A veteran with diabetes and poor circulation checked into the Memphis VA Medical Center for a scan and possible repair of blood vessels in his right leg last year, but he ended up with a piece of plastic packaging that VA providers had mistakenly embedded in a critical artery.

Doctors didn’t discover the 10 inches of tubing — used by manufacturers to protect catheters during shipping and handling — until the veteran had to have the leg amputated three weeks later.

When they cut into his leg, they found a 3-inch segment, and after the procedure, they found another 7 inches in the amputated limb.

The error is one of a litany of patient safety issues at the Memphis hospital in recent years chronicled in a trove of internal documents obtained by the USA TODAY Network that provide a revealing glimpse of one of the worst of 168 VA hospitals in the country.

The hospital is one of only four on which the VA’s top health official, acting Under Secretary for Health Poonam Alaigh, requested weekly briefings, according to the documents. (Read more from “Botched Surgery, Delayed Diagnosis at a One-Star ‘House of Horrors’ va Hospital” HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/09/botched-surgery-delayed-diagnosis-one-star-house-horrors-va-ho

The mainstream media have warned of a Russian network of trolls and botnets laboring around the clock from websites and social media accounts to disrupt and distort American democracy. It’s jarring to see the Left preoccupied with Russian subversion after they spent most of the last three generations mocking us for seeing “a commie under every bed.”

Leftists defended Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and Alger Hiss to the bitter end. They idolized Army lawyer Joseph N. Welch after he famously interrupted Sen. Joseph McCarthy on national television to denounce him and prevent further questioning about Communists in the Department of the Army. In fact, Otto Preminger later cast Welch in a Hollywood movie, and he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Golden Globe. (The Left takes care of its own.)

They played nice with Fidel Castro after he betrayed the democratic revolution in Cuba, and they hung Che Guevara posters in their dorm rooms. They greased the skids for Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua. And eventually they thrust Barack Obama, who promised a geopolitical reset with Russia, into the White House.

But they are nothing if not agile. Their self-exculpation knows no limits. They have an excuse for everything, and in this case it is a variation of the Southern Strategy excuse: the Russians used to be bad guys in the good Party; then, after a perceived trauma, they migrated into the bad party. So now they’re racist, xenophobic, homophobic, Islamophobic and misogynistic just like us Conservatives.

What are the current accusations against Russia? So far as I know, nobody has accused them of hacking into the vote-counting apparatus. The accusation is that they influenced U.S. public opinion improperly in two ways. First, by telling lies – fake news, in other words.

It seems odd for somebody to complain about fake news now if they relied on comedians like Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert to inform them during the Bush and Obama administrations. They were perfectly satisfied with policy discourse that consisted of one-liners, exaggerations and cheap shots for years. Then they got a taste of their own medicine from Donald Trump, and began to shriek of their sober integrity. It’s a little late for that now.

Has public discourse been cheapened and coarsened? Of course. But Democrats started it and benefited from it. My former U.S. Senator Harry Reid was unrepentant about lying in 2012 that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid taxes in a decade. In a CNN interview, he shrugged off the documents that disproved his accusation: “Romney didn’t win, did he?” Reid later told the Washington Post “it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done.”

The Post reporter asked him if there was a line he wouldn’t cross in his partisan battles. “I don’t know what that line would be,” the Democrat replied. And neither do his comrades in the Democratic caucus.

What Liberals demand of conservatives is an asymmetrical civility, unilateral honor, with no implicit reciprocal obligation that Liberals will likewise restrain themselves. They routinely call conservatives racist, for example, for the slightest insensitivity or slip-up in racial etiquette. Yet they can spout the crudest racial slurs about Condoleezza Rice or Stacey Dash with impunity, safe from even the faintest censure by fellow Liberals.

One thing Republicans and Reagan Democrats liked about Trump was that he didn’t roll over for the self-serving, self-appointed arbiters of civility. It had simply become too corrupt. The demand for asymmetrical civility had become just another weapon in the arsenal of hyper-partisan, poorly raised Liberals.

We only get one nominee every four years. With Dole, McCain and Romney, we got gentlemen who had no stomach for the fight. They were just too comfortable losing to Democrats, too easily consoled. When I saw Bill Clinton on television hanging some kind of good citizen’s medal on Bob Dole at the White House, I felt betrayed. Trump made me wince, yes. But at last we had a nominee who would go down swinging. We needed a gut fighter, and we finally had one in this contentious New Yorker.

I do hope the president will work on being consistently truthful. You’re only as good as your most recent syllable. You may tell the most profound truths, you may be the most courageous truth-teller when the chips are down, but you can discredit all that with petty, impulsive or careless lies. Please don’t do that.

I’m against lies, which brings me to the second way the Russians are accused of improperly influencing U.S. public opinion: they told the truth. That is, they publicized emails that Clinton Democrats didn’t want voters to know about. The Russians deprived them of the freedom to lie, or to continue lying.

Hillary Clinton probably would have had no WikiLeaks problem if she had been conscientious about secure communications. Even if Russian hackers nevertheless penetrated her encryption, it would have been less embarrassing, less of a bombshell, if she had just dealt honestly with Congress. She has no sacrosanct privilege to lie to Congress, to destroy evidence under subpoena, or to deal slothfully with sensitive information.

Liberals have expressed no anger at the Russians for hacking into poorly secured emails. That’s just standard spycraft. We’re almost certainly doing it to the Russians, too. What outrages Liberals is that Russians gave American voters the same information Putin and his allied ayatollahs had access to. It was too good for Americans: information that proved Clinton Democrats’ sleaze and abuse of authority. Getting huffy with Trump and the Russians is mostly an attempt to change the subject.

The discovery that more than 6,000 people used out-of-state driver’s licenses to vote in New Hampshire last November bolsters Donald Trump’s claim he lost the state because thousands of Massachusetts residents came in to vote.

Trump claimed in February that out-of-state voters tipped the New Hampshire election, both against him and incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte. The Boston Globe at the time dismissed his allegation as “groundless.”

But the vast majority of the 6,000 voters have neither obtained an in-state license nor registered a motor vehicle since the November vote, according to an inquiry by Republican Speaker of the New Hampshire House Shawn Jasper, the Washington Times reported.

Hillary Clinton defeated Trump in New Hampshire by 2,736 votes while Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan defeated Ayotte by 1,017 votes.

The records from the Department of State, which oversees elections, and the Department of Safety show 6,540 people voted using out-of-state licenses. But as of Aug. 30, only 1014, about 15 percent, had been issued New Hampshire driver’s licenses. (Read more from “New Evidence Backs Trump’s Vote Fraud Claim” HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/09/new-evidence-backs-trumps-vote-fraud-claim/

North Korea said nuclear tests are “gift packages” to the United States and that more will follow.

Han Tae Song, the ambassador of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to the UN in Geneva, made the comment during a UN-sponsored Conference on Disarmament today.

The warning comes two days after his country detonated its sixth and largest nuclear test.

“The recent self-defence measures by my country, DPRK, are a gift package addressed to none other than the US,” Han told the Geneva forum.

“The US will receive more gift packages from my country as long as its relies on reckless provocations and futile attempts to put pressure on the DPRK.” (Read more from “North Korea Says Nuclear Tests Are ‘Gift Packages for the US’ and Warns More Will Follow” HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/09/north-korea-says-nuclear-tests-gift-packages-us-warns-will-follow

Although the entirety of the Western corporate media machine is worthy of the name “Fake News,” CNN has become the standard bearer of the title. It seems that the organization is doing everything in its power to earn its position as the tip of the spear in the army of “fake news.” Indeed, it is scarcely possible to keep up with the lies, deceit, and half-truths CNN presents to the general public on a daily basis. Occasionally, however, one instance stands out so much that it cannot be allowed to slip by without being addressed.

Back in 2016, as Aleppo was the scene of a fierce battle between America’s terrorist forces and the Syrian military, CNN broadcasted a report from Jibrin, Syria where it purported to show the sad state of civilians fleeing the war that had come to Aleppo. The clip shows two Syrians – one young boy and an older man – who are telling the reporter about their situation.

The CNN reporter predictably attributes the horrors facing the civilians as a result of the eastern part of Aleppo “being under siege by the Syrian military,” not the fact that terrorists had seized east Aleppo and were fighting to the death to keep it. Still he quotes an older man who paints a less than typical CNN-style portrayal of the “rebels.” The man says, “I wanted to leave with my kids fifteen days ago but the rebels shot at me and said ‘Hey you bastard! Do you want to join the regime?’”

The only thing surprising about the man’s statement was that it was actually aired on CNN.

However, the most interesting aspect of the report is what was attributed to the young boy whom CNN quotes as saying, “We were afraid that we would starve to death. We were also scared because heavy bombs were falling.”

This quote makes the boy seem as if he is worried because of the Syrian military’s bombs. However, the translation is not only inaccurate, the second half is completely fabricated. The boy’s actual statement is “We were afraid that we would starve to death. We were afraid that we would starve to death.” Even to a non-Arabic speaker, one can clearly hear that the boy is merely repeating his first statement a second time. He says nothing about bombs. CNN simply added it to the translation for political and propaganda purposes.

While civilians on the ground were no doubt worried about the bombs of the Syrian military (bombs kill regardless of who drops them) they were even more afraid of living under the unimaginable tyranny of America’s terrorists. Still, CNN has gone much further than simply bending the truth to fit a narrative, it has obviously told a complete and total lie. It has put words in the mouths of its interview subjects and passed it off as the truth. At best, this is a violation of journalistic ethics. More realistic, however, it is an act of willful deceit and an attempt to mold the minds of the general public for political purposes.

At this point, CNN cannot be taken seriously as even a second rate news organization. It is clearly nothing more than a propaganda mouthpiece for State Department and other interests. Unfortunately for CNN, even operating as a propaganda organ, it is only second rate. (For more from the author of “CNN Caught Creating Fake News Again: Adding Words to Syrian Witness’ Statement to Fit Western Narrative” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/09/cnn-caught-creating-fake-news-adding-words-syrian-witness-state

It’s looking likely that a school choice bill passed by the Arizona legislature and signed by Republican Gov. Doug Ducey will ultimately be decided by voters in 2018.

Senate Bill 1431, a measure that expands eligibility for students to enroll in a school-voucher program, was passed in April. The bill makes all 1.1 million Arizona students eligible to apply for the state’s Empowerment Scholarship Account (ESA) — a program in which students in public schools can use a voucher to attend a school of their choice, be it public or private.

Previously, only a select group of students in Arizona were eligible to apply, such as children with disabilities or students enrolled in under-performing schools. The ESA program now gives eligibility to all Arizona students, but it caps actual enrollment to 30,000.

After its passage in the state legislature, however, opposition groups garnered more than enough signatures to block its implementation.

Save Our Schools, an organization formed in resistance to the bill, collected 111,540 signatures to force Senate Bill 1431 to the ballot box. Only 75,321 valid signatures were needed.

Implementation of the measure has been put on hold as the secretary of state’s office checks the validity of the signatures. If the office finds that there are enough valid signatures (which is likely, given the high number submitted), the expansion of the program will be left for voters to decide next year.

Opponents argue the Arizona school system is already underfunded — the state historically ranks very low in terms of student performance — and an expansion of ESA would only siphon more money away from cash-starved schools.

“The fundamental argument is that we’re not adequately funding the education system that we have, that the vast majority of families are using. So let’s not create another way of cutting into that funding until we’ve solved that,” said Dawn Penich Thacker, the communications director of Save Our Schools Arizona.

Thacker spoke to Western Journalism about why her group is against the expansion of ESA and what needs to be done to fix the Arizona school system.

“Our main issue was that this was not a collaborative process. One movement got to have its say. So Save Our Schools Arizona wants to back away from that, put it to the voters and then say ‘let’s start over.’ What will help education in Arizona? It will probably be a hybrid of things. It will probably be a mix of choice options, public education and who knows what else. But let’s have that conversation,” she said.

“It’s hard to improve if you’re broke. Our schools are no different.”

Thacker pointed out that despite Arizona families having “choice” options, the vast majority of them choose public schools for their children. She believes if the bill is put into the hands of voters, they will ultimately choose to vote down an expansion of ESA.

“Voters want a strong education system that is built in. Ninety-five percent of Arizona families, even though we are a choice state, are still choosing public options.”

Thacker said she was caught off guard by the amount of private and home school family volunteers petitioning against ESA expansion.

These unlikely opponents of the measure told her that its implementation would lead to the type of regulation that they tried to get away from in the public system. Accepting voucher money from the government would, in their eyes, eventually take away choice.

They believe this particular law would take away the freedom that they get with current school choice options.

“Whenever you take something from the government, there are going to be strings attached,” Thacker warned.

But there are many supporters of ESA expansion who do not see it this way.

“The number of dollars that would be affected by this change, while it’s an important change, is still pretty narrow. This is almost a pilot program. It’s capped at just a few thousand kids who are going to be able to take advantage of it. In a state this size, giving these sorts of ESA options to a few thousand kids, is not a significant shift of dollars away from public schools,” said Kory Langhofer, an attorney for the Goldwater Institute.

The Goldwater Institute filed a lawsuit over the attempt to delay the program’s expansion. The conservative think tank believes school choice empowers families and students, and it argues that halting the program’s implementation is putting the education of Arizona children in limbo.

“What this bill does is if your kid is not getting a proper education, it gives you a chance to fix that. It gets your kid into a better school where they can learn to be successful,” Langhofer told Western Journalism.

Langhofer said Arizona children can’t wait 18 months for a 2018 voter referendum (what would take place if the signatures collected by Save Our Schools are deemed valid).

“The reason people are opposing the referendum is because if your kid is in a bad school right now and you need to get them a better education, you can’t afford to wait 18 months for that. The bill can be put on hold, but your kid’s third-grade education can’t be put on hold,” Langhofer said.

Currently, the ESA program is only available for a select group of Arizona students. Langhofer pointed out that these students are in the best position to say whether it works, and he argued they approve.

“The families who are using the program are in the best position to say whether it’s helping them and they seem to happy. They continue to stay in the program.”

Langhofer and other supporters of school choice support the bill that was passed by the Arizona legislature. He believes Gov. Ducey has done a good job in tackling education issues.

“Fixing education is not easy. It’s extremely expensive. I think it’s the biggest line item in the state’s budget and if you’re going to make meaningful changes that large and run by bureaucracy, it’s difficult to turn the ship. The changes he (Ducey) made have been good for education, good for school choice.”

If and when the decision to expand school choice is left to the citizens of Arizona, Langhofer is expecting a tough campaign for the hearts and minds of the state’s voters. (For more from the author of “Battles Lines Drawn in the Fight for School Choice” please click HERE) http://joemiller.us/2017/09/battles-lines-drawn-fight-school-choice/