We do not have, at 12 o’clock today, a Secretary of Defense.Harry Reid, revealing today that Senate Republicans have rounded up the 41 votes necessary to block the nomination of Chuck Hagel to the Defense Department. Today is outgoing Defense Secretary Leon Panetta’s last day on the job; if Republicans make good on their threats during Hagel’s confirmation vote tomorrow—and this is certainly a big “if”—it will be the first time a nominee for Secretary of Defense has been filibustered, and the country will be left without a Defense Secretary. A couple of Republican senators have threatened to block Hagel’s nomination unless the Obama Administration releases more information about the attack last year on the American consulate in Benghazi, an incident with which Hagel was wholly uninvolved. A Hagel spokesman said today that despite the threats of his former colleagues, the Nebraska Republican is not withdrawing his nomination. source
Why it didn’t go down: ”The White House stalled the proposal because of lingering questions about which rebels could be trusted with the arms, whether the transfers would make a difference in the campaign to remove Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad and whether the weapons would add to the suffering,” according to the WSJ’s sources. The proposal’s existence was made public yesterday for the first time at John Brennan’s Senate confirmation hearing. source [paywall]
I think what SEALs are good at is what I consider pickup basketball. We all know how to play the game. You know, our- you hear the saying in the team says can you shoot, move, and communicate? So we all know how to shoot. We all know how to move efficiently and tactically. And we can communicate clearly. So when something goes sideways, we’re able to play the pickup basketball and just kind of read off each other.“Mark Owen” • Describing what makes a Navy SEAL team efficient under pressure, such as in the shooting of of Osama bin Laden, which he took part in. The pseudonymed Owen, who is facing the threat of a lawsuit from the Pentagon over his book “No Easy Day,” showed up on “60 Minutes” for the full hour this evening — and CBS has a massive interview to prove it. Thirteen pages. That should keep you defense nerds busy for a while.
“No Easy Day” for Pentagon: The Pentagon wasn’t quite ready for an unauthorized biography written by an anonymous Navy SEAL. “Sensitive and classified information is contained in the book,” says Pentagon spokesperson George Little. The book, “No Easy Day,” describes the fateful mission that led to the death of Osama bin Laden last year. The author wrote the book under an anonymous guise, but Fox News revealed his identity last month. The man’s lawyer says the Pentagon “invites but by no means requires” publication review, though Little suggests the author violated a non-disclosure agreement. (photo by Peter Foley/EPA)
The Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency warned its employees and contractors last week to stop using their government computers to surf the Internet for pornographic sites, according to the agency’s executive director.
In a one-page memo, Executive Director John James Jr. wrote that in recent months government employees and contractors were detected “engaging in inappropriate use of the MDA network.”
“Specifically, there have been instances of employees and contractors accessing websites, or transmitting messages, containing pornographic or sexually explicit images,” James wrote in the July 27 memo obtained by Bloomberg News.
“These actions are not only unprofessional, they reflect time taken away from designated duties, are in clear violation of federal and DoD and regulations, consume network resources and can compromise the security of the network though the introduction of malware or malicious code,” he wrote.
Haven’t Pentagon officials ever heard of Websense? More importantly, if this is all that’s going on behind closed doors at the Missile Defense Agency, does Russia really need to be worried about our expansion of the project?
» Those far away can make more. Hardly seems fair, right? That’s what the Pentagon thought too, and in a new review, officials recommended wages be increased for soldiers on the front lines — with more going to those in danger zones — as well as offering them more tax breaks on their income, which is already not very highly taxed. But even that is fraught with issues — high-ranking soldiers can make $15,000 per year in refundable tax breaks, while army privates would make just $1,000 per year. Either way, the topic is a touchy subject for soldiers — especially those off the front lines, who would likely protest a cut in pay. As a result, that’s not on the table.
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Terrible things are happening in Syria. But no worries! John King will soon be back at the “Magic Wall” where he will hopefully magic wall up some way to keep all those people from dying.
This is what John King had to break from to tell us about purple Santorum. Because, honestly, why wouldn’t you want to turn away from Syria to tell us about a non-binding primary and two relatively small caucuses?
See this model plane here? It was a terror threat. This model plane was reportedly owned by a 26-year-old Massachusetts musician (and apparent lone wolf terror suspect) named Rezwan Ferdaus, who wanted to use this model plane (and another one) to blow up the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol. Obviously, it would’ve been loaded to the gills with explosives … if Ferdaus’ plan actually worked. See, the guys he was reportedly working with? He thought they were al-Qaeda operatives. Actually, they were FBI. Oops. Ferdaus also reportedly built some cell phones modified to blow up roadside bombs in Afghanistan. However, he also handed those to the FBI. source
Keeping an eye on several live feeds from New York, Arlington and Shanksville as the country remembers 10 years since September 11, 2001.
Watch live feed from New York | Watch live feed from Arlington | Watch live feed from Shanksville
Listening to the listing-off of the victims from the New York memorial. So many names.
The Pentagon is hiring “Internet meme trackers”
Memeagon. Pentalol.
Urlesque writers are the Navy SEALS of animated GIFs.
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