Generate a list of only those styles actually used in a given docx

Chris Morton started it when he posted the following on the Word-PC list:
"Word 2013: How do I quickly generate a list of only those styles actually used in a given docx?"

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Jessica Weissman replied:
2013 may be different, but it takes a macro to list all styles ACTUALLY USED in a document. Meaning all styles in which there is at least one paragraph with the style in the current version of the document.

Here's one. You have to add the scripting additions in references to use the dictionary construct. It is a bit obsessive about the Normal style, which fit my use case.
I don't guarantee that it works, as I haven't tested it in 2010 and definitely not in 2013.

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Sub FindAllUsedStyles()
' another method for finding and counting all actually used styles in a doc

Dim sAllStyles() As String
Dim vStyles As Variant
Dim I As Long
Dim idx As Long
Dim cParas As Long
Dim cStyles As Long
Dim cUsedStyles As Long
Dim sPrevStyle As String
Dim para As Paragraph

Dim aStory As Word.Range
Dim styleDict As New Scripting.Dictionary
Dim getStorytype As String
Dim aStyle As Style
Dim aStyleName As String
Dim aKey As Long
Dim tempKey As Long
Dim myRange As Range
Dim normCount As Long
normCount = 0

' put styles from the entire doc including headers and footers into a dictionary and count occurrences

For Each aStory In ActiveDocument.StoryRanges
getStorytype = Choose(aStory.StoryType, "wdMainTextStory", "wdFootnotesStory", "wdEndnotesStory", "wdCommentsStory", "wdTextFrameStory", "wdEvenPagesHeaderStory", "wdPrimaryHeaderStory", "wdEvenPagesFooterStory", "wdPrimaryFooterStory", "wdFirstPageHeaderStory", "wdFirstPageFooterStory", "wdFootnoteSeparatorStory", "wdFootnoteContinuationSeparatorStory", "wdFootnoteContinuationNoticeStory", "wdEndnoteSeparatorStory", "wdEndnoteContinuationSeparatorStory", "wdEndnoteContinuationNoticeStory")


If ((Left(getStorytype, 9) <> "wdEndnote") And (Left(getStorytype, 10) <> "wdFootnote")) Then

For Each para In aStory.Paragraphs
Set aStyle = para.Style


aStyleName = aStyle.NameLocal
' stuff below prevents counting Normal style for those phantom end of row markers
If aStyleName = "Normal" Then
If Not IsParaEndOfRow(para) Then
If Not IsParaEndOfHeaderFooter(para) Then
normCount = normCount + 1
' MsgBox "Normal found in " & getStoryType & normCount
' comment the line above back in if you want the macro to stop on every instance of Normal
If styleDict.Exists(aStyleName) Then
tempKey = (styleDict.Item(aStyleName)) + 1
styleDict.Item(aStyleName) = tempKey
Else
styleDict.Add aStyleName, 1
End If
End If
End If
Else
If styleDict.Exists(aStyleName) Then
tempKey = (styleDict.Item(aStyleName)) + 1
styleDict.Item(aStyleName) = tempKey
Else
styleDict.Add aStyleName, 1

End If
End If


Next para
End If
Do Until aStory.NextStoryRange Is Nothing
Set aStory = aStory.NextStoryRange
For Each para In aStory.Paragraphs
Set aStyle = para.Style
aStyleName = aStyle.NameLocal
If styleDict.Exists(aStyleName) Then
tempKey = (styleDict.Item(aStyleName)) + 1
styleDict.Item(aStyleName) = tempKey
Else
styleDict.Add aStyleName, 1

End If
getStorytype = Choose(aStory.StoryType, "wdMainTextStory", "wdFootnotesStory", "wdEndnotesStory", "wdCommentsStory", "wdTextFrameStory", "wdEvenPagesHeaderStory", "wdPrimaryHeaderStory", "wdEvenPagesFooterStory", "wdPrimaryFooterStory",

"wdFirstPageHeaderStory", "wdFirstPageFooterStory", "wdFootnoteSeparatorStory", "wdFootnoteContinuationSeparatorStory", "wdFootnoteContinuationNoticeStory", "wdEndnoteSeparatorStory", "wdEndnoteContinuationSeparatorStory", "wdEndnoteContinuationNoticeStory")


Next para

Loop

Next aStory


' Count of styles in the styles dictionary
cStyles = styleDict.Count
vStyles = styleDict.Keys


' Create a new document
' and insert the style names
Documents.Add

For I = 0 To cStyles - 1

Selection.InsertAfter I & " " & vStyles(I) & " " & styleDict.Item(vStyles(I)) & vbCr
Selection.Collapse wdCollapseEnd
Next I

End Sub

Function IsParaEndOfRow(para As Paragraph) As Boolean
If para.Range.Information(wdWithInTable) = True Then
'MsgBox "para.Range.Characters.Count in paraendofrow= " & para.Range.Characters.Count
If para.Range.Cells.Count = 0 Then
IsParaEndOfRow = True
Exit Function
End If
End If
IsParaEndOfRow = False
End Function

Function IsParaEndOfHeaderFooter(para As Paragraph) As Boolean
If para.Range.Information(wdInHeaderFooter) = True Then
MsgBox "para.Range.Characters.Count = " & para.Range.Characters.Count
If para.Range.Characters.Count = 0 Then
IsParaEndOfHeaderFooter = True
Exit Function
End If
End If
IsParaEndOfHeaderFooter = False
End Function

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Then Keith Soltys posted:
I tried running this and I get a compile error “User defined type not defined” on the line:
Dim styleDict As New Scripting.Dictionary
I assume that this is because I didn’t add the reference you mentioned, but I don’t know how to do that.

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Then Jessica posted:
You have to add the Scripting Additions to your references. That's where the Dictionary object is defined. Without that you can't use it in VBA.
More detail. These steps may be slightly different in 2013, but in 2010 or 2007 do this:
Open the VBA editor.
Open the Tools menu and select References.
Scroll down a long way until you see Microsoft Scripting Runtime. Check that box and save.
All should work right now.

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Then Keith replied back:
Got it. That did the trick. Thanks so much.
I need to rebuild some of our templates now that we have Word 2010 (most of them were done in Word 2003 or earlier) and that macro will be useful.

Every 8 Days

I keep a hard copy journal. It is a 10 year project that began on 1/1/2012 and ends on 12/31/2021. Its duration is 120 months. I divided up the 120 months into 24 5 subject 200 page spiral notebooks. Each section of each notebook is assigned a month/year combination. For example, I am currently writing in volume 21, section 4. This volume has the following month/year combinations:

1. Section 1: 9/13
2. Section 2: 9/20
3. Section 3: 8/20
4. Section 4: 6/14
5. Section 5: 7/18

The reason I am writing about this project on this blog is that yesterday, I was talking to a co-worker, Jay. He and I were looking at examples of technical documentation and we happened to come to a math website where you could enter equations and have the website give you the answer. I said, "I wonder if it could figure out every 8 days from a starting date to an end date." Jay looked at me with a puzzled look and said, "Every 8 days?"

That led into a description of the second element of this 10 year project. I have a separate spiral notebook that has a page for each month of each year in the project. At the end of the 12 pages for a year, there are empty pages for me to write a summary of that year. I wanted to have a set schedule for when I would write in this volume so I came up with the idea of every 8 days. In this way, I am not writing in it the same day of every week. I started with Monday, January 2, 2012, and most recently wrote in this volume on Sunday, June 8. The next scheduled entries are

• Monday, June 16
• Tuesday, June 24

Then, in July, the scheduled entries are:

• Wednesday, July 2
• Thursday, July 10
• Friday, July 18
• Saturday, July 26

Then, I skip a week and write on Sunday, August 3. So, when I said I wanted to figure out "every 8 days", I wanted to do that so I could put the dates in this volume on each month's page. I write on the front and back of the page and I write roughly a 1/2 page for each day. There are never more than 5 entries per month so it works out well. For some months, like this month, there are 3 entries and then I write a full back of a page for that last entry.

All of this windy prose is leading to a point. Jay mentioned Google Calendar and wondered if setting up a recurring event that is scheduled for every 8 days would get what I wanted. I opened it, created a new event, scheduled it for every 8 days and set an end date of 12/31/2021. I now have what I want and can enter each month's dates in my summary volume.

When I write about having a lot of projects going on in my busy life, this journal project is one of them. It doesn't mean I am not stopping / continuing with my other projects. For example, I just finished another spindle of CDs. One of them, from the death metal band Hypnos, has a track called "I am the Wind" buried as track 8 of 9. I have always loved this song. It has such an awesome tempo and structure. The drumming is interesting, especially at the 3:57 mark when the growly vocals kick in, followed by the guitar solo that isn't trying to cram a bunch of notes down the ear - it's quite melodic.

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As for a count of how many music files I now have as a result of the conversion, I don't have that number. I have been dismayed by the number of duplicate files that exist from the effort to consolidate my files from multiple directories into a single directory. In some directories, like for Metallica's Black album, there are 72 files when there should be 12. I know that the number of these files is artificially inflating the count of files in my music directory. Additionally, I have also noticed that I have a lot of files with @(random numbers) appended to the end of the file. Those files are a result of copying from the other directories into the main music directory. I also want to eliminate those files as well to avoid inflating my progress.
I wrote some DOS commands to locate these files similar to these next lines.

Dir *(2)*.mp3 /s >2s.txt
Dir *(3)*.mp3 /s >3s.txt
Dir *(4)*.mp3 /s >4s.txt
Dir *(5)*.mp3 /s >5s.txt
Dir *(6)*.mp3 /s >6s.txt
Dir *@*.mp3 /s >at_files.txt

After I review the list from these commands, I will use more DOS commands to delete them. I don't want to blindly do that now because I don't really know whether I will be deleting files that legitimately have those characters in the file name. I suspect most of them are legitimately duplicate files, but I don't know that for sure.

There is a lot going on in my life that I hope to address in future posts. None of the things I want to write about are awful / bad news. Life is pretty damn good, especially after a conversation last night about a former employer with a parent of one of Alex's teammates. The parent I spoke with still works there and the more we talked, the more I felt that God truly does make things work out for me.

Full of Regret

Ozzy sure has made a mess of his life. He has hurt numerous people and in this article, he comes right out and says I know I was shit and I know I caused people pain.
Good for him.

Getting Ready

Unexpected Break

I guess I'll call that a vacation from writing. I'm busy at the moment, but will resume thoughts here soon.

Happiness

I am a happy person. Seriously and sincerely, The issues I have in life are nothing major. I don't have a lot of drama and I really like that. I think the major reason I am happy is the underlying goal I have in life is to follow the No Garbage Trucks! Pledge.

I do not accept garbage in my life

When I see Garbage Trucks, I do not take them personally.

I just smile. I wave.

I wish them well.

And I move on.

And I do not spread garbage to others. 

I am not a Garbage Truck!

I do not accept garbage in my life.

Go find David J. Pollay's book on Amazon.com.

In the meantime, I am working in the concession stand during Alex' baseball game tonight. He has a game tomorrow night. Thursday, we leave for Elkader and I'm looking forward to a temporary break from this busy life.

Update on the Reconversion

I was able to get a little work done on the reconversion over the weekend. I finished my 27th spindle so I am actually a little ahead of schedule.

I just messed around with my Excel file that I use to track my progress and, as of right now, it says the following:

Total CDs to convert	Total CDs converted	Total CDs left
4684	3003	1681

So, roughly, this project is 65% complete with 182 days until its target completion date of 12/1/2014. If I were to work on this project each of the next 182 days - which I know I will not because of prior commitments - I would need to convert around 9.23 CDs a day. That would presume my total number of CDs left to convert is 1638 CDs. If I round (incorrectly) up, and use a base estimate of 10 CDs a day, that would presume my total number of CDs left to convert is 1820 CDs.

I will keep working on the reconversion and pay more attention to my progress than the statistics that are tracking my progress.

A crazy thing regarding Lars

To follow up on my post last week about how no one seems to love Metallica in the cyberworld, here's a message board that brings up one of the points on my list - what would have happened if Cliff Burton had not been killed. No one knows the answer but everyone has an opinion.

Restart

Alex tried to download content from his iPod to the Toshiba last night and iTunes wouldn't open. Megan had mentioned the issue to me a week or so ago and I finally got around to trying to resolve it by reinstalling iTunes myself. It wouldn't work. I even verified that I had the correct version of iTunes - 64 bit - and still, nothing worked.

Since it is nearly half-way done with the year, I have decided I am going to reset the Toshiba back to the factory default. There is something wrong with the installation of Chrome in that it defaults to Tuvaro, not Google, for its home page. I am in the process of copying all the MP3s I converted last night, files from Megan's profile, and pictures I just offloaded from the camera to the MyCloud drive. When that is done, I will reset the laptop. I'd like to get that reset tonight.

In other news, today is a milestone. It is my 3 year anniversary at work. I really embrace where I am as a person and like myself more than I did prior to starting here. I have made strides as a person. While I remained a flawed husband, father, and son, being sober has eliminated at least one troublesome area of my life. Today, in fact, is my 3 1/2 year anniversary of sobriety - how awesome is that?

We have a busy weekend. It starts tomorrow with Alex and I mowing a yard (not ours) before his double-header baseball games at 2 & 4. Karen's brother is picking up Karen and Megan on their way to Rachel's graduation party and then, after the 4 PM game, Alex and I are coming in the Ford truck. It continues on Sunday when we are going from Blue Grass to Zhwingle to pick up the camper and take it to Elkader and parking it on our spot. Then we will come home. I hope to be home by 5.

Next week is crazy. Monday night, we will prepare for camping / Sigwarth campout. Tuesday, Alex has a game. Wednesday, Alex has a game. Thursday morning, Karen and I will drive up to Elkader. Friday morning, I will play golf with the other guys at the Sigwarth campout. Friday afternoon, I hope playing 400 games of Euchre on my phone has prepared me for playing Euchre with the same group of guys that went golfing. Megan and Alex are bringing the GMC to Elkader when they get out of school on Friday. On Saturday, I may be swinging down from Elkader to Ely for a graduation party and then back to Elkader. Otherwise, I'm fairly confident there will be more Euchre and a bean bag tournament. I was on the second place team last year so if I play, I hope I do well. Then, finally, on Sunday, we'll slide the slide-out in and come home.

I haven't even looked beyond Monday, June 9, on my calendar.

Frayed Ends of Sanity

Simply put, Metallica is my all-time favorite band. It's popular to criticize Metallica. I can go to any message board and if Metallica is mentioned, few support the band. This is my interpretation of the general criticisms I've read that are written about Metallica. Some I agree with; others are simply out of touch with reality.
Here's my list:

1. they are rich snobs
2. they turned on their fans during the whole Napster hoopla
3. they tour too much, followed by too many tour dates in Europe and not enough in North America
4. they made a movie to get even more money
5. they played Antarctica but because they didn't play "Trapped Under Ice" they suck 
6. they keep finding excuses to delay the work on their 10th studio release 
7. they are irrelevant to heavy metal
8. they can choose any producer for their 10th release because "Lords of Summer" sucks 
9. they should have combined Load / Reload into a single release
10. they should offer refunds to those that bought St. Anger because the snare drum sound / tone is awful
11. they would be criticized by Cliff Burton if he were alive - Cliff would be ashamed of what they've done
12. they should replace Lars because he is an awful drummer - he looks too much like Billy Joel
13. they haven't written a decent album since (fill_in_the_blank). Popular choices include:
• Cliff Burton died
• they had Bob Rock produce their albums, suggesting that he ruined the band between the Black album taking the band mainstream and not doing enough work to make St. Anger sound better
• Master of Puppets or And Justice for All - the line in the sand between the two eras of "good Metallica" and "bad Metallica" is hotly debated. 

Of course there's more - perhaps I'll begin collecting them for a page on this blog. 
Despite all of that, I'm a disciple, a sheep, a mindless puddle of ooze when it comes to Metallica so the fact that the following two videos are of Metallica playing "The Frayed Ends of Sanity", first during soundcheck and then in concert, in its entirety for the first time ever, is a big deal to me. I love this song and it has always been my all-time favorite Metallica song since I first heard it in 1989.

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During the Concert

My Profile

At work, we have an internal website and within that website, we can enter a profile that tells others who we are. This is my profile:

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Born and raised in Cedar Rapids. Earned a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1992. Married my beautiful wife in 1993. Did telemarketing full-time, until I left to work a temporary scoring project in November 1992 for ACT. Was hired to enter FAFSAs at ACT and did that from 1/1993 - 2/10/1995, when I was hired as a Documentation Specialist at a software company in Cedar Rapids. Worked there 3 years until I went to another company. Stayed there 9 months (they were having issues with payroll) until I went to another company. Was the only technical writer for 12 years. Left there to go to another company for a few months until I came here.

Outside of work, I play drums both in a band called Uncle Rico the Band as well as at Mass.

Conversions are my specialty. Everywhere I go, it seems like there is a conversion from one help file format to another. I am really intrigued by the prospect of a single source for documentation. I love the idea of maintaining text that is used by multiple documents in one place and then seeing the changes ripple through to the documents that use that snippet.

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What I find amazing is after the hell I was going through in May 2011, I will reach my 3 year anniversary at work on Saturday, 5/31/2014. From where I was to where I am now seems remarkable. My mind was consumed with feelings of inadequacy that I pray no one ever has to go through. I thought I was a failure in all aspects of my life, not only as a father and husband, but as a professional technical writer.

Now, I feel so much better about who I am. Life is busy and I have moved along.

More Metallica

But I used a Paper Plate

If it wasn't so serious, the fact that a man drove a car into a woman because she asked him to wash dishes would be funny. Per the article, it sounds really messed up. Of course, the article only states, "she reminded the man to wash the dishes." How many times was the man reminded?

And I shouldn't have worried about writing 50 posts a month because this is post 1647 - total - and for May, this is post #53 for the month of May.

Put to Shame?

The recent Will Ferrell / Chad Smith drum battle was a comedy routine and done for charity. None of these epic drum-offs that will shame Chad Smith and Will Ferrell into retirement were for charity and, really, how much money was the author paid to mention Travis Barker 3 times? And, really, the author thinks the final drumline battle in "Drumline" was real? Really?

Shhh! Stop Talking

I love the music that the original members of KISS made, especially the Destroyer release. I have always respected that music and, as I've described previously, hearing the Gene Simmons solo release on 8 track is a cornerstone of my love for playing the drums. Who knows what I would have done if I had not heard that release?

That said, Ace Frehley needs to be quiet. He needs to stop being hung up on the past, stop being asked what he thinks about the original members not playing at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction, and anything related to the band in which he is no longer a member. Articles like this one where he speaks negatively about Tommy Thayer are just so unnecessary. There's no point. The jam session at the induction ceremony *didn't* happen, for whatever reason, so it's over. The awful "KISS Loves You" movie tracked his interaction with a fan, but that was several years ago. Now, today, Frehley has a new CD coming out called "Space Invaders" and he needs to focus upon that release and rehearsing for a tour that, I'm sure, will not come through Cedar Rapids or Iowa City or even Des Moines or Moline, IL. That's just my guess.

Realists Get It

Wading into Race Relations with Defiance

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https://youtu.be/ TRWCfGiyov0 - Mark Cuban Admits

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Roll the Credits

I'm not the biggest Will Ferrell fan. That said, "Roll the credits."

Memorial Day 2014

I was awake promptly at 6 AM today.

I can't say I know what is going to happen today. Alex and I mowed yesterday prior to going to a graduation party and, at one time, the plan was to mow today. Since that is done, I can't say what will happen. Karen talked about getting Alex some shorts, but I don't feel a strong desire to go on that shopping trip. I do have Uncle Rico rehearsal tomorrow evening so I could spend some time on the songs on set 2, even though I feel pretty good about those songs.

Last night was the Rainey going away party. As I think I mentioned previously, Ron and Margaret are moving to New Hampshire where Ron will be the women's soccer coach at Dartmouth. They close on the house within the next couple of weeks and, then, the new neighbors will move in. It will be an exciting time.

In the Big Picture, we got new neighbors on one side of us in summer 2013 and now, in summer 2014, we will get new neighbors on the other side of us. Lots of changes in our busy life.

What I would buy with that $2000 I don't have laying around...

70s Ludwig Blue Vistalite Octaplus Drum Set

[snip]
Includes 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 concert toms, 18″x 16″ Floor, two 22″ x 14″ Bass Drums, two (2) double tom drum stands, two (2) drum mounts (one for each bass drum), 3 floor tom legs, 2 sets of bass drum spurs. (no snare drum, snare drum stand, cymbals, cymbal stands are included – nor are any other items seen in the background of pictures) Very few scratches. The 8″ shell has slight separation on the seam. The 18″ floor tom is missing the bottom hoop. The Badge on the 6″ tom is bent up a bit.

Say it isn't so!

Because the Democrats want to protect Hilary Clinton as a 2016 presidential candidate, there are now Democrats on the committee to investigate, further, what happened in Benghazi.

Say it isn't so!

About Last Night

Last night, at rehearsal, we worked on "Sweet Child of Mine", "Royals", "Glad You Came," and "Escape". We also went through all of the songs in set 1.

1. Ring of Fire
2. Jet Airliner
3. Oh Boy
4. Squeeze Box
5. Brown Eyed Girl
6. I've Been Everywhere
7. Margaritaville
8. When the Sun Goes Down
9. Train in Vain (Stand by Me)
10. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
11. Just Like Heaven
12. Melt with You
13. Sweet Caroline
14. Love Her Madly
15. Santa Monica
16. Rock'n Me

Current UR Setlist

Set 1

1. Ring of Fire
2. Jet Airliner
3. Oh Boy
4. Squeeze Box
5. Brown Eyed Girl
6. I've Been Everywhere
7. Margaritaville
8. When the Sun Goes Down
9. Train in Vain (Stand by Me)
10. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)
11. Just Like Heaven
12. Melt with You
13. Sweet Caroline
14. Love Her Madly
15. Santa Monica
16. Rock'n Me

Set 2

1. You May Be Right
2. Blister in the Sun
3. What I Like About You
4. 8675309 Jenny
5. Dancing Queen
6. I Will Survive
7. I Ran
8. Wonderful Tonight
9. Folsom Prison Blues
10. Two Princes
11. Hot Stuff
12. Bad Case of Loving You
13. Mony Mony
14. Johnny B Good
15. I Saw Her Standing There
16. Interstate Love Song

Set 3

1. Hey Jealousy
2. Blitzkreig Bop
3. I Wanna Be Sedated
4. Should I Stay or Should I Go
5. Basket Case
6. Rock and Roll All Nite
7. Fight For Your Right
8. Paranoid
9. Rockin' in the Free World
10. Dancing with Myself
11. Don't Change
12. Brown Sugar
13. Your Mama Can't Dance
14. Pump It Up
15. Lola
16. All These Things That I've Done

Pearl Jam is coming

I consider myself a wishy-washy Pearl Jam. In the same breath that I declare I cannot stand the song "Jeremy", I will declare that I love their song "Evenflow", mainly because of the video. I've dismissed the idea that they are "grunge" because that genre, really, doesn't exist. It's all rock and roll. To the best of my knowledge, they've never played in Iowa. Now, as part of an upcoming tour of North America, they are coming to the iWireless Center in Moline, IL, on a Friday night, October 17.

Because of my wishy-washy attitude, I'm not sure if I am excited about the idea of seeing them or if it's a concert I won't think about again.

Hugely Satisfying

Just to tie up the joy from yesterday about my work situation, here's a relevant quote from Craig Cardimon's LinkedIn profile. Craig is a fellow technical writer.

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When I started working with computers and the web, I didn't know too much about them. People took the time to explain things to me. Now I help explain things to other people.

Picture this: Someone is on a deadline. They're tired, frustrated, and stuck. Then they pick up a copy of a user guide I wrote, thumb through it, find the solution to their problem, and get their project done.

That is hugely satisfying.

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Exactly!

James, Please just Get on with it!

After reading these comments from James Hetfield about the next Metallica release, I am just ready for it to be done. Quit talking. I am impatient, already, to the extent that I am really thinking I need to dig up "Death Magnetic" tonight so that I can rock out to "All Nightmare Long" (and others) tomorrow.

Veterans Affairs Hospital Controversey

I almost - almost - feel sympathy for White House Press Secretary Jay Carney. Day after day, including yesterday, he had to go in front of reporters and talk / lie (choose your verb) about what is happening in the world. This article says he is lying.

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From NBC First Read Newsletter

Will the Democratic dam break over the VA story?

President Obama on Wednesday addressed the growing outcry over the alleged misconduct at VA hospitals, and he said he was outraged. "When I hear allegations of misconduct -- any misconduct -- whether it's allegations of VA staff covering up long wait times or cooking the books, I will not stand for it. Not as commander-in-chief, but also not as an American. None of us should." But the president didn't buy himself a lot of time, especially now with some red-state Democrats criticizing him. "I listened to the president today, and I was very disappointed with President Obama today," Rep. David Scott (D-GA) said. "There was no urgency. Mr. President, we need urgency, we need you to roll up our sleeves and get into these hospitals!" Another Georgia Democrat, John Barrow, became the first Democrat to call for Shinseki's firing. And this is the question for the White House: Will the Democratic dam break? Will Scott be followed by Sens. Mary Landrieu, Mark Pryor, and Kay Hagan? If that happens, the White House won't have a whole lot of time to get to the bottom of this and fix it. They'll need to make a symbolic move quickly if they don't want to find themselves on a political island.

In an era of fake political outrage, the VA story demands true outrage

Slate's John Dickerson writes that our politics has witnessed plenty of fake outrage over the years. But this VA story demands true outrage. "Fake umbrage taking and outrage production are our most plentiful political products, not legislation and certainly not interesting solutions to complicated issues. We are in a new political season, too-that means an extra dose of hot, high stakes outrage over the slightest thing that might move votes. How does something get recognized as beyond the pale when we live beyond the pale? What makes the VA scandal different is not only that it affected people at their most desperate moment of need-and continues to affect them at subpar facilities. It's also a failure of one of the most basic transactions government is supposed to perform: keeping a promise to those who were asked to protect our very form of government." Well said.

How the VA remarks played

The Wall Street Journal: "Obama Pushes Accountability at VA"
The Arizona Republic: "Obama addresses Phoenix VA scandal; McCain says remarks 'fell short'"
USA Today: "Obama says he won't tolerate misconduct at VA"
LA Times: "At least for now, Obama stands by VA Secretary Eric Shinseki"
The Arizona Republic reports: "The top executive for the Phoenix VA Health Care System has been directed to repay thousands of dollars in bonus money she received last month as the national controversy erupted over allegations of delayed care and deaths at the Carl T. Hayden Medical Center."
The New York Times editorial board chastises Obama for his handling of the VA's problems, writing that "expressing outrage is hardly enough for a president who, as a candidate in 2008, criticized the agency and vowed to improve care and address backlogs. It is past time for a more visible personal commitment to right these wrongs as well as strong White House support for legislation that would make it possible for top agency officials to fire those responsible for wrongdoing."

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From the Fox News First Newsletter

VA SCANDAL ANOTHER BURDEN FOR DESPERATE DEMS

The hits keep coming for the blue team this midterm season. There’s just one problem for Democrats: These hits sting. The political liability of running in the shadow of the Obama administration’s scandals, from ObamaCare to Benghazi and now the Veterans Affairs debacle has become a crushing burden for vulnerable Democrats. President Obama’s Wednesday remarks, forced by pressure from lawmakers and public outrage over reports of corrupt practices at VA hospitals treating veterans, may well have added to that load. After weeks of silence, the president delivered a now familiar mix of disdain, promises of punishment for those responsible and another review. “If these allegations prove to be true,” Obama said, “it is dishonorable, it is disgraceful and I will not tolerate it – period.” “Too little too late” was the response from House VA committee Chairman Jeff Miller, R-Fla. Some Democrats broke ranks, agreeing with Republican and veterans groups’ calls for the ouster of VA Secretary Eric Shinseki, who the president continues to support. More than two dozen VA facilities are under investigation and new revelations of shady record-keeping surface almost daily. Pressure from Democrats already running away from the president’s low approval ratings and ObamaCare, may force his hand where Shinseki is concerned. While Obama has a tendency to stand by his cabinet chiefs and let scandals blow over, with veterans the victims and the midterm clock ticking, heads will need to roll…and soon.

[“How can we let this happen? How is that acceptable in the United States of America? The answer is, it’s not. It’s an outrage. And it’s a betrayal, a betrayal of the ideals that we ask our troops to risk their lives for.” – then candidate Barak Obama, criticizing President George W. Bush’s management of veterans care during a 2008 stump speech.]

The passive approach  - Milbank: “This would be a good time for Obama to knock heads and to get in front of the story. But, frustratingly, he’s playing President Passive, insisting on waiting for the VA inspector general to complete yet another investigation, this one looking into the Phoenix deaths.”

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http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/21/us/obama-faces-new-test-in-mismanagement-at-veterans-hospitals.html?emc=edit_th_20140521&nl=todaysheadlines&nlid=65176335&_r=0

Brain-ghazi-gate continues on

Sometimes I just chuckle about American politics. Everyone keeps talking about Hilary Clinton running for president.


It's kind of like the chatter on message boards and websites about the Justice League movie. It hasn't been made and there's all kinds of speculation about who will be the villain, which heroes will be in the Justice League with a lot of sites believing that Cyborg will replace the Martian Manhunter. I grew up in the era where Cyborg was a member of the Teen Titans (with Robin, Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, and Speedy) and where the Martian Manhunter was the hero that actually brought Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, and Aquaman together because of a crisis. Then I read that Captain Marvel might be in the Justice League.

The point is that there is a lot of noise about future events while current events don't seem to be as important. To paraphrase Yoda, it seems like we are all focused on the future and not what is happening now.

Update

After stating she would not, Nancy Pelosi has appointed five Democrats to the Benghazi committee, which I find worth chuckling about since Benghazi is a false controversy, per the video above.

Tori Amos Does Metallica

Sevendust

Sevendust returns to the Pepsi Pavilion - Waterloo, IA on Friday, August 15, 2014, which is where I saw them with Five Finger Death Punch in 2012. While I can't really understand what the hell the singer is singing, I fondly recall that I had a beer with him in the Sevendust dressing room prior to their show at the Five Seasons Center in Cedar Rapids. I've always liked their energy, but I wouldn't call myself a fan.