What's New
| Congressman Mitchell: Pausing to Consider People Who REALLY Matter |
Chairman Harry Mitchell is a Hero to Veterans Nationwide August 20, 2010 (Arizona Republic) - It's been a month since I spoke to Rep. Harry Mitchell about suicides among military veterans and I'm just getting around to writing something. |
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| What Obama Won't Say Tonight About US Withdrawal from Iraq |
| August 31, 2010 (ConsortiumNews) - President Barack Obama’s aides say his speech this evening marking the end of "combat operations" in Iraq will avoid the vainglorious aspects of President George W. Bush’s infamous "Mission Accomplished" speech in 2003. We’ll see. |
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| Lawsuit Update: Prudential's Half-Billion in Dirty Secret Profits |
Families of Dead Soldiers Sue Insurer Over Its Handling of Survivors’ Benefits August 29, 2010 (New York Times) - Vickie Castro’s only child was killed six years ago just before Christmas, when a suicide bomber blew himself up inside an Army mess tent in Mosul, Iraq, killing more than 20 people. |
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| Op-Ed: Cost of War Must Also Include Caring for Our Veterans |
Overlooked Cost of Iraq / Afghanistan Wars: Our Veterans' Healthcare and Benefits August 15, 2010 (San Francisco Chronicle) - Two years after an Army specialist saw half his platoon torn apart in Iraq, he hanged himself in a California backyard. |
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| VA Secretary Shinseki's Open Message to Gulf War Veterans |
| August 11, 2010, Washington, DC (VA Press Release) - August 2010 marks the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Gulf War, launched with Operation Desert Shield and followed by Operation Desert Storm. VA honors this milestone with a renewed commitment to improving our responsiveness to the challenges facing Gulf War Veterans. |
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Editorial Column: Will Veterans Sit for $250
Written by Luis Carlos Montalván
Tuesday, 11 August 2009 09:53
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August 10, 2009 - According to the Treasury Department, 64 million Americans received "...one-time Economic Recovery Payments of $250" in June and July," thereby creating "...an economic impact of more than $16 billion."
As part of The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, "...all VA service-connected veterans receiving disability compensation -- regardless of their rating..." were "...eligible for this automatic payment." That means millions of disabled veterans received this $250 "stimulus check." But many veterans are shaking their heads at this effort to stimulate the economy by appearing to meet the needs of America's veterans. With the backlog of Veterans' disability claims now at 1,000,000, a Veterans' Benefits Administration under a cloud of corruption, and well-documented VA hospital problems ranging from dilapidated buildings to substandard care, perhaps we need to stimulate something other than the economy in this case. Perhaps we can serve the men and women who have served us all so well by replicating or expanding the very successful intranet service, Army Knowledge Online (AKO), into a Veterans' Knowledge Online (VKO), which would substantively, positively change the lives of veterans and decrease service costs over time by: * Providing all veterans and VA service providers alike with one-stop, on-line, permanent storage of veterans' military, disability and medical documents; * Decreasing constant delays in often urgently needed services to veterans; * Improving the VA "processes, procedures and services."
Isn't that what VA Spokeswoman Katie Roberts expressed in when she said: From day one [VA] Secretary [Eric] Shinseki has made it a top priority to understand where within the department we can improve our processes, procedures and services. Two hundred and fifty dollars? I will gladly send my check back for real change in "our processes, procedures and services." The Department of Veterans' Affairs should ask Congress to fund the change required to install a VKO. Now that's change we could believe in! Luis Carlos Montalván is a veteran of Iraq.
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