Secret Service Under Investigation Over loss of Sensitive Files On Metro

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The Secret Service is the target of an investigation into an “immense breach” involving the loss of two backup computer tapes left on a Washington, D.C., Metro train that contained sensitive personal information about all agency employees, contacts and overseas informants, according to multiple law enforcement and congressional sources.

The ongoing probe is one of 13 new investigations involving the Secret Service launched by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS-OIG) in recent months. The new investigations stem from information received during the course of DHS-OIG’s ongoing ‘Culture of Secret Service’ probe, requested by the Senate Homeland Committee in the wake of the Cartagena, Colombia prostitution scandal in April. While these new investigations are ongoing, the Culture of the Secret Service report is expected to be released sometime in the spring.

The Secret Service acknowledged the incident surrounding the lost tapes, but downplayed the security risk.

Sources said the tapes were lost on the Red Line of the Metro in 2008 by a young, low-level associate of a private contracting company that had been hired to transport them from Secret Service’s Investigative Resources Management division at the agency’s headquarters in the Penn Quarter section of Washington, D.C., to a secure vault in Olney, Md., where government agencies store contingency plans, documents and other backup material. The employee had volunteered to deliver the tapes because he lived near the location of the vault, but got off at the Glenmont, Md., Metro stop without the tapes, according to sources.

Sources said the “personally identifiable information” — or “PII,” in government-speak — on the tapes includes combinations of the following: Social Security Numbers; home addresses; information about family members; phone numbers; dates of birth; medical information; bank account numbers; employment information; driver’s license numbers; passport numbers; and any biometric information on file with the Secret Service.

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Russia Arms Syria With Powerful Ballistic Missiles

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Hours after NATO agreed on Tuesday to send Patriot missiles to Turkey because of the crisis in Syria, Russia delivered its first shipment of Iskander missiles to Syria.

The superior Iskander can travel at hypersonic speed of over 1.3 miles per second (Mach 6-7) and has a range of over 280 miles with pinpoint accuracy of destroying targets with its 1,500-pound warhead, a nightmare for any missile defense system.

According to Mashregh, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard media outlet, Russia had warned Turkey not to escalate the situation, but with Turkey’s request for Patriot missiles, it delivered its first shipment of Iskanders to Syria.

Reporting today, Mashregh said the handover occurred when Russian naval logistic vessels docked at Tartus in Syria.

The Iskandar is a surface-to-surface missile that no missile defense system can trace or destroy, Mashregh said. Russia had earlier threatened that should America put its missile defense system in Poland, it would retaliate by placing its Iskander missiles at Kaliningrad, its Baltic Sea port.

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Rich, Hypocritical Greenies Decry Endangered 20 Ton Whale Decaying on Their Prisitine Beach

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Barbara Streisand woke up to the smell of nature at work this morning. As she breathed in the usually refreshing salt air of the Pacific ocean lapping at the beach below her stunning beachside Malibu mansion……

Rolling in the surf line, just upwind, was the rotting carcass of a dead fin whale.

Wildlife authorities think the whale, on the endangered species list, might have had a collision with one of the ships that ply the coastline. But the fact remained; this is a lot of nature to have going on in your front yard.

The exclusive surf side community is home to Streisand, Bob Dylan and many others in the Hollywood entertainment industry. This is ground zero for those who embrace and fund every “green” cause and proudly drive their Prius to show how pious they are about it.

Of course Barbara and her family could shift residences into the adjoining and interconnecting two other seaside mansions she owns, to try to avoid the smell of nature at work. But it seems the prevailing wind graces each residence equally.

Although rare for California, this particular stretch of beach is private. According to Carol Baker from the Los Angeles County beaches and harbors commission, the homeowners have responsibility to the high tide line and the state has control of the tide lands.

According to Cindy Reyes, executive director of the California Wildlife Center,
Los Angeles County lifeguards planned to try to pull the 40,000-pound carcass out to sea.

But fire Inspector Brian Riley said that won’t work.

“The carcass is embedded in the sand and impossible to tow free,” “Burial at low tide will be difficult as well as land removal. It’s in an area with bad access.”

It will be interesting to see if red tape will be cut in order to facilitate this “rescue.”

Will these residents get special dispensation from the usual quagmire of interconnecting environmental agencies, coastal commissions, building departments, fish and game, harbor traffic safety and every other local, state and federal ABC agency you can think of?

Meanwhile, residents of La Jolla, a community south of Malibu, have been petitioning the state and federal authorities for months, just to let them wash off rocks in the ocean near their community.

The rock strewn shores have become home to large groups of protected species who deposit large amounts of their feces. Evidently the stench is unbearable. But environmentalists and government regulators are adamant about disrupting the natural order of things. This part of the California coast is home to a more politically conservative group of residents.

With the violent death of the fin whale, a capital environmental crime has been committed. The whale is an endangered species; shouldn’t a full scale investigation be conducted before the body is even remotely considered to be moved? Where is the environmental CSI team?

This talk of bulldozing up a California beach in order to bury the carcass or move it is another assault on almost every environmental nerve ending. Where is the moral outrage?

If this were a true “green community,” and the residents were really concerned for the environment, they would let the whale carcass stay where it washed up naturally and let nature take its course for the next year. The whale would provide badly needed nutrition to the local marine animal/bird community.

Letting the whale carcass stay and decompose naturally, would also make an environmental statement louder than any horn from a Prius could make.

What are the chances? The answer is blowing in the wind.

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Ed Farnan is the conservative columnist at IrishCentral, where he has been writing on the need for energy independence, strong self defense, secure borders, 2nd amendment, smaller government and many other issues. His articles appear in many publications throughout the USA and world. He has been a guest on Fox News and a regular guest on radio stations in the US and Europe.

Deposed GOP Lawmaker Suggests He Could Vote Against Boehner As Speaker (+video)

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photo credit: gage skidmore

Rep. Justin Amash (R-Mich.) suggested Friday he might not support Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) for Speaker.

“Well, right now I’m not very happy with the Speaker so let’s see what happens over the next several weeks, let’s put it that way,” Amash said.

Amash is one of four House Republicans removed from their plum committee posts this week by Boehner.

The move has triggered opposition from outside conservative groups, some of whom have launched efforts to replace Boehner as Speaker. Within the GOP conference, the response has been more muted.

In an interview with CNN, Amash refused to say whether he would support Boehner for another term as Speaker.

Read more from this story HERE.

Meet Republican-Independent-Democrat Charlie Crist: 2010 NRSC Pick for US Senate Switches Parties … Again

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TALLAHASSEE, Fla.— Former Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who was elected the state’s chief executive as a Republican and then ran unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate as an independent, announced on Twitter on Friday night that he’s switching to the Democratic Party.

The announcement fanned speculation that Crist would seek to regain his old job from Republican Gov. Rick Scott in 2014.

Crist sent out a tweet that said, “Proud and honored to join the Democratic Party in the home of President (at)Barack Obama!”

The tweet included a photo of a smiling Crist and his wife Carole as he held up a Florida voter registration application. The Tampa Bay Times reports that Crist signed the papers changing his affiliation from independent to Democrat at a Christmas reception at the White House. President Barack Obama greeted the news with a fist bump.

“I’ve had friends for years tell me, ‘You know Charlie, you’re a Democrat and you don’t know it,’” Crist told the newspaper Friday night.

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“Kill Those F***ing Yankees” Rapper to Perform For Obama’s Christmas Bash; WhiteHouse.gov Scrubs Petition to Rescind Invite

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In yet another apparent White House misstep, a popular but virulently anti-American South Korean rapper is slated to perform for Obama’s “Christmas in Washington” special on December 21.

The worldwide phenomena Psy, whose “Gangman Style” YouTube video has generated almost one billion views – possibly the most popular YouTube video of all time – sung these lyrics at a concert in 2004:

Kill those f***ing Yankees who have been torturing Iraqi captives
Kill those f***ing Yankees who ordered them to torture
Kill their daughters, mothers, daughters-in-law and fathers
Kill them all slowly and painfully

A couple of years before singing these outrageous lyrics, Psy (whose real name is Park Jae-sang), destroyed a model of a US Bradley Fighting Vehicle on stage during a performance. This was purportedly in reaction to the deaths of two teenagers who were accidentally struck by an American armored vehicle while maneuvering in South Korea.

Of course eight years ago, Psy was virtually unknown internationally. Even since his “Gangman Style” video exploded across the globe a few months ago, there was little media focus on his virulent anti-American past. That is, until the media became aware that he was slated to perform for Obama’s Christmas in Washington event later this month.

Given his international stardom and growing wealth from his increasingly American following, Psy went into damage control yesterday, issuing a belated apology through MTV.

The White House seems to be following suit, going as far as to remove the White House.gov petition that called on Obama to disinvite Psy. That petition (“Rescind Invite of Gangnam Style Rapper Psy to Perform for Pres. Obama Christmas Party Over Troop Killing Song”), was taken off the White House site earlier today with no explanation other than it was “removed from the site under our Moderation Policy because it is in violation of our Terms of Participation”:

Although Obama has debased the Office of the Presidency at least as much as the philanderer and perjurer-in-chief Bill Clinton, he has a historic opportunity, almost two weeks before his Christmas in Washington special, to demonstrate his loyalty to the American combat soldier and patriotism by boycotting the event.

But I’m not holding my breath over this one. If Obama’s and his generals‘ willingness to sacrifice US soldiers’ lives over political correctness is any guide, you can pretty much guarantee the President won’t skip a beat over a Christmas performance of a rapper who wants to “Kill those f***ing Yankees.”

Boehner Orchestrating the GOP’s Demise

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photo credit: donkeyhotey

It’s a contest of wills and guess who is winning? President Obama, of course. And that’s because the president is up against the GOP’s equivalent of Churchill’s “Boneless Wonder,” Speaker John Boehner. Matched against the president, Boehner is making Ned Beatty’s hapless character from the classic movie Deliverance look downright gritty.

Boehner the Boneless Wonder’s beta dog routine is doing much to deep-six the Party of Lincoln. Hyperbole? Don’t grumpy grassroots conservatives grouse incessantly that establishment Republicans are screwing the — well, putting it more politely, screwing it up and that the Grand Old Party will go the way of the pterodactyl?

For the insulated tin-eared prowlers of the halls of Congress (Boehner being chief), hear this: The times, they have a-changed — radically so. The context is dramatically different today than America before the Hugo Chavez-in-chief wanna-be in the White House, the august and empurpled Barack Hussein Obama, took the nation’s reins (“On Dancer, on Comet, on Boehner!)

As of this writing, there’s been no stout opposition — no bold proclamation of principles, no declaration of a fight for limited government and liberty — from the speaker in the teeth of the president’s insistence to tax the lights out of “rich” Americans (and, shhh!, every other working American, too, eventually). Boehner and his lackey GOP colleagues remind the history-minded of the French in the face of the Nazi blitzkrieg: throw up those white flags before the speaker’s perfect hair is mussed.

As Dana Milbank opines in The Washington Post: “One of Boehner’s lieutenants, Pete Roskam of Illinois, stepped to the microphones, essentially pleading for the president to show mercy. ‘President Obama has an unbelievable opportunity to be a transformational president — that is, to bring the country together,’ he said. ‘Or he can devolve into zero-sum-game politics, where he wins and other people lose.'”

Read more from this article HERE.

Efforts to Appoint “Watergate Committee” for Benghazi Gaining Steam in House

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As hearings on the Benghazi murders continue on Capitol Hill, House Republicans are hopeful they have the support to establish a select committee–the kind used to probe the Watergate and Iran Contra scandals–to get to the bottom of what happened.

Republican Sens. John McCain (Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (S.C.), and Kelly Ayotte (N.H.) fought late last month to set up a special select committee in the Senate. But efforts to create the committee fizzled as Senate colleagues, including Republican minority leader Mitch McConnell (Nev.), called the effort unnecessary and duplicative of ongoing efforts.

But Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) said the effort he’s leading in the House has legs, with 14 co-sponsors on a just-introduced resolution and new research from the Heritage Foundation that backs up calls for a select committee on Benghazi.

“This isn’t going to be an attempt,” Wolf said. “We’re really working to do this.”

A new Heritage web posting published on Wednesday argues that precedent supports the creation of such a committee, noting that Watergate and the Iran-Contra affair, while massive political scandals, were bloodless while Benghazi was not. The committees were also employed to elicit information following the 1941 Pearl Harbor attacks and the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

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DeMint Takes Parting Shot at Boehner (+video)

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Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.), who shocked Washington on Thursday with the announcement that he would resign his Senate seat in January to become president of the the Heritage Foundation, sent a parting shot at Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) over the “fiscal cliff” negotiations.

“I’m not with Boehner,” DeMint said on CNN’s “The Situation Room.” “This government doesn’t need any more money, this country needs less government.”

House Republican leaders on Monday proposed a counteroffer to President Obama in the “fiscal cliff” negotiations. The proposal would reduce spending by $2.2 trillion through a combination of spending cuts and entitlement reforms, and would produce $800 billion in new revenue without raising tax rates, although the plan doesn’t specify how.

Two high-profile conservative groups lashed out at the GOP offer, one of which was the Heritage Action for America, a sister organization to the Heritage Foundation.

“Republicans were reelected in the House to stop Pres. Obama’s agenda, not figure out creative ways to fund it,” Heritage Action for America communications director Dan Holler told The Hill in an email.

Read more from this story HERE.