Is Ben Carson Guilty of Stolen Valor?
Military.com
UNDER THE RADAR
NOVEMBER 7, 2015
Anyone close to the Army knows that there’s no such thing as a “scholarship” to the United States Military Academy: all cadets receive tuition, room and board in exchange for their commitment to future military service. West Point says they have absolutely no record that Carson was admitted or that he even applied to the service academy.
Dr. Ben Carson’s campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has been gaining momentum lately and much of the political outsider’s appeal is based on the compelling life story he told in his 1996 autobiography Gifted Hands.
Carson grew up in poverty in Detroit and won admission to Yale before becoming a respected pediatric neurosurgeon. One of the key stories in that book is his decision to forego a “full scholarship” to West Point, an offer that supposedly came after Carson met General William Westmoreland after a Detroit Memorial Day parade in 1969. read more here
Under Trump's plan, eligible veterans would be able to bring their veterans' identification cards to any private doctor or facility that accepts Medicare and be able to receive immediate treatment. The change, he said, would help improve wait times and services by adding competition.
OK, and exactly how has that improved anything? Ever see a waiting room filled when you wait to be called only to end up stuck in an empty room until the doctor manages to come in for a few minutes and then end up with a huge charge only to be sent to a specialist? Then you have to wait until they have time to see you. Ever show up at an emergency room and have to wait for hours? Ever call a doctor for the first time and hear "we're not taking new patients" and the nearest doctor for your problem is a couple of hours away?
City searches for cure to doctor shortage
The city now has two family practice offices — one run by a nurse practitioner and the other that only serves members who pay monthly dues.
There is a bigger shortage for seniors, but why mention the fact that the majority of veterans ARE SENIORS!
We are not prepared as a nation. We are facing a crisis,” says Dr. Heather Whitson, associate professor of medicine at the Duke University School of Medicine in Durham, North Carolina. “Our current health care system is ill equipped to provide the optimal care experience for patients with multiple chronic conditions or with functional limitations and disabilities.”
How about hospitals closing?
As rural hospitals struggle, solutions sought to preserve healthcare access
Modern Healthcare
By Paul Demko
May 16, 2015
On March 31, for-profit Parkway Regional Hospital in Fulton closed its doors after more than two decades of business in southwestern Kentucky. Rural Fulton County's only hospital employed nearly 200 and accounted for as much as 18% of the town's tax base.
Parkway was far from alone among rural hospitals struggling to survive. Less than a year before, Nicholas County Hospital, an 18-bed facility in Carlisle in north-central Kentucky, shut its doors, citing “insurmountable” financial challenges. A report issued in March by Kentucky's auditor of public accounts found that 15 of the 44 rural hospitals analyzed were in “poor” financial health. Those facilities served more than 250,000 Kentuckians in fiscal 2013, with about 60% of those patients enrolled in Medicare or Medicaid.
When you factor in the years of politicians complaining about how messed up the Affordable Care Act is, this is an appalling suggestion for veterans. Just because politicians have failed veterans for decades you'd think Trump would actually have a plan to fix the VA instead of sending veterans away.
Trump got the first part right on this.
"Politicians in Washington have tried to fix the VA by holding hearings and blindly throwing money at the problem. None of it has worked," according to the plan.
This is partly right. None on us should trust politicians, or the press for that matter, since they never seem able to remember Congress has jurisdiction over the VA!
"It's time we stop trusting Washington politicians to fix the problems and empower our veterans to vote with their feet."
This is more BS from yet another politician running for political office while unable to believe the office he wants can't do anything to fix anything!
Trump says a lot of things. All politicians do. There is a passage in the bible about knowing them by the fruits of their deeds because frankly, talk is still cheep.
You Will Know Them by Their Fruits
15 “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. 16 You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? 17 Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them.
The truth is there are far too many veterans waiting even longer for Congress to fix the problems with the VA but year after year, folks run for office and complain about what they all let happen. Folks run for President and tend to avoid mentioning the simple fact that no President has ever lived up to taking care of our veterans.
There is a rich history of what our politicians let happen. Veterans are tired of blame games and promises before they get elected followed by even more excuses for what was not fixed. Is there anyone in Washington that is actually ashamed enough to apologize to veterans? Wouldn't you like to hear them explain how all this happened decades ago for a change? At least that way you'd know they really did care enough about you.
Donald Trump's surprise promise to a wounded veteran
CNN
By Noah Gray
October 27, 2015
Sioux City, Iowa (CNN)Donald Trump on Tuesday night did something he doesn't normally do: He stepped off the stage and went into the crowd to speak with a voter.
A question from a wounded veteran on Tuesday compelled Trump to walk off stage and speak with the man, eye-to-eye, and pledge to do his utmost to move his case forward and help him get the care he needs.
"I am going to put pressure on the (Department of Veterans Affairs) like you wouldn't believe," Trump said, asking the veteran for his contact information. "As president, I can guarantee it. As Trump, I can probably say, I'm going to be able to pull it off anyway."
The man was First Sgt. Todd Landen, a 22-year Army veteran. Sitting in his wheelchair in the front row, he asked Trump about his plans to improve health care at the VA -- a topic Trump has often touched on during the campaign.
Landen, who served three tours overseas, was wounded from an IED attack in Iraq, he told CNN in an interview after the rally. Along with his wife, April, and their 8-year-old daughter, Brianna, he moved to Iowa last year, after Landen finished up surgeries and retired from the Army. read more here
Jim Webb drops out of Democratic presidential primary
CNN
By
Dan Merica
October 20, 2015
"Some people say I am a Republican who became a Democrat, but that I often sound like a Republican in a room full of Democrats or a Democrat in a room full of Republicans," Webb said. "Actually, I take that as a compliment."
Washington (CNN)Jim Webb ended his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination at a press conference Tuesday, telling reporters he will consider an independent bid.
Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, Webb argued the Democratic Party has moved away from "millions of dedicated, hard-working Americans."
"For this reason, I am withdrawing from any consideration of being the Democratic Party's nominee for the presidency," he said.
"The very nature of our democracy is under siege due to the power structure and the money that finances both political parities," Webb said, adding later that it is "time for a new Declaration of Independence -- not from an outside power but from the paralysis of a federal system that no longer serves the interests of the vast majority of the American people."
Webb, who said he couldn't see himself endorsing any other candidate, said he is considering an independent run and will spend the "next couple of weeks talking to people, people I have not felt comfortable talking with as a Democratic Party candidate."
read more here
If you read Wounded Times, you may have gagged during the debate too!
Sanders stretched truth on VA record during debate, some vets say
CNN
By Drew Griffin and Curt Devine
October 14, 2015
During the time the House VA committee held 42 separate hearings related to oversight of the VA, the Senate VA committee -- chaired by Sanders -- held about seven hearings on these issues.
(CNN)Sen. Bernie Sanders touted his record on veterans' issues during Tuesday's debate, citing his position as the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs when Congress provided billions of extra dollars to boost healthcare for veterans last year.
"We went further in than any time in recent history in improving health care to the men and women of this country who put their lives on the line to defend us," Sanders said Tuesday, referring to $15 billion given to the Department of Veterans Affairs to decrease wait times and reform the troubled agency.
Yet some veterans groups and others criticize Sanders for what they call a lack of oversight of the VA, and for at times coming to its defense in the midst of the scandal that rocked the agency in 2014. read more here
Some folks seem to think that Jim Webb had a Miss Rhode Island moment in the debate last night when she was asked what the prefect date was.
Naturally the question was not about a date on the calendar but the kind of date she would want to have with a man.
In Webb's case, they seem to forget, when a veteran like Webb thinks about an enemy, it would only be natural for him to think of a real one that was trying to kill him and the Marines he was risking his life with.
Here’s What Happened to Jim Webb’s ‘Enemy’ in Vietnam
Wall Street Journal
Washington Wire
Daniel Nasaw
October 14, 2015
Toward the end of Tuesday night’s Democratic debate in Las Vegas, CNN moderator Anderson Cooper asked the candidates which enemy they had made of whom they were most proud.
Four candidates listed Washington interest groups, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threw in “Iranians” and “Republicans.” But Mr. Webb, a decorated Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, said, “I’d have to say the enemy soldier that threw the grenade that wounded me, but he’s not around right now to talk to.”
In July 1969, Mr. Webb was a 23-year-old Marine lieutenant leading a platoon through an area of South Vietnam the Americans called the Arizona Valley, on a search-and-destroy mission in hostile territory. read more here
Good time to clear up a few other things like the fight Webb had to take on because Senators like McCain said the GI Bill was "too generous" for the troops.
Barack Obama/Jim Webb vs John Mccain - Veteran GI Bill
Female veterans are a bit upset too but here's the real story behind women in combat from Webb. Oh, by the way it is from 2006.
Oct 10, 2006
Jim Webb (D-VA) sets the record straight regarding Women in the military.
I watched as much of the debate as I could but since I get up at 4:30, I didn't see all of it. From what I just got caught up with it is apparent that CNN and the rest of the media have decided who they want to be on the ballot. Too bad for them that the election is a year away and Americans are paying attention.
Webb has also been criticized about complaining for not enough time to talk. Turns out he was right.
Our graphics team did a rundown on how many words each candidate spoke during the event, and Mr. Webb finished fourth of the five, at 2,766 words. For comparison’s sake, Hillary Clinton spoke the most, at 5,452 words.
And if you didn't see the movie Miss Congeniality, Miss Rhode Island won.
"And if they're not doing their job, the veterans are going to go to private doctors, private hospitals. We're going to reimburse those doctors and those hospitals, and you're going to get the greatest service of any veterans in any country because you deserve it." Donald Trump
Oh, sure and private care doesn't come with lines, offices not taking new patients and a lot more complaints than the VA ever got. But hey, why fix what Congress is responsible for? Bunch of surrenders gave up on veterans a long time ago but hoped you wouldn't notice. Did they forget they've had jurisdiction over the VA all this time?
Imagine if they fixed it decades ago. That would leave them nothing to complain about every couple of years with one crisis after another. Did they forget CSPAN covers all the hearings?
Nothing is new with these guys. It's been a rollercoaster ride for decades and they didn't care who got hurt in the process. None of them have ever apologized for what they let happen. Guess they never will. Exactly why do these folks want the officer again? If they can't fix something as old and vital to our veterans, what can they fix?
There is so much pure bullshit going on with folks wanting veterans to vote for them but none of them have ever thought how they can deserve votes from the veterans community.
While it is reprehensible for the Jiffy John's (Senator John McCain and Rep. John Boehner) to admit they want to end the VA, it is even worse they stopped being ashamed of it.
More than two decades ago, House Speaker John Boehner said, he floated an idea that was controversial: Why not privatize the Department of Veterans Affairs?
The idea was soundly rejected by veterans’ organizations.
Now, in the midst of a sweeping scandal over allegations that government officials falsified reports on how long veterans were waiting for medical treatment, Boehner said yesterday that the idea still has merit.
“I still like the idea, and especially now,” he said.
John McCain stopped being ashamed back in 2008.
SAN FRANCISCO, Aug 21 2008 (IPS) - If John McCain is elected the next U.S. president, wounded veterans could be in for a world of hurt.
On the campaign trail, the Republican’s presumptive nominee has talked of a new mission for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and argued that veterans with non-combat medical problems should be given vouchers to receive care at private, for-profit hospitals – in other words, an end to the kind of universal health care the government has guaranteed veterans for generations.
“We need to relieve the burden on the VA from routine health care,” McCain told the National Forum on Disability Issues last month. “If you have a routine health care need, take it wherever you want, whatever doctor or health care provider and get the treatment you need, while we at the VA focus our attention, our care, our love, on these grievous wounds of war.”
Instead of the current system that provides treatment for veterans at government-run hospitals, Carson suggested that they should have a health savings account that would pay for treatment at any medical facility.
“I think what’s happening with the veterans is a gift from God to show us what happens when you take layers and layers of bureaucracy and place them between the patients and the health care provider,” the Fox News contributor said Saturday. “And if we can’t get it right, with the relatively small number of veterans, how in the world with are you going to do it with the entire population?”
"We need seriousness here" is what he said but just proved he isn't. If he had a clue he'd know that Congress has jurisdiction over the VA since 1946 when the first House Veterans Affairs Committee was seated.
Committee on Veterans' Affairs.
(1) Veterans' measures generally.
(2) Cemeteries of the United States in which veterans of any war or conflict are or may be buried, whether in the United States or abroad, except cemeteries administered by the Secretary of the Interior.
(3) Compensation, vocational rehabilitation, and education of veterans.
(4) Life insurance issued by the Government on account of service in the Armed Forces.
(5) Pensions of all the wars of the United States, general and special.
(6) Readjustment of servicemembers to civil life.
(7) Servicemembers' civil relief.
(8) Veterans' hospitals, medical care, and treatment of veterans.
Either they are evil or inept. After all these years they have not fixed the problems veterans have suffered from for decades. Did they have any ideas how to fix it for real or just ideas on how to come up with money to give to their backers while pretending to? If evil, then that would mean they just didn't care how many veterans had to pay the price between the time they started to kill the VA and when they ended up killing veterans as well!
"Fighting low name recognition on the national stage" seemed really odd to read after years of hearing about Jim Webb. After all, if you're a veteran receiving a college education, he's part of the reason. He's done a lot for veterans and not afraid to fight against the establishment. So why would this man with his record be such and unknown? Is it the press? Is it the Super Pacs?
Jim Webb: Money 'screwing up' political process
Richmond Times Dispatch
BY MARKUS SCHMIDT
August 21, 2015
RICHMOND — Democratic presidential candidate Jim Webb said Friday that Super PAC money is "really screwing up the political process" and that it affects his campaign's ability to get his message out.
"The challenge that we have right now in the current political environment, money dominates the process like it never has before," said Webb, who served as a U.S. senator from Virginia from 2007 until 2013, on MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Webb said he was concerned with the buying power of Super PACs that are funneling most of the $388 million spent on the election this year into the race. Unlike the candidates, PACs are allowed to accept unlimited contributions in support of candidates from almost any source.
"I don’t believe that Super PACs are ethically supportable concepts," Webb said. "That money ... is affecting our ability to get out and talk."
Webb also cited reports that less than 400 families nationwide are responsible for almost half the money raised in the 2016 presidential campaign — an unprecedented concentration of political donors.
Webb, 69, a highly decorated Marine rifle platoon and company commander in Vietnam, former Navy secretary, lawyer and book author, announced his White House bid in early July. Since, he has run a quiet but focused campaign, offering a sometimes moderate and at other times hawkish alternative to his fellow Democratic contenders, former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Martin O'Malley, the former governor of Maryland.
Fighting low name recognition on the national stage and struggling to move beyond his single-digits in the polls, Webb is still optimistic that he will become a more visible candidate once the dust from Trump's bombastic entering into the race has settled. read more here
UPDATE
Webb 'proud' to see female Rangers
2 women recently became first females to earn Ranger tabs
Author: By Eric Bradner CNN
Published On: 1 h
"I am totally comfortable now with the military being able to make these decisions in a way that goes to performance," he said, "and I am very proud to see -- these two women are West Point graduates, and they went through the rigorous training, and the military should be able to decide how they are used."
WASHINGTON (CNN)
Former Sen. Jim Webb says he is "proud" to see the first two female Army Rangers, even though he'd opposed women in combat positions in the wake of his experience in the Vietnam War.
Webb, who's now a Democratic presidential candidate, told CNN's Jim Acosta in an interview Sunday on "State of the Union" that he no longer believes the position he took in a 1979 op-ed in The Washingtonian.
"I came back from a very hard war where more than 100,000 Marines were killed or wounded. I had my views about how the political process should be dictating to the military that they make changes," Webb said.
read more here
While most folks seem only interested in Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with PTSD, here are the real numbers. The VA says they are treating 119,000 OEF and OIF veterans for PTSD but they are treating 500,000 for it including the veterans no one wants to talk about.
The other factor to think about is with over 22 million veterans the VA has less than 4 million in their system. Now think about how many veterans do not go to the VA even though they really need to.
FactCheck: Bernie Sanders correct on veteran PTSD
Tucson Sentinel
Lori Robertson
FactCheck.org
Jul 28, 2015
"Right now, the VA is taking care of slightly over 500,000 people with posttraumatic stress disorder."VA Dr. Petzel
Sometimes politicians are right, but their campaigns can’t prove it. And we do.
That’s what happened when we decided to take a look at Sen. Bernie Sanders’ talking point that 500,000 veterans came back from Iraq and Afghanistan with post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries. His campaign pointed us to a 2013 Senate hearing as its source — a hearing in which a Veterans Affairs official told Sanders that the number was less than half that.
But it wasn’t a case of Sanders exaggerating. We discovered more recent VA reports that put the number with PTSD at about 390,000, and that would only include veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan that sought care at VA facilities. Not all veterans use VA care. Other estimates suggest the total number could be around the 500,000 figure Sanders has been using for the past year.
Sanders, who’s running for the Democratic presidential nomination, repeated his claim at a July 2 town hall event in Rochester, Minnesota, (5:30 mark) when he said: “In Iraq and Afghanistan, and I will tell you that I voted against the war in Iraq … it was not just the 6,700 men and women who died in the war. 500,000 — 500,000 came home with PTSD and traumatic brain injury.”
Chairman Sanders, March 20, 2013: I mentioned in my opening remarks that as we end 10 years of war in Iraq and 11 in Afghanistan or so, the cost of war, I think, is a lot heavier and more tragic than many people realize. So, let me start off with a very simple question. I do not know if you have the answer in front of you. When we are talking about posttraumatic stress disorder and when we are talking about traumatic brain injury, how many human beings are we talking about who are suffering from these illnesses?
Dr. Petzel: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Right now, the VA is taking care of slightly over 500,000 people with posttraumatic stress disorder.
Sanders: Let us stop right there. 500,000 returning soldiers.
Petzel: Correct. Not just returning. This is our whole population, Mr. Chairman.
Sanders: This is not just Iraq and Afghanistan.
Petzel: I was about to get to Iraq.
Sanders: Okay.
Petzel: We have about 119,000 people from the present conflicts that carry the diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder. read more here
To Kill a Man
A short story
Politico
By JIM WEBB
July/August 2015
Webb says, that the average civilian can never understand. As he wrote in his 2014 memoir, “I and my fellow combat veterans stand on one side of a great impassable divide, with the rest of the world on the other.”
Long before James Webb became secretary of the Navy or a U.S. senator—or even potentially a 2016 Democratic presidential candidate—he was a 23-year-old Marine fighting in Vietnam’s An Hoa basin, west of the city of Da Nang, as part of the Fifth Marine Regiment.
During his tour as a rifle platoon and company commander, Webb was awarded the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, two Bronze Star Medals and two Purple Hearts for his actions in combat.
An enemy grenade left him with shrapnel lodged in his head, arm, leg and back. Recounting his gritty combat tour during some of the war’s darkest days—in one eight-week period, his rifle platoon suffered 51 Purple Hearts among those killed or wounded—he told an interviewer in 1988, “My greatest feeling in Vietnam was that I was a pawn.”
And when he thought of the other things, he could never forget those who had died and those who had suffered more than he had. These were the true moral paragons, whether or not they ever considered it or knew it. Some had taken blasts of shrapnel. Some had been ripped by gut shots from enemy rifles and machine guns. Some had lost limbs. Some had returned with minds pushed so far over the edge by it all that they could not fully come back, even when they were home, and never would.
All these years later, he still regarded them as his people, his friends, indeed his lifelong comrades, but it had not really started out that way.
The bonds that brought them together and kept them close were powerful and permanent and overwhelming, but they were consequential, not intentional.
read more here
UPDATE
Looks like AP fact checker on McCain's record didn't get it right.
FACT CHECK: Trump shortchanges McCain's record on veterans
Associated Press July 21, 2015
THE FACTS: McCain has a long record of supporting veterans' issues in Congress. He was instrumental in a landmark law approved last year to overhaul the scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs. McCain worked with the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, independent Bernie Sanders of Vermont, as well as Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House veterans panel, to help win passage of the law, which aims to alleviate long delays veterans faced in getting medical care.
The VA says it has completed 7 million more appointments for care in the past year, compared with the previous year, but veterans still face increased wait times in Phoenix, Las Vegas and other places. "As we improve access, even more veterans are coming to VA for their care," Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson told Congress last month. As a result, waiting times for appointments longer than 30 days are up 50 percent from a year ago, he said.
McCain pushed for a provision in the law allowing veterans who live more than 40 miles away from a VA health care site to get government-paid care from a local doctor. McCain and Miller also pushed to make it easier to fire senior VA employees for poor performance.
McCain also was central in a law enacted this year aimed at reducing a suicide epidemic among military veterans that claims the lives of an estimated 22 every day. The law is named for Clay Hunt, an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran who killed himself in 2011. It requires the VA and the Pentagon to submit to independent reviews of their suicide prevention programs and offers financial incentives to psychiatrists and other mental health professionals who agree to work for the VA. read more here and then try to contain your laughter.
Now back to reality from yesterday.
I am furious over what Trump said on so many different levels. The first reason is that Trump did end up insulting all POWs when he tried to talk about being captured did not make McCain a hero. Poor choice of words? Ok, that is possible.
Donald Trump Says He Does Not Owe John McCain Apology
ABC News
By BENJAMIN BELL and EMILY SHAPIRO
Jul 19, 2015
Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said he does not owe John McCain an apology for saying the Arizona senator is only a war hero “because he was captured.”
Trump told Martha Raddatz on ABC's "This Week" that he won't be pulling out of the presidential race over his comments, which he made Saturday during a campaign event in Iowa. Trump said he left to a "standing ovation" after speaking at the Family Leadership Council summit.
"When I left the room, it was a total standing ovation," said Trump. "It was wonderful to see. Nobody was insulted." read more here
The trouble is the rest of what Trump said was lost after he said that.
It turns out that McCain thinks he is not owed an apology
John McCain: Donald Trump Owes Vets an Apology, Not Me
NBC
by CARRIE DANN
July 20, 2015
Sen. John McCain said Monday that he does not view himself as a hero but that Donald Trump owes an apology to veterans for his comments about soldiers captured in war.
Asked on MSNBC's Morning Joe if Trump owes him an apology, McCain responded: "No, I don't think so. But I think he may owe an apology to the families of those who have sacrificed in conflict and those who have undergone the prison experience in serving their country."
"There are so many men, and some women, who served and sacrificed and happened to be held prisoner and somehow to denigrate that, in any way, their service I think is offensive," he added. read more here
The trouble is that McCain has never apologized to veterans on his voting record after using them for their votes. He has never served on the Veterans Affairs Committee and no one ever asked him to explain why he is only interested in the Senate Armed Service Committee.
Trump: I don't need to be lectured
USA Today
Donald Trump
July 19, 2015
McCain has abandoned our veterans. I will fight for them.
During my entire business career, I have always made supporting veterans a top priority because our heroes deserve the very best for defending our freedom. Our Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals are outdated dumps. I will build the finest and most modern veterans hospitals in the world. The current medical assistance to our veterans is a disaster. A Trump administration will provide the finest universal access health care for our veterans. They will be able to get the best care anytime and anywhere.
Thanks to McCain and his Senate colleague Bernie Sanders, their legislation to cover up the VA scandal, in which 1,000+ veterans died waiting for medical care, made sure no one has been punished, charged, jailed, fined or held responsible. McCain has abandoned our veterans. I will fight for them.
The reality is that John McCain the politician has made America less safe, sent our brave soldiers into wrong-headed foreign adventures, covered up for President Obama with the VA scandal and has spent most of his time in the Senate pushing amnesty. He would rather protect the Iraqi border than Arizona’s. He even voted for the Iran Nuclear Review Act of 2015, which allows Obama, who McCain lost to in a record defeat, to push his dangerous Iran nuclear agreement through the Senate without a supermajority of votes. read more here
If you read Wounded Times, then you know what McCain's record has been and on that, Trump got part of it right because it has been bad for veterans but then again, it has gotten substantially worse since McCain went into the Senate.
Lets start with a little history lesson for the Chairman of the Senate Armed Service Committee
Women in combat if you look at the link, you can read what he must have not known about.
In the 1991 debate over women pilots, McCain took a traditionalist stance. "This nation has existed for over 215 years," McCain said. "At no time in the history of our nation have women been in combat roles."
Hmm. Guess he forgot that women have in fact received every combat medal including the Medal of Honor during the Civil war.
The Medal of Honor - the nation's highest award.
Dr Mary Walker, a surgeon in the Civil War, was awarded the nation's highest honor by President Andrew Johnson. The citation reads, in part:
"Whereas it appears from official reports that Dr. Mary E. Walker, a graduate of medicine, has rendered valuable service to the government, and her efforts have been earnest and untiring in a variety of ways, and that she was assigned to duty and served as an assistant surgeon in charge of female prisoners at Louisville, KY., under the recommendation of Major-Generals Sherman and Thomas, and faithfully served as contract surgeon in the service of the United states, and has devoted herself with much patriotic zeal to the sick and wounded soldiers, both in the field and hospitals, to the detriment of her own health, and has endured hardships as a prisoner of war four months in a southern prison while acting as contract surgeon...."
Dr. Walker's Medal of Honor was rescinded in 1917, along with some 900 others. Some believed her medal was rescinded because of her involvement as a suffragette. Others discredit that opinion as 909 other medals rescinded were awarded to men. The stated reason was to ". . . increase the prestige of the grant."
For whatever reason, she refused to return the Medal of Honor and wore it until her death in 1919. Fifty-eight years later, the U.S. Congress posthumously reinstated her medal, and it was restored by President Carter on June 10, 1977.
Women who received the Distinguished Service Cross - WWI
Jane Jeffery: A nurse serving with the American Red Cross: severely wounded during an air raid, refused to leave her post and continued to help others.
Beatrice M. MacDonald: wounded in Belgium during an air raid at a casualty clearing station and lost sight in her right eye.
Helen Grace McClelland: also on duty with the surgical team at the British casualty clearing station and cared for Beatrice MacDonald during the air raid.
Eva Jean Parmelee: although wounded in air raid she continued to serve throughout the emergency.
Isabelle Stambaugh: seriously wounded in an air raid at a British casualty clearing station in Amiens, while working in the operating room with a surgical team.
The man should know something about military women considering how long he's been on the committee overseeing them! But hey, what do we expect from a man consistently wrong?
Q: The backlog in the VA system is still very sizeable and a concern to even many of the younger guys. I don’t know how you’re looking at the issue, and how you fix something that the current administration has really struggled with.
I think the best thing we could possibly do is focus military medical care and the VA on treating the wounds directly related to combat: PTSD, combat wounds which they are uniquely qualified, through years of experience, to address.
I think in the case of veterans that have ordinary health care needs, routine health care needs, we should do everything we can to give them a card that they can take to the health care provider or doctor of their choice to get health care immediately.
Q: I know there has been a push by the current administration to take those healthier veterans and have them pay to help support the system, even a small, nominal fee. I don’t know if that’s something that you’d support.
First I think we’ve got to make sure that veterans receive the care, and then we have to worry about if there’s any necessary changes. I’m unalterably opposed to telling future generations of Americans that we’re not going to give them the health care they need in service for our country.
That means that I would be very reluctant, I would be opposed to imposing more financial costs.
At every stop since he began his Michigan blitz on Saturday, McCain recognized the veterans in the audience. He's promised to provide better medical care to veterans in the early days of his administration.
Now all these years later, the few Merchant Marine war veterans still alive would like to see Senate Bill S961 passed. The House of Representatives passed the bill in 2007. Our two Arizona senators, Jon Kyl and John McCain, have not signed on even though 57 other senators have.
Bush's speech on Webb's GI Bill was a load of lies
"The bill being sent to the President contains every provision in S. 22, which has received meticulous scrutiny and the full support of every major veterans' organization. It will pay for a veteran's tuition, books, and a monthly stipend, along the lines of the benefits given to those who returned from World War II. As such, it fulfills the pledge I made on my first day of office to provide today's veterans with the opportunity to move forward into an absolutely first-class future.
"I would like to again express my appreciation to the veterans' service organizations, many of whom communicated their support of this bill directly to a skeptical White House, and to the 58 Senate and 302 House cosponsors of this landmark legislation. This bipartisan coalition consistently rejected the allegations of this Administration, and of Senators McCain, Burr and Graham, among others, who claimed that the bill was too generous to our veterans, too difficult to administer and would hurt retention.
John Sidney McCain
Current Office: U.S. Senate
Party: Republican
Status: Announced
Veterans Issues
2006 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 20 percent in 2006.
2006 In 2006 Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America gave Senator McCain a grade of D.
2006 Senator McCain sponsored or co-sponsored 18 percent of the legislation favored by the The Retired Enlisted Association in 2006.
2005 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 25 percent in 2005.
2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 50 percent in 2004.
2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the The Retired Enlisted Association 0 percent in 2004.
2003-2004 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 100 percent in 2003-2004.
2003 Senator McCain supported the interests of the The American Legion 50 percent in 2003.
2001 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 46 percent in 2001.
1999 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Disabled American Veterans 66 percent in 1999.
1997-1998 Senator McCain supported the interests of the Vietnam Veterans of America 0 percent in 1997-1998.
1989-1990 On the votes that the Vietnam Veterans of America considered to be the most important in 1989-1990 , Senator McCain voted their preferred position 50 percent of the time.
Veterans Issues
Date Bill Title Vote
10/01/2007 National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 NV
02/02/2006 Tax Rate Extension Amendment N
11/17/2005 Additional Funding For Veterans Amendment N
10/05/2005 Health Care for Veterans Amendment N
Just one more notch on the doesn't give a damn list as after all these years veterans are still waiting for an apology from McCain and the rest of the politicians using them instead of taking care of them.
Arizona Republican Senator John McCain, who admitted in his memoir to attempting suicide while held captive as a P.O.W. in Vietnam for 5 1/2 years, is responsible for blocking funding for a suicide prevention program aimed at military reserve troops returning home from combat.
WASHINGTON -- Thirteen U.S. sailors who died in 1804 during the First Barbary War and were buried in Tripoli, Libya, may finally be coming home, if the American Legion gets its way.
Since the uprising in Libya broke out six months ago, the veterans organization has been lobbying Congress to bring home the remains of the U.S. servicemen. The crew, led by Master Commandant Richard Somers and Lt. Henry Wadsworth (uncle of the poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow), died when their explosives-packed ship blew up prematurely during a mission to Tripoli.
The Senate, however, has not followed suit. According to Tetz, one stumbling block may be Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), who served in the U.S. Navy.
(I could keep going on this but I'd need something to keep going and it is too early in the day to start drinking. I already had to make a phone call to calm down since my head was sending shrapnel to the other side of Orlando hitting Gunny's roof.)
The thing is, what this boils down to is so many folks seem to want to defend McCain over what Trump said about him instead of actually talking about how McCain has used his past service to cover up what he has managed to pull off when he had a chance to actually do something for veterans.
Trump does owe other POWs a huge apology for his comment and from what I understand, he will give it, humbly to them. The question is, when will someone demand an apology from McCain on behalf of all the veterans Trump tried to talk about?
McCain is not well liked in the veteran community simply because of his record while serving in the Senate. (Too long of a story there) Still for Donald Trump to say "I like people that weren't captured, OK?" it is not ok because it means he just insulted all POWs in the process.
Trump questions McCain's bravery, says 'he is not a war hero'
CNN
By Mark Preston and Eugene Scott
July 18, 2015
According to The Smoking Gun, which obtained selective service records for Trump in 2011, he received four student deferments between 1964 and 1968, and later a medical deferment in 1968.
Washington (CNN)Donald Trump ignited a political firestorm Saturday by questioning whether Sen. John McCain -- who spent over five years as a prisoner during the Vietnam War -- is a war hero.
"He is a war hero because he was captured," Trump said, cutting him off. "I like people that weren't captured, OK? I hate to tell you. He is a war hero because he was captured. OK, you can have -- I believe perhaps he is a war hero."
By mid-afternoon, Trump tried to walk back his blunder on Twitter, saying "captured or not, all our soldiers are heroes!"
But his attempt at damage control seemed unlikely to diminish the anger his remarks had caused. They provoked an immediate outcry from his 2016 presidential rivals and the Republican National Committee, which has expressed concern about the impact his controversial remarks on immigration have had on the GOP brand.
For Republicans waiting to pounce on Trump and knock him from his position as the party's leading presidential candidate, the real estate mogul may have handed them an opening. read more here
Webb’s opposition to the Iraq War – his son Jimmy served in the conflict – played a central role in his surprise Senate election in 2006 against a Republican challenger. While he chose not to seek re-election after one term, his military and foreign policy credentials could allow him to become a debate stage foil to Clinton, who served as President Barack Obama’s secretary of state.
But he opposed President George W Bush’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003 and was recruited by Democrats to challenge Republican Sen. George Allen in 2006. Webb’s campaign was helped by an anti-Iraq war fervor.
click link for the rest
Democrat Jim Webb joins 2016 White House race
FOX News
July 2, 2015
Considered a moderate-to-conservative Democrat who supports gun rights and is strong on defense, Webb contends his candidacy would appeal to a wide swath of voters who feel disenfranchised by Washington politics.
Former Virginia Sen. Jim Webb is jumping into the race for president, becoming the latest Democrat to try for a primary upset over frontrunner Hillary Clinton.
In a message to supporters obtained by Fox News, and later posted on his website, Webb says: "After many months of thought, deliberation and discussion, I have decided to seek the office of the Presidency of the United States."
Webb's entry brings the total number of Democratic presidential candidates to five. Clinton continues to dominate the field, though Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders lately has been gaining in the polls.
But Webb, 69, is cut from a far different political cloth than the independent, socialist-leaning Vermont senator.
A highly decorated Vietnam veteran and former secretary of the Navy under the Reagan administration, Webb had been seriously mulling a presidential run since establishing an exploratory committee in November 2014.
Webb, who is also a war novelist, served under Reagan from 1984 to 1987 but quit after refusing to reduce the size of the Navy during budget talks. He was a U.S. Marine Corps platoon and company commander in Vietnam, earning a Navy Cross, the Silver Star, two Bronze Star Medals and two Purple Hearts for his actions in combat.
Bernie Sanders’ surge is partly fueled by veterans
GLOBE STAFF
By Annie Linskey
JUNE 28, 2015
Veterans are a group long courted by politicians. In the early primary states, New Hampshire is home to 113,000 veterans, Iowa has 226,000, Nevada has 227,000 and South Carolina has 392,000 — according to US Census figures.
DES MOINES — Vermont’s Bernie Sanders railed against the Vietnam War. He voted against invading Iraq — both times. He wants to cut the defense budget.
He might not be a friend to the military, but many veterans believe he’s gone to war for them. And that’s why they’re out there cheering for a socialist as he launches a bid for the Democratic presidential nomination.
There’s the former Marine who drove about six hours to hear Sanders speak in Des Moines. There’s another former Marine, this one a registered Republican, going door-to-door to collect signatures so Sanders’ name will appear on the ballot in Indiana. Entire Reddit threads are dedicated to how veterans can best pitch Sanders to other veterans.
“He is revered,” said Paul Loebe, a 31-year-old who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan during eight years of active duty and spends three hours a day updating a Facebook page promoting Sanders to veterans. “He’s very consistent with where he stands. He’s the first politician that I’ve believed in my life.”
Sanders battled over veterans issues as chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee from 2013 until early this year, giving him an easy pitch to a crucial voting bloc of veterans, particularly in South Carolina where veterans make up more than 11 percent of the voting-aged population. There’s stiff competition for these voters, with front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton wooing them this month during a round table in Nevada. read more here
Workers at Sensata Technologies Beg Romney to Stop Latest Bain Outsourcing
'We'd like Mitt Romney to come to Freeport, see what this is doing to this community, and contact his friends that run Bain Capital and say "this is absolutely the wrong thing to do" and save our jobs,' worker said.
Sep. 25, 2012
Agence France-Presse
Being told to train his replacement was humiliating and surreal, but Tom Gaulrapp said the worst part was when the plant's U.S. flag was taken down before the Chinese engineers arrived.
Gaulrapp decided it was time to take a stand against outsourcing and the man he blames for the loss of his job: Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney, who founded the private equity firm that owns the Freeport, Illinois auto parts plant.
Gaulrapp thinks it would only take a phone call from the candidate who's vowed to create 12 million jobs in the United States to save the 170 jobs at Sensata Technologies that are about to leave this already economically depressed town of 26,000.
Sayer acknowledged that the decision to shift production to China is "an unfortunately event" for Freeport and said he understands why it could be "difficult" for the workers to train their replacements.
He has no idea why -- or if -- the U.S. flag was removed before the Chinese engineers and technicians arrived. "We didn't request it. I can tell you that," Sayer said, adding that the company has been leasing the facility from Honeywell and has no involvement in grounds maintenance. read more here
Beau Biden holds veterans roundtable in Columbus
By: Lydia Coutre
The Columbus Dispatch
September 27, 2012
Beau Biden, Delaware Attorney General and Iraq war veteran, stopped in Columbus this morning to talk to veterans about how their care and benefits would look under presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
“Governor Romney confuses the defense budget with the (Veterans Affairs) budget,” Biden said. “He talks about wanting to increase the defense budget as if that’s going to help veterans. It doesn't. They’re two separate budgets.”
Sitting around a table in the back of Cup of Joe in German Village, Biden and Rob Diamond, the Obama campaign’s National Veterans and Military Families Vote Director, talked jobs, healthcare and support with about a dozen veterans.
Biden contrasted an $11 billion cut in Veterans Affairs spending in year one proposed in Paul Ryan’s budget with Obama’s spending record. “He’s increased VA spending by more than any president has in 30 years,” Biden said.
These numbers concern Bernard Pontones, secretary and treasurer of Vietnam Veterans of Ohio. read more here
After the Romney tape came out where he said he thought 47% of Americans not paying income tax were "victims" I did the post asking Does Romney think disabled veterans are victims too? because I doubt he thought much about us at all.
My husband is 100% disabled Vietnam Veteran, so he gets compensation from the VA for what he paid for with his service and retirement because he had to stop working. The VA takes care of his healthcare and what is tied to his service but they bill our private insurance company for everything else. I get CHAMPVA but that is secondary to our private insurance. I don't get a paycheck for what I do because it is a charity but most of the time, I can't even break even so we are deeply in debt. I put in at least 70 hours a week. Mitt Romney made his comment and that included families like mine and every other disabled veterans' family out there. It also include military families.
Well, here is something from a disabled veteran that is also feeling as if Romney just slammed him too.
Disabled Veteran 47 Percenter: 'I Guess I'm One Of The Leeches On The System'
Posted: 09/20/2012
John Rudolf
CAMDEN, N.J. -- John Hoskins is not proud of his dependence on government. He scrapes by on a $900 monthly check from the Veterans Administration and $16 in food stamps. Sometimes he struggles just to pay his utilities and keep food in the fridge.
Hoskins, 67, enlisted in the Army's elite 101st Airborne division in 1963 and saw two harrowing years of combat in Vietnam, where his reconnaissance unit was repeatedly air-dropped into the jungle behind enemy lines. Today he is disabled, suffering from diabetes and confined to a wheelchair. A month ago, his left foot was amputated due to a blood infection.
He readily admits that he is among the 47 percent of Americans that pay no federal income taxes and rely on government assistance -- a group derided as freeloaders by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney in comments secretly recorded at a high-priced fundraiser in May.
"I guess I'm one of the leeches on the system," he said. "But look at me. What can I do?" read more here
Navy Veterans at Republican convention, Ron Paul supporters call convention a sham.
The video quality is not good but try to get past it to listen to what they had to say.
Press Conference - Delegates at RNC - Thursday evening, Aug. 30 - RNC
Standing together, in front of the RNC venue at the Tampa Times Forum in Tampa, Florida. National delegates and alternates, supporting Ron Paul and the Liberty movement, join together in a Press Conference.
Can someone please explain the difference to Romney?
The Wall Street Journal: Romney Pledges To Expand Programs To Help Veterans
Mitt Romney vowed Wednesday to expand employment and tuition assistance for veterans, taking a quick detour from the Republican National Convention to unveil new policy details in a speech here. ... "Right now the VA has a shortage of mental health care professionals. I'll hire more," Mr. Romney told the convention. "Any time a veteran is unable to receive timely health care from the VA system, he or she will be allowed to see a Tricare provider at the VA's expense." (Murray, 8/29).
Maybe then someone can also explain that CONGRESS is responsible for this mess along with the higher fees?
TRICARE (Formerly CHAMPUS)
. Medical Insurance Program Through Dept of Defense
. Must Be Retired Military
. Retirement can be from longevity of service, given retirement status due to disability, or early out.
. Must be enrolled in DEERS.
. No disability criteria to be eligible.
. Veteran, Spouse, and Dependent Children are eligible to participate in the program
. Participants receive medical services preferably from in-network private physicians who participate in the Tricare program.
. VA primary care doctors are not part of the in-network physicians for Tricare. Therefore, it does not benefit Tricare members to receive medical services by VA doctors under Tricare.
. Note: VA specialty doctors may be Tricare in-network doctors.
. There are three levels of Tricare benefit packages.
. There is no annual fee for Tricare Standard or Extra, but deductibles apply.
. There is an annual fee for Tricare Prime; but there are no deductibles for basic care services.
. There are numerous sources for obtaining prescriptions.
. Local participating pharmacies, active military installations, and mail out.
TRICARE Resources
DEERS Enrollment Support Office
Attention: CO, 400 Gigling Rd.
Seaside, CA 93955
1-800-538-9552
Tricare Enrollment Office
1-800-444-5445
Tricare Local Office
931 S. Semoran Blvd., Winter Park, FL 32792
Tricare Claims Service
1-800-403-3950
Tricare Web Site
www.tricare.osd.mil
CHAMPVA
. Medical Insurance Program Through VA
. Cannot Be Retired Military.
. If veteran is also retired military, dependents would not be CHAMPVA eligible and must apply for Tricare.
. No DEERS enrollment for CHAMPVA.
. Veteran must be 100% SC disabled, or died on active duty, or died as a result of a SC disability.
. Spouse and Dependent Children are eligible to participate in the program.
. Veteran is not eligible to participate in the program.
. Veteran is eligible to receive all medical care through VA medical facilities.
. Dependents may go to participating VA medical facilities for medical services.
. Each VA medical facility may elect to provide or not to provide services to CHAMPVA participants.
. There are no annual fees for CHAMPVA.
. CHAMPVA participants are not eligible for obtaining prescriptions through active military installations, but may obtain prescriptions through local participating pharmacies and mail out.
CHAMPVA Resources
CHAMPVA Center - Registration
Post Office Box 469064
Denver, CO 80246-9064
1-800-733-8387
CHAMPVA Center - Claims
Post Office Box 469063
Denver, CO 80246-9063
1-800-733-8387
