DAYS LATE: 33 DAYS AND COUNTING

On Thursday, October 22nd, the President signed into law one of IAVA’s top legislative priorities, Advance Appropriations. This historic law will keep partisan politics from delaying future VA budgets, but it does not impact the 2010 budget. The VA’s budget for next year is still languishing in Congress.

Last week, Congress passed another extension to the VA budget deadline, giving them until December 18th to pass the budget. This is the second VA Budget extension they gave themselves since the original deadline of September 30th.

Every day Congress dodges voting on the budget is a day that the VA may ration veterans’ health care. We need to turn up the temperature - please call your Senators and tell them to stop playing politics with the VA Budget and vote on the VA budget ASAP. If you have called - please tell your friends and family to call immediately.

This could be one of the most important phone calls you make this year.

Last week, the Senate failed to pass the VA budget, and six million veterans who rely on the VA for healthcare are paying the price. All passing the budget takes is one vote - the Senate just hasn't gotten around to it.

Now, VA hospitals and clinics nationwide can't plan for critical staffing and equipment needs, leading to longer waits for appointments, and rationed care. This is completely unacceptable.

Take action by calling your Senators now. Tell them to pass the VA budget, so that veterans get the care they deserve. Click here to place your call - our online tool makes it easy.

The VA budget has been late an astounding 20 times in the last 23 years. And every year we've had to fight to get it passed. But your phone call could change that forever. This year's budget includes a provision that will fund the VA a full year in advance. Advance funding the VA is IAVA's top legislative goal for 2009, and it means veterans' healthcare will never be rationed again.

So please place a call to your Senators now and make sure that the VA is fully funded this year, and for years to come.

The only budget that Congress passed on time last week is the one that pays their salaries. Veterans shouldn't have to wait while Congress gets paid. Help us change that today.

Following today’s announcement that President Hamid Karzai would remain in power without the formality of running in a single candidate vote on Saturday, Western leaders are touting his victory and hailing him as the “legitimate” leader of Afghanistan.

Karzai’s road to “legitimacy” was a long and winding one, starting with a victory in the August presidential vote which saw his campaign netting over a million fraudulent votes.

Amid domestic outrage and a surprising level of international ambivalence, the Election Complaints Commission pared Karzai’s lead enough to force a second round of voting with second-place finisher Abdullah Abdullah. Karzai initially rejected that as well, but after intense pressure from the US grudgingly agreed to allow the run-off to take place.

But after massive fraud in the first round and the bulk of it in his favor, Karzai angrily refused to make any serious changes to the procedures for the second round. Faced with the prospect of another fraudulent vote, Abdullah simply withdrew, and the Karzai-appointed Independent Election Commission declared him the winner.