Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Amen...
I don't like this war in Afghanistan. I don't like it one damn bit.
We should have gone in there, kicked the crap out of the Taliban, and gotten out.
CIA... Special Forces... black ops supported when and where necessary by overwhelming force... sure.
Tens of thousands of American "boots on the ground"... no!
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http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-08-25-1Anresponsecops25_ST_N.htm
Budget cuts are forcing police around the country to stop responding to fraud, burglary and theft calls...
* YA THINK I'M KIDDING WHEN I ADVISE YOU FOLKS WHO AREN'T AREADY ARMED AND TRAINED TO GET TRAINING AND BUY ARMS? I'M NOT.
Cutbacks in such places as Oakland, Tulsa and Norton, Mass. have forced police to tell residents to file their own reports - online or in writing - for break-ins and other lesser crimes.
"If you come home to find your house burglarized and you call, we're not coming," said Oakland Police spokeswoman Holly Joshi. (The city laid off 80 officers from its force of 687 last month...)
* FOLKS... THIS ISN'T A FRIGG'N JOKE.
In Tulsa, which lost 110 officers to layoffs and retirements, the 739-officer department isn't sending cops to the scene of larceny, fraud and car theft.
Tulsa police spokesman Jason Willingham says some residents have said they won't bother to report those crimes any more. "They think nothing is going to be done, so why mess with it," he said.
* FOLKS... THIS IS THIRD WORLD NATION BEHAVIOR.
In the Boston suburb of Norton, police told residents there may be delays or no response at all to some calls, including vandalism. The department posted the new policy on its website.
* HMM... PERHAPS CLOSE DOWN THE WEBSITE AND USE THE MONEY FOR MANNING POLICE CARS... (JUST A THOUGHT!)
http://www.adn.com/2010/08/24/1423423/miller-holds-slim-lead-in-early.html
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski is battling for her political life this morning against Republican primary challenger Joe Miller, the tea party-backed candidate who has a slim lead as ballots continue to be counted.
(*PRAYING FOR MURKOWSKI'S DEFEAT*)
Miller, a Fairbanks attorney, led from when the first returns came in Tuesday night and was on the verge of pulling off one of the biggest election upsets ever in Alaska.
With 429 of 438 precincts counted this morning,, Miller had 45,909 votes (51%) to 43,949 (49%) for Murkowski.
Miller credited the support of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin for his lead.
* IF ONLY PALIN HAD COME OUT FOR HAYWORTH AGAINST MCCAIN. I FORGIVE PALIN FOR THAT - I UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT OF PERSONAL LOYALTY - BUT BY DOING SO SHE WENT AGAINST THE INTERESTS OF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.
The final results of the race won't be known for over a week. The Alaska Division of Elections said over 16,000 absentee ballots were requested and as of Monday night 7,600 had been returned. The first count of absentees will be next Tuesday and there will be two subsequent counts as the absentee votes trickle in on Sept. 3 and on Sept. 8.
http://www.bangordailynews.com/story/Statewide/Troops-still-deploying-to-Mideast-from-BIA,152133
As the nation watches troops being withdrawn from the Middle East, few perhaps are aware that another wave of soldiers is being deployed.
On Tuesday, a group of about 150 soldiers from the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment, based in Fort Hood, Texas, had a two-hour layover at Bangor International Airport on their way to southern Iraq.
(*SMIRK*)
“It’s funny because the big thing on the news as we were getting ready to leave was all the big hoopla about all the combat forces coming out, so all the soldiers and their families are asking, ‘Why are we going?’” Lt. Col. Bryan Mullins said.
According to Mullins, who has 19 years of service under his belt, the unit’s initial deployment is for 12 months. “But who knows? I’ve been on deployments that started off with a duration and changed to another duration,” he said.
According to Mullins, an estimated 5,000 members of the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment have been deployed and will be securing the southern half of Iraq.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/7169978.html
The Department of Homeland Security is systematically reviewing thousands of pending immigration cases and moving to dismiss those filed against suspected illegal immigrants who have no serious criminal records, according to several sources familiar with the efforts.
* IN ENGLISH: OBAMA'S EXECUTIVE BRANCH - OVERSEEN BY A DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED CONGRESS - IS BASICALLY CONSPIRING WITH ILLEGAL ALIENS TO ENSURE NON-ENFORCEMENT OF U.S. IMMIGRATION LAW.
* SERIOUSLY... THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO PUT IT.
Culling the immigration court system dockets of noncriminals started in earnest in Houston about a month ago and has stunned local immigration attorneys, who have reported coming to court anticipating clients' deportations only to learn that the government was dismissing their cases.
* YEP. I'VE BEEN "REPORTING" ON THIS VIA NEWSBITES, BUT FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF AMERICAN CITIZENS - REGARDLESS OF INDIVIDUAL VIEWS ON AMERICA'S EXISTING IMMIGRATION LAWS - THIS HAS BEEN A STEALTH OBAMA OPERATION.
In some instances, defendants can have one misdemeanor conviction, but it cannot involve a DWI, family violence or sexual crime...
(*SNORT*) SO IN OTHER WORDS, SHOPLIFTING WOULD BE OK... NON-FELONY ASSAULT ON A STRANGER WOULD BE OK...
(*SIGH*) FOLKS... I COULDN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP IF I WANTED TO!
Opponents of illegal immigration were critical of the dismissals. "They've made clear that they have no interest in enforcing immigration laws against people who are not convicted criminals," said Mark Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, which advocates for strict controls.
Tre Rebsock, the ICE union representative in Houston, said even if the efforts involve only a fraction of the pending immigration cases, "that's going to make our officers feel even more powerless to enforce the laws."
* FOLKS... THIS IS HOW A THIRD WORLD NATION IS RUN. LAWS ARE SIMPLY - AND DELIBERATELY - IGNORED AND EVEN UNDERCUT.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20014563-38.html?tag=mncol;1n
Intel chief executive Paul Otellini offered a depressing set of observations about the economy and the Obama administration Monday evening, coupled with a dark commentary on the future of the technology industry if nothing changes. ... Unless government policies are altered, he predicted, "the next big thing will not be invented here. Jobs will not be created here."
The U.S. legal environment has become so hostile to business, Otellini said, that there is likely to be "an inevitable erosion and shift of wealth, much like we're seeing today in Europe - this is the bitter truth."
Not long ago, Otellini said, "our research centers were without peer. No country was more attractive for start-up capital... We seemed a generation ahead of the rest of the world in information technology. That simply is no longer the case."
Otellini singled out the political state of affairs in Democrat-dominated Washington, saying: "I think this group does not understand what it takes to create jobs. And I think they're flummoxed by their experiment in Keynesian economics not working."
* IT'S BEYOND THAT! THESE PEOPLE ARE FAR MORE INTERESTED IN PERSONAL POWER AND WEALTH THAN IN WHAT HAPPENS TO THE NATION AS A WHOLE. UNDERSTAND... THESE FOLKS ARE RIGGING THE GAME THAT NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS TO THE AVERAGE AMERICAN, THEY'LL BE JUST FINE... THEY'LL STILL HAVE THEIR PENSIONS AND THEIR CONNECTIONS.
"I can tell you definitively that it costs $1 billion more per factory for me to build, equip, and operate a semiconductor manufacturing facility in the United States," Otellini said. (The rub: 90% of that additional cost of a $4 billion factory is not labor but the cost to comply with taxes and regulations that other nations don't impose.)
Cypress Semiconductor CEO T.J. Rodgers elaborated on this in an interview with CNET, saying the problem is not higher U.S. wages but anti-business laws: "The killer factor in California for a manufacturer to create, say, a thousand blue-collar jobs is a hostile government that doesn't want you there and demonstrates it in thousands of ways."
"If our tax rate approached that of the rest of the world, corporations would have an incentive to invest here," Otellini said. But instead, it's the second highest in the industrialized world, making the United States a less attractive place to invest - and create jobs - than places in Europe and Asia that are "clamoring" for Intel's business.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j9a4NhJMu0YU4habnaMIAS1JbuLAD9HQC04G0
A plan by Medicare to try to make it "simpler" for consumers to pick drug coverage could force 3 million seniors to switch plans next year whether they like it or not, says an independent analysis.
That risks undercutting President Barack Obama's promise that people can keep their health plans if they like them.
* "RISKS UNDERCUTTING...?" (*SNORT*) COM'ON... EVERYONE KNEW OBAMA WAS LYING; THIS WOULD SIMPLY BE MORE PROOF.
And it could be an unwelcome surprise for many seniors who hadn't intended to make a change during Medicare's open enrollment season this fall.
The analysis by Avalere Health, a leading private research firm, estimated that more than 3 million beneficiaries will see their prescription plan eliminated...
(*SMIRK*)
Medicare officials dismissed the Avalere estimate without offering their own number.
(*GUFFAW*)
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100825/ap_on_el_se/us_arizona_senate
Sen. John McCain routed conservative challenger J.D. Hayworth on Tuesday in the Republican primary...
* AS EXPECTED. (*SHRUG*) NEVERTHELESS... A DISASTER.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/us/25drill.html?ref=global-home
* SOME GOOD NEWS. ("SO FAR" SO GOOD NEWS THAT IS. TIME WILL TELL!)
Unemployment claims related to the oil industry along the Gulf Coast have been in the hundreds, not the thousands...
* YOU'D THINK THE NYT COULD COME UP WITH A SPECIFIC FIGURE THOUGH... WOULDN'T YOU...??? (*SMIRK*)
Only 2 of the 33 deepwater rigs operating in the gulf before the BP rig exploded have left for other fields.
* TWO MORE THAN ZERO THOUGH. (*SHRUG*) AGAIN... LET'S SEE WHAT HAPPENS. I'LL BE THRILLED IF NO OTHER RIGS DEPART.
While it is too early to gauge the long-term environmental or economic effects of the release of 4.9 million barrels of oil into the gulf, it now appears that the direst predictions about the moratorium will not be borne out. Even the government’s estimate of the impact of the drilling pause - 23,000 lost jobs and $10.2 billion in economic damage - is proving to be too pessimistic.
* WELL... EITHER IT'S TOO EARLY OR IT'S NOT. WHICH IS IT? (HEY... I'M ALL FOR KEEPING OUR FINGERS CROSSED!)
There are several reasons the suspension has not cut as deeply as anticipated.
Oil companies used the enforced suspension to service and upgrade their drilling equipment, keeping shipyards and service companies busy. Drilling firms have kept most of their workers, knowing that if they let them go it will be hard to field experienced teams when the moratorium is lifted. Oil companies have shifted operations to onshore wells, saving industry jobs. (And the administration has dropped repeated hints that the offshore drilling ban will be eased or removed before it is set to expire on Nov. 30.)
The Energy Department projects that the moratorium will bring a decline of 120,000 barrels a day in deepwater production in 2011... Eleven deepwater gulf projects operated by major companies like Shell, Chevron and BP that were supposed to begin operating over the next year have been delayed, meaning that 400,000 fewer barrels of oil will be produced in 2015 than originally anticipated...
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/244663/white-house-war-jobs-michelle-malkin
The “Summer of Recovery” is looking more and more like the "Beltway Chainsaw Massacre" for America’s workers.
On Tuesday, Vice President Joe Biden derided House Minority Leader John Boehner’s speech on the Obama job-killing machine... Biden sneered about the “good old days” when Republicans held the majority in Washington. But laid-off, unemployed, and endangered Americans in the health-care sector, the auto industry, and the oil, mining, gas, and fishing industries are no doubt wondering: What’s wrong with returning to the days when we had jobs and steady paychecks?
Assurant Health...announced last week that it would slash 130 jobs at its offices in Milwaukee and Plymouth, Minn., to prepare for costly Obamacare mandates.
White Castle and International House of Pancakes....executives say they will be forced into layoffs and premium hikes to cope with the federal law’s $3,000-per-employee penalty on companies whose workers pay more than 9.5% of household income in premiums for company-provided insurance.
[M]om-and-pop enterprises across the country....must now deal with Obamacare’s onerous Section 9006 tax-filing mandate. It requires them to file 1099 forms with the IRS for every vendor from whom they purchase $600 or more in goods. Sen. Mike Johanns (R., Neb.) calls it one of many “job-crushing provisions” that will bury small business in paperwork and legal costs.
[Recall the] 23,000 workers in the deepwater-drilling industry whom the White House deliberately wrote off in pursuit of its junk-science-based drilling moratorium.
The White House has invested mightily in creating a propaganda infrastructure to tout its “jobs saved or created.” Taxpayers need a full, transparent accounting of how many jobs Team Obama has destroyed.
Call it Wreckovery.gov.
(*SMIRK*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703447004575449961346648370.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion
As Mortimer Zuckerman recently wrote in The Wall Street Journal: "Now there are at least 14.5 million Americans still searching for work: 1.4 million of them have been jobless for more than 99 weeks, 6.5 million have been jobless for over 27 weeks."
Just two years ago, the total debt of the federal government was 69% of our gross domestic Product. Last year it was 83%; this year it has risen to 94%. By 2013 or 2014, if we continue current economic policies, it will exceed 100%. (And those numbers don't even include the tens of trillions of dollars in Social Security and Medicare debts that are already with us.)
Michael Boskin, writing in February, cited a study that found a gross debt-to-GDP ratio of 30% to 90% would be sustainable. But the study concluded, in Mr. Boskin's words, "as it gets to 90% of GDP, there is a dramatic slowing of economic growth by at least one percentage point a year." This would mean higher interest rates, higher taxes and continued weakness in jobs and investment as the unsustainable deficits cast a pall over our economy.
http://www.concordcoalition.org/press-releases/2010/0819/concord-coalition-says-cbo-report-shows-need-re-examine-fiscal-priorities
The Concord Coalition today called new federal budget projections an alarming reminder of the need for Washington to set better priorities and resist the temptation to dig the government into even deeper trouble with more deficit-financed spending and tax cuts.
Based on today’s budget update by the CBO, Concord revised its “plausible baseline” to show that CBO’s projected deficits could more than double from $6.2 trillion to $15.2 trillion over the next decade.
“By any measure, today’s CBO report paints an alarming picture. Debt held by the public reaches 69% of GDP at the end of 2020, with $778 billion spent on interest costs that year. Furthermore, those numbers represent a ‘best-case scenario’ given our current political environment.
* IN PLAIN ENGLISH, THESE "ROSY" FORECASTS ARE NONSENSE... LIES... BASED UPON DELIBERATE "GARBAGE IN, GARBAGE OUT" CALCULATIONS FOISTED ON CBO BY THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS.
* THINK I'M BEING PARTISAN...??? READ ON!
Under more plausible assumptions, debt held by the public grows to 108% by 2020, rivaling the nation’s highest level ever, while interest costs in that year would be over one trillion dollars - larger than either defense spending or total non-defense discretionary spending.
* "MORE PLAUSIBLE" MEANS, SIMPLY, er... "PLAUSIBLE." (PERIOD - END OF STORY!)
If Congress committed to follow a strict ‘pay-as-you-go’ regime, the deficit could at least temporarily be brought down to more sustainable levels,” [Concord Coalition Executive Director Robert L.] Bixby said.
* THE "IF" REFERS TO THE FACT THAT THE DEMOCRATIC CONGRESS PRESENTLY DOES NOT FOLLOW IT'S OWN "PAYGO." (*SMIRK*)
CBO's projections also assume that discretionary spending will decline significantly over the next ten years. For example, the CBO baseline assumes that nondefense discretionary outlays will decline from 4.5% of GDP in 2010 to 3.2% of GDP by 2020. (“Limiting nondefense discretionary spending to 3.2% of GDP would require a historic commitment to fiscal responsibility which has rarely occurred during the appropriations process. Congress has not met the 3.2% target since 1999, and that was the one time it has occurred since 1962,” said Concord Coalition Chief Budget Counsel Cliff Isenberg.)
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/guest-post-true-national-debt
When I read Paul Krugman and the other Keynesian boneheads saying that our debt is not a problem, they quote figures about our debt of $13.3 trillion versus our GDP of $14.6 trillion not being so bad. That is only 91% of GDP. They point to World War II when our national debt reached 120% of GDP. They say everything worked out after that.
Well lets analyze that comparison for just a second.
In 1945, Europe, Russia and Asia lay in ruins. The devastation was epic. The United States stood alone as the only unscathed country in the world. America became the manufacturer to the world.
* A POINT I'VE MADE AGAIN AND AGAIN OVER THE YEARS. (*SMILE*)
We rebuilt Europe and Asia. Our GDP soared, as our National Debt declined from $269 billion in 1946 to $255 billion in 1951, remaining below $300 billion until 1963.
Today our reported National Debt is $13.362 TRILLION.
* THE KEY WORD ABOVE BEING "REPORTED."
This is the first big lie. There are two entities named Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that happen to be 80% owned by the US government. Anyone who thinks these two companies can operate without the backing of the US Government are delusional. The US taxpayer is on the hook for these two disastrously run companies. Somehow, government accounting doesn’t require their debt to be considered the responsibility of the US taxpayer. This is a fraud, pure and simple. Their debt is our debt. According to their latest 10Q filed in early August (links below), their debts are: Fannie Mae: $3.257 Trillion; Freddie Mac: $2.345 Trillion.
The true National Debt of the United States is $18.964 Trillion. Therefore, our debt as a percentage of GDP is really 130%. This is beyond the level reached during World War II.
We are no longer the manufacturer to the world. We are the consumer to the world. The country adds $4 Billion per day to the National Debt. Our GDP is stagnanting with future growth no better than 2% being realistic.
Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, after analyzing data over 200 years throughout the world, have concluded that once debt reaches 90% of GDP, a tipping point is reached. Crisis and collapse will ensue.
After looking at data from 44 countries spanning 200 years, they’ve concluded that at ratios of debt to GDP up to 90%, there’s not much correlation between government debt and economic growth. Above 90%, however, median economic growth rates fall by one percentage point and average economic growth rates fall by about four percentage points. That makes the 90% level a kind of make-or-break point for countries that are hoping to grow their way out of debt. If the government debt load climbs above 90% of GDP, economic growth slows so much that growth is no longer a viable solution to reducing that debt. Above the 90% level, governments serious about reducing their debt load have to increasingly rely on “solutions” such as reducing wages and depreciating their currencies, which might over time increase global economic competitiveness enough to give a boost to national economic growth. In the short to medium term, however, these “solutions” inflict real pain on the citizens of the countries since they reduce standards of living.
The U.S. is well beyond the tipping point. By the time Obama exits Washington DC in 2012, the ratio will be 140% of GDP. That is if the currency collapse doesn’t happen first.
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