Friday, July 8, 2011

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, July 8, 2011


In a word... poignant.
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18 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/07/05/morning-bell-beware-obamas-backdoor-amnesty-dream/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

When it comes to enacting his agenda, the legislative process is not something that registers on President Obama’s radar.

From the environment to the Internet, civil rights to labor laws, the President has built an administrative bypass around Article I of the Constitution, leaping over the separation of powers and casting aside the founding directive that “All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States.”

Now he’s bringing that tactic to our nation’s immigration laws, as well.

Last week...more than 200 illegal immigrants were welcomed into the U.S. Capitol as props for Senator Dick Durbin’s (D–IL) immigration reform show.

* AGAIN... YES, WE'VE COVERED THIS... BUT THE REALITY OF THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION'S ACTIONS MUST BE HAMMERED HOME!

It was a scene designed to tug at the heartstrings and garner support for his pet project, the DREAM Act, a bill that would allow for illegal immigrants between the ages of 15 and 35 who attend college or serve in the military for two years to obtain legal permanent resident status.

From the halls of Congress, those individuals traveled to the gates of the White House, where they “complained that President Barack Obama had supported immigration reform with words and not deeds,” as Fox News reports.

They hoped to pressure the President to bring about immigration reform in the Land of the Free. But behind the curtains, at stage left, Obama’s U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is already at work enacting provisions of the DREAM Act by executive fiat, despite the fact that the Senate rejected the bill last year by a vote of 55–41.

* RULE OF LAW? PHOOEY! THE CONSTITUTION? IRRELEVANT! HOW MUCH LONGER WILL WE TOLERATE THIS, MY FELLOW AMERICANS?

In a memo from ICE, the department’s agents - who are charged with enforcing the country’s [actual existing] immigration laws - will be empowered to pursue or dismiss immigration cases against broad categories of illegal aliens who would have benefited from the legislation - without the DREAM Act even becoming law.

From the memo: "Because the agency is confronted with more administrative violations than its resources can address, the agency must regularly exercise prosecutorial discretion if it is to prioritize its efforts."

* SOUNDS REASONABLE AT FIRST GLANCE, HOWEVER...

(*DRUM ROLL*)

Coincidentally or conveniently, (pick your adverb), ICE’s prosecutorial discretion leads it to adopt enforcement parameters that bring about the same ends as the DREAM Act.

(*SMIRK*)

Agents are to make enforcement decisions based on “the person’s length of presence in the United States,” “if the alien came to the United States as a young child,” “the person’s pursuit of education in the United States,” and “whether the person, or the person’s immediate relative, has served in the U.S. military,” among other factors.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD AT THE SHEER BRAZENNESS OF IT*)

[L]aws should not be cast aside lightly to be trod on for the President’s personal agenda. America’s Founders devised a Constitution rooted in a separation of powers and designed to ensure that no one branch of government usurps the power of another.

* FOLKS... EITHER THE RULE OF LAW IS RESPECTED OR IT'S NOT. EITHER THE CONSTITUTION IS ABIDED BY OR IT'S NOT. EXAMPLE AFTER EXAMPLE SHOWS THAT THIS PRESIDENT AND HIS ALLIES IN CONGRESS (REMEMBER "DEEMING"?) HAVE NO ALLEGIANCE TO OUR CONSTITUTION AND NO RESPECT FOR THE RULE OF LAW. THIS IS NOT OVERSTATEMENT - THIS IS REALITY.

July 8, 2011 at 11:16 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2011/07/06/morning-bell-the-high-price-of-obamas-fake-jobs-scheme/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Sometimes magic tricks just aren’t that great, and even the most innocent, wide-eyed child can’t be fooled by the illusionist’s flourish. Such is the case with the rabbit the White House is trying to pull out of its magic hat by claiming that President Barack Obama’s stimulus has created or saved 2.4 million jobs at a cost of $666 billion, all while the United States continues to suffer 9.1% unemployment.

If you do the math, that comes out to around $278,000 per job.

That information comes from a White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) report released last Friday that desperately tries to maintain the illusion that Obama’s stimulus has saved the day for struggling Americans.

* WE'VE COVERED THIS BEFORE - BUT IT BEARS REPEATING. REALITY MUST BE ADDRESSED!

If you take the CEA at its word...

(*SNORT*)

...you might be a bit confused. Two quarters ago, it claimed that the stimulus added or saved just under 2.7 million jobs.

That’s 288,000 more jobs than it claims the stimulus has created or saved today.

(*GUFFAW*)

The CBO has downgraded its claim of the stimulus’ “success,” too.

Compare [reality] to the President’s promise to create 3.5 million jobs by 2010; the economy, instead, lost millions of jobs, leaving Obama 7.3 million jobs short of his goal.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Last month, the average length of unemployment stood at 39.7 weeks, the longest since the Department of Labor began tracking it.

The unemployment rate increased from 9.0% to 9.1%.

13.9 million Americans are unemployed...the labor force participation rate remained flat at 64.2%, an all-time low for the fifth straight month.

* BOTTOM LINE... ALL SARCASM ASIDE... ALL PARTISANSHIP ASIDE... OBAMANOMICS CLEARLY AREN'T WORKING.

July 8, 2011 at 11:17 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-08/u-s-payrolls-rose-18-000-in-june-jobless-rate-climbed-to-9-2-.html

* 9.2%...?!?! UNEMPLOYMENT IS UP...?!?!

American employers added jobs at the slowest pace in nine months in June and the unemployment rate unexpectedly climbed to 9.2%...

* AGAIN WITH THAT "UNEXPECTEDLY" BULLSHIT.

Employers increased payrolls by 18,000 workers, less than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey of economists, which called for growth of 105,000. The increase followed a 25,000 gain that was less than half the initial estimate. Hiring by companies was the weakest since May 2010.

* FOLKS... I DON'T CARE WHAT YOU THINK OF THE REPUBLICANS; UNTIL THIS INCOMPETENT IS "RETIRED" THEY'LL BE NO ECONOMIC RECOVERY FOR AMERICA. IT'S THAT FRIGG'N SIMPLE.

* FOLKS... PELOSI, REID AND THEIR DEMS HAD CONTROL OF CONGRESS FOR FOUR YEAR - TWO OF WHICH WERE UNDER BUSH (WHO AS YOU'LL RECALL GOVERNED LIKE A DEMOCRAT FOR MUCH OF HIS SECOND TERM WHEN IT CAME TO ECONOMICS) AND THE OTHER TWO WITH OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE. INDEED, REID AND THE DEMS STILL CONTROL THE SENATE. ASK YOURSELVES... HOW HAVE THINGS BEEN GOING...?!?!

“Poor job growth essentially stops any growth in consumer spending,” said Guy LeBas, chief fixed-income strategist at Janney Montgomery Scott LLC in Philadelphia. “This is saying that economic conditions are stagnant, with no bright spots.”

* OH...! IF ONLY...!!!

* FOLKS... I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THE REST OF YOU, BUT MY SPENDING HAS BEEN GOING UP! MARY AND I ARE NO DOUBT SPENDING THOUSANDS MORE NOW DURING THE AGE OF OBAMA ON THE SAME AMOUNT OF FOOD AND GAS WE WERE BUYING BACK IN THE AGE OF BUSH! IN OTHER WORDS, FOLKS... INFLATION - THOUGH DELIBERATELY UNDERSTATED AND UNDER-REPORTED - IS YET ANOTHER KEY ELEMENT OF OBAMANOMICS.

“Stunned,” was how Chris Rupkey, chief financial economist at Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ Ltd. in New York, described his reaction. “This number will really turn your hair gray, that’s for sure. The economy remains mired in its soft patch, which is looking more like a deep bog.”

* JEEZUS... WHERE DO I SIGN UP TO GET THE PAYCHECK, BENEFITS, AND PERKS OF A CHIEF FINANCIAL ECONOMIST AT A MAJOR INTERNATIONAL BANKS?! I MEAN... NONE OF THIS COMES AS A SURPRISE TO ME OR INDEED TO ANY REGULAR READER OF BARKER'S NEWSBITES!

Companies reducing staff include Lockheed Martin Corp., the world’s largest defense contractor. Bethesda, Maryland-based Lockheed on June 30 said it plans to cut about 1,500 employees. McLean, Virginia-based Gannett Co., the publisher of 82 newspapers including USA Today, also announced last month it is eliminating about 700 jobs.

* AND SO IT GOES... AND SO IT GOES...

July 8, 2011 at 11:29 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/DC-Funded-300-Abortions-in-2-Years-AP-125205009.html?dr

For decades Congress has used its power over the District of Columbia to ban the city from paying for abortions for poor women, but during a two-year period when lawmakers reversed course at least 300 women got city-funded procedures, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.

The city now says that during that time it spent approximately $185,000 providing elective abortions for...women who receive health care through government programs. (The number of women who got abortions and their cost was provided by city officials after AP filed a Freedom of Information Act request.)

The number of abortions the city now says it paid for contrasts with previous statements.

In May, Mayor Vincent Gray reported to Congress that the city had paid about $62,000 to provide 117 abortions to women whose health care was covered by Medicaid and the D.C. HeathCare Alliance, programs serving low-income residents. The mayor's office said Thursday in an email that the discrepancy reflects the fact bills were not submitted on time, but that 300 procedures was the correct number. (City spokeswoman Doxie McCoy said that the exact number of abortions the city paid for could still rise because claims are still being processed.)

* FOLKS... YOU KNOW MY VIEWS ON ABORTION. MY POINT IN POSTING THIS NEWSBITE IS SIMPLY TO GIVE YOU INFORMATION SO THAT WHEN SOMEONE YOU'RE TALKING TO - OR SOME MEDIA REPORT OR PUNDIT - TELLS YOU THAT GOVERNMENT NEVER FUNDS ABORTIONS YOU'LL KNOW THEY'RE... er... NOT IMPARTING TRUTHFUL AND ACCURATE INFORMATION.

(*SHRUG*)

More than a third of the city's some 600,000 residents get health care through Medicaid or the D.C. HealthCare Alliance.

* AND, FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... IF THAT DOESN'T TELL YOU HOW SCREWED UP OUR COUNTRY IS...

(*ANOTHER SHRUG*)

Like all states, Washington has been prohibited by Congress since the 1970s from using federal money to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid except in cases of rape, incest, or to protect the life of the mother. But states can use their own tax dollars to pay for the procedures for women on Medicaid if they wish. Currently, 17 states use their own money to pay for abortions for women on Medicaid, though all but four do so under court order.

* WHICH TELLS YOU HOW OUT OF CONTROL THE COURTS ARE...

(*SIGH*)

July 8, 2011 at 1:37 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://blogs.wsj.com/developments/2011/07/07/mortgage-aid-for-unemployed-expanded/

The Obama administration will require mortgage companies to extend more generous mortgage relief to help certain unemployed borrowers from losing their homes to foreclosure.

* HOW IN GOD'S NAME IS THIS CONSTITUTIONAL...???

* FOLKS... REMEMBER WHEN CONTRACT LAW USED TO BE PART OF THE RULE OF LAW? NO MORE, MY FRIENDS... NO MORE...

Under policy changes announced Thursday, mortgage companies that collect payments on loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration will be required to offer 12 months of forbearance for qualified unemployed borrowers. Currently, out-of-work borrowers with these loans can receive a minimum of four months without mortgage payments.

* UNDER WHAT CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY...?!?! THESE PEOPLE SIGNED CONTRACTS! IF THEY'RE IN BREACH THEN THE LEGAL CONSEQUENCES MUST BE PAID! WHAT OBAMA IS DOING IS SHORT-CIRCUITING THE RULE OF LAW - TAKING THE JUDICIARY OUT OF THE PROCESS!

Firms that participate in the Obama administration’s Home Affordable Modification Program will also be pressed to offer up to 12 months of forbearance for unemployed borrowers, though that effort could be stymied by regulatory or contractual rules.

(*HEADACHE*)

Borrowers who receive loan forbearance, where principal and interest payments are temporarily suspended, will ultimately have to pay back the past-due balance after the forbearance period ends.

* EVEN SO! BY WHAT RIGHT DOES THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT SIMPLY NEGATE CONTRACT LAW...?!?!

The Obama administration has separately committed $7.6 billion in funds from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to target housing relief in 18 of the “hardest hit” states. Most states have used some of that money to provide bridge loans so that unemployed borrowers can make mortgage payments.

A separate program, funded with $1 billion through the Dodd-Frank financial-overhaul law, allows unemployed borrowers in 27 other states to receive interest-free loans to help make mortgage payments worth up to $50,000 for up to two years. Applications for that program are due July 22.

* IT'S A NIGHTMARE, PEOPLE. ONE WAY OR ANOTHER ALL OF THIS IS SUBSIDIZED BY US - THE TAXPAYERS. WE HAVE OUR OWN PROBLEMS... OUR OWN LIABILITIES... OUR OWN COMMITMENTS... TOUGH! THAT'S THE OBAMA ATTITUDE.

July 8, 2011 at 1:49 PM
William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/07/08/an_establishment_in_panic_110501.html

* BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

By refusing to accept tax increases in a deal to raise the debt ceiling, Republicans are behaving like "fanatics," writes David Brooks of The New York Times.

* A--HOLE. (*SMIRK*)

Anti-tax Republicans "have no sense of moral decency," he adds. They are "willing to stain their nation's honor" to "worship their idol." If this "deal of the century" goes down, as he calls the Barack Obama offer, "Republican fanaticism" will be the cause.

"The GOP has become a cult" that has replaced reason with "feverish" and "cockamamie beliefs," writes Richard Cohen of The Washington Post. The Republican "presidential field (is) a virtual political Jonestown," the Guyana site where more than 900 followers of the Peoples Temple drank the Kool-Aid that Rev. Jim Jones mixed for them.

(*SNORT*)

"The GOP's Hezbollah Wing Is Now Fully in Control," screams The New Republic over a recent lead editorial.

Does anyone think this an appropriate description of such mild-mannered men as Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Jon Huntsman?

(*LAUGHING OUT LOUD*) (*THUMBS UP*)

* To be continued...

July 8, 2011 at 2:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)

Other columnists charge the GOP with holding America "hostage" by refusing to accept tax hikes to avert a default on the debt.

What to make of this hysteria?

* TELL US, PAT...! TELL US...!!!

The Establishment is in a panic. It has been jolted awake to the realization that the GOP House, if it can summon the courage to use it, is holding a weapon that could enable it to bridle forever the federal monster that consumes 25% of gross domestic product. To bully and blackmail the GOP into surrendering the weapon and betraying its principles and signing on to new taxes, that establishment has unleashed rhetoric more befitting a war on terror than a political dispute.

Behind the GOP opposition to tax hikes is the party's word given to the country that elected it in 2010, its political principles, its traditional view of what not to do when the nation is in a slump, and party history. Fully 235 Republican House members signed a 2010 pledge not to raise taxes. And by giving their word they were rewarded with victory. Should they now dishonor that pledge, what would differentiate them from George H.W. Bush, who famously promised in 1988: "Read my lips! No new taxes!" then went back on his word and took the party down to defeat with him?

Second, the GOP is the party of small government and low taxes. Why would it agree to raise taxes on the private productive sector when federal spending, now at a peacetime record of 25 percent of GDP, is the problem?

In 1982, President Reagan agreed to the same deal being offered the party today: three dollars in spending cuts for every dollar in tax increases to which he assented. As he ruefully told this writer more than once, he was lied to. He got one dollar in spending cuts for every three in tax increases.

The Republican Party has not said it will refuse to raise the debt ceiling. ... The House has simply said it will not accept new taxes on a nation whose fiscal crisis comes from overspending.

If the GOP keeps its word, raises the debt ceiling and accepts budget cuts agreed to in the Biden negotiations, the only people who can prevent the debt ceiling's being raised are Senate Democrats or Obama, in which case, they, not the GOP, will have thrown the nation into default.

It is the establishment that is resorting to extortion, saying, in effect, to the House GOP: Give us the new taxes we demand, or Obama will veto the debt ceiling and we will all blame you for the default.

They're bluffing.

The GOP should stand its ground - and fix bayonets.

* FOLKS... YOU KNOW MY VIEWS ON TAXES... YOU KNOW MY VIEWS ON THE DEBT CEILING... I HAVE MY SLIGHT DISAGREEMENTS WITH BUCHANAN, BUT BY AND LARGE HE'S RIGHT ON TARGET. DON'T LET THE MEDIA LIE TO YOU AND TELL YOU DIFFERENT.

July 8, 2011 at 2:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.minnpost.com/politicalagenda/2011/07/07/29811/gop_says_daytons_essential_staff_includes_chef_and_housekeeper

A Political Agenda item yesterday noted that [Democrat] Gov. Mark Dayton has laid off about half of his 40-member staff during the state shutdown, while 20 are considered essential and still working.

On the list of those still working are two staff members, Micah Pace and Michelle Mersereau, who were listed as "Residence Support Staff."

This morning, Michael Brodkorb, the communications director for the Minnesota Senate Republican Caucus (and he's also deputy chair of the state Republican Party), called to say that on the governor's official staff list (PDF), Pace is listed as "chef," and Mersereau is listed as "Housekeeper/server."

The list he's citing was printed in March and was obtained through data practices request, and does, indeed, list those job titles for the two.

(*SNORT*) (*SNICKER*)

Dayton spokesperson Katherine Tinucci called to say that the chef, Micah Pace, is being paid by the governor out of his own pocket for the duration of the shutdown.

* AH... BUT WAS THIS DECISION MADE BEFORE - OR AFTER - THE RETENTIONS BECAME PUBLIC? THAT'S THE QUESTION!

And that was the case from the beginning of the shutdown July 1, before Republicans made a big deal of it, she said. "We just didn't make an announcement about it then," she said. (Dayton is not drawing his state salary during the shutdown.)

* ANY WAY TO BACK UP THIS CLAIM...? ANY OFFICIAL MEMOS OR OTHER TIME/DATED DOCUMENTATION OTHER THAN TINUCCI'S CLAIM?

And housekeeper Michelle Mersereau was kept on the payroll because the mansion, on St. Paul's historic Summit Avenue, is 100 years old and needs constant care, she said. (The mansion was opened in 1912 as the home of Horace Hills Irvine, a St. Paul lumberman and lawyer.) "We need to continue with the upkeep and maintenance of the Minnesota state building, even during the shutdown," she said.

* FAIR ENOUGH; NO PROBLEM THERE.

July 8, 2011 at 2:19 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://video.cnbc.com/gallery/?video=3000032061

* JUST WATCH THE VIDEO...!

(*HUGE FRIGG'N GRIN*)

* BOTTOM LINE: RICK SANTELLI IS ABSOLUTELY RIGHT; MICHAEL FARR IS A PUTZ.

July 8, 2011 at 4:38 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.freakonomics.com/2011/07/08/worried-about-the-latest-jobs-report-you-should-be/

The latest employment numbers have already caused plenty of consternation. But they are actually worse than you may realize.

Most attention focuses just on the headline number, which says that only 18,000 new jobs were created last month. But the employment report actually contains many indicators, which rarely line up perfectly.

The problem is that this time they do.

There are three independent samples to consider:

1) The main establishment survey: This says that growth in employment has stalled. Moreover, wages fell slightly, and the workweek is falling. All indicators in this survey point to bad news.

2) The revisions: Some firms are late to send in their employment numbers each month. They’ve finally sent them in for May, which was an ugly jobs report to begin with. But the revision is downright hideous. Instead of growth of +54,000 in May, the BLS is now reporting growth of +25,000 jobs. Employment growth in April was also revised down.

3) The household survey: Which tells an even worse story, with employment falling 445,000 last month. These data are noisier, to be sure, but they are still informative, and they suggest that the true employment picture may be worse still.

* OH! BUT WAIT!

And there’s more bad news: The ranks of the long-term unemployed are rising, as are the ranks of the under-employed.

Bottom line: If the headline numbers have you worried, you aren’t worried enough. Each of the three separate data collections gives a consistent picture of a very grim labor market. This payrolls report will (and should) have a bigger impact than usual, because it tells a much clearer picture than usual.

July 8, 2011 at 6:39 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/577575/201107071812/Theres-No-Cutting-In-Govt.aspx

Take a look at the chart alongside.

* THE CHART BEING REFERRED TO CAN BE FOUND HERE: http://www.investors.com/image/ISSsp_110708.png.cms

The darker line is President Obama's budget, the lighter one is Congressman Paul Ryan's budget.

Now, Ryan's is a couple of trillion dollars less than Obama's over the next 10 years. But what do they both have in common?

They both go up.

As in spending more, not less.

As in, roughly $40 trillion to $45 trillion more.

Now why is this? It's because of something called the "current services baseline," which includes population and inflation increases built into the budget. Entitlements have their own formulas.

[W]hen you hear a politician tell you they're cutting spending, they're actually referring only to reducing the growth of spending. Rarely, if ever, do they actually reduce the level of spending.

Think of it this way: You're out car shopping and thinking about buying a $100,000 Mercedes. That's your target. But then you decide to forgo the Mercedes and opt for a $20,000 Chevy instead. Well, guess what? Congress would score that as an $80,000 budget cut. Huh? We all know that it's actually a $20,000 budget increase.

Let's be honest here. This budgetary game remains one big taxpayer scam. I used to work in the federal budget office. I know the game.

* BTW, THE AUTHOR OF THIS PIECE IS LAWRENCE KUDLOW.

Here's yet another scam: Big budget deals say they "cut" (there's that word again) a couple of trillion dollars over 10 years. But most of it is targeted for the last couple of years, as in years eight, nine and ten. So basically it'll never happen. It's four or five Congresses from now. Laws change. Deals are broken.

At the end of the day, the only thing that really matters is next year's budget. Will it be cut?

* THAT'S THE ONLY WAY TO MEASURE WHATEVER DEAL THESE BASTARDS COME UP WITH, FOLKS.

July 8, 2011 at 6:40 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article/577631/201107071849/Fast-And-Furious-Gate-Contd.aspx

The official story that [Operation] Fast and Furious, also known as Project Gunrunner, was merely a botched sting operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives designed to track and stop cross-border arms-trafficking collapsed this week in secret testimony by ATF acting director Kenneth Melson.

Unwilling to be made a scapegoat in the affair, which resulted in the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry using one of the trafficked guns, Melson, acting ATF director since April 2009, testified behind closed doors on Monday before two congressional oversight committees. He appeared with his own private attorney, rather than lawyers from the Department of Justice. His explosive testimony needs to be heard loudly and publicly.

* WHICH IS WHY I'LL KEEP ON NEWSBITING THIS STORY EVEN AS THE MSM WOULD HAVE IT DISAPPEAR FROM SIGHT.

According to a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder from Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, Melson testified that he learned the full details of the operation only after Terry's death made the operation public and he reviewed internal documents - documents that have been withheld by DOJ - that made him "sick to his stomach."

(ABC News reports that Melson wanted to appear before oversight committees earlier, but Eric Holder's Justice Department sought to delay his testimony.)

"If his account is accurate, then ATF leadership appears to have been effectively muzzled while the DOJ sent over false denials and buried its head in the sand," the letter said. "That approach distorted the truth and obstructed our investigation."

(*PURSED LIPS*)

"The evidence we have gathered raises the disturbing possibility that the Justice Department not only allowed criminals to smuggle weapons but that taxpayer dollars from other agencies may have financed those engaging in those activities," Issa and Grassley wrote.

(Among the things that made Melson ill was the discovery of the activities of other agencies such as the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, perhaps even the U.S. Attorney's Office and the Department of Homeland Security. How could this be if President Obama and AG Holder are telling the truth when they say they knew little or anything about the operation? All these agencies and U.S. dollars involved and the White House knew nothing?)

Learning not only that guns were allowed to "walk" into Mexico after being bought by straw purchasers acting on behalf of criminals, but also that the purchases may have been financed with taxpayer dollars is enough to make anyone queasy. That Holder's DOJ would lie to Congress and hide what it knew and when it knew it is, well, absolutely criminal.

* WHILE I'M NOT HOLDING MY BREATH... IF THE ALLEGATIONS ARE TRUE HOLDER SHOULD INDEED END UP IN JAIL. NOT SIMPLY IMPEACHED AND REMOVED FROM OFFICE, BUT TRIED IN A CRIMINAL COURTROOM, CONVICTED, AND JAILED.

July 8, 2011 at 6:40 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.thestreet.com/story/11178841/1/us-economic-woes-mount.html

While the Bureau of Labor Statistic reported a paltry 18,000 net jobs created in the U.S. in June, that number has no basis in reality. Merely subtract the phantom jobs from the "birth/death model" and the U.S. economy lost more than 100,000 jobs last month.

* FOLKS... IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT THE "BIRTH/DEATH MODEL" IS... WELL... THEN BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA, TIM "THE TAX CHEAT" GEITHNER, AND BEN "BANKRUPT US" BERNANKE ARE RIGHT NOW BREATHING A SIGH OF RELIEF.

* YEAH, FOLKS... THAT'S MY OBNOXIOUSLY SARCASTIC WAY OF URGING YOU TO GOOGLE "BIRTH/DEATH MODEL.".

July 8, 2011 at 6:45 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-07-07/debt-limit-shuffle-buys-time-for-something-big-caroline-baum.html

In a June 30 paper, Veronique de Rugy and Jason Fitchner, senior research fellows at George Mason University’s Mercatus Center in Arlington, Virginia, outline steps Treasury can take to meet its financial obligations and prevent a technical default [on the federal debt] until the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, and possibly longer.

* FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... GEITHNER AND OBAMA HAVE BEEN LYING ALL ALONG. REMEMBER THE APRIL "DEADLINE?"

First, based on Congressional Budget Office estimates, tax revenue of $2.2 trillion in fiscal 2011 will cover the $214 billion of interest on the debt, the authors write. Technical default averted. Tax revenue is sufficient to cover Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid outlays as well, de Rugy and Fitchner write.

Second, the Treasury secretary can take “extraordinary actions,” such as suspending investment in government pension funds and the Social Security Trust Fund -- something Timothy Geithner has been doing since the public debt hit the statutory limit in May.

Third, Treasury can use cash on hand, including $113.5 billion of nonrestricted cash, or sell assets, such as gold, foreign currency or assets acquired under the Troubled Asset Relief Program. Such sales won’t yield enough to cover all the bills, but Treasury can prioritize what payments to make.

“Oh, and by the way, they can always cut spending,” de Rugy [notes].

* HERE'S THE PROBLEM, THOUGH, FOLKS:

“There is no budget out there, including Paul Ryan’s, that alleviates the need for a debt-ceiling increase,” [according to] de Rugy.

[The] problem is the growing gap between what the U.S. government has promised to pay retirees and what it collects in taxes. The public doesn’t want its benefits touched. Nor does it want to pay higher taxes.

* AND ULTIMATELY IF THE POLITICIANS DON'T TELL THE AMERICAN PEOPLE THE TRUTH AND LAY OUT THE HARSH REALITIES AND DEAL WITH THEM... WE'RE DEAD.

Some brave souls in Washington are going to have to do what’s right even if the voters think it’s wrong.

* AND IF THEY REFUSE... THE ONLY OPTION I CAN SEE IS VIOLENCE.

July 8, 2011 at 7:09 PM
William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-the-bubble-destroyed-the-middle-class-2011-07-08?link=home_carousel

A lot of people say they are deeply puzzled by the slow recovery in the U.S. economy.

* MORONS.

They look at the 9.2% unemployment rate and the mediocre growth in national output, and they scratch their heads and wonder: Where is the boom that inevitably follows a deep bust, such as we experienced in 2008 and 2009?

* AGAIN... IGNORANT MORONS.

But there is no mystery.

* NO! NO THERE'S NOT!

What other result would you expect from the financial ruin of the once-great American middle class?

* EXACTAMUNDO...!!!

And make no mistake, the middle class has been ruined: Its wealth has been decimated, its income isn’t even keeping pace with inflation, and its faith in the American economy has been shattered.

Once, the middle class grew richer each year, grew more comfortable, enjoyed a higher living standard. It was real progress in material terms. But that progress has been halted and even reversed. In some respects, the middle class has made no progress in a generation, or two.

There are a hundred different ways of looking at the economy, and a million different statistics. But if you wanted to focus on just one number that explains why the economy can’t really recover, this is the one: $7.38 trillion. That’s the amount of wealth that’s been lost from the bursting of housing bubble, according to the Federal Reserve’s comprehensive Flow of Funds report. It’s how much homeowners lost when housing prices plunged 30% nationwide. The loss for these homeowners was much greater than 30%, however, because they were heavily leveraged.

* AND IT AIN'T OVER YET, FOLKS!

Leverage is an amazing thing: When prices go up, the borrower gets all the gains. And when prices go down, the borrower takes all the losses. Some families lost everything when the bubble collapsed, others lost very little. But, on average, American homeowners lost 55% of the wealth in their home.

* WHICH WOULDN'T NECESSARY BE AN IMMEDIATE TRAGEDY FOR MOST FOLKS EXCEPT FOR ONE THING: AMERICANS (BY AND LARGE) KEPT ON RAIDING THE PIGGY BANK OF THEIR IMAGINARY EQUITY ADDING DEBT ON TOP OF DEBT! WHEN THE BUBBLE BURST THE DEBT REMAINED!

Most middle-class families didn’t have much wealth to begin with - about $100,000. For the 22 million families right in the middle of the income distribution (those making between $39,000 and $62,000 before taxes), about 90% of their assets was in the house. Now half of their wealth is gone and it will never come back as long as they live.

* RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU BELIEVE YOUR PROPERTY AND SCHOOL TAXES MIGHT ALSO DECLINE BY 90%. (*SMIRK*) HOW'BOUT MAINTAINANCE COSTS - THE COSTS OF NEW ROOFS... NEW BOILERS... - THINK THAT'S GONNA DECLINE BY 90%?

Of course, rich folk lost lots of wealth during the panic as well. Their wealth is mostly in paper not bricks - stocks, bonds, mutual funds, life insurance.

The market value of those assets fell further than home prices did during the crash, but they’ve mostly recovered their value now. The S&P 500 lost 56% of its value when it crashed, but it’s doubled since then. Stocks are down about 13% from peak.

The rich recovered; the rest of us didn’t.

(*SIGH*)

* To be continued...

July 8, 2011 at 7:32 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)

[T]he middle class has also been falling behind in terms of income for decades. ... Their wages have been flat after adjusting for inflation.

* REMEMBER, FOLKS... THE "MIDDLE CLASS" ISN'T MY BUDDY THE MID-TOWN MANHATTAN ATTORNEY NOR MY BUDDY THE LIGHTING DESIGNER WHO OWNS HIS OWN FIRM. THE MIDDLE INCOME DISTRIBUTION IN THIS COUNTRY IS MADE UP OF FAMILIES MAKING BETWEEN $39K-$62K; ACCORDING TO THAT MATH... WELL... MARY AND I ARE THE UPPER MIDDLE CLASS.

In the late 1960s, the 20% of families right in the middle were earning almost their full share of the pie: they had 17.5% of total income.

Their share has been falling steadily ever since.

Now, that 20% is earning just 14.6% of all income. Meanwhile, the top 5% captured a growing share, going from 17% in the late 1960s to 22% today.

* FOLKS... JUST CONSIDER WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING WITH EXECUTIVE PAY VS. "ORDINARY" PAY... (*SHRUG*)

During the last expansion from 2003 to 2007, according to an analysis by Fed economists, American homeowners took $2.3 trillion in equity out of their homes through cash-out refinancing and home-equity loans, and they spent about $1.3 trillion of it on cars, boats, vacations, flat-screen televisions and shoes for the kids.

* MORONS. (BUT, HEY... WATER UNDER THE BRIDGE - IT IS WHAT IT IS.)

All that spending circulated through the economy, creating millions of jobs here and in China, where they make those TVs and shoes.

(*SMIRK*)

During that period, the economy grew at an annual average rate of 2.7%, which is about typical for our economy.

But growth would have been closer to 2% if we hadn’t had a housing bubble; if we hadn’t had the extra consumption financed by the bubble and if we hadn’t built millions of surplus homes. That’s a huge difference. At 2.7%, the economy can create a significant number of jobs. But 2% is stagnation, not even keeping pace with population growth and productivity improvements.

* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... ARE... YOU... FOLLOWING...?!?!

(*FEELING MY DINNER TURNING INTO BILE IN MY STOMACH*)

The debt-to-disposable income ratio has slipped from 130% at the height of the bubble to 115%, but that’s still far more than the 90% recorded in 2000 or the 80% of 1989 or the 60% of 1976.

The slow growth in the economy is no mystery: Most families don’t have any extra money to spend. It will take a long time for the middle class to rebuild its wealth, especially if we don’t find some work.

The crazy thing is that our leaders aren’t even talking about this crisis.

With the upper classes prospering and global markets booming, they don’t need the U.S. middle class any more. The market is up, profits are soaring, and the corporate jet is fueled and ready for takeoff.

And if the middle class can’t buy bread? Let them eat cake.

(*SIGH*) (*TEARING UP*)

July 8, 2011 at 7:33 PM
William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2011/07/08/non-objective_law_is_smothering_the_recovery_99117.html

The Great Recession demonstrates that the money supply is not the ultimate driver of the economy. The ultimate driver is very simple: has the government created a safe climate for investment?

The Obama administration and the Democratic Congress have done the opposite.

(*SIGH*) TRUE... ALL TOO TRUE...

They have created a hostile climate for investment, and they have done so through one measure that is directly smothering the economic recovery: the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill. Dodd-Frank has injected a lethal dose of uncertainty into the very heart of the financial sector - and we're only halfway through the worst of this effect.

(*ANOTHER DEEP SIGH*)

The problem is not any specific provision of Dodd-Frank. The problem is the lack of specific provisions.

Despite being more than 2,300 pages long - which would be more than enough space to spell out a comprehensive system of regulation in exacting, concrete detail - Dodd-Frank [is even now - at this point - largely an unfinished work in progress].

[A]s the New York Times noted last year when it passed, the bill "is short on the details necessary for enforcement. Enactment has set off a scramble by financial regulators to write the rules needed to put the bill's broad framework into practice. ... Richard Murray, chairman of the US Chamber of Commerce's Center for Capital Markets and Competitiveness, says the burden placed on regulators is unprecedented. 'It's a law comprised of goals and objectives much like the preliminary blueprints for the design of a very complex building,' he said at a July 27 chamber conference on the bill. ... He noted that the law calls for 530 rulemakings, 60 studies, and 90 reports to Congress. 'The wiring and the piping and the internal decor that will become financial regulation will emerge from that process,' he said."

A financial consultant quoted in the article described the bill as a "blank slate"...

* To be continued...

July 8, 2011 at 7:52 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING...

Just last week, House Democrats were urging regulators to speed up work on giving actual meaning to the Democrats' vaporous legislation. This probably won't help because "much of Dodd-Frank remains tied-up with regulatory agencies that must abide by a standard process laid out by the Administrative Procedures Act, which mandates a string of proposal requirements, commentary periods, and economic impact analyses before new regulations go into effect. Agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, FDIC, and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency still need to finalize half of the approximately 387 rules needed to execute Dodd-Frank-related provisions."

(*MASSIVE MIGRAINE HEADACHE*)

* BOTTOM LINE:

[I]t will be at least another year at the least before bankers and investors find out what laws they are living under.

And it gets worse: the provisions that are yet to be decided are not minor details but go the very heart of the financial industry.

Dodd-Frank formalized the institution of "too big to fail" for companies that are considered large enough to pose a "systemic risk" to the financial sector. In return, these companies are subjected to stringent new requirements intended to prevent them from failing. But it is still not clear which companies will be regarded as "systemically important" and which will not, so hundreds of big financial firms are living under the cloud of restrictive regulation. And to make things worse, Federal Reserve Governor Daniel Tarullo suggested a few weeks ago that systemically important banks should have their capital requirements raised from 7% to as much as 14%.

That's just a wee, tiny little detail that nobody has quite worked out yet.

(*SMIRK*)

Dodd-Frank is a monument to the modern practice of anti-legislation. This has been the pattern of the left's expansion of the regulatory state for decades, but the Obama administration and Democratic leaders in Congress have raised it to an art form. They pass giant, 2,000-page epics which still manage not to spell out any concrete details. What does the legislation do, instead? Mostly, it lays out an organizational chart of regulators and then empowers these unelected bureaucrats to dictate all of the actual details.

Dodd-Frank is not legislation but the abdication of legislative power. In effect, Congress has given up writing laws and instead vested that power in unelected bureaucrats appointed to executive-branch agencies.

* FOLKS... REPUBLICANS ONLY CONTROL THE HOUSE. WORSE, EVEN IF THEY RECAPTURE THE SENATE... AS LONG AS OBAMA IS PRESIDENT THEY'LL HAVE TO CONTEND WITH HIS VETO.

* FOLKS... THE YEARS 2007 THRU 2010 REALLY HURT THIS NATION. ENTIRE HISTORY BOOKS WILL BE WRITTEN ABOUT THOSE FOUR YEARS. AND NOW... EVEN WITH REPUBLICANS BACK IN CONTROL OF THE HOUSE... IT MAY BE TOO LATE TO SAVE THE SHIP OF STATE.

July 8, 2011 at 7:52 PM

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