Thursday, March 3, 2011
Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, March 3, 2011
So... I'm still slogging through George Bush's "Decision Points."
Hey... it's my bathroom reader! (No offense, George.... it's just that I need to prioritize my library books...)
I tell ya, it's hell wading through the "thinking" of George W. Bush. Often his sincerity, compassion, and yes... goodness... bring a tear to the eye.
I'm being serious, here, folks! I'm talking the George W. Bush who insists upon personally handwriting condolence letters to the loved once of each and every uniformed casualty of the wars waged under his Commander-In-Chiefdom.
But then when it comes to policy...
(*MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
Let me give you an example from page 205:
When I ran for president, I never anticipated a mission like this. In the fall of 200, Al Gore and I debate the most pressing issues facing America. Not once did the words Afghanistan, bin Laden, or al Qaeda come up. We did discuss nation building. "The vice president and I have a disagreement about the use of troops," i said in the first debate. "...I would be very careful about using our troops as nation builders.
All well and good, right?! Correct answer, George! Nation building bad...
But, no... read on... next paragraph:
At the time I worried about overextending our military by undertaking peacekeeping missions as we had in Bosnia and Somalia. But after 9/11, I changed my mind.
He changed his mind... he changed his frigg'n mind...!!!
Afghanistan was the ultimate nation building mission.
(*HEAD ABOUT TO EXPLODE*)
We had liberated the country from a primitive dictatorship, and we had a moral obligation to leave behind something better.
No! No we didn't, Georgie...!!!
We also had a strategic interest in helping the Afghan people build a free society.
(*MASSIVE MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
Enough. You folks get the picture. A trillion dollars later and thousands of lives lost along with God knows how many Americans maimed... we see the results of Bush's... er... change of heart.
Bottom line... my blood pressure can only take a few pages of Dubya's memoirs at a time.
And now... without further adieu...
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http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2011/03/03/teens-arrested-after-flash-mob-incident-at-liberty-place/
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - Police say five teenagers are in custody after a flash mob gathered at Liberty Place in Center City Wednesday evening.
It all started about 5:30 in the area of 15th and Chestnut Streets. Central Detectives received a radio call of a large flash mob in the street. Arriving officers found 30-to-40 teens in the street weaving in and out of traffic, and pushing pedestrians on the sidewalk.
* HEY! I'VE GOT A "NOVEL" IDEA! WHY NOT EXPECT THE ADULTS PRESENT TO ACT LIKE ADULTS AND SLAM THESE LITTLE BASTARDS AGAINST A BRINK WALL AND PUT THE FEAR OF GOD IN THEM?!
* OH... YEAH... WHY NOT? BECAUSE THEY FRIGG'N "AUTHORITIES" WOULD ARREST THE ADULTS WHO WERE DEFENDING THEMSELVES AND CIVILIZATION IN GENERAL!
* PEOPLE... WE'RE SCREWED. YOU FIND YOURSELF IN THE WRONG PLACE AT THE WRONG TIME AND IT'S CATCH-22!
The group of teens then entered Liberty Place, knocking over promotion signs outside of stores, and then went into the food court and began flipping tables. Police say all the activity inside was caught on surveillance video.
* FOLKS... THIS IS CENTER CITY PHILADELPHIA! THIS ISN'T SOME GHETTO WHERE WE'D NEVER BE! WE'D BETTER WISE UP AS A SOCIETY AND JETISON THIS POLITICAL CORRECTNESS THAT IS DESTROYING OUR SOCIETY FROM WITHIN.
The flash mob then exited Liberty Place on the Walnut Street side, where some of them were apprehended by police.
The teens in custody are charged with rioting, conspiracy, criminal mischief, reckless endangerment, and disorderly conduct.
All of the defendants deny knowing the others involved. Police say all five teens attend different high schools in Philadelphia.
* WHAT DO YOU WANNA BET THAT SLAPS ON THE WRIST ARE THE ORDER OF THE DAY?
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703559604576176290352982046.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
The U.S. imports more than 63% of its oil.
Over the past several decades, we have allowed ourselves to become dependent on oil from unstable regions that are hostile to our nation. The United States relies on an open Suez Canal, the security of which has been funded by our tax dollars for decades. With gasoline prices surging, and manufacturing and transportation costs rising, the rising cost of goods will soon impact every American...
* "IMPACT." (*SNORT*)
The time is now for our federal government to re-examine its current policy - which severely hampers domestic oil exploration and development...
* YA THINK SO...?!?! YA FRIGG'N THINK SO, SHERLOCK...?!?!
(*GNASHING MY TEETH*) (*DIGGING MY FINGERNAILS INTO MY PALMS*)
* FOLKS... OBAMA WANTS GAS PRICES TO "NECESSARILY SOAR." OBAMA WOULD BE QUITE HAPPY IF OIL WERE TO "SETTLE" AT $100 A BARREL.
Millions of American jobs are directly tied to our energy production. Even as the energy sector necessarily diversifies, oil will continue to be a key piece of our national energy profile for many decades. And yet Alaska and the Gulf states have been blocked from developing America's oil by politically driven federal policy...
* FOLKS. UNDERSTAND. OBAMA AND THE LEFT WANT YOU TO PAY THROUGH THE NOSE FOR ENERGY!!! THESE ARE OBAMA POLICIES WHICH THE AUTHOR IS POINT TO!!!
In Alaska, an oil company can buy federal leases, spend over $3 billion in permitting and capital costs, apply for an air permit from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and then wait for five years and still have no permit.
(*FEARING I'M ABOUT TO SUFFER A STROKE*)
In one case, the EPA's refusal to grant a permit for Royal Dutch Shell to drill in the Beaufort Sea delayed the creation of 54,700 jobs annually and $145 billion in payroll.
* BTW... THE AUTHOR OF THIS PIECE IS SEAN PARNELL - GOVERNOR OF ALASKA.
Alaskans have significant limits placed on us by the federal government, but we are hardly alone. In Wyoming, it takes years to get permits for oil-related development. Republican Gov. Matt Mead has asked the Interior Department to rescind its "Wild Lands" policy, which removes a state's discretion for land use. Last year Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) pleaded with the Obama administration to end the moratorium on deep-water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, which affects 33 permitted exploratory wells. To date, only one new well has been approved.
* FOLKS... THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS LITERALLY WAGING ECONOMIC WAR ON THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES.
By delaying leasing and permitting for exploration and development, and by locking up lands without congressional approval or authority, [President Obama's executive] agencies have locked down domestic oil with no responsibility for the consequences. The rest of us feel them: increased reliance on Middle East oil and lost economic opportunity.
* FOLKS... THIS ADMINISTRATION IS DELIBERATELY HURTING OUR COUNTRY AND OUR PEOPLE.
http://thehill.com/blogs/on-the-money/budget/147253-sessions-says-hes-flabbergasted-by-massive-new-transportation-budget-
Senate Budget Committee ranking member Jeff Sessions (R-AL) took Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood to task Thursday for the Obama administration’s call for a massive increase in transportation spending.
Given the record deficit this year, Sessions said he was surprised to see Obama’s 2012 budget call for an 11% spending increase and a 9.5% increase for the Education and Energy departments, respectively.
(*HEADACHE*)
But, he said, “I was flabbergasted to see Transportation wants 62% increase in spending.
* TELL ME AGAIN HOW "UNHINGED" I SOUND WHEN I INSIST THAT OBAMA IS DELIBERATELY DOING ALL IN HIS POWER TO "BREAK" AMERICA.
Sessions noted, ahead of LaHood’s testimony on the request, that the Obama budget calls for an unspecified new tax to raise $435 billion to pay for the new six-year, $556-billion infrastructure build-out.
“I just have to say that is unrealistic,” Sessions said. “If you can’t tell us what kind of tax this is, I think there is zero chance of us passing such a tax as this.
“This is another huge gimmick in the budget,” Sessions said later. “This kind of Washington logic has put us in the financial crisis we are in. We cannot continue it. We cannot continue to authorize spending based on a tax that is not going to be collected, probably.”
Sessions asked for suggestions for the tax, and LaHood did not offer any.
(*BLOOD SHOOTING OUT OF MY EYES AND EARS*)
* FOLKS... OBVIOUSLY IT'S NOT GONNA HAPPEN, BUT... IF THERE WAS EVER A PRESIDENT WHO NEEDED TO BE IMPEACHED - REMOVED FROM OFFICE SO THAT HE COULD DO NO MORE HARM - THAT PRESIDENT IS BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA.
http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2011/03/02/mag-mile-shops-on-alert-after-flash-mob-thefts/
CHICAGO (CBS) – Stores on the Mag Mile are on alert after several thefts involving flash mobs. In each case, a group of teens create a disturbance, steal items and then run from the stores.
* A GROUP OF BLACK TEENS AS SHOWN BY THE VIDEO CBS NEWS ATTACHED TO THEIR STORY. (*SHRUG*)
CBS 2′s Suzanne Le Mignot reports in the past several weeks, there have been at least three incidents on Michigan Avenue. Sources tell CBS 2 the teens involved are between 17 and 13 years old.
* AGAIN... THE BLACK TEENS... (*SHRUG*)
* WHY WOULD AGE BE MENTIONED BUT NOT RACE...??? I'D BE ASKING THE SAME QUESTION IF THE VIDEO SHOWED ONLY WHITE ANIMALS RAMPAGING IN THE STORES. (*SHRUG*)
You can see mob robbery videos on YouTube. In one tape, 50 teens are seen entering a St. Paul, Minnesota convenience store. Within minutes they take whatever they want and leave.
* FOLKS... THIS IS THE VERY DEFINITION OF A BREAKDOWN OF CIVILIZATION.
The same thing has been happening in Chicago along the Magnificent Mile. Sources said Filene’s Basement, The North Face store and Express have all been recent targets by these flash mobs.
* FOLKS... THIS SHIT COULD SOON POP UP AT A STORE YOU'RE IN... OR YOUR MOTHER OR GRANDMOTHER IS IN.
The teens involved in the recent theft mob incidents have been charged with retail theft and reckless conduct. The North Face, Filene’s and Express, all had no comment.
* YOU KNOW THEY'RE GONNA GET SLAPS ON THE WRISTS. WE SHOULD BRING BACK THE STOCKS - PUBLIC HUMILIATION AND CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.
* HEY... COM'ON... I'LL BE ALMOST ALL OF YOU READING THIS HAVE SHOPLIFTED AT ONE TIME OR ANOTHER - MOST KIDS DO - BUT WERE ANY OF YOU EVER INVOLVED IN ANYTHING LIKE THIS? I HIGHLY DOUBT IT. THESE ANIMALS MUST BE BROKEN.
* VERY INTERESTING... (*PAUSE*)... I WAS JUST ON YOUTUBE LOOKING FOR MORE VIDEO - UNEDITED - AND COULDN'T FIND ANY.
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/crime/article_681d29cf-845a-5aea-9f34-3837d70b8a31.html
Border Patrol agents shot beanbags at a group of suspected bandits before the men returned fire [using real guns loaded with real bullets] during a confrontation in a remote canyon, killing agent Brian Terry with a single gunshot, records show.
[T]he group of illegal border entrants refused commands to drop their weapons after agents confronted them at about 11:15 p.m. Two agents fired beanbags at the migrants, who responded with gunfire.
* YES. YOU'RE READING ALL THIS CORRECTLY.
Two agents returned fire, one with a long gun and one with a pistol, but Terry was mortally wounded in the gunfight.
Terry's brother, Kent Terry, said the other agents who were there that night told him that they were instructed to use the non-lethal beanbags first.
It's a policy that doesn't make sense to Kent Terry.
* NOR TO ANY SANE INDIVIDUAL I'D WARRANT!
"You go up against a bandit crew that is carrying AKs, and you walk out there with guns loaded with beanbags - I don't get it," Terry said in a phone interview from Michigan.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
On the night of the deadly encounter, agents were trying to apprehend at least five suspected illegal immigrants. One agent, using thermal binoculars, spotted two men carrying rifles. When the group came close, at least one agent identified himself as police and ordered the men to drop their weapons. When the suspected aliens did not drop their weapons, two Border Patrol agents deployed 'less than lethal' beanbags at the suspected aliens.
* FIRST OF ALL, THE BORDER PATROL AGENTS SHOULD HAVE KILLED ANY ARMED SUSPECTS UPON HAVING THEIR ORDER FOR THE SUSPECTS TO DROP THEIR WEAPONS IGNORED. SECOND OF ALL... WELL... FRANKLY THERE IS NO SECOND OF ALL.
At this time, at least one of the suspected aliens fired at the Border Patrol agents. ... "Border Patrol agent Brian Terry was shot with one bullet and died shortly after. One of the suspected illegal aliens, later identified as Manuel Osorio-Arellanes, was also shot."
* AGAIN. HAD THE BORDER AGENTS SHOT AND KILLED EACH ARMED SUSPECT AFTER EACH SUSPECT REFUSED TO COMPLY WITH ORDERS TO DROP THEIR WEAPONS AGENT TERRY NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN SHOT... HE NEVER WOULD HAVE BEEN KILLED.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704506004576174321393436988.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
Our liberal friends often complain that U.S. businesses pay too little in taxes, despite the world's second highest corporate tax rate.
What they don't say is that one reason is because liberals keep writing loopholes.
* LIBERALS AND SELF-STYLED CONSERVATIVES KEEP WRITING LOOPHOLES! THIS IS WHY WE NEED TO TAKE THIS MICRO POWER OUT OF THE HANDS OF THE POLITICIANS VIA A SIMPLE FLAT TAX... AS FLAT AS POSSIBLE AT LEAST.
Whirlpool Corporation recorded $18 billion in global sales and $619 million of earnings in 2010 but won't pay anywhere near the U.S. statutory tax rate of 35% on those profits. Its effective tax rate will be 0%.
Whirlpool has stockpiled more than $500 million in tax "credits" for making energy-saving "energy star" appliances - washers, dryers, refrigerators and so on.
(*SMIRK*) (*SNICKER*)
General Electric has also collected about $200 million of these "credits."
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
Think of these energy efficiency tax carve-outs as a version of the earned income tax credit for corporate America. Except Whirlpool and GE aren't poor.
The deal gets sweeter. Those credits can be carried over from one year to the next for up to 20 years.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
These appliance credits are in addition to $300 million the feds gave to states as part of the 2009 stimulus to pay rebates to consumers for buying these same goods. So there's one subsidy to make the machines and another to buy them.
(*MORE SARCASTIC CLAPPING*)
The Department of Energy says these appliances save families money by reducing energy use by more than half. If that's true, why does the government have to bribe people to make these purchases?
(*SMIRK*) (*NOD*)
The White House claims to want to reduce corporate tax rates in a "revenue neutral way" by closing loopholes. Yet it's hard to take that commitment seriously when its new budget proposes to extend the green-credit windfall for another year.
* OH, FOR HEAVEN'S SAKE, EVEN HIS SUPPORTERS KNOW OBAMA'S A LYING HYPOCRITE.
Whirlpool is one more case study in the case for corporate tax reform.
* I'VE BEEN SINGING THIS TUNE FOR... FOREVER. (*SHRUG*)
http://www.fox6now.com/news/witi-20110302-madison-contracts,0,3750568.story
Before protesters stormed the capitol [of Wisconsin], the [Democrat] mayor of the city of Madison tried to pull a fast one.
The [Republican] governor's budget repair bill was on the fast track, and Madison Mayor Dave Ciesliewicz was racing against the clock to pass new union contracts first.
E-mails obtained by the FOX6 Investigators show that the [Democrat] mayor enlisted the help of [Democrat] State Senator Mark Miller. They both tried to convince the [Democrat] Secretary of State to hold up the bill by taking the maximum 10 days allowed by law before publishing the bill - trying to buy some time so they could ratify new contracts to "protect [government] workers" from benefit cuts.
Citizens for Responsible Government Rep. Chris Kliesmet says, "This suggests, and this is a harsh word, collusion. There is collusion between some politicians and public sector employee unions. Period."
According to the e-mails, Secretary of State Doug La Follette declined to delay publication of the law, but it all became a moot point when Senator Democrats fled the state to block the bill.
* GOOD FOR DOUG LA FOLLETTE!
Kleismet...said it appears the 14 [Democrat] Senators orchestrated their trip to Illinois to buy time for unions all over the state to work out new deals.
Kliesmet says collective bargaining require that there be two sides. It is impossible to have collective bargaining with only one side."
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/261218/wisconsin-officials-rush-walker-proof-their-benefits-christian-schneider
* REITERATING THE POINT MADE BY THE PRECEDING NEWSBITE.
Three days after the [Republican] governor [of Wisconsin, Scott Walker,] introduced his budget, the Milwaukee Area Technical College ratified a new three-year contract that preserves no-cost pensions and contains no layoffs for its teachers (average pay: $95,000.)
Union leaders called an emergency meeting at 5:00 p.m. on a Friday night to vote on their new contract - yet their president said that had “nothing to do” with Walker’s budget-repair bill.
(*SMIRK*)
State employees tried to pull a similar trick in December. In a Hindenburg-like fiasco, Democrats tried to use the pre-Walker lame-duck session to pass state union-worker contracts with microscopic concessions. To get their deciding vote in the assembly, they even pulled a legislator out of jail, where he was serving time for drunk driving.
* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
Also before Walker took office, the Milwaukee Public School board quickly adopted a four-year teacher contract that runs through 2013. It contains pay increases of 2.5% to 3% and requires teachers to begin "contributing" to their health insurance for the first time... 1% of salary for single coverage, 2% for family coverage.
* FOLKS... THIS IS A JOKE! AND THE JOKE IS BEING PLAYED ON THE TAXPAYER! INDEED, THE JOKE IS BEING PAID ON TAXPAYERS NOT YET BORN WHO WILL ONE DAY HAVE TO MAKE GOOD ON THE PENSION PROMISES OF LONG GONE POLITICIANS.
* FOLKS... THIS IS A CORRUPT AND UNFAIR SYSTEM. PERIOD.
The [new] contract also extends health benefits to domestic partners, which will offset a good portion of the $50 million in savings the district expects to realize from the teachers’ contributions.
(*SNORT*)
For other school districts that ram through generous contracts, the results could be disastrous: Walker just announced a budget that reduces state aid to local school districts by $834 million; much of that cut was going to be offset by teachers’ increased benefit contributions, but districts that capitulate to their teachers won’t have that option. Instead of having a full complement of teachers paying slightly more for their benefits, they will have fewer teachers, but teachers with jewel-encrusted retirement and health packages. Then they will blame Scott Walker for the massive layoffs their districts will see.
* AND THE LIBERAL MEDIA WILL HELP THEM SELL THIS LIE.
In rushing to the negotiating table, teachers’ union leaders are picking their own bank accounts over kids. This should be no surprise to anyone in Wisconsin whose child sat at home for a few days when teachers walked off the job over a week ago. ... While protesters roared that their objection to Walker’s plan wasn’t “about the money,” their bargaining units were working furiously behind the scenes to grab as much cash as possible before Walker dropped the guillotine.
[T]hese new contracts demonstrate why declaring public sector “collective bargaining” to be sacrosanct is so preposterous. In places like the City of Madison, there’s very little “bargaining” happening. Public employees and elected officials are sitting on the same side of the table.
(*SHRUG*) FOLKS... IT'S TRUE... IT'S UNDENIABLY TRUE.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/261152/time-kill-hamp-kevin-d-williamson
President Obama’s beloved foreclosure-prevention scheme, the Home Affordable Modification Program (HAMP), was a fraud from Day One.
It is designed to do nothing but camouflage the effects of the housing meltdown.
It is based on bribery - paying the banks [responsible taxpayer's money] to modify (or pretend to consider modifying) mortgages that they really had no business or interest in modifying.
[A]dministration of the program was entrusted to Financial Public Enemy No. 1: Fannie Mae...
* FOLKS... YOU READ THESE NEWSBITES DAY IN AND DAY OUT... OBAMA IS NOT SIMPLY INCOMPETENT; THERE'S A PATTERN HERE, A CLEAR PATTERN OF PURSUING RECKLESS AND IRRESPONSIBLE POLICIES WHICH HURT THE NATION.
Republicans now want to kill the program, and they should...
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
HAMP often is criticized for the fact that the great majority of the people who receive temporary (“trial”) modifications under the program ultimately are rejected, receiving no permanent modification of their mortgages. The critics suggest that this is a shortcoming of the program, the effect of bureaucratic ineptitude and governmental inertia. That is poppycock.
The fact that most of the temporary modifications will never become permanent modifications is a built-in feature of the program, the economic incentives of which all but guarantee that outcome. The program is, to be blunt, a scam.
(*NOD*)
* FOLKS... SAY WHAT YOU WILL ABOUT GEITHNER AND BERNANKE AND ALL THE OTHER ECONOMIC "EXPERTS" CIRCLING "PLANET OBAMA," BUT COM'ON... THEY KNEW WHEN THEY SET UP THE PROGRAM THAT IT WAS A SCAM. HECK... I KNEW IT WAS A SCAM!
Here’s how it works: Fannie Mae gets paid a certain amount of money to administer the program, and its payments are structured in such a way that it has an incentive to push more people through the application process. A former Fannie Mae insider charges in a whistle-blower lawsuit that Fannie’s main concern in administering HAMP was maximizing its own fees.
The banks and “mortgage servicers” get paid to put people into modification trials, and their incentives are structured in such a way that if it makes sense to go ahead and foreclose anyway after the trial, then they make money doing that, too. But not until they’ve extended the trial to whatever point maximizes their financial return.
The worst feature of HAMP isn’t that it wastes money. (Practically every penny it spends is a waste, if not an active instance of economic destruction...) The worst feature of HAMP is that it hoses the people it was allegedly set up to help: struggling homeowners.
* FOLKS... IF YOU WANNA KNOW JUST HOW CORRUPT OBAMA'S HAMP IS... CHECK OUT: http://www.propublica.org/article/homeowner-questionnaire-shows-banks-violating-govt-program-rules
HAMP, in other words, is worse than a multibillion-dollar waste of our money: It’s a rip-off, perpetuated by the very same people who have been ripping us off for years.
Kill it. Kill it dead.
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/261170/you-re-expletive-deleted-dead-c-jay-nordlinger
On the floor of the Wisconsin assembly, a Democrat threatened a Republican, obscenely. The Democrat was a man named Gordon Hintz; the Republican was a woman named Michelle Litjens. He pointed his finger at her and shouted, “You’re f***ing dead!” (He did not use asterisks.)
When Republican congressman Joe Wilson called out to President Obama “You lie,” the opinion-making class (for lack of a better term) said that we all had to engage in deep soul searching about civility. Maybe we can spend a second on this little episode in Wisconsin? And the larger episode in Wisconsin?
No one likes a conservative who gripes about media bias, but here I go: Do you think that, if the shouting man had been a Republican and the target of his obscene threat had been a Democratic woman, this story would be a teensy-weensy bit bigger, nationally, than it is?
(*SNORT*) (*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)
I’m thinking that, if a Republican man pointed his finger at a Democratic woman in a legislative chamber and shouted, “You’re f***ing dead!” he would be on the cover of Time or Newsweek, or both. He would be famous. A sample headline: “The Angry Right: Is America Itself Threatened?”
(*NOD*)
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