Brian Williams Suspended From NBC News

[Cowboysrock55]

Vets pay a price for their benefits some more than others but all who have stepped up and served honorably have at least given something.

Yeah I don't consider veteran benefits to be welfare. They are something people earn through actual work. Even if they are receiving the benefits after their job has finished.

 

[NoDak]

Yeah I don't consider veteran benefits to be welfare. They are something people earn through actual work. Even if they are receiving the benefits after their job has finished.

Right. It was a stupid example.

 

[townsend]

Yeah I don't consider veteran benefits to be welfare. They are something people earn through actual work. Even if they are receiving the benefits after their job has finished.

That's a nice sentiment. But I have a feeling that no one really established the VA because they thought their military had earned it. More likely veterans enhanced likelihood towards mental illness, unemployment and homelessness forced the country to doll out benefits or else be steeped in national embarrassment.

I would say that vets deserve healthcare for the same reason the unemployed deserve unemployment insurance, and the disabled deserve disability. They put in their time, and utilize a system that is there to provide a safety net. Maybe the VA isn't the same kind of welfare food stamps is. But at the end of the day it's society saying "Let's make sure these guys don't fall through the cracks."

VA healthcare is a particularly interesting benefit, because you don't necessarily need an honorable discharge to earn it. Theoretically there are some guys out there who didn't do right by uncle Sam, and are still leaching off of the system.

 

[L.T. Fan]

That's a nice sentiment. But I have a feeling that no one really established the VA because they thought their military had earned it. More likely veterans enhanced likelihood towards mental illness, unemployment and homelessness forced the country to doll out benefits or else be steeped in national embarrassment.

I would say that vets deserve healthcare for the same reason the unemployed deserve unemployment insurance, and the disabled deserve disability. They put in their time, and utilize a system that is there to provide a safety net. Maybe the VA isn't the same kind of welfare food stamps is. But at the end of the day it's society saying "Let's make sure these guys don't fall through the cracks."

VA healthcare is a particularly interesting benefit, because you don't necessarily need an honorable discharge to earn it. Theoretically there are some guys out there who didn't do right by uncle Sam, and are still leaching off of the system.

You ard too young to remember but veterans benefits were established many years ago as a reward to those who served. WW11 is one example. Those vets didn't return to their homes then become homeless. Even Korean vets came back with reasonable stability. The groups you are refering to began with Viet Nam vets as did the rampant use of drugs. Those guys and others in wars forward seems to have had more problems with syndromes. The benefits veterns recieve arent out of necessity rather it's payment for services rendered. I cannot explain the difference in some that cannot cope but I have lived through generations of service men and the comparison is sometime very stark.

 

[townsend]

You ard too young to remember but veterans benefits were established many years ago as a reward to those who served. WW11 is one example. Those vets didn't return to their homes then become homeless. Even Korean vets came back with reasonable stability. The groups you are refering to began with Viet Nam vets as did the rampant use of drugs. Those guys and others in wars forward seems to have had more problems with syndromes. The benefits veterns recieve arent out of necessity rather it's payment for services rendered. I cannot explain the difference in some that cannot cope but I have lived through generations of service men and the comparison is sometime very stark.

I feel that this is overly simplified in the amber glasses of nostalgia. Strength of character and clean living aren't necessarily going to erase post traumatic stress, depression, and disabilities that were incurred from wartime. Post baby boom I think the social safety net of extended family disintegrated in the wake of the nuclear family. Leaving more men who would have otherwise been cared for out on the street. Homeless vets are by no means an invention of the 20th century though.

I'll concede that certain benefits, in particular the GI Bill, were created as a reward for service. Even still, in the wake of WW2 the GI bill was a wise way to help a wave of jobless adults integrate smoothly into the job market. If we offered the same benefit for the same reason to another segment of the population it would be considered welfare, in the same way government grants for students should be considered welfare.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

I would say that vets deserve healthcare for the same reason the unemployed deserve unemployment insurance, and the disabled deserve disability. They put in their time, and utilize a system that is there to provide a safety net. Maybe the VA isn't the same kind of welfare food stamps is. But at the end of the day it's society saying "Let's make sure these guys don't fall through the cracks."
.

People on disability don't have to have worked a day in their life to get it. I think disability is a necessary evil for someone who is truly unable to work but those people are few and far between. The majority of people on disability now don't need it at all. It's why the program needs reformed but not necessarily eliminated.

Unemployment is something that your employer pays for. It's part of the cost of having an employee. So in reality it is just part of the pay you receive by working even though it may not show up on your paycheck. Again it is not a welfare program at all.

 

[boozeman]

People on disability don't have to have worked a day in their life to get it. I think disability is a necessary evil for someone who is truly unable to work but those people are few and far between. The majority of people on disability now don't need it at all. It's why the program needs reformed but not necessarily eliminated.

Unemployment is something that your employer pays for. It's part of the cost of having an employee. So in reality it is just part of the pay you receive by working even though it may not show up on your paycheck. Again it is not a welfare program at all.

Disability fraud is second only to Welfare fraud in terms of how people freeload.

 

[Clay_Allison]

Disability fraud is second only to Welfare fraud in terms of how people freeload.

Disability fraud is a hard way to go because you can't work and be on SSI.

 

[boozeman]

Disability fraud is a hard way to go because you can't work and be on SSI.

You obviously have not been around those dumb enough to try. I see it more than you would believe.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

Disability fraud is a hard way to go because you can't work and be on SSI.

Yeah they often times still work. Especially when they can find jobs that pay cash.

 

[Jiggyfly]

Bill O'Reilly faces new questions: His JFK story

By Tom Kludt @tomkludt


Just as Bill O'Reilly was trying to move on from a dispute over his war stories, the Fox News host suddenly has more questions to answer.
This time, the scrutiny is being directed at an account of his investigation into John F. Kennedy's assassination.

O'Reilly's telling of it has gone like this: In 1977, Russian-born George de Mohrenschildt, who knew Lee Harvey Oswald, had been contacted by congressional investigators. O'Reilly, a reporter for a Dallas TV station, had tracked de Mohrenschildt down in Palm Beach, and arrived at the door to his daughter's home just as he shot himself.

O'Reilly shared that account in his book, "Killing Kennedy," and has repeated it on Fox News.

"As the reporter knocked on the door of de Mohrenschildt's daughter's home, he heard the shotgun blast that marked the suicide of the Russian, assuring that his relationship with Lee Harvey Oswald would never be fully understood," O'Reilly wrote in his book. "By the way, that reporter's name is Bill O'Reilly."
The question being raised: Was O'Reilly really there?

Jefferson Morley, a visiting professor at the University of California and a former editor at the Washington Post, doesn't think so. Writing for his website JFKFacts.org in 2013, Morley used phone recordings to dispute the dramatic account.

Morley's post resurfaced on Tuesday in a new report from liberal watchdog group Media Matters for America.
The phone recordings, from the day of the suicide, came from the widow of Gaeton Fonzi, a congressional investigator involved in the JFK assassination probe.

Fonzi knew O'Reilly, and the recordings describe a conversation in which O'Reilly asked for confirmation of the suicide, according to Morley. Morley has posted a partial transcript and the recordings, though they are inaudible.

On the recordings, O'Reilly acknowledges he is in Dallas and plans to head to Florida, according to Morley.
Fonzi also recalled in his 1993 memoir that O'Reilly called him to confirm the suicide.

"Funny thing happened," Fonzi recalled O'Reilly saying over the phone. "We just aired a story that came over the wire about a Dutch journalist saying the Assassinations Committee has finally located de Mohrenschildt in South Florida. Now de Mohren--schildt's attorney, a guy named Pat Russell, he calls and says de Mohrenschildt committed suicide this afternoon. Is that true?"

Fonzi's widow, Marie, told Morley in 2013 that "Gaet liked O'Reilly and did lots to help him." But she insisted O'Reilly was nowhere near the scene of the suicide. "I know O'Reilly was in Dallas," she said. "There is no question about it."

Another possible red flag in O'Reilly's account: An Associated Press report at the time quoted a member of the Palm Beach County, Florida sheriff's office who said that de Mohrenschildt was home alone at the time of his suicide "except for two maids who said they did not hear the shot."

When reached for comment, a Fox News spokesperson referred CNNMoney to Henry Holt and Company, the imprint that published O'Reilly's book on the Kennedy assassination.

These questions follow another public dispute involving O'Reilly's characterization of his time covering the Falklands War in 1982.

O'Reilly has made several references over the years to being in a "war zone" and a "combat situation" during that conflict. Since he and most reporters covered the war from Buenos Aires, the question was whether a protest he covered fit those descriptions.

 

[Clay_Allison]

Yeah they often times still work. Especially when they can find jobs that pay cash.

Like Drug Dealer or Prostitute. Would work great for stay at home moms too.

 

[Cowboysrock55]

Like Drug Dealer or Prostitute. Would work great for stay at home moms too.

You realize there are a shit ton of employers that pay employees in cash right?

 

[Clay_Allison]

You realize there are a shit ton of employers that pay employees in cash right?

Yeah, but those came swiftly to mind.