Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 12, 2010


I was just catching up on a backlog of CSI episodes and this song came up...

Man... look at that frigg'n hair...!

And now... back to our scheduled newsbites...
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5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20004724-503544.htmlhttp://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20004724-503544.html

Over the past 40 years, the U.S. government spending has grown by almost 300% net of inflation, and our revenues haven't kept pace. The result is that our current deficits, when adjusted for inflation, are the highest as a percentage of our economy since World War II.

In that respect, we sure look a lot like Greece, or at least we will in the near future. As a percentage of our economy, total federal, state and local public debt in the U.S. already exceeds levels in Spain, and are comparable to Ireland and Great Britain. We will reach Portugal's levels within two years and Greece's levels within 10 years on our present course.

* FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... OUR PRESENT COURSE IS THE ONE PELOSI, REID, BUSH, AND OBAMA SET US ON. SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT THE RINO CONGRESSES OF THE EARLY-MID 2000's BUT THE TRUTH IS THAT LEFT-WING DEMOCRATS HAVE CONTROLLED THE NATION'S PURSE STRINGS SINCE JANUARY OF 2007; AND THE BAILOUTS THAT REALLY SET THE BALL ROLLING OCCURRED IN 2008, 2009, AND ARE CONTINUING IN 2010.

* FOLKS... NO ONE HATES RINOs MORE THAN YOUR HUMBLE BLOGHOST HERE... BUT AS OBNOXIOUS AS IT WAS, EVEN TAKING TWO WARS INTO ACCOUNT, THE BUSH-RINO YEARS DIDN'T SET US ON THE PATH WE'RE ON. THAT'S JUST THE FACT.

[A]re we Greece? Not yet. But if we don't change course and recognize that we are not exempt from the fundamental laws of prudent finance, we could be in the not too distant future.

[A]nother question worth considering: Are we still America?

Our nation and too many of our citizens have become addicted to consumption and debt. ... Thanks to our forbearers, we are the richest and most powerful nation on earth.

Then again, back in the day, so was Greece.

* FORGET GREECE... HOW'BOUT GREAT BRITAIN? FOLKS... YOU DON'T HAVE TO GO BACK "BEFORE CHRIST" TO SEE THE PATTERN. SURE, THERE'S A LOT TO LEARN FROM THE DECLINE AND FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE, THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE, VARIOUS ASIAN EMPIRES... (*SIGH*)... HECK - BACK TO EUROPEAN HISTORY, REMEMBER WHEN THE POPE "DIVIDED THE WORLD" BETWEEN SPAIN AND PORTUGAL...??? REMEMBER WHAT HAPPENED TO LOUIS IV's FRANCE...??? AND AGAIN... BACK TO GREAT BRITAIN... (*SIGH*)... LESS THAN 100 YEARS AGO THE SUN NEVER SET ON THE BRITISH EMPIRE.

May 12, 2010 at 10:31 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/05/11/cbo-doubles-some-health-care-spending-estimates/

A CBO report sent Tuesday to Rep. Jerry Lewis of California, the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, said the estimated rise in discretionary spending - which is spending requiring annual congressional authorization - over the first 10 years under the new legislation could exceed $115 billion.

On March 11, exactly two months earlier, the non-partisan CBO reported the estimated increase for discretionary spending could exceed $55 billion.

* YES, YES... WE DID COVER THIS YESTERDAY... BUT PUTTING IT INTO CONTEXT - THE DOUBLING OF THE ESTIMATE - IS WORTH REITERATING.

* FOLKS... I DON'T CARE IF YOU'RE THE MOST LOYAL DEMOCRAT... YOU'VE GOTTA UNDERSTAND THAT OBAMA, PELOSI, AND REID WILL LIE TO YOU ALL DAY LONG.

* YEAH, YEAH... "ALL POLITICIANS LIE." OK. EVEN IF WE ACCEPT THAT WE'RE STILL LEFT WITH SOME LIES BEING MORE DAMAGING THAN OTHERS.

May 12, 2010 at 10:31 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/05/12/the_consequences_of_not_letting_greece_go_broke_105552.html

Surely it would have been better to let Greece go broke.

* YEP...!

The Greek national government doesn't have the cash to service its debt and private parties aren't willing to lend it any more. The natural solution would be for Greece to default and restructure its debt. Those who imprudently lent to Greece would incur a loss. The Greek government would have to curtail its spending to match what it could raise in taxes and from more demanding lenders.

(*NOD*)

The rationale is supposedly to prevent contagion. There are two fears. One is that the default of any euro zone country on its public debt would have cascading effects on the economies of other countries. The second, more profound, fear is that the default on any euro-denominated sovereign debt would adversely affect all euro-denominated sovereign debt and the euro itself.

These fears would seem grossly overwrought. Banks and other private parties in other countries hold Greek debt, but not in the sort of concentrations to represent serious contagion risk.

(*NOD*)

The euro is a currency, a medium of exchange. The default of one borrower in a particular currency doesn't reflect upon the creditworthiness of other borrowers using that currency or the soundness of the currency itself. Indeed, as Greece was finding it more expensive to borrow, Germany was finding it less expensive.

Rather than contain contagion, these bailouts actually institutionalize it. Basically, the euro zone countries have said that we are no longer independent political economies that share a common market and a currency. Instead, if any of us are sick, then all of us may have to pay the hospital bill.

And they increase doubts, rather than alleviate them, about euro zone public finances and the soundness of the euro.

Most of the larger $955 billion bailout package takes the form of off-budget borrowing that nevertheless will be guaranteed by euro zone countries. So, the solution to too much government borrowing is even more government borrowing, only less transparent and secure.

*HMM... SOUNDS LIKE OBAMANOMICS! (*SMIRK*) (*SNICKER*)

And for the first time, the European Central Bank will buy dodgy sovereign debt private investors are shunning. The ECB says it will offset these purchases with the sale of other assets to avoid expanding the monetary base. But that means that the ECB will be trading good securities for bad ones.

* DOES THIS MAKE ANY SENSE TO ANYONE...?!?! (*SNARL*) WHY IS IT THAT I SUSPECT POLITICALLY CONNECTED BANKERS AND ULTRA RICH SPECULATORS WILL BENEFIT WHILE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS GO ON THE HOOK FOR A PORTION OF THE IMF FUNDING?

May 12, 2010 at 10:42 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/fighting_terror_like_it_a1sKpK68R0BbixYp5uNPgJ

NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly noted last week that the investigation of the Times Square bombing attempt was in some ways similar to the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center. He was talking about the police work that nabbed Faisal Shahzad - but the comment also highlighted the similarity of our government's response then and now.

Somehow, we're back to a 1993 mindset on terrorism. Holder actually boasts that law enforcement is "the backbone of our national-security efforts." Sorry - that's not a good thing. ... We've had 17 years to learn the lessons of 1993, but instead we're back where we started. The government's goal should be prevention - to stop terrorists before they drive into Times Square, not after the fuse is lit, the bomb detonated and people killed.

Our federal investigators did a commendable job in the Times Square aftermath, but we shouldn't be congratulating ourselves when we came so close to losing innocent Americans.

[Eric Holder's] Justice Department is leading this investigation as well as other recent terrorism investigations. [DOJ] also led the review determining whether detainees held at Guantanamo Bay should be released and the review of what interrogation and transfer policies should be used with suspected terrorists. The attorney general shouldn't be leading this country's national-security apparatus - Congress created that role for the director of national intelligence.

Where was the DNI at the press conference after the Times Square incident? Is counterterrorism now the primary job of law enforcement?

* YA GOTTA ADMIT... THESE ARE DAMN GOOD QUESTIONS!

Even failed terror attacks represent a failure of intelligence. And we'll continue to have intelligence failures because the government isn't using every intelligence-collection tool at its disposal. For example, we're too focused on law enforcement and not enough on intelligence-gathering in interviews with terrorists. Justice has stated that it initially questioned Shahzad under the public-safety exception to Miranda, then later Mirandized him. But that exception merely determines the admissibility of a defendant's statements in court. There is nothing to prevent more interrogations of Shahzad with no Miranda restrictions at all - it's just that statements from such an interview couldn't be used against the defendant at trial.

This emphasis on the admissibility of evidence highlights the fact that Justice is still prioritizing prosecution of a single defendant over larger national-security concerns.

* AND UNFORTUNATELY...

These skewed priorities are spreading - witness the administration initiative in which the FBI is reading Miranda rights to terrorist detainees taken from the battlefield.

May 12, 2010 at 11:48 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100512/pl_afp/useconomygovernmentbudgetdeficit_20100512184651

The US government suffered a wider-than-expected budget deficit of $82.69 billion in April, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. It was nearly four times the deficit chalked up a year earlier and the largest ever recorded in April.

Most analysts had expected the April deficit, the 19th consecutive month of federal red ink, to be about $52 billion.

(*SMIRK*) YEAH... A "MERE" $52 BILLION. SO LET'S SEE... THIS MEANS... THEY "ONLY" OVERSPENT THEIR OWN... er... PLANNED OVERSPENDING BY A BIT OVER $30 BILLION...!!!

[Federal] expenditure...rose, to $327.96 billion dollars, the Treasury figures showed.

* THAT'S ONE F--KING MONTH'S WORTH OF FEDERAL SPENDING, KIDS... (*GRITTING MY TEETH*)

The White House had warned that the deficit for the 2010 fiscal year could swell to 1.555 trillion dollars, eclipsing the prior year's record of $1.415 trillion due to massive spending...

* THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN LEFTIST DEMOCRATS CONTROL THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH, THE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH, AND HUGE CHUNKS OF THE JUDICIARY.

May 12, 2010 at 3:36 PM

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