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David Wright, director of the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) in the Department Of Health And Human Services, just quit his job in a big way. Wright wrote an insanely blunt resignation letter that was recently published by ScienceInsider. In it, he exposed the dysfunctional bureaucratic red tape that limited him from doing his job more than half of the time.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's national security team discussed the Ukraine crisis in a session at the White House on Saturday after a last-ditch bid to find a diplomatic solution to the Cold War-style standoff with Russia floundered. Secretary of State John Kerry, who just returned from talks with his Russian counterpart in London, was at the White House meeting along with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. Obama did not attend the meeting but was being briefed about it and other developments involving Ukraine, said Laura Lucas Magnuson, a spokeswoman for the White House National Security Council. Crimea's pro-Russia parliament...

U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move likely to please international critics but alarm many business leaders and others who rely on smooth functioning of the Web. Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance last year.

The U.S. government’s plan to give away authority over the Internet’s core architecture to the “global Internet community” could endanger the security of both the Internet and the U.S. — and open the door to a global tax on Web use. “U.S. management of the internet has been exemplary and there is no reason to give this away — especially in return for nothing,” former Bush administration State Department senior advisor Christian Whiton told The Daily Caller. “This is the Obama equivalent of Carter’s decision to give away the Panama Canal — only with possibly much worse consequences.” The U.S....

U.S. officials announced plans Friday to relinquish federal government control over the administration of the Internet, a move that pleased international critics but alarmed some business leaders and others who rely on the smooth functioning of the Web. Pressure to let go of the final vestiges of U.S. authority over the system of Web addresses and domain names that organize the Internet has been building for more than a decade and was supercharged by the backlash last year to revelations about National Security Agency surveillance.

President Obama warned young people that if they don't sign up for Obamacare by March 31, they will face a penalty -- if they can afford it. During an interview with radio host Ryan Seacrest, Obama explained that young people might be charged a fine if they don't get insured. "If you can afford it — you just decide you don't want to get it because your attitude is 'nothing's ever going to happen to me' — then you'll be charged a penalty," Obama explained. Obama was careful to specify that people who can't afford Obamacare will not suffer a...

Since Barack Obama has been in the White House, high ranking military officers have been removed from their positions at a rate that is absolutely unprecedented. Things have gotten so bad that a number of retired generals are publicly speaking out about the “purge” of the U.S. military that they believe is taking place. As you will see below, dozens of highly decorated military leaders have been dismissed from their positions over the past few years. So why is this happening? When I was growing up, my father was an officer in the U.S. Navy. And what is going on...

President Obama worked successfully to end discrimination against gays in the military and moved swiftly to implement a Supreme Court ruling protecting married gay couples from federal discrimination. But gay rights advocates are upset about something he has not done that they say he could accomplish with a pen stroke: an executive order banning federal contractors from discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity. Advocates say an order would provide employment protections for about 11 million workers who currently have none. Many of the nation's largest companies and 21 states, including California, already have policies or laws against sexual-orientation...

Insiders very close to House White House Press Secretary Jay Carney indicate that he’s on his way out of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, The Mirror has learned. Carney has told people he’s leaving the White House soon. In 2008, Carney became Director of Communications for Vice President Joe Biden. In 2011, he became the nation’s 29th press secretary, President Obama’s second, replacing Robert Gibbs. Before that, Carney was a journalist for The Miami Herald and later TIME and CNN. In the last 48 hours, Carney has been getting press attention from outlets like The Weekly Standard and the New York Daily...

Sixty-six percent of Israeli Jews and 53% of Israeli Arabs do not trust US Secretary of State John Kerry to take the country’s security into account in the American negotiating framework agreement he intends to reveal next month. This according to the monthly Peace Index poll sponsored by the Israel Democracy Institute and Tel Aviv University, which was published on Tuesday. Thirty-one percent of Israeli Jews and 32% of Arab Israelis do trust Kerry to take into account Israel’s security. Among Israelis who consider themselves left-wing, the number was 79%, but among right-wingers it was only 19%. Sixty-one percent of...

Dinesh D’Souza, the conservative commentator and filmmaker who was indicted last month on charges of campaign finance fraud spoke out for the first time about his legal troubles on Fox’s Hannity Friday night. His defenders have spent the last few weeks wondering aloud whether D’Souza’s indictment was some kind of retribution from the Obama Administration for his film, 2016: Obama’s America, but now it was his turn. “Now, remember,” Hannity said before introducing D’Souza, “his indictment comes after the IRS harassed conservative groups last year and after the disgraced tax agency recently placed extra scrutiny on a group of conservatives...

Aretha Franklin has much R-E-S-P-E-C-T for President Barack Obama — regardless of his spelling skills. At a White House tribute to the "Women of Soul" last Thursday, Obama dropped the initial "E'' when trying to spell out "respect" as the queen of soul does in her famous song. He was spelling out the word as part of Franklin's introduction. "I'm sure the President had much on his agenda and was just a little tired," the 71-year-old singer said in a statement Monday.

Vacationing in Florida, President Barack Obama continued his telephone consultations with world leaders on Ukraine, speaking one on one Saturday with the leaders of three European powers and collectively with the heads of the three Baltic states, White House said. Obama held individual conversations with British Prime Minister David Cameron, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi and French President Francois Hollande. He also held a conference call with Latvian President Andris Berzins, Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite and Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves. On the conference call, Obama reaffirmed the United States' "unwavering commitment" to its collective defense commitments under NATO and...

Who Will Stop Putin's Aggression I recently posted this article: Why Russia No Longer Fears the West. The author, one Ben Judah, made the point that the West lately projects an image of weakness, and Putin has been emboldened by it. I'd say that the author correctly identified one aspect of Putin's mentality: a thug's respect for another thug, the corollary of which is a thug's dismissal of civilized behavior as weakness. It is from that mental vantage point that Putin developed his recent moxie. The reality is that the West is responding calmly but also firmly. I think that...

March 08, 2014, 02:57 pm Obama links up with celebrities for golf game By Keith Laing President Obama golfed on Saturday with former NBA player Alonzo Mourning and sportscaster Ahmad Rashad after discussing the military tensions in Ukraine with foreign leaders. The commander-in-chief skipped out of Washington this weekend to vacation with his family in Key Largo, Fla. The White House said Obama placed calls to leaders in countries such as Britain, France, Italy, Lithuania, Latvian and Estonia before he hit the links. Obama and the sports figures were joined by Cyrus Walker, who is the cousin of White House...

RNC data operatives will build a list of millions of Americans who lost coverage due to Obamacare .... "It’s early in the process because cancellations are still taking place. We’ve brought in top engineers from LinkedIn, Yahoo, and Facebook to work on the data projects,” RNC Chair Rance Priebus told the Washington Examiner. The Obamacare cancellations stand to play a crucial role in 2014. In Colorado, almost 250,000 people received cancellation notices. Rep. Cory Gardner, R-Colo decided to challenge incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Udall .....after Udall and his office pressed local officials about the validity of the figures, amid reports...

House Approves Bill to Stop Obama's "War on Coal" 07 March 2014 The House has approved a bill to block President Obama's climate plan that aimed at regulating so-called carbon pollution from new power plants.

Obama golfed with Ahmad Rashad, Cyrus Walker and Alonzo Mourning, the White House said.President Barack Obama got out on a Florida golf course Saturday with two former professional athletes and the cousin of one of his top advisers. Obama's foursome included Ahmad Rashad, Cyrus Walker and Alonzo Mourning, the White House said. Rashad is a sportscaster and former NFL wide receiver. Mourning is a former center for the NBA's Miami Heat who has helped raised money for Obama's campaigns. Later this month, Obama is scheduled to headline a fundraiser for the House Democrats' campaign arm at Mourning's Miami home.

(Reuters) - Staples Inc (SPLS), the largest U.S. office supplies retailer, forecast a fall in current-quarter sales as it loses customers to mass market chains and e-retailers, and the company said it would close up to 225 stores in North America by 2015. Staples' shares fell 9 percent before the bell, after the company also posted lower-than-expected fourth-quarter results and forecast current-quarter profit below analysts' estimates. The company operates 1,515 stores in the United States and 331 stores in Canada.

President Barack Obama, the hardest working man in show business, is planning a family weekend vacation in south Florida this Thursday. This comes on the heels of the Obama family’s his & her separate Washington’s Birthday weekend vacations (three weeks ago), which followed on the Obama family’s Hawaii Christmas vacation that First Lady Michelle Obama stayed on well in to January (nine weeks ago) after the rest of the family returned to Washington. CNN Coverage Manager Steve Brusk reported on Twitter: President and first lady go to Miami area for education event tomorrow, and had planned to stay for family...