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Sam Knight - page 56

Sam Knight has 859 articles published.

White House Pick To Be Next Top Military Aide Trashes Obama Afghanistan Withdrawal Plan

President Obama’s pick to succeed Gen. Martin Dempsey as the administration’s top military advisor will ratchet up pressure on the White House to delay the withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. Gen. Joseph Dunford, Obama’s nominee to be next Joint Chiefs of Staff chair, said in his confirmation hearing that, if approved by the Senate, he would advise the president to set a benchmark for an Afghan pull-out “based on the conditions on the ground.” “My experience has been that sometimes the assumptions you make… Keep Reading

Justice Dept. Scaled Back Afghanistan Anti-Corruption Aid After Intervention “In Specific Cases”

The Department of Justice dialed back anti-corruption assistance it was providing to the government in Afghanistan after Kabul “blocked” efforts to advance prosecutions. The Obama administration decided on the move in 2010, according to an inspector general’s report published Thursday, after Afghan officials under then-President Hamid Karzai intervened “in specific cases.” The DOJ anti-corruption unit had only been established in August 2009. The Karzai administration’s meddling, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) report noted, included “securing the release of a high-level Afghan official… Keep Reading

Pentagon “At Risk” of Violating Law Requiring Financial Transparency by 2017

The Pentagon’s office of inspector general warned this week the Department of Defense may “not achieve audit readiness” by the end of September 2017—a violation of a law passed in 2009. The OIG called on military leaders to remedy “deficiencies in accounting entries, compliance with laws and regulations, and audit trails,” and said that Pentagon brass themselves have acknowledged not adhering to widely-accepted accounting standards. “The basic financial statements may also have undetected misstatements that were both material and pervasive,” the IG also said. “Unless… Keep Reading

Louie Gohmert Argues Same Sex Marriage Against “Nature” By Making Up Stories About Deserted Islands

Christian fundamentalists are not known to admire Charles Darwin, but Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) sort of channeled the influential 19th century English naturalist when weaving together a bizarre fabricated case against gay marriage. On C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Wednesday, the far-right representative told a sort of twisted Sunday School version of “On The Origins of Species,” declaring that heterosexuality is “what nature dictates should be marriage.” “If you took four couples, men and women—couple, man and wife–and you put those four couples on an island that… Keep Reading

Judge Preserves “Rationale” For Key Campaign Fianance Laws, In Upholding Contractor Ban

The head of non-profit that has sought to limit the influence of money in politics praised a federal judge’s decision on Tuesday to uphold a ban on campaign donations by contractors. Fred Wertheimer, the president of Democracy 21, said that a decision against the ban “could have undermined the constitutional rationale for the ban on corporate contributions to federal candidates.” Democracy 21, alongside other public interest organizations, had filed an amicus backing the Federal Election Commission and the law. In justifying his decision, Chief Judge Merrick… Keep Reading

Justice Department: America’s Cops Were Given More Authority To Use Stun Guns Between 2007 and 2013

A Justice Department report released on Tuesday added additional details to the ongoing debate over police use of force in communities across America. The Bureau of Justice Statistics study, based on a semi-annual survey it last conducted in 2013, chronicled how widely certain methods of combat and surveillance tactics are used by local cops in the US. Among the more noteworthy findings published Tuesday: since the last comparable BJS survey was conducted in 2007, the use of “less lethal” energy weapons increased significantly. In 2013, local authorities… Keep Reading

Clinton Vows to Combat Pro-Palestinian Non-Violence, Hints B.D.S. Opposition Will Feature in Her Campaign

Hillary Clinton signaled that she will make opposition to a non-violent protest movement against the Israeli occupation of Palestine a part of her Presidential campaign. In a letter sent last week to a prominent Israeli-American supporter, businessman Haim Saban, the former Secretary of State said “we need to make countering BDS a priority”–a reference to the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement that started in the Occupied Territories in 2005. “I am seeking your advice on how we can work together—across party lines and with a diverse array of… Keep Reading

Kerry Softens Tone in Annual Message to Venezuela, Bolstering Report of Thaw

Secretary of State on Thusrday issued an unusually warm message of goodwill to Venezuela ahead of the South American nation’s independence day, bolstering reports that the two countries are working toward mending an acrimonious relationship. “On behalf of President Obama and the people of the United States, I send my best wishes to the people of Venezuela as you celebrate 204 years of independence on July 5,” Kerry said. He praised “a common spirit that paved the way for the American Revolution and independence in… Keep Reading

White America: Actually, the Confederate Flag is Still Good

The results of a public opinion survey released Thursday show that most White Americans believe that the Confederate Flag is more representative of “Southern pride” than racism, even after a Confederate sympathizer opened fire and killed nine people inside a black church in Charleston, S.C. A CNN/ORC poll revealed that 66 percent of whites “viewed [the flag] as a symbol of pride,” while 72 percent of blacks deemed it a “symbol of racism.” Just one-in-four whites shared the majority of Black Americans’ views on the… Keep Reading

“Record” Environmental Fine for Deepwater Horizon? Stock Market Declares BP Victorious

If Thursday headlines declaring a “record” settlement suggest that the Justice Department has brought the hammer down on BP for the Deepwater Horizon calamity, financial markets suggest otherwise. The oil giant’s stock price climbed to $41.24 per share—growth of about 3.5 percent in one hour, between 8 and 9 in the morning—as news of the deal trickled down to the media. The growth mostly occurred during two seven minute periods at the top of each hour. By noon EST, around the time of publication, BP… Keep Reading

Fed Governor: We Need to Learn More About Wall Street’s Computer Trades

Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard on Wednesday issued a general call for more research on the impact of the computerization of Wall Street. Speaking at a forum on global finance in Austria, Brainard said the “possible effect of [high-frequency trading] on the resilience of market liquidity is an important topic for future research.” She commented that “markets increasingly dominated by HFTs may be less able to absorb large shocks…when demand for liquidity is significantly above the norm.” Part of the reason for that, Brainard noted,… Keep Reading

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