The Central Intelligence Agency was intimately involved with the federal government’s infamous “Operation Fast and Furious” scheme to send American weapons to Mexican drug cartels while simultaneously working with other agencies allowing narcotics to be shipped over the border, according to a series of explosive reports. Citing an unnamed CIA source, a Washington Times article theorizes that U.S. officials were actively aiding organizations such as the Sinaloa cartel with guns and immunity in an effort to stymie Los Zetas. That’s because, according to the piece, the powerful and brutal criminal Zetas syndicate has the potential to overthrow the government of Mexico — and might be planning to do so. Apparently the secretive U.S. intelligence agency also played a key role in creating and using the American government’s gun-running program to arm certain criminal organizations.

If you thought the Central Intelligence Agency hatched a few wacky plots to get rid of Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro, such as planting explosive sea shells on the sea shore, the boys at Langley had nothing on British Intelligence during World War II, a new book has disclosed. According to Secret Weapons: Technology, Science and the Race to Win World War II, by Professor Brian Ford of Cardiff University, British intelligence want to lace Adolf Hitler’s food with estrogen to turn him into a woman, London’s Daily Mail reported on Monday: “Agents planned to smuggle doses of oestrogen into his food to make him less aggressive and more like his docile younger sister Paula, who worked as a secretary.” The war seemed to have no end in sight, the Mail reported, so an “Allied plot to turn Herr Hitler into Her Hitler was just one of a number of nutty ideas cooked up to break the stalemate.”

On August 12 the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals delivered what the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel termed “a stinging blow to [President Barack] Obama’s signature achievement,” declaring the ObamaCare individual mandate unconstitutional. The court thus “sided with 26 states ... that had sued to stop the law from taking effect,” the paper said.  

Texas Governor Rick Perry announced his candidacy for the Republican nomination for President of the United States at a RedState bloggers gathering in Charleston, South Carolina, on Saturday. The event also featured a speech by South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley. The blog RedState.com describes itself as “the most widely read right of center blog on Capitol Hill” as well as "the most often cited right of center blog in the media." Perry noted at the beginning of his speech: "It is great to be at RedState. And I’ll tell you what, it’s even better to be governor of the largest red state in America." He did not mention, however, that he once worked to make Texas a blue state. In 1988, he served as Texas chairman of Democrat Al Gore's presidential bid. The following year, he joined the Republican Party. He became Lieutenant Governor of Texas in 1999 and Governor in 2000.  

Minnesota Representative Michele Bachmann narrowly bested Texas Representative Ron Paul in the Iowa Straw Poll by a  margin of 152 votes out of a total of 16,892 cast in a vote that easily overshadowed establishment favorites Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, and Tim Pawlenty. Bachmann earned 28 percent (4,823 votes) and Paul earned 27 percent (4,671 votes) among attendees at the traditional Iowa GOP rally. None of the other candidates earned even half as many votes as Bachmann or Paul. Bachmann stressed her Iowa family roots in in her remarks at the Ames Hilton Coliseum, stating that "I tell people everything I needed to learn in life I learned in Iowa" and that "I'm a seventh generation Iowan." That certainly didn't hurt her chances, nor did her repeated talking points about "making Obama a one-term president."

Recently, Al Gore was permitted an opportunity to indulge his obsession with “global warming” at the Aspen Institute, and the former Vice President had some rather choice words for critics of his anthropogenic conception of “climate change.” They are the same people, he declared, who continue “washing back at you the same crap over and over and over again.” Yet they have become so successful at dissembling, we have reached a point where it is now unacceptable in “mixed” or “bi-partisan company to use the godd***ed word ‘climate.’” On three consecutive occasions during his speech, Gore referred to his opponents’ alternative accounts of climate change as “bull****!” Gore isn’t the first high-profile politician to curse in public.

An analysis just released by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco concludes that most of what Americans spend on consumer goods, electronics, clothing, sneakers and the like, stays in America. Surprisingly little comes from China after all. Say the authors: Goods and services from China accounted for only 2.7% of U.S. personal consumption expenditures (PCE) in 2010…Chinese imports make up only a small share of total U.S. consumer spending… Athough globalization is widely recognized these days, the U.S. economy actually remains relatively closed. The vast majority of goods and services sold in the United States is produced here. In 2010, imports were about 16% of U.S. GDP. Imports from China amounted to 2.5% of GDP.

At a time when each day seems to bring more dire news regarding the economy, Americans have one silver lining: the price at the pump is going down. According to energy experts, gas prices should fall anywhere from 30 to 50 cents per gallon over the next several weeks. Crude oil for September delivery dropped to $81.03 a barrel in New York futures trading, but later closed at $85.72 a barrel. Earlier in the week, oil was as low as $79.30 a barrel.

Should energy consumers pay extra taxes to fund government-mandated and subsidized renewable energy technologies? "Absolutely yes," says John Bryson, President Obama's nominee for Commerce Secretary. He made the remark at a meeting of the Commonwealth Club of California in 2009 and went on to extol the virtues of hidden rates in California, a state encumbered with some of the nation's highest electricity and unemployment rates. Bryson, retired CEO of the electric utility Southern California Edison (SCE) and its parent company Edison International, excused the practice, saying, "That's been a part of the regulatory environment for the investor-owned utilities for as long as I've been close to it."

The two Minnesotans in the Republican presidential primary — former Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty and U.S. Representative Michele Bachmann — took aim at each other in the August 11 debate in Ames, Iowa. "It's an indisputable fact in Congress her record of accomplishment and results is nonexistent," Pawlenty said of his fellow Minnesota Republican. Bachmann replied: "Governor, when you were governor in Minnesota, you implemented cap and trade in our state. And you praised the unconstitutional individual mandate and you called for requiring all people in our state to purchase health insurance that government would mandate. Third, you said the era of small government was over. That sounds a lot more like Barack Obama, if you ask me."