Mid-Week 'Report;' 10/31/2012 [Part 2]

What The National Pamphleteers Don't Report:
2013 Index Of Economic Freedom: No Boost In Trade Freedom
by Brian Riley; Ambassador Terry Miller,
heritage.org
October 25, 2012
Abstract: The Heritage Foundation has been tracking and ranking trade freedom around the world since 1995. The rankings have consistently shown a correlation between trade freedom and improved lives for people around the world—and vice versa. The latest rankings, in the forthcoming 2013 Index of Economic Freedom, once again confirm that connection. For that reason, it is a matter of concern that the worldwide trade freedom score has not improved over the past year. The United States used to be a free trade leader, serving as an example to other countries. It can, and should, be a leader again. This Special Report describes which trade policies are helpful, which are harmful, and what the U.S. Congress can do now to put the U.S. back on a path to free trade leadership.
The latest rankings of trade freedom around the world,[1] developed by The Heritage Foundation and The Wall Street Journal in the forthcoming 2013 Index of Economic Freedom,[2] once again demonstrate how citizens of countries that embrace free trade are better off than citizens of countries that do not. The case for pending trade agreements, such as the Trans-Pacific Partnership and Africa’s Continental Free Trade Area, is bolstered by international statistics showing a strong correlation between trade freedom and a variety of positive indicators, including economic prosperity, low poverty rates, and clean environments.
Worldwide, the average trade freedom score [....]
http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/10/2013-index-of-economic-freedom-no-boost-in-trade-freedom
Mexico's Drug Lords Ramp Up Arsenals With RPGs
by Ioan Grillo-Mexico City,
world.time.com
October 25, 2012
When a Mexican SWAT team stopped a stolen Cadillac van in the border city of Piedras Negras, it was not a surprise when they were greeted by a tirade of bullets as the criminals blasted and ran. But after they kicked open the trunk, the officers realized they could have been victims of more catastrophic firepower. The gunmen had been in possession of an arsenal of weapons that included three Soviet-made antitank rockets complete with an RPG-7 shoulder-fired launcher. If the criminals had got a rocket off, they could easily have blown the SWAT vehicle to pieces. RPG-7s can also take out helicopters and were used in the Black Hawk Down episode in Somalia in 1993.
The rockets, found on Saturday, are part of an increasingly destructive array of weaponry wielded by Mexican drug cartels, like the feared Zetas, in reaction to attacks on them by police and soldiers. While security forces have taken down several key cartel bosses this year, gunmen have struck back, setting off five car bombs, hundreds of fragmentation grenades and several shoulder-fired rockets. Soldiers even seized one homemade three-ton tank with a revolving gun turret. When Mexican marines on Oct. 7 claimed to have [....]
http://world.time.com/2012/10/25/mexicos-drug-lords-ramp-up-their-arsenals-with-rpgs/#ixzz2AsZfHOau
Multi-National Corporations And Stability: A New Role?
by Jason Thomas,
smallwarsjournal.com
October 1, 2012
Introduction
United States foreign policy is underpinned by a three-pronged strategy of diplomacy, development and defence within an era of extremely tight US fiscal and budget constraints. As former US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates stated in 2011, “the overarching goal will be to preserve a US military capable of meeting crucial national security priorities, even if fiscal pressure requires reductions in the force’s size.” While not limited to, the focus of US foreign policy on denying safe havens for trans-national terrorists, geo-political stability, access to resources and commodities and working through bi-lateral security treaty obligations. This paper puts forward the concept that multi-national corporations, particularly those from the extractive sector, with 10-20 year project life cycles, their access to global capital funds and the attractive return on investment in unstable states, could act as a force multiplier for the US military and signal a new phase in civil-military operations.
Corporate Stability Operations a Post-Afghanistan Opportunity
In a recent Small Wars Journal paper, Irregular Warfare and the Two Minds of the Venture Capital Green Beret, EM Burlingame says that an economy can only be created and sustained through boundless energies and limitless creativity of the people living at the expansive, chaotic edge of a system, employing the Mind of the Disruptor to establish new assets and wealth. While the post-Afghanistan security environment may mean pulling back to core principles for Western armed forces, it is also an opportunity to engage disruptive thinkers so we can adapt as fast as our enemies.
Despite a war weary nation and as [....]
http://smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/multi-national-corporations-and-stability-operations-a-new-role

'Cooling Out' The Voters
by Dr Thomas Sowell,
creators.com
October 29, 2012
Confidence men know that their victim — "the mark" as he has been called — is eventually going to realize that he has been cheated. But it makes a big difference whether he realizes it immediately, and goes to the police, or realizes it after the confidence man is long gone.
So part of the confidence racket is creating a period of uncertainty, during which the victim is not yet sure of what is happening. This delaying process has been called "cooling out the mark."
The same principle applies in politics. When the accusations that led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton first surfaced, he flatly denied them all. Then, as the months passed, the truth came out — but slowly, bit by bit. One of Clinton's own White House aides later called it "telling the truth slowly."
By the time the whole truth came out, it was called "old news," and the clever phrase now was that we should "move on."
It was a successful "cooling out" of the public, keeping them in uncertainty so long that, by the time the whole truth came out, there was no longer the same outrage as if the truth had suddenly come out all at once. Without the support of an outraged public, the impeachment of President Clinton fizzled out in the Senate.
We are currently seeing another "cooling out" process, growing out of the terrorist attack on the American consulate in Benghazi on September 11th this year.
The belated release of State Department e-mails shows that the Obama administration knew, while the attack on the American consulate was still underway, that it was a coordinated, armed terrorist attack. They were getting reports from those inside the consulate who were under attack, as well as surveillance pictures from a camera on an American drone overhead.
About an hour before the attack, the scene outside was calm enough for the American ambassador to accompany a Turkish official to the gates of the consulate to say goodbye. This could hardly have happened if there were protesting mobs there.
Why then did both President Obama and U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice keep repeating the story that this was a spontaneous protest riot against an anti-Islamic video in America?
The White House knew the facts — but they knew that [....]
http://www.creators.com/opinion/thomas-sowell/-cooling-out-the-voters.html

Landlords:  5 Reasons Why Our Time Is Now
by Brett Ferniss,
ezinearticles.com
undated material
Wow! Has it already been over five years already since the real estate market tanked? TARP, the "new normal", bailouts, CDO's, and toxic assets were all the rage back then. Home buyers disappeared, home sellers were really unhappy, and real estate prices dropped like a rock. Renters were deemed the smart folks, and landlords, not so much.
It was a tough time for most people as the economy soured and landlords were no different. Rental rates were relatively low, almost no one could get a mortgage to refinance, and people (landlords and tenants included) were losing their jobs. This affected landlords in two ways. First, if they lost their job, they still had to pay for their home and their rental homes. And, secondly, if their tenant lost their job, they had to deal with that situation as well. The uncertainty made for tough times for all involved. Many landlords got out of the rental business either by choice or by economic necessity.
However, the times have changed in almost every way for the better now. The rewards for hanging in there the last five years seem to [....]
http://ezinearticles.com/?Landlords:-5-Reasons-Why-Our-Time-Is-Now&id=7355893

House Committee Threatens To Subpoena Documents Related To IRS's Illegal obamaKare Taxes
by Michael Cannon,
townhall.com
October 29, 2012
Last Friday, House Oversight Committee chairman Darrell Issa (R-CA) and colleagues sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Internal Revenue Service Commissioner Douglas Shulman accusing Treasury of “either willfully misleading the Committee or…purposefully withholding information that is essential to the Committee’s oversight effort.”
As Jonathan Adler and I document in our forthcoming Health Matrix article, “Taxation Without Representation: The Illegal IRS Rule to Expand Tax Credits Under the PPACA,” the IRS has announced it will impose ObamaCare’s taxes on employers and individuals whom Congress expressly exempted from those taxes, and will send potentially hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars to private health insurance companies, also contrary to the plain language of the statute. Oklahoma attorney general Scott Pruitt has filed a legal challenge to the IRS rule that imposes those illegal taxes.
On August 20, the committee sent IRS [....]
http://finance.townhall.com/columnists/michaelfcannon/2012/10/29/house_committee_threatens_to_subpoena_documents_related_to_irss_illegal_obamacare_taxes/page/full/

Pocket Litter: The Evidence That Criminals Carry
by Scott Stewart,
STRATfor.com
October 25, 2012
On Oct. 12, a pregnant medical doctor from Guadalajara, Mexico, attempted to enter the United States through the San Ysidro border crossing. The woman reportedly wanted to give birth in the United States so that her child would be a U.S. citizen. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers arrested the woman, who has since been charged with visa fraud in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.
Ordinarily, the arrest of a Mexican national for document fraud at a border crossing would hardly be newsworthy. However, this case may be anything but ordinary: Authorities have identified the woman as Alejandrina Gisselle Guzman Salazar, who reportedly is the daughter of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera, one of the world's most wanted men.
If Guzman is indeed the daughter of El Chapo, the arrest could provide much-needed intelligence to those pursuing the fugitive drug lord. Aside from the intelligence gathered during her interrogation, investigators could also learn much from the information she may have been inadvertently [....]
http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/pocket-litter-evidence-criminals-carry?utm_source=freelist-f&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20121026&utm_term=sweekly&utm_content=readmore&elq=8b4a2f84305a4a1bbebf1364055c2571

My Sources Say obama Was In The Room Watching Benghazi Attack Happen
by Madeleine Morganstern,
theblaze.com
October 28, 2012
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/retired-lt-col-my-sources-say-obama-was-in-the-room-watching-benghazi-attack-happen/#ooid=UwaGRlNjpohu9g6PrW5l2_7oqQ6lwFhp
Retired Army Lt. Col. Tony Shaffer said Saturday he has sources saying President Barack Obama was in the room at the White House watching the assault on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya unfold.
Two unarmed U.S. drones were dispatched to the consulate and recorded the final hours of the attack, which killed U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
“This was in the middle of the business day in Washington, so everybody at the White House, CIA, Pentagon, everybody was watching this go down,” Shaffer said on Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine.” “According to my sources, yes, [Obama] was one of those in the White House Situation Room in real-time watching this.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/retired-lt-col-my-sources-say-obama-was-in-the-room-watching-benghazi-attack-happen/
"Did Your Son Always Have Balls The Size Of Cue Balls?"
by Jason Howerton,
theblaze.com
October 25, 2012
The father of one of the former Navy SEALs killed in the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya says President Barack Obama wouldn’t even look him in the eye and Vice President Joe Biden was disrespectful during the ceremony when his son’s body returned to America. He also says the White House’s story on the attack doesn’t pass the smell test.
Charles Woods, father of Tyrone Woods, called into “The Glenn Beck Program” on TheBlazeTV Thursday and recounted his interactions with the president, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Biden at the ceremony for the Libya victims at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland. He told host Glenn Beck that what they told him, coupled with new reports that indicate the Obama administration knew very good and well, almost immediately, that a terrorist attack was occurring in Benghazi, make him certain [....]
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/joe-biden-to-father-of-former-navy-seal-killed-in-benghazi-did-your-son-always-have-balls-the-size-of-cue-balls/

Endorsements Of Those Who Appreciate The
"Voice Of Essential Liberty"
Various Supporters,
patriotpost.com
undated material
Former First Lady Nancy Reagan: "I want to tell you how grateful I am for all you have done for our nation. Ronnie felt, as do I, that much of his administration's success at home and abroad was due, in part, to your efforts. The President was, and all Americans remain, deeply indebted to you."
Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey: "Simply put, The Patriot Post cuts through the clutter and delivers timely, accurate, and colorful accounts of the week's most important news and policy issues. It's a mandatory read."
Syndicated Radio Host Michael Reagan: "The vision and legacy of the Reagan Revolution flourish on the pages of The Patriot Post."
Heritage Foundation President Dr. Edwin Feulner Jr.: "The best Websites wield remarkable influence in the marketplace of ideas. The Patriot Post is a 'must read' for informed conservatives."
Author Dr. Bill Bennett reads The Patriot Post: "The Patriot Post is leading the charge in the battle to restore America's values -- a vital ally on the front...." Author Cal Thomas: "The Patriot Post interprets current issues in the conservative context of history."
Constitutional Scholar Dr. Alan Keyes: "The Patriot Post recalls the noble tradition of our Founders. 'Publius' would have admired and endorsed The Patriot Post, as do I."
Ronald Reagan's White House Chief of Staff Howard Baker: "Thank you for your confidence in, and efforts to sustain the Reagan legacy." [....]
http://patriotpost.us/about/endorsements
Romney v. obama; Adult v. Adolescent
It Will Take "Adult" Independent Voters To Defeat obama
by Mark Alexander,
patriotpost.com
October 25, 2012
"A few short weeks will determine the political fate of America for the present generation, and probably produce no small influence on the happiness of society through a long succession of ages to come."
--George Washington (1778)
I am returning today from one of several Department of Defense national security forums I attend annually. These briefings cover current operations, horizon and over-horizon threats, and our capability to respond to those threats.
In presidential election years, military briefings can be a challenge. Uniformed briefers are very good at respectfully concealing their political opinion, and should be. Indeed, expressing dissenting political views from those of the Commander in Chief will land senior officers in front of a UCMJ tribunal.
Fortunately, there is abundant criticism of Barack Hussein Obama's failed foreign and national security policies from Special Forces Operators, both enlisted and officer ranks, who have recently been honorably discharged. One of the most comprehensive objections is a detailed critical review of those policies in a bold new video on Obama administration "leaks" and Obama's use of the killing of Osama as campaign fodder. It features an impressive lineup of American Patriots who, unlike Obama, have honored their oaths.
At this week's briefings, there was a clear consensus among those attendees not in uniform that the next election is pivotal to our nation's ability to defend itself abroad, and moreover, the future of Liberty at home. It was no small coincidence that in the midst of these briefings, the last presidential debate of this election cycle took place, focusing on national security and foreign policy.
Let me be civil in my choice of words and say [....]
http://patriotpost.us/alexander/15188
Until Next Sunday....