What wasn’t in the 1/23/07 State of the Union address

Sources say case workers for wounded laid off

Defense Department officials have laid off most of their case workers who help severely injured service members, sources said.

The case workers for the Military Severely Injured Center serve as advocates for wounded service members who have questions or issues related to benefits, financial resources, and their successful return to duty or reintegration into civilian life — all forms of support other than medical care.

The center officially opened in February 2005, with its primary offices in Arlington, VA, but also hired advocates at hospitals around the country.

Four sources said the decision was made to cut back the personnel because officials with the Army’s Wounded Warrior program felt the Defense Department program was a duplication of efforts.

Defense officials did not comment on the actions as of Jan. 19. Wounded Warrior officials also could not be reached.

Reports indicate that Fort Hood, TX; Fort Lewis, WA; and Fort Campbell, KY, were among the locations that had case workers cut. It is not clear what will happen to case workers at the Arlington center.

The only case workers that have not been laid off are at three hospitals: Brooke Army Medical Center, TX; Tripler Army Medical Center, HI; and Naval Medical Center San Diego, sources said. But those case workers will not be allowed to work with soldiers and must refer them to the Army Wounded Warrior program.

The laid-off workers were told Wednesday to finish up their case work with severely injured troops, and that Friday would be their last day.

“I’m just livid about this,” said Janice Buckley, Washington state chapter president for Operation Homefront.

She was notified that the two case workers at Fort Lewis were given short notice that their jobs were ending, but she has no further information.

“They did a fabulous job for these families,” Buckley said. “The kind of work they do for these families who are hanging by a thread ... no other organization helped service members and their families like they did.”

The MSIC case workers provided the wounded service members with contacts and referrals to other organizations and agencies, ranging from the Department of Veterans Affairs to the Social Security Administration, depending on their individual needs. Operation Homefront often helps with the families’ emergency financial needs.

Source: Karen Jowers - Staff writer
Posted Saturday Jan 20, 2007 8:33:08 EST
Army Times.com

What They Didn't Teach You in School

In school, you were taught that the Government has three branches: the Legislative branch, the Executive branch, and the Judicial branch. The Legislative branch is the Congress, and they make the laws. The Executive branch is the President, who runs the daily business of government. The Judicial branch consists of the Courts, who interpret the law and determine if laws are constitutional. These are the three branches of government you were taught in the government-controlled schools. But there is a fourth branch of government, and that is the People.

People before Lawyers
Some would argue that the People are not a branch of Government. They would argue that we have a government that is of the People, by the People, and for the People. They would argue that, through voting, the Government represents the People and the Government is the People. In theory, and in an ideal world, this would be true. And for the most part it is true. But there are times when the Government does not represent the People and the interests of the Government are not the interests of the People. There are times when the People have to assert their will directly and overrule the Government and assert the supremacy of the will of the People over the will of the Government.

The Government Exists for the Sole Purpose of
Serving the People, not Ruling the People
The supremacy of the People is preserved throughout all the documents and papers used in the formation of the Government by the People. The preamble to the United States Constitution states that We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. Clearly, the Constitution was created to form a government whose sole purpose was to serve the People and for no other purpose. The founding fathers went to great pains to ensure, through the separation of powers and the balance of power that no branch of government would ever become dominate and become a force that rules the People rather than serves the People.

The History of Democracy
America was originally a colony of England, which was a monarchy controlled by the King. Although England is still a monarchy technically, the Queen is little more than a tourist attraction and serves merely to feed the tabloid press industry. But 250 years ago, the King was very powerful and America was settled by people who were trying to put distance between themselves and the King and his Church of England. America was settled by people who were seeking Liberty and Freedom. We became a People, and we resented being subservient to the Government and the King. We dreamed of an America where the People were the King.

On July 4th, 1776, the Second Continental Congress, representing the 13 states, unanimously issued the Declaration of Independence. This document was the official notice given to the King of England that the 13 states were separating themselves from the Crown in order to form a government of the People. The Declaration of Independence is an important document and in many ways is as important as the Constitution. The Constitution is the document that establishes a government of the People, by the People, and for the People. The Declaration of Independence is the document that establishes the supremacy of the People over the Government and establishes the Right and the Duty of the People to throw off such Government and to provide new Guards for their future Security.

Did you know …?

We lost 27 soldiers this past weekend (1/20/07).

Nine billion dollars was lost or unaccounted for in Iraq.

Under Ashcroft, the United States rendered a Canadian citizen to Syria. The Canadian government apologized to the wrongly accused citizen who had, indeed, been tortured. The Canadian citizen who had been wrongly tortured remains on the terrorist watch list.

The Brits are down to 3,000 troops in Iraq.

Foreign contractors can own 100% of foreign businesses (Iraqi) and take all their profits home.

Halliburton received 12 billion dollars worth of cost-plus contracts.

Seventy amendments were added to the minimum wage amendment by republicans.

A Letter from Dot Calm to her Elected Officials in Congress

For the welfare of our country, and despite party affiliation, please consider investigating the following:

1. Misuse of intelligence leading up to the war

2. Waste, fraud, and misuse of funds, including in launching the war in secret and construction of permanent bases in Iraq

3. War crimes, extraordinary rendition, and torture

I would be very appreciative.

Production Sharing Agreements (PSAs)

Up to $113 billion in Iraqi oil revenues are going to multinational oil companies under long-term contracts, and not to the Iraqi people, says a social and environmental group. In a report, the group known as Platform said that oil multinationals would be paid between 74 billion pounds ($144 billion) and 194 billion pounds, with rates of return of between 42% and 162% under proposed production-sharing agreements, or PSAs.

"The form of contracts being promoted is the most expensive and undemocratic option available," said Platform researcher Greg Muttitt on Tuesday. "Iraq's oil should be for the benefit of the Iraqi people, not foreign oil companies." Muttitt added: "Iraq's institutions are new and weak. Experience in other countries shows that oil companies generally get the upper hand in PSA negotiations with governments. The companies will inevitably use Iraq's current instability to push for highly advantageous terms and lock Iraq to those terms for decades."

The report, titled “Crude Designs: The Rip-Off of Iraq's Oil Wealth,” said the majority of Iraqis were against the large-scale involvement of foreign companies in the post-Saddam era. "Iraqi public opinion is strongly opposed to handing control over oil development to foreign companies," it said. "But with the active involvement of the US and British governments, a group of powerful Iraqi politicians and technocrats is pushing for a system of long-term contracts with foreign oil companies which will be beyond the reach of Iraqi courts, public scrutiny, or democratic control."

Under PSAs, foreign companies provide capital investment, including drilling and the construction of infrastructure, and a proportion of oil extracted is allocated to the companies. "Iraqi public opinion is strongly opposed to handing control over oil development to foreign companies." But Platform's report alleged that financing oil development could be done instead through government budgetary expenditure, using future oil flows as collateral to borrow money, or using international oil companies through shorter-term and less lucrative contracts.

Louise Richards, chief executive of aid charity War on Want, said, "People have increasingly come to realize that the Iraq war was about oil, profits, and plunder. Iraq's oil profits, far from being used to alleviate some of the suffering the Iraqi people now face, are well within the sights of the oil multinationals."

February is Black History month...

We owe Martin Luther King, Jr., and indeed ourselves, a visit to all his speeches.
Not just during Black History month, we should visit his speeches whenever we thirst for his wisdom, his truth, and his pain.

A Call to Conscience:
The Landmark Speeches of
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Address delivered in Acceptance of Nobel Peace Prize

10 December 1964
Oslo, Norway

Your Majesty, Your Royal Highness, Mr. President, excellencies, ladies and gentlemen: I accept the Nobel Prize for Peace at a moment when twenty-two million Negroes of the United States are engaged in a creative battle to end the long night of racial injustice. I accept this award on behalf of a civil rights movement which is moving with determination and a majestic scorn for risk and danger to establish a reign of freedom and a rule of justice.

I am mindful that only yesterday in Birmingham, Alabama, our children, crying out for brotherhood, were answered with fire hoses, snarling dogs, and even death. I am mindful that only yesterday in Philadelphia, Mississippi, young people seeking to secure the right to vote were brutalized and murdered. I am mindful that debilitating and grinding poverty afflicts my people and chains them to the lowest rung of the economic ladder.

Therefore, I must ask why this prize is awarded to a movement which is beleaguered and committed to unrelenting struggle, and to a movement which has not yet won the very peace and brotherhood which is the essence of the Nobel Prize. After contemplation, I conclude that this award, which I receive on behalf of that movement, is a profound recognition that nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral questions of our time: the need for man to overcome oppression and violence without resorting to violence and oppression.

Civilization and violence are antithetical concepts. Negroes of the United States, following the people of India, have demonstrated that nonviolence is not sterile passivity, but a powerful moral force which makes for social transformation. Sooner or later, all the peoples of the world will have to discover a way to live together in peace, and thereby transform this pending cosmic elegy into a creative psalm of brotherhood. If this is to be achieved, man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression, and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.

The torturous road which has led from Montgomery, Alabama, to Oslo bears witness to this truth, and this is a road over which millions of Negroes are traveling to find a new sense of dignity. This same road has opened for all Americans a new era of progress and hope. It has led to a new civil rights bill, and it will, I am convinced, be widened and lengthened into a superhighway of justice as Negro and white men in increasing numbers create alliances to overcome their common problems.

I accept this award today with an abiding faith in America and an audacious faith in the future of mankind. I refuse to accept despair as the final response to the ambiguities of history.

I refuse to accept the idea that the "is-ness" of man's present nature makes him morally incapable of reaching up for the eternal "ought-ness" that forever confronts him.

I refuse to accept the idea that man is mere flotsam and jetsam in the river of life, unable to influence the unfolding events which surround him.

I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.

I refuse to accept the cynical notion that nation after nation must spiral down a militaristic stairway into the hell of nuclear annihilation.

I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.

I believe that even amid today's mortar bursts and whining bullets, there is still hope for a brighter tomorrow.

I believe that wounded justice, lying prostrate on the blood-flowing streets of our nations, can be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men.

I have the audacity to believe that peoples everywhere can have three meals a day for their bodies, education and culture for their minds, and dignity, equality, and freedom for their spirits.

I believe that what self-centered men have torn down, men other-centered can build up.

I still believe that one day mankind will bow before the altars of God and be crowned triumphant over war and bloodshed and nonviolent redemptive goodwill proclaimed the rule of the land. And the lion and the lamb shall lie down together, and every man shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid.

I still believe that we shall overcome.

This faith can give us courage to face the uncertainties of the future. It will give our tired feet new strength as we continue our forward stride toward the city of freedom. When our days become dreary with low-hovering clouds and our nights become darker than a thousand midnights, we will know that we are living in the creative turmoil of a genuine civilization struggling to be born.

Today, I come to Oslo as a trustee, inspired and with renewed dedication to humanity. I accept this prize on behalf of all men who love peace and brotherhood. I say I come as a trustee, for in the depths of my heart I am aware that this prize is much more than an honor to me personally. Every time I take a flight, I am always mindful of the many people who make a successful journey possible, the known pilots and the unknown ground crew. You honor the dedicated pilots of our struggle, who have sat at the controls as the freedom movement soared into orbit. You honor, once again, Chief Lutuli of South Africa, whose struggles with and for his people are still met with the most brutal expression of man's inhumanity to man. You honor the ground crew, without whose labor and sacrifice the jet flights to freedom could never have left the earth. Most of these people will never make the headlines, and their names will never appear in Who's Who. Yet, when years have rolled past and when the blazing light of truth is focused on this marvelous age in which we live, men and women will know and children will be taught that we have a finer land, a better people, a more noble civilization because these humble children of God were willing to suffer for righteousness' sake.

I think Alfred Nobel would know what I mean when I say I accept this award in the spirit of a curator of some precious heirloom which he holds in trust for its true owners: all those to whom truth is beauty, and beauty truth, and in whose eyes the beauty of genuine brotherhood and peace is more precious than diamonds or silver or gold. Thank you. [applause]

Source: The words of Martin Luther King, Jr. are copyrighted by the King Estate.

The Joys of Signing Statements

Dot Calm presents the following examples of the president's signing statements for your edification.

Since taking office in 2001, President Bush has issued signing statements on more than 750 new laws, declaring that he has the power to set aside the laws when they conflict with his legal interpretation of the Constitution. The federal government is instructed to follow the statements when it enforces the laws. Here are 10 examples and the dates Bush signed them:

March 9: Justice Department officials must give reports to Congress by certain dates on how the FBI is using the USA Patriot Act to search homes and secretly seize papers.

Bush's signing statement: the president can order Justice Department officials to withhold any information from Congress if he decides it could impair national security or executive branch operations.

Dec. 30, 2005: US interrogators cannot torture prisoners or otherwise subject them to cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment.

Bush's signing statement: the president, as commander in chief, can waive the torture ban if he decides that harsh interrogation techniques will assist in preventing terrorist attacks.

Dec. 30: When requested, scientific information ''prepared by government researchers and scientists shall be transmitted [to Congress] uncensored and without delay."

Bush's signing statement: the president can tell researchers to withhold any information from Congress if he decides its disclosure could impair foreign relations, national security, or the workings of the executive branch.

Aug. 8: The Department of Energy, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and its contractors may not fire or otherwise punish an employee whistle-blower who tells Congress about possible wrongdoing.

Bush's signing statement: the president or his appointees will determine whether employees of the Department of Energy and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission can give information to Congress.

Dec. 23, 2004: Forbids US troops in Colombia from participating in any combat against rebels, except in cases of self-defense. Caps the number of US troops allowed in Colombia at 800.

Bush's signing statement: only the president, as commander in chief, can place restrictions on the use of US armed forces, so the executive branch will construe the law ''as advisory in nature."

Dec. 17: The new national intelligence director shall recruit and train women and minorities to be spies, analysts, and translators in order to ensure diversity in the intelligence community.

Bush's signing statement: the executive branch shall construe the law in a manner consistent with a constitutional clause guaranteeing ''equal protection" for all. (In 2003, the Bush administration argued against race-conscious affirmative-action programs in a Supreme Court case. The court rejected Bush's view.)

Oct. 29: Defense Department personnel are prohibited from interfering with the ability of military lawyers to give independent legal advice to their commanders.

Bush's signing statement: all military attorneys are bound to follow legal conclusions reached by the administration's lawyers in the Justice Department and the Pentagon when giving advice to their commanders.

Aug. 5: The military cannot add to its files any illegally gathered intelligence, including information obtained about Americans in violation of the Fourth Amendment's protection against unreasonable searches.

Bush's signing statement: only the president, as commander in chief, can tell the military whether or not it can use any specific piece of intelligence.

Nov. 6, 2003: US officials in Iraq cannot prevent an inspector general for the Coalition Provisional Authority from carrying out any investigation. The inspector general must tell Congress if officials refuse to cooperate with his inquiries.

Bush's signing statement: the inspector general ''shall refrain" from investigating anything involving sensitive plans, intelligence, national security, or anything already being investigated by the Pentagon. The inspector cannot tell Congress anything if the president decides that disclosing the information would impair foreign relations, national security, or executive branch operations.

Nov. 5, 2002: Creates an Institute of Education Sciences whose director may conduct and publish research ''without the approval of the secretary [of education] or any other office of the department."

Bush's signing statement: the president has the power to control the actions of all executive branch officials, so ''the director of the Institute of Education Sciences shall [be] subject to the supervision and direction of the secretary of education."

SOURCE: Charlie Savage
© Copyright 2006 Globe Newspaper Company