Hagel: Budget Cuts Could Force Navy to Sideline 3 Aircraft Carriers

/6 Comments/in , /by

By Associated Press. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel warned Wednesday that the Pentagon may have to mothball up to three Navy aircraft carriers and order additional sharp reductions in the size of the Army and Marine Corps if Congress doesn’t act to avoid massive budget cuts beginning in 2014.

Speaking to Pentagon reporters, and indirectly to Congress, Hagel said that the full result of the sweeping budget cuts over the next 10 years could leave the nation with an ill-prepared, under-equipped military doomed to face more technologically advanced enemies.

In his starkest terms to date, Hagel laid out a worst-case scenario for the U.S. military if the Pentagon is forced to slash more than $50 billion from the 2014 budget and $500 billion over the next 10 years as a result of Congressionally-mandated automatic spending cuts.

The Pentagon has been ratcheting up a persistent drumbeat about the dire effects of the budget cuts on national defense, and as Congress continues to wrangle over spending bills on Capitol Hill. Read more from this story HERE.

_________________________________________________________

Photo Credit: APHagel: Smaller budget means smaller military

By Kristina Wong. A smaller Army and Marine Corps, consolidated combatant commands and a “decade-long modernization holiday” will befall the U.S. military if defense cuts known as sequestration remain in place, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Wednesday.

Mr. Hagel unveiled Wednesday the results of a department-wide fiscal review that identified budget items that would be cut to accommodate $500 billion in reduced defense spending over the next decade.

If Congress does not reverse the cuts, the Army could shrink to 380,000 troops from its target strength of 490,000. Similarly, the Army Reserves, which has been mostly saved from sequestration, would face reductions.

In addition, the Navy’s aircraft carriers could be reduced from 11 to eight or nine, the Corps could field as low as 150,000 Marines instead of 182,000, and combatant commands — headquarters dedicated to a region or specific function — could be merged.

“This strategic choice would result in a force that would be technologically dominant but would be much smaller and able to go fewer places and do fewer things, especially if crisis occurred at the same time in different regions of the world,” Mr. Hagel said. Read more from this story HERE.

Nancy Pelosi: Obama Among the Most ‘Non-Partisan’ Presidents Ever to Serve in White House

/8 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: red alert politicsHouse Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi may have finally fallen completely off her rocker Tuesday as she commended the President and her fellow Democrats in Congress for propelling the Left into a “bipartisan, cooperative alternative” party.

The 73-year-old California Democrat seemed to fan-girl over President Obama during a meeting with USA Today’s editorial board Tuesday, calling him “one of the most practically non-partisans I have seen in the White House.” It seems the Commander-in-Chief has earned this special place in Pelosi’s heart by his apparent willingness to work with Republicans to thwart yet another upcoming fiscal crisis.

In fact, Pelosi, who is the most well-known leader on Capitol Hill according to a Gallup poll from April, believes that the GOP is solely to blame for all the bickering in Washington – something which they’re doing solely for political gain.

Read more from this story HERE.

DHS Loses Track of One Million Foreigners, Puts Amnesty Bill at Risk

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe Homeland Security Department has lost track of more than 1 million people who it knows arrived in the U.S. but who it cannot prove left the country, according to an audit Tuesday that also found the department probably won’t meet its own goals for deploying an entry-exit system.

The findings were revealed as Congress debates an immigration bill, and the Government Accountability Office’s report could throw up another hurdle because lawmakers in the House and Senate have said that any final deal must include a workable system to track entries and exits and cut down on so-called visa overstays.

The government does track arrivals, but is years overdue in setting up a system to track departures — a goal set in a 1996 immigration law and reaffirmed in 2004, but which has eluded Republican and Democratic administrations.

“DHS has not yet fulfilled the 2004 statutory requirement to implement a biometric exit capability, but has planning efforts under way to report to Congress in time for the fiscal year 2016 budget cycle on the costs and benefits of such a capability at airports and seaports,” GAO investigators wrote.

Outside business groups and Republican donors are trying to breathe life into the push for getting an immigration bill through Congress this year.

Read more from this story HERE.

Canada Warns Obama: It’s Trains or the Keystone Pipeline

/3 Comments/in , /by

On 6 July, a Montreal, Maine & Atlantic train carrying 72 tank cars filled with oil exploded after its brakes apparently failed, sending it rolling into the small Quebec town of Lac-Megantic, where it derailed and then exploded. In the conflagration that followed, an estimated 47 people were killed.

Whether Canadians like it or not, the use of such trains has soared in recent years. The Railway Association of Canada reports that as recently as four years ago Canadian railways moved just 500 carloads of crude oil, but that number has now soared to about 140,000 carloads annually.

While currently only about three percent of Canadian crude is currently transported by rail, one industry predicts railway carriage of oil products rising to as high as 25 percent by 2035.

Now, in a breathtaking display of chutzpah, the Canadian ambassador to the U.S. is warning President Obama if he does not approve the controversial Keystone XL pipeline, then he can expect similar oil trains and even trucks to enter the U.S. Ambassador Gary Doer said, “His choice is to have it come down by a pipeline that he approves, or without his approval, it comes down on trains. That’s just the raw common sense of this thing, and we’ve been saying it for two years and we’ve been proven correct. At the end of the day, it’s trains or pipelines.”

Read more from this story HERE.

White House Now Calling Benghazi Phony Scandal

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: APThe White House said bluntly Wednesday that it considers the controversy over the Benghazi attack to be among the so-called “phony scandals” that President Obama has been complaining about in recent speeches — even as new questions were being raised about the lack of progress in the investigation.

Press Secretary Jay Carney was asked at the daily briefing about Obama’s repeated claim — which he asserted most recently during a speech in Tennessee on Tuesday — that Washington is getting distracted by phony scandals. Asked what the president was referring to, Carney listed the scandals over the IRS targeting of conservative groups and over Benghazi.

“What we’ve seen, as time has passed and more facts have become known, whether it’s about the attacks in Benghazi and the talking points or revelations about conduct at the IRS, that attempts to turn this into a scandal have failed,” Carney said.

Carney was specifically referring to claims by GOP lawmakers that the administration misled the public about the nature of the attack, by stressing the connection to an anti-Islam film. The administration denies this. But lawmakers continue to have concerns that extend far beyond the so-called Benghazi talking points.

Read more from this story HERE.

Earth Barely Escapes an EMP Mass Catastrophe From Coronal Mass Ejection (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

The earth barely missed taking a massive solar punch in the teeth two weeks ago, an “electromagnetic pulse” so big that it could have knocked out power, cars and iPhones throughout the United States.

Two EMP experts told Secrets that the EMP flashed through earth’s typical orbit around the sun about two weeks before the planet got there.

“The world escaped an EMP catastrophe,” said Henry Cooper, who led strategic arms negotiations with the Soviet Union under President Reagan, and who now heads High Frontier, a group pushing for missile defense.

“There had been a near miss about two weeks ago, a Carrington-class coronal mass ejection crossed the orbit of the Earth and basically just missed us,” said Peter Vincent Pry, who served on the Congressional EMP Threat Commission from 2001-2008. He was referring to the 1859 EMP named after astronomer Richard Carrington that melted telegraph lines in Europe and North America.

“Basically this is a Russian roulette thing,” added Pry. “We narrowly escape from a Carrington-class disaster.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Media Going Wild Over New Revisionist History of Christ Written by Muslim (+video)

/3 Comments/in , /by

The media is in love with Reza Aslan’s new book Zealot, which claims to provide a ‘historical’ look at the life of Jesus. NPR called it ‘Christ in context,’ while the Seattle Times wrote, ‘Zealot looks at the age Jesus lived in to expand what’s known about this historic figure.’

Over the last week or so, the book shot from obscurity to number one on the Amazon bestseller list. It is always curious when the media decides to trumpet a book based on Jesus, and the situation becomes even more suspect when you begin to uncover who Aslan really is.

“The name of the book is Zealot. The guy who has written it – in no way controversial. There’s no controversy attached to this at all in the mainstream media, which is strange,” Glenn said on radio this morning.

Aslan is Muslim, and while that has little to no impact on his ability to write a book about Jesus, the media and Aslan have sought to minimize that fact…

“Zealot is the latest in the progressive attempt to rewrite history,” Glenn said. “The amazing thing is, it’s working. It’s working… It’s not that he’s a Muslim. It’s the fact he’s a liar and a progressive.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Homosexual Athletes, Fans may be Prosecuted at Russia’s 2014 Winter Olympics

/4 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: Cane KongIn Russia it is now illegal to even speak about homosexuality around minors, much less openly display gay pride. Technically the ban is against “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations” around minors, but the implication for openly gay individuals is clear. Public displays of affection by gays, including holding hands or displaying symbols like a rainbow flag, are now banned. Violators face steep fines and jail time; foreigners face similar penalties plus deportation.

So what will happen to openly gay athletes and fans, as well as any vocal supporters or protestors, when Russia hosts the Winter Olympics next year in Sochi?

This week, comments by a lawmaker from St. Petersburg set off a firestorm online when he said that fans and athletes would not be immune from prosecution during the games.

Vitaly Milonov, who sponsored legislation in St. Petersburg last year that became the basis for a national law signed by President Vladimir Putin in June, was quoted telling the Interfax news agency that the law will remain in place during the Olympics and will be applied to foreigners.

“If a law has been approved by the federal legislature and signed by the president, then the government has no right to suspend it. It doesn’t have the authority,” he reportedly said, stressing that he has not heard anything different from Russian officials.

Read more from this story HERE.

Scientists Grow New Teeth Out of Urine

/3 Comments/in , /by

Photo Credit: MSNWhatever the reason, you may be missing a tooth. But a typical dental implant costs several thousand dollars — and as much as $10,000 if there are complications or bone grafts are needed. And most dental insurance policies don’t cover the bulk of implant costs.

So, the news from China about new research showing that new teeth can actually be grown is nothing short of astounding, and such a process could remake dentistry as we currently know it. As Medical News Today reports, Chinese scientists have successfully used stem cells to grow solid organs, including teeth, from stem cells. The study, first published in the journal Cell Regeneration, also details just how the organs and teeth were regrown: Using stem cells from . . . urine.

The scientists mixed mouse cells and human cells to create the different types of cells that make up a human tooth: pulp, dentin and enamel. The little creations were physically and structurally “quite similar” to human teeth, the study says, though they are not as strong — yet — as natural human teeth.

Read more from this story HERE.

Democrats Successfully Lobby Murkowski to Change Vote on “Explosive” ATF Nominee

/2 Comments/in , , /by

By Meredith Shiner. Democrats and their allies lobbied Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska for more than an hour Wednesday to change her vote on the nominee to head up the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the pressure worked.

Murkowski flipped and voted to advance the nomination of B. Todd Jones to be the ATF’s new director. With her vote change, Murkowski both averted a filibuster, and perhaps more importantly, staved off Democratic threats to end the minority’s ability to filibuster executive branch nominees. Just weeks ago, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., backed away from using the “nuclear option” after a number of Republicans, including Murkowski, began voting to beat back filibuster attempts led by their own party.

That tentative agreement was imperiled Wednesday by the struggle to get 60 votes for Jones. Murkowski originally voted “no,” but after conferring with Sens. Susan Collins, R-Maine, John McCain, R-Ariz., Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Reid, among others, the Alaska Republican switched to “yes.” Read more from this story HERE.

______________________________________________

Minnesota’s B. Todd Jones is an explosive choice to lead ATF

By Kevin Diaz. The choice of Minnesota U.S. Attorney B. Todd Jones to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives (ATF) made him the face of a national anti-violence agenda growing from the shock of the schoolhouse shooting massacre in Connecticut…

To Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the ranking Republican on the panel, Jones has a lot to answer for. Grassley has tried unsuccessfully to force Jones to testify about Fast and Furious, a troubled ATF gun-tracking operation on the Mexican border that Jones was brought in to clean up. Grassley also sought to tie Jones to a controversial Justice Department deal to drop two whistleblower cases against St. Paul as a means of averting a civil rights showdown before the Supreme Court over the city’s rental code enforcement…

The criticisms have become personal as well. Republicans have delved into anonymous complaints from lawyers in the Minneapolis U.S. attorney’s office who accuse Jones of an overbearing “militaristic” management style that has fostered a “climate of fear.” An internal ATF video warning of “consequences” for those who go outside of the chain of command was interpreted by some critics as a threat against potential whistleblowers.

Also “disturbing,” Grassley said, was a letter from Donald Oswald, a former head of the Minneapolis FBI office, accusing Jones of “poor leadership” and an “atrocious professional reputation”…

Since 2006, when the agency split off from the U.S. Treasury Department, the gun lobby has objected to every ATF nominee, including the choice of former President George W. Bush. In that sense, some analysts say Jones is as much a symbol as the active head of the ATF. Read more from this story HERE.

______________________________________________

Senate preserves fragile filibuster deal after Murkowski switches her vote to OK ATF nominee

By Susan Ferrechio. The Senate appears to have narrowly avoided blowing up a recent agreement on filibustering executive branch nominees by securing the 60 votes needed to advance the nomination of B. Todd Jones to be director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

“It was close,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said after convincing Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, to switch her vote to support Jones. ”The fact that we have this good spirit of bipartisanship to move these nominations forward is what guided us here.”

The Senate advanced Jones’ nomination later Wednesday by a 60-40 vote after Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., flew back to Washington to add her “yes” to the tally. The Senate later formally confirmed him, 53-42 making Jones the first person in seven years to be confirmed by the Senate to fill the ATF position.

The deal to approve Jones nearly fell through earlier in the day, which would have not only left the job vacant but torpedoed a deal struck earlier this month between Democrats and Republicans to move forward on executive branch nominees. Jones was not specifically included in the deal but if the GOP had blocked him Wednesday, it would have re-ignited a years-long fight over the minority’s increasing use of the filibuster and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s threat to change the 60 vote threshold to block a filibuster on executive branch nominees to 51 votes.

The vote on Jones was so close, Democrats held it open for hours to accommodate Heitkamp. She cast the 60th vote. Read more from this story HERE.