OFF THE WIRE
This seems to be the talk of the town. The scandal at the VA. Who here has had issues going there?
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/05/27/exclusive-texas-va-run-like-a-crime-syndicate-whistleblower-says.html

For years, employees at a Texas VA complained that their bosses were cooking the books. For years, the VA insisted there was no widespread wrongdoing.

Editor's Note: This story has been updated with new information.

Last week, President Obama pledged to address allegations of corruption and dangerous inefficiencies in the veterans’ health-care system. But before the president could deliver on his pledge, the scandal has spread even further. New whistleblower testimony and internal documents implicate an award-winning VA hospital in Texas in widespread wrongdoing—and what appears to be systemic fraud.
Emails and VA memos obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast provide what is among the most comprehensive accounts yet of how high-level VA hospital employees conspired to game the system. It shows not only how they manipulated hospital wait lists but why—to cover up the weeks and months veterans spent waiting for needed medical care. If those lag times had been revealed, it would have threatened the executives’ bonus pay.
What’s worse, the documents show the wrongdoing going unpunished for years, even after it was repeatedly reported to local and national VA authorities. That indicates a new troubling angle to the VA scandal: that the much touted investigations may be incapable of finding violations that are hiding in plain sight.
“For lack of a better term, you’ve got an organized crime syndicate,” a whistleblower who works in the Texas VA told The Daily Beast. “People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they’re pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up.”
“I see it in the executives’ eyes,” the whistleblower added. “They are worried.”
The current VA scandal broke in Phoenix last month, when a former doctor at a VA hospital there became the first whistleblower to gain national attention. The doctor's allegations of falsified appointments—and veterans dying while they waited for treatment—unleashed a wave of similar claims from VA employees nationwide. In Cheyenne, Wyoming, Chicago, and Albuquerque, more VA whistleblowers came forward claiming that the same fraudulent scheduling was being used in the hospitals where they worked. At last count, the VA inspector general’s investigation had expanded to 26 separate facilities.

The torrent of claims led to Senate hearings, calls for VA Secretary Eric Shinseki to resign, multiple investigations and President Obama’s own public statement last week. Paul Rieckhoff, founder and chief executive officer of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA), believes that even more revelations are coming.
“This newest case just further illustrates that the scandal is much more far reaching than most people realize,” Rieckhoff said, “Phoenix was just the tip of the iceberg. Scandal has become the new normal, it’s the status quo at the VA right now.”
But, despite the political uproar and the growing investigations, the root causes of the VA crisis have remained murky. New documents and whistleblower testimony obtained by The Daily Beast shed light on exactly how fraud is being perpetrated in the VA and its underlying causes.

There’s enormous pressure to report favorable wait times for VA patients, the Texas whistleblower explained, even if those wait times are completely false.
“If [VA] directors report low numbers, they’re the outlier. They won’t stay a director very long and they certainly won’t get promoted. No one is getting rewarded for honesty. They pretty much have to lie, if they don’t they won’t go anywhere,” the whistleblower added. Weighted more heavily than other performance measures, the wait time numbers alone “count for 50% of the executive career field bonus, which is a pretty powerful motivator.”
Though VA hospitals may be struggling with increasing patient loads and inadequate resources—including too few medical providers—they are punished for acknowledging those problems. The VA’s current system appears to reward executives’ accounting tricks that mask deep structural issues and impede real solutions.
The whistleblower—who will alternately be called “the clinician,” referring to the job they have held with the Texas VA for almost a decade—asked to remain anonymous due to fear of losing their job or being otherwise punished for speaking out.
ANATOMY OF A FRAUD
The clinician has been alerting authorities to the wrongdoing at their facility for years but the corruption has persisted despite multiple reports and investigations by the VA’s inspector general.
The case of Dr. Joseph Spann, a recently retired doctor who reported malfeasance in the Texas VA system, where he worked for 17 years, raises the possibility that official investigations may only be hiding the problems they were charged to root out.
After retiring in January of this year Spann sent a letter to VA investigators accusing a VA employee of manipulating patient wait lists to hide treatment delays for veterans. The rigged reporting scheme Spann described in his letter, which threatens veterans’ lives by delaying their treatment, is the same method that has been exposed in Phoenix, Cheyenne, Albuquerque, and scores of other VA hospitals across the country.
According to Spann, Dr. Gordon Vincent, chief of radiology at Olin E. Teague Veterans Medical Center in Temple, Texas, didn’t just break VA policy by manipulating veterans’ appointments himself. He ordered VA employees across central Texas to engage in the same fraudulent practice.
The VA said it investigated Spann’s charges, and, after, finding nothing to substantiate the claims, cleared Vincent and the Texas VA.
But documents obtained by The Daily Beast appear to show Dr. Vincent doing precisely what Spann accused him of—the activities the VA said it could not substantiate.

In the above document, taken from the VA’s internal record system, you can see Dr. Vincent cancel an ultrasound appointment for a veteran suffering from cirrhosis. Vincent tells the doctor who submitted the original order to change the desired date—the day the provider selected for the procedure based on their diagnosis and clinical judgement—citing the facility’s patient backlog.Veterans are supposed to be seen within 14 days of their desired date, according to

 VA policy.By changing the desired date, Dr. Vincent, a VA section chief, was violating well-established scheduling rules detailed in an official VA memo from April 2010 and re-emphasized in a separate policy directive from June of that year. But forging veterans’ desired dates seems to have been widely considered a low-risk, high-reward form of cheating. Changing the dates made it seem as if patients were being seen within the prescribed 14-day window, which reflected well on the hospital and put its staff in line for bonuses.For the veterans seeking care, however, it had no such benefits.In his letter to the VA’s Inspector General’s Office, Spann wrote, “I cannot categorically say that I ever saw a patient die from such manipulated scheduling, but I did see several cancer patients have their possible surgery or chemotherapy treatments delayed awaiting the required radiology tests.”The VA whistleblower, who provided The Daily Beast with the records implicating Dr. Vincent, works as a medical provider for sick veterans. “It’s plain and simple common sense,” the clinician said. “Every delay in a patient’s diagnosis is an injury. The more severe the veteran’s condition, the worse the injury caused by the wait as the disease is allowed to progress.”Now that the VA has exonerated Dr. Vincent, there may be no one left to evaluate the injury caused by the appointments he canceled.

NOTES ON A SCANDALThe document described above is only one piece of evidence in a larger docket against Vincent, which is itself part of a larger record of corruption in the VA that extends far beyond Vincent or any one individual. In 2011, the VA’s inspector general investigated the Central Texas health-care system in response to complaints it had received. The inspector general found that manipulated appointments were widespread and hid significant delays, but the report doesn’t seem to have led to a single VA official being disciplined or officially held responsible for gaming

 the system.

This internal VA email chain from 2011, provided exclusively to The Daily Beast, clearly instructs medical providers to falsify their schedules in the same manner that was exposed in Phoenix three years later. Though a VA executive warns that the original message is encouraging fraud, by the email’s conclusion two other doctors have written suggesting that it’s a common occurrence. The email was originally sent to every medical provider in the Central Texas VA health-care network.
The first message in the chain comes from a scheduling coordinator, James Anderson, who tells doctors across the state to use January 2 as the desired date for veterans. The Central Texas VA Chief of Staff, William Harper, then reproaches Anderson, saying, “You cannot do this!!!! This is essentially fraud. The desired date is what it is and if we don’t meet the standard then we will work to improve.”

“For lack of a better term, you’ve got an organized crime syndicate. People up on top are suddenly afraid they may actually be prosecuted and they’re pressuring the little guys down below to cover it all up.”

(The Central Texas VA referred all questions to the national Department of Veterans’ Affairs office in Washington, D.C. Representatives at the national VA declined to comment on the record for this story.)
After the warning from Harper and questions about scheduling from several other doctors, including Spann, the final comment in the thread concerns Dr. Vincent. The message reads: “It doesn’t help if you insist on a date that doesn’t meet their 30-day criteria. Vincent just cancels the order. End of story. ”
In other words: it never mattered what was entered to show the “desired date” requested by the patient or the medical provider treating them. Despite Harper’s protestations, if the entry didn’t help meet the VA’s performance objectives it never made it into the system.
Nevertheless, the VA recently cleared Vincent of wrongdoing and, while acknowledging scheduling malpractice, blamed it on mistakes made by lower-level clerks.
“I saw the press release saying it wasn’t Vincent or any of the executives, that the schedulers were entering the desired dates incorrectly but they were not directed to do so by management. That’s just not true and we’ve got mountains of evidence proving it,” the clinician told The Daily Beast.
PERFORMANCE INCENTIVES
On the ultrasound request form, Dr. Vincent writes that he canceled the order because it was “entered in error.” But that would have come as news to the medical provider who actually interacted with the veteran and entered the date based on their evaluation of the patient’s needs. The real reason for canceling it, according to both Dr. Spann and the whistleblower who spoke with The Daily Beast, was to meet the VA’s performance objectives—whatever the cost.
Meeting the performance objectives, which made executives eligible for bonuses and put them in line for promotions, became the overriding imperative among VA executives, according to both Spann and the whistleblower.

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The inspector general’s report from January 2012 stated that, according to the hospital’s own staff, “appointments were routinely made incorrectly by using the next available appointment date instead of the patient’s desired date.” The improper scheduling “led to inaccurate reporting of GI [gastro-intestinal] clinic wait times,” the report concluded. But the IG stopped there, blaming the practice on lower-level scheduler error—and ignoring evidence that shows the fraudulent scheduling practices were pervasive and consciously directed by higher-level executives.
“Every doctor, nurse, and clerk in the hospital knows it’s true, but the VA’s investigative team wasn’t able to find any evidence,” the clinician said. “They didn’t interview any of us or really try to find out what was going on. This was reported in 2011 and it’s still not fixed today.”
The Central Texas management parroted the inspector general’s findings when the hospital applied for a “Robert W. Carey Performance Excellence Award.” According to the clinician, in the hospitals award application they actually listed as an accomplishment that they had found “front line staff” incorrectly using desired dates in the scheduling process and fixed the problem. It must have been convincing. Despite the OIG investigation, the hospital won the award.«

Reports of scheduling fraud and wait time cover-ups kept coming after the 2012 inspector general report. Utilizing an internal message board for VA workers called “speak to the director,” at least two additional complaints were sent about scheduling. On August 6, 2012, only months after the IG investigation, an employee wrote, “We have been instructed by management to manipulate veterans into accepting appointments beyond the 14 days.”
Another letter, from March 2014—a month before Phoenix broke the VA scandal nationally—asks, “is the OIG aware of the fudging of numbers on the desired dates?” The employee then wonders if “this fraud is as well known by OIG as it is here in the clinic.”
What does it say that a VA hospital with this many complaints has not only avoided an accounting—but actually received awards?
“If one person comes up with a way to cheat on a report to the government and profit from that lie, that’s defrauding the government,” the whistleblower said. “If [hundreds] of people are defrauding the government, it’s a conspiracy, and that’s what you’ve got now and it runs coast to coast and bottom to top.”
Fixing the VA’s problems may require serious changes to the approach used so far.

According to IAVA’s Paul Rieckhoff, the allegations about the Texas VA “underscores how deep and broad the VA’s problems are and why we need serious independent investigations.” The current investigatons are not enough, Rieckhoff said. Having a White House political operative looking into this is not an adequate solution. This is not something that one of the president’s lieutenants should be handling.”
“There’s definitely reason to think there may have been criminal activity,” Rieckhoff said. “Maybe it’s time for Attorney Genral Holder and the Department of Justice to get involved, or for someone else trained to investigate criminal cases to take the lead on this.”

If you are a VA employee and have firsthand information about waiting lists, or other problems with patient care at the VA, we want to hear about it and can keep the details of your account confidential. Email your story to submissions@thedailybeast.com.Reports of scheduling fraud and wait time cover-ups kept coming after the 2012 inspector general report. Utilizing an internal message board for VA workers called “speak to the director,” at least two additional complaints were sent about scheduling. On August 6, 2012, only months after the IG investigation, an employee wrote, “We have been instructed by management to manipulate veterans into accepting appointments beyond the 14 days.”Another letter, from March 2014—a month before Phoenix broke the VA scandal nationally—asks, “is the OIG aware of the fudging of numbers on the desired dates?” The employee then wonders if “this fraud is as well known by OIG as it is here in the clinic.”What does it say that a VA hospital with this many complaints has not only avoided an accounting—but actually received awards?“If one person comes up with a way to cheat on a report to the government and profit from that lie, that’s defrauding the government,” the whistleblower said. “If [hundreds] of people are defrauding the government, it’s a conspiracy, and that’s what you’ve got now and it runs coast to coast and bottom to top.”Fixing the VA’s problems may require serious changes to

 the approach used so far.According to IAVA’s Paul Rieckhoff, the allegations about the Texas VA “underscores how deep and broad the VA’s problems are and why we need serious independent investigations.” The current investigatons are not enough, Rieckhoff said. Having a White House political operative looking into this is not an adequate solution. This is not something that one of the president’s lieutenants should be handling.”“There’s definitely reason to think there may have been criminal activity,” Rieckhoff said. “Maybe it’s time for Attorney Genral Holder and the Department of Justice to get involved, or for someone else trained to investigate criminal cases to take the lead on this.”

If you are a VA employee and have firsthand information about waiting lists, or other problems with patient care at the VA, we want to hear about it and can keep the details of your account confidential. Email your story to submissions@thedailybeast.com.

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The VA’s 2012 performance plan, provided to The Daily Beast by the whistleblower, contains five critical elements to evaluate success, each one containing multiple sub-criteria. But critical element No. 5, the “Results Driven” component that contains the “wait time” criteria, is worth 50% of the overall score. That’s as much as all the other elements combined.
And scoring high on the performance measures is of paramount consideration in a VA hospital. “This is what your bosses, the executives, are being evaluated for,” the whistleblower said. “So if you work for them you must support this because that’s how they’re prioritizing their evaluation of your job.”
The VA’s performance measures were originally established to provide uniform criteria for evaluating employees.  The idea was to use the grading system to reward those who met the standard with bonuses and identify those who were lagging behind. But over time, VA executives realized that the wait time numbers they reported were almost more important than anything else—including the actual care they provided veterans—in how they were judged by the VA’s leadership. At that point the measures became a perverse incentive, encouraging VA facilities across the country to hide problems by cheating their numbers. Eventually, cooking the books became an alarmingly regular procedure—a standard that might have remained if it hadn’t been exposed in Phoenix and unraveled over the past month.
COVER-UP?
The problems in the Central Texas VA system outlined here may be new to most readers, but they have been on the record for years. They are certainly no surprise to the VA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which has received multiple complaints about the facility and investigated it in 2011.

CA - REMINDER: Barry and Carol Ride - 2014 THIS SUNDAY

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Hi All,

 

Just a reminder that the BARRY & CAROL SANDBERG MEMORIAL RIDE is THIS SUNDAY!

 

Please gather at Mount Soledad by 1:00 PM THIS SUNDAY, 6/1/2014.

 

We will have a chance to get an update and then ride as a group in Barry & Carol’s Honor to San Diego Harley-Davidson @ 4645 Morena Blvd SD 92117THANKS to NY Myke who has once again sponsored the ride and BBQ at SDHD! Thanks much, NY!

 

Snowman and A.B.A.T.E of CA San Diego Local 06 will lead the ride!

 

PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL OUT AND PLEASE BRING YOUR FRIENDS

 

WE WILL NEVER FORGET!!!!!!!!!

 

Keep the faith & ride free!!!!

 

JD

 

 

Hi All!

 

The Memorial Ride for Barry & Carol Sandberg will be on SUNDAY JUNE 1st this year and we hope EVERYONE can make it! A.B.A.T.E. Local 06 will join us @ 1 pm. Barry & Carol are LIFETIME Members.

 

NY Myke is hosting a BBQ @ SDHD on Morena Blvd for all of us after we finish @ Mt. Soledad.

 

It has been 5 years now and we can assure everyone it is in no way a cold case. There are new leads still and we want to remind the public that there is a $51,000.00 reward!

 

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD AND THE FLYER!!!! PLEASE FORWARD TO YOUR FELLOW RIDERS!!!!

 

We have some better media connections this year and we really want to send a message out loud this time... FIVE YEARS!!!!

 

Thanks again to everyone for the continued support!

 

See you soon at the top of Mt. Soledad!

 

Ride free,

 

JD

Castle Doctrine is NOT Stand Your Ground!

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Kevin Michalowski
Don’t get confused. The Castle Doctrine is not Stand Your Ground. The laws are vastly different and if they apply in your state you need to review them and understand what you can and can’t do.
Just to make this perfectly clear, every state’s laws are subtly different from similar laws in other states. This is a general overview. Castle Doctrine applies in your home, if you are already inside. Stand Your Ground applies outdoors and only changes one element of the justification for the use of deadly force. They are vastly different. Watch the video for a more in-depth explanation. And then review the laws in your individual state.
Into the Fray, Episode 11: Castle Doctrine vs. Stand Your Ground



The Castle Doctrine is NOT Stand Your Ground. Make sure you know the difference. Watch this video for a quick overview.



http://youtu.be/sKql1wqKdMk



You need to know the difference in order to stay out of jail. If you can avoid a fight, please do. But at the very least, know your state laws.
Learn more about the castle doctrine and the ten mistakes of concealed carry by visiting:
http://www.ConcealedCarryTrainingVide...

If you want to stay out of jail, you need to know the difference between the Castle Doctrine and the Stand Your Ground laws. The cover very different circumstances, yet they are often confused. This brief overview will help you understand the differences, but be sure to check your state laws for specific information.

Rolling Thunder 2014

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agingrebel.com
About three thousand years ago a blind skald in what would eventually be called Greece began to recite two poems. The poems are now called the Iliad and the Odyssey. And, what Homer said remains relevant today because his stories are timelessly true. And, the most true thing Homer had to say might have been that fighting the war is only half the story. Because the second and more important of the two poems tells the tale of a hero’s perilous search for a long lost place called home.
Rolling Thunder, the big, loud veteran’s event in Washington this weekend, tells that story too. It is the latest incarnation of the tale of the veteran’s return. It began 27 years ago as a loud and pugnacious protest by war veterans who were both disprized and ignored. It was simply the statement made by an impossible to ignore pack of 2,500 Harleys riding to the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial – a black chevron carved into the northwest corner of The National Mall.

1988

The Wall itself was controversial in 1988. It had been defaced by self-righteous vandals who thought that the Vietnam War was a criminal act and that the Americans who fought there were criminals comparable to the Nazis’ who had murdered millions of innocents a generation before.
One of the speakers at the first Rolling Thunder, a veteran named Marshall Colt, felt compelled to apologize for the war he had not made and politely invited his countrymen to stop blaming him for his service. “I would like to thank our nation for gradually accepting Vietnam veterans and separating the war from the warriors and recognizing that Vietnam veterans honored a commitment to the country,” Colt said. Then, Colt thanked the mostly rough crowd that had ridden to The Wall.  “I am proud of the honorable intentions of you, my compatriots,” Colt said.
Rolling Thunder was mostly the idea of a man who rode in the big pack again this year. Ray Manzo, who was a Marine during the interesting years from 1967 through 1969, was confronted by the Vietnam Veterans Motorcycle Club with the reality that America had abandoned some of her prisoners of war in Vietnam. Manzo now remembers that after attending a VNVMC vigil he became determined to “make right a terrible wrong.”
In 1988, not every attendee of the first Rolling Thunder was as apologetic as Colt or as noble as Manzo. This event was, after all, a half a brigade of rough men with blood on their hands and anger in their hearts who rode in on one of the loudest personal vehicles America has ever made. One attendee called the rally by The Wall, “a show of strength.”
Rolling Thunder was a show of strength, It still is.

Display of Patriotism

But a couple of particularly stupid wars in the intervening years have transformed Rolling Thunder from a gathering of Vietnam Vets who just weren’t going to take draft dodger America’s bullshit anymore into what the Rolling Thunder website now calls “an emotional display of patriotism and respect for all who defend our country.” The man who has overseen this evolution is a Vietnam veteran named Artie Mueller. Mueller has given his life to Rolling Thunder. No one could have done a better job. The annual event, always held on the Sunday before Memorial Day, has become a parade of hundreds of thousands of motorcycles witnessed by hundreds of thousands of spectators.
It is, if nothing else, an annual reminder that fighting the war is only half the story and it is an annual source of annoyance for that class of Americans who stubbornly cling to a child’s view of war and its aftermath.
For example, last year one critic of the event wrote, “We have to admit a lack of comprehension regarding the link between motorcycles and tribute to the dead. We aren’t critical, just don’t understand it.”
Most objections are along the lines of: “It is Memorial Day Weekend, and that means hundreds of thousands of motorcyclists will come to the Washington, DC area to have a nice party. A nice party for them, and another peaceful Memorial Day ruined for thousands of residents and visitors who are forced to endure the hammeringly loud pipes and stinking fumes which have enveloped the city on this weekend for over 20 years.”
A visitor to the Lincoln Memorial, a stone’s throw from The Wall complained, “Apparently, Rolling Thunder takes over every Memorial Day weekend with their own brand of ‘honoring’ the fallen. So there I stood at the Lincoln Memorial, attempting to find the solemn attitude I should have when reading one of my favorite statements…. It was difficult.”

The Prairie Home View

The condescending draft dodger, and PBS America’s most honored humorist, Garrison Keillor wrote the definitive criticism of Rolling Thunder six years ago in an op-ed piece called “A Roar of Hollow Patriotism.”
“A patriotic bike rally is sort of like a patriotic toilet-papering or patriotic graffiti” Keillor wrote. “The patriotism somehow gets lost in the sheer irritation of the thing. Somehow a person associates Memorial Day with long moments of silence when you summon up mental images of men huddled together on LSTs and pilots revving up B-24s and infantrymen crouched behind piles of rubble steeling themselves for the next push.”
“You don’t quite see the connection between that and these fat men with ponytails on Harleys. After hearing a few thousand bikes go by, you think maybe we could airlift these gentlemen to Baghdad to show their support of the troops in a more tangible way. It took twenty minutes until a gap appeared and then a mob of us pedestrians flooded across the street and the parade of bikes had to stop for us, and on we went to show our patriotism by looking at exhibits at the Smithsonian or, in my case, hiking around the National Gallery, which, after you’ve watched a few thousand Harleys pass, seems like an outpost of civilization.”
Keillor suggested that the aging veterans and their supporters might become as informed on the subject of war as he by reading a few books.
“If anyone cared about the war dead,” the humorist advised, “they could go read David Halberstam’s The Coldest Winter: America and the Korean War or Stephen Ambrose’s Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany, June 7, 1944 to May 7, 1945 or any of a hundred other books, and they would get a vision of what it was like to face death for your country, but the bikers riding in formation are more interested in being seen than in learning anything. They are grown men playing soldier, making a great hullaballoo without exposing themselves to danger, other than getting drunk and falling off a bike.”
And, then Keillor compared the riders to the draft dodger who lived in the Whitehouse at the time. “No wonder the Current Occupant welcomed them with open arms at the White House, put on a black leather vest, and gave a manly speech about how he’d just ‘choppered in’ and saw the horde ‘cranking up their machines’ and he thanked them for being so patriotic. They are his kind of guys, full of bluster, giving off noxious fumes, and when they leave town, nobody misses them.”

Bush And Obama

One is reluctant to rise to the forty-third President’s defense about anything but in comparing him to Keillor it should be noted that at least George W. Bush had the decency to be ashamed of dodging the draft. At least the younger Bush gave Artie Mueller a few moments of his time each year which was, at least, an act of long overdue contrition and respect. And Bush’s photo opportunities stand in contrast to how Barack Obama has reacted to the annual protest, which is to stubbornly ignore it.
Obama usually flees Washington over the Sunday before Memorial Day. He avoids Artie Mueller and his litany of concerns and his half million followers like that. This Sunday the President fled all the way to Bagram Air Field in Afghanistan where he gave what sounded like a campaign speech. Rather than thanking America’s veterans for their service, rather than lamenting the cost of the nation’s overseas adventures, the Commander in Chief gave a big shout out to his active duty forces. “I’m here on a single mission and that is to thank you for your extraordinary service,” he said. And the crowd of mostly rear echelon troops went wild.
This month Obama has been photographed awarding Medals of Honor to long neglected heroes about once a week. A cynic might observe that these events are bullet proof acts of political theater. It would be very cynical to accuse our leader of trying to steal other men’s valor for himself.  But it is hard not to be cynical about our last three Presidents.

Shocked

President 44 has had a nasty image problem with the big issue of war veterans the last few weeks. As Captain Renault was “shocked! Shocked to find that gambling” was “going on in” Rick’s Café Américain in old Casablanca, President Obama has been shocked to learn that the Veterans Administration is mostly a racket for the benefit of the people who manage the Veterans Administration.
It seems mistakes have been made. Allegedly veterans have died while waiting to obtain appointments to request aid for their service connected ailments and disabilities. Just yesterday, in his weekly video press release the President declared, “In recent weeks, we’ve seen again how much more our nation has to do to make sure all our veterans get the care they deserve…. As Commander in Chief, I believe that taking care of our veterans and their families is a sacred obligation.”
And then he ran as far away as he could from Artie Mueller’s stubborn idealism, and his army of “fat men with ponytails on Harleys,” and their annoyingly loud protest.
Obama is, like the late and lamentable Woodrow Wilson, a college professor by trade and so he gives the impression of being expertly opinionated about everything. Somewhere in his scholarly adventures he must have run across Napoleon’s cynical observation that “A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of colored ribbon.” He has avoided actually articulating that sentiment during his Medal of Honor ceremonies this month but he has probably heard the phrase. He might even have heard how beautiful it sounds in French. Un soldat long et dur combat pour un peu de ruban de couleur.

Can You Hear Now

But even the best educated men have gaps in their knowledge so it would not be surprising if the President has somehow missed Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address, one of America’s great contributions to English language prose. At some point in their lives, almost everyone has heard the last bit of it which goes: “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan – to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.”
It is also possible that President Obama has run across Lincoln’s words and has simply not found much meaning in them. Jerry Lembcke’s historical revisionism aside, Rolling Thunder was born at a moment in American History just after the moment when it was considered virtuous to metaphorically and literally spit on combat veterans. If nothing else, Rolling Thunder and its constituents who rode in that pack as a “show of force” should have put a stop to that. Alas, it now seems that post draft America has become so alienated from the realities of war and its aftermath that veterans of our most recent wars are now spit on as a matter of national policy.
So these questions naturally arise: What if the problem with Rolling Thunder is something other than that the event is too loud? What if what is really wrong with Rolling Thunder is that it has not yet grown loud enough?

On Any Sunday to Film at 2014 Springfield Mile

OFF THE WIRE
Source: motorcycle-usa.com

. - For many people involved in or familiar with the sport of motorcycle racing, the 1971 film "On Any Sunday" ignited passion across the globe as it became one of the most iconic motorsports films ever produced. On April 19, 2013, Red Bull Media House, in association with Freeride Entertainment, began production on its follow up called, "On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter" at the Red Bull Grand Prix of the Americas in Austin, Texas. This coming weekend, Director Dana Brown will film parts of the highly anticipated documentary at the Illinois State Fairgrounds in Springfield, Ill. when the AMA Pro Flat Track Grand National Championship riders take to the track during Round 3. In 1971, director Bruce Brown's "On Any Sunday" changed the way the world viewed motorcycle racing. Now, more than 40 years later, Bruce's son, Dana Brown, is eager to give the same kind of insider look at motorcycle racing by sharing the heartfelt stories and passions of real-life riders.
" 'On Any Sunday' was a masterful film that captured the thrills and excitement of motorcycle riding back in the day and I can't wait to see the modern day take when it comes out this Fall," said Dan Johnsen, Director of AMA Pro Flat Track. "The movie is still a personal favorite of mine and I'm thrilled that Dana Brown has selected our series to be a part of the new documentary."
This news adds even more excitement to an already action-packed planned weekend at the Illinois State Fairgrounds this weekend. The riders of AMA Pro Flat Track will take to the track for the legendary Springfield Mile on May 25, 2014. For tickets and more information regarding the event, please visit www.illinoismda.com or call 217-753-8866 or 888-468-1622.
How to Watch FansChoice.tv will be the official home for live streaming coverage of AMA Pro Flat Track and AMA Pro Road Racing events in 2014. The site will also provide coverage of IMSA's development and single-make series, and NASCAR's touring and weekly series.
About AMA Pro Flat Track AMA Pro Flat Track is a national motorcycle racing series in North America and is considered one of the oldest forms of motorcycle racing. Sanctioned by AMA Pro Racing, the Series is highly regarded as the most competitive form of dirt track racing in the world. The 2014 schedule consists of 16 rounds on the country's finest flat track courses. For more information on AMA Pro Flat Track, please visit www.amaproracing.com/ft">www.amaproracing.com/ft.
About On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter In 1971, Bruce Brown's "On Any Sunday" opened in theatres and wrote its place in motorcycle history. It also transcended the sport to reach a wide audience through a cast of engaging characters and variety of heartfelt stories. Now Red Bull Media House, in association with Freeride Entertainment have teamed up with Bruce Brown's son and acclaimed filmmaker Dana Brown to continue this family tradition with "On Any Sunday, The Next Chapter". A lot has happened in the past 40 years, but the passion for riding is timeless and continues today. More info at OnAnySundayFilm.com.
AMA Pro Racing is the premier professional motorcycle racing organization in North America, operating a full schedule of events and championships for a variety of motorcycle disciplines. Learn more about AMA Pro Racing at www.amaproracing.com.