Pentagon To Extend Certain Benefits To Same-Sex Spouses

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Photo Credit: Jeff Sheng/APThe Pentagon has decided to extend certain benefits to the spouses of gay and lesbian personnel, according to officials and people notified about the decision, responding to the increasingly vocal appeals of same-sex couples in the military.

The military expects to announce the decision this week.

Officials at the Pentagon would not say which new benefits the department has determined it can extend to same-sex couples without violating the Defense of Marriage Act, a 1996 law that bars the federal government from legally recognizing same-sex unions. Gay rights advocates have called for benefits including housing privileges, access to base recreational facilities and joint duty assignments for couples in the military.

Legal experts say, however, that the Pentagon will be unable to extend more than 100 benefits while the Defense of Marriage Act remains in place.

The new guidelines will be departing Secretary of Defense Leon E. Panetta’s final imprint on the armed forces. They will also come on the heels of two landmark changes undertaken under his relatively short tenure: the rescinding of the ban on openly gay service members and the decision to allow women to serve in combat units.

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Sierra Club Chief ‘Confident’ That Kerry, Obama Will Scuttle Pipeline

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Photo Credit: Center for American Progress Action FundSierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune predicted victory Tuesday in activists’ battle against the proposed Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, calling President Obama’s vow to focus on climate change in his second inaugural speech a good omen.

“We are confident that [new Secretary of State John] Kerry will advise the president and the president will decide to reject this pipeline because it is such a clear first test of the president’s commitment to actually fighting climate change and … moving beyond these extreme sources of energy,” Brune said on WAMU’s “The Diane Rehm Show.”

In addition to Obama’s speech, the arrival of Kerry – a longtime advocate of emissions curbs – at the State Department has bolstered environmentalists’ hopes that Keystone will not receive a federal permit.

The State Department is heading the federal review. Kerry, in his Jan. 24 confirmation hearing before a Senate committee, kept his cards close to the vest on Keystone.

Stopping TransCanada Corp.’s proposed pipeline to bring oil from Canada’s oil sands projects to Gulf Coast refineries has become a top priority for environmental groups.

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Alaska Republican Party On Shaky Ground in Disregarding Democratic Elections

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The Alaska Republican Party entered untrodden ground Jan. 31 when the outgoing state party leadership chose not to accept the legitimately elected state chair, but instead staged a coup against him just hours before his term was set to begin. In doing so, these party leaders have unwittingly laid siege to the very sacred fabric that our Republic was founded on —respect for the succession of political power by popular vote.

Before we are so quick to give up this foundational right that was purchased on bloodstained battlefields by our ancestors, consider the oath you took the last time you pledged allegiance to the flag: “… and to the Republic, for which it stands.” What does it stand for? It stands for the freedom to choose your own leaders by popular vote and have that vote respected by both the winner and the loser. The state party just violated that sacred principle for internal political or personality differences.

You see, our soldiers didn’t purchase this right with their own blood just for individual politicians or political party bosses who come and go like the change in seasons. They gave their lives for an ideal, a principle, a dream. They died for our Constitution, our law, our right to choose. Don’t dishonor their memories by casting aside this sacred principle of freely choosing the succession of our elected leadership by popular vote — right here, right now, right under our noses.

We chose a new leadership team at the 2012 state convention by means of a free and fair election. Just because the past administration didn’t like who was elected, it is no excuse to circumvent the election results. Doing so places cracks in the foundation of the very institution that placed them in power in the first place.

It does not matter whether or not you personally like Russ Millette. His qualities for leadership were determined and voted on by a majority of our state delegates at the 2012 Republican State Convention and therefore are not subject for debate. The issue here for debate is our adherence to our own party rules and the sacred tradition of honoring the succession of political power by majority vote. If we are too morally weak to challenge this evil, our party will be hopelessly corrupted. You may argue that the old administration was just too powerful, too connected and too indispensable to be replaced by a free election. Charles de Gaulle once said, “The graveyards are full of indispensable men.”

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Russian Wardens Throw Party For Stalin’s Gulag

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Photo Credit: snowlepardMOSCOW (AP) — Millions of people died in Soviet dictator Josef Stalin’s gulag, but the 75th anniversary of the founding of one of the notorious forced-labor camps was cause for a celebration in Russia.

Russian news portals reported Tuesday that local officials and prison wardens threw a party last week honoring the Usolsky camp in the Urals, with music and dancing and speeches by former camp guards.

The NKVD, the KGB predecessor which ran the gulag, “instilled traditions in the camp that still hold value today,” the Solikamsky regional department of Russia’s prison service said in a statement. These traditions included allegiance to the motherland, mutual assistance and respect for war veterans, the statement said.

Hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers who had been captured by Nazi forces during World War II were sent to the gulag after the war

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Obama Misses 4th Consecutive Budget Deadline

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Photo Credit: U.S. Embassy Jakarta, IndonesiaPresident Obama missed the Monday deadline for submitting a budget to Congress, marking the fourth time in five years he has been late — and in a town where missing deadlines is routine, this one is beginning to get noticed.

The Budget Act requires that he submit a blueprint for taxes and spending by the first Monday in February, but only once, in 2010, has he met that deadline. This year, the White House hasn’t yet said when it will have a plan.

“Focus on substance over deadlines,” White House press secretary Jay Carney urged reporters aboard Air Force One as the president jetted to Minnesota to campaign for stronger gun controls.

But in an ironic twist, the president missed the deadline the same day he signed the aptly named “no budget, no pay” act, which withholds pay from members of Congress if they don’t pass a budget by their own legal deadline of April 15. That was attached to a bill that waives the federal debt limit through mid-May.

Republicans are trying to turn Washington’s focus toward the budget process and what they hope will be a renewed debate on spending cuts.

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NRA’s LaPierre Singles Out Violent Chicago, Calls For 1,000 Federal Agents To Patrol Its Streets

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On Fox News Sunday, National Rifle Association’s Wayne la Pierre came out with both barrels blasting, singling out the gun violence in Chicago.

Chicago, a city with one of the nation’s strictest gun control laws, is also one of the nation’s most violent, leading it in death by gunfire.

LaPierre took on the violence in Chicago and noted that if federal gun laws already on the books were enforced, instead of putting even more restrictions on gun legal ownership, it could help solve the city’s violence problems.

“We are all obsessed with the Taliban and we ought to be. What about the gangs?” “They are ruining neighborhoods all over the country? We need a federal task force, if it takes 500 agents; if it takes a thousand agents, go into Chicago.”

“Every gang member on the street of Chicago, starting tomorrow morning, let’s pick ’em up, we’ve got a federal law to get them off the street and put them in prison, and that would cut crime and we’re not doing it.”

There seems to be a lack of will to enforce existing gun laws. New York for example, has a mandatory law requiring prison time for anyone found with an illegal gun in his possession…Yet the law is full of loopholes and less than half of those arrested for illegal gun possession face any prison time.

There are over nine thousand gun laws on the books already. Perhaps it’s time for existing gun laws to be enforced, before any new laws are proposed.

Several years ago a city in the San Francisco bay area was suffering from a massive wave of violence. East Palo Alto was becoming a shooting gallery; so violent it was dangerous for the thousands of motorists who used its main artery daily to travel to other parts of the bay. Shootings, rapes, armed robbery, arson, carjacking and open drug dealing were the norm. The local police department was not up to the task to protect its citizens and put a halt to the crime.

To combat this unprecedented crime wave, communities in the San Francisco bay area & the state of California pitched in with extra police forces to swarm the city. They soon had rounded up gang leaders and the violent individuals who were creating much of the crime. They had a task force that instantly responded to crime and aggressively hunted down the criminals. Existing laws were enforced and soon the streets of this city were relatively safe. The criminal element had been broken.

LaPierre’s suggestion for federal intervention in Chicago is a good one. Bring in federal police forces to help patrol the violent streets. Make it a national priority to protect the law abiding citizens of Chicago. When the criminals are taken off the streets, the percentage of gun violence will be drastically reduced.

This same formula should be used to target other crime and violence plagued cities. Disarm and jail the criminals who use guns, enforce the existing gun laws.

Secret Memo Reveals Obama Justification for US Drone Strikes

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Photo Credit: The TimesPresident Obama is using the British government’s Iraq war-era legal arguments as part of the secret justification for the United States drone programme.

A leaked memo drafted by the US Department of Justice cites a legal argument given by Lord Goldsmith, Tony Blair’s Attorney General in the aftermath of the invasion of Iraq.

The 16-page memo makes the case that America’s drone programme is legally justified in targeting US citizens as part of wide-ranging extra-judicial powers granted to the President.

The emergence of the document, which was obtained by NBC News, is the first time the Obama Administration’s secret legal justification for deadly drone strikes against US citizens has been published.

The Department of Justice argues that Mr Obama can order the killing of senior al-Qaeda operatives even if there is no evidence they are planning an attack against the United States.

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Obama Embraces ‘Dark Money’

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Photo Credit: APThe creation of the dark-money group Organizing for Action is a sign President Barack Obama has no intention of repudiating the role of corporate money in political life during his second term, campaign finance experts suggest.

Advocates for reform, which Obama has previously claimed to support, are disappointed by his reversal.

“Organizing for Action marks a complete retreat for President Obama from his pledge to try to change the way we finance elections,” said Craig Holman, a government-affairs lobbyist at Public Citizen, a nonprofit organization opposed to corporate money in politics. “It makes a total mockery of any effort to try to limit corporate money.”

Organizing for Action, which will replace Obama’s Organizing for America campaign apparatus, will attempt to channel the grassroots energy from the 2012 election into support for the administration’s policy agenda. OFA already has started wooing corporate donors, according to Politico, and will not be required to disclose its funding sources as a 501(c)4.

Politico reported that corporate representatives were asked for contributions at OFA’s unveiling event in January. A spokesperson for Walmart stressed that the company was invited to the event by a group called Business Forward, not Organizing for America.

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Video: Ted Nugent Schools Piers Morgan Yet Again, Says He’s ‘Full of Crap’

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While President Obama was out on a tour of the country to promote his latest brand of tyranny, Piers Morgan was jonesing for another fight on gun control.

As one might expect, seeking out the Nuge wasn’t the smartest move Morgan has ever made.

Per usual, Piers was impervious to the facts. But hey, who can blame him? It’s a grand liberal tradition.

Nugent not only schooled Morgan in debate, he even allowed the gun-control advocate to try out an ‘assault rifle,’ which he had to admit was pretty cool.

Doctors to Obama: You’ve Failed Again

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Photo Credit: WNDMembers of the Christian Medical Association had harsh words for Barack Obama after his latest attempt to mandate abortion coverage in Obamacare: You have failed.

“This latest version of the contraceptives and sterilization mandate remains unacceptable,” said Dr. David Stevens, executive director of the Christian Medical Association. “Since when does the government get to pick and choose which groups will get to enjoy First Amendment protections?

Our founders intended the First Amendment to protect every American’s freedom to act according to one’s conscience,” he said. “They didn’t specify that only groups deemed religious will be afforded this protection; freedom of conscience applies equally to all Americans.”

Dr. Gene Rudd, CMA executive vice president, joined Stevens.

“The administration fails to understand that many employers and individual Americans, regardless of a religious label or not, maintain strong conscience objections to participating in any, way, shape or form in a plan that promotes pills that the FDA says can cause the demise of a living human embryo – a developing baby in her earliest stage,” Rudd said.

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