Former Postal Employees Plead Guilty to Stealing Millions in Treasury Checks

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While billions of pieces of mail safely reached their destinations this year, postal employees in Georgia pocketed over 1,300 federal checks, pleading this month to stealing nearly $3 million in Treasury checks — including veterans checks, Social Security checks, and tax refunds.

Gerald Easton of Stockbridge, Georgia plead guilty to the theft in early December, which occurred while he was working as a supervisor at an Atlanta mail distribution center and to conspiring with another employee at the facility. Four other non-postal workers have plead guilty to their roles in the conspiracy.

Paul Bowman, Special Agent in Charge of the United States Postal Service in the Office of Inspector General, noted that Easton and his co-conspirator Deborah Fambro-Echols (who plead guilty in late November) are a few bad eggs among a group that is largely committed to fulfilling their mission.

“We take these cases very serious and investigate them to the fullest extent of the law. The majority of Postal Service employees are honest, hardworking, and committed to providing the timely and reliable service that customers expect and deserve,” Bowman said in a statement.

The Washington Guardian which first reported the theft Wednesday, added that between April and September 2012, 171 Postal Service employees were arrested for “theft, willful delay or destruction of mail.” Last year the service delivered 167.9 billion pieces of mail. The service employs 546,000 employees, The Guardian added.

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Boehner Abruptly Scraps Fiscal Cliff ‘Plan B’ Vote After GOP Defections

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Facing a rank-and-file GOP revolt, House Speaker John Boehner abruptly canceled a vote Thursday night on a plan to raise taxes for the wealthy, bringing the country closer to a plunge down the “fiscal cliff.”

The House then recessed until after Christmas. The development raises questions about whether Boehner could muster support among Tea Partyers in the GOP-controlled House for a broader deal to avert the automatic tax hikes and spending cuts on Jan.1.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the sudden development showed that Boehner must now work with Democrats to try to avoid the cliff.

“Speaker Boehner’s partisan approach wasted an entire week and pushed middle-class families closer to the edge,” Reid said. “The only way to avoid the cliff altogether is for Speaker Boehner to return to negotiations, and work with President Obama and the Senate to forge a bipartisan deal.”

According to a GOP source familiar with the vote coun, “the veto threat and opposition from the White House and the Senate Majority Leader made some members feel like they were taking a risky vote for no reason, even though the bill did not actually include a tax hike. Now, the President and Senate Majority Leader must find a solution to this crisis.”

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Federal Spending Up 78% After Inflation Since 1998

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President Obama says he wants a “balanced” approach to the fiscal cliff. But critics argue the real problem is spending, which has far outstripped rising tax revenue as well as economic growth.

Federal government revenue rose from $1.7 trillion to $2.4 trillion from fiscal 1998 to 2012, slightly exceeding inflation. Revenue growth averaged 2.9% annually, despite two recessions, bear markets — and tax cuts.

But federal spending rose nearly twice as fast — 5.7% per year — surging from $1.6 trillion to $3.5 trillion over that same span.

The spending spike also exceeds growth in the population.

Some of the spending surge came during the Bush administration — the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, increases in non-defense discretionary spending and the creation of the Medicare prescription drug entitlement.

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Robert H. Bork, Conservative Judicial Icon, Dies at 85

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Robert H. Bork, the conservative jurist who fired Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox during the “Saturday Night Massacre” in 1973 and whose failed nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court in 1987 sparked an enduring political schism over judicial nominations, died Dec. 19 at Virginia Hospital Center in Arlington County of complications from heart disease. He was 85.

The death was confirmed by Judge Bork’s daughter-in-law, Diana Culp Bork.

For decades, Judge Bork was a major architect of the conservative rebuttal to what he considered liberal judicial activism. He criticized civil rights legislation and rulings in cases involving the “one man, one vote” principle and the constitutional right to privacy.

His unrelenting calls for judicial restraint and his opposition to “imperialistic” liberal judges, who he said read their values into the Constitution, made him an iconic figure in conservative legal circles.

In his writings and in debates on legal doctrine, the burly, bearded, chain-smoking ex-Marine was sharply confrontational. But friends and enemies alike found him a man of great charm, compassion and intellect, with a wit so sharp a close friend once called it dangerous.

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Bipartisan Impeachment Threat?

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WASHINGTON – U.S. Reps. Walter Jones, R-N.C., and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., along with retired senior defense intelligence officer Col. Walter P. Lang and the Veterans for Peace today said Congress must be consulted before Barack Obama would send American troops into Syria.

Or else.

At a press conference, Jones discussed his resolution to oppose American involvement in Syria without first consulting Congress.

His resolution, H.Con. Res. 107, expresses “the sense of Congress that the use of offensive military force by a president without prior and clear authorization of an Act of Congress constitutes an impeachable high crime and misdemeanor under article II, section 4 of the Constitution.”

Jones was responding to the growing potential for direct American involvement in Syria to support the opposition to President Bashar al-Assad.

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‘Citizen Drone Warfare’: Hobbyist Explores a Frightening Scenario (+video)

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Less than a month ago, rumors that celebrity news and gossip website TMZ was interested in obtaining a paparazzi drone prompted privacy concerns and public debate about the appropriate personal and commercial uses of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Now, a new online video poses a more troubling question: What if civilian drones are equipped to shoot more than just pictures?

Titled “Citizen Drone Warfare” and posted to YouTube last week by an anonymous man calling himself “Milo Danger,” the video shows a hobbyist drone equipped with a custom-mounted paintball pistol flying over a grassy field and peppering human-shaped shooting-range targets with pellets.

Following an attack pass by the drone, one of the targets sports three large red blotches on its head and neck area.

“I wanted to show an inevitability of what I think will happen with these drones,” said “Milo,” who lives on the West Coast and spoke to The Washington Times on condition of anonymity. “I’m not advocating bad activities. But I wanted to raise some of the ethical issues we need to think about with this new technology.

See video below:

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Conservatives Denounce Voting for Boehner’s Plan B

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Prominent conservative leaders, including former attorney general Edwin Meese III, Ken Blackwell of the Conservative Action Project, Brent Bozell of ForAmerica, Colin Hanna of Let Freedom Ring, Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council, David Bossie of Citizens United, Gary Bauer of American Values, Jim Backlin of the Christian Coalition of America, Richard Viguerie of ConservativeHQ.com, Al Regnery of the Paul Revere Project, and Andy Roth of the Club for Growth, among a myriad of others, scheduled a press conference this afternoon to denounce Speaker John Boehner’s “Plan B” tax increase for addressing the fiscal cliff. Some are accusing Grover Norquist of giving cover to the establishment to facilitate this cave-in and hand President Barack Obama a liberal victory.

The group released a statement this afternoon:
“As leaders of broad based American citizen groups we call upon Republican House Members to vote no on Speaker Boehner’s Tax Hike known as “Plan B.” This tax increase bill is just like the tax increase proposal Nancy Pelosi offered last year on May 23rd.

Speaker Boehner, President Obama, Nancy Pelosi and too many Members of the Republican conference have forgotten that the problem in Washington is too much spending and not too little taxation.

When the American people voted to return the Republican majority in the House last month we sent you to cut spending. Instead, you are now voting on the Pelosi plan to increase taxes next year.

We urge Members of the House to vote no on the procedural rule to stop the Pelosi/Boehner tax plan from coming to the House floor for a vote.”

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Guns Out of Stock at Wal-Mart as Magazine Prices Surge On

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With President Barack Obama endorsing sweeping gun restrictions in the wake of the school shootings in Newtown, Connecticut, prices for handgun magazines are surging on EBay (EBAY) and semi-automatic rifles are sold out at many Wal-Mart Stores Inc. (WMT) locations.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, said yesterday that it would continue to sell guns, including rifles like the one used at Newtown, where 26 people, most of them children, were killed on Dec. 14. By contrast, Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc. (DKS) suspended sales of similar guns at its more than 500 stores.

Searches of five kinds of semi-automatic rifles on Wal- Mart’s website showed them to be out of stock at stores in five states, including Pennsylvania, Kansas and Alabama. Wal-Mart doesn’t sell guns online, instead asking customers to input a zip code to see if their local store carries a specific weapon.

“We remain dedicated to the safe and responsible sale of firearms in areas of the country where they are sold,” David Tovar, a spokesman for Wal-Mart, said yesterday. He didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.

Wal-Mart has about 10 modern sporting rifles, the gun industry’s term for firearms that look like an M-16 military rifle, listed on its website. The retailer removed a description and picture of the Bushmaster AR-15, which was the model used in Newtown, after the shootings.

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Source: Tim Tebow Will Ask NY Jets For Trade or Release

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The Jets added a few more bizarre chapters Tuesday to a surreal quarterback storyline that has grabbed the headlines for the better part of nine months. One day after Rex Ryan’s loyalty to Mark Sanchez cost the Jets a chance at the playoffs, the coach pulled the plug on the supposed franchise quarterback by replacing him with the third-string quarterback who hadn’t been active for two weeks. Greg McElroy will make his first career start against the Chargers at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, three weeks after he relieved Sanchez in the second half of a 7-6 win over the Cardinals.

Ryan’s decision was a stunning indictment not only of Sanchez, once believed to be the future of the franchise, but also backup Tim Tebow, who has become an afterthought.

But Ryan’s decision to bench Sanchez wasn’t the only domino to fall less than 24 hours after the Jets were mathematically eliminated from the playoffs.

The Daily News has learned that Tebow, who captivated the NFL last season with his miracle playoff run in Denver, will request to be traded or released after the season assuming that McElroy starts the final two games. Tebow’s desire to part ways with a franchise that never gave him a chance came to a head after McElroy, who has seven career passes on his NFL resume, leapfrogged him, according to a source.

“I want to put Greg out there,” Ryan said on Tuesday. “I’m going to put Greg out there. In my opinion, that’s what’s best for our team.”

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Treasury to Exit GM Bailout . . . At Cost of Billions to US Taxpayers

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The Treasury Department on Wednesday announced plans to sell the government’s remaining shares of Detroit-based automaker General Motors in the latest in a recent string of moves by the administration to unwind controversial taxpayer bailouts stemming from the financial crisis.

Although the sale will allow the federal government to unload its investments in the auto industry company, it will almost certainly do so at a loss to taxpayers worth billions of dollars.

Treasury plans to sell its 500.1 million shares over the next 12 to 15 months, with GM buying 200 million at $27.50 per share by the end of the year. This sale will bring in $5.5 billion toward the $27 billion that the company still owes.

In an October report, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program estimated Treasury would need to sell the remaining 500 million shares at $53.98 per share to break even on its investment.

“This announcement is an important step in bringing closure to the successful auto industry rescue, it further removes the perception of government ownership of GM among customers, and it demonstrates confidence in GM’s progress and our future,” GM Chairman and CEO Dan Akerson said in a statement.

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