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«Updated Daily« |
Saturday February 4, 2012
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Made in the USA since 1998
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While the Obama White House trumpeted the U3 Unemployment Rate of 8.3%, the all inclusive SGS Alternative Unemployment Rate stands at a dismal 22.5%, am increase of 0.1% over December 2011.
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GOP Rep. West: Obama's Declining
Unemployment Numbers Don't Add Up
The New Media Journal
Rep. Allen West (R-FL) is calling into question the Obama Administration's newly released January unemployment numbers; unemployment numbers presented as in decline. And Rep. West is not alone. Critics from talk radio hosts like Rush Limbaugh to university professors, such as William Darity of Duke University are skeptical of the sudden and dramatic drop in unemployment numbers, especially among the urban American-African community. Some critics are going as far as to charge that the Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics is playing fast and loose with statistical data for political reasons. In response to news that the unemployment rate had dropped to 8.3% and the unemployment rate in the urban American-African community declined from 15.8% to 13.6%, West addressed the very real possibility that the numbers might have been "cooked." "Can someone tell me how employment in the black community has improved at a rate three times the national average in just a few months??" West mused. "With numbers like today, urban communities should be well on their way to economic recovery then!" |
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How About Letting Us
Make Our Own Choices
Frank Salvato, Managing Editor
On a stage adorned with American flags and amid the glitter of Las Vegas, Donald Trump, who had been threatening a third party run for the presidency, revealed he is endorsing Mitt Romney for president of the United States. Earlier in the day it had been rumored that ‘The Donald’ would be endorsing New Gingrich but that turned out to be false. Whether ‘The Donald’s’ gurus in media attention planned the “mistake” we will probably never know. A more valid question is this. Why should we care who Donald Trump endorses for President? To say that ‘The Donald’ has a penchant for attracting the white-hot lights of media attention would be to state the blatantly obvious. For months Mr. Trump advanced the idea that he might enter the race for the presidency but whenever pushed to declare “yea” or “nay” alluded to the ridiculous notion that his contract with NBC wouldn’t “allow” him to run...equal time restrictions, don’t you know. Right. And if you believe that...well, “you’re fired!”
There’s a Difference
Between Vetting & Smearing
Frank Salvato, Managing Editor
Call it wishful thinking. Call it expecting the campaigns to honor what the American people have been demanding for several election cycles. Call it what you will, but I admit, I am one of the life-long Conservatives and Republicans who finds the attack ad blitz being perpetrated by our GOP presidential candidates against one another over-the top and, quite frankly, embarrassing. It is one thing to illuminate an opponent’s past record, even his past behavior where it applies to his ability to execute elected office, but it is quite another to engage in the slash-and-burn, win-at-all-cost political tactics of the Progressive Left. We, as Conservatives and as Republicans are better than that...we have to be. The recent exchanges between Mitt Romney and Newt Gingrich about lobbying, taxes, who is more Conservative than who, etc., serve as a perfect example of destruction (read: negative) politics.
 Editorials
Decade's Lesson: Ideology is
al Qaeda's Power Not Leaders
Dr. Walid Phares
Ten years have slipped by since Osama bin Laden’s jihadists massacred thousands of men, women and children in the northeastern United States, prompting the start of what Americans came to know as the War on Terror. The current administration, however, insists on more benign terminology, choosing for political reasons to describe the conflict as an “overseas contingency operation,” and a “war against al Qaeda.” But are we making progress in this conflict, whatever the name? Gaining an objective assessment begins with asking the right questions. Has the decade-long global confrontation with al-Qaeda been an actual war, or a series of US-led military operations against a single terrorist organization? Has al-Qaeda been acting alone against the US, or is it merely one among many in an expansive network of jihadists? Is it US policy that incites jihadists, or a sui generis ideology with a centuries-old agenda?
The Story of Taraneh Mousavi
Amil Imani
Rape is a cruel violation of a helpless victim. In addition to the physical torment involved, rape reduces the victim to subhuman status. Under the barbaric rule of the Mullahcracy in Iran, however, sexual assaults have become instruments of policy for extracting false confessions, satisfying the boundless sadisms and sexual perversities of the jailers, punishing the helpless victim and leaving each of them with a sense of dehumanization. These horrors keep playing out, unabated, in the streets, prisons and dungeons of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The 19-year old beautiful Taraneh was not shot with a single bullet to her chest as was the case with Neda Agha Sultan. There were no bystanders in the dungeon with a cell phone to capture the prolonged torture, rape, and sodomy of this teen-ager. On June 28, 2009, Taraneh Mousavi, a young Iranian woman, was literally scooped off the streets without any provocation on her part and with no arrest warrant. This young woman was taken to one of the Islamists torture chambers where she was repeatedly brutalized, raped, and sodomized by Ahmadinejad’s agents and with the consent of the “supreme leader” Ali Khamenei.
Agenda-Driven ‘Science’ at EPA
Paul Driessen
In December 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency released new Clean Air Act “National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants.” Once again, EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson touted the supposedly huge benefits of controlling emissions of mercury (Hg) and other air toxics from U.S. coal- and oil-fired power plants (or electric generating units, EGUs). The people of Idaho may welcome this new rule, since EPA’s miraculous modeling machine has promised to prevent “six premature deaths” and create “up to $54 million” in health benefits by 2016 -- even though not one coal-fired EGU in Idaho fits the EPA’s final rules. Even the District of Columbia, which has only one oil-fired unit, will somehow, magically realize “up to $120 million” in health benefits, presumably from new restrictions on coal-fired units in Maryland or Virginia.
Jim Limber Davis:
Mrs. Robbin's Wonderful Story
Calvin E. Johnson
On the morning of February 15, 1864, Mrs. Varina Davis, wife of Southern President Jefferson Davis, had concluded her errands and was driving her carriage down the streets of Richmond, Virginia on her way home. She heard screams from a distance and quickly went to the scene to see what was happening. Varina saw a young black child being abused by an older man. She demanded that he stop striking the child and when this failed she shocked the man by forcibly taking the child away. She took the child to her carriage and with her to the Confederate White House. Arriving home Mrs. Davis and maid 'Ellen' gave the young boy a bath, attended to his cuts and bruises and feed him. The only thing he would tell them is that his name was Jim Limber. He was happy to be rescued and was given some clothes of the Davis' son Joe.
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| Analysis |
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▪ GOP Rep. West: Obama’s Declining Unemployment Numbers Don’t Add Up
▪ SEC Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks
▪ Links Between Drug Cartels, Jihadists Growing at Alarming Pace
▪ Russia, China Block Anti-Assad Resolution at UN Amid Syrian Massacres
▪ Chinese Buying Record Quantities of Gold
▪ Israel: Iran’s Nuclear Arms Program Complete, Missiles Can Reach US
▪ UN Panel Ignores Sovereignty: ‘Retool World Economy for Sustainability’
▪ US Suspects Iran Is Aiding Al Qaeda
▪ Bribery, Corruption at Holder Justice Department?
▪ Congress Warns Holder Over ACORN Payola
▪ S&P Warns of Cuts; Another US Downgrade Looms
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Russia, China Block Anti-Assad Resolution at UN Amid Massacres
AP/FOX News
Pres. Obama and other world leaders condemned the "unspeakable assault" Saturday by Syrian forces on the city of Homs, a sustained attack that activists say killed more than 200 people in what may be the bloodiest confrontation of the uprising against Bashar Assad's regime. The assault sparked fierce international outcry ahead of a meeting Saturday of the UN Security Council, where the US and other nations pushed for a vote on an Arab League-backed resolution calling for Assad to step down. Obama, in perhaps his most forceful statement to date about the unrest in Syria, accused the Assad regime of having "murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children" in Homs. Russia and China vetoed the Security Council resolution. The other 13 council members, including the US, France and Britain, voted in favor.
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Chinese Buying Record Quantities
of Gold
Forbes.com
This month, the Hong Kong Census & Statistics Department reported that China imported 102,779 kilograms of gold from Hong Kong in November, an increase from October’s 86,299 kilograms. Beijing does not release gold trade figures, so for this and other reasons the Hong Kong numbers are considered the best indication of China’s gold imports. Analysts believe China bought as much as 490 tons of gold in 2011, double the estimated 245 tons in 2010. “The thing that’s caught people’s minds is the massive increase in Chinese buying,” remarked Ross Norman of Sharps Pixley, a London gold brokerage, this month. “No asset is safe now,” said the PBOC’s Zhang Jianhua at the end of last month. “The only choice to hedge risks is to hold hard currency -- gold.” Analysts jumped on his as proof that China is in the market for gold.
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| International |
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Links Between Drug Cartels, Jihadists Growing at Alarming Pace
The Washington Times
Collaboration between Latin American drug cartels and groups such as Iran's Quds Force and the Islamic terror group Hezbollah is growing “far faster than most policymakers in Washington, DC, choose to admit,” a former US intelligence official testified Tuesday. Michael A. Braun, former chief of operations and intelligence for the DEA, told lawmakers that the operational capability of such groups is being “strengthened by the close relations that they are working hard to develop with very powerful organized criminal organizations in our neighborhood and throughout Latin America.” The ultraviolent Los Zetas Mexican drug cartel and others “allow them to operate freely in our neighborhood, and they’re getting closer to our doorstep,” he said during a hearing by the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
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US Suspects Iran Is Aiding Al Qaeda
FOX News
US officials say they believe Iran recently gave new freedoms to as many as five top Al Qaeda operatives who have been under house arrest, including the option to leave the country, and may have provided some material aid to the terrorist group. The men, who were detained in Iran in 2003, make up Al Qaeda's so-called management council, a group that includes members of the inner circle that advised Osama bin Laden and an explosives expert widely considered a candidate for a top post in the organization. The assertions are likely to amplify tensions between Washington and Tehran. A US Senate committee has moved to intensify sanctions to force Iran into negotiations on its nuclear program. Tehran has defied pressure. This week, Iran prevented UN inspectors from gaining access to nuclear sites and scientists.
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| Islamist Terror |
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SEC Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks
The New York Times
Even as the Securities and Exchange Commission has stepped up its investigations of Wall Street in the last decade, the agency has repeatedly allowed the biggest firms to avoid punishments specifically meant to apply to fraud cases. By granting exemptions to laws and regulations that act as a deterrent to securities fraud, the SEC has let financial giants like JPMorganChase, Goldman Sachs and Bank of America continue to have advantages reserved for the most dependable companies, making it easier for them to raise money from investors, for example, and to avoid liability from lawsuits if their financial forecasts turn out to be wrong. An analysis of SEC investigations over the last decade found nearly 350 instances where the agency has given big Wall Street institutions a pass on those or other sanctions.
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Bribery, Corruption at Holder Justice Department?
The Daily Caller
A US Justice Department source has told The Daily Caller that at least two DoJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted. The sitting governor of the US Virgin Islands, his attorney general and an unspecified number of Virgin Islands legislators also accepted bribes, the source said, adding that US Attorney General Eric Holder is aware prosecutors and elected officials were bribed and otherwise compromised, but has not held anyone accountable. The bribed officials, an attorney with knowledge of the investigation said, remain on the taxpayers’ payroll at the Justice Department without any accountability. The DoJ source said Holder does not want to admit public officials accepted bribes while under his leadership.
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| Government & Politics |
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S&P Warns of Cuts; Another US Downgrade Looms
CNBC
Concerns over the size of United States debt reared their head once again as ratings agency Standard & Poor’s warned that healthcare costs for a number of highly-rated Group of 20 countries, including the US, could hurt growth prospects and harm their sovereign creditworthiness from the middle of this decade. S&P downgraded the United States credit rating for the first time ever in August of last year. "Governments' fiscal burdens will increase significantly over the coming decade, with the highest deterioration in public finances likely to occur in Europe and other advanced G-20 economies, such as Japan and the US," S&P said in a statement on Tuesday. Healthcare costs for a typical advanced economy will stand at 11.1 percent of gross domestic product by 2050, up from 6.3 percent of GDP in 2010, S&P said.
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Ind. Governor Signs Right-to-Work Bill
AP/The Washington Times
Indiana became the Rust Belt’s first right-to-work state in a move that is sure to embolden advocates seeking to curtail union rights across the country. But whether other states can replicate the conservatives’ success in Indiana is less certain. The political factors that aligned in Indiana were so unique, and it is unlikely the same thing could happen in other states -- at least for now. Gov. Mitch Daniels‘ signature Wednesday on the bill that made Indiana the nation’s 23rd right-to-work state was the end of a contentious two-year political battle that included partisan bickering, lawmaker walkouts, legislative stall tactics and union protests. In the end, Indiana marked the first win for national right-to-work supporters who tried in vain last year to push the measure despite a Republican sweep of statehouses nationwide in 2010.
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| National & Local |
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UN Panel Ignores Sovereignty: ‘Retool World Economy for Sustainability’
AFP/Yahoo! News
The world can no longer afford to ignore the environmental cost of economic growth and must redefine the very concept of national wealth, a UN panel of heads of state and environment ministers said Monday. The panel challenged leaders to recognize that "current global development is unsustainable...We need to chart a new, more sustainable course for the future, one that strengthens equality and economic growth while protecting our planet," UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said in Addis Ababa to mark the release of the panel's report, which outlines more than 50 policy recommendations. By 2030, the report warned, the planet will need at least 50 percent more food, 45 percent more energy and 30 percent more water. These needs are emerging "at a time when environmental boundaries are throwing up new limits to supply," it said.
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Democrat Harkin: Force Banks to Write Off Loans
The Washington Examiner
Escalating Pres. Obama's bid to help Americans holding mortgages bigger than they can repay, a powerful Senate chairman today said that banks should be told to forgive bad loans, especially for the poor. Charging that the US economy is "rigged in favor of the very rich and powerful," Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the influential Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Committee, said that the federal government should work on a way to order banks to write-off part of bad loans as a way of addressing the imbalance between the rich and poor. "Not everyone who is caught up in the housing mess bought $700,000 houses," he told an appreciative audience at the Center for American Progress. "It seems to me we need a policy of some graduation of telling the banks that they are going to have to write-off some of this."
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| Fifth Column |
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Nobel Peace Prize Jury Under Investigation for Abusing Criteria
AP/USA Today
Nobel Peace Prize officials were facing a formal inquiry over accusations they have drifted away from the prize's original selection criteria by choosing such winners as President Obama, as the nomination deadline for the 2012 awards closed Wednesday. The investigation comes after persistent complaints by a Norwegian peace researcher that the original purpose of the prize was to diminish the role of military power in international relations. If the Stockholm County Administrative Board, which supervises foundations in Sweden's capital, finds that prize founder Alfred Nobel's will is not being honored, it has the authority to suspend award decisions going back three years -- though that would be unlikely and unprecedented, said Mikael Wiman, a legal expert working for the county.
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DeMint: People ‘Dependent on Government’ Will Soon Have Majority
The Hill
Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) warned Monday that the majority of US voters would soon be dependent on the government. Speaking Monday on KFYO news radio in Lubbock, Texas, DeMint said Democrats have more time to be engaged in politics because Republican voters are too busy “raising kids” and “starting businesses” to keep up. “We’re at a point in America where about half of the people are getting something from government and the other half are paying for it, and we’re on track to have 60 percent getting something from government and 40 percent paying for it,” DeMint said. “What that means is people who vote are not going to vote for less government, and if we’re not careful we’ll end up like Greece, where even in the middle of a bankruptcy the people are still marching in the streets for more benefits.”
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| Culture Wars |
The Defending the Constitution Project
BasicsProject.org has initiated The Defending the Constitution Project to educate people on legislative initiatives which are designed to protect the Constitution or would have the effect of encroaching on the Constitution and undermining the fundamental law. It is our hope that after reading more about the importance of the Constitutional design, activists will advocate to protect the Constitution by working to defeat or support such initiatives.
Read more
The Briefing: Updated Feb. 2, 2012
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon arrived in Israel yesterday on a two-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. He has come as part of the international effort to pressure the Israeli government into making further concessions to the Palestinians in order to coax them back to the pre-negotiations that began last month. Similarly he is here to pressure the Palestinian Authority into continuing the dialogue and stopping its demand that Israel’s agree to pre-conditions to negotiations. This morning the Secretary-General is scheduled to visit Israeli communities on the border with the Gaza Strip. Breaking the relative calm of the last week, overnight the terrorists in Gaza fired 7 Qassam missiles at the civilian population centers most likely on the Secretary-General’s morning itinerary.
Read more
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