Boss Tweed, Florida-Style

 --Manny Francisco (Phillippines)

"It was not your fault that you
got too much Social security money" 

--Quotation from SSA letter to Ranger

   

Do you think this country
was founded on informed ideas? 
--30 Rock 

_______________________ 

Ranger continues the slog through the Social Security Agency (SSA) behemoth, continuing his 19-month effort to get the matter of a $10,000+ erroneous deduction from his earnings resolved.  It was at his most recent meeting in his local SSA that Ranger was possibly subjected to voter coercion, whether known or unbeknownst to the perpetrating agent.

It was a routine visit to try and decipher wildly conflicting letters from the Great Lakes Program Center office (which sounds suspiciously like a training facility for inner-city youth); some indicated a portion of the funds had been remanded to his account, where others thanked him for discharging his "debt".  Actually, the grammar from that last correspondence deserves to be read by a wider audience (adding credence to the perception of the Program Center-as-training facility):

"We have review [sic] our record [sic] an [sic] found that you already refunded the $10,724 back in 2011.  We have removed the overpayment from your record."

What does this mean ... and why did it take until October 2012 to realize this factually untrue statement?  The trudge through the labarythine bowels of the SSA has been wickedly frustrating, but that is not Ranger's point today.

The point pertains to the upcoming Presidential election.  Local SSA Representative Smith told Ranger that he would not be allowed to read or review SSA regulations in their office nor would they provide him copies of the regs pertinent to his case, "until the presidential election is over."

How does the election equate to Ranger's monetary saga with the SSA?  What is the mystical connection between the two?  Ms. Smith claims it is SSA policy, but could it merely be a field office's effort to influence the election by withholding information from one disgruntled voter?  Inquiring minds want to know.

This appears to be illegal withholding of information to a taxpaying citizen based upon the intent of special interests hoping to influence and election.  Why would the two weeks leading up to an election be different from the time before or after?

Who's a Wounded Warrior

A preventive war, to my mind,
is an impossibility today
--President Eisenhower
___________________

The government is back at the divide and conquer game with veterans.

Back at the Social Security office this week attempting to resolve the ongoing matter of his docked pay resulting from a March 2008 administrative error (see Rodeo Clown and links), Ranger noticed the "Expedited Disability Applications for Wounded Warriors": If your disability was incurred after 1 Oct 01, you qualify for fast-track adjudication by the Social Security Administration, which made Ranger feel like chopped liver.

So much for all the rhetoric about inclusivity amongst all of our nation's veterans. If you're a Vietnam veteran with emergent issues, you're in the back of the bus, behind the Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) vets. The message: You still make us nervous.

Why is it extended to current soldiers, but not wounded or disabled veterans from other wars? Is a soldier's service post October 2001 more valuable than that of his predecessors?

And why are those veterans any different than any other citizen? Shouldn't all citizens be treated fairly by our government? Ironically, one does not need to be either wounded or a warrior to qualify for this preferential SSA program. From the pamphlet: "[W]ho become disable ... regardless of where the disability occurs" -- so a Quartermaster company clerk in a car wreck could be magically transformed into a "Wounded Warrior" ™.

I will be surprised if the SSA clears up my account before my next birthday, eight months from now. 14 April 2011 SSA informed Ranger that they had made a self-admitted error in 2008 and claimed Ranger owes them in excess of $10,000. He filed an appeal form within the month and received his first correspondence on the matter 9 Jul 12 stating that they would remand $8,500 to his account until they make an administrative decision. This over one-year lag time despite appealing the matter through my congressman's office.

No one at the Administration is being held accountable for screwing up my hard-earned benefits. This is doubly irksome in our current political climate which advocates for less rather than more government; the government we have is not doing its job, so why do we think less will be more?

Vis-a-vis the Chicago SSA Regional office handling (or not) his claim, Ranger feels like a rat in a sticky glue trap that some clever marketers call a "home".

Rodeo Clown

[emendation -- Belgian corkscrew;
so the Austrians don't have a sense of humor --ed.]

Every faction in Africa calls themselves
by these noble names - Liberation this,
Patriotic that, Democratic Republic of
something-or-other...
I guess they can't own up to what they usually are:
the Federation of Worse Oppressors
Than the Last Bunch of Oppressors.
--Lord of War (2005)

There's been a load of compromisin'
On the road to my horizon
But I'm gonna be where the lights
are shinin' on me
--Rhinestone Cowboy, Glen Campbell

Mamas, don't let your babies grow up to be cowboys.
Don't let 'em pick guitars or drive them old trucks.
Let 'em be doctors and lawyers and such
--Mamas Don't Let Your Babies
Grow up to be Cowboys,
Waylon Jennings
________________

Ranger recently filed a congressional inquiry with freshman Representative Steve Southerland's office based upon a charge by the Social Security Administration that they have mistakenly been overpaying him for three years and that he owes the government $10,740. He discussed this snafu in "Effing Wrong" 20 April 11.

Three months on, the inquiry has not been answered and the SSA has not provided any justification to verify the correctness of their allegations and actions. Since April his account has been garnished to pay back the contested monies and his monthly payments have been reduced, all without one iota of proof from the SSA. [A more paranoid person might wonder if blogging while on Social Security is the new DWB.]

There is no way to appeal the action without the facts. The SSA may have made an error, or they may not have, but withholding the facts is no way to run a government agency. Thus far, Rep. Southerland's Social Security rep has been unable to garner any additional information; he informed Ranger that he is currently handling 55 cases from constituents and that the going would be slow.

Meanwhile, we were delivered of brochure yesterday from the patriotic-sounding conservative PAC -- Heritage Action for America -- heralding Southerland as one of the "Magnificent 11" for cutting the fat out of government. "Fighting for Us!" is the tagline, but how can he fight for "us" when his staff is so stretched thin?

The back of the glossy featured a mounted cowboy in silhouette, holding an American flag. This was obviously not the good Rep., who was an undertaker prior to taking office this year. It's all hat, no cattle.

We feel that Rep. Southerland's actual profession is far more suggestive of the current state of the union.

Effing Wrong

Government Bureau, George Tooker

[H]e realized at once that he shouldn't
have spoken aloud, and that by doing so he had,
in a sense, acknowledged the stranger's right
to oversee his actions
--The Trial, Kafka

--We're going to have to ask you to leave, sir
--I did not watch my buddies die face down
in the muck so that this fucking strumpet could abridge
my right of free speech
--The Inimitable Walter Sobchak in
The Big Lebowski (1998)

Take away the right to say "fuck"
and you take away the right to say
"fuck the government"
--Lenny Bruce
__________________

Purple Heart Magazine (Apr. '11) featured Staff Sergeant Robert Miller's Medal of Honor and Florida's memorial commemorating his actions; in short, the plaque said Miller died fighting for freedom. I'll presume that means Floridian's freedom, too, since here is where the plaque resides.

However, Floridian Ranger's freedom was recently curtailed by the government of the free. He received a letter from the Social Security Administration claiming that his SSA benefits since April 2008 have been in error, and that he has received an overpayment of $350 per month, and that he now owes his government over $10,000.

No data was given to explain the overpayment; no figures produce or explanation given. Ranger has no idea the propriety of this allegation, and must now navigate the labyrinthine bowels of the SSA in order to find the origin of this alleged error.

In his initial foray into the SSA office he was told he needed to file an appeal to uncover the data behind the demand for payment of the $10,000+. The totality of his knowledge is that his payments have been fucked up since April 2008, and not by anything he did or did not do. The burden of proof is upon him to discover why the allegation of overpayment, all because some dumb-fuck SSA employee put him in this predicament, and he so stated: "This is fucked up!"

At this spirited summation of the incompetence surrounding him, the SSA representative told Ranger that swearing was not permitted as it violated office decorum, and "this is a public place." Well, that riled Ranger sufficiently to see the hypocrisy in his admonition. As Ranger saw it, he can BE fucked over by the functionaries, but he daren't declare it.

Ranger replied to SSA Rep Roberto that he would say what he pleased, (and, Walter Sobchak-like) that he carried scars reflective of his sworn duty to uphold The Constitution and asked Roberto if he was sworn to uphold The Constitution, also (came no reply.) Not only will Ranger possibly have to pay a great sum of money for the ineptitude of our government, he discovered the SSA was curtailing his civil rights, of which free speech is one.

What is freedom of speech if one cannot be profane in a government office? What is protected speech? Is the word "fuck" adequate justification to deny service to taxpaying citizen? Why have free speech if it really means, "polite free speech"? Being polite does not = free speech. Where is the freedom if we are all polite, if we all engage in that unctuous Southern practice of false politesse?

Ranger can understand a private employer putting certain constriction upon customer's behavior, but a government entity encroaching upon his freedom, at that moment, was too much. If SSG Miller died fighting for his freedom, why hasn't the SSA gotten the word?

We have addressed free speech as taught to our students (Fartwah) and in many posts as imposed upon our soldiers. Now it is clear we citizens are being muzzled, too. If our rights are "God-given" as postulated (*snicker, snicker*), how can a government agency's policy or employees restrict that free and open speech?

Fucked up might not be polite, but it sure does sum up the shooting match.