AZ Congressional Delegation

Phoenix VA Medical Center — time to weigh in on the controversy

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Cross posted from the Arizona Eagletarian

Today, three members of Arizona’s Republican Congressional delegation sent letters to Veterans Affairs Secretary Erik Shinseki and Phoenix VA medical center director Sharon Helman calling for Helman’s resignation.

“Under your leadership, a ‘secret list’ or second set of books was kept, holding the official number of days that veterans waited for service artificially low.  Because of you and your leadership team’s choices, over forty veterans have died due to lack of care,” the letter reads.

“The mistakes made by the PVAHCS cannot be undone, and drastic changes need to be made to ensure that this never happens again.  In order to begin to restore faith in the veteran’s health care system, department executives who were aware of and presided over this unethical and alarming mismanagement must be held accountable,” the letter continues. “It is for this reason we demand that you and the leadership team at PVAHCS resign from all leadership positions.”

Of course, Helman has been interviewed by Arizona Republic reporters, on camera, denying the allegations. I cannot say to what degree the specifics in Schweikert’s letter are complete and factual but I know that the Congressman has specific information from veterans [disclosure: including me, because I live in the district he represents and have required the assistance of his constituent services staff to resolve several problems at the Phoenix VAMC over the last 6 to 8 months and less frequently prior to that] that he is not at liberty to disclose publicly at this time.

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Immigration reform bill in Congress before August?

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Screenshot-6I posted last week that “The weakest Speaker of the House in modern American history, and the consensus ‘Worst. Speaker. Ever.,’ John Boehner, is the only reason that comprehensive immigration reform has not come up for a vote in the House that he controls.” Boehner admits House Tea-Publicans are the problem on immigration reform.

Immigration reform still isn’t on the agenda for the House GOP this spring, according to a memo sent Friday by Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) to Republican members. Immigration Not On House GOP Agenda For Spring.

The Beltway media villagers who deem themselves the oracles of conventional wisdom also say that Immigration reform isn’t happening anytime soon in the House. No matter what John Boehner says.

The thing about “conventional wisdom” is that it is almost always wrong. Behind the scenes is strategic maneuverings. The GOP leadership is trying to get past the 2014 Congressional Primary Calendar (.pdf) to avoid giving any red meat to its nativist and racist crazy base, and hopefully elect GOP establishment candidates in the primary who won’t cost the party seats in November. Most primaries are concluded by the end of June, with the last slate of states holding primaries in August and early September.

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The sleeper issue of 2014: ‘Personhood’

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Taliban2012 was a banner year for the GOP war on women with old white males commenting on “forcible rape” and “legitimate rape,” and lady parts “shutting that whole thing down.” Rape Comments Cost Anti-Choice Candidates Their Seats.

The anti-choice zealots of the Christian Reconstructionist and Dominionist wing of the GOP appear to be headed down an even more divisive path in 2014 by embracing the “Personhood” amendment from Personhood USA.

The constitutional amendment would define a fertilized egg as a person and outlaw many forms of contraception. I would point out that it would also give a fertilized egg constitutional rights superior to the mother, whose constitutional rights would of necessity be suspended from the moment of conception until birth. No man would ever suffer such a deprivation of constitutional rights, hence the violation of equal protection and due process of law under this radical concept.

The “Personhood” amendment went down to spectacular defeats in the state of Colorado in 2008 and 2010, and even in the reddest of red states, Mississippi, in 2012.

Colorado 2008         Colorado 2010        Mississippi

No  73%                                No  71%                             No  59%

Yes 27%                               Yes 29%                             Yes 41%

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Boehner admits House Tea-Publicans are the problem on immigration reform

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Screenshot-6The weakest Speaker of the House in modern American history, and the consensus “Worst. Speaker. Ever.,” John Boehner, is the only reason that comprehensive immigration reform has not come up for a vote in the House that he controls.

Boehner fears a revolt from his nativist and racist Tea Party caucus of the GOP to depose him as Speaker and — replace him with who, exactly? Irrational fear has paralyzed this weak man and left him to blame the radicals in his own party for his complete failure of leadership.

According to a report in the Wall Street Journal last week, Boehner told industry groups and campaign donors in March at a Las Vegas fundraiser (the Sheldon Adelson primary) that, when it comes to immigration reform, the House Speaker is: “hellbent on getting this done this year.”

Boehner spokesman Brendan Buck later walked it back emailing reporters saying that “Everyone can tell their editors to chill.”

“Nothing has changed,” Buck said. “As he’s said many times, the speaker believes step-by-step reform is important, but it won’t happen until the president builds trust and demonstrates a commitment to the rule of law.”

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Cliven Bundy says the Negroes ‘were better off as slaves, picking cotton’ – what do Rep. Paul Gosar and Tea-Publican legislators think?

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Confederale SoldiersWell I’m shocked! (not) It turns out that the conservative media entertainment complex-invented anti-government hero of the moment, Cliven Bundy, is an unrepentant racist who thinks that Negroes were better off when they were slaves pickin’ cotton.

The welfare cowboy freeloading off federal grazing land was profiled in the New York Times on Thursday. New York Times reporter Adam Nagourney was there to hear Bundy say this:

“I want to tell you one more thing I know about the Negro,” he said. Mr. Bundy recalled driving past a public-housing project in North Las Vegas, “and in front of that government house the door was usually open and the older people and the kids — and there is always at least a half a dozen people sitting on the porch — they didn’t have nothing to do. They didn’t have nothing for their kids to do. They didn’t have nothing for their young girls to do.

“And because they were basically on government subsidy, so now what do they do?” he asked. “They abort their young children, they put their young men in jail, because they never learned how to pick cotton. And I’ve often wondered, are they better off as slaves, picking cotton and having a family life and doing things, or are they better off under government subsidy? They didn’t get no more freedom. They got less freedom.”

That’s pretty rich for a welfare cowboy freeloading off federal grazing land to complain about the “Negroes” living on a government subsidy. I wonder if he hears himself when he talks.

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