Monday, September 26, 2011

Barker's Newsbites: Monday, September 26, 2011


The cement is just... it's just for the weight, babe...
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4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2011/09/obama-congressional-black-caucus-video-gaffe.html

* FOLKS... THE PROBLEM HERE ISN'T THE GAFF... IT'S THE ATTEMPTED COVER-UP! IT'S THE DECEIT... THE MANIPULATION... THE OBVIOUSLY ATTEMPT BY MOST OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA TO PROVIDE COVER FOR OBAMA. (FOLKS... THIS IS THE FIRST I'M READING THE FULL STORY!)

President Obama spoke to the Congressional Black Caucus awards banquet over the weekend.

He got into the usual yada-yada about rich people paying their fair share of taxes.

And then, deep into the speech, according to the White House transcript, the president said:

"When you start saying, at a time when the top one-tenth of one percent has seen their incomes go up four or five times over the last twenty years, and folks at the bottom have seen their incomes decline and your response is that you want poor folks to pay more? Give me a break. If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that."

That's what the transcript says he said.

* AH... BUT WATCH THE CLIP AND LISTEN TO THE VIDEO PROVIDED VIA C-SPAN; THAT'S NOT WHAT OBAMA SAID! (NOT AT FIRST!)

Here is what the president actually said, catching himself almost in time but not quite:

"If asking a billionaire to pay the same tax rate as a Jew, uh, as a janitor makes me a warrior for the working class, I wear that with a badge of honor. I have no problem with that."

(*SMIRK*)

* FOLKS... COM'ON... IMAGINE HAD BUSH MADE SUCH A FLUB - OR DAN QUAYLE! (*CHUCKLING*) AND IN ALL SERIOUSNESS... THERE ARE PLENTY OF WORDS WHICH BEGIN WITH THE LETTER "J" BESIDES JEW. I'M NOT A SHRINK, BUT... COM'ON... (*SMIRK*)

September 26, 2011 at 11:32 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-fema-lines-20110926,0,4511494.story

* GET READY TO PUKE, FRIENDS...

* READ THE ARTICLE ONLY IF YOU HAVE A STRONG STOMACH.

September 26, 2011 at 2:53 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1914:a-palestinian-state&catid=62:texas-straight-talk&Itemid=69

* AS ALWAYS, CONGRESSMAN RON PAUL MAKES A GREAT DEAL OF SENSE.

The Palestinian Authority's recent announcement that it would seek UN recognition as an independent state dominated the news and the political debate in the United States last week, though in truth it should mean very little to us. Only a political class harboring the illusion it can run the world obsesses over the aspirations of a tiny population on a tiny piece of land thousands of miles away. Remember, the UN initiated this persistent conflict with its 1947 Partition Plan.

Unfortunately the debate is dominated by those who either support the Israeli side in the conflict, or those who support the Palestinian desire for statehood.

We rarely seem to hear the view of those who support the US side and US interests. I am on that side.

(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

I believe that we can no longer police the world. We can no longer bribe the Israelis and Palestinians to continue an endless "peace process" that goes nowhere. It is not in our interest to hector the Palestinians or the Israelis, or to "export" democracy to the region but reject it when people vote the "wrong" way.

(*NOD*)

I have reservations about the Palestinian drive for UN recognition. Personally I wish the United States would de-recognize the United Nations.

(*THUMBS UP*)

* To be continued...

September 26, 2011 at 11:15 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

As most readers already know, in every Congress I introduce legislation to end our membership in that organization. The UN is a threat to our sovereignty - and as we are the main source of its income, it is a threat to our economic well-being.

Increasingly over the past several years, we see the United Nations providing political and legal cover for the military aspirations of interventionists rather than serving as an international forum to preserve peace.

Neoconservatives in the US have grown to love the United Nations as they co-opt the organization under the guise of endless "reform." Under the sovereignty-destroying doctrine of "Responsibility to Protect," adopted at the 2005 World Summit, the UN takes it upon itself to intervene in internal conflicts of its member states whenever it believes that human rights are being violated. Thus under "Responsibility to Protect," the UN provides the green light for a kind of global no-knock raid on any sovereign country.

If asked, I would personally counsel the Palestinians to avoid the United Nations. UN membership and participation is no guarantee that sovereignty will be respected. We see what happens to UN members such as Iraq and Libya when those countries' leaders fall out of favor with US administrations: under US and allied pressure a fig leaf resolution is adopted in the UN to facilitate devastating military intervention.

When the UN gave NATO the green light to bomb Libya there was no genocide taking place. It was a purely preventative warThe result? Thousands dead, a destroyed country, and extremely dubious new leaders.

(*SHRUG*)

While I do not see UN membership as a particularly productive move for the Palestinian leadership, I do not believe the US should use its position in the UN Security Council to block their membership. I believe in self-determination of peoples and I recognize that peoples may wish to pursue statehood by different means. As we saw after the Cold War, numerous new states were born out of the ruins of the USSR as the various old Soviet Republics decided that smaller states were preferable to an enormous and oppressive multi-national conglomerate.

The real, pro-US solution to the problems in the Middle East is for us to end all foreign aid, stop arming foreign countries, encourage peaceful diplomatic resolutions to conflicts, and disengage militarily. In others words, follow Jefferson's admonition: "Peace, commerce, and honest friendship with all nations, entangling alliances with none."

September 26, 2011 at 11:16 PM

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