Tumbleweeds and Tuesday’s Crib Sheet.
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCE JOBS.COM
1. Contractors and shutdown – it depends. Whether individual contractors work during shutdown depends on the firm. Editor Lindy Kyzer explains, “Most defense industry companies have set up contingency plans for what to do in the event of a shutdown. It typically involves a combination of some essential contractors reporting to government offices, some working on alternate projects at a company headquarters and some simply staying at home. Paychecks will not be coming to contracting companies, and it’s at the discretion of the company how they handle paying workers. Some contractors may be forced into furlough, like their civilian counterparts. Some may take paid leave, and some may continue to receive a paycheck like normal (whether they’re working in an office or not).”
2. Louisiana – the gulf’s great defense state. Contributor Chandler Harris explain defense spending down on the bayou: “Louisiana benefited from more than $8.7 billion in defense spending during the 2012 fiscal year . . . . the military presence pumped $5.2 billion into the Louisiana economy last year . . . . defense contracts related to petroleum, shipbuilding and other industries was $2.8 billion. . . .” and even more.
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. In S. Korea, SecDef Hagel: “I love a parade.” In a pageant worthy of North Korea or Soviet-era Russia, the South Korean government rolled out its hardware for visiting dignitary Secretary Hagel. Reuters’ Jack Kim reports from Seoul, “The ballistic Hyeonmu-2, with a range of 300 km (190 miles), and the Hyeonmu-3, a cruise missile with a range of more than 1,000 km (620 miles) were put on public display for the first time in a rare South Korean military parade. Both of the indigenously developed missiles have been deployed. They were unveiled in February after the North conducted its third nuclear test in defiance of international warnings, two months after it successfully launched a long-range rocket and put an object into space.”
2. Obama to Israel on Iran: take a Prozac. Aljazeera.Com reports, “The United States reserves the right to keep all options, including military action, on the table with regards to engaging with Iran, the US president has said after holding talks with Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu. . . . Netanyahu would have been heartened by Obama’s reassurances that Iran would have to prove itself and that Israel had the right to defend itself.” Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif calls Netanyahu a big, fat liar, and CBS call him a “wet blanket.”
3. Syrian rebels to Assad regime: bring us his head. Syria, peace talks unlikely. Time’s Aryn Baker reports from Tripoli, “Even if the two sides can overcome their significant differences to come to the table — the Syrians and the Russians say Assad is an integral part of the transition, even as the opposition insists it will not take part in any transition government that includes him — fighters on the ground say they have lost too much to accept anything short of Assad’s death.” See related from Reuters: “Russia doubts mid-November date for Syria peace talks.”
4. In Pakistan, Bilal Zadran named new drone target. Successor to Mullah Sangeen steps into the crosshairs. LongWarJournal.Org’s Bill Roggio reports, “Bilal is said to have been named to succeed Mullah Sangeen as Sirajuddin Haqqani’s deputy during a ‘high level meeting of [the] Haqqani Network’ . . . . Mullah Sangeen, who was the Taliban’s shadow governor of Paktika and is on the US’s list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists for supporting al Qaeda, is thought to have been killed in a US drone strike on Sept. 5 in the Ghulam Khan area of Pakistan’s Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan.” Also, from LWJ’s Roggio, “Pakistan condemns latest drone strike in North Waziristan.”
5. Afghanistan’s next president? Dr. Abdullah Abdullah. Khaama.Com reports, “Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the main political opposition leader of Afghanistan has formally nominated for the upcoming presidential election of Afghanistan. Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, the leader of the national coalition of Afghanistan formally registered with the Afghanistan independent election commission to run for 2014 presidential elections. Karzai’s elder brother Qayum Karzai, foreign minister Dr. Zalmai Rassoul, Adbul Rab Rassoul Sayaf and Ali Ahmad Jalali are the other potential candidates who are expected to run for the presidential run-off.”
6. Gurganus and Sturdevant: Camp Bastion takes out two USMC general officers: USAToday.Com reports, “The Marine Corps commandant said Monday he has asked for the retirement of two general officers in the wake of an attack last year in which 15 insurgents breached a fortified coalition base in Afghanistan, killing two Marines and destroying or damaging more than a dozen coalition aircraft.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Contractors might weather shutdown with rainy-day funds. GovExec.Com’s Charles S. Clark explains that “damage a spending lapse might inflict on contracting companies this year would depend on their ability to use past-year funds. . . . ‘people are saying prayers, but most companies have been to this movie’ . . . . They know what to expect and how to prepare – in contrast with sequestration because no one had thought of that.’”
2. $4.7 billion Army dollars for commo contracts. NextGov.Com reports, “The Army has awarded year-end communications contracts valued at $4.7 billion, including a $4.1 billion deal Thursday with 12 companies for long-haul communications and transmission systems. These companies will compete for task orders on the five-year indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract supporting the Defense Communications and Army Transmissions Systems program, which provides satellite and terrestrial communication systems to Army and Defense Department organizations, including the National Command Authority.”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Leaks alert al Qaida – worse than Snowden. McClatchyDC.Com’s Lindsay Wise and Adam Baron explain, “The U.S. government-ordered closure of 19 U.S. diplomatic facilities in August has prompted a new controversy, this one about whether news reports at the time alerted al Qaida leaders that their communications were being monitored. Obama administration officials, speaking anonymously to The New York Times, are claiming that those reports, especially one by McClatchy, caused, in the Times’ words, ‘more immediate damage to American counterterrorism efforts than the thousands of classified documents disclosed by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor.’” Read New York Times’ original piece.
2. Azure is secure: Microsoft’s cloud seems ready. VentureBeat.Com contributor Eric Blattberg explains, “Microsoft federal chief technology officer Susie Adams announced that Azure was granted Provisional Authority to Operate (P-ATO) status from the Federal Risk and Authorization Management Program’s (FedRAMP) Joint Authorization Board. That’s one step away from a full Authority to Operate (ATO) status . . . . FedRAMP certification means the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the U.S. General Services Administration deem the platform secure — at least from nefarious hackers outside the NSA — which will help Microsoft snag lucrative government contracts.”
3. UNPLUG YOUR LAPTOP! 80% – 40% (remember the numbers) Wired.Com confirms the old spouse’s tale: “In order to squeeze as much life out of your lithium-polymer battery, once your laptop hits 100 percent, unplug it. In fact, you should unplug it before that. Cadex Electronics CEO Isidor Buchmann told WIRED that ideally everyone would charge their batteries to 80 percent then let them drain to about 40 percent. This will prolong the life of your battery — in some cases by as much as four times.”
4. Good news for our injured Vets: “Rewired nerves control robotic leg.” Nature.Com reports, “A 32-year-old man whose knee and lower leg were amputated in 2009 after a motorcycle accident is apparently the first person with a missing lower limb to control a robotic leg with his mind. A team led by biomedical engineer Levi Hargrove at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago in Illinois reported the breakthrough last week in the New England Journal of Medicine1, including a video that shows the man using the bionic leg to walk up stairs and down a ramp, and to kick a football.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. We’re just warming up – Debt Ceiling is the real mosh pit. TheDailyBeast.Com explains, “An honorable Congress knows in its bones that the full faith of the United States of America is at stake. The mere threat to withhold authorization, in fact, is as damaging to our credit rating as actually defaulting. Sure, it’s great political theater, but it does lasting damage to America’s reputation and credibility, and makes one wonder how long the rest of the world will allow the dollar to remain the global reserve currency. . . . Neither President Obama—nor any president—should negotiate on the debt-ceiling authorization. Not now, not ever. The full faith, honor and credit of the United States of America must never become an ideological football that gets tossed under the domed Capitol in Washington.”
2. The Chicken Dance – White House and Vets pairing up. WaPo’s Steve Vogel reports, “Veterans groups have reacted angrily to news that an extended government shutdown will leave the Department of Veterans Affairs unable to make disability compensation and pension payments to veterans. Losing the payments could have a devastating impact, particularly on severely wounded veterans who are unable to work and depend on the VA checks, said Tom Tarantino, chief policy officer for Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. ‘Congress and the White House, they’re playing chicken with people’s lives,’ Tarantino said. ‘That’s where this becomes scary.’”
3. During shutdown, W.H. interns still won’t get paid. BuzzFeed.Com reports, “Advocates for ending unpaid internships in D.C. are cheering the White House’s decision to furlough its interns during the government shutdown. ‘The fact that they’re being treated the same as the workers is a step in the right direction,’ said Mikey Franklin, leader of the FairPay campaign, which is urging the White House and other federal agencies to pay their interns. ‘The fact that they’re not being made to take on even more of the roles of paid employees is a good thing.’”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. The Debt Limit – the real fight. WashingtonExaminer.Com’s Timothy P. Carney argues, “A government shutdown won’t be a huge deal. It will have many bad effects, but a brief shutdown has little lasting effect. Hitting the debt ceiling, on the other hand, is a far more dangerous situation.”
2. “Obama has made a difference in Syria, but . . . .” WaPo’s Walter Pincus argues, “Obama Boo Birds, who mostly don’t believe in the United Nations, are whining that the U.N. Security Council resolution authorizing the program doesn’t call for immediate military action if Syria doesn’t follow through. They ignore that Obama has ordered the U.S. Navy force to remain in the area.”
3. “Make a deal with Rouhani: Iran has hawks too.” Aljazeera.Com contributor Muhammad Sahimi argues, “Rouhani ran on a platform that promised the Iranians a ‘government of prudence and hope’, and ever since his election he has been busy trying to deliver by resurrecting many other dead corpses, ranging from Iran’s economy that contracted by more than five percent last year, to re-opening the national Movie House that had been closed by the Ahmadinejad administration, and allowing some of the politically-active university students that had been expelled over the past several years to enroll again. But, the most important dead corpse that Rouhani has been trying to revive is the US-Iran relations and the standoff over Iran’s nuclear program.”
THE FUNNIES
3. California hello.
