FACEBOOK GOVT HUMOR

Posted on December 1, 2012 by asknod

This is so true in all the government does.

Yeppers

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VAOIG–SEMI-ANNUAL REPORT

Posted on December 1, 2012 by asknod

I love these things. More VA deception. Millions, indeed billions are being save by this arm of the vA. Only one problem. The monetary fines imposed that vA is realizing are phantom income. As the miscreants are all imprisoned, their ability to remunerate the government is severely compromised. Assuming that they absconded with the bucks and spent them gambling or on drugs, the money has vamoosed. Any hope of liquidating assets is time-intensive and costs more money to prosecute.

The DEA/Koresh dilemma of involving the OIG in felony pursuit and arrest for civil/criminal crimes unrelated to VA is disturbing. Forty years ago we called this mission creep. Now it’s a cutting edge criminal apprehension program. I think perhaps their efforts would be best spent uncovering the labyrinth of deceit that will bubble up when they are asked to investigate $78 million (or more) worth of Human Resources playcations dating back to 2005.

Perhaps a detailed, investigative attempt to learn about the horrendous backlog. I’d like to see them insert an operative into the VA Rater’s pool in an RO and become a fly on the wall. Nah. Never happen.

Black hole of OIG money

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Reading: Kontum: The Battle to Save South Vietnam

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Laura

kontum

I picked up a flyer about this 2011 book by Thomas P. McKenna  in a VA Clinic waiting room recently.  The flyer said, “written by a man who was there.”  It received good reviews on Amazon and was published by a scholarly press.

“A superbly written and researched account of the 1972 NVA Easter Offensive and the heroism and professionalism of the unsung heroes of the Vietnam War, the advisor teams. If you are interested in understanding why the Vietnam War ended as it did, read this book.”

Major General Neal Creighton, USA (Ret.), former Commanding General of 1st Infantry Division.

There is so much still to learn about this conflict that took the lives of 58, 261 veterans (on the Wall today) and continues to impact those who survived it.

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MARINE TOYS FOR TOTS MISHAP

Posted on November 30, 2012 by asknod

This just in from Semper Fi Tom. Always one to help little old ladies across the street or collect toys, Marines showed their helpful side yet again…

Marine Toys for Tots

 

Tyrone was lucky there were helpful servicemen there when he fell. Some might have left him and walked away. Not these dedicated few (and proud).

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FALL BVA DECISIONS ARE POSTED

Posted on November 30, 2012 by asknod

VARed hot and the link works. All the late August, September, and some October BVA decisions are up on the boards today. Same sad story of Lions-5, Christians=0 in the BVA Colosseum  We didn’t expect any less. A few will win but most will get the wave off due to-duh-no nexus and self diagnosis. As for our little neck of the woods, Vets continue to blame AO for HCV and that simply won’t fly. A majority have mentioned their pronounced habit of shooting up way back when and that, too, is a major denial factor. No big surprises but I’m still in the first 20 or so. I’ll publish the priceless ones as I find them.

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CAVC–COURT OF APPEALS FOR VEGETABLE CLAIMS

Posted on November 29, 2012 by asknod

Always the optimist, I plant for food and fine dining. Since  I’ve really had enough herbicides to last me several lifetimes, I’m on a health binge. Foolishly believing that vA might see things my way, I went heavy on spinach futures this winter-like 678 spinach futures. Ruh-oh, Rorge.

I just finished transplanting 390 and looking around for a home for the remaining 288 which will require some attention very soon. I sure hope my VR&E ILP counselor is reading this and sees my delimma. This is far worse than the 158 tomato plants this spring.

The immediate quandary is whether to scotch the cilantro I use for my salsa and the celery.

I’ve always been a sci-fi buff so I can now understand Freeman Lowell’s (Bruce Dern) predicament aboard the Valley Forge. Mine is not a problem of disobeying orders but of deciding how to proceed.  What I wouldn’t give to have that much space…

 

 

Posted in Food for the soul, Independent Living Program, VR&E | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

CONGRESS SAYS “TRUCE IS OVER”

Posted on November 28, 2012 by asknod

Just in from Squidley. This is priceless. After getting the proverbial bitchslap for ten years and throwing down the gauntlet repeatedly, Congress is shocked that VA has not come clean. Why should they when they feel they have diplomatic immunity? Hell, they can get 20 parking tickets and 100 DUIs with no prospect of retaliation. At least that’s what has transpired over the years. Why else would they continue to stonewall?

Here’s another take on it from Stars and Stripes

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FOOTLOCKER 1957–NOD UPDATES HIS PHOTO

Posted on November 28, 2012 by asknod

This was my family in 1957 at Turner AFB. That’s an F-100D Tail #FW 863 of the 31st Fighter Wing just arrived from  the William Tell fighter meet at Nellis AFB, Nevada. 2nd Place.

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BVA–CUSTER’S LAST STAND

Posted on November 28, 2012 by asknod

Dang. And I thought they were dragging their feet on my claim. Check this out. Major Reno’s great grandson files for Hep C in 1995. This assumes they didn’t take more than a year to deny from filing date. And then the famous deny and delay unto death begins. This one is far more entertaining and legally intense than mine ever was.

May 1995 RO denial at St. Fumbleburg, Florida.

BVA  Traveling Board hearing September 1996

BVA denial March 1997

Vet files Motion For Reconsideration  (MFR) June 1997.

BVA declines request for MFR August 1997

Vet  files Notice of Appeal (NOA) to CAVC late 1997

CAVC (Court) affirms BVA decision July 1999

Vet appeals to 3rd Federal Circus Fall 1999

Fed. Circus affirms Court decision September 2000

VCAA kicks in and VA agrees to an Unopposed motion for voluntary remand back to the CAVC anyway.

Court vacates 1997 BVA decision and remands back to BVA .

BVA remands to RO in August 2001 and again in January 2004 for more development

Meanwhile, back at the BVA ranch, while the January 2004 development of the claim was in remand, the VLJ overseeing the case up and retired. Therefore a new VLJ was saddled up .

New BVA Traveling Board hearing  August 2009

BVA denial (again) May 2010

Sgt. Reno files new NOA with the CAVC late summer 2010

Court vacates May 2010 BVA decision September 2011

DOCKET NO. 95-32 722, now almost 13 years old, is remanded back to BVA  in early 2012

BVA remands claim back to the George Armstrong Custer Memorial VARO located in Fort Harrison, Montana July 10th, 2012 for assembly of records which seem to never have been fetched.

NPRC will diligently research its records for several minutes and notice no current medical facilities located in Pleiku City, Democratic Republic of Vietnam. As for the Firebase November SMRs, those records are insulation in a bamboo hut somewhere nearby. Right about now the NPRC is mailing a letter to the RO saying there is no such medical facility listed in their database.

JSSRC will diligently report after a year that there was indeed a Firebase November located XX klics from Engineer Hill Medevac Facilities but there is no mention of an attack on the outpost so PTSD (and HCV) cannot be verified.

The BVA , in June 2014 will deny the claim again and this time will put bright red sealing wax on the imprimatur. Sgt. Reno will futilely appeal and file his NOA by August 2014.

The Court will convene in a single judge decision (SJD) shortly thereafter in June 2015, our much-traveled Veteran will receive notice that the Court has reaffirmed the denial yet again. The attached note to the flowers will read “No flies on us!”

I guess we can safely say he’ll try the Circus again based on some obscure point of law. This is undoubtedly the best example of Win or Die I’ve seen in all my time studying this vA enigma. Trying to get useful info out of the NPRC is a crap shoot. The JSSRC is an admirable group and are fairly diligent in comparison. What is missing here is a coordinated search in the right place for the correct knowledge. I suspect NPRC has medical inpatient records on this guy over in the hospital records section of the warehouse with all the rest.  That’s where the search should focus. In reality the Chicken Little scenario will ensue. When all are satisfied that they cannot produce anything, the Vet will be buried in 2020 and his spouse will take over. Imagine. This was done with a Law dog. If he’d attempted this by himself they’d be playing the “We thought you were trying to reopen the old claim. Sorry Bro. Back to Fort Fumble via the AMC.”

The November VA “What? Me worry?” award is therefore shared equally between the St. Pete’s and Fort Harrison ROs for mutually culpable crimes. Attorney Robert M. Kampfer gets a big gold star next to his name for perseverance above and beyond the call of duty and little else. Why they (law dogs) go to the floor for us is a miracle in this legal environment.

Remember, folks. 125 days and 98% coming to a VARO near you-soon.

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BVA– ROGER ON THE C-FILES

Posted on November 27, 2012 by asknod

We often read about our hanging at a BVA Board ruling weeks after it happens. It’s predictable and usually anti-climatic. Of the many I’ve read, this one stands out for its audacity in reporting what we all know.

We always hear of the sacred “benefit of the doubt” and how the vA is the keeper of the flame. We take this as an article of faith like twinkies. News flash. Benefit of the doubt actually happens quite frequently. If you had your skull opened up like a ripe cantaloupe by an IED and were applying for bent brain with that brand new Rand McNally Road Atlas on your noggin,  the vA examiner might look in your C-file. He’d note the Purple Heart and allow as it was “at least as likely as not that what the Vet claimed actually happened. He/she would go on to say that giving the Vet the benefit of the doubt and resolving all doubt in his favor, it was at least as likely as not that his new ‘do was service connected.

Here, we have evidence that the vA examiner could not possibly have lifted a finger to look at the SMRs. Mind you, not somebody else’s by accident but no contemporaneous records at all. Zip. Hell, this one didn’t even see the benefit of the light of day down in Whacko. Their M-21 Ouija® device must need a new set of points and an oil change.

Once VA provides an examination in a service connection claim, the examination must be adequate or VA must notify the veteran why one will not or cannot be provided. Barr v. Nicholson, 21 Vet. App. 303 (2007). While the appellant was afforded a VA medical examination in September 2007, and while the examiner stated that he had reviewed the claims file, the examiner made declarations that do not gibe with the medical evidence of record; casting doubt that a thorough record review was accomplished. See Shipwash v. Brown, 8 Vet. App. 218, 222 (1995); Flash v. Brown, 8 Vet. App. 332, 339-340 (1995) (Regarding the duty of VA to provide medical examinations conducted by medical professionals with full access to and review of the veteran’s claims folder). For example, the examiner stated that the appellant had never had an elevated bilirubin and that his bilirubin was normal in service, yet the service medical records reflect elevated serum bilirubin results on at least three occasions. In addition, the examiner did not address all of the appellant’s risk factors for contracting viral hepatitis, namely his engagement in unprotected sex as reflected by his in-service treatment for venereal disease.

Say it ain’t so, Ronnie. Round up the usual suspects. Somebody arrest Bush. Both of them. And his wife, too. Look for hanging chads. This has Vast Right Wing Conspiracy written all over it. Maybe Bozo just had a brain fart while doing Johnny’s claim. Maybe he was having marital problems. Vets are sooooooo judgmental. There must be a logical explanation.

As usual, the good ol’ boys up at the DAV in DC somehow forgot to get this guy a nexus on his gastrointestinal issues as well. Shocked. I am just shocked. What more can I say? VSOs are our saviors and have all the know-how on this. That’s why we hire them. They’ve been doing it for over half a century or more. How can it be that Johnny Waco got all the way to Vermin Ave. NW without the magic paper? Why, this has never happened before. Someone should notify Attorney General Holder and have him look into this. Perhaps the OIG. Once is one time too many. We must nip this in the bud. The sky is falling.

Did I mention I was shocked?

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