V.A. SCANDAL LINKED TO OBAMA

Driven out by whistleblowers, Acting Inspector General of the Veterans Administration Richard Griffin finally resigned last week. Good riddance. Griffin had whitewashed and concealed information about inadequate care and phony waiting lists and tried to retaliate against truth-tellers.

But don’t expect real improvement at the VA. Griffin’s successor is another bureaucratic lifer, Lin Halliday. She’s been collecting a paycheck from the VA Inspector General’s office since 1992, while the deadly problems festered. President Obama seems to like that approach. 

On July 2, as Obama descended from Air Force One at a Wisconsin stop, whistleblower Ryan Honl, a Gulf War Veteran, seized a moment on the tarmac to urge the president to appoint an independent Inspector General. “If they just pick someone new from inside the agency, it will be business as usual and the problems will continue,” Honl warned. But the President brushed Honl off, saying VA Secretary Robert McDonald “had it covered.”

Sorry. That’s not true.

Only the president can appoint an Inspector General. Federal law requires that the Veterans Administration, and other departments, have outside Inspectors General to guard against corruption and mismanagement. Obama simply refuses to appoint them, allowing the vacant offices to be filled instead by “acting” IGs like Griffin and Halliday. These are lapdogs instead of watchdogs, compliant temporary placeholders from inside the system. 

Via: American Spectator

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Veteran Denied Care At Two VA Facilities Thought No One Would Believe Him, So He Filmed It

The VA clinic in Lawrenceville, Ga., initially turned him away for the same reason, which is why he decided to bring his camera along to the Community Based Outpatient Clinic in Oakwood. He received the same response. But this time, he captured the interaction on camera.

The full video shows 33-year-old Dorsey waiting for five minutes before telling an employee that he needs a transfer from the VA system in Athens.

“We’re not accepting any new patients — not this clinic,” the VA employee said in response, signaling an abrupt end to the interaction.

Dorsey, who served in Iraq in 2003, has PTSD and was seeking treatment for escalating symptoms. Aside from the Oakwood clinic, Dorsey’s other option is in Atlanta, which is more than 50 miles away from his current location. PTSD is a fairly common diagnosis in veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The VA states that anywhere between 11-20 percent of those veterans suffer from PTSD.

“It takes a lot to say, ‘You know what, I need to get help,’” Dorsey told the New York Daily News. “And for a veteran to be told on multiple occasions that they can’t get help is just very, very discouraging.”

While this means that the VA Choice program applies, no employees offered that information. It was only after he had discussed his experiences at the two clinics with another veteran that he learned of the program.

“We have some very serious geographical issues. Now we have the VA Choice card but we have doctors who won’t accept it or don’t understand it,” Jerry Edwards, founder of North Georgia Veteran’s Outreach Center, told Military Times.

Not only do doctors often refuse to accept the program, but internally, the VA has previously tried to interpret the legislation establishing the program to mean that if any facility exists within 40 miles of a veteran, regardless of whether that facility provides appropriate care, then that veteran can’t access the program.

Other administrative problems have plagued the VA. Over 500,000 veterans have inquired about the VA Choice Program from the period between November 2014 and May. Just 50,000 received authorization for appointments.

Via: American Spectator

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The Obama Administration's Ethics Problem

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki cannot get a handle on the recent scandalous treatment of veterans in VA hospitals, where more than 40 sick men were allowed to die without proper follow-up treatment. A cover-up allegedly followed. When the Walter Reed Army Medical Center scandal broke under the George W. Bush administration, heads rolled. So far, Shinseki seems immune from similar accountability.

Almost nothing that former secretary of health and human services Kathleen Sebelius promised before, during, or after the implementation of the ill-starred Affordable Care Act came true. She was also cited by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel for violating the Hatch Act, as she improperly campaigned for Obama’s reelection while serving as a cabinet secretary.

Former IRS official Lois Lerner used the federal tax-collection agency to go after groups deemed too conservative. She invoked the Fifth Amendment to avoid telling Congress the whole truth.

Susan Rice, former U.N. ambassador and now national-security adviser, flat-out deceived the public in five television appearances about the Benghazi catastrophe. She insisted that the deaths of four Americans were due to a spontaneous riot induced by a reactionary video maker — even though she had access to intelligence fingering al-Qaeda-affiliated terrorists as the culprits who planned the attack on the anniversary of 9/11.

Rice recently blamed Obama foreign-policy failures on domestic political polarization. But that is best described as the give and take of democracy and was once thought to be our foreign-policy strength.

Rice also knows little history. In 2007, in the midst of the surge, when Americans were fighting for their lives to stabilize Iraq, then-senator Hillary Clinton implied that the commanding general in Iraq, General David Petraeus, was a veritable liar. Senate majority leader Harry Reid agreed and declared that the war was already lost. Then–presidential candidate Barack Obama prematurely wrote off the politically inconvenient surge as a failure. Was Rice then shocked that “polarization” affected foreign policy?

Via: Real Clear Politics

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Where VA has taken veterans, Obamacare is leading all Americans: Kevin O'Brien

The White House says Americans can't draw any conclusions yet about just how screwed up is the Department of Veterans Affairs medical care system.

Well, yes, Americans can. And if they have any sense — always a debatable proposition — Americans will.

One conclusion we can draw is an old, familiar one: No matter what the issue or activity, bureaucracy's first and strongest instinct is to protect itself in the face of a perceived threat.

Another conclusion is probably just dawning on those Americans with the wit to see it, because so very few of us have had a brush with a medical system of which government is the sole proprietor: Putting a government bureaucracy in charge of one's health is a gamble likely to end badly.

And yet, if Obamacare stands, that is precisely the gamble each and every American eventually will take.

There is no better predictor of the course of a single-payer medical system in the United States than the VA system, because it is a single-payer system.

If an enrolled patient needs something done, he or she applies to the government-run system for approval; waits until the government-run system is ready to act; accepts the government-run system's solution or, if dissatisfied, appeals to that same government-run system for relief. Because the bureaucracy pays the bill, the bureaucracy makes the decisions — when or if treatment will be given, and whether or not the patient has been well enough served.

Via: Cleveland.com

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Obama Hasn't Met One-On-One With VA Secretary Shinseki In Two Years

Last formal one-on-one meeting:

July 26, 2012:  The President meets with Secretary Shinseki

Their most recent interactions were on

April 17, 2014:   Wounded Warrior Project’s Soldier Ride

November 28, 2013: Obama, DOD, VA Chiefs Salute Troops, Vets on Thanksgiving

November 13, 2013: White House Tribal Nations Conference

Via: Fox Nation
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House Democrat Unloads On Obama And The VA: 'Very Disappointed! There Was No Urgency, Mr. President! Roll Up Your Sleeves And Get Into These Hospitals! 'They Told A Damn Lie!'

Democratic Congressman David Scott chided the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Obama Administration on the House floor Wednesday afternoon.

The Democrat from Georgia heatedly criticized the administration's failure to provide prompt and adequate healthcare to our nations heroes.

Scott also took President Obama to task over statements made in his press conference addressing the controversy earlier in the day.

Scott said “I listened to the President today, and I was very disappointed with President Obama today,”

“There was no urgency. Mr. President, we need urgency, we need you to roll up our sleeves and get into these hospitals!”  

Rep. David Scott: Thank you very much mister speaker.  The issue here before us on this bill and first let me say that I’m a proud co-sponsor of this bill to replace and be able to fire people. But the problem is the first person we need to fire is the Secretary of Veteran’s Affairs Mr.  Shinseki himself.  Now we respect him, we respect his sacrifice for this country and everything else but the buck starts at the top.  Here are the facts, five thousand, six hundred veterans are committing suicide every year.  That is almost twenty every day, under his watch, under his watch at my own hospital in Atlanta four of our soldiers committed suicide in the hospital.  And the very Inspector General of the VA laid the blame directly at the foot of the VA administration for the lack of management, for the death of these soldiers.  And when Chairman Miller and I went down and visited them we asked is there one more, is there any more that’s committed suicide, ‘no, there’s been no more’ and they told a damn lie.  Because the very next day it was exposed that there was another soldier that committed suicide and they covered it up.  This has been a pattern that has been going on ever since General Shinseki has been the Chairman there.  I respect his sacrifice, I respect what he did but it’s under his watch that we are in this situation in the hospital.  Out in the western part of this country, where the Washington Post has accurately reported that forty of our soldiers lost their lives, died because they couldn’t get service.  Our veterans are the heart and soul of this country.  They are precious and we must not turn our backs on them.  I listened to the President today and I was very disappointed with President Obama today.  There was no urgency, Mr. President we need urgency.  We need you to roll up our sleeves and get into these hospitals.  We need you to set a pattern, if the VA hospitals can’t handle it let’s get partnerships, can I get another minute, let’s get partnerships (crosstalk)
(crosstalk)
God bless you because there are some things I want to say.  Reports are out that the taxpayers are going to have to pay or have paid one billion dollars for medical malpractice of a reputable news organization cox media, WSB television down in Atlanta went all over this country, one billion dollars the taxpayers are paying because of the VA cut off the wrong arm, cut off the wrong leg, the wrong tentacle, the wrong kidney. Let me tell you all something folks, time that’s what I so disturbed about the President, we don’t have time for any more investigations. The reports are in.  Jesus Christ himself said there is no greater sacrifice than to give your life for your friend.  Our soldiers have given their lives on the battlefield for them (crosstalk) We need to give our lives up here and give our veterans the respect they deserve  

Via: Fox News

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Miami VA Whistleblower Exposes Drug Dealing, Theft, Abuse

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – When asked why he would risk his job and speak publicly, Detective Thomas Fiore considered the question carefully before answering.

“People are dying,” he finally said, “and there are so many things that are going on there that people need to know about.”

Fiore, a criminal investigator for the VA police department in South Florida, contacted CBS4 News hoping to shed light on what he considers a culture of cover-ups and bureaucratic neglect. Among his charges: Drug dealing on the hospital grounds is a daily occurrence.

“Anything from your standard prescription drugs like OxyContin, Vicodin, Percocet, and of course marijuana, cocaine, heroin, I’ve come across them all,” he explained.

Even inside the hospital, he says he was stopped from doing his job – investigating reports of missing drugs from the VA pharmacy. When the amount of a particular drug inside the pharmacy doesn’t match the amount that the pharmacy is supposed to have, a report, known as a “discrepancy report” is generated. Normally it was his job to investigate the reports to determine if they were the result of harmless mistakes or criminal activity. But all that changed, he said, about two years ago.

“I was instructed that I was to stop conducting investigations pertaining to controlled substance discrepancies,” he recalled.

He said he was personally told to stop investigating them by the hospital’s chief of staff, Dr. Vincent DeGennaro.

“I have no idea why,” he said. “He’s the chief of staff he doesn’t have to tell me why.”

DeGennaro declined our request for an interview. A spokesman for the VA wrote CBS4 News: “The Miami VA is required to monitor all controlled substances and resolve inventory discrepancies within 72 hours. Any unresolved discrepancies are reported to the Miami VA Healthcare System Director and Controlled Substance Coordinator, VA OIG, DEA and VA Police for independent investigation.”

Fiore said he decided to contact CBS4 News following our report last month on the death of Nicholas Cutter, a 27-year-old Iraq War veteran with PTSD who died from a cocaine overdose inside the Miami VA’s drug rehab center.

Via: CBS Miami

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VA Fiasco: How DUMB Does Obama Think We Are?

Quiz: How Dumb Does Obama Think We Are?

The Veterans Affairs policy fiasco is magnified by an insulting-public relations strategy.

By Ron Fournier, The National Journal

News quiz: President Obama and his communications team hope that Americans are: 1) Dumb; 2) Distracted; 3) Numb to government inefficiency; 4) All of above.

Answer: 4, all of the above.

That answer along with utter incompetence are the best explanations for why the White House thought it could get away with claiming that the departure of Veterans Affairs official Robert Petzel was a step toward accountability for its scandalous treatment of war veterans.

Fact is, the department announced in 2013 that Dr. Petzel would retire this year.

"Well, Secretary Shinseki accepted Dr. Petzel's resignation this afternoon. He was due to retire early next month, and obviously there has been a nomination made for his replacement," White House Chief of Staff Dennis McDonough told CBS's Major Garrett last week. "I leave to Rick the explanation of his decision, but there is no question that this is a termination of his job there before he was planning to go."

No. This was neither a termination nor a housecleaning. It was a scapegoating. For all of its 21st-century savvy in the field of campaign technology, the Obama White House has repeatedly proven that its communications philosophy is stuck in the 20th century. Before the Internet gave voters instantaneous access to information, including every public utterance of the president and his team, White House strategists could hope to wear out the truth: If you said a lie enough, people might believe it.

It's harder to BS the public these days. White House press secretary Jay Carney still tries. On Monday, he repeatedly suggested that the American Legion had praised the move.

Via: National Journal

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A 2,000-pound satellite may crash in your backyard Sunday night

Who do you sue if you’re hit by a satellite?

A defunct satellite from the European Space Agency the size of a Chevy Suburban is set to plunge to Earth somewhere between Sunday night and Monday afternoon -- and experts say there's no way to precisely determine where it will crash.

GOCE, or Gravity field and steady-state Ocean Circulation Explorer, ran out of gas last month and has been steadily sinking towards the Earth. As the planet rotates, the satellite whizzes over nearly every point on Earth. Experts expect it to plunge harmlessly into the oceans that cover 70 percent of the surface of the planet. But what if it doesn’t? What if it takes out your old Accord?

MAKING ODDS

Gambling houses will take bets on more or less anything. Here's the odds (as of Saturday morning) on the GOCE satellite crashing down on different continents, British gaming company Ladbrokes told FoxNews.com.

North and South America: 6/4
Russia and Asia: 2/1
Africa: 4/1
Europe: 5/1
Australia: 10/1

Bets are void if it lands in the sea, the company noted

“Basically, governments are responsible for their own spacecraft,” explained Marcia S. Smith, president of the Space and Technology Policy Group in Arlington, Va. “[If] you could prove a piece of GOCE hit your Honda, you could go to your government to make a claim,” she told FoxNews.com.

     WHERE IS IT NOW? Track the GOCE satellite here

But don’t put the ESA’s lawyer on speed dial just yet. Most of the fragments of the satellite are likely to burn up on re-entry, said Heiner Klinkrad, Head of ESA’s Space Debris Office according to an ESA blog.

Via: Fox News

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VA Backlog at 400,000 Claims, Untouched for 4 Months

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More than 400,000 claims from the nation's warriors have been left untouched for more than four months in the offices of the Department of Veterans Affairs, it has been revealed.

And it's not even the fault of the government shutdown — the number actually went down during the 16 days that Washington stood nearly idle.

The latest figure, from last Friday, stands at 411,704, The Wall Street Journal reports. These are claims that were filed before June 15. 

Urgent: Should the House Have Agreed to Debt Deal? Vote Here 

On the last Friday before the shutdown, the number of backlogged claims stood at 421,973, so during the time Washington was on furlough, the numbers went down by more than 10,000.

GOP Rep. Doug Lamborn of Colorado, who sits on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, said, "This drop is stunning in light of the administration's threats the backlog would increase as a result of a government shutdown."

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki had said that claims processors would lose ground during the enforced break. Employees had been working mandatory overtime shifts to clear the backlog. When the government closed up shop, claims were processed but hours were cut.

The VA has struggled with a backlog problem for years. New computer systems have enabled employees to clear claims faster, but the VA still fell short of its own processing goal this year. Republican Rep. Jeff Miller of Florida believes this is the issue to focus on.

"Instead of debating whether or not VA's dire predictions regarding the shutdown’s impact came to fruition, I remain focused on a much more important question: Why is the department still falling short of its own backlog goals?" he said. 

The agency had planned to process 1.27 million claims by the end of June, but only processed 1.17 million claims.

Via: Newsmax

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