Salt Lake City International Airport Closed

Salt Lake City International Airport in the summer

Salt Lake City International Airport was closed for about three hours, on Thursday.

The airport, city, and area are experiencing freezing rain.

Authorities closed the airport after a plan slid while taxiing, after landing.

All three runways were shut down, from about 10:00-13:00 MST.

Most flights were just delayed, but some were outright cancelled.

Flights that were headed to Salt Lake City, during the closure, were redirected.

Europeans and Americans Warned to Get Out of Benghazi

Benghazi, Libya

Several European countries and the US have warned their citizens to get out of Benghazi.

Britain was the first, followed quickly by Germany and the Netherlands, and then the US joined as well.

Citing a "specific and imminent" threat, against Westerners, their governments told people to avoid the city.

They did not share the specifics of the warning, or who it came from, nor why they're singling out Benghazi, rather than all of Libya.

Other western nations are expected to join in the warning.

France and Italy ordered their citizens out of all of Libya, last week, after the deadly hostage taking in Algeria.

Most countries only have a couple dozen citizens in Libya, most of whom are aid workers or teachers.

Benghazi was the scene of the burning of the US consulate, and death of four Americans, last year.

North Korea Threatens The US

North Korea has announced that they will once again test a nuclear bomb.

They continued to say that they will test more rockets as well.

The country also pledged to build up it's arsenal, of nuclear weapons.

In their statement they went on to say that war with the US would be a necessary eventuality, for them.

Their statement called the US a country which had been an enemy for centuries.

It was by far the most antagonistic statement of Kim Jong Un's reign.

ATF and Denver Police Close Bomb Factory

ATF agents worked with Denver police, Thursday morning, as they dealt with a home that was being used as a bomb factory.

Agents and officers served a federal warrant against a home at 4648 South Swadley Way, about 07:00 MST.

One person was arrested, at the scene.

It took several hours for explosive experts to safely enter the home.

Once inside, they found several explosive devices ready to do, as well as a workshop for creating more.

The explosives were taken to an empty area and safely detonated.

US Army Sergeant Mark Schoonhoven

US Army Sergeant Mark Schoonhoven, thirty-eight, of Plainwell, Michigan, died on Sunday, from wounds sustained.

He died at Brooke Army Medical Center at Fort Sam Houston, Texas.

While on patrol, his unit was hit with an improvised explosive device, on December 15, 2012.

It was his third deployment to Afghanistan.

Schoonhoven was assigned to the 32nd Transportation Company, 43rd Sustainment Brigade, 4th Infantry Division, at Fort Carson, Colorado.

His decorations include two Army commendation medals, a National Defense Service Medal, and a NATO Medal.

RNC’s Growth and Opportunity Project Wants Your Input For Developing an Action Plan

Last month, Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman, Reince Priebus, launched an initiative focused on enlarging the Republican Party and improving future GOP campaigns.

Known as the Growth and Opportunity Project, it is chaired by five Republican leaders who will be charged with reviewing past practices and making recommendations.  The recommendations will involve the following key areas:

1) Campaign mechanics and ground game
2) Messaging
3) Fundraising
4) Demographic partners and allies
5) Third party groups
6) Campaign finance issues
7) Presidential primaries
8) Lessons learned from Democratic campaign tactics

The Project is chaired by five Republican leaders: Henry Barbour, Sally Bradshaw, Ari Fleischer, Zori Fonalledas and Glenn McCall. Input and insight will be sought from Republicans across the country. The Growth & Opportunity Project is currently reaching out to RNC members, grassroots activists, donors, elected officials, community leaders and others in order to develop a solid plan for the future.

The project is interested in hearing your ideas. You can let your voice be heard by completing the following survey.

Watch the Growth & Opportunity Project Video:

US Women to Be Officially Allowed Combat Roles

In a joint decision, the Pentagon and Defense Secretary Panetta, announced that women will no longer be barred from serving in combat roles.

The 1994 ruling, that they couldn't serve in combat, will slowly be overturned, throughout 2013, as women are gradually allowed to serve in any role.

Women have seen combat, despite the ruling, due to the nature of war.

One hundred and thirty-nine women have been killed in combat, since the 1994 ruling, and over eight hundred women have been wounded in combat, during Afghanistan and Iraq.

For the US, women have been officially serving in military branches since World War I, and having been dying in combat since then.

Many other countries already allow women to serve in combat roles, Israel being the most noticeable.

From The Mouth Of Matuszak: The Difference It Makes, Mrs. Clinton

Clinton At Flag Ceremony For Ambassador Rooney, Jan. 9, 2013

Many on both sides of the aisle are deflated over today's testimony in the Benghazi investigation. Some on the left were expecting full vindication with blame stuck on the penny pinching right. Conservatives were expecting a grueling cross examination designed to drag Clinton to confess to criminal negligence. Others were hoping she'd just walk in, ticked off and tie the albatross to Obama's neck.

None of the above happened.

Barbara Boxer asked Clinton about financing, budgetary shortfalls, and the actual costs of private, usually local, security companies.

Let's recall Clinton's ire coming out of allegations of impropriety from the Blackwater corporation. Blackwater provided security services for various government contractors and non-military US government personnel operating in hostile areas. Somewhere in the debacle, Clinton convinced the powers that be to hire local and non-US security personnel to guard and secure our facilities. These include our military installations in Kuwait and other government offices in countries such as Jordan, Egypt, Libya, Lebanon, Qatar, etc. However, law and defense policy dictate that the US Marines have the Embassy missions as well as the spearhead for any NEO (Non-Combatant Evacuation Operations) missions.

This is something even Hollywood gets somewhat correct. Refer to movies such as "Bourne Identity" and "Rules of Engagement". The plot of ROE concerns a Marine Corps (Mr. Obama, that's "corps", not "corpse") Officer put on trial for ordering his unit to fire on terrorists that were attacking an embassy during an NEO mission. That attack started as a protest over some issue or other. Sound familiar to anyone?

When it comes to the financing of security forces, the bottom line answer is that those funds should have been DoD funds for the US Marines, not State Deptartment funds for private bodyguards. At that, the issue is clear and is moot. It's a tap dance.

Of course, it's part of the left's agenda to weaken our military and cut defense spending. The main reason behind doing so is that defense spending is mandated by the one document the left hates: The US Constitution. Paying for programs such as TANF and EBT cards that keep people oppressed and enslaved are not. So, their foundational ideal is that anything mandated by the Constitution is bad and any government spending that is not are "social justice".

So, the socialists bolstered up to protect Mrs. Clinton. They attempted to put forth the meme that it was all funding and failure of underlings to follow policy and protocol.

During the hearing, a rather emotional Clinton uttered a statement that was just ludicrous. She posed the question, "At this point, what does it matter if the attack was the result of a protest over a video or a planned terrorist attack?".

Clinton is not that stupid. She is trying to obfuscate reality. She is attempting to cover her own backside while maintaining party loyalty. She knows. The simple truth is that if she admitted that it was a terrorist attack that she'd have to answer hard questions on why appropriate protective measures were not taken. It would be admitting fault, either hers or Obama's.

That attack happened. Looking at the news reports and published debriefings from those who survived, it is obvious that an Al Qaeda affiliate had this attack planned. The video served as the perfect excuse. They organized the protest. It was organized before the excuse presented itself. It could have been that video. It could have been a blog written by Pam Geller. It could have been the attempted extradition of an Al Qaeda linked imam from the UK to the US. So many excuses were available. They picked one and had that protest serve as a diversion while they attacked and assassinated our ambassador.

Why this matters is simple. They blamed a video, then the intelligence community.

Meanwhile, the conservatives fear the finger pointing over the budget cuts and lack of spending for those private security firms. They have no backbone. They fear retribution from the Clintons, the Heinzs, the Obamas, and the Kennedys. They want to protect their own political clout. What they fail to realize is that, should it all come out eventually, that their lack of candor and personal courage will lead to their facing hard primaries as incumbents come re-election time.

Please Read The Full Original Article and Commentary Originally Published At P-G Matuszak's Mental Aikido. This Excerpt Reprinted With Permission.

Netanyahu Retains Prime Minister Spot

Voting was closer than expected in Israel's parliamentary elections.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's party did come out with the most votes, thirty-one, but that was a loss of twelve.

Despite the loss of seats, he will be asked to form the new government, retaining his position as Prime Minister.

Netanyahu has been called the best man for the job, even by some of his opponents.

Coalitions will be more important than ever as the one hundred and twenty seats, in the Knesset, were nearly evenly divided.

With the ultra orthodox generally siding with the right wing parties, and the Arab parties going with the center left, many issues may see themselves divided directly in half.

This could bring a very dead locked body.

It will really be left to see how much his opponents actually meant it, when they said that he was the one Israel needed.

House Passes New Debt Ceiling Increase

The US House of Representatives has passed a debt ceiling raise.

It passed with a vote of 285-144, still unpopular despite having been proposed by some Republicans.

No trouble is expected for it, in the Senate, and President Obama has already said he would sign it.

Under the bill the debt ceiling is now raised until May 18.

Both the House and Senate are required to come up with budgets by April 15, or the salaries of that body will be stopped, until they can do so.

The Senate has not passed a budget since 2009, despite the House doing so, repeatedly.
However, it could be a struggle to get even that far.

On March 1, the "fiscal cliff" will strike again, if something isn't done by then, and then on March 27, the government will run out of money, with which to stay open.