I mean where have they been?
Tony Snow's and Dick Cheney's responses to the continuing problems at Walter Reed Hospital, other DOD hospitals and the DVA hospitals would lead one to believe that the Bush Administration just look office this past January. And the hospital controversy isn't the beginning. They responded this way since November 8, 2006.
And I thought they had been in office since January 2001.
Showing posts with label Bush. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bush. Show all posts
Monday, March 5, 2007
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
AL QAEDA HAS AN AIR FORCE AND NAVY !
This just in. According to Representative John Boehner of Ohio, Al Qaeda must have a navy or air force or both, because to quote Boehner, "If we leave, they will follow us home. It's that simple." Maybe that's why the United States has three aircraft carrier groups in the region, to attack and sink the Al Qaeda navy. And the Patriot missle batteries smart thinking. Give Bush credit for planning something, like our retreat! Might I suggest, instead of the troops coming back to the United States why not detour them to Europe that way Al Qaeda will attack there.
BUSH / CHENEY GONE BY LABOR DAY
Apparently everyone including Fox News now sees what I saw two years ago, namely that George Bush and Dick Cheney will not be President and Vice-President, respectively come Labor Day. Read the link below to see what I've been saying.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251565,00.html
I'll have more the say about this later.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,251565,00.html
I'll have more the say about this later.
HOUSE RESOLUTION
According to John Boehner (House Minority Leader) on Sunday's Meet The Press, he doesn't see many Republican (defections) members voting for the Democratic party's Iraq war resolution. In John's words . . . he kind of mumbled, "I don't look at the numbers" to Tim Russert's question.
Well let's see, there are presently 202 Republican members of the U.S. House. So a 10% defection would be 20 members. The media talking heads are saying 30, maybe 60, definitely 'dozens likely to join vote'. That's . . . well it's a whole lot!
What do you think? I'll publish the defection numbers after the voting, it will tell us who's afraid.
Meanwhile, John Boehner is either (a) a bad liar, (b) poor at math, (c) doesn't know his own members (d) doesn't talk to anyone except Bush.
Well let's see, there are presently 202 Republican members of the U.S. House. So a 10% defection would be 20 members. The media talking heads are saying 30, maybe 60, definitely 'dozens likely to join vote'. That's . . . well it's a whole lot!
What do you think? I'll publish the defection numbers after the voting, it will tell us who's afraid.
Meanwhile, John Boehner is either (a) a bad liar, (b) poor at math, (c) doesn't know his own members (d) doesn't talk to anyone except Bush.
Friday, February 9, 2007
IT'S OK TO DIE JUST DON'T GET WOUNDED
I guess this really pissed me off - I mean the death toll is bad enough (though by earlier war standards its quite low) but the wounded casualty numbers are outrageous. Modern military medicine has reduced the death toll from war but increased the wounded casualty numbers! And then to see that the Bush administration and the Republicans don't want to adequately fund the veterans administration and its looming health care demands. Many of these veterans of this war will require health care (24/7) for the rest of their lives. Well its just enough to make an average American cry. And to think it was all about oil.
Veterans Say '08 Budget Flawed
While nearly providing adequate funding for veterans health care and other programs, the DAV finds shortcomings in the President's proposed budget more...
http://www.dav.org/news/news_20070207.html
And this from Sen. Akaka of Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs:
The budget requests approximately $34.2 billion for veterans health care, a mere 6 percent increase over the 2007 funding level of $32.3 billion in the Joint Funding Resolution expected to pass the Senate. Once inflationary costs are subtracted from the Administration’s budget, the real increase is far from adequate. This budget will not allow for any new initiatives, including enhancements to mental health services desperately needed for our returning servicemembers. Without adequate funding, the VA health care system will find it more difficult to provide quality care for Hawaii’s 117,000 veterans and troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senator Akaka said today he’s especially concerned about out-of-pocket expenses veterans would be forced to pay under the Administration’s new budget proposal. “The doubling of drug copayments for veterans – who make as little as $28,000 a year – seems particularly cruel. Take the example of a veteran living on Oahu, where the cost of living is so high, who takes seven different prescriptions each month: his out of pocket cost goes up by $600 a year.
“Why are we asking veterans to suffer in order to finance a war? This Administration consistently fails to consider the cost of caring for veterans as part of the cost of war,” Akaka said.
Or this, from the Cneter for Budget and Policy Priorities:
Hospital and Medical Care for Veterans: The President proposes to increase funding for these programs by nearly $1.4 billion (or 4 percent) in 2008. But the increase would only be temporary. The President proposes to cut the programs in this subfunction in each subsequent year, from 2009 through 2012; in each of those years, the programs would be funded at levels below the amount provided for 2007, adjusted for inflation. In 2012, the cut would be $2.7 billion, or 7 percent.[iii]
Well, I remember three things from my youth about veterans: As a Boy Scout and it being the fifties/early sixties I was in a lot of Memorial Day/ Veterans Day parades. Most of those men who got being 'into the parades and marches' never left the states. In the late sixties, my father was in the veterans hospital in Pittsburgh and I can remember seeing many a kid not much older than myself in a hospital bed missing a limb. Lastly, my father had a history book of his infantry regiment's service during WWII. In it were marks my father had made next to names of men in his company (that didn't come home). He never once talked about it.
We ask people to serve their country - we owe them the best, regardless.
Veterans Say '08 Budget Flawed
While nearly providing adequate funding for veterans health care and other programs, the DAV finds shortcomings in the President's proposed budget more...
http://www.dav.org/news/news_20070207.html
And this from Sen. Akaka of Hawaii, chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs:
The budget requests approximately $34.2 billion for veterans health care, a mere 6 percent increase over the 2007 funding level of $32.3 billion in the Joint Funding Resolution expected to pass the Senate. Once inflationary costs are subtracted from the Administration’s budget, the real increase is far from adequate. This budget will not allow for any new initiatives, including enhancements to mental health services desperately needed for our returning servicemembers. Without adequate funding, the VA health care system will find it more difficult to provide quality care for Hawaii’s 117,000 veterans and troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
Senator Akaka said today he’s especially concerned about out-of-pocket expenses veterans would be forced to pay under the Administration’s new budget proposal. “The doubling of drug copayments for veterans – who make as little as $28,000 a year – seems particularly cruel. Take the example of a veteran living on Oahu, where the cost of living is so high, who takes seven different prescriptions each month: his out of pocket cost goes up by $600 a year.
“Why are we asking veterans to suffer in order to finance a war? This Administration consistently fails to consider the cost of caring for veterans as part of the cost of war,” Akaka said.
Or this, from the Cneter for Budget and Policy Priorities:
Hospital and Medical Care for Veterans: The President proposes to increase funding for these programs by nearly $1.4 billion (or 4 percent) in 2008. But the increase would only be temporary. The President proposes to cut the programs in this subfunction in each subsequent year, from 2009 through 2012; in each of those years, the programs would be funded at levels below the amount provided for 2007, adjusted for inflation. In 2012, the cut would be $2.7 billion, or 7 percent.[iii]
Well, I remember three things from my youth about veterans: As a Boy Scout and it being the fifties/early sixties I was in a lot of Memorial Day/ Veterans Day parades. Most of those men who got being 'into the parades and marches' never left the states. In the late sixties, my father was in the veterans hospital in Pittsburgh and I can remember seeing many a kid not much older than myself in a hospital bed missing a limb. Lastly, my father had a history book of his infantry regiment's service during WWII. In it were marks my father had made next to names of men in his company (that didn't come home). He never once talked about it.
We ask people to serve their country - we owe them the best, regardless.
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
363 TONS OF CASH
Yes probably like you I was surprised to hear that so much cash was just thrown in Iraq by the Provisional Authority. So this morning I was determined to get up and write a blog about this story only to find that others already have and there was no need to re-invent it. Attached are several good articles about this story. The first was written two years ago - when Congress should have been looking into it but the Republican majority did nothing.
http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2005/february/9_billion_missing.htm
This article provides a lot more detail into the whole story. Especially interesting are all the comments - particularly - 363 tons of cash requires 18 tractor trailers to move that much at one time.
http://http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/6/205743/7035
And, finally here is an article from ALL SPIN ZONE Progressive Politics Writ Large
"How much does $4,000,000,000 (in $100 bills) weigh? About 363 tons. That’s the rough total of the booty that was transfered from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York to Baghdad in 2003 and 2004. Think about that for a moment."
"My profession is (partly) logistics. A tractor trailer can legally carry about 45,000 pounds - for the sake of argument, we’ll call it 20 tons. Our government transfered the equivalent of 18 tractor trailer loads of $100 bills into a wild west war zone over a period of 6 months. No one has ever been able to account for the money, and let’s be clear that $4 billion is just the tip of the iceberg."
"Where’d the money go?"
"I’ve heard some lame-assed excuses for shit before, but former Iraq proconsul L. Paul Bremer’s testimony today on Capitol Hill pretty much takes the cake. Bremer should have been arrested and put in leg irons immediately after the hearing. This is friggin’ unbelievable."
"What’s even more unbelievable is one GOP representative’s response:"
“We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn’t, in my opinion, constructive,” said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican."
Demand Change!
http://www.thewe.cc/contents/more/archive2005/february/9_billion_missing.htm
This article provides a lot more detail into the whole story. Especially interesting are all the comments - particularly - 363 tons of cash requires 18 tractor trailers to move that much at one time.
http://http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/2/6/205743/7035
And, finally here is an article from ALL SPIN ZONE Progressive Politics Writ Large
"How much does $4,000,000,000 (in $100 bills) weigh? About 363 tons. That’s the rough total of the booty that was transfered from the U.S. Federal Reserve in New York to Baghdad in 2003 and 2004. Think about that for a moment."
"My profession is (partly) logistics. A tractor trailer can legally carry about 45,000 pounds - for the sake of argument, we’ll call it 20 tons. Our government transfered the equivalent of 18 tractor trailer loads of $100 bills into a wild west war zone over a period of 6 months. No one has ever been able to account for the money, and let’s be clear that $4 billion is just the tip of the iceberg."
"Where’d the money go?"
"I’ve heard some lame-assed excuses for shit before, but former Iraq proconsul L. Paul Bremer’s testimony today on Capitol Hill pretty much takes the cake. Bremer should have been arrested and put in leg irons immediately after the hearing. This is friggin’ unbelievable."
"What’s even more unbelievable is one GOP representative’s response:"
“We are in a war against terrorists, to have a blame meeting isn’t, in my opinion, constructive,” said Rep. Dan Burton, an Indiana Republican."
Demand Change!
Friday, January 26, 2007
HEALTH CARE 7.1
I plan this to be the first in a running series on health care and health care insurance.
The Shrub SOTU Plan.
The Bush health care plan is DOA and all of us know it but the problem is horseshit like this is often taken seriously and typically frames further discussion.
Inherent problems that I see immediately:
- A set tax deduction regardless of the actual cost of health insurance - can anyone in their right mind imagine the price being less? And like you're going to be able to pocket the difference (holy welfare queens!). This reminds me of energy deregulation and all of its promises. I would expect costs to go through the roof because we will all be buying insurance as individuals - not groups.
- What's to stop every employer from dropping health insurance all together. Most want to now. I mean the cost of insurance is suddenly pure profit. They wouldn't be required to raise wages/salaries accordingly.
- I don't believe insurers are going to step in to serve this new market. Think - Excessively high administrative costs! And if they do premiums will go through the roof as costs surge.
I'll deal with Bush's mindset later.
We need health care, not health care insurance . . . B.L.Dancer
The Shrub SOTU Plan.
The Bush health care plan is DOA and all of us know it but the problem is horseshit like this is often taken seriously and typically frames further discussion.
Inherent problems that I see immediately:
- A set tax deduction regardless of the actual cost of health insurance - can anyone in their right mind imagine the price being less? And like you're going to be able to pocket the difference (holy welfare queens!). This reminds me of energy deregulation and all of its promises. I would expect costs to go through the roof because we will all be buying insurance as individuals - not groups.
- What's to stop every employer from dropping health insurance all together. Most want to now. I mean the cost of insurance is suddenly pure profit. They wouldn't be required to raise wages/salaries accordingly.
- I don't believe insurers are going to step in to serve this new market. Think - Excessively high administrative costs! And if they do premiums will go through the roof as costs surge.
I'll deal with Bush's mindset later.
We need health care, not health care insurance . . . B.L.Dancer
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