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When the people fear the government, there is tyranny; When the government fears the people, there is liberty.  ~ Thomas Jefferson

 

Entries from September 30th, 2010

Postal Service close to going broke

September 30th, 2010 · Accountability, Deception, Economy, Federal Spending, Non-Transparency, Tax Dollars, Taxes

By Ed O’Keefe Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, September 29, 2010; 10:16 PM

Americans can still send and receive mail, but the U.S. Postal Service may not have much left in the bank after this week, as it’s set to announce billions of dollars in losses as early as Thursday.

It’s also waiting for postal regulators to announce Thursday whether they approve of a proposed 5.6 percent postage-rate increase, to start in January. The proposed increase faces stiff resistance from business groups and lawmakers, who say that the USPS should instead make deeper spending cuts to meet its financial obligations.

GOP opposition kept Congress from permitting the Postal Service to postpone paying $5.5 billion required by law to pre-fund retiree health benefits. A temporary spending measure to fund most federal programs through early December didn’t mention the Postal Service; it passed the Senate on Wednesday and is expected to clear the House on Thursday.

“The Postal Service does not want to make the tough decisions, which include cuts in personnel, pay and benefits. Instead, they are relying on a generous taxpayer bailout that will not solve any of their mid- or long-term problems,” said Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), who opposes the rate increase and congressional relief.

“Taxpayers should not be made to bail out a business-as-usual Postal Service,” Issa said.

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New focus on Europeans who have traveled to Pakistan to train at militant camps

September 30th, 2010 · Defense, Homeland Security, National Security, War on Terrorism

By Peter Finn and Greg Miller Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, September 30, 2010; 12:16 AM

The detention in Afghanistan of a German citizen of Afghan descent – reportedly a source of information about potential terrorist plots against targets in Europe and possibly the United States – has renewed focus on a stream of Europeans who have traveled to Pakistan in recent years for training at militant camps.

Just as American officials have been sounding an alarm about the radicalization of U.S. citizens involved in plots against the homeland, European Union officials have warned that a new generation of Western citizens, including whole families, have traveled to Pakistan and that some appear determined to return home to carry out terrorist attacks.

“A not insignificant number of radicalized E.U. nationals and residents are traveling to conflict areas or attending terrorist training camps and returning to Europe,” said Gilles de Kerchove, the E.U.’s counterterrorism coordinator, in a report to be released Friday.

In part to disrupt possible plots against Europe, the CIA this month escalated its drone campaign in the North and South Waziristan regions of Pakistan, where many of the expatriate militants are thought to be based. U.S. officials declined to discuss whether information provided by Ahmed Siddiqui, the German in custody at the U.S. air base at Bagram, has heightened concern about attacks.

There was, however, a heavy police presence in parts of London on Wednesday, including around Buckingham Place and Trafalgar Square. Victoria Station was briefly evacuated. In Paris on Tuesday, the Eiffel Tower was evacuated for the second time in two weeks.

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Pakistan blocks NATO’s Afghan-bound supply trucks after airstrike kills 3

September 30th, 2010 · Defense, National Security, War on Terrorism

By Karin Brulliard  Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, September 30, 2010; 12:49 PM

ISLAMABAD, PAKISTAN – Pakistani officials said Thursday that NATO supply trucks had been blocked from entering Afghanistan at a key border post in response to an early morning NATO airstrike that they said killed three Pakistani border security soldiers.

According to a Pakistani military statement, the attack occurred at 5:25 a.m. at the Mandata Kandaho border post about 600 feet inside Upper Khurram agency, a region in Pakistan’s tribal belt that borders Afghanistan’s Khost province. After the helicopters “engaged through cannon fire” with the post, the six soldiers stationed there fired warning shots with their rifles, and the helicopters responded with two missiles that destroyed the post, according to the Pakistani account.

Within hours, the border crossing at Torkham had been ordered closed by federal officials, and NATO supply trucks were idling there, according to transporters stuck at the pass and officials in the region, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The pass, which lies north of Peshawar, is the most important entry point for coalition forces’ fuel and supplies, most of which come into Pakistan through the southern port of Karachi.

“We will have to see whether we are allies or enemies,” Pakistani Interior Minister Rehman Malik said of the border incident, without mentioning the blockade.

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CBO Update

September 30th, 2010 · CBO Update

The following has been added to CBO’s Web site:

  • H.R. 6132, Veterans Benefits and Economic Welfare Act of 2010
    Pay-as-you-go table for the bill as provided by the House Committee on the Budget on September 27, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11916
  • H.R. 3219, Veterans’ Benefits Act of 2010
    Pay-as-you-go table for the bill as provided by the Senate Committee on the Budget on September 27, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11915
  • S. 685, Oil Spill Prevention Act of 2010
    Pay-as-you-go table for the bill as provided to CBO by the House Budget Committee on September 28, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11921
  • H.R. 3619, Draft Resolution Providing for the Concurrence by the House in the Senate Amendment to H.R. 3619, the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010
    Pay-as-you-go table for the bill as provided to CBO by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure on September 28, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11919
  • H.R. 6026, Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act
    Pay-as-you-go table for the bill as provided to CBO by the House Committee on the Budget on September 28, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11918
  • S. 2925, Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010
    Pay-as-you-go table for the bill as provided to CBO on September 29, 2010, with amendments
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11920
  • H.R. 3421, Medical Debt Relief Act of 2010
    Pay-as-you-go table for the bill as transmitted to CBO on September 27, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11917

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Pentagon officials say their spending is bloated

September 30th, 2010 · Deception, Defense, Economy, Obama Nominees, Selling Out the US, Tax Dollars, Taxes, Terrorism from Within, War on Terrorism

By Walter H. Pincus Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2010; 9:18 PM

Top Defense Department officials told Congress Tuesday that Pentagon overspending must be curtailed in order to maintain the current size and strength of the armed forces.

Explaining the reasons for Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates’s ambitious program to reduce costs, Deputy Defense Secretary William J. Lynn III told the Senate Armed Services Committee that “headquarters and support bureaucracies, military and civilian alike . . . have swelled to cumbersome proportions, grown over-reliant on contractors and become accustomed to operating with little consideration of costs.”

To decrease what Lynn described as the “department’s massive overhead costs and structure,” he said that task forces are at work to find $100 billion in cuts over the next five years by “targeting unnecessary excess and duplication in the defense enterprise.” Reaching that goal would enable the money to be spent on warfighter needs and reduce funding increases, he said.

Expanding on statements by Gates, Lynn said contractors had grown to 39 percent of the Pentagon workforce from 26 percent since 2001 because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the availability of supplemental funding. “Many of these recently outsourced service support and advisory contractors are actually carrying out functions that should be performed by government employees,” he said.

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FBI whistleblower trial highlights bureau’s post-9/11 transformation

September 30th, 2010 · Homeland Security, National Security, War on Terrorism

By Spencer S. Hsu Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 28, 2010; 11:57 PM

An FBI whistleblower trial has cast a spotlight on the bureau’s difficult transition from a crime-fighting agency into a counterterrorism and intelligence force, as seen through the career of its highest-ranking Arab American agent.

Over a two-week trial in Washington, a federal jury heard for the first time how Bassem Youssef, 52, an Egyptian-born Coptic Christian, recruited the U.S. government’s top informant in the terror cell that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.

Youssef alleged, however, that he was sidelined during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks after publicly airing concerns about the FBI’s dearth of Middle Eastern experts.

Instead, in the eight years since filing suit in 2002, the 22-year bureau veteran has played a role in exposing top counterterrorism officials’ ignorance of al-Qaeda and violent Islamist extremism in 2005 and the agency’s struggle to correct its illegal collection of thousands of phone records of Americans between 2003 and 2006. Youssef also has warned Congress of urgent vacancies in top terrorism investigative slots.

On Monday, a jury before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly in Washington ended one strand of litigation entangling the parties, denying Youssef’s claim that the FBI denied him opportunities to qualify for promotion in 2004 and 2005 because of his whistleblowing.

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Blaming the Voters: Democrats embrace the Chris Farley school of political motivation.

September 30th, 2010 · Deception, Democrats, Obama's Scheme, Selling Out the US

The tea-party movement has emerged as a potent force in American politics and the center of gravity within the GOP, a new Wall Street Journal/NBC poll finds. Jerry Seib discusses. Also, with higher car fuel-efficiency standards coming soon, Joe White discusses why we all might be driving Fiestas.

Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, who prefers sailing vessels to vans by the river, recently tried out the Farley method. Said Mr. Kerry, “We have an electorate that doesn’t always pay that much attention to what’s going on so people are influenced by a simple slogan rather than the facts or the truth or what’s happening.” Bay State voters are surely thrilled to be represented by a man so respectful of their concerns.

This week President Obama chimed in with another uplifting message about the American electorate. Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone that the tea party movement is financed and directed by “powerful, special-interest lobbies.” But this doesn’t mean that tea party groups are composed entirely of corporate puppets. Mr. Obama graciously implied that a small subset of the movement is simply motivated by bigotry.

The President said “there are probably some aspects of the Tea Party that are a little darker, that have to do with anti-immigrant sentiment or are troubled by what I represent as the President.” The tea party is now supported by a third of the country in some polls.

Perhaps advocates for smaller government shouldn’t take Mr. Obama’s comments personally. In the new Democratic attacks on the voting public, not even Democrats are spared. Vice President Joe Biden recently urged the party’s base to “stop whining” and “buck up,” a message echoed by Mr. Obama in his Rolling Stone interview. The President demanded that his supporters “shake off this lethargy,” warning that it would be “inexcusable” for liberals to stay home on Election Day.

Mr. Obama added that “if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren’t serious in the first place.” Making the case for left-wing voters to show up in November, Mr. Obama told Rolling Stone that he is presiding over “the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward.”

We’d agree, but his problem is that most Americans don’t like that agenda and millions of voters in both parties wanted him to oversee an economic expansion instead. Blaming the voters is not unheard of among politicians, but usually they wait until after an election.

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CBO Update

September 29th, 2010 · CBO Update

The following has been added to CBO’s Web site:

  • H.R. 2999, Veterinary Public Health Amendments Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11901
  • H.R. 5462, Birth Defects Prevention, Risk Reduction, and Awareness Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11903
  • H.R. 1362, National Neurological Diseases Surveillance System Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11904
  • H.R. 2941, A bill to reauthorize and enhance Johanna’s Law to increase public awareness and knowledge with respect to gynecologic cancers
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11905
  • H.R. 5354, Gestational Diabetes Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11906
  • H.R. 6081, Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11907
  • H.R. 758, Pediatric Research Consortia Establishment Act
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11908
  • H.R. 2408, Scleroderma Research and Awareness Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11910
  • H.R. 5368, United States Postal Service Postal Inspectors Equity Act
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11911
  • H.R. 5993, Securing America’s Veterans Insurance Needs and Goals Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on September 15, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11899
  • H.R. 3787, A bill to amend title 38, United States Code, to recognize the service in the reserve components of certain persons by honoring them with status as veterans under law
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on September 15, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11902
  • H.R. 2378, Currency Reform for Fair Trade Act
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the House Committee on Ways and Means on September 24, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11913
  • S. 3751, Stem Cell Therapeutic and Research Reauthorization Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions on September 23, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11909
  • S. 3243, Anti-Border Corruption Act of 2010
    Cost estimate for the bill as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on July 28, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11914
  • SSI Extension for Elderly and Disabled Refugees Act of 2010
    Pay-as-you-go table for the bill as provided to CBO by the Senate Committee on the Budget on September 28, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11912
  • H.R. 5360, Housing, Employment, and Living Programs for Veterans Act of 2010
    Pay-as-you-go table for the bill as provided to CBO on September 27, 2010
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11900
  • The Economic Outlook and Fiscal Policy Choices
    Testimony before the Committee on the Budget, United States Senate
    http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=11874

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Obama discusses his Christian faith, chides Republicans in backyard chat

September 29th, 2010 · Deception, Obama's Scheme

By Anne E. Kornblut and William Branigin Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, September 28, 2010; 4:07 PM

ALBUQUERQUE – President Obama, speaking to middle-class Americans on Tuesday in his latest round of “backyard chats,” opened up to a questioner about his Christian faith, as he touted his administration’s record on education and the economy while warning that a Republican victory in upcoming elections would jeopardize progress in both areas.

Speaking to neighborhood residents in the yard of an Albuquerque family, Obama said the Nov. 2 elections “offer a choice on a whole range of different issues.” But he said the Republicans’ top priority is retaining $700 billion worth of tax breaks to the wealthiest 2 percent of Americans, money that “we’d have to borrow . . . because we don’t have it” – likely from countries such as China and Saudi Arabia.

He charged that Republicans “don’t really have good answers” on how to pay for their economic plans. One of their proposals, he said, is to cut education spending by 20 percent, eliminating about 200,000 Head Start programs and reducing student aid for college for about 8 million students. He urged his listeners to think about “who’s going to prioritize our young people” when they go to the polls in November.

In response to a woman who asked him why he is a Christian, Obama also offered some rare personal comments about his faith.

“I’m a Christian by choice,” he said, noting that his mother “didn’t raise me in the church” and that his family did not attend church every week.

“So I came to my Christian faith later in life,” Obama said. “And it was because the precepts of Jesus Christ spoke to me in terms of the kind of life that I would want to lead – being my brothers’ and sisters’ keeper, treating others as they would treat me.”

He said he also reached an “understanding that . . . Jesus Christ dying for my sins spoke to the humility we all have to have as human beings, that we’re sinful and we’re flawed and we make mistakes, and that, you know, we achieve salvation through the grace of God.”

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Public Law Update (240)

September 29th, 2010 · Public Law Update

H.R. 5297 / Public Law 111-240
Small Business Jobs Act of 2010
(Sept. 27, 2010; 124 Stat. 2504; 101 pages)

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