The Hidden Cost Of George's War

I have just spent the last hour watching a series of videos produced by ABC News featuring Bob Woodruff who was injured when a roadside bomb exploded next to the Iraqi tank in which he and his cameraman were riding. Bob's recovery from the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is miraculous to say the least, the story he has to tell in these videos is one that must be told. I urge you to follow the link below and watch these videos. Some of the footage is disturbing, most of it heart wrenching. He tells the story of up to 150,000 soldiers with some form of TBI from George's war. This number has never been reported and according to the videos, upon instruction from the Department of Defense, this number is not supposed to be known. This is part of the hidden cost of this war that George does not want the American people to know. This is how much he "supports" our troops. Watch the videos, write your Congressional Representatives and your Senators, shout and curse the evil that is in the White House. This story must reach the American people and George, Dick And Rummy should be held accountable for the abomination that this war has become and the pathetic way the brave men and women of our armed forces are being treated. There are lots of Doctors and Nurses doing all they can, but too many of our veterans are not receiving the care that they deserve. I want to thank Kendall over at The Way I See It for alerting me to these videos with his post today. Spend some time with Bob and ABC tonight, and see for your self the hidden cost of George's war. There will be no traditional eye candy tonight, I just thought that the beauty would be marred by the ugliness of the story. Follow this link, ABC NEWS, and see it for yourselves. I will be back tomorrow with something brighter for your day, unless George does something really stupid to piss me off in the mean time.

Update

After I posted this I found these links at Towleroad on Don't Ask / Don't Tell that are worth a read also:

John Edwards Statement

First Marine wounded in Iraq comes out

Don't Ask / Don't Tell: From the inside out

Ex -Soldiers, Ex-Gays, Heroes and Hotties

I would imagine now that all of you have read something about the deplorable conditions at Walter Reed as reported in a series last week by the Washington Post. It apparently did some good as now the US Senate is going to conduct an investigation. You can read about it in this article over at TPMmuckraker along with the comments which are every bit as good as the article. In one of the comments the film When I Came Home was mentioned along with the link for the trailer. This documentary highlights the growing problem of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who are homeless and won best documentary at the Tribeca Film Festival. I present to you the trailer here and you can learn more of how George Bush "supports" the troops at IAVA as well as how you can help.

The Governors of several states met with the chief of the National Guard Bureau on Sunday to express their concerns about the toll the Iraq war is having on the National Guard andtheir fears that George will overstep his authority and abuse his right to federalize the Guard for his own purposes. The CNN story is here. Meanwhile over at Fox news they were complaining that Anderson Cooper on his 360 show was paying too much attention to the war and not enough to the death of Anna Nicole Smith, it seems that the 42 soldiers that died since she did were not as much of a concern to them as heres was. While I respect the right of people to mourn the death of a celebrity, I am much more concerned with the continued waste of American service members in a failed campaign that grows uglier by the day.

Daniel Gonzales over at Ex-Gay Watch also posted a video from Anderson Cooper's 360 where Alan Chambers of Exodus was expounding on Ted Haggard's conversion to heterosexuality among other things. Daniel offers his analysis of Chamber's statements and his published stance and the difference thereof. Seems these people can't keep their lies straight (as they wish they were). It is an excellent little video which I have for you here tonight.





I apologize that my posts have been erratically timed here of late, time has just seemed to be my enemy. Not that I need any more than what I've got, but such is life. Monday's seem to really race on past, I don't know what it is about Monday that crowds everything together and pushes the limit of my ability to accomplish anything of significance. I did however manage to watch Heroes in its regular slot this week, although Gal Pal and her boyfriend did their best to interrupt me. I am grateful to them for bringing me my new leather chair so that sitting at my computer is more comfortable, but Gal Pal has got to learn how not to try to talk to me when I am trying to watch only one of two shows that I turn my TV on for. This week we learned some more of the history behind the manifestations of powers and how they came to be. Seem like Mr. Sulu (Hiro's father) has been in on it from the beginning, we even got a shot of Hiro as a small boy. I loved the black and white flashbacks, and did you see Eric Roberts as one of the enforcers? Now I just wonder wheere the Jamaican is taking the cheerleader to hide and if Eric will find here before Peter or Hiro does. This show just gets better as time goes by.

That is about all I have time for tonight, so I will close out with the traditional photography that I have run across the last few weeks that I thought you would appreciate. Keep coming back and I will keep on posting as often as time permits ( and even when it doesn't! ). So until next time as always, Enjoy!

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Sunday Stud Soup

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