Funny Mask Day & Tip o’ Tuesday’s Iceberg
FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM
1. Handling rejection – your clearance and you. Contributor Christopher Burgess takes the edge off: “We’ve all been there. The Defense Industrial Security Clearance Office (DISCO) or the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) rejects your applicant’s application package. . . . In this day and age of a highly mobile society, where residence and job change occur more frequently than in the past, the need to have your data complete helps the applicant tremendously – with respect to DISCO – their number one identified issue is incomplete or missing employment information.”
2. Arms around remote workers. Also from Chris Burgess, how to keep your remote workers in the fold: “As an employer, here are important aspects to keep in mind to ensure your remote worker has the tools to be successful, and the company is not put at untoward risk.”
THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT
1. In AFRICOM’s Congo, M23 accept defeat. Reuters’ Pete Jones reports from Kinshasa, “The Democratic Republic of Congo’s M23 rebel group declared an end to its 20-month rebellion on Tuesday and said it was ready to disarm and demobilize troops and pursue a political solution to end the crisis in the east of the country. The M23 declaration was issued hours after government forces drove the rebel fighters out of their last two strongholds at around 3 a.m (7.00 p.m EDT) on Tuesday.” Voice of America reports, “Congolese government spokesman Laurent Mende said many rebel fighters were surrendering after government soldiers seized control of Tshanzu and Runyoni. Mende said the Kinshasa government was ready to pursue peace talks.”
2. Common sand with Saudi Arabia, once again. Aljazeera.Com reports, “The US Secretary of State John Kerry, on a visit to Saudi Arabia, has insisted that the two allies agreed on the ‘goal in Syria’. The visit is the first since the Saudis were angered by the US decision not to bomb Syria in the wake of a chemical weapons attack on the outskirts of Damascus in August. . . . Prince Saud said the differences with the US were mostly on tactics rather than on goals, and that such disagreements were a normal part of relations between any two countries.”
3. Rasmussen cites significant progress among Afghan National Security Forces. Khaama.Com reports, “While speaking during a press conference Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that the Afghan security forces will have the capabilities to control the security situation beyond 2014. Rasmussen further added that the Afghan national security forces are in a better situation as compared to previous years and they will be able to take full security lead as planned by the end of 2014. . . . the international community including NATO are confident that the Afghan national security forces will have full capabilities to control the security situation across the country. Rasmussen said that the Afghan national security forces will be able to fight major challenges if they continue to receive similar support as they are receiving now.”
4. Pakistan and Taliban moving forward in peace talks. UPI.Com reports from Islamabad, “The Pakistani Cabinet announced it will pursue peace talks with the Pakistan Taliban, whose leader Hakimullah Mehsud was killed in a U.S. drone strike. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who called Monday’s special Cabinet meeting in the wake of Mehsud’s death last week, told the meeting: ‘Pakistan has the right to take its decisions on its own according to its interests’ . . . . The Sharif government, which opposes the U.S. drone campaign, has been pursuing peace talks with the Pakistan Taliban, also called the Tehreek-i-Taliban. The Mehsud killing has been strongly criticized in the country, with some Pakistani leaders saying the attack had sabotaged the dialogue process and calling for a review of their country’s relations with the United States.”
5. Wounded Vet comes home, thanks to nonprofit. CronkiteNewsOnline.Com’s Elisa Cordova reports, “Tears streamed down Richard Neider’s face as his wheelchair rolled through the front door of his new home and he saw hardwood floors. . . . Those and other custom features, including lower light switches, wider doors and roll-under sinks, turned this house into a home for Neider, a former Army sergeant wounded while on active duty. Neider, his wife and two children received the 2,278-square-foot house free of mortgage thanks to a homebuilder’s partnership with Operation Homefront, a national nonprofit assisting troops and their families. It’s the first home the family has owned.”
CONTRACT WATCH
1. DARPA – still a driving force in science. NextGov.Com contributor Bob Brewin reports, “The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has launched a program that aims to use shared, multi-disciplinary brain research data and analysis tools to — among other things — develop quantitative characterizations of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury.”
2. $455 million Monday. Fool.Com contributor Rich Smith reports, “The Department of Defense announced 10 new defense contracts, worth $455.1 million in aggregate, Monday. The bulk of these funds — $262 million and change — went to privately held Pacific Unlimited to pay for a five-year contract for support of U.S. Navy, Air Force, and federal civilian agencies in Guam. But a handful of publicly traded companies also won contracts . . . .”
TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY
1. No place sorta-like home. UPI.Com contributor Kristen Butler: “The latest findings from data collected by NASA’s Kepler spacecraft, now crippled and its mission completed, show there are many more potentially habitable planets in our galaxy than we realized. About one in five stars similar to our sun — 22 percent, plus or minus 8 percent — harbor Earth-sized planets in Earth-sized orbits.” And Reuters reports, “One in five Milky Way stars hosts potentially life-friendly Earths.” So, pollute away! There’s always somewhere to go.
2. District tech giants – enough is enough. NextGov.Com contributor Dustin Volz reports, “The most recent round of National Security Agency revelations have prompted major tech firms to publicly take a stronger stance against government surveillance activities, an escalation that could portend a shift in the way Silicon Valley does business in Washington. A group of six tech behemoths—Google, Yahoo, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, and America Online—sent a letter to lawmakers last week calling for legislation to curtail the NSA’s authority. The companies specifically championed the Freedom Act, introduced by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and former House Judiciary Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., with support from more than 80 cosponsors, for ‘making an important contribution to this discussion.’”
POTOMAC TWO-STEP
1. It’s good to be king – Pentagon police force chief Steven Calvery sure things so: “Five witnesses told the inspector general that Calvery’s staffers brought him lunch and coffee every day, and that some of them weren’t too happy about it. One unidentified witness testified that Calvery would often pre-order his lunch from the Air Force or Navy mess at the Pentagon and then his staffers would have to pick it up (no explanation for why Calvery avoided Army chow). The boss always paid for his meals and lattes, but the inspector general chided him for misusing his subordinates to cater to him.” Sooooo . . . what’s the problem? At least the staffers have jobs.
2. Ahhhhhhhhhh, attribution . . . ok. So, plagiarism isn’t . . . ok. Got it: “The publisher of Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s 2012 book Government Bullies is updating future printings to include attribution to a Heritage Foundation case study and report by a Cato Institute scholar he plagiarized. The copied work ran more than three pages. . . . Senior fellow at the Cato Institute Mark Moller told BuzzFeed he had not given anyone permission to reprint any parts of an article he wrote in the National Wetlands Newsletter.”
OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS
1. “Afghanistan: Seen Through the Lens of Anja Niedringhaus.” Powerful opinion of images.
2. “U.S. Mideast policy: Keeping our friends closer.” Reuters contributor Brenda Shaffer argues, “The United States does not need to lose its longtime allies in the Middle East and beyond in order to promote human rights and democracy. In fact, U.S. allies will be more likely to undertake political reform if they feel that Washington is a close partner.”
3. “How Obama Can Help Iraq.” DefenseOne.Com contributor Stephanie Gaskell argues, “The Pentagon has been operating in Iraq, with small special operations forces units and counterterrorism teams. Beyond sending Apache helicopters and other military equipment, these specialized forces are Obama’s only choice to help Iraq from spiraling back into chaos.”
THE FUNNIES
1. Remember, remember . . . remember what?
3. Oh, I remember.
