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2010
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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.
10 comments:
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2010/04/21/92637/goldmans-connections-to-white.html
While Goldman Sachs' lawyers negotiated with the Securities and Exchange Commission over potentially explosive civil fraud charges, Goldman's chief executive visited the White House at least four times.
White House logs show that Chief Executive Lloyd Blankfein traveled to Washington for at least two events with President Barack Obama, whose 2008 presidential campaign received $994,795 in donations from Goldman's political action committee, its employees and their relatives.
Several former Goldman executives hold senior positions in the Obama administration, including Gary Gensler, the chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission; Mark Patterson, a former Goldman lobbyist who is chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner; and Robert Hormats, the undersecretary of state for economic, energy and agricultural affairs.
* JUST KEEP ON REPEATING TO YOURSELVES... "HOPE!" "CHANGE!" "HOPE!" "CHANGE!" "HOPE!" "CHANGE!" "HOPE!" "CHANGE!"
Goldman is retaining former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig as a member of its legal team. ... Goldman's chief spokesman, Lucas van Praag, said the firm "wanted Craig . . . for his wisdom and insight."
* YES... I'M SURE THEY DO. (GOTTA HAVE... er... "INSIGHT," RIGHT...???)
Goldman's nearly $1 million in campaign contributions to Obama's presidential campaign were the most from any single employer except the University of California.
One White House insider who knows something about how Wall Street does business is chief of staff Emanuel, who earned millions of dollars in investment banking after he left the Clinton White House.
* GOGGLE RAHM EMANUEL'S BIOGRAPHY. SEE WHAT SORT OF ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL QUALIFICATIONS (*SNORT*) HE BROUGHT TO THE TABLE AS AN "INVESTMENT BANKER" WHO... er... "EARNED"... MILLIONS OF DOLLARS. (*SMIRK*)
These Ivy League guys at the top levels of business and government all know each other? NO SHIT??? I'm shocked! SHOCKED!
How about you, Guillermo? You even been to Chicago. Huh? Have you?
Yeah, Rob, I've been to Chicago.
Hell... I've stayed at the Intercontinental there just to be able to use the pool!
(*WINK*)
Gibson's is one of my favorite steak houses...
(*APPRECIATIVE SIGH OF REMEMBRANCE*)
Never ran into Bill Ayers though.
Never shook his hand.
Never accepted his support.
Never worked with him.
Yeah... I guess you're right... I'm just not a "mover and shaker."
(Hey... bomber = shaker -- I made a punny!)
BILL
Hey, Rob... just as a gratuitous aside...
(*GRIN*)
I've never cheated on my wife with an employee (er... intern if you wanna be specific) half my age.
Never raped anyone either.
(*SMIRK*)
BILL
http://nycaviation.com/2010/04/21/obama-and-biden-to-celebrate-earth-day-by-flying-separate-carbon-belching-jets-to-the-same-city/
On a day when many Americans will be reflecting upon how they can reduce their impact on the environment, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will board separate jets in Washington on Earth Day morning to fly 250 miles up the east coast to New York, where they will land at separate airports to attend separate events within a few miles of each other.
The parallel visits of Air Force One (a 747/VC-25 aircraft) and Air Force Two (a 757/C-32A aircraft) will delay dozens, if not hundreds of commercial flights at Kennedy and LaGuardia and other nearby airports as no-fly zones are implemented. Jets will be forced to circle and burn more fuel as they wait for the VIPs to come and go. Their security contingents consisting of dozens of cars, SUVs and helicopters will burn even more. Throw in thousands of commuters’ cars and delivery trucks sitting idle in traffic as law enforcement closes large swaths of the city and you have yourself a very Earth-unfriendly day.
Thursday’s dual jaunt seems especially egregious considering the frivolous nature of Biden’s visit, in particular: He’ll be yukking it up with Whoopi and Barbara as a guest on The View. Not sure what he’ll be talking about, but you can be certain that whatever he has to say could be done just as effectively using a video camera and satellite hookup from the White House.
Meanwhile, Obama will be making a speech about new banking and finance regulations, a worthy subject, to be sure. Federal Hall on Wall Street, the site of George Washington’s first inauguration which stares directly at the doors of the New York Stock Exchange, would be the ideal location for this speech, but Obama will deliver it from…an art and engineering school? Any symbolism of delivering the speech in NYC is lost. He may as well save everyone the effort and talk to the nation from the Oval Office.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704133804575198370425467284.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion
Average European government spending was about 30% of GDP when the VATs were instituted in the late 1960s. Fast forward to today, and we see European government spending has grown more than 50% and now hits 47% of GDP.
bigger government spending and higher taxes have radically reduced job growth in Europe. Between 1982 and 2007, Europe created fewer than 10 million new jobs, vs. 45 million in the U.S. Our economic growth was more then one-third faster.
Has the VAT replaced some of the income tax in Europe? Absolutely not, nor has it reduced the income tax rates. The average VAT rate there is just under 20%, and the EU's top income tax rates average about 46%. Nor will an American VAT likely replace income taxes here, so it would be a crushing cost addition to the Obama tax increases and on the cost of purchases by non-tax paying lower income people.
The Senate voted last week 85-13 to approve a nonbinding resolution stating that the VAT "is a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America's economic recovery." But if President Obama is re-elected, he will almost certainly propose it and press Congress to enact it over popular objections - just as he did with ObamaCare.
What the VAT really does, as we have seen in Europe, is to do away with government spending controls. So if enacted by the Congress, higher taxes, bigger government, lower economic growth and fewer jobs will be the result, and all of us will soon be living in a new and much less successful America.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704133804575198272155110934.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_BelowLEFTSecond
Democrats hope Sen. Chris Dodd's proposed financial reform legislation will put some distance between them and the Obama administration's reckless spending policies over the past year. They believe that by overhauling the rules Wall Street lives by, they can redirect populist anger away from them and toward the financial sector. But voters are smart enough to see through the ploy.
* WELL... VOTERS WHO ARE AWARE OF IT AND AREN'T SO OBSESSIVELY PARTISAN THAT THEY CAN PLACE THE INTERESTS OF THE NATION ABOVE THAT OF THE INTERESTS OF OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. (*SHRUG*)
Democrats want to enact legislation that would create a $50 billion bailout fund for big Wall Street firms.
After being forced to admit the fund is part of the bill, Democrats defended it by saying it would be funded with money from the firms themselves.
* AS IF THE "PREMIUMS" WON'T ULTIMATELY BE FINANCED BY BANK FEES AND LARGER INTEREST SPREADS. (*SMIRK*)
[R]egardless of where the fund got its money, it would give Wall Street a leg up on Main Street. Why? Because the fund would allow government-favored Wall Street firms to borrow money more cheaply than their Main Street competitors. Goldman Sachs, for example, would likely be able to borrow money at a lower interest rate than a regional bank or credit union.
There are other potential pitfalls for [the American public] in Mr. Dodd's bill. One is a provision that would create an Office of Financial Research that would receive half a billion dollars a year to gather information on individual financial transactions so government bureaucrats can analyze the data and suggest policy changes.
* NAH... (*SNORT*)... NO "BIG BROTHER" THERE! (*MIRTHLESS CHUCKLE*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704671904575194483171910348.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
Senator Chris Dodd's 1,400-page financial "reform" bill contains many economic land mines, and here's one of the worst: Provisions that would make it harder for business start-ups to raise seed capital.
Currently, wealthy individuals who want to invest directly in a new business can do so with minimum interference from regulators. The law requires only that the investor be "accredited" by meeting thresholds for net worth ($1 million) or income ($250,000). Entrepreneurs depend on these "angel" investors, since many new businesses lack the collateral for bank loans and are too small to interest venture capitalists.
Amazon, Yahoo, Google and Facebook all benefited from angel investors, who typically target companies under five years old. According to a 2009 Kaufman Foundation study, such firms are less than 1% of all companies yet generate about 10% of new jobs. Between 1980 and 2005, companies less than five years old accounted for all net job growth in the U.S.
Mr. Dodd's bill would change all this for the worse. Most preposterously, it would require that start-ups seeking angel investments file with the Securities and Exchange Commission and endure a 120-day review. ... The Dodd bill also raises the net worth and income thresholds to $2.3 million and $450,000, respectively. The Angel Capital Association, a trade group, estimates that these provisions would disqualify about 77% of current accredited investors.
http://livefeed.hollywoodreporter.com/2010/04/south-park-censorship-.html
Now "South Park" can't even say the words "Prophet Muhammad."
...every instance of the words "Prophet Muhammad" were bleeped out...
A Comedy Central spokesperson confirmed it was the network's decision to censor the words.
The character of Muhammad was once again hidden from view, covered by a large block labeled "censored."
The Muhammad content is also not available on the South Park Studios website.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Wholesale-prices-rise-in-apf-299827519.html?x=0&.v=4
Wholesale prices rose more than expected last month as food prices surged by the most in 26 years.
The Labor Department said the Producer Price Index rose by 0.7% in March, compared to analysts' forecasts of a 0.4% rise.
* IN OTHER WORDS... ALMOST DOUBLE THE "FORECAST."
Food prices jumped by 2.4% in March, the most since January 1984.
* FOLKS... IT'S WORSE THAN THAT. THESE NUMBERS ARE "STRAIGHT PRICES JUMP" NUMBERS. WHAT THE ARTICLE DOESN'T ADDRESS IS THE SHRINKING PACKAGE SIZE TREND - INFLATION THAT'S NOT BEING NOTED BUT IS JUST AS REAL.
* FOLKS... WHEN YOU USED TO PAY $X FOR 16 OZ. AND NOW YOU PAY THE SAME $X FOR 14 OZ... 12 OZ... 10 OZ... THAT'S INFLATION. WHY JUST THE OTHER DAY I NOTICED THAT A PACKAGE OF FROZEN PEROGIES WHICH USED TO BE 16 OZ. AND THEN WAS DOWNSIZED TO 13 OZ. HAS NOW BEEN DOWNSIZED AGAIN - TO 10 OZ. THE PRICE IS THE SAME. WHAT YOU'RE GETTING FOR THE PRICE ISN'T. I URGE YOU TO PAY ATTENTION WHEN YOU SHOP.
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