Free Republic

(Deroy Murdock, Headline USA) Democrats constantly crow about their faith in “the right to choose.” But this applies to little beyond abortion. Any woman who chooses to buy a gun or send her child to a charter school should expect “pro-choice” Democrats to stand in her way. Democrats crave control and uniformity, even when it comes to medical care for America’s veterans. Democrats want vets in the Department of Veterans Affairs, not getting cured in the private sector. Obama–Biden’s VA waitlist scandal found veterans dying before they could see their doctors. Donald J. Trump promised to fix this lethal mess....

KWTX) - Federal agents on Thursday raided three churches near military installations across the Southern U.S., including the Assembly of Prayer Christian Church in Killeen. “I can confirm the FBI was executing court authorized law enforcement activity today in the vicinity of the intersection of Massey St. and E. Rancier Ave., in Killeen, Texas. No additional information will be released at this time,” FBI Special Agent Carmen Portillo said in an emailed statement to KWTX.

Amid the chaos of the final US withdrawal from Afghanistan, commentators from across the political spectrum have lamented the abandonment of our Afghan allies, many of whom served critical roles in our military’s mission. Many have also reiterated the commitment to honor our veterans from the twenty-year Global War on Terror. resident Biden explicitly said as much in his address to the nation on August 31: “The cost of war they will carry with them their whole lives [sic].” Unfortunately, America has already abandoned its veterans—though not in the way most people may think. By any measure, we give more...

President Abraham Lincoln once said, “I am not concerned that you have fallen — I am concerned that you arise.” Like any large organization, the Department of Veterans Affairs has seen its share of problems. But under President Trump’s leadership, the VA is living up to Lincoln’s ideals by finding ways to fix those problems from past administrations. When we realized our claim-appeals process was complex and inefficient, we worked with veterans service organizations, Congress, and the president to draft and pass a new law designed to fix it and put veterans first. We launched a 24/7 White House VA...

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke released his new proposal to tax non-military families via Twitter on Monday. O’Rourke’s “war tax” would require American families who make over $200,000 a year to pay $1,000 for each war embarked on by the United States. Military families would be exempt from the tax. The tax “would serve as a reminder of the incredible sacrifice made by those who serve and their families,” the proposal reads. It does not specify the types of military engagement that would constitute a war under the tax. Funds from the "war tax" would be deposited into a veteran's...

Justice May Provide Redacted Portions of Rosenstein Mueller “Scope” Memo FBI Advised Comey to Consult with Mueller’s Office Prior to Testifying Judicial Watch Scores New Victory for 76-Year-Old Veteran Justice May Provide Redacted Portions of Rosenstein Mueller “Scope” Memo Judicial Watch is number one when it comes to providing independent oversight on what your government is up to – including the out-of-control Mueller investigation. The Justice Department has disclosed that it may soon provide us with previously withheld material from the heavily redacted August 2 memorandum in which Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein granted broad authority to Special Counsel Mueller...

Since President Trump ousted Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin, the question reverberating in Washington is whether Trump's new pick, Rear Adm. Ronny Jackson, is capable of heading a department with 360,000 employees and 9 million vets under its care. Senate Democrats carp he lacks experience running "a complex organization." Experience is overrated. President Obama's VA Secretary, Robert McDonald, failed miserably, despite having run Procter & Gamble. Vets died on phony wait lists on McDonald's watch. Jackson's last combat role was with a surgical shock trauma unit in Iraq. Sounds like good preparation for battling the killer VA bureaucracy. Jackson also...

What is the FBI Hiding in its War to Protect Comey? Judicial Watch Sponsors and Speaks at CPAC VA Secretary’s Chief of Staff Embroiled in Another Cover-Up Scandal What is the FBI Hiding in its War to Protect Comey? The coup attempt against President Trump is rapidly collapsing, but the deep state is still in cover-up mode. In an article for The Hill I discussed the FBI’s continuing protection of former Director James Comey and Judicial Watch’s efforts to penetrate the truth. As the James Comey saga continues to unfold, the James Comey legend continues to unravel. The more...

Let me start off by saying that I’m a hypocrite. I eat meat, love me a good steak and am damn good at cooking one, if I do say so myself. Same goes for pork, chicken, fish, if you can buy it in the grocery store, I’ll likely cook it and eat it. What does that have to do with me being a hypocrite? Well, I love animals, more so than a lot of people, and it bothers me when I hear of animals being mistreated, for any reason. My hypocrisy doesn’t end with just eating meat, in spite of...

An official at the same Los Angeles Veterans Administration facility where an Army vet got prosecuted for posting American Flags took hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes from a vendor that defrauded the VA out of millions. While the feds went on a witch hunt against the 75-year-old vet for affixing Old Glory at a site honoring those who served their country, the VA director was committing the real crime. This month the corrupt VA official, Ralph Tillman, agreed to plead guilty to two felony offenses for taking over a quarter of a million dollars in bribes from a...

Veterans group claims motto ‘symbolizes the agency’s resistance to gender equity’The VA is defending its motto this week against charges that it “symbolizes​ ​the agency’s​ ​resistance​ ​to​ ​gender​ ​equity.” A portion of Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address in 1865 has been deemed “sexist” as a VA motto by the nonprofit organization Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. The group wrote a letter to VA Secretary David Shulkin this week demanding a change, which it says would “better support women.” The motto in question, in place since 1959, reads: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for...

The man credited with killing Usama bin Laden has turned his attention from storming compounds in Abbottabad, Pakistan, to tweet storms like the one he launched against a White House spokeswoman on Wednesday, criticizing Deputy Press Secretary Sarah Sanders for her defense of the Veterans Affairs Administration – and even making the fight personal. O’Neill, a Fox News contributor, apparently got angry after Sanders, while castigating the media during a White House press briefing, lamented that reporters weren’t covering stories such as “the success at the VA.” “I just heard @SarahHuckabee talk about “successes” at the VA. PLEASE explain and...

To all my fellow veterans, I'm about to tip a sacred cow here. I would ask that for the sake of our many fellow warriors who need relief ASAP, please read this with an open mind and a willingness to offer tweaks, embellishments or outright different approaches:Many of us can agree that the Veterans Administration has done a less-than-stellar job in delivering timely, high-quality and cost-effective medical care, especially when it comes to "wait times," for veterans injured serving this great nation. However, there is one piece of good news in this situation: The American public is outraged and sincerely...

Scott Brown is being considered for Veterans Affairs secretary — a position the former Massachusetts Republican senator says he would accept if offered. “The VA is in trouble. Soldiers are dying while waiting, employee morale is low and it needs to be fixed,” Brown told The Post in an email. “Having served for 35 years in military, last 4 years at Pentagon, serving on Armed Services, Veterans and working on these issues for decades, it would be a great challenge to fix and a great honor to serve if asked. Time will tell,” he added. Brown, who moved a couple...

After a national wait time scandal, it was supposed to be a program that helped veterans get access to faster, more convenient medical care. However, the I-Team discovered the Veterans Choice program implemented at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is fraught with issues. Some of the problems include a confusing appointment process, health care providers not getting paid, and veterans being harassed by bill collectors. Treatment approved, then denied When Stephen DuLong needs to see a doctor, he usually makes the trip from his home in Onset, Mass. up to a VA facility in Boston. But last summer, the...

What does a suffering military veteran have to do to force an unresponsive government to change its ways? How about self-immolating in front of his VA clinic? Hello, paper-pushers and desk jockeys? Are you there? Would the heat, the smoke and the smell of burning flesh rouse you in the least? Nope. Apparently, even this horror is not enough to move the inert bureaucrats at the Department of Veterans Affairs -- let alone the indifferent tango dancer-in-chief. While President Obama sashayed in Buenos Aires two weeks ago, proud Navy veteran Charles Richard Ingram III, 51, made his last life's journey....

How many more of these stories are out there waiting to be told? The Daily Caller has struck again in their ongoing investigation of corruption at the VA, as well as the impossibility of getting rid of anyone who is failing at their job, incompetent or simply breaking the law. This time it’s a story which dates back to 2013. The head of the St. Louis Department of Veterans Affairs hospital at that time was one Rima Nelson. Things didn’t go so well with Rima in charge, and by “not so well” I mean that 1,800 patients were potentially exposed...

Missouri University: They should have been treated as a child would have been treated The Internet today has been simply aflame with stories and articles about the complete meltdown of sanity at Missouri University (or Mizzou if you prefer) over one of the precious students finding themselves offended by something. Sadly, however, exactly what it was that offended the students was rather elusive. On the other hand, their response to these alleged offenses was utterly evident. For our convenience, the best organized of the student protesters drafted a list of demands, including the termination of the university’s president, which they...

Senate Democrats launched a third consecutive filibuster of the bipartisan defense appropriations bill yesterday, once again blocking consideration of legislation that would fund the United States military and pay members of our armed forces. Yes, it's okay to be thoroughly perplexed by this development. Remember, the ostensible reason that Democrats have engaged in this obstruction over recent months -- which also entailed filibustering the Veterans Affairs appropriations bill -- was to exploit the troops and veterans as leverage to force Republicans to agree to higher federal spending on unrelated matters. It was a cynical play, but thanks in part to President Obama's hyper-partisan veto, it...

It’s a rare day when we have a story about the Veterans Administration which winds up focusing on some good news. No… before you get your hopes up, the agency has not been fixed. But there is at least one small sliver of justice coming down the pike which might begin to make the entire ordeal seem worth the battles involved. It seems that the people who blew the whistle on the agency’s corrupt, failed practices and were later punished for doing so are getting some measure of restitution for their trials. (From the WaPo) These whistleblowers have now been...