“We have people in the VA getting bonuses for killing people, for God’s sake. Obama hasn’t cared anything about it any more than he has cared about what happened at the IRS or anything else.”
TPNN Staff — Democrat strategist Pat Caddell, appearing on FOX News, said that Obama doesn’t care anymore about the VA scandal than he does about the IRS or Benghazi scandals (WATCH BELOW). Caddell began by mockingly comparing Obama to Hogan’s Heroes’ TV character “Sergeant Schultz.”
“Look, this is a president who said I know nothing, the Sergeant Schultz defense, as it was with the IRS, as it is with every scandal, as with Benghazi. ‘I don’t know. I know nothing about it,’” began Caddell.
“We have people in the VA getting bonuses for killing people, for God’s sake, a disgusted Caddell told Harris Faulkner and the other panelists. “Obama hasn’t cared anything about it any more than he has cared about what happened at the IRS or anything else,” an angry Caddell said.
Caddell blasted the self-serving “feather our nests” culture in Washington, D.C., as being “unbelievable” and even chastised his fellow Democrats for not being upset about Obama’s many scandals:
“It is that the people serve the government. The government is there for us to feather our nests. The VA is the worst example, and it’s so amazing now to see even Democrats, even people in my party upset who can’t seem to get themselves upset about all the other scandals. But it is a mentality in Washington that says screw the people and the hell with them as John said. And the president, he really doesn’t care. I’m sorry to be cynical but truthful.”
» Full Article» TPNN | Site
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“The veterans’ health scandal is more than just another 2008 promise,” begins the normally Obama-sycophantic CNN host John King, then showing a clip from 2008 of Obama talking about veterans’ healthcare, saying, “I want to make sure they’re being treated with honor and respect.” King says that Obama’s press conference this week on the VA...» SHOCK! Obama White House Blows Cover Of Top CIA Officer in Afghanistan
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In March of this year, Obama attempted to honor legendary singer Aretha Franklin for the famous song, R-E-S-P-E-C-T. However, embarrassingly, Obama couldn’t even spell the word respect correctly, spelling it, in a Dan Quayle-like moment, “R-S-P-E-C-T.” Now is appears that Obama, who campaigned heavily on the promise...CONGRESSMAN: VA SCANDAL IS AN ‘EMERGENCY’
America’s Independent News Network
“A Free Press for a Free People”
‘People Are Dying.
This Is A Matter Of Life And Death’
This Is A Matter Of Life And Death’
Greg Corombos, WND Radio — Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich., says the legacy of bureaucratic mismanagement at the Veterans Administration runs long and deep, something he says he knows about not only as a member of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee but also as a VA surgeon for 20 years.Benishek is in his second House term. He left his medical career and won an open seat in 2010, after Democrat Bart Stupak elected to retire following his role in the passage of the new health-care laws. Benishek, who served at a hospital in Iron Mountain, Michigan, said the problems with VA management were obvious a long time ago.
“I know what that bureaucracy is like. It was very frustrating for me to get stuff done within the system,” Benishek said. “One of the greatest examples was that the director of the hospital would leave every two years. That happened for 20 years. So a guy comes in. For six months, he doesn’t know where the bathroom is. The next year he’s there. In the last six months he’s worried about his next job. That’s just a flaw in the management. There’s no real leadership because there’s transition at the top. Since I’ve been in Congress, they’ve changed that.”
During his career as a surgeon, Benishek split time between the traditional local hospital and the VA facility. While Iron Mountain is considered to have one of the better VA facilities, Benishek said the difference between the two was obvious.
“There’s no way the VA is as efficient as the private sector. The people that are providing the care, the nurses and doctors, the people that provide the direct patient care are good people. They’re working hard and they care for the veterans. The problem is, they’re just not managed right. They have millions of dollars to spend on new windows, but they don’t have thousands of dollars to hire another anesthetist,” he said.
“It’s stuff like that that’s so frustrating and people making decisions at the upper levels make it difficult for people who are trying to provide the best care they can.”
Listen to the WND/Radio America interview with Rep. Dan Benishek, R-Mich.:
Since coming to Washington and serving on the House Veterans’ Affairs, Benishek said his frustrations with the VA persist, but now it’s even higher-ranking bureaucrats causing the grief.
“Nobody’s really accountable. I get sick and tired of these bureaucrats and undersecretaries coming before us to say, ‘Yeah, yeah, we know there’s a problem and we’re working on it. Honestly, we’re going to have a fix in awhile.’ It gets pretty frustrating when veterans are dying and nobody gets punished for it,” Benishek said.
“In the private sector, if you don’t do your job you get fired. In the VA that doesn’t happen. We have a hard time finding out who is responsible for the mismanagement in different areas. You ask somebody to come before you on the committee. If there’s a problem in the Pennsylvania VA, you ask the people from the Pennsylvania VA to come but the VA doesn’t produce them. They produce somebody in the VA three or four levels to try to not let the guy testify about how bad things are.”
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved the VA Accountability Act by a vote of 390-33. The legislation would give greater latitude to the secretary of Veterans Affairs to fire personnel for incompetence or nonperformance. Benishek stressed that the secretary already has that power but it is seldom used.
“The problem is that so many people in the VA aren’t judged on performance. That’s a culture that we have to change. That’s a culture that should be in place already. For example, if somebody doesn’t do what the inspector general says needs to be fixed, who is that person? Why is the fact that they didn’t reply to an inspector general’s report put on their promotion record? Why are they still getting bonuses if they don’t comply with the inspector general? Why are they getting advancement? Why isn’t there punishment for not getting their job done?” Benishek asked.
“That’s the kind of stuff we need to put a stop to, and hopefully it really is the will of the administration to do that kind of work. We’re prodding them to do more of it,” he said.
While the House vote was lopsided, Maryland Rep. Steny Hoyer, the number two Democrat in the lower chamber, strongly opposed it. He suggests the bill would leave career civil servants at the mercy of political appointees.
“All of us are outraged at the allegations that have been made, but that’s not what this legislation is about,” Hoyer told Stars and Stripes. “This legislation is about a knee-jerk reaction to a very bad situation painting with a very broad brush.”
Benishek is stunned at Hoyer’s approach.
“This lack of scrutiny on the management team is disgusting. This is an emergency. People are dying. This is a matter of life and death. This is not some Department of Agriculture rule that’s not being fixed. People are dying every day,” said Benishek, noting at least 40 deaths in Phoenix have been linked to a bureaucratic logjam.
“Isn’t anybody outraged? I’m outraged. I guess Mr. Hoyer’s not outraged. I’m more concerned about the veteran than the senior members of the staff,” he said.
Benishek said the House will be pursuing additional legislation to compel reform at the VA. He is also encouraged that the media are paying a great deal of attention to the crisis.
The VA Accountability is currently stalled in the U.S. Senate. Florida Republican Marco Rubio tried to get approved on a unanimous consent request. However, Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernard Sanders, D-Vt., objected, saying he needed more time to study the two-page bill and that he wants to hold hearings on the issue next month. » Full Article
About the Author
Greg Corombos is news director for Radio America.
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‘Because There Is A War On For Your Mind’
Kurt Nimmo, Infowars.com — Earlier today, Obama appeared at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery for a photo op. From The Washington Post:Obama, aided by a soldier in uniform, rested the large wreath on a stand a few minutes after 11 a.m. Monday. The president adjusted the wreath, stepped back and bowed his head in silence for a few moments. Afterward, an Army bugler played taps.
Later he appeared at the cemetery’s Memorial Amphitheater to read from a script. “We’re in a pivotal moment. Our troops are coming home. By the end of this year, our war in Afghanistan will finally come to an end,” he recited.
“These Americans have done their duty. They ask nothing more than that our country does ours, for now and the decades to come,” Obama said.
But, as the VA scandal and countless other examples reveal, the government considers veterans as little more than third class citizens, props to be rolled out on Memorial Day as homage is ritually paid to the state and its endless wars.
The booboisie, as H. L. Mencken described the forever gullible and easily bamboozled American public, were practically knocking down the gates to get in to witness this annual worship of state violence:
Before the ceremony, a large number of people were turned away from the cemetery’s entrances by security personnel who said that the event was at capacity.
When the government is not praising veterans for their “service” in foreign wars of conquest and other illegal activity driven primarily by the financial elite – see Smedley Butler, below – it spends a lot of time demonizing veterans as enemies of the state:
War Is A Racket by Smedley Butler
War is a Racket by Smedley Butler is a famous speech denouncing the military industrial complex. This speech by two-time Congressional Medal of Honor recipient exposes war profits that benefit few at the expense of many. Throughout his distinguished career in the Marines, Smedley Darlington Butler demonstrated that true patriotism does not mean blind allegiance to government policies with which one does not agree. To Hell with war.
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