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2010
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May
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- Barker's Pre-Vacation Newsbites!
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, May 28, 2010
- I Wish Karl Rove Would Just Go Away
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, May 27, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 26, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, May 25, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, May 24, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., May 22 & 23
- Muehler v. Mena (Thank you, Megyn Kelly!)
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, May 21, 2010
- Yeah, yeah... I know... Nobody's gonna read "Graha...
- Terrance Jamar Graham, Petitioner v. Florida
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, May 20, 2010
- H.R. 4720 - The Where the Hell Are Boehner, McConn...
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 19, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, May 18, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, May 17, 2010
- United States, Petitioner v. Graydon Earl Comstock...
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., May 15 & 16
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, May 14, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, May 13, 2010
- Calling All Charleston, South Carolina Foodies...
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 12, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, May 11, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, May 10, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., May 8 & 9
- SERIOUSLY, GANG... Check Out My Nephews...!!!
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, May 7, 2010
- Barker's Bottom Line on Immigration Policy and "Re...
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, May 6, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 5, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, May 4, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, May 3, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., May 1 & 2
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May
(34)
About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
6 comments:
http://www.breitbart.tv/arizona-governor-has-serious-video-message-for-president-obama/
* WOW... POWERFUL VIDEO
http://www.khou.com/news/Candy-Gets-Third-Grader-A-Weeks-Detention-93033319.html
A third-grader at Brazos Elementary was given a week’s detention for possessing a Jolly Rancher.
The school’s principal and superintendent said they were simply complying with a state law that limits junk food in schools.
Jack Ellis, the superintendent for Brazos Independent School District, declined an on-camera interview. But he said the school was abiding by a state guideline that banned “minimal nutrition” foods.
Ellis said failing to adhere to the state’s guidelines could put federal funding in jeopardy.
According to the Texas Department of Agriculture’s website, “The Texas Public School Nutrition Policy (TPSNP) explicitly states that it does not restrict what foods or beverages parents may provide for their own children's consumption.”
Brazos Elementary Principal Jeanne Young, said the problem, in this instance, was that the candy was provided by another student – not the girl’s parents.
* NAH... NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT, FOLKS... JUST ANOTHER DAY IN THE AGE OF OBAMA... (*ROLLING MY EYES*) LOSS OF FEDERAL FUNDING, HUH... (*SIGH*)
http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2010/05/06/fl-sen-poll-crist-6/
* NOW AS FOLKS WHO KNOW ME KNOW, I'M NOT BIG ON THE "HORSERACE" ASPECT OF POLITICS; NOR DO I TAKE POLLING ALL THAT SERIOUSLY - PARTICULARLY THIS FAR AHEAD. THAT SAID... IF THE PEOPLE OF FLORIDA ELECT THAT PIECE OF "YOU KNOW WHAT" CRIST TO THE U.S. SENATE THEN IT'LL BE CLEAR THAT INTEGRITY AND CHARACTER ARE SIMPLY "RECOMMENDED" ATTRIBUTES IN FLORIDA POLITICS.
* JEEZUS... CRIST IS AS SLEEZY AS JOHN FRIGG'N EDWARDS; PEOPLE LIKE HIM ARE THE REASON OUR NATION IS IN DECLINE.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/07/AR2010050703054.html?hpid=topnews
The Pentagon, not usually known for its frugality, is pleading with Congress to stop spending so much money on the troops.
Through nine years of war, service members have seen a healthy rise in pay and benefits, with most of them now better compensated than workers in the private sector with similar experience and education levels.
Congress has been so determined to take care of troops and their families that for several years running it has overruled the Pentagon and mandated more-generous pay raises than requested by the George W. Bush and Obama administrations. It has also rejected attempts by the Pentagon to slow soaring health-care costs -- which Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates has said are "eating us alive" - by raising co-pays or premiums.
Now, Pentagon officials see fiscal calamity.
(*SIGH*)
* I'D HAVE TO READ THE FULL REPORT - http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d10561r.pdf - JUST TO MAKE SENSE OF THIS... IN THE MEANTIME I'M POSTING IT BECAUSE THAT TAG LINE "FISCAL CALAMITY" DESERVES HIGHLIGHTING.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/09/business/09gret.html?ref=business
If you blinked, you might have missed the ugly first-quarter report last week from Freddie Mac, the mortgage finance giant that, along with its sister Fannie Mae, soldiers on as one of the financial world’s biggest wards of the state.
* THAT STATE BEING THE UNITED STATES 0F AMERICA!
Freddie - already propped up with $52 billion in taxpayer funds used to rescue the company from its own mistakes - recorded a loss of $6.7 billion and said it would require an additional $10.6 billion from taxpayers to shore up its financial position. The news caused nary a ripple in the placid Washington scene. Perhaps that’s because many lawmakers, especially those who once assured us that Fannie and Freddie would never cost taxpayers a dime, hope that their constituents don’t notice the burgeoning money pit these mortgage monsters represent.
Some $130 billion in federal money had already been larded on both companies before Freddie’s latest request.
* FOLKS... I COVER FREDDIE AND FANNIE ALL THE TIME. REGULAR READERS OF BARKER'S NEWSBITES ARE WELL AWARE OF THIS REALITY. THAT SAID... THINK ABOUT THIS ARTICLE -- THE NEW YORK TIMES - THE SUNDAY TIMES NO LESS - APPARENTLY ASSUMES THAT ITS REGULAR READERS AREN'T FAMILIAR WITH THE SITUATION. (AND CERTAIN OF YOU WONDER WHY I TEND TO... er... REITERATE CERTAIN INFORMATION AGAIN AND AGAIN... (*SMILE*)
[T]axpayers should examine Freddie’s first-quarter numbers not only because the losses are our responsibility. ... [T]he results provide a telling snapshot of the current state of the housing market. That picture isn’t pretty. Serious delinquencies in Freddie’s single-family conventional loan portfolio - those more than 90 days late - came in at 4.13%, up from 2.41% for the period a year earlier.
Delinquencies in the company’s Alt-A book, one step up from subprime loans, totaled 12.84%, while delinquencies on interest-only mortgages were 18.5%. Delinquencies on its small portfolio of option-adjustable rate loans totaled 19.8 percent.
The company’s inventory of foreclosed properties rose from 29,145 units at the end of March 2009 to almost 54,000 units this year. Perhaps most troubling, Freddie’s nonperforming assets almost doubled, rising to $115 billion from $62 billion.
* OH... AND BY THE WAY...
When Freddie sells properties, either before or after foreclosure, it generates losses of 39%, on average.
* GUESS WHO PAYS THOSE LOSSES, KIDS? (*SMIRK*)
[T]he company’s future doesn’t look much different from its recent past. Freddie warned that its credit losses were likely to continue rising throughout 2010.
* CHECK YOUR CALENDARS, KIDS - WE'RE NOT EVEN A FULL THIRD OF THE WAY THROUGH MAY YET! (*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
Even as its business suffers through a sour real estate market, Freddie must pay hefty cash dividends on the preferred stock the government holds. After it receives the additional $10.6 billion it needs from taxpayers, dividends owed to Treasury will total $6.2 billion a year. This amount, the company said, “exceeds our annual historical earnings in most periods.”
(*MASSIVE MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
In spite of these difficulties, Freddie and Fannie are nowhere to be seen in the various financial reform efforts under discussion on Capitol Hill. Timothy F. Geithner, the Treasury secretary, offered a vague comment to Congress last March, that after some unspecified reform effort someday in the future, the companies “will not exist in the same form as they did in the past.”
* GOVERNMENT PROFESSIONALISM IN THE AGE OF OBAMA. I'M STARTING TO MISS THAT BROWN GUY FROM BUSH'S FEMA!
* NAPOLITANO'S DOING A REAL BANG UP JOB, TOO... HUH?! (*SNORT*) (*FROWN*)
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=532490
Spiraling debt is Uncle Sam's shock collar, and its jolt may await like an invisible pet fence.
"Nobody knows when you bump up against the limit, but you know when it happens it will really hurt," said fiscal watchdog Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Moody's Investors Service has brought new transparency to its sovereign ratings analysis - so much so that 2018 lights up as the year the U.S. could be in line for a downgrade if Congressional Budget Office projections hold.
For the U.S., debt service of 18%-20% of federal revenue is the outer limit of AAA-territory, Moody's managing director Pierre Cailleteau confirmed...Under the Obama budget [projections], interest would top 18% of revenue in 2018 and 20% in 2020, CBO projects. But under more adverse scenarios than the CBO considered, including higher interest rates, Moody's projects that debt service could hit 22.4% of revenue by 2013.
* FOLKS... THIS ADMINISTRATION AND A DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS - SINCE 2007 MAY I REMIND YOU - ARE DRIVING THIS NATION TOWARDS A FINANCIAL CLIFF! THIS ISN'T BILL BARKER SAYING THIS... THIS IS MOODY'S... THIS IS THE CBO!
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