http://renewamerica.us/columns/benamon/051013
The Clinton scar on America
by Felicia Benamon
October 13, 2005
Former President Bill Clinton and his administration undoubtedly left a huge scar on America. Most notably from the neglect in national security. Bill Clinton's approach to dealing with terrorism has been to ignore it, hoping that terrorists will eventually leave us alone. I was surprised to hear of CBS's interview of Ex-FBI Chief Louis Freeh's testimony of what he saw under the Clinton administration, in response to terrorism ( CBS News | Ex-FBI Chief On Clinton's Scandals | October 9, 2005 21:00:03 ). Freeh has decided to come public in his new book My FBI and has agreed to sit down and discuss to CBS about his strained relationship with Former President Clinton. How then President Clinton, hampered his efforts to bring the terror suspects in the 1996 Khobar Towers terrorist attack in Saudi Arabia, to justice.
The FBI wanted access to the suspects the Saudis had arrested but then-Saudi Ambassador Prince Bandar said the only way to get access to prisoners would be if the president personally asked the crown prince for access.
Freeh says Clinton did not help him. He writes in his book:
"Bill Clinton raised the subject only to tell the crown prince that he understood the Saudi's reluctance to cooperate, and then he hit Abdullah up for a contribution to the Clinton Presidential Library."
"That's a fact that I'm reporting," says Freeh.
Freeh says to get access to the Saudis' suspects, he eventually sought help from another president, the first President Bush. "Former President Bush, at my request interceded with the Saudis, spoke to Crown Prince, now King Abdullah, asked for his assistance and it happened just like that."
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http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/10/6/125103.shtml?et=y
Ex-president Bill Clinton is predicting that the U.S. will lose the war in Iraq, saying "the odds are not great of our prevailing there."
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from my cousin in the L. A. area:
Jane Fonda is being honored as one of the
"100 Women of the Century."
So who is honoring her? Anybody who calls her one of the 100 women of the century is pretty bad off, in my humble estimation. My most vivid memory of Jane is meeting her one day in Cleveland--must have been 1971 or 72, and then that very afternoon she was arrested at the Cleveland airport for having narcotics in her luggage.
A real American icon!
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ACLU = Anti Christian Liberal Union,
creating a morally corrupt society
Oops, missed one -
Thoughts From The Frontline
John Mauldin's Weekly E-Letter
Smoothing Out Inflation
by John Mauldin
October 14, 2005
Smoothing Out Inflation
Inflating the Numbers
Greenspan: Onward and Upward
Denver, Detroit, New York and Home Again
How can inflation be so low over the past few years if we see rising energy prices, ever-increasing medical costs and especially the cost of housing rising so dramatically? Today, for the first time we see inflation actually showing the results of rising energy costs, and the number is ugly. But it is not as ugly as it could be. This week we look at how the Consumer Price Index is calculated. Like the making of sausage and laws, it is not pretty. It will make for a fascinating read, I think.
But first, I am compelled to make a comment on the REFCO situation. Dennis Gartman has what he calls the cockroach theory. There is never one cockroach. If you see one, there are a lot of them in the walls. Observers have been seeing cockroaches at Refco for a long time. When the whole story comes out, it is not going to look good. How you can hide almost a half a billion in losses when going through a public offering is mind-boggling. Refco has had a long history of problems. Most never make the light of day, but there is one that you might recall.
THIS IS THE SAME FIRM THAT HID THE TRANSFER OF $100,000 TO THE ACCOUNT OF THE WIFE OF AN OBSCURE GOVERNOR IN ARKANSAS under the guise of trading cattle futures from information in the Wall Street Journal. The fact that Robert "Red" Bone was the broker for the general counsel of Tyson Foods was just a coincidence, I am sure. Hillary Rodham Clinton was allowed to order 10 cattle futures contracts, normally a $12,000 investment, in her first commodity trade in 1978 although she had only $1,000 in her account at the time. (Someone put cash in the account. Go figure.) And it gets murkier. Bottom line Refco was fined $250,000 for trading practices in cattle futures during that period, then the largest fine ever by the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.
As an aside, Senator Clinton is the only human being in the history of the trading world who could successfully turn $1,000 into $100,000 in a few months and then walk away and never execute another trade. I guess it was just too easy for her and she needed bigger challenges. But we were supposed to be talking about inflation.