Marine Corps to Cut 20,000 Active Duty Positions

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The United States Marine Corps is set to shed more than 20,000 active duty positions in the coming years and have already commenced a process meant to force some senior officers into an early retirement.

The Marines are on course to cut around 4,000 positions a year through 2017, decreasing the total number of Marines to 182,100 from its peak last year of 202,100, according to a major scale-down order that was quietly issued last year.

The reduction in forces could leave the elite fighting force underprepared to battle multiple regional threats, particularly those in the Middle East, according to military experts.

The impending cuts are independent of the $1.2 trillion in mandatory cuts, otherwise known as sequestration, which will take place next month if Congress fails to reach a preventative deal.

“The effect will be that there will not be sufficient Marines available to both be ‘America’s 9-1-1 force’ and to be ready for sustained ground combat,” said Steven Bucci, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense who warned that the decreased number of Marines will leave the force overstretched.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mass Media Silent As Federal Government Prepares for War With the People?!?

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photo credit: muffetLast September, in “The government’s war at home,” St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner looked at some ominous developments that seem to indicate preparation on the government’s part for domestic warfare. The enemy? Oh, the usual suspects in these times of fear mongering about “right-wing violence”–“anti-federalists,” “Tea Party insurgents,” militias, etc.

The newest “enemy” (theoretically, of course–at the moment), according to authorities in Ohio, is “Second Amendment activists,” who are so angry about federal “gun control” laws that they use chemical, biological and radiological weapons against . . . someone–who that would be is not very clear.

Meanwhile, with retailers struggling to meet the demand for ammunition, and government agencies buying it up by the hundreds of millions of rounds (thus both further exacerbating private citizens’ difficulty in procuring ammo, and boosting these agencies’ own supplies to levels more than adequate to kill the entire citizenry), there are alarming indications that the military is further choking off citizens’ supply, by (illegally) destroying used cartridge brass that would otherwise be sold back to the civilian market and reloaded for inexpensive ammo.

Even far more chilling, if true, are allegations that the Obama administration has imposed a “litmus test” on senior military leaders, with an unwillingness to order troops to fire on American citizens being disqualifying for command. Stewart Rhodes, veteran paratrooper and founder of the Oath Keepers, told St. Louis Gun Rights Examiner that this claim, while deeply disturbing, is not in the least implausible:

“I find it very plausible. Frankly, I would be shocked if it were not happening. Now, I have no “smoking gun” confirmation of that, but let’s just say that it fits like a glove with all that we do know is fully confirmed.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Cruz: Conservatism ‘On the Verge of a Rebirth’

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WASHINGTON — Newly minted Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz on Saturday offered an optimistic picture of conservatism’s future.

“We are on the verge of a rebirth,” Cruz declared to a conservative audience at the National Review Institute Summit.

Lambasting President Barack Obama’s inauguration speech as “an ode to liberalism” and as much of a lip-sync job as Beyonce’s version of the National Anthem, Cruz — who has been pushing his idea of “opportunity conservatism” — encouraged conservative not to lose hope, despite an emboldened Obama and Democratic majority in the Senate.

“We can stop this, we can turn it around and in fact, I am right now incredibly, incredibly optimistic,” he said.

Cruz offered two paths for the movement to follow, one short-term and one long. His short-term plan, he said, is largely directed to the Republican majority in the House of Representatives — what he called “the last bastion standing between us and oblivion.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Boy Scouts Likely to Approve Gay Leaders in Major Policy Reversal

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The Boy Scouts of America announced today, under pressure from questions raised by The Christian Post, that the organization is likely to allow professed homosexuals to become scout leaders and that a vote on the matter is scheduled at the group’s executive meeting in Irving, Texas, the first week of February.

When asked about the change by The Christian Post, BSA officials confirmed the major policy reversal just days before Scout Sunday, February 3, an annual event held in many churches around the country to promote and encourage participation in scouting. The organization originally planned to make the announcement at the Boy Scouts of America Annual Meeting in May.

A source who has knowledge of the situation told The Christian Post last week that the BSA’s top executives had met with top leaders at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention, among others, over the last few weeks to inform them of the possibility of this policy shift.

Early Monday morning, the BSA responded to CP’s inquiry and released the following statement via email:

“For more than 100 years, Scouting’s focus has been on working together to deliver the nation’s foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training. Scouting has always been in an ongoing dialogue with the Scouting family to determine what is in the best interest of the organization and the young people we serve,” wrote Deron Smith, BSA’s Director of Public Relations.

Read more from this story HERE.

Sessions: Large-Scale Amnesty Likely to Add Trillions to Debt

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Alabama Republican Sen. Jeff Sessions voiced concerns over the bipartisan proposal for immigration reform introduced on Monday by eight senators, saying the plan will substantially increase the already sky-high national debt and criticizing the federal government for inadequately enforcing existing immigration laws.

“No one should expect the members of the Senate are just going to rubber stamp what a group who met decided,” Sessions said on the Senate floor.

While immigration system needs to be reformed, Sessions said, the country has been through this dance before.

The Alabama senator recalled the failed promise of enforcement following immigration reform in 1986, as well as the aborted attempts at immigration reform in 2006 and 2007.

The latter efforts, Sessions said, didn’t succeed “because it did not do what they said it would do. It did not end the illegality. It did not set forth a proper principle of immigration for America, [and] it did not sufficiently alter the nature of our immigration system to advance the national interest of the United States.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Government Scraps Position Dedicated to Closing Prison at Guantanamo

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The State Department office responsible for helping facilitate the relocation of prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba has been closed, The New York Times reports.

The paper reports that Daniel Fried, who served as the special envoy for Guantanamo Bay since the position’s inception in 2009, has been reassigned. He will not be replaced, and his duties will now be “assumed” by the State Department’s legal adviser, according to an internal personnel announcement.

Relocating detainees had been seen as a vital step in the president’s promise to close the prison, which was frequently and vociferously criticized by liberal activists before Obama’s election.

“I have said repeatedly that I intend to close Guantanamo, and I will follow through on that,” Obama told CBS’ Steve Kroft in November 2008.

Obama also signed an executive order shortly after taking office that declared the prison for suspected terrorists would be shuttered “no later” than January 2010.

Read more from this story HERE.

Milwaukee County Sheriff: Don’t Wait For Police; Arm Yourselves

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Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. has a message for residents in his jurisdiction: You can’t rely on him anymore. You need to arm yourself.

On Friday, the nominally Democratic sheriff issued a recorded public safety announcement on the radio and on the Web that encouraged residents to take their lives into their own hands.

Here’s the full transcript: “I’m Sheriff David Clarke and I want to talk to you about something personal: your safety. It’s no longer a spectator sport; I need you in the game. But are you ready? With officers laid off and furloughed, simply calling 911 and waiting is no longer your best option. You can beg for mercy from a violent criminal, hide under the bed, or you can fight back. But are you prepared? Consider taking a certified safety course in handling a firearm so you can defend yourself until we get there. You have a duty to protect yourself and your family.”

Crime is relatively rare in Clarke’s jurisdiction: In 2010, the Sheriff’s Department reported two burglaries, nine robberies and zero murders. (Preliminary data from 2012 were not available, and it’s not clear if the department submitted its crime statistics to the FBI for 2011.)

Also rare are justifiable homicides in the U.S.: About 260 private citizens lawfully killed someone committing a felony in 2011, or less than one case per every 1 million people in the nation.

Read more from this story HERE.

Mark Levin: Obama Isn’t Destroying the GOP, the Republican Establishment Is (+Audio)

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On Monday’s broadcast of Sean Hannity’s radio show, Mark Levin said the Republican Party is destroying itself from within.

“[I]s Obama destroying the Republican Party?” Levin said. “No, the Republican establishment is destroying the Republican Party.

The only reason they’re in the majority in the House is because of conservatives — conservatives across the country, the grassroots. They lost the Senate.

They like to point to two races, one in Missouri and one in Indiana. I can point to 10 races where there were liberal-to-moderate Republicans who lost, and of course they never mention that.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Cops’ Seattle Gun Buyback Transformed Into Gun Show By Eager Private Buyers With Wads of Cash

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In the wake of the Newtown massacre, cities across the United States are funding gun-buybacks in a stated effort to get “guns off the street.” In reality, these efforts are just for show, typically bringing in just a few dozen to a few hundred weapons, many of which are old and inoperable.

Given the enormous number of guns in the U.S., the minuscule number of buyback guns will likely have no statistical impact on gun crime rates. Moreover, many of the folk turning in the guns and collecting gift cards or other trackable means of payment, are unlikely to have criminal records and/or a propensity for violence.

Nevertheless, the photo-op buybacks are providing communities with at least one tangible benefit: the opportunity for 2nd Amendment afficionados to attend the buybacks and bid against the police for seized guns.


This happened at a Tuscon buyback earlier this month as well as the recent Seattle buyback this past Saturday. With respect to Seattle, gun buyers were especially active:

Officers stood by as makeshift gun shows sprang up on the sidewalks, just steps away from the buyback tents, as gun enthusiasts and collectors waved wads of cash for the guns being held by those standing in line.

“I’d prefer they wouldn’t sell them,” [Seattle Police Chief] Diaz said of the people in line making deals with the gun buyers.

Some people saw the event as a way to make some money while others came in the spirit of a gun-buyback program, he said.

Albert Coburn, of Seattle, was standing in line with two rifles from his father, weapons that he had no use for. “Instead of selling them, I’d like to see them get out of circulation.”

Some in the long lines lost patience and gave in to the people who surrounded the parking lot with signs saying “Cash for guns.”

One man jumped out of his vehicle as he was waiting in bumper-to-bumper traffic at the buyback and asked how much the gun enthusiasts and collectors were willing to pay for his three guns. He pocketed $500.

Some might argue that these gun-buybacks are not for show but are instead being used to normalize the American people to the concept of the government taking their guns for payment. Whether you believe that or not, there is no denying that the buybacks have – so far – been utter failures from the government’s perspective, less so from the private buyer’s perspective.

Study: HHS Adds $9.1 Billion in New Regs in January

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The Department of Health and Human Services passed three new rules over the course of just four days, adding $9.1 billion of regulatory burden during the first month of the new year, a new report claims.

According to a study by the American Action Forum released Friday morning, the new regulations will “account for 797 pages, $9.1 billion in new costs, and 10.6 million additional paperwork burden hours.”

One of the major costs came from the expansion of Medicaid, the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, and the state-based health insurance exchange programs, all mandated under the Affordable Care Act. The total price tag is $2.6 billion with a paperwork burden of 518,432 hours. HHS only allowed 17 working days to submit comment on the nearly 500-page overhaul of Medicaid and SCHIP programs.

Read more from this story HERE.