Anthony Hardie Resigns from Wisconsin Veterans Agency over Corrupt Walker Appt

Anthony Hardie

The recent nomination of John Scocos to serve as Secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs has led another decorated veteran to resign a state veterans' post in protest.

Under the ultra-political Scott Walker administration, veterans have expressed concerns over the state's commitment to facilitating care, advice and benefits in the face of Scott Walker's ideology denigrating veterans and other public servants.

Walker's appointments lacking effective performance fit the worst practices of what is generally regarded as a corrupt administration facing a recall next year.

Update: Today, a top Scott Walker aide was served a warrant with about a dozen law enforcement officers, including FBI agents. Other top aides, suspected of corruption and shady dealings, have recently resigned as well in the past two months.

Observers say more resignations in protest of the corruption in the Walker administration and its commitment to political fealty over public service are likely. Additonally, a corrupt Bush-era U.S. Attorney, Steven Biskupic, now working for a GOP-connected law firm, is defending the Scott Walker campaign in a John Doe investigation expected to reach deep into the Walker administration and campaign.

"Walker's top two lieutenants for the last three years of his eight-year tenure as county executive, including the busy months leading up to the November election," are now under criminal investigation the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports.

By Dan Bice

Anthony Hardie, former executive assistant to Scocos, announced today that he was leaving the Council on Veterans Programs because of Walker's selection of Hardie's former boss.

"Perhaps this small action by one individual will draw some small bit of needed attention to these and other serious issues related to this flawed nomination," Hardie wrote in his resignation letter.

The council advises the state Department of Veterans Affairs and the Board of Veterans Affairs on issues involving the problems of veterans.

State Veterans Affairs Board Vice Chairman Peter Moran stepped down from his post last month, offering only a one-sentence resignation letter. Sources told No Quarter that Moran was quitting because of Scocos' nomination as veterans affairs secretary.

In 2009, Moran was one of five board members who voted to fire Scocos as veterans affairs chief.

Board members blamed Scocos for financial and communications problems at the agency he led for six years. Scocos then sued the agency and its board members over his firing, alleging his rights to return to his job after deploying to Iraq were violated. His lawsuit is pending.

Press Release and Letter - Another Veteran Resigns Over Scocos Nomination

A Witch Hunt for Veterans Begins Anew

Just when you thought is was safe to go back to the VA come signs the water is not inviting for veterans looking to make disability benefit claims. A scare report in Stars and Stripes by Leo Shane III screams the VA may have overpaid disabled veterans.

By Michael Leon

It's the veteans' fault of-course. And veterans need more oversight. Writes Shane:

Poor oversight and missing medical follow-ups led to nearly $1 billion in overpayments in veterans disability benefits over the last 18 years, and could lead to another $1 billion in improper payouts in the near future if left unchecked, according to a new investigation.

This is a witch hunt in the making.

Shane cites the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) Office of the Inspector General's report and Michael Walcoff, acting VA Under Secretary for Benefits.

Walcoff is infamous in veteran advocates' circles for defending the old PTSD regulations and preventing private doctors from being used by veterans for a PTSD diagnosis acceptable to the Veterans Benefit Administration.

Walcott is with Dr. Sally Satel of the anti-veteran, pro-war American Enterprise Institute in this view. "We believe that our VA are really the world experts on this particular condition, especially PTSD as it arises from war," said Walcoff last year.

The national and regional IG's offices are stacked with anti-veteran neocons.

So we have a situation where the few overworked veterans on the Court of Appeals for Veterans (CAVC) bar cannot advocate for the 100,ooos of veterans on an effective scale. And the regualtions are complex factually and legally so the VSOs who care do not have a chance at assisting veterans.

This IG report and PR stategy are getting us warmed up for the mass demonization of so-called greedy, disabled veterans whose futures will be in the hands of the new Congress and its expressed concerns about costs, efficiencies and privatization.

Anti-veteran think tanks like Dr. Satel's, the IGs and the national media are generating the scare headlines and stories of greedy, lying veterans.

Said Paul Sullivan, executive director of Veterans for Common Sense:

The VA IG investigation shows VBA staff failed to enter data into a computer ordering a second examination of veterans receiving temporary 100 percent benefits. This remains a training and oversight problem at VBA. However, the Stars and Stripesheadline is misleading because VBA could have also underpaid veterans billions of dollars because of VBA delays or failures to perform examinations, a point stressed by VBA leaders in their response to the IG. In order to resolve the possibility of overpayments and underpayments, VBA should improve computer systems and improve training, things VBA promises to do. Unfortunately, some misguided opponents of VA will seize the headline to attack temporary benefits as well as to demand major budget cuts at VA.

The reality is the VA and VBA have underpaid disabled veterans by $Billions for decades.