The process for the deception was actually outlined on the bottom of page #4 of the interim OIG report. The VA facilities, and in many cases the VA regional offices, were keeping two sets of treatment records. One set was what they were using – the second set was what they were reporting to VA in Washington.

To pull off the deception the “audit trail” function on the computer software was disabled. Meaning, there was no way to identify who was manipulating the records and when.

The only way to fix this is to fire all the administrators, fire the top and mid-level managers, fire the auditors and compliance officers, and then deconstruct the SEIU and AFSCME union stranglehold within the VA.

Yeah, good luck with that…

WASHINGTON DC – Appointments’ wait times were manipulated at more than 60 percent of the Department of Veterans Affairs health facilities investigated as part of a new internal audit.

The White House-ordered audit found that schedulers faced pressure to manipulate the system and concluded there was a “systemic lack of integrity within some Veterans Health Administration facilities.”

The audit, issued as VA Secretary Eric Shinseki resigned Friday, found that 64 percent of the 216 VA facilities reviewed had at least one instance where a veterans’ desired appointment date had been changed.

The review found 13 percent of schedulers had received specific instructions to misrepresent wait times.

“Information indicates that in some cases, pressures were placed on schedulers to utilize inappropriate practices in order to make waiting times appear more favorable,” the audit said. (more…)

AFP: Taliban leader Mullah Omar says prisoner swap which freed U.S. soldier Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl was a "big victory"

— Sky News Breaking (@SkyNewsBreak) June 1, 2014

WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican lawmakers on Saturday accused President Barack Obama of breaking the law by approving the release of five Afghan detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in exchange for a U.S. soldier believed held by Islamist insurgents for five years.

The White House agreed that actions were taken in spite of legal requirements and cited “unique and exigent circumstances” as justification.

Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, 28, of Hailey, Idaho, was handed over to U.S. special operations forces by the Taliban. In return, five Afghans who were held at a U.S. detention facility in Cuba were released to the custody of the government of Qatar, which served as a go-between in negotiations for the trade. (more…)

It should be noted that since abdicating the position of Secretary of State, and the introduction of Clinton’s ‘fixer’, John “Skippy” Podesta, the White House -and more specifically the activity that flows from within it- is now a synergy of both President Obama and Hillary Clinton’s goals.

Yesterday some pundits and media looked strangely at the non-scheduled meeting between Obama and Clinton as if fodder for grand conspiratorial questioning.

As with most issues the answers are not as complex as they seem.

(more…)

Best Part – The media correspondents assigned to cover the State Department actually laugh.

According to a whistle-blowing Op Ed piece published in the Wall Street Journal, doctors and residents in the VA system were prevented from providing care to patients if their actions were deemed to be “making federal workers look bad” :

…”Scott Barbour, an orthopedic surgeon and a friend, trained at the Miami VA hospital. In an attempt to get more patients onto the operating-room schedule, he enlisted fellow residents to clean the operating rooms between cases and transport patients from their rooms into the surgical suites….

Instead of offering praise for their industriousness, the Chief of Surgery reprimanded the doctors and put a stop to their actions. From his perspective, they were not solving a problem but were making federal workers look bad and creating more work for others, like nurses, who had to take care of more post-op patients.”

Imagine that!  Nurses having to take care of more post-op patients!  You’d think they were working in a hospital or something…. It’s not like they can adjust their census to account for that, or anything. /s/.  But, wait, there’s more ……

(more…)

Yes Alice, this is REALLY happening….

ARIZONA – Scores of undocumented immigrants from Central America have been released at Greyhound Lines Inc. bus stations in Tucson and Phoenix over the past several days after they were flown to Arizona from south Texas, officials acknowledged.

Andy Adame, a spokesman for the Border Patrol in Tucson, confirmed that over the weekend federal officials flew about 400 migrants apprehended in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas to Tucson to be processed. He said the migrants were flown to Arizona because the Border Patrol does not have enough manpower to handle a surge in illegal immigrants in south Texas.

The release has drawn criticism from those on both sides of the immigration issue. (more…)

In her New York Times op-ed, Michelle Obama attacks the GOP-led Congress for what she sees as attempts “to undo so much of what we’ve accomplished on behalf of our children,” citing proposed tweaks to the Women, Infants and Children program, known as WIC.

She accuses the GOP-led House of wanting to “override science” by mandating that white potatoes be included in a list of foods women can purchase under WIC if they choose.

(by YTZ4Mee…) “Potato Council Debunks First Lady’s “Science” Claims….

“…updated government data show women and children aren’t consuming nearly enough potatoes…”

How dare the extremist republicans allow women to choose their own nutrition !

The United States GDP shrank at an annual rate of 1.0 percent in the first quarter of 2014, according to the second estimate released by the Commerce Department.

(Via WSJ) The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter of 2014, the latest stumble for a recovery that has struggled to find its footing since the recession ended almost five years ago.

Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced across the economy, contracted at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.0% in the first three months of the year, the Commerce Department said Thursday. It was the first time economic output contracted since the first quarter of 2011, when it declined at a 1.3% pace.

Government economists had previously estimated GDP slowed to a 0.1% growth rate in the first quarter as harsh winter weather disrupted work sites, curtailed foot traffic at retail stores and snarled transportation networks across much of the U.S. The newly revised estimate incorporates additional economic data released in recent weeks. (more…)

(Via WFB)  CNN’s international correspondent Jim Clancy called the West Point response to President Obama’s meandering foreign policy address “pretty icy” Wednesday.

Clancy said it was “not really a great speech to give at the U.S. Military Academy,” and the address has drawn bipartisan criticism.

“It was a philosophical speech,” he said. “It was not a Commander-in-Chief speaking to his troops. And you heard the reception. I mean, it was pretty icy.” (link)

(more…)

Sometimes you only need to read one paragraph to know how quickly the blood pressure cuff will explode off your arm if you continue:

“The bottom line is that 10,000 troops is not enough to deny al Qaeda sanctuary in Afghanistan,” one U.S. intelligence officer told The Daily Beast. “As a result, they will come back. We have decided as a political leadership that we can live with this.”  

You can continue reading HERE.

I cannot.