I think getting off of oil is something that 99% of Americans can really agree on, albeit for different reasons. Some may want to do it for environmental reasons, some want to do it to save money at the pump, some may even want to do it because they hate the thought of giving money to Middle-Easterners. No matter how you arrive at the conclusion, it is still the same: Time to get off of oil.

I wish someone (Sanders, perhaps) would introduce a bill that would give people tax breaks for installing solar panels AND buying electric cars, which is about the only way to really free yourself of oil. They should also offer research money or guarenteed government contracts to any company that can design a clean-air tractor trailer. If the post office alone switched to all clean-air vehicles, the insentive would be there for companies to begin making more of them.

I feel that the problem with VA is that senior managers were paid performance bonuses for grades GS-13 and above under the 1978 Civil Service Reform Act. In order to get their bonuses, senior managers. who were keeping secret lists of appointments, were trying to protect their bonuses. I have always felt that these bonuses were a bad idea. Add to that the fact that Congress cut the funding for the VA, we have a perfect opportunity for the senior managers to play the system by hiding performance problems. Doesn't this make sense?

McLoser's and other Neotard heads are exploding. They have another "Benghazi". They don't remember "Bushghazi" where there were 10 embassy attacks where 60 people were killed and Saint Raygun's marine barracks in Lebanon where 241 marines were blown up. THEY NEVER SAID A WORD. Loser hannity says that "Benghazi" was different. HA!!!!

ChicagoMatt ~ It is all well and good that a Catholic hospital helps people. It is all well and good that a Catholic School educates people. However, at what point do you consider this scripture:

Quote The Gospel according to Matthew:Matthew 6:7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.

ChicagoMatt ~ At what point does what God knoweth the things you have need of and when the Government knoweth what things you have need of intersect? I would be most interested in knowing at what point what the Government can provide supersedes what God can provide? Are you really responsible citizens or hypocrites of the highest order?

Palindromedary ~ it is so good to see you again. I for one have really missed you my friend. While you are here, ChicagoMatt asked a question a while ago that only you can answer. It was a question for atheists. I had an answer; but, felt unqualified. The question, to paraphrase, was on the order of, 'If you don't believe in an afterlife they way bother with the present life?'

My answer would have been, Because I am human. As a human I have a vested interest in the future of the human race. I do not want to be part of something that is a complete failed--yet intelligent--species. I hesitated to say that because--right now--I'm not so sure.

Would you be so kind as to elaborate on that statement--if you think it needs further explanation! I would so appreciate it. I am sure, so would ChicagoMatt.

By the way, it's so good to have you back. It's made much more than my day.

MontanaMuleGal: Thank you. And, yes, I know I run on a lot sometimes...well...most of the time.

And so they are now pretending to cover up the corruption in the VA. They find people to fall on their swords but what of all of the doctors in the VA who may have a bad attitude about "social medicine"? What about the ones that down deep believe that all medicine should be privatized? Are they going to act in a manner that will detract from good VA care?

I had a friend, a VA vet who died of cancer last year. He was not well off financially and could not afford to go to a non-VA doctor. He had been exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam but the VA would never agree with this until after he died. He kept going to his primary care doctor with complaints of excruciating pain for several years. The only thing the doctor did was prescribe more and more pills that eventually would have no effect. The last thing the doctor prescribed was physical therapy to deal with his pain. Never did that doctor prescribe tests to determine what was causing the pain. When he finally went to the emergency hospital, against his doctor's will, the second time, they finally did some scans and found massive cancer tumors and that the cancer had spread to his bones. They reluctantly tried chemo but only one kind of chemo (there are more than one kind of treatments) and he got even sicker. They sent a couple of doctors in to his bed and got him to sign a release to let him die without further treatments. Now that the VA is under fire for corruption, I wonder if my friend would still be alive had his doctor taken the steps to test and treat him in his early cancer phase.

So, I went to the VA the other day, myself, for a cough that I've had for over two months now. All I got was some more pills to swallow, no antibiotics, and an inhaler that has a big scarey warning on the papers that come with it that says that some people have died from taking this medicine. I got no tests of any kind. The main hospital doctor just spent his time typing my symptoms into the computer. This was not even the same clinic VA doctor I normally go to....doctor death I call him because he is the same doctor that refused to give tests and care to my now dead friend.

I strongly suspect that they are all doctor deaths and the primary goal is to ensure that we all die an early death so as to not add to anything that might suggest that the VA socialized medicine can work. You have to remember that these doctors make lots of money and could make even more in a privatized system. I believe they have an innate hatred of all of us "freeloaders" who served our country. They really do want to see the VA institution fail so that they can privatize all healthcare. And they really do want to see most of us die off as cheaply as possible. The problem is not socialized medicine....the problem is the arrogant selfish twits that think they are better than anyone else who are running the system and corrupting it.

We hear all kinds of psychological smoothies from the mouths of our politicians claiming that the veteran deserves better care. But I believe it is all just so much bullshit they expect us to swallow. I certainly don't believe in their sincerity. They are all Machiavellis as far as I'm concerned. They'll pretend to be your friends and then they will stab you in the back whenever they can.

I'll admit, I'm pleasantly surprised to learn Catholic hospitals give out emergency contraceptions, and perform abortions when the mother's life is in danger. However I think it's only fair the state of Illinois yanked the Catholic Church's charter for arranging adoptions and so forth, for refusing to place kids with gay couples. They really need to get over that hang-up; after all, it is the 21st Century! Besides, some gay people make excellent parents. - AIW

Chi Matt -- Thom described what I believe to be the main underpinning of what our economy needs. That is,

Quote Thom Hartmann:We need to put back into place laws and policies that balance the powers of employers and employees, and let workers unionize. Only then will we once again have a strong and flourishing American middle class

The conditions you describe are just the Taft Hartley and Right to Work Laws. It has been shown since 1947 they are total failures in trying to balance the power between employers and employees. Why would you want to continue those policies?

Yes, actually. My suggestion would be to get rid of most standardized testing. Because they are really testing the teachers, not the students. I think evaluations should be based on a combination of things, like principal observations, parent feedback, etc... I'd go with maybe one standardized test every two years.

Interesting fact: Principals can "code out" student's standardized test scores if they have a reason to. If a student is in special ed, or willfully answered everything incorrectly, the principal can mark a box on that student's sheet that tells the test people "don't count this towards our class average". Some schools with high special ed enrollment (learning disabilities is the usual catch-all term for "struggling" students) can code-out up to 50% of the tests, which inflates their average and makes them look better than they are.

Also, if a student is absent during the test AND the make-up day, which can and does happen a lot, that student's scores are automatically coded-out, even if they do end up doing the test at a later date.

Such anti scientific Climate Change actions by Repuglicans could not succeed without complicity by "nicer" (??) Democrats...who are roughly as much in the pockets of Oil, Coal, Fracking, Plastics, Pesticides, Petrohemicals, their Wall St. investors (INCLUDING...importantly...top health insurers), and the rest, as the "greater evil" Repugs.

Let's see a butt-kicking Hartmann slam against sold-out Dems who are as bad as, or worse than, the GOP. Worse....because of the really grotty Dem ploy of being "lesser evil". After all, some Obama administration policies have been historically worse than any predecessor Repugnant admistrations. Obama adm. is arguably even worse than Pretend Democrat Clinton. Case closed on that question if XL pipeline and TPP sleaze their way into existence.

Isn't it more than possible or likely that the psypchopathic...but still smart...Roves and Kochs and T-Partiers are intentionally going absurdly overboard so that Dems can look good by opposing (only) the worst GOP policies? The policies the Corporatocracy Really Want are then fulfilled, not by GOP legislators, but by Dems. What we have is sort of like--- GOP proposes using babies for livestock feed---then "outraged", "nicer" Dems say that only SOME babies, maybe damaged or dead ones, should be used for that Job-Creating Enterprise. And nice, duped, Dems will keep their Obama bumper stickers, and vote for the next "nicer" choice...Clinton II.

Shinseki should resign. The problems persisted under his watch of the organization. His job was to oversee operations not point fingers. It might suck, but that's the way it should work. He inherited the job and the agency's performance was his responsibility - period. If he failed to conduct a transition team and immediate audit of operations that's his fault. It was his responsibility from the moment he got the job. He could have placed phone calls to department heads and grilled them. He could have engaged and outside firm to oversee an audit of operating statistics, the list gones on and on,...and he didn't.

Sorry, AIW, there I go again...must have been my "traumatic childhood"! ;-}} Got to get back to examining the code!