This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden

  • Speaking of the DVA

    The Associated Press does a story on the VA’s Office of the Inspector General’s internal investigation of DVA’s claims processing;

    The internal watchdog for the Veterans Affairs Department says VA medical centers need to give compensation and pension medical exams to veterans sooner in order to expedite disability claims.

    It says some veterans wait months longer than necessary for disability claims because getting the exams takes so long.

    Oh, no shit! I. Never. Knew. That. How much money to get to that level of brilliance?

    At a facility in Roseburg, Ore., the IG found hundreds of requests for an exam tucked in file cabinets so a timeliness quota could be met. And it found claims at an outpatient clinic in Winston-Salem, N.C., were processed out of order to also help with the quota.

    How many stories of this type of incompetence and intentional malfeasance have we suffered in the last few years?

    The chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Daniel Akaka, says the VA needs to devote more resources to fixing the problem. The VA has told the inspector general it will do that.

    Oh, well, I feel much better now. Shinseki promised an improvement in veterans’ services back in January last year. He promised changes in the DVA. As recnetly as last month, he promised he’d improve the system. But you know what – just last week, Shinseki finally agreed with Congress that he needs to “prioritize reform“. Isn’t that something he should have done last year before he took office? I’m no MBA grad, but it seems to me like you can’t reform anything until the reforms are prioritized. Fucking brain dead morons.

    You know, I’m pretty sure that reforming a big bureaucratic dinosaur is a tough job that takes a long time, but after watching the media hammer the Bush Administration (who doubled the funding for veterans in the first three years in office) for every streak they found on a hospital window, where the fuck are these watchdogs now?

    I don’t envy Shinseki for the task he’s committed himself to, but shouldn’t he at least act like he’s trying to do something instead of whacking his meat for Congress every couple of months?

  • Isn’t that her job?

    Word around Chicago is that Tammy Duckworth, the Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs and double-amputee veteran is a useless POS. That she’s never done a thing for veterans and the things she’s credited with are things other people did and Duckworth swooped in to gather the accolades. The Chicagoans I’ve heard say this are unimpeachable sources, but nonetheless, I reserved judgment until I saw it for myself.

    Over a year ago, she was named to her position at Veterans Affairs by Eric Shinseki, an untrustworthy turd if ever there was one. Now she’s been in her job for over a year and the only real things she’s accomplished is hiring VoteVets’ Brandon Friedman (known around these parts as Beaker) and more recently Kayla Williams (whose book “Love My Gun More Than You” made this infantryman’s stomach churn) to the DVA.

    So here we are, more than a year into Duckworth’s tenure and she’s accomplished nothing. Not to mention that disability claims are skyrocketing and not getting processed, new GI Bill disbursements are so screwed up, they may never clear the decks. So what does L. Tammy Duckworth do? You won’t believe it;

    I see this as good a time as any to go back and finish my own degree. In fact, for the first time in a few years, I have a stabilized life, a desk job at my National Guard unit, and the supportive boss needed to make going back to school viable. In fact, I’ve been so inspired by my work with Veterans that I’ve not only decided to re-enroll, but I’m also changing my degree from Political Science to Health and Human Services — so I can work on issues of public health.

    Yes, the pompous, arrogant Honorable L. Tammy Duckworth is going back to school to finish her PhD. On your dime. And the writes about it. She acts like it’s her way of fixing the VA – but what problems will she find? As soon as the VA clerk sees her name on paperwork, it’ll zip through the system – and she’ll declare the system excellent.

    Yes, she earned the right to those benefits, but instead of burning the midnight oil on some stupid dissertation, how about fixing the VA – ya know, the job we pay you to do. There’s plenty of time to go to college after you get fired at the VA.

    Of course, dicksmith takes time away from blogging about DADT to gush all over Duckworth;

    Wow, That’s what I call leading from the front! I know I’ll be keeping a close watch on Assistant Secretary Duckworth’s G.I. Bill progress, and hope to see some fixes to the often challenging process of obtaining benefits as a result.

    Wow, indeed. Um, dicksmith, “leading from the front” doesn’t mean being the first in line on Registration Day.

    Duckworth has been at her job for more than a year so it seems to me that she could have identified problems from her position and fixed them by now – without going to college. I guess my Chicago friends are right.

  • So who is it?

    I’ve been waiting for confirmation that the American who the Pakistanis claim is Adam Pearlman has been captured. Pearlman is the son of hippie goat herders in California, also known as Adam Gadahn, also known as the Pillsbury Doughboy of al Qaeda. Early reports yesterday seemed to confirm that Pearlman is in custody in Pakistan.

    But Fox News says there’s some doubt to the prisoner’s identity. I guess there are two fat white boys running around Pakistan. And what with the current administration policy of taking prisoners to Baskin Robbins for an ice cream cone between questions (hoping the brain-freeze will break the terrorists – it’s still not known if the administration has the approval of Tony Camerino yet) we probably won’t get a confirmation on his identity until the little fatty has had his fill of banana splits. The word is that the CIA is withholding colorful sprinkles from Pearlman’s sundaes.

    I also hear that Adam Kokesh and Rand Paul are reaching out to Pearlman with requests that he endorse them for their respective primary runs during Pearlman’s interrogations.

    Of course, that hasn’t stopped you guys from inundating my mailbox with the announcement that Pearlman has been captured – thanks to all of you, but I was being cautious.

  • Of Gitmo alum and VoteVets

    Apparently the Taliban has chosen the man to take the place of captured Taliban #2 leader Baradar and he’s a graduate of the Guantanamo School for Wayward Boys;

    A man freed from Guantanamo more than two years ago after he claimed he only wanted to go home and help his family is now a senior commander running Taliban resistance to the U.S.-led offensive in southern Afghanistan, two senior Afghan intelligence officials say.

    Abdul Qayyum is also seen as a leading candidate to be the next No. 2 in the Afghan Taliban hierarchy, said the officials, interviewed last week by The Associated Press.

    Now, to me, it proves that we should stop releasing these peckerheads until the Taliban’s tendency to kill innocent people as well as our troops ends. But to dicksmith at VoteVets, the contrary makes more sense;

    The torture enthusiasts and Liz Cheneys of the world will tell you that this proves that we MUST keep GITMO open. But really does that make sense? A Bush Administration system that is so flawed that it has returned high level Taliban commanders to the battlefield should be maintained?

    Here’s another option: civilian courts have successfully prosecuted and convicted over 300 terrorists, none of which have ever returned to the battlefield.

    The Obama Administration is currently navel-gazing about their decision to send Khalid Sheik Mohammad to trial in New York, yet the reprobates at VoteVets haven’t yet arrived at the common sense Bush policy of warehousing these bloodthirsty freaks. I have yet to hear what we do with them after their term in prison ends. Turn them loose on our streets and keep our collective fingers crossed that they learned their lessons? I wonder if dicksmith has thought through completely.

  • And another one’s gone

    I wrote about NY Congressman Eric Massa (D-29) last year when he told local media “I will vote adamantly against the interests of my district if I actually think what I am doing is going to be helpful. I will vote against their opinion if I actually believe it will help them.”

    Well it seems the little turd is floating out of the bowl;

    Rep. Eric Massa is poised to announce this afternoon that he will not seek re-election in the 29th Congressional District this fall as planned, a Democratic source confirms.

    The freshman congressman is going to make his announcement at 3 p.m., according to the source. It’s unclear if that event is taking place in the district or in Wahsington, D.C. A call to Massa’s spokesman has so far not been returned.

    UPDATE: Massa’s office says he will be speaking with the press on a “very important” conference call at 3:30 p.m. He’s in Washington.

    Rumors are that he’s been accused of sexually harassing a male staff member;

    According to several House aides on both sides of the aisle, the House ethics committee has been informed of allegations that Massa, who is married with two children, sexually harassed a male staffer.

    Massa told POLITICO Wednesday afternoon that no one has brought allegations of misconduct to him.

    Asked about the sexual harassment allegations, Massa said: “When someone makes a decision to leave Congress, everybody says everything. I have health issues. I’ll talk about it [later].”

    Health issues like getting a man’s belt buckle imprinted on his giant-ass forehead. I don’t care why he’s leaving, just that he’ll be gone. He was such an pompous, arrogant ritard, he’s virtually insured there will never ever be a Democrat in that seat.

    Thanks for your service now go the fuck away, Ric, ya little homo.

    UPDATED: COB6 emailed me that bone smuggler Massa was one of the Vote Vets-sponsored candidates in the last election. Wesley Clark even stumped for him in New York. Is that egg on your face?

    No wonder dicksmith has been pushing for the repeal of DADT.

    Yup, he announced his “retirement” while I was writing this. I hope his wife slaps the living shit out of him every-damn-day.

  • Fishy investigation at Ft. Jackson

    Rurik sent me this article, by way of Rick Moran at American Thinker blog about the funny crap happening in that food poisoning plot at Fort Jackson last year. First of all, why are we hearing about it from Congressman Joe Wilson and not from the media? And why have four of the five Muslims being investigated in the plot, been discharged while CID is still holding their computers and investigating the fifth?

    Republican Rep. Joe Wilson, who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, said the soldiers’ laptops had been seized and were being analyzed. Congressional officials with knowledge of the case said cell phones and Arabic writings had been confiscated as well.

    Wilson said the soldiers were discharged because of unrelated incidents of minor theft.

    In his first public comments on the case, Wilson said FBI forensics experts were working with the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division in the probe.

    “The initial investigation confirmed that (the five soldiers) had not made any effort to poison food and that allegations about their disloyalty were inaccurate,” Wilson told McClatchy Newspapers. “There was further investigation. I have not received any word of it being over. I think they would tell me.”

    Well, then why have they been discharged if there’s a “further investigation”? I can understand the administrative discharge since it the fastest and easiest way to get them out of the Army – but why when the investigation hasn’t concluded? After what I saw in the aftermath of the Nidal Hasan murders, when the Army starts acting funny, they’re up to no good.

  • ATF seizes 30 air guns

    1stCavRVN11B sent this article about ATF seizing a shipment of 30 airsoft guns, claiming that they could easily be converted to “machine guns” (article from KOIN6)

    A local business owner is flabbergasted after a shipment of 30 toy guns for his store was confiscated by ATF agents in Tacoma.

    Brad Martin and his son, Ben, sell the Airsoft BB guns from their store in Cornelius where they’ve been in business for seven years.

    The Martins said they buy their stock from Taiwan because the merchandise is less expensive. But the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives seized a shipment of 30 in October. That shipment is worth around $12,000 and the ATF is promising to destroy the entire shipment.

    Special Agent Kelvin Crenshaw said the toys can be easily retro-fitted into dangerous weapons.

    “With minimal work it could be converted to a machine gun,” Crenshaw said.

    Now, I don’t know much about air-soft, but what I’ve been able to find out is that they fire a missile using pressurized air – every firearm I’ve handled is not like that. It sounds to me like the ATF is over-reacting because the guns don’t have orange paint on the barrel. And I’m wondering if the ATF even knows what a machine gun is at this point, unless Special Agent Crenshaw was talking down to the media.

    Airsoft can’t be that rugged if it attracts people like this to the sport, though. I’m sorry, but I forgot who sent me that link last week or so – it’s been keeping me in stitches ever since. Notice each of their profiles mention that their military experience is “classified” – I’d change that to “wussified” for accuracy.

  • Obama extends some PATRIOT Act provisions

    Associated Press reports that the President has extended some of the provisions with which Democrats, including Campaign Obama, beat up the previous administration and Republicans, in general.

    Three sections of the Patriot Act that stay in force will:

    –Authorize court-approved roving wiretaps that permit surveillance on multiple phones.

    –Allow court-approved seizure of records and property in anti-terrorism operations.

    –Permit surveillance against a so-called lone wolf, a non-U.S. citizen engaged in terrorism who may not be part of a recognized terrorist group.

    Obama’s signature comes after the House voted 315 to 97 Thursday to extend the measure.

    I’m certainly not complaining that the provisions were kept alive, for the sake of our national security. However, I sure wish the Democrats had been honest about their intentions over the last eight or nine years in regards to this and not used the issue to agitate the tin-foil hat crowd. It does illustrate the Democrats’ dishonesty with their own constituents. Not that the idiots will stop sending the thieves back to Congress or anything.