Archive for August, 2009
Veterans Demand Apology from GOP and FOX for Lies About VA
Repost from Veterans for Common Sense
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.
WAGNER CALLS FOR FLEXIBILITY FOR GI BILL RECIPIENTS
Today, Democratic Nominee for Lieutenant Governor Jody Wagner called on colleges and universities in Virginia to maintain a flexible policy toward recipients of GI Bill grants in the coming weeks, many of whom have yet to receive their benefits. The GI Bill, championed by Senator Jim Webb, provides education funding for hundreds of thousands of recent veterans across the country. However, the program has been so successful that there’s currently a backlog of over 210,000 claims that have yet to be processed. With classes starting at many schools in the next two weeks-and final tuition bills due-many veterans could find themselves without the funds they need to remain registered.
Said Wagner, “The expanded GI Bill fulfills an important obligation we have to our veterans, that has been met successfully for generations: help them get the education and career training that they deserve. With thousands of veterans in Virginia still waiting on their benefits to arrive, I would strongly encourage our state colleges and universities in the Commonwealth to work with veterans and identify individuals who should be given extensions on their tuition dues. After all these men and women have done for our country, their focus in the coming days and weeks should be on their new classes-not whether they’ll be forced to withdraw because of an administrative snafu.”
The expanded GI Bill, signed into law last year, pays for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to attend in-state public colleges at no cost to them. They can also apply the funds towards the cost of an out-of-state or private college.
Soldiers Into Students
The new GI Bill went into effect this month, and President Obama marked that milestone last week when he addressed about 350 military veterans and advocates on the campus of George Mason University.
“It’s driven by the same simple logic that drove the first GI Bill,” Obama said of the legislation, passed by Congress last year and expected to help a quarter-million veterans pay for school by 2011. “You pick the school; we’ll help pick up the bill.”
Vets’ Health Care is Safe and Sound
Matt Flavin, Director of Veterans and Wounded Warrior Policy, explains that nothing in health insurance reform will affect veterans’ access to the care they get now. To the contrary, the President’s budget greatly expands coverage for veterans who have been denied access in the past.
Retired U.S. Army Colonel Scott Robinson Enters Race for Virginia’s 1st Congressional District
Following 25 years of service in the U.S. Army, retired Colonel Scott Robinson has entered the race as a Democrat for the first congressional district of Virginia.
Robinson, who grew up in Heathsville, VA has decided to make a challenge to the current incumbent based upon his dedication and commitment to continuing his record of public service to the people of Virginia. Citing the need for increased accountability out of Washington, Robinson will be making job creation a central theme of his candidacy.
“The people of the first district work hard and expect results. And this is a value I share and have abided by throughout my entire life,” said Robinson. “Whether it was when I worked on a fishing boat growing up, playing sports or throughout my entire military career, the basic principle that through accountability results is the driving force of my work ethic.
“And we’re going to apply that principle to how we create jobs in the district. The good people in our region are paying the current representation $170,000 a year and are asking themselves ‘what are we getting for it when every day we continue to lose jobs’,” Robinson continued. “The only way we are ever going to create clean energy jobs, clean up the Chesapeake to improve our fishing industry, provide better education to build a better workforce or encourage small businesses to grow by expanding broadband into rural areas is by sending someone to Congress who is not afraid to work for it. And that is exactly the type of representative I will be,” Robinson concluded.
Scott and his wife Sandy have been married for twenty-five years and now live in Tappahannock.
The campaign also launched their web site today at www.scottrobinsonforcongress.com where voters will be able to learn more about Mr. Robinson as well as get involved.
OFA Veterans Notice: Veterans Campaign
Veterans Campaign is the first ever non-partisan, non-ideological training program aimed exclusively at preparing veterans to run for public office. The goal is to demystify the process of campaigning for elected office and to encourage more veterans to continue their legacy of public service by running. Participants will learn the skills necessary to campaign for office at all levels of government. Topics covered will include organizing a campaign, issue development, fundraising, public and media relations, getting out the vote, and much more. Veterans Campaign will host its inaugural training on the weekend of September 12 and 13, 2009 in Princeton, NJ.
If you are a veteran of the United States Armed Forces and are interested in running for elected office, we hope you will consider attending our training. Thanks to a generous donation from Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, we are pleased to offer this seminar free of charge to fifty participants. Travel, meals, and lodging are participants’ only financial obligations and assistance packages can be provided in exceptional circumstances. If you know veterans who would make great elected officials, we hope you will tell them about Veterans Campaign.
If you have questions, please contact Seth Lynn at seth@veteranscampaign.org.
Who We Are
At Veterans Campaign we believe that our country’s veterans are a valuable yet untapped resource of potential elected leadership. Veterans possess many qualities our country needs in its public officials. They have outstanding leadership experience, are capable of succeeding in the face of adversity, and intimately understand the human consequences of Washington’s foreign policy decisions. Most importantly, they have demonstrated their willingness to put America and its citizens before their own well-being. Today more than ever, our country needs more veterans in public office.
Veterans Campaign was initiated by a group of graduate students at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, with the support of two visiting faculty members who had formerly been members of Congress. Some of the members have military experience, while others have staffed and managed political campaigns. Members hold different ideological and partisan beliefs, but all share the conviction that having more veterans in public office will benefit the United States. To that end, Veterans Campaign is committed to training veterans to seek, campaign for, and win positions in elected office.
Veterans & Military Families for Progress National Conference
Veterans & Military Families for Progress National Conference
September 25 – 27, Arlington VA
Collaborate with other members of the veteran and military family community Catch up on what VMFP has accomplished and what’s next
- Attend informative workshops covering critical issues embraced by VMFP including
- Veteran and military family outreach and advocacy
- Physical and mental healthcare
- Education and job opportunities
- Housing assistance and homelessness
- Military families issues
- Learn about intergovernmental agencies’ best practices
- Participate in panel discussions and forums
- Enjoy a Friday night hospitality reception with special guests
- Join us in recognizing Veteran and Military Family “torchbearer” efforts at Saturday night’s banquet with live music (and more special guests!)
- Collaborate with other veterans organizations on future legislative lobbying efforts
- Network with fellow veterans and family members, as well as corporate, labor, and governmental agency representatives
Register now to get the early bird discount! See the conference flyer, visit the website.
Wounded Marine Fights VA For Care
Casey Owens wasn’t expected to live after he lost both legs in Iraq. But he made it out of a military vehicle alive and to Bethesda Naval Hospital where CBS News national security correspondent David Martin first met him in October of 2004.
“I don’t remember anything, but I know that it was a mine,” Owens said.
Everyone would agree the U.S. government owes Casey Owens the best possible medical care. No one who hears his story could say he got it.
“I don’t know why I’m just depressed, crying a lot and feeling down, just feeling hopeless,” Owens said.
He said that to the latest doctor he turned to in his desperate search for the help he was not getting from the Veterans Administration.
“Dealing with the VA and being held up and not getting the care that I feel I wanted or treatments that I see fit,” Owens said. “That’s a very discouraging thing for me because I did my part and their part is to help heal us and they failed me.”
GI Bill is Tool for Economic Recovery
President Barack Obama on Monday pitched the new military education benefits not only as a well-deserved reward for young veterans but also as an agent for the nation’s economic recovery, by helping train new leaders in the work force.
“The young post-9/11 veterans around the country can lead the way to a lasting economic recovery and become the glue that holds our communities together,” he told a crowd of servicemembers and educators on campus at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. “They, too, can become the backbone of a growing American middle class.”
The new education benefits, passed by Congress last year and launched on Saturday, provide four years of tuition at any public university in a veteran’s home state for anyone who served at least three years on active duty since Sept. 11, 2001.