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At least a head is rolling for this. Of course the right won't be satisfied with it since it's not Obama's head, but I'm glad to hear about it anyway.
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May 30, 2014 16:45
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If it's directly and demonstrably his fault it's good. Firing people just to slake the public's bloodlust is not a good practice. I'm inclined to think that most people in the administration did not think it was Shinseki's fault since he wasn't gone immediately. BAD THING? SOMEONE MUST PAY 
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May 30, 2014 16:48
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This sucks, because I'd bet anything that the problem has nothing to do with him.
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May 30, 2014 16:49
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Alter Ego posted:This sucks, because I'd bet anything that the problem has nothing to do with him. I thought it was already pretty well-accepted that the problems are being caused by a failure to grow funding commensurate with the growth in veterans?
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May 30, 2014 16:51
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Alter Ego posted:This sucks, because I'd bet anything that the problem has nothing to do with him. No you see we live under the ridiculous premise that everything that happens under a person's management in a huge country that is thousands of miles across is the direct responsibility of that person because of bucks stopping and such. haveblue posted:I thought it was already pretty well-accepted that the problems are being caused by a failure to grow funding commensurate with the growth in veterans? It's a very complex problem of which that is a part, yes.
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May 30, 2014 16:51
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loquacius posted:At least a head is rolling for this. Of course the right won't be satisfied with it since it's not Obama's head, but I'm glad to hear about it anyway. Why? What good will Shinseki's departure accomplish? Can you point to specific failures in leadership or management by the General? This is a meaningless stunt to placate a section of the country who take pride in never being placated. Obama could commit suicide on live TV over this and they would say it wasn't heartfelt enough. Sacking Shinseki over this doesn't help veterans - it just eliminates his decades of experience from the equation and lets one more vocal critic of Neoconservative foreign policy become quietly discredited. If anything this makes the President look weak and indecisive. haveblue posted:I thought it was already pretty well-accepted that the problems are being caused by a failure to grow funding commensurate with the growth in veterans? This is 100% true. Bernie Sanders proposed a Bill in February to open 27 new VA clinics and it died because Republicans refused to sign it without adding Iran sanctions. But yeah glad SOMEONE is paying! Unzip and Attack fucked around with this message at 16:54 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 16:51
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haveblue posted:I thought it was already pretty well-accepted that the problems are being caused by a failure to grow funding commensurate with the growth in veterans? The primary cause of the problem was directly linking the bonus payout for VA facility directors to patient turn-around, which makes it ever so easy to push the idea of not putting people on a waiting list. Edit: It all began in the 80's when they decided to make medical facility directors business professionals instead of medical professionals. AlternateNu fucked around with this message at 17:02 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 16:57
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You know the VA could be both underfunded and mismanaged at the same time right? That's probably the closest to the truth.
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May 30, 2014 16:59
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Wonder what poor soul is going to have that position inflicted upon them. Probably one of the biggest "Damned if you do, damned if you don't" seats in the government.
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May 30, 2014 17:03
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Somewhere, Leon Panetta's phone is ringing.
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May 30, 2014 17:05
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http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5417540 House GOP killed an anti wage theft bill
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May 30, 2014 17:05
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I find it pretty hard not to put a lot of the blame on Shinseki. Those offices should have been audited and he should have known what was going on. There was definitely some level of acknowledgment that this kind of thing was happening and nobody wanted to be the one to shine a light on it. If this was confined to just one office then I'd be more forgiving but it doesn't seem like that's the case. I don't think firing Shinseki will help veterans but he certainly should be fired for his inaction.
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May 30, 2014 17:07
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I heard a snippet of Shinseki's address from this morning... I don't remember hearing his resignation but he did say that he fired the top brass in the Phoenix VA system, requested Congress give the Secretary of the VA easier ability to fire VA officials, and said he made changes to do away with wait times/turn-around time as a factor on pay raise/promotion/etc. decisions. Unfortunately it sounds like he made a few necessary changes but too late to save himself from this quagmire. The most frustrating thing is how he's been demonized for all this and will leave in shame most likely, whereas bank owners and CEOs, if they had to leave at all after the financial collapse, left with golden parachutes and jobs waiting in other companies. I mean poo poo did Jamie Diamond ever get ousted from anything? "Heads need to roll!*" *Government heads, not job creators' heads EDIT: He also admitted that after looking through records and internal audits, that this was a widespread issue and also admitted he apparently put too much trust into the wrong people.
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May 30, 2014 17:12
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Good Citizen posted:I find it pretty hard not to put a lot of the blame on Shinseki. Those offices should have been audited and he should have known what was going on. There was definitely some level of acknowledgment that this kind of thing was happening and nobody wanted to be the one to shine a light on it. The GAO has been writing reports on this for a while. Vets groups have been complaining for a while. This involved massive malfeasance on the part of VA staff. For the scam to work it involved the cooperation if a huge number of people ranging from the telephone operators who had to keep some appointment requests out of the system to senior managers who had to turning off the audit controls on the hospital’s scheduling software to make it impossible to know who manipulated the system and how. It had been reported and they ignored it and let massive amounts of the staff to collude because ignoring the problem was easier than admitting the problems with the 14 day target, funding, access, and organization. He needed to go
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May 30, 2014 17:18
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Amergin posted:Unfortunately it sounds like he made a few necessary changes but too late to save himself from this quagmire. The most frustrating thing is how he's been demonized for all this and will leave in shame most likely, whereas bank owners and CEOs, if they had to leave at all after the financial collapse, left with golden parachutes and jobs waiting in other companies. I mean poo poo did Jamie Diamond ever get ousted from anything? Well Dimon's getting a 74% raise. That's practically criticism right? It could have been 200%.
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May 30, 2014 17:23
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Amergin posted:Is US Politics June: Alcoholics to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right too long for the title? US Politics June: Drunks to the Left of Me, Jokers to the Right scans better, and is a little shorter. Though I favor US Politics June - I Need A Drink as it would mark two in a row for me taking something someone else said and getting it made a thread title. 
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May 30, 2014 17:25
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Economic Upswing has Fewer Americans on Food Stamps http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2014/05/29/317060656/economic-upswing-has-fewer-americans-receiving-food-stamps Enjoy everything while it lasts, gentlemen. The GOP will erase any progress very soon.
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May 30, 2014 17:33
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I just finished watching The Unknown Known and I was just uncomfortable the whole time through. I felt very little regret or remorse or even just bare acknowledgement from Rumsfeld, all the way up through "well, stuff just happens!" A very different film from Fog of War and Robert McNamara
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May 30, 2014 17:34
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USA Politics June: Look upon my wonks, ye Righty, and despair
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May 30, 2014 17:36
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gradenko_2000 posted:I just finished watching The Unknown Known and I was just uncomfortable the whole time through. I felt very little regret or remorse or even just bare acknowledgement from Rumsfeld, all the way up through "well, stuff just happens!" Yeah, I finally got around to watching it myself recently and the contrast between the two films, and men, is striking. With McNamara, you can come away with a sense of empathy for a well-intentioned man who nevertheless slowly and progressively did horrible things in the service of what he mistakenly thought was the proper course of action. With Rumsfeld, he's just a loving rear end in a top hat.
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May 30, 2014 17:37
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rear end in a top hat doesn't quite cover it. He's the ultimate case study in when self-assurance crosses over into mental illness.
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May 30, 2014 17:39
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mooyashi posted:USA Politics June: Look upon my wonks, ye Righty, and despair Wait no Look upon my perks, ye righty, of healthcare
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May 30, 2014 17:39
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SedanChair posted:rear end in a top hat doesn't quite cover it. He's the ultimate case study in when self-assurance crosses over into mental illness. True. I'd like to think that with the passage of time, the weight of his misdeeds will bear down heavily enough to cause a break and we'll get an actual McNamara-level reveal. I'd like to think that, really I would. I need a drink. 
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May 30, 2014 17:41
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mooyashi posted:Wait no Look upon my perks, ye righty, of healthcare These are both gold, thank you for making my lunch hour. Wait upon my lists, Shinseki, no healthcare
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May 30, 2014 17:42
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Fried Chicken posted:http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5417540 quote:"No one knows what the amendment does. If you know what this amendment does, you should vote for it, because nobody else seems to know. That's one of the problems [that] these things come rolling in at 10:15," Wolf said. "I don't know what it does, so I don't want to vote for it. I strongly urge, in the interest of making sure that this place does not mess up, a no vote." Really? REALLY? "Hey guys let's stop doing business with assholes who have a record of wage violations." "What does that mean?!"
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May 30, 2014 17:47
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gradenko_2000 posted:I just finished watching The Unknown Known and I was just uncomfortable the whole time through. I felt very little regret or remorse or even just bare acknowledgement from Rumsfeld, all the way up through "well, stuff just happens!" To tie this back into Shinseki, I feel really bad for him because he was one of the few in the military who called Rumsfeld out on his ridiculous plans to seize and stabilize Iraq with a minimal amount of troops, Shinseki thought that something like 300 thousand troops would be necessary from day one. And now the mess that was in part caused by people ignoring him forced him out of the Obama administration.
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May 30, 2014 17:48
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DemeaninDemon posted:Really? REALLY? Well it's say that or reveal that you sincerely believe that employers should have the right to do whatever the gently caress they want to their workers. It's a pretty standard tactic when the only actual reasons for opposing something are nefarious as gently caress.
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May 30, 2014 17:49
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DemeaninDemon posted:Really? REALLY?
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May 30, 2014 17:51
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Buh? Obamacare??? This bill is a billion pages long I don't know what it does!!!! I can't read it even though it's my job and I employ a staff of policy wonks to do nothing but read bills!!!! If I could find a loving bill number anywhere on this I could probably find the text of the amendment, which is likely only a few pages long and probably just the transcribed text from another bill that has long been filed and maybe even heard before a committee. zoux fucked around with this message at 17:57 on May 30, 2014 |
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May 30, 2014 17:53
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Up next in the US House is HR1914, the Restoration of Business Freedom Act. This bill allows business owners to pay their employees in what ever currency they deem necessary so long as they provide affordable housing to said employees.
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May 30, 2014 18:00
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mooyashi posted:USA Politics June: Look upon my wonks, ye Righty, and despair I like it. e: or the other one.
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May 30, 2014 18:00
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DemeaninDemon posted:Up next in the US House is HR1914, the Restoration of Business Freedom Act. This bill allows business owners to pay their employees in what ever currency they deem necessary so long as they provide affordable housing to said employees.  DON'T GIVE THEM ANY IDEAS
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May 30, 2014 18:02
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I'm sure there's already an ALEC sponsored bill written up just waiting for the right time to ram through congress.
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May 30, 2014 18:07
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Congressmen propose new commission to fix Social Security Wait! Before you get out the pitchforks: quote:Delaney said he is personally in favor of increasing funding for Social Security benefits by raising the maximum taxable income and introducing a new threshold to increase payroll taxes paid by higher earners. There's some evidence that Americans would back this approach. I'm sure whatever they come up with will shift the debate and we'll see something that can get bipartisan support in both chambers 
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May 30, 2014 18:24
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the Alabama Legislature is bringing back voucher tests for voters who don't have photo id Voucher tests, along with literacy tests, are explicitly banned by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 Gosh, it is so weird that voter I'd laws are being paired with Jim Crow laws used to suppress the vote. How could that happen since they are about voting integrity and not a transparent attempt to keep black people from voting?
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May 30, 2014 18:40
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Fried Chicken posted:the Alabama Legislature is bringing back voucher tests for voters who don't have photo id Because it's definitely worth making black people all over the country hate your party to win elections in Alabama by 47% as opposed to 45%.
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May 30, 2014 18:44
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mcmagic posted:Because it's definitely worth making black people all over the country hate your party to win elections in Alabama by 47% as opposed to 45%. As if black people all over the country didn't already hate the conservatives. (Most, anyway). I've always personally held that the staunch support we black people throw behind the D's is a double-edged sword in that they can always count on us to vote for them so they won't really pander to us that much. Can you imagine the political makeup of this country if the right-wing weren't all racists at heart and would try to honestly court black voters? We'd probably not have much of a right wing.
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May 30, 2014 18:47
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Fried Chicken posted:the Alabama Legislature is bringing back voucher tests for voters who don't have photo id This is the kind of thing that would've been caught by preclearance, no?
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May 30, 2014 18:48
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Fried Chicken posted:the Alabama Legislature is bringing back voucher tests for voters who don't have photo id That's not a voucher test though? In Kentucky to vote we have to show a photo id or some form of non photo id, or be known by one of the poll workers. Alabama would be implementing this same system without the non photo id option. A voucher test is where an election official is required to vouch for you to vote at all.
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May 30, 2014 18:51
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http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/medicare-coverage-ban-sex-change-surgery-lifted-23930665* Medicare will now cover gender reassignment surgery. Well, I didn't see that one coming. The trans movement has generally been left in the dirt as other causes advanced. I mean, you have to be old as dirt to get it covered, but it is still a step towards equality.
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May 30, 2014 18:52
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