Jobs, Economy, Job Numbers

A Closer Look at the Jan. Jobless Numbers: Are They ‘Being Made Up?’

You may recall that major media outlets rejoiced and the markets jumped last Friday when the January jobs report was released.

“Labor Department today lowered the U.S. unemployment rate by two-tenths of a point to 8.3 percent, the lowest it’s been since February 2009,” Emily Knapp of Wall St. Cheat reported, “January data showed nonfarm payrolls to have risen a whopping 243,000, wildly exceeding even the most optimistic of economists’ projections.”

However, although the markets did indeed react positively to the good news, many analysts were skeptical of the data in the report.

“A month ago, we joked when we said that for Obama to get the unemployment rate to negative by election time, all he has to do is to crush the labor force participation rate to about 55 [percent],” editors at Zero Hedge wrote.

“Looks like the good folks at the BLS heard us: it appears that the people not in the labor force exploded by an unprecedented record 1.2 million. No, that’s not a typo: 1.2 million people dropped out of the labor force in one month!”

What does this mean?

Zero Hedge explains:

So as the labor force increased from 153.9 million to 154.4 million, the non institutional population increased by 242.3 million meaning, those not in the labor force surged from 86.7 million to 87.9 million. Which means that the civilian labor force tumbled to a fresh 30 year low of 63.7% as the BLS is seriously planning on eliminating nearly half of the available labor pool from the unemployment calculation.

Even conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh weighed in on the report, claiming that the data was “corrupt as it can be” because the Labor Force Participation Rate has been repeatedly adjusted.

Is Limbaugh out of line on this?

“After countless attempts to discredit or defend Friday’s jobs report, we can all agree on one thing: The data is complicated,” Gus Lubin of Business Insider writes. “So complicated that the BLS could make the economy look better than it was and no one would be sure.”

David Stockman

That’s more or less what David Stockman, former budget director for President Ronald Reagan, wrote in an email to former hedge fund manager Bruce Krasting.

On his blog “My Take on Financial Events,” Krasting wrote, “Is the current [Labor Force Participation Rate] a temporary phenomenon, or is this the ‘New Normal?’”

Krasting believes that if the current Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) is the “new normal,” it could have severe – even dangerous – effects on the economy.

Why?

“Virtually all of the economic models used by CBO, OMB, SSA and private economists are assuming that the long-term LFPR will be in the mid-to upper 60s. The consensus is 2-3 [percent] higher than where it is today,” Krasting writes.

“If you plug in a rate of 63 [percent] versus 67 [precent] over the next ten-years, it makes a huge difference on the size of the deficit and the public debt. It would cause the deficits at Social Security and Medicare to explode. The percentage of GDP attributable to the government would inevitably rise. The economy, and society in general, would be socialized [emphasis added],” Krasting writes.

In response to Krastings’ criticism of the jobs report, Stockman writes: “…if you spend a little time with these numbers you will know that they are being made up.”

Here’s the email (via Wall Street Examiner):

…I’m wondering if this goes much deeper. I don’t particularly believe in tin foil hats, but all of these mainstream economists treat the BLS and BEA data like it’s holy writ—when it’s evident that the reports are so massaged, estimated, deemed, revised, re-bench marked and seasonally adjusted that any month-to-month change has a decent chance of being noise. What deep secret might they be hiding?

So on the labor force participation rate they say, “No it didn’t go down in January because the 2012 numbers are re-bench marked for the 2010 census,” but for some reason the BLS didn’t bother to update the 2011 civilian population numbers, including December. Thus, the BLS published apples-to-oranges numbers on this particular variable and the footnote says the December participation rate would have been the same as January, if they had revised it!

Yet on another variable— the establishment survey jobs count—they were also busy re-benchmarking–but here they did update the originally reported numbers for every month of 2011. Even then, it is hard to say what got updated because the originally reported numbers each month are then revised during the next two reporting months—with any excess or shortfall reallocated to earlier months outside the three month window, which are not published on a revised basis, even though they have been revised! This reflects a wacko thing called the concurrent seasonal adjustment method.

… your point is that the longer-term trend of the labor force participation rate is really bad, and this truth is absolutely validated by the January report. Except it would have been equally bad in December had it been reported with the new census data…

But the mainstream narrative never gets to the trend. In this case, the plain fact is that we are warehousing a larger and larger population of adults who are one way or another living off transfer payments, relatives, sub-prime credit, and the black market. My suspicion is that this negative trend and many others like it get buried by the monthly change chatter from mainstream economists and on bubble vision, and that these monthly deltas are so heavily manipulated as to be almost a made-up reality. Call it the economists’ Truman Show.
…
In short, if you spend a little time with these numbers you will know that they are being made up. Funny thing that I remember during the depths of the 1982 recession Reagan read in Human Events one night that the seasonally adjusted numbers were being manipulated and one should look at the unadjusted numbers, instead. The next morning during an economic update briefing Reagan said, he wanted to talk about the “unadjusted” unemployment rate. Marty Feldstein turned white as a ghost, and then talked him out of it. Hmmm!

Read the full email here.

People line up at a Workforce Plus job fair, Thursday, March 26, 2009, in Tallahassee, Fla. 75,000 Floridians lost their jobs in February. The state's unemployment rate rose to 9.4 %, the highest since 1976. (Photo: AP)

Gallup: These Are the Most ‘Economically Confident’ States

Gallup has released an intriguing report that ranks the most “economically confident” states in America.

And although the report lists the most “confident” states, don’t be fooled into thinking these areas actually believe that the U.S. economy is improving. On the contrary, the report is careful to point out that, nationally speaking, faith in the U.S. economy is slipping.

In fact, out of all the areas surveyed, the place with the highest confidence rating (the District of Columbia) isn’t even a state!

“Economic confidence dropped in all states . . . in 2011, reflecting the overall decline nationally,” Gallup reports. “The declines range from a low of 3 points in Idaho and West Virginia to a high of 22 points in Delaware.”

Overall, two-thirds of the participants in the Gallup phone survey believe that the economy is getting worse, according to the data.

What does this mean?

“Americans overall and in every state remain more negative than positive about the economy, creating a challenge for President Obama as he seeks re-election this year, given the strong relationship between economic conditions and an incumbent’s re-election success,” Gallup reports.

It continues:

“On a near-term basis, however, economic confidence picked up in January of this year, perhaps foretelling a more positive uptick to come in 2012. Americans are also substantially more confident about the economy now than they were in the year Obama was elected. Thus, it is not clear if voters will reward him for the signs of economic improvement that have come in recent years, or hold him accountable for the fact that the economy is still struggling nearly four years after he took office.”

Perhaps before any conclusions are drawn from the Gallup report, a few things should be pointed out.

First, as mentioned several times on The Blaze, before accepting survey results, one should take into account the possibility of “sampling errors.” That is, one must bear in mind of the likelihood of skewed polling data.

Second, as the Washington Post’s Ezra Klein notes, there are some rather inexplicable results in the Gallup report:

… residents of Washington are more optimistic than, well, anyone else. Our Index is -4. The next-most optimistic state, North Dakota, is at -26. That’s rather odd, given that North Dakota’s unemployment rate is 3.4 percent, while the District of Columbia’s is stuck above 10 percent.

Indeed, that is odd.

“One possibility is that the poll is wrong,” Klein writes, “Another is that the political nature of the economic crisis leaves residents of Washington feeling more in control than residents of other states.”

Echoing the sentiments of Mr. Klein, even Gallup is slightly confused by the results: “There are no clear patterns in the states that rank in the top and bottom 10 in economic confidence. For example, the top 10 states vary by region and political leanings, including the most (Hawaii, along with D.C.) and least (Utah) Democratic states.”

This begs the obvious question: how did Gallup structure its phone survey?

Gallup explains:

Results are based on telephone interviews conducted as part of Gallup Daily tracking January 1-December 31, 2011, with a random sample of 174,639 adults, aged 18 and older, living in all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

Interviews are conducted with respondents on landline telephones and cellular phones…Each sample includes a minimum quota of 400 cell phone respondents and 600 landline respondents per 1,000 national adults, with additional minimum quotas among landline respondents by region. Landline telephone numbers are chosen at random among listed telephone numbers. Cell phone numbers are selected using random-digit-dial methods. Landline respondents are chosen at random within each household on the basis of which member had the most recent birthday.

Okay, now that the methodology is understood, what do the results mean? That is, what does it mean when Gallup says that the District of Columbia has a “-4″ economic confidence rating?

The Index is based on the average differences between Americans’ assessments of current conditions (11% excellent or good and 48% poor in 2011) and their views of whether the economy is getting better (29%) or worse (66%). The Index has a theoretical range of -100 to +100, with negative scores indicating respondents are more negative than positive about the economy.

So, with that in mind, and despite the possibility of “sampling errors,” these are the most economically confident states (and the District of Columbia), according to Gallup:

Photo 2 of 11

10. Utah

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -31

Photo 3 of 11

9. Massachusetts

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -31

Photo 4 of 11

8. Iowa

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -30

Photo 5 of 11

7. South Dakota

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -30

Photo 6 of 11

6. Hawaii

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -30

Photo 7 of 11

5. Maryland

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -28

Photo 8 of 11

4. Nebraska

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -27

Photo 9 of 11

3. Minnesota

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -27

Photo 10 of 11

2. North Dakota

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -26

Photo 11 of 11

1. District of Columbia

Economic confidence from -100 – +100: -4

(H/T: The Huffington Post)

Here‘s the Chart That Has One Finance Writer Feeling ’Something Is About to Happen’

Joe Weisenthal is the intrepid finance writer over at Business Insider. He’s usually more plugged in than a Chevy Volt. So when he looks at a chart and says he feels “something is about to happen,” it’s not a bad idea to pay attention. And that’s just what he did.

Here‘s the chart from Weisenthal’s Wednesday-morning post:

I‘ll let Weisenthal explain what he’s seeing;

The above chart is the VIX. Sometimes it’s called the “fear index”. Whatever you want to call it, it’s a quick way of looking at how much investors are willing to pay for downside protection in the market. Right now, complacency is high, and nobody wants to pay much for “insurance.”

Once again, we‘re getting close to what’s been a floor for the index (since the crisis) and so it seems inevitable that something is going to come along and jolt everyone awake. [Emphasis added]

In other words, the lower the line on the chart, the more complacent people are. And when people are complacent, they don’t prepare. And that’s usually when something big happens to wake them up.

So what are the risks out there? Check out his post on Business Insider to see.

h/t to the Blaze

Timing of War Over ObamaCare Mandatory Birth Control Payments… God’s Answer to Prayers for Intervention?

Is the Timing of the War With Obama Over Mandatory Birth Control Payments… Another ObamaCare Revelation, God’s Answer to Prayers for Intervention by Many Americans?

The present issue of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) requiring (through ObamaCare) that all private insurers, including Catholic charities and hospitals, cover the cost in full for contraception, sterilization procedures, and the “week-after“ pill ”ella” that can induce early abortions is being framed as a fight over contraception. It is not an issue of contraception! It is an issue of religious liberty and an assault on the Freedom of Religion guaranteed by the Bill of Rights.

No politicians ever go after the Roman Catholic Church… Why? Because it is suicidal. Also, with everyone salivating to get the Hispanic voting block, who are almost all Catholics, this recent news of anti-religious freedom in ObamaCare resulting in a battle with the Catholic church could be Obama’s Waterloo.

Jews, Protestants, Evangelicals, Mormons, a coalition of people of faith and even Atheists are standing with the Catholics on this matter. 90% of all Americans identify themselves as being related to some religion, even if not practicing.

So the question is, is the timing of this realization of one of the coming horrors in ObamaCare a huge mistake by Team Obama and perhaps an intervention by God in answer to all the prayers for help and guidance being said by God fearing Americans daily? Or is the primary focus of the left more about creating division and chaos to fundamentally transform America than getting elected… or re-elected?

Take a good look back at the famous ‘Fabian’ Window… the group the Progressives stem from. The Fabian Window is a view into the Heart of the New World Order Agenda, and yes that is former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Tony Blair standing by that sinister Window!

The founders of the Fabian Society are depicted in the famous stained-glass Fabian Window^[1] designed by George Bernard Shaw. The window was stolen in 1978 and reappeared at Sotheby's in 2005. It was restored to display in the Shaw Library at the London School of Economics in 2006 at a ceremony over which Tony Blair presided.

The stained glass window was designed by George Bernard Shaw in 1910 as a commemoration of the Fabian Society, and shows fellow Society members Sidney Webb and Edward R. Pease, among others, helping to build 'the new world'. Four Fabians, Beatrice and Sidney Webb, Graham Wallas, and George Bernard Shaw founded the London School of Economics with the money left to the Fabian Society by Henry Hutchinson. Supposedly the decision was made at a breakfast party on 4 August 1894. Artist Caroline Townshend (cousin of Shaw's wife Charlotte Payne-Townshend and daughter of Fabian and Suffragette Emily Townshend) created the Fabian window, according to Shaw's design in 1910. Also included in the window besides Shaw and Townshend themselves, were other prominent Fabians such as H. G. Wells, Annie Besant, Graham Wallas, Hubert Bland, Edith Nesbit, Sydney Olivier, Oliver Lodge, Leonard Woolf, and Emmeline Pankhurst.

Uber-Progressive and Obama puppetmaster and Hillary Clinton mentor, George Soros, is a graduate of the London School of Economics. Coincidence?

—Obama denigrates religion, covers up religious symbols when he speaks in churches, and proclaims that we are not a “Christian” nation. In fact, we are a Christian nation, but not exclusively so, and far more tolerant of all believers and disbelievers than the Arab countries from whom he courts favor. In those countries you may be maimed, banished or killed if you are not Muslim. Freedom of religion in those countries is but an empty phrase in constitutions that exalt Islam over all other religions. Is Obama remolding our religious heritage? …Taken from CFP’s Beware the Obama Fabian Window. Many feel that Obama is Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing on the Fabian Window Coat of Arms.

Remember, Obama’s weakness is religious people. He doesn’t have the churches and true Bible reading/God fearing Americans behind him. So they are poking us to get us worked up to standup as a focus point making us the fringe and bringing us head to head with the left… the unions, OWS, avowed Progressives, etc.

Below are just a few of the article and perspective on this subject:

Obama appointee Muzzled Army Camplains and forbade them from reading Catholic Archdiocese Letter

Catholic League Poised To Go To War With Obama Over Mandatory Birth Control Payments

· Archbishop to U.S. Troops: Obamacare Reg ‘Blow to a Freedom You Have Fought

Monday, February 06, 2012 7:42:08 PM · by Nachum - Cybercast News Service ^ | 2/6/12 | Terence P. Jeffrey

Archbishop Timothy Broglio, who leads the Roman Catholic Archdiocese for the Military Services, wrote a letter to be read at all Sunday Masses for U.S. military personnel around the world that said that a regulation issued by the Obama Administration under the new federal health care law was “a blow” to a freedom that U.S. troops have not only fought to defend but for which some have recently died in battle. “It is a blow to a freedom that you have fought to defend and for which you have seen your buddies fall in battle,” the archbishop wrote.

· Updated: *167* Bishops (More Than 90% of Dioceses) Have Spoken Out Against Obama/HHS Mandate

Monday, February 06, 2012 7:39:21 PM · by Salvation · 8 replies - CatholicVote.org ^ | 02-06-12 | compiled by Thomas Peters

Updated: *167* Bishops (More Than 90% of Dioceses) Have Spoken Out Against Obama/HHS Mandate by Thomas Peters7 days ago In the past I’ve compiled a list of all the bishops speaking out on a particular controversial issue (for instance, over Notre Dame’s invitation to President Obama) — here are the bishops who have spoken out against the Obama/HHS mandate.[See my ongoing coverage of Obama/HHS's war against religious liberty here, here, here and most recently here. I'm also tweeting more updates @AmericanPapist.] If I have missed anyone please let me know in the comments! And please double-check that your bishop really is not there...

*Here is Ultra Left Wing HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius’ Spin (Remember, Sebilius was an ardent supporter of murdered partial birth abortionist, Tiller and her extreme record on abortion has sadly been ignored (or hidden) by the media.)

If the federal government can succeed in forcing people to violate their faith, it will have the power to force anyone to do anything. It is therefore sad but not surprising that Health and Human Services secretary Kathleen Sebelius took to USA Today this week to spin rather than explain her boss’s decision to force people and entities all over the country to fund abortifacients, contraception, and sterilization against their consciences.

However, one of the most startling comments came from former Democrat Rep. Kathy Dahlkemper who said that she would have never voted for the health care bill had she known that the Department of Health and Human Services would require all private insurers, including Catholic charities and hospitals, to cover the cost in full for contraception, sterilization procedures, and the “week-after“ pill ”ella” that can induce early abortions.

For those of us who have followed and fought against the passing of ObamaCare that knew about every ugly detail that has come to light since its passing… and there are many more to come, the amazement about its content keeps creating amazement for us.  Government-run healthcare is the crown jewel of socialism and the ugliness contained within has only begun to surface. How dare an elected official who voted on this type of freedom changing bill say, “If I had known….” Read the bills, pay readers, have your staff read it.  There really should be a penalty to pay by these people. Election 2012 or the Supreme Court Ruling will be our only chance(s) to rid ourselves of ObamaCare!!

This is not a matter that will just blow over, even though the White House is starting to back peddle on this issue for now; but this is a glimmer into our future if Barack Obama is re-elected. Those in the trenches know that any and all of the compromises we see during this election year will be rescinded as soon as Obama is re-elected.

This fight is much larger than this single issue… As Father Morris stated on Hannity the other night and again today on The Factor… “This is the fight over Freedom of Religion”, the very issue that America was founded on! The Left’s siege on churches has begun!!

Senator Rand Paul stood-up and blasted the HHS mandate as ‘authoritarian’ and ‘totalitarian; “Gloves are off”, he said!  Similar remarks from Speaker Boehner, Senator Marco Rubio and congressional politicians from both sides of the aisle. 

Ask Marion~

Related:

Beck Asks Panel:  How Do You Teach People Values When They Are RAised in a Secular World?

Watcher’s Council Nominations – The Gipper’s Edition

JoshuaPundit on Feb 08 2012

Happy 101st Birthday President Reagan

Video: Happy 101st Birthday President Reagan

Video:  Reagan Ever Relevant

Video: Ronald Reagan Tells Jokes About Democrats

Happy birthday, Mr. President. You have no idea how much we miss you.

Welcome to the Watcher’s Council, a blogging group consisting of some of the most incisive blogs in the ‘sphere, and the longest running group of its kind in existence. Every week, the members nominate two posts each, one written by themselves and one written by someone from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council.Then we vote on the best two posts, with the results appearing on Friday.

Council News:

First off,Happy Birthday to our esteemed colleague,New Zeal’s Trevor Loudon. Let’s all hoist a tinny out of the esky in his honor..many more!

This week, Crazy Bald Guy, Maggie’s Notebook, The Independent Sentinel and Capitalist Preservation took advantage of my generous offer of link whorage and earned honorable mention status.

You can, too! Want to see your work appear on the Watcher’s Council homepage in our weekly contest listing? Didn’t get nominated by a Council member? No worries.

Simply head over to Joshuapundit and post the title a link to the piece you want considered along with an e-mail address ( which won’t be published) in the comments section no later than Monday 6PM PST in order to be considered for our honorable mention category, and return the favor by creating a post on your site linking to the Watcher’s Council contest for the week.

It’s a great way of exposing your best work to Watcher’s Council readers and Council members. while grabbing the increased traffic and notoriety. And how good is that, eh?

So, let’s see what we have this week….

Council Submissions

• Joshuapundit-Glorifying Evil
• Simply Jews – Tehran: HOT under the collar
• The Political Commentator – Obama: Are Jews finally catching on?
• The Noisy Room – On the Road to Armageddon – Moving Ragnarok to the Middle East
• VA Right! - For Unto Whom Much is Given
• Bookworm Room – The Narcissistic Mindset of Today’s World
• The Mellow Jihadi – Slab City, Navy Town
• Rhymes With Right – Is The Tea Party Dead?
• The Glittering Eye -Where the Wheel Hits the Road on Education
• The Razor – Automate This – The Nature of Work in the 21st Century
• GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD – The Little Satan Paradox
• The Right Planet – Video: Obama Opposed Super-PACs, Before He Was for Them
• The Colossus of Rhodey – OK to rip the KKK; al Qaeda, not so much
• New Zeal – “Iran’s Latin America Ties Pose Threat to US”

Honorable Mentions

• Crazy Bald Guy – Mitt vs. Newt
• Maggie’s Notebook – Obama Blames Founders: He Can’t Force Congress: Founders Make it Difficult
• The Independent Sentinel – Obama Signed the Anti-Counterfeiting Treaty & Ceded Internet Rights to the UN
• Capitalist Preservation – Attention Christians: Barack Obama is on your side

Non-Council Submissions

• Niall Ferguson – Israel and Iran on the Eve of Destruction in a New Six-Day War submitted by Joshuapundit
• Sad Red Earth – ‘Israel Firster’: Anatomy of a Smear submitted by Simply Jews
• World Net Daily/Reza Kahlili -Ayatollah: Kill all Jews, annihilate Israel submitted by The Political Commentator
• Sultan Knish –A Tale of Two Republican Parties submitted by The Noisy Room
• Big Jounalism – Credit Where It’s Due: Tablet Calls Out Media Matters, Center for American Progress, J Street on Antisemitism submitted by VA Right!
• Michael Ramirez-“We’re behind you 100%” submitted by Bookworm Room
• The Chicago Boyz –To the Lifeboats submitted by The Mellow Jihadi
• The Economic Collapse Blog – If The Economy Is Improving…. submitted by Rhymes with Right
• The People’s Cube – The Teachings of Jesus and Obama: A Reference Chart submitted by The Glittering Eye
• James Delingpole –How Green Zealots Are Destroying The Planet submitted by The Razor
• ZenPundit – Nagl: “COIN is not Dead!” submitted by GrEaT sAtAn”S gIrLfRiEnD
• Now Lebanon – Egypt’s Christians, post-Mubarak submitted by The Watcher
• Armed Forces Journal – Truth, lies and Afghanistan submitted by The Watcher
• Ayaan Hirsi Ali – The Global War on Christians in the Muslim World submitted by The Watcher
• Seraphic Secret – Three Notable War Movies submitted by The Watcher

  Enjoy! And don’t forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter..’cause we’re cool like that!

Insurgency in America? Former Border Agent Details National Security Threats Spilling Into the U.S.

Former Border Patrol Agent Zachary Taylor told The Blaze just how grave the threat really is.

Taylor broke down the imminent dangers and expanded upon the case that the U.S.-Mexico border has become the soft underbelly of U.S homeland defense.

It’s not just an immigration problem, Taylor insisted, but also a major national security vulnerability.

A former US Border Patrol Agent himself, Taylor says all these threat have been exacerbated by current Obama administration policies and deliberate distortions in much of the media.

To understand the scope of the problem, Taylor first wants the public to recognize that the dominant media narrative is intentionally false. As a former and longtime Border Patrol Agent, Taylor balked at the notion that illegal immigration is simply a function of people seeking a better life.

He feels there’s a lot of nefarious activity that goes unaddressed, and said “The main problem is that the American press is working in conjunction with the administration to keep the facts about what is happening in Mexico and Central America a secret. They are hiding it in plain sight, deception I would call it.”

Taylor continued “Our institutions have been corrupted, the 4th estate has been corrupted. It is a tool of disinformation… A psychological warfare operation being waged against the American people using things to deflect their attention.”

According to Taylor, many of the people coming across the border are entering America illegally with the intention of doing real harm. They are coming with drugs, guns and inflicting violence, or are part of elaborate human smuggling networks with direct ties to the vast criminal cartels. The appeals to human compassion and “America is a nation of immigrants” meme ignores this very real and growing threat to the United States.

Which brought our discussion to the vicious and powerful Mexican drug cartels.

Taylor made it clear that there is no level of violent depravity or government corruption outside the ability of the cartels. The Sinaloa, the Zetas, and others narco-insurgents are engaged in beheadings, mutilations, sexual assaults, and videotaped torture campaigns similar to what most people associate with Al Qaeda.

“I have never seen this level of terrorist messaging” Taylor said, referencing the brazen brutality of the criminal syndicates. Taylor provided The Blaze with slideshows that depict unspeakable cruelty– true evil– that has become the calling card of the cartels. Vans full of headless and dismembered bodies, human carcasses strewn about the side of a desert road— all of it intended to strike terror in the hearts of Americans as well as Mexicans.

Taylor believes the cartel campaigns are not limited to the nuts and bolts of the drug trade. He told The Blaze that he feels the cartels want to have a hand in Mexican national elections and hope to help bring about a sympathetic leftist government to power.

The approximately 45,000 casualties of the drug war so far have been largely a response to Mexican President Calderon’s attempts to crack down on the cartels. If the drug barons were able to help install a leftist, anti-American government that would turn a blind eye to the drug trade, it would be a huge victory for the narco-traffickers. And a huge problem for the United States.

“Mexico has an insurgency on its hands– that is exactly what the problem is— and america will have the same problem as it makes it easier to get across the border,” Taylor said.

But Taylor brought some outside elements into his analysis. He stated that drug cartel activity and terrorist activity are both transnational in nature, which means groups from around the world have become involved.

In this case, that means the Shia militant group Hezbollah

Taylor said that Hezbollah is allying with the drug and alien smuggling operations at the border to help finance their operations in the Middle East. And in the event of hostilities with Hezbollah’s benefactor– Iran– Taylor is concerned that the cartel smuggling networks could help make America’s WMD nightmare come true.

“Get them close enough and effective enough, they [Hezbollah] could smuggle a Weapon of Mass Destruction into the United States.”

For those who would say the threat of a WMD smuggled into the U.S. is hyped or remote, Taylor points to a YouTube video from 2009 in which Muslim cleric Abdullah al-Nafisi talked about bringing 4 lbs of anthrax into the U.S. that he gleefully claimed would kill 330,000 people. It’s still available for anyone to see on YouTube, as shown below courtesy of MEMRI.TV:

Video: Abdullah Al-Nafisi - A biological attack on USA

Faced with all these threats, the federal government has refused to send enough resources in Taylor’s view. On the contrary, Taylor believes the Obama administration is engaged in efforts to bureaucratically subvert border security for political gain.

When the subject turned to the brave efforts of our border agents, Taylor painted a picture of an undermanned, outgunned, and bureaucratically hobbled federal Border Patrol force. He shared a number of disheartening anecdotes and cases that showed U.S. border efforts are not only insufficient– decisions are being made at the top of the federal government to make border enforcement more difficult.

Those policy decisions can and do have lethal consequences. In the infamous killing of former Marine and Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry, operational guidelines ordered that non-lethal force was the preferred first option of defense. This ignored the fact that there had already been several attempts to shoot Border Patrol agents in the same area with high-powered rifles.

In 2009, almost exactly one year before Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was killed by border bandits, another group of BP officers were on ATVs near ramanote canyon in Arizona. Armed smugglers opened fire on the agents, wounding one agent in the ankle/foot area, but the other agent was able to withdraw.

The smugglers, however, did not retreat, despite the fact that other border patrol agents came into the area to assists. Taylor said “not only will they [bandits] open fire on Border Patrol, they will advance on them in an attack.”

A helicopter arrived on the scene, according to Taylor, but shockingly, the helo crews were prohibited from exfiltrating the wounded agent. Instead, the Border Patrol brought in a horse to carry the agent out of the area to a waiting helicopter because of DHS protocol for the area.

It took 4 1/2 hours from the time of the engagement until the medical evacuation was completed. This was all due, as Taylor put it, to DHS policy with no basis in anything other than slowing down enforcement efforts and endangering Border agents.

Taylor also said the Department of Homeland Security did away with CAS (Close Air Support) helicopters in December 2011 even though light observation helicopters with a FLEER-mounted surveillance system “almost guarantees you will catch your quarry.”

Taylor doesn’t mince words about this. He believes the removal of the choppers is an attempt to intentionally hamper the effectiveness of border operations.

The federal government is ”killing the operation through policy and how they deploy assets… it’s about spending money and making the show, not about effectiveness.”

Currently, there are even federal agency turf wars making enforcement more difficult. Border Patrol Agents are not allowed to enter or pursue on federal wildlife refuges without permission. As some of these preserves– which fall under the Department of the Interior– can stretch for nearly a hundred miles from the border, they are basically a smuggler’s paradise.

There is a House of Representative Bill that would give agents unfettered access to anywhere within 100 miles of the border, but the mere fact that this legislation is needed speaks volumes about the present state of border security, as Taylor put it.

There can also be clear politics at play in how Border Patrol cases are handed. Agent Jesus Diaz was found not guilty of excessive force by two different internal review boards, but the US Attorney’s Office interceded and successfully prosecuted the agent.

Taylor said that the federal court did not all any background into the trial of Agent Diaz, and the words of four inexperience agents who allegedly failed to follow standard operating procedures were used against him in court. Apparently, the inexperienced agents caught part of a drug smuggling group– the leader of which was only 15 years old, and failed to secure the suspects.

When Diaz arrived, there were still armed drug smugglers in the brush nearby but the agents had not yet handcuffed the ones in custody. Diaz claimed he took over, handcuffed the suspects, and during the interrogation to find out about other armed criminal nearby, lifted the handcuffs of at least one suspect.

For this offense, Diaz was charged with excessive force and faces federal prison time. In addition, Taylor said it has come to light that all four of the rookie border patrol agents who testified against Diaz have since washed out of the agency.

As if the southern border were not enough, there are problems at the northern U.S. border as well. Taylor claims that the Obama Administration is intentionally making it easier to illegally cross the northern border through bureaucratic inefficiency. The National Forest Service does not allow unfettered access to Border Agents, and DHS is ceasing many transportation checkpoint along the border with Canada.

For Taylor, all of this adds up to a situation that gravely threatens U.S. national security and endangers Americans.

Asked how this state of affairs could continue, or even be allowed to worse, Taylor summarized his case bluntly.

“This administration is trying to facilitate the entry of illegal aliens into the United States.”

The Blaze

Photos were shown on a GBTV special that they will not re-printed on the Blaze or anywhere else because of the horrific nature of the images.  Photos included picturess of the rape tree, murders, beheadings, dismemberings, a cooler filled with heads floating in blood, skinned bodies and heads (often skinned while the people are still alive) hanging from poles, etc. …

What we must ask ourselves is… If one crazy person, like a Hannibal Lector type serial killer, was doing this in our country…  we would be organizing a huge unrelenting man-hunt, so why is our government hiding this information, classifying the documents of the same type of events happening on the U.S. side or the border, and blocking the news coverage?  Why was the DOJ involved in Fast and Furious… with knowledge (and no-doubt approval) up to the Attorney Holder and even the White House.

This lack of action and cover-ups goes back to the Bush Administration but has gotten much much worse under the present administration.

The disgusting mishandled Fast and Furious Gun Running Program that Eric Holder has created a circus over by withholding facts and paperwork from the Congress and special investigation committee feeds into the lies and cover-up being enacted by the U.S. Government against the American and Mexican people.

Facts:

Extreme violence, drug cartels, human trafficking, and terrorism is being enacted in on the U.S.-Mexican border.

Hezbollah and Hamas are using the Mexican border as a staging area.

Enemies are coming across the Mexican Border in Droves.  59,000 OTM’s have been captured… We only capture about 1 out of 10 or less of those who cross.  Islamic prayer rugs have been found as well as manuals on terrorism.

Fires are being deliberately set on the border… believed as diversions or cover-ups.  One of the large ones was set where the Fast and Furious conspiracies was enacted.

The Northern border is even more accessible than the Southern Border; nobody is watching it and they plan to pull the few agents they have there off… yet how easy would it be for an Islamic Terrorist to enter from Canada into Michigan and blend in to the huge Muslim population in that state?

Zach Taylor, Head of the Association of Former Border Agents, is risking his life to get this information out because it is crucial to the future of America.  He said be wary of any candidate who talks about amnesty (no matter what they call it) and social justice. (The two toughest candidate for president on securing the border are Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum).

Glenn Beck said, “Do what you want with this info, but when he worked at both CNN and FOX, they would not give him the resources to properly research and cover this for this TV programs.  Think about it…

Glenn asked Zach Taylor what Americans can do to help and get help for the border agents and themselves… since many law enforcement groups find their hands tied… and at the higher levels are part of the problem.  Taylor said that the problem and authority is with the administration, DHS and the DOJ, but the funding is with the legislature.  Get to the legislators and speak with your votes in November.  We need change in the White House and 90% of the people in Congress need to be changed!

John Boehner to halt Fast and Furious investigation, sell out to Eric Holder and White House  -  This is frightening!!

Congressman John Boehner, the House Speaker better known for displays of weeping than of courage, is reportedly cutting a deal with Eric Holder which would provide a “mutually satisfactory” outcome in Barack Obama’s criminal, gun running endeavor Operation Fast and Furious.

Months ago, Boehner prevented Darrell Issa filing a charge of perjury against Holder even after documents proved the Attorney General’s May 4th House testimony concerning the date of his first “acquaintance” with Fast and Furious to be an outright lie.

And now the weepy Speaker will OFFICIALLY let the most corrupt Department of Justice head in the nation’s history off the hook for complicity in the Regime’s murderous scheme to savage the 2nd Amendment rights of the American people.

The terms of the betrayal John Boehner is currently putting together:

The Committee will accept the scalps of [Lanny] Breuer and [Jason] Wienstein, DOJ will release enough of the (documents) to condemn them, claim cooperation (thus giving the appearance of recognizing congress’s oversight authority), and Holder will survive – looking like a “leader” for offering them up (along with a few lower level ATF and DOJ folk). The Committee will chalk one in the “Win” column for oversight and holding people accountable. DOJ will have the same for cooperating and accountability. (1)

Lovely, isn’t it! Hundreds are dead, including two American agents. One of those dead, Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry was literally set up for murder by an FBI INFORMANT who, on December 14th of 2010, accompanied and LED the drug cartel rip gang responsible for Terry’s death. The other victim, ICE Agent Jaime Zapata was NOT PERMITTED by LAW to even possess a weapon with which he might have defended himself from his killers!

Yet John Boehner will be pleased to sell them out in order to...  (Excerpt) Read more at coachisright.com ...

*This should give you new respect for our border agents and people like Sheriff Joe Arpaio and Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona who are on the front lines.**

Happy 101st Birthday President Ronald Reagan

Video: Happy 101st Birthday President Reagan

After his brief stint in Hollywood, however, he switched to the right and and is known to have said, "I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The party left me."

Fans of Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S. president, celebrate on Monday his 101st birthday at a ceremony at his Presidential Library in Simi Valley.

The ceremony includes a color guard, chaplain, a brass quintet, a 21- gun salute and the placing of an official White House wreath on Reagan's gravesite.

Video: "The Great Communicator"

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who was a political aide in the Reagan administration, delivers the keynote address.

The celebration coincides with the state’s second Ronald Reagan Day that was enacted under a 2010 law written by former state Sen. George Runner.

Photos and Videos

Ronald Reagan's Best Friend

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Ronald
Reagan's Best Friend

NewsConference: Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

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NewsConference: Ronald
Reagan Presidential...

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SB 944 establishes Feb. 6 as a special day of significance in honor of Reagan, akin to other days celebrating naturalist John Muir, California teachers and the California poppy.

The bill did not create a state holiday and does not cost the taxpayers money.

“In these challenging economic times, we can learn much from our former governor and president,” said Runner, now a member of the Board of Equalization. “Ronald Reagan believed in the American people and he was confident that our nation's brightest days are ahead of us.”

Runner invited all Californians to visit www.facebook.com/ReaganDay to share a favorite memory, quote, photo or video of Reagan.

Twitter users are invited to tweet their memories using the hash tag #ReaganDay.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich called Reagan “a gracious, humble patriot” who “brought respect, dignity and principle to the state house and White House.

“Through his leadership, along with Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, the Berlin Wall collapsed, we saw the end of Soviet communism and the hammer and sickle joined the swastika on the junk pile of history,” said Antonovich, who served in the Assembly when Reagan was governor, was his representative on the Platform Committee at the 1976 Republican National Convention and his appointee to several federal commissions.

You can watch the ceremony online.

America remembers our beloved 40th president today! In honor of President Reagan’s 101st birthday, Americans For Prosperity put together the great video above reminding us of the time-tested truths Reagan stood for. at the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, CA

Last year at this time, I had the honor of speaking at the Young America’s Foundation’s Reagan Centennial dinner at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara. You can watch or read the speech here; it was an homage to Reagan’s famous “Time for Choosing” and a discussion of the state of our nation today.

During the Illinois leg of the One Nation Tour, we got to visit Reagan’s hometown of Dixon, as well as his alma mater, Eureka College. It was a very moving experience, which I wrote about here, here and here.

As I wrote in an op-ed last year on Reagan’s centennial:

I had the privilege of coming of age during the era of Ronald Reagan. I like to think of him as America's lifeguard. As a teenager, Ronald Reagan saved 77 lives as a lifeguard on the Rock River, which ran through his hometown of Dixon, Ill. The day he was inaugurated in 1981, a local radio announcer famously declared, "The Rock River flows for you tonight, Mr. President."

The image of the lifeguard seems to represent what Reagan was to America and to the freedom-loving people of the world. He lifted our country up at a time when we were in the depths of economic, cultural and spiritual malaise. We were told that we must accept that the era of American greatness was over; but with his optimism and common sense, President Reagan held up a mirror to the American soul to remind us of our exceptionalism.

at the Rock River in Dixon, IL

Happy Birthday from the Palins!

When Ronald Reagan passed away after his long fight with Alzheimer's where few saw him because of his beloved Nancy’s diligent attempt to preserve the public’s memory of the President in a better light than the final years treated him.  The outpouring of love and attendance of events as people of both parties lined the streets of Simi Valley for miles, portrayed what would be his place in history.  Ronnie was a larger than life figure that brought people together.  People of both parties loved Reagan as a person and as an American hero who fought for America (and California), whether you agreed with his politics or not.  Just about everyone loved Ronnie because he love them and America! M~

On the Road to Armageddon – Moving Ragnarok to the Middle East

The headlines today are full of the Middle East spinning violently apart and threatening to take the entire planet with them. The Doomsday Clock is relentlessly ticking towards midnight and the nuclear Armageddon we have all dreaded our entire lives is about to become reality. And what does Obama do? Why, he gleefully helps it along of course. It suits his Marxist goals and brings chaos into the mix to hurry up a new, sinister utopia, while Israel sits with the sword of Damocles hanging over their heads in a solemn nod to the coming worldwide Caliphate.

We are perilously close to the point of no return on Iran’s nukes. Israel has managed to stave off their progress somewhat by taking down a plant in Syria and by unknown others taking out nuclear scientists and letting the Stuxnet Worm do its damage.

Israel will need to make a major move soon if they are to have a prayer of taking out Iran’s capabilities – in fact, it may already be too late. They have made the tactical error of listening to the radical Progressive leadership in DC and it may cost them everything. No American hero on a white steed will ride to the rescue this time. Panetta has made it abundantly clear – R2P for Syria is a possibility, but hands off Iran. Unless of course, Obama has to have an Iranian war for reelection, in which case, I believe that Panetta will make it as bloody as possible, with Israel being the sacrificial lamb on the Marxist altar of a New World Government. The elite leadership in the US is no longer a friend to Israel – or at least one they can count on. Sadly, they are on their own as they have always been and I believe the evil that is brewing across the globe is bearing down on them. We will all pay a horrible price if we let Israel be savaged by the Iranians and radical Islam, backed by Russia and China.

The Ayatollah came out today and last week through the Internet and in fiery speeches called again for the destruction of Israel and the killing of all Jews. The Iranian government has also laid out a legal and religious doctrine that includes wiping out Israeli assets and Jewish people worldwide.

From WND:

Calling Israel a danger to Islam, the conservative website Alef, with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the opportunity must not be lost to remove “this corrupting material. It is a ‘jurisprudential justification” to kill all the Jews and annihilate Israel, and in that, the Islamic government of Iran must take the helm.”

The article, written by Alireza Forghani, a conservative analyst and a strategy specialist in Khamenei’s camp, now is being run on most state-owned conservative sites, including the Revolutionary Guards’ Fars News Agency, showing that the regime endorses this doctrine.

Because Israel is going to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, Iran is justified in launching a pre-emptive, cataclysmic attack against the Jewish state, the doctrine argues.

And the rhetoric is heating up explosively day by day. This won’t go on much longer before something boils over. Tiny Israel will have no choice but to preemptively protect herself or try to save herself afterwards.

Take a look at the slew of events making headlines recently and ask yourself what they portend:

· 400 are slaughtered in Syria, while the UN tries to mandate a resolution. Russia and China block the resolution. And to sweeten the poison, Syria is close to having a civil war break out.

· Hard-line Islamists have taken control of Kuwait’s parliament in their elections, following in the footsteps of Tunisia and Egypt.

· Libya – whom we cheered on in the Arab Spring – had their militia torture their Ambassador to France to death after pulling out his toe nails. Yep, this is what democracy looks like.

· Iranian war ships have docked in a Saudi port. Iranian naval ships docked on Saturday in the Saudi port city of Jeddah on a mission to project the Islamic republic’s “power on the open seas.”

· Iran has begun mass production of an anti-ship cruise missile.

· Egypt on Sunday referred 43 NGO workers, including 19 Americans, to trial before a criminal court for allegedly using illegal foreign funds to foment unrest.

· Iran’s Revolutionary Guard began military exercises Saturday in the country’s south, the latest show of force after threats to close the strategic Strait of Hormuz in retaliation for tougher Western sanctions.

· Israeli facilities worldwide are on high alert against an attack from Iran, according to an internal security document obtained by ABC News.

From NewsMax:

“We predict that the threat on our sites around the world will increase … on both our guarded sites and ‘soft’ sites,” read a letter by the head of security for the Consul General for the Mid-Atlantic States, ABC News reported. Guarded sites are government facilities like embassies and consulates; “soft sites” are Jewish synagogues, schools and community centers.

Police and intelligence officials in U.S. and Canadian cities — including New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Toronto — have increased patrols at Israeli government locations and Jewish institutions, ABC News reported.

· Panetta believes Israel could strike Iran within months.

· Iran is warning of a coming ‘great event.’ Since they believe that 2012 is the return of the Mahdi, you do the math.

So, whether you call it Armageddon or Ragnarok, Iran wants to bring it on and fast. It’s the end of the world baby and they’re feeling fine. There is a reason the US does not show up in end times eschatology. Will we write our own future and defend God’s chosen people? Or, will we slink into oblivion and fall to the enemy? Billions are dying to know, or getting ready to any way.

Loki breaks free at the onset of Ragnarök (by Ernst H. Walther, 1897)

By: Terresa Monroe-Hamilton - the NoisyRoom