Where’s the Outrage?

…against Ann Coulter towards the companies that advertise on her website. One of the more industrious members over at DailyKos has gone through and compiled a list of the companies currently advertising at Coulter’s webpage. This diary here has a list of email contacts for all of the companies they’ve found to date. It doesn’t take but a minute or so to fire off a “disgruntled customer/potential customer” letter and this has the potential to really hit her where it hurts…. in the pocketbook. Now go get busy.

Tags: Election 2008, Ethics, Media by desertbug
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Now, we see the soldiers.  All of these soldiers have TBI, traumatic brain injuries.  This story ties in with the Walter Reed story (which I have several posts - here, here and here)

What no one has adequately explained to the American public is how the VA works.  The VA is set up to take care of veterans before we invaded Afghanistan and Iraq.  So, the majority of VA’s are set up to care for older patients with chronic illness - lung disease, prostate cancer, lung cancer and heart disease to name a few.  The VA is NOT set up to handle acute traumatic illness.  As a matter of fact, most VA’s in the country will shunt their trauma to the trauma center which is usually near by.  Therefore, when complex trauma patients leave the major military hospitals and are transferred to the VA’s, they aren’t ready to care for these patients.  As far as I know, I haven’t heard of any major recruitment of trauma surgeons, neurosurgeons, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists or other trauma specialists by the VA system.  Maybe I missed those recruitment posters but I doubt it.  This is why the VA is struggling right now (and the fact that the Republicans have tried to cut the VA budget last year and the year before and the year before).

This is an excellent piece.

 

 Bob Woodruff - To Iraq and Back, part 3 [8:34m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Healthcare, Iraq, Media by ecthompson
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This is the recovery.  I don’t think that it begins to tell the story of how hard a journey this is.  I have dealt with head injury patients.  They get very frustrated because they can’t do things that use to be able to do without thinking.  They have to relearn everything.  Look at how he spells hammer.  It is a very easy word but he has to relearn it.  The physical therapists and occupational therapists and speech therapists are the unsung heroes in this tale along with his family.

 

 Bob Woodruff - To Iraq and Back [12:47m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Budget, Healthcare, Iraq, Media by ecthompson
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Wow, this is a very powerful story for a number of reasons.  First of all, Bob Woodruff has had a terrible brain injury.  By all accounts he should not be this functional.  He is a walking testimony to modern American trauma surgery.  He takes back to Iraq and then thru his injury.  We follow his long recovery.  What he doesn’t highlight is how his treatment was different than the average soldier.  I believe the difference can be seen in rehab.  His family was on top of every little detail.  Even his children help with his recovery.  I think, I don’t know this for a fact, that the average soldier gets the same initial care including rapid transport from the field to a forward hospital.  Quick operative if necessary then transport to the States.  All of this care is the same.  I will go so far as to say all of the hospital care was the same.  The difference comes in the rehab.

Woodruff takes us to see several head injury patients that are not doing as well as he is.  I think that this takes some personal courage to share those feelings with us.  Most trauma patients just simply want to move on and forget about what happened.  He doesn’t.

This is part of the series.  Enjoy.

 

 Woodruff - Iraq and back [9:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Budget, Media, Military by ecthompson
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From WaPo:

In this dusty market town in northern Darfur, a lucky few with satellite dishes can get news of the war surrounding them from CNN or the BBC. Others rely on a tree.

For the past 10 years, Awatif Ahmed Isshag has handwritten monthly dispatches and commentary about life in El Fasher and hung them on a short, wiry tree that scatters shade along the yellow-sand lane by her house.

For the past four years, the dispatches have included items about the conflict in Darfur that appear to represent the only independent local reporting about the fighting in a region where most media hew to the official government line.

Along with advice on how to be a lady, Isshag, a slight 24-year-old with an undergraduate degree in economics, has satirized the local governor and described the suffering of displaced families and gun battles in the markets of El Fasher. She recently wished the town a happy New Year, and compared the security conditions here to the situation in Lebanon. (more…)

Tags: Sudan by ecthompson
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Do you remember the Monty Python skit - Wink, Wink, Nudge, Nudge? This is what the Republicans are doing when they “denounce” Coulter. They invited her. She has called Clinton and Gore gay so why not Edwards? It is the trifecta.

BTW, it was no joke. If it was an attempt at a joke then maybe Andrew Dice Clay is writing her material.

——

From NYT:

Three of the leading Republican presidential candidates on Saturday denounced one of their party’s best-known conservative commentators for using an antigay epithet when discussing a Democratic presidential contender at a gathering of conservatives here.

The remarks by Ann Coulter, an author who regularly speaks at conservative events, were sharply denounced by the candidates, Senator John McCain of Arizona, Rudolph W. Giuliani of New York and Mitt Romney of Massachusetts. Their statements came after Democrats, gay rights groups and bloggers raised a storm of protest over the remarks.

Speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference before an overflow crowd on Friday, Ms. Coulter said, “I was going to have a few comments on the other Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, but it turns out you have to go into rehab if you use the word ‘faggot,’ so I — so kind of an impasse, can’t really talk about Edwards.” [Read more →]

 

 Monty Python - Wink, Wink [2:10m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Media, Party Politics by ecthompson
2 Comments »