Friday the 14th

FROM THE DESK OF CLEARANCEJOBS.COM

1.  John’s fantasy: taking the unicorn by the horns. Contributor John Holst spins a yarn about a job seeker who finds Unicorn Corp: “It’s as if I’d always been in a bad relationship, and then witnessed a couple who really loved each other.  I thought items such as courtesy, consideration, and consistent following up on promises were things of fiction regarding company interviewing practices.  But the hiring ‘rainbow unicorn’ exists.  And I want to work for it. As a result, I’ve become more discriminating in where I apply.”

2.  How to be a Unicorn Corp. Contributor Jillian Hamilton on ways to attract top talent: “Filling open positions with critical thinkers starts in the interview process. Hiring managers should assess both a candidate’s skills, and their critical thinking abilities. If hiring managers want to compete for top talent such as cybersecurity professionals, they’ll need their hiring practices to be as dynamic as the career field itself.”

THE FORCE AND THE FIGHT

1.  Russian sanctions—locked and cocked. AP’s Lara Jakes and Cassandra Vinograd report, “With little hope of halting a vote to separate a strategic Ukraine peninsula from the rest of the country, the West is readying to impose harsh sanctions on Russia for what U.S. officials described as Moscow’s insistence in undermining the new upstart government in Kiev, and fueling tensions among those who oppose it. . . . the Crimea vote seem[s] all but a done deal—and experts said it would almost certainly result in breaking away from Ukraine.”

2.  Drones—death from above. Aljazeera.Com reports, “The UN special investigator on counterterrorism has expressed his concern over civilian deaths from drone strikes in Yemen and Afghanistan, but says there has been a ‘significant de-escalation’ in civilian casualties recorded in Pakistan. UN special rapporteur Ben Emmerson presented his report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Wednesday, highlighting at least 59 civilian casualties in 19 drone strikes in 2013 in Afghanistan, a significant rise on the previous year.” LongWarJournal.Org’s Bill Roggio and Oren Adaki report on recent drone activity in Yemen.

3.  Military strategy—hobbled by sequestration. American Forces Press Service’s Jim Garamone reports, “If sequestration begins again in fiscal year 2016, the U.S. military will not be able to carry out defense strategy, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel told the House Appropriations Committee’s defense subcommittee [Thursday] morning. A return to sequester would put at risk ‘America’s traditional role as a guarantor of global security, and ultimately our own security,’ Hagel said. . . . ‘I believe this budget has to be far more than a set of numbers or just a list of decisions,’ the secretary said. ‘It is a statement of values. It’s a statement of priorities. It’s a statement of our needs. It’s a statement of our responsibilities.’” DefenseOne.Com’s Jordain Carney reports, “Pentagon officials have said that they are holding off on releasing the overseas contingency operations budget—which oversees war funds—until after a bilateral security agreement with Afghanistan is signed. If completed, it would determine U.S. military involvement in the country after 2014.”

4.  Global Strategic Landpower Network. DefenseNews.Com’s Paul McLeary reports, “Preparing for the start of a series of hearings before Congress to discuss his fiscal 2015 budget, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno struck a cooperative tone in remarks at a Washington think tank Thursday, stressing joint solutions to future conflicts. The chief unveiled what he called the Global Strategic Landpower Network, which he said is being discussed among the Joint Chiefs of Staff. . . . the nascent Global Strategic Landpower Network he had briefly described ‘is not about positioning ourselves for the budget, this is about trying to develop concepts for how we believe landpower should be used in the future.’”

CONTRACT WATCH

1.  Lockheed’s Littorals. Zacks.Com reports, “Defense behemoth Lockheed Martin Corp. (LMT – Analyst Report) won a major contract from the Pentagon . . . with an award valued at $698.9 million. . . for the construction of two Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The Naval Sea Systems Command, Washington, D.C., is the contracting authority. This contract calls for Lockheed Martin to perform basic seaframe construction on two LCS, purchase select systems equipment for installation aboard the vessels, and integrate and test this equipment.

2.  Defense industry eggs in the future technology basket. AviationWeek.Com’s Amy Butler, Michael Bruno, and Michael Fabey report, “The Obama administration’s fiscal 2015 base budget request of just over half a trillion dollars includes the gutting of major U.S. Air Force and Army aviation fleets, delays to Navy aircraft efforts and slips for satellites, but it also attempts to preserve funding for future technology. . . . These are all clear enticements to industry and its powerful lobbying arms. But the success of the OGS fund relies on the willingness of Congress, including tax-shy House Republicans, to approve it . . . .”

TECH, PRIVACY, & SECRECY

1.  Zuckerberg on Obama on Spying on the Internet. Time’s Denver Nicks reports, “Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post to the social network Thursday that he called President Obama in exasperation at the threat he believes mass surveillance poses to the future of the Internet. ‘I’ve called President Obama to express my frustration over the damage the government is creating for all of our future. Unfortunately, it seems like it will take a very long time for true full reform,’ Zuckerberg writes. In a statement, the White House confirmed the conversation took place.” Lending credence, Christian Science Monitor’s Mark Clayton reports, “The National Security Agency is attempting to dramatically expand its espionage activities, implanting malicious software on potentially millions of computers worldwide, according to a new batch of leaked top secret documents.”

2.  IBM goes for the gold. FederalTimes.Com’s Michael Hardy reports, “IBM is trying to set a big data speed record with a technological advance that increases Internet transfer rates by as much as 400 gigabits per second.”

3.  iPhone’s autocorrect demystified. Wired.Com’s Christina Bonnington explains, “I don’t know about you, but sometimes my iPhone’s autocorrect drives me ducking crazy. . . . Turning off autocorrect completely is an option, too, if you’re fed up with the system entirely. But no matter how frustrated I get with autocorrect fails, it’s still far superior to no autocorrecting feature at all — at least in my experience.”

POTOMAC TWO-STEP

1.  A teeny, tiny percentage: “White House press secretary Jay Carney confirmed Thursday that the Obama administration withheld a ‘tiny percentage’ of documents from a Senate investigation into torture practices, citing ‘executive branch confidentiality issues.’ The administration chose not to turn over 9,000 documents to the Senate Intelligence Committee, McClatchy first reported. Carney on Thursday did not confirm nor deny the figure but conceded that the White House had not given everything requested by a Senate panel probing torture by U.S. forces under President George W. Bush.”

2.  Beating dead ponies: “House Speaker John Boehner suggested the Republican Party’s long-standing opposition to President Obama’s health care law will again be a central campaign strategy during the fall’s congressional elections. . . . ‘Don’t underestimate the amount of impact that Obamacare is having on the job market,’ the speaker said. But House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., scoffed at the notion that the Affordable Care Act doomed Sink, who lost to Jolly by two percentage points in the historically Republican St. Petersburg-area district.”

OPINIONS EVERYONE HAS

1.  “Can Congress control the CIA?Reuters contributor David Wise argues, “The constitutional struggle for control continues between the CIA and the Senate. While the outcome remains uncertain, none of this should be entirely surprising in a democratic system that rests on separation of powers among the executive, congressional and judicial branches of the government. That, after all, is how the framers of the Constitution designed it. But they didn’t know that the work of Congress could one day be ‘classified’ and kept secret from the public.”

2.  “On uses and abuses of historical memory.Aljazeera.Com contributor Vladimir Golstein argues, “Comparing Russia to Nazi Germany is not only a historical mistake but also immoral abuse of the memory of millions.”

3.  “Russia’s cyber weapons hit Ukraine: How to declare war without declaring war.Christian Science Monitor contributor Alec Ross argues, “By targeting the Ukrainian government with a cyber weapon, the Russians are able to effectively engage in an aggressive, kinetic act without actually declaring war, or other countries reacting like it is an act of war.”

THE FUNNIES

1.  High standards.

2.  Snoopy as Congress.

3.  New of the World.

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Ed Ledford enjoys the most challenging, complex, and high stakes communications requirements. His portfolio includes everything from policy and strategy to poetry. A native of Asheville, N.C., and retired Army Aviator, Ed’s currently writing speeches in D.C. and working other writing projects from his office in Rockville, MD. He loves baseball and enjoys hiking, camping, and exploring anything. Follow Ed on Twitter @ECLedford.