Sorry to reply to my own post, but couldn’t figure out how else to reply to yours.

I picked my side a while ago, as I was first a vet in 1987. I’m pretty damned sure I’m on our side — your side, Duff’s side, my own side. Not a VA stooge, but I have been in (and am) in the system as a patient. So there’s that.

My comment was simply intended to point out that, as a fairly new reader of Veterans Today, I looked at this column and found the experience much like the tail end of a KBR DFAC line: lots of sauce with no meat under it. I would like to know more about the things that are hinted at but not documented. The facts aren’t in there; I looked pretty hard.

That having been said, I’ve done a certain amount of rhetorical ranting myself. There’s catharsis in it, and it may even help in some small way to wake up enough folks to turn the supertanker of VA funding around — but not if it’s only preaching to the converted. And the unconverted (i.e. people who have no specific, preexisting reason to give two shits in a bucket about veterans) are unlikely to be swayed by foamy rhetoric without factual, researchable documentation.

That’s my position. Charge it if you want to.

Cheers,

Jack

http://crosscut.com/blog/crosscut/19017/

Has it occurred to you that even though Duff may and in fact does make spelling errors; HIS MESSAGE IS STILL UNDERSTOOD AS DELIVERED BY NOT ONLY THOSE THAT AGREE WITH HIM, BUT BY THOSE THAT DO NOT? Of course you do. Yet you choose to “enlighten” us to this HORRENDOUS OFFENSE committed by Duff. VA stooge.

Your chicken shit ass is lucky that you are reading Duff’s articles. It is because of Warriors as he, that you can.

What I find peculiar is; the ONLY thing you find worthy of effort to criticize is – Duff’s spelling of Shitzinkeeze name.

Go back and crawl into your DVA cubicle. Remember that if in the future, you are so inclined as to publish more of your idiocy; (and thereby leaving your header footprint) be very careful what you choose to hurl about in this forum. A lot here are PROFESSIONAL HUNTERS, very many are still EXTREMELY ACTIVE. Tick tock.

Gunner

If I understood them correctly, their Veterans department is run of, by, and for the veterans and their dependents. They make up a budget and go to Parliament and it is passed. They decide who needs what and how much it is going to cost. The government has NO say in the veterans affairs.

Since talking to them. That is my idea of the veterans department we should have. There have had conservatives in power off and on so this might have been changed.

Much of the current commentary I see on casualties and deaths from Iraq and Afghanistan is written by those willing to stand over the body and declare themselves patriots, having never been in harm’s way themselves.

When you see one of those yellow ribbon stickers, ask how much of the purchase price went to help a vet.

Gordon is right on the MONEY! Yes, this is a war and we have found the enemy — it’s the VA and sell-outs like yourself.

Gordon Duff knows precisely from whence he speaks and for whom he defends. However, when I read comments like yours, I can’t help but think that you are either working for the VA or applying for a job there and hope to score some points by throwing fellow Veterans under the bus — it’s a prerequisite to get hired by the VA.

You ask: “What parcels of land trust are under threat and from whom?” What rock have you been sleeping under? It’s happening at VA’s all across America, but let me give you some real specifics at the largest VA in the nation, the Los Angeles National Veterans Home. The list is long and I’ll only share a few. Regarding the “whoms,” the wealthy campaign donors of corrupt politicians in the neighboring communities that want this land for their own, and to eventually turn it into a “Central Park West” community public park.

This land was deeded in 1888 by two individuals, John P. Jones and Arcadia de Baker, “to be permanently maintained as a National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers. There are an estimated 20,000 homeless Veterans in Los Angeles, even though this is their “rightful Home.” This a place for Veterans to heal from war and not a public park for the communities to turn into an amusement and entertainment center.

Following are only a few of the unscrupulous leases that the West Los Angeles VA Medical Center (WLA VAMC) has facilitated to benefit a few of the wealthy at the burden of the many Veterans, including 20,000 who are homeless in Los Angeles.

• The WLA VAMC entered into a 20-year agreement with Brentwood School, one of the wealthiest private schools in the nation, for 21 acres of Veterans land to build an athletic field that is off limits to Veterans. The sharing agreement expires in 2020

• The WLA VAMC entered into an agreement with Breitburn Energy. The land use agreement is for drilling oil on Veterans land and the Department of Interior controls the mineral rights agreement.

• The WLA VAMC entered into a 20-year enhanced sharing agreement with Richmark Entertainment Group, Hollywood / New York entertainment business, for the Wadsworth and Brentwood Theaters, the only two theaters at the National Veterans Home. They are no longer available for Veterans use but have become readily available for a “cultural community center” for the wealthy neighboring residents. The agreement expires in December 2025.

• The WLA VAMC entered into a 10-year enhanced sharing agreement with Sodexho Marriott on Building 224 for laundry services for their hotels. The agreement expires in March 2010.

• The WLA VAMC entered into a no-bid, rent-free enhanced sharing agreement with Veterans Park Conservancy, which is not a Veterans organization but a wealthy neighboring homeowners group, for a 16-acre billion-dollar parcel of Veterans land to build a public community park. The agreement was signed on August 24, 2007 and is a 20-year contract with a 10-year option.

• The WLA VAMC entered into a 10-year enhanced sharing agreement with UCLA for a baseball diamond and the agreement expires in 2011.

• The WLA VAMC has entered into a 20-year enhanced sharing agreement with the Salvation Army for Building 212. The agreement expires December 2025.

• The WLA VAMC has entered into a 10-year enhanced sharing agreement with the Salvation Army for building 207. The Agreement expires April 2015.

• The WLA VAMC entered into a 50-year federal lease agreement with New Directions for Building 116. The agreement expires August 2045.

• The WLA VAMC entered into a 5-year memorandum of agreement with a five-year option with New Directions for Building 257. The memorandum of agreement expires February 2012.

• The WLA VAMC is negotiating a 75-year lease on building 209 with a New York-based nonprofit developer (an oxymoron if ever there was one). Mr. Tillman chose Common Ground of NY and McCormack Baron Salazar, a national developer of mixed-income urban neighborhoods to operate a homeless housing service, with no guarantees that a resident has to be a Veteran.

• The WLA VAMC entered into a 20-year enhanced sharing agreement with Westside Services for parking lots on Veterans land that includes the Brentwood Village lot. The agreement expires in 2020.

• The WLA VAMC entered into a special agreement for Community Soccer Leagues to use MacArthur Field on Veterans land.

• The WLA VAMC has operated a Veterans nine-hole golf course that allows the public to play and more than $200,000 has been stolen / embezzled from employees working at the course. Now Mr. Tillman is negotiating an enhanced sharing agreement with a “non-profit” organization and the leader claims to be a family member of the original donor of this land in 1888, even though Arcadia de Baker died in 1912, had no children, and left no will.

Join the Veterans Revolution to “Save Our Veterans Land.”

Roberts is federal prison for 48 monthes and was fined effectivly $400,000 because former VA General Counsel attorney and VA national Director of Compensation and Pension Services, Renee L. Szybala (ask Mike Bailey about her) teamed up with the Bush DOJ because Roberts was a pain in the DVA’s collective ass. They tried the same shit all over the country, and a few US attys did tell the DVA to in effect go fuck itself.

We went on national radio, Air America, as did Col Dan Cedusky (ret) and a lot of veterans just on those shows called in from all over the country and made similar complaints about the DVA pulling this shit.

"Tinfoil Hat Brigade…" Dude, that’s nuts.

You might want to ask Veterans’ Attorney, Robert Walsh [www.lawyers.com] the same question. Walsh is a former VA staff atty and Vietnam veteran who when he worked at the DVA found out that helping veterans get their benefits was not the job in the DVA "culture of ‘no.’"

So now Walsh works in private practice ensuring one veteran at a time that veterans get the respect they deserve.

Here are some more sources about the DVA targeting veterans writ large:

- http://www.epluribusmedia.org/features/20060206PTSD_intro.html [www.epluribusmedia.org]

- http://www.harpers.org/archive/2007/09/hbc-90001124 [www.harpers.org]

- http://malcontends.blogspot.com/2007/07/ptsd-vets-file-class-action.html [malcontends.blogspot.com]

- http://www.angelfire.com/il2/VeteranIssues/ [www.angelfire.com]

- Veterans for Politics [vets4politics.blogspot.com]
- Veterans Legal Help [www.legalhelpforveterans.com]
- Economic Costs of the Military-Industrial Complex [seekingalpha.com]
- Vietnam War Resources [www.cc.gatech.edu]
- Vietnam Center and Archive [www.vietnam.ttu.edu]
- Veterans’ Post [www.veteranspostnews.com]
- Vets for Justice [www.vetsforjustice.com]
- The Veteran Voice [www.veteranvoice.com]
- Colonel Dan Cedusky’s Vets’ Issues [www.angelfire.com]
- VA Watchdog [www.vawatchdog.org]
- Veterans for Common Sense [www.veteransforcommonsense.org]
- IAVA – Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America [www.iava.org]

Shit, right now I’m working to keep a kid, Robert Anthon of Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin, out of federal prison because some crats at the IG’s office want to toss his ass.

What, are you sticking up for bureaucrats at the DVA? What the hell is your objective? Because veterans’ advocates like those at this site could use all the help that we can get, but ain’t no one getting rich here. Pick a side, man: veterans or ‘crats.
##

Interesting charges hurled, but your piece is long on rhetoric and short on fact.

What specific parcels of VA trust land are under threat, and from whom?

Name for us some veterans who have been jailed, maimed or hounded by this “juggernaut” of which you write.

Please specify the “police powers” wielded by DVA, those you claim now exceed any CT agency.

Outside the 666th Tinfoil Hat Brigade, you won’t get much respect as a journalist without doing the hard work of finding, establishing and reporting fact. Arm waving rants are more effective when backed by documentation. Otherwise, it’s just your opinion.

And we all know how common opinions are, eh?

Respectfully submitted,

Jack Lewis
Team Sergeant
OIF III

Most of our audience is activist vets…….the rest are VERY unsophisticated when it comes to veterans issues.

Thus, we work under an assumption of minimal background.

Also…going after the DVA on a broad basis is not workable.  I have too many friends there and it simply seems wrong.

I can’t think of any company as broken as this, not even Ford or GM.

g

Imagine having this obligation:

We are read on the hill a couple times a week.  Several of us work, either with or for, members of congress.

Stories have a 24 to 48 hour life.

Much of our audience is, from our standpoint, activist vets, unsophisticated.

If we keep talking to each other, thus, "not whining" we may all be in agreement but ignored or worse.

We are forced to live in a continual ‘spin’ mode. 

Using a bully pulpit is fine.  Do you know where I can get one?  My background is defense contracting or oil and gas banking.  I really don’t do this for a living.

I am a real combat vet, like Forrest Gump, but hardly anyone famous.  I am exactly like all the people I served with….not one iota different than any of them other than not being dead.

I have a top lobbyist on our staff but he was arrested last year by the Bushies and now needs some help himself. 

We have a bunch of DC friends including several ‘newsworthy’ big name people who are less than motivated or….ok…less than motivated.

The only option we have is to combine whining with screaming and keep good information out there in the process.

g

Darryl,

Increasingly, state authority under sovereignty, licensing and criminal authority, will have to interact with the DVA on veterans issues.

We have no where else to turn under the current circumstances.  Federal "insulation" against reform has made the VA impossible.

g

This was a very insightful article. The VA system is broken in numerous ways. Although the usual dedicated and hardworking individuals that work in the system tend not to be the problem. It is how services are rendered or not which come from higher up authorities that are more of the problem. And a lot of that comes from congress.

Any political spin that states veterans benefits are an entitlement is totally wrong. The real entitlement stems from the American people expecting a defense to protect their endeavors. What veterans are given is a fulfilled promise for making that defense a reality. It’s part of the package for serving honorably, not an addition.

And Tom thanks for alerting us to the errors of the veteran organizations. I had always wondered where they were in the veteran’s time of need. I have no need for funny hats to shape my opinions on doing what is right for brave and deserving veterans.

They are all dedicated..and do tons of work you never hear of. 

I have been involved in Veterans issues for 40 years and have been running veterans sites for 16.  The internet was a bit different then.

There are alot more of us here than you have any idea nor do you see much of what we do.

Figure a number of organizations, a moderate to large legal staff and many medical people.

I either have veterans here with me during the day or am getting suicide notes at night.  In between I am working on a number of court cases and writing shit like you are reading.

OH…and I have a job.

Other than that, I talk to politicians. 

Much of it, on a scale you were unaware of but know better, is going prettymuch as you would guess.  I work with a local congressional office and, to the best of my ability, try to work with the VA also.

I am the person you see.  There are alot more people here doing a ton of work you don’t see but that effects the lives of many.  Some of them never write at all.

Your VAMC story is one I am familiar with.  I could give you many similar stories and, i guess, probably should.

I have to get out of here in a couple of days.  I can do only so much from Europe, where I spent much of my year but will do what I can. 

Our real need is to build a legal referral system here, which we are in the process doing, open a non-profit and put several vet organizations under an umbrella.

In the interim, we have to keep readership up….and keep on message.

Try talking to congress about veteran issues.  Much of what we write is for them.  If you think we are stating the obvious, guess again.

What is obvious to us is ..prettymuch like from outer space to politicians, especially those who are veterans advocates.

Thus:  we are stuck having to repackage the same message while murdering the ghost of George W Bush so that he will stay in his coffin.

I really wish you would see our collective in-boxes here.

You do understand how far we go to help readers.  We had a guy picked up and driven to a hospital the other day….spent 2 hours on the phone going over medical records yesterday….

All..pettymuch what you are doing.

Nobody here is any different than you.

g

The only issue I have with what you said is the land grab, so lets just set that aside.

You make some good points but you are only complaining. Us with long standing relationships with and with in the VA have know this for ever, you are in short saying nothing new, you can get pi**ed off and express you self righteous outrage and rant all you like, I sincerely hope that it makes you emotionally and physically feel better, but it adds nothing to solving the problems of the VA.

With this web site you have an opportunity to make a difference and make things better for you fellow Veterans but you totally miss your own point the DVA is wanting for solutions, they can’t generate them themselves, they are to locked into a self preservation bureaucratic culture where their own career and job are more important the their mission as give by the American People.

Since you have failed to provide leadership and guidance on this, I will step up.

First step, get Veterans involved in the process. I’m not talking about the VSO’s who have their own agendas but the “customers” who use the VA. every time I step into a VAMC I see things that are not working but could work. For example I spent this afternoon in clinics and I saw an elderly Veteran in a companion wheel chair just parked net to a wall in area 1. I went over and asked if everything was OK he told me he had been waiting nearly an hour for someone to come and get him for his next clinic which he was already about 15 mim. late. I went up to the window and got a not my job answer for the clerk.

Instead of getting pi**ed off and pulling the a**hole over the counter and doing a number on him which, is my natural instinct. I went back over to the Vet asked him what clinic he had to be at, he showed me his paper. I took him down the hall to the lobby where the security office is, approached a security guard and said this Vet is late for an appointment and no one seems to give a sh**, in a voice loud enough where all in the lobby could hear me, and said, “Do something about it.” They did.

This is where it all starts and will end is with us. We let the DVA get this way and we have to take it back. The first thing I would think is to go after employees who don’t get it, and hide behind antiquated personal laws that the Veterans Advocates use to screen and protect them. Scrap the Advocate system and bring Veterans in on the process. Some staff from top to bottom will get fired or demoted, just like in the real world.

How can you make this happen Duff. Use your bully pulpit, you know how to make noise, you have shown that, make it mean something. People in the DVA do read this site as the do others, get something going in a positive direction and they will fallow.

ALLONS,
Byron SKinner