News roundup – Broder, Woodward, PTSD and blog rules

Bob Woodward and David Broder, BUCKrakers

Woody and the “dean of journalists” have sold the remaining scraps of their integrity by whoring for speakers’ fees.

In Broder’s case, who paid for his speeches appears to have affected his columns at times.

With Woodward, he recycled, or “halowashed,” his donations to a “charity” he and his wife run — mainly helping reduce tuition at elite Sidwell Friends, where their kids go, and raising property values in their neighborhood with tree plantings.

Update: Ken Silverstein reports that Washington Post ombudsman Deborah Howell is giving both Woody and Broder a slap on the wrist, while promising “further investigation.” Why does this sound like the Bush Administration?

VA drug dumps on PTSD vets

Here’s my skeptical take not just on the Chantix experiment, but on the larger PTSD experiments and wondering about whether Big Pharma has a hand in this at all. Having been diagnosed myself, I can certainly tell you that reputable psychiatrists, knowing Chantix’s black-box warnings and public history, wouldn’t have tried it.

Texas GOP racism

The state GOP claims it didn’t know about the private vendor who sold the racist anti-Obama pin. Yeah, right.

Bloggers, stop copying so much

The AP is developing official fair use standards for bloggers.

More details and analysis at the links.

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Sunday Shorts

Steve Benen offers a splendid day-by-day breakout of Rudy Giuliani's Worst. Week. Ever. Alas, even the magical wand of the Tax Fairy couldn't ameliorate Il Douche's woes because there is no such hocus pocus, a fact that informed adults already know.

Harvard University published a new study: "Nearly two-thirds of Americans do not trust press coverage of the 2008 presidential campaign... four out of five people believe coverage focuses too much on the trivial -- and more than 60% believe coverage is politically biased." What's that say about journalistic integrity and the Beltway intelligentsia?

With all the talk about the military success of the Surge™, the lack of political progress becomes more apparent and oil divides Iraq even more. Remarkably, the Bush WH didn't deny that the military outpaced the political gains in Iraq.

Tragically, the suicide rate of returning Iraq war vets is "four times as high as the general population." Unsurprisingly, "Bush's Department of Veterans Affairs lied" about the "epidemic of suicides among returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans."

Presidential contender Gov. Bill Richardson of New Mexico took congressional Democrats and a few of the Democratic WH hopefuls to the woodshed. Good for you, Big Bill.

And in a sick display of utter wingnuttery, when Hillary Clinton's NH campaign office in Rochester was assailed by a hostage-taking mental case, Michelle Malkin's rightwing nutjobs came out to laugh it up. How insane is that? Certifiably wacky.

Now it's almost time for the Sunday funnies and I've got to git 'cause Lil' Tim and The Villagers can bust your guts making you roar with laughter at the stuff they think is smart.

[The end. But y'all come back. Chow!]

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With the V.A. overwhelmed, Veterans suffer needlessly

The Department of Veterans Affairs has produced it's annual year-end report to the congress, and for the third year running, the rate at which the V.A. acts to render decisions on disability claims fell further behind.

While the goal is to make determinations within 125 days, the reality is, on average it takes a claim 183 days to be acted on.

When a claim is rejected and appealed, the goal is to act on that appeal within one year, or 365 days. In reality, rejected claims take on average 660 days to be acted on; just under two years.

The VA has responded to this backlog by hiring new personnel, but it takes a reviewer two to three years to become efficient at their job, and the backlogs had a huge head start. While new personnel have been hired, and are being trained and gaining the acumen to do their jobs efficiently, veterans continue to be caught in limbo.

And when it is all said and done, just under 90% of all claims are found to be reasonable and valid, and the veteran receives the benefits he or she is due.

Very few wounded veterans have the ready resources that politicians seem to take for granted, and virtually none have the resources of the Bush clan. While they wait for their benefit determinations, they often face poverty, destitution and homelessness. No returning soldier should face homelessness, and no soldier should be relieved that they lost both arms because then the VA will have to give them a 100% disability rating!

[Keep reading...]

That is why I favor the heartbreakingly simple approach advocated by Linda Bilmes of the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard: Give the Veteran the benefit of the doubt. Provisionally approve all claims made by Veterans for disability benefits, and don't withhold health care benefits while the claim is under review by the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Bilmes has been studying veterans’ medical care and disability benefits for years, and it is her considered and esteemed opinion that the current backlog simply overwhelmed a system that was already struggling under budget cuts before the wars started and created a whole bunch of new veterans needing services. Now things only stand to get worse. Last spring, in testimony before a congressional subcommittee, she predicted 250,000 to 400,000 claims will be filed over the next two years alone by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. This, she maintained, would create a situation that she said “will rapidly turn the disability claims problem into a crisis.” The problems of the VA are exacerbated as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan grind on and on with no end in sight, and and the flood of wounded shows no sign of abating. And the DoD health system continues to dump patients into the underfunded VA system. This negatively impacts all veterans who use the system.

Keep in mind that Bilmes offered this testimony nearly a year ago, before the latest information on TBI was publicized.

The most recent findings are the result of percussive experiments conducted on animals, then the animals were sacrificed and the brain tissue examined microscopically. In the animal studies, scientists have discovered a fundamentally different injury than the “concussion” wound that has traditionally been ascribed to exposure to explosions. A concussion is essentially a bruise on the brain that generally heals with time.

Brain damage at the cellular level is likely permanent – and will almost certainly lead to further neurological degradation over time. Put bluntly, G.I.’s afflicted by TBI are not likely to get better, and in fact will get worse. How much worse is still unknown, but this will strain the system even further.

When the V.A. falters, it is the Veterans who stepped up and served who pay the price - again! - and who suffer as a result. That is a situation I find wholly intolerable. And frankly, anyone who professes unflagging support for the troops, but isn't hopping mad about the way our veterans are being treated once back home, should probably not profess their patriotism in direct proximity to me.

They gave the government the benefit of the doubt that they would not be sorely used when they joined up - the government owes them the same courtesy in return.

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Struggles of war follow vets home

I can't think of one reason why Marine sergeant Tyler Ziegel should need a news organization to intervene on his behalf to pressure the Dept. of Veterans Affairs to do the right thing. During Ziegel's second tour in Iraq in 2004, a suicide bomber's explosion blew away part of his skull, caused brain damage, disfigured his face, and severed fingers from his right hand. Half of his left arm was amputated.

In Ziegel's case, he spent nearly two years recovering at Brooke Army Medical Center in Texas. Once he got out of the hospital, he was unable to hold a job. He anticipated receiving a monthly VA disability check sufficient to cover his small-town lifestyle in Washington, Illinois.

Instead, he got a check for far less than expected. After pressing for answers, Ziegel finally received a letter from the VA that rated his injuries: 80 percent for facial disfigurement, 60 percent for left arm amputation, a mere 10 percent for head trauma and nothing for his left lobe brain injury, right eye blindness and jaw fracture.

"I don't get too mad about too many things," he said. "But once we've been getting into this, I'm ready to beat down the White House door if I need to."

"I'm not expecting to live in the lap of luxury," he added. "But I am asking them to make it comfortable to raise a family and not have to struggle."

Within 48 hours of telling his story to CNN this summer, the Office of then-VA Secretary Jim Nicholson acted on Ziegel's case. The VA changed his head trauma injury, once rated at 10 percent, to traumatic brain injury rated at 100 percent, substantially increasing his monthly disability check.

What of other wounded war vets with similar problems? Ziegel's situation isn't an isolated case that fell through the cracks. Another example...

Garrett Anderson with the Illinois National Guard, for example, has been fighting the VA since October 15, 2005. Shrapnel tore through his head and body after a roadside bomb blew up the truck he was driving. He lost his right arm.

The VA initially rejected his claim, saying his severe shrapnel wounds were "not service connected."

"Who would want to tell an Iraqi or Afghanistan soldier who was blown up by an IED that his wounds were not caused by his service over there?" said Anderson's wife, Sam.

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) had to act before the VA provided Anderson with compensation for his traumatic brain injury.

From a political party that seemingly glorifies our men and women serving in uniform -- unless they're deemed phony soldiers for opposing the war -- you would think that a Repub administration that lauds the patriotism of American troops would sufficiently care for our wounded soldiers. But it hasn't.

The VA still remains MIA on recommendations from a commission appointed by Bush back in July of this year to revise the antiquated disability ratings system. And we've been at war for how long?! There's simply no excuse for the lack of planning to deal with wounded vets the minute that Bush ordered U.S. troops into combat.

These few soldiers' stories emphasize how a grossly incompetent executive branch reacts when a Repub preznut occupies the WH...

Agonizingly slow. If at all.

RELATED LINKS:
* A Radical Notion: Bilmes, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, has been studying veterans’ medical care and disability benefits and said the current backlog overwhelmed a system that was already struggling under budget cuts before the wars started; and that now things only stand to get worse.
* Which is worse? When outrages occur, or when they stop surprising you? Using the 5-13 discharge to cull injured troops from service and deny them future benefits through the VA.
* Pointing Up a Vital Distinction: Fallout from the DOD's Walter Reed scandal puts spotlight on VA funding cuts.
* Time For President to Come Clean On Tillman Cover-up: Iraq War vet and chairman of VoteVets.org Jon Soltz discusses the friendly-fire death of Pat Tillman.
* Finding Yet More Ways to Fuck Vets Over: Sending PTSD-disabled vets back to Iraq and the tragic end of Jamie Dean.

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Finding Yet More Ways to Fuck Vets Over

I work with a number of military combat veterans, their experience ranging from early Vietnam through peak Vietnam, to Grenada, Lebanon, Panama, Columbia, Gulf War I, Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq.

They are good men and women all: hard-working, dedicated, organized, responsible - exceptional employees and citizens. Despite experiences that would strain the sanity and peace of mind of the best and strongest of us, they have survived, prevailed, and thrived.

But if you read yesterday's lead story on Salon, you wouldn't believe that.

Thirty years ago, television shows were heavy on cops and PIs, and you could hardly get through one evening without seeing an episode that featured a "crazy" Vietnam vet going berserk and killing people.

The crazed vet plot accurately reflected the public perception of the time, but it also magnified that perception, making the job of advocates for veterans' mental health care nearly impossible.

In that atmosphere, even healthy veterans could not get a job, turned away by employers terrified by the popular stereotype of the drug-addled, violence-prone crazed vet. Denied work, the stereotype became a self-fulfilling prophecy, and no one was surprised to see homeless, substance-abusing, mentally disturbed vets wandering the streets. Although everyone should have been ashamed.

It's taken three decades of hard work to turn that perception around, to accomplish desperately needed changes in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, to regain by inches public respect for military veterans and understanding of their mental health needs.

But the current treatment of soldiers, marines, guardsmen, reserves and veterans by the Pentagon, the VA, and Smirky's maladministration is about to plunge us back into those bad old days of abandonment of veterans by the government and fear and hatred toward veterans by the public.

Salon's story is as much as indictment of SWAT-enamored local police forces as it is of a military that sends PTSD-disabled vets back to Iraq.

But to me it also presages a new era of the "crazed vet" stereotype.

And that will be yet another crime to lay at the feet of Smirky's maladministration and his repug and democratic enablers in Congress and in the media:

Yet another generation of veterans crippled not just by their experience in combat, not just by their mistreatment by the Pentagon and VA, but by a society conditioned to fear, reject and hate them.

Don't get me wrong: the LAST thing I want is to censor stories like Salon's. What happened to Jamie Dean is horrible and needs to be read by every American.

But the potential his tragedy - and the tragedy of too many others like him - has to re-create the crazed vet era adds even more urgency to calls to end the Iraq clusterfuck YESTERDAY. Bring our soldiers, marines, guardsmen and reserves home NOW. Double, triple, quadruple the military health care and VA health care budgets IMMEDIATELY.

Raise taxes, confiscate Halliburton, take it out of Smirky's hide - do whatever it takes to ensure that not one more veteran dies in a hail of police gunfire because no one would listen when he said he was hurting.

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A Radical Notion

The Veterans Administration is staggering under the burden of caring for those wounded and/or psychically damaged by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Currently, the VA has a backlog of over 600,000 cases (Air Force Times) pending determination of disability and benefits.

Tuesday Harvard Professor Linda Bilmes testified before the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on disability assistance, where she asserted that all claims filed by veterans of the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq should be immediately accepted at face value.

Bilmes, of Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, has been studying veterans’ medical care and disability benefits and said the current backlog overwhelmed a system that was already struggling under budget cuts before the wars started; and that now things only stand to get worse. She predicts 250,000 to 400,000 claims will be filed over the next two years alone by veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, creating a situation that she said “will rapidly turn the disability claims problem into a crisis.”

This just makes sense. Since 88 percent of disability claims are approved, spot-checking and audits would be enough to ensure the fairness of the system. In fact, the system she proposes would be better for those who apply for benefits.

Bilmes also proposes changes to the disability rating system. The current system ranks disability between zero and 100 percent, in 10-percentage point increments. Bilmes proposes dividing disability into four rankings: zero, low, medium or high disability. “This would immediately streamline the process, reduce discrepancies between regions and likely cut the number of appeals,” she said.

The ideas offered by Bilmes are definitely worth considering. If there is one thing that we know, for certain, novel thinking is how challenges get met and how problems get solved. In other words, don't stay the course. Instead, try steering away from the iceberg. The Bilmes Protocol offers steering away from the iceberg.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs subcommittee on disability assistance, said the recommendations might help.

“The idea of giving veterans the benefit of the doubt sounds good to me,” Hall said at the hearing.

Brady Van Engelen, a wounded Iraq war veteran, said veterans and their families are suffering. “We may end up with an entire generation of veterans who have no faith in our VA because those running it — as well as those overseeing it — were unable to hold up their end of the bargain,” he said.

“We did not prepare for this, and it is painfully evident,” said Van Engelen. “My generation is going to have to pay for this, and we will be paying for years and years.”

As the wars grind on and the flood of wounded shows no sign of abating, and the DoD health system continues to dump patients into the VA system it negatively impacts all veterans who use the system.

It is incumbent on our nation that we take care of those who serve.

It is time to fully fund the VA, and the Bilmes Protocol should be accepted and enacted immediately. Enact it with the caveat of oversight by the Veterans Affairs Committee and an Inspector General. But enact it. The VA Health system stands at a critical juncture, and bold, decisive action is needed. While the system bogs down, veterans suffer. The stories of eviction and homelessness as cases wend through the system are starting to appear.

Decency mandates that we give these men and women who volunteer to serve the benefit of the doubt when they claim they were damaged by war. To not do so is downright disgraceful.

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Pointing Up a Vital Distinction

In the fallout from the Walter Reed scandal, I am afraid that a vital distinction is being lost.

Walter Reed is not a VA hospital.

Walter Reed is an active duty military hospital.

Veterans Administration hospitals are operated under the auspices of the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Walter Reed, like Brooke and Tripler Army Medical Centers, and the Naval medical facilities at Bethesda and San Diego, and Wilford Hall Medical Center at Lackland AFB, and all other military medical centers treating the active duty and war wounded, operates under the auspices of the department of defense.

The VA health system, under the leadership of Undersecretary Dr. Michael Kussman, was a government system done right before they were overrun by a flood of Iraq and Afghanistan war wounded. The VA computer system is the envy of all civilian healthcare employees who struggle mightily with archaic HIS syustems. I know from HIS platforms - I've been a Cerner Pathnet and Meditech "Super User" in every facility I have ever been employed by that used those data management systems. The VA system rocks.

It is an apostacy that the VA faces funding cuts at a time that the active duty services are rushing to dump their wounded off onto the VA system.

The VA is the largest provider of mental health services to the returning veterans of America’s current military actions. Over a million troops have rotated through Afghanistan and Iraq, with a quarter million of them at minimum needing counseling services because they face readjustment issues. Yet they are facing staff cuts and closing of the Vet Centers that provide these crucial services. As a result, troops are not getting the care they need - the care they deserve - sometimes to tragic ends.

It is high-time the VA be fully funded and the Vet Centers fully staffed.

A country that can not or will not adequately accommodate the needs of those it sends to war needs to stop sending its sons and daughters off to war.

Editorializing aside, it is vital to remember that VA Medical Centers and Military Medical Centers are two separate and discreet entities, answering to different cabinet secretaries.

The Military Medical Centers answer ultimately to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

The VA Medical Centers answer ultimately to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson.

Remember the distinction and do not let the media or the politicians conflate the two.

Doing so is a disservice to those who serve and that is not conducive to accountability.

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