MORE VA MATH

Posted on November 16, 2011 by asknod

MORE VA MATH

While driving to a job site to check on my WIFE’s Construction Co.  that I USED to own, a horrible thought of collusion came to me. As most who know me would agree, I think in numbers- like the Count on Sesame Street. Examine this enigma.

 The VA has a budget. It is newly projected each year and is currently about $26 Billion this annum. That covers a lot of ground. The DVA is two major entities- The ROs and VAMCs. If you work for them, it’s the VBA and the VHA. I can see how budget poohbahs arrive at a close estimate for Veterans’ health care. They have X number of VAMCs and personnel to finance. They can anticipate the numbers of Veterans coming into the system from the military in advance. That is shared knowledge and easy to program for. What would seem to me to be random, or should be, is the ensuing number granted. Who can predict that? Read on and find out.

Statistically and historically, we know that Veterans only win at the RO level approximately 15% of the time.  Additionally, only 14% appeal their denial. Whether it’s due to apathy or genuine fraud does not interest us. The quantity does. In order to plan for a budget, a number has to be arrived at for compensation costs. This requires a good faith estimate on the cost of same. To achieve this, a budget guru would need to input the fact that 85% of claims were going to be denied each and every year. And, of the 14% appealed, approximately 70% were going to be denied. But, of the 70% thus appealed from the RO and denied, a miniscule number wend their way higher. They win 70% of the time or are vacated and remanded consistent with the Court’s instructions. That last figure is telling. Again, it doesn’t have bearing on our financial examination today.

From this foray, we can surmise that the VA has, in essence,     pre-denied a fixed number based on what? Finances. Now we get to “construe”. May we construe that only the most egregious cases of service-connected injury/disease are granted? Does this leave the hearing-impaired Vet with hemorrhoids a 0% popsicle? If only a select 15% are invited into the party, are they the first 15% to apply each year or are they on VA’s twitter? Do Vets represented by lawyers have a higher rate of success than those by VSOs?  I can only answer the last and it is a resounding “Yes”.

If  VA’s financial prognostications only include the universe of X number of new, service-connected Veterans each year, they can arrive at a budget figure that fits the number Congress is asked to foot. Absent that number, you would be shooting in the dark. Knowing full well that VA only intends to reward X number of souls and deny Y more, their poohbahs can usually be right in the ballpark. Amazing prognosticators, what?

But. There’s always a but. What of the Vet that shows up 20 years later and says VA made a mistake to the accrued tune of $200 K or so? Shoot. Multiply that by 3000 Vets. With VA’s track record of misconstruing 50% of what they take in, that’s probably a conservative number anyway. In order to accommodate these Vets, others suffer both in timely decisions and (gasp) ungranted decisions. VA can neither go over budget with extraordinary awards again and again nor can they deny genuinely injured Vets. Or can they?

With a fixed budget, VA is constrained from being too lax in decisions. Their largesse is severely limited. All those boys in D.C. drink expensive Russian vodka and parking isn’t cheap either. Why, you wouldn’t want the Judges running around in Kias and Corollas, would you? A good 4WD GMC Yukon isn’t cheap and appearances are everything in D.C. So, there’s no fudge room in that part of the budget. Likewise the VHA. This 18-guys-a-day suicide phenomenon is going to need some serious PR money soon to combat the perception that it’s ignored. Where else to scalp that money from? Why, the VBA.

So, at first glance, the only flexible part of their budget has to be the compensation pool.  It’s being manipulated artificially now, so a little more claims gerrymandering isn’t going to arouse attention. The VA got caught promulgating rules for extraordinary awards in 2008. They wanted to “trim and prune”the payouts a bit before offering them to the Vet in hopes he had recently arrived via the good ship HMS Mayflower.  All claims over $25 K had to go back to D.C. for a time/date stamp. The Court decided that was not according to Hoyle and forbad the process. I suspect they still do it- albeit via secure voice network now so as to leave no fingerprints.

In summary, something stinks (besides me). I have an excuse called Short Bowel Syndrome. Veterans are obviously getting a special brand of justice and it stinks. If your claim is denied today and takes 3-4 years to appeal, then they have effectively moved their budget projections for your eventual success (again, based on statistical models) to 2013-2014. That’s not off-budget. That’s future budget. Much the way we use a credit card to buy something now and pay later, the VA is using a denial to buy time until they absolutely have to pay. In the interim they hope you will a) die; b) go away; or c) settle for chump change. Yes, as odd as it seems, the VA has created a whole new “M2” money supply. They have their 2011 budget as expressed in M1$-that which they were allotted by Congress – as well as their now off-line future M2 claims dollars (unawarded as yet). You have to hand it to them. That is very innovative, cutting edge bookkeeping. It brings back memories of Wimpy petitioning Popeye with his signature “I would gladly pay you next Tuesday for a hamburger today”. What has me stymied is that they put Bernie Madoff in prison for the same thing. One of these days they’ll have to pay the piper. That timeworn excuse of “We just gotta hire more guys. We’re inundated here” won’t work forever. VA hired 18,00 new claims guys last year, then  moon walked and said “Yeah, but now we gotta train them”.  What’s next? Hall passes at the RO for FNGs to keep them at their desks working? 

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VAMC Dayton Dental Clinic

Posted on November 15, 2011 by asknod

What could be worse than a D&C? Why, a DDC. Imagine going to the VA dental clinic in Anywheresville, America and trusting these chuckleheads to observe normal sanitary protocols in this day and age. It would be not only expected, but highly unusual for anyone to be unaware of the consequences of unsterile behaviour. What, then, to make of Gomer here, who decides these rules don’t apply to him/her and endanger everyone’s health?

The VA, in its denials, regularly uses the presumption of sanitary protocol when telling us there is no way, in this day and age, that Vets are going to pick up HCV from any VAMCs. Sorry, Charlie. You must have gotten it from the toilet seat at McFlugald’s. We don’t carry that flavor/color here. They are borrowing a page from the Court which has held that the presumption of regularity is invoked any time they mail something to us. Yep. We got it if they mailed it. No CM,RRR needed. Of course, the obverse isn’t the case. Which is why we have to have proof we mailed it. That says a lot about what the VA thinks of our honesty, but I won’t go there today.

Similarly, everything VA owns and uses, including their endoscopes are safe sanitary and above reproach… until they’re not. Hence we have pesky little outbreaks of HVC, HBV and other bugs at the hospitals touted as being the best. While I’m sure you can point to the outbreak in New Jersey as not being VA, one would be advised to take heed of the fact that New Jersey doesn’t seem to be in the limelight for medical malfeasance as frequently as the the VA. VA is like The Truman Show-on 24 hours a day.

We can sue the VA if we discover they have given us one of these things within 2 years of the date of the medical “mishap”. That assumes we find out about it in that narrow window and act on it. Here’s the form:

SF-95

If you should attempt this, be prepared for a rude awakening. First of all, you will be hardpressed to find a law firm, let alone an attorney, willing to set out on this journey. It occurs before a Federal Judge acting as judge and jury so a sympathetic jury is right out. Add to this the fact that even if you prevailed, the Judge might only award you 500 to 750 thousand dollars. Do the math. Preparing for, finding and paying an expert medical witness-$20-30K. Attorney fees?40% plus that doctor/witness. Attorney outlays for collating and preparing for trial? Priceless- literally. The settlement ends up being a crap shoot for the amount of time invested and the take for the attorney. Most won’t touch it unless its a cut and dried wrongful death suit. Settlement value? A mil+ if you’re lucky, less the costs.

The only avenue of help is the VA. You cannot sue them in the proper sense as above and win, but you can exact a tribute from them in the form of a VA claim for their stupidity. This is the 38 USC §1151 statute. If you can prove they screwed up, you get a rating- maybe a big one depending on the Diagnostic Code. This is just barely better than nothing. A big 100% one at $2800.00 a month sucks if you’ll pardon my French. No thank you. I’ll take my health please. Keep your paltry welfare. $33,876.00 a year doesn’t even cover my annual mortgage payment and the essentials of life. Throwing shitty medical and dental care in on top is a bit much.

This brings me to Dayton, Ohio. Polish your spectacles and take a gander at this. What you are going to read is what never happens, but somehow did. One of our old, eagle-eyed members, Sylvia, managed to get the mustard off the hotdog and send it to me. Wait. I’m not implying Sylvia is old old, okay? I haven’t a clue how she did this, but publish it in hopes that others who either had the misfortune to go to the Dayton VAMC DC or know of friends who did, will pass this on. She has the other 44 pages that go with it. I can get that in a zip file and pass it on to any who got the DDS (Dayton Dental Sweepstakes). It makes me sick to think anyone would treat people with this no deposit, no return attitude- let alone Vets. But then, look at the ones who come to VA to “practice”. Without casting aspersions, did you know you could lose your licence to practice in Texas, California and Nevada like Dr. Conrad Murray has (the guy who gave Michael Jackson the Propofol sendoff), and still come to work for VA. Scary? Well, he has to do the 4 years first, so it’s not like you’ll be seeing him right away. California may be the land of the fruits, the nuts and the raisins, but they do incarcerate the bad guys for a little while so you probably won’t see him at the Oakland VAMC for at least two years.

Only at a VA, huh? Thank you, Sylvia.

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Atheist Priests

Posted on November 14, 2011 by asknod

What a lovely concept. A religion based on no religion. I adopted and adapted as I went through different cultures during my vacation in sunny Southeast Asia.  I was  particularly enamoured of the Buddhist faith when I was there and openly practiced it in the remote locations where I was stranded. There were no chaplains where we were. Hell, to be perfectly frank, there wasn’t much in the way of any organized religious programs for us at all with the exception of informal nightly worship services. In remote/isolated assignments like Project 404   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_404   the patron Saint was St. John the Walker hands down. Regardless of his religious attire from day to day (Red or Black), the only other serious contender was Brother Tanqueray  of the Order of the Juniper Berry and occasionally St. Chivas. Absent meaningful and reliable  refrigeration, beer wasn’t even in the running.

Buddhism is an interesting concept that is predicated heavily on reincarnation. This helps to control social mores by employing the “What goes around, comes around.” theory. Nobody wants to come back as a snake or a dog due to a poor personnel performance report from Buddha.

With the sudden ascendancy  of the new world order, the Muslim faith is now recognized and tolerated. How soldiers in the Army can pop out and do 5 prayer sessions a day hasn’t been explained to me. For instance, do they get to forego packing an entrenching tool around and substitute a prayer rug? All these questions as Roseanna Rosanadanna used to say.

Which leads us to this Baltimore headline I saw yesterday:

“Capt.  Ryan Jean wanted to perform well on the Army’s Psychological evaluation for soldiers. But he also wanted to answer the questions honestly. So when he was asked whether he believed his life had a lasting purpose, Jean, an atheist, saw no choice but to say no.”

Due to this, he was asked to report for remedial save your soul training with the chaplain. Apparently the Army considers itself (according to the chaplain) as an adjunct of the Army of God. Anyone who isn’t a committed Christian is quite obviously on the wrong side of the fence. He was admonished to fix this. The “fix”, in Capt. Jean’s estimation, would be to seek a religious position as a “priest”, albeit a secular one, that marches to the beat of no God we recognize or can ascertain as one. How enlightening. I assure you this is not rank humor. This is right in the paper authored by one Matthew Hay Brown of the Baltimore Sun.

In light of everything I have seen about social and sexual mores recently in the military, this seems to comport perfectly with all the other claptrap. If troops are allowed to have any gender designation they wish imprinted on their dogtags, why not “Atheist” as their default religion if they so choose? And, with that in mind, who will lead these souls to everlasting humaness but their own cadre of Priests. This doesn’t need a lot of thought to process it.

I leave you with the last, well-written paragraph of the article. If this doesn’t summarize that we have reached “emptiness” nothing does:

” Nonetheless, the drive for lay leaders reflects the growing level of coordination among atheists in uniform and their increasing willingness to speak out in a military that has labored in recent years to develop a more inclusive environment for its diverse membership.”

When I was in the service, we were entitled to believe in one thing only-the prevailing opinion of 6 Actual. Anything else was heresy. Slats commanded and I obeyed.  Seasons change and so the military. Marching to the beat of a different drummer can be so enervating.  We’ve come a long way, baby.

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Fed. Cir.–Hampton V. Shinseki (audio)

Posted on November 13, 2011 by asknod

Mr. Kenster the Carpenter seems to live in the Fed. Cir. now. Here we have him hard at work in Mr. Jerome Hampton’s defense. Ken should feel right at home in this case because it’s just a continuation of sorts of his 38 CFR § 3.156 (b) defenses in Bond v. Shinseki last month (Fed. Cir. (October 7th, 2011) and Rice v. Shinseki (CAVC , May 2009). Mr. Hampton (via Ken) actually filed to stay proceedings on his claim pending the Fed. Cir.’s disposition of Bond. This the Court declined to do, but as luck would have it, he gets to use it here as it was decided one month ago.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=8275446648167860747&q=Hampton+v.+Shinseki&hl=en&as_sdt=2,48&as_vis=1

This is the audio of the hearing and it really makes the General Counsel for the Board look like a bunch of 1st year law students. They insist on looking through the binoculars backwards even when instructed to turn them around and use them properly.

The GC insists this is a case of a claim for increase or, in the alternative, a failure to file a timely NOD with a rating decision. Argument Number 3 (yeah, it’s complicated, huh?) would be that what Mr. Hampton filed after his rating was not truly New and Material Evidence which would fall into the area of § 3.156(b). I would call this the shotgun theory.  The GC seems to be saying “He is not entitled and one of these arguments will support our contentions. We’re not sure which one, but we think at least one of them is on point.” They should be arguing that one and only one of these is the basis for the Fed. not having authority to address this. The CAVC has already stepped in it by narrowly focusing on what the BVA characterized this as- namely an argument about an earlier effective date.

Poor old Ken almost gets laryngitis trying to get the Feds to “Stay with me on this, people and follow the bouncing ball”. They keep reverting back to the CAVC’s misinterpretation. It gets humorous when the Feds finally get it and lay into the GC and say “Hold the phone, Gomer. Let’s look at what you say is not New and Material evidence first”. The GC immediately goes into Moonwalking mode trying to draw attention away from it. The ploy doesn’t work and this is where the case will be decided.

Basically anything is new and material evidence when filed if it passes a rather simple test. Once you have been rated, the biggest hurtle has been surmounted. Here, we have a claim that has been decided in the Vet’s favor in February of 2000. All he is saying is “I think you screwed up. Here are two (2) more records of psychiatric notes from my  shrink that support my contentions that I should get a higher rating than 30%.”

The test is simply 1): Is it New in that it has never been introduced into his file and been used to consider the claim? and 2): Is it material  (pertinent or relating to his claim for PTSD in that it would aid in making a decision)? If it passes these two smell tests then it qualifies as an addition to the existing case file and can be considered. The most important thing to consider that makes this identical to Bond and Rice is that Mr. Hampton filed this within the one year limiting period (April) following the February 22 rating decision. The GC must know its in over it’s collective head and is now grasping at straws. § 3.156(b) doesn’t permit much wiggle room and Ken has made that point in spades not once, but twice already.

If my opposition in Court was Ken and he had a success rate like that (2-0) under his belt on this subject, I’d be sitting up all night every night looking for flaws in my logic and cracks in the foundation of what I thought was a cogent, bulletproof  defense. Ken really doesn’t have to do his homework. The case is what it is. The BVA and then the Court have denied based on the wrong tenets. Mr. Carpenter seeks to right the canoe (appeal), excavate the water (flawed decision-making process) and allow the sun to shine on the facts and nothing more. It’s like Detective Joe Friday saying “Just the facts, m’am. Just the facts.”  The GC keeps saying “Wait. Look through the binoculars the way we do. Mr. Carpenter didin’t argue this the same way down at the CAVC. This isn’t very fair.”

Listen for yourself.

http://veteranslawlibrary.com/files/Fed_Cir_Audio/2011/Hampton_2011-7032.MP3

You can almost hear the GC start to whine when the Fed. gal and her partner lay into him and say “Whoa. Which two documents aren’t N&M? Show us. Now, why aren’t they N&M?We don’t want to hear you digress. Tell us about these two documents. Are they new to the decision? Do they bear on the subject?”. I think Ken has this one in the bag. You can bullshit some of the chuckleheads most times. You cannot bullshit Mensa members any time. They will not be swayed by dancing Hula Girls on the dashboard in grass skirts. They look at the facts.

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Cryoglobulinemia and HCV

Posted on November 13, 2011 by asknod

Cryoglobulinemia is a big word. My spell checker refuses to recognize it no matter how many times I add it to the dictionary. Such is life. I don’t know how many are afflicted with this disease but it seems to travel with HCV as frequently as PCT does.

Cryo, if you will permit me to abbreviate or shorten it, is a disease where the body seems to accumulate large amounts of Gamma globulin proteins that coagulate in the blood at lower temperatures. If you have ever suffered from this, the immediate effect is aching hands and feet in cold weather. The repair order is to get warm in a hurry. This causes even more pain until the protein doomoflotchies liquify like the butter you pour on your popcorn.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryoglobulinemia

As you can see, there are three distinct flavors of this from the Wikkie link. HCV sufferers seem to get the one with the high IgG version. This link calls it Type II or III, but I have seen them numbered differently depending on where the article was written  (i.e. England, Israel, etc.). While everyone has slightly different symptoms, the one I mentioned is the hallmark. Others sometimes complain of symptoms as far ranging as achy joints which is usually an indicator of Rheumatoid Arthritis or Fibromyalgia. When this is a factor, you will usually see a component of autoimmune disorder evidenced by a high Anti-nuclear antibody  (ANA) test and an elevated RA factor in the blood.

More than one member has asked me if I experience some (or all) of these symptoms. Yes and no. When I tried out for the Interferon audition in 2007, all hell broke loose. This was due in no small part to my underlying autoimmune disfunction. I didn’t have the panoply of diseases then that later showed up. Interferon is like throwing 100 gallons  130 octane Avgas on a  well-developed house fire. It takes it up several notches. If you suffer from any of the run of the mill autoimmune disorders such as Sjogren’s, Crohn’s, RA, UC or the like, Interferon will be your worst enemy. Chances are if you don’t have Cryo yet, you will after starting treatment. Some can tolerate the harsh effects of the IFN treatment for a while, but ultimately it will ramp up the immune system to attack everything in your body, including your liver. This is called autoimmune hepatitis and will accelerate the HCV disease process exponentially. You will see viral load counts higher than any of your previous best. I jumped from 27,000 to 8.5 million in less than seven months and it took several years to get it back down. All that from just one dose of the rat piss. ANA tests are measured like the doubling cube in a backgammon game-i.e. 2,4,8,16,32,64, 128 etc. They start at 1:40 and proceed up the same exponential ladder. Hence the next is 1:80 followed by 1:160 and so on. I hit 1:2510 and I was one sick doggie. There is probably no way to describe how you feel so I won’t try.

The testing process for Cryo is very unique. You have to go to a hospital with a laboratory for this. They heat up a test tube to keep your blood warm and keep the vial in a bath of heated water while they prepare the sample for testing. My tests revealed a reading of 3910 micrograms per whatever  which is way up there. I suspect normal is more like 40. You’ll know if its elevated if you go outside when its less than 50 degrees. Your hands generally turn white because no blood can enter the extremities. When you reenter a warm, heated area the agony is indescribable. The pain subsides gradually as the cryoglobins dissolve or liquify.

While I can’t swear to it medically, the high IgG rate seems to provoke cognitive issues. It may be a brain fart or simply old age, but it seems worse when the levels are running high. The good news is phlebotomies. They tend to reduce this to a manageable level where the symptoms are not so pronounced.  Talking your doctor into a regular phlebotomy regimen is going to be a challenge. There is actually nothing deleterious about it, but you have to remember that doctors in the 17th, 18th and even the 19th centuries regularly engaged in the practice of bloodletting and using leeches. We’ve come a long way- perhaps too far. Doctors are so staid in their ways , they look at this as quackery from the dark ages and refuse to entertain it. Nevertheless, there seems to be some correlation between the two.

Absent a really good automobile accident with a resultant high loss of blood requiring a transfusion, you will never get to experience a reduction in IgG. Discussing this with doctors is recommended , but arm yourselves with the facts before you go in. Most gastrodocs are not well-versed in hepatology unless they opt to specialize in it. Don’t get me wrong. They go through the normal classes in med school touching on the ill effects of hepatitis on the liver, but mostly with the more common HAV and HBV scenarios. HCV is usually referred to specialists in that specific area of expertise.

Hepatologists are a unique breed. They all have that cattle drive mentality towards the different treatment protocols involving the menu of IFN and Ribavirin. With the addition of  Telepravir and Bocepravir to the appetizer list, they simply have more options. They rarely think outside the box and look at other procedures that may have a beneficial effect on your well-being. This phlebotomy thing would never have arisen absent my PCT. The resultant beneficial effects from it also would never have surfaced unless I had a baseline of horrible health to measure it against. The difference in how I feel is definitely a night and day proposition.

If you have HCV and haven’t been tested for the IgA, IgG and IgM group of globulins, you might politely ask your doctor where he got his diploma. I would point out that you do not necessarily have to have an autoimmune disorder to have this nor have gone through Ifn therapy. Some only need the risk of HCV to provoke this animal.

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AMERICORPS FOR VETS

Posted on November 12, 2011 by asknod

This morning’s paper held this nugget. Allow me to do my Evelyn Wood speed reading trick and summarize this in a few short sentences from the pound of newsprint and ink. Apparently in a photo opportunity for Veterans, the Public Lands  Commissioner of Washington State  has started a program exclusively for Vets. In an amazing coincidence, this program was inaugurated just yesterday and incidentally happened to correspond with (taa-daa) Veterans Day!  Mr. Goldmark, who probably gets a six figure salary, has hired six (count them) young Vets to do landscaping along a river in Tacoma. He feels this is a “good fit” for Vets coming back from a war zone like Iraq or Afghanistan. It allows them to commune with nature,  enjoy a low stress environment, gives them solitude if needed and makes them feel empowered because they are working. Win-win situation, right?

Back up, Gilligan. Untie the ropes first. Ryan P. is a 27 year old who was a former E-4 who recently finished an 18 month tour in Iraq. As an E-4, Ryan was waking up every morning to $25, 531.00 a year tax free in a war zone (if they still consider Iraq to be one). He is now working for AmeriCorps for minimum wage. In the enlightened Utopia of Washington (state), the going rate is currently $8.67 which is higher than the federal minimum of $7.25. The $1.32/hour difference is the Grief Tax visited on private enterprise here to “level the playing field” for the poor man.This will yield our new landscape technician $69.36 a day for $346.80 a week. This translates out to $18,037.60 before Uncle Harry and Aunt Nancy take out a little for this and that. Oh, and let’s not forget the Social Security contribution which is mandatory. Ryan is going to be “income challenged” as they say for a while. In fact, if Ryan is married with children, his wife is going to need a job to help supplement this financial shortfall. The need for ensuing Day care will make more inroads in their income but will reduce unemployment by creating day care jobs. Once again, this is a win-win for everyone.

This new cadre of six intrepid Veterans “is fueled by a $150,00.00 grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.” While I have no objection to seeing my tax dollars used as a “create-a-job ” slush fund, I would like to see the monies spent on the actual Vets. Do the chuckleheads at the FWS think we can’t multiply $18,037.60 by 6 and come up with $108,225.60? So, are we to believe we are left with administrative costs of $41,774.40 to administer to six guys? As an E-4, I would think Ryan was a capable Corporal and squad leader. As squads consist of 10 men rather than six, it would seem we could up Ryan’s pay to his former $25,531.00 and save a bundle. Ryan gets pay commensurate with his abilities and only has to supervise five more. We could up the number to ten and save even more. The $41.7K  saved could go towards hiring 2 more Vets. Whoa, Pilgrim. Totally new concept. Saving money and hiring people. It would never work.

Photo Ops are expensive. I bet they cost more for overtime wages on Veterans Day:

“A motivated work force is going to be fundamentally important to the success of Puget Sound.” Goldmark said. 

The veterans joining Puget SoundCorps fit the bill, said Department of Veterans Affairs Director John Lee.“These are men and women who are dependable and know how to survive and work in the elements,” he said. “They don’t need a lot of training”.

In the months ahead, look for Puget SoundCorps crews to be assigned throughout the Puget Sound watershed, restoring wetlands, removing barriers in salmon-bearing streams, and eliminated (sic) bulkheads and creosote pilings from the shoreline., Ecology Director Ted Sturdevant said.

Well, I’m surprised that with no less than three talking heads they got away with only $41.7 K evaporating. One will notice that I computed these Veteran’s jobs as being a 52 week proposition based on a salaried wage. The article only mentions them being employed “in the months ahead.” Ruh-oh, Rorge! Gee. What is it, Astro?  More bad economic news for the Fantastic 6? Ruh-huh!

I won’t bore you with the details, but are any here old enough to remember the meltdown in 1974-80ish? Gas lines? Even-odd? Make-work jobs? Jimmy Carter wearing a sweater in the Casa Blanca and his Civilian Conservation Corps? The poor hired to insulate old hot water tanks and pipes and staple clear Visqueen over windows to conserve energy? Do I sense history being reinvented here or is it just my imagination? I foresee a whole new army of Vets coming soon bearing 6 foot ladders and armed with energy efficient, curly Q, mercury-filled  fluorescent light bulbs to a home near you soon. We are going to lick this problem even if we go bankrupt trying.  You can take that to the bank, assuming they haven’t all failed by then.

America cannot get back up on her feet with government jobs. Jobs that support the government are a product of private enterprise. Taking your tax dollars and hiring Vets is an admirable idea, but unsustainable. Taking your tax dollars, hiring Vets and then hiring 3 talking bobbleheads to explain that they’re landscaping for $130 K a pop is the problem. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians…

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The Bonus Army and OWS

Posted on November 12, 2011 by asknod

Few people who are alive today, and certainly no Veterans from the first World War, can attest to what transpired on July 28th, 1932.  Some of of our most illustrious leaders from the coming world war in 1939 were employed to route a crowd of 10,000 or so veterans and their families from their encampment on the banks of the Potomac. I speak of Generals MacArther, Eisenhower and Patton. How one can attack one’s own brethren and sleep at night will escape me forever.

 http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief4.htm

Some media types have had the temerity to compare this event to the recent Occupy Wall Street movement. I ask the reader what could be more asinine. The two movements have absolutely nothing in common. The Veterans in 1932 were simply asking for remuneration for their service earlier than the promised 1945 redemption date. Knowing the deleterious effects of inflation first hand, these brave souls were asking for their promised stipend sooner due to economic doldrums suspiciously similar to what we now are encountering in the marketplace. I’m sure there are numerous Vets reading this who have finally won a long-standing dispute with the VA and been given a rump settlement that does not compensate for the loss in dollar value nor pay interest for the  years the claim was held hostage.  To those souls I can only offer condolences. This is the system we endure. Our government is renowned for its penurious proclivities so it should come as no surprise.

This in no way compares to what transpired in 1932. Tens of thousands of  WW1 Vets were granted $1.25 for every day served overseas and $1.00 a day for stateside service in 1924 by a grateful nation.  The catch was that this munificence would not become due and payable for another twenty-one years (1945). One does not need the acumen of a John Maynard Keynes to figure out this was a ploy to gain time and pay in inflated dollars. You can almost see the future fingerprints of what the government is currently up to with Social Security here. Nothing has changed in 88 years, has it?

Which brings us to 2011 and the newest Bonus Army. This eclectic bunch of protesters has very little in common with our 1932 crew. Some of those arrested have listed addresses in parts of upscale New York which do not comport with what we could consider the 99 percentile. I admire them for coming out on weekends and standing with their downtrodden fellow humans even if they are not economically depressed or unemployed. What might be overlooked in this rush to judgement are the very large numbers of Veterans now being attracted to this as it builds. The obvious difference is that their  jobs plight has resonance. They are not asking for another 99 weeks of unemployment or some nebulous amount of money simply because Joe Goldman Sachs has more of of it than they do.

Veterans are arriving on our shores in ever increasing numbers as the wars on terror subside and we decrease our military budget. We will soon have a rump army as we did in the post-Vietnam era with no ability to project power abroad, but that is an argument for another day. Unemployment is becoming endemic among these troops as they separate from service. The government, through its inaction and apathy, have compounded the problem with interest. When left with no ability to attain gainful employment,  these brave men and women are doing what their forebears of 1932 resorted to- voicing their displeasure with the status quo. The fact that their OWS demonstrators make odd bedfellows should not detract from their cause. The two have nothing in common other than a shared voice at the inequity of what is afoot in America today. Don’t blame the millionaires. Blame your government for its wastefulness. Better yet, America. Look in the mirror.

America is on the cusp of a new era. We have partied hearty. We have burned the candle not at both ends, but rather have broken it in the middle and lit all four ends simultaneously. Every budget cut proposed is met with another expense such that no meaningful savings and austerity can ever accrue. We have finally arrived at what can best be described as the Beatle’s song- I, me, me, mine. Take from him and give it to me.  The government’s rejoinder seems to be- Here’s one for you, nineteen for me. What is lost in the shuffle is the compact we, as Veterans, have always been enticed with in order to serve America. The promise of meaningful future employment gained by learning a trade in the service, medical care in the event of injury and most importantly, compensation for those injuries should we manage to survive them have been the paramount reasons for many of us to heed the call to arms. Others, like me, just liked the smell of cordite and the thrill of victory. Eau d’ gunpowder is a powerful aphrodisiac to the young. However, our government’s habit of waging war without considering the collateral damage to Vets is coming back to haunt them as it did in 1932 and post-Vietnam. The piper must be paid.  No more can we sweep this under the carpet because the carpet’s beginning to resemble the Rocky mountains.

So now we Americans find ourselves at a crossroads. Our promise to our warriors is beginning to ring hollow and they suspect as much. Consider the conundrum of the Emperor becoming chilly and discovering suddenly that he is naked. Many is the Vet who has returned to seek his former job as the law dictates he is entitled.  The civilian who took his place feels equally disenfranchised when asked to relinquish it. Employers are using all manner of subterfuge to get around this impediment. Once again, the Vet loses and the government looks the other way. The parallels to the Bonus Army are numerous and bode poorly for these returning warriors.  The new reality is starting to make itself apparent. Blame is apportioned to many, but a coherent solution remains elusive. I, me, me, mine.

A redux of 1932 may not be avoidable. Sometimes we have to have a distasteful display of what life without civilized discourse looks like to bring us to the bargaining table. The demonstrations during the Vietnam war were a prime example of how America voiced its displeasure with the direction government was taking. The Kent State massacre, like the uprooting of the Bonus Army, became a rallying cry for justice in 1970. It was narrowly focused on one goal-something the OWS movement lacks.

Now is not the time to be ushered to the back of the bus to sit with the Rosa Parks of the movement and patiently await our turn at the microphone. Veterans should become the vanguard of this and politely ask the OWS riffraff  to move to the back of that proverbial bus and wait their turn in line. Veterans have been marginalized for decades and have politely acquiesced to the prevailing political winds for their meager reward. Sometimes you have to piss on the fire and call in the dogs as my daddy used to say.  I expect that time is now before we are asked to sacrifice for the good of America and wait yet again “until things get better”. We arrived at this impasse figuratively in 1932- far earlier than  the 99ers. I submit that we have legitimately earned the right to be at the head of this line.

Somewhere in the intervening years since the Gettysburg address, the phrase “For he who shall have borne the battle, his widow and his orphan child ” has lost it’s ability to move Congress to do what is unarguably their duty to the Veteran. Granting us one day a year and paying us lip service with a mindless  “Thank you for your service” doesn’t cut it with me either. It may make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. It may even make you swell your chest in pride. Unfortunately, “Thank you for your service” doesn’t give these Veterans what they need- namely, a job. Happy Veterans Day to all but is it truly a happy one?

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PHLEBOTOMIES AND HCV?

Posted on November 10, 2011 by asknod

I went in for my monthly phlebotomy today. I do this to reduce the iron in my system from the Porphyria Cutanea Tarda. I was wondering in an earlier post about why it seems I’ve suddenly slowed my rush towards cirrhosis and the inevitable HCC. I passed on some interesting links to this about Coumadin usage as a blood thinner and its beneficial effect on the liver in an earlier post this week.

I think the phlebotomies I’ve been receiving since November 1992 might have something to do with it as well. Think about this. I  have had over 160 phlebotomies since then and each represents 800 milliliters or approximately 1 pint each.  According to the American Red Cross, it takes the human body 57 days to regenerate one pint .The average human body contains about 10 pints. There are 8 pints to a gallon and 160 pints equals 20 gallons. That, my friend, is a shitton of blood to pour down the drain. Each time I suspect it removes a lot of HCV virus in addition to the iron I’m trying to decrease. It makes sense my viral count would be lower afterwards.

Our good friends at Hepatitis Central supplied me with this tidbit:

http://www.hepatitis-central.com/hcv/iron/effect.html

Who would have thunk it? I have to say I was doing this once every three weeks to get it down in the beginning in 92, but once a week? That would have to be hitching a ride on the anemia express. I have an upcoming  Liver Function Test coming up in 10 days at the VAMC. I happen to know from my civilian doctor that it was 300 on the 16th of October. It will be interesting to see if it goes down.

My VA-appointed “hepatologist”,  Nurse Eileen H., is a real-life Nurse Ratched. She refused my last request for a viral load count (VLC) when I was really feeling punky in July. Most heppers don’t realize this , but if you have AIH and it’s really cooking in you, your VLC will shoot way up. Mine usually is about 28 K and my personal best is 8.4 million after one dose of IFX.. It goes up and down and was 200K recently. This tells me it may be up to its old tricks and busy eating my liver like PACMAN. I conned my new VA PCP into running it for me several weeks later. Eileen will undoubtedly be pissed off and frown a lot but it’s my life, not hers. She’s not even an MD- just a lowly ARNP. It will be interesting to see if the AST/ALT decrease with this latest phlebotomy.  Here’s another little trick I use. I qualify for medicare now so I play them off against the VA and use both to keep track of what’s going on. My old PCT doctor would write a prescription for phlebotomies for my dog if I asked him to. He used me in a 1994 AMA article about PCT and the relationship to HCV, HBV,  and the rainbow herbicides by Dow. Anytime I ask, he cuts me a new one. It’s not like it’s an Oxycontin scrip, now is it? There can’t be many who are into bloodletting a la George Washington.

Trust the Israelis to find this one out:

http://munstermom.tripod.com/phlebs.htm  Look down to the third article and click on Beneficial effect of phlebotomies on HCV.

I guess in retrospect I really lucked out eating a lot of Agent Orange and having the VA give me a heart attack, huh? I may be plowing new ground in the Coumadin/ phlebotomy pasture for all I know. If I’m still kicking in 10 years, I’ll be sure to tell everyone my theory. It may become standard protocol for non-responders if they don’t find something sooner. Stranger things have happened. What the hey? It sure can’t hurt having a few less Hepbugs and a pound of iron running round my veins.

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CMOH winner Ed Freeman

Posted on November 10, 2011 by asknod

  I received this today from a friend who was not a Veteran. His father, who was, sent it to him today . If Robert McNamara had let us run the war from Saigon instead of D.C., there’s a high probability we could have won this. Telling us where we could shoot, when we could shoot and what, when and how much ordnance we could drop is what cooked our goose.

You’re a 19 year old kid.  

 

You’re  critically wounded and dying in

 

the jungle somewhere in  the Central Highlands of Viet Nam ..  

 

It’s  November 11, 1967.    

LZ  (landing zone) X-ray.  

 

 

   

Your  unit is outnumbered 8-1 and the enemy fire is so intense from 100 yards away, that  your CO (commanding officer) has ordered  the MedEvac helicopters to stop  coming  in.  

 

You’re  lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns and you know  you’re not getting out.  

 

Your  family is half way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and  you’ll never see them again.  

 

As  the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the  day.  

 

Then  – over the machine gun noise – you faintly hear that sound  of a helicopter.  

 

You  look up to see a Huey coming in. But.. It doesn’t seem real  because no MedEvac markings are on it. 

 

Captain  Ed Freeman is coming in for you.  

 

He’s  not MedEvac so it’s not his job, but he heard the radio call  and decided he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire  anyway.  

 

 

 

Even  after the MedEvacs were ordered not to come.  He’s  coming anyway.

 

And  he drops it in and sits there in the machine gun fire, as  they load 3 of you at a time on board. 

 

Then  he  flies you up and out through the gunfire to the  doctors and nurses and safety. 

 

And,  he kept coming  back !! 13 more  times!!  

Until  all  the wounded were out. No one knew until the  mission was over that the Captain had been hit 4 times in  the legs and left arm.  

He  took 29 of you and your buddies out that day. Some would not  have made it without the Captain and his Huey.  

 

Medal  of  Honor Recipient, Captain Ed Freeman,  United  States   Air Force, died last Wednesday at the age of 70, in Boise ,  Idaho  

 

May  God Bless and Rest His Soul.  

 

I  bet you didn’t hear about this hero’s   passing,   but we’ve sure seen a whole bunch    about  Lindsay Lohan, Tiger Woods and the bickering  of congress over Health Reform.  

 

Medal of Honor  Winner Captain Ed Freeman  

   

 

Shame  on the American media !!!  

 

Now…  YOU pass this along to YOUR

 

mailing list. Honor this  real American.   

 

Please.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Jay Claire Warner–1916-1989–An American Veteran

Posted on November 9, 2011 by asknod

In years past, I have looked for some uplifting story around Veterans Day about a unique Vet who stood head and shoulders above his peers. With the current wars in SWA, there are many who qualify for this. What I lack is an intimate knowledge of their military history to write about. This year I opted for anybody’s Vet-one who wasn’t unique. I think my Uncle Jay qualifies.My father did 35 years and made a career out of it, but Jay epitomized the regular, blue collar enlisted man with all the accompanying warts.

Jay graduated early from school at 16 in 1932 and found himself jobless along with most of America at that time.  A falling out with my step grandfather pushed him out of the house and on his own. He naturally signed up for the US Army with grandpa’s blessing and a permission slip when he reached 17. Jay rapidly rose through the ranks to Sergeant and was busted back down to Private just as quickly for drinking incidents in Hawaii in 36 and 38.  He gradually made his way back up and was looking good in the neighborhood in the Philippines by 1940. He caught the silver BB (a through and through in his ankle) and was captured by the Japanese on the Bataan Peninsula in April of 1942. He did the 97 kilometre Bataan Fun Run to Camp O’ Donnell and became a prisoner of war for the next three years. He told me they had to drink each other’s urine in order to survive. His ankle healed poorly after the march for lack of any medical treatment. He escaped twice and was beaten so severely that the scars remained with him for life. His back looked like a Rand McNally road map. The Japanese knocked all his teeth out with rifle butts.  Nowadays we have a hard time conceiving of that hard life. Read this to get an idea:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bataan_Death_March

Jay and his fellow POWs were liberated in January of  1945. He weighed 87 lbs. and  stood 6′ 2″. He was brought back to the States and recovered at Letterman Hospital in San Francisco for 18 months. He and his fellow prisoners were in such bad shape they couldn’t be shown to reporters. After several years of rehabilitation, the VA opted to amputate his right leg above the ankle due to the severe damage from the GSW.  Jay set sail on his post-Army adventure in 1948 with his new prosthesis.

The VA had various names for PTSD back then. Battle fatigue and shell-shock were the most common. Jay was rightfully given 100% P&T and he proceeded to cut a swath across the Wild West. Our family is part Ute Indian from Colorado. The lineage is from my biological (half Ute) paternal grandfather- June Claire Warner. This would explain why Jay had such a problem ingesting alcohol. June didn’t fair any better. He and his 3 brothers were caught robbing a Union Pacific Train near Montrose, Colorado in 1919 and were given a Texas necktie party on the spot by the Pinkerton detectives that caught them.

Jay Claire traveled extensively with circuses and the like. He’d settle down for a while, get married, piss off the new bride and head out again. I can remember as a child hearing the phone ring in the middle of the night and my father talking to him and asking him to call at a reasonable hour. He was polite but firm with Jay. I know Dad loved him, but Jay’s lifestyle was utterly alien to him. We all know that there is someone just dying to hear from us at 2 AM after a night of  hard partying. I’ve done it, too. It’s the Ute gene. My father was the only one who seemed to dodge this disease.

Jay sought me out several years after I came home from my adventures in Southeast Asia. I lived in Seattle and he had finally married a VA nurse and settled down in Cottage Grove, Oregon. He and Jackie came up and introduced themselves to my family in 1977 when my daughter was born. Jay had settled down quite a bit and given up drinking and burning down the world by then.  That was one of the prenuptial clauses Jackie insisted on.

After finding Jay, we spent lots of time with him during holidays. They had a large old ranch house out in the country and we could poach deer any old time in the apple orchard out back. As both of us were creatures of war, we occasionally talked of this. He showed me his scars and told me of his POW travails. He told me of the day in 1944 when they chopped off two fingers and almost beat him to death when he was recaptured after an escape. He actually laughed about it and said he was made of tougher material than them.  He never shared this with anyone-not even my dad or Jackie. Up to that point I had no idea anyone could treat their fellow man so harshly. It was a fact up in Laos during my time there that if we got shot down it was good night, Irene. Every one of the pilots that augured in while I was there were listed as KIA-BNR. I heard that one Air America pilot was repatriated after the war, but none of our AF pilots. The Pathet Lao had a No deposit- No return policy. Jay indicated life wasn’t much better for him as a POW. His body was testimony to that, but from his every day demeanor, you would never guess it.

I had the pleasure of Uncle Jay’s company until he passed from a combination of war ills in 1989. He lived long enough to see my son born. He must have come down with every disease you can think of and received no medicine to combat it during his POW tenure. He was a pragmatist about it all and the only ill effect from his service was the inability to be around anyone of Asian descent. I hardly blame him, but it was uncomfortable at times when he went into Bi-Mart in Cottage Grove and  went Postal if he saw any.

Jay never had any children. Jackie took me aside and explained the day after the funeral. The Japanese had amputated more than just two fingers that day in 1944. Jay never divulged that to me and I can understand why. Losing one’s manhood, even in war, is a horrible thing to contemplate- let alone share with another.

Thus ends the tale of a run of the mill Vet. He didn’t wait for the draft. He took his punishments in stride and went up and down the enlisted ladder regularly like a pianist on his keyboard . He didn’t discuss his military past with anyone and he didn’t hang his medals on the wall. He didn’t belong to the VFW or AMLEG. He didn’t attend Veterans Day parades. In a word, he was the quintessential American. He came, he saw and he served. He didn’t ask for special consideration and shunned the limelight.

This is why America is great. It was built on the backs of unassuming men like Jay Claire Warner, SSGT. US Army 1932-1945 who didn’t think his life story was any more remarkable than yours or mine. His love for America knew no bounds.  We receive recognition for our contribution to freedom one day a year.  I expect that was one day too many for Uncle Jay.

Happy Veterans Day to all of you who value a concept (freedom) more than your own well being. You’re crazy. You know that, right?

P.S. As an aside, I would note that Warner was my father’s and Jay’s surname at birth. As was the habit in the 30’s, they were informally adopted by my step grandfather without any paperwork and assumed his name. Until the VA grants my claims, I will remain anonymous or Buckwheat, whichever you prefer. I answer to most anything, but don’t call me Late for Dinner.

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