Foundation For Veterans Rights

I get a lot of questions and comments here so I thought it was time to add a section on frequently asked questions. This is just to get the ball rolling, I will add to this as I think of some more.

1) How long have you been blogging? I started this blog about 2 years ago, in August 2009.

2) Is this a paid or custom theme? A friend of mine helped me with some aspects of my main website, this theme and put my book into ebook form.

3) Do you have a newsletter? Yes, it is on the main website. There is a link to download my book in the first letter (free). There is also a donation link. The main website address is http://www.foundationforveteransrights.com

I will add to this later….

Let’s make it difficult is one of, if not, the favorite game of the government. In every game there are goals that must be met. Most games will have a winner and a loser, a few games can end in a stalemate, however, this is not one of them, there is always going to be a winner and a loser. We will be doing a few simulated games soon, but first, we have to define our goals.

1) This first goal should be painfully obvious, make a list of potential problems.

2) Goal number 2 is multi-phase, we have to determine the easiest problem to fix and which will do the most good and then it’s a coin toss as to which is included in the game.

3) If by some miracle there are no problems, create some, (real or imaginary) and refer to Goals 1 and 2

4) Remember, goals 1 and 2 are absolutely critical to the game, any mistake can be catastrophic, boredom will set in and the fun will be gone.  After the coin toss and the problem has been identified, strategies must be carefully thought out.

When I started on all of this, one of the first things I had to do was figure out what all of this was going to be, what I wanted to do, how I was going to do it  and most importantly how to use it to reach my objective. I am still working on that last part of the equation.

As I see it, my job is not to make anyone agree with a single word that I have said or will say. This is not intended to offend anyone, especially my devoted fans. Agreeing or disagreeing are both irrelevant. The level of agreement doesn’t matter either.

The way I see it, my job is to inform the public, I do that by translating the political gibberish, double – talk and outright lies (moron speak) into normal every day people speak, something that Joe Q. Public can understand.

I report the facts as I see them, no one has to agree with me. The vast majority of the comments that I have received have been positive and supportive, however, there have been a few confused, delusional souls out there that believe that  some of what I have said is unfounded, made up or whatever. The good news is, they have medication for that. Do yourself a favor before starting on them, check out the side effects since The F.D.A. has probably approved them.

There have also been a couple of comments from someone that thinks that what I have said is open for debate and worse, that they could win it, it isn’t and they couldn’t. Since what I have said is based on fact and reality, there is nothing and no one that will ever convince me otherwise.

One of my goals is to expose the politicians involved in the conspiracy to avoid their responsibility to Veterans and the families of servicemen /women. To start out, this was done under the illusion of helping Veterans when they were in the developmental stages of setting up The Department Of Veterans Affairs.

In order to avoid responsibility and still appear to care about us, there had to be a set of guidelines, rules and codes already in place for V.A. to follow. Of course, these have to be amendable so that when one of us wins or gets too close, changes can be made.

The D.V.A. didn’t just suddenly appear to be our saviour…… I need to back up just a little bit here…. For those of you that don’t know, as American citizens and voters, if you are a glutton for punishment, you can you can go to Washington and sit in the gallery and listen to political debates. There are also times that you can speak /testify on certain matters. News cameras are also allowed during some of these. By the way, this also applies to your state Congress and Senate. However, none of these applied to the formation of The D.V.A.

                                     Updated on 02/21/2011

When V.A. was formed, it was all done behind closed doors, very hush – hush, no public or media allowed. Everything had to be set up, the Congressional mandates, codes etc. in place, look at your denial and award letters, they tell you which mandates and codes were used against you. They will start with, 38 U.S. and 38 U.S.C., that is Congress, if these were by V.A., it would be 38 D.V.A. or something to that effect. I lovingly refer to these policies as their, “Deny Until We Die” (D.U.W.D.) << (not to be confused with the cool type of “dude”) policies.

These mandates and codes that V.A. has to follow, (V.A. does not have the authority to make a real decision), as well as the way the system is set up, are the reason there are thousands of homeless Veterans. When we lose our status of being an asset, whether by injury, illness or death, we are seen as liabilities to be tossed aside and forgotten.  The government spends millions of dollars every year to avoid it’s responsibility to us, both medically and financially.

                                             Updated on 02/28/2011

Some of you have given me way too much credit in your praise of what I am doing, not that I am complaining or anything like that. Some have called me an expert on this subject, I don’t know about that. I have made more than a few mistakes over the years and that is okay. What I mean is, it’s okay to make mistakes, as long as they don’t hurt anyone, you can acknowledge them and you learn from them.

Some of you have said that you have gone from inexperienced to experts just by reading what I have written, I wouldn’t go that far. I do not consider myself an expert, I have learned a lot over the years, some through mistakes, some by accident. When I say by accident, I mean that I accidentally talked to someone that knew and was willing to tell me the truth. I have to admit that I had some very mixed feelings on those occasions, besides being grateful, there was anger and frustration over the whole deal.

Just out of curiosity, how many of you woke up one morning and decided that you wanted to be unemployed? How about dead – broke? In pain every minute of every day? Homeless? In debt up to your ears? Anyone? No? Just as I suspected, none of this was ever part of my plans either. Like all of you, I had plans for my life.

I’m going to go a little off topic here but stick with me. I grew up on a small farm, we never had much but I enjoyed it. When I went into the service, I sent money back home to take care of my livestock. I even bought 2 cows with calves while I was overseas….. I bought them from a guy that we had done business with for several years in Illinois. I called home one day and mom told me that he had offered them to her but she didn’t have the money and he had told her to ask me if I wanted them.

Any way, I told mom that I didn’t have it either, a few days later, I got a letter. It was actually a loan application, he had already co-signed the loan so that I could buy his cows and calves.  Now to make a short story long… oops, to make a long story short, I ended up having to sell out after I left active duty. With the exception of those 2 cows and their calves, I had raised all of them, their mothers and some of their grandmothers, oh wait, I almost forgot, there was one other calf that I had bought when my aunt and uncle bought the farm down here. I had came home on leave to help move since most of the livestock was mine. I bought and picked up that calf the evening before we left. 

I was only getting $105.00 per week unemployment, every place that I went looking for work here said that they would like to hire me but that I would be gone as soon as something better came along. Being a helicopter mechanic worked against me. Shortly after being forced to sell out, I moved back to Illinois. I had always planned to one day get back into cattle and horses.  

I went to college and took some diesel technology classes, I went to a trade school to learn to be a heavy equipment operator. My next step was to get my commercial drivers license (CDL), I figured that between the 3 of them I could find a decent job and at the same time I figured that they would come in handy later when I was able to buy some land, cattle and horses. I was in the reserves during this time also, working on getting a civil service job working on helicopters…. my injury ended all of that in one fell swoop. Not to mention putting me thousands of dollars in debt for things I can’t use.

These are some of the reasons that I am doing all of this. I may just be a dumb ole country boy, I don’t have all of that high fallutin’ book learnin’ like most politicians but I do know right from wrong. It’s about 5:30 am and I haven’t slept yet, this is nothing new, I’m usually up until somewhere between late and late : 30 any way.

                                Updated On 03/05/2011

I have lost out on more opportunities than I care to think about not to mention the thousands of dollars that went out the window with them. I have no interest in working for someone else, I look at different things that I am interested in doing and almost every day something else is gone and I blame every single bit of it on the government and their policies that are in place.

When I allow myself to think about all of this, I get so frustrated with the whole situation. I realize that none of this matters to anyone but me and a few friends and family members that I have always planned to bring in on it. Does that mean that it doesn’t matter since it’s just me? What about your plans, hopes and dreams? How many times have you been forced to change them? Abandon them? Did it matter to anyone else?

What I am trying to say is even if they only matter to you and a select few others, they still matter. I am also saying that we should not give up on them based on what someone else says. I am the only person on this planet, no, scratch that, within 150 galaxies in any direction that is qualified to make any decision that effects me, my plans or my life. All that I want is the compensation that I deserve, my back-pay and a chance. Don’t you deserve the same? That is why I am doing all of this. That is also why I have said that opinions do not matter to me, I am the only one dealing with my problems and my opinion is the only one that matters because it is based on fact and reality.

                                Updated On May 10, 2011

I just started another round of Spinal Decompression Therapy last week. I have 3 sessions per week consisting of an adjustment, spinal decompression and therapy. The adjustment pops everything back into place before the spinal decompression is done. Then I am strapped down on a split table and hooked to a machine to pull and stretch my spine. Once that is done, I get hooked to another machine for the therapy (probably my favorite part), the muscles are stimulated and relaxed by this.

My muscles pull back against the machine during decompression and  get a little sore. None of it actually hurts, I feel a little better after each one. I highly recommend it to anyone with back problems. A friend had back surgery several years ago, even if I hadn’t already decided that would never happen to me, seeing what he went through would have made the decision an easy one.

I don’t care who the doctor is, how experienced or anything else, no one is carving on my spine. All it would take is one little oops and you’re in a wheelchair or bed for life. Between these and other appointments, it is hard for me to get in here as often as I would like to. I have a very important letter to get finished and sent, I am also copying it under the, “Just for Fun” tab.

 I sent this to Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler earlier today. I thought it might be fun to post it here and post her reply when it comes. I told her that I would be posting it here and didn’t want her to be disappointed if she wandered by to read my work.                 

 Subject:  I Don’t Expect A Real Answer

 I’m not sure whether to call you Congresswoman Hartzler or Representative Hartzler so I’ll let you choose. As the subject says, I don’t expect a real answer.  Having played these pathetic games with the government for almost 22 years,  (35 years if you count my military service).

 I know that I have the right to ask my elected officials for help. Don’t
worry, I’m not asking for your help. I know what happens when I have the
audacity to exercise my rights and ask for help. To date, I have asked
for the help of former Senator Jim Talent (twice), former Congressman Ike
Skelton (twice), Senator Claire McCaskill (once), almost forgot Senator
Christopher (Kit) Bond (3 times).

 Interested in knowing the results? I’m going to tell you either way. Senator Talent and Congressman Skelton each sent in (2) official inquiries, Senator McCaskill sent in (1), Senator Bond completely ignored my requests until my last one which was sent to both the Missouri and U.S. Senate by regular mail. By then it was too little, too late, besides, I found out how it all works.

 You see, those (5) inquiries got me an automatic 120 day penalty each for a grand total of 600 penalty days. You may be wondering how I came up with those figures, keep reading we’re just getting to the fun part. You may or may not know this but when one of you sends in an official inquiry, V.A. has 120 days to respond. In the meantime, all work stops on our claim (s), that, in my not so humble opinion is a penalty. Now for the fun part…. ready?

 Over the last 5 or 6 years, I have written a book that is entitled, “Helping One Veteran At A Time”, that details what I have gone through since my injuries. I have also copyrighted my book, purchased several domain names, set up The Foundation For Veterans Rights, Inc. and here’s the best part, my blog where I am exposing the criminally insane, moronish games that we are being forced to play because the government doesn’t want to deal with it’s responsibility to us once our status changes from being an asset to being considered a liability to be tossed aside.

 Here is why I don’t expect a real answer, it doesn’t matter whether I send something through here or by regular mail, I don’t expect it to be read or answered by an actual person, let alone by you personally. What I do expect is to get another worthless form letter that does not even mention a single word that I have said.

 I have also recommended every Veteran and family of a serviceman/woman killed in the line of duty get an attorney rather than wait on the government to do the right thing since very few if any have experience doing that, certainly nothing in recent history. None of you would have those over-paid, do nothing jobs and bloated paychecks if not for the thousands who have served and died or been injured for this country over the last 235 years or so. Speaking of bloated paychecks, I would be too embarrassed to cash a check for doing what the government has done. Not to mention, we would still be speaking The Queens’ English. Have a nice day.

PS: This will be posted on my blog.

PPS: Have a nice day.

                                                           Updated On March 31, 2011

I haven’t slept yet or again or something, it’s nothing new, I’m in my,” sleep a couple hours, every other night” mode. I have an appointment in about 6 hours with a couple of Congresswoman Hartzlers’ staff members to discuss some of the policy changes that have to be made. I have talked to one of her staff members several times over the past couple of weeks. Going in with no sleep and in pain should make my irritability level just about perfect for this.

I attempted to explain this in the above email, I tried to further explain it over the phone when I requested a meeting with the Congresswoman and a previous phone call. The last time we talked, I was told that the Congresswoman was aware of and understands the problems and that she would be looking into them as well as looking at any of the new legislation regarding Veterans. All of that is fine but I have serious doubts about the understanding part.

There has been a lot of new legislation over the years by newly elected officials. Due to that new legislation, a number of programs have been added, others have been modified to help. I am a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due. Some of our elected officials might actually care. Some are trying to create or change programs in order to help us, to fix the problems as they are made aware of them.

Here’s the deal, you can NOT possibly fix the problems if you do not know what they are, some of the,”good ole boys club” members, aka “The Senile Old Fools Club” created the problem. It’s a simple thing to fix but it isn’t going to work out that way. The government will want to play it’s favorite game with this. Can anyone guess the name of the game? No? Hmmm, I’ll give you a hint….. let’s see….. okay, I’ve got it. How do you change a simple problem into something that no one and no amount of money can fix? Anyone? Alright, boys and girls, the name of the game is,”Let’s Make It Difficult”.

                               Updated on April 15, 2011

I am in the process of writing a letter that I will be sending to both the Missouri House and Senate as well as both the U.S. House and Senate and The White House once I finish it. Wanna see what I have so far? Good, here it is.

Attention – Senile Old Fools Club Members

To whom it may concern,

I have never been impressed or more than mildly amused by the ignorance puked out of and on behalf of Washington. I have to admit that it is amazing, I mean just the sheer volume is just absolutely incredible. It’s a real shame that there isn’t any market for it outside of the government and big business.

http://www.foundationforveteransrights.com  click on “read my blog”

By the way, this will be copied under the tab, “Just For Fun”. You see, I am a disabled Veteran. I am also the CEO, Founder and owner of The Foundation For Veterans Rights, Inc. I have some very devoted fans that enjoy my writing. And one more thing, I am pissed off.

I and every Veteran, every current serviceman and woman actually served this country. Not many of you can honestly say the same, some of you serve yourself and whatever big business is willing to buy your vote. You’re there to get what you can for as long as you can. The only service that I have seen from the government is like how a herd bull services his cows. Ready or not, here it comes.

Most of us, myself included don’t have the option of living in a fantasy world, we don’t have multi-billion dollar companies offering to buy our votes. We have to vote our conscience which is not a problem since most of us have one. Speaking of voting, I have noticed that most elections, I have to try to decide not who is going to do the most good but who will do the least damage. I can’t say that I always get it right but that’s not my fault, the problem is a lack of options. There isn’t a box marked, “None Of The Above”.

Obviously, you have forgotten this nations history so I will give you a short history lesson. We gained our independence from England in 1776, over the last 235 years, millions have served, hundreds of thousands have been injured or killed. If not for us, you would not have those overpaid, do nothing jobs and we would still be speaking, “The Queens” English.  

Here is part of why I am pissed…
If this was my company and I had thousands of my employees being injured and killed and I wasn’t providing them with full medical care and compensation, you would all be fighting to be on the committee(s) to come after me. Well, that is unless I was giving you big “contributions”, (code for bribes). Bribery, whether offering or accepting is illegal except in Washington.

How is it any different between what the government has done to Veterans and the families of servicemen/women killed in the line of duty and the above scenario? By the way, that isn’t an actual question because I know the answer. Billions of dollars, taxpayer dollars have been spent in an effort to avoid your responsibility to Veterans and to the families of servicemen and women killed in the line of duty.

You, the government, hid behind closed, locked doors while you put all of your roadblocks, your “deny until we die” policies, mandates and codes in place before the great unveiling of V.A. and announced it to be our saviour. There was no public or media involved until after the fact.

You use a variety of avoidance techniques, a lot of those were bought, borrowed or stolen from insurance companies… (big spenders in Washington). It is wrong to decide claims before an injury or death has occurred, yet every single one of our claims was decided before V.A. was even announced. You just had to wait for the names so that they could be added to the denial letters.

You use percentages of disability, an old standby used by insurance companies to avoid responsibility for years. There are NO percentages of disability, well, there are 2 because you’re either disabled or you’re not, it is just that simple. You have allowed that to go on because it was something that you could use when the time came and of course, the “contributions” made.

I have been told that making changes to policy is a lengthy process, actually it isn’t. It is a very simple thing, you turn it into a lengthy process by playing one of your all time favorite games, “Let’s Make It Difficult”. You have to have your debates that can go on for months. I call these debates, “Circle Jerks”, by the way, how is the “pivot man” determined? Is it voluntary? Luck of the draw? Low man on the totem pole? Simple things are drawn out because in order for some of you to “honor” your obligations to whatever multi-billion dollar company(s) have made “contributions”, backroom deals have to be made to get the bill slipped in when you know it would not make it through otherwise. I believe the term is, “pork”.

I am sure that some of you consider yourselves to be great debaters, I have to agree with the “bater” part, some of you have undoubtedly achieved the rank of, “Master” while a “select” few have gone on to reach the ultimate goal of a “bater, the rank of, “Grand Master”. I would imagine that there are only minor differences between the skill set of a, “Grand Master” and those of a Shaolin Priest. The Shaolin Priest uses meditation to achieve balance, inner peace and tranquility, while the “Grand Master” of “bating”, with just the thought of screwing someone out of something they deserve can achieve “immediate release” for themselves and anyone within a 5 mile radius.

While you’re playing your pathetic moron games and I am working on a way to get to Washington, I have something for you to debate. You can start with repaying one of your oldest debts, yes, I know that there will be some resistance to this, a lot of time, money and effort has gone into avoiding your responsibility to Veterans and the families of servicemen and women killed in the line of duty.

Don’t bother with trying to tell me that you can’t afford to do this, the reason this country is in the state it’s in now is all on you. I am going to help you fix some of this. I am constantly hearing that cuts have to be made, I happen to agree with that much of it. But as usual you’re talking about the wrong ones. You need to be making cuts and changes that will actually make a difference.

Doing the “right” thing, requires making decisions based on fact and reality. Yes, I know it’s a scary thought since very few if any of you have any experience doing this, certainly none in recent history. Don’t be afraid, I’m going to help you with that. You see, I live my life based entirely on fact and reality. My reality is that after I was injured, my status changed from one of being considered an asset to being considered a liability to be tossed aside and forgotten. Your efforts to make me homeless, to force me to accept what you have done and give up or commit suicide have all failed and now we have to deal with that.

Below is a list of things that we will be working on to restore some sort of honor, integrity and a sense of morality to the government. I know that these are meaningless words to some of you but these things must be done in order to reverse some of the damage you have caused. Not long ago, this country was considered a world power but you have managed to break the economy and you have turned this country into a mockery that anyone can punk and pick on at will.

Why is it that none of the proposed cuts that I have heard include your bloated paychecks? You can’t possibly believe that you earn them. By my calculations, over the last 10-12 years, if you took every politicians pay and did a ratio between pay and work, (this has to be actual work to better this country), my guess is that combined you have earned less than 2% of the lowest paid politicians wages or about the equivalent of a small town dogcatcher.

I have heard the term discretionary pay tossed around a lot here lately, this is supposedly a small piece of the budget pie. Some things that have been included are Social Insecurity/Medicare, Veterans, Military and Survivors pay. Wake up morons, none of those are discretionary. People on Social Insecurity have paid into it all of their adult lives or their parents did and have nothing as it is. Those same people have to pay into Medicare for years, whether they use it or not. I have paid into Medicare (almost $100.00 per month) since 1992 and when I was thinking about using it a couple of years ago, they were only going to pay $735.00, this left me with the balance of around $1,800.00 to pay out of my pocket.

Veterans, Military and Survivors pay, These are grouped separately because they are a separate issue altogether. How is it that you can have the audacity to take more from the people that have sacrificed the most and have the least as it is? We will be revisiting this subject shortly, as we get into the economy part of this. The U.S. government is the largest business in the nation! It has been mismanaged from top to bottom and side to side for years. Money is the lifeblood of this country and there are deep bleeding wounds that must be stopped. In order to do that, we must preform a sort of triage to identify, isolate and treat the wounds.

1) Political Term and Wage Limits – The term, “Career Politician” needs to become obsolete or at the very least be redefined. Personally, I’m thinking 4 terms or 20 years maximum. It would not matter if you go from dogcatcher to Mayor, Governor or state office to U.S Congress or Senate to President or any combination of those, 20 years is the maximum. In that time frame you will have done as much good as you’re going to, it will also limit the amount of damage you can do and it will help to keep those bloated paychecks to a minimum.

1b) Wages – It is wrong for politicians to be able to vote themselves a raise. Taxpayers pay your salaries and it should be up to the voters. In my not so humble opinion, using the above calculations, a 70% pay cut across the board for all politicians. This will cut into the deficit that you have made, you will still be getting 28-30% more than you earn plus whatever you’ve managed to hide away. I know, some of you newer politicians aren’t going to like that part, some because you haven’t had time to make connections and squirrel much away, others because you haven’t gone down that road…. yet.

2) Redundant, Unused and Unnecessary – This, I think, is the trifecta! Every single state in the union has these. Redundant = multiple offices doing the same or overlapping jobs, some with little or no communication between them… (think C.I.A., F.B.I. and Homeland Insecurity). Not all multiple office programs should be considered redundant, take M.O.C.A. for instance. M.O.C.A. = Missouri Community Action they help lower income people with heating assistance, insulation, weatherproofing or at least they used to before the government decided that lower income people didn’t matter and took away their funding.

2b) Unused – over the last 10 or 15 years there have been quite a few military bases abandoned and just sitting. I have done several searches, looking into the possibility of buying some of that surplus land. I found some very scary things that I had not considered prior to these searches. Before anyone seriously considers buying surplus land, do your homework because there are likely to be some hidden costs that could be deadly. There are underground storage tanks full of old fuel, aviation, diesel and gas. Used oil, transmission fluids, cleaning solvents etc. You would have to rent the E.P.A. and several Haz-Mat teams and who knows what else to clean this up. It would probably be a good idea to hire someone privately to test the water, ground and air to check for contamination since the E.P.A. is part of the government. Might be a good idea to have a bomb squad check for unexploded ordinance while you’re at it.

2c) Unnecessary – here is a biggy! This one alone has cost taxpayers billions of dollars as well as become a national embarrassment. Over the last 235 years, millions have served, hundreds of thousands have been injured or killed in the line of duty and very damned few have got the compensation they deserve. There are thousands of homeless Veterans due to the criminally insane policies, mandates and codes that are being used against us. Plain and simple, this is and always has been about avoidance of responsibility, nothing more and nothing less.

The use of percentages of disability, denials, appeals and hearings and a vast array of stalling tactics that are being used serve no purpose other than to avoid responsibility. I have to wonder how many more businesses would be owned by Veterans if we were getting the compensation and back pay that we deserve. I also have to wonder how much better off the country would be.

Let’s look at this from a standpoint of pure reality for a few minutes…. I’m sure that we can all agree that billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent to avoid responsibility to Veterans and the families of servicemen/women killed in the line of duty each year, appeals and hearings alone have cost that, not to mention hiring thousands of professional pukers to puke your ignorance after you have puked it into their mouths.

The way I see it, I look at the government like a pack of rabid jackals after feeding on a carcass, (anyone they have managed to avoid their responsibility to), you go back to your lair and puke whatever ignorance you have come up with into the mouths of your pups (underlings). Once full, they re-puke the excess in our direction.

Personally, I can’t afford to take the decisions made on my claims seriously, hell, I can barely afford to pay attention most of the time. The whole hearing and appeals process is such a sad, pathetic joke, for that matter, we have to include the government here.

I’ve been hearing a lot of nonsense about making more cuts to medicare, not paying Social Insecurity, Veterans and the military to make the payments on the debt you have caused, I’ll give you some free advice, if you do that, be prepared to file for unemployment, ohh wait, with your rediculous, “Golden Parachutes” from taxpayer dollars, you don’t have to worry about that or collecting Social Insecurity or dealing with medicare, do you?  On second thought, don’t be surprised when you find yourselves voted out of your over-paid, do nothing offices.

All of this could have been avoided if someone had tried. I know that we can agree that with the governments experience avoiding responsibility, there is no legitimate reason for any of this to have happened. You could have taken that experience, modified it and prevented putting this country into the depression that your ignorance has caused. What the hell really happened? Did your arrogance cause you to do this just to see if you could?

You(the government) have a serious problem with reality, you stick your noses in where they are not wanted or needed, you look the other way when you should be watching. You have the audacity to say that other governments are greedy and corrupt, I have a newsflash, it isn’t limited to other countries. The whole time that this current depression was in the works you looked the other way until it was too damned late.

Banks were giving out loans like there was no tomorrow. Most of those loans were knowingly given to people that could not possibly keep up the payments. We can’t leave out insurance companies or Wall Street doing their part. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, those are yours’, they were insuring those
loans too. Those loans were packaged and sold, repeatedly in some cases, Wall Street padded the value of the banks and insurance companies and, well the rest is history as they say.

A “responsible” government would have stepped in and got things under control, not exactly what happened was it? You effectively put not only our country into a depression, you attempted to break the world economy. And then to add insult to injury, yes, (another specialty of yours) you reward them with over 1.6 trillion dollars of borrowed money in bonuses for doing their
part.

If Veterans and the families of servicemen/women were getting the compensation and back-pay that we deserve, the economy would be so much different. How many would have bought homes, land etc.? How many businesses would have been started or expanded? Vehicles and equipment bought? Of these, how many would have been done without having to borrow money? How much money would have gone into the local economy?

Speaking for myself, if I had the compensation and back-pay that I deserve, I would have been able to do all of the above and felt like I made a contribution. Also speaking for myself, I would not mind being taxed on my benefits if I was actually getting what I should be. I believe that given the choice of having nothing and not paying taxes on our compensation or getting what we deserve and paying taxes on it, most would choose the latter. This does not include our back-pay however, we’ll just call that interest and a penalty fee.

By the way, when I say back-pay, that is to the day of our injury, illness or death, not the date filed since it is your policy to withhold our line of duty for months or in some cases never being given and we can’t file a claim until we have it in hand. I have talked to several Veterans that never got one from
their unit, I wasn’t told about needing one until a couple of friends asked me about having one. I had to ask my unit for mine, I asked every month from August 1989 until January of 1990 before I got it. That was my last day in the Reserves.

Nothing was done in Corpus Cristi, TX when it happened and nothing was done when I went to the base hospital at Scott A.F.B., IL. All the doctors did was poke around on my neck and shoulders and told me that I would be in pain for awhile, I had already figured that much out on my own. Kinda like how I got some of my mobility back, on my own. I was not able to look up, down or to either side for 8-10 months because of swelling in my neck and shoulders.

All of this is done for one purpose, to avoid responsibility. It doesn’t matter how that is accomplished. Whether we are forced to become homeless, (if the government can’t contact you, your claim is going to be dropped), the post office will not deliver, the phone and electric companies will not hook you up if you live in the second refridgerator box left of the dumpster behind the
local Walmart Super Center. Furthermore, if you commit suicide, or get locked up, the government wins. Case closed!

This ignorance, as incredible as it is, has cost me more opportunities and money than I care to think about over the years. That is not even including the compensation that should be automatic and retroactive to the date I was injured. This is a daily source of frustration and stress for me as I am forced to watch another opportunity go away. Not that any of you give a damn, this is a bonus or consulation prize for you since you failed to make me homeless, not that you didn’t try.

You might have succeded if not for my family and friends. I went without a dime of income for over a year. I filed a claim with V.A. and was denied, I filed for Social Insecurity and I was denied. I appealed both, won Social Security and a pathetic 10% award from V.A., once I got the back-pay from those I paid everyone back, bought a few things for myself and I was broke
again. I have managed to win a little more, here and there along the way. It’s strange though, this a straight up V.A. problem, meaning that I should not even be on Social Insecurity and yet, I get more from them than from V.A.

I was told that V.A. doesn’t pay for pain, umm newsflash morons, pain is one of the main problems that we are being compensated for. My initial reaction was, “are you really this stupid or do you just like for people to think you are”? Another fine example of taxpayer dollars hard at work. All of the ignorance that I have seen, heard and dealt with over the years has convinced me that in order to get those government jobs and keep them, you have to (1) be a moron and (2) be able to prove with no advance notice.

I have had a lot of money stolen out of my checks for medications that I take for service-connected problems. I don’t care what V.A. has in my file, my line of duty made my claim, everything after that is bullshit. I have told them repeatedly to stop stealing money from me, that everything has been for service-connected problems, they do an inquiry and tell me that it isn’t service-connected according to V.A. It is really boring being called a liar.

Besides my compensation and back-pay, I want every penny that has been stolen from my checks. I was told that their records only go back 7 years, (I think). It’s really simple, add that up, multiply by 5 and send me the check. Yes, I know, I’m coming up on 22 years next month since my injury and I know how to multiply too. We’ll just call the amount over the 22 years interest and aggrevation for bounced checks, utilities and phone being turned off, the reconnection fees etc. I almost forgot this, after years in appeals and multple hearings, I was forced to get an attorney and I will lose 20% right off of the top, I’ll be expecting that back as well when we get finished.

I have sent my book, emails and letters by regular mail to both The Missouri House and Senate, The U.S. House and Senate, The White House and both U.S. Committees on Veterans Affairs and I have never once got a real response. I use auto-responders myself so I know a form letter when I see one. Besides, I know they are nothing more than that because not once have any of you addressed a single word that I said, the form letters are triggered by keywords, usually found in the subject or the topic that you click on.

I sent my book to our current President and to Bush, both sent me a letter saying that it was forwarded to V.A. because, “they have the expertice to deal with it”. What a sad, pathetic joke! If they were dealing with it, I wouldn’t have had to write it, I wouldn’t have had to form The Foundation For Veterans Rights, Inc. There would be no need for organizations like The Wounded Warrior Project or any of the others that are taking care of your damned responsibilities. There wouldn’t be thousands of homeless Veterans.
How many Veterans have you caused to commit suicide with your
ignorance?

When the National “Screw” A Veteran Program (N.F.A.V.P.)(umm not the good way), was set up, how were the bonuses broken down? I’m sure that homeless and suicide have to pay top dollar since those would be considered an automatic win. Spending decades in appeals and hearings has to rate right up there at the top as well. There is no legitimate reason for any of this, this is and always has been about avoidance of responsibility.

I have asked for meetings here in Missouri and was told that they can’t set one up. That is really pathetic, I mean, setting up a meeting is a simple thing, you look at a schedule, you ask a few questions and pencil something in. I absolutely hate the idea of coming to Washington, I don’t fly, I don’t think that I could handle a bus ride that far and driving will take me several days
since I can only drive for about 3 or 4 hours on a good day and it takes me awhile to recover, I may or may not be able to do it all again the next day. Driving for 3 or 4 hours every other day, it may take me a week to get there, another day or 2 to recover again before I can get started, you people suck!

P.S. Have a nice day

Steven Wallace
CEO, Founder and Owner of
The Foundation For Veterans Rights, Inc.
25336 Pennbrook Ln.
Lebanon, MO. 65536
417)532-1486

Well that’s that, I have to print another copy and get ready to send these to Washington, any thoughts?

The Food and Drug Administration (F.D.A.) is supposedly responsible for checking and testing what goes into our food and medications. As we see almost every day, there are lawyers popping up with lawsuits for different problems associated with medications.

There are also ads for different medications that often have a long list of possible side effects that in my mind would be as bad or worse than the original problem being dealt with. There is no where near enough testing done, as long as the company puts a warning label on it covers their ass for awhile at least. Does the term, “Human Guinea Pig” mean anything to you?

How many of you would knowingly use an industrial cleaner to wash your hair? How about your body? Brushing your teeth? Not to mention your kids. You may not be knowingly doing it but chances are that you have been every day and The F.D.A. allows it. Go check for yourself, you’re looking for Sodium Laurel Sulfate (SLS)….. among others. I’ll wait here until you get back. By the way, Sodium Laurel Sulfate is a carcinogen (Cancer causing poison) used for cleaning engines etc.

I have watched a lot of commercials both from lawyers and from companies promoting some new medication and it scares the hell out of me. How do you decide on something like that? Do you go down the list saying well I have that, I don’t have that one, hey that one sounds interesting? Seriously what do you do? F.D.A. approval doesn’t mean a whole lot to me other than one day, I or my family and some lawyer are going to collect a lot of money.

                                   Updated on 02/09/2011

I would like to see some of the pharmaceutical companies working on an “anti – moron-ism” suppository made specifically for government officials and their cronies. The F.D.A. could also approve some kind of high pressure, “ice water” enema in the meantime to force government officials head out of their rectal cavities.

The “anti – moron-ism” suppository would have to be inserted past their heads and immediately swell, thus forcing their heads out so they can smell what they’ve been shoveling for so long. Precautions would have to be in place, specially trained E.M.T.’s and Haz-Mat teams would have to be on hand, I would advise high pressure washers, full chemical suits and plenty of barf bags.

I own several other domain names related to the foundation and if you don’t mind I would appreciate it if you would just click on the links or copy them into your address bar. They are all set up to forward you to the foundation website which is http://www.foundationforveteransrights.com , http://www.nomorehomelessveterans.com, http://www.disabledveteransonline.com, http://www.fightingfortherightsofvets.com, http://www.veteranshelpingveterans.info, http://www.helpingoneveteranatatime.com

For my regulars, I would like to get your opinion on something, there is another theme that I kinda like because it is easier for me to read. Let me know if you like this or the new one better.

                             A Request In Regards To Comments

This time of year is very hard for me, the weather changes cause me a lot of additional pain. As a result, I can only stand, sit or lay in one position for a short time, this limits my ability to get anything done…….

I get an email on every comment made. I would appreciate it if you would limit yourself to a single comment, you can reference any or all of the posts in that comment. Some of you have made comments on each post which I wouldn’t mind so much if they were not just duplicate comments at the same time.

Besides the initial email for each comment, I have to come here and go through them again. I have to remove links, delete outright ads etc. and then approve the comments and then I get an additional email telling me that the comment has been approved. All of this takes considerable time and effort on my part, it also takes time away from working on or making new posts.

                                 Updated on 02/09/2011

I seem to be getting a lot of visitors from other countries, which is not a problem in any way. If you are from a country other than that United States and you wish to leave a comment, it must be in English for me to approve it. The Foundation For Veterans Rights, Inc., this blog and the foundation website are primarily for American Veterans, servicemen/women and the families of servicemen/women killed in the line of duty. One more thing, if you leave an anti – American comment, do not be surprised when it is not approved.

Well it’s all the same, only the names have changed, every day it seems we’re wasting away……

Some times I tell the day, by the bottle that you drink, some times when you’re alone,  all you do is think…..

That is from one of my favorite songs, “Wanted Dead Or Alive” by  Bon Jovi. When I started thinking about this, Reverse Robin-hood and The Great Debaters, that song kept popping into my head. The more I thought about it, the more relevant it seemed, at least to me.

One definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. There is another election coming up in a couple of months. I’ll come back to this shortly…  OK, I’m back. Did you miss me?

I had thought about something and thought that I had put it into one of these posts but can’t seem to find it at the moment, that is what I was doing, looking through the last few posts.

I was watching something the other day and someone made a remark that really bothered me. Since I consider most politicians to be over paid professional liars and thieves, and most of the media that does those little talk show type things to be morons, I have an automatic, redundant system that tunes them out, (don’t tell anyone this but my system is to stick a finger into each ear and sing , “la la la la la la la la la” until they stop.)

Any way, the remark was something to the effect that large corporations put politicians into office, they do NOT. They turn politicians from millionaires into billionaires. They give them the money to get their faces in front of the public and for their campaigns, but the CEO of a corporation only has one vote as far as I know.

One of the problems that I have had doing all of this and writing my book is that I skip around a lot, I’ll get an idea and will want to get it down before I forget and having to figure out where to put it. Sometimes I will put it in one area and realize that it should go somewhere else or that I need to start a new post or in the case of my book, a new chapter.

I am actually having a problem with that right now and my medication is kicking in which is not helping with this. In the mean time, I don’t want to lose my train of thought, so…, back to the definition of insanity. I had heard this definition before and was reminded of it a few weeks ago during the Missouri Congressional primaries.

We have an election coming up in just a couple of months, if we continue sending the same people or the same type of people, meaning career politicians, how can we expect anything to change? Let’s face facts, the government is a business, the biggest business in this country and it keeps getting bigger.

Another fact is:  that business has been mismanaged for years. Ridiculous, one sided trade agreements have been put into place that give a 20 : 1 advantage to other countries. For every dollar that they spend on American products, we have to spend twenty on theirs.

Social Insecurity was a good idea when it was formed. The problem is that the amount taken in and the amounts being paid out are so far out of balance that it will be broke soon. They are still using the same formula established in the 1960′s as far as what is being paid into Social Insecurity to pay living expenses today and beyond. Not to mention so many jobs being exported along with the revenues from them.

Millionaire politicians working for the benefit of themselves and their corporate friends rather than do what is best for the country. When I started working on this, my book and these blogs, I wanted to stay away from politics. I soon realized that would be nearly impossible since the problems that Veterans, families of servicemen/women killed in the line of duty and the nation in general all start and end with politics, greed and corruption.

There has to be a set of mandates sent to Washington and to each state for that matter. There has to be accountability, not to corporations but to the people that put them into office -  the voters. There are so many redundant government offices, getting rid of those will save taxpayers a lot of money.

Getting rid of those redundant offices is not enough, those that remain have to be operated correctly. The ridiculous trade agreements have to be brought into a more realistic format. We have to say, “no more” to the behind closed door policy making, sweetheart deals etc.

I say no more career politicians, continuing to send them back only hurts the country. Some of them are probably collecting 8,10 or 12 figure incomes from tax dollars, that’s not including what the corporations give them. They need to be reminded that they work for the taxpayers.

That will also save a lot of money because junior politicians are not going to make as much. In my not so humble opinion, their careers should be performance based. Think of it like the NFL playoffs, if a team makes it to the playoffs and doesn’t play well, they are finished. Some teams are going to be what they call, “one and done”, the same should apply to politicians, if they’re not doing what the voters want, vote them out. I realize that there is a need for leadership, we have “leaders” that I wouldn’t follow across the street.

                                    Updated on 02/09/2011

As I have said, there should not be any more “career politicians”, I don’t believe that anyone should become a millionaire from taxpayer dollars while the rest of the country does without and struggles just to live. The President can only serve two terms, the only exception that I can think of off-hand was George Washington, he served three.

There is a slim chance that I could be wrong on that, however, I have never been wrong, I thought I was once but I was mistaken. I think there should be term limits set for all politicians. I also think that it is wrong for taxpayers to pay for the secret service to be body guards after they leave office for more than six months, that is plenty of time for them to hire body guards if they want them.

 As everyone knows, Robin-hood robbed from the rich and gave to the poor. This was done in rebellion to the tyrannical Sheriff of Nottingham. The government uses what I call, “Reverse Robin-hood” stealing from the poor and giving to the rich.

Whenever there is some kind of problem with the budget, whether State, local or Federal, rather than try to fix the problem, they will always choose to add more. I have lost count of how many times lower income people pay for the governments mistakes.

I realize that no one wants taxes raised, but we have to realize that the government is a business and it has been mismanaged from top to bottom for years. When cuts are made, they are usually cuts to programs such as medicare, medicaid etc. Money and benefits are taken from those needing it the most.

Look at the decision not to give Veterans and those on Social Insecurity a cost of living increase, this was the governments way of “allowing” us to make the down payment on the  1.6 trillion dollars borrowed to give banks, Wall Street and insurance companies their bonuses for putting us into this depression.

I was asked how I feel about the job that President Obama and the Democrats have done so far. To be completely honest, I have mixed feelings about it. I had intended to get back to this sooner, especially with the election just days away. This is a bad time of the year for me, all of the weather changes cause a lot more pain than usual and my allergies have had me down for over a week now. I’m still not feeling quite myself but time is running out fast.

I am sure that the Republicans would love for us to forget who held the White House and the majority in both Congress and The Senate, or who is responsible for the current state of the nation. I, for one have not forgotten. I also remember that when Bill Clinton held the office of President, their were jobs and when he left, the country was not in debt. That does not mean that I agreed with everything he did by any means, N.A.F.T.A. was a huge mistake. 

I consider the so called, “Tea Party” meetings etc. to be a bad joke. Before I forget, when John McCain announced his running mate and brought her out, my first thought was, “cool, Tina Fey will be back on Saturday Night Live”. The Republicans did enough damage to this country during the Bush – Cheney administration to last for quite awhile. That is why I will be voting Democrat like always. I do not vote for Republicans even if they run  unopposed, I skip that one, they may get it by default but at least it won’t be my fault.

                                    Updated on 02/09/2011

As some of you may have guessed, I don’t have much use for politicians. I consider most of them to be over-paid liars and thieves. We, (Veterans) have the right to ask for help from our elected officials but the way things are set up, it’s a complete waste of time and effort. If you’re lucky, they’ll offer to send in an “Official Inquiry”. Do Not Do It….

If an elected official does an official inquiry, V.A. has 120 days to answer it and in the meantime, all work on your claims(s) stops. Yes, you’re absolutely right, that is a penalty. It is automatic, it is completely wrong and incredibly stupid, even for a government ran operation.

I know that a lot of us blame V.A. for our problems, I did it myself for a long time. Sorry, boys and girls, they’re following orders. The D.V.A. doesn’t have the authority to make a “real decision” on our claims. The fact is, our claims were decided long before most of us were even injured, got sick or killed, they just had to wait for our names etc. to put on the denial letters.

Yes, I know this sounds like it should be under “Government Responsibility” and I may end up pasting it over there before it’s all said and done. It’s the nature of the beast, I would be lying if I said this was the first time it’s happened and saying that it won’t happen again may or may not be one too.

                                     Updated on 02/21/2011

Well, they’re at it again. In yet another feeble attempt to balance the budget, more cuts to programs that help lower income people get by are on the chopping block. One program in particular is heating assistance, it’s not bad enough that Veterans and those on Social Insecurity haven’t got a cost of living increase the last 2 years while the cost of just about everything has gone up, now we’re going to take another hit. Let’s not forget the recent cuts to medicare.

                                                            Updated on April 13, 2011

Here we go again…. in yet another feeble attempt to balance the budget, the government is talking spending cuts. Don’t get me wrong, cuts do need to be made but as usual they’re talking about the wrong ones. I came to the conclusion, years ago,  that there is no one in Washington with enough sense to pour piss out of a boot with the direction on the bottom.

I have been hearing talk the last couple of days that seniors are going to have to make sacrifices, meaning that more cuts to medicare etc. are planned. I have a news flash, seniors have made sacrifices all of their lives and have taken enough hits. Military, Veterans and Survivors pay is another area that I’ve been hearing about taking a hit. These were also being tossed around just a few days ago, before avoiding the government shutdown. I don’t remember hear anything about The President, Congress or The Senate taking a pay cut, I find this rather annoying considering that they have not earned more than 1 or 2% of their bloated paychecks in I don’t know how many years.

One word I have heard tossed around is “discretionary” spending. Somehow, Veterans pay, Medicare, Social Insecurity among others have been put under that label. None of these are discretionary! Has everyone in Washington lost the ability to read? Lost the ability to comprehend? Gone completely insane?