WASHINGTON DC – Charlene Lamb, cited for failures in leadership from the Department of State’s own Accountability Review Board report, has been promoted to Regional Security Officer. We’ve heard rumor that she’s slated for international duty in Canada. She started the security officer training last week, much to the dismay of many within the State Department.

For those not keeping track, Charlene Lamb was in charge of the office that denied extra security personnel to the U.S. Ambassador in Libya before the Sept. 11, 2011 attacks.

The problem, as SOFREP has pointed out before, is not that we have four dead American heroes killed in the line of duty. The world is a dangerous place, and bad stuff happens, we get it. The issue is that nothing was done afterwards to hold people accountable or learn from our mistakes in order to reduce risk to other Americans serving in dangerous places. (read more)

NEW YORK (TheBlaze/AP) — Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative scholar who made the documentary “2016: Obama’s America,” pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges that he violated campaign finance laws and was released on $500,000 bond. His travel was also reportedly restricted to the United States.  (link)

The Blaze follows-up:   The filmmaker behind the anti-Obama documentary “2016: Obama’s America” was released on $500,000 bond, which some — even in the legal community — argue was excessive.

We looked into these claims and uncovered a number of violent and disturbing offenses that resulted in bail amounts less than D’Souza was required to put up. While it’s not a comprehensive list by any means, here are nine cases where violent suspects had to put up less for bail than D’Souza:  (continue reading)

Nothing for nothing, but at a certain point you just gotta say George Zimmerman is stuck on an escalator built like an Escher Staircase.    Current Destination – Hateville.    

Get a flipping grip world – it’s a painting.   Get that?  

A Painting !

(Via Daily Mail)  George Zimmerman’s recent foray into the art  world hasn’t exactly earned him much critical praise. But it’s definitely  garnered him some attention – so much so that it could potentially get him sued  by one of the largest news-wire services on earth.

For his latest painting, the man acquitted of  murder in the shooting death of unarmed Florida teen Trayvon Martin has painted  a portrait of Florida State Attorney General Angela Corey, who is the woman who  decided to charge Zimmerman with murder in Martin’s death. (more…)

NEW JERSEY – According to a new study by Dr. Sarah Arnett of the Government Accountability Office that measures the fiscal health of the fifty states in four categories, New Jersey ranks dead last in both annual budget and long-term solvency. The state’s poor performance in all four categories earned it the worst ranking of all fifty states in overall fiscal health.

Arnett’s report examines the health of each state according to four solvency categories: cash solvency, budget solvency, long-run solvency, and service-level solvency. (See definitions below.) (more…)

…“Another way of putting it, I guess, is that the issue has been the inability of my message to penetrate the Republican base so that they feel persuaded that I’m not the caricature that you see on Fox News or Rush Limbaugh, but I’m somebody who is interested in solving problems and is pretty practical, and that, actually, a lot of the things that we’ve put in place worked better than people might think”…   – President Barack Obama (New Yorker Interview)

It just couldn’t be possible the message itself is what people are opposed to…. Nah, the message is too wonderful.   The problem must be, it just has to be, that it’s just not reaching them.   After all, to accept any other consideration would be to accept that other people’s ideas actually have merit for debate….

We simply just can’t have any of that.

Ugh.

Color me not shocked.  After the fiasco in New York last year I’m actually surprised it took this long for a bunch of pontificating progs to go in this direction….

(Via Fox News)  A national newspaper chain with nearly 100 publications and 1.6 million readers is considering building “state-by-state databases” on concealed weapons permit holders, according to an internal e-mail.

The plan, laid out in an email from a top editor at North Carolina-based Civitas Media, could be similar to a controversial project a New York state newspaper carried out in 2012 which included an online map that identified gun owners in two counties by name and address. Civitas’ database project was detailed the plan in a Jan. 19 e-mail to newsrooms in 11 states, including Ohio, Illinois and Pennsylvania.

“The second project examines the explosion of ‘conceal and carry’ gun permits across the U.S.,” wrote Jim Lawitz, Civitas’ director of content, in an e-mail first obtained by the Buckeye Firearms Association. “Through public records act requests, we will attempt to build state-by-state databases that list those who have the right to carry a concealed weapon.”  (read more)

MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell interviewing Congresswoman Jane Harmon about a recent NSA review board determination. The report concluded the NSA collection raises “constitutional concerns” with regard to U.S. citizens’ rights of speech, association and privacy.

Congresswoman Harmon along with numerous representatives from both sides of the political spectrum are highly concerned. The NSA surveillance program is at the top of current concerns for 70%+ of Americans….   Now watch:

#1   –  Federal prosecutors are now in New Jersey conducting a preliminary inquiry into accusations that aides to Gov. Chris Christie shut down access lanes to the George Washington Bridge as political retribution.  And have issued grand jury subpoenas to Mr. Christie’s re-election campaign and to the state Republican Party, the lawyer for the campaign and the party said Thursday.   (link)

#2  –   Dinesh D’Souza, a conservative commentator, best-selling author and the director of the anti-Obama film “2016: Obama’s America” was indicted by a federal court today. The movie, the second highest domestic grossing political documentary in the United States since 1982, was a huge success before the 2012 elections.  Indicted by a federal grand jury for arranging excessive campaign contributions to a candidate for the U.S. Senate.   According to an indictment made public on Thursday in federal court in Manhattan, D’Souza around August 2012 reimbursed people who he had directed to contribute $20,000 to the candidate’s campaign. The candidate was not named in the indictment.  (link)

(more…)

DETROIT (WWJ) – He’s been dubbed the “Blow Torch Rapist” and Detroit police say he’s struck again.

The latest attack occurred just before 7 a.m. Wednesday in a largely abandoned neighborhood near Plymouth and Meyers roads the city’s west side.

A 43-year-old woman told police she was leaving a gas station when a man came behind her and put a gun to her head. The woman said her attacker forced her into a car, ripped off her clothes and began burning her face with a blow torch.

Police say the victim stabbed the man in the eye with a screwdriver and was able to get away and call for help. She’s currently hospitalized in stable condition. (more…)

Functionally obsolescent = Impairment of the usefulness of a system due to its inability to be upgraded or modified to serve the user’s current needs.   In this case, private health insurance is now viewed as obsolete because government controlled ObamaCare moves in to replace private options. 

WASHINGTON DC – Moody’s announced Thursday it was downgrading its outlook for health insurers from stable to negative based on uncertainty related to ObamaCare.

The credit rating agency cited an unstable environment because of the healthcare law’s difficult rollout, and projected that insurers would earn 2 percent less than forecast in 2014.

“While we’ve had industry risks from regulatory changes on our radar for a while, the ongoing unstable and evolving environment is a key factor for our outlook change,” Moody’s Senior Vice President Stephen Zaharuk said in a statement. “The past few months have seen new regulations and announcements that impose operational changes well after product and pricing decisions were finalized.” (more…)