Board members done veterans proud

The Veterans Affairs Board made a major personnel change at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs that will surely benefit all vets, not just the insiders at the agency.

The secretary’s job is supposed to be nonpartisan. The board proved that on Tuesday by appointing a new secretary.

The fired secretary is a partisan political hack whose comfortable bureaucratic lifestyle evolved ever since he joined the GOP payroll years ago. After that, John Scocos though it was his Godgiven right to govern as he saw fit when the only purpose was partisan gain. He also expected to be secretary for a lifetime but he was mistaken and his arrogance and blatant disregard for the truth tripped him up.

For six years Scocos has been the center of attention at WDVA. A change was long overdue. It happened.

When Secretary Ken Black correctly fired executive assistant Mike Trepanier, he should have used his BlackBerry to can Bill Crowley, for good. The residents and staff at the Veterans Home in King were terribly bummed out when Crowley returned.

Immediately remove the mug shot of Scocos that's cluttering up the WDVA Website. Replace the ad for a loser with images of qualified professionals.

Urge the deadbeats at WDVA to take their multiple retirements and di di mau. The usual suspects include Bill Kloster, Amy Franke, Andy Schuster, Randy Krueger, Ken Abrahamsen, and Colleen Holtan. They did nothing to stop the rampage at the agency.

Not of retirement age? Laterally transfer them to another state agency — perhaps Corrections is an adequate venue for them.

Hire professional managers to administer veterans’ affairs. Look for truthfulness on their resumes. Black has a chance to work with the smart people on the board to make positive changes.

Be sure the Veterans and Military Affairs committees are involved.

Encourage the mainstream media to cover board meetings and scrutinize the balance sheet (People lie about money, but money doesn’t lie.) at WDVA, instead of waiting for a tip or a juicy headline story. Give credit to the blogosphere and news scoops from a democratic medium.

It’s all there for vets: support from the guv, lawmakers, the board, CVSOs ($70,000 a year) and homeless, disenfranchised vets.

Scocos outright lied to vets to try to make himself something he was not, and then got caught.

The department deserves honest and competent leaders, not political bozos lurking in every administrative division of the agency.

It’s a brand-new deal for the board and WDVA.

A vets’ agency, if they can keep it.

Just to recap: Scocos made many colossal, boneheaded blunders during his dubious tenure, including, but not limited to, whining to vets’ groups whenever he wanted another plaque for his Me Wall, an investigation over a dubious contract involving veterans’ housing (the Dane County DA sought no criminal charges in that), packing the organizational chart at WDVA with cronies and no-show employees, having his very own outsourced, state-paid publicity agent promote him, naming nursing home buildings after cronies, cancelling Veterans Salute to the Legislature in February, shutting down the mortgage loan program, misleading a state senator by saying that disparate vet groups’ were behind him which is a total fabrication because they aren’t.

Perhaps his most egregious act was the pathetic end run around the board to lobby the vets’ community directly. That was probably the catalyst for his ignominious dismissal. Not to mention the reinstatement of Crowley, that backfired on him.

Dissing board members and state lawmakers is ill-advised.

Occasionally public officials do the right thing and the board did the right thing. The board got something stopped so they can get something done.

Notes to you

State Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Randall, must be off her meds.

The only exceptional job Scocos did was self-serving, and look what that got him. Kerkman doesn’t get it. Scocos had a desk job in a palace. His life wasn’t on the line. He’s no hero. He got the secretary’s job in a political move by the old board.

A has-been politician politicizing the firing, where was the outrage from State Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, when Scocos was mismanaging the agency all those years?

Fitzgerald, who has a burgeoning staff of eight political employees, none of them vets, wrongly blames Gov. Jim Doyle.

That flies in the face of Pat Fuller having Scocos’s old job as Assembly chief clerk.

Fuller is a retired Army major Scocos hired to work at WDVA some years back. When Sccoos became chief clerk, he moved Fuller into the Assembly Sergeant at Arms slot.

When Scocos moved to WDVA, Fuller got the clerk’s job, which he still has, despite his Republican leanings.

The DOJ report says that late-Winter 2009, Black knew about problems at the Veterans Home in King but did nothing until requesting an investigation in July 2009, at the end of the fiscal year when DOA was doing its annual budget reconciliation, and also knew of problems at the agency.

Apparently there was no criminal intent, but he is still culpable.

So why did the board give Black the secretary’s job? Probably because he is the closest thing to a stand-up guy at the agency.

Board fires Scocos as secretary of vets' agency

John Scocos is toast.

The Veterans Affairs Board, which oversees the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, exercised its prerogative today by firing the controversial secretary amid plans to set the agency on a new course of positive policy changes.

The board shitcanned Scocos during an emergency meeting in Madison after admonishing him for the careless mistakes and miscommunication at his department.

Scocos, of course, whined again that it's unfair and that he plans on taking legal action against the board alleging it violated USERRA, a federal law that protects returning military members.

But for the past six years, the no-good bastard has been able to say whatever he wanted and the media would not challenge him or his blatant incompetence and negligence.

Scocos’ mismanagement has provoked state audits at the Veterans Home in King and Union Grove that will certainly have to be augmented with a comprehensive audit of financial discrepancies and the precarious capital position at the vets' agency.

Threatening to invoke USERRA, is more bluster from him.

Let him take whatever action necessary. He’s already retreated behind Ray Boland and USERRA while continuing to screw people over at the agency because it led to greater personal riches. Although Scocos hides behind USERRA and mindless clichés (We care about vets.), the preferential treatment he’s enjoyed has come to a screeching halt.

Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA); 38 U.S.C. 4301-4334

According to the law, an individual who leaves civilian employment to serve on active duty must be promptly reinstated in the same position of employment they would have attained had they remained continuously employed. Scocos was. Returning in September, Scocos screwed things up before and after he deployed.

Board’s legitimate concerns over secretary’s fitness

Reported e-mails between board members and Scocos were revealing, although not exactly a stinging rebuke from the board.

Board Vice-Chair Marcia Anderson and board member Pete Moran voiced legitimate concerns over Scocos’ mismanagement of the vets’ agency.

The board could have demurred or delayed the inevitable but that was unlikely given the circumstances of the decadent Scocos administration. Especially, since Scocos has been called front and center regarding his arrogant behavior and crude management style, before.

The board correctly deemed it necessary to act, which is the board’s prerogative.

Where does it say the secretary has a lifetime appointment at WDVA?

Misinformation from the media doesn’t help matters. For example, a right-wing news source last week said "his agency gets some praise from the guv for helping returning veterans." Wrong.

During a Veterans Day speech earlier this month, a wire service correctly reported the guv praised the board for protecting benefits but didn't mention Scocos. Afterward, the guv said it was up to the board to decide whether Scocos should keep his job.

Just because Scocos dodged DOJ charges on questionable spending at the nursing home for veterans in King, and the fact that Bill Crowley, the home’s head, was fired via a Dear John BlackBerry e-mail from administrator Ken Black, doesn’t condone the mismanagement and unprofessional behavior at WDVA.

Since the board today named department administrator Ken Black the secretary, does that imply that Crowley gets to keep his dubious position?

Whining that the board is treating him unfairly by evaluating his abysmal performance falls on deft ears. Board chair Marv Freedman voted twice to approve Scocos’ appointment as secretary — once behind closed doors and then in open session after a clamor over the unseemly vote.

Later, the board wisely declined to change its rules for firing the secretary according to a proposal by then board member Kathy Marschman that would have required a unanimous vote to fire the secretary and allow removal only for misconduct or mismanagement, and the state also would have to pay the legal costs of any secretary the board tried to fire, Scocos hastily exited the board meeting early.

Soon thereafter, Freedman signed Ken Wendt’s bogus “loyalty oath” for Scocos, and he also has defended Scocos in the past. So Scocos has been treated fairly.

Enough is enough. It’s about veterans, not about him.

Speculation is that Anderson is favored as replacement secretary.

Meanwhile, Scocos might appear dazed and confused, but it’s not about the board meeting to discuss his marginal job performance. His confusion stems from the fact that he can’t remember what he said when he isn’t telling the truth.

As Army Vietnam vet Terry Musser would say, There Is a God.

As Army Vietnam vet Terry Musser would say, There Is a God.

The Veterans Affairs Board today fired John Scocos as secretary of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs.

Provide our veterans with housing

THERE PROBABLY won’t be a real estate bust or a house foreclosed on that affects everyone else’s mortgage in Andy Schuster's neighborhood.

Schuster ($91,074 annual salary) pays $19,536 a year in property taxes on his $1 million-plus house is in Madison.

Controversial secretary John Scocos recently moved him like a pawn on a board game to head the division of veterans’ services after performing a sandbag job as public affairs guru for a definitely long period of time.

Smug know-it-all Schuster won’t say whether Bill Crowley resigned or was fired, although Ken Black’s BlackBerry message explicitly alludes to the fact that he was canned.

That means that, by dodging the issues, Schuster, Scocos and the other reprobates at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs are unaccountable to veterans.

Where else in state government, other than WDVA, of course, would incompetence provide an embarrassment of riches?

Emergency meeting over sec’s fitness

THE WISCONSIN VETERANS AFFAIRS BOARD can do the right thing Tuesday or muff it.

After six years of a mismanaged Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs, the board, finally, called an emergency meeting to evaluate the fitness of controversial secretary John Scocos.

The meeting is Tuesday afternoon at the WDVA HQ in Madison.

Last month the board discussed their concerns about Scocos. Since then a wire service has generalized that “some of his supporters worry his job is on the line.”

No kidding.

Certainly his ridiculously high-paid senior managers support that logical conclusion. Possibly his divorcee wife might agree. Uninformed Ralph Beck, and toadies Ray Boland and Ken Wendt are panicked.

But it’s the same vets’ groups that blindly support Scocos, while wrongly accusing the board of having a political agenda to replace him. Apparently they forget that Scocos was appointed in a sleazy backroom deal when the board was controlled by Republican appointees.

The mainstream media doesn’t speculate on who is worried it simply posited it with its shallow reporting. The media is playing into the hands of Scocos by giving him and his hacks and shills credibility.

Evidently Scocos is above accountability to anyone but himself and he routinely manipulates information for his own advantage. For instance, withholding the $107,000 Pathway Health Services study in order to massage the results, and spinning a meeting with reps of veterans groups in mid-November while dissing the board.

It’s all about Scocos. If the board really wanted to take matters into their own hands, such as vastly improving the administration of Aid to Indigent Veterans program, they’d replace Scocos with a professional administrator.

Not surprisingly, e-mails obtained by a wire service show tension between members of the board and Scocos.

Reportedly, “Vice Chair Marcia Anderson told Scocos last week in an e-mail she was ‘extremely dismayed’ that he didn't notify the board about findings of a state Department of Justice investigation until the next day.”

She also reportedly “accused Scocos of taking too long to update the board on the agency's internal investigation into the matter.”

Scocos’ typically lame response is that he was "taken aback by the tone" of her e-mails.

Board member Pete Moran also reportedly is dismayed Scocos approved fee changes for a veterans’ nursing home without board input.

Bear in mind that WDVA legal counsel James Stewart, defender of Scocos in complaints filed against the secretary and his department, will advise the board Tuesday in closed session before meeting openly about Scocos’ fitness and retention.

The guv's recently veto of the Natural Resources Board appointing the state Department of Natural Resources, calls attention to the only other agency with a board-appointed secretary — WDVA.

Nonetheless, the board called an emergency meeting after Scocos shifted personnel around again, including, unbelievably, reinstating Bill Crowley as the leering head of the Veterans Home in King.

Don't change that channel!

Faked hero status

Stolen Valor is an eye-opening book by B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley written about 10 years ago that documents the numerous impostors claiming to be Vietnam vets.

It could just as easily apply today to those embellishing their military experiences and falsely claiming to have joined the ranks of combat vets from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.

Fibbing on an application form for accreditation as a service organization rep is also dishonorable.

SOMEBODY AT WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS ought to explain this Dear John e-mail from Ken Black.

The department should also explain whether Bill Crowley was on paid leave during the four months he was gone from the Veterans Home in King.

EMERGENCY MEETING of the Vets' Affairs Board to evaluate Scocos' fitness again

It’s fairly common for the Veterans Affairs Board to have a speakerphone conference, but it’s quite unusual for the board to have a special meeting.

The board meets behind closed doors Tuesday at 1 p.m. to review the abysmal performance of Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs secretary John Scocos.

The meeting is slated for the 8th floor boardroom at WDVA HQ, 30 W. Mifflin St., Madison.

It's impossible to predict exactly what triggered the special meeting.

Certainly, Scocos' forgathering with the vets' groups on Nov. 16, and lobbying for general purpose revenue without notifying the board or getting the board’s input had something to do with the board’s unusual impulsiveness.

Scocos also lobbied state Sen. Scott Fitzgerald, R-Juneau, and Rep. Kevin Petersen, R-Waupaca, to introduce legislation that would prolong the solvency of the Veterans Trust Fund. Reputedly vets' organizations were on board with Scocos' request for yet more GPR (injecting $12.6 million from the general fund in each of the next three years, an estimated amount needed to keep the VTF solvent until fiscal year 2016), with no real explanation on how the money would be spent.

The exorbitant fees charged at King and Union Grove homes while Union Grove loses money also matters to the board as well as the administration of Aid to Indigent Veterans program.

Questionable transactions at the Veterans Home in King and, unbelievably, reinstating repugnant Bill Crowley while possibly violating statutes also influenced the board’s decision to meet before its regularly scheduled get together in December.

Scocos’ abrupt changes in the organizational chart at WDVA HQ in Madison, King and Union Grove, got on the board’s radar.

The board also wants to hear more about the purpose and authorization of donations made to Fox Valley Technical College as well as the status of the Pathway Health Services report and recommendations for implementation and future planning issues.

Obviously, the board has a full plate. Let's hope the members do the right thing.

The biggie when the board reconvenes in open session around 3 p.m., though, is what happens with the employment and performance evaluation data for controversial secretary Scocos. An item added to the agenda at the last minute.

On Dec. 11 the board meets at the Veterans Home at Union Grove.

All the secretary’s men

Bill Kloster ($107,040) is the deputy again after advising the secretary.

Mike Trepanier, the longest-serving LTE driver at the agency is Scocos’ inexperienced executive assistant.

Tony Cappozzo, ($102,351) a non-veteran is division administration.

Ken Black ($104,774) was demoted to the division of veterans benefits and probably told to keep telecommunications on his BlackBerry to a minimum

Tom Rhatican, although unlicensed, is still listed as the division administrator of the Wisconsin veterans homes, is on military leave as a JAG officer.

Randy Nitschke, supposedly a licensed nursing home administrator, is filling in for Rhatican as acting head of the division of veterans homes.

Pat Shaughnessy, ($94,847) unlicensed, is acting head of Veterans Home in Union Grove.

Bill Crowley, ($103,332) unlicensed, is, astonishingly, head of Veterans Home in King again.

Andy Schuster, ($91,074) a guy who lives in a $1 million house and won’t say whether Crowley resigned or was fired although Black’s e-mail is explicit that he was, assumes the duties as head of division of veterans’ services.

James Stewart, ($121,131) manipulative legal counsel.

Ken Abrahamsen ($102,351) is the office of policy, planning and budget guru.

The public affairs and museum director slots are vacant.

The enablers

Pompous senator blah blah blah Bob Jauch, a finance committee panelist in 2005 who didn’t seem to know anything about the legislature approving a $16 million transfer from King home for IT staff in Madison and a bailout of the insolvent veterans’ trust fund, and that $7 million from accumulated federal per diem at King was appropriated for WDVA administrators to spend or let languish in a slush fund somewhere. In fact Jauch said “there must be some federal money laying around.”

The Joint Finance Committee, if it caves to Scocos' request for $700,000 to cover the unauthorized purchases at King home.

Rep. Kevin Petersen, R-Waupaca, partisan demagoguery and prophecy regarding decreased services and staffing and increased private pay rates for the elderly veterans living at King home, and then blaming the Democrats and not Scocos for it.

In September, Petersen had more questions than answers about the purchases at King home. Such as why the Veterans Affairs Board and former acting secretary Ken Black requested an investigation by Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen for a fire truck purchased with the guv’s signature of approval? What did the board know about these purchases and when? If Bill Crowley was fired, why was he fired before the investigation is complete?

“These questions and more are why I’ll be investigating further and withholding judgment until all of the facts are on the table, Petersen said. “One thing is definite; if wrongdoing occurred, the persons involved should be properly reprimanded or relieved of their duties.”

Scocos, Fitzgerald and Petersen also claim they introduced a veterans trust fund bill at the request and with the overwhelming support of, the American Legion, AMVETS, Veterans of Foreign Wars, Vietnam Veterans of America, Wisconsin American GI Forum, Wisconsin Vietnam Vets, Dry Hootch (spelled Dryhootch), Gold Star Wives, Madison Veterans Council, Marine Corps League, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Military Officers Association of America, Navy Clubs of USA, Polish Legion of American Veterans, and The Retired Enlisted Association.

Can they prove without a doubt they had all these entities were on board before the proposal?

Rep. Jerry Petrowski, R-Marathon, does nothing for vets as a longtime member of the Assembly Veterans and Military Affairs Committee, except keep Kathy Marschman, a high-paid secretary, on the state payroll. Recall Marschman appointed Scocos secretary in a slimy backroom deal that did not have support of lawmakers or the guv.

Ken Wendt and Ray Boland constantly promoting the incompetent secretary.

Jackie Johnson’s biased broadcasts about Scocos that she labels as news.

Unfortunately, the mainstream media ignores the board and machinations of the vets’ agency unless there's a job performance review of Scocos or a request for a wide-ranging review of his department.

For the past six years, Scocos has been able to say whatever he wanted and the media would not challenge him or his blatant incompetence and negligence.

Eventually, of course, the audits at King and Union Grove will have to be augmented with a comprehensive audit of WDVA's financial discrepancies and precarious capital position.

Brett Favre’s Minnesota Vikings Purple Jersey

By Lt. Col. Tim Donovan
32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team

BAGHDAD - When detainees at Camp Cropper want to get under the skin of guard force soldiers from the 829th Engineer Company, they employ a tactic that would be more at home along the St. Croix River than inside a theater internment facility in Iraq: they needle the Wisconsin Guard troops about Brett Favre's success as a Minnesota Viking.

It seems the Green Bay Packers logos that sprouted up all over Camp Cropper since May tipped off detainees that Packer fans were in the house. It's a small world.

With a little less than two months left in the 32nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team's mission in Iraq, this is an update on some of our units from their locations around the country over the past month.

http://dma.wi.gov/dma/news/2009News/32_BCT_09-026.asp

Psychotic secretary does the unthinkable: reinstates unlicensed nursing home administrator, putting King home residents at risk

Scocos reportedly told agency employees Crowley's reinstatement was appropriate after the Department of Justice declined to press charges last week against anyone in connection with spending irregularities at the home.

Weirdness continuing to run in overdrive at WDVA

The longest-serving LTE driver in the annals of the state is now speaking for the worst secretary in state history.

Mike Trepanier, controversial secretary John Scocos’ brand-new executive assistant is making excuses for Scocos reinstating unlicensed nursing home administer Bill Crowley to run the Veterans Home in King.

Scocos cloned himself. Perfect!

Trepanier told the mainstream media that Crowley "shouldn't be held responsible for the miscommunications of others on the staff."

Unbelievable!

Typically it’s the old duffers at the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs that exaggerate for Scocos, now he’s got a newbie lying for him.

But where were Scocos and Trepanier when Crowley was twisting in the wind over the screwy balance sheet at King home?

Scocos waited until the state Justice Department released its inconclusive investigation to martyr the leering Crowley.

“The employees at King home were really happy when Crowley left so I doubt they will be happy he is coming back,” an insider said. “I think members were hoping some changes would take place after he left. Guess that won't be happening.”

Fortunately some changes might be occurring because Crowley’s reinstatement is one of the issues on the Veterans Affairs Board’s special meeting agenda Tuesday in Madison.

Scocos' job performance is up for review again.

The board will also inquire why Randy Nitschke packed his bags and is now the acting administrator for the Division of Veterans Homes in Madison, while Pat Shaughnessy is the leader of the Veterans Home in Union Grove.

The next installment is the pending Legislative Audit Bureau audit of the vets’ homes. And whether the Joint Finance Committee rubberstamps WDVA’s request for $700,000 to cover unauthorized spending at King home.

Meanwhile, do the payroll records at King home show that Crowley was laid off for the past four months, suspended or sent home with pay and benefits to await the DOJ verdict?

Was it a wild hair that caused Ken Black to fire Crowley, without Scocos knowing anything about it? Highly unlikely, since Scocos can’t be that uninformed.

Besides, Scocos’ Authorities, Roles, and Responsibilities dictating that he’s secretary before and after deployment . . . and the letterhead specifying that he is the department secretary shall remain unchanged, are meant to keep him in the loop.

So Scocos certainly must have ordered the purge and then changed his mind when it became apparent that he wasn’t implicated in the now-infamous DOJ's investigative report citing miscommunication and confusion at all levels and portraying Crowley as relying heavily on subordinates.

Black and his BlackBerry are mum.

Crowley’s on another binge, thanks in part to the likes of Ralph Beck and the camp followers that don't have a clue what's going on with the bureaucrats at WDVA.

It’s back to square one with the vets as the real losers.

Special vets' board meeting Tuesday so soon after secretary John Scocos reinstated Bill Crowley at the Veterans Home in King

Scocos' job performance up for review again

The Veterans Affairs Board meets behind closed doors Nov. 24 at 1 p.m. to discuss the employment and performance of the Wisconsin Department of Veterans Affairs secretary.

The meeting will be held in the 8th floor boardroom at WDVA HQ, 30 W. Mifflin St., Madison.

The board agenda includes employment, promotion, compensation, performance and evaluation data of an employee as well as the department secretary position over which the board has jurisdiction and exercises responsibility.

The board and WDVA legal counsel will also discuss potential litigation related to the operation of the board and litigation involving employment issues before the Wisconsin Employment Relations Commission, the Equal Rights Division, the United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and federal courts.

The board reconvenes in open session at the 3 p.m. over these timely issues:

—Wisconsin Department of Justice report regarding certain transactions at the Veterans Home in King.

—Staffing issues, organizational and abrupt personnel changes in Madison, King and Union Grove.

—Fees charged at King and Union Grove homes and continued net loss operating costs at Union Grove as well as the administration of programs such as Aid to Indigent Veterans.

—The purpose and authorization of donations made to Fox Valley Technical College.

—Status of the Pathway Health Services report and future planning recommendations.

—Purpose of the secretary’s recent meeting with Veterans Service Organizations.

—Communications regarding possible general purpose revenue funding.

—Possible action on the employment and performance evaluation data related to the department secretary.

The board's regularly scheduled meeting is Dec. 11 at the Veterans Home at Union Grove.

Secretary encircles himself with likeminded rejects

Paranoid secretary John Scocos is making retro appointments because he’s mean-spirited and doesn’t want vets getting ahead.

Everything he does, every decision he makes is contrary to the Veterans Affairs Board’s performance review of him last month, which was a farce because Scocos conveniently lied to the board.

Everybody knows the ludicrous secretary — who does nothing for returning vets without the VA doing the heavy lifting — praised himself after dodging criminal charges over questionable spending at the Veterans Home in King.

Most post commanders concur.

As a general rule, decisions aren’t made in a vacuum.

Even the flaky Scocos administration probably has some discussion before making a decision, especially over dicey personnel matters: albeit behind closed doors.

So who has the most incriminating evidence against Scocos for him to reinstate a huge liability like Bill Crowley?

Did Ralph Beck have a come-to-Jesus type of meeting with Scocos? After all Ralph’s head of a major veterans’ group, so he could have given Scocos an ultimatum. Recall how upset he was over the way Crowley was ousted.

But Scocos generally doesn’t concern himself with compliance or trivial matters such as Crowley threatening a wrongful termination suit. Scocos knows very well the state would pay any settlement and legal fees.

So who’d Crowley whine to or intimidate the most to get his old job back? Does he return as a double-dipper the way Seth Perelman shamelessly did?

Was Crowley on the state payroll for the four months he was in la-la land over misspending at King Home? Probably!

Board chair Marv Freedman can’t be too pleased, since Crowley is not technically (and you could say morally) licensed to head King Home.

Was Crowley relieved of duties to take the pressure off returning Scocos, with a tacit understanding Crowley could return after the inconclusive DOJ investigation?

Has-been colonels from the old days in the Guard, dodging criticism while padding their lifetime benefits. Scocos and his minions have extended their desk jobs in the military, complete with undeserved benefits and permanent state employment, while homeless vets go without.

Nonetheless, Scocos must cause legal counsel James Stewart a flare-up of gout. How can he advise these goldbrickers?

Is Kloster F*ck advising Scocos or is Scocos so arrogant that no matter how much the evidence points to his immediate dismissal, he intends on making life miserable for vets just to keep his J-O-B?

Crowley’s return to King Home is bad news but what’s really sad is the vets there don’t have a choice. They get TV dinners for chow while old lecher Crowley gets shitfaced and leers at employees there.

Too bad convicted thief Rich Calcut moved away or he’d be back on the dole again as Crowley’s spokesman. If DOJ had seriously investigated King Home’s spending, Crowley would still be unemployed and quite possibly liable for misconduct there. But Wisconsin politics spared him further indignity.

How much more irrelevant can the board get? It is better suited for operating the Dells Army Ducks.

Scocos is more qualified for selling Chinese Hummer trucks.

And guys like Ralph Beck just don’t get it. He's more qualified watching the parades and pouring schnapps.

They know only that the taxpayers foot the bill for unqualified administrators like Scocos, Kloster, Ken Black, Ken Abrahamsen, Andy Schuster, Randy Krueger; the name of the game is to keep those freebies and bennies coming.

But all vets in the state deserve honest, credible and accountable representation.

The vets’ board could be heroes instead they choose to watch Scocos make a mockery of the veterans’ agency and further embarrass the department for his own personal gain — shameful.