Letter to Joe Biden: Attack on Military Retiree COLAs and DisabledVet-Owned Business

January 15, 2014

Dear Vice-President Biden,

I am a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel, 80% disabled Veteran, and service-disabled veteran-owned small business owner. I am tired of this administration's anti-Veteran/military agenda and lack of concern and response to whistleblower retaliation against me by the Department of Interior.

The fact that military retiree COLAs were targeted for 1% per year reduction until age 62 is wrong! Your retirement, the retirements of Congress, and the retirement of DoD civilians like Sharon Hallinan, the Department of Interior contracting officer who retaliated against me and ruined my business, we're not targeted, but those of us who defended our country for 20+ years were?

Why are the millions of dollars being wasted by Government agencies and contractors each year not targeted BEFORE the pensions of the brave men and women who dedicated their lives to our Nation's freedom?

I was targeted for whistleblower retaliation by the Department of Interior after reporting gross fraud, waste, and abuse in the Military Family Life Consultant (MFLC) program in the tens of millions of dollars annually. I complained to the Department of Interior Contracting Officer, Interior Business Center, in January of last year and two days later my $50K MFLC contract was cancelled. Not only did I lose much needed income, she fabricated lies, defaming my character and ruining the reputation of my business, leading to my business being ruined and the loss of our home and half of our possessions.

I filed complaints with the DoI and DoD IGs, but was ignored. My Congressman, Sam Graves, and Senators Blunt and McCaskill blew me off as did your boss President Obama. 

How is it that military retires are the FIRST ONES TARGETED when it comes time to reduce spending? Why are government agencies and contractors allowed to defraud our Government and taxpayers, wasting hundreds of millions of dollars each year with impunity? How can a Government agency get away with illegally canceling a contract and ruining a service-disabled veteran-owned small business? I will continue to pursue this until those responsible are held accountable and am contacting you because I believe you are one of the few in Washington with the INTEGRITY and persistence to take action. I hope I am right Mr. Vice-President.

God bless you, your family, and our United States of America!

Chris Sorrentino,  LtCol, USAF (Ret)

Submitted via the White House app and website at 4:30 pm (CST) on 1/15/2014

PostScript: Representative Paul Ryan (R - WI) and Senator Patty Murray (D - WA) initiated the bill in Congress and IN ALL LIKELIHOOD NEVER SERVED A DAY IN UNIFORM. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND that both Rep. Ryan and Senator Murray NOT BE RE-ELECTED OR ELECTED TO A HIGHER OFFICE due to their contempt for our military and Veterans and the cowardly act of reducing retiree entitlements BEFORE addressing far bigger problems such as the GROSS FRAUD and WASTE endemic in government and government contracting.

These cowards in Congress, the White House, and Pentagon whom break promises made to our military and Veterans insist that these changes "enhance readiness" WHEN IN- FACT READINESS WILL BE NEGATIVELY IMPACTED LONG-TERM! Potential recruits will choose not to serve in the military due to the broken and empty promises made to those who patriotically served before them ONLY TO HAVE EARNED BENEFITS AND ENTITLEMENTS  REDUCED OR REVOKED. 

Our military men and women have sacrificed life, limb, and family through over 12 years of combat only TO BE THE FIRST GROUP TARGETED when it comes time to reduce spending. "Thank you for your service"? ... You cannot be serious.

Key Words: resolution,Graves,retiree,McCaskill,disabled,joe,Biden,INTEGRITY,government,veteran,COLA,abuse,Congress,interior,Vice-president,Blunt,contractor,waste,budget,fraud

Beware of TweetAdder and Other Twitter Time Management Programs...Your Twitter Account Could Be Suspended!

Already having nearly 550 followers on Twitter @CombatCongressman after only two weeks and thousands more on my alter egos, @CombatCounselor, @CombatCritic, @3rdWaveMediaGroup and others (I am a very busy and diversified guy), I needed a time management tool to help me.  I believe it is important to connect personally with each person who follows me, sending them a personalized tweet or direct message (DM), whenever possible, to thank them for taking the time to listen to what I have to say.  I really appreciate the fact that complete strangers enjoy the things I talk about and take the time to follow me, retweet (RT) my posts, and "favorite" my tweets.

Well, it had become extremely time consuming to send personalized messages to close to 100 new followers, retweeters, and direct messengers each day, so I decided to look for a way to save time.  While doing a search on Google for ways to improve time management, I came along a website called Squidoo, http://www.squidoo.com/twitter-auto-follow-tools, and an article entitled:

7 Auto-follow Tools for Twitter Marketing

I simply wanted to find a way to automatically #followback those who followed me and send them a personal message when they did.  Of the seven tools, a site called TweetAddder seemed like just what I needed, http://www.tweetadder.com/, so I signed up for the FREE service to try it out.  All I did was set it up to auto-follow new followers and send them a DM, thanking them for following me...that was it, or so I thought.

I normally do most of my social media catching-up while on the elliptical at the YMCA and the day after I started TweetAdder, I noticed that when I tried to access my @CombatCongress account, Twitter took me to the sign in screen and would not accept my log-in information (on my Android phone), something that has never happened before.  I thought it was strange, but went on about my business with my other accounts.  It was not until the following day that I tried to login to my @CombatCongress Twitter account from my computer when I received a message "Your account has been suspended for aggressive following", something apparently against their rules of engagement.  

Twitter never bothered to warn me before taking action, they simply suspended my account, removing all of my 500+ followers and the hundreds I had already followed myself.  I had to check two boxes, promising not to do "IT" again, whatever "IT" is, and the one telling me that if I did it again, my account "COULD BE TERMINATED". If I did something wrong, may Twitter should tell me EXACTLY what it was so it will not happen again.  I was smart enough to figure out that the new program I installed two days before was generating problems that Twitter did not like, so I shut it down immediately.

As a word of caution to other unsuspecting Twitter users and computer users in general, be very careful about what you load on your computer and which permissions you allow the program to access, including performing processes that you did not intend to permit.

I know Twitter's basic following and unfollowing, spam, and other rules, but many do not. So be very careful or you could have your account "SUSPENDED" without notice.  Mine is a new account, established on February 1st, 2013 and I already have 544 followers.  I was averaging around 35 followers each day before the suspension, when Twitter too all of my privileges, followers, and the people I was following away.  In the two plus days it took to figure out, then have Twitter reinstate my account and replace my data, a process they said would take an hour , but took well over one day, I gained only four (4) followers.

I am a candidate for congress in Missouri's 6th Congressional District and one vote could make or break my chance at election.  Did Twitter's over aggressive policies hurt my ultimate chances?  Did Twitter irritate some of my followers who had no idea what was going on, as if I did, and sway them to look elsewhere or unfollow me for not responding to a comment or question submitted during my account's suspension?  We will never know.

Copyright 2013 - CombatCounselor and KCCBT, LLC - All Rights Reserved

Lack of Integrity and Cutting Benefits Promised During Recruitment Hurts the All Volunteer Force

One huge barrier to voluntary service is making promises to enlistees, then not following through on your word. The Department of Defense (DoD) needs to stop attacking active duty, Guard, Reserve, and retired entitlements (e.g. Tricare fees, retirement benefits) and cut unnecessary programs and staff instead.

How many people cater to every whim of The JCS? 50? 100? 500? Maybe our top brass could cut back on some of the perks...huge staffs, private (government) planes, waste of resources (rock painting) during visits, among many others...and tighten their belts rather than taking aim on the benefits of those who have honorably served their country for 20+ years.

#Integrity means keeping ones' word, doing the right thing, even when nobody is watching...ACT WITH INTEGRITY Mr. Panetta and JCS...we are all watching! STOP CUTTING THE BENEFITS AND ENTITLEMENTS WE WERE PROMISED FOR RISKING OUR LIVES FOR OUR COUNTRY!