Undoing the decades of damage that
has been done to the VA process
through the random and scattered
One-Bill-At-A-Time legislation
that we have all succumbed to over
the years is going to be a bear of
a job. Don't look for this to happen
overnight.

It's a lotta, Lotta -- so 2008 will
be a time of rolling up your sleeves
and getting hooked into where
this advocacy is headed.

The issue of lawyers and judges,
as it pertains to VA process, has
to be pulled out of the Senate
and House Judiciary Committee's.

It is for this very reason that the
VSO's have NOT taken it on, because
it forces them to jump out of their
comfort zones at the Veterans
Committees, and pursue a whole
other new advocacy at the Judiciary
locations.

Undoing the forced Larry Craig
Veterans Pay for Lawyers Bill
which was shoved down our throats
this time last year, will also
be a real Heave Ho. This is going
to be a Repeal effort to be
replaced by a FREE lawyers act
which has to be carefully languaged
for a few critical reasons.

Veterans need to understand that
every single Bill that comes down
the road should NOT necessarily be
supported just because it has
the word "Veterans" in it.

We will also have to hold out for
exactly what we want. This means
that some of us cannot bounce off
of walls with rumors while the rest
of us tries to stand our ground.

We are pushing this system into
a correction and
doing that in spite of yourselves
may at times, be necessary to achieve
the outcome for all that we are
going after.

Understand the teeter-totter that
this all sits upon is not that hard.
Either the system has to reduce
or remove significant chunks of the
existing disability claims PROCESS
to make it more humane than it
has been up until now, OR the
system has to take it out of the
hands of VSO's and starting providing
us with FREE licensed lawyers
and the like to push the cases
through in the Veterans favors.

It's one or the other.

We are NOT interested in a massive
buildup of the current system as
IS !! so any Bill which has
those kind of overtures attached
to it will likely be met with our
Opposition to steer it into defeat.

There has to be an infrastructure put
in place to recruit and entice medium
to large sized law firms to take
on the idea of VA law practice.
Right now we are all stuck with the
one-man-office who is then also
overbooked with his own cases right
now. Where we want to steer this is
to have large, big, even huge law
firms start to dedicate their law
practices to helping Veterans.

A kickoff funding stream to make
that happen has been identified
but that only starts the discussion
when those are sent out. Usually
and most of the time, when they
actually float an idea, it is
the basic thought with their own
special SPIN added to it. So it
would be futile for me to discuss
in detail the funding proposal
that will be made on kickoff,
because Congress and the rest
of the powers, will almost always
come in with their own funding
ideas as the debate between
them all takes shape.

The Veterans themselves DO
have to stay out of the way
and not interfere as those
plans start to get floated
around.

You can always, always, and always
expect VSO's to fight and resist
any change in the authority of
trafficking VA claims because
they have built an entire Cottage
Industry on this one activity,
and to dismantle it will mean
the end of all of their bureacracy
in our names. So look for them
to be behavior problems at every
turn when the discussion of moving
claims authority starts showing
itself.

Veterans do have to get a little
oriented to the fact that an
aggressive advocacy is about to
take place on this issue. Misconduct
procedings against both lawyers
and judges also has to be set
into motion. It seems to completely
escape the VSO's that this entire
BVA and VARO authority is running
with literally know misconduct
oversight whatsoever to the favor
of Veterans.

We cannot play into their dumb
VSO games when they start screaming,
when in all ways, the real purpose
in this is to create a better
and winning environment for
Veterans who become victimized by
this process when it falls on its
face.

If there is going to be a Cottage
Industry on claims, then let it be
in the hands of industry professionals
who actually knows how the system
works upon hiring and doesn't need
millions of dollars worth of internal
VA training just to get them up to
speed. For what reason is there a
law degree curriculum in colleges
if Slackers can just drop out of
college and become a VSO at the VA
and not be held accountable for
malpractice or anything of the like??
This is how Veterans have to go
about evaluating this situation.

The VA is a scenario that pits Veterans
against Veterans, so when talking
about who the enemy is, some of you
do have to get real. The General
Counsel who denies all the disability
cases, is a Veteran and he is in all
ways, the enemy. So keeping your facts
straight on this issue will be of
the utmost importance as this advocacy
on judges and lawyers starts in 2008.

Update Note: The advocacy for free
lawyers to Veterans with incomes up
to $18,000 a year, began yesterday at
the Senate and was accellerated due to
a press release by Barack Obama. This
will be a breaking story as it unfolds
ahead of schedule.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: McClellanVet,

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