Conspiracy Theories

Posted on September 3, 2012 by joeaveragevet

Yes.  I know.  Ask Nod does not like them.  I really don’t either.  However, just because multiple people are involved in committing crimes, does not necessarily mean that it is just a rumor.

When its in our own government, conspiracy theories are extra bad.  Some of you may have forgotten Watergate which resulted in the resignation of the President of the United States and the indictment of 43 high level officials, according to Wikipedia.

Back in 1974, every time the word “watergate” was mentioned, I turned off the tv.  This “conspiracy theory” will blow over and nothing will ever become of it.   Its just a bunch of disgruntled people blaming “government fraud” for their own bad choices in life.

Government fraud is for real..and our government knows about it enough to even reward those who report it.    Even then, some of it goes unpunished.

Fast forward to 2008 at our own Department of Veterans Affairs.  According to US News, 41 out of a possible 57 Regional Offices were caught shredding Veterans evidence.

Is this a “conspiracy theory”?   Probably. It meets the definition of conspiracy theory.  If you think that it’s not conspiracy, then the VA media office probably has a position for you.

Of course, it is possible that the employees involved  in each of  the 41  Regional Offices “acted alone” independently from each other.   If you think this, then you should buy lottery tickets to pay your rent due Sept. 1.   You will have a better chance with the lottery.

Posted in Guest authors, SHREDDERGATE, vA news | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

CUE–AND MORE CUE

Posted on September 3, 2012 by asknod

As I’m in the middle of a CUE decision that will be argued at the Court, I have been studying the concept of what is, what isn’t, whether it can be argued, whether I’m precluded by Caffrey, Fugo, and Russell and more. Attorney and Head hunter Bob has graciously sent me some literature he’s accumulated over the years on this much-discussed topic.

Every time I read a new article or legal thesis on this I strike another vein of understanding. Take this for instance. TommyCUEfall1997

Here you can see that CUE was a nebulous legal theory still in its infancy. The legislation in question revoked the BVA’s authority in a later decision on the same claim to indemnify themselves against a Motion for Revision (CUE) simply by saying they had revisited a reopening of the claim and that, ipso facto, meant they had also performed the judicial dance on all facets of it, including CUE regardless of whether the claimant had claimed it or not. Let me rephrase that. They could render decisions anew on old, reopened claims but could not summarily announce anything prior did not contain CUE.  Thus if you finally were granted SC for hemorrhoids in 2009, you could still legally go back and claim CUE in the 1985 decision that denied them.

Veterans finally got the right to judicial review without having to overcome that hurtle but there were many more. Consider this 2004 article by Michael Horan of Paralyzed Veterans of America. It expresses so well the intractible problems we all face when trying to right a wrong. CUETommy2004

Moving right along if you’re not too deflated yet, we have a different take in respect to the Federal Circus by Charles G. Mills. CUEFedcir

All these articles explicitly try to illuminate CUE from different perspectives and eras. With the more recent onslaught of Cook and its progeny, the book is still open. Never say Die would be the motto here. Remember the Eagle flying @ 3100 feet with a snake half-consumed and the other half with a stranglehold around his neck precluding same? This is the position I advocate.

My problems are unique (in my mind). Because I was employed by ” other government entities” sometimes, my service medical records (SMRs) ended up in places other than where they should have. My argument was simple. If the government is tasked with keeping your SMRs, and you discover they are still in a civilian hospital at the ass end of nowhere in Thailand, shouldn’t the vA retrieve them? More importantly, if you politely ask them twice? And most importantly, if you provide them with a portion proving their existence and probative nature on the subject, shouldn’t they stop what they’re doing and go get them? Most of us will never encounter this problem but there it is-a unique situation never before addressed by the Court, the BVA and the chowderheads at the RO.

If records created by the hospital and paid for by Uncle Sam are not Federal records, what are they? I maintain they are official service records created solely for the benefit of the Government. Having paid for them, I feel they should have been associated with my SMRs. Most importantly, once apprised of their location, content, and availability, I feel it was an outcome determinative error to blow me off and say “Pshaw. We feel we have everything we need right here, Mr. Nod.” We won’t go into the little error they made at the end where they put on their white suits and toy stethoscopes and said (I love this):

[Based on the record, it appears likely that the “pain” referred to [several years later after service] was the left hip pain documented in the service medical records rather than back pain.] 

This would be the left hip pain which was never diagnosed and was  described thus:

The episodes of left hip pain the veteran experienced in service were acute and transitory and resolved without objectively demonstrable pathology by the time of service separation in February 1973.

At what point does an acute pain turn into a chronic pain? Why, several minutes after stepping off-base for the last time. This is the way vA looks at the possibility of HCV being contracted via sexual congress. It cannot happen during service simply because the medical odds of this happening are less than 1 percent. Nevertheless the moment you are discharged and get laid, the odds go up to about 80% that your licentious, risky lifestyle was the cause of all your woes.

How the Court will rule on this remains to be seen. Duty to assist has been taken off the table in Cafffrey. I accept that. But at what point? If you pester these mental dwarves to go get the records and they don’t, are they still indemnified? Think about this for a moment. Do you think VASEC could stand up in Court under similar circumstances and say “Well, your honor, Joe Vet’s records could very well have been down in St. Louis at the NPRC. The truth is we didn’t bother to go look. The CUE regs are very clear that we can’t lose this based on a duty to assist violation so we didn’t bother. Do you guys have a problem with that?”

As for the other Dr. Kildare moment, I think they may have to hire a former President to come in and describe what the meaning of “acute” is (or isn’t). Regardless, you will see some fancy moonwalking employed. They’re going to put Neil Armstrong’s to shame when they strap on the dancing shoes.

Here’s a couple of recent examples of CUE  that succeeded. I don’t consider Leroy MacKlem’s win a CUE win in the true sense. It was a brain fart of immense proportions by a harried, GS-12 DRO. I’m sure any one of us could have stepped on his necktie in a similar manner.

Here’s Dave Hornick’s epic win based on a horrible misreading of §§ 1151 and 1159.

And likewise, Pete’ Kondos’ single judge outing before the Veteran’s daughter (Mary Schoelen). Kondos+non+prec+CUE+reversal

Hopefully mine will reside in this glorious pantheon as well. I only hope it won’t require a long, tortured trip to the Big House on 1st and East Capitol St. NE.

Posted in CUE, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

“Real Man” Anniversary

Posted on September 3, 2012 by joeaveragevet

I made it and congratulations are in order! It was a tough row to hoe, but I have achieved a “real man” certificate. First, I tried alcohol consumption , figuring “real men” can drink a lot. The results are below:

After a night of drinking with my buddy, someone snapped this picture. It did not work making me a “real man” because someone made it a cartoon.

And, yes, I did try quiche once, and most people know that “real men” don’t eat quiche.
But, I checked my “man card” at the door of the cafe serving quiche, so that can’t be held against me.

I couldn’t “prove” my manhood in the military, and, just because I had a wife, kids, and grandchildren does not mean that I have “become a man” yet.

Nope. The new “manhood” is you don’t become a man until you have waited for the VA to resolve your benefit claim for 10 years. I made it! Recently, I passed the 10 year claim anniversary, and still no resolution to my claims.
In fact, my most recent BVA decision gave me a ticket to ride the VA hamster wheel for the next 10 years!

Editor note:

Joe Average Vet would have us award him an Outstanding Man award for his 10-year investment in fighting VA. Sorry Joe. You get a Bronze on this.

I have 23 years into it and barely rate a Silver. My claim is currently getting ready to be heard at the Court some time in 2013 marking 24.

Look at Wyn Wn who won her 1979 CUE recently and is now faced with the prospect of fighting for an actual rating rather than the ice creme cone with no ice creme in it that she received. She’ll get her Gold some time in 2020 unless I miss my guess. Thirty three years to a Gold Medal is enough to try the patience of Job. Nevertheless, she evinces the winning sentiment: REFUSE TO LOSE.

JUSTICE DELAYED IS

NOT JUSTICE DENIED

MAKING LIFE MISERABLE FOR

VETS SINCE THE WAR OF 1812

They’re chiseling in a new logo at Fort Fumble on Vermont Ave. It will read ” For he who shall survive the interminable wait, his widow (if she survives) and his orphan child who may or may not receive accrued benefits”.

Nod

Posted in Guest authors, VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

STARDUSTRADIO COMPUTERS DOWN

Posted on September 2, 2012 by asknod

The Firebase Adrian  Show has been scrubbed due to the station’s computer being down. Sorry if any of you were making guacamole and chips and icing the lemonade. Bummer. Drew Carey isn’t even on. We’ve been moved to the sixteenth at the same time. We meaning I brought my Pony and Molly in to do this on Skype. It was rather crowded here in the office.

Posted in Stardust Radio | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

VA welcomes Student Vets to the hamster wheel.

Posted on September 2, 2012 by joeaveragevet

Just when we thought it could not get any worse, with the Veterans disability claim backlog approaching one million, the VA figures out another method to make it still worse for Vets.

It wasnt enough to turn disabled Vets world upside down by delaying benefits, so Student Vets are welcomed to the VA hamster wheel.

No, I did not think it could get worse, either, but leave it to the VA to figure out how to make things still harder for Vets.  Here is how they accomplished just that:   Instead of limiting the backlog to 1,000,000 disabled Veterans seeking benefits, the VA said, “Why stop there?”

Lets expand the backlog logjam to include Student Veterans, also.

And, the vA can ask the colleges to “cover for the VA” so that too many Vets won’t complain and put pressure on the President and Congress to ACTUALLY DO something about the backlog, other than make more unkept promises to reduce it.

Here is what Veterans think of the new government expansion program to logjam student Veterans also:

What? You mean you are delaying Student Vets benefits also? Who’s in charge of this outfit?

This Vet was not happy with an email explaining his student Vets benefits will be delayed either:

I can’t afford for my GI bill benefits to be delayed! I need my money now. I can’t call JG Wentworth.

The real tragedy, however, is if Vets get mad enough to do this:

Are the VA’s delays enough to make Vet’s THIS mad? It looks like the VA wants to find out the hard way.

Posted in Guest authors, VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

vA IN THE NEWS

Posted on September 1, 2012 by asknod

PETCO® stocks as well as Chicago Mercantile Exchange shares on livestock were up across the board 23 points on Dog and Pony futures of all breeds yesterday after a news release about the new Department of Veterans Affairs purchase contract.

The new contract, in addition to the 59 pairs, includes room and board at local petting zoos nearest the Regional Offices and the AMC. VA’s Central Office (VACO) ordered an additional ten pair due to heavy demand and to give the animals some respite from their anticipated heavy workload appearance schedule soon.

VA Under Secretary for Dog and Pony Shows Allison Hickey claims that this has been in the works for quite some time and is an important element in their plan to reduce the claims backlog. Speaking from prepared comments. She said ” VA and I feel this is an important element to aid in distracting Congress from what’s really going on. Hopefully it will be an important stakeholder tool to pacify VSOs and irritable Vets. Animals are quite soothing and help in the control of PT-er- personality disorders.”

An AFGE Union spokesman who wished to remain nameless was skeptical that this could help in any way but nevertheless said he’d take a “wait and see” approach. He insists AFGE has nothing personal against dogs and ponies and was quick to point out: ” Many of our members have dogs and ponies already-albeit in a private setting. We do not advocate their use in the VA claims process per se. However, in keeping with VA’s wishes, we will remain open-minded.”

 

In related news, the VAOIG is reputed to be investigating reports of recent dog and pony animal cruelty at the much-maligned Orlando Meet and Greet. Anonymous reports of inebriated VA VLJs playing Pin the Form 9 on the Pony are unsubstantiated as yet.

The Service Station Manager is worried about winter temperatures and opted for a facsimile pony

VA’s planned roll out  at the beleaguered LARO was more professional. It was orchestrated with the recent Homeless stand down and jobs fair for Vets. Handsome t shirts were handed out to all participants as well as well as job applications for Fortune 500 companies.  VA has also discovered a home for all those MR&Es with expired shelf life stickers.

News and film at Eleven!

Happy Labor Day.

Posted in All about Veterans, Humor | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

FREE CAPTION PHONES FOR HEARING-IMPAIRED VETS

Posted on September 1, 2012 by asknod

Member Shawn send us this. I always cringe when someone kicks in the word “Free!“. That usually means “Buy it and we’ll refund your $ in a year when (and if) you supply proof of hearing impairment that we’ll accept.” This usually involves an attorney down the road to get your $199.95 “deposit” back. Be careful. Don’t sign some service agreement saying “Sure. $39.95 a year for service.” Don’t sign anything that says “We’ll be sending you a new book on gardening every month, too. If you don’t want it, simply return it in the paper bag it came in and pay return postage and insurance.”

 

Check the back of the contract for “Dealer prep and destination fees extra. Does not include postage and handling of $169.95. Fuel surcharge not included. Offer is F.O.B. Bejing. Expect two year delay if ordering between March and December. Caption Call makes no express warranties that this will work with you equipment. Not responsible for any damage to you computer or peripherals. Caption Call is a corporation incorporated in Panama and is, as such, immune to lawsuits.”

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CHRONOLOGY TIMELINE

Posted on September 1, 2012 by asknod

As promised, I will continue to bore you to tears with the ongoing saga of attempting to summit Mt. CAVC.

The latest chapter is my attorney’s request to assemble a timeline of my life. You read that right. All the way from “I was born at University Hospital in Washington, D. C. on April 1, 1951.” That, incidentally is where they took President Reagan after his Meet and Greet with  Jodie Foster’s paramour, John Hinkley.

You may laugh but it is an arduous undertaking to retrieve 61 or so years of your life. The timeline is constructed in a simple format. What wasn’t mentioned was it was in some arcane format called Word Perfect. I promptly downloaded some free version and merrily proceeded to encode 4 days worth of ruminations, thoughts, memories and the twenty three year battle with the vA. Baaad idea. The download was a free thirty day version. Anything you created on it was locked up there if you did not back it up in another format like Microword. (I didn’t). When it came time to add the Record Before the Agency, or RBA,  page links, I discovered it would only cost me US $159.99 to bail it out. Fortunately member Shawn (who is Member Bob’s girl Friday) took her copy and converted it thus saving me from hunting down and killing the idiots who “gave away” the “free” downloads. The RBA is a complete and unabridged copy of your C-file. C-file stands for Claims file; unabridged is a metaphor for what is left after any close encounters of the shredder room kind.

My memory is still intact give or take a week or two on most of it. I had to dig out old funny papers of where I spent my summer vacation in 1970 to refresh some of it.

Muang Souy was one of those places that traded hands between us (the Hmong led by Gen. Vang Pao) and the Pathet Lao frequently. We owned it during the Monsoon and they promptly took it back in the dry, burning season. It was up at the top NW corner of the Plain of Jars  adjacent to Interstate 7 (or what passed for it) in rural Laos. This was the main east/west thoroughfare for all the gooks’ military traffic and a terrific place to blow things up.  Here’s another view.

This was Indian country. We weren’t there in the real sense of the word. Anything that happened there was like Las Vegas. And much like Las Vegas, if you got shot down there or killed, you stayed there. We’re still excavating and discovering some of our KIA-BNRs even now.  On the right side where Route 71 branches off from Interstate 7 ( the black and white dotted line) is where I had my date with HCV.  I got the tainted transfusion at the AirAm/USAID hospital down at Sam Thong (Lima Site 20).

Back to chronologies. I’m being tasked with remembering every nuance and detail of all this as well as the rest of my life. Every triumph, child birth, claims filing, and denial must be plotted on the graph to show the attorney. It’s no use to to keep referring to it in the abstract. Likewise, with the way vA sends it to you, its completely out of order or any logical context. I find dependency filings cheek and jowl with important back and hips medical charts. There’s no rhyme or reason to it. Whether its a vast vA-style conspiracy to obfuscate or not is immaterial. What’s obvious is that recently, vA has started delivering these RBAs (Record Before the Agency) in haphazard, hopscotch format. Since time is of the essence in preparing a defense at the Court, everyone must scramble to unscramble this unholy mess. That is what I’ve been doing for the last three days which explains my absence here.

Most CAVC attorneys send these out to specialized firms to organize at great expense. Each piece of paper must be collated chronologically in order. My file contains three thousand seven hundred fifteen pages. Each one must be analyzed and a determination of what it is in reference to (which claim) must be made. Then the document page number must be attached to the cute little map of your life that I mentioned above. Thus, you get:

1994

153.   3/31– File for PCT as a residual of Hepatitis or A/O with AMVETS as VSO. Service rep. is Rick Talbott (may he rot in the used-car salesman part of Hell).(RBA pg 3395-3415)

154.   11/7–VARO denial for all issues. VA recharacterizes the filing as residuals of hepatitis and PCT due to AO only. No adjudication based on PCT as a residual of hepatitis. VA fails to associate VAMC American Lake AO test/examination from 9/21/93 with 1994 claim.(RBA pg 3392-3394 ;submitted for first time at Board hearing)

155.    12/2– File NOD with N&M evidence (See RBA pg. 868 showing receipt of N&M Evidence)

156.  12/7– VA posts N&M evidence into C-file. (RBA pg 3385-3391)  

What will interest readers is what happens all too frequently at Regional Offices across America when paper files are involved. Yep. Your shit ends up in another Vet’s file and vice-versa. Thus it came as no surprise to find Brian M. __________’s information co-located where it will never be found- in mine.

Scary, huh? Vets wonder why they can’t win at this game. Here’s living proof of why. Imagine a new paperless system out on the horizon. Does anyone think this is going to improve with the adoption of it? We’ll simply come up with a term like “paperless misfiling” to describe the phenomenon. Then there’s the merely humorous:

This might seem innocuous, but a newsflash is in order. I have no VSO. I represent myself. So what is some gomer from DAV or the American Legion doing roaming through my file? Why? Who gave him/her access to it? Doesn’t this bother any of you? Frankly, it makes my hair stand on end. Knowing that the VSOs are co-located in ROs throughout America, it would be easy for these service officers to roam up to, say,  the unsecured sixth floor of the Winston Salem cigarette RO and peruse your files at their leisure. One hopes they would return them to the same alphabetical file pile!

On a more humorous note, I found this in the RBA. I had forgotten about it but it will make good fodder for a future CUE. When I escaped from the VAMC the first time for about ten days, I realized I was in deep doo-doo medically speaking. It wasn’t the constant nausea or the colostomy bag leaking that led me to this conclusion. I was toast.

Getting ready to go play golf.

So I filed for Aid and Attendance or Housebound. Either one was fair game. Here’s what the good doctor down at va had to say about it.

And do you know what? Those funny guys down at the RO thought I was pulling their leg. I guess they had an VAOIG airplane out flying around and confused me with some other guy at the golf course. Well, they pulled the plug on this one lickity spit.

I was still learning how to do this back then so you’ll have to excuse me. I was also about a half bubble off when I was filing this so I might have forgotten to use the magic word.

If any of you have had occasion to ask beg for congressional intervention, you might find it humorous how they treat us. I read several entries from the Congressional Interests Section chief at the Seattle RO (Danial E. Kutchler). He must play golf or do happy hours with Senator Sneaker’s congressional liaison, Kim Brown. They do everything but high-five on their emails. We are considered an unavoidable issue in the course of their work.  As in, “We already paid him in excess of $38 K last week.” Not. The date of that one was 7/08/2008 and I didn’t get the check until August 12th.  When I said that a Dial-a-prayer “technician” called me up and said they dropped the ball on my PCT claim (again), ol’ Daniel replied that they never “drop the ball” and that some claims are horribly complicated and require a lot of development. Oddly, the claim was rated three days after they dropped the round object that resembled a spherically-shaped orb.  Hand-written on the Form 119 Report of Contact was “MYOFB” which I have been led to believe in the past stands for Mind your own F business.” What do I know of such lofty vA abbreviations?  C-files are fun. You get to see all the neat little forms they use and what they have in their arsenal about you to deny with.

The chronology has been assembled and the extraneous files have been duly noted for expungement. This is good because the mere presence of them in the file will make the General Counsel look like a bunch of goombahs. I apologize for my neglect of this site in the interim. Happy Labor Day Weekend and where did the summer go?

Posted in C-Files and RBAs, vA news, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Newest VA backlog reduction program: Shreddergate 2

Posted on September 1, 2012 by joeaveragevet

The pressure was enormous.  The election is fast approaching, and the millions of Veterans waiting endlessly on their benefits and appeals, after an administration promise to reduce the backlog, has actually been made much worse.

Program after VA program has failed to reduce the backlog.

Something has to be done!

Shreddergate TWO to the rescue!

You will recall, in shreddergate ONE when the backlog got too large, the VA simply took mostly Veterans with multiple claims and “converted” them into single issue claims by shredding.  It failed.  Vets are not as stupid as the VA would like us to beleive.

So, with at least one shredder bin inspection habitual now, what to do?  The VA needed to think up more of these, and quick:

Placing one Veterans file, in another Vets file produces much lost time and money.
However, it does make the backlog appear smaller.

Simply place one Veterans file in anothers, and it will “disappear”.  The Vet will be quickly denied due to lack of evidence, and it will be a long time until the “error” is discovered.

One well known Vet, has indicated that is precisely what happened to him.

He indicated that “somewhere” buried in his some 3000 pages of evidence, was another Veterans C file.

While it is clear the politicians want to “look good” especially now, I am not sure that is what happened.

Posted in Guest authors, SHREDDERGATE, VA BACKLOG | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

The carcinogen, HCV

Posted on September 1, 2012 by Laura

The U. S Department of Health and Human Services publishes fat books listing human carcinogens.   The Hepatitis C Virus “known to be a human carcinogen,” was first listed in the Eleventh Report on Carcinogens in 2004 (pg 216-218).

Public health officials knew and wrote the following:

“Individuals with chronic hepatitis C are the source for all new infections and are at increased risk for chronic liver disease, cirrhosis, and liver cancer.”

Think about it.  They knew that millions of people with HCV (aware or unaware) were the source for all new infections, and they choose not to put out public service announcements or use other means to get this critical information out.

Is the CDC educating us now with the new birth cohort testing recommendation?  Not really. For example, information on the transmission of the virus is still somewhat fuzzy in the ROC.

“The major route of HCV transmission is through contaminated blood.”

If contaminated blood is the major route, what then are the minor routes? They list sexual, perinatal, familial etc…but are mum on details.   We don’t need hints.  We need to understand the situation in no-nonsense terms.   What else do we need to know about the transmission routes of HCV?

 

Posted in Guest authors, HCV Health, Medical News | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments