[Blindvet-talk] Veterans Department Creates Roadbloc...
LJH
Funpro at carolina.rr.com
Wed Apr 16 18:46:23 CDT 2008
If you were President, probably many of thee appointees for the last 7
years, would not have been considered.
However, if this person was selected to due the bidding of the
Administration, then you have a ready answer as to the lack of action
----- Original Message -----
From: <NABlindVets at aol.com>
To: <blindvet-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 7:32 PM
Subject: [Blindvet-talk] Veterans Department Creates Roadbloc...
> Registration for Injured Vets
>
>
>
>
> I find this amazingly thoughtless. Kirk and Dwight, I hope you share this
> message with your groups. How outrageous!
>
> Sherri
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Wm. Ritchhart" <william.ritchhart at sbcglobal.net>
> To: "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 6:34 PM
> Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] FW: [CCB-L] Veterans Department Creates
> RoadblockstoVoter Registration for Injured Vets
>
>
> This article should enrage all Americans. I agree that in general it is
> the responsibility of the individual to get him or herself registered to
> vote. However when a citizen has gone into harm's way for this Nation
> and has suffered injuries that make the exercise of this responsibility
> difficult, it is the obligation of our Government to facilitate this
> basic American right.
>
> James B. Peake should be glad I am not President of the United States.
> I would remove him from his office. I am certain that I could find
> another American who would ensure that no American who serves this
> country is disenfranchised, just because they suffered injury while
> serving our country.
>
>
>
>
> William
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Eric Calhoun
> Sent: Monday, April 14, 2008 3:31 PM
> Subject: [CCB-L] Veterans Department Creates Roadblocks to Voter
> Registration for Injured Vets
> Date:
> Mon, 14 Apr 2008 10:07:44 -0700
>
> Registration for Injured Vets
>
> Veterans Department Creates Roadblocks to Voter Registration for Injured
> Vets
>
> By Steven Rosenfeld
> AlterNet
>
> Thursday 10 April 2008
>
> VA Secretary says registering voters in VA facilities is a "partisan"
> distraction.
>
> On the same day the Pentagon's commander in Iraq told the Senate
> that new troop withdrawals could not considered be for months, Secretary
> of Veterans Affairs James B. Peake told two Democratic senators that his
> department will not help injured veterans at VA facilities to register
> to vote before the 2008 election.
>
> "VA remains opposed to becoming a voter registration agency pursuant
> to the National Voter Registration Act, as this designation would divert
> substantial resources from our primary mission," Peake said in an April
> 8th letter to Sens. Diane Feinstein (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA). He was
> referring to a 1993 federal law that allows government agencies to host
> voter registration efforts.
>
> Both Sens. Feinstein and Kerry said they were frustrated with
> Peake's position.
>
> "The Department of Veterans Affairs should provide voter materials
> to veterans," Feinstein said. "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.
>
> "I will keep fighting with Sen. Feinstein to ensure that veterans
> aren't facing unnecessary hurdles just to exercise their voting rights."
>
> Peake's letter was the latest response to a year-old request by
> Kerry and Feinstein to give veterans using VA facilities the opportunity
> to register to vote, just as people who apply for a driver's license are
> given that chance at state motor vehicle agencies. Veterans who have not
> previously registered, as well as registered voters who move, must
> reregister with new addresses in order to vote. By not helping the
> injured veterans to do so, it is likely that former soldiers seeking
> care at VA facilities will lose their right to vote in 2008.
>
> The Secretary's letter explained the decision by citing ongoing
> litigation where a federal court recently "found that the VA's
> restriction on partisan political activities in VA facilities ... does
> not on its face violate the First Amendment" rights of veterans.
>
> Peake also said the VA was "considering" the issue for future
> departmental action, telling the two senators "VA shares your commitment
> to assisting veterans in exercising their Constitutional right to vote."
>
> While Senate staffers were studying Peake's letter for ways to keep
> pressing the issue, the letter brought swift condemnation from veterans'
> advocates.
>
> Veterans Advocates Dismayed
>
> "During a time of war, our Nation has a special and sacred duty to
> assist our fellow citizens who have defended our Constitution with their
> lives - our military veterans - with registering to vote and with
> voting,"
> said Paul Sullivan, Veterans for Common Sense executive director. "We
> encourage VA to allow non-partisan voter registration drives at VA
> facilities so that as many veterans as possible can actively participate
> in our democracy - we owe our veterans no less for standing between a
> bullet and our Constitution."
>
> Sullivan said that third-party groups could help the VA with voter
> registration.
>
> "Reasonable steps should be taken by VA and non-partisan voter
> registration groups so that such activities do not interfere with the
> delivery of services, while at the same time protecting our veterans'
> rights to register and to vote," he said. "Hopefully, in 2008, America
> will see record voter registration and voter turnout, especially from
> our veterans, and most especially from our wounded, injured, ill, and
> disabled veterans in VA facilities."
>
> Scott Rafferty, an attorney based on Washington, D.C., who has
> fought the VA in federal courts since 2004 over the right to assist
> vets, including the homeless, to register to vote at VA campus in Menlo
> Park, California, said Peake's contention that the VA didn't have the
> resources to register voters was not credible.
>
> "It is a ridiculous position," said. "Because in today's world, with
> the internet, there are not significant costs to a voter registration
> program.
> You are talking about one additional piece of paper when you are talking
> about the processing of an incoming veteran ... They want to keep
> veterans cloistered and politically inactive."
>
> Rafferty said the issue was not going to go away. The federal judge
> in the Menlo Park litigation is required to make some big decisions on
> that case in the near future, where Rafferty said voter registration
> proponents are seeking a nationwide injunction to force the VA to offer
> voter registration.
> Rafferty also said at least one secretary of state from a large state
> also was considering ways to pressure the VA.
>
> "Their mission is to take care of veterans," he said.
>
> VA Response Not Unique
>
> But the VA's response is not unique among government agencies,
> according to Michael Slater, deputy director of Project Vote, which is
> organizing registration drives across the country in 2008.
>
> "America, among western democracies, is unique in putting the
> responsibility on the individual, not the state, to register voters," he
> said. "Today, 63 million Americans, about a third of eligible voting age
> population, are not registered to vote."
>
> "When we try to shift the onus from the individual to the state, we
> see reluctance - and the VA is one example," Slater said, saying that
> many state social service agencies that already are required to offer
> voter registration opportunities to public aid recipients, have not
> followed through.
>
> The state that does the best job at offering voter registration -
> because it was sued by the Department of Justice - is probably
> Tennessee, Slater said, where for every 100 food stamp recipients, 27
> people were registered. In Oregon and California, only 8 people per 100
> food stamp recipients are registered to vote, he said. In Arizona and
> Florida, it is 2 percent.
>
> "If California did as well as Oregon, that would be an additional
> 180,000 voters," he said. "There is just this huge potential, if
> government agencies like the VA, finally offered voter registration."
> Ardis Bazyn
> Available for inspirational speaking, writing, and coaching:
> www.bazyncommunications.com
> Check out new shopping cart choices
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