WTF? The VA refuses to help disabled vets living in VA hospitals

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

((((((((((((((((((((( The RBC Update: "WTF?" Dep't )))))))))))))))))))))

2008.04.10 10:08:42

The VA refuses to help disabled vets living in VA hospitals
register to vote.

Mark Kleiman at Same Facts writes:

The Department of Veterans Affairs refuses to become a voter registration site under the National Voter Registration act. That means that disabled veterans living in VA hospitals in states that don't have mail-in registration will effectively lose their right to vote because they won't be able to change their voting addresses.

More generally, the VA forbids "partisan activities, i.e., those involving commentary or actions in support of, or in opposition to, or attempting to influence, any current policy of the Government of the United States, or any private group, association, or enterprise" from all its facilities. Read literally, that means that disabled vets in VA facilities couldn't organize to petition Congress for better veterans' services.

The good news, I suppose, is that the Bush Administration must have concluded that disabled vets are probably voting Democratic this year. But I'd love to see the media start asking Dana Perino at the White House whether it's really the Administration position that wounded warriors living in government hospitals give up their First Amendment rights as well as their right to vote.

...more at the link

http://WWW.samefacts.com/archives/_/2008/04/wtf_dept.php

[DS1]

1. I'm not saying I agree with this, but I could see a concern about VA hospitals

turning into campaign stops/offices and the nastiness that would inevitably ensue. They could be worried that it would turn into GD-P

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

3. you must not be familar with Section 7 of the voting rights act

It has nothing to do with campaigning. This is about having the tax funded govt agency
to help people dependent on their services - to offer voter registration.

Just like Social services offices, the DMV etc, these agencies can better assist people who work with the public on a regular basis.

These troops at the VA hospitals are STUCK living there while trying to recuperate from their massive injuries.

In fact, if and when governmental agencies DON't register voters, then the vacuum is filled by o candidates and advocacy groups to do so. Then you might be able to complain that politics was playing a part in voter registration, if that is what you wished to do.

Govt agencies do a better job because they have more occasion to register voters on a regular and more frequent basis.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

4. then you prefer that injured veterans not be registered to vote

Or what are you trying to say? How do these sick wounded vets excercise their right to vote?

Or are you against that?

IT DOESN'T HAVE A FUCKING THING TO DO WITH GDP.

ITS CALLED ELECTION REFORM BECAUSE PEOPLE HAVE A RIGHT TO VOTE.

THEY CAN'T VOTE IF THEY ARE NOT REGISTERED.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

5. "...many injured veterans still in VA hospitals ..will effectively lose their right to vote."

From the original article at Raw Story:

...What this means is that many injured veterans still in VA hospitals who can't find means to register outside of their facilities will effectively lose their right to vote.
Wounded veterans who have moved must re-register at their "new addresses" or file for absentee ballots in order to participate in the presidential and other elections.

...Sens. Kerry and Feinstein fired off a letter in reply.

"The Department of Veterans Affairs should provide voter materials to veterans," Feinstein wrote, according to Rosenfeld's report. "I believe the cost of providing these voter materials is minimal. It's a small price to pay for the sacrifice these men and women have made in fighting for our nation's freedom. I am disappointed."

"You'd think that when so many people give speeches about keeping faith with our veterans, the least the government would do is protect their right to vote, after they volunteered to go thousands of miles from home to fight and give that right to others," Kerry said. "And yet we've seen the government itself block veterans from registering to vote in VA facilities, without any legal basis or rational explanation."

more at the link (which was linked to the Same Facts blog)
http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Veterans_Department_not_keen_on_veterans_0410.html

[midnight]

2. That's because they are spending the money on luxury

items, trips, etc.....The V.A. has been FEMAed.