Thursday, August 26, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 26, 2010


America can be great once again...

Believe!
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3 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/25/AR2010082507063_pf.html

When Fox News and talk radio host Glenn Beck comes to Washington this weekend...

* BILL & MARY BARKER WILL BE THERE!

Beck...plans in part to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. as an American hero. He will speak on the anniversary of the "I Have a Dream" speech, from the spot where King delivered it.

* ACTUALLY, BECK MADE THE CONSCIOUS DECISION TO SPEAK FROM A LOWER STEP THAN KING DID - OUT OF RESPECT FOR KING.

Beck said in a recent broadcast that he did not intentionally choose the "I Have a Dream" anniversary for his rally - but that he believes the coincidence is divine providence.

* I BELIEVE HIM. AND FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH... I WOULDN'T SCOFF AT THE PHRASE "DIVINE PROVIDENCE.

"Whites don't own Abraham Lincoln," [Beck] said. "Blacks don't own Martin Luther King. Those are American icons, American ideas, and we should just talk about character, and that's really what this event is about. It's about honoring character."

* A TRAIT SORELY LACKING AMOUNG ALL TOO MANY IN POSITIONS OF POWER.

The rally, which is also being billed as a tribute to U.S. troops, will be from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Video screens and sound towers will be positioned along the reflecting pool and as far east as the Washington Monument.

Beck says his event, "Restoring Honor," is not intended to rally voters to the polls in November's midterm elections. No signs are allowed, and not one elected official currently in office will be part of the program.

August 26, 2010 at 11:06 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/aug/25/texas-fights-global-warming-power-grab/?page=1

The state's slogan is "Don't mess with Texas." But the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is doing just that, and at stake is whether the Obama administration can impose its global-warming agenda without a vote of Congress.

President Obama's EPA is already well down the path to regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act, something the act was not designed to do.

EPA, determined to move forward anyway, is attempting to rewrite the Clean Air Act administratively via a "tailoring rule," which would reduce the number of regulated sources. The problem with that approach? It's illegal. The EPA has no authority to rewrite the law. To pull it off, the EPA needs every state with a State Implementation Plan to rewrite all of its statutory thresholds as well.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality Chairman Bryan W. Shaw saw the tailoring rule for what it really is: a massive power grab and centralization of authority. They are fighting back...

Federalist principles have allowed Texas to become the strongest state in the union. The Lone Star State leads the nation in job creation, is the top state for business relocation and has more Fortune 500 companies than any other state and is the top state for wind generation. President Obama said he wants to double U.S. exports in five years; he could look to Texas, as we are the top exporting state in the country. The Obama administration could learn a lot from Texas. Instead, it is attempting to ride roughshod over Texas...

Texas is the nation's energy-production capital, but the air we breathe is cleaner today than it was in 2000, even though the state's population has grown by nearly 3.5 million people. Between 2000 and 2008, Texas' nitrogen oxide levels decreased by 46% and ozone levels dropped by 22%, compared with national reductions of 27% and 8%, respectively. All major Texas metropolitan areas meet the 1997 federal eight-hour ozone standard, with the exception of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, which is within 1 part per billion of meeting the standard.

According to Department of Energy and EPA data, since 2000, Texas' carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel usage have fallen more than those of almost any other state and every country except Germany as a result of our policies to foster renewable energy, make the electricity market more competitive and efficient, and improve our environment.

When the EPA issued rules to reduce nitrogen oxide and ozone, we complied, but we did it the Texas way.

Now Washington is trying to federalize the air-permitting process and force Texas to ignore our state laws and the plain language of the Clean Air Act in order to allow an illegal rewriting of the federal statute. But Texas has neither "the authority nor the intention" of doing so. The Lone Star State is strong, and so are our leaders - and the law is on our side.

August 26, 2010 at 12:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2010/08/26/cbo_the_cover-up_budget_office_98641.html

How well is the stimulus working?

(*SMIRK*)

This week saw disappointing data in durable goods orders and housing, prompting some economists to predict a double dip recession. Yet on Tuesday the nonpartisan CBO issued a report showing that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 and 3.3 million people in the second quarter of 2010 and lowered unemployment by 0.7 to 1.8 percentage points.

(*SNORT*) (*ROLLING MY EYES*)

CBO concludes that without the Recovery Act unemployment, which stood at 9.5% in July, might exceed 10% and possibly be above 11%.

(*LAUGHING OUT LOUD*)

There's just one problem.

* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT... (*DRUM ROLL*)

CBO's latest figures are inconsistent with its claims of the effects of the stimulus bill when it was passed in February 2009.

*D'OH*)

If its models failed to accurately predict the effects of the stimulus bill then, why should we believe the models now?

(*SMILE*)

This is important because some are taking the CBO report as proof that the stimulus bill is working and so we need...more stimulus.

(*SIGH*)

After passage of the stimulus bill, in a March 2009 letter to Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, CBO predicted that the unemployment rate in the last quarter of 2009 would rise to 9% without the stimulus package, from its then-current level of 8.2%. With the stimulus, CBO said, the unemployment rate would range from 7.8% to 8.5%. The actual rate in December, 11 months after enactment of the stimulus, was 10%, far higher than CBO said it would be absent the stimulus.

(*HANDS OUT; PALMS UP*)

CBO predicted that in the fourth quarter of 2010 the unemployment rate would be 8.7% without the stimulus, and between 6.8% and 8.1% with the stimulus package. We haven't reached the fourth quarter of 2010 yet, but it doesn't look as if our 9.5% unemployment rate will decline to even the baseline of 8.7% in the next few months, let alone to 8.1% or 6.8%.

(*SIGH*)

The Democrats' agenda -- government stimulus programs, trillion-dollar annual deficits over the next decade, new costs on employers for health care, and the prospect of tax hikes in January -- has not succeeded in lowering the unemployment rate from its February 2009 level of 8.2%, a level that looks positively rosy today.

If Americans had known in February of 2009 that the $787 billion stimulus package (whose cost CBO later raised to $862 billion) would not lead to declines in unemployment, but instead a substantial increase in the unemployment rate to 9.5%, opposition to the spending would have been practically universal.

Put it another way - if Americans were asked now whether they would prefer today to have back the February 2009 unemployment rate of 8.2% and the $862 billion spent on stimulus, they would say yes.

If more government spending always helped the economy, why stop at $862 billion? Why not give each American an unlimited bank account?

* OR AT LEAST A CHECK FOR A MILLION DOLLARS...

Unemployed Americans know that they are worse off than before the stimulus package was passed, despite rosy estimates from CBO. It's time to try a different tack - lower taxes and spending - and budget numbers that are based on reality.

August 26, 2010 at 4:05 PM

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