Dow loses gains for the year; transports off 2%

8 Jun

It’s all been smoke and mirrors, folks!

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3 Hours Ago

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U.S. stocks closed near session lows on Monday as investors weighed multi-month highs in bond yields amid greater expectations of tightening following Friday’s strong jobs report. (Tweet This)

The Dow Jones industrial average closed down about 80 points, posting losses of 0.32 percent year-to-date.

“I think everybody’s a little unsettled about the way U.S. and European bond markets sold off in the last week,” said David Kelly, chief global strategist at J.P. Morgan Funds.

Analysts noted relatively less volatility in bond and currency markets in Monday trade. The benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury yield held slightly lower at 2.39 percent. The U.S. dollar pared recent gains, down about one percent against major world currencies with the euro rising to $1.1287. The stronger greenback has weighed on corporate earnings.

On Friday, a surge in bond yields to multi-month highs on a strong jobs report pressured equities, with U.S. stocks closing narrowly mixed.

Nonfarm payrolls for May beat expectations with the addition of 280,000 jobs. Analysts also cheered a greater-than-forecast 8 cent increase in hourly wages and a 5.5 percent unemployment rate. Signs of continued strength in the labor market strengthened the case for the Federal Reserve to begin raising short-term interest rates in September.

“I think the market’s trying to figure out if (Friday’s employment report) is going to move the Federal Reserve to act in September,” said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth. He also cited weakness in the Dow transports as weighing on stocks.

The Dow transports, led by a decline in airlines, closed down 2.06 percent for its worst day since January 6. The index posted its first positive week in four last Friday.

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JetBlue closed down 7.2 percent for its worst day since Sept. 15, 2014. United Continental, American, Southwest and Delta held below their 50 and 200-day moving averages.

Read MoreGoldman: Market going nowhere, so do this…

Apple closed 0.66 percent lower after falling more than 1 percent during its highly anticipated Worldwide Developers Conference at which the iPhone maker announced its new Apple Music service.

The major indices extended recent losses, with the S&P 500 ending at 2,079, below its 100-day moving average of 2,084. Art Cashin, director of floor operations for UBS, said that level was one of support for the S&P, which faced resistance at 2,101.

“The technicals are deteriorating, and monetary conditions are deteriorating,” said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at RW Baird. He is watching to see whether or not the S&P 500 can hold above 2,070.

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“The SPX is likely to reach oversold territory today for the first time since March, which we think will give way to improved short-term momentum during the latter half of the week,” BTIG Chief Technical Strategist Katie Stockton said in a morning note. “The financial sector appears positioned to exhibit upside leadership, which could be just what is needed to restore confidence in the market.”

Financials closed down 0.62 percent after failing to hold early gains. The S&P Regional Banking ETF (KRE) closed a touch higher. Morgan Stanley and KeyCorp briefly gained to levels not seen since September 2008. PNC Financial hit an all-time high.

Read MoreBond market volatility could rein in stocks

“Probably another listless session in the absence of any hard data,” said Mark Luschini, chief investment strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott. “Certainly the Greek saga continues.”

Luschini and other analysts are looking ahead to Thursday’s retail sales for insight on consumer spending, which has not picked up as much as many expected.

“We’re at a juncture where markets have to weigh whether good economic data is good for corporate earnings,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities.

Symbol
Name
Price
Change
%Change
DJIA Dow Jones Industrial Average 17766.55 -82.91 -0.46%
S&P 500 S&P 500 Index 2079.28 -13.55 -0.65%
NASDAQ Nasdaq Composite Index 5021.63 -46.83 -0.92%

In the absence of major U.S. news and data releases on Monday, traders also kept an eye on overseas developments.

Turkey’s ruling AK Party failed to win an outright majority in a parliamentary election for the first time since it came to power more than a decade ago.

Turkish stocks fell more than 5 percent on Monday, while the Turkish lira slid to a record low of 2.8 to the greenback.

Germany’s DAX entered correction territory as European stocks declined on continuation of Greek debt negotiations. Last week, Athens postponed a payment deadline to the IMF.

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Greece’s creditors proposed extending the bailout to March 2016 in return for pension cuts, tax increases and other policy measures, the Wall Street Journal reported.

On Monday, European Central Bank governing council member Christian Noyer said if Greece had to leave the euro zone, it would not cause a problem for the currency bloc but rather for Greece itself.

The G-7 leaders also wrapped up a two-day summit in Bavaria, Germany.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 82.91 points, or 0.46 percent, at 17,766.55, with Intel leading decliners and Exxon Mobil the greatest advancer.

The S&P 500 closed down 13.55 points, or 0.65 percent, at 2,079.28, with information technology leading nine sectors lower and telecommunications the only advancer.

The Nasdaq closed down 46.83 points, or 0.92 percent, at 5,021.63.

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, traded near 15.

About two stocks declined for every advancer on the New York Stock Exchange, with an exchange volume of 698 million and a composite volume of nearly 2.9 billion in the close.

Crude oil futures for July delivery settled down 1.67 percent at $58.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold futures for August delivery settled up $5.50 at $1,173.60 an ounce.

Deutsche Bank closed up 4.96 percent after briefly leaping more than 5.5 percent on news of the appointment of John Cryan as co-CEO, effective July 1. Cryan replaces long-time executive Anshu Jain. Co-CEO Juergen Fitschen will remain in his position until next May, after which Cryan will become sole CEO.

 

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Mark Caserta: Obama transforming US with martial law

4 Jun

Is it part of his plan?

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Mark Caserta: Editor Free State Patriot

Jun. 04, 2015 @ 12:01 AM

When progressives begin to label conservatives as “neocons” and “conspiracy theorists,” we can generally be assured we’re on the right track. But liberal coddling of Barack Obama aside, we’d better become familiar with the facets of martial law and it’s reality in the U.S.

Martial law is an extreme measure whereby the government and military authorities exercise control over the civilian population of a designated territory. To a varying degree, and depending on the martial law order, certain civil liberties may be suspended, such as the right to freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures, freedom of association and freedom of movement. In some cases the writ of habeas corpus, which allows persons unlawfully imprisoned to gain freedom through a court proceeding, may also be suspended.

martial law

While martial law is not explicitly mentioned in the Constitution, the Supreme Court’s interpretation of Article 1, sections 8 and 9, declares that martial law, on a national level, must be declared by the president or Congress. If declared by a president, the “Posse Comitatus Act” of 1878, forbids military involvement in domestic law enforcement without congressional authorization.

It’s been argued that only Congress can declare martial law, since Congress alone is granted the power to suspend the writ of habeas corpus. But as commander-in-chief of the military, it’s also been argued the president can autonomously declare martial law. However, if Congress rejects the president’s declaration, it could set up a power struggle between the Legislative and Executive Branch that only the Judiciary would be able to resolve.

Sounds familiar doesn’t it?

Martial law has been instituted on a national level only one time in the United States. During the Civil War, Congress ratified most of the martial law measures declared by President Lincoln when he authorized Union military forces to arrest persons and conduct trials. Otherwise, the use of martial law has been limited to the states.

On the state level, a governor may declare martial law within their state as granted in the state constitution. Uprisings, political protests, labor strikes and riots have, at various times, caused several state governors to declare some measure of martial law.

Anyone believing the notion of martial law is far-fetched should consider the potential catastrophic scenarios this administration has already allowed to permeate U.S. borders. The Ebola virus, the threat of Islamic terrorism, and the potential financial collapse of our economy have all been heretofore avoided. And what if the welfare system crashed overnight and EBT and Medicaid/Medicare cards ceased to work? This financial impact on 35 percent of the population at the hands of government would not fare well.

Consider this: In September 2013, 70 federal agents in full body armor, carrying M-16s, raided the tiny Alaska gold mining town of Chicken, Alaska. They were from the Environmental Protection Agency looking for violations of the Clean Water Act!

Barack Obama hasn’t been very good at keeping his word, but he has successfully kept his focus on a singular objective – “fundamentally transform America.”

He now has only 19 months left to achieve it.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page

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Mark Caserta: Should we be concerned about Jade Helm exercise?

28 May

Harbinger of Martial Law by the Obama administration?

(Features a link to martial law survival tips)

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Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot Editor

May. 28, 2015 @ 12:01 AM

Whether it’s a reprisal from the George Strait song “Don’t Mess with Texas” or an impassioned chorus of “Remember the Alamo,” many Texans are rising to contest the approaching military exercise known as “Jade Helm 15.”

According to the U.S. Army website, Jade Helm 15 (Joint Assistant for Development and Execution) is a multi-state training exercise taking place July 15 through Sept. 15 with members of U.S. Army Special Operations Command and service members from the military’s four branches. Special Operations forces will engage in Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and Colorado.

But to some concerned citizens in these Southwestern states, Jade Helm could be a dress rehearsal for government imposing martial law.

And why not? Our nation has never been in such a state of unrest as we are under the Obama administration. While some decry it as a “conspiracy theory,” others firmly believe the exercise is preparation for conceivable tribulation resulting from a domestic catastrophe or financial meltdown.

Army’s Special Operations Command at Fort Bragg, N.C., said that while a multistate training operation was not unique, “the size and scope of Jade Helm sets this one apart,” according to a recent article in The New York Times. Jade Helm 15, according to military officials, amounts to a giant war game with Army Green Berets and other elite personnel sharpening their skills in terrain they might find overseas, the Times reported.

Yet, many still claim it’s part of a widespread plan to take away people’s guns, arrest political dissidents, launch an Obama-led hostile takeover of “red-state” Texas, or some combination thereof, according to the Times report.

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Intense unrest about Jade Helm caused Texas Gov. Greg Abbot to issue a directive in April to the Texas State Guard to “keep watch” over the military operation. In his directive, Abbot explained his actions.

“During the training operation, it is important that Texans know their safety, constitutional rights, private property right and civil liberties will not be infringed,” the governor wrote. “I am directing the Texas State Guard to monitor Operation Jade Helm 15.”

One has to understand the concerns about this operation. For the past six years the federal government has demonstrated it isn’t trustworthy and has consistently disrespected the liberty of its citizens.

Allow me to share a chilling summary line from a 2001 Final Technical Report reviewed and released by the Air Force Research Laboratory regarding the JADE project in its infancy:

“JADE can be used to support both deliberate and crisis action planning. JADE software and case bases enable a military planner to build a preliminary force deployment plan, including a TPFDD (Time-Phased Force Deployment Data) in less than one hour.”

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That was 15 years ago. Since then, our government has been collecting personal data from every U.S. citizen. Research reveals the JADE project involves using computer software and database information to formulate a deployment plan based upon the location of “the enemy.”

The potential military advantages of Jade Helm 15 are obvious. But in the hands of an administration which circumvents the Constitution, it could serve a different purpose.

So, I ask you. Which “enemy” is the government preparing to engage?

Click on link below for tips on “How to survive martial law” by a corrupt government.

 http://nstarzone.com/LAW.html

Mark Caserta is a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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Ronald Reagan on Memorial Day: It will renew your patriotic spirit…

25 May

Celebrate today by watching this historic Memorial Day address by the Great Communicator!

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Go to this link to watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=be8mdM6z2CA

Submitted by Donald R. May on May 24, 2015 – 1:06am

President Ronald Reagan spoke on Memorial Day, 16 May 1982, at Arlington National Cemetery.  Reagan’s words give us insight into the sacrifices of our military men and women who have fought and died that we might have Liberty.  When Reagan spoke, Communism was our major foreign enemy.  Now we are also dealing with well-funded and highly determined Fundamentalist Islamic Terrorists and a tyrannical Presidential Administration.

When Ronald Reagan was President, we felt that our government was protecting us.  Now we feel that our President is giving aid and comfort to both the Communists and the Fundamentalist Islamic Terrorists while attacking those Americans and traditional allies who oppose him.

President Ronald Reagan said,

“I have no illusions about what little I can add now to the silent testimony of those who gave their lives willingly for their country. Words are even more feeble on this Memorial Day, for the sight before us is that of a strong and good nation that stands in silence and remembers those who were loved and who, in return, loved their countrymen enough to die for them. Yet, we must try to honor them not for their sakes alone, but for our own. And if words cannot repay the debt we owe these men, surely with our actions we must strive to keep faith with them and with the vision that led them to battle and to final sacrifice.”

“Our first obligation to them and ourselves is plain enough: The United States and the freedom for which it stands, the freedom for which they died, must endure and prosper. Their lives remind us that freedom is not bought cheaply. It has a cost; it imposes a burden. And just as they whom we commemorate were willing to sacrifice, so too must we — in a less final, less heroic way — be willing to give of ourselves. It is this, beyond the controversy and the congressional debate, beyond the blizzard of budget numbers and the complexity of modern weapons systems, that motivates us in our search for security and peace. … The willingness of some to give their lives so that others might live never fails to evoke in us a sense of wonder and mystery. One gets that feeling here on this hallowed ground, and I have known that same poignant feeling as I looked out across the rows of white crosses and Stars of David in Europe, in the Philippines, and the military cemeteries here in our own land. Each one marks the resting place of an American hero and, in my lifetime, the heroes of World War I, the Doughboys, the GI’s of World War II or Korea or Vietnam. They span several generations of young Americans, all different and yet all alike, like the markers above their resting places, all alike in a truly meaningful way.”

“As we honor their memory today, let us pledge that their lives, their sacrifices, their valor shall be justified and remembered for as long as God gives life to this nation. … I can’t claim to know the words of all the national anthems in the world, but I don’t know of any other that ends with a question and a challenge as ours does: ‘O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?’ That is what we must all ask.”

“Once each May, amid the quiet hills and rolling lanes and breeze-brushed trees of Arlington National Cemetery, far above the majestic Potomac and the monuments and memorials of our Nation’s Capital just beyond, the graves of America’s military dead are decorated with the beautiful flag that in life these brave souls followed and loved. This scene is repeated across our land and around the world, wherever our defenders rest. Let us hold it our sacred duty and our inestimable privilege on this day to decorate these graves ourselves — with a fervent prayer and a pledge of true allegiance to the cause of liberty, peace, and country for which America’s own have ever served and sacrificed. … Our pledge and our prayer this day are those of free men and free women who know that all we hold dear must constantly be built up, fostered, revered and guarded vigilantly from those in every age who seek its destruction. We know, as have our Nation’s defenders down through the years, that there can never be peace without its essential elements of liberty, justice and independence. Those true and only building blocks of peace were the lone and lasting cause and hope and prayer that lighted the way of those whom we honor and remember this Memorial Day. To keep faith with our hallowed dead, let us be sure, and very sure, today and every day of our lives, that we keep their cause, their hope, their prayer, forever our country’s own.”

Ronald Reagan was a man of integrity who loved Liberty and our nation.  Reagan’s courage, patriotism, and strength of spirit protected the American people, our Constitution, and the United States of America.

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Mark Caserta: Free State Patriot Editor

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ISIS rises, the economy falters, and Obama’s legacy falls apart

24 May

 

By John Podhoretz

 May 23, 2015 | 12:00am
 

Deep into the seventh year of his tenure, Barack Obama is thinking about his post-presidential legacy. We know this because he’s telling us so.

In an interview this week with The Atlantic about the potential deal with Iran regarding its nuclear program, the president sought to use the fact of his relative youth and his consciousness about how history might judge him to his advantage: “Look, 20 years from now, I’m still going to be around, God willing. If Iran has a nuclear weapon, it’s my name on this. I think it’s fair to say that in addition to our profound national-security interests, I have a personal interest in locking this down.”

In one sense, this is what we want presidents to worry about. We want them to be restrained by the cautionary examples provided by history and by the fact that history will judge them.

But what if the desire to tip the scales of history’s judgment in his favor leads a president to take dangerous risks?

In fact, we know that is what Obama has done with the Iran deal because his aides have told us so.

His deputy national security adviser, Ben Rhodes, put it this way last year to a roomful of liberal activists when talking about the initial November 2013 agreement to begin talking about Iran’s nuclear program: “Bottom line is, this is the best opportunity we’ve had to resolve the Iranian issue diplomatically…This is probably the biggest thing President Obama will do in his second term on foreign policy. This is health care for us, just to put it in context.”

But this “opportunity” didn’t just emerge organically — which is actually where “opportunities” are supposed to come from. It did not result from changing conditions that opened a new possibility of finding common ground.Iran’s behavior didn’t change, and its pursuit of nuclear weapons didn’t change. Obama manufactured what Rhodes called an opportunity by pursuing a deal with Iran and dangling all kinds of carrots in front of the mullahs.

And why? Because he wants a foreign-policy legacy to match the size and scope of his key legacy in domestic policy.

And who can blame him? After the failure of the Arab Spring, the collapse of Libya, the failure to act on his self-imposed “red line” in Syria, Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine and the terrifying rise and forward march of ISIS, the only unmitigated positive on his foreign-policy spreadsheet remains the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Look, the guy will need something impressive to fill the exhibition space at his brand-new presidential library in Chicago.

Obama’s asking us to trust him because, he says, you can’t think he would want to look like the man who allowed Iran to go nuclear at some point in the future.

So what explains the president’s own unprompted comments in an NPR interview in April that, under the terms already announced, Iran would have the right to go nuclear by 2028 — when he will,

God willing, be a mere 67 years of age?

“A more relevant fear,” he said, “would be that in year 13, 14, 15, they have advanced centrifuges that enrich uranium fairly rapidly, and at that point, the breakout times would have shrunk almost down to zero.”

Obama offered an answer. “The option of a future president to take action if in fact they try to obtain a nuclear weapon is undiminished,” he said.

So it will be up to his successors to bail him out in the eyes of history and make it appear as though his legacy wasn’t the nuclear destabilization of the Middle East!

Speaking of legacies, how’s that key domestic-policy legacy going? Not so hot.

ObamaCare remains unpopular; far more Americans oppose than favor it.

People still remember the disaster of the October 2013 rollout, which still casts a shadow over the program today.

Those hard feelings were deepened last year by the discovery of a series of talks by key ObamaCare architect Jonathan Gruber in which he bragged that it had been falsely marketed to the American people to take advantage of their stupidity.

Its defenders say the program is beginning to work, in the sense that it’s covering more people — but it’s not covering as many as the administration said it would by this time.

They tout the fact that the cost of the program is lower than it was supposed to be by now.

But that’s an inconsistent claim; it’s only less expensive because it isn’t meeting its target numbers, not because cost savings have suddenly materialized from the ether.

Meanwhile, at some point over the next month, the entire policy may be thrown into terminal chaos when the Supreme Court issues its judgment in a case called King v. Burwell — which challenges the legality of a central component of ObamaCare.

As the Supreme Court debates and writes its opinions, the overall economy continues to sputter. Over the past five years, it grows and halts, grows and halts, in a somewhat mystifying pattern that has kept the American people on guard and on edge.

In the latest RealClearPolitics polling average, 62% say the country is on the wrong track — more than seven years after Obama moved into the White House.

Obama still has 18 months to go, and presidents have staged remarkable turnarounds in public opinion in such a time frame. Bill Clinton did it before his re-election in 1996, which seemed like a ludicrous prospect in early 1995.

Ronald Reagan was at low ebb in mid-1987 and left office on a triumphant high in early 1989.

But we’ve also seen the opposite. Indeed, we’ve seen the opposite more recently. George W. Bush was in bad shape in mid-2007, unquestionably — worse than Obama, because he’d lost the confidence of some Republicans, while Obama seems not to have lost any of his base.

But in 2008 the bottom fell out when a financial crisis that began in the spring turned into a total meltdown by the fall. Bush left office with one poll showing his approval rating at 22%.

Right now, would you bet on things getting substantially better for Barack Obama, or substantially worse? Does it look like we’re going to triumph over ISIS?

Does it feel like the economy is going to improve or that ObamaCare will suddenly gain public support? Does it seem like the deal with Iran is a good one?

If you answer these questions in the affirmative, then you are likely to be the sort of person who’s kept your 2008 Obama “Hope” poster on your wall and your 2012 Obama bumper sticker on your car.

Alas for America and the world, a poster and a bumper sticker do not a legacy make.

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Hillary’s troubles are only beginning

24 May

Sliver of Clinton emails hint at lingering political trouble

May 23, 4:23 AM (ET)

By LISA LERER, MATTHEW LEE and JACK GILLUM
 (AP) Democrat presidential candidate speaks on healthcare

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton received information on her private email account about the deadly attack on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi that was later classified “secret” at the request of the FBI, underscoring lingering questions about how responsibly she handled sensitive information on a home server.

The nearly 900 pages of her correspondence released Friday are only a sliver of the more than 55,000 pages of emails Clinton has turned over to the State Department, which had its plan to release them next January rejected this week by a federal judge.

Instead, the judge ordered the agency to conduct a “rolling production” of the records. Along with a Republican-led House committee investigating the Benghazi attacks, the slow drip of emails will likely keep the issue of how Clinton, the front-runner for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, used a personal email account while serving as the nation’s top diplomat alive indefinitely.

Committee Chairman Trey Gowdy, R-S.C., said that the released emails were incomplete, adding that it “strains credibility” to view them as a thorough record of Clinton’s tenure.

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks to child care…

The prospect for political complication in Clinton’s choice to use a personal email account, rather than one issued by the government, was evident in the messages released Friday. They included several that were deemed sensitive but unclassified, contained details about her daily schedule and held information — censored in the documents as released — about the CIA that the government is barred from publicly disclosing.

Taken together, the correspondence provides examples of material considered to be sensitive that Clinton received on the account run out of her home. She has said the private server had “numerous safeguards.”

Campaigning in New Hampshire, Clinton said Friday she was aware that the FBI now wanted some of the email to be classified, “but that doesn’t change the fact all of the information in the emails was handled appropriately.”

Asked if she was concerned it was on a private server, she replied, “No.”

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said, “It was not classified at the time. The occurrence of subsequent upgrade does not mean anyone did anything wrong.”

(AP) In this Jan. 18, 2013 file photo, then-Secretary of State Hillary Rodham…
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It’s not clear if Clinton’s home computer system used encryption software to communicate securely with government email services. That would have protected her communications from the prying eyes of foreign spies, hackers, or anyone interested on the Internet.

Last year, Clinton gave the State Department 55,000 pages of emails that she said pertained to her work as secretary sent from her personal address. Only messages related to the 2012 attacks on the U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya, that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, were released by the department on Friday. The 296 emails had already been turned over to the House Benghazi committee.

A Nov. 18, 2012, message about arrests in Libya was not classified at the time, meaning no laws were violated, but was upgraded from “unclassified” to “secret” on Friday at the request of the FBI to redact information that could contain information damaging to national security or foreign relations.

Twenty-three words were redacted from the message, which detailed reports of arrests in Libya of people who might have connections to the attack, Harf said.

The redacted portion appears to relate to people who provided information about the alleged suspects to the Libyans. That part of the email had been categorized by the State Department as “NOFORN,” meaning that foreign nationals weren’t allowed to read it, including close U.S. allies.

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton shakes hands after touring…
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The message, originally from Bill Roebuck, then director of the Office of Maghreb Affairs, was forwarded to Clinton by her deputy chief of staff, Jake Sullivan, with the comment: “fyi.”

No other redactions were made to the collection of Benghazi-related emails for classification reasons, officials said. They added that the Justice Department had not raised classification concerns about the now-redacted 1 1/2 lines in the Nov. 18 email when the documents were turned over to the Benghazi committee. The committee retains an unredacted copy of the email, the officials said.

Clinton also appeared to send and receive protected information about the CIA, which was withheld on Friday because the State Department said federal law prevented its disclosure. The department did not offer a detailed description of what it was withholding, such as a name or other sensitive information.

A number of the messages were marked with codes indicating that the information had been censored for reasons related to the U.S. intelligence community, law enforcement or personal privacy — a process that happened after they’d already been circulated through Clinton’s home server.

Much of the correspondence concerned the mundane matters of high-level government service, press clippings, speech drafts, and coordination of calls with other top officials as well as chit-chat about shopping between Clinton and top aide Huma Abedin.

“What a wonderful, strong and moving statement by your boss,” Christian Brose, a top adviser to Sen. John McCain, writes in an email to Sullivan, forwarded to Clinton just after Stevens’ death. “Please tell her how much Sen. McCain appreciated it. Me too.”

There are repeated warnings of the unrest in Libya, though Clinton has said she was never personally involved in questions of security in Benghazi before the attack. One message describes a one-day trip by Stevens in March 2011 to “get a sense of the situation on the ground” and prepare for a 30-day stay in the future. A request for Defense Department support was made, the email adds, but no approval had yet been received. Stevens was killed in Benghazi on Sept. 11, 2012.

As early as April 2011, Clinton was forwarded a message sent to her staff that the situation in the country had worsened to the point “where Stevens is considering departure from Benghazi,” The email was marked “Importance: High.”

—

Associated Press writers Matthew Daly, Stephen Braun and Eileen Sullivan in Washington and Ken Thomas in Hampton, New Hampshire, contributed to this report.

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Mark Caserta: Job numbers represent smoke and mirrors

21 May

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Mark Caserta:  Free State Patriot Editor

May. 21, 2015 @ 12:01 AM

The unemployment rate being fed to the American people by our own government is simply smoke and mirrors.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) recently reported that the U.S. economy added 223,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate fell to 5.4 percent.

Look around you. Do you see good paying jobs being created? The cruel truth of the matter is that the official unemployment rate cruelly overlooks the suffering of the long-term and often permanently unemployed, as well as the underemployed. If you give up and stop searching for a job, the U.S. government stops counting you in the work force.

And here’s another crushing detail you’ll never hear from this administration or the liberal media. The number of Americans 16 years and older who did not participate in the labor force (meaning they neither had a job nor actively sought one in the last four weeks) rose to over 93 million in March, according to the BLS. In fact, the labor force participation rate has dropped to 62.7 percent, matching a 37-year low!

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Most people aren’t aware of the ambiguity of the jobs numbers.

Because unemployment insurance records relate only to people who have applied for benefits, and since it’s impractical to count every unemployed person each month, the government conducts a monthly survey called the “Current Population Survey” to measure the extent of unemployment.

Each month, “highly trained and experienced” Census Bureau employees contact 60,000 eligible sample households and ask about the labor force activities (job holding and job seeking) or non-labor force status of the members of these households during that particular survey week. Via an electronic questionnaire, the survey responses are “weighted,” or adjusted to independent population estimates from the Census Bureau. The weighting takes into account the age, sex, ethnicity and the state of residence of the individual, so that these characteristics are reflected in the proper proportions in the final estimates.

Do you think there may be a little room for error or chicanery here?

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Jim Clifton, the CEO of Gallup, recently wrote a piece in his blog about the underhandedness of the employment numbers and how the official unemployment rate does not accurately reflect the grim reality of jobs in America.

“Right now, we’re hearing much celebrating from the media, the White House and Wall Street about how unemployment is “down” to 5.6 percent. The cheerleading for this number is deafening,” Clifton writes. “The media loves a comeback story, the White House wants to score political points and Wall Street would like you to stay in the market.”

Although Barack Obama often rails against income inequality in America, his policies have had little impact on poverty. A record 47 million Americans now receive food stamps, about 13 million more than when he took office.

Our nation is in decline on so many levels. But a good paying job means everything to a family. So why does this administration keep telling us it’s getting better?

Here’s the answer. In the progressive world, “better” is more people dependent upon government. It’s that simple.

Mark Caserta is a conservative blogger, a Cabell County resident and a regular contributor to The Herald-Dispatch editorial page.

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How long has it been since Hillary answered questions from the press?

19 May

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2015/05/12/heres-a-clock-that-counts-the-minutes-since-hillary-clinton-answered-a-press-question/

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Isil leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi issues call to arms in ‘audio message’

16 May

Islamic State leader neither seen nor heard for months amid reports of his death or incapacitation in US-led air strike

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Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Photo: AP

By Louisa Loveluck, Cairo

11:29PM BST 14 May 2015

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isil), appeared to issue a defiant call to arms on Thursday in what would be the jihadist leader’s first audio recording in six months.

“There is no excuse for any Muslim who is capable of [emigrating] to the Islamic State, or capable of carrying a weapon where he is,” the voice, which cannot be verified as Baghdadi’s, said.

Calling Islam a “religion of war”, the voice describes the jihadist path as “obligatory”.

The message seemed intended as a rebuttal to media reports claiming that Baghdadi had been so badly injured in a coalition airstrike that he might never command Isil again.

It appeared to be a recent recording, referencing Isil’s presence in the oil-rich Kirkuk province, as well as the ongoing Saudi-led military campaign against rebel forces in Yemen.

The message was accompanied by translations in English, French, German, Russian and Turkish, a move apparently intended to guarantee maximum exposure.

Baghdadi has been a towering figure in the rise of Isil, and its al-Qaeda affiliated predecessor. It was reported last month that he had suffered spinal injuries in a March 18 airstrike, and that he was being treated by two ideologically sympathetic doctors who travel to his hideout from the group’s stronghold in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

Operational control of Isil has reportedly been passed to Abu Alaa al-Afri, a physics professor and longtime senior official, who had been appointed deputy leader when his predecessor was killed by another air strike late last year.

Although Iraqi authorities claimed on Wednesday that Afri had been hit by a coalition airstrike, the Pentagon has denied any knowledge of the attack.

The last known written communique bearing Baghdadi’s name was released in mid-April. It called on jihadists to send reinforcements to fighting fronts in the Iraqi provinces of Anbar and Salahedin. The terror group’s inner workings are opaque, and it is not known which Isil official was responsible for the message.

Isil swept across large swathes of Iraq and Syria last year, declaring the establishment of an Islamic caliphate.

Isil jihadists have pursued a policy of religious cleansing in areas they have captured, threatening to kill those who do not forcibly convert to Islam.

Tens of thousands of jihadist sympathisers have already heeded calls to travel to the so-called Islamic State, among them a growing number of young British men and women.

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15 May

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