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Army morale hits rock bottom due to Obama-loving generals, loss of discipline

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Photo credit: US Army

Only a quarter of the Army’s officers and enlisted soldiers believe the nation’s largest military branch is headed in the right direction — a survey response that is the lowest on record and reflects what some in the service call a crisis in confidence. The detailed annual survey by a team of independent researchers found that the most common reasons cited for the bleak outlook were “ineffective leaders at senior levels,” a fear of losing the best and the brightest after a decade of war, and the perception, especially among senior enlisted soldiers, that “the Army is too soft” and lacks sufficient discipline.

The study, ordered by the Center for Army Leadership at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, also found that one in four troops serving in Afghanistan rated morale either “low” or “very low,” part of a steady downward trend over the last five years. But the most striking finding is widespread disagreement with the statement that “the Army is headed in the right direction to prepare for the challenges of the next 10 years.” “In 2011, [active duty] agreement to this statement hit an all-time low,” according to the survey results, a copy of which were provided to The Boston Globe. “Belief that the Army is headed in the right direction is positively related to morale.” In 2010, about 33 percent of those surveyed didn’t agree with the statement; the number was 38 percent in 2006.

The apparent lack of confidence poses a new set of challenges to the Army as it undergoes budget cuts and shrinks its ranks. The Army’s top officer, General Raymond T. Odierno, says he is taking the findings to heart. “It is very important for us to be introspective, and we are committed to continual self-assessment,” Odierno told the Army Times newspaper in a statement. A major concern that the survey identified was whether the Army would be able to keep top-notch leaders as it cuts its ranks, as well as fears it would be stretched too thin to meet unforeseen demands. Junior officers were particularly concerned about retaining good leaders.

The active-duty Army, which is currently about 570,000 strong, is preparing to reduce its ranks by about 90,000 soldiers in the coming years, as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan wind down and the Pentagon budget is subject to a government-wide belt-tightening. “Comments on downsizing the force reflected concerns by leaders that troop reductions would significantly impact the Army’s ability to respond to future conflicts,” the study’s authors wrote.

The Army has historically surveyed attitudes within the ranks to improve professional education and training. But since 2005 it has undertaken the empirically based Army Leader Development Survey each year in an effort to identify trends and leading indicators for leadership problems and signs of dissatisfaction.

Read more from this story HERE.

DC shooting spurs debate: do pro-marriage organizations deserve the “hate group” label?

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Photo credit: killingclipart

By Jordy Yager. The shooting of a security guard Wednesday at the Family Research Council (FRC) has spurred a torrent of heated accusations from both sides of the gay-rights debate about claims that the conservative organization is a “hate group.”

The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), one of the nation’s leading opponents of same-sex marriage, told The Hill the shooting was a direct result of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s decision in 2010 to place the FRC on its list of hate groups for its rhetoric on gays.

Brian Brown, the president of NOM, pointed to a recent blog post by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), one of the largest gay-rights groups in the country. The post, “Paul Ryan Speaking at Hate Group’s Annual Conference,” called attention to the vice presidential candidate’s scheduled appearance at the FRC’s national summit next month.

“Today’s attack is the clearest sign we’ve seen that labeling pro-marriage groups as ‘hateful’ must end,” Brown said in a statement issued following the shooting.

“For too long national gay-rights groups have intentionally marginalized and ostracized pro-marriage groups and individuals by labeling them as ‘hateful’ and ‘bigoted.’” Read more from this story HERE.

Despite the DC shooting and ensuing debate, Obama remains silent

By Penny Starr. As of mid-morning Thursday, President Barack Obama had not yet commented publicly or released an official statement reacting to Wednesday’s shooting of a security guard at the Family Research Council’s Washington, D.C., office.

The only response from the Obama administration came from White House spokesman Jay Carney, as relayed to the public through the White House correspondents’ pool report:

The pool report noted that President Obama, traveling in Iowa, was informed of the 10:45 a.m. shooting several hours later.

Carney said the president expressed his concern for the individual as well as the belief that “this type of violence has no place in our society.”

It is unclear from the pool report whether Carney was directly quoting the president or if the words were Carney’s own.  Read more from this story HERE.

40% of US electorate will stay home in November, vast majority support Obama

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Stay-at-home nonvoters are more likely to support President Barack Obama than Mitt Romney, according to a new USA Today/Suffolk University poll out today.

Eighty million Americans — 40 percent of the possible eligible electorate — won’t vote this Election Day. And 59 percent of them say there’s no point, since nothing ever gets done and politicians continue to make empty promises, according to the poll.

Forty-three percent of nonvoters are Obama supporters, the survey found, while 20 percent of the nonvoters support Romney, 18 percent back a third-party candidate and 15 percent are undecided.

“This poll is a good news-bad news story for Barack Obama,” poll director David Paleologos said in a statement. “The good news is that there is a treasure chest of voters he doesn’t even have to persuade — they already like him and dislike Mitt Romney. He just needs to unlock the chest and get them out to vote. The bad news is that these people won’t vote because they feel beaten down by empty promises, a bad economy and the negativity of both parties. Obama has lost time — and the key — to open that treasure chest.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama accuses GOP of trying to “Swift Boat” him over bin Laden killing, leaks (+video)

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By Mark Hosenball. Barack Obama’s re-election campaign on Wednesday accused Republicans of trying to “Swift Boat” the president, a reference to hardball smear tactics used to attack the war record of Democratic Senator John Kerry when he unsuccessfully challenged George W. Bush for the White House in 2004.

Reuters reported on Tuesday that a group of former U.S. intelligence and Special Forces operatives was preparing to launch a media campaign, including TV ads, that scolds Obama for taking credit for the killing of Osama bin Laden and accuses his administration of leaking U.S. secrets for political advantage.

The group, the Special Operations OPSEC Education Fund Inc, unveiled a documentary-style video featuring interviews with former spies and U.S. military commandos on Wednesday.

The Obama campaign hit back.

“The Republicans are resorting to ‘Swift Boat’ tactics because when it comes to foreign policy and national security, Mitt Romney has offered nothing but reckless rhetoric,” said campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt. Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s the alleged “Swift Boat”-type documentary that Obama is so concerned about:

Obama defends Biden’s “chains” remark, rejects Palin’s advice to replace him with Hillary (+video)

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(by FoxNews.com) President Obama defended Vice President Joe Biden on Wednesday against criticism of his remarks that Republican repeal of Wall Street regulations would put voters “back in chains.”

Obama also brushed off Sarah Palin’s suggestion on Fox News that he drop Biden from the ticket in favor of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Palin, the 2008 GOP vice presidential nominee and a Fox News contributor, had said Biden’s comments are the latest example of how he “really drags down that ticket.”

“If that’s not the nail in the coffin, really, the strategists there in the Obama campaign have got to look at a diplomatic way of replacing Joe Biden on the ticket with Hillary,” Palin said. “And I don’t want to throw out that suggestion and have them actually accept the suggestion because then an Obama-Hillary Clinton ticket would have a darn good chance of winning.”

But Obama, in an interview with “Entertainment Tonight,” downplayed Palin’s comments: “We don’t spend a lot of time worrying about the chatter and the noise and this and that,” he said. “The country isn’t as divided with gaffes or some stray remark as Washington is. Most folks know that’s just sort of a WWF wrestling part of politics. It doesn’t mean anything, just fills up a lot of air time.”  Read more from this story HERE.

Here’s what Palin said on Fox about replacing VP Joe Biden with Hillary:

Romney’s “nice guy campaign” will end in defeat

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Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his Vice-Presidential nominee will surely serve to fortify his campaign, solidify his base and increase his chances of winning the Presidential Election in November. However, he is destined to repeat history and find himself defeated if he insists on continuing to run a “nice guy” campaign similar to John McCain’s 2008 debacle.

Like his Big Labor buddies, Obama will continue to run a “Death by a Thousand Cuts” campaign, designed to vilify, psychologically intimidate and financially ruin Romney and his supporters. Obama, like the Big Labor “Gasping Dinosaurs,” has no record to run on or viable product/program to sell.Rather he is forced to resort to demonization and destruction of the opponent through defamation, distortion, intimidation, misinformation, propaganda and exploitation of the naïve and easily influenced, much the same as his Big Labor allies utilize during their “Corporate Campaigns” to force unionize targeted employees. Obama and his Big Labor buddies have no other choice as they lack the character, honesty, integrity and skill set to survive, let alone win, in a free market economy and open society.

If the 2012 Presidential Election was a basketball game, the President would have fouled out long ago, since the game has referees. Unfortunately, in the political arena there are no referees, only the rules of sportsmanship and gentlemanly competition. The President, having been trained by Big Labor during his days as a “Community Organizer,” has learned well that when you can’t win using the rules in place, you must change those rules. Much like Big Labor, who looks to set aside over seventy years of labor law by forcing through Card Check to eliminate the secret ballot election because they have failed to convince the American workers that they offer anything of value, the President understands that he must fundamentally change the complexion of the campaign and utilize similar tactics to “change the rules” in order to win. These tactics are learned from President Obama’s associations with the SEIU (see Obama and the SEIU Sittin in a Tree) and other Big Labor buddies, as well as from past associations with Saul Alinsky disciples Bill Ayers, Rev. Wright and others.

The question “Is Obama Just or Unjust” is immaterial as, much like the integrity of Big Labor, it has already been answered time and again. What is important is that the Romney campaign realizes the President is not a gentleman and that his agenda, his associations, tactics, inexperience, record and lack of character must be exposed, albeit professionally. The Romney campaign must also accentuate that it is the President’s beliefs, his disrespect for American values, and socialistic agenda that are the problem – not racial inequality, class warfare, gender warfare or age warfare, which will most assuredly be prominent tactics pushed by the Obama attack machine.The ace in the hole for Romney, much as it was for EMS against the SEIU as chronicled in The Devil at Our Doorstep, is to go on the offensive and place the Obama campaign on the defensive. Democrats fear the potential approach of unleashing Paul Ryan, as witnessed by the fact they wasted no time in attacking him.

Romney and his campaign must understand that this is an election of perception, not substance. Yes, Romney needs to succinctly lay out his agenda, but at the same time he must counter Obama’s attacks at every turn, showing the untruth’s behind each disingenuous attack. Obama, like his Big Labor buddies, cannot attack or debate on substance but only on ideology. Romney must professionally confront every piece of propaganda and misinformation until the Obama campaign no longer has any talking points and is relegated to crawling back under its rock. He must expose Obama’s associations and beliefs, which demonstrate that “He is what he despises!” They must accentuate the fact that America Needs an Effective Leader, Not a Politician (which is Obama’s only strength), that Obama chooses to Rule by Fiat instead of following the U.S. Constitution, that he places Political Aspirations & Payback Ahead of American Jobs, and that“America on the Precipice” is a reality because Obama’s socialistic agenda and big spending have placed the United States almost 16 Trillion dollars in debt!

Romney needs to understand American Exceptionalism is at stake, and that the remainder of the 2012 Obama campaign will mirror Big Labor’s Scorched Earth Campaign in Ohio in 2011! Even outsiders understand that Obama, the Puppet or Puppeteer, is leading this great nation toward disaster, as witnessed by this statement from a Canadian friend:

…Keep watching to see if the GOP is going to question how BHO was able to attend schooling the U.S.A. using a loan that is only available to foreign students??? He must have had a foreign passport to qualify. If so it was very likely issued by the UK because of that country’s association with Kenya that it once ruled (and thus BHO was born there.) And, when he visited Pakistan what passport did he use? Any good spin doctor could make good use of these questions and I assume that the GOP has it share of them. So far it has only been Mitt who has been on the defensive against the Chicago gutter-style of politics. It’s time to take a page from the Dems book and go on the offensive. Yes it is time to go on the offensive.

Yes, it is time for the Romney campaign to go on the offensive and learn the Lessons from the Wisconsin Recall and Governor Scott Walker. Governor Walker understood the task at hand and the fact that, much like Ralphie did to the bully in the movie “The Christmas Story,”when you punch the bully in the nose you get their attention and put them on the defensive. Obama has nothing to sell or run on except misinformation and intimidation.

As the old saying goes “the best defense is a great offense.” Go get ‘em Mitt!

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Dave Bego is President and CEO of Executive Management Services, an industry leader in the field of environmental workplace maintenance, the author founded a company priding itself on providing clients a single-source solution for commercial cleaning, facility services management, maintenance supplies and security. Operating at the highest standards in the industry as supported by its recent CIMS (GB) Certification with Honors, its Green Seal 42 Certification, the EMS Group offers competitive pay rates and benefits, attracting the best and brightest to their ever-expanding team. As of April 2012, EMS employed nearly 5,000 workers in thirty-eight states, providing Bego with the type of management experience and perseverance required to protect his employees, customers, and company from Andy Stern and the SEIU. David Bego’s account of Big Labor’s use of intimidation and corruption in an attempt to usurp American freedoms is chronicled in his riveting new book, The Devil at Our Doorstep. Truly the voice and face of the opposition to the Employees Free Choice Act a.k.a. Card Check, the author has enhanced his credentials through various media appearances and meetings with Congressional leadership on both sides of the aisle. This story is seen throughout today’s headlines, as Bego champions the need for National Right-to-Work legislation, explores President Obama’s recess appointments to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Board’s drive to achieve card check or forced unionism through regulation. It exposes the political collusion between Big Labor, President Obama and the liberal left, and suggests programs to restore America’s future.

The Creepiest Thing About the Joe Soptic Ad

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I know that the Bill Burton/Joe Soptic “Mitt Romney Killed My Wife!” ad is growing distant in the nation’s rearview mirror, but it brought us a revelatory moment that we should not forget.

In the ad, laid-off union man Joe Soptic accuses Mitt Romney of being indifferent to suffering and destroying Soptic’s employer. That cost Soptic his health insurance, and ultimately his wife, who died of cancer. So the accusations are: Mitt Romney killed Joe Soptic’s job, which resulted in the death of Mrs. Soptic. Fade to black.

The ad manages to get every single relevant fact wrong. Here’s the timeline: In 1993, Mitt Romney was head of Bain Capital, and that company became majority owner of Soptic’s employer, GST Steel. Bain bought into GST to try to save it, as it did with other struggling companies. Romney left Bain in 1999 to save the Salt Lake City Olympics. Two years after Romney left Bain, in February 2001, GST filed for bankruptcy and Soptic was among the 750 who lost their jobs as a result. A full five years after that, Soptic’s wife was diagnosed with late-stage cancer and she passed away.

Soptic’s story is a sad one, but not uncommon. In real life, our problems don’t get solved in a half-hour sitcom format and there aren’t all that many stories that end happily. We live, we work, we raise our families, we experience delights and tragedies, we pass on and are largely forgotten on this earth. Believers point to a brighter day on the other side of our last “amen,” while life on this earth remains a hardscrabble thing for most of us worrying about that next bill or how we’re ever going to be able to afford to retire. Life is often cruel and unfair. But to blame Mitt Romney for any of what happened to Joe Soptic is either delusional or dishonest to the point of sociopathy.

It’s one thing for political operatives to shade the truth to gussy up their party or their policy case. It’s never a good thing, but it happens all the time. But Joe Soptic is no political operative. He is just an ordinary man, or was. For an ordinary man to blame the death of his wife on another man who bears no culpability and who has done Soptic no wrong is bizarre. But grief makes us do weird things sometimes. Festering rage and the unfairness of life can turn the straightest arrow a little crooked.

Read more from this story HERE.

Homosexual volunteer carrying Chick-fil-A material open fires in pro-traditional marriage FRC office in DC

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Man carrying Chick-fil-A  materials shoots guard at Family Research Council

By Pete Williams. A gunman who shot a security guard Wednesday at the Family Research Council office in Washington, D.C., was carrying a handgun and several additional rounds of ammunition, federal investigators told NBC News.

Washington, D.C., police say the man walked into the headquarters of the conservative Christian lobbying group around 10:45 a.m. When challenged by the security guard, the gunman shot the guard in the arm with a Sig Sauer 9 mm handgun he pulled from a backpack.

The wounded guard, identified as Leo Johnson, wrestled the gun away from the shooter and prevented him from hurting anyone else, police said. …

The suspect’s name has not been released, but two law enforcement officials told NBC News he is Floyd Corkins, 28, from nearby Herndon, Va.

Federal officials said the suspect the backpack also contained materials about Chick-fil-A restaurants.  Read more from this story HERE.

FRC Shooter was “volunteer at  a ‘gay’ and lesbian center, made negative comment about center before shooting

By WND. Law enforcement officials in Washington have identified the man who shot a security guard at the Family Research Council early today as 28-year-old Floyd Corkins II, a volunteer at a “gay” and lesbian center in Washington, and have hinted that the motive may be linked to the FRC’s conservative Christian viewpoint regarding marriage and homosexuality.

According to a report from the Associated Press, a law enforcement official confirmed that the suspect made a “negative reference” about the FRC’s work before shooting and injuring guard Leo Johnson, who was hospitalized and in stable condition.

While no specific connections were confirmed by law enforcement authorities with the District of Columbia police and FBI, which responded to the case, the FRC had been vocal in recent days in its support of Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy, whose company was attacked by homosexual advocacy organizations after he publicly stated his support for traditional marriage. Read more from this story HERE.

White House took Five Hours to Respond to FRC Shooting

By Steven Ertelt. The White House is coming under criticism from pro-life advocates for not issuing a condemnation of the shooting of a security guard at the offices of the Family Research Council, a pro-life group.

UPDATE: Not until after 6:30 p.m. ET did the White House respond. Obama finally commented, saying “this type of violence has no place in our society.”

While President Barack Obama has yet to comment — several hours after the incident — presidential candidate Mitt Romney was swift in his response to it.

Romney commented on the shooting, saying: “I am appalled by the shooting today at the offices of the Family Research Council in our nation’s capital. There is no place for such violence in our society. My prayers go out to the wounded security guard and his family, as well as all the people at the Family Research Council whose sense of security has been shattered by today’s horrific events.”

Meanwhile, CNN took hours to finally issue a report on the shooting and it provided no live coverage of it as other television networks did. Hours later, CNN tweeted, “Shooting wounds guard at Family Research Council. on.cnn.com/OYEXq9.” Read more from this story HERE.

Catholics for Obama attempt to hide Obama’s abortion record again

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Left-leaning academics at Catholic colleges and universities are heading up the Obama’s campaign’s outreach to Catholics, according to Matthew Archbold:

Among those leading the group are several pro-abortion rights politicians along with faculty members at Catholic colleges including Sister Jamie Phelps, director of the Institute for Black Catholic Studies at Xavier University in New Orleans; Nicholas Cafardi, a canon and civil lawyer who teaches at the Duquesne Law School in Pittsburgh; Thomas Groome of Boston College, a theologian; and Stephen Schneck, director of the Institute for Policy Research & Catholic Studies at Catholic University of America.

Cafardi just last week took to the pages of the National Catholic Reporter to convince readers that Obama was more pro-life than Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. He didn’t mention in that piece that he would soon be publicly affiliated with the Catholics for Obama group. Presumably, that affiliation will be pointed out in future writings.

Schneck is on the board of directors of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, which was co-founded by HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ director of faith-based programs, Alexia Kelley, to generate Catholic support for President Obama’s policies. Last year Schneck led a faculty effort to embarrass Republican House Speaker John Boehner, when he delivered the commencement address at The Catholic University of America. In February Schneck joined with other politically liberal Catholics in an open letter “celebrating” the “accommodation” proposed by President Obama with regard to the HHS contraceptive mandate — a compromise that the U.S. bishops have explained is entirely unacceptable to Catholics, and which has still not been written into the regulations.

Also involved in the group are pro-abortion politicians — including Rep. Rosa L. DeLauro of Connecticut, Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois and Gov. Martin O’Malley of Maryland. DeLauro is a former head of a state affiliate of NARAL, a leading national pro-abortion group.

The outreach page for the new pro-Obama group says nothing of his pro-abortion record:

In 2008, Catholics from all walks of life and backgrounds came together to help elect Barack Obama as President of the United States. Today, we join together as Catholics who are committed to our faith and our country to endorse President Obama for re-election.

As Catholics, we believe that every human being is made in the image of God. From this we discern that, individually and as a nation, we share a moral obligation to care for one another. As the President has so passionately affirmed throughout his career. President Obama understands Catholics and our values, because he understands the importance of an active faith in pursuit of the common good.

Read more from this story HERE.

Romney calls Obama ‘angry and desperate,’ but still won’t ask for college records

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Photo credit: DonkeyHotey

Mitt Romney lashed out at President Obama with some of the harshest rhetoric of his campaign at a Tuesday night rally here, accusing Obama of leveling “wild and reckless accusations that disgrace the office of the presidency.”

The already divisive presidential contest took on an even uglier tone after Romney seized on the latest campaign-trail skirmish — a comment at a Virginia rally by Vice President Biden that Romney’s plans to loosen Wall Street regulations would “put y’all back in chains” — to go after his opponents.

“This is what an angry and desperate presidency looks like. President Obama knows better, promised better, and America deserves better,” Romney told a roaring crowd of about 5,000 supporters in Chillicothe. “His campaign strategy is to smash America apart and then try to cobble together 51 percent of the pieces. If an American president wins that way, we all lose.”

Romney added, “Mr. President, take your campaign of division and anger and hate back to Chicago and let us get about rebuilding and reuniting America.”

Throughout the summer, Romney has taken umbrage at the tone of the Democratic advertising barrage, but this week he ratcheted up his criticism. He and his advisers wrote much of the speech Tuesday on his campaign bus riding between stops in Ohio.

Read more from this story HERE.