Showing posts with label 113th U.S. Congress. Show all posts
Showing posts with label 113th U.S. Congress. Show all posts

Monday, December 21, 2015

Counterterrorism Cops Try To Build Bridges With Muslim Communities


NATIONAL SECURITY


Updated December 21, 20151:54 PM ETPublished December 21, 20155:15 AM ET


MARTIN KASTE




5:02





Shawn Alexander and Ashley Jimenez visit a madrassa in the Los Angeles area. The two police officers are part of the Los Angeles Police Department's counterterrorism bureau, which is focused on fostering community engagement.Martin Kaste/NPR



The attack that killed 14 people in San Bernardino, Calif., earlier this month raised the alarm over so-called homegrown terrorism, attacks that aren't necessarily coordinated from overseas.

A few days after the massacre, FBI Director James Comey described the challenges of detecting those threats in a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"Critical to our finding those people who are radicalizing in their homes is tips from the community," Comey said. "We have worked very, very hard to develop good relationships in communities all across the country — especially in Muslim communities."

But the FBI is regarded by many American Muslims with suspicion, in part because of misgivings about a legacy of federal sting operations that are perceived by some as efforts to entrap Muslims into planning theoretical terrorist attacks.

Local law enforcement, on the other hand, says it is well-positioned to develop relationships with Muslim communities.

"It's no different than how we work with young people who want to join gangs," says Sheriff Rich Stanek of Hennepin County in Minnesota, where local law enforcement has been struggling with the question of how to dissuade the youth of recent Somali immigrants from becoming radicalized. "We want to know what's happening in the communities, and that's all based on trust. Local law enforcement has to trust them, and in order for that to happen, they have to be able to trust us."

In a sense, it's an adaptation for counterradicalization purposes of good old-fashioned community policing methods.

Anders Strindberg of the Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security

This approach is often called countering violent extremism, or CVE, a philosophy built on the idea that law enforcement can help isolated communities such as recent immigrants to feel more invested in society and, as a result, make them more likely to detect threats such as self-radicalization.

"In a sense, it's an adaptation for counterradicalization purposes of good old-fashioned community policing methods," says Anders Strindberg of the Naval Postgraduate School's Center for Homeland Defense and Security. Local police are ideally situated to bring marginalized immigrant communities into the mainstream, he says — and make them more likely to report threats.

"I know this sounds kind of crunchy," he says, "but what you really need are communities that feel a level of trust and integration that allows them to reach out."

This philosophy is officially part of the federal government's anti-terrorism strategy, but Strindberg says it's been hampered by an internal struggle over whether the FBI or Homeland Security should take the lead and over what the role of local police should be. Strindberg says that debate has been "vitriolic" and has wasted valuable time.

There's been skepticism among Muslims. "If there is such a program — which I don't believe there is in the United States — it's an idea, it's a framework," says Salam Al-Marayati, president of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. Marayati says CVE suffers from being too vague about its goals. He wants to make sure these friendly, relationship-building cops don't start asking questions about religion or social customs. And, he says, people need to be clear about what should be reported to police and what shouldn't.

"I mean, if it's stockpiling ammunition in somebody's apartment and buying explosives, of course they should report that kind of behavior. But if it's just about how a person is dressed, or how a person is religious, then no," Marayati says.

While some local police have embraced the CVE concept with community engagement officers, Strindberg says those efforts are often hard to maintain, in part because they're hard to quantify.

"The problem with community policing is the metrics are terrible," he says. "The metrics are not about tangible achievements in the sense that a lot of bureaucracies want to have available to them, but rather it's about things that didn't happen."



Alexander (at left), a practicing Muslim, prays during a visit to a Los Angeles-area madrassa, part of his unit's outreach to the Muslim community.Martin Kaste/NPR


Still, some cities are pressing forward with this approach. The Los Angeles Police Department's counterterrorism bureau has officers who are dedicated primarily to building relationships with what they call the city's "diaspora" communities. Shawn Alexander, one of those officers, makes a point of telling the people he works with that he's not focused on investigations — even though he's part of counterterrorism. He and his partner, Officer Ashley Jimenez, work in community engagement.

"We're totally separated from our investigators. The hunters and pursuers, we don't engage with them, they don't engage with us," he says. A practicing Muslim, Alexander says that when he visits a mosque or a madrassa in the LA area, he wants to make it clear that he's not there to spy.

"If we're there for information-gathering or investigation purposes or we're trying to get information on the community, it's kind of a slap in the face of the community," Alexander says. "It's like telling the community we're here because we think something is going to happen here. But that's not why we're there."

Does he believe this approach has prevented radicalization or violence? It's impossible to know, Alexander says, but he is convinced of the value of approaching these communities in the role of a public servant and not an investigator.


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Monday, July 13, 2015

The Babylon Code Reset & The Coming of The Technocratic Utopia


THE BABYLON CODE RESET & THE COMING OF THE TECHNOCRATIC UTOPIA

By Paul McGuire
July 13, 2015
NewsWithViews.com

Deep inside every man and woman is the longing for a far better world, a world without war, disease, death, and pain. Our present world is a cruel world in which every life ends in death. From the beginning of time Mankind has sought to use science and technology to create a perfect world, what some would call Utopia or Paradise. As the Human Race began to organize itself, a Scientific or Technocratic Elite rose to power by promising the masses that they could build this perfect world. Ancient Babylon represented the first historical attempt to build paradise on earth.

According to the Biblical account, Mankind began at the Garden of Eden, which was a perfect world, a true paradise. According to modern writers like Joseph Campbell, the account of the Garden of Eden and its original inhabitants was simply a myth for Man to live by. Evolutionary scientists believe that this account of Eden was a fable and that Man evolved from random chance over the course of hundreds of millions of years. In contrast, Biblical theologians believe that the story of Eden is a literal account of Man’s beginnings, although many believe that God guided the evolutionary process through what is called theistic evolution.

Despite the differences of opinion as to the exact origins of Man, there are a growing number of scientists and theologians who believe that at some point there was a great flood or climate change catastrophe which wiped out super-civilizations like Atlantis in a time period known as “pre-history.” These ancient civilizations were run by races of highly intelligent men and women who had access to technologies that in many respects are superior to the technologies we have today. The proofs of that assertion are the massive archaeological structures that have been left behind underwater or above ground as in the cases of the Egyptian pyramids, Incan temples, Mayan temples, and countless other structures around the world.

According to the Greek philosopher Plato, Atlantis was a super-civilization that was ruled by ten philosopher kings, or what could be termed a Scientific Elite or Technocratic Elite. Today, this concept has been passed down through thousands of years of human history, from the Tower of Babel in ancient Babylon, through the Egyptian god-kings, the emperors of Rome, and the European belief in the divine right of kings. The guiding philosophy of the Scientific Elite or Technocratic Elite is that they are genetically superior and more intelligent than the masses of humanity and therefore have the Darwinian right to rule.

Despite the outward façade of democracy in places like Europe and North America, the reality is that there exists a powerful elite who believe they are fully justified in ruling the world.

In 2012, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a top advisor to five U.S. presidents and co-founder of the Trilateral Commission with Rockefeller, warned of a “global political awakening” that was being driven by alternative radio, television, and the Internet. In 2010, Brzezinski said at the Council on Foreign Relations meeting in Montreal that “the major world powers, new and old, also face a novel reality: while the lethality of their military might is greater than ever, their capacity to impose control over the politically awakened masses of the world is at a historic low. To put it bluntly: in earlier times, it was easier to control one million people than to physically kill one million people; today, it is infinitely easier to kill one million people than to control one million people.” There can be no other reasonable interpretation…this is a direct threat against all who oppose being enslaved and eventually exterminated.

Apparently, the elite believe in all-out fascism and total dictatorial control beneath a corporate façade of a button with a happy face on it. In 1970, Brzezinski, a member of the Bilderberg Group, wrote a book entitled Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technetronic Era. Brzezinski defined the “technetronic society” as “a society that is shaped culturally, psychologically, socially, and economically by the impact of technology and electronics – particularly in the arena of computers and communications. The industrial process is no longer the principal determinant of social change, altering the mores, the social structure, and the values of society.” Brzezinski was talking about using scientific mind control technology to create the kind of Scientific Dictatorship that Aldous Huxley wrote about in his 1932 dystopian novel Brave New World. In his 1958 essay, “Brave New World Revisited,” Huxley wrote “In politics the equivalent of a fully developed scientific theory or philosophical system is a totalitarian dictatorship. In economics, the equivalent of a beautifully composed work of art is the smoothly running factory in which the workers are perfectly adjusted to the machines. The Will to Order can make tyrants out of those who merely aspire to clear up a mess. The beauty of tidiness is used as a justification for despotism… “The twenty-first century, I suppose, will be the era of World Controllers, the scientific caste system and Brave New World.”

In ancient civilizations like Babylon, Nimrod, who showed evidence of a genetic advantage over his contemporaries, built numerous cities, including the Tower of Babel, which ostensibly was built to reach into the heavens in order to worship the “Host of Heaven,” but really was a technological Stargate that allowed for the opening of an interdimensional portal where beings from another dimension could gain entrance. If all this sounds far-fetched, consider the fact that the actual translation of Babylon means “the gate of the gods.” Babylon was the world’s first one world government, one world economic system, and one world religion. The Tower of Babel was built as a ziggurat, which is somewhat like a pyramid-shaped tower. The spiritual and technological systems of ancient Babylon were known as “Mystery Babylon” and they have been passed down through secret societies for thousands of years. The entire Egyptian god-king system evolved from this, with the concept that the Pharaohs are actually genetically superior god-kings, along with the ancient pyramids, which borrow from the ziggurat architectural style of the Tower of Babel. I discuss this in my new book, The Babylon Code.

This Babylonian system, which was a spiritual, economic, and governmental system, moved through many civilizations in the ancient world and finally to Europe with its system based on the divine right of kings. One of the foundational concepts of the Babylonian system is the science of eugenics or selective breeding. From Babylon through the Pharaohs, the Caesars, and finally the Kings of Europe there has been a secret program to carefully breed within certain genetic bloodlines, which some refer to as Illuminati bloodlines. Although the idea of Illuminati bloodline families is very controversial and is rejected by most scientists, variations of the theme are being accepted as a growing number of scientists embrace the idea that Planet Earth was seeded by an extraterrestrial race hundreds of millions of years ago.

At the time of the American Revolution of 1776 a radical idea of a nation ruled by “We the People” was born. Much of the world and especially Europe was radically impacted by the ideas of the American Revolution. The Constitution declared that “We the People” have been given certain “inalienable rights from their Creator,” which means that God, and not Man or human governments grants men rights such as “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness” and these rights cannot be taken away by the whims of governments or dictators. In addition, the American Bill of Rights grants us things like “Freedom of Speech, “Freedom of the Press,” “Freedom of Religion,” “Freedom of Assembly,” “Freedom of From Unreasonable Search and Seizure” and other rights completely unique in human history, and this is the reason why America up until recently has prospered more than any other nation in the history of Mankind.

It is important to note that all of these ideas and laws that give Man freedom come directly from a Biblical worldview and Judeo-Christian philosophy. They do not come from humanistic philosophies, because almost all humanistic philosophies such as what emanated from the French Revolution, or Communism, or Hitler’s National Socialism always produce poverty, dictatorship, and the slaughter of millions of people. Despite the endless propaganda from our media and educational institutions, humanism, socialism, and Communism destroy freedom, produce extreme poverty, and end up killing millions.

Just look at how Progressive-Marxist ideas that began to explode in the 1960s counter-culture with things like the “Free Speech Movement” and the endless liberation movements have now become the most aggressive force for censoring free speech, creating micro-management and government control over every aspect of our lives, lowering our standard of living, and generally producing a fascist movement in America that acts like a contagion destroying both the freedoms and prosperity of what was once the “American Dream.” The destructive by-product of humanistic philosophies and Marxist ideas have produced the same destructive results wherever they have been applied in places like Russia, China, North Korea, Cuba, Viet Nam, etc.

It must be noted that Capitalism divorced from a Biblical worldview can be extremely destructive in that it produces wealth for an Oligarchy, but it often exploits and enslaves the ordinary man or woman. In addition, all of the Communist revolutions and the National Socialism of Adolph Hitler were directly financed by the super-capitalists who compose the elite.

In direct contrast, the truly Biblical ideas that produced the American Dream, although not perfectly duplicated, spread across the nations of Europe and many other nations in the world, producing freedom and prosperity. Again, just look at the difference between East and West Germany until the Berlin Wall was torn down during the Reagan Administration.

The educational systems and media program the masses to believe that Capitalism and Communism or liberalism and conservatism are different and competing systems. This is an illusion created by the Scientific or Technocratic Elite, who use these illusory opposing forces in what is called the Hegelian Dialectic where the goal is to raise up opposites like Communism and Capitalism for the sole purpose of creating a synthesis which is a World Socialist State, that supposedly will be a kind of Democratic Socialism, which is complete nonsense because it will actually be run by a Scientific Elite. Here in America and across Europe, the Scientific Elite have operated from behind the scenes, giving the masses the illusion that they live in a Democratic Republic and that “all men are created equal.” But the reality is that this elite simply began ruling and controlling things through a vast network of secret societies and semi-secret societies like the Illuminati, Freemasons, Bilderberg Group, Royal Institute of International Affairs, Council on Foreign Relations, Tri-Lateral Commission, Skull and Bones, Bohemian Grove, and numerous other interlocking groups. The Scientific Elite have found it more expedient to perpetuate the illusion that the common man lives in some kind of democracy, while in reality the elite is controlling things through shadow governments. Members of this Technocratic Elite like Brzezinski, Aldous Huxley, and others have promoted the concept of a Scientific Dictatorship where scientific mind control and psychotronic weapons convince the masses that they are free when in reality they are becoming slaves in a new global feudal state run by an Oligarchy.

The Fabian Socialist, Bertrand Russell in his 1952 book The Impact of Science on Society, explained this Scientific Dictatorship. Russell wrote:

“I think the subject which will be of most importance politically is mass psychology. Mass psychology is, scientifically speaking, not a very advanced study…. This study is immensely useful to practical men, whether they wish to become rich or to acquire the government. It is, of course, as a science, founded upon individual psychology, but hitherto it has employed rule-of-thumb methods, which were based upon a kind of intuitive common sense. Its importance has been enormously increased by the growth of modern methods of propaganda. Of these the most influential is what is called ‘education’. Religion plays a part, though a diminishing one; the Press, the cinema and the radio play an increasing part.

What is essential in mass psychology is the art of persuasion. If you compare a speech of Hitler’s with a speech of (say) Edmund Burke, you will see what strides have been made in the art since the eighteenth century. What went wrong formerly was that people had read in books that man is a rational animal, and framed their arguments on this hypothesis. We now know that limelight and a brass band do more to persuade than can be done by the most elegant train of syllogisms. It may be hoped that in time anybody will be able to persuade anybody of anything if he can catch the patient young and is provided by the State with money and equipment.

This subject will make great strides when it is taken up by scientists under a scientific dictatorship.”

In Mankind’s early history, Man did not separate science, technology, and the supernatural. The ancient super-civilizations integrated occult technology and science along with spirituality. There were no false dichotomies. The modern Scientific Elite understands this. This is why Sir Arthur C. Clarke said that “Science is magic.” Clarke was not trying to be clever; he was making reference to a principle.

Aldous Huxley was a member of the cult of Dionysus, which worshipped the Sun god Ra. Nimrod was named Ra after his wife Semiramis reportedly murdered him, and she said that Nimrod had ascended into the heavens as the Sun god Ra. It is not an accident that in the Book of Revelation we see Babylon return as a spiritual and economic system that will rule the world. The reality is that in our modern era we have never left Babylon; we have just reinvented it.At the heart of ancient Babylon is what is known as “Mystery Babylon,” which is an occult economic, political, and religious system ruled by an elite. In ancient Egypt this was known as the Pharaoh-god-king system, where the masses, including the children of Israel, were forced to work as slaves in this “world system.”

Today Mankind is once again faced with becoming enslaved in a global feudal state ruled by an elite who promise counterfeit immortality and paradise on Earth. The only other alternative is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ to Planet Earth. Most people in our world today do not believe in a Second Coming. However, as our present world descends into chaos, the time is coming when we will discover whether this Second Coming is a myth or not.


© 2015 Paul McGuire - All Rights Reserved


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Tuesday, August 05, 2014

Congress shouldn't honor the pope — or anyone else


Opinion




President Obama meets with Pope Francis on March 27 at the Vatican. (Pablo Martinez Monsivais / Associated Press)

By MICHAEL MCGOUGH

Congress' job is to legislate, not throw bouquets
The last thing Pope Francis cares about is being honored by Congress
If the GOP thinks the pope is a liberal, why should they praise him?



Liberals sure love Pope Francis, and now they’re faulting House Republicans for not seconding their emotion. The GOP is providing only minimal support for a congressional resolution congratulating the pope on his election and offering a litany of his “inspirational statements and actions.”
These resolutions are a waste of time — and there are a lot of them.-

The resolution was proposed by Reps. John Larson (D-Conn.) and Pete King (R-N.Y). It praises the pope for “his commitment to economic justice and improving the lives of the poor” and says that “his emphasis on humanitarian efforts to alleviate suffering serves as an inspiration to Congress and all Americans.”

Of the resolutions’ 221 cosponsors, only 19 are Republicans. An unnamed Republican supporter of the resolution told the Hill  newspaper that the shaky GOP support could be traced to perceptions that Francis was “too liberal.” After all, the pope last year denounced “trickle-down economics.”

“Republicans Sink to a New Low by Stalling a Well-Deserved Resolution Honoring Pope Francis” was the headline of a column on the Huffington Post by H.A. Goodman. Goodman urged Republicans to “put their childish partisanship aside” and “honor a man who has done a great deal for the image of not only the church, but of Christianity in the world today.”

Hmm. If it’s partisanship that explains the Republicans' lack of enthusiasm for the resolution, that suggests the pope has espoused views that are inconsistent with their political philosophy. If that’s the case, why should they heap praise on him? To curry favor with Roman Catholic voters?
Actually, the best argument against the resolution has nothing to do with whether Francis is or is not an inspiring figure. (I think he is.) It is that Congress should concentrate on passing bills that actually accomplish something, as opposed to throwing bouquets.

Nonbinding congressional resolutions have a long history, and though they aren’t explicitly authorized in the Constitution, an expert on the separation of powers told me that they can be teased out of the speech and debate clause of Article I, Section 6.

But these resolutions are a waste of time — and there are a lot of them. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is pretty typical of her colleagues in using resolutions to salute constituents and nonconstituents alike. Along with substantive legislation, the California Democrat has sponsored resolutions to honor cancer researchers, charities that serve children, Oracle Team USA for winning the 34th America’s Cup and Drug Enforcement Administration agents on the 40th anniversary of the DEA.

Nonbinding resolutions are the congressional equivalent of a “Like” on Facebook, although some are also designed to influence policy. That was the case with a resolution expressing support for Israel passed by the Senate on July 17, the same day Israel launched a ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. (Whether that resolution undermined the president’s authority to conduct foreign policy is another matter.)

But even resolutions about serious issues stretch the notion of Congress as a legislative body. We elect members of Congress to pass laws, not to endorse good causes or bestow the thanks of a grateful nation on worthy citizens, scientists, sports figures and spiritual leaders. (If that’s anyone’s job, it’s the president’s. Don’t worry — Barack Obama is on the case.)

I suspect the last thing Francis is concerned about is whether he receives the blessing of the U.S. Congress. Maybe, in the spirit of the man who has downsized the papacy, members of Congress should exhibit some humility and concentrate on making productive use of the “legislative powers” vested in them by the Constitution.


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Monday, August 04, 2014

Resolution honoring Pope Francis stalls in US Congress, with little Republican support





Catholic World News - July 30, 2014



A Congressional resolution honoring Pope Francis for his “inspirational statements and actions” has stalled on Capitol Hill, with Republican Party leaders reluctant to move it forward.

The resolution, welcoming the election of the first Pope from the Americas and praising his spiritual leadership, was introduced by two lawmakers, a Democrat (Rep. John Larson of Connecticut) and a Republican (Peter King of New York). The resolution now has 221 co-sponsors.

But only 19 of the lawmakers backing the bill are Republicans. The Hill cites a Republican backer of the measure as saying that some conservative legislators have withheld their support because of papal statements that have been interpreted as critical of free-market economic policies, or supportive of President Obama.

As Congress approaches recess, the resolution has not been moved out of the foreign affairs committee in the House of Representatives. Rep. Larson, the co-author of the measure, has asked the Speaker of the House, John Boehner, to schedule a vote. In his letter making that plea, Larson reminded the Speaker that he (Boehner) had issued an invitation for Pope Francis to address a joint session of Congress.

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Monday, July 28, 2014

She is silently growing into power


God’s word has given warning of the impending danger; let this be unheeded, and the Protestant world will learn what the purposes of Rome really are, only when it is too late to escape the snare. She is silently growing into power. Her doctrines are exerting their influence in legislative halls, in the churches, and in the hearts of men. She is piling up her lofty and massive structures in the secret recesses of which her former persecutions will be repeated. Stealthily and unsuspectedly she is strengthening her forces to further her own ends when the time shall come for her to strike. All that she desires is vantage ground, and this is already being given her. We shall soon see and shall feel what the purpose of the Roman element is. Whoever shall believe and obey the word of God will thereby incur reproach and persecution.

The Great Controversy, p. 581
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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Trawl the Net, says Congress report on U.S. security clearances




By Doina Chiacu

WASHINGTON Tue Feb 11, 2014 10:25am EST




The Capitol building is seen before U.S. President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address in front of the U.S. Congress, on Capitol Hill in Washington January 28, 2014.
Credit: Reuters/Gary Cameron




Related Topics

U.S. »
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(Reuters) - The U.S. security clearance process that failed to flag former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden and the Washington Navy Yard shooter needs reforms as simple as letting investigators use the Internet and forcing local law enforcement to cooperate, a congressional report said on Tuesday.

The report suggested federal investigators be allowed to tap tools ordinary Americans use to find out about a specific person: Facebook, Twitter and Google.

The Office of Personnel Management's Investigative Handbook, updated in 2007, places an almost blanket restriction on Internet use, it said, but social media and search sites "contain a treasure trove of information about their users".

"Congress should force OPM's investigative practices into the 21st century by allowing investigators to use the Internet and social media sources in particular for the first time," it said.

The report was compiled by the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform Committee and reflected closer government scrutiny of the security clearance process and the contractors who carry it out. The report was released before a committee hearing with key figures in the security process.

It was triggered by last September's killings of 12 people at the Navy Yard. Shooter Aaron Alexis was a Defense Department contract employee who received a "secret" clearance in 2008 despite his involvement in a series of violent incidents and his erratic behavior.

Last month, the Justice Department accused United States Investigations Services, the largest private provider of security checks for the government, of bilking the government of millions of dollars through improper background checks.

USIS vetted both Alexis and Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who disclosed secrets about U.S. government surveillance before taking refuge in Russia.

The House committee report said Congress had a responsibility to determine how Alexis got clearance despite red flags, which included a warning from his mother to his employer that Alexis had "a history of paranoid episodes and most likely needed therapy.

Much of Alexis' background information was not passed on to the adjudicator who granted his clearance, the report said. Specifically, his 2004 arrest was not included in the Office of Personnel Management's background investigative file that went to the Navy, which ultimately granted him clearance twice.

MORE REGULAR CHECKS NEEDED

The committee, led by Republican U.S. Representative Darrell Issa, said legislative fixes it was considering included requiring continuous evaluation of clearances, which now have to be re-evaluated every five or 10 years.

It also proposed giving government greater access to the mental health information of people holding clearances and ensuring local law enforcement offices fulfill their obligation to provide specific information to background investigators.

The report said local police departments are now required by law to cooperate in federal security clearance investigations, but more than 450 offices around the country do not, including New York, Los Angeles and Washington, D.C.

The OPM is in charge of background investigations for security clearances for non-intelligence personnel. Information compiled by OPM and its contractors is relayed to the agency that requested clearance, which decides whether to grant it.

In prepared testimony before the committee, OPM Director Katherine Archuleta, who has been in the job three months, said that last week she ordered the quality review process be done only by federal employees, not contract workers.

"We no longer will have contractors participating in our ongoing final federally controlled quality review process," she said.

The Justice Department lawsuit said USIS failed to perform quality control reviews of its background investigations.

The new CEO of USIS, which said it is cooperating with the government, tried to minimize contractors' role.

"It is critical to recognize that USIS and OPM's other contractors have no role in deciding whether an individual actually receives or retains a security clearance," Sterling Phillips said in prepared testimony. "We only collect and report information and we do not even make a recommendation."

(Reporting by Doina Chiacu; Editing by David Storey and James Dalgleish)


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Friday, October 18, 2013

House Stenographer Dragged Off Floor Yelling About Freemasons And God



America : House Stenographer Dianne Reidy warns America that God will not be mocked (Oct 17, 2013)



 SignsofThyComing

Published on Oct 17, 2013


SOURCE: http://www.foxnews.com

News Articles:

Urgent: House Stenographer says Holy Spirit woke her up at night to deliver message to the House
http://gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com/2...

"God was preparing her for this vote last night, because this was kind of the culmination of everything"
http://nypost.com/2013/10/17/shutdown...

House Stenographer Credits 'Holy Spirit' for Her Rant Against Congress
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/...

'This is not one nation under God': House stenographer taken from the floor after bizarre outburst
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/10/16...

Pictured: The stenographer who had to be dragged from the House floor after she started yelling about God and Freemasons right after the debt ceiling crisis was averted
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic...

Stenographer snaps during House vote, rails against Freemasons
http://rt.com/usa/stenographer-house-...

House Stenographer Yanked From Chamber Ranting About God, Freemasons
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/...


FAIR USE NOTICE: This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 106A-117 of the U.S. Copyright Law.
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Tuesday, August 06, 2013

Why would Congress take a five-week vacation with all the problems facing the country?


August 6th, 2012
03:59 PM ET



By CNN's Jack Cafferty:

Congress is on a five-week vacation. They work so hard. The fact is Congress has accomplished next to nothing, but they think they deserve a five-week break.

Millions of Americans are unemployed, and the average American worker only gets 13 paid days off the whole year. But these clowns think they deserve yet another vacation. It's disgraceful.

Meanwhile, the country's problems, which they left behind in Washington, are serious and many:
  • Our runaway national debt is nearing $16 trillion.
  • They've done nothing about the automatic spending cuts, including hundreds of billions of dollars to the Defense Department, set to kick in early next year.
  • The Bush tax cuts are set to expire at the end of this year. The payroll tax cut is set to expire, and estate taxes will rise dramatically as will capital gains taxes.

It's called the "fiscal cliff" for a reason. Unaddressed, these changes will be painful and dramatic. Congress has done nothing. This list still goes on:

  • They've also failed to address the issues of food stamps and farm subsidies as American farmers grapple with the worst drought in decades.
  • Also still on the table are must-pass spending bills to keep the government running, a cybersecurity bill and the post office bill, as the U.S. Postal Service faces default.

This Congress is one of the least productive in recent history - and you can thank a toxic, hyperpartisan atmosphere plus election year politicking

It's unlikely any of these things will be addressed until after the election is over. The American people deserve better than this, but we won't get it if we keep vote these same people into office.

On November 6, think "out-cumbent."

Here’s my question to you: Why would Congress take a five-week vacation with all the problems facing the country?

Interested to know which ones made it on air?

Bonnie in New Jersey:
What difference does it make? They're on vacation when they are at work. Can we do like the sports team owners and do a "lockout" when they come back?

Laura:
Because we as Americans let them, by voting them back in over and over and over again.

Susan in Ohio:
Maybe they just need a break from their gruesome 3-day work week - the pressures of the job and all. What a joke they are. But the polls show not too many of us are laughing.

Kevin in California:
Because they are back meeting their constituents and updating them on all the things Congress has accomplished ... yeah, yeah, that's the ticket.

Debbie on Facebook:
We need to fire them all. Who else gets to go on vacation with work left incomplete? The rest of us would be fired on the spot.

David in Springfield, Missouri:
Because the Congress could care less about the American people. It’s all about “me, me, me” and using the hard-working people's money to fund the good ole' boy system in waste beyond human imagination. How do you think a person making $169,000 a year becomes a multi multi millionaire X 10?

Ron in Palm Beach, Florida:
They read the schedule, they haven't been worried about the country in three in a half years.

Bob in Ohio:
They deserve a vacation. It’s got to be exhausting work naming post offices session after session with no end in sight.
 
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Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Jesuits in the Vatican and on Capitol Hill

Kitty Felde | March 19th, 2013, 8:53am



Courtesy KPBS

Congressman Juan Vargas, (D-Chula Vista)

Pope Francis, who celebrated his first mass Tuesday morning in Rome, is the first Jesuit to head the Catholic Church. A congressman from San Diego might have found his way to Rome too, but instead is now serving in the nation’s capitol.

Democratic freshman Congressman Juan Vargas spent five years as a Jesuit. Had he continued with the religious order, perhaps that could have been him waving to the crowd in St. Peter’s Square.

"Well, that would have been a cool job!” Vargas said.

The congressman said the Jesuits taught him that you have to make changes for social justice. He worked with Central American refugees and became a lawyer working on political asylum cases.

Juan Vargas is not the only former Jesuit in California politics these days: Governor Jerry Brown is also a former novitiate from the order.

"The Jesuits are interesting people," Vargas said. "They’re very aggressive in the sense of trying to do great things for God. That’s sort of the mission of the Jesuits."

But Vargas said Jesuits aren't supposed to seek powerful positions.

"The only position actually you can seek is to be Novice Master because it's such a crummy job, to train these novices," said Vargas.

But he says Jesuits are "supposed to try to change the world and that’s why I think you see a lot of Jesuits involved in great things."

In Congress, Vargas wants to work on immigration reform. He thinks the new pope could play a role in the debate and he cites Matthew 25 – the same passage Pope Francis quoted in his first sermon, saying a pope is supposed to protect the hungry, the sick, and the stranger.

Vargas said churches are: "doing a very good job" of saying that's 'how you’re going to be judged, how you treat these strangers, how you treat the poor.'"

He says the Pope could "give great help right about now" as Congress debates immigration reform.

The Pope’s inaugural mass in Rome was attended by 132 official delegations, including more than a half-dozen heads of state from Latin America – home to 40 percent of the world’s Catholics.

With contributions by AP


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Friday, January 18, 2013

Nearly 10 Percent of the 113th U.S. Congress Hail From Jesuit Institutions


10 January 2013





Among the 535 members of the 113th U.S. Congress that were sworn in on January 3, 52 are alumni of Jesuit colleges and universities, comprising almost 10 percent of the entire Congress. There are 11 Jesuit alumni serving in the Senate and 41 in the House of Representatives.

Congressman John Boehner (R-OH, Xavier University, Cincinnati, alumnus) is serving his second term as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Congressman Steny Hoyer (D-MD, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., alumnus) continues to serve as the House Minority Whip. In the Senate, Senator Richard Durbin (D-IL, Georgetown University alumnus) continues his service as the Assistant Majority Leader.

Of the 52 alumni, nine were elected in 2012. Of the newly-elected alumni, Representative Juan C. Vargas (D-CA, Fordham University, N.Y., alumnus) was once a Jesuit in studies for the priesthood before leaving the Society.

There are currently 14 Jesuit institutions represented by alumni in the U.S. Congress. Georgetown University has the most alumni with a total of 21, followed by Boston College with 7 and Fordham University with 5. The College of the Holy Cross (Worcester, Mass.) has 4, Creighton University (Omaha, Neb.) has 3 and Loyola University Chicago, Saint Peter’s University (Jersey City, N.J.) and University of Detroit Mercy all have two alumni represented. The remaining schools with alumni in Congress are Loyola University Maryland, Marquette University (Milwaukee), Saint Joseph’s University (Philadelphia), Santa Clara University (Santa Clara, Calif.), Wheeling Jesuit University (Wheeling, W.V.) and Xavier University.

“We are proud that nearly 10 percent of Congress are alumni of Jesuit colleges and universities,” said Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) President Jesuit Father Gregory Lucey. “We are grateful for their leadership, and we look forward to strengthening the excellent working relationships we have already established with those in Congress and forging ties with new members of the 113th Congress.”

President Barack Obama has also appointed several Jesuit college and university alumni to serve in key leadership positions. Members of the Obama administration from AJCU institutions include Department of Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta (Santa Clara University); Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet A. Napolitano (Santa Clara University); and White House Chief of Staff Jacob Lew (Georgetown University).

To download the full list of Jesuit alumni in the 113th U.S. Congress, click here. [Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities]


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