Last Week, The President Promised to Call Out the Lies

Well, here is the start.. of course no one in the media is going to pick up on it and no one will bother to see it and report on it from Fox Noise for sure. But at least we know it is there.

Crooks & Liars wrote it up and I am writing it up.. But if you bother to read the White House Blog you should have seen it yourself. Anita Dunn put up a post about the idiocy of Glenn Beck and Lou Dobbs over the Czars they are whining about.

Of course, they started it and then like good little soldiers members of the GOPers in Congress picked up on it like they are supposed to and started talking it up too. I am not sure which way this works.. if Fox Noise sends the talking points to the RNC or if the RNC sends the talking points to Fox Noise every day.. but it is one or the other.

Here is part of what Ms. Dunn wrote at the White House blog about the Czar situation:

Last week, when the President addressed the Joint Session of Congress in a speech on health reform, he referred to some of the untruths – okay, lies – that have been spread about the plan and sent a clear message to those who seek to undermine his agenda and his presidency with these tactics: "We will call you out." So consider this one of those calls.

Over the past several weeks, we've seen with increasing frequency and volume issues raised around the use of "czars" by this Administration. Although some Members have asked serious questions around the makeup of the White House staff, the bulk of the noise you hear began first with partisan commentators, suggesting that this is somehow a new and sinister development that threatens our democracy. This is, of course, ridiculous. Just to be clear, the job title "czar" doesn’t exist in the Obama Administration. Many of the officials cited by conservative commentators have been confirmed by the Senate. Many hold policy jobs that have existed in previous Administrations. And some hold jobs that involved coordinating the work of agencies on President Obama’s key policy priorities: health insurance reform, energy and green jobs, and building a new foundation for long-lasting economic growth

But of course, it’s really the hypocrisy here that is noteworthy. Just earlier today, Darrell Issa, a Republican from California and one of the leaders in calling for an investigation into the Obama Administration’s use of "czars", had to admit to Fox News that he had never raised any objections to the Bush Administration’s use of "czars". Many of these members who now decry the practice have called on Presidents in the past to appoint "czars" to coordinate activities within the government to address immediate challenges. What is clear is that all of this energy going into these attacks could be used to have a constructive conversation about bringing this country together to address our challenges moving forward – and it doesn’t take a "czar" to bring that about! Just some folks willing to act in good faith.

Way to go Ms. Dunn..and way to name names and call them out. I approve of this message and I approve of the tactics this is taking. But there is more. I did highlight some of the above passages I wanted to make sure you saw.

Yeah, isn't it funny.. they called for more czars under Bush, that was Lamar Alexander, (R,TN(hypocriteville) who did that, and now he is all against the czars that Pres. Obama has. Ms. Dunn goes on to cite more and more of the hypocrisy of the Republicans and the idiots of Fox Noise.

In fact, last year, 176 House Republicans, including Issa, voted for a bill that would create an "Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator" that would advise the President and serve in the White House. By the time the bill passed the Senate, it was co-sponsored by 20 additional senators, including Sen. Alexander.

Damn, don't you hate it when your words come back and bite you in the ass there Senator and Representative? Just really makes you look like a fool doesn't it?

Then there is this little gem from the DNC..



You can read the entire blog post at the link above.. it is really good and she lays out all kinds of other proof of their hypocrisy and lies. Including the fact at least 9 of the so called czars HAVE gone through Senate confirmation, even though Beck says they haven't.

The one thing I didn't notice was the number of czars George Bush had in his administration..According to Tweety tonight.. it was 46.. hmmm I believe unless you use that new math that is going around.. that's just a few more than the 30 that Pres. Obama has.

Here is a Presser from 03/29/2001..Just to Compare the Questions and the Tone of the Media

Just to compare the quality of the questions and the tone of the media.. I thought it might be fun to look back. So here is a press conference from about the same time in Bush's Term in Office.

See what you think if you can stand it...



In case you can't or don't want to listen you can click here for the transcript.

Unopened claims letters hidden at VA offices

As if we haven't seen enough of the screw ups and wrongs of our military by the Bush Administration, here comes another one. I got this in my email today and it just makes me so angry I have no words to describe it. We owe our men and women who fight everything, and when they come home they should get what is owed to them with no problems at all. Instead this is what they get.

This article from Marine Corp Times tells about unopened letters and back dated claims in the Veterans Administration. More problems for President Obama to have to clean up. How much more can we pile up on his plate. Every time we think we find it all more keeps getting piled on.

A new report about Veterans Affairs Department employees squirreling away tens of thousands of unopened letters related to benefits claims is sparking fresh concerns that veterans and their survivors are being cheated out of money.

VA officials acknowledge further credibility problems based on a new report of a previously undisclosed 2007 incident in which workers at a Detroit regional office turned in 16,000 pieces of unprocessed mail and 717 documents turned up in New York in December during amnesty periods in which workers were promised no one would be penalized.

It is no wonder the article goes on to say that veterans have lost their trust in the VA.

Unprocessed and unopened mail was just one problem in VA claims processing mentioned by Belinda Finn, VA’s assistant inspector general for auditing, in testimony before the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.

Auditors also found that the dates recorded for receiving claims, which in many cases determine the effective date for benefits payments, are wrong in many cases because of intentional and unintentional errors, Finn said.

I know this is not a new problem. The fact that our veterans are treated terribly has been going on for years. My dad, uncles and others I know from WWII either are still or have just recently gotten their claims for disability compensation through the process.

Sixty years?? Yes, 60 years, and they are just now getting their claims. So many of them were either told they weren't eligible, or they never knew they could even file. Then, there were the ones who had not been able to document their injuries due to "heat of the battle" type things. Injuries and wounds happened that were not serious enough at the time to get them sent back to the hospital, or sick bay, but were treated by a corp man or medic and they kept on fighting.

Later, these same soldiers, sailors and marines found out these injuries were often much more serious and yet now there was no documentation. So, no claim could ever be filed. Too bad, says the VA. Unless you can find someone who served with you that remembers it and can help you document it and will testify for you.

These guys are in their 80's, lots of them are deceased, they are scattered, so they give up and get nothing for having served bravely in battle. Why do we not take better care of our veterans?? This is something I think the neocons and the republicans need to ask themselves, they claim to be such champions of the military, yet they do not take care of the veterans very well. It takes a Democratic President to try to fix the Veterans Administration.