memeorandum: VA wait times are bad. The private sector isn't much better. (Timothy Noah/msnbc.com)

7:10 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: Washington Post, Associated Press, No More Mister Nice Blog, Gawker, Hinterland Gazette, The Other McCain, WGN-TV, Scared Monkeys, The Daily Caller, ThinkProgress, 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

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, Gawker, ABC News and The Moderate Voice

Cynthia Johnston / Reuters:

Gunman kills six in drive-by shooting in California college town — (Reuters) - A lone gunman sprayed bullets from a car in a drive-by shooting in a southern California college town, killing at least six people before his car crashed and he was found dead inside, authorities said on Saturday.

Discussion: Daily Kos and Canada Blog …

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

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: Liberaland

Jessica Wehrman / The Columbus Dispatch:

Privatizing VA still appeals to Boehner — WASHINGTON — More than two decades ago, House Speaker John Boehner said, he floated an idea that was controversial: Why not privatize the Department of Veterans Affairs? — The idea was soundly rejected by veterans' organizations.

Discussion: ThinkProgress

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

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, Power Line, Financial Times and The Week

Financial Times:
Central bank blog

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

Chris Giles / Financial Times:
Piketty findings undercut by errors

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

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

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 …