Attorney General Pam Bondi made it unanimous on Thursday, joining fellow Cabinet members in dissing Gov. Rick Scotts removal of Gerald Bailey from his perch atop the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"Attorney General Bondi is dissatisfied with the manner in which this matter was handled," stated Bondi spokeswoman Jenn Meale in an email to the Times/Herald.

Meale sent the one-sentence statement on Thursday, joining Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam, who made similar statements.

Its quite the turnaround for all three, who only two days before unanimously supported Scotts appointment of Rick Swearingen as Baileys replacement.

What made their reversal all the more remarkable was that Bailey, by Tuesday, had said he had been forced out by Scott. He even stated that Scotts general counsel told him in December that the governor had the concurrence of all three cabinet members.

Bondi refused to answer questions on Tuesday about whether she communicated with Scotts administration about removing Bailey, or if she asked why he was being removed. Like Putnam and Atwater, Bondi expressed no reservations at the time about the shakeup.

That was then. Since then, a media firestorm has erupted as revelations suggest the personnel move was politically motivated.

So if all three are now expressing concerns about how Bailey was removed, will they reconvene the Cabinet, as they have the power to do, to reconsider the issue (and help disprove growing evidence that they are a tool of the Governor)? Are they now saying that Scott did not have their concurrence on removing Bailey? Or did Scott have their concurrence, but only because he misled them?

The public awaits more information...

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Cabinet Trifecta: Bondi shares misgivings about Bailey ouster

Former Chief Financial Officer Alex Sink sent a message to her successors on the state Cabinet on Wednesday, admonishing them for allowing the governor to unilaterally make the decision to replace the head of the state's law enforcement agency which under the Florida Constitution they, as a group, oversee.

"The thing Im most distressed about is, in order to terminate the head of a Cabinet agency, you need the governor or one other person -- or you need three votes,'' Sink told the Herald/Times, referring to the surprise ouster by Gov. Rick Scott of Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Gerald Bailey.

"It looks like the governor on his own decided he was going to fire Jerry Bailey but you cant do it that way,'' said Sink, a Democrat who oversaw FDLE for four years as a member of the Cabinet and lost to Scott in a bid for governor in 2010. "Thethree Cabinet officers are independently elected and they need to start standing up and take responsibility for it. One of them had to agree to it."

After voting to approve the Scott-picked replacement of FDLE on Tuesday, Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam on Wednesday said he was misled by the governor and his staff. Putnam, however, did not call for restoring Bailey's term or for replacing him with someone other than Rick Swearingen, the governor's former FDLE escortwhom Scott chose to succeed Bailey.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said after the Cabinet meeting that she was told that Bailey had voluntarily resigned, as did Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater.

"For me as a public citizen. I want to know which of the three of them agreed to terminate Jerry Bailey,'' she said. "One of them had agreed to terminate him."

Unlike the cabinet structure in many other states, the Florida Constitution requires that the FDLE report to the governor and the Cabinet and the hiring, and firing, of the FDLE commissioner must receive unanimous approval of the Cabinet. The Cabinet is comprised of the agriculture commissioner, the CFO,the attorney general and the governor, who gets a super-vote in the event of a tie.

The shared-control of the agency was designed to make it more difficult for a single officer to control and politicize the law enforcment arm charged with investigating corruption and state-level crime.

FDLE is currently charged with investigating nearly 100 inmate deaths that occurred in Florida prisons, which are under Scott's control. It has also been asked to investigate allegations that the governor's office has destroyed public records, or intentionally failed to turn them over in violation of the state public records act.

"The Florida way is, we have never politicize law enforcement,'' Sink said. "Maybe they do that in Louisiana where all those staff people come from. Jerry Bailey had incredible respect. He didnt have a political bone in his body."

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Alex Sink: Cabinet officials are not telling whole story on FDLE's Bailey

If the departure of Gerald Bailey as the Commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement suggests anything, its that the states government is not working as it should.

The states three cabinet members are not gubernatorial appointees but independently elected to constitutional offices. They therefore directly serve the voters -- not Gov. Rick Scott.

Yet one wouldnt know of this autonomy from how the Cabinet -- Attorney General Pam Bondi, Chief Financial Officer Jeff Atwater and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam -- responded to questions about why Bailey was leaving. Even though they each share authority over the hiring of the FDLE chief, all three expressed little to no interest into his sudden departure, ceding complete control to Scott.

According to Bailey, he was forced out by Scott and was told by General Counsel Pete Antonacci that he had the concurrence of all three Cabinet members.

When confronted Tuesday about Baileys allegation, Scott told reporters that Bailey had resigned. Only later in the day, after social media and blogs relayed Baileys counter narrative, did Scotts office correct the record with a vague statement that Scott actually did make the move: Gov. Scott thinks its important to frequently get new people into government positions of leadership.

Despite this confusion over the shakeup of an agency they oversee, Cabinet members repeated Scotts narrative after unanimously approving Baileys replacement during Tuesdays meeting.

When asked after the Cabinet meeting, all three Cabinet members responded in ways that even suggest they were cribbing off the same memo that Scott was using.

Echoing Scotts sentiment that Bailey did a great job, Putnam said he served Florida in an outstanding way, Atwater said he had served admirably and Bondi said he was an amazing man. He was so good, in fact, that Bondi said she and her staff were planning to honor him in some way. To further emphasize that she thought highly of Bailey, Bondi actually said I think the world of Commissioner Bailey five separate times in response to various questions during a 60-second stretch of a two-minute interview.

So if Bailey was THAT good, nobody had any questions about why he was leaving? Did anyone ask? Atwater said he didnt. Bondi didnt answer the question, responding instead, apropos of nothing, that I can tell you that Ive known Commissioner Bailey for many years.

Although Scott later acknowledged, sorta, that Bailey hadnt willingly resigned, Bondi and Atwater said that Bailey had in fact resigned.

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Is Cabinet doing its job as a check on Gov. Rick Scott?

Answering questions on the cabinet meeting in the Bundestag on Wednesday, Germany's Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said that while the plan wouldn't put a complete stop to travels by German islamists, it would certainly lower the number of departures by making it more difficult to leave the country.

"In the situation we're in right now, effective measures that reduce the problem and not completely solve it are still sorely needed," de Maiziere emphasized.

Without a regular ID, extremists cannot leave the country to fight alongside Islamic State (IS) militants in Syria or Iraq. When they return, trained in war and terrorism, these fighters pose a great potential threat to Germany.

The measure comes exactly one week after the attack on French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" by Islamist extremists, who killed 12 people last Wednesday (07.01.2015) and whose accomplice shot one police woman and four hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris.

Stopping radical Islamists from leaving Germany, however, is not a new discussion. Merkel's government has to adopt stricter measures in order to comply with the UN "Foreign Fighters" resolution that the Security Council passed in September 2014. All UN member states must make sure that their legal systems provide for the prosecution of travel for terrorism or related training. Since this resolution was passed, the German government has been looking into how existing laws could be modified or expanded.

German ID's special role

The first idea was to mark the IDs of potentially dangerous individuals. This was cast aside in favor of replacing the ID with a substitute document.

German intelligence agencies closely monitor radical Islamists

"We don't want terrorism to be exported. We don't want men and women to be radicalized here and to travel to Syria and Iraq to come back here ready to fight and to plan attacks," Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere said when first introducing the concept of the replacement ID in October 2014.

The issue is especially tricky in Germany, because every German citizen gets an ID, or "Personalausweis," when they turn 16 and must present it when signing a cell phone contract, renting an apartment, or opening a bank account. So far, authorities are not allowed to confiscate these IDs.

See the rest here:
Germany closer to confiscating Islamist IDs

Although she touts herself as a transparent Attorney General, Pam Bondi continued to prove otherwise after Tuesday's Cabinet meeting.

She is the top law enforcement official in Florida and works closely with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, yet Bondi hasn't said a peep publicly about the abrupt departure of Commissioner Gerald Bailey.

Bondi is no bystander. As a member of the Cabinet, she is one of four votes of the FDLE Commissioner position. Without providing a public explanation, she voted Tuesday to appoint Bailey's replacement, Rick Swearingen.

With Bailey now telling Times/Herald Capitol Bureau Chief Steve Bousquet that he was forced out, what does Bondi have to say about her role? Has she communicated at all with Gov. Rick Scott's administration on Bailey's departure? Or does she not know,ceding her duties to Scott? Did she ask Scott any questions about why Bailey, after three decades with the FDLE, was suddenly leaving?

Bailey told Bousquet that Scott's general counsel told him that Scott had the support of Bondi and the other two cabinet members (CFO Jeff Atwater and Commissioner of Agriculture Adam Putnam) in ousting him.

So how did Bondi explain her role to reporters after Tuesday's Cabinet meeting? She didn't.

Question: Youre in law enforcement, you havent said anything about (Baileys) exit. Can you shed a little light on your feelings of Bailey leaving the FDLE?

Bondi: Oh, I think hes an amazing man. Its interesting because I almost talked about him today.

Question: Why didnt you?

Bondi: It escaped me. They kept going. But hes a very private man. But Ive been talking to my staff about doing something in his honor.

Read more from the original source:
Bondi stonewalls on questions about exit of FDLE's Bailey

Theres nothing like installing kitchen cabinets to transform your kitchen from ordinary to extraordinary. Just make sure you talk with the professional kitchen cabinet installers at The Home Depot before you begin. Well provide you with kitchen cabinet installation that lives up to your dreams for many years to come.

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Installing Kitchen Cabinets | Kitchen Cabinet Installation ...

Three months after a drawn-out and controversial election, analysts give Afghan President Ashraf Ghani's performance mixed marks. While they credit him for his work ethic and eagerness to make necessary changes, the former finance minister and World Bank economist is also under fire for failing to form a cabinet at a crucial time for the country.

Ghani came to power in September 2014, following a disputed poll overshadowed by fraud claims which only ended when he and his electoral rival Abdullah Abdullah signed a power-sharing deal to form a national unity government. The US-brokered agreement also created the position of chief executive officer, a post akin to prime minister, which was filled by Abdullah.

One of Ghani's first acts during his first 100 days in office was to sign the Bilateral Security Agreement (BSA) with the United States, which former Afghan President Hamid Karzai had refused to sign. The BSA not only ensured that US and NATO troops could remain in Afghanistan, but also removed a significant thorn in the US-Afghanistan relationship.

The US-brokered agreement between Ghani and Abdullah created the position of chief executive officer

A 'welcome change'

Furthermore, Ghani spent his first two months acting on a clear reform agenda. He not only announced plans for sweeping political changes, but also re-opened an investigation into the Kabul Bank scandal, all of which were well received. The president also spent a good deal of time traveling abroad seeking to convince key allies that he was serious about implementing these changes.

"All in all Ghani has in many respects established himself as a welcome change from his predecessor, Hamid Karzai. He has proven to be a tireless worker and extremely hands-on and done well managing, at least publically, the awkward power-sharing arrangement hatched with CEO Abdullah Abdullah," Jason Campbell, an international security expert at the US-based RAND Corporation, told DW.

The problem is that Ghani, while being decisive and reform-oriented, has so far acted alone. He has failed to agree on a cabinet with Abdullah. While this may have allowed Ghani to act with a great deal of flexibility and decisiveness in the short-term, analysts believe that the ensuing problems may quickly undermine the legitimacy of this government and the two men who are supposed to lead it.

No ministers

Moreover, experts are of the view that the political vacuum also threatens to hamper the fight against a resurgent insurgency. According to media reports, many Afghans are attributing the ongoing economic and security crisis to the fact that no ministers have been appointed to oversee these important ministries.

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No cabinet in sight as Ghani marks 100 days as Afghan president

(MENAFN - Daily News Egypt) The government has begun to remove all obstacles impeding implementation of the National Roads Project to begin expropriating for the public benefit, according to Prime Minister Mehleb. This will provide adequate compensation and expedited customs procedures to release the equipment necessary to carry out the project.

According to a cabinet statement, the Prime Minister, along with Transportation Minister Hany Dahi, reviewed the situation for each road and means to overcome their various obstacles. The project will cover 1,250km and 13 roads divided into 22 projects, with 16 companies carrying out the work.

Dakar Abdellah, a member of the Egyptian Union of Construction & Building Contractors and the Construction Committee of the Businessmen's Association, said that the National Roads Project's bitumen needs are estimated at approximately EGP 750m per month. This is for a total of nearly EGP 6bn when the project is finished next September.

In a Wednesday press statement, Abdellah stressed the need for bank financing to be integrated. He pointed out that a large amount of bitumen is required to implement this mega-project, and that utilising three layers of asphalt will require implementing 670,020 tonnes of bitumen.

He emphasised that the project would be implemented by September 2015 as per the schedule, as President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi wants 208,752 tonnes of bitumen supplied per month.

Total production for Egyptian laboratories, in addition to bitumen imports, reach approximately 84,490 per month.

Mehleb stressed the need to ensure safety and security during implementation of these projects, while simultaneously paying attention to quality. He warned that low-quality implementation for any project would not be acceptable, and requested that any company that finds itself unable to implement the project leave the work to others.

"We must set out modified timelines for road projects which will be followed-up on weekly," Mehleb said, emphasising that each company head would be responsible for the details of each project.

On Tuesday evening, Mehleb met with the Minister of Transportation at his ministry's headquarters in addition to General Authority for Roads, Bridges, and Land Transport (GARBLT) officials and officials from companies undertaking the project in order to follow up on the progress of implementation of the road network within the framework of the project.

During the meeting, those present reviewed the situation of five roads in the Project's framework that have operated unhindered.

Read more from the original source:
Egypt- Government begins accelerating implementation of National Roads Project: Cabinet

Published on January 05, 2015

Ron Clarke

Published on February 13, 2014

Julian Fantino

SYDNEY Cape Breton veterans advocate Ron Clarke said he isn't optimistic anything will change as a result of Monday's cabinet shuffle.

"We didn't lose anything by having him (Fantino) fired, and we didn't gain anything either by them putting in (Erin) O'Toole. I can't put all the blame on (Fantino) because Mr. Harper runs the show and they'll do what Mr. Harper tells them to do," he said in a phone interview with the Cape Breton Post on Monday afternoon.

For more coverage, click HERE

Clarke, who was named newsmaker of the year by the Cape Breton Post last week, has become a household name when it comes to cuts to Veterans Affairs. He led his charge to the nation's capital where he met with parliamentarians, senators and other officials to protest cuts made under Fantino's leadership. He has asked for the reopening of eight Veterans Affairs offices that were closed last year, including the one in Sydney.

"It's not a democracy, especially when Harper says 'Jump' and they say 'How high?'" Clarke said.

Clarke said he doesn't have high expectations for Fantino's replacement, O'Toole.

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Cape Breton veteran reacts to cabinet shuffle

Patna: It was a hectic Monday for Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi - ducking a shoe and later the accusation that he was trying to "run out" his boss, Nitish Kumar, by sledging his cabinet colleagues.

"Nitish is my captain and he has given me the chance to bat, so I'm doing the batting and at a time, four players can't bat at the crease," Mr Manjhi told reporters at the weekly Janta Durbar - the public meeting he holds every Monday at his home in Patna.

Yesterday, accusing some of his cabinet colleagues of doubting his ability to perform, Mr Majhi had said some people say he was playing test cricket and others say One Day International and T20. "But I'll deliver on my promises irrespective of whatever version of the game I get to play," he had said.

"Only when I get bowled out, the Captain will think of replacement. But it remains to be seen whether I will get out or not," Mr Manjhi further said today.

Amid this, a man was arrested after he threw a shoe at the Chief Minister, which missed its mark. The man has been identified by the police as Amitesh, who is from Chhapra.

As he was being led away by the police, Amitesh reportedly alleged how his grievances had not been addressed despite attending the meeting for the last two years. The man was also accusing politicians of indulging in casteism, said Senior Superintendent of Police Jitendra Rana.

After initial interrogation, police sources said he had been involved in two cases. Once he had even been sent to jail for travelling on train without a ticket. It is possible that he is mentally disbalanced, an officer said.

The 'Janta Darbar' was started by Mr Manjhi's predecessor Nitish Kumar a few years ago, where the chief minister listens to grievances from the public.

Confirming that a slipper was indeed thrown, Mr Manjhi said an inquiry will "reveal the truth".

The rest is here:
Bihar Chief Minister Ducks Shoe, Bouncers on Nitish Kumar