Monday, October 18, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Monday, October 18, 2010


Bittersweet...

An oldie but a goody!
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5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/oct/17/in-throes-of-recession-capital-stands-apart/

Throughout the recession, one major city stood out as an oasis for jobs and growth...

* NEW YORK? NO. CHICAGO? NO. LOS ANGELES... SAN FRANCISCO... PHOENIX... MIAMI...? NOPE!

* COM'ON FOLKS... YOU KNOW THE ANSWER!

Supported by a gusher of federal borrowing and spending, the District of Columbia was the nation's only metropolitan area that never stopped growing. It stood as a beacon for the nation's millions of job hunters, from recent college graduates seeking careers in civil service to well-heeled lawyers cashing in on a bonanza of work stemming from health care and financial "reform."

* SAY IT WITH ME, FOLKS: F--KING OBAMA! F--KING DEMOCRATS!

While the nation's work force took a body blow, losing 8.3 million jobs - 5.5% of the jobs available before the recession - Washington suffered no more than a surface wound. It reported a loss of about 35,000 jobs, or 1.1 percent of the jobs available - mostly in real estate and construction businesses hurt by the housing collapse.

Overall, thanks to federal largesse, the Washington region's growth never stopped throughout the Great Recession. In fact, growth in the Washington area's estimated $400 billion economy surged by 6.9% from the onset of the recession in December 2007 to the middle of this year, according to Brookings estimates.

Because of the seemingly never-ending federal largesse, Washington's extensive contracting industry has thrived. Contract work was fed by the mammoth bank bailout and stimulus bills and the steady flow of appropriated funds, which totals more than $1 trillion each year. The cornucopia of an estimated $84 billion a year in federal contracts has made high-paying professional and business services the biggest category of employment in Washington, typically constituting nearly 800,000 of the 3.5 million jobs in the area. The federal government, by contrast, supplies about 372,000, or 11%, of the area's jobs, with state and local governments supplying another 372,000 or so, according to the Greater Washington Board of Trade.

A study by Delta Associates found that Washington outpaced every other major city in job growth in the past year, totaling 41,800 in the year ending in July. Of the nearly 42,000 jobs opened up in the past year, nearly half were with the federal government and about 13,500 were with government contractors. For those lucky enough to nab a federal job, the pay is also sweet. The Census Bureau reported that federal employee compensation and benefits last year averaged $123,049, twice as much as average private-sector compensation of $61,051. Moreover, federal jobs come with sizable raises that were largely missing in the private sector during the recession. Even during the height of the recession last year, federal workers in Washington received average raises of 4.2%, according to the Society for Human Resource Management. That was twice the national average.

October 18, 2010 at 10:50 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=39333

* BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

"The lessons of history ... show conclusively that continued dependence upon relief induces a spiritual and moral disintegration fundamentally destructive to the national fiber. To dole out relief in this way is to administer a narcotic, a subtle destroyer of the human spirit."

These searing words about Depression-era welfare are from Franklin Roosevelt's 1935 State of the Union Address. FDR feared this self-reliant people might come to depend permanently upon government for the necessities of their daily lives. Like narcotics, such a dependency would destroy the fiber and spirit of the nation.

What brings his words to mind is news that 41.8 million Americans are on food stamps, and the White House estimates 43 million will soon be getting food stamps every month.

* DISGUSTING. ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.

A seventh of the nation cannot even feed itself.

* WRONG, PAT. A SEVENTH OF THE NATION WON'T FEED ITSELF. A SEVENTH OF THE NATION - THE ADULTS - ARE PARASITES... OR AT LEAST A HUGE PERCENTAGE OF THEM ARE.

If you would chart America's decline, this program is a good place to begin.

Forty percent of all children in America are now born out of wedlock. Among Hispanics, it is 51%. Among African-Americans, it is 71%. Food stamps are feeding children abandoned by their own fathers. Taxpayers are taking up the slack for America's deadbeat dads.

[In] New York City 1.7 million people, one in every five in the city, relies on food stamps for daily sustenance. [Yet...] obesity rates have soared. Forty percent of all the kids in city public schools from kindergarten through eighth grade are overweight or obese. Among poor kids, whose families depend on food stamps, the percentages are far higher. Mothers of poor kids use food stamps to buy them sugar-heavy soda pop, candy and junk food.

* OBVIOUSLY THERE ARE EXCEPTIONS. BUCHANAN HOWEVER IS SPEAKING OF THE NORM, OF THE MAJORITY. THE STATS ARE THE STATS. THE MATH IS THE MATH!

The Department of Agriculture in 2004 denied a request by Minnesota that would have disallowed food stamp recipients from using them for junk food. To grant the request, said the department, would "perpetuate the myth" that food stamps users make poor shopping decisions.

(*ROLLING MY EYES*) POLITICAL CORRECTNESS RUN AMOK. (WORSE... IN 2004 THE DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE WORKED FOR BUSH!)

What a changed country we have become in our expectations of ourselves. A less affluent America survived a Depression and world war without anything like the 99 weeks of unemployment insurance, welfare payments, earned income tax credits, food stamps, rent supplements, day care, school lunches and Medicaid we have today.

Public or private charity were thought necessary, but were almost always to be temporary until a breadwinner could find work or a family could get back on its feet. The expectation was that almost everyone, with hard work and by keeping the nose to the grindstone, could make his or her own way in this free society. No more.

What we have accepted today is a vast permanent underclass of scores of millions who cannot cope and must be carried by the rest of society -- fed, clothed, housed, tutored, medicated at taxpayer's expense for their entire lives. We have a new division in America: those who pay a double fare, and those who forever ride free.

We Americans are not only not the people our parents were, we are not the people we were. FDR was right about what would happen to the country if we did not get off the narcotic of welfare.

America has regrettably already undergone that "spiritual and moral disintegration, fundamentally destructive to the national fiber."

October 18, 2010 at 11:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20019931-503544.html

New numbers posted today on the Treasury Department website show the National Debt has increased by more than $3 trillion since President Obama took office.

* AND ONE MORE TIME, FOLKS... (*PATIENT PAUSE*)... OBAMA ONLY TOOK OFFICE IN JANUARY OF 2009; NANCY PELOSI, HARRY REID AND DEMOCRATS LIKE CHARLIE RANGEL, BARNEY FRANK, AND CHUCK SCHUMER HAVE HAD COMPLETE CONTROL OF CONGRESS - OF SPENDING - SINCE JANUARY OF 2007! (IN OTHER WORDS, DEMOCRATS HAVE BEEN RESPONSIBLE FOR EACH AND EVERY DEFICIT DOLLAR ADDED TO THE NATIONAL DEBT SINCE JANUARY OF 2007.)

The Administration has projected the National Debt will soar in Mr. Obama's fourth year in office to nearly $16.5-trillion in 2012. That's more than 100% of the value of the nation's economy and $5.9-trillion above what it was his first day on the job.

October 18, 2010 at 11:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101018/ap_on_bi_ge/us_health_costs_boeing

Aerospace giant Boeing is joining the list of companies that say the new health care law could have a potential downside for their workers.

In a letter mailed to employees late last week, the company cited the overhaul as part of the reason it is asking some 90,000 nonunion workers to pay significantly more for their health plan next year.

* HMM... ANYONE RECALL THIS FROM DEMOCRATIC TALKING POINTS AND OBAMA SPEECHES OF THE TIME...? (*SMIRK*)

"The newly enacted health care 'reform' legislation, while intended to expand access to care for millions of uninsured Americans, is also adding cost pressure as requirements of the new law are phased in over the next several years," wrote Rick Stephens, Boeing's senior vice president for human resources.

(*SMIRK*) HMM... IMAGINE THAT... NEW COSTS EQUALING HIGHER PREMIUMS. (*ROLLING MY EYES*)

Deductibles, the share of medical costs that employees pay annually before their plan kicks in, will go up to $300 for individuals, an increase of $100. For families, the new deductible will be $900, an increase of $300. In addition, Boeing is instituting a co-payment of 10% after the deductible has been met. The co-payment will rise to 20 percent in 2012.

* OBAMA PROMISES VS. OBAMACARE REALITY... (*SHRUG*)

October 18, 2010 at 11:22 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://spectator.org/archives/2010/10/18/obamas-war

Afghanistan has little strategic value and the [continuing] war is one of choice rather than necessity.

Like the rest of Obama's foreign policy, U.S. strategy in that beleaguered country is misguided, confused, and aimless.

The costs of this war to the United States are huge. We now have nearly 100,000 U.S. troops there, and at least as many contract civilians and employees of 60 federal agencies, all at a cost of nearly $90 billion a year, or $250 million a day. In the 21 months since Obama took office, our military has taken on every task assigned, and fought bravely and effectively. Yet more than 600 U.S. soldiers have died in Afghanistan-more than died there during George Bush's entire time in office.

* RECALL, FOLKS, WHATEVER ONE THOUGHT OF BUSH'S REFUSAL TO LEAVE AFGHANISTAN, NO ONE CAN DOUBT THAT BUSH WAS SINCERE IN HIS BELIEF THAT FIGHTING THERE WAS IN AMERICA'S BEST INTEREST. DOES ANYONE BELIEVE THIS IS THE CASE WITH BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA?

[W]hat is our goal? Obama has not made that clear.

The Afghan war is often compared to Vietnam, although at least in Vietnam we were fighting Communists. As a retired Marine general, who had been in Vietnam for most of that war and much involved in national security affairs ever since, recently told [the author of this piece], "The quagmire in Afghanistan is already deeper than ‘Nam ever was, and will only get worse." He went on to say that he knows virtually nobody, inside or outside of the defense establishment, who thinks we are on the right course there.

(*SIGH*) I FEAR THIS RETIRED MARINE GENERAL IS CORRECT.

It is time for conservatives, Tea Partiers, and right-thinking Americans, from whatever persuasion, to recognize that Obama's Afghan war is a fool's errand with virtually no chance of success, whatever success may mean. America has acquitted herself well, using her best and brightest to give millions of Afghans a chance for freedom and progress. After nine years of war, hundreds of billions of dollars and countless American and Afghan lives wasted, it is inconceivable that anything good, for either the United States or the Afghans, will come of it. Let us recognize that, and end this war as soon as possible.

* AMEN.

October 18, 2010 at 11:37 PM

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