Bush Nominates another Dud (to head the VA)

[Up2Late]

(I suppose this was one of the only people Bush could get to work for him, or his he picking losers on purpose? Check out this report from NPR's "All Thing's Considered" today.)

Former Colleague: Peake Lacks Vision to Fix VA

...former colleague said Peake bogs down in details. He said the VA medical system is such a mess that it's going to take someone with sweeping vision to overhaul it — and Peake doesn't have that vision. In fact, the former colleague and some veterans' advocates say that Peake's myopia might have helped cause the crisis that soldiers faced when they came home from the war with serious mental health problems. "That is clearly a failure," said Gary Myers, a former Army lawyer, now in private practice, who works on military cases.

Myers says it's important to remember that Peake was running the Army's medical system when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan, and he kept running it until 18 months after the U.S. invaded Iraq. By late 2003, Army researchers were telling Peake that large numbers of troops were having serious mental health problems, including post-traumatic stress disorder. An Army study, later published in the New England Journal of Medicine, warned that soldiers were reporting "important barriers to receiving mental health services."

Everyone from the press to a presidential commission found that when soldiers came back to America, the military's medical centers were overwhelmed. There was a huge shortage of mental health specialists. Soldiers couldn't get the treatment they needed, even when their lives were falling apart. So Myers wants senators to ask Peake at his confirmation hearings "why there wasn't an urgent effort to increase the number of mental health care providers in anticipation of the arrival of these young men and women," Myers said.

And of course, mental health wasn't the only problem. Some journalists were reporting back in 2003 that soldiers who came home with physical injuries were having a terrible time getting treatment, and were languishing in squalid barracks. Peake was in charge then, too.... (more and audio at the link)

<http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=15853746>

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. 'dud', hee hee. Love the name if this thread.

[EST]

2. Bush, the dud's dud, is deeply immersed in the neocon dystopia.

His goal, and that of all republicans (yes, I know this is broad brush,) is the destruction of all infrastructure related to anything that appears "liberal."

Social security, retirement funding, medicare, public assistance of any sort except that which aids business, even roads and bridges, are all targets of that mind state which regards government as ideally responsible for war and the furtherance of direct capitalism.
To republicans and libertarians, regulation is anathema.

The VA is a liberal notion. Disease prevention is a liberal concept. Commonwealth is a liberal concept. Religion is only valued--in true repoob circles--as a manipulable voting block, a way to further their goals.
Humans are only of value to throw against an intrusion into "bidness." The fact that damaged soldiers are deserving of good, continued care is only useful to them when it gets a troop back into the fray sooner or when it applies to them, personally, or to their immediate circle of family.

I know it sounds hackneyed and over used, but people who choose to ally themselves with republican thought are different, mentally, and can only gain transformation through some mechanism that fundamentally alters their outlook enough to allow a little light to shine through.

Oh, and the other thing is that politicians are not particularly smarter or more well grounded than the rest of us, nor are they more capable of leadership.
What they are is more sly, more devious, and more aggressive. They are also less likely to internalize other people's opinions or emotions, nor are they as capable of empathy.

[Historic NY]

3. Why do Republicans hate Veteran's so much.................

they underfund, underman, undermine anything that helps or forwards the Veterans station in life and health care.

[Up2Late]

4. Why? Oh that's pretty easy if you really think about it.

I know little about the mind set of a Republican, but the one thing I know for sure:

Republicans are Selfish S.O.B.s. They care only about their own narrow self-interests. Veterans are nothing but another cost in the Liability column to them.

Sorry, but it's true.:(

[Up2Late]

5. kick n/t

:kick:

[Stinky The Clown]

6. This would clearly fall under the precepts of The Peter Principle

Nicholson was a true believer. He sounds like a green eye shade type.

Of all the government agencies, the VA is the most broken. We don't need a detail guy (as stated in the article) or a crony. We need a person who will do for the VA what James Lee Witt did for FEMA. This guy might be closer to a Michael Brown.

Support the Troops might finally MEAN something.

..... motherfucking Republicans ............