Rick Perry Tries to Warn Obama of Truck Bombs on the Border
Obama ignores him. From KXAN:
In a letter delivered to President Barack Obama Monday on the tarmac at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, Gov. Rick Perry wrote, “The Mexican cartels have recently added a new deadly weapon to their arsenal: Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices (VBIED), which they use to attack their rivals and the police.”
Citing car bomb examples from recent weeks just across the Texas-Mexican border in Juarez and Ciudad Victoria, Perry received no immediate answer from the president. The governor urged federal action before Texas communities suffer the same fate.
“An unsecured U.S.-Mexico border is a serious national security threat, menacing the safety and security of our citizens, and the federal government is obligated to secure it.” Perry said Monday in Austin. “Our citizens deserve the best possible effort to protect them from this advancing network of criminal gangs.”
In recent years, Mexican drug cartels have threatened the safety of people living in border towns. The governor requested 1,000 Title 32 National Guard troops for Texas, in addition to other resources, and said 286 National Guard personnel along the 1,200 mile border were not enough.
“Since 2006, this war has taken 28,000 lives,” Perry included in his letter. “We cannot afford to allow these cartels to believe they’re free to extend their reach across the border onto American soil.”
Federal drug enforcement agents have told Austin officials during the last year these Mexican cartels are recruiting local gang members to push their products north into the U.S. So far, they have an increase in this practice in Austin , San Antonio and Houston.
Nothing new really. Biker gangs have used bombings for years. The problem is that cartel interface with Islamic terrorists have increased the lethality of the devices as well as the will to use them. Here’s a video report:
h/t N.T.A.
It’s Getting Ugly: Q2 GDP May Be Downgraded to 1%!
Surprise! The government cooked the books and actual economic activity for the second quarter was even worse than most believed. But don’t worry, Obama’s going to solve everything:
June’s trade deficit swelled 18.8% to $49.9 billion, the highest since October 2008. That was much worse than Wall Street predicted — or what the Commerce Department estimated in the recent Q2 GDP report. The new report, along with recent inventory data, suggest Commerce will revise down Q2 economic growth from the already-sluggish 2.4% annual rate to about 1%, according to Action Economics. Action Economics is looking for stronger retail inventory figures later this week that would imply a 1.4% GDP pace.
Those downward revisions may bolster Q3 figures. Weaker inventory growth in Q2 suggests there will be less of a drop-off in Q3. Q2’s fat trade gap may mean the same.
But there’s no denying that the recovery is losing steam just as head winds hit. The inventory restocking cycle, which had fueled growth in recent quarters, clearly is ending.
Federal stimulus is waning, with big potential tax hikes looming at year-end if Congress doesn’t act. Meanwhile, state and local governments, though about to get another $26 billion from Uncle Sam for Medicaid and public employees, will be cutting spending and likely raising taxes over the next several quarters. They cut 48,000 jobs in July alone.
Housing activity will be a big negative in Q3 after being a huge positive in Q2. Both reflect the April 30 deadline for the homebuyer tax credit.
Consumer spending — 70% of overall economic activity — grew at a sluggish 1.6% pace in Q2. But even that may be overstanding. Spending picked up through Q1. All consumers had to do was coast in the spring and Q2’s average spending would outpace Q1’s average. That’s basically what happened. Actual nominal spending in June, the end of Q2, actually was slightly below March’s pace. (Inflation-adjusted spending was slightly higher).
Which is just a long winded way of saying it’s all over. We have no more wealth to spend and the government’s big plan to save us is to make people spend more money. Wealth is finite and America has blown through it all not just on wars as the left would have you believe, but on ostentatious promises to millions of people who pay no taxes yet expect a great deal of service. And still there are Americans who demand more.
How ugly will it be when the millions of people who have been promised lives of plenty and leisure realize that at some point the government will run out of money to give them their freebies? Here’s a clue.
Californians’ Suffer First Drop in Income Since WW II
Analysts Warn Rising Grain Prices May Lead to Civil Unrest
Hardly news to anyone with a functioning brain but news organizations are finally starting to report what many of us have been dreading. We don’t have enough food, and people will only put up with hunger for so long:
LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) – Rising grain prices from Russia’s drought and fires will pressure populations already hit by the financial crisis and could stoke unrest — particularly in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe.
Wheat prices have risen by nearly 70 percent since June after Russia suffered its worst drought in 130 years and are at their highest since 2008, when the last major food price rally sparked protests and riots in a string of emerging nations.
Analysts warn that if prices stay high then the threat of street violence will increase — at least up to a point.
“We could see some street riots but I wouldn’t expect any governments to fall,” said Jonathan Wood, global issues analyst for consultancy Control Risks.
“On one level, we have much less of a problem than in 2008 because we have better food stocks. On the other hand, because of the financial crisis many countries are not in such a good position financially to deal with it.”
Particularly in emerging markets where food makes up a higher proportion of household purchases, the price rise could filter through in inflation, rate hikes and wider deficits.
The Middle East and North Africa, particularly Egypt, are regarded as particularly vulnerable, as are emerging and southern European countries where discontent has already been fuelled by harsh cuts in public spending, benefits and pay .
“Grain imports are particularly sensitive in the Middle East and North Africa — bread is such a crucial staple of the diet,” said Metsa Rahimi, analyst at security consultant Janusian. “Eastern Europe is also an obvious area of risk.”
Europe has seen less social unrest than many expected from the financial crisis — although riots in Greece in May unsettled global markets — but risks are expected to rise in the autumn as unions call strikes and spending cuts bite.
The article goes on to pick out Egypt as particularly vulnerable and reports there’s already been food related unrest there. But my money is on Europe, especially Western Europe, for real rioting. The people there are unused to being hungry and have been told for generations they “have a right” to food that the government will magically provide.
But America will be no picnic as the boomers and each subsequent generation has developed outrageous senses of entitlement. What will happen here when bread is $5 and shelves are empty?
That’s why I have food stored up, including those nifty emergency food buckets in case I have to pick up and leave. Do you?