Government Faces Weekend Deadline on Polar Bear Rule

North Korea Greets Obama Envoy With New Threats

North Korea on Friday reiterated a recent pledge to bolster its nuclear deterrent in the face of “hostile” U.S. policy. The message evidently was timed to coincide with the arrival in South Korea of Stephen Bosworth, the Obama administration’s special envoy for the North.

Web Filtering Proposals: Crucial Child Safeguard or Censorship Tool?

An Australian group campaigning against government Internet filtering proposals, was ordered this week to remove from its Web site a link to a U.S.-hosted Web site showing graphic pictures of aborted babies. The order reinforces the group’s concerns that the filtering will lead to blocking of political content.

Somali pirates shoot at Navy supply ship

The Navy ship apparently outran the pirate boats. Shouldn’t the US Navy have a general policy of not fleeing from dirtbag pirates? I’m just saying……

If you can’t spin it, quash it

In January of this year, the Inspector General of the Defense Department (DoD IG) issued a report exonerating the Pentagon of wrongdoing in connection with a public relations program that involved retired military officials who worked as military analysts on television and radio. The DoD IG investigated the matter as a result of reporting by David Barstow of the New York Times which claimed that some of the retired military officers in question used the special access granted them under the program to gain unfair competitive advantage for defense contractors they represented. The DoD IG concluded that Barstow’s allegations were baseless. Despite that conclusion Barstow received a Pulitzer Prize last month for his reporting on this matter.

Now, Bill Gertz of the Washington Times reports that the DoD IG has withdrawn his January report. Gertz calls this move “unusual” and I’m told that it may well be unprecedented. The question thus arises: why did the DoD IG take this extraordinary step?

Gertz says the step was taken “under pressure from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin.” Levin wrote to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on February 2 rejecting the DoD IG’s report and asking Gates to have the IG office conduct a second investigation. As Gertz points out, Levin’s letter “carried additional political weight because [his] committee must confirm or reject the next inspector general.”

The Inspector General Act of 1978 provides.

The Inspector General and OIG staff must be free both in fact and appearance from personal, external, and organizational impairments to independence. .. External impairments to independence occur when the OIG staff is deterred from acting objectively and exercising professional skepticism by pressures, actual or perceived, from management and employees of the reviewed entity or oversight organizations.”
(emphasis added)

Levin’s Senate Committee would certainly seem to constitute an “oversight organization.” And Levin’s letter to Secretary Gates could, I think, be viewed as creating pressure that gave rise to an external impairment to the DoD IG’s independence, or at least the appearance of such an impairment.

It should also be noted that Levin has, in Gertz’s words, “worked closely with the Pentagon IG office in the past.” And, as John has reported, Levin likes to seize on those findings (often dubious) in a DoD IG report that he likes and then twist them into something more damning.

In this case, though, the report presented nothing for Levin to spin, so he used his influence to have the report withdrawn.

Perhaps an outside Inspector General should investigate Levin’s actions and their effect on the independence of the DoD IG.

Country Music Star Gretchen Wilson: ‘Leave No American Behind’ in Education

AKGovSarahPalin: Outraged Obama’s budget includes major cuts to missile defense programs, when N. Korea refuses to abide by UN regs.http://tinyurl.com/c56xyh

AKGovSarahPalin: Outraged Obama’s budget includes major cuts to missile defense programs, when N. Korea refuses to abide by UN regs.http://tinyurl.com/c56xyh

AP

Drew Peterson indicted in 3rd wife’s death

Obama Sits Out National Day of Prayer as Millions Pray for Him

A caucus room in a House of Representatives office building was transformed into a place of worship on Thursday, as people in the nation’s capital joined with millions of others Americans across the country to celebrate the National Day of Prayer.

Gingrich, Bloomberg, Sharpton Call Education Reform ‘Civil Rights Issue of 21st Century’

Three unlikely allies met with President Obama Thursday, declaring education improvements are the “civil rights issue of the 21st century.”

Memo to Capitalists: Be Very Afraid

Lately, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews has been on a childish tear, taunting Republicans to admit their belief in the biblical account of the Creation. Someone ought to ask this paragon of smug self-satisfaction why,

Gitmo Quagmire

WASHINGTON — On Wednesday, April 29, in an East Room news conference, President Barack Obama claimed, “We have rejected the false choice between our security and our ideals by closing the detention center at Guantanamo…

Politico

Cheney to GOP: ‘It would be a mistake for us to moderate’

Mainstream media and left wing blogs: When two become one

I know – it sounds gross, right? Well, it is.

How the World Works has produced a video documenting how the liberals in the mainstream media work hand in hand with far left blogs like the Daily Kos and Media Matters in order to both generate “content” that is one-sided against Republicans and to “fact check” the opposition. It’s close to eight minutes long, but well worth watching. Make sure to forward it to anyone you know who is still in denial about mainstream media liberal bias.

Wonder if they typically meet for dinner before or after the broadcasts?

(Via Devil’s Advocate)

Star Trek Was Good

Just got back from seeing it. No time needed to mull this one over. It was great. They did a very fine job with the characters, the plot, the setting (which was like an Apple Store meets 1966). There were…

Glenn Beck Throws ACORN Lowlife Out of His Studio

It’s hardly surprising that liberals detest Glenn Beck. Watch him eviscerate National Spokesliar Scott Levenson from Obama’s old gang, ACORN:

Don’t try playing the trusty race card on Beck:

ACORN National Spokesman Scott Levenson was ejected from a Fox News studio Wednesday following an off-camera altercation with host Glenn Beck that involved racially charged comments, as they were described by Beck.

“I threw him out of the studio, get the hell out of my studio,” Beck told viewers he said after Levenson accused him of being “afraid of black people.”

Too bad these creeps can’t be thrown out of the White House as easily.

Hat tip: Gateway Pundit, on a tip from Gregory of Yardale.