"Beyond Exports" Event Video Now Online

As promised, here's the video of last week's Capitol Hill event on Free Trade messaging.  Enjoy:


Feedback welcome (other than to grouse about the sound quality or my gratuitous hand gestures, of course).

Help The FBI Crack The Code, Solve A Murder:

Ricky McCormick and his code (courtesy St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

The FBI is asking for help from the public to help crack a code that was found with a dead man in St. Charles County in 1999.

Both the FBI and investigators with the St. Charles County sheriff's office believe forty one year-old Ricky McCormick was murdered, but the medical examiner ruled the man's death "suspicious." McCormick's body was already decomposing when it was discovered and made work difficult for the ME; however, investigators were intrigued by an injury to McCormick's head.

On Tuesday March 29th the FBI released two encrypted notes found in Ricky McCormick’s pants pocket on June 30, 1999.  They believe if they can crack the code, agents might be able to retrace McCormick's steps in the days that led to his murder and bring a resolution to this case.
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Family members told authorities that McCormick, who was a high school dropout, was "street smart"and had used encrypted notes since childhood.  They say they don't know the key to decipher the codes, or that if anyone, beside McCormick, can translate the secret he took to his grave. 

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The last sighting of McCormick was five days before his body was found near a cornfield off of Highway 367 near West Alton, when he received medication from a doctor at Forest Park Hospital in St. Louis for chronic heart and lung problems.

He had a minimal criminal record but nothing that investigators believed would have contributed to his death.  No one had reported McCormick missing and he was identified by fingerprints.

Investigators believe the notes notes found in McCormick's pockets were written up to three days before he died. 

In a news release the FBI said, "Despite extensive work by our Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit (CRRU), as well as help from the American Cryptogram Association, the meanings of those two coded notes remain a mystery to this day, and Ricky McCormick's murderer has yet to face justice." 

"We are really good at what we do,"  said CRRU chief Don Olson, "But we could use some help with this one."  In fact, Ricky McCormick's encrypted notes are one of CRRU's top unsolved cases.  "Breaking the code, said Olson, "could reveal the victim's whereabouts before his death and could lead to the solution of a homicide.  Not every cipher we get arrives at our door under those circumstances." 
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Investigators need another sample of McCormick's coded system, or a similar one, that they can compare. "Or, short of new evidence, Olson said, "Maybe someone with a fresh set of eyes might come up with a brilliant new idea."

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The maddening lines of letters, numbers, dashes and parentheses have agents stumped. "Even if we found out that he was writing a grocery list or a love letter," Olson said, "we would still want to see how the code is solved. This is a cipher we know nothing about."  

There is no reward being offered, just a challenge, the satisfaction and bragging rights that you helped the FBI possibly bring a killer to justice.

The FBI said breaking any code involves four basic steps:

• 1. determining the language used;
  
• 2. determining the system used;
  
• 3. reconstructing the key; and
• 4. reconstructing the plaintext.

Consider this cipher: Nffu nf bu uif qbsl bu oppo.

Now apply the four steps:
1. Determining the language allows you to compare the cipher text to the suspected language. Our cryptanalysts usually start with English.

2. Determining the system: Is this cipher using rearranged words, replaced words, or perhaps letter substitution? In this case, it’s letter substitution.

3. Reconstructing the key: This step answers the question of how the code maker changed the letters. In our example, every character shifted one letter to the right in the alphabet.

4. Reconstructing the plaintext: By applying the key from the previous step,

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If you have can help crack this code, please write to CRRU at the following address or call the FBI in St. Louis at 314-231-4324:

FBI Laboratory
Cryptanalysis and Racketeering Records Unit
2501 Investigation Parkway
Quantico, VA 22135
Attn: Ricky McCormick Case
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UPDATE:

Due to the extensive interest and help offered in this case, the FBI has set up a tip link for information here.

WARNING - SEXUALLY GRAPHIC- Wife Of Sex Slave "Master" Facing Federal Charges:

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The wife of a man charged with horrific crimes related to a sex slave case is now facing federal charges related to the crime as well.
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Marilyn Bagley, 45, along with her husband Edward Bagley, Sr., also known as “Master Ed,” 43, and Michael Stokes, also known as “The Rodent,” 62, all of Lebanon, Mo., and Bradley Cook, also known as “PutHer2GoodUse,” 32, of St. Louis, Mo., were charged in an 18-count superseding indictment returned by a grand jury in Kansas City, Mo. Today’s (03-30-11) superseding indictment replaces the Sept. 8, 2010, indictment for which Edward Bagley, Stokes and Cook remain in federal custody. 

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James Noel and Dennis Henry, who were also charged in the first indictment, have pleaded guilty to their part in the crimes against the female victim.
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Today’s indictment also contains additional charges against the original defendants related to a murder-for-hire scheme, witness and victim tampering and witness retaliation, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence and child pornography.
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The Bagley's allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse and sexual torture activities with FV to groom and coerce her to become a sex slave. Edward Bagley allegedly beat, whipped, flogged, suffocated, choked, electrocuted, caned, skewered, drowned, mutilated, hung and caged FV to coerce her to become a sex slave.

Federal prosecutors say Bagley had FV tattooed with a bar code, a tribal tattoo on her neck, an "S" to mark her as a slave and his personal property and the Chinese symbol for slave on her ankle. 

Court documents say that in February of 2004, when she turned 18 years old, Bagley made FV her sign a “sex slave contract,” which he convinced the mentally handicapped woman legally bound her to him as his slave for the rest of her life.

Edward Bagley Sr. (mug shot LCSO)


Edward Bagley allegedly advertised online that FV was his slave and could be sexually tortured during live online sessions or in person. The indictment states that Stokes and Cook participated in this conspiracy as customers who paid and offered goods to Bagley to sexually abuse and torture FV.

The federal indictment alleges that the young woman was sexually abused and tortured for several years at a Lebanon residence, and forced to work as an exotic dancer at local strip clubs. FV was forced to give the Bagley's $112,000 she made as a dancer and they allegedly tortured the woman for not being the clubs top money maker. 
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Today’s superseding indictment contains an additional charge against Edward Bagley for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. 

Cook is also charged with two additional counts of using an interstate facility in the commission of murder for hire, and with one count each of attempted tampering with a victim and attempted witness retaliation, all of which are related to an alleged attempt to kill FV between Sept. 28, 2010, and Dec. 9, 2010. Cook is also charged with tampering with another witness, who is identified as “JP” in the indictment.

Today’s superseding indictment also contains additional charges against Stokes for receiving child pornography over the Internet and for possessing child pornography.

The Bagleys used the Internet and BDSM pornography to train and groom FV (while she was still a minor) to be a sex slave. Marilyn Bagley allegedly modeled “slave clothes” as part of recruiting FV to become Edward Bagley’s slave. Edward Bagley allegedly gave FV marijuana and ecstasy, showed her images of pornography and sadomasochism activities, and began sexually abusing her while she was still a minor.

Marilyn Bagley posed in photographs taken by Edward Bagley, the indictment says, where she sexually abused FV. Marilyn Bagley allegedly told FV to “do as she was told” and refused to offer assistance when FV expressed fear of Edward Bagley.

If FV attempted to stop the activity or cried for help, the indictment says, Edward Bagley escalated the torture. Edward Bagley allegedly threatened to kill FV and demonstrated to her that he could do so by keeping numerous guns in the home. Edward Bagley shot animals that FV cared for in front of her, the indictment says, and bragged about the bodies he had already buried in the woods behind the trailer home.

Edward Bagley also threatened to bury FV alive, the indictment says, and showed her a video demonstrating how he intended to do it.

Between February 2004 and February 2009, the indictment says, Edward Bagley tortured FV on live webcasts on the Internet. Cook allegedly watched live video over the Internet of FV being sexually abused and tortured, and downloaded pictures of FV to his computer. Cook allegedly sent images to Edward Bagley of females in his residence that he beat, bound and tied up to share ideas of how to abuse FV. Cook allegedly used those torture methods on FV when he visited the Bagley residence. Cook gave Bagley a hard drive with sadomasochism and torture videos downloaded from the Internet, including videos demonstrating to Bagley how he could bury FV alive.

Stokes allegedly traveled to the Bagleys’ residence and engaged in both sexually torturing FV and watching Edward Bagley torture FV. Stokes allegedly paid Bagley with steaks, cigarettes, coats, clothing, lighters and cash. Stokes paid $1,000 for Bagley to transport FV to California in December 2006 for a photo shoot in which FV performed sexual acts. Stokes paid Bagley $300 for a torture session, and also gave him money to build a home-made device to sexually torture FV.

In addition to the criminal conspiracy, each of the defendants is also charged with one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and one count of using the Internet to facilitate the unlawful activity.

Edward and Marilyn Bagley are also charged together with forced labor trafficking and document servitude. 

Edward Bagley is also charged with one count each of using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in illicit sex, enticement to travel for illicit sexual activity, transportation for illicit sexual activity, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance to a person under the age of 21 and being a drug user in possession of firearms and ammunition.

The federal indictment also contains a forfeiture allegation, which would require Bagley to forfeit to the government any proceeds obtained from the alleged offenses, as well as any property used to commit the alleged offenses, including $112,200 allegedly obtained by the forced labor trafficking of the victim, two computers, sex toys and paraphernalia and torture devices and 11 firearms. Cook would also be required to forfeit three computers, a hard drive, two Xbox 360s and seven firearms.

Under federal statutes, a conviction for commercial sex trafficking carries a penalty of a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in federal prison without parole. A conviction for either commercial sex trafficking or forced labor trafficking that involves aggravated sexual abuse carries a maximum penalty of life in federal prison without parole.

Suspect In 28 Year-Old Murder Extradited From Colorado:

Richard Leroy Walker (mug shot GCSO)

The man who was charged last December with the murder of a young woman in Springfield twenty eight years ago is now behind bars in Greene County.

Richard Leroy Walker, 56, who was in prison in Colorado on an unrelated sex crime, was extradited and booked into the Greene County Jail on Saturday.

On July 29, 1982, authorities found Angela C. Baskin lying in the grass near the Villa Inn Motel at 2601 North Glenstone about 1 a.m. after someone in an upstairs apartment called cops to report screaming in the parking lot. 

As they were arriving at the crime scene, police officers noticed Walker shimming up an iron support railing and attempting to pull himself up to the second floor.  When Walker saw the officers he dropped to the ground and began walking across the parking lot. 

According to court documents, "He said he wasn't aware of any problems at the motel complex; however, he then changed his story and stated....hurry the problem is around the corner!"

Police arrested Walker, who was a driver for Prime and staying at the motel in room #240, not far from the murder scene after he bolted from two officers after giving them his ID.

Authorities later determined that the iron railing that Walker was attempting to climb was directly above where Baskin was found and near Walker's room.

A friend of Walker's told detectives that Walker was wearing a sheath that held a knife and it was attached to his belt before he got kicked out of Wild Bill's Lounge.  Walker, was kicked out of the lounge that sat next door to the Villa Inn Motel "because there were complaints from other patrons that he was getting too intoxicated."

A security guard at the lounge told investigators that after Walker was kicked out, he remained in the parking lot of the business for over an hour and then walked toward the motel.

When Walker was arrested, he was no longer in possession of the knife that had been attached to his waist.

Walker was always the chief suspect in Baskin's murder but cops never had enough evidence to charge him. That problem changed for investigators on December 14, 2011, when Springfield Police Detectives Kevin Shipley and Todd King traveled to Arrowhead Correctional Facility in Colorado where Walker allegedly admitted to killing Baskin.

Angela C. Baskin

According to court documents, Walker first denied involvement in Baskin's death and said he had "very little recollection of what occurred prior to being arrested at the scene." 

The next day, on December 15th, Walker told the detectives that after he was kicked out of Wild Bill's Lounge, Baskin approached him in the parking lot and asked him if he could help her find some marijuana.  During the initial investigation in 1982, some friends of Baskin as well as patrons of the lounge, told investigators that Baskin "made several inquiries for assistance in locating marijuana."

Walker told Shipley and King that he told Baskin he couldn't help her in locating any drugs and walked to the Villa Inn Motel parking lot where his truck was parked.   Walker said, "while he was bent over inside the cab of his truck repairing the electrical wires with his pocket knife, he was grabbed on the shoulder from behind, which frightened him and spun around with his knife still in his hand and began stabbing at the unknown person standing behind him."

"Walker claimed that after stabbing the subject an unknown number of times, he then realized the person was the same female that had approached him on the Wild Bill's Lounge lot looking to find some marijuana."

Walker claimed Baskin then stumbled over to a grassy area at the corner of the building where she fell to the ground.  He told the detectives that Baskin was bleeding heavily from the stomach area.

"Walker claimed that he then realized he had stabbed the female, at which time he began to panic, threw his knife into the field located behind his motel building and was walking away from the building when he was contacted by police."

At a news conference last December, Chief Paul Williams said authorities have been in touch with Baskin's only living relative, her father, who is in his eighties and lives in Louisiana.

Angela Baskin was originally from Carthage, Texas, and had moved back there after getting a divorce.  She had only been back in Springfield two weeks when she was murdered.  Lt. David Millsap said her son was killed in a car accident and that her ex-husband has also died.

At the news conference officials refused to answer reporters questions on whether or not DNA helped them solve the case or whether or not any kind of weapon was used in the sexual assault in Colorado.  They also would not comment on if they have recovered the weapon used to kill Baskin saying "it will come out at the preliminary hearing."

Katherine Sanguinetti, public information officer for the Colorado Department of Corrections says Walker was convicted of a sexual assault of a woman and assault for an incident in Adams County on October 3, 1999.  "He grabbed a knife and held it to her throat," she said.

Sanguinetti says Walker had no prior felony record before the sexual assault conviction in Colorado.  He was serving ten years to life in prison for the assault there. 

Walker, who was indicted on the murder and armed criminal action charges by a grand jury, is scheduled to re-appear in court on April 8th.

Jury Convicts Pherigo For Burglary, Tampering:

Daniel Lee Pherigo (mug shot TCSO)

A thirty three year-old man from Kirbyville was convicted by a jury of burglary, tampering and theft in Taney County yesterday (03-29-11.)

Prosecutor Jeff Merrell says a deputy found Daniel Lee Pherigo transferring items from a stolen Mercedes into a stolen BMW in September of last year. Pherigo was in possession of a silver handgun with part of the wooden grip missing stolen in a burglary.  The missing part of the gun was found inside the home from where the Mercedes had been stolen.

Pherigo, who has previously been convicted of felonies under the aliases of Daniel Taylor and Daniel Derkit, faces up to 15 years for each of the three felonies when he is ssentenced on June 2nd.

Can America Compete with Cheap Labor Countries?

One of the constant refrains you hear from people opposing trade liberalization is that, sure, it sounds good in theory, but in reality free trade is a disaster for America because the USA simply cannot compete with low-wage countries like China, and thus "outsourcing" will crush the American worker while enriching fat-cat industrialists.  But does this argument jibe with reality?

In short, no.

Thomas Heffner of Economy in Crisis provides a good example of the protectionists' most basic outsourcing argument:

American workers can not and should not have to compete with third world wage rates. Some Chinese manufacturers are paid 33 cents an hour according to a 2005 AFLCIO report. This cents-an-hour pay in many countries around the world has caused American companies and entire industries to move abroad (see the lost industry list here). It also led Princeton economist Alan Blinder to estimate 42-56 million jobs could potentially be sent overseas.

And trust me, Heffner is not alone - instances of this argument literally flood the interwebs (and our political discourse).  But unfortunately for the folks using such simplistic defeatism to justify their protectionist policies, their arguments simply cannot withstand scrutiny when checked against the actual facts on the ground, which show that labor costs are only one of many factors that executives consider when deciding where to locate a factory.  That fact is made abundantly clear in this new FT story:

Most big US manufacturing companies are considering relocating factories from low-cost Asian countries to the US or Latin America as they face rising logistics and transport costs, according to a report being released today by Accenture, the consultants.

The earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which have wreaked havoc on global supply chains, have underlined how multinational manufacturers can find themselves stranded without critical components.

For example, General Motors, the US carmaker, plans to stop production today at a factory in Louisiana that makes pick-up trucks, due to lack of parts normally supplied from Japan.

Boeing, the aircraft-maker whose 787 Dreamliner relies on Japanese manufacturers for more than a third of its parts, said it had enough inventory of components for the next few weeks, but was unsure of supplies beyond that. Jamco, the Japanese company that makes the 787’s galleys, warned that deliveries could be affected by fuel shortages.

Caterpillar, the world’s largest manufacturer of earthmoving equipment by revenues, said its factories around the world could be “sporadically impacted” by the disruption to its Japanese supply chain. The company has already located alternative sources for components produced by its Japanese suppliers.

The problems in Japan could prompt big manufacturers to reassess the risks in their global supply chains. The Accenture report suggests that, long before the earthquake, such companies were already looking at simplifying supply chains by bringing them closer to end-markets.

Some 61 per cent of manufacturing executives surveyed by the consultancy said they were considering more closely matching supply location with demand location by onshoring or “nearshoring” manufacturing and supply.

Matt Reilly, Accenture’s managing director of process and innovation performance, said that this could lead to a wave of factory relocations in the next three years as big US manufacturers move production from Asia to the US and Latin America. “In the past five years, companies were driving at labour cost arbitrage and lower material costs,” Mr Reilly said.

“But now that oil and transportation prices have gone up, productivity gains are not as big as they were, and there are issues around risk in supply chains, companies are starting to go where the customers are, instead of where the raw materials are.” He said the shift was also being driven by customer demands for quicker supply times and greater customisation.

“A lot of what’s going on in manufacturing innovation is about trying to get customer feedback quickly and injecting that back into the supply chain, so that features and functions can be changed quickly,” he said. “It’s tough to do that when you’ve got stuff going on in Thailand or Japan.”

A string of other international companies have also cautioned that their supply chains could be disrupted by the Japan quake, including Sony Ericsson, Volkswagen, Volvo and GKN, the UK car and aerospace components manufacturer.

In short, yes, labor costs are a factor in corporate sourcing, and sometimes a big one (especially for low-end manufacturing), but the idea that America simply can't compete with low-wage nations based solely on the wage differential is a huge fallacy.  And it's been a fallacy for a long time now (especially when fuel costs are on the rise).  Of course, anyone with a good grasp of basic economics coulda told you that, but it's certainly nice when reality so neatly tracks theory, isn't it?

Lots more on the outsourcing myth here, if you're interested.

Monday Quick Hits

The eastern seaboard is clearly under attack from global cooling.  Here are some interesting links to get you through these dark and cold "spring" days.

• Chevy Volt: the car from Atlas Shrugged Motors.

• Sore losers implore the US to take their ball and go home.  I like to call this the "Cartman strategy."

• New 2004 UCLA study: FDR's statist policies prolonged the Great Depression by seven(!) years.

• Sarah Palin advocates import liberalization in India, further solidifying her free trade bona fides: "[I]n the early 1990′s, due to clear, commonsense, pro free-market reforms, India’s economy took off! [It] abolished import licenses; cut import duties; removed investment caps & broke the union’s grip on industry."

• The United States has the most progressive tax system in the industrialized world.  Key graf: "[T]he top 10 percent of households in the U.S. pays 45.1 percent of all income taxes (both personal income and payroll taxes combined) in the country. Italy is the only other country in which the top 10 percent of households pays more than 40 percent of the income tax burden (42.2%). Meanwhile, the average tax burden for the top decile of households in OECD countries is 31.6 percent."

• A fascinating study (and a related WSJ op-ed) from the UK think tank Policy Exchange on the impact of global trade on the effectiveness (or, more accurately, the impotence) of the EU's climate change regulations has me wondering whether our policymakers will (i) learn the right lesson from the EU's experience - and the one advocated by Policy Exchange ("to accelerate the development of technologies that will be genuinely competitive with fossil fuels" rather than "browbeat[ing] developing countries into going green") or (ii) use the study to justify their calls for eco-protectionism.  I'm hoping the former but cynically expecting the latter.

• US steelmaking giant Nucor recently broke ground on a new iron making facility in Louisiana that would employ hundreds.  The same site is also permitted for another iron facility, and many are guessing that a steel mill will also show up down there in the next few years.  Oddly, ABC News isn't doing a week's worth of news stories on the Nucor plant(s) or any of the many other industrial expansion efforts across the country.

• Why won't Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) debate GMU's Don Boudreaux on the merits of free trade?  (Yes, that's a rhetorical question.  *cluck cluck*)

• Cato's Dan Griswold points out that the easiest way to decrease American income inequality appears to be destroying the US economy.  (Obvious response: Shh, dude, don't give anyone any bright ideas.)

• So much for the silly myth of "McJobs" in the service industry.  According to this handy primer from the National Retail Federation, the import-dependent retail industry in 2009 employed 330,000 managers who earned an average annual salary of $91,650.  And there are another 300,000 or so well-paid folks in other positions.  (This isn't new, but it's worth mentioning here anyway.)

• Finally, Jonah Goldberg at AEI points us to an awesome video from Hans Rosling about the amazing improvements in global wealth and health over the last few decades.  All of it is cool and worth watching, but for our purposes, the most relevant point is around the 10:00 mark when Rosling unequivocally credits the dramatic, disproportionate (relative to other African nations) improvement of Mauritius on the country's embrace of free trade.

 Enjoy!

Death Investigation's Underway In Ozark County:

Ozark County Sheriff Raymond Pace

The Ozark County Sheriff’s Department is currently investigating the deaths of two men.

Sheriff Raymond Pace says deputies got a call that they would find a man dead behind a barn on County Road 855 about 4:45 this afternoon. 

About 5:34 deputies were called to County Road 553 near Howard's Ridge where they found a 42 year-old man hanging from a tree.

Pace says, "They both appear to be suicide's but we will have to wait on final autopsy results to be certain."

Fire Chief Resigns After Third DWI Arrest:

David A. Rowland (mug shot DCSO)

Following his third drunk driving arrest the fire chief of the Southern Dallas County Fire Protection District has resigned.

David A. Rowland, 34, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor DWI charges in Dallas County in 2002 and 2004.  He is now charged with a felony as a prior offender in circuit court.

On March 10th an officer was dispatched to reports of an auto accident at O’Reilly Automotive at 1020 S. Ash St.

The officer wrote in court documents that Rowland, the driver of one of the vehicles, had watery, glassy eyes and was leaning against his vehicle. Rowland told the officer that he backed into a pickup truck because he wasn't paying attention.

According to the report, the officer noticed a moderate odor of intoxicants on Rowland's breath when he spoke.  He told the officer he had a hot toddy at 9 a.m., but when he was given a breathalyzer test almost two hours later he blew .158 into the machine.

The Buffalo Reflex is reporting that a week before Rowland's latest arrest he wrote a letter to the editor denying that he had driven a fire truck while intoxicated. He said the board of directors of the Southern Dallas County Fire District had been asked to meet in closed session with county commissioners because the commissioners wanted to address concerns about the allegations against Rowland who was the supervisor of about 20 volunteer members.

David Dixon has been appointed acting chief until the board can find a permanent replacement for Rowland's position.

77 Year-Old Man Charged With Molesting Teen In Jasper County:

Winston Wayne Carter (mug shot JCSO)

An elderly man from Carthage was arrested last week (03-24-11) for allegedly molesting a 15-year-old female relative.

Jasper County deputies took Winston Wayne Carter, 77, into custody at his home at 9713 Kafir Road the same day the allegations surfaced.  Carter is now facing charges of second-degree statutory sodomy.

For security reasons, Carter was taken to the Barton County Jail where he posted $2,500 bond.

Selectively Quoting His Way to Protectionist Victory

Everyone's favorite protectionist caricature/blogger, Ian Fletcher, has published a new screed breathlessly questioning how we could possibly be considering the US-Korea FTA when its predecessor, the NAFTA, was such a giant, job-killing failure.  It's chock-full of the usual protectionist myths about NAFTA and other FTAs that I've discussed here many, many times (especially here and here), so I'm not going to waste your (or my) time going through all the NAFTA and trade deficit mythology that Fletcher's interminably long post brings up.  I'm also not going to again mention the unseriousness of any anti-trade essay that cites to the long-debunked work of the union-run-and-union-funded Economic Policy Institute, which erroneously claims that US trade agreements like NAFTA have caused bilateral trade deficits, which in turn have caused millions of US job-losses.

However, in scanning Fletcher's latest masterwork, something noteworthy did catch my eye: the complete lack of hyperlinks to the author's many references.  Indeed, except for one link to another Fletcher piece on the KORUS, his anti-NAFTA anthology doesn't contain a single link to supporting evidence, despite the fact that he cites lots of (bad) stats and has several (allegedly) supporting quotes.  One of those quotes comes from the Sane Paul Krugman of Yesteryear (i.e., back when he was a really good commentator on trade economics and policy instead of a really bad commentator on, well, everything else):

The agreement was sold under false pretences. Over the protests of most economists, the Clinton Administration chose to promote NAFTA as a jobs-creation program. Based on little more than guesswork, a few economists argued that NAFTA would boost our trade surplus with Mexico, and thus produce a net gain in jobs. With utterly spurious precision, the administration settled on a figure of 200,000 jobs created--and this became the core of the NAFTA sales pitch.

Fletcher uses this un-linked Krugman quote as evidence that NAFTA was a failure, and to further support his earlier EPI-backed claim that NAFTA, through its alleged exacerbation of the US-Mexico trade deficit, actually cost hundreds of thousands of American jobs.  But there's only one problem: if you Google around and find the Krugman piece that Fletcher quotes, the very next passage argues strongly against Fletcher's thesis that a trade deficit (or surplus) can dramatically and directly affect domestic employment:

The overall number of U.S. jobs, however, was never going to be noticeably affected by swings in our trade balance with Mexico. Our economy employs more than 120 million workers; it has added more than 8 million jobs since 1992. Job growth has slowed since 1994, but not because those 200,000 export-related jobs failed to materialize (the real culprit is the Federal Reserve's interest rate policies).

In other words: the US-Mexico trade deficit (or surplus), no matter how big it gets, simply cannot have a significant impact on overall US employment.  (A view shared by most reputable economists, by the way.)

Gee, I wonder why Fletcher didn't link to that Krugman article and include the entire quote in his new piece?  Oh, riiiight, because he said two paragraphs earlier that, according to EPI, the widening US-Mexico trade deficit cost 760,000 US jobs, and that Krugman quote would, like, totally deflate his awesome NAFTA/trade deficit demagoguery.

Well, friends, there's an easy and obvious solution to that inconvenient dilemma: crop the quote!

Of course, anyone who's paying attention already knew that all of this NAFTA nonsense was, well, just that.  But I'd say that Fletcher's selective quotation speaks volumes about the depth of his protectionist playbook.  I mean, Ian, buddy, if you can't even include the very next paragraph from your big "gotcha" quote, then, well, maybe you need to sit the next play out, Champ.

And the one after that.

(p.s. Fletcher's alleged "Department of Labor" stats are also complete bunk.)

Thanks

A big, hearty thank you to all the folks out there who made yesterday's Capitol Hill event a raging success.  The room was packed - literally standing room only - and I don't think we can/should give all the credit for that to the sandwiches and cookies (although Cato's cookies are famously good).  I only wish we could've gone longer, as we left a lot of the attendees' questions unanswered.  (If you attended and had a hand raised, please feel free to email me if you'd still like a response.)

It was especially fun for me to meet a few readers of this little ol' blog.  Their uniformly-kind words will definitely make it easier to sit down after a long day of lawyering and, instead of vegging out on The Jersey Shore The History Channel, yell into the interwebs about US trade policy.  So thanks much for that too.

The video of the event will be posted here soon.  There's typically a 2-3 day lag for that (and I've demanded that an applause track and CGI be added to my sections, so that might take another day), so it should be up sometime early next week.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some more yelling to do.

Former Post Master Pleads Guilty To Sex-Trafficking And Taking Part In Torture Of Sex Slave:

A man from Wheatland, Mo, has pleaded guilty in federal court to his role in a sex-trafficking conspiracy in which a young, mentally deficient woman was coerced into being a sex slave for at least five years while being tortured in a trailer in Lebanaon.

Dennis Henry, 51, who was formerly the postmaster in Nevada, Mo., pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. Henry also pleaded guilty to transporting the victim across state lines for sexual activity.

By pleading guilty today, Henry admitted that he engaged in sex with the victim, who is identified in court documents as “FV” (female victim), and participated in torture sessions with FV that would last for hours.
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According to Henry, FV was subject to the most extreme forms of torture he had ever seen, and he never offered the victim help.

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The federal investigation was launched after Edward Bagley Sr., 43, of Lebanon allegedly suffocated and electrocuted FV during a torture session to a state of cardiac arrest on Feb. 27, 2009. FV, who was 23 years old at that time, received emergency medical treatment and was hospitalized.



Edward Bagley Sr. (mug shot LCSO)



According to court records, Bagley enticed FV, a 16-year-old runaway who suffered from mental deficiencies, into his trailer home in December 2002 by promising to help her to become a model and a dancer; she was given her own bedroom and provided with clothes and food. Bagley allegedly supplied FV with marijuana and ecstasy, showed her images of pornography and sadomasochism activities, and began sexually abusing her.
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Federal prosecutors say Bagley had FV tattooed with a bar code, a tribal tattoo on her neck and the "S" to mark her as a slave and his personal property.
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Bagley is is also charged with forced labor trafficking and document servitude. A federal indictment alleges that Bagley forced FV to work as a stripper and exotic dancer at adult entertainment clubs from June 2007 to February 2009. Bagley allegedly earned approximately $112,200 from FV’s work and allegedly would torture the woman for not being the club's top money maker.

Henry admitted he visited FV at the strip club in Lebanon she was forced to work at.

Court documents say that in February of 2004, when she turned 18 years old, Bagley made FV her sign a “sex slave contract,” which he convinced the mentally handicapped woman legally bound her to him as his slave for the rest of her life.

It is alleged that if the young woman wanted to stop the repeated torture, or cried for help, Bagley escalated the torture and allegedly threatened to kill her. Bagley kept numerous weapons in the house and shot animals that FV cared for in front of her. Bagley also told the woman there were bodies buried in the woods behind their home, and that he would bury her alive and showed her a video on how he would to do it.

Henry told prosecutors when he met the victim in 2004, he believed she was neglected.  She also appeared developmentally delayed for someone her age. She did not know how to think for herself, took long periods of time to think and comprehend something and had a difficult time keeping up with conversations. Henry observed that FV did not know how to eat with a knife and a fork, and he taught her how to use silverware.

Between February 2005 and February 2009, Bagley tortured FV on live web casts on the Internet. James Noel paid Bagley $300 to watch Bagley to sexually abuse and torture the woman. Another man allegedly sexually abused and tortured FV and downloaded streaming Internet video of Bagley torturing FV.

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Another man charged in this crime, Michael Stokes, 62, of Lebanon, allegedly paid Bagley with steaks, cigarettes, coats, clothing, lighters and cash to have sex with FV. Henry and Stokes gave Bagley $2,900 to transport FV to California in December 2006 for a photo shoot in which FV performed sexual acts.  Sex toys, machines and devices filled the trunk and backseat of the car, with Henry, FV and another person crowded into the front seat. Henry drove most of the way from Missouri to California, where they stayed in a dirty motel room that was located in front of an alley filled with trash, needles and drug paraphernalia.
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According to Henry, FV became scared when they arrived in California. When she saw the crank phone that was used to administer electric shocks, she withdrew and “melted.” Henry found FV crying in a room. FV told him she hated the crank phone and was worried she would not be able to take the pain. Henry provided approximately $1,400 for this trip to California. At a later date, he provided another $500 for a return trip, which he did not join.

Henry told prosecutors that he saw pictures of FV’s vagina sewn shut, which he was told was a form of punishment. Another form of punishment included locking FV in a cage.

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Another co-defendant of Henry's, James Noel, 45, of Springfield, has also pleaded guilty to participating in the conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. Noel admitted that he was one of the customers who sexually abused and tortured FV. Noel watched the victim being tortured and sometimes operated torture devices himself beginning in 2006, when she was approximately 20 years old. Noel knew that FV hated being electrocuted with a crank phone (which was wired inside FV’s vaginal and anal openings and to her toes), which he described as “extremely painful,” but he used it on her anyway.
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No sentencing date has been scheduled for either man.  Bagley and other co-defendants await trial.

Reminder: Speaking on Capitol Hill Thursday

For the few stragglers out there who haven't yet registered for this assuredly-riveting event, here's your final reminder.  It should be a goodstupendous discussion, and you get a free lunch!

Beyond Exports: A Better Case for Free Trade

CAPITOL HILL BRIEFING
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Noon (Lunch Included)

Featuring Daniel J. Ikenson, Associate Director, Center for Trade Policy Studies, Cato Institute; Scott Lincicome, International Trade Attorney, White & Case, LLP; and Donald J. Boudreaux, Professor, George Mason University Department of Economics and Adjunct Scholar, Cato Institute; moderated by Brandon Arnold, Director of Government Affairs, Cato Institute.

B-369 Rayburn House Office Building

The 112th Congress begins its term amid renewed optimism about prospects for U.S. trade liberalization. But how long will this window of opportunity remain ajar? Despite trade's benefits, Americans remain skeptical because of the tendency of politicians and media charlatans to blame foreigners for domestic shortcomings. Thus, in addition to securing the immediate goal of concluding and passing trade liberalizing agreements in 2011, advocates of trade should update their arguments and invest in the process of winning the trade debate once and for all. Some of the most compelling arguments for free trade have been only modestly summoned or absent from the discussion for too long. Please join us for a discussion of those compelling arguments that take the case for free trade well beyond the value of exports.

Registration is free, and you can do it at Cato's website anytime before tomorrow (Wednesday) at noon.  From what I'm told, the event is almost full (seriously!).  So you must act now!  Time is running out and space is limited!

(Hope to see you there.)

More Trouble For Kanakuk Kamp - This Time In Florida:

Edward L. Ringheim (mug shot OCSO - FL)

A Windermere, Florida man who worked as a volunteer for K-Life in Orlando has been charged with  allegedly molesting at least two young boys at his home there.

Edward L. Ringheim, 39, is facing seven felony charges of lewd and lascivious molestation in Orange County, and was fired from Universal Orlando after his arrest last week. Ringheim treated young men to free trips to Universal Studios by using his employee pass, one of the victims told authorities

Parents also let Ringheim accompany their children to Kanakuk's Branson, Missouri facility according to published reports.  Investigators say he brought about 30 kids to Kanakuk for summer camp over a four year period.  

Orange County Judge Deb Blechman ordered that Ringheim not have any contact with Christian youth group Orlando K-Life and set his bond at $10,000.  He is also prohibited from texting and contact with any of the victims - he has also been banned from using the Internet, including social media sites like Facebook.

Sources close to the investigation in Florida say the are interviewing additional people who may have been victims of Ringheim's.

A spokesperson for K-Life President Kyle Unruh, Christie Stewart, says, "K-Life Orlando is part of our organization.  They're an affiliated chapter - but we have no comment at this time about the allegations in Florida." 

 

Ringheim was released on bond and outfitted with a GPS monitoring device.
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In an unrelated matter involving a civil lawsuit filed in Missouri against Kanakuk Kamp and Pete Newman by one of former camp director Newman's sexual molestation victims, lawyers for the camp have asked for a change of venue from Taney County.

Newman pleaded guilty last year to multiple sex charges involving underage campers.  He is serving two life sentences, plus 30 years for those crimes.
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Keith Alan Cary of the Kansas City law firm of Franke, Schultz & Mullen has entered his appearance as lead attorney for Kanakuk Kamp.  Mike Merrell and G. Rick DiGiorgio are representing the victim in Missouri.  Lawyers are due in court on April 7th in Forsyth for motion hearings involving the civil case in Missouri.

Another victim of Newman's has hired The Turley Law Firm in Dallas who has filed a federal lawsuit against Joe White, the camp, their subsidiaries and Newman.

Former Christian County Assessor And Her Husband Headed To Federal Prison For Bilking The Government:



Former Christian County Assessor Sandra Bryant-Littles



It's four months in federal prison without parole for former Christian County Assesor Sandra Bryant-Littles who pleaded guilty last November to four counts of mail fraud.

Sandra Bryant-Littles, 51, of Clever, Mo., was also ordered to pay $2,080 in restitution to Christian County.

Her husband, Lonnie Utah Littles, 63, also of Clever, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Richard E. Dorr to 15 months in federal prison without parole.

On Nov. 9, 2010, Bryant-Littles told prosecutors she lied when assessing her own personal property. Littles pleaded guilty on the same day to one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, two counts of bank fraud, and two counts of wire fraud, related to a false cattle theft claim.

Bryant-Littles and her husband owned personal property under their own names and under the name of Poco Cala Ranch, from Dec. 31, 2006, until Feb. 19, 2009. During that time, Bryant-Littles admitted she filed personal property tax assessment lists for herself and for Poco Cala that intentionally omitted substantial property that was required to be reported and upon which personal property taxes were owed.

Each of the four counts of mail fraud was related to assessment lists filed for the years 2007 and 2008, for which the county collector mailed two personal property tax bills to Bryant-Littles and two personal property tax bills to Poco Cala Ranch.

Bryant-Littles admitted she knew these tax bills understated the correct tax that was owed. In each of those years, Bryant-Littles admits she and her husband paid personal property taxes to the government of Christian County which Bryant-Littles knew understated the true and correct tax owed.

For 2007 and 2008, Bryant-Littles failed to report or assess personal property tax upon such property as six vehicles, a motorcycle, two tractors, three utility and flat-bed trailers, a horse trailer, and an unknown number of cattle.

Bryant-Littles' fraud was discovered when law enforcement officers investigating a cattle theft reported by Littles reviewed the couple’s personal property assessment forms, and discovered that no cattle were listed.

Further investigation revealed that numerous other assets were omitted. When confronted about the discrepancies, Bryant-Littles admitted to law enforcement officers that she knew the forms were not correct, and asked if she could correct them. Bryant-Littles was arrested at her county office the morning of Oct. 15, 2009.

By pleading guilty to all five counts of the superseding indictment in his case, Littles admitted that he concocted a scheme to defraud Liberty Bank and Shelter Insurance Company.  He admitted that he used a line of credit from Liberty Bank to obtain money and property, while at the same time selling cattle that were collateral on the loan, in violation of his contract with Liberty Bank.



Lonnie Utah Littles and Sandra Bryant Littles leaving federal courthouse (courtesy Springfield News-Leader)



According to the plea agreement, as of February 8, 2009, Littles owed a principal balance of approximately $104,956 on the $105,000 line of credit.

As a part of the scheme, Littles admitted that he contacted his insurance representative on Dec. 17, 2008, in order to increase his insurance coverage on his cattle, from $60,000 to $100,000. Then, shortly before a Liberty Bank representative was scheduled to inspect his cattle, Littles conspired with his ranch hand and co-defendant, Jesse D. Rice, 57, also of Clever, to falsely report the cattle stolen.

Jesse D. Rice Interview With KY3

Littles instructed Rice to make the false report the weekend of Feb. 8, 2009, while Littles and his wife would be out of town, traveling to conduct Little's prison ministry.

 On Feb. 8, 2009, Rice contacted the Christian County Sheriff's Department to report the theft of 53 head of cattle, although no cattle actually had been stolen. On the same day, Littles filed a fraudulent insurance claim for $66,250. Littles admitted that as a part of his scheme, he committed wire fraud by instructing Rice to provide two on-camera interviews falsely claiming that the cattle had been stolen. The interviews were broadcast on Feb. 8 and 9, 2009, by television stations KY3 and KOLR-10. The interviews comprised wire fraud because they were communications transmitted in interstate commerce for the purpose of executing a fraud scheme.

Rice pleaded guilty on Feb. 11, 2010, to conspiracy to commit bank fraud, and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 29, 2011.