House Freezes Pay For Federal Workers

In 2010 the federal government had enacted a two year freeze on cost of living adjustments for federal employees, an austerity measure championed by President Obama. More recently democrats had lifted that freeze and sought small increases for federal workers.

However on Friday House Republicans voted to extend the pay freeze for another nine months. In doing so they argue that federal workers should not get pay increases while many Americans in the private sector are not getting them.

But while both Congress and the President have championed pay freezes for federal employees at some point over the past two years, one group has gotten away with earning enormous salaries at taxpayer expense: defense contractors.

Defense contractor pay is currently capped at $763,000 which is almost twice what President Obama's salary is. Last December, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) inserted a measure into the defense authorization bill that would've capped these salaries to $230,700 -- the salary of the Vice President.

Unfortunately this measure did not make it into the final bill which simply promised to study the contractor pay cap.

Essentially the House Republicans are saying that hard working employees at the Environmental Protection Agency or Federal Bureau of Investigation should have their salaries frozen, but if you work for Lockheed Martin or Halliburton, you can continue to fleece the American taxpayers. 

The Morning Report -- Monday February 18, 2013

Egyptian Sheikh Says Rape Is 'Halal' -- NASA's New ATLAS Program -- BofA Get's Bailed Out...Quietly -- At Facebook: Make $1BN Profit, Get $429m Refund -- "VatiLeaks" Reveals Fractured Vatican -- 'Maker's Mark' Learns Painful Lesson -- Mississippi Ratifies 13th Amendment...149 Years Later -- Tiger Woods Joins Obama

DETAINED EGYPTIAN SHEIKH SAYS IT IS 'HALAL' TO RAPE WOMEN

Reuters

Egypt has issued an arrest warrant on Sunday against the Salafi preacher, who recently said it was “halal” (permissible) to rape female protestors, charging him with the defamation of religion, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported. 

Ahmad Mahmoud Abdullah, known as “Abu Islam” owner of the private television channel of “al-Ummah,” sparked further controversy after he attacked women and Christianity. 

POPE BENEDICT XVI 'LEAKED' DOCUMENTS SHOW FRACTURED VATICAN

New  York  Times

VATICAN CITY — Guests at the going-away party for Carlo Maria Viganò couldn’t understand why the archbishop looked so forlorn. Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Viganò ambassador to the United States, a plum post where he would settle into a stately mansion on Massachusetts Avenue, across the street from the vice president’s residence.

“He went through the ordeal making it very clear he was unhappy with it,” said one former ambassador to the Vatican, who attended the Vatican Gardens ceremony in the late summer of 2011. “And we just couldn’t figure out, us outsiders and non-Italians, what was going on.”

AN ASTEROID ALERT SYSTEM

PopSci

In the realm of potential planetary disasters, asteroids are among the ones to fear -- like the meteorite that hit Russia, they can inflict serious damage on Earth. 

With the aid of a $5-million grant from NASA, a University of Hawaii team of astronomers is developing ATLAS, a system to identify dangerous asteroids before their final plunge to Earth. 

The team is on track to build and operate an asteroid detection system that will patrol the visible sky twice a night looking for faint objects moving through space. 

BLINK AND MISS THE NEXT BANK BAILOUT

MANY people became rightfully upset about bailouts given to big banks during the mortgage crisis. But it turns out that they are still going on, if more quietly, through the back door.

The existence of one such secret deal, struck in July between the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and Bank of America, came to light just last week in court filings.

That the New York Fed would shower favors on a big financial institution may not surprise. It has long shielded large banks from assertive regulation and increased capital requirements.

FACEBOOK PAYS NO TAX FOR 2012

Bloomberg News

Facebook will not pay any tax for 2012 despite making $1.1 billion in pre-tax profits from U.S. operations, according to a report released on Thursday.

But Mark Zuckerberg's company will also get a multimillion dollar tax refund of around $429 million according to Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ).

The refunds reportedly come from tax deductions on executive stock options and share awards.

MAKER'S MARK LEARNS A PAINFUL SOCIAL LESSON

Associated Press

The reversal speaks to how brands often misjudge their relationship with customers, who can now vote more powerfully with their Twitter accounts than with their wallets. “What we’ve learned is that this is the customer’s brand,” Maker’s Mark COO Rob Samuels, grandson of the bourbon’s creator, said today in an interview. “It was an overwhelming response, we listened all week, and tomorrow morning we’ll immediately return Maker’s Mark to 90 proof.”

The company had emailed loyal customers on Feb. 9 to say it was lowering its proof to 84, or 42% alcohol, in order to address a supply shortage driven by bourbon’s surging popularity in the United States and certain other markets like Australia, Germany, and Japan. The announcement, first reported by Quartz, spread quickly in social media, rising from a small firestorm to an all-out backlash. The companydefended itself in interviews, saying the taste wouldn’t change, but it didn’t help.

HISTORIC OVERSIGHT CORRECTED: 'LINCOLN' INSPIRES LOOK INTO SLAVERY VOTE

Oscar-nominated “Lincoln,” which depicts the political fight to pass the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery, played a role in Mississippi officially ratifying the amendment this month — a century and a half later.

The story opens, not surprisingly, in a movie theater.

Last November, Dr. Ranjan Batra, associate professor of neurobiology and anatomical sciences at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, saw the Steven Spielberg film and wondered afterward what happened when the states voted on ratification.

TIGER WOODS JOINS VACATIONING OBAMA

PALM CITY, Fla. (AP) - President Barack Obama played golf Sunday with Tiger Woods, the White House said.

Continue reading

Once the sport's dominant player before his career was sidetracked by scandal, Woods joined Obama at the Floridian, a secluded and exclusive yacht and golf club on Florida's Treasure Coast where Obama is spending the long Presidents Day weekend. The two had met before, but Sunday was the first time they played together.

The White House, which has promised to be the most open and transparent in history, has prohibited any media coverage of Obama's golf outing.

Is The Pope About To Be Arrested?

Pope Benedict, or Joseph Ratzinger as his legal name states, recently announced his resignation from the title of Pope at the Vatican. As the leading figure for the Catholic Church the announcement was a huge shock to the Catholic community. The last pope to resign was 600 years ago in the 1400s. However it appears that the Pope may not be as noble as many have said of his decision. 

Addicting Info is reporting that Ratzinger is allegedly seeking immunity from the Italian court system. On February 23 there is apparently a meeting with Italian President Giorgio Napolitano to beg for immunity. The Pope is accused of child sex crimes, and along with other leading figures accused of sheltering child sex offenders in the church. The Vatican though has announced that Ratzinger will be a permanent resident even after he resigns. This will protect him from any and all cases brought against him in connection to sexual assault cases across the world. 

For more on this developing story follow the links:

Addicting Info

No To CBCP 

ITCSS

The Telegraph

The Morning Report -- Sunday February 17, 2013

Pope Nears Retirement -- Dorner Hid In Unoccupied Condo -- Mother Presses Congress -- Obama Gets Golf Lessons -- Draft Bill For Illegal Legal Immigrants -- Russian Meteor Largest Since 1908 -- Apple/Samsung Plans 'Smartwatch' -- Google To Open Retail Stores -- Rubio Beats Obama To Israel

POPE NEARS RETIREMENT, SAYS "PRAY FOR ME AND NEXT POPE"

Reuters

(Reuters) - Pope Benedict asked the faithful to pray for him and for the next pope, addressing a crowded St. Peter's Square in his penultimate Sunday address before becoming the first pontiff in centuries to resign.

The crowd chanted "Long live the pope!," waved banners and broke into sustained applause as he spoke from his window. The 85-year-old Benedict, who will resign on February 28, thanked them in several languages.

DORNER WAS HIDING IN UNOCCUPIED CONDO DURING MANHUNT

Associated Press

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. -- It didn't take ingenuity for Christopher Dorner to elude authorities for six days. He simply opened an unlocked door.

As law enforcement swarmed a mountain neighborhood searching for the fugitive ex-cop, Dorner hid in a condo 100 feet across the street from a command post and a short distance from where he left his burned-out truck.

SLAIN TEEN'S MOM PRESSES CONGRESS

Associated Press

The mother of a 15-year-old Chicago girl slain a week after performing at President Barack Obama’s inauguration is appearing in a new gun control public service announcement that calls on Congress to enact “common-sense reforms.”

“When my daughter Hadiya performed at the President’s inauguration, it was the happiest day of her life,” Cleopatra Cowley-Pendelton says in the commercial, paid for by Mayors Against Illegal Guns. “A week later, she was murdered. Gunned down near her school. A piece of my heart is gone. Congress is debating how to fix our gun laws. They can start with background checks for all gun sales. Tell Congress to support common-sense reforms so no more innocent children are killed. And no parent has to go through this heartbreak.”

PRESIDENT OBAMA GETS GOLF LESSONS FROM TIGER WOODS' OLD COACH

PALM CITY, Fla. — President Obama is spending his President’s Day weekend in this upscale coastal community for a golf getaway with friends. But he isn’t spending his three days in the Sunshine State idly teeing off: The president received golf lessons today from the former coach of none other than Tiger Woods himself: Butch Harmon.

A veteran of the PGA Tour, Harmon is renowned today for his series of “Ultimate Golf” training videos. He flew to the area with his son, Claude III, to give the president personal tips.

OBAMA DRAFT BILL WOULD CLEAR PATH TO CITIZENSHIP

Reuters

(Reuters) - A draft of a White House immigration proposal would allow illegal immigrants to become legal permanent residents within eight years, USA Today reported on Saturday.

The plan, obtained by the newspaper, also would provide for more security funding and require businesses to check the immigration status of new hires within four years. Illegal immigrants could also apply for a newly created "Lawful Prospective Immigrant" visa, under the draft bill, it said.

RUSSIAN METEOR IS LARGEST SINCE 1908

A meteor that exploded in the skies above Russia’s Ural Mountains was the largest since the Tunguska blast in Siberia in 1908 and released about 33 times the energy of the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.

Before hitting the Earth’s atmosphere yesterday, the object was about 17 meters (55 feet) and had a mass of about 10,000 tons, the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration said in a statement.

SAMSUNG PLANS SMARTWATCH

Above: Apple's Potential iWatch

Apple and Samsung may extend their smartphone and tablet battle to the wrist. New images have appeared online that are believed to be screenshots of the Samsung Altius, a smartwatch that will arrive later this year. The Altius could go head-to-head with Apple's own iWatch. Have the smartwatch wars begun?

The Altius screenshots leaked less than a week after both The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal ran articles suggesting that Apple -- Samsung's main competitor in a variety of markets -- is working on a wearable product, probably a watch.

APPLE'S NEW iAD CAMPAIGN PROMOTES 300,000 APPS

Apple's initial ad campaign for the new iPad mini simply presented it next to the full size iPad both playing a duet in GarageBand, or alone in a user's hand to highlight its smaller size. 

The new ads present both a full size iPad and iPad mini, depicting both running one of a series of creative applications. Each ad has a simple headline that highlights a particular category or type of apps, such as "Ear Opening" for music related titles, "Elementary" for educational titles, "Well Versed" for music notation and ebooks and "Mind watering" for visually graphic apps.

RUMOR: GOOGLE PLANNING TO OPEN RETAIL STORES

Google opening up a retail store or two? That's this weekend's big rumor, with a few unknown sources letting slip that the search giant might be looking to open up stand-alone shops around the U.S. in a bid to get more Google products — tablets, phones, and all the other fun things cooking at Google HQ (glasses, anyone?) — into consumer hands.

It's a move that makes complete sense, given that competitors Microsoft and Apple both have retail stores of their own for pushing out product. And while Google's tested the retail waters a bit with some "store-within-a-store" setups at various Best Buy locations across the United States, the company has yet to go the full nine yards and establish broader retails presences that could focus more on selling instead of showing, as9to5google's Seth Weintraub suggests.

AHEAD OF OBAMA, MARCO RUBIO HEADS TO ISRAEL

As President Obama prepares for his first trip to Israel since assuming office, the man some hope will succeed him leaves Saturday for his own visit to the Jewish state.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and an oft-mentioned potential 2016 presidential candidate, departed for Israel and Jordan.

ACN NEWS BLOG UPDATE

OUR WRITER FOR "THE MORNING REPORT" IS CURRENTLY AWAY FROM INTERNET ACCESS DURING THE NEXT WEEK AND UNFORTUNATELY WILL NOT BE ABLE TO UPDATE VIEWERS UNTIL HE RETURNS. PLEASE BEAR WITH US AS REPORTS WILL BE INTERMITTENT UNTIL FEBRUARY 23.

The Morning Report -- Thursday February 14, 2013

Kerry Says 'Strong World' Will Work -- Christopher Dorner's Downfall -- Hagel Vote Coming -- New Cyber Bill -- Carnival Cancels 12 Cruises -- Republicans: 'Old Liberal Ideas' -- USPS Could Need More Money -- America/US Airways Merge -- Activists Protest Keystone XL Pipeline -- Apple's Latest Venture

KERRY SAYS 'STRONG WORLD'  WILL SEND MESSAGE TO IRAN, NORTH KOREA

Fox News Video

WASHINGTON –  The world must show its resolve in the face of North Korea's nuclear provocations or risk emboldening Iran, which is under scrutiny over its uranium enrichment program, Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.

Kerry said nations must agree on a "swift, clear, strong and credible response" to Pyongyang's third nuclear test and the authoritarian regime's "continued flaunting of its obligations."

CHRISTOPHER DORNER: SPARING HOUSEKEEPERS LED TO UNDOING 

Associated Press

There was no question. The man standing before Rick Heltebrake on a rural mountain road was Christopher Dorner.

Clad in camouflage from head to toe and wearing a bulletproof vest packed with ammunition, the most wanted man in America over the last week was just a few feet away, having emerged from a grove of trees holding a large, assault-style rifle.

As teams of officers who had sought the fugitive ex-Los Angeles police officer since last week were closing in, Dorner pointed the gun at Heltebrake and ordered him to get out of his truck.

SENATE DEMOCRATS TRY TO FORCE HAGEL VOTE

New York Times

WASHINGTON — Accusing Republicans of a new level of obstruction, Senate Democrats moved on Wednesday to force a vote on President Obama’s nomination of Chuck Hagel to be secretary of defense.

Mr. Hagel’s nomination was endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee along party lines on Tuesday. But with Republicans demanding more information before allowing a vote on Mr. Hagel by the full Senate, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the majority leader, took procedural steps to limit floor debate on his nomination and bring the partisan clash to a head by Saturday.

A NEW FIGHT AGAINST US CYBER BILL

WASHINGTON — U.S. privacy and technology activists are preparing for a new round of fighting against an information-sharing bill they say will let private companies help the government spy on the American public.

 

They’re troubled by the Cyber Intelligence Security Protection Act (CISPA), which passed the House of Representatives last year but failed to get through the Senate. House members Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberg are hoping to have more success passing it this year. They re-introduced the legislation at a cyber security talk in Washington Wednesday.

CARNIVAL CANCELS 12 CRUISES ABOARD SHIP PLAGUED BY MECHANICAL FAILURES

Associated Press

HOUSTON — Carnival Cruise Lines has canceled a dozen more planned voyages aboard the Triumph and acknowledged that the crippled ship had been plagued by other mechanical problems in the weeks before it was left powerless in the Gulf of Mexico by an engine-room fire.

The company’s announcement on Wednesday came as the Triumph was being towed to a port in Mobile, Ala., with more than 4,000 people on board, some of whom have complained to relatives that conditions on the ship are dismal and that they have limited access to food and bathrooms.

BOEHNER SHOWS LITTLE SUPPORT FOR OBAMA'S IDEAS

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — House Speaker John Boehner expressed doubts Wednesday that the Republican-led House and Democratic-controlled Senate could reach agreement on a budget and avoid automatic spending cuts that could jeopardize economic growth.

In a post-State of the Union interview with The Associated Press, Boehner was also skeptical about President Barack Obama’s new proposal for federally supported universal pre-school. And he showed little support for Obama’s core proposals on immigration reform and gun control, including universal background checks.

USPS COULD NEED $45 BILLION BY 2017

U.S. Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe said his agency is on a path to need a $45 billion taxpayer bailout within five years if Congress fails to take action to reverse growing financial losses for the Postal Service.

The Postal Service recorded a nearly $16 billion loss during its last fiscal year. Mr. Donahoe said Wednesday the shortfall is likely to grow worse without the ability to make significant cost cuts, including ending Saturday delivery and placing postal workers on a private health-care plan.

AMERICAN AND US AIRWAYS MERGER APPROVED BY BOARDS

Reuters

Ending a yearlong courtship by US Airways, American Airlines agreed on Wednesday to merge with the smaller carrier, paving the way for the creation of the nation’s largest airline.

The boards of the companies met separately to approve the combination, according to two people with knowledge of the vote. A merger would bolster American’s domestic footprint, strengthen its presence in the Northeast and give it a bigger network to attract business travelers and corporate accounts.

ACTIVISTS ARRESTED AT WHITE HOUSE PROTESTING KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE

European Press Photo Agency

When President Obama spoke about climate change in the State of the Union address Tuesday night, he failed to mention the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, which aims to transport heavy crude oil from Canada to the U.S. Gulf Coast and which needs his approval for a construction permit.

But that controversial project — which ranks as one of the top climate decisions the president will have to make this year — took center stage Wednesday as 48 activists engaged in civil disobedience at the gates of the White House.

APPLE'S ENTRY INTO WEARABLE TECH

(CNN) -- In the last week, the Apple iWatch has made the jump from unlikely rumor to a real product that's probably in development, thanks to well-placed leaks that have been showing up in various publications.

The latest is a report from Bloomberg that says Apple already has a team of 100 employees working on a wearable device.

The clues, and resulting flurry of speculation, are planting the seeds of an Apple watch in consumers' minds. The general public has not been crying out for a better watch. Apple dream-product rumors have mostly focused on an elusive Apple TV over the past year.

Fact Checking The State of the Union

“I urge this Congress to pursue a bipartisan, market-based solution to climate change, like the one John McCain and Joe Lieberman worked on together a few years ago. But if Congress won’t act soon to protect future generations, I will.”

President Obama isn’t exactly innocent in allowing the cap-and-trade legislation backed by McCain and Lieberman to die out, Politico clarifies. He did help shepherd a climate bill through the House of Representatives in 2009, but he also drained much of the energy that the Senate could have spent on climate-change legislation by generating support for other priority policies, like Wall Street regulations and health-care reform. What’s more, the senators proposing similar bills now are liberal Democrats, which suggests a bipartisan solution may be a stretch.

“After shedding jobs for more than 10 years, our manufacturers have added about 500,000 jobs over the past three.”

These numbers are accurate, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data—thoughPolitifact does make sure to point out that those jobs are a fraction of the number that were lost in the preceding decade, which includes Obama’s first year in office.The New York Times goes a bit further, noting that not only are there nearly 3 million fewer manufacturing jobs in the U.S. than there were 10 years ago, but that economists don’t foresee a revival of the American manufacturing industry any time soon.

“Let’s declare that in the wealthiest nation on Earth, no one who works full-time should have to live in poverty, and raise the federal minimum wage to $9 an hour ... Working folks shouldn't have to wait year after year for the minimum wage to go up while CEO pay has never been higher.”

It isn’t really a question whether President Obama’s pledge to raise the minimum wage to $9 an hour is true, so much as whether it is as bold as it sounds, or likely to actually happen. Politico says it’s not, since four years ago, one of Obama’s campaign pledges was to raise the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2011, and he pretty much gave up on that pledge once the economy began to seriously plunge. It’s also difficult to see how such legislation would make its way through the Republican-controlled House.

“Earlier today, I signed a new executive order that will strengthen our cyberdefenses by increasing information sharing, and developing standards to protect our national security, our jobs, and our privacy. Now Congress must act as well, by passing legislation to give our government a greater capacity to secure our networks and deter attacks.”

It is true that President Obama did, in fact, sign such an executive order, but The New York Times clarifies that it “is not very powerful and was certainly not the administration’s first choice.” As evidenced by the president’s call on Congress to act, he is hopeful that they will pass major cybersecurity legislation, like the one that Senate Republicans—led by John McCain—killed last year.

“Real reform means strong border security, and we can build on the progress my administration has already made—putting more boots on the southern border than at any time in our history and reducing illegal crossings to their lowest levels in 40 years.”

This is not the first time Obama has claimed to have brought down illegal immigration from Mexico to its lowest point in 40 years, and Politifact has already rated the claim “half true.” Yes, there are more Border Patrol agents on the ground now than ever before and the flow of immigrants from Mexico into the U.S. has reached an all-time low—but President Obama alone cannot take credit. Politifact argues that the expansion of Border Patrol that has cracked down on illegal crossings began under the Bush administration. It’s also noteworthy that the slowdown in illegal immigration coincides with a drop to zero net immigration from Mexico, according to Pew, which attributes the plunge to a variety of factors, including the  “weakened U.S. job and housing construction markets.”

“Democrats, Republicans, business leaders, and economists have already said that these [budget] cuts, known here as ‘the sequester,’ are a really bad idea.”

Obama explicitly blamed Congress for the sequester, which would trigger severe automatic spending cuts, during his final debate with Mitt Romney, but Politifact has deemed that claim “mostly false.” During the summer of 2011, as Obama negotiated with House Speaker John Boehner over a “grand bargain,” they agreed to empower a “supercommittee” of lawmakers to find $1.2 trillion in spending cuts. To make sure that happened, they agreed to an unusual provision, the sequester, in which across-the-board cuts, including the Defense budget, that neither party wanted would kick in automatically if the committee failed to agree on cuts—which is what happened.Politifact notes that Obama’s negotiating team came up with the idea to cut the Defense budget in the first place.

“Over the last few years, both parties have worked together to reduce the deficit by more than $2.5 trillion—mostly through spending cuts, but also by raising tax rates on the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans.”

This is true. Think Progress points out that “nearly three-quarters of that deficit reduction is in the form of spending cuts, while the remaining one-quarter comes from revenue increases.”

For more fact checking of the speech visit www.politifact.com