Politics: Supporting Teh Troops

ICHC U NO WUT

You know how the 82nd Chairborne support teh troops? They caterwaul about how the VA is a total waste of money (ignoring the fact that it's a socialistic, government-run health care system that gives teh troops teh "best health care" available). They complain that Walter Reed hospital is typical of the VA hospitals (ignoring the fact that the Bushies turned it over to private, "for profit" profiteers who took it to egregious new depths, leaving injured and helpless soldiers lying in pools of their own piss, exposing them to mold and dirt and disease in the interest of making one extra buck or twoi). They fight people like Jim Webb who created the new GI Bill that will acknowledge and reward those who lay their lives down when their country calls, and put their minds and bodies in the line of fire in the name of duty. They try to overturn such legislation while buying enormous American flags (made in China) or those stupid little yellow ribbons (also made in China). They attack vets who might not agree with wars of choice. They attack these people, their homes, and their families. From the comfort of their airconditioned offices.

They think it's totally OK that Blackwater, that crusading Christian bunch of bloodthirsty child rapers, shot and killed Iraqis "for fun" while making tons more money than the troops who volunteered to serve the nation. They think it's totally OK that Kellog, Brown, Root and its parent company Halliburton got "no-bid" government contracts and supplied the troops with rotten food and water while spending taxpayer money on luxuries for themselves.

You wanna know what "supporting the troops" looks like? This is supporting the troops. Friends of this soldier, who served two tours of duty as a medic in Iraq, rebuilt his classic car for him as a welcome home present. FTA:

One of them volunteered to rebuild the rig while Chad was serving his country as a medic, the second of two tours to the Middle East. Chad also served as an active duty member in 1991 during the first Gulf War.

Chad's friends and family spent weeks re-wiring and re-building the 66 Chevy, then surprised him when his deployment ended.

To the 82nd Chairborne: That's supporting the troops, motherfuckers. Not threatening them and trashing them and criticizing them. Fixing the car they left behind. Helping out their parents, or their spouses, or their kids. Sending them things they need. Raising money to buy them decent body armor when Dick "Dick aka Satan" Cheney pulls strings to award taxpayer money to military contractors who give these poor guys and gals body armor worth less than shit. Adopting their pets so the soldier can leave with an easy mind and look forward to coming home to a friend who will probably console them better than most people could.

That's fucking supporting the fucking troops. Sign up, you chickenshit motherfuckers, before attacking those who have the guts to do so. Let's see you slog in the desert heat, live on contaminated supplies, and get your ass shot off a couple of times. Then come tell us about "supporting teh troops."

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Politics: Teh News Sucks

If you're reading the news today, you know that it seriously sucks hind end. We'll get around to our usual high-quality reportage and venomous snark after the doctor's appointment. In the meantime, some not-so-sucky-news:

Blogger hunter for justice announced recently that South Africa's President Mothlanthe has appointed an openly gay man to the nation's highest court.

Hunter notes parallels with other nations and that this is a historic first. Thanks, Hunter, so pleased to hear something positive!

Digg friend AMiller sends good news about Africa. According to PRI, wherefrom comes the article, a majority of those on the African continent are moving towards democracy, better economic situations and improved health. To think that that dreadful little wart, Bill Gates, is in large part responsible for this! I only wish the jerk made better software. Still. Give the devil his due. In a world as plagued as ours by random violence, widespread insanity, and acts of cruelty, every little bit of good news helps.

And finally, for those of you as really needs a picker-upper, here's something worth fighting about — broccoli!



At least Captain Pugwash, the adorable kitteh, seems to think so.

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The Countdown Clock

Man, those seconds just can't run out fast enough for me. Or any other of my fine fellow bloggers. The remaining denizens of La Casa de Los Gatos don't seem to care as long as they get their 18 hours of shuteye per day, interspersed with fine kibble, treats, toys, pets, catnip, and the daily constitutional exploration of the hillside, but.


Me, I can't bear waking up to a headline such as this:

Bush 'very pleased' with Iraq war outcome: Report

Is there anything that bothers this pathetic, revolting little man? Does he think for even one minute of the nearly 5,000 coffins in which the remains of his fellow-citizens lie moldering? The tears of their parents? Their spouses and children? The suffering their families and friends endure, having lost a loved one? The estimated 50,000 or so lying in their own piss in military hospitals or suffering quietly at home? Missing a limb or an organ, struggling to get along on disability payments, homeless? Doomed to a lifetime of fighting the mental and emotional impact of what has been seen and lived through?


And what of the Iraqis who have died by the hundreds of thousands? Does he ever think about, see, respond to, the sight of a pool of blood blackening in the desert sun? Filled with the limbs, separated from their erstwhile owners, of children, housewives, cab-drivers, innocent bystanders, stallholders in the marketplace where the latest atrocity occurred? A little more than two years ago, a Lancet study estimated the number of Iraqi dead at 655,000. UNHCR estimates 4.7 million refugees, both inside and outside Iraq, most in dire need of food, shelter, medical aid.

Does the monster-in-chief ever contemplate the children who have seen their parents blown up before their eyes, the fathers who have no jobs but still must feed their children, the mother whose child burned and stuck to her body when our troops opened fire on her car?


Because, in addition to that first heart-wracking headline, in fact, almost immediately below it, I notice this:

Baghdad blasts kill 19

The Green Zone blast splashed blood and seared flesh across the grey concrete barriers at the entrance, according to an AFP correspondent.

Meanwhile, the rotten thing that wears the mantle of this country's leader announced today that he

believes the Iraq war was a success and is "very pleased" with what is happening there.

[He added] ..."remarkable" progress had been made in Iraq since the late dictator [Saddam Hussein] was toppled in 2003.

"People have been able to take their troops out of Iraq because Iraq is becoming successful. I'm very pleased with what is taking place there now," he said, adding there still is "a lot of work" to be done.

"We are bringing troops home because of the success in Iraq. But Iraq is not yet completely safe.

"So there will be a US presence for a while there at the request of the Iraqi government," he said.

"The United States is willing to continue to help. Most countries there within a very broad coalition have come home but we want to help this government," he said without further elaborating.

Of course, without further elaborating. Either he's lying through his teeth or he, as usual, doesn't have the first fucking clue what he's talking about. He doesn't elaborate on his statements because someone, some very malevolent wretch in the bowels of this misadministration, writes these deliberately disingenuous things for him to say, and he parrots them as his "handlers" tell him to. He has nothing to say about the armless, the legless, the blind and insane, those proud wounded heroes of his money-burning war that is crashing and burning our economy around our ears. Jesus, what a fucking blind, limited, self-satisfied pig he is. A thousand, no, a million curses on his empty head.

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Walter Reed Was Bad Enough!

Jeebus holy moly, when does this shit end??? Walter Reed is not the ONLY location for major neglect and mistreatment of veterans.

I swear to deity, if one more of these pompous arrogant repignican congresscritters mouths off about supporting the troops, I will 1. print out the relevant article and 2. force them to eat it in public while I tattoo "Support the troops with your deeds, not your mouth!" on their overfed behinds.

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The Continuing Scandal That Is Walter Reed Hospital

quality control inspector Mark Cordell's photograph

For some reason this photograph reminds me of a scene from that eerie, disturbing film, Jacob's Ladder. If you haven't already seen the film, you might want to. Although it left me feeling thoroughly shaken, I've seen it about five times.

WUSA Channel 9 in Washington, D.C., covered the story. For more pictures and the story, go there.

So shameful. So sad. As wealthy war criminals and profiteers wrap themselves in the flag, they condemn the damaged children of the poor who have served their country dutifully to ratheaps reeking with mold, filth, rats, damp, and dirt.

Stumble It!

Blogging the Iraq War

I've been so numb about this cesspit of horrors in which the U.S. has found itself mired for the past four years, thanks to Awol McStupidSon. The Walter Reed article broke a dam for me, I think. I knew this Assministration, despite its shameless use of wounded veterans as photo ops, was treating the vets disgracefully, but the extent of the horror that underlies their treacly platitudes is only now becoming apparent.

Eric Massa, who ran for Congress in the 29th district of NY, blogs about the war and the VA at DailyKos. Did you know, according to Eric, that

Veterans receive a pittance upon death that barely allows them to purchase a headstone?

It's bad enough that we expect them to live like vermin, but apparently we let them go to their death like vermin too. What an outrage!

If you can stomach it, the site Iraq Coalition Casualties has all kinds of statistics on this putrescent little war. My hat's off to those people. How can they do this every day?

Jason LeMieux at Iraq Veterans Against the War blogs about the futility of Chimpy McFlightSuit's "surge." It's all been done before and failed before, and throwing more bodies into the meatgrinder at this point to do the same damned stupid thing yet another time can benefit only the bloated egos and wallets of some very, very stupid, evil moral midgets.

The Christian Science Monitor carries a story about vets facing homelessness. What a shame. Thirty out of 100 facing homelessness? We're looking at a crisis down the line.

In a related CSM story, echoes of the Eric Massa post about health care for veterans.

And two years ago, USA Today discussed the enormous number of troops (one-quarter) who are expected to require medical services. No surprise that Bush has been slashing the VA budget ever since this war started. No surprise that the VA is completely unequipped to deal with the problems of these people that Bush sent over there.

Finally, some veterans speak out against the war, in their own words. Read it. And weep.

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