Monday, November 15, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Monday, Nov. 15, 2010


White Plains - not just a small city in Westchester County, New York!
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6 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://sg.finance.yahoo.com/news/New-York-state-manufacturing-afpsg-2922799344.html?x=0

New York state manufacturing unexpectedly plunged in November, the first contraction since July 2009 when the US economy exited recession, official data showed Monday.

* HA...

* HA-HA...

* "...EXITED RECESSION..."

(*SMIRK*) (*SNORT*) (*SNICKER*) (*CLASSIC "MAD SCIENTIST" LAUGHTER*)

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported its manufacturing activity index dropped to minus 11.1 points in November, from a positive 15.7 points in the previous month.

* LET'S NOT EVEN EXPLORE WHAT IT MEANS TO HAVE A... er... "MINUS" ACTIVITY INDEX...

(*SNORT*) (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

The Empire State Manufacturing Survey index is considered a bellwether of the manufacturing sector which has been a key strength in the economic recovery.

* "...ECONOMIC RECOVERY...???"

(*AGAIN WITH THE CLASSIC "MAD SCIENTIST" LAUGH*)

* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... ON A 100% SERIOUS NOTE... WHAT DOES IT TELL YOU THAT YAHOO IS "REPORTING" A... er... "ECONOMIC RECOVERY" AS IF SUCH WERE THE REALITY FACING US.

(*AGAIN JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

November 15, 2010 at 2:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/15/AR2010111503471.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

His boxes are not yet unpacked, and he has not even set foot in his new Senate office, but already Republican Senator-elect Mike Lee of Utah is shaking things up on Capitol Hill.

On Friday night, Lee sent an e-mail to Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander formally requesting that when Republican senators vote on a proposal Tuesday to unilaterally give up earmarks in the 112th Congress, they hold a public, recorded vote instead of a secret ballot.

(*VIGOROUS APPLAUSE*)

In his e-mail to Alexander, which [Marc A. Thiessen, the author of this piece] obtained from a third party, Lee respectfully tells the third-ranking Senate Republican: "My understanding is that the conference rules require secret-ballot voting only for leadership elections, and provide that policy votes can be recorded, public votes. This is a critical policy question, not a leadership election, and it is important that people know how their senators vote."

* HELL... I DON'T SEE WHY LEADERSHIP ELECTIONS AREN'T PUBLICLY TRANSPARENT VOTES!

It takes courage to directly challenge your leadership before you've even taken your seat, but Mike Lee is not coming to Washington to join the old boys' club. To get to the Senate, he took on a sitting Republican senator - Bob Bennett - and won. And it looks as if he plans to bring that same fighting spirit with him when he arrives on Capitol Hill.

As Lee put it in his e-mail to Alexander, "This critical vote presents an opportunity for Republicans to signal to the country that we have heard and understood what the voters want out of their leaders."

* GOD BLESS MIKE LEE...!!!

November 15, 2010 at 5:54 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://mcconnell.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=PressReleases&ContentRecord_id=27fae162-21bd-4e6e-a985-b474921ca80f&ContentType_id=c19bc7a5-2bb9-4a73-b2ab-3c1b5191a72b&Group_id=0fd6ddca-6a05-4b26-8710-a0b7b59a8f1f

U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell delivered the following remarks on the Senate floor Monday regarding the united Republican Leadership moratorium on earmarks in the 112th Congress:

[O]n the issue of congressional earmarks, as the leader of my party in the Senate, I have to lead first by example. Nearly every day that the Senate’s been in session for the past two years, I have come down to this spot and said that Democrats are ignoring the wishes of the American people. When it comes to earmarks, I won’t be guilty of the same thing.

[T]here is simply no doubt that the abuse of this practice has caused Americans to view it as a symbol of the waste and the out-of-control spending that every Republican in Washington is determined to fight. And unless people like me show the American people that we’re willing to follow through on small or even symbolic things, we risk losing them on our broader efforts to cut spending and rein in government. That’s why today I am announcing that I will join the Republican Leadership in the House in support of a moratorium on earmarks in the 112th Congress.

(*POLITE APPLAUSE*) (*NOD*)

* WELL... WE DRAGGED HIM KICKING AND SCREAMING... BUT AT THE END OF THE DAY HE DID THE RIGHT THING.

Republican Leaders in the House and Senate are now united on this issue, united in hearing what the voters have been telling us for two years - and acting on it.

November 15, 2010 at 6:01 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/253233/sea-life-flourishes-gulf-lou-dolinar

The catastrophists were wrong (again) about the Deep Water Horizon oil spill. There have been no major fish die-offs. On the contrary, a comprehensive new study says that in some of the most heavily fished areas of the Gulf of Mexico, various forms of sea life, from shrimp to sharks, have seen their populations triple since before the spill. Some species, including shrimp and croaker, did even better.

[M]eanwhile, the media has greatly exaggerated damage found in studies about coral, which is in some ways more vulnerable to oil and dispersant. Most of it is doing fine.

The growth of the fish population is not occurring because oil is good for fish. Rather, it is occurring because fishing is bad for fish.

(*AMUSED CHUCKLE*)

When fishing was banned for months during the spill, the Gulf of Mexico experienced an unprecedented marine renaissance that overwhelmed any negative environmental consequences the oil may have had, researchers say.

* HMM... MAKES SENSE...

“We expected there to be virtually no fish out there based on all the reports we were getting about the toxicity of the dispersant and the toxicity of the hydrocarbons, and reports that hypoxia [low oxygen] had been created as a result of the oil and dispersant,” says John Valentine, who directed the study. “In every way you can imagine, it should have been a hostile environment for fish and crabs; our collection showed that was not the case.”

[O]fficial reports are now saying that the oil will be disposed of naturally, as experts predicted. Oil is being measured in parts per billion...and very little has been found on the ocean bottom. Much of it has been eaten by bacteria native to the Gulf’s oil seeps...

The Dauphin Island Sea Lab, a teaching and research consortium of 22 colleges and universities in Alabama, ran the fish-population study. ... Although the early report has not been peer reviewed, it is credible - this kind of research isn’t anything new for the Sea Lab folks. They’ve been conducting surveys off the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama for years, which gives them a baseline with which to compare the post-spill numbers.

[A]necdotal reports support the finding: Darrell Carpenter, president of the Louisiana Charter Boat Association, was recently quoted as saying, “The fish are off the charts. There are no fewer fish. There are more fish, because they’ve been un-harassed all summer. There are more and bigger fish.”

NOAA - the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration - has said there have been no fish kills tied to oil, has certified seafood in the Gulf as safe, and has reopened most of the water there for fishing.

* A VERY INTERESTING ARTICLE. I RECOMMEND UTILIZING THE LINK PROVIDED TO READ THE ARTICLE IN FULL.

November 15, 2010 at 10:31 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/14/AR2010111403885.html

When it comes to Afghanistan policy, December 2014 is the new July 2011.

* ON THE ONE HAND... (*SMIRK*)

* BUT ON THE OTHER HAND... A FAR MORE SERIOUS... (*FROWN*)

* THIS DUMB BASTARD IN THE WHITE HOUSE IS STILL PLAYING POLITICS WITH THE LIVES AND SAFETY OF OUR BRAVE MEN AND WOMEN SERVING IN AFGHANISTAN. (AND IRAQ FOR THAT MATTER...)

[Remember] when [President] Obama flew to West Point last December to reveal, after months of well-publicized review and reflection...

(*SNORT*) (SORRY... JUST COULDN'T HELP MYSELF...)

...his Afghan strategy, 2014 was not a part of the speech.

(*SNICKER*)

Obama announced he would send more troops, but he also said, "After 18 months, our troops will begin to come home."

(*SMIRK*)

The formulation was vague enough to allow war skeptics in Congress and among Obama's advisers to seize on it as a shield against an open-ended U.S. commitment, while Obama's generals emphasized instead that any adjustment of U.S. troop presence would be "conditions-based."

In recent months, the latter viewpoint has been winning.

* THE ONGOING "AMERICANIZATION" OF AFGHANISTAN IS A DISASTER.

[A]s New York Times Pentagon reporter Elisabeth Bumiller reported last Thursday, administration officials have begun to salt their speeches gingerly with references to 2014, all the time insisting that policy hasn't changed.

Privately, administration officials acknowledge that U.S. involvement won't end even after 2014.

(*SIGH*)

November 15, 2010 at 10:32 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703305404575610402116987146.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

California officials acknowledged last Thursday that the state faces $20 billion deficits every year from now to 2016.

At the same time, California's state Treasurer entered bond markets to sell some $14 billion in "revenue anticipation notes" over the next two weeks.

* JUST IN CASE SOMEONE READING THIS DOESN'T UNDERSTAND WHAT "ISSUING A BOND" MEANS... TRANSLATION... CALIFORNIA IS ADDING AN ADDITIONAL $14 BILLION (WITH A "B") IN DEBT TO IT'S ALREADY EXISTING DEBT - ON TOP OF THE $20 IN NEW DEBT NOW FORECAST TO BE ADDED EACH AND EVERY YEAR FROM NOW TILL 2016.

(*SIGH*)

November 15, 2010 at 11:10 PM

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