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April
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- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 30, 2010
- The Barkerburger...
- The Rise of China... The Decline of America
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 29, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 28, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 27, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 26, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 24 & 25, 2010
- Well... Well... Well... Looky What I Just Found!
- The Truth Concerning the Dodd Bill
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 23, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 22, 2010
- GM and the Bush/Obama "New" Economy
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 21, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 20, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 19, 2010
- What Is This Man's Malfunction...???
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 17 & 18
- Rob's Thread
- Friday Newsbites: April 16, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 15, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 14, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 13, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 12, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 10 & 11
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 9, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 8, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 7, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 6, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 5, 2010
- The Oil Bubble Had Better Pop Soon Or...
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun. April 3 & 4, 2010
- Happy Easter!
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 2, 2010
- There's a Reason I Read Buchanan... And You Should...
- Happy Two Month Anniversary!
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 1, 2010
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April
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About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
17 comments:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6142V820100405
* FEATURED ON THE STAND ALONE POST BELOW TODAY'S NEWSBITES.
Oil prices rose more than 2% on Monday to their highest since October 2008...
* UNLESS YOU'RE AN ENERGY SUPPLIER OR TRADER THIIS AIN'T GOOD NEWS FOR YOU. CONSUMERS... WE'RE SKIRTING REAL TROUBLE...
U.S. payrolls rose by 162,000 last month...
(*SIGH*)
* MUST I SAY IT...??? ONCE YOU TAKE AWAY TEMPORARY GOVERNMENT PART-TIME CENSUS HIRING THIS "GROWTH" AIN'T NEARLY SO "IMPRESSIVE."
* OH... AND OF THE REMAINDER... I'D LIKE TO KNOW HOW MUCH IS NON-CENSUS RELATED GOVERNMENT HIRING...
OPEC, which pumps about a third of the world's oil, has no immediate plans to revise output targets and produce more crude even with oil near $85, a person familiar with Saudi oil policy told Reuters last week.
[S]aid Gene McGillian, analyst at Tradition Energy in Connecticut. "We're in uncharted territory. I think we can keep trending higher."
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704207504575130171387740744.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_RIGHTTopCarousel
The unemployment rate for workers ages 16 to 29 was 15.2% in March, the highest rate since 1948, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
* HMM.. I'D LIKE TO KNOW WHAT IT IS FOR 22 TO 29 YEAR OLDS.
[T]he average length of unemployment, 31 weeks, is at its highest level since 1948.
There were a total of 2.3 million unemployed college graduates in March 2010, 1.45 million more than in March 2007...
The rate of home ownership among people ages 25 to 29 fell to 37.7% last year, from a peak of 42% in 2006, according to the U.S. Census. Home ownership for those under 25 fell to 23.3% from 26% in 2005, the lowest rate for any age group.
* NOW FOLKS... JUST TO MAKE THIS CLEAR... THE ABOVE HOME OWNERSHIP INFO SHOULD PROBABLY BE LOOKED UPON AS A POSITIVE RATHER THAN A NEGATIVE. THE NUMBERS POINT TO LESS DEBT BEING TAKEN ON BY THIS GROUP - AT LEAST IN TERMS OF HOUSING DEBT.
Some 22% of young people between the ages of 18 and 34 said they've been turned down for a mortgage, loan or credit card in the past year, according to a February survey from FindLaw.com, a legal marketing and information site.
* AGAIN... I FIND THIS TO BE GOOD NEWS! LESS DEBT, MORE SAVINGS; THAT'S THE BARKER MANTRA. I ONLY WISH RESIDENTIAL REAL ESTATE WAS STILL PLUNGING; FRANKLY, IT'S STILL OVER-VALUED BY PROBABLY 20%-30% IN MANY AREAS OF THE COUNTRY.
many young people are now moving home to save on rent. About 21% of young adults say they've either moved in with a friend or relative, or had a friend or relative move in with them because of the economy, according to a study from the Pew Research Center.
* FINE! AGAIN... WE NEED TO BECOME A NATION OF SAVERS AGAIN; A NATION OF PEOPLE WHO DON'T ROUTINELY LIVE ABOVE THEIR MEANS HOPING THE REPEAL OF ECONOMIC GRAVITY!
In past recessions, women would re-enter the work force to help prop up household income, says Katherine Newman, a Princeton University sociology professor. But now, more women are working and themselves experiencing layoffs. Before the 1990 recession, 57.4% of American women worked, and in the next two years, some 1.1 million more entered the work force. Today, it's the reverse. ... Women's overall participation rate in the work force [is] flat.
* NEITHER GOOD NOR BAD. ON MARGIN THE ONE POSITIVE IS THAT YET ANOTHER ARTIFICAL "SAFETY VALVE" WHICH IN THE PAST ALLOWED A FALSE SENSE OF ECONOMIC SECURITY TO SKEW ECONOMIC DECISION MAKING HAS BEEN TAKEN "OFF LINE."
http://wcbstv.com/local/midtown.manhattan.gunfire.2.1611605.html
A group of youths who attended the New York International Auto Show at the Jacob A. Javits Center ran amok in midtown Manhattan.
* ARE YOU F--KING KIDDING ME...?!?!
Four people were shot and dozens of people were arrested Monday in a mile-long stretch of Manhattan near Times Square in mayhem that police said was connected to the start of the city's annual auto show.
* THE WHEELS ARE COMING OFF THE BUS, KIDS...
(*SIGH*)
A man was shot in the ankle at Eighth Avenue and 40th Street around 12:10 a.m. Shortly after, a woman was hit with a BB gun several blocks northeast at Seventh Avenue and 51st Street. About two hours later, two women were shot - one in the elbow and another in the thigh - near Seventh Avenue and 34th Street. The shootings represent the second major instance of gunfire in the area in recent months...
Police and a street hustler armed with a machine pistol exchanged shots in December in Times Square - shattering a Broadway theater ticket window and scattering crowds - before police shot the man dead.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63438L20100405?feedType=RSS&feedName=businessNews&rpc=23&sp=true
As 2009 came to a close, Fifth Third Bancorp was preparing to report its sixth loss in seven quarters.
The Cincinnati-based regional bank had received $3.4 billion of TARP funds with no immediate plan to repay. And its Midwestern market was still struggling with a shrunken auto sector and high mortgage foreclosure rates.
Nonetheless, the board of Fifth Third, the nation's 17th-biggest bank, decided to increase the compensation of Chief Executive Kevin Kabat by 56%, to $5.2 million - even though the bank was barred from paying him a bonus because of the bailout rules.
* NICE, HUH... A 56% RAISE... A SALARY OF $5.2 MILLION... (I'D LOVE TO SEE WHAT HIS BENEFITS/PERKS PACKAGE LOOKS LIKE!) I CAN ONLY IMAGINE WHAT THEY WOULD HAVE GIVEN HIM HAD HE SHOWN COMPETENCE INSTEAD OF INCOMPETENCE...!!!
Fifth Third wasn't alone.
PNC Financial Services Group, Regions Financial, and KeyCorp - all of which owed billions of dollars to taxpayers at the end of 2009 - also increased their chiefs' pay. They too were prohibited by rules stemming from the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) from paying bonuses to their CEOs.
(*SNORT*) SO MUCH FOR FEDERAL "PAY REGULATION" REGARDING TARP RECIPIENTS.
This year PNC repaid TARP, but Fifth Third, KeyCorp and Regions remain beholden to the TARP program.
* I CAN'T READ ANYMORE...
(*SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISGUST*)
http://www.abc15.com/content/news/phoenixmetro/central/story/Arpaio-gets-inmates-moving-on-electricity/kWfEck1HykmqUb4Wi-nDbg.cspx
Maricopa [AZ] County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is implementing a new inmate program at Tent City Jail called “Pedal Vision.”
The program uses inmate-powered cycles to generate electricity for televisions.
Reports say Arpaio’s recent visit to Tent City inspired the idea, when he saw that many of the inmates were overweight.
The stationary bikes are customized so as an inmate pedals, a connected television is powered on once the cycle generates 12 volts of electricity.
One hour of pedaling equals one hour of television viewing for the inmates.
Arpaio said the inmates will only be able to watch television in the television room if they choose to pedal.
"I started with the females because they seemed more receptive to the idea," Arpaio said. "The only exercise the females get right now is speed-walking around the tents yard and few are doing that. This gives them a reason to get moving and a way to burn up to 500 calories an hour. They won't be charged a monthly gym fee but they will have to sign a contract."
Sheriff Arpaio debuted the pilot program on April 1.
* GOD BLESS SHERIFF JOE...!!!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303382504575163804139815206.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_sections_opinion
"Our aim is not incremental sanctions, but sanctions that will bite." Thus did Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seek to reassure the crowd at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee two weeks ago about the Obama Administration's resolve on Iran.
Three days later, [the WSJ] reported on its front page that "the U.S. has backed away from pursuing a number of tough measures against Iran" in order to win Russian and Chinese support for one more U.N. sanctions resolution.
This fits the pattern...seen across the 14 months of the Obama Presidency. Mrs. Clinton called a nuclear-armed Iran "unacceptable" no fewer than four times in a single paragraph in her AIPAC speech. But why should the Iranians believe her? President Obama set a number of deadlines last year for a negotiated settlement of Iran's nuclear file, all of which Tehran ignored, and then Mr. Obama ignored them too.
In his latest Persian New Year message to Iran, Mr. Obama made the deadline-waiver permanent, saying "our offer of comprehensive diplomatic contacts and dialogue stands."
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had a quick rejoinder. "They say they have extended a hand to Iran," the Iranian President said Saturday, "but the Iranian government and nation declined to welcome that."
The Iranians have good reason to think they have little to lose from continued defiance. ... The Chinese have indicated that the most they are prepared to support are narrow sanctions on Iran's nuclear program of the type Tehran has already sneered at. As the Journal's Peter Fritsch and David Crawford reported this weekend, the Iranians continue to acquire key nuclear components from unsuspecting Western companies via intermediaries, including some Chinese firms.
Yet the Administration still rolls the sanctions rock up the U.N. hill, in a fantastic belief that Russian and Chinese support is vital even if the price is sanctions that are toothless. French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Mr. Obama a year ago to move ahead with sanctions even without the Russians and Chinese, but Mr. Obama insisted he needed both. A year later, everyone except apparently Mr. Obama can see who was right.
The Administration also argued upon taking office that by making good-faith offers to Iran last year, the U.S. would gain the diplomatic capital needed to steel the world for a tougher approach. Yet a year later the U.S. finds itself begging for U.N. Security Council votes even from such nonpermanent members as Brazil and Turkey, both of which have noticeably improved their ties with Iran in recent months.
Meanwhile, the CIA has recently reported that Iran more than tripled its stockpile of low-enriched uranium in 2009; that it has "[moved] toward self-sufficiency in the production of ballistic missiles"; and that it "continues to develop a range of capabilities that could be applied to producing nuclear weapons." A senior Western official recently told us he is confident the Iranians either have or are building secret nuclear facilities beyond the one near Qom that was disclosed last year.
President George W. Bush will share responsibility for a nuclear Iran given his own failure to act more firmly against the Islamic Republic or to allow Israel to do so, thereby failing to make good on his pledge not to allow the world's most dangerous regimes to get the world's most dangerous weapons. But it is now Mr. Obama's watch, and for a year he has behaved like a President who would rather live with a nuclear Iran than do what it takes to stop it.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/karzai-stands-by-vote-fraud-claims-against-west-1936517.html
President Hamid Karzai said he stood behind accusations that the West was responsible for election fraud in Afghanistan...by directly blaming Washington for what he has described as "massive fraud" aimed at weakening him and his government.
"What I said about the election was all true, I won't repeat it, but it was all true," Karzai told the BBC.
"That the US carried out the fraud?" the BBC correspondent asked.
"That's exactly what happened; I mentioned the elements who did it," Karzai said.
He added: "We have partnership, we want to continue this alliance and partnership with the United States and the rest of the world, in the interest of both of us. But this has to be understood by all that Afghanistan is a sovereign country."
Karzai levelled the accusations that the West was behind election fraud in a speech on Thursday...Karzai said foreigners had bribed and threatened election workers to carry out fraud in last year's presidential election. He singled out the former deputy head of the UN mission in Kabul - American diplomat Peter Galbraith - as well as the French head of a European Union monitoring team.
While he did not single out the United States explicitly in his comments last week, he said: "The votes of the Afghan nation were in the control of an embassy."
Washington has by far the largest embassy in Kabul.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs...said he did not expect Karzai's comments to affect the US Congress' consideration of the Obama administration's budget request for Afghan war funding.
http://townhall.com/columnists/CarrieLukas/2010/04/05/pay_attention_parents_its_almost_earth_day!?page=full&comments=true
[K]ids across the country are about to celebrate a holiday: Earth Day, which is April 22.
Schools will take a break from normal instruction to discuss the importance of preserving the environment. That may sound like a harmless activity, but too often Earth Day becomes a platform for pushing an ideological brand of environmentalism. Parents need to pay attention and ask their children's teachers what's their plans are for Earth Day.
Global warming, for example, is a frequent topic on Earth Day. Schools tend to echo the message of global warming alarmists, claiming that man is causing temperatures to rise with potentially catastrophic consequences for our planet and mankind. Many schools even show Al Gore's movie An Inconvenient Truth. That film may have won an Academy Award, but it is widely recognized as propaganda, with a judge in the United Kingdom finding that it grossly exaggerates even the most dire predictions about global warming's potential harm.
Schools shouldn't be frightening our children with misleading information about environmental threats. Research shows that children already have a disproportionate fear of global warming. One study reported that: “Nearly 4 in 5 kids saw global warming as “a very serious problem,” 3 in 4 saw it as “a threat to all life on the planet” and about 2 in 3 felt global warming is “a threat to my future well-being and safety,” and “feel afraid of what might happen.”
Instead of adding to this alarmism, schools should provide students with some balance by presenting evidence from scientists who don't believe we are experiencing unprecedented warming or that warming is caused by man's activities.
One parent in Indiana, a PhD scientist, decided he'd had enough of his children being given a one-sided perspective on global warming. On the last Earth Day, his children's school was set for a school-wide showing of An Inconvenient Truth—that would have been the third time his kids had to watch the movie as a part of their school day. He began talking to teachers. He then went to the principal, and then the school board. He urged them to at least provide the other side of the story, informing them of another film they could show: Not Evil, Just Wrong, which analyzes some of the misleading information presented in An Inconvenient Truth. Not Evil, Just Wrong also highlights alternative theories about what might cause changes in temperatures and the potential consequence in terms of job loss and poverty of the policies that are being advanced in the name of combating climate change.
That parent in Indiana has been rebuffed by school administrators. So he is taking his case to the public. Unlike the opposition, he isn't trying to silence global warming alarmists. He just wants both perspectives to be presented to students. After all, just because it is Earth Day, schools aren't supposed to abandon their mission to educate students, provide facts, and encourage them to draw conclusions on their own.
Other parents need to find out about their schools' plans for Earth Day, and encourage teachers to give their students the balanced education they need and deserve. Schools aren't supposed to engage in indoctrination, no matter what day it is on the calendar.
http://www.house.gov/htbin/blog_inc?BLOG,tx14_paul,blog,999,All,Item%20not%20found,ID=100405_3683,TEMPLATE=postingdetail.shtml
As...gasoline prices are again creeping up, the administration has announced plans to explore opening up more off-shore areas for exploration and drilling. On the one hand this can be lauded as a positive step. On the other hand, it is too little, much too late to have any meaningful or long-term effect on what Americans pay at the pump any time soon, if at all.
Indeed, if increasing domestic energy production was really a priority, the administration would direct the EPA to remove its many roadblocks and barriers to energy production.
In fact, abolishing the EPA altogether would do much to improve our country's economy. Instead of protecting the environment as they are supposed to do, most of what they do simply chills the economy. Polluters should be directly liable in court to any and all parties they harm, rather than bureaucrats at the EPA.
Of course, last week's announcement was couched in terms of removing barriers and red tape. However, the fact that we had these barriers in the first place is yet another reminder of how the energy market is hampered and controlled by bureaucrats and central planners in Washington...
Along with the waste of prohibitions that leave our own natural resources untapped is the waste our government perpetrates with subsidies to alternative fuel sources. There is certainly profit to be made in perfecting cheaper, cleaner fuel sources, but government subsidy programs interfere with finding realistic long-term solutions.
Subsidies divert resources towards certain politically-favored fuel types while ignoring others.
If the market were left alone, private investors would put their own capital into the most promising alternative fuels. Instead, due to government incentives, resources are concentrated into politically chosen endeavors that could very well end up being dead ends. Meanwhile, precious time and money is wasted.
The government has the opposite of the Midas touch. This has been observed over and over by the reduced quality and rising prices in every private industry in which it entangles itself. Yet somehow people still seem willing, even eager, to relinquish to government control the most important and sensitive portions of our economy and society.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304252704575156052357241946.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
So we are to have a European-style value-added tax (VAT). That's the emerging consensus in Washington... European-level rates of 20% [are being bandied about].
* YEP. SEEMS TO BE. FREQUENT NEWSBITE READERS ARE NO DOUBT AWARE OF THE "EMERGING CONSENSUS" AS THE WSJ PUTS IT.
* AND YEAH... 20%... THINK OF ADDING 20% TO THE COST OF BUYING A CAR... (*SMIRK*)
The tax sounds simple, but don't be fooled. Because both upper- and lower-income families pay the tax at an equal rate, the VAT is considered regressive; that is, it hits the poor harder than the better-off. So it is the practice in countries such as Britain to exempt food, which lower-income families spend a greater proportion of their income on. The technical term is "zero rating," meaning that exempt items are taxed at a "zero rate."
[W]ait until the folks at the IRS get their hands on the regulations for the application of the new tax. They will undoubtedly turn to their more experienced British counterparts for guidance. [I]n the United Kingdom, according to the regulations of Her Majesty's Inland Revenue Service, crackers made from tapioca starch carry no tax; prawn crackers made from cereals do. Frozen yogurt that needs to be thawed before eating is zero rated, frozen yogurt bears the tax. Get it? If you don't, too bad - Her Majesty's tax collectors are not in the habit of offering an explanation for their regulations.
Food for animals creates other problems. If it is "suitable for all breeds" it is taxed, but if "it is held out for sale exclusively for working dogs" it is not, unless, of course, "it is biscuit or meal," in which case it is taxed.
So dog food for "sheepdog breeds" is taxed, but dog food for "working sheep dogs of any breed" is not; food for greyhounds is taxed, food for "racing greyhounds" is not. This may be the only tax in Britain that favors work over leisure.
Clothing also presents a problem for the British tax man. First, what is clothing? Bras up to and including size 34B; body stockings that measure no more than 27½ inches shoulder to crotch; babies' shawls but not "mother-and-baby shawls intended to wrap around both mother and child." There's more, lots more, but you get the idea.
This process of writing regulations for the VAT man when he cometh is more than merely amusing. For one thing, it confers enormous power on faceless bureaucrats. They can hand a competing product the advantage...that invites both lobbying and corruption and sheer, inexplicable arbitrariness. Get your "sweetened dried fruit" deemed to be "held out for sale as snacking and home baking" and your product will bear a tax and have to compete on grocers' shelves with zero-rated "sweetened dried fruit held out for sale as confectionary/snacking." Peddle your sandwiches "as a general grocery item" and consumers pay no tax, but offer them as "part of a buffet service" and the VAT man wants his 17.5%.
Manufacturers twist and turn and juggle their product specifications and processes, not to find the most efficient way of making things but the surest way of obtaining a zero rating. The resulting inefficiencies cannot be measured accurately, but they certainly contribute to Europe's lagging productivity and increasing inability to compete in world markets.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304370304575152011468288880.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
Taxpayers around the country these days are getting socked with new state fees and taxes on everything from electricity bills to traffic fines. But there's good news in New Jersey, of all places, where newly elected [Republican] Governor Chris Christie is making a big push to impose a constitutional 2.5% cap on the increase in annual property taxes.
The Garden State is the national champion in property tax bills, with an average cost to homeowners of $7,281 a year, far above the $5,617 national average. Including a nearly 9% top income tax rate and a 7% sales tax, New Jersey taxes take 11.8% of state income, also the highest share in the U.S., according to the Tax Foundation. Fifty years ago, New Jersey's property taxes were about average and it had neither an income nor sales tax, while state services and schools were arguably better than they are today.
Mr. Christie's reform requires legislative approval, followed by a state referendum as early as November. Democratic leaders dislike the idea, preferring to reinstate an income-tax surcharge on millionaires that would only make the state less desirable for business. Mr. Christie has rightly said no to that, which already sets him apart from the state's two recent Democratic governors who raised taxes again and again in the last decade and still left the state with a fiscal mess.
The property tax cap would certainly reduce the growth in state revenues, which in turn would force localities and school systems to economize the way everyone in private business has had to do. Mr. Christie calls it "doing more with less." That would be a big change in New Jersey where for half a century politicians have done less with more.
* FULL DISCLOSURE: I DIDN'T THINK CHRISTIE WAS THE REAL DEAL BACK WHEN HE WAS RUNNING. I WAS WRONG.
The National Journal last week rolled out its 10th annual survey of pay levels for Washington trade associations, confirming that for lobbyists this is the Golden Age.
The Washington insider magazine looked at 514 tax forms between 2007 and 2009 and found that no fewer than 89 executives for trade groups earned more than $1 million. That's a 30% increase from the 2008 survey.
(Perhaps you recall the now-distant promise of a Presidential candidate who said he would reduce the influence of lobbyists. Who was that guy?
The magazine quotes Pamela Kaul, president of the executive recruiting firm Association Strategies, as saying that the compensation numbers are "hard for the rational mind to justify, given the economy. But it's the mystique of Washington. These are the power brokers that have the access . . . "
But this is hardly a mystery. As Democrats expand the power of government over the private, wealth-producing economy, what remains of the business community naturally feels it has little choice but to hire insiders to protect it from political marauders.)
Washington now consumes an historic 25% of the private economy, so the Beltway business of political mediation has never been better. The larger the scale of this government expansion, the more Americans will spend to avoid or benefit from it. The only way to limit the influence of lobbyists is to limit the power of government.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/tear-down-tax-loophole
Over the last two decades, the average ticket price for a Chicago Cubs game has increased 265% - more than four times the inflation rate.
Add in parking, concessions and souvenirs, and a family trip to one of this week’s opening day games could easily cost a few hundred dollars.
There are many reasons for the price explosion, but a critical factor has been the ability of businesses to write off tickets as entertainment expenses - essentially a huge, and wholly unnecessary, government subsidy.
These deductions have led to higher ticket prices in two ways. On the demand side, they have fueled competition for scarce seats, with business taxpayers bidding in part with dollars they save through the deductions. On the supply side, the large number of businesses bidding for expensive seats has driven the expansion of luxury skyboxes and a reduction in overall seats in new ballparks.
While baseball parks built in the 1960s and before held as many as 56,000 seats, the modern trend is toward smaller-capacity parks, with a higher percentage of total space dedicated to skyboxes. The new Yankee Stadium, the only major-league park built since 2000 with more than 44,000 seats, has 3,000 fewer seats than its 1923 predecessor but almost three times as many skybox suites.
* LISTEN... ALL OF THESE "ENTERTAINMENT" TAX DEDUCTIONS SHOULD BE ELIMINATED. INDEED, WE NEED TO GO TO A FLAT TAX AND THEN NO EXPENSES WOULD BE SUBSIDIZED. IT SEEMS TO ME THAT ALL THESE "DEDUCTIONS" DO IS SKEW RATIONAL DECISION MAKING AND SOFTEN THE IMPACT OF WASTEFUL SPENDING DECISIONS BY FORCING THE REST OF US TO SHOULDER PART OF THAT COST.
http://cincinnati.bizjournals.com/cincinnati/stories/2010/04/05/story11.html?b=1270440000^3129981&ana=e_vert
The 32 million people who will become insured under the new health care reform act will place a major strain on the country’s health care system... “There are simply not enough primary-care providers available to take care of all these newly insured individuals,” said Dr. Peter Kambelos, an internal medicine physician...
The legislation, much of which goes into effect in 2014, provides for more coverage by expanding Medicaid, penalizing employers who don’t offer coverage, requiring individuals to have coverage and providing subsidies for families buying their own insurance. Part of the legislation is meant to encourage people to seek care earlier, in a primary-care office setting... But today’s medical students are choosing specialties, such as cardiology and dermatology, rather than primary care areas, such as internal medicine, family practice and pediatrics.
* OOPS! (*SNORT*)
Greater Cincinnati has a shortage of 595 primary-care physicians, according to December data from the Cincinnati MD Resource Center... The American Academy of Family Physicians has warned of an impending national shortage of 40,000 such physicians by 2020. About 140,000 will be needed in all to meet the needs of the aging population, the group has said, but current trends suggest there will be only about 100,000.
“People can have all the insurance they want, but if they can’t get in to see anyone, it’s not going to do anyone much good,” Kambelos said. (Kambelos does not accept new Medicaid patients in his practice because he considers the reimbursement level too low. If one of his existing patients goes onto Medicaid, he continues seeing the person.)
The Cincinnati Health Department...already has waiting lists that can stretch for months.
* HEY... WHY FACE REALITY WHEN ONE CAN SIMPLY WRITE LAWS AND THUS ON PAPER "TREAT" EVERYONE...
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/90547-specter-viewed-as-a-model-democrat-one-year-after-party-switch
Despite vowing independence when he switched parties on April 28 of last year, [Arlen] Specter has become a model Democratic senator.
During Specter’s 29-year career as a Senate Republican, he voted with Democrats 35% of the time. Since switching parties in 2009, he has cast more than 95 out of 100 votes with Democratic leaders.
* WHAT A PIECE OF...
He’s not heard a word of criticism from them in private and still has “easy conversations” with Sens. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in the Senate gym early in the morning.
“It’s very congenial,” he said.
* WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED LINDSEY GRAHAM'S NAME APPEARS...
Specter gave Democrats control of 59 seats - which later became 60 when Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) was declared the winner of his contested race. This would prove decisive in passing healthcare reform.
In return, Specter asked for President Barack Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other Democratic leaders to support his reelection.
Obama has already attended a fundraiser for Specter in Philadelphia and Biden has raised money for him in Pittsburgh.
Specter considers giving Democrats the 60th vote on healthcare reform his greatest achievement since joining the party.
When he switched parties, Specter announced that he would not change his position against advancing the Employee Free Choice Act. He has since negotiated to produce a "compromise" [and] is seen by labor sources as much more supportive of the legislation.
(*SMIRK*)
Specter has become more of an ardent Democrat than many colleagues expected when he announced his party switch last year.
“I will not be an automatic 60th vote for cloture,” Specter declared on April 28 of last year. Some political observers chuckle over that statement a year later.
“He’s more of an Obama Democrat than Obama,” said Dr. G. Terry Madonna, director of the Center for Politics & Public Affairs at Franklin & Marshall College.
* AND THIS IS THE GUY PEOPLE LIKE DAVID FRUM SUPPORTED ELECTION AFTER ELECTION...
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/apr/05/stop-big-corn/
The EPA wants to dump more corn into your fuel tank this summer, and it's going to cost more than you think.
The agency is expected to approve a request from 52 ethanol producers known collectively as "Growth Energy" to boost existing requirements that gasoline contain 10% ethanol to 15%. The change means billions more in government subsidies for companies in the business of growing corn and converting it into ethanol. For the rest of us, it means significantly higher gasoline and food prices.
* OH... AND DON'T FORGET KIDS... SINCE ETHANOL IS 25% LESS EFFICIENT IN GENERATING POWER VIA BURNING, THAT MEANS LOWER GAS MILEAGE - FOR EVERY $100 DOLLARS YOU SPEND FOR "GAS" YOU'LL REALLY ONLY BE GETTING $85 WORTH OF ACTUAL "GAS."
In 2007, members of Congress joined with the Bush administration in mandating by government fiat the annual sale of 36 billion gallons of ethanol by 2022.
* THAT MOTHERFRAKING BUSH... (OH, YEAH... AND THE DEMS WHO CONTROLLED CONGRESS IN 2007...)
Big Corn's advocates claim that forcing Americans to use this renewable fuel would reduce dependency on Mideast oil and lead to cleaner air. It's just as likely, however, that they want to get their hands on the $16 billion a year from the 45-cent-per-gallon blender's tax credit.
* YEAH... THAT'S RIGHT... THEY SCREW US AND TO ADD INSULT TO INJURY THEY GET A TAX CREDIT FOR DOING SO! (FUNNY HOW CONSUMERS DON'T GET A TAX CREDIT FOR USING ALL THAT ETHANOL WE'RE FORCED TO BUY...)
The benefits [attributed to ethanol] are overstated [to say the least]. According to the EPA, reduction in foreign imports will result in $3.7 billion in "energy security benefits" at the expense of $18 billion in increased fuel costs by 2022.
[C]ertain types of pollutants increase when ethanol content increases. It should be noted that the EPA's track record on "environmental" gasoline additives includes Methyl Tertiary Butyl Ether (MTBE), a possible carcinogen whose once-mandated use has contaminated groundwater across the country.
Ethanol's environmental credentials are further weakened by its inefficiency as a fuel. Higher ethanol concentration will reduce the gas mileage of America's cars across the board by 5.3%. In addition to the pain that adds at the pump, repair bills will mount when engines not designed to handle 15% ethanol run lean and suffer increased wear and misfires. (The same problem hits gas stations where pumps and underground storage tanks are not certified for use with elevated ethanol levels. The cost of replacing perfectly good equipment will, once again, be passed on to the consumer.)
Even those who do not own automobiles will begin to feel the pinch as more and more farm land is shifted towards taking advantage of government-subsidized ethanol production instead of food. According to the University of Missouri's Farm and Policy Research Institute, the ethanol tax credit increases corn prices by 18 cents a barrel, wheat by 15 cents and soybeans by 28 cents. That means higher prices for most food items at the grocery store and restaurants.
There simply is no justification - environmental or otherwise - for this interventionist scheme. With the economy reeling, consumers can no longer afford to bankroll the politically connected agricultural lobby. The EPA should reject the 15% ethanol requirement and Congress should send Big Corn's rent seekers elsewhere with the repeal of all ethanol subsidies.
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/less_than_we_pay_for_jfV0j1niZdq8sPqAJefUJI
Are New York's schools 65% better than the na tional average? Are our hospitals 73% better or our prisons 63% better? For that matter, is our Legislature 161% better than the average state's?
These question arise because [New York] spends that much more than the US average in these areas.
New York faces a $9 billion budget deficit in the coming fiscal year, and local governments also face large shortfalls.
Census numbers (for 2007, the most recent complete data set) reveal that New York spends far more per capita on state and local government ($12,920) than any other state but two. And those exceptions are Alaska and Wyoming - two atypical states with low populations and vast energy industry-derived revenues.
Indeed, if the Empire State simply cut its per-capita spending to the level of the next highest state, California (No. 4 on the list at $10,940 per capita), [New York would] save some $38 billion a year.
Manhattan Institute senior fellows E.J. McMahon and Josh Barro laid out a comprehensive plan for reducing state spending in their recent "Blueprint for a Better Budget." The study includes suggestions for much-needed structural budgetary reforms to help every level of government save money as well as a 30-point plan that could pare $30 billion from the state budget over the next three years.
The "Blueprint" discusses at length how reforming and restructuring New York's Medicaid program -- which spends nearly three times as much per enrollee as California -- could save the state $1.8 billion next year. Reducing and capping school aid could save another $1.6 billion. And freezing wages for state employees and requiring them to contribute more to their health-care plans could save another $670 million.
The savings in the report would accrue to some $14 billion a year by 2012-13.
Over time, reform of public pensions would save billions more. New York's public-pension costs, like those in other states, are skyrocketing. To prevent the long-term burden from growing even heavier, it's essential to shift the government workforce to a defined-contribution system, based on the kind of 401(k) plans that now predominate in the private sector and in public-university systems.
Across the Hudson, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is making the hard choices and difficult cuts that are needed to get the Garden State's fiscal house in order. And, per capita, New Jersey already spends some $2,800 less than New York on state and local government each year. If New Jersey can cut spending, so can New York.
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