YKOS Live

As most people who are not dependent upon the MSM know, Yearly KOS is happening in Chicago this weekend. YKOS has provided a free live stream and I encourage everyone to tune in at some point this weekend to find strategies, ideas, hope and information about wht YOU can do to help end the criminal BushCo and root out the evil in DC. Currently (10 AM Central) Jon Soltz of Vote Vets is speaking on the policy changes needed to end the Iraq occupation. Please tune in.

Democrats Drop the Ball--Again

As you know, the Feingold-Reid bill to kill the occupation, didn't make it out of committee. A disappointment to be sure, but more disheartening are the democratic senators that voted against the measure. Most of the dems who've been saying they are "anti-war" walk their talk. Please call the offending senators and tell them what you think.I feel heartsick. Greg Sargent at TPM writes it up and presents us with the hall of shame; the dems that dropped the ball:

Against:
Baucus (MT)
Bayh (IN)
Bingaman (NM)
Carper (DE)
Casey (PA)
Conrad (ND)
Dorgan (ND)
Landrieu (LA)
Levin (MI)
Lieberman (ID-CT)
Lincoln (AR)
McCaskill (MO)
Bill Nelson (FL)
Ben Nelson (NE)
Pryor (AR)
Reed (RI)
Rockefeller (WV)
Salazar (CO)
Tester (MT)
Webb (VA)

For:
Akaka (HI)
Biden (DE)
Boxer (CA)
Byrd (WV)
Cantwell (WA)
Cardin (MD)
Clinton (NY)
Dodd (CT)
Durbin (IL)
Feingold (WI)
Feinstein (CA)
Harkin (IA)
Inouye (HI)
Kennedy (MA)
Kerry (MA)
Klobuchar (MN)
Kohl (WI)
Lautenberg (NJ)
Leahy (VT)
Menendez (NJ)
Mikulski (MD)
Murray (WA)
Obama (IL)
Reid (NV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (NY)
Stabenow (MI)
Whitehouse (RI)
Wyden (OR)

Not Voting:
Brown (OH)
Johnson (SD)

BTW, why was Sherrod Brown out of commission?

A note to buoy my spirits from reader Nefarious Leslie:Hi Hopey. mcjoan says:

The Feingold-Reid Amendment failed this morning, 29-67. Twenty-nine of our Democratic Senators does comprise a majority of the majority party, and is a significant bump from the 11 senators who are actual cosponsors of the bill. It also sent the strong message that many Dems, including the presidential contenders, endorse the idea of cutting funding in principle.

But the result means that we still have a lot of work to do.

I like to think of it the way she does, only because it’s less depressing and focuses on moving forward.-Nefarious Leslie

Thanks NL, that helps with the sting.

Meet our new ‘war czar’

Carpetbagger has the story.

About five weeks ago, the Washington Post had a fascinating scoop: the White House was looking (unsuccessfully) for a “high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.” The person would apparently be the new Commander in Chief — coordinating military policy and having the power to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department, and other agencies. [ ] The good news for the Bush gang is that they finally found a sucker person to take the job. The bad news for the Bush gang is they hired a man who thinks the White House is wrong.

read the rest...

"Sen. Warner: Protect America, Not George Bush"

So says General Wes Clark. Watch his latest from Vote Vets:

How Many Dead Equal Failed Government?

Larry Johnson's No Quarter

What are we to make of the bizarre contrast between our national grief over the terrible slaughter of students and faculty at Virginia Tech and our muted reaction to the continuing bloodbath in and around Baghdad? One mass killing in the 209 years since Virginia Tech was founded is not exactly a trend. It is a terrible thing but not likely to be repeated anytime soon.

The Sadness of the Day

I just read in The Times of London a day-two story of the massacre in Virginia. Today, tragedy has a face--28 of them. ToL has posted the photos and brief biographies of the victims of yesterday's horrendous events.

I notice how I'm affected by my viewing of the photo gallery. I feel sorrow and empathy for all affected, and grief for the violent shattering of my country. The other predominant emotion gnawing at me is shock. Shock at the massacre and shock at the lack of coverage of this type being available for our military dead and the casualties of war in Iraq. My reaction to the stories of the victims was because I was able to know something of the people that were lost, the lives they led, how they will be missed. This same courtesy obviously does not extend the "protectors of American Freedom," our troops.

All over the news is the Virginia Tech tragedy while today 127 157* Iraqis died as a result of four bombings. Anyone seen any pictures of any of those victims? Read a bio? Shed a tear? Almost certainly not. Images of Iraqis before they become tragic victims are virtually NEVER available except for the rare images on Middle East television. Even more tragically, our US military lost in Iraq do not get even the cursory treatment which the victims of the VT shootings received. This government, this media, do not want you to feel what I, like most Americans, felt today while viewing the very real faces lost in what is essentially the war we have over here in our own culture of violence. We have need to answer Bush's false, ridiculous question of, "Fighting the enemy over there so we don't have to fight them over here." We're already here, and the enemy is us.

* At 3:30 PM CST, the latest death toll in todays Iraq bombings stands at 183

Informed Consent:Top Ten

Juan Cole of "Informed Consent" stokes the fire under the Burning Bush formerly-known -as-the-Decider with today's post:Bush’s Top Ten Mistakes in Iraq during the Past 4 Years What Mr. Cole says about March 19, 2003: Bush’s Address on Iraq

What struck me in looking again at Bush’s address to the American public late on March 19, 2003, is how obviously mendacious it was. That dishonest and propagandistic character is even more apparent with the passage of time. The accusation that Iraq was planning to attack anyone in 2003, that US cities were in danger from it, was monstrous in its mirroring of Bush intentions toward the Iraqi people. Which innocents have had to dig out of rubble? And, at a time when Bush rushed to war, engaging in dirty tricks in hopes of getting a Baath provocation that would serve as casus belli, and not letting the weapons inspectors even finish their jobs, to say he was “reluctant”! It is impossible to reread this text without images from the destruction of Fallujah, from Abu Ghraib, from Najaf, flashing through one’s mind. It is America’s nadir, the most Goebbels-like Big Lie in modern American history.

H/T to Lotus

Free Speech for Bong Hits

At least some Americans are still free to speak their minds, maybe. Read the NYT opinion piece on the students who unfurled the banner, "Bong Hits 4 Jesus" in an Alaskan street during the Olympic torch run in 2002. The Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday.

The Bush Blunderography

LA Times Editorial "Blunder after Blunder"

Bush and his advisors seem to be in over their heads too often, and that's not good for them or the nation.

ya think?

Take These Three--Please

It's about time someone wrote a scathing, taken-to-task, bad job review of Kevin Kiley's performance as surgeon general and commander of medcom. Kiley ceased being a 'real doctor' ages ago and began performing tricks for treats in this administration in order to further his career, forgetting not only common decency but his Hippocratic oath. And lapdog Jim Nicholson,Veterans' Affairs secretary, a veteran who has institutionalized sub-standard care for veterans and then lies about it. Jimmy Boy gets what's coming to him as well. Pat Lang at Sic Semper Tyrannis, gives Kiley and Nicholson the scolding they so richly deserve and recommends a UCMJ cure for Kiley; Nicholson will just have to resign.

What next can we expect from this administration, a Gay porn-star, right-wing Marine? Oh wait, already done.[Caution:link includes pornographic images]These people bring a whole, new level of meaning to the word 'hypocrisy,' and "Dirty Sanchez." Someone may have to invent a new word for this bunch and I need a shower.

The Women Soldiers

I was at the VA here in San Antonio the other day and got into a heated discussion about all things political with several veterans. It made for interesting discourse. One thing that stuck out in the conversation for me was a Vietnam era vet who said the biggest mistake the military has made is to let "women serve in combat." I pointed out to him that women are specifically banned from serving in combat and the women in combat zones are there because they are assigned, just like the men, to do their jobs in this, a war unlike previous wars for America. We are in a war/occupation in an urban area; a city of 13 million people in the midst of a civil war. He nodded and shut up.

Amy Goodman in honor of International Women's Day, has a great piece up about women soldiers in the war zone. Women soldiers are like men soldiers in many ways; they take many of the same risks as their male counterparts but have the added danger of rape and abuse at their duty stations. This is a little discussed casualty of war. Please take special note of the soldier Sgt. Eli Painted Crow, 22 year veteran USA,(ret.) Sgt. Painted Crow is Native American and spoke with Amy in this interview.

Amy Goodman: You said that the military referred to Iraq as "Indian Country".
Sgt. Painted Crow: What they said in the briefing, they called 'enemy territory' Indian Country.

Give Democracy Now! A listen and weigh in about what you think.

Beyond the Call of Duty

The Center for American Progress has posted an excellent article on the readiness of our troops and the current crisis in the American military. A Comprehensive Review of the Overuse of the Army in the Administration's War of Choice in Iraq.

Four years ago this month, President Bush led our country into a war of choice against Iraq. Today, there are 135,000 American troops in Iraq and the president is now escalating this war, proposing to send an additional 30,000 combat and support troops. In addition to the costs in American lives and treasure, this war now places an enormous strain on our all-volunteer Army, stretching it to the breaking point.

But how bad is it overall? Although there has been much public debate about the overall readiness of the Army, only anecdotal evidence has been reported in the press. A composite picture is needed to inform that debate, and in fact this information should be readily available from the Department of Defense. But when the Center for American Progress approached the Pentagon our researchers were told this information is “classified” (the quotation marks were added by Defense Department officials)—even though this information is known by the families of individual troops deployed abroad...

In response, the National Security Team at the Center undertook a massive research project to identify, brigade by brigade, the number and duration of deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan by the active Army. Our research team compiled the following facts through an extensive review of available information about individual brigade deployments in local news reports and elsewhere. Although we have high confidence that the information presented is accurate, we openly acknowledge that some pieces of information may be inaccurate or incomplete.

Possible errors or discrepancies could not be helped given the nature of the task and the fact that some brigades have changed designations or name since the war began due to the ongoing transformation of the Army. We have no doubt, however, that the overall picture of strain and fatigue that emerges is accurate. We expect to maintain and update this database and welcome corrections and additions from those who have more complete information.

The facts summarized below, and in our underlying data, reflect what we were able to learn. In some cases, the bottom-line totals would be worse if we had complete information (for instance, we could only count the tour extensions that we uncovered; very likely there are more). It is also important

to note that our research focused on the combat brigades of the active Army, not the deployments of other services such as the Marines, the Air Force, the Navy, and the National Guard and Reserves. We have no doubt that many of these services have units that have also been overtaxed by this war.

As our full report describes in great detail, beginning on page 7, the focus of our research revolved around the concept of readiness for combat troops. Readiness requires:

* Personnel: Readiness requires that a given unit has an adequate number of personnel, that the personnel are appropriately trained using the equipment they will use in battle. Moreover, Army policy recommends that after serving 12 months in theater, troops come home to recuperate and retrain for 24 months before being returned to theater.
* Training: Readiness requires that Army troops are adequately trained to perform the duties they will be assigned to perform in theater and will be trained on the equipment they will use in combat.
* Equipment: Readiness requires that troops have a sufficient supply of appropriate equipment for combat and that the equipment be in good working order.

Alas, the active Army today is recklessly stretched far beyond recommended use, ultimately hurting our troops and dangerously depriving our country of the strategic reserves necessary to respond to true crises. The administration has done this for four years now in a war of choice. Here is a snapshot of the current state of our 41 combat brigades and three Cavalry Regiments in the active Army.

* Of the Army’s 44 combat brigades today, all but the First Brigade of the Second Infantry Division, which is permanently based in South Korea, have served at least one tour. Of the remaining 43:

– 12 Brigades have had one tour in Iraq or Afghanistan

– 20 Brigades have had two tours in Iraq or Afghanistan

– 9 Brigades with three tours in Iraq or Afghanistan

– 2 Brigades with four tours in Iraq or Afghanistan

* Army policy recommends that after 12 months of deployment in a war zone, combat troops should come home for 24 months for recuperation and retraining before returning to combat. The Army has been forced to violate this policy many times.

* Army policy recommends that troops return home after 12 months of deployment in a war zone. Due to overextension, the Army has been forced to violate this policy many times.

* Because each brigade has ongoing rotations of individual troops, the fact that a given brigade has deployed three or four times does not necessarily mean that a particular soldier has also deployed that many times. Nonetheless, the number of troops that have served in Iraq—and who have served more than one tour—is staggering:

– 1.4 million military (Army and other service) troops have served in Iraq or Afghanistan; 650,000 Army soldiers have been deployed to these countries

– More than 420,000 troops have deployed more than once; 170,000 Army soldiers have been deployed more than once

– 169,558 Marines have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan more than once

– More than 410,000 National Guard and Reservists have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2001, for an average of 18 months per mobilization; of these, more than 84,00 have been deployed more than once

– Stop-loss (a policy that prevents troops whose enlistment end date has arrived from leaving) has been imposed on over 50,000 troops

There is a clear cost on the troops as a result of the multiple deployments:

– An Army survey revealed that soldiers are 50 percent more likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder if they serve more than one tour.

– The suicide rate among troops deployed to Iraq hit an all-time high in 2006

In the analysis that follows, the incredible strain of all of these repeat deployments on our men and women in uniform reveals just how misguided the president’s escalation strategy in Iraq truly is for our all-volunteer Army. It is clear, after crunching the numbers, that the president’s strategy is beyond the call of duty.

Petraeus: No Military Solution to Iraq War

US General David Petraeus, commander of US and coalition forces in Iraq made this key point in a press conference held in Iraq today. IraqSlogger posts the video.
Gosh, I forgot to add my commentary: Duh!

BTW, to keep you up-to-date on the use of our military as cannon fodder:US Military Fatalities in Iraq as of 3/08/07: 3188

VA Chief Says It's Too Expensive to Keep Track of VA Patients

Jim Nicholson, secretary of Veterans Affairs shelved the program that allowed the VA to keep track of veterans once they left the hospital. When questioned about the program, he says, "...[he]doesn't recall such a program."

A proposal to keep seriously wounded vets from falling through the cracks of the bureaucracy was shelved in 2005 when Jim Nicholson took over as the secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department, according to the former VA employee who was responsible for tracking war casualties.

Now, the chimp-in-charge has appointed Nicholson to head the "bipartisan committee" to investigate why veterans aren't getting what they were promised by the government. Heck of a job Nickie. Read the rest and watch the video linked...
Call for Nicholson's resignation now. Let your elected officials know that this is not alright with you.

Veterans:Call in to Congress

Throughout the week of March 5 - 12, national peace and justice organizations will be mobilizing phone calls to congress to stop the passage of the supplemental $93 billion!

On March 8th, join Veterans For Peace, IVAW, Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families for Peace, and Democracy Rising as we flood Congress with calls telling them to stop funding this war!

Every day, the Democratic Leadership gets closer to ending this war! And you have made that happen! With our feet, we marched in Washington DC and will march on the Pentagon next weekend. With our actions, we have occupied Congressional offices from to California. Now it's time to use our voices as we flood Congress with calls that scream, "NO NEW FUNDS FOR WAR - BRING OUR TROOPS HOME NOW!"

Congress is close to voting on the supplemental funding for the continuation of the war and occupation of Iraq and it is important for Congress to hear from veterans and their families.

WE know that ending funding for this war does not mean that we are stopping funding for our troops. We know the best way to support the troops is to bring them home NOW and take care of them when they get here.

Call Congress:202-224-3121 For additional information regarding what you can do about the situation at Walter Reed, read Paul Rieckhoff's HuffPo article. Good talking points for your letter or phone call to congress.

The Gray Lady Says Something Worth Printing

March 4, 2007
New York Times

The Must-Do List

The Bush administration’s assault on some of the founding principles of American democracy marches onward despite the Democratic victory in the 2006 elections. The new Democratic majorities in Congress can block the sort of noxious measures that the Republican majority rubber-stamped. But preventing new assaults on civil liberties is not nearly enough.

Five years of presidential overreaching and Congressional collaboration continue to exact a high toll in human lives, America’s global reputation and the architecture of democracy. Brutality toward prisoners, and the denial of their human rights, have been institutionalized; unlawful spying on Americans continues; and the courts are being closed to legal challenges of these practices.

It will require forceful steps by this Congress to undo the damage. A few lawmakers are offering bills intended to do just that, but they are only a start. Taking on this task is a moral imperative that will show the world the United States can be tough on terrorism without sacrificing its humanity and the rule of law.

Today we’re offering a list — which, sadly, is hardly exhaustive — of things that need to be done to reverse the unwise and lawless policies of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Many will require a rewrite of the Military Commissions Act of 2006, an atrocious measure pushed through Congress with the help of three Republican senators, Arlen Specter, Lindsey Graham and John McCain; Senator McCain lent his moral authority to improving one part of the bill and thus obscured its many other problems.

Our list starts with three fundamental tasks:

Restore Habeas Corpus

One of the new act’s most indecent provisions denies anyone Mr. Bush labels an “illegal enemy combatant” the ancient right to challenge his imprisonment in court. The arguments for doing this were specious. Habeas corpus is nothing remotely like a get-out-of-jail-free card for terrorists, as supporters would have you believe. It is a way to sort out those justly detained from those unjustly detained. It will not “clog the courts,” as Senator Graham claims. Senator Patrick Leahy of Vermont, the Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has a worthy bill that would restore habeas corpus. It is essential to bringing integrity to the detention system and reviving the United States’ credibility.

Stop Illegal Spying

Mr. Bush’s program of intercepting Americans’ international calls and e-mail messages without a warrant has not ceased. The agreement announced recently — under which a secret court supposedly gave its blessing to the program — did nothing to restore judicial process or ensure that Americans’ rights are preserved. Congress needs to pass a measure, like one proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein, to force Mr. Bush to obey the law that requires warrants for electronic surveillance.

Ban Torture, Really

The provisions in the Military Commissions Act that Senator McCain trumpeted as a ban on torture are hardly that. It is still largely up to the president to decide what constitutes torture and abuse for the purpose of prosecuting anyone who breaks the rules. This amounts to rewriting the Geneva Conventions and puts every American soldier at far greater risk if captured. It allows the president to decide in secret what kinds of treatment he will permit at the Central Intelligence Agency’s prisons. The law absolves American intelligence agents and their bosses of any acts of torture and abuse they have already committed.

Many of the tasks facing Congress involve the way the United States takes prisoners, and how it treats them. There are two sets of prisons in the war on terror. The military runs one set in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantánamo Bay. The other is even more shadowy, run by the C.I.A. at secret places.

Close the C.I.A. Prisons

When the Military Commissions Act passed, Mr. Bush triumphantly announced that he now had the power to keep the secret prisons open. He cast this as a great victory for national security. It was a defeat for America’s image around the world. The prisons should be closed.

Account for ‘Ghost Prisoners’

The United States has to come clean on all of the “ghost prisoners” it has in the secret camps. Holding prisoners without any accounting violates human rights norms. Human Rights Watch says it has identified nearly 40 men and women who have disappeared into secret American-run prisons.

Ban Extraordinary Rendition

This is the odious practice of abducting foreign citizens and secretly flying them to countries where everyone knows they will be tortured. It is already illegal to send a prisoner to a country if there is reason to believe he will be tortured. The administration’s claim that it got “diplomatic assurances” that prisoners would not be abused is laughable.

A bill by Representative Edward Markey, Democrat of Massachusetts, would require the executive branch to list countries known to abuse and torture prisoners. No prisoner could be sent to any of them unless the secretary of state certified that the country’s government no longer abused its prisoners or offered a way to verify that a prisoner will not be mistreated. It says “diplomatic assurances” are not sufficient.

Congress needs to completely overhaul the military prisons for terrorist suspects, starting with the way prisoners are classified. Shortly after 9/11, Mr. Bush declared all members of Al Qaeda and the Taliban to be “illegal enemy combatants” not entitled to the protections of the Geneva Conventions or American justice. Over time, the designation was applied to anyone the administration chose, including some United States citizens and the entire detainee population of Gitmo.

To address this mess, the government must:

Tighten the Definition of Combatant

“Illegal enemy combatant” is assigned a dangerously broad definition in the Military Commissions Act. It allows Mr. Bush — or for that matter anyone he chooses to designate to do the job — to apply this label to virtually any foreigner anywhere, including those living legally in the United States.

Screen Prisoners Fairly and Effectively

When the administration began taking prisoners in Afghanistan, it did not much bother to screen them. Hundreds of innocent men were sent to Gitmo, where far too many remain to this day. The vast majority will never even be brought before tribunals and still face indefinite detention without charges.

Under legal pressure, Mr. Bush created “combatant status review tribunals,” but they are a mockery of any civilized legal proceeding. They take place thousands of miles from the point of capture, and often years later. Evidence obtained by coercion and torture is permitted. The inmates do not get to challenge this evidence. They usually do not see it.

The Bush administration uses the hoary “fog of war” dodge to justify the failure to screen prisoners, saying it is not practical to do that on the battlefield. That’s nonsense. It did not happen in Afghanistan, and often in Iraq, because Mr. Bush decided just to ship the prisoners off to Gitmo.

Prisoners designated as illegal combatants are subject to trial rules out of the Red Queen’s playbook. The administration refuses to allow lawyers access to 14 terrorism suspects transferred in September from C.I.A. prisons to Guantánamo. It says that if they had a lawyer, they might say that they were tortured or abused at the C.I.A. prisons, and anything that happened at those prisons is secret.

At first, Mr. Bush provided no system of trial at the Guantánamo camp. Then he invented his own military tribunals, which were rightly overturned by the Supreme Court. Congress then passed the Military Commissions Act, which did not fix the problem. Some tasks now for Congress:

Ban Tainted Evidence

The Military Commissions Act and the regulations drawn up by the Pentagon to put it into action, are far too permissive on evidence obtained through physical abuse or coercion. This evidence is unreliable. The method of obtaining it is an affront.

Ban Secret Evidence

Under the Pentagon’s new rules for military tribunals, judges are allowed to keep evidence secret from a prisoner’s lawyer if the government persuades the judge it is classified. The information that may be withheld can include interrogation methods, which would make it hard, if not impossible, to prove torture or abuse.

Better Define ‘Classified’ Evidence

The military commission rules define this sort of secret evidence as “any information or material that has been determined by the United States government pursuant to statute, executive order or regulation to require protection against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national security.” This is too broad, even if a president can be trusted to exercise the power fairly and carefully. Mr. Bush has shown he cannot be trusted to do that.

Respect the Right to Counsel

Soon after 9/11, the Bush administration allowed the government to listen to conversations and intercept mail between some prisoners and their lawyers. This had the effect of suspending their right to effective legal representation. Since then, the administration has been unceasingly hostile to any lawyers who defend detainees. The right to legal counsel does not exist to coddle serial terrorists or snarl legal proceedings. It exists to protect innocent people from illegal imprisonment.

Beyond all these huge tasks, Congress should halt the federal government’s race to classify documents to avoid public scrutiny — 15.6 million in 2005, nearly double the 2001 number. It should also reverse the grievous harm this administration has done to the Freedom of Information Act by encouraging agencies to reject requests for documents whenever possible. Congress should curtail F.B.I. spying on nonviolent antiwar groups and revisit parts of the Patriot Act that allow this practice.

The United States should apologize to a Canadian citizen and a German citizen, both innocent, who were kidnapped and tortured by American agents.

Oh yes, and it is time to close the Guantánamo camp. It is a despicable symbol of the abuses committed by this administration (with Congress’s complicity) in the name of fighting terrorism.

Jim Webb's Floor Speech on Iran

Senator Jim Webb Introduces Bill Prohibiting Use of Funds for Military Operations in Iran.

Senator Jim Webb delivered the following statement today on the Senate floor, introducing legislation prohibiting the use of funds for military operations in Iran without congressional authorization. The text of the bill and audio and video of the statement are available upon request.

"Mr. President, I rise today to introduce legislation that will prohibit the use of funds for military operations in Iran without congressional authorization. The purpose of this legislation is to restore a proper balance between the executive and legislative branches when it comes to the commencement of military activities."

Susan UnPC delivers the rest of the speech over at Larry Johnson's "No Quarter"

A suggestion for probing our shameful treatment of fallen troops

Let's get this straight once and for all: With great power comes great responsibility.

The president and the Congress have the power to send America's fighting men and women to war. They also bear the responsibility for caring for those troops and their families.

It's their duty to make certain that the families of those who fall in battle don't fall through the cracks. They also have a sacred obligation to see that those who are wounded or injured in service receive the finest medical care that a rich nation can provide.

Joe Galloway lays out his plan for 'winning in Iraq'--treating our servicepersons successfully. Read the rest...

News from Speaker Pelosi on Walter Reed

On her new blog "The Gavel," the latest round-up of stories on the Walter Reed fiasco.

Bush to Name Commission on Veteran Care

From today's NYT:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Bush will name a commission to investigate the quality of care at the nation's military and veterans hospitals after a scandal about the treatment of wounded troops at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

A day after the firing of the commander of Walter Reed, the White House said Bush would devote his weekly radio address to veterans' health care. The yet-to-be named commission will be bipartisan and will be given a yet-unspecified deadline to report to the president, spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

Less than a week after Defense Secretary Robert Gates visited Walter Reed and said those responsible would be ''held accountable,'' the Army announced Thursday it had relieved Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman of command. He is a physician who had headed the hospital for only six months.

In a brief announcement, the Army said service leaders had ''lost trust and confidence'' in Weightman's leadership abilities ''to address needed solutions for soldier outpatient care.'' It said the decision to fire him was made by Army Secretary Francis J. Harvey.

We can only hope that the shame and public outcry will be sufficient for Junior to make this commission one with teeth and not one staffed by the usual suspects. It may be too much to hope for but a girl has to have her dreams.