Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts
Showing posts with label John McCain. Show all posts

Sunday, August 26, 2018

John McCain “He passed the way he lived, on his own terms"

Cindy and Meghan McCain mourn John McCain with heartbreaking tribute
Huffington Post
CARLA HERRERIA
Aug 26th 2018
“He was a great fire who burned bright, and we lived in his light and warmth for so very long,” she wrote. “We know that his flame lives on, in each of us.
The wife and daughter of Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) wrote heartbreaking tributes to the lawmaker hours after his death on Saturday.

Cindy McCain, the senator’s wife of 38 years, expressed her grief on Twitter.

“My heart is broken,” she wrote. “He passed the way he lived, on his own terms; surrounded by the people he loved, in the place he loved best.”

Meghan McCain, the senator’s 33-year-old daughter, wrote an emotional statement thanking her father for being a hero to both her and the country.

“I was with my father at his end, as he was with me at my beginning,” she wrote. “In the thirty-three years we shared together, he raised me, taught me, corrected me, comforted me, encouraged me and supported me in all things.”
read more here

Thursday, August 18, 2016

Careful John McCain, Your Lousy Record is Showing

John McCain's op ed seems to show that either he does not remember all his years in the Senate along with all the years on Armed Services Committee. If he remembered any of it, then he would not have written such a ridiculous article touting his actions.
McCain: New Suicide prevention initiative for veterans can be model for nationwide effort By: Sen. John McCain August 17, 2016

Recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs released a sobering reminder of an epidemic that plagues our veterans: the suicide rate among military veterans has increased nearly 32 percent since 2001. Our youngest veterans (ages 18-29) have been hit the hardest and are nearly twice as likely to take their own lives than any other age group. The rate of suicide among veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is approximately 50 percent higher than the rate among the general public, and on average, we lose more than 20 military veterans to suicide each day.read more here

Let's think about that for a second.

Take a look at how long he has been in Washington.
John was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from the First District of Arizona on an agenda of limited government and strong foreign policy. After two terms in the House, John was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1986, succeeding legendary Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater.

John McCain actually blocked a bill calling it overreach adding it was not needed in Arizona.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
This was going on at the same time McCain was blocking the bill.
In September of 2013 this report came out "Veterans committing suicide at twice the rate of civilians" and Arizona was in the news. "The rate of suicide among military veterans in Arizona is more than double the civilian rate Advocates say veterans need more than benefits when returning from war. The average veteran suicide rate in Arizona from 2005 through 2011 is almost 43 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s according to data compiled by News21, a national reporting project based out of Arizona State University. And the rate should increase as more veterans return home."
But he would should have known better considering he was on the Armed Services Committee in charge of the "prevention" training troops received while still in the military. In 2006 when Congress was working on addressing suicides, there were 99 the entire year.  The numbers went up even while the number of enlisted went down. Does McCain have to explain any of that? Does he have to explain why Congress spends billions on prevention while suicides increase and so does spending?

You can read more on his actual record here. It gets worse.
"These numbers are unacceptable. That’s why in 2014, I worked to help veterans at risk of suicide due to combat-related psychological trauma by championing legislation named in the honor of Clay Hunt. That bill was signed into law in 2015."

Does McCain have to explain that the Clay Hunt bill was a repeat of the Joshua Omvig Suicide Prevention Act?
"Arizona will be the first state in the country to organize this level of collaboration and training so that the VA and the community are working together to combat suicide among veterans."
Again, does he have to explain how the numbers in Arizona went up instead of down? How many more years does he get to fail veterans while they are dying for him to get educated?
For far too long, our sons and daughters who selflessly served the nation in wartime have ended their lives prematurely after they returned home. Through the combined and coordinated suicide prevention efforts of VA hospitals, veterans, and mental health providers, Arizona – and hopefully other states across the country – can work together to bring an end to the tragedy of veteran suicides.
Yes, for far too long and it is because politicians just like him want to get away with pretending they had nothing to do with the outcomes yet everything to do with trying? At least most in the Veterans Community are fully aware of McCains record and it has been disgraceful.
The Disabled Veterans of America gives him a 20 percent rating, compared with an 80 percent rating for Sen. Obama. The Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans for America gives Sen. McCain a D and Sen. Obama a B+. The Vietnam Veterans of America say Sen. McCain has voted against them on 15 issues.
One of the most vocal and fastest-growing veterans groups to oppose the McCain campaign is VoteVets.org. Formed in 2006, the organization claims a membership of roughly 100,000, with a political action committee devoted to electing congressional candidates who oppose the handling of the Iraq war.
Especially galling to VoteVets.org is Sen. McCain's opposition to the new, bipartisan GI Bill that increases education benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan vets. Sen. Obama voted for the bill when it passed 75-22 in May; Sen. McCain was on the campaign trail and did not vote. 

The military trains them then releases them.  They are no longer accountable for veteran suicides nor have they been held accountable for suicides committed while in the military. Veteran suicides went up, just as the number of living veterans went down, but it seems as if Congress does not see all the damage they did.  

How gave them the right to not be held accountable when they are in charge of all of it?

Friday, June 17, 2016

John McCain Pushed for End of Veterans Preferences?

Senate votes to scale back federal job preferences for veterans
The Washington Post
By Lisa Rein
Published: June 17, 2016

But McCain and other committee members are acknowledging privately that it is time for the well-intentioned policy to be tweaked, committee aids say. Preference for veterans has caused resentment and confusion among veterans and non-veterans over whether the leg up is applied fairly and whether it is bringing the best people into government.
Congress stepped this week into a sensitive issue that’s been quietly roiling the already-challenging hiring system for federal jobs: the Obama administration’s high-profile push to give preference to veterans.

The Senate version of the vast military policy bill that now heads to conference with the House would knock out one of the advantages veterans enjoy when they apply for federal work. They would continue to get a leg up over non-veterans to get a foot in the door. But once they’re in government and want to be considered for another federal post, they would no longer go to the head of the hiring queue.

The change, approved on Tuesday by the Senate as part of its annual defense policy bill, would apply across government and affect thousands of veterans and their close relatives, who also are able to jump the line over non-veterans.
read more here

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

McCain Fights for His Job After Not Bothering To Do It?

John McCain is fighting for his job and seems to blame the GOP instead of himself? Veterans get how bad he has been on taking care of them and military gets how he has not taken care of the troops as Chairman of the Armed Services Committee. We've seen him walk out of hearings, thanks to coverage from CSPAN, as many times as we've seen him turn his back on seeking justice for the deplorable attempts to prevent suicides.  

How is it that members of the House and Senate forget the positions they hold on all of the committees put them in control over those departments? McCain forgets a lot but veterans and families remember all the decades of suffering while politicians like him take no responsibility for what they failed to do.  Now he wants to blame anyone but himself so he won't have to face the fact he didn't do his job?
The GOP changed around John McCain -- and now he's fighting to get re-elected CNN
CNN Digital Expansion DC Manu RajuAlex Lee
Story by Manu Raju and video by Alex Lee
May 10, 2016

McCain isn't trying to be president any more. He's just trying to keep his job in the Senate.
Story highlights
McCain is running for reelection and it'd be his 5th term
The party has changed a lot in 30 years
Phoenix (CNN)Sen. John McCain is under siege: Navigating the cross-currents of Donald Trump at the top of the ticket, facing a challenger pushed by the Democratic establishment and being a Washington veteran of more than three decades in a year dominated by outsiders.

But he seems to be reveling in it all.

After being peppered last week with Trump questions at a news conference in Phoenix, McCain said it was time to wrap up: "Surely, there's one more question about Trump?" At an event with freshmen GOP senators, McCain rattled off one-by-one the long list of Arizona politicians who failed to become president - everyone from Republican Barry Goldwater to Democrat Mo Udall and including himself. "Arizona may be the only state in America where mothers don't tell their children that someday they could be president of the United States."
read more here

Sunday, January 3, 2016

Does John McCain Ever Have to Explain Anything?

How is it that politicians never have to explain anything about what they do ending up with such poor results? When we think about suicides tied to military service, we think about the DOD as well as the VA because they would not be disabled veterans had they not served in the military in the first place. Politicians however don't seem to be able to make that connection.

Veterans expected results after all the hearings however, deplorable results did not come with any explanations or even apologies.

President Obama served on the Veterans Affairs Committee but not the Armed Forces Committee. John McCain served on that one but didn't serve on the VA Committee. It seems like neither one was paying much attention to their own Committees.

Way back in 2007 then Senator Obama was demanding answers from the Pentagon on what they were doing about PTSD rates and suicides.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Barack Obama (D-IL) and Christopher Bond (R-MO) sent the following letter to Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, requesting a full accounting of service members’ psychological injuries, including Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), since October 2001. The senators also requested a detailed report on how the military monitors other psychological injuries. Recent media accounts indicate that the number of service members seeking care for PTSD from the Veterans Administration (VA) increased 70% over a 12-month period, or an increase of some 20,000 cases. In addition, reports of the total number of cases of PTSD treatment at the VA since 2001 – 50,000 cases – far exceed the number of wounded documented by the Pentagon.
We see the results of that demand and it hasn't been good at all. As for the VA, well, they responded in 2007 by opening VA Clinics to fill the demand of the already overloaded system that was never increased with two wars adding to the number of disabled veterans.

Just an example of this came when the Minneapolis VA opened two clinics, then shut them down due to lack of funding the company contracted to run them.
Two recently opened Minneapolis VA clinics in western Wisconsin were abruptly shut down this week by the company under contract to run them. Kentucky-based Corporate Health and Wellness says it lost hundreds of thousands of dollars opening the clinics. It blames the closings on a lack of additional funding from the VA.

St. Paul, Minn. — The two clinics that sit idle now opened to much fanfare this summer and fall. The VA said, and local veterans agreed, the facilities in Hayward and in Rice Lake would make it much easier for area vets to get basic health care. No longer would they have to travel long distances to VA facilities in places like Duluth-Superior or the Twin Cities.

But without warning, the clinics closed this week.

Yes, you read "contracted" right. In other words, the cost of caring for the disabled veterans was increased simply because contractors make more money than VA employees. The House Committee on Veterans Affairs was looking for answers on veterans committing suicide as well after a CBS report showed,
The hearing was prompted in part by a CBS news story in November on suicides in the veteran population that put last year’s number of veteran suicides at over 6,000. VA officials refuted that number, questioning its validity. But a VA Inspector General report released in May of 2007 found that as many as 5,000 veterans commit suicide a year—nearly 1,000 of whom are receiving VA care at the time.
There were investigations on veterans dying due to substandard care way back then as well but those investigations were followed by even more of them with more veterans in graves.

President Bush was being slammed for being $3 billion short on the VA budget in 2008 but it had happened before his presidency and after it.

Veterans have always had to fight wars and then come home to fight for benefits after getting disabled because politicians never had to explain what they didn't fix.

A report in 2008 took a look at VA claims ratings going back to 1945.
VA argued that it is already doing the right thing and has been updating the rating schedule, though officials acknowledged they could do better. From 1990 through 2007, VA had updated 47 percent of the ratings schedule, but 35 percent of the codes had not been touched since 1945. However, VA said it updated the codes for TBI in January and is working on an update for PTSD.

VA spokesman Ralph Heussner says the locked doors are an unexpected disappointment. 
McCain's answer for all of this was to privatize the VA back in 2008 just like now. VA Update: Senator McCain's Plan to Privatize Veterans' Healthcare
On the campaign trail, the Republican's presumptive nominee has talked of a new mission for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and argued that veterans with non-combat medical problems should be given vouchers to receive care at private, for-profit hospitals -- in other words, an end to the kind of universal health care the government has guaranteed veterans for generations.

"We need to relieve the burden on the VA from routine health care," McCain told the National Forum on Disability Issues last month. "If you have a routine health care need, take it wherever you want, whatever doctor or health care provider and get the treatment you need, while we at the VA focus our attention, our care, our love, on these grievous wounds of war."

And for John McCain on the DOD, he's been on the wrong side of taking care of the service members in the first place.

While McCain's voting record has never been good for veterans he continually managed to bring up the fact he was one of them.

Take the GI Bill for example. This is what he thought of it before President Bush gave him credit for passing it.
McCain says the legislation is too expensive and has proposed his own version, which would increase the monthly benefit available to most veterans to $1,500 from $1,100. It would not offer the equivalent of a full scholarship.

The ad by VoteVets.org Action Fund, features Iraq and Afghanistan veterans noting that both McCain and President Bush oppose the bill.

"McCain thinks covering a fraction of our education is enough," one veteran says. Another one, pictured recovering from head wounds, adds in a voiceover: "We didn't give a fraction in Iraq. We gave 100 percent."

While McCain called "suicide prevention overreach and blocked prevention bill" Reuters reported in 2010 about the failures in preventing suicides.
Efforts to prevent suicides among U.S. war veterans are failing, in part because distressed troops do not trust the military to help them, top military officials said on Thursday.

Poor training, a lack of coordination and an overstretched military are also factors, but a new 76-point plan lays out ways to improve this,Colonel John Bradley, chief of psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington.
"They tell us again and again that we are failing," Bradley told a symposium on military medicine sponsored by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.

Each branch of the services -- the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines -- rushed to create a suicide prevention program, but there was no coordination. The report recommends that the defense secretary's office take over coordination of suicide prevention efforts.

On-the-ground prevention training often failed because those running the sessions did not understand their importance, Bradley said.


"They are mocked and they are probably harmful," he said.
Not much has changed other than there are higher numbers of suicides and a lot more money spent on bills that are simply repeats of what already failed. So while we remember all that has gone on while politicians have been accountable to no one, McCain now wants credit for "progress" after all these years of abysmal failures?
John McCain, Jeff Flake: Some progress on Pentagon, VA reform; a lot more to do
AZ/DC
The Republic
Dan Nowicki
January 2, 2016
McCain touted his work on the Clay Hunt Suicide Prevention for American Veterans (SAV) Act, which became law in February.
Sen. Jeff Flake (left) and Sen. John McCain, both Arizona Republicans, in November said the Pentagon paid professional sports franchises for marketing events that included full-field displays of the American flag, enlistment and re-enlistment ceremonies and reunions between service members and their families. They called the productions "paid patriotism."
(Photo: Bill Theobald/The Republic)
Arizona's U.S. Sens. John McCain and Jeff Flake have wrapped up their first year as part of the Senate's current Republican majority and can look back on a 2015 that included incremental progress in reforming the embattled Department of Veterans Affairs and battling the sprawling Defense Department waste as well as challenges and disappointments.

"We've been reforming the military this last year," McCain said in a recent meeting with Arizona Republic editors and reporters. "According to the (conservative think tank) Heritage Foundation, the biggest reforms in the last 30 years. But we have a heck of a lot more to do, a lot more reforms to do."

As Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, McCain was a driving force behind the National Defense Authorization Act, which reflected his Pentagon reform agenda. The legislation, among other highlights, redirects billions of dollars in spending on administrative overhead and troubled weapons programs to improving military capabilities and other priorities, revamps the defense-acquisition process and updates the military's 70-year-old retirement system.
read more here

Monday, November 16, 2015

More Problems for Arizona Veterans Now They Have McCain's Attention

God help Arizona Veterans now that McCain is paying attention to them!
McCain announces Arizona Veterans Coalition
The Arizona Republic
By Allie Bice and Justin Sayers
November 15, 2015

PHOENIX — U.S. Sen. John McCain announced Friday the launch of a veterans coalition aimed to tackle the issues faced by those who serve, namely fixing issues with the VA hospital system.

McCain, R-Ariz., who served in the U.S. Navy, made the announcement during a tour and news conference at Nichols Precision, a veteran-owned manufacturing company in Tempe that supplies weapons for the military.

"I'm proud of the coalition; it's growing every day," McCain said. "It renews my commitment to our veterans that we fix the VA system, as well as meet the other needs of our veterans."
read more here

Oh well, at his age he must forget that everything he has said and done in the Senate has all been recorded online. I'll never forget when McCain said a suicide prevention bill was overreach and they didn't need it in Arizona!

McCain calls suicide prevention overreach and blocks bill

He prevented suicide prevention before he supported it.

Saturday, October 31, 2015

John McCain Defends Colleges Over Veterans

This makes sense today considering it is Halloween. Is this trick or treat? Trick is McCain is pulling a switch on who is getting the treat and who the trick is being played on. Does the word delusional come to mind?
Senator John McCain (R-AZ), in a speech on the Senate floor yesterday afternoon, charged that fellow Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) has "orchestrated" a "shameful ... vendetta against for-profit universities." McCain upped the ante by asserting that Durbin has a "well-known record of not supporting the men and women who are serving in the military."
Yep! He really said that even though we all know how much McCain does not support veterans as he constantly reminds them he is one of them.
In his own floor speech yesterday, Durbin encouraged the Pentagon to continue its investigation. Durbin noted that Paul Rieckhoff, founder and CEO of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said that the University of Phoenix was the "worst by far" for-profit college in terms of taking advantage of the vets who are members of his organization.
Top that off with the fact McCain strongly opposed Jim Webb's GI Bill calling it "too generous" and now he is defending those responsible for getting that "generosity" by using veterans. Statement of Senator Jim Webb on the White House's Embrace of his 21st Century GI Bill
This bipartisan coalition consistently rejected the allegations of this Administration, and of Senators McCain, Burr and Graham, among others, who claimed that the bill was too generous to our veterans, too difficult to administer and would hurt retention.
You can read the rest of this on The Huffington Post McCain Lashes Out At Durbin, Defends Veteran-Abusing For-Profit Colleges

Here are a few more of what McCain got wrong. John McCain needs to remember he's a veteran

Sunday, September 6, 2015

Arizona Veterans Protest John McCain for Abandoning Them

Protesters slam McCain on veterans issues outside Phoenix office
The Republic
Garrett Mitchell
September 5, 2015
"I believe Phoenix is ground zero for veterans' issues, veterans' homelessness and the failure of the Veterans Administration in taking care of our veterans. That happens to fall in John McCain's jurisdiction," Santilli said.
Over 40 demonstrators rallied outside Sen. John McCain's Phoenix office Saturday afternoon to demand a citizen's arrest of the longtime politician. They were met by Phoenix police, who denied them entry to the vacant suite.

At about noon, the group of 45 protesters gathered in the area of 22nd Street and Camelback Road to express their frustration and opposition toward the senator's approach to addressing veterans issues such as homelessness.

The event was organized by Internet radio host Pete Santilli, who said the GOP senator should be convicted for treason because he has aided and abetted the terrorist organization Islamic State in addition to covering up evidence in the 1967 Israeli attack on the USS Liberty.

"I want him in handcuffs," Santilli said. "He needs to be held for his account."

Santilli also took issue with McCain's "abandonment" of veterans who have become homeless and are "targeted by other homeless" for money. He added that the senator has an obligation to veterans that has not been met and called him a "criminal."
For Kricket Mager, a Las Vegas resident and Army veteran who drove to Phoenix, McCain does not represent his constituents.

"He’s got a long history of not taking care of our veterans and lying to this country. He’s not the only one. Senators have been in office too long and are not representing the people," Mager said. "These men and women have signed a blank check to this country. They’re the reason we can all stand here and have our own opinions, our own idea, and our own religion. They’re the reason we can live in a free country. We owe it to our veterans."
read more here

Friday, August 14, 2015

McCain Defends His Claims About Record, History Unmovable

I needed a good laugh this morning and actually got one. "McCain defends record on vets from Trump" "As Ronald Reagan used to say, 'facts are stubborn things,'
and Senator McCain’s long history of working on behalf of his fellow veterans is clear" and it sure is. McCain's record on veterans is well known and shows that he has not been a friend to veterans in the Senate. His votes against them screamed how much he does not support them.

As for the other part of this article on veterans getting medical treatment from private doctors, he's been pushing for that for decades instead of making sure the VA was able to take care of them. It isn't a recent thing at all. Plus, if he really cared, then why didn't he ever serve on the Veterans Affairs Committee?

This is from August 2008

Does McCain know what he says is taped?
Stars and Stripes' interview with Sen. John McCain
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes online edition, Monday, August 11, 2008

Q: The backlog in the VA system is still very sizeable and a concern to even many of the younger guys. I don’t know how you’re looking at the issue, and how you fix something that the current administration has really struggled with.

I think the best thing we could possibly do is focus military medical care and the VA on treating the wounds directly related to combat: PTSD, combat wounds which they are uniquely qualified, through years of experience, to address.

I think in the case of veterans that have ordinary health care needs, routine health care needs, we should do everything we can to give them a card that they can take to the health care provider or doctor of their choice to get health care immediately.

Q: I know there has been a push by the current administration to take those healthier veterans and have them pay to help support the system, even a small, nominal fee. I don’t know if that’s something that you’d support.

First I think we’ve got to make sure that veterans receive the care, and then we have to worry about if there’s any necessary changes. I’m unalterably opposed to telling future generations of Americans that we’re not going to give them the health care they need in service for our country.

That means that I would be very reluctant, I would be opposed to imposing more financial costs.

Here's a few more reminders.

This is from the Detroit News January 15, 2008
"At every stop since he began his Michigan blitz on Saturday, McCain recognized the veterans in the audience. He's promised to provide better medical care to veterans in the early days of his administration."

And he kept saying that for all these years of sitting in the Senate. Yet all these years we've seen the results. There is something in the Bible about making claims like McCain has,
Matthew 7:16-20 King James Version (KJV)
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

McCain wouldn't support the Merchant Marines
Now all these years later, the few Merchant Marine war veterans still alive would like to see Senate Bill S961 passed. The House of Representatives passed the bill in 2007. Our two Arizona senators, Jon Kyl and John McCain, have not signed on even though 57 other senators have.
The bill is known as the "Belated Thank You to the Merchant Mariners of World War II."

McCain wouldn't support the GI Bill
VA: $94 billion for 2009 and still $3.3 billion short
Vet care spending is at record level
USA Today By Gregg Zoroya Posted : Wednesday Jul 23, 2008 12:38:35 EDT

The federal government is spending more money on veterans than at any time in modern history, surpassing the tidal wave of spending following World War II and the demilitarizing of millions of troops.

Expenditures hit $82 billion in 2007 because of the rising cost of health care, the expense of caring for an aging population of mostly Vietnam veterans and a new crop of severely wounded troops from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

That exceeds the $80 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars spent in 1947 after most of the 16.1 million Americans serving in World War II left the service, according to a Congressional Research Service report submitted to Congress last month.

An 11 percent hike in spending is slated for this fiscal year to $91 billion and the Veterans Affairs Department has proposed $94 billion for 2009. And still more is needed, said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., who is seeking another $3.3 billion for the 2009 budget proposal.

“While we are spending more than in previous years, we are still not meeting many of the health care and benefits needs of our veterans,” Murray said.

Last month’s passage of a new GI Bill will add $100 billion in education benefits for veterans over the next 10 years, the Congressional Budget Office said.

Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain and his Democratic opponent Sen. Barack Obama clashed over the bill last month.
McCain opposed it, saying its increased education benefits might encourage troops to leave the military.

Yet, President Bush decided to give McCain credit for passing the GI Bill,
"I would like to again express my appreciation to the veterans' service organizations, many of whom communicated their support of this bill directly to a skeptical White House, and to the 58 Senate and 302 House cosponsors of this landmark legislation. This bipartisan coalition consistently rejected the allegations of this Administration, and of Senators McCain, Burr and Graham, among others, who claimed that the bill was too generous to our veterans, too difficult to administer and would hurt retention.

By the way in case anyone forgot, the GI Bill was by Jim Webb and he was shocked that McCain felt the way he did.

This could keep going and going but as bad as his record was on veterans it was just as bad for the troops. When suicides kept going up, he just ignored them and did nothing to hold anyone accountable. As a matter of fact during more of the hearings for the Senate Armed Services Committee, he usually walked out and those videos are all over CSPAN.

McCain also called Suicide Prevention "overreach" and fought against passing it.
McCain calls suicide prevention an "overreach" and blocks bill! If all the parents out there visiting the cemetery this year for Christmas instead of sitting down with their veteran son/daughter watched this video about McCain, they would line up in front of his house and demand he resign from the Senate.

McCain told Representative Rush Holt "Don't give me a lecture" as Holt tried to explain this crisis.

McCain can say whatever he wants and hope as hard as he can that no one looks up his record. Well at least he got half his wish since members of the press forgot how to do a simple Google search to find out what the truth really is.

Monday, July 20, 2015

When Do Veterans Get An Apology from McCain?

UPDATE
Looks like AP fact checker on McCain's record didn't get it right.

FACT CHECK: Trump shortchanges McCain's record on veterans
Associated Press July 21, 2015
THE FACTS: McCain has a long record of supporting veterans' issues in Congress. He was instrumental in a landmark law approved last year to overhaul the scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs. McCain worked with the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as well as Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House veterans panel, to help win passage of the law, which aims to alleviate long delays veterans faced in getting medical care.

The VA says it has completed 7 million more appointments for care in the past year, compared with the previous year, but veterans still face increased wait times in Phoenix, Las Vegas and other places. "As we improve access, even more veterans are coming to VA for their care," Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson told Congress last month. As a result, waiting times for appointments longer than 30 days are up 50 percent from a year ago, he said.

McCain pushed for a provision in the law allowing veterans who live more than 40 miles away from a VA health care site to get government-paid care from a local doctor. McCain and Miller also pushed to make it easier to fire senior VA employees for poor performance.

McCain also was central in a law enacted this year aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic among military veterans that claims the lives of an estimated 22 every day. The law is named for Clay Hunt, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who killed himself in 2011. It requires the VA and the Pentagon to submit to independent reviews of their suicide prevention programs and offers financial incentives to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who agree to work for the VA.
read more here and then try to contain your laughter.


Now back to reality from yesterday.
I am furious over what Trump said on so many different levels. The first reason is that Trump did end up insulting all POWs when he tried to talk about being captured did not make McCain a hero. Poor choice of words? Ok, that is possible.
Donald Trump Says He Does Not Owe John McCain Apology
ABC News
By BENJAMIN BELL and EMILY SHAPIRO
Jul 19, 2015

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he does not owe John McCain an apology for saying the Arizona senator is only a war hero “because he was captured.”

Trump told Martha Raddatz on ABC's "This Week" that he won't be pulling out of the presidential race over his comments, which he made Saturday during a campaign event in Iowa. Trump said he left to a "standing ovation" after speaking at the Family Leadership Council summit.

"When I left the room, it was a total standing ovation," said Trump. "It was wonderful to see. Nobody was insulted."
read more here

ABC US News | World News
The trouble is the rest of what Trump said was lost after he said that. It turns out that McCain thinks he is not owed an apology
John McCain: Donald Trump Owes Vets an Apology, Not Me
NBC
by CARRIE DANN
July 20, 2015

Sen. John McCain said Monday that he does not view himself as a hero but that Donald Trump owes an apology to veterans for his comments about soldiers captured in war.

Asked on MSNBC's Morning Joe if Trump owes him an apology, McCain responded: "No, I don't think so. But I think he may owe an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience in serving their country."

"There are so many men, and some women, who served and sacrificed and happened to be held prisoner and somehow to denigrate that, in any way, their service I think is offensive," he added.
read more here

The trouble is that McCain has never apologized to veterans on his voting record after using them for their votes. He has never served on the Veterans Affairs Committee and no one ever asked him to explain why he is only interested in the Senate Armed Service Committee.
Trump: I don't need to be lectured
USA Today
Donald Trump
July 19, 2015
McCain has abandoned our veterans. I will fight for them. During my entire business career, I have always made supporting veterans a top priority because our heroes deserve the very best for defending our freedom. Our Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals are outdated dumps. I will build the finest and most modern veterans hospitals in the world. The current medical assistance to our veterans is a disaster. A Trump administration will provide the finest universal access health care for our veterans. They will be able to get the best care anytime and anywhere.

Thanks to McCain and his Senate colleague Bernie Sanders, their legislation to cover up the VA scandal, in which 1,000+ veterans died waiting for medical care, made sure no one has been punished, charged, jailed, fined or held responsible. McCain has abandoned our veterans. I will fight for them.

The reality is that John McCain the politician has made America less safe, sent our brave soldiers into wrong-headed foreign adventures, covered up for President Obama with the VA scandal and has spent most of his time in the Senate pushing amnesty. He would rather protect the Iraqi border than Arizona’s. He even voted for the Iran Nuclear Review Act of 2015, which allows Obama, who McCain lost to in a record defeat, to push his dangerous Iran nuclear agreement through the Senate without a supermajority of votes.
read more here

If you read Wounded Times, then you know what McCain's record has been and on that, Trump got part of it right because it has been bad for veterans but then again, it has gotten substantially worse since McCain went into the Senate.

Lets start with a little history lesson for the Chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee
Women in combat if you look at the link, you can read what he must have not known about. In the 1991 debate over women pilots, McCain took a traditionalist stance. "This nation has existed for over 215 years," McCain said. "At no time in the history of our nation have women been in combat roles."
Hmm. Guess he forgot that women have in fact received every combat medal including the Medal of Honor during the Civil war.
The Medal of Honor - the nation's highest award.
Dr Mary Walker, a surgeon in the Civil War, was awarded the nation's highest honor by President Andrew Johnson. The citation reads, in part: "Whereas it appears from official reports that Dr. Mary E. Walker, a graduate of medicine, has rendered valuable service to the government, and her efforts have been earnest and untiring in a variety of ways, and that she was assigned to duty and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of female prisoners at Louisville, KY., under the recommendation of Major-Generals Sherman and Thomas, and faithfully served as contract surgeon in the service of the United states, and has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has endured hardships as a prisoner of war four months in a southern prison while acting as contract surgeon...."

Dr. Walker's Medal of Honor was rescinded in 1917, along with some 900 others. Some believed her medal was rescinded because of her involvement as a suffragette. Others discredit that opinion as 909 other medals rescinded were awarded to men. The stated reason was to ". . . increase the prestige of the grant."

For whatever reason, she refused to return the Medal of Honor and wore it until her death in 1919. Fifty-eight years later, the U.S. Congress posthumously reinstated her medal, and it was restored by President Carter on June 10, 1977.
Women who received the Distinguished Service Cross - WWI

Jane Jeffery: A nurse serving with the American Red Cross: severely wounded during an air raid, refused to leave her post and continued to help others.

Beatrice M. MacDonald: wounded in Belgium during an air raid at a casualty clearing station and lost sight in her right eye.

Helen Grace McClelland: also on duty with the surgical team at the British casualty clearing station and cared for Beatrice MacDonald during the air raid.

Eva Jean Parmelee: although wounded in air raid she continued to serve throughout the emergency.

Isabelle Stambaugh: seriously wounded in an air raid at a British casualty clearing station in Amiens, while working in the operating room with a surgical team.

Reconstruction Aide Emma S. Sloan
If you want to know more like the names of heroic military women during combat with the Navy Cross, Silver Star, Air Medal, Bronze Star and Purple Heart, they are listed here.

The man should know something about military women considering how long he's been on the committee overseeing them! But hey, what do we expect from a man consistently wrong?



2008:
Stars and Stripes' interview with Sen. John McCain
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes online edition, Monday, August 11, 2008

Q: The backlog in the VA system is still very sizeable and a concern to even many of the younger guys. I don’t know how you’re looking at the issue, and how you fix something that the current administration has really struggled with.

I think the best thing we could possibly do is focus military medical care and the VA on treating the wounds directly related to combat: PTSD, combat wounds which they are uniquely qualified, through years of experience, to address.

I think in the case of veterans that have ordinary health care needs, routine health care needs, we should do everything we can to give them a card that they can take to the health care provider or doctor of their choice to get health care immediately.

Q: I know there has been a push by the current administration to take those healthier veterans and have them pay to help support the system, even a small, nominal fee. I don’t know if that’s something that you’d support.

First I think we’ve got to make sure that veterans receive the care, and then we have to worry about if there’s any necessary changes. I’m unalterably opposed to telling future generations of Americans that we’re not going to give them the health care they need in service for our country.

That means that I would be very reluctant, I would be opposed to imposing more financial costs.

McCain targets message to vets
At every stop since he began his Michigan blitz on Saturday, McCain recognized the veterans in the audience. He's promised to provide better medical care to veterans in the early days of his administration.


Merchant Marine Bill not signed by John McCain
Now all these years later, the few Merchant Marine war veterans still alive would like to see Senate Bill S961 passed. The House of Representatives passed the bill in 2007. Our two Arizona senators, Jon Kyl and John McCain, have not signed on even though 57 other senators have.

McCain won't back GI bill for veterans

Bush's speech on Webb's GI Bill was a load of lies "The bill being sent to the President contains every provision in S. 22, which has received meticulous scrutiny and the full support of every major veterans' organization. It will pay for a veteran's tuition, books, and a monthly stipend, along the lines of the benefits given to those who returned from World War II. As such, it fulfills the pledge I made on my first day of office to provide today's veterans with the opportunity to move forward into an absolutely first-class future.

"I would like to again express my appreciation to the veterans' service organizations, many of whom communicated their support of this bill directly to a skeptical White House, and to the 58 Senate and 302 House cosponsors of this landmark legislation. This bipartisan coalition consistently rejected the allegations of this Administration, and of Senators McCain, Burr and Graham, among others, who claimed that the bill was too generous to our veterans, too difficult to administer and would hurt retention.

In 2008 VA Watchdog posted McCain's record on veterans issues

John Sidney McCain
Current Office: U.S. Senate
Party: Republican
Status: Announced

Veterans Issues

2006 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 20 percent in 2006.

2006 In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a grade of D.

2006 Senator McCain sponsored or co-sponsored 18 percent of the legislation favored by the The Retired Enlisted Association in 2006.

2005 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 25 percent in 2005.

2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 50 percent in 2004.

2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the The Retired Enlisted Association 0 percent in 2004.

2003-2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 100 percent in 2003-2004.

2003 Senator McCain supported the interests of the The American Legion 50 percent in 2003.

2001 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 46 percent in 2001.

1999 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 66 percent in 1999.

1997-1998 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 0 percent in 1997-1998.

1989-1990 On the votes that the Vietnam Veterans of America considered to be the most important in 1989-1990 , Senator McCain voted their preferred position 50 percent of the time.

Veterans Issues
Date Bill Title Vote
10/01/2007 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 NV
02/02/2006 Tax Rate Extension Amendment N
11/17/2005 Additional Funding For Veterans Amendment N
10/05/2005 Health Care for Veterans Amendment N

Just one more notch on the doesn't give a damn list as after all these years veterans are still waiting for an apology from McCain and the rest of the politicians using them instead of taking care of them.

In 2010:
John McCain blocks troop suicide prevention program
Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
From MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell blog:

Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, who admitted in his memoir to attempting suicide while held captive as a P.O.W. in Vietnam for 5 1/2 years, is responsible for blocking funding for a suicide prevention program aimed at military reserve troops returning home from combat.

In 2011:
Senator John McCain blocking effort to bring fallen sailors home from Libya Amanda Terkel

WASHINGTON -- Thirteen U.S. sailors who died in 1804 during the First Barbary War and were buried in Tripoli, Libya, may finally be coming home, if the American Legion gets its way.

Since the uprising in Libya broke out six months ago, the veterans organization has been lobbying Congress to bring home the remains of the U.S. servicemen. The crew, led by Master Commandant Richard Somers and Lt. Henry Wadsworth (uncle of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), died when their explosives-packed ship blew up prematurely during a mission to Tripoli.
The Senate, however, has not followed suit. According to Tetz, one stumbling block may be Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who served in the U.S. Navy.

(I could keep going on this but I'd need something to keep going and it is too early in the day to start drinking. I already had to make a phone call to calm down since my head was sending shrapnel to the other side of Orlando hitting Gunny's roof.)
The thing is, what this boils down to is so many folks seem to want to defend McCain over what Trump said about him instead of actually talking about how McCain has used his past service to cover up what he has managed to pull off when he had a chance to actually do something for veterans.

Trump does owe other POWs a huge apology for his comment and from what I understand, he will give it, humbly to them. The question is, when will someone demand an apology from McCain on behalf of all the veterans Trump tried to talk about?

Thursday, July 17, 2014

John McCain turns VA into K-Mart

John McCain thinks caring for veterans should be cheap
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) said cost is the “big impediment” for the committee to reach a deal before Congress leaves on its annual summer recess.
Nothing really new for McCain. He still forgets there is a thing called the internet and everything he says in public is on the record. Everything he does, including voting against veterans is also public record, after all, his paycheck, just like all the other politicians, comes from the Federal Government.

McCain got slammed really good many times but in 2010 he was attacked because he was blocking a the bill with Sgt. Coleman Bean's name on for suicide prevention. John McCain and Why Sgt. Coleman Bean Had to Die. In the article there was this reminder of just how lousy McCain has been all along on veterans issues.
FactCheck.org, a non-profit, non-partisan, consumer advocacy project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, says that McCain is being treated unduly harshly because he did later vote for other bills that benefited veterans:

“In 2004, he voted against an increase of $1.8 billion, voted for an increase of $1.2 billion passed by unanimous consent,”

“In 2005, he voted against an increase of $2.8 billion, but voted for a $410-million increase.”

“In 2006, he voted against a $1.5 billion increase, but later voted for an $823 million increase.”

In 2007 he voted against a 2007 supplemental spending bill for the Iraq War that ended up being vetoed by President Bush – a bill that included $1.77 billion in additional funding for veterans’ health care benefits.

Afterward, McCain voted for slightly more money, $1.79 billion, to be used for the same purpose.

First time he got slammed? Hardly. He has been blasted over and over again for failing the veterans he claims.

In 2008 "John McCain: Vets' Worst Enemy" hit the Miami New Times and veterans were glad it finally did. It is about time people saw McCain for what he was under his suit.
"I know the veterans and I know them well," he said, his voice shaky with emotion. "And I know that they know that I'll take care of them. And I've been proud of their support and of their recognition of my service to the veterans. And I love them, and I'll take care of them. And they know that I'll take care of them." No McCain only partly right. Veterans do know you and they don't trust a single word you say about them.

They know how he voted and it is never, ever for them.

McCain didn't take responsibility for anything in the Senate Armed Services Committee and as for the Veterans Affairs Committee, he never once served on it. Veterans noticed. They also noticed that as for what he's done for the troops it was not about them but was about the defense contractors that could fund his endless re-election run. The only time he seemed willing to accept some responsibility was on the Walter Reed scandal.
"I will take responsibility for being a member of the Armed Services Committee and not knowing about it and not doing anything about it," McCain told the New York Times in March 2007, adding, "I apologize for my failure" to act and "I should be held accountable."

But with McCain any spending on veterans is always just too generous and too expensive.
More famously, he actively opposed the most recent GI Bill, stating that its education benefits were so generous that he worried it would encourage military personnel to leave the service. Even his conservative colleague and ally, John Warner, the Republican senator from Virginia, supported the bill, but McCain wouldn't budge; he didn't bother to show up for the final vote.

Thursday, June 5, 2014

John McCain takes first steps in killing the VA

Desperate times call for desperate men to take advantage of the situation instead of actually measuring what they need to do.

Take John McCain's sudden interest in the VA. Sudden? Yes, since he never sat on the Veterans Affairs Committee and still doesn't.
Senator John McCain is a member and former Ranking Member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services; Member and former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs; Member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs; Member of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations.

Armed Services
The Senate Committee on Armed Services is composed of 25 Senators. This Committee has jurisdiction for aeronautical and space activities peculiar to or primarily associated with the development of weapons systems or military operations; the common defense; the Department of Defense, the Department of the Army, the Department of the Navy, and the Department of the Air Force, generally; maintenance and operation of the Panama Canal, including administration, sanitation, and government of the Canal Zone; military research and development; national security aspects of nuclear energy; naval petroleum reserves, except those in Alaska; pay, promotion, retirement, and other benefits and privileges of members of the Armed Forces, including overseas education of civilian and military dependents; selective service system; and strategic and critical materials necessary for the common defense.

Senator McCain served as Ranking Member of the Committee from 2006 to 2012.

Really strange when you consider on the rise in military suicides his voice could shatter glass if he sang when he hit it with a sledgehammer. But suddenly he seems to have all the answers. OK? Huh?

This is what John McCain had to say on problems in the VA back in 2008 when he wanted to become the man in charge.

Does John McCain know he is being taped?
Stars and Stripes' interview with Sen. John McCain
By Leo Shane III, Stars and Stripes
Stars and Stripes online edition, Monday, August 11, 2008

Q: The backlog in the VA system is still very sizeable and a concern to even many of the younger guys. I don’t know how you’re looking at the issue, and how you fix something that the current administration has really struggled with.

I think the best thing we could possibly do is focus military medical care and the VA on treating the wounds directly related to combat: PTSD, combat wounds which they are uniquely qualified, through years of experience, to address.

I think in the case of veterans that have ordinary health care needs, routine health care needs, we should do everything we can to give them a card that they can take to the health care provider or doctor of their choice to get health care immediately.

Q: I know there has been a push by the current administration to take those healthier veterans and have them pay to help support the system, even a small, nominal fee. I don’t know if that’s something that you’d support.

First I think we’ve got to make sure that veterans receive the care, and then we have to worry about if there’s any necessary changes. I’m unalterably opposed to telling future generations of Americans that we’re not going to give them the health care they need in service for our country.

That means that I would be very reluctant, I would be opposed to imposing more financial costs.
Now McCain just may get his way on the start of privatizing the VA and getting veterans out of the care they were promised.

In September of 2013 this report came out "Veterans committing suicide at twice the rate of civilians" and Arizona was in the news.
"The rate of suicide among military veterans in Arizona is more than double the civilian rate Advocates say veterans need more than benefits when returning from war. The average veteran suicide rate in Arizona from 2005 through 2011 is almost 43 deaths per 100,000 people. That’s according to data compiled by News21, a national reporting project based out of Arizona State University. And the rate should increase as more veterans return home."

Well his view on military suicides was for veterans to learn to take better responsibility for themselves. This was when he was running for the nomination in 2008 in a letter sent to the NAMI convention. McCain also blocked a suicide prevention bill calling it "overreach."

A month later Vietnam Veteran with cancer left of the street to die because he was a homeless veteran in Arizona.

On Merchant Marines McCain wouldn't sign a bill for these WWII veterans. Now all these years later, the few Merchant Marine war veterans still alive would like to see Senate Bill S961 passed. The House of Representatives passed the bill in 2007. Our two Arizona senators, Jon Kyl and John McCain, have not signed on even though 57 other senators have.

Women in combat if you look at the link, you can read what he must have not known about.
In the 1991 debate over women pilots, McCain took a traditionalist stance. "This nation has existed for over 215 years," McCain said. "At no time in the history of our nation have women been in combat roles."

It is hard to keep track on how much he has been wrong on. Look up his record online and discover what you've missed all these years. As for me, I need a good stiff drink right now.

Monday, July 22, 2013

John McCain and PTSD

While it has been well known that many people believe John McCain has PTSD, this article is stunning for the simple fact it ends with this.
There is a lot more information about what he did to Carol, but I bring this up to try to show you that he is not stable and goes from reasonable behavior to sick behavior.

So he now sits there in the Senate making things difficult again. He is a problem and the fact that such a man could become a Senator is a problem for the country.

John McCain is a jerk to most people including members of the Senate calling him McNasty. PTSD did not make him a jerk. Much as he has not been good for veterans, often dismissing other veterans with PTSD as not worth his time, we need to remember that most of the veterans with PTSD are not "unstable" even though some have mood swings. To make McCain a poster boy for PTSD is just playing politics.

Saying McCain has PTSD and that he attempted suicide is not new or news any more than saying he's been a jerk.
John McCain and PTSD
Daily Kos
Don Mikulecky
SAT JUL 20, 2013

Besides having knowledge about this man from the fact that my wife knew his first wife fairly well (I met her at class reunions I accompanied my wife to), I have always suspected that he is not without certain psychological problems. Being a prisoner of war was extremely traumatic. He is a hero for his ability to come out of that as well as he did. He is not fit to govern in any sense and the fact that he was a presidential candidate says our system is very open to real problems. So now he is a Senator again. He has a way of misusing his power that makes it seem like a quirk. I think it goes deeper. Read on below and I'll air other opinions on this.

A lot of this came out during the Presidentail Campaign but seems forgotten now. For example:John McCain's suicide attempt and his resulting PTSD

McCain says because he survived 5½ years of brutal torture, while a prisoner of the communist Vietnamese, he is better qualified to be president of the United States than any other candidate. McCain claims his POW sufferings included three years in solitary confinement where he was tortured so badly that he "broke," causing him to attempt suicide.

What McCain's promoters have carefully edited out of their McCain-for-president equation is his post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Department of Defense psychiatrists have evaluated McCain for PTSD several times, the results of which remain locked by privacy laws.

PTSD can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which physical harm occurred or was threatened. U.S. government studies have concluded that former POWs "may remain embroiled in a harsh psychological battle with themselves for decades after returning home."

An outcome of PTSD is a subtle web of personal problems including difficulty in controlling intense emotions such as anger and an inability to function well under stress.
read more here

Friday, February 1, 2013

John McCain slams Chuck Hagel

UPDATE
I totally forgot about this part. McCain wanted Hagel when McCain wanted to be President and Hagel backed him up. What did McCain want Hagel for? Secretary of Defense! That's right and here it is out of McCain's own mouth.


Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy


Too many people think Senator John McCain as a hero. While that was true a long time ago when he was captured and held as a POW in Vietnam, while serving in the Senate, his record has been one of voting against the best interests of the troops and our veterans.

Looking up his voting record has left many in shock. He has voted against Bills that passed and then accepted credit for them. The biggest one was the GI Bill. McCain and President Bush were against this Bill. McCain said it was "too generous" and "too expensive" but after President signed it, he gave credit to McCain among others.

That is why Senators Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel proposed the new GI Bill, which would bring back WWII-style standards of providing vets with full tuition, room and board. And that is why 51 senators have signed on, including 9 Republicans like John Warner, giving this GI Bill tremendous bi-partisan support.

In 2010 he called the "Suicide Prevention Bill overreach" and blocked the Bill. He said this even though there was a report that in Portland Oregon Suicide Prevention hotline had rescued 5 veterans in a two hour period.

Now he is slamming Chuck Hagel even though, as history has proven, Hagel was right about Iraq. Hagel was part of McCain's campaign for the Presidency in 2008 but now he is not good enough for McCain. Chuck Hagel was not just a Senator, he is also another Vietnam veteran.
Hegal volunteered to join the Army and ended up serving a yearlong tour in 1968 during the Tet Offensive, considered the most violent period in that war. Because of a clerical error, he served side by side with his younger brother.

He earned two Purple Hearts, one of which was for saving his brother's life. The second Purple Heart was for shrapnel he took in the chest while on patrol with his brother; his brother saved his life by patching up the wound.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

CIA deputy: Rice got initial assessment on Libya

CIA deputy: Rice got initial assessment on Libya
The Associated Press
Published: November 15, 2012

WASHINGTON -- The deputy CIA director has told lawmakers that U.N. ambassador Susan Rice was provided with an unclassified version of what happened during the deadly Sept. 11 attack in Libya that later proved to be incorrect.

Mike Morell briefed members of the House Intelligence committee on Thursday. Emerging from the session, Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff said Morell told the panel that Rice was given an initial assessment that a spontaneous protest over an anti-Muslim video evolved into an attack on the consulate.
read more here

What Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham Can Learn from Sherlock Holmes

UPDATE
McCain did a press conference instead of going to the hearing.
CNN’s Dana Bash reported on air that McCain, when questioned by a producer on the subject on Capitol Hill, not only refused to answer, but grew “very angry":

I have to tell you something that just happened on Capitol Hill, and that is our Senate producer Ted Barrett just ran into John McCain and asked about something that we're hearing from Democrats, which is John McCain is calling for more information to Congress, but he had a press conference yesterday instead of going to a closed briefing where administration officials were giving more information. Well, Ted Barrett asked John McCain about that, and it was apparently an intense, very angry exchange and McCain simply would not comment on it at all.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

John McCain playing politics with tragedy again

Should members want to get to the bottom of what happened? Hell Ya! Should they be playing politics instead of seeking the truth? Hell NO. Don't you find it very interesting that while McCain and Graham are pushing for answers on this, they were not doing it after 9-11 when a lot more people died? The difference is this President does not belong to their party.

Republicans Hound Obama over Benghazi Attack
Dec 01, 2012
Military.com
by Michael Hoffman

Four Republican Senators sent a letter to President Obama Wednesday as they continue to hound the president for answers to questions regarding the terrorist attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that resulted in four dead, including U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.

In the letter, signed by Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire, and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, the senators demand answers to the questions sent in seven previous letters over the past month to members of the Obama administration. In each, the senators have asked for more details regarding events before the Sept. 11 attack and the actions taken after it.

"The American people deserve to know all the facts surrounding the terrorist attack in Benghazi on September 11, 2012, that resulted in the murder of four Americans-including Ambassador Chris Stevens. Unfortunately, you and your senior administration officials have not been forthcoming in providing answers to the many questions that have emerged," the letter read.
read more here


The security was provided by Defense Contractors and all the information has not been released yet. McCain is not the type of person to wait for the truth before he opens his mouth. Wish he did the same thing after 9-11, before troops were sent into Afghanistan, before they were sent into Iraq and long before they came home wounded and waiting for help. Oh well, that would meant McCain would have to go against the President that was a member of his party.

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

Senator John McCain blocking effort to bring fallen sailors home from Libya

American Legion Sees Chance To Bring Home Remains Of Sailors Buried In Libya 200 Years Ago


Amanda Terkel

WASHINGTON -- Thirteen U.S. sailors who died in 1804 during the First Barbary War and were buried in Tripoli, Libya, may finally be coming home, if the American Legion gets its way.

Since the uprising in Libya broke out six months ago, the veterans organization has been lobbying Congress to bring home the remains of the U.S. servicemen. The crew, led by Master Commandant Richard Somers and Lt. Henry Wadsworth (uncle of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), died when their explosives-packed ship blew up prematurely during a mission to Tripoli.

"It's the best chance we've had in a long time," said Tim Tetz, legislative director for the American Legion. "We've got a change of politics in Libya. We've got family members who have stood up and said, 'We want to have our family members brought home.' We've got the will and might of America to say, 'Let's respect those who fought our wars for us, and that includes all wars.'"

As Politico's Dave Levinthal reports, the American Legion is one of 11 groups that have "formally lobbied the federal government on pet causes that, in one fashion or another, concern Libya." Oil companies, the American Civil Liberties Union and United to End Genocide have all been taking their concerns to the federal government.

The American Legion, with the backing of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.), was able to secure an amendment to a House bill directing the Defense Secretary to "exhume and transfer the remains of certain deceased members of the Armed Forces buried in Tripoli, Libya."

The Senate, however, has not followed suit. According to Tetz, one stumbling block may be Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who served in the U.S. Navy.

"He has expressed some concern that he doesn't want to see it pass, which is disconcerting to us, and we've tried to influence him where and when we can. So far, to no avail," said Tetz.
read more here

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Ed Koch wants McCain to help veterans? Really?

Welcome Home, Soldier
Ed Koch
Former Mayor, New York City
The New York Times of May 28, 2011 brought to the attention of the American public the failure of our government to adequately attend to the medical problems of our soldiers who suffered war injuries, physical and mental. This has resulted in thousands of suicides among the returning soldiers.

This part is ok so far but leaves me wondering if he has not been paying attention this far. After all we've been reading all these terrible reports for nine years now, five of those years right here on this blog.
I am a veteran of World War II, honorably discharged in 1946 as a sergeant, having served in the 104th Infantry Division, receiving the combat infantry badge and two battle stars. My suggestion is that President Obama appoint a commission to look into the providing of services to veterans immediately.
This part shows he has not been paying attention because he suggests McCain get involved with helping the veterans when his history of votes has been against veterans!
Because of their history of service and bravery in the Vietnam War and service in so many ways to our country, I suggest the president consider appointing Senators John McCain and John Kerry as co-chairs.

I further suggest they consider recruiting the lawyers of this country through the many bar associations, to volunteer pro bono, to serve as advocates for any soldier whether remaining in the U.S. armed forces or a veteran needing assistance, medical or otherwise, from the government, authorized by law and not receiving it in a timely way.
Koch is also wrong on this since the reports of pro-bono lawyers have been around for years. So what is this all about? Does he feel as if the veterans need attention and he is suddenly aware of what's been happening to them or does Koch need attention? To even suggest McCain for anything with veterans is a slap in the face to veterans across this country. He's gotten away with doing a lot of talking and betraying them right after with his votes.

Friday, December 24, 2010

McCain calls suicide prevention overreach and blocks bill


McCain calls suicide prevention an "overreach" and blocks bill! If all the parents out there visiting the cemetery this year for Christmas instead of sitting down with their veteran son/daughter watched this video about McCain, they would line up in front of his house and demand he resign from the Senate.
McCain told Representative Rush Holt "Don't give me a lecture" as Holt tried to explain this crisis.

John McCain blocks troop suicide prevention program



Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

From MSNBC's The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell blog:

Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, who admitted in his memoir to attempting suicide while held captive as a P.O.W. in Vietnam for 5 1/2 years, is responsible for blocking funding for a suicide prevention program aimed at military reserve troops returning home from combat.

McCain blocks suicide prevention bill



Military suicide prevention efforts fail: report


By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Editor
WASHINGTON | Thu Sep 23, 2010

(Reuters) - Efforts to prevent suicides among U.S. war veterans are failing, in part because distressed troops do not trust the military to help them, top military officials said on Thursday.

Poor training, a lack of coordination and an overstretched military are also factors, but a new 76-point plan lays out ways to improve this, Colonel John Bradley, chief of psychiatry at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, told a conference.

Bradley said a team of experts spent a year interviewing troops who had attempted suicide, family members and others for the report and plan, presented last month to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is due to report to Congress in 90 days.

"They tell us again and again that we are failing," Bradley told a symposium on military medicine sponsored by the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation.

Each branch of the services -- the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines -- rushed to create a suicide prevention program, but there was no coordination. The report recommends that the defense secretary's office take over coordination of suicide prevention efforts.

On-the-ground prevention training often failed because those running the sessions did not understand their importance, Bradley said.

"They are mocked and they are probably harmful," he said.

According to the report, available at www.health.mil/dhb/default.cfm, 1,100 servicemen and women committed suicide in 2005 to 2009 -- one suicide every day and a half. The Army's suicide rate doubled in that time.

About 1.9 million U.S. service men and women have been deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

read more here
Military suicide prevention efforts fail: report

The Marines have reported the numbers have gone down, but they have reported drops in the past only to be followed up by another increase. While it is hopeful, it is not impressive. As you can see, we just keep losing them after they have survived combat operations but could not survive with the aftermath of combat.

Yet with these numbers, the National Guards and Reservists have a harder time surviving because when they return home, they are expected to and expect themselves to, just get back to their "normal" lives with no support system and a disconnected civilian circle surrounding them. He told Holt that "Maybe you need something like this in New Jersey, but we don't need it in Arizona." Too bad he must not read the newspaper from Tucson when they also carried the following report on this link. Civilian soldiers' suicide rate alarming

Civilian soldiers' suicide rate alarming
By Gregg Zoroya, USA TODAY
National Guard soldiers who are not on active duty killed themselves this year at nearly twice the rate of 2009, marring a year when suicides among Army soldiers on active duty appear to be leveling off, new Army statistics show.

Eighty-six non-active-duty Guard soldiers have killed themselves in the first 10 months of 2010, compared with 48 such suicides in all of 2009.

The reason for the rise in suicides among these "citizen soldiers" is not known. It may be linked to the recession, says Army Col. Chris Philbrick, deputy commander of an Army task force working to reduce suicides.

Philbrick said investigations into the suicides of soldiers not on full-time-active status have found that some were facing stressful situations such as home foreclosures, debt and the loss of a job.

Other factors have played a role in the suicides, including relationship problems, depression, substance abuse, combat stress and mild brain injuries, Philbrick says.

The rise comes as the rate of suicides leveled among full-time active-duty Army soldiers, National Guard members and reservists following years of increases, Philbrick says. Among that group, there were 132 confirmed or suspected suicides in the first 10 months of this year compared with 140 such suicides for the same period in 2009.

That positive trend among active-duty troops was more than offset by the rise in suicides among non-active-duty National Guard members.

There were 252 confirmed or suspected suicides among active and non-active Army members through October of this year. There were 242 such deaths in all of 2009.

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Civilian soldiers' suicide rate alarming
McCain must not know anything about this either.
National Guard sergeant from Phoenix found dead outside armory

by Alicia E. Barrón
azfamily.com
Posted on August 7, 2010 at 5:59 PM
Updated Saturday, Aug 7 at 6:02 PM

PHOENIX - A homicide investigation is underway involving the United States Military in Phoenix.

The body of a National Guard soldier was discovered Saturday morning in a parking lot next to the city's armory.

The victim has been identified as 45-year old Karl Markovic. Phoenix police say another National Guard member discovered him in the parking lot a few hours after he was supposed to report for drill.

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National Guard sergeant from Phoenix found dead outside armory
But in all of this, to tell Holt that it is not needed in Arizona, McCain forgets that he has run his entire political life as being a veteran and a POW. He forgets that the laws and bills passed in Washington are not about one state over another but for all states which he has been a senator long enough that he should know that. These men and women are coming home from doing what he voted for them to do but he can't manage to do anything for them when they come home? How dare he be so callous? How dare he use his title of being a veteran and then turn his back on every veteran in this country? How dare the people of Arizona put him back into office over and over again when he has voted against veterans over and over again?
Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Five veteran suicide rescues in a two-hour period—so John McCain blocks suicide prevention
December 22, 2010 posted by Chaplain Kathie

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) Blocks suicide prevention measure
A small crisis group gets calls all the time from veterans in crisis. Considering these men and women know what it is like to face death on a daily basis, reaching the point where all seems hopeless indicates a crisis itself, we fail to grasp how serious this is. Yet on one night this same small crisis group had to rescue 5 suicidal veterans!
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http://woundedtimes.blogspot.com/2010/12/five-veteran-suicide-rescues-in-two.html