Pentagon fails to comply with law to help overseas soldiers vote

Pentagon fails to comply with law to help overseas soldiers vote, watchdog says

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washingtonguardian/Congress required the Pentagon to create voting assistance offices on all overseas military bases to help deployed soldiers cast their ballots back in their home states, but military branches haven't fully complied, citing budget shortages and a difference of opinion with lawmakers.

With another election lurking around the corner, the Pentagon is getting a bad review for its efforts to comply with a new law designed to make it easier for overseas military personnel to cast their ballots.
The Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment (MOVE) Act was passed by Congress in 2009 and signed into law by President Barack Obama and was supposed to make it easier for both soldiers deployed overseas and U.S. citizens living abroad to cast ballots back in their home states.
One of the key provisions required each military branch to create an installation voting assistance office (IVAO) for every military base outside an immediate combat zone.
But the Pentagon’s inspector general, the military’s internal watchdog, reported Tuesday it got a disappointing result when it tried to locate such voting assistance offices on each installation earlier this year.
“Results were clear. Our attempts to contact IVAOs failed about 50 percent of the time,” the inspector general reported. “We concluded the Services had not established all the IVAOs as intended by the MOVE Act because, among other issues, the funding was not available.”
The Pentagon estimates it could cost $15 million to $20 million a year to create all the offices required by the law.
In addition, Pentagon officials apparently disagree with the tactics the law recommended, preferring to use advertising and digital outreach efforts to educae overseas soldiers rather than creating the voting assistance offices.
“DoD officials also posed concerns about IVAO effectiveness,” the inspector general reported. “They noted that younger military personnel were the biggest DoD military population segment and emphasized that IVAOs were likely not the most cost effective way to reach out to them given their familiarity and general preference for communicating via on-line social media and obtaining information frominternet websites.
“They suggested assistance might be provided more effectively and efficiently by targeted advertising,” the report noted.
The inspector general recommended the Pentagon create better survey capabilities to identify the voting needs of soldiers after the 2012 election and to work with Congress to change the parts of the law that it isn’t complying with.
Pentagon officials said they agreed with both recommendations.

 

Should Congress Have Power to Audit the Fed?

Just my opinion, but if you and I can get audited, I feel that the feds should too. How about you please give your output!

 Share if you care!

yahoo/It is often said that the Chairman of the Federal Reserve is the second most powerful person in the world, with unrivaled influence and clout domestically and abroad. Although our central bank will mark its 100th anniversary next year, its authority has never been greater, its portfolio never larger, and its global dealings never more extensive. This is why so many in Congress say it's time to reign in the Federal Reserve and bring it back under government control.

"We want to know what deals are being been made with whom, how much money is going out, what has been promised to central banks throughout the world," says California Congressman Duncan Hunter in the attached video. "In the end, it's about transparency. It's about letting the American people know what the Federal Reserve is doing with your money."
Rep. Hunter is one of more than 200 co-sponsors of the Audit the Fed bill, a piece of legislation written by outgoing Texas
Congressman and former Presidential candidate Ron Paul that overwhelmingly passed the House last week by a huge 327-98 margin.
The timing of the vote is also noteworthy, coming just days ahead of a Fed meeting that many believe could be the backdrop for another round of stimulus, often referred to as quantitative easing or QE3.
As much as Bernanke has his critics, he has lots of allies too, who not only say he has steered the nation away from depression, but has lead and created the most transparent Fed ever. Rep. Hunter says part of Bernanke's openness is due to the mere presence of this pending legislation, which has "all of a sudden made the Fed more forthcoming over the past year or two."
A nasty 3-year lawsuit by Bloomberg News under the Freedom of Information Act also fanned the flames after it delivered a bombshell last year when it unearthed trillions of dollars of previously secret dealings by the central bank, much of which was with foreign banks and other non-U.S. entities.
"At least let us see what we think is important, not necessarily what the Fed thinks is important to tell us," Rep. Hunter says, as the Audit the Fed movement makes its way to the Senate where it will face a far cooler reception.

 

Horse Slaughter Plant Hopes To Be First To Operate In U.S.

" Firearms are second only to the Constitution in importance; they are the peoples' liberty's teeth. 

I  have different opinions about this. Part of me agrees that it is just another farm animal. we eat everything off the farm, but part of me thinks that it is another pet in the yard. So I guess we could compare it to a rabbit. some are for pets and some are for food. What is your opinion on this subject?

Please leave a comment and share if you care

- A town in Missouri is trying to be the first of several in the United States to get a new plant to slaughter horses, now that Congress has overruled animal rights groups to allow the killing for the first time in five years.

U.S. slaughter of horses ended in 2007 when Congress, at the urging of animal rights groups, halted funding to inspect processing plants. The unintended result was thousands of horses abandoned or neglected, and even more enduring hundreds of miles of travel to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.

After a government report last year detailed the abuses of horses, Congress restored inspection money to the U.S. Department of Agriculture for this year.

"People are giving away horses every day because they can't sell them," said Wayne White, president of the Missouri Equine Council. "All the rescue places are over-populated."

Horse meat is sold for human consumption in China, Russia, Mexico and other foreign countries, according to Unified Equine, a Wyoming company proposing to open a horse-slaughter plant in Rockville, Missouri. Horse meat is also used for zoo animals.

The proposed plant, at a facility previously used for cattle processing in Rockville, has strong support in the community. But animal rights advocates have not given up the fight.

"Americans are revolted by horse slaughter, it's cruelty they just don't want to support," said Lindsay Rajt of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

In a report last year, the Government Accountability Office documented an increase in horse neglect and abuse since slaughtering ended and found that by 2010 nearly 138,000 horses were being sent annually to Mexico and Canada for slaughter.

Unified Equine hopes to open its slaughtering plant in Rockville in September, followed by one in Hermiston, Oregon. Another company, Valley Meats, intends to open a plant in Roswell, New Mexico.

The Missouri and New Mexico plants both requested U.S. Department of Agriculture inspections, according to the agency's Food Safety and Inspection Service. But "a significant amount of time" will be required to update inspection procedures, the service said in a statement on Wednesday.

Even though Congress restored funding, the appropriations committee of the U.S. House of Representatives, which allocates how money is spent, again withdrew money for horse slaughter inspections in the fiscal 2013 budget. The proposal still would have to be approved by the full House and Senate.

Equine chief executive Sue Wallis said she has heard of people in 18 states and several Native American tribal areas exploring horse slaughter plants.

Residents of Rockville, a town of about 150 people 100 miles south of Kansas City, turned out in force at a meeting last month to support the new plant, said Mayor Dave Moore.

"I don't know of anyone (in town) who is not for it," said Dennis Heiman, operator of a grain elevator that has been Rockville's largest employer since 60 jobs were lost with the closing of the beef plant two years ago. The horse plant is expected to create 50 jobs.

Owners of rescue ranches see the problem of neglected and abused horses first-hand. The Changing Leads Equine Rescue ranch just outside Kansas City, Missouri, is at its capacity of eight unwanted horses, said Tina Weidmaier, president of the all-volunteer organization.

Joe Black, a draft horse, was 700 pounds underweight by the time it was rescued from a pasture last August, Weidmaier said. Its owners moved to Florida and left it alone to graze for nearly a year, she said. He is back to his healthy weight but has a chewing disorder, she said.

Many people abandon or seek to give away their horses because of the cost, said Ericka Caslin, director of the Unwanted Horse Coalition. A horse costs an average of about $2,600 annually to feed and board, not counting veterinary bills, she said.

There are an estimated 170,000 unwanted horses in the United States, Caslin said, yet her group has no position on slaughtering plants. Neither does its parent group, the American Horse Council in Washington nor do some rescue ranches, such as Changing Leads.

"We'd rather focus on the problem than on everyone else's solution," Weidmaier said.

Animal rights advocate Rajt said the number of unwanted horses going to slaughter is fueled by racehorse or rodeo breeders who dispose of dozens of animals not deemed "the next big winner." Horse slaughter and the shipping of horses to Mexico and Canada should be banned because it is cruel, she said.

But Wallis of Unified Equity said banning horse slaughter or shipment for slaughter would put well over 100,000 more horses per year at risk of abandonment, abuse and a slow death.

"It's hard to imagine the magnitude of that," Wallis of Equine said. "It would be an unmitigated disaster." (Editing by Greg McCune and Jackie Frank)