NEW SITE

The McCarville Report has moved; the new address is www.mccarvillereport.com.

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New TMR Site Coming January 1st

The McCarville Report's new Internet site, designed to be more user-friendly, debuts on January 1st at www.mccarvillereport.com.

Mike McCarville said he understands the new site "may take a bit of getting-used-to; on this site, readers have had to scroll down, down, down, to read the stories. The new site spreads stories across the page and categorizes them. For example, if you just want to read stories about Social Mores, you'd just scroll down to that category and click on the headline; all of our stories in that category will appear. If you're interested in state finance and the tax structure, no need to scroll much at all; the category State Spending is just below the animated photos.

"You will find some stories appear under General news at top right, and also under specific categories down the page; they are the same stories, categorized as they are for archive purposes once they are topped by other stories.

"And speaking of archives: At the bottom of the page, you'll find an Archive Search section.

"If you want to see a list of all current stories, just scroll a wee bit and look on the left; you'll see Top Of Our News.

"Note also the reinstatement of a Comments section under each story. So long as the comments do not use indelicate language, make an unfounded allegation or cast a personal aspersion, they will be used; if they stray, they won't be."

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Drug Cartels Target Young People

Mexican drug cartels, in a disturbing new trend, are luring young people from Southern California to smuggle drugs across the border and carry out other illicit work for the criminal enterprises, according to law enforcement officials and youth activists.

The result: More than 5,000 young people, most of them Latinos, have been held in San Diego County jails over the last two years, according to KPBS San Diego.

Many of the young people were involved in street gangs, making them easier to recruit, and the crimes that landed them behind bars included assaults, robbery, drug trafficking or consumption. Their proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border made it easier for them to fall prey to the advances of the Mexican drug cartels.

Many times, children as young as 11 years old, who are referred to as the "The expendables," according to The National Post, are recruited to smuggle drugs across the border because it is believed they'll attract less law enforcement attention than adults.

Children can earn up to $400 per trip smuggling drugs across the border, according to Pedro Ríos, an activist with the San Diego office of the American Friends Service Committee. He added that young people also are recruited by human traffickers to escort undocumented immigrants from the border to safe houses.

A report by the The Children's Rights Network in Mexico estimates that 30,000 Mexicans under the age of 18 are in the employ of Mexico's numerous drug cartels.

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Magic: Thunder Wins No. 4

Thunder downs Dallas on Kevin Durant's buzzer-beater 3-point shot.

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Romney? Paul? Santorum? Iowa Caucus Results Likely To Propel Someone To GOP Nomination

Twenty-five percent of people questioned say if the Iowa caucuses were held today, they'd most likely back Mitt Romney, with 22% saying they'd support Rep. Ron Paul of Texas. Romney's three point margin is within the poll's sampling error.

The poll's Wednesday release comes six days before Iowa's January 3 caucuses, which kickoff the presidential primary and caucus calendar. The Iowa caucuses are followed one week later by the New Hampshire primary.

A new CNN/Time/ORC poll of likely primary voters in New Hampshire indicates that Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, remains the front-runner, far ahead of his rivals for the GOP nomination.

In Iowa, both Romney and Paul are each up five points among likely caucus goers from a CNN/Time/ORC poll conducted at the start of December. The new survey indicates that Santorum, the former senator from Pennsylvania, is at 16% support, up 11 points from the beginning of the month, with Gingrich at 14%, down from 33% in the previous poll. Since Gingrich's rise late last month and early this month in both national and early voting state surveys, he's come under attack by many of the rival campaigns.

According to the survey, 11% are backing Texas Gov. Rick Perry, 9% are supporting Rep Michele Bachmann, and 1% are backing former Utah Gov. and former ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, who's spending nearly all his time campaigning in New Hampshire.

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TMR Redesign Debuts On January 1st

On January 1st, the "new" design of The McCarville Report makes its debut.

The new design allows more news, categorized by interest, and allows much easier reading. The site eliminates the need to constantly scroll to read stories. It does require some scrolling, but not near as much,

We've dropped the "Online" portion of the title; almost six years ago, we used it to let readers know we had made the switch from print to electronic. By now, that's obvious.

The new site is light years ahead of this version in the use of graphics.

Like many readers, I am sure, I'm not a big fan of changing what I'm used to, so we've tried to make the new site as reader-friendly as possible. I hope you find it worthy of continued reading. - Mike McCarville

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Oklahoma's Top Political Stories Of 2011

On January 1st, we'll present Oklahoma's top stories of 2011 from some of Oklahoma's premier consultants and pundits.

Some of the suggestions may surprise you and others will be obvious. Regardless, the lists make for interesting reading.

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Congress' Approval At Dismal 11 Percent

The Oklahoman's Chris Casteel reports from Washington that, “Every minute we debate, our poll numbers drop,” U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver told his colleagues on the House floor during the recent debate over the payroll tax.

“It's probably at a point now where they can't drop any further.”

They still can drop a little further. But not much.

A Gallup poll released on Dec. 19 shows Congress' approval rate at 11 percent, the lowest rating since Gallup began asking the question in 1974. For 2011, Congress' approval averaged 17 percent, the lowest annual rating in Gallup history.

“This month's record-low congressional job approval rating is one of a number of measures of Congress that have reached historical low points this year,” Frank Newport, of Gallup, said in a release accompanying the latest poll.

“This suggests that 2011 will be remembered as the year in which the American public lost much of any remaining faith in the men and women they elect and send off to Washington to represent them.”
Cleaver, a Missouri Democrat, gained fleeting fame in July for coining the term “Satan sandwich” to describe a budget-cutting deal. That deal was reached after a partisan stand off over the debt ceiling that took the country to the brink of default in the summer.

Before that crisis, there was the near government shutdown in April. Between the big battles, there were multiple skirmishes, not to mention the failure of the so-called “supercommittee” to meet its goal of developing $1.5 trillion in budget cuts.

Rep. Dan Boren, D-Muskogee, said the public disgust with Congress “is a reflection of where Congress is as an institution, and it's a reflection of how dysfunctional it is.

“People want us to come to some kind of agreement and compromise.

“Unfortunately, I think it's going to get worse before it gets better, and we're in for years of the same. Something will have to happen to shake up the system.”

Read more: http://newsok.com/congress-is-at-low-point-in-public-approval-polls-show/article/3635217#ixzz1higv0hRc.

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Coming Soon...

...The McCarville Report's new look, our first visual upgrade since 2006. More news, easier to use.

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Ron Paul: 'Descent into totalitarianism'

GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul warned that the National Defense Authorization Act, which was passed by Congress this month, will accelerate the country’s “slip into tyranny” and virtually assures “our descent into totalitarianism.”

“The founders wanted to set a high bar for the government to overcome in order to deprive an individual of life or liberty,” Paul, the libertarian congressman, said Monday in a weekly phone message to supporters. “To lower that bar is to endanger everyone. When the bar is low enough to include political enemies, our descent into totalitarianism is virtually assured. The Patriot Act, as bad as its violations against the Fourth Amendment was, was just one step down the slippery slope. The recently passed National Defense Authorization Act continues that slip into tyranny, and in fact, accelerates it significantly.”

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