This ain't Hell, but you can see it from here

Category: “Your Tax Dollars At Work”

  • About that “Influx of Children” on the Border. . . .

    Last Friday, the Federal government released some data regarding the recent upturn in illegal immigration. Were I a cynic, I might say that the timing was chosen to obscure the story – since the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was the big item that day. And it was released on a Friday afternoon , which is traditionally when data that is unflattering to the US Administration at the time has been released (less chance of coverage over the weekend).

    The data that was released is . . . interesting.

    The Federal government and the media has routinely characterized this latest round of illegal immigration as being “children”. And in truth, the number of minors unlawfully immigrating without an accompanying adult has indeed roughly doubled – to 57,525 over the last nine months.

    However, buried in the data are two facts that prove the characterization above wrong. First: over the same period , the number of persons unlawfully immigrating in family units (child plus one or both parents) has quintupled – e.g., increased fivefold. That total was 55,420.

    In other words:  a smaller percentage of those immigrating unlawfully today are unaccompanied minors than was the case nine months ago.

    The second nugget: the majority of those so-called “children” . . . really aren’t children in anything but the legal sense. Rather, most are youngsters aged 14-17.  If they were here legally, some of them would be old enough to serve in the military if otherwise qualified.

    They’re often not coming here to “reunite with their family”, either. When asked, many make no bones about the fact that they’re coming to the US illegally to look for work.

    And don’t even try the bogus claim that they’re “victims of human trafficking”. They’re coming after either they or relatives pay a coyote to bring them to the US illegally.

    We must act “in the best interests of the children.”  Yeah, right.  So much for the Administration leveling with the US public about what’s going on here.

    Yeah,  they’re p!ssing on our leg and telling us it’s raining yet again.  But given what we’ve seen from the “the most transparent Administration in history” so far –did you really expect anything else?

    These folks are starting to make LBJ and Nixon both look truthful by comparison.

  • Dare to Criticize the POTUS, Get Investigated by DoJ

    Seriously.

    DOJ investigates Nebraska parade float critical of Obama

    So much for that pesky “free speech” concept.  I guess to some folks, free speech means, “Free for me – but not for thee.”  I guess the same holds true regarding that little oath taken to “. . . preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States . . . “, too.

  • A Slightly Late Appointment

    Doug Chase was a Vietnam vet.  Unfortunately, in 2011 he became seriously ill.

    He lived in the greater Boston metro area.  Originally, he was being seen by doctors  in Boston.  But the Bedford VAMC was closer, so he tried to move his care to that facility.

    That request was made in 2012.

    Two weeks ago, Chase got a notice from the VA telling him he could schedule an appointment with a primary care physician.  There was just one problem.

    Chase had died in August 2012 – nearly two years ago.

    It gets even better.  When Chase died, his wife applied for VA funeral benefits.  The application was denied – according to his wife, because he’d never been treated at a VA hospital.

    There’s more info at the link.  It’s worth reading – unless you’re having blood pressure or anger-management issues today.

    It’s not a resource problem at the VA, folks.  And it’s not a medical problem, either.

    It’s a priorities, culture, and management problem.

  • So, Progressives Are the “Friends of the Little Guy”, Eh?

    The    Communist     Socialist     Leftist     “Progressive” end of the political spectrum likes to advertise itself as being the champions of the “little guy”. Progressive politicians love to make a big deal of their “regular guy” roots, and how much their policies supposedly “help” the middle class and below.

    So, the recent Administration ‘s policies – nothing if not “Progressive” – must have really helped the “little guy” over the past 5+ years, right? I mean, that’s what they’re supposedly all about:  helping the little guy get a “fair deal”.

    Turns out that simply doesn’t seem to be the case.  In fact, hard data shows that the policies of the current “Progressive” regime has benefited the wealthy to the exclusion of most others – as has been documented by a study conducted by the University of Michigan.

    In 2007, the top 5% averaged 16.5 times the wealth of the US median household. So after 5 years of our current regime’s “Progressive” policies, that gap should have narrowed somewhat.

    Well, not exactly. Today, the top 5% now have on average 24 times the wealth of the US median household.

    It’s even better. Home ownership is down by nearly 6.4%. Over one third of homeowners now cannot afford to sell their home if they want to – either because they owe more than it’s worth, or because they have so little equity it won’t cover closing and a down payment on another home.

    The “Great Recession” hurt all Americans. But under the current Progressive Regime, only the wealthy have really recovered. Everyone else is still sucking wind today – bigtime.

    So much for “Progressive” claims that the other party is the “party of the rich”.  The “Progressives” have finally embraced the theory of “trickle down”.

    Except today they’re doing it on our legs, and what’s “trickling down” to our shoes and socks isn’t rain.

  • In Case You Needed More Proof That Acadamia Is Biased Against the Military . . .

    . . . look no further than this little “gem” from Bronx Community College. The linked article discusses a take-home final exam for an English course at BCC, worth 40% of the course grade.

    Fair warning: reading the linked article will likely p!ss you off bigtime. It certainly did me – although it didn’t much surprise me.

    Just in case anyone was wondering:  the best I can determine, the text “Namaste! Asalaamu Aleicum!” which appears at the bottom of the take-home exam is apparently the Hindi and Arabic equivalents of “Good-day!”  Not sure just how that fits into an English course at a college in the Bronx, exactly, but there it is.

    Oh, and if the name “Bronx Community College” seems to ring a bell in the anti-military context . . . it should.  Michelle Malkin documented groups of students from that particular college harassing military recruiters multiple times during March-April 2005 here.

    I’m guessing they still let vets use their GI Bill to attend, though.  After all:  money is money – and we all know how Academia steadfastly sticks to its principles whenever a dollar can be had.

     

    Hat-tip to Havoc13 and RangerUp for the original story.

  • Publick Ejukashun Inn Shikahgo

    Here’s what appears to be a photo of a prom invitation for a Chicago-area high school, Paul Robeson High School:

     

     

    Sad. Just freaking sad.

    But what’s sadder even than that is the fact that the average salary for teachers in the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) system is approx $76,000 per year. Seriously.

    The average household income in the city of Chicago? It’s barely $46,400. And in the area where Paul Robeson High is located, it’s lower (it’s in a poor area with high unemployment).

    Oh, and did I mention that the teachers in the CPS got raises totaling 17% over the last 3 years, courtesy of their 2012 contract negotiations?

    Further:  4 of 10 entering CPS freshmen never graduate from high school. Yeah, not all of that is on the schools.  But a 40% dropout rate, system-wide?  Really?

    I guess those teachers are really earning their pay in CPS.

    “I work for the union
    ‘Cause she’s so good to me . . .”

     

    (Edited to add:  bonus points for anyone who IDs the musical reference in the quote at the end of the article. [smile])

  • Maybe It’s Time for This Program to End

    The military services formerly sponsored auto racing as a recruiting tool.  In particular, they used to sponsor NASCAR racing.

    But in some years ago the Army, Navy, and Coast Guard all cut their ties with NASCAR.  Their sponsorship programs were expensive, and the services felt they simply weren’t getting sufficient benefit from the money spent to justify continuing the programs.

    For some reason, the National Guard didn’t.  They retained their NASCAR sponsorship program.

    The National Guard spent approximately $88 million from 2011 to 2013 to sponsor NASCAR teams.  An additional $38 million was spent to sponsor Indy car racing.

    So, how did that work out?

    Detailed numbers are available for 2012.  That year, the National Guard spend $26.5 on it’s NASCAR sponsorship.  From that, they got approximately 24,800 contacts who indicated the NASCAR connection prompted them to seek more information about signing up.

    Of those 24,800, how many even qualified to enlist?  20.

    None did.

    In 2013, the number of contacts showing NASCAR as what prompted them to inquire about enlisting dropped to about 7,500.

    The Army Times has an article with more details.

    Maybe it’s time to end this program and use the resources elsewhere.  It just doesn’t seem to be be working worth a damn.

  • More Info From that VA OIG Report on the Phoenix VAMC

    Jonn’s written an article already today about the VA Office of the Inspector General (OIG) and their report on the Phoenix VAMC released yesterday.  Here’s a few additional details from the VA’s OIG interim report.

    • Average waiting time for first appointment, as reported by the VA Hospital in Phoenix:  24 days, based on a “statistical sample of 226 veterans”, with 43% waiting longer than 14 days
    • Average waiting time for first appointment, actual:  115 days (same sample of 226 veterans), with approx 84% waiting longer than 14 days
    • Number of vets on the Phoenix VAMC “official” electronic waiting list:  1,400
    • Number of vets found to have been waiting for care but not on any  official electronic waiting list – e.g., that “secret waiting list” that Jonn mentioned in his article: 1,700

    In case you were wondering:  the “secret list” was over 20% larger than the official electronic waiting list.  Pretty neat, eh?

    Also:  it seems like “waiting time” reported to DC only started when someone went on the “official” electronic waiting list.  So, yeah – I think there just might have been something shady going on.

    If you’re interested, here is interim VA OIG report.  Only about 30 pages total, so if you want to look it over it shouldn’t take that long.