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Obama on VA allegations: 'I will not stand for it'

Shineki is the shield - Petzel was the guy who falls on his sword. There's still more to come.

Petzel had already announced his retirement before they tried to use him as a scapegoat. Now Shinseki actually has to prove his stripes and deal with the crisis instead of passing it on for the next guy to deal with.
 
Obama is truly outraged. He's so outraged, in fact, that he will sit back in his chair and do nothing about it like every single other thing he's been "outraged" about.
 
Hillary didn't have to resign. :confused: Well what difference, at this point, does it make?
Hell they still dont know who received what emails, when, or who gave the bull**** story about the video.

With Obama your choices are corrupt liar or complete moron. I'm willing to take him at his word.
 
Neither the government nor the VA will listen to perceived fools (you and I).
That, IMO is the problem, that and knocking others(particularly our President) without them being around to debate and refute..
I am a patient of the VA medical system...at least it is affordable is clumsy and slow at times...It can be improved....the director of the VA can listen to some patients(but not me, damnit)...
BTW, its the job of Congress to do these things (improve), NOT the President. We need a Democratic Congress with Democratic control in the House....the tea baggers must go !
And, Shrub, do you have just one good idea as to improving our VA ?
I do ...I think their communications can be better, right now, it is stifled by conservatism and excessive security.
 
Neither the government nor the VA will listen to perceived fools (you and I).
That, IMO is the problem, that and knocking others(particularly our President) without them being around to debate and refute..
I am a patient of the VA medical system...at least it is affordable is clumsy and slow at times...It can be improved....the director of the VA can listen to some patients(but not me, damnit)...
BTW, its the job of Congress to do these things (improve), NOT the President. We need a Democratic Congress with Democratic control in the House....the tea baggers must go !
And, Shrub, do you have just one good idea as to improving our VA ?
I do ...I think their communications can be better, right now, it is stifled by conservatism and excessive security.

I have a better idea than improving their communication... they could... I dunno... not cook the books on waiting lists for example. The head of the VA is a position filled by the President yet you don't think he's at all involved nor should be? :lamo
 
He's kinda screwed no matter what. Suppose he fires the head of the VA. Why? For knowing it was ****ed up and doing nothing about it? Hell, thats his whole administration. For NOT knowing it was ****ed up in the first place? Again...his WHOLE administration. For failure to provide adequate oversight? Thats three for three.

I'm reminded of the Walter Reed scandal. In 2004 and 2005 articles appeared in 'The Post', and 'Salon' interviewing a 1LT Goodrum who was being court martialed for seeking medical care away from Walter Reed's terrible conditions.

Army officials would claim in 2007 they were surprised by the articles published in the 'Washington Post'- first time they heard of any of this.... :roll:

But wait there is more... in 1999 the problems were identified to senior military officials, nothing was done. In 2001 Cpt. Drake made his superiors, Col. Carroll and Col. Bolton aware of the problems. Gen. Kiley toured the facility and refused to approve funding for improvements in 2002. So this was firmly an issue at the very beginning of the BushII administration. The huge stress the War in Iraq put on ALL of the military medical services should have been a touchstone of a President who would later be heralded as so concerned about the welfare of the troops who were wounded in the war he started.

So what happened after the 'Washington Post' ran the series.... Gates is shocked and appalled- Sec of the Army Harvey fires the Commander of Walter Reed (Gen Weightman) who had been on duty for a whole 6 months... :doh Harvey hires Gen Kiley to run the hospital, and is in turn fired by Gates as not moving fast enough. Kiley retires when the new Sec of Army decides he should be relieved.

That's about it so far as holding people accountable- BushII appoints the Clinton's Sec of H & H Donna Shalala and Bob Dole to head a committee to investigate and recommend fixes.

The VA gets drug into it and promises to overhaul their system as well.

So for 7 years the chain of command knew about the horrible conditions in building 18 (Gen Kiley lived across the street from Blg 18) but not until the 'Washington Post' publishes does the stuff hit the fan.

To quote the White House press release- " first learned of the troubling allegations regarding Walter Reed form the stories this weekend from the 'Washington Post'."

However his press sec Snow claims he doesn't know how the President didn't know about the conditions from all the visits for the last 5 years.

I don't recall President Bush making a major daytime speech on the scandal. When Snow was asked if the President would comment further, the reply was no.

So it does seem like the same old song, but now a President is front and center on demanding a fix, rather than delegate the issue to the SoD.

Anyway as a vet I can say if there was a pattern of cover-up and vets died- people need to go to jail. If supervisors up the chain knew and buried the reports they need to go to jail. My personal thought on the VA is it needs to adopt a voucher program to allow vets to go to local civilian hospitals for care.

Now some posters do the 'our vets deserve the best' dance... well perhaps our wounded vets, but I have been around long enough to know that ain't gonna happen and most vets risked nothing but a paper cut in defense of our Grand and Glorious Republic. Still it would be nice to be treated at least as well as someone on medicare- imagine the stink if Medicare patients had to go to only a handful of facilities and see only the doctors inside that building....
 
This is an actual scandal. But, since the Right has been crying wolf over everything from Benghazi to fast and furious, nobody is listening. Didn't you guys pay attention when yo mamma read you bedtime stories?
 
This is an actual scandal. But, since the Right has been crying wolf over everything from Benghazi to fast and furious, nobody is listening. Didn't you guys pay attention when yo mamma read you bedtime stories?

Crying wolf? Americans are killed because of something our government did or did not do, and we are crying wolf if we demand an explanation for that? American privacy is blatantly violated by the government for political purposes and we cry wolf if we object to that?

And now with dozens dying that the VA has admitted that delay was a factor and the possibility that there have been hundreds, even thousands, of such cases, of course it is a scandal. The VA has always sucked as all government controlled medical care sucks, but certainly it warrants investigation and, if there was negligence and/or malfeasance, heads should roll.

But head don't roll under the Obama administration do they. Obama expresses the appropriate outrage initially, then says he has to wait for all the information before acting, and then it usually isn't too long before the issue is consigned to the list of 'phony scandals'.

Who wants to give odds that he or his spokepersons will consign the VA scandal to the 'phony scandal' list before much longer?

I wrote this (elsewhere) back in last July. I think we can add the VA scandal to the list.

By one pundit's account, since his first inauguration, President Obama is on his 17th speech making tour focusing on job creation. This time the catch phrase he uses again and again, and is being picked up by surrogate talking heads, is that the Republicans try to block efforts to create jobs with distractions such as, among other things, 'phony scandals.'

Really?

- The fact that the families of those killed and wounded in Benghazi still can't get straight answers from the administration, and witnesses are ordered into silence is a 'phony scandal'?

- GSA employees spending millions of tax payer dollars having a high old time and making videos of themselves is not a scandal? Ditto federal employees in other agencies?

- IRS blocking hundreds of applications of conservative groups and almost no applications of liberal groups in the years prior to the 2010 and 2012 elections is not a scandal?

- Labeling a news reporters as a possible felon to justify a personal investigation of him, for no reason other than he was investigating some of these things, is not a scandal?

- Collecting e-mails and other personal information from all AP reporters is not a scandal?

- Collecting phone et al information from millions of Americans is not a scandal?

- Federal investigation/continued persecution of one citizen declared not guilty by a jury of his peers when hundreds/thousands of racially motivated henious crimes go unmentioned at the federal level is not a scandal?

- The fact that every single time the President has declared he knew nothing of federal misconduct and found out about it the same way we did--in the media--is not a scandal?​
 
Crying wolf? Americans are killed because of something our government did or did not do, and we are crying wolf if we demand an explanation for that? American privacy is blatantly violated by the government for political purposes and we cry wolf if we object to that?

And now with dozens dying that the VA has admitted that delay was a factor and the possibility that there have been hundreds, even thousands, of such cases, of course it is a scandal. The VA has always sucked as all government controlled medical care sucks, but certainly it warrants investigation and, if there was negligence and/or malfeasance, heads should roll.

But head don't roll under the Obama administration do they. Obama expresses the appropriate outrage initially, then says he has to wait for all the information before acting, and then it usually isn't too long before the issue is consigned to the list of 'phony scandals'.

Who wants to give odds that he or his spokepersons will consign the VA scandal to the 'phony scandal' list before much longer?

You're only supposed to upset and require answers when a Republican does it. If a Democrat does it, you're supposed to give them a pass - frequently and often.
 
I'm reminded of the Walter Reed scandal. In 2004 and 2005 articles appeared in 'The Post', and 'Salon' interviewing a 1LT Goodrum who was being court martialed for seeking medical care away from Walter Reed's terrible conditions.

Army officials would claim in 2007 they were surprised by the articles published in the 'Washington Post'- first time they heard of any of this.... :roll:

But wait there is more... in 1999 the problems were identified to senior military officials, nothing was done. In 2001 Cpt. Drake made his superiors, Col. Carroll and Col. Bolton aware of the problems. Gen. Kiley toured the facility and refused to approve funding for improvements in 2002. So this was firmly an issue at the very beginning of the BushII administration. The huge stress the War in Iraq put on ALL of the military medical services should have been a touchstone of a President who would later be heralded as so concerned about the welfare of the troops who were wounded in the war he started.

So what happened after the 'Washington Post' ran the series.... Gates is shocked and appalled- Sec of the Army Harvey fires the Commander of Walter Reed (Gen Weightman) who had been on duty for a whole 6 months... :doh Harvey hires Gen Kiley to run the hospital, and is in turn fired by Gates as not moving fast enough. Kiley retires when the new Sec of Army decides he should be relieved.

That's about it so far as holding people accountable- BushII appoints the Clinton's Sec of H & H Donna Shalala and Bob Dole to head a committee to investigate and recommend fixes.

The VA gets drug into it and promises to overhaul their system as well.

So for 7 years the chain of command knew about the horrible conditions in building 18 (Gen Kiley lived across the street from Blg 18) but not until the 'Washington Post' publishes does the stuff hit the fan.

To quote the White House press release- " first learned of the troubling allegations regarding Walter Reed form the stories this weekend from the 'Washington Post'."

However his press sec Snow claims he doesn't know how the President didn't know about the conditions from all the visits for the last 5 years.

I don't recall President Bush making a major daytime speech on the scandal. When Snow was asked if the President would comment further, the reply was no.

So it does seem like the same old song, but now a President is front and center on demanding a fix, rather than delegate the issue to the SoD.

Anyway as a vet I can say if there was a pattern of cover-up and vets died- people need to go to jail. If supervisors up the chain knew and buried the reports they need to go to jail. My personal thought on the VA is it needs to adopt a voucher program to allow vets to go to local civilian hospitals for care.

Now some posters do the 'our vets deserve the best' dance... well perhaps our wounded vets, but I have been around long enough to know that ain't gonna happen and most vets risked nothing but a paper cut in defense of our Grand and Glorious Republic. Still it would be nice to be treated at least as well as someone on medicare- imagine the stink if Medicare patients had to go to only a handful of facilities and see only the doctors inside that building....
6 years into his presidency he learned about the problems from the media...and by golly...this will not stand.

My comments about this guy is that his response here is the same as it has been on every other thing that has come along. Whaaaaaaaaat? I never knew! It wasnt my fault! The sun was in my eyes. My dog ate my homework It wasnt my fault! This guy is Jake Blues pleading with Carrie Fisher.



So tell us...who authorized Fast and Furious? Cuz....that will not stand. Who fed the bull**** stories about Benghazi? Cuz...by golly...we should get to the bottom of this. Who.......

never mind.
 
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A link would be nice.

I think Shinseki offered his resignation but Obama refused and wanted him to stay on to deal with the crisis.....kinda like he did with Sebilius when the government ACA website failed. But you're claiming Shineski did resign....so when did this happen?

My absolute bad. It was the under-secretary, Petzel.
 

To make an analogy: Obama is like a "firefighter" that lights fires, then promotes Smokey The Bear and then claims he wont stand for "fires" when he's the psychopath that's lighting them.

These days politics are all about money and manipulation.

Obama has taken manipulation and straight up lying to an entirely new unprecedented level.
 
6 years into his presidency he learned about the problems from the media...and by golly...this will not stand. My comments about this guy is that his response here is the same as it has been on every other thing that has come along. Whaaaaaaaaat? I never knew! It wasnt my fault! The sun was in my eyes. My dog ate my homework It wasnt my fault! This guy is Jake Blues pleading with Carrie Fisher. So tell us...who authorized Fast and Furious? Cuz....that will not stand. Who fed the bull**** stories about Benghazi? Cuz...by golly...we should get to the bottom of this. Who....

Again it seems to be the EXACT same thing BushII had with Walter Reed PLUS you throw in BushII came to the building to award guys medals... yet BushII claim he never saw nuttin' :doh .... when push came to shove BushII retreated into his shell and ignored the Walter Reed scandal and left it to his subordinates to handle.

Doing a good job Brownie, deliberate twisting of 'intel'- who took the hit for that???? It seems highly selective to look this hard at Obama when BushII seemed so blissfully unaware of the debacle of Katrina, the 'massaging' of intel, Who told the BS stories about Saddam???? and then the horrid condition men who were wounded in a war BushII pushed hard for spent night and day in....

Whine and carry on as you wish, I'd expect little else, but it seems CONs forget about the times GOP leaders lie and ignore malfeasance....

Reagan had 138 administration officials investigated, indicted or convicted... the most of any administration up until that time.

We all know Iran/Contra which had most of the major players pardoned by BushI.

But there was the HUD bid rigging scandal that had 16 people convicted of fraud and bid rigging for GOP donors.

Lobbying scandal where Reagan's Chief of staff (Deaver) and press sec, (Nofziger) were convicted

EPA scandal where 20 administration officials were removed from office for influence peddling for industry or punishing or rewarding employees based on their personal politics. Sewergate was the funneling of superfund money to politicians in order to help with re-elections.

Head of the EPA, Ms. Burford refused to release documents on the superfund, was found in contempt of congress and resigned.

Inslaw affair where the DOJ was accused of stealing software and then forced the parent company into bankruptcy which successive AGs refused to investigate or appoint a special prosecutor. two officials held in contempt of Congress.

Savings and Loan scandal (Keating 5) where 747 institutions failed costing the taxpayer 160B. it set a record as the costlest case of public malfeasance, and laceny making the Teapot Dome scandal seem minor.

Debategate when Carter's debate prep book somehow got to Reagan before the debate- James Baker says Bill Casey (of Iran/Contra fame) denies that.

But of course Reagan knew NOTHING of any of it to include the scandals involving those closest to him... :doh
 
6 years into his presidency he learned about the problems from the media...and by golly...this will not stand.

My comments about this guy is that his response here is the same as it has been on every other thing that has come along. Whaaaaaaaaat? I never knew! It wasnt my fault! The sun was in my eyes. My dog ate my homework It wasnt my fault! This guy is Jake Blues pleading with Carrie Fisher.



So tell us...who authorized Fast and Furious? Cuz....that will not stand. Who fed the bull**** stories about Benghazi? Cuz...by golly...we should get to the bottom of this. Who.......

never mind.


The "media" the guy has used Jay Carney as his "blow horn" for the last 3-years and takes soft interviews by his supporters...

Everyone hated Bush yet he talked and gave interviews and was repeatedly criticized, yet he lets that little snot Carney speak for him?

Carney makes Obama look like Edward Snowden...
 
Too many people are making this about politics, Obama is absolutely responsible as in Shinseki(sp?) and they are the guys who need to fix this problem as rapidly as possible. However don't believe for a minute that a simple change of faces either at the VA or the White House would really change much, the exact same kind of story broke when Bush was President at Walter Reed Hospital.

Folks looking to use this as grounds for a shift in political leaders aren't looking for a solution, just a "win" for their side. Don't loose sight of the real issue.
 
Again it seems to be the EXACT same thing BushII had with Walter Reed PLUS you throw in BushII came to the building to award guys medals... yet BushII claim he never saw nuttin' :doh .... when push came to shove BushII retreated into his shell and ignored the Walter Reed scandal and left it to his subordinates to handle.

Doing a good job Brownie, deliberate twisting of 'intel'- who took the hit for that???? It seems highly selective to look this hard at Obama when BushII seemed so blissfully unaware of the debacle of Katrina, the 'massaging' of intel, Who told the BS stories about Saddam???? and then the horrid condition men who were wounded in a war BushII pushed hard for spent night and day in....

Whine and carry on as you wish, I'd expect little else, but it seems CONs forget about the times GOP leaders lie and ignore malfeasance....

Reagan had 138 administration officials investigated, indicted or convicted... the most of any administration up until that time.

We all know Iran/Contra which had most of the major players pardoned by BushI.

But there was the HUD bid rigging scandal that had 16 people convicted of fraud and bid rigging for GOP donors.

Lobbying scandal where Reagan's Chief of staff (Deaver) and press sec, (Nofziger) were convicted

EPA scandal where 20 administration officials were removed from office for influence peddling for industry or punishing or rewarding employees based on their personal politics. Sewergate was the funneling of superfund money to politicians in order to help with re-elections.

Head of the EPA, Ms. Burford refused to release documents on the superfund, was found in contempt of congress and resigned.

Inslaw affair where the DOJ was accused of stealing software and then forced the parent company into bankruptcy which successive AGs refused to investigate or appoint a special prosecutor. two officials held in contempt of Congress.

Savings and Loan scandal (Keating 5) where 747 institutions failed costing the taxpayer 160B. it set a record as the costlest case of public malfeasance, and laceny making the Teapot Dome scandal seem minor.

Debategate when Carter's debate prep book somehow got to Reagan before the debate- James Baker says Bill Casey (of Iran/Contra fame) denies that.

But of course Reagan knew NOTHING of any of it to include the scandals involving those closest to him... :doh
When even Jon Stewart is calling out that clown in the White House for all the **** he doesnt know...you ought to be smart enough to not keep blowing his...you know...horn.
 
Obama is truly outraged. He's so outraged, in fact, that he will sit back in his chair and do nothing about it like every single other thing he's been "outraged" about.

He's been taking anger management classes. That's what he learned.
 
The public wants to hear that people lost their jobs over this. Anything less is lip service. Resignation from the top? Not enough.

I want to some people go to jail.
 
It's the military. Firing people didn't fix the problem when three generals were forced to resign back in 2007 over the Walter Reed Hospital Scandal. Demanding resignations doesn't fix the problem because it's inbred in the culture.

The other problem with demanding resignations is that people can learn from their mistakes and are less likely to make the same mistakes again, as opposed to bringing in someone new and having the same mistakes made as under previous leadership.....which appears to be the case here.

The VA isn't a part of the armed forces.
 
Of course the people who actually commited a crime should be held accountable. But I don't think Shenki(?) is responsible for cooking the books, so what good what it do to fire him? A new commander isn't going to change the culture or the bureaucracy at the VA anymore than the last four or five firings and resignations did.

There were 26 hospitals who faked information. That decision came from on high. If Shenki knew, then he needs to go to jail. If he didn't know, he's too incompetent to run the show.
 
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