memeorandum: Why I Blew the Whistle on the V.A. (Sam Foote/New York Times)

8:35 PM ET, May 24, 2014

Top Items:

Beth Farnsworth / KEYT-TV:

Sheriff Confirms Seven Dead in Isla Vista Shootings — “Mass Murder Situation” — ISLA VISTA, Calif. - — Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown revealed new details about Friday night's drive by shootings in Isla Vista during a Saturday morning news conference, including a new death toll …

Discussion: No More Mister Nice Blog, Hinterland Gazette, The Other McCain, WGN-TV, Scared Monkeys, Gawker, The Daily Caller, Pressing Issues, Mashable, The Mahablog and NPR

Daily Mail:

‘I will slaughter every single blonde s**t I see’: Seven people killed as son of Hunger Games assistant director carries out drive-by shooting ‘because women rebuffed his advances and he was a virgin at 22’ — Rodger also died of gunshot wound to the head; authorities have not confirmed if it was self-inflicted

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit, BizPac Review, Hinterland Gazette and TMZ.com

Associated Press:

DIRECTOR SAYS SON RESPONSIBLE FOR SHOOTING RAMPAGE — You are here — Home » Santa Barbara » Director says son responsible for shooting rampage — GOLETA, Calif. (AP) — A Hollywood director believes his son was the lone gunman who went on a shooting rampage near the University …

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Week and ThinkProgress

KEYT-TV:

Alleged Gunman's Apartment Now A Crime Scene — Three Bodies Pulled From The Capri Complex In Isla Vista … ISLA VISTA, Calif. - — UPDATE: Santa Barbara County's Sheriff's scheduled news conference postponed until 5:00 p.m. — The Santa Barbara County Coroner's team has established …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Los Angeles Times, Mashable, Gawker, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times and The Raw Story

CNN:

7 dead in California shooting rampage called ‘premeditated mass murder’ — (CNN) — A gunman described as mentally disturbed and possibly bent on retribution sprayed bullets from a slow-moving car in a small Southern California college town, killing six people in a rampage called …

Discussion: PoliticusUSA, ABC News and The Moderate Voice

Mark Berman / Washington Post: Shooter kills at least six people in rampage near UC Santa Barbara

Cynthia Johnston / Reuters:
Gunman kills six in drive-by shooting in California college town

Discussion: Daily Kos and Canada Blog …

Sam Foote / New York Times:

Why I Blew the Whistle on the V.A. — PHOENIX — MY decision to become a whistle-blower after 24 years as a physician in a Veterans Affairs hospital was, at first, an easy one. I knew about patients who were dying while waiting for appointments on the V.A.'s secret schedules, and I couldn't stay silent.

Discussion: Hot Air and Liberaland

Jessica Wehrman / The Columbus Dispatch:
Privatizing VA still appeals to Boehner

Discussion: ThinkProgress

Joel Gehrke / Washington Examiner:
Nancy Pelosi blames George W. Bush for Veterans Affairs scandal

Discussion: Scared Monkeys, Pejman Yousefzadeh, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, CNN and BizPac Review

Timothy Noah / msnbc.com:

VA wait times are bad. The private sector isn't much better. — The Department of Veterans Affairs, long touted by experts as providing health care superior to most private providers, is suddenly engulfed in scandal. — Records on wait times for appointments were allegedly falsified at the Phoenix VA …

Discussion: Washington Monthly and neo-neocon

Ezra Klein / Vox:

Veterans aren't the only ones waiting for health care — TWEET SHARE LINKEDIN EMAIL PRINT — In 2005, Phillip Longman, a senior fellow at the New America Foundation, published an article entitled “Best Care Anywhere” in the Washington Monthly. The article, which later became a book …

Discussion: Booman Tribune

Elias Isquith / Salon:

Greenwald's haters, exposed: The real reason Michael Kinsley hates him — In his New York Times attack, the former “Crossfire” star reveals some of the elite media's deepest insecurities — People tell me — they insist, in fact — that there was a time, long ago, when Michael Kinsley wrote …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Hullabaloo, EconLog, Washington Monthly, Roger Ailes and Lawyers, Guns & Money

Paul Krugman / New York Times:

Is Piketty All Wrong? — Great buzz in the blogosphere over Chris Giles's attack on Thomas Piketty's Capital in the 21st Century. Giles finds a few clear errors, although they don't seem to matter much; more important, he questions some of the assumptions and imputations Piketty uses to deal …

Discussion: Spectator, Financial Times, Power Line and The Week

Chris Giles / Financial Times:
Piketty findings undercut by errors

Discussion: Marginal REVOLUTION, The Mahablog, Power Line, National Review, Hot Air, Wall Street Journal, Daily Surge, NPR, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, The Week and The PJ Tatler

Financial Times:
Central bank blog

Discussion: Pejman Yousefzadeh, Samizdata, ValueWalk, naked capitalism, RedState, National Review, NewsBusters, New York Times, Washington Post, PolicyShop and neo-neocon

George F. Will / Washington Post:

The 2016 presidential candidate we need — All modern presidents of both parties have been too much with us. Talking incessantly, they have put politics unhealthily at the center of America's consciousness. Promising promiscuously, they have exaggerated government's proper scope and actual competence …

Discussion: Hullabaloo and Washington Monthly

Larry Rohter / New York Times:

Eduardo Galeano Disavows His Book ‘The Open Veins’ — For more than 40 years, Eduardo Galeano's “The Open Veins of Latin America” has been the canonical anti-colonialist, anti-capitalist and anti-American text in that region. Hugo Chávez, Venezuela's populist president …