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Another cost of war

Sunday, January 20, 2008

According to a new report from the Pentagaon “1 in 5 American servicemen and women who have been in Iraq are coming back with brain injuries.”. The same report says that “17 percent of the soldiers returning to war could have a traumatic brain injury”. Presumably, the soldiers returning with TBI run a substantial risk of having their injuries exacerbated by further service.

Not every traumatic brain injury is totally disabling, but many are, or at least make it very difficult for the victim to function. I have had a number of disability clients with TBI, and I have seen a wide range of effects, many of which can be pretty subtle. Expect the Department of Veterans Affairs to turn down a lot of these vets when they apply for service related disability ratings.

Until this past June, it was practically impossible for a person applying for veterans benefits to get legal counsel at the first stages of the process. That’s often where it’s most important, because the later stages of the process rely heavily on the record that is built at the first stage. The reason it was impossible to get counsel in the first stage is that it was illegal to charge a fee for representation at that stage. Prior to that, there was a $10.00 fee cap (you read that right) for representation at all stages. I learn from the internet today that Congress finally changed the system to make it more like the Social Security system, which allows a claimant legal counsel at all stages and also allows a claimant to authorize direct payment of a statutorily regulated fee to his or her attorney.

A lot of vets who apply for veteran’s benefits also apply for social security disability. If the VA makes a finding that a vet is 100% disabled, that finding is not binding on social security. It would be an act of justice if that were changed. You should only have to prove your case once, it seems to me. (You couldn’t make a favorable social security ruling binding on VA because VA only takes account of service related disabilities.)

Vets can get good medical treatment from the VA, but one unfortunate side effect of that treatment is that it is often harder to get the evidence you need to support a vet’s claim for social security benefits. Social security judges depend heavily on reports from treating physicians, meaning doctors who have a lasting relationship with the patient. My experience is that it’s hard to get such reports from the VA because 1) though there may be no rigid rule against giving them, there seems to be some sort of policy discouraging them, and 2) it is often the case that the vet does not have a specific individual responsible for providing treatment (i.e., no real “treating physician”), so there is no one to ask for a report. So far I have personally been lucky with cases involving vets, but it would not be hard for any social security judge so minded to turn down a good claim and write a bullet proof decision making a successful appeal unlikely.

So among other fallout from this war, we are likely to have a huge number of individuals with brain injuries that will seriously affect their ability to function, who will likely be left to shift for themselves by the country that sent them to war for no reason.

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Happy belated birthday to this blog

Saturday, January 19, 2008

I have now been writing this blog a little over 3 years, having started on January 15, 2005. The idea at the time was that it would be an adjunct to a newly forming chapter of DFA. That never worked out, but I soldiered on, as it helped me work through the depression of the recent election.

It seems like a long time ago. George Bush had just come out with his hubristic plan to destroy social security. It was the beginning of the end for him as a president with any base of support. It was also the beginning of an at least partial takeover of the Democratic party by the grassroots. Had it not been for us, the Democrats would have caved on Social Security. They were ready to do so until they started getting messages loud and clear from the folks back home. I firmly believe Bush would have gotten his way if we had trusted our elected representatives to do their jobs to protect Social Security. I also firmly believe that the Democratic victory in 2006 can be traced in a straight line from the grassroots refusal to allow the Democrats to cave on that issue.

Since then I must have written a couple of thousand posts. Most of the time it’s fun, but there are days that it’s hard to do, or I really have trouble thinking of things to write about. On those days, my training at Our Lady of Sorrows grammar school kicks in. When the joy of writing isn’t enough, guilt drives me forward.

On this belated birthday I want to thank those of you who stop by regularly, or even irregularly. It truly is humbling to know that there are people who take the time to read these ravings. I’m looking forward to the fourth birthday, when we will hopefully be celebrating the impending inauguration of a new Democratic president, with an enhanced majority in Congress, and a junior senator from Connecticut relegated to a legislator’s limbo. If that’s not how it turns out, then I may have no choice but to keep doing this for another four years.

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Music to drink (liberally) by

Friday, January 18, 2008

The next meeting of our nascent Drinking Liberally chapter (am I using “nascent” correctly? My dictionary says “yes”, but barely, so I leave it to my resident etymologists to decide) will meet at the Ice House Pub at the Bulkeley House at 111 Bank Street in New London on February 7 at 6:30 PM. We are going to try the Bulkeley House because:

1. It’s situated in New London, and so it’s mutually inconvenient for the bulk of the people who’ve attended, most of whom were from Waterford or Groton; and

2. It has a room we can use that is separate from, but close to, the bar area. It also has more room than the Harp and Hound, where we had reached the upper limits of capacity.

We have reason to think (or hope) that we may have more participants the next time around. If we do, and if we went to the Harp and Hound, we couldn’t be accommodated.

The Bulkeley House has parking close by, in a rear parking lot a short walk from the entrance.

We expect that we’ll take a sense of the group after the next meeting and make a decision about a permanent location.

Anyone who cares to come, so long as you are liberal (or conservative and will keep your views to yourself) is invited, particularly a certain regular reader who lives in Waterford, and who I haven’t seen in too long a time. To get everyone in the mood, here’s a few songs with alcoholic themes.

The Doors, singing Whiskey Bar/Alabama Song:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbzvSYLCSo0&feature=related[/youtube]

Next, something only 60s folks will remember. I’m lifting the ban on obviously lip synched videos for this one. I was rather proud to be able to dredge it up out of memory. Mary Hopkin, discovered and initially produced by Paul McCartney, singing Those Were the Days. A bit maudlin, perhaps, but that’s often what happens when you drink too much:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KODZtjOIPg[/youtube]

Filed in Local issues, Music | | Comments (2)

Bush speaks, the market plunges

Friday, January 18, 2008

Yesterday I mentioned that my wife speculated that the market downturn may be related to foreign investors taking their money to greener pastures. Turns out that she was may have been right, at least according to Paul Krugman:

The story has played itself out time and time again over the past 30 years. Global investors, disappointed with the returns they’re getting, search for alternatives. They think they’ve found what they’re looking for in some country or other, and money rushes in.

But eventually it becomes clear that the investment opportunity wasn’t all it seemed to be, and the money rushes out again, with nasty consequences for the former financial favorite. That’s the story of multiple financial crises in Latin America and Asia. And it’s also the story of the U.S. combined housing and credit bubble. These days, we’re playing the role usually assigned to third-world economies.

Meanwhile, George Bush nipped a Wall Street rally in the bud today. After he announced his “economic plan” the market went down nearly 300 points.

Filed in Bush, Economics | | Comments (0)

Reagan redux

Friday, January 18, 2008

Now it looks like I may have retracted yesterday’s piece about Obama too soon. Turns out he did use the quoted phrases about Reagan. You can judge for yourself by watching this video clip, which unfortunately is not something I can post here.

It can certainly be argued that Obama was not endorsing Reagan, or implying that he was a good president. Nonetheless, he slipped far too easily into the standard GOP narrative about the man. I can agree that the 80s were transformative years, though I doubt Reagan would have won a state had he been forthright about his real agenda for change. He was a snake oil salesman, something he learned to do while he was working for GE and, yet again, after he took over for the old Ranger and sold 20 mule team borax on Death Valley Days.

Filed in Presidential Politics | | Comments (0)

Oooh, that hurts

Thursday, January 17, 2008

The stock market fell 300 points today. Whenever a Republican is in office I feel a secret pleasure when I hear bad economic news, since it increases the chances for removing those Republicans. Some things are more important than money, though few Republicans would agree. Oddly enough, when the Democrats are in the White House, the issue doesn’t come up, since the Dow always rises under Democrats. Funny how Wall Street never tumbled to that fact. Or could it be that they care more about a political environment in which they’re allowed to loot their corporations rather than one that enhances shareholder value?

Anyway, as I approach retirement age, I must admit that my satisfaction at the prospect of bad news for Republicans is tempered by the fact that it is also bad news for me. Between October 31st and today my 401k has lost 14% of its value. More actually, because during that time I’ve been putting money in. I understand that there’s a debate about whether we are in a recession. Seem’s like Wall Street has made up it’s mind. My wife suggests that this may be caused in part by foreign money leaving the country. I wonder if that’s true. Imagine what happens to us if they stop buying treasury notes.

In any event, I am willing to take a financial hit if it enhances our chances of getting a Democratic president and a solid and progressive Congress. I just hope that, should that happen, they’ll do something worthwhile with their power.

Filed in Economics, Politics | | Comments (1)

Questions we’d like to hear asked

Thursday, January 17, 2008

A friend from college, presently living in Canada, wrote me about the presidential elections, and included a list of questions that he would like to see posed to the presidential candidates. I assume he won’t mind if I borrow from that email and pass them on. There’s nothing particularly special about these specific questions. His point, and it’s a great one, is that none of the candidates are being asked any of the questions that really matter. Some of the candidates might even like being asked these type of questions, rather than enduring the sort of idiotic gotcha questioning that Tim Russert considers journalism. Here’s the questions:

What sort of person will you select as your running mate? What sort of power will you invest in that person? What accountability will you insist that person have?

Will you reverse the trend towards excessive secrecy that the Bush administration has become known for, and release things such as Presidential daily schedules?

Do you support the Bush-Cheney concept of a unitary executive? If so, why? If not, how will you interact with Congress? Will you issue signing statements?

Will you eliminate “free speech zones” and allow protestors near your activities?

The candidates are falling all over themselves to verify they have faith of one sort or another, but they get very vague on what that means day to day. Fred Thompson is a member of the Church of Christ, which is one of the most extreme in its doctrines that women have no place in church and, by extension, dominion over men. Mike Huckabee’s religion says pretty much the same thing, as noted by his support of a “loving submission” manifesto years ago.

To Mike and Fred: Do you believe Anne Frank is in Hell? If so, what sort of treatment would a Jewish lesbian expect to receive under your administration?

Do you support contraception for married women?

Will you promote condoms as viable means of protection against STD’s and unwanted pregnancies?

There was a legal case in 1981 of an 11-year-old girl impregnated by her mother’s boyfriend. After a court battle, the judge delayed his ruling that she could have an abortion until it was too late for her to do so legally, so she gave birth at age 12. A year later, she was arrested as an unfit mother, victimizing her for a second time (source: Ellen Goodman column in the Boston Globe at the time). If you had been in charge of this case would you force a preteen to bear her attacker’s child? If so, what would you do to ensure she had a chance at a decent life? Be specific.

Will you instruct your staff to not censor scientific reports even if you don’t like what they say?

Wouldn’t it be nice if questions like these were routinely asked? Thinking people know that global warming is the single most important issue of our day. Yet the question is never raised. Of 2,275 questions asked the candidates on the Sunday morning talk fests, exactly 3 mentioned global warming . We can see what’s happened to Edwards, who has actually tried to talk about issues outside the bounds imposed by the media. We here on the internets are fighting back, but we may be too little too late.

By the way, I do think it’s fair to put the blame primarily on the media on this score. Many of the questions above force candidates to talk about the consequences of their policies, which the right will never voluntarily do. It’s easy to talk about the consequence of providing health care, not so easy to talk about the consequences of legislating hate. It’s up to the media to force candidates to talk about their positions and it’s up to the media to concentrate on the issues that matter.

Filed in Media, Presidential Politics | | Comments (1)

Barack buys into Reagan worship (No he didn’t)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

THE FOLLOWING POST WAS WRITTEN BASED ON A REPORT WHICH HAS SINCE BEEN SHOWN TO BE UNTRUE. I’m leaving it up as proof of my fallibility. Obama apparently did not make the statement that was attributed to him. The title to the post has been changed to reflect reality.

Every time I find myself feeling somewhat better about Obama, he says or does something that make me draw back. Here’s the latest: his take on the conservative saint, Ronald Reagan:

[H]e just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.

Once again, Barack parrots right wing talking points. Barack was 19 years old when Reagan was elected. Old enough to know better, certainly old enough to have learned the truth by now. I was approaching 30, and I don’t recall that clarity, optimism, dynamism or entrepreneurship was what I was missing, or what Reagan promised. What he promised, or at least what I was hearing, was a reactionary, racist government, dominated by troglodytes, dedicated to the enrichment of the rich, the rape of the environment, the destruction of our sense of community, the abandonment of any shred of a sound energy policy, and appointment of religious whacko judges, all of which we got. And the list goes on. I don’t know where Obama was living when he was 19, but did the folks in his neighborhood really get a warm and fuzzy feeling from Ronald Reagan?

If by clarity you mean simplistic thinking, then yes, we got clarity. If by optimism you mean dead certainty that the government can do no good, then we got optimism. If by dynamism you mean energetic crushing of the poor, the unions, and the middle class, then we got dynamism. And if by entrepreneurship you mean shifting income from the lower and middle classes to the richest 1% while beginning the process of insulating CEOs from either governmental or shareholder oversight, then we get entrepreneurship. In an nutshell, we got a guy who smiled while he slid in the knife. It suits the Republicans to keep telling us that Reagan was a warm and sunny guy that we all loved, but that’s a deliberate lie, and as Rich Perlstein notes here, it’s a method they use to distract us from the real world results of their own policies and helps set us up for their return to power.

So Barack, if you want to talk about optimism, if you want to talk about dynamism and clarity, talk about Democrats like FDR and JFK, who really delivered, or at least tried to deliver the goods. Don’t validate Republican fantasies.

Filed in Democrats, Presidential Politics | | Comments (2)

Another White House crime. Will the pundits yawn again?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Remember Travelgate? It was a big scandal in the Clinton years. The Clinton’s were accused of having done something to members of the White House travel office. It was never quite clear what they had done, but it provided endless grist for the media mill and a thorough Congressional investigation.

What a difference a few years and a different party in power makes. Today we learn that the White House abandoned an email preservation system that complied with the Presidential records act in favor of one that systematically destroyed emails in violation of that very act. Coincidentally, I’m sure, the period covered by this criminal behavior is the period during which, inter alia, the war in Iraq was planned and Valerie Plame’s name was leaked. How many emails are we talking about? Millions.

Would anyone care to bet on the reaction in our liberal media to this truly criminal behavior? Will it earn even half, even a quarter of the coverage that the inconsequential, meaningless, trivial Travelgate got? Will the fact that it is now clear that the White House systematically and criminally destroyed evidence of its other criminal behavior cause more than a ripple in the mainstream? Need we ask?

Filed in Media, Republican Corruption | | Comments (0)

Bush’s resume

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

This is flying around the net, I’m sure. I got it in an email this morning, but as it does a fairly good job of reproducing the Bush presidency, I pass it on:

RESUME

GEORGE W. BUSH

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue

Washington, DC 20520

EDUCATION AND EXPERIENCE:

Law Enforcement:
I was arrested in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1976 for driving under the influence of alcohol. I pled guilty, paid a fine, and had my driver’s license suspended for 30 days. My Texas driving record has been “lost” and is not available.

Military:
I joined the Texas Air National Guard and went AWOL. I refused to take a drug test or answer any questions about my drug use. By joining the Texas Air National Guard, I was able to avoid combat duty in Vietnam.

College:
I graduated from Yale University with a low C average. I was a cheerleader.

PAST WORK EXPERIENCE:

I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.

I began my career in the oil business in Midland Texas , in 1975. I bought an oil company, but couldn’t find any oil in Texas. The company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.

I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.

With the help of my father and our friends in the oil industry (including Enron CEO Ken Lay), I was elected governor of Texas.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS GOVERNOR OF TEXAS:

I changed Texas pollution laws to favor power and oil companies, making Texas the most polluted state in the Union. During my tenure, Houston replaced Los Angeles as the most smog-ridden city in Ameri ca.
I cut taxes and bankrupted the Texas treasury to the tune of billions in borrowed money.

I set the record for the most executions by any governor in American history.

With the help of my brother, the governor of Florida , and my father’s appointments to the Supreme Court, I became President of the United States, after losing by over 500,000 votes.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS AS PRESIDENT:

I am the first President in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.

I invaded and occupied two countries at a continuing cost of over one billion dollars per week.

I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.

I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.

I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.

I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12 -month period.

I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market. In my first year in office, over 2 million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues.

I’m proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history. My “poorest millionaire,” Condoleezza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.

I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. President.

I am the all-time U.S. and world record -holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.

My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, Kenneth Lay, presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history, Enron.

My political party used Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.

I have protected my friends at Enron and Halliburton against investigation or p rosecu tion. More time and money was spent investigating the Monica Lewinsky affair than has been spent investigating one of the biggest corporate rip-offs in history. I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.

I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history.

I changed the U.S. policy to allow convict ed criminals to be awarded government contracts.

I appointed more convicted criminals to my administration than any President in U.S. history.

I created the Ministry of Homeland Security, the largest bureaucracy in the history of the United States Government.

I’ve broken more international treaties than any President in U.S. history.

I am the first President in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.

I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.

I refused to allow inspe ctor’s access to U.S. “prisoners of war” detainees and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.

I am the first President in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 US election).

I set the record for fewest numbers of press conferences of any President since the advent of television.

I set the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one-year period. After taking off the entire month of August, I presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.

I garnered the most sympathy ever for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most hated country in the world, the largest failure of diplomacy in world history.

I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people), shattering the record for protests against any person in the history of mankind.

I am the first Presi dent in U.S. history to order an unprovoked, pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation. I did so against the will of the United Nations, the majority of U.S. Citizens and the world community.

I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families in wartime.

In my State of the Union Address, I lied about our reasons for attacking Iraq and then blamed the lies on our British friends.

I am the first President in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.

I am supporting development of a nuclear “Tactical Bunker Buster,” a WMD.

I have so far failed to fulfill my pledge to bring Osama Bin Laden to justice.

RECORDS AND REFERENCES:

All records of my tenure as governor of Texas are now in my fa ther’s library, sealed and unavailable for public view.

All records of SEC investigations into my insider trading and my bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.

All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review. I specified that my sealed documents will not be available for 50 years.

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