Proposed shutdown of VA hospitals sparks torrent of protests

[MaineDem]

CANANDAIGUA, N.Y., Oct. 27 — Once a week, Frank Woods meets up with a dozen fellow World War II veterans to exorcise the nightmares and other chilling aftereffects of battles they fought more than a half-century ago.

''It really helps when you've got somebody to talk to,'' said Woods, 79, leaning on a cane in a courtyard at the Veterans Affairs hospital in this lake-shore town in western New York.

The 70-year-old hospital, which sits on 170 acres of tranquil parkland on the edge of open country, is one of seven around the country that could be closed as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs looks for ways to streamline its $26 billion health care network.

That threat drew more than 1,500 protesters, many in uniform, to a boisterous hearing last week before a federal commission charged with overseeing the biggest overhaul of the VA system since the end of World War II.


http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/ap10-27-232429.asp?t=apnew&vts=102820030528

[Malva Zebrina]

1. good on them

170 acres of "tranquil parkland"--hmm sounds like they are blocking progress--are "old and in the way" how many new homes--or malls--how much money to be made on real estate /construction ventures?

[iam]

2. Troops?

Now that's what I call supporting the troops.

[underpants]

4. Hey they are only "streamlining"

a promis is a promise.

Hillary is on it though.

Welcome to DU :hi: iam

[dreissig]

8. Hillary is On It

Oh, yes. That should make everyone feel better. Things are in good hands. Hillary is on it.

Give me a break, willya?

[davhill]

3. This may seem to cortradict the Neo-con strategy

But in the long run it really doesn't. The concept is not to have a lot of expensive American citizens fighting the wars of the New American Century. It is to hire cheap soldiers from third world countries to fight as mercenaries. They will receive no veterans benifits. The object is to have Americans become the master class, living off of investments and the rest of the world supplying the labor. The last time something like this was tried, in the Roman Empire, the world was plunged into the dark ages.

[pw]

5. In the minds of the PNAC folks

Anyone poor enough to join the military and get wounded isn't a Real American. Only property-owners are real to them.

[7th_Sephiroth]

6. yeah

it sickens me

[Snow]

10. "The world was plunged into the dark ages"

Actually, Asia was doing very well, thank you. A flourishing culture, arts, poetry - esp China & Korea. Very civilized time. But you have a goodp oint about mercenary armies. Isn't that what came against the American colonies in the 1770's?

[Mari333]

7. The BFEE and PNAC bunch have the Leona Helmsley mentality

the little people are meaningless to them...
Well, you gilded-caged assholes, harken back to what happened to King Louis and Marie Antoinette, and remember what happened to the Tsar in Russia..
dont f*ck with the people. They will rise up everytime.

[Occulus]

9. Oh, but we'll never do that

because we're a nation of laaawwwws and oooorrrrder.

Terra! Terra! Freedom! Terra! Wor! Wor! (sic)

:puke: