Free Republic

The National Rifle Association was victorious in Virginia last night after billionaire Michael Bloomberg and other outside gun control advocates attempted to influence local Senate elections. As Matt has already noted, this means long time Clinton ally and Democrat Governor Terry McAuliffe will be forced to work with a Republican majority until the end of his term. Last month, McAuliffe issued a series of gun control executive orders after failing to get legislation passed by Republicans.

Two senior officials from the Department of Veterans Affairs have pleaded the Fifth Amendment in front of a House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing on relocation bonus corruption. Philadelphia and Wilmington VA regional offices director Diana Rubens and St. Paul VA regional office director Kimberly Graves pleaded the Fifth and refused to answer any of the numerous questions put forward by HVAC chairman GOP Rep. Jeff Miller. “Sir, I’ve been advised by counsel not to answer that question to protect my rights under the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution,” Rubens repeated multiple times. The five employees from the VA involved in...

Video of speech at site.

October 31, 2015Veterans Administration Reforms That Will Make America Great Again The Goals Of Donald J. Trump's Veterans Plan The current state of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is absolutely unacceptable. Over 300,000 veterans died waiting for care. Corruption and incompetence were excused. Politicians in Washington have done too little too slowly to fix it. This situation can never happen again, and when Donald J. Trump is president, it will be fixed – fast. The guiding principle of the Trump plan is ensuring veterans have convenient access to the best quality care. To further this principle, the Trump plan...

Saturday, October 31, 2015 LIVE Stream Donald Trump Rally USS Wisconsin in Norfolk, VA - Oct 31, 2015

"Is the VA not doing the job?" For 21 years, a wounded veteran who served with the 101st Airborne fought for his nation. On Tuesday, in an emotionally charged face-to-face meeting, Donald Trump promised to take this veteran’s side in the ex-soldier’s current battlefield: the Department of Veterans Affairs. Trump was answering questions at a Sioux City, Iowa, campaign stop when a wounded veteran named Todd was given the opportunity to speak. “These are our greatest people. The wounded warriors. These are the greatest. The best,” Trump said before leaving his podium to greet the man and his family. “With...

Donald Trump will be having a rally in Norfolk, VA on Saturday October 31st aboard the USS Wisconsin at 12 noon Eastern time. Doors open at 10AM Eastern Must register for free tickets here: http://eventbrite.com/e/donald-j-trump-virginia-rally-tickets-19210998614

In 2013, Michael Bloomberg’s pro-gun control PAC injected $1.1 million into the Virginia gubernatorial race to help out Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe. It succeeded. McAuliffe won, and now Bloomberg is trying to make sure the state legislature’s composition is slightly more favorable for the next session by dumping another $1.5 million in the Old Dominion’s respective state senate races (via WaPo): Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun-control group will bankroll a $1.5 million advertising campaign for a Northern Virginia state Senate candidate, in its second big ad buy in the commonwealth in as many days. Less than two...

As a gun owners, you absolutely MUST vote this November 4th 2105. If the State Senate, which is hanging by a thread, goes back into the control of the gun-hating Senate Democrat leadership, it is not going to be good for us. Anti-gun Gabby Giffords is about to spend $600,000 to turn the Virginia Senate over to the Democrats.

Will CNN use Tuesday’s Democratic Party presidential debate to challenge Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on his atrocious handling of the Veterans Affairs (VA) scandal? Hillary Clinton has big problems that include blood on her hands over Benghazi, a Russia “reset” that has resulted in Russian aggression in Europe and the Middle East, and the mishandling of national security information through a private server.

In Virginia, one of the Bloomberg disarmist groups is attempting to shut down one of the few gun shops near the nations capitol. One of the more destructive and sadly, successful, disarmist memes has been the alienation of the gun culture from education and the schools. In my recollection, it started with the destruction of rifle, shotgun, and pistol teams in the Universities, with many ranges being closed and never reopened as ROTC was chased off of Campus during the Vietnam war and after. It spread to high schools and grammar schools, and reached a legislative high with the Federal...

There is only one guaranteed way to get fired from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. Falsifying records won’t do it. Prescribing obsolete drugs won’t do it. Cutting all manner of corners on health and safety is, at worst, going to get you a reprimand. No, the only sure-fire way to get canned at the VA is to report any of these matters to authorities who might do something about it. That, at least, is what the U.S. Office of Special Counsel recently reported to the president of the United States. The Special Counsel’s office is the agency to which government...

VA GOP Statement on Gary McCollum No Longer Being Employed By Cox -- Despite #StolenValor and Cox situation, Dems still think McCollum is a 'Top 3' candidate and they continue to hide his State applications -- September 25, 2015 - Richmond, VA - Last night, Cox Communications released a statement to The Virginia Pilot announcing that Gary McCollum is no longer employed by Cox Communications. Below is RPV's statement on the matter: "I want to thank Cox Communications for making the right decision by severing ties with a man who has practiced stolen valor for the past fourteen years," said...

The Pentagon has responded to a globally-released ‘Kill List’, asking law enforcement to give extra protection for military personnel whose personal information was released,News Channel 10 reports. CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports the Pentagon spent the weekend notifying the soldiers who appeared on the list, and urged city police departments and military police to increase patrol in the neighborhoods where the targeted live. The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) published the list days ago, a report that contained names, photos, and home addresses of U.S. Armed Forces personnel, causing alarm in cities potentially at high-risk....

 Virginia Democrat Patrick A. Hope boasts that he is using the Virgina incident to push for universal background checks (UBC), a precursor to gun registration, not because it would have prevented the crime, but because it is the gun control he can pass.   Patrick Hope is a Virginia Democrat Assembly member.   From usatoday.com: "I chose background checks, not because it would have prevented (the Virginia shooting) but because this would be easiest to pass,'' Hope said. "We will not be able to prevent every single incident. We need to do something.'' The irrationality of the position was...

Two huge billboards in Central Florida paid for by a Marine veteran are advertising the message that the Veterans Affairs Administration is lying about their improved service for veterans.Roger Gagnon, of Orange City, paid $775 for an Orlando billboard and $1,400 for another near Daytona Beach to send his message for one month. The billboard, boasting a bright yellow background, read, “VA is lying, veterans are dying.”Gagnon asserted, “It’s not about me, I’m all set. This is about the people who are in the service and the ones who are fixing to go in the service.” He said of the...

WASHINGTON – More than 300,000 American military veterans likely died while waiting for health care -- and nearly twice as many are still waiting -- according to a new Department of Veterans Affairs inspector general report. The IG report says “serious” problems with enrollment data are making it impossible to determine exactly how many veterans are actively seeking health care from the VA, and how many were. For example, “data limitations” prevent investigators from determining how many now-deceased veterans applied for health care benefits or when.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans listed in the Department of Veterans Affairs enrollment system died before their applications for care were processed, according to a report issued Wednesday. The VA's inspector general found that out of about 800,000 records stalled in the agency's system for managing health care enrollment, there were more than 307,000 records that belonged to veterans who had died months or years in the past. In a response to the House Committee on Veterans Affairs' request to investigate a whistleblower's allegations of mismanagement at the VA's Health Eligibility Center, the inspector general also found VA staffers incorrectly...

Retired neurosurgeon Dr. Ben Carson told the Dave Ramsey show on Wednesday that the Department of Veterans Affairs should be folded into the Department of Defense and VA facilities should only be used for specialized care like traumatic brain injuries and limb replacement procedures. “The size of government has to be reduced significantly. There’s a lot of stuff that we’re doing that doesn’t make any sense. We have a Department of Veterans Affairs. We don’t need a Department of Veterans Affairs. Veterans Affairs should be in under the Department of Defense, and it should be smooth transition,” said Carson. The...

In the battle between bureaucrats and veterans, the Obama administration stands with the bureaucrats. Last week the White House threatened to veto the VA Accountability Act, a bill that would moderately streamline the process for firing incompetent Department of Veterans Affairs employees. Under the terms of the act, the VA secretary can’t place employees on paid administrative leave for more than 14 days per year, employees’ initial-hire probationary period is extended to 18 months, and terminated employees have seven days to file an appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board. But these streamlined termination provisions — which still provide far...