Isn’t that her job?
Word around Chicago is that Tammy Duckworth, the Assistant Secretary of Veterans Affairs and double-amputee veteran is a useless POS. That she’s never done a thing for veterans and the things she’s credited with are things other people did and Duckworth swooped in to gather the accolades. The Chicagoans I’ve heard say this are unimpeachable sources, but nonetheless, I reserved judgment until I saw it for myself.
Over a year ago, she was named to her position at Veterans Affairs by Eric Shinseki, an untrustworthy turd if ever there was one. Now she’s been in her job for over a year and the only real things she’s accomplished is hiring VoteVets’ Brandon Friedman (known around these parts as Beaker) and more recently Kayla Williams (whose book “Love My Gun More Than You” made this infantryman’s stomach churn) to the DVA.
So here we are, more than a year into Duckworth’s tenure and she’s accomplished nothing. Not to mention that disability claims are skyrocketing and not getting processed, new GI Bill disbursements are so screwed up, they may never clear the decks. So what does L. Tammy Duckworth do? You won’t believe it;
I see this as good a time as any to go back and finish my own degree. In fact, for the first time in a few years, I have a stabilized life, a desk job at my National Guard unit, and the supportive boss needed to make going back to school viable. In fact, I’ve been so inspired by my work with Veterans that I’ve not only decided to re-enroll, but I’m also changing my degree from Political Science to Health and Human Services — so I can work on issues of public health.
Yes, the pompous, arrogant Honorable L. Tammy Duckworth is going back to school to finish her PhD. On your dime. And the writes about it. She acts like it’s her way of fixing the VA – but what problems will she find? As soon as the VA clerk sees her name on paperwork, it’ll zip through the system – and she’ll declare the system excellent.
Yes, she earned the right to those benefits, but instead of burning the midnight oil on some stupid dissertation, how about fixing the VA – ya know, the job we pay you to do. There’s plenty of time to go to college after you get fired at the VA.
Of course, dicksmith takes time away from blogging about DADT to gush all over Duckworth;
Wow, That’s what I call leading from the front! I know I’ll be keeping a close watch on Assistant Secretary Duckworth’s G.I. Bill progress, and hope to see some fixes to the often challenging process of obtaining benefits as a result.
Wow, indeed. Um, dicksmith, “leading from the front” doesn’t mean being the first in line on Registration Day.
Duckworth has been at her job for more than a year so it seems to me that she could have identified problems from her position and fixed them by now – without going to college. I guess my Chicago friends are right.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden
As a current VA employee, “No Comment.”
I thought her name looked familiar. Fits right in with the rest of the present administration.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tammy_Duckworth
Who do we need to contact to put in writing or by phone call the problem with this. She needs to be either doing her job 100% OR going to school 100%. She’s wasting our money on her salary if she goes back to school and focuses on that or wasting our money on tuition when she’s a half assed student.
The only thing she seems to be good for is that bs that is the small business administration…
The VA Office of the Inspector General (VAOIG) contact information is;
Call the VAOIG Hotline toll-free at 1-800-488-8244
[8:30am–4:00pm Eastern Time Monday–Friday excluding Federal holidays]
You may also contact us by mail, e-mail and FAX:
Write the VAOIG Hotline:
VA INSPECTOR GENERAL HOTLINE (53E)
P.O. BOX 50410
WASHINGTON, DC 20091-0410
E-mail the VAOIG Hotline: vaoighotline@va.gov
FAX the VAOIG Hotline: (202) 565-7936
“The Iraqi war has created a new need for these centers … because of the nature of the combat injuries, wounded soldiers are requiring care of more than just a month or two. We weren’t ready for that. But the Army is a huge institution — it can’t react as quickly as something like the Intrepid Foundation. And the VA just can’t support all the veterans it needs to; its budget needs to be protected from cuts. There are veterans who, after having served this country, have to go without the basic care they were promised they would get.
– Tammy Duckworth,”
Ok, as a politician, that’s a great line. As someone who is supposed to be carrying out that great line; how do you score yourself, Tammy?
Think of it this way Jonn, if this shitbird is not around the VA system, she cannot screw it up any more than she already has. We are all better off for her quest to seek more education. But you are right, the only way she would be useful is as an anchor.
Jonn. I”m a little under the weather due to festivities I could be missing something……but the only problem I’m seeing here is that she, rumor has it, isn’t good at her job- and she will get preferencial (?) treatment when it comes to waiting etc, for benefits. Both bad– no argument there.
But– based on some of the comments I’m wondering if your point leans more toward that she’s going to school at all.
Woody– it’s ridiculous to suggest she should not go to school while working. Your PhD isn’t high school… she won’t be “In Class” while she’s supposed to be at work…
I certainly cannot choose between work and school, or being the wife/mom and school and work… we don’t have the privilege to CHOSE one. You know? I go to school full time, work part time and parent nine children.
Jonn, I know you worked while you went to school and your kids weren’t grown up yet… You could not CHOOSE one.
If she sucks it’s because she sucks… she’s a freaking beureaucrat.
🙂
That she was appointed by Shinseki tells me all I need to know about her. That she is a complete waste of chow, water and oxygen is a nice confirmation that my BS-ometer is working just fine. Color me unsurprised.
I have no problem with this, as long as she it getting no more than a GS-9 salary.
The IG’s phone number is great, but I would like somebody to list her direct line. That way, when my GI bill payment is more than 35 days past due (like it is now) I can call her directly.
I may have to drop out of school because the GI bill money and tuition assistance are consistently late, and instead of trying to fix the issue, this lady thinks her going to school is a great idea.
She should fix this problem and then go school, I concede.
Don’t drop out of school. Colleges are aware of the mess the GI bill is. Don’t let their incompetence affect your life anymore than it already does.
Boo; As someone who went to school full time, worked 2 part-time jobs, and had a family, I understand, but I think Jonn is pointing out that this person is incompetent in her job, so instead of adding to her incompetence by dividing what little attention she has, maybe it would be better for her to resign and do school, or forget about school, right now, and concentrate on her job. That her job is an important one, yet with her Grad degree can’t even do the job as it is, she doesn’t need the added distraction of school, which we are also paying for.
She should be concentrating on getting Dave his money for school rather than worrying about her own schooling at this point. It would be totally different if things were humming right along over at the VA, but it’s not even close, so priorities should be her fricken job first and school when she fixes the problems in her job.
I understand your point, OT, and it makes sense. (I got a little email tutorial, too. 🙂 hope he’s is taking his bp meds. lol just kidding)
I know those men and women are going nuts waiting on their money and it sure as hell shouldn’t be like that. 🙂
The thing is, Boo, that this isn’t any different from before 9/11. It is just magnified because there are so many wanting to take advantage of the contract all at one time. The same incompetence is there, just that now there are more people exposed to it. Before 9/11, it was the same deal; getting your money out of the gummint for college was like trying to find a virgin in a maternity ward.
Soldiers are the guys she saw on M*A*S*H and Saving Ryan’s Privates (and that’s about all she knows), which makes this about as cruel as beating a retarded person for being unintelligent… damn sure somebody else needs to be in the job.
I find it interesting that all these people that were so fast to criticize the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan say nothing now. “Dissent is Patriotic” was phrase used so often. Now that she has a cushy job with DVA….where is all the “dissent”? Or has she now signed on with the war in Iraq. I have all the respect in the world for her as a war veteran, severly wounded in action and a difficult recovery as I do all combat vets, but that doesn’t mean you put your own needs ahead of those you have vowed to help. I like many others here had to work and go to school. $175 a month didn’t pay for crap in my day. I worked full time with the VA and went to grad school seeing 40 to 60 patients a week and was able to pull it off but I HAD TO GET A GRADUATE DEGREE. HAD TO GET LICENSED. It was not an option if I wanted to continue my work. She DOES NOT have to get a PHD to continue her job. Would love to hear what she would say if a GWB appointee’ second in charge of the VA would say…hey, gotta great desk job here. Time to get my PHD? The VA has always been screwed up. It’s totally screwed up now and getting worse. Her top priority should be working 60 hour weeks to help clean up this mess and backburner her DESIRE to get her PHD.
Honor and Courage
[…] Remember when she defended death panels for veterans? Remember when she “bravely” went back to school during the time she was supposed to be fixing the new GI Bill? Remember when she deflected blame for her own incompetence on veterans […]
[…] of Veterans Affairs in DC. And then, while she was at the DVA, she “selflessly” and publicly volunteered to go back to school while she was getting a full-time paycheck in order to straighten […]