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2011
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June
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- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, June 30, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, June 29, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, June 28, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, June 27, 2011
- Random Thoughts... the back end of June, 2011
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., June 25 & 26, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, June 24, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, June 23, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, June 22, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, June 21, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, June 20, 2011
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., June 18 &19, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, June 17, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, June 16, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, June 15, 2011
- A Midshipman at Annapolis Speaks Out
- RINOs on Parade
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, June 14, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, June 13, 2011
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., June 11 & 12, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, June 10, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, June 9, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, June 8, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, June 7, 2011
- Charleston Barkcation 2011
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June
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About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
7 comments:
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110614/D9NRJOHG0.html
The U.S. military says two American soldiers have been killed while conducting operations in southern Iraq.
* MY CONGRESSWOMAN HAS TWO SONS. AS FAR AS I KNOW NEITHER ARE IN THE MILITARY.
[This] brings to eight the number of U.S. troops killed in June so far.
* YET... OBAMA AND CLINTON HAVE TOLD US "COMBAT" OPERATIONS ARE OVER.
http://content.usatoday.com/communities/theoval/post/2011/06/obama-jokes-about-shovel-ready-projects/1
While meeting with his Jobs and Competitiveness Council today in Durham, N.C., President Obama cracked wise about one of his administration's early catchphrases.
Remember "shovel-ready projects."
Those were construction projects in the 2009 stimulus bill that were supposed to get moving right away - but jobs council members told Obama today that some got held up because of elaborate government regulations and permitting procedures.
"Shovel-ready was not as shovel-ready as we expected," Obama said.
* FUNNY, HUH? REAL FUNNY...
* HEY, THE WHOLE ROOM "ERUPTED IN LAUGHTER" ACCORDING TO REPORTS AND AS CAUGHT ON VIDEO. YEP... YOU JUST CAN'T GET ANY FUNNIER THAN THAT, HUH.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISGUST*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304778304576373663157205344.html?mod=WSJ_hps_editorsPicks_3
The dunes sagebrush lizard, while just five inches long, is causing a big ruckus in the oil patch.
The federal government is considering whether to put it on the endangered species list, with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service arguing that oil and gas development in the Permian Basin, a rich oil-producing area in West Texas and Southeast New Mexico, is destroying parts of the lizard's home, a unique sand dune ecosystem.
* OH... MY... FRIGG'N... GOD...!!!
* SEAL TEAM 6... SEAL TEAM 6... PREPARE FOR MISSION... TARGET: U.S. FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE HEADQUARTERS.
"This is the most prolific oil-producing region in onshore America," said Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, an industry group in Midland, Texas. "If you are to knock out a big portion of that, it clearly would drive prices up at the gasoline pump."
* YA THINK...?!?!
The oil industry says the listing of the Sceloporus arenicolus would bring economic ruin.
* YA THINK...?!?!
An endangered-species listing would force drillers to work with the agency to avoid disturbing the habitat and could expose them to penalties if lizards were killed. A decision is expected in December.
* REPUBLICANS BETTER KILL THIS MEASURE! (AND SANE DEMOCRATS BETTER HELP THEM!)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/15/education/15history.html?_r=1&hp
American students are less proficient in their nation’s history than in any other subject, according to results of a nationwide test released on Tuesday, with most fourth graders unable to say why Abraham Lincoln was an important figure and few high school seniors able to identify China as the North Korean ally that fought American troops during the Korean War.
* I OFTEN THINK OF AMERICA AS SOME REAL LIFE SCIENCE FICTION PLOT WRIT LARGE WHERE ALL THE "ELDERS" SOMEHOW DIED OFF LEAVING THE CHILDREN TO GROW UP IN THE MIDST OF THEIR NOW "LOST" CIVILIZATION WITH NO CLUE AS TO HOW AND WHY THEIR WORLD IS THE WAY IT IS.
Over all, 20% of fourth graders, 17% of eighth graders and 12% of high school seniors demonstrated proficiency on the exam, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
* MEANING 80% OF FOURTH GRADERS, 83% OF EIGHTH GRADERS AND 88% OF HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS DID NOT - REPEAT, DID NOT - DEMONSTRATE PROFICIENCY ON THE EXAM.
* HEY... BLAME A TEACHER? I MEAN UNLESS ALL THESE KIDS ARE JUST FRIGG'N DUMB... WHERE ELSE WOULD YOU LOGICALLY LOOK TO AS THE TARGET OF BLAME?
[F]ewer than a third of eighth graders could answer even a “seemingly easy question” asking them to identify an important advantage American forces had over the British during the Revolution, the government’s statement on the results said.
(*SIGH*)
Diane Ravitch, an education historian who was invited by the national assessment’s governing board to review the results, said she was particularly disturbed by the fact that only 2% of 12th graders correctly answered a question concerning Brown v. Board of Education, which she called “very likely the most important decision” of the United States Supreme Court in the past seven decades.
(*HEADACHE*)
If history is American students’ worst subject, economics is their best: 42% of high school seniors were deemed proficient in the 2006 economics test, a larger proportion than in any other subject over the last decade.
(*SNORT*)
* O.K., FIRST OF ALL THIS TRANSLATES TO 58% OF HIGH SCHOOL SENIORS NOT DEEMED PROFICIENT ACCORDING TO THAT 2006 ECONOMICS TEST. (THINK ABOUT THAT... 58% NOT PROFICIENT.) (AGAIN... ARE THE STUDENTS SIMPLY STUPID OR IS THERE PERHAPS A PROBLEM WITH THE SO-CALLED "EDUCATORS?")
* SECOND OF ALL... "PROFICIENCY" IN THIS CASE NO DOUBT TRANSLATES TO ANSWERING THE QUESTIONS LIKE BEN BERNANKE WOULD. (ENOUGH SAID...?!) (*ROLLING MY EYES*)
* GOD HELP US, FOLKS... WE'RE A DYING SOCIETY.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/after-28-months-stimulus-spending-19-mil
Twenty-eight months after Congress passed President Obama’s signature economic "stimulus" law, and nearly one year after he declared the summer of 2010 to be “Recovery Summer,” 1.9 million fewer people are employed.
In February 2009, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that 141.7 million people were employed. By the end of May 2011 – the last month for which data are available – that number had fallen to 139.8 million, a difference of 1.9 million.
* CHANT IT WITH ME, FOLKS... O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!
The fraction of the population with a job has...fallen in the 28 months since [Obama's Democratic] Congress passed the stimulus – down from 60.3% in February 2009 to 58.4% in May 2011.
* O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!
According to BLS data, the number of people with jobs peaked at 146.6 million in November 2007, meaning that over the entire recession – which officially began in December 2007 – the number of people employed has fallen by 6.8 million.
* HEY... REMIND ME... WHEN DID THE DEMS TAKE OVER CONGRESS? (HMM... YEAH... THE NOVEMBER 2006 ELECTION...)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303848104576385862679571554.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_business
Lockheed Martin Corp.'s space-systems unit said it will lay off about 1,200 workers - about 7.5% of the unit's work force - by the end of the year, citing the pending closure of some major projects.
* ANOTHER "BUMP IN THE ROAD," MR. PRESIDENT...?
Earlier this month aerospace rival Boeing Co. said it would shed about 510 employees in its space-exploration division...
* THANK GOD WE HAVE ALL THESE GREEN JOBS ABOUT TO COME ON LINE... (er... DON'T WE...???)
http://ricks.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2011/06/13/a_midshipman_asks_before_it_is_too_late_should_i_refuse_orders_to_continue_the_unco
By "A Midshipman"
Best Defense guest correspondent
I'm a Midshipman at the Naval Academy and have been talking with officers from the submarine that launched most of the American cruise missiles into Libya. We've had some interesting discussions about the legality of the operations at this point and whether the personnel still engaging the enemy there are breaking their oath to obey only legal orders.
President Obama's decision to avoid seeking Congress's permission to continue America's role in the Libyan conflict marks one more step in the long march toward a balance of power within the federal government that is more Napoleonic than democratic. Since the Vietnam War, President's have not felt obliged to seek a Congressional declaration of war before committing American lives to conflicts abroad. Every sitting President since Nixon has ordered the military to battle without going through the channels prescribed in the Constitution.
In their decision to place the power to declare war with Congress, the writers of the constitution sought to limit the ability of the president to use military force as an autocrat. Unfortunately, the founding fathers had never seen an undeclared war and didn't foresee the emergence of such a beast. We are left to deal with this oversight.
The conflict in Libya has now continued for more than 60 days without congressional approval. Not only is this unconstitutional, but it is in direct opposition to the War Powers Act, passed in the wake of the Vietnam War.
Officers of the United States Military take an oath to obey only lawful and constitutional orders and refuse all others. The servicemen and servicewomen who are currently fighting over Libya took that oath. It is their professional obligation and ethical duty to disobey their orders until constitutional and legal requirements are either changed or met.
The pressure that a refusal of orders would place on the President would be impossible to ignore. Even if the ensuing legal debate were inconclusive, no President would likely venture to take action which could result in a similar response. The constitutional balance of power would be restored because a professional precedent would have been established within the military, if not a broader legal one.
Congressman Abraham Lincoln once remarked, "Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our Convention understood to be the most oppressive of all Kingly oppressions; and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us." By giving only Congress the power to declare war, the constitution takes out the personal element that was so often a cause of war in the era of Kings. While President Obama is certainly no oppressor, the trend that he is reinforcing opens up the possibility that the time will come where we will have to contend with a leader who is.
*** The author is a third year student at the U.S. Naval Academy who has decided not to be identified more precisely.
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