The following two news items are presented without comment.
The stories speak for themselves:
Showing posts with label policy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label policy. Show all posts
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Friday, October 07, 2011
Assessing the threat of terrorism via overhead spycraft -
Image by Defence Images via FlickrIn stark contrast, drones are also getting smaller. Portability, cost containment, and minimum use of personnel also seem to be attractive to the military. The DIY-Drone of the Future Is … a Flying Pogo Stick comes again from Wired Danger Room (10/6/11). To quote:
Remotely operated combat drones are not problem free, as it turns out. Recently it was revealed that a Computer Virus Hits U.S. Drone Fleet. To quote from another Wired Danger Room article:Darpa is holding a contest to design the military’s next spy mini-drone. So far, the entrants include a flying pogo stick, a sail that lands on mosques, and an unmanned laser shooter.
Those are some of concept videos submitted to UAV Forge, a Pentagon experiment to crowdsource the development of unmanned aerial vehicles. DIY-drone hobbyists are encouraged to work together to create the flying spy-bot of the future. It has to fit in a rucksack and be operated by just one person without any help, guidelines say.
[10/7/11] A computer virus has infected the cockpits of America’s Predator and Reaper drones, logging pilots’ every keystroke as they remotely fly missions over Afghanistan and other warzones.
The virus, first detected nearly two weeks ago by the military’s Host-Based Security System, has not prevented pilots at Creech Air Force Base in Nevada from flying their missions overseas. Nor have there been any confirmed incidents of classified information being lost or sent to an outside source. But the virus has resisted multiple efforts to remove it from Creech’s computers, network security specialists say. And the infection underscores the ongoing security risks in what has become the U.S. military’s most important weapons system.
* * * * * * * * * *
Holy Wars: Following last week’s CIA hit on U.S. citizens Anwar al-Awlaki and Samir Khan, “the last terrorist left chatting in an American accent is a chubby former metalhead named Adam Gadahn,” Danger Room follows up. “It is possible that Awlaki was assassinated because he was an effective critic of the U.S. government,” Paul Craig Roberts wildly reaches in HoweStreet.com. A new e-book, “The Just Scale — On the Permissibility of Killing the Infidels’ Children and Women,” published by a jihadi forum, attempts to refute mainstream arguments against killing certain types of civilians, IPT News notes. If proven to have been carried out by right-wing extremists, Sunday’s attack against a mosque in the Galilee “will be just the latest sign that Jewish terrorism is gaining steam,” The Jerusalem Post reports. A new online journalism course on Islam appears to downplay the threat posed by global jihadism, suggesting reporters keep the death toll from Islamic terrorism in “context,” FOX News relates.Given the recent killing of the terrorist al-Awlaki and others in Yemen, predator drone warfare will continue to be the subject of debate among concerned Americans. Stay tuned.
[Post date: 10/7/11]
Related articles
- Panetta spills _ a little _ on secret CIA drones (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Drones that can see the difference in the faces of identical twins (nextbigfuture.com)
- As the West Celebrates Awlaki's Death, the Mideast Shrugs (nytimes.com)
My Other Blogs: Check out my Amplify blog for synopses of current news stories. My creative website is Making Good Mondays. Follow me at Twitter. And Carol Gee - Online Universe is the home page for all my websites.
Saturday, November 06, 2010
House Republican Committee chairs will be feeling their oats in 2011, says ProPublica.
Their claim will be that they are acting on "mandates from the American people." Unfortunately they will be misreading any such mandates in the name of political gains of power for themselves. There will be no end of mischief made, attempts to de-legitimize President Obama, and roll back the major legislative gains made this year. We're in for some raw excitement, folks.
Amplify’d from www.propublica.org
Meet the Likely House Committee Chairs—Who Promise to Roll Back ‘Job-Killing’ Regs
by Marian Wang
ProPublica, Nov. 4, 2010, 10:11 a.m.
Earlier this week, we highlighted a few ways [1] that midterm elections could affect some of the issues we’ve dogged in the past few months—the foreclosure scandal, financial reform, healthcare reform, among others.
Impending Republican control of the House means there will be new leaders on powerful House committees [2]. Those committees oversee a number of issues we’ve covered, including the investigation of federal agencies, the strength of financial reform, and the future of energy policy.
Here’s a quick introduction—or reintroduction—to some of the lawmakers who will likely win these important chairmanships. Many of them, you’ll note, have stated publicly their opposition to “job-killing” regulation of the financial community and energy industry—in line with the GOP’s Pledge to America [3].
House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
Remember Darrell Issa, the Republican lawmaker who a New York Times profile nicknamed “Obama’s Annoyer-in-Chief [4]” for his tendency to make a fuss on so-called “nuisance issues”? Assuming he becomes chairman, Issa will have subpoena authority, which means he’ll have the power to launch investigations into many of the suspicions he’s raised about the Obama administration [5].
Following the Republican gains in the House, Issa pushed back against fears that the investigations he initiates will be driven by partisan motivations.
“I want to prove the pundits wrong. My job is not to bring down the president [6]. My job is to make the president a success,” he told reporters. “I’m going to stick to my knitting, which is waste, fraud and abuse, whenever possible.”
Talking Points Memo flagged four likely issues for investigation [7], noting that Issa had more or less laid out his agenda [8] for oversight of the executive branch in an earlier report. That report noted “hearings requested by the Republican Minority but ignored by the Democratic Majority,” including investigations into Fannie and Freddie, failures at the SEC, and inadequate response to BP’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill.
Issa has since told reporters [9] that he’d likely focus on earmark reform and investigate the President’s use of advisers, or “czars [10],” who don’t have to go through Senate confirmation. He has also said that he will “absolutely” advocate granting subpoena power to the primary 74 inspectors general [11] who serve as watchdogs at various federal agencies. Currently only the Defense Department’s inspector general has that authority.
House Financial Services Committee
With the shift of power to House Republicans, Rep. Barney Frank—whose name is on the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill—will be relinquishing his position as chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.
His most likely successor is Rep. Spencer Bachus, a Republican from Alabama who has previously issued the following statement [12] pertaining to the financial reform bill:
“The administration will no longer receive a pass when it comes to aggressive oversight of their failed economic policies, and that includes extensive review of all the job-killing provisions in [the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act].”
Some of those “job-killing provisions” include the new rules requiring derivatives [13] to be traded on exchanges and routed through clearinghouses, according to comments made Wednesday [14] by Bachus. Putting derivatives on open exchanges, he told CNBC [15], “is just one example of something that is going to dry up liquidity, that is going to impact the economy, and is going to cost jobs.”
As chairman, he would also be overseeing the overhaul—or, as it might be viewed, the privatization—of government-sponsored mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Bachus has said that severing government ties with the mortgage giants is necessary, though the “withdrawal process” may be painful for borrowers [16].
The House Republican Steering Committee has to vote to make Bachus’ chairmanship official. He faces a challenge for the position from Rep. Ed Royce, who announced on Wednesday that he is also vying for it [17].
Royce has posted on his website a recent article by American Banker [18] stating that he is “not looking to repeal outright the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform law” but is likely to “try and clip its wings.”
House Energy and Commerce Committee
Two Republican lawmakers, Reps. Joe Barton and Fred Upton, are facing off over chairmanship of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, according to the Houston Chronicle’s FuelFix blog [19].
Rep. Barton, some may recall, is the lawmaker who famously apologized to BP’s then-CEO, Tony Hayward, for what he called a “$20 billion shakedown [20]” of the company by the Obama administration. (Obama had met with BP executives in June to discuss setting aside $20 billion in an escrow account, from which to pay out damages for Gulf residents affected by the spill [21].)
The apology to BP—which Barton retracted that same day [22]—is just one hurdle standing between Barton and the chairmanship. The other hurdle is technical.
Because Barton has served as chairman from 2004 to 2006 and then as ranking Republican, the GOP leadership appears to be interpreting its term-limit rules in such a way that would bar him from leading the committee for another term. The Chronicle explains:
To remain at the helm of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Barton would have to secure a waiver of the term limit rule. And, he would have to convince a GOP steering committee—and then a majority of the Republican party’s incoming House members—that he deserves the post.
Barton’s already started working on this. The Hill reported that he sent a letter to incoming GOP lawmakers [23] on Wednesday, touting his record of opposing cap-and-trade and healthcare reform:
“Over the past four years, as Ranking Member of the Committee on Energy and Commerce, I have led the charge against radical cap-and-trade legislation, fought the new entitlements and mandates that are the rotten core of President Obama’s health care law, and consistently applied free market principles to legislative decisions,” he wrote. “It’s been an uphill battle, and I’m grateful that, thanks to your votes, the cavalry is riding to the rescue.”
If his efforts don’t succeed, Rep. Fred Upton, a Michigan Republican, is next in line. His positions on energy issues are outlined in this recent op-ed [24] he wrote for the Washington Times. In it, he argues that regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency, Federal Communications Commission, and other agencies are “smothering the economy.”
“The government cannot buy or regulate its way out of this mess,” Upton wrote. “It's time for a new approach.”
Several other Republicans on the committee are also reportedly eyeing the chairmanship [25] but are not expected to win over Upton. A power company lobbyist, however, told the Chronicle that the committee’s leadership may not matter much—both top contenders “have worked closely with the industry.”
“Whether it’s Mr. Barton or Mr. Upton,” said Scott Segal of Bracewell & Giuliani, “the Energy and Commerce Committee is going to be friendlier to the business community, more attentive to industrial jobs (and) more balanced in its approach to energy policy.”
Read more at www.propublica.org
via Amplify.com
Tuesday, November 02, 2010
Krugman hits the political nail on its head, for the most part
Economic genius Paul Krugman, who writes for the New York Times, writes an excellent opinion piece regarding why the Democrats will do badly in today's midterm elections.
My one point of contention with this favorite of mine is his failure to take Republicans' blind, unfair opposition and ability to shape a very untruthful message, into account. Over time it must be very debilitating for the President and the White House.
There was a tremendous amount of good legislation signed into law that is now changing America. But the administration was never successful in broadcasting the fact. It is is a sad thing for the country. Today's election will make it clear how such an innocent mistake can exact a heavy political price.Amplify’d from krugman.blogs.nytimes.com
November 2, 2010, 9:28 am
Pre-Mortem
Obviously, Democrats are going to do badly today, the only question being how badly. And we’ll be drenched in punditry, most of it about how Obama overreached, etc..
But the point is that he didn’t try.
To the extent that Democrats do worse even than the economy explains, one can point to a number of factors. Given that the stimulus was inadequate — which was obvious early on — Obama could have tried to warn Americans of a long hard road ahead, and placed blame on Republicans; instead, the WH kept pretending that things were going swimmingly, never once acknowledging that the original plan wasn’t sufficient (they still haven’t). Remember the Summer of Recovery?
Policy on other fronts seemed almost designed to cede populist sentiments to the right: not even a hint of tough positioning against Wall Street, totally limp policy toward China, and more.
So again: it was mainly the economy, with the effects of a bad economy reinforced by Obama’s consistent policy of undercutting both messages and movements that might have helped Democrats weather the economic storm.
Read more at krugman.blogs.nytimes.com
via Amplify.com
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