Sunday, November 28, 2010

Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Nov. 27 & 28, 2010


Holy Tiger Beat, Batman!

December... 1970.
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5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/nov/25/gms-union-on-road-to-recovery-after-stock-sale/

General Motors Co.'s recent stock offering was staged to start paying back the government for its $50 billion bailout, but one group made out much better than the taxpayers or other investors: the company's union.

* BIG FRIGG'N SURPRISE, HUH... (*SMIRK*)

Thanks to a generous share of GM stock obtained in the company's 2009 bankruptcy settlement, the United Auto Workers is well on its way to recouping the billions of dollars GM owed it - putting it far ahead of taxpayers who have recouped only about 30% of their investment and further still ahead of investors in the old GM who have received nothing.

* UNDERSTAND, FOLKS, WHAT HAPPENED HERE - AND WHAT'S STILL HAPPENING - IS LITTLE MORE THAN WHAT ONE WOULD SEE IN ANY THIRD WORLD KLEPTOCRACY.

The boon for the union fits the pattern established when the White House pushed GM into bankruptcy and steered it through the courts in a way that consistently put the interests of the union ahead of many suppliers, dealers and investors - stakeholders that ordinarily would have fared as well or better under the bankruptcy laws.

* UNDERSTAND, FOLKS, THE RULE OF LAW WAS DELIBERATELY UNDERCUT BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION FOR POLITICAL GAIN.

"Priority one was serving the interests of the UAW" when the White House's auto task force engineered the bankruptcy, said Glenn Reynolds, an analyst at CreditSights. The stock offering served to show once again how the White House has handsomely rewarded its political allies, he said. Union claims ordinarily do not receive such special treatment in bankruptcies.

* "ORDINARY" ONCE REFERRED TO FOLLOWING THE RULE OF LAW. NOW... IN THE AGE OF OBAMA... THE LAW MEANS WHAT OBAMA AND HIS POLITICAL CRONIES SAY IT MEANS. IT'S... er... A MORE "FLEXIBLE"... APPROACH TO GOVERNANCE.

The generous share of GM stock given to the union trust fund under the White House deal puts it not only ahead of the Treasury but on a par with secured creditors such as banks, which normally receive the most favorable treatment from bankruptcy courts.

* THUS THE TERM "SECURED." (*SMIRK*)

* PRIOR TO THIS NEW AGE, THE TERM "NORMALLY" WAS LINKED TO THE RULE OF LAW; BUT NOWADAYS... (*SIGH*)

None of the bankrupt company's previous stockholders got any money, while the claims of thousands of investors who purchased the company's bonds are still being kicked around in a Manhattan bankruptcy court. "It gives outraged flashbacks to the old GM bondholders," who remain mired in the bankruptcy proceedings and are unlikely to recover more than 30% of their investments, Mr. Reynolds said. He compared the deal to the corrupt crony capitalism in Russia under President Vladimir Putin. The White House "took a page out of the Putin political asset reallocation and reward system" when it engineered the deal, he said. Mr. Reynolds also described the White House deal as a combination of "Boss Tweed on steroids" and "Hugo Chavez on meds," as far as the bondholders are concerned.

November 28, 2010 at 12:58 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40214

* BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

* OH... AND BY THE WAY... AS USUAL, PAT BUCHANAN IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT!

[Americans] live in yesterday and our rivals look to tomorrow.

Why...are we still in South Korea?

[Pat Buchanan] was 11 years old when the shocking news came on June 25, 1950, that North Korean armies had crossed the DMZ. [I]n June 1953, an armistice [was signed] along the DMZ where the war began. Fifty-seven years after that armistice, a U.S. carrier task force is steaming toward the Yellow Sea in a show of force after the North fired 80 shells into a South Korean village.

Why is this quarrel our quarrel? Why is this war, should it come, America's war?

[W]hy, 60 years after the first Korean War, should Americans [be expected to expend borrowed treasure and sacrifice life and limb] in a second Korean War?

Unlike 1950, South Korea is not an impoverished ex-colony of Japan. She is the largest of all the "Asian tigers," a nation with twice the population and 40 times the economy of the North. Seoul just hosted the G-20. [T]here is no Maoist China or Stalinist Soviet Union equipping Pyongyang's armies. The planes, guns, tanks and ships of the South are far superior in quality. Why, then, are we still in South Korea?

High among the reasons [a previous generation] fought in Korea was Japan, then a nation rising from the ashes after half its cities had been reduced to rubble. But, for 50 years now, Japan has had the second largest economy and is among the most advanced nations on earth. Why cannot Japan defend herself? Why does this remain our responsibility, 65 years after MacArthur took the surrender in Tokyo Bay?

The Soviet Empire, against which we defended Japan, no longer exists...

[T]he Cold War has been over for 20 years...

[President] Obama has just returned from a Lisbon summit of NATO, an alliance formed in 1949 to defend Western Europe from Soviet tank armies on the other side of the Iron Curtain that threatened to roll to the Channel. Today, that Red Army no longer exists, the captive nations are free, and Russia's president was in Lisbon as an honored guest of NATO. Yet we still have tens of thousands of U.S. troops in the same bases they were in when Gen. Eisenhower became supreme allied commander more than 60 years ago.

Across Europe, our NATO allies are slashing defense to maintain social safety nets. But Uncle Sam, he soldiers on. We borrow from Europe to defend Europe. We borrow from Japan and China to defend Japan from China. We borrow from the Gulf Arabs to defend the Gulf Arabs.

(*SIGH*)

How to explain why America behaves as she does? From 1941 to 1989, she played a great heroic role as defender of freedom, sacrificing and serving mankind, a role of which we can be forever proud. But having won that epochal struggle against the evil empire, we found ourselves in a world for which we were unprepared.

Now, like an aging athlete, we keep trying to relive the glory days when all the world looked with awe upon us.

(*SADLY SHAKING MY HEAD IN ACKNOWLEDGMENT*)

November 28, 2010 at 1:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://m.calgarysun.com/16333241.1?fullscreen#news

Germany might be big enough to bail out Greece and Ireland. But Portugal, and Spain next? It's all coming apart and thank Thatcher that the Brits kept their pound.

Portugal is a very exciting place these days. But not in a good way. Last week they were gripped with a general strike that paralyzed hospitals, airports and trains.

The general strike was in response to proposed government spending cuts.

Portugal has subsidized its Euro-welfare lifestyle by borrowing. The government claims its national debt is 86% of GDP, but the Portuguese opposition party says the true figure is actually 122%. And that's just the government. Private debt is 239% of GDP.

Portugal is one of the poorest countries in Europe... It's not just a matter of debt and continued overspending. The economy is structurally weak unproductive and strewn with thick red tape that kills jobs. Only a miracle could help, and Europe is running out of those. And even a spendthrift like U.S. President Barack Obama couldn't get away with bailing out Portugal's banks. But there is someone ready to help: The People's Republic of China.

China doesn't have a debt. It has a surplus. It has $2.6 trillion in cash that's burning a hole in its pocket. And it's out shopping for power.

Earlier this month, China's president visited Lisbon and met with the Portuguese prime minister, Jose Socrates. China's hobby is collecting small, weak countries. You collect enough of them, and you've got yourself a little sphere of influence. You're not just an economic and military superpower. You're a geopolitical superpower, too.

"We are willing to take concrete measures to help Portugal cope with the global financial crisis," said China's President Hu Jintao. In addition to loans, China is talking about buying a stake in Portugal's power utility and telephone company. All of a sudden, Portugal has a new patron, and it's not Germany or the U.S.

What a nice trinket Portugal will make on China's mantle, right next to its other beneficiaries, like Sudan.

Sudan is a rogue state; the butcher of Darfur. But it's also a major source of oil for China, and a growing customer for Chinese weapons. Sudan gives China what it wants. And China returns the favour, by protecting Sudan from criticism at the UN with its permanent veto at the Security Council.

[L]ast month...the United Nations voted...Portugal...a two-year term on the UN Security Council. [Portugal] won the UN vote not because they're strong, but because they're weak. The world's dictators don't want a strong democracy on the Security Council. A desperate beggar is more pliable.

Watch Portugal's voting record at the UN Security Council. Watch them as they consider Chinese allies like Iran and Sudan. Watch them on human rights.

November 28, 2010 at 2:07 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/555012/201011261902/Cut-Ties-To-Terror.htm

Now that a federal judge has unsealed evidence showing the three most prominent Muslim groups in America support terror, Washington must cut all ties with them.

U.S. District Judge Jorge Solis has ruled there is "ample evidence" to support the Justice Department's decision to blacklist the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA), the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT) and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as unindicted co-conspirators in the 2008 Holy Land Foundation terror trial.

At the trial, which ended in guilty verdicts on all 108 counts, FBI agents testified that ISNA, NAIT and CAIR are fronts for the federally designated terrorist group Hamas, which has murdered countless Israelis and at least 17 Americans.

Indianapolis-based ISNA controls most of the Islamic centers and schools in the country through its NAIT subsidiary...

[NAIT itself is] a Saudi-funded trust that holds title to radical mosques, including the notorious 9/11 Mosque in Washington D.C.

CAIR, headquartered within three blocks of the U.S. Capitol, is the nation's largest "Muslim Rights" group.

The trio for years have maintained they are "moderate" nonprofits that condemn terrorism. However, "The government has produced ample evidence to establish the associations of CAIR, ISNA and NAIT with Hamas," Solis said in his 20-page ruling, written in July 2009 and unsealed just last Friday.

[T]he radicals in this country aren't the fringe; they represent the Muslim establishment. Outrageously, these dangerous fronts, cloaked as they are in religious garb, still enjoy charitable tax status. The IRS exempts their funding, much of which comes from the Middle East.

Solis noted that investigators have traced "hundreds of thousands of dollars" from ISNA and NAIT bank accounts to Hamas suicide bombers and their families in Gaza and the West Bank.

[Amazingly, these groups] are still free to lobby Congress, Homeland Security and the TSA against airport profiling and other anti-terror measures. [Not only that, but] none are even registered as lobbyists, let alone foreign agents.

Although the FBI has severed ties with CAIR, other government agencies have not. For instance, CAIR continues to select Muslim guests to speak and pray in Congress. CAIR chief Awad even prayed alongside Anwar Awlaki, now a fugitive al-Qaida cleric.

The FBI, meanwhile, still does outreach with ISNA. And the White House has solicited the group for resumes. Many Muslims tied to ISNA have been hired for sensitive positions within the government.

November 28, 2010 at 2:38 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=555015&p=1

[H]ere's a fact you [rarely] hear:

Bush was the first president to fund embryonic stem-cell research...

Federal funding of stem-cell research was one of the decisions President Bush covers in his book "Decision Points." On Page 117, he writes: "Embryonic stem cell research seemed to offer so much hope. Yet it raised troubling moral concerns. I wondered if it was possible to find a principled policy that advanced science while respecting the dignity of life."

He decided to continue funding on existing stem-cell lines derived from already destroyed embryos, but not fund new lines created from embryos created just for that purpose.

* ANOTHER FACT "CONVENIENTLY" RARELY STRESSED BY THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA:

Private embryonic stem cell research research was never banned.

[Yet another] false premise [believed by most of the public is] that embryonic stem cell research was the only promising avenue of such stem-cell research. Because embryonic stem cells could be easily coaxed into becoming any body part, the argument went, research into adult stem cells was a waste of time.

* THE FACT IS, HOWEVER:

A Japanese researcher, Kyoto University's Shinya Yamanaka, in 2007 discovered how to tinker with human skin cells so that they behave like embryonic stem cells.

* INDEED...

According to the National Institutes of Health, this type of stem cell offers the prospect of an endless and renewable source of replacement cells and tissues to treat diseases like Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, spinal cord injury, stroke, burns, heart disease, diabetes, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, to name a few.

(*SHRUG*)

November 28, 2010 at 2:38 PM

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