Thursday, May 27, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, May 27, 2010


A Simpler Time...
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16 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.slate.com/id/2254826/

As one of the few people to have viewed the Korean town of Panmunjom from both sides, I [Christopher Hitchens] never forget to ask why on earth it is referred to as part of the "demilitarized zone."

It can make a strong claim for being the most intensively militarized zone on the planet.

We aren't allowed to know for sure whether there are nuclear mines in the wide strip of desolation that separates the two Koreas, but we do know that the DMZ was one of the reasons given by the Clinton administration for not signing the treaty forbidding the sowing of mines.

The military flags displayed at both ends of the Panmunjom strip are testimony to the fact of a cease-fire line, because the Korean War never ended. This is at best an armistice. And we are regularly reminded that the Korean peninsula could explode into a full-scale war or, rather, resumption of war, at any moment.

North Korea is thought to have enough purely conventional weapons to destroy South Korea's capital, Seoul, which is located very close to the cease-fire line or "border." It has also built a series of dams, which, if opened or blown, could flood and drown a good part of South Korea.

After a very detailed and protracted investigation of...the sinking of the Cheonan, a South Korean frigate, in March, it was announced last week that the warship had been hit by a North Korean torpedo. So volatile and unpredictable and hysterical has the North Korean regime become that it was believed in some quarters that even the finding might trigger a fresh escalation - an escalation that might pass the nuclear threshold before anyone could draw breath. So this is the way we live now: conditioned by the awareness that no North Korean provocation, however egregious, can be confronted, lest it furnish the occasion or pretext for something truly barbarous and insane.

American intelligence has apparently reported to President Barack Obama that the murder of 46 South Korean sailors was a premeditated action on the part of Kim Jong-il himself, in order to gratify the morale of his military elite and to advance the cause of one of his sons as his impending dynastic replacement.

It seems that in April the Dear Leader personally visited and congratulated the naval unit that carried out the torpedo attack.

[I]t seems that the provisional response from Washington has been to urge restraint on the elected government in Seoul, which indeed has little choice but to confine itself to diplomatic initiatives and the dropping of such economic incentives for good behavior as Seoul can still claim to exert. This may well serve to fend off the latest crisis and prevent it from ballooning into full-out madness, but it doesn't excuse us from the realization that we become accomplices in evil every time we seek to soothe the unslakable appetites of the crime family that sits in Pyongyang.

* FOLKS... IT WAS THE CLINTON ADMINISTRATION THAT ALLOWED NORTH KOREA TO CROSS THE NUCLEAR THRESHOLD. WE WERE BACK THEN AT THE HEIGHT OF OUR MILITARY AND DIPLOMATIC POWERS. CLINTON NEVER SHOULD HAVE ALLOWED NORTH KOREA TO BECOME A NUCLEAR POWER.

May 27, 2010 at 10:22 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.0513d49acfc29bc63d3ee39de8bd3b71.dc1&show_article=1

US National Guard troops being sent to the Mexican border will be used to stem the flow of guns and drugs across the frontier and not to enforce US immigration laws, the State Department said Wednesday.

* MAKE OF THIS WHAT YOU WILL... (*SHRUG*)

* BY THE WAY... HAS ANYONE READ ANY SPECIFIC INFO ON HOW MANY ACTUAL "BOOTS ON THE GROUND" WILL BE DEPLOYED?

The clarification came after the Mexican government urged Washington not to use the additional troops to go after illegal immigrants.

* YES... GOD FORBID THAT WE ENFORCE OUR OWN LAWS...

State Department spokesman Philip Crowley...said the extra troops would be used to free up civilians engaged in support functions so that law enforcement personnel can be increased along the 2,000-mile-long (3,200 kilometer) border.

* SUPPORT FUNCTIONS...??? (HMM... IS IT JUST ME OR DOES THIS SOUND LIKE OBAMA'S NOT REALLY SENDING "1,200 TROOPS TO THE BORDER" IN THE SENSE THE AVERAGE AMERICAN UNDERSTOOD THE NEWS REPORTING WHEN THE DECISION WAS FIRST ANNOUNCED...???)

May 27, 2010 at 10:22 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.house.gov/htbin/blog_inc?BLOG,tx14_paul,blog,999,All,Item%20not%20found,ID=100524_3703,TEMPLATE=postingdetail.shtml

Congress, with its insatiable appetite for spending, is set to pass yet another “supplemental” appropriations bill in the next two weeks.

So-called supplemental bills allow Congress to spend beyond even the 13 annual appropriations bills that fund the federal government. These are akin to a family that consistently outspends its budget, and therefore needs to use a credit card to make it through the end of the month.

If the American people want Congress to spend less, putting an end to supplemental appropriations bills would be a start.

The 13 “regular” appropriations bills fund every branch, department, agency, and program of the federal government. Congress should place every dollar in plain view among those 13 bills. Instead, supplemental spending bills serve as a sneaky way for Congress to spend extra money that was not projected in budget forecasts. Once rare, they have become commonplace vehicles for deficit spending.

The latest supplemental bill is touted as an “emergency” war spending bill, needed to fund our ongoing conflicts in the Middle East. The "emergencies" never seem to end, however, and Congress passes one military supplemental bill after another as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan drag on.

The smokescreen debate over earmarks demonstrates how we have lost perspective when it comes to military spending. Earmarks constitute about $11 billion of the latest budget. This sounds like a lot of money, and it is, but it is a drop in the bucket compared to the $708 billion spent by the Pentagon this year to expand our worldwide military presence.

The total expenditures to maintain our world empire is approximately $1 trillion annually, which is roughly what the entire federal budget was in 1990!

* AND YET PRESIDENT OBAMA WANTS AN ADDITIONAL $500 MILLION ON TOP OF THAT TO FUND DEFENDING OUR OWN SOUTHERN BORDER - JUST THE ARIZONA PORTION! THIS IS INSANE...!!!

We spend more on defense than the rest of the world combined, and far more than we spent during the Cold War. These expenditures in many cases foment resentment that does not make us safer, but instead makes us a target. We referee and arm conflicts the world over, and have troops in some 140 countries with over 700 military bases.

There is nothing conservative about spending money we don’t have simply because that spending is for defense.

No enemy can harm us in the way we are harming ourselves, namely bankrupting the nation and destroying our own currency.

The former Soviet Union did not implode because it was attacked; it imploded because it was broke.

* AND THAT IS THE TRUTH... (*SIGH*)

May 27, 2010 at 11:37 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.wicz.com/news2005/viewarticle.asp?a=14341

Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY), Congressman Phil Hare (D-IL) and Congressman Bob Etheridge (D-NC) today led a group of 104 other House members in support of an effort to provide emergency funding to save 250,000 education related jobs.

In a letter to House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI), the group offered its strong support for the inclusion of the $23 billion provision in the emergency supplemental appropriations bill that is expected to come up for a vote in the coming weeks.

* $28 BILLION... (*SIGH*)

Last year, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provided more than than $100 billion for states to support their public school systems.

* YET NOW AN ADDITIONAL $28 BILLION IS REQUIRED...??? AND NEXT YEAR...??? AND THE YEAR AFTER THAT...???

* PEOPLE. THE DEMOCRATS ARE ABOUT BANKRUPTING AMERICA; IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLE.

May 27, 2010 at 1:10 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=3517&action=Headlines%20About%20TCS

Congress is moving legislation this month that would force taxpayers nationwide to share the financial risk of high-end property owners who build on the storm-prone coasts of Florida, California and a number of other coastal states.

The House resolution is sponsored by Florida Democrat Ron Klein and aimed primarily at bailing out that state's woefully underfunded property insurance system. With Florida's high concentration of expensive coastal properties and its very high risk of hurricanes, the cost of this bailout could easily run into the tens of billions.

* NOW THAT'S WHAT I CALL REDISTRIBUTION OF WEALTH! (ONLY IT'S REDISTRIBUTING THE HARD-EARNED DOLLARS OF AVERAGE AMERICANS TO THE RESIDENTS OF MALIBU AND PALM BEACH. (*SMIRK*) GREAT! THOSE DEMOCRATS... THEY'RE ALL ABOUT THE "LITTLE GUY," HUH? (*SNICKER*)

[A]dvocacy groups opposing the legislation claim it would impose nearly unlimited potential liabilities on taxpayers.

In a letter to Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Committee on Financial Services, representatives of those groups wrote that, "... HR 2555's major provisions make it clear that it will ultimately insert the federal government into previously private insurance and reinsurance marketplaces at enormous costs to taxpayers." The letter further noted that Florida's Hurricane Catastrophe Fund has "$4 billion in hard assets to pay claims that could total more than $25 billion in a bad year.

* NO WONDER FLORIDA DEMOCRAT RON KLEIN IS LOOKING FOR A BAILOUT!

* HEY... AND IF YOU LOOK AT A MAP YOU'LL NOTICE FLORIDA ISN'T AMERICA'S ONLY COASTAL STATE... (*SIGH*)

This legislation is not just bad fiscal policy and a lousy deal for taxpayers. It also amounts to poor environmental policy. House Resolution 2555 would create more incentive to build in risky and environmentally sensitive coastal areas. It would effectively subsidize the cost of insuring high-end properties in hurricane-prone areas.

* WHICH HAVE HISTORICALLY BEEN SUBSIDIZED ANYWAY...!!! (AND THEY NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN...!!!) FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... WE'RE TALKING TAKING FROM THE POOR TO GIVE TO THE RICH...!!! IF THESE PEOPLE WANT TO BUILD THEIR MANSIONS ON THE BEACH SO BE IT; BUT THE COST OF INSURANCE MUST BE THEIRS, NOT OURS!

Why would Congress consider disrupting private insurance markets and putting American taxpayers on the hook for billions of dollars when the inevitable hurricane takes out a bunch of well-heeled Floridians' beach houses? Opponents of HR 2555 argue convincingly that the motivation is purely political. They say House leaders want to help Klein, an endangered Democrat, hang on to his seat in next fall's election.

Sadly, that's entirely believable. On Capitol Hill, the public interest regularly takes a back seat to narrow political interests...

May 27, 2010 at 1:10 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=3516&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS#

The recently released FY2010 Supplemental Appropriations Bill Summary includes the addition of billions of dollars worth of loan guarantees for energy projects, including...nuclear reactors.

The emergency spending bill is supposed to address urgent, unforeseen war and disaster related items...

* NOT IN THE AGE OF OBAMA IT'S NOT! (*SNORT*)

* HEY... SURE IT HAPPENED UNDER BUSH TOO... NO DOUBT UNDER CLINTON... WHO KNOWS HOW FAR BACK IT GOES? THE POINT IS... IT'S WRONG...!!! IT'S IRRESPONSIBLE...!!!

Taxpayers are already on the hook for $51 billion in energy loan guarantees under the DOE program – including $18.5 billion for nuclear reactors and $18.5 billion for renewable energy, plus an additional $4 billion appropriation for renewable and energy efficiency projects in the Stimulus bill.

This attempt to add new loan guarantee authority in an “emergency” spending bill not only flies in the face of the normal legislative process...

* ENOUGH! THERE IS NO "NORMAL LEGISLATIVE PROCESS." WASHINGTON IS BROKEN. THE RULE OF LAW AS WE ONCE UNDERSTOOD IT LIES IN TATTERS...

May 27, 2010 at 1:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/05/27/morning-bell-this-congress-has-no-shame/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

On February 4, 2010, pushing for passage of her pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said on the House floor: “When I became Speaker of the House, the very first day we passed legislation that made PAYGO the rule of the House. Today we will make it the law of the land. … So the time is long overdue for this to be taken for granted. The federal government will pay as it goes.”

That was the promise.

But here is the reality: in the three years that Speaker Pelosi has enforced her PAYGO rule, the House has violated it by nearly $1 trillion.

* I KNOW... I KNOW... I'M A BROKEN RECORD. BUT, HEY... IT'S NOT LIKE THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA TELLS THE STORY!

And now with the U.S. Debt Clock officially passing the $13 trillion milestone Wednesday, the House is set to violate their own PAYGO law yet again... The bill originally clocked-in at almost $200 billion, and Democrats have since cut the spending to just under $150 billion, $95 billion of which will go straight onto our children’s credit card bill in flagrant violation of Congress’ own PAYGO rules.

The legislation clocks-in at almost one-fifth the size of President Barack Obama’s original $862 billion failed economic stimulus, and the Leftist majority in Congress has titled it “The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.”

[T]he Left has crafted a bill that actually increases tax revenues by $57 billion over ten years. The biggest items are a job-killing tax on American corporations that compete overseas, a job-killing tax on innovation-creating venture capital partnerships, and a four-fold increase in the tax on oil production that ostensibly is supposed to go to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, but is instead being siphoned off to help pay for completely unrelated new domestic spending.

Across the country, millions of American families are struggling to make family budgets and keep to them. Not Congress. For the first time in the history of the budget process, the House of Representatives has failed to plan how they will spend your tax dollars. Instead they will recklessly continue to flagrantly violate their own PAYGO rules as they add billions and billions worth of debt onto your children. This Congress has no shame.

* FORGET SHAME... THESE BASTARDS SHOULD BE TARRED, FEATHERED, AND RUN OUT OF TOWN ON A RAIL!

* SERIOUSLY... 100% SERIOUSLY... OUR OWN ADMINISTRATION AND CONGRESS POSE A GREATER THREAT TO AMERICA'S FUTURE THAN IRAN, CHINA, AND NORTH KOREA COMBINED. THESE PEOPLE ARE DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY!!!

May 27, 2010 at 2:31 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704269204575270081524288118.html?mod=WSJ_hps_MIDDLEThirdNews

A team of U.S. scientists on Thursday significantly raised the estimate of how much oil has been leaking from a damaged well into the Gulf of Mexico. The figures signal that the disaster is at least as big as the Exxon Valdez spill two decades ago, and could perhaps double it in size.

* OK... QUESTION: DOES ANYONE RECALL A LITTLE EVENT WE SOMETIMES REFER TO AS... er... WW-2?

* SERIOUSLY! DON'T GET ME WRONG, I'M NOT DOWNPLAYING THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE BEING DONE... BUT CAN WE PUT THINGS IN PERSPECTIVE...???

* OH... AND REGARDING THE EXXON VALDEZ SPILL... IF I'M NOT MISTAKEN DIDN'T THE AREA EFFECTED COME BACK MORE VALUABLE AND PRODUCTIVE THAN EVER BEFORE...???

* IF "THE GOVERNMENT" WANTS TO BE IN CHARGE, SHOULDN'T "THE GOVERNMENT" LEARN TO WALK AND CHEW GUM AT THE SAME TIME? I MEAN... WHY CAN'T WE FIGURE OUT WHAT HAPPENED AND DO OUR BEST TO PREVENT IT FROM HAPPENING AGAIN VIA SCIENCE AND NOT A POLITICALLY MOTIVATED ATTACK UPON OUR OWN LONG TERM INTERESTS?

May 27, 2010 at 4:23 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704269204575270031411598538.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEADNewsCollection

President Barack Obama...said he is suspending action on 33 exploratory drilling operations in the Gulf and canceling or temporarily suspending pending lease sales and drilling in Virginia and the Arctic.

The decision is sure to upset Alaska lawmakers, some of whom were briefed on it late Wednesday.

Sen. Mark Begich (D-AK) said in a statement that it would cost Alaska jobs and cause the U.S. to "export more dollars and import more oil from some unfriendly places." He said the halt would "cause more delays and higher costs for domestic oil and gas production to meet the nation's energy needs."

* AND HE'S RIGHT...!!!

Mr. Obama also said the "oil industry's cozy and sometimes corrupt relationship" with federal regulators underscores the need for more oversight.

* BUT... BUT... BUT... OBAMA WAS THE ONE TAKING THE BIGGEST BITE OF BP CAMPAIGN DONATIONS...!!!

* BUT... BUT... BUT... OBAMA HAS BEEN IN CHARGE OF FEDERAL REGULATORS SINCE JANUARY OF 2009...!!!

(*MASSIVE FRIGG'N HEADACHE*)

* FOLKS... I URGE YOU... RE-READ GEORGE ORWELL'S 1984 AND ANIMAL FARM!

May 27, 2010 at 4:23 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704026204575266251915530206.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

What government policy makers in the U.S. and Europe fail to realize is that far from being seen as capable of delivering economic salvation, they are increasingly perceived as primary contributors to global financial ruin.

* I DON'T BELIEVE THEY CARE. IN FACT, MANY ARE BUSY FEATHERING THEIR OWN NESTS AND THOSE OF THEIR FRIENDS, ASSOCIATES, AND RELATIVES. WE'RE TALKING OLIGARCHY. WE'RE TALKING "THE CLUB." WE'RE TALKING SELFISHNESS, GREED, AND DELIBERATELY IRRESPONSIBLE DECISION MAKING GUIDED BY PERSONAL INTEREST. EXHIBIT A: FRANKLIN RAINES. (NEED I GO THROUGH THE LIST...???) CHRIS DODD - FRIEND OF ANGELO...??? REMEMBER THE FOB - "FRIENDS OF BILL" - GANG... EVERYONE FROM THE WHITEWATER CREW TO ROBERT RUBIN... (*SIGH*)

Whether it's the fiscal recklessness of spendthrift politicians or the refusal of government officials to acknowledge failings—distorting mortgage markets through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, skewing assessments of credit risk through loose monetary policy - the influence of government over the real economy is proving disastrous.

* YEP. ADDING INSULT TO INJURY THEY'RE FINANCING THEIR DISASTEROUS POLICIES BY PILING DEBT UPON OUR BACKS AND THOSE OF OUR CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.

* FOLKS... COM'ON... DO YOU ACTUALLY BELIEVE THESE PEOPLE - SOME OF THE BRIGHTEST PEOPLE ON EARTH... OR SO WE'RE CONSTANTLY TOLD - DON'T KNOW THAT WHAT THEY'RE DOING IS MAKING THINGS WORSE...???

No wonder people are flocking to gold as they flee government-supplied money. Neither the dollar nor the euro inspires much global confidence; despite the dollar's relative safe-haven status, neither currency holds out the promise of financial stability.

[T]he European Central Bank has relaxed its standards for safeguarding monetary integrity by absorbing Greek debt.

[T]he perilous fiscal condition of the U.S. has convinced many that our government will resort to future inflation to reduce its own untenable debt burden.

It's hard to see how economic recovery can proceed when citizens suspect that the monetary foundation beneath them is crumbling away.

May 27, 2010 at 4:23 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704717004575268293014677912.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

Guess how long it is before the state of New York runs out of cash?

Less than a week, according to the state's comptroller.

On June 1, New York is due to send $3.8 billion in aid to local school districts, including $2.1 billion that was supposed to be paid in March but not sent for lack of funds. Yet New York is still $1 billion short.

At the state capitol in Albany, you wouldn't sense there's a crisis. The state senate still meets only half a work-week, Monday evening through Wednesday. Meanwhile, Democratic legislators (in the majority) are shuttling back and forth between Albany and the Democratic Party's state nominating convention at the Rye Town Hilton in Westchester County, 150 miles away.

Legislators were supposed to vote on a state budget by April 15. ... [T]ax collections fell so far short of predictions that the state government ended last year $8.5 billion in the red, a shortfall that will grow to $9.2 billion by year's end.

Gov. David Paterson has proposed ways to close the gap, especially cuts in school aid of $1.1 billion, but the [Democrat controlled] legislature refused to act on them.

Lawmakers don't want teachers unions, state employee unions, and hospital workers picketing outside their offices, showing up at the state party convention, and putting their re-election prospects in peril. And so, every Monday the legislature in Albany votes to extend last year's unaffordable spending levels another week, instead of agreeing on a budget that cuts spending.

Party now and make all of us pay later - that's the game plan of politicians here and in other states, not to mention Washington, D.C.

Between 2001 and 2009, public school enrollment declined 4.6%, according State Education Department data. Yet more staff were hired, and the fastest growing category was non-teachers, up a staggering 26%.

According to the Reason Foundation's annual report on state highway systems, New York ranks in the bottom five of all 50 states in the condition of its roads and bridges - despite spending $407,122 per mile on repair and maintenance, compared with the national average of $134,535. [That's over three times the national average!] Reason called New York's highway maintenance "extremely inefficient," noting that work rules put too many employees at the same work site or on the same shovel. Those rules need to be changed.

The average state employee earns a whopping $92,332 total compensation for an average workweek of 37.5 hours, according to the Empire Center for New York State Policy.

* AND NOTICE... NO MENTION OF HOW MANY WEEKS OUT OF 53 WE'RE TALKING. WITH SICK DAYS AND VACATION DAYS AND HOLIDAYS... I'M GUESSING 46 WEEKS OR FEWER. (*SHRUG*)

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, who will be nominated as the Democratic candidate for governor this week, proposes a special commission to solve the state's fiscal challenges.

(*SIGH*) (*TEARS*)

May 27, 2010 at 4:24 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2010/05/27/morning-bell-this-congress-has-no-shame/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

On February 4, 2010, pushing for passage of her pay-as-you-go (PAYGO) legislation, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said on the House floor: “When I became Speaker of the House, the very first day we passed legislation that made PAYGO the rule of the House. Today we will make it the law of the land. … So the time is long overdue for this to be taken for granted. The federal government will pay as it goes.”

That was the promise.

But here is the reality: in the three years that Speaker Pelosi has enforced her PAYGO rule, the House has violated it by nearly $1 trillion.

* I KNOW... I KNOW... I'M A BROKEN RECORD. BUT, HEY... IT'S NOT LIKE THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA TELLS THE STORY!

And now with the U.S. Debt Clock officially passing the $13 trillion milestone Wednesday, the House is set to violate their own PAYGO law yet again... The bill originally clocked-in at almost $200 billion, and Democrats have since cut the spending to just under $150 billion, $95 billion of which will go straight onto our children’s credit card bill in flagrant violation of Congress’ own PAYGO rules.

The legislation clocks-in at almost one-fifth the size of President Barack Obama’s original $862 billion failed economic stimulus, and the Leftist majority in Congress has titled it “The American Jobs and Closing Tax Loopholes Act.”

[T]he Left has crafted a bill that actually increases tax revenues by $57 billion over ten years. The biggest items are a job-killing tax on American corporations that compete overseas, a job-killing tax on innovation-creating venture capital partnerships, and a four-fold increase in the tax on oil production that ostensibly is supposed to go to the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, but is instead being siphoned off to help pay for completely unrelated new domestic spending.

Across the country, millions of American families are struggling to make family budgets and keep to them. Not Congress. For the first time in the history of the budget process, the House of Representatives has failed to plan how they will spend your tax dollars. Instead they will recklessly continue to flagrantly violate their own PAYGO rules as they add billions and billions worth of debt onto your children. This Congress has no shame.

* FORGET SHAME... THESE BASTARDS SHOULD BE TARRED, FEATHERED, AND RUN OUT OF TOWN ON A RAIL!

* SERIOUSLY... 100% SERIOUSLY... OUR OWN ADMINISTRATION AND CONGRESS POSE A GREATER THREAT TO AMERICA'S FUTURE THAN IRAN, CHINA, AND NORTH KOREA COMBINED. THESE PEOPLE ARE DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY!!!

May 27, 2010 at 4:24 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://taxpayer.net/sarticle.php?proj_id=3523&t=Tax

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has reportedly insisted on eliminating the [federal tax] loophole known as carried interest, where many investment houses managing partners reap windfall profits for making good investments with other people’s money.

Though it functions much like the performance bonuses other people get, carried interest is taxed at the capital gains rate of 15% rather than at the personal income rate of up to 35%.

The Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) has estimated that making fund managers pay income tax like their secretaries will generate about $18.7 billion in new revenue over the next ten years.

* THOSE LONG FAMILIAR WITH MY WRITINGS AND POSITIONS KNOW THAT I'VE LONG BEEN A VOCAL PROPONENT OF REPEALING THE SO-CALLED "HEDGE FUND MANAGER'S LOOPHOLE," REFERRED TO HERE AS "CARRIED INTEREST."

* SO... MARK YOU CALENDARS KIDS... BILL BARKER AND NANCY PELOSI ON THE SAME PAGE...! (*CHUCKLE*) (*WINK*) WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT?!

May 27, 2010 at 5:34 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/26/AR2010052602537.html

The arrest of Cancun's mayor on suspicion of protecting two violent drug gangs as he campaigned for governor...

* ARE YOU FOLKS READING THIS...??? CANCUN! THE MAYOR OF CANCUN! THE MAYOR OF CANCUN WHO WAS CAMPAIGNING FOR GOVERNOR OF THE STATE...!!!

* NAH... NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT... WE SHOULD BE SENDING THE NATIONAL GUARD TO THE CANADIAN BORDER JUST TO SHOW WE'RE NOT RACISTS... (*ROLLING MY EYES*)

Gregorio Sanchez faces drug trafficking and money laundering charges a year after his police chief and other close collaborators were arrested for allegedly protecting cartels, said Ricardo Najera, a spokesman for the federal Attorney General's Office.

Sanchez is suspected of tipping off and protecting the Beltran Leyva and Zetas drug cartels - gangs known for brutal tactics including beheading rivals.

"Mexico is very much infiltrated by these gangs and they reach very high levels," said Peter Hakim, president emeritus of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. ... Cancun, the most popular destination in Mexico for foreign tourists, has long been a major transshipment point where bundles of cocaine wash ashore after smugglers drop drugs from boats or small plans for gangs to retrieve and move on to the U.S. The resort city is also a hotbed of corruption. Former Quintana Roo Governor Mario Villanueva was extradited last month to the U.S. to face charges of conspiring to import hundreds of tons of cocaine through Cancun. Last year, Cancun police chief Francisco Velasco was arrested on suspicion of protecting the Zetas. He was also questioned in the assassination of an army brigadier general hired to root out police corruption in the city, although he was never charged in that crime.

* CANCUN, FOLKS... CANCUN... (*SIGH*)

May 27, 2010 at 9:57 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2010/05/mass_senate_pas.html

With one lawmaker citing President Lincoln's respect for the rule of law, the Massachusetts Senate passed a far-reaching crackdown this afternoon on illegal immigrants and those who would hire them, going further, senators said, than any immigration bill proposed over the past five years.

The measure, which passed on a 28-10 vote as an amendment to the budget, would bar the state from doing business with any company found to break federal laws barring illegal immigrant hiring. It would also toughen penalties for creating or using fake identification documents, and explicitly deny in-state college tuition for illegal immigrants.

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

The amendment would also require the state’s public health insurance program to verify residency through the Department of Homeland Security, and would require the state to give legal residents priority for subsidized housing.

Democrats had resisted such a sweeping proposal, but spent last evening negotiating today’s measure, shortly after a new polled showed 84% of the liberal-leaning state’s voters supported tough immigration rules barring state services to illegal immigrants.

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

"The minority leader is acting like the Patriots just won the Super Bowl," said Senator Frederick E. Berry, a Peabody Democrat. "I am going to vote for it but I don’t think we ought to rejoice."

* IF YOU OPPOSE IT THEN HAVE THE BALLS TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY.

The measure would also close...a loophole that allows businesses to register cars under a company name, without identifying the owner by Social Security number and federal tax identification number. It would also create a toll-free hot line for anonymous reporting of companies that employ illegal immigrants.

The legislation also would increase penalties for driving without a license... [A]n estimated 190,000, or 20% [of immigrants living in Massachusetts] are [in the United States] illegally, according to the census.

May 27, 2010 at 9:58 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0510/37863.html

The head of the Minerals Management Services has left the top post at the agency that oversees offshore oil drilling – the first personnel shake-up to result from the devastating oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

But at his news conference Thursday, President Barack Obama said he didn’t know exactly how or why Liz Birnbaum departed, or whether she was fired.

“I don’t yet know the circumstances,” he said.

(*SNORT*)

* OH, YEAH... OBAMA'S RIGHT ON TOP OF THINGS!

[Interior Secretary Ken] Salazar told the subcommittee that Birnbaum resigned today of her own volition and called her “good public servant.”

* "A GOOD PUBLIC SERVANT...???" HER FIEFDOM WAS STAFFED BY DRUGGIES, DEGENERATES, AND THIEVES... AND OBAMA'S INTERIOR SECRETARY CALLS HER "A GOOD PUBLIC SERVANT..?!?!"

* FOLKS... YOU LIBERALS READING THIS... YOU LEFTISTS READING THIS... EVEN YOU, MICHELLE O., IF YOU'RE READING THIS... (*SMIRK*)... ISN'T THIS A BIT MUCH EVEN FOR "GO DOWN WITH THE SHIP" LOYALISTS...?!?!

May 27, 2010 at 9:58 PM

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