Thursday, December 16, 2010
Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, December 16, 2010
Today's newsbites theme song comes with alternate lyrics...
Written by Ted Steubing, Todd Bushey, and William R. Barker (circa 1984)
You're a mean one, Mr. Bill
A leech, a mooch, a snail...
You put dish soap in my coffee, vodka in my juice, Mr. Bil...illl...
Keep me up every night, Mr. Bill!
Ahh... those were the days!
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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704828104576021663290880614.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
The 111th Congress began with an $814 billion stimulus that blew out the federal balance sheet, so we suppose it's only fitting that the Members want to exit by passing a 1,924-page, $1.2 trillion omnibus spending bill.
The worst Congress in modern history is true to its essence to the bitter end.
(*NOD*)
Think of this as a political version of the final scene in "Animal House," when the boys from the Delta frat react to their expulsion by busting up the local town parade for the sheer mayhem of it. Bluto Blutarsky (John Belushi) did go on to be a U.S. Senator in the film, and a man of his vision must have earned a seat on Appropriations.
* IT'S NOT FUNNY. THESE BASTARDS ARE DELIBERATELY HURTING OUR NATION.
Democrats have had 11 months to write a budget for fiscal 2011, which began on October 1. But Majority Leader Harry Reid and Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye have dumped this trillion-dollar baby on Senators at the very last minute, when everyone is busy and wants to go home for the holidays. No doubt that was the plan.
* NO DOUBT AT ALL.
[W]ith the press corps preoccupied by the tax debate, the spending bill is greased to slide through with little or no public scrutiny.
(*NOD*)
Republicans have promised to return to 2008 spending levels, and the omnibus will make that much harder.
* WE SHOULD ACTUALLY GO BACK TO 2000 SPENDING LEVELS. (AND WORK BACKWARDS FROM THERE!) THE MILITARISTIC WELFARE STATE MUST BE DISMANTLED!
The bill's 6,630 earmarks will cost more than $8.1 billion, according to Citizens Against Government Waste.
* I'M NOT CALLING FOR VIOLENCE... (*SIGH*)... BUT I WOULD CERTAINLY SHED NO TEARS IF THE WORST OF THE WORST OF THESE WASHINGTON SCUM WERE TREATED AS THE RABID DOGS THEY ARE.
We're told that at least six and perhaps as many as 10 Republican Senators may give Mr. Reid the votes he needs to pass this monstrosity. That list includes Susan Collins of Maine, Mr. Cochran, and looming retirees Kit Bond of Missouri, Bob Bennett of Utah and George Voinovich of Ohio.
* AGAIN... (*SIGH*)
[D]on't count on any miracles. The 111th Congress has shown contempt for taxpayers from its first day, which is why it was so repudiated on November 2 and why Gallup found this week that Congress's approval rating has hit a record low of 13%. (Which raises the question: Who are those 13%?)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704694004576019920185853848.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
New York State urgently needs more jobs and new tax revenue, so [...*SIGH*...] naturally its political class has decided to reject one of the best economic opportunities in decades.
Governor David Paterson made headlines last weekend when he vetoed legislation that barred natural gas exploration in the Empire State. He then undercut his own pro-investment message with an executive order that is almost as restrictive.
(Imagine California, 1848, closing its border to gold miners.)
The U.S. is in the early stages of what can only be described as a Shale Gas Rush. About a decade ago the drilling industry made a technological breakthrough in attempting to tap into the Barnett Shale formation in north central Texas. America was suddenly able to extract, cost-effectively, huge amounts of natural gas from tightly packed shale rocks.
That has opened up vast new exploration possibilities, including the 65 million-acre Marcellus Shale formation, which extends from Ohio and West Virginia up through Pennsylvania and upstate New York. A recent Penn State study estimates that Marcellus is the second largest natural gas field in the world. The study notes that Pennsylvania had $4.5 billion in Marcellus-related investment in 2009, generating nearly $400 million in state and local tax revenue and 44,000 jobs.
And New York? Once a manufacturing powerhouse, the upstate economy has withered under global competition and the taxes and mandates that flow out of corrupt, liberal, government union-dominated Albany. The region has lost 90,000 manufacturing jobs since 2001.
The drilling industry could compensate with new jobs in construction, trucking, engineering and a variety of attendant services. The industry also pays royalties and leases land from landowners, who pay taxes and buy goods. A July study by the American Petroleum Institute estimates production in the Marcellus could provide $15 billion in economic output and $2 billion in state tax revenue over nine years.
Instead, New York has imposed a de facto drilling moratorium because of dubious environmental fears.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Political elites in Albany and New York City live off Wall Street and other service industries, and they think of upstate New York as an environmental museum: a nice place to visit on the weekend but they wouldn't want to develop the resources there. No wonder the once great Empire State can't pay its bills and keeps losing taxpayers to places that want their citizens to prosper.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704828104576021791799648346.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
America can't win in Afghanistan as long as assorted Taliban insurgents find safe haven in Pakistan. That's the no-brainer...
(*NOD*)
The proposed solution is "tidy" - "Lean" on Pakistan to cut links to extremists in the tribal regions along Afghanistan's eastern border and in southern Baluchistan, even as the CIA ramps up the number of covert drone strikes on those groups.
(*SMIRK*) (*SNORT*) EASIER SAID THAN DONE.
The assumption is that Pakistan can bring the extremists to heel at its pleasure.
(*LAUGHING MY ASS OFF*) (*SMIRK OF CONTEMPT*)
This is all a useful fiction...
* YEP.
The insurgents who kill American troops in Afghanistan - principally the Taliban, whose leadership is in Baluchistan, and the militants loyal to the legendary fighter Jalaluddin Haqqani in the tribal regions - operate all too freely from Pakistan. ... The Pakistanis have...denied American requests to expand drone coverage to the area around Quetta, the city in Baluchistan that is the heaquarters-in-exile of the Taliban. ... [The central government of Pakistan] is losing its grip on Baluchistan. The country's largest city, Karachi, is a militant hotbed. Parts of all Pakistani provinces have been radicalized, including the most populous, Punjab. Terrorism now touches all Pakistanis.
Pakistan is becoming more like Afghanistan - only with a more advanced economy and nuclear weapons. The people who cross the porous border between them, an arbitrary line drawn up by the British in the 1890s - already consider them the same country. Pakistan's military has yet to show that it wants to - or that it can - control the Islamist wave. Many groups have slipped their leash and look at their old patron, the ISI, with distrust.
Gen. David Petraeus, the American commander in Afghanistan, certainly has "contingency plans" for Pakistan that go beyond extra doses of drones or diplomacy. Putting American boots in Waziristan is an obvious idea. But, like so many options, it is unappealing. The fallout in Pakistan would be hard to predict.
* HMM... AND THEN IF ON TOP OF THE CONTINUING TROOP PRESENSE IN IRAQ AND THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN WE ADD A GROUND WAR IN PAKISTAN... WHAT'S NEXT... SUDAN...? YEMEN? HOW MANY COUNTRIES SHOULD WE INVADE? (OR... AND WHAT OF NORTH KOREA...???)
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
So for the moment, [President Obama] gets to pretend that Pakistan can do this on its own. A successful terrorist attack on the U.S. with a Pakistani return address might quickly change that.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/us/16kilpatrick.html?_r=1&hpw
[Detroit's] imprisoned former mayor, [Democrat] Kwame M. Kilpatrick, and two top aides rigged contracts, collected millions of dollars in bribes and defrauded taxpayers, the federal government said on Wednesday in a 38-count indictment that characterizes Mr. Kilpatrick’s inner circle as a long-running criminal organization.
* I WONDER HOW MANY PHOTOS OL' KWAME HAS WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA, HARRY REID, NANCY PELOSI, AND OTHER TOP-TIER FELLOW DEMOCRATS...
(*SHRUG*)
Fourteen people, including the former City Council president, Monica Conyers, have already pleaded guilty to felonies in the case.
* WIFE OF... (*SMIRK*)... YEP, YOU GUESSED IT... DEMOCRATIC "ELDER STATESMAN" JOHN CONYERS - PRESENTLY SERVING HIS 15TH (OR IS IT 16TH...???) TERM IN CONGRESS - WHICH HE WAS RE-ELECTED TO IN NOVEMBER!
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... NOT THAT THE REPUBLICANS ARE PERFECT - NOT BY A LONG SHOT - AND NOT THAT THEIR AREN'T REPUBLICAN CROOKS, BUT JUST LOOK AT THE EXTENT OF CORRUPTION WITHIN THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY. MY GOD, THESE SCUM ARE TURNING OUR COUNTRY INTO A THIRD-WORLD KLEPTOCRACY!
The indictment says that Kwame Kilpatrick used donations to a charity known as the Kilpatrick Civic Fund to pay for golf clubs, summer camp for his children, yoga classes and antibugging equipment. As a state representative, Mr. Kilpatrick diverted $280,000 in grant money meant to help the elderly and children; the funds instead went to nonprofits controlled by his wife and Mr. Ferguson, who used it for personal expenses, the indictment says.
* FOLKS... IN A MORE PERFECT WORLD SCUMBAGS OF THIS MAGNITUDE WOULD BE HUNG BY THE NECK UNTIL DEAD.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/nyregion/16espada.html?hpw
* AND SPEAKING OF DEMOCRAT SCUMBAGS...
The Pedro Espada Jr. who entered a federal courtroom in Brooklyn on Wednesday afternoon appeared as a besieged figure, his face drawn and his manner subdued as a judge arraigned him and a son on embezzlement and conspiracy charges.
Mr. Espada, a Democrat who has served as the State Senate majority leader, and the son, Pedro Gautier Espada, each pleaded not guilty to five charges of siphoning more than half a million dollars in federal money from the network of Bronx health care clinics Mr. Espada founded and spending it on meals, theater tickets and a lavish birthday party, among other expenses.
They each face five charges of embezzlement and one count of conspiracy. If convicted on all counts, Mr. Espada and his son would each face a maximum sentence of 55 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine.
Mr. Espada also faces a civil lawsuit filed last April by Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo, accusing him of stealing millions of dollars from the clinics, stacking the network’s board with friends and political allies and guaranteeing himself a $9 million severance package that would bankrupt the nonprofit organization if it was granted.
That case is effectively delayed until the federal prosecution is concluded.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* OH... AND YEAH... "DISGRACED" REPRESENTATIVE CHARLIE RANGEL IS STILL... er... REPRESENTATIVE CHARLIE RANGEL.
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... HOW'S "HOPE AND CHANGE" WORKING OUT FOR YOU?
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/12/15/AR2010121506031.html
The U.S. economy can't truly recover until the housing market revives.
* FALSE! NOT TRUE! A MARKET REFLECTS THE REALITY OF A MOMENT IN TIME, NOTHING MORE, NOTHING LESS. THE ABOVE STATEMENT IS BASED UPON A COMPLETE MISUNDERSTANDING OF WHAT MARKETS ARE.
[R]ecent data indicate that prices, already off an average of 30% from their peak in 2006, have still not touched bottom.
* WELL, DUH! (WHO DIDN'T KNOW THAT...?!?!) (*ROLLING MY EYES*)
Nearly a quarter of mortgage borrowers are "underwater," owing more than their houses are worth.
* WHO CARES...?!?! (THE CORRECT ANSWER: NO ONE SHOULD!) THE ONLY NUMBER THAT SHOULD MATTER IS PERCENTAGE OF PEOPLE KEEPING UP WITH THEIR MORTGAGES VS. THOSE FALLING BEHIND.
* ONE MORE TIME, FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... A HOME IS SOMEPLACE TO LIVE - NOT AN "INVESTMENT." (OVER TIME HOUSING TENDS TO GENERATE A 2% RETURN, BUT AS AN INVESTMENT RETURN, 2% ISN'T EXACTLY THE GOLDEN FLEECE.)
Massive federal assistance - $1 trillion in Federal Reserve mortgage-bond purchases; dramatic expansion of Federal Housing Administration (FHA) loans; an Obama administration push to modify existing home loans - has slowed the collapse but not, apparently, ended it.
* BY "ASSISTANCE" THE AUTHOR MEANS RECKLESS DEFICIT SPENDING - DEBT PILED UPON OUR SHOULDERS AND THAT OF OUR CHILDREN.
The latest administration idea is to use the two government-controlled mortgage-finance firms, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to help underwater borrowers.
(*FEELING SICK TO MY STOMACH*)
Under the plan, Fannie and Freddie, which back about half of all U.S. home loans, would identify creditworthy borrowers who are underwater but still current on their payments - and then turn their loans over to the FHA, which would refinance them in return for a write-off of at least 10% of the unpaid principal balance.
* BY "WRITE OFF" THE AUTHOR REFERS TO FURTHER BORROWING, SPENDING, AND SOCIALISTIC GIVEAWAYS FROM THE RESPONSIBLE TO THE IRRESPONSIBLE.
The entities and their regulator, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), are cool to the idea. In addition to the threat to Fannie and Freddie's already disastrous bottom lines, an obvious drawback is moral hazard: If government starts paying off some people's debt principal, what's to stop others from demanding the same break?
* AND... OH, YEAH... THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT DOESN'T HAVE THE MONEY IN THE FIRST PLACE...!!!
* FOLKS... THIS IS INSANITY.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=40633
If Congress fails to pass a spending bill before Sunday, all non-essential portions of the federal government are effectively “shutdown.” Regardless, Newt Gingrich tells Human Events [Magazine] that Republicans must filibuster the Omnibus bill and not allow it to move in the Senate.
(*WILD CHEERING*)
Republicans should offer to pass a “very clean, simple Continuing Resolution that keeps the government open.” The GOP shouldn’t budge, insists the former Speaker of the House. “This [past] election was in part over pork-barrel spending by earmarks” and the “Democrats are trying to behave as though the election didn’t occur.”
* EXACTLY...!!!
Harry Reid’s Omnibus behemoth has 6,714 earmarks in it, totaling $8.3 billion, which would fund “pork” projects including the production of virus-free wine grapes, the monitoring of aquatic invasive species in the Columbia River Basin, the building solar parking canopies, and the harvesting of salmon.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/255038/enemy-within-ian-murray
American government-union members today get paid more than the workers in the private sector, enjoy better benefits, and are increasingly exempt from laws that govern everyone else.
These unions are bankrupting states with lavish pay and benefit costs.
Public-sector unionism is a relatively recent phenomenon in the United States. In 1959, Wisconsin became the first state to allow its public employees to unionize, and other states then followed suit. In 1962, Pres. John F. Kennedy issued an executive order allowing federal employees to join unions. Since then, union membership in the public sector has grown by leaps and bounds.
In January of this year, for the first time, government-sector union membership was larger than union membership in the private sector. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 22.2 million government workers in the U.S. Almost 8 million of them are unionized, compared with only 7.4 million in the private sector.
These unions are at the forefront of the movement for more expansive and expensive government. They use forced dues to lobby for greater pay and better benefits.
With a Republican-controlled House, the party may end for government-employee unions. Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah) has already signaled he will introduce a resolution in January to oppose any federal bailout of state and local government-employee pension funds.
As Heritage Foundation labor analyst James Sherk has found, federal workers earn a nominal 22% more per hour than their private-sector counterparts - and when benefits are included, the difference rises to 40%. Moreover, federal employees enjoy much greater job security (their employment has risen even during the recession). Many of the public-sector unions’ greatest privileges are found at the state and local level, where they have used their political muscle to gain extremely generous compensation packages at taxpayers’ expense.
[P]olitics can only trump economic reality for so long. ... [T]he American people are now waking up to the fact that they’re getting a very bad deal. ... With state- and local-government budgets under increasing financial strain, the dangers of legally entrenched benefits to an overpaid special interest have become impossible to ignore. Cities around the country are feeling the pinch. Vallejo, Calif., was forced into bankruptcy in 2008 after all other efforts to control costs proved futile. While Vallejo is an extreme example, many cities face similar problems, and are careening toward a similar fate.
In early October, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management showed that America’s 50 largest cities have combined pension underfunding of $574 billion. This is in addition to the liabilities already owed by the states, estimated at between $1 trillion and $3 trillion by various analysts (in our opinion, the former figure is too conservative). The taxpayers, of course, have to pay for it all. And when the bill comes due, the politicians who promised those lavish pensions are long out of office, and the pension promises are somebody else’s problem.
This cannot go on.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/255221/ethanol-idiocy-will-not-die-rich-lowry
Tom Harkin and Chuck Grassley, the Democratic and Republican senators from Iowa respectively, stand at the doors of Congress declaring: Ethanol now, ethanol forever.
* AND DAMN THE COST... DAMN THE ENVIRONMENTAL DAMAGE... SCREW THE AMERICAN PEOPLE...
They have graced the Obama-McConnell tax bargain with an extension of a tax credit for ethanol that costs about $6 billion a year, and with an extension of a tariff on ethanol imports.
Ethanol is so uneconomical that Congress supports it three different ways - with a mandate for its use, a tax credit to subsidize it, and a tariff to keep out competitors.
During the past decade, ethanol enjoyed a good run as a notional part of the solution to global warming.
* "NOTIONAL" = FALSE PREMISE.
Then, environmentalists began to realize it may actually increase greenhouse emissions.
* THERE'S NO "MAY" ABOUT IT. (*FROWN*)
[True,] ethanol releases less carbon dioxide per gallon than gasoline; [but] once the emissions necessary to convert land to corn production and then grow and process it are taken into accoun...ethanol doesn’t look so green anymore.
* OH... AND DON'T FORGET... BECAUSE ETHANOL IS 25% LESS ENERGY EFFICIENT IN TERMS OF ENERGY OUTPUT THAN GASOLINE, MIXING IT WITH GASOLINE LOWERS YOUR GAS MILEAGE THUS INCREASING YOUR COSTS.
So much corn - about 40% of the U.S. crop - is feeding into the maw of government-created demand for the fuel, that it could be increasing worldwide food prices.
* NOT "COULD BE." NOPE. "IS!"
In short, in exchange for not reducing greenhouse emissions, ethanol reduces the availability of food to the poor.
(*NOD*)
The multiple layers of subsidization have their own perversity. Since there’s already a mandate to blend ethanol into gasoline, the tax credit is giving away money for something that would happen anyway.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Once we have fired up a vast machine that from cornfield to distilleries produces 38 million gallons of ethanol a day, it will be nearly impossible to turn it off. Too many people will have a vested interest in continuing the scam, and its supporters - like Harkin and Grassley now - will always argue that any change is too disruptive. We’ll still be mandating ethanol long after the internal-combustion engine is obsolete.
The ethanol experience should counsel against blithely creating new government-supported industries on the basis of dubious promises of cost-free environmental benefits.
Judging by the tax bargain, festooned with all manner of other green subsidies and credits, it’s a lesson ignored.
In Washington, the boondoggles may lose their luster, but they never die.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/255414/vanity-fair-game-clifford-d-may
Filmmakers get to take dramatic license. Reporters really shouldn’t. But when it comes to Joseph C. Wilson IV and Valerie Plame, the mainstream media, as much as Hollywood, insist on marketing morality plays disconnected from reality.
The cinematic version of Joe and Valerie’s story is called Fair Game and at least the producers acknowledge that it’s only “based on actual events.”
In the news pages of the Washington Post, Walter Pincus and Richard Leiby have provided an almost equally fictionalized version - with no such disclaimer.
(*SMIRK*)
Fair Game, the film, is not fair. It slanders innocent people caught in a web spun by Joe Wilson to flatter his vanity and that of his wife. But what can you expect from Hollywood? The demands of both drama and fashionable Left Coast ideology mandate that the glamorous blonde spy who made the cover of Vanity Fair (oh, the irony) must be the hero and that all the president’s men - especially Cheney, Rove, and Libby - must be villains.
I expect more truth and accuracy from the mainstream media. Silly me.
* SHOULD ANYONE REQUIRE A REFRESHER COURSE ON "LE AFFAIRE PLAME" PLEASE FOLLOW THE ABOVE PROVIDED LINK AND READ THE ARTICLE IN FULL.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-152361/The-Red-Cross-bans-Christmas.html#ixzz18GIAmlB9
Christmas has been banned by the Red Cross from its 430 fund-raising shops. Staff have been ordered to take down decorations and to remove any other signs of the Christian festival because they could offend Moslems.
(British Red Cross leaders have, however, not extended the ban to their own profitable products. Items currently on sale include Christmas cards featuring angels and wise men and Advent calendars with nativity scenes.)
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The furore is a fresh blow to the image of what was once one of Britain's most respected charities. The British Red Cross lost friends this year over its support for the French illegal immigrant camp at Sangatte and its insistence on concentrating large efforts on helping asylum seekers.
* FOLKS... (*PAUSE*)... DO YOU KNOW WHY THE RED CROSS IS THE RED CROSS INSTEAD OF SAY... THE RED SQUARE... THE RED TRIANGLE.
(*SNORT*)
* SERIOUSLY... MADNESS!
* OH... AND IN CASE ANYONE IS THINKING THIS IDIOCY IS JUST OVER THERE, NOT OVER HERE, ASK YOURSELF HOW OFTEN YOU'VE BEEN WISHED "HAPPY HOLIDAYS" AT A STORE OR WHEREVER AS OPPOSED TO BEING WISHED A MERRY CHRISTMAS.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/16/MN571GQRDL.DTL
For the first time since 2008, inflation is hitting consumers in the stomach.
* ER... UMM... THE WRITER DOES REALIZE (I HOPE!) THAT 2008 WAS... ER... ONLY TWO YEARS AGO...???
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Grocery prices grew by more than 1.5 times the overall rate of inflation this year, outpaced only by costs of transportation and medical care, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
(*SNORT*) FUNNY HOW FOOD AND FUEL DON'T "COUNT" WHEN THE GOVERNMENT MEASURES INFLATION. (AS IF THEY DON'T EXIST!) (*SMIRK*)
Economists predict that this is only the beginning. Fueled by the higher costs of wheat, sugar, corn, soybeans and energy, shoppers could see as much as a 4 percent increase at the supermarket checkout next year.
* I'M GUESSING IT'S GONNA BE MUCH WORSE THAN THAT.
* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... THINK ABOUT THE MATH. DOES ANYONE REALLY THINK THAT A POUND OF WHATEVER THAT NOW GOES FOR $5/LB. WILL ONLY GO TO $5.20/LB.? NO. OF COURSE NOT! SOMETHING PRICED 4.99 LB. TODAY WILL GO TO $5.99/LB. - THAT'S A 20% INCREASE.
* OH... AND AS FREQUENTLY MENTIONED... THESE "STRAIGHT" PRICE INCREASES DON'T EVEN TAKE ACCOUNT OF PACKAGE SHRINKAGE - WHERE WHAT USED TO BE A POUND OF COFFEE OR VEGETABLES OR WHATEVER SOLD FOR $X.XX A CAN/BAG/BOX WHEN THE CAN/BAG/BOX HELD 16 OUNCES THAT "SAME" CAN/BAG/BOX IS NOW ONLY 14 OUNCES OR 11 OUNCES OR 9 OUNCES... YET IT COSTS AS MUCH AS IT DID WHEN IT WAS FULL-SIZED.
* FOLKS... DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND...?!?! THE GOVERNMENT IS DOING ALL IN IT'S POWER TO FOOL YOU, TO TRICK YOU, TO LIE TO YOU ABOUT TRUE INFLATION!
Since November 2009, meat, poultry, fish and eggs have surged 5.8% in price. Dairy and related products have gone up 3.8%; fats and oils, 3%; and sugar and sweets, 1.2%.
* NOTICE HOW THEY LUMP MEAT, POULTRY, FISH AND EGGS TOGETHER? THEY DO THAT TO AVOID NOTING THAT BEEF HAS GONE THROUGH THE ROOF. (THE MEDIA IS AS BAD AS THE GOVERNMENT WHEN IT COMES TO LYING TO THE AMERICAN PEOPLE.)
Kraft Foods Inc., one of the world's largest food producers, has already announced plans to increase its prices because of mounting ingredient costs and flagging sales. General Mills, maker of everything from flour and baking mixes to cereal and Yoplait yogurt, has said it, too, will raise some of its product prices in January. Experts said consumers can expect the same from Kellogg's and Nestle.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6BF5FM20101216
Officers will start random bag inspections on the sprawling Washington subway system, the Washington Metro Transit Police said on Thursday, a week after a man was arrested for making bomb threats to the rail system.
* "INSPECTIONS...???"
Metrorail police officers plan to randomly select bags before passengers enter subway stations and they will swab them or have an explosives-sniffing dog check the bags, according to the Metro police.
* BUT WILL THE BAGS BE OPENED? THAT'S THE QUESTION! I BELIEVE THAT SWABBING OR "SNIFFING" THE BAGS IS CONSTITUTIONALLY PERMISSIBLE, BUT ACTUALLY SEARCHING THE BAGS... OPENING THEM AND GOING THROUGH THEM... NO FRIGG'N WAY...!!! UNCONSTITUTIONAL ON ITS FACE...!!!
There is "no specific or credible threat to the system at this time," Metro said in a statement. Passengers who refuse to have their bags inspected will be denied entry into the subway system.
* NOPE. A SUBWAY SYSTEM SHOULD BE TREATED JUST AS A HIGHWAY IS. UNLESS YOU WANT TO GIVE THE POLICE THE POWER TO RANDOMLY STOP DRIVERS AND SEARCH CARS WITH NO SPECIFIC "EMERGENCY" SITUATION (SAY AN AMBER ALERT) WITH NO REASONABLE BELIEF THAT THEY'RE BREAKING THE LAW, THE GOVERNMENT WOULD HAVE NO MORE RIGHT TO DENY ENTRY TO THE SUBWAY SYSTEM THAN IT WOULD HAVE TO DENY USE OF THE HIGHWAY SYSTEM.
* FOLKS... HOW DO YOU LIKE OBAMA'S AMERICA?
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/12/16/john_kerry_complains_about_reading_omnibus_rather_than_working_on_it.html
* I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY.
http://www.creators.com/conservative/pat-buchanan/is-this-our-america-anymore.html
* BY THE INCOMPARABLE PATRICK J. BUCHANAN!
Buried in the Oct. 30 Washington Post was a bland headline: "Report Points to Faster Recovery in Jobs for Immigrants."
The story, however, contained social dynamite that explains the rage of Americans who are smeared as nativists and xenophobes for demanding a timeout on immigration.
In the April-May-June quarter, foreign-born workers in the U.S. gained 656,000 jobs.
* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT...
And native-born Americans lost 1.2 million.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
From July 1, 2009, to June 30, 2010, foreign-born Hispanics gained 98,000 construction jobs.
Native-born Hispanics lost 133,000.
Black and white U.S. construction workers lost 511,000 jobs.
(*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
According to the Center for Immigration Studies, from Jan. 1, 2000, to Jan. 1, 2010, 13.1 million immigrants, legal and illegal, entered the United States, a decade in which America lost 1 million jobs. From 2008 and 2009, the figures are startling. In 24 months, 2.4 million immigrants, legal and illegal, arrived, as U.S. citizens were losing 8.6 million jobs.
Query: Why are we importing a million-plus workers a year when 17 million Americans can't find work?
(*TAPPING MY FOOT*) DAMN GOOD QUESTION, HMM?!
According to the Pew Hispanic Center, each year between 300,000 and 400,000 "anchor babies" are born to illegal aliens. These newborns are entitled to citizenship, free health care and education, welfare and food stamps. Their parents - almost all are poor or working class - rarely pay any state or federal income tax. How long can we keep granting citizenship and full social welfare benefits to the children of people who break our laws and break into our country or overstay their visas? How long can we keep bringing in workers to take jobs when our unemployment rate hovers around 10%?
* ACTUALLY... (*PURSED LIPS*)... U6 UNEMPLOYMENT STANDS AT A WHOPPING 17% ACCORDING TO THE LATES OFFICIAL STATS.
Legal scholar William Quirk describes a new phenomenon in the invasion of America: "maternity tourism." Pregnant Asian women pay $15,000 to agents to ensure they are in the United States when their child is born so that they can return home secure in the knowledge he or she will be a U.S. citizen with the right to a U.S.-taxpayer subsidized education in college.
Though the nation has awakened to the threat to social cohesion and national solvency, Harry Reid is still attempting to ram through a lame-duck Senate an amnesty for illegal aliens up to age 30... (*GNASHING MY TEETH*)... An estimated 2.1 million illegal aliens would be amnestied, put on a path to citizenship, and be eligible for student loans and more.
According to Alabama's Jeff Sessions, ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee: "Aliens granted amnesty by the DREAM Act will have the legal right to petition for entry of their family members, including their adult brothers and sisters and the parents who illegally brought or sent them to the United States, once they become naturalized U.S. citizens. In less than a decade, this reality could easily double or triple the 2.1 million green cards that will be immediately distributed as a result of the DREAM Act." Lawbreaking would be rewarded. Chain migration would continue. A permanent powerful magnet would be provided to all foreigners to sneak into the United States and be sure to bring the kids.
As Rep. Dana Rohrabacher argues, one effect of the DREAM Act will be to move illegals applying to college ahead of many Americans, as 80% of illegals are Hispanics and [thus would be] eligible for affirmative action [once granted legal status].
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