Pentagon Official: The Facts Are In, And Obama’s Policy Is A Direct Danger To The United States

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Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

Photo Credit: REUTERS / Jonathan Ernst

The report is in, and the review of the president’s foreign policy is clear: If there is not an immediate course-reversal, the United States is in serious danger.

In 2013, the United States Institute for Peace, “a congressionally-created, independent, nonpartisan institution whose mission is to prevent, mitigate, and resolve violent conflicts around the world,” was asked to assist the National Defense Panel with reviewing the Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR). The National Defense Panel is a congressional-mandated bipartisan commission that’s co-chairs were appointed by Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel.

On July 31, the National Defense Panel released its long-awaited report on the effects of the QDR and delivered its findings to Congress. The panel pulled no punches — its findings were a scathing indictment of Obama’s foreign policy, national security policy, and defense policy. The panel found that president Barack Obama’s QDR, military force reductions, and trillion-dollar defense budget cuts are dangerous — and will leave the country in a position where it is unable to respond to threats to our nation’s security. This, the panel concluded, must be reversed as soon as possible.

In particular, the report addresses the need for the administration to return to the flexible response doctrine — a policy where the military was tasked with being capable of fighting two wars at the same time. Given the current state of affairs and the threats posed to our nation, the panel felt that the two-war doctrine was still required to meet our nation’s national security challenges. The man-power reductions and budget cuts are both reflections of this change in policy, so it must be altered before that is possible.

So what is the flexible response doctrine, and why is it so important?

Read more from this story HERE.

Joseph Miller is the pen name for a ranking Department of Defense official with a background in U.S. special operations and combat experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. He has worked in strategic planning.

Massachusetts Lawmakers Reach Back-Room Deal to Strip Gun Owners of Rights

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Photo Credit: Guns Save Lives

Photo Credit: Guns Save Lives

It looks like Mass. lawmakers have reached a last minute back-room deal to to attack the rights of Mass. gun owners.

Both the state House and Senate had previously passed different versions of the bill. The House version contained language that would allow local police chiefs enormous leeway in determining who could own a firearm in their jurisdiction. The Senate version stripped this language.

Unfortunately, behind closed doors, a joint Senate/House committee has adopted a version of the bill that puts the police chief language BACK IN the bill. Today is the last day of the legislative session in Mass., so this is expected to be up for a vote today…

The NRA-ILA has release the following statement about the bill,

Unfortunately, as predicted, the conference committee tasked with ironing out the differences between the House and Senate versions of an omnibus firearms bill adopted a report which still retains the most egregious provision, allowing issuing authorities to use discretion in issuing or denying FID cards. House Bill 4376 was reported by the conference committee late last night, and with less than 24 hours left in the legislative session, H.4376 is expected to be voted on sometime TODAY.

Read more from this story HERE.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Scott Walker’s Labor Reforms

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Photo Credit: Emily Mills / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: Emily Mills / Creative Commons

After three years of legal battles, the war for Gov. Scott Walker’s cornerstone public-sector collective bargaining reforms ended Thursday with the state Supreme Court upholding Act 10 in its entirety.

The Supreme Court, in a 5-2 decision, with even liberal Judge Patrick Crooks agreeing Act 10 is constitutional, gave its approval to the public employee labor law that sent thousands of protesters to the state capitol and 14 Democratic senators fleeing across the state line in a bid to stop it.

All but one liberal Dane County judge had concluded Act 10 meets constitutional muster. The law holds wage negotiations to the rate of inflation, ends automatic union dues deductions and requires annual union recertification votes.

Read more from this story HERE.

Airports On Alert To Look For Passengers With Ebola Symptoms

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Photo Credit: CBS New York

Photo Credit: CBS New York

By CBSNewYork/AP.

Newark Liberty and John F. Kennedy airports are among 20 ports of entry locations in the U.S. with quarantine stations that have been staffed with health officials trained to look for symptoms of Ebola in passengers.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it will evaluate any travelers with signs of dangerous infectious diseases and isolate them when necessary.

U.S. health officials on Thursday warned Americans not to travel to the three West African countries hit by an outbreak of Ebola.

The advisory applies to nonessential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where Ebola has killed more than 700 people this year.

“The bottom line is Ebola is worsening in West Africa,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the CDC, who announced the travel warning. He called Ebola “a tragic, dreadful and merciless virus.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Massive emergency drill in New York City

By Luke Funk.

The New York City Department of Health conducted a massive emergency preparedness drill at 30 facilities across the city on Friday.

They tested the delivery of emergency medications in the event of a biological attack, such as anthrax, or other large-scale public health emergency in the city. The majority of the deliveries will take place to public school buildings.

It’s the largest surprise drill in the city’s history. The drill was scheduled to take place from approximately 6:30 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. The majority of participants were given no notice to better test and simulate a real emergency and response.

“The NYC Health Department is responsible for developing and executing plans for the mass dispensing of life-saving medicine in response to public health emergencies,” said Dr. Oxiris Barbot, First Deputy Commissioner of the Health Department. “This exercise demonstrates our commitment to ensuring we have the capability and resources to protect the health and safety of all New Yorkers in times of crisis.”

New York News

Read more from this story HERE.

Clinton on Sept. 10, 2001: I Could Have Killed bin Laden but 'I Didn't' (+audio)

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Former President Bill Clinton, mere hours before the 9/11 terror attack, openly acknowledged that he turned down a chance to kill Usama bin Laden, according to a newly released recording.

The former president can be heard admitting this in a speech to Australian business leaders on Sept. 10, 2001.

Until now, Clinton’s eerie words had not been made public. But a businessman who had access to the nearly 13-year-old recording handed it over to Sky News Australia, which broadcast it in a report Monday.

“I’m just saying, you know, if I were Usama bin Laden — he’s a very smart guy, I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about him — and I nearly got him once,” Clinton said on the recording.

Read more from this story HERE.

Feds Fly Immigrant Minors to Hawaii on Taxpayer Dime

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Photo Credit: Watchdog.org

Photo Credit: Watchdog.org

By Malia Zimmerman.

Although 2,500 miles from the continental United States, Hawaii has joined the list of states temporarily housing unaccompanied minors from Central America who have illegally crossed into America through the Southwest border.

Who’s paying the freight? You, the taxpayer.

Some 60,000 Central American youths fleeing their home countries have come to the United States in the past few months. That number could reach 90,000 by the end of the year. Politicians, border agents and social service workers call the migration a “humanitarian crisis.”

Kenneth Wolfe, a spokesman the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told Watchdog.org that “between January 1 and July 7, a total of eight minors were discharged from the unaccompanied alien children program to sponsors in Hawaii.”

Wolfe couldn’t offer any details on the ages and countries of origin of the children, where the children are now living, or who is sponsoring them in Hawaii. However, he added the sponsors are “mostly family members of the child. In fact, more than half are parents of the minor.”

Read more from this story HERE.

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Immigrants to be Housed in ‘Suites’ Near San Antonio

By KRGV.com.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday will open a remodeled detention center three hours north of the Rio Grande Valley.

The Karnes City center will house women and children who entered the country illegally through the Valley.

The 532-bed facility underwent a massive renovation to house women and children. The center housed only adult immigrants in the past.

Immigrants will be at the facility for an average of 23 days.

The feds said the rooms will be referred to as “suites.” The suites are furnished with bunk beds, play tables for children, flat-screen television sets and landline telephones.

Read more from this story HERE.

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

1000 Children Fleeing Violent Honduras Heading to Violent Chicago

By Susan Jones.

A thousand children said to be fleeing the violence in Central America will be welcomed to Chicago, where local children are routinely in the cross-fire of gang-related grudges.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel, at the request of the Obama administration in which he formerly served, says he is working with local organizations to make room for up to one thousand additional unaccompanied children “traveling” from Central America to the U.S.-Mexico border in the coming year.

“The influx of unaccompanied child migrants is a growing humanitarian crisis that we can no longer ignore,” said Mayor Rahm Emanuel. “While we have our own challenges at home, we cannot turn our backs on children who are fleeing dangerous conditions. We will do our part to ensure that these children are given access to services and treated fairly and humanely.”

The city is also asking Chicago law firms to provide free legal assistance to the foreign children.

Emanuel on Wednesday said that his own grandfather left eastern Europe at age 13, all alone, to get away from the violence directed at Jews.

Read more from this story HERE.

‘That Face!’ Rep. Don Young Allegedly Strong-Arms House Staffer

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Obama Military Downsizing Leaves U.S. Too Weak to Counter Global Threats, Panel Finds

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Photo Credit: AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta

Photo Credit: AP / Manuel Balce Ceneta

An independent panel appointed by the Pentagon and Congress said Thursday that President Obama’s strategy for sizing the armed services is too weak for today’s global threats.

The National Defense Panel called on the president to dump a major section of his 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) and write a broader strategy that requires the military to fight on multiple fronts at once.

It also said the shrinking U.S. armed forces, which are being downsized to fit that strategy and budget cuts, is a “serious strategic misstep on the part of the United States.” The forces’ numbers spelled out in Mr. Obama’s QDR are “inadequate given the future strategic and operational environment.”

The warning comes as Mr. Obama is under criticism from many Republicans and some Democrats for his standoff policy toward Syria and his limited response to a June offensive by an al Qaeda offshoot that has gobbled up swaths of territory in Iraq.

Congress authorized the panel of outside experts to review the QDR, a strategy for shaping the active and reserve force. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel appointed the co-chairmen: former Defense Secretary William Perry, who served under President Bill Clinton, and retired Army Gen. John Abizaid, who ran U.S. Central Command during the U.S.-led occupation of Iraq.

Read more from this story HERE.

Senate Passes VA Overhaul in 91-3 Vote

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

The Senate on Thursday easily adopted a $17 billion bill meant to revamp the troubled Veterans Affairs (VA) Department.

Senators voted 91-3 in favor of a conference agreement that provides $10 billion in funding to pay for veterans to get healthcare at private facilities and another $5 billion to allow the VA to hire more doctors, nurses and other medical staff.

The House backed the proposal in a 420-5 vote on Wednesday. The bill now goes to President Obama for his signature.

“Right now veterans in many parts of this country are on very long waiting lists before they get VA healthcare,” Veterans’ Affairs Committee Chairman Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) said ahead of the vote. “Obviously this is an expensive proposition but it is one we have to address.”

Sanders negotiated the legislative deal with his House counterpart Rep. Jeff Miller (R-Fla.).

Read more from this story HERE.

The Environmental Corruption Agency

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Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

The lofty motto of the Environmental Protection Agency is “protecting people and the environment.” In practice, however, EPA bureaucrats faithfully protect their own people and preserve the government’s cesspool of manipulation, cover-ups and cronyism.

Just last week, Mark Levin and his vigilant Landmark Legal Foundation went to court to ask federal district judge Royce Lamberth to sanction the EPA “for destroying or failing to preserve emails and text messages that may have helped document suspected agency efforts to influence the 2012 presidential election.” The motion is part of a larger Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit to force EPA to release emails and related records from former EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson and others “who may have delayed the release dates for hot-button environmental regulations until after the Nov. 6, 2012, presidential election.”

Thanks to Levin and Landmark, Jackson and other EPA officials admitted in depositions that they used personal, nongovernmental email accounts to hide communications about official EPA business sent and received on their government-issued BlackBerries and smart phones. The agency has continued to drag its feet for two years in response to Landmark’s FOIA requests.

Levin minced no words: “The EPA is a toxic waste dump for lawlessness and disdain for the Constitution.” Not to mention disdain for the public’s right to know. As Levin added: “When any federal agency receives a FOIA request, the statute says it must preserve every significant repository of records, both paper and electronic, that may contain materials that could be responsive to that request.”

Read more from this story HERE.