It's with Congress!
"Senators target sexual assaults in military" Associated Press, July 17, 2013
WASHINGTON — An ambitious bipartisan effort to overhaul the military justice system and seek to stanch the increasing number of sexual assaults gained crucial support from conservatives Tuesday, setting up a showdown with the Pentagon’s top brass.
Senator Rand Paul, a Kentucky Republican, announced his backing for legislation sponsored by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, a New York Democrat, that would remove commanders from the process of deciding whether serious crimes, including sexual misconduct cases, go to trial....
‘‘There’s no reason why conservatives shouldn’t support this,’’ Paul told reporters at a news conference with other Republicans and Democrats who support the measure....
Especially when one is looking to augment his resume for the 2016 campaign. It's become more and more clear to me that Rand Paul is nothing but a political opportunist.
Backers of Gillibrand’s legislation insisted that leaving the decisions with the commanders has failed to stop a crisis within the military ranks.
‘‘The status quo is not working and we need to shake it up,’’ said Senator Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican.
Democratic Senator Barbara Boxer of California displayed a chart with quotes from defense secretaries past and present — from Dick Cheney in the early 1990s to Chuck Hagel today — saying the military has zero tolerance for sexual assault.
Boxer quoting Dick Cheney, huh?
‘‘It’s enough with the words. It’s enough with the empty promises,’’ Boxer said....
Right back at you, government!
The measure passed 17 to 9. Gillibrand, who heads the committee’s personnel subcommittee, had the support of several Democrats and Republicans for her effort, including Senators Ted Cruz of Texas and David Vitter of Louisiana. The full committee, however, rebuffed her approach....
Welcome to Liz Warren's world.
In fact, Boxer displayed a chart that showed that Israel did it in 1955, Canada in 1998, Australia in 2005, and the United Kingdom in 2006....
Oh, well, then we gotta do it.
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Related:
Legislators to military: End sex assaults
Senators attack military response to sex assaults
Senate panel sides with Pentagon on sex assaults
"Bill to revamp military justice faces battle; Pentagon insists sex assault changes would go too far" by Donna Cassata and Richard Lardner | Associated Press, June 12, 2013
WASHINGTON — Ambitious legislation to stanch the growing reports of sexual assaults in the armed forces by overhauling the military justice system faces an uncertain future due to vigorous objections from Pentagon leaders and key members of Congress who are concerned the proposed changes go too far.
The bill crafted by Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, cleared an important hurdle Tuesday when the Senate Armed Services personnel subcommittee that she chairs approved the measure. But the legislation must get through the full committee and its chairman, Senator Carl Levin, Democrat of Michigan, has signaled he would offer an alternative that would mute the most aggressive changes....
Levin and other lawmakers, echoing fears voiced by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, believe that cutting commanders out of the legal process would undermine their ability to enforce good order and discipline within the ranks....
Do they have that in the military?
Related:
"The military is deeply concerned that curbing too sharply a commander’s ability to decide how and when to punish or pardon service members will send a message there is lack of faith in the officer corps, and that in turn will undermine the efficiency and effectiveness of the military in peacetime and war."
C'mon, ladies, take one for the team.
The Armed Services Committee is scheduled to meet Wednesday to vote on the provisions, which would be included in a sweeping defense policy bill for the 2014 fiscal year.
Levin’s alternative, which has bipartisan support, would require a review by an individual higher in the chain of command if a commander decides not to prosecute a sexual assault case. It would make it a crime to retaliate against victims who report a sexual assault and relieve commanders of their responsibilities if they do not create a climate receptive for victims who report crimes.
Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, the personnel subcommittee’s top Republican, said commanders shouldn’t be sidelined from sexual assault cases. He and Senator Roy Blunt, Republican of Missouri, both voted against Gillibrand’s legislation, which the panel passed by voice vote....
Frustration over the Defense Department’s’ failure so far to change the military’s male-dominated culture and eradicate sexual assaults is driving support for substantive changes.
The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Tuesday at a separate hearing that Congress is considering stripping the military of its authority to prosecute sexual assault cases and shifting the responsibility to state prosecutors.
Senator Patrick Leahy, Democrat of Vermont, told Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel and Army General Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that the status quo cannot continue.
Of course, it is continuing, but....
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"Defense bill has Guantanamo, assault measures; Veto threat over ban on closing prison in Cuba" by Donna Cassata | Associated Press, June 15, 2013
WASHINGTON — The House overwhelmingly passed a sweeping, $638 billion defense bill on Friday that imposes new punishments on members of the armed services found guilty of rape or sexual assault as outrage over the crisis in the military has galvanized Congress.
Ignoring a White House veto threat, the Republican-controlled House voted 315 to 108 for the legislation, which would block President Obama from closing the US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and limit his efforts to reduce nuclear weapons.
No parti$an$hip there, huh?
The House bill containing the provisions on sex-related crimes that the Obama administration supports as well as the detention policies that it vigorously opposes must be reconciled with a Senate version before heading to the president’s desk.
The Senate measure, expected to be considered this fall, costs $13 billion less than the House bill — a budgetary difference that also will have to be resolved.
The defense policy bill authorizes money for aircraft, weapons, ships, personnel, and the war in Afghanistan in the fiscal year beginning Oct. 1 while blocking the Pentagon from closing domestic bases.
But all that and the Gitmo closing are lost in the sheets of sexual assault and rape.
Shocking statistics that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year and high-profile incidences at the service academies and in the ranks pushed lawmakers to tackle the growing problem of sexual assault.
A single case of a commander overturning a conviction — a decision that even Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel couldn’t change — drove Congress to act swiftly.
Both the House and Senate were determined to shake up the military’s culture in ways that would ensure victims that if they reported crimes, their allegations wouldn’t be discounted or their careers jeopardized.
That seems strange to be because I have been told countless times by our leaders that our military is the greatest force the world has ever seen, different and unique from others in that we fight only the good fight with the only motivation being altruism.
‘‘This is a self-inflicted wound that has no place in the military,’’ Representative Tammy Duckworth — an Illinois Democrat who lost both legs and partial use of one arm in a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Iraq — told her colleagues in the final moments of debate on Friday.
The House bill would require a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison for a member of the armed services convicted of rape or sexual assault in a military court.
Officers, commissioned warrant officers, cadets, and midshipmen convicted of rape, sexual assault, forcible sodomy, or attempts to commit those offenses also would be dismissed. Enlisted personnel and noncommissioned warrant officers convicted of similar crimes would be dishonorably discharged.
The bill also would strip military commanders of the power to overturn convictions in rape and sexual assault cases.
Duckworth and several other Democratic women made a last-ditch effort to change the bill to allow a victim to choose whether the Office of Chief Prosecutor or the commander in the victim’s chain of command decides whether the case would go to trial. They argued that the bill did not go far enough.
Their effort failed, 225 to 194, but in an emotional moment on the House floor, Duckworth received kisses, hugs, and handshakes after her plea.
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Related:
Obama’s comments on military sex assault affect cases
Pentagon’s sexual assault conundrum
Hagel urges cadets to help end scourge
Aye-aye, sir.
Naval Academy investigating rape charges against three
Naval Academy charges 3 with rape
What is it with football and misogyny?
"Air Force pulls sexual assault prevention brochure" by Donna Cassata | Associated Press, July 10, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Air Force has pulled a brochure circulated at a South Carolina base after a lawmaker complained about some objectionable advice to sexual assault victims — such as submitting to an attack rather than resisting.
That's what the Boston cops advise.
Representative Louise Slaughter, a New York Democrat who had complained about the brochure in May, on Tuesday released a copy of a letter she received from the Pentagon informing her of the Air Force’s decision and steps the services are taking to deal with the epidemic of sexual assault in the ranks.
And if they are doing that to their own fellow soldiers, imagine what is happening out in the field in occupied lands.
The brochure contained some common-sense recommendations, such as checking around a car before entering and using dead-bolt locks and peepholes when home alone. It also included advice that the congresswoman described as victim-blaming and inappropriate as the military struggles with the problem of sexual assault.
‘‘If you are attacked, it may be advisable to submit than to resist,’’ the brochure said. ‘‘You have to make this decision based on circumstances. Be especially careful if the attacker has a weapon.’’
‘‘No service member wearing the uniform of the United States military should ever be told ‘it may be advisable to submit than to resist’ in the case of a sexual assault,’’ Slaughter said. ‘‘We have to change the military culture if we want to stop this epidemic of sexual assault.”
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Related: Taking arms against sexual assault
That's the war media's focus when it comes to the defense budget.
"West Point chief misused position" by Michael Hill | Associated Press, June 15, 2013
ALBANY, N.Y. — The top official at the US Military Academy improperly allowed subordinates to give driving lessons, didn’t properly compensate those who worked at a charity dinner, and misused his position to obtain cat care, according to a report from Pentagon investigators.
I thought we would stick with the theme.
The Department of Defense Inspector General concluded that West Point superintendent Lieutenant General David Huntoon misused his position, government resources, and personnel, according to a heavily redacted report released to the Associated Press in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
West Point officials said they wouldn’t comment on the report, which said Huntoon took responsibility and repaid affected parties $1,815 based on prevailing labor rates....
Related:
"A former Fort Campbell inspector whose job was to investigate misconduct has been accused of stealing the identities of Army personnel, including a soldier killed in combat, in a scheme to obtain thousands of dollars in bank loans. The indictment handed down Wednesday alleges Sergeant First Class James Robert Jones, 42, of Woodlawn, Tenn., used his position as an assistant inspector general at the Army post on the Kentucky-Tennessee line to obtain personal information on active-duty Army officers, some of whom were deployed to Afghanistan."
At least it's just fraud, 'eh?
Redactions in the report make it impossible to determine the complete nature of most episodes or details about people involved in them....
Then there is nothing more to see here.
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Looking forward to combat, ladies?
"Combat jobs to open up for women" by Lolita C. Baldor | Associated Press, June 18, 2013
WASHINGTON — Women may be able to start training as Army Rangers by mid-2015 and as Navy SEALs a year later under plans set to be announced by the Pentagon that would slowly bring women into thousands of combat jobs, including those in elite special operations forces.
The plans call for requiring women and men to meet the same physical and mental standards to qualify for certain infantry, armor, commando and other front-line positions across the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Marines. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel reviewed the plans and has ordered the services to move ahead. The move, expected to be announced Tuesday, follows revelations of a startling number of sexual assaults in the armed forces....
And now you will be even more vulnerable out in the field -- where there is the "enemy."
And now you will be even more vulnerable out in the field -- where there is the "enemy."
"Pentagon may eliminate danger pay" by LOLITA C. BALDOR | Associated Press, July 11, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon is eyeing plans to eliminate danger pay for service members in as many as 18 countries and five waterways around the world, saving about $120 million a year while taking a bite out of troops’ salaries.
Yup, you are going to be PAID LESS! Has a familiar ring to it, 'eh?
Yup, you are going to be PAID LESS! Has a familiar ring to it, 'eh?
Senior defense and military leaders are expected to meet later this week to review the matter and are poised to approve a new plan. Pentagon press secretary George Little said no final decisions have been made.
Senior military leaders came up with the proposed list of locations in their regions that no longer were perilous enough to warrant danger pay, including several countries in the heart of the tumultuous Middle East, such as Jordan, where hundreds of troops have recently deployed because of the bloody Syrian civil war on its border.
Officials said the proposal would strip the stipend — which can be up to $225 per month — from as many as 56,000 service members.
That is a LOT for a TROOP, although I'm sure it isn't nearly enough for putting ones life on the line.
That is a LOT for a TROOP, although I'm sure it isn't nearly enough for putting ones life on the line.
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Oh, did I tell you there will be less openings?
"Army set to begin reducing brigades" by Lolita C. Baldor | Associated Press, June 25, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Army will eliminate at least 12 combat brigades, relocate thousands of soldiers, and cancel $400 million in construction projects as the first wave of federal budget cuts takes effect.
In a massive restructuring, Army leaders said Tuesday that they will slash the number of active duty combat brigades from 45 to 33, as the Army moves forward with a longtime plan to cut the size of the service by 80,000.
I hope to hell that means no more wars, although I'll bet it means more drone missiles fired at people.
And they warned that more cuts — as many as 100,000 more active duty, National Guard, and Reserve soldiers — could be coming if Congress allows billions of dollars in automatic budget cuts to continue next year....
The Army will also cut thousands of other jobs across the service, including soldiers in units that support the brigades. Two brigades in Germany have already been scheduled for elimination....
Probably didn't even need those brigades in Germany.
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Speaking of the Guard:
Oh, did I tell you there will be less openings?
"Army set to begin reducing brigades" by Lolita C. Baldor | Associated Press, June 25, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Army will eliminate at least 12 combat brigades, relocate thousands of soldiers, and cancel $400 million in construction projects as the first wave of federal budget cuts takes effect.
In a massive restructuring, Army leaders said Tuesday that they will slash the number of active duty combat brigades from 45 to 33, as the Army moves forward with a longtime plan to cut the size of the service by 80,000.
I hope to hell that means no more wars, although I'll bet it means more drone missiles fired at people.
And they warned that more cuts — as many as 100,000 more active duty, National Guard, and Reserve soldiers — could be coming if Congress allows billions of dollars in automatic budget cuts to continue next year....
The Army will also cut thousands of other jobs across the service, including soldiers in units that support the brigades. Two brigades in Germany have already been scheduled for elimination....
Probably didn't even need those brigades in Germany.
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Speaking of the Guard:
"Federal budget cuts to hit full-time National Guard members" by Audrey McAvoy | Associated Press, July 05, 2013
KAPOLEI, Hawaii — More than 1,100 National Guard soldiers and airmen in Hawaii — and thousands in other states — will be living with 20 percent less pay over the next three months as the Defense Department carries out automatic federal budget cuts....
Helicopter pilots and mechanics, pay and finance clerks and others who keep the guard operating will have eight hours less each week to do their jobs.
It is not clear precisely what effects the unprecedented cuts will have. They could, however, make it more difficult for the guard to fly helicopters to help put out wildfires or rush to the scene of natural disasters....
Yeah, the force that wasn't even supposed to fight foreign wars is too busy overseas in their occupation rotations. Once again the American taxpayer has been ripped off!
The military’s furloughs were only supposed to involve civilians, but large numbers of National Guard members who wear Army and Air Force uniforms full time will experience them as well. The National Guard added military technicians to the furlough list in May, after Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel gave official notice to begin furloughs for civilians....
Some units will be exempt, but many others will have to squeeze 40 hours of work into 32 hours, and receive one-fifth less pay....
A real workplace f*** job.
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Related:
"909 Massachusetts Guard employees will be forced to take unpaid days off, losing 20 percent of their salaries through September, and to squeeze their five-day workload into four."
"Pentagon workers face 11 payless days
A day without pay, the first of 11 through September, comes this week for more than 650,000 people who hold civilian jobs with the Defense Department. Officials worry that the Pentagon will be hit even harder by layoffs in 2014 if automatic budget cuts continue as planned. Roughly 85 percent of the department’s nearly 900,000 civilians around the world will be furloughed one day each week over the next three months. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is expected to provide senators with more details this week (AP)."
"Hagel is Obama’s hired gun to slash the defense budget"
"Mass. feels pinch on federal workers; Pay losses have wide impact" by Megan Woolhouse | Globe Staff, July 22, 2013
The automatic budget cuts known as sequestration are forcing thousands of federal workers in Massachusetts to take unpaid furloughs, curtailing services, cutting incomes, and stifling economic growth and job creation in the state, analysts say.
Employees are losing as much as 30 percent of their salaries to comply with a law aimed at reducing the federal deficit. They include engineers and civilian employees at the Army’s Natick laboratories, scores of Internal Revenue Service workers, and thousands of civilian employees at Hanscom Air Force Base, many of whom work on national security programs.
Maybe sequester is a good thing because it only seems to affect the military, according to my war paper here.
The furloughs are shrinking paychecks at a time when the lackluster economy needs consumers to spend. Job growth in Massachusetts has slowed significantly in recent months, and the state unemployment rate jumped to 7 percent in June, the highest since the end of 2011.
“There’s mounting evidence sequestration is having a real impact in terms of the state’s employment trajectory,” said Daniel Hodge, director of economic and public policy research at the University of Massachusetts Donahue Institute. “For some months ahead, maybe six months, it’s going to be hard for our economic recovery to turn into the type of true expansion we’ve all been hoping for.”
I'm so sick of hearing sob stories and lame excuses to cover all the s***-shoveling propaganda the corporate pre$$ serves up on the economy. I've really just had it. It's always anything and everything except the private central banking Ponzi scheme.
Sequestration has also sliced statewide housing programs for the poor, forcing some agencies to lay off staff.
Oh, the housing cuts get a sentence, huh?
The cuts are the result of Congress’s failure to reach a budget compromise earlier this year; the automatic cuts were supposed to be so dire they would push lawmakers in Washington into reaching a budget deal. That did not happen.
Yeah, Democrats got taken and f***ed up "again."
The cuts began to take effect in March, but only in recent months have they begun to be felt across Massachusetts, which receives more federal spending for defense and research programs than most states. Economists at the Donahue Institute project that sequestration will cost the state tens of thousands of jobs over the next several years.
An estimated 45,000 federal employees work in Massachusetts, according to the Labor Department. The Defense Department alone spends more than $500 million a year on wages and salaries for its 7,000 civilian workers here; furloughs will suck as much as $45 million in income from them and the state economy, according to a Senate Armed Services Committee report.
At Hansom Air Force Base, “Furlough Fridays” have turned the military post into a ghost town one day a week, complicating the base’s operations, some officials there say. During last week’s heat wave, said Colonel Lester A. Weilacher , the base commander, his attention was diverted by having to deal with a broken air conditioning system.
“I’ve been in the Air Force 23 years and I’ve never seen anything like this,” said Weilacher. “It’s been very stressful.”
Active duty military are exempt from the automatic cuts, but about 60 percent of Hanscom’s workforce, or about 2,000 people, are civilian employees who have had pay and hours cut.
Not true. Danger pay cuts, guard cuts.
But hey, what's another inexactitude or distortion coming from a media that is full of them every single day, huh? I suppose they only mean the active war occupations.
Marla Levenson, a 55-year-old military contracting officer and union local president, said a 20 percent pay cut has made it a struggle to pay her two sons’ college tuition. And with little to no discretionary income, she said, she can’t save like she used to.
We are all struggling, honey, and I'm not saving s***.
Levenson served in the first Gulf War. She said she has always felt a calling to public service, but the pay cut is an unexpected sacrifice. “The personal reality is, it’s hard to deal with,” Levenson said. “There are needs to be met.”
Although sequestration was designed to cut across all federal agencies, some programs have been hurt more than others. For example, public defenders in the federal court system have had their budget cut by 10 percent and must take 14 furlough days before the federal budget year ends Sept. 30.
Related:
“While we will survive this year’s cuts without significantly interrupting the justice system or affecting public safety, we have tightened our belt to the last notch,” said Patti B. Saris, chief judge of the US District Court in Massachusetts, in a statement."
Prosecutors at the US Attorney’s office, however, have not faced similar cuts because the Justice Department received permission from Congress to reprogram their budget to pay prosecutors’ salaries.
Miriam Conrad, a federal public defender who oversees the regional office, said the 12 federal public defenders operating in Massachusetts have stopped making court appearances on Fridays because of furloughs. Because of the legal right to an attorney, courts have had to hire private lawyers at $125 an hour to represent defendants on Fridays.
“It’s ridiculous,” Conrad said. “We’re facing these huge cuts that aren’t going to save any money.”
Even when they try to "do good".... (sigh)
At the Army’s Soldier Systems Center in Natick, where the military develops new materials, food, and equipment to aid and protect soldiers, workers are taking one unpaid day off a week through the end of September.
Lynn Valcourt, an installation manager at the center, known as Natick Labs, estimates that furloughs have cut her gross pay by 30 percent. She has stopped contributing to her 401k retirement plan and downgraded to basic cable at home. Valcourt said some of her coworkers are parents with children in daycare who must reconsider whether they should continue to work and pay daycare costs that eat up shrunken earnings. Others are simply leaving, she said, taking early retirement or finding jobs in the private sector.
But the economy is recovering and getting ready to roar!
“A lot of the people at Natick are more skilled, they’re engineers and scientists who could be making much more in the private sector,’’ she said. “It’s a brain drain.”
Companies such as Mitre Corp. in Bedford, a nonprofit that works closely with Hanscom on key research and development programs, are also feeling the pinch. Mitre employs about 2,000 in Massachusetts. It laid off about 100 workers here in the spring due to sequestration, according to Peter Sherlock, senior vice president and director of Bedford operations. In recent months, Sherlock said, the reductions have forced the company to limit hiring and cut travel and discretionary spending.
“We saw that we are going to be facing increased uncertainty so we took some bigger measures,” Sherlock said. “That has a ripple effect in the rest of the local economy.”
Some call it trickle down, but same thing.
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Also see: Budget cuts threaten presidential museums
Something is missing.
"MIA efforts by the US called ‘dysfunctional’" Associated Press, July 08, 2013
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s effort to account for tens of thousands of Americans missing in action from foreign wars is so inept, mismanaged, and wasteful that it risks descending from ‘‘dysfunction to total failure,’’ according to an internal study suppressed by military officials.
Like everything else they do.
Largely beyond the public spotlight, the decades-old pursuit of bones and other MIA evidence is sluggish, often duplicative, and subjected to too little scientific rigor, the report says.
The Associated Press obtained a copy of the internal study after Freedom of Information Act requests for it by others were denied.
The report paints a picture of a Joint POW/MIA Accounting Command, a military-run group known as JPAC and headed by a two-star general, as woefully inept and even corrupt. The command is digging up too few clues on former battlefields, relying on inaccurate databases, and engaging in expensive ‘‘boondoggles’’ in Europe, the study concludes.
In North Korea, the JPAC was snookered into digging up remains between 1996 and 2000 that the North Koreans apparently had taken out of storage and planted in former American fighting positions, the report said. Washington paid the North Koreans hundreds of thousands of dollars to ‘‘support’’ these excavations.
Some recovered bones had been drilled or cut, suggesting they had been used by the North Koreans to make a lab skeleton. Some of those remains have since been identified, but their compromised condition added time and expense and ‘‘cast doubt over all of the evidence recovered’’ in North Korea, the study said. This practice of ‘‘salting’’ recovery sites was confirmed to the Associated Press by one US participant.
JPAC’s leaders authorized the study of its inner workings, but the then-commanding general, Army Major General Stephen Tom, disavowed it and suppressed the findings when they were presented by the researcher last year. Now retired, Tom banned its use ‘‘for any purpose,’’ saying the probe went beyond its intended scope.
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Related: Pentagon to reassess how it locates missing soldiers
I guess I'm done digging for now.
