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Joseph Sarandos
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Re: Bush Administration BUSTED for SHABBY TREATMENT of wounded Veterans!
There are a multitude of reports on today’s hearing by the House of Representatives, and this one from Reuters is one of the shortest and mildest, but it shows that the administration politicians in general, and Bush in particular, are either outraged, and/or embarrassed, to the point of taking immediate, drastic and widespread measures to make these problems “go away” as quickly as possible.
Needless to say, whichever measures that are taken by the politicians will definitely be to the benefit and advantage of the troops and us veterans!
Joseph
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http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N05297244.htm
US Army hospital problems widespread, lawmakers say
05 Mar 2007 21:22:59 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Susan Cornwell
WASHINGTON, March 5 (Reuters) - Problems over treatment of wounded soldiers that created a scandal at the top U.S. military veterans' hospital are prevalent throughout the Army's health care system, lawmakers said on Monday.
One Democrat speaking at a U.S. House of Representatives hearing also suggested that the crisis at Walter Reed hospital may have been a consequence of what he called the "terrible planning" surrounding the U.S. military operation Iraq.
Rep. John Tierney, a Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee's national security subcommittee, said the problems did not stop with the Washington, D.C. hospital.
"I also, unfortunately, feel that these problems go well beyond the walls of Walter Reed, and that they are problems systemic throughout the military health care system," he said.
"Is this just another horrific consequence of the terrible planning that went into our invasion of Iraq?" Tierney asked. Democrats and some Republicans accuse the Bush administration of bungling the military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The outcry over conditions at the hospital followed a report in The Washington Post that some recuperating soldiers at Walter Reed were living in rodent-infested quarters and trapped in a bureaucratic limbo.
Army Secretary Francis Harvey resigned and the general in charge of the facility, Maj. Gen. George Weightman, was replaced.
"These problems are not unique to Walter Reed," said Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican. "The crushing complexity and glacial pace of outpatient procedures in medical evaluation boards are Army-wide problems."
"All the plaster and paint in the world won't cure a system that seems institutionally predisposed to treat wounded soldiers like inconveniences rather than heroes," Davis added.
During Monday's hearing, Weightman publicly apologized to wounded soldiers and their families who testified about substandard conditions and bureaucratic neglect.
"I promise you we'll do better," said Weightman, who led Walter Reed from last August until he was fired last week.
One of those who testified, Annette McLeod, laid the blame on Weightman's predecessor, Ret. Maj. Gen. Kenneth Farmer, who commanded Walter Reed for two years until last August.
She said Farmer refused to see her when she tried to complain about delays in tests and treatment for her husband, Cpl. Wendell McLeod, who suffered head injuries in Iraq. "They told me he did not have time to talk to me," she said.
President George W. Bush has ordered a wide-ranging review of all U.S. veterans facilities in the wake of the scandal.
The Post revelations were particularly embarrassing because Bush, senior defense officials and lawmakers have repeatedly visited those in the hospital who served in battle in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The Army said last week that Maj. Gen. Eric Schoomaker would take over command at the hospital. He is the brother of the Army's top military official, Chief of Staff Gen. Peter Schoomaker, who told the hearing Monday he "couldn't be madder" about the "things that have turned up" at Walter Reed.
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3/5/2007, 4:43 pm
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Joseph Sarandos
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Re: Bush Administration BUSTED for SHABBY TREATMENT of wounded Veterans!
The news just keeps getting truer and truer, and better and better!
Joseph
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Kansas City Star
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/16845258.htm
Posted on Tue, Mar. 06, 2007
Long-wounded Dole asked to help mop up Walter Reed
By DAVID GOLDSTEIN
The Star’s Washington Correspondent
WASHINGTON | President Bush named former Kansas Sen. Bob Dole to co-chair a bipartisan investigation into conditions at the nation’s military and veterans’ hospitals.
Dole will head the panel alongside Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration.
Bush’s announcement comes the day after the first congressional hearing on the growing scandal over the treatment of wounded soldiers at Walter Reed Army Hospital in the nation’s capital.
“We have an obligation – we have a moral obligation to provide the best possible care and treatment to the men and women who have served our country,” Bush said during a speech today to the American Legion. “They deserve it and they’re going to get it.”
The new White House commission is the latest in a onslaught of investigations into the care at military medical centers and veterans hospitals as well.
Bush has also asked Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson to lead a task force of seven cabinet officials to look into immediate steps to improve care for veterans.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates has also created an independent review panel to study Walter Reed. He called the situation there “unacceptable.” Meanwhile, several congressional committees are delving into the issue.
The sudden attention stems from recent stories in the Washington Post about how some wounded outpatients had been living in squalid conditions in a building operated by Walter Reed. Besides decrepit housing, the soldiers often battled an unyielding bureaucracy in their effort to be compensated for their injuries.
“I’m as concerned as you are about the conditions at Walter Reed Army Medical Center,” Bush said. “My decisions have put our kids in harm’s way, and I’m concerned about the fact when they come back they don’t get the full treatment they deserve.”
Dole, 83, is a former Republican majority leader who spent 27 years in the Senate. He has real-life experience as a wounded soldier. He suffered serious injuries while an Army officer in World War II. It took several surgeries and years of treatment until he recovered.
Shalala, 66, is president of the University of Miami.
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3/6/2007, 1:14 pm
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Joseph Sarandos
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Re: Bush Administration BUSTED for SHABBY TREATMENT of wounded Veterans!
Yet another head rolled as the story continues!
Joseph
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/12/AR2007031200544_pf.html
Army Surgeon General Pushed to Retire
By Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, March 12, 2007; 4:14 PM
Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army's surgeon general, was pushed to step down after weeks of public criticism over his handling of the Walter Reed scandal and other health care problems facing veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, defense officials said today.
Kiley on Sunday submitted a request to retire early after Pete Geren, the acting secretary of the Army, sought his removal from the Army's top medical post. Geren assumed his current Pentagon position last week, and removing Kiley was his first major move.
Kiley had faced intense scrutiny during hearings on Capitol Hill during the past two weeks, when numerous members of Congress asked him directly if he should resign either because he failed to notice horrid living conditions and a tangled bureaucracy at Walter Reed or because he failed to fix them. Kiley had said he wanted to stay on the job and lead the Army's medical community through systemic change, but he also acknowledged that he was in a tenuous position.
In the spotlight since a series of Washington Post stories last month detailed problems with Army care for outpatient veterans at Walter Reed, Kiley submitted his retirement request on Sunday, according to an Army news release. Kiley is departing his post as the Army's top doctor about 2 1/2 years into a standard four-year team. Most Army surgeon generals retire as three-star generals after four years. An Army official said today that Kiley likely will have to retire as a two-star major general -- instead of as a three-star lieutenant general -- because he has not served a full three years in his current grade.
"I submitted my retirement because I think it is in the best interest of the Army," Kiley said in a statement released this afternoon, adding that he wants the Army to focus on the way ahead, not the mistakes of the past. "We are an Army Medical Department at war, supporting an Army at war. It shouldn't be and it isn't about one doctor."
Kiley is the third career casualty of the Walter Reed scandal. The most recent commander at Walter Reed, Maj. Gen. George W. Weightman, was relieved of command two weeks ago, and Francis J. Harvey was forced to resign as secretary of the Army days later. Army officials initially downplayed reports of rodent infestation, mold and tragic bureaucratic delays that were frustrating soldiers at Walter Reed, but they later sounded a more contrite and concerned note as administration officials -- including President Bush -- focused attention on the problems.
The Army has appointed Kiley's deputy, Maj. Gen. Gale S. Pollock, as the acting surgeon general while an advisory board is formed to evaluate candidates for Kiley's replacement. Army officials said today that the board is likely to meet for the first time in April and will then choose an officer from within the Army Medical Command. President Bush would then have to approve the officer, and the Senate would hold confirmation hearings.
Geren, the acting Army secretary, said the Army will move quickly to appoint a new surgeon general, citing the position's importance in implementing a new Army plan to address shortcomings in veterans' care across the country.
Kiley, who specialized in obstetrics and gynecology, had a diverse career that began in 1976. He deployed to Saudi Arabia as a hospital commander during the first Gulf War, and during fighting in the Balkans he commanded the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany, the largest military medical post outside the United States. Kiley also commanded Walter Reed from 2002 to 2004, a contentious issue during the past few weeks because of allegations that he was alerted to problems there and was indifferent to them.
Some colleagues have described Kiley as a dogged and aggressive leader, while others have said he has been overly career-minded and focused on personal success. He has said in congressional testimony that he likes to trust his subordinates and steps in when asked; members of Congress criticized his lack of awareness of problems at Walter Reed and suggested that as commander -- and living across the street -- he should have been more involved with the operation.
Kiley has been involved in discussions about how to fix problems throughout the Army's health care system and had been working with Gen. Richard A. Cody, the Army's vice chief of staff, on how to proceed. Kiley and Pollock were involved in such meetings at the Pentagon as recently as Friday.
"It has been my honor and my privilege to serve this nation and her soldiers for over 30 years," Kiley said in a statement. "And I could not be prouder of the incredible Americans in the Army Medical Command who care for the warriors who have volunteered and sacrificed so much to defend our country and our way of life. I was blessed to have walked among them."
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3/12/2007, 4:13 pm
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Incog4
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Re: Bush Administration BUSTED for SHABBY TREATMENT of wounded Veterans!
Hoorah for our side!
There is also news today that all 1400 of the VA hospitals and clinics are going to be closely scrutinized during these investigations.
Aaron
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3/12/2007, 4:26 pm
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Joseph Sarandos
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http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/print_report.cfm?DR_ID=43580&dr_cat=3
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Capitol Hill Watch
Department of Veterans Affairs Unable To Handle Increased Number of Disability Claims,
Experts Testify at House Hearing
Officials from the Government Accountability Office and Harvard University professor Linda Bilmes testified before the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance on Tuesday that the Department of Veterans' Affairs' system for handling disability claims is not sufficient to serve troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, the AP/Philadelphia Inquirer reports.
The subcommittee is one of several congressional panels investigating the treatment of service members at VA and military hospitals. Witnesses at the hearing detailed their study finding that the VA claims system is "on the verge of crisis due to backlogs, cumbersome paperwork and ballooning costs," the AP/Inquirer reports.
The VA took 127 to 177 days to process an initial disability claim and an average of 657 days to process an appeal, compared with 89.5 days to process a claim in the private sector, panelists testified.
The VA has a backlog of 600,000 claims.
In addition, officials testified that the VA will have 638,000 first-time claims in the next five years because of the Iraq war, including 400,000 by the end of 2009.
The cost of the additional claims will be $70 billion to $150 billion.
In addition, panelists testified that the VA claims system was complex and inconsistent across regions, adding that the VA uses outdated technology for processing claims.
Rep. John Hall (D-N.Y.), chair of the House subcommittee, said, "When our soldiers and military personnel return home and need help, they should get the assistance they have earned without delay."
Hall mentioned the possibility that the VA be merged into the Defense Department.
Ronald Aument, deputy undersecretary for benefits at the VA, said the department is working to shorten the claim review period and that it plans to hire 400 new employees by the end of June. He said, "Expediting the claims process is critical to assisting veterans in their transition from combat operations back to civilian life" (Yen, AP/Philadelphia Inquirer, 3/14).
(Related stories were omitted from this posting, but are visible at the source URL. Joseph)
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3/14/2007, 11:40 pm
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Joseph Sarandos
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Re: Bush Administration BUSTED for SHABBY TREATMENT of wounded Veterans!
I'll post this separately as a new topic in the Politics/Current Events section, but it definitely belongs here in this thread also, which is because of the clear nexus between this subject and Senator Feinstein's "running ahead of the axe" to abruptly resign her leadership role in MILCON -- the oversight committee for goings-on in the Department of Veterans Affairs' and the Army's facilities for the care and handling of injured veterans.
No, of course there are no mentions of the facts that Feinstein and Blum are Jewish, or that Feinstein is a member of the Trilateral Commission. Smart decisions by the author, by Metroactive, and by every publication that has carried this report in whole or in part, since all of them are aware and anticipative of attacks by the ADL, the JDL, AIPAC, and/or other so-called “anti-defamation” organizations, that would quickly “go for the jugulars” of the involved individuals, labeling them as “anti-Semites,” “conspiracy theorists,” “neo-Nazis,” or worse.
Joseph Sarandos
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Feinstein Resigns
Senator exits MILCON following Metro exposé, vet-care scandal
By Peter Byrne
SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein.
As MILCON leader, Feinstein relished the details of military construction, even micromanaging one project at the level of its sewer design. She regularly took junkets to military bases around the world to inspect construction projects, some of which were contracted to her husband's companies, Perini Corp. and URS Corp.
Perhaps she resigned from MILCON because she could not take the heat generated by Metro's expose of her ethics (which was partially funded by the Investigative Fund of the Nation Institute). Or was her work on the subcommittee finished because Blum divested ownership of his military construction and advanced weapons manufacturing firms in late 2005?
The MILCON subcommittee is not only in charge of supervising military construction, it also oversees "quality of life" issues for veterans, which includes building housing for military families and operating hospitals and clinics for wounded soldiers. Perhaps Feinstein is trying to disassociate herself from MILCON's incredible failure to provide decent medical care for wounded soldiers.
Two years ago, before the Washington Post became belatedly involved, the online magazine Salon.com exposed the horrors of deficient medical care for Iraq war veterans. While leading MILCON, Feinstein had ample warning of the medical-care meltdown. But she was not proactive on veteran's affairs.
Feinstein abandoned MILCON as her ethical problems were surfacing in the media, and as it was becoming clear that her subcommittee left grievously wounded veterans to rot while her family was profiting from the occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. It turns out that Blum also holds large investments in companies that were selling medical equipment and supplies and real estate leases—often without the benefit of competitive bidding—to the Department of Veterans Affairs, even as the system of medical care for veterans collapsed on his wife's watch.
As of December 2006, according to SEC filings and www.fedspending.org, three corporations in which Blum's financial entities own a total of $1 billion in stock won considerable favor from the budgets of the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs:
* Boston Scientific Corporation: $17.8 million for medical equipment and supplies; 85 percent of contracts awarded without benefit of competition.
* Kinetic Concepts Inc.: $12 million, medical equipment and supplies; 28 percent noncompetitively awarded.
* CB Richard Ellis: The Blum-controlled international real estate firm holds congressionally funded contracts to lease office space to the Department of Veterans Affairs. It also is involved in redeveloping military bases turned over to the private sector.
You would think that, considering all the money Feinstein's family has pocketed by waging global warfare while ignoring the plight of wounded American soldiers, she would show a smidgeon of shame and resign from the entire Senate, not just a subcommittee. Conversely, you'd think she might stick around MILCON to try and fix the medical-care disaster she helped to engineer for the vets who were suckered into fighting her and Bush's panoply of unjust wars.
Source:
http://www.metroactive.com/metro/03.21.07/dianne-feinstein-resigns-0712.html
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3/29/2007, 8:16 am
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Joseph Sarandos
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Re: Bush Administration BUSTED for SHABBY TREATMENT of wounded Veterans!
One might think and expect that the horrendous effects and results upon the wounded veterans of Dianne Feinstein's self-enrichment agenda, while she should have and could have prevented or corrected such maltreatment as the Chairwoman of MILCO, would be bringing calls for investigations and punishments against her. But instead, it appears that she has garnered so much power and influence in this corrupted oligarchy that she is virtually "untouchable" by the same agencies that are causing other "heads to roll" during this period of finger-pointing and blame-laying for the bumblings and fumblings of the Bush Administration.
Referring to the last paragraph in the quoted article, it can be said that this is yet another case of “a fox being appointed to guard the henhouse”. But, as the new chair of the Senate Rules Committee, in charge of policing ethics violations by senators, Feinstein is moreso “a fox among foxes in the foxhouse,” who will be yapping; “Do as I say, not as I did!”
Joseph
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Corruption Chronicles
http://www.corruptionchronicles.com/2007/03/violations_force_feinstein_mil.html
March 29, 2007
Violations Force Feinstein Military Committee Resignation
A veteran California senator has resigned as chair of a powerful military construction committee after reports that for years she abused her position to award her husband’s companies billions of dollars in government contracts.
During her six years as chair and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee, Senator Dianne Feinstein annually supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars for specific military construction projects. The San Francisco lawmaker supervised her own staff of military construction experts and she lobbied Pentagon officials to support her favorite projects.
She wielded quite a bit of power and succeeded in steering hundreds of billions of dollars in military contracts to companies partially owned by her wealthy husband, Richard Blum. One company alone earned $792 million from military construction and environmental cleanup projects approved by Feinstein’s committee and another $759 million.
The blatant ethics violation and obvious conflict of interest was first exposed earlier this year by a weekly Northern California publication. The story details how Feinstein voted over the years for appropriations that enriched her husband’s firms and that her top legal advisor also happens to be one of her husband’s longtime business partners; in other words, a financial beneficiary of the senator’s decisions.
No wonder Feinstein, a former San Francisco mayor elected to the U.S. Senate in 1992, is among the wealthiest members of congress. Last year she ranked eighth with a net worth of $42.6 million, boosted by assets she holds with her husband. Most of them are companies that have made their fortune from the very government contracts she has granted them.
Perhaps Feinstein quit her coveted military construction committee position because she is taking her new role as the senate ethics police quite seriously. As the new chair of the Senate Rules Committee Feinstein, for years an ethics violator, is actually in charge of regulating her colleagues’ ethical behavior.
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3/30/2007, 10:04 am
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Joseph Sarandos
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Re: Bush Administration BUSTED for SHABBY TREATMENT of wounded Veterans!
Now back to "the head rat" in this ongoing tragedy.
How much more disingenuous and two-faced could this man possibly get?
Not only has he personally visited the patients in the same, rundown parts of the facility on previous “photo-op” junkets, but he also -- along with all the civilian politicians in all three branches of the Federal government -- has been receiving free medical treatment at the same Walter Reed Army Hospital (although “royal” treatment in “luxurious” accommodations, by only the most and the best doctors and nurses available, with only a “minimum” of paperwork involved).
In other words, he knew all about it all along, and he did nothing about it all along, until he became “a cornered rat” on these particular issues (thanks to the investigating and reporting by the Washington Times). So now he “just can’t do enough” to correct and remedy the horrid conditions for which he is personally to blame.
As his Daddy was fond of saying; “It sickens me,” as I read the words that spewed from the mouth of this pathological liar during his “face-to-face apologies” ploy as reported by the Associated Press in the quoted article (my emphases added). Read on.
Joseph
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Bush Apologizes for Hospital Conditions
By DEB RIECHMANN, Associated Press Writer
Friday, March 30, 2007
(03-30) 19:54 PDT WASHINGTON, (AP) --
President Bush apologized to troops face to face on Friday for shoddy conditions they have endured at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. He shook the artificial hand of a lieutenant and cradled a newborn whose daddy is nursing his remaining, severely injured leg back to health.
"The problems at Walter Reed were caused by bureaucratic and administrative failures," Bush said during a nearly three-hour visit to the medical center — his first since reports surfaced of shabby conditions for veterans in outpatient housing. "The system failed you and it failed our troops, and we're going to fix it."
News that war veterans were not getting adequate care stunned the public, outraged Capitol Hill and forced three high-level Pentagon officials to step down. Bush met with soldiers once housed in Building 18, who endured moldy walls, rodents and other problems that went unchecked until reported by the media.
"I was disturbed by their accounts of what went wrong," Bush said. "It is not right to have someone volunteer to wear our uniform and not get the best possible care. I apologize for what they went through, and we're going to fix the problem."
He did not visit Building 18, which is now closed.
Bush critics questioned the timing of the president's visit — six weeks after the problems were exposed and in the middle of the White House's battle with Congress over funding for troops in Iraq.
Retired Army Lt. Gen. Robert Gard, among retired military officers who took part in a conference call before Bush's visit, said the president needs to make sure the problems are corrected.
"We have been shortchanging these returning soldiers ever since the conflict began," Gard said. "Look at the inadequate funding in the Veterans Administration. That's caused by the fact that there has been a deliberate underestimate of the number of troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan who will need care. We've got to make this a seamless web between military facilities and the Veterans Administration so the soldiers are not hung out to dry."
Bush has set up three commissions to look into the problems facing military personnel who come off of active duty and are moving into veteran status.
The Defense Department's independent review group is to report back by the middle of next month with recommendations on how to improve conditions at Walter Reed. Veterans Affairs Secretary Jim Nicholson is leading an interagency task force to find gaps in federal services received by wounded troops. A bipartisan commission, chaired by former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., and Donna Shalala, President Clinton's secretary of health and human services, will complete its report this summer.
This week, the House voted to create a coterie of case managers, advocates and counselors for injured troops. The bill also establishes a hot line for medical patients to report problems in their treatment.
Bobby Muller, president of Veterans for America, said Bush didn't see areas of the hospital most in need of change. He cited Ward 54, where soldiers are suffering from acute mental health conditions, and outpatient holding facilities where soldiers see long waits to get processed out of the Army.
"Walter Reed is not a photo-op," Muller said. "Walter Reed is still broken. The DOD health care system is still broken. ... Our troops need their commander in chief to start working harder for them."
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino called it "an unfortunate characterization" to say Bush was using Walter Reed as a picture-taking opportunity. She said it took some time to clear enough room on the president's schedule so he could spend time with patients and staff at Walter Reed, which he praised for providing "extraordinary health care."
The president awarded 10 Purple Hearts during his visit to Walter Reed, his 12th as president.
Bush went to a building that houses troops who once stayed in Building 18. Afterward, he visited a physical therapy room where a soldier with an artificial limb from one knee down was using an elliptical machine, and the president ran his hand over the buzz-cut head of Sgt. Mark Ecker Jr. of East Longmeadow, Mass.
"I'm doing great," said Ecker, a double-amputee who was wounded by an improvised explosive device in Iraq.
Bush noticed a large tattoo of a scantily clad woman decorating his left arm.
"Make sure you get a picture of the tattoo," Bush said, eyeing photographers. "The man's proud of it."
Bush walked up to Army Sgt. David Gardner, who lost a leg and sustained serious injuries to his other leg when a small bulldozer, being used to fill a hole caused by an explosion, ran over him in Iraq.
"I was run over by a Bobcat while there was sniper fire going on," Gardner said as he did leg presses on a machine to exercise his wounded limb and get used to the other one now fitted with a prothesis.
"It kinda hurts," said Gardner, an engineer stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C. "It hurts to put pressure on it."
Gardner's wife, Beverly, who was pregnant when her husband was injured and gave birth to their daughter, Hailey, just days after he came out of a three-week coma, had no complaints about her husband's care at Walter Reed.
"They've been great," she said.
But Steve Robinson with Veterans for America tells a different story.
"I was at Walter Reed yesterday. Within 10 minutes I was encircled by about 15 soldiers having problems with their medical discharge, telling me they needed to get in touch with their congressman or their senator," Robinson said.
"The system is broke," he said. "We need him (Bush) to be personally affected by it."
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3/30/2007, 9:21 pm
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Incog4
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Re: Bush Administration BUSTED for SHABBY TREATMENT of wounded Veterans!
"How much more disingenuous and two-faced could this man possibly get?"
Come on, Joseph, get your tongue out of your cheek!
As every sensible and informed American (and foreigner) knows by now, George W. Bush is the poster boy for lying and conniving politicians and human beings in general.
Aaron
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3/30/2007, 9:45 pm
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insider3
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Re: Bush Administration BUSTED for SHABBY TREATMENT of wounded Veterans!
Aaron, sometimes you say more in fewer words than even Joseph does, as in your post immediately above this, "describing" President Bush.
To a casual reader, it might seem that Joseph and you are basing your assessments of Bush upon ONLY his words and actions in connection with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that you are "calling him names" ONLY because of the soldiers and civilians who lay dead or maimed in the wake of those wars.
But, to the thousands of us who have read MOST of this "multi-faceted" web site, including the section about victimized Children and Families, in which the FINANCIAL connections between the "child-snatching" industry and the Bush FAMILIES are detailed and documented, it is quite clear that personal profiteering at the expense of dire suffering by non-related others has been a TRADITIONAL "family value" of the Bushes.
Unlike Joseph (according to his essay entitled "Truth"), but like you Aaron, I believe in the concept of "Hell," as a place of eternal punishment for ESPECIALLY the souls of monsters who grew exceedingly wealthy and powerful in this mortal coil by EXPLOITING opportunities to profit from the suffering and deaths of poor and powerless INNOCENTS of all ages, nationalities and religions.
So in my widely shared opinion, the Bushes and their cronies, along with all others who have profited from the unholy schemes and wars of OUR times, have "reservations made" for their souls in the never-ending afterlife, where they will be sharing the company of their ilk from ALL OTHER times in the history and future of mankind.
As you might deduce from this post, I am an actual and practicing Christian, and I just got home from church and lunch. Today's sermon happened to be on the subject of the wars in the Middle East and America's parts in them, and, judging from their reactions, it appeared that the entire congregation is AGAINST the Bush Administration, even though THE BULK of us are employed by the Federal government.
Bob
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3/31/2007, 11:57 am
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