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The Pentagon recently released detailed guidance that allows U.S. military personnel to carry privately owned, concealed firearms on base, a move that the Army's service chief argued against publicly. "Arming and the Use of Force," a Nov. 18 Defense Department directive approved by Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work, lays out the policy and standards that allow DoD personnel to carry firearms and employ deadly force while performing official duties. But the lengthy document also provides detailed guidance to the services for permitting soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines and Coast Guard personnel to carry privately owned firearms on DoD property, according...

When the General Services Administration (GSA), the agency in charge of supplying products and communications for US government offices, chose Google Apps for email and calendaring functions back in 2011, fear was no doubt struck into the heart of Microsoft. After all, the Microsoft MSFT -0.71% Office franchise has been the number one pick of Government agencies for decades. That the GSA would chose an upstart like Google GOOGL -0.35% was something of a shock. Well, the stress in Redmond continues with news today that the GSA has selected Smartsheet to be its online collaborative project management tool. This is,...

Why didn't the IRS answer the Northeast Tarrant Texas Tea Party? The IRS is legitimately overwhelmed with IRS business The IRS is dissing them

Mike Kelly (R-PA) questions IRS commissioner in hearing over targeting conservative groups.

In a town like West, almost everyone knows the missing and the presumed dead, among them, Joey Pustejovsky, West’s city secretary and a member of the volunteer fire department. “We have a mayor and we have Joey,” said resident Laura Bettge, who said she spent Thursday morning praying and crying. “He’s a friend to everybody, but he’s also our leader. “‘Secretary’ doesn’t really describe what he does,” she said. “We don’t have a city manager, so he kind of just helps run everything.” The only victim publicly identified Thursday was Capt. Kenny Harris of Dallas Fire-Rescue, a 52-year-old father of...

Thomas Drake, a former senior executive at the National Security Agency (NSA) who was charged under the espionage act after he highlighted waste, fraud and illegal activity at the intelligence agency, spoke at a National Press Club Luncheon about the national intelligence community and its attitude towards whistle-blowing.

June 30, 2010 — The Senate confirms Petraeus as the new commander for war in Afghanistan. Over the next year, Broadwell expands her research of Petraeusinto an authorized biography. She makes multiple trips to Afghanistan and is given unprecedented access to Petraeus and his commanders. Sept. 6, 2011 – Petraeus is sworn in as CIA director with his wife, Holly, by his side. Broadwell keeps in contact with Petraeus and is later invited to his office for events, including a meeting with actress Angelina Jolie. November 2011 – Petraeus begins an extramarital affair with Broadwell, according to retired Army Col....

[emphasis original] When it comes to the NEW QE, everyone has an opinion, and most seem to believe that the NEW QE will come next week, now that the US economy added "just" 96,000 people (but, but, the unemployment rate 'fell'). Certainly, and far more importantly, if the most recent FOMC minutes are any guide, the Fed shares this view. Sadly, as so often happens, most, and this includes the FOMC's various voting members, have once again made up their minds without actually evaluating the limitations posed by simple math. After all it is far easier to form an opinion,...

US and European regulators are essentially forcing banks to buy up their own government's debt—a move that could end up making the debt crisis even worse, a Citigroup analysis says. Regulators are allowing banks to escape counting their country's debt against capital requirements and loosening other rules to create a steady market for government bonds, the study says. While that helps governments issue more and more debt, the strategy could ultimately explode if the governments are unable to make the bond payments, leaving the banks with billions of toxic debt, says Citigroup strategist Hans Lorenzen. "Captive bank demand can buy...

The U.S. Department of Justice has won the infamous Rosemary Award for worst open government performance over the past year, according to the citation posted on the Web today by the National Security Archive (www.nsarchive.org). The award is named after President Nixon's secretary, Rose Mary Woods, who erased 18 1/2 minutes of a crucial Watergate tape. The Rosemary Award citation includes a multi-count indictment of Justice's transparency performance in 2011, including: selective and abusive prosecutions using espionage laws against whistleblowers as ostensible "leakers" of classified information, with more "leaks" prosecutions in the last three years than all previous years combined,...

This is the transcript from a portion of the April 21, 2010 interview from Neil Cavuto, SVP of Business News, with Neil Barofsky, Treasury Special Inspector General of TARP on mortgage modifications, regulations, and GM's announcement on "repaying" their loan: Neil: Today's announcement by general motors that it's paid back its tarp loan in full, in full, is a huge accomplishment. Is it? Barofsky: Well, it's good news they're paying back the loan. The one thing a lot of people overlook with this is where they got the money to pay the loan. It isn't from earnings. They didn't earn...

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Wednesday shows that 34% of the nation's voters now Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Thirty-one percent (31%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of +3 (see trends). The President enjoyed a bounce in the polls last week after naming Judge Sonia Sotamayor as his first Supreme Court nominee. That bounce appears to have faded and the unpopular GM bailout may also be having an impact. New polling on Sotomayor will be released later today. New polling on GM will come...

Even a recession and record $1.4 trillion budget deficit has not altered Congress's business-as-usual culture of spending and pork. While families and entrepreneurs are responsibly bringing their own budgets under control, Congress is spending and earmarking as if nothing has changed in the economy. The House has already passed—and the Senate will soon take up—a mammoth FY 2009 omnibus appropriation bill[1] that: * Provides an 8 percent discretionary spending hike for the second consecutive year; * Combines with the "stimulus" bill for a staggering 80 percent increase in these discretionary programs; * May contribute to a permanent $2,000 per-household tax...

Tomorrow President Bush will deliver his State of the Union address. [snip] it is also sure to be very different from one that a progressive would deliver. If we had a newly elected progressive President, below is the kind of State of the Union address he might give. "My fellow Americans, let us tonight put aside our partisan interests and picture an America where citizens once again enjoy an open, honest, competent government. A government that turns away from reckless military adventures and concentrates on the genuine external threats we face as a nation. A government that works to ensure...

When Delphi filed for bankruptcy, investors had to start assessing their losses on more than $2 billion in the auto parts maker's bonds. As bad as that is, there is more. Looming over the market like an invisible and unpredictable giant is an estimated $25 billion in credit derivatives, a form of insurance whose value is directly linked to the ups and downs of Delphi debt. The Delphi situation points to a broader question: Is the credit derivative market, which grew from next to nothing in the mid-1990s to an estimated $5 trillion at the end of 2004 pumping new,...

The Federal Reserve is refusing to identify the recipients of almost $2 trillion of emergency loans from American taxpayers or the troubled assets the central bank is accepting as collateral. The Fed's lending is significant because the central bank has stepped into a rescue role that was also the purpose of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, bailout plan - without safeguards put into the TARP legislation by Congress.Total Fed lending topped $2 trillion for the first time last week and has risen by 140 percent, or $1.172 trillion, in the seven weeks since Fed governors relaxed...

...Barack Obama analyzed the causes of the credit meltdown. "Now, we also have to recognize that this is a final verdict on eight years of failed economic policies promoted by George Bush, supported by Senator McCain, a theory that basically says that we can shred regulations and consumer protections and give more and more to the most, and somehow prosperity will trickle down." One had to look far and wide in the spring of 2002 to find anyone who thought the Sarbanes-Oxley law was an experiment in cowboy capitalism. For example, on its front page of April 25, 2002, the...

Don't Just Do Something. Stand There. People ask me if the current mess feels like 1929. But the right comparison is 1932, when Herbert Hoover was desperately trying anything, anything at all, to get the economy going. The stock market had crashed. The economy was starting to follow it down. So what did Hoover and his fellow policy makers do?In 1930, Congress passed a massive tariff increase, in hopes of protecting American jobs. Hoover signed it. But it simply accelerated the economy's slide. The Federal Reserve contracted the money supply, taking a recession and making it into a depression. By...

Which candidate for president do you think will be best for your business? Vote

Good overall reference, but pertains to Tx laws. Q. What illegal activities should a watcher look for? A. The election judge may be notified of any activity that appears to be prohibited by law. If any of the following activities occurs, bring it to the election judge’s attention and note the individual(s) involved, including time and place of occurrence, if possible: 1. Election workers allowing voters who do not have a current voter registration certificate to vote without providing proof of identification. If a voter does not have his or her voter registration certificate, Texas law requires that he or...