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Strategic considerations for the post-reform environmentMarch 27th, 2010 Milliman today identified a number of strategic considerations for the post-reform environment: - - The health insurance industry will face intense regulatory scrutiny at both the state and federal level. While new regulation does not necessarily go into effect immediately, it is clear that health insurers now face increased scrutiny and a new layer of regulatory complexity. Health plans will have to focus on minimum loss ratios and administrative efficiency and will have to balance challenging cost dynamics against the need for affordable policies. - State exchanges will change competition. The creation...

Israel remains a strategic ally of the United States, the US State Department reaffirmed Monday amid a dispute over Israeli plans to build settler homes in east Jerusalem.

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan, Oct. 21, 2009 – U.S. and Afghan officials joined local residents in the Anaba district of Afghanistan’s Panjshir province Oct. 8 to officially open a spur connecting the historic Daraband pass to the main road in the Panjshir River valley. James DeHart, director of the provincial reconstruction team in Afghanistan’s Panjshir province, speaks at the grand opening of Khermensan Road in Panjshir’s Anaba district, Oct. 8, 2009. U.S. Air Force photo by Capt. John T. Stamm  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The Daraband pass is the strategic connection between the Shomali Plain and the Panjshir Valley,...

WASHINGTON, May 4, 2009 – U.S. military strategic focus is shifting from Iraq to Afghanistan, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said at a news conference today. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen also said he is very concerned about Taliban advances in Pakistan, and that officials in Pakistan and the rest of the region must be patient and persistent. “We stand ready, and we have stood ready, to assist the Pakistanis in their fight against this common enemy of ours,” Mullen said. The chairman, who returned from a trip to the region last week, said the U.S. strategic focus...

TBILISI, Georgia, March 31, 2009 – The United States and Georgia will continue to work on a strategic partnership over the coming years, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said here yesterday. Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright is visiting the former Soviet republic to meet with senior military and civilian officials, traveling to both Tbilisi and Gori. During his visit to Gori, Cartwright toured an old tank battalion base and a field artillery base. At both locations, he was able to see first-hand destroyed buildings and military equipment from the Russia-Georgia war in August over...

Strategic Vision (R) 10/27 - 10/29 1200 LV 3.0 49 44 Obama +5 NBC/Mason-Dixon 10/27 - 10/28 625 LV 4.0 47 43 Obama +4

A Georgian Foreign Ministry official said Friday Georgia is to recall all diplomatic staff from its embassy in Moscow because of the Russian military presence in Georgia. Nato Chikovani says Georgia will withdraw its staff on Saturday, following a parliamentary vote in favor of the move on Thursday. Russian news agencies cite Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nestrenko as criticizing the move, saying it will not benefit bilateral relations. Georgia is angry at the lingering presence of Russian troops in Georgia despite Russia's promise to withdraw in accordance with an EU-brokered cease-fire. Also on Friday, officials in South Ossetia said...

Strategic Petroleum Reserve I have wondered if any single Representative in Congress could possibly be as dumb as all of them. Every once in a while I get my answer and the answer is yes. I have listened to the Democrats inform us that increasing the supply of oil by drilling will not alleviate the problem of high energy cost. I hear them expound relentlessly why building more refineries will not be helpful. Nuclear energy is out of the question they preach. Wind power might be acceptable as long as Senator Kennedy can’t see them. Some insist energy prices are...

Russia, EU launch talks on new strategic relations09:45' 28/06/2008 (GMT+7) European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, Prime Minister Janez Jansa of Slovenia and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana (R-L) meet the media after the two-day Russia-EU summit in Khanty-Mansiysk, central Russia, June 27, 2008. Russia and the EU announced here Friday that they will open talks on new strategic relations in coming days.(Xinhua Photo) The Russia-EU summit concluded Friday in Russia's West Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk, with the issuing of a joint statement saying that Russia and the European Union (EU) will hold the...

Words matter, and in the global war on terror we are losing the battle of words, in a self-inflicted defeat. The consequences could not be more profound. Recent government policy memoranda, circulating through the national counter-terrorism and diplomatic community, establishes a new "speech code" for the lexicon in the war on terror, as reported by the Associated Press and now available in the public domain . These new "speech codes" recommended that analysts and policy makers avoid the terms jihad or jihadist or mujhadid or "al-Qaida movement" and replace them with "extremists" and by extension other non-specific terms. The use...

The last time strategic oil reserves were released was in 2000 by Clinton and oil was at around $27 per barrel. With the overall psychological effect of high gas prices, what could be better than finally crashing oil prices? The price of oil is not justified by any economic variable, even the president of Chevron has said there is no oil shortage, there are no lines at any gas station, usage overall is down! This market is being manipulated, by hedge funds and tyrants. Can anyone give me a reason not to use this tool?

Press Release: New Zealand Government Strategic assets to be protected in national interest Greater protection for New Zealand’s major strategic assets will be delivered by new Overseas Investment provisions announced by Finance Minister Michael Cullen today. A new regulation under the Overseas Investment Act 2005 was introduced by Order in Council today. The regulation will bolster the factors Ministers may take into account when considering overseas investment applications that affect a very narrow range of strategically important assets. The changes have been made in response to the uncertainty and debate that have emerged surrounding the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board’s...

Gulf Region North district encompasses 66,000 square miles in seven of Iraq’s 18 provinces, north and east of Baghdad. Its four strategic cities are Mosul, Samarra, Kirkuk and Baqubah. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has project and construction management responsibility for the Iraq Reconstruction Program; and it assists Iraq’s provincial governments as they assume responsibility for managing their infrastructure development, and the capability to sustain it. COB SPEICHER — In the city of Samarra, Iraq, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has completed 40 of the 45 planned projects in the Iraq Reconstruction Program. “We’re joining the Iraqi people...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - - Long-range Russian bombers are flying more often and closer to US territory, a top US commander said Tuesday, as Moscow made its latest show of military might with exercises over the North Pole. General Gene Renuart, Commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) and US Northern Command, the agencies charged with protecting US and Canadian airspace, said that US forces would continue to monitor the activity. "Over the last few months the Russian air force has been flying a little bit more than we've seen in the past; certainly they're ranging farther than they have...

Al-Qaeda supporters working at strategic sites By Ben Leapman, Home Affairs Correspondent, Sunday Telegraph Last Updated: 1:19am BST 29/04/2007 Suspects linked to al-Qaeda have obtained sensitive jobs in vital industries that could be the target of terrorist attacks, it can be revealed. The individuals were uncovered by police and the security services in operations designed to protect key British sites such as transport hubs, power stations and the water supply. Security chiefs believe that they may have become radicalised while already in employment, thus evading the strict vetting procedure for applicants for security-sensitive posts. Following the discovery, the Government is...

ONDON: Information chips implanted in the brain. Electromagnetic pulse weapons. The middle classes becoming revolutionary, taking on the role of Marx's proletariat. The population of countries in the Middle East more than doubling, while Europe's drops as fertility falls. "Flashmobs" - groups rapidly mobilised by gangs or terrorists. This is the world in 30 years, as envisaged by a British Ministry of Defence team tasked with sketching the likely "future strategic context" for the country's armed forces. It includes an "analysis of the key risks and shocks". Rear Admiral Chris Parry, head of the ministry's Development, Concepts and Doctrine Centre,...

U.S. Must Move to Full Missile Defense by Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.Posted Oct 09, 2006This week, HUMAN EVENTS begins an occasional series of exclusive articles in which leading conservatives who served in the Reagan Administration explain how they believe the principles of Reagan conservatism ought to be applied today and in the coming years. This week, Frank Gaffney, who served in Reagan’s Defense Department, addresses the issue of missile defense. Ronald Reagan is now esteemed around the world for having the vision and the leadership skills to bring about the demise of the Soviet Union. He is less widely appreciated...

Keep the faith platform | BG Deshmukh September 7, 2006 The story of India’s strategic programmes is not well documented. Part of the reason is that protagonists do not talk. Even if they want to, they are handicapped by the Official Secrets Act that follows signatories to the grave. Given these limitations, a few defence analysts and retired officials like me have tried to describe the projects as best as we could without compromising on national security. At the best of times, it is not an easy job. At worse, it can turn into imaginings. Even though scientists at the...

Lost in Space By Henry F. Cooper and Robert L. Pfaltzgraff Jr.,The Wall Street Journal, reprinted in Missile Threat.com in toto, August 31, 2006 Consider the implications of North Korea's July 4 missile tests. While the Taepondong-2 failed, Pyongyang has already demonstrated (in 1998) that it can launch long-range rockets. Meanwhile, the six short- and medium-range missiles it successfully tested can be sold to other rogue states and terrorists -- who could launch them at us from ships off our coasts. When North Korea launched its missiles in July, what President Bush has properly termed our "modest" missile-defense system was...

The bottom-line is the Army is broken; our enemies know it and see it and the "Peace Dividend" got us here. Some peace. That also means the President's military and strategic options become increasingly confined and non-conventional. However we can get "strategically unfixed."