Packers Take Lombardi Home

Green Bay cornerback Charles Woodson (21) can't quite make an interception in front of Pittsburgh wide receiver Mike Wallace (17) in the third quarter. But Woodson foiled what looked like a sure touchdown.

Woodson left the game with a shoulder injury suffered during the play and would not return [USA Today], later rallying his teammates at half-time.

VA Attacks Own Revised PTSD Rules, Promotes Anti-veteran Dr. Sally Satel

Your Veterans Service Organizations liaison from the Office of the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs [the VA] is now promoting the work of Dr. Sally Satel, resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).

By Michael Leon

This is like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention telling Americans treating the Ebola virus is really a diagnostic and therapeutic "trap;" quote is from Dr. Satel.

Does Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki know or care what anti-veteran nonsense the VA is emitting? How about President Obama?

Long an avowed enemy of Vietnam War veterans, Satal takes direct aim at last year's revised PTSD rules that were hyped by Sec. Shinseki in a well-publiczed op-ed piece (USA Today, July 12, 2010). Writes Satel in a Feb. 1 piece on the AEI site:

The idea that one can sustain an enduring and disabling mental disorder based on anxious anticipation of a traumatic event that never materialized is a radical departure from the clinical--and common-sense--understanding that traumatic stress disorders are caused by events that actually do happen to people.

Sure, the war against veterans at home has been a bipartisan exercise of neglect, but anyone paying any attention to the Bush-Cheney years knows fully well that administration took its key from the AEI on major policy initiatives, and Satel became a leading light of the out-and-out animus towards veterans, especially those Vietnam War guys who smoked all that pot and wore peace signs. Get over it guys is the message by Satel and apparently now the VA and Sec. Shinseki to all veterans with PTSD.

In so many words American veterans, your psychological problems are not the fault of the entire USA. Get it?

Now that the GOP and Tea Party have made public their intention to target the insufficient amount of money now spent on veterans [an ever growing universe of people who served this country unless we can up the suicide rates a few points], one wonders if Sec. Shinseki even knows what's going on in his own office.

U.S. Dist Judge Roger Vinson Ruled Against 1,000s of Veterans in Infamous Med Bene Case

Judge Roger Vinson—who ruled Health Care reform unconstitutional—decided against veterans in an infamous case that stunned veterans across the nation (Schism v. United States, 02-1226), ruling in favor of the Bush-Cheney DoJ petition for summary judgement against World War II-Korean War veterans who were vocally promised health care for life by military recruiters.

"Vinson is an anti-veteran, anti-health care GOP tool. He showed it in Schism. He showed it again on health care reform. The GOP picked Vinson's court because they knew how he would rule in advance," said a veterans' advocate speaking on background because of the sensitivity of the advocate's current work.

A finding in favor of summary judgement as Vinson ruled—depriving veterans of even a trial—is a high legal hurdle to meet and Vinson tarred himself in legal veterans' circles as an activist judge doing the work of partisan interests over the health of veterans and the law.

The Schism v. United States (02-1226) case decided early in the Bush-Cheney administration signaled what would later become a reliably anti-veteran stance of that administration, even as it pushed for more war and overseas adventures.

Citing the legal obligations of U.S. law in terms of "the canon that provisions for benefits to members of the Armed Fores are to be construed in the beneficiaries' favor," [(King v. St. Vincent's Hosp., 502 US . 215 n. 9 (1991)], Senior Circuit Judge S. Jay Plager wrote a later dissenting appellate opinion taking sharp issue with Vinson's anti-veteran ruling that promises made to veterans by military recruiters are not binding upon the U.S. government.

The United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit which covers Florida, Georgia and Alabama is generally recognized as among the most right-wing judicial circuits in America.

The veterans' position in the Schism case was argued by George "Bud" Day, retired Air Force Colonel and a highly decorated Congressional Medal of Honor recipient.

Schism was overturned by a three-judge panel, overturned again by a 13-judge panel, and denied a hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court deciding in favor of the Bush-Cheney administration on June 2, 2003, days before the anniversary of D-Day.