Ever since Sarah Palin raised the ghastly prospect of government-sponsored “death panels” that would presumably decide whether it was more cost-effective to “unplug Grandma” than to treat her, the debate over the inclusion of language regarding end-of-life provisions in the proposed health care legislation has raged on.  But, nobody believes the intentions of a bunch of lawyers-turned-politicians in Washington, when they can read the language for themselves. Read More »

Technorati Tags: advance directives, barack obama, death panels, Disabled veterans, health care reform, Living Wills, Veterans Administration, Your Life Your Choices

The Obama Administration has a burgeoning honesty problem. Rather than debate his socialist power grab or any of his other insane policy decisions in an open and honest fashion, he pursues an agenda that is in diametrical opposition to the words spewing forth from his lips. Read More »

Technorati Tags: barack obama, Disabled veterans, health care reform, Politics, Service Connected Disabilities, social engineering, socialism, treasury secretary timothy geithner, US military

Ever since the Iraq war began, politicians and media elites have been using the health care of returning veterans as a campaign issue; a political football to be kicked around and fought over. And ever since those first Iraq veterans began returning from battle, those same politicians and media elites have been sounding the alarm about the horrendous care our veterans have received at the hands of the military health care system and V.A.

I, for one, am sick of the lies. I know they’re lies. I am as familiar with navigating the military’s medical review process as any. I spent 6 months and endured 4 major surgeries at military facilities on the west coast. I was treated by some of the most compassionate, dedicated and experienced doctors, surgeons, nurses that this country has to offer. I also witnessed this superior level of care extended to all military personnel on a daily basis. I saw sight restored to badly lacerated, blind eyes. I saw lumps of flesh that passed for burned off ears that were completely reconstructed from the patient’s own body parts. I saw the crushed, the impaled and the burned pieced back together and healed.

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Technorati Tags: Disabled veterans, Iraq, military retirement, VA, veterans, Walter Reed

If I hear one more politician tell me how much they care for and support our veterans, I’m going to hurl.

While spending nearly six months in Balboa Naval Hospital in the early 1990’s, they brought me in a “roomie”. He was about 19; a young Airborne Private who was on a night training jump. His parachute did deploy, but he thinks someone else’s chute underneath him stole his air. He fell pretty hard from about three thousand feet. They brought him in late at night and after determining there was no paralysis or other serious injury, decided to transfer him the next day. But it was late, he was hungry and the galley was closed. The nurse told him he’d have to wait until breakfast to eat.

Absolutely fuming, I shot her a death glance and I then took it upon myself to walk -IV pole trailing- to the base McDonald’s to buy that kid a cheeseburger and a Coke®. I came to the cold realization that this country will never do enough to repay it’s veterans; that we’d have to take care of ourselves. He left the next day. I never saw him again. We shook hands as he was wheeled out and that was it. I never caught more than his last name - now long forgotten. It didn’t matter. I knew if we ever crossed paths again, that he was good for it.

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Technorati Tags: 100% unemployability, champva, Disabled veterans, VA Compensation