Young Marine Dies Of PTSD - And Neglect

Bob Geiger. This one'll piss ya off even worse than you are right now.

Jonathan Schulze was a United States Marine.

He died earlier this month at the age of 25 -- not in Iraq, but back home, in Minnesota.

He died of wounds received during his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, wounds different from the ones that earned Schulze two purple hearts. This young man died of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, of wounds to the soul and not the flesh. He died because the government that was there to send him far away to fight in 2004 wasn't there for him when he got home.

The young Marine was wounded twice in battle but returned home to rebuild his life and to cope with the things he had seen, things he had done and friends he had lost. But, by the time he was discharged from the Marines in late 2005, he was deeply troubled with images of combat and violence that he could not get out of his mind.

According to Minnesota press reports, Schulze went to the Veterans Administration (VA) center in Minneapolis on December 14, 2006, met with a psychiatrist and was told that he could only be admitted for treatment four months later, in March.

On January 11, 2007, accompanied by his parents, he went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota and told people at that VA facility that he was thinking of killing himself. They told Schulze that they could not admit him as a patient and sent him on his way.

The next day, January 12, Schulze called the VA, reiterating that he was feeling suicidal. He was told that he was number 26 on the waiting list.

A man who had risked his life in Iraq and done everything that was asked of him by the United States government, was told by that same government that his sacrifice would be repaid by being 26th on a list of Veterans similarly crying out for help.

On January 16, Schulze called his family and told them that he was going to do it -- he was going to kill himself. His family called the local police, who raced to his house, kicked in his door and found him hanging from an electrical cord.

Attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.

"He was a delayed casualty of the Iraq war," his father, Jim Schulze, a Vietnam Veteran, said of Jonathan.

Go read the rest.

When this kid told the VA that he was feeling suicidal, they shoulda grabbed his young ass and put him in a facility on a 3-day mental hold and gotten him counseling, drugs, whatever, RIGHT FUCKIN' NOW. If he'da been in jail, say for drunk driving, and said that, the jail would've done something like that. At minimum, they'd have put him where he couldn't hurt himself and kept watch until a pro could talk to him.

Cases like Jon Schulze go to the head of the line. Period.

The VA? Apparently not. Absolutely unconscionable and unacceptable. They are complicit in his demise.

This will not be the only time we hear something like this. I fear many more like it are on the way.

Moral Obligation to the World to Impeach

Progressive Daily Beacon

With each ticking of the clock, every beating of the heart, and the passing of one day into the next; the reality grows clearer, into a focus so sharp that staring directly into its truth threatens to burn the eyes. The reality is that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney are a clear and present danger not only to global stability, but to the very survival of humanity.

Dangerous as the new Mid-East reality is now, the administration's desire to attack Iran is nothing less than sheer insanity. And yet, with each passing hour Mister Bush and Cheney are building a falsified Iraq-like intelligence dossier on Iran. When they're ready - whether the American people want to or not; regardless of the madness to ensue; only because they want to and can; and no matter the danger posed to the people of the region and the world, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will attack Iran.

In normal times and under normal circumstances the Democratic Party's "go slow" and "feed the administration and Republicans enough rope to hang themselves" political approach would be acceptable, if not quite commendable. However, these are not normal times. Mister Bush and Mister Cheney pose a clear and present danger not only to the United States, but, too, the entire world. America's Congress has an obligation, a moral duty to the world to act now and to impeach George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

Anything less would make them an accomplice to the madness.

With each ticking of the clock, every beating of the heart, and the passing of one day to the next - the reality grows clearer...the President and Vice-President must be impeached.

Whatever the means, peacefully like impeachment, or whatever, they need to be removed from office and hidden under a prison NOW. While we've still got a world.

Iran Clock Is Ticking

Robert Parry. Today's 'must read'.

While congressional Democrats test how far they should go in challenging George W. Bush's war powers, the time may be running out to stop Bush from ordering a major escalation of the Middle East conflict by attacking Iran.

Military and intelligence sources continue to tell me that preparations are advancing for a war with Iran starting possibly as early as mid-to-late February. The sources offer some differences of opinion over whether Bush might cite a provocation from Iran or whether Israel will take the lead in launching air strikes against Iran's nuclear facilities.

But there is growing alarm among military and intelligence experts that Bush already has decided to attack and simply is waiting for a second aircraft carrier strike force to arrive in the region - and for a propaganda blitz to stir up some pro-war sentiment at home.

The propaganda blitz is well under way. Hope and pray it doesn't work. Iraq was wrong, but this is far worse.

The immediate question, however, is what, if anything, can Congress and the American people do to head off Bush's expanded war strategy.

But Bush and his neoconservative legal advisers have made clear that they see virtually no limits to Bush's "plenary" powers as Commander in Chief at a time of war. In their view, Bush is free to take military actions abroad and to waive legal and constitutional constraints at home because the United States has been deemed part of the "battlefield."

Nothing short of a direct congressional prohibition on war with Iran and a serious threat of impeachment would seem likely to give Bush more than a moment's pause. But congressional Republicans would surely obstruct such measures and Bush might well veto any law that was passed.

Still, unless Congress escalates the confrontation with the President - and does so quickly - it may be too late to stop what could become a very dangerous escalation.

To Congress, the American people, military commanders, God (a regular reader of the Brain, according to his IP), and to anybody and everybody anywhere: STOP THIS MADMAN SONOFABITCH, WHATEVER IT TAKES.

Remembering Molly Ivins

John Nichols at The Nation. Also in toto and without comment Below the Fold.

The warmest-hearted populist ever to pick up a pen with the purpose of calling the rabble to the battlements, Ivins understood that change came only when some citizen in some off-the-map town passed a petition, called a Congressman or cast an angry vote to throw the bums out. The nation's mostly widely syndicated progressive columnist, who died January 31 at age 62 after a long battle with what she referred to as a "scorching case of cancer," adored the activists she celebrated from the time in the late 1960s when she created her own "Movements for Social Change" beat at the old Minneapolis Tribune and started making heroes of "militant blacks, angry Indians, radical students, uppity women and a motley assortment of other misfits and troublemakers."

It mattered, a lot, that Molly was writing for papers around the country during the Bush interregnum. She explained to disbelieving Minnesotans and Mainers that, yes, these men really were as mean, as self-serving and as delusional as they seemed. The book that Molly and her pal Lou Dubose wrote about their homeboy-in-chief, Shrub: The Short But Happy Political Life of George W. Bush (Random House, 2000), was the essential exposé of the man the Supreme Court elected President. And Ivins's columns tore away any pretense of civility or citizenship erected by the likes of Karl Rove.

She also told them, even when she was battling cancer and Karl Rove, that they should relish the lucky break of their consciences and their conflicts. Speaking truth to power is the best job in any democracy, she explained. It took her to towns across this great yet battered land to say: "So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was."

Update:

Also please see The Texas Observer.

Airpower in NYC

Mrs. F emailed me (she's in PA on business and I'm home sick) some great pics from this year's air show on Long Island and in NYC and I put some up here. If you want copies of the whole set (13 pix), email me and I'll forward 'em to ya.

And is it me, or is the 'New' Blogger the same shit sandwich the 'Old' Blogger was, only with a different wrapper? New and improved, mah ais!

Mazeltov!

John Edwards couldn't have made a better choice. Since Blogger (which sucks wet monkey ass) wouldn't let me go to Shakes' place this morning, I stole this from Pam en toto:

It's like a big Edwards 2008 locomotive is going through the bloggrrlsphere, and it has now picked up Melissa McEwan, well-known to most of you as Shakespeare's Sister.

Go bloggrrrl!

She's on board as Netroots Coordinator, so she'll be working with Pandagon's Amanda Marcotte (my earlier post here).

You can't say that they aren't a savvy crew over there at Team Edwards, because they are scooping up the big guns on the almost-A list. Both Melissa and Amanda bring large, politically engaged and active readers that will be receptive with the Edwards message. A lot of that is due to Elizabeth Edwards, who is well-versed and ever-present in the blogosphere.

It will be interesting to see what kind of pressure this puts on the other candidates to recruit well-known voices from the netroots, and what editorial effect that will have on blogs (Amanda and Melissa will continue to write on their respective outposts while working on the campaign). This is certainly generating more buzz on the blogs than developments at Hillaryland.

2008 is certainly going to be more interesting -- and more confusing -- than 2004, as these worlds collide.

You've made us proud*, darlin'.

*Shakes began her blogging life as a regular commenter here and it's like watching your little sister find success. She deserves it and much more.

Take a pill ...

The big freak out in Boston yesterday? Well those guys put a buncha those things in NYC too. You folks up there might wanna lay off the coffee. Just sayin'.

Well Worth Repeating

From Molly Ivins on 11. Jan. 2007:

"We are the people who run this country. We are the deciders. And every single day, every single one of us needs to step outside and take some action to help stop this war. Raise hell. Think of something to make the ridiculous look ridiculous. Make our troops know we're for them and trying to get them out of there. Hit the streets to protest Bush's proposed surge. If you can, go to the peace march in Washington on Jan. 27. We need people in the streets, banging pots and pans and demanding, "Stop it, now!""

Nothing that needs to be added. Nothing that can be added. As she did so many times, she summed it all up in a paragraph. Damn! I'll miss her.

R.

"...impeachable offenses occurred on the highest level of the White House."

I highly recommend this op-ed by Robert Scheer tying all the shit that's coming out of the Libby trial to a further case for impeachment.

This case's importance lies not in the narrow charge that Libby committed perjury in testifying about his role in the outing of CIA operative Valerie Wilson; that was merely one facet of a far-ranging plot to deceive Congress and the public about perhaps the most important issue of our time: The prospect of terrorists obtaining a weapon of mass destruction.

The Libby case testimony, centered on the chicanery of the vice president, certainly suggests that impeachable offenses occurred on the highest level of the White House. Just how conscious the president was of the deceits conducted under his authority, what he knew and when he knew it, is precisely what an impeachment trial would determine (my em).

Testimony already has established that Libby was nothing more than a pawn used by Cheney in the vice president's constant and ferocious campaign to trick the nation into war -- not a totally surprising quest for a man who had served as CEO for a corporation that has profited so obscenely from the Iraq agony.

Much, much more. Please go read.

Give our best to Annie ...

Molly Ivins passed away today.

Quote of the Day

Brother D:

...

Now I don't know when Iran actually became such a potent military force. Didn't they fight an 8 year war with a country we have defeated twice in a matter of weeks? ...

Get the rope ...

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

He should only take the scenic route...

Radio Oz

The office of US Vice President Dick Cheney says he will travel to Australia and Japan next month for talks on Asian security and the global war against terrorism.

Mr Cheney's official tour will also include visiting US troops in Guam.

If The Dick wants to make a big hit with the troops on Guam, he should be seen landing in the lagoon in one of these:



That's an N3N-3, a fine, reliable, US Navy trainer in a rare floatplane configuration. Sorry about the picture, but there aren't too many pictures of them actually flying. At least that one hasn't sunk yet!

Listen to it roar!

At 65 knots (75 mph) and about 1800 rpm, the N3N-3 is a fair climber and will do roughly 900 fpm. Cruise is approximately 105 knots. The N3N is a prime example of a rudder class type plane with a large rudder reminiscent of an SB2C.

A 7-G pullout can be accomplished at 174 knots (200 mph) without approaching the 9-Gs listed as the "do not exceed" limit. The rugged construction of the N3N made it an extremely popular crop duster after the war.

No specs on range. Maybe none of 'em ever went far enough to find out. Heh. Who cares? It can land anywhere!

I personally think it would do a lot for Cheney's reputation to make a long overwater flight in a not-exactly-brand-new, yet proven, single engine aircraft. Australia to Japan and on to Guam oughta do it.

Look what such a flight did for Amelia Earhart. And she had two engines and got to sit inside. Our tough-guy Veep don't need none of that sissy shit. In the spirit of gender equality, we should hope The Dick catches up with Amelia.

Happy landings, Dick. Maybe do a coupla 10G pullouts over the troops to dazzle 'em, if ya make it that far.

Do you hear that?

That's the sound of my sphincter tightening. Via our good friend Creature:

There are growing suspicions in Iraq that the official story of the battle outside Najaf between a messianic Iraqi cult and the Iraqi security forces supported by the US, in which 263 people were killed and 210 wounded, is a fabrication. The heavy casualties may be evidence of an unpremeditated massacre.

A picture is beginning to emerge of a clash between an Iraqi Shia tribe on a pilgrimage to Najaf and an Iraqi army checkpoint that led the US to intervene with devastating effect. The involvement of Ahmed al-Hassani (also known as Abu Kamar), who believed himself to be the coming Mahdi, or Messiah, appears to have been accidental.

...

Please, please, please, let this be wrong.

Add Economic Treason to Bush's List of Charges

Today's 'must read'. EssEffChron:

Last year was the year that oil prices came close to breaching $80 per barrel. This was despite the fact that there were no significant supply interruptions and oil demand fell in industrialized countries. That raises the question of what caused the spike.

It turns out there is good reason to believe that record oil prices may have been due to our own strategic oil reserve, which the Bush administration may have been manipulating to drive up prices for the benefit of its supporters. This is something Congress must investigate, and here is some preliminary evidence.

Any finding of manipulation would be economic treason. When global oil prices increase, Americans must pay more for imported oil. That increases the U.S. trade deficit. Alternatively, one can think of price manipulation as the equivalent of a tax increase on American families paid to foreign governments.

Congress must investigate the strategic oil reserve; how it has been managed and what its purpose is. The recently announced expansion serves no real national security function (though that will be the justification) and will only drive up oil prices.

One last factoid. A recent working paper posted by the International Monetary Fund documented that oil prices in the United States appear to be politically manipulated, falling prior to elections. If you are an economist, you ask how that is done. The answer is the strategic oil reserve.

Lemme see if I understand this - two really corrupt oil patch bastards in the White House who give billions of our tax dollars to their friends in their old line of work and who are liars and cheats to the bone besides...

Manipulate oil for the benefit of large donors?

Yeah, they did it.

Maybe we need to hang 'em on a gas pump...

OO-RAH!

Senator Webb has put the fear into conservatives, and reminds Veep - oops! Not yet... SecState Rice of a promise.

Go get 'em, Jarhead! You make me proud. It's about fuckin' time one of those congresscritters did. I hope it's catchin'.

Germany issues CIA arrest orders

Germany has ordered the arrest of 13 suspected CIA agents over the alleged kidnapping of one of its citizens.

Munich prosecutors confirmed that the warrants were linked to the case of Khaled al-Masri, a German national of Lebanese descent.

Mr Masri says he was seized in Macedonia, flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan and mistreated there.

He says he was released in Albania five months later when the Americans realised they had the wrong man.

more at BBC News

This is a start. More people that have been on the receiving end of this sort of thing have to speak out. I hope they catch and successfully prosecute every single person, every one, that was involved in this.

R.

Patsy Russert et al

BTC News folows up on my earlier post:

Tim Russert became the first press casualty of the Lewis "Scooter" Libby trial on Thursday, but most of his colleagues neglected to report it**. The host of NBC's "Meet the Press" was identified, in evidence submitted to bolster the testimony of Dick Cheney aide Cathie Martin, as the vice president's platform of choice to push back against allegations that the administration knew that their claim of an Iraqi attempt to buy uranium from Niger was bogus. The overt implication is that the administration regarded Russert as a patsy, someone whose unaccountable credibility they could borrow to enhance their own, and someone through whom they could present their case with a minimum of interference.

Whether despite or because Russert sits atop the heap of Washington's political journalism community, none of the institutional press reports on Martin's testimony mentioned the demeaning Russert reference in Martin's notes. One suspects that had the reference been to Russert's opposite number on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace, reporters would have felt perfectly comfortable slipping in a dig or two.

Yeah, the MSM is gettin' awful brave of late when it comes to dissin' Fox Noise.

In fact, tracking down reporters who didn't know more about the case than they imparted to their readers, whether to protect sources or themselves, might be more difficult than identifying those who did. As with almost everything connected to Iraq, this was not a shining moment for many Washington journalists. There is perhaps no better source than Nobel Prize-winning author William Faulkner to give voice to the despairing press critic's view on the relationship between the Washington press corps and the Bush administration. From Light in August:

"Jesus Christ!" Grimm cried, his young voice clear and outraged like that of a young priest. "Has every preacher and old maid in Jefferson taken their pants down to the yellowbellied son of a bitch?"

Pretty much. I think they've figured out that they've dishonored themselves and the craft of journalism by their complicity in the immorality of Bush's war. Now they're trying to figure out how to clean it up without admitting mistakes or making themselves look bad.

Sorta like Bush. It ain't gonna work for them either.

One thing the Libby trial is doing a good job of is showing up their malfeasance. I hope the press corpse will admit that they done bad, take their lumps, and proceed with vigor to help undo what they've done. Fat chance, idealistic white boy.

Yeah, alien abduction might work...

Your good name?

So now the Rethugs are whining that conservatism is a great thing, but the Chimp and Congress fucked it up. Um listen, dickheads, the only thing conservatism has done is stifle the growth of the human race. Any ideological movement who wants to return to the past is a roadblock to the development of humanity.

The idea is to learn from the past, from the mistakes others have made and direct efforts toward not repeating them. Looking to the past with longing, to the times 'when life was simpler' and when 'people had values', is a childish, simplistic notion designed to play upon people's fears of the unknown future.

Like fellow Long Islander Billy Joel sang:

... The Good Old Days weren't always good
And tomorrow ain't as bad as it seems ...

Progressivism is human nature. Our drive to make things better for our fellow man, the desire to explore, to understand ourselves and the world around us. Technologically, we have come farther in the past century than we have in all the rest of human history. In the last century, we have raised the average lifespan from around 45 to 75. A hundred years ago, I'd be considered a senior citizen. How can conservatism deal with such rapid advancement when they cling to a view of life that became obsolete when Hitler was taking power?

When you stifle understanding of human nature, when you stifle scientific experimentation and exploration, when you deny fact in favor of faith, you cannot expect to move your race forward.

I don't get into ideological debates with conservatives for this reason. Conservatism (what it has become) is irrelevant, no discussion needed. It is merely a group of people clinging to a way of life they've looked back upon with rose colored glasses. Yes, it was a simpler time, more black and white issues which are easier to understand, but simplicity doesn't beget a better standard of living, or cures for diseases, or indoor plumbing and refrigerators.

It's like the folks who romanticize the Renaissance times, the knights, the gladiators, and the mysticism. Yeah, that's a romantic notion and the fairs are fun, but if you had to do without indoor plumbing, living in the constant shit-smell of open sewage pits, dying of diseases we have since eradicated, and the fact living to the age of 35 was a long life, you'd come running back to the future in a nanosecond.

Modern conservatism is a haven for those afraid of change, period (not counting the crooks who've hijacked it for their own purposes). It's a haven for people who are afraid to think about things like teenage pregnancy, the fact two people of the same sex can love each other in the same way opposite sex couples can, or the fact we are slowly becoming a global community. If you don't think we are, look at our Sitemeter stats by location (at least one representative from every continent passes through the Brain every day).

The Internet will bring the future faster, and sticking your head in the sand or your fingers in your ears won't change things. Stifling human development, human destiny, in the U.S. won't make a damn bit of difference in the Big Scheme of Things. Others will move past us, some already have, and they will blaze the trail to the future, probably to our detriment. If we don't wake up and embrace the future, embrace intellectualism, embrace discovery, this once-great nation will be left in the dust. 6 years of Bush has helped us down the chute to the Dustbin of History, only progressivism will stop that fall. You want to be conservative? Stop the Chimp from spending our money like a drunken squid on shore leave in Tahiti.

If we don't wake up soon, every good thing done during the American Century will be nothing but a minor footnote in the history books.