memeorandum: Obama, the unaccountable president (Joseph Curl/Washington Times)

10:05 AM ET, May 22, 2014

Top Items:

Obama's talking points miss point on VA scandal … After keeping his mouth shut on that growing Veterans Affairs scandal for weeks, President Barack Obama finally acted. — Not with deeds. But with words. — The scandal involves reports of secret admissions lists …

Discussion: Power Line and The White House

Brent Budowsky / The Hill:

VA scandal is bipartisan — If even one American veteran has died because of inadequate treatment by the Department of Veterans Affairs, President Obama and VA Secretary Eric Shinseki owe veterans an apology. Virtually all members and the leaders of both parties in both houses of Congress owe veterans an apology.

Joseph Curl / Washington Times:

Obama, the unaccountable president — ANALYSIS / OPINION — “All I know is just what I read in the papers, and that's an alibi for my ignorance.” — Will Rogers — Has there ever been a president in the history of America who knew less than President Obama?

Kevin OBrien / Associated Press:

Where VA has taken veterans, Obamacare is leading all Americans: Kevin O'Brien — The White House says Americans can't draw any conclusions yet about just how screwed up is the Department of Veterans Affairs medical care system. — Well, yes, Americans can.

Discussion: Politico, CNN and Real Clear Politics

Byron York / Washington Examiner:

Amid growing Veterans Affairs scandal, why Eric Shinseki is hard to fire — BELTWAY CONFIDENTIAL BARACK OBAMA VETERANS AFFAIRS IRAQ IRAQ WAR GEORGE W. BUSH VETERANS ERIC SHINSEKI — Some Washington insiders expected President Obama to announce the resignation of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki …

Discussion: Washington Post

The White House:
Statement by the President on Veterans Health Care

Discussion: Washington Free Beacon, Hit & Run, Wall Street Journal and RedState

Politico:

Clinton allies pressured Dems on Benghazi — Hillary Clinton's world was so worried about a Republican investigation of the Benghazi attacks, they sent a message to House Democrats: We need backup. — House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) publicly considered boycotting the panel …

Discussion: Hot Air, Althouse, Balloon Juice, Taylor Marsh, The Gateway Pundit and The Lonely Conservative

New York Times:
Pelosi Picks 5 Democrats for Panel on Benghazi

Discussion: Taylor Marsh, ABC News and No More Mister Nice Blog

Joy Powell / Minneapolis Star Tribune:

Fox anchor Gregg Jarrett jailed briefly after incident in MSP airport bar — Fox News anchor Gregg Jarrett was jailed Wednesday after being arrested in a bar at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport. — Jarrett, who is a weekend co-anchor on the FOX News Channel, was arrested about 12:30 p.m …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Associated Press, The Raw Story and The Huffington Post

Alan I. Abramowitz / Sabato's Crystal Ball:

Nationalization of Senate Elections Poses Challenge to Democrats in 2014 — Democrats face several challenges in trying to maintain their majority in the U.S. Senate in the 2014 midterm election. In addition to the normal tendency of the president's party to lose seats in midterm elections …

Discussion: Political Insider blog and Taegan Goddard's …

Adam Beam / Associated Press:
KY. DEMOCRAT MUM ON QUESTION OF ‘OBAMACARE’ VOTE

Discussion: The Hill, Washington Post, Hot Air and Washington Free Beacon

The Atlantic Online:

The Case for Reparations — Two hundred fifty years of slavery. Ninety years of Jim Crow. Sixty years of separate but equal. Thirty-five years of racist housing policy. Until we reckon with our compounding moral debts, America will never be whole. — Ta-Nehisi Coates … — Deuteronomy 15: 12-15

Discussion: Bloomberg View, Balloon Juice and The New Republic

Eric Schmitt / New York Times:

U.S. Sends Troops to Chad to Aid Hunt for Nigerian Schoolgirls — WASHINGTON — The United States has sent 80 troops to Chad in Central Africa to support a growing international effort in neighboring Nigeria to help find and rescue the schoolgirls who were abducted by an Islamist extremist group last month …

Discussion: Outside the Beltway and The Week

Ernesto Londoño / Washington Post:
U.S. deploys 80 troops to Chad to help find kidnapped Nigerian schoolgirls

Discussion: Associated Press, The PJ Tatler, BuzzFeed, Hot Air, Daily Kos, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and YNaija2015

Benjamin Goad / The Hill:

Tax preparers balk at IRS education standards — The nation's accountants are staging a pre-emptive strike against an expected move by the Internal Revenue Service to impose voluntary education standards for tax preparers. — The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) …

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

Still a Nation of Immigrants — The American melting pot appears to be heating up again, and its ingredients have grown ever more varied. — In 1908, when a play called “The Melting Pot” was first staged in New York City, helping to popularize the term, New York had a foreign-born population …

Discussion: Vox Popoli

Kevin Williamson / National Review:

The Victim Presidency — As many have remarked here, Barack Obama has a strange habit of acting like somebody else has been president these past years. It's really odd. — In his speech on the VA, the president said that he would not stand for things that he clearly and undeniably …

Discussion: Betsy's Page

Sancho Panza / SOOPERMEXICAN:

More ‘War On Women’ Deleted Tweets - Democrat Congressional Candidate Asks Followers to Assail Conservative Woman With ‘C-Word’! — I already showed how Clay Aiken deleted a tweet advocating violence against Ann Coulter, and how Buzzfeed accidentally neglected to mention it in their post about his deleted tweets.

Discussion: The PJ Tatler and NewsBusters

Sancho Panza / SOOPERMEXICAN:
War On Women!! Guess Which Democrat Candidate Deleted a Tweet Saying He Wanted to Punch …

Discussion: Independent Journal Review, The Lonely Conservative and The Daily Caller

Karen DeYoung / Washington Post:

Obama's revamp of anti-terror policies stalls — A year after President Obama announced a major new counterterrorism strategy to take the country beyond the threats that flowed directly from the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, much of the agenda he outlined remains unfinished or not even begun.

Discussion: Hot Air, ThinkProgress and The Daily Beast

Heather Boushey / The Atlantic Online:

It Wasn't Household Debt That Caused the Great Recession — Why are nearly 10 million people still out of work today? Was it because in September 2008, the U.S. government failed to bail out the insolvent investment bank Lehmann Brothers? Was it because the two U.S. housing finance giants Fannie Mae …

Discussion: New York Times

RealClearMarkets:

High Frequency Hyperbole, Part Deux — In our last episode... Recently our Wall Street Journal op-ed, High Frequency Hyperbole, took on Michael Lewis's claim that the stock market is “rigged” against Main Street. We are not a high frequency trading (HFT) firm and don't have a dog in this fight …

Discussion: Bloomberg View

Marc Levy / Associated Press:

Pennsylvania Won't Appeal Same-Sex Marriage Case — Same-sex marriage won a second victory in two days in Pennsylvania, as the governor said Wednesday that he will not appeal a court decision that struck down the state's ban. — Gov. Tom Corbett's decision Wednesday means that same-sex marriage …

Discussion: Daily Kos and susiemadrak.com