Not news among veterans’ advocates, but three pieces paint a sordid picture of what our country intentionally inflicts upon our veterans when it makes war.

War tends to produce results dysfunctional to future war-making so veterans and serving military personnel who point to any evidence of this truism risk a hostile government machinery.

Consider what happens when death gives a veteran a problem and the VA can’t make a fraud charge stick when a solider is diagnosed with the resulting Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), here’s an alternative tactic: Ruin a soilder’s career while he’s still in the service and take away as many benefits as possible.

See Army General Improperly Kicks Out Iraq War Soldier Diagnosed with PTSD (Veterans for Common Sense).

President-elect Obama and Congress should charge forward, think big, and run roughshod over Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky).

McConnell is the main obstacle now between enacting a progressive public policy in multiple spheres, promising obstruction and more of Bushism.

Now is not the time for the prevent defense.

That’s a football metaphor for a defensive posture intended to protect a lead that usually allows opponents to rack up yardage and score points, often resulting in losing a game. [My boyfriend tells me football has changed somewhat, but this metaphor still works].

Wisconsin is home to a multitude of outstanding citizens who have fought for the very fabric of our democratic government against a radicalized Republican Party that has become home to a faction of corrupt, militaristic reactionaries. Here are a few who have fought for freedom and the rule of law:
 
Russ Feingold – Feingold’s dedicated work for the preservation of the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights have won him the respect of citizens the world over.
 
Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin – In the face of the war on women’s reproductive rights, Planned Parenthood has stood fast in their service to women, and won a landmark legislative achievement for women protecting their right to health care.
 
Attorney Lester Pines and every organization who successfully fought our corrupt Attorney General in the Van Hollen v. WI GAB Voter Suppression Case.
 
Navy veteran Keith Roberts — An innocent victim of the U.S. Dept of Justice and U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (VA), Roberts continues his court battles that have made it greatly more difficult for the VA to actually jail our veterans for receiving benefits to which they are entitled.
 

Update: Percentage of Americans who believe that God created man pretty much in his present form in one instance within the last 10,000 years: 47 percent. ... Rick Warren is one of these people. 

President-elect Barack Obama has tremendously more on his plate than reinventing government and restoring some semblance of accountability to Americans.

Ensuring that the world does not enter into a second depression, halting a war or two, saving the environment, formulating an industrial policy on alternative energy, one can go on; all are problems of a massive scale.

But readers of Uppity Wisconsin may notice a comment from a veteran posted this week about another veteran who is serving a four-year sentence in federal prison.

Update: Wall Street Journal: "We are running out of the traditional ammunition that's used in a recession, which is to lower interest rates. They're getting to be about as low as they can go. And although the Fed is still going to have more tools available to it, it is critical that the other branches of government step up."
- Barack Obama in a news conference in which he called for a government spending stimulus program.

The incoming Obama administration has just been granted a political license to pursue virtually anything it wants in fiscal policy in light of the seriousness with which the Fed is addressing the economic situation facing the world.

Reducing its key rate to a historic low, near zero, the Fed said it would use “all available tools” to fight the recession; in other words War against the recession by any means necessary.
----
Reads the Fed's statement:

For immediate release

The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to establish a target range for the federal funds rate of 0 to 1/4 percent.

Update III: History of the Filibuster and Cloture - Great for those who seem believe that we just cannot survive without this relic from the 1850s. 
 
Update II: Thank you William Greider: Stop Senator No, Senate Dems should disable the rule that gives Mitch McConnell a virtual veto over anything he wants to kill. Advocating the filibuster defies reason.

Update: Bush is acting now, good for him.

The take-away from last night is: Kill the filibuster.

At this moment when a depression is facing the American people on the heels of two historic elections and Democrats' huge majorities in the House and Senate, are we going to let the antiquated filibuster halt needed legislation next session?

Southern Republican senators [Bush seems to be a non-actor] would throw the country into a depression to lower the wages of workers and break unions.

There's a great story by Jason Wilde about Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback David Garrard who has Crohn's disease in the State Journal this morning. [Jacksonville's playing the Pack this week.]

Crohn's disease is a mysterious, chronic inflammatory disease of the digestive or gastrointestinal tract, with symptoms ranging from the severe to the mild.

"I go in every year and have a wonderful colonoscopy," (Garrard) said Wednesday, during a conference call with Wisconsin reporters as he prepared for Sunday's game against the Green Bay Packers. "That's very exciting."

Updated - Laid-off Workers Occupying Chicago Factory Win Big Round Against Bank Of America

Growing up and working in Wisconsin Rapids, I quickly developed an appreciation for blue collar labor, though I found some of my fellow workers’ social views not always enlightened.

But the respect for working people has of course stayed with me, often leading to anger at the genuine hostility that Republicans have for those Americans forced to sell their labor to indifferent and similarly hostile employers.

So, I was very eager to see what Obama’s reaction would be to the proposed bail out of the Big Three automakers that would save the jobs of millions of workers.

Obama’s stated intention to see these jobs saved either this year or next is gratifying.

Obama’s huge public works program recently outlined is also encouraging.

Update: See also J. P. Green's  Challenging the 'Bush Kept Us Safe' Meme - "It's reflection time at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. When the inhabitants of the white house and their minions are not milking their fading authority to smash and grab as much as they can, they are busy spinning history to describe their positive accomplishments. All they have is the fact that we have not had a major terrorist incident 'on U.S. soil' since 9-11. For this, they figure, Americans should be expansively grateful to the lamest duck."

In case anyone missed it, Juan Cole tears apart Bush's-impersonation-of-a-Soviet commissar address last week on Bush's Middle East policy at the Saban Forum in Washington, D.C.

Not that anyone with the power of insight exceeding Cokie Roberts takes anything Bush says seriously these days, but Bush's "self-glorifying speech" disrespects the million human beings no longer alive because of his lying foreign policy.

Concludes Cole: