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2010
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October
(22)
- Nancy Calhoun, Roxanne Donnery, and Chris McKenna
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, October 29, 2010
- Hide Your Young Daughters...!!!
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, October 28, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, October 27, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, October 26, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, October 25, 2010
- Weekend Newbsites: Sat. & Sun., Oct. 23 & 24, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, October 22, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, October 21, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, October 20, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, October 19, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, October 18, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun.; Oct. 16 & 17, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, October 15, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, October 14, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, October 13, 2010
- I Need A Vacation To Recover From My Vacation!
- Vacation Time! "See" You On Tuesday, Oct. 12th!
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, Oct. 4, 2010
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Oct. 2 & 3, 2010
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, October 1. 2010
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October
(22)
About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
10 comments:
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39221
The great issue uniting and motivating the Republican Party and Tea Party is the deficit-debt crisis, a national debt nearing 100% of gross domestic product and a deficit of 10% of GDP.
* I PARTIALLY DISAGREE. THE "ISSUE" MOTIVATING FAR TOO MANY WITHIN THE GOP ESTABLISHMENT IS SELF-INTEREST, NOT NATIONAL INTEREST. (AT THE VERY LEAST, THE NATIONAL INTEREST IS A SECONDARY CONSIDERATION FOR FAR TOO MANY OF THESE SCUM.)
As to the cause of the deficit that could precipitate a run on the dollar, double-digit inflation, even a default, the Tea Party and GOP also agree - federal spending that consumes 25% of GDP.
Both are also on the same page in their opposition to closing the deficit with new or higher taxes.
* ON THIS TOO I MUST "QUIBBLE." APPROXIMATELY 46%-49% OF AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ARE... er... NOT TAXPAYERS IN TERMS OF PAYING FEDERAL INCOME TAX. THAT'S A HUGE PROBLEM. I BELIEVE THAT IF WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A FEDERAL INCOME TAX, EVERYONE SHOULD BE "CONTRIBUTING" - NOT JUST THE "RICHER" HALF OF TAXPAYERS. ON THAT NOTE, IN THIS SENSE, I'M AN ADVOCATE OF "RAISING" TAXES.
[S]pending must be slashed. But to cut the budget to 20% of GDP - where it was before George W. Bush and Barack Obama - requires spending cuts of an astronomical $700 billion a year. (Even then, the 2011 deficit would be $700 billion.)
As interest on the debt must be paid, or we default, there are only two places you can find that kind of money:
The first is the major entitlement programs - Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security - and social spending for education, veterans benefits, earned income tax credits and unemployment compensation. [The second is] defense and the empire, the warfare state.
* I FAVOR CUTTING BOTH!
[It is on this second option that] the Tea Party and War Party split the blanket.
If Obama begins his promised withdrawal from Afghanistan next July, will Tea Party Republicans join the War Party and the generals in accusing Obama of inviting an American defeat?
* I WORRY THAT MANY WILL - PERHAPS EVEN A MAJORITY.
The neocons are nervous the Tea Party may not sign up to soldier on for the empire. Writing in The Washington Post, Danielle Pletka and Thomas Donnelly of AEI have sniffed out the unmistakable scent of "isolationism" among Tea Party favorites.
* LET'S HOPE THE NEOCONS ARE RIGHT TO BE NERVOUS. LET'S PRAY THAT THERE ARE ENOUGH SOPHISTICATED, INDEPENDENT VOICES WITHIN THE "TEA PARTY" TO STEER SUPPORT AWAY FROM THE IDEA OF "AMERICAN EMPIRE" AND REMIND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE OF THE WARNINGS OF WASHINGTON, JEFFERSON, AND EISENHOWER.
[N]ational security is one thing, empire security another. Why should Americans, 65 years after World War II, be defending rich Europeans from a Soviet Union that has been dead for 20 years, so those same Europeans can cut their defense budgets to protect their social safety nets?
President Eisenhower told JFK to bring the troops home from Europe, or the Europeans would wind up as permanent wards. Was Ike a closet isolationist?
Almost $14 trillion in debt today, we borrow from Europe to defend Europe, borrow from Japan to defend Japan, borrow from the Gulf Arabs to defend the Gulf Arabs. And we borrow from Beijing to send foreign aid to African regimes whose U.N. delegations laughed and applauded as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told the General Assembly that 9/11 was an inside job by the U.S. government.
Have we lost all sense of self-respect?
* HAVE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE LOST ALL PERSPECTIVE ON THEIR BEST INTERESTS VS. THE SELFISH INTERESTS OF THE OLIGARCHS?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575525652528708626.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_markets
Crude oil futures were trading at a seven-week high Friday, as a weakening dollar and strong manufacturing data from China helped add to the week's rally.
* BY "RALLY" THEY MEAN YOU'LL SOON BE PAYING MORE AT THE PUMP. DOES THAT SOUND GOOD TO YOU...?
Mid-morning, light, sweet crude oil for November delivery was up $1.25 to $81.15 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
"This is all the dollar," said Rich Ilczyszyn, a broker with Lind-Waldock.
"The economy is slow right now but oil is hanging at $81. What happens when the economy picks up a little bit?"
(*SMIRK*)
The Federal Reserve is expected to expand its stimulus program, which analysts say will provide a boost to commodities.
* AGAIN, BY "BOOST" WHAT IS MEANT IS THAT YOU'LL BE PAYING MORE AT THE PUMP. THIS IS NOT GOOD.
Bank of America-Merrill Lynch said oil prices could rise by as much as 26% on the Fed's moves...
* SO... LET'S SAY IT PRESENTLY COSTS $50 TO FILL THE TANK... IT'LL SOON COST $63 FOR THE SAME EXACT AMOUNT OF GAS. HOW'S PAYING AN EXTRA $13 HELP YOU OUT...??? ANSWER: IT DOESN'T. ALL IT DOES IS ADD TO YOUR LIVING EXPENSES, TAKING AWAY FROM YOUR OVERALL STANDARD OF LIVING.
* FOLKS... THIS IS THE FED's STRATEGY! THIS IS BERNANKE'S PLAN!
* JEZZUS F--KING CHRIST... WAKE UP...!!!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703859204575525820745204374.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_smallbusiness
Dozens of credit unions are among the last recipients of money from the government's financial bailout.
* TARP.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... REMEMBER HOW YOU WERE TOLD THE DEMOCRAT'S FINANCIAL "REFORMS" WOULD PUT AN END TO BAILOUTS...?
The U.S. Treasury in recent weeks provided 48 credit unions with $69.91 million through a program aimed at boosting small-business lending in underserved communities, ahead of the Oct. 3 expiration of bailout authority under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.
* "UNDERSERVED COMMUNITES." IN ENGLISH... GHETTOS.
Credit union regulators had approved requests for funding from 85 credit unions, but some withdrew their applications because of compensation restrictions and documentation requirements.
(*SMIRK*)
* AGAIN... IN ENGLISH: THEY WERE AFRAID OF BEING CAUGHT OUT AS CONSPIRING IN FINANCIAL FRAUD.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fe753938-cd66-11df-ab20-00144feab49a.html
* HEY FOLKS... RECALL MY PREVIOUS POST CONCERNING THE FED ACTUALLY WANTING TO SPUR INFLATION...
The Federal Reserve could adopt an explicit inflation target like that of the UK in order to keep up public expectations of future price rises, one of the most influential regional Fed presidents has said in a speech.
William Dudley, the head of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, said that being more explicit about the Fed’s goal “could help anchor inflation expectations at the desired rate” and “clarify the extent to which the current level of inflation falls short of that rate”.
* IN PLAIN ENGLISH: THE FED DOESN'T BELIEVE WE HAVE ENOUGH INFLATION. THEY WANT MORE!
Mr Dudley’s remarks are important because the Fed’s last policy statement focused heavily on inflation running below the levels it thought consistent with its mandate. Taken together they suggest that the Fed may be moving towards greater inflation targeting even if it does not adopt an explicit numerical goal.
* IN PLAIN ENGLISH: THEY WANT YOU TO PAY MORE FOR THE SAME AMOUNT OF "STUFF."
Mr Dudley also raised the prospect of an even more controversial policy: a price level target in which the Fed promised to allow higher inflation in future years in order to make up for any below target inflation while interest rates are stuck at zero.
(*HEAD EXPLODING*)
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/548973/201009301810/New-Fiscal-Year-Same-Fiscal-Irresponsibility.aspx
Friday marks the start of a new fiscal year for the federal government and provides an opportunity to assess the fiscal health of our nation. The diagnosis is grim.
The federal government now spends $7 million a minute. Our national debt is more than $13 trillion, which means every man, woman and child owes $42,000 to foreign governments and other debt holders.
* ACTUALLY, THAT $13 TRILLION-PLUS FIGURE IS A LOW... LOW... LOWBALL FIGURE WHICH DOESN'T INCLUDE UNFUNDED LIABILITIES. (*SHRUG*) (*SCOWL*)
In the next two years, our debt will exceed the size of our economy. Within three years, the government will spend more than $1 billion a day just to pay the interest on our debt. The debt will double in 10 years.
Unprecedented fiscal recklessness is to blame. Nonsecurity discretionary spending has increased by nearly 90% over the past three years. The federal government is spending money it doesn't have while working families and small businesses must find ways to make do with less.
What has all this spending done for Americans? Since the $800 billion stimulus package was passed in early 2009, we have lost nearly 3 million jobs and the unemployment rate has consistently hovered around 10%. And every business in America knows that where reckless spending is found, higher tax rates are sure to follow.
After spending so wildly with nothing to show for it, the new fiscal year ought to mark the beginning of renewed fiscal restraint. Sadly, we're beginning fiscal year 2011 on even shakier footing.
For the first time since modern budgeting rules were adopted in 1974, the U.S. House of Representatives will fail to pass a budget.
* THAT'S "THE DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED" U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. (*SHRUG*)
Without a budget, we cannot set priorities, review our debt, rationally consider our revenue or direct the course of spending for our nation.
The news only gets worse. By Oct. 1 of each year, Congress is also supposed to have passed the 12 appropriations bills that fund the federal government for the new fiscal year. This year, Congress has yet to pass any of these 12 critical appropriation measures.
* TO REITERATE: "THE DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED" U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES AND DEMOCRAT CONTROLLED U.S. SENATE.
* THE AUTHOR OF THIS PIECE, CHARLES DJOU (R-HI) SUGGESTS:
[C]ancel unspent stimulus funds and block any attempt to extend the timeline for spending such funds.
[S]ave another $100 billion by returning government spending to pre-stimulus levels.
[C]ap discretionary spending, cut Congress' budget and end the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
* SOUNDS LIKE A GOOD START.
http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/549024/201009301853/Post-Racial-Racialism.aspx
* RECALL THE EARLIER POST CONCERNING NEW BAILOUTS TO THE CREDIT UNION INDUSTRY..
The Justice Department's...Civil Rights Division...housing and civil enforcement section...is conducting a witch hunt against supposedly racist bankers.
Several banks have been prosecuted for "lending discrimination" and ordered to set aside millions in loans to blacks — regardless of whether they were victims.
Some have also been told to relocate operations and marketing efforts in urban areas to serve the "credit needs" of African-Americans, regardless of the profitability in those areas. Obama-appointed prosecutors are applying an expanded definition of lending discrimination called "disparate impact," which argues that bankers are guilty of bias just by failing to actively solicit minority loans or open branches in minority areas.
It doesn't matter if their policies intentionally discriminate or not. What matters is how they "impact" those areas.
No civil-rights law on the books requires banks to solicit minority customers or operate in minority neighborhoods. But most banks don't have the resources to fight the Justice Department. So they sign the order and pay the penalty - and the race bullies at Justice never have to prove their charges. In fact, recently filed court orders include no factual findings of wrongdoing.
* THE "RULE OF LAW" AS ADMINISTERED IN THE AGE OF OBAMA...
(*SIGH*)
These cases aren't about individual discrimination. They're about forcing banks to subsidize protected classes and redevelop blighted areas. That's not justice; that's politics. Some settlement funds, in fact, are earmarked for inner-city activist groups, even though they are not party to the cases.
[Eric Holder's Department of] Justice ordered two AIG bank subsidiaries earlier this year to, among other things, pay $1 million to "qualified organizations" that help "African-American borrowers."
The Civil Rights Division will pick which groups are "qualified" to receive the largesse. (No doubt they will look a lot like the radical Chicago community organizers who shook down banks in the run-up to the subprime crisis.)
* FOLKS... WE'RE IN TROUBLE.
http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=3789&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS
[T]he Defense Department is not only still years away from being able to audit its books, its efforts have lost billions to mismangement, government watchdogs say.
* AND OBAMA AND THE DEMOCRATS WANT TO GROW GOVERNMENT AND INCREASE GOVERNMENTAL RESPONSIBILITIES.
(*SMIRK*)
[O]fficials from the Government Accountability Office revealed that two-thirds of the systems DoD is putting in place to make its budget auditable have slipped years in implementation and doubled in cost to more than $13 billion.
* SO, FOLKS... HOW ACCURATE WOULD YOU GUESS THE OFFICIAL COST ESTIMATES FOR OBAMACARE WILL END UP BEING...? WOULD YOU GUESS THEY'LL BE OVERSTATED... (*SNORT*)... OR VASTLY UNDERSTATED?
[The DoD's] integrated pay-and-personnel system...is $2.4 billion over budget and 12 years behind schedule.
An appendix in the GAO report states that DOD’s failures to pass an audit “not only affect the reliability of the department’s financial reports…they also adversely affect the department’s ability to assess resource requirements; control costs; ensure basic accountability; anticipate future costs and claims on the budget; measure performance; maintain funds control; prevent fraud waste, abuse, and mismanagement; and address pressing management issues.”
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
The Army can’t be sure that it doesn’t overdraw its personnel expenditures account, which funds soldier pay, enlistment bonuses and other benefits; DoD still can’t “reliably identify, aggregate and report the full cost of its investment” in weapons systems - currently estimated at more than $1 trillion - and doesn’t have enough information to manage and reduce the billions it spends each year on weapons operating and support costs; [and] databases tracking hundreds of millions worth of Army property are improperly managed, the DOD Inspector General has found.
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... IF THE MILITARY CAN'T MANAGE TOP-DOWN FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT, HOW DO YOU THINK OBAMACARE IS GOING TO WORK OUT...???
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101001/ap_on_bi_ge/us_postal_finances_1
The Postal Service expects to lose about $6 billion this year...
The latest loss is a bit less than the $7 billion the post office had been expecting. But it's on top of a $3.8 billion loss the year before.
* HEY... FOLKS... GUESS WHO BAILS THE POSTAL SERVICE OUT...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
http://www.politico.com/blogs/joshgerstein/1010/Target_of_FBI_terrorsupport_raid_visited_WH.html?showall#
An Arab-American "activist" who attended an outreach session at the White House complex in April had his Chicago home raided by the FBI last week and appears to be a focus of an unfolding federal terrorism-support investigation.
Hatem Abudayyeh, who serves as executive director of the Arab-American Action Network, took part in a meeting for Arab-American "leaders" held in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on April 22, according to appointment data posted on the White House website.
Last Friday, FBI agents executed a search warrant at Abudayyeh’s Chicago home as part of a coordinated series of raids...
(*SIGH*)
A copy posted on the web of a grand jury subpoena served on one target of the raids in Minneapolis demands “all records of any payment provided directly or indirectly to Hatem Abudayyeh, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (“PFLP”) or the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (“FARC”).”
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Abudayyeh has not been charged with any crime, nor do the court documents made public by targets of the searches make any explicit allegation of ties between the Chicago activist and any of the groups.
* O.K.
In a 2006 interview with Fight Back News, an outlet run by Minneapolis activist Kelly, Abudayyeh seemed to disagree rather strenuously with at least some of the U.S. government’s use of the terrorist label. “The U.S. and Israel will continue to describe Hamas, Hezbollah and the other Palestinian and Lebanese resistance organizations as ‘terrorists,’ but the real terrorists are the governments and military forces of the U.S. and Israel,” Abudayyeh said.
* NICE... (*SMIRK*)
Abudayyeh’s group, AAAN, briefly drew attention during the presidential campaign following reports that a foundation on whose board Obama served donated $40,000 to the group for “community organizing" in 2001.
(*SMIRK*)
In 2003, Obama spoke at an AAAN-sponsored farewell dinner for Rashid Khalidi, a professor who was decamping from the University of Chicago to Columbia. During the 2008 campaign, the Los Angeles Times obtained a video of the event and reported that Obama lavished praise on Khalidi, who once served as a spokesman for the Palestinian Liberation Organization. (Late in the 2008 campaign, Republican nominee Sen. John McCain attacked the Times for failing to make the video public. The newspaper said it obtained the video on the condition that it not be released publicly.)
(*SNORT*)
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/harrisburg-requests-last-ditch-rescue-financing-state-says-alterantive-full-blown-financial-
The collapse of America continues...
Harrisburg has just requested a last minute rescue financing from the state Pennsylvania, as the alternative would be insolvency.
* FOR THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW... HARRISBURG IS THE CAPITAL OF PENNSYLVANIA!
From BusinessWeek:
~~Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson asked Pennsylvania to determine the city to be in municipal financial distress so it would qualify for help and oversight under the state’s Act 47 program. The city “stands on the precipice of full-blown financial crisis as a looming cash shortfall threatens its ability to pay vendors and meet payroll,” a statement from the mayor’s office said.~~
While it is unlikely that PA will allow its capital to go bankrupt, we are concerned about the capital reserves of the broader state in general.
In the meantime, look for muni bonds to surge as the market expects Bernanke to announce a full blown rescue program for states and municipalities.
* SO... MY FELLOW RESPONSIBLE SOLVENT ADULTS... LOOK FORWARD TO BAILING OUT ENTIRE CITIES - PERHAPS STATES - SOON.
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