Saturday, January 8, 2011
Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Jan. 8 & 9, 2011
Com'on, folks... where else would you have this song thrown at you but here on Usually Right?
Listen to the strength of that voice! Listen to the clarity... the vibrato... the range...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN ADMIRATION*)
No lip-synching... no "background dancers"... just a girl, a mic, and her back-up band and singers.
God I miss "my" America...
(*SHAKING MY HEAD IN SADNESS*)
(*PAUSE*)
O.K., so on to today's diet log:
Saturday...
10:00 a.m. - Two hard boiled eggs.
12:30 p.m. - Tuna with diced tomato, cheese, and mayo on Triscuits.
1:45 p.m. - Glass of Crystal Lite with mega-vitamins.
(The usual two cups of coffee - cream, no sugar - over the course of the morning.
6:45 p.m. - Roast beef, turkey, cheese, lettuce, tomato, pepperoni and mayo on garlic facaccia bread.
(I only ate half of the sandwich; saving the other half for tomorrow!)
7:45 p.m. - Glass of milk and a cupcake.
9:00 p.m. - Glass of white wine.
9:30 p.m. - Maple ham roll-ups - mayo, cheese, and pineapple.
Sunday...
11:45 a.m. - Amy's mom's leftover Indian food with cheese and sour cream added. (Yum!)
3:10 p.m. - Ate the other half of my roast beef, turkey and cheese sandwich from last night.
3:50 p.m. - Had a few corn chips and some dried banana chips with peanut butter and jelly "dip."
5:30 p.m. - Ate an apple.
6:00 p.m. - Had a cup of hot tea with cream & one "fake" sugar.
6:45 p.m. - One boneless pork chop (marinated, not breaded), garlic potatoes with cheese added to mixed veggies.
7:25 p.m. - Drank a glass of Diet Pepsi.
10:00 p.m. - A small slice of apple pie with half a Klondike bar.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/us/politics/08immig.html?ref=us
* TITLE THIS NEWBITE "BEWARE THE RINOs"
The new Republican chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Lamar Smith of Texas, passed over an outspoken immigration hard-liner and Tea Party caucus member for chairman of the immigration subcommittee.
In an announcement Friday, Mr. Smith unexpectedly gave the job to Representative Elton Gallegly of California.
The man who was passed over, Representative Steve King of Iowa, who was the senior Republican on the subcommittee in the last session, was named vice chairman instead.
* WATCH THESE FRIGG'N RINOs... WATCH 'EM LIKE HAWKS!
Mr. King is known for his staunch, high-profile support for a crackdown on illegal immigration. On Thursday, Mr. King introduced a bill that would deny automatic citizenship to children born in the United States to illegal immigrants.
* STEVE KING IS ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS. HE'S JUST BEEN SCREWED BY THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP. THEREFORE THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HAVE JUST BEEN SCREWED BY THE REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP. KEEP NOTE, FOLKS... KEEP SCORE...
(*NOD*)
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2011/01/08/world/international-us-palestinians-israel-gaza.html?hp
Two Thai agricultural workers were wounded by a mortar shell fired by militants into an Israeli agricultural community close to the Gaza Strip border on Saturday, an Israeli official said.
* THAI JEWS...??? (*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*)
* "MILITANTS," HUH? NOT TERRORISTS...? NOT CRIMINALS...? (YA GOTTA LOVE THE NYT!)
Militant group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. A spokesman said its operatives had launched six mortar shells into Israel.
* SO THEREFORE DOESN'T IT SEEM REASONABLE THAT INTERPOL AND THE U.N. SHOULD BE SEEKING TO APPREHEND OR KILL THESE TERRORISTS? (YEAH, YEAH... I KNOW... ONLY IN "BILL'S WORLD" DOES COMMON SENSE REIGN.)
The two men, who were ferried to hospital, were the first in Israel to be hurt by weapons fired from Gaza since December...
* OH! ALL THE WAY BACK IN DECEMBER! (*SMIRK*) (*SNORT*) (*ROLLING MY EYES*)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/us/08ethnic.html?_r=1&hp
The class began with a Mayan-inspired chant and a vigorous round of coordinated hand clapping. The classroom walls featured protest signs, including one that said “United Together in La Lucha!” - the struggle. Although open to any student at Tucson High Magnet School, nearly all of those attending Curtis Acosta’s Latino literature class on a recent morning were Mexican-American.
* FIRST QUESTION: HOW DOES THE NYT WRITER KNOW THAT STUDENTS ARE "MEXICAN-AMERICAN?" THAT TERM INDICATES AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP OR AT LEAST LEGAL AMERICAN RESIDENCY. DID THE REPORTER CHECK THE STATUS OF EACH STUDENT?
* HELL... DO THE SCHOOLS CHECK THE CITIZENSHIP STATUS OF EACH STUDENT...? I'M GUESSING THE ANSWER IS NO... EVEN IN ARIZONA. WELL, FOLKS... WE SHOULD BE CHECKING CITIZENSHIP/LEGAL RESIDENCY STATUS AND DEPORTING ILLEGALS. PERIOD.
For all of that and more, Mr. Acosta’s class and others in the Tucson Unified School District’s Mexican-American program have been declared illegal by the State of Arizona - even while similar programs for black, Asian and American Indian students have been left untouched.
* ONE STEP AT A TIME... (*SHRUG*) (*SMILE*)
“It’s propagandizing and brainwashing that’s going on there,” Tom Horne, Arizona’s newly elected attorney general, said this week...
* NO DOUBT!
Although Shakespeare’s “Tempest” was supposed to be the topic at hand, Mr. Acosta spent most of a recent class discussing the political storm in which he, his students and the entire district have become enmeshed.
* SINCE THIS ACOSTA FELLOW ISN'T ENGAGED IN WHAT HE'S PAID TO DO, I SAY FIRE HIS ASS.
John Huppenthal, a former state senator who took over as Arizona’s schools chief, said he supported Mr. Horne’s...ruling.
Mr. Huppenthal sat in on one of the Tucson classes taught by Mr. Acosta, and said that Benjamin Franklin was vilified as a racist and a photo of Che Guevara was hanging on the wall. Besides that, he said, Tucson’s test scores are among the lowest in the state, indicating that the district needs to focus on the fundamentals.
(*SNORT*) (*SHRUG*) (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
To buttress his critique of the Tucson program, Mr. Horne read from texts used in various classes, which in one instance referred to white people as “gringos” and described privilege as being related to the color of a person’s skin, hair and eyes. He also cited the testimony of five teachers who described the program as giving a skewed view of history and promoting racial discord.
* ALTHOUGH THE TIMES DOES ITS BEST THE SKEW THE REPORTING AND MANIPULATE READERS, IT'S CLEAR THAT THE STATE OF ARIZONA IS IN THE RIGHT.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704415104576065723458609678.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Of all the [false] claims deployed in favor of ObamaCare, and there are many, the most preposterous is that a new open-ended entitlement will somehow reduce the budget deficit, insure 32 million more people, and save money too!
The even more remarkable spectacle is that Washington seems to be taking this claim seriously in advance of the House's repeal vote next week. Some things in politics you just can't make up.
(*SIGH*)
Terminating trillions of dollars in future spending will "heap mountains of debt onto our children and grandchildren" and "do very serious violence to the national debt and deficit," Nancy Pelosi said at her farewell press conference as Speaker.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*) (*ROLLING MY EYES*)
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius chimed in that "we can't afford repeal," as if ObamaCare's full 10-year cost of $2.6 trillion once all the spending kicks in is a taxpayer bargain.
(*HEADACHE*)
Ten months ago, Democrats used a partisan majority to narrowly defeat bipartisan opposition and pass a national health-care program that a majority of the public opposed and continues to oppose today.
Gallup reported yesterday that Americans favor repeal, 46% to 40%.
Among the worst Democratic abuses was gaming the CBO's budget conventions to make it seem as if ObamaCare "saves" money.
(*NOD*)
The accounting gimmicks are legion, but we'll pick out a few:
It uses 10 years of taxes to fund six years of subsidies.
Social Security and Medicare revenues are double-counted to the tune of $398 billion.
A new program funding long-term care frontloads taxes but backloads spending, gradually going broke by design.
* FOLKS... YOU SIMPLY CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
* CONTINUING...
The law pretends that Congress will spend less on Medicare than it really will, in particular through an automatic 25% cut to physician payments that Democrats have already voted not to allow for this year.
(*SMIRK*)
The CBO budget gnomes are required to "score" what's on paper in front of them, no matter how unrealistic, and that's the method its Congressional masters prefer. The political class makes believe that CBO's forecasts are carved into stone tablets through divine revelation, but all they really show is that politicians have rigged the budget rules to hide the true cost of entitlements.
(*NOD*)
[O]ur core appeal isn't to this technical detail or that underlying assumption. It's to common sense.
Amid the repeal debate, Democrats and the media are behaving as if they have no knowledge of Congress's habits or the history of government health-care programs over the last half-century. Entitlements are always sold as modest and "paid for," then years later everyone suddenly discovers that they are "unaffordable" without digging deeper into the pockets of the middle class. How do you think Medicare and Medicaid got to their current pass?
The government can't subsidize coverage for tens of millions of new people and simultaneously reduce the deficit, as most Americans seem to intuitively understand.
* BOTTOM LINE: THE DEMOCRATS WERE LYING THEN AND THEY'RE LYING NOW. WORSE, THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA MORE OFTEN THAN NOT PROVIDES THEM COVER.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704739504576068064133862774.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion
* TITLE THIS ONE "A REFRESHER COURSE ON OBAMACARE" --
To expand Medicaid, the law eviscerates Medicare.
It's like robbing Peter to pay Paul, only it's robbing Grandma and Grandpa.
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) shows that in 2019 the Obama health law reduces annual Medicare funding so much that it works out to $1,428 less for each elderly patient that year. Richard Foster, chief actuary for Medicare, has spoken with brave bluntness about the possible impact, warning that some hospitals may stop accepting Medicare. Where will seniors go?
Projections from CMS [also] fill in the grim picture on what ObamaCare will do. The figures, released Sept. 9, show that if you buy your own health plan, you will have to pay more every year than you would have if the law hadn't passed.
* OH... AND HERE... GET THIS:
Amazingly, only 3% more people will have private health insurance in 2014 than would have it if the law hadn't passed. But a staggering 85.2 million people will be on public insurance - Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP. That's 31% of non-elderly Americans.
[If left as is, ObamaCare would move] the U.S. [further] toward a European-style welfare state, making more people dependent on government, instead of on themselves, and undermining incentives to work. [Indeed, ObamaCare] stipulates that Medicaid must provide the same health benefits that employers will have to provide for their workers.
Government projections are notoriously unreliable, but by the CBO's own numbers repeal would reduce government spending, lower taxes, and restore Medicare funding. Most important, repeal would protect your freedom and your medical care.
The Obama health law lowers your standard of care, puts government in charge of your care, and shreds your constitutional rights - dangers these government projections do not address [because when the ran Congress the Democrats didn't allow them to].
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/world/asia/08wounded.html?_r=2&hp
[In present day Afghanistan] the number of troops wounded by bullets, shrapnel and bombs approached that of the bloodiest periods of the war in Iraq.
More than 430 American service members died from hostile action in Afghanistan last year through Dec. 21...
(*BOWING MY HEAD*)
Nearly 5,500 American troops were wounded in action...
* THIS IS JUST 2010.
(*SIGH*)
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9KKBACO1&show_article=1
Police found the bodies of 15 slain men, 14 of them headless, on a street outside a shopping center in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco on Saturday.
Acapulco has been the site of fierce battles between drug gangs, and this weekend got off to a bloody start with 27 people killed there from Friday evening to early Saturday, Leyva said. The dead included two police officers cut down on a main bayside avenue in front of tourists and locals; six people who were shot dead and stuffed in a taxi, their hands and feet bound; and four others elsewhere in the city.
Mexico's drug cartels have increasingly taken to beheading their victims in a grisly show of force, but Saturday's discovery was the largest single group of decapitation victims found in recent years.
* ANY QUESTIONS...?
(*SHRUG*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704739504576068091880997096.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLESecond
Next to California, New York may be the country's biggest fiscal basket case. It faces a $10 billion deficit, exploding pension liabilities and weak job growth.
Andrew Cuomo, [if we can take his rhetoric at face value,] at least seems to have a proper grasp of the dire situation.
"The state of New York spends too much money," said Mr. Cuomo in his state of the state address Wednesday. "It is that blunt and that simple."
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* A DEMOCRAT IDENTIFYING SPENDING AS PROBLEM NUMERO UNO...??? O.K., TELL ME MORE, ANDREW...
The Democratic governor, who was elected in a landslide last year against a weak Republican opponent, backed up his assertion with hard data. "We have the worst business tax climate in the nation, period," he said.
"Our taxes are 66% higher than the national average."
"[I]nflation was about 2.7% per year, but Medicaid went up over 5% per year and education went up over 6% per year. We just can't afford those rates of increase."
* O.K.... (*NODDING*) I HEAR THE WORDS, NOW LET'S SEE THE ACTIONS... (*SHRUG*)
Mr. Cuomo then took the argument a step further. "Not only do we spend too much, but we get too little in return," he said. "We spend more money on education than any state in the nation and we are 34 in terms of results. We spend more money on Medicaid than any other state in the nation and we are number 21 in results. We spend about $1.6 billion per year in economic development and we are number 50 in terms of results."
(*RUBBNG MY EYES*) (*PINCHING MYSELF TO MAKE SURE I'M AWAKE AND NOT DREAMING*)
Robert Ward of the Albany-based Rockefeller Institute, a state think tank, was impressed by what he heard. "From a fiscal conservative or libertarian view, the rhetoric was the best perhaps ever," he said. "[Former Governor] George Pataki's rhetoric was always good, but Andrew seems more convincing. And he's a more forceful character." The concern, said Mr. Ward, is that he's not said "anything specific about how he's going to balance the budget without [higher] taxes or borrowing."
Unfortunately, Mr. Cuomo's plans for facilitating change don't involve cutting taxes or regulations. Instead he wants to create "economic regional councils all across the state" that will establish "public/private sector partnerships" to focus on creating jobs.
(*SIGH*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704055204576068270214808518.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
The skyrocketing cost of rare-earth metals from China is pushing up the cost of gasoline production in the U.S., the latest sign of the wide-reaching impact of Beijing's decision to restrict exports of the minerals.
* FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... CHINA IS NOT OUR FRIEND. THEY SEE A LONG TERM "MANAGED" DECLINE OF THE UNITED STATES AS IN THEIR NATIONAL INTEREST. (AND FROM THEIR PERSPECTIVE THEY'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT TO DO SO!)
China, which controls about 95% of the world's rare-earth supply...
* HERE - LET'S REPEAT THAT A FEW TIMES...
China, which controls about 95% of the world's rare-earth supply... China, which controls about 95% of the world's rare-earth supply... China, which controls about 95% of the world's rare-earth supply...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
China, which controls about 95% of the world's rare-earth supply, said it would reduce exports of the metals by 35% in 2011.
* HEY... HOW'BOUT THOSE JETS, HUH?! (*SNICKER*) (*SNORT*) (*SMIRK*)
* FOLKS... DOES THIS OR DOES THIS NOT SOUND LIKE A BIT OF A... er... NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT TO YOU?
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
The increase could raise gasoline-production costs by about a penny a gallon...
* WELL, NOW! THAT DOESN'T SOUND SO BAD... DOES IT?
* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT...
...and potentially lead some refiners to cut back on fuel production to protect their profits.
* OOPS... (*SIGH*)
Although rare earths account for only up to 4% of catalysts used in these units, their recent price increase has added as much as an extra 25% to catalyst costs, according to the National Petrochemical and Refiners Association, a group representing the sector.
* NOW THAT DOESN'T SOUND GOOD - DOES IT?
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/01/08/number-of-the-week-interest-payments-on-federal-debt/
In 2010...net [interest] payments [alone on the national debt] amounted to $197 billion.
* THAT'S ABOUT A QUARTER OF THE DEFENSE BUDGET... (*SIGH*)
[And that's with an abnormally and artificially low] average of about 0.1% interest on 3-month Treasury bills, and 3% on ten-year notes.
(*SMIRK*)
Low interest rates, however, won’t last forever - assuming the U.S. economy doesn’t succumb to long-term, Japanese-style stagnation. The CBO estimates that interest rates on 3-month bills and 10-year notes will reach 5.0% and 5.9%, respectively, by 2020. That, together with a rapidly rising debt load, would cause annual net interest payments to more than double by 2020 - to $778 billion...
* ACTUALLY, THE MORE COMMON FIGURE CITED IS $1 TRILLION. YEP... $1 TRILLION IN INTEREST ALONE - $1 TRILLION WHICH DOESN'T BUY ONE SINGLE WIDGET OR GET RETURNED TO CITIZENS POCKETS.
(*SIGH*)
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/136543-junior-senate-democrats-want-chairmen-to-face-election-by-secret-ballot
Senate Democrats elected in 2006 and 2008 are challenging the internal caucus procedures that have allowed veteran lawmakers to lock up committee chairmanships for years on end.
A group of junior Democratic senators are pushing for committee chairmen to stand for election at the beginning of each Congress, a requirement that has not been in effect for years, according to lawmakers familiar with the discussions.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* I'D GO BEYOND THIS AND SUGGEST THAT AS AN INSTITUTION, CONGRESS SHOULD HAVE ALL COMMITTEE AND SUBCOMMITTEE CHAIRMEN SELECTED BY INTERNAL OPEN RECORDED VOTE.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/01/08/AR2011010804018.html
* SUBTITLE THIS NEWSBITE "DIRTY, FILTHY RINO SON OF A BI_CH!"
[RINO] Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell plans a massive spending campaign...
(*SIGH*)
McDonnell will press lawmakers to approve a series of statewide projects he said would be paid in part through Virginia's $403 million budget surplus, $337 million in higher-than-expected tax revenue, and $192 million generated through cuts and savings.
* SOUNDS LIKE THE IRRESPONSIBLE "GOOD TIMES" POLITICS THAT GOT US IN THIS CURRENT ECONOMIC MESS TO BEGIN WITH!
And in stark contrast to other governors, who are cutting budgets and slashing payrolls, McDonnell told The Washington Post that he plans to borrow nearly $3 billion over the next three years...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* THE VIRGINIA LEGISLATURE SHOULD IMPEACH MCDONNELL.
Democrats said that they share many of the Republican governor's priorities...
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
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