WALTER REED COMES BACK AROUND TO BITE BUSH IN THE ASS

I hope you haven't forgotten about the Bush Regime's Walter Reed scandal-- and about the young men and women serving our country who have been, in their time of great need, dumped there. With his photo ops, brazen and empty promises, and mindless happy talk, Bush has done all he could to put the "issue" to rest. Rove has been busy as a beaver getting it off our tv screens and off the front pages. But it's back-- and back at a place where neither Bush nor Rove will miss it: on the front page of today's Washington Post. And it's not more Bush happy talk.

A top-level Pentagon review panel has concluded that Walter Reed Army Medical Center should be closed as soon as possible, following revelations of poor care that the panel blamed on a "perfect storm" of failed leadership, flawed policies and overwhelming casualties.

...Even as they urged a speedy shutdown, members of the Pentagon group called for the immediate investment of hundreds of millions of dollars at Walter Reed for short-term infrastructure improvements and to address shortages of nurses and other medical personnel.

...The nine-member review board was established by Gates after the Washington Post reported in February about decrepit conditions at some Walter Reed facilities and shoddy outpatient treatment of wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. The revelations led to the abrupt resignations of Army Secretary Francis Harvey and top Army Medical Corps officers.

Today's NY Times stirred it up a little today too: "The conditions at Walter Reed, including moldy, rat-infested quarters and a bureaucratic maze that left severely injured soldiers in limbo for months, have become a symbol of the government's broader failure to help troops injured in Iraq and Afghanistan. President Bush visited patients at the facility March 30 and said, "I apologize for what they went through, and we're going to fix the problem." Since then he's done very little, except promulgate more policies guaranteed to insure a steady flow of severely wounded young Americans into the facility and others like it. And every serious contender for the Republican presidential nomination-- not just strollin' John McCain-- can only say one thing about the Iraq Occupation: STAY THE COURSE.