Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2010


Sorry about no newsbites yesterday, folks; this is a tough week - work plus preparing for the Spain trip.

Anyway... today's Newsbites Theme Song is... er... (*GRIN*)... a classic!
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6 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,731580,00.html

251,000 State Department documents, many of them secret embassy reports from around the world, show how the US seeks to safeguard its influence around the world. It is nothing short of a political meltdown for US foreign policy.

* HMM... NOW REMIND ME... WHO IS IT WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR... er... THE U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT, AND... er... OUR EMBASSIES, AND... er... OUR FOREIGN POLICY...???

(*SMIRK*)

* KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK, HILLARY...!

(*SNORT*)

Never before in history has a superpower lost control of such vast amounts of such sensitive information - data that can help paint a picture of the foundation upon which US foreign policy is built.

Never before has the trust America's partners have in the country been as badly shaken.

* AHH... THE AGE OF OBAMA...

(*SIGH*)

November 30, 2010 at 8:45 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2565/

[T]he Obama administration has doled out billions of dollars in "stimulus money" to some of the nation’s biggest polluters and granted them sweeping exemptions from the most basic form of environmental oversight, a Center for Public Integrity investigation has found.

The administration has awarded more than 179,000 “categorical exclusions” to stimulus projects funded by federal agencies, freeing those projects from review under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA.

Coal-burning utilities like Westar Energy and Duke Energy, chemical manufacturer DuPont, and ethanol maker Didion Milling are among the firms with histories of serious environmental violations that have won blanket NEPA exemptions. Even a project at BP’s maligned refinery in Texas City, Texas - owner of the oil industry’s worst safety record and site of a deadly 2005 explosion, as well as a benzene leak earlier this year - secured a waiver for the preliminary phase of a carbon capture and sequestration experiment involving two companies with past compliance problems.

* FOLKS... PERHAPS EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THESE... er... 179,000 "CATEGORICAL EXCLUSIONS" WERE WARRANTED. GOD KNOWS THAT I BELIEVE THE GOVERNMENT OVER-REGULATES! HOWEVER... IT DOES SEEM TO ME AS IF OUR PRESIDENT AND HIS DEMOCRATIC PARTY ALLIES... er... SPEAK WITH FORKED TONGUE!

(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*) (*SMIRK*)

* FOLKS... IT DOESN'T MATTER IF YOU'RE "RIGHT," "LEFT," OR "CENTER." BOTTOM LINE... HOW CAN YOU TRUST PEOPLE WHO CONSTANTLY CLAIM TO REPRESENT ONE IDEAL AND THEN GO AND DO THE EXACT OPPOSITE...?!?!

Agency officials who granted the exemptions told the Center that they "do not have time" in most cases to review the environmental compliance records of stimulus recipients...

* BUT... BUT... BUT... ISN'T THAT THEIR JOB...?!?!

...and do not believe past violations should affect polluters’ chances of winning stimulus money or the NEPA exclusions.

(*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*)

[A]dministration officials told the Center they chose to ignore companies’ environmental compliance records in making grant decisions and issuing NEPA exemptions, saying they considered such information irrelevant.

* FOLKS... (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)... I'LL LEAVE IT TO YOU TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE.

November 30, 2010 at 8:58 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,2033771,00.html

Hillary Clinton, Julian Assange said, "should resign."

Speaking over Skype from an undisclosed location on Tuesday, the WikiLeaks founder was replying to a question by TIME managing editor Richard Stengel over the diplomatic-cable dump that Assange's organization loosed on the world this past weekend.

Stengel had said the U.S. Secretary of State was looking like "the fall guy" in the ensuing controversy, and had asked whether her firing or resignation was an outcome that Assange wanted.

"I don't think it would make much of a difference either way," Assange said. "But she should resign if it can be shown that she was responsible for ordering U.S. diplomatic figures to engage in espionage in the United Nations, in violation of the international covenants to which the U.S. has signed up. Yes, she should resign over that."

* CLINTON SHOULD RESIGN SIMPLY BECAUSE ALL THIS INFO HAS LEAKED WHILE SHE'S BEEN IN CHARGE! MY GOD... NO ONE IS MINDING THE STORE AT STATE! WHOSE RESPONSIBILITY IS IT TO SAFEGUARD SECRET DOCUMENTS AT STATE IF IT'S NOT ULTIMATELY THE SECRETARY OF STATE'S RESPONSIBILITY? (APPARENTLY NO ONE EVER TOLD MADAM CLINTON THAT THE BUCK STOPS AT HER DESK AS FAR AS THE STATE DEPARTMENT IS CONCERNED.)

November 30, 2010 at 10:58 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/11/30/newark-undergoes-largest-police-layoff-in-decades/

Newark [NJ] residents were wondering Tuesday if their streets were safe after 14% (167 officers) of the city’s police officers were laid off...

According to the mayor, Cory Booker, the layoffs were necessary to save $9.5 million and help close an $83 million budget gap...

[T]he mayor said the union had a chance to save jobs, but did not negotiate fairly.

The union said that the mayor signed a contract knowing that he would have no money to pay cops down the road.

(*SNORT*) (*ROLLING MY EYES*)

* HEY, FOLKS... YOU NOTICE THAT I KEEP ON POSTING NEWSBITES CONCERNING HOW BASIC GOVERNMENTAL SERVICES ARE BEING CUT ACROSS THE NATION, YET, AT THE SAME TIME YOU'RE ALSO NO DOUBT AWARE THAT POLITICIANS ARE TRYING TO EXTEND UNEMPLOYMENT BENEFITS BEYOND 99 WEEKS EVEN THOUGH THERE'S NO FRIGG'N MONEY.

* OH... AND DON'T FORGET THE $1.4 BILLION IN NEW SPENDING SENATE DEMOCRATS UNIFORMLY VOTED FOR TODAY AS OUTLINED IN A PREVIOUS POST!

* FOLKS... THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM...!!!

November 30, 2010 at 11:09 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.myfoxdetroit.com/dpp/news/local/items-stolen-john-conyers-government-registered-cadillac-20101130-mr

The son of Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., says items were stolen out of the government vehicle he was driving last Wednesday in downtown Detroit...

(*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*) NOW WHY WAS THE SON OF JOHN CONYERS DRIVING A GOVERNMENT VEHICLE...???

John Conyers III, 20, told police two Apple MacBooks, valued at $1,100 apiece, and more than $27,000 worth of concert tickets to the Fillmore were stolen out of a burgundy 2010 Cadillac Escalade registered to the 14th Congressional District.

* 2010 CADILLAC ESCALADE...?!?! REGISTERED TO THE 14TH CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT...?!?! ($27,000 WORTH OF CONCERT TICKETS...?!?!)

According to the U.S. General Services Administration Web site , if an employee allows an unauthorized person to use a government vehicle, that employee could be suspended or fired.

(*SMIRK*) FAT CHANCE. (UNLESS THAT IS THE NEW REPUBLICAN HOUSE LEADERSHIP SHOWS SOME BALLS...) (*SHRUG*)

Currently, there is no word on why John Conyers III was driving the vehicle. A spokesperson for the congressman's office tells FOX 2 she will get back to us on the allegations.

FOX 2 is also working to get details on what the concert tickets were for and if the stolen laptops had any sensitive government information.

Conyers has been a member of the U.S. House since 1965.

His wife, Monica, is serving a 37-month federal prison sentence for corruption after pleading guilty last year to a bribery scheme involving her vote on the Detroit City Council in favor of a sludge-hauling contract.

* THESE ARE THE DEMOCRATS, FOLKS... (*SIGH*)

November 30, 2010 at 11:32 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101130/ap_on_bi_ge/us_black_farmers_indian_money_8

The [Democrat-controlled lame duck] House [today] passed...legislation to pay for some $4.6 billion in settlements with American Indians and black farmers who say they faced discrimination and mistreatment from the government.

* YEP. YOU READ THAT CORRECTLY. $4.6 BILLION. FARMERS WHO "SAY" - NOT WHO CAN PROVE... BUT WHO "SAY" - THEY FACED DISCRIMINATION.

$1.2 billion would go to African-Americans who claim they were unfairly denied loans and other assistance from the Agriculture Department.

* YEP. WHO "CLAIM."

[M]ost Republicans opposed [the bill] in the House. Many argued the individual settlements have merit but objected to lumping them together in a single bill with other provisions, including deals on four long-standing disputes over Indian water rights.

Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, likened the black farmers program to "modern-day reparations" for African-Americans and argued along with Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., that the claims process is rife with fraud.

* A GOVERNMENT PROGRAM "RIFE WITH FRAUD...???" NAH... I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT... (*SMIRK*) (*SNORT OF DISGUST*)

Rep. Kevin Brady, R-Texas, said Democrats weren't really paying for the bill as they claimed but were simply tapping unused funds in unrelated programs. "When we approve new spending we should offset that by spending cuts," Brady said.

For the black farmers, it is the second round of funding from a class-action lawsuit originally settled in 1999 over allegations of widespread discrimination by local USDA offices. The government already has paid out more than $1 billion to about 16,000 farmers, with most getting payments of about $50,000. The new money is intended for people who were denied earlier payments because they missed deadlines for filing. Tens of thousands of new claims are expected, and the amount of money each would get depends on how many are successful.

* HEY... WASN'T BILL CLINTON PRESIDENT IN 1999... AND 1998... 1997... 1996... 1995... 1994... 1993...???

November 30, 2010 at 11:32 PM

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