This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

  • Obscuring the facts

    Wondering what I’d write to you about this morning, I opened my inbox and found this little nugget awaiting my attention;

    name = amerifag
    email = amerifag@osamaisgreat.com
    comments = dude you need to devote a homage to Osama on your site… 9/11 was FRICKIN SWEET… i was laughing the whole morning… fuckin americans jumping to their deaths…what could be sweeter (and funnier)???

    good times, good times…. cant wait for round 2

    have a nice day
    REMOTE_HOST: 38.103.144.42

    I shrugged and deleted it, because I often get little things like that in the morning from the meth-crazed freaks who can’t get to sleep. Then, I found more that had been sent to the spam folder – I deleted them as well, since it’s a fairly common occurrence, too. Then I saw jeffersonlives‘ comment. I wondered why the sudden surge, until I looked at incoming links, and I knew right away where the mental midgets were coming from.

    Yesterday, I referenced Brandon Friedman’s post at VetsVoice in one of my posts about the President’s attempt to charge vets for their service-connected treatment and Freidman tracked the link back here and wrote another Obama tongue bath and linked here. The Obama-bots and border-line psychopaths at VetVoice dutifully flocked over here to spam this blog with their immature and vile comments.

    But here’s a post TSO did on VoteVets in July which includes a debate he had with Friedman and here’s one I did on Soltz and Vote Vets after the election when Soltz emailed Melanie Morgan and called her a “stinky hag” keeping the debate civil. So now we’ve established a baseline on what I think about VoteVets, let’s look at Friedman’s post.

    Right in the title of his post, Friedman lies. “Administration Listens to Vets; Backs Off VA Insurance Plan”. Now if it was a timeline, it’s accurate because the Administration did back off after they listened to veterans – but they didn’t back off BECAUSE they they listened to the VSOs. Before the 1PM meeting yesterday, the last time the President had listened to VSOs, the meeting ended with him, in effect, telling the VSOs “pound sand, I’m doing it anyway”. He wasn’t even at the meeting yesterday, according to The Hill;

    Jim King, the national executive director for American Veterans (AMVETS), said that the meeting with Rahm Emanuel lasted all of 15 minutes and that the health insurance issue was the only topic discussed. The representatives of the 11 veterans organizations told Emanuel they were not willing to back down, and the chief of staff told them that he thought the issue was “off the table,” but that he needed to talk to Obama.

    Something that had happened between the end of the Monday meeting and the Wednesday meeting changed his mind. Nothing he “heard” from VSOs changed his mind – except that he was facing another Bonus March.

    The Administration was dictating to the VSOs what policy was going to be in regards to this issue. I have a theory as to why the Obama Adminsitration thought they could get away with it, and it’s related to the Salute to Heroes Ball dust up in January, but I can’t say anything about that. Yet.

    The only organization which took immediate action was the American Legion. The Legion had the good sense to make an issue of it, instead of taking the VoteVets approach of bending over for Obama (from here forward referred to as “BOFO”) and spreading their cheeks. While VoteVets was telling everyone to not worry, the American Legion mobilized the troops. That’s what changed minds. It wasn’t the media, either – it took two days for for the media to notice, well, except for McClatchy and no one reads them anyway.

    So Friedman is just wrong that we should just assume Obama has our best interests in his heart – the VSOs need to be vigilant, not BOFO like VoteVets.

    By the way, I have this picture so I’m using it;
    Perry Soltz
    It’s VV’s Jon Soltz meeting on a runway somewhere with VFP/VVAW member and IVAW advisor Bill Perry.
    And here they are inside the airport with more VFP/VVAW/IVAW members;
    VV IVAW VVAW VFP group hug

    Don’t tell me you have veterans’ interests in mind when you cavort with the mindless drones of IVAW who care about nothing except where they can score some pot and babe-age. VoteVets is a partisan organization that falls under aegis of MoveOn.org. Even John Bruhns, the former soldier – turned anti-war activist, left VoteVets because they were too much in the pocket of the Democrat party.

    And, Friedman, this isn’t an anti-Obama blog. I started this blog before Obama started running for President, so it can’t be an anti-Obama blog. I’m against his policies but mostly I’m against buffoons and charlatans who are climbing over the bodies of their former comrades using their motor pool dispatch credentials to lead this country down the road to ruin.

    I guess you can say I’m anti-dipshit.

  • Obama/Emanuel/Shinseki walk back from VA insurance plan

    Sources tell us that the White House called the Veteran Service Organization representatives back for a meeting at 1 PM today to announce that they’re backtracking on their proposal to force veterans into health insurance to pay for service-connected treatment. Despite the fact that the Obama/Emanuel/Shinseki team made it clear that they couldn’t be persuaded, somehow they got persuaded. I guess when their own Congress turned against them, they figured it wasn’t worth the political capital they’d have to expend.

    ADDED: Here’s the press release from the American Legion;

    The leader of the nation’s largest veterans organization applauded President Obama for dropping his plan to bill private insurance companies for the treatment of military veterans who have suffered service-connected disabilities and injuries.

    “We are glad that President Obama listened to the strong objections raised by The American Legion and veterans everywhere about this unfair plan,” said National Commander David K Rehbein of The American Legion. “We thank the administration for its proposed increase in the VA budget and we are always available to assist by providing guidance to ensure a veterans health care system that is worthy of the heroes that use it.”

    Following a meeting this afternoon with The American Legion and other veterans service organizations, the White House announced that it will no longer consider billing insurance companies or veterans for their service-connected disabilities.

    “Although we disagreed with the proposal, additional revenue streams are needed by VA,” Rehbein said. “I strongly encourage Congress and the administration to allow VA to begin billing Medicare for the treatment of Medicare-eligible nonservice-connected veterans. They paid into Medicare for their entire working careers and should be able to use it in the medical system that was built specifically for them.”

    With a current membership of 2.6 million wartime veterans, The American Legion was founded in 1919 on the four pillars of a strong national security, veterans affairs, Americanism, and the mentoring of youth. Legionnaires work for the betterment of their communities through more than 14,000 posts across the nation.

    As I said this morning, whether it would have passed or not, it’s just one more example of the extent that the Obama Administration will go to screw veterans and the military to divert taxpayer money to use to buy votes.

    Right out of the box, on Inauguration evening, on bad advice from one of his supporters, he ended a 56-year tradition of the President visiting the living Medal of Honor recipients at the ball held in their honor. Next, he ended the 18-year-old ban against the media making props of our returning casualties from war at Dover Air Force Base.

    And then Obama/Emanuel/Shinseki want to fund their vote buying on the backs of wounded veterans. Is there anything left that we veterans and military service members hold more dear than the things Team Obama seem to hold in such low regard? Why are any veterans, like John Soltz, still carrying water for the Administration which seems to despise everything we stand for, the reasons we serve(d), the reasons we stay engaged.

    Last August, Obama made the comment that he needed to earn the troops’ trust. It doesn’t seem that it’s particularly important to him now that the election has ended. During the campaign, he said he wanted to add 65,000 people to the ranks of the military – how is he going to accomplish that while he simultaneously takes away their benefits – the things that make them willing to risk their lives and limbs accomplishing their inherently dangerous missions? Who’ll stay, who’ll join under those conditions?

    Honestly. What’s next? Are families going to get a bill for bringing their service member home in a casket?

    ADDED a link from Ed Morrissey on the walk-back.

  • Where’s the media?

    I got angry yesterday listening to the news and getting the AIG bonus scandal every five minutes. I got angry enough to email several news agencies to no avail. So, this morning, as if we didn’t hear it enough yesterday, all of the news – Fox News Channel included – are still on the AIG thing. To the point that I don’t even care anymore.

    So where are they on the veterans issue that we all talked about yesterday? Except for the Washington Post, there’s nothing. The Post put their article on page four and see if you can find it on this screen shot of their web page this morning;

    Yeah, it’s there, but you’ll have to squint to see it. They actually did a pretty good job on the article, except it’s hidden. An issue that affects many millions of Americans adversely and it’s in tiny print.

    So, as is my wont, I went to the comments expecting to see some serious troop-bashing, but I was surprised by what I found. Most of the comments supported the troops. Well, except for this moron;

    Doofus.

    But where is the rest of the media on this? Why are they so fixated on the AIG bonus scandal? How many times do they figure they need to beat us over the head with it?

    The American Legion’s national commander, David Rehbein, whose press release we used to break the story on Monday night, has an opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal which scalds the Obama Administration for reneging on their campaign promise to “restore our sacred trust with our nation’s veterans“;

    As head of the nation’s largest veterans organization, I was startled by this radical shift of position the president has taken. Last October, candidate Obama listed several proposals he had for the VA and none of them included billing veterans’ insurance providers.

    In fact, when asked how he would improve the funding formula for the VA’s health-care system, then-Sen. Obama told the American Legion Magazine, “It starts with the president saying that if I’m budgeting for war, then I am also budgeting for VA. If I’ve got a half-a-trillion-dollar Pentagon budget, then I’d better make sure that I make some of those billions of dollars available to care for the soldiers once they come home. It should be a non-negotiable proposition that people are receiving the services that they need. This is the reason I joined the Veterans Affairs Committee — because I believe deeply in that principle.”

    So I ask President Obama now, for all America’s veterans, where is that principled stance today? By abandoning its responsibilities to the heroic men and women who answered our nation’s call, the federal government is breaking a sacred promise. Moreover, it is unnecessary.

    Read the entire piece (I think it doesn’t require subscription – if it does, let me know and I’ll screen shot the thing).

    Huffington Post finally notices the story but who do they go to for answers? VoteVets’ Jon Soltz – who, by the way wasn’t even in the meeting between the VSOs and the President. So he’s HuffPo’s source;

    “We don’t know if this is going to be the proposal, or if it is a serious consideration or not,” he told the Huffington Post. “So, it’s premature to go to the White House with pitchforks at this point.”

    Yeah, the President already made it clear that it was going to be in his budget because the reimbursements from insurance companies are a linchpin in the funding. Didn’t he tell the VSO reps to “find the money” for him after they told him it was a non-starter? The Washington Times quotes someone who was actually in the room;

    “It became apparent during our discussion today that the president intends to move forward with this unreasonable plan,” Mr. Rehbein said Monday. “He says he is looking to generate $540 million by this method, but refused to hear arguments about the moral and government-avowed obligations that would be compromised by it.”

    Friday, I found this from VetVoice (Soltz’ organization) that said veterans shouldn’t worry about the Obama administration – it’s all just rumors. The day before Obama tells the VSOs he’s going to charge vets for their service-connected treatment. So VoteVets is STILL providing partisan cover for the Administration.

    Even Chris Muir weighs in on the President’s proposal.

    Whether this passes or not (and I’m pretty sure it won’t), it still demonstrates to veterans what the Obama Administration thinks of us.

  • Congress on the 3rd party insurance plan

    Congress is wasting no time in distancing themselves from the Obama/Emanuel/Shinseki plot to force third party insurance on service members with service-connected injuries. Chairman of the House Committee on Veteran Affairs and California Democrat Bob Filner issued this statement;

    The Obama Administration’s proposal to charge ‘third-party’ insurance companies for service-connected medical treatment will not be taken up by the Veterans’ Affairs Committee. Our budget cannot be balanced on the backs (or legs, or kidneys, or hearts) of our nation’s combat-wounded heroes. We believe we can achieve the Administration’s budget request (the first in history to actually exceed the recommendation of the veterans’ Independent Budget) in other ways.

    Senator from Hawaii and Chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee Daniel Akaka is quoted;

    VA’s sacred duty is to care for veterans injured in honorable service to our nation, and the department should not turn to wounded warriors’ private insurance to pay for combat injures. Under my Chairmanship, the Veterans’ Affairs Committee will not advance any such legislation.

    Looks like it might be an uphill struggle for the Obama/Emanuel/Shinseki cabal to even get this into committee.

  • Ringknockers out of the closet

    TSO sent me this article about Knights Out, which is a gay support group formed at the US Military Academy, West Point.

    Thirty-eight graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., came out of the closet Monday with an offer to help their alma mater educate future Army leaders on the need to accept and honor the sacrifices of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender troops.

    “Knights Out” wants to serve as a connection between gay troops and Army administrators, particularly at West Point, to provide an “open forum” for communication between gay West Point graduates and their fellow alumni and to serve in an advisory role for West Point leaders in the eventuality — which the group believes is both “imminent and inevitable” — that the law and policy collectively known as “don’t ask, don’t tell” are repealed by Congress.

    (more…)

  • Buying political patronage

    I’m still on this Obama-Shinseki thing. It pisses me off to no end, and here’s the main reason; If you go back to the Stars and Stripes article I referenced last week, it touts the Administration’s plan to enroll a half-million Priority 8 veterans;

    The plan allows the VA health care system to enroll up to 550,000 new Priority Group 8 veterans by 2013. These are veterans who have no service-connected ailments and have incomes deemed adequate based on family size and geographic location. The total for new enrollees includes 266,000 Group 8 veterans already slated to enroll in VA health system starting this summer under a funding initiative Congress passed last fall.

    Now, when those 10 veterans groups met with Obama and Emanuel yesterday and they protested his plan to force third-party payers on service connected disabled veterans, the response was “Find the money for us” or words to that effect. Well, there’s the money. They plan on saving $554 million by inflicting this third-party payer plan on veterans, and they also want to enroll 550 million veterans who don’t need VA care – if it costs more than a dollar to enroll each of those priority 8 veterans and they don’t do it, they saved the money they need. Right?

    Now, I’m no budget expert and I saw that right away. So, why does the Administration insist on doing the exactly wrong thing? Political patronage. They think that by giving VA care to people who don’t need it builds some loyalty among a half-million voters. Just like SCHIP gives health care to people who don’t need it buys political patronage in the civilian sector.

    The decision to go ahead with this stupid proposal is purely political. It’s not about what is good for the country or what’s good for veterans. It’s about what’s best for the Democrat Party. And where is the media on this today. The story has been out there for more than 12 hours and the only mention of it is in a tiny McClatchy newswire piece.

    Shinseki should see that he’s being used, as a disabled veteran, to inflict this plan on veterans.

  • Obama-bots get their marching orders

    Your neighbors are about to get a whole lot more irritating;

    That last paragraph really bothers me;

    We know this fight won’t be easy. But important battles never are. Together, we have the opportunity to shape our country’s future. We believed in the power of people to win an improbable election victory. And we believe in the power of people to drown out the cynics and entrenched interests in Washington to bring lasting, meaningful change we can all be proud we played a role in.

    What fight? The one they’re having against common sense? Does this mean they’re going to be knocking on my door every few hours? Are they going to hold me in headlock until I say “uncle”? This isn’t an election – what can they accomplish? Well, here are their choices for pledging support;

    Who do they think they’re going to be convincing? Any one who can make any sort of decision? I guess it’s just to keep them all in the habit of doing what they’re told.

    And that “entrenched interests in Washington” line is sounding more like Chavez’ “oligarchy” phantoms every time they use it.

  • Shinseki’s appearance in Congress

    Stars and Stripes writes this morning about VA Secretary Eric Shinseki at the House and Senate veterans affairs committees this week. Shinseki bragged about the amount of money the new budget pours into the veteran healthcare system;

    Obama’s VA budget outline, with full details promised by late April, would raise VA spending to $112.8 billion in the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. That’s an increase of $15 billion, or 15 percent, over the current budget.

    “This is the largest dollar and percentage increase ever requested by a president for veterans,” Shinseki told lawmakers.

    Sweet, huh? Not only that, Obama and Shinseki want to enroll veterans that don’t even need VA care;

    The plan allows the VA health care system to enroll up to 550,000 new Priority Group 8 veterans by 2013. These are veterans who have no service-connected ailments and have incomes deemed adequate based on family size and geographic location.

    And lifting the remaining portions of “concurrent receipt” – the absurd practice of reducing military retiree’s check by the amount of their disability checks from the VA. In essence, paying ourselves our own disability payments.

    Obama’s defense and VA budgets also call for a gradual lifting of what remains of the ban on concurrent receipt of both military retirement and VA disability compensation for disabled retirees. The next step would occur in 2010 with concurrent receipt allowed for the most seriously disabled veterans forced to retire short of 20 years.

    So why would the Obama Administration begin investigating third party reimbursement for VA treatment of service-connected injuries and illness? To her credit (I never thought I’d write those words) Patty Murray says ‘no’.

    “Veterans with service-connected injuries have already paid by putting their lives on the line. … We should take care of those injuries completely,” said Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash.

    Though she recognized that no formal proposal had yet reached Congress, Murray told Shinseki, “I can assure you it will be dead on arrival if it lands here.”

    Shinseki said the issue is solely about financing, and not about continuing to deliver superior care.

    “That is not discussable,” Shinseki said.

    Steve Robertson, director of legislation for the American Legion, told senators he was appalled to learn of the insurance proposal. The Legion and 10 other veterans groups sent a joint letter to Obama criticizing the idea.

    “I could not believe that anybody would ever think that Great West or Prudential or Aetna or any insurance company has an obligation to take care of the men and women who have service-connected disabilities. None of those insurance companies … put us into harm’s way and shouldn’t be held responsible for health care,” Robertson said.

    Despite what a great idea Shinseki thinks this is, I wonder if anyone in the Administration has thought about what insurance would cost a veteran with a service connected pre-existing condition. It could affect them in the job market, too, since the Left has tied health care to employers. The thing is; if the Obama Administration isn’t considering tinkering with our health care, why are these discussions even being held? If Shinseki really thinks about veterans first like he claims in his open letter to all veterans, why aren’t these ideas nipped in the bud before the VSOs and Congress even hear about them?

    Veteran health care is an integral part of our national defense – beret salesmen shouldn’t be the ones standing between those who want to interupt the funding and the veterans.