TAX DAY! & The Pulitzers go to . . . .
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Tired, and Retired. Contributor Jennifer Cary advises, “Once you’ve made the decision to retire from the military, you may find yourself with more questions than answers. Deciding if you should start a second career, purchase a home or stay close to a military base are all legitimate concerns. Of course, all of these are directly linked to one decision that you haven’t had much control over for years – location, location, location. Here are the top four duty locations for soon-to-be retirees . . . .”
2. Retirement math. Also from Jennifer Cary, “Now some of you may think that one retirement should be enough to live on, but when you crunch the numbers it’s unlikely. Active duty service members can retire once they hit 20 years of service, but their retirement pay will only be a percentage of their previous salary. Now factor in that someone who joined in their mid-20′s is now in their mid-40′s and you have a math problem.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. Army’s new Red Legs (Cannon Cockers). AP’s Lolita C. Baldor reports, “By January 2016, the U.S. military must open all combat jobs to women or explain why any must remain closed. The Army in November officially began assigning female officers to lead the cannon platoons and plans to open other jobs, including those of crew members within the field artillery units.
2. Arming the oppressors. Aljazeera.Com reports, “The deal, announced in February, will see Canada’s division of General Dynamics Land Systems build more than $10bn worth of light armoured vehicles (LAVs) and associated equipment for Saudi Arabia. Canadian Minister of International Trade Ed Fast touted the ‘landmark’ contract as a way to benefit hundreds of local supply firms and create thousands of advanced manufacturing jobs, particularly in the populous region of southern Ontario. But critics contend the Saudi deal represents a dangerous escalation in Canada’s willingness to supply military equipment to repressive regimes . . . .”
3. Russia shows some force. American Forces Press Service’s Jim Garamone reports, “A Russian attack aircraft repeatedly flew near the USS Donald Cook in international waters in the Black Sea on April 12, a Pentagon spokesman said today. . . . ‘The aircraft did not respond to multiple queries and warnings from Donald Cook, and the event ended without incident after approximately 90 minutes . . . . This provocative and unprofessional Russian action is inconsistent with international protocols and previous agreements on the professional interaction between our militaries.’ Two Russian aircraft were present, but only one took part in the provocative actions . . . .”
4. Ukraine—the brink of civil war. Time reports, “Russian PM says that Ukraine is headed for civil war after Kiev launches a military operation to regain control of sites taken over by armed separatists Ukraine launched a military operation in the northern Donetsk region early on Tuesday, to regain control of sites that have been taken over by armed pro-Russian activists in various eastern towns and cities.”
5. Welcome to acquisition! DefenseNews.Com’s Aaron Mehta reports, “Lt. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, the head of the Air Force Space and Missile Systems Center, has been nominated to the role of military deputy, Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition. She replaces Lt. Gen. Charles Davis as the service’s top military acquisition official. William LaPlante, the service’s top civilian acquisition official, was confirmed earlier this year.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. Aussies want more F-35s. AviationWeek.Com’s Bradley Perrett reports, “Australia is likely to commit to buying 58 more Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightnings this month, setting aside the alternative of consolidating its combat aircraft squadrons on the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet. The decision will increase the country’s total commitment to 72 F-35s and expand the Royal Australian Air Force’s fast-jet fleet, counting a separate order for 12 EA-18G Growler electronic attack aircraft as additional to, not part of, the fighter force renewal. The defense department has recommended the F-35 order, probably worth around $8 billion . . . .”
2. Contractor IT blacklist. FederalTimes.Com reports, “The Justice Department last year evaluated more than 1,000 contractors tied to acquisitions for its national security and enterprise IT systems, with the intent of weeding out risks for cyber espionage or sabotage. The reviews uncovered seven IT procurements with vendors tied to ‘questionable foreign ownership, control or influence, criminal activities, financial, counterintelligence or counter terrorism’ . . . .”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. Only halfway there—F-35 update. DefenseMedia.Com’s Eric Tegler reports, “But real risks remain, including reliability/maintainability issues and software development progress, both of which could disrupt a stable but fragile in-service schedule and affect the costs underpinning the program. The risks are uncomfortable for a weapons system that the Department of Defense (DoD) considers its absolute first priority. The threats to the JSF are not merely internal. Despite its priority and a difficult diversion of resources by the Pentagon to ensure its unabated continuance in 2013, the JSF program looked to remain under pressure from further budget cuts in 2014. Whatever budget deals are reached, the pace of change within the F-35 program will have to continue accelerating.”
2. Cyberwarriors—tough training, mentally and financially. NextGov.Com reports, “The Coast Guard Cyber Command aims to qualify a couple of service members for what Pentagon officials have said will be a 2,000-member force within the next two years. It will take all the military services a lot of time and money to get their members qualified for the force. For the Coast Guard, the task is even harder because it has no dedicated cyber school and splits its activities between defense and homeland security. The two-person figure, provided by the Coast Guard’s cyber chief, partly reflects the difficulty of instructing computer whizzes from various educational backgrounds to reach the same proficiency level. It takes resources.”
3. Defeating Heartbleed—it’s simple. VentureBeat.Com’s Harrison Weber explains, “Just about every company and every security expert has said the same thing about passwords for years: You shouldn’t use the same password on every site. You should change them often. Rinse, repeat.”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. Electile Dysfunction: “House Speaker John Boehner has ‘electile dysfunction,’ suggests a new parody-style campaign advertisement from his primary challenger. ‘When the Moment is Right,’ a 60-second YouTube clip posted by the J.D. Winteregg campaign, emulates lines from classic erectile dysfunction ads, including: ‘If you have a Boehner lasting more than 23 years, seek immediate medical attention.’ The Winteregg ad features a disclaimer that makes fun of Boehner’s tan and his ‘inability to punch oneself out of a wet paper bag.’ Boehner, who has served as speaker of the House since 2011, was first elected to Congress in 1990. The Ohio Republican faces Winteregg in the party primary May 6.”
2. Very taxing: “The richest taxpayers will find their wallets hundreds of thousands of dollars lighter this Tax Day. With federal returns due Tuesday, the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center says that a deal struck just months after President Obama’s re-election will force the top 0.1 percent – those making more than roughly $2.6 million a year – to pay an average of around $232,000 more in taxes for 2013. All of the Bush-era tax rates were set to expire at the end of 2012, and in exchange for the extension of most of those rates, Republicans agreed to raise rates on the wealthiest households. The deal raised the individual income tax rates on the highest earners from 35 percent to 39.6 percent.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Time to Rethink NATO.” USNews.Com contributor Lamont Culucci argues, “NATO needs to move from tweaking its missions on the periphery and enter a full blow re-evaluation of its mission, purpose and goals. This will take strong American leadership and an even stronger American commitment.”
2. “Stop Comparing the NSA to 1984 (and Start Comparing It to Philip K. Dick).” The Atlantic contributor Noah Berlatsky argues, “Using Orwell to understand NSA spying, then, ends up functioning as a distortion by metaphor. It suggests that all of us are equally targeted, and that the problem is that all of us are equally targeted—that middle-class non-marginal people are going to be stomped by Big Brother. The truth, though, is that the NSA data will likely be used primarily, as it always has been, against the androids and the Zhangs—which is why we need to try to find a metaphor that addresses not just liberty, but justice.”
3. “Drive Carefully This Tax Day.” Time contributor Dan Ariely argues, “The answer is technologically complex but conceptually simple. The first step is to realize our limitations, and the second is to design tools for the Homer Simpson in each of us. We need devices, alerts, to-do lists and calendars that don’t tax our limited cognitive capacity, but free some of it instead. We need tools that decrease our stress, and we need tools that allow us to make better decisions. And until we get these, lets drive extra carefully this April 15th.”
THE FUNNIES
2. Modern art.
3. Happy Easter.
