Friday, October 29, 2010
Barker's Newsbites: Friday, October 29, 2010
Now to be fair, unlike other "celebrities" such as Roman Polanski and Jeffrey Epstein, Bill Clinton is not a child molester.
Nope! I'll defend the former president all day long on that one!
No... Bill Clinton is more of a Woody Allen kinda guy... absent the the "unfortunate" sleeping with and then marrying one's own step-child stigma...
(*SMIRK*)
And now... on to today's newsbites!
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http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1292049
After more than a month of ducking questions and under an order by the [Massachusetts] secretary of state, Gov. Deval Patrick’s administration released figures showing that more than 52,000 illegal aliens received care through the Medicaid-subsidized MassHealth Limited, costing taxpayers a whopping $35.7 million this year.
* ONE STATE. ONE YEAR. ONE PROGRAM. (*SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The state is projected to pay $13.7 million of the cost of the health-care program this year, while federal Medicaid picks up the other $22 million. The entire program, including subscribers who are documented residents, costs $50 million.
Federal health care "reform" prohibits federal funds from going toward health care for illegal aliens, said Michael Doonan, executive director of the Massachusetts Health Policy Forum at Brandeis University.
* YET...
MassHealth Limited will not be abolished under the federal health reform package, said Medicaid spokeswoman Mary Kahn.
(*SNORT*)
* FOLKS... WHETHER YOU APPROVE OR DISAPPROVE OF SUBSIDIZING ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION... (*SHRUG*)... SEEMS KIND UNDENIABLE THAT HERE WE HAVE YET ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF OBAMACARE LIES ON PARADE.
* RELATED STORY -- http://bostonherald.com/news/politics/view.bg?articleid=1291805
[Illegal aliens] made 6,160 visits to Massachusetts' overburdened emergency rooms in the fiscal year ending in June for an additional cost of $1.9 million, a [Boston] Herald analysis shows.
[The Center for Immigration Studies] calculates that Massachusetts has 220,000 illegal immigrants overall.
http://election-ad.research.wesleyan.edu/files/2010/10/WesMediaProject_ReleaseTone_20101026.pdf
* THE STUDY'S TITLE:
Negativity Update: 2010 Features Similar Rates of Negativity, But Dems More Likely to Attack Personally
* THE STUDY'S SUBTITLE:
Dems and Reps are Similar in Proportion of Negative Ads, but Dem Strategy Likely Driven by Desire to Draw Attention Away from the Policy Environment
(*SMIRK*) (*SNORT*) (*CHUCKLE*)
[W]e find that Democrats and Republicans are airing similar proportions of negative (and positive) spots in federal races. However, there is one crucial difference: Democrats are using personal attacks at much higher rates than Republicans and a much higher rate than Democrats in 2008.
* WELCOME TO THE AGE OF OBAMA...
* WELCOME TO THE AGE OF HOPE AND CHANGE...
In 2010, pro-Democratic ad sponsors focused on the personal characteristics of Republican candidates in 21% of their attack ads. This is up from the 12% of Democratic attack ads in 2008 that were focused on personal characteristics.
(Republicans have mentioned candidate characteristics in 11% of their attack ads this year.)
In nearly 30% of attack ads sponsored [solely] by Democratic candidates [themselves], the personal characteristics of Republicans are the primary focus of the ad.
In contrast, the data suggest that Republicans are taking advantage of citizen unhappiness with the current state of affairs by attacking Democratic candidates primarily on substantive policy issues - that’s the focus of 56% of their attacks, [notes] Erika Franklin Fowler, co-director of the Wesleyan Media Project and assistant professor of government at Wesleyan University.
* NEWS YOU CAN USE, FOLKS! DON'T BUY THE MSM SPIN THAT "THEY ALL DO IT." THE POINT IS... AS WITH CORRUPTION... AS WITH VOTE FRAUD... THE DEMS DO IT FAR, FAR MORE THAN THE REPUBLICANS. (AND THIS STUDY IS JUST ANOTHER IN A LONG STRING OF "PROOFS" SUPPORTING MY STATEMENT.)
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101029/D9J59RUG0.html
The gruesome case of a man who was stabbed and beheaded in a suburban Phoenix apartment has police investigating whether the killing is potentially the most extreme example of Mexican drug cartel violence spilling over the border.
* YOU MEAN THE BORDER THAT PRESIDENT OBAMA AND MEMBERS OF HIS ADMINISTRATION INSIST IS MORE SECURE THAN AT ANY TIME IN OUR NATION'S HISTORY...???
Decapitations are a regular part of the drug war in Mexico as cartels fight over territory. Headless bodies have been hanged from bridges by their feet, severed heads have been sent to victims' family members and government officials, and bags of up to 12 heads have been dropped off in high-profile locations.
* YEP! WE DEFINITELY WANT THE U.S.A. TO BE MORE LIKE... er... MEXICO...?!?!
The killing could also affect the immigration debate in Arizona. Supporters of the state's...immigration law frequently cite this type of violence as reason to crack down on illegal immigrants. The decapitation victim and the suspects were all illegal immigrants.
* IMAGINE THAT... (*MIRTHLESS SNORT*)
In March, Arizona rancher Robert Krentz was gunned down while checking water lines on his property near the border. Authorities believe - but have never produced substantive proof - that an illegal immigrant, likely a scout for drug smugglers, was to blame for his killing.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.157fdb21528f5668b3708d5dd4828a10.511&show_article=1
Nearly $18 billion earmarked for reconstruction in Afghanistan remain unaccounted for, snagged in a "labyrinth" of contract bureaucracy, a sweeping US government audit has shown.
The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) said $17.7 billion was obligated over three years to nearly 7,000 contractors, but the Pentagon, State Department and US Agency for International Development were unable to say how much money has been spent.
(*HEADACHE*)
* HEY... COULD YOU IMAGINE IF WE GAVE THAT $17.7 BILLION TO HILLARY WITH INSTRUCTIONS TO BUY CATTLE FUTURES WITH IT...?!?! HECK... WE'D WIPE OUT THE NATIONAL DEBT IN NO TIME FLAT!
(*CHUCKLE*)
* OH... AND SPEAKING OF OUR ESTEEMED SECRETARY OF STATE...
Asked about the report, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said it did not come as a surprise and that the administration has been working to improve accountability.
* "WORKING," HUH...??? (APPARENTLY WITHOUT MUCH SUCCESS!) (*SMIRK*)
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20101029/D9J5AC0G1.html
The Treasury Department says its bank bailouts are over, but the spending continues.
* HUH...??? (*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*) ONE MORE TIME, PLEASE...???
In a Sept. 22 speech, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said the bailouts "are completely behind us."
* O.K., THAT'S CLEAR ENOUGH...
That's not quite correct.
* AND... (*SIGH*)... UNFORTUNATELY.. SO IS THAT.
In the final six months in which it could spend money from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, Treasury set aside $243 million for new contracts for law firms, accountants and money managers to help run what's left of the bailouts - on top of the $529 million already spent on work by staff, private companies and other agencies.
Many of the contracts last until 2019, and there's nothing to stop the government from hiring even more help if it's needed to chase down the remaining bailout money.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* I JUST HOPE TAX CHEAT... er... I mean Treasury Secretary... GEITHNER DOESN'T PUT HIS OWN PERSONAL ACCOUNTANT ON THE PAYROLL!
A government watchdog said this week that public statements by Treasury officials around the Oct. 3 deadline appeared designed to create a mistaken sense that TARP is over.
"The idea that TARP is dead is just not accurate," said Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the program, in an interview. "People can write its obituary, people can declare that it's been put out of its misery, but there's still close to $180 billion of TARP money outstanding, and $82 billion obligated to be spent."
(*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
Most of the contracts Treasury awarded recently are for work officials can't even describe, because it's not yet needed.
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... WHAT CAN ONE EVEN SAY TO THAT...???
[C]ontracts are vague. For example, 13 law firms will share up to $99.8 million under a contract so broad it could cover virtually any kind of legal work. Future information technology needs will be billed to three companies through a $100 million contract. Four accounting companies will ensure that Treasury's rules for the bailout programs are followed - at a cost of up to $22 million.
Treasury officials continue to cast TARP as a success. ... Yet Treasury still has no plan for recapturing investments from the banks that can't pay dividends or repay their bailouts. That program doesn't have an end date.
http://www.lvrj.com/news/audit-resolves-questions-of-irregularities-105990348.html
Clark County [Nevada] Registrar of Voters Larry Lomax said Wednesday that he has "reconciled" five discrepancies in early voting alleged by Republicans this week.
But Lomax, appearing at a news conference called by Secretary of State Ross Miller to calm fears of voting irregularities, would not say how he has cleared up the discrepancies.
(*SNORT*) (*SMIRK*)
Lomax said his audit of the balloting will be made public when he reports to the Clark County Commission after the election.
* HA! HA! HA! "AFTER" THE ELECTION, HUH?!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303362404575580253578522766.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
The Tax Foundation announced this week that California has the second worst business tax climate of the 50 states, with only New York more hostile to employers.
[I]t gets worse.
If a pair of ballot measures pass next week, the Golden State could soon take the tax lead and make even Albany look like Hong Kong.
Proposition 24 would raise $1.3 billion of new taxes on businesses, while Proposition 25 would allow the state legislature to pass budgets and tax increases with a simple majority vote, instead of the current mandated two-thirds supermajority.
The most pernicious is Proposition 25, which is being sold as a good government measure to end the state's annual fiscal follies and pass a budget on time. But what matters more than how a budget passes is what's in it. And the two-thirds rule that has prevailed since the passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 has been the lone restraint on the government unions and their political valets who have spent California to the brink of insolvency.
* I KNOW... I KNOW... MOST OF YOU READING THIS LIVE ON THE EAST COAST (OR IN EUROPE). BUT WHAT HAPPENS IN CALIFORNIA IS IMPORTANT! CALIFORNIA IS A "LEADING INDICATOR" STATE. CALIFORNIA'S FISCAL IRRESPONSIBILITY AND SOCIAL DYSFUNCTION SERVES AS A REAL TIME "HISTORY" LESSON TO US ALL!
Proposition 25 is deceptive because its "intent" language that purports to explain its meaning to voters claims that the law "retains a two-thirds vote requirement for taxes." But "intent" sections aren't included in the state Constitution. Instead, the proposition clears the way for a straight majority vote for budgets and the more amorphous category of bills "related to the budget." That's an exception wide enough to drive a tax increase through, and nearly every state taxpayer group and their legal experts are convinced that this is an attempt to end-run Proposition 13.
* DISHONEST DEMOCRATS... (COM'ON, FOLKS... THIS SORT OF LYING DECEIT IS A CLEAR PATTERN!)
Proposition 24 is also deceptive, starting with its title, "The Tax Fairness Act." It is opposed by just about every iconic employer left in the state - from Disney to Hewlett-Packard to Intel - because it would take away any remaining tax incentives for investing in the state. The last time California eliminated a "business tax break" - a manufacturing tax credit - Intel stopped building plants in the state, and it has since sent more than $10 billion in job-creating investment to the likes of Arizona and Oregon.
(*SIGH*)
The main sponsor and funder of these tax initiatives is - you'll never guess - the California teachers union. Need we say more?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575578200086257706.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
* A VERY, VERY, VERY INTERESTING - AND IN MANY WAYS INSIGHTFUL - OP-ED BY "ARCH LIBERAL" AND FORMER CLINTON ADMINISTRATION LABOR SECRETARY ROBERT B. REICH.
By fueling the Republican surge in the midterm elections, the tea party has become the single most powerful force in the GOP.
* FROM YOUR MOUTH TO GOD'S EARS, BOBBY BOY!
Presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich has already declared his fealty, and Sarah Palin has become its grande dame.
* GINGRICH IS NOT "ONE OF US." PALIN IS.
Beyond fiscal rectitude and less spending, tea party candidates are targeting the central institutions of American government. The GOP Senate candidate from Kentucky, Rand Paul, is among several who want to abolish the Federal Reserve. They blame the Fed for creating the Great Recession and believe that the economy would be better off without a single institution in Washington setting monetary policy. ... In a Bloomberg poll a few weeks ago, 60% of tea party adherents wanted to overhaul or abolish the Fed (compared with 45% of all likely voters).
* YEP! END THE FED! (AND NEWSBITE AFTER NEWSBITE AFTER NEWSBITE EXPLAINS EXACTLY WHY I FEEL THIS WAY...)
Another tea party target is the Internal Revenue Service. South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who has emerged as the Senate's leading tea party incumbent, says that his "main goal in the Senate will not only be to cut taxes, but to get rid of the IRS."
* THE PRESENT TAX CODE IS A DISASTER. COM'ON... WE ALL KNOW THIS!
GE's Mr. Immelt may be unhappy with President Obama, but he'll be far unhappier if the tea party takes over the GOP.
* AGAIN... FROM REICH'S MOUTH TO GOD'S EARS!
Tom Borelli, director of the Free Enterprise Project of the National Center for Public Policy Research, a conservative think tank and vocal supporter of the tea party movement, has demanded Mr. Immelt's resignation, calling GE an "opportunistic parasite feeding on the expansion of government."
* YEP. THAT PRETTY MUCH COVERS IT. CRONY CAPITALISM HAS GOTTA GO!
Tea partiers aren't just against R&D subsidies. Almost two-thirds of tea partiers in the Bloomberg poll said they'd be willing to reduce research funds for Alzheimer's and other diseases to narrow the deficit; a similar proportion would consider cutting spending on roads and bridges.
* GOD DAMN RIGHT! (JUST LIKE WHEN TIMES GET TOUGH ENOUGH REGULAR AMERICANS HAVE TO CUT THEIR GROCERY AND CLOTHING BUDGETS; THERE ARE NO SACRED COWS.)
* BTW... REICH USES THIS EXAMPLE AS A CRITIQUE AGAINST US! (*AMUSED SNORT*) (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN AMUSEMENT*)
Wall Street may be furious with the Obama administration but at least Mr. Obama (and his predecessor) bailed it out. By contrast, tea party activists consider the Troubled Asset Relief Program a betrayal of America.
* AND WE'RE RIGHT! BUSH, OBAMA, MCCAIN, AND THE "ESTABLISHMENTS" OF BOTH PARTIES WERE WRONG! TARP WAS A BETRAYAL OF AMERICA...!!!
Underlying all of this is a deep tea party suspicion that big government is in cahoots with big business and Wall Street, against the rest of America.
* YEP! (*GRIN*) AGAIN... REICH PEGS IT!
[A] higher proportion of tea party adherents believes that free trade agreements hurt the nation overall (61%) than does the general population (53%), according to a NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll last month.
* NOTE, "BOBBY," THAT EITHER WAY YOU CUT IT IT'S A CLEAR MAJORITY. (AND THESE MAJORITIES ARE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT...!!!)
In a poll earlier this year by the Mellman Group, a majority of tea party supporters favored putting taxes on imports from countries with lower environmental standards than the United States.
* SOUNDS LIKE MY KINDA "GREEN" POLICY! (*WINK*)
Many tea partiers similarly recoil from global institutions and agreements.
* SOME. (THE ONES THAT HURT US MORE THAN THEY HELP US!) (*WINK*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304173704575578021936972884.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
I have an indelible memory of the one time I was on Rodeo Drive. There she was, a rotund matron dressed in a pink sequined jumpsuit, exiting a limousine and handing her three toy poodles to the doorman at an upscale shop specializing in $1,000 purses. It's a perfect metaphor for California's economy: We ignore the important, focus on the trivial, and spend way too much money in the process.
[Come Tuesday,] Californians have an opportunity to vote for Proposition 23, which will prevent implementation of the California law known as AB32.
AB32 is yet another tax, this one on carbon dioxide, the substance that we exhale about 50,000 times per day, that comes from our cars when we drive to work, and from our Silicon Valley plants as we use power for our computers and air-conditioning. Pushed by dogmatic green politicians, the tax would put another burden on California companies that our Chinese and Korean competitors will not have to bear.
The basic premise of AB32 fails a grade-school math test. The latest EPA figures show that total U.S. carbon dioxide emissions in 2007 were 5.98 gigatons, of which California contributed 0.40 gigatons. If California had held its carbon dioxide emissions to its 1990 level of 0.36 gigatons, as AB32 mandates by 2020, the 2007 U.S. carbon dioxide emission figure would have been 5.94 gigatons, rather than 5.98 gigatons. For this our state government has chosen to terminate the jobs of 1.1 million Californians (the impact estimated by the California Small Business Roundtable) on top of existing unemployment.
[A] recent study by Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid showed that for every green job created in Spain, 2.2 jobs were lost at large.
A similar Italian study showed an even worse result.
* REGULAR READERS OF "BARKER'S NEWSBITES" ARE WELL AWARE OF THESE STUDIES.
On Nov. 2, by supporting Prop. 23, Californians can prevent another job-killing tax.
* AGAIN, FOLKS, I INCLUDE THIS PARTICULAR NEWSBITE NOT BECAUSE I HOPE TO SOMEHOW INFLUENCE (*SNORT*) THE ELECTION RESULTS IN CALIFORNIA, BUT BECAUSE KNOWING HOW A STATE LIKE CALIFORNIA SCREWS UP IT'S ECONOMY IS A CAUTION TO THE REST OF US.
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