Photo, left:  Lynette Roff, Director of the VA hospital in Denver, announced today she is retiring.  A Colorado congressman is calling for a broader investigation into wrongdoing at the Denver Veterans Affairs Hospital after the hospital director made "veiled threats" to potential whistleblowers. "Once you talk to the media, you are on your own. The VA does not support you." Director Lynette Roff said in an employee meeting on Jan. 30. "Once you are in hot water, nobody will help you." 9Wants to Know obtained a recording of the meeting, in which Roff also discussed a secret patient waiting list exposed in an earlier 9Wants to Know report.
Denver Post: Lynette Roff, Director of the VA hospital in Denver, announced today she is retiring. Roff’s announcement is welcomed   by Congressman Mike Coffman who heads the subcommittee overseeing the Veterans Affairs.  Among other things, veterans complaining of long waits for medical care and  cost overruns to the tune of $400 million in building the new VA hospital are issues that have marred Roff’s tenure. She will retire from her post next month.
The director of the veterans health care system for Denver and eastern Colorado is retiring, days after a report that a Veterans Affairs sleep clinic in Denver had a secret waiting list. Lynette Roff is stepping down, a spokesman for the VA said Tuesday. No other details were immediately released.
Former VA employee Tommy Belinski obtained a paper waiting list – separate from the official computerized list – that could have been used to hide lengthy waits for appointments at the sleep clinic, reported by a Denver news outlet last week. The list had more than 500 names on it, Belinski said. The VA has said officials discovered an “unofficial list” in 2012 and abolished it. Dan Warvi, a spokesman for the VA in Denver, said in an email to The Associated Press Tuesday that no secret list exists. Roff didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment made through a spokesman.  . . . The Colorado facilities were included in a nationwide audit on a single day in May. All told, more than 57,000 patients faced delays of 90 days or longer. The review also indicated that 13 percent of schedulers reported being told by supervisors to falsify appointment schedules to make patient waits appear shorter.
JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW
See Hour Three, Block C, Francis Rose of Federal News Radio, on:
 
VA Director Blatantly Threatens Potential Whistleblowers  "Once you talk to the media, you are on your own… VA does not support you… nobody will help you.”  “Denver VA Hospital director knew about secret list,” NBC Denver

VA Doesn’t Support Bill that Would Strip Her Bonuses   “If a corrupt or negligent VA official gets a bonus, that’s just fine with the VA”
 
Co-host:  Gordon Chang, Forbes.com, & David Livingston, The Space Show.
 
Hour One
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 1, Block A: Toshi Yoshihara, John A. van Beuren Chair of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Naval War College, on this:  http://news.yahoo.com/japan-start-long-range-air-patrols-south-china-163828196.html    China's expansionist military; Japan's responses.  Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia align to dace Chinese aggression.   US bilateral security treaty alliances make it possible for these nations to develop a countervailing power.  Japan now has a highly0sckilled, professional force have been concerned about security of sea lanes, expanded its zone out to a 1,000-km perimeter. 
Will Japan flex its power in the South China Sea? by Gordon Chang
http://www.worldaffairsjournal.org/blog/gordon-g-chang/will-japan-flex-its-naval-power-south-china-sea
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 1, Block B: Charles Burton, Brock University, in re: Zhou Yongkang, the thug, who put $1.3 billion in a  molybdenum mine in Nevada. . . . .  "Nine grams" – the weight of the bullet used by Chekists to assassinate opponents. "The handle of the knife is now firmly in the hands of the Party and the people."  "Knife" was associated with Mao and his police enforcement. Xi is moving this way, toward the Cultural Revolution. . . .  Once the killing starts, there's no turning it off.  When Stalin got mass deaths under way, they couldn't be stopped till a while after he was dead.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/11399732/China-executes-Ferrari-loving-billionaire-gangster.html
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 1, Block C:  Hotel Mars, episode n. Dr. Marc Rayman, top rocket scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory: chief engineer and mission director for Dawn, the first spacecraft ever targeted to orbit two extraterrestrial destinations, the giant protoplanet Vesta and  the dwarf planet Ceres.; in re:  Dawn is already very close to Ceres (330 million miles away), where we'll explore the first dwarf planet discovered (200 years ago). If it's shallow enough to be craterable, then we may be able to get to it. It may have a substantial amt of water (not too near the surface), even subsurface oceans. Ion propulsion system to propel Dawn thither. Dawn spent fourteen months orbiting Vesta, found evident of material flowing on Vesta, apparently lubricated by water. If water, it may have been taken there by comets or asteroids.   Earth's atmosphere protected it from much of the debris that rained down, whereas Ceres and Vesta have been bombarded for billions of years.  Dawn well get in orbit in a few weeks; we'll keep lowering the orbit till in December it'll be 230(?) miles above Ceres.  We don’t know if these have a magnetic field or not.  It protects a planet from radiation, incl from the Sun.   ESA (European Space Agency)  saw water vapor around Ceres – plumes? sublimating ice?  geysers? cryovolcanoes? I've been a space buff since I was four years old. I'm living a much cooler dream than I ever imagined. 
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 1, Block D: Steven L Herman, Southeast Asia Bureau Chief/Correspondent, Voice of America;  in re:  Thailand's military government denied former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra permission to travel because of the criminal charges pending against her, Reuters reported Feb. 8. Yingluck was ousted in a coup in May after months of popular demonstrations. Last month, she was indicted on criminal charges over a rice-buying scheme and was banned from politics for five years. Yingluck had asked to leave through Feb. 22, but officials say she must be present Feb. 19 when the attorney general submits a subpoena to the country's Supreme Court. Officials have been on high alert since Yingluck was ousted; her supporters say the charges against her are an attempt to limit the influence of her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.   The Rohingya crisis in Burma has become “a protracted, squalid ...   The status of Burma's Rohingya people has devolved to the point where even naming them has become controversial. We need to do more.   Myanmar nationalists threaten protests over Rohingya vote change:  Most Rohingya are not full citizens, but some hold a White Card, which allows them to vote.  Conditions in Burma in relation to Rohingya are globally called Apartheid.  Aung San Suu Kyi is forbidden to run for the presidency "because her sons are British citizens." 
Hour Two
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 2, Block A: Stephen Yates, chairman of the Idaho Republican Party, CEO of D.C. International Advisory, & former advisor to Vice President Dick Cheney, in re: Mssrs Putin, Poroshenko and Hollande, & Frau Merkel, are still in conference (at 4 in the morning) in Minsk.   PM Abe and Xi Jinping "do not see the world fro the same" perspective.  Talk of the Japanese Defense Force patrolling the South China Sea.  US: The WH is in the waning years of a second term looking to drape itself in the [velvets] of grand international meetings. Form over substance concerning US national security. Natl feelings in Japans are shocked by the ISIS beheadings f their citizens; Shinzo Abe has more muscular support now than before.  . . .    Our ally form Israel will come to town; when our Asian allies come here, at least there's a little visibility to Americans. "US Marines in Sanaa handed over their carbines" before leaving on a civilian flight, said a Pentagon spokesman. Unclear who now has custody of the US arms and vehicles.  This as never before occurred. Looks like an Administration desperate to avoid another Benghazi-type situation, A national disgrace.  Note that the Houthis who’ve taken over Yemen are employees of Iran.  Teheran is laughing at the US.   We just lost a battle.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/02/06/us-usa-china-japan-idUSKBN0LA29E20150206
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 2, Block B: Bruce Bechtol, professor at Angelo State University and author of, North Korea and Regional Security in the Kim Jong-un Era, in re:  US Marines just left arms and vehicles for the Houthis in Yemen, employees of Teheran. North Korea works for Iran, also:   . . .   KH35 ship missile is launched from the 12 ships sold to Iran. DPRK is the arms supplier to the surrogate nonstate actors that Iran supports.  China, India, Vietnam and a few others have KH35s, but DPRK has weapons trade with China and Vietnam.  Obviously, when North Korea gets an advanced weapons system the first thing it does is reproduce it in factories; second thing is selling it worldwide.  PSI (proliferation _ initiative) is not effective.  If North Korea were fighting with South Korea an the US: US Marines going onshore need to be have  major cover; if DPRK launched this missile, which can fly from as low as ten meters above wave level – from a small, low-signature ship, with a crew under ten;  we could have a lot of dead Marines.  DPRK has backing from big powers or it would never have a KH35 in the first place.
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 2, Block C:  Eli Lake, Bloomberg, in re: ISIS draws foreign recruits from Western Europeans, Australians and Americans who have passports and can return. The most perilous stuff in Iraq and Syria is done by foreigners, although also Uzbeks, Uyghurs, et al. When ISIS finds an engineer, or someone good in social media, it funnels the person into a useful position; otherwise, volunteers are cannon fodder Emirs are always Arabs.  A Yazidi, Murad Ismail, reported that the most ferocious fighters are sometimes Tunisians [and Mahgrebis?].  Bill Roggio and Tom Joscelyn pointed to a video of the Hezbollah Brigades: a lot of eqpt identifiable as American that they were given at the direction of the Iranian advisors in Baghdad.  Interviewed at Camp Ashraf some leaders, one effectively in charge of army divisions in Diyala.   Facebook pages of volunteers in Iraq.  This plan goes back to April 2014 when Nouriel Maliki said, I don’t trust the military not to collapse from ISIS, nor the intell, so it’s time to reactivate the Shia militias.  New statement from Obama administration anent Iran's augmenting he Iraqi military.  Even the Anbar Awakening is a shell of itself due to American neglect. US has bugged out. If you want to fight ISIS while it’s now a crisis, will have in some degree to ally with Iran. This could have been avoided by leaving 10 or 20 thousand US troops in Iraq.
foreiwww.bloombergview.com/articles/2015-02-11/foreign-fighters-are-islamic-state-s-cannon-fodder
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 2, Block D: Ethan Epstein, Weekly Standard, in re:  The Myth of Jon Stewart’s ‘Millennial’ Following    As a “millennial” (roughly speaking, someone between the ages of 18 and 29), I’ve grown used to being tarred with fallacious accusations. We millennials are spoiled and mollycoddled! (Nope.) We’re tech-obsessives who would never even think of picking up something as fuddy-duddy as a book! (Wrong again.) We’re irredeemable narcissists! (‘Fraid not.)
Today’s meme is that we millennials are utterly devastated by Jon Stewart’s announcement that he will be leaving The Daily Show next year. “What Walter Cronkite was to an earlier generation — an utterly trusted voice — Stewart has been to millennials,” writes Don Aucoin of the Boston Globe.  Stewart has “hordes of millennial fans,” reports CNN. “For people under 30,” says the Washington Post’s Karen Tumulty, “Jon Stewart leaving the Daily Show is the equivalent of the Beatles breaking up.” (And Tumulty should know – she was born in 1955.) Now one thing we millennials supposedly love is “data journalism.” So let’s back up and see whether there exists any data to back up Tumulty, et al.’s, claims that we millennials have just suffered a loss on par with the demise of the Lennon-McCartney partnership.
As of 2013, The Daily Show was bringing in approximately 2 million nightly viewers. And according to an exhaustive Pew Survey from 2012, 39 percent of The Daily Show’s regular viewers are between the ages of 18 and 29. That means that approximately 780,000 millennials are regular Daily Show watchers. In the United States, there are 53 million people between the ages of 18 and 29. That means that a whopping 1.5 percent of millennials watch the Daily Show regularly! Let’s be generous and assume that, say, 5 million people watch The Daily Show even occasionally. That would still mean a paltry 1.95 million out of 53 million millennials are Stewart fans.
That’s not all. According to Bill Carter, then of the New York Times, the average Daily Show viewer is 41 years old. Considering other cable shows alone, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Archer, American Horror Story, and Louie all have significantly younger audiences than does Stewart. And here’s my favorite nugget: 9 percent of the regular viewers of the nightly evening news – long derided as the news source of the geriatric set – are between the ages of 18 and 29. About 22 million people watch the nightly news. Thus, nearly 2 million millennials are regular viewers of the nightly evening news. That’s right: more than twice as many millennials watch Brian Williams, Scott Pelley, et al, than watch The Daily Show.  In other words, the great millennial following of The Daily Show is a total myth. Perhaps Stewart can “destroy” it on tonight’s broadcast.
Hour Three
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 3, Block A:  Monica Crowley, Fox and
Washington Times, in re: BBC News - Scott Walker: A little-known 2016 frontrunner Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker may be little known beyond his home state and among the ...    Scott Walker and Wisconsin's 'Starving' University System   The Nuclear Option: Go, Scott Walker! Not the Other White Meats  ;  Jeb Bush talks immigration, education, releases emails as he eyes 2016 bid - In a visit to Florida's state capital on Tuesday, Republican Jeb Bush focused on ... Jeb Bush: Not Running from Common Core, but Not Saying It Either   Jeb Bush hosts education summit, raises funds in Florida
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 3, Block B: Monica Crowley, Fox and
Washington Times, in re: Rick Perry's claim that one-third of all new American jobs were created in Texas Former Texas governor Rick Perry (R), Iowa Freedom Summit, Jan. 24, 2015. “During my ... "   In 'Water-Testing Campaign' Rick Perry Flexes Financial Muscle, Flouts Indictment    Rick Perry, exploring Iowa caucus bid, joins pipeline board
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 3, Block C:  Francis Rose, Federal News Radio, in re: VA Health System Added to High Risk List for Failing to Fix Problems–According to an advance copy of a report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office, the U.S. military veterans’ health-care system ranks among the most troubled of all government programs after failing to make more than 100 recommended changes including shorter wait times for care.  http://bloom.bg/1zvkPRN   Flabbergasting.
VA Director Blatantly Threatens Potential Whistleblowers  "Once you talk to the media, you are on your own… VA does not support you… nobody will help you.”  “Denver VA Hospital director knew about secret list,” NBC Denver
VA Doesn’t Support Bill that Would Strip Her Bonuses   “If a corrupt or negligent VA official gets a bonus, that’s just fine with the VA”
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 3, Block D:   Ann Marlowe, Hudson Insttiute, in re: Libyan Political Dialogue Convenes in Ghedames with All Invited Parties Attending; Discussions to Continue in the Coming Days    Ghedames, Libya - A political dialogue round facilitated by the United Nations Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) convened in the City of Ghedames on Wednesday 11 February 2015.  For the first time, all invited participants attended the talks, which were conducted in a constructive and positive atmosphere.
Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Libya, Bernardino Leon, held separate meetings with the delegations, briefing them about the process and its phases and praising the positive spirit of the participants.  Discussions focused on the points that were agreed upon in the agenda of the dialogue, including proposals for organizing the work ahead and agreement on a clear timetable that takes into consideration the wishes of the parties to reach a speedy political solution to prevent further security and political deterioration and end the institutional division that threatens the country's unity.
Hour Four
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 4, Block A: Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story Hardcover – by Jack Devine & Vernon Loeb  (1 of 4)
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 4, Block B: Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story Hardcover – by Jack Devine & Vernon Loeb  (2 of 4)
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 4, Block C: Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story Hardcover – by Jack Devine & Vernon Loeb  (3 of 4)
Wednesday  5 February 2014 / Hour 4, Block D: Good Hunting: An American Spymaster's Story Hardcover – by Jack Devine & Vernon Loeb  (4 of 4)
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