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2011
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September
(20)
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September 30, 2011
- The Clinton Gambit
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 29, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 28, 2011
- Philadelphia is Literally in a State of Societal C...
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, September 27, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, September 26, 2011
- Reforming Social Security (The Texas Model)
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, September 23, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 22, 2011
- The Power of the Media
- By Walter E. Williams
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 21, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, September 20, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, Sept. 19, 2011
- Post-Vacation Newsbites - From My Emails... (9/18/11)
- About the Newsbites...
- Back From Oregon
- Yet Another Barker Vacation Adventure, Folks!
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, September 1, 2011
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September
(20)
About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
19 comments:
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/184561-house-passes-stopgap-spending-bill-through-oct-4
The House on Thursday approved a temporary spending bill to prevent a government shutdown at the end of the week.
* BUT... BUT... BUT... WASN'T IT ONLY LAST MONTH THAT...
(*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*)
(*SMIRK*)
The legislation allows the government to function through next Tuesday...
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* YEAH... THROUGH NEXT TUESDAY...
...giving time for House lawmakers to return to Washington next week to vote on a six-week funding measure already approved by the Senate.
* NOTICE THE LACK OF REPORTING ON THE ACTUAL AMOUNT THE DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED SENATE WANTS TO SPEND?!
The House approved the bill by unanimous consent, a more that did not require House members to return to Washington.
* BECAUSE, HEY... WE WOULDN'T WANT TO INTERRUPT THEIR LATEST VACATION!
(*BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE DESK*)
Passage of the bill was assured after Republicans and Democrats resolved a fight over disaster funding earlier in the week. That allowed the Senate to approve the short-term funding bill, and a longer-term temporary spending bill allowing government operations through November 18.
* ALL THE WAY TO NOVEMBER 18, HUH?! WOW... (*SNORT*)
Senate Democrats and House Republicans resolved their fight over disaster funding after the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced it did not need the billions in immediate funding for disaster aid that Democrats said was needed.
* CONSIDER THAT STATEMENT FOR JUST A MOMENT, FOLKS. FIRST THE SENATE DEMS TRIED TO PULL A FAST ONE AND INCREASE DEFICIT SPENDING YET AGAIN AND AS LONG AS THERE WAS A POSSIBILITY THEY'D GET THEIR WAY OBAMA'S APPOINTEES AT FEMA STAYED SILENT - HOPING TO GET MORE MONEY. ONLY AFTER HOUSE REPUBLICANS MADE IT CLEAR THAT THEY WOULDN'T SUPPORT INCREASED DEFICIT SPENDING DID FEMA SUDDENLY "VOLUNTEER" THAT THEY DIDN'T NEED THE EXTRA MONEY AFTER ALL.
* FOLKS... THESE PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTING.
That allowed both parties to drop GOP language that would have given FEMA another $1 billion in immediate funds, and offset that by cutting a Department of Energy program favored by Democrats.
* MEANING THE REPUBLICANS CAVED ON TAKING BACK MONEY OBAMA AND THE DEMS WANT TO PISS AWAY ON OUTFITS LIKE SOYNDRA.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*) AIN'T BIPARTISANSHIP GRAND?! (*SNICKER*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204226204576599102392710930.html?mod=WSJ_hps_editorsPicks_3
* SUBTITLE THIS NEWSBITE: "GOD BLESS STACIA HYLTON!"
The head of the U.S. Marshals Service ordered more than 100 headquarters employees to return government-owned sport-utility vehicles and high-horsepower sedans they had been using to commute to work, citing the "austere fiscal environment" for her decision.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
The Marshals Service has 152 "take home" vehicles assigned to its Arlington, Va., headquarters—one for nearly all of the 163 employees with law-enforcement badges who work there. By contrast, the Federal Bureau of Investigation headquarters is authorized to have a half-dozen such vehicles and the Drug Enforcement Administration headquarters just two, according to Justice Department officials.
Stacia Hylton, who took over as head of the Marshals Service in January, ordered a review of vehicle policy earlier this year. She said Wednesday she had issued a new policy effective next month that would remove 122 take-home vehicles and transfer 97 of them to U.S. Marshals field offices around the country. The rest would go to the agency's motor-vehicle pool.
(*STANDING OVATION*)
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/278635/mitch-daniels-dares-gop-candidates-be-grown-ups-michael-barone
Indiana governor Mitch Daniels message, based on his new book "Keeping the Republic," [is] important - one that every presidential candidate should heed.
It is about a looming issue, one that Barack Obama has so far decided to duck, but that one of them, if he is elected, may have to confront.
We face, Daniels says, “a survival-level threat to the America we have known.”
The problem can be summed up as debt. The Obama Democrats have put us on the path to double the national debt as a percentage of gross domestic product, bringing it to levels that, as economists Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart have written in "This Time Is Different," have always proved unsustainable.
Daniels put it this way: Debt service will permanently stunt the growth of the economy. And that will be followed by a loss of leadership in the world, because “nobody follows a pauper.”
(*NOD*)
That growth in debt will continue to be driven by growth in programs labeled entitlements - though Daniels objects to that term. Congress, after all, can vote to cancel entitlement programs and deny promised benefits any time it wants, as the Supreme Court ruled in Flemming v. Nestor in 1960.
* AND DANIELS IS NOT JUST BEING NITPICKY. HE'S ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. FAR TOO MANY POLITICIANS STRIVE TO GIVE THE FALSE IMPRESSION THAT THEIR HANDS ARE TIED WHEN IT COMES TO ENTITLEMENT SPENDING. THEY'RE NOT!
Daniels favors changes in Social Security and Medicare for tomorrow’s seniors that will give them choices and market incentives in building retirement income and seeking medical care. He insists that “average folks can make good consumerist decisions” and rejects the premise held by liberals from the New Deal to today that they can’t be trusted to navigate their way in our complex society.
This is quite a contrast with the Republicans out there running for president, who have had little to say about the problem of entitlements, in debates or in their platforms. Mitt Romney raises the problem but hesitates to advance solutions, and then attacks Rick Perry for making intemperate comments about Social Security in his book "Fed Up!"
* PERRY WAS RIGHT! SOCIAL SECURITY IS A PONZI SCHEME! ROMNEY SUCKS...
Daniels laments that the candidates “have not yet stepped out on these issues.” He says that he is “a little concerned that our nominee might decide, ‘I’ll just play it safe and get elected as the default option’” to an incumbent discredited by obvious policy failures.
“My question then is what matters - winning or establishing the base that enables you to make big gains?”
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Barack Obama sounded like such a candidate in 2008, and not just to his liberal admirers. He still tries to portray himself as the only adult in the room, the only one taking stands on principle and not for political gain. But it’s increasingly obvious he is something more nearly the opposite.
* IN CONTRAST...
George W. Bush did campaign for Social Security reform in 2004, hoping for bipartisan support in a second term.
* BUT THE RINOs WOULDN'T SUPPORT HIM. (*GRIMACE*)
Obama is campaigning against “millionaires” and “corporate jets.” His “jobs program” includes higher taxes on job creators. He brushed aside his deficit commission’s recommendation for tax reform that eliminates preferences and lowers rates. All this makes no sense as public policy and is dubious even as a campaign strategy.
The question is whether the Republican candidates will dare to, in Daniels’ words, “speak grownup to citizens.”
* THE PROBLEM IS... MOST CHRONOLOGICAL GROWN-UPS ARE JUST AS PRONE TO SWALLOW THE RED MEAT WHOLE AND LEAVE THE HARD JOB OF ACTUALLY THINKING TO OTHERS. (*SIGH*) (*SHRUG*)
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/278505/facing-shutdown-gop-goes-soft-michael-needham
For the second time this year, a government shutdown has been narrowly avoided. But while the spring battle over a continuing resolution was, in the end, a worthwhile exercise that demonstrated the intransigence of Senate Democrats in controlling our budget, this fall’s skirmish achieved little. The reason: House Republicans declined to stake out as strong a position as they had on H.R. 1.
* WHERE THEIR POSITION WASN'T EVEN ALL THAT STRONG!
* RECALL, FOLKS... "...the House Republican leadership had to be dragged kicking and screaming into defending H.R. 1"
The heated climate and gridlock that have overcome Washington this year are due to the simple fact that there are now three political forces in Congress: liberals, who want to continue expanding government en route to making America look more like Europe; conservatives, who want to end the status quo in Washington and return our country to its constitutional roots; and the establishment, which seeks to preserve a status quo that has become incredibly lucrative for politicians, lobbyists, Big Business, Big Labor, and the rest of the country’s elite.
* BINGO...!!!
Because the establishment and liberals share a common enemy - conservatives - they often work in tandem to avoid derailing the Washington status quo, which is an inexorable march toward more centralization of power in the federal government.
* AND THIS IS WHY MORE OFTEN THAN NOT "COMPROMISE" IS A DIRTY WORD.
Rank-and-file House conservatives and outside activists wanted this month’s CR to pass the House at the levels established in the House budget. This would have set up a similar showdown with a Senate majority that has to this day refused to present a budget.
Instead, the House caved on sticking to its budget.
Instead, the fight was over a few billion dollars in the amount of disaster funding and a $1 billion disagreement over whether to offset some of this funding. This fight did a disservice to the stark ideological differences between House conservatives and Senate Democrats.
Republicans were not put back in control of the House this year in order to avoid disruptions in governance and run out the clock until the 2012 elections. To the contrary, Americans say repeatedly in poll after poll that they are fed up with the way Washington works and want drastic change.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/278528/gop-needs-entitlement-plan-michael-tanner
There was telling moment during the CNN Republican presidential debate: Asked about the possibility of repealing George W. Bush’s Medicare prescription-drug benefit, which is adding some $17 trillion to Medicare’s unfunded liabilities, every one of the candidates pledged varying degrees of fealty to the program.
No one came out for significantly cutting this vestige of Bush-style big-government conservatism, let alone repealing it.
This put the current crop of Republicans to the left of John McCain, who at least campaigned in favor of means-testing the program in 2008.
(*SHRUG*)
For all the sound and fury, and the charges and counter-charges surrounding entitlement reform, the GOP candidates have been remarkably reluctant to put forward actual proposals.
(*SIGH*)
Mitt Romney...has been attacking Texas governor Rick Perry over Social Security from the left, praising the program as “an essential federal program,” that has been a “success” for more than 70 years. But for all his criticism of Perry, Romney has been much vaguer about his own plans for reform. At times he has sounded almost like Obama, suggesting that there are lots of reform ideas - raising the retirement age, means testing, changing the wage-price indexing formula - that are “on the table,” but not actually endorsing any of them.
* THAT'S BECAUSE ROMNEY IS A PIECE OF SHIT. (BUT, YEAH... IF HE'S THE NOMINEE HE GETS MY VOTE; IT'S IMPERATIVE THAT WE GET OBAMA OUT OF THE OVAL OFFICE!)
On Medicare, Romney has avoided specifics as well, praising Paul Ryan’s proposed reforms for example as “taking important strides in the right direction,” but not endorsing them.
(*SMIRK TURNING INTO A GRIMACE*)
For his part, Governor Perry has been forthright about the flaws of Social Security but has offered nothing in the way of a proposal for reform.
(*SIGH*)
Perry suggested in his book that Social Security might be returned to the states, but has since disavowed that idea, claiming that he was only referring to state employees, some 7 million of whom are currently outside the Social Security system.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
[Yes,] Perry has also praised the privatized system for public employees in Galveston and two other Texas counties, suggesting that he might be open to some type of private investment option. But “suggesting” is as far as he goes.
(*SHRUG*)
On Medicare, Perry has been equally murky. At times, he has suggested that we should “transition away from” the current Medicare system, but without saying what we should transition to. His aides point out that Perry has only recently joined the race and hasn’t had time to develop specific proposals. But given his fiery talk on the issues, until he does he will seem more hat than cattle.
(*NOD*)
* To be continued...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
Rep. Michelle Bachmann has also largely tried to have it both ways on entitlement reform.
* OH, YEAH... THAT'S THE TRUTH! (AND BELIEVE ME, FOLKS... I HATE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS!)
She voted for the Ryan plan in Congress but promptly put out a statement distancing herself from it, claiming that her vote came with an asterisk. On Social Security, Bachmann once called the program a “monstrous fraud,” but has now joined Romney in attacking Perry’s “Ponzi scheme” description. She says that a key difference between her and Perry is that she believes Social Security “is an important safety net and that the federal government should keep its promise to seniors.” But with Social Security currently facing more than $20 trillion in unfunded liabilities, the question is how it will keep that promise.
(*NOD*)
Second-tier candidates, with less to lose, have been more willing to spell out their proposals. Businessman Herman Cain, for example, supports both the Ryan plan and Chilean-style personal accounts for Social Security.
(*THUMBS UP*)
Former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum takes similar positions, as does former New Mexico governor Gary Johnson.
* HATE SANTORUM; LIKE JOHNSON! (*WINK*)
Newt Gingrich...has focused on cutting “fraud, waste, and abuse,” rather than fundamentally altering the structure of those programs.
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
The facts are both simple and frightening. The unfunded liabilities of Social Security and Medicare run between $50 trillion and $110 trillion. Those two programs, along with Medicaid, are the primary drivers of our future indebtedness. In fact, by 2050, those three programs alone will consume 18.4% of GDP. If one assumes that revenues return to and stay at their traditional 18% of GDP, then those three programs alone will consume all federal revenues. There would not be a single dime available for any other program of government, from national defense to welfare.
The Republican candidates all talk about reducing government spending. But they cannot do that unless they commit to real entitlement reform. There’s time, and lots of debates, to hear specifics from them. But so far, the omens are not auspicious.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/278029/what-constitutionalism-means-ramesh-ponnuru
[T]wo features of our constitutional politics could not be plainer:
First, that from Woodrow Wilson’s day to our own, progressives have been far more likely than conservatives to express impatience with the whole constitutional scheme of limited government; and...
[S]econd, that progressives have long sought, often successfully, and still seek to change the Constitution without going to the trouble of formally amending it.
The failed campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment in the 1970s was the last time liberals attempted to use the amendment process outlined in Article V of the Constitution.
* CONTRAST THAT WITH THE RECORDS OF REPUBLICANS IN GENERAL AND CERTAIN REPUBLICANS IN PARTICULAR:
Rick Perry [for example] has spoken favorably about amendments to end the lifetime tenure of federal judges, to allow super-majorities of Congress to overturn Supreme Court decisions, to repeal the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Amendments (which established, respectively, the income tax and the direct election of senators), to limit federal spending, to define marriage in American law as the union of a man and a woman, and to prohibit abortion.
* NOW SOME OF YOU MAY NOT AGREE WITH ALL OF THESE - I KNOW I DON'T - BUT THE POINT IS THAT PERRY RESPECTS THE CONSTITUTIONAL PROCESS! MOST DEMS (AND MORE THAN A FEW RINOs) DON'T!
Conservatives have promoted not only the amendments that Governor Perry has mentioned but additional measures allowing Congress to ban flag-burning, allowing schools to organize prayers, and letting a super-majority of state governments overturn federal laws.
* LIBERALS? THEY TEND TO PREFER RELYING UPON IDEOLOGICALLY FRIENDLY JUDGES. (*SHRUG*)
* To be continued...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
[Various] Supreme Court[s] have amended the Constitution hundreds of times, in ways large and small, by reinterpreting its provisions, almost always to serve progressive ends.
American constitutional law now includes restrictions on police procedure, regulations on permissible school-discipline policies, minute if unpredictable edicts about the proper placement of municipal displays involving religion, and rights to solicit and perform abortion at any stage of pregnancy.
* ULTIMATELY THE DEFINITION OF "LIFE" MUST BE A NATIONAL DEFINITION. (THAT'S MY VIEW.)
Constitutionalism...is simply a special case of respect for the rule of law: the case in which the law in question is the supreme law of the land. The rule of law demands that those who apply the law - be they judges, sheriffs, presidents, or governors - apply it faithfully. If those officials can change the meaning of the words, there is no point to having a written law.
(*NOD*)
There are different types of originalism, and legitimate debate about what counts as originalism. But constitutionalism - which is, again, to say the rule of law - entails some sort of originalism. The law has to be knowable, and its meaning has to be fixed at the time of enactment.
* HEAR! HEAR!
Officials who have to interpret the Constitution may or may not err in ascertaining the original meaning of the provisions at issue, or in inferring what norms that meaning implies, or in applying the norms to the legal case or policy dispute at hand. But any authoritative interpretation of the Constitution that departs from plausible understandings of the original meaning is itself a violation of the rule of law. Hence originalism is not merely one interpretive methodology among many.
* AUTHOR! AUTHOR!
To put it another way, constitutionalism rules out certain courses of action. It means that it is never acceptable for a congressman to vote for unconstitutional, or even doubtfully constitutional, legislation on the theory that the courts will sort it out.
(*NOD*)
Nor can a constitutionalist judge treat the Constitution as simply raising questions - e.g., what is the right relation of society to the individual? - to which the judge makes up an authoritative answer.
* EXACTLY!
There is, as we have seen, no contradiction in simultaneously believing that the Constitution should be obeyed and that it should be changed, or that it is great and that it can be improved.
* WHICH IS EXACTLY WHY THE FOUNDERS GAVE US THE AMENDMENT PROCESS!
http://www.wmur.com/money/29339772/detail.html
Bank of America plans to charge customers who use debit cards for purchases a monthly fee, a spokeswoman said.
* GOOD! LET 'EM! IF I HAD A BANK OF AMERICA ACCOUNT I'D CLOSE IT AND NO DOUBT MANY BANK OF AMERICA CUSTOMERS WILL DO JUST THAT.
Starting next month, Wells Fargo will charge customers a $3 monthly fee for debit card use in Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Washington as a test.
* AGAIN... THE PROPER RESPONSE TO THIS IS... WELL... WHATEVER A PERSON DECIDES! ME? I'D CLOSE MY ACCOUNT.
* FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... THIS IS HOW A CAPITALISTIC SOCIETY IS SUPPOSED TO WORK! PEOPLE ARE FACED WITH CHOICES - THEY MAKE THEIR DECISIONS AS THEY SEE FIT.
New banking regulations that go into effect Oct. 1 cut the debit card fees that banks charge retailers in half. Before the new regulations, banks were allowed to charge up to 44 cents. They must now cut that to 21 cents.
* AND THIS IS AN EXAMPLE OF GOVERNMENT RUN AMOK. WHAT BUSINESS IS IT OF GOVERNMENT TO TELL BANKS WHAT THEY CAN OR CAN'T TRY TO CHARGE BUSINESSES FOR ACCEPTING THEIR CUSTOMER'S NON-CASH PAYMENTS? LET THE BUSINESSES FIGHT THEIR OWN BATTLES JUST AS CONSUMERS DO!
* FOLKS... THE REASON COMPETITION WORKS IS BECAUSE... er... THERE ARE CHOICES TO BE MADE AND PEOPLE MAKE THEM!
* BTW... HAT TIP TO MY BUDDY MIKE D. FOR FORWARDING ME THIS NEWSBITE MATERIAL.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/crony-capitalism-737-million-green-jobs-loan-given-nancy-pelosis-brother-law_594593.html
Despite the growing Solyndra scandal, yesterday the Department of Energy approved $1 billion in new loans to green energy companies - including a $737 million loan guarantee to a company known as SolarReserve.
On SolarReserve's website is a list of "investment partners," including the "PCG Clean Energy & Technology Fund (East) LLC."
As blogger American Glob quickly discovered, PCG's number two is none other than "Ronald Pelosi, a San Francisco political insider and financial industry polymath who happens to be the brother-in-law of Nancy Pelosi, the Minority Leader of the United States House of Representatives."
* FOLKS... MONEY AND POWER GO TOGETHER AND POWER WANTS MONEY AS MUCH AS MONEY WANTS POWER!
But wait... there's more! One of SolarReserve's other investment partners is Argonaut Private Equity.
* FOLKS... THE MANAGING DIRECTOR OF ARGONAUT IS A GUY BY THE NAME OF STEVE MITCHELL. (READ ON...)
Mitchell served on the Solyndra LLC Board of Directors.
* OH...! DID HE NOW?! HOW INTERESTING...
* APPARENTLY THE LESSON IS: IF IN THE AGE OF OBAMA AT FIRST YOU DON'T SUCCEED WITH PUBLIC MONEY... TRY, TRY AGAIN... WITH MORE TAXPAYER MONEY FUNNELLED YOU BY... er... THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION!
And for good measure, it's also noteworthy that Obama is about to hold a big money fundraiser at the home of Tom Carnahan in St. Louis.
* WHO IS TOM CARNAHAN YOU MIGHT ASK... NOW WHERE HAVE YOU HEARD THAT NAME - "CARNAHAN" - BEFORE...???
Tom Carnahan is the son of former Missouri governor Mel Carnahan and former U.S. senator Jean Carnahan. He's also the brother of current Missouri secretary of state, Robin Carnahan.
* OH... BUT THERE'S MORE! (READ ON!)
[Mr. Carnahan] is chairman of the board of Wind Capital Group, a wind energy company that makes it corporate headquarters in St. Louis. He formerly was president and CEO of the company. Last year, Wind Capital's Lost Creek Farm facility in northwest Missouri received a $107 million tax credit from the Treasury Department, among many such wind operations receiving support from from stimulus funds.
* NICE... (*SNICKER*)
It's increasingly hard to tell the government's green jobs subsidies apart from the Democrats' friends and family rewards program.
* WHICH BRINGS US BACK TO THAT NAGGING QUESTION... IF VIOLENCE ISN'T THE ANSWER... THEN WHAT IS? HOW DO WE STOP THE OLIGARCHS AND KLEPTOCRATS SANS VIOLENCE WHEN THEY CONTROL THE WHITE HOUSE AND THE SENATE?
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/A/AF_EQUATORIAL_GUINEA_UN_PRIZE?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-09-29-14-25-35
The African heads of state who converged on the capital of Equatorial Guinea this summer are used to life's finer things - yet even they were impressed.
The minuscule nation located on the coast of Central Africa spent several times its yearly education budget to build a new $800 million resort in which to house the presidents attending this summer's African Union summit.
Besides an 18-hole golf course, a five-star hotel and a spa, the country built a villa for each of the continent's 52 presidents. Each one came with a gourmet chef and a private elevator leading to a suite overlooking the mile-long artificial beach that had been sculpted out of the country's coast especially for them.
Western diplomats say that the charm offensive worked, and on Friday the United Nations' cultural arm may be forced to create a prize named after Equatorial Guinea's notoriously corrupt president, due to a resolution passed in June by the presidents staying at the lavish resort.
If that happens President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, a man whose regime is accused of gross human rights violations, will be associated with an organization whose stated mission is the promotion of peace and human rights through cultural dialogue.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
Obiang seized power in a coup 32 years ago after toppling the former leader, who was executed. The United Nations Rapporteur on Torture toured the country's prisons in 2008 and determined that torture is systematic, including using electroshocks through starter cables attached to the detainees' body with alligator clips.
In February, the government imposed a blackout on news regarding the Arab Spring uprising. A disc jockey who dared refer to Libya during his music program had his microphone cut off minutes into his show and the program was pulled off the air for two months.
The Obiang family has become fabulously wealthy during the president's reign and is accused of pilfering the nation's oil wealth. The United States Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations held hearings to discuss how Obiang's son used lawyers, realtors and bankers to help him transfer $110 million of suspect funds to the U.S. The money was used to purchase a $30 million mansion in Malibu and a $38 million plane, according to a separate Justice Department inquiry.
On Thursday, French officials in Paris seized 16 luxury cars, including a Bugatti Veyron worth more than $1.3 million allegedly belonging to Obiang's son, in a probe into claims that the Equatoguinean leader had misspent public funds in France. And earlier this month, a lawyer close to former French President Jacques Chirac claimed in a memoir that Obiang had tried to give the French government suitcases of cash in order to secure favor.
* AND THIS IS THE MAN HIS FELLOW AFRICAN "LEADERS" HOPE TO HONOR USING U.N. FUNDS - 25% OF WHICH ARE PROVIDED YEAR IN AND YEAR OUT BY U.S. TAXPAYERS.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-29/u-s-decries-excessive-salaries-in-new-un-budget.html
The U.S. pays 22% of the UN’s regular operating budget and is assessed 27% of the peacekeeping budget.
* THUS "25%" IS THE FIGURE MOST COMMONLY CITED.
U.S. payments totaled $3.35 billion in 2010.
The U.S. ambassador for UN management and reform, Joseph M. Torsella, said today that the proposed $5.2 billion UN budget for the next two years would scrap only 44 jobs, a 0.4% reduction. After an “onslaught” of add-ons, the 2012-13 budget would rise more than 2% to $5.5 billion, he said. “That is not a break from ‘business as usual’ but a continuation of it,” Torsella said in a speech in New York to the UN’s administrative and budgetary committee. “How does management intend to bring these numbers and costs back in line?”
The Obama administration, he said, “calls for a comprehensive, department-by-department, line-by-line review of this budget” and a new process to approve UN funding.
* HA! HA! HA! YEAH... JUST LIKE THEY PRACTICE WITH THE U.S. BUDGET! (*SNORT*) (*IN DANGER OF FALLING OFF MY CHAIR I'M LAUGHING SO HARD*)
“It is our obligation to our taxpayers to do more with less in Washington and here at the UN,” he said.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* SO... HOW DO OBAMA ADMINISTRATION ACTIONS COMPARE TO OBAMA ADMINISTRATION RHETORIC? (AS IF YOU DIDN'T KNOW...) (*SMIRK*)
While pressing for savings in the UN budget, the Obama administration is opposed to withholding U.S. funding.
* ONE MORE TIME, KIDDIES...
While pressing for savings in the UN budget, the Obama administration is opposed to withholding U.S. funding.
Legislation by Florida’s Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, demands that the U.N. let countries decide how much to pay and which programs they will support, rather than assessing payments based on a formula. It would end funding for Palestinian refugees, limit use of U.S. funds only to purposes outlined by Congress and put a hold on creating or expanding peacekeeping operations until management changes are made.
That approach to forcing UN reform is “fundamentally flawed in concept and practice, sets it back, is self-defeating, and doesn’t work,” U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice, said on Sept. 13.
(*SNORT*)
* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
An attempt in the House in 2006 to pass legislation tying payments to UN management changes failed.
* AND, FOLKS... RECALL... IN 2006 REPUBLICANS STILL CONTROLLED BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS!
* FOLKS... MY POINT... BEWARE BOTH DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICRATS! NO DOUBT MANY OF THOSE (SO-CALLED REPUBLICAN) "NAY" VOTES WILL WANT TO REAR THEIR UGLY HEADS SHOULD ROS-LEHTINEN'S SENSIBLE LEGISLATION COME TO THE FLOOR. (WHERE NO DOUBT OBAMA WOULD VETO IT!)
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2011/09/29/20110929afghanistan-violence-up-39-percent-over-2010.html
The monthly average of armed clashes, roadside bombings and other violence in Afghanistan is running 39% ahead of last year's figure, the U.N. reported Wednesday, with more complex suicide operations involving multiple bombers and gunmen.
* OH, YEAH... WE'RE DEFINITELY "WINNING." YEAH... JUST LIKE CHARLIE SHEEN... (DUH!)
The statistics show that the intensity of the nearly decade-old war is growing, not abating, as the U.S. and other nations start to withdraw some forces with an eye toward pulling all combat troops out by the end of 2014.
* LISTEN... FOLKS... I HATE TO WRITE THIS - BUT IT'S TRUE; EACH AND EVERY AMERICAN WHO HAS DIED OR BEEN WOUNDED IN AFGHANISTAN SINCE THE DAY BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA WAS ELECTED PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES HAS BEEN A WASTE.
* I MYSELF BELIEVE THE WAR WAS "LOST" FAR BEFORE OBAMA WON ELECTION, BUT AT LEAST BUSH BELIEVED IN THE WAR - AS DID MCCAIN. WE ALL KNEW THE OBAMA WOULD POLITICIZE THE WAR AND BASE STRATEGY AND TACTICS MAINLY UPON HIS PERCEPTION OF HOW THE DOMESTIC POLITICAL REACTION WOULD PLAY OUT. DISGUSTING!
NATO says it has made progress...
(*SIGH*)
* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... IF IT WERE YOUR SON... DAUGHTER... BROTHER... SISTER... NEICE... NEPHEW... MOTHER... FATHER... UNCLE... AUNT... BEST FRIEND... LOVED ONE... IN AFGHANISTAN WOULD YOU VIEW THEIR DEATH OR DISMEMBERMENT AS HAVING "PROTECTED" THE HOMELAND?
* FOLKS... BUSH IN HIS SECOND TERM AND OBAMA ALL ALONG HAS BEEN ENGAGED IN NATION-BUILDING. IT'S A FOOL'S ERRAND. WE SHOULD HAVE WITHDRAWN OUR MAJOR FORCES FROM AFGHANISTAN THE MOMENT KARZAI TOOK OFFICE. TO IMAGINE OUR FELLOW CITIZENS BLEEDING AND DYING FOR THAT DRUG-RUNNING SON OF A BITCH... (*SIGH*) BUT, HEY... THAT'S U.S. POLICY... THAT REPUBLICRAT AS WELL AS DEMPUBLICAN POLICY.
http://abclocal.go.com/kfsn/story?section=news/state&id=8372183
A Northern California teacher says he doesn't want to hear a common courtesy in his classroom.
He's even lowering students' grades if they say "bless you" after someone sneezes.
Steve Cuckovich says the practice is disrespectful and disruptive. He's banned saying "bless you" in his high school health class in Vacaville.
He even knocked 25 points from one student's grade for saying the phrase in class.
Cuckovich says the policy has nothing to do with religion, but says the phrase is just a outdated practice and disrupts class time.
* FOLKS... THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM! FIRE THIS DUMB BASTARD! NO ONE THIS INSANE SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO WORK WITH CHILDREN!
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2011/sep/5-mil-performance-bonus-food-stamp-sign
* FOLKS... YOU CAN TRUST JUDICIAL WATCH!
In its quest to promote taxpayer-funded entitlement programs, the Obama Administration has actually rewarded one state with a $5 million bonus for its efficiency in adding food-stamp recipients to already bulging rolls.
(*MASSIVE MIGRAINE HEADACHE BUILDING*)
It’s part of the administration’s campaign to eradicate “food insecure households” by improving access and increasing participation in the government’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP).
* FRANKLY... I'D CUT PROGRAM FUNDING BY 50% RIGHT OFF THE TOP AND THEN TIGHTEN THE REGULATIONS ON WHAT COULD BE PURCHASED TO THE MAX!
Incidentally, the program was recently changed to SNAP to eliminate the stigma that comes with a name like food stamps.
* I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT THE RATIO OF BUMS TO TRULY NEEDY AND DESERVING REALLY IS, BUT I KNOW THAT FAR TOO MANY CRETINS ARE RECEIVING MY TAX MONEY AND PISSING IT AWAY.
* I DON'T WANT TO "ELIMINATE" THE STIGMA OF WELFARE; I WANT TO INCREASE THE STIGMA!
Just a few months ago the federal agency that administers the program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), launched a multi-million-dollar initiative to recruit more food-stamp participants even though the number of recipients has skyrocketed in the last few years.
* RECRUIT...?!?! RECRUIT...?!?! SICK! THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM! THE FOX IS GUARDING THE HENHOUSE!
This week Oregon officials bragged that the USDA has given the state $5 million in “performance bonuses” for ensuring that people eligible for food benefits receive them and for its “swift processing of applications.” The money comes on the heels of a separate $1.5 million award from the feds for making “accurate payments of food stamp benefits to clients.”
(So welfare recipients are clients?)
(*SMIRK*) (*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
It marks the fifth consecutive year that Oregon has been “recognized” by the federal government for “exceptional administration” of the entitlement program, according to the announcement posted on the state’s Department of Human Services web site. The state official who runs SNAP assures that her staff will “continue working very hard to exceed expectations” so that Oregonians can “put healthy foods on their table quickly.”
Could this be why the number of food-stamp beneficiaries in Oregon has increased dramatically in the last few years? Since 2008 the state has seen a 60% boost in the number of food-stamp recipients, which means that more than 780,000 people (one out of five Oregonians) get groceries compliments of Uncle Sam.
* OH... MY... FRIGG'N... GOD...?!?!
As if this weren’t bad enough, the feds are also giving the state a two-year grant to test an “innovative approach” to the food-stamp “client eligibility review process.” This will make it even easier for people to get food stamps because it grants state officials a waiver that allows them to grant the benefit without interviewing the candidate.
(*LITERALLY HOLDING BACK TEARS OF RAGE AND FRUSTRATION*)
* MY COUNTRY... MY POOR, POOR COUNTRY...
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576601232726499962.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
* SUBTITLE: "THIS MAKES BILL SAD"
The Friendly's restaurant chain is preparing for a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and potential sale, said people familiar with the matter.
* OH... MAN! THIS SUCKS...!!!
* I'M GONNA ASK MARY IF SHE WANTS TO GO TO FRIENDLY'S FOR DINNER TONIGHT!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576601232726499962.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTTopStories
* SUBTITLE: "THIS MAKES BILL SAD"
The Friendly's restaurant chain is preparing for a possible Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing and potential sale, said people familiar with the matter.
* OH... MAN! THIS SUCKS...!!!
* I'M GONNA ASK MARY IF SHE WANTS TO GO TO FRIENDLY'S FOR DINNER TONIGHT!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204138204576600254160220700.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
German Chancellor Angela Merkel's fractious coalition won a brief reprieve on Thursday, as lawmakers from the center-right ruling parties closed ranks and passed legislation to expand the euro-zone's bailout fund.
* WOW... THIS FRIGG'N NUTTY GERMANS ARE SUICIDAL! WHAT A BUNCH OF MORONS!
In the run-up to the vote, Ms. Merkel had faced a revolt of critics within her coalition who were determined to stop expansion of the European Financial Stability Facility, threatening to add to the chancellor's difficulties in helping tackle the euro-zone debt crisis. In the end, she received the psychologically important absolute majority, but Parliament gave itself veto rights over any future bailouts, tying Ms. Merkel's hands in future euro-zone negotiations.
* WELL... I SUPPOSE THAT'S BETTER THAN NOTHING. GOOD FOR THE GERMAN PARLIAMENT!
The 17 euro-zone governments agreed in March and July to expand and reform the EFSF, boosting the lending capacity of the fund to $596 billion. The fund also will receive additional powers, such as the ability to extend credit lines to banks and buy bonds on the secondary market.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* GREECE CAN'T BE SAVED! THE GERMANS (AND US, TOO, SINCE WE FUND THE IMF AND THE IMF FUNDS THIS INSANITY) ARE TOSSING GOOD MONEY AFTER BAD! THEY'RE SIMPLY DELAYING THE "FALL" - WHICH WHEN IT FINALLY HAPPENS WILL NOW BE WORSE!
Ms. Merkel's problems are just beginning. While the EFSF is a big step, it is widely seen as not bold enough to immunize Europe against the spread of financial contagion.
(*SNORT*)
* SOUND FAMILIAR?
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204226204576599233579224462.html?grcc=88888&mod=WSJ_hps_sections_news
* SUBTITLE: "SPEAKING OF THE FUTURE..."
In Florida, the nation's largest presidential swing state, the voting-age Hispanic population grew by nearly 250,000 people between 2008 and 2010, census data show. By contrast, the voting-age white population grew by 30,400.
(*SIGH*)
Nevada added more than 44,000 voting-age Hispanics over the same period, more than double the increase of 18,000 voting-age whites.
(*DEEPER SIGH*)
And in New Mexico, the voting-age Hispanic total rose by more than 36,000, outpacing the growth among whites of just over 19,000.
(*DEEPEST SIGH*)
* FOLKS... CONSIDER... HOW HAS THE GROWTH OF MEXICO'S HISPANIC POPULATION EFFECTED MEXICO?
(*SNORT*) (*CHUCKLE*) (*GUFFAW*)
* YES, FOLKS... "BLACK HUMOR" INDEED! (WELL... "BROWN HUMOR" AT LEAST!)
* O.K., FOLKS... IN TOTAL SERIOUSNESS... (READ ON...)
The Republican economic message doesn't appear to be resonating among Hispanics...
Resurgent Republic [Polling] asked Hispanics in Florida, Colorado and New Mexico whether they agreed that the best way to improve the economy was to increase government investment in job training, education and infrastructure, or by reining in government spending, lowering taxes and reducing excessive regulations.
In Colorado, a swing state, 56% sided with more government spending, as Mr. Obama has proposed, while 37% sided with less government, as Republicans propose.
In Florida, the spread was 52% to 40%. In New Mexico, it was 59%-30%.
* FOLKS... THE REASON I OFTEN SAY I DOUBT THE U.S. CAN BE SAVED IS BECAUSE WE'RE NOT TALKING THE U.S. OF YESTERYEAR.
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