Bush and Cheney to salute vets.

[buttmunch]

Bush, Cheney to salute veterans at observances
By Oren Dorell, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — The president and vice president will mark Veterans Day Friday with speeches about the importance of supporting those who have served in the military.
President Bush will travel to Tobyhanna Army Depot in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., where he will discuss what his administration has done to increase funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs and reduce the VA's medical backlog, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Vice President Cheney will lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery across the Potomac River from Washington and speak at a remembrance ceremony.

Funding for veterans programs became an issue during the 2004 presidential campaign after the Bush administration proposed slowing the growth of the VA's budget. VA spending has grown every year since 2000, but with wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and an aging population of veterans, the number of patients treated by the VA is growing faster.

The VA says the number of patients it treated grew from 3.8 million in 2000 to 5 million in 2004, a jump of 30%. The VA's budget during that time grew by 26%, from $47.1 billion to $59.6 billion, according to the White House.

In speaking to military audiences since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the president often has emphasized the military's role in fighting terrorism and keeping Americans safe. Today's speech was rewritten Thursday to include remarks about this week's hotel bombings in Amman, Jordan, White House spokeswoman Erin Healy said.

Bush said Thursday that the attacks "should remind all of us that there is an enemy in this world that is willing to kill innocent people, willing to bomb a wedding celebration, in order to advance their cause."

I think it's a bit rich for two men who bent over backwards to avoid going to Vietnam (at least 5 deferments for Cheney alone) would have the audacity to try and insinuated themselves into any vet day celebration. And the fact that it looks like they're doing it for their own political ends is even more disgusting. Why aren't the repugs going mental like they did whenever Clinton tried to have anything to do with the military? Fucking hypocrites.

[HWBL]

A cartoonist might express some poetic justice in a number of those veterans turning towards these two cowards, aiming and firing to be rid of them.

Of course I should not make such a remark, for it is disgusting to suggest the killing off of a President or VP, whereas it is totally right and honorable to send young men and women off to risk their lives in a war based on lies.

[Mr. Authority]

Oh great another photo op for them. Luckly no one will show up since most veterans know that Bush and co tried to take way their health benefits.

[buttmunch]

Oh, I'm about to post a good health benefit story. Check it out and gasp at his sheer audacity. By the way, he's starting to act like a cornered dog. He's getting MEAN.