U.S. War Readiness in Jeopardy as Pilots Flee (+video)

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Photo Credit: WND As if to dramatically illustrate repeated claims top generals have made to WND of a purge of senior officers and a degradation of military readiness under President Obama’s leadership, stunning testimony at a recent Senate committee hearing shows America may soon be unable to fight and win a war.

The Air Force is having problems retaining its pilots, even though they are being offered big bonuses to remain, senators learned at the Nov. 7 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

The problem appears to be partly from sequestration, which has imposed budget limitations on pilots’ ability to get in both the requisite flying time and the training needed to fly the next generation of aircraft, according to Air Force Secretary Eric Fanning.

He expressed grave concern about the trend toward budget cutbacks.

Likewise, at a recent Defense One Summit in Washington, Fanning warned that “we’re going to have flying hour issues for the foreseeable future,” a reference to the reality that pilots must fly a certain number of hours to maintain their ratings on various aircraft.

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Will this Court Case Destroy Obamacare?

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Photo Credit: WND

The Obama administration may be alarmed over the dismal number of people signing up for Obamacare, the rising health-care costs for Americans, the legal challenges to the religious discrimination embedded in the law and other problems.

But all of that would be of no consequence if a lawsuit in federal court in Washington succeeds. It alleges senators overstepped their authority in creating the Affordable Care Act and the law, therefore, is null and void.

The case argues that since the U.S. Constitution requires that revenue-raising measures originate in the U.S. House and Obamacare was created in the Senate, the law is unconstitutional. The case is headed toward the Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who has been leading the Obamacare charge since its inception, took a House-passed bill, deleted its contents and then substituted the Senate’s 2,000-page bill.

Now dozens of members of the U.S. House of Representatives are signing onto the battle, claiming the Senate didn’t have the authority to pass the bill.

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Deadly Storms Hit Midwest; Tornadoes Slam Illinois, Indiana

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Photo Credit: mccun934/flickrDozens of tornadoes and intense thunderstorms swept across the Midwest on Sunday, unleashing powerful winds that flattened entire neighborhoods, flipping over cars, uprooting trees and leaving at least five people dead.

Illinois took the brunt of the fury as the string of unusually powerful late-season tornadoes tore across the state, injuring dozens and even prompting officials at Chicago’s Soldier Field to evacuate the stands and delay the Bears game.

“The whole neighborhood’s gone. The wall of my fireplace is all that is left of my house,” said Michael Perdun, speaking by cellphone from the hard-hit town of Washington, where he said his neighborhood was wiped out in a matter of seconds.

“I stepped outside and I heard it coming. My daughter was already in the basement, so I ran downstairs and grabbed her, crouched in the laundry room and all of a sudden I could see daylight up the stairway and my house was gone.”

An elderly man and his sister were killed when a tornado hit their home around noon in the rural community of New Minden, said coroner Mark Styninger. A third person died in Washington, while two others perished in Massac county in the far southern part of the state, said Patti Thompson of the Illinois Emergency Management Agency. She did not provide details..

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Massachusetts Politician Calls For Law Allowing Police To Enter Private Homes, Ensure Guns Are Stored Safely

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Photo Credit: Opposing Views Swampscott, Mass., Selectman Barry Greenfield recently announced that state law should allow local law enforcement to enter private homes and inspect the safeguarding of guns.

Greenfield reportedly expressed concern over the Newtown, Conn., school massacre and other instances where young students have brought firearms to school. The politician reasoned that school shootings often involve children taking guns from parents who did not properly lock away their firearms.

Greenfield stated that the problem lies in the law enforcement. Police are not legally authorized to inspect the homes of gun owners to ensure that guns are being stored safely, he noted.

“We need the ability to enforce the state law,” Greenfield told Swampscott Patch. The selectman has reportedly already spoken to Swampscott Police Chief Ron Madigan about the issue.

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Obama Wants the Volcker Rule on Wall St. Oversight Completed by End of Year – Part of Dodd-Frank

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Photo Credit: Mark Wilson/GettyThe Obama administration, currently stumbling through the health care overhaul, has reached a critical stage in its other signature effort: reining in Wall Street.

The push to reshape financial oversight hinges on negotiations in the coming weeks over the so-called Volcker Rule, a regulation that strikes at the heart of Wall Street risk-taking. The rule, which bans banks from trading for their own gain, has become synonymous with the Dodd-Frank overhaul law that Congress adopted after the financial crisis.

Treasury Secretary Jacob J. Lew has strongly urged federal agencies to finish writing the Volcker Rule by the end of the year — more than a year after they had been expected to do so — and President Obama recently stressed the importance of the deadline.

While regulators are optimistic they will complete the rule soon, even after facing a lobbying onslaught from Wall Street, they have little time to overcome the internal wrangling that has stymied them for years.

The tension among regulators — five agencies are writing the rule — has centered on just how stringent to make it.

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U.S. Airways Kicks Off Blind Man And His Guide Dog; Other Passengers Witnessing It De-plane In Protest

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Photo Credit: Opposing Views In a show of solidarity, passengers on a U.S. Airways Express flight exited the plane because a flight attendant kicked a blind man and his guide dog off the flight.

Albert Rizzi, 49, a legally blind resident of Long Island, says he is considering legal action against the airline.

Rizzi told 1010 WINS that the flight attendant was angry that his guide dog Doxy wouldn’t stay underneath his seat. Rizzi said the flight from Philadelphia to Long Island’s MacArthur Airport was delayed and Doxy grew restless and agitated. She was curled up under Rizzi’s legs, but the flight attendant said that wasn’t enough. Doxy had to be “stowed under the seat.”

“I took offense to that,” Rizzi said. “My dog is not to be stowed, he’s not an inanimate object. This woman just did not want to understand that sitting on a plane for an hour and a half for any human is uncomfortable. The dog was just antsy and wanted to get comfortable.”

Rizzi, sitting on the back of plane, didn’t have room under his seat.

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Serious Talk of Repealing Obamacare Now Surfacing

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Photo Credit: Natural News During the recent government shutdown, both Democrats and Republicans who disagreed with the Tea Party tactic of defunding Obamacare said it couldn’t be done because, hey, Obamacare is the law of the land.

Shortly after the 2012 presidential election, House Speaker John Boehner said in an NBC News interview, “It’s pretty clear that the president was reelected, Obamacare is the law of the land.”

Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, head mistress over the worst website roll-out ever, has said: “This is no longer a political debate; this is what we call the law. It was passed and signed three years ago. It was upheld by the Supreme Court a year ago. The president was re-elected. This is the law of the land.”

That’s all we’ve heard since Obamcare was declared “constitutional” and “upheld by the Supreme Court,” so it’s the “law of the land.”

That is, until it gets repealed, which sometimes happens to bad laws.

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AG Holder Asks for Appeal in Fast and Furious Case Holding him in Contempt

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Photo Credit: APAttorney General Eric Holder wants to appeal a recent judge’s ruling that allows the House to continue with its contempt case, related to Holder’s refusal to turn over documents concerning the Justice Department’s failed Operation Fast and Furious gun-tracking program.

Holder made the request Friday night to U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson, asking that the Justice Department be allowed to put the case in front of a federal appeals court before Jackson makes any final decisions.

In September, Jackson rejected the Obama administration’s request to have the case dismissed.

The GOP-led House voted last year to put Holder in contempt of court after President Obama invoked executive privilege and Holder refused to turn over the documents.

Fast and Furious was a 2006-2011 Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives operation in which the agency allowed hundreds of guns to be sold to Mexican drug traffickers in hopes the weapons would lead them to cartel leaders.

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Healthcare.gov in Violation of FTC?

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Photo Credit: National Review Prosecute HealthCare.gov?

Conservatives often argue that the federal government should function more like a private business. Obamacare supporters should be grateful it does not, because otherwise HealthCare.gov would almost certainly run afoul of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), as well as of the recently established Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Orson Swindle, who served as an FTC commissioner from 1997 to 2005, says there are a number of practices that, if HealthCare.gov were a private entity, would result in its being “taken to the shed and horsewhipped” by government regulators.

President Obama’s oft-repeated falsehood, “If you like your plan, you can keep your plan” — something the administration knew was untrue — would almost certainly be a textbook case of deceptive advertising, punishable under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, which prohibits “unfair or deceptive acts or practice in or affecting commerce.” This includes a “representation, omission or practice that is likely to mislead the consumer,” such that the consumer would be “likely to have chosen differently but for the deception.”

Other examples of potentially deceptive practices include the apparently deliberate decision to withhold information from HealthCare.gov visitors as to the actual prices of the policies offered via the exchanges. In fact, users aren’t told how much those policies will cost until after they have created an account, which requires giving a slew of personal and financial information.

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CIA Personnel Asked to Sign Additional Non-Disclosure Form After Benghazi Attack

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Photo Credit: Fox News At least five CIA personnel, including government contractors, were asked to sign a second non-disclosure agreement after the Benghazi terrorist attack, Fox News has learned.

While the three-page NDA, obtained by Fox News, does not contain specific references to the 2012 attack which killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens, it does contain standard language that unauthorized disclosures could lead to “temporary loss of pay or termination” and “in some circumstances, constitute a criminal offense.”

Sources not authorized to speak on the record, given the sensitivity of this week’s closed-door testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, said the five CIA personnel did not feel pressure to sign the document. But they felt the request for a second non-disclosure agreement after the terrorist attack was odd and not standard practice because their original NDA’s were still in effect, and only some in the group were undergoing contract modifications that might require a new NDA.

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