Monday, May 24, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Monday, May 24, 2010


This song has been stuck in my head for days...

(*SHRUG*)

I have no idea how it got into my subconscious!

(*GRIN*)

Yes... the video is kinda lame... but it was the 80's!

(*CHUCKLE*)
Posted by at

10 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.936e144ccc4a23348cdcc0aec488b9ea.cb1&show_article=1

Frustrated Louisianans took the oil cleanup into their own hands Sunday, heading out in boats to lay protective booms around a bird sanctuary threatened by a black tide. "We're going out to Cat Island right now where a thousand pelicans are breeding," Billy Nungesser, president of the coastal Plaquemines Parish told AFP.

"Our crews are out there laying the absorbent boom," he said, adding that he couldn't understand why BP and the Coast Guard weren't doing more to protect his coastal parish.

In neighboring Jefferson Parish an emergency manager commandeered all 40 boom-laying boats hired by BP which were sitting idly at Grand Isle as oil sloshed onto beaches. Bloggers and callers to a radio talk show cheered the dramatic action late Saturday night, promising the official their votes if he sought elective office.

Earlier in the day, WWL-AM radio station repeatedly replayed a taped interview in which a Coast Guard official in Terrebonne Parish took the blame for not ordering BP to do more, then flippantly said: "I guess I'm just slow and dumb."

* NOTICE HOW YOU NO LONGER HEAR MUCH ABOUT THE FACT THAT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT - BY LAW - WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BOOMS ON HAND FROM DAY ONE... YET THEY DIDN'T?!

May 24, 2010 at 12:29 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704904604575262703867624266.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_news

Crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico and washing ashore in Louisiana is exposing how ill-prepared the U.S. has been to respond to a major offshore oil spill.

Maps that federal officials are using to identify priority areas to protect from spreading oil are outdated.

[T]he Coast Guard says the country lacks enough plastic piping, or "boom," to keep the incoming oil away from the coast. "The national system did not contemplate you would have to do all that at once," Coast Guard Commandant Thad Allen told a Senate committee last week, referring to laying boom across a coastline as big as the Gulf's.

* THE "NATIONAL SYSTEM...???" HE'S KIDDING - RIGHT...?

Some scientists fault the federal government for not having investigated dispersants more fully earlier. Knowledge of dispersants' environmental effect is limited because the government "had virtually no money to put into that research," Nancy Kinner, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of New Hampshire, said at a congressional hearing last week.

* WELL... LET'S NOT EXEMPT THE OIL INDUSTRY FROM BLAME. THE OIL INDUSTRY SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON TOP OF THIS, FUNDING RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE DISPERSANTS.

May 24, 2010 at 1:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704167704575258503544541716.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_news

Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the mortgage-finance giants that are now wards of the government, are on their way to becoming the single-biggest cost to taxpayers from the financial crisis - ahead of the banks, auto makers, or even insurer American International Group.

But while Washington is on the cusp of enacting a broad revamp of the financial regulatory infrastructure, it's in no hurry to touch Fannie and Freddie.

"The administration has put it on the 'too hard' pile," says David Felt, a former senior lawyer at the companies' federal regulator who presided over the government takeover of the companies in 2008.

Republicans, meanwhile, introduced a measure during the financial-overhaul debate that detailed how to wind down the companies, but the amendment...was defeated...

Fannie and Freddie offered a convenient off-budget means of subsidizing housing that continues today with the companies under government control. If lawmakers are truly serious about ending the model, they will either have to give up those subsidies, fund them more explicitly by, for example, paying for them up front in the annual budget, or find a new way to disguise them.

* FIND A NEW WAY TO DISGUISE THEM...???

(*HEADACHE*)

Phillip Swagel, a former assistant Treasury secretary under President George W. Bush, says it is inevitable that the government will end up playing some role in backstopping mortgages.

* WELL, I'LL ADMIT IT'S LIKELY - DUE TO POLITICAL DYSFUNCTION - BUT FAILED POLICIES SHOULDN'T BE SEEN AS INEVITABLE. THE FACT THAT THIS SWAGEL GUY WAS A FORMER ASSISTANT TREASURY SECRETARY TO BUSH DOESN'T EXACTLY FILL ME WITH ADMIRATION AND CONFIDENCE.

In a forthcoming proposal with former Bush administration economist Donald Marron, Mr. Swagel suggests converting Fannie and Freddie into private firms that securitize mortgages that meet specific standards. They would purchase, for a fee, insurance with explicit government backing.

* TWO FORMER BUSH OFFICIALS... (*SIGH*)... GREAT. EARTH TO BUSHIES... IT'S THE SECURITIZATION OF MORTGAGES AND THE GOVERNMENT BACKING THAT'S THE PROBLEM!

Together with the Federal Housing Administration, Fannie and Freddie guaranteed 96.5% of all new home loans last quarter.

That tab [for supporting Fannie and Freddie] has swelled to $145 billion so far and figures to grow as foreclosures continue to pile up.

May 24, 2010 at 1:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9FTDV7O1&show_article=1

Congress is getting ready to quadruple - to 32 cents a barrel - a tax on oil...

* YOU KNOW... THE STUFF THAT FILLS YOUR TANK... THAT HEATS YOUR HOME... THAT RUNS OUR CIVILIZATION...

The tax increase is part of a larger bill that has grown into a nearly $200 billion grab bag of unfinished business that [Democratic] lawmakers hope to complete before Memorial Day. The key provisions are a one-year extension of about 50 popular tax breaks that expired at the end of last year, and expanded unemployment benefits, including subsidies for health insurance, through the end of the year.

* SO MUCH FOR MAKING THE TOUGH CHOICES ON SPENDING CUTS! EXTENT "POPULAR" TAX BREAKS THAT BENEFIT SOME WHILE INCREASING TAXES ON OIL WHICH WILL HIT US ALL; EXPAND WELFARE BENEFITS FOR SOME WHILE INCREASING TAXES ON ALL TO PAY NOT FOR DEBT REDUCTION, BUT FOR INCREASED SPENDING AND DEFICITS AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said the tax increase was hastily put together, without adequate study, to help pay for an unrelated bill. The tax increase was unveiled Thursday, without any congressional hearings to study its impact.

Even with the tax increases, the bill is projected to add $134 billion to the federal budget deficit.

* AS I NOTED UP ABOVE.

"I have seen no analysis on how this would impact energy security, how this would impact domestic production, how this would impact the overall economics in the country," said Christopher Guith, vice president of the chamber's energy institute. "There hasn't been any sort of deliberation on this."

* CONGRESS IN THE AGE OF OBAMA DOESN'T DELIBERATE. HELL... THEY RARE READ THE BILLS THEY PASS.

May 24, 2010 at 8:00 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/37314297

The financial regulatory bill is a “disaster,” and its proposed consumer protection agency would create a Fannie and Freddie “on steroids,” Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H. told CNBC on Monday.

“The bill is a disaster because it doesn’t address the fundamental underlining causes of the economic issue, which were real estate and underwriting,” he said. “This bill became, ‘I want to score the most points against Wall Street.’

Most of the initiative of this bill wasn’t directed at solving the problem, but it was directed at scoring political points.”

Gregg, who sits on the Senate banking, budget and appropriations committees proposed underwriting standards along with Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., yet they were not included in the final bill, he said.

“You’ll basically have a consumer protection agency...that defines lending on social justice purposes instead of safety and soundness purposes.”

May 24, 2010 at 8:37 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e7704314-6721-11df-bf08-00144feab49a.html

George Osborne, Britain’s finance minister, claimed on Tuesday the UK would become a “leading voice in Europe for fiscal responsibility” as he set out the first stage in plans to tackle the country’s £156 billion budget deficit.

The chancellor of the exchequer announced plans to save £6.2 billion in the current financial year, a downpayment on much more brutal savings to be announced in the autumn. The first wave of cuts was identified by the new Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition within a week of taking office and represents some of the “low-lying fruit” available for instant savings. This includes a freeze on civil service recruitment and a clampdown on other areas of spending, including IT and consultancies, the scrapping of some projects and the scaling back of non-governmental bodies. Senior civil servants will be allowed to travel first class only in exceptional circumstances, while ministers will lose their official cars in all but “exceptional circumstances” and will be encouraged to walk instead.

David Cameron, the prime minister, has set an example but worried his security advisers by walking the five minutes from Downing Street to parliament. He has already cut ministers’ pay by 5%.

* IF THIS SOUNDS LIKE THE OPPOSITE OF WHAT PELOSI, REID, AND OBAMA HAVE BEEN DOING... (*SMIRK*)... THEN CONGRATULATIONS - YOU'RE UP TO SPEED! (*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)

The government’s deficit-cutting zeal contrasts with the approach of Gordon Brown, the Labour former prime minister, who argued strongly against any fiscal retrenchment while recovery was weak.

Mr Osborne wants to eliminate most of Britain’s structural deficit within the five-year term of the parliament, with some economists predicting departmental cuts of 20% or more.

* SO... WHO WANTS TO TRADE "THE AGE OF OBAMA" FOR "THE AGE OF CAMERON AND OSBORNE?" (*RAISING MY HAND*)

May 24, 2010 at 11:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/69bb33d8-678b-11df-a932-00144feab49a.html

The Obama administration made a strong plea to Congress on Monday to grit its teeth and pass a new set of spending measures – dubbed the “second stimulus” by some economists...

* AGAIN, FOLKS... NOT THE ONION... THIS IS FROM THE FINANCIAL TIMES.

The call for action, which was made by Lawrence Summers, Barack Obama’s senior economic adviser, who urged Congress to pass up to $200 billion in spending measures, came at the same time as Mr Obama asked Capitol Hill to grant him powers to cut “unnecessary spending.”

* FOLKS... EVEN IF I WERE OF A MIND... I COULDN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!

May 24, 2010 at 11:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/bp-oil-spill-louisiana-governor-bobby-jindal-asks/story?id=10731680

As thick oil flows into the sensitive marshes of the Louisiana coast, Gov. Bobby Jindal called on the White House and BP today to either stop the oil spill or get out of his way.

Jindal is still waiting for the federal government to provide millions of feet in boom and to approve an emergency permit for a state plan to dredge and build new barrier islands to keep the oil from reaching the marshes and wetlands.

Jindal is so desperate for the islands, he's said he'll build them even if it sends him to jail.

Jindal warned that the state's entire shoreline could end up polluted with black sludge if he doesn't get more help, immediately.

"It is clear we don't have the resources we need to protect our coast," the Republican said. "We need more boom, more skimmers, more vacuums, more jack-up barges that are still in short supply. Let's be clear: Every day that this oil sits is one more day that more of our marsh dies."

In Washington, the White House attempted to push one message today - that the administration is on the case. The administration has dispatched cabinet secretaries to the Gulf, released a photograph of President Obama on the phone with Gulf Coast governors, and even brought Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen to the daily briefing at the White House today.

* AS ALWAYS, FOLKS, ALLOW ME JUST TO VERIFY: THIS IS NOT THE ONION. PHOTO OPS ARE APPARENTLY THE MAJOR PART OF PRESIDENT OBAMA'S "ACTION PLAN" WITH REGARD TO DEALING WITH THE SPILL.

May 24, 2010 at 11:37 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.foxbusiness.com/personal-finance/2010/05/24/lawmaker-introduces-b-union-pension-bailout/

A Democratic senator is introducing legislation for a bailout of troubled union pension funds. If passed, the bill could put another $165 billion in liabilities on the shoulders of American taxpayers.

The bill, which would put the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation behind struggling pensions for union workers, is being introduced by Senator Bob Casey, (D-Pa.)...

Although right now taxpayers could possibly be on the hook for $165 billion, the liability could essentially be unlimited because these pensions have to be paid out until the workers die.

Just last week President Obama said there would be no more bailouts.

May 24, 2010 at 11:37 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.realclearworld.com/articles/2010/05/24/libya_perfect_fit_for_un_human_rights_council_98974.html

On May 13, serious human rights advocates were dismayed - if not surprised - when Colonel Qadaffi's Libya was elected to the United Nations Human Rights Council.

They shouldn't have been. Libya is a perfect fit for the UN body.

When the new council convenes, Libya will join such human rights paragons as China, Cuba, and Saudi Arabia to sit in judgment of other countries' human rights abuses.

Of the council's 47 members, only 20 are considered "free" countries according to Freedom House ratings. A full 13 are designated as "not free," while the rest fall somewhere in between.

May 25, 2010 at 12:02 AM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)