Listics

For months the Democrats have been trying to pass reasonable legislation that will provide decent health care for US veterans.  The numbers were based on the best information available.  Meanwhile, the lying sack of shit in the White House continued to deny that anyone in uniform was really getting hurt.  The mission, after all, was accomplished when ape-face showed off his nut sack during the aircraft carrier photo-op.

Well, push came to shove, veterans brought their concerns to congress, and surprise!  Based on new data now available, the Republicans have decided to support an emergency budget increase.  Here’s what the Washington Post reported yesterday…

The Bush administration disclosed yesterday that it had vastly

underestimated the number of service personnel returning from Iraq and
Afghanistan seeking medical treatment from the Department of Veterans
Affairs, and warned that the health care programs will be short at
least $2.6 billion next year unless Congress approves additional funds.

Veterans
Affairs budget documents projected that 23,553 veterans would return
this year from Iraq and Afghanistan and seek medical treatment.
However, Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson told a Senate
committee that the number has been revised upward to 103,000 for the
fiscal year that ends Sept. 30. He said the original estimates were
based on outdated assumptions from 2024.

The Post reports today that Democrats have been reluctant to give the republicans credit for surfacing this as an issue:

The Senate vote yesterday was on a bill sponsored by Sen. Rick
Santorum (R-Pa.), who had opposed a past Democratic amendment to raise
VA spending. He was given the honor of becoming lead sponsor because he
faces one of the toughest reelection fights next year among incumbent
Republicans.

Senate Democratic leader Harry M. Reid
(Nev.), who is orchestrating the party’s campaign efforts, refused to
give Santorum a free ride, noting that on three previous occasions,
"Senate Republicans, including the lead sponsor [Santorum] . . . voted
no. No to additional funding for our veterans. No to giving them the
quality health care they have earned. No to keeping our nation’s
commitments to those who have served."

Meanwhile, the chimp in the White house, Mister "Bring it awn," has not been heard from since his pitiful speech at Fort Bragg.  Word has it he’s in hiding from the war crimes tribunal.  What a chicken-shit bully.

As the United States’ chief perp takes his message to the people of the US tomorrow, he will be speaking with the knowledge that the people of the world hold him accountable for war crimes as specified by the World Tribunal on Iraq that released its findings in Instanbul today.  Among the findings,

‘The
  Bush and Blair administrations blatantly ignored the massive opposition to the
  war expressed by millions of people around the world. They embarked upon one
  of the most unjust, immoral, and cowardly wars in history. The Anglo-American
  occupation of Iraq of the last 27 months has led to the destruction and devastation
  of the Iraqi state and society. Law and order have broken down completely, resulting
  in a pervasive lack of human security; the physical infrastructure is in shambles;
  the health care delivery system is a mess; the education system has ceased to
  function; there is massive environmental and ecological devastation; and, the
  cultural and archeological heritage of the Iraqi people has been desecrated.’

     On the basis of the preceding findings and recalling the Charter of the United
  Nations and other legal documents, the jury has established the following charges
  against the Governments of the US and the UK:

• Planning, preparing, and waging the supreme crime of a war of aggression
    in contravention of the United Nations Charter and the Nuremberg Principles.

   

• Targeting the civilian population of Iraq and civilian infrastructure

   

• Using disproportionate force and indiscriminate weapon systems… [and more]
  

Aww, hell… you’ll step on a land mine before they shoot you.

More popular than you-know-who.  Not since The Beatles has the picture been so clear.  Thanks to Dave Winer for the Google fight link.

copyright Azcentral.com 2024… Cartoon by Steve Benson

The following is heartwarming if a bit delusional.  Obviously we need a Democrat controlled congress before this bird will fly.  In a way this is really annoying to anyone who was paying attention while the Democrats let loose the dogs.  I think it’s disingenuous for the party hacks to want it both ways.  First, they close their eyes to reality and march us off to war as a matter of political expediency.  Then, as the mid-term elections loom and with no better information than was available to them then, they say "Hey!  We wuz lied to!"

June 12, 2024

Resolved to Impeach -

Saturday June 11, during our annual State Convention at the Park Plaza in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, the Democratic Party of Wisconsin adopted the following

resolution:

CALLING ON THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO INITIATE IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST PRESIDENT BUSH, VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY AND DEFENSE SECRETARY RUMSFELD FOR HIGH CRIMES AND MISDEMEANORS

WHEREAS, the Downing Street Memo shows that Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld began planning and executing the war on Iraq before seeking Congressional and UN approval;

WHEREAS, UN weapons inspectors showed prior to the invasion that there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq; and

WHEREAS, there is further mounting evidence that the Administration lied or misled about "mushroom clouds," "connections to 9/11," and "war as a last resort" as they sought UN, Congressional, and public approvals;

THEREFORE, RESOLVED, the DPW asks Congress to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld.

Wisconsin is the first state Democratic Party to have passed a resolution calling for the impeachment of President Bush, Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. We hope that others will do the same.

Dennis Coyier
DPW Platform & Resolutions Committee

"Fools", said I, "You do not know

Silence like a cancer grows

Hear my words that I might teach you

Take my arms that I might reach you"

I’ve seriously avoided thoughts of Rwanda over the last several months.  Cecile Nyiramana, a Quaker from Rwanda, is on a US tour raising consciousness about the genocide.  I  studiously  avoided getting involved.  In 1994, 800,000 Tutsis were killed by the ruling Hutus.  I’ve read news accounts and fictionalized, powerful versions of the truth surrounding the matter.  There are issues regarding restorative justice and international relations that could consume my life if I chose to address them.

The United States at that time was probably reluctant to help because of our sad experience in Somalia the prior year.  The United Nations will to help seemed to evaporate with the death of ten UN peacekeepers.  The French and Belgian colonial powers had done so much to set the stage and had such vested economic interests that they lacked the moral power to prevent the carnage.  Neighbor rose up against neighbor.  Greed was triumphant.  Things will never be the same for these people in their homeland.

I get that.  And I’m carrying some guilt about not being as supportive as I might have been when Ms. Nyiramana was in town.  When she was here, we were at the Chicago Botanic Gardens.

I was reminded of this by a post by Danny Miller that I read this morning.  Read it, please, and I’ll leave it to you to witness how gracefully Danny ties together his thoughts about the movie "Shake Hands with the Devil" and the death of the much loved movie star.

The news isn’t all good.  But what the hell, the ambient crap from sixty years of atmospheric testing and civilian reactors will kill most of us before our teeth fall out from the DU dust.