Thursday, July 22, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, July 22, 2010


Take your rap and hip-hop and stick it where...

Know what I mean...?!

6 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/politics/newark-budget-cuts-20100722

Things are getting so bad in Newark that the mayor has ordered the government to stop buying toilet paper. It's part of Newark Mayor Cory Booker's belt-tightening plans that include reducing most city workers to a 4-day work week and shuttering city pools.

* GOOD FOR BOOKER; HE'S DOING WHAT HE CAN.

He also says that no gas will be purchased for municipal vehicles that are not deemed critically important.

* HMM... I WONDER IF IT'S WITHIN HIS AUTHORITY TO SELL THOSE MUNICIPAL VEHICLES THAT ARE "NOT DEEMED CRITICALLY IMPORTANT?"

The city budget shortfall is $70 million and Booker plans to meet the revenue shortfall with budget cuts instead of property tax increases.

"Taxes can not be the answer," Booker said.

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

* WHAT ARE PARTICULARLY INTERESTING ARE THE COMMENTS ON THIS STORY. A COMMON POINT RAISED IS THAT IF THE WELFARE STATE WERE SHRUNK THEN PERHAPS THE CITY WOULD HAVE MONEY FOR TOILET PAPER!

William R. Barker said...

http://cbs13.com/local/penryn.bar.arrest.2.1817120.html

A Placer County man has been arrested after he broke into a shuttered bar, reopened the business and started selling drinks...

* NO. SORRY. I CAN'T TAKE CREDIT - IT WASN'T ME!

(*HUGE FRIGG'N GRIN*)

The Placer County Sheriff's department arrested 29-year-old Travis Kevie of Newcastle after his 4-day stint as the barkeep of the historic Valencia Club in Penryn which had been shutdown for more than a year.

Detective Jim Hudson became suspicious after reading about the Valencia Club's re-opening in an Auburn Journal newspaper article that featured a picture of Kevie and identified him as the club's new "owner/operator". Not only had Detective Hudson had previous run-ins with Kevie, he knew the Valencia Club's liquor license had been surrendered. When Detective Hudson went to the bar to investigate, he found it open for business and customers at the bar.

Kevie quickly went from behind the bar to behind bars.

* BOO...! BOO...!

Deputies describe Kevie as a transient. They say he broke into the Valencia Club and put an open sign in the window on July 16th. Kevie kicked off his business with a six-pack of beer he bought and resold at the club. He used his profits to buy more alcohol keeping the club open throughout the weekend serving about 30 customers a day, deputies say.

* GOOD FOR HIM! NOW THAT'S THE AMERICAN ENTREPRENEURIAL SPIRIT!

Kevie is being held in the Placer County Jail for burglary and selling alcohol without a license.

* IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, THE GUY DIDN'T STEAL THE REAL OWNER'S BOOZE. I SAY GIVE THE GUY A BREAK!

William R. Barker said...

http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/98937374.html

Thousands attended a rally in Lafayette [Louisiana] Wednesday aimed at convincing the Obama administration to lift the federal offshore drilling moratorium, which officials said could further endanger the state through the loss of tens of thousands of jobs.

The “Rally for Economic Survival” was held at the Cajundome and drew about 11,000 people, some dressed in their oil industry uniforms, others in shirts bearing messages of “Drill Baby Drill” and “No Moratorium.”

* GOD BLESS 'EM! THIS IS AMERICA - NOT THOSE PARASITES IN WASHINGTON!

Gov. Bobby Jindal, one of 12 speakers at the two-hour event, pleaded with President Barack Obama to “let our people work.”

“We’re in the middle of a war to defend our way of life,” Jindal said, adding that the state and its people shouldn’t also have to fight the federal government. He said the moratorium is bad for the country’s energy security and bad for the economy.

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Lt. Gov. Scott Angelle served as master of ceremonies and fired up an already lively crowd, proclaiming that “it is time to quit punishing innocent American workers to achieve some unrealistic political agenda.”

Angelle said the state has a long and strong history of fueling the country and daily sends it people out to “begin the tough work of exploring, producing, processing, storing, refining and transporting the fuel to energize the great United States of America.”

“And while we too support the use of renewable and alternative energies, let’s keep the conversation real: America is not yet ready to get all of its fuel from the birds and the bees and the flowers and the trees,” Angelle said to loud laughter and applause.

Angelle added that a 50 cent increase per gallon of gas at the pump costs the economy $1.3 billion a week.

* WITH "FRIENDS" LIKE PRESIDENT OBAMA, NANCY PELOSI, AND HARRY REID, AMERICA DOESN'T NEED ANY ENEMIES!

William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703724104575378910443018730.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

[Eric Holder's] Justice Department announced last week that it would defend the new federal health-insurance mandate as an exercise of Congress's "power to lay and collect taxes," even though Barack Obama had insisted before the bill's passage that it was "absolutely not a tax increase."

The truth is the mandate is not a tax; and [even] if it were it would be unconstitutional.

A tax is when the government takes money from individuals, puts it in the Treasury, and plans to spend it. With the health-insurance mandate, the government is not taking money from private individuals; rather, it is commanding them to give their money to another private entity, not to the Treasury. If individuals don't obey the mandate, they pay a penalty to the Treasury. But penalties aren't taxes. The mandate is legally separate from the penalty.

The Constitution originally allowed only three types of taxes. The first was a duty, which is a tax on imports. The second was an excise tax, which is a tax for the privilege of doing something, such as buying alcohol or holding a professional license to practice law. Both duties and excise taxes are indirect taxes that can be passed on to consumers. The third type of tax was a direct tax, which cannot be passed on to someone else.

[I]n 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution was required in order to institute a national income tax. Since then, a tax on income has been the fourth and final type that the federal government can impose.

The individual health-insurance mandate fits into none of these four categories and is therefore not constitutionally justified as a tax.

* THE ONLY PROBLEM WITH THE AUTHORS' REASONING... (*SHRUG*)... THE CONSTITUTION IS ON LIFE SUPPORT. (AND THAT'S BEING CHARITABLE!) THERE IS LITTLE RESPECT FOR THE CONSTITUTION IN WASHINGTON.

William R. Barker said...

http://www1.voanews.com/english/news/US-Military-Chief-Voices-Concern-Over-Chinese-Buildup-98923964.html

America's top military officer says he is worried about what he sees as a shift in the focus of China's military buildup, away from developing its ground forces and toward expanding its sea and air power.

Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told soldiers at an American base in South Korea that China has made a "fairly significant investment" in equipment such as satellites, aircraft, anti-ship missiles and a planned aircraft carrier group.

He said he has moved from being "curious about what they're doing to being concerned about what they're doing.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.michigancapitolconfidential.com/13219

[I]n Ann Arbor [,Michigan], where firefighters are being laid off due to a multimillion dollar budget deficit...the city has agreed to pay German artist Herbert Dreiseitl...$800,000... for a three-piece water sculpture that would go in front of the new police and courts building right by the City Hall.

[T]he city is also eliminating the solid waste coordinator from the budget, which oversees trash pickup, and hiring an art coordinator.

* HMM... I WONDER HOW MUCH FEDERAL "STIMULUS" MONEY ANN ARBOR MICHIGAN HAS GOTTEN DURING THE AGE OF OBAMA SO FAR...???

Michael LaFaive, the director of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy's Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative said nonessential services are being funded throughout the state.

"Administrators cry poverty while lavishing money on the beautiful people," LaFaive said. "The threat to dismiss firefighters often comes while officials protect golf courses, wave pools and art. No city can cry poverty while it defends recreation and aesthetics such as art."

* IF YOU HAVE LESS GOVERNMENT IN THE FIRST PLACE... LOWER TAXES IN THE FIRST PLACE... THERE'S LESS ROOM FOR NONSENSE LIKE THIS.