The Sunday 'Report;' 03/24/2013 Part 3

What the National Pamphleteers don't report:
Greek's Radical Left:  The Dangers of the Disaffected and the Unemployed
by Scott Stewart,
STRATfor.com
March14, 2013
In last week's Geopolitical Weekly, George Friedman discussed how the global financial crisis has caused a global unemployment crisis and how Europe has become the epicenter of that crisis. He also noted that rampant unemployment will give way to a political crisis as austerity measures galvanize radical political parties opposed to the status quo.
Because unemployment is so pervasive, jobless, disenchanted people are joining radical parties espousing a wide variety of ideologies. Examples include populist euroskeptic parties, such as Italy's Five Star movement; far-right parties, such as Greece's Golden Dawn party; and anti-austerity leftist groups, such as Greece's Coalition of the Radical Left, or Syriza. With unemployment in Greece at 27 percent, it is not surprising to see both radical right-wing and radical left-wing groups gaining support from those who have become deeply disaffected by the crises.
In fact, Greece has a long history of [....]
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/greeks-radical-left-dangers-disaffected-and-unemployed?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20130314&utm_term=sweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=c8dc2e5e863942bbbca92736d4dca89e

president controversially seeks to reduce benefits
by Ike Brannon,
salon.com
March 18, 2013
Democrats surprised or angered by President Obama’s apparent willingness to reduce Social Security benefits may wonder why his entreaty has elicited mostly a snooze from Republicans, who speak often of their interest in “entitlement reform.” I worked on Capitol Hill as an economist for several Republican lawmakers, so let me explain.
The first point to consider is that in reality, Obama and his fellow Democrats would only be persuaded to sign off on changes to Social Security as a part of a grand bargain, in which the Republicans gave up something major in return, like significant additional tax revenues. While suggestions by House leadership this weekend that the party would never accept additional revenue under any circumstances is just posturing, in my view, it’s obviously still something conservatives have little reflexive enthusiasm for, having just swallowed them in January.
Now, Democrats might argue [....]
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/18/how_republicans_really_view_social_security/

D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program:
by Brittany Corona,
heritage.org
March 12, 2013
Very few government programs can claim a positive return on taxpayer investment. The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program (DCOSP) is one of them.
Launched in 2004, the DCOSP provides scholarships of approximately $8,500 for K–8 students or $12,000 for high school students from low-income families to attend private schools of their choice.
According to a congressionally mandated evaluation of the DCOSP, 82 percent of students who received a voucher and used it to attend private school graduated from high school. That’s a 12 percentage point difference between voucher users and the control group that did not use the vouchers to attend private school. Just 70 percent [....]
http://blog.heritage.org/2013/03/12/d-c-opportunity-scholarship-program-opportunity-and-return-on-investment/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=&utm_content=EdReview

What We STILL Don't Know About BENGHAZI
Staff Report,
heritage.org
March 14, 2013
Yesterday, President Obama nominated a new ambassador to Libya to succeed Christopher Stevens, who was killed in the terrorist attack in Benghazi last September 11. Six months after that attack—and two federal investigations later—we still have an alarmingly small amount of information about it.  The Obama Administration made quite a mess in the media with its conflicting accounts of the attack, originally blaming a controversial YouTube video for sparking protests abroad.

>>>Watch our video about the Obama Administration’s conflicting accounts of the Benghazi attack

After it came out that it was, in fact, a terrorist attack with ties to al-Qaeda, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton shocked Americans with her statement, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
As Heritage expert James Phillips said, Clinton’s brush-off “indicates that the Administration misunderstands the nature and scope of the Islamist terrorist threat.”
With a new Secretary of State and a new Libya team on the way, Benghazi can’t just be swept under the rug—because the safety of all of our diplomats is at stake.
Both the State Department and [....]
http://links.heritage.org/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=14877649885&ch=ADC406B3F425E402A691B443FDCA8342&h=a04bde677eff3e40d24e4782e69158d5&ei=WBVSGUkN4

Eric Bolling reflects on his Church's Pope Francis
by Kate O'Hare,
zap2it.com
March 22, 2013

    Every weekday morning, Fox News Channel anchor Eric Bolling arrives for work in midtown Manhattan. But before he digs into the meat of his day preparing to be on the panel for the afternoon roundtable show "The Five," he makes time for an authority even higher than FNC boss Roger Ailes.
"I drive into the city," he tells Zap2it, "park my car, come up to my office, turn on the computer, make sure there's no fires that need to be put out. Then I put my jacket back on and literally walk over to St. Patrick's Cathedral, light the candles, come back. I don't do it because I'm supposed to do it; I do it because I like it. It makes me feel good, knowing that I've done that.
"I light five candles. One, two, three, four, five -- get it?"
    He's noticed a little change in the crowds at the Roman Catholic cathedral since the election of Pope Francis -- formerly Argentinian Cardinal Jose Mario Bergoglio -- at the Vatican in Rome on March 13, 2013.  "I've got to tell you," he says, [....]
http://blog.zap2it.com/pop2it/2013/03/fnc-eric-bolling-reflects-church-pope-francis.html

Why We Don't Need Universal Pre-School
Staff Report,
heritage.org
March 15, 2013
In his State of the Union address, President Obama said he wanted to “make high-quality preschool available to every child in America” and “make sure none of our children start the race of life already behind.”  So Heritage experts took a look at the President’s plan to see if it would actually help America’s needy children get ahead in the “race of life.”  Another government-controlled, top-down, one-size-fits-all program—what could go wrong?
Look at the government’s record. As Heritage’s Lindsey Burke, the Will Skillman Fellow in Education, and research associate Rachel Sheffield point out in their new paper, “Washington already has a poor track record for K–12 education, with federal spending nearly tripling over the past three decades while academic achievement and attainment languishes.”
Look at the government preschool we already have. There are already 45 government preschool programs run by numerous federal agencies, including the Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Agriculture, the Interior, and Housing and Urban Development. Burke and Sheffield note that these 45 programs “are estimated to cost taxpayers more than $20 billion annually. Many are duplicative and ineffective, failing to serve the needs of children from low-income families.”
    Head Start, of course, has already shown us the ways government preschool can fail American children: [....]
http://links.heritage.org/hostedemail/email.htm?CID=14891010812&ch=176030C8AFB879CA7361856630E4AC65&h=61bd94aee1d3186cdfcc1ebc878833e0&ei=sREoXUkNH

States’ Differing Attitudes On 2nd Amendment Yield Two Self-Defense Stories With Very Different Results
by Ben Bullard,
Personal Liberty Digest
March 15, 2013

    In Alabama, an Average Joe likely won’t face charges for standing his ground after killing an intruder this week in self-defense.
But a millionaire businessman in New York City could spend three years in jail simply for pointing an unlicensed gun at a man who broke into his home in January.

Police in Albertville, a small North Alabama town, said a local homeowner probably won’t face charges for shooting and killing an intruder who picked the wrong time to break into one of the shooter’s vacant rental properties Tuesday.
The Sand Mountain Reporter said the unnamed homeowner killed the (also unnamed) intruder after the intruder allegedly broke into the house while its owner and a friend were inside checking on the property. The homeowner himself called 911 [....]
http://personalliberty.com/2013/03/15/states-differing-attitudes-on-2nd-amendment-yield-two-self-defense-stories-with-very-different-results/

Hacker Begins Distributing Confidential Memos Sent To Hillary Clinton On Libya, Benghazi Attack
Staff Report,
thesmokinggun.com
March 18, 2013
Armed with confidential memos to Hillary Clinton that were stolen from the e-mail account of a former White House aide, a hacker has distributed some of the documents to a wide array of congressional aides, political figures, and journalists worldwide.
In a series of weekend e-mail blasts, the hacker known as “Guccifer” disseminated four recent memos to Clinton from Sidney Blumenthal, a longtime confidant of the former Secretary of State.
The 64-year-old Blumenthal, who worked as a senior White House adviser to President Bill Clinton, had his AOL e-mail account hacked last week by “Guccifer,” who has conducted similar illegal assaults against a growing list of public figures, [....]
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/sidney-blumenthal/hacker-distributes-memos-784091

Is Gov't Readying for "Shooting War" Against Gun Owners?
by Bob Livingston,
Personal Liberty Digest
March 18, 2013

Gun grabbing lawmakers at both the State and Federal level continue to push forward with their anti-American, anti-2^nd Amendment, anti-gun agendas, even as more individuals, State legislatures and manufacturers of weapons, weapons accessories and ammunition push back. It almost seems as if the elected class is itching for a fight.

And when one considers that the Department of Homeland Security has contracted for 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition — much of it hollow points or for use in sniper rifles — for its 55,000 armed agents, plus 2,717 armored personnel carriers and 7,000 select fire “personal defense weapons,” it seems even more apparent that’s the goal. For perspective, 1.6 billion rounds is enough to fight the Iraq war for 20 years. It’s enough to shoot every American five times. It’s 28,000 tons, or the equivalent of three guided missile destroyers. It’s almost 30,000 target practice rounds per armed agent — but of course, because they are more expensive, hollow points are not used for target practice.

These purchases have long concerned many of those who pay attention. But only the alternative media talked about it — to derision and catcalls — until Feb. 15. That’s when The Denver Post ran an article by The Associated Press about the purchases. That prompted a column by Ralph Benko at Forbes.com in which he said it’s time for a national conversation about the purchases.
More than that, it’s [....]
http://personalliberty.com/2013/03/18/is-government-readying-for-a-shooting-war-against-gun-owners/

A Real Term Limit
by Dr Thomas Sowell,
townhall.com
March 20, 2013
The main thing wrong with the term limits movement is the "s" at the end of the word "limit."  What are advocates of term limits trying to accomplish? If they are trying to keep government from being run by career politicians, whose top priority is getting themselves reelected, then term limits on given jobs fail to do that.

When someone reaches the limit of how long one can spend as a county supervisor, then it is just a question of finding another political office to run for, such as a member of the state legislature. And when the limit on terms there is reached, it is time to look around for another political job -- perhaps as a mayor or a member of Congress.
Instead of always making reelection in an existing political post the top priority, in the last term in a given office the top priority will be doing things that will make it easier to get elected or appointed to the next political post. But in no term is doing what is right for the people likely to be the top priority.
Those who favor term limits are right to [....]
http://townhall.com/columnists/thomassowell/2013/03/20/a-real-term-limit-n1537660/page/full/

The 'Uncle Tom-ing' of Ben Carson Begins
by Larry O'Connor,
breitbart.com
March 23, 2013
MSNBC host and commentator Touré fired a clear and distinct shot at Dr. Ben Carson Friday, hammering the African-American Presidential Medal of Freedom winner for daring to challenge the Obamadoxy parroted by Touré and progressive journalists bent on supporting the President's policies at all costs.
Dr. Ben Carson splashed onto the national stage with his blistering criticism of ObamaCare last month at the National Prayer breakfast, with President Obama seated just a few feet away. Carson is a heroic surgeon, Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery, who performed groundbreaking medical miracles at Johns Hopkins Hospital. He is a brilliant and passionate advocate for free market principals, individual responsibility, and the freedoms and liberty embodied in resistance to bloated big government programs like ObamaCare. He also happens to be black. Therefore, he must be stopped, now.
Like Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, Colin Powell (until he got the message) and Herman Cain before him, Carson will now be [....]
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Journalism/2013/03/23/The-Uncle-Tom-ing-Of-Ben-Carson-Begins
Until Next Sunday....