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June 2014

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 22, 2014 9 Comments
Lack of funding is not the problem at the Veterans Administration.  It's the government healthcare system, stupid. In a story published today, Dennis Wagner of Arizona Central reported new details about the Phoenix VA:
Phoenix VA officials knew of false data for 2 years Department of Veterans Affairs administrators knew two years ago that employees throughout the Southwest were manipulating data on doctor appointments and failed to stop the practice despite a national directive, according to records obtained by The Arizona Republic through a Freedom of Information Act request. A 2012 audit by the VA's Southwest Health Care Network found that facilities in Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas chronically violated department policy and created inaccurate data on patient wait times via a host of tactics. The practice allowed VA employees to reap bonus pay that was based in part on inaccurate data showing goals had been met to reduce delays in patient care, according to the VA Office of Inspector General. At the Phoenix medical center alone, reward checks totaled $10 million over the past three years.
Clearly, there are problems in the VA system which need to be addressed but is more spending the best solution? Congress seems to think so. Chris Edwards writes at the CATO Institute:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 22, 2014 9 Comments
Friday night, Ben Shapiro of Truth Revolt appeared on Megyn Kelly's FOX News program to discuss Lois Lerner's missing emails. Trey Sanchez writes at Truth Revolt:
Host Megyn Kelly began by discussing the IRS investigation into the lost emails of ex-IRS official Lois Lerner. Initially, Kelly stated, Democrats and Republicans were both equally outraged. But as time has gone by, Democrats have lost their outrage, reinforced by President Obama, who insists not one smidgen of corruption is involved. Kelly said it was like IRS employees were saying, "Whoops! We're sorry, we lost basically all of the evidence you need to prove your case against me."
Shapiro explained the role the media plays in the parade of Obama scandals:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 22, 2014 18 Comments
I told you so.  Elizabeth Warren's repeated supposed refusals to run for President always were framed in the present tense: I am not running for President. That, of course, technically was correct.  I don't think anyone of note "is" running for President yet, but many are seriously considering it and likely will run. Nothing makes Warren's word games more clear than her interview with (my law school classmate) Ruth Marcus of The Washington Post:
The Massachusetts Democrat insists that she’s not running for president, and there’s little reason to doubt her — although, interestingly, Warren sticks doggedly to the present tense to describe her intentions. I asked Warren about this phrasing the other afternoon over iced tea mixed with lemonade at a restaurant near her Capitol Hill office. In these precincts, senator sightings are commonplace but, even here, Warren enjoys celebrity status; the manager promptly presented Warren with a copy of her memoir, “A Fighting Chance,” to sign. Why not simply declare that she will not run for president in 2016? “I am not running for president in 2016,” Warren responded. Yes, I pressed, but why not say, I am not running and I will not run?

Posted by Bruce Carroll on June 22, 2014 18 Comments
The Obama administration announced a plan to spend over $250 millions to help slow or halt the flow of undocumented children streaming across the U.S.-Mexico border. The Federal "immigration surge" was announced Friday as part of a coordinated government-wide response to the growing humanitarian crisis on the U.S. Southern border:
The plan includes almost $100 million in aid to the Central American governments of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to help reintegrate the illegal migrants whom the United States will send back, and to help keep them in their home countries, according to a White House statement. The administration also announced it will set aside $161.5 million this year for the Central American Regional Security Initiative (CARSI) programs because the programs "are critical to enabling Central American countries to respond to the region's most pressing security and governance challenges."
Meanwhile, Texas Gov. Rick Perry wasn't waiting for the Federal government to help. He announced a very ambitions border "surge" as well on Wednesday.

Posted by David Gerstman on June 22, 2014 3 Comments
In it's campaign to rescue the three yeshiva students who were kidnapped June 12, Israel has been carrying out operations against the Hamas infrastructure in the West Bank, including arresting prisoners it had previously released. The kidnappings have evoked a feeling among Israelis and Jews worldwide. On the other hand the Palestinians, as a society, have demonstrated callousness toward the victims, if not seeing the kidnappings as a victory. According the Times of Israel the 'noose is tightening' around the kidnappers.
A senior Israeli government official said Friday that the noose was tightening around the kidnappers of the three teenagers who were abducted last Thursday from a hitchhiking post in the Gush Etzion area in the West Bank, as a large-scale, ongoing IDF operation to locate the trio continued through its eighth day. Speaking to Channel 10, the official said that, based on security assessments, the teens were still somewhere in the West Bank and that their abductors were unsuccessful in moving them in the direction of Jordan, Gaza, or Sinai. ... Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with the families of the three earlier Friday and updated them on the progress of the search. Frankel’s uncle was later quoted saying that all indications were that the three are alive. On Thursday Netanyahu said Israel knew more about their fate than it had done a few days earlier, and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said the operation to find the three was making progress. Also Thursday, an Israeli official named a deported Hamas terror chief, Saleh al-Arouri, as a suspect in orchestrating the kidnapping.
Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad Al-Maliki, one of the "moderate" technocrats of the new Fatah-Hamas government suggested that the kidnappings are an Israeli fabrication:

Posted by Jack Park on June 22, 2014 60 Comments
In October 2013, then 21-year old Jessica McCrickard broke the bayonet off the World War I monument in Lynchburg, Virginia. She said that she broke it “accidentally” and threw the broken piece into the James River. That Memorial features a side-view of a doughboy in bronze holding his rifle fitted with a bayonet in his right hand (see featured image). The names of the men from Lynchburg who lost their lives and the names of the units that participated in that conflict are inscribed on surrounding stone panels. McCrickard got a plea deal that required her to spend four Fridays with veterans at “Support our Troops” rallies in downtown Lynchburg. But that was apparently too much for her. Tuesday, a judge in Virginia added to her sentence after the veterans complained that she had a “disrespectful attitude.” The judge told her to write the 276 names on the monument by hand and to serve an additional 100 hours of community service by August 31. There are no living World War I veterans; Frank Buckles, the last U.S veteran of that conflict, died at the age of 110 in 2011. Buckles drove an ambulance in France and escorted German prisoners of war in WWI; a merchant seaman, he was captured by the Japanese in the Philippines and spent three years as a prisoner of war in World War II.

Posted by Mandy Nagy on June 21, 2014 6 Comments
Militants led by ISIS have reportedly seized a border post at one of the border points between Iraq and Syria, as the situation in Iraq continues to remain unstable. From Reuters, Iraq militants take Syria-border post in drive for caliphate:
Sunni fighters seized a border post on the Iraq-Syria frontier, security sources said on Saturday, smashing a line drawn by colonial powers almost a century ago with the aim of creating an Islamic Caliphate stretching from the Mediterranean Sea to Iran. The militants, led by the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), first moved into the nearby town of al-Qaim on Friday, pushing out security forces, the sources said. Once border guards heard that al-Qaim had fallen, they left their posts and militants moved in, the sources said. Sameer al-Shwiali, media adviser to the commander of Iraq's anti-terrorist squad, told Reuters that the Iraqi army was still in control of al-Qaim.
A senior Iraqi official also said the towns of Rawa, Ana and Huseiba were under the control of militants, according to CNN. The border crossing of Al-Qaim is significant because of its location, as it would allow militants easier access between Syria and Iraq. arwa-damon-cnn-tweet-iraq

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 21, 2014 30 Comments
Elizabeth Warren is doing the best she can with the ideology she has. So it was a shock to see Chris Matthews, of all people, call her out for being all talk and no real action. As if she would just say things for political effect. Or take advantage of situations unfairly for her own gain. Come on Chris. Leave Elizabeth alone. From The Daily Caller:
Massachusetts Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren clearly expected a softball interview with MSNBC’s Chris Matthews on Thursday night. But midway through her predictable talking points, the left-wing “Hardball” host unexpectedly struck out at the progressive darling over what he views as Democratic inaction on jobs and infrastructure.

Posted by Bruce Carroll on June 21, 2014 15 Comments
The international volunteer medical organization Doctors Without Borders has issued a chilling warning -- that the deadly Ebola virus is "totally out of control." The Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with infected people and causes internal bleeding and organ failure. There is no cure or vaccine so infected patients must be quarantined to stop the rapid spread of the virus. According to the World Health Organization, an Ebola outbreak can result in over 90% fatality rates. Bart Janssens, director of operations for Doctors Without Borders, said Friday that the international community must send in more resources to stop the current Ebola epidemic.
"The reality is clear that the epidemic is now in a second wave," Janssens said. "And, for me, it is totally out of control." The outbreak has caused more deaths than any other of the disease, said another official with the medical charity. Ebola has been linked to more than 330 deaths in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia, according to the World Health Organization. The current outbreak, which began in Guinea either late last year or early this year, had appeared to slow before picking up pace again in recent weeks, including spreading to the Liberian capital for the first time.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on June 21, 2014 34 Comments
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has been the subject of a brutal smear campaign by local district attorneys using the so-called "John Doe" procedure, as discussed in my post Media Malpractice – Report false criminal accusations against Walker, but not contrary judicial rulings. I also encourage you to read Gabriel Malor's column, A Basic Primer On The Scott Walker Case For Ignorant Reporters. Since it's obvious the media, particularly on the left, is running with the false accusations to damage Walker's current 2014 gubernatorial campaign and possible 2016 presidential bid, it's important that the media malpractice be exposed and the lies refuted. As with smears against Republicans in the past, it's not about the particularly target, in this case Walker.  It's about the media's desire to take down potential Republican candidates early and often, without regard to the truth. We've seen it already in the disgusting attack in The New Republic by Alec MacGillis claiming that Walker's success is based on white racism, New Republic’s race-baiting of Scott Walker just a 2016 warm up. Gov. Walker has written the following column, which he is encouraging others to run. It's a way of going around the mainstream media. Every single conservative blog and website should run this column. Here is Gov. Walker's column:

Posted by Andrew Branca on June 20, 2014 5 Comments
Well, it's about time. Today, Florida's Governor Rick Scott finally signed the "Warning Shot" bill (HB-89) that had been passed by the state House and Senate and sent to his desk way back in early April (h/t Miguel, over at Gun Free Zone). I won't go into all the ways that this bill is NOT a "warning shot" bill, because I've already done so, here:  Florida “Warning Shot” Bill Passes Senate, Heads to Governor’s Desk. One thing that might not be clear from that earlier post is that this bill does not so much create a new statute (although it does create a small one), rather it primarily serves to amend a wide variety of Florida's existing self-defense statutes, including (note that all indented sections of this post are copied directly from the statute, hence the odd phrasing):

Amending s. 775.087 "10-20-Life," Possession or use of weapon; aggravated battery; felony reclassification; minimum sentence, prohibiting the court from imposing certain mandatory minimum sentences if the court makes specified written findings;

Amending s. 776.012 Use of force in defense of person, applying provisions relating to the use of force in defense of persons to the threatened use of force; providing that a person who lawfully uses or threatens to use nondeadly force does not have a duty to retreat; providing that a person who lawfully uses or threatens to use deadly force does not have a duty to retreat if the person using or threatening to use the deadly force is not engaged in a criminal activity and is in a place where he or she has a right to be;

Amending s. 776.013 Home protection; use of deadly force; presumption of fear of death or great bodily harm, applying presumption relating to the use of deadly force to the threatened use of deadly force in the defense of a residence and similar circumstances; applying provisions relating to such use of force to the threatened use of force; removing provisions relating to one's duty to retreat before using force;

Posted by Mandy Nagy on June 20, 2014 10 Comments

Stories on the IRS hearing, VA scandal, immigration crisis and curious pushback to the Washington Free Beacon's recent reports on Hillary Clinton....

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