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Insider Report from Newsmax.com Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories): 1. Douglas Schoen: Hillary Needs to Launch Campaign Now 2. Ed Klein: Obama 'Lied' About Hillary Emails 3. One-Quarter of Criminal Illegals Were Previously Deported 4. Defector: North Korean Soldiers Are Starving 5. Labor Force Participation Ties 1978 Low 6. Political Discontent Greatest in Middle East — and Colombia
1. Douglas Schoen: Hillary Needs to Launch Campaign Now "There is little time to waste" for Hillary Clinton to raise the $2 billion she will need to run a competitive presidential campaign in 2016, according to political analyst and author Douglas Schoen. "With the last major New York event now complete — a [March 4] benefit featuring all three Clintons and singer/songwriter Carole King — the time to turn to presidential politics, and presidential politics alone, has come for the putative Democratic front-runner," Schoen observes in an article co-written by Jessica Tarlov and published in The Daily Beast. "And not a moment too soon." The challenges Clinton faces have become "more substantial" with the disclosure that she apparently used her private email account exclusively while Secretary of State, Schoen, a former adviser to Bill Clinton, points out. He opines that Hillary needs to offer "something different from what we've seen from President Obama these past six years. His approval rating hovers around 45 percent." Schoen, whose books include "Hopelessly Divided: The New Crisis in American Politics and What it Means for 2012 and Beyond," insists that Clinton can't run on the platform of the left wing of the Democratic Party and must "position herself as a convincing centrist for what will be a very competitive general election, making a clear break with the Obama administration's approach." To that end, Schoen urges Clinton to broaden her appeal by embracing several practical policies that show a clear break with Obama, including:
Editor's Note: 2. Ed Klein: Obama 'Lied' About Hillary Emails Less than two hours after author Ed Klein charged that President Obama "lied" about Hillary Clinton's private email account, the White House admitted that Obama and Hillary did exchange emails over the years. Klein, author of The New York Times best-seller "Blood Feud: The Clintons vs. the Obamas," appeared on the Fox Business Channel on Monday and spoke with host Stuart Varney. Discussing revelations that Clinton used the private email account, Varney referred to "Obama saying over the weekend that he first found out about this in the media. He read it in the newspaper." Klein, former editor in chief of The New York Times Magazine, responded: "I don't like to say this about any president, but I think this president lied. "Hillary was emailing and texting Obama several times during every day that she was secretary of state about what was going on. How was it possible that he didn't know that these emails were coming from her private email account?" Shortly after Klein's interview with Varney, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest acknowledged: "The president, as I think many people expected, did over the course of his first several years in office trade emails with his secretary of state." He went on to say: "The point is the president did email Secretary Clinton. I assume that he recognized the email address that he was emailing back to. "But he was not aware of the details of how that email address and that server had been set up." Christine Rousselle wrote on Townhall.com: "Obama possesses degrees from some of the most prestigious universities in the country. I'm assuming he's capable of reading an email address. It's quite strange to me that neither he nor anyone else connected with Clinton's State Department bothered to question why she was using a non-governmental email address during her tenure." Editor's Note: 3. One-Quarter of Criminal Illegals Were Previously Deported Of the 2,059 criminal illegal aliens arrested in a recent 5-day operation, 476 — nearly one-quarter — had previously been deported before returning to the United States. The operation, dubbed "Cross Check," was carried out from March 1 to March 5 by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). "This nationwide operation led to the apprehension of more than 2,000 convicted criminal aliens who pose the greatest risk to our public safety," said Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. Nearly half of the criminals arrested, 1,013, had been convicted of more than one crime, and 1,036 had been convicted of a felony, including voluntary manslaughter, robbery, and kidnapping. About 60 of the convicts are known gang members, and 89 are convicted sex offenders. Regarding the convicts who had previously been deported, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement: "Because of their serious criminal histories and prior immigration arrest records, 163 of those arrested during the enforcement action were presented to U.S. attorneys for prosecution on a variety of charges, including illegal re-entry after deportation, a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison." Those convicts who are not being prosecuted will be processed for removal from the country. Convicts arrested include a Mexican national who had been deported six times dating back to 2003 and had been charged with crimes including carrying a firearm in a public place, possession of a controlled substance, and grand theft. Other arrestees include a Jamaican citizen arrested in Georgia who was convicted last year of breaking and entering, larceny, and assault with a deadly weapon on a law enforcement officer, and a Finnish citizen arrested in Illinois who was convicted of child pornography involving a victim under 13 years old. The Cross Check operation has been conducted annually since 2011 by ICE and DHS, and to date has resulted in the arrest of more than 12,400 criminal illegal aliens. "This national operation exemplifies ICE's ongoing commitment to prioritizing convicted criminals and public safety threats for apprehension and removal," said ICE Director Sarah R. Saldana. "By taking these individuals off our streets and removing them from the country, we are making our communities safer for everyone." But the Center for Immigration Studies pointed out: "The high percentage of repeat deportees is due in part to the ease of re-entry to the United States for earlier deportees and the knowledge that if apprehended there is only a small chance that they will serve any prison time for that illegal re-entry. "The re-entry of previously deported criminals is a source of frustration for local law enforcement officials in metropolitan areas with significant illegal immigrant populations." Editor's Note: 4. Defector: North Korean Soldiers Are Starving The lack of food in North Korea is so dire that even the nation's soldiers, including special forces troops, are facing severe shortages and some are starving to death, according to a recent defector. The defector was a career military officer with North Korea's elite Storm Corps. He said he escaped the country by swimming across a river into China, clutching a knife between his teeth so he could kill himself if he faced capture and a prison camp. Speaking through an interpreter in Seoul, South Korea, he told the Washington Free Beacon that lower ranking soldiers are limited to meals of "corn rice" — ground corn shaped into rice-like kernels. The troops "require food but such needs are not met by the military, so some soldiers try to escape the military. Some steal food just to live," said the defector, who uses the pseudonym Kim Gil-su. For about five months out of the year, "the military soldiers do not have enough rice," he said. "Every year June is the time when potatoes are produced and in June and July, soldiers feed on potatoes. During July and August it is farm harvesting season, and they feed on corn. "Those who are alert go out and steal some food. They eat it and they can survive. But those who are really diligent do not go out stealing, so they suffer from hunger, they get weak and die. I buried seven people, my friends, who starved to death." Food shortages in the communist nation of 25 million are well documented. A famine that began in 1995 lasted three years and led to the death of from 300,000 to 800,000 people. Kim Gil-su's report indicates that malnutrition plagues many of the nation's 1.1 million active duty troops and 800,000 reservists. He said soldiers remove their uniforms and markings on their vehicles when they pick up food from foreign relief agencies to hide the fact that the aid is going to the military and not ordinary people. Promised improvements in living conditions have not taken place under new supreme leader Kim Jong Un, he disclosed. "I was taught in North Korea that South Korea was a deplorable country, sick with capitalism," the defector added. "But after I came here it was vice versa. North Korea was a sick country with a nonsensical system." Editor's Note: 5. Labor Force Participation Ties 1978 Low In February, 92,898,000 Americans did not participate in the nation's labor force, up from 80,529,000 when President Obama took office — meaning that more than 12 million people have left the workforce during his tenure. "The civilian labor force participation rate, at 62.8 percent, changed little in February and has remained within the narrow range of 62.7 to 62.9 percent since April 2014," the Bureau of Labor Statistics stated in a release. The BLS also disclosed that the participation rate has been 62.9 percent or lower in 13 of the 17 months since October 2013. Prior to that, the last time the rate was below 63 percent was in March 1978, 37 years ago, when it was also at 62.8 percent. The monthly labor force participation rate is the percentage of the 16-and-over civilian population not in the military or an institution who either had a job during the month or actively sought one. The nation's civilian non-institutional population reached 249,899,000 in February, and 157,000,000 were considered to be in the workforce. But 6.6 million employed persons who want a full-time job were working part time because their hours had been cut or they were unable to find a full-time job. Another 2.2 million people were considered "marginally attached to the labor force" — they were not employed but wanted to work and had looked for a job sometime during the prior 12 months. There were 732,000 "discouraged workers" in February — they were not currently looking for a job because they think no jobs are available to them. The number of long-term unemployed — those jobless for 27 weeks or longer — accounted for 31.1 percent of the unemployed. Editor's Note: 6. Political Discontent Greatest in Middle East — and Colombia More than half the people queried in an extensive new survey in emerging and developing countries say they are dissatisfied with their political system, with the greatest discontent in the Middle East. The Pew Research Center survey involving nearly 40,000 people found that among Middle Eastern countries, the median level of political dissatisfaction is 61 percent. The greatest dissatisfaction is in Lebanon, with 90 percent of respondents saying they are dissatisfied and just 10 expressing satisfaction with the political system. That's the highest level of dissatisfaction among any of the 31 nations in the survey. The only Middle Eastern country where a minority of respondents say they are discontented is Jordan, where 41 percent said they are dissatisfied and 53 percent are satisfied. People in Latin American are also largely dissatisfied — the median is 59 percent. The highest level of dissatisfaction, and the second highest after Lebanon, is in Colombia, 75 percent. In Brazil, 71 percent are dissatisfied, and in Argentina, 68 percent, while just 32 percent are dissatisfied in Nicaragua. Dissatisfaction is also under 50 percent in El Salvador, at 45 percent. People in the developing and emerging nations of Asia, on the other hand, are largely satisfied with their political systems. The median there is 39 percent. The most discontent is in Thailand, which has been ravaged by political turmoil in the past year — 70 percent are dissatisfied. Just 23 percent are dissatisfied in Malaysia, and 29 percent in India. The median level in Africa is 50 percent, with the highest level of discontent in Ghana (65 percent) and the lowest in Tanzania (32 percent). "Political satisfaction is frequently related to economic attitudes. Countries where the economic mood is negative also have high levels of unhappiness with the political system," Pew observed. "In every country surveyed, people who describe the current economic situation as bad are especially likely to express dissatisfaction with their political system." People in the Pew survey also generally agree that higher-income people have too much influence in their political system. Among respondents in all countries, a median of 64 percent say higher-income people have too much influence, while 11 percent say middle-income folks have too much and 8 percent say lower-income people have too much influence. Note: Newsmax magazine is now available on the iPad. Find us in the App Store. Editor's Note: Editor's Notes:
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Sunday, March 15, 2015
NEWSMAX INSIDER REPORT 03/15/2015
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