Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, October 26, 2010


Same thing, today, folks... just busy.

Funny thing... if I only get around to posting the one newsbite I've already found... that one newsbite should get my point across that the inmates are running the asylum.
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8 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://azstarnet.com/news/blogs/pueblo-politics/article_3bbf4f4e-e12c-11df-b57f-001cc4c002e0.html

The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has overturned Arizona’s requirement that people show proof of citizenship to register to vote.

* DO I EVEN HAVE TO SAY IT... (*SHRUG*)

October 26, 2010 at 7:45 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/250677/more-ethanol-means-dirtier-air-robert-bryce

[Obama's] EPA announced on October 13 that it had approved an increase in the amount of ethanol that can be blended into gasoline from 10% to as much as 15%.

Apparently, the Obama administration’s plan is to forget about ethanol’s negative impact on consumers and their gasoline-powered equipment, ignore the facts when it comes to air quality, and instead pander to the farm lobby.

For months, administration officials have been hinting that the EPA would approve the ethanol industry’s request for an increase in blend volumes. The industry desperately needs a bailout, because it has built far too many distilleries over the past few years. As Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, explained, “We have lots of gallons of ethanol chasing too few gallons of gasoline.”

The EPA is granting them a bailout by allowing ethanol producers to blend more of their corrosive, hydrophilic, low-heat-content fuel into our gasoline.

And while the agency’s ruling limits the use of the higher-ethanol-content gasoline to model year 2007 and newer cars and trucks, the move further complicates the American motor-fuel market, which is already the most Balkanized motor-fuel market in the world. Refiners are now producing about 45 different blends of gasoline and multiple blends of diesel fuel. Managing all those different fuels increases costs that are ultimately borne by the consumer.

* YEP! (*SIGH*)

This latest decision allows the ethanol scammers to continue gorging themselves at the public trough.

[T]he real outrage of the corn-ethanol scam [,though,] involves air quality.

In 2007, the EPA admitted that increased use of ethanol in gasoline would increase emissions of key air pollutants, including volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxides, by as much as 7%. On Wednesday, the agency again acknowledged that more ethanol consumption will mean higher emissions of key pollutants.

* THE INMATES... THE VERY, VERY, VERY CORRUPT INMATES... ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM, FOLKS.

That admission is driving environmental advocates like Frank O’Donnell, the president of Clean Air Watch, to distraction. On one hand, explains O’Donnell, the agency is saying that more ethanol will mean higher emissions of nitrogen oxides. Yet the ethanol bailout comes “at the same time that the EPA is setting tougher standards on smog.” Indeed, the EPA is implementing new rules on ground-level ozone that could affect dozens of cities. What contributes to the formation of ozone? You guessed it: nitrogen oxides.

Donald Stedman, a professor emeritus of chemistry at the University of Denver, has been studying ethanol’s impact on air quality for two decades. In a recent interview, he told me that his assessment of the EPA’s decision is much the same as O’Donnell’s: “More ethanol means worse air quality, period.” He adds that corn ethanol “doesn’t do anything to reduce greenhouse gases.”

* SO MUCH FOR HOPE... CHANGE... HOPE... CHANGE... (*SNICKER*)

October 26, 2010 at 10:50 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://mobile.nytimes.com/article;jsessionid=3A81EE9256AC5E567E8587EC25EB90BF.w5?a=686495&single=1&f=23

The United States Treasury concealed $40 billion in likely taxpayer losses on the bailout of the American International Group earlier this month, when it abandoned its usual method for valuing investments, according to a report by the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

* I MENTIONED THIS THE OTHER DAY, BUT IT BEARS REPEATING. ($40 BILLION; BILLION WITH A "B.")

In early October, the Treasury issued a report predicting that the taxpayers would ultimately lose just $5 billion on their investment in A.I.G., a remarkable outcome, since the insurance company was extended $182 billion in taxpayer money in the early months of its rescue.

(*SMIRK*)

The prediction of a modest loss, widely reported as A.I.G., the Federal Reserve and the Treasury rushed to complete an exit plan, contrasted with an earlier prediction by the Treasury that the taxpayers would lose $45 billion.

* HEY... WHAT'S A $40 BILLION "SHORTFALL" BETWEEN FRIENDS, RIGHT?! (*MIRTHLESS CHUCKLE*)

"If a private company filed information with the government that was just as misleading and disingenuous as what Treasury has done here, you'd better believe there would be calls for an investigation from the S.E.C. and others," said Representative Darrell Issa, the senior Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He called the Treasury's October report on A.I.G. "blatant manipulation."

* AND HE'S RIGHT! COM'ON...!

Senator Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said he thought "administration officials are trying so hard to put a positive spin on program losses that they played fast and loose with the numbers." He said it reminded him of "misleading" claims that General Motors had paid back its rescue loans with interest ahead of schedule.

(*SNORT*) YEAH... GRASSLEY IS REFERRING TO WHEN G.M. SUPPOSEDLY "PAID OFF" TARP DEBT WITH... er... OTHER TARP LOANS!

October 26, 2010 at 10:51 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2010/10/harry-reid-aide-diana-tejada.html

Wow, here's one that flew in under the radar on Monday:

"An aide to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) repeatedly lied to federal immigration and FBI agents and submitted false federal documents to the Department of Homeland Security to cover up her illegal seven-year marriage to a Lebanese national who was the subject of an Oklahoma City Joint Terror Task Force investigation."

According to details, seven years ago Tejada fraudulently married a Lebanese national, Bassam Mahmoud Tarhini, to enable him to stay in the United States and avoid military service back home.

(She admitted to receiving money for doing so.)

Court documents show that Tejada, who has worked for Reid for the past two years, knowingly filed false documents with Homeland Security, lied on multiple occasions to FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and submitted false marriage and immigration documents.

Earlier this year the Lebanese, who was being investigated by a joint terrorism task force, was deported.

But for her part, Tejada was not charged with anything.

(A Justice Department official declined to explain how the aide to the top senator in Congress went uncharged for perjury, among other crimes.)

A spokesman for the 70-year-old Reid told Fox News' Jana Winter on Monday evening that the senator's office was unaware of the investigation and referred to the aide as a junior staffer, although she was paid $52,451 by Reid last year.

The aide said Tejada, 28, no longer worked for the powerful senator but declined to specify when her employment was terminated. Fox found her appearing on a Spanish-language program on Reid's behalf as recently as Sept. 21, ironically discussing the do's and don't's of immigration rules.

* FOLKS. IF BY CHANCE THIS IS THE FIRST YOU'RE HEARING OF THIS... (*SHRUG*)

* FOLKS. THIS IS AMERICA 2010 - THE AGE OF OBAMA, PELOSI, AND REID. (OH... AND OF COURSE ERIC HOLDER!)

October 26, 2010 at 10:53 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303467004575574123982225624.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion

[O]ver the past few months, the middle class has seen a beneficial feature of modern banking - free checking - begin to vanish due to [the Dodd-Frank banking] "reforms" and the substantial loss of bank revenues that they've caused.

There are two main culprits in free checking's demise: the Federal Reserve's new rules, in effect since July, that restrict banks from charging overdraft fees when customers overdraw their checking accounts; and the amendment from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) in Dodd-Frank that puts price controls on the interchange fees that merchants pay to banks and credit unions to process debit cards.

The decline of free checking is the first of many middle-class perks likely to vanish in the rush to regulate.

October 26, 2010 at 10:54 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704300604575554293656982422.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

ObamaCare's once and future harms have been well chronicled, but the major effects so far are less obvious and arguably more important: A wave of consolidation is washing over the health markets, and the result is going to be higher costs.

ObamaCare was sold using the language of choice and competition, but it is actually reducing both.

[S]cale is far more central now, because ObamaCare standardizes benefits. Once insurers lose the freedom to design their own products, they'll essentially be selling commodities, and survival will depend on enrollment volume and market share.

The same thing will happen to stand-alone and community hospitals - always a precarious business. Nearly a third of U.S. hospitals are currently operating in the red and will get steamrolled by ObamaCare, and many of them will be annexed by national chains and larger local systems.

This trend got a preview two weeks ago when Mercy Health Partners announced that it was seeking buyers for three Catholic hospitals in northeast Pennsylvania. (CEO Kevin Cook told local media that ObamaCare was "absolutely" a factor in the decision to sell...)

[T]he consolidation wave is churning the insurance markets and reshaping clinical medicine with almost no public scrutiny. A rational system would give consumers an incentive to reward those businesses that innovate and deliver higher quality at lower cost, whether they are providers or insurers.

ObamaCare is already moving the U.S. even further from the rational world, and this forced retreat will continue the longer it is left in place.

October 26, 2010 at 10:54 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1789:government-and-job-creation&catid=31:texas-straight-talk

* BY THE TRULY HONORABLE RON PAUL, REPRESENTING TEXAS' 14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT

As the current economic downturn shows no signs of lifting, we hear quite a lot of rhetoric from current and potential office-holders about what government can and will do to create more jobs. This is especially disconcerting to those who understand that the best thing government can do for job creation is to simply get out of the way.

* AMEN...!

Jobs are properly created by businesses. Government-created jobs are either fueled by fiat money and manipulated market conditions or directly funded by taxes paid by businesses and individuals who then have less to hire people for real wealth creation. Government-created jobs destroy wealth and sap potential from the economy.

The several "stimulus" bills passed by Congress have done much to expand government but not much to keep money in the hands of real job creators - the entrepreneurs.

[I]nstead of sustaining us until the economy can catch up, government spending perpetuates the problems the bureaucrats and the politicians created.

Maintaining a high level of employment is one of the main objectives of the Federal Reserve, which is just one reason it is ill-conceived at its very core: it legitimizes economic intervention which is always destructive. When unemployment rises after the bust of a Fed-created bubble, you can be sure Congress will attempt to "rescue" the economy through various policies that will always prolong the agony and expand the downturn.

(*SAD NOD*)

n the late 90’s, it was thought that encouraging home ownership would have a stimulative effect that would ripple throughout the rest of the economy and create jobs.

* HOW'D THAT WORK OUT, FOLKS...?!?! (*SNORT*) (*SMIRK*)

Even more sinister are jobs created by war.

Recent reports highlight the increasing dependence on contractors to support our war efforts in Afghanistan. Massive corruption is endemic to these highly lucrative positions. Almost half of the contracting companies we use are Afghan owned and include such business models as recruiting away the very same Afghan police force we are training at great expense to the American taxpayer. Meanwhile we have pledged not to leave until the police force reaches a certain level. We also bribe many Afghans to simply not attack us.

We are in a proverbial hole in Afghanistan. Our leaders need to just stop digging.

Neither a Keynesian big spending program, nor the military-industrial complex can create long-lasting employment or economic prosperity for our country. The only way to restore both peace and prosperity is to draw down our overseas commitments, along with unconstitutional spending at home and return to the Founders’ vision of a limited republic that neither straddles the globe, nor micromanages the domestic economy.

* HEAR! HEAR! (*ENTHUSIASTIC APPLAUSE*)

October 26, 2010 at 11:24 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=3837&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS

The FY2011 budget is a mess.

[The Democrat controlled] Congress has not finished a single spending bill.

A quick peek at Thomas reveals that is unprecedented.

* WELCOME TO THE AGE OF OBAMA!

October 26, 2010 at 11:24 PM

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