Political Bunker

At last night's debate Senator Obama tells a story about an Army captain that illustrates how foolish it was to take the troops from the real fight in Afghanistan and send the to Bush's Boondoggle in Iraq...

USA Today - Pfc. Aaron Kincaid, 25, had been joking with buddies just before their Humvee rolled over the bomb. His wife, Rachel, later learned that the blast blew Kincaid, a father of two from outside Atlanta, through the Humvee's metal roof.

AP - Veterans make up one in four homeless people in the United States, though they are only 11 percent of the general adult population, according to a report to be released Thursday.

And homelessness is not just a problem among middle-age and elderly veterans. Younger veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are trickling into shelters and soup kitchens seeking services, treatment or help with finding a job.

The Veterans Affairs Department has identified 1,500 homeless veterans from the current wars and says 400 of them have participated in its programs specifically targeting homelessness.

War profiteers beware! One of your own is going down. After a lengthy investigation the FBI has arrested bulletproof vest maker David H. Brooks. Brooks was arrested in his Manhattan apartment at dawn on Thursday. Charges, which could get him 70 years behind bars, include insider trading, fraud and tax evasion.

Read more at Alternet - Congressional oversight has increased dramatically under Democratic leadership. Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) has led the charge to hold contractors accountable for the most outrageous abuses, and hopefully his committee can get to the bottom of the unanswered questions about body armor.
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According to a study by the Institute for Policy Studies (PDF), the CEOs of the top six defense contractors each pulled in between $12 million and $24 million last year. That's more in a week than what a four-star general earns in a year.

The firestorm over the Sept. 16 shooting of more than a dozen unarmed Iraqis by members of Blackwater USA, a private security firm, has sparked renewed calls for the US military to release its own records related to the killing of Iraqi civilians at checkpoints or near convoys.

Many hundreds of Iraqi civilians have been killed or injured by US forces for getting too close to checkpoints or convoys over the past four years, according to US military documents and officials.