Election of our nation's first black president is delivering an unexpected message to our black population.

Blacks are discovering that what a man or woman does -- their actions -- is what matters, not the color of their skin.

It is not hard to understand why black Americans were happy that a black man was elected president of the United States. It was kind of final and most grand announcement that racism has finally been purged from America.

But for the highly politicized parts of black America this was certainly not the only message. Because for the highly politicized parts of black America, the point has always been to keep race in American politics.

For black political culture that dominated after the civil rights movements, the point was not just equal treatment under the law, but special treatment under the law. Plus the assumption that more black political power -- defined by more blacks holding office -- would mean that blacks would be better off.

Now blacks have a dilemma. We have a black president and blacks are worse off. Not just a little, but a lot worse off.

We open this week's HFR with a Special News Bulletin from the Associated Press:

In response to the "Cablegate" scandal - the release of a quarter-million classified State Department documents by WikiLeaks - the US Government announced today that henceforth all Top Secret government documents will be placed in an "ultimate" secure location. 

"This location is so secure that even people with the highest of clearances cannot gain access," said R.J. Finklestein, Director of the Federal Document Classification Agency (FDCA) in a press release today.

All classified documents, Mr. Finklestein announced, will now be stored at the same location storing Barack Hussein Obama's Birth Certificate, College Transcripts, SSN applications, and off-shore campaign contributors list.

"Using our Ultimate Secure Location, we are quite sure that WikiLeaks will never be able to access any more classified documents," noted the FDCA director, "nor will anyone else."

Who would have thought just 18 months ago that a member of the eurozone, the most elite club of economies in Europe, could have a worse credit rating than Pakistan?

And yet this is the case for Greece today, perched on the verge of a debt restructuring; two other eurozone countries (Ireland and Portugal), meanwhile, are already in Europe's intensive care unit, receiving large bailouts.

And who would have thought that a rating agency would dare question the sacred AAA credit rating of the United States, the sole supplier of global public goods such as the international reserve currency (the dollar) and a financial system that serves as the nexus of international capital flow?

There are, of course, several custom-made reasons for these developments. But together, they speak to major realignments that are fundamentally changing the character of the global economy and how it functions. Three things in particular have had a significant influence, and they will continue to shape the world we live in for years to come.

I was hoping for a short and sweet HFR this week, as it's truncated by Thanksgiving.  No such luck.  We have a lot of ground to cover, so let's get started.

To my mind, the only reason to talk about a problem is as a prelude to searching for a serious solution to it.  That's why I'm so tired of terrified complaints over North Korea.  Here's a suggestion of how to get rid of the Norks...

...That's acting seriously regarding North Korea - and we're capable of it if we look at what's happened to the Al Qaeda-Taliban-Karzai government-Pakistan ISI cash cow of the Afghan poppy crop.

What's happened is indicated by this perversely hilarious headline in Sunday's (11/21) London Guardian, the bastion of British media Marxism:  Heroin Shortage in UK is Putting Lives at Risk....

...And you might surprised to learn that the HFR Hero of the Week is a 77 year-old rancher in Mexico.

A few months ago, I gave a talk to the U.S. Naval War College. This venerable institution is home to a student body of the future leaders of the world's navies, who preserve our freedom through strength on the seas.

Toward the end of a spirited question-and-answer session, a young officer stood and asked the final question: "What keeps you up at night?"

The simplicity of the question struck an emotive cord. In a flash, I thought of my boyhood growing up in an America where every morning I could get on my bike, and as far as the eye could see, there was President Reagan's "shining city on the hill," standing bright and tall on the horizon. The majesty, bounty and exceptionalism of America provided opportunity for all to climb that summit and share in the glow.

Yet now, for the first time since the Civil War, this God-blessed experiment is in real jeopardy of not being preserved for our children and the "huddled masses" seeking to embrace the American way.

I saw the concern in that lieutenant's eyes -- a soldier-citizen, seeking an answer. Mine was clear: "Debt out of control, entitlement spending out of control, and the loss of economic freedom and opportunity."

Why and from where had this malady come, and, most important, how can we restore our God-given national birthright?

Who is in charge of stopping the oil leak and the cleanup in the Gulf of Mexico - BP or the Obama administration? If you have a hard time answering the question, it probably is because the president has told us the "buck stops" with him and officials of his administration say they are "in charge."

Yet the administration also tells us that BP has the responsibility for stopping the leak and for the cleanup - but the company's every action has to be approved by the government!

One, among several, major reasons government agencies tend not to perform as well as private ones is because often there is little or no accountability.

BP stockholders are being severely punished because of the failure of BP's management to prevent this crisis - and you can bet many heads will roll at BP. Yet how many heads will roll in the U.S. government, which had the responsibility to make sure BP operated safely and that the beaches and marshes were protected?

At this writing, many details of the debt-ceiling deal wrangled out over the weekend remain fuzzy. One thing is clear, unfortunately: The national security of the United States is going to suffer greatly.

The Pentagon stands to be whacked by as much as half of the $1.5 trillion that an as-yet-undesignated congressional "supercommittee" is supposed to come up in "deficit reduction" by Thanksgiving.

The trouble is that more than $400 billion has already been cut from our national security investments over the past few years. Thus even if no further reductions are made in the spending allocated to defending our people and interests around the world, we will see ominous reductions in the capabilities needed to meet those vital responsibilities.

The warnings of what will befall our military and country as a result are beginning to accumulate.

Has it really been that long - twelve weeks since I last wrote the HFR (August 20)?  I spent those weeks on my 17^th trip around the world - to Central Asia, Chinese Turkestan, North Korea, Southeast Asia, Micronesia, the Caribbean, ending with celebrating 11/02 with TTPers at the Rendezvous.  It's good to be back home.

And it's good to be writing the HFR again.  I can't wait to get started - but first I've got to thank Jack Kelly for so staunchly holding down the HFR fort in my absence.  Thanks, Jack! 

And thanks to all of you who sent me a Happy Birthday message.  I really appreciate it.  I do have a great birthday - November 9^th - as it's also Ronald Reagan World Freedom Day, the day the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, named in honor of the man who won the Cold War. 

Plus it's followed by the birthday of the United States Marines - the greatest fighting force on earth - established November 10, 1775.  Semper Fi!

Then the very next day, November 11^th, is when all American patriots give thanks to our veterans for serving their country, shedding their blood and so many their lives, to protect our American birthright of freedom.

These three days, coming at the end of going around the world seeing so many other countries and cultures, formed for me such an emphatic exclamation point to the preciousness of America, to its unmatched value to peace and prosperity in the world, and to the literally critical importance as never before of defending it from enemies within our own midst who wish to destroy it.

Those enemies got knocked to the canvas last week on Nov. 2^nd - but it wasn't a knockout.  A luta continua, as the Renamo freedom fighters of Mozambique said.  The struggle continues. It always will. So here we go with this week's HFR.

Podgorica, Montenegro.  Of all the people you know, friends, family and acquaintances, who has done the most to benefit his country and/or the world?

I ask this question because here in Montenegro, there is a man who already has done much to benefit his country, and yet his real impact will not be known for many years, perhaps generations.

First, a bit about Montenegro. It is one of the world's smallest countries, with a population of 672,000 and a land area that is a little smaller than the state of Connecticut. It was the last of the former Yugoslav republics to gain independence from Serbia in 2006. Unlike the wars that resulted when other sections of Yugoslavia declared their independence, Montenegro's move toward independence was peaceful, gradual and democratic.

Perhaps nowhere else on earth is a country more blessed with so much physical beauty in such a small space. Even though the word "spectacular" is overused, there is no other way to describe the Adriatic coastline of Montenegro - where majestic mountains spring from a clear blue sea, occasionally broken by splendid deep-water bays. What a wonderful place for a true free market economy!