What’s interesting in the news today?
Open Thread. Here’s a few to start things off.
1. The firing of the head of the Phoenix VA where the scandal started has been upheld. Funny thing though it was for receiving inappropriate gifts and not for the actual scandal itself. It seems the govt. didn’t provide enough info to find fault on those charges. Convenient, no?
From StarsAndStripes ” The government agency charged with making sure federal employees are treated fairly upheld this week the Department of Veterans Affairs decision to “formally remove” Sharon Helman, director of the Phoenix Department of Veterans Affairs’ Health Care System and the leader at the center of the biggest scandal in the agency’s history.
But the ruling by the Merit Systems Protection Board could not substantiate that Helman knew or should have known that employees at her hospital lied about health-care wait times for former troops seeking treatment for everything from cancer to post-traumatic stress disorder.”
“In the ruling, Chief Administrative Judge Stephen Mish rejected the VA’s other charges, which said that Helman failed to see that veterans were waiting months or even years to get health care. But the judge said the VA failed to demonstrate any actions or inactions on the part of Helman that caused it.
“To phrase it more colloquially, an agency must connect the dots of fault from the identified failure by the subordinates back up the line to the manager,” the judge wrote. “The agency did not attempt to do so here. Accordingly, this specification is not sustained.”
Similarly, the VA said Helman failed to process 2,500 new claims that were found, which led hundreds of veterans to be without health care for more than a year. But the judge again said the VA did not provide enough information to the board.
The ruling also points out that linking Helman’s removal to the wait-times issue is complex. The report notes that the VA’s office of the inspector general did not interview Helman about wait times during their investigation into the issue.”
So it’s like the IRS scandal, where no one talks to the witnesses, victims, or the accused before deciding the case.
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2. They did it again. But this time it was cops from all over the country.
FromTheWashingtonPost “The streets of this working-class neighborhood in Queens overflowed on Saturday with thousands of blue-uniformed police officers, state troopers, corrections officers and firefighters from across the country.”
“The outpouring — some estimates were of more than 20,000 officers — was about more than brotherhood and the New York Police Department’s long history of showing support to honor slain officers. This time, the solemn memorial turned into a kind of counter-protest.”
“Hundreds of officers watching the services outside Christ Tabernacle Church turned their backs on the screens when Mayor Bill de Blasio spoke. The mayor has been heavily criticized by New York police union officials, accused of causing a mood of mistrust that they say contributed to the killings of Ramos and Liu. Tensions between the mayor and police had already grown in recent months after de Blasio said he was worried about how police might treat his son, who is biracial.”
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3. Despite the reporter’s attempts to provide cover for Obama, Rudy raises some good points.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nCIut7kydMU
More here from NationalReview
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Wandering Views 
I heard on the radio that America has officially ended it’s longest war.
I don’t really know what that means:
Who surrendered?
What was the objective of the war that has ended?
Does the enemy know the war is over?
Who declared the end of the war?
So much doesn’t make any sense.
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The President declared the end of the war. So. That is it. Didn’t work for President Bush, but we are in new times, Chas. Don’t we all wish it were so.
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Mission Accomplished? 😉
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It is related to the three monkeys, see no war, hear no war, say “No war!”
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He’s declared an end to “major combat operations.” As Bush did years ago….
He made the left happy, and it will free up more troops for Iraq. They say we’re not gonna have troops fighting, but they’ve already sent an additional 1000 paratroops in as “advisers”.
Nope, no mission creep here…. 🙄
“Despite these assurances, however, the war is not over, let alone won. If it was, why on earth is Uncle Sam redeploying troops there?
The U.S. is sending as many as 1,300 more troops to Iraq in late January, the Defense Department announced Friday. The troops will include about 1,000 soldiers in the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division. The rest will be drawn from multiple services. “Their mission will be to train, advise and assist Iraqi security forces,” Rear Adm. John Kirby, the Pentagon press secretary, told reporters at a briefing. “This deployment is part of the additional 1,500 troops that the president authorized in November.”
“Of course, the administration is adamant these are not “combat troops.” They are merely serving an “advisory role” to help “degrade and ultimately destroy” ISIS. But even if that’s the case that doesn’t necessarily diminish the inherent dangers of serving in what is self-evidently a war zone. After all, what are we to make, for example, of reports that US ground troops have recently and already engaged ISIS?”
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