U.S. Navy Allowed to Use Persian Gulf Laser for Defense

By: Sam LaGrone
Published: December 10, 2014 11:47 AM • Updated: December 10, 2014 12:14 P

PENTAGON — The U.S. Navy is has declared an experimental laser weapon on its Afloat Forward Staging Base (AFSB) in the Persian Gulf an operational asset and U.S. Central Command has given permission for the commander of the ship to defend itself with the weapon, the head of the Office of Naval Research (ONR) told reporters on Wednesday.

The 30 kilowatt Laser Weapon System (LaWS) was installed aboard USS Ponce this summer as part of a $40 million research and development effort from ONR and Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to test the viability of directed energy weapons in an operational environment, said ONR Rear Adm. Matthew Klunder.

“The captain of that ship has all of the authorities necessary if there was a threat inbound to that ship to protect our sailors and Marines [and] we would defend that ship with that laser system,” Klunder said.
“It would be [used] against those [unmanned aerial vehicles], slow moving helicopters, fast patrol craft.”

More…

House passes full omnibus budget bill despite Democrat revolt – as it happened

Tom McCarthy and Alan Yuhas in New York 
Thursday 11 December 2014 22.10 EST

House Speaker John Boehner supported the omnibus bill. 

Summary

We’re going to end our coverage for the night with a summary of the key events in Congress.

The House passed the “cromnibus” bill to fund the federal government for the next fiscal year, avoiding a government shutdown despite a rebellion by Democrats. The final votes tallied to 219-206.

The Senate has until midnight Saturday to take up the bill, thanks to a short-term resolution passed by the House to give it time. Senator Harry Reid said the chamber could take up the bill as early as Friday.

Democrats spent hours in disarray and angry revolt over the inclusion of two riders added to the bill at the 11th hour, one on campaign contribution limits and the second on finance. Members of the party were particularly enraged by the latter, which would insure derivative trading on Wall Street.

The House voted by unusually emotional speeches from Democrats furious with each other, with representatives decrying big banks and exhausted by gridlock in Congress.

Speaker of the House John Boehner rallied Republicans after a minor spat broke out in his own party, as hard right conservatives argued to use the bill as leverage on immigration.

The White House breathed a sigh of relief as a bill it backed passed with bipartisan support, though division among Democrats portends problems for the remainder of Barack Obama’s presidency.

Senate majority leader Harry Reid has announced that the chamber will take up the omnibus bill tomorrow.

More…

If it’s not OK to spy on senators, is it still OK to spy on citizens?

By Ashe Schow  July 31, 2014

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Brennan admitted Thursday that agency officials acted improperly when they hacked Senate computers, according to the Associated Press.

Dean Boyd, a spokesman for the CIA, said, the officials “acted in a manner inconsistent with the common understanding reached between [the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence] and the CIA in 2009.”

Brennan is now apologizing to senators, including Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., who accused the CIA earlier this year of possibly violating the Constitution.

“The director … apologized to them for such actions by CIA officers as described in the [Office of Inspector General] report,” Boyd added.

Brennan had initially denied the notion that the CIA was spying on members of Congress, telling NBC host Andrea Mitchell in March that “nothing could be further from the truth.”

At issue is the fact that in January, the CIA hacked into computers used by staffers on the Intelligence Committee to remove documents relating to the committee’s review of government torture policies under President George W. Bush.

The situation brings up another question for civil liberty-minded Americans: Why can’t innocent Americans get the same agreement with the CIA – or the National Security Agency – that the Intelligence Committee received?

More >>>

China tells U.S. to stay out of South China Seas dispute

By Ben Blanchard 

(Reuters) – China told the United States on Tuesday to stay out of disputes over the South China Sea and leave countries in the region to resolve problems themselves, after Washington said it wanted a freeze on stoking tension.

Michael Fuchs, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Strategy and Multilateral Affairs, said no country was solely responsible for escalating tension in the region. But he reiterated the U.S. view that "provocative and unilateral" behaviour by China had raised questions about its willingness to abide by international law.

China claims 90 percent of the South China Sea, which is believed to contain oil and gas deposits and has rich fishery resources. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan also lay claim to parts of the sea, where about $5 trillion of ship-borne trade passes every year.

China’s Foreign Ministry repeated that it had irrefutable sovereignty over the Spratly Islands, where most of the competing claims overlap, and that China continued to demand the immediate withdrawal of personnel and equipment of countries which were "illegally occupying" China’s islands.

"What is regretful is that certain countries have in recent years have strengthened their illegal presence through construction and increased arms build up," the ministry said in a statement.

China would resolutely protect its sovereignty and maritime rights and had always upheld resolving the issue based on direct talks with the countries involved "on the basis of respecting historical facts and international law", it added.

More >>>

After marijuana legalization: Colorado tax revenue skyrockets as crime falls

The State's legalization of marijuana was based mostly on the ability of the state to collect more taxes, and not the social and moral issues of legalization. They got what they wanted and to boot crime is down too. Of course I have never been one to want to throw some one in jail for the possession of a plant. There are much worse drugs society needs to worry about than marijuana. Look for more states to move in this direction as the true health of the nations economy becomes more apparent. - Gary    

By Daniel Wallis


DENVER (Reuters) – At the Native Roots Apothecary, a discreet marijuana shop in a grand old building in Denver’s busy 16th street shopping mall, business is so brisk that customers are given a number before taking a seat to wait their turn.

There are young men in ball caps, nervous-looking professionals in suits, and the frail and elderly. Staff say customers have been flocking to their outlets since Colorado voted to allow recreational pot use for adults from January.

Six months on, Colorado’s marijuana shops are mushrooming, with support from local consumers, weed tourists and federal government taking a wait-and-see attitude. 
Tax dollars are pouring in, crime is down in Denver, and few of the early concerns about social breakdown have materialized – at least so far.

“The sky hasn't fallen, but we’re a long way from knowing the unintended consequences,” said Andrew Freeman, director of marijuana coordination for Colorado. “This is a huge social and economic question.” 
Denver, dubbed the “Mile High” city, now has about 340 recreational and medicinal pot shops. They tout the relaxing, powerful or introspective attributes of the crystal-encased buds with names like Jilly Bean, Sour Diesel and Silverback Kush.

The Negative


On the down side, sheriff's deputies in neighboring Nebraska say pot seizures near the Colorado border have shot up 400 percent in three years, while Wyoming and New Mexico report no significant increases.


More >>>

Record amount of Americans now disapprove of President Obama.

Simon Black via Sovereign Man blog

According to a new Gallup pole, a record amount of Americans now disapprove of President Obama.

Now, this is nothing new. Presidential approval ratings go up and down, and Mr. Obama has had a long-term slide thanks to… oh, I don’t know… a total avalanche of foul-ups ranging from the Obamacare fiasco to the IRS targeting his enemies to the VA scandal to the intelligence community’s surveillance of the press, et cetera ad infinitum.

But here’s the interesting thing– this poll about the President’s approval rating. It’s about his image– who he is as a person. Do Americans think he’s a trustworthy person with strong character? Nope. Not even close.

In fact, a majority of Americans personally view Mr. Obama unfavorably. Less than half think that he is honest.

It’s a pretty sad state of affairs, frankly, when the President of the United States cannot even be viewed as an honest person by the constituents that he governs. But more importantly, it signals an end to this system.

Everywhere you look there are signs that the game is resetting. In Europe, the establishment parties have been voted out and politicians are in a panic. In many other parts of the world, all-out revolution is ensuing.

More >>>

Good Riddance To Rep. Eric Cantor: Bagman For Wall Street And The War Party

Politician

by David Stockman • June 13, 2014

Its possible to describe Rep.Eric Cantor as a serial sell-out. But that would be giving an unprincipled politician driven by an unalloyed ambition to climb the greasy pole of Washington power too much credit. In truth, Cantor never campaigned for any recognizable principle; he merely maneuvered his way to the top of the House GOP hierarchy by following in the tawdry footsteps of modern GOP bagmen like Tom DeLay and Roy Blunt.

One commentator had Cantor pegged right on the money, as it were, years ago. One the heels of the 2010 GOP landslide, it was evident that Cantor’s true ambition was to accumulate a massive war chest to further his own ambitions, not to seize on the tea party momentum to fundamentally reverse the tide of Big Government:

Hand-picked by Majority Whip Roy “Abramoff-R-Us” Blunt early in his tenure to be a deputy whip, sort of an official water-carrier, Cantor moved up swiftly through the ranks as a Blunt protégé, because he was cheerfully obedient when sitting in the room with Friends of Abramoff and because he was unusually good at the money. “He’s about the money,” one wag offers admiringly.

But he was never about conservative principles. Instead, Cantor is one of those post-Reagan Republicans who have managed to reduce conservative policy to such grandiose, content-free platitudes that there is never any danger that their stump speeches at home, or even on the floor of the House, will get in the way of doing Washington business as usual.

There are certain litmus tests that cogently demonstrate the difference between platitude and principle—-and one of them pertains to the matter of crony capitalist subsidies and tax breaks for big business. On that score, I once heard Cantor give a stem-winder in behalf of free markets at a conference full of business and financial types who nodded, applauded and whooped it up. But that was just a pro forma sermon. The next day he was back in Washington making sure that the Ex-Im bank authorization was extended for another 3-years.

In this case, Washington business as usual amounts to salving the spurious complaint of Boeing and General Electric lobbyists that the Brits, EU and Japan subsidize export finance for aircraft, jet engines and heavy capital equipment—-so American taxpayers need to level the playing field. Well, yes, if US policy is to be driven by the statist and socialist mistakes of foreign governments then by all means tax American farmers and bus drivers so that Boeing will make its quarterly EPS.

There is an alternative. Let Boeing and GE suffer a hairline reduction in EPS by providing their own concessional pricing to customers, while shielding millions of innocent US taxpayers and business from being dunned for the tab on April 15. Then let the free market decide where to allocate capital; and let America’s businesses, not Washington bureaucrats, discover where they have the greatest competitive advantage in both domestic and foreign markets, including the ones that are rigged by foreign governments which have an addiction to wasting taxpayer money.

More >>>

IRS Audited Tea Party Donors Ten Times More Often Than Regular Americans

In the Recent News

Authored by Rick Moran, originally posted at American Thinker,

Zerohedge.com

When the IRS was targeting conservative groups seeking tax exempt status for special scrutiny, they demanded the list of donors supporting those groups in 17 cases. Despite assurances from the agency that the lists had been destroyed, a search requested by Congress revealed that at least 3 lists had survived.

And of the donors on those lists, fully 10% of the individuals had been audited.
The rate of audits for ordinary Americans is about 1%.
Now, the House Ways and Means Oversight Committee is demanding that the Government Accountability Office investigate the IRS to see why so many Tea Party donors were audited.  More >>>

Russia holds military drills to repel nuclear strike

Looks like the chess game is beginning.

President Vladimir Putin has overseen military drills on countering nuclear strike. The planned drills come ahead of the May 9 celebrations dedicated to victory in World War II.

"We are carrying out tests of the readiness of the Russian armed forces. It was announced last November. The exercises will involve all branches of the armed forces across the country," Putin told reporters at the Defense Ministry.

Modern challenges and threats to the country’s national security demand that the army and the fleet are maintained in readiness for quick and effective retaliation in any conditions, the Russian Defense Minister and army general Sergey Shoigu told Putin in a report.

During the drills, it was demonstrated how the missile corps, artillery, aviation and anti-aircraft defenses can be used – for instance, to destroy troops on the ground or to counter massive missile, aviation or nuclear strikes by an enemy.

Plus, it was shown how to inflict a launch-through-attack strike with nuclear missiles.

The training exercises, which are due to include ground troops and artillery as well as the air force, were held during a summit of heads of state of a security bloc made up of former Soviet states.

Led by Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian aerospace defense troops have successfully overridden a massive nuclear missile strike, an official representative of the Russian Defense Ministry told RIA Novosti news agency.

More…

No Sanctions Will Hurt Russia More Than People Imposing Them

Jim Rogers on the Voice Of Russia

There is no reason for Russia to worry about the western sanctions it is facing now over the Ukrainian issue since Moscow has too many other trade partners to work with, Jim Rogers, financial analyst and co-founder of the Quantum Fund, said in an interview with the VoR.

Could China’s decision to purchase superjet planes be viewed as a gesture of support following a series of sanctions imposed by the West against Moscow over the Ukrainian issue?

Of course it is. I’m an American, so I hate to say this, but America is shooting itself in a foot getting the most of our world to pushing China and Russia closer together. And you are going to see more and more trade between the two. And that makes the sanctions against Russia almost impossible, because there are other people who will not play.

And are there chances for the Russia Sukhoi Superjet planes to compete with other major plane-makers?

I don’t think that the Russians have enough to compete with Boeing planes yet. But you are certainly getting better. I mean, as far as cargo planes, you are probably better than anybody else. And if people are forcing you or forcing other people to buy from you, then, of course, your costs will go down, your quality will get better and it will only benefit Russia, but not benefit Europe or America.

I think that’s one reason Europe and America are a little hesitant to do too much about the sanctions, because they know that they may lose more than they will gain.

More >>> 

Visa Admits Russia Sanctions Hitting Business.

Visa, the world’s largest card services company, says its revenue growth slowed to a four-year low, as cross-border operations with Russia were hit by the political tension over Ukraine.

"We are caught between the politics of the United States and the politics of Russia,"Reuters quotes Byron Pollitt, Visa’s Chief Financial Officer."We’re clearly seeing a drop-off in cross-border volume, and sanctions are expected to have some impact on volume."
For the first time in more than four years Visa’s quarterly revenue growth declined to single digit percentages amid a strengthening dollar. In the second quarter ended March 31 it was 7 percent, down from 11 percent in the first quarter. The company projects revenue growth to slow further this quarter.

In March Visa and another US-based payment system MasterCard suspended services to two Russian banks after President Barack Obama imposed sanctions on Russia.

President Vladimir Putin said Russia would develop its own payment system, which should start operating in about 6 months. More >>>

Report: Premiums rising faster than the last eight years before Obamacare COMBINED

Health insurance premiums have risen more after Obamacare than the average premium increases over the eight years before it became law, according to the private health exchange eHealthInsurance.
The individual market for health insurance has seen premiums rise by 39 percent since February 2013, eHealth reports. Without a subsidy, the average individual premium is now $274 a month. Families have been hit even harder with an average increase of 56 percent over the same period — average premiums are now $663 per family, over $426 last year.
Between 2005 and 2013, average premiums for individual plans increased 37 percent and average family premiums were upped 31 percent. So they have risen faster under Obamacare than in the previous eight years.
An important caveat is that eHealth’s prices don’t include subsidies, so the prices for anyone earning between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level will be lower. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has repeatedly claimed patients will pay as little as $18 per month, without noting the taxpayer cost.
Premiums are being hiked across the board for several reasons, but the biggest contributor is the Obama administration’s highly touted “essential health benefits,” services that insurers on and off exchanges must provide.
Some benefits, such as emergency and laboratory services, are uncontroversial. But others, like maternity, newborn and pediatric services, are causing headaches for huge swaths of the population that don’t need them. Anyone past childbearing age, single men, the infertile, even nuns — their premiums are rising as well, because their plans must, by law, provide more services.
But premiums aren’t the only key to health care costs — deductibles and out-of-pocket costs like co-pays are also rising. When it comes to employer health plans alone, four out of five U.S. companies have increased deductibles or are considering doing so.
More...

Insurers Expect Premium Prices to Soar under Obamacare

Was'nt the average family to experience a $2,500 decrease in premiums under Obamacare?

Insurers on Obamacare: Expect Premium Prices to Soar
Health insurance premiums will likely skyrocket next year, despite the Obama administration’s consistent assurance that consumers will not experience sticker shock under the president’s health care law.
That’s according to industry insiders who told The Hill that they are expecting the price of monthly premiums to increase significantly. In some states, rates could increase by as much as 300 percent.
Related: Obamacare Sticker Shock Found in Deductibles, Not Premiums
“There is extensive concern about rate increases next year,” said Avalere Health’s Vice President Caroline Pearson. “Particularly since early exchange enrollment is skewed toward older enrollees, some are concerned that plans will need to raise prices in 2015.”
Rates won’t be announced until the fall, however, and Pearson cautioned that it’s still too early to know what they are likely to be since the enrollment period for this year is still ongoing.
The industry’s concerns of rising premiums are largely out of step with Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’s comments at a congressional hearing last week, where the secretary downplayed any potential sticker shock.
“The increases are far less significant than what they were prior to the Affordable Care Act,” Sebelius said in testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee.
Related: Consumers Hit With Surprise Tax in Obamacare Premium
But insurers say a combination of Obamacare’s new taxes and fees, as well as rule changes and delays announced to cope with the rocky rollout, will likely contribute to higher than expected rates.
For instance, the administration’s decision to allow people to keep their old policies likely means that fewer people than anticipated are enrolling on the new exchanges.
This is bad news for the Obama administration, which has routinely pointed out that premiums on the exchanges are less expensive than comparable employer-based policies. While premiums may be cheaper, out of pocket costs on exchange plans tend to be higher. A survey by HealthPocket.com found the deductibles on the exchange plans were 42 percent higher than employer based policies. But now, insurers say Obamacare consumers can expect to experience sticker shock from both premiums and deductibles.
More…

Cruz: Holder Should be Impeached if No Action on IRS Scandal

Friday, 11 Apr 2014 01:08 PM

By Melanie Batley

Sen. Ted Cruz said Congress should impeach Attorney General Eric Holder if he does not seek indictments for people such as former senior IRS official Lois Lerner for their roles in the agency targeting scandal.

In an appearance Thursday on conservative talk show host Sean Hannity's radio show, the Texas Republican and possible 2016 presidential contender, said Holder should be impeached for "defying Congress and the rule of law," Breitbart reported.

Cruz said Holder's actions were not in keeping with the policies of the Justice Department, which has "a bipartisan tradition of resisting partisan pressure and upholding the rule of law."

He cited examples of previous attorneys general, such as Janet Reno and Elliot Richardson, as models for how the department should be run.

Cruz described Holder as "the most partisan attorney general the country has ever had," Breitbart reported.


Cruz also said he was "very pleased" that Lerner was held in contempt by the House Oversight Committee, but criticized the Obama administration for not moving to indict one person eight months after the inspector general concluded that the IRS had wrongfully targeted conservative groups for heightened scrutiny.

Cruz also took aim at President Barack Obama for appointing a Democrat, who was a fundraiser for his presidential campaign, to lead the IRS investigation, saying it would be akin to John Mitchell investigating Richard Nixon, according to Breitbart.  More >>