National SecurityDepartment of Military Readiness: Gates’ Farewell WarningSecretary of Defense Robert Gates is taking a retirement lap ahead of his departure later this month, and he made some predictions about U.S. national defense and also warned about cutting it going forward. “More perhaps than any other secretary of defense, I have been a strong advocate of soft power — of the critical importance of diplomacy and development as fundamental components of our foreign policy and national security,” Gates said at Notre Dame. “But make no mistake, the ultimate guarantee against the success of aggressors, dictators and terrorists in the 21st century, as in the 20th, is hard power — the size, strength and global reach of the United States military.”
Citizenship and Immigration
By Mark Alexander · Thursday, June 2, 2011
The Debate on the Fate of Illegal Migrants
“Born in other countries, yet believing you could be happy in this, our laws acknowledge, as they should do, your right to join us in society, conforming … to our established rules.” –Thomas Jefferson, May 2, 1801
The current debate over the fate of migrants who have illegally entered the United States is a complicated one, not solvable by simply re-warming President Dwight Eisenhower’s 1954 “Operation Wetback.” Were we to round up the estimated 12 to 18 million Latinos and Hispanics currently here illegally and dump them across our southern border into Mexico, it would have a dramatic impact on some areas of the country, and the illegals would be right back in short order, given the present state of our border insecurity.
Disabledveterans.org and Vetset
http://www.disabledveterans.org/ http://www.thevetset.org/
Reporting on Disabled Vets
WASHINGTON, Feb. 26, 2010
Notebook: Reporting on Disabled Vets
Wyatt Andrews and Jill Rosenbaum Describe How They Found Problems Within in a Key VA Program for Wounded Veterans
After eight years of war, you might think the system for delivering benefits to America’s most disabled war veterans would be well organized, efficient and as caring as possible. It’s not.
A two-month CBS News investigation of the Department of Veteran’s Affairs’ (VA) most important benefit program helping disabled vets return to work, a benefit most vets call “Voc Rehab,” revealed a program which is beset with contracting and staffing problems — which often throws needless roadblocks in front of eligible veterans, and which either tolerates or can’t prevent wrongful benefit denials for some of the nation’s most deserving former warriors.
Wounded Veterans’ New Fight: The Veterans Administration
Veterans Find Getting Vocational Training Sometimes Means Fighting a New Battle.
(CBS) Former Army medic Jeremy Smith was wounded and paralyzed in Afghanistan. Clearly qualified for both medical and pension benefits, Smith was surprised when a Veteran’s Affairs counselor told him he wasn’t disabled enough for vocational benefits.
“How can I not be disabled enough? How much more disabled do I need to be,” Smith asked. “Should I go throw myself under a bus real quick?”
Brandon Frazier has a similar story. A veteran of the 2004 Marine assault on Fallujah, Brandon suffered hearing loss and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD.
But as CBS News correspondent Wyatt Andrews reports, a VA counselor wrongly told him the VA would not help disabled vets study pre-law.
Notebook: Reporting on Disabled Vets
“It didn’t seem like he was in there to find a way to help me. He was there to tell me I couldn’t,” Frazier said.
“Looking for a way to turn you down,” Andrews asked?
“Right,” he replied.
Then there is Kenny Lyon. A Marine sergeant, whose miraculous battlefield rescue in Iraq – and 2 year fight to recover – was profiled on “60 Minutes.”
60 Minutes: A Fighting Chance
Lyon had to fight the VA for five months – but after being finally told he would get vocational benefits to study at Gettysburg College, the VA called to say stop.
“I was on my way to classes and I got a phone call saying it was not approved,” Lyon said.
“You weren’t getting the tuition,” Andrews asked.
“Yes,” Lyon replied.
The VA benefits these veterans requested are from a program called Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment, or Voc Rehab benefits. Separate from the GI Bill, Voc Rehab helps disabled vets get whatever training they need to live on their own or get a job. When it works, which is most of the time, Voc Rehab services range from sign language lessons to technical classes to Harvard Law School.
Memorial Day, May 30, 2011
Liberty”As we turn the calendar’s pages to yet another Memorial Day, I feel compelled to issue a … challenge, one I offer not as a clergyman but as an American. Simply, let’s not lose focus about what this most solemn of national holidays should really be about. Too often Americans view the