The Dirty Dozen......Rotten Egg #'s 4, 5, & 6

Since George W. Bush took office in 2000, the American public has been taken for many a ride in his "Warped Time Machine". Thus far, we have been reliving aspects of The Dark Ages, The Crusades, The Inquisitions, and The Witch Hunts. Our next flashback journey, it seems, will find us re-experiencing the - Have they no workhouses? - Victorian England of Charles Dickens. Reeking cackle fruit numbers four, five, and six, can be found hiding in a Victorian parlor.

The Victorian Era in England was marked by a stark division between the haves and the have-nots. Soldiers from privileged families returned home to the best care available in the British Empire, while the maimed rank and file ended up on the streets.

The small pension provided was inadequate, so the blind begged with cup in hand, and the legless scooted themselves about on boards similar to skateboards. Those who suffered brain injury or PTSD (mental and emotional damage) while conquering the globe for Queen Victoria, were doomed to lifelong poverty and squalor. Some suffered a fate even more horrific: they were abandoned in the hell hole asylums the Victorian elite reserved for the indigent mentally ill.

Rotten egg number four smells every bit as bad as the underbelly of Victorian society. The budget presented to the American public for FY' 06 includes drastic prescription co pays for our veterans as well as an annual "user fee" for medical services. There is a small "diversionary" increase in VA funding but it does not take into account the thousands of injured from the current war. This token increase is at best, barely enough to cover the politicians' backsides, when they claim to support American Vets. Medical treatment should be free to veterans with service related injuries. If they have SACRIFICED FOR THEIR COUNTRY and have to live with on- going health problems.......THEIR COUNTRY SHOULD SACRIFICE for them!

Many returning from the occupation of Iraq have found that they have no job, no housing, and have to wait months for medical care. Bush's "Warped Time Machine" finds OUR HEROES destitute on the streets of Victorian America. Suicide is on the increase among these brave but broken soldiers. They have been rendered obsolete by the self-serving decisions made by this greedy, militaristic administration. Veterans of America's wars have become an unwanted tax burden. Our tax money is being used instead to support the continuing war, and to sustain both corporate welfare and Bush's tax cuts to the wealthiest one percent of the American population.

This egg is painted a pale Yellow for cowardice. This cowardly administration and the sitting Congress do not deserve the bright yellow of the sun for they have turned their backs on their country and its veterans.

Egg number five is Yellow as well for it was laid by the same irresponsible chickenhawks. The Bush administration and Congress seem to be tying to outdo themselves with this slight-of-hand stroke of the pen. They have eliminated ALL FEDERAL FUNDING for the support of The Traumatic Brain Injuries Act!

This is astonishing considering that sixty percent of the injured returning from the Iraq War have suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury! Think for a moment about all of those roadside explosions involving Humvees without armor. Think about the kid driving and the passengers. Boom! Major brain damage! Just like that! And NOW Bush and pals cut the funding? This is very like a Victorian nightmare!

TBI affects thousands of American civilians as well. Some have only mild problems as a result of TBI but for many it is life altering. The ability to process information, retrieve stored information, to remember in the short or long term, use language to communicate, balance, walk, recognize people, and the skills needed to care for one's self are just some of the brain functions that can be damaged or lost with a TBI. Many brain injured people have a combination of functions that are damaged making each TBI victim a unique case.

A member of my family has lived with TBI for many years so I am very familiar with what TBI patients face in their struggle to live as normal a life as they possibly can. Money is needed for research, for treatment, and money is needed for access to care on an on going basis. Think of these injured soldiers and civilians and the struggle they will face for as long as they live......How can Bush and Congress cut the funds for the Traumatic Brain Injuries Act? Are the corporate elite and wealthy REALLY more important than our fellow citizens and their families? I think not.

Take a good look at what our War President is really doing to this country. It is time to dump Bush's "Warped Time Machine" before he succeeds at trying to revive Queen Victoria's Empire.

The sixth rotten stinking egg deals with the tiny amount of money paid to the soldiers who are putting themselves in harms way for George's neo-con dream of an American Empire. Yellow for the paltry $13,700 per year paid to an army private fighting in Iraq where death, TBI, and loss of limb are constant dangers.

The wealthiest one percent of Americans received a tax cut from George W. Bush that amounted to $78,500 per year for being privileged. The tax cut (which Bush and Congress wish to make permanent) at $78,500 works out to five army privates per cut. Perhaps we should roll back the stinking tax cut and double the pay of two and a half GI's or maybe we could fund the Traumatic Brain Injuries Act.

Recently, the AP reported, that "nearly a third of all homeless men in America this year will be U.S. Veterans....approximately 500,000 of them". Let's take the tax cut money back and give these veterans homes. They should be able to live the American Way of Life that they fought so hard to preserve. We can use some of that money to wipe out the newly-required user fees and co pays so that our veterans will be guaranteed accessible medical care.

So next time you put a support our troops yellow ribbon decal on your gas guzzling Humvee, or SUV, think about what it really means....are you willing to support our troops beyond flag waving?

..............Kitchen Window Woman