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sign what they asked me to sign which was a thank you to Harry Taylor for saying what so many of us feel and have felt for the last 5-1/2 years. I am willing to sign any petition that decries this administration and its horrendous policies. I know all about Not In Our Name but thanks for your article.

I was proud that I stood up for what I believed during in the 70s and that I continue to walk my talk to this day. Being arrested just proved that I was willing to do whatever it took to be heard and I would do it again today. I have the courage of my convictions and I am proud of that.

You question my causes...what does that mean?? You don't like the organizations I support and you just felt the need to share that with me...

Also, the state of our union is beyond party politics; we are so far beyond differences in ideologies; I am not following any party line in saying that I would sign a petition. I am following my conscience and my gut and history, not the Democratic party.

I have never seen nor heard of this web site but it explains a little more about what happened. It is confusing. The assistant DA said it violates the 4th amendment to shoot someone you don't know, don't know what he is doing, is unarmed and running away. At first I thought, well that makes sense; that's the law but then it doesn't make sense because this was not a case on Law and Order with cops making mistakes carrying out the arrest of American citizens, no matter how despicable their crimes. This was the border patrol doing their jobs, umm, patrolling the border and the person in question is not an American citizen. I am not, as you may suspect, as hard on the immigrants as some are. I don't know what the answer is. This country is not big enough for everyone to live here, yet when I see starving, poverty-beyond-belief kids living in the sewer systems in Brazil and Mexico and being killed periodically by the police because they (the police) have no answers either. It is almost like euthanizing pets at the humane shelter. They just don't know what else to do, the kids are starving, learning how to survive on the street which means more and more crime...its heartbreaking to me anyway. But that has nothing to do with this. I think these guys got a raw deal, not sure why but 12 and 11 years is way out of line.

It shows the amount of money in a 20-year period and BO has gotten a helluva lot more money in a 4 year period than McCain has in 20 years.

register your vote, see percentages of how the rest of the country is voting on it, and check candidates' voting records on bills. You can get a synopsis of the text of bills (yeah, I know, lots of luck with 1200 pages.)

What I would tend NOT to believe is government figures as to how many are out there. I know for a fact that a friend of mine in 2000 received $2,000 per month from the VA, in addition to Social Security benefits of a few more hundred dollars, for his PTSD disability, along with free medication from the VA to the tune of 200 5-mg Valiums per month in addition to 200 15-mg Serax tablets per month.

I have no idea what today's monthly payments are to these veterans. After repeated unsuccessful attempts to commit suicide on the pills the VA gave him (with the full knowledge of the VA), he finally succeeded in 2000 and is no longer with us.

I know firsthand what the effects of this disease are. It's not conjecture. It's fact.

As far as a credible site, how about this VETERANS site?

http://www.veteransforcommonsense.org/index.cfm?Page=Article&id=2468&NoMenu=1

Battling the Effects of War

Combat can wound the mind. New science helps vets from Iraq to cope

By Peg Tyre

Newsweek

December 6, 2004

It wasn't the gunshot wound in the arm that bothered Jose Hernandez when he returned home to Cincinnati after serving in Iraq. It was the lock on the front door. He couldn't relax until he secured it twice, three times and sometimes more. Even then he was still on edge. "I kept thinking about the things I saw over there�shooting on the streets, dead bodies and the terror in people's eyes. I couldn't get it out of my mind," says Hernandez, who served in the Army's 101st Airborne Division. He stopped sleeping, withdrew from friends and dropped plans to go back to college. His girlfriend finally demanded that he get help. A Veterans Administration psychiatrist diagnosed Hernandez with posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, a potentially crippling mental condition caused by extreme stress.

Hernandez says he was one of the lucky ones. With a combination of antianxiety medication and talk therapy, his symptoms have begun to fade. Many of the 170,000 men and women now returning from Iraq and Afghanistan may not be as fortunate. When they get home, tens of thousands of them will be grappling with psychological problems such as PTSD, anxiety, mood disorders and depression. Though scientists are learning just how trauma affects the brain�and how best to help patients heal�there are still many obstacles to getting the treatment to the people who need it most. For starters, no one knows how many soldiers will be affected or how serious their problems will become. Early in the war the Army surveyed 3,671 returning Iraq veterans and found that 17 percent of the soldiers were already suffering from depression, anxiety and symptoms of PTSD.

Experts say those numbers are likely to grow. A study of Vietnam veterans conducted in 1980 found that 30 percent suffered from an anxiety condition later dubbed PTSD. Experts say the protracted warfare in Iraq�with its intense urban street fighting, civilian combatants and terrorism�could drive PTSD rates even higher. National Guard members, who make up 40 percent of the fighting force, with less training and less cohesive units, may be more vulnerable to psychological injuries than regular soldiers. Last year 5,100 soldiers who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan sought treatment in VA clinics for PTSD. That figure is expected to triple.

PTSD, a specific diagnosis, is not the only psychological damage soldiers can sustain. And experts say that mental disorders can make the already rugged transition from military to civilian life a harrowing one. Soldiers can experience depression, hypervigilance, insomnia, emotional numbing, recurring nightmares and intrusive thoughts. And in many cases, the symptoms worsen with time, leaving the victims at higher risk for alcohol and drug abuse, unemployment, homelessness and suicide. Sometimes families can become collateral damage. Christine Hansen, executive director of the Miles Foundation, which runs a hot line for domestic-violence victims in the military, says that since start of the Iraq war, calls have jumped from 50 to more than 500 a month.

Without treatment, some conditions such as chronic PTSD can be lethal. Five years after the Vietnam War, epidemiologists studying combat veterans found that they were nearly twice as likely to die from motor-vehicle accidents and accidental poisoning than veterans who didn't see combat. In a 30-year follow up, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine this year, the same combat vets continued to die at greater rates and remained especially vulnerable to drug overdose and accidental poisoning. "We had the John Wayne syndrome," says Vietnam veteran Greg Helle, who grappled with severe PTSD for decades. "We were men, we'd been to war. We thought we could tough it out." Doctors hadn't developed effective treatment for PTSD and besides, says Helle, seeking help was an admission of weakness.

Doctors now know that PTSD is the product of subtle biological changes that occur in the brain in response to extreme stress. Using sophisticated imaging techniques, researchers now believe that extreme stress alters the way memory is stored. During a major upheaval, the body releases massive doses of adrenaline which speeds up the heart, quickens the reflexes and, over several hours, burns vivid memories that are capable of activating the amygdala, or fear center, in the brain. People can get PTSD, doctors say, when that mechanism works too well. Instead of creating protective memories (ducking at the sound of gunfire), says Dr. Roger Pitman, a psychiatry professor at Harvard Medical School, "the rush of adrenaline creates memories that intrude on everyday life and without treatment, can actually hinder survival."

Why some people get PTSD and others don't remains a mystery. Recent studies suggest that a predisposition to the disorder may be genetic and that previous traumatic experiences can make soldiers more vulnerable to it. Once a soldier has it, though, says Dr. Matthew Friedman, executive director of the Department of Veterans Affairs National Center for PTSD, the good news is that the medical community now knows that "PTSD is very real and very treatable."

The challenge, says Friedman, is getting help�counseling or drug treatment�to veterans who need it most. As the Iraq war continues, officials at the Department of Defense and the VA are scrambling. After a rash of suicides among soldiers, they've increased the number of psychiatrists and psychologists in combat areas. Social workers trained to spot PTSD and other mental disorders are assigned to military hospitals around the country. Primary-care physicians at VA clinics and hospitals are now able to access combat records to see if their patients might be at risk for PTSD. Doctors are issued wallet-size reminders on how to spot PTSD and refer patients for further treatment. The VA has recently hired about 50 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan to do outreach in the Vet Centers, a system of 206 community-based mental-health clinics around the country. But their resources are limited: Congress has set aside an additional $5 million a year for three years to deal with the new mental-health problem.

VA officials admit they're not catching everyone who needs help. National Guard members often do many tours and can be exposed to more combat than regular soldiers. But instead of rotating back to military bases where they can be monitored, they often return to their hometowns where readjustment problems can become a family crisis. If they begin to exhibit signs of PTSD or other psychological problems, they need to get help quickly. The VA will provide mental-health benefits for them for only two years following their service [The article is incorrect: Vet Center benefits are available for the remainder of a combat veterans life, not just two years; however, some physical care benefits are available for only two years].

Regular soldiers get mental-health benefits indefinitely.

Help came too late for Marine reservist Jeffrey Lucey. In July 2003, he returned home to Belchertown, Mass., from Iraq and gradually sank into a deep depression. His family looked on in anguish as he began drinking too much and isolating himself from their close-knit clan. By spring of 2004, he'd stopped sleeping, eating and attending college. When his sister Debra Lucey tried to have a heart-to-heart, "he'd describe the terrible things he'd seen and done," she says, "and he'd always end by saying 'You'll never be able to understand'." Frantic, family members had him committed to a psychiatric hospital but he was soon released. A few weeks later he crashed the family car, and the following month a neighbor found him wandering the streets in the middle of the night dressed in full camouflage with two battle knives he'd been issued in Iraq. Last June, Jeffrey Lucey hanged himself in the basement of his family home.

Shortly before he died, Lucey talked to an Iraq vet turned counselor at his local Vet Center. "He said he'd found someone who could really understand," says Debra. But before he could keep his next appointment, his demons took hold. Now Debra is telling her brother's story in the hope that others find the help they need in time. Psychological problems, she says, are an enemy that no soldier should face alone.

I just wanted to share this website with my fellow liberals in case you haven't seen it yet. Lots of interesting news and hot topics regarding our concerns about the right wing nuts.

Thanks for posting it. I'd be interested in knowing your views on the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty in 1967 (killing 34 American soldiers and wounding 171).

We all pretty much know Hezbollah's/Iran's/Syria's role in all this. I think it's time we take a good look at the other countries involved in this region including America and Israel.

Again, thank you for a very interesting and informative site. I hope you keep posting. I think I can learn a lot from you.

that states the candidates' detailed respective platforms at a glance? I've watched most of the debates, as much as I can anyhow, but I've not been able glean and distinguish a lot of specifics.

I'm in FL and vote on Tuesday. Believe it or not, I am undecided. I liked Dennis, but he pulled out today and probably wouldn't have voted for him... won't go into why, but I'm sure I don't have to :-)

Dennis says to go Obama.... not sure if I want to. What I want is to have a Dem president. I like Edwards...

I found this site this morning. It's pretty neat. On the right, it includes biographies, voting records, issue positions, interest group ratings, speeches, finances (campaign contributions), etc., etc.

In the center, if you click on one of the underlined groups, it will tell you who they are, their mission, and how they rated every one in government.

Special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald has just launched his own brand-new Web site.

Could it be that he's getting ready to release some new legal documents? Like, maybe, some indictments? It's certainly not the action of an office about to fold up its tents and go home.

Fitzgerald spokesman Randall Samborn minimized the significance of the Web launch in an interview this morning.

I would strongly caution, Dan, against reading anything into it substantive, one way or the other, he said. It's really a long overdue effort to get something on the Internet to answer a lot of questions that we get . . . and to put up some of the documents that we have had ongoing and continued interest in having the public be able to access.

* The December 30, 2003, memo from then-acting attorney general James B. Comey establishing Fitzgerald as an independent special counsel with all the authority of the Attorney General with respect to the Department's investigation into the alleged unauthorized disclosure of a CIA employee's identity.

* A Feb. 6, 2004, follow-up confirming that his mandate includes the authority to investigate and prosecute violations of any federal laws related to the underlying alleged unauthorized disclosure, as well as federal crimes committed in the course of, and with intent to interfere with, your investigation.

The Web site is bare bones and is still a work in progress, Samborn said. We have some document formatting issues that we're still resolving. As a result, the site has not yet been officially announced -- although there is a link from Fitzgerald's home page as the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois.

Up until now, the only official repository for documents related to the special counsel's investigation had been a page on the U.S. District Court's Web site. But it only included court motions and rulings.

Incidentally, if you call the number the new Web site lists for Fitzgerald's D.C. office, the phone is somewhat mysteriously answered counterespionage section.

But as Samborn explained to me, that's because the special prosecutor is borrowing space in the Justice Department's Bond Building from the counterespionage section. The office of special counsel doesn't really have its own dedicated space, he said.

Would be great if my liberal friends/co-posters would check out this site and join..you can take a tour and check out the posts.

You're entitled to your opinion and whether you like it or not, I'm entitled to mine.

And I'm sorry, but as you know, my questions weren't directed at you. They were directed at objective people who might possibly believe that Israel is not perfect. Contrary to your vivid imagination, nobody on this board ever said Hezbollah are saints. I am just trying to explore everyone's role in the recent mideast war, including America's. It's sad that you feel the search for the truth is sickening. Your tummy might feel more comfy in the The Israel-Is-Perfect-And-Can-Do-No-Wrong room. The door is thataway >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>