Jamie Rubin should learn to shut up. He stated Kerry's position on AUMF  that Kerry would have voted the way he did  'knowing what we know now" in 2004. Now he is providing truncated quotes about McCain's position on Hamas. the only problem is that he got Obama to repeat that and now the whole story turns up. A good way to discredit the presumptive nominee!

[Cross-posted from www.progressivefuture.org] This entire week, I've been blogging my interview with Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier in Iraq, who has been brave enough to share her experiences with contractor abuse and the harm it is causing our troops. Her testimony has placed a spotlight on the need for policies that truly support the troops in practice, not just in rhetoric. For as much as the current administration uses empty talking points such as "protect of our national security" and "support the troops" to justify its policies, when it comes down to it, our leaders clearly view the well-being of the soldiers on the front lines as an afterthought to the profits they and their cronies have reaped from the war. In this final entry, Rachel weighs in on the need for accountability

For the past three days, this five-part diary series has shared the experiences of Rachel, an Iraq War Veteran, and her encounters with the private military contractor, KBR. In a series of interviews, she revealed stories of unfair disparities in pay and treatment between contractors and military personnel, having to shower in what was essentially wastewater because of KBR's negligence, and her reactions to the KBR water scandal investigations upon her return to the United States.

Today's installment tells a different story, but one that is equally appalling and pertinent to the issue of how the Pentagon continues to subject the troops to mistreatment and negligence. Josh, a soldier who was also stationed at Camp Ramadi, describes his experiences with struggling to find medical help for a traumatic brain injury (TBI), induced by a roadside bomb in Iraq, and his subsequent case of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder:

Cross-posted from www.progressivefuture.org: Yesterday, in Part II of this five-part series, I shared my friend Rachel's experiences in Iraq with having to shower in dirty, contaminated water provided to the troops by private contractor and former Halliburton subsidiary, KBR. This story followed Rachel's recollection of the grossly higher paychecks the contractors were receiving for the same work as the military personnel, a sick twist of irony if you consider how poorly the contractors were doing the jobs they are paid six-figure incomes to perform. While the firsthand testimony of her experiences shocked and angered me, the findings of the investigations that followed truly made me disgusted:

Bumped - Todd

Our President:

For the first time, Bush revealed a personal way in which he has tried to acknowledge the sacrifice of soldiers and their families: He has given up golf.

"I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the commander in chief playing golf," he said. "I feel I owe it to the families to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal."

Bush said he made that decision after the August 2003 bombing of the United Nations headquarters in Baghdad, which killed Sergio Vieira de Mello, the top U.N. official in Iraq and the organization's high commissioner for human rights.

"I remember when de Mello, who was at the U.N., got killed in Baghdad as a result of these murderers taking this good man's life," he said. "I was playing golf -- I think I was in central Texas -- and they pulled me off the golf course and I said, 'It's just not worth it anymore to do.'"

"It's just not worth it anymore to do."

Golfing, that is.

Late-night comedians will mock this, but I don't find it funny at all.

This is tragic.

So Mr. Bush doesn't feel like he was misled, he was misinformed and wrong conclusions were made.  He gave up golf since soldiers are dying.  I know, I know, there comes a point where we shouldn't be surprised by anything they do, but then they come out, sound so utterly clueless and out of touch with this thing called reality that it really makes you do a double take.

I mean, I think that all of this Democratic infighting can be directly linked to this airhead.  Everyone feels enraged by the utter carelessness of this administration that for many of us, it really is one of the defining moments of our cultural lives.  Thus, we fight for it tooth and nail.  As I have said before, we need to keep our eye on the prize.  This guy is a piece of work.

Yesterday, in Part 1 of this series, "Who's Supporting the Troops?", I shared part of my interview with Rachel, a formerly deployed soldier in Iraq who experienced first hand the abuse and neglect of private military contractors. Although many people identified with Rachel's incredible story, Rachel requested we not print her last name or rank for purposes of privacy. Rachel's story began by exposing the egregious pay discrepancies between military and civilian contractors. Her experiences teach us that the very idea of hiring these contractors is at once channeling resources away from the troops and placing profit as a priority over the security of our troops.

This reality would be infuriating enough if there wasn't an additional piece compounding this problem: the contractors are doing a poor, and sometimes downright destructive, job. In the case of KBR's performance in fulfilling their contracted service of providing water to the troops, Rachel had much to share with me:

It's Tuesday May 13, 2008 and on this day in history, The Beatles debuted the movie "Let It Be" in 1970 and back in 1943 German and Italian forces surrendered in Africa but that's nothing compared to what we have for you today.

Right now, it's 7:30 am here in Seattle and 10:30 back in Washington DC where as far as I can tell, not one elected official has thought today about the fact that by now, two or three, maybe more, young American men and women who served their country in Iraq and Afghanistan have killed themselves.

Some may have used a gun and pulled the trigger when they couldn't take the pain or the wait of up to six months that they are told to wait before seeing a mental health specialist. Some may use pills or drive their car into a wall. Some will slit their wrists.

All our brave young and women we as a nation have failed to serve with a hint of the honor and courage that they served us.