Monday, August 26, 2013

Let's all pretend to be surprised by the VA again

Last week, Bob Young (Seattle Times) took dictation from Secretary of the VA Eric Shinseki -- let's hope Young's remembered on office assistant's day.  He did not report because he apparently lacks the skill.  We have neither the time nor inclination to do Bob Young's job for him. We'll simply note that he took down Shinseki's claim that in 2015 the backlog will be gone. That date keeps moving, but no one's ever supposed to notice.  As the editorial board for USA Today notes:


 The backlog of claims more than four months old stands at almost a half-million. The delays used to be even worse: Under relentless pressure from Congress, veterans’ groups and the news media, the VA finally started shrinking the claims backlog this year. But the lethargic department doesn’t plan to clear it completely for at least two more years, and veterans will still have to wait up to four months for an answer on their claims. That’s a pitiful, unambitious goal, and there’s deep concern that the VA can’t even meet it.


Today,  Mary Shinn, Daniel Moore and Steven Rich (Center for Public Integrity) report:


 While veterans waited longer than ever in recent years for their wartime disability compensation, the Department of Veterans Affairs gave its workers millions of dollars in bonuses for “excellent” performances that effectively encouraged them to avoid claims that needed extra work to document veterans’ injuries, a News21 investigation has found.
In 2011, a year in which the claims backlog ballooned by 155 percent, more than two-thirds of claims processors shared $5.5 million in bonuses, according to salary data from the Office of Personnel Management.
The more complex claims were often set aside by workers so they could keep their jobs, meet performance standards, or, in some cases, collect extra pay, said VA claims processors and union representatives. Those claims now make up much of VA’s widely scrutinized disability claims backlog, defined by the agency as claims pending more than 125 days.
Lazy ass reporters (a group with so many members) might want to pay attention to the appeal rate in the article.  You certainly haven't paid attention when we've raised the issue here or when you reported on the great claims turnaround.  As we've noted, people are getting evaluations slapped on their claims . . . but they're incorrect! The judgments are being done just to say, "I completed a claim!"  That would be shocking if we hadn't spent about nine months now pointing that out.

Are the bonuses news?

This round.


April 25, 2012, there was a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing.  We were there and we covered it with Kat's "Fire everyone at the VA,"  Ava's  "Scott Brown: It's clearly not working (Ava),"   Wally's "VA paid out nearly $200 million in bonuses last year (Wally)" and that week's WSApril 25th snapshot. and April 27th snapshot.  As you can tell from Wally's title alone, the abuse of bonuses is not new for the VA.  Guess what?  It's come up in another hearing since then.

But lazy ass reporters exist to take dictation and to stare wide-eyed as the VA makes one false claim after another.

There's Aaron Glantz working his butt off on this issue and there about 10,000 lazy ass reporters for every Aaron Glantz.

The VA's work is not good enough.  Guess what?  Neither is the work of the press on this issue.

Hannah Winston (News 21) reports:

 The Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense spent at least $1.3 billion during the last four years trying unsuccessfully to develop a single electronic health-records system between the two departments — leaving veterans’ disability claims piling up in paper files, a News21 investigation shows. 
This does not include billions of dollars wasted during the last three decades, including $2 billion spent on a failed upgrade to the DOD’s existing electronic health-records system.


Winston's report fails because she can't focus.  She's kind of weak and I'm kind of not in the damn mood.  This is beyond stupidity -- the program and the 'surprise' over it.

Again, we've spent how long noting this problem here?

And unlike Hannah Winston, we had the spine to not the White House failure.  She doesn't mention that, she doesn't mention Barack.  No, the spineless never do.

In 2009, Barack nominated Bob Gates for Secretary of Defense (easy nomination, he was a carry over from the previous administration).  Gates didn't stay four years. So Leon Panetta was nominated and confirmed and then, this year, we saw Chuck Hagel.


With each nominee, Shinseki's dropped back to square one. There was no leadership. No one watched over and stopped Shineski's constant stalling on this program.  Gates wanted it started and thought they'd agreed on how.  Then Panetta comes in and Shinseki starts the process over again.  He not only did the same thing with Hagel, he had the nerve blame Hagel for that earlier this year in a hearing.

Where has the press been?

Oh, that's right.  Covering bulls**t like rodeos and who might run in 2016.

If the press ever gets tired of failing the American people, there are a lot of important stories they can cover.

I was going to say, "News 21 has a better story here" but then I came across this:

 The Obama administration has prodded states to recognize military experience as sufficient for state licensing – certifying truck drivers, nurses and paramedics, among others. But most state licensing boards have so far delayed, forcing veterans to duplicate the training they received in their military jobs.


Is there anything more stupid on the face of the earth than the American reporter?

When the White House fed you that morsel, did you swallow, spit or snowball?

What you should have done was checked it out.

Reality: the military changes their training and documentation allowing those who leave the service to have certificates they can use in civilian life.  Senator Carl Levin's addressed this in hearings, every Democrat on the House Veterans Affairs Committee from 2006 to 2009 has addressed this.  On the House Armed Services Committee, US House Rep Susan Davis and US House Rep Loretta Sanchez are among those who've addressed it.  It's amazing that a 'hard hitting' look at the inability of the VA to serve veterans never manages to look to the top, that would be the White House, until you realize the White House has participated in some form resulting in idiotic claims that states are failing veterans with certifications.

Lazy Ass Reporters, get this through your thick skulls: America doesn't want state standards changed.  Let's take Steven D. Green who managed to make it to a discharge and was almost back in civilian life before he got arrested for the gang-rape and murder of Abeer.  America doesn't want Green using his self-taught 'skills' in the US.  Standards are in place. It is the military's job to meet those standards and to certify that they are met. Quit blaming the states because you're too damn scared to call out the White House.  What a bunch of spineless cowards.



Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts "Wag The Kennel"  went up last night.   On this week's Law and Disorder Radio,  an hour long program that airs Monday mornings at 9:00 a.m. EST on WBAI and around the country throughout the week, hosted by attorneys Heidi Boghosian, Michael S. Smith and Michael Ratner (Center for Constitutional Rights) topics addressed include Michael Ratner discussing the Chelsea Manning verdict, Kevin Gallagher discussing the targeting of journalist Barrett Brown and Sharla Manley on ho Hawaii transfers prisoners to other states.


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