BREAKING NEWS: The VA Inspector General has released an interim report on the Phoenix VA health system. It found that more than 1,700 veterans were not included in the facilities records, and that patients were waiting at least 115 days for first appointments. Moreover, the report declared that "inappropriate scheduling practices are a systemic problem nationwide."
The Energy Prevention Agency
For decades economists, politicians, pundits, union leaders and many workers have lamented the decline of America's manufacturing base. There is a lot that has contributed to the loss of these industries and the jobs they supported. But in recent years, there was hope of an industrial renaissance in America led by cheap energy.
That may not be the case for much longer. The EPA is preparing to unveil new cap and trade regulations next week. The details are murky, but the Chamber of Commerce released an economic impact study today based on ideas under consideration within the Obama Administration.
It estimates that more than one-third of coal power plants could be forced to shut down, eliminating 224,000 jobs and costing the economy $50 billion a year. The Wall Street Journal notes coal is "the cheapest and most plentiful source for power, providing 40% of the nation's electricity." But the EPA seems determined to eliminate that cheap and plentiful source of energy.
Cap and trade is such a radical idea that it failed to pass in 2010 when Democrats had a super-majority in the Senate. Now the left is attempting to impose through regulation what it could not achieve through legislation.
Why? Because liberals have the audacity to believe that they can control the weather and stop global warming. In reality, it is about controlling you, and it's far more likely to slam the breaks on economic growth. And you don't have to take my word for it.
Rep. John Dingell (D-MI) once admitted that a carbon cap and trade scheme was "a great big tax." Warren Buffett has called cap and trade a "huge tax" and a "regressive tax," meaning it hurts the poor the most.
What might such a huge and regressive tax look like? Skyrocketing utility bills. Barack Obama promised that under his cap and trade plan "electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket" and it would also "bankrupt the coal industry." Food prices could skyrocket too. And gas prices could double to $7.00 a gallon.
Jerusalem Day
Today is Jerusalem Day and Israelis are celebrating the reunification of Jerusalem. Before 1967, east Jerusalem was under the jurisdiction of Jordan. Jews and others were denied access to their most holy sites, including the Western Wall.
Of course, jihadists all over the region routinely announce that their goal is to again divide Jerusalem in half and, ultimately, for a united Jerusalem to serve as the capital of a new Palestinian state.
The Obama Administration has made it clear that it wants to divide Jerusalem. Why else would it object when the Israeli government builds homes for Israelis in eastern Jerusalem?
As celebrations began last night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made his views clear on this yet again. Speaking at the Mercaz Harav Yeshiva, the prime minister said:
"Jerusalem is Yad Vashem, Jerusalem is Herzl's burial place and the Mount of Olives… Jerusalem is also Mount Zion and Mount Moriah and the Western Wall, Jerusalem is Israel's eternity, it is our heart, and we are guarding our heart -- the heart of the nation. We will never divide our heart."
We encourage Prime Minister Netanyahu to stand strong. If only our leaders shared his courage.
How is it that our president, secretary of state and left-wing groups like J Street, which claim to be pro-Israel, support a position that would force a future Israeli government to once again divide Jerusalem? If that happened, the whole world would see the likes of Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and Al Qaeda dancing in the streets of the holy city.
How can anyone not understand that, far from bringing peace, such a spectacle would only convince the Islamists that Allah is more powerful and reinforce their desire to drive every Jew out of the entire region?
Thousands of years ago, Solomon understood that if you loved a baby you couldn't cut it in half. Prime Minister Netanyahu understands that the same wisdom applies to Jerusalem today.
A Christian Abortionist?
There is something about late-term abortion that muddles moral reasoning. Kermit Gosnell, who performed late-term abortions in Pennsylvania, saved parts of the babies he dismembered and displayed them in jars. Now comes a story from Think Progress, a left-wing publication, praising late-term abortionist Willie Parker, who regularly flies from Chicago to Mississippi's last remaining abortion facility.
Why is Think Progress so enthralled with Dr. Parker? Unbelievably, Dr. Parker cites "Christian compassion" as the reason he performs late-term abortions.
Performing abortions, Dr. Parker claims, "became this conviction of compassion in a spiritual sense of the deepest level of love that you can have for another person, that you can have compassion for their suffering and you can act to relieve it."
Perhaps Dr. Parker missed a few verses in the Bible. How about Exodus 20:13? "You shall not murder." There's Deuteronomy 30:19, "… I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."
Moreover, he insists that he was inspired by a sermon on the good Samaritan by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. That is certainly a bizarre twist on a parable about helping those in need.
There is particular irony that Dr. Parker not only tries to drag God into his death dealing business, but that he tries to drag Dr. King into it too. Dr. King certainly believed in non-violence and there is nothing more violent than going after an innocent, unborn child in the womb.
There is added irony in that this abortionist is claiming that Dr. King would support something that is literally killing large numbers of black children. In 2012 more black babies were destroyed by abortion than were born in New York City.
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