Must-read article at Deutsche Welle on the upcoming report by The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), Ecuador emerges as hub for international crime Ecuador is emerging as a focus for transnational criminal groups, according to US and European officials. Colombian and Mexican drug traffickers as well as Chinese and African human traffickers use it as a business hub. The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the inter-governmental body responsible for combating money laundering and the financing of terrorism, is expected at its meeting in February in Abu Dhabi to include Ecuador on its high-risk jurisdiction list at the request of G20 finance ministers. Why? [...]
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Hugo Chavez Needs Surgery after Finding New Lesion during Trip to Cuba The rumors about Chávez’s health began spreading when Nelson Bocaranda, a columnist at Venezuelan daily El Universal, posted an article to his blog and several tweets saying the president’s health had deteriorated and he had traveled to Havana to assess whether he needed surgery. Bocaranda based the reporting on unnamed sources in Miami and Cuba. The report contradicted official accounts of Chávez’s health. The Venezuelan president has undergone four rounds of chemotherapy since his diagnosis in June and he has said since October that he is free of cancer. Bocaranda added other colorful details [...] The financial world is not what we understand it to be. Four videos that recently came to my attention explain debt and who owns your money, 1. The Rise of the Financial Empire, 2. Debt: Imperial Power and Control, 3. [...] 
Aiming to “reset” the button, Hillary stands out in the crowd; perhaps she thought she was in Rode Island with Joe Biden, Didn’t get the memo? Hillary Clinton dons lime green shirt for G20 ‘family photo’ while everyone else wears white (h/t Babalu ) Fashion faux-pas, or smart diplomacy? You decide! [...] Mary O’Grady asks, Keystone XL and National Security Who gains the most from Obama’s rejection of a new oil pipeline? the U.S. should be seeking to defund the Chávez machine, and there is no better way to do that than with approval of the Keystone XL. The Alberta crude that will travel through the XL is of a similar quality to Venezuelan oil, and the U.S. [...] 
and we’re supposed to think that “the Obamas stand up for working Americans” ? A new Internet ad by the president’s reelection campaign features a portrait of the first family asking supporters to “help the Obamas stand up for working Americans.” The appeal, a departure from the typical Obama messaging, provides an early glimpse of the role the president’s wife and daughters are likely to play in his campaign. The wife and daughters are skiing in Aspen , the most expensive town in America, where they hired five ski instructors. Sixteen vacations in three years – President’s Day 2012, Michelle and the first daughters in Aspen, Colorado to ski. [...] 
At the Exxon station at 2708 Virginia Ave NW, 10 blocks due west of the White House . Hope, change, whatever. [...] 
Was the first President the best President? Yes. Steven Hayward points to this book, The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Presidents: From Wilson to Obama , which points out that, Americans in 1787 knew they could count on the “moderation and virtue” of this one man enough to entrust him with this brand new and undefined office. Washington knew his decisions and actions would be crucial to whether the office—and the Constitution—would succeed for the ages. “Few who are not philosophical spectators,” he wrote, “can realize the difficult and delicate part which a man in my situation has to act. [...] “ Find out what it is in life that you don’t do well, and then don’t do that thing .” Jamie Weinstein of the Daily Caller tells us that The real-life most interesting man in the world passes – John Fairfax, Who Rowed Across Oceans, Dies at 74 , who apparently, like the fictional Most Interesting Man in the World (a.k.a. TMIMITW), thought that “it’s never too early to start beefing up your obituary” At 9, he settled a dispute with a pistol. At 13, he lit out for the Amazon jungle. At 20, he attempted suicide-by-jaguar. [...] 
From the Congressional Budget Office report, Understanding and Responding to Persistently High Unemployment , February 2012, (h/t Big Government ) United States is experiencing the longest stretch of high unemployment since the Great Depression How bad? Many people would like to work but have not searched for a job in the past four weeks, or are working part-time but would prefer full-time work. If those people were counted among the unemployed, the unemployment rate in January 2012 would have been about 15 percent . Since High Real Unemployment Data Reflect Poorly On Obama , the Brokest Nation In History Fusses Instead About Sex , as Mark Steyn points out (h/t Instapundit ): Just to emphasize, this isn’t the doom-laden dystopian fancy of a right-wing apocalyptic loon like me; it’s the official Oval Office version of where America’s headed. Additionally, And, as Chart 5-1 on page 58 of the official Obama budget “Analytical Perspectives” makes plain, your feckless, decadent rulers have no plans to do anything about it. [...] The Metropolitan Opera is doing Wagner’s Ring, and The Manolo is thrilled. Bryn Terfel is playing Wotan . Here’s the big guy singing Wotan in Die Walkure, However, as much as I love BT, I do not like Wagner. So it’s great that The Manolo has provided Anna Russell and The Ring of the Nibelung for our cultural edification, Now, if we could get BT to do Mrs. [...] 
In a warm embrace, Sean Penn and Hugo Chávez headed to a graduation ceremony of medical students, after Sean landed in Caracas. Hugo’s re-election campaign has been attacking his opponent, Henrique Capriles as “Jewish, and gay” . This time Hugo called Capriles a pig , In a speech to an audience which included Mr Chavez’s friend Sean Penn, the president referred to Henrique Capriles as “the loser”. “We’re going to pulverise you in the October 7 election,” the socialist leader said before the insults took an even more personal tone. [...] Stratfor explains why the term “cartels”, when applied to the drug trade, is a misnomer, While the trafficking groups in Mexico are commonly called “cartels” (even Stratfor uses the term), they are not really cartels. A cartel is a combination of groups cooperating to control the supply of a commodity. The primary purpose of a cartel is to set the price of a commodity so that buyers cannot negotiate lower prices. The current conflict in Mexico over cocaine and marijuana smuggling routes shows that there are deep rifts between rival groups like the Sinaloa Federation and Los Zetas. There is no sign that they are cooperating with each other to set the price of cocaine or marijuana [...] Idiot Dana Milbank at the WaPo came up with this punchline in his column, Does the GOP care about Latino voters? The chimichanga? It may be the only thing Republicans have left to offer Latinos Obama’s campaign manager called it “the line of the day”. My friend Val Prieto took out the big stick and beat Milbank’s chimi to a pulp, …subsequently Obama Campaign Manager Jim Messina tweets that this is “the line of the day” and the twitterverse is afire. Lots of Hispanic folks on the right side of the aisle are insulted by not just the insensitivity of the original remark, but the supporting tweet by none other the the President’s Campaign manger [...] 
Chavez allies attack new opponent Capriles as Jewish, gay Capriles — the grandson of Jews who survived the World War Two Holocaust in Poland — defines himself as a center-left “progressive” who admires Brazil’s “modern left” model of free-market economics with a strong social conscience. The attacks against him foreshadow a tough election battle in the polarized South American OPEC member nation, where Chavez has strong support among the poor and denounces opponents as representatives of a discredited, super-rich elite. The most furious accusations have come from state media commentator Mario Silva, who often targets Chavez’s foes on his late night TV show, “The Razorblade.” ‘The Enemy is Zionism’ Silva insulted opposition leaders and then read out a purported police document reporting Capriles was caught in a car having sex with another man in 2000. Capriles denied the allegation and said the document was falsified. [...] Face it: the politicians in Washington are beyond reach, Iran’s mad mullahs are expanding its influence in our hemisphere, the EU is about to collapse, the federal government has taken over 2/3ds of the economy, and more people are receiving benefits from the government every day – which benefits the incumbent . Might as well be realistic and make a roundup of how the wind is blowing today. Betsy posts on Obama, the Magic-Money Man Witness his supposed compromise on the HHS regulations on insurance companies having to supply free contraceptive and sterilization care to all women even if their employers are religious institutions with religious objections to such policies. The Obama administration is pretending that the employers won’t have to pay for these policies, just the insurance companies. This is mendacious sophistry [...] Love theme from one of my favorites, Cinema Paradiso , [...] 
Having bailed water while wearing a flak vest in New Orleans, and kissed Hugo in Caracas , attention whore Jeff Spicoli is looking for pizza in Buenos Aires, Sean Penn backs Argentina over Falkland Islands Actor meets Argentinian president and says world cannot tolerate ‘archaic commitment to colonialist ideology’ The actor Sean Penn has weighed into the Falklands dispute, urging Britain to join UN-sponsored talks over what he called “the Malvinas Islands of Argentina”. Penn met Argentina’s president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in Buenos Aires and said: “It’s necessary that these diplomatic talks happen between the United Kingdom and Argentina. I think that the world today is not going to tolerate any kind of ludicrous and archaic commitment to colonialist ideology.” If only the world would not tolerate any kind of ludicrous and archaic ideology from idiot actors who ignore the fact that the Falklanders consider themselves Brits. Sean Penn’s bizarre anti-British rant is laughable even by Hollywood standards . [...] For years I have been blogging on Iran ’s presence in Latin America, which includes Hezbollah’s influence in the tri-border area of Paraguay-Brazil-Argentina. Most readers probably consider this an abstraction of sorts, things happening far away that have no bearing in their lives. In fact, this is a matter of national security important to the USA. Mitchell Silber, director of intelligence analysis for the New York City Police Department, explains why in today’s Wall Street Journal, The Iranian Threat to New York City As the West’s conflict with Iran over its nuclear program heats up, New York City—with its large Jewish population—becomes an increasingly attractive target. Iran has a proven record of using its official presence in a foreign city to coordinate attacks, which are then carried out by Hezbollah agents from abroad, often leveraging the local community—whether wittingly or not—as facilitators [...] Lyrics here . The Hypocrisy of Hollywood’s Whitney Houston Sorrow [...] Mary O’Grady’s article in today’s WSJ, Fortuño’s Plan to Energize Puerto Rico Tax cuts and regulatory reforms are increasing investment on the island , nails it, Mr. Fortuño says that he expects Washington to give him a carve-out for LNG tankers, but he doesn’t have it yet. He also says that a large part of the environmentalist push-back is political, suggesting to me that he ought to be more worried than he is. This kind of politics needs to preserve the status quo of the welfare state . And that implies blocking Mr. [...] Monica Paz and Santiago Steele a few years ago, featuring the perfect back sacada, [...] Unchain a PR campaign prior to CPAC to promote this blog. Show up, maybe . [...] The Occupy nuts were at CPAC , and Matt Lewis has a video, which apparently has the f-bomb, if you can make it out over the din, Later on, the Occupiers moved down the driveway, and confronted Stephen Kruiser, who looked 100% like a one-percenter in pin stripes and 18k-gold earrings. I’ll add the video once he posts it. [...] 
Tom Grace, best-selling author Best-selling author Tom Grace visited Bloggers’ Row to promote his new political thriller, The Liberty Intrigue , which is also available on Kindle. Also, my friend Ralph Benko was promoting his book on the gold standard, The 21st Century Gold StandardL For Prosperity, Security, and Liberty [...] |
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