Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, February 22, 2011


Not quite sure who the heck "Dean" is (it's apparently Dean's party)... but I'm kinda bummed I wasn't invited!
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8 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/02/22/501364/main20034691.shtml

Four Americans taken hostage by Somali pirates off East Africa were shot and killed by their captors Monday, the U.S. military said...

U.S. naval forces, who were trailing the Americans' captured yacht with four warships, quickly boarded the vessel after hearing the gunfire...

* IF WE HAVE FOUR WARSHIPS IN THE AREA, WHY IS THERE EVEN ONE SINGLE LIVING PIRATE IN THE AREA...???

Two pirates died during the confrontation and 13 were captured and detained, the U.S. Central Command said.

* "DETAINED...???"

* "DETAINED...???"

The military said U.S. forces have been monitoring the Quest for about three days, since shortly after the pirate attack on Friday. Four Navy warships were involved, including an aircraft carrier.

* LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT, FOLKS... "FOUR NAVY WARSHIPS - INCLUDING A CARRIER - WERE INVOLVED" - YET WE WERE UNABLE TO RESCUE THE HOSTAGES.

Last week a Somali pirate was sentenced to 33 years in prison by a New York court for the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama, a U.S. cargo vessel.

* WHY WAS THIS "PIRATE" TRIED IN NEW YORK? WHY WAS HE NOT TRIED BY THE NAVAL OFFICERS WHO CAPTURED HIM AND HANGED UPON BEING FOUND GUILTY?

* FOLKS... P*I*R*A*T*E*S...!!! YOU HANG PIRATES! YOU DON'T SPEND MILLIONS AND MILLIONS AND MILLIONS OF DOLLAR IMPRISONING THEM...!!!

February 22, 2011 at 11:28 AM
William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/20/AR2011022003201.html

* FOLKS... YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND THIS IS REAL...

The daunting tower of national, state and local debt in the United States will reach a level this year unmatched just after World War II and already exceeds the size of the entire economy, according to government estimates.

But any similarity between 1946 and now ends there. The U.S. debt levels tumbled in the years after World War II, but today they are still climbing and even deep cuts in spending won't completely change that for several years.

* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... NOTE THE WORDING... ONLY "THE CLIMBING" MAY CHANGE; THE DEFICITS THEMSELVES AREN'T GOING AWAY UNDER OBAMA'S PLAN AND FUTURE BUDGET ESTIMATES.

After World War II, the federal debt - including debt purchased by the Social Security Trust Fund - hit nearly 122% of gross domestic product.

* BUT NOTE:

State and municipal debt back then was minimal.

By the time Dwight Eisenhower was elected president six years later, the federal government's debt had dipped to about three-fourths of GDP.

The key factor in the rapid drop in government debt, said Harvard University economist Kenneth Rogoff, was fast economic growth. Spurred by a young labor force, world-leading manufacturers, high personal savings rates, a pent-up demand for consumer goods after years of war and the Depression, and a bout of inflation, the economy grew 57% in six years. Thanks to sharp postwar cuts in defense outlays, federal government spending also tumbled for a couple of years.

* UMM... FOLKS... (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)... ALTHOUGH OUR FRIEND FROM HARVARD DOESN'T MENTION IT, RECALL... WW-2 LED TO GERMAN AND JAPANESE CITIES BEING PILES OF RUBBLE. INDEED, MUCH OF THE DEVELOPED WORLD OUTSIDE THE U.S. WAS - LITERALLY - IN RUBBLE. IT WASN'T JUST THAT OUR FACTORIES WERE "BETTER," IT WAS THAT RELATIVELY SPEAKING, WE WERE THE ONLY COUNTRY WITH SUCH INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY! FOR ALL INTENTS AND PURPOSES, IN TERMS OF PHYSICAL PLANTS... WE WERE THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN! THERE WAS NO REAL COMPETITION...!!!

* To be continued...

February 22, 2011 at 12:01 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)

Today the U.S. economy is in a polar opposite condition. The labor force is aging, U.S. manufacturing often lags behind Asian and European rivals, households are in hock up to their eyeballs, and consumer appetite for goods is tepid. In addition, inflation is tame and government spending locked into entitlement programs and debt service that will be hard or impossible to alter.

* ACTUALLY, INFLATION ISN'T TAME. JUST ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF HOW GOVERNMENT, ACADEMIA, AND MEDIA LIE TO US.

Moreover...state and municipal governments from Sacramento to Madison to Harrisburg have racked up about $2.4 trillion in debt, or more than 15% of GDP.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Even if analysts leave aside the debt held by the Social Security Trust Fund...

* HOLD IT! HOLD IT! HOLD IT! NOW WHY WOULD ANALYSTS "LEAVE ASIDE" THE DEBT HELD BY THE (RHETORICAL, NON-REAL) SOCIAL SECURITY "TRUST FUND...???" (*SMIRK*) (*SNORT*)

Robert D. Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and former director of the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, said that the debt accumulated by 1946 "was for a very different purpose, which was to preserve freedom and democracy versus totalitarianism rather than to throw a huge party and put it on the credit card."

He said that state governments have also squandered much of their spending and failed to meet all their pension obligations.

Reischauer stressed that after World War II, consumers, many of whom had purchased savings bonds, and banks, which had been required to hold certain amounts of government debt, were in strong positions. Today's consumers and banks are strapped.

"We had large household savings, and we flourished," he said of the post-World War II era.

* AND WE HAD NO REAL COMPETITION...!!! AND OUR EDUCATION SYSTEM WAS THE BEST IN THE WORLD...!!! AND OUR CITIZENS WERE COMPETENT AND NOT F--KED UP IN THE HEAD...!!!

* FOLKS... MY POINT...? WE'RE F--KED.

February 22, 2011 at 12:01 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://radio.woai.com/cc-common/news/sections/newsarticle.html?feed=119078&article=8203908

* SUBTITLE: "GOD BLESS TEXAS!"

This should get their attention.

A measure filed by [Texas] State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst (R-Brenham) would allow any law enforcement agency that has custody of an illegal immigrant to take the illegal to 'the office of a U.S. Senator or Representative' and leave them there.

* I SUGGESTED THIS LONG AGO!

1200 WOAI news reports the measure also allows county sheriff's deputies or city police officers to request an agent or employee of the United States Senator or United States Representative to sign a document acknowledging the release or discharge of the illegal immigrant at the senator's or representative's office.

(*CHUCKLE*)

February 22, 2011 at 12:53 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/two-thirds-wisconsin-public-school-8th-g

Two-thirds of the eighth graders in Wisconsin public schools cannot read proficiently according to the U.S. Department of Education...

(*SMIRK*)

...despite the fact that Wisconsin spends more per pupil in its public schools than any other state in the Midwest.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

In the National Assessment of Educational Progress tests administered by the U.S. Department of Education in 2009 - the latest year available - only 32% of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned a “proficient” rating while another 2% earned an “advanced” rating. The other 66% of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders earned ratings below “proficient”...

(Forty-four percent...earned a rating of “basic” and 22%...earned a rating of “below basic.”)

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

The test also showed that the reading abilities of Wisconsin public-school eighth graders had not improved at all between 1998 and 2009 despite a significant inflation-adjusted increase in the amount of money Wisconsin public schools spent per pupil each year.

* AND FOLKS... REMEMBER... THIS IS WITH DUMBED DOWN TESTING...!!!

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

February 22, 2011 at 1:12 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.indystar.com/article/20110222/NEWS/110222004/House-Democrats-flee-Indiana-stop-votes?odyssey=mod|breaking|text|IndyStar.com

[Indiana] House Democrats are leaving the state rather than vote on anti-union legislation, The Indianapolis Star has learned.

A source said Democrats are headed to Illinois, though it was possible some also might go to Kentucky. (They need to go to a state with a Democratic governor to avoid being taken into police custody and returned to Indiana.)

* IN OTHER WORDS, DEMOCRAT POLITICIANS CAN BE "COUNTED UPON" TO AID AND ABET THEIR FELLOW DEMOCRATS IN SHOWING CONTEMPT FOR THE SPIRIT OF THE RULE OF LAW AND DEMOCRACY ITSELF.

With only 58 legislators present, there was no quorum present to do business. The [Indiana] House needs 67 of its members to be present.

House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis...said he was “flummoxed,” adjoured until noon, and labor union members watching in the gallery and hallway outside cheered the work stoppage.

(*SHRUG*)

February 22, 2011 at 1:24 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2011/02/21/AR2011022103775.html

* BY RICHARD COHEN... YES... RICHARD COHEN!

In New York City, the No. 2 guy in the fire department retired on a pension worth $242,000 a year.

In New York State, a single official holding two jobs and one pension took in $641,000.

A lieutenant with the Port Authority police retired with an annual pension of $196,767... [meanwhile,] 738 of the city's teachers, principals and such have pensions worth more than $100,000 a year.

Their former employer, it goes almost without saying, is steamed. Their former employer is me.

* YEP... RICHARD FRIGG'N C*O*H*E*N...!!!

In some cases, retirement came a mere 20 or so years after first reporting to HR and, if you were lucky enough to fake a disability - oh, my aching back! - the sky is virtually the limit. Fully one-third of all New York City cops who retired during a recent 17-month period did so on disability. (They have dangerous jobs, we all know - but not nearly as dangerous as Long Island Rail Road workers. Almost all of them retired on disability. All aboard!)

Last year, David Brooks of the New York Times - with appropriate credit to Jonathan Rauch of the National Journal - pointed out that state and local governments are so indebted to their workers in pension and other obligations that they have little money for anything else. He gave some examples: California state police often retire at age 50 with 90% of their salary. Corrections officers in that state earn $70,000 in base salary. New York City, the home office of featherbedding, supports 10,000 cops who retired before the age of 50.

These figures account for why the Obama White House has exhibited its usual robust indecisiveness toward the Wisconsin demonstrators. It needs labor's political muscle, but it must also recognize that it cannot appear on the wrong side of greed. It was one thing when unions went after giant corporations run by guys who played golf at restricted clubs. But when it comes to government workers, we are the boss and we pay the bill. To quote what Sam Spade told the woman he loved in the "The Maltese Falcon," "I won't play the sap for you."

When it comes to public-sector unions, my sentiments exactly.

February 22, 2011 at 6:59 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704409004576146450281223930.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

One under-reported story of 2011 is the revolt of the Governors, who are looking in horror at ObamaCare's permanent expansion of Medicaid and begging Washington for more flexibility.

* AND IT'S NOT JUST REPUBLICAN GOVERNORS, FOLKS!

Look no further than Andrew Cuomo, New York's new chief executive.

Over the years the Empire State has expanded this joint state-federal program originally meant for poor women and children deep into the middle class - much like the model the 2010 health bill will impose on all states in 2014.

Cuomo's ambitious reform plan runs in the opposite direction, and little wonder. Spending for this $53 billion-plus program in New York will increase automatically by 13% this year even as Mr. Cuomo must close a $10 billion deficit.

(*NOD*)

In his executive budget, Mr. Cuomo proposed cutting $982 million, or 2%.

(*SINCERE CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Today, one of four New Yorkers is on Medicaid, which is staggering. A quarter of a rich state's entire population is dependent on government health care.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Recall that ObamaCare will bring national Medicaid enrollment to about the same level.

(*NOD*)

The Kaiser Family Foundation figures that the rolls will still increase...by about 28% nationwide... [and] by [a further] 6% in New York.

* AGAIN... FOLKS... IF OBAMA'S GOAL IS NOT TO "BREAK" THE SYSTEM, THEN HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS? DOES HE SIMPLY NOT GET THE MATH...? SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... GLENN BECK IS FAR MORE RIGHT THAN WRONG ABOUT BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA AND HIS ADMINISTRATION.

[T]he New York Medicaid budget is now the highest of any state, by far. It spends more than twice the national average per capita, $2,488 to $1,150. It spends more per beneficiary than neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut - or any other state.

In 2010, it spent more on Medicaid than K-12 schools, higher education, social services, transportation or public salaries and pensions.

(*HEADACHE*)

[T]oday Medicaid...eats more than half of revenues in a majority of [NYS] counties, while the state's fiscal position and economy deteriorate.

Cuomo wants cuts in absolute terms, not merely a reduction of the growth rate...

(*STANDING OVATION*)

* STILL... A WORD OF CAUTION:

Cuomo has stocked his Medicaid commission with political blue ribbons who benefit from the status quo - members include the major New York provider lobbyists, Dennis Rivera of the SEIU and Assemblymen chosen by Albany leaders.

February 22, 2011 at 6:59 PM

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