Author: R J Adams

Much is being spouted of late about the long waits experienced by disabled claimants applying for Social Security benefits. It’s been going on for years, longer even than the time period applicants have to wait for a payout, but a recent investigation and subsequent broadcast by ABC News has roused a few bigwigs in Congress from slumber, opening their eyes just long enough to demand the head of SSA Commissioner Michael Astrue on a silver platter.

The average wait for a disability hearing is 499 days – let’s not be too precise, we’ll call it a round 500. The problem seems to lie with ALJ’s.

Who or what are ALJ’s, I hear you ask?

An ALJ is an Administrative Law Judge, of which there are over 1,000 in the US. They are employees of the SSA, but seem to have a poor work record. Stephen Barr, reporting in the Washington Post on the latest hearings with Michael Astrue in Congress, writes:^[1]

“Most Americans seeking disability benefits have been turned down once or twice in their states and file federal appeals with Social Security. The agency’s administrative law judges, or ALJs, award benefits in 62 percent of the cases that they hear.

The approval rate reflects the nature of the federal hearing process. ALJs usually work from a more complete medical record and hear directly from the claimants, who are often accompanied by lawyers. Although the ALJs work for Social Security, Congress has awarded them a large degree of independence in how they reach decisions.

Astrue said most ALJs do a good job, but he made it clear he has no power to discipline bad apples in their ranks. He said he is frustrated by his inability to deal with “gross misconduct” by judges, especially those accused of fraud, domestic violence and soliciting prostitution.” [my bold]

“Gross misconduct”; “fraud”; domestic violence”, and “soliciting prostitution”? These people must be members of the Republican Party.

Barr continues:

“Disciplinary actions brought against ALJs end up before the Merit Systems Protection Board, which hears federal employee appeals, resulting in months of litigation and, in Astrue’s view, a “paid vacation” for the accused……”

One ALJ only managed to process 40 disability cases in 2006, while others fell well short of the average 400-500 cases annually. Another has not completed one disability case in seven years.

Clearly, this amounts to too much salary and too little supervision. Like many of the bigger government departments, SSA is woefully inefficient and more money is wasted than ever gets to those who deserve it most – the poor and disabled.

Michael Astrue is yet another of those infamous George W Bush nominations. If he is unable, or unwilling, to run his organization efficiently, he should step down and allow someone else to do a better job.

Let’s be clear on this – it’s OUR tax dollars he’s wasting.

^{[1] “Disability Cases Pending, Pending . . .” Washington Post, February 29 2008.}

Filed under: Cronyism

• China has 119
• Iran has 222
• Russia has 628
• France has 91
• Britain has 147
• Iraq has 54 (2006 figure)

The United States of America tops them all with a mighty 751.

What do these figures mean?

They are prison population rates per 100,000 of national populations.^[1]

2.3 million American adults were in prison at the start of 2008: 1 out of every 100 Americans.

As if that is not bad enough, it gets worse:

“While one in 30 men between the ages of 20 and 34 is behind bars, for black males in that age group the figure is one in nine.” ^[2]

This is a society supposedly leading the free world, yet far less of its populace are free than nations it roundly condemns for repression and human rights abuses.

Where, one has to ask, is the reasoning?

Could it, perhaps, have something to do with the fear? Americans live in fear. They arm themselves against their neighbors; they form themselves into cliques and sects for protection. The slightest suggestion of taking away their guns sends them spinning into virulent frenzy.

Anyone who threatens the social structure must be locked away; sentences way out of proportion to the crimes. No-one seriously considers rehabilitation, or improving the lives of the lower classes who often are forced into crime because drugs are their only way to a less stressful, if very temporary, existence.

Incarceration is big business in America. The corporates control, and make their profits from this trade in human misery. They are as happy with high prison populations as is Exxon-Mobil with record oil prices.

Shame on you, America.

Yet again you’ve exposed yourself as a pariah of the world.

^{[1] World Prison Brief, University of London.}

^{[2] International Herald Tribune, February 28, 2008}

Filed under: Trades in human misery

I know it’s a great American tradition but, can they be serious? The George W Bush Presidential Library? Is this the guy who sat reading, “My Little Goat”, upside-down, during the 9/11 attacks?

Are we talking the same person who bragged he’d managed to read Camus’s, “The Stranger” by the time he was fifty-seven? It is, after all, required reading in most secondary schools.

His Library? What’s he going to put in it? The complete works of Dr Seuss and Thomas the Tank Engine?

And the choice of position could have been better – the Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas?^[1]

I always thought that was where they assassinated presidents, not honored them.

It’s one of God’s universities, of course, which is good given that George W Bush has devoted his presidency to doing God’s will: slaughtering pagan Iraqis, overseeing torture and rape, denying global warming in the sure knowledge it was the beginning of the End Times……etc, etc, etc…

In a letter to SMU, George W Bush wrote:^[2]

““I look forward to the day when both the general public and scholars come and explore the important and challenging issues our nation has faced during my presidency—from economic and homeland security to fighting terrorism and promoting freedom and democracy.”

Although the Iraqis penned it slightly differently:^[3]

“By giving a veneer of academic respectability to torture, rape, looting, hostage taking, bribery, corruption, child killing, using chemical weapons, using starvation of entire civilian populations as a weapon, denying water to entire civilian populations as a weapon, internment of children, collective punishment of entire civilian populations, bombing civilian populations (see: collective punishment of entire civilian populations,) bombing hospitals, bombing schools, looting of museums, destruction of libraries, making academics and teachers particular targets, ditto doctors and nurses, running death squads, open viciousness, blatant racism, and naked greed…..the Center’s resources and programs will be invaluable to national and international researchers and scholars, including those at SMU.”

Come to think of it – I couldn’t have put it better myself.

^{[1] SMU Dallas.}

^{[2] White House letter.}

^{[3] Gorilla’s Guides – George W Bush Presidential Library.}

Filed under: Manure by any other name……