THE FOUNDATION
"[T]he present Constitution is the standard to which we are to cling. Under its banners, bona fide must we combat our political foes — rejecting all changes but through the channel itself provides for amendments." —Alexander Hamilton, letter to James Bayard, 1802TOP RIGHT HOOKS
Database Hack at OPM Even Bigger Than Thought
The Office of Personnel Management has officially said only 4.2 million federal employees were affected by the database intrusion by China. But CNN is reporting that number is much, much higher, as the FBI Director told the Senate recently that an estimated 18 million Americans were affected. This number includes former and current government employees and even people who only applied for government work.Let's be clear: The Obama administration's lack of leadership contributed to this intrusion and its lack of leadership will make the situation worse. In a June 17 press conference, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that Obama is standing behind OPM Director Katherine Archuleta, who just happened to be National Political Director for Obama's 2012 re-election campaign. "Director Archuleta, in one of her first priorities that she identified after taking that job, was to upgrade the OPM computer network, particularly their cyber defenses," Earnest said. "And this is obviously an ongoing process, and the president does have confidence that she is the right person for the job." Archuleta had a job, but she didn't do the job. Now some of the most sensitive employee data in the nation is in Chinese hands.
Obama could have prevented the hack — or at least lessened the effect of the attack — by being a strong leader, making tough decisions, following through with his promises and nominating qualified leaders. But his character is only emboldening enemies.
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Here Come the Gun Control Crusaders After Charleston
Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) are at it again. After the Sandy Hook massacre, Toomey — a gun-owning, NRA A-rated politician — jumped on Barack Obama's bandwagon and introduced legislation that would toughen the nation's background check legislation. The bill was defeated 54-46 in 2013, but Manchin and Toomey told The Washington Post Tuesday night that they would like to revive the bill in response to the massacre in Charleston. Nothing like standing on the caskets of victims to advance a few extra yards in the political game. Toomey, when he appeared on MSNBC Wednesday morning, admitted the bill is mostly a crapshoot. "Honestly, I don't want to build up any false expectations," he said, "I'm not aware that we have the votes to do what Sen. Manchin and I attempted. Is it possible that some portion of that, some subset of what we focused on is possible? Honestly, probably not likely." Still, it shows the tenacity of the forces driving gun control. Every time a front page blares that a crime was committed with a gun, there will be another call for gun restrictions. And the politicians will blow the dust off their tired gun control bills in hopes that maybe this atrocity will have the emotional clout to carry it through.Comment | Share
Gov’t Affirms Climate Change Is a Health Hazard
It seems that if we only figured out how to control the climate, humankind would figure out how to rid itself of all the ills plaguing us for the last few decades — or more, probably depending on who you ask. The Lancet Commission on Health and Climate Change issued a report Monday claiming that climate change is nothing short of a "medical emergency," according to the commission's co-chair, Hugh Montgomery. "Although vector-borne diseases will expand their reach and death tolls, the indirect effects of climate change on water, food security, and extreme climatic events are likely to have the biggest effect on global health," said the report's executive summary. "A new advocacy and public health movement is needed urgently to bring together governments, international agencies, non-governmental organisations, communities, and academics from all disciplines to adapt to the effects of climate change on health." First, climate change was going to hurt the polar bears, then drown Florida. Listen enough to government rhetoric and you'll hear climate change being blamed for everything from a sluggish economy to the war in Syria. Indeed, it seems that the world's politicians are promising too much as they push for doing something on climate change, telling us that if they could only control the planet and the people on it, then we'd have peace, security and happiness.Comment | Share
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Nate Jackson
Managing Editor
FEATURED RIGHT ANALYSIS
After More Money and 'Fixes,' VA Gets Worse
By Paul Albaugh
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About a year ago, news broke that veterans were dying while on secret VA waiting lists. Obama promised that his administration would fix the problems. We were told by incoming VA Secretary Robert McDonald that “he would fire over 1,000 VA employees over the wait time scandal.” Yet the fixes and firings didn’t happen. Nope, we were lied to again.
Perhaps the VA simply needed more money to operate more efficiently. In keeping with the status quo for every government agency that is failing, Congress pumped $16.3 billion into the VA to give it some help — that after its budget nearly tripled between 2000 and 2012. How’d that all work out? Fast forward to today, and the results are pathetic. In fact it’s worse now than it was a year ago.
The Department of Veterans Affairs is facing a new crisis. The number of veterans waiting one month or more for care is actually 50% higher than it was during last year’s problems, and the VA is also facing a nearly $3 billion budget shortfall.
To address this continuing crisis the VA is considering furloughs, hiring freezes and “significant moves” to close the budget shortfall. It's also considering rationing Hepatitis C treatments, specifically for those who are in more advanced stages of illness or advanced dementia. How’s that for veteran care?
On a positive note, doctors and nurses within the VA have handled 2.7 million more appointments than in any previous year and sent an additional 900,000 patients to see physicians in the private sector. With these numbers, what’s the problem?
The VA has seen a massive increase in veterans seeking care, primarily aging Vietnam vets and those who have returned from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. With this increase in demand for care comes a need for more doctors and nurses to provide the treatment that our veterans deserve. But according to many experts there is a shortage of doctors and nurses. In addition there has also been an increase in the cost of drugs and medication, and the largest driver of costs has been from patients seeking medical attention from physicians in the private sector. Thanks, ObamaCare.
“Something has to give," conceded VA Deputy Secretary Sloan Gibson. "We can’t leave this as the status quo. We are not meeting the needs of veterans, and veterans are signaling that to us by coming in for additional care, and we can’t deliver as timely as we want to.”
Why not? The VA has more money and more people, yet we're supposed to believe that still more money is the answer? No doubt most Americans would rather see their tax dollars go to fund the VA’s operations than to most any other federal project. But the problem isn’t the lack of money, it’s the ineptitude of bureaucrats who don’t know how to properly manage the money or personnel that they have.
As Mark Alexander suggested last year, perhaps Congress should consider another piece of legislation to improve services at the VA: Make the commander in chief and all of his cabinet level appointees get in line for VA medical services instead of the VIP medical treatment they now receive. Let’s add Congress to that list as well. Can anyone imagine our elected officials and their staff having to wait like veterans do for treatment? We doubt that this will happen anytime soon, but if it could, we bet there would likely be some significant, real changes to the VA.
Meanwhile, ObamaCare was passed to give all Americans access to medical care and is funded by taxpayers. Yet it is unaffordable, unsustainable and un-American. It's certain that within a few years, as ObamaCare grows and takes deeper root, all Americans will be on waiting lists to receive care. There will be calls for reform, to pump more money and people into it. But these “reforms” won’t fix the problem, either — because the problem is federal bureaucrats who insist on spending more of our dollars to increase their power and take away freedom from individuals. Need proof? Just look at the VA.
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TODAY AT PATRIOTPOST.US
- ANALYSIS: GOP Infighting Strikes Again
- Clear the Shelves of Confederate Stuff to Make Way for Commies
- Congress Still Trading Blows Over Trade
- U.S. Facing Exponential Terror Threat
- Humor: Puppies
BEST OF RIGHT OPINION
- Jonah Goldberg: In the South, Grace and Dignity After Charleston Church Shootings
- Star Parker: Government and Politics Won't Solve Our Racial Problem
- Ben Shapiro: Confederate Flag Controversy a Complete Misdirect
- Walter Williams: You're What You Say You Are
- Michelle Malkin: Holy Hypocrisy and Hot Air
- Tony Perkins: The Gen X Factor
- Arnold Ahlert: Importing a Potential Epidemic
- John Stossel: Mankiller Money?
OPINION IN BRIEF
Jonah Goldberg: "If it were left to me, I would take the [Charleston Confederate] flag down (for the reasons South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley laid out Monday). But this kind of cheap moral preening is galling. Is it really too much for people to muster the moral imagination that the issue isn’t nearly as simple as that? A November poll of South Carolinians found that 61 percent of blacks wanted it down. That means nearly 4 in 10 blacks felt differently. Are they deluded? Are they the moral equivalent of self-loathing Jews, happy to live under a swastika? ... If we’re going to offer ridiculous flag comparisons, a better one would be the Japanese imperial flag. After World War II, the U.S. banned it until 1949. Douglas MacArthur then opted to let a defeated, once-authoritarian society keep a few symbols of its past in order to build a better future. Can anyone argue that the South hasn’t done likewise? White Northern liberals explain how the South is an irredeemable cesspool of hate, while ignoring the fact that blacks are abandoning the Northern blue states in huge numbers to move to the South. Demographer Joel Kotkin found that 13 of the 15 best cities in the country for African-Americans to live in are now in the South. ... No, the South isn’t perfect; name a region that is. But it does have good manners, which is why it routinely acts with more dignity — and in Charleston, with more grace — than its critics to the north."Comment | Share
SHORT CUTS
Insight: "Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail." —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)Can't count very high: "[Barack Obama] has talked to more members than I can count, more senators than I can count." —Treasury Secretary Jack Lew on Trade Promotion Authority
Demo-gogues: "Well within our children’s lifetimes, on our current pace, the oceans go up maybe two, maybe three, maybe four feet.” —Barack Obama, who promised in 2008 that his election would stop the oceans rising
Braying Jenny: "[I]n any democracy, it’s not [skeptics] that carries [sic] the day. It is normal human beings that haven’t put their stake into politics above science. It’s normal human beings that want us to do the right thing, and we will if you help us." —EPA Chief Gina McCarthy, who thinks you're not normal
Alpha Jackass: "Our history of racialized violence means that everything white people have, they have in part because they are white. We have to disrupt that status quo. That’s what the president meant when he said that racism is part of our DNA. Our DNA has got to be changed." —Georgetown University professor Paul Butler
Village Idiots: "I know it’s tempting to dismiss [the Charleston] tragedy as an isolated incident, to believe in today’s America that bigotry is largely behind us, that institutional racism no longer exists. But despite our best efforts and highest hopes, America’s long struggle with race is far from finished." —Hillary Clinton
And last...
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Semper Vigilans Fortis Paratus et Fidelis!
Managing Editor Nate Jackson
Join us in daily prayer for our Patriots in uniform — Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines and Coast Guardsmen — standing in harm's way in defense of Liberty, and for their families.
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