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- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 30 & May 1, ...
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 29, 2011
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- The NYT Never Ceases To Amaze
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 27, 2011
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- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 23 & 24, 2011
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- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 21, 2011
- Gang, I'm Not A Happy Camper
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 20, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 19, 2011
- Sarah Palin Sure Sounds Smart To Me!
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 18, 2011
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat, & Sun., April 16 & 17, 2011
- Does Anyone Still Watch C.S.I. - The Original... L...
- Senate Vote Tally re: HR 1426 - The Budget "Compro...
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 15, 2011
- HR 1473 - The Budget "Compromise"
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 14, 2011
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- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 12, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 11, 2011
- Calling Rush Limbaugh - Rush Hudson Limbaugh III
- I Feel Betrayed By John Boehner and Nan Hayworth
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 9 & 10, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 8, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 7, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 6, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 5, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 4, 2011
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 2 & 3, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 1, 2011
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April
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About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
11 comments:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110404/wl_nm/us_afghanistan
* THE HEADLINE:
Afghan policeman kills NATO soldiers...
* THE REALITY:
Abdul Sattar Bariz, deputy governor of northern Faryab province, said two American soldiers were killed at a checkpoint by a member of the Afghan Border Police, in what appeared to be the latest in a string of "rogue" shootings.
* "NATO" SOLDIERS, HUH? THEY WERE AMERICANS! THEY WERE OUR COUNTRYMEN!
"He killed the two trainers while they were teaching (Afghan police), in Faryab city," Bariz told Reuters by telephone.
* REFRESH ME... WHAT IS THE CURRENT COST ESTIMATE OF OUR AFGHANISTAN "MISSION?" ONE MILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR PER SOLDIER - ISN'T THAT THE FIGURE? AND THAT'S JUST THE FINANCIAL COST.
* WE SHOULDN'T BE IN AFGHANISTAN. OUR CURRENT WARS MAKE VIETNAM LOOK LIKE A SMART MOVE IN COMPARISON.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-04-04/oil-rises-to-30-month-high-in-new-york-on-fuel-demand-outlook-u-s-jobs.html
Oil climbed to the highest level in 30 months in New York...
Crude for May delivery gained as much as 84 cents...to $108.78 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange, the highest since Sept. 24, 2008, and was at $108.16 at 1:39 p.m. London time. Prices are up 25% from a year ago.
Brent oil for May settlement rose as much as $1.05...to $119.75 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. The contract climbed 2.7% last week.
Kuwait would prefer to see oil prices at $90 to $100 a barrel, Kuwait Petroleum CEO Farouk Al-Zanki said at a conference in Kuwait City.
* FUCK KUWAIT AND WHAT THEY WANT.
* ONE MORE TIME... OIL PRICES SHOULD FLUCTUATE AT BETWEEN $45-$65/BBL BASED UPON PRODUCTION/REFINING/DISTRIBUTION COST AVERAGING WITH A SPECULATIVE CUSHION THROWN IN - PERIOD.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/03/books/review/book-review-message-from-an-unknown-chinese-mother-by-xinran.html?ref=world
In 1989, the Chinese writer and broadcaster Xinran was in a remote mountain village in Shandong Province having dinner with the headman when she heard cries from an adjoining room, where his daughter-in-law was giving birth. A while later, as the midwife collected her fee, Xinran noticed a movement in the slops bucket.
"To my absolute horror,” she recalls, “I saw a tiny foot poking out of the pail.”
But she was the only one who was shocked.
“It’s not a child,” the headman’s wife told her. “If it was, we’d be looking after it, wouldn’t we? It’s a girl baby, and we can’t keep it.”
* THESE ARE THE ANIMALS WE'RE ENGAGED IN "FREE" TRADE WITH. ("FREE" TRADE TO OUR ECONOMIC DETRIMENT AT THAT!)
The traditional Chinese belief that, as Xinran puts it, “you do not count as a human being unless you have a son” to carry on the family line has been severely intensified by the Communist government’s one-child policy, promulgated in 1979 in an effort to control the country’s population growth. Since having more than one child became illegal in many areas, families choose to get rid of girl after girl until the desired male child is born.
* SO... "RESPECT" THEIR "UNIQUE CULTURE?"
Xinran sees painful evidence of this on a train trip when she meets a husband traveling with his wife and their little daughter. As the train is leaving the station, she looks out the window and sees the child sitting alone on the platform. Later she discovers that these seemingly devoted parents have abandoned their daughter - the fourth to be jettisoned in this way - in hopes that the next child the mother bears will be a boy. The Chinese call such people “extra birth guerrillas,” since they are trying to start over in places where no one will know them or their family history.
* CHINA... ONE OF THE WORLD'S "GREAT" CIVILIZATIONS.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576236711724799444.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_newyork
In 2007, New York City and its teachers union launched an experiment to determine whether rewarding teachers with extra cash would boost student performance.
Four years and $57 million later, the answer appears to be "no."
[S]cores didn't budge, according to two studies...
(*SHRUG*)
The Department of Education is awaiting results of a RAND Corp. analysis of the program while still calling teacher incentives "critical."
(*HEADACHE*)
* IN OTHER WORDS, STICK TO THE HYPOTHESIS; IGNORE THE RESULTS.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* TO BE FAIR, IN THE CASE OF NYC THE TEACHERS' UNION DELIBERATELY SABOTAGED THE EXPERIMENT. HERE'S HOW:
The bonus program was billed as a test of a bold idea: Recognize and reward the best teachers beyond salaries set in a union contract. But unlike traditional incentive programs, New York didn't identify stand-out teachers and shower them with money. Instead, in a "compromise" reached with the union, the city gave bonus pools to schools that had performed well.
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
Teachers could vote on whether to distribute the money evenly or to specific staffers. Most schools chose to distribute the money evenly...
(*SMIRK*)
Backers of merit pay for teachers say that eliminated the direct link between individual performance and rewards.
* DUH!
"I believe and have always believed in merit pay at the individual teacher level," said Joel Klein, who was then schools chancellor. "The union would agree only to a schoolwide program. It made sense to try. Of course, not everything you try works," he said.
(*SNORT*)
More than 8,000 United Federation of Teachers members, most of them teachers, received bonuses through the program, some more than once. The average bonus was $3,000.
Two studies - one by Columbia University and the other by Harvard - found recently that student test scores at schools that received bonus money didn't improve at any better rate than at schools that received no money.
In fact, both studies found that in some subjects and grades, the program resulted in slightly lower achievement.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* AIN'T TEACHERS' UNIONS GREAT?!
(*SNICKER*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703806304576233103653662410.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
As a general rule, Middle Eastern regimes divide into two types: the bad - and the bad.
(*SHRUG*) (*NOD*)
The unenviable task that has confronted the Obama Administration since Tunisia's Jasmine Revolution sent its pro-Western dictator packing in January has been to safeguard our core interests in the Middle East without betraying our core values...
* ...MORE THAN IS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY.
[T]he Obama Administration has so far been dealing with successive crises on an ad hoc basis. What it needs going forward is a strategy.
* HASN'T HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON BEEN IN CHARGE OF "STRATEGY" FOR... OH... THE LAST TWO-PLUS YEARS...? (OH... NEVERMIND.)
We [here at the WSJ] think that U.S. strategy should be to seek regime change among our enemies while encouraging our friends in the region to reform their domestic institutions along more liberal lines.
* MAKES SENSE TO ME!
That, in turn, requires an understanding of who our friends and foes really are - a challenge for an Administration that at times has seemed eager to blur or overlook the difference.
(*PURSED LIPS*) YEP. UNFORTUNATELY. (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
So it has been in recent days with Syria, whose dictator Bashar Assad was recently described by Hillary Clinton as a "reformer."
So it was, too, in April 2009, when Mrs. Clinton welcomed Moammar Gadhafi's son Mutassim to the State Department, saying the U.S. "deeply valued" its relationship with Libya and wanted to "deepen and broaden our cooperation."
* NOTICE FOLKS... YOU'RE NOT GONNA HEAR A GREAT DEAL ABOUT THIS REALITY WATCHING NBC, ABC, CBS, et al.
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
[E]ven now President Obama seems to hold out hope that some deal can be struck with Tehran over its nuclear ambitions.
* EARTH TO OBAMA: THE MULLAHS ARE NOT OUR FRIENDS!
With the clear exceptions of Iraq and Turkey and the arguable ones of Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority, nowhere in the region are leaders elected democratically. Civil rights are enjoyed tenuously at best. Human rights are often treated with contempt. Saudi Arabia supports a vast religious establishment that preaches an extreme brand of Islam and incubates militantly anti-Semitic and anti-Western views. The list goes on.
(*SAD NOD*)
Yet one need not be an apologist for these regimes to note that, even at their worst, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Ben Ali in Tunisia, or the Khalifa family in Bahrain never came close to approaching the levels of brutality routinely practiced by Gadhafi, Assad or Ahmadinejad.
* CORRECT!
During the Cold War thinkers such as Jeane Kirkpatrick made the crucial distinction between autocratic regimes that were capable of a gradual process of reform and much more repressive totalitarian ones that were not - and were also inveterately hostile to the U.S. A similar distinction applies today in the Middle East.
It matters for American interests that a dictator like Yemen's Ali Saleh has cooperated in fighting al Qaeda, that Saudi Arabia helped bolster pro-Western forces in Lebanon, that Egypt and Jordan signed and honored peace treaties with Israel, and that Qatar has contributed to the military effort against Gadhafi. These are marks of friendship that deserve reciprocal treatment.
* AS TO ONGOING CRISIS'...
Bahrain has to find a way to better accommodate the political aspirations of its Shiite majority, but the U.S. will not make that result more likely by appearing to be an unreliable friend.
Likewise in Yemen, if the U.S. can't choose with any wisdom among conflicting tribes, then it should first seek to do no harm to our ability to confront the country's al Qaeda presence.
(*NOD*)
* AS TO AMERICA'S ENEMIES...
President Obama may be the last to admit it, but the West has cast its lot with Libya's rebels, and our interests lie in the swift collapse of the Gadhafi regime. What are the alternatives? A Gadhafi victory would be a disaster for NATO; an interminable civil war would be a tragedy for Libyans with spillover damage to American credibility.
U.S. interests would also be well-served by the collapse of the Assad regime, which would deprive Tehran of its major Arab client, deprive Hezbollah of one of its principal backers and save Lebanon from once again becoming a province of Greater Syria.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/04/04/michael-goodwin-robert-gates-tries-tell-truth-libya-anybody-listening/
Robert Gates plans to retire this year, but he is not going quietly. The secretary of defense has gone on offense to make his unhappiness known about the Libyan war. Here are some of his public comments, starting with early reservations about a no-fly zone:
"Let's just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses."
Asked how long we would be in Libya, he said, "I don't think anybody knows the answer to that." What he did think of sending American ground forces into the country? "Not as long as I am in this job."
The opposition forces are "pretty much a pickup ball game at this point."
Libya "was not a vital national interest to the United States."
As for arming and training the rebels, "as far I'm concerned, someone else should do that."
Individually, the comments raised eyebrows. Taken together, they show a virtual hostage trying to signal the truth of his captivity.
(*NOD*)
President Obama rebuffed Gates' advice at nearly every step, which we can safely assume was more strenuous in private than it was in public.
Perhaps the most curious aspect of the affair, however, is how little mainstream-media attention it has received. I can't find a single instance of coverage that recounts all the above comments, a list by no means exhaustive.
* OH, PLEASE! WHAT... IS THE MSM GOING TO "OUT" OBAMA AND CLINTON? NO.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/153623-republicans-seek-to-overturn-clinton-order-requiring-multilingual-federal-government
A group of GOP lawmakers wants to eliminate a Clinton-era order meant to ensure people who don't speak English can still receive federal government services.
* SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!
* OH... AND BTW... THE WAY THE HILL PUTS IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN NAKED PARTISANSHIP AND IDEOLOGICAL SKEWING OF THE NEWS.
Rep. Pete King (R-N.Y.) and other GOP lawmakers re-introduced legislation last week that would repeal a 2000 executive order in which then-President Clinton ordered all federal agencies to develop a plan for delivering their services to people with "limited English proficiency," or LEP.
Passing the bill into law would likely reduce government spending, but...
* "BUT..." (*SNORT*) NAH. NO AGENDA AT THE HILL! (*CHUCKLE*)
...but it is difficult to estimate the savings.
* AND WHY IS THAT, PRAY TELL...?
In 2002, the Office of Management and Budget said the costs of the executive order are likely less than $2 billion per year, and maybe less than $1 billion per year, although the government has nearly doubled in size since that estimate was made.
* "LIKELY...?"
* "MAYBE LESS...?"
* "ESTIMATE...?"
(*SNORT*)
* FOLKS... THIS IS EXACTLY WHY WE NEED TO TAKE A FRIGG'N HATCHET TO THE FEDERAL BUDGET! THESE MORONS ARE JUST PISSING MONEY AWAY LEFT AND RIGHT WITHOUT HAVING ANY REAL IDEA WHERE IT'S GOING!
King, the chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, is the lead sponsor of the bill, which is similar to a bill he introduced in the last Congress. Also sponsoring the bill are GOP Reps. Gus Bilirakis (Fla.), Paul Broun (Ga.), Elton Gallegly (Calif.), Steve King (Iowa), Gary Miller (Calif.), Sue Myrick (N.C.) and Ron Paul (Texas).
* LIKE EVERYONE ELSE, KING GETS CREDIT WHERE AND WHEN CREDIT IS DUE. I ONLY WISH MY OWN CONGRESSWOMAN - DR. NAN HAYWORTH - WERE A CO-SPONSOR.
In March, Republicans in the House and Senate introduced a bill that would declare English the official language of the U.S., and would establish English-language tests for people applying for U.S. citizenship.
* ARE THEY SERIOUSLY TELLING ME THAT RIGHT NOW THERE ARE NO ENGLISH-LANGUAGE TESTS FOR PEOPLE APPLYING FOR U.S. CITIZENSHIP...??? (*HEADACHE*)
http://thehill.com/homenews/senate/153651-41-senators-vow-to-oppose-planned-parenthood-rider
Forty-one senators [- not one a Republican -] have pledged to filibuster any bipartisan spending bill that includes an amendment to strip federal funding from Planned Parenthood, threatening an impasse with House conservatives.
* MEANING THEY FAVOR DEFICIT SPENDING OVER CUTTING DEFICIT SPENDING. (*SHRUG*)
The group, led by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), includes thirty-nine Democratic senators and two Independents, Sens. Joe Lieberman (Conn.) and Bernie Sanders (Vt.).
Several Republican senators have [also] voiced opposition to the House cuts.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) wrote a letter to Senate Appropriations Chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) stating their belief that “Planned Parenthood provides vital services to those in need.”
* MURKOWSKI AND COCHRAN. (*SHRUG*) IS ANYONE SURPRISED?
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) has also said she would oppose elimination of Title X funding.
(*SMIRK*)
http://thehill.com/homenews/house/153677-gop-bill-to-defund-libya-operations-picks-up-another-dem-supporter
GOP Rep. Justin Amash (Mich.) [has sponsored] legislation [that] maintains that the U.S. foray into Libya, initiated by President Obama late last month when Congress was on recess, is unconstitutional because it didn't get the legislative branch's stamp of approval.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), the second-ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, has co-sponsored [the] Republican bill to defund the Pentagon's Libya operations until Congress authorizes them.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
[By doing so] Kaptur has added her name to a growing list of House Democrats urging a halt to the U.S. military's intervention in Libya.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Democratic leaders in both chambers have endorsed Obama's decision to intervene...
(*SMIRK*) (AS HAVE CERTAIN SCUMBAG RINO's)
...but some liberal rank-in-file members have been up in arms.
In a floor speech last week, Kaptur accused the president of intentionally sidestepping Congress by waiting until recess to launch the attacks.
(*STANDING OVATION*)
"I'm highly concerned that this military intervention took the familiar pattern of launching attacks just when Congress left town to go back to our districts for a week, thus silencing our voices in Congress even more, as this floor was shut down," Kaptur said Wednesday. "How premeditated, and how irresponsible, I believe the current course of events to be."
* THE RULE OF LAW MEANS NOTHING TO OBAMA AND MOST POLITICIANS ON BOTH SIDES OF THE ISLE.
In addition to Kaptur, Democratic Reps. Michael Capuano (Mass.), Pete Stark (Calif.) and Dennis Kucinich (Ohio) have co-sponsored the [Republican] Amash bill.
Seven Republicans have endorsed the legislation.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... MOST REPUBLICANS ARE AS BAD AS MOST DEMOCRATS.
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/04/04/michael-goodwin-robert-gates-tries-tell-truth-libya-anybody-listening/
Robert Gates plans to retire this year, but he is not going quietly. The secretary of defense has gone on offense to make his unhappiness known about the Libyan war. Here are some of his public comments, starting with early reservations about a no-fly zone:
"Let's just call a spade a spade. A no-fly zone begins with an attack on Libya to destroy the air defenses."
Asked how long we would be in Libya, he said, "I don't think anybody knows the answer to that." What he did think of sending American ground forces into the country? "Not as long as I am in this job."
The opposition forces are "pretty much a pickup ball game at this point."
Libya "was not a vital national interest to the United States."
As for arming and training the rebels, "as far I'm concerned, someone else should do that."
Individually, the comments raised eyebrows. Taken together, they show a virtual hostage trying to signal the truth of his captivity.
(*NOD*)
President Obama rebuffed Gates' advice at nearly every step, which we can safely assume was more strenuous in private than it was in public.
Perhaps the most curious aspect of the affair, however, is how little mainstream-media attention it has received. I can't find a single instance of coverage that recounts all the above comments, a list by no means exhaustive.
* OH, PLEASE! WHAT... IS THE MSM GOING TO "OUT" OBAMA AND CLINTON? NO.
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