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January 07, 2011
Chuck Floyd
I would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I will not be posting my comments due to a lack of time that is required by my business and family. If you need to contact me, please use my Fackbook page. Thanks.
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December 20, 2010
Chuck Floyd
I would like to wish everyone a merry Christmas and a happy New Year. We all have so much to be thankful for in our lives due to our families, friends, and business associates. This year has been a great year and 2011 looks even better. Enjoy the holidays and take some time off to enjoy life!
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November 28, 2010
Chuck Floyd
What should South Korea and the United States do to North Korea for bombing the South Korean island? What will the United Nations do to North Korea?
North Korea has now sunk a South Korean ship and killed citizens on the South Korean island through artillery shells. Is North Korea trying to justify their transfer of power? Will China come to the aid of North Korea--again?
The United States and South Korea prepared for war games today as South Koreans demanded vengeance over a deadly North Korean artillery bombardment that has raised fears of more clashes between the bitter rivals.
The North, meanwhile, worked to justify one of the worst attacks on South Korean territory since the 1950-53 Korean War. Four South Koreans, including two civilians, died after the North rained artillery on the small Yellow Sea island of Yeonpyeong, which is home to both fishing communities and military bases.
North Korea said civilians were used as a "human shield" around artillery positions and lashed out at what it called a "propaganda campaign" against Pyongyang.
It claimed the United States orchestrated last Tuesday's clash so that it could stage joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea with the South that include a U.S. nuclear powered supercarrier — enraging the North and making neighboring China uneasy.
Only eight months ago, according to the findings of a South Korean-led international investigation, a North Korean torpedo sank a South Korean warship in waters farther west, killing 46 sailors.
The aggression could be linked to the North's attempt to strengthen its government as it pursues a delicate transfer of power from leader Kim Jong Il to a young, unproven son. It also may reflect Pyongyang's frustration that it has been unable to force a resumption of stalled international talks on receiving aid in return for nuclear disarmament.
The attack laid bare weaknesses 60 years after the Korean War in South Korea's defenses against the North, which does not recognize the border drawn by the U.N. at the close of the conflict and which considers waters around Yeonpyeong as its territory.
The skirmish prompted President Lee Myung-bak to replace his defense minister on Friday.
At a funeral Saturday near Seoul, South Korea's marine commander, Maj. Gen. You Nak-jun, vowed a "thousand-fold" retaliation for the attack. Dignitaries and relatives laid white flowers at an altar for the two marines killed in the North's attack. The mother of one of the victims fell forward in her chair in grief.
Passers-by paused at Seoul's main train station to watch funeral footage on a big screen. "Once the enemy attacks us, it is our duty to respond even more strongly," said student Jeon Hyun-soo, 19. "The South Korean people want this."
Elsewhere in Seoul, about 70 former special forces troops protested what they called the government's weak response and scuffled with riot police in front of the Defense Ministry, pummeling the riot troops' helmets with wooden stakes and spraying fire extinguishers.
"Let's go!" the activists shouted, as police, numbering several hundred, pushed back with shields.
North Korea's state news agency said that although "it is very regrettable, if it is true, that civilian casualties occurred on Yeonpyeong island, its responsibility lies in enemies' inhumane action of creating a 'human shield' by deploying civilians around artillery positions."
The North said its enemies are "now working hard to dramatize 'civilian casualties' as part of its propaganda campaign." South Korea was conducting artillery drills Tuesday from the island, located just 7 miles (11 kilometers) from North Korea's mainland, but fired away from the mainland.
The North said it warned South Korea to halt the drills on the morning of the attack, as part of "superhuman efforts to prevent the clash to the last moment." The North said that Sunday's planned U.S.-South Korean war games showed that the United States was "the arch criminal who deliberately planned the incident and wire-pulled it behind the scene."
North Korea on Saturday warned of retaliatory attacks creating a "sea of fire" if its territory is violated.
President Lee told top officials "there is a possibility North Korea may take provocative actions during the (joint) exercise," and urged them to coordinate with U.S. forces to counter any such move, according to a spokesman in the president's office who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing official protocol.
Washington and Seoul have pressed China to use its influence on Pyongyang to ease tensions. A dispatch from Chinese state media on Friday — saying Beijing's foreign minister had met with the North Korean ambassador — appeared to be an effort to trumpet China's role as a responsible actor and placate the U.S. and the South. China is impoverished North Korea's biggest benefactor and its only major ally.
Let's really test North Korea and see how far they will go since their people are starving and they do not have the resources to fight a war. South Korea has to show some force and threaten North Korea enough so they will not attack again.
North Korea has now sunk a South Korean ship and killed citizens on the South Korean island through artillery shells. Is North Korea trying to justify their transfer of power? Will China come to the aid of North Korea--again?
The United States and South Korea prepared for war games today as South Koreans demanded vengeance over a deadly North Korean artillery bombardment that has raised fears of more clashes between the bitter rivals.
The North, meanwhile, worked to justify one of the worst attacks on South Korean territory since the 1950-53 Korean War. Four South Koreans, including two civilians, died after the North rained artillery on the small Yellow Sea island of Yeonpyeong, which is home to both fishing communities and military bases.
North Korea said civilians were used as a "human shield" around artillery positions and lashed out at what it called a "propaganda campaign" against Pyongyang.
It claimed the United States orchestrated last Tuesday's clash so that it could stage joint naval exercises in the Yellow Sea with the South that include a U.S. nuclear powered supercarrier — enraging the North and making neighboring China uneasy.
Only eight months ago, according to the findings of a South Korean-led international investigation, a North Korean torpedo sank a South Korean warship in waters farther west, killing 46 sailors.
The aggression could be linked to the North's attempt to strengthen its government as it pursues a delicate transfer of power from leader Kim Jong Il to a young, unproven son. It also may reflect Pyongyang's frustration that it has been unable to force a resumption of stalled international talks on receiving aid in return for nuclear disarmament.
The attack laid bare weaknesses 60 years after the Korean War in South Korea's defenses against the North, which does not recognize the border drawn by the U.N. at the close of the conflict and which considers waters around Yeonpyeong as its territory.
The skirmish prompted President Lee Myung-bak to replace his defense minister on Friday.
At a funeral Saturday near Seoul, South Korea's marine commander, Maj. Gen. You Nak-jun, vowed a "thousand-fold" retaliation for the attack. Dignitaries and relatives laid white flowers at an altar for the two marines killed in the North's attack. The mother of one of the victims fell forward in her chair in grief.
Passers-by paused at Seoul's main train station to watch funeral footage on a big screen. "Once the enemy attacks us, it is our duty to respond even more strongly," said student Jeon Hyun-soo, 19. "The South Korean people want this."
Elsewhere in Seoul, about 70 former special forces troops protested what they called the government's weak response and scuffled with riot police in front of the Defense Ministry, pummeling the riot troops' helmets with wooden stakes and spraying fire extinguishers.
"Let's go!" the activists shouted, as police, numbering several hundred, pushed back with shields.
North Korea's state news agency said that although "it is very regrettable, if it is true, that civilian casualties occurred on Yeonpyeong island, its responsibility lies in enemies' inhumane action of creating a 'human shield' by deploying civilians around artillery positions."
The North said its enemies are "now working hard to dramatize 'civilian casualties' as part of its propaganda campaign." South Korea was conducting artillery drills Tuesday from the island, located just 7 miles (11 kilometers) from North Korea's mainland, but fired away from the mainland.
The North said it warned South Korea to halt the drills on the morning of the attack, as part of "superhuman efforts to prevent the clash to the last moment." The North said that Sunday's planned U.S.-South Korean war games showed that the United States was "the arch criminal who deliberately planned the incident and wire-pulled it behind the scene."
North Korea on Saturday warned of retaliatory attacks creating a "sea of fire" if its territory is violated.
President Lee told top officials "there is a possibility North Korea may take provocative actions during the (joint) exercise," and urged them to coordinate with U.S. forces to counter any such move, according to a spokesman in the president's office who spoke on condition of anonymity, citing official protocol.
Washington and Seoul have pressed China to use its influence on Pyongyang to ease tensions. A dispatch from Chinese state media on Friday — saying Beijing's foreign minister had met with the North Korean ambassador — appeared to be an effort to trumpet China's role as a responsible actor and placate the U.S. and the South. China is impoverished North Korea's biggest benefactor and its only major ally.
Let's really test North Korea and see how far they will go since their people are starving and they do not have the resources to fight a war. South Korea has to show some force and threaten North Korea enough so they will not attack again.
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November 24, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Happy Thanksgiving
Hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. We in the United States have so much to be thankful for in our lives. We will to be with our families and rejoice in all that God has given us in our lives. We are blessed to be in the United States where we have freedoms and the basic needs for a modern society.
We in the US take so much for granted. We have 24/7 electricity, 4G connections, roads, airports, and so much more in our country infrastructure. We need to ensure that we teach our kids our national history, both good and bad. We must teach the values of a democracy and that the federal government cannot run our lives, but we as individuals are in charge. Look at the recent elections, the people spoke.
Be thankful this year for what we have, our families, the opportunities we have, and the country where we live.
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November 20, 2010
Chuck Floyd
I know and have worked with Franz Gayl and he is an outstanding American who fights for the truth and the lives of fellow Marines. Without Franz's work on getting the MRAP's to the Marines in Iraq, many more Marines would be dead. The below story shows the difficulty of getting needed life-saving programs through the Pentagon.
Marine whistleblower Franz Gayl: Security clearance removal is retaliation
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 20, 2010; 12:53 AM
Franz Gayl made a name for himself a few years ago as a Marine Corps whistleblower, a civilian scientist who helped push the Pentagon to shift its Iraqi weapons strategy. Senators called him a hero for disclosures that helped get heavily armored vehicles known as MRAPs to the battlefield.
But a few weeks ago, Gayl found himself booted from a room where confidential materials are handled and stripped of his security clearance. His superiors accused him of "a disregard for regulations, a pattern of poor judgment and intentional misconduct" - behavior that they said "indicates you are unreliable and untrustworthy."
Gayl's alleged offense - described in official documents - was inserting a USB device into a computer containing classified information twice in 2008 and then failing to turn over the device to a supervisor. They first raised this concern in March, and no security leaks have been alleged.
Gayl and some former colleagues say that these charges were trumped up, the culmination of a three-year pattern of retaliation by the Corps' leadership for the embarrassment that he caused and his continued efforts to hold officials accountable for ignoring an urgent request for help by soldiers under fire.
His offense, Gayl says, is continuing to say "that Marines did not take care of Marines in harm's way," a sacrilege inside a service that prides itself on protecting individual soldiers.
Last week, his confrontation accelerated. The Corps notified him that without proper clearances, he no longer qualified to serve as a science adviser in its plans and policy branch. "I am proposing to suspend you indefinitely from pay and from your position," wrote Col. James D. Gass, his branch chief.
But the proposed suspension was lifted by Gass hours after a reporter asked questions about Gayl's case, e-mails show. A Marine spokesman, Maj. Carl Redding Jr., cited privacy protections in explaining why he could not address the allegations against Gayl. But he said, "Whatever change you may be aware of has nothing to do with your inquiry."
Gayl and his supporters say the corps' treatment of him is vengeance. The firing threat came, he has said in a formal complaint to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, after years of demeaning taunts from a supervisor, several unfavorable alterations to his job description and an unsuccessful attempt to demote him.
"It is payback, for them to throw Franz under the bus," said retired Marine Col. Phil Harmon, who ran the service's Joint Combat Assessment Teams studying enemy tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan until 2009. He recalled Gayl's efforts to obtain lifesaving equipment. It demonstrates, Harmon said, that civilian leadership in the Marines "has gone sour."
Science booster
A plainspoken Minnesotan who joined the Corps in high school and later got a space science degree, Gayl, 53, always has been a bit of a scientific bomb thrower. Last summer, he briefly advocated using an explosive to shut off gushing oil in the Gulf of Mexico. He has long pressed the Corps to boost its scientific competence.
Gen. James F. Amos, the new commandant, in 2002 described Gayl as "a superstar for our Marine Corps for your entire career" when he retired as a major to work as a senior civilian scientific adviser.
Gayl's relations with his bosses were unblemished until he was dispatched to Camp Fallujah in late 2006, where he recalls being surrounded by the thumps of outgoing artillery and incoming mortars, as well as the constant chop of Sea Knight helicopters bearing "kids blown to bits."
Gayl said he and his colleagues grew impatient about what they considered lackluster responses by Quantico-based Combat Development Command to requests for lifesaving gear. It felt as if the unit's soldiers were "essentially fighting their own war," without proper support.
He was particularly appalled when colleagues showed him a 2005 urgent request for 1,169 Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) troop carriers that had been squashed in Washington. Virtually everyone considered the MRAPs, coated with heavy armor and designed with a V-shaped bottom to deflect the force from implanted explosives, vastly superior to the lighter, flat-bottomed, armored Humvees then in use.
But MRAPs cost an average of $1 million each, compared to roughly $200,000 for an armored Humvee. According to those involved in the deliberations, some officers worried that the costly purchase and potential success of MRAPs would undermine support for two lighter troop and amphibious carriers at the heart of Marine planning for a decade.
Gen. Dennis Hejlik, who now commands Marine Forces in the Atlantic region, said in the 2005 request that the force cannot "continue to lose . . . serious and grave casualties . . . at current rates when a commercial off the shelf capability exists" to mitigate attacks. As an urgent battlefield request, his message was supposed to provoke an immediate response.
But the Corps did not embrace MRAPs until late the following year, after desperate officers at Camp Fallujah sidestepped the Combat Development Command and submitted a similar request directly to the Joint Staff, which enthusiastically approved it, according to documents and interviews.
When the Army and Marine Corps sought $5 billion for MRAPs in early 2007 - the down payment on a program that has cost $30 billion - they refused to take that amount out of existing programs and demanded supplemental funds. "The reality is that decisionmakers in the Pentagon's requirements system were not enthusiastic about any additional armor, much less heavy, expensive MRAPs," even though the vehicles would immediately save lives, three defense experts wrote in a study of the episode for the National Defense University in October 2009.
Redding, the Marine spokesman, said: "The Marine Corps adapted our practices and strategies to meet the everchanging threat of the enemy on the ground. Some of those changes came quickly and others in time."
Continued advocacy
Gayl's pursuit of battlefield needs endeared him to then-Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, his commander in Fallujah, who wrote in a performance appraisal that Gayl's "dedication and passion for design, development and delivery of technology solutions to our warfighting needs is matched by no one I know."
But after returning from Iraq in Feb. 2007 to his civilian job, Gayl's continued advocacy raised hackles. A briefing that he had prepared that month for the Pentagon's top research official was canceled after his superiors read a draft depicting "middle management" at Quantico as risk averse and too wedded to already-funded programs, causing "U.S. friendly and innocent Iraqi deaths and injuries."
It specifically mentioned the 2005 MRAP request. His superiors ordered him to destroy all copies and barred him from unapproved "outside" communication.
Gayl was unrelenting, however. He spoke out about the 2005 request, the MRAPs' virtues and the fact that no Marine had ever been held accountable for what he considered "criminal negligence" behind the delay. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates has said that some of the resulting articles provoked him not only to make MRAPs the Pentagon's top acquisition priority but to initiate procurement reforms.
Explaining his alienation, Gayl said that "under normal circumstances, I would never disobey. I'm a Marine, absolutely. But the issues were much bigger. . . . If the rule doesn't help a Marine, I was going to come up with my own rule."
Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), who joined then-Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) in a 2007 letter warning the Corps not to punish Gayl for his disclosures, said in a statement this week that "in Congress, we depend on our military leaders to let us know what the troops in the field need, but when that process breaks down it's whistleblowers like Franz Gayl who bring serious problems to light."
Gayl says he may have provoked particular ire by pointing fingers at retiring commandant Gen. James T. Conway and Gen. James N. Mattis, who oversaw the Combat Development Command in 2005 and is now the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Gayl blames Conway for misrepresenting the 2005 request in congressional testimony, and blames Mattis for poor management of the Corps' weapons-development efforts; he says that they jointly oversaw the retaliation against him, evidently seeing him as a disobedient "Peewee GS-15."
Some Marines who worked to get MRAPs to Iraq are upset by his treatment. "They called the artillery fire in on Franz, and they will quietly keep their jobs and continue doing what they are doing," said retired Marine Col. Gary Wilson, who helped prepare the 2005 request and was later injured in a roadside explosive attack.
Under investigation
The Corps' actions against Gayl are under investigation by the independent Special Counsel's office, which polices whistleblowing statutes. But under existing law, Gayl has no legal recourse to challenge the removal of his clearances, a circumstance that advocacy groups say illustrates the need for new protections.
"Until Congress provides credible rights, agencies can continue to purge national security whistleblowers like Franz at will," said Thomas Devine, Gayl's lawyer at the nonprofit Government Accountability Project.
A long-pending bill on Capitol Hill would outlaw clearance reprisals for national security whistleblowers and permit reviews by a new board. But it has been put off by intelligence community concerns, shared by many Republican lawmakers, that the protections will wind up encouraging new disclosures of sensitive information.
Marine whistleblower Franz Gayl: Security clearance removal is retaliation
By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, November 20, 2010; 12:53 AM
Franz Gayl made a name for himself a few years ago as a Marine Corps whistleblower, a civilian scientist who helped push the Pentagon to shift its Iraqi weapons strategy. Senators called him a hero for disclosures that helped get heavily armored vehicles known as MRAPs to the battlefield.
But a few weeks ago, Gayl found himself booted from a room where confidential materials are handled and stripped of his security clearance. His superiors accused him of "a disregard for regulations, a pattern of poor judgment and intentional misconduct" - behavior that they said "indicates you are unreliable and untrustworthy."
Gayl's alleged offense - described in official documents - was inserting a USB device into a computer containing classified information twice in 2008 and then failing to turn over the device to a supervisor. They first raised this concern in March, and no security leaks have been alleged.
Gayl and some former colleagues say that these charges were trumped up, the culmination of a three-year pattern of retaliation by the Corps' leadership for the embarrassment that he caused and his continued efforts to hold officials accountable for ignoring an urgent request for help by soldiers under fire.
His offense, Gayl says, is continuing to say "that Marines did not take care of Marines in harm's way," a sacrilege inside a service that prides itself on protecting individual soldiers.
Last week, his confrontation accelerated. The Corps notified him that without proper clearances, he no longer qualified to serve as a science adviser in its plans and policy branch. "I am proposing to suspend you indefinitely from pay and from your position," wrote Col. James D. Gass, his branch chief.
But the proposed suspension was lifted by Gass hours after a reporter asked questions about Gayl's case, e-mails show. A Marine spokesman, Maj. Carl Redding Jr., cited privacy protections in explaining why he could not address the allegations against Gayl. But he said, "Whatever change you may be aware of has nothing to do with your inquiry."
Gayl and his supporters say the corps' treatment of him is vengeance. The firing threat came, he has said in a formal complaint to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, after years of demeaning taunts from a supervisor, several unfavorable alterations to his job description and an unsuccessful attempt to demote him.
"It is payback, for them to throw Franz under the bus," said retired Marine Col. Phil Harmon, who ran the service's Joint Combat Assessment Teams studying enemy tactics in Iraq and Afghanistan until 2009. He recalled Gayl's efforts to obtain lifesaving equipment. It demonstrates, Harmon said, that civilian leadership in the Marines "has gone sour."
Science booster
A plainspoken Minnesotan who joined the Corps in high school and later got a space science degree, Gayl, 53, always has been a bit of a scientific bomb thrower. Last summer, he briefly advocated using an explosive to shut off gushing oil in the Gulf of Mexico. He has long pressed the Corps to boost its scientific competence.
Gen. James F. Amos, the new commandant, in 2002 described Gayl as "a superstar for our Marine Corps for your entire career" when he retired as a major to work as a senior civilian scientific adviser.
Gayl's relations with his bosses were unblemished until he was dispatched to Camp Fallujah in late 2006, where he recalls being surrounded by the thumps of outgoing artillery and incoming mortars, as well as the constant chop of Sea Knight helicopters bearing "kids blown to bits."
Gayl said he and his colleagues grew impatient about what they considered lackluster responses by Quantico-based Combat Development Command to requests for lifesaving gear. It felt as if the unit's soldiers were "essentially fighting their own war," without proper support.
He was particularly appalled when colleagues showed him a 2005 urgent request for 1,169 Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) troop carriers that had been squashed in Washington. Virtually everyone considered the MRAPs, coated with heavy armor and designed with a V-shaped bottom to deflect the force from implanted explosives, vastly superior to the lighter, flat-bottomed, armored Humvees then in use.
But MRAPs cost an average of $1 million each, compared to roughly $200,000 for an armored Humvee. According to those involved in the deliberations, some officers worried that the costly purchase and potential success of MRAPs would undermine support for two lighter troop and amphibious carriers at the heart of Marine planning for a decade.
Gen. Dennis Hejlik, who now commands Marine Forces in the Atlantic region, said in the 2005 request that the force cannot "continue to lose . . . serious and grave casualties . . . at current rates when a commercial off the shelf capability exists" to mitigate attacks. As an urgent battlefield request, his message was supposed to provoke an immediate response.
But the Corps did not embrace MRAPs until late the following year, after desperate officers at Camp Fallujah sidestepped the Combat Development Command and submitted a similar request directly to the Joint Staff, which enthusiastically approved it, according to documents and interviews.
When the Army and Marine Corps sought $5 billion for MRAPs in early 2007 - the down payment on a program that has cost $30 billion - they refused to take that amount out of existing programs and demanded supplemental funds. "The reality is that decisionmakers in the Pentagon's requirements system were not enthusiastic about any additional armor, much less heavy, expensive MRAPs," even though the vehicles would immediately save lives, three defense experts wrote in a study of the episode for the National Defense University in October 2009.
Redding, the Marine spokesman, said: "The Marine Corps adapted our practices and strategies to meet the everchanging threat of the enemy on the ground. Some of those changes came quickly and others in time."
Continued advocacy
Gayl's pursuit of battlefield needs endeared him to then-Maj. Gen. Richard Zilmer, his commander in Fallujah, who wrote in a performance appraisal that Gayl's "dedication and passion for design, development and delivery of technology solutions to our warfighting needs is matched by no one I know."
But after returning from Iraq in Feb. 2007 to his civilian job, Gayl's continued advocacy raised hackles. A briefing that he had prepared that month for the Pentagon's top research official was canceled after his superiors read a draft depicting "middle management" at Quantico as risk averse and too wedded to already-funded programs, causing "U.S. friendly and innocent Iraqi deaths and injuries."
It specifically mentioned the 2005 MRAP request. His superiors ordered him to destroy all copies and barred him from unapproved "outside" communication.
Gayl was unrelenting, however. He spoke out about the 2005 request, the MRAPs' virtues and the fact that no Marine had ever been held accountable for what he considered "criminal negligence" behind the delay. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates has said that some of the resulting articles provoked him not only to make MRAPs the Pentagon's top acquisition priority but to initiate procurement reforms.
Explaining his alienation, Gayl said that "under normal circumstances, I would never disobey. I'm a Marine, absolutely. But the issues were much bigger. . . . If the rule doesn't help a Marine, I was going to come up with my own rule."
Sen. Christopher S. Bond (R-Mo.), who joined then-Sen. Joseph Biden (D-Del.) in a 2007 letter warning the Corps not to punish Gayl for his disclosures, said in a statement this week that "in Congress, we depend on our military leaders to let us know what the troops in the field need, but when that process breaks down it's whistleblowers like Franz Gayl who bring serious problems to light."
Gayl says he may have provoked particular ire by pointing fingers at retiring commandant Gen. James T. Conway and Gen. James N. Mattis, who oversaw the Combat Development Command in 2005 and is now the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East.
Gayl blames Conway for misrepresenting the 2005 request in congressional testimony, and blames Mattis for poor management of the Corps' weapons-development efforts; he says that they jointly oversaw the retaliation against him, evidently seeing him as a disobedient "Peewee GS-15."
Some Marines who worked to get MRAPs to Iraq are upset by his treatment. "They called the artillery fire in on Franz, and they will quietly keep their jobs and continue doing what they are doing," said retired Marine Col. Gary Wilson, who helped prepare the 2005 request and was later injured in a roadside explosive attack.
Under investigation
The Corps' actions against Gayl are under investigation by the independent Special Counsel's office, which polices whistleblowing statutes. But under existing law, Gayl has no legal recourse to challenge the removal of his clearances, a circumstance that advocacy groups say illustrates the need for new protections.
"Until Congress provides credible rights, agencies can continue to purge national security whistleblowers like Franz at will," said Thomas Devine, Gayl's lawyer at the nonprofit Government Accountability Project.
A long-pending bill on Capitol Hill would outlaw clearance reprisals for national security whistleblowers and permit reviews by a new board. But it has been put off by intelligence community concerns, shared by many Republican lawmakers, that the protections will wind up encouraging new disclosures of sensitive information.
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November 19, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Congressman Rangel broke the law and now he should go to jail.
The public scolding in Washington for Rep. Charles Rangel over ethics violations has drawn both sadness and scorn in his Harlem neighborhood, where he was just re-elected with 81 percent of the vote and remains an icon to residents who say they'll be the ones to decide his political fate. How dumb are the voters in his district? Where are the state and federal attornies who should haul him to court and then send him to jail?
Voters in his district want to give him a pass...and so does the Democrat Black Congressional Caucus. Thursday's 9-1 House ethics committee vote to recommend censure for the Democratic lawmaker came days after the same panel convicted him of 11 violations, including failure to pay taxes on rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic and operating four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem instead of just one. Censure is the most serious congressional discipline short of expulsion; the full House will probably vote on the recommendation sometime after Thanksgiving.
Rangel pleaded with the ethics panel to show him "fairness and mercy" and said he's not a crooked politician out for personal reward. While his House colleagues will determine his punishment, the prevailing sentiment back home is that any decision on Rangel's future in Congress ultimately rests with him and the voters. Not true--it is the judicial system's responsibility to put him in jail.
Rangel, 80, has represented Harlem for 40 years and remains a beloved figure even as some constituents have grown weary of the ethics scandal. A co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, he helped steer millions in federal funds toward the revitalization of Harlem, long the political and cultural heart of New York's black community.
This proves the fact that the longer people stay in Congress, they get corrupt. This is why we need term limits. I suggest that the members of Congress kick him out of Congress, let the judicial system put him on trial and then send him to jail. Where is Nancy Pelosi with the "most ethical" Congress?
This is why the American people have had enough of Rangel, Pelosi and other members of Congress who think that it is their right to stay there for their life time and they are exempt from the laws that govern our country. Rise up Tea Party and other responsible Americans.
The public scolding in Washington for Rep. Charles Rangel over ethics violations has drawn both sadness and scorn in his Harlem neighborhood, where he was just re-elected with 81 percent of the vote and remains an icon to residents who say they'll be the ones to decide his political fate. How dumb are the voters in his district? Where are the state and federal attornies who should haul him to court and then send him to jail?
Voters in his district want to give him a pass...and so does the Democrat Black Congressional Caucus. Thursday's 9-1 House ethics committee vote to recommend censure for the Democratic lawmaker came days after the same panel convicted him of 11 violations, including failure to pay taxes on rental income from a villa in the Dominican Republic and operating four rent-stabilized apartments in Harlem instead of just one. Censure is the most serious congressional discipline short of expulsion; the full House will probably vote on the recommendation sometime after Thanksgiving.
Rangel pleaded with the ethics panel to show him "fairness and mercy" and said he's not a crooked politician out for personal reward. While his House colleagues will determine his punishment, the prevailing sentiment back home is that any decision on Rangel's future in Congress ultimately rests with him and the voters. Not true--it is the judicial system's responsibility to put him in jail.
Rangel, 80, has represented Harlem for 40 years and remains a beloved figure even as some constituents have grown weary of the ethics scandal. A co-founder of the Congressional Black Caucus, he helped steer millions in federal funds toward the revitalization of Harlem, long the political and cultural heart of New York's black community.
This proves the fact that the longer people stay in Congress, they get corrupt. This is why we need term limits. I suggest that the members of Congress kick him out of Congress, let the judicial system put him on trial and then send him to jail. Where is Nancy Pelosi with the "most ethical" Congress?
This is why the American people have had enough of Rangel, Pelosi and other members of Congress who think that it is their right to stay there for their life time and they are exempt from the laws that govern our country. Rise up Tea Party and other responsible Americans.
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November 19, 2010
Chuck Floyd
I fly a lot in my business and recently I was going through Ronald Reagan National Airport (DCA) on my way to New York. There were two lines for going through security--one with the new total body scanner and the other the walk-thru metal detector. This was the first day of the "new TSA regulation" that violates our civil rights.
I put my things on the conveyor belt and then started to walk through the regular walk-thru metal detector and was stopped by a TSA agent. He said that I "had" to go through the full body scanner and I said "No" that I did not want to go through it since I did once before and did not like it. I told him that I would offer two forms of ID (military being one of them) and I would go through the regular metal detector.
He screamed at me and said to stop and called over a supervisor. I told the supervisor that I would go through one, but not the other. He said that TSA decides who goes through which machine and that if I did not want to go through the full body scanner, they would do a search. I have been through many searches where you put out your arms and spread your legs and they use a hand-held metal detector that scans over your body. The supervisor said that they would do a full pat down like when you are a prisoner and going to jail.
I refused and told him to get the regulation and show me that their screening included this aggressive style pat-down. He refused and said that if I did not go through the pat-down, I could not enter the airport to fly to New York for my meeting. After 30 minutes of argument, I let them pat me down and it was very aggressive and I told the agent that I was not happy about it and that they were going beyond their duty. I asked the TSA supervisor if they profiled Muslin men between the ages of 17 to 30 and he said “No” since it would be racial harassment. Well, doing aggressive pat-downs is harassment.
Below are my questions to TSA and the Obama administration:
1. Can TSA do aggressive pat-downs on all illegals coming across the border?
2. What types of disease, virus, and other medical problems are passed to passengers by the TSA agents since they do not change gloves for each passenger?
3. How many people are allergic to polyester gloves?
4. When the pat-downs go beyond a pat-down to the skin, and to the genital parts of your body, that is no longer a pat-down, is that an invasion of your person and sexual harassment?
5. What is the difference between a TSA agent and a Child Molester?
6. Why are they checking all AMERICANS traveling within OUR country with this new method?
7. Is TSA really looking for terrorists or are they just forcing Americans to 'accept' intimidation & control?
I think the next time I travel; I will strip down to my underwear and then ask if they want to see more. Maybe we need streakers and some full moons at the TSA security points.
The Obama administration is all about control, not about finding terrorists nor protecting the US citizen.
I put my things on the conveyor belt and then started to walk through the regular walk-thru metal detector and was stopped by a TSA agent. He said that I "had" to go through the full body scanner and I said "No" that I did not want to go through it since I did once before and did not like it. I told him that I would offer two forms of ID (military being one of them) and I would go through the regular metal detector.
He screamed at me and said to stop and called over a supervisor. I told the supervisor that I would go through one, but not the other. He said that TSA decides who goes through which machine and that if I did not want to go through the full body scanner, they would do a search. I have been through many searches where you put out your arms and spread your legs and they use a hand-held metal detector that scans over your body. The supervisor said that they would do a full pat down like when you are a prisoner and going to jail.
I refused and told him to get the regulation and show me that their screening included this aggressive style pat-down. He refused and said that if I did not go through the pat-down, I could not enter the airport to fly to New York for my meeting. After 30 minutes of argument, I let them pat me down and it was very aggressive and I told the agent that I was not happy about it and that they were going beyond their duty. I asked the TSA supervisor if they profiled Muslin men between the ages of 17 to 30 and he said “No” since it would be racial harassment. Well, doing aggressive pat-downs is harassment.
Below are my questions to TSA and the Obama administration:
1. Can TSA do aggressive pat-downs on all illegals coming across the border?
2. What types of disease, virus, and other medical problems are passed to passengers by the TSA agents since they do not change gloves for each passenger?
3. How many people are allergic to polyester gloves?
4. When the pat-downs go beyond a pat-down to the skin, and to the genital parts of your body, that is no longer a pat-down, is that an invasion of your person and sexual harassment?
5. What is the difference between a TSA agent and a Child Molester?
6. Why are they checking all AMERICANS traveling within OUR country with this new method?
7. Is TSA really looking for terrorists or are they just forcing Americans to 'accept' intimidation & control?
I think the next time I travel; I will strip down to my underwear and then ask if they want to see more. Maybe we need streakers and some full moons at the TSA security points.
The Obama administration is all about control, not about finding terrorists nor protecting the US citizen.
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0
November 14, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Three individuals who have been in politics for a long time are under arrest or ethics probe. Congressman Rangel, Congresswoman Waters, and local County Executive Johnson are accused of bribes and unethical behavior. The longer politicians are in power, the more they are removed from the citizens they represent. They feel like they are entitled and the law does not apply to them.
A House panel has set a Monday morning date to hear the ethics case against New York Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel, former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and long one of the most influential black lawmakers in Congress. The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct will come on the first day lawmakers arrive back in Washington to begin the lame-duck legislative session following the November mid-term elections. Mr. Rangel, who easily won re-election in his Harlem district to a 21st term Nov. 2, has insisted he is innocent of the charges and has rejected offers to settle the charges.
The ethics case — and one still pending against another top black Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Maxine Waters of California — proved an embarrassment to the party in an election where congressional Democrats suffered heavy losses. Committee Chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California Democrat, announced last month that hearings into the two cases would be held during the lame-duck session.
Mr. Rangel, who recently fired the attorneys representing him and could defend himself at Monday's hearing, is accused of 13 violations of congressional ethics, including failing to disclose at least $600,000 in assets and income in a series of inaccurate financial-disclosure reports to Congress and using a rent-subsidized New York apartment for a campaign office, when it was designated for residential use. Now he is accused of using campaign funds to pay his lawyers, which is a violation of law.
Mrs. Waters' case, relating to charges she improperly aided a bank with ties to her husband, is tentatively scheduled to start Nov. 29. She lobbied to provide tax payer funding to the bank so it would not default.
Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson, arrested in a corruption probe Friday, told his wife to hide tens of thousands of dollars in her underwear as federal agents arrived at his house to search for illegal payoffs from a developer, federal prosecutors have charged.
Caught in an FBI sting taking a $15,000 payment from an unnamed developer Friday, Mr. Johnson later told his wife by telephone not to answer the door when two FBI agents came to their home, authorities said. The county executive, a Democrat who was previously the county's top prosecutor, then told his wife, Leslie Johnson, to tear up a $100,000 check from the developer and stash tens of thousands of dollars in cash in her bra, authorities said in charging documents.
"Tear it up! That is the only thing you have to do," Mr. Johnson told his wife, referring to the check, according to prosecutors. Asked by his wife about "cash down in the basement," the documents say Mr. Johnson replied, "Put it in your bra and walk out or something, I don't know what to do." Later, Mr. Johnson told his wife to flush the check down the toilet, according to documents.
Term limits are the only way to rid the political system of career politicians. These politicians rig the voting districts to stay in power, create large retirements and benefits for themselves, and use other people's money for their own social agendas. It is time to clean house and put limits on all elected officials so they work for us, not we work for them.
A House panel has set a Monday morning date to hear the ethics case against New York Democratic Rep. Charles B. Rangel, former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and long one of the most influential black lawmakers in Congress. The Committee on Standards of Official Conduct will come on the first day lawmakers arrive back in Washington to begin the lame-duck legislative session following the November mid-term elections. Mr. Rangel, who easily won re-election in his Harlem district to a 21st term Nov. 2, has insisted he is innocent of the charges and has rejected offers to settle the charges.
The ethics case — and one still pending against another top black Democratic lawmaker, Rep. Maxine Waters of California — proved an embarrassment to the party in an election where congressional Democrats suffered heavy losses. Committee Chairwoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren, California Democrat, announced last month that hearings into the two cases would be held during the lame-duck session.
Mr. Rangel, who recently fired the attorneys representing him and could defend himself at Monday's hearing, is accused of 13 violations of congressional ethics, including failing to disclose at least $600,000 in assets and income in a series of inaccurate financial-disclosure reports to Congress and using a rent-subsidized New York apartment for a campaign office, when it was designated for residential use. Now he is accused of using campaign funds to pay his lawyers, which is a violation of law.
Mrs. Waters' case, relating to charges she improperly aided a bank with ties to her husband, is tentatively scheduled to start Nov. 29. She lobbied to provide tax payer funding to the bank so it would not default.
Prince George's County Executive Jack Johnson, arrested in a corruption probe Friday, told his wife to hide tens of thousands of dollars in her underwear as federal agents arrived at his house to search for illegal payoffs from a developer, federal prosecutors have charged.
Caught in an FBI sting taking a $15,000 payment from an unnamed developer Friday, Mr. Johnson later told his wife by telephone not to answer the door when two FBI agents came to their home, authorities said. The county executive, a Democrat who was previously the county's top prosecutor, then told his wife, Leslie Johnson, to tear up a $100,000 check from the developer and stash tens of thousands of dollars in cash in her bra, authorities said in charging documents.
"Tear it up! That is the only thing you have to do," Mr. Johnson told his wife, referring to the check, according to prosecutors. Asked by his wife about "cash down in the basement," the documents say Mr. Johnson replied, "Put it in your bra and walk out or something, I don't know what to do." Later, Mr. Johnson told his wife to flush the check down the toilet, according to documents.
Term limits are the only way to rid the political system of career politicians. These politicians rig the voting districts to stay in power, create large retirements and benefits for themselves, and use other people's money for their own social agendas. It is time to clean house and put limits on all elected officials so they work for us, not we work for them.
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0
November 11, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Thanks to our Military veterans who have served and given of their time, their soul, and their lives.
Thanks to all of our fellow military families, both active and retired. Without the sacrifices of our military families, our nation would not be where it is today. There are too many elected politicians who have no idea of what it is like to serve our great nation. They are only politicians with a different agenda such as a community organizer.
Below is a poem for our military on Veteran's Day....
And now they're coming home to us with glory in their eyes.
Oh, it's home again, and home again, America for me!
Our hearts are turning home again and there we long to be,
In our beautiful big country beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.
Our boys have seen the Old World as none have seen before.
They know the grisly horror of the German gods of war:
The noble faith of Britain and the hero-heart of France,
The soul of Belgium's fortitude and Italy's romance.
They bore our country's great word across the rolling sea,
"America swears brotherhood with all the just and free."
They wrote that word victorious on fields of mortal strife,
And many a valiant lad was proud to seal it with his life.
Oh, welcome home in Heaven's peace, dear spirits of the dead!
And welcome home ye living sons America hath bred!
The lords of war are beaten down, your glorious task is done;
You fought to make the whole world free, and the victory is won.
Now it's home again, and home again, our hearts are turning west,
Of all the lands beneath the sun America is best.
We're going home to our own folks, beyond the ocean bars,
Where the air is full of sunlight and the flag is full of stars.
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0
November 10, 2010
Chuck Floyd
We in the US have a very serious problem on our southern border. As I have said before, only the military can solve the violence across our southern border. Drugs and guns equal violence.
The Mexican government is losing ground against the drug cartels and the government may lose control of its population, laws, and goverance. The US is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the Mexican government to train them and help them fight the drug runners. It boils down to the US and Mexico securing its border--very simple.
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives initiative to reduce the flow of weapons from the United States to Mexico has "significant weaknesses" that undermine its effectiveness, including ATF's failure to share intelligence information with Mexican authorities and some of its U.S. law enforcement partners, a report said Tuesday.
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said deficiencies were identified in Project Gunrunner, despite increased ATF activity associated with the program, including the number of cases initiated and referred for prosecution and an increase in gun-dealer compliance inspections on the Southwest border.
"Drug traffickers have turned to the United States as a primary source of weapons, and these drug traffickers routinely smuggle guns from the United States into Mexico," Mr. Fine said. "Despite the increased ATF activity associated with Project Gunrunner, we found that significant weaknesses in ATF's implementation of Project Gunrunner undermine its effectiveness."
ATF began Project Gunrunner as a pilot program in Texas in 2005 and expanded it into a national initiative in 2006. Agents and investigators were assigned along the border to increase "strategic coverage" of the region and disrupt firearms-trafficking corridors.
As war rages between rival drug cartels in Mexico, ATF and other law-enforcement agencies have seized thousands of firearms, including assault rifles, semiautomatic rifles, grenade launchers, pistols and .38 caliber "Super" pistols. More than 31,000 people have been killed across Mexico since December 2006 in that nation's ongoing drug war.
The ATF has said Project Gunrunner sought to deprive the drug cartels of weapons, suppress firearms trafficking and stem gun violence on both sides of the border.
But Mr. Fine said a review of the project identified deficiencies in ATF's intelligence tracking and information sharing. The IG's office said ATF does not systematically and consistently exchange intelligence with Mexican and with other federal law enforcement agencies.
The 138-page report also said intelligence personnel in ATF's Southwest border field divisions do not routinely share firearms-trafficking intelligence with each other. It said the ATF focuses largely on inspections of gun dealers and investigations of "straw purchasers," rather than on higher-level traffickers, smugglers and the ultimate recipients of the trafficked guns.
The report noted that 68 percent of Project Gunrunner prosecutions were single-defendant cases; that some ATF managers discouraged field personnel from conducting complex conspiracy investigations targeting higher-level members of trafficking rings; and that ATF also has not made fuller use of federal law enforcement resources to conduct more complex conspiracy investigations.
It also said the majority of recovered guns in Mexico were not traced, although trace requests to ATF for guns recovered in Mexico increased from 5,834 in fiscal 2004 to 22,000 in fiscal 2009. It said most trace requests from Mexico are considered "unsuccessful" because of missing or improperly entered gun data. It also noted that ATF had a substantial backlog in responding to requests for information from Mexican authorities.
ATF Deputy Director Kenneth E. Melson, in a letter to the Inspector General's Office in response to the report, said the agency was "concerned that the review did not adequately reflect the challenges that the United States and Mexico face in seeking to reduce violence, gun and drug trafficking along the border.
As one can see, the human trafficking, drug running, and killings are a real threat to our national security.
The Mexican government is losing ground against the drug cartels and the government may lose control of its population, laws, and goverance. The US is pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the Mexican government to train them and help them fight the drug runners. It boils down to the US and Mexico securing its border--very simple.
A Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives initiative to reduce the flow of weapons from the United States to Mexico has "significant weaknesses" that undermine its effectiveness, including ATF's failure to share intelligence information with Mexican authorities and some of its U.S. law enforcement partners, a report said Tuesday.
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine said deficiencies were identified in Project Gunrunner, despite increased ATF activity associated with the program, including the number of cases initiated and referred for prosecution and an increase in gun-dealer compliance inspections on the Southwest border.
"Drug traffickers have turned to the United States as a primary source of weapons, and these drug traffickers routinely smuggle guns from the United States into Mexico," Mr. Fine said. "Despite the increased ATF activity associated with Project Gunrunner, we found that significant weaknesses in ATF's implementation of Project Gunrunner undermine its effectiveness."
ATF began Project Gunrunner as a pilot program in Texas in 2005 and expanded it into a national initiative in 2006. Agents and investigators were assigned along the border to increase "strategic coverage" of the region and disrupt firearms-trafficking corridors.
As war rages between rival drug cartels in Mexico, ATF and other law-enforcement agencies have seized thousands of firearms, including assault rifles, semiautomatic rifles, grenade launchers, pistols and .38 caliber "Super" pistols. More than 31,000 people have been killed across Mexico since December 2006 in that nation's ongoing drug war.
The ATF has said Project Gunrunner sought to deprive the drug cartels of weapons, suppress firearms trafficking and stem gun violence on both sides of the border.
But Mr. Fine said a review of the project identified deficiencies in ATF's intelligence tracking and information sharing. The IG's office said ATF does not systematically and consistently exchange intelligence with Mexican and with other federal law enforcement agencies.
The 138-page report also said intelligence personnel in ATF's Southwest border field divisions do not routinely share firearms-trafficking intelligence with each other. It said the ATF focuses largely on inspections of gun dealers and investigations of "straw purchasers," rather than on higher-level traffickers, smugglers and the ultimate recipients of the trafficked guns.
The report noted that 68 percent of Project Gunrunner prosecutions were single-defendant cases; that some ATF managers discouraged field personnel from conducting complex conspiracy investigations targeting higher-level members of trafficking rings; and that ATF also has not made fuller use of federal law enforcement resources to conduct more complex conspiracy investigations.
It also said the majority of recovered guns in Mexico were not traced, although trace requests to ATF for guns recovered in Mexico increased from 5,834 in fiscal 2004 to 22,000 in fiscal 2009. It said most trace requests from Mexico are considered "unsuccessful" because of missing or improperly entered gun data. It also noted that ATF had a substantial backlog in responding to requests for information from Mexican authorities.
ATF Deputy Director Kenneth E. Melson, in a letter to the Inspector General's Office in response to the report, said the agency was "concerned that the review did not adequately reflect the challenges that the United States and Mexico face in seeking to reduce violence, gun and drug trafficking along the border.
As one can see, the human trafficking, drug running, and killings are a real threat to our national security.
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0
November 07, 2010
Chuck Floyd
The Republican Party has the support of the American people in repealing Obamacare. The newly elected Congress should target Obamacare in January 2011.
During the 2010 election, Obamacare quickly emerged as the first major issue of the congressional races. The American public does not want Obamacare, especially the way it was forced on the tax payers. The president (a socialist) says tweak it. We say scrap it and write a real health care bill that will benefit Americans and reduce medical costs.
A USA Today-Gallup survey on the public's priorities for the new Congress listed "repealing health care law" one point behind cutting federal spending. In a Reuters-Ipsos poll on issues for Congress in 2011, 53 percent listed health care reform as "crucial" and 41 percent said it was "important." A pre-election Pew Research Center survey showed health care as the second-most-important issue to voters after the job situation. And a CBS News exit poll showed that 48 percent of those who voted said Obamacare should be repealed and just 16 percent thought it should be left alone.
President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid both said the law could be "tweaked," but they oppose any extensive reconstructive surgery. Mr. Obama oddly said he did not want to "relitigate" the issue, though the legal challenges to the law are just beginning. Future judicial rulings may eviscerate Obamacare and force the matter back to the legislature, but the new Congress should not wait for the courts to take action. Repeal it now.
The most odious aspects of Obamacare are yet to hit. The law was crafted so that the harsh provisions would kick in after the election, a failed attempt to insulate Democrats from voter backlash. Obamacare is not only bad law, it is the symbol of a broken system.
The legislation was slapped together hurriedly and without adequate staff - or lawmaker - review. It became a grab bag of regulations and loopholes favoring Democratic-leaning special interests. Republicans were unceremoniously shut out of the entire legislative process. The bill was forced through the Congress in a riot of arm-twisting and secretive backroom deals.
Few if any members of Congress read the bill before they voted on it. The American people were denied the transparency and open process Mr. Obama had promised during his campaign. Obamacare was the poster child for everything wrong with the contemporary legislative process. It is the result of very liberal and socialist ideas from the far left Democrat party..
Some of the critical issues of Obamacare that people do not like are below:
*The law does provide for rationing of health care
*The law does provide for free health care for illegal immigrants
*The law does provide for free abortion services
*The law does eventually force private insurance companies out of business
*The law does force everyone into a government run system
*The law does force all medical decisions to be made by federal bureaucrats, not doctors
*The law does restrict payments to physicians
*The law does restrict medical devices that be controlled by the government
*The law does create 20,000 new government workers to handle all of these decisions (for you)
*The law does restrict any other affordable health care choices
*The law does create many new taxes in order to pay for this massive take over by government
*The law does force you to either accept the federal plan or pay a fine (tax) if you do not have medical insurance
The Congress and the Executive Branch has no authority to regulate health care. The Constitution does not give then the power to regulate and force people into a government health care system. Individual personal data and financial information will be given to the federal regulator to manage your physician, medical options, and your hospital stays. Everyone's right to privacy will now be managed by a government employee.
Are you ready for Obamacare? Do you want the Republicans to repeal this law? Voters in MD, CA, WA, and other liberal Democrat states seem like they want more government control. Go figure....
During the 2010 election, Obamacare quickly emerged as the first major issue of the congressional races. The American public does not want Obamacare, especially the way it was forced on the tax payers. The president (a socialist) says tweak it. We say scrap it and write a real health care bill that will benefit Americans and reduce medical costs.
A USA Today-Gallup survey on the public's priorities for the new Congress listed "repealing health care law" one point behind cutting federal spending. In a Reuters-Ipsos poll on issues for Congress in 2011, 53 percent listed health care reform as "crucial" and 41 percent said it was "important." A pre-election Pew Research Center survey showed health care as the second-most-important issue to voters after the job situation. And a CBS News exit poll showed that 48 percent of those who voted said Obamacare should be repealed and just 16 percent thought it should be left alone.
President Obama and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid both said the law could be "tweaked," but they oppose any extensive reconstructive surgery. Mr. Obama oddly said he did not want to "relitigate" the issue, though the legal challenges to the law are just beginning. Future judicial rulings may eviscerate Obamacare and force the matter back to the legislature, but the new Congress should not wait for the courts to take action. Repeal it now.
The most odious aspects of Obamacare are yet to hit. The law was crafted so that the harsh provisions would kick in after the election, a failed attempt to insulate Democrats from voter backlash. Obamacare is not only bad law, it is the symbol of a broken system.
The legislation was slapped together hurriedly and without adequate staff - or lawmaker - review. It became a grab bag of regulations and loopholes favoring Democratic-leaning special interests. Republicans were unceremoniously shut out of the entire legislative process. The bill was forced through the Congress in a riot of arm-twisting and secretive backroom deals.
Few if any members of Congress read the bill before they voted on it. The American people were denied the transparency and open process Mr. Obama had promised during his campaign. Obamacare was the poster child for everything wrong with the contemporary legislative process. It is the result of very liberal and socialist ideas from the far left Democrat party..
Some of the critical issues of Obamacare that people do not like are below:
*The law does provide for rationing of health care
*The law does provide for free health care for illegal immigrants
*The law does provide for free abortion services
*The law does eventually force private insurance companies out of business
*The law does force everyone into a government run system
*The law does force all medical decisions to be made by federal bureaucrats, not doctors
*The law does restrict payments to physicians
*The law does restrict medical devices that be controlled by the government
*The law does create 20,000 new government workers to handle all of these decisions (for you)
*The law does restrict any other affordable health care choices
*The law does create many new taxes in order to pay for this massive take over by government
*The law does force you to either accept the federal plan or pay a fine (tax) if you do not have medical insurance
The Congress and the Executive Branch has no authority to regulate health care. The Constitution does not give then the power to regulate and force people into a government health care system. Individual personal data and financial information will be given to the federal regulator to manage your physician, medical options, and your hospital stays. Everyone's right to privacy will now be managed by a government employee.
Are you ready for Obamacare? Do you want the Republicans to repeal this law? Voters in MD, CA, WA, and other liberal Democrat states seem like they want more government control. Go figure....
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0
November 04, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Congrats to the American voter (except for MD, CA, NV) who rejected Obama's socialist agenda. The voters in MD, CA, and NV are still focused on a one-party power grab with the adverse results of Democrats in charge without any limits. Harry Reed and Barbara Boxer deserved to be tossed out of the Senate. Maryland is a great state, but the voters are blindly voting for liberal Democrats who are raising taxes and destroying our rights.
Neither rookies nor seasoned veterans were spared in Tuesday's House Democratic bloodbath, which saw Republicans defeat three major committee chairmen and at least seven lawmakers who claimed 20 years' seniority or more in Congress. This election should demonstrate to the public that term limits are now necessary due to the drawing of Congressional districts. Elected officials serve the people, not the other way around.
While the losses of 16 freshmen "Obama babies" — those elected during the president's 2008 sweep — were expected, the number of long-serving Democrats who lost re-election this week is staggering, and suggests a widespread dissatisfaction with Washington.
All told, with about a dozen races still uncalled, Democrats have already shed 376 years of congressional experience, and that could go as high as 430 years if five other Democrats lose races in which returns show they are trailing.
Losing outright were 18-term incumbent Minnesota Rep. James L. Oberstar, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; 14-term South Carolina Rep. John M. Spratt, chairman of the Budget Committee; and 17-term Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. The victorious Republicans in these races said voters were tired of the Democratic agenda and the length of time these individuals have served. The longer one serves in Congress, the more they are not in touch with the voters.
Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey, a 21-term incumbent from Wisconsin, retired this year rather than seek re-election in his Wisconsin district, while Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, lost in a primary. Republicans won in Mr. Obey's district and appeared likely to capture Mr. Mollohan's old seat in a very tight race.
And 10-term Rep. Chet Edwards, a chairman of one of the Appropriations subcommittees, lost his re-election bid in Texas.
Republicans now have the chance to move the country forward in an adult way of "hope and change". We are tired of Obama and the liberal left's socialist agenda.
Congrats to the voters who understand that our country does not want the Obama agenda and policies.
Neither rookies nor seasoned veterans were spared in Tuesday's House Democratic bloodbath, which saw Republicans defeat three major committee chairmen and at least seven lawmakers who claimed 20 years' seniority or more in Congress. This election should demonstrate to the public that term limits are now necessary due to the drawing of Congressional districts. Elected officials serve the people, not the other way around.
While the losses of 16 freshmen "Obama babies" — those elected during the president's 2008 sweep — were expected, the number of long-serving Democrats who lost re-election this week is staggering, and suggests a widespread dissatisfaction with Washington.
All told, with about a dozen races still uncalled, Democrats have already shed 376 years of congressional experience, and that could go as high as 430 years if five other Democrats lose races in which returns show they are trailing.
Losing outright were 18-term incumbent Minnesota Rep. James L. Oberstar, chairman of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee; 14-term South Carolina Rep. John M. Spratt, chairman of the Budget Committee; and 17-term Missouri Rep. Ike Skelton, chairman of the Armed Services Committee. The victorious Republicans in these races said voters were tired of the Democratic agenda and the length of time these individuals have served. The longer one serves in Congress, the more they are not in touch with the voters.
Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey, a 21-term incumbent from Wisconsin, retired this year rather than seek re-election in his Wisconsin district, while Rep. Alan B. Mollohan, a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, lost in a primary. Republicans won in Mr. Obey's district and appeared likely to capture Mr. Mollohan's old seat in a very tight race.
And 10-term Rep. Chet Edwards, a chairman of one of the Appropriations subcommittees, lost his re-election bid in Texas.
Republicans now have the chance to move the country forward in an adult way of "hope and change". We are tired of Obama and the liberal left's socialist agenda.
Congrats to the voters who understand that our country does not want the Obama agenda and policies.
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0
October 31, 2010
Chuck Floyd
The American tax payer has the opportunity to correct what the Obama administration has accomplished in turning our nation into a socialist country. We are not going to take it any more. We do not want big government to run our lives. Below are my ideas of what the new Republican Congress should do to stop all actions by the Obama administration. Obama has been a failure in promoting our nation, creating jobs, and securing our nation.
Republicans have this one opportunity to regain the trust of the American people.
After Election—GOP Priorities
1. Repeal all Obama, Reed, & Pelosi legislative actions
2. Repeal all Obama executive directives and policies (i.e. EPA restrictions)
3. Overhaul our entire voting system to ensure only legal US citizens vote (only once, picture ID, transparency, & military votes are counted)
4. Cut all federal spending by 10% and all foreign aid by 25%
5. Cut taxes, AMT, and other regressive fees and taxes for families & businesses
6. Stop raising the debt limit and balance the budget (except in declared war)
7. Overhaul Social Security (fence the money-don’t put in general fund)
8. Overhaul Fannie and Freddie, and the housing mortgage industry
9. Secure our borders, stop all services and jobs for illegals and anchor babies
10. Put God and Country back into our national focus (no political correctness)
11. Stop putting liberal judges on the bench to degrade our Constitution and laws
12. Term limits for members of Congress, no retirement, cut staff budgets in half
Vote Republican and send a message to Obama--we do not share his Hope and certainly not his Change....
Republicans have this one opportunity to regain the trust of the American people.
After Election—GOP Priorities
1. Repeal all Obama, Reed, & Pelosi legislative actions
2. Repeal all Obama executive directives and policies (i.e. EPA restrictions)
3. Overhaul our entire voting system to ensure only legal US citizens vote (only once, picture ID, transparency, & military votes are counted)
4. Cut all federal spending by 10% and all foreign aid by 25%
5. Cut taxes, AMT, and other regressive fees and taxes for families & businesses
6. Stop raising the debt limit and balance the budget (except in declared war)
7. Overhaul Social Security (fence the money-don’t put in general fund)
8. Overhaul Fannie and Freddie, and the housing mortgage industry
9. Secure our borders, stop all services and jobs for illegals and anchor babies
10. Put God and Country back into our national focus (no political correctness)
11. Stop putting liberal judges on the bench to degrade our Constitution and laws
12. Term limits for members of Congress, no retirement, cut staff budgets in half
Vote Republican and send a message to Obama--we do not share his Hope and certainly not his Change....
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October 29, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Liberals are destroying our voting system and the meaning of being a US citizen. We want to preserve our voting system as secure and transparent. With illegals, dead people, multiply votes, felons, and early voting, the liberals and Democrats are forcing our voting system into that of a 3rd world country. Our voting system does not have integrity or is it secure so one person has one vote.
Democrats and liberals want to destroy our American voting system so they remain in power and cheat on every election. Look at several of the current Congressmen and Senators who are in Congress because of fraud and irregular voting by illegals, dead people, felons and other individuals who are not authorized to vote.
Arizona is trying to secure its borders and ensure voter integrity, but the federal government, Democrats, liberals, and the ACLU do not want a secure and correct voting system--they want to cheat and use fraud to throw elections.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has violated the Code of Conduct for United States judges. She should resign from her position as a roving judge on "senior status." If she doesn't resign, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. - at whose sole discretion she serves as a "pinch hitter" on lower federal courts - should no longer designate her for such duties.
In a controversial case Tuesday before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Mrs. O'Connor provided the deciding vote in a 2-1 decision to throw out Arizona's requirement that new voter registrants provide proof of citizenship. This was not just another lousy decision in Justice O'Connor's long record of uneven jurisprudence. The deeper ethical problem is that she is active in political causes while continuing to serve as a judge.
This week, the retired justice was exposed for having recorded political robo-calls pushing a constitutional amendment in Nevada for state judges to be appointed by governors rather than elected by citizens. She claims she never gave permission for her recording to be used for robo-calls, but she recorded not just a voice message but also a video for a political group dedicated solely to passing this amendment - a group she leads as "honorary chairwoman."
Mrs. O'Connor likewise has made appearances in Missouri and Iowa weighing in on those states' judicial-selection processes and has written a New York Times column in support of specific legislation to provide greater funding for Alzheimer's research. The latter might be a worthy goal, but her advocacy for it amounts to direct participation in inherently political activity.
As explained on National Review Online by Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Code of Conduct specifically states that "a judge should refrain from political activity. A judge should not act as a leader or hold any office in a political organization; make speeches for a political organization. ..." Ronald Rotunda, a professor at Chapman Law School and co-author of a widely used text on judicial ethics, told The Washington Times, "This is not a subtle point. First, she has stepped into a political battle, and secondly, she is leveraging her title as a judge. She is not supposed to step into a political thicket."
Justice O'Connor is openly involved in political activity, and her recordings have even been used for political purposes by operatives of endangered Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Such politicking in inappropriate for an active judge and mustn't be tolerated.
Our judicial system is out of whack with so many rulings from liberal judges. Look at the recent ruling on "gays in the military" where one liberal judge wants to force her opinion on the Congress and the American people and our military.
We have had enough of the liberal judges and the ACLU.
Democrats and liberals want to destroy our American voting system so they remain in power and cheat on every election. Look at several of the current Congressmen and Senators who are in Congress because of fraud and irregular voting by illegals, dead people, felons and other individuals who are not authorized to vote.
Arizona is trying to secure its borders and ensure voter integrity, but the federal government, Democrats, liberals, and the ACLU do not want a secure and correct voting system--they want to cheat and use fraud to throw elections.
Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor has violated the Code of Conduct for United States judges. She should resign from her position as a roving judge on "senior status." If she doesn't resign, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. - at whose sole discretion she serves as a "pinch hitter" on lower federal courts - should no longer designate her for such duties.
In a controversial case Tuesday before a panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Mrs. O'Connor provided the deciding vote in a 2-1 decision to throw out Arizona's requirement that new voter registrants provide proof of citizenship. This was not just another lousy decision in Justice O'Connor's long record of uneven jurisprudence. The deeper ethical problem is that she is active in political causes while continuing to serve as a judge.
This week, the retired justice was exposed for having recorded political robo-calls pushing a constitutional amendment in Nevada for state judges to be appointed by governors rather than elected by citizens. She claims she never gave permission for her recording to be used for robo-calls, but she recorded not just a voice message but also a video for a political group dedicated solely to passing this amendment - a group she leads as "honorary chairwoman."
Mrs. O'Connor likewise has made appearances in Missouri and Iowa weighing in on those states' judicial-selection processes and has written a New York Times column in support of specific legislation to provide greater funding for Alzheimer's research. The latter might be a worthy goal, but her advocacy for it amounts to direct participation in inherently political activity.
As explained on National Review Online by Ed Whelan, president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center, the Code of Conduct specifically states that "a judge should refrain from political activity. A judge should not act as a leader or hold any office in a political organization; make speeches for a political organization. ..." Ronald Rotunda, a professor at Chapman Law School and co-author of a widely used text on judicial ethics, told The Washington Times, "This is not a subtle point. First, she has stepped into a political battle, and secondly, she is leveraging her title as a judge. She is not supposed to step into a political thicket."
Justice O'Connor is openly involved in political activity, and her recordings have even been used for political purposes by operatives of endangered Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Such politicking in inappropriate for an active judge and mustn't be tolerated.
Our judicial system is out of whack with so many rulings from liberal judges. Look at the recent ruling on "gays in the military" where one liberal judge wants to force her opinion on the Congress and the American people and our military.
We have had enough of the liberal judges and the ACLU.
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October 27, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Are you, the American tax payer the Enemy?
Mr. Obama recently did an interview on Hispanic TV trying to get Hispanics out to vote. He is catering to the illegal Hispanic groups and population that have come into our country illegally. He is asking for their help in our election next week. CASA de Maryland and other like groups do voter registration for the Democrats with public funding---go figure.
He has called all American citizens and Republicans who do not agree with his open border policy the "ENEMY". He wants the groups who support illegal immigration and anchor babies to fight their enemy--American citizens who pay taxes. Obama is a socialist and is not doing the number one job of the President of the United States of securing our borders and protecting all US citizens. He uses the race card and has divided the country--where is that Hope and Change?
Mr. Obama is using class warfare, skin color, and fear to get Hispanics, Blacks, and union voters to the polls next week. He is a discredit to the office and is using Chicago politics from his community organizer days to cause voter fraud. While he is encouraging illegals to vote, his administration is not supporting the right to vote of our military members. This is wrong and shows how Obama and the Democrats use voter fraud to sway elections. If the Black Panthers were part of the military, we would have immediate action....
We in the United States need voter verification and term limits for our elected officials. The Congressional and local districts are rigged for certain politicians and people to win elections--not represent the American voter.
We need to stop Obama and his party next week at the polls--let's take back our country from the socialist race baiters and the far, far left.
Mr. Obama recently did an interview on Hispanic TV trying to get Hispanics out to vote. He is catering to the illegal Hispanic groups and population that have come into our country illegally. He is asking for their help in our election next week. CASA de Maryland and other like groups do voter registration for the Democrats with public funding---go figure.
He has called all American citizens and Republicans who do not agree with his open border policy the "ENEMY". He wants the groups who support illegal immigration and anchor babies to fight their enemy--American citizens who pay taxes. Obama is a socialist and is not doing the number one job of the President of the United States of securing our borders and protecting all US citizens. He uses the race card and has divided the country--where is that Hope and Change?
Mr. Obama is using class warfare, skin color, and fear to get Hispanics, Blacks, and union voters to the polls next week. He is a discredit to the office and is using Chicago politics from his community organizer days to cause voter fraud. While he is encouraging illegals to vote, his administration is not supporting the right to vote of our military members. This is wrong and shows how Obama and the Democrats use voter fraud to sway elections. If the Black Panthers were part of the military, we would have immediate action....
We in the United States need voter verification and term limits for our elected officials. The Congressional and local districts are rigged for certain politicians and people to win elections--not represent the American voter.
We need to stop Obama and his party next week at the polls--let's take back our country from the socialist race baiters and the far, far left.
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October 20, 2010
Chuck Floyd
The Secretary of DHS says that our border with Mexico is secure. Really? Why are Mexican drug gangs operating inside the United States? When a major Mexican drug cartel opened a branch office here on the California side of the border, U.S. authorities tapped into its cellphones - then listened, watched and waited.
Their surveillance effort captured more than 50,000 calls over six months, conversations that reached deep into Mexico and helped build a sprawling case against 43 suspects - including Mexican police and top officials - allegedly linked to a savage trafficking ring known as the Fernando Sanchez Organization.
According to the wiretaps and confidential informants, the suspects plotted kidnappings and killings and hired American teenage girls, with nicknames like Dopey, to smuggle quarter-pound loads of methamphetamine across the border for $100 a trip. To send a message to a rival, they dumped a disemboweled dog in his mother's front yard.
But U.S. law enforcement officials say the most worrisome thing about the Fernando Sanchez Organization was how aggressively it moved to set up operations in the United States, working out of a San Diego apartment it called "The Office."
At a time of heightened concern in Washington that drug violence along the border may spill into the United States, the case dubbed "Luz Verde," or Green Light, shows how Mexican cartels are trying to build up their U.S. presence.
The Fernando Sanchez Organization's San Diego venture functioned almost like a franchise, prosecutors say, giving the group greater control over lucrative smuggling routes and drug distribution networks north of the border. "They moved back and forth, from one side to the other. They commuted. We had lieutenants of the organization living here in San Diego and ordering kidnappings and murders in Mexico," said Todd Robinson, the assistant U.S. attorney who will prosecute the alleged ring next year.
The case shows that as the border becomes less of an operational barrier for Mexican cartels, it appears to be less of one for U.S. surveillance efforts. Because the suspects' cellphone and radio traffic could be captured by towers on the northern side of the border, U.S. agents were able to eavesdrop on calls made on Mexican cellphones, between two callers in Mexico - a tactic prosecutors say has never been deployed so extensively.
Captured on one wiretap: a cartel leader, a former homicide detective from Tijuana, negotiating with a Mexican state judicial police officer about a job offer to lead a death squad. Recorded on other calls: the operation's biggest catch, Jesus Quinones Marquez, a high-ranking Mexican official and alleged cartel operative code-named "El Rinon," or "The Kidney." As he worked and socialized with U.S. law enforcement officials in his role as international liaison for the Baja California attorney general's office, Quinones passed confidential information to cartel bosses and directed Mexican police to take action against rival traffickers, prosecutors say.
He and 34 other suspects are now in U.S. jails. The remaining eight are still at large. Investigators say it is not unusual for Mexican cartel leaders and their underlings to move north in search of refuge or to place representatives in such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta to manage large deliveries of drugs. But the Fernando Sanchez Organization was more ambitious. It was building a network in San Diego, complete with senior managers to facilitate large and small drug shipments and sales.
The gang is an offshoot of the Tijuana cartel, led by baby-faced Fernando Sanchez Arellano, a nephew of the once fearsome Arellano-Felix brothers who ran the Tijuana drug trade for almost 20 years before they were captured or killed. The nephew's organization is a weaker syndicate, at war with itself and rivals, police say, and locked in a desperate struggle to maintain market share in the highly competitive billion-dollar drug corridor into California.
Unlike the cartel crews in Mexico, which are typically built on strong ties between families or friends, the San Diego franchise recruited from U.S.-based Latino street gangs. Some recruits were illegal immigrants, others U.S. citizens, according to arrest warrants. Twelve of the 43 indicted have alleged gang affiliations in San Diego. Six of the 43 are current or former Mexican law enforcement officers. Eight are women.
"You couldn't pick these people out of a crowd," said Leonard Miranda, a retired captain in the Chula Vista, Calif., police department who worked on the investigation. "Some of them kept a very low profile. Their family members didn't even know."
According to the 86-page federal racketeering indictment unsealed July 23, cartel members operated stash houses, managed smuggling crews, distributed marijuana and methamphetamine, trafficked in weapons, laundered money, committed robberies and collected drug debts. When people did not pay, they were kidnapped or targeted with execution on both sides of the border.
U.S. authorities say the wiretaps allowed them to foil murder plots and other violent acts. The assistant special agent in charge of the San Diego FBI office, David Bowdich, said his teams stopped the execution of two Mexican police officers. The authorities also saved a cartel associate called "Sharky" who was going to be killed because he had disrespected drug lords in Tijuana.
From their apartments by the beach or cars parked at motels, the targets of the investigation talked and talked on their cellphones. They almost always spoke in Spanish, usually in clipped code, with lots of street slang. They bought and quickly discarded the phones. Top lieutenants often employed "alineadores," personal assistants who juggled a dozen phones and took messages so that the boss would not be heard on the line. Investigators say the alleged cartel members clearly were afraid that their calls could be monitored.
And they were right. In February, the FBI secured hard-to-get "roving" wiretaps for 44 individuals that allowed investigators to track their movements via global positioning satellites. According to U.S. law enforcement officials, the Mexican government was not involved in the investigation. Quinones, the high-ranking Mexican official, was a close adviser to Attorney General Rommel Moreno, the top prosecutor in Mexico's Baja California state. He was arrested July 22 when U.S. agents invited him to the San Diego police department to help with an investigation. It was a setup.
"My client's gone from a cross-border international liaison officer to a guy in a 10-by-10-foot isolation cell in lockdown 23 hours a day," said his attorney, Patrick Hall, who described Quinones as "a normal dad with three kids, married 11 years, who lived in Tijuana all his adult life and was one of the dads out there at the Little League baseball games." Hall said the federal agents were "reading in facts and interpretations and distortions into the true meanings of what's being said on the wiretaps."
Quinones's arrest has almost certainly dealt a blow to efforts at cross-border information sharing and collaboration, though officials on both sides played down the apparent betrayal. "Would you stop going to church just because of one bad priest?" Quinones's boss, Moreno, said in an interview in Tijuana. But the U.S. wiretaps also detected other troubling signs of corruption.
On the day of the mass arrests, U.S. agents arranged for suspected drug lieutenant Jose Najera Gil to pick up visa documents he was seeking from the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana. But the Mexican police who were supposed to arrest him at the consulate failed to show up.
A day before the arrests, another Mexican police officer, Jose Ortega Nuvo, received a call on his cellphone, which was being tapped by U.S agents. The caller warned him that he was about to be arrested. According to court testimony, the call came from the offices of the federal police in Mexico City - a special unit vetted to work alongside agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Secure our border--get control of illegals and drugs.
Their surveillance effort captured more than 50,000 calls over six months, conversations that reached deep into Mexico and helped build a sprawling case against 43 suspects - including Mexican police and top officials - allegedly linked to a savage trafficking ring known as the Fernando Sanchez Organization.
According to the wiretaps and confidential informants, the suspects plotted kidnappings and killings and hired American teenage girls, with nicknames like Dopey, to smuggle quarter-pound loads of methamphetamine across the border for $100 a trip. To send a message to a rival, they dumped a disemboweled dog in his mother's front yard.
But U.S. law enforcement officials say the most worrisome thing about the Fernando Sanchez Organization was how aggressively it moved to set up operations in the United States, working out of a San Diego apartment it called "The Office."
At a time of heightened concern in Washington that drug violence along the border may spill into the United States, the case dubbed "Luz Verde," or Green Light, shows how Mexican cartels are trying to build up their U.S. presence.
The Fernando Sanchez Organization's San Diego venture functioned almost like a franchise, prosecutors say, giving the group greater control over lucrative smuggling routes and drug distribution networks north of the border. "They moved back and forth, from one side to the other. They commuted. We had lieutenants of the organization living here in San Diego and ordering kidnappings and murders in Mexico," said Todd Robinson, the assistant U.S. attorney who will prosecute the alleged ring next year.
The case shows that as the border becomes less of an operational barrier for Mexican cartels, it appears to be less of one for U.S. surveillance efforts. Because the suspects' cellphone and radio traffic could be captured by towers on the northern side of the border, U.S. agents were able to eavesdrop on calls made on Mexican cellphones, between two callers in Mexico - a tactic prosecutors say has never been deployed so extensively.
Captured on one wiretap: a cartel leader, a former homicide detective from Tijuana, negotiating with a Mexican state judicial police officer about a job offer to lead a death squad. Recorded on other calls: the operation's biggest catch, Jesus Quinones Marquez, a high-ranking Mexican official and alleged cartel operative code-named "El Rinon," or "The Kidney." As he worked and socialized with U.S. law enforcement officials in his role as international liaison for the Baja California attorney general's office, Quinones passed confidential information to cartel bosses and directed Mexican police to take action against rival traffickers, prosecutors say.
He and 34 other suspects are now in U.S. jails. The remaining eight are still at large. Investigators say it is not unusual for Mexican cartel leaders and their underlings to move north in search of refuge or to place representatives in such cities as Los Angeles, Chicago and Atlanta to manage large deliveries of drugs. But the Fernando Sanchez Organization was more ambitious. It was building a network in San Diego, complete with senior managers to facilitate large and small drug shipments and sales.
The gang is an offshoot of the Tijuana cartel, led by baby-faced Fernando Sanchez Arellano, a nephew of the once fearsome Arellano-Felix brothers who ran the Tijuana drug trade for almost 20 years before they were captured or killed. The nephew's organization is a weaker syndicate, at war with itself and rivals, police say, and locked in a desperate struggle to maintain market share in the highly competitive billion-dollar drug corridor into California.
Unlike the cartel crews in Mexico, which are typically built on strong ties between families or friends, the San Diego franchise recruited from U.S.-based Latino street gangs. Some recruits were illegal immigrants, others U.S. citizens, according to arrest warrants. Twelve of the 43 indicted have alleged gang affiliations in San Diego. Six of the 43 are current or former Mexican law enforcement officers. Eight are women.
"You couldn't pick these people out of a crowd," said Leonard Miranda, a retired captain in the Chula Vista, Calif., police department who worked on the investigation. "Some of them kept a very low profile. Their family members didn't even know."
According to the 86-page federal racketeering indictment unsealed July 23, cartel members operated stash houses, managed smuggling crews, distributed marijuana and methamphetamine, trafficked in weapons, laundered money, committed robberies and collected drug debts. When people did not pay, they were kidnapped or targeted with execution on both sides of the border.
U.S. authorities say the wiretaps allowed them to foil murder plots and other violent acts. The assistant special agent in charge of the San Diego FBI office, David Bowdich, said his teams stopped the execution of two Mexican police officers. The authorities also saved a cartel associate called "Sharky" who was going to be killed because he had disrespected drug lords in Tijuana.
From their apartments by the beach or cars parked at motels, the targets of the investigation talked and talked on their cellphones. They almost always spoke in Spanish, usually in clipped code, with lots of street slang. They bought and quickly discarded the phones. Top lieutenants often employed "alineadores," personal assistants who juggled a dozen phones and took messages so that the boss would not be heard on the line. Investigators say the alleged cartel members clearly were afraid that their calls could be monitored.
And they were right. In February, the FBI secured hard-to-get "roving" wiretaps for 44 individuals that allowed investigators to track their movements via global positioning satellites. According to U.S. law enforcement officials, the Mexican government was not involved in the investigation. Quinones, the high-ranking Mexican official, was a close adviser to Attorney General Rommel Moreno, the top prosecutor in Mexico's Baja California state. He was arrested July 22 when U.S. agents invited him to the San Diego police department to help with an investigation. It was a setup.
"My client's gone from a cross-border international liaison officer to a guy in a 10-by-10-foot isolation cell in lockdown 23 hours a day," said his attorney, Patrick Hall, who described Quinones as "a normal dad with three kids, married 11 years, who lived in Tijuana all his adult life and was one of the dads out there at the Little League baseball games." Hall said the federal agents were "reading in facts and interpretations and distortions into the true meanings of what's being said on the wiretaps."
Quinones's arrest has almost certainly dealt a blow to efforts at cross-border information sharing and collaboration, though officials on both sides played down the apparent betrayal. "Would you stop going to church just because of one bad priest?" Quinones's boss, Moreno, said in an interview in Tijuana. But the U.S. wiretaps also detected other troubling signs of corruption.
On the day of the mass arrests, U.S. agents arranged for suspected drug lieutenant Jose Najera Gil to pick up visa documents he was seeking from the U.S. Consulate in Tijuana. But the Mexican police who were supposed to arrest him at the consulate failed to show up.
A day before the arrests, another Mexican police officer, Jose Ortega Nuvo, received a call on his cellphone, which was being tapped by U.S agents. The caller warned him that he was about to be arrested. According to court testimony, the call came from the offices of the federal police in Mexico City - a special unit vetted to work alongside agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Secure our border--get control of illegals and drugs.
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October 20, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Did I hear Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, D, right during his second debate with former Republican Gov. Robert Ehrlich? Did O'Malley call illegal immigrants "new Americans"? Yes, he did and they are NOT new Americans, but are illegal aliens who vote Democrat through fraud.
O'Malley's exact quote was this, part of his response to a question about illegal immigration. "There is this nativism rising up and this desire to blame new Americans for the problems in our economy." Yeah, he said it. And Ehrlich was quick to pounce on the gaffe. "If somebody breaks in my house, is that a new member of my family that night?"
At another point in the debate, Ehrlich aimed this salvo at O'Malley: "I think we have finally focused on the problem: The governor doesn't understand the fundamentals of state government."
O'Malley sure as heck doesn't understand how people who immigrate to this country get to be "new Americans." Sneaking into the country illegally -- or staying put after a visa has expired -- isn't part of the process.
Those interested in knowing what that process is need only Google the three simple words "naturalization," "process" and "American." They'll immediately see the topic "Naturalization Process, How To Become A U.S. Citizen" on the Web site uscitizenship.info/ins-citizenship-process. Once searchers click on the link, they'll come to a page of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS for short. (In simpler times, this was the government agency known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service.)
The USCIS page lists the four steps immigrants need to take if they want to become "new Americans." Those steps are:
1. Submit a complete application.
2. Get fingerprinted.
3. Attend a USCIS interview and take tests.
4. Take the oath to become a "new American."
At least three steps of that four-step process are relatively easy for those immigrants who've entered the country legally: submitting the application, getting fingerprinted and taking the oath. The third step has two parts, which might present a difficulty for some. Even if immigrants wishing to become naturalized citizens ace the interview, they still face the hurdle of passing the English and civics tests. But at least they have the comfort of knowing that many native-born, English-speaking Americans probably couldn't pass the darned tests either.
Illegal immigrants, almost by definition, can't participate in the four-step process. For the interview, they would have to bring identification "and any other documents that the USCIS may have requested." To even begin the process -- the application -- they would need supporting documents and two passport-size photos.
So how, as O'Malley suggested, would we "create a pathway to citizenship" for illegal immigrants? Why, by having all 12 million of them bypass the four-step process, of course. That's precisely what those who support a "pathway to citizenship" are proposing. That's why Americans should reject such foolishness out of hand. O'Malley supports CASA who in turn supports illegals and does voter registration.
The phrase O'Malley should have used in lieu of "new Americans" is "new Marylanders." The nation's leading sanctuary state east of the Mississippi has created its own criteria for state citizenship. Maryland spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on illegals and we are over run by these individuals in our communities. They are involved in fraud, crime, and are bad for for economy and social services.
And it also has four steps:
1. Enter the country, preferably illegally.
2. Whine about being a victim even though you've broken our nation's laws. In fact, make no reference at all to your breaking the law. Talk about your "rights" instead.
3. Pin the racist tag on anyone who opposes your flagrant breaking of the law.
4. This is the most important step of all: Vote Democratic.
"New Americans" indeed. If there were an award given for the most craven display of caving in to an interest group, O'Malley would win it hands down. DO NOT VOTE for O'MALLEY.
O'Malley's exact quote was this, part of his response to a question about illegal immigration. "There is this nativism rising up and this desire to blame new Americans for the problems in our economy." Yeah, he said it. And Ehrlich was quick to pounce on the gaffe. "If somebody breaks in my house, is that a new member of my family that night?"
At another point in the debate, Ehrlich aimed this salvo at O'Malley: "I think we have finally focused on the problem: The governor doesn't understand the fundamentals of state government."
O'Malley sure as heck doesn't understand how people who immigrate to this country get to be "new Americans." Sneaking into the country illegally -- or staying put after a visa has expired -- isn't part of the process.
Those interested in knowing what that process is need only Google the three simple words "naturalization," "process" and "American." They'll immediately see the topic "Naturalization Process, How To Become A U.S. Citizen" on the Web site uscitizenship.info/ins-citizenship-process. Once searchers click on the link, they'll come to a page of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, USCIS for short. (In simpler times, this was the government agency known as the Immigration and Naturalization Service.)
The USCIS page lists the four steps immigrants need to take if they want to become "new Americans." Those steps are:
1. Submit a complete application.
2. Get fingerprinted.
3. Attend a USCIS interview and take tests.
4. Take the oath to become a "new American."
At least three steps of that four-step process are relatively easy for those immigrants who've entered the country legally: submitting the application, getting fingerprinted and taking the oath. The third step has two parts, which might present a difficulty for some. Even if immigrants wishing to become naturalized citizens ace the interview, they still face the hurdle of passing the English and civics tests. But at least they have the comfort of knowing that many native-born, English-speaking Americans probably couldn't pass the darned tests either.
Illegal immigrants, almost by definition, can't participate in the four-step process. For the interview, they would have to bring identification "and any other documents that the USCIS may have requested." To even begin the process -- the application -- they would need supporting documents and two passport-size photos.
So how, as O'Malley suggested, would we "create a pathway to citizenship" for illegal immigrants? Why, by having all 12 million of them bypass the four-step process, of course. That's precisely what those who support a "pathway to citizenship" are proposing. That's why Americans should reject such foolishness out of hand. O'Malley supports CASA who in turn supports illegals and does voter registration.
The phrase O'Malley should have used in lieu of "new Americans" is "new Marylanders." The nation's leading sanctuary state east of the Mississippi has created its own criteria for state citizenship. Maryland spends hundreds of millions of dollars a year on illegals and we are over run by these individuals in our communities. They are involved in fraud, crime, and are bad for for economy and social services.
And it also has four steps:
1. Enter the country, preferably illegally.
2. Whine about being a victim even though you've broken our nation's laws. In fact, make no reference at all to your breaking the law. Talk about your "rights" instead.
3. Pin the racist tag on anyone who opposes your flagrant breaking of the law.
4. This is the most important step of all: Vote Democratic.
"New Americans" indeed. If there were an award given for the most craven display of caving in to an interest group, O'Malley would win it hands down. DO NOT VOTE for O'MALLEY.
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October 13, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Again, an activist federal judge tries to dictate law and alter our Christian and social values. That is why we do not need liberal or progressive judges on the bench. These judges rule against the American people, even when they vote on issues (like CA’s vote on cutting taxes or not funding programs for illegals). Now a federal judge in California has ordered the U.S. military to stop enforcing the 17-year-old policy banning openly gay service members, the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell."
Judge Virginia Phillips issued a permanent injunction against "don't ask, don't tell" from her court in Riverside, Calif., declaring that the policy "infringes the fundamental rights of United States service members and prospective service members." This is none of her business since it is a policy decision by the military services and the US Congress. Which President appointed her—was it a Democrat?
Her injunction applies to U.S. military personnel serving throughout the world. She also ordered the federal government and military "immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding that may have been commenced under the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Act."
The judge ruled the policy unconstitutional in a Sept. 9 decision, but delayed issuing the injunction for a month in order to give the Obama administration's Justice Department an opportunity to respond. Congress and the Department of Justice need to challenge her ruling since she does not have this authority. However, knowing the Obama administration, I doubt they will get involved. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Tuesday the decision was under review. The department has 60 days to file an appeal.
No longer will our military be compelled to discharge service members with valuable skills and experience because of an archaic policy mandating irrational discrimination," said Christian Berle, deputy executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. Supporters of "don't ask, don't tell" denounced the ruling as a blatant example of judicial activism undercutting the democratic process. The Senate last month debated legislation to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" — already approved by the House of Representatives — as an amendment to a defense-authorization bill, but proponents could not overcome a filibuster.
"Once again, an activist federal judge is using the military to advance a liberal social agenda, disregarding the views of all four military service chiefs and the constitutional role of Congress," said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. "This move will only further the desire of voters to change Congress."
We must vote out the Democrats from Congress and the White House. They are destroying America with liberal judges.
Judge Virginia Phillips issued a permanent injunction against "don't ask, don't tell" from her court in Riverside, Calif., declaring that the policy "infringes the fundamental rights of United States service members and prospective service members." This is none of her business since it is a policy decision by the military services and the US Congress. Which President appointed her—was it a Democrat?
Her injunction applies to U.S. military personnel serving throughout the world. She also ordered the federal government and military "immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding that may have been commenced under the 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Act."
The judge ruled the policy unconstitutional in a Sept. 9 decision, but delayed issuing the injunction for a month in order to give the Obama administration's Justice Department an opportunity to respond. Congress and the Department of Justice need to challenge her ruling since she does not have this authority. However, knowing the Obama administration, I doubt they will get involved. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said Tuesday the decision was under review. The department has 60 days to file an appeal.
No longer will our military be compelled to discharge service members with valuable skills and experience because of an archaic policy mandating irrational discrimination," said Christian Berle, deputy executive director of Log Cabin Republicans. Supporters of "don't ask, don't tell" denounced the ruling as a blatant example of judicial activism undercutting the democratic process. The Senate last month debated legislation to repeal "don't ask, don't tell" — already approved by the House of Representatives — as an amendment to a defense-authorization bill, but proponents could not overcome a filibuster.
"Once again, an activist federal judge is using the military to advance a liberal social agenda, disregarding the views of all four military service chiefs and the constitutional role of Congress," said Family Research Council President Tony Perkins. "This move will only further the desire of voters to change Congress."
We must vote out the Democrats from Congress and the White House. They are destroying America with liberal judges.
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October 10, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Recently, a Democrat candidate for the US Senate was asked, "How do you create jobs?" He could not give a clear answer, but did say that government programs would do it. Democrats do not care about creating jobs--just the growth of government and more taxes for expanded spending programs. Their policies of tax and spend (and support the unions) never create any jobs, but destroys the free market system.
This week the Labor Department reported that unemployment stayed at 9.6 percent, in a range where it has been stuck most of the year. The gains in private jobs came mostly in health care, restaurants, mining and temporary employment, and were more than offset by another month of losses in government jobs. A 159,000 drop in government jobs led to an overall 95,000 fall in employment during the month. It reflected a widely expected decline of 77,000 federal workers hired temporarily to conduct the census, as well as an unexpectedly large fall of 83,000 in state and local employment.
States and cities, hemorrhaging revenues as a result of the recession and running out of federal stimulus funds, laid off workers in every category from teachers to police and firefighters, in the largest such layoffs since 1982. The federal government cannot keep printing and borrowing money to bail out states and cities.
"The pace of job creation is more than disappointing," said Harm Bandholz, economist at Unicredit Markets. "The woes of state and local governments are weighing on the labor market" as fewer teachers were called back to work this fall. Obama tried to spend federal monies to keep the union members employed, but it is not working.
The only good news, he said, is that the large wave of layoffs of temporary workers since the April census is now mostly over. Moreover, the jobs market was worse in the last year than previously reported by the federal government. It said 15,000 more jobs were lost in July and August than it previously estimated, and it expects the department's annual revisions to show the economy lost another 366,000 jobs through March 2010. Why does the Obama administration keep lying to the American public about its policies and their real effects on the job market?
To create jobs---cut taxes, reduce regulation, reduce spending, loan money to small business owners, and get out of the way.
This week the Labor Department reported that unemployment stayed at 9.6 percent, in a range where it has been stuck most of the year. The gains in private jobs came mostly in health care, restaurants, mining and temporary employment, and were more than offset by another month of losses in government jobs. A 159,000 drop in government jobs led to an overall 95,000 fall in employment during the month. It reflected a widely expected decline of 77,000 federal workers hired temporarily to conduct the census, as well as an unexpectedly large fall of 83,000 in state and local employment.
States and cities, hemorrhaging revenues as a result of the recession and running out of federal stimulus funds, laid off workers in every category from teachers to police and firefighters, in the largest such layoffs since 1982. The federal government cannot keep printing and borrowing money to bail out states and cities.
"The pace of job creation is more than disappointing," said Harm Bandholz, economist at Unicredit Markets. "The woes of state and local governments are weighing on the labor market" as fewer teachers were called back to work this fall. Obama tried to spend federal monies to keep the union members employed, but it is not working.
The only good news, he said, is that the large wave of layoffs of temporary workers since the April census is now mostly over. Moreover, the jobs market was worse in the last year than previously reported by the federal government. It said 15,000 more jobs were lost in July and August than it previously estimated, and it expects the department's annual revisions to show the economy lost another 366,000 jobs through March 2010. Why does the Obama administration keep lying to the American public about its policies and their real effects on the job market?
To create jobs---cut taxes, reduce regulation, reduce spending, loan money to small business owners, and get out of the way.
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October 07, 2010
Chuck Floyd
Treason used to mean something. People were sent to jail or executed for betraying our nation and leaking classified material. Now, individuals are not concerned about any legal or criminal action from leaking military or government classified documents. Look at Sandy Berger who was given a slap on the wrist for his actions or the soldier who sent Wikileaks information on the war or Congressmen who leak material for political purposes. As a retired military officer, I understand the oath I took, the reason for classification of documents, and the responsibilities of government workers who handle these types of documents.
The President says that he is angry over recent public disclosures of classified information in Washington and the intelligence community is re-evaluating the post-Sept 11 push for greater intelligence-sharing. Why doesn't the Department of Justice go after the individuals who leak classified materials?
The top intelligence officers in the various government agencies have an impossible job of securing documents if the system does not work and the rules are NOT enforced. "We are working on information-sharing initiatives across the board," Mr. Clapper said in a speech. "But the classic dilemma of need to share versus need to know is still with us. And I would observe that the Wikileaks episode represents what I would consider a big yellow flag. I think it is going to have a very chilling effect on the need to share."
The remarks at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington came in sharp contrast to his predecessors who called for increased information among the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community. Indeed, the need for greater interagency intelligence-sharing was a key feature of not only the Sept. 11 commission's final report, but later reviews of U.S. government lapses in attacks like the Fort Hood massacre and the near bombing of a Northwest Airlines jet on Dec. 25.
Wikileaks, a website that gathers and releases internal documents, made public in July thousands of U.S. military field reports from Afghanistan that included sensitive information, such as the identities of Afghan nationals who spied for the United States. The disclosures prompted the Taliban militia to announce a campaign to find and kill so-called collaborators.
Mr. Clapper said the leaks are upsetting Mr. Obama. "I was at a meeting yesterday with the president," he said. "I was ashamed to have to sit there and listen to the president express his great angst about the leaking that is going on here in this town." Well, what are you going to do Mr. President? Will you take action or just use the teleprompter for political speech?
It is time to start enforcing our rules and laws pertaining to individuals who leak classified materials. Real lives are at risk--this is not politics as usual.
The President says that he is angry over recent public disclosures of classified information in Washington and the intelligence community is re-evaluating the post-Sept 11 push for greater intelligence-sharing. Why doesn't the Department of Justice go after the individuals who leak classified materials?
The top intelligence officers in the various government agencies have an impossible job of securing documents if the system does not work and the rules are NOT enforced. "We are working on information-sharing initiatives across the board," Mr. Clapper said in a speech. "But the classic dilemma of need to share versus need to know is still with us. And I would observe that the Wikileaks episode represents what I would consider a big yellow flag. I think it is going to have a very chilling effect on the need to share."
The remarks at the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington came in sharp contrast to his predecessors who called for increased information among the 16 agencies that make up the U.S. intelligence community. Indeed, the need for greater interagency intelligence-sharing was a key feature of not only the Sept. 11 commission's final report, but later reviews of U.S. government lapses in attacks like the Fort Hood massacre and the near bombing of a Northwest Airlines jet on Dec. 25.
Wikileaks, a website that gathers and releases internal documents, made public in July thousands of U.S. military field reports from Afghanistan that included sensitive information, such as the identities of Afghan nationals who spied for the United States. The disclosures prompted the Taliban militia to announce a campaign to find and kill so-called collaborators.
Mr. Clapper said the leaks are upsetting Mr. Obama. "I was at a meeting yesterday with the president," he said. "I was ashamed to have to sit there and listen to the president express his great angst about the leaking that is going on here in this town." Well, what are you going to do Mr. President? Will you take action or just use the teleprompter for political speech?
It is time to start enforcing our rules and laws pertaining to individuals who leak classified materials. Real lives are at risk--this is not politics as usual.
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