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An average of 18 US military veterans are taking their lives every day as the Obama administration and the Pentagon grow increasingly defensive about the epidemic of suicides driven by Washington’s wars of aggression. The stunning figure was reported last week by the Army Times, citing officials in the US Veterans Affairs Department. The department estimates that there are 950 suicide attempts every month by veterans who are receiving treatment from the department. Of these, 7 percent succeed in taking their own lives, while 11 percent try to kill themselves again within nine months. The greatest growth in suicides has...

WASHINGTON — Veterans trying to get an education under the new GI bill face delayed checks, erroneous payments and uncertainty about what their actual benefits are, officials told a congressional committee Wednesday. Testifying before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Department of Veterans Affairs officials acknowledged problems that have characterized the initial eight months of the overhaul of the original Montgomery GI Bill. Glitches were expected in the beginning, but they need to be fixed, officials said. "A fellow veteran ate canned beans and sardines three meals a day for an entire semester trying to scrape up gas money for his...

There is a number of leftys who continue to make the comment that VA care and benefits are socialist. Since I have worked at the cursed VA, I sent this letter to my local paper(in their format), who refuses to print it. I hope someone can find info they can use here.

Paralleling Obamacare with existing government programs should stand as a bellwether for those who favor this bloated plot to undermine our basic freedoms. The Veteran's Administration (VA) provides a glaring early warning of our future, if Obamacare replaces our health care infrastructure. Personal experience tells a disturbing story. Before my father graduated from high school, he joined the U.S. Air Force for two stints of service beginning in 1944. In October of 2008, we began treading water with the VA, filing for his military pension. In seventeen months, we have provided over one hundred pages of old military documents, along...

Some Nevada veterans might not know about benefits they deserveWashington, D.C. — Nevada Senator Harry Reid today wrote a letter to Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki, encouraging the VA to do a better job of reaching out to veterans in Nevada to ensure they are aware of and are taking full advantage of the benefits they earned for themselves and their families. Nevada is home to a large population of veterans and Reid has worked tirelessly throughout his career to ensure they have access to guaranteed benefits including health services, disability pay and education assistance. A...

The cost of war — on veterans’ health and taxpayer wallets — will loom a little larger in the new year. The Department of Veterans Affairs will issue a final rule to claim adjudicators to presume three more diseases of Vietnam veterans, including heart disease, were caused by exposure to Agent Orange. The rule, expected to be published soon, will make almost any veteran who set foot in Vietnam, and is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, B cell leukemia or ischemic heart disease (known also as coronary artery disease) eligible for disability compensation and VA medical care. The exception would be...

Well folks, I just checked my military retiree pay statement, and there will be no raise this coming year. This is the first time in 25 years that military retirees have received no increase in their retiree pay. Somehow I knew that this would happen with Obama in the white house.

February 29, 2008 -- Austin, TX - U.S. Senator Barack Obama was joined by Congressman Chet Edwards (TX-17) in Houston this morning for a town hall meeting with area veterans. Obama discussed his track record of fighting for veterans in the U.S. Senate and pledged that, as President, he will ensure that veterans are treated with the dignity and respect they have earned. "America enters into a sacred trust with every single person who puts on the uniform," Obama said. "That trust is simple: America will be there for you, just as you have been there for America. Keeping that...

BUYER TIED TO FOUNDATION WITH BIG MONEY IN, NO MONEY OUT Ranking Member on the House Vets' Committee doesn't comment on foundation that shares his offices and was headed by his daughter. Rep. Steve Buyer (R-IN), Ranking Member on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, finds himself in the middle of an interesting controversy. But, he has had a colorful history during his stay in Congress ... most notably for ousting Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) from the House Vets' Committee Chair in 2005. A nonprofit foundation associated with Rep. Steve Buyer, R-Monticello, has been quietly collecting hundreds of thousands of...

The Obama administration has advised Congress to cut off pensions for 26 elderly members of the World War II-era Alaska Territorial Guard who served the nation without pay during the Japanese attack. According to McClatchy Newspapers, the administration sent a "strongly worded" message to Congress concerning its priorities for a military spending bill, and the service members didn't make the cut.

WASHINGTON – Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has authorized checks for up to $3,000 to be given to students who have applied for educational benefits and who have not yet received their government payment. The checks will be distributed to eligible students at VA regional benefits offices across the country starting Oct. 2, 2009. “Students should be focusing on their studies, not worrying about financial difficulties,” Secretary Shinseki said. “Education creates life-expanding opportunities for our Veterans.” Starting Friday, Oct. 2, 2009, students can go to one of VA’s 57 regional benefit...

The U.S. government failed to send promised college tuition checks to tens of thousands of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars before they returned to school this fall, even after being warned that it was inadequately staffed for the job. The Veterans Affairs Department blamed a backlog of claims filed for GI Bill education benefits that has left veterans who counted on the money for tuition and books scrambling to make ends meet. Veterans like American University student John Kamin, who received a letter Wednesday from the Army. He was hoping it contained news that his overdue GI Bill...

Dear Senators and Congressmen, Today I am sending you this letter in support of government run, single payer universal health care. I have been enjoying the template for the new government plan for a little over forty (40) years now. Let me explain myself a little here. I was injured while on active duty in the US Army in 1966. I sustained damage to my right knee and was operated on by Army doctors at a stateside medical facility. At the time and by the doctor that did the operation, I was told that I would need another operation because...

WASHINGTON — While Republicans are calling a Department of Veterans Affairs health planning booklet a "death book" that encourages veterans to kill themselves or forgo care, ethicists and legal and medical experts say it's a reasonable attempt to help America's veterans plan for the end of their lives. Jim Towey, the former director of President George W. Bush's White House office of faith-based initiatives, wrote in The Wall Street Journal last month that the VA's "Your Life, Your Choices" booklet encourages veterans to "hurry up and die." Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele added in a television interview that the...

The Obama administration claims that a health care takeover by government won't restrict access to care. Everybody will get more care for less money, the president has said. Of course, something has to give. One likely target for rationing will be care in the later stages of life. Bureaucratic disregard for the value of all life is insinuated in a government manual known as "the Death Book." The Death Book is a nickname given to an advice manual published by the Department of Veterans Affairs that instructs veterans "how to prepare a personalized living will." Officially titled, "Your Life, Your...

UPDATE: Earlier today, I noted that the "Your Life, Your Choices" booklet had apparently been removed from the VA site. The Department of Veterans' Affairs was kind enough to get back to me several hours after I called, in order to clarify what happened today on their website. Spokeswoman Katie Roberts informs me that although the "Your Life, Your Choices" booklet was removed this morning from the URL I had linked to, there has been no policy change by VA. The document removed this morning had simply been hosted in the wrong place all along, on a regional part of...

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Former Air Force reservist Gale Reid received a letter from the Veterans Affairs Department that told her she had Lou Gehrig's disease, and she immediately put herself through a battery of painful, expensive tests. Five days later, the VA said its "diagnosis" was a mistake.

Dr. Robert A. PEARLMAN wrote the book. He works for the VA and is well known as a supporter of Physician Assisted Suicide. Pearlman's book for the VA specifically refers Veterans to an organization fronting for the HEMLOCK SOCIETY, which promotes suicide. Pearlman's writing is cited in the literature prominently along with another supporter of Physician Assisted Suicide: Ezekial Emmanuel, brother of Obama's chief of staff RAHM EMMANUEL. Pearlman also touts his role as a "Faculty Scholar" in the "Project on Death in America." This project is funded by GEORGE SOROS. Yes, THAT George Soros. And yes, the real...

The Wall Street Journal just published a shocking editorial written by a respected University President, confirming the Obama Administration is now using VA hospitals to order doctors to pressure all military veterans to sign "pull the plug" do-not-resuscitate orders, hastening their premature deaths through mandatory "end of life" counseling. President Jim Towey of Saint Vincent's College, founder of the non-profit "Aging With Dignity" and former White House Director of faith based initiatives, wrote a blistering expose entitled "The Death Book For Veterans," revealing President Obama's new Veterans Administration (VA) directive, presumably signed by VA Secretary, General (ret.) Eric Shinseki, which...

Obama Revives VA Death Book August 21, 2009 BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Now, folks, Obama says there aren't death panels. He pooh-poohs the notion that there aren't death panels here. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting report. "If President Obama wants to better understand why America's discomfort with end-of-life discussions threatens to derail his health-care reform, he might begin with his own Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). He will quickly discover how government bureaucrats are greasing the slippery slope that can start with cost containment but quickly become a systematic denial of care. Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's...

Here is video of Assistant Sec. of Veteran's Affairs Tammy Duckworth on Fox News Sunday being challenged by Chris Wallace about the booklet used by the Veteran's Administration to do "end of life counseling" with elderly or ill veterans about whether their "life is worth living." Critics have referred to it as a "Death Book for Veterans." Duckworth is a veteran herself, and a hero, but she was totally wrong in this segment about whether this booklet is being used with veterans. She claimed it is not being used, but Wallace demonstrated that it is being used. She claims it...

Here is video of Jim Towey on Fox News Sunday discussing a document being used by the Veteran's Administration (called by some a "Death Book") since July by new directive that he says essentially encourages Veterans who are badly ill to "hurry up and die." The document is now being used at "end of life" counseling and was written by Dr. Robert Perlman, a man whom Towey says advocated "assisted suicide" before the Supreme Court. Of particular concern is a worksheet on page 12 that leads patients to consider "is my life worth living?" It asks the patient questions like,...

<p>We did something different on Fox News Sunday today. Instead of discussing the week's news--we brought something up that I suspect most people have never heard about.</p> <p>It is a 51-page end-of-life counseling book the Department of Veterans Affairs is now using--called "Your Life, Your Choices." I learned about it on Wednesday--in an article in the Wall Street Journal--under the title "Death Book for Veterans."</p>

Sen. Specter Calling for Hearings into End of Life Guide for Vets The Department of Veterans Affairs is under increasing scrutiny this week after it was revealed a controversial end of life counseling pamphlet may be revived and distributed to veterans. The guide called "Your Life, Your Choices," was originally suspended under the Bush Administration, but it is apparently being brought back by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Jim Towey, a former Bush Administration official, brought the revival to national prominence this week with an article in the Wall Street Journal, which outlined his criticisms of the booklet. When asked...

A prominent senator on the Veterans' Affairs Committee on Sunday called for hearings to scrutinize and consider suspending a guide for veterans' end-of-life care which one former Bush official says sends a "hurry-up-and-die" message to troops. The guide, called "Your Life, Your Choices," was suspended under the Bush administration but has been revived under the current Department of Veterans Affairs. Jim Towey, former director of the White House Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, told "FOX News Sunday" that the pamphlet makes injured veterans feel like a burden, encourages the severely injured to die and should be tossed out. Asked about the...

August 21, 2009 01:10 PM EDT Wallace Unplugged: End-of-Life Counseling "Wallace Unplugged" on the real story behind Veterans' health care and end-of-life counseling. ... This Week on Fox News Sunday: (8/23/09) Amid charges of "Death Panels", Chris Wallace uncovers explosive new information about a "death book", already being used by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs, that encourages the nations' veterans to pull the plug. This Sunday we’ll take a look at how this controversial book steers users towards a predetermined outcome from the man who took down the program during the Bush Administration. Plus, we'll bring you a reaction from...

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- 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." Four high-level employees received about $60,000, $73,000, $58,000, and $59,000, respectively, according...

Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush White House took a look at how this document was treating complex health and moral issues, the VA suspended its use. Unfortunately, under President Obama, the VA has now resuscitated "Your Life, Your Choices."

VA's Denial-of-Care-Oriented 'Your Life, Your Choices,' Quashed Under Bush, Revived Under Obama http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/08/20/vas-denial-care-oriented-your-life-your-choices-quashed-under-bush-reviv The Death Book for Veterans http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204683204574358590107981718.html Your Life, Your Choices Booklet (see for example page 21) http://www.rihlp.org/pubs/Your_life_your_choices.pdf

Depression, disability, and "being a financial burden" could constitute "Lebensunwerte Leben" (Life Unworthy of Life) in U.S. Government end of life planning document "The Death Book for Veterans: Ex-soldiers don't need to be told they're a burden to society" by Jim Towey in today's (August 18) Wall Street Journal says, Last year, bureaucrats at the VA's National Center for Ethics in Health Care advocated a 52-page end-of-life planning document, "Your Life, Your Choices." It was first published in 1997 and later promoted as the VA's preferred living will throughout its vast network of hospitals and nursing homes. After the Bush...

Members of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, I am honored and humbled to stand before you as Commander-in-Chief of the finest military the world has ever known. And we're joined by some of those who make it the finest force in world-from Luke Air Force Base, members of the 56th Fighter Wing. Whether you wear the uniform today, or wore it decades ago, you remind us of a fundamental truth. It's not the powerful weapons that make our military the strongest in the world. It's not the sophisticated systems that make us the most advanced. No, the true strength of...

Obama is speaking before the VFW now. Except for a dozen people or so, they are sitting on their hands. Vets know who the real Obama is. Occasional applause for apple pie statements. For the most part, silence.

President Barack Obama plans to speak at the annual VFW convention in Phoenix on Monday. A speech before the nation's largest organization of combat veterans is a summertime tradition for presidents. Obama spoke to the group last year as a presidential candidate. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs has said that Obama will discuss the United States' responsibilities to maintain the world's finest military. Gibbs also says Obama will speak about the nation's responsibility to the men and women of the armed services when they return home from combat. The president has been in Arizona since Saturday evening on the final...

Six high-profile veterans groups are raising objections to the House healthcare reform bill, warning House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) that it could jeopardize the care of millions of veterans. Citing “grave concerns,” the groups are urging Pelosi to modify the House bill. If changes are not made, the veterans groups say they will actively oppose the measure. In a letter to Pelosi that was obtained by The Hill, the groups state “the legislation could limit the health care choices for veterans, increase the cost of health care for veterans, deny coverage to dependent family members of veterans, and threaten the...

get many of these emails from readers and friends, and got this one below from my Floridian father Ray Jr, (I'm a third). He's a former Notre Dame Grad, Fortune 500 executive who's now a semi retired, Bonita Springs scratch golfing pro, selling real estate on the side down in Florida who's now taking an unwanted break from the field thanks to Obama's economy..

- Military Finance Network - http://militaryfinancenetwork.com - Disabled Veterans to Receive $250 Stimulus ChecksPosted By Patrick On June 17, 2009 @ 9:58 am In VA | 66 Comments UPDATE: The first stimulus payments were sent Monday, June 22. All payments will be distributed by June 30.Disabled military veterans currently receiving VA Disability Benefits are eligible to receive a one-time $250 Economic-Recovery Check [1] from the US government. This is part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act [2] that President Obama signed into law this past February.Who is eligible for the $250 Stimulus Payment? The $250 government stimulus check...

War veterans are asking Americans across the country to fly their flags upside down this Fourth of July weekend. They say it’s a sign of distress and a protest against the Veterans Administration. A small group of veterans picketed outside the Canandaigua VA Hospital Wednesday afternoon. They were protesting the closing of VA hospitals across the country. They say those that aren't closing are being sold off or leased to outside interests, depriving veterans the treatment they have earned. Displaying the American flag upside down, however, is considered by some to be disrespectful. “We're not disgracing the flag but telling...

President Obama Visits Wounded Troops Posted By Blackfive David Borden Jr. was wounded in Iraq on January 19, 2008. A suicide bomber rushed him and detonated, and Borden was hit by over 200 pieces of shrapnel. He lost right leg (below the knee) and his left arm was severely damaged. He was in a coma for over a month. He's inspired more than a few people while recovering. The NY Giants football team reports that he's the grandson of a NY Giant. According to the email below from his father, David Borden (Sr.), David Jr. had an uninspiring visit from...

David Borden Jr. was wounded in Iraq on January 19, 2008. A suicide bomber rushed him and detonated, and Borden was hit by over 200 pieces of shrapnel. He lost right leg (below the knee) and his left arm was severely damaged. He was in a coma for over a month. He's inspired more than a few people while recovering. The NY Giants football team reports that he's the grandson of a NY Giant. According to the email below from his father, David Borden (Sr.), David Jr. had an uninspiring visit from the President of the United States: Since Dave...

For patients with prostate cancer, it is a common surgical procedure: a doctor implants dozens of radioactive seeds to attack the disease. But when Dr. Gary D. Kao treated one patient at the veterans’ hospital in Philadelphia, his aim was more than a little off. Most of the seeds, 40 in all, landed in the patient’s healthy bladder, not the prostate. It was a serious mistake, and under federal rules, regulators investigated. But Dr. Kao, with their consent, made his mistake all but disappear. He simply rewrote his surgical plan to match the number of seeds in the prostate, investigators...

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) withdrew its controversial report on “Right Wing Extremism” (PDF) as a terrorism threat back in May, but now left-wing media pundits say it’s time to bring back the report that tarred all U.S. military veterans and any political conservative as potential terrorist threats. Last Friday, the New York Times’ Paul Krugman launched a full endorsement of government attacks on the political right: “With the murder of Dr. George Tiller by an anti-abortion fanatic, closely followed by a shooting by a white supremacist at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the analysis looks prescient…. Politicians...

The smartest president in U.S. history seems to have confused Memorial Day with Veterans Day: President Barack Obama saluted veterans and urged his countrymen to do the same this Memorial Day weekend, saying the nation has not always paid them proper respect. In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said people can honor veterans by sending a letter or care package to troops overseas, volunteering at health clinics or taking supplies to a homeless veterans center. He said it could also mean something as simple as saying "thank you" to a veteran walking by on the street. ****...

In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, President Obama said people can honor veterans by sending a letter or care package to troops overseas, volunteering at health clinics or taking supplies to a homeless veterans center

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama urged Americans to pay tribute to veterans on Memorial Day, saying the nation all too often has "failed to live up to that responsibility." In his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday, Obama said people can honor veterans by sending a letter or care package to troops overseas, volunteering at health clinics or taking supplies to a homeless veterans center.

Rick Strandlof, executive director of the Colorado Veterans Alliance and the man most colleagues knew as Rick Duncan, was front and center during the 2008 political campaigns in Colorado. He spoke at a Barack Obama veterans rally in front of the Capitol in July, co-hosted several events with then- congressional candidate Jared Polis and attacked Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer in a TV ad paid for by the national group Votevets.org. And the mostly Democratic candidates he supported — looking for credibility on veterans issues and the war — lapped it up appreciatively. Now, politicians are dealing with news that...

A Denver-based veterans organization has voted to disband after accusing its founder of fabricating an identity as a former Marine captain who served three tours in Iraq and was at the Pentagon on 9/11. Thirty-two-year-old Richard Glen Strandlof, who used the name Rick Duncan, founded the organization, the Colorado Veterans Alliance, about two years ago. Major Carl Redding, spokesman for the U.S. Marines, said there is no record of Richard Glen Strandlof or Rick Duncan serving in the Marines. Strandolf appeared several times as a campaign spokesperson attacking Republicans in 2008 on national security issues. Colorado Republican State Chairman Dick...

Dems red-faced over veteran imposterDemocrats are incensed over how a man duped the party and veterans during the '08 campaign. By Michael RileyThe Denver Post WASHINGTON — Rick Strandlof, executive director of the Colorado Veterans Alliance and the man most colleagues knew as Rick Duncan, was front and center during the 2008 political campaigns in Colorado. He spoke at a Barack Obama veterans rally in front of the Capitol in July, co-hosted several events with then- congressional candidate Jared Polis and attacked Republican Senate candidate Bob Schaffer in a TV ad paid for by the national group Votevets.org. And the...

A contentious "Rightwing Extremism" report that warned of military veterans as possible recruits for terrorist attacks against the U.S. was not authorized, has been withdrawn and is being rewritten, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told Capitol Hill lawmakers. "The wheels came off the wagon because the vetting process was not followed," Ms. Napolitano told the House Homeland Security Committee on Wednesday. "The report is no longer out there," she said. "An employee sent it out without authorization." The report was shared with state and local law enforcement officials nationwide via the department's internal Web site on April 7, angering Republican...

Veterans deserve more respect Just to make sure I wasn’t missing something, I Googled “85-year-old World War II Veterans terrorists.” Nothing. Couldn’t find a report anywhere that a WWII veteran was a suspect in a terrorist plot. The question came up this week when I was fortunate to accompany 130 World War II veterans to Washington, D.C. to see their new memorial. Dozens of people in Weld and Larimer counties worked for months to set up the trip so all the veterans would fly for free, stay one night in Washington, D.C., then tour the memorials and fly home the...

WASHINGTON – Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano met with the American Legion on Friday to apologize for a right-wing extremism report written by her agency, and the veterans group walked away from the meeting mollified. Napolitano blamed one of her agency's analysts for prematurely sending out the intelligence assessment to law enforcement, according to Craig Roberts, an American Legion member who attended the meeting. The report says veterans returning from Iraq or Afghanistan could be susceptible to right-wing recruiters or commit lone acts of violence.