Veterans Affairs

Veterans Affairs Official Lectures Congress On ‘Accountability’

Veterans Affairs

Benjamin KrauseVeterans Affairs official Sloan Gibson claims terminating dysfunctional employees is not needed to ensure ‘accountability‘ and that the agency will redefine the word.

Did you need to make a double take at this allusive double-speak from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)?

Because VA has done such bang up job on fixing its problems and holding corrupt or dysfunctional leaders accountable, they now want to redefine how the term is used when describing its management of personnel.

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Can we trust them?

Yesterday, Deputy Secretary Gibson told Congress that it should embrace a broader definition of accountability:

“It seems the term ‘accountability’ has taken on a new meaning. Instead of the dictionary definition– ‘providing a record or explanation of one’s conduct’–the term has become shorthand for firing people.”

“Secretary McDonald and I want to reclaim the term ‘accountability’ in its fuller meaning, in the sense of being transparent about what our goals are and how well we achieve them, what taxpayers can expect us to achieve with each dollar we receive, what veterans can expect us to do for them, by when, and to what level of quality and satisfaction.”

WATCH HEARING: Fact Check – An End of Year Review of Accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs

Chairman Jeff Miller (R-FL) laid into Gibson’s absurd and self-serving Orwellian obfuscation of the English language.

“Quite honestly, I think the tone of your statement proves why we are so disappointed with the lack of accountability at VA because it illustrates that the department and its senior leaders still refuse to take responsibility for the corrosive culture plaguing VA,” Miller rebuked.

“Google uses the word ‘accountability’ in a sentence as follows, ‘their lack of accountability has corroded public respect,’” the Florida congressman continued. “If you substituted the words ‘Department of Veterans Affairs’ for the word ‘their,’ it would be 100 percent appropriate.”

Miller was right on in his critique and pushed back using the basic Webster definition of the word “accountability” as meaning, “an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one’s actions.”

Ranging from the wait-list to masturbating miscreants to over-sexualized misfits, VA has refused to truly hold those accountable with any real ramifications. Even Diana Rubens has yet to be held accountability for clear violations of the law.

RELATED: Serial Masturbator Got $30k Bonus

“It gets tiresome to constantly be told by you and other VA leaders that things are changing for the better and that you are, ‘committed to sustainable accountability’ as you stated in your testimony, but then to witness otherwise,” Miller stated.

Let’s not forget that ever time VA Secretary Bob McDonald talks about accountability to Congress, he always inflates the numbers of those terminated in the most incredible ways.

RELATED: VA Demotions Reversed Due To Agency Error

The fact remains that numerous VA executives have broken the law and deserve termination, not a slap on the wrist and most certainly not rewarding public masturbation at work with a hefty $30k bonus. What kind of accountability is that?

So what do you think? Is VA engaged in an Orwellian scheme to convince the public it is holding dysfunctional employees accountable while also holding no one accountable?

This is the kind of double-speak that will drive any rational person crazy.

@deptvetaffairs - Thanks for the double-speak lesson Gibson!! Click to Tweet

Source: https://freebeacon.com/issues/va-official-says-agency-does-not-need-to-fire-people-to-ensure-accountability/

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35 Comments

  1. The way I see this going is simple. Everyone of these individuals who were “appointed into positions of authority” have just over a year to either get it done right. Or, find other positions of authority in the civilian sector!
    But, and there’s always a “but”, who would want to hire any of these reprobates? Their credibility is shot. Their inability to perform menial tasks is in question.
    I honestly believe, after the next election, most of the “career politicians” will be gone! I believe the people of America have awoken from a deep sleep. Their tired of what “career politicians” have done to this great nation.
    This next election will be either the bringing back of our REPUBLIC, or the downfall of our Democracy.

    That’s my thoughts brothers and sisters!

  2. This smelly sock puppet says shit like this because his “VA” just doesn’t know what else to do anymore. Taxpayers are sick of these clowns in government. The “VA” is squirming and struggling to appear to worth the money taxpayers are shelling out for them and all the other departments there are. This is simply how they cry and say “give me a break – we know we suck!”
    They could solve their problem by redefining who they are, and keep acting the same way. Like for example a circus just like Barnum & Bailey…. with Bob and honorable Gibson clown and undersecretary schmo-ball and the whole cast as clowns swatting each other in the ass and shouting “accountability”. I think people would pay bucks to go see that in every city and then they won’t have to ask congress for $. Except in the show, as entertainment. They should just better position themselves as to who they really are – under a new company. Like a three ring circus. That would be fine then to act that way – to entertain in the sawdust ring.

    1. Arrests and jail time is the only way for employees to be held accountable for their evil deads.

      Enough covering up for employees who are hurting veterans and they should also be held accountable for their inaction.to seek justice.

      Where’s Bob McDonald

      1. I agree that the only way to go now is jail time. I had in side look of what was going to happen with these hearings. I received a call from Johnny Isakson office about problems I was having with the VA.I was told I was basically on my own. If that’s the policy of his office, I knew than it was only saber rattling nothing was ever going to be done about those thugs and criminals. Some are equal to or surpass people I’ve locked up.

  3. Accountability???? VA leadership has no idea of the definition. Those worthless fucks need a lesson from the old school military on how to be accountable.

    1. ^Yes! A healthy overdose of UCMJ and probably a lot of pillow cases and bars of soap:-)

      I am serious about something like the UCMJ for the VA since after all, they deal with Veterans transitioning to civilian life. We Vets are still held accountable but why not the VA?

      The song “This Corruption” by ‘Sisters of Mercy’ comes to mind.

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=obzPPeHgHRQ

    2. They need general Patton as VA secy and J Edgar Hoover as head of VA/OIG because they’re going to man up to their job and get it done to hell with the bs we real men like them in a time like this

  4. I found their word source and advisor. The chicken chokers have their own dictionary, no wonder congressman Miller was confused.

    I’m going to contact them and see if they have a word for Chicken Choking Senior VA official………………

    Alphadictionary.com
    • nomophobia •

    Pronunciation: no-mê-fo-bi-ê

    Part of Speech: Noun, mass (No plural)

    Meaning: The fear of being without a working cellphone.

    Notes: This is another nonce word which just may make it into the general vocabulary—like butt-dial seems to. (My spellchecker doesn’t flag the word even today.) A person suffering from this malady would be a nomophobe with nomophobic tendencies.

    In Play: Aaaargh!Forgetting their cellphone at home can put a nomophobic in a state of panic: “Gloria Sass suffers from nomophobia so badly that she can’t forgo looking at her cellphone every five minutes.” If you see a screenager in a state of panic, they may have a cellphone with a dead battery and no place to plug it in: “Look at that nomophobic glow-face over there running about looking for a place to plug in her mobile phone.”

    Word History: Today’s Good Word was coined during a 2010 study by YouGov to look at anxieties suffered by cellphone users. YouGov contrived to fit together the phrase “no mo(bile)” + phobia “fear (of)” as a heuristic convenience. It seems to have slipped into general usage. Mobile comes, via French, from Latin mobilis, a reduction of movibilis, an adjective from movere “to move”. The past participle of this word is motus “moved”. We can see this root in motive, motor, and remote, which is about as removed as one can get. (Today we thank Iain Smallwood, who was moved to suggest this up-and-coming Good Word.)

    Dr. Goodword, alphaDictionary.com

    Come visit our website at for more Good Words and other language resources!

    alphaDictionary.com
    ©2004-2015 Robert Beard All Rights Reserved.

  5. Terminating employees is not needed to insure accountability? What color is the sky in this nitwits world? Eliminate drug screening for all veterans since there is no need for accountability. Laws broken when dealing heroin? No problem, you are not accountable at your job where you no longer have to comply with policies or standards since nobody is accountable anyway. Defraud the government to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars? No biggie. We will even screw up to insure there is no accountability. Oh, and if you VA doctors maim a veteran by screwing up? No problem since we will step in and demand you have no accountability. Same with using anyone we feel like to provide any kind of exam like TBI exams. We are not only here from the government to help you, we are elites from the VA where you will like our help no matter what because that’s all you’re going to get anyway.

    Does this damn fool seriously think we will believe bad behavior is not deterred by holding people accountable?

    Why have any standards, rules, policies or laws since there will be no consequences if you don’t follow them?

    1. How dare you sir to talk common sense in reference to the va….careful you might end up on santas naughty list.

      This is like saying dont give visas to terrorist….

      Ok I ha e to go watch the news now so they can tell me how to think

      1. I get what you’re saying, but Gibson’s statement is just beyond asinine.
        Hell even the dumbest cave man knew he would be held accountable if he put his hand over the flame too long after discovering fire.
        Kids from the earliest age used to be taught that they are accountable for bad behavior.

        Gibson is looking for turning the employee bonus program and employment at the VA into just another participation trophy.

      2. Right…like deer hunting, but with Vets in the scopes…the scopes happen to be in hands of incompetents that want to spread their infectious idiocy even further by “redefining accountability”….NOW, isn’t THAT kind of an “Oxymoron”?
        It’s moronic all the same.

        I want to know if Rep. Miller just took the VA at their word with this or what else is going on with this and trust Benjamin will help keep us informed because it will not be in MSM. Another active $hooter in Arkansas this time…WE have a lot of problems with people obeying rules of ANY kind in this country these days, esp. with the ‘Entitlement Generation’ and ‘Hipster Immediacy Generation’…seems all hell broke loose about the same time as when Obama came into office (although know the financial collapse started in prior year and signals of it’s impeding doom years before that), but from 2008-Present, we have one large mess.

        I still have a ‘stained brain’ from yesterday’s master masturbator VA OIG Wood-Itch…it will not go away and found myself talking about it on phone to my mother and I had to send the link because she did not see how that would be possible if the guy was not charged and punished for such vile public behavior…see, the Public still has no real idea of how bad the stench of corruption is at the VA/VHA.

        I sent yesterday’s article link to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert because he has been using that platform to lampoon both side of the aisle and the word needs to get out.

        However, now all you hear is the deserter Bergdahl but nothing about Veterans with Valor having trouble with VA…it’s farting rainbows I guess, according to the VA’s new definition of accountability.

        I bet the Nazi’s had a euphuisms that made genocide sound like something else completely…yeah, it was REDEFINED as “The Final Solution”…this is the scary path we are on.

  6. Veterans die while waiting for medical care, VA exec’s bilk the taxpayers for hundreds of thousands of dollars and then there’s choke the chicken at the office……The only people that they will hold accountable are the whistleblowers.

  7. McDonald does not want to speak to veterans or the public.he knows he would end up looking stupid by saying something stupid.

    He in hiding and lets his staff do everything for him.that way he can state he knew nothing about it.

    His staff.should not be answering veterans inquiries.that should be McDonald’s job.I bet they don’t even show him the veterans complaints.

    McDonald’s must speak to the congress and the American people and answer questions about the firings and be required to provide real proof and if he don’t be fired on the spot and his staff also.

  8. Double standard. If you’re a low level VA employee and don’t make them look good you’re accountable. If you a higher up — time to write that good bonus check. The veteran got denied for a rate increase or died.

  9. Essentially, we are allowing the people who broke the system to fix it. This doesn’t make sense! VA employees have to be held to a reasonable standard and accountable.

  10. Right out of the Bill Clinton play on words book, the true definition of is, is. Shit he must have been right his wife believed him and she’s running for President.

    We’re just STUPID veterans, get in line shoot the gun go home……………….

    These dirt bags believe when they become VA upper management they become superior in intellect to all other life forms………Keep chocking the chicken Gibson…………..

    1. ‘the agency will redefine the word.’ The government has redefined “marriage” now “accountability”. Interesting!! What will they “redefine” next?

  11. Anyone notice a “creepy factor” with today’s article photo when you look at the various disconnected faces all behind Sloan Gibson?

    How about we “reclaim the term ASSHOLES” to automatically refer to VA Upper Management?
    “Reclaim the term corruption” to mean VA business as usual?!!
    “Reclaim term TBI to TBIO (The Brain Is Okay)”??!!!

    Do these people have any semblance of how idiotic and INSANE they appear and sound?

    Again, where’s MIA VA Sec. McDonald? Is he saving his extremely limited appearances before Congress for only when he needs the taxpayer ATM to fill the Black Hole again?

    What’s really scary is the VA probably spent untold million$ on some consulting and PR firm to come-up with…”HEY, how about we simply “repurpose” the definition of accountability to ensure there’s absolutely no way accountability can exist within our own interpretation of same???!!!????”

    This tells me that the VA is actually FEELING the PRESSURE we are putting on them via PUBLIC SHAMING…let’s keep-it up on steroids!!!!

    1. Hey namnibor, wouldn’t it be a real hoot if these “committee meetings” were broadcasted on say PBS. Can you imagine how many people would call their representatives and complain?
      Especially on what came out yesterday. I believe every woman who had anything to do with “sexual harassment would be screeming for something to be done to those perverts.

  12. So, after Miller “rebuked” Gibson on his “definition” of “accountability”, what happened?
    Is this it?
    Are VA employees getting into trouble?
    Is anyone going to be fired?

    Until thousands of VA employees are fired, arrested, tried & jailed and publicly humiliated, as they have done to veterans. I’m not going to trust VA one bit!

    1. When I got out of the service 35 years ago I was warned not to go to the va at all cost, I wish I had heeded that advise.

      These people are scum, unanle to secure a real job in the private sector, apply at the va, they will hire from the bottom of the barrel after all it does not matter if you injure or kill a vet. They don’t matter.

  13. Redefine any word you want slick.

    Simple fact is while you are trying to re-write the dictionary you crook, people are being mistreated, abused and dying while you are pretending too be a word Smith.

    Why can’t all the big girls and boys at the vs just go to work and do what they are begging paid to do?

    I am counting the days….5.5 years until medicare and REAL DOCTORS, REAL NURSES AND PEACE OF MIND.

  14. “[“Secretary McDonald and I want to reclaim the term ‘accountability’ in its fuller meaning, in the sense of being transparent about what our goals are and how well we achieve them, what taxpayers can expect us to achieve with each dollar we receive, what veterans can expect us to do for them, by when, and to what level of quality and satisfaction.]”

    1. Notice how the very word “Veteran” even comes absolutely last in their very “reclaimed term of accountability”?

    2. Replace the word “taxpayers” with “stockholders” and you have the “corporate definition of playing “covering our collective asses”!

    3. Notice they are even trying to even make different “tiers of quality” by stating “to what LEVEL of QUALITY and satisfaction”?? So…they are already thinking-up even more degrees of HELL the VA can serve warm temperature in the porcelain bowl?

    Puh….Leeeeeze! We Veterans are not stupid! However, if Congress decides to let the leash length out on this we are all truly FUCKED! The VA is seeming more and more like Nazi Storm Troopers/Gestapo.

  15. The VA “redefining” the term **accountability** would look exactly like this: ***Unaccountability***……………why should these JERK-OFFS be allowed to redefine anything? They already misinterpret the very Regulations/Title 38 they are supposed to be held to!!!
    Sloan Gibson more than likely does not even know what “dysfunctional” even means because the VA already took that definition to ALL NEW HEIGHTS of dysfunctional definitions.

    THIS is becoming scary circus music that the VA is pumping out.

    Anyone think they are trying to cover their collective asses by redefining their egregious behaviors caught because of it becoming public knowledge of JERKING OFF in the FACE to Tax Payers and Veterans??!!

    I do. The VA should NOT be permitted to police itself because it’s already quite clear that even the VA OIG is tainted with the same dysfunction. Remember, Sloan Gibson is also known as “Obama’s CLEANER”…this is nothing but an attempt at damage control. What’s next? The VA redefining what “Corruption” means to the VA?

    Is this akin to Nazi’s moving en mass to South America? See No Evil? Catch us IF you can???!!!

    WTF, Over?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    1. Your comment just made me think Gibson jerked off in front of Miller and dared Miller to do anything about it.

      Miller should have responded with telling Gibson the reason for his committee is for oversight, and to insure the VA is carrying out their duties as intended by laws passed by Congress. Those laws and appropriations are carried out by the SecVA by implementing policies to insure the intent of Congress is followed.

      Gibson just gave Miller a giant middle finger publicly, then bent over, dropped his pants and told Miller to kiss it.

  16. 12/10/2015

    Dear Benjamin Krause,

    On December 2nd, 2015 in Washington Roscoe Butler [American Legion, National Veterans Affair & Rehabilitation Division—Deputy Director] reminded the Senators of the
    Home Town Program started in 1945, and reminded them that 70 years has pasted since then and questions “the VA’s ability to roll out the program, or any other program.”

    One of your recent readers stated, Why kick the dead horse?

    We have questioned that before!

    Trump looks good for many people.
    The talk reminds me of the 1930s [Germany].

    Ed Rollins [Republican campaign consultant and advisor] & Dan Senor [From 2001 to 2003, he was an investment banker at the Carlyle Group/Senor was a Pentagon and White House adviser based in Doha, Qatar, at U.S. Central Command Forward/Senor was an Adjunct Senior Fellow for Middle East Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations—wikipedia] was on Charlie Rose show last tonight—trying their best.

    Washington DC is going to have a rude awakening —just like GM.

    And the GOP—Good Ole Party.

    Rude Awakening: The Rise, Fall, and Struggle for Recovery of General Motors, by Maryann Keller (Harper Perennial, $9.95). Imagine what we really know now after the disaster at VW and the disaster of the ignition recall at GM after our government released the company’s control after the Bailout from the “Great Recession,”—or Lehman Brothers collapse in 2007 in Japan/one year before the collapse of the U.S. Banks in August of 2008.

    Ed knows this.

    “Quite honestly, I think the tone of your statement proves why we are so disappointed with the lack of accountability at VA because it illustrates that the department and its senior leaders still refuse to take responsibility for the corrosive culture plaguing VA,” Miller rebuked.

    That is really soft for the Homicides/Murders [Fox New’s network Judge Jeanine Pirro & Michelle Malkin’s December 2015 articles] that have taken place —-293 dead in Phoenix in 2014 [19,500 per year—victims of the VA Hospitals].

    Think about it!!!

    Sincerely,

    Don Karg
    Last C-17 rolled out this month–25 years of Manufacturing Saved—Still have not heard from Senator Boxer [old friend from the 10/31/1991 Article–Flirting With Disaster].

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