What's New
| Presdent Obama Donated $250,000 of Nobel Prize Money to Fisher House |
March 11, 2010, Washington, DC (New York Times) - President Obama made good on his promise to give his $1.4 million Nobel Prize money to charity, releasing the names on Thursday of the organizations that will benefit. |
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| Dr. Haley at UTSW Presents Compelling Brain Images Showing Gulf War Illness |
VCS Asks VA: Since UTSW Research Remains Vital to Understanding Gulf War Illness, Then Why Did a Handful of VA Staff in Washington Impede UTSW Contract and Then End Funding for UTSW? March 9, 2010, Salt Lake City, Utah (Science News) - Nearly two decades after vets began returning from the Middle East complaining of Gulf War Syndrome, the federal government has yet to formally accept that their vague jumble of symptoms constitutes a legitimate illness. Here, at the Society of Toxicology annual meeting, yesterday, researchers rolled out a host of brain images – various types of magnetic-resonance scans and brain-wave measurements – that they say graphically and unambiguously depict Gulf War Syndrome. |
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| March 9 VCS Weekly Update |
This week’s VCS update keeps you in the loop with news on issues you care about. One good change – our weekly news updates won’t ask you for money. Instead, our news updates point you to news articles at our web site. We hope you will read them and share the important facts with your friends. This week's update includes news about VA and suicides, VCS on CNN, our VCS FOIA campaign, VA automating Agent Orange claims, a waterboarding torture video, and Gulf War veterans' benefits. |
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| Federal Court Keeps Torture Lawsuit Against Rumsfeld Alive |
What's Waterboarding? Watch Video of Torture March 5, 2010, Chicago, Illinois (Associated Press) - A federal judge refused Friday to dismiss a civil lawsuit accusing former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld of responsibility for the alleged torture by U.S. forces of two Americans who worked for an Iraqi contracting firm. [Rumsfeld served at the Pentagon under former President George W. Bush.] |
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| Reducing Suicides: VA Adopts Policy on Emergency Care for Mental Health Patients |
This Veterans Health Administration (VHA) Directive provides policy to ensure the provision of safe and secure mental health services during all hours of operation for Emergency Departments (EDs) and Urgent Care Clinics (UCCs) in VHA |
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VCS in the News: McCain Perpetuates 'Death Panel' for Veterans Myth
Written by Stephen C. Webster
Monday, 31 August 2009 10:19
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August 28, 2009 - Speaking with Fox editorialist Sean Hannity on Thursday, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), a beneficiary of government-funded health care, supported the myth that President Barack Obama's health insurance reforms would establish some kind of nebulous, undefined "death panel." Hannity was specifically talking about the literature, "Your Life, Your Choice," which he insinuated somehow encourages sick and dying veterans to not be a burden on society. The claim is an echo of the latest attack on the proposed insurance reforms. First came Palin's allegation that a so-called "death panel" would have killed her down syndrome baby. More recently, RNC Chairman Michael Steele alleged that a VA pamphlet dredged up by the Obama administration is encouraging vets to "commit suicide." Hannity's cleverly-worded question merely piggy-backed on this fallacy, albeit through the use of softer terminology. Addressing McCain, the Fox pundit asked, "Is that the kind of death panel that people were maybe afraid of ... ?" McCain, a veteran himself, answered: "Yes." He added: "But, I think they're also concerned because they're well-read, they're knowledgeable, they're informed. They know what's happening in other countries where basically there is a rationing of health care, particularly when people reach a certain age, as to what kind of treatment people can get and if they can get it, and the incredible delays seen in acquiring that kind of care. So, I think it's not just that. I think it's the example of government-run health care in other countries, which is not ... Wa ... America is not ready for that." "Steele made the charge [on August 25th] on FOX News," noted a Veterans for Common Sense press release. "Steele's egregious comments are an outrageous slander against [the] VA designed to create an atmosphere of mistrust and fear among the millions of our veterans who rely on the VA for medical care. Veterans demand an apology from Steele and FOX News." "Let me be absolutely clear, Steele lied. There is no VA manual encouraging veterans to commit suicide," said VCS Executive Director Paul Sullivan in the advisory. ... All of which leads this writer to wonder when a reporter with access to Sen. McCain will ask him, directly, if there is in fact literature at the VA encouraging vets to "commit suicide." Hopefully that reporter will remind the man who would be President that he cannot have it both ways. Either there is, or there is not. And if the Senator truly thinks there's such reasonable fear of a not-for-profit, government-sponsored health insurance plan, perhaps that reporter's follow-up question should be: "Why do you use government health care yourself?"
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