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2010
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August
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- The Last Hurrah...???
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 31, 2010
- The Man is an A--hole... (And that's all there is ...
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, August 30, 2010
- Restoring Honor - August 28, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, August 27, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 26, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, August 25, 2010
- Is Hamas a Terrorist Organization?
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 24, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, August 23, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 19, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 17, 2010
- So... when's the last time you got new tires?
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, August 16, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., August 14 & 15, 2010
- Harold Curtis VanDemark
- Barker's Newsbites: August 13, 2010
- Vernon Baker
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 12, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, August 11, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 10. 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, August 9. 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., August 7 & 8, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, August 6, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 5, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, August 4, 2010
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August
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About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
12 comments:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67M1TT20100823
The Hillandale recall involves 170 million eggs...
The other potential source is Iowa egg producer Wright County Egg, which recalled 380 million eggs last week.
That brings the total recall to 550 million eggs that were distributed in 22 states.
* WE'VE LOST OUR MINDS IN THIS FRIGG'N COUNTRY!
FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said on ABC's Good Morning America..."We are in the midst of probably the largest egg recall that has happened in recent history."
* AND WHY IS THIS...???
[A] U.S. salmonella outbreak that is linked to almost 300 illnesses across the United States.
* YEP. "ALMOST 300 ILLNESSES"...
* YEP. ALMOST 300 ILLNESSES "ACROSS THE UNITED STATES" - A NATION OF OVER 300,000,000 PEOPLE...!!!
* WE'VE LOST OUR FRIGG'N MINDS! JUST COOK THE FRIGG'N EGGS PROPERLY...!!! THERE'S JUST NO NEED FOR THIS INSANITY!
http://www.wvec.com/news/local/US-Second-Fleet-in-jeopardy-as-DoD-trims-budget-101368049.html
The U.S. Second Fleet, which trains and certifies all strike groups before deployment and employs 348 active and reserve military personnel, civilian employees and contractors, is in jeopardy as the Department of Defense continues to trim its budget.
If the Second Fleet were to be shut down, hundreds of jobs could be lost in the Hampton Roads area.
* GOOD!
* NO... SERIOUSLY... GOOD!
* GIVE ME A FRIGG'N BREAK! THE U.S. MILITARY IS NOT A "STIMULUS PROJECT," NOT A JOBS PROJECT. AS TO TRAINING AND CERTIFICATION, THAT'S ONGOING STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE! (WHO DO THESE PEOPLE THINK THEY'RE KIDDING...?!?!)
Retired Navy Captain Joe Bouchard says that any potential cost savings would come at a big price.
Captain Bouchard is the former commanding officer of Naval Station Norfolk and now a board member of the Hampton Roads Military and Federal Facilities Alliance. "I'm concerned that the Department of Defense is scrambling for savings somewhere in its budget."
* AND I'M CONCERNED THAT THE DOD ISN'T SCRAMBLING HARD ENOUGH FOR SAVINGS SOMEWHERE IN ITS BUDGET!
* SERIOUSLY... GIVE ME A FRIGG'N BREAK!
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2010/08/10/gates-proposes-cutting-joint-forces-command-from-defense-budget/
Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced some far-reaching proposals Monday for restructuring the massive budget at his agency, including getting rid of the U.S. Joint Forces Command. The cuts could mean a loss of thousands of jobs.
* AGAIN WITH THE JOBS! (*GRITTING MY TEETH*) THE U.S. MILITARY IS NOT SOME GLORIFIED TEMP AGENCY...!!!
The current Defense Department budget totals more than $530 billion a year, and defense officials believe they need increases of 2% to 3% a year to sustain the force structure and meet modernization needs.
* BULLSHIT. (SERIOUSLY... I THINK THAT'S BULLSHIT.)
The proposal to eliminate the Joint Forces Command, which is based in Norfolk, Virginia, met with opposition from both the state's U.S. Democratic senators.
* OH WHAT A SURPRISE... (*SMIRK*)
Gates was adamant that the Pentagon must change its way of thinking about money.
"The culture of endless money that has taken hold must be replaced by a culture of savings and restraint," Gates said. "Toward this end, I am directing that any new proposal or initiatives, large or small, be it policy, program or ceremony, come with a cost estimate. That price tag will help us determine whether what we are gaining or hope to gain is really worth the cost."
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Little-known-fact-Obamas-failed-stimulus-program-cost-more-than-the-Iraq-war-101302919.html
Expect to hear a lot about how much the Iraq war cost in the days ahead from Democrats worried about voter wrath against their unprecedented spending excesses.
The meme is simple: The economy is in a shambles because of Bush's economic policies and his war in Iraq.
The key point in the mantra is an alleged $3 trillion cost for the war. Well, it was expensive to be sure, in both blood and treasure, but...the CBO puts the total cost at $709 billion.
To put that figure in the proper context of overall spending since the war began in 2003:
Obama's stimulus, passed in his first month in office, will cost more than the entire Iraq War...
* YEAH... THAT'S WHAT THE CHART (SEE LINKED ARTICLE) SAYS... STILL... I'D TAKE THAT $709 BILLION NUMBER WITH A GRAIN OF SALT - EVEN IF IT IS THE OFFICIAL CBO NUMBER. (IN ANY CASE, OBAMA'S STIMULUS IS NO DOUBT ALONE A NUMBER ROUGHLY EQUIVALENT TO WAR SPENDING SO FAR.)
Just the first two years of Obama's stimulus cost more than the entire cost of the Iraq War under President Bush, or six years of that war.
* SOUNDS PLAUSIBLE. (AND AGAIN... IN ANY CASE... THESE ARE CBO FIGURES.)
Iraq War spending accounted for just 3.2% of all federal spending while it lasted.
* SEE... THIS IS WHAT I MEAN. WHAT'S THIS "WHILE IT LASTED" NONSENSE? IT'S STILL GOING ON! THE SPENDING IS STILL GOING ON!
Iraq War spending was not even one quarter of what we spent on Medicare in the same time frame.
Iraq War spending was not even 15% of the total deficit spending in that time frame. (The cumulative deficit, 2003-2010, would have been four-point-something trillion dollars with or without the Iraq War.)
* MAYBE. IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL FOR SURE. RINO CONGRESSES APPROVED SOCIAL SPENDING INCREASES IN ORDER TO GET DEMS TO GO ALONG WITH WAR FUNDING.
The Iraq War accounts for less than 8% of the federal debt held by the public at the end of 2010 ($9.031 trillion).
* THAT'S NOTHING TO BRAG ABOUT! IN HINDSIGHT THE WAR WAS A MISTAKE.
During Bush's Iraq years, 2003-2008, the federal government spent more on education that it did on the Iraq War. (State and local governments spent about ten times more.)
* AGAIN... NOTHING TO BRAG ABOUT! MUCH OF THIS MONEY - PERHAPS MOST - WAS WASTED. (DO A COST/BENEFIT ANALYSIS IF YOU DOUBT ME!)
http://www.themonitor.com/articles/san-42116-juan-teen.html
Police reunited a teenage woman with her family Monday afternoon, nearly 19 hours after she was abducted [from her San Juan, Texas], blindfolded and dumped in a Reynosa [Mexico] field.
The 18-year-old woman, whose name was not disclosed by police, was walking to a friend’s house about 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
A black van pulled up alongside her and three men hopped out, San Juan Police Chief Juan Gonzalez said. They snatched the girl, blindfolded her and took her to Reynosa.
The chief said police investigators, FBI agents and Hidalgo County sheriff’s deputies negotiated with the kidnappers. Once the abductors realized their victim’s family would not be able to pay a ransom, they dumped her in a random field.
The girl had no idea where she was, Gonzalez said, and because she was in another country, officers could not go there directly to pick her up.
“The only thing that prevented us from going out there and helping her was that river,” the chief said.
“People that she came across didn’t want to help,” the chief said. “People are living in fear in Mexico.”
Gonzalez would not specify exactly who went to pick up the girl - only that a “courageous person” crossed and found her covered in dirt, but unharmed.
Kidnappings for ransom involving random victims rarely occur in the Rio Grande Valley, law enforcement officials said. But they still do happen.
In November 2009, a McAllen businessman was abducted at gunpoint from a Starbucks Coffee parking lot and taken to Reynosa. The kidnappers demanded $30,000 and two luxury vehicles as ransom. Mexican police found the man bound and beaten at a northeast Reynosa house and returned him to the United States.
* NOW EVEN IF IT TURNS OUT THAT THIS KIDNAPPING WAS A SCAM - THAT THE GIRL WAS IN ON IT - THIS WOULDN'T CHANGE THE FACT THAT OUR BORDERS WITH MEXICO ARE POROUS AND BECAUSE OF THIS OUR CITIZENS ARE AT RISK.
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20100824/NEWS01/8240366/Police-say-it-s-very-possible-attacks-near-fairgrounds-had-racial-overtones
* AND YOU DON'T THINK WE'RE LOSING CONTROL OF OUR COUNTRY...???
* BUY A GUN. GET TRAINING.
* I'M NOT EVEN GOING TO PROVIDE EXCERPTS; FOLLOW THE LINK AND READ THE STORY FOR YOURSELVES!
http://www.gloucestertimes.com/local/x865119464/Fishermen-aim-Vineyard-protest-at-Obama
Leaders of the recreational and commercial fishing industry are planning a boat protest against [Obama Administration] policies Thursday outside the harbor of Vineyard Haven on Martha’s Vineyard, where President Obama and his family are summer vacationing.
The protest is being organized after a bipartisan, bicameral coalition of federal lawmakers...
* BE NICE IF THEY'D NAME NAMES, HUH?
...including the core of the President’s Congressional base on banking and health care issues [who] have given up hope of working productively with Obama’s top appointee for oceans and fisheries, Jane Lubchenco, who heads the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
A co-organizer is the Recreational Fishermen's Alliance, the lead organizing group behind the national protest outside the U.S. Capitol in February that drew as many as 5,000 demonstrating against federal policies seen as heavily tilted against the industry and unduly swayed by non-government environmental organizations.
Since her appointment to head the NOAA by President Obama, Lubchenco, who had been an officer of the Environmental Defense Fund and a leader of the Pew Oceans Commission, has pushed to convert the fisheries into commodities markets under a management system known as catch shares.
In a statement to the Times soon after her confirmation by the Senate, Lubchenco's office said her goal was to see a "significant fraction of the vessels ... removed."
With the stocks rebuilding strongly, fishermen wonder at the need to reduce the size of the work force.
* I'M WONDERING THE SAME THING!
* THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS THE PROBLEM, NOT THE SOLUTION, WHEN IT COMES TO OUR NATION'S EMPLOYMENT WOES.
Mayors Carolyn Kirk of Gloucester and Scott Lang of New Bedford have condemned federal fisheries policies for bringing unnecessary social and economic hardship as a certain price for the uncertain resource management benefits of catch share regulations. ... The industry sees catch shares as an invitation for market speculation that will condemn the fishing culture to the same fate that conglomeration brought to the family farm.
* HMM... I WONDER IF OBAMA'S PALS AT GOLDMAN SACHS ARE INVOLVED IN THIS... (*PONDERING*)
New England's groundfishery, America's oldest continuing industry which had harvested commonly owned resources, was converted to catch share principles on May 1 — with a total allocation divided and distributed to fishermen as catching rights that cane be bought, sold or traded. But the minute size of the total allocation and the eccentric mixes of quota from the 15 species and 20 stocks in the groundfishery have pushed many businesses into - or close to - insolvency...
(*SIGH*)
The planned Thursday protest also comes amid growing anger over a fisheries law enforcement system that has been found by the U.S. Commerce Department's own Inspector General's office to have subjected the fleet to vindictive treatment and excessive fines used by the agents and lawyers to finance foreign travel and daily operating expenses. ... The longtime federal fisheries police chief, Dale Jones was put on paid administrative leave in April following the first report by Inspector General Todd Zinser, but Jones remains on the NOAA payroll to the tune of $150,000 a year.
(*SMIRK*) THE AGE OF OBAMA PROCEEDS APACE.
And the real problem is the "Age of Obama" will be followed by another "Age of Whoever" and it will not matter. We continue to vote for the government we get and until we decide to return to government OF the people, Congress will continue to do as it has always done. The two party system will be the demise of this once great country.
Thank you for offering such a well thought out solution, Dave.
(*WINK*) (*CHUCKLE*)
I'll be at the Lincoln Memorial with Glenn Beck this coming Saturday morning; how'bout you?
BILL
Dave,
On a more serious note, your tone comes across - to me, anyway - as accepting some equivalency between the "bad" of Obama and the Dems and the "bad" of Bush and the RINOs.
Now I take a back seat to no man, woman, or child in my disgust concerning much of the 2001 thru 2006 years, but if Bush and the RINOs represented "the frying pan," than surely you understand that Pelosi, Reid, and Obama represent "the fire."
Do I hold out much hope for anything remotely resembling a true turnabout in our nation's fortunes based upon Republican electoral victories in November and hopefully a decent Republican candidate recapturing the White House in November 2012?
NO!
But things are so bad under Obama and the Dems that even a small shift towards the center would help.
It's not the two Party system that's to blame. It's the American People.
Would anything short of Moi being suddenly elevated Supreme Temporary Dictator of America suffice to "correct" the mistakes of the past century... particularly FDR's reign...?
NO!
I wish I could say otherwise; I truly do.
Still... since we're living in reality 2010 rather than Bill's fantasy dictatorship... I'll continue to hope that candidates I like more than not beat candidates whom I dislike more than like.
God bless the (mostly ignored) Constitution and our (lapsed) Republic.
BILL
We won't know for some time whether all of Andy Xie's gloomy thesis is correct, but at this point we can tell that a far higher proportion of American stimulus money is going to China than Chinese money is coming back here.
So here's more evidence that our stimulus programs don't work for you--unless, of course, you're a Chinese enterprise.
http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LH25Ak01.html
When the Barack Obama administration unveiled its plan last week for an improvised State Department-controlled army of contractors to replace all US combat troops in Iraq by the end of 2011...
* NEWSBITES WAS THERE TO PASS THE NEWS ON TO YOU! (*SMILE*)
[A]ll indications are that the [Obama] administration expects to renegotiate the security agreement with the Iraqi government to allow a post-2011 combat presence of up to 10,000 troops, once a new government is formed in Baghdad.
* PLUS THE MERCEN... er... STATE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTORS... (*SMIRK*)
However, Obama, fearing a backlash from anti-war voters in the Democratic Party who have already become disenchanted with him over Afghanistan, is trying to play down that possibility. Instead, the White House is trying to reassure its anti-war base that the US military role in Iraq is coming to an end.
* LET'S SAY IT ALL TOGETHER FOLKS... "LIAR, LIAR, PANTS ON FIRE!" (*HUMORLESS CHUCKLE*)
An unnamed administration official who favors a longer-term presence in Iraq suggested to New York Times correspondent Michael Gordon last week that the administration's refusal to openly refer to plans for such a US combat force in Iraq beyond 2011 hinges on its concern about the coming congressional elections...
* IN OTHER WORDS, TELLING THE TRUTH MIGHT HURT DEMOCRATIC ELECTORAL CHANCES, SO... LIE. (*SMIRK*)
* ANYWAY... LET'S SEE WHAT THE SITUATION IS ON THE GROUND IN IRAQ COME JANUARY 2012. TIME WILL TELL!
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