Memorial Day is the day we are to remember those who fought for our country. This is the day we remember those who fought for our freedom and for justice. This is the day we remember those who gave their lives to so that we might now have:

freedom of speech….
freedom of religion….
freedom of association….
freedom of the press….
the right to keep and bear arms….
the right to keep the military out of our homes….
the right to be secure from illegal search and seizure….
the right to a trial by jury….

Main Entry: freedom
Pronunciation: ‘frE-d&m
Function: noun
1 : the quality or state of being free: as
a: the absence of necessity, coercion, or constraint in choice or action
b: liberation from slavery or restraint or from the power of another : INDEPENDENCE
c: the quality or state of being exempt or released usually from something onerous (freedom from care)

Memorial Day
The history of Memorial Day

US Census site for memorial day

http://www.census.gov/pubinfo/www/multimedia/Memorial2004.html
Remember
The Constitution and other historical US documents

But most of all, please remember the 3426 soldiers who have died in Iraq, the 387 soldiers who have died in Afghanistan, and the many many soldiers of have been wounded in service to our country..

Back to another of my favorite subjects: The way that the Bush administration is caring for soldiers and veterans.

There are two excellent pieces out right now about how the care that our soldiers and veterans are receiving.

The Washington Post has an excellent article on traumatic brain injury (TBI) and the increasing number of solders who are suffering from TBI after being near the explosion of an IED–even if they walk away from the explosion.

Here’s why IEDS carry such hidden danger. The detonation of any powerful explosive generates a blast wave of high pressure that spreads out at 1,600 feet per second from the point of explosion and travels hundreds of yards. The lethal blast wave is a two-part assault that rattles the brain against the skull. The initial shock wave of very high pressure is followed closely by the “secondary wind”: a huge volume of displaced air flooding back into the area, again under high pressure. No helmet or armor can defend against such a massive wave front.

It is these sudden and extreme differences in pressures — routinely 1,000 times greater than atmospheric pressure — that lead to significant neurological injury. Blast waves cause severe concussions, resulting in loss of consciousness and obvious neurological deficits such as blindness, deafness and mental retardation.

The article uses a term that I had not heard in a long time in describing what is happening to these soldiers: Shell Shock.

There is also a discussion of the fatality-casualty rates in this war as compared to the Vietnam War.

It’s a very interesting piece.

The second piece is in US News and World Report, and looks at the rates at which veterans are being denied disability benefits.

…the U.S. military appears to have dispensed low disability ratings to wounded service members with serious injuries and thus avoided paying them full military disabled retirement benefits. While most recent attention has been paid to substandard conditions and outpatient care at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, the first stop for many wounded soldiers stateside, veterans’ advocates say that a more grievous problem is an arbitrary and dysfunctional disability ratings process that is short-changing the nation’s newest crop of veterans. The trouble has existed for years, but now that the country is at war, tens of thousands of Americans are being caught up in it.

Before we went to war with Iraq, there were complaints about the veterans’ administration, especially regarding the underfunding of programs. Things are not getting better.

What I’d really like to see is all those jackasses with “Support Our Troops” magnets on their cars actually do something to support the troops–like paying higher taxes so we can afford better care and benefits.

For those of you who are not complete geeks, WV Public Radio has been doing a very good series recently on the VA hospital in Beckley. (See the WVPR News page, but go quickly as the articles probably won’t stay up long.)

Apparently Senator Rockefeller has been complaining about the VA facility in Beckley for some time, but it was only with the the revelations of what was happening at Walter Reed that people have started to pay attention.

A brief synopsis is that the VA facility on Beckley cannot keep doctors, and Senator Rockefeller believes that these problems are due to the administration at the hospital.

The hospital administration, of course, denies that there is a problem.

I do take issue with one thing that was brought up by the reporters–they were kicked off hospital property by security, who claimed that reporters were not allowed on federal property. (I think that is correct.)

Okay, I understand that reporters should check out these places, to make sure that patients are being treated correctly. But. This isn’t just federal property. This is a medical facility. Patients have privacy rights, and I am not certain that bringing a TV camera (and my understanding was that she had video recording equipment in addition to audio recording equipment) into a medical facility meets with those privacy standards. How can you guarantee that you are not accidentally getting someone on camera who does not want to be on camera?

I don’t know.

And let me make it clear that I very much appreciate the work that WVPR is putting into researching this issue, but I can also understand why video equipment could be a problem.

So, I hope that bringing this issue to light helps veterans. And I think making the public aware of the care our veterans are receiving should be a priority for all news organizations. But I don’t think that bringing to light these problems should trump a veteran’s right to privacy.

For those of you who aren’t Americans, or for those Americans who have been living in denial about how the Bush Administration treats returning veterans, things are not going very well for some of the veterans in VA hospitals across the US. As I and others warned years ago, cutting veteran’s benefits really couldn’t come to to any good.

But not only do they refuse to accept blame for the results of their actions, we now see someone trying to make an infestation of bats in a clinic in Oregon sound like a good thing:

“Eradication has been discussed but the uniqueness of the situation (the number of colonies) makes it challenging to accomplish,” according to the report, which said the bats were being tested for diseases. “Also, the bats keep the insect pollution to a minimum which is beneficial.”

(via my brother)

Politicians are the same everywhere, apparently.

Israel recalls ‘naked ambassador’

Israel has recalled its ambassador to El Salvador after he was found drunk and naked apart from bondage gear.

Reports say he was able to identify himself to police only after a rubber ball had been removed from his mouth.

Although I was disappointed that Capito was re-elected (stupid Charleston), there was actually good news this year: Byrd was resoundingly elected, despite Raese spending lots of his own money. Rahall was resoundingly elected, and Mollahan–although I’m not thrilled with some of his behavior–was also re-elected.

Additionally, it looks like Blankenship wasted a WHOLE lot of money, because most of his candidates–including some incumbents–lost. HA!

And best of all, Cindy Frich LOST. By 1300 votes. Again, I say HA!

Mind you, I voted for Cindy Frich in the past; after all, I figured that having more women in the legislature was a good thing.

Boy was I wrong.

Not only was she one of the sponsors of the anti-gay marriage amendment, but she took lots and lots and lots of money from Blankenship.

Cindy, you DESERVE to lose. Those two actions turned a previous supporter into someone adamantly opposed to your campaign. Keep that in mind when you attempt to run again.

And, oh yeah, the Republicans lost the house!

Please stop to consider whether the candidate you are considering voting for is backed by Don Blankenship.

Don Blankenship–who does not even LIVE in West Virginia–is spending almost $2 million dollars in this election, to try to get the state to election Republican candidates of HIS choice. In case you have forgotten, it is Blankenship’s negative campaigning that elected a nobody–Brent Benjamin–to the State Supreme court.

Now he wants to try to control the state legislature.

For those of you who aren’t from West Virginia (or for some reason aren’t paying attention.) Blankenship runs Massey energy, a non-union coal company. On Jan 19 2006 a coal fire killed 2 miners Massey’s Aracoma Alma mine.

A report by state investigators states that Massey was at fault for the accident, through their missing or broken safety equipment.

Essentially, Don Blankenship has repeatedly placed profit over the safety of the men and women who work in his mines, refuses to allow unions into his mines, and ignores the comments and complaints of the miners (as they don’t have the power of a union to back-up those complaints and requests).

And now, through his hand-picked Republican candidates, he also wants to gain control of the government in West Virginia.

Please vote on Tuesday, and make sure that to send a message to this out of state robber baron: West Virginia belongs to us, and we will not be bought.

Aracoma Mine Accident Report (West Virginia Office of Miners’ Health Safety and Training)

State faults Massey for Aracoma fire (Charleston Daily Mail)
Massey’s Aracoma Alma #1 mine “set up to be a death trap,” UMWA President Roberts says (UMWA Press Release)
Report details fatal mine fire: # Missing walls, disabled sprinklers among findings on Aracoma accident (Charleston Gazette Mail)

If you want to know how Don Blankenship really feels about the state, consider the following:

Between 1/1/2000 and 12/2/2005 WVDEP issued 4,268 citations to Massey operations while the larger companies, Arch Coal and Peabody earned received only 732 and 355 citations respectively.

“You talk about the silo near the Marsh Fork School as if it were a negative. You should know that the silo (picture), if anything, is an improvement for the school” –Don Blankenship

For the sake of the kids indeed.

Do you have what it takes to become a citizen?

You answered 100% of questions correctly. Here’s your rating:

0-20%: Maybe you’re still thinking too much about the Old Country — and that’s where you should probably be.

25-40%: Mmmm. Do you really want to be a citizen? This kind of performance isn’t going to impress those nice immigration folks.

45-60%: Not too bad, but you really need to break out the civics books again — word is, the INS is looking for an 80 percent score.

65-80%: Hey, you may make a good citizen yet! Look at your wrong answers and a little revision should do the trick.

85-100%: Welcome to the United States! (And, truth be told, you know more about this great land than most Americans.)

The one that almost threw me off asked which Amendment did NOT deal with voting rights. I got that one on a lucky guess.

(via erin)

Don’t forget!

Voter Registration in West Virginia ENDS Tuesday, October 17th. So if you are not registered to vote, make sure to get yourself to the courthouse and do so!

Additionally, early voting starts on the 18th of October and runs through November 4th. So starting the 18th, you can go to the County Courthouse and vote early.

So there is no excuse not to vote!

Okay, is it just me, or is something not quite right here?

The US Department of Homeland Security has urged Windows users to install the latest patches from Microsoft as quickly as possible.

I can’t decide is this is a good thing or a bad thing, that Homeland Security is warning us about Windows.

I’ve been having trouble waking up in the mornings.

My pattern, since I was in junior high, is to have my clock radio set to Morning Edition. I’ve never had to set the volume loud–usually my brain start listening to what’s being said, and that’ll wake me up.

Recently, this plan hasn’t been working as well as it used to. The radio goes off, I wake up, then I actually hear what is being said, and block it out, because I just don’t want to listen any more to news about death, explosions, terrorists attacks, or reductions in our civil rights. So I find myself for the first time since I was a teenager, falling back asleep.

Now it’s not like I’m going to be late for work–it just means that I have to skip exercising or have less time to exercise in the morning. But the whole thing is eerie. I’m a news junkie–I love the news. Say what you like about NPR, but I get a mix of state, national, and international news WITHOUT annoying commercials. (You want to know the real reason why I sometimes forget to listen to the WVU games? The awful, incredibly annoying commercials. I hate them.)

In college, being a townie, I hung out at the lair (Mountainlair, i.e. WVU Student Union) all the time. I was almost always there to see what we sometimes referred to as “The Bad News” or the lunchtime Pittsburgh news. It was amazing how they never ever had anything good to report. Just murders and fires and floods.

I’m beginning to feel that way about the news in general now. When I go to the BBC News website, I tend to check the Science & Nature and Technology news. I get daily news headlines in my e-mail. For the past several months the only ones I’ve regularly read have been the Charleston Gazette, since it gives me state news. I’m totally avoiding national and international news.

Is it just me? Or has the news really been this awful for the past couple years, and I’m only just now getting burned out? I mean, avoidance behavior is way up–I’m turning off the radio earlier and earlier to read (or recently, so we can watch a couple of episodes of Babylon 5.)

Is this feeling of dread and doom ever going to go away?

Presidential approval ratings 2000-present, for various polls.

Forgot to post this a couple weeks ago when I first found it. The more I look at it, the more fascinating it becomes.

Everything you ever wanted to say about Ann Coulter, in one simple paragraph:

Disclaimer: this should not be construed as a call to ban Coulter’s “work”, but merely an attempt to call bullshit on bullshit. Aside from being protected by the First Amendment, Ms. Coulter’s obvious derangement may make her eligible for protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Decided to write a letter to the county clerk about the issues I had with the primary. On the advice of my boss, I cc’d it to the WV Secretary of State as well as the Diminishing Pest. We’ll see what comes of it.

11 May 2006

Michael A. Oliverio
Monongalia County Courthouse
243 High Street
Morgantown, WV 26505

Dear Mr. Oliverio,

I am writing because I have several concerns and complaints regarding the primary election on May 9th. Specifically, I have concerns about the electronic ballot, and also the set-up in my precinct, the 16th precinct, in the Morgantown Church of the Brethren.

Regarding the ballot itself, unless already designated in the system, I was unable to write in a candidate name. Thus for unopposed candidates I did not find suitable for the job, my alternatives were to vote for the designated candidate or leave that office blank. When we used the optically scanned ballots and voted with pencil and paper, I was able to write in candidates at will. I do not understand why this ability has been taken from us.

Regarding the voting set-up for the 16th precinct, my concerns are more serious.

The layout was such that my ballot was not secret—to vote you had to walk behind the other voting machines, either coming in or going out. Not only would it be easy to see what someone was voting, but considering the size of the font, it was nearly impossible to not see the contents of someone’s screen when walking by.

Secondly, to access the voting machines, you had to step over extension cords. This is a violation of safety rules and regulations, in that such cords present a tripping hazard.

Thirdly, the layout was such I fear it would have been very difficult for someone with accessibility issues to vote. Besides the extension cords, the path to reach the machines was quite narrow—and may have been difficult to navigate with a walker or wheelchair.

I hope that these concerns will be addressed, and steps will be taken to remediate these problems before the next election in November.

Sincerely,
Michelle Klishis

CC: The Honorable Betty Ireland, West Virginia Secretary of State
CC: The Dominion Post

The letters are in the mail, so don’t point out any hideous grammatical mistakes, because it’s too late.