While hundreds of thousands of disability claims lay backlogged at the Department of Veterans Affairs, thousands of technology employees at the department received $24 million in bonuses, a new report says.
A report issued by the VA’s Office of Inspector General said the department issued millions of dollars in awards over a two-year period in 2007 and 2008.
“The frequent and large dollar amount awards given to employees were unusual and often absurd,” the report stated.
The reports also called the payments “not fiscally responsible.”
Check the years this happened. Then, ask yourself- “Who will be the first wingnut to blame this on Obama?”
Wag
Bachman
joe from Lowell
Malkin.
David
Gatewaypundit
anonevent
That’s not the point. What the Republicans will say is that this proves that government run health care sucks and that it will lead to death panels.
joe from Lowell
We should start a pool. Draw out of a hat.
“C’monnnnnnnnn, Limbaugh! C’monnnnnnnnnnn, Limbaugh! Kathleen Parker?!? Aw, crap!”
Just Some Fuckhead
So giving fiscally irresponsible large bonuses out is wrong now? That seems like a step in the right direction.
asiangrrlMN
Limbaugh.
Oh, and FUCK FUCK FUCK.
Cole, can you post some good news this morning, or at least a picture of Tunchie? Pleeeeeeeease?
c u n d gulag
Come on!
You don’t let Walter Reed Hospital become a disgraceful hovel without giving millions in bonuses to those who made it happen.
And if it was the IT people who make accessability to records difficult, if not impossible, you have to reward them with bonuses too!
If there were no rewards for incompetence, Conservatives would be right next to the poor people they hate.
Max
I’ll see your crazy and raise you…
Who wants to bet the CIA report findings (prior post) will somehow be Obama’s cross to bear and he’ll be blamed for something.
Either way, it’s good news for John McCain.
El Cid
Was Obama not a public figure in those years? His lawbreaking Kenyan style already began to turn the nation into a kleptocratic Stalinist hell, and Bush Jr. officials were helpless to stop his Indo-Hawaiian decaying ways.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
Redstate. The reason? Because this was discovered under the Obama administration, it is their fault. If this administration had not found this out then it would be like it never happened.
He who smelt it dealt it. If you can’t smell it then it didn’t happen, right?
John S.
Only if it involves taxpayer money.
Er, only if it’s the public sector using taxpayer money. The private sector can do whatever the fuck it likes with taxpayer money.
Shut up! That’s why.
Leelee for Obama
If nothing else, some fReichtard will say the info is inflammatory and Obama should have prevented its release. My money is on walk-on-by Peggy.
How can we move forward when this kind of stuff just pollutes our minds? Oh, the humanity!
Max
OT – Is it wrong that everytime I hear about “Hurricane Bill” I immediately picture Bill Clinton?
Legalize
I agree with Leelee. I believe we will see Karl Rove talking about how the release of this information is just more proof of how Obama is the most divisive president in recent memory. He only released it to make the Bush admin. look bad. Cue Chuck Todd explaining that this isn’t the conversation the administration wants to be having right now and that they need to look forward and not backward, and be always twirling, twirling, twirling toward freedom. And then Chris Matthews saying that his Irish Catholic Uncle in Philly wouldn’t want this information released, and either would Tim Russert’s father.
Leelee for Obama
@Legalize: Send that script in, old Son! It’ll save time and money at the news room! How I wish for the exact opposite to happen.
Cat Lady
John, you’ll save a lot of pixels if you can find one governmental agency or program that Bush/Rove/Cheney didn’t politicize or criminalize. It’s going to be drip drip drip as the rocks get turned over and the lights get put back on by actual public servants, and not Bush crony grifters masquerading as public servants. We ain’t seen nothing yet, and this is not my gut hatred of Bush speaking.
Eric U.
for years the New York Times had an article up on their website that said Ruby Ridge happened under Clinton.
asiangrrlMN
@Max: Nope. I think of it every time, too. Hurricane Bill Clinton, indeed.
Cat Lady
Italics fail. I CAN HAZ EDIT PLZ.
General Winfield Stuck
Malkin can sniff porkulus while it’s still on the hog.
donovong
“We didn’t need to know this.” Right?
Whick
Uh, $24,000,000 paid out to thousands of employees, and you think this is an outrage?
I would call $2500 a nice bonus if I got it. There might be a case that it’s excessive, but come on. Twenty-four million here, twenty-four million there, and pretty soon you’re–still not talking about much money.
Bill H
@c u n d gulag:
Walter Reed is US Army Medical Service. Veterans Department is a completely separate department and not part of the military at all.
Demo Woman
What will the news lead with, Bush torture, Duct tape used for fear, VA bonuses, or Michelle Obama in shorts. hmmmm?
The news media cannot admit fault in their coverage of the Bush Administration. Just keep walking.
Doesn’t Red Kitten live in Nova Scotia? Bill might be the babies first hurricane/tropical storm.
Leelee for Obama
@Whick: The point is not how much they got-the point is that they screwed the pooch for the very people they were charged to serve. They should have had to pay money back out of their salaries if their work led to any fuck ups.
Demo Woman
Oh, by releasing the CIA report, the terrorist have won.
General Winfield Stuck
@Demo Woman:
Obama’s approval has slipped to the fail level of 54 percent and it’s all over but the shoutin’. A whole cottage industry of ObamaFail has sprung up and took root with the bobbleheads. Never mind that a pretty good portion of the alleged nosedive comes from impatient libs that can reverse overnight.
We get the Banner of “Where Did It All Go wrong”. I can’t watch it any more. Like viewing Cotton Candy being made with sugar and air.
nicteis
How shocking is this news, really?
This pot of money was divided among “thousands” of employees over two years. Worst case, “thousands” means only two thousand. That works out to a $6K retention bonus for savvy techies who are otherwise locked into GS rates that are well below the averages for the same work in the private sector.
Of course, they all knew about those GS rates when they accepted their positions, and figured the security and benefits were worth the tradeoff. But if I were a conscientious manager, I can imagine myself being worried about losing my good people to contracting firms who will charge the Gov’t a hell of a lot more for exactly the same services I’m getting from them now.
J.D. Rhoades
“Who will be the first wingnut to blame this on Obama?”
Bonus question: When someone points out that this happened under the Bushistas, who will be the first person who sneers that “liberals are still blaming everything on Bush”?
Max
Did anyone see Charlie Cook on MSNBC a few minutes ago? Apparently, the writing is on the wall and its bloodbath time for the Dems in 2010.
Charlie went on to say “there are a lot of dems up for reelection in 2010 that represent districts McCain won”. Funny, he didn’t think to mention all those republicans up in 2010 that represent districts that Obama won. Fair and balanced.
I don’t know anything about this Charlie Cook, but from what I just saw, he hacktastic.
Leelee for Obama
@Max: Yeah, the suckitude is strong in Charlie.
BTW_congrats on the blood sugar, Max. That’s fabulous! God knows how hard you have to work for those kinds of results.
BR
The way to prevent the wingnuts from blaming Obama is to frame it right on other sites:
Bush admin gave bonuses while disabled vets waited for help.
Max
@Leelee for Obama: Thanks! Wish I could celebrate with a nice piece of chocolate cake.
For those in the East Bay – microbrew and art festival at NewPark Mall today and tomorrow. Bands, brew and bbq.
Demo Woman
@General Winfield Stuck: Two and a half weeks ago, I stopped paying $60.00 a month for cable. The only thing I miss is a PBS channel. I used to get two PBS stations and now I’m down to one. Things I don’t miss Joe in the Morning, Wolf and the rest of the talking heads. If someone mentions that Rachel had on a good guess, I’ll watch it on my computer.
GregB
Note also, it will be the same people that were defending the outlandish Wall Street bonuses as the most crucial aspect of capitalism, the all important incentive.
-G
AhabTRuler
@asiangrrlMN: I’ll give you this, but I fear even Momo’s cuteness pales in comparison to the failures and foolish assumptions of our society.
General Winfield Stuck
@Max:
Charlie Cook has been one of the most respected pollsters and analyst we have. I don’t know what has gotten into him lately. I’m far from an expert, but for the life of me can’t get my head around talking like he is this early. It is not like him to be reckless and premature in his predictions.
And just benieth the hub-bub of the HC reform debate are some solid signs the economy is doing better, but we don’t hear about that. All that said, it has been consistent history that out of power party’s lose seats in congress during a presnits first mid-term. But a blood bath?, when dems still hold a 5 or 6 point generic party lead and a presnit with a 50 plus approval rating.
And if the economy keeps improving and some new jobs start being created by next spring, then it is hard to see dems losing big at all. But I’m just a cheeto stained blogger, so who knows.
AhabTRuler
@Demo Woman: About 5 years ago I decided I wanted internet access more than cable teevee. Every once in a while I miss the teevee, but then I go over to a friends house and I am cured of that misconception.
Bob In Pacifica
I worked at a VA hospital 35 years ago, and while Max Cleland was by far the best head of the VA it was still a very good service under Nixon and Ford. Back then there was a theory that you took care of people who risked their lives for you. It was the least that the government could do. Once they got back if they needed health care they got it. They got help getting jobs in government service, they went to college.
The Rethug sleazeballs look at every government service and look at it as a means to profit themselves.
By the way, the same process has been going on in the post office. When the Bush people got in there were more bonuses for managers who screwed over workers and cut back on services to the public. It’s all part of the process.
AhabTRuler
Look, George Bush was the fecal version of King Midas, and the only reason I don’t loathe him more is because of the continued existence of Karl Rove and Dick “Dick” Cheney.
Dan
No, they won’t blame this on anyone. This is the kind of thing they like to just flat out ignore.
Leelee for Obama
@BR: Just when I think I’m at half-past I-don’t-give-shit if I ever see CNN again-they do something all journalist-like, and they suck me in again.
smiley
@Max: As a type one diabetic of 35 years, way to go on getting your blood sugar under control. However, sorry to say but you really should stick to the low carb beers. Think Miller Lite. Not good but it won’t mess up you blood sugar as much.
The next-to-last samurai
I thought of Brick Oven Bill. Evidently I now have no life outside Balloon Juice.
AhabTRuler
Whilst archives diving for more pics of Tunch and Lily to photoshop, I came across this thread, which literally made me shiver with joy. The fact that both John and Tim F. were disconsolate, nay, outraged at the development quite simply makes my day sunnier!
steve s
“And just benieth the hub-bub of the HC reform debate are some solid signs the economy is doing better, but we don’t hear about that. All that said, it has been consistent history that out of power party’s lose seats in congress during a presnits first mid-term.”
First off, it’s parties, not party’s, and second, you’ve got it backwards. Consistent history is that the president’s party loses seats two years after he takes office.
smiley
@smiley: For Max (and anyone else who might be interested):
http://www.beer100.com/beercalories.htm
Note in the upper left there’s a link to imported beers.
PaulW
Actually, because this all happened in 2007 and 2008, we should blame Bill Clinton for it.
jurassicpork
Roger Ailes weighs in with his review of District 9.
steve s
Wikipedia:
Midterm elections are sometimes regarded as a referendum on the sitting president’s and/or incumbent party’s performance.[1][2] They usually don’t turn out well for the party of the president; over the past 17 midterm elections, the president’s party has lost an average 28 seats in the House, and an average 4 seats in the Senate.
monkeyboy
@Demo Woman:
Go without TV for a few years and then try to watch it. You will realize that it is even worse than you used to think it is. But TV watchers get used to putting up with a whole lot of suck to occasionally see something worth while.
I recently got to see complete episodes of Stewart and Colbert. While the shows had some good moments a lot of it was full of not particularly clever time fillers.
Max
@smiley: I won’t be drinking at the Summerfest. Working at it.
Thanks for the link.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@steve s:
Something that I recall George Will droning on and on and on about ad nauseum every time the GOP lost seats under a Republican administration, in between obscure paeans to baseball factoids that nobody born after 1960 cares about.
Any takers on how much this will get mentioned when the Dems lose seats in 2010? Put me down for zero, zilch, nada. Instead, if the Dems lose 10 seats in the House and break even in the Senate if will be ZOMG! 1966 all over again! This is the END of the Failedobamaadministration! The Democrat Party is DOOOOOOOMED! ! !
jacy
Good grief, don’t you see how talking about how the government is failing our troops and veterans is a poke in the eye with a sharp stick to our troops and veterans??
Has Sarah Palin taught you nothing?
Gwangung
Attaboy, Republicans! That’s how you support the troops!
Brachiator
@Demo Woman:
Digital broadcast TV in your area does not include multiple PBS channels?
When I switched from broadcast to digital TV, I used the listings guide at zap2it tv to verify what channels should be available. The main PBS station for the area has 3 additional digital channels, 28.1, 28.2, etc (including one Spanish language channel). But I also was able to pull in 3 new PBS stations broadcasting to the area.
Maddow, Countdown and highlights of Hardball are available as downloadble podcasts on iTunes. You can also get Maddow’s radio program.
someguy
Well, they may be doing that, but I was told recently in comments hereabouts their health care system for vets is a model of efficiency that the public option ought to look to emulate. So maybe that’s what the VA employees were getting, efficiency bonuses.
Brachiator
@anonevent:
RNC chair Michael Steele can use this in GOP ad campaigns: We’re the Republican Party. We’re the proof that big government doesn’t work!
freelancer
@jurassicpork:
You should see Biff Tannen IRL’s review at Big Hollywood:
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/08/14/review-%E2%80%98district-9%E2%80%99-brilliant-and-stupid/
Yeah, I mean what kind of movie made by white South Africans makes the darkie-killing mercenary the “Bad Guy”?
****
As for who’ll blame Obama, no one mentioned Hannity? He’s got Acute ODS.
bey
@nicteis:
Precisely. I’m an IT person working for the DoD. My salary is about 2/3 what I could make on the outside, were I willing to work 60 hour weeks and be on call 24/7. Which I am willing to do for my friends in the suck, but not for a corporate overlord.
I’m offered an annual award if I meet certain performance standards, and can often choose between time off and actual cash. I can assure you the award is not extravagant – substantially less than $1K (taxable, natch) and most people choose time off instead.
And a fairly significant amount of that time, at least for us senior people, gets donated back to co-workers who need leave donations for illness, lost at use-or-lose deadlines, or just plain ignored. Yesterday I was off and ended up there for 8 hours anyway since we’re approaching year end deadlines.
satby
@Bob In Pacifica:
satby
Blockquote fail again, but getting closer…
burnspbesq
I don’t want to paint with too broad a brush here, but in my experience “government IT fiasco” is redundant. Ask anyone who has lived through the IRS’s 20-year long systems modernization farce.
The Grand Panjandrum
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Bonuses are only fiscally irresponsible when the taxpayers find out about them.
bey
Oh, and there’s the “Different Pots of Money” issue.
Civilian pay and mission money are completely different and can’t be used interchangably. There are all kinds of budget complexities that I don’t even pretend to understand.
We have budget lines for new systems and existing systems that cannot be moved back and forth even though both lines support of the same capablity. We frequently lose end of year funds from one line or another due to what the network requirements are. And that’s one very simplified example.
You want to have your head explode? Check out the FAR (Federal Acquisition Regulation) sometime. Thousands of pages of 6pt type on that bible paper. It’s a miracle anything gets bought, honestly.
Brachiator
@freelancer:
What drivel. But par for the course.
I know people who either simply refuse to watch a sci fi movie, or insist on viewing it rigidly as an allegory about current events.
And then you have clowns like this Big Hollywood reviewer who insist that since Hollywood is “liberal,” any Hollywood movie must have a liberal agenda.
And apparently this goes double for “District 9.” Made in South Africa. Produced by New Zealander Peter Jackson.
I don’t want to over-sell the film (I have friends who didn’t like it because it wasn’t “optimistic” enough or wasn’t about humans fighting aliens or wasn’t “fun.”
It’s not the greatest movie ever made, and some critics are going overboard about it just because its budget was an impossibly low $30 million. A more cogent criticism is that the money is well-spent and smartly spent. The director noted that he chose a kind of documentary film lighting because it allowed the creature effects to look more realistic. By comparison, most of the CGI effects in the big budget GI Joe movie look hopelessly cartoonish and fake and make you wish they had just used stunt people for the action scenes.
D9 is surprisingly intelligent, with flashes of dark humor, and it rarely cheats or takes its audience for granted. I’ve seen some comments from African viewers that the film has a number of in-jokes that register big time for South Africans, which again makes American viewers who whine that the movie is just another liberal attack on real white American values look even more stupid.
And besides, everyone knows that the aliens must be Republicans. They can’t make big government (their spaceship) work. ;)
Harcourt Fenton Mudd
I don’t think this will be blamed on Obama. Isn’t it obvious that its Bill Clinton’s fault?
bey
@burnspbesq:
And yet, the taxes get collected, the boots are on the ground, the planes are in the sky (hardly ever hitting each other) and the nukes don’t get launched accidentally because of glitch in the programming.
It’s not fast and it’s not as efficient as it could be, and there’s waste, but on the whole, it works.
bellatrys
The liner notes on the Tim Hart / Maddy Prior version of the folksong “My Son John” (sung there by actor John C. Reilly) say that the backstory per oral tradition is a family up before the Royal Naval’s board fighting a denial of claims based on the argument that he should have dodged better therefore his double amputation was his own fault…
JGabriel
CNN:
Why the fuck would the VA be paying out any bonuses at all, especially to the tech department – which is typically a cost center?
If the VA is worried about losing tech people to the business world, the answer isn’t bonuses, but higher salaries. I can’t believe the whole pernicious Wall St. bonus practice has migrated to gov’t social services. There’s no justification for this practice in gov’t unless you’re trying to prove gov’t doesn’t work…
Oh.
.
Just Some Fuckhead
@bey: Why do you hate America?
Zach
This is sad. A fairly tiny scandal that’s detected and punished in exactly the right way (by the VA’s own Inspector General) is not an example of what’s wrong with government. Do we honestly think that inappropriate bonuses handed out to make sure your department uses its entire budget and nepotism are facets unique to the government, or even worse in the government than in private business?
And, on top of that, this is yet another thing that will lead to the inaccurate impression that healthcare in the VA is horrible. In fact, it’s the best in the country and the cheapest in the country per patient. This, despite the fact that the patients are a more at-risk population and would be more expensive to insure privately. Go read Phillip Longman’s article on the VA or buy his book.
bey
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Not only have I met the enemy and He is Us, but I’m The Man, despite being a woman.
Also, too.
There is vast room for improvement in every area of gov’t IT, and no one knows that better that those of us who are right there in the weeds.
But we do somehow manage to get things done. It’s a mystery.
Chad N Freude
@burnspbesq:
No brush is too broad. The NYSE managed to do a creditable job in about the same timeframe. Could it be the way government contracts are let vs. the way commercial contracts with enormous sums of money at stake are let? Nah, no way.
bey
Speaking of the VA:
They’ve taken good care of my daughter-in-law for years and are currently diligently monitoring her somewhat-risky pregnancy with my #2 grandchild. We find out on Wednesday what flavor they’re getting.
Granted an N of 1, but our family has no complaints about VA care.
Bubblegum Tate
@freelancer:
As for who’ll blame Obama, no one mentioned Hannity? He’s got Acute ODS.
He’s my guess, too. But there’s a method to be followed here. First, he has to blame it on the “Democrat-controlled Congress, including Barack Obama.” A minute or two later, it’ll be “Obama and the Democrat party.” A minute or so after that, it’ll be “Obama,” and from then on, it’s all Obama’s fault.
mutt
Speaking of that smarmy hack Chuck Todd, anybody catch Jeremy Scahill of exposing Blackwater fame backhand him on Maher (yet another source of Global Smarming) this week? Todd, routed, sniveled some PR catch phrases in response. Why is such a flimsy being given such credence??
HyperIon
@Bill H: Bill, we don’t need no stinking facts. We got outrage.
Demo Woman
I just saw two bumper stickers on a large white suburban. First one, the Obama symbol and then the message says honk if I’m paying your mortgage and on the same truck the second one said American Revolution coming to a town near you.
Does the asshole who is driving not realize that fore closure means, you are on the street. There was no mortgage pay down. Ain’t living in the south grand.
gwangung
@bey:
Well, yes…but I really wouldn’t mind if both the mission and the bonuses got done….
HyperIon
@Zach: This is sad.
What part is sad? The story itself?
Or the clueless comments here?
Zach
@HyperIon: Sad because of the effect of the story. More people thinking the VA is horrible based on what it was like 20 years ago and what happened at Walter Reed and other non-VA military hospitals. If it weren’t for the sad state of the VA’s PR, Obama could point to them as exactly what’s right in American healthcare. Expand the VA to every American and we’d certainly save hundreds of billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives a year. I don’t think sidestepping that option to save insurance companies that add zero value to health care and have proven less efficient than government health care makes much sense.
Maybe General Shinseki’s not a good public speaker or something, but I have no clue why he’s not being pushed onto the Sunday shows to promote the VA’s successes.
This is a story about something going wrong, but it’s also a story about something being detected as wrong through the appropriate channels and being corrected quickly and completely by the VA’s own internal watchdog. There’s really no comparison between this and what went on at Defense, Interior, etc over the past 8 years. I mean, I don’t think it’d even be fair to call this nepotism had Bernie Kerik been confirmed to helm DHS.
Zach
@HyperIon: Also, every article I’ve seen has a headline something like CNN’s: “VA workers given millions in bonuses as vets await checks.” Or something about people waiting for care. The IG report in question, you know the actual facts on which this news report is based, doesn’t go into the practice of paying out disability. People reporting this story are stretching to put it in context, and the easiest thing to do is to get quotes from disgruntled vets and say how bad the VA is because that’s what everyone already thinks. It’s lazy, not remotely germane to the story, needlessly provocative, and irresponsible.
Linkmeister
@AhabTRuler: Reading that anguished wail from our host, I found an answer to something that’s always (always!) puzzled me: “When SI or Playboy does a photo shoot of NFL cheerleaders, where are the Steeltown Girls (patent pending)?”
Zach
@Demo Woman: I saw a pickup with the CHANGE bumper sticker with one letter turned into a star and crescent and another into a hammer and sickle. This was in downtown Baltimore. I was trying to figure out how long that car would last unmolested if the driver actually parked it anywhere.
Linkmeister
The VA has been a convenient whipping boy for the 35 years I’ve been a vet. I do think that back when ‘Nam ended the agency was ill-prepared for the scale and scope of the problems the Vietnam Vets presented, but it’s been improving ever since.
Shinseki was here speaking yesterday at the 50th anniversary of statehood and he said he intended to focus on homeless Vets as well as speeding up the claims process.
I’m in Category 8 for getting any aid from the VA, meaning no service-related ailments. I’d be at the back of the queue if I even got into line, and that’s as it should be.
c u n d gulag
Bill H.,
Thanks for the info. I learned something today.
Chad N Freude
@Linkmeister:
Dude, where is your outraged sense of entitlement? Sounds unAmerican to me.
Lesley
In Canada, executives in the civil service receive sometimes receive performance-based bonuses but employees never do. I find it surprising that that the government can pay bonuses to rank and file employees. If the move was designed to retain tech workers, they could have managed this through pay incentives, but bonuses? Something is fishy.
Lesley
hrmm…wish the edit feature was back in comments.
Ailuridae
@c u n d gulag:
Walter Reed is part of TriCare/Military Health Services not the VA.
There have been a number of about to boil scandals in the VA for years – its why Obama brought Shinseki in.
freelancer
@Lesley:
Probably Longer (future) John Cole:
I finally got the site redesign done because I am sick of hearing about you people whine about missing your EDIT and HTML buttons, and now I have to listen to you bitch about that stupid (non-specific TBA) ad. It’ll be gone soon enough, deal with it. Jesus, and the next time one of you whines about a Pet Picture Open Thread, I will punch you in the neck. Do you know how full my inbox is?
Ailuridae
I didn’t start reading BJ til after Cole found religion but this post seems like it could have been written from the earlier era.
Once you realize that Bush appointees across every division of government were deliberately chosen to be unqualified for their jobs this all becomes a good government story as far as I can see. The relevant actor, the VA Inspector General, wrote a comprehensive, honest and unflattering report of abuses that occurred while naming names. Further, the VA promises to pursue those who had the egregious awards. Given that the current head of the VA has only been in the office for eight months (I am pretty sure he was an inauguration day confirmation) and came in explicitly saying that the claims system needs to be addressed (at his confirmation he either stated or agreed with a Senator who stated that the system was in the 19th C) I have a tough time chalking this up to anything but progress.
steve s
Yeah, I saw a moron’s bumper sticker in North Florida that said “My pastor says God _Bless_ America” To which I can only say, “Your pastor didn’t grow up being systematically discriminated against, did he?” Jeremiah Wright was 13 when Brown vs. Board of Ed happened.
steve s
My friend’s Grandma, who died about 5 years ago, said when she was growing up, if black people didn’t get off the sidewalk when white people walked by, they would be beaten.
If you grew up like that, I figure you’re entitled to say a few harsh words.
Linkmeister
@Chad N Freude: Grins. I’m a liberal. I suppress my sense of entitlement.
Lesley
@freelancer:
Uh, what now?
Awhile back we were asked what we’d like to see. Sorry for innocently – and not particularly seriously – reiterating and giving you the impression I was putting pressure on you or anyone else.
As for an “ad” – I don’t know anything about that, nor am I emailing anyone with beefs or complaining about pet pix.
Dulcie
@steve s: That sounds like the town my father grew up in. He remembers distinctly having to step off the sidewalk as a kid growing up in the deep south. He joined the military after college and never looked back. This is why I was the only black kid in my class from 1st through 6th grade :-)
Gen. Delivery
I, and my veteran friends, have trouble figuring out exactly what drives the VFW and American Legion. They seem to overlook anything that a Republican does to shaft veterans care or active duty GI’s. They did nothing to expose the situation at the Army’s Walter Reed Hospital. Makes you wonder if all these self proclaimed war heroes know any wounded soldiers. Yet, they proclaim they are on the case. They seem to care very little about multiple tours in Iraq. But, let draft dodger supremo Cheney speak at a VFW convention and they bring the rafters down with cheers.
Zero Hedge, supposedly a financial blog, featured a super patriot who proudly proclaimed that he served in Vietnam and claimed Obama liberals are the same types who jeered his service back in the 60’s. Struck me as BS and looked up his bio and found that was a Army lawyer and served as a Captain. Not disparaging his service, but since he was blowing his tuba about it, being a lawyer in RVN is not the same as being at a fire base.
SonnyB
1. Walter Reed is Army operated, it’s not VA facility.
2. The reason they got a bonus was for increasing the number of claims processed by 60%, unfortunately two wars have a way of driving up demand and despite the improvement the backlog increased as well.
SonnyB
steve s
@Dulcie: I’m glad things are much better now. They’re still not great, in the rural south, but they’re better.
Chaplain Kathie
Nothing new here really. While this happened in 2007 and 2008, the blogs are picking up that this is somehow President Obama’s fault and the Democrats. I have friends on both sides but some Republicans have a hard time understanding what the truth is. The largest budget increase in over 30 years was done with the Democrats in charge, but that is ignored. So were the speeches from the Republicans carried by CSPAN. I read their posts all the time and it’s disgraceful how little they really know or care.