Showing posts with label death book. Show all posts
Showing posts with label death book. Show all posts

Sunday, August 30, 2009

Veterans Demand Apology from GOP and FOX for Lies About VA

Veterans are not stupid. Stop treating them like they are
Veterans groups blast right wingers
Senator John McCain, uses VA but thinks veterans are stupid


Veterans Demand Apology from GOP and FOX for Lies About VA
Written by Veterans for Common Sense
Thursday, 27 August 2009 12:36
August 27, 2009 - The claim that the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has a manual encouraging veterans to "commit suicide," made by Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, is an asinine assertion with no basis in fact.

Steele made the charge two days ago (August 25th) on FOX News. Steele's egregious comments are an outrageous slander against VA designed to create an atmosphere of mistrust and fear among the millions of our veterans who rely on the VA for medical care. Veterans demand an apology from Steele and FOX News.

"Let me be absolutely clear, Steele lied. There is no VA manual encouraging veterans to commit suicide," said Paul Sullivan, the executive director of VCS, a non-profit based in Washington, DC providing advocacy for veterans, especially veterans with mental health conditions.

Here is the full text of Steele's comments:

"If you want an example of bad public policy, let's look at this situation with our veterans where you have a manual out there, telling our veterans stuff like, ‘Are you really a value to your community?' and, you know, encouraging them to commit suicide. This is crazy coming from the government, and this is exactly what concerns people, what puts them in fear of what government controlled health care, of health care, will look like."

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Veterans Demand Apology from GOP and FOX for Lies About VA

Friday, August 28, 2009

Senator John McCain, uses VA but thinks veterans are stupid

McCain is a Vietnam Vet, was a POW, but when you listen to him, you'd think he never met a veteran needing the VA. I guess he never reads what Vietnam Vets have to say either. His voting record is usually against veterans anyway. The big problem for him now is that he has shown politics comes before veterans and that is sickening. Now he makes it even more clear by pushing the talking points painting veterans as stupid fools willing to believe anything when they can find the real truth in their own hands and straight from any VA hospital, provided by their doctors honoring their end of life decisions knowing they are fully capable to do it. This is what the Vietnam Veterans had to say and then there is a link to the post I did with the real facts on the so called "death book" some politicians have been using to put fear into our veterans instead of honoring their intelligence.

Shame on John McCain! The veterans finally figured out that while he is a Vietnam veteran, he has never had their backs when it came to his votes. Shame on FOX as well because they are really pushing this for what they think they'll gain instead of understanding they are insulting veterans instead.

Veterans Group Blasts Right Wingers Pushing “Death Book”


Veterans are not stupid, stop treating them like they are

McCain perpetuates 'death panel' for veterans myth

Speaking with Fox editorialist Sean Hannity on Thursday, U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), a beneficiary of government-funded health care, supported the myth that President Barack Obama's health insurance reforms would establish some kind of nebulous, undefined "death panel."

Hannity was specifically talking about the literature, "Your Life, Your Choice," which he insinuated somehow encourages sick and dying veterans to not be a burden on society.

The claim is an echo of the latest attack on the proposed insurance reforms.

First came Palin's allegation that a so-called "death panel" would have killed her down syndrome baby.

More recently, RNC Chairman Michael Steele alleged that a VA pamphlet dredged up by the Obama administration is encouraging vets to "commit suicide."

Hannity's cleverly-worded question merely piggy-backed on this fallacy, albeit through the use of softer terminology.

Addressing McCain, the Fox pundit asked, "Is that the kind of death panel that people were maybe afraid of ... ?"

McCain, a veteran himself, answered: "Yes."

He added: "But, I think they're also concerned because they're well-read, they're knowledgeable, they're informed. They know what's happening in other countries where basically there is a rationing of health care, particularly when people reach a certain age, as to what kind of treatment people can get and if they can get it, and the incredible delays seen in acquiring that kind of care. So, I think it's not just that. I think it's the example of government-run health care in other countries, which is not ... Wa ... America is not ready for that."

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McCain perpetuates 'death panel' for veterans myth

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Veterans Group Blasts Right Wingers Pushing “Death Book”

Disclosure right now is that I am in a very, very bad mood right now. This is one of the first emails I read this morning. It is not a great way to start my day after my morning prayer.

I did a huge post about this. I won't bother you with repeating all of it. You can read it here.

Veterans are not stupid, stop treating them like they are



In my life, I've met all kinds of people from all walks of life. Each one of them have within them the same possibilities to do good or to do harm. Some choose to think of others, putting themselves in the place of others, while some, well, let's just say they only think of themselves and their own gain, never bothering to once think of who they are hurting as long as they get what they want.

Some of them are just too blind to see what they are turning into. Others, well, they must have something really twisted in their soul to the point where they have slaughtered whatever good God intended them to produce in this world.

I do not fully blame the people repeating this abomination because they are too uninformed to know what is true and what is a blatant lie. They have been following the people they believe instead of using what God provided them with called a brain.

I blame the creators and the pushers of this lie against our veterans, trying to cause them to fear, feel even more hopeless by this lie being repeated and above all, reminding them that they are yet again the victim of a political game played by people with no morals, no values for anyone other than themselves and have sold their own souls for power.

Truly despicable people push this lie, sending it out onto massive email chains, never once thinking about who will read it because they think, "Now we got them right where we want them" and causing harm to our veterans in the process. Never once do the senders of this sin contemplate the real magnitude of the problems our veterans face everyday, or the fact that it got worse for them while they enabled party loyalty to overshadow what was happening when "their guy" was in office. They got what they wanted and that was all they needed to know. Nothing else mattered.

I track all of this all the time and never once did I see from any of these pushers a post or email chain about the suicides, when they could have done something. The veterans coming back homeless, were their own fault, or in the words of their hero Bill O'Reilly, they were not real. I didn't see posts about the lack of troops in Iraq when they were dying, or the equipment issues, or the fact the wounded were coming back and having to wait in the valley of despair for their claims to be approved. The list of what I didn't read goes on but above all it proved that they don't care about the veterans unless they can use them.

These "fiscally responsible conservatives" propagating lies never once thought about the vast amounts of tax payer dollars driving the deficit to astronomical highs was pushed by two wars never included in the Presidential budget or the fact hundreds of millions of dollars was lost, never accounted for and wasted. This at the same time their heroes in the Congress kept saying there wasn't enough money to righteously fund the VA to take care of the wounded and waiting.

For all the truly patriotic conservatives out there, be appalled. Find out what the truth is and then nail these liars once and for all! It is not only your duty to your country it is your moral obligation to stand up for our veterans being assaulted again.

This is not a harmless rumor. It goes far beyond a lie about the "death book" because it ends up telling veterans they don't matter when it comes to politics and that is the biggest sin of all. If you hear any of these political animals on the radio or TV repeating these lies, hit them with the facts for the sake of the veterans. Stand up for them and stop allowing people to use any veteran in this country as a political tool. If you get one of these emails, ask yourself what the person sending it has to gain and then ask what they have against veterans when they see fit to use them.

Remember veterans served this one nation. Not Democrats and not Republicans. No side should use them instead of standing up for them!

The Plum Line
Greg Sargent's blog
Veterans Group Blasts Right Wingers Pushing “Death Book” Claim As “Cruel” To Veterans
Today Rush Limbaugh used Ted Kennedy’s death to keep pushing the “death book” tale, that claim being spread on the right that Obama’s veteran’s agency is distributing manuals urging veterans to hurry up and die.

“No government of ours should ever become a partner in snuffing out a life,” Rush declared on the air. “Ted Kennedy didn’t have to read a death book. Ted Kennedy wasn’t asked to say, `Is my life worth living?’”

That’s unsightly enough on its own. But it turns out Rush’s broadside comes a day after the Vietnam Veterans of America, a national advocacy group, defended the manual and strongly denounced “death book” claims as “hysteria” and as “cruel” to veterans themselves.

“This booklet was developed with guidance from clerics, and it addresses options most of us and our loved ones will have to sort through as we live our final years,” the group said in a little-noticed statement that was sent my way. “To play politics with veterans’ end-of-life choices is not only irresponsible politically, but it is cruel.”
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Veterans Group Blasts Right Wingers Pushing Death Book