Administration moves $500M in Palestinian aid, as agencies scramble to delay furloughs

As federal agencies scramble to avert or delay sequester-tied furloughs, the Obama administration continues to spend millions of dollars on foreign aid to the Palestinians – and seek millions more, despite past efforts by Congress to freeze the money.
The State Department confirmed this month the administration has moved forward with $500 million in aid, and is trying to secure another $200 million from Congress. Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says the aid is important, because an “economically viable Palestinian Authority” would help regional peace and security.
The administration confirmed the transfers as President Obama, along with Secretary of State John Kerry, toured the Middle East last week. Obama met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as top Israeli officials.
But lawmakers have heavily scrutinized a number of foreign aid transactions, given the fiscal crunch facing Washington. The capital was awash last week with memos and updates from federal agencies scrambling to manage sequester cuts and cushion their staff from the impact of furloughs.
After initial warnings that furlough notices would start to go out for thousands of civilian employees at the Pentagon last Thursday, the Defense Department announced it would delay those notices for about two weeks while it continues to analyze the situation.
Attorney General Eric Holder also said in a memo that he was using his “limited authorities” to shift around funds and give the Bureau of Prisons $150 million to avoid furloughing correctional workers at federal prisons. This, he said, would have created “serious threats to the lives and safety of our staff, inmates and the public.”
But he said he was still “evaluating” whether his department can avoid other furloughs.
Foreign aid to the Palestinian Authority alone, though, easily eclipses the amount Holder used to spare the correctional workers division.
Nuland explained that the U.S. has moved forward with $295.7 million in fiscal 2012 funds, part of which is for economic development and humanitarian assistance, and part of which is for law enforcement aid.
Another $200 million falls under fiscal 2013 assistance.
Further, the administration notified Congress in February that it wants another $200 million for programs under the U.S. Agency for International Development.
Despite suggestions that the administration had “quietly” released the money, Nuland on Friday stressed that she had publicly announced the aid at a March 15 briefing.
Congress in 2011 voted to freeze part of the U.S. aid package to the Palestinians in response to their push for statehood before the U.N.
But President Obama last year signed a waiver removing those restrictions on national security grounds. He reportedly moved to unfreeze hundreds of millions of dollars in aid last month.
The International Monetary Fund this month warned that the Palestinians were facing serious fiscal shortfalls, in part because of dwindling international aid packages.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/25/administration-moves-500m-in-palestinian-aid-as-agencies-scramble-to-delay-1823258958/#ixzz2OYo9eKYG

Stupid out of control government.

The federal government is ready to pay people $45,900 to attend an annual snowmobile competition in Michigan for the next two years.
They're also ready to shell out $516,000 for scientists to develop an ecoATM that will give out cash in exchange for old cell phones and other electronics. And why not drop another $349,862 for a study that looks at the effects of meditation and self-reflection for math, science and engineering majors?
These are just a few of the 164 grants the National Science Foundation approved two weeks ago. Yet around the same time, the administration was warning that the sequester would cut into critical research on chronic diseases.
While some of the less critical grant ideas were scrapped as the NSF looked for ways to scale back and prioritize, the number of allegedly frivolous grants still in play is not sitting well with Sen. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma.
The GOP senator has been on a campaign to call out what he sees as pockets of wasteful government spending. Since the sequestration took effect March 1, he's sent 11 letters to various department heads highlighting places where they can fiscally trim down.
In a letter to NSF director Subra Suresh, Coburn suggested cutting the grants above along with nine others, including a $515,468 grant used, in part, to study how a shrimp running on a treadmill responds to alterations in oxygen and carbon dioxide levels.
"These may be interesting questions to ponder or explore, but just because each is currently being supported by NSF should not mean guaranteed future funding if new applications with greater merit or potential are submitted," Coburn wrote in his March 12 letter. "I appreciate your agency's commitment to continuing grants, but ensuring the most promising new research can be supported next year may require ending or reducing spending on lower priority grants now being funded. Robo-squirrel may have survived its encounters with the rattlesnake but it may have met its match in sequestration if we hope to provide support for more promising scientific projects."
"Robo-squirrel" has long been criticized by Coburn as a big government boondoggle. Researchers at San Diego State University used funds from a $325,000 grant provided by the government-bankrolled NSF to invent a robotic squirrel used for researchers. Coburn has used robo-squirrel as an example multiple times as a government program that needs to be cut.
NSF spokeswoman Dana Topousis told FoxNews.com Friday that they receive 40,000 to 50,000 proposals a year. Of those, 10,000 to 11,000 get funded. Topousis says decisions are based on two criteria – “intellectual merit” and the “broader impacts”, which addresses the benefits of the proposed study to society.
She also says Coburn shouldn’t get caught up with the quirky names of the projects but try to see beyond it.  One of the most successful projects the NSF has had a hand in was one in 1996 called “BackRub,” a search engine research project by Stanford University students Larry Page and Sergey Brin.
“BackRub sounds ridiculous but if we didn’t take a chance on it things would be a lot different today,” she said.
In 1997, BackRub changed its name to Google.
Still, others argue that a few success stories don't make it ok for the NSF to spend taxpayer money. Shortly before the sequester took effect, the administration warned that up to 12,000 scientists and students could be impacted by the cuts due to reduced NSF research grants. The administration also warned about cutbacks at the National Institutes of Health, which "would delay progress on the prevention of debilitating chronic conditions ... and delay development of more effective treatments for common and rare diseases affecting millions of Americans."
But Coburn, among those who say the administration is taking unnecessary measures to comply with the sequester, says there are plenty of other ways to save.
Another program Coburn calls out is "Snooki" -- a robot bird that impersonates a female sage grouse to examine the importance of courtship tactics of males.
"Every dollar spent on projects such as these could have instead supported research to design a next-generation robotic limb to treat injured war heroes or a life-saving hurricane detection system," Coburn writes in his letter.
Coburn said the number of new research grants could be reduced by as many as 1,000.
Through audits and investigations, the NSF Inspector General identified more than $309 million in questionable and poorly spent funds in just the second half of fiscal year 2012.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/16/funding-for-robo-squirrel-and-ecoatm-are-among-projects-gop-senator-wants-cut/#ixzz2NqIe5jv4

This Is The Real Reason Obama Won!

She admitted voting twice in the presidential election last November, and now, Obama supporter Melowese Richardson has been indicted for allegedly voting at least six times. She also is charged with illegal voting in 2008 and 2011.
The 58-year-old veteran Cincinnati poll worker, indicted Monday, faces eight counts of voter fraud. Two others, one of whom is a nun, have been charged separately.
Richardson had admitted on camera to a local TV station, "Yes, I voted twice," claiming she was concerned that her vote would not count. She also said there "was no intent on my part to commit any voter fraud."
"I'll fight it for Mr. Obama and Mr. Obama's right to sit as president of the United States," she proclaimed in the interview.
Officials charged that she voted in her own name by absentee ballot and also in person at the polls, but Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Deters said she also is charged with voting in the name of five other people in various elections.
"This is not North Korea," Deters said in a statement announcing the indictments. "Elections are a serious business and the foundation of our democracy. In the scheme of things, individual votes may not seem important, but this could not be further from the truth. Every vote is important and every voter and candidate needs to have faith in our system. The charges today should let people know that we take this seriously."
Richardson made national headlines when the Hamilton County Board of Elections announced that it was investigating whether she voted up to half a dozen times, including on behalf of her granddaughter, India Richardson.
India told Fox News that her grandmother did indeed vote in her name, telling us that "it wasn't a big deal."
But voting twice or in another person's name is illegal.
Prosecutors say the five other people for whom Richardson cast ballots are all relatives.
Sister Marguerite Kloos also faces one count of illegal voting, for allegedly submitting an absentee ballot in the name of a fellow nun, Sister Rose Marie Hewitt, who had died before absentee ballots were sent out. She is accused of opening Sister Hewitt’s ballot, forging her signature and mailing it to the Board of Elections as a vote.
The 54-year-old Kloos has resigned as the dean of the Division of Arts and Humanities at the College of Mount St. Joseph in Cincinnati, where she still serves as an associate professor of religious and pastoral studies.
Kloos was not indicted but faces what is known as an information, because her lawyer contacted prosecutors and she agreed to cooperate and plead guilty.
"As a valued member of the Mount community, our thoughts are with her during this difficult time," the college said in a written statement. "We respect her privacy and will not comment further on this matter at this time."
Russell Glassop, 75, also is charged with illegal voting.  He is accused of voting on behalf of his wife, who died before election day.
But it was Richardson's case, and the possibility of repeated votes, that shocked many. She faces up to 12 years in prison if convicted. Efforts to contact her and her lawyer have been unsuccessful.
The Hamilton County Board of Elections recently held hearings on cases of possible double voting and voter fraud, part of a statewide review ordered by Secretary of State John Husted. He called on all 88 counties to review complaints of fraud, as well as voter disenfranchisement.
“Every voter must play by the rules, and if they don’t they will be held accountable,” Husted, a Republican, said in a written statement. “For voters to have confidence in our elections, we must prosecute every case of voter fraud in Ohio.”
Last month, Husted told Fox News that Richardson's case was especially troubling, because "it appears she not only attempted to vote more than once, but was actually successful at it and having those additional votes counted."
"Most attempts are caught by the system. But there are cases that do slip through, as this one does, and we need to make sure that we really send a strong message, that if you do this, you are going to be held accountable,” Husted said. “It might mean fines, it might mean jail time."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/11/cincinnati-poll-worker-charged-with-voting-half-dozen-times-in-november/#ixzz2NMzZr5Ux

Once again Obama to the rescue

Like a unwanted guest that just want leave!

U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice is the leading contender to become the White House’s new national security adviser, following a failed bid to become secretary of state, a senior Obama administration official told Fox News this weekend.
President Obama could appoint Rice without the Senate confirmation needed for a Cabinet post. Rice withdrew herself from consideration for the secretary of state post in the face of withering criticism by congressional Republicans and others for her handling of the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2012, Libya terror attacks.
Five days after the attacks that killed Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans at a U.S. outpost in Benghazi, Libya, Rice said the attacks appeared spontaneous and sparked by an anti-Islamic video.             (Bailey comment: Bullshit.)
Rice, 48, later said she gave an incorrect account, based on intelligence reports at the time. However, subsequent meetings with leading Senate Republicans appeared only to increase her lack of support for the Cabinet post.
This weekend, the administration official told Fox a Rice appointment is not imminent because the president still has to find an ambassadorship or another post for current National Security Adviser Thomas Donilon.
Fox first reported last year, shortly after the outcome of the November elections, that Rice might get the NSA post –- under the assumption Donilon might become the new White House chief of staff.
Donilon did not get the job so the president must first find a new post for him before moving Rice.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/10/ambassador-rice-top-contender-to-become-next-wh-national-security-adviser/?test=latestnews#ixzz2NBBRp8RX

MYTHS, LIES, AND COMPLETE STUPIDITY

What you think you know... is often wrong. Sunday I look at seven MYTHS... LIES... AND COMPLETE STUPIDITIES:
• FOOD... MYTH: Government should help people make healthy choices for themselves. TRUTH: The nanny state reduces your freedom while accomplishing little.
• MAIL... MYTH: The post office should deliver the mail. TRUTH: The private sector does it better.
• FRACKING... MYTH: Fracking is dangerous. TRUTH: Fracking is dangerous but can easily be safely managed, and fracking has done more to help the environment than all the "green" energy sources combined (it replaces dirtier gasoline and coal.)
• LAWSUITS... MYTH: Lawsuits protect consumers. TRUTH: Lawsuits make valuable products cost more.
• HEALTHCARE... MYTH: Obamacare is good for business. TRUTH: Government intervention kills innovation. Kills jobs too.
• INFRASTRUCTURE... MYTH: Government must build infrastructure. TRUTH: Business builds it better.
• IMPERIAL WASHINGTON... MYTH: Washington D.C. is about serving the public. TRUTH: DC is about empire building.

Read more: http://www.foxbusiness.com/on-air/stossel/blog/2013/03/07/myths-lies-and-complete-stupidity-airs-sunday-8-pm-et-fox-news#ixzz2NB7CyiXc

White House suspends public tours, but first family trips in full swing

WASHINGTON –  Visitors to the nation's capital looking for a White House public tour are out of luck starting this weekend, courtesy of what the Secret Service says is its own decision to deal with the sequester cuts.
But while the agency said it needed to pull officers off the tours for more pressing assignments, the budget ax didn't swing early or deep enough to curtail a host of recent Secret Service-chaperoned trips like President Obama's much-discussed Florida golf outing with Tiger Woods and first lady Michelle Obama's high-profile multi-city media appearances.
Obama's pricey golf outings have been a particular target for Republicans who see them as examples of what they say are the administration's rather selective concerns with running up the tab of Secret Service resources. On March 5, Texas Rep. Louis Gohmert filed an amendment to a House resolution that would prohibit federal funds from being spent on Obama's golf trips until public tours of the White House resumed.
Gohmert referenced press reports pegging the cost of a recent Florida golf outing Obama took with Tiger Woods at $1 million. He also cited press reports saying 341 federal workers could have been spared furloughs if Obama had stayed home. 
"The president's travel expenses alone, for the golfing outing with Tiger Woods, would pay for a year of White House visits," Fox News contributor Charles Krauthammer said Thursday. "So I suggest that perhaps he curtail the travel."
The price tag and draw on Secret Service resources involving promotional campaigns like Michelle Obama's "Let's Move" initiative is less clear.
The Secret Service does not usually reveal how many agents and other resources are assigned to protective missions so it's not known just how much it cost taxpayers to ferry the first lady to events like her dance routine on Jimmy Fallon's show -- the highlight of a Feb. 22 media blitz in New York -- or her Feb. 27-28 visit to Mississippi, Missouri and her hometown of Chicago.
Those trips would all have involved Secret Service details traveling with the first lady, as well as advance work by teams of agents on location.
When asked by FoxNews.com if the first lady's office or schedule would be affected by the sequester, the White House issued a 100-word statement that made no mention of any specific cuts that might affect Michelle Obama's activities -- while making a generic reference to cuts affecting the "Executive Office of the President," which houses the first lady's office.
Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest, asked how the White House was cutting back, on Friday said there would be furloughs and pay cuts.
On the decision to close the tours, Press Secretary Jay Carney a day earlier said "the President and the first lady have throughout the time that they've been here made extraordinary efforts to make this the people's house, and it is extremely unfortunate that we have a situation like the sequester that compels the kinds of tradeoffs and decisions that this represents."
It's also not clear what Secret Service resources were dedicated to a recent New York visit by 14-year-old Malia Obama, who was spotted dining with a group of friends at a New York restaurant shortly after President Obama signed off on the sequester. There were Secret Service agents in the restaurant, according to reports that said they stayed behind the group.
How much overtime these types of assignments cost the Secret Service may be an area of concern. Donovan told FoxNews.com that overtime costs factored into the decision to shut down the White House tours. By taking the 30 officers involved in the tours and assigning them to high-priority security posts, officers normally on those duties can log fewer hours -- in turn saving the Secret Service money.
"It reduces overtime costs overall for us," Donovan said.
The tours will not be rescheduled and will stay frozen until further notice.
That's bad news for groups like the sixth graders at St. Paul's Lutheran School in Iowa, who had been planning to take the White House tour on March 16. Fourteen students from that group and their teacher on Thursday took their frustrations to Facebook. In a web video, they held up handmade posters and chanted, "The White House is our house."
Some Republicans in Congress expressed their displeasure with the cuts more forcefully. "Canceling all self-guided White House tours is the latest shameless political stunt by the president, who is twisting basic government efficiency into an extreme consequence," Rep. Tom Graves, R-Ga., said in a statement March 5.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/03/08/white-house-public-tours-on-hold-first-family-trips/#ixzz2N3EfDeph