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.
9 comments:
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/world/africa/18powers.html?_r=1
President Obama rejected the views of top lawyers at the Pentagon and the Justice Department when he decided that he had the legal authority to continue American military participation in the air war in Libya without Congressional authorization, according to officials familiar with internal administration deliberations.
* FIRST PARAGRAPH... VERBATIM... TODAY'S NEW YORK TIMES.
(*SHRUG*)
Presidents have the legal authority to override the legal conclusions of the Office of Legal Counsel and to act in a manner that is contrary to its advice, but it is extraordinarily rare for that to happen. Under normal circumstances, the office’s interpretation of the law is legally binding on the executive branch.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
The White House unveiled its interpretation of the War Powers Resolution in a package about Libya it sent to Congress late Wednesday. On Thursday, the House speaker, John A. Boehner, Republican of Ohio, demanded to know whether the Office of Legal Counsel had agreed. “The administration gave its opinion on the War Powers Resolution, but it didn’t answer the questions in my letter as to whether the Office of Legal Counsel agrees with them,” he said. “The White House says there are no hostilities taking place. Yet we’ve got drone attacks under way. We’re spending $10 million a day. We’re part of an effort to drop bombs on Qaddafi’s compounds. It just doesn’t pass the straight-face test, in my view, that we’re not in the midst of hostilities.”
* FOLKS... I DON'T CARE HOW LEFT ONE IS... I DON'T CARE HOW PARTISAN ONE IS... THERE'S SIMPLY NO DISAGREEING WITH BOEHNER'S ABOVE STATEMENT.
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
[L]awmakers from both parties this week strongly criticized the White House’s contention that the president could continue the Libya campaign without their authorization because the campaign was not “hostilities.” ... A sticking point for some skeptics was whether any mission that included firing missiles from drone aircraft could be portrayed as not amounting to hostilities.
* "STICKING POINT," HUH?
* FOLKS... THIS MAN TOOK AN OATH TO DEFEND THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES AND THE LAWS OF THE LAND; HE'S A FRAUD AND A LIAR. HE SHOULD BE IMPEACHED. IF THIS WERE GEORGE W. BUSH I'M CERTAIN THE TIMES AND EVERY LIBERAL NEWS ORGANIZATION IN AMERICA WOULD BE CALLING FOR HIS IMPEACHMENT... AS WOULD I. THIS IS BEYOND THE PALE.
Jeh C. Johnson, the Pentagon general counsel, and Caroline D. Krass, the acting head of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, had told the White House that they believed that the United States military’s activities in the NATO-led air war amounted to “hostilities.” Under the War Powers Resolution, that would have required Mr. Obama to terminate or scale back the mission after May 20.
* NOT "WOULD HAVE." DID!
As the May 20 deadline approached, Mr. Johnson advocated stopping the drone strikes as a way to bolster the view that the remaining activities in support of NATO allies were not subject to the deadline, officials said. But Mr. Obama ultimately decided that there was no legal requirement to change anything about the military mission.
* IF THE PRESIDENT ACTUALLY BELIEVES THAT BOMBING DON'T CONSTITUTE "HOSTILITIES"... THEN, FOLKS... HE SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE ON GROUNDS OF MENTAL INCOMPETENCE. IF ON THE OTHER HAND HE'S CLAIMING THIS WHILE NOT SINCERELY BELIEVING IT... THEN HE'S DELIBERATELY VIOLATING CLEAR STATUTORY LAW. A NATION BUILT ON THE PRINCIPLES OF THE RULE OF LAW, NOT THE RULE OF MAN, CANNOT ALLOW SUCH BEHAVIOR ON THE PART OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE.
The administration followed an unusual process in developing its position. Traditionally, the Office of Legal Counsel solicits views from different agencies and then decides what the best interpretation of the law is. The attorney general or the president can overrule its views, but rarely do. In this case, however, Ms. Krass was asked to submit the Office of Legal Counsel’s thoughts in a less formal way to the White House, along with the views of lawyers at other agencies. After several meetings and phone calls, the rival legal analyses were submitted to Mr. Obama, who is a constitutional lawyer, and he made the decision.
* AN "UNUSUAL PROCESS...?" THAT'S WHAT THE TIMES CALLS THIS...?!?! AGAIN, MY FRIEND... IMAGINE... IMAGINE GEORGE W. BUSH BEING THIS TRAGEDY'S MAIN "ACTOR." DOES ANYONE SERIOUSLY BELIEVE THE NYT WOULDN'T BE CALLING FOR IMPEACHMENT?
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/06/18/karzai-afghanistan-us-negotiating-with-taliban/
President Hamid Karzai said Saturday that Afghanistan and the United States are engaged in peace talks with the Taliban, even as insurgents stormed a police station near the presidential palace, killing nine people.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* BTW... WHAT'S THERE TO "NEGOTIATE" ABOUT...? ALL OUR DEAD... ALL OUR WOUNDED... ARE THEIR SACRIFICES TO BE "REWARDED" WITH SOME SORT OF POWER-SHARING ARRANGEMENT WITH THE TABIBAN?
(*SHRUG*)
The Obama administration neither directly confirmed nor denied Karzai's statement.
(*SMIRK*)
"In the course of this year, there have been peace talks with the Taliban and our own countrymen," Karzai said. "Peace talks have started with them already and it is going well. Foreign militaries, especially the United States of America, are going ahead with these negotiations."
(*PURSED LIPS*)
* OH... BTW...
Two NATO service members also were killed Saturday in an insurgent attack in southern Afghanistan...
* "NATO" SERVICE MEMBERS? AMERICANS...? WHO'S TO SAY? IF SO... IT APPEARS THEY'LL HAVE DIED FOR NOTHING.
At least 32 international soldiers have died in Afghanistan so far this month, raising the death toll for 2011 to 238.
* "INTERNATIONAL" SOLDIERS. CUTE, HUH? EVEN FOX NEWS IS COOPERATING WITH THE ADMINISTRATION TO DOWNPLAY AMERICAN CASUALTIES. DISGUSTING... ABSOLUTELY DISGUSTING.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2011/06/18/national/w115701D75.DTL&tsp=1
U.S. officials say Pakistan failed another test to prove it could be trusted to go after American enemies on its soil by intentionally or inadvertently tipping off militants at two more bomb-building factories in its tribal areas, giving the suspected terrorists time to flee.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* KEEP ON THROWING BILLIONS AT THESE BACKSTABBING ANIMALS. GREAT FRIGG'N PLAN, HUH?
* O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!
The two sites' locations in the tribal areas had been shared with the Pakistani government this past week, the officials said Saturday. The Americans monitored the area with satellite and unmanned drones to see what would happen. In each case, within a day or so after sharing the information, they watched the militants depart, taking any weapons or bomb-making materials with them, just as militants had done the first two times. Only then, did they watch the Pakistani military visit each site, when the terror suspects and their wares were long gone, the officials said...
* TOTAL INCOMPETENTS. THAT'S WHO WE HAVE RUNNING THE U.S. GOVERNMENT. FIRST BUSH. NOW OBAMA. AGAIN, FOLKS... WE'RE CONTINUING TO THROW MONEY AT THESE BASTARDS! BORROWED MONEY!
U.S. officials have pushed for Pakistan to keep the location of such targets secret prior to the operations, but the Pakistanis say their troops cannot enter the lawless regions without giving the locals notice.
(*SNORT*) (*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)
The latest incidents bring to a total of four bomb-making sites that the U.S. has shared with Pakistan only to have the terrorist suspects flee before the Pakistani military arrive.
* FOLKS... OUR FOREIGN POLICY IS A NIGHTMARE. (OH... AND BTW... RECALL WHO OUR NATION'S SECRETARY OF STATE - i.e. CHIEF DIPLOMAT - IS.)
* HIL-LAR-RY! HIL-LAR-RY! HIL-LAR-RY!
(*SNICKER*)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8584442/UK-banks-abandon-eurozone-over-Greek-default-fears.html
UK banks have pulled billions of pounds of funding from the eurozone as fears grow about the impact of a “Lehman-style” event connected to a Greek default.
[L]eading banks, including Barclays and Standard Chartered, have radically reduced the amount of unsecured lending they are prepared to make available to eurozone banks, raising the prospect of a new credit crunch for the European banking system.
(*NOD OF APPROVAL*)
Standard Chartered is understood to have withdrawn tens of billions of pounds from the eurozone inter-bank lending market in recent months and cut its overall exposure by two-thirds in the past few weeks as it has become increasingly worried about the finances of other European banks.
* THANK GOD SOMEONE IS RECOGNIZING REALITY!
Barclays has also cut its exposure in recent months as senior managers have become increasingly concerned about developments among banks with large exposures to the troubled European countries Greece, Ireland, Spain, Italy and Portugal.
* GREECE... IRELAND... SPAIN... ITALY... PORTUGAL...
(*SNORT*)
* AS THE BRITS WOULD SAY... "BUNCH OF WANKERS!"
http://www.france24.com/en/20110619-nato-tripoli-strike-kills-civilians-regime-says-africa-libya#
NATO air strikes killed nine civilians in the Arada neighbourhood of Tripoli, which is a known anti-Gaddafi stronghold, the regime said Sunday.
* WELL... FIRST OFF, WE'VE GOT TO TAKE ANYTHING GADDAFI SAYS WITH A HUGE GRAIN OF SALT... HOWEVER...
Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim told AFP that a NATO air strike on a residential district of Tripoli early on Sunday killed nine people, five of them from the same family, and wounded 18. Earlier in the day, journalists had been shown the bodies of five people, one of them a woman and two of them toddlers.
* Hmm...
The NATO spokesman said in a statement that the military alliance took "all reports of civilian casualties seriously and we will continue to look into the allegations to determine their authenticity". "NATO deeply regrets any civilian loss of life during this operation and would be very sorry if the review of this incident concluded it to be a NATO weapon," he added.
* HEY... REMEMBER WHEN CLINTON "MISTAKENLY" BOMBED THE CHINESE EMBASSY IN BELGRADE?
The incident comes a day after NATO said its aircraft mistakenly hit a column of Libyan rebel forces in the area of Brega on June 16.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
"We regret any possible loss of life or injuries caused by this unfortunate incident," NATO said.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304906004576369980920377592.html?mod=WSJ_hps_sections_news
* JUST YOUR TYPICAL GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEE IN THE AGE OF OBAMA...???
He ordered underlings to kill and steal, while he himself stole cars and led a home robbery that ended with a stabbing, among other transgressions.
* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP!
* O.K. - THE CONTEXT:
As a paid undercover informant, Jaime Martinez helped federal agents take down the San Francisco chapter of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, a violent gang spanning the U.S. and Central America.
But while providing information to federal authorities from 2005 to 2008, Mr. Martinez also served as the gang's leader. He ordered underlings to kill and steal, while he himself stole cars and led a home robbery that ended with a stabbing, among other transgressions.
* THERE... NOW DOES THAT REALLY MAKE IT BETTER?
(*SNORT*)
The government's handling of the MS-13 informants points to bigger questions about how well government officials are controlling criminal cooperators...
* YA THINK...?!?!
A 2005 Justice Department Inspector General's review of 120 Federal Bureau of Investigation informants, the most recent such study available, found over 85% of the cases contained violations of agency guidelines, ranging from paperwork errors to unauthorized illegal acts. In handling informants, there is "inadequate training at every level," the report said.
The FBI said after the report that it was working to improve its informant-control systems.
* OH... GOODY... THEY'RE GONNA... er... IMPROVE THINGS.
(*SNORT*)
Last year, the government attempted to deport a federal drug informant who was caught smuggling drugs into the U.S. and was involved in at least one murder in Mexico while working for the government.
* DEPORT...??? (Hmm... ONE WOULD THINK "PROSECUTE" WOULD BE THE WORD - WOULDN'T YOU?)
In the MS-13 cases, federal agents sometimes didn't know about the informants' questionable behavior, court records indicate. In other instances, agents appear to have condoned it - once even providing money for a gang leader to buy guns in El Salvador, a possible violation of federal law.
* CHANT IT WITH ME: "ERIC HOLDER, HE'S OUR MAN; IF HE CAN'T SCREW THINGS UP, NOBODY CAN!"
Officials estimate there are 8,000 to 10,000 MS-13 members in about 30 states...
* WELL, THEN, I SUGGEST THAT OFF-DUTY COPS AND FEDERAL LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS IN "ABOUT 30 STATES" START ENGAGING IN SOME SERIOUS VIGILANTISM! (THE TATTOOS ARE KINDA A GIVEAWAY REGARDING TARGETING...)
* FOLKS... I'M BEING SEMI-SERIOUS. IF THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES CAN ORDER U.S. CITIZENS ASSASSINATED, IS IT REALLY A STRETCH TO SIMPLY ORDER THE ASSASSINATIONS OF MS-13 GANG LEADERS...???
* FOLKS... YOU'VE GOTTA READ THIS ARTICLE IN FULL...
(*BLINDING MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/libya-and-the-potemkin-alliance/2011/06/17/AGdQ2UZH_story.html
* A COLUMN BY GEORGE WILL
America’s intervention in Libya’s civil war, the most protracted and least surreptitious assassination attempt in history, was supposed to last “days, not weeks...”
* YEAH. AND STIMULUS WAS SUPPOSED TO RESCUE RATHER THAN DESTROY THE ECONOMY... (*SMIRK*)
[Obama's Libyan adventure] is in its fourth month and has revealed NATO to be an increasingly fictitious military organization.
* WHILE COSTING U.S. TAXPAYERS BILLIONS.
Although this war has no discernible connection with U.S. national security, [Obama's war] serves the national interest, in three ways.
1) It is awakening some legislators to their responsibilities.
* BUT UNFORTUNATELY FAR TOO FEW.
2) It is refuting the pretense that the United Nations sets meaningful parameters to wars it authorizes - or endorses, which is quite different.
* THE U.N. IS A JOKE. PERIOD. YET ANOTHER BLACK HOLE FOR U.S. TAXPAYER DOLLARS TO BE THROWN DOWN.
3) And it is igniting a reassessment of NATO, a Potemkin alliance whose primary use these days is perverse: It provides a patina of multilateralism to U.S. military interventions on which Europe is essentially a free rider.
(*NOD*)
Recently, one-third of the House of Representatives - 87 Republicans and 61 Democrats - unavailingly but honorably voted to end American involvement in Libya in 15 days. Were Barack Obama not taking a Nixonian approach to the law - the War Powers Resolution - his intervention would have ended last month. (The WPR requires interventions to end after 60 days, absent congressional approval.)
* To be continued...
* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)
Some people, who know better, insist that although the WPR is a 38-year-old law - passed over Richard Nixon’s veto - it is somehow a “dead letter.” Their theory is that any law a president considers annoying, or Congress considers inconvenient, or some commentators consider unwise, is for those reasons nullified.
* FOLKS... I AM NOT SIMPLY BEING SARCASTIC WHEN I SAY THE UNITED STATES IS NO LONGER A CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC GOVERNED UNDER THE RULE OF LAW. OUR CONSTITUTION HAS NO MORE POWER OVER TODAY'S POLITICIANS THAN THE OLD SOVIET UNION'S CONSTITUTION DID OVER THE POLITBURO.
America’s Libyan involvement began because Moammar Gaddafi threatened to do to Benghazi what Bashar al-Assad’s tanks and helicopter gunships are doing to various Syrian cities.
* NOTICE WE'RE NOT "PROTECTING" THE SYRIAN PEOPLE. (*SMIRK*)
When, in March, Obama said “building this international coalition has been so important,” he meant merely that a minority of the members of a 62-year-old alliance would seriously participate. Eight of NATO’s 28 members are attacking Gaddafi’s ground forces.
* FOLKS... JUST BECAUSE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S IRON FIST IS GLOVED DOES NOT MEAN WE'RE NOT LIVING IN WHAT AMOUNTS TO A TIME WHEN THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT - PARTICULARLY THE EXECUTIVE BRANCH - IS OUT OF CONTROL.
Obama, a novel kind of commander in chief, explained in passive syntax that “it is our military that is being volunteered by others to carry out missions.” These “others” would rather finance their welfare states than their militaries, so they cannot wage war for 10 weeks without U.S. munitions and other assets.
(*SIGH*)
In March, Obama said that U.S. intervention would be confined to implementing a no-fly zone: “Broadening our military mission to include regime change would be a mistake.”
By May, Obama’s Bushian mission was to make Libyans “finally free of 40 years of tyranny.”
After more than 10,000 sorties, now including those by attack helicopters, NATO’s increasingly desperate strategy boils down to: Kill Gaddafi.
Then what?
* GOOD QUESTION, HUH?!
Disgust with this debacle has been darkly described as a recrudescence of “isolationism,” as though people opposing this absurdly disproportionate and patently illegal war are akin to those who, after 1938, opposed resisting Germany and Japan. Such slovenly thinking is a byproduct of shabby behavior.
Post a Comment