Author Archives: eehines

Long Past its Use-By Date

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The Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General Office has found problems in the VA’s process for vetting the contractors it hires. The IG’s audit findings include these (not an exhaustive list by me):

  • 47 of 50 contract files (94 percent) did not include position designation records that established the position investigative requirements for the contract
  • 34 of 50 contracts (68 percent) did not include contract language to communicate contractor vetting requirements to the contractor
  • 215 of the 286 contractor employees reviewed (about 75 percent) did not have evidence of completed fingerprint checks
  • 225 of the 286 contractor employees (about 79 percent) did not have evidence that a background investigation was completed by an investigative service provider

And this kicker [emphasis added]:

[T]he team’s review of a contract for unarmed security guards at the St. Cloud VA Medical Center in Minnesota determined that officials did not vet any of the 73 contractor employees, 38 of whom (about 52 percent) had criminal records. The criminal records included arrests and convictions ranging from petty misdemeanors to felonies such as disorderly conduct, domestic abuse, physical and sexual assault, financial card fraud, and terroristic threats. During the performance of the contract, VA police, St. Cloud officials, and the VA OIG were notified about improper behavior by the unvetted contractor employees, including stalking female VA and contractor employees, sexually harassing and assaulting other employees, getting into altercations at the medical center that required police intervention, and bragging to coworkers about being a gang member.

With that failure rate, does the VA actually have a vetting process, or is it just a few sheets of paper the department heads use for…decoration?

Further according to the IG’s audit, VA officials did not comply with executive orders, federal regulations, or VA’s policies for vetting contractor employees. Apparently, it’s not only that last regarding vetting, but VA officials are insubordinate and routinely ignore existing law and the orders of their boss, the President. Given these persons’ routine disregard of the other items, it’s not clear to me that the VA has any policies with which to not comply.

In any event, it’s long past time.

Veteranos Administratio delende est.

The full IG report can be read here.

I’ve Written It Before

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It bears repeating, though.

The House Education and the Workforce Committee has been trying to get Harvard University to deliver documents relevant to Congress’ investigation into rampant antisemitism on campus. Harvard has been refusing to do so. From that, Committee Chair Virginia Foxx (R, NC) wrote a letter to Harvard’s Interim President Dr Alan Garber and to Harvard Corporation’s Senior Fellow Penny Pritzker. Foxx wrote in pertinent part:

Harvard’s responses have been grossly insufficient, and the limited and dilatory nature of its productions is obstructing the Committee’s efforts. If Harvard continues to fail to comply with the Committee’s requests in a timely manner, the Committee will proceed with compulsory process.

No. Harvard’s Garber and Pritzker know already that they’re being dilatory and insufficiently responsive.

Once again: don’t yap. Act. Issue the subpoena with a nearby deadline. Move to cut off Federal funding for the school if they do not comply.

The Hur Report

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Special Counsel Robert Hur’s report on Progressive-Democrat Joe Biden’s years long mishandling of classified documents—with classification ranging from Confidential through Top Secret and many of them NOFORN (not releasable to foreign entities regardless of underlying classification) or HCS-O (a human intelligence classification control, whose violation endangers the lives of those who would talk to our intelligence personnel)—concluded in part that Biden had them illegally, moved them around illegally, and hung onto stored them illegally. Then, shockingly, he declined to refer Biden for criminal prosecution: Biden, Hur claimed, was too sympathetic and mentally feeble a figure, and it would be difficult to get a conviction.

Leave aside the fact that “difficult” means “possible,” and only a lazy or a weak-on-favored-politicians prosecutor would decline the difficult task. Stipulate, instead, that Hur’s no-prosecution recommendation was made honestly, however erroneously.

Consider, rather, that Attorney General Merrick Garland has the authority to reject the Special Counselor’s recommendation and prosecute Biden anyway, on the basis of the facts throughout the Hur report.

But don’t look for Garland to do that. He is, after all, Joe Biden’s made man.

Hur’s report can be read here.

Joe Biden’s Classified Documents

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These images are from the Hur report:

This is the quality of Biden’s “storage” in his locked garage. The protecting Corvette automobile is not present.

This is another look angle at some critical, and exposed, boxes.

These two boxes are those in the red circle in the preceding image, with other boxes removed for clarity. Were these boxes of classified documents that Biden was illegally holding onto rifled through while he was holding them? The foreground box has one end torn almost all the way down—that doesn’t happen with the box just sitting there undisturbed. Even had that happened as the box had been moved from other locations to this one, it seems likely that such moving damage would have been repaired, or the box replaced. The box behind it appears similarly opened. The furniture around the two boxes didn’t fall over on their own initiative—they’ve been knocked over, possibly as the boxes were pulled out from among the furniture for better access.

Another box that might have been rifled through.

And another exposed box.

The Hur report can be read here.

Biden Administration’s Monthly Job Numbers

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Peter Earle, American Institute for Economic Research Senior Research Fellow, has the tale.

In 28 years, I’ve never seen 11 of 12 months where job numbers came out looking very strong, and then they were revised downwards.

Which raises the question in my pea brain: are Progressive-Democrat President Joe Biden and his economic staff and his bureaucrats at the Labor Department really that incompetent, or are they manipulating the initial numbers for their political benefit?

These aren’t rounding errors that happen to be overstatements rather than understatements or balancing out over the months, either. According to the Daily Caller:

The federal government in 2023 overestimated the number of jobs in the US economy by an average of 105,000 per month in initial reports, equating to a cumulative monthly difference of 1.3 million, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

Impacting that behavior is this, as Earle continued:

Of course, the kicker there is that when you revise those things downwards, they don’t get the sort of media attention that the top line initial number gets.

Biden and his minions know that much full well. But, according to Biden, everything’s jake with our economy so, what—us worry?