Moon dust and cereal...

Moon dust and its dangers.

Negotiating with terrorists.

An Iraq War Veteran says what he thinks about war and warmongers.

Why ignorance is being embraced as a virtue in the GOP.

Life in the most religious states.

Tom Tomorrow gets it right.

Plastics, even non-BPA, can affect your hormones.  And pesticides may give your child autism.

10 invasive species

Women listening to men in Western Art History.  And speaking in a sexist language.

Cereal killers...

The Department of Veterans Affairs is in a paperwork shambles

But what else is new?

WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs must change the way it evaluates former soldiers for post-traumatic stress disorder if it hopes to eliminate the wide disparities across the country in how much it compensates those who have the disability, a new report has concluded.

Released Tuesday by the highly regarded Institute of Medicine, the report says that the recent surge in cases of PTSD, coupled with ineffective VA rules, suggests that veterans could be getting disability payments that are too high or too low.

[snip]

Post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the most prevalent conditions - mental or physical - to emerge from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Often tied to intense warfare, the mental condition can manifest itself in hair-trigger nerves, flashbacks and nightmares, which often lead to intense feelings of fear, helplessness and horror. Some former soldiers isolate themselves or try to numb their memories with drugs or alcohol. Some, unable to cope, have killed themselves.

Although some soldiers always have had anxiety or shell shock in the wake of warfare, the acceptance of the diagnosis PTSD became common after the Vietnam War. The report released today shows that the number of veterans who receive disability compensation for PTSD has skyrocketed in recent years, although part of that growth might reflect a new tendency to diagnosis PTSD instead of similar anxiety diagnoses. Veterans diagnosed with PTSD linked to their military service are eligible for monthly compensation checks.

The VA has come under fire in recent years for the way it handles disability compensation cases, including its inability to bring down a huge backlog of cases and reduce its high number of errors. Wide variations among the 57 regional offices that handle cases compound the delays and mistakes.

Among the more vexing problems are the wide swings in the amount of disability payments depending on a veteran's regional office. Veterans in some states get more money per month than those in other states. Currently, a veteran who's considered 100 percent disabled is eligible for a monthly payment of $2,471.

It is so nice to see Bush's Plan A has given enough money to prepare the medical and psychological military services for an inundation of wounded soldiers....

Before you can fix what is broken

You have to stop what's breaking it.

SCHOFIELD BARRACKS, Hawaii (AP) -- The Army's new chief of staff says he wants to accelerate by two years a plan to increase the nation's active-duty soldiers by 65,000.

The Army has set 2012 as its target date for a force expansion to 547,000 troops, but Gen. George Casey said Saturday that he has told his staff to have the soldiers ready earlier.

"I said that's too long. Go back and tell me what it would take to get it done faster," he said in an interview with The Associated Press during a stop in Hawaii.

[snip]

A woman in the group asked Casey if her husband's deployments would stop getting longer. She said they used to last for six months in the 1990s but then started lasting nine months and 12 months. Two weeks ago, she heard the Army's announcement that deployments would be extended as long as 15 months.

"Do you honestly foresee this spiral, in effect, stopping?" she asked.

Casey said the Army wants to keep deployments to 15 months, but "I cannot look at you in the eye and guarantee that it would not go beyond."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates in January said he was recommending to the president that the Army boost its active-duty soldiers by 65,000 to 547,000. Casey said about 35,000 of those additional soldiers are already in place.

Gates also recommended that the Marine Corps increase its active-duty force by 27,000 to 202,000.

When people see how this administration treats the wounded and the dead, when they see benefits being cut from the vets, when they see the endless needless war we're entangled in, why on earth would anyone sign up?

I'm sure the Veteran's hospital is ready and waiting

To deal with these soldiers as they come home:

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - High rates of mental health disorders are being diagnosed among US military personnel soon after being released from duty in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to investigators in San Francisco.

They estimate that out of 103,788 returning veterans, 25 percent had a mental health diagnosis, and more than half of these patients had two or more distinct conditions.

Those most at risk were the youngest soldiers and those with the most combat exposure, Dr. Karen H. Seal at the Veterans Administration Medical Center and associates report in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Seal's group based their findings on records of US veterans deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan who were seen at VA health care facilities between September 2001 and September 2005.

In addition to the high rate of mental health disorders, about one in three (31 percent) were affected by at least one psychosocial diagnosis.

The most frequent diagnosis was post-traumatic stress disorder. Other diagnoses included anxiety disorder, depression, substance use disorder, or other behavioral or psychosocial problem.

We're ready to take care of their problems. Right? Right?!

Killing the messenger

Pentagon punishes soldiers for complaining about care in Walter Reed:

Soldiers say their sergeant major gathered troops at 6 p.m. Monday to tell them they must follow their chain of command when asking for help with their medical evaluation paperwork, or when they spot mold, mice or other problems in their quarters.

They were also told they would be moving out of Building 18 to Building 14 within the next couple of weeks. Building 14 is a barracks that houses the administrative offices for the Medical Hold Unit and was renovated in 2006. It’s also located on the Walter Reed Campus, where reporters must be escorted by public affairs personnel. Building 18 is located just off campus and is easy to access.

The soldiers said they were also told their first sergeant has been relieved of duty, and that all of their platoon sergeants have been moved to other positions at Walter Reed. And 120 permanent-duty soldiers are expected to arrive by mid-March to take control of the Medical Hold Unit, the soldiers said.

As of Tuesday afternoon, Army public affairs did not respond to a request sent Sunday evening to verify the personnel changes.

The Pentagon also clamped down on media coverage of any and all Defense Department medical facilities, to include suspending planned projects by CNN and the Discovery Channel, saying in an e-mail to spokespeople: “It will be in most cases not appropriate to engage the media while this review takes place,” referring to an investigation of the problems at Walter Reed.

As Mustang Bobby asks: It will all go away if you don't talk about it, right?

Update: Think Progress shows us where the wounded soldiers live and where the Walter Reed commander lives.

Update: Crooks and Liars notes that military families are sinking into debt and some vets are homeless.

Update:

Last October, Joyce Rumsfeld, the wife of then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, was taken to Walter Reed by a friend concerned about outpatient treatment. She attended a weekly meeting, called Girls Time Out, at which wives, girlfriends and mothers of soldiers exchange stories and offer support.

According to three people who attended the gathering, Rumsfeld listened quietly. Some of the women did not know who she was. At the end of the meeting, Rumsfeld asked one of the staff members whether she thought that the soldiers her husband was meeting on his visits had been handpicked to paint a rosy picture of their time there. The answer was yes.

When Walter Reed officials found out that Rumsfeld had visited, they told the friend who brought her -- a woman who had volunteered there many times -- that she was no longer welcome on the grounds.

The way a country treats its needy, poor, and helpless

Shows the world its priorities, morality, and soul.

Americablog has delved into the horrors awaiting the Gulf veterans. Saying no to a legless vet wanting to be at a Bush ceremony honoring another vet, refusing aid to a soldier with mental difficulties, denying services at Walter Reed, abusing veterans, removing from a committee chair a GOP official too 'vet-friendly'.

Supporting the troops?

No, Soldier Bond, we expect you to die!

Update: Gee. Shine a little spotlight on the horrors Walter Reed is making our soldiers endure...and they fix the place up!

Walter Reed Army Medical Center began repairs today on Building 18, a former hotel used to house outpatients recuperating from combat injuries suffered in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has been plagued with mold, leaky plumbing and a broken elevator.

The facility's commander, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, said Army staff members inspected each of the 54 rooms at the building and discovered that outstanding repair orders for half the rooms had been completed, but he said mold removal had begun on several rooms. He also said holes in ceilings, stained carpets and leaking faucets were being fixed.

Glenn Greenwald talks about Dana Priest's reporting:

Within the past few days, Priest (along with Post reporter Anne Hull) has published two separate, amply documented articles detailing the wretched conditions which the Bush administration has imposed on U.S. troops who are wounded in battle. Priest's articles powerfully demonstrate that those who exploit troops as a prop to shield themselves from criticism and justify a whole array of extremist policies could not, in fact, care any less for the welfare of the troops whom they exploit.

And takes apart Jonah Goldberg's pooh-poohing of her work:

Finally, whatever benign intent might have been inferred from Jonah's original post was undermined, I think, by his subsequent posting with approval of that anonymous e-mail which had no purpose other than to suggest that this whole story was overblown and contrived. Either way, it simply is striking that upon reading those very lengthy, well-documented, and somewhat wrenching articles, Jonah's instinct was to question the reporters' credibility and quickly post an unverified e-mail designed to dilute the entire story. But that reaction is preferable, I suppose, to Jonah's fellow troop-exploiting warmongers, who seem to want to ignore the story completely.

Bush Administration program to deal with veterans: Nonstop process of stalling.

One of the soldiers quoted in the Washington Post article:

"We've done our duty. We fought the war. We came home wounded. Fine. But whoever the people are back here who are supposed to give us the easy transition should be doing it," said Marine Sgt. Ryan Groves, 26, an amputee who lived at Walter Reed for 16 months. "We don't know what to do. The people who are supposed to know don't have the answers. It's a nonstop process of stalling."

John Aravosis of Americablog reacts to the Washington Post article:

This is beyond sickening. We have to sit back and listen to GOP members of Congress, George Bush's White House, and that pig General Petraeus dare to tell us how WE'RE the ones turning our backs on the troops, when all three of them knew this was going on under their watch and none of them lifted a finger to fix it.

Our soldiers were lied to about this war, they were lied to about their enlistment, they were never given a plan for victory or the numbers of troops they needed, they still don't have the armor they need for their vehicles. And now, the young men and women wounded and maimed for our country are living in government-run pig-stys not fit for farm animals. The American Taliban and the detainees in Guantanamo get better conditions than this, all courtesy of the Republicans.

The Republicans want to talk about treason? They want to talk about slowly bleeding our troops to death? Fine. Forget the agenda Ms. Pelosi and Mr. Reid had planned. It's high time we helped our troops. And if the Republicans won't do it, then we will. Let's ensure that the American people and our troops know which party got them into this mess, and which party is getting them out of it. Let the hearings and investigation and legislation begin until we fix these problems once and for all.

Supporting the veterans

With excellent health care:

WASHINGTON, Feb. 16 Trauma center doctors in the United States can't access medical information needed to treat soldiers severely injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Physicians at four Veterans Administration trauma centers were receiving complete digital records from the Pentagon until the end of January when access to the Joint Patient Tracking Application was suddenly cut off, The Washington Post reports.
The action was ordered by the director of the Pentagon's Health Deployment Systems who said federal regulations and public law required that data use agreements and controls be in place in order for the physicians to use the system.

Since the cutoff, there have been meetings between the VA and Pentagon officials but access has yet to be restored.

Digital medical records track the care given wounded troops from the moment of their arrival at a field hospital through their evacuation to the United States.

Anger and shame all in one.

Via Watertiger, this site. The photo will shock you. And then you want to take Bush and Cheney and tape this photo to their foreheads.

At least the Bush administration treats homecoming Vets well...

Especially those with PTSD. Right?

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is facing a wave of returning veterans such as Bowman who are struggling with memories of a war where it's hard to distinguish innocent civilians from enemy fighters and where the threat of suicide attacks and roadside bombs haunts the most routine mission. Since 2001, about 1.4 million Americans have served in Iraq, Afghanistan or other locations in the war on terror.

The VA counts post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, as the most prevalent mental-health malady to emerge from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

VA Secretary James Nicholson and other top administration officials have said the agency is well-equipped to handle any onslaught of mental-health issues and that it plans to continue beefing up mental-health care and access under last week's administration budget proposal.

But an investigation has found that even by its measures, the VA isn't prepared to give returning veterans the care that could best help them.

Cutting assistance for PTSD in 2005.

How the assistance is now.

Update 2/13: Low and Left has more of the budget cuts now and ones expected in the future.

Birth defects connected to those who have served in the Gulf Wars and Vietnam

The National Birth Defect Registry

The National Birth Defect Registry is a research project designed through a collaboration of seven prominent scientists. The registry collects information on all categories of structural and functional birth defects as well as the health, genetic and environmental exposure histories of the mothers and fathers of these children. Registry data have identified patterns of birth defects in the children of Vietnam and Gulf War Veterans.