DISABLED VETERANS BY RATING AND STATE

Posted on March 20, 2013 by asknod

I was wondering when I’d find this one. Our Mr. McCartney dropped it in my lap. If  you try to correlate the highest concentration of severely disabled Vets by state and then match it against the highest number of ILP claims completed by state, it doesn’t pencil out.

Occam’s razor, which I can say I’ve never found defective, states quite elegantly that the simplest explanation for any enigma is almost always the correct one. Based on that, let’s look at some more statistics.New York far and away, with 198 ILP troops, would obviously be the one with the highest number eligible and confirm the connection a la Occam.  One problem- NY only has 105,097 disabled Vets of all stripes.

New York– 105,097 disabled and 18,423 Vets  100% P&T  and TDIU Vets (198)

On the other hand, California is listed as having more with 245,980 disabled at one rating or another…

California–41,035  Vets 100% +IU   but only LA (16)+Oakland (67)+San Diego(38)= 121 ILPeople.

Texas, with 266,015 has only Houston (106) + Whacko (78) for an aggregate of 184 out of 48,548 100%+ IU.  You guys in Texas are filing-challenged. You need some remedial ILP learnin’.

Now Florida ought to be a no-brainer. 235,264 total disabled with 40,527 100% +IU. Yet they really lose out with only 93 ILP grants.

I see no correlation so we have to assume some ROs are more generous than others. New York seems to win that hands down. Cheyenne is a dry hole. Alabama takes second.

Here’s the data. This is a goldmine. I realize it’s 4 years old but really- the data only gets larger when you have a shit ton of wars or one really, really long one.. or two. The numbers are basically static, percentage wise. Besides, there’s always going to be more chowderheads who will settle in St. Pete’s who are  content to endure megalong lines at the VAMC and RO. That’s the trade off for a Jimmy Buffet  flipflop life.

Comp_Vets_State_09

Seattle, I’m sad to say, really hits rock bottom at 14 with 14,859 100% +IU out of 93,753 disabled. I aim to change that here as well as nationwide. 

Interesting ones to file in a handy spot

Total number of disabled Vets of all ratings—3 million

Highest rating % by number– 773,094 @ 10%

Number of 100%  schedular–268,394

Number of TDIU– 250,919

And last but not least, for all of you guys with twenty one 10% ratings for ingrown toenailopathy and hemorrhoids who are at 90% and will never get to 100%?–29,841 souls.

Posted in Independent Living Program | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

ILP STATISTICS FOR FY 2003-2012

Posted on March 20, 2013 by asknod

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Here are the VA statistics collated on ILP participation from 2004 to 2012 broken down by individual VAROs. Mr. Bruce McCartney (no relation to Paul) graciously shared them with me. Read them and see if they make any sense to you. How is it such a priceless asset-a diamond in the rough- lies unseen before us?

ILInfoQuery19Dec2012

As most know, I am attempting to follow in the footsteps of another ILP Grandmaster and attain a greenhouse. I do this for many reasons but foremost is to grow healthy food in winter. Some of my medical conditions preclude pursuing them out of doors in winter.  That and the fact that most vegetables are extremely recalcitrant about complying in cold weather are the predicate for my request.

Bruce McCartney has been fighting the ILP battle for as long, if not longer, that I have had the asknod blog airborne. He has fought long and hard for others to attain this as well. His contacts at VA and inside the beltway are many and lucrative. I have had the satisfaction of conversing with some of them and feel there may be some light at the end of a very dark tunnel. As with most fiefdoms, the VR&E folks at each Regional Office feel themselves the kings of their own castles and resent any outside interference. Having run a construction company for several decades, I am more than familiar with the feeling. The glaring difference is my business was a private one-not a government funded affair.

I have written at great length about this unique program and how it impacts many of you who frequent this site. The great majority of you fit the description of who and why it was inaugurated by Congress.

§ 21.160

Independent living services

(a) Purpose. The purpose of independent living services is to assist eligible veterans whose ability to function independently in family, community, or employment is so limited by the severity of disability (service and nonservice-connected) that vocational or rehabilitation services need to be appreciably more extensive than for less disabled veterans.

No one can argue about the horrific, debilitating aspects of this disease. For some of you,  it is not possible to be cured. For others, the cure was worse than leaving it untreated. In sum, we are often some of the more severely disabled among a finite population of marginally mobile Veterans. I do not wish to diminish those who are wheelchair-bound or suffer any number of maladies that restrict your options in life. I can only speak to what I am familiar with and this is a subject I know.

Many Vets with HCV appear outwardly “healthy” in spite of a panoply of ills that are invisible to the naked eye. Nausea is invisible as is right upper quadrant pain that aches perennially. DM2 hounds many who took the cure. Then there are the vast number of unheard of or little known diseases-again rarely visible that restrict where we go and when.  Porphyria and cryoglobulinemia are two that can devastate you if you love the outdoors. A greenhouse can give you that freedom to venture out in cold or sunny weather.

Congress obviously considers its sons of war to be worthy of remuneration other than just compensation funds. That is the predicate for the ILP. A healthy mind can be an inducement to spark the fire of life and dispel depression. So when Mr. McCartney forwarded to me the statistics he has managed to amass (extract?) from the VA bean counters, I studied them in detail. They paint a bleak picture. It would appear that there is a concerted effort to abolish this avenue of recreation for Veterans. It would be nice if we could write this off to the effects of the Sequestration but it predates that by nine or more years on just the existing data I am looking at. Who knows what a more detailed analysis of data prior to 2003 would reveal?

Considering we are coming out of one of the most warlike periods of history following the Vietnam debacle, the “collateral damage”, as we used to say, is enormous. TBI injuries, PTSD, and a host of others are taxing the VA system. Severely (I do not use the word lightly) disabled Vets needing extensive rehabilitation are accruing in the VA system in overwhelming numbers. Unfortunately, VA seems oblivious to this.

Let’s allow the statistics speak. But first, the law. 38 USC §3120(e) provides that:

(e) Programs of independent living services and assistance shall be initiated for no more than 2,700 veterans in each fiscal year, and the first priority in the provision of such programs shall be afforded to veterans for whom the reasonable feasibility of achieving a vocational goal is precluded solely as a result of a service-connected disability.

Congress is anally specific in wording. Note the verb “shall” and not “may”. Next I will excerpt the bottom line of the VA’s own ILP statistics showing how many lucky Vets have been chosen for this lottery annually for the last nine years.

2004     2005   2006   2007   2008   2009   2010   2011   2012  

2689    2693    2839    2540   2235   2035   1880   1899   1836 Annual IL Rehab Totals:

 N/A    2588    2213     2115    1728   1680    2456   2539   2428  New IL case totals:

Trying to sort through this yields some interesting reading. VA would have us believe we were rehabilitating more Vets in the five years from 2004 to 2009 than were actually enrolled. Conversely, their success rate in rehabilitating us took a dramatic nosedive from 2009 to 2012. 

Looking through the individual Regional Office totals, we see that either Vets are too lazy to avail themselves of this resource or that they are oblivious to its existence. St. Petersburg is unarguably one of the larger ROs in America. Nevertheless, in 2012 only 93 severely disabled Vets could be bothered to pursue this commodity. In fact, for three years running, the Vets in Boston are so satisfied with their lot that not even one felt the need to seek these services. Does this sound like our run of the mill Veteran who is always trying to game the system for more money?

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Moving right along we see that the Veterans in St. Paul (Minnesota), White River Junction (Vermont), and Wilmington, Delaware are so happy with their lot that they saw no reason to burden the system last year whatsoever.

Most extraordinary and certainly controversial are the Manila RO (Philippines) and the  Wyoming (Cheyenne) ROs. Not one single Veteran has applied for (or perhaps been approved) since the statistics were collated in 2004! Remember, there are a large number of American Vets who have settled there (Manila) over the years. This doesn’t just measure a metric of old World War 2 Philippine Scouts. It is a dynamic figure that includes Vietnam-era Vets and even present day ones who have chosen this part of the world to settle in or return to. Zero. Zip. Nada. Not one single one. Again, where are all these greedy, severely disabled Vets who crowd the hallways of VAROs everywhere demanding all manner of goodies?  As for Cheyenne, Wyoming- are we to assume that the demographic density of 1.5 citizens per sq. mile is so low that there are no Vets-let alone severely disabled ones desirous of what ILP purports to offer?

So, where is the program getting the most respondents?

Atlanta–136

Detroit–134

Houston –106

Montgomery–149

New York–198

This would indicate that either there is an extremely high density of Vets per square mile or an inordinate amount of severely disabled ones in close proximity to these VAMC/ROs. Ooops! What about St. Pete’s? Again, the dichotomy of the data does not lend itself to ready interpretation unless another dynamic is at work. I speak, of course, of a proclivity at certain ROs to deny out of hand as in “What ILP? Never heard of such a thing. Who told you about this? If VA were giving away computers, I’m sure everyone would have heard about it by now.”

Using just the Seattle RO, we know that an inordinately high number of Vets retire or separate from the service here and stay. Joint Base Lewis McChord, the Navy bases on the Puget Sound and other Coast Guard facilities draw large numbers who settle here to have access to the TRICARE and commissary/ BX  benefits. By rights, there should be a fairly large number of applicants. With the war winding down and large numbers of Vets missing appendages from their IED misadventures, we should be able to spot a trend:

2004   2005   2006   2007   2008   2009   2010   2011   2012

41          30          25      37           32        19        33        19         14    Seattle

Ruh-oh, Rorge. Either Vets in Seattle are extremely satisfied with their lot in life or… or, like me, they are being denied based on the misinterpretation that this is only for vocational purposes -e.g. a course of instruction on how to be a pilot or an IT wizard. If you somehow are extremely disabled and qualify for the ILP, fourteen of you (in 2012) got some grab bars and cordless phones. I got a computer after fighting a year and filing a NOD or the number would read 13.

Which brings us to the bottom line. Who, exactly is entitled to this program and what are they entitled to, assuming they are missing the correct number of legs, arms, livers or eyes? We know from the above that it is only the most severely disabled so that identifies the who. Now for the enigma of what. My counselor is adamant that it only entails what he and his cronies at the Seattle VR&E shop say it entails. Apparently, not much.

Here’s what the Office of General Counsel was forced to conclude in 1997. When the BVA is conflusticated and cannot find a good reason to deny a Veteran, they sometimes take a time out and form a huddle. Many things are discussed including how to formulate a durable denial. Occasionally this backfires like an Independent Medical Opinion and comes back in the Vet’s favor. In this case VAOPGCPREC 34-97 did just this. Miraculously, it has remained carefully buried and out of sight ever since. Some ROs have obviously unearthed it and dusted it off.  Others have not or refuse to adhere to the tenets of the holding:

Prc34-97

HELD

1.         No statute or regulation, including section 702 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and its associated regulations, either specifically directs VA to authorize or precludes VA from authorizing services and assistance of a recreational nature as a component of an eligible veteran’s program of independent living services and assistance under 38 U.S.C. § 3120.

2.         VA has the authority, and responsibility, to provide all services and assistance deemed necessary on the facts of the particular case to enable an eligible veteran participating in such a program to live and function independently in his or her family and community without, or with a reduced level of, the services of others.  This includes the authority to approve, when appropriate, services and assistance that are in whole or part recreational in character when the services are found to be needed to enable or enhance the veteran’s ability to engage in family and community activities integral to the veteran’s achieving his or her independent living program goals.

Since then, VA has continued their habit of taking a little off the back and sides and “freshening it up” a little. Mullets are no longer fashionable so VA has incorporated this into their thinking as well. VAOPGCPREC 6-2001  improved and extended the habit of using words to fence out even more of us. “Necessary and vital” became the new buzzwords which help to disenfranchise even more.

prc06-2001l (1)

We’ve come a long way, baby. Unfortunately, it’s all in the wrong direction and getting worse by the moment. At a time when these services are needed more than ever, VA is disingenuously and semantically employing word puzzles to grant nothing more than a pittance. Worse, the IL program’s existence is being denied or misconstrued to be something it isn’t. 2,700 Veterans are allotted slots into this program every year and yet VA maintains they cannot find enough to fill them. Or, in the alternative, not enough qualified Vets come forward to avail themselves of this asset. The statistics say only 2,428 of you saw fit to fill out a Form 1900 and pursue it in 2012. The smart money says move to New York if you want a greenhouse.

P.S. to give you an idea how long this has been dragged out, go back to 2008 and the congressional hearing on it. Advance the film to about 48 minutes and listen to wishful thinking.

Posted in Independent Living Program, VR&E | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

Posted on March 20, 2013 by asknod

Not wanting to be left out, Cupcake sent me this via one of her agents. I find it very apropos.

cupcake

 

I find it fits in well with my pet theories on Darwin’s seminal On the Origin of Species. Sometimes Mother Nature needs a helping hand.

Posted in Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

JOINING THE NAVY

Posted on March 19, 2013 by asknod

Trust a Marine to make fun of the Navy as Tom does here:

images (1)

 

A kindergarten class had a homework assignment to find out something exciting and relate it to the class the next day.

When the time came to present what they’d found, the first little boy the teacher called on walked up to the front of the class, and with a piece  of chalk, made a small white dot on the blackboard and sat back down.

 Puzzled, the teacher asked him what it was.

 ‘It’s a period,’ he replied.

‘I can see that,’ said the teacher, ‘but what is so exciting about a period?

 ‘Darned if I know,’ he said, ‘but this morning my sister was missing one,  my mother fainted, my dad had a heart attack, and the boy next door joined the Navy.’

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WHISTLE-BLOWING IN MISSISSIPPI

Posted on March 19, 2013 by asknod

That’s funny. I still sing Bobby Gentry’s song when I spell that. Works every time,too.Frank the syrup guy sends us this hair-raiser. Well, it’s only hair-raising until you spot the initials VA, then it becomes just one in a long line of whitewash jobs from 810 Vermin Gulch. Former VA employee says VA did…. VA OIG investigators were unable to sustain this or find a corroborating witness. The former employee was fired for having the vapors and mentioning it. No such number. No such zone.

Whistleblowers always come out on the short end of the stick. They lose everything but their dignity. This becomes increasingly more difficult when five (5) ha, çinq personnel are whistling a capella . When the choir are being led by a doctor who worked there thirty years, you will need some high-octane oil-based primer. There simply wan’t enough to go around at the G. V. (Sonny) Montgomery V.A. Medical Center.

But it has been troubled by recent investigations and a high level of turnover. Last year, the associate director for patient care services, Dorothy White-Taylor, was arrested on a charge of fraudulently obtaining the painkiller hydrocodone. Her case is still pending.

It’s people like Dorothy who give the VA a bad name. You and I know this happens so rarely that it is statistically insignificant. Usually there’s a family conspiracy at the Travel Office involving three or four people-all with the same last name or hyphenated variations of it. Stealing money from the VA isn’t as icky as stealing Oxycontin.

Another big problem is when you get clobbered by bad PR again and again at the same VAMC. People are bound to suspect there’s a pattern of behaviour that is non-conforming and rebellious. When the DEA drops by for coffee and doughnuts, you need a New York PR makeover.

A few months later, the hospital’s longtime chief of staff stepped down, and the Drug Enforcement Administration opened an investigation into whether nurse practitioners at the hospital were prescribing narcotics without proper licenses or adequate oversight by doctors.

When the trickle turns into a gully-washer, it’s best to go on the offensive and at least pretend you’re going through the motions of investigating it. When have you ever known VA to be proactive? Oh, yes the paperless VBMS- but it doesn’t work. Instead, when faced with an ongoing disaster in the making, Ward Bond at the VAMC circled the wagons and denied there was anything to see. Remember ol’ Ward?

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Then in 2011, another former employee asserted that she had regularly observed workers in the sterile processing department not wearing required protective equipment like face masks and disposable gloves. That whistle-blower, Gloria Kelley, also said that employees in the unit did not receive adequate training. The Department of Veterans Affairs was unable to substantiate many of Ms. Kelley’s accusations and the case has now been closed, Ms. Lerner said in her letter on Monday.

Yep. Move along, folks. Nothing here but some broken glass. If there was a story, we’d call you. Put this in your claims folder under U for unsanitary. If they tell you you didn’t catch the bug there, you can poke holes in the story. This one won’t be over for a while. The New York Times has a death grip on it. It seems anything of or having to do with the VA is all the rage now. What’s a rogue agency to do? Blame somebody.

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NEW! IMPROVED!

Character assassination stain blocker

Posted in 1151 claims, HCV Health, Medical News, vA news | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

BENZODIAZEPAM–THE SOLDIER’S BEST FRIEND

Posted on March 19, 2013 by asknod

Magic Bob the Law dog sends us this intriguing piece.

Madigan Army Hospital and Bent Brain clinic

Madigan Army Hospital
and Bent Brain clinic

For years they’ve been trying to pound Valium® down the throats of the troops with all those pesky personality disorders. They surely wouldn’t want any genuine, full-blown psychoses afoot. That would never do, now would it? That’s compensable. Everyone remain calm. This calls for a program review and absolving the guilty.  Get. Col Homas back here, pronto. Now, with Madigan behind us, let’s see where we were.

Doctors, for years have taken the conservative approach and smoked PTSD guys under the table heavily with Thorazine and some of the other high-powered dopamine antagonists. Check out the Pink Peggy site if you doubt me. Vets over there talk about it incessantly as in “I forgot to eat my meds this morning and I’m feeling, like, ‘roid rage. You know?”  Or “Man,  I called Peggy today and she told me my claim was back in ‘gathering evidence’ and it really pissed me off. Now I have to go and eat more meds, man.” VA hands this stuff out like candy at Mardi Gras. They encourage you to eat it often. They mail me enough painkillers to get everyone in the neighborhood high for two weeks. One thing you do not have to worry about with the doctors down at VAMC American Lake is getting short-changed on drugs. I hear it’s true nationwide for the most part.

When I got out of the hospital (permanently) in June 2010, I had to get on a “pain medication contract”. I went down and met with my new PCP. I’d been in the hospital so long my old one had a stroke and retired. She asked me point blank “So ha meeny do you   ate in a one day?” I said 4? 5? She worried that if I only got the prescription once a month, I might run short in between and should have a buffer for “just een the case”. Being a doctor and a mathematician, I watched her pencil 5 X 30=150, then change the 5 into an 8 for a safe supply of 180 a month. I know what about twenty of you are thinking.  Man, that’s worth more than 100% comp. every month down on 34th Street. No way, dude. I’m not giving up my high quality VA medical insurance…

Chlorpromazine came out in 1950 and immediately zoned guys out so efficiently they put away the rubber teeth grippers and the electroshock gear. This was golden for doctors. For VA it was a cash cow. They could tranq the whole Psych ward with this stuff and lay off about half the orderlies. When you’re buying Thorazine by the boxcar load, it’s insanely cheap.

The problem for Vets, as I see it, was trying to drive a motor vehicle on this. How are you supposed to get to your support and immersion group at the CBOC when you can’t even find the door (yours, the car’s, or any doors)? You see the problem, too, so it’s not just me. This led to newer versions that were of a lower calibre. The Benzodiazepine group of psychotropics became all the rage in the sixties. Hell, they even tried LSD and Disco Biscuits about then, too. The most promising, as most know by now, was Prince Valium. Advances for a decade or more were few as these seemed to fill the bill. Well, not exactly as they are fond of quipping over at Avis. Valium was horribly addicting which is exactly what you didn’t want in a bent brain box. It seems pretty well-known that over 50% afflicted with this issue are already prone to a steady diet of drugs and alcohol addiction. VA Doctors know this but do it anyway. It’s like calling in an air strike with Napalm on a 3-alarm apartment fire.

This neanderthal attitude has given way to newer, less-potent drugs (Paxil, celexa, Lexapro and Zoloft) and finally blossomed into a desire to accomplish it with as few as possible. The serotonin re-uptake inhibitors do a wonderful job of turning loud, rude dudes into quiet, unopinionated, Ophray Winfrey rerun addicts. I saw this first hand with a gal we know. It came down to a choice of whether her husband wanted the new, improved, Type B, 80 IQ, prefrontal lobotomy wife or the old Type A, aggressive, argumentative, cuttingly sarcastic and witty one. He opted for the latter. That was like a choice between Nancy Pelosi and the wicked witch of the West.

Princess Paxil

Princess Paxil

Type A

Type A

So what do we have left in the bent brain treatments cupboard? Verbal therapy, for one. Since I’ve never really been diagnosed with it, I can’t say. I can certainly describe the feeling after two years in-country. Edgy. Stay near a wall. Don’t go out much. Keep to yourself. Check every hour or two to make sure there’s one in the chamber. Keep yourself informed by talking to yourself. Loud booms are probably cause for concern. The usual. It wears off for some. It did in my case by about 1988. Cupcake informed me it was time to put the bent brain box back in the attic and get on with life. Since I hadn’t been medicating myself with anything stronger than scotch for the last sixteen years, it wasn’t hard.

Many with this affliction are damned by earlier medical choices and have developed permanent psychoses as a result. I don’t think anyone blames you for it, but it means staying on these drugs for life. That’s the ugly trade off. Worse is some well-meaning shrink who decides to tamper with success and change your drug type or dosage regularly. Some have described a wild and woolly ride until they get their feet in the stirrups. Again, I have not walked a mile in those shoes so I cannot say. I’ve been toasted out of my mind on Dilaudid for a year and paddled a sofa down the river but nothing as intense as 6  blue vals a day. My experiences in that theater of war were one (1) at a party with a fifth of Anne Green Springs as a chaser. That was interesting. Six is right out without Anne. Of course, anyone attempting to eat 20 mg. of Dilaudid at one sitting wouldn’t be (sitting). It didn’t faze me after a year. The fact that I could eat that many with nary a hiccup in the normal sinus rhythm of my heart scared the poop out of me. That’s why I weaned myself off.

With all that said, here’s the latest in the article:

Despite this reduction, the VA told Nextgov last May that it had purchased $72 million worth of benzodiazepines from Oct. 1, 2001 through March 31, 2012.

Right on, dude. Savin’ the taxpapers money. Buyin’ smart at the Drugmart. I can hear Tommy Chong in the background saying “Right on. Right on. Right ooooon.”

Why is it that the military/VA complex thinks they know better? Why is it that cutting-edge psychiatric practices on this subject only percolate down to the site of origin after it’s common knowledge to everyone including the village idiot? Perhaps this article will open your eyes. Realize that if some of the newer pills were cheaper, VA would be buying those in bulk instead.

The next time you pick up that bottle of Vals, remember why they call it “practicing medicine”. It’s a work in progress.

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Posted in PTSD | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

WOMAN EXPLAINED (2)

Posted on March 18, 2013 by asknod

From the Tomster on the touchy subject of deciphering women.

A  Vet on his Harley was riding down 101 along a California beach when suddenly the sky clouded above his head and, in a booming voice, God said, “Because you have tried to be faithful to me in all ways, I will grant you one wish.”

The Vet pulled over and said,  “Me? For real? Okay. Build a bridge to Hawaii so I can ride over anytime I want and see my buddies.”

God replied, “Your request is materialistic; think of the enormous challenges for that kind of undertaking; the supports required reaching the bottom of the Pacific and the concrete and steel it would take! I can do it, but it is hard for me to justify your desire for worldly things. Take a little more time and think of something that could possibly help mankind.”

The old Veteran thought about it for a long time. Finally, he said,”God, I wish that I, and all men, could understand women; I want to know how she feels inside, what she’s thinking when she gives me the silent treatment, why she cries, what she means when she says nothing’s wrong, why she snaps and complains when I try to help, and how I can make a woman truly happy.”

God replied: “You want two lanes or four on that bridge…?”

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EMO’S FOOD FOR THOUGHT TODAY

Posted on March 18, 2013 by asknod

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This is worthy of Jeff Foxworthy but comes to us from my sweet Air Force brat (and Veteran) friend Emma. It will be the closest I will come to discussing politics here. I would classify it under observations and make no distinction about it having political overtones. However, I do relish the idea of discussing politics off the record over ice tea with her in Magnet, Indiana come June. Emma and I have much in common. Unless I miss my guess, I’ll bet she has a mean ping pong backhand.

If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally …you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If you have to get your parents’ permission to go on a field trip or take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the only school curriculum allowed to explain how we got here is evolution, but the government stops a $15 million construction project to protect a rare spider from  extinction … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

 If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor or check out a library book, but not to vote who runs the government … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

 If the government wants to ban stable, law-abiding citizens from owning gun magazines with more than ten rounds, but gives 20 F-16 fighter jets to the crazy new leaders in Egypt … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

 If, in the largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a 24-ounce soda because 24-ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

 If an 80-year-old woman can be stripped searched by the TSA but a woman in a hijab is only subject to having her neck and head searched … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

 If your government believes that the best way to eradicate trillions of dollars of debt is to spend trillions more …you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If a seven year old boy can be thrown out of school for saying his teacher’s “cute,” but hosting a sexual exploration or diversity class in grade school is perfectly acceptable … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If children are forcibly removed from parents who discipline them with spankings while children of addicts are left in filth and drug infested “homes”… you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

 If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing and free cell phones … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If the government’s plan for getting people back to work is to incentivize NOT working with 99 weeks of unemployment checks and no requirement to prove they applied but can’t find work … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

If being stripped of the ability to defend yourself makes you more “safe” according to the government … you might live in a country founded by geniuses but run by idiots.

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TIM POE REDUX

Posted on March 18, 2013 by asknod

Alfred

Another village is missing its designated idiot and this unfortunate condition will continue for a year and a day. For the three years following that, he’ll be on a short leash picking up trash along the interstates of Iowa.

A gal I used to date (Lynn Tepaske) often asked people “You do know that Iowa is simply an abbreviation, right?”( Idiots Out Walking Around). She was born and raised there and couldn’t wait to beat feet for Seattle when she attained majority status. She was still in Honolulu the last time I checked selling  flowers in the evening in bars. You’d recognize her because she’s an extremely attractive blonde and has Christmas tree-type lights in her hair and leis. Enough of Lynn.

Jeffrey Scott Kepler, age 53, of Altoona, Iowa wins our Alfred E. Neuman award this month for good cause as you will see. His error? Well, most likely it happened when he opened his pie hole:

Kepler falsely claimed to have served in the Army for 2 years, 11 months, and 23 days between January 1977 and August 1979, portraying himself as an Airborne Ranger, who qualified for Officer Candidate School, and a war hero, who had been awarded numerous Army medals, including the Silver Star, and twice awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart.

I suspect that when the astute VA raters sat down and tried to figure out which war he got all the medals in, they came up a little short. With the possible exception of the post-Vietnam Mayaguez incident in Cambodia, there was no seminal military moment until President Ronnie invaded Grenada in 1983. I don’t count the crash and burn in the Iranian desert when Carter the Last tried to rescue our Embassy folks. I doubt they handed out any Silver Stars for that one.

The long and the short is that there just weren’t any opportunities for Mr. Kepler to “be all that he could be” and certainly not in a short twenty seven day stint at Boot camp. I’m sure they hand out Purple Hearts for blisters but only in a designated, declared time of war.  Since he wasn’t involved in any or serving during those times, trying to claim a Silver Star, two Bronze Stars and Purple Nurple were bound to draw a few “wow”s and at least one “How did he do that?”

Once again, the Tim Poes of the world have stubbed their toe on the unfortunate facts of history-or here, the lack thereof. For lack of a war, the claim was lost.  That must be a new first for both VA and Mr. Kepler. I think what is most amazing is that a VA rater actually caught it. I don’t mean to say they are inept but that they have computerized this to such a great degree that it might slip by unnoticed. The DD 214, unless it is rife with mistakes, erasures and white out, would probably pass muster. I’m going to go with my Tim Poe theory where someone spotted the lack of a boundary dispute or a good old fashioned,  knock down-drag out, legitimate war and decided to investigate further.

I find it interesting that Mr. Kepler only got a year and a day whereas the VA decided to incarcerate Keith Roberts for four long years. Keith didn’t even claim any medals and he still got the shaft. There must be a mathematical formula I’m missing that dictates how long for what. I feel five years for the medals fraud ought to be tacked on like a gun enhancement to a bank robbery. I certainly hope he doesn’t run into any former Rangers   on an extended staycation for urinating on dead Afghanis while he is a guest. That may prove problematical to someone 53 years old.

One has to wonder too about the collective IQ of his local American Legion if they swallowed this story. In addition to the hard time, he acquiesced in the plea agreement to relinquish his medals and war paraphernalia. He probably isn’t going to need them anymore. The burning question on everyone’s lips has to be  “Is 27 days of service long enough to be considered “military service”in the eyes of the American Legion?”

Jeffrey is certainly going to need a familiar bar with friends when he gets out, right? It’s Iowa’s job to mainstream him back into society.

 

Sometimes you want to go
where everybody knows your name
and they’re always glad you came.
You want to be where you can see
our troubles are all the same
You wanna be where everybody knows your name.© Cheers

I must say the VAOIG made their bones on this one. I wager they spent a million dollars in pursuit of saving $50,000 or less. It’s the thought that counts.

Posted in VAOIG Watchdogs | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

ON THE SUBJECT OF ALIEN ABDUCTIONS

Posted on March 18, 2013 by asknod

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In the last several days I have had the honor of reading many posts by one James Perry. Mr. Perry has many concerns-among them a deeply-seated dissatisfaction with the way things are being run in America. News flash. We all do.

This site was set up to assist Veterans in the pursuit of attaining compensation and, by extension, pensions. We have no agenda other than to help Vets. We do not bring political discussions in nor do we permit others to. If Vets have a desire to discuss politics, I’m sure there are many other Vet sites that will accord them the space.

I have never restricted entry to anyone in the five years we have had this site up. Today I make an exception. Mr. Perry continues to dominate the comments sections with long diatribes about any and all perceived government intrusions into our lives. I won’t comment on the content other than to say it is certainly his right to say whatever he pleases. What isn’t his right is to come here and dominate the conversation. In a word, this is your-the Veterans’- soapbox and you control the vertical and the horizontal hold.

I sent Mr. Perry a polite email to this effect and reprint it here so there will be no misunderstanding or failure to communicate. He may have a valid argument but he has chosen the wrong editorial column to print it in.

Dear Sir,

I have never censored any who post on my site. However, I am forced to do so in your case. If you have read my “Greetings” widget on the top under the  VCM logo, you will know that I am apolitical. I subscribe to one tenet only-that of advancing the cause of Veterans. I do not support one party over the other as I have no love for politicians. Those who hijack my site for political purposes will not be accorded any deference.

As I say, I have never censored anyone in the five years we have been doing this, but then I have never been faced with this unique set of circumstances. I am going to erase your posts and will ask you to limit any future ones to the subject being discussed.

Let’s get off to a new start and focus on Vets- not on agendas and old history. You are quite obviously well-informed on historical perspectives so I find it odd that you would come to my site to espouse your theories. WordPress offers this service (a blog) free of charge. Thus you can avail yourself of their services on a brand new site that espouses your particular philosophy. In fact, you can set it up any way you wish so that it will attract the many who share your particular views.

 Thank you for your contributions but they do not further the cause of attaining service connection from the VA. Please do not confuse this as an attempt to silence you or prevent you from being heard. You have certain inalienable rights- among them the right to voice your opinion. What you do not have the right to do is come to asknod.org and monopolize the comments sections with your diatribes about, well, whatever it is that is bothering you. If you are a Veteran, I thank you for your service to America. Even if you are not, I thank you for at least being motivated enough to express your opinion and better our country with your concerns.

 Sincerely

 The Nodster

With that said, I will proceed to the comments section and begin erasing. I will leave any new ones Mr. Perry posts intact if they are pertinent and help others. If it continues unabated, I will turn up the squelch until it abates. I abhor the practice of censorship. I have had the honor of being escorted to the door at the pink Peggy site (ninety days) and some of my posts there were erased due to their non-conformist, anti-Veterans Administration content. I make no apologies. The VA is more than capable of defending their good name should they ever attain one. Until they actually begin practicing President Lincoln’s Gettysburg utterance  about “For he who shall have borne the battle, his widow and his orphan child”, we shall continue to point out their shortcomings.

I apologize to Mr. Perry for having to take this extreme measure. I do not do it lightly. The Bill of Rights, to me, is a sacred document that our Founding Fathers based this Country on. The First Amendment affords us a wonderful opportunity to make our feelings known. Choosing the appropriate venue is the problem here, not the message. Mr. Perry could have been ranting about alien abduction and I would still pull the plug even though I find the subject utterly fascinating.

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 P.S. In all fairness to Mr. Perry, I find two especially pertinent posts on a Camp Lejeune contamination discussion to be potentially useful to us. It seems he has been given short shrift by the VA. In that respect, he is in good company here. It would seem that is the one constant we share.

Posted in Complaints Department | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments