VA Scandal, Military Transgenders and Hillary's Brain Damage

Mark Levy
Fri, 16 May 2014 21:00:00 -0700
Opinion

Dear Mark: There appears to be another scandal under President Obama, but this one really hurts because it involves our VA hospitals and the poor medical treatment of our military veterans. As a Vietnam vet, it was bad enough how we were treated when we returned from our tours, but now the scandal in the VA system is adding insult to injury. Caring for our veterans seems like a nonpartisan issue. So why all the problems? — Proudly Served

Dear Proudly: First of all, thank you for your service. Apparently there are some serious problems in the VA system, and there appears to be evidence of a cover up that prompted the recent senate hearings. But even if the Veterans Administration is completely innocent or free of corruption, this incident highlights the problems with large bureaucracies and a bloated government. The larger the bureaucracy, the less accountability and oversight. Unfortunately, the health of our veterans has suffered.

During senate hearings, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said "Any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell." Well, let's hope his outrage produces better results than the "outrage" President Obama showed when he first heard about the IRS targeting conservative groups.
Updated: Sat May 17, 2014

Dear Mark: There appears to be another scandal under President Obama, but this one really hurts because it involves our VA hospitals and the poor medical treatment of our military veterans. As a Vietnam vet, it was bad enough how we were treated when we returned from our tours, but now the scandal in the VA system is adding insult to injury. Caring for our veterans seems like a nonpartisan issue. So why all the problems? — Proudly Served

Dear Proudly: First of all, thank you for your service. Apparently there are some serious problems in the VA system, and there appears to be evidence of a cover up that prompted the recent senate hearings. But even if the Veterans Administration is completely innocent or free of corruption, this incident highlights the problems with large bureaucracies and a bloated government. The larger the bureaucracy, the less accountability and oversight. Unfortunately, the health of our veterans has suffered.

During senate hearings, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki said "Any allegation, any adverse incident like this makes me mad as hell." Well, let's hope his outrage produces better results than the "outrage" President Obama showed when he first heard about the IRS targeting conservative groups.

"If in fact IRS personnel engaged in the kind of practices that have been reported on and were intentionally targeting conservative groups, then that's outrageous. And there's no place for it." The president added: "Americans have a right to be angry about it, and I'm angry about it." Since Obama's IRS statements, the administration has done little to get to the bottom of the IRS corruption.

Doesn't this administration hold anybody accountable? Eric Holder, Lois Lerner and Kathleen Sebelius have all overseen government agencies that have either obstructed investigations or covered up failures and other malfeasance. Let's hope Shinseki isn't like these other Democrat hacks and the senate can resolve this dire situation so our honorable veterans can receive the medical attention they properly deserve.

Dear Mark: Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel said he believes the Pentagon needs to continually review the policy toward transgender individuals in our military. My question is why in the world is this even an issue? — Major Frustrated

Dear Major: Hagel's remarks came in response to convicted national security leaker Bradley Manning's, or now as he wants to be known, Chelsea Manning's transfer to a civilian prison where he can continue his transition to becoming a woman.

First of all, Manning was convicted of sending classified secrets to WikiLeaks and he's lucky he didn't face the firing squad for his gutless espionage. Secondly, and to address your question, as more liberals have crept into the Pentagon, the military unfortunately has become more of a politically correct social science petri dish than a finely tuned fighting machine.

It's galling enough to discover what taxpayers are forced to fund in order to keep convicted criminals happy, but come on — sex changes? Our military has a specific purpose, which is to protect and defend our freedom and liberty. People are routinely excluded from military service for myriad of reasons ranging from flat feet to sleep walking. It's embarrassing that the Pentagon has caved to far-left liberalism and allowed this transgender case to go this far. God forbid the day when a transgendered soldier is captured by the Taliban

Dear Mark: Your looney conservative brother Karl Rove is an idiot, but I say let him continue to be the spokesperson for the Republican Party because y'all will lose with him. Rove saying Hillary Clinton has brain damage shows his lack of class and shows that y'all don't have anything legitimate to run on. — Go Karl Go

Dear Go: Hillary Clinton and brain damage — so many jokes, so few column inches.