Walter reed is..OMG..

[undergroundpanther]

It's a horrible decaying dump!!It looks WORSE than some condemned buildings run by absent landlords I have seen in Baltimore.Holy crap what a mess. Who the hell let that hospital go to SHIT like this..Where is our TAX money GOING? If not to help? I think Bush-co and the Pentagon need to be FORCED to turn over the black budget bullshit. NOW. The truth MUST come out.This is sickening. :grr:


http://www.wusa9.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=56746

The mess is NOT just at Walter Reed..It's systemic.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/04/AR2007030401394.html
Where Has the money gone?

[Divide Et Impera]

1. WR?

Are you sure that's Walter Reed and not some hospital in Iraq that has been shelled by 4 years of bombings? Serious question....

[Monkeyman]

3. That's Reed the Walkway

[CrazyOrangeCat]

8. There's water on the floor . . .

. . . and two big transformers running high voltage through the basement.

This is real, from what I read on Saturday.

Welcome to DU, btw . . .

[sakabatou]

2. JEEBUS!

[Kadie]

4. OMG!

:mad:

[youngdem]

5. Meh, looks like public schools in Louisiana I went to

You should see what schools here in New Orleans look like now that have kids in them. Shameful.

[thereismore]

6. this building was not in use. nt

[Monkeyman]

7. No its old part and hard to get to

but you should of seen it 35 years ago. Look at the hallway ahead it looked just like that

[undergroundpanther]

10. Why is it still STANDING

than, it's a rat trap, a mold spreader, a danger that sick people should not be around.regardless.

[Monkeyman]

14. This is why they want to close it down

[w4rma]

18. No, the reason some want to close it down is because the land it's on is worth a lot to some wealthy

GOP contributors/developers.

[notadmblnd]

9. it's beyond outrageous, The MFIC's should be forced to camp out there till it fixed.

These freaking contractors take our tax dollars, cut staff, let the buildings rot and become a danger to others, then put the money in their pockets and go home to their mansion on some exotic Isle? I have to hope there's a special spot in hell reserved for these people.

snip:

Cordell says the worst of it may be Building 40. The old research institute has been condemned, but last week, the private contractor now responsible for maintaining Walter Reed sent workers in to fix a leak.

Cordell points to a picture showing the terrible decay inside the building and says, "The water is actually on the ground floor here. There is water halfway across the ground floor. And there's electricity too. There's high voltage that goes to this building. Two thirteen thousand volt transformers. Through the basement filled with water."

Cordell took more pictures in Building 1, the old hospital, that's now the main administration building. Water damage in the walls; holes in the ceilings next to electric cables and computer servers; hazardous waste stored between occupied floors; and leaking pipes that are rotting floor joists.

"The steam pipes below these buildings have burst, and it's making the rafters on the basement floor wet. People work on those floors," says Cordell.

[Warpy]

11. Conservative administrations from both parties

have allowed the whole system to fall into ruins because they're too cheap to maintain anything that's already there. They'd rather waste trillions (yes, that's trillions) on weapons systems that are obsolete while they're on the drawing board just because the arms merchant is in some Congressman's district.

The military budget has become a scam, a racket that benefits Congressmen and their pet contractors. The brass hats and civilian management types in the Pentagon don't care because they're also getting a piece of the action.

That's another reason we won't win the next world war.

Oh, and don't get me started on the money laundering scam that Carol Lam was investigating before Stupid had her fired.

[Double T]

12. THIS is what happens when the criminal rethugs are in charge.......

and no one should forget IT. The money has gone into an endless bushco black hole named Iraq.

[Recursion]

13. Reed is BRAC'd

Short of a scandal like this it's almost impossible to get Congress to send new money to an installation targeted by the Base Realignment and Closure process.

And frankly Walter Reed was BRAC'd precisely because everybody knew what bad shape it's in and they didn't want to pay for fixing it up.

[Monkeyman]

15. Yep

[SoCalDem]

19. And yet, our military genius-in-charge still thought it was OK to start a war

KNOWING (or should have known) there would not be adequate facilities to care for injured.:eyes:

Kind of like loading up a moving van with all your stuff and moving ..without having a house to unload it into on the other end..

Note to future presidents:

If you plan to start a war, you might just need to have a lot of hospitals and staff available to treat the injured soldiers..

but then the cynic in me comes out, and I start to ponder the lack of armored humvees & personal armor... what if he didn't really "expect" so many soldiers being "salvaged" and sent home..:grr:

[undergroundpanther]

16. Lets see where the money goes..

What DOES those big bucks these evil pigs at the pentagon skim off our taxes pay for while army hospitals go to shit..?
DAVID STOCKMAN, RONALD REAGAN'S BUDGET DIRECTOR, PREDICTED the future when he said, "There are no entitlements, period!" The goal of the Republicans then, as now, was to destroy the idea that the government owed anything to the people. Once that is accomplished, the safety net of the U.S. welfare state, never very strong compared to those in Europe, can be shredded entirely. Then, there is no buffer to protect people from having to take any low-waged job, or to protect women from having to remain in a painful marriage, or even to protect them from homelessness.
http://www.wpunj.edu/newpol/issue19/mandel19.htm
______________________________________________________________________

This year, the Federal government will spend more than $2.5 trillion—an amount almost impossible to grasp. If you do the math, this number translates into $6.8 billion a day, or $4.72 million a minute and $8454 for each man, woman and child in the country.So what do we get for our money?
What The President Costs (I don't think BUSH is worth the money)

This year, we will spend $1.2 billion for the U.S. Secret Service to protect the President, the Vice President, their families and visiting dignitaries, plus more than $255 million to maintain the Executive Office of the President. The President gets an annual salary of $400,000, plus allowances for extra traveling ($100,000), personal expenses ($50,000) and “unanticipated expenses” ($1 million).

http://www.parade.com/articles/editions/2005/edition_04-10-2005/featured_0

http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/25/f22-corruption/
http://www.commongroundcommonsense.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t66664.html

[monmouth]

17. Blackwater gets approx. $950 per day per man.... n/t