Viewing details of messages, sorted by time of last reply ("sticky messages" first)
Today...
TODAY...
posted about 21 hours ago, updated about 17 hours later
Today I buried my father. He was 83 years old, a WW2 combat veteran, and a partially disabled man who worked every day of his life until he was forced to retire. He had Alzhiemer's disease.
I couldn't afford to get him into a decent, private, for-hire nursing home and had to put him on state assistance. He was a proud man and wouldn't have wanted that if he was aware that I had done it. Luckily, he wasn't.
There was a V.A. program, that he was eligible for, that would have funded his entry into a decent for-hire facility, but the V.A. ran me around with red tape and unending forms untill it was too late for my dad to access the program. This is because the V.A. is chock-filled with self-serving pieces of shit whose only concern is their precious beaurocratic jobs. They are less than useless and weren't, and aren't, good enough to breath the same air as my dad. Luckily, this problem has been solved, for my dad, today.
I wrote Senator Kennedy who was working on my dad's case until the time of his own death. I also contacted my congressman but it seems that no one can tell the almighty V.A. what to do, even congressmen and senators.
With this as a backdrop I'd like to offer the following opinions and suggestions. I would like to see the V.A. closed permanently and simply replaced with a credit card that says "V.A." on one side.
A small cadre of retired veterans, and veterans only, would handle any administration needed. All administration would be kept to the barest minimum. Their only job would be to dispense, without question other than veteran's status, monies needed by veterans for health (any hospital, any problem), education (any school the veteran is able to qualify for academically), and housing (co-sign any loan, at any bank, for a modest first home).
If I was President, a Senator, or a Congressman, this is what I'd propose immediately. It would automatically remove duplicitous spending of now precious tax money on clerks and no-talent so-called executives who do everything within their self-serving power to deny benifits to veterans. Ask any veteran what they think of the V.A. if you doubt me.
So, if you agree with me, please call, write, or email your Senator or Congressman and relate this story and any of your own that you might have. My dad drove Higgins boats onto the beaches of Normandy at age seventeen, with bullets wizzing by him, so that you and I could keep the freedom of speech that it took to write this!
posted about 21 hours ago, updated about 17 hours later
Today I buried my father. He was 83 years old, a WW2 combat veteran, and a partially disabled man who worked every day of his life until he was forced to retire. He had Alzhiemer's disease.
I couldn't afford to get him into a decent, private, for-hire nursing home and had to put him on state assistance. He was a proud man and wouldn't have wanted that if he was aware that I had done it. Luckily, he wasn't.
There was a V.A. program, that he was eligible for, that would have funded his entry into a decent for-hire facility, but the V.A. ran me around with red tape and unending forms untill it was too late for my dad to access the program. This is because the V.A. is chock-filled with self-serving pieces of shit whose only concern is their precious beaurocratic jobs. They are less than useless and weren't, and aren't, good enough to breath the same air as my dad. Luckily, this problem has been solved, for my dad, today.
I wrote Senator Kennedy who was working on my dad's case until the time of his own death. I also contacted my congressman but it seems that no one can tell the almighty V.A. what to do, even congressmen and senators.
With this as a backdrop I'd like to offer the following opinions and suggestions. I would like to see the V.A. closed permanently and simply replaced with a credit card that says "V.A." on one side.
A small cadre of retired veterans, and veterans only, would handle any administration needed. All administration would be kept to the barest minimum. Their only job would be to dispense, without question other than veteran's status, monies needed by veterans for health (any hospital, any problem), education (any school the veteran is able to qualify for academically), and housing (co-sign any loan, at any bank, for a modest first home).
If I was President, a Senator, or a Congressman, this is what I'd propose immediately. It would automatically remove duplicitous spending of now precious tax money on clerks and no-talent so-called executives who do everything within their self-serving power to deny benifits to veterans. Ask any veteran what they think of the V.A. if you doubt me.
So, if you agree with me, please call, write, or email your Senator or Congressman and relate this story and any of your own that you might have. My dad drove Higgins boats onto the beaches of Normandy at age seventeen, with bullets wizzing by him, so that you and I could keep the freedom of speech that it took to write this!
Could this be Obama's straw?
I thought that Afghanistan might hurt his re election. I thought that unemployment, and the high deficit, and the poor housing market, and the bailouts, and the trillion dollar health care bill, or cap and trade would hurt him. All of this might be true, but I think this will hurt him the most. Maybe not with his base but with the huge percent that call themselves Independants.
view link
As I have asked before, what is his upside in this decision?
view link
As I have asked before, what is his upside in this decision?
GW's 1st year in office
view link
1. Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
2. Cut federal spending on libraries by $39 million.
3. Cut $35 million in funding for doctors to get advanced pediatric training.
4. Cut funding for research into renewable energy sources by 50%.
5. Revoked rules that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water.
6. Blocked rules that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance to non-English speaking persons. This, from a candidate who would readily fire-up his Spanish-speaking skills in front of would-be Hispanic voters.
7. Proposed to eliminate new marine protections for the Channel Islands and the coral reefs of northwest Hawaii (please see San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 2001).
8. Cut funding for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks by 28%
9. Suspended rules that would have strengthened the government's ability to deny contracts to companies that violated workplace safety, environmental and other federal laws.
10. Approved the sending of letters by Interior Department appointee Gale Norton to state officials soliciting suggestions for opening up national monuments for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, and foresting.
1. Significantly eased field-testing controls of genetically engineered crops.
2. Cut federal spending on libraries by $39 million.
3. Cut $35 million in funding for doctors to get advanced pediatric training.
4. Cut funding for research into renewable energy sources by 50%.
5. Revoked rules that reduced the acceptable levels of arsenic in drinking water.
6. Blocked rules that would require federal agencies to offer bilingual assistance to non-English speaking persons. This, from a candidate who would readily fire-up his Spanish-speaking skills in front of would-be Hispanic voters.
7. Proposed to eliminate new marine protections for the Channel Islands and the coral reefs of northwest Hawaii (please see San Francisco Chronicle, April 6, 2001).
8. Cut funding for research into cleaner, more efficient cars and trucks by 28%
9. Suspended rules that would have strengthened the government's ability to deny contracts to companies that violated workplace safety, environmental and other federal laws.
10. Approved the sending of letters by Interior Department appointee Gale Norton to state officials soliciting suggestions for opening up national monuments for oil and gas drilling, coal mining, and foresting.
Was Obama Too Bold....
....in his speech to Chinese students?
"I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable,.....They can begin to think for themselves."
"These freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation, we believe are universal rights, they should be available to all people including ethnic and religious minorities...."
Some might think he was delivering a pronouncement directly to the Chinese government.
view link
view link
Others might claim that he's doing a Tom Paine on the Chinese students; inciting them to revolution.
I bet the Chinese government doesn't invite him back.
"I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the society becomes, because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own governments accountable,.....They can begin to think for themselves."
"These freedoms of expression and worship, of access to information and political participation, we believe are universal rights, they should be available to all people including ethnic and religious minorities...."
Some might think he was delivering a pronouncement directly to the Chinese government.
view link
view link
Others might claim that he's doing a Tom Paine on the Chinese students; inciting them to revolution.
I bet the Chinese government doesn't invite him back.
Rush Limbaugh, a friend to the unemployed?
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Rush Limbaugh revealed the depth of his compassion for the unemployed. Speaking with and unemployed 49-year-old male caller about the severity of the man's employment situation, Limbaugh was so touched by his story - after he learned that he didn't vote for Obama - that he gave him information for getting a free massage from one of Limbaugh's sponsors to relieve his stress.
Rush Limbaugh revealed the depth of his compassion for the unemployed. Speaking with and unemployed 49-year-old male caller about the severity of the man's employment situation, Limbaugh was so touched by his story - after he learned that he didn't vote for Obama - that he gave him information for getting a free massage from one of Limbaugh's sponsors to relieve his stress.
Habeas corpus to you, too.
"If the public safety requires that the government should have a man imprisoned on less probable testimony in those than in other emergencies, let him be taken and tried, retaken and retried, while the necessity continues, only giving him redress against the government for damages. Examine the history of England. See how few of the cases of the suspension of the habeas corpus law have been worthy of that suspension." Thomas Jefferson.
It goes on like that for a long time.
A couple of other guys chime in here and there.
"Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty." - John Adams.
Al-Qaeda number 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri mocked the US: Real liberty ". . . is not the freedom of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib."
And so on. Juan Cole explains this much better than I can. view link
I get that if you want to stick someone away for a long time, you need to prove to a judge that there is a legitimate reason to do so. My reading of this is that the security of the people hinges on those principals, and to believe otherwise provides a devastating weapon to tyrants.
Did I miss anything?
It goes on like that for a long time.
A couple of other guys chime in here and there.
"Representative government and trial by jury are the heart and lungs of liberty." - John Adams.
Al-Qaeda number 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri mocked the US: Real liberty ". . . is not the freedom of Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib."
And so on. Juan Cole explains this much better than I can. view link
I get that if you want to stick someone away for a long time, you need to prove to a judge that there is a legitimate reason to do so. My reading of this is that the security of the people hinges on those principals, and to believe otherwise provides a devastating weapon to tyrants.
Did I miss anything?
