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House GOP rallying around Boehner's concern about Obama's purported ‘dangerous’ plan to close Guantanamo

House Speaker John Boehner has denounced any potential White House effort to close the Guantanamo Bay prison facility, saying that such a move is "dangerous," could result in terrorists being relocated into the United States and that overriding Congress is another example of the Obama administration’s “legacy of lawlessness.”
Boehner made the statement Friday, following a Wall Street Journal story stating the White House is “drafting options” that would allow Obama to close the detention facility in Cuba by overriding congressional restrictions on bringing detainees into the U.S.
The White House has responded to the story, reportedly based on information from senior administration officials, by saying the president opposes the restrictions but his first choice is to work with members of both parties.
“For many years now, we’ve always looked at options to close Guantanamo Bay,” White House spokesman Eric Schultz told reporters Friday. “For now, our position is clear that we’re seeking support from Congress to lift those restrictions.”
Boehner argued that closing the facility -- which would send some detainees home and bring others to the U.S. for trial -- is opposed by an  “overwhelming majority of Americans” and that bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate have passed legislation that prohibits the president from transferring the terror detainees to U.S. soil.
He was joined Friday by Florida GOP Rep. Vern Buchanan, who said such a move would be "a huge mistake," particularly as the U.S. tries to destroy Islamic State, or ISIS, militants.
“As America battles ISIS in the Middle East, the last thing we should do is close a facility used to interrogate and house dangerous terrorists,”  Buchanan said.
The restrictions were included in the fiscal 2015 National Defense Authorization Act passed in May by the GOP-led House.
Schultz on Friday noted the legislation, now sitting in the Democrat-controlled Senate, included a Statement of Administration Policy, in which the White House officially opposes the restrictions.
The president had declared 2014 a “year of action” in which he will use his presidential authority -- through so-called executive action or unilateral action -- to advance parts of his agenda blocked by Congress.
Obama has already used such power to increase the federal minimum wage but apparently has backed off using it to reform contentious U.S. immigration policy until after the November elections.
The future of Guantanamo and its detainees as well as Obama’s legal authority to hold them has long been the subject of contentious Washington debates.
Obama has from the start of his presidency in 2009 tried to close the facility at the Guantanamo Naval base, starting with an executive order that called for its closure within a year.
The Wall Street Journal story also claimed that Obama is “unwavering in his commitment” to closing the prison, which was created in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks and still has 149 inmates detained in the country’s war on terrorism.
The story also stated that White House officials think the president has two likely options if Congress extends the restrictions.
He could veto the defense authorization act, which wouldn’t directly impact military funding but would result in a political battle with Congress. Or he could sign the bill while declaring restrictions on the transfer of Guantanamo prisoners an infringement of his powers as commander in chief, as he has done previously, according to the story.

Despite airstrikes, ISIS forces draw nearer to Baghdad

As of May 29, 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Defense casualty website, there were 4,487 total deaths (including both killed in action and non-hostile) and 32,223 wounded in action (WIA) as a result of Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Despite airstrikes from the U.S.-led coalition, Islamic State militants are in a position to wreak havoc on Baghdad after making gains in nearby territories, adding to the sense of siege in the Iraqi capital.
Yet some military experts believe that the terror group, who now control a large territory along the border of Iraq and Syria, won’t be able to defeat the forces now massed around the capital.
However their new position does give them the ability to wreak terror in Iraq's biggest city, with its suicide attacks and other assaults further eroding confidence in Iraq's nascent federal government and its troops, whose soldiers already fled the Islamic State group's initial lightning advance in June.
"It's not plausible at this point to envision ISIL taking control of Baghdad, but they can make Baghdad so miserable that it would threaten the legitimacy of the central government," Richard Brennan, an Iraq expert with RAND Corporation and former Department of Defense policymake told The Associated Press.
The siege fears in Baghdad stem from recent gains made by the Islamic State group in the so-called Baghdad Belt -- the final stretch between Anbar province, where the group gained ground in January, and Baghdad. The group has had a presence in the Baghdad Belt since spring, Iraqi officials say, but recent advances have sparked new worries.
The Islamic militants have reportedly infiltrated the Baghdad suburb of Abu Ghraib, not far from the runway perimeter of Baghdad's international airport.
Islamic State’s proximity to the airport is especially worrisome, because they are now armed with shoulder fired anti-aircraft missiles with a 20-mile range, according to the Iraqi Defense Ministry. The weapons, which Islamic State has grabbed up along with tanks, helicopters and fighter planes as it has seized up vast territory in northern Syria and Iraq, could allow the militants to shut down the airport.
Meanwhile, the U.S. military said Saturday it launched an airstrike north of the town of Tal Afar, hitting a small Islamic State fighting unit and destroying an armed vehicle. It said two other airstrikes northwest of Hit in Anbar province targeted two small militant units.
Last week, Islamic State group fighters seized the towns of Hit and neighboring Kubaisa, sending Iraqi soldiers fleeing and leaving a nearby military base with its stockpile of weapons at risk of capture. The U.S.-led coalition recently launched two airstrikes northwest of Hit, U.S. Central Command said Saturday.
To the south of Baghdad, security forces fight to hold onto the town of Jurf al-Sukr, and to the north, one Sunni tribe has held onto the town of Duluiyah despite an Islamic State group's onslaught. However, Islamic State group fighters have taken over a number of towns in Diyala province, east of Baghdad.
"It's scary," said Maha Ismail, who recently visited one of Baghdad's new shopping malls. "But we have seen a lot worse than this so we are gathering despite all the warnings."
Islamic State group says it has a foothold inside Baghdad, having claimed responsibility for a number of attacks in the city, particularly in the Sadr City neighborhood -- a Shiite stronghold. In August, the group claimed responsibility for an attack on a Shiite mosque in New Baghdad, and another in the Shiite-majority district of Utaifiya in Baghdad, which together killed 26 people.
Some attacks go unclaimed, raising fears that other groups may look to capitalize on the tensions provoked by the Islamic State group. On Saturday, a series of unclaimed car bomb attacks in Iraq's capital killed 38 people in Shiite areas, authorities said.
Police officials said the first bombing happened Saturday night when a suicide bomber rammed his explosive-laden car into a security checkpoint in Baghdad's northern district of Khazimiyah, killing 13 people, including three police officers, and wounding 28.
 The second car bombing, targeting a commercial street in Shula district in northwestern Baghdad, killed seven people and wounded 18, police said. The blast damaged several shops and cars.
 Also in Shula, police said a suicide car bomb attack on a security checkpoint killed 18 people and wounded dozens others.
Yet analysts, like Brennan from the RAND Corporation, say capturing Baghdad remains beyond the Islamic State group's ability. At its worst, the group might "start pressing into the western areas of Baghdad, going into the Sunni areas of Baghdad and pressing up against the Tigris (River) -- if not controlling it, then at least testing the control of the central government," he said.
Air Force Col. Patrick Ryder, a U.S. Central Command spokesman, said Saturday that the Iraqi military "continues to maintain firm control of the city and there is no imminent threat of an effective" offensive by the Islamic State group.
"While there are pockets of ISIL in the vicinity of Baghdad, (Iraqi security forces) continue to conduct operations to engage these elements and push back with the support of U.S. airstrikes when necessary," Ryder said.
Beyond the U.S.-coordinated airstrikes and the massing of Iraqi troops, the country's religious and ethnic lines likely will staunch any advance by the Sunni militants of the Islamic State group. From Baghdad further south, Iraq's population is overwhelmingly Shiite and the lands there are home to some of its most important shrines.
Already, Shiite militias back up government forces in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq -- their flags and symbols provocatively displayed across the capital. Such militias, like Iran-supported Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Muqtada al-Sadr's Mahdi Army, "are battle tested," said David L. Phillips, the director of the Peace-building and Rights Program at Columbia University. Challenging them likely would become a bloody slog for the Islamic State group, he said.
"The militias are not bound by rules of war," he added. "They and (the Islamic State group) share one thing in common: Neither is bound by the Geneva Conventions."

Health care worker at Dallas hospital tests positive for Ebola

A health care worker at a Dallas hospital tested positive for Ebola in a preliminary test, the Texas Department of State Health Services said in a statement early Sunday.
The health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, who was not identified in the statement, provided care for Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient in the United States, who died last week.
The worker reported a "low grade fever" Friday night and was isolated and referred for testing. The preliminary result was received late Saturday.
"We knew a second case could be a reality, and we've been preparing for this possibility," Dr. David Lakey, commissioner of the Texas Department of State Health Services, said in the statement. "We are broadening our team in Dallas and working with extreme diligence to prevent further spread."
Health officials have interviewed the patient and are identifying any contacts or potential exposures.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has come under scruntiny for its handling of Duncan, who first showed up at the hospital's emergency room late on the evening of Sept. 25, complaining of a fever and severe pain. Although documents show that a nurse recorded early in Duncan's first hospital visit that he recently came to the U.S. from Africa and his temperature reached 103 degrees, he was prescribed antibiotics and told to take Tylenol, then returned to the apartment where he was staying with a Dallas woman and three other people.
The Associated Press reported that Duncan's temperature reading was flagged with an exclamation point in the hospital's record-keeping system.
Duncan died Oct. 8. A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said the agency was considering investigating the hospital for compliance with state health and safety laws.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Food Control Cartoon

Oregon ‘first lady’ cops to green-card ‘marriage of convenience’ in exchange for $5G

 

 

Oregon Gov. John Kitzhaber got one hell of an October surprise, as his fiancée tearfully admitted Thursday to having a green-card marriage to an 18-year-old Ethiopian immigrant.
The stunning admission comes after an alternative newspaper first reported that Cylvia Hayes – who despite being engaged goes by the title “first lady” in the state – had been married, and divorced, three times before.
Two of those were known. But the Democratic governor to whom she’s engaged, and the public, apparently didn’t know about the third.
"This is the most painful part for me," she said, according to Oregon’s Fox 12. "John Kitzhaber deserved to know the history of the person he was forming a relationship with. The fact that I did not disclose this to him meant that he has learned about this in the most public and unpleasant way."
Wiping away tears at a Thursday news conference, Hayes said she accepted around $5,000 to marry the immigrant, Abraham Abraham, in 1997 so that he could remain in the United States.
"It was a marriage of convenience," Hayes said. "He needed help and I needed financial support."
Hayes said she was "ashamed and embarrassed," and did not tell the governor about the marriage until the Willamette Week newspaper began asking questions. She and Abraham have since divorced.
The Democratic governor has not publicly addressed his fiancee's secret marriage, but the issue could come up when he debates Republican state Rep. Dennis Richardson on Friday.
Hayes said she was "associating with the wrong people" while struggling to put herself through college when she agreed to the sham marriage. Hayes was twice divorced and just shy of her 30th birthday when she married the Ethiopian man.
Hayes said she and the Ethiopian man never lived together, met only a handful of times and have not had any contact since the divorce was finalized in 2002.
Kitzhaber, who was governor from 1995 until 2003, divorced his second wife, Sharon, shortly after leaving office. Kitzhaber made a political comeback in 2010. Though they have yet to marry, Kitzhaber refers to Hayes as the "first lady," and she has embraced the role of political spouse while continuing her work as an energy consultant.
A story in Willamette Week on Wednesday said that Hayes has used her title and her role in advising the governor to advance her private consulting business. Hayes said she'll step back from her work advising Kitzhaber for now.
Richardson, trying to gain traction before voters begin casting ballots next week in Oregon's all-mail election, has tried to shift attention to that story.
"It's clear from her past history that the first lady has had no qualms with breaking the law in order to make financial gains," said Meredith Glacken, a spokeswoman for Richardson.
Hayes said she's been cautious in trying to avoid conflicts of interest between her business and first lady work.

First Lady Messes Up Name of Candidate She's Campaigning For 7 Times: I'm Getting Old

What’s in a name? For Michelle Obama, a whole lot of confusion.
While campaigning in Des Moines, Iowa Friday for Democratic Senate candidate Bruce Braley, she referred to him multiple times as “Bailey” before she was corrected by someone shouting from the audience.
The flub came despite a huge array of signs in the hall where she was speaking, all spelling Braley’s name correctly.
The first lady also referred to Braley as a Marine Corps veteran, which he is not. Braley’s staff said she meant to refer to his late father, Byard Braley, a Marine who fought at Iwo Jima.
Braley’s opponent in the Senate race, Republican Joni Ernst, is a member of the Army reserve and National Guard.
After being corrected on her candidate’s name, Obama said contritely, “I’ve been travelling too much.” When she did pronounce it correctly, she drew a cheer from the audience.
It didn’t take long for web pranksters to capitalize on Obama’s error. Clicking on the website votebrucebailey.com immediately redirects the user to Ernst’s campaign site.

Dems returned $20G check to father of White House aide linked to prostitution scandal

The father of a White House advance team member connected to the Secret Service prostitution scandal was refunded a hefty Obama campaign donation, records show, around the same time additional details about that possible link were made public.
The $20,000 donation was made by Leslie Dach -- whose son Jonathan has been linked to the scandal -- on Sept. 19, 2012, to the Obama Victory Fund.
One day later, Leslie Dach had a meeting at the White House with a top presidential economic adviser, according to White House visitor logs. One day after that, the lead federal investigator into the Colombia prostitution scandal said for the first time that White House personnel may have been involved in the incident.
On Sept. 24, 2012, campaign finance records show, the Obama Victory Fund returned the $20,000 donation to Leslie Dach.
The chain of events might be coincidental, but nevertheless raises questions about Dach’s interactions with both the Obama administration and Democratic campaign officials.
The Federal Election Commission filing that listed the refund to Dach did not give a reason. But his attorney Richard Sauber told FoxNews.com in an email that the money was returned because Dach did not attend a fundraising event as planned -- and “so the check (he thought) was either returned or not cashed.”
Sauber said Dach could not recall the details of the event. It was a high time for fundraisers, less than two months before the presidential election. On the day the donation was dated, a star-studded Obama Victory Fund fundraiser – attended by Gwyneth Paltrow and other celebrities -- was held in London which guests paid $15,000 to attend, according to press reports at the time. It’s unclear if this is the event Dach’s lawyer says he missed.
Sauber also said the Sept. 20 meeting with Eugene Sperling, then director of the National Economic Council, was “unrelated” to the campaign contribution. At the time, Dach was working as lobbyist for Wal-Mart.
Dach has been a major donor to Democratic candidates since the 1990’s. He gave $28,500 in 2008 to Obama and the Democratic Party to shore up Obama’s election bid.
Records also show he gave $2,300 to Hillary Clinton before she lost the Democratic nomination to Obama and $1,000 for her New York Senate race in 2000. Other prominent Democratic recipients include: Bill Clinton ($1,000); Vermont Sen. Patrick Leahy ($2,250); and former Arkansas Sen. Blanche Lincoln ($3,800).
The Dach family has been in the spotlight after The Washington Post reported late Wednesday that on the trip where Secret Service agents were caught with prostitutes, a woman was registered to Jonathan Dach’s hotel room shortly after midnight one night. Dach was a member of the White House advance team on the trip, reportedly as a volunteer. 
The White House has denied that any member of their team was involved in inappropriate behavior and said previously that the volunteer was wrongly implicated based on inaccurate hotel records. The White House on Thursday stood by those claims. Sauber also said the allegations in the Post were “utterly and completely false.”

London mayor says security services monitoring 'thousands' of terror suspects

The mayor of London has disclosed that "thousands" of potential terror suspects are being monitored every day in the British capital, providing a broad glimpse of the threat of homegrown Islamic extremism against America's staunchest ally. 
Boris Johnson made the comments in an interview published in The Daily Telegraph Saturday, saying "In London we’re very very vigilant and very very concerned. Every day ... the security services are involved in thousands of operations."
British intelligence officials believe that approximately 500 British citizens have traveled to the Middle East to join the Islamic State terror group, commonly known as ISIS. However, Johnson's comments suggest that the terror threat in the U.K. goes beyond radicals returning to Britain. 
Of the "five or six hundred" who have joined ISIS, Johnson estimates that "we think a third, maybe more – maybe half – come from the London area. If and when they come back, we have a real job to deal with them."
British-born ISIS fighters have acquired a reputation for particular brutality, bolstered by a fighter known as "Jihadi John," who has appeared in videos depicting the beheadings of American hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff. 
Johnson's comments were published in the same week that four men were arrested by police in London on suspicion that they were in the early stages of planning an attack in the city. Last month, police in Australia arrested 15 people accused of plotting to attack and behead randomly selected civilians on the streets of the country's cities. 
In August, the U.K. raised its terrorist threat level to "severe" -- the second highest  -- as Prime Minister David Cameron warned that ISIS was planning attacks on the country. 
London is home to over 8 million people, over a million of whom are Muslims. The city acquired the nickname "Londonistan" during the 1990s due to the tolerance of various controversial Islamist groups by local and national authorities.

Obamacare Cartoon

‘Pressure tactics’: Unions publishing names of nonunion workers

The Kansas chapter of the United Auto Workers union is using its website to draw attention to GM workers who choose not to pay union dues.
UAW Local 31 dedicates an entire page of its website to listing the names and work stations of employees who have opted to exercise their rights not to be in the union. UAW Local 31 lists nearly 30 workers at the Fairfax, Kansas GM plant who are not in the union. The “Scab List” is published under the union website’s “Important Information” section.
Local 31 president Vicki Hale did not respond to request for comment.
Glenn Taubmann, a lawyer at the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, said that scab lists are used to pressure workers into joining the union. The use of their personal information and where they can be found in the plant make them easy targets for harassment and intimidation.
“It comes as no surprise that unions in right to work states engage in all sorts of harassment and pressure tactics against independent-minded workers,” he said. “The ugly truth is that once UAW bosses get into power, they will not tolerate any worker who refused to ‘voluntarily’ join and pay dues. Their view of “voluntary” unionism is an iron fist against anyone who dissents.”

Mysterious blast at Iran nuke plant proves weapons program alive, say experts

The massive blast at an Iranian nuclear plant earlier this week remains shrouded in mystery, but it cleared up one thing, according to those who track the Islamic Republic: The nuclear weapons program Tehran has long denied is real.
The massive blast Sunday night rocked buildings more than 10 miles away, and before-and-after satellite images published by the Israel Defense Force showed startling destruction at a facility Iran has repeatedly barred international inspectors from entering.
“[The] images indicate that a complete section of structures was simply eliminated by an unexplained explosion,” IDF analyst Ronen Solomon said. “The explosion wiped several testing units off the face of the earth while inflicting collateral damage on adjacent buildings.”
Iran, which initially denied an explosion took place, was forced a day later to own up to a blast, via the IRNA official Iranian news agency. The report said two people had been killed as a result of a fire at the site. The true casualty figure may never be known.

“The explosion wiped several testing units off the face of the earth while inflicting collateral damage on adjacent buildings.”- Ronen Solomon, IDF analyst

Israel has long insisted that Iran’s charm offensive, successful in easing western sanctions, is a ruse to buy time while it pursues nuclear weapons.
“Don’t be fooled by Iran’s manipulative charm offensive,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 29. “It’s designed for one purpose and for one purpose only: to lift the sanctions and remove the obstacles to Iran’s path to the bomb.
“Once Iran produces atomic bombs,” Netanyahu added, “all the charms and all the smiles will suddenly disappear. They’ll just vanish. And it’s then that the ayatollahs will show their true face and unleash their aggressive fanaticism on the entire world.”
As in past cases when things explode or scientists are killed in Iran, speculation centers on Israeli intelligence agencies, who, just as predictably, do not comment. Both misplaced blame and proper credit serve the purpose of burnishing their reputation within enemy and terrorist regimes. There are other possibilities, including that it was an accident or that Iranian dissident groups or western intelligence agencies played a role.
“If someone did succeed in infiltrating the Parchin site with explosives and causing the huge explosion which took place there, we are talking about an exceptional achievement,” regional terror analyst Ronen Bergman suggested in Wednesday’s Ynet.com.
Parchin, a site to which international inspectors have repeatedly been denied access since 2007 – a fact that many opponents of the P5+1 talks have long insisted in itself makes a mockery of the so-called negotiation process – is rumored to be the location of the development of the key warhead components required for making a nuclear bomb.
“Western officials suspect that at the heart of this secret development is the weapon group developing the nuclear lens mechanism,” Bergman said. “It's a complex system of timers and explosives assembled around the core of the bomb, which explode in a way that "pushes" the enriched uranium sphere inwards and starts the chain reaction needed for an atomic explosion. If the smoking gun for the existence of the weapon group is found, it will serve as decisive evidence that Iran has been lying and that there is no point in negotiating with it.”
The assassination of a series of Iranian nuclear scientists inside Iran in recent years as the result of bombs planted on, or next to their vehicles by mysterious motorcycle-riding hitmen, together with the vicious Stuxnet computer virus that hit Iran’s key Natanz nuclear facility in 2010, has allegedly put the brakes on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear project.
According to Amnesty International, thousands of dissidents languish in Iranian jails, (including a significant number of journalists). Iran is second only to China in the number of executions it carries out each year, often following only a token trial.
 Regime support is also indicated in the September 2013 massacre of at least 52 Iranians in neighbouring Iraq at the Camp Ashraf refugee camp that had been designated a safe haven for Iranian activists, many of whom had opposed the direction of their nation’s nuclear ambitions. U.S. officials were reportedly furious at Iran’s Revolutionary Guard praising the attack, while Foreign Policy magazine reported that, “U.S. intelligence officials believe that Iranian commandos took part [in the attack].”

Once-sleepy South Dakota Senate race could pose problem for GOP

South Dakota’s once-sleepy Senate race appears to be waking up – and it could throw a wrench into Republicans’ plans to seize control of the chamber next month.
The state’s Senate race for months had been considered a virtual lock for Republicans. But a new poll shows the independent in the race surging, and Democratic fundraisers have started to pour money into the contest.
Now, just as a late shake-up turned the Kansas Senate race competitive and prompted Republicans to rush to the incumbent’s aid, South Dakota could soon represent another Republican headache.
“I think the dynamics in South Dakota are putting pressure on Republicans,” said Nathan Gonzalez, managing editor of The Rothenberg Political Report.
The latest poll showed front-running former GOP Gov. Mike Rounds leading in South Dakota – but not by much.
According to the Survey USA/KOTA/KSFY/Aberdeen American News poll taken between Oct. 1 and Oct. 6, Rounds is only leading independent Larry Pressler 35-32 percent among likely voters. (Pressler is a former GOP senator who has not said how he would caucus if elected.)
Not far behind is Democrat Rick Weiland, with 28 percent.
Gonzalez said he’s not “completely surprised” over the poll findings, because “I didn’t think Rounds ever closed the deal in this race.”
But he added: “I do tend to be surprised when a third-party candidate is getting more than 20 percent.”
The survey results are raising eyebrows all over the political spectrum because the poll before it, commissioned by CBS/NYT/YouGov, had the former governor leading Pressler 42-12 percent in late September, with Weiland getting 27 percent. A Survey USA poll taken earlier that month showed Rounds with a comfortable double-digit lead ahead of both Pressler and Weiland, as did every other poll dating back to April.
So what’s happening?
Dick Wadhams, senior strategist for the Rounds campaign, told FoxNews.com the poll is an anomaly, and that “the race is not nearly as close as that.”
In fact, Rounds is still ahead with double digits, Wadhams insisted.
But the Democrats must sense the dynamics are the shifting, too, as they’re putting new resources into the race. FoxNews.com has confirmed the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) is devoting $1 million to the race – an investment that suggests they believe Pressler will peel just enough votes off Rounds to give their candidate a fighting chance. If either wins, that’s one fewer race Republicans can count on for the six total seats they need to seize control of the Senate.
“The DSCC must have their own data or else they wouldn’t be putting so much money into this,” Gonzalez said.
That money will add to a push of negative ads funded by other Democratic super PACs already weighing in on the race. According to reports, Every Voice Action started running TV ads on Sept. 18 criticizing Rounds. Meanwhile, Mayday, a super PAC co-founded by Harvard University law professor Lawrence Lessig, said it would start a $1 million campaign in supporting Weiland and against Rounds.
Rounds, for his part, has been dealing with questions over the so-called “EB-5 scandal,” which refers to a federal program that allowed immigrants to earn green cards by investing $500,000 in American businesses. Rounds expanded the program, which is now being scrutinized for corruption and abuse, during the tail-end of his 2003-2011 term.
“I think Rounds has not run a spectacular campaign and his fundraising has lagged,” added Gonzalez. “He’s let Pressler and Weiland define themselves, and I think he’s been averse to running negative or contrast ads,” allowing his “opponents to be whatever they want to be.”
In Pressler’s case, that’s a sage, moderate, three-term former senator who feels it’s his duty to get back to Washington for the sake of his state. Pressler, 72, has one paid staffer and only $100,000 in the bank, but his message must be resonating somewhere if the recent numbers are to be believed.
“I wouldn’t put too much stock in that,” Pressler told FoxNews.com, referring to the polls, “but I do feel we have never been so warmly received as we (he and his wife, Harriet) have been as we travel across the state.”
Pressler, who was first elected in 1978 and served three terms, was ousted by current Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson, who is retiring this year. A Vietnam War veteran, Pressler is known for being the only lawmaker approached in the infamous Abscam sting who deliberately turned down the offered bribe.
“It’s somewhat audacious, but I want to do public service,” said Pressler, now a grandfather of four. He wants to serve only one term in order to bring back revenues and jobs to South Dakota, and to help break the gridlock in Washington. He counts fellow independent Sen. Angus King, of Maine, as a friend, and has not yet decided if he would caucus with the Democrats or Republicans if he upsets Rounds on Nov. 4.
But Wadhams says that is not likely to happen and so far, the political tip sheets agree. While acknowledging that the dynamics seem to be shifting, Gonzalez says the Rothenberg Political Report still has the race “leaning Republican.” Cook Political Report, too, has the race in “likely” standing, between “leaning” and “solid” Republican.
“Larry Pressler has had a bit of a honeymoon in this campaign,” Wadhams said, suggesting the gloves in the Rounds corner are about to come off.
A similar shift has taken place in Kansas, where GOP Sen. Pat Roberts now faces a challenge from independent Greg Orman – and has hammered Orman as a liberal.
In South Dakota, Wadhams said: “Voters are going to find out that there are no fundamental differences between Weiland and Pressler, that a new, liberal version of Pressler has emerged. Anyone who says he has voted for Obama twice, who supports ObamaCare and gun control – there is something wrong with that.”
Pressler acknowledges voting for President Obama, and supports the Affordable Care Act, but with modifications. He also supports limited background checks on gun purchases, he said.
“I am a practical moderate,” he said. “I would say we have a very liberal Weiland and a very conservative Rounds. I am a moderate centrist and I want to work to solve problems.”

US-led coalition intensifies airstrikes against ISIS in Kobani

The U.S.-led coalition targeting Islamic State militants ramped up airstrikes Thursday in the Syrian and Turkish border town of Kobani as the militant group reportedly sent reinforcements into intensified fighting against Kurdish forces.
The fight for the town situated near the Turkish frontier has become a major early test for the co-ordinated campaign aimed at degrading and destroying the terror group.
U.S. officials hope it could pull Turkey into the battle against the Islamic State as a means to opening up a new front, but also fear the country might stand aside and let two of its enemies, the Kurdish fighters and the Islamic State group, fight for the town.
Turkish officials have said that while they do not want Kobani to fall, they will not take on a greater role in the coalition’s strategy until it outlines a plan that also includes attacking Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Attacking Assad’s regime "is not the focus of our international coalition and not the focus of our efforts by the United States," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
"Both sides also agreed that we will continue a dynamic and deepening bilateral consultation process across the multiple lines of effort against ISIL, including military support, countering foreign fighters, counter-finance, humanitarian assistance, and de-legitimizing ISIL's messaging and rhetoric," she said using and acronym for the Islamic State group.
Turkey has also asked for a buffer zone inside Syria to secure a border, but the White House and Pentagon have said the U.S. is not considering that option.
U.S. officials said Thursday the U.S. is largely talking to Turkey about other alternatives besides inserting ground forces into the fight: allowing U.S. and coalition aircraft to fly over Turkish territory; allowing its air base in Incirlik, some 100 miles from the Syrian border, to be used by U.S. or coalition planes or for logistics and training; and equipping moderate Syrian opposition forces fighting to topple Assad.
The fight for Kobani has brought Syria's civil war yet again to Turkey's doorstep, and for weeks the U.S. and its allies have pressed Ankara to take a more robust role in the coalition.
In addition, Kurds have held massive demonstrations across Turkey in which they accuse the government, which has deployed its tanks just across the frontier, of doing nothing to save the town.
As many as 19 people were killed around the nation in clashes with police over the government’s unwillingness to aid Kurds trapped in Kobani. 
Protesters outraged that Turkey was “letting Kobani fall” burned Turkish flags and statues of Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the modern Turkish republic, when images of Kurds fleeing Kobani and pouring into Turkey sparked a global call for action against the terror group.
Responding to the criticism, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said it was unrealistic to expect Turkey to launch a ground war against the Islamic State group on its own.
Cavusoglu said Turkey is prepared to play a bigger part once a deal is reached with the coalition. "Turkey will not hold back from carrying out its role," he said.
The U.S. Central Command said five airstrikes south of Kobani since Wednesday had destroyed an Islamic State group support building and two vehicles, and damaged a training camp. The strikes also hit two groups of Islamic State fighters, it said in a statement.
The coalition airstrikes have even forced some Islamic State fighters out of Kobani.
"Indications are that Kurdish militia there continue to control most of the city and are holding out against ISIL," said the U.S. Central Command.
The Pentagon still has said the town may yet fall to the extremists because air power alone cannot prevent it.
Even with the numerous airstrikes, the Islamic State group has managed to capture a police station in Kobani, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Islamic State militants launched their offensive on Kobani in mid-September, capturing several nearby Kurdish villages and steadily strengthening their control around the town. The fighting forced at least 200,000 residents to flee into Turkey.
More than 500 people have been killed in and around Kobani since the fighting began, according to The Observatory's chief, Rami Abdurrahman. He said the Islamic State group was rushing in reinforcements, indicating the extremists also view Kobani as a test of will.

In The Back Cartoon

Fox News Polls: Senate battleground races trending GOP, Roberts up in Kansas

New Fox News battleground polls show a Republican trend in the fight for the U.S. Senate.The GOP candidates -- helped by anti-Barack Obama sentiment and strong support from male voters -- lead in all five states: Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas and Kentucky.
The races, however, are still far from settled. None of the Senate candidates has a lead outside the poll’s margin of sampling error. And none of the front-runners hit the important marker of 50 percent support from their electorate.
Starting with Kansas, where there are two big turnarounds, here are the state-by-state results:
Kansas
Two Republican incumbents are fighting to keep their jobs in Kansas.The new Fox News poll finds both of them -- Sen. Pat Roberts and Gov. Sam Brownback -- have jumped ahead of their challengers.
CLICK FOR THE POLL RESULTS
"We know that partisanship tends to assert itself as Election Day nears,” said Republican pollster Daron Shaw, who conducts the Fox News poll along with Democratic pollster Chris Anderson.“And that may be happening in Kansas."
The Senate race clearly remains competitive, as 44 percent of likely voters in Kansas back Roberts, with 39 percent for independent Greg Orman and 3 percent for libertarian Randall Batson. Yet Orman was up by six points in a two-way matchup three weeks ago (48-42 percent).
Democrat Chad Taylor withdrew from the race September 3, and subsequently the court decided a Democrat does not have to appear on the ballot.
Roberts has a bit more strength of support: 82 percent of his backers say they are certain to vote for him. It’s 76 percent for Orman.
Some 73 percent of Republicans back Roberts, while 71 percent of Democrats support Orman. Independents go for Orman by 45-34 percent. Roberts maintains his overall vote advantage because there are so many more Republicans than Democrats in the Sunflower State.
Men are supporting Roberts by 50-37 percent, while women back Orman by a narrow 40-38 percent margin.
One of the attacks against Roberts is that he doesn’t own a home in Kansas, and that may hurt him. Over half of voters -- 55 percent -- say Roberts is out of touch with Kansans. Just 35 percent say he is in touch.
For Orman, 37 percent say he is in touch with the state, while 39 percent say he isn’t. Orman is still an unknown to many voters, as nearly one in four is unsure (24 percent).
Brownback was elected in 2010 and soon fulfilled a campaign promise to cut taxes. More Kansas voters think the cuts mostly have hurt (43 percent) rather than helped (36 percent) the state’s economy.
Among voters saying the tax cuts have hurt, 78 percent are backing Democratic challenger Paul Davis.
Overall, the poll finds Brownback outdoes Davis: 46-40 percent. That’s a reversal from last month when Davis was up by four (45-41 percent).
The shift comes from a few places: Support for Davis among Democrats dropped from 91 percent in September to 82 percent, and backing from independents increased for Brownback from 27 percent last month to 36 percent. In addition, Brownback’s support among men increased 10 points in the new poll since September.
Sixty-three percent of Kansas likely voters disapprove of Obama’s job performance, which makes this his worst job rating of the five battleground states tested this week.
Alaska
Likely voters in Alaska are unhappy with President Obama and don’t think much of his health care plan. That helps give Republican Dan Sullivan a 44-40 percent advantage over Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Begich.
CLICK FOR THE POLL RESULTS
It also helps Sullivan that by a 13-point spread, more Republicans (42 percent) than Democrats (29 percent) are “extremely” interested in the election.
Eighty-six percent of each candidate’s backers say they are certain to vote for their guy Nov. 4.
Men back Sullivan by a 14-point margin, while women are more likely to go for Begich by 5 points.
It’s clear why Begich has tried to distance himself from Obama -- and why Sullivan has tried to make the race a referendum on the president: 61 percent of Alaska likely voters disapprove of Obama, and 56 percent think the health care law went too far. Begich voted for ObamaCare.
About 10 percent are still undecided about their vote in the Senate race, yet two-thirds of them disapprove of the job Obama is doing. That’s an ominous sign for Begich.
Begich had to pull a much-criticized ad off television, yet the damage lingers. Over half of voters -- 53 percent -- say Begich is making unfair attacks against Sullivan. Just 40 percent feel Sullivan is attacking Begich unfairly.
In the Alaska gubernatorial race, Republican Sean Parnell receives 42 percent to non-affiliated candidate Bill Walker’s 37 percent. About one in five is undecided or will vote for someone else.
Arkansas
Republican challenger Tom Cotton is up seven points over Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Pryor among Arkansas likely voters (46 percent vs. 39 percent). Cotton’s lead is right at the poll’s margin of error (± 3.5 percentage points).
CLICK FOR THE POLL RESULTS
Cotton’s edge is a little soft though -- almost one in five (18 percent) of his supporters say they could change their mind before Election Day. Fourteen percent of Pryor’s supporters are uncertain.
The key for Cotton is that independents are much more likely to back him than Pryor (45-26 percent). In addition, by double-digit margins, white evangelical Christians (+34 points), men (+15) and veterans (+12) support Cotton, an Army veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
It could help Cotton that 61 percent of undecided voters disapprove of Obama.
Pryor was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2002, and he supported the 2010 health care law.
It’s been a hard-hitting campaign, yet voters blame both campaigns equally: 46 percent say Pryor is making unfair attacks against Cotton, and 46 percent say Cotton is crossing the line.
Voters in Arkansas disapprove of Obama’s job performance by nearly two-to-one. Thirty-two percent approve, while 61 percent disapprove.
Meanwhile, by a 50-41 percent margin, likely voters in Arkansas oppose creating a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants in the U.S. Those opposed favor Cotton by nearly 40 points.
Republican Asa Hutchinson is up 46-37 percent over Democrat Mike Ross in the race to replace term-limited Democratic Gov. Mike Beebe.
Colorado
Republicans in Colorado are much more enthusiastic than Democrats about the upcoming election, and that explains -- at least in part -- why the new poll shows Rep. Cory Gardner topping Democratic incumbent Sen. Mark Udall by 43-37 percent.
CLICK FOR POLL RESULTS
Among likely voters here, nearly half of Republicans (48 percent) are “extremely” interested in the election, while less than a third of Democrats (31 percent) feel that way. This could be even more important here than in some other battleground states because Colorado now votes 100 percent by mail and people can register to vote up through Election Day.
Gardner’s support is stronger, with 85 percent of his backers “certain” to vote for him compared to 80 percent of Udall’s.
Independents (+15 points), men (+17), gun owners (+29) and white evangelical Christians (+38) are more likely to back Gardner.
Udall has the edge among Hispanics (+20 points), lower income voters (+13), urban voters (+11) and women (+5).
Overall, a 52-percent majority says the 2010 health care law “went too far,” and three-quarters of those voters are supporting Gardner. Sen. Udall, who was first elected in 2008, voted for the law.
On immigration, 50 percent favor allowing illegal immigrants to eventually qualify for citizenship, while 39 percent are opposed. Those in favor back Udall (56-24 percent). Those opposed support Gardner (67-16 percent).
The Colorado governor’s race is all tied up at 42 percent apiece for Democratic incumbent John Hickenlooper and Republican challenger Bob Beauprez.
Voters in the Centennial State disapprove of the job Obama is doing by 57-36 percent. Obama’s personal favorable rating was 54 percent in the 2012 Fox News exit poll.
Even though Obama’s job rating is underwater by 21 percentage points here, this is the best job rating he receives of the five battleground state polls.
Kentucky
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is narrowly ahead of Democrat Alison Lundergan Grimes -- 45-41 percent -- among Kentucky likely voters.
CLICK FOR POLL RESULTS
There are clear reasons why the race remains tight. First, enthusiasm among Democrats and Republicans is evenly matched in Kentucky, as about three in 10 from each party are “extremely” interested in the election. In addition, roughly equal numbers of Grimes (86 percent certain) and McConnell (88 percent) supporters say they are “certain” to vote for them.
And party loyalty is about the same for each, as 77 percent of Democrats plan to vote for Grimes, while 78 percent of Republicans plan to back McConnell. The small subgroup of independents backs McConnell by almost two-to-one, and this gives him the edge.
Men are more likely to back McConnell (+11 points), while women go for Grimes (+2 points).
Just over a third of Kentucky likely voters support the Tea Party movement -- and 72 percent of those supporters favor McConnell.
The Fox News Poll is conducted under the joint direction of Anderson Robbins Research (D) and Shaw & Company Research (R). The polls were conducted October 4-7, 2014, by telephone (landline and cell phone) with live interviewers among a random sample of likely voters in Alaska (706), Arkansas (707), Colorado (739), Kansas (702) and Kentucky (706). Results based on the full sample in each state have a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

Investigator claims he was told to delay Secret Service prostitution report until after election

The lead investigator into the Secret Service prostitution scandal told Senate staffers that he was directed to delay the release of the report until after the 2012 election, according to a published report. 
According to The Washington Post, David Nieland also said that he was instructed by his superiors in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general's office to "withhold and alter certain information in the report of investigation because it was potentially embarrassing to the administration."
The Post also reported that senior White House aides were given information suggesting that a prostitute had stayed in the hotel room of a member of the White House's advance team, contrary to earlier denials that any member of the administration was involved. 
Nearly two dozen Secret Service agents were disciplined or fired as part of the scandal, which began when Secret Service agents brought prostitutes into their hotel in Cartagena, Colombia ahead of President Obama's trip to the Summit of the Americas in April 2012. The Post reports that the Secret Service twice shared the findings of its own internal investigation with top White House officials, who concluded that the advance team member had done nothing wrong. 
Charles Edwards, the Department of Homeland Security's acting inspector general at the time of the investigation, told the Senate staffers that any changes to the report were part of the editing process, a statement that was backed by White House spokesman Eric Schultz.
"As the bipartisan Senate investigation found ... changes made to the IG Report were 'part of the ordinary process of editing the report' and found that allegations that changes were made because they were embarrassing could not be substantiated," Schultz said in a statement late Wednesday. 
The White House advance team member has been identified as Jonathan Dach, then a 25-year-old Yale Law School student and volunteer who helped to coordinate drivers for the White House travel office. The Post reports that Dach has repeatedly denied bringing prostitutes to his hotel room. Prostitution is legal in parts of Colombia, including in Cartagena. 
The DHS inspector general's office conducted its own investigation into the scandal at the request of a subcommittee of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Nieland told staffers that Edwards had asked him to remove references to Dach in their report after Edwards had briefed then-Homeland Security secretary Janet Napolitano on the advance team member's possible involvement. A spokesman for Napolitano denied that she had asked for the report to be altered or delayed.
Nieland and two other members of the office later claimed that they were put on administrative leave for questioning the changes to the report, claims that The Post reports their superiors denied.  
A White House official told Fox News that the inspector general's report did say that a "reported member of the White House staff and/or advance team ...  had personal encounters with female Colombia nationals consistent with the misconduct reported," though Dach was not identified by name.

More than a dozen states plan to cancel health care policies not in compliance with ObamaCare

More than a dozen states plan to cancel health care policies not in compliance with ObamaCare in the coming weeks, affecting thousands of people just before the midterm elections.
"It looks like several hundred thousand people across the country will receive notices in the coming days and weeks," said Jim Capretta of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.
The policies are being canceled because states that initially granted a reprieve at the request of President Obama are no longer willing to do so.
In coming weeks, 13 states and the District of Columbia plan to cancel such policies, which generally fall out of compliance with the Affordable Care Act because they don’t offer the level of coverage the law requires.
Virginia will be hardest hit, with 250,000 policies expected to be canceled.
And because federal law requires a 60-day notice of any plan changes, voters will be notified no later than November 1, right before the Nov. 4 midterms.
Many of those forced out of their current plans and into ObamaCare may not be able to keep their doctors. They also could face higher deductibles and out-of-pocket expenses, making ObamaCare an election issue on the eve of voting.
Obama had originally unequivocally promised that underhis health care plan, everyone could keep their doctors and plans.
In 2009, he told the American Medical Association, "If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period.If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period.No one will take it away. No matter what."
The president later was forced to admit that any plan without the additional benefits required under ObamaCare faced cancellation.
But that unleashed a nasty political backlash, forcing him to back down and call for states and insurers to extend those policies forthree more years.
Some said he didn’t have much choice. "There were some five or six million people who were at stake here and the federal exchange was in no condition to even process a few hundred thousand people much less millions," said Joe Antos of the American Enterprise Institute.
Many states flatly refused to extend and now comes the new round of states that plan to cancel policies.

Michelle Obama Cartoon

Reporter blocked from rally with first lady, free press groups cry foul

A Wisconsin reporter says he was blocked Tuesday from covering a Democratic rally in Madison headlined by first lady Michelle Obama -- a week after another reporter claimed she was told at a similar event in Milwaukee not to speak with people in the crowd. 
The latest incident has raised concerns from free press groups. 
The reporter, Adam Tobias, works for Wisconsin Reporter -- the Wisconsin arm of the news site Watchdog.org. He was trying to attend a rally for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mary Burke and claimed to have submitted his request for credentials on Saturday, "shortly after the Burke campaign sent a news release outlining the logistics." 
But the reporter was told he could not attend, and videotaped his encounter with a spokeswoman for the state Democratic Party on Monday. 
Spokeswoman Melissa Baldauff initially did not give a reason for denying entry to Tobias. But when the reporter told her they would write a story on press being turned away, she suggested Watchdog.org was not part of the press. 
"Well, you're not the press though, so, thanks," Baldauff said, closing the door. 
Wisconsin Reporter is one of more than two-dozen state news organizations under the umbrella of the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity. 
Franklin Center President Jason Stverak blasted the state party for preventing the site from covering Tuesday's rally -- one of two Michelle Obama was headlining for Democratic candidates. 
"The problem with our political process is a lack of transparency, and the most recent move by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin is an affront to free speech and the freedom of the press," he said in a statement. "Having said that, I think we understand what's at work here: Wisconsin Reporter has broken some of the most important stories in the state, not all of them comfortable for the Democratic Party leadership. We will continue to report the truth, and we won't be deterred by petty, partisan politics." 
According to Watchdog.org, free press groups voiced concern about the decision. "It seems to me that Wisconsin Reporter ought to be able to attend the event and report on it," Mark Pitsch, president of the local chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, said. 
The incident comes after a reporter with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel claimed last week that she had an encounter with a White House aide during a separate Michelle Obama rally for Mary Burke. 
Meg Kissinger, a reporter for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, posted on Facebook that she was "creeped out" after she was told by a White House aide and an aide for Burke not to speak with people attending the event. 
"This is what reporters do in America: we speak to people," she wrote. "At least that's how I've been doing things -- at all kinds of political events -- since 1979." 
Kissinger later said on Twitter that she did not comply with the aides' rule, and spoke with "plenty" of crowd members. Her report from the event contained interviews with multiple crowd members.

Who’s tending State Department’s cash cow?

EXCLUSIVE: The U.S. State Department has been handing over billions of dollars in grants for foreign projects -- ranging  from cultural exchanges to “climate change” activities -- without adequate oversight or adequate assessment of the risks involved, and sometimes without knowing whether the money was actually spent, according to the department’s Inspector General.
Moreover, these money-management problems have been going on for years, despite specific warnings, according to the watchdog IG’s office. It says it has designated State’s oversight of grants, contracts and “interagency agreements” (where State spends money on another department’s behalf) as one of the department’s “major management challenges” every year since 2008.
In a special “management alert” issued last month, the IG’s office reports that 61 out of 156 of all the watchdog’s inspections since 2010 of the State Department’s widely varying branches  have found “specific grant-management deficiencies,” such as lack of oversight, absent or incomplete documentation, or a lack of proper final closeout for the projects.
The overall implication of the alert is that State’s top managers, especially in the departments charged with administering the bureaucracy, have not been doing anywhere near enough to clean up the longstanding mess. 
The alert cites around 20 critical audits and inspections  in the past two years alone -- not to mention a previous management alert last March on “contract file management deficiencies,” which identified some $6 billion worth of contracts where files were “incomplete or could not be located at all.”

The State Department's top managers have not been doing anywhere near enough to clean up the longstanding mess

State’s outright bestowals of grant money to individuals and organizations, as opposed to its broader aid and development programs, has been growing:  from $1.6 billion in fiscal 2012, to $1.8 billion last year. The number of individual grants, meanwhile, rose from about 14,000 to 16,800 over the same period.
Grant-making has been on the rise in part because the State Department has been moving, often with much fanfare, to rely more on private individuals and non-governmental organizations to carry out a wide variety of social, humanitarian and environmental tasks -- often because of the corruption risks and inefficiencies associated with governments in developing countries.
Spending on such new areas of business as “climate change” has also accelerated, with warnings of attendant widespread oversight problems getting flagged two years ago. 
One of the main reasons for the continuing mess: the number of State Department officers overseeing the cash gusher has been nowhere near up to the task.
Only some 570 grant overseers work at State, with more than 500 of them abroad. In many cases they are under-trained, and in virtually all cases overworked -- the alert cites one overseer who is managing 500 grants -- and they usually perform their oversight part-time while doing other Foreign Service jobs. Turnover among the overseers is high, which, the alert notes, “hampers the development of institutional memory.”
The continuing bureaucratic inaction, after numerous warnings about the lack of proper care for a pile of cash that by definition is bestowed without formal contracts, is the major reason behind the special warning sounded by the department’s aggressive new Inspector General, Steve Linick, who was appointed just more than a year ago.
Management alerts, an innovation under Linick, don’t break new ground but are intended to underline the “serious nature” of the issues involved, and flag the topmost reaches of the State Department about problems.
The current management alert is essentially a lengthy compilation of lapses, poor practices and inattention outlined in previous audits and inspections that have failed to spur managers into changing the situation, at least to the Inspector General’s satisfaction.
This particular alert goes further, by also citing a series of reports from the independent Government Accountability Office, or GAO, which run along similar lines.
In the most recent GAO report, published  in July, the outside watchdog noted  that a numbing array of State Department offices were authorized to hand out grants -- some 27 offices and bureaus, not to mention a wide variety of consulates and embassies.
Much of the cash, however, was spent by fewer than a dozen bureaus and agencies, including the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs ($397 million in 2012), the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration ($352.6 million) and an office in the Bureau of Administration ($393 million).
GAO did not investigate all of the spending, but examined a sampling of about $172 million worth of grants and similar hand-outs by State in fiscal 2012. The result was not reassuring.
GAO’s bottom line:  A combination of poor and often missing documentation and “inadequate” analysis of the risks involved in handing out the cash meant that State “cannot be certain that its oversight is adequate or that it is using its limited oversight resources effectively.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE GAO REPORT
For example, GAO noted that none of the State Department risk-assessment checklists for evaluating grants mention corruption as a factor for evaluating whether to award a grant, even though side notes in a grant file might mention that corruption was rampant in the country where the money was being handed over.
Since corruption wasn’t on the official checklist, any observations about it did not factor into the overall determination of the riskiness of the grant -- nor did they show up “anywhere else in the grant file documentation,” the GAO observed.
Even when grant recipients themselves had bad records for prior financial mismanagement, the GAO report noted, grants were awarded “without addressing how the risk could be mitigated.” In many cases, over plans for how to monitor grants both for performance and for financial probity were simply missing.
The Inspector General’s alert found many of the same things in its own review of the inspection record. Only 6 of 37 files examined to see if they contained proper documentation to close out a grant award -- meaning that the project and the money had been properly accounted for -- had anything like the proper paperwork, the alert discloses.
Even worse, out of 60 sample files requested for inspection, “10 had been prematurely destroyed, 3 were missing and one was mislabeled.”  In another State Department office, intended to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, more than 280 grant awards “could not be closed out because of missing documentation.” 
In all, the alert notes, “since 2013, nine inspections have identified grant documentation deficiencies.”
The lack of paperwork, the alert emphasizes -- citing its previous management alert on contracts for emphasis -- “creates conditions conducive to fraud, where corrupt individuals may attempt to conceal evidence of illicit behavior by omitting key documents from grant files.”
CLICK HERE FOR THE ALERT
What to do about it? Given the growing size of the problem, the Inspector General’s office saw the solution as relatively simple, starting with hiring more people to watch over the money. 
The watchdog’s recommendations, addressed to State’s Under Secretary of State for Management, Patrick Kennedy, and Assistant Secretary of State for Administration, Joyce A. Barr, also called for more training, and a quality-control program that would sample the paperwork on grant projects to see that it was properly completed. 
The results of the sampling, the alert said, should be fed back to the bureaus that handed out the cash, to ensure that overseers “are held accountable” for their performance.
The State Department’s response was also simple. All of the alert’s recommendations have been accepted. What that means, however, will take a while to tell.
To ensure that the number of grant overseers increases appropriately, the State Department says it will  create a portentiously-named Grants Human Capital Plan to match spending with oversight capability on a department-wide basis --something it has never done before.
The new plan, a State Department spokesman told Fox News, “will provide information needed by bureaus to request staff and funding to implement their individual needs, and allow the department’s management to review individual bureau requirements in an overall context.”
The grants planning mechanism will start grinding into action in fiscal 2015.
The department also has developed a “mandatory internal control documentation checklist” to be completed before any grant can be closed out, and created a new job -- the File Audit Coordinator -- to audit its treatment grant files. 
Additional staffing will be “considered as needed,” the spokesman told Fox News -- not exactly an enthusiastic affirmation of the Inspector General’s concern about the size and importance of the State Department’s cash giveaway problems.
George Russell is editor-at-large of Fox News and can be found on Twitter: @GeorgeRussell or on Facebook.com/George Russell

Pilot dies in crash of air tanker fighting northern California wildfire

The pilot of an air tanker fighting a wildfire near California's Yosemite National Park died Tuesday when the aircraft crashed.
California Fire spokeswoman Alyssa Smith said in a statement that crews reached the wreckage several hours after the crash and confirmed the pilot's death. The pilot's identity was not released because all immediate family had not yet been notified. 
"This crash underscores just how inherently dangerous wildland firefighting is and the job is  further compounded this year by extreme fire conditions," Chief Ken Pimlott, Cal Fire director, said in the statement. "We have secured the crash site and will be cooperating with the NTSB on their investigation."
Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman told the Associated Press that the plane went down at approximately 4:30 p.m. local time less than a mile from the western entrance to the park. 
 California Highway Patrol Sgt. Chris Michael said he was stopping traffic along state Route 140 at the west entrance to the park about 4:24 p.m. when he witnessed the crash.
"I heard a large explosion, I looked up on the steep canyon wall and saw aircraft debris was actually raining down the side of the mountain after the impact," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "It hit the steep side of the canyon wall. It appeared from the direction he was going, he was trying to make a drop down the side of the canyon when he hit the canyon wall."
The fire was spreading up the canyon wall, and it appeared the pilot was trying to lay down fire retardant to stop its progress, Michael said.
"It most definitely did disintegrate on impact," he said. "It was nothing. I didn't see anything but small pieces."
Pieces of the aircraft landed on the highway and came close to hitting fire crews on the ground nearby, but no one on the ground was injured, he said.
"It came pretty close to hitting them, but they were far enough away that it missed them, fortunately," he said.
The airplane, manufactured in 2001, is an S-2T air tanker, which is flown by a single pilot and normally has no other crew members. The tanker uses twin turbine engines and is capable of carrying 1,200 gallons of fire retardant, said another CalFire spokesman, Daniel Berlant.
Don Talend, of West Dundee, Illinois, said he also may have seen the plane go down. Talend and friends were vacationing at the park when they stopped to snap some photographs of the fire, which was several miles away.
The plane "disappeared into the smoke and you heard a boom," he told The Associated Press by phone.
"I couldn't believe what I saw," Talend said. "There was actually a ranger there behind us. ... He had a look of disbelief on his face."
The pilot is an employee of DynCorp., a contractor that provides the pilots for all CalFire planes and maintenance for the department's aircraft, California department of Forestry and Fire Protection spokeswoman Janet Upton said.
The fire had broken out about 90 minutes earlier Tuesday near Route 140, which leads into the heart of the park. It had grown to about 130 acres by Tuesday evening and forced the evacuation of several dozen homes near the community of Foresta.
FAA records show the plane is registered to the U.S. Forest Service, which originally provided the plane to CalFire, Upton said.
The last time a CalFire air tanker crashed was in 2001, when two tankers collided while fighting a fire in Mendocino County, killing both pilots, Berlant said.
The agency had another plane crash in 2006, when a fire battalion chief and a pilot were killed while observing a fire in a two-seat plane in Tulare County.

White House reportedly frustrated with Turkish inaction against ISIS

The White House is growing more frustrated with Turkish inaction against Islamic State fighters as Kurdish forces desperately battle to keep the Syrian border town of Kobani from falling into militants' hands, according to a published report. 
The New York Times quoted a senior administration official who slammed the Ankara government for "dragging its feet to act to prevent a massacre less than a mile from its border."
"After all the fulminating about Syria’s humanitarian catastrophe, they’re inventing reasons not to act to avoid another catastrophe," the official continued. "This isn’t how a NATO ally acts while hell is unfolding a stone’s throw from their border."
The Times reported that Secretary of State John Kerry had spoken with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu multiple times over the prior 72 hours in an effort to resolve tensions between the two sides. 
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the U.S.-led coalition's air campaign launched last month would not be enough to halt the Islamic State group's advance. Turkish troops have been massed near the border since the assault on Kobani began, but have so far not taken an offensive posture.
"Kobani is about to fall," Erdogan told Syrian refugees in the Turkish border town of Gaziantep, according to The Associated Press. The Turkish president called for greater cooperation with the Syrian opposition, which is fighting both the extremists and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad.
"We asked for three things: one, for a no-fly zone to be created; two, for a secure zone parallel to the region to be declared; and for the moderate opposition in Syria and Iraq to be trained and equipped."
The Times reported that President Obama prefers that Erdogan not tether the fight against Islamic State, commonly known as ISIS, to the effort to overthrow Assad. U.S. officials also tell the paper that Erdogan's demand for a no-fly zone against the Syrian Air Force is meaningless on the grounds that the airstrikes have created a no-fly zone in all but name. 
On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said that five strikes against ISIS positions and hardware near Kobani had been carried out over the past two days. The BBC reported that the strikes represented the most sustained coalition action in the area since the airstrikes began Sept. 23. A BBC reporter said that fighting in the city had died down Tuesday afternoon, and only occasional gunfire could be heard. Reuters reported clashes on the north and northeastern edges of Kobani, with one Kurdish official saying ISIS was using heavy weapons and shells to hit the city. 
 Also Tuesday, the United Nations envoy for Syria issued a call for "concrete action" to prevent "humanitarian tragedies."
"The world has seen with its own eyes the images of what happens when a city in Syria or in Iraq is overtaken by the terrorist group called ISIS or Da'esh: massacres, humanitarian tragedies, rapes, horrific violence," Staffan De Mistura said. "The international community cannot sustain another city falling under ISIS.
"The world, all of us, will regret deeply if ISIS is able to take over a city which has defended itself with courage but is close to not being able to do so," De Mistura added. "We need to act now."