News updates (well, it's news to me)

[temperance14]

First an update on the NPR story on US Army's purported interference with Veteran's Affairs procedures. The procedures involved the VA's assisting disabled veterans with paperwork assessing their disability ratings.

The Army Surgeon General Eric Shoemaker responds.


On the lighter side, an update on known dinosaurs:
4 short web pages, with some nice pen/ink illos.

A short armed Kryptops palaios (to quote Spielberg's Dinosaurs "How come I never make the bowling team?")
and a big boy, Eocarcharia dinops, with a nasty jaw/tooth arrangement.

Both with huge brow bones---interesting shapes.

Methinks I need to set up a photo vault for dino art. My pages need more frilled scaly critters.

Comments

[terpsichoros.livejournal.com]

In other words, NPR gets the story wrong, and makes one person's mistake look like eeeevil Bush administration policy. This serves the public interest how?

[textivore.livejournal.com]

It's actually not clear that they DID get the story wrong. This could just be standard CYA behavior by army brass after they got caught doing something that looked bad.

Or, indeed, it could be NPR getting the story wrong and making one person's mistake look like eeeevil Bush administration policy.

In any case, there's not enough to go on in the piece to come to any real conclusion. NPR could be totally off base, Shoemaker could be earnest but mistaken, Shoemaker could be lying. Being skeptical is reasonable. Being altogether dismissive, on the other hand...

See I disagree on the interpreation of the update

[temperance14.livejournal.com]

The update is not about NPR saying these events didn't happen.
The response from Shoemaker this past week states he didn't realize the instructions from the Army to the VA had been made at all.

His first response to NPR, when the story was first aired, was to deny such instructions had been passed down.
This update occurred after he reviewed the memo of 31 March: this was the memo wherein a member of the tiger team (a Col. Baker) advised the VA not to counsel veterans on their disability benefits.

Shoemaker does assert that was not his intention or instructions in the meeting of 30 March, and the memo indicate a problem in miscommunication at the tiger team meeting of 30 March.

***********************************
Where NPR is butting heads is Shoemakers assertion that he wasn't aware that the instructions were explicitly given and accepted at the investigation meeting. I need to go back over old NPR stories and see if that memo is posted, AND see if that memo is posted at other news sources.

Re: See I disagree on the interpreation of the update

[terpsichoros.livejournal.com]

See, NPR had a contradiction. People at the hospital said that "the Army" told them to not provide the counseling. The Army, in the person of Gen. Showmaker, said they had given no such advice. That leaves three possibilities: The hospital people were lying - blaming the army for an internal policy, Gen. Shoemaker was lying, or someone in-between had told the hospital to not provide counseling, on his own authority or misinterpreting direction from above.

A responsible news organization would have investigated further, and found that the third case was true, before reporting what NPR initially reported. But we don't have responsible news organizations in this country.

[serendipity17.livejournal.com]

Orange = tasty?