Shinseki is not out
The president held a press conference today to announce that Secretary of Veterans’ Affairs, Eric Shinseki has resigned his position will remain in that position. Actually, I wrote that paragraph 15 minutes before the press conference began. I have held a grudge against Shinseki since 2001 when the Army Times reprinted an open letter I wrote to him in regards to the Black Beret issue and someone told me that he said “Who knew a retired platoon sergeant knows how to use email?”
Now, our next worry is who will be nominated to be the next secretary. Shinseki should have been the best secretary in the history of the department, you know, being a wounded veteran himself. But, the Peter Principle remains in effect and Ric Shinseki’s picture will always accompany the definition.
I predicted that Shinseki would stay if he survived the criticism of Jon Stewart the other night – I guess I was right. But even Tammy Duckworth, a wounded veteran now in Congress and a former employee of Ric Shinseki criticized him to the Washington Post yesterday.
The president says that he “will not stand for it…will not tolerate it”. But somehow he’ll allow Shinseki to conduct the investigation into his own incompetent boobery. “Upholding our sacred trust to veterans” should not include allowing Shinseki to continue in that position. He can’t help that he’s a boob and he’s not going to be miraculously cured of being a boob with one meeting with the president.
The president says that he’s going to continue to fix whatever is wrong in the VA, but he promised to do that years ago, and it’s not going to be fixed as long as an incompetent boob remains at the head of the department.
Category: Veterans' Affairs Department
Loved the part where Obama was stating all the things he did to improve things for us veterans… Okay sure, more presumptive diseases associated with Agent Orange and reducing the evidence needed to file those claims… oh, but you didn’t add any more staffing, you did not fix and alaready crippled claims process before you did that so the end result was that with an already increased workload at VARO’s you downright ground them to a halt.
Then the VAMC’s, none of which operate under the same procedures as the next. Each VISN and each VAMC within even the same VISN are operating pretty much as they please.
I am fortunate to be a patient in one that operates very efficiently and has an incredible Medical Staff. It was not always this way, but in the last 2 decades they have done nothing but improve.
How is it you can have such excellent quality of care in one VISN? Then turn around and have such atrocious care/management in another? Sure there are general rules they all operate by, but they all do it independently and without any real uniformity as there should be.
UNFUCKING BELIEVABLE!!! I thought for sure Obama had enough traction on this ass hole to let him go. What was I thinking? Obama takes care of his own, most likely because Obama knew as much about the screw ups in the VA as Shinseki. Because…as an ass cover political measure, Shinseki most likely kept him apprised of the problems. So if Obama pointed his boney finger at Shinseki, then Shinseki could pull the documents showing the White House was aware all along. If Shinseki is anything, he is a well versed politician and knows how to cover his ass. Put a skeleton in Obama’s closet, just in case it’s ever needed. This is still unbelievable to me. I can’t fathom the depths of depravity and careless attitudes towards veterans by this administration. But then again, who am I kidding? I guess I really should have done a reality check and seen this coming.
The problems at the VA will be fixed like Guantanamo Bay was closed a couple of years ago…..
Shinseki hatched the Beret and the All-Wheeled Army idea meant for peacekeeping in Bosnia to impress a “President Gore” to make him JCS Chairman… he should go enjoy his retirement and complaining about how Bush and Rumsfeld didn’t like his troop level recomendation for pacifying Iraq instead.
Obama is not going to throw Shinseki under the bus — Shinseki is doing EXACTLY what the president put him in office to do. He is the president’s dog, and he will bite the ankles the president wants bitten, with no questions asked.
Hope you don’t mind, but i used this a the basis for a letter to my congress-critter. I even quoted a couple of your lines because you said it so well.
I doubt it will do much, but it is better than nothing.
“The president says that he’s going to continue to fix whatever is wrong in the VA, but he promised to do that years ago”
Yeah, the President, also, promised he wouldn’t balance the budget ont he backs of Vets and current military personnel, too, back in ’11, to a room full of Vets. I’m just sayin’
Hey, who’s up for some comedy? Some retired colonel buddy of Shinseki’s has written a fawning WaPo op-ed supporting him:
“Ric Shinseki is “mad as hell.” Trust me. His anger doesn’t show; he doesn’t make for riveting television. But there is no one better prepared, by both professional and personal experience, to attack the problems of running such a complex organization. Lee Iacocca once ran commercials saying, “If you can find a better car — buy it!” The nation cannot find a better man to tackle the challenges of the VA than Ric Shinseki. ”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/eric-shinseki-is-still-the-right-person-to-lead-veterans-affairs/2014/05/21/0d984ac0-dd41-11e3-bda1-9b46b2066796_story.html
radar..M. Thomas Davis is obviously an ass kisser looking for a job or he’s an out of touch dip shit that doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground about what he speaks and probably doesn’t use the VA system for HIS healthcare.
Oh, of that I’m completely sure.
If he’s such a perfect candidate to fix the VA, then WHAT THE HELL HAS HE BEEN DOING THE PAST FIVE YEARS?? Other than collecting a fat paycheck on top of his pension.
After reading that he was not told to step down I remembered that AFSA had this great canned statement you can use. This makes me sick that he is able to hold his position.
http://www.capwiz.com/hqafsa/issues/alert/?alertid=63222706
Here’s what I get from the POTUS’ speech: “Pay no attention to the fact that the roof leaks like a sieve and the foundation is rotten. Don’t you just love the new coat of paint we put on the front porch of VA headquarters here!”
Unfortunately, I can not say this is a surprise.
But…but…he’s “madder than hell”! He “will not stand for it”!
Etc, etc, blahblahblahphonyscandal…..o/u on how long before he says “there isn’t a smidgen of corruption”
His lips were moving, so we know he was lying. This sock puppet can’t even feign outrage. When he says he is madder than hell he sounds like he is ordering a helping of arugula with his Kobe beef. His deadpan delivery give lie to his fake anger. He sounds like he is reading the 5 AM farm report.
I suspect Shinseki’s future at VA is solely based on public perception and the midterm elections. If the time comes that the WH feels ousting him will be better received than keeping him, away he’ll go. It will not be announced at a mid-week presser, it will be as quiet as possible – late on a Friday afternoon.
Obama’s scandal response is always the same. Give a speech. Deny, delay, obfuscate, “investigate” and simply wait until some other scandal comes to the fore that eclipses the previous one.
I thought is was a perfectly well read campaign speech!
Obama does not give two shits about Veterans. The wars are OVER!! No more political capital to be made or photo ops to stand in. Hand out a few more medals and then dogs and Soldiers keep off the grass.
All Obama has to do is burn up two more years of saying he is looking into it and he is out the door, and our vets are still fucked. We are and always have been pawns. Used and sacrificed at every turn. Our government will never do right by us. We should just be grateful for our retirement checks. Cause if they can figure out a way to do away with that promise, we will get fucked out of our retirement too.
He didn’t care when when his ambassador was under attack and Americans were subsequently killed. You think he gives a flying fuck about a insignificant voting block dying off which are skewed heavily republican anyway?
The only fucks giving by this administration regarding anything is obtaining and securing votes at the expense of others.
Opps. That wasn’t supposed to be a reply just a comment.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=to9XcrRVuec
Seems appropriate.
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah. Told you so. You can look it up. No way he was firing him b/c it would be a tacit admission that HE, THE ONE, THE EMPEROR, made a mistake in selecting him.
This is just like at first when Kathleen Sebelius was refusing to resign for months. She even went so far as to say “well, I don’t work for the people who want me to resign…”
She was a quiet resignation and Shinseki will be at some point too.
The only person in the last 5 years Obama has fired was the “twitter guy” who was talking smack on twitter about Obama and the administration. Even the people who commit illegal acts are exempt from firing as long as they keep their lips on his backside.
Nor will it be fixed while an incompetent boob remains the head of the Executive branch.
Disgraceful all around. Shameful.