Sunday saw 31 reported dead and 93. Monday saw 7 reported dead and 21 reported injured. Tuesday saw 9 reported dead and 17 reported wounded. Wednesday saw 15 reported dead and 53 wounded. Thursday saw 3 person reported dead and 26 injured. Friday saw 19 reported dead and 106 wounded. Saturday saw 5 reported dead and 11 reported injured. At least 89 reported dead last week and 336 reported wounded.
Tuesday on New Hampshire Public Radio's Word of Mouth, Virginia Prescott spoke with Human Rights Watch's Scott Long and Matt McAllester about the targeting of Iraq's LGBT community.
Wednesday VA Secretary Eric Shinseki admitted to the House Veterans Affairs Committee the VA knew that there would be problems with issuing checks for the GI Bill. Thursday found the VA's Kevin Wilson shrugging, "If we did not meet those expectations, then we need to be held accountable for that." If?
Thursday, a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee (Subcommittee on Health) explored billing problems. US House Rep. Glen Nye explained the problem, "Unfortunately inappropriate billing effects both service-connected veterans and non-service connected veterans. For example, a veteran with a service-related spinal cord injury may be billed for the treatment of a urinary tract infection. Now the urinary tract infection may clearly be linked to and the result of the service-connected injury; however, veterans are still receiving bills for the treatment of such secondary conditions. As a result, these veterans may be forced to seek a time consuming and burdensome re-adjudication of their claim indicating the original service-connected ratings. It is my understanding that one of the reasons for inappropriate billing of secondary conditions is that the VA cannot store more than six service-connected conditions in their IT system. It is also my understanding that the VA is taking steps to correct the deficiency but the problem has not been fully resolved and our veterans continue to receive inaccurate bills. Non-service-connected veterans also encounter over-billing and inappropriate charges for co-payments. One issue that I've been made aware of repeatedly is that some non-service connected veterans receive multiple bills for a single medical treatment or health care visit."
Among the big news out of Iraq last week -- a country which saw one bridge blown up Friday and two on Saturday -- was the draft law for the elections 'intended' to be held in January after being pushed back from December. There is no law. And they missed the Thursday deadline. Without a law, no elections.
There is no progress in Iraq. That's always been the reality.