Author: TSO

For those who don’t get the Legion magazine, shame on you.  However, I did want to share my piece from this month.

Riding with the Cavalry At the 150th anniversary of Gettysburg

Civil War enthusiasts gathered to re-enact a pivotal episode in U.S. military history.

One hundred fifty years after it really happened, we were once again engaged in that most doomed of military ventures: Pickett’s Charge.
I had spent five straight days in the saddle and was happy to be out of it, marching on foot toward some 3,500 Union soldiers about 500 yards away, and among my fellow Confederates in rural Pennsylvania, where the blue and the gray annually revive their epic clash.
I had ridden with the 1st Virginia Cavalry for days, but now, in this ill-fated charge against the North, a lack of horseback troops meant I had to transfer to the 1st South Carolina Infantry. We gamely held up the right flank while trying in vain to stay abreast of the entire line. The mission was soon to unravel, as it did in 1863.
“Stay on line!” yelled our mustachioed commander, who I’d only met 20 minutes earlier. “Stay on line!” Amid the chaos of the battlefield, he was perfectly suited, brandishing two sabers held out parallel to the ground and trying to get us to either slow down or speed up depending on the actions of those to our left.
As I marched on foot, Michael Schramm, an accomplished equestrian, snarked at me from the rank directly to my rear: “I told you, dude. Death before dismount.” I was perfectly content with my feet on the ground since my horse had decided he didn’t like the shouting and noise of the cannons and decided to exit the battlefield early – bearing me, his rider, clinging to the saddle horn. I was happy to walk in an infantry unit from South Carolina, the state in which I attended military college.
During the four days of battles leading to this ultimate ending, I had served as a runner for Brig. Gen. Doug Nalls, commander of the Confederate Cavalry, and Gen. Brian Gesuero, a firefighter from Clinton, Md., and commander of the 1st Corps.
I hadn’t been much use as a runner because my horse and I seldom agreed on which direction to head. At one point, as I was trying to leave the field, I inexplicably found myself in the heart of a saber battle roughly 10 feet from “Gen. Custer,” who smiled at me and said, “Not today, bud. I live through this one.”
But on this particular Sunday, as rain clouds threatened to douse the roughly 20,000 spectators in attendance, I got to the battle the old-fashioned way, in boots obviously made for a man with feet several inches smaller than mine. Among the Civil War’s most enduring jokes is that Army boots came in two sizes: too big and too small.
Cannons roared, men swore, spectators cheered, and I just tried to stay on line with my unit. It wasn’t easy crossing a gully-scoured battlefield, often through surprisingly deep water.
At 200 yards, we saw our last obstacle: a wooden fence halfway between us and the enemy.
“Charge!”
Bugles blared, men yelled the rebel cheer, and on we charged. We closed with the fences and struck. And everywhere along the line the fence went down, except the section I hit. I managed to get a lungful of needed air when Schramm and the second rank struck me and pushed me into the fence again. Eventually, we surrendered to the inevitable and went around it.
At 50 meters, the Union soldiers opened up on us. It was a slaughter. I couldn’t help but wonder if the men on the first go-round had thought, as I did, “What are we doing here?” That’s when I became a Civil War statistic.

Schramm, who had been the best man in my wedding and served with me in Bosnia, had asked rather innocently several months earlier, “Why don’t you come do an embed with my unit?” After 19 years as a cavalry scout and an infantryman, including a stint with the Old Guard at Arlington National Cemetery, Schramm had transferred to the Air National Guard to be a loadmaster. But his flight physical revealed a lung condition that precluded further service, and he was medically retired. So when he asked me to embed in his unit, I was understandably confused.
His unit, it turned out, was not of this century.
It was the 1st Virginia Cavalry of the Army of Northern Virginia, where Schramm served as a major and adjutant in charge of seemingly everything from logistics to ensuring that greenhorns like me didn’t get trampled to death by their horses. Schramm is a battle re-enactor, one among a welcoming and gregarious group of people.
My wife, Caroline, and I sat around the campfire at night, eating food prepared by Mike’s wife, Jo, and discussed everything from current affairs to 19th-century military tactics. They told stories of re-enactments past, when conditions were significantly less hospitable than what we had on this anniversary date. They chuckled over lost boots at New Market and commanders who tried to revise history by winning battles their ancestral counterparts had lost.
The uniforms and weapons can get expensive, so most re-enactors have middle- to upper-middle-class incomes. A basic kit for an infantry re-enactor starts at around $1,000, with just the uniform, weapon, tents and assorted gear. For the cavalry, the cost of caring for horses is added, as are additional weapons like pistols and sabers.
Life as a cavalry troop under Brig. Gen. Nalls was easy compared to that of the infantryman. At 6 a.m. each day, bugles and drums would call the infantry to training. They would march through camp to a nearby open field, while those of us who depended on our equine friends usually slept in.
We fought about two battles a day and at night shared stories, camaraderie and fire-cooked meals. It was the best of camping, adding in the excitement of battle that resulted in no casualties. (This is probably why such re-enactments are so attractive to veterans.)
Schramm, a member of Mathews American Legion Post 83, lives in the Shenandoah region of Virginia. He introduced me to Vietnam War veterans, as well as those who had served in Iraq and Afghanistan, on both sides of the re-enactments. One of the infantrymen marching with us from South Carolina introduced himself as a Legionnaire and Korean War Navy veteran. The 16-year-old boy next to him talked about his desire to serve in the military when he turns 18.
The American Legion Family was well represented on the general’s staff, as we were joined by Logan Metesh and his wife, Jennifer. A firearms specialist with the National Rifle Association, Logan has been a member and adjutant of Sons of the American Legion Squadron 320 in Spotsylvania, Va. His great-grandfather, Joseph Davie, served in World War I as a horseshoer with Battery D of the 10th Field Artillery. “It came full circle for me to serve in the cavalry,” he said.
Logan and Jennifer were both fighting in the Army of Northern Virginia this time, but they trace their ancestors to the Union side – Logan’s family from New York and Jennifer’s from Wisconsin. Only in their 20s, they are veteran re-enactors. “We met at college (University of Mary Washington) during a meeting for a Civil War walking tour of our campus,” Logan says. “I got her started into infantry re-enacting, but she has been riding horses since she was a kid and wanted to combine the two. I told her if she could find a cav unit, we could join. She found the 1st Virginia Cav, and the rest is history.”
Jennifer rides carrying a saber entrusted to her by Blane Piper, a Legionnaire who served as a radioman in the Navy from 1961 to 1964. He had been a member of the post (as well as SAL and the Legion Riders) with Logan, and a re-enactor commanding a unit in Gen. James Archer’s Brigade. At the 135th anniversary of Gettysburg, Piper carried an engraved saber presented to him by his men. Unable to attend the 150th, he asked Jennifer, a corporal with the 1st Virginia Cav, to carry it into battle for him.

I never got the name of the man who shot me.
But as I lay there moaning in the grass, knowing I would never win an Oscar, I could see him smiling. And when the Union troops moved out over our position, chasing the now-fleeing rebels, he did stop to check on me.
“You doing OK, bud?” he asked with a wry smile. “You need any water?” I told him I was good but wished he hadn’t killed me.
“Never mess with us Hoosiers, son,” he said as he stepped over and past me.
“Damn,” I muttered. “Killed by a guy from my own state.”
As the rain started to fall, I regained my feet and stood at attention as a bugler played Taps, bringing closure to a milestone anniversary of a historic battle that will stir back to life this year. The battle will always resume, as long as there are people like us, who so deeply appreciate military history that we’ll happily step back in time, put on the ancient uniform, mount an insubordinate horse, draw sabers and march online into an enemy stronghold, hearts pumping with excitement, always knowing the ultimate outcome.

Mark Seavey is a writer for The American Legion Magazine and editor of the Burn Pit blog.

For more information on Civil War re-enacting and the 151st anniversary of the Battle of Gettysburg on July 4-6, visit the Gettysburg Reenactment Committee’s website.

– See more at: http://www.legion.org/magazine/222853/riding-cavalry#sthash.eRBi6d6F.dpuf

From my paying gig.

Every once in a while an article gets sent to me that is so stupid that I don’t even comment on it because of the general absurdity and ignorance of the writer.  Occasionally though the article is so utterly moronic that it actually requires a response.

So it is with this piece of idiocy put out yesterday by The Daily Caller, titled The VFW And American Legion’s Veterans Affairs Conflict Of Interest.  It’s not just that it is poorly written and researched (which it is) but it advocates answers that already exist, and woefully ignores the obvious answers to questions it poses but apparently didn’t bother to ask about.  For instance, one would have thought that in doing a piece on the “conflict of interest” the reporter, Senior Economics Fellow Joanne Butler might have done even the rudimentary step of picking up the phone and asking The American Legion what they thought, what with them being the ostensible target of this idiotic hit piece.

So let’s start in the beginning.  She begins thusly:

With Father’s Day approaching and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki’s resignation last week, I am reminded of a promise my late Dad (WWII vet, bronze star medalist) demanded I make when I was in 8th grade: That I never send him to a VA hospital. I expect if my Dad were here today, he’d be calling me to say ‘see, I told you.’ My question: where were the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars when the problems began to bubble up last year and earlier this year?

Where were we?  We were visiting the hospitals, testifying on Capitol Hill, and banging on every door imaginable to figure out why the VA allowed these people to continue their employment, despite NUMEROUS IG reports that said that they were gaming the system.  I could go through hundreds of the reports we filed (you can peruse them on our website under our sub heading of “System Worth Saving.”  I can’t even begin to tell you how many times we’ve testified on these issues.  The fact that Ms. Butler didn’t go on the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee website and the House Veterans Affairs Committee website to see all the times we’ve testified on this issue is simply baffling to me.

For the sake of brevity, let me just show ONE such time, as listing them all would take longer than any of us have, this from March of last year:

The American Legion testified at a March 14 congressional hearing that examined how long America’s veterans have to wait for their scheduled appointments at Department of Veterans Affairs medical facilities. Roscoe Butler, national field representative for the Legion’s Veterans Affairs & Rehabilitation Division, presented the testimony before the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs’ Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.

Through its System Worth Saving (SWS) program, the Legion has been acutely aware of wait time problems for a decade. In 2003, the first SWS report noted that – out of more than 300,000 veterans waiting for health-care appointments – more than half had been waiting more than eight months. At one VA medical center in the southeastern U.S., about 14,000 veterans had waited longer than six months for their appointments.

Again, this is just one testimony.  We’ve probably testified on the same issue 40 times.

But take a step back and look at this whole thing holistically.   Congress has also been well aware of what is happening.  And last week they held a hearing that went until past midnight that I covered.  It was the most brutal hearing ever.  But what was the topic of the hearing?  It wasn’t wait times, it was why the VA refused to respond to subpoena’s for information.  Congress couldn’t do anything either for the simple reason that the VA was refusing to give up all the information needed to access the situation and develop a comprehensive strategy to address it.  Now I ask you, if Congress, with subpoena power isn’t able to get the information, how exactly is The American Legion supposed to do that?  All we can do is identify anecdotally all the problems, and then pound on the table and demand they get fixed.  We’ve been doing that since at least 2003 when I was one of the staff members sitting in front of the microphone in those hearings and doing the pounding myself.

But the truly shameful part of this article is what comes next:

Why would the service organizations be cautious in criticizing the VA? It’s because a little-known but major function of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars is helping veterans or their families file for benefits and representing claimants in the VA appeals process. And while by law they cannot charge for helping someone file a claim, they can charge for representational services if the claim is denied and appealed.

Federal law also puts a “reasonable” fee arrangement at twenty percent of past due benefits (benefits the claimant would have received if a positive outcome had resulted at the first step in the decision process).

Any rational person reading that would be led to believe that our representation of veterans is some sort of cash cow, upon which rests our entire economic future.  It seems curious that she doesn’t cite the actual numbers.  For instance, how much money did the Legion receive last year in the “reasonable free arrangement” scheme which underpins our entire financial future?

Absolutely nothing.  Zero.  Nada.  Nil.  Zilch.  Not a single penny.  The American Legion does not charge for any of its representation, either at the Regional Office level (where claims begin) nor at the Board of Veterans Appeals.

I happen to know this because before I was a writer, before I attended law school, before I testified on Capitol Hill on the very issues she claims we are ignoring, I represented claimants before the Board of Veterans Appeals.  So let me state this as bluntly as possible, if any employee of The American Legion tried to get any fee, even one authorized in the law, his first step would be our Human Resources division, and his second would be the front door step where he would have all his belongings waiting for him in a cardboard box.  We do not do it. 

In fact, we even represent people who are not members of The American Legion, and I never once asked any of my clients at the BVA to join.  We do it to help veterans, not as some sort of stream of income.  Right from jump street this poorly researched article props up a straw man that simply does not exist in the real world.

The only charges I know of come when a veteran is denied at the Board of Veterans Appeals in Washington, DC, and then decides to take his case to the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.  But it isn’t Legion personnel who do those claims, it is generally lawyers, or groups like the National Veterans Legal Services Program which the Legion has an existing relationship with.  Failing at the BVA, veterans who use The American Legion as their representation are invited to go to NVLSP and continue the fight if they wish to do so.  And the NVLSP doesn’t charge, so none of the money ever comes back to us.  In fact, the Legion pays NVLSP to do those cases.

There’s a similar dynamic between the VA and veterans’ service organizations, which have a vested interest (fee payments) in not rocking the VA boat. These organizations must have a good working relationship with the VA benefits decision-makers if their clients are to win. Would this relationship be jeopardized if the Legion or VFW shifted into attack-dog mode over problems at VA hospitals?

First off, as explained, we have no “vested interest” in the form of “fee payments” and second of all, why use a hypothetical when The Legion has been out front calling for Shinseki, Allison Hickey and Dr. Petzel to be fired?  That alone absolutely demolishes the faulty logic of this entire paragraph.  How could we be more in “attack-dog mode” that we are now?  We have an entire section of our website devoted to “Dying in Line” which lists all the failures of the VA.

She continues:

Nevertheless, if I was the head of the Legion or VFW, I would be embarrassed that it took a VA inspector general report to reveal the problems on the ground at the Phoenix hospital.

 Well, so would everyone else.  The problem is that it didn’t take an inspector general report to tell us that, we’ve been saying for years.  Why should we be embarrassed for something we’re been screaming from the mountaintops for a decade?  It took an IG report before Ms. Butler and her friends in the media took an interest in the story.  This may come as a shock, but we don’t have the ability to just call up CNN and appear in 20 minutes.  The media chooses what issues it wants to cover, and until CNN uncovered the secret wait lists, it wasn’t an issue that rose to their level of awareness.

 On Monday I will finish discussing this piece in the Daily Caller, and address the three recommendations of Ms. Butler on how to fix the VA.  I don’t want to ruin the surprise, but all three of them are either not accurate (there is no litmus test for veterans status for VA Secretary, and The Legion is banned by our Congressional Charter from suggesting anyone for any political position, including Secretary), violates the Constitution as it exists right now (Secretaries of Cabinet level executive Departments work for the President) or already exist (Veterans Benefits and Veterans Health are two different departments within VA.)

This piece should go right down the memory hole immediately, and Ms. Butler should apologize to the National Commander and all of us who work claims for free.  Our only recompense comes from our salaries, and our joy and satisfaction come from aiding our brothers and sisters in arms in getting the benefits they earned through honorable military service.

It was an early morning after staying up past midnight last night listening and watching the House Veterans Affairs Committee hearing on why they aren’t getting documentation they had requested YEARS ago.  Unfortunately for the VA personnel who had to testify, it couldn’t have been worse timing.  The IG report came out yesterday at noon, and the hearing started at 7:30.

I am not kidding when I say it was the most brutal hearing of all time.  I’ve been to literally thousands of hearings, and even testified before congress on about 15 different occassions.  Nothing I have seen came close to this.  For just one 6 minute example of how bad it was, watch this:

Here is the chairman getting into it too.  I met him at convention last year, and he’s a super nice guy, so you can just feel how unbelievably frustrated he is:

It literally went on and on.  Dr Lynch talked about taking his wife with him on the trip to Arizona, which really angered a lot of the panel.  During the 5 minute intermission he forgot to turn his microphone off and he was talking about how he shouldn’t have said it.  Well, no, actually you shouldn’t have DONE it. 

Dr. Lynch went to Phoenix to get a handle on the “system”, he said that over and over and over.  He spoke with no patients, no doctors, no whistleblowers.  They only talked to the schedulers.  The same people who were maintaining the secret waiting lists.  How on Earth he expected to get answers from the people he was ostensibly there to check on is beyond me, and seemed to be beyond the Congressmen and women as well.

Congressman Huelskamp in particular wasn’t buying ANYTHING that VA was selling last night, as he made clear in a series of Tweets that Twitchy noted:

And the dam is starting to break on demands for Secretary Shinseki’s resignation.  While some Republicans and a few Georgia Democrats had called for it already, others had called for everyone to wait on the IG report.  Well, that came in, and things turned south QUICKLY (from Politico):

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki’s support on Capitol Hill crumbled on Wednesday as members of his own party deserted him in the aftermath of a highly critical inspector general report that found “systemic” problems at VA medical facilities.

Within just hours of the report’s release, the number of Democrats calling for Shinseki’s resignation more than doubled. By Wednesday evening, more than a dozen congressional Democrats publicly called for his ouster, joining a growing number of influential Republicans….

Among those pushing for his dismissal are the Senate’s most vulnerable Democrats, whose reelection bids are critical to the party maintaining control of the chamber next year. Democratic Sens. Mark Udall of Colorado, John Walsh of Montana and Kay Hagan of North Carolina released separate statements saying the secretary must go, reflecting pressure to break ranks with the Obama administration during an election year. Late Wednesday night, Sen. Al Franken (D-Minn.) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) added their voices to the chorus of Democrats asking for a shake-up in leadership at the VA.

At this point it seems like it is only a matter of when the resignation will occur.  It seems exceedingly unlikely that further reviews will go any better for the VA.

For those that want to look at the IG report, you can READ IT BY CLICKING HERE.  It is fairly short if you don’t read the addendums.  One thing that stood out to me in reading it though, and which the hearing last night focused on was the number of reports done previously that apparently no one at VA really decided to take seriously.

But the take-away was this:

To review the new patient wait times for primary care in FY 2013, we reviewed a statistical sample of 226 Phoenix HCS appointments.  VA national data, which was reported by Phoenix  HCS, showed these 226 veterans waited on average 24 days for their first primary care  appointment and only 43 percent waited more than 14 days. However, our review showed these 226 veterans waited on average 115 days for their first primary care appointment with approximately 84 percent waiting more than 14 days. At this time, we believe that most of the waiting time discrepancies occurred because of delays between the veteran’s requested appointment date and the date the appointment was created. However, we found that in at least 25 percent of the 226 appointments reviewed, evidence, in veterans’ medical records, indicates that these veterans received some level of care in the Phoenix HCS, such as treatment in the emergency room, walk in clinics, or mental health clinics.

Further…

while conducting our work at the Phoenix HCS our on-site OIG staff and OIG Hotline received numerous allegations daily of mismanagement, inappropriate hiring decisions, sexual harassment, and bullying behavior by mid- and senior-level managers at this facility. We are assessing the validity of these complaints and if true, the impact to the facility’s senior leadership’s ability to make effective improvements to patients’ access to care.

In a preface to Sir Isaac Newton’s Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Edmond Halley wrote of the Lucasian Professor of Mathematics that: “Nearer the gods no mortal may approach.” If you are one of those who professes a belief that fact-deficient partisan hackery on Huffington Post is indeed a science (and who among us hasn’t on occasion genuflected at that particular altar) than one would be inclined to say the same of Jon Soltz.

Provided of course that person also believed that the Gods sit perched on Mt Olympus sniffing glue and eating nasal discharge.

As Exhibit A to that proposition, the impeding (and necessary) deification of VoteVets’ chief minstrel, I give you this effluvient, “Where do Vets Stand on Shinseki.” (I would suggest as an opening opinion that they ought not stand on the man at all, as he is a wounded veteran himself but nonetheless…)

He [Soltz] begins by citing some figures from a poll which VoteVets has run, although he was magnanimous to point out that “this isn’t a scientific poll of all veterans, but it is a glimpse into a few segments of them.” Well stated Jon. No more or less scientific than phrenology or some other ludicrous “science” like geology. (I kid of course, but it’s only ’cause like Dr. Sheldon Cooper I have no respect for the field.)

A random poll of 3,300 “random [VoteVets] supporters” found that

Out of the total group polled, only 17 percent believed that Secretary Shinseki should resign. A whopping 60 percent said he should not resign, with 23 percent saying they weren’t sure yet.

I would point out that 17 percent is significantly higher than the number of Members of Congress who have articulated that as well. It is also about 16 percent higher than the number of Students interviewed at George Mason University who knew where or what Bhengazi was. (The answer we were looking for was “Bhen Gazi was Obi Wan’s name among the Sand People. Be careful, they frighten easy but will return in greater numbers.”)

And then we get to the part where he bashes my employer. (I should add that I was no part of the discussion about this, as I was saying Good Bye to a friend at Arlington when the decision came down, more on that in a minute. I would also add that I am writing this at midnight, betwixt two days I have off, and am not doing this for any work related purposes. Mocking Soltz is it’s own reward.)

The American Legion has called on Shinseki to resign. As of yet, I don’t believe they asked their members if they agreed. So, we decided to. Of those on our list who also are members of the American Legion, only 17 percent backed the Legion’s call for Shinseki to resign. Sixty-four percent said he should not resign, with 19 percent saying they weren’t yet sure.

I’m going to start by hazarding a guess that a) we can’t trust these figures, and b) they are meaningless anyway.

But first, a short transgression from our path to the Immortal Heights is perhaps warranted. VoteVets you may recall has had truthiness problems in the past. In fact, they’ve even trotted out their people to bash the VA in the past when it benefitted them, which is why their bashing us is so…..what’s that word? Hypocritical? (No, “batshit crazy” is the answer this time, you guys suck at this.)

Some of you may recall in 2006 how VoteVets put forth a young lad named Josh Lansdale in TV commercials to bash Senator Jim Talent in Missouri. Josh you see “returned from Iraq with a busted ankle and post-traumatic stress. It was six months before I could see a doctor.”

But then a funny thing happened, Lansdale’s First Sergeant came forward and pointed out the stories were all bullshit. And the VA said it was crap as well. And Lansdale’s appearance in campaign ads went down the Memory Hole along with the porno from Hitler’s bunker and the videotapes of the third man on the grassy knoll. (It was Keith Hernandez, but a Gov’t conspiracy is keeping that quiet.)

Isolated incident right?

Well, then they trotted out gay Marine Battalion Commander Rick Duncan to do ads for them in Colorado. But he was attacked by Koch brothers CNN plant and noted right winger (and homophobe) Anderson Cooper, and so his television appearances went into the same hole.

Soltz, he of diminutive mental capabilities and Brobdingnagian rhetorical hyperbole continues:

You’d be hard-pressed to find any veteran who is happy about what happened at the Phoenix VA. Yet, at the same time, I don’t think the American Legion, or the Koch-backed Concerned Veterans for America, are really representing how veterans feel at large. It’s very likely that the Legion isn’t even representing its own membership anymore. That’s a true shame for such a historic veterans’ organization.

It is said that Democracy (which Soltz here construes as a poll of 3,300 people) is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to eat for lunch. Nonetheless, The American Legion, like a country that Soltz allegedly swore allegiance to, has a constitutional republican form of government. We have our Congressional Charter including the Constitution as a guideline, and then a “National Executive Committee” which like the Senate has two representatives from each state. Since it is impracticable for the Legion to poll 2.4 million people on any given subject, they instead elect their NECmen (and women) to represent their interests.

In fact, if you happened to see National Commander Dan Dellinger’s call for the resignation anywhere, you will see that it coincided with our National Executive Committee’s Spring Meetings. It wasn’t just one or two guys who decided this on a whim, it was after deliberation and thoughtful analysis of the issues. Now, again, I wasn’t there, but Soltz’s implication is that it was just a few employees or something making shit up, and that’s not at all what happened.

Soltz has one other gem in this rant of his that warrants noting:

And of those who receive care at the VA, again, there was no overwhelming call for Shinseki to step down. Sixty-two percent said he should not resign. Twenty-four percent said they weren’t sure, with the remainder, just 14 percent, saying he should. That’s interesting, in that those who actually receive VA care are the least likely to say Shinseki should resign. Listening to the news, you would think that those who get VA care would be up in arms, with torches and pitchforks, calling for Shinseki’s head. That just isn’t the case.

Ah yes, another right wing hysteria movement foisted on us sheeple by the likes of Jonathan Karl, Jake Tapper, John Stewart, Ron Fournier and their Koch brothers funded ilk! And they are even including Tea Party Republicans like David Scott (Dem, GA, Congressional Black Caucus) and John Barrow (Dem, GA) in their partisan attacks on “Rick.” Dastardly villains.

Now Beeker, ahem, I mean Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs of HUD (and formerly the VA) Brandon Friedman, as non-partisan a figure as you will ever find to be sure, shockingly backed up his former VoteVets colleague Soltz:

.@VoteVets basically challenges the @AmericanLegion to survey its members on Shinseki.

Um, yeah, here’s the weird thing about that, I haven’t met anyone in the Legion who ever said we ought to check in with VoteVets first, and see what they think. These are the same guys who for the first 10 days of this debacle were still arguing the importance of the military going green. (“Well shit Bob, sorry you weren’t able to see a doctor about your colorectal cancer, but the good news is we are this close [thumb and forefinger spread a millimeter apart] from getting the Navy to buy $24 gallons of gas!”)

If either of them watched the hearings last week, that I covered in person, they would have heard the Legion, VFW and a host of other ACTUAL veterans SERVICE organizations saying that the quality of VA Medical Care overall is very high. And it is. If you look at the satisfaction rankings, this is borne out by the numbers. The problem is that people were cooking the books to get bonuses. And veterans died waiting for calls back. And when asked who had been fired over this issue, Petzel and Shinseki stared at them like a 13 year old seeing his first set of knockers.  It’s access that is the problem, not quality.  (Not the quality is universally excellent, but they are higher than the private sector, and mine in particular I would rate as excellent.  Attaboy Roudabush Medical Center.)

Seriously, they couldn’t think of a single person fired over this? They were in charge. There have been 19 IG reports in the past two years. There are memos dating back years in which VA acknowledges the existence (and their knowledge of) these off the books lists.

I was one of the veterans this happened to. Same thing happened to me at the DC VA in 2007. I was told they couldn’t get me in within the 30 day window, so I’d have to call back “next Thursday” to schedule an appointment. At the time I couldn’t even walk, which made it impossible for me to get to school. Now, I just told the lady I had Shinseki’s number, and I’d call him from work. Miraculously, a slot came available 10 minutes after I hung up.

Look, if you want to support Secretary Shinseki, than by all means, VoteVets are your peeps. But just who in the hell are they to say that 55 American Legion National Executive Committeeman and their Alternates (we have 5 overseas Departments) should poll their people before voting to call for his resignation? You don’t like the decision they came to? Then get your millions of supporters to join TAL and vote in your own people, but don’t be so presumptuous as to tell us how to make our own decisions.

Not every group has the luxury of picking positions based on what a Magic 8 ball and George Soros’ checkbook have to say about the issue.

Not sure if we had ever shared this, and it’s good for a chuckle as the world’s greatest legal mind, and friend to all pisses off a radio host:

Bottom Line Up Front:

Unlawful practice of law in Florida is a third degree felony.

Wittgenfeld authorizes Bernath to be his attorney in pursuit of a law suit to be filed in Florida.

Bernath claims to be pro hac vice, although he has never filed.

Pro hac vice is not available to attorneys living in Florida not a member of that states bar.

Bernath has repeatedly claimed to be a Florida resident, and availed himself of homestead exemptions only available to Florida residents.

Florida law:

Engaging in the unlicensed practice of law in Florida is also a crime. It is a third degree felony. For this reason, the State Attorney also has the power to bring criminal charges against an individual for practicing law without a license.

Bernath’s Florida client, Dallas Wittgenfeld, April 19, 2014:

Dear Esquire Daniel Bernath,

I consent to you representing me. Per the discussion, I want you to take the Defendants Seavey and Lilyea off every email, as I do not wish to have knowledge of them or any communication.  Please do not copy me with any email to Seavey of Indiana or Lilyea of W.Va.

I don’t wish to converse with them, and they are actors in a Florida law suite coming up.  They need to find their own representation. I wish nothing to do with either of them. However as we sue them, in future suits you can correspond with their defensive counsel or however this all plays out.

Please sever all your email links between me as the Plaintiff and the American Legion as Defendant, including the agents of the American Legion. I want no contact with the Defendants, and you will make it so, as I form the entire array of complaints against them, their agency and every legal issue, that is well-documented.

I think the young millennials well know the hard road that they have picked. So I agree, we find and perfect the RICO statute, as to riding on Meaghan’s Law for cyber bullying the combat disabled war Veterans as these military people are a pox, a tumor to be removed from the ranks of Americas military and Veterans’ Service club cyber/mob society.

You are the lawyer and leave me out if it, to the Defendants. I will pursue everything legally and properly though. The American Legion’s “Stolen Valor Reich” have no idea as to what will happen to them. Perhaps in the future the millennial soldiers will be more careful about attacking  strangers who are really combat disabled Vietnam War Veterans of the Special Forces trained elite Airborne Rangers (LRRP).

Bernath’s Florida client, Dallas Wittgenfeld discussing his lawyer:

Bernath’s Florida client, Dallas Wittgenfeld discussing his lawyer:

Stop it iPredator Seavey.  I see here where you are trying to spook old Bernath…

You are wasting your time, idiot.   My lawyer is the best in central Florida you and the American Legion are screwed.

Now shut up and stop cabooky dancing like you are a crusader or something, but have no weapons.

Daniel Bernath on his unlawful practice of law in Florida

Pro hoc vice [sic]

Pro Hac Vice from Wiki (for those who don’t know what it means):

Pro hac vice (American English pronunciation: [pr?? hæk ‘vi:t?ei]), Latin: “for this occasion” or “for this event” (literally, “for this turn”),^[1] is a legal term usually referring to a lawyer who has not been admitted to practice in a certain jurisdiction but has been allowed to participate in a particular case in that jurisdiction.

RULE 4-5.5 UNLICENSED PRACTICE OF LAW; MULTIJURISDICTIONAL PRACTICE OF LAW

(b) Prohibited Conduct. A lawyer who is not admitted to practice in Florida shall not:
(1) except as authorized by other law, establish an office or other regular presence in Florida for the practice of law;

(2) hold out to the public or otherwise represent that the lawyer is admitted to practice law in Florida; or

(3) appear in court, before an administrative agency, or before any other tribunal unless authorized to do so by the court, administrative agency, or tribunal pursuant to the applicable rules of the court, administrative agency, or tribunal.

Comment to the rule:

Other than as authorized by law, a lawyer who is not admitted to practice in Florida violates subdivision (b) if the lawyer establishes an office or other regular presence in Florida for the practice of law. Presence may be regular even if the lawyer is not physically present here. Such a lawyer must not hold out to the public or otherwise represent that the lawyer is admitted to practice law in Florida.

Requirements for Pro Hac Vice from Florida Bar:

6. Movant is not disbarred or suspended from practice in any jurisdiction.

7. Movant is not a Florida resident.

Email from Daniel A. Bernath, titled “From plaintiff Daniel A. Bernath”, dated March 11, 2014:

I am suing each and every person who defamed me.  As I am a citizen of the US and of Florida it shall be in Florida US District Court.

Email from April 18 (and dozens of others):

Daniel A. Bernath
Lawyer
4600 Summerlin
Suite C-2  #249
Ft Myers Florida 33919

Email from Bernath, April 22:

Oregon Bar is unhappy because Bernath has been practicing law in Oregon with a California license, made several million dollars since 1994 (depriving Oregon lawyers of those fees) and there is nothing they can do about it but write Bernath “caution” letters long after he moved to Florida.

Email from Bernath, May 7:

 You pick a fight with a service connected PTSD agent orange 100 per cent 65 year old retired in Florida living on exempted Pension and 100 per cent homestead exemption. Attorney Bernath has all the time to defend and prosecute.

And, because irony is not his strong suit, I give you the pièce de résistance …Email to the Indiana Bar Association, May 8, 2014:

  To: Discipline Indiana Bar

Your bar member Mark C. Seavey is violating and promises to continue to violate Rule 8.4.  His misconduct is also an abuse of process.

He has conducted a campaign to harass myself, a 64 Vietnam War Veteran and other older Vietnam War Veterans by any means possible through his website  www.ThisAintHell.us.  He has done this by threatening my life, encouraging others to threaten my life, making sport of my service connected disability, all because he is on a campaign to attack aged Vietnam War Veterans.

Because of my service in Vietnam, I ingested poison. Now, I cannot urinate. I must now insert a rubber catheter up my penis, past my prostate gland and into my bladder. This is very painful and must be done 6 to 8 times a day as my kidneys were failing if not attended to immediately.  This of course, has contributed to my treated and stable at the moment severe depression and post traumatic stress disorder.

Mark C. Seavey, along with his death threats and his directing others to make death threats to me, then sends me messages, calling me “crazy pants”, in obvious reference to my mental difficulties because of the Vietnam War and my inability to urinate.  (Crazy-my PTSD and severe depression and crazy pants-my requirement that I conduct a medical procedure 6 to 8 times a day to stay alive as I approach my 65th year.)

I have begged your bar member repeatedly to leave me alone.  My family members have repeatedly begged him to leave our family alone and he has only responded with more encouragement to his associates to continue the harassments