I do not understand why these people are not just hired as contractors or DA civilians?

Patriotic hackers, your big belly may no longer hinder national security.

Over 70 percent of Americans between ages 17 and 24 can’t become soldiers, the U.S. Army reports, because of three big issues: obesity, lack of education, and criminal records. Overweight problems are growing the fastest of all with around a quarter of teens and young adults qualifying as obese, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Weight issues result in 18 percent of military recruiting disqualifications but the number is rising and expected to hit 25 percent by 2025.

The situation is particularly harrowing when it comes to cyberwarfare, one of the crucial military arenas of the 21st century. So in response to the great fattening of America’s potential cybersoldiers, the U.S. Army may relax physical requirements in order to recruit the very best. (Daily Dot)

You can read more at the link.

It looks like the rent to own companies who base their business model on receiving high interest payments from servicemembers will need to comply with new rules capping interest at 36%:

Defense Department officials have proposed sweeping new rules that would limit the amount of interest that could be charged to service members and their spouses on most forms of credit — including credit cards.

The new rules “would reduce predatory lending practices, significantly expand the protections provided to service members, close loopholes in current rules, and help to ensure military families receive the important consumer protections they deserve,” defense officials said Sept. 26.

The Military Lending Act of 2006 was designed to cap loan interest rates for service members at a 36 percent annual percentage rate, and Congress gave DoD broad authority to define the types of loans covered under the law, with the exception of real estate loans and purchase-money loans such as vehicle loans.

In its basic concept, the move was unprecedented on a national scale for any other segment of the population. But when DoD wrote up its regulations implementing the law in 2007, it limited the types of credit covered to payday loans, car title loans and refund anticipation loans — a decision that has been routinely criticized by consumer advocates in the years since.

The new proposed rules would expand the types of credit covered to include those that are subject to the Truth in Lending Act, except for loans secured by real estate or other property, such as a loan to purchase a vehicle. Certain fees must be included in calculating the annual percentage rate. (Army Times)

You can read more at the link, but prevention by educating servicemembers on these high interest schemes should be part of the solution as well.

Via One Free Korea comes news of just how stupid former North Korea detainee Jeffrey Fowle is:

An American who is back home after being detained in North Korea says he left a Bible in a nightclub hoping it would get into the hands of the underground Christian church.

Jeffrey Fowle said Friday that he left the Bible under a trash bin at a nightclub in the northern port city of Chongjinin in an effort “to spread the Gospel out to the remote corners.”

Fowle arrived in North Korea on April 29. He was detained after North Korean officials found the Bible.

Fowle said he had left his name in the Bible and hoped a Christian would find it.

Fowle was detained for nearly six months. He returned to his home in Ohio last week after negotiations involving retired diplomat and former Ohio Congressman Tony Hall. [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link and according to this interview he did he is not sorry for his action as at all.

I think One Free Korea sums up quite well at his site Fowle’s stupidity.

Here is another story of a servicemember sent to jail on he said, she said evidence and he didn’t even commit a physical assault:

A hard-charging senior enlisted leader finds himself suddenly sidelined in his mission and his stellar career, ordered home from the war zone amid an investigation into a criminal record arising out of a domestic confrontation a full decade ago.

The probe into the 2006 civilian prosecution of then-Tech Sgt. Eric Soluri highlights the Air Force’s ongoing challenges in fully and fairly holding airmen accountable for their conduct. It’s a responsibility under heightened scrutiny today as all services work to eliminate a reputation for minimizing conduct and policies harmful to women. And it underscores how misconduct by some airmen may fall through the cracks as hundreds are being kicked out of an Air Force cutting end strength by separating those who have had even minor blemishes on their service records.

Whether Soluri’s civilian prosecution escaped the full notice of his chain of command or was ever part of his Air Force record is unclear. However, he quickly recovered from an incident that could have ended his career to a fast track to E-9.

In November 2004, when he was working as an E-6 recruiter in Massachusetts, he threatened to bash in the head of his former girlfriend with a candle jar. The woman, a staff sergeant at Hanscom Air Force Base, told authorities they’d been arguing when he demanded she rub his feet and dance naked for him. She refused. Soluri was convicted in a civilian courtroom two years later of threatening to commit a crime. He served 14 days of a six-month jail sentence and was court-ordered to attend a batterers program and undergo a psychological evaluation.

His career should have been over. Soluri himself expected as much, and unsuccessfully petitioned the judge to remove the jail time from his record. But he remained in the Air Force, and just months after he walked out of jail, in June 2007, he was selected for promotion to master sergeant.Soluri was promoted two more times, to the top one percent of the enlisted force, at a time when the slightest infraction — failed PT tests or administrative discipline, for example — has ended the careers of thousands of airmen.  [Air Force Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but Soluri denied what the girlfriend claimed:

When interviewed by the detective in January 2005, Soluri denied the allegations. He said the woman made up the story because Soluri had threatened to tell the staff sergeant’s leadership about her alleged drinking problem. Soluri also accused his former girlfriend of striking his son from a previous marriage.

Morrison reported those allegations to local child and family services officials, but the matter was dropped.

So the only evidence used to convict the NCO was the girlfriend’s testimony about a threat and he did not even physically assault her while his testimony about her committing child abuse was dropped.  I do not know who is telling the truth, heck they both could be lying, but this is another perfect example of how hard these domestic violence cases are to adjudicated.  That is why his leadership at the time likely let him stay in the Air Force instead of taking action to kick him out.

What I am wondering is what Soluri answered on this security clearance background check in regards to whether he was convicted of committing a crime.  If he lied about that then he should be charged.  Even if he was honest about his prior conviction and did nothing wrong to cover it up, his career is likely over after all this negative publicity.

The balloon activists have appeared to have given into not North Korean threats, but rather South Korean governmental pressure for the vague hope that North Korea will agree to Inter-Korean talks:

South Korean activists pledged Monday to continue their anti-North Korea leaflet campaign in a low-key manner for the time being, despite a growing inter-Korean feud over the sensitive issue.

A number of activist groups, including the key player Fighters for a Free North Korea (FFNK), have often launched balloons carrying propaganda leaflets across the border to spread anti-Pyongyang messages targeting the North Korean leader and the country’s dictatorship.

The propaganda campaign, often preannounced and widely covered by local and overseas media, has recently been at the center of the inter-Korean row, with North Korea threatening not to hold dialogue with the South unless it is stopped.

“In the future, the spreading of anti-North leaflets by defector groups will be conducted behind the scenes, taking into consideration more effective methods (of campaigns) as well as the safety of residents (at the border area) and direction of the wind,” the activist groups said in a statement.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

ROK, Dutch sign $23 million deal to upgrade atomic reactor in Netherlands http://t.co/Sv2J0Um1a3

— KEI (@KoreaEconInst) November 3, 2014

A recent poll shows that the U.S. public is strongly supportive of the U.S. military’s Asia pivot:

New analysis of the Chicago Council survey results on Asian issues by Dina Smeltz and Craig Kafura shows that over three-fifths of Americans now express support for the U.S. rebalance to Asia and that American favorability toward its two closest American allies in the region, Japan and South Korea, have reached their highest levels since the poll was started. Sixty-two percent of Americans recognize that Japan is one of America’s top ten trading partners and 64 percent support a long-term U.S. military presence in South Korea. (Defense One)

Though a high percentage of the public supports troops in Korea, less people have a favorable opinion of South Korea compared to Japan:

Analysis of the Chicago Council poll results for Japan by Michael Green of CSIS underscores the high level of trust among Americans toward Japan, rating Japan fourth globally in favorability (at 62 out of 100) behind only Canada (79), Great Britain (74), and Germany (65). …………

My review of the Chicago Council poll results for Korea shows a growing gap in American favorability toward South Korea (55 out of 100) versus North Korea, which at 23 out of 100 scored the lowest favorability among nations included in the poll.

You can read more at the link.

I think this just shows how powerful name recognition can be in a national election because I cannot think of one thing Ban Ki-moon has done at the United Nations that is noteworthy other than being the first Asian Secretary General:

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s confidants have sounded out the possibility of Ban’s running for president in his native South Korea, an opposition politician claimed Monday, despite Ban’s apparent objection to get involved in local politics.

Ban’s second five-year term is set to end at the end of 2016, a year before South Koreans go to the polls to elect a new president who will replace President Park Geun-hye.

Park’s single five-year term ends in early 2018, and by law, she cannot seek re-election.

Kwon Roh-kap, an adviser to the main opposition New Politics Alliance for Democracy, claimed people seen as confidants to Ban discussed the possibility of Ban’s running for South Korea’s top office on the opposition ticket.

He said he told Ban’s confidants that he respects the U.N. chief and that the opposition should ask Ban to join the party and compete in the party’s primary for the presidential nomination for the election.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.