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Green Energy for Dead Vets

Posted by Daniel Greenfield @ the Sultan Knish blog

 Three years before Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki would be forced out of his job because of the veterans who had died under him, he visited the Massachusetts National Cemetery. He wasn't there to see the men and women who had died because of him.

 While vets were dying, Obama and Shinseki had turned their attention to something truly important; seeing to it that all the cemeteries where they were being buried had wind or solar power.

 The Massachusetts National Cemetery was getting a wind turbine so that the dead veterans would have all the sustainable energy they needed.

 A VA press release about the cemetery turbine boasted that "under the leadership of Secretary Eric K. Shinseki... VA is transitioning into a 21st century organization that better serves America’s Veterans."

 Shinseki arrived in person at the dedication ceremony to flip the switch on the cemetery wind turbine.

 “Nationally, VA continues to expand its investment in renewable sources of energy to promote our Nation’s energy independence, save taxpayer dollars, and improve care for our Veterans and their families,” he said.

 The cemetery turbine had cost $533,000. Veterans were dying to save the VA a few hundred dollars. Shinseki had made his order of priorities clear. Green energy boondoggles came first. Improving veteran care came last.

 Acting Under Secretary for Memorial Affairs Steve Muro told the crowd, "With one of VA’s first wind turbine projects, the Massachusetts National Cemetery is leading the way in the use of renewable energy while providing the burial benefits that New England Veterans and their families have earned."

 Muro had made the entire macabre spectacle worthy of a Joseph Heller novel. Obama's people had not only killed veterans, they had killed satire.

 When the VA wasn't installing a wind turbine at a cemetery, it was installing solar panels at cemeteries to better serve the dead veterans that it was killing.

 The Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery’s solar panels cost $787,308. According to the press release, the solar panels in the cemetery would "reduce greenhouse gas emissions".

 $742,034 worth of solar panels was put in at the Calverton National Cemetery.  The San Joaquin Valley National Cemetery got an $800,000 solar panel setup. The Riverside National Cemetery got a $1.3 million solar system.

 “We are investing in clean energy and renewable energy projects at our national cemeteries to reduce our environmental footprint,” Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki declared. ”The transition toward these renewable energy sources helps VA continue to be a leading example of going green in the federal government.”

 Vets might be dying at VA facilities, but they would have solar panels and wind turbines over their graves so that Shineski could provide Obama with a leading example of “greenness”.

 The cemeteries may have been where the VA's scandal of shorting care for vets ended, under the shade of solar panels and wind turbines, but it was not where it began. 

The VA scandal began at the Phoenix VA Health Care System where administrators earned pro

As many as 40 veterans had died while waiting for care and 1,715 veterans in the Phoenix VA Health Care System had waited more than 90 days for an appointment. A retired Navy serviceman died of bladder cancer after being put on a 7-month waiting list after blood was found in his urine. He finally received an appointment a week after his death.

 But each and every year, from 2009 to 2011, the Phoenix VA Health Care System put in solar panels. The solar panels at the Carl T. Hayden VA in Phoenix cost $20 million.

 That $20 million could have saved the lives of dying veterans.

In 2009, Obama had signed a Green Energy executive order. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki had announced that "in order to continue providing Veterans with the best health care and benefit services, VA must adapt to climate change."

 Not only did Global Warming have nothing to do with serving veterans, but it got in the way of the VA's central mission. While Shinseki was focused on building solar panels so the sky wouldn't fall, veterans were waiting months to see a doctor.

 At some South Texas facilities vets had to wait 85 days for a primary care appointment and 55 days for a mental health appointment with  "a worst-in-the-nation, 145-day average wait for new patients seeking specialist care".

 One of the vets waiting for a mental health appointment, who suffered from waiting list cheating, committed suicide.

 Meanwhile the South Texas Veterans Health Care System installed a 1.7 MW solar PV system.

 The Amarillo VA Health Care System had the third longest wait times for mental health appointments in the country. Its Thomas E. Creek office complained of a lack of resources. Meanwhile $10 million was spent on solar panels.

 Hawaii has the longest waiting list for veterans with an average of 145 days for an appointment at the Spark M. Matsunaga VA Medical Center.

 Meanwhile it was spending between $1 and $2 million on a 119 KW Solar PV System.

 Veterans at Kansas VAs had to wait more than 90 days. 977 never had appointments scheduled. There were 104 vets on the waiting list at the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita.

 But while the Dole Center may not have had time for vets, it did have time to set up solar panels.

 Three mental health administrators at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center in Gainesville, Florida were suspended for keeping a waiting list for over 200 vets. Meanwhile the facility had blown between $5 and $10 million on a solar panel system.

 The Raymond G. Murphy VA Medical Center put 3,000 vets on a phantom waiting list to see a doctor who doesn't see patients.

 Unfortunately its $20.3 million solar setup was all too real.

 The average wait time for new patients at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center was about 57 days to see a primary care doctor.  But that just gave vets more time to admire its new $1.1 million solar setup.

 The Bay Pines VA Health Care System didn't schedule appointments for 1,000 vets. But it did find the time and money to put in solar panels. The Cheyenne VA Medical Center, which was caught removing vets from the waiting list, had not one, but two, million dollar solar setups.

 The Sepulveda Ambulatory Care Center, which was one of three flagged facilities, was part of a $50 million VA solar panel contract.

 Vets couldn't get appointments, but every VA facility was getting solar power, whether it needed it or not.

 The Buffalo VA Medical Center in upstate New York, where winter is the best 8 months of the year, got solar. So did the VA center in the Bronx in New York City. The New York VA solar contracts were part of $7.8 million in solar contracts awarded to one company.

Meanwhile in Southeast Texas, the former associate chief of staff at the VA said that a cost-cutting policy had been implemented under which colonoscopies would only be approved if the patient tested positive in three successive screenings for bloody stools.

 “By the time that you do the colonoscopies on these patients, you went from a stage 1 to a stage 4, which is basically inoperable,” Dr. Richard Krugman said. "That was done because of dollars and cents. For the VA, they have to be bleeding out of their rectum before they would authorize a colonoscopy."

 Everyone has their priorities. Benghazi and the VA scandal happened because the men who died were a low priority compared to solar panels and buying bad art for embassies. The State Department spent millions on art for embassies and mansion renovations, but begrudged the security that would have saved four American lives. Fortunes were spent on solar panels and wind turbines for VA facilities, but veterans died of cancer to save money on a colonoscopy.

 The corrupt obsession with Green Energy doesn't just waste money, it costs lives. The fanaticism of the Global Warmists in the White House led them to disregard the lives of vets because they thought that saving the world with solar panels and wind turbines was more important.

 The VA's Green Management Program Office claimed that it would "keep our promises to Veterans through sustainability." Instead it focused on "Environmental Justice" and "Green Purchasing" at the expense of veterans. Solar panels went up and veterans went down.

 While they were putting in wind and solar at VA facilities and cemeteries, they forgot about the veterans who had served their country and deserved better than to be sacrificed for a solar panel.

In September  of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a  History teacher  at Robinson High School in  Little Rock , did something not  to be  forgotten. 

On the first day of school, with the permission of the school superintendent, the principal and the building supervisor, she removed all of the desks in her classroom. When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there were no desks.

'Ms. Cothren, where are our desks?' 

She replied, 'You can't have a desk until you tell me how you earn the right  to sit at a desk.'

They  thought, 'Well, maybe it's our grades.'  'No,' she  said. 'Maybe  it's our behavior.' She told them, 'No, it's not even your  behavior.'
 
 And so,  they came and went, the first period, second period, third period. Still  no desks in the classroom. Kids called their parents to tell them what  was happening and by early afternoon television news crews had started  gathering at the school to report about this crazy teacher who had taken  all the desks out of her room. The  final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on  the floor of the desk-less classroom. Martha Cothren said,
'Throughout  the day no one has been able to tell me just what he or she has done to  earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this  classroom. Now I am going to tell you.'

  
At this  point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her classroom and opened  it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in uniform, walked into that  classroom, each one carrying a school desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to understand, perhaps for the first time in their  lives, just how the right to sit at those desks had been  earned.

Martha  said, 'You didn't earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did  it for you. They placed the desks here for you. They went halfway around  the world, giving up their education and interrupting their careers and  families so you could have the freedom you have. Now, it's up to you to  sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to  be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have  the freedom to get an education. Don't ever forget it.'
 
By the  way, this is a true story. And this teacher was awarded the Veterans of  Foreign Wars Teacher of the Year for the State of  Arkansas in 2006. She is the daughter of a  WWII POW.
   
Let us  always remember the men and women of our military and the rights they  have won for us.
 
From  the Desk & Heart of:
Lloyd Ervin  Greenwood & Tricia S.  Greenwood