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

/4 Comments/in , /by

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

/5 Comments/in , /by

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

/1 Comment/in , /by

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.

A Response to Bloomberg Group’s Disturbing Anti-Gun Ad: ‘Warning: This Video Depicts Scenes of Self Defense’ (+video)

/4 Comments/in , /by

Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group Everytown for Gun Safety recently released a pro-gun control ad depicting an abusive ex breaking into a woman’s home and eventually shooting her. The ad was created in support of creating new gun restrictions to prevent domestic abusers from purchasing firearms.

On Wednesday, a pro-gun grassroots group, Liberty Pennsylvania, released a parody response showing what might happen in the same exact situation if the victim was “armed and ready to take action to defend herself and her family.”

Read more from this story HERE.

CIA Director Apologizes to Lawmakers as Probe Finds Officers Read Senate Emails

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: TownHall

Photo Credit: TownHall

The director of the CIA, offering a rare apology, has acknowledged an internal probe’s findings that CIA employees in the Executive Branch improperly spied on the Legislative Branch by searching Senate computers and reading staffers’ emails earlier this year.

According to a declassified CIA inspector general’s report, CIA officers improperly accessed Senate computers, read the emails of Senate staff, and exhibited a “lack of candor” when interviewed by agency investigators. The document, released Thursday by the CIA, is a summary of an internal CIA investigation — which prompted CIA Director John Brennan to abandon his defiant posture in the matter and apologize to Senate Intelligence Committee leaders.

Brennan also has convened an accountability board that will investigate the conduct of the CIA officers and discipline them, if need be.

But the admission already has led to fierce recriminations from Senate lawmakers.

Sen. Mark Udall, D-Colo., said he has “lost confidence” in Brennan, and urged the administration to appoint an independent counsel to investigate.

Read more from this story HERE.

German Officer to Serve as U.S. Army Europe's Chief of Staff

/5 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: U.S. Army Europe

Photo Credit: U.S. Army Europe

A German Army brigadier general who recently served with NATO forces in Afghanistan is assuming duties as the chief of staff of U. S. Army Europe, the first time a non-American officer has held that position.

Brig. Gen. Markus Laubenthal, most recently the commander of Germany’s 12th Panzer Brigade in Amberg, and chief of staff of Regional Command North, International Security Assistance Force Afghanistan, will be stationed at USAREUR headquarters, Wiesbaden, Germany. He could report to duty as early as Monday.

Laubenthal also has served as military assistant to the deputy commander of operations and assistant chief of staff of operations for NATO forces in Kosovo.

Read more from this story HERE.

Feds Accept Boredom, Lack of Work as Excuses for Surfing Porn On Clock

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

Photo Credit: J. Scott Applewhite

For one Federal Communications Commission worker, his porn habit at work was easy to explain: Things were slow, he told investigators, so he perused it “out of boredom” — for up to eight hours each week.

Lack of work has emerged time and again in federal investigations, and it’s not just porn, nor is it confined to the FCC. Across government, employees caught wasting time at work say they simply didn’t have enough work to do, according to investigation records obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

“He stated he is aware it is against government rules and regulations, but he often does not have enough work to do and has free time,” investigators wrote of another federal employee, this one at the Treasury Department, who viewed more than 13,000 pornographic images in a six-week span.

Investigations at the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Commerce Department and the General Services Administration have turned up similar cases, though memos show the employees rarely face criminal prosecution for time and attendance fraud.

A spokesman for the FCC declined to comment on what, if any, action the agency took after the FCC’s inspector general singled out the eight-hour-a-week porn peeper.

Read more from this story HERE.

Electability

/2 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: The Daily Signal

Photo Credit: The Daily Signal

What about “Electability”? There’s been talk about this lately in regard to candidates on a federal and state level, and now local Kenai Peninsula Borough assembly members down to local City Councilmembers in Homer. Electability is defined as “capable of, or having a reasonable chance of, being elected, as to public office.” Electability is a well used strategy in the political world. It is used in both the Republican and Democrat Parties.

The Party or Establishment (Establishment is defined as a visible dominant group or elite that holds power or authority in a nation or organization) often comes out and backs a candidate as “Electable”. And when threatened by a candidate, the Establishment will often portray a candidate as having a lack of “Electability”, using that as a reason to not vote for someone. This is often done before the primary election, claiming that a particular candidate will not be electable against whom they will run against in the general election.

But the Establishment does not have a great track record of determining “Electability”, or lack thereof. In previous races, Mitt Romney, John McCain and John Kerry were all deemed as being highly electable. But yet, they lost.

In my opinion, “Electability” sounds like the Establishment’s excuse for trying to persuade voters when a candidate’s positions on issues is threatening to the existing and often corrupt governments. For me personally, I choose not to be persuaded by other forces. Instead, I choose to vote my conscience and vote for candidates who stand for my individual rights and freedoms, and not more big government.

For more information, I encourage you to do your own research on this political strategy.

Federal Judge Dismisses Alaska's Lawsuit Over Refuge Closure During Government Shutdown

/1 Comment/in , /by

Photo Credit: blmiers2 / Creative Commons

Photo Credit: blmiers2 / Creative Commons

A federal judge has dismissed the state’s lawsuit over the closure of national wildlife refuges during the partial federal government shutdown last year.

U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason called case moot.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service restricted access to refuges nationwide during the 16-day shutdown last October. The state sued as Congress was poised to pass legislation to end the shutdown.

Read more from this story HERE.

Boehner Tries To Resuscitate Dying Border Bill

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

In the Speaker’s lobby just off the House floor, members of Congress were full of recriminations over how the border bill had just died—until it sprang back to life.

Now they have emerged from a last minute conference meeting vowing to “stay until we vote” and planning another meeting for tomorrow morning at 9:00 am, although it’s unclear what changes either to the legislative package or the support for the current one will occur in the meantime.

Inside the meeting, Rep. Raul Labrador (R-ID) vowed that if need be, he would miss his son’s upcoming wedding to stay in Washington to pass the bill.

But other lawmakers were punchy.

“Well, let’s see, I’ve been bitching about this for, what, 15 months? Democrats wants the votes and Republicans want cheap labor. They didn’t want to do anything with it, now they’re going to wait until the last minute? You know, I have a forum I’m supposed to be at, I can’t be, on this very subject,” Michigan Rep. Kerry Bentivolio said.

Read more from this story HERE.