The VA, Suicide, and Fuzzy Math

The VA has been saying that 800 vets attempt suicide each year, which in of itself is an unacceptably high number. Sadly, they have been under reporting that number by roughly 11,200 attempts a year. The Seattle Times reports:

WASHINGTON — The Department of Veterans Affairs has lied about the number of veterans who have attempted suicide, Sen. Patty Murray said Wednesday, citing internal e-mails that put the number at 12,000 a year while the department was publicly saying it was fewer than 800.

"The suicide rate is a red alarm bell to all of us," said Murray, D-Wash., adding that the VA's mental-health programs are being overwhelmed by Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans as the department seeks to downplay the situation. "We are not your enemy, we are your support team, and unless we get accurate information, we can't be there to do our jobs."

Deputy Secretary of Veterans Affairs Gordon Mansfield apologized during a Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee hearing, saying he did not think there was a deliberate attempt to mislead Congress or the public.

Which sounds good, until one keeps reading:

The e-mails, uncovered as part of a class-action lawsuit filed against the VA in San Francisco, was reported by CBS News on Monday.

"Our suicide-prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities," Katz wrote in a Feb. 13 e-mail to Ev Chasen, the department's communication director. "Is this something we should [carefully] address ourselves in some sort of release before someone stumbles on it?"

Chasen responded: "I think this is something we should discuss among ourselves, before issuing a press release. Is the fact we are stopping them good news, or is the sheer number bad news? And is this more than we have ever seen before?"

Now, I understand that this story is 10 days old, which is 100,432,647 days old in the blogsphere, but I have not seen much of this, probably because it is not nearly as important what Sen. Obama's former pastor said, which is what MSNBC is broadcasting as I type this.

John Hagee and John McCain

Frank Rich of the New York Times has written a great piece about the hypocrisy of the Rev. Wright situation. He implies, correctly, that had Wright (been white) and said equally outrageous things that didn't play on white fear of black people it would have gotten little notice. Take the case in point of the a preacher that is a far greater and whiter lunatic than Wright.

John Hagee, (seen right) who would not have ever existed had the right people always been in charge, was actively sought out by McCain for an endorsement. Rich explains:

BORED by those endless replays of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright? If so, go directly to YouTube, search for “John Hagee Roman Church Hitler,” and be recharged by a fresh jolt of clerical jive.

What you’ll find is a white televangelist, the Rev. John Hagee, lecturing in front of an enormous diorama. Wielding a pointer, he pokes at the image of a woman with Pamela Anderson-sized breasts, her hand raising a golden chalice. The woman is “the Great Whore,” Mr. Hagee explains, and she is drinking “the blood of the Jewish people.” That’s because the Great Whore represents “the Roman Church,” which, in his view, has thirsted for Jewish blood throughout history, from the Crusades to the Holocaust.

Mr. Hagee is not a fringe kook but the pastor of a Texas megachurch. On Feb. 27, he stood with John McCain and endorsed him over the religious conservatives’ favorite, Mike Huckabee, who was then still in the race...

Mr. McCain says he does not endorse any of Mr. Hagee’s calumnies, any more than Barack Obama endorses Mr. Wright’s. But those who try to give Mr. McCain a pass for his embrace of a problematic preacher have a thin case. It boils down to this: Mr. McCain was not a parishioner for 20 years at Mr. Hagee’s church.

That defense implies, incorrectly, that Mr. McCain was a passive recipient of this bigot’s endorsement. In fact, by his own account, Mr. McCain sought out Mr. Hagee, who is perhaps best known for trying to drum up a pre-emptive “holy war” with Iran. (This preacher’s rantings may tell us more about Mr. McCain’s policy views than Mr. Wright’s tell us about Mr. Obama’s.) Even after Mr. Hagee’s Catholic bashing bubbled up in the mainstream media, Mr. McCain still did not reject and denounce him, as Mr. Obama did an unsolicited endorser, Louis Farrakhan, at the urging of Tim Russert and Hillary Clinton. Mr. McCain instead told George Stephanopoulos two Sundays ago that while he condemns any “anti-anything” remarks by Mr. Hagee, he is still “glad to have his endorsement.

In addition to the above mentioned dysfunctions, I did a search and found out that he also claims that Jews did not reject Jesus as the Messiah, which means that according to him Jews are actually Christians.

If you are not at least as disturbed by the following video as you are by anything Rev. Wright has said, you are undoubtedly a close minded and racist xenophobe that probably listens to Sean Hannity more than you read and hates everything the Beatles did after Rubber Soul:



Amongst other things, the first one dollar bill was not produced under Washington, it was produced under Lincoln, who fought a war against this bastard's ancestors.

MSNBC Airs 1 Hour Special Report on Obama and Rev. Wright

Kent Brockman: In other news, MSNBC no longer stands for Microsoft-National Broadcasting Company. The initials have now been adjusted to represent Ms. No Black Candidate...

Yes, the above mentioned network has decided to air an atrocious one hour segment on this most tired of topics. Another line has been crossed. If you are pissed about this level of attention, please be proactive and let them know: letters@msnbc.com; verdict@msn.msnbc.com

Outside of K.O., they seem to be obsessed with this story in an almost unhealthy way. This is NOT a story, it is a distraction, a drama, and a intellectual drain. I would rather watch someone on QVC test out a Dustbuster.

In other news, Obama is up 53/47 with 79% reporting in Guam. The boob on CNN, while reporting this information just now (12:14 PST), actually just said that Obama has a home field advantage for having grown up in Hawaii. Then, in an effort to correct himself, he said, well at least a home ocean advantage as the two islands are not that far apart as the crow flies. For the record, the crow flies 3,805 miles between Honolulu, Hawaii and Hagatna, Guam. Just to offer some perspective, the same crow flies only 2,713 miles between Seattle, Washington and Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.