Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Websites and blogs I recommend
Blog Archive
-
▼
2011
(397)
-
▼
June
(25)
- 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
-
▼
June
(25)
About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
6 comments:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303936704576400090096071346.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop
When Big Labor failed to persuade even a Democratic Congress to pass "card check" legislation, it turned to Plan B: the National Labor Relations Board...
* AND SO DOES GOVERNMENT OF, BY, AND FOR THE PEOPLE BECOMES GOVERNMENT BY THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH.
Current law already gives unions an advantage in their ability to work covertly for months, quietly approaching employees to gather signatures for an election petition until springing the news on employers at the last minute. Companies then must make their own case to workers in the month or so it usually takes to hold an election.
Unions typically win two out of every three elections.
The rules proposed yesterday would "streamline" the election process by denying companies longstanding election rights.
(*SNORT*)
The rules would set shorter time limits for hearings and filings, robbing employers of preparation time. The regulations would also strip companies of the right to litigate some issues - such as whether certain employees (supervisors) qualify to vote - until after an election. They'd also curtail employers' abilities to challenge pre-election rulings the agency makes against them, since those challenges also take time.
The push for "quickie" elections is a sign of labor desperation, The percentage of private workers in unions last year dropped to 6.9%, the lowest rate in a century.
Labor asserts that "unfair labor practices" - including companies that "intimidate" workers during "long" union-election campaigns - are a cause of this decline. But the current election time frame is roughly what it was in the 1950s, when some 35% of private workers were unionized.
Unions have lost members because fewer modern workers want to join unions.
The NLRB is supposed to be an independent outfit that ensures fair labor practices, but under this Administration it has become hyper-politicized and an advocate for unions. President Obama has stacked the board with former union lawyers, including Craig Becker, who needed a recess appointment because even a Democratic Senate refused to confirm him. The result has been the complaint against Boeing for locating a new plant in right-to-work South Carolina, a broad assault on companies that fire union employees, and other initiatives to increase union membership.
Meanwhile, Mr. Obama can invite Fortune 500 CEOs to the White House and claim to want private job creation.
No one should be fooled about the President's real political priorities.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-06-22/u-s-postal-service-will-suspend-contributions-into-employee-pension-fund.html
The U.S. Postal Service, facing insolvency without approval to "delay" a $5.5 billion payment for worker health benefits, will suspend contributions to an employee retirement account to save $800 million this year.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
The Postal Service will stop paying employer contributions to the defined-benefit Federal Employees Retirement System, which covers about 85% of career postal workers, it said today in an e-mailed statement. The $115 million payment, made every other week, will stop on June 24, the statement said.
* AND... umm... er... WHAT WILL BE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S RESPONSE...???
Postal Service Inspector General David Williams said in January 2010 that the agency had been overcharged for its pension obligations.
* AND... er... WERE THEY...?
The agency estimates it has overpaid by $6.9 billion and has asked Congress to pass legislation to return that money.
* AND...???
Postal Service Inspector General David Williams said in January 2010 that ...the Postal Service had overpaid by $75 billion...
* THAT'S A PRETTY SERIOUS CHARGE. IS ANYONE... ANYONE AT ALL... LOOKING INTO THE MATTER? (IT BEING JUNE 2011 AND ALL...)
The Postal Service reported a loss of $8.5 billion in its 2010 fiscal year. It also reported a widening second-quarter loss, to $2.6 billion, on declining volumes of first-class mail.
* AH... LIFE IN THE AGE OF OBAMA...
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/local/Man-Shot-Killed-at-US-Mexico-Border-124347629.html?dr
When a man crossing into the U.S. illegally struck a U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent with rocks, a second agent fired his gun, killing the man.
* GOOD! BRAVO...!!!
(AND SOME FOLKS CLAIM I NEVER NEWSBITE GOOD NEWS...)
(*GRIN*)
http://www.nationaljournal.com/budget/cbo-releases-daunting-long-term-outlook-20110622
Increasing federal debt will be a growing burden on government action, crowding out lawmakers’ ability to adopt tax and spending priorities in good times and reducing flexibility during recessions, all while making a fiscal crisis more likely and hindering long-term growth, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday.
(*ROLLING MY EYES*) TELL US SOMETHING WE DON'T ALREADY KNOW!
In the annual Long-Term Budget Outlook, the legislature’s budget scorekeepers said that the ratio of debt to GDP this year will be 69% - 7% points higher than last year.
The CBO says that allowing the 2010 tax deal that extended Bush administration tax policies to expire as planned would be helpful in keeping government sustainable, noting “that significant increase in revenues and decrease in the relative magnitude of other spending would offset much - though not all - of the rise in spending on health care programs and Social Security.”
* REGULAR READERS KNOW MY VIEWS ON TAXES. (*SHRUG*)
While CBO does not provide policy recommendations, it urged policymakers to take significant action to reduce the deficit and debt by reducing spending, increasing taxes, or some combination of the two.
* CUT SPENDING...!!! SHRINK GOVERNMENT...! REFORM THE TAX CODE SO THAT NO LONGER WILL APPROXIMATELY HALF OF AMERICAN FAMILIES EFFECTIVELY PAY NO FEDERAL INCOME TAX! ENSURE THAT NO AMERICAN PAYS MORE THAN 49.999% OF HIS INCOME IN TAXES - AND HOPEFULLY A FAR SMALLER PERCENTAGE THAN THE "CEILING" I JUST POINTED TO!
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/the_gang_that_couldn_sting_straight_orFkH8vbdajUubooFbsDJK
What did Attorney General Eric Holder know - and when did he know it?
That's the question congressional investigators are asking - and rightly so - about the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, which stands exposed as having perpetrated one of the most bizarre gun-sting operations imaginable.
ATF's acting director, Kenneth Melson, is expected to walk the plank any minute now over the failed stings - Project Gunrunner and Operation Fast and Furious - but while his ouster is a necessary first step, it can't be the last; not with so many questions still unanswered.
(*NOD*)
The idea behind Fast and Furious, which was run in 2009 and 2010, was to track "straw purchaser" gun buyers in Arizona and link them to major weapons dealers south of the border. What happened instead was that hundreds of high-powered weapons - including AK-47-style semiautomatic rifles - wound up in the hands of Mexican drug cartels while ATF agents essentially stood by and watched.
* WHILE ATF AGENTS WERE ORDERED TO STAND BY AND NOT INTERFERE!
[T]wo of those weapons turned up at the scene of a shootout in Arizona that took the life of Brian Terry, a Customs and Border Protection agent.
"Although my instincts made me want to intervene and interdict these weapons, my supervisors directed me and my colleagues not to make any stop or arrest," said ATF agent John Dodson.
[Dodson] told the House Oversight Committee last week that he was ordered to "keep the straw purchaser under surveillance while allowing the guns to walk."
His claims were backed up by two other ATF whistleblowers - one of whom, Peter Forcelli, said that "to allow a gun to walk is idiotic," adding: "This was a catastrophic disaster."
* WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO THE CENTRAL QUESTION:
What did Attorney General Eric Holder know - and when did he know it?
* Hmm...??? (*SHRUG*)
Holder has ordered the Justice Department inspector general to investigate...
(*SNORT*) (*FULL BLOWN GUFFAW*)
...but all available evidence points to Washington, not the local ATF bureau, as being responsible for this fiasco.
"They had to go to Justice to get money, to get FBI agents and all of the other people that helped coordinate this and to get the wiretaps they used," said House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
As for Holder, said Issa, "he should have known. It was his obligation to know."
(*NOD*) FOLKS... WE'RE TALKING A CROSS-BORDER INTERNATIONAL OPERATION. IF HOLDER WAS OUT OF THE LOOP... THEN HE SHOULD BE FIRED SIMPLY FOR RUNNING A DEPARTMENT WHERE IT WOULD BE POSSIBLE TO KEEP HIM OUT OF THE LOOP. IF HE WASN'T OUT OF THE LOOP... (*SHRUG*)
[O]ther committee officials insist "it's quite certain that Kenneth Melson was not the principal architect of this plan."
Much remains to be learned about this fiasco - and an internal Justice Department whitewash won't get the job done. Issa and his colleagues need to keep digging.
http://public.cq.com/docs/weeklyreport/weeklyreport-000003886498.html#src=db
Americans’ perception of how federal spending is divvied up is just plain wrong.
In a recent CNN-Opinion Research survey, 30% of the respondents guessed that a fifth or more of the budget goes for foreign humanitarian and development aid. The real figure is closer to six-tenths of 1%.
In a Bloomberg survey, 70% said cutting foreign aid would make a large dent in the deficit. (Fewer than half said the same about cutting Medicare.)
About 22% of the respondents, when surveyed, thought the Corporation for Public Broadcasting consumes more than a tenth of the budget. The reality is closer to 1/100th of a percent.
And about a quarter of those in the survey believed that more than 10% of taxpayer money pays for housing assistance for the poor. The real figure is about 1.2%.
At a time when the deficit is driving every debate in Washington, the [ignorance] of the citizenry is troubling, but not surprising...
* WELL OF COURSE IT'S NOT SURPRISING; THEY DON'T TEACH THIS STUFF IN SCHOOL! AS FOR THE MEDIA... NO MATTER HOW EDUCATED YOU ARE... CHANCES ARE THAT UNLESS YOU ENGAGE IN A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF READING - SUCH AS I DO - YOU'RE GOING TO BE MISINFORMED ABOUT ISSUE AFTER ISSUE. (*SHRUG*) HEY... THE SCHOOLS SUCK... AND THE MEDIA SUCKS.
Failed quizzes about the budget only scratch the surface. Research demonstrates fundamental misunderstandings across the spectrum about government, about which level of government does what and which official is accountable for what. Presidents get blamed for local problems, mayors for national problems. Incumbent office holders can even get a boost on voting day if their local team wins a major championship just prior to an election.
(*SIGH*)
Confusion is the norm for many Americans, and every month brings another illustration in the form of surveys showing just what Americans don’t know. One of the most jaw-dropping recent results came from a Kaiser Family Foundation survey in which nearly half the respondents could not say whether the Obama administration’s health care law was still law. A quarter thought it had been repealed. Another didn’t know whether it existed or not.
(*HEADACHE*)
A trove of data just before and after the 2010 midterm election showed serious misunderstandings among voters about virtually every issue they claimed to care about, from the economy to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq to the economic stimulus bill and the 2008 financial industry bailout.
Post a Comment