Morning Jolt
. . . with Jim Geraghty July 11, 2014 There are three things I need to do with today's edition of the Jolt. The first is make you laugh. The second is set off a chain reaction of positive thinking and optimism among us, because I think we all need it after several weeks of seemingly unrelenting bad news. Third, I need to give you an update on some of those stories that the national media treated as a really big deal for a couple days — justifiably — but then lost interest and has largely ignored since. The Opening Monologue President Obama was offered weed in that pool hall in Colorado. Kind of superfluous, isn't it? Does this look like a guy who needs to relax more?
Forget the relaxants, does anyone have any stimulants to offer him? Sure, caffeine might make him jittery, but right now the guy with the highest-pressure, most-consequential job in America is showing all the stress of a late-night radio DJ. He's got less anxiety than a mid-decade Matthew McConaughey character. If only the country was doing "alright, alright, alright." We know why the president turned down the pot he was offered, of course: Michelle won't let him have the brownies. The choom's fine, but she draws the line at the sugar and calories. There's a humanitarian crisis on the border, the Middle East is burning down, the midterms look set to be a disaster for Democrats, and Obama's still convinced he's LeBron James. If he means cramping when everything is on the line, then yes. Congressional Democrats would probably say LeBron is the better teammate. Ironically, LeBron James is feeling more pressure than the president of the United States right now. But LeBron probably spends more time worrying about the future. President Obama isn't LeBron James. He's the Brazilian goalie. Obama's got two and a half years left in office, and he's got high-school senioritis. He's doing more fundraisers than Jerry Lewis. This morning Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Sheldon Adelson call for comprehensive immigration reform, including a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants. Finally, the little guys are making the case that amnesty can work for them! You know, the day the Gates Foundation says to its founder, "Sorry, clean out your office — Carlos Slim is willing to do your job for less," then we can talk about the cost-benefit analysis of legalizing those who came here illegally. The Daily Mail apologized to George Clooney for false reporting . . . and Clooney rejected the apology. The poor guy, such a victim. He's got it rough. He lectured the newspaper "the cover-up is always worse." Then he went to another Obama fundraiser. USA Today reports that the sex-worker trade is booming in Silicon Valley. I guess we were wrong, Governor Jerry Brown's policies can create jobs. For next week's British Open, ESPN announced that ESPN3 will cover Tiger Woods exclusively. Programming on ESPN and ESPN2 will remain normal, which is to say 24-7 speculation about LeBron James and Johnny Manziel. Now that I have hopefully made you chuckle . . . It's Friday. Tell Somebody Who Needs Encouragement That You Appreciate Them! "Don't be negative." That is hard advice to follow. We do not want to look and feel like suckers. We don't want to be naïve. Lord knows I have drunk deeply and frequently from that giant cup labeled cynicism. But today, I'm asking you to go out and find somebody who's doing something great — preferably someone who doesn't get the attention or credit they deserve — and tell them that. I'm sure you can think of people who deserve some praise, but just in case you're looking for a few good men and women. . . Tell Jillian Melchior that all the digging she's doing in her investigative reporting matters and that it makes a difference. Tell Eliana Johnson that you don't know how she gets the scoops she does, but you're glad she's uncovering dirt and scandal for NRO. Tell Sharyl Attkisson you're glad she's landed at the Daily Signal and how important it is that she keep up the groundbreaking reporting she does. Tell Lachlan Markay you're glad somebody goes through all of the obscure filings and releases of federal agencies. Tell Scott McFarlane of NBC Washington you're glad he's the king of the FOIA. I know there are times you feel like none of what we do in the journalism, political, or activism arenas makes a difference. I say, gently, save it. Nobody needs to hear that what they do doesn't matter. They fight those doubts every day and go out and do their jobs. Hopefully you can do the same. The easiest thing in the world to do is to tear down what somebody else is doing — oftentimes done out of jealousy, or as a reflection of our own fears of failure. This is how good ideas get strangled before they ever see the light of day. The world is full of people doing extraordinary things. Why not you? Who says you can't contribute something unique, special, and consequential? Tell Greta Van Susteren how you appreciate that she's found a way to mention reservist Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, still stuck in Mexico, almost every night on her program. Tell Andrew Wilkow he's going to be fine. That person who makes you laugh on Twitter? Send him or her an 'attaboy. Know somebody at a think tank doing important research that doesn't get enough attention? Tell them! It takes about a minute to send an e-mail or tweet that says, "Hey, just wanted to say you're doing a great job!" You will make that person's day, believe me. And for once, I'm going to say don't tell me I'm doing a great job. And now, on to all that news that the media either forgot about or lost interest in . . . And You Thought You Had Heard All of the Bad News from the VA! Hey, remember the VA? The scandal-plagued Department of Veterans Affairs is systematically overpaying clerks, administrators and other support staff, according to internal audits, draining tens of millions of dollars that could be used instead to ease the VA's acute shortage of doctors and nurses. The jobs of some 13,000 VA support staff have been flagged by auditors as potentially misclassified, in many cases resulting in inflated salaries that have
gone uncorrected for as long as 14 years. Rather than moving quickly to correct these costly errors, VA officials two years ago halted a broad internal review mandated by federal law. As a result, the overpayments continue. Moreover, in the two years since thousands of misclassified jobs were identified, hundreds of additional positions have been filled at improperly high salaries. Internal VA documents obtained by The Huffington Post show that between September 2013 and May 2014, for instance, overpayments in annual salaries for the latter jobs alone came to $24.4 million, not counting benefits. Oh, Swell, More Bloody Urban Fighting in Another Corner of the World Hey, remember Russia and Ukraine? If you relied on most of the U.S. media, you might think that the fighting in Ukraine died down. Nope: Ukraine hit separatists near Donetsk with air strikes, saying it killed more than 50, as the European Union geared up to expand sanctions in response to the pro-Russian insurrection that's rocked the country since March. The operation to dislodge militants who've seized parts of Ukraine's easternmost regions is in an "active phase," Defense Ministry spokesman Vladyslav Seleznyov said on Facebook. EU governments plan to impose asset freezes and travel bans on 11 more people accused of fomenting unrest, two officials said. The U.S. said more Russian sanctions are possible. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko dismissed Russia's declaration that the separatists want peace talks, pressing on with an offensive to regain territory after fighters abandoned strongholds at the weekend and fell back to the Donbas region's biggest city of Donetsk. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said the militias are ready for talks and "ultimatums and pre-conditions" must not stand in the way of peace efforts. "Although the army now controls more of the Donbas territory, fighting the rebels in the densely populated cities of Donetsk and Luhansk is going to be tricky," Tatiana Orlova, a London-based economist at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, said yesterday by e-mail. "This phase of the military operation can be very protracted in the absence of a peaceful resolution." 'Don't Worry About that Stolen Nuclear Material!' the U.N. Assures Us Hey, remember ISIS? Iraq has notified the United Nations that Sunni militants seized nuclear material from a university in the northern city of Mosul last month as they advanced toward Baghdad, the nuclear regulatory body of the United Nations said Thursday. Gill Tudor, a spokeswoman for the International Atomic Energy Agency, which is based in Vienna, said in a statement that the organization's experts believed that the material — thought to be uranium — was "low grade and would not present a significant safety, security or nuclear proliferation risk." Word of the seizure first emerged in a letter to the United Nations dated Tuesday and seen by reporters from Reuters, which quoted it as saying that "terrorists" from the insurgent Islamic State in Iraq and Syria had taken control of the materials. The letter said that almost 90 pounds of uranium compounds had been kept at the university and that the materials "can be used in manufacturing weapons of mass destruction," Reuters said. . . . The uranium is unsuitable for use in a so-called dirty bomb, which uses conventional explosives to spread radiation, Olli Heinonen, a former chief inspector for the agency, told Reuters. Yeah, but picture ISIS blowing up some target in the heart of some city — in the U.S., in Europe, in the Middle East — and then immediately announcing they used uranium in the bomb. The fears of radiation could well create a panic as damaging as the bomb itself. In related news . . . remember Syria? The death toll in Syria's three-year war has eclipsed 170,000 people, one-third of them civilians, an activist group said in a new toll released Thursday. "Ever since the first casualty of the Syrian revolution was registered on March 18, 2011 in Daraa province, the deaths of 171,509 people have been documented," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Among the dead were 56,495 civilians, including 9,092 children, according to the toll, which included casualties documented up to July 8 this year. This total is now higher than most of the estimates of the number of people killed in the war in Iraq. People Aren't Paying Their Insurance Premiums? Who Could Have Seen This Coming? Hey, remember Obamacare? Colorado's health-care exchange is expecting nearly twice as many people to drop or decline to pay for their policies, resulting in $1 million less in revenue this fiscal year. In April, the staff projected 13 percent of people will drop or not pay for policies in fiscal 2015, but now they are expecting about 24 percent to drop their policies, according to the latest model. Because Connect for Health Colorado collects a fee on every policy sold through the exchange, the new model expects revenue from that fee to drop from $7.9 million to $6.9 million this fiscal year. And in fiscal 2016, the revised figures show dropped policies going from the 16 percent projected in April to nearly 22 percent, Exchange chief financial officer Cammie Blais said the staff is using the higher drop rate in more recent models because that is how national figures are tracking. Did Anyone Tell You How Many Full-Time Jobs Were Eliminated Last Month? Hey, remember the economy? Last month, 523,000 full-time jobs were lost, while 799,000 part-time jobs were added. Another way of looking at these numbers is that almost all of the 288,000 jobs created last month were just part-time positions . . . Right now, only 47.7 percent of adults in America are working full-time. Losing more than half a million full-time jobs in one month is not indicative of a strong, growing economy. It's a red light flashing on the nation's dashboard. The White House undoubtedly will want to celebrate the slight drop in the unemployment rate to 6.1 percent. But again, this number is not a cause for celebration. Teenage unemployment went up by 1.8 percent last month, to a 21 percent unemployment rate. Why would teenage unemployment be so high when teens are out of school and traditionally getting summer jobs? Well, because adults are dependent on the low-wage, part-time jobs these teenagers would normally fill. And that's not good for the economy or for our society. ADDENDA: Scott Brown, putting down deeper roots in New Hampshire quick: Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown's younger daughter, Arianna, is getting married on Sunday, and, in an interesting twist, the wedding will be officiated by a current U.S. Senator. No, it won't be Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, even though the ceremony will be held in Shaheen's neighborhood — at the Flag Hill Winery in Lee. Shaheen resides in neighboring Madbury. The wedding will be officiated by Sen. Kelly Ayotte, who said, "I consider it a great honor to have been invited to perform this ceremony, which will join the lives of two special young people." Finally, today is the birthday of @lmnopg, a.k.a. my brother. I recently learned that in his glorious high school soccer days at Metuchen High School in the mid-1990s . . .
. . . he played -- okay, technically he kept the bench warm -- against North Brunswick High School. His team won, 2-1. The goalie on the other team was . . . 
. . . none other than the great Tim Howard, goalkeeper for the U.S. National team, who broke the World Cup record for saves in one game.
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