Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 4, 2011


Just a man and his tractor...!
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5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/2011/05/03/intellectual-dishonesty-of-na%0Ancy-pelosi/

Here’s Nancy Pelosi from a press conference on September 7, 2006:

"[E]ven if [Osama bin Laden] is caught tomorrow, it is five years too late. He has done more damage the longer he has been out there. But, in fact, the damage that he has done . . . is done. And even to capture him now I don’t think makes us any safer."

And here’s Nancy Pelosi yesterday:

"The death of Osama bin Laden marks the most significant development in our fight against al-Qaida. . . . I salute President Obama, his national security team, Director Panetta, our men and women in the intelligence community and military, and other nations who supported this effort for their leadership in achieving this major accomplishment. . . . [T]he death of Osama bin Laden is historic. . . ."

* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

May 4, 2011 at 11:07 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/42896440

The dollar hit a three-year low against a basket of currencies, as the euro gained to nearly $1.50.

May 4, 2011 at 11:12 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703834804576301032595527372.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

* BY JOHN YOO

* WHO BTW I HAVE MANY, MANY DISAGREEMENTS WITH!

In the space of 40 minutes on Sunday night, two Navy SEAL teams descended on a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, and killed the fugitive leader of al Qaeda. They brought a rough measure of justice to the man responsible for the killing of 3,000 Americans on Sept. 11, 2001 and thousands of others in countries from Spain to Iraq.

* A CLEAR VIOLATION OF PAKISTAN'S TERRITORIAL SOVERIGNTY AND AS SUCH A CLEAR VIOLATION OF INTERNATIONAL LAW.

* HEY... DON'T GET ME WRONG; I WOULD HAVE DONE IT TOO. BUT MY POINT IN HIGHLIGHTING THIS IS THAT "IN THEORY" AT LEAST, IT'S HARD TO RECONCILE RESPECT FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW WITH OUR ACTIONS. (RIGHT...???) (ANYONE DISAGREE...???)

Credit goes to the armed forces, which executed the operation; the intelligence agencies, which found the target; and the Obama administration, which approved it.

(*NOD*)

Sunday's success also vindicates the Bush administration, whose intelligence architecture marked the path to bin Laden's door.

* ALSO TRUE!

According to current and former administration officials, CIA interrogators gathered the initial information that ultimately led to bin Laden's death. The United States located al Qaeda's leader by learning the identity of a trusted courier from the ["enhanced"] interrogations of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, and his successor, Abu Faraj al-Libi.

* YEP... (ALL "TECHNIQUES" THAT SENATOR OBAMA AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE OBAMA OPPOSED AND WHICH ATTORNEY GENERAL HOLDER STILL CLAIMS TO OPPOSE EVEN WHILE HE OBEYS HIS PRESIDENT'S ORDERS RATHER THAN DO THE HONORABLE THING AND RESIGN.) (*SHRUG*)

* BTW... AM I THE ONLY ONE WHO SEES AN IRONY WITH SUPPORTING THE PRESIDENT'S RIGHT TO VIOLATE INTERNATIONAL LAW VIA THE ENCURSION AND THEN GOING FURTHER - BASICALLY ORDERING THE ASSASINATION OF BIN LADIN - BUT AT THE SAME TIME FOLKS WHO BLITHELY ACCEPT THESE ACTIONS SHUDDER FROM THE IDEA THAT A PRESIDENT CAN LEGALLY ORDER WATERBOARDING AND OTHER "ENHANCED" INTEROGATION TECHNIQUES TO BE USED UPON CAPTURED TERRORISTS... TERRORISTS NOT PROTECTED UNDER THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS THAT APPLY TO "LAWFUL" COMBATANTS?

* ANYONE...??? ANYONE AT ALL...??? (JUST CURIOUS...)

Armed with the courier's nom de guerre, American intelligence agencies later found him thanks to his phone call to a contact already under electronic surveillance.

President George W. Bush, not his successor, constructed the interrogation and warrantless surveillance programs that produced this week's actionable intelligence. For this, congressional Democrats and media pundits pilloried him for allegedly exceeding his presidential powers and violating the Bill of Rights.

* LIKE I SAY, FOLKS... "IT'S THE HYPOCRISY, STUPID!"

As Sunday's operation put so vividly on display, Mr. Obama would rather kill al Qaeda leaders - whether by drones or special ops teams - than wade through the difficult questions raised by their detention. This may have dissuaded Mr. Obama from sending a more robust force to attempt a capture.

(*SHRUG*) THIS DOES INDEED SEEM TO BE THE CASE.

Early reports are conflicted, but it appears that bin Laden was not armed. He did not have a large retinue of bodyguards... Special forces units using nonlethal weaponry might have taken bin Laden alive, as with other senior al Qaeda leaders before him.

(*SHRUG*) AGAIN... THIS DOES SEEM TO REPRESENT THE FACTUAL EVIDENCE SO FAR...

President Obama deserves credit for ordering the mission that killed bin Laden. But he should also recognize that he succeeded despite his urge to disavow Bush administration policies.

May 4, 2011 at 1:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703922804576301464142128274.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

More than three years after [democrat whoremeister] Eliot Spitzer resigned New York's Governorship in disgrace, and more than four years after he stepped down as Attorney General, his successors keep inventing excuses to avoid disclosing the excesses of the Spitzer era.

In a filing last week in state appellate court, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office claimed that having to disclose emails and other communications that Mr. Spitzer sent to the media would interfere with law enforcement functions.

(*LAUGHING OUT LOUD*)

More likely it would interfere with the ability of future AGs to leak and hurl over-the-top accusations through the press, as Mr. Spitzer did in driving former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg from office in 2005.

(*SMIRK*) (*NOD*)

Last week's filing is only the latest howler the AG's office has employed to avoid turning over the Spitzer emails. The office of Mr. Schneiderman's predecessor, Andrew Cuomo, had argued that disclosure of communications from Mr. Spitzer about AIG would "constitute an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy." As such, Mr. Cuomo said, the emails should not be subject to the state's Freedom of Information Law.

(*STILL LAUGHING*)

Under that law, former AIG executive and current Greenberg associate Howard Smith has been seeking the documents since 2007.

In 2009 he persuaded a state trial court to order that the AG's office cough them up.

But the office of the state's chief law enforcer has still not produced a single email authored by Mr. Spitzer.

Last week's filing was one more effort, at taxpayer expense, to keep the sun from shining on an era of prosecutorial abuse.

(*NOD*)

May 4, 2011 at 2:38 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703937104576303161699450494.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsThird

The U.S. and its allies are discussing the creation of a fund to finance the operations of Libyan forces opposing the regime of Col. Moammar Gadhafi, according to people familiar with the matter.

* NO...! NO...! NO...! IF OUR "ALLIES" WANNA FUND IT - FINE; BUT LEAVE MY TAX DOLLARS ALONE!

The potential $4.5 billion fund, which will be on the agenda when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other top diplomats meet in Rome on Thursday - would be guaranteed by assets of the Gadhafi regime that were frozen in the wake of the dictator's violent crackdown on protesters this year, these people said.

* FIRST WE SHOULD REIMBURSE OURSELVES FROM THOSE RICHES FROM THE EXPENSES WE'VE ALREADY INCURRED. THEN AND ONLY THEN SHOULD THE MONEY GO TO THE REBELS.

Last Friday, naval forces of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...

* WHOSE SHIPS?! U.S. SHIPS? BRITISH SHIPS? FRENCH SHIPS? ITALIAN SHIPS? COM'ON... GET OFF OF THE "NATO FORCES" CRAP!

May 4, 2011 at 7:35 PM

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