House votes 390-33 to speed up VA firings. Obama vows the guilty will be held accountable and yet backs Eric Shinseki, directing him to investigate his own failed policies ?

Last I  checked the excuse for the shuffling that was  going on with  scheduling appointments.  Was not an  isolated incident as it was  being  done in more than one  VA Hospital.  Taking place due to  policies being implemented  to  monitor the productivity and efficiency of Hospital personnel and their respective departments. 

Protocols such as this are generally handed down from corporate hierarchy to regional and then local.   It is doubtful that regional or local management implemented these measures on their own and just happened to coincide with similar incidents in other  hospitals in the same way. 

If these protocols were being implemented and enforced  thrughout all VA Hospitals , logic would dictate that  they originated higher up the food chain and that local as well as regional management had a stake in the ultimate outcome of these assessments.  After all ,  corporate politics would dictate that promotions and rewards would directly correlate with the outcome of said assessments as well as departmental records.

To establish unrealistic goals without providing adequate means to accomplish said goals effectively.  As well as establishing a competitive situation without adequate control measures to keep the  overzealous and unscrupulous from doing exactly what has been done.  Is an obvious failure on the part of corporate management, Eric Shineski, in this case.  To gloss over that fact is naive at best and criminal at worst.  But then Mr. Obama is no stranger to criminal negligence , gross ineptitude and just plain ignorance of the actions taking place around him.  So I suppose he can sympathize.....

~Desert Rose~

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VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst).

 The Washington Post

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• The Hill
  
  
  

  May 21, 2014, 06:13 pm

House votes 390-33 to speed up VA firings

By Cristina Marcos

The House on Wednesday overwhelmingly passed a bill to grant the Veterans Affairs secretary expanded authority to fire senior executives for poor performance.
The measure passed on a 390-33 vote amid allegations that veterans encountered delays in access to medical care at multiple VA hospitals across the country, leading to dozens of deaths. All 33 votes in opposition came from Democrats, including ledership Reps. Steny Hoyer (Md.) and James Clyburn (S.C.). House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) voted to approve the measure.
Under the bill, the VA secretary would be authorized to dismiss senior executives or demote them to the civil service. It would require the VA secretary to notify Congress of such a firing or demotion within 30 days.House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Jeff Miller (R-Fla.) said the measure would help rid the department of incompetent employees in light of the controversy.
"The committee has received nothing but disturbing silence from the White House and only excuse after another from the Department of Veterans Affairs," Miller said.
Rep. Corrine Brown (D-Fla.) said the legislation would send a message that the VA would be held accountable.
"It is very important as we go into Memorial Day that we let the veterans know that we appreciate their service. And we also need to let them know that we're going to do all we can to make sure they have the quality health care they deserve," Brown said.
An administration official said the White House supports the overall goals of the legislation, but also had concerns that it could have unintended consequences.



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• The Washington Times

Obama vows fix to veterans’ health care troubles

By JULIE PACE and MATTHEW DALY

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Associated Press

Wednesday, May 21, 2014

• 
  
  Enlarge Photo
  President Barack Obama speaks in the Brady Press Briefing Room of the ... more >

WASHINGTON (AP) - With outrage mounting over veterans’ health care, President Barack Obama declared Wednesday that allegations of misconduct at VA hospitals will not be tolerated, and he left open the possibility that Secretary Eric Shinseki, a disabled war veteran, could be held to account.
“I will not stand for it - not as commander in chief but also not as an American,” Obama said following an Oval Office meeting with the embattled Shinseki.
Congress moved to keep up the pressure on the administration, with the House easily approving a measure Wednesday evening that would give the VA secretary more authority to fire or demote the 450 senior career employees who serve as hospital directors or executives in the agency’s 21 regions. The vote was 390 to 33.
Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, sponsored the measure, saying VA officials who have presided over mismanagement or negligence are more likely to receive bonuses or glowing performance reviews than any sort of punishment. He declared that a “widespread and systemic lack of accountability is exacerbating” the department’s problems.
The White House said it supported the goal of seeking greater accountability at the VA but had unspecified concerns about the legislation.
The growing furor surrounding the Department of Veterans Affairs centers on allegations of treatment delays and preventable deaths at VA hospitals. The department’s inspector general’s office says 26 facilities are being investigated nationwide, including a Phoenix hospital facing allegations that 40 people died while waiting for treatment and staff kept a secret list of patients in order to hide delays in care.
The allegations have raised fresh concerns about the Obama administration’s management of a department that has been struggling to keep up with the influx of new veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Obama’s comments Wednesday - his first on the matter in more than three weeks - signaled a greater urgency by the White House to keep the matter from spiraling into a deeper political problem in a midterm election year.

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• The Washington Post

Possible drawbacks of the VA firing bill scheduled for Wednesday vote

• By Josh Hicks

• May 20 at 6:00 am

The House is set to vote this week on a bill that would give the head of the Department of Veterans Affairs authority to fire or demote senior executives for perceived performance problems without going through the usual administrative procedures.
House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) added the measure to the weekly docket on Thursday, the same date VA Secretary Eric Shinseki testified about reports that VA health clinics throughout the country have cooked their books to hide treatment delays, some of which may have affected patients who died while waiting for care.

VA Secretary Eric Shinseki. (Reuters/Jonathan Ernst).

Ironically, the American Legion has called for Shinseki’s removal because of the alleged coverups, along with other problems such as a longstanding backlog of disability claims and preventable deaths at various VA hospitals. If the secretary departs, his critics would have to wait for a replacement to fire senior officials for the recent controversy.
Shinseki said during the hearing that he is “mad as hell” about the reported treatment delays, and he vowed to stick around until he improves VA services for veterans or President Obama asks him to resign.
MORE: Shinseki faces tough questions on VA scandal, vows to ‘accomplish a mission’
Although firing VA officials may quell the recent outrage over reported coverups, the Senior Executives Association has raised concerns about the House bill. Below is a summary of the measure’s drawbacks, as outlined in recent statements from the group:

* Due process: Senior executives can appeal firings and demotions to an administrative panel known as the Merit Systems Protection Board, which determines whether the personnel actions were warranted. However, the hearings are informal and the decisions are non-binding for agency executives, unlike with rank-and-file employees.

The SEA said the House bill would rob employees of the right to recourse when department chiefs wrongly punish their workers. They also noted that accountability processes already exist for senior executives.

Agencies must provide a 30-day written notice when they decide to remove senior executives. The officials can then argue against removal, choose to resign, or return back to work at a lower position. They may also be eligible for immediate retirement.

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Obama Backs Shinseki Amid Calls to Resign (Updated)

By Steven Dennis Posted at 5:53 p.m. on May 5

Updated 6:22 p.m. | The White House is backing Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki after he faced calls to resign Monday over allegations that veterans died waiting for care in Phoenix and other problems in his department.
“As the President said last week, we take the allegations around the Phoenix situation very seriously,” said Shin Inouye, a White House spokesman. “That’s why he immediately directed Secretary Shinseki to investigate, and Secretary Shinseki has also invited the independent Veterans Affairs Office of Inspector General to conduct a comprehensive review,” he said.
“We must ensure that our nation’s veterans get the benefits and services that they deserve and have earned. The President remains confident in Secretary Shinseki’s ability to lead the Department and to take appropriate action based on the IG’s findings.”
Earlier Monday, the American Legion called on Shinseki to resign, although the Veterans of Foreign Wars declined to do so. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he wants the investigation to go forward first. 


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Economic Recovery has come to the White House, according to the speculated $1.2 Billion in costs for the latest planned upgrade for presidential helicopters announced by the Defense Department.

Official U.S. Marine Corps photo 050521-N-0295M-097 [1] from the USMC website [2]
A U.S. Marine Corps Sikorsky VH-3D Sea King helicopter, assigned to Marine Helicopter Squadron 1 (HMX-1), in flight over Washington D.C. on 21 May 2005.
By  :  PH2(AW) Daniel J. McLain
Wikimedia.org

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• The New American

Monday, 12 May 2014 09:47

$1.2 Billion for New White House Helicopters Just the Beginning

Written by  Bob Adelmann

 

It didn’t take long for critics to scoff at the costs of the latest effort to upgrade the fleet of presidential helicopters announced by the Defense Department on Wednesday, May 7. They say the $1.2-billion contract awarded to Sikorsky Aircraft Corporation will be just the beginning.
There are at least two reasons to be skeptical: the open-ended nature of the White House requirements, and recent history.
The Department of Defense outlined its requirements, stating that Marine Helicopter Squadron One, which currently operates 19 presidential helicopters, must provide "safe and timely transportation for the President and Vice President of the United States, heads of state and others as directed by the White House Military Office."

In addition, each aircraft must be equipped with various self-defense features such as bulletproof glass and body panels, as well as specialized communications equipment that allows the president to maintain “critical command functions” while airborne. Each helicopter must be large enough to carry up to 14 passengers and several thousand pounds of baggage while being small enough to operate from the White House lawn.

Each must have a minimum range of 300 miles and carry a full complement of defensive countermeasures to thwart heat-seeking and radar-directed missiles and also be hardened against an EMP (electromagnetic pulse), either from an enemy or from the sun. It must be able to send and receive encrypted communications and hold secure teleconferences while in flight.
And each must have air-conditioning and a toilet.
Under the contract Sikorsky promises to deliver two prototypes by 2016, with another 21 fully operational aircraft six years later.
Several questions arise. First, why so many? After all, there’s just one president and one vice president. According to Helimart.com, anytime the president flies somewhere by helicopter, four other helicopters are alongside him. They fly in varying formations to keep the president's aircraft as disguised as possible. This is often referred to as the presidential “shell game.” In addition, with a helicopter's range of just 300 miles, a longer trip must “cache” additional aircraft along the route.

Read More Here

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Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) : “There are parts of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, that were postponed because they are unpalatable, As these provisions come into effect, the administration thus far is saying, ‘Gee, we really can’t handle this right now so we’re going to delay it.’”

The New American

Wednesday, 23 April 2014 15:08

Democrat Says Worst of ObamaCare Yet to Come

Written by  Raven Clabough

 Photo of Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.): AP Images

It is always noteworthy when a lawmaker breaks what seems to be the “Cardinal Rule” against speaking out against one’s own party, particularly when it regards the party’s signature accomplishment. The Obama administration cannot possibly be pleased with the assertions made by Representative Stephen Lynch (shown, D-Mass.) about the healthcare law, which stand in direct opposition to statements made by the president about the very same law.
On April 17, readers may recall, President Obama announced during a White House news conference that the healthcare law "is working.” Yet during an interview with the Boston Herald, Lynch did not hesitate to criticize the law when he said the worst of the Affordable Care Act has yet to be seen.
“There are parts of Obamacare, or the Affordable Care Act, that were postponed because they are unpalatable,” he told the Herald. “As these provisions come into effect, the administration thus far is saying, ‘Gee, we really can’t handle this right now so we’re going to delay it.’”

Read More Here

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Nomi Prins : The concentration of political power from the Bush , the Clinton and the Obama Administration have created a much more concentrated, consolidated and unstable banking system than we have ever had in history.

Nomi Prins Author of “All the Presidents Bankers“ on Upcoming Collapse

By Greg Hunter On April 16, 2014 In Media 20 Comments

 

By Greg Hunter’s USAWatchdog.com

Best-selling author Nomi Prins warns, “Never before have the Government and the Fed collaborated so extensively by propping up the banking system to the detriment of the population.”  Prins lays out a long history of the relationships between U.S. Presidents and bankers that date back to Teddy Roosevelt and JP Morgan.   On her new book titled “All the Presidents’ Bankers,” Prins contends, “That connection with Teddy Roosevelt was a very powerful established entity between two people that has allowed all this stuff that has happened in the last hundred years to really happen.  The friendships, the social ties, the idea that the bankers could sort themselves out with Treasury Department help if it needed to.  Of course, it’s epic now.  All of that was solidified then.  Banks being hands-off with respect to the oval office was all solidified then.  We’ve only been consolidating that message throughout the century since.”   
Fast forward to JFK and the bankers of the day, and Prins points out the banks in the early 1960’s didn’t want a gold standard to restrict them.  It is dollar debasement history as Prins explains, “If bankers have a peg, if they have to put gold or any type of asset behind it or have any restriction, they don’t like it.  So at the time, they weren’t working on trying to demolish the regulations that happened from the 1930’s to separate bank speculation from depositors, but they saw something else, and that was getting off gold.  They really worked to push JFK off of gold.  JFK was a little less friendly with the bankers.  JFK, when he did invite bankers to the White House, he would have very short meetings.  It was like hello, goodbye and thank you.  Where LBJ, who came after JFK, was very friendly to the bankers and opened the White House to the bankers.”  

Read More Here

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Iran wants the U.N. Committee on Relations with the Host Country to urgently address US Refusal to Issue Envoy Visa

Iran Asks UN to Address US Refusal to Issue Envoy Visa

FILE - Hamid Aboutalebi, an Iranian diplomat, who was recently named as Iran's ambassador at the United Nations, speaks at his office in Tehran, Iran.

VOA News

April 15, 2014

Iran is asking a United Nations committee to hold a special meeting on the refusal of the United States to issue a visa to Iran's choice for its ambassador to the U.N.
American officials object to Iran's selection of Hamid Abutalebi because of his alleged involvement in the 1979 seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. White House spokesman Jay Carney said last week the choice is "not viable."
In a letter Monday, Iran's mission to the U.N. said that decision has "negative implications" diplomatically and creates a dangerous precedent. It says denying a visa to a U.N. member state goes against the U.N. charter and international law.
Iran wants the U.N. Committee on Relations with the Host Country to urgently address the issue.

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Trend .az

U.S. adopts harsher tone in U.N. envoy dispute with Iran

16 April 2014, 01:02 (GMT+05:00)

The United States adopted a harsher tone toward Iran's proposed U.N. ambassador on Tuesday, calling Tehran's choice of Hamid Abutalebi "unacceptable" and tying him to the 1979-1981 U.S. hostage crisis in Tehran, Reuters reported.
While it did not detail what the veteran diplomat may have done during the period, when radical Iranian students seized the U.S. embassy and held 52 U.S. hostages for 444 days, the State Department for the first time linked the U.S. decision not to issue him a visa to those events.
"He himself has said he was involved and, given his role in the events of 1979, which clearly matter profoundly to the American people, it would be unacceptable for the United States to grant this visa," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters at her daily briefing.
Abutalebi has said that he acted only as a translator.
Previously U.S. spokespeople used softer language, saying the choice was not "viable."


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The Well Worn Out Race Card Dealt Yet Again on Capitol Hill as Pelosi warns deportations a 'gift' to Republicans. Is rewarding the crime of "Illegal Entry" not being addressed ?

The Hill

April 10, 2014, 02:27 pm

Pelosi warns focus on deportations a 'gift' to Republicans

By Mike Lillis

Getty Images

Immigration reformers shifting their focus from Congress to the White House over deportations risk undermining efforts to pass a comprehensive reform bill this year, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned Thursday.

Pelosi said she supports the Congressional Hispanic Caucus's calls for the administration to reduce deportations. But simultaneously taking pressure off of House Republicans, she added, is a "gift" to GOP leaders, allowing them to dodge a sensitive issue that could hurt them in the 2014 election.

"That's a gift to the Republicans," she said. "Because the fact is, the Republicans are never going to move unless they think there's a price to play politically for not bringing the bill to the floor."

Pelosi stressed that legislation remains the Democrats' ultimate goal, and urged reformers to stay focused on Congress getting a bill.

"I see the pain and suffering of the deportations," she said. "But the answer, the medicine for every ill in the deportations is to pass comprehensive immigration reform."

Pelosi did not say that congressional Democrats or the White House should no longer consider reduced deportations. But her warning that the actions of pro-immigration groups could deliver Republicans a political benefit could raise questions about the strategy overall.

Many Democrats are calling on President Obama for reduced deportations, and Obama has asked Department of Homeland Security leaders for an across-the-board review of his deportations policies.

The move has made many critics hopeful he'll expand the administration's deferred action program, which allows some immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as kids to remain in the United States temporarily, to a broader population.

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The Hill

Pelosi: Race playing role in GOP's reluctance to move immigration bill

Greg Nash

By Mike Lillis - 04/10/14 01:00 PM EDT

Issues of race have made GOP leaders reluctant to back immigration reform, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) charged Thursday.

The Democratic leader suggested that the Republicans would have moved a reform bill long ago if whites were the only beneficiaries."I think race has something to do with the fact that they're not bringing up an immigration bill," Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol. "I've heard them say to the Irish, 'If it were just you, this would be easy.' "
The remarks came in response to a question about the often-testy relationship between congressional Republicans and the administration of President Obama, the nation's first black president.
There's long been grumbling among Democrats that Obama's race has exacerbated the partisan divide between the White House and Capitol Hill Republicans, highlighted recently by a flare-up between Attorney General Eric Holder, who is black, and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee.
Pelosi was reluctant to say that race issues have fueled those tensions, arguing more broadly that Republicans have been "very disrespectful" of White House officials regardless of their ethnicity.

Read More Here

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