for the 9th Circuit decision on issued on July 19, 2007, against the subsequent Veterans Administrations appeal to have the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims decision overturned when they ruled that the Veterans Administrations sordid attempt to subvert the 1991 Congressionally enacted law was without basis. (3)   Read More »

http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/military_agentorange_072308w/

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Thursday Jul 24, 2008 11:02:05 EDT

The House Veterans’ Affairs Committee chairman vowed Wednesday to push for the restoration of Agent Orange-related benefits and health care for Vietnam War veterans who served in the air and water of Vietnam but never set foot on land.   Read More »

In a move that is sure to enrage the Bush White House, a great American, Congressman Bob Filner (D-CA, 51st District), two days ago introduced legislation that will reverse the anti-veteran managed VA, that has labored arduously for the past six years to rescind Veterans benefits granted to them by Congress in 1991 for diseases acquired from exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam.   Read More »

Of the 77 U.S. Senators who voted for the war, 33 now say if they would not have voted give Bush authority to use force against Iraq to make it comply with U.N. Resolutions to disarm itself of WMD if they knew then what they know now. That is tragic for several reasons.   Read More »

S 2026, The Agent Orange Equitable Compensation Act, a bill presently being considered by the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee would change the language of the Veterans Administration's Manual on how compensation and pensions are determined for U.S. Military personal presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.   Read More »

Given the facts surrounding the motives behind Bush's unprovoked invasion of Iraq in March 2003, his declaration on May 2, 2003 that the major combat operations in Iraq had ended and that the rebuilding in the Gulf nation was under way, his Vice President's claims on June 20, 2005 "I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency," nothing these two cretins utter has a smattering of credibility.   Read More »

Madam Speaker:
Your conclusions that impeachment of the President, the Vice-President and other members of this administration will be futile and not good for Democrats has two problems.   Read More »

The Democratic party was elected the majority in both the House and Senate last November primarily to end the U.S. involvement in Iraq. The task was a simple one. In 1971 and again in 1973 Congress first rescinded the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution and then terminated funding for the war in Vietnam. Those actions were a roadmap that today is being ignored.   Read More »

VA HOMELESS VETS UPDATE 04: A recently completed Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on homeless veterans says the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have contributed to a sharp rise in the number of homeless
military veterans.   Read More »

CHANGING MILITARY RECORDS UPDATE 02: Each Service Secretary appoints high-level civilian employees who work for the military service concerned to serve on the Board for the Correction of Military Records.   Read More »

CHANGING MILITARY RECORDS UPDATE 01: To apply for a change to your military records use a DD Form 149, “Application for Correction of Military Record” Section 1552 for submission to your service’s Board for the
Correction of Military Records. You should complete the form very carefully by typing or printing the requested information. Attach copies of statements or records that are relevant to your case. Make sure you sign item 16 of the form. Mail the completed form to the appropriate
address on the back side of the form. The Board will correct your military records only if you can prove that you are the victim of error or injustice.   Read More »

CHANGING MILITARY RECORDS: If you feel there is an error or an injustice in your military personnel records you can apply to your service's Board for the Correction of Military Records whether you are active duty, separated, or retired,. Any person with military records, or his or
her heirs or legal representative, may apply to the appropriate service's Board. The Army, Air Force, and Coast Guard have separate boards. The Navy operates the Board for both Navy personnel and members of the
United States Marine Corps. Title 10, United States Code, Section 1552, is the law governing correction of military records.   Read More »

DOD DISABILITY EVALUATION SYSTEM UPDATE 01: Injured forces returning from Afghanistan and Iraq are going to get their own battalion of lawyers to represent their appeals to the military for health care and compensation. According to the Disabled American Veterans, three major
Washington, D.C., law firms have volunteered legal representation at no cost for service men and women navigating through the disability and compensation system at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and the
National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., the main U.S. hospitals receiving wounded soldiers off the battlefields.   Read More »

SMALL BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION UPDATE 03: With nearly a quarter of newly discharged veterans considering starting their own businesses, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson praised a new Small Business Administration (SBA) venture to make business ownership easier for all
veterans. The SBA has unveiled a program called â??Patriot Expressâ?? that offers a wide variety of assistance to veterans interested in setting up or expanding their own small businesses. Assistance under the new SBA program for veterans ranges from help writing a business plan and managing a business, to obtaining financing and learning how to export goods.   Read More »

Any of you who served in South Vietnam know that dirty little secret.
For those of you that don't, here is a replay of of a Time Magazine article from June 1971 dealing with that filty reality of the Vietnam War, where over 58,000 of our troops died, 300,000 more were wounded, and $116 billion was wasted.

Time Magazine
Monday, Jun. 07, 1971
Viet Nam: A Cancerous Affliction
Link
LONG before the Americans arrived in strength, official corruption was a tacitly accepted tradition in South Viet Nam�?�¢?"as it is elsewhere in Asia. Indeed, the term does not have the same meaning to Asians as it does to Westerners. Vietnamese officials were always poorly paid, and they were expected to find ways of substantially increasing their salaries by means of minor shakedowns or kickbacks. In the present war, however, big-league corruption involving huge profits has roared out of hand among top officials and military men.

The U.S. Government has usually remained silent about the cancerous corruption that afflicts South Viet Nam today: the pilferage at the docks, the smuggling at Saigon's Tan Son Nhut Airport, and the large-scale theft and export of scrap metal. But Washington has reacted with anger and alarm to recent disclosures about the widespread use of heroin by American G.I.s (see THE NATION) and to charges that Vietnamese officials, high and low, are involved in the hard-drug traffic.

Now for a hardball look at Iraq!   Read More »

This bill is a shallow and hollow a piece of legislation as the surge bill with timelines. It is an insult to the base of the Democratic Party, the people in this nation opposed to this blatant act of aggression and the continued occupation of Iraq. It does nothing to stop the war.

This bill is as hollow as the first bill to fund the surge with timelines. It is crafted, penned and passed simply to quiet people in the Democratic party that have our elected Representatives phones ringing off the hook, their email memory filling up, and folks beginning to picket around the nation. It is in the final analysis, another distraction.

Last April the Democrats and Congress voted on a bill funding the troops surge in Iraq with timelines for withdrawal. As soon as Bush vetoed it, they went back and passed the same funding bill without the timelines.

While the nation was distracted and focused on this shootout between Congress and the White House, both legislative bodies were busy passing the fiscal year 2008 Defense Budget which contains an additional $141 billion to continue the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq through September 30, 2008.

Link   Read More »

In the months leading up to the November 2006 election Democrats seeking re-election and those running to unseat Republican incumbents ranted loudly in opposition to the war in Iraq, how it was imperative for the unity of the nation to change course in that war and more than hinted that they cut off funding and bring home the troops.   Read More »

PTSD UPDATE 15: Veterans returning from combat zones in Afghanistan and Iraq can soon opt to take part in a new post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment program at the Veterans Home of California at Yountville.   Read More »