Sequestration: The Disarming of the United States of America

[Ryan Ruck]

Fox's Eric Bolling, Sean Hannity, and Donald Trump said they were going to donate enough money to keep the tours ongoing for one week each.

[vector7]

Donald Trump willing to fund White House tours

By KEVIN CIRILLI | 3/11/13 8:34 AM EDT

Donald Trump said Monday that he’d be willing to foot the bill for the White House tours that President Barack Obama’s administration nixed because of sequestration budget cuts.

Last week, Newt Gingrich recommended that Trump fund the tours, tweeting:

Donald trump should offer to pay for the white house tours. He can afford it and it would show who cares more for American students

— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) March 8, 2013

“I think it’s so nice of Newt to suggest that, I don’t know anything about it… . I like Newt a lot,” Trump said Monday on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends. “I didn’t hear this, but it sounds reasonable to me. Why not?”

Continue Reading
(PHOTOS: 11 politicians with Donald Trump)

Trump said that he thinks the tours were canceled to prove a political point.

“I guess it’s political. They want to hurt the people … If you look at what’s going on, I guess they’re trying to make a political point. It’s just really ridiculous. I don’t think it’s a big deal, frankly. But it does make us look awfully bad and awfully pathetic,” Trump said.

Last week, Obama administration officials announced that they were canceling White House tours to deal with sequestration, the $1.2 trillion automatic cuts in federal spending over a decade that took effect March 1.




White House: Donald Trump Offer To Fund Tours 'Is Not An Option' (VIDEO)

The Huffington Post | By Nick Wing Posted: 03/13/2013 10:06 am EDT

The White House will not turn to billionaire real estate mogul and political provocateur Donald Trump for help funding tours of the grounds that were halted by sequestration last week.

“The Donald Trump option is not an option. What we have to do is deal with the sequester,” White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer told CNN on Tuesday.

Earlier this week, Trump responded to outrage in conservative circles over the White House's closure to the public by claiming that he'd be willing to pay to keep the tours running.

Estimates had placed the cost of the tours at at least $74,000 a week, the amount the Secret Service pays to make sure the tour route is appropriately staffed by agents.

Pfeiffer said the Secret Service was faced with a tough alternative to cutting from its tour budget.

“The choice with the tours was we could ask the hardworking and brave men and women of the Secret Service to take additional furloughs to essentially pay for Congress’ inaction, or we could take the step that no one wants to take to close –- to suspend White House tours,” he said.

But Pfeiffer also suggested that Trump and others were glossing over a larger point that the White House has long tried to make: that the consequences of sequestration are real.

“It doesn’t work that way. We can’t have private individuals paying the Secret Service -- so, that’s not how it works,” Pfeiffer said. “This is about a very tough budget cut that the Secret Service has to take because of the sequester. It’s why we should have avoided the sequester to begin with.”

Obama stated in an interview with ABC News broadcast Wednesday that he's talking with the Secret Service about possibly restoring some White House tours.


Obama Spurns Trump Offer to Foot White House Tours

Wednesday, 13 Mar 2013 10:17 AM
By Kenneth Hanner



Even as a top senior presidential adviser dismissed Donald Trump’s offer to pay to resume tours at the White House, President Obama said he would try to reopen the doors in time for spring-break school groups.

White House senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer ruled out the billionaire businessman’s offer to pay for the tours that were closed down due to the recent sequester’s across-the-board spending cuts.

“The Donald Trump option is not an option— what we have to do is deal with the sequester,” Pfeiffer said on CNN.

But Obama expressed concern about groups of school children headed for the nation’s capital during the upcoming spring break.

In an interview with ABC News broadcast on Wednesday, the president said he was talking with Secret Service officials about restoring some visits.

“What I’m asking them, for example, are there ways for us to accommodate school groups that may have traveled here,” Obama said.

Trump made his offer on Fox News on Monday, taking up a suggestion from former House Speaker Newt Gingrich to pay for the cost of resuming the popular tourist attraction.

“If you look at what’s going on, I guess they’re trying to make a political point. It’s just really ridiculous,” Trump said. “It does make us look awfully bad and awfully pathetic.”

Read Latest Breaking News from Newsmax.com http://www.newsmax.com/Newsfront/tru...#ixzz2NRHtnYY9
Urgent: Should Obamacare Be Repealed? Vote Here Now!

[vector7]

Yep... there you go.

Obama wanted a "civilian force" as powerful as the US military.

Looks like he got it.

You are correct, DHS is getting all the new equipment and toys.

[American Patriot]

I had a sudden rash of computer problems, I was working on getting those articles posted about Trump and others, but got booted out of the site, then off the computer, then all kinds of shit happened here. I finally got my machine working again (including my news channel).

Three days.

Government efficiency.

[vector7]

Desperate Times: Marines Told To 'Save Every Round'

United States Marines are being told to preserve ammunition and gasoline as a deal softening the impact of automatic spending cuts continues to elude leaders in Washington.

As DHS buys millions of rounds...

Meanwhile...

Companion Thread:

• DOD Ends Sale of Expended Military Brass to Remanufacturers

OBAMA SELL BRASS TO CHINA INSTEAD OF AMMO MAKERS. CONGRESS APPARENTLY IS NOT WORKING FOR AMERICANS.

By Fred Brownbill on April 23, 2012 in Constitution Legal Watch, News




PROOF THAT WE HAVE SOME IDIOTS IN WASHINGTON

(OR, we have some foxes in the hen house that are out to deliberately destroy our country as quickly as they can. You decide)

This is totally crazy and it should make you want to slap the heck out of the idiots we have in Washington DC .

Georgia Arms is the 5th largest retailer of .223 Ammo in America . They sell 9mm, .45, .223 ammunition. They normally buy spent brass from the US Department of Defense. Spent brass is “one time used” shell cases used by our Military for training purposes.

They buy the brass, recondition it, and then reload the brass for resale to Law Enforcement, Gun Clubs, Gun Shops, and stores like Wal-Mart. They normally buy 30,000 lbs of spent brass at a time.

This week the DoD wrote a letter to the owner of Georgia Arms and informed him that from now on the DoD will be destroying the spent brass, shredding it. It will no longer be available to the ammo makers, unless they buy it in a scrap shredded condition (which they have no use for).

The shredded brass is now going to be sold by the DoD to China as scrap metal, after the DoD pays for it to be shredded. The DoD is selling the brass to China for less money than the ammo makers have been paying, plus the DoD has to pay to have the brass shredded and do the accounting paperwork.

This sure helps the economy now doesn’t it? Sell cheaper to China , and do not sell at all to a proven US business. Any hidden agenda working here? Obama going after the Firearms Industry and our ammunition!!

The Georgia Arms owner even related a story that one of his competitors had already purchased a load of brass last week. The DoD contacted him this week and said they were sending someone over to make sure it was destroyed. Shell cases he had already bought!

The brass has no value to the ammo maker if it is destroyed/shredded/melted.

The ammo manufacturer only uses the empty brass cases to reload different calibers, mainly .223 bullets.

The owner of Georgia Arms says that he will have to lay off at least half of his 60 workers, within 2-3 months if the DoD will no longer sell spent brass cases to the industry. Georgia Arms has 2-3 months of inventory to use, by summer they’re out.

If the Reloading Industry has to purchase new manufacture brass cases, then the cost of ammunition will double or even triple, plus Obama wants to add a 500% tax on each shell.

You can read the information and see the DoD letter to Georgia Arms here:

The Shootist Sitehttp://www.theshootist.net/2009/03/dod-ends-sale-of-expended-military.html

If you’re not outraged at what this administration is doing you should be!
Be Afraid! Be Very Very Afraid! Get involved! It’s Your Freedom and Our Country They’re Stealing! If You Fail to Act Now, there may not be a Free United States tomorrow!

I implore you to get involved and forward this to as many people
as you can. Contact your legislators and put them on notice, We’re fed up with what’s going on in the name of stimulating our economy!




Is the Government Contributing to the Current Ammo Shortage by Destroying Brass?

January 26 2013



An article on the Gun Rights Examiner suggests that the military may be once again destroying once shot ammunition brass and breaking it down to scrap metal.

This goes against a 2010 policy which stated that expended brass would be sold to ammunition manufacturers and the general public.

Many ammo companies specialize in specifically making reloaded rounds using once fired brass. These companies account for a large portion of taret ammunition sales.

Likewise, private citizens who reload their own rounds need brass for the process.

The report references procedures put into place at Fort Drum which reportedly state, “Brass from expended ammunition/munitions is recycled,” the report advises. “Expended munitions must be free of any explosive hazard or residue and be crushed, shredded or otherwise destroyed prior to public sale.

“At Fort Drum, brass from expended ammunition is processed through a brass deformer machine located at the transfer station,” the description continues. “The deformed brass is purchased by a scrap metal vendor who reports the weighed amount to the QRP [Qualified Recycling Program] Manager. The proceeds from the sale of the scrap metal are deposited into the designated QRP account.”

This means that individuals and companies who would normally purchase used brass for reloading are having to buy new brass, which is further straining an already strained ammo market.

Read the full article here: http://www.examiner.com/article/fort-drum-brass-destruction-...

[American Patriot]

You know this is just one more nail in the coffin of these people.


Communism works... for the Commies and Obama knows it.

[Phil Fiord]

They really are pushing the envelope.

[American Patriot]

I need to change the name of the thread to: "Sequestration: Arming everyone BUT the United States"

Safe from Sequester: $704,198 for Gardening at NATO Ambassador’s Home

By Admin on April 10, 2013



Pin It



by Elizabeth Harrington
Just over a week after sequestration took effect, the State Department allotted more than $700,000 for gardening at a U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Brussels, Belgium.
On March 11, State awarded a contract to provide gardening services at an “official residence” of the U.S. Mission in Belgium.


A State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNSNews.com that the contract is for Truman Hall, a historic property that serves at the residence of the Ambassador to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO). The current U.S. ambassador to NATO is Ivo H. Daalder, who was appointed by President Barack Obama in May 2009.


The total award comes to $704,198.30, including $134,744 for the base year and four one-year option periods thereafter.


A State Department spokesperson said that Truman Hall regularly hosts visitors from the 28 NATO nations and other Alliance partner countries around the world and is a valuable platform for America’s diplomacy.


The award provides for grass cutting, edging, trimming, weeding, and other gardening and landscaping services. It will also mandate the planting of 960 violas, tulips, and begonias.


Truman Hall, named after former President Harry S. Truman, was built in 1963 by Architect B.A. Jacquemotte and Landscape Architect René Pechère. The 28-acre property consists of several gardens, meadows and a lawn pavilion.


The award came just 10 days after automatic across-the-board cuts, known as the sequester, took effect on March 1. Prior to the cuts taking effect, Secretary of State John Kerry warned that the sequester could “seriously impair our ability to execute our vital missions of national security, diplomacy and development.”


In a letter to Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) on Feb. 11, Kerry said sequestration means $2.6 billion less in fiscal year 2013 for State Department programs.


“These cuts would severely impair our efforts to enhance the security of U.S. government facilities overseas and ensure the safety of the thousands of U.S. diplomats serving the American people abroad,” he said.


In addition to Truman Hall, the State Department is currently soliciting gardening services for U.S. Embassies in Jakarta, Indonesia; Santiago, Chile; Maseru, Lesotho; and Bangkok, Thailand.


The solicitation for the U.S. Embassy in Jakarta places a maximum amount of $500,000.


A State Department spokesperson said the award for Truman Hall was made at the lowest price technically acceptable, at a total cost of $704,198.30. The contract was awarded to Iris Greencare, a landscaping company based in Brussels.


Image Reference
HappyNews

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Some B-2 Bombers to be Grounded Under Budget Sequester

April 10, 2013



Some nuclear-capable U.S. long-range bombers are to be grounded for the rest of the current fiscal year due to lack of sufficient Air Force funding caused by the federal sequester, Defense News reported on Monday.

The service's allocation for flying time was cut by $591 million for the rest of fiscal 2013, which ends on Sept. 30. Without the full funding it is not possible for all Air Force flying units to maintain their combat-readiness status, necessitating the decision to ground some squadrons.

The Air Force Global Strike Command's 2nd and 5th bomb wings, stationed respectively out of Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana and Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota, have been grounded.

The service has cautioned that the 18-percent reduction in practice flying time this year will cause combat readiness to fall to "suboptimal levels."

US Air Force Grounds Combat Aircraft Due to Budget Cuts


An F-35 Lightning II lands Wednesday, March 6, 2013, at Nellis Air Force Base, United States
© US Air Force / Airman 1st Class Jason Couillard

02:36 10/04/2013

Tags: sequestration, Air Combat Command, U.S. Air Force, United States

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WASHINGTON, April 9 (RIA Novosti) – The US Air Force has begun curtailing operations of about one-third of the active-duty combat aircraft following recent budget cuts, the Air Combat Command (ACC) said in a statement on Tuesday.

“The stand down is the result of cuts to Air Combat Command's operations and maintenance account, which must be implemented in part by flying approximately 45,000 fewer training hours between now and October 1,” the statement said.

The move affects aircraft assigned to fighter, bomber, aggressor and airborne warning and control squadrons stationed in the United States, Europe and the Pacific.

"Units will stand down on a rotating basis so our limited resources can be focused on fulfilling critical missions," said Gen. Mike Hostage, the ACC commander.

The Air Force's budget for the fiscal year ending in October has been reduced by $591 million as part of the series of deficit reduction measures that took effect on March 1 after the US politicians failed to agree an alternative to sweeping federal budget cuts totaling $85 billion this year.

"The current situation means we're accepting the risk that combat airpower may not be ready to respond immediately to new contingencies as they occur," Gen. Hostage warned.

According to the statement, on average aircrews lose currency to fly combat missions within 90 to 120 days of not flying and it generally takes 60 to 90 days to conduct the training needed to return aircrews to mission-ready status.

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Budget cuts ground US Air Force front line combat units

DEBKAfile April 11, 2013, 10:48 AM (GMT+02:00)



Seventeen squadrons belonging to the various U.S. Air Force commands are affected by the stand down order to save 44,000 flying hours – one third of the total (worth $591 m), according to Air Force Times.

Some squadrons will remain combat ready or are expected to keep a reduced readiness level called “basic mission capable” until the end of the Fiscal Year 2013.

Some will be immediately grounded, others will be forced down as soon as they come back from their overseas deployment. DEBKAfile: The reduction in US Air Force activity also reduces its combat readiness for rapid deployment in emergency situations.

[vector7]

Proposed Missile Defense Cuts Reflect Obama’s Naïveté

Washington, Apr 26 -

By Rep. Michael Turner



Special to Roll Call Many have drawn the lesson from North Korea’s recent missile test failure that all is well and there is no real threat to America, and that President Barack Obama’s proposed cuts to national missile defense should not be a concern. I believe this is incorrect and deeply naive.

It would be fundamentally irresponsible to continue drawing down our national missile defenses while states like North Korea continue to invest in developing the means to attack the American people.

North Korea has apparently recently showcased six road mobile missiles. These may be the new intercontinental ballistic missiles that military and civilian defense officials have been warning of since last May. According to public reports, this missile was built with Chinese assistance from a state-owned Chinese company. Such a missile could pose a direct threat to the United States, according to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and former Secretary Robert Gates, especially in the context of North Korea’s preparations for a third nuclear weapons test.

The problem is, of course, larger than North Korea — there are well-understood connections between the ballistic missile programs of North Korea and Iran, and North Korea’s improvements today may be Iran’s new military capabilities tomorrow.

Even without ballistic missile cooperation with North Korea, Iran is well on its way toward developing a nuclear weapons capability. The president appears to be bending over backward to offer concessions to Iran, such as civil nuclear cooperation, instead of using all necessary means to stop its nuclear ambitions.

It’s unacceptable that the administration has failed to counter these emerging threats and in fact is taking steps to lessen our defenses.

In his first budget submission to the Congress, Obama slashed $1.16 billion out of the missile defense budget in a single year. The fiscal 2013 budget plan for the next five years is $3.6 billion less than even Obama’s own five-year plan submitted last year and $2 billion less than the previous administration projected for fiscal 2013.

Of course, this is consistent with what candidate Obama said in the 2008 campaign — that he doesn’t “agree with a missile defense system.”

When the president has requested support for missile defense, it has been to support missile defense capabilities other than our own.

According to Missile Defense Agency budget charts, the U.S. under his plan will be spending about $4 or $5 on regional missile defense for every $1 on national missile defense.

The hits keep coming with proposed cuts by the administration to the ground-based mid-course defense system. The funding request for this year is $600 million less than the last request from the previous administration. In addition, Obama has recommended to Congress that the U.S. shut down six homeland missile defense interceptor silos at Fort Greely, Alaska.

The Defense Department has been promising a “hedging strategy” that would lay out to Congress how it will respond to growing ballistic missile threats to the U.S. for almost three years. The need for a “hedging strategy” is itself an admission that the current plan doesn’t assume threats will continue to grow. Despite promises to the House Armed Services Committee as recently as a March 6 oversight hearing on the budget request for missile defense, there is no sign of this strategy. There are times when the silence is deafening.

The Strategic Forces Subcommittee, under my chairmanship, will not allow such negligence to stand. Therefore, my chairman’s mark will take certain urgent steps to begin to fix the damage done by Obama’s four budget requests. These steps will include:

— A significant plus-up in the budget authorization for the ground-based mid-course defense system, the nation’s only homeland defense capability. This plus-up will increase the refurbishments of our proven ground-based interceptors in Alaska and California while the evolved GBIs are further tested. The plus-up will also ensure that the Obama administration’s plan to shutter GBI silos in Alaska is rejected. We will also significantly increase testing of the GMD system, a policy that both parties have historically agreed on. Further, the bill will require the Missile Defense Agency to begin work on a modernized kill vehicle for the GMD system, so that we can continue to expand and enhance its capability into the future.

— Numerous studies have recommended the United States undertake the design, development and deployment of an East Coast missile defense site, and I agree. My bill will require the secretary of Defense to begin environmental impact work on such a site and to have it in place by 2015, and authorizes $100 million to begin that work.

— Members on both sides of the political aisle support regional missile defenses such as the European Phased Adaptive Approach. The difficulty, however, comes with the enormous price tag of the EPAA, which the administration offered free of charge to Europe in 2009 without knowing how much the system will cost the United States. Under the Budget Control Act that the president signed into law, the United States can simply no longer afford, if it ever could, to pay for Europe’s missile defense all by itself, especially not if it means neglecting the missile defense of the American people. The mark will direct the administration to seek financial support from our European allies who will be defended by the EPAA.

These steps will not fix all of the problems associated with four Obama budget requests that have shortchanged national missile defense. They are a step in dealing with the rising ballistic missile threats posed by North Korea, Iran, China and others.

Rep. Michael Turner (R-Ohio) is chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces.

[American Patriot]

Ack!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[vector7]

One-third of Air Force including Blue Angels grounded by sequester

• From ASSOCIATED PRESS
• Last Updated: 10:35 AM, April 10, 2013
• Posted: 9:55 AM, April 10, 2013

Blue Angels jets fly in front of the Golden Gate Bridge during practice in San Francisco, in this Oct. 4, 2007 file photo. The U.S. Navy's Blue Angels announced Tuesday April 9, 2013 the rest of its 2013 season is canceled because of federal budget cuts.


NORFOLK, Va. — A top general says federal budget cuts that will ground one-third of the U.S. Air Force's active-duty force of combat planes including fighters and bombers means "accepting the risk that combat airpower may not be ready to respond immediately to new contingencies as they occur."



AP

The US Navy's Blue Angels perform their precision aerobatics over the Florida Keys during the Southernmost Air Spectacular at Naval Air Station Key West, in Key West, Fla. The commander of Naval air forces announced on Tuesday, April 9, 2013 that the U.S. Navy has canceled the remainder of the elite Blue Angels demonstration team's 2013 season because of federal cuts.




Gen. Mike Hostage, commander of Air Combat Command at Joint Base Langley-Eustis in Virginia, issued the warning Tuesday as the Pentagon braces for more effects of the automatic spending cuts triggered by the lack of a budget agreement in Washington.
Hostage said that only the units preparing to deploy to major operations, such as the war in Afghanistan, will remain mission-ready. Other units would stand down on a rotating basis, he added.


The Air Force didn't immediately release a list of the specific units and bases that would be affected, but it said it would cover some fighters like F-16 Fighting Falcons and F-22 Raptors, and some airborne warning and control aircraft in the U.S., Europe and the Pacific.
The Air Force says, on average, aircrews "lose currency" to fly combat commissions within 90 to 120 days of not flying. It generally takes 60 to 90 days to train the crews to mission-ready status.


Returning grounded units to be ready for missions will require additional funds beyond Air Combat Command's normal budget, according to Air Force officials. The "stand down" will remain in effect for the remainder of fiscal year 2013 barring any changes to funding.


"Even a six-month stand down of units will have significant long-term, multi-year impacts on our operational readiness," Air Combat Command spokesman Maj. Brandon Lingle wrote in an email to The Associated Press.


The Department of Defense overall faces a $487 billion reduction in projected spending over the next decade and possibly tens of billions more as tea partyers and other fiscal conservatives embrace automatic spending cuts as the best means to reduce the government's trillion-dollar deficit.


On Wednesday, when President Barack Obama submits his fiscal year 2014 budget, the Pentagon blueprint is expected to include requests for two rounds of domestic base closings in 2015 and 2017, a pay raise of only 1 percent for military personnel and a revival of last year's plan to increase health care fees and implement new ones, according to several defense analysts.


On Monday, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said another huge concern is the uncontrollable cost the Defense Department is paying for health care and other benefits. He said money spent on that is not being used on preparing pilots for missions and troops for combat.


The greatest fiscal threat to the military is not declining budgets, Hagel warned, but rather "the growing imbalance in where that money is being spent internally."


For affected units, the Air Force says it will shift its focus to ground training. That includes the use of flight simulators and academic training to maintain basic skills and aircraft knowledge, Lingle said. Aircraft maintainers plan to clear up as much of a backlog of scheduled inspections and maintenance that budgets allow.


On the same day, the Navy confirmed that the Blue Angels aerobatic team would be cancelling the rest of its season.


Tom Frosch, the Blue Angels lead pilot and team commander, announced the news late Tuesday at the team's Pensacola Naval Air Station headquarters while standing in front of the one of the iconic blue-and-gold jets. Frosch said the news marks the first time since the Korean War that the team would not make the air show rounds.


"The Navy held off as long as possible with the hope of salvaging some of the season," Frosch said. "We hope we'll be turned back on for 2014."

[American Patriot]

That article is "technically' wrong. The Blue Angels are Navy, they aren't "Air Force" they are part of the "air forces" lol But anyway..... sad

I have a couple doors left to trim and a bunch of closet doors to install. Going to try to do as much as I can this weekend. Wife is off and painting closets tomorrow.... My "Preparation" has moved to "getting the fuck out of Dodge" now. Fuck this place, Colorado, the US Government, they are ALL assholes.

[vector7]

Obama’s Sequester Grounds 1/3rd of American Air Force!

April 10th, 2013

NORFOLK, VA. — The Air Force is grounding about a third of its active-duty combat aircraft because of automatic spending cuts.

The stand-down will affect units stationed in the U.S., Europe and the Pacific. Those units include fighter, bomber, aggressor and airborne warning and control squadrons.

http://www.app.com/viewart/20130409/...ombat-aircraft

Reduced flying hours forces grounding of 17 USAF combat air squadrons

WASHINGTON — The Air Force will begin grounding combat air squadrons Tuesday in response to forced spending cuts that have eliminated more than 44,000 flying hours through September, according to internal documents obtained by Air Force Times.

The Air Force’s budget for flying hours was reduced by $591 million for the remainder of fiscal 2013, making it impossible to keep all squadrons ready for combat, according to an April 5 memo signed by Maj. Gen. Charles Lyon, director of operations for Air Combat Command. The across-the board spending cuts, called sequestration, took effect March 1 when Congress failed to agree on a deficit-reduction plan.

http://www.airforcetimes.com/article...-air-squadrons

This is scary in light of the current events.

[vector7]

This Marxist Administration with all their new Communist appointees to oversee their draconian erosion of America has penetrated our military's readiness and strategic planning.



Secretary Defense Hagel endorsed by Communist Party USA

Obama's defense nominee previously earned Iran's blessing

Published: 02/05/2013 at 8:29 PM
by Aaron Klein Email | Archive Subscribe to feed



After reportedly receiving support from Iran, Chuck Hagel, President Obama’s defense secretary nominee, has yet another endorsement to add to his resume, this one coming from the Communist Party USA.

People’s World, the Communist Party USA’s official magazine, touted Hagel as “represent[ing] the more sober elements who have called in our national discourse for rejection of the old cold war tactics, the unilateralism and the continual push for wars all over the world.”

The magazine’s labor editor, John Wojcik, slammed the ”neocon” U.S. Senate for trying to “force Hagel to disavow his opposition to what they call the ‘successful’ surges in Iraq and Afghanistan.”

A People’s World blast email further lamented Hagel “is still the subject of controversy due to some mild criticism he made of the State of Israel.”

Wojcik contended “it was the U.S. Senate, not President Obama’s nominee, Chuck Hagel, that fell down on the job at the hearings.”

“It was allowed to become a place for right-wing grandstanding and unacceptable efforts to rewrite history,” he continued.

Wojcik conceded that Hagel “does not have the kind of record that progressives conclude will make him a Secretary of Defense who would chart the entirely new foreign policy direction the times require.”

Last week Hagel took heat from Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Oka., who asked during the Senate hearings why Iran supports Hagel’s nomination as defense secretary.

As a senator, Hagel opposed sanctions on Iran, instead calling for “direct, unconditional talks.” He was one of only 12 senators who refused to sign a letter asking the European Union to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

WND reported Hagel went on the Middle East satellite network Al Jazeera in 2009 to argue that before dealing with the nuclear arsenals of rogue nations such as Iran and North Korea, the U.S. and Russia must first lead the effort by phasing out their own nuclear weapons.

WND also reported Hagel serves on the board of the Ploughshares Fund, a George Soros-funded group that advocates a nuclear-free world.

The Ploughshares Fund has a long history of anti-war advocacy and is a partner of the Marxist-oriented Institute for Policy Studies, which has urged the defunding of the Pentagon and massive decreases in U.S. defense capabilities, including slashing the American nuclear arsenal to 292 deployed weapons.

Hagel’s thesis on minimizing the U.S. nuclear arsenal was reiterated in a 2012 report he co-authored titled “Global Zero: U.S. Nuclear Policy Commission.”

The report called for an 80-percent reduction in U.S. nuclear weapons to about 900, with only half of those being deployed. It further called for the eventual phasing out of short-range nuclear weapons and the elimination of ICBMs and B-52 bombers.

The report was the initiative of the Global Zero advocacy group, which works for a nuclear-free world.

Hagel co-authored the commission report with former U.S. diplomat Thomas Pickering, who reportedly previously held clandestine meetings with Hamas aiming to open U.S. dialogue with the terrorist group.
Iran is arguably the largest state sponsor of terrorism.

Regarding his views on jihad, WND exposed that in unreported remarks during a 2007 Senate hearing, Hagel posited that terrorism does not arise from religious beliefs but instead is a response to despair and a lack of hope.

The Communist Party USA may ideologically support some of Hagel’s ties.

WND reported Hagel sits on the board of a fund that serves as the main financial backer of a group urging the U.S. to join the U.N.’s International Criminal Court, which could prosecute American citizens and soldiers for “war crimes” and other offenses.

Opposes U.S. missile defense

Ploughshares, meanwhile, opposes America’s development of a missile defense system and contributes to scores of anti-war groups highly critical of U.S. foreign policy and military expansion.

Ploughshares is directed by Joseph Cirincione, who served as an adviser on nuclear issues to Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign. Cirincione also was director of nuclear policy at the Center for American Progress.

Among the groups to which Ploughshares donates are the anti-Israel Americans for Peace Now, the Arms Control Association, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Center for Policy Alternatives, the Soros-funded Center for Public Integrity, the radical Citizen Action, Citizens for Environmental Justice, the Coalition for New Priorities and the radical Institute for Policy Studies.

More grantees include the New America Foundation, the Nonviolent Peaceforce, the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation, the Nuclear Freeze Foundation, the Nuclear Weapons Freeze Campaign, Peace Action, the Peace Studies Association, Physicians for Human Rights and Physicians for Social Responsibility.

Ploughshares has also funded the Soros-financed Connect US Fund, which urges more U.N. helmets on U.S. troops, as well as the Center for American Progress, which has strong influence on White House policy.

Also on the list of Ploughshares grantees is The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which has long petitioned for the U.S. to reduce its nuclear stockpiles. According to Pavel Sudoplatov, a former major-general in Soviet intelligence, the work by the magazine editors was for the benefit of the Soviet Union.

Two of the magazine’s founding sponsors, Leo Szilard and Robert Oppenheimer, were accused of passing information from the Manhattan Project to the Soviets. Both were also key initiators of the Manhattan Project.

Ploughshares funds the International Crisis Group, a small organization that boasts Soros on its board and is a key promoter of the Responsibility to Protect doctrine used to justify the NATO airstrikes in Libya last year.

Massive defense slashes

Another Ploughshares grantee is the Institute for Policy Studies.

Ploughshares is listed on the institute’s website as a partner organization.

The institute works with the Center for American Progress to release an annual “Unified Security Budget,” which reportedly has influenced White House military policy. Previous recommendations from the two groups’ yearly Unified Security Budgets have been adapted by the Obama administration.

The 2012 budget, reviewed in full by WND, called on Obama to use the U.S. Armed Forces in part to combat “global warming,” fight global poverty, remedy “injustice,” bolster the United Nations and increase “peacekeeping” forces worldwide.

The budget called for massive, second-term slashes to the military budget. The savings are to be used to invest in “sustainable energy” and in fighting worldwide climate change.

The report makes clear the stated objective of transforming the U.S. Armed Forces to stress conflict resolution and diplomacy.

The report takes issue with the use of forces on the ground in various countries to secure or influence the longer-term strategic position of other nations.

It recommends scaling back all U.S. ground forces by 20 percent and reducing the Navy’s surface fleet by 20 percent, including two carriers and carrier combat air wings. It also calls for reducing the Air Force by two combat air wings while cutting standing peacetime overseas deployments in Europe and East Asia by up to 50,000 troops at a time.

The budget’s authors strongly argue for the reduction of the U.S. nuclear arsenal to no more than 292 deployed nuclear weapons and the complete elimination of the Trident II nuclear missile. It’s a process Obama already initiated in April 2010 when he signed a deal with Russia reducing stocks of weapons-grade plutonium.

The accord with Russia was signed at a nuclear summit in Washington arranged by Obama at which leaders of 47 nations committed to reducing the world’s nuclear stockpiles. One week earlier, Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and Obama signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START, committing both countries to reducing their deployed nuclear arsenals.

Obama had broadly proclaimed his disarmament intentions during a 2007 campaign speech.

“Here’s what I’ll say as president: America seeks a world in which there are no nuclear weapons,” Obama said.

By 2010, as president, he was arguing: “We need to change our nuclear policy and our posture, which is still focused on deterring the Soviet Union – a country that doesn’t exist.”

Obama’s declaration came just as Russia signed a major arms deal with Syria and began to revive its Cold War-era naval bases in the Middle East, including in the Syrian ports of Tartus and Latakia on the Mediterranean.
The joint CAP and IPS report, meanwhile, recommends the U.S. cease all further development of missile defenses.

The report pushes for all current missile defense programs to be cut, including Ground-based Midcourse Defense, Airborne Laser and Kinetic Energy Interceptors.

“It is unwise to fund more advanced systems for missile defense while current ones have yet to be proven effective against their targeted threats,” complains the report.

The military’s vital Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation program is to be cut by $10 billion across the board.

Next on the chopping block: the complete cancellation of the second SSN-744 Virginia Class submarine. While the Unified Security Budget describes the new model as “unnecessary to address any of the threats facing the United States today” and “a weapon looking for an enemy,” the SSN-774 is designed for covert collection of intelligence, transportation of special operations teams and launching of tactical Tomahawk missiles – flexible capabilities tailored to rapid responses required by the 21st-century’s conflicts with irregular combatants.

Similarly targeted for cancellation are the V-22 Osprey helicopter and the Navy and Marine Corps versions of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Combating ‘global warming’

The 2012 Unified report sets the tone of its lofty agenda by demanding immediate reductions in the military’s already heavily slashed budget. But there is one exception requiring massive increases in funding – any spending that funds “alternative energy” or focuses Defense Department resources on combating “climate change as a security threat.”

The report authors recommend investing “the lion’s share” of the few allotted military increases in addressing the so-called “threat” of climate change.

The report wants Obama to take billions of dollars from the U.S. military and instead use them for a “green stimulus.”

These groups also envision the military as a tool to fight so-called global warming. In 2011, IPS released a 40-page CAP-endorsed report titled “The Green Dividend,” a term IPS defines as “a major shift of resources from the military budget to sustainable energy.”

The IPS research paper identifies the Pentagon as the “largest institutional energy user – and greenhouse gas emitter – on the planet,” arguing that if it undertook a “crash program” to convert to renewable energy sources and clean vehicles, it could make a significant impact on global emissions.

IPS calls on the Pentagon to contribute to a green world “by simply getting out of the way, by handing over unneeded military installations to be converted into green job incubators.”

The report lauds Obama’s first-ever U.S. Global Development Policy, which was issued in September 2010 and declares that the primary purpose of development aid is to pursue broad-based economic growth as the means to fight global poverty.

The report goes on to recommend that massive funds be sent to combat global woes, including an increase of $3.5 billion to “Global Health” investment and $2.14 billion to support United Nations peacekeeping and ensure that the United States does not fall behind in U.N. payments.

Putin Receives Obama Letter on Strategic Issues

April 15, 2013

U.S. national security adviser Tom Donilon on Monday delivered a letter from President Obama to Russian President Vladimir Putin that touched on strategic matters including additional nuclear-weapon cuts and missile defense, the Christian Science Monitor reported.

"The message is written in a very constructive tone and contains a range of suggestions for further deepening of our bilateral dialogue and cooperation," Putin foreign policy counselor Yuri Ushakov said to reporters. "Some ideas have already been talked about but there are some new elements which our country will study in the most attentive way and give a corresponding response."

Washington and Moscow have long been at odds over Obama administration plans for ballistic missile defense, particularly deployment of interceptors in Europe. That dispute is seen as an obstacle to bilateral atomic arsenal reductions that go beyond the New START pact's limits of 1,550 strategic warheads and 700 delivery systems.

The White House on Monday announced the president would hold a summit with Putin in September when he takes part in a Group of 20 meeting in Russia, Reuters reported.

A separate Obama-Putin summit has already been scheduled for June in Northern Ireland.

[Ryan Ruck]

NYC's Fleet Week Canceled Due To Budget Cuts

April 24, 2013

Federal budget cuts have forced the U.S. Navy to cancel Fleet Week in New York City, reports CBS New York.

In a statement, Director of Public Affairs Beth Baker says "there will be no Navy ships in New York this year for Fleet Week and no additional sailors or Marines."

The Navy had to make hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts and one way it decided to save money was to cancel community outreach efforts like Fleet Week.

"We greatly appreciate the city's patience and understanding during these unusual times," Baker said.

The annual event is a very popular part of the tourism life of New York City and the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood.

It contributes tens of millions of dollars to the economy and millions in city tax revenue.

A spokeswoman for Mayor Michael Bloomberg's office issued a statement saying, "Fleet Week is a great opportunity to salute the servicemen and women of our Navy, Marines and Coast Guard who do so much for our country. We understand the Navy's budgetary limitations and hope that the Fleet Week tradition can continue in 2014."

Last year was the 25th anniversary of Fleet Week.

Some of the attractions included nine tall ships and nine Navy aircraft carriers and destroyers.

[Malsua]

WILL SOMEONE PLEASE EXPLAIN TO ME HOW A REDUCTION IN THE INCREASE, BUT OVERALL AN INCREASE LEADS TO ALL THIS???????

Every agency is getting more, year over year, just not AS MUCH as they wanted...how the fuck does it shut down the White Hut, Air traffic, museums, national parks, Etc.?

I've got an answer for all this....if all this shit is costing so damn much that it needs a fucking raise every year to stay afloat....LET IT DIE! All of it. Close the parks, close the skies, close all of it.

It won't take long until someone figures out a way to do it cheaper.

[American Patriot]

I wish I got an increase in my money each year that tracked with the US Government gets.

[vector7]

Despite sequester, DOD signs contract for $59/gallon green jet fuel

May 2, 2013 | 12:52 pm | Modified: May 2, 2013 at 6:25 pm
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A picture taken on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012 shows, plane captains pass by F-18 fighter jets on the flight deck of the Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72) in the Strait of Hurmuz. The USS Abraham Lincoln sailed from the Persian Gulf through the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel recently warned that sequestration would cause “suspension of important activities, curtailed training, and could result in furloughs of civilian personnel” but the spending cuts haven’t killed the green fuels program, as the Pentagon has continued purchasing renewable fuel at $59 per gallon.

“In March, Gevo entered into a contract with the Defense Logistics Agency to supply the U.S. Army with 3,650 gallons of renewable jet fuel to be delivered by the second quarter of 2013,” Gevo announced this week in its first quarter financial report. “This initial order may be increased by 12,500 gallons. All shipments will be at a fixed price of $59 per gallon during the initial testing phase. These shipments are in addition to the renewable jet fuel supplied to the U.S. Air Force (USAF) and the U.S. Navy (USN).”

Conventional JP-8 jet fuel costs $3.73 a gallon, according to the Defense Logistics Agency.

FY 2013 Standard Prices Effective Oct 1, 2012