From the Daily News:A PROGRAM that strives to give mentally ill veterans treatment - instead of jail time - is set to receive a boost of more than $500,000.
The money will be used to hire social workers and peer counselors to help troubled veterans get back on their feet, organizers said.
It is the last piece of the Veterans Project, which identifies nonviolent offenders in Queens, Brooklyn and Nassau who are veterans, and tries to get them help instead of prison sentences. It is available to first-time offenders only.
Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-Queens, Long Island) earmarked $540,000 last month to hire peer counselors and social workers. The money must still be approved by Congress and signed into law by President Obama.
So we have a measly non-guaranteed $540,000 for veterans, who have to sell off pieces of their St. Albans campus to make ends meet...
But we have billions of dollars for development schemes like Willets Point and Atlantic Yards, hundreds of millions of dollars for tweeding programs and $64M for Marty's potato chip?
DISGUSTING.
19 comments:
Let's be clear, the Veterans Aren't Selling Pieces of St. Alban's. The V.A. is selling. There isn't a veterans group in NY State that hasn't condemned the sale of St. Alban's. Veterans need a full service hospital there. Queens has more veterans than any other borough or county in New York.
Yes, the VA which is being starved of money by Congress even though it's supposedly one of their biggest priorities.
"So we have a measly non-guaranteed $540,000 for veterans, who have to sell off pieces of their St. Albans campus to make ends meet...
But we have billions of dollars for development schemes like Willets Point and Atlantic Yards, hundreds of millions of dollars for tweeding programs and $64M for Marty's potato chip?"
Giving more money to the veterans will not generate as much income as Willets Point and Atlantic Yards would/could... It's all about making the most $$$$$$ The hell with the people who helped keep those dollars safe and secure from threats foreign and domestic...
Ah, but are Willets Point and Atlantic Yards about generating income for the city? Or more about rewarding the cronies of politicians who have deep pockets?
We all know the answer to that QC....
Heh heh heh
The tweeded are useful to the tweeders but, as you have shown, and Archie and Edith have discovered, deep down inside, the tweeders really honestly don't give two shits for the tweeded.
Afterall, does 'Honest' Joe Crowley share an airshaft with the newly arrived? Does he send his kids to school in South Jamaica or Corona or Flushing?
All they really care about is making money and (to a lesser extent) power.
Property (or as they used to say 'land') has always been the medium of exchange.
Shame..............
Yes....Bloomberg and Klein are just such fine examples of the Vietnam-era generation. And how they advocate for the less fortunate in the city!! Acheivement gap my left cheek!! How about the caring gap?? When will the government begin caring for citizens, especially those who served in our armed forces in Vietnam, and now those from the Gulf War, Iraq, and Afghanistan?Corporations are the priority and not much else, from what I see. But who am I? Our veterans don't have a hedge fund; they lose.
"Giving more money to the veterans"
I appreciate what you're saying here, but it's not about "Giving more money to the veterans"... It's about fulfilling the promises made to the veterans. Vietnam veterans have had to fight for every benefit they were promised and the Federal Government has reneged on every promise made in the enlistment contract.
the last commenter is full of crap.
upon joining the U.S.Navy during the Korean War, the VA stipulated what the benefits would be when i was discharged.
they kept their promise to me.
i used the G.I.Bill to graduate university.i used the extra points in the P.O. test,while attending school.
i did not need the homeowners loan,because i earned enough to assume the previous h/o's mortgage,when buying my house.
i now receive outpatient low cost RX drugs from the V.A. and lastly , i receive the n.y.s.veteran's property tax exemption.
my wife and i have a burial plot at the VA military cemetery on L.I.
i risked my life and they have kept their promise to me.
GOD BLESS AMERICA.....The Constitution will be reinstated if you remember in November.....
To the last poster
Since you seem to have been out of circulation, they started backing away from their promises when we started voting in Republicans into the White House in the 80s.
Ask any reservist how many times they were recycled back to Iraq.
Blah, blah, Republicans, blah-blah.
They've been screwing vets since the Revolution.
I wouldn't count on a penny from Ackerman until you see the money. This wouldn't be the first time he issued a press release about an earmark that never materialized.
"Upon joining the U.S.Navy during the Korean War"
What part of "Vietnam Veterans didn't you understand
"upon joining the U.S.Navy during the Korean War, the VA stipulated what the benefits would be when i was discharged.
they kept their promise to me."
So what you're saying is, I got mine the rest of you be damned?
Asshole
the VA deals with all veteran's equally. the war that you served in is irrelevant. stop your political demonizing.
prove your complaint statements in detail, and give your sources.
GOD BLESS ALL AMERICAN VETERANS,REPUBLICAN AND DEMOCRAT AND INDEPENDENT,AND ESPECIALLY THE TEA PARTY SUPPORTERS.
WWll vets about to be discharged in 1950 were held over for the Korean War, by the democrat administration( President Harry S.Truman). i served with these patriots .some did not like what took place,but when you sign the induction paper you take the risk and follow orders.
ie. ted williams,(boston redsox) and jerry,(yankee second baseman) were pilots in WWll and Korean war.they were recalled out of MLB.
the second baseman for the n.y.yankees,who flew jet fighter planes in both the WWll and Korean War(against soviet pilots) was JERRY COLEMAN, a true patriot.......
The VA and Walter Reed you mean Queens Crapper because I had relatives and friends there back from Iraq and there was horrible conditions with rodents, unsanitary medical areas, and huge lack of acknowledgment by the Bush administration of the trauma suffered by veterans, besides bush's down sizing of Walter Reed which gutted the hell out of. Those are hard facts.
The right offered religion when it should have been other real therapies. The democrats had brought the issue to light in 2004 and 2006.
Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Walter_Reed_Army_Medical_Center_scandal
The Bush administration's push for privatization of WRAMC "may be responsible for the 'deplorable' outpatient care for soldiers," Ron Brynaert reported March 3, 2007, for The Raw Story. A "five-year, $120 million contract" was awarded to IAP Worldwide Services, Inc., a "firm run by" Al Neffgen, a former senior official at Halliburton, "a multi-national corporation where Vice President Dick Cheney once served as CEO."
"Before the contract, over 300 federal employees provided facilities management services at Walter Reed," according to Rep. Henry A. Waxman
"The VA deals with all veteran's equally. the war that you served in is irrelevant. stop your political demonizing."
This is a joke, right?
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