Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Websites and blogs I recommend
Blog Archive
-
▼
2010
(353)
-
▼
April
(37)
- 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
-
▼
April
(37)
About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
18 comments:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100429/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_migrants_1
Amnesty International called the abuse of migrants in Mexico a major human rights crisis Wednesday, and accused some officials of turning a blind eye or even participating in the kidnapping, rape and murder of migrants.
Rupert Knox, Amnesty's Mexico researcher, said in the report that the failure by authorities to tackle abuses against migrants has made their trip through Mexico one of the most dangerous in the world.
"Migrants in Mexico are facing a major human rights crisis leaving them with virtually no access to justice, fearing reprisals and deportation if they complain of abuses," Knox said.
* BUT, HEY... AS LONG AS AMERICANS CAN VACATION IN CANCUN AND EXPLOIT ILLEGALS FOR YARD WORK, CHILD CARE, AND DOMESTIC "SERVICE" IT'S "ALL GOOD," RIGHT? (*SMIRK*)
* FOLKS... ASK YOURSELVES... HOW MANY OF THE HIGH PROFILE OPPONENTS OF A SECURE BORDER AND STRICT ENFORCEMENT OF OUR IMMIGRATION LAWS DO YOU SUPPOSE HAVE THEMSELVES PERSONALLY BENEFITED FROM "CHEAP LABOR" PROVIDED BY DESPARATE ILLEGALS - THUS SAVING THE "EMPLOYER" A FEW BUCKS AND ELIMINATING THE NEED TO PAY A DECENT WAGE TO A FELLOW AMERICAN... PERHAPS A WHITE AMERICAN... PERHAPS A BLACK AMERICAN?
Central American migrants are frequently pulled off trains, kidnapped en masse, held at gang hideouts and forced to call relatives in the U.S. to pay off the kidnappers. Such kidnappings affect thousands of migrants each year in Mexico, the report says.
Many are beaten, raped or killed in the process.
One of the main issues, Amnesty says, is that migrants fear they will be deported if they complain to Mexican authorities about abuses.
At present, Article 67 of Mexico's Population Law says, "Authorities, whether federal, state or municipal ... are required to demand that foreigners prove their legal presence in the country, before attending to any issues."
* VIVA MEXICO, HUH... (*SMIRK*) DO YOU SEE WHAT WE'RE DEALING WITH? PERHAPS INSTEAD OF FLEEING THEIR OWN COUNTRY IN SEARCH OF A BETTER LIFE, MEXICANS SHOULD "MAN UP" AND FIGHT TO TRANSFORM THEIR OWN COUNTRY!
The Amnesty report said one female migrant told researchers that Mexican federal police had forced her group off a train and stolen their belongings. Forced to walk, she said, she was subsequently attacked by a gang and raped.
Mexico has long been offended by mistreatment of its own migrants in the United States.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100429/D9FCDCN00.html
Many of the cars that once stopped in the Home Depot parking lot to pick up day laborers to hang drywall or do landscaping now just drive on by.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* ADVERTISE ONLINE OR IN THE NEWSPAPER; CONTACT A TEMP AGENCY; INFORM THE LOCAL STATE UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICE THAT YOU'RE LOOKING FOR WORKERS! HIRE AMERICANS! HIRE LEGAL IMMIGRANTS! PAY FAIR WAGES!
* HEY... LIBS... BEYOND THE EXLOITATION FACTOR AND THE ISSUE OF DISPARATE IMPACT UPON OUR OWN CITIZEN POPULATION "OF COLOR," I THOUGHT DEMOCRATS WANTED EVERYONE TO PAY THEIR "FAIR SHARE" OF TAXES...??? WELL... THE UNDERGROUND ECONOMY IS A MEANS OF EVADING BOTH INCOME AND PAYROLL TAXES. (*SMIRK*)
Arizona's sweeping immigration bill...is already having an effect on the state's underground economy.
* SEEMS TO ME DEMOCRATS SHOULD BE TICKLED PINK! (HEY... "LIBERALS"... TICKLED "PINK"... I MADE A PUNNY...!!!) (*GRIN*)
Many day laborers like Diaz say they will leave Arizona because of the law..."Nobody wants to pick us up," Julio Loyola Diaz says in Spanish as he and dozens of other men wait under the shade of palo verde trees and lean against a low brick wall outside the east Phoenix home improvement store.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* AND THAT WILL REMOVE EXPENSIVE BURDENS FORMERLY PLACED UPON ARIZONA'S SOCIAL SERVICES, HEALTH, AND EDUCATION INFRASTRUCTURE! AS THE SAYING GOES... "IT'S ALL GOOD!"
Supporters of the law hope it creates jobs for thousands of Americans.
(*THUMBS UP*)
The law's supporters hope the departure of illegal immigrants will help dismantle part of the underground economy here and create jobs for thousands of legal residents in a state with a 9.6% unemployment rate. [D]ay labor is generally off the books, and that deprives the state of much-needed tax dollars.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100428/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1831
Amid a national debate over Arizona's tough new immigration law, Republican Alabama gubernatorial candidate Tim James (and son of previous Gov. Fob James) vows in a new campaign ad that if he's elected, he'll give the state driver's license exam only in English, as a cost-saving measure.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* THOUGH I'M NOT THRILLED ABOUT THE "DYNASTIC" ASPECT OF THE SITUATION.
"This is Alabama; we speak English," he says in the ad. "If you want to live here, learn it."
* GOD BLESS YA, GOVN'R TO BE JAMES!
Marc Ambinder of the Atlantic says Alabama could actually lose billions of dollars in federal funding if it enacts the measure...
* TWO POINTS: 1) THIS SHOWS YOU HOW DYSFUNCTIONAL AND EXTORTIVE THE BASTARDIZATION OF CONSTITUTIONAL FEDERALISM HAS DEGENERATED IN TO; 2) SO IN THEORY THIS WILL SAVE NATIONAL TAXPAYERS BILLIONS OF DOLLARS IF THE MONEY ISN'T PAID OUT TO ALABAMA!
[James] said English exams are a public safety issue, to ensure drivers can read signs.
* MAKES SENSE!
Exams are currently given in Arabic, Chinese, English, Farsi, French, German, Greek, Japanese, Korean, Russian, Spanish, Thai and Vietnamese, according to AOL News.
(*MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
http://wcbstv.com/health/ny.organ.donor.2.1662437.html
New York State Assemblyman Richard Brodsky nearly lost his daughter, Willie, at 4 years old when she needed a kidney transplant, and again 10 years later when her second kidney failed.
"We have 10,000 New Yorkers on the list today waiting for organs. We import half the organs we transplant. It is an unacceptable failed system," Brodsky said.
To fix that, Brodsky introduced a new bill in Albany that would enroll all New Yorkers as an organ donor, unless they actually opt out of organ donation.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* I'VE LONG SUPPORTED THIS VERY CONCEPT.
* THOSE OF YOU WHO AGREE WITH ME SHOULD CALL YOUR OWN STATE OFFICIALS AND SUGGEST THEY PUSH FOR SIMILAR LEGISLATION.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100429/D9FCD8I00.html
A federal judge challenged prosecutors Wednesday to show that nine members of a Michigan militia accused of plotting war against the government had done more than just talk...
The members of a southern Michigan group called Hutaree have been in custody for a month. An indictment accuses them of weapons violations and a rare crime: conspiring to commit sedition, or rebellion, against the government by first killing police officers.
Prosecutors say the public would be at risk if the nine are released. But defense lawyers claim the government has overreached with a criminal case based mostly on hateful speech.
* "MOSTLY...???" (THAT'S THE PART THAT NEED CLARIFICATION!)
An undercover agent infiltrated the group and secretly made recordings that have been played in court. While there is talk about killing police, it's not specific. In one conversation, there are many people talking over each other and laughing. ... The judge suggested she didn't hear or read in the transcripts any indication that violence was imminent. "Mere presence where a crime may be planned is not a crime. ... How does this add up to seditious conspiracy?" Roberts said.
Waterstreet said the government is not required to show all its evidence at this early stage of the case.
* YEAH... OK... BUT IS IT TOO MUCH TO ASK THAT AT LEAST SOME EVIDENCE BE SHOWN...???
"'What if' is not the standard. ... None of these words are an instruction to anyone to commit a crime," said Stone's attorney, William Swor, as held up a stack of transcripts.
* FOLKS... IF YOU'RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH "RUBY RIDGE" YOU MIGHT WANNA REFRESH YOURSELVES VIA A BIT OF GOOGLING.
(*SIGH*)
http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/insurance/2010-04-29-healthirs28_CV_N.htm
The IRS will be the enforcer [of ObamaCare] - sort of.
While the IRS can impose liens or levies, seize property or seek jail time against people who don't pay taxes, it's barred from taking such actions against taxpayers who ignore the insurance mandate. In the arsenal instead: the ability to withhold refunds from taxpayers who decline to pay the penalty, IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman said this month.
The IRS is "being put in a position where it will be sending notices that will annoy people" and not much else, says James Maule, professor of law at Villanova University and author of the tax blog MauledAgain. "It's basically designed for failure."
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... I... I... I... I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHERE TO BEGIN IN TERMS OF ADDRESSING THIS...
(*HEADACHE*)
* FOLKS... BE HONEST... DIDN'T THE ADMINISTRATION AND CONGRESSIONAL DEMOCRATS INSIST (WHEN "GOING OVER THE MATH" OF OBAMACARE) THAT FINES WERE GOING TO BRING IN MAJOR REVENUE...??? BUT NOW ALL YOU NEED TO DO TO AVOID PAYING ANY "FINE" AT ALL IS TO ADD A PAPER EXEMPTION OR TWO TO YOUR TAX WITHHOLDING IN ORDER TO MAKE SURE THAT THE POSSIBILITY OF THE FEDS "TAKING YOUR REFUND" WON'T BE AN ISSUE...???
(*DOUBLE SNORT*)
The law will lead to a dramatic expansion of the IRS. The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the IRS will need an additional $5 billion to $10 billion over the next 10 years to administer the health care law.
* FOLKS... ASK YOURSELF... WHAT DOES THE ABOVE "SPREAD" TELL YOU ABOUT THE GOVERNMENT'S ABILITY TO ACCURATELY FORECAST COSTS...??? (*MIRTHLESS CHUCKLE*)
The law will make it more difficult for the IRS to carry out its primary job of collecting taxes. Only 64% of taxpayers who called the IRS during last year's tax-filing season reached an IRS representative, according to a report by the IRS' national taxpayer advocate. The IRS' modest goal for this year was to answer 71% of taxpayer calls. Even more callers could have trouble getting through when the IRS takes on its obligations under the health care law...
(*HEADACHE*)
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2010/04/the-night-beat-sorry-charlie/39662
Charlie Crist, soon to be independent Senate candidate from Florida, tried to reach White House chief of staff Emanuel through intermediates. WH refuses to take the call. Dems plan big talent/money blitz for Kendrick Meek.
* FILE UNDER: YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST, FOLKS -- CRIST IS DESTROYING HIMSELF. HE WON'T BE THE SPOILER MANY ARE CLAIMING HE'LL BE. INSTEAD, HE'LL BE A FOOTNOTE IN POLITICAL HISTORY AND RUBIO WILL WIN THE SENATE SEAT FROM FLORIDA IN A LANDSLIDE COME NOVEMBER.
http://spectator.org/archives/2010/04/06/out-of-control
President Obama and Congress are looking to "Europeanize" the United States through a legislative stampede of government control: the nationalizing of our health care system, cap and trade energy taxes, and aggressive unionization. How can it be that the United States government now owns banks and auto companies?
Milton Friedman warned us that the true rate of taxation is government spending. With trillion-dollar deficits projected for years to come, I fear the greatest threat to our freedom and way of life will come from our out-of-control deficits. Eventually you must pay the piper, and the government will either deflate our currency or impose catastrophically high taxes and institute a national sales tax. Or, even worse, it will pursue a combination of both bad ideas.
Higher taxes degrade our standard of living, leaving citizens with fewer choices and fewer dreams. Taxes and a bloated public sector rob the private sector of much-needed capital investment. Capital is like fertilizer: when it's spread on the private sector it grows the economy; when it's fed to the government it grows more government.
The Greek debt crisis should be the canary in the coal mine. Greece is the first Western country in recent memory to experience a sovereign debt crisis. In 2009 the Greek budget deficit was 13% of GDP, and investors do not believe the Greeks can credibly get the budget under control. The Congressional Budget Office reported that our 2009 budget deficit was 10% of GDP.
Clearly the United States is on an unsustainable path. In less than 10 years the interest on the debt alone will approach $500 billion.
An American's freedom is based on individual, God-given rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and also on economic liberties that allow us to provision our families and pursue our own happiness.
Our Founding Fathers designed a constitutional system based on the rule of law to protect the individual from an overbearing federal government.
* STAND WITH THE SPIRIT OF THE FOUNDING FATHERS, MY FRIENDS... VIEW LIBERTY AS A RIGHT - AS OUR FOUNDERS DID; AS OUR CONSTITUTION CALLS FOR.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=36740
The Obama administration is selling a bill of goods inside the Beltway by saying that the GOP is getting into bed with the worst of Wall Street by opposing its [financial regulation] bill.
Republicans...need to keep pointing out that Goldman was the [second] biggest donor to the Obama campaign, contributing $970,000 from its employees and PACs.
(The combined donations of the staff and faculty of the University of California [came in at #1; their] totaled $1.5 million, but they are hardly a coherent corporate entity like Goldman.)
The truth is that the rest of the country fears big government a lot more than they fear big business and recognizes that Goldman Sachs and the other Wall Street giants feed at the Democratic trough...more so than at the Republican one.
The financial regulation bill is a disaster in three major respects:
1) [I]t gives incentives for irresponsibility by, in effect, guaranteeing banks' survival by establishing a $50 billion rescue fund. In doing so, it gives the large banks a huge advantage and extends to them the same kind of implicit guarantee that once encouraged the likes of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae to go on their lending spree. It is a key step in the conversion of big banks into quasi-public institutions, ultimately controlled by the government - levers through which the public sector can control the private.
* THERE'S BEEN TALKING OF STRIPPING THE "RESCUE FUND" FROM THE BILL, BUT IF "RESCUE" IS STILL ON THE TABLE THEN ALL YOU'VE DONE IS RAMPED UP THE IRRESPONSIBILITY OF THE ACT - LEAVING THE "ENDS" WHILE REFUSING TO PRE-FUND "THE MEANS."
2) [B]y vesting the secretary of the treasury with the power to seize - in a hostile takeover - any financial institution he deems to be too big to fail, it puts at risk of public takeover every such company in the nation.
* NOW IN LINE WITH MY POLICY OF FULL DISCLOSURE, I'M NOT CONVINCED THAT THE BILL (AS WRITTEN WHEN I FIRST REVIEWED IT SEVERAL MONTHS AGO) CLEARLY GIVES THE SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY SUCH POWER... BUT THERE'S DEFINITELY THE SLIPPERY SLOPE ARGUMENT TO CONSIDER AND WE ALREADY HAVE THE "BAILOUT" MODEL OF THE PAST TWO YEARS AS A CONTEXUAL TOOL. (*SHRUG*)
If a political appointee has the power to take over any financial institution -- bank or non-bank -- fire the board, replace the management, wipe out stock equity and sell off pieces of the company, it gives him a power that is so awesome that it can undermine our democratic freedoms.
3) [T]he newly established Consumer Financial Protection Agency will have the power to approve or reject any loan instrument offered by any company in the land. A mattress company that wants to let customers go for 60 days before paying will have to get CFPA approval before extending credit. The bureaucratic bottleneck will slow economic activity, encourage corruption and retard consumer spending. It will be big government at its worst.
* IF YOU THINK MORRIS IS EXAGGERATING YOU MIGHT WANNA GOOGLE "NATIONAL RECOVERY ADMINISTRATION". (*SMIRK*) YOU MIGHT ALSO WANNA GOOGLE "SCHECHTER POULTRY CORP. V. UNITED STATES".
Obama's power grabs have been so frequent and so blatant that he has no credibility on this subject. Voters expect him to be fighting to grow government and to be hostile to private enterprise. And they are wise to his close connection with Wall Street despite his occasional forays into populism.
This is a bill the Republican Party can kill...
* AND SHOULD KILL! (AT LEAST AS WRITTEN...)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704131404575117943161614762.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
Life is tough and getting tougher for state and local governments. Revenues from personal and corporate income and sales taxes are down and property taxes are weakening. Budget deficits are jumping, and states now issue debt to fund routine expenditures. Meanwhile, pension obligations are underfunded to the tune of $1 trillion, according to the Pew Center on the States. States on average have set aside just 7.1% of retiree health care and other nonpension benefits, and 20 states have reserved nothing.
Costs remain stubbornly high, propelled over the last decade by rising municipal employment. Since the Great Recession started in December 2007, private payrolls have dropped 7.4%, but state and local jobs are essentially unchanged, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Labor costs, which at $1.1 trillion in 2008 account for half of state and local spending...simply must come down.
Years ago, there was an informal "social contract" - public employees generally received lower wages than private-sector workers, and in return they got earlier retirement and generous pensions, allowing them to catch up. That arrangement has long since gone by the boards. The result is a remarkable trend. State and local government employees for years have received pay increases in excess of inflation, and BLS figures show they now have wages that are 34% higher on average than in the private sector. ... The average quit rate among state and local employees is a third of that in the private sector.
(*SNORT*) NO NEED TO WONDER WHY, HUH?! (*MIRTHLESS CHUCKLE*)
Public employees also have a 70% advantage in benefits. Health insurance, retirement benefits, life insurance and paid sick leave are not only much more available to them, but much richer. In 2009, BLS figures indicate that the costs of health insurance were 2.18 times as much for state and local employees as for private-sector workers.
(*SHRUG*)
* HEY... THESE FACTS AND FIGURES COME AS NO SURPRISE TO REGULAR READERS OF BARKER'S NEWSBITES. MEANWHILE, THE AVERAGE IDIOT HAS NO CLUE...
In the private sector, defined-benefit pensions have declined over the years in favor of defined-contribution plans such as the 401(k). In 2009, defined-benefit plans were available to only 21% of private-sector workers - but to 84% of municipal employees... (And public-sector defined-benefit plans paid retirees about twice as much as those in the private sector.)
Public-sector retirement costs also are high because many can retire at age 55 after 30 years of employment with pensions equal to 60% or more of final salary, which is often jacked up by lots of overtime in final working years. In some states, employees can "double dip" by retiring early and then resuming their previous jobs or taking other government positions. So they get salaries and pensions at the same time.
State and local government labor costs can be reduced in an orderly way. Following in the footsteps of bankrupt GM, two-tier wage structures would allow existing employees to continue at current salaries, but pay new hires much lower wages that are nevertheless adequate to attract and retain qualified people. And the new people can be enrolled in defined-contribution pension plans that require employee contributions instead of defined-benefit plans. Retirement ages can be increased.
While waiting for existing employees to retire, their pay can be frozen. Pension formulas can be reformed to avoid the system being gamed by heavy overtime in final years on the job, and double-dipping can be eliminated. Retirees in the public sector can be required, as they are in the private sector, to pay meaningful shares of their health-care costs. ... [E]ssential services would still be delivered, only much more cost effectively.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703465204575208073116565044.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
The Obama Administration's push for a "bailout tax" on banks ran into some...resistance over the weekend...
At the G-20 confab in Washington, Treasury Secretary [and tax cheat] Timothy Geithner said the U.S. remains committed to a balance-sheet tax on banks and assumes that other countries will follow America's lead. But Canada, Australia, Japan and Brazil, among other countries, beg to differ.
Canadian Finance Minister Jim Flaherty made the sensible case over the weekend that sucking more money out of the banking system to pay for domestic spending wasn't the best way to foster financial stability. Canada and these other governments did not for the most part promote the housing mania and then break their national treasuries to bail out their banks. They rightly see any move to impose additional levies on their financial companies as punitive and unjustified.
By contrast, France, Germany and the U.K. are on board with the U.S. proposal, which is not surprising given how desperate the four are for revenue.
* NOT TO MENTION THEY DESPERATELY WANT OBAMA TO COMMIT U.S. TAXPAYER RESOURCES TO EUROPEAN BAILOUTS (GREECE, PORTUGAL, SPAIN... ITALY AND IRELAND...) VIA IMF "LOANS" IN THE IMMEDIATE FUTURE.
Mr. Geithner and friends want a global bank tax because they realize that a country-specific tax could drive financial institutions to less-confiscatory regimes. This could jeopardize New York or London as major financial centers - which is another reason for Canada and other countries not to go along.
It's also fascinating to hear that a bailout tax would spare taxpayers the cost of future rescues. Isn't financial reform supposed to prevent more bailouts? Mr. Geithner has flatly declared that it will. The political demand for a bailout tax is a tacit admission that the current reform would do no such thing...
(*SHRUG*)
It is no surprise that the International Monetary Fund is eager to do the bidding of the would-be taxers. In a "confidential" report leaked last week to the BBC, the IMF proposes two taxes that it projects in combination could rake in as much as 4% of a nation's GDP. ... Banks and their employees might have thought profits and wages were already taxed, but not enough in the view of the IMF mandarins.
These tax proposals are, first and last, about grabbing revenue from a politically soft target. The financial stability that the Obama Administration and its allies are chiefly concerned with is that of their own budgets. Ironically, taking 4% of GDP annually out of the banks would likely fail even on that score. Depleting the financial industry of capital will drain vitality from the entire economy, leaving government budgets the poorer for it.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=531662
Would France rip out its storied vineyards?
Would Juan Valdez scorch Colombia's coffee crop?
On a springtime drive through [California's] Central Valley, it's hard not to notice how federal and state governments are hell-bent on destroying the state's top export - almonds - and everything else in the nation's most productive farmland. Instead of pink blossoms and green shoots along Highway 5 in April, vast spans from Bakersfield to Fresno sit bone-dry. Brown grass, dead orchards and lifeless grapevine skeletons stretch for miles for lack of water. For every fallow field, there's a sign that farmers have placed alongside the highway: "No Water = No Food," "No Water = No Jobs," "Congress Created Dust Bowl."
Locals say it's been like this for two years now, as Congress and bureaucrats cite "drought," "global warming" and "endangered species" to deny water to this $37 billion breadbasket through arbitrary "environmental" quotas.
It started with a 2008 federal court order that stopped water flowing from northern tributaries on a supposed need to protect a small fish - the delta smelt - that was getting ground up in the turbines of pump stations that divert the water south. The court knew it was bad law, but [Pelosi and Reid's] Congress refused to exempt the fish from the Endangered Species Act and the diversion didn't help the fish.
After that, the water cutoff was blamed on "drought," though northern reservoirs are currently full. Now the cry is "save the salmon," a reference to water needs of the state's northern fisheries. Whatever the excuse, 75% of the fresh water that has historically irrigated California is now being washed to the open sea. For farmers in the southwest part of the valley, last year's cutoff amounted to 90%. Unemployment in some valley towns has shot up to 45%. Mortgage defaults are on the rise, and food lines are lengthening. Call it what it is: a man-made drought.
Much like organized criminals in big-city fish markets who see to it that product spoils when kickbacks aren't forthcoming, Washington's pols are now using their ability to turn water on and off as a coercion tool. Take the three congressmen who represent the valley and how they were pressured to vote for President Obama's health care bill. It didn't go without notice by farmers like Jasper that the 5% water allocations announced in February for all three congressional districts were lifted to 25% for the two whose Democratic representatives, Jim Costa of Fresno and Dennis Cardoza of Modesto, switched their votes on health reform from "no" to "aye."
Devin Nunes, a Republican from Tulare, wouldn't sell his vote, and parts of his district had to make do with the 5% allotment.
Bureaucrats also do their part to ensure that drought conditions persist. Lake Shasta, which supplies the federal Central Valley Project though the Sacramento River, is so full that rice farmers upstream have plenty extra to sell. But Lake Oroville, which supplies California's State Water Project through the Feather River, while not in a drought state, is not full. State regulations say that upstream farmers who get water from Shasta cannot sell their extra water to the Central Valley farmers because Feather River farmers along the state system must sell first. It matters not that there's a surplus on the Shasta side and a deficit on the Oroville side. Even with the orchards of about a third of the state's 6,000 almond farmers withering, state bureaucrats are hung up on pecking order.
Higher food prices are also on the way... Another unintended consequence is that much of the food Californians consume will no longer be local. Some crops will move to Mexico and then must be imported. Meanwhile, Chile, Spain and Australia have begun to develop their own almond industries.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=531731
While senators froth over Goldman Sachs and derivatives, a climate trading scheme being run out of the Chicago Climate Exchange would make Bernie Madoff blush.
Its trail leads to the White House.
* THE OP-ED IS KINDA CONVOLUTED... I'LL LEAVE IT TO ANYONE INTERESTED TO FOLLOW THE LINK AND READ THE PIECE.
* HEY... DON'T GET ME WRONG; THE OP-ED IS WORTH READING OR ELSE I WOULDN'T BOTHER POSTING THIS PARTICULAR NEWSBITE.
http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2010/04/29/why-americans-get-ripped-off-on-mortgage-loans/
You might think that Americans would have learned over the past few years that home mortgages can be dangerous products, to be approached warily, only after careful study and consideration.
You would be wrong.
Americans spend twice as much time shopping for cars than they do for home loans, Zillow.com reported Thursday. An online survey of 2,729 adults commissioned by Zillow found that on average they spent five hours choosing a mortgage, compared with 10 hours for a car and four hours for a computer. Nearly a third of the respondents devoted two hours or less to choosing a mortgage.
“Mortgages continue to be something that most people don’t want to spend time thinking about,” said Stan Humphries, chief economist for Zillow, a real estate information firm.
* YOU CAN'T FIX STUPID... (*SHRUG*)
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/Want-to-get-rich_-Work-for-feds-92316619.html
Data compiled by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis reveals the extent of the pay gap between federal and private workers. As of 2008, the average federal salary was $119,982, compared with $59,909 for the average private sector employee.
Add the value of benefits like health care and pensions, and the gap grows even bigger. The average federal employee's benefits add $40,785 to his annual total compensation, whereas the average working taxpayer's benefits increase his total compensation by only $9,881.
In other words, federal workers are paid on average salaries that are twice as generous as those in the private sector, and they receive benefits that are four times greater.
* LISTEN. I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M SAYING THIS... BUT TAKE THE ABOVE FIGURES WITH A GRAIN OF SALT; THEY SOUND AWFUL HIGH - EVEN TO ME. (AND I'VE BEEN "COVERING" THIS ISSUE HERE AT NEWSBITES FOR AS LONG AS THERE'S BEEN A NEWSBITES.)
* AHH... HERE WE GO...
As the Cato Institute's Chris Edwards notes in the current issue of the Cato Journal, "The public sector pay advantage is most pronounced in benefits. Bureau of Economic Analysis data show that average compensation in the private sector was $59,909 in 2008, including $50,028 in wages and $9,881 in benefits. Average compensation in the public sector was $67,812, including $52,051 in wages and $15,761 in benefits."
* HMM... STILL... THAT'S THE OVERALL PUBLIC SECTOR - NOT JUST FEDERAL WORKERS; YOU'D EXPECT AVERAGE PAY/BENEFITS TO BE LOWER.
* ANYWAY... I'VE SENT AN EMAIL TO MR. EDWARDS ASKING FOR CLARIFICATION OF HIS RESEARCH VS. THIS WASHINGTON EXAMINER OP-ED.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/29/business/global/29euro.html?ref=world
Hoping to quell its biggest crisis since the Asian woes of 1997, the International Monetary Fund promised on Wednesday to increase the 45 billion-euro aid package for Greece to as much as 120 billion euros over three years.
* AGAIN... FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... IN LARGE PART WE - THE TAXPAYERS OF THE U.S.A. - ARE THE IMF!
* FOLKS... YOU WANNA LAUGH? OK... BEARING IN MIND THAT THIS IS A NEW YORK TIMES NEWS ARTICLE, IF YOU FOLLOW THE LINK AND READ DOWN ALL THE WAY TO THE 12TH PARAGRAPH... (*SNORT*)... YOU'LL FINALLY REACH:
Concerns have already surfaced in Congress that the broad demands of the sovereign debt crisis will quickly exhaust the IMF’s reserves and leave the United States, the fund’s largest shareholder, with the bill.
(*SMIRK*) (*SNORT*)
* OH... AND ON TO PARAGRAPHS 13 & 14:
Representative Mark Kirk, a Republican from Illinois, said such a drain could occur if Portugal, Ireland and Spain sought IMF aid at the same time. Mr. Kirk worked at the World Bank during the 1982 debt crisis in Mexico, which came close to depleting the fund’s reserves.
“We have seen this movie before,” he said. “Spain is five times as big as Greece - that would mean a package of 500 billion.”
* PARAGRAPH 15:
Mr. Kirk sits on the House Appropriations Committee that oversees IMF funds and said that he had already asked for hearings on the fund’s ability to handle a European collapse.
* WELL THANK GOD SOMEONE GIVES A CRAP ABOUT POSSIBLY LEAVING AMERICAN TAXPAYERS HOLDING THE BAG WHILE THE EUROPEANS SHIRK THEIR OWN RESPONSIBILITIES... AGAIN!
* WAKE UP PEOPLE! OBAMA AND THE DEMS ARE ABOUT TO BAIL OUT THE FRIGG'N EUROPEAN COMMUNITY!
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/94993-source-of-revenue-for-big-banks-may-win-exemption-from-regs
A major source of revenue for big banks may ultimately be exempt from new regulations under financial reform legislation in Congress.
Lawmakers [were] looking to crack down on the multitrillion-dollar derivatives market that some blame for worsening the financial crisis. But they [now] appear on the verge of handing power to the Treasury Department to decide whether to exempt foreign exchange derivatives from tougher governmental oversight.
Tied to the value of a currency or its exchange rate, foreign exchange derivatives are among the biggest drivers of business in a market dominated by big banks. Commercial banks reported $5.6 billion in revenue on foreign exchange derivatives in 2009 and $11.4 billion in 2008, according to the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
The $50 trillion market for foreign exchange derivatives represents roughly 8% of the $605 trillion face value of the overall derivatives market as of June 2009, according to the Bank for International Settlements.
A group of banks, including HSBC, UBS, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, State Street, Bank of New York Mellon, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, have been working closely on the issue in Washington, according to a source familiar with the work. (Foreign exchange derivatives were the biggest source of revenue from derivatives during the last two years. Other derivatives include those tied to interest rates or the potential for a company to default.)
In the Senate, the issue has taken several recent twists and turns. Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Blanche Lincoln (D-AR) originally was going to require foreign exchange derivatives to be regulated like other derivatives. On Monday, Lincoln and Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) released "compromise legislation" requiring the Treasury secretary to decide whether to exempt the derivatives from the new rules.
(*SMIRK*)
* HMM... NOT ONLY SHOULD THE PRESS "FOLLOW THE MONEY" - FOLLOW THE CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS TIED TO THIS, BUT ONCE DODD IS "VOLUNTARILY" RETIRED AND LINCOLN IS RETIRED BY THE VOTERS, WELL... LET'S KEEP AN EYE ON WHICH BANKS PROVIDE THE FORMER SENATORS WITH... er... INCOME GENERATING OPPORTUNITIES.
http://dailycapitalist.com/2010/04/28/obama-to-nominate-three-to-federal-reserve-board/
Here are the Obama Administration’s three nominees to the Federal Reserve Board:
Janet Yellen
Peter Diamond
Sarah Bloom Raskin
They are all prominent members of the Washington-Wall Street-Academia Economics Complex, whose members shift between government, Wall Street, and academia. All of the nominees are Keynesian economists. They are known as regulators, technocrats, and inflationists.
They will fly through the nomination process. This will mean that Obama will have appointed four of the seven governors of the Board.
Post a Comment