Thursday, May 13, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, May 13, 2010


Hmm... something mellow to start the morning...

Boy am I glad these guys are still alive...
Posted by at

14 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10109275.stm

[Spanish Prime Minister] Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero announced a 5% cut to public sector salaries, as well as reductions to pensions and regional government funding.

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

* SOUNDS TO ME LIKE SOMETHING WE SHOULD BE DOING HERE; NOT JUST THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, BUT EACH AND EVERY STATE GOVERNMENT.

In his speech to parliament, Mr Zapatero revealed other details of the plan. Automatic increases in pensions will be suspended from 2011 and funding for regional governments cut.

"We aim to cut civil service wages by an average of 5% in 2010 and freeze them in 2011," he added.

He said his own salary and those of senior cabinet members would be cut by 15%.

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Spain said it wanted to drastically reduce its budget deficit, which currently stands at 11% of GDP. The aim of the new package is to trim this deficit to 6% of GDP in 2011.

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*) (*NOD*)

May 13, 2010 at 10:57 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/world/europe/13turkey.html?ref=world

Turkey and Russia signed 17 agreements on Wednesday to enhance cooperation in energy and other fields, including pacts to build Turkey’s first nuclear power plant and furthering plans for an oil pipeline from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean.

May 13, 2010 at 11:57 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://thehill.com/opinion/columnists/ab-stoddard/97603-nj-gov-sets-tone-for-us

In a movie version of this important story of our time, the bold, undaunted officeholder would look much like the boyish, handsome David Cameron - Great Britain’s new Conservative prime minister - who called on his countrymen Tuesday to embrace an “age of austerity.”

But this is America. So the fearless leader willing to be honest with voters, to part with what cannot be paid for, is actually not dashing, nor is he eloquent. He is an overweight Bruce Springsteen devotee, a former prosecutor with a remaining trace of a Turnpike accent who is intent on rescuing New Jersey. If he succeeds, [Republican] Gov. Chris Christie could become a major political force in the years to come, whether he likes it or not.

As the United States watches a debt crisis in Greece like a fiscal oil spill, waiting to see where it will spread first and when it will make landfall on our shores, Christie is tackling the nation’s worst state deficit - $10.7 billion of a $29.3 billion budget. In doing so, Christie has become the politician so many Americans crave, one willing to lose his job. Indeed, Christie is doing something unheard of: governing as a Republican in a blue state, just as he campaigned, making good on promises, acting like his last election is behind him.

* IT'S A GOOD OP-ED; FOLLOW THE LINK TO READ IT IN ITS ENTIRETY.

May 13, 2010 at 11:57 AM
William R. Barker said...

TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704250104575238444182924962.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

[W]hy didn't U.S. surveillance pick up Shahzad's intentions on his many trips to Pakistan?

The debate about the Times Square bomb plot has focused, so far, on what happened after Faisal Shahzad's detonator fizzled. ... The more urgent question in our view is why Shahzad wasn't stopped before he parked his SUV on West 45th Street.

[W]as this failure at all related to restrictions imposed on wiretapping by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, the 1978 law that has been tightened on terrorist surveillance thanks to howling by the anti-antiterror Left?

At a Senate hearing three days after Shahzad's arrest, New Jersey Democrat Frank Lautenberg asked Eric Holder if any federal agencies were "looking at this fellow prior to the attempted bombing." The Attorney General declined to answer, though he did reveal that "we're in the process of looking at indices, files, and to see exactly what we knew about this gentleman and when we knew it."

Mr. Lautenberg's question is important for many reasons, not least because U.S. intelligence-gathering capability has been substantially curtailed in stages over the last decade. Via executive order after 9/11, the Bush Administration created the covert Terrorist Surveillance Program. TSP allowed the National Security Agency to monitor the traffic and content of terrorist electronic communications overseas, unencumbered by FISA warrants even if one of the parties was in the U.S.

While the Administration rightly believed this critical national-security tool was lawful, internal dissent soon limited the program's scope; recall then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales's 2004 visit to Attorney General John Ashcroft's hospital bed to keep the program running.

* To be continued...

May 13, 2010 at 1:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

CONTINUED... (Part 2 of 2)

The New York Times exposed TSP's existence in 2005... By January 2007, TSP had been dissolved and Mr. Gonzales, then Attorney General, informed Congress that all surveillance "will now be conducted subject to the approval of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court." High-level Bush officials told us in summer 2007 that the new FISA procedures had reduced the effectiveness of the program by about two-thirds. In addition to excessive delays, the anonymous FISA judges demanded warrants even for foreign-to-foreign calls that were routed through U.S. switching networks

Even so, the concession didn't placate Democrats, and intelligence gathering became more constrained with each round of political combat. A six-month fix in 2007 and a four-year Congressional deal in 2008 modernized portions of the law, but at the cost of putting all overseas surveillance within a limited FISA perimeter.

[G]iven that we might have had dozens of dead innocents in Times Square, Congress should ask some probing questions. ... The larger question is whether FISA and its limitations are now undermining the government's ability to identify and track terror networks, and thus its ability to anticipate and disrupt attacks.

In a letter at the end of 2008 that received too little media attention, New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly slammed FISA as "an unnecessarily protracted, risk-adverse process that is dominated by lawyers, not investigators and intelligence collectors." The Bush Justice Department's political timidity and deference to FISA judges, he wrote, meant that "the federal government is doing less than it is lawfully entitled to do to protect New York City, and the City is less safe as a result."

The Washington Post reported [in April] that the NSA suspended the collection of some types of "metadata" - the destination of emails, calls made from a particular phone number, etc. - after the FISA court objected. These constraints are being imposed at the same time that domestic terror plots linked to, or inspired by, foreigners are increasing.

Shahzad's bomb didn't explode, but we might not be so lucky next time. Surveillance and interrogation are our best antiterror tools, and a vital question is whether FISA is in practice giving jihadists a license to kill.

May 13, 2010 at 1:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE64C0P020100513

Britain's new [Conservative Party led] coalition government cut its own pay by 5% on Thursday in a sign of the tough medicine the country faces to bring down a record budget deficit.

Ministers met around the cabinet table for the first time on Thursday and promptly awarded themselves a pay cut. Prime Minister David Cameron will see his annual salary cut to £142,500 from £150,000, while senior ministers will be paid just under £135,000 - a very healthy salary in Britain.

Ministers' pay will be frozen for the five-year lifetime of the parliament in measures expected to save a total of £3 million - a drop in the ocean when weighed against a deficit forecast to reach £163 billion this year.

* AHHH... BUT IT'S THE "DROPS" WHICH MAKE UP THE OCEAN... NO?

* GOOD FOR CAMERON!

May 13, 2010 at 1:37 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/66176650-5eaa-11df-af86-00144feab49a.html

* TO UNDERSTAND WHAT A SLICK (THE PHRASE "TWO-FACED" WOULD BE DISRESPECTFUL TO THE OFFICE) OPERATOR PRESIDENT OBAMA IS...

The Obama administration’s [supposed] efforts to foster a renaissance in nuclear power in the US are coming up against an old dilemma – what to do with the waste.

The climate bill before the Senate envisages the construction of the first US reactors in more than three decades as a solution to both global warming and the country’s addiction to oil; an expansion supported by President Barack Obama...

* THE THING IS... (OR PERHAPS, "THE INCONVENIENT TRUTH IS...")

In March, Mr Obama announced that Yucca Mountain, the country’s only prospective nuclear waste repository, would be shut before ever opening.

(*SMIRK*)

The largest nuclear power company, Exelon, has said it will not construct new plants until progress is made on storage. “This is a major impediment to the development of new nuclear sites,” said John Rowe, Exelon’s chief executive.

* YEAH... EITHER OUR PRESIDENT IS SIMPLY TOO DUMB TO ANTICIPATE CAUSE AND EFFECT, OR...

(*SMIRK*)

* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... OBAMA KNEW EXACTLY WHAT HE WAS DOING.

May 13, 2010 at 4:41 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704635204575241952337427566.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLESecondNews

Venezuela's offshore semisubmergible Aban Pearl natural-gas platform sank early Thursday but the nearly 100 workers on it were safely evacuated, President Hugo Chavez said in a message on his Twitter account.

* YOU DON'T SUPPOSE...???

* HEY... REMEMBER THAT SOUTH KOREAN DESTROYER THAT WAS SUNK AWHILE BACK...??? LAST I HEARD THE EVIDENCE POINTED TO NORTH KOREA BEING RESPONSIBLE. AND YET... THE "INCIDENT" SEEMS TO HAVE VANISHED FROM THE NEWS.

* THEN OF COURSE WE HAVE THE BP OIL RIG JUST... er... BLOWING UP.

* AND NOW... THE ABAN PEARL NATURAL-GAS PLATFORM JUST... er... SINKS.

* JUST SAYING, FOLKS... JUST POINTING TO ALL THESE... er... INCIDENTS. (I'M SURE IT'S JUST COINCIDENTAL... RIGHT... MUST BE...)

May 13, 2010 at 4:41 PM
William R. Barker said...

TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=533800

Call it cap-and-trade or bait-and-switch, but John Kerry and Joe Lieberman continue to tilt at windmills with a bill to restrain energy growth in the name of saving the planet.

* YOU FOLKS HAVE TO UNDERSTAND - AND THE TRUE BELIEVER LIBERALS AMONG YOU WILL ACKNOWLEDGE THIS IF YOU'RE HONEST - FOLKS LIKE JOHN KERRY, AL GORE, NANCY PELOSI, AND BARAK OBAMA WOULD LIKE NOTHING BETTER THAN TO SEE AMERICANS PAYING $7-$9/GAL. AT THE PUMP AS THEY DO IN EUROPE.

The bill introduced Wednesday and sponsored by the two senators is called the American Power Act, an Orwellian phrase if ever there was one. Like President Obama's offshore drilling program, for every "incentive" there is a restriction.

* THINK ABOUT TODAY'S NEWSBITE CONCERNING OBAMA'S SUPPOSED "SUPPORT" FOR EXPANDING NUCLEAR POWER GENERATION EVEN WHILE PRIOR TO THAT HE ARTIFICIALLY RESTRICTED AVAILABLE NUCLEAR WASTE DISPOSAL CAPACITY. (*SMIRK*)

* HEY... FOLKS... SUPPORT WHATEVER POLICIES YOU BELIEVE IN... BUT RELYING UPON LIES AND MANIPULATION TO GET YOUR WAY... THAT'S JUST WRONG.

* To be continued...

May 13, 2010 at 6:55 PM
William R. Barker said...

CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)

The legislation has little to do with developing America's vast domestic energy supply. It's cap-and-trade meets pork-barrel spending. ... To that end, the bill creates some 60 new agencies and [pork] projects to eat up our tax dollars and buy support...

* OH... AND DON'T FORGET THE PLANNED RAID ON ALL OUR WALLETS:

According to a leaked draft summary, there is "$7 billion annually to improve our transportation infrastructure and efficiency" to be paid for by a gas tax that is not called a tax but a "linked fee." According to a leaked draft summary, there is "$7 billion annually to improve our transportation infrastructure and efficiency" to be paid for by a gas tax that is not called a tax but a "linked fee."

Ironically, the draft summary acknowledges the bill will cause energy prices to necessarily skyrocket by promising to "provide assistance to those Americans who may be disproportionately affected by potential increases in energy prices."

* MORE REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH... MORE DEFICIT SPENDING... MORE MAKING THE MIDDLE CLASS FEEL DEPENDENT UPON GOVERNMENT "LARGESS..."

"This bill is a compilation of just about every bad idea that has emerged in the energy debate," said Patrick Creighton, spokesman for the Institute for Energy Research, a free-market think tank. "Two things are certain if this bill becomes law: Energy prices will skyrocket, and jobs will be shipped overseas."

It is a scam built upon a scam, introduced just as the mercury in Chicopee, Mass., dropped to 26 degrees at about 5 a.m., beating the previous record for the chilliest May 11 set back in 1962.

In testimony before Congress on May 6, Britain's Lord Christopher Monckton, a global warming expert, noted that "neither global mean surface temperature nor its rates of change in recent decades have been exceptional, unusual, inexplicable or unprecedented."

Monckton also advised: "There are many urgent priorities that need the attention of Congress, and it is not for me as an invited guest in your country to say what they are. Yet I can say this much: on any view, 'global warming' is not one of them."

We agree. Jobs, energy development and economic growth come first."This bill is a compilation of just about every bad idea that has emerged in the energy debate," said Patrick Creighton, spokesman for the Institute for Energy Research, a free-market think tank. "Two things are certain if this bill becomes law: Energy prices will skyrocket, and jobs will be shipped overseas."

It is a scam built upon a scam, introduced just as the mercury in Chicopee, Mass., dropped to 26 degrees at about 5 a.m., beating the previous record for the chilliest May 11 set back in 1962.

In testimony before Congress on May 6, Britain's Lord Christopher Monckton, a global warming expert, noted that "neither global mean surface temperature nor its rates of change in recent decades have been exceptional, unusual, inexplicable or unprecedented."

Monckton also advised: "There are many urgent priorities that need the attention of Congress, and it is not for me as an invited guest in your country to say what they are. Yet I can say this much: on any view, 'global warming' is not one of them."

May 13, 2010 at 6:55 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/may/13/holder-hasnt-read-ariz-law-he-criticized/

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who has been critical of Arizona's new immigration law, said Thursday he hasn't yet read the law and is going by what he's read in newspapers or seen on television.

* OUR COUNTRY IS BEING RUN BY F--KING IDIOTS...!!!

May 13, 2010 at 10:54 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://mikepence.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4069&Itemid=71

U.S. Congressman Mike Pence today introduced legislation to stop U.S. tax dollars from being used by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for bailouts of European countries

The European Bailout Protection Act would:

1) Prohibit any funds that have yet to be drawn by the IMF from being used to provide financing to any EU countries until all EU nations are in compliance with the debt to GDP ratio requirement in their own collective growth pact.

2) Require the Treasury Secretary to oppose any IMF loans to EU nations until all EU countries are in compliance with their debt to GDP ratio requirement.

The bill does not permanently prohibit the IMF from lending to these nations; it simply prohibits the U.S. from participating in the proposed European bailout.

May 13, 2010 at 10:54 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/14/world/14awlaki.html?hp

The Obama administration’s decision to authorize the killing by the Central Intelligence Agency of a terrorism suspect who is an American citizen has set off a debate...

* A "DEBATE," HUH...???

The notion that the government can, in effect, execute one of its own citizens far from a combat zone, with no judicial process and based on secret intelligence, makes some legal authorities deeply uneasy.

* ..."UNEASY..." THAT'S GREAT; JUST FRIGG'N GREAT.

To eavesdrop on the terrorism suspect who was added to the target list, the American-born radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who is hiding in Yemen, intelligence agencies would have to get a court warrant. But designating him for death, as C.I.A. officials did early this year with the National Security Council’s approval, required no judicial review.

* NO... THIS IS NOT THE SCRIPT OF A SNL SKIT NOR SOMETHING OUT OF THE ONION; THIS IS THE NEW YORK TIMES.

“Congress has protected Awlaki’s cellphone calls,” said Vicki Divoll, a former C.I.A. lawyer who now teaches at the United States Naval Academy. “But it has not provided any protections for his life. That makes no sense.”

* LISTEN. CONGRESS DOESN'T NEED TO "PROVIDE ANY PROTECTION FOR HIS LIFE;" THE CONSTITUTION ITSELF DOES THAT; OR AT LEAST IT DID PRE-AGE OF OBAMA.

* AND THE SILENCE FROM THE LEFT... DEAFENING.

Administration officials take the view that no legal or constitutional rights can protect Mr. Awlaki...

* AND THIS NEW "LEGAL DOCTRINE" IS BASED UPON...???

“American citizenship doesn’t give you carte blanche to wage war against your own country,” said a counterterrorism official who discussed the classified program on condition of anonymity. “If you cast your lot with its enemies, you may well share their fate.”

* YES... IF THE AMERICAN CITIZEN IN QUESTION HAPPENS TO GET CAUGHT UP IN THE CROSS FIRE DURING AN OTHERWISE LEGAL ACTION! OTHERWISE THE ONLY CONSTITUTIONAL PATHWAY TO BRING SUCH A PERSON TO JUSTICE IS VIA THE RULE OF LAW! THAT'S WHY THE FOUNDERS PUT "TREASON" AND HOW TO DEAL WITH IT IN THE CONSTITUTION...!!! (NOT TO MENTION THE FIFTH AMENDMENT TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS...!!!)

May 13, 2010 at 10:54 PM
William R. Barker said...

* TO BE READ IN THE CONTEXT OF FOLLOWING THE ABOVE POSTED NEWSBITE...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/05/13/2010-05-13_feds_raid_hudson_valley_town_in_massive_gang_bust.html

Authorities have charged dozens of reputed members of the Blood and Latin Kings street gangs in a massive take-down north of New York City.

More than 300 heavily armed federal agents and local police raided homes at dawn on Thursday in Newburgh, N.Y. - a town that has been plagued by drug-related violence.

Authorities say so far 78 suspects - 60 alleged Bloods and 18 reputed Latin Kings - are facing various drug charges.

* HMM... I WONDER WHY THE MAYOR OF NEWBURGH DIDN'T SIMPLY AUTHORIZE POLICE TO ASSASINATE ON SIGHT ALL SUSPECTED MEMBERS OF THE LATIN KINGS AND THE BLOODS...??? (AIN'T THAT HOW WE DO THINGS IN "THE NEW AMERICA" OF THE AGE OF OBAMA...???)

* PEOPLE! WAKE UP! JUST THROWING A "NATIONAL SECURITY" LABEL ON AN ILLEGAL ORDER DOESN'T CHANGE THE FACT THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATE IS APPARENTLY - ACCORDING TO THE NEW YORK TIMES AND OTHER SOURCES - ISSUING ILLEGAL EXECUTION ORDERS TARGETING AMERICAN CITIZENS.

* I FREELY ADMIT I'M LESS THAN THRILLED WITH OBAMA BEING CHIEF EXECUTIVE. THAT SAID, HE WAS DULY ELECTED. WHEN WAS HE ALSO MADE "JUDGE, JURY, AND EXECUTIONER-IN-CHIEF" AND REMIND ME... WHEN WAS THE CONSTITUTION DEEMED NULL AND VOID?

* P.S. -- Newburgh, NY is approximately 17 miles up the road from my home.

May 13, 2010 at 10:56 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)