Walker's record on Veterans Deplorable, but still gets their vote.

The military voted 2 to 1 for Trump. Odder still is the support Trump and Republicans get from veterans, despite Trump's consideration of a guy who’s trying to abolish the VA. And don't forget Scott Walker’s deplorable history of screwing veterans. It’s mind boggling.

As County Executive, Scott Walker created “Operation Freedom,” to exploit veterans so fellow Republicans/media talk show hosts could speak and look patriotic. Anti-war veterans were not invited. In a shocking revelation by County Board member John Weishan, it got so bad vendors were being shaken down during Walker's 2006 bid for governor. That led to this...

Tim Russell, a longtime Walker campaign and county staffer, was charged with two felonies and one misdemeanor count of embezzlement … tied to Operation Freedom, an annual military appreciation day held at the zoo. Kevin Kavanaugh, Walker's appointee to the Milwaukee County Veteran Service Commission, was charged with five felonies for theft and fraudulent writings by a corporate officer. He was the treasurer of the Milwaukee Purple Heart chapter at the time of the dispute over the (missing) $11,000 for Operation Freedom.

Veteran support of Republicans continued, even after Walker (like George W. Bush) decided not to promote veteran services to save money.  

More than 25 current and former King employees, residents and family members say residents are not receiving adequate care at King, even as the state brings in millions more each year, transferring the surplus money elsewhere.

And Walker continues to mismanaged the state VA, with this unexplained rehire:

Nearly two years after John Scocos, a Republican and U.S. Army Reserve colonel was fired as state veterans secretary, Gov. Scott Walker has reappointed him to his old job.

Yes, Scocos was fired, but Walker didn’t care about that, or how his record:

Scocos took an organization that performed admirably under his predecessor, Secretary Ray Boland, and planted the seeds of dysfunction and acrimony. He demonstrated no ability to administer, manage or lead.  DAV received reports that he did not coordinate the activities of his department managers in a positive manner, but instead his poor management style pitted them against one another. Scocos wasted valuable time attacking perceived enemies.  Some DAV officials, when making suggestions to better the lives of veterans, felt his wrath instead of his gratitude.

Outrageous stories about substandard VA care and neglected veterans homes isn't enough to change the minds of military families and veterans who love Walker the Republican politicians using them. 

According to one vet, “someone in the audience asked Scocos who talked to a reporter about concerns at King, he said the agency would “eventually find out who did it. They are going to find excuses and innocent people are going to get hurt or fired.” Secretary John Scocos, announced his resignation earlier this month.

(July 12, 2016) Wisconsin continues partnership with Veterans Assistance Foundation, ranked one of worst in nation (Oct 26, 2016) The federal VA Medical Center in Tomah has terminated its lease agreement with the nonprofit that runs a homeless shelter there after a veteran was found dead in one of its dorms.

State human resources manager files federal discrimination complaint against Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs she was potentially discriminated against because of her Native American race, her gender, her age and her efforts to oppose alleged discrimination at the agency against others. She said she was told by a manager that the candidate who got the job “because he was a veteran and expressed in the job interview that he had a ‘passion for veterans.’" She had received a work review in April saying she “exceeds expectations” in both the HR director and manager roles.

Walker Ignores VA problems, while Dumb Ron Johnson schemes to privatize Veterans Health Care.

Let’s get something straight, we haven’t heard squat from Scott Walker about what he’s doing specifically to solve a number of major state disasters under his watch; VA neglect and staffing, road construction funding, and reform of the juvenile prison system?

  

Hate Government, Hate Governing: It’s becoming painfully obvious Republicans can’t and won't govern, and instead wait, study, discuss, debate, wait again, seek advice, pass a tax cut or two, debate, wait again, and then look "more deeply" into the worsening problem.

Where’s Walker? Let's take a look: There have been no “big, bold” moves to quickly reform the juvenile prison problem fraught with sexual abuse, retaliation, excessive force, and child neglect. No rush?

He’s done nothing to fund transportation by suggesting budget cuts that might be used to finish all the current road work. Where are the “big, bold” unintimidated decisions that must be made? Outrageous multiyear delays don’t sound like solutions to me.

And the point of my post: Walker has done nothing "big and bold" to help rescue the troubled Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs. Neglected housing, turning away veterans seeking help, and over prescriptions...seriously, let's wait and see?

Dumb Ron Johnson to the Rescue?: Ron Johnson is in direct competition with Scott Walker for being the most irresponsible big talker of them all. Why are U.S. Senators and Congress people getting involved anyway when this should be Gov. Walker's responsibility?

As usual, Johnson was too busy to attend another "listening session," so me made his staff do the busy work for him:

Officials at the Tomah VA Medical Center provided a briefing Friday to the staff of Republican U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson over the care a U.S. Army veterans at the facility before his apparent suicide. In his statement, Johnson said: 

“I appreciate that the VA provided a briefing to my staff about Brian Rossell’s care at the Tomah VA Medical Center. I remain very concerned about the circumstances surrounding Mr. Rossell’s death, and I will continue to seek information from the VA. As chairman of the chief oversight committee of the Senate, I have worked to hold the VA accountable to honor the promises to the finest among us, our nation’s veterans. America’s and Wisconsin’s veterans deserve no less."

Johnson has worked...toward what? Johnson's real goal and passion has been to privatize health care, and just by coincidence, his party wants to do just that to VA health care services. What Johnson might be doing is gathering health care horror stories to make his case that includes a Republican "commission" to make the VA go private;

The 15-member Commission on Care has just concluded a damning report, finding that "many profound deficiencies" at the troubled agency "require urgent reform. America's veterans deserve a better organized, high-performing health care system" … flawed governance, insufficient staffing, inadequate facilities, antiquated IT systems and inefficient use of employees.

Oddly, this last spring a small group of special interest privateers on the commission…

…met in secret and unilaterally expanded the Commission's mandate, preparing a 20-year comprehensive plan to dismantle the VA. 

The 15 member “Commission of Care” is dominated by private health care industry executives, and veterans themselves have no voice on the commission. Indeed, not even one of the nation's veterans' service organizations is represented. A Koch Brothers lobby group Concerned Veterans "advocates for policies that will preserve the freedom and prosperity. In the name of decreasing the budget deficit, Concerned Veterans also lobbies for tightening restrictions on veteran access to VA benefits and other "cost-cutting" measures. "They have these people out there saying, 'We're giving VA too much.'

The test move to privatize VA services is failing too. Not surprisingly, the "commission" wants to expand on that failure:

In 2015, the Veterans Choice Program was created with the goal of giving veterans greater access to health care in their communities through private care. Since its launch, however, veterans seeking to use the Choice Program have been met with longer wait times, worse service, and harassment from the private medical providers seeking payment ... the Commission is now recommending that the privatization program be expanded. Health care columnist Suzanne Gordon warned in her blog at the American Prospect, "As funding for costly private sector care eats up more of the VHA's annual budget, there will be hospital and clinic closings, along with VHA staff layoffs."

The terminology:

The terms "community service provider" and "community choice" may sound welcoming, but the terms are often "a cover for private for-profit health care companies to take over services ... "the dollars follow the patients," is just a euphemism for vouchers. So who cares what veterans want?

The veterans' groups March statement opposing privatization cited an independent assessment that concluded that "VA performed significantly better on almost all 16 outpatient measures when compared with commercial, Medicare and Medicaid HMO's.
"Eighty percent did not want private vouchers to replace fully-covered health care. "What is most unsettling ... is the utter lack of consideration that veterans would want to improve and expand the VA health care system,"

One more thing:

The privatization proposal could also have a devastating impact on the 113,000 veterans who work in the VA, who make up one third of its workforce. The VA's work force is made up of 59 percent women and 40 percent minorities

Veterans Services gets Walker defunding.

Veterans love Republicans, and I have no idea why.

My dad, a Marine Corps veteran, called me during the Bush administration to tell me he found out they decided not to tell veterans about their benefits. It was a way Republicans could save money. A true story. My dad wasn't much for doctors, and never really used VA health services, but this really affected him.

If he were alive today I know just what he'd say about the states Republican betrayal of our returning vets. Not only will veteran service officers and their offices eventually stop getting paid through state grants, but veterans will not know or have easy access to the services they were promised. Money saved folks. WPR:

County veterans service offices provide everything from counseling to making vets aware of benefits available at the state and federal level. They used to get block grants from the state, but now, they have to apply for reimbursement under a change made in the last (2015-17) state budget.

And in another sign of really bad Republican bill writing:

Kevin Johnson, the county veterans service officer for Ozaukee County, said, "The biggest frustration for us is there's no clear guidance on what the criteria for reimbursement are or, more importantly, how to document the expenses."

This example of big government Republican bureaucracy should break the myth of getting government out of the way forever:

"The way it's now structured, we have to apply two times a year and it's becoming so onerous, the documentation requirement is so onerous that it's just cost prohibitive for us even to request the funds" Critics say state money should support veterans directly, not administrative costs. The state budget change will eventually phase out salaries for the offices.

No salaries, no administrative cost. That would mean no service officers, no veteran direction, no use of benefits, and money saved for the state.

And what about the state Department of Veterans Affairs, I assume they're rushing in to help?

The Department of Veterans Affairs didn't return a request for comment. A sampling of 30 counties showed 10 veteran office grant requests were denied entirely. Fourteen were denied in part.

Two Walker/GOP Myths Busted: Support for Returning Veterans and Support for Treating Mental Illness.

Let's destroy two intolerable Republican myths in one fell swoop.

Myth #1: Republicans support returning veterans. Goes without saying, they've got their backs.

Myth #2: Republicans support treating mental illness, the biggest reason they say for gun violence in the country. Like Scott Walker recently said after the last mass shooting spree:

"It's unfortunate that all too often we've seen from people like Hillary Clinton a political reaction to something that's much more sophisticated and challenging than that. The common thread we see in many of these cases is a failure in the system to help someone who is suffering from mental illness."

Myth Busting: Republicans have refused to support a bill that supports veterans that treats mental illness...:

This is how disconnected "Stand with Walker" voters are from reality

WKOW: Democratic state legislators are looking for Republican support on a bill that would authorize the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs (WDVA) to provide health care aid to military veterans for mental illness or substance abuse counseling.

Democratic Sen. Jon Erpenbach is amazed he can't muster interest from our flag waving veteran supporting Republicans:

"I don't know why the Republicans wouldn't support this," said Sen. Erpenbach. "I don't know why the (Senate) majority leader wouldn't schedule this as soon as we possibly could after it had a hearing and was voted out of committee."

The money is there as a stop gap for veterans until the VA processing is complete:

The idea is to give those who need mental health services a voucher so they can go get em, until the VA finds some time to schedule them on their own" ... according to a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office released October 29, veterans are still waiting an average of 26 days to get an appointment for treatment or counseling through the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs.

While Republicans try to humiliate food stamp recipients with photo IDs and cut the jobless off of their unemployment benefits (big business doesn't like paying into the fund), it appears veterans just aren't a priority...this session:

Due to its recent introduction it won't be possible to get it passed during the fall session.
"We dealt with this on the (Joint) Finance Committee back in April where the Republicans said - 'for the most part it looks like a good idea, but we need more time to review.' Well, here we are, the beginning of November," said Sen. Erpenbach.

Here's WKOW's Greg Neumann:



Oh, and how can Republicans explain away this jaw dropping list of non-support:

Republicans loyal to Banks, ditch Veterans.

I remember when the Bush administration sent out orders to keep veterans from accessing their benefits by simply not telling them what they needed. Nice thing to do to our returning soldiers.

Republicans even want to privatize veterans health care, putting them at the mercy of insurers hoping to make a profit. And still veterans are overwhelmingly conservative.

Well, let's see how these 2 actions will go over with our vets:

1. House Republicans are pushing legislation to block predatory lending protections for American soldiers, under pressure from the banking lobby.

GOP lawmakers tucked the deregulation item into the National Defense Authorization Act -- a major bill setting the military's funding ... If the banking item is enacted, it would impose a one-year delay on new Department of Defense rules meant to shield military families from abusive terms on payday loans and other forms of high-interest credit. The military has been struggling with the financial impact of predatory lending on service members for years. 

A 2014 report issued by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau documents a host of abuses targeting troops.

Big bank Republicans know exactly what's going on too:

Big banks have had an ugly relationship with American soldiers lately. Wells Fargo, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase and Citigroup pursued hundreds of illegal foreclosures against active-duty members of the military, ultimately reaching multiple settlements with the Department of Justice over such practices. As a result, they have embarked on extensive public relations campaigns to repair their image.

Despite efforts by the Democrats, veterans still don't know who's really on there side:

Rep. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), an Iraq War veteran, will introduce an amendment to the NDAA bill that would strip out the Republican language delaying predatory lending protections. Duckworth told HuffPost the GOP bill would "waste resources undertaking redundant studies and postpone the implementation of valuable protections," adding, "Further delay will put more service members and their families in harm’s way."

GOP opposes Job Training, college tuition, fertility help, benefits to spouses of deceased vets: Republican efforts to require job training in exchange for food stamps, Medicaid and unemployment benefits ring hollow after they turned down a chance to job train veterans:

A divided Senate on Thursday derailed Democratic legislation that would have provided $21 billion for medical, education, and job-training benefits for the nation's veterans. The bill fell victim to election-year disputes over spending and fresh penalties against Iran.

"I personally have a hard time understanding how anyone could vote for tax breaks for billionaires, for millionaires, for large corporations, and then say we don't have the resources to protect our veterans," said Senator Sanders

The problem for the GOP? Too many veterans would get help:

Republicans said there would be no retribution from voters because the Democratic bill would have harmed veterans' services by flooding them with too many people. Republicans criticized (the) bill for using … unspent money from the withdrawal in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sanders' legislation would have provided these GOP opposed services:

1. Making more veterans eligible for in-state college tuition to providing fertility or adoption services for some wounded troops left unable to conceive.

2. The VA would have been given more tools to eat into its backlog of 390,000 benefit claims that have been awaiting action for more than 125 days.
3. Bolstered programs for veterans who suffered sexual abuse, and would have increased dental care and provided more alternative medicine, such as yoga for stress.

4. Benefits for some spouses of deceased veterans would have improved, and aid to relatives caring for a wounded veteran would have been expanded to include those who served before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Patriotic Texas Republicans now say "price tag" is too high for promised free college education for veteran's kids.

It felt so good at the time.

I remember when Republicans here decided to give veterans a free college education – even to their kids – so they could look like real heroes too. But instead of showing their patriotism with a little cash, they skipped the check and told the UW to absorb the cost. I’m still shaking my head over that one.

Well, check out what Texas Republicans are doing to honor their vets...the same thing:

Lawmakers: Funding education for Texas veterans is too high:  For decades, veterans went to public universities and colleges under the Hazlewood Exemption, which kicks in after federal benefits under the G.I. Bill are exhausted. But the price tag has increased seven fold since 2009, when legislators in Texas — which has the country's second-highest veteran population, 1.7 million — allowed the benefit to be passed on to veterans' children under a legacy provision.

They’re crying alligator tears…

"Everybody's heart was in the right place when we added all the other beneficiaries," said Republican Sen. Kel Seliger, chair of the Senate's higher education committee. But, he added, "it just got too high of a price tag."

Just like Social Security and Medicare, we apparently over promised our veterans benefits too.

Republicans targeting VA for privatization and profit.

The right wing joke leveled at liberals is this; Koch, Bush, Koch, Bush, Koch, Koch, Koch...

For some odd reason, conservatives like jabbing liberals about how often they bring up the Koch brothers. The fact is the Koch's have multiple front groups pushing privatization, and joking about it doesn't change reality. Like this corny named group; "Concerned Veterans for America." Of course they're concerned.

It'll be interesting to see veterans react to their own party's move to offer them up to the wolves lurking in the free market health care system, where profits and bottom lines take precedent over actual care.

What goes around comes around...

Where's Media apology for hyped untrue "Vets are dying on waiting lists" story.

The Republican narrative on just about every topic of public interest is proving to be not just dangerous to the credibility of the media pushing it, but is souring people on their own governments ability to safe guard their interests. Awareness is one thing, but lying to get attention is another.

The discovery of the Vets waiting list cover-up and falsification of records is without a doubt horrific, but to say veterans died while waiting for treatment, and then running with that story for weeks is unforgivable. In any health care system world wide, you'll always be able to find a number of stories where patients waiting for care got lost in the system and died. But what was done to the veterans department was a politically calculated attack by Republicans to tear away at the Obama administration.

WSJ: The Veterans Affairs Department says investigators have found no proof that delays in care caused any deaths at a VA hospital in Phoenix, deflating an explosive allegation that helped expose a troubled health care system in which veterans waited months for appointments while employees falsified records to cover up the delays. VA Secretary Robert A. McDonald said, "It is important to note that while OIG's case reviews in the report document substantial delays in care, and quality-of-care concerns, OIG was unable to conclusively assert that the absence of timely quality care caused the death of these veterans."

In an interview with The Associated Press, Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson stressed that veterans are still waiting too long for care, an issue the agency is working to fix.

Budget Deal partially Fixes Paul Ryan's ruthless Cuts to Veterans Benefits.

There are two very important points in the budget deal Rep. Paul Ryan isn't going to like politically.

First and foremost was Ryan's attempt to reduce the budget on the backs of younger veterans. That's right, he didn't go after cuts to big oil, needless farm subsidies or corporate loopholes, he went after veterans. These big supporters of our troops?  Not so much.

I pieced together a string of clips where conservatives attacked Ryan, from Fox News to Mark Levin. As an experiment, replace the promise of veterans benefits with "Social Security" or "Medicare." It may be all the same to Ryan, but conservative pundits are using the same arguments to keep the benefits that liberals use to protect our safety nets. Listen up Democratic challenger Rob Zerban, this stuff is campaign gold:



 With every single Democrat except for one, voted against the cut:

jsonline: The U.S. Senate gave final congressional approval Thursday to a massive, $1.1 trillion spending bill … Baldwin cited a provision in the bill that offers at least partial relief for working-age military retirees whose cost-of-living adjustments were going to be cut by 1% under the budget agreement co-authored by Ryan. Under the omnibus spending bill, that change will not occur for those medically retired and their survivors.

Walker's ObamaCare? Veterans Drivers License Site Failure.

While Scott Walker trashes HealthCare.gov website problems, he ignores his own Veterans Driver’s License website problems and incompetence.

It took the Associated Press, no liberal leaning media source, to expose the ugly underbelly of another Gov. Scott Walker failure.

Like the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation he chairs, Walker’s special attention to detail   

Where have we heard the following complaints below?

Rapids Tribune: Wisconsin military veterans are excited about a special new driver’s

license, but the state’s rollout of the honorary license program is drawing complaints of glitches and miscues … a driver’s license marked “Veteran” to help them earn discounts and other perks in their daily lives … But some veterans seeking certification have been confused by the state’s website, and others have been unable to get help through an overloaded toll-free telephone line.

Walker’s ObamaCare?

As a result, veterans have sought assistance from their county veteran’s service officers, who say they were enlisted to clean up the state’s mess without adequate warning. “We’re not happy campers,” said Brown County veterans service officer Jerry Polus. “It’s really driving us crazy.” Polus said his office is fielding 12 to 15 calls a day from local veterans who need help. State officials initially didn’t provide any guidance about how the counties should approach the driver’s license program, he added. “We were just kind of blindsided,” he said. Wisconsin is home to more than 400,000 veterans. 

The website initially did not specify what documents veterans must submit to obtain certification of their military status … Many who instead tried the toll-free phone number have been unable to get through, because the call center has been overwhelmed by an average of nearly 300 calls a day — more than the state expected.

Is the media holding Walker’s feet to the fire…are you kidding? “It’s too soon to tell?”

Asked if the state mishandled the program’s rollout, Marschman said it is too soon to tell, because driver’s licenses are not scheduled to be issued until Monday. “I don’t think we’re there yet,” she said.

Dane County veterans service spokesman Gregory Kolaske said some veterans have been confused that they must go to one state agency for certification and then another agency for the driver’s license. Saying that veterans are calling him, too, for help, Kolaske said the state should have developed a simpler process. “It’s not laid out very well,” he said. “No one knows how to get to it.” 

Republicans use Veterans Benefits as Flag Waving Phony Patriotism.

Remember when state Republicans gave veterans and their families a free college education? Just one thing, they didn't pay for it. Instead they told the UW to eat the losses. What heroes.

Remember when the Bush administration told the VA not to promote veterans benefits so they could save the government money?

I remember that well.

This show boating, phony flag waving support has been going on for years, while regular American families and individuals get treated like second class citizens. The military is like any other career choice, bringing with it certain benefits we all can support. But everyday men and women have their own set of challenges. Like life altering health care problems, job losses, and family difficulties. They are the unrecognized engines and heroes that keeps this country running. I wrote this because Scott Walker is out there adding to the veteran benefits that is starting to look a lot like charity:

Channel3000: Gov. Scott Walker has signed a bill that offers wounded veterans discounts on hunting and fishing licenses. The bipartisan measure allows non-state residents with Purple Hearts to buy a gun deer license for the resident price of $24 rather than the $160 non-resident fee. They also will pay the $20 resident fee for a fishing license rather than the $50 non-resident fee. 

Conservation patron licenses, which are a combination of hunting, fishing and trapping licenses, will cost in-state Purple Heart recipients $10 rather than $165 and non-resident Purple Heart winners $161 rather than $600.

Veteran's Gun Crazy Letter Passes Conservative Muster, and Desire for Lawless U.S.

It’s becoming more obvious every day that conservatives will be the ones ironically who will destroy the country. They seem to have a problem with the constitution, they want to disregard laws they don’t like, and continually scare the living daylights out of anyone that knows an idiot when they see one.

Which brings me to the “letter” below; crazy people are everywhere, they can even be veterans.

And we put a gun in the hands of this misogynist? The letter to Sen. Feinstein supposedly went viral? Well, that’s what radio’s screaming battleaxe Vicki McKenna wrote on her Facebook page. CNN should be ashamed. See if you can makes sense of this rambling disjointed lunacy:

Senator Dianne Feinstein,

I will not register my weapons should this bill be passed, as I do not believe it is the government's right to know what I own. Nor do I think it prudent to tell you what I own so that it may be taken from me by a group of people who enjoy armed protection yet decry me having the same a crime. You ma'am have overstepped a line that is not your domain. I am a Marine Corps Veteran of 8 years, and I will not have some woman who proclaims the evil of an inanimate object, yet carries one, tell me I may not have one.

I am not your subject. I am the man who keeps you free. I am not your servant. I am the person whom you serve. I am not your peasant. I am the flesh and blood of America.

I am the man who fought for my country. I am the man who learned. I am an American. You will not tell me that I must register my semi-automatic AR-15 because of the actions of some evil man.

I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established by the media and your misinformation campaign against the American public.

We, the people, deserve better than you.
Respectfully Submitted,
Cpl, United States Marine Corps
2004-2012

I especially liked the line "I will not be disarmed to suit the fear that has been established..." Outright projection and just plain scary. One question, who feels "entitled?"

Bring Back the Corporate Death Penalty!

Thom Hartmann has been talking about it for years, but the time has come to spread the word. If Republicans are truly supportive of our military and returning vets, than how could they ever object to revoking corporate charters for those illegally denying vets their rights? Not just vets, anyone who’s been victimized by our new corporate persons?  

After it was the first bank to be hit by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for defrauding consumers and ordered to pay $165 million to customers in refunds, Capital One was just hit with another fine. This time - the Department of Justice has ordered the bank to pay out $12 million to members of the military for denying them their legal right under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act to avoid foreclosures and high interest rates.

According to the DOJ - as many as 4,000 troops were illegally foreclosed on by the bank. Back in the old day, when corporations operated against the best interests of the nation - and preyed on our military members - there was a simple solution: the death penalty. The corporate death penalty - essentially revoking the corporation's charter - has a long history in America. It's time to bring it back.-Thom

GOP tells Veterans, too bad about Employer Discrimination. ‘We need jobs.’

The GOP heroes list is getting shorter and shorter. For convenience, they've trashed the police, firefighters and now returning veterans and war heroes. Don't be so smug, you're next.

It wasn’t an accident that veterans found themselves on the losing end of suing an employer for punitive damages in discrimination cases. And there’s one HUGE irony. More on that in a moment.

WSJ: Military veterans are the big losers in the rollback of a Wisconsin law that had allowed women, minorities and other protected groups to sue in state court over employment discrimination, say leaders of a statewide veterans group. The change was designed by Republicans to help Wisconsin businesses avoid costs of frivolous lawsuits. The federal law allows veterans to sue for back pay, but not for punitive damages or other types of compensatory damages, said Michael Volpe, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Labor veterans services office.

The real kicker was this at the very end of the WSJ piece; the divisive head guy at the Department of Veterans Affairs is suing for discrimination…I’m not kidding:

Gourlie said he was disappointed the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs took no position on the change, even though Secretary John Scocos is personally suing the department in state court, alleging employment discrimination based on his military service. The department's board fired him in 2009. Walker gave him back his job in August.

And I loved this “no position” partisan position:

The lawsuit is pending. Department spokeswoman Carla Vigue said Scocos wouldn't comment. Vigue said the department took no position on the bill because it had "no practical impact on veterans."

Are these people idiots or what? Speaking of idiots...here's the author of the bill, Sen. Glenn Grothman:

…he didn't know about the federal limits on veterans, but it wouldn't have changed his mind, because fewer lawsuits will mean more jobs for everyone, including soldiers returning from war. "Employers facing punitive damages in court is a bad thing for jobs, and veterans want jobs," Grothman said. "…nobody thought two years ago that is was horrible to be a veteran."

I can't believe he said that. The article misleads a little here by insinuating that the issue was somehow “lost in the debate.” It wasn’t, but that's down the page.

Lost in the debate are little-known limits on the rights of veterans to sue in federal court … "Veterans were viewed, unfortunately, as collateral damage by small business, the Legislature and the governor in order to get that law through," said Michael Gourlie, a member of the Wisconsin Association of Concerned Veterans Organizations executive board and Wisconsin's Council on Veterans Programs, which advises the state Department of Veterans Affairs.

It wasn’t until the bill passed the legislature that someone notified Scott Walker, who never seemed to get the punitive damage thing.  

click pic to enlarge

A Feb. 28 memo from a senior staff attorney at the Wisconsin Legislative Council spelled out the limited options for veterans in federal courts. Gourlie said he sent the memo to Gov. Scott Walker, but Walker signed the rollback bill into law on April 6. Gourlie later received a letter from the governor saying that the change "simply removed the duplicative and unnecessarily costly process of seeking punitive and compensatory damages in state court." Walker spokesman Cullen Werwie said Thursday in an email no other veterans groups objected to the law.

But as you can see in the letter pictured here, Walker completely discounted how the law deters employers from ever discriminating in the first place. That’s why not one case came up since the law passed a few years ago. It was working. 

Walker Plays Politics with Vets, Loses their trust and Money!!

Sly in the Morning got the inside scoop about the arrest of Walker friend and confidant, Tim Russell, and the stolen vet money. Sly’s Office:

John Weishan Jr., a Marine veteran, laid out how the veterans' event at the heart of the recent John Doe corruption probe was part of a larger scheme by Scott Walker to use taxpayer resources for personal political gain. Weishan also described how Scott Walker's former chief of staff was forced to go to investigators only after vendors complained about being shaken down during Walker's 2006 bid for governor.

This conversation will tell you a lot about the win-at-all-costs style of Walker and his fellow Republican thugs. Walker wanted to co-op the whole feel good event. And when things went wrong, Walker turned his colleagues in. Not only did Walker's close friend steal the money they raised from the vets fund, Operation Freedom, but Walker at the same time was cutting veteran services.

Banks Boot Vets...get Caught.

So you want the free market in control, want the banks deregulated and support the troops? Suckers!!!!

IAVA Executive Director Paul Rieckhoff explains, with Rachel Maddow:

State Republicans take a little voting freedom away from returning vets.

It's a story that never really got the attention it should have. Consider the super patriotism of the Republican Tea Party flag wavers as they drive around with "support our troops" ribbons on the back of cars and pickup trucks. Hell, they love war maybe even more. But when it comes to helping vets when they return home...not so much. From Folkbum:

As civil rights challenges to Republican-authored photo ID-voter suppression laws continue, the exclusion of veterans who have only a U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Veterans Identification Card (VIC) from voting is drawing increasing criticism. In Wisconsin a VIC, used by veterans to obtain health care at VA medical facilities, is not sufficient to vote, notwithstanding veterans' service to our country. Wisconsin's restricting many veterans from voting is identical to numerous other GOP-passed laws such as Texas. 

"Gov. Rick Perry (R) urged the state legislature to pass the law as an 'emergency item' and submitted the law to the U.S. Justice Department for 'pre-clearance' last month," writes Tanya Somanader. I would ask if the Republicans have no shame, but the answer is obvious.

Veterans on Saturday protested the cost of war and support for our workers.

Wonder how we ever got so deep into debt?

Think about the state deficit and then consider this: The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq will cost Wisconsin taxpayers 2.5 billion this year alone. That’s money that could have stayed here in our state or supported national funding for education and health care. Obama should have gotten us out of this costly war policy, but he didn’t.

In another protest I wish I had attended, veterans gathered at the Capitol to voice support for workers and protested the wars cost on all of us-WKOW27 News:

Despite the Republican smoke screen complaints about the U.S. enforcement of the Libyan no fly zone, an election ploy to weaken Obama, they are more than willing to start the next war on a whim (Iran). On top of losing more than 5,800 American military service members since both wars began, illegally without an act of Congress, the costs have been devastating to our own country:

ABC News: The combined cost of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have topped more than $1.2 trillion, excluding troops' pay, medical costs and interest payments on debt incurred, according to the National Priorities Project, a nonprofit budgetary research group. 

After three days … the cost of operating the no-fly zone over Libya alone could cost the U.S. an estimated $30 million to $100 million a week, a study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments found.

Balancing the books on the backs of Veterans!!

Be careful when a Republican says their plan will leave everything in better financial shape. The books might appear balanced, though not likely, but at the expense of what groups basic needs and benefits. Veterans it turns out are in Walker's sights:

Wispolitics: Veterans Affairs Secretary Ken Black writes in a letter to Walker that his two-year budget proposal "does not reflect Wisconsin’s commitment to provide the benefits and services our veterans need and deserve." The governor's office responded that the recently signed budget repair bill would put both the trust fund and veterans homes in a better financial position.

Warning!!! In “better financial position” really?

According to Black, the budget proposal would continue the structural deficit in the Veterans Trust Fund, cut veterans assistance programs, divert revenue from state veterans homes, end the veterans homes' bed tax exemption and recommend outside contracting to staff the new veterans home in Chippewa Falls.