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September
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- This Newsbite Deserves a Stand-Alone Posting
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 30, 2010
- Car Rental Trivia
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, September 28, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, September 27, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., September 25 & 26
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September, 24, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 23, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, September 21, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, September 20, 2010
- Abbreviated Weekend Newsbites: Sunday, September 1...
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September 17, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 16, 2010
- The Coming Republican Revolution
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 15, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, September 13, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., September 11 & 12,...
- September 11, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September 10, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 9, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 8, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, September 7, 2010
- Labor Day Weekend Newsbites 2010
- U-6 Unemployment
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September 3, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 2, 2010
- This Newsbite Deserves Its Own Stand-Alone Posting
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 1, 2010
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September
(29)
About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
23 comments:
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.3e7faa8b96577f7cdc18ae77a111d3d0.251&show_article=1
Four senior Al-Qaeda detainees escaped from a US-controlled section of a tightly-guarded Iraqi prison overnight, Baghdad's security spokesman said on Thursday.
* OBVIOUSLY NOT SO TIGHTLY GUARDED!
The prison, previously named Camp Cropper, was officially handed over to the Iraqi government on July 15, but around 200 high-value detainees remained under US custody.
* LET'S HOPE THAT THE ESCAPE WAS DELIBERATELY ENGINEERED BY US AND THAT THE FOUR SENIOR AL-QAEDA "DETAINEES" HAVE ACTUALLY BEEN "TURNED" AND ARE BEING USED AS DOUBLE-AGENTS.
* HEY... IF THE ABOVE STORYBOOK SCENARIO ISN'T CORRECT... THEN HEADS SHOULD ROLL.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5geQsDi67zuA4fPHVF4EotRXVMoEgD9I4A8O00
The U.S. has slipped down the ranks of competitive economies, falling behind Sweden and Singapore due to huge deficits and pessimism about government, a global economic group said Thursday.
* THANK YOU MR. OBAMA! THANK YOU MS. PELOSI AND MR. REID!
(*SMIRK*)
Sweden moved up to second place while Singapore stayed at No. 3. The United States was in second place last year after falling from No. 1 in 2008.
* HMM... 2008... THE SECOND FULL YEAR OF DEMOCRAT CONTROL OF CONGRESS...
(*SIGH*)
"There has been a weakening of the United States' public and private institutions, as well as lingering concerns about the state of its financial markets," the group said.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0910/41897.html
A senior aide for Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was arrested Tuesday for attempting to bring marijuana into the Hart Senate Office Building, according to U.S. Capitol Police reports.
* HOW F--KING STUPID CAN YOU BE...?!?!
Marcus Stanley, who served as a senior economic adviser and at one time worked on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee - chaired by Boxer... Stanley has worked on Capitol Hill since 2007, according to financial disclosure records from Legistorm, and draws a six-figure salary. He has also worked for the Joint Economic Committee.
* WONDERFUL! JUST FRIGG'N WONDERFUL!
This is not the first time a member of Boxer’s senior staff has been arrested. Senior policy adviser Jeffrey Rosato, who also worked on the EPW committee, was fired in 2008 after he was arrested and charged with the receipt and distribution of child pornography.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Stanley is the fourth Hill aide to be arrested by Capitol Police this year, according to an analysis by Politico.
(*STILL JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/local/Illegal-immigrant-indicted-for-murder-in-nun_s-death-785596-102473089.html
The illegal immigrant accused of killing a Benedictine nun in a drunken driving crash in Prince William County has been indicted for murder.
Carlos A. Martinelly Montano, 23, now faces a charge of felony murder, court records show, for the Aug. 1 crash that killed Sister Denise Mosier, 66.
* IF MONTANO HADN'T BEEN IN OUR COUNTRY SISTER DENISE MOSIER WOULD BE ALIVE TODAY.
Montano was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter, drunken driving, and driving on a revoked license.
* DRIVING ON A "REVOKED" LICENSE MEANS THAT HE ONCE HAD AN "ACTIVE" LICENSE. ILLEGAL ALIEN...? GIVEN A LICENSE...??? WHAT THE F--K...?!?!
Montano could receive up to 40 years in prison.
* WHICH WE THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER WILL PAY FOR!
When he was charged in the Aug. 1 crash, Montano had two previous DUI convictions. He had been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, but was released pending a deportation hearing.
* NICE. REAL NICE.
This week, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell told the state Department of Motor Vehicles to stop accepting a federally issued work authorization card as proof of legal status.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Montano had received the employment authorization card in January 2009, months after deportation proceedings had begun for his second DUI offense. Authorities say he used the card to show his legal status when applying for a Virginia ID.
* UNFRIGG'NBELIEVABLE!
Corey Stewart, chairman of the county board of supervisors, has asked Congress to subpoena federal immigration records to find out how many illegal immigrants were released after arrest.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/546443/201009081903/New-Cartel-Threat-US-Energy-Supply.aspx
Mexico's state oil firm, our second-largest foreign supplier, is under attack from drug cartels. But that's not stopping the U.S. from investing more in its operations while American rigs lie idle in the Gulf.
[T]he U.S. Export-Import Bank has begun shoveling money into Mexican production. On Wednesday, Cybercast News Service reported that the "independent government entity" loaned $1.05 billion in 2009 to Pemex for four projects that would undoubtedly result in more development. Another billion is slated for loans this year, pending Congress' approval.
(The bank itself is quick to say that the cash would go to contracts for American companies, but so what? The fact is, U.S. firms will be working to develop oil and gas fields in a country that has lost control of its security.)
America is committed to Mexican oil, given that it isn't permitted to produce sufficient quantities of energy at home, even with vast resources. About 1.2 million barrels of Mexican crude come to the U.S. each day along with significant gas supplies.
The U.S. has been pitifully dependent on Mexico for its energy supplies for some time, and energy analysts worry about the state of underinvestment in Mexico's state fields. An explosion Tuesday at the country's third-largest refinery did nothing to allay those concerns.
High debt and aging fields are other problems with the nation the U.S. depends on in lieu of its own development.
Conditions are now especially dicey given the Obama administration's May 27 moratorium on offshore drilling. That arbitrary ban, placed by presidential decree in the wake of the BP oil spill, shut down deep-water drilling for U.S. companies that had been operating safely. Rigs affected are either lying idle or beginning to move abroad, leaving the U.S. to buy more oil from foreign suppliers.
The best solution for the U.S. is to lift the federal deep-water drilling moratorium and find ways to encourage production of viable, proven domestic sources of energy such as oil, gas, coal, shale and nuclear power that in the end will lessen our dependence on nations under attack by criminal cartels.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/546398/201009081903/Checks-In-The-Mail.aspx
The U.S. Postal Service expects to lose $7 billion in the current fiscal year...
(*SIGH*)
Not only is it on a path to lose billions this year, it has lost money in 14 of the last 16 quarters and could drop at least $238 billion over the next decade.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN DESPAIR*)
While the financial losses have mounted, mail volume has fallen from a peak of 213 billion pieces handled in 2006 to roughly 170 billion this year.
(*SNORT*)
Next year the post office expects just 160 billion pieces to pass through its doors, about what it handled two decades ago.
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
The post office administration recognizes that its business model is unsustainable and wants to cut costs by trimming wages and benefits and adding part-time workers. While these responses make sense to the rest of the world, the American Postal Workers Union and its president, William Burrus, are having trouble with reality. The union wants "more control over activities at work, more money, better benefits - we want more," Burrus told Government Executive magazine. "We will try to fashion our proposals to reflect the entitlement to more."
* GREAT! JUST FRIGG'N GREAT!
(*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
[T]hat's the union mindset: Demand more no matter what difficulties a business, or in this case a government-protected monopoly, is facing.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/546397/201009081903/Real-Radicals-Running-Wild-In-Washington.aspx
* READ THE FULL PIECE. (YOU HAVE THE LINK; USE IT!)
While the administration of Barack Obama attempts to portray the Tea Party as a "fringe" movement that doesn't share America's "mainstream" values, it is working concurrently to erase many of these values from our society.
Lurking beneath the unconstitutional mandates of "ObamaCare," the reckless deficit spending and the draconian new regulations and taxes being imposed on our free-market economy, Obama and his radical allies are moving in numerous, more subtle ways to erase America's identity.
The frightening reality is that in the Obama administration, "hope and change" have masked a sinister anti-American agenda that's being advanced by real radicals - as opposed to Tea Party protesters who are simply standing up for the ideals upon which their nation was founded.
Destroying the free market, reducing states to mere "vassal" status and subjugating American rights to the liberal policing of a new global order - these are the true aims and objectives of the radicals who are running wild in Washington, D.C.
* HEY... IF YOU DON'T "BUY" IT... THEN I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO TELL YOU. BUT AT LEAST READ THE FULL PIECE AND IF YOU HAVE ANY DOUBTS TO ITS BASIC VERACITY DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. (*SHRUG*)
* I'M TELLING YOU... THE PIECE IS FAR MORE ACCURATE AND FACT-BASED THAN NOT. (*SHRUG*)
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/245659/event-horizon-kevin-mccarthy
Black holes destroy any objects that happen to fall victim to their gravitational pull. The edge of a black hole, the event horizon, is a boundary that marks the point of no return. Once an object crosses the event horizon, it cannot escape and will be ripped to pieces...
While the astrophysical properties differ, America is facing its own crisis for which the gravitational pull is growing stronger every day: a national-debt crisis. Once our country is fully engulfed in a debt crisis, our economy will be torn apart and every American will be a victim of the federal government’s failure to prevent this disaster.
One indicator of the point of no return is the ratio of debt to the gross domestic product (GDP).
Economists generally consider levels of debt at 60% of GDP or more to be unsustainable. When gross public debt exceeds 90% of GDP, economic growth tends to decline considerably. Additionally, debt at this level is associated with stagflation - declining growth and rising inflation.
How close are we to this event horizon?
The publicly held debt as a share of GDP will exceed 60% this year.
According to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), debt will reach 90% of GDP by 2020.
The interest on this debt alone will be $916 billion annually, meaning that one in five tax dollars will be dedicated to making interest payments.
Historians have observed that declines of great empires are often associated with fiscal crises, most notably when a country’s spending consistently exceeds its revenues. Such was the case for the Soviet Union, the British Empire, the French Bourbon monarchy, and the Chinese Ming dynasty.
http://www.nypost.com/f/print/news/local/union_suits_nyers_most_zzSbhXdlDl2CC5cFTWyowL
New York is the boss when it comes to union membership.
Nearly 70% of public-sector workers in the city and 71% of state public employees belong to a union...
* AND GUESS WHOSE TIT THEY'RE SUCKING ON, KIDS...
(*SMIRKY SMILE*)
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/nine-states-did-not-file-initial-claims-data-due-labor-day-hundreds-thousands-estimates-data
The [federal] Bureau of Labor Statistics has announced that as a result of the Labor Day weekend, nine states (among which the biggest one California) did not report initial claims data to the bean counters...
* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT..
...so instead the government had to "estimate" what the data would have been...
[Y]ep, estimate... ["estimate"] what the data was in these nine states.
(*HUMORLESS DRY CHUCKLE*)
Official data is now made up on the fly.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*
This US economic data reporting has just entered the twilight zone.
Also, when the data is officially made up, it is not that difficult to get data that is "better than expected."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100909/ap_on_re_us/us_illegal_immigrants_crackdown_3
A federal appeals court ruled Thursday that Hazleton, Pa., may not enforce its crackdown on illegal immigrants...
* RULED INCORRECTLY.
The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said that Hazleton's Illegal Immigration Relief Act usurped the federal government's exclusive power to regulate immigration.
* NONSENSE. HAZLETON IS DOING NOTHING THAT CONFLICTS WITH FEDERAL STATUTE; ON THE CONTRARY, THEIR ACTIONS ARE DIRECTLY IN KEEPING WITH REINFORCING EXISTING FEDERAL LAW.
* POINT TWO: THE WORD "REGULATE" IS BEING DELIBERATELY MISUSED BY THE COURT. "REGULATION" IN THE SENSE OF FEDERAL PRIMACY WITH REGARDS TO IMMIGRATION STATUS MEANS SIMPLY THAT ONLY THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN AWARD AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP. HAZLETON IS NOT SEEKING TO HAVE ITS OWN "CITIZENSHIP" POLICY NOR ARE THEY SEEKING TO SUBVERT FEDERAL LAW; ON THE CONTRARY, THEIR ACTIONS ARE DIRECTLY IN KEEPING WITH REINFORCING EXISTING FEDERAL LAW.
"It is ... not our job to sit in judgment of whether state and local frustration about federal immigration policy is warranted. We are, however, required to intervene when states and localities directly undermine the federal objectives embodied in statutes enacted by Congress," wrote Chief Judge Theodore McKee.
* THE JUDGE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED, REMOVED, AND DISBARRED. AGAIN, HAZLETON IS NOT - I REPEAT, NOT - "UNDERMINING" FEDERAL LAW.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/245668/mary-jo-kilroy-socialist-revolutionary-mytheos-holt
Given the strong prospects of Republican resurgence this year, the Left has taken to blaming their pending debacle on paranoia.
Turn on Keith Olbermann or Rachel Maddow and you’ll hear snide jokes about how anyone who’s voting GOP this year has bought into a reds-under-the-beds narrative...
(*SMILEY SMIRK*)
In the case of freshman Democrat Mary Jo Kilroy, of Ohio’s 15th District...
* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT...
There is already documentary evidence of Kilroy’s having had sympathies with socialist and radical left-wing groups in the past. In 2008, Kilroy’s opponent, Steve Stivers, criticized Kilroy for having been the editor of a socialist newspaper. Kilroy gave the limpest of defenses, offering only that she’d won an award for journalism for her work. Inexplicably, the line of inquiry was never followed up.
And as it turns out, Stivers didn’t give Kilroy enough credit. Not only was the freshman Democrat the editor of a socialist newspaper, she was also eventually its publisher, a frequent reporter and columnist for it, and a partner with none other than the head of the Democratic Socialists of Central Ohio...
(*SHAKING MY HEAD IN AMUSEMENT*)
In this case, as in the cases of Van Jones and many others, the socialism charge is not paranoia: It’s all there in black and white.
* ACTUALLY FOLKS... FORGIVE THE ABOVE DERISION. THIS STUFF REALLY ISN'T VERY "AMUSING" AT ALL. THESE PEOPLE DO INDEED SEEK TO "FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGE" AMERICA.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/245742/america-wants-school-reform-tim-pawlenty
The great tragedy of American education is not that the system fails so many children, but that we know why and yet do very little about it.
The statistics still shock, but they no longer surprise.
The United States today spends more money on education per pupil ($11,000) than almost any other country, and yet it routinely finishes near the bottom of international math, science, and literacy surveys.
(On average, our fourth-graders do pretty well, but by the time those children get to eighth grade they begin to slide, and by twelfth grade they can no longer keep up with many of their peers in other countries.)
The situation for our minority students is even worse. According to a recent study, black and Latino students trail white students of the same age by the equivalent of two to three years of learning. [A]ccording to the Wall Street Journal, 10% of America’s high schools produce 50% of America’s dropouts - and African-American children have a 50-50 chance of attending one of them[!]
Half of Minnesota’s minority students graduate from high school. That pattern repeats itself across the nation.
For all their rhetoric about "the children," when push comes to shove, what the teachers’ unions really want is raises, every year, for jobs they can never lose at schools that need never compete.
That entitlement mentality just won’t cut it any more. America’s education cartel is an indulgence we can no longer afford, either as citizens paying taxes to dysfunctional governments or as competitors in a global economic market.
[T]he president killed school choice for poor kids in Washington, D.C., and he recently bailed out teachers’ unions with $31 billion we don’t have.
Public schools should be forced to compete in a field where they will be judged by who has the best teachers and the best outcomes. Schools, districts, and states should embrace market-based reforms that reward good teachers and principals, while removing bad ones. And alternative formats like home schooling, vocational apprenticeships, and online learning should be supported and further integrated into our public systems.
At the federal level, we should create “charter states,” freeing states from the regulations tied to federal education dollars in exchange for transparency and, most important, results.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/245887/obama-s-50-billion-infrastructure-boondoggle-michelle-malkin
Not all "workers" are equal in [President] Obama’s eyes.
E.O. 13502, a union-friendly executive order signed by Obama in his first weeks in office...essentially forces contractors who bid on large-scale public-construction projects worth $25 million or more to submit to union representation for their employees. The blunt instrument used to give unions a leg up is the “project labor agreement (PLA),” which in theory sets reasonable pre-work terms and conditions - but which in practice requires contractors to hand over exclusive bargaining control; to pay inflated, above-market wages and benefits; and to fork over dues money and pension funding to corrupt, cash-starved labor organizations.
These anti-competitive agreements undermine a fair bidding process on projects that locked-out, nonunion laborers are funding with their own tax dollars.
[T]hese PLAs benefit the privileged few at the expense of the vast majority: In the construction industry; 85% of the workforce is nonunion by choice. ... [M]ost [workers] will remain “idled” by the Democrats’ own design.
We don’t need to theorize about how this shakedown works in the real world. Boston’s notorious Big Dig was a union-only construction project thanks to a Massachusetts government-mandated PLA. The original $2.8 billion price tag for the project skyrocketed to $22 billion in state and federal taxpayer subsidies thanks in no small part to ballooning labor costs.
In February, the Bay State’s Beacon Hill Institute found that PLAs added 12% to 18% to school construction costs in Massachusetts and Connecticut.
In Washington, D.C., the Department of Veterans Affairs commissioned an independent study showing that PLAs would increase hospital construction costs by as much as 9% in some markets.
In short, Obama’s new Union Infrastructure Rescue Plan [- aka: Obama's latest $50 billion "stimulus" proposal -] is a political-favoritism scheme that raises the cost of doing business and bars tens of thousands of skilled, nonunion laborers who choose to run open shops from securing work.
In the name of patching up America’s highways and byways, Mr. Fix It would create another gaping fiscal sinkhole to appease his special-interest donors.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/245978/racial-voyeurism-matthew-shaffer
* AN AGE OF OBAMA ALERT --
Mortgage servicers are now expected to record the race of all their clients - including those expressly unwilling to provide one.
* YEP. YOU READ THAT RIGHT!
The Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP) is a creature of the Obama administration. ... Under HAMP’s new guidelines...lenders are required to ignore...conscientious objections.
See section 4.1.2.1, on page 31: “If a borrower declines to provide GMD, the servicer should attempt to provide the information based on visual observation, information learned from the borrower or surname.” Presumably, “visual observation” means skin tone, a “surname” can suggest country of origin, and “information learned” accommodates almost anything that can fit a stereotype. Note also the word “declines,” as opposed to “neglects”: Those who check the box that says “I do not wish to furnish this information” will have it furnished for them.
HAMP expects businesses to prep their employees for this difficult task: “Servicing staff should be provided with training and job aids (e.g., desk references, scripts and, where feasible, system prompts).” I wasn’t clear on what these “desk references” should contain (lists of racial characteristics?) or how to adjudicate conflicting signals (what to say about a Tiger Woods?). So, I called the HAMP Solution Center (as recommended to those with questions about the new guidebook). A friendly representative helped me through the new provisions, but he clammed up when I pressed him on what the recommended “desk references” should contain. “Desk references, I’m assuming, are something with lists of faces and - well, or something with surnames to distinguish - I don’t know. I really can’t answer that.”
(*SMIRK*) (*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)
He said HAMP will not provide specific instructions for interpreting “information obtained from the borrower” - but it will still expect the data. The servicers will do the awkward work of deciding how to get it.
(*HEADACHE*)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38901
* BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN
John McCain is headed back to the U.S. Senate, perhaps a changed and chastened man, and perhaps not.
But the manner in which he secured his Senate seat for another six years is instructive, and not only for moderate Republicans facing off against conservatives and tea party candidates, but for 2012.
Realizing his career was on the line, McCain began to run attack ads against his rival, ex-Rep. J.D. Hayworth - an authentic conservative - while J.D. was still a radio talk show host.
When J.D. announced, and surged to within five points of McCain, the senator did not hesitate to call in Sarah Palin, though his own staff aides from the 2008 campaign had been trashing her as a lightweight and principal cause of McCain's defeat.
(*SMIRK*)
* MCCAIN IS A PIECE OF GARBAGE.
McCain then repudiated his famous "maverick" moniker as a misnomer, as it implied that he had been "First RINO" (Republican in name only), who had relished siding with Democrats against his own party - a practice that had endeared McCain to the mainstream media.
(*SOUR NOD*)
McCain then joined Sen. Jon Kyl in proposing a 10-point border security plan calling for a fence and troops. John "Amnesty of 2007" McCain was now doing a passable imitation of Tom Tancredo 2008.
(*DISGUSTED SNORT*)
McCain used much of his $20 million war chest to savage J.D. on radio and TV, then created an ad with him walking the border with no-nonsense Sheriff Paul Babeu, saying, "Complete the dang fence!" and Babeu responding, "Senator, you're one of us."
(*SMIRK*) MCCAIN DRAFTED BABEU BECAUSE JOE ARPAIO WOULDN'T ASSOCIATE HIMSELF WITH MCCAIN!
McCain's victory has cost him dearly with a national press that loathed the campaign he conducted. Many concur with the Democratic National Committee, which charged McCain with selling his soul to win his renomination. From the network studios in New York to the newsrooms of Washington, McCain is no longer Lancelot, but Mordred. Yet[...] he did what he had to do to keep his job. And he has kept his job for six more years.
* DAMN THE REPUBLICAN PRIMARY VOTERS OF ARIZONA!
* UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES WOULD I VOTE FOR JOHN S. MCCAIN. I'D RATHER THAT THE "REAL" DEMOCRATS RETAIN THE SENATE!
http://www.goldwaterinstitute.org/article/4941
Enrollment at America’s leading universities has been increasing dramatically, rising nearly 15% between 1993 and 2007. But unlike almost every other growing industry, higher education has not become more efficient. Instead, universities now have more administrative employees and spend more on administration to educate each student.
In short, universities are suffering from “administrative bloat,” expanding the resources devoted to administration significantly faster than spending on instruction, research and service.
Between 1993 and 2007, the number of full-time administrators per 100 students at America’s leading universities grew by 39%, while the number of employees engaged in teaching, research or service only grew by 18%.
Inflation-adjusted spending on administration per student increased by 61% during the same period, while instructional spending per student rose 39%.
Arizona State University, for example, increased the number of administrators per 100 students by 94% during this period while actually reducing the number of employees engaged in instruction, research and service by 2%. (Nearly half of all full-time employees at Arizona State University are administrators.)
A significant reason for the administrative bloat is that students pay only a small portion of administrative costs. The lion’s share of university resources comes from the federal and state governments, as well as private gifts and fees for non-educational services.
The large and increasing rate of government subsidy for higher education facilitates administrative bloat by insulating students from the costs. Reducing government subsidies would do much to make universities more efficient.
* AS I'VE ALWAYS SAID...!!!
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-09-09/how-gm-made-30-billion-appear-from-thin-air-commentary-by-jonathan-weil.html
Sometimes the wackiest accounting results are the ones driven by the accounting rules themselves.
Consider this: How could it be that one of GM’s most valuable assets, listed at $30.2 billion, is the intangible asset known as "goodwill," when it’s been only a little more than a year since the company emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection?
* OH... SOME OF YOUR FOLKS HAVE NEVER HEARD OF "GOODWILL" AS IT'S USED IN ACCOUNTING? (*SMIRK*)
* FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH, I'VE COVERED THIS TOPIC BEFORE... (*RUEFUL SMILE*)
$30,200,000,000 [is the] the amount GM said its "goodwill" was worth on the June 30 balance sheet it filed last month as part of the registration statement for its planned initial public offering.
By comparison, GM said its total equity was $23.9 billion.
* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT...
So without the "goodwill" - which isn’t saleable - the company’s equity would be negative.
(*MIRTHLESS LAUGHTER*)
This is hardly a sign of robust financial strength.
(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)
GM listed its goodwill at zero a year earlier. It’s as if a $30.2 billion asset suddenly materialized out of thin air. In the upside-down world that is GM’s balance sheet, that’s exactly what happened.
* AIN'T OBAMANOMICS GRAND...?!
Indeed, the company’s goodwill supposedly is worth more than its property, plant and equipment, which GM listed at $18.1 billion.
(*SIGH*)
At this point, GM’s balance sheet remains loaded with fluff, as the "goodwill" illustrates.
GM said its August deliveries were down 25% from a year earlier, so it’s not as if business is booming. Moreover, GM disclosed that it still has material weaknesses in its internal controls, which is a fancy way of saying it doesn’t have the necessary systems in place to ensure its financial reporting is accurate.
* AND THE OBAMA "SUMMER OF RECOVERY" PROCEEDS APACE!
(*SNORT*) (*SMIRK*) (*GUFFAW*)
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/opinion/s_698527.html
The worse the poll numbers get, the more Barack Obama resembles the traveling snake-oil salesman of old.
Conestoga One rolled into Cleveland on Wednesday. And the president, offering this potion and that elixir, worked overtime to make a bogeyman out of Republicans in general (you know, the "Party of No") and House Speaker-in-Waiting John Boehner of Ohio (you know, Gen. No).
After all, Boehner-led, tax-cut-happy Republicans are so blinded by the prospect of retaking control of the House (and maybe even the Senate) that they won't even line up behind proposed new tax breaks for business.
That's the Democrats' script. The reality is, Republicans won't enable another liberal scheme seeking to pander to voters in a last-ditch attempt to save Democrats from possibly historic midterm election losses on Nov. 2.
The latest smoke and mirrors would allow companies to write off 100 percent of new investments in plants and equipment in the first year versus the current three to 20 years.
But it's a gimmick - the break would expire at the end of 2011.
As one corporate boss told The Wall Street Journal, "What's really needed is a thoughtful, cogent tax policy that everyone ... can rely on for a number of years."
Gee, imagine that.
"Yeah but" time. Yeah, we all know NYS is a communist or at least socialist state, but you continue to live and work there.
The only way to break the habit of entitlement in NYS is for people to start leaving the state.
I was raised there and have a brother on Long Island and a sister in Duchess County. I'll visit, but I don't buy anything there, except gas. I am not going to contribut to the excesses that make NYS one of the highest taxed states in the nation.
So yeah, but you continue to live there and support the status quo.
Time to move. You could have gone to Delaware to buy them tires.
And the newsbites thing ain't working for me because I can't comment on a specific post, I have to comment on the whole news bite.
Mid/Dave writes...
"Yeah, we all know NYS is a communist or at least socialist state, but you continue to live and work there."
Yep. Guilty as charged.
Mid/Dave continues...
"The only way to break the habit of entitlement in NYS is for people to start leaving the state."
Pretty sure that's what people have been doing, Dave.
Mid/Dave continues...
"I was raised there and have a brother on Long Island and a sister in Duchess County. I'll visit, but I don't buy anything there, except gas."
If I purchase gas three or four times in NYS per year that's a lot. Luckily for me, I'm close enough to New Jersey and drive through NJ enough to make that state my gas stop of choice.
Mid/Dave continues...
"So yeah, but you continue to live there and support the status quo."
Yep. Guilty as charged. (I also continue to live in the U.S.A. period; that may turn out to be a big mistake as well.)
Mid/Dave continues...
"Time to move. You could have gone to Delaware to buy them tires."
Nope. Mail order with Walmart installation was cheaper!
(*WINK*)
BILL
P.S. - You are correct though... I should leave. The only real reason we stay is that my wife has a very, very secure position here with a private firm she's been with for almost 23 years and... well... chucking it all just doesn't seem the wisest course.
P.P.S. - Of course, it could very well be that this is what we SHOULD do. Frankly, neither one of us has the courage to make the leap on faith at this point in time.
Mid/Dave writes...
"And the newsbites thing ain't working for me because I can't comment on a specific post, I have to comment on the whole news bite."
I get what you're saying... but com'on... is it really all that hard to identify the specific newsbite you're commenting on...???
(That's a rhetorical question, Dave; the answer is... er... "no.")
For example, let's say you wanted to comment on... oh... say the "Buchanan" newsbite; the one about McCain.
All you'd have to do is write...
"In re: Buchanan/McCain..."
Or...
Re: Post #16; (http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38901)
Dave... com'on...
(*CHUCKLING*)
BILL
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