[guest post by Dana]

Presenting UCLA, in all its eye-rolling glory:

First, the campus’s alleged systemic racism is being tackled with the hiring of “discrimination officers”.

UCLA is in the process of hiring two “discrimination officers” to handle racial discrimination complaints – a move expected to make it easier to probe grievances over racism – something alleged to be systemic among faculty at the public university.

“Concerned faculty members described a campus racial climate in near-crisis,” stated authors of a report released last fall which probed UCLA’s alleged racism epidemic and its supposed inadequacy at handling bias complaints. “(S)enior faculty members and former administration officials contended that the recent high-profile racial incidents at UCLA were only the tip of the iceberg, and that the campus racial climate, for a variety of reasons, has regressed since the mid-twentieth century.”

The discrimination officers, once hired, will be a one-stop shop of sorts, there for those who feel marginalized, giving them one, clear avenue to which they can take their complaints. UCLA Chancellor Gene Block says their hiring is imminent.

…

The report had also suggested the discrimination officers conduct mandated diversity training for administrators and develop annual reports summarizing all the bias incidents and their outcomes.

In addition to the diversity officials, UCLA is looking to mandate a diversity class as part of the general education requirement for students.

But of course.

And, really?? UCLA has to have a workshop to teach young adults about this?

–Dana

[guest post by Dana]

A much anticipated VA Office of Inspector General interim report was released yesterday. It is so damning that it seems highly likely that before the weekend is over, Veterans Secretary Eric Shinseki will have stepped down from his position to spend more time with his family. However, there are those arguing that his stepping down would be more for show and not solve the problem, even suggesting resignation would simply be a convenient distraction to mollify an angry public and possibly sidetrack a criminal investigation.

Also, with the release of the report, Sen. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee, called on Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct a criminal investigation into the Department of Veterans Affairs. It is so damning that even the Democrat leadership is calling for an investigation. (One assumes Nancy Pelosi has now discovered what the actual definition of “scandal” is). Less than two weeks ago, Holder was at a wait-and-see point.

“Well, obviously these reports if they’re true are unacceptable, and the allegations are being taken very seriously by the administration. But I don’t have any announcements at this time with regard to anything that the Justice Department is doing,” Holder told reporters at a press conference.

“This is something on our radar screen at this point, but there is an investigation being done by the [VA] inspector general, and we’ll see what happens as a result of that inquiry and other information that comes to light in some form or fashion,” Holder added.

In light of the interim report, it is difficult to see how he could not open an investigation.

Here is a summary of the interim report.

The report focuses only on Phoenix, Ariz. area VA hospitals, but in Phoenix alone, about 1,700 veterans were waiting for a doctor’s appointment but were not on the electronic wait list for the VA. Simply put, these vets had gone to the VA and tried to schedule an appointment, but were not put into the scheduling system. The explanation is that some staff at the Phoenix VA would place vets in the system only when they would be placed into an open appointment. Thus, when they were scheduled, the Phoenix VA could claim that each of these vets, many of whom likely waited months, had a wait time of “zero days.”

Other staff would simply delete doctor visits they thought were unnecessary. Still others would simply change the “requested appointment date” without telling the patient.

All of this sleight-of-hand allowed the Phoenix VA to boast in 2013 that vets waited an average of 24 days for their first appointment, which would look normal. In reality, yesterday’s IG report shows that these vets waited an average of 115 days for an appointment—almost four months! Not only do such underhanded tactics hinder efforts to better manage the VA, they also risk veterans falling through the cracks. Imagine being sick, calling the VA to schedule an appointment and being told “we will call you back when we have an appointment available” – and then they never call back.

–Dana

I have told the story of Songhai “Sunny” Armstead here before. Armstead is the race-obsessed judicial candidate here in Los Angeles who wants you to vote for her because she is black. I have previously told you how one of her supporters, Gail Copeland, is trying to rewrite history by scrubbing Armstead’s most controversial remarks from the Web, and using bogus copyright notices to get any contrary evidence deleted from the Internet.

Now you can see the scrubbing with your own eyes.

Reader JWB has a new video, which shows you exactly what Gail Copeland is trying to hide from the public:

The video first shows Copeland’s video with the edit — and then shows you the original clip, so you can see what Copeland edited out. Here is what Armstead said, that Gail Copeland tried to get scrubbed from the record:

Out of 30 people who are running in 15 open seats, I’m the only African-American running.

Why is that significant? You heard about realignment. You heard about the injustice that happens in our court system already. And you guys have seen who — I’m sure we all know who’s in our jails and who comes before our judges in court, right? It’s people who look a lot like the people in this room. People who look a lot like me.

I’ve been a prosecuting attorney and I’ve seen how things do not work in our system. I see how people who are disenfranchised, do not have appropriate education, or who come from underrepresented communities do not get access to fair justice. And part of the problem is that our judges don’t have the same life experiences that we have. They don’t have the same empathy. They don’t have the same understanding. They cannot relate. They have very narrow experiences. And so when they see a person come before them, they think everyone that comes before them is a horrible gang member or a violent criminal. You know?

Our jails are full of nonviolent people who are either have substance abuse problems, mental health issues, lack of education, or who are foster kids. Those people don’t need to be in jail. [Applause]

You have the power to change that. There are 15 open seats right now. I am the only African American running. There’s only one Chicana running. Can you guess who else is running? Are there people who care about the people in this room? Probably not. I can’t speak before them, but probably not.

It’s a blatant racial appeal for votes. That’s what Gail Copeland tried to strike from the record.

P.S. We are this close [imagine Patterico holding his thumb and forefinger very close together — Ed.] to having all of Armstead’s original remarks hosted right here, so that no bogus DMCA takedown can touch it. I had hoped to get that done by this morning, but we had some technical burps, and Admin Guy tells me it will likely be later today.

Free speech is going to win out.

Details at Hot Air. It’s the first contraction in three years.

This administration is shaping up to be very similar to that of FDR, one of the worst presidents in American history. Obama came into office facing an economy that already was doing poorly, thanks to bubbles inflated by Fed policy, and swung a Louisville slugger at the knees of that economy repeatedly. New regulations on employers, and new goodies for unions? Take that, economy! Misallocation of resources through monstrously huge government spending programs? Take that, economy! ObamaCare? How do you like that, economy?! Wham! Wham! WHAM!!!

And what do you know? The economy is starting to buckle under the repeated blows.

We’ve been through it all before, in the 1930s. This is a milder version, but the principles are exactly the same.

P.S. Admin Guy is working on issues with the site. Please be patient!