The DAV boss, Jesinoski, is defending the Department of Veterans Affairs. The obvious question is “why”? Is he unaware that more than a half million MORE Veterans are waiting on their benefits now than just 3.5 years ago? Ask Nod readers are aware of this, so why not the DAV?
Bob Filner is not defending the VA status quo. Instead, he has heard one too many VA promises to “break the backlog”.
DAV’s attack on Filner is unwarranted, given the dismal record of the VA. I am happy to see Filner “not put up” with VA’s repeated broken promises to “fix the claims backlog”.
However, Filner does not deserve being let off the hook either. After being Chairman of the committe on Veterans Affairs for many years, only now that he is running for mayor of San Diego does he endorse professor Linda Bilmes suggestion to fix the VA (by approving Vets claims and then auditing them, the way the IRS does tax returns)? Why didn’t he use his power to help Vets when he was in office?
But back to the DAV. DAV has taken “anti Veteran” positions before. One example is the DAV opposed to allowing Veterans to get their own attorney against the VA. Big Mistake.
Vets got their attorneys anyway, and these attorney’s have made more progress for Veterans than has Congress. Cushman is just one example of lawyers helping Vets, where the VA is going to have a harder time illegally altering Vets documents and denying due process in the future. The laws that Congress has passed of late have been “weak”, with no real substance. If Congress has passed such “good” pro Veteran legislation, how come Veterans’ wait for benefits is the longest in history?
Remember, there is no REQUIREMENT that a Vet get an attorney to assist him with his claim, but that the Veteran is now allowed attorney representation, should the Veteran see fit and get fed up enough with the VA to get help. The Vets who do hire attorneys are often the ones whose VSO failed them. Some Vets have applied for benefits and been in appeals for decades..and are still waiting! Other Vets could not outlast the courts and perished waiting on their benefits.
Even worse than the DAV taking a position against Vets on attorney representation is the DAV habit of “looking the other way” with the VA. For example, where was the DAV in the 2008 Shreddergate fiasco, and why wasn’t the DAV complaining about the VA shredding Vets’ documents years earlier? They had to have known the VA was doing this…there just could not be that many pieces of Veterans evidence come up missing without them knowing about it. Not in 41 out of 57 Regional Offices, where shredding was found to have occurred.
And, why isn’t the DAV screaming for more shredder bin inspections? Is the DAV buying the VA’s story that they have fixed the problem and no more shredder bin inspections are necessary? I am not.
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
kcraveiro
robinhoodesqvetsatty
Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 
IN 3 different states it has been my experience that the persons from service organizations serving as supposed representatives of veterans against the VA:
1- are invariably complacent about how long vets wait for decisions
2- the office space they use 100% of the time is space provided to them by the VA on the same premises as the persons they are supposed to argue appeals against. This is a manifest, patent, serious conflict of interest! Not to mention rarely contacting clients on the one hand while working side by side every day with VA staff and, very likely, going to lunch with them and talking shop countless times. How can you avow independence under such circumstance.
3- I have gotten calls from my case counselor and my former DAV rep (I fired the DAV and now represent myself) on the same exact phone number that is a phone owned and operated by the VA!
4- My former DAV rep has an email address that ends @va.gov! First a free email account can be established by anyone!. Second, with emails in the VA system it means innumerable persons in the department have unfettered access to those emails!
5- when my VA case counselor was not able to get answers from me in a contentious situation with an appeal pending, guess what? I got a call right after from a DAV rep wanting to speak with me about my case! In other words: the DAV rep was heeding the calling of the VA, contrary to my best interests!
The foregoing reflects shocking conflicts of interest that belie the claims of any zealous representation. Your DAV rep is not an attorney: does NOT know all the law he is certain he does know; does not try to handle your case in any novel or creative way and is hostile always to doing so.
Who pays the DAV and the other VSO ??
I think Linda Blimes makes a lot of good points.
My DAV vso didn’t tell me my c-file from 1986 had vanished when I filed a claim in 2010. He was kind enough to send me a letter stating that the VA was going to deny my claim for no evidence.