The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee
held a hearing today on the VDBC's
findings allegedly on the compensation
side of VA's Vocational Rehabilitation
program, although the hearing itself
was largely focused on the operations
and adequacy scenario of goals fulfillment
and whether or not the program was
actually meeting the needs of patient
demand.

In a way, this was the hearing that
WASN'T !! Held on Super Tuesday when
most Members are back at their home
districts stumping for national
candidates, there was virtually nobody
who came to this hearing other than
Sen. Daniel Akaka himself as chair,
with Sen. Tester staying only the first
15 minutes leading into the introductions,
and Sen. Jim Webb showing as a late
arrival and clueless about what
had transpired up until then.

The notorious heavy hitters such as
Sen. Patty Murray and Sen. Kay Bailey
Hutchison were nowhere to be found.

There were a few things wrong with this
hearing starting with the fact that
it really did highlight the compelling
need to hold a Public Comment
period so that Veteran Stakeholders
themselves could come forward and talk
on the subject matters raised by the
panelists. These hearings are grossly
rigged in the voice and favor of
"corporations" who are stumping for
expansion funding and to add onto
their own existing "cottage industries"
while they are themselves, never
held to any scrutiny standard to
be compared to the VA operations
outside of their very own, open
self boasting and bragging.

Stakeholders are never lined up
to confirm or deny the truth of
these Panelists, and in fact,
at this hearing, no Panelists were
ever placed under oath.

Kicking off the hearing was the
VA itself, fronted by the dumb,
the blank, the not-with-information,
and the Stupid-In-The-Face.

Denying to the bitter end that there
were any flaws in the existing VR&E
system at the VA, even when given
extra opportunities to be vocal on
eliminating the caseload CAP which
is apparently hindering the entrance
of new inbound Vet cases from the War,
she appeared to refuse to say the
word "shit" even if she had a mouth
full of it.

It was Richard Daly of Paralyzed Veterans
Inc. who later on came swooping in
with a decisive call to end the CAP
on caseloads at VR&E and it is here
that VFJ Activists can safely get
behind them for an Endorsement.

Imagine that! They have a CAP on how
many cases they can accept into the
VR&E caseload, and then in the face
of a troop escalation such as the Iraq
War, they have stood around all this
time and not made any voice whatsoever
on eliminating the CAP! Go Figure!

We heard the standard, canned, business
as usual answers from this VA woman
with absolutely NO deviation from what
we have heard other VA officials say
in other probing hearings to OUT the
VA's inadequacies. "The VA is already
doing those things."; "No I don't have
that information with me but I can
send it in later."; "We have a wonderful
program that is working well and just
fine. {even though I don't have a
single thing with me to prove such
a thing is even true.)"

Just as fast as she left her chair
and the seat was still warm, here
comes the former chairperson of
a former Task Force which ripped
to shreds VR&E back in 2004 and was
at the ready to have a feast on her
plate again today. In sharp contrast
to the Blank and the Stupid-In-The-Face
of VA, here comes the fast, the sassy,
the sharp, the know-it-all, and the
long list of failures and Jesus
"how long is it gonna take them to
fix this?" type attitude that one
might expect to see from the halls
of wisdom and outrage.

Pointing accurately again and again
to failures in management and inadequacy
in supervision, Ms. Hardy took a bite
and a swipe wherever she could and
blew away Senator Akaka with her
nohow leaving him apologetically sitting
in her Dust!

The VA is FOREVER a work in
progress with no fixed or anticipated
COMPLETION DATE
in sight. They are allowed to spin
their wheels for all eternity while
the Senate Committee itself never
bothers to impose a timeline or
date of completion on crucial services.

Also from the discussion came a concern
for "duplicity and replication or overlap
of same-services". This from a Senate
Committee who insists on holding
onto Vet Centers even in places like
here in Albany, NY where Veterans have
to travel farther across town and right
by the VA Hospital in order to arrive
at the parking lot of the Albany
Vet Center which is housed by a bunch
of incompetent political operatives
who are used as a "dumping ground" for
jobs where they don't fit in anyplace
else in the political parties. The
question to be begged is WHY this is
so, and WHY to not just have the Veterans
go to the VA Hospital and be done
with it? Eliminating the Vet Centers
are the first step at attacking
"duplicity and replication" of services
but Yeah--Right! go ahead and try and
float THAT idea at these hearings of
Entrenchment and you will start to
catch my drift about why all of this
concern on duplicity is little more
than a Fakers Stunt!!

Then came the final Panel of outside
cottage industries. John Lancaster,
himself a veteran, tried to put a
Smiley-Face on the nations franchise
of Centers For Independent Living.
I have myself been through those
facilities and they are self-sabotaged
and a complete waste of time here
in Albany, NY. Mostly staffed by
"developmentally disabled" Veterans
actually receive such low standards
of assistance as quadraplegics working
with mouth-tools to even staff the
telephones and not having a basic
clue about anything at all for
"Veterans services" and having to
hand off to somebody else who
is blind or deaf and is equally just
as dumb on the subject.

Geez, THANKS CIL --- what's next,
a guy with no arms and no legs
driving us to our VA Hospital appointments??
I don't know how this system can
ever descend to a level any dumber
than it already is. Nobody understands
the word "sabotage" when it comes
to Veterans services.

I found them useful in obtaining
disability rental housing for
myself, which was nothing more
than a printed 3-ring binder directory.
After that, they were a complete
waste of my time. Just another
dumping ground for developmental
types just so they can make a show
out of the fact they are giving
jobs to the unemployable out
of charity and nothing more.

No real success rates were given
by these self-interested cottage
industries, other than their own
self bragging that they had a success
rate, but not to be shown or verified
in any kind of convincing way.

Leeches looking for funding is
all they came across to be.

The hearing lasts 2 hours and you
can Click on the video playback
LINK on the hearing page below.
You can also click on the names
of some of the panelists and pull
up their original opening written
statements, not inclusive of their
Q & A thereafter.

Frankly I saw this hearing as
pointless and not advancing the
issues made by the VDBC Commission
not one Iota.

http://veterans.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?pageid=16&r...se_id=11505&view=all

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