We're Still at War: Photo of the Day & Jon Stewart outraged U.S. has flying kill bots but can’t fix Veterans Affairs backlog (video) 28&27MAR13

REMEMBER, we are still at war
Lord, we remember those who have given their lives for the sake of justice and freedom. Help us not to take our own freedom lightly, but to use it to advocate relentlessly for the freedom of others. Amen.

Machine gunners with Echo company, 2nd Battalion 9th Marines, Regimental Combat Team 7, walk to a training site on +Camp Leatherneck, Helmand province, Afghanistan, Feb. 28, 2013. +U.S. Marine Corps photo by +Staff Sgt. Ezekiel R. Kitandwe.

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Jon Stewart outraged U.S. has flying kill bots but can’t fix Veterans Affairs backlog
By Eric W. Dolan

On his show Wednesday night, The Daily Show host Jon Stewart blasted President Barack Obama for failing to fix the growing backlog at the Department of Veterans Affairs while arguing the government could be a force for good.

Though Democrats have argued many of the country’s woes are due to Republican obstruction, Stewart noted that funding for the VA had actually increased over the past years. He described the current backlog in claims, which reached 245,00 in 2012, simply as “fucking criminal.” Veterans have to wait an average of 273 days before their disability claims are processed by the department.

Stewart explained the VA was still using a paper-based system — a ridiculous situation in 2013. The department has slowly implemented a new computer program, but it cannot not communicate with program used at the Department of Defense.

“The point is, if you’re making the case that the government has a meaningful role to play in improving people’s lives, then when you’re not obstructed from doing what you want, you better fucking bring it,” Stewart remarked.

“If we are smart and technologically-savvy enough to create flying unmanned robots with 1.8 gigapixel cameras that can spot enemy acne from 10 miles away and national security data mining programs that can store and process more than 10,000 times as much data as is stored in the entire Internet, we should be able to cook up a network spreadsheet program that knows which leg a returning soldier has lost without him having to fill out ten forms and coming in for a person-to-person visual leg assessment surveyance.”

“Otherwise, before long these guys won’t be obstructing the government, they’ll be running it again,” he concluded, referring to Republicans.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/03/28/jon-stewart-outraged-u-s-has-flying-kill-bots-but-cant-fix-veterans-affairs-backlog/