Image 01 Image 03
Sign In or RegisterLogout

Author: Mike LaChance

Profile photo

Mike LaChance

Mike LaChance has been covering higher education and politics for Legal Insurrection since 2012. He has also written for American Lookout, Townhall, and Twitchy.

Since 2008 he has contributed work to the Daily Caller, Breitbart, Gateway Pundit, the Center for Security Policy, the Washington Free Beacon, and Ricochet.

Mike is a Generation X, New England lifer who describes his political views as conservative and libertarian.

You can find him on Twitter @MikeLaChance33

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 29, 2014 11 Comments
If anyone working in media today wants to help restore some of the damage done to the reputation of their industry, an apology like this would be a great start. Rather than using their influence to prop up Obama, the editors of the Billings Gazette in Montana are simply admitting they were wrong:
Gazette opinion: Obama earned the low ratings Sometimes, you have to admit you're wrong. And, we were wrong. We said that things couldn't get much worse after the sub par presidency of George W. Bush. But, President Barack Obama's administration has us yearning for the good ol' days when we were at least winning battles in Iraq. The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal polls show that Americans are giving Obama lower marks than in 2006 when Iraq was going poorly for Bush and a tepid response to Hurricane Katrina sunk Bush's ratings. It's not that popularity polling should be the final or even best measure of a president. There is that old saw that points out there's a difference between doing what is right and what is popular. For us, though, it's the number of bungled or blown policies in the Obama administration which lead us to believe Obama has earned every bit of an abysmal approval rating.
John Nolte of Breitbart summarizes the rest of the piece:

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 28, 2014 10 Comments
Obama made a public appearance in Minnesota on Friday which Neil Munro of the Daily Caller has described as a pity party:
President Barack Obama’s June 27 effort to boost the flagging morale of his supporters quickly devolved into a demoralizing pity party. Republicans “don’t do anything except block me and call me names,” he told supporters, only a few days after it was revealed that his economy shrank 2.9 percent in the first three months of 2014. “If we make some basic changes, we can create more jobs and lift more incomes and strengthen the middle class… I know it drives you nuts that Washington isn’t doing it,” he said. “It drives me nuts.”
The president also went back to dismissing the many scandals engulfing his presidency as phony. Susan Jones of CNS News:
President Obama warned people in Minnesota Friday not to believe what they hear on television: "They're fabricated issues, they're phony scandals that are generated. It's all geared towards the next election or ginning up a base. It's not on the level," the president insisted.
Here's the video: CNS News provided the full transcript of Obama's remarks:

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 Mike LaChance on June 15, 2014 14 Comments
Chicago long has been a center of Communist Party USA activity. This video from 2011 shows the CPUSA protesting in support of the Occupy movement in Chicago: Today in Chicago was the 95th Anniversary celebration, as Ron Grossman of the Chicago Tribune reports:
Communist Party USA gathers in Chicago "I finally realized, I didn't believe in the other side," said Gosman, a retired employee of the Los Angeles school system. The Chicago convention will feature three days of speeches, panel discussions and workshops. One session will be devoted to catching up with an online era. Communists, like other radicals, traditionally recruit by hawking the party's paper on street corners. But financial constraints have forced the People's World to abandon its print edition. So one question up for discussion is how can peoplesworld.org put the party in touch with low-paid workers, environmentalists and advocates for social justice?

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 14, 2014 9 Comments
It's just a given that Hillary Clinton will get the Democratic nomination if she runs in 2016 but last week must be giving some Democrats second thoughts. This editorial from Investor's Business Daily outlines the problem:
Dems Face Hard Choices After Hillary's Awful Book Tour Week If Hillary Clinton's much ballyhooed — and ultimately disastrous — national book tour is any indication, Democrats face some hard choices in the months ahead about whom they can run for president. You can't blame Clinton for scheduling her "Hillary Week" at a time when there was so much real news going on. But she certainly deserves blame for the fact that the only coverage she managed to get from her book tour was all bad.

Posted by Mike LaChance on June 14, 2014 12 Comments
This inconvenient flashback is brought to you by the Washington Free Beacon:
Vice President Joe Biden predicted in 2010 that Iraq would be “one of the greatest achievements” of the Obama administration. Appearing on CNN’s Larry King Live, Biden told King “It [Iraq] could be one of the greatest achievements of this administration.” He continued, “You’re going to see 90,000 American troops come marching home by the end of the summer. You’re going to see a stable government in Iraq that is actually moving toward a representative government.”
Here's the video: Paul Waldman of the Washington Post has a rather unique take on what's happening in Iraq:
Accessibility by WAH