Monday 11 August 2008 by: Steven Rosenfeld, AlterNet
Despite new legislation in Congress, the VA is poised to prevent registration drives at its facilities before the November election.
The first large block of voters to be disenfranchised in 2008 are the wounded warriors from recent wars and homeless veterans living at hundreds of Department of Veterans Affairs facilities across the country, according to veterans and voting rights activists.
"President Bush and Karl Rove are attempting to block voter registration of at least 200,000 and possibly as much as 400,000 veterans," said Paul Sullivan, president of Veterans for Common Sense, referring to injured former soldiers from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq in various VA treatment facilities, veterans living in the VA's nursing homes, and homeless veterans living in VA shelters.
...In recent months, the Department of Veterans Affairs has resisted efforts by U.S. senators and top state election officials to allow voter registration drives in its facilities. Just last month, the VA issued new rules that banned election officials - whether local registrars or secretaries of state - from registering voters, saying it was a partisan activity that interfered with its medical mission. In most states, any time a person changes their residence they must update their voter registration in order to vote.
The VA's ban on registration drives, even by state constitutional officers, provoked a rebuke from the National Association of Secretaries of State - a resolution urging the VA to rescind its policy - and revived the issue in Congress, where separate House and Senate bills would force the VA to become a voter registration agency like state motor vehicle departments, where people are proactively given an opportunity to register to vote. Under the VA's current policy, any resident in its facilities must seek help with voter registration and voting.
But in whose interest are these troops fighting for well just Follow the Money . Certain American corporations are in deed making a killing in Iraq as they over charge the American government and the American people for thei services in Iraq. But Americans in general don't care as they see these contractors as as representing old fashined American Got getter spirit as true entrpreneurs who see an opportunity to milk tax payers and so seize the opportunities as they come.
And so we discover that the War in Iraq does benefit some Americans while leaving others maimed , broken or dead. As for the Iraqi people their lives are seen as having little value : just by being Muslim or Arab or merely being different & foreigners. All those outside America are seen by many Americans as being of a lesser species. In general they see any country that does things differently than Americans as being inferior at the least and possibly dangerous to America's interest. Only American interests and their twisted values are what matter in the end. Americans view any country which does not have Capital Punishment or that has Gun Control laws or having a more humane and compassionate form of National Health Care as we have here in Canada as being wusses and to use their term 'pussies'. Though those Canadians who support Stephen Harper would like to change all that so that we can be a carbon copy of America. Sometimes I wish that such Canadians would just move to America and those Americans who like our system move to Canada. Maybe they annex a couple of state to be joined to Canad while the Americans could have Calgary in return. Just a thought.
Report: Iraq contracts have cost billions By KIMBERLY HEFLING, AP Writer Tue Aug 12
WASHINGTON - The United States has paid $85 billion to contractors in the Iraq theater for work ranging from food service to guarding diplomats, according to a report released Tuesday.
The report was prepared by the Congressional Budget Office, and noted that spending for contractors account for about 20 percent of spending for operations in Iraq.
The United States has relied more heavily on contractors in Iraq than in any other war. There are currently at least 190,000 contract employees working in the Iraq theater, with the ratio at about one contractor for every U.S. service member, according to the report.
The report will likely give new fodder to critics who have accused contractors of over billing and providing shoddy work. In the last year, U.S. contractors have been investigated in connection to the shooting deaths of Iraqis and in the accidental electrocution deaths of U.S. troops.
Of the total paid to contractors, CBO estimated that $6 billion to $10 billion went to pay for security operations.
The study did not include figures for 2008, so the total paid since the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is probably much higher.
The report was prepared at the request of the Senate budget committee.
and so it goes,
GORD.
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