-are-20140520
Wait for it...It's Bush's fault.
News quiz: President Obama and his communications team hope that Americans
are: 1) Dumb; 2) Distracted; 3) Numb to government inefficiency; 4) All of
above.
Answer: 4, all of the above.
That answer along with utter incompetence are the best explanations for why
the White House thought it could get away with claiming that the departure
of Veterans Affairs official Robert Petzel was a step toward accountability
for its scandalous treatment of war veterans.
Fact is, the department announced in 2013 that Dr. Petzel would retire this
year.
"Well, Secretary Shinseki accepted Dr. Petzel's resignation this afternoon.
He was due to retire early next month, and obviously there has been a
nomination made for his replacement," White House Chief of Staff Dennis
McDonough told CBS's Major Garrett last week. "I leave to Rick the
explanation of his decision, but there is no question that this is a
termination of his job there before he was planning to go."
No. This was neither a termination nor a housecleaning. It was a
scapegoating. For all of its 21st-century savvy in the field of campaign
technology, the Obama White House has repeatedly proven that its
communications philosophy is stuck in the 20th century. Before the Internet
gave voters instantaneous access to information, including every public
utterance of the president and his team, White House strategists could hope
to wear out the truth: If you said a lie enough, people might believe it.
It's harder to BS the public these days. White House press secretary Jay
Carney still tries. On Monday, he repeatedly suggested that the American
Legion had praised the move.
"The American Legion said that the group looks at Petzel's resignation as a,
quote, step towards addressing the leadership problem at the VA. So I think
that undercuts the assertion that that is not a meaningful development."
Carney cited the American Legion nine times during the briefing.
Unfortunately for Carney and his boss, ABC's intrepid White House
correspondent Jonathan Karl has access to the Internet. "It turns out,
however, the American Legion had issued a statement dismissing the
resignation as 'business as usual,' " Karl wrote.
The statement calls for the removal of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, whose
firing would actually be a measure of accountability. Writes Karl:
When asked about the discrepancy, the White House pointed ABC News to
articles in The Washington Times and USA Today that posted on Friday and
quoted American Legion officials calling the resignation a "step towards
addressing the leadership problem at the VA."
The official quoted, spokesman John Raughter, acknowledged saying it was a
step forward but not much of a step.
"It was a small step," Raughter told ABC News. "It was going to happen
anyway. So, I suppose it was better than if he had stayed on the job."
Was Raughter suggesting the problems at the VA had been addressed in a
significant way?
"Not at all," he said. "We feel there is a cultural change that needs to be
made."
In Obama's defense, he inherited a dysfunctional VA, and the agency has been
overwhelmed by veterans returning from two wars he is winding down. But he
pledged to reform the VA after blasting the Bush administration in 2007.
Instead of getting better, the health care bureaucracy has worsened and
become corrupted. Long delays are covered up and veterans are dying while
awaiting care.
"It's a policy travesty magnified by an insulting public relations
strategy."
The mask of compassion slips again...Let's face it, the Lefties who run our
country would really prefer that those crabby old drunken veterans just pass
away. For all their outward displays of caring about everything and
everyone, Leftists really view human beings as a liability rather than an
asset. Just another mouth to feed, and another anus to clean up after, one
that despoils the Earth goddess. The Lefties certainly don't see veterans as
an asset and a source of support for their agenda.
By Epictetus
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