Dental Care for People Who Love to Live Dangerously

FOX News reports quite a flap over the following scandal involving a VA dental clinic in St. Louis, MO:

House lawmakers have started calling for an investigation into reports that more than 1,800 veterans from Missouri, Illinois and other states may have been exposed to HIV or other diseases while getting dental treatment at a VA medical center in St. Louis.

Rep. Russ Carnahan, who represents St. Louis, on Wednesday asked the White House, the Veterans Administration and the House Committee on Veterans Affairs to look into the possibility that potentially deadly viruses were transmitted through equipment used at the John Cochran Division of the St. Louis Veterans Affairs Medical Center from February 2009 to March 2010.

According to a statement from the VA, dental equipment at the hospital in St. Louis was sterilized -- but it was "not sterilized to the exact specifications of the manufacturers guidelines."

"This is absolutely unacceptable," said Carnahan, a Democrat. "No veteran who has served and risked their life for this great nation should have to worry about their personal safety when receiving much needed health care services from a Veterans Administration hospital...."

UPDATE: Reported in The Hill: Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.) said on CNN Monday, “It's outrageous, one, that this happens, but even worse is this secretive, almost cover-up mode that they go into when something like this happens.” Gen. Eric Shinseki, Secretary of Veterans Affairs, did not hear about this lapse until last week.

Real Men Do Seek Out Mental Health Support

Check out this article from American Forces Press Service:

"Twenty-eight Medal of Honor recipients recently launched the “Medal of Honor – Speak Out” campaign to encourage troops struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injuries and other health problems to take advantage of services to help them...."

UPDATE: To go directly to where the Medal of Honor warriors have recorded their statements on video, visit MedalofHonorSpeakOut.org.

Spy vs. Spy

A seven-year investigation by the FBI has exposed a Russian spy ring. FOX News says 10 people were arrested; the New York Times reports 11.

These individuals lived under assumed names all over the United states, trying to collect intelligence about nuclear weapons, American policy toward Iran, CIA leadership, etc. They were trained and suppported by the SVU, successor to the KGB.

Second Amendment Clings to Life

Gov. Sarah Palin issued the following statement on the McDonald vs. the City of Chicago case:

Sarah Palin: Another Victory For The 2nd Amendment
Monday, June 28, 2010

The Supreme Court handed down an important ruling today stating what should be obvious: that the Second Amendment, in the words of Justice Alito writing for the court, “applies equally to the federal government and the states.” Today’s decision in McDonald vs. City of Chicago, in conjunction with the landmark Heller case two years ago, should leave little doubt that our individual right to keep and bear arms applies everywhere and is a right for everyone.

For an interesting perspective on the significance of today’s ruling, take a look at David Rittgers’ article in National Review.

Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV), Dies in Hospital

Senator Robert Byrd, 92, of West Virginia, a former leader and recruiter in the Ku Klux Klan and the undisputed King of Pork for both houses of Congress, passed away Monday at Inova Hospital, Fairfax, VA. Despite his racist past, he was treated with utmost respect by his colleagues because of his position of power as head of the Senate Appropriations committee.

"Bob is a living encyclopedia, and legislative graveyards are filled with the bones of those who underestimated him," former House Speaker Jim Wright, D-Texas, once said in remarks Byrd later displayed in his office.

Read more: http://www.gazette.com/articles/virginia-100893-robert-11px.html

From the Washington Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/06/28/AR2010062801241.html?hpid=topnews

UPDATE: Here's how the legacy of Sen. Byrd lives on:

Robert C. Byrd Academic and Technology Center
Robert C. Byrd addition to the lodge at Oglebay Park, Wheeling
Byrd Aerospace Technology Center
Robert C. Byrd Bridge between Huntington and Chesapeake, Ohio
Robert C. Byrd Cancer Research Center
Robert C. Byrd Clinical Addition to the veteran's hospital in Huntington
Robert C. Byrd Community Center, Pine Grove
Robert C. Byrd Community Center in the naval station, Sugar Grove
Robert C. Byrd Drive, from Beckley to Sophia (Byrd's hometown)
Robert C. Byrd Expressway, U.S. 22 near Weirton
Robert C. Byrd Federal Building
Robert C. Byrd Federal Courthouse
Robert C. Byrd Freeway
Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope
Robert C. Byrd Hardwood Technologies Center, near Princeton
Robert C. Byrd Health Sciences Center of West Virginia
Robert C. Byrd High school in Bridgeport
Robert C. Byrd Highway
Robert C. Byrd Hilltop Office Complex, Mineral County
Robert C. Byrd Honors Scholarships
Robert C. Byrd Industrial Park, Hardy County
Robert C. Byrd Institute in Charleston
Robert C. Byrd Institute for Advanced Flexible Manufacturing
Robert C. Byrd Library and Robert C. Byrd Learning Resource Center
Robert C. Byrd Life Long Learning Center
Robert C. Byrd Locks and Dam
Robert C. Byrd National Technology Transfer Center
Robert C. Byrd Rural Health Center
Robert C. Byrd Scholastic Recognition Award
Byrd Science Center, Shepherd University
Robert C. Byrd Technology Center at Alderson-Broaddus College
Robert C. Byrd United Technical Center
Robert C. Byrd Visitor Center at Harpers Ferry National Historic Park

TEA Party Rally at Memorial Park, Colorado Springs

Approximately 800 to 1,000 people showed up for the TEA [Taxed Enough Already] Party rally, which is comparable to previous rallies held at Acacia Park downtown. More were expected, however, as it took place on a weekend. Also, the crowd was scattered over a larger area. Not less than 4 policemen and several security guards were present to maintain order, but this was no G20 summit protest, like the one held in Toronto, Canada at the same time. Organizers of this event even arranged for a helicopter to rush medical emergencies to the nearest hospital, several local TV stations provided news coverage, and candidates such as Scott McInnis and Wayne Williams worked the crowd, as did anti-tax crusader Doug Bruce (in the red polo shirt, passing out bumper stickers), and people collecting signatures for a petition.

Late-Night Comics on Obama

THE STAND-UP COMEDIANS, MORE THAN ANY OTHER GROUP, HAVE THEIR FINGERS IN THE WIND ACCURATELY DETECTING WHICH WAY IT IS BLOWING.

You know the honeymoon is over when the comedians start.

The liberals are asking us to give Obama time. We agree . . . and think 25 to life would be appropriate.--Jay Leno

"Barack Obama said yesterday that the economy was 'going to get worse before it gets better.' See, that's when you know the campaign is really over. Remember before the election? 'The audacity of hope!' 'Yes, we can!' 'A change we can believe in!' Now it's, 'We're all screwed.'" —Jay Leno

"Well, President Obama said today he’s going to use the gulf disaster to immediately push a new energy bill through Congress. I got an idea. How about first using the gulf disaster to fix the gulf disaster?" —Jay Leno

America needs Obama-care like Nancy Pelosi needs a Halloween mask.--Jay Leno

"You know, it's hard to believe President Obama has now been in office for a year. Isn't that amazing? It's a year. And you know, it's incredible. He took something that was in terrible, terrible shape, and he brought it back from the brink of disaster: The Republican party." -Jay Leno

"Today, by the way, is our president, President Obama's, one-year anniversary in office. I looked it up. Traditionally on the first anniversary, you give paper, so, I got him his birth certificate." -Jimmy Kimmel

"Today, President Obama announced he is using his own money to redecorate the White House. Meanwhile, he is using taxpayers' money to redecorate the houses of A.I.G. executives." --Craig Ferguson

Q: Have you heard about McDonald's' new Obama Value Meal?
A: Order anything you like and the guy behind you has to pay for it.--Conan O'Brien

Q: What does Barack Obama call lunch with a convicted felon?
A: A fund raiser.--Jay Leno

Q: What's the difference between Obama's cabinet and a penitentiary?
A: One is filled with tax evaders, blackmailers, and threats to society. The other is for housing prisoners.--David Letterman

Q: If Nancy Pelosi and Obama were on a boat in the middle of the ocean and it started to sink, who would be saved?
A: America !--Jimmy Fallon

Q: What's the difference between Obama and his dog, Bo?
A: Bo has papers.--Jimmy Kimmel

Q: What was the most positive result of the "Cash for Clunkers" program?
A: It took 95% of the Obama bumper stickers off the road.--David Letterman

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

Seems like cartoonists are ahead of the print media in turning a critical eye on President Obama.

Two News Stories to Brighten Up Your Day

From Pajamas Media we read that White House budget director Peter Orszag is resigning his Cabinet-level position for personal reasons. From our perspective he looks more like the rat with the good sense to abandon the ship as it's springing a leak. This is the same genius who claimed that Obamacare would "bend the curve" and actually reduce healthcare costs and lower the federal deficit.

Also from the same source: U.S. District Court Judge Martin Feldman on Tuesday lifted the administration’s six-month moratorium on deepwater oil drilling and enjoined the government from enforcing it.

“The court is unable to divine or fathom a relationship between the findings and the immense scope of the moratorium,” Feldman said in his 22-page decision. “The blanket moratorium, with no parameters, seems to assume that because one rig failed and although no one yet fully knows why, all companies and rigs drilling new wells over 500 feet also universally present an imminent danger.”

UPDATE: Taking a stand is not without its risks. Judge Feldman has received death threats because of his ruling. Also, charges that he owned stock in Transocean, Ltd and Halliburton and should have recused himself are untrue, as he sold his shares before the BP oil spill crisis.

Gen. McChrystal Summoned to White House, Grilled by President

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who up to today commanded U.S. forces in Afghanistan, has submitted his resignation after uttering a series of scathing comments in a recent Rolling Stone interview scheduled for publication on Friday. President Obama promptly nominated Gen. David Petraeus (left), head of U.S. Central Command and author of the successful surge in Iraq, as his replacement, and it is likely that Congress will expedite this appointment.

More details at FOX News.

UPDATE: Here are two articles from American Spectator that suggest that Gen. McChrystal was as "dumb as a fox" by sacrificing himself for the good of NATO forces in Afghanistan.

1. Obama's Strict "Code of Conduct"
2. MacArthur Defeats Truman: The Real McChrystal Message

When in Doubt, Laugh

Scott Ott of Scrappleface has produced a way to laugh through our tears at the One Who Cannot Be Touched by the MSM. Amazon.com has a review, and also offers it on Kindle.

Planned Parenthood Cannot Account for Hundreds of Millions of $

Rita Diller of the Washington Times wrote:

A new report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) on federal tax money funneled into Planned Parenthood and similar organizations raises more questions than it answers about the nation's largest abortion chain.

Planned Parenthood Federation of America's (PPFA) audits show the organization spent just $657.1 million between 2002 and 2008 from federal government grants and programs, but the abortion behemoth's own annual reports show that it took in $2.3 billion from government grants and programs during the same time period.

That's not pocket change. Why the discrepancy?

Worst-Case Scenario: Obama Administration to Sue Arizona!

According to FOX News, "The Obama administration plans to file suit challenging Arizona's immigration law, officials told Fox News on Friday.

"The confirmation comes after Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in an interview with a TV station in Ecuador earlier this month that the administration would challenge the law in court, though officials had long said the issue was under review...."

Ex-Union Boss Busted for Embezzlement

The New York Daily News has this lurid tale of 400-pound Daniel Hughes, who pleaded guilty to embezzling $294,000 for gambling and high-priced prostitutes. Normally we don't run scandal stories, but our anti-union bias is showing.:-)

Conservatives Apprehensive About Obama Speech on Oil Spill

"We have become accustomed to [Barack Obama's] management style -- target a scapegoat, assign blame and go on the attack. To win health care legislation, he vilified insurance executives; to escape bankruptcy law for General Motors, he demonized senior lenders; to take the focus from the excesses of government, he castigated business meetings in Las Vegas; and to deflect responsibility for the deepening and lengthening downturn, he blames Wall Street and George W. Bush. But what may make good politics does not make good leadership. And when a crisis is upon us, America wants a leader, not a politician." --former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney

What Was He Thinking?

The Colorado Springs Gazette ran this AP news story about Gary Brooks Faulkner of Greeley, CO, who was caught in Pakistan while on a one-way mission to take the head of Osama bin Laden. We say "one-way" because there is no indication that he had any exclusive intelligence as to the whereabouts of the world's most wanted terrorist, whom some say is enjoying the hospitality of the mullahs who run Iran. And even if he did know exactly where to strike, he apparently had no plan to penetrate the multiple layers of security that a terrorist leader with his wealth and connections would be sure to establish.

Gov. Jindal Decides that Louisiana Can't Afford to Wait Much Longer

According to ABC News, eight weeks into the oil spill disaster in the Gulf of the Mexico, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal has told the National Guard that there's no time left to wait for BP, so they're taking matters into their own hands.

In Fort Jackson, La., Jindal has ordered the Guard to start building barrier walls right in the middle of the ocean. The barriers, built nine miles off shore, are intended to keep the oil from reaching the coast by filling the gaps between barrier islands.

If You Read or Watch This, You're Probably a Right-Wing Subversive

This is making the rounds of the Internet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVAhr4hZDJE

Here's the whole text of the subtitles:
Dear President Obama,
“We The People” have stated resolutely we reject your vision for our country.
You claim you have not heard us. “We The People” have assembled across America resisting your efforts to subvert our constitution and undermine our liberty.
You claim you have not seen us.
Since you have not acknowledged our message, let us here present it once more for if, as President Wilson said, a leader's ear must ring with the voices of the people, the time has come.
Our greatest treasure is freedom. The absence of restraints on our ability to think and act.
The corollary of freedom is individual responsibility. We believe in the power of the individual.
A few years ago President Bush said, “History moves toward freedom because the desire for freedom is written in every human heart.”
Let us add that we will preserve it only as long as devotion to freedom is expressed in the heart of our actions.
When President Lincoln dedicated Gettysburg National Cemetery he declared,
“It is for us the living to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus so nobly advanced.”
That unfinished cause for which out soldiers willing go to battle and for which so many have given their lives is a free United States of America.
It has been nearly one hundred fifty years and the work President Lincoln spoke of is not finished.
In fact, that work will never be finished. Freedom is the capacity for self determinaton.
It is not an entity but a condition, and conditions change. Freedom can expand, yet so can it contract.
You promised change when you took office, Mr. President, but subjugation is not change we wanted or will accept.
You have expanded government violated our constitution confounded laws seized private industry destroyed jobs perverted our economy curtailed free speech corrupted our currency weakened our national security and endangered our sovereignty.
By compromising our nation's cultural, legal and economic institutions, you are ensuring that our children will never achieve the same quality of life as we enjoy today.
Through generational theft you are robbing the unborn of opportunity.
This not acceptable. Not in America. We did not become a strong nation through hope but rather through self-reliance.
No one better understands the relationship between individual achievement, dignity and strength than our armed forces.
Through every war our soldiers have held this nation's destiny in their hands.
They have not failed us. They cherish freedom enough that they are willing to die for it.
Our duty to them and to ourselves is to treasure freedom enough to live up to it.
We accept the challenge, Mr. President.
That is why we are assembling across the land to deliver our message to you as often and in every way we can.
Dismiss us at your political peril. Our great nation is a Republic. We will not accept tyranny under any guise.
Your policy to redistribute the fruits of our labor is Statism and will not be tolerated.
By our honor, Mr. President, we vow forever to resist coercive government in America.
Patriots will not stand silent as you attempt to dismantle the greatest nation on earth.
“We The People” will defend our liberty, we will protect our beloved country and America's exceptionalism will prevail.
God Bless the United States of America!

Sincerely,
We The People

How the One Deals with a Major Crisis

Barack Obama told The Politico this morning that the Gulf oil spill was like 9-11.

Then he went golfing for 4 hours. Hat tip: Laura Ingraham

"Who is in charge of stopping the oil leak and the cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico - BP or the Obama administration? If you have a hard time answering the question, it probably is because the president has told us the 'buck stops' with him and officials of his administration say they are 'in charge.' Yet the administration also tells us that BP has the responsibility for stopping the leak and for the cleanup -- but the company's every action has to be approved by the government. If you have noticed a lot of ambiguity in the statements of the government officials, that is because they want to be able to position themselves to take credit for whatever success occurs (no matter who is responsible for the success) yet be able to blame others for failure (if even their own). ... One, among several, major reasons government agencies tend not to perform as well as private ones is because often there is little or no accountability. ..." - Cato Institute senior fellow Richard W. Rahn

Yes, It's True - Pigs Have Started to Fly

We are amazed, but not totally taken by surprise, to learn that Saudi Arabia has given Israel the go-ahead to fly over their territory in case they attack nuclear sites in Iran. It's not secret that all of the Arab states are suspicious of the Persians, and although they call themselves an "Islamic Republic," they have imperial designs.

Meanwhile, in South Africa, the USA soccer team actually got a tie with the British team at the World Cup competition. No word as to whether the British fans started a riot, since they're so accustomed to winning.

There's an intriguing article in Slate online magazine about reconfiguring the stars on the American flag if more states are added. President Obama's reference to "57 states" in a campaign speech could actully be a prophecy waiting to be fulfilled if we granted statehood to Puerto Rico, the city-states of New York City, Chicago, and Los Angeles, and at least 3 provinces restless enough to break away from Canada.