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Sam Knight - page 72

Sam Knight has 859 articles published.

Incoming House Armed Services Chair: Military Pork Critics Just Don’t Understand the Constitution

Incoming House Armed Services Committee chair Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) accused military industrial complex critics of failing to grasp “our constitutional system.” Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on Tuesday, Thornberry said that Congress favoring appropriations over Pentagon wishes in recent years has derived from a straightforward difference of opinion and not “some donor, or some lobbyist, or some parochial interest.” He specifically brought up legislative pushes to allocate more money to the M1 Abrams tank program–financing that the Department of Defense did not want or… Keep Reading

Fed Governor: LIBOR, Trillions Tied to Infamous Rate Pose Problem

As President Obama prepared to tout social mobility and equitable economic growth at the State of the Union, a Federal Reserve Board Governor he appointed said more changes are needed to a deep-penetrating system that was, in recent years, infamously manipulated by Too Big To Fail banks around the world. Speaking at the Brookings Institution on Tuesday morning, Jerome Powell said that the London interbank offered rate (LIBOR) is still unreliable, and revealed that the Fed and “a group of the largest global dealers” has… Keep Reading

Bradley Cooper Says “American Sniper” Apolitical Before Myth-Peddling With Pentagon in Jingo PR Push

This week, Hollywood actor Bradley Cooper said that he hoped Americans would not use his latest film, about the now-deceased Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, to discuss politics. Then he helped the Department of Defense do just that. In a video interview he gave to a US Navy public relations organ, Cooper on Thursday spoke about the Clint Eastwood-directed “American Sniper” and repeated talking points often employed by hawkish politicians seeking to justify military adventurism. “The reason y’all are doing what you’re doing is allowing us to… Keep Reading

Holder: Lack of Police Killing Data Collected by Feds “Unacceptable” — Open Sources Can Fill in the Gaps

Attorney General Eric Holder on Thursday denounced the lack of information collected by the federal government on killings involving police officers. “The troubling reality is that we lack the ability right now to comprehensively track the number of incidents of either uses of force directed at police officers or uses of force by police,” he said at a Justice Department event honoring Martin Luther King Jr. “This strikes many–including me–as unacceptable. Fixing this is an idea that we should all be able to unite behind.”… Keep Reading

Sentinel’s Discontent Index Drops Over Two Points in October

Bolstering claims of an accelerating economic recovery, The District Sentinel Discontent Index fell by over two points in October, to 108.9 from 110.98. It also fell on a year-over-year basis by 12.98 points, down from 121.88 in October 2013. All three components dropped in October 2014, suggesting that economic improvement is somewhat broad. Labor Discontent fell to 30.19 from 30.74, despite an increase in significant strike activity. Communications workers in Maine, New Hampshire in Vermont joined teachers in Waukegan, Ill to bring the number of… Keep Reading

Environmental Groups Threaten to Sue Feds over Yellowstone Grizzly Hunt

Environmentalist groups are planning on suing the federal government, accusing it of allowing the killing of grizzly bears “beyond sustainable levels” near Yellowstone National Park. The Sierra Club and the Western Watersheds Project said that the allowance could see the regional female grizzly population decline by more than three times the rate required to maintain the current population. The US Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service and the US Forest Service approved a “take” of 15 grizzly bears in two orders that last… Keep Reading

Gohmert Says US Leaders Should Emulate Egypt’s Killer Dictator

Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) called on American leaders to emulate Egypt’s military dictator, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi–a man who orchestrated a coup d’etat and has presided over the killing of more than a thousand dissidents. Gohmert made the remarks on Wednesday in a speech from the House floor denouncing radical Islam, and the Muslim Brotherhood. “I hope one day that our top leaders in this country will have the courage of president el-Sisi in Egypt and they will reflect, as general el-Sisi has, the will of the… Keep Reading

U.S. Still Looking Into Possible A.Q.A.P. Links to Charlie Hebdo Attack

The State Department said Wednesday that it is still looking into ties between the Charlie Hebdo attackers in Paris and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Department spokesperson Marie Harf said that a video in which a senior AQAP leader takes responsibility for the mass killing was deemed authentic by American intelligence agents, but said that US officials are not yet ready to fully assess what role the Yemeni group might have played. “What does it mean, that ‘they did it’?” she said at a daily press briefing. “Was… Keep Reading

Municipal Broadband Initiative Sets Up Obama Clash With Koch Brothers, Telecoms

President Obama on Wednesday afternoon will be making his case to the American people that locally-owned broadband networks should be allowed throughout the United States–an initiative that has put him on a collision course with the telecoms industry players, major right-wing think tanks, and at least one Republican Senator. He will outline his plan at a speech in Cedar Falls, Iowa, a town of roughly 40,000 people with its own municipally-owned broadband system. The network, the White House says, provides connectivity to Iowans as quickly… Keep Reading

Obama Administration Admits “Investor-State Resolution” Problems in Past Free Trade Agreements

In attempting to address criticism leveled by lawmakers, the US Trade Representative has acknowledged past problems with a type of controversial dispute settlement mechanism included in the Trans-Pacific Partnership. USTR Ambassador Michael Froman told Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisc.) in a letter sent in December that investor protections written into the TPP “are designed to prevent the kind of abuses of the investor-State [sic] dispute settlement that have happened under agreements negotiated by other countries.” Froman described those deals as “more expansive” with “few (or none)… Keep Reading

State Announces Deeper Cooperation With Honduras, Despite Own Warnings, Independent Reports

Despite a rash of recent negative headlines and its own travel warnings, the State Department announced Monday increased security cooperation with Honduras and praised its controversial government. After a “High Level Security Dialogue,” department spokesperson Marie Harf said that the pair of countries “discussed areas where we can continue to work together to prevent and reduce crime, hold accountable narcotraffickers and other criminals, and further strengthen judicial institutions.” Harf also said that the Honduran government had “notable successes” over the past 12 months—achievements which include “the… Keep Reading

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