Well he has no medical background,
and I am not really sure what a college
degree in English will bring to the
table of a sinking ship and wholly
corrupt VA agency, but here is the
new Obama nominee for what it is.

He was born and raised in Hawaii,
graduated from West Point, and served
under Donald Rumsfeld at the start
of the war. It is not clear just
yet if he is or is not Republican.



Dec 6, 7:11 PM EST


Dem officials: Shinseki to be named VA secretary

By HOPE YEN
Associated Press Writer


WASHINGTON (AP) -- President-elect Barack Obama has chosen retired Gen. Eric K. Shinseki to be the next Veterans Affairs secretary, turning to a former Army chief of staff once vilified by the Bush administration for questioning its Iraq war strategy.

The choice was first reported by The Associated Press.

Obama will formally announce the selection at a news conference Sunday. Shinseki would be the first Army four-star general of Japanese-American ancestry.

Shinseki, 66, upset Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in 2003 when he told Congress it might take a few hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the U.S. invasion. He was ousted for being "wildly off the mark," but his words proved prophetic after President George W. Bush in early 2007 announced a "surge" of additional troops to Iraq.

(This version CORRECTS APNewsNow. RETRANSMITTING to correct coding, writethru sequence and restore byline; Also UPDATEs with details on Shinseki's background, conflict with Bush administration; ADDS photo link; Will be led.)

_______________________________________
END of Associated Press Release


Here is his Biography LINK:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Shinseki



THE TESTOSTERONE FACTORY BEGINS
As you move through the more expanded
newswire service below, it is worth documenting
how the men in our LunkHeaded veterans
community go about rationalizing the
most important appointment to the
bureacracy there is for veterans.
If you pay close attention to the
chest beating and the low I.Q.'s reacting
in this article, it only takes somebody
who is both macho and who has previously
held a gun in wartime battle to actually
run the entire VA medical and disability
system. Of course, we have all been
there and done that before on these
misguided and delusional nominations
in the past, but here it is all back
again for a repeat performance.

This is to say, of course, that the academic
background of any VA nominee, really
doesn't matter as long as he holds
some kind of empty sympbolic connection
bravado and war. This is exactly the
kind of CaveMan thinking that has
kept the VA chasing it's own tail
in circles like an overly excited dog
in the night.

By showcasing the testosterone reactions
of all of these interviewees in this article,
I rest my case as to what the entire
freaking national problem really is at
the VA. Until men Veterans grow up and
face the failures and inadequacies that
they all bring to the table in a national
federal bureacracy system that rules
over a medical workforce and disability
plan, those Veterans then will continue
to sit at the root of the problem
at the VA and the VA will almost with
certainty, be steered into a relentless
and unending vicious cycle of scandals,
chaos, incompetence, and overall doom
and failure.

So I bring to you now, written in stone
for all the world to see, the unfolding
CaveMan reaction from the delusional
testosterone crowd who actually thinks
and believes that medical backgrounds
really don't matter when considering
a VA Secretary's position.

This article is about as in your face
as it can be with all the CaveMen lined
up and beating their brave, but incredibly
ignorant and incompetent chests.

As I have said, we have all been down
this road before so to walk down it all
again is to remain stuck in the status
quo with ZERO progress to look forward
to at this crippled and disasterous
agency.



Obama takes Shinseki for Cabinet, sources sayStory Highlights


NEW: Leaders of veterans groups praise Shinseki


Shinseki to be nominated for top Veterans Affairs post

His opinions on Iraq were not well-received by some

Shinseki, like Obama, was born in Hawaii



WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama will nominate retired Gen. Eric Shinseki to be secretary of Veterans Affairs, two Democratic sources said Saturday.


Gen. Eric Shinseki retired as Army chief of staff in June 2003.

Obama was expected to make the formal announcement Sunday -- Pearl Harbor Day -- at a news conference in Chicago. Veterans groups appeared to support the selection.

"I am excited. I don't know him personally but this is a huge move," said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

For years, Shinseki, a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, has been the patron saint of Pentagon critics who say the former Army chief's sage advice was ignored in 2003, resulting in too few U.S. troops being sent to Iraq after the invasion.

Shinseki testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee in February 2003 that "something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers would be required" to pacify the country. The comment infuriated some Bush administration officials, and he retired just a few months later.

Shinseki has never spoken publicly about his testimony, which has often been cited by critics as evidence that then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld ignored the advice of one of his key generals.

But as Army chief of staff, Shinseki was not in the chain of command, and played no direct role in drawing up the war plans.

Pentagon sources say that, in fact, Shinseki never advocated higher troop levels for Iraq, in part because it was not his job to do so. And sources say that just before the invasion, when asked by then-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Richard Myers if he agreed with the war plans, Shinseki voiced no objections.

Still, Rieckhoff said, "Shinseki is a guy who had a career putting patriotism above politics. He is a wounded veteran so he understands the plight of veterans." (choke choke
sputter)

He said Shinseki would have to make key connections with the veterans community, adding, "This is a big name and it shows that he (Obama) is not going to treat the Veterans Affairs secretary as a low priority."
(choke choke sputter, whatever THAT means!)

John Rowan, president of Vietnam Veterans of America, called the reported pick an "interesting choice." (choke choke
sputter yeah it's "interesting alright
since he has no medical background at all!)

"I am satisfied with it," Rowan told CNN on Saturday, adding that the choice seems to be in the Obama transition team's pattern of "bringing in strong personalities into all the positions who aren't going to 'yes' him to death."

"When Shinseki had his disagreements with the administration, he wasn't afraid to speak up," Rowan said. (choke choke sputter Yeah if
only he had a medical degree and knew
what to speak up on, exactly.)

Veterans for Common Sense also weighed in, but without specifically naming Shinseki.

"We are highly confident that whomever is nominated will have the leadership experience needed to reform VA and implement President-elect Obama's agenda," Executive Director Paul Sullivan said. (yes because "leadership"
is an academic substitute for a medical
degree, wouldn't ya say Paul? choke choke
sputter)

"We believe whomever is nominated will also need many experts in the fields of healthcare and disability benefits who can quickly identify VA's many challenges and then implement responsible solutions that take into consideration veterans' needs and concerns."

Like Obama, Shinseki was born in Hawaii. He was the first Asian-American to reach the top spot in the U.S. Army.

When a gallery to honor Shinseki was opened at the U.S. Army Museum of Hawaii in 2006, Shinseki was humble while addressing the audience.

"I asked my Grandma Shinseki what I should say before I came here," he said at the time. "She told me, 'tell them you come from a good family ... and tell them you're a good American soldier.' " (choke, choke sputter but
what does your grandmother say about
having a medical degree to run a national
hospital system? choke choke sputter)

Before he took over the Army's top post in November 1998, Shinseki spent his career with U.S. armored forces.

He served two combat tours in Vietnam and commanded the Army's 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas.

He also served as commander of Army forces in Europe and as chief of NATO's SFOR peacekeeping mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina.



_______________________________________
End of CNN Release



Please everybody, TRY and keep a straight face!


Of course it goes without saying that this
is the very same disconnected and out of
touch cast of characters who also gave
high fives to the current VA Secretary,
and the one before that, and the one
before that, and the one before that
all for the same exact reasons: first
because he was a Johnny War Medals and
secondly, because he had "integrity"
and "leadership" and all the all delusional
Blah, Blah, Blah that you just saw in
this article.

Barack Obama is about to learn, I predict,
the cold hard lessons of the Vet world
which is the simple fact that warmed
over Department of Defense does NOT
translate into successful VA management
or policy. The 2 worlds are as apart
and different as day and night.

To that end, we now go boldly forward
into yet another decade of scandals,
screw ups, "learning a valuable lesson"
on the backs of dead veterans, and
other bungles and charades carried
over from the old Walter Reed era,
which is only what we have now
with Dr. James Peake.

Dig in, everybody, it's change we
can't believe in.

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