Here’s a few questions you and the “Senator” need to answer:

1. According to the report, this person had been having trouble since 2004; why was he is just now seeking treatment from the VA?

2. His family insists he was completely suicidal and should have been institutionalized on January 12th. However, according to the report, they left him at home for four days from the last time he allegedly called the VA (January 12th) to when he hung himself (January 16th). Why did they do that?

3. Mr. Schulze had been discharged from the Marines over a year ago. Could you and Mr. Dorgan enlighten us as to what job he currently held, especially whether or not it provided him health insurance? After all, the report implies that he had no other form of access to health care, nothing but the VA — even though his going to the “family doctor” being listed and described as proof that he had complaints?

4. His family insists that his condition required immediate and total attention; however, they took him to no other medical professionals, or even the county hospital or mental health clinic, other than the VA — despite the fact that they cited the statement of their family doctor that this person was mentally ill?

What makes this even more convenient for Lyin’ Byron is this statement:
Veterans Affairs officials, citing privacy laws, wouldn’t comment on the case or confirm or deny the Schulze family’s account.

So in other words, they can make whatever claims they want, and the VA can’t explain or defend itself.

What leftists like you have figured out, Tano, is how to exploit for your own twisted and perverse purposes the respect people have for veterans into a means of covering up your smear campaigns and personal vendettas against the Bush administration.
Fortunately, what people like myself have figured out is that you’re doing it — and also have the balls to stand up and ask those tough questions, no matter what kind of sh*t you fling. And when someone like myself asks real questions, like why they left a man they claim was suicidal and needed immediate hospitalization alone for days, you start screaming about how thoughtless and hateful I am.

You won’t answer them. And neither will Lyin’ Byron. You’ll whine about how awful it is for me to ask, play it to the hilt about how I’m mocking a grieving family.

But I know full well that if this family hadn’t blamed the VA, you wouldn’t give a damn. And that’s what keeps me asking these questions.

Isn’t it possible Cooper misunderstood the situation and wondered if private donors had to build the facility because the government would not. After all, one assumes the military has an obligation to care for maimed veterans of combat.

And Cooper’s confusion, if that were the case, is understandable. Because, while hundreds of billions of dollars are being spent on the war, the military and the Veterans’ Administration ill-serve many of the young patriots wounded and maimed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Regards,
Peter H.

Did you ever stop to consider that perhaps the reason the government didn’t pay for it was because nobody asked them to? In the story there were several members of Congress involved. Why didn’t they secure funding for it?

Maybe because they wanted to do it on their own? GASP!!! Can’t have that! We gotta be fed, clothed and have our a$$es wiped by the governement. They can decide everything for us, as long as it fits the liberal agenda right?

Did you ever stop to think, or did you just throw that steaming pile of a post on here to show how much of an a$$ you are?

You and Vaara need to get over yourselves something fierce.

This isn’t about “solving all our problems!” This is about taking care of wounded veterans, something it’s perfectly reasonable to expect from a wealthy country’s military. And yes, the Bush administration does have serious problems when it comes to helping veterans, from cutting out benefits, and sending soldiers out without proper body armor. Bush only cares about troops when he can use it for political purposes or photo props, when they’re wounded and count on their government, the “support” ends.

I don’t see why you’re so upset about this one question, any reporter might have asked this liberal or conservative. I personally think you’re reading too much into it, but I guess unlike real problems the GOP and Bush have caused, the most you guys can do is complain about non-existent liberal bogeymen.

“Secondly, so far, a lot of folks on this thread are ASSuming that the government wouldn’t pay for it. As far as I can tell, this is not the case. It’s just that a private group came up with the idea and started raising public funds for it. Most likely, to avoid red tape and get it done quicker (didn’t think about that, did you).” If the government already had enough facilities, and there wasn’t a need for it, this wouldn’t have been built! Didn’t think about that, did you?

Why not scrap the VA altogether?

And inanswer to the main question about hyt the governemnt didn’t build the center? It just goes to prove that all that out-pouring of love that GWB and his cronies have for our soldiers is BS. It’s all about using these men and women as pawns to further their own agendas. Once they torn apart and ripped up, they could ahve a crap about them. Why don’t you just post tha tpicture of Bush with a tear in his eye sitting by the soldier’s bedside? that would be good.

http://newsbusters.org/node/10509

#10 - By the way, TGC, you’d better attribute your Paris Hilton quote to Fox News before you-know-who tries to submarine you for not properly citing your sources.

Then again - don’t. It will cause this person to Google everything you say and in the process maybe get an education. Keep hope alive!

Regards,
Peter H.

… Just one more reason why I won’t miss my TV.

(Read about my grand experiment on my blog tomorrow. [Shameless plug.][No pun intended.])

Julie the Jarnead

You’ve hit the nail on the head. Tano, vaara and the like believe that only government programs can solve problems and free enterprise and individual creativity be damned.

As Ronald Reagan once said (paraphrasing), Democrats have never seen a government program they don’t love.

Unfortunately, time and time again, those programs have failed the people they were intended to help. Example — why aren’t we still building inner city housing projects if they worked?

Since you want to play this game, vaara, how about you and your fellow Democrats be honest and admit that you think everyone should give all their money to the government and let it solve all their problems?

There is a completely logical set of reasons for putting defense of the country as a whole in the hands of a single entity and for everyone contributing to it; economy of scale, continuity, and uniformity of action and strategy come immediately to mind.

But what that has to do with the people of San Antonio deciding to build a rehabilitation hospital and doing it better and less expensively than the government could, I have no idea.

Actually, Tano, if you’d read my post, you might have noticed this statement:

In short, people are realizing that the government is spending their money and not magically conjuring it from somewhere else; therefore, it is quicker, cheaper, and much more within their control to build things themselves, rather than waiting for the government.

Instead of sitting around like you, whining about how it’s “someone else’s responsibility”, the people of San Antonio just did it. And that bugs the hell out of you and your fellow Democrats, because you’d rather sit around and bitch and whine than you would actually DO anything — and you certainly don’t want people getting the idea that they can keep, spend, and donate their money towards causes that they think is important more effectively than the government can.

And as to the last:

Finally, you sound like someone who has very little experience in the private sector.

Think what you want. Those who know me know what a foolish statement that is, and by saying it, you make obvious that you’ve already made up your mind and wouldn’t be swayed by the facts anyway.

“regardless of whether the government or a private partnership builds this center, the money for it comes from the same people”

So why not scrap the VA altogether? Or, for that matter, the entire idea of using taxes to pay for defense? The American people are far wiser than all the generals in the Pentagon when it comes to spending money wisely.

Right?

Does Anderson Cooper Appreciate Americans’ Generosity?

The Paris Hilton of the media is probably pi$$ed that they aren’t being shot by snipers so he has something to show.

Secondly, so far, a lot of folks on this thread are ASSuming that the government wouldn’t pay for it. As far as I can tell, this is not the case. It’s just that a private group came up with the idea and started raising public funds for it. Most likely, to avoid red tape and get it done quicker (didn’t think about that, did you).

C. Government funding for VA increases all the time. As I pointed out on my blog, H.R. 5385 (Senate Report 109-286) passed 395-0. Nobody opposed it. Not even the mean, dastardly, racist, sexist, bigot homophobe Republicans opposed it. Further it was signed by that evil Bush.

Liberals (including VoteVets.org) ran around crying that VA funding had been cut, especially before the campaign. What they didn’t want anybody to know was that the bill $32.258 billion for VA for FY2007. This is $3.556 billion MORE than FY2006 or a 12.4%

You libs need to simmer down and cram your arrogance. Once again reality bites you in the a$$. We’re not as stupid as you hope we are.

First off, this is a national centr, not a San Antonio-specifc center.

Secondly, most grown ups understand perfectly well that when the government spends money on something it is their tax dollars, not some magic pixie dust floating down from DC. You must really think that the American people are stupid.

Third, the reason one has to “wait for the government” is because for a long time the government was in the hands of people who had an ideological committment to not do the things that need doing - and taking care of vets is, I think, something that needs doing - by the nation as a whole, given that the service that they rendered is for the benefit of the nation as a whole.

So no, the money is not coming from the “same people”. Taking care of vets should be a requirement of all the people. Yeah, big bad government confiscating money from all the people to spend on those badlly injured in our defense. A higher priority than even a tax cut.

Finally, you sound like someone who has very little experience in the private sector. Guess what - private corporations screw things up royally all the time. Some are great. Some government agenices are complete screwups - some do their work at levels of efficiency not seen in the private sector. We all like to bitch and complain, dont we. Its only an ideologue who pretends that one group is somehow immune from the problems found only in the other.