Friday, March 4, 2011

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, March 4, 2011


Chill break...

Folks... compare and contrast newsbite #3 with newsbite #6.

(*SHRUG*)
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12 comments:

William R. Barker said...

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

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/03/03/morning-bell-how-obama-is-making-gas-prices-higher/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

[On Wednesday], for the first time since September 2008, the price of a barrel of crude oil topped $100 on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

* JUST FYI, BRENT OIL IS QUITE A BIT HIGHER, HAVING CROSSED THE $100 THRESHOLD AWHILE BACK.

[I]f an [American President] wanted to keep gas prices down, [he would push for increased] domestic oil production. But that is not what the Obama Administration has done. Instead of increasing domestic oil supplies, the Obama Administration has cut them at every opportunity, and Americans are now suffering because of those choices.

Back in February, when the protests in Egypt were first unfolding, Energy Secretary Steven Chu was asked what the Administration could do to combat rising world oil prices. Chu responded: “The best way America can protect itself against these incidents is to decrease our dependency on foreign oil, in fact to diversify our supply.”

It is now one month later and the Administration has not updated its talking points.

Pressed on gas prices [Wednesday], White House spokesman Jay Carney said: “We are also, as you have seen over the past two-plus years, very focused on the need precisely to develop other energy sources so that we are not as dependent on foreign oil as we have been in the past.”

So what are these “other energy sources” the White House has been developing? How does the White House plan to “diversify supply” to reduce gas prices? The answers are corn, wind, sun, and electric cars. And they won’t help a bit.

(*SIGH*)

* AND FOLKS... LET'S GIVE CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE; THESE FOLKS AREN'T STUPID IN THE SENSE OF LOW I.Q. THEY KNOW THAT THERE ARE NO SHORT OR EVEN MID-TERM SUBSTITUTES FOR PETROLEUM, NATURAL GAS, COAL, AND SHALE OIL.

* To be continued...

March 4, 2011 at 9:26 AM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)

According to Heritage analysts Nick Loris and John Ligon, Obama’s energy policy consists of: increased biofuel production, increased electric vehicle production, and increased renewable power production. These are all terrible public policies. The major source of biomass production, corn-based ethanol, produces less energy per unit volume than gasoline, contributes to food price increases, costs taxpayers $4 billion to produce 2% of the total gasoline supply, and has dubious environmental effects.

* ALL COMMON KNOWLEDGE FOR EDUCATED PEOPLE. OBAMA IS NOT IGNORANT OF THIS REALITY; HE CHOOSES TO PURSUE "TERRIBLE PUBLIC POLICIES" OUT OF IDEOLOGICAL RIGIDITY.

The electric cars the Obama Administration has invested in are prohibitively costly, do not fit the needs of the American consumer, and are also environmentally suspect.

(*SIGH*) AGAIN, FOLKS... WE KNOW THIS. WE KNOW THAT MOVING TOWARD DIESEL POWERED VEHICLES IS THE SHORT AND MID-TERM ANSWER. SURELY OBAMA AND CHU REALIZE THIS AS WELL.

The other sources of energy the Obama Administration is subsidizing and promoting - wind and solar - not only make up a minuscule 1% of America’s electricity generation but are entirely irrelevant to gasoline supply in the transportation sector.

* AGAIN, FOLKS... OBAMA AND HIS CRONIES KNOW THIS. THEY DELIBERATELY MISLEAD THE AMERICAN PEOPLE. THEY LIE.

[N]ot only has President Obama failed to diversify our energy supply in any meaningful way; he has actually proactively moved to cut our own domestic energy supplies:

First, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar canceled 77 leases for oil and gas drilling in Utah in his first month in office. According to the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management, there are 800 billion barrels (a moderate estimate) of recoverable oil from oil shale in the Green River Formation, which goes through Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming. This is three times greater than the proven oil reserves of Saudi Arabia.

* UNCONSCIONABLE!

Then last summer, President Obama needlessly instituted not one but two outright drilling bans in the Gulf of Mexico. The Energy Information Administration estimates that President Obama’s offshore drilling ban will cut domestic offshore oil production by 13% this year.

Last fall, Interior Secretary Salazar announced that the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic coast, and the Pacific coast will not be developed, effectively banning drilling in those areas for the next seven years. At least 19 billion barrels of easily recoverable oil lie off the currently restricted Pacific and Atlantic coasts and the eastern Gulf of Mexico.

President Obama has also failed to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, where an estimated 10 billion barrels of oil lie beneath a few thousand acres that can be accessed with minimal environmental impact. Those 10 billion barrels are equivalent to 16 years’ worth of imports from Saudi Arabia at the current rate.

* FOLKS... THERE'S NO OTHER EXPLANATION THAN OBAMA IS DELIBERATELY SEEKING TO MAKE AMERICA EVEN MORE DEPENDENT UPON FOREIGN OIL - AND OBAMA WANTS US TO PAY MORE FOR THIS FOREIGN OIL AT THE SAME TIME!

March 4, 2011 at 9:27 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Unemployment-dips-to-89-pct-apf-797302123.html?x=0&.v=8

Employers hired in February at the fastest pace in almost a year and the unemployment rate fell to 8.9% - a nearly two-year low.

* HMM... WE'VE GONE OVER THE FLAWED METHODOLOGY BEHIND GOVERNMENT UNEMPLOYMENT STATS BEFORE...

* STILL... LET NO ONE EVER ACCUSE ME OF FAILING TO DEAL WITH (PASS ON) "GOOD" NEWS.

The economy added 192,000 jobs last month, with factories, professional and business services, education and health care among those expanding employment.

* INCREASED FACTORY HIRING IS ALWAYS GOOD. PROFESSIONAL AND BUSINESS SERVICES HIRING... NOT ALWAYS VALUE PRODUCING. EDUCATION AND HEALTH CARE HIRING... (*SHRUG*)... HAS TO BE PAID FOR BY TAXPAYERS AND INSUREES.

Retailers, however, trimmed jobs.

* THAT'S BASICALLY GOOD. TOO MUCH EMPHASIS ON RETAIL IS WHAT GOT US INTO THIS MESS IN THE FIRST PLACE.

State and local governments, wrestling with budget shortfalls, slashed 30,000 jobs, the most since November.

* THAT'S GOOD! (THOUGH WHEN WE'RE TALKING POLICE, FIRE, AND EMTs SHEDDING OF WORKERS CAN GET PROBLEMATIC.)

Private employers added 222,000 jobs last month, the most since April.

* SOUNDS GOOD...

The number of unemployed people dipped to 13.7 million...

* WELL... IT DEPENDS ON WHETHER PART OF THE "DIP" IS PEOPLE NO LONGER COUNTED AS UNEMPLOYED BECAUSE THEY'RE NO LONGER COLLECTING BENEFIT YET THEY'RE STILL NOT WORKING... (*SHRUG*)

When factoring in the number of part-time workers who would rather be working full time and those who have given up looking for work, the percentage of "underemployed" people dropped to 15.9% in February. That's the lowest in nearly two years.

* AGAIN... ON THE FACE OF IT, THIS COMES AS WONDERFUL NEWS. THE PROBLEM IS... CAN WE TAKE WHAT WE'RE READING AT FACE VALUE?

Americans shoppers are spending more.

* UMM... DO THEY MEAN LIKE WHEN I NOW SPEND $3.25 FOR THE SAME GALLON OF GAS I BOUGHT NOT ALL THAT MANY MONTHS AGO FOR $2.50 A GALLON...??? (IN OTHER WORDS, ARE WE TALKING INFLATION BEHIND THE INCREASED SPENDING? BEING THE KNOWLEDGABLE CYNIC I AM... I'M GUESSING THE ANSWER IS LARGELY "YES.")

U.S. exporters are selling more abroad.

* IF SHORT-TERM MEMORY SERVES, U.S. IMPORTS ARE UP SOMEWHERE AROUND THREE TIMES THE RATE OUR EXPORTS ARE UP. (*SMIRK*)

* SEE, FOLKS... THIS IS EXACTLY THE SORT OF THING I'M TALKING ABOUT WHEN I SAY YOU NEED LOTS OF KNOWLEDGE IN ORDER TO READ BETWEEN THE LINES. PERHAPS THE REPORTER/EDITOR IS DELIBERATELY MISLEADING READERS... MORE LIKELY THE REPORTER/EDITOR IS HIMSELF FAIRLY IGNORANT AND DOESN'T KNOW ENOUGH TO ASK THE PROPER QUESTIONS.

Manufacturing is growing at the fastest pace in nearly seven years. And the service sector, which employs about 90% of the work force, is expanding at the fastest clip in more than five years.

* AGAIN... ALL OF THIS SOUNDS GOOD... AS FAR AS IT GOES. (CONTEXT IS EVERYTHING!)

The 192,000 jobs added in February was a significant improvement from the 63,000 notched in January. Some of the boost came as people resumed work, after dropping off payrolls because of bad weather in January.

* FOLKS... COM'ON... WHO "DROPS OFF PAYROLLS" BECAUSE OF SNOW. WE'RE TALKING MISSING A DAY HERE, A DAY THERE.

Factories added 33,000 jobs.

* GOOD...

Education and health care added 40,000 positions.

* NOT NECESSARILY SO GOOD...

Leisure and hospitality added 21,000 jobs.

* GOOD...

Construction companies, 33,000 jobs - although a good chunk of those reflected people coming back on payrolls after January's harsh winter weather.

* AS I WAS SAYING ABOVE... (*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)

Transportation and warehousing added 22,000 jobs.

* GOOD...

* FOLKS... STAY TUNED.

March 4, 2011 at 10:10 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2011/03/03/napolitano-calls-extradition-ice-agent-killing-ahead-calderon-meeting/

President Obama on Thursday appeared to reject the idea of arming U.S. agents in Mexico...

(*GRITTING MY TEETH*)

"There are laws in place in Mexico that say that our agents should not be armed," Obama said, describing the U.S. role south of the border as an "advisory" one.

* SO TAXPAYERS CAN PAY FOR UNARMED, UNPROTECTED AMERICAN AGENTS TO "ADVISE" THE MEXICANS... SOMETIMES AT THE COST OF THEIR LIVES. GREAT. GOOD DEAL.

* HMM... I SAY THE NEXT TIME OBAMA (OR CLINTON) TRAVELS TO MEXICO, THEIR PROTECTIVE DETAILS SHOULD BE FORCED TO SURRENDER THEIR WEAPONS. HOW DO YOU THINK THIS SUGGESTION WILL GO OVER? FRIGG'N HYPOCRITES..

The president's statement answers speculation about how far the administration would go in reforming safety measures in response to the killing three weeks ago of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent Jaime Zapata in Mexico.

* NOT VERY FAR, APPARENTLY.

Coming out of the meeting Thursday afternoon, both presidents stressed that U.S. agents cannot be armed.

* FOLKS... I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY...

(*TRHOWING MY HANDS UP IN DESPAIR*)

Obama, signaling the two presidents discussed the killing, thanked the Mexican government Thursday for its cooperation in the investigation...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

...and vowed that the United States would be a "full partner" in fighting the drug cartels.

"Whether they live in Texas or Tijuana, our people have a right to be safe in their communities," Obama said.

* DOES THE PRESIDENT KNOW THAT TIJUANA IS IN MEXICO... THAT MEXICO IS A FOREIGN COUNTRY... THAT CITIZENS OF FOREIGN COUNTRIES ARE NOT "OUR PEOPLE"? (APPARENTLY NOT.)

Shortly before the meeting, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano also told a House committee that the administration would seek to extradite the suspects in the case so they can be prosecuted in the United States.

* WHY...? WHY NOT SIMPLY ALLOW THE MEXICANS TO CONVICT AND EXECUTE THE MURDERERS? (OF COURSE IF THE KILLERS "GET OFF" IN MEXICO, AT THAT POINT WE CAN PRESS FOR EXTRADICTION.)

Obama and Calderon were also expected to discuss U.S. aid to help support Mexico in the drug war, something Obama touched on at the press briefing. A senior administration official said the U.S. plans to speed up implementation of the $1.4 billion Merida Initiative, with $900 million to be doled out by the end of the year. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to preview the announcement.

* WE'RE BROKE. DEFICITS AND BORROWING ARE THE ORDER OF THE DAY. OUR DEBT IS OUT OF CONTROL. YET... $1.4 BILLION AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS GET SENT TO MEXICO.

[Madam Hillary's] State Department issued a report...[noting] Mexican production of marijuana, heroin and methamphetamines was rapidly rising, and that cartels were becoming even more dangerous through use of sniper rifles, grenades and increasingly military tactics.

March 4, 2011 at 10:27 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559604576176663789314074.html

When presidents of government-funded broadcasting are making more than the president of the United States, it's time to get the government out of public broadcasting.

PBS President Paula Kerger [was paid] $632,233 in annual compensation as reported on the 990 tax forms all nonprofits are required to file...

Kevin Klose, president emeritus of NPR, received more than $1.2 million in compensation, according to the tax forms the nonprofit filed in 2009.

Sesame Workshop President and CEO Gary Knell received $956,513 in compensation in 2008.

* PRESIDENT OBAMA IS PAID $400,000 A YEAR. (*SHRUG*)

Despite how accessible media has become to Americans over the years, funding for CPB has grown considerably. In 2001, the federal government appropriated $340 million for CPB. Last year it got $420 million. As Congress considers ways to close the $1.6 trillion deficit, cutting funding for the CPB has even been proposed by President Obama's bipartisan deficit reduction commission.

* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT... (*DRUM ROLL*)

Instead, Mr. Obama wants to increase CPB's funding to $451 million in his latest budget.

Meanwhile, highly successful, brand-name public programs like Sesame Street make millions on their own. "Sesame Street," for example, made more than $211 million from toy and consumer product sales from 2003-2006. ... With earnings like that, Big Bird doesn't need the taxpayers to help him compete against the Nickleodeon cable channel's Dora the Explorer.

Public broadcasting can pay its presidents half-million and million dollar salaries. Its children's programs are making hundreds of millions in sales. Liberal financiers are willing to write million-dollar checks to help these organizations. There's no reason taxpayers need to subsidize them anymore.

* AMEN!

March 4, 2011 at 10:37 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.gallup.com/poll/146453/Gallup-Finds-Unemployment-Hitting-February.aspx

* FOLKS... YOU KNOW HOW WITH THE FIRST DOUBLE POST - THE ONE CONCERNING THE NEW "LOWER UNEMPLOYMENT" STATS PUT OUT BY THE FEDS... WELL... THIS IS FROM THE OTHER DAY:

Gallup Finds U.S. Unemployment Hitting 10.3% in February

* THAT WAS THE HEADLINE.

Unemployment, as measured by Gallup without seasonal adjustment, hit 10.3% in February - up from 9.8% at the end of January. The U.S. unemployment rate is now essentially the same as the 10.4% at the end of February 2010.

(*SHRUG*)

The percentage of part-time workers who want full-time work worsened considerably in February, increasing to 9.6% of the workforce from 9.1% at the end of January.

A larger percentage of the U.S. workforce is working part time and wanting full-time work now than was the case a year ago (9.3%).

* AGAIN... (*SHRUG*)

Underemployment, a measure that combines part-time workers wanting full-time work with those who are unemployed, surged in February to 19.9%.

(*SIGH*)

Underemployment is now higher than it was at this point a year ago (19.7%).

* FOLKS... I DIDN'T POST THIS WHEN IT FIRST CAME OUT THE OTHER DAY BECAUSE I WAS WAITING FOR THE OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT NUMBERS. NOW... WITH THE NUMBERS OUT... IT'S TIME TO COMPARE AND CONTRAST.

* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... GALLUP EXPLAINS THEIR METHODOLOGY RIGHT ON THE LINK PROVIDED.

(*SHRUG*)

March 4, 2011 at 11:03 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/03/04/2011-03-04_he_had_just_given_a_soul_to_the_devil_witness_recalls_slay_susps_rant.html

An MS-13 gang member whooped it up, shouting "The beast has eaten!" after murdering a Queens man he mistook for a rival Blood, a government witness testified Thursday.

Julio Chavez is charged with emptying his revolver into Maurice Parker on May 18, 2007, in Flushing.

Chavez then hopped into a SUV, flashed gang signs and yelled in Spanish, former MS-13 gang member Jose Molina said in Brooklyn Federal Court.

"Yeah, homie, that's how you're supposed to do it," Chavez said, according to Molina. "You see the blood coming out of his head?"

Parker, 21, was not a Blood and was mistakenly targeted because he had on red sweatshirt.

* THE DAILY NEWS STORY DOESN'T ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF WHETHER CHAVEZ IS A CITIZEN, A LEGAL RESIDENT, OR AN ILLEGAL ALIEN.

March 4, 2011 at 12:07 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=42124

* BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

"(A)ny future defense secretary who advises the president to again send a big American land army into Asia or into the Middle East or Africa should 'have his head examined,' as Gen. MacArthur so delicately put it," Robert Gates has just told the cadets at West Point.

America would be nuts, Gates is saying, to fight a new land war like the two he inherited.

(*NOD*)

Nearly 10 years after 9/11, at a cost of $100 billion a year, we are still bleeding in Afghanistan.

Al-Qaida...long gone, but embedded today in Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Somalia and North Africa.

(*SNORT*)

Eight years after Operation Iraqi Freedom began, the butcher's bill is in: 4,400 U.S. dead, 37,000 wounded, 100,000 Iraqi dead, half a million widows and orphans, half of Iraq's Christian population in exile, the other half terrorized and a Shia Iraq drifting toward Tehran.

For what? Al-Qaida was not in Iraq in 2003, but it is there now.

Robert Kagan writes in The Weekly Standard that before we cut defense we must decide what commitments we are going to give up.

* ECHOING YOURS TRULY!

[Barker and Kagan are] correct. Instead of cutting the sinew, bone and muscle of defense, let us first terminate treaty commitments to go to war for nations that have nothing to do with U.S. vital national interests.

[W]hat are we doing with 28,000 troops in Korea, many up on the DMZ, as Pyongyang rants about hurling a "sea of fire" against the South? Why not withdraw the U.S. troops, let South Koreans take their place and sell Seoul the weapons to defend itself, while restricting our role, should the North attack, to air and naval support? Why should U.S. troops fight a second Korean War, 60 years after the first and 20 years after the end of the Cold War?

* EXACTLY!

[L]et us close the U.S. bases in the former Soviet republics of Central Asia.

As for Europe, the Red Army went home decades ago. Eastern Europe and the Baltic republics are free. As President Eisenhower urged JFK 50 year ago, we should bring U.S. troops home and let Europe man up to its own defense.

* I HAVE LONG POSITED THAT THE JUSTIFICATION FOR KEEPING LARGE NUMBERS OF U.S. FORCES IN EUROPE IS THAT BY DOING THIS WE GIVE THE EUROPEANS AN EXCUSE NOT TO TRY TO BECOME MAJOR MILITARY POWERS THEMSELVES. EVEN AFTER ALL THESE YEARS, DOES ANYONE REALLY WANT A POWERFUL GERMAN MILITARY OR EVEN A POWERFUL FRENCH MILITARY TO REASSERT THEMSELVES "INDEPENDENT" OF U.S. COMMAND AND CONTROL?

* STILL... BUCHANAN MIGHT BE RIGHT. I MAY BE WRONG.

U.S. policy should be to tell Europe, Asia, Africa and the Mideast: Your defense is first and foremost your responsibility. You police your own neighborhood. And if there is something you can't handle, give us a call. We may be able to help. Then again, we may not.

Robert Gates may just have started a long-overdue debate.

* LET'S HOPE SO! FAR TOO MANY SELF-DESCRIBED "CONSERVATIVES" ARE AS KNEE-JERK AND UNTHINKING REGARDING "SECURITY" ISSUES AS LIBS ARE REGARDING SOCIAL SERVICES AND THE WELFARE STATE.

March 4, 2011 at 12:55 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/03/04/morning-bell-the-jobs-obama-is-leaving-behind/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Yesterday, [President Obama's] Interior Secretary - Ken Salazar - testified before the House Natural Resources Committee on the Department of the Interior’s Fiscal Year 2012 Budget proposal.

When pressed by Rep. John Fleming (R-LA) about the de facto offshore drilling moratorium the Obama Administration has inflicted on his district, Salazar responded: “When you look at the production within the Gulf of Mexico, even in the midst of the national crisis of the Deepwater Horizon, the production has remained at an all-time high.”

This is an audaciously out of touch statement.

According to the Energy Information Administration, the Obama offshore drilling moratorium will cause a 13% fall in domestic offshore oil production this year, which translates to a loss of about 220,000 barrels of oil a day.

That means lower GDP growth for the nation, higher gas prices for all Americans, lower tax revenues for the federal government, and most importantly, fewer jobs for Americans living in the Gulf region.

* FOLKS... OUR OWN FEDERAL GOVERNMENT - AS REPRESENTED BY THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION - IS OUR ENEMY. THEY'RE TRYING TO HURT US. AND UNFORTUNATELY... THEY'RE SUCCEEDING.

March 4, 2011 at 2:04 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/whitewashing_terrorist_mZVJcxaXRzHDKFDUPQExFM

Once again, The New York Times is carrying water for a terrorist - in this case, Lori Berenson, who openly acknowledges she was a "collaborator" with one of the two groups that plunged Peru into what may have been the worst terrorist maelstrom the world has ever seen.

To read the huge article running in the coming Sunday Times Magazine, now available online, you might actually mistake Berenson for a holy innocent - a good and noble person who made a few dumb mistakes out of an excess of ideological zeal for which she was compelled to pay with nearly two decades of her life.

* HERE'S THE LINK TO THE NYT PIECE: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/06/magazine/06berenson-t.html

[T]o look at the cover image of the 40-year-old Berenson holding the toddler to whom she gave birth in prison, you might mistake her for the Madonna with Child - the central image of medieval painting, consciously evoked by photographer Mary Ellen Mark.

* FOLKS... THIS OP-ED IS A NEWSBITE BECAUSE IT DEMONSTRATES THE TECHNIQUES OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA... TECHNIQUES MEANT TO MANIPULATE YOU.

[T]he newspaper that covered itself in eternal shame with a puff piece about the domestic American terrorist Bill Ayers published on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001 - among the lowest points in its history - has chosen to descend back into the apologia abyss.

* YEP. NEVER FORGET THAT PUFF PIECE! NEVER FORGET THE NYT TRYING TO TURN A DOMESTIC TERRORIST INTO "A PILLAR OF THE COMMUNITY."

The group with which Berenson collaborated was the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (or MRTA), the smaller of the two monstrous terrorist entities that nearly cast Peru into the abyss in the 1980s and '90s.

Berenson was arrested and charged with treason in 1995, based on one unambiguous fact: She was the co-signer of the lease to a house in Lima that was a hideout and ammo dump for the Tupac Amaru. She'd been posing as a credentialed journalist for far-left American publications, and had been reporting inside the Peruvian assembly with a photographer - a photographer who, it turned out, was married to a leading figure in the terrorist group.

Peruvian officials claim they were staking out the parliament building to help the MRTA design a plan for its takeover.

Egan's piece dominates the cover of Sunday's magazine - which debuts a redesign.

Editors and managers at places like the Times make very deliberate choices when it comes to the featured content in refurbished sections. It speaks volumes that the magazine's new editor, Hugo Lindgren, considers this outrageous puffery -- about a person who is, at the very best, a terrorist stooge -- to be a wonderful calling card for the magazine's new era.

Looks a lot like the bad old days to me.

* FOLKS... I'VE PROVIDED THE LINKS TO BOTH THE TIMES PIECE AND THE FULL OP-ED CRITICIZING THE TIMES PIECE. (*SHRUG*)

March 4, 2011 at 2:05 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/and_today_mideast_policy_is_Y0AGuSzsckJuAu4KBoX1aJ

President Obama yesterday for the first time publicly called for Moammar Khadafy to step aside in the midst of the increasingly bloody revolt in Libya.

"Moammar el-Khadafy has lost the legitimacy to lead, and he must leave," Obama said at the White House.

OK. Now what?

For all the public rhetoric, Team Obama seems totally at sea regarding the current crisis.

Case in point: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in recent days has talked up the idea of imposing a no-fly zone over Libya, as the first President George Bush did in Iraq two decades ago following Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait.

But Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Wednesday demurred, telling Congress: "Let's call a spade a spade - a no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya," and criticized "loose talk" about military intervention.

That caused British Prime Minister David Cameron, who'd also sounded enthusiastic about the idea, to abruptly pull back support, given what he saw as Washington's hesitancy.

Yesterday, however, Obama insisted that a no-fly zone "is one of the options that we would be looking at."

(*SPLITTING HEADACHE*)

If the president means to confuse Khadafy about his plans, he's succeeding.

Problem is, the US public and America's allies are bewildered as well.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

The administration has been lurching about since the start of the Egyptian demonstrations that toppled Hosni Mubarak. ... First the administration stood behind Mubarak, then played catch-up and called for his ouster.

* REMEMBER JOE BIDEN PUBLICLY PROCLAIMING THAT MUBARAK WAS NOT A DICTATOR? (HEY... HAVEN'T HEARD MUCH FROM JOE SINCE THEN... IS HE STILL VP?)

Likewise with Khadafy. For all Obama's insistence on being "very unambiguous about this," he and his administration have yet to show the faintest hint of a coherent strategy - to say nothing of constructive leadership. Nothing good can develop in such a vacuum - but plenty of mischief is possible; indeed, it's inevitable.

March 4, 2011 at 2:05 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://blogs.reuters.com/james-pethokoukis/2011/03/04/the-new-underclass-and-barack-obama/

Drilling a bit deeper and moving beyond the [official] 8.9% unemployment rate and 192,000 jobs created, here is what I found:

1. The U.S. labor force remains as small as it has been in a generation;

2. More than 5 million Americans have disappeared from the job rolls;

3. If the labor force was currently at 2007 levels, the unemployment rate would be a whopping 12% - the worst since the Great Depression.

As it is, the broader unemployment rate, which includes those who are underemployed and discouraged workers, is still an agonizing 15.9%. What’s more, the Federal Reserve believes that the high number of people out of work for 27 weeks or longer is creating structural unemployment.

[T]he Fed now believes the economy’s natural rate of unemployment has increased from a bit under 5% to a bit more than 7%.

* FOLKS... WE CALL THIS "MOVING THE GOAL POSTS." (*SMIRK*) ANOTHER PHRASE THAT COMES TO MIND IS "LYING THEIR ASSES OFF"

In short, you may have a much larger pool of the long-term unemployed than is historically typical in America, something more akin of what is seen in Old Europe.

(*SIGH*)

* AND FINALLY... AS I MYSELF HAVE PREVIOUSLY POINTED OUT...

[M]uch [of the] job growth is happening in unproductive areas of the U.S. economy.

March 4, 2011 at 4:59 PM

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