IRS budget cuts and Tea Party Patriots

Art credit:ctj.org.

Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner's "Washington Secrets" columnist, reports that

The House Appropriations Committee is set to OK an IRS budget of $10.9 billion, $1.5 billion under President Obama's request for fiscal year 2015, reducing the agency's budget to 2008 levels.

The goal is to keep the tax agency focused on its “core duties,” and eliminate efforts to judge the political activities of tax-exempt groups and brake its implementation of Obamacare.

Below are the bill highlights about the IRS:

. . . Included in the bill is $10.95 billion for the IRS – a cut of $341 million below the fiscal year 2014 enacted level and $1.5 billion below the President’s budget request. This will bring the agency’s budget below the sequester level and below the level that was in place in fiscal year 2008. This funding level is sufficient for the IRS to perform its core duties, including taxpayer services and the proper collection of funds, but will require the agency to streamline and make better use of its budget.

In addition, due to the inappropriate actions by the IRS in targeting groups that hold certain political beliefs, as well as its previous improper use of taxpayer funds, the bill includes the following provisions:

-- A prohibition on a proposed regulation related to political activities and the tax-exempt status of 501(c)(4) organizations. The proposed regulation could jeopardize the tax-exempt status of many non-profit organizations and inhibit citizens from exercising their right to freedom of speech, simply because they may be involved in political activity.

-- A prohibition on funds for bonuses or awards unless employee conduct and tax compliance is given consideration.

-- A prohibition on funds for the IRS to target groups for regulatory scrutiny based on their ideological beliefs.

-- A prohibition on funds for the IRS to target individuals for exercising their First Amendment rights.

-- A prohibition on funding for the production of inappropriate videos and conferences.

-- A prohibition on funding for the White House to order the IRS to determine the tax-exempt status of an organization.

-- A requirement for extensive reporting on IRS spending.

ObamaCare –The bill also includes provisions to stop the IRS from further implementing ObamaCare, including a prohibition on any transfers of funding from the Department of Health and Human Services to the IRS for ObamaCare uses, and a prohibition on funding for the IRS to implement an individual insurance mandate on the American people.

It's unbelievable that there would be a need for some of these prohibitions, such as the one that would prohibit funds that "target individuals for exercising their First Amendment rights". And words like “inappropriate” and “consideration” are vague and subjective, especially when the goal is to rein in lawless behavior. Who knows if the Senate will pass it. Maybe it could stall ANY funding until the IRS manages to "find" Lois Lerner's vanishing emails. But maybe the budget cut is a teeny tiny start. Anyway, you can read the rest here.

Cantor’s defeat and the push for amnesty

Art credit: Oneoldvet.com

Lots of pundits have been weighing in on the fallout from Eric Cantor’s stunning defeat in last Tuesday’s primary to Dave Brat. Thomas Sowell has this perspective on the GOP elite’s position on amnesty “immigration reform”:

Apparently the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives -- which is to say, House Speaker John Boehner and [soon to be former] Majority Leader Eric Cantor -- thinks that amnesty is not amnesty if you call it "immigration reform" and toss in some fig-leaf requirements before the amnesty kicks in.

Immigration laws are the only laws that are discussed almost entirely in terms of what can be done to help those who have broken the law. Some want to help a little and some want to help a lot. But amnesty lite is still amnesty.

Some people seem to think that amnesty is not amnesty if you throw in requirements for citizenship. Amnesty is not some esoteric concept. It means that you are not going to be punished for breaking the law -- and that simply brings laws into contempt. Denying citizenship is not a punishment because crossing the border illegally does not entitle you to citizenship. Providing a legal status short of citizenship is not punishment either.

There is no requirement for either amnesty or for citizenship that President Obama cannot ignore or dilute unilaterally, as he has ignored or diluted existing immigration laws, as well as other laws. Barack Obama is the biggest reason to pass no immigration "reform" laws until after he is gone.

It doesn't matter what immigration policies you believe in if you don't control your borders -- and the vast numbers of minors flooding across our borders today show that the Obama administration has no intention of controlling the borders. They are more concerned with controlling the border guards and ordering them not to take pictures that show the public what is happening.

If you are serious about controlling the borders, then you pass laws to control the borders first. Some years later, after you can see whether the border has been controlled or not -- you can start discussing what our national immigration laws should be.

Otherwise, "comprehensive" immigration reform means granting some form of amnesty up front and promising to control the border later. How many more times are we going to fall for that bait and switch fraud?

Read the rest here. 

Steven Hayward at Power Line speculated on the possibility of President Obama issuing executive pardons to ALL illegal immigrants. After the mid-terms, of course.

Let’s look down the road a bit from here.  We know that President Obama is enamored of executive power.  He said on climate change that he wouldn’t wait on Congress, and we saw last week his bold use of the Clean Air Act to impose a regulatory scheme that Congress would never pass.  He’s said much the same thing about immigration.  So what might he do?

How about this: after the election next fall, especially if the GOP takes the Senate and with an eye to the 2016 election prospects for Democrats, Obama might well decide to use his pardon power to grant a blanket pardon to all illegal aliens presently in the United States.  This would not, strictly speaking, be a legal abuse; the president’s pardon power is unconditional in the Constitution.  But you can imagine the firestorm it would generate.

. . .  I think the odds of a blanket amnesty-by-pardon are much better than people think. Some enterprising reporter ought to ask about this at a White House press conference some time soon.

But yesterday, a caller to Rush Limbaugh raised an interesting legal point:

CALLER: I just want to point out a problem with [Steven Hayward’s] pardon theory.. . . The theory is you can be pardoned for prior actions and you can't be punished for them. But assuming that you're still in the United States and you still don't have a legal right to be here, you're immediately as guilty after the pardon as you are before the pardon.

RUSH: I don't think so.

CALLER: It doesn't give you a status to stay in the United States.

RUSH: Well, Mr. Hayward thinks it does. By the way, you're the first guy who said you can't do it. I've run it by a lot of people. Yeah, there's no constitutional prohibition against something like that because --

CALLER: Well, you can, if they were not in the United States and you pardoned them and they didn't come back illegally, they would be free. But assuming they're still in the United States and they're still here illegally, they're immediately guilty for actions that happen after the pardon.

RUSH: You can pardon somebody for all future.

CALLER: Actually, I don't think that's true. I don't think you can immunize --

RUSH: Well, even if you can't, by pardoning the fact that they are here illegally, the next day they don't start being illegal all over again, it's been pardoned. You're thinking they can only be pardoned up to that day. Right?

CALLER: Right. You can be pardoned up to that day, but if you don't have a legal right to be inside in the United States, you're not a citizen --

RUSH: Well, then how did Bill Clinton pardon Marc Rich and then say, and, by the way, you can never come back to this country?

CALLER: Well, what he said is Marc Rich is pardoned for these acts which have happened before.

RUSH: Right.

CALLER: If you violate the law after you've been pardoned, you're not immune. You're subject again for the acts that occurred after the pardon.

The rest of Rush’s segment is here. 

Here's the bottom line from Steven Hayward for all of us, as we head into the mid-terms:

Therefore, a modest suggestion: every GOP candidate—especially for the Senate—should force Democratic candidates on the record before the campaign on the question of how they would respond if President Obama uses his pardon power to grant amnesty to every illegal alien currently in the country.  Get them on record now, ahead of the election.

 # # #

Reports of the death of the Tea Party are premature

WOW!

From the Washington Post:

Eric Cantor succumbs 

to tea party challenger Tuesday

By Robert Costa

In a stunning upset propelled by tea party activists, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) was defeated in Tuesday’s congressional primary, with insurgent David Brat delivering an unpredicted and devastating loss to the second most powerful Republican in the House who has widely been touted as a future speaker.

Buh-bye!!

White House Mistakenly Identifies Top CIA Agent in Afghanistan

Taking time from his busy schedule of golfing, vacationing and being made fun of by Russian President Vladamir Putin, President Obama, in wanting to act like he cares in a "Presidential" sort of way, made a trip to Afghanistan as a surprise visit to our troops.

Concentrating more on our narcissistic President's love & need of shameless self-promotion, when sending out a press release for his surprise visit - the White House Press Office also released the name of our top CIA officer in Kabul.

No worries.... after identifying this individual for the terrorists in the region, the White House Press Office "fixed" the Joe Biden-like blunder by issuing a revised press release in a "tricked ya" sort of way that did not include the identity of our CIA Chief of Station in Kabul.  

From The Washington Post --

The CIA’s top officer in Kabul was exposed Saturday by the White House when his name was inadvertently included on a list provided to news organizations of senior U.S. officials participating in President Obama’s surprise visit with U.S. troops.

The White House recognized the mistake and quickly issued a revised list that did not include the individual, who had been identified on the initial release as the “Chief of Station” in Kabul, a designation used by the CIA for its highest-ranking spy in a country.

The disclosure marked a rare instance in which a CIA officer working overseas had his cover — the secrecy meant to protect his actual identity — pierced by his own government. The only other recent case came under significantly different circumstances, when former CIA operative Valerie Plame was exposed as officials of the George W. Bush administration sought to discredit her husband, a former ambassador and fierce critic of the decision to invade Iraq.

The Post is withholding the name of the CIA officer at the request of Obama administration officials who warned that the officer and his family could be at risk if the name were published. The CIA and the White House declined to comment.

The CIA officer was one of 15 senior U.S. officials identified as taking part in a military briefing for Obama at Bagram air base, a sprawling military compound north of Kabul. Others included U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan James B. Cunningham and Marine Gen. Joseph F. Dunford, Jr., the commander of U.S. and coalition forces in the country.

Their names were included on a list of participants in the briefing provided by U.S. military officials to the White House press office.

The list was circulated by e-mail to reporters who traveled to Afghanistan with Obama, and disseminated further when it was included in a “pool report,” or summary of the event meant to be shared with other news organizations, including foreign media, not taking part in the trip.

In this case, the pool report was filed by Washington Post White House bureau chief Scott Wilson. Wilson said he had copied the list from the e-mail provided by White House press officials. He sent his pool report to the press officials, who then distributed it to a list of more than 6,000 recipients.

Wilson said that after the report was distributed, he noticed the unusual reference to the station chief and asked White House press officials in Afghanistan whether they had intended to include that name.

Initially, the press office raised no objection, apparently because military officials had provided the list to distribute to news organizations. But senior White House officials realized the mistake and scrambled to issue an updated list without the CIA officer’s name. The mistake, however, already was being noted on Twitter, although without the station chief’s name.

It is unclear whether the disclosure will force the CIA to pull the officer out of Afghanistan. As the top officer in one of the agency’s largest overseas posts, with hundreds of officers, analysts and other subordinates, the station chief in Kabul probably has been identified to senior Afghan government officials and would not ordinarily take part in clandestine missions beyond the U.S. Embassy compound.

The identities of at least three CIA station chiefs in Pakistan have been exposed in recent years. In one case, a CIA officer became a target of death threats after his cover was blown, forcing the agency to rush him out of the country.

How America Treats Illegal Immigrants vs U.S. Veterans

From Michelle Malkin via Town Hall --

A government that fails to secure its borders is guilty of dereliction of duty. A government that fails to care for our men and women on the frontlines is guilty of malpractice. A government that puts the needs of illegal aliens above U.S. veterans for political gain should be prosecuted for criminal neglect bordering on treason.

Compare, contrast and weep:

In Sacramento, Calif., lawmakers are moving forward with a budget-busting plan to extend government-funded health insurance to at least 1.5 million illegal aliens.

In Los Angeles, federal bureaucrats callously canceled an estimated 40,000 diagnostic tests and treatments for American veterans with cancer and other illnesses to cover up a decade-long backlog.

In New York, doctors report that nearly 40 percent of their patients receiving kidney dialysis are illegal aliens. A survey of nephrologists in 44 states revealed that 65 percent of them treat illegal aliens with kidney disease.

In Memphis, a VA whistleblower reported that his hospital was using contaminated kidney dialysis machines to treat America's warriors. The same hospital previously had been investigated for chronic overcrowding at its emergency room, leading to six-hour waits or longer. Another watchdog probe found unconscionable delays in processing lab tests at the center. In addition, three patients died under negligent circumstances, and the hospital failed to enforce accountability measures.

In Arizona, illegal aliens incurred health care costs totaling an estimated $700 million in 2009.

In Phoenix, at least 40 veterans died waiting for VA hospitals and clinics to treat them, while government officials created secret waiting lists to cook the books and deceive the public about deadly treatment delays.

At the University of California at Berkeley, UC President Janet Napolitano (former secretary of the Department of Homeland Security) has offered $5 million in financial aid to illegal alien students. Across the country, 16 states offer in-state tuition discounts for illegal aliens: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oklahoma, Oregon, Texas, Utah and Washington. In addition, the Rhode Island Board of Governors for Higher Education, the University of Hawaii Board of Regents and the University of Michigan Board of Regents all approved their own illegal alien tuition benefits.

In 2013, the nation's most selective colleges and universities had enrolled just 168 American veterans, down from 232 in 2011. Anti-war activists have waged war on military recruitment offices at elite campuses for years. The huge influx of illegal aliens in state universities is shrinking the number of state-subsidized slots for vets.

In 2013, the Obama Department of Homeland Security released 36,007 known, convicted criminal illegal aliens, according to the Center for Immigration Studies. The catch-and-release beneficiaries include thugs convicted of homicide, sexual assault, kidnapping, and thousands of drunk or drugged driving crimes.

The same Department of Homeland Security issued a report in 2009 that identified returning combat veterans as worrisome terrorist and criminal threats to America.

In Washington, Big Business and open-borders lobbyists are redoubling efforts to pass another massive illegal alien amnesty to flood the U.S. job market with low-wage labor.

Across the country, men and women in uniform returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan have higher jobless rates than the civilian population. The unemployment rate for new veterans has spiked to its worst levels, nearing 15 percent. For veterans ages 24 and under, the jobless rate is a whopping 29.1 percent, compared to 17.6 percent nationally for the age group.

A Forbes columnist reported last year that an Air Force veteran was told: "We don't hire your kind."

And last December, Democrats led the charge to reduce cost-of-living increases in military pensions -- while blocking GOP Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions' efforts to close a $4.2 billion loophole that allows illegal aliens to collect child tax credits from the IRS, even if they pay no taxes. The fraudulent payments to illegal aliens would have offset the cuts to veterans' benefits.

America: medical and welfare welcome mat to the rest of the world, while leavings its best and bravest veterans to languish in hospital lounges, die waiting for appointments, and compete for jobs and educational opportunities against illegal border-crossers, document fakers, visa violators and deportation evaders. Shame on us.

Action Alert: Support True Health Care Freedom in Ohio!

Remaining steadfast in our fight to free Ohio from the chains of Obamacare, the following is an important Update & Action Alert on the Health Care Compact (HB 227) efforts in Ohio.

The Health Care Compact was successfully voted out of the OH House State & Local Government Committee with a recommendation for passage on 4/2/14.

Yesterday we were informed by OH Rep. Wes Retherford, one of the lead co-sponsors of the Health Care Compact (HB 227), that he is hoping the Health Care Compact will be put to a full vote on the House Floor this coming week - possibly as early as this coming Tuesday (5/27/14).

While this is wonderful news, this leaves us with a short time frame to contact our OH Rep's to encourage their support for true health care freedom in Ohio with a yes vote on the Health Care Compact (HB 227). 

How You Can Help!

Please contact the below area GOP members in the OH House and ask they please support passage of the Health Care Compact.

Being this is Memorial Day weekend and they will not be returning to work until Tuesday, please leave a message on voice mail and/or click the given links to send an email.

Cuyahoga County --

Rep. Mike Dovilla

Phone: (614)466-4895

Email: Click Here

Rep. Nan Baker

Phone: (614)466-0961

Email: Click Here

Rep. Marlene Anielski

Phone: (614)644-6041

Email: Click Here

Note: Please thank Rep. Anielski for supporting the HCC as Vice-Chair on the State & Local Government Committee and encourage her continued support.

Medina County --

Rep. Dave Hall

Phone: (614)466-2994

Email: Click Here

Summit County --

Rep. Marilyn Slaby

Phone: (614)644-5085

Email: Click Here

Rep. Anthony DeVitis

Phone: (614)466-1790

Email: Click Here

For a county by county list of OH Rep's contact information, please click here. 

Please sign the petition in support of the Health Care Compact to show Ohio legislators you support true health care freedom in Ohio.  After you sign it please forward it your friends, family and social network.

Click Here To Sign Petition 

Decoration Day and the history of Memorial Day

Art credit: vintagevisions27.blogspot.com

"The First Decoration Day"

by David W. Blight, Yale University

Americans understand that Memorial Day, or "Decoration Day," as my parents called it, has something to do with honoring the nation's war dead. It is also a day devoted to picnics, road races, commencements, and double-headers. But where did it begin, who created it, and why?

As a nation we are at war now, but for most Americans the scale of death and suffering in this seemingly endless wartime belongs to other people far away, or to people in other neighborhoods. Collectively, we are not even allowed to see our war dead today. That was not the case in 1865.

At the end of the Civil War the dead were everywhere, some in half buried coffins and some visible only as unidentified bones strewn on the killing fields of Virginia or Georgia. Americans, north and south, faced an enormous spiritual and logistical challenge of memorialization. The dead were visible by their massive absence. Approximately 620,000 soldiers died in the war. American deaths in all other wars combined through the Korean conflict totaled 606,000. If the same number of Americans per capita had died in Vietnam as died in the Civil War, 4 million names would be on the Vietnam Memorial. The most immediate legacy of the Civil War was its slaughter and how [we] remember it.

War kills people and destroys human creation; but as though mocking war's devastation, flowers inevitably bloom through its ruins. After a long siege, a prolonged bombardment for months from all around the harbor, and numerous fires, the beautiful port city of Charleston, South Carolina, where the war had begun in April, 1861, lay in ruin by the spring of 1865. The city was largely abandoned by white residents by late February. Among the first troops to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the Twenty First U. S. Colored Infantry; their commander accepted the formal surrender of the city.

Thousands of black Charlestonians, most former slaves, remained in the city and conducted a series of commemorations to declare their sense of the meaning of the war. The largest of these events, and unknown until some extraordinary luck in my recent research, took place on May 1, 1865. During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the planters' horse track, the Washington Race Course and Jockey Club, into an outdoor prison. Union soldiers were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of exposure and disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand. Some twenty-eight black workmen went to the site, re-buried the Union dead properly, and built a high fence around the cemetery. They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, "Martyrs of the Race Course."

Then, black Charlestonians in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged an unforgettable parade of 10,000 people on the slaveholders' race course. The symbolic power of the low-country planter aristocracy's horse track (where they had displayed their wealth, leisure, and influence) was not lost on the freedpeople. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing "a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before."

At 9 am on May 1, the procession stepped off led by three thousand black schoolchildren carrying arm loads of roses and singing "John Brown's Body." The children were followed by several hundred black women with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantry and other black and white citizens. As many as possible gathering in the cemetery enclosure; a childrens' choir sang "We'll Rally around the Flag," the "Star-Spangled Banner," and several spirituals before several black ministers read from scripture. No record survives of which biblical passages rung out in the warm spring air, but the spirit of Leviticus 25 was surely present at those burial rites: "for it is the jubilee; it shall be holy unto you… in the year of this jubilee he shall return every man unto his own possession."

Following the solemn dedication the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: they enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches, and watched soldiers drill. Among the full brigade of Union infantry participating was the famous 54th Massachusetts and the 34th and 104th U.S. Colored Troops, who performed a special double-columned march around the gravesite. The war was over, and Decoration Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration. The war, they had boldly announced, had been all about the triumph of their emancipation over a slaveholders' republic, and not about state rights, defense of home, nor merely soldiers' valor and sacrifice.

. . .

Officially, as a national holiday, Memorial Day emerged in 1868 when General John A. Logan, commander-in-chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union veterans organization, called on all former northern soldiers and their communities to conduct ceremonies and decorate graves of their dead comrades.  

Read the rest here. 

Alicia Colon on conservatives going local

Art credit: blogs.columbian.com

From Jewish World Review, here is the excellent Alicia Colon on conservatives going local:

. . . The Republican National Committee hasn't a clue on how to reach the low-info voters that continually vote for the Democrats. Until they find a savvy political activist like the late Lee Atwater, I will not donate my measly dollars to it or any other establishment GOP organization.

It should be a given that the mainstream media has no journalistic integrity and is just a partisan mouthpiece for this administration and its Kool-aid cabinet. There are, however, ways to outsmart the Alinskeyites but the GOP is so entrenched in mediocrity and poor leadership that they throw away opportunities to take back the country. It needs to look past the Ivy League alumnae as fodder for its activism and embrace the grassroots because that's where our salvation will come from.

. . .

. . . Here's a reality check for conservatives. We know what's going on in our country because we watch Fox News, log onto terrific informative online sites like the Drudgereport.com, lucianne.com, Daily Caller, Newsbusters.com, National Review Online; American Thinker and of course Jewish World Review. Thanks to the Internet we have access to the U.K's Daily Mail and Telegraph and Canada's Free Press. Half of the country does not visit these truth tellers so how do we get them to know the truth is out there?

So much money is spent on advertising in the markets that our choir listens to. Why waste money there? Outsmart the media by advertising great, informative, attractive, ballsy ads on the stations that the low-info voters watch and listen to, e.g.-MTV, BET, TMV and talk shows.

I'm completely baffled by these focus groups that I watch on Fox that are so predictable because they are filled with educated middle to upper class attendees. Why not go into the inner cities and offer cash for the opinion of the people there? Find out how they get their information, whom they respect and just offer them the truth. Tell them about the racist history of the Democrat Party and that it has been the Republicans and Lincoln's party that has always been for civil rights. We need good community leaders that can host town hall meetings to promote the party's agenda to show how it benefits those communities. That's how the Democrats operate but we will offer them the truth not BS.

The GOP has to get off their high horse and stop avoiding the underclass. These are people who have been made to feel like victims by politicians who have conned them into thinking the government is their only resource. We have excellent role models for them in the Republican Party whose inspiring stories they have never heard of. Has the RNC reached out to Lloyd Marcus or Alfonzo Rachel? They certainly haven't recruited me except to ask for funding. What a joke. I just send those letters back with "I AM BROKE" written in black marker. We can throw block parties in the inner cities to show off our stars. Spend money to improve these areas. Instead of having fundraisers in Vegas or deluxe restaurants, support local businesses, hire people from the area for these events. It will take time but the only way for the GOP to undo the demonizing by the media is to get up and personal with all the electorate.

As for the conservative base, it needs to stop whining about the liberal bias and start supporting those battling for the truth. It doesn't take much, just a few dollars from each of the millions of readers to sustain those struggling voices of truth. If you enjoy getting the truth online, look for the site's donation button. If it doesn't have any, don't complain about those ads because that's supporting the site. Frequent the businesses through the site and help them survive.

2014 may be our last chance to oust the Obama minions and sycophants from office so get involved and help spread the truth. If you're not physically able, open your wallets and support the grass root challengers.

Read the rest here. And check out some of the comments. 

Obama Administration Threatened Sanctions Against Nigeria For Fighting Boko Haram

From Gateway Pundit --  

In 2013, the Obama administration threatened to sanction Nigeria for fighting the Boko Haram terrorist group.

Canada Free Press reported:

Hillary Clinton wasn’t the only Obama administration official who went to bat for Boko Haram over the past few years.

Soon after John Kerry took over as Secretary of State, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, Terence P. McCulley, accused the Nigerian government of butchery during a confrontation with Boko Haram terrorists in Baga, a Nigerian town on the shores of Lake Chad, and in May 2013 threatened to withdraw U.S. military aid from the West African nation.

Boko Haram militants attacked a Nigerian military outpost in April 2013 outside Baga, killing one soldier. Following the three-day battle human rights activists, including the George Soros-funded and liberal aligned Human Rights Watch, which is not exactly known for its impartiality when it comes to reporting on Islamic issues, claimed the Nigerian military wantonly slaughtered 183 civilians and burned down over 2,000 homes and businesses.

The Nigerian government denied the claims saying the death toll and destruction had been vastly overstated by its enemies, and in fact 30 Boko Haram terrorists, 6 civilians and one soldier, had died in the fighting. Reports from the Baga clinic, which treated 193 people following the battle, but only 10 with serious injuries, seemed to back up the Nigerian government claim that no large-scale massacre had occurred.

More here.

Common Core Math doesn't add up

From IJReview:

College students at George Mason University were recently shown the Common Core method — being taught to many of America’s elementary school students — for solving this basic math problem: 32 – 12 = ?

If you can follow the “logical” sequence for arriving at the answer, congratulations. The rest of us are stumped.

"Mad as Hell" Shinseki Tells Second Biggest Lie of the Year over VA Health Care

Click to Sign the CVA Petition to Fire Shinseki

Though Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki claims to be "mad as hell" over the recent deaths of 40 veterans awaiting care in AZ and other "secret waiting lists," and has accepted the resignation of Dr. Robert Petzel, the under secretary for health in the Department of Veterans Affairs, Shinseki himself still REFUSES to step down and has no plans of resigning.

The below is from Pete Hegseth, CEO of Concerned Veterans for America, in response to the testimony given by Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee yesterday....

From Fox News --  

Thursday morning Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki came before the Senate Veterans Affairs committee and proclaimed—with a straight face—that the VA health care system is “a good system.”

While Politifact has already deemed President Obama’s infamous “if you like your health care plan, you can keep it” the lie of the year—Shinseki’s statement ranks a close, and unfortunate, second.

The totality of the Secretary’s remarks before the committee Thursday were not only deceptive, they were detached, defensive, and unbefitting a leader who should be fighting mad about the scandals engulfing the VA.

The totality of the Secretary’s remarks before the committee Thursday were not only deceptive, they were detached, defensive, and unbefitting a leader who, by now, should be fighting mad about the scandals engulfing VA, firing those responsible, and fundamentally challenging every assumption he has about the manner in which care is provided to our veterans.

Instead, Shinseki played the role of aloof bureaucrat, reading dispassionately from his prepared remarks in a monotone voice, as if this was a run-of-the-mill budget hearing. Shinseki’s comments were spot on in that respect—a perfect personification of VA’s indifferent and unaccountable bureaucracy.

As my organization Concerned Veterans for America has been saying for years—and Fox News has been reporting aggressively—the VA is an infected bureaucracy, incapable of delivering timely care to veterans; instead, the VA has been cooking the books to preserve the jobs and bonuses of senior officials.

The Phoenix VA scandal has been the most publicized example—with as many as 40 veterans allegedly dying while waiting on a secret list.

But Phoenix is just the tip of the iceberg, with another half-dozen whistleblowers from across the country stepping up in the past few weeks to reveal similar secret lists.

Plain and simple—the VA is failing in its core mission to veterans: providing timely and quality healthcare. Across the country, veterans are waiting months for basic appointment, let alone specialized care.

By VA’s own account, only 41 percent of veterans are seen for a medical appointment within 14 days; a number that is certainly dramatically lower in light of how VA has cooked the books on appointments.

Wait times of weeks and months are unacceptable anywhere, let alone for our veterans.

As for the quality of care, while it is great at many facilities, it has been uneven at others—just ask the families of veterans in Pittsburgh and Atlanta about deaths that could have been prevented due to medical malpractice.

All of this is unacceptable.

As a result of these revelations and his performance before Congress Thursday, there will be more calls for Shinseki to resign, and rightfully so. But that action alone would not solve this problem. Just as the problem is more than just the scandal in Phoenix, the problems at VA are much larger than Shinseki.

Shinseki should be fired immediately—as my group, the American Legion, and many Senators have called for—but that is only the beginning.

Fundamental reform is needed, from top to bottom, to shake up a calcified and unaccountable bureaucracy. These reforms start with accountability at the very top, and throughout VA.

VA must also be made more transparent, and the benefits veterans have earned should be more portable—meaning if you can’t get timely or convenient care at a local VA, you can go elsewhere.

It also must be made clear that the problems at VA are not funding problems. Some individuals testified Thursday that more money might solve the problem. This is bogus.

Sure, there are certain aspects of VA that could use additional funding, but reallocation of existing funds would be more than sufficient.

In Phoenix alone, 59% of salaries are spent on administration and operations, notmedical care.

The VA bureaucracy is very adept at gobbling up additional funding; so before we spend more money on VA, we need to reform it. Let’s stop throwing more money at a bureaucracy incapable of using it wisely or efficiently.

Finally, some members at Thursday’s hearing pointed, with hopeful expectation, toward the White House’s decision to appoint a top Obama political operative to oversee a VA “review.”

Count me as underwhelmed and skeptical about it.
The White House has zero incentive to find wrongdoing at VA, and I have very little faith that anything substantive will be found from this investigation.

Only a bipartisan and independent investigation will do the job, and Congress should press for one; but not at the expense of immediate and real reform.

If one thing was clear today, it’s that Congress should get to work providing much-needed oversight for VA.

The House and Senate would be wise to start with the VA Management Accountability Act of 2014, a bill that would allow senior managers at VA to actually be fired.

It’s common sense, non-partisan, and long-overdue reform. The bill is not a silver bullet, but is a great start.

It will likely see a vote soon in the House; but the question is whether the Senate, with all the Republican and Democratic bluster we witnessed on Thursday, will step up to the plate and pass an actual piece of reform legislation.

For Congress, and the White House, it’s put up or shut up time.

Pete Hegseth is a Fox News contributor. He is the CEO of Concerned Veterans for America and the former executive director of Vets for Freedom. He is an infantry officer in the Army National Guard and has served tours in Afghanistan and Iraq and at Guantanamo Bay. Learn more at:www.concernedveteransforamerica.org.

Tea Party Patriots Reaffirm Opposition to Backdoor Amnesty for Illegal Immigrants

In response to the Tea Party Express recently coming out in support of backdoor amnesty for illegal immigrants, Tea Party Patriots has released the below statement reaffirming their opposition to amnesty for illegal immigrants and support for the rule of law....

From Tea Party Patriots -- 

Millions of people have come to America legally and invested the time and effort to become naturalized citizens in pursuit of personal freedom and their American Dream. We admire them for their courage, determination and desire, all of which reflect the founding principles of the United States. 

The position of Tea Party Patriots is clear. We must first fully secure our borders. Immigration reform cannot happen without this necessary first step.

We support legal immigration and the rule of law, according to the Constitution. There is already a legal path to citizenship for those wishing to come to the United States. Anyone who decides to get off that path and enter the United States illegally should not be given any sort of amnesty because doing so is neither fair nor equal treatment under the law.

We must also demand the Obama administration enforce our current immigration laws. Those who are determined to have entered the country illegally and are on-track for deportation should be deported.

Those who have been convicted of crimes and are serving sentences for their crimes should remain incarcerated until their sentences have been served.

Conservatives are watching Congress like a hawk and will do everything to make sure immigration reform is done in a manner that respects the law and those who abide by it.

In liberty,

Tea Party Patriots National Support Team