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2011
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October
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- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, October 31, 2011
- If You Don't See The Decline, You're Blind
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Oct. 29 & 30, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, October 28, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, October 27, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, October 26, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, October 25, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, October 24, 2011
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Oct. 22 & 23, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, October 21, 2011
- Allied With Savages
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, October 20, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, October 19, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, October 18, 2011
- Attn: Dr. Nan Hayworth, Member of Congress (R-NY-19)
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, October 17, 2011
- Weekend Newsbites: Fri.-Sat.-Sun., Oct. 14 thru 16...
- So... Front Page on Drudge... "Suicide of a Superp...
- Ranting, Raving, and (Maybe!) a Few Newsbites
- Drunk'n Debauchery in Key West 2011
- T...I...R...E...D... (Just... so... frigg'n... tir...
- Barker's Pre-Vacation Newsbites: Oct. 4, 2011
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, October 3, 2011
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Oct. 1 & 2, 2011
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October
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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://washingtonexaminer.com/politics/2011/10/us-confirms-attacks-pakistani-military-units
* BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA - COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF; HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON - SECRETARY OF STATE
(*SMIRK*)
Pakistani military units fired shots at American and Afghan government troops along the Afghanistan border several times over the past year, in encounters the United States has downplayed but that illustrate the fraying relations between the countries, according to officials.
"We're not allowed to return fire to coordinates inside the Pakistan border," a military official told The Examiner on the condition he not be named. "We know it's the Pakistani military in many cases. Pakistan has been instigating, aiding Haqqani, and has been purposefully working to turn back any gains ISAF has made in the region."
Another U.S. official said, "This has been going on for some time, but because it's so sensitive it has been kept relatively quiet."
(*SMIRK*) YEAH... I BET IT HAS BEEN. GREAT "ALLIANCE," HUH?
On Wednesday, Afghanistan's foreign ministry issued an angry warning to Pakistan after claiming that about 300 rockets had been launched across the Pakistani border into the Nuristan and Kunar provinces of Afghanistan, killing an unspecified number of civilians.
* YEP... THAT HILLARY CLINTON... A NATURAL DIPLOMAT!
(*SNORT*)
Last month, U.S. Apache helicopter crews were fired upon by Pakistan, and they returned fire, wounding at least two Pakistani soldiers, International Security Assistance Force officials said. The American aircraft were in Afghan airspace, according to an ISAF spokesman. Pakistan accused the helicopter crews of crossing the border.
* SO LET'S RECAP: SUPPOSEDLY BOTH THE AFGHANIS AND THE PAKISTANIS ARE OUR ALLIES... OFFICIALLY THEY'RE WORKING IN TANDEM TO ERRADICATE THE TALIBAN... WE'RE FUNDING BOTH SIDES...
* AT THE SAME TIME, WE CAN'T TRUST THE AFGHANIS... WE CAN'T TRUST THE PAKISTANIS... WE'RE SECRETLY NEGOTIATING WITH THE TALIBAN...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* To be continued...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
* FOLKS... JUST AS TOTAL INCOMPETENTS ARE RUNNING U.S. ECONOMIC POLICY, SO TOO ARE TOTAL INCOMPETENTS RUNNING U.S. FOREIGN POLICY AND MILITARY POLICY. EVERYTHING THESE PEOPLE TOUCH GOES TO SHIT...!!!
Tension between the U.S. and Pakistan has recently reached levels not seen since the countries were thrown into the common cause of defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Earlier this month, Adm. Mike Mullen, the just-retired chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused the Haqqani family network of being a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's military and intelligence service.
It has been a tough year for U.S.-Pakistani relations. Pakistan arrested CIA contractor Raymond Davis in January after a deadly shooting that he said was in self-defense during a robbery; the case festered until Davis was released in mid-March. Then the U.S. mounted an elaborate mission to kill Osama bin Laden deep inside Pakistan without telling that country's leaders.
Bruce Riedel, a former CIA officer and senior adviser to three U.S. presidents, said that Pakistan believes the U.S. is ready to call it quits in Afghanistan, and Pakistan is trying to "push us out faster."
Pakistan has increased the use of its Afghan proxies to carry out terror operations in an effort to exhaust U.S. and European patience at home, knowing that President Obama has called for U.S. forces to withdraw by 2014. Pakistani military leaders believe "they can weather the blowback from Washington" because the U.S. needs Pakistan's logistical supply lines stretching from Karachi to Kabul, Riedel said.
At the same time, he said, Pakistan is preparing to replace the billions of dollars of critical military aid it has been receiving from the U.S. by courting China and soliciting help from Islamic ally Saudi Arabia.
* ONE MORE TIME, FOLKS... BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA... HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON... THE BUCK STOPS AT THEIR DESKS. NOTICE THAT THE BUCK AIN'T LOOKING ALL THAT GOOD SINCE THEY TOOK OFFICE!
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/story/2011-10-02/ieds-traced-to-pakistan/50638686/1
Pakistan is the source of explosives in the vast majority of makeshift bombs insurgents in Afghanistan planted this summer to attack U.S. troops, according to U.S. military commanders.
From June through August, U.S. troops detected or were hit by 5,088 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the most for any three-month period since the war began in 2001.
Those bombs killed 63 troops and wounded 1,234, Defense Department records show.
More than 80% of the IEDs are homemade explosives using calcium ammonium nitrate fertilizer produced in Pakistan, said Navy Capt. Douglas Borrebach, deputy director for resources and requirements at the Pentagon's Joint IED Defeat Organization.
(*SHRUG*)
* EACH AMERICAN MAIMED OR KILLED IS MAIMED OR KILLED FOR NO OTHER REASON THAN TO ALLOW BARAK HUSSEIN OBAMA TO CLAIM HE'S NOT "SOFT." IS THE PRICE PAID WORTH IT? I DON'T THINK SO.
http://www.infowars.com/occupy-wall-street-protesters-call-totalitarian-government-re-election-of-obama/
* A VERY AMUSING ARTICLE... IN A "BLACK COMEDY" SENSE.
[M]any of the Occupy Wall Street protesters...
* ARE IDIOTS. (*SIGH*) NOT SURPRISING... BUT VERY FRUSTRATING.
Watch the clip below (click and refer to the actual article which provides links) in which journalist Adam Kokesh talks to Occupy Wall Street protesters. The ignorance displayed in these interviews knows no bounds. The protesters just don’t get it.
(*SNORT*) AND THIS SURPRISES ANYONE...?!?!
The zeal for totalitarian government amongst some of the “protesters” is shocking. One sign being carried around read, “A government is an entity which holds the monopolistic right to initiate force,” which seems a little ironic when protesters complain about being physically assaulted by police in the same breath.
One woman interviewed by Kokesh also announces her intention to help Obama to capture a second term. How can a self-proclaimed Occupy Wall Street protester simultaneously support the man whose 2008 campaign was bankrolled by Wall Street, whose 2012 campaign is reliant on Wall Street to an even greater extent, and whose cabinet was filled with Wall Street operatives?
Something is very wrong with this picture.
* YA THINK...?!?!
Corporations and government enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship - getting one to regulate the other is asinine and only hurts smaller businesses who are legitimately trying to compete in a free market economy that barely exists. The usual suspects, mega-rich foundations and elitists, behind the young radicals have also started to emerge - George Soros, The Ruckus Society, the Tides Foundation and the Ford Foundation.
(*SNORT*)
* ANYWAY, FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... IT IS WHAT IT IS IN THE AGE OF OBAMA.
http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/10/the-secret-memo-that-explains-why-obama-can-kill-americans/246004/
Outside the U.S. government, President Obama's order to kill American citizen Anwar al-Awlaki without due process has proved controversial...
* "CONTROVERSIAL...?!?!"
Inside the Obama Administration, however, disagreement was apparently absent, or so say anonymous sources quoted by the Washington Post.
* GOTTA LUV THE MSM AND THEIR "ANONYMOUS" SOURCES!
"The Justice Department wrote a secret memorandum authorizing the lethal targeting of Anwar al-Aulaqi, the American-born radical cleric who was killed by a U.S. drone strike Friday, according to administration officials," the newspaper reported.
* FIRST OF ALL, BY WHAT "AUTHORITY" DOES THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT "AUTHORIZE" THE TARGETED ASSASSINATION OF U.S. CITIZENS ABSENT TRIAL (IN ABSENTIA IF NECESSARY) AND CONVICTION? SECOND OF ALL... THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS SUBSERVIANT TO THE PRESIDENT AS AN EXECUTIVE BRANCH DEPARTMENT. OBAMA'S WILL ITSELF IS THE "AUTHORITY" THEY'RE CLAIMING. (*SNORT*)
"The document was produced following a review of the legal issues raised by striking a U.S. citizen and involved senior lawyers from across the administration. There was no dissent about the legality of killing Aulaqi, the officials said."
(*CHUCKLE*) WATERBOARDING FOREIGN TERRORISTS, "NO"... ORDERING THE ASSASSINATION OF U.S. CITIZENS ABSENT DUE PROCESS, "FINE."
[T]he actual legal reasoning the Department of Justice used to authorize the strike? It's secret.
Classified.
Information that the public isn't permitted to read, mull over, or challenge.
(*SNORT*)
Why? What justification can there be for President Obama and his lawyers to keep secret what they're asserting is a matter of sound law? This isn't a military secret. It isn't an instance of protecting CIA field assets, or shielding a domestic vulnerability to terrorism from public view. This is an analysis of the power that the Constitution and Congress' post September 11 authorization of military force gives the executive branch.
This is a president exploiting official secrecy so that he can claim legal justification for his actions without having to expose his specific reasoning to scrutiny. As the Post put it, "The administration officials refused to disclose the exact legal analysis used to authorize targeting Aulaqi, or how they considered any Fifth Amendment right to due process."
Obama hasn't just set a new precedent about killing Americans without due process. He has done so in a way that deliberately shields from public view the precise nature of the important precedent he has set.
[So much] for the president who promised to create a White House that's more transparent and accountable than anything we've seen before.
http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1915:the-fed-twists-the-market-shouts&catid=62:texas-straight-talk&Itemid=69
Last week the Federal Reserve began the second incarnation of "Operation Twist," an attempt to drive down interest rates by purchasing long-term Treasury debt and selling short-term debt. This is just the latest instance of the central bank desperately flailing around doing something merely for the sake of doing something.
Fed officials still do not understand - or admit - that the Fed itself caused the financial crisis by driving interest rates too low and relentlessly expanding the money supply. Thus, this latest action will just exacerbate the problem.
(*NOD*)
Markets, however, understand that the Fed has failed and has no clue what it is doing.
This is why markets went into a tailspin after the Fed's new strategy was announced.
Stock, bonds, and commodities dropped in price while the financial press wondered whether this worldwide sell-off meant that the entire system was collapsing.
Not since 2008 had there been such a dramatic drop across so many different sectors of the market.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Because of continued rising inflation and the Federal Reserve's suppression of interest rates, investing in traditional safe havens such as savings accounts, mutual funds, and Treasury bonds has become unprofitable. Lots of money is moving through the system seeking a return on investments or at least some measure of safety, as increasingly desperate investors move their funds around in search of long-term profits and stability. Until the Fed stops its monetary intervention and allows interest rates to be set by the free market, investors will move their money in a volatile manner. They will invest in commodities and stocks while prices swing upwards, but will flee to bonds and cash at the first sign of a downturn.
The uncertainty caused by the Fed does help some people - professional traders on Wall Street for example.
(*EMPHATIC NOD OF DISGUSTED AGREEMENT*)
Increased volatility and huge price swings mean more opportunities for profit, as sophisticated electronic trading programs can buy and sell huge positions within a fraction of a second of a major market movement.
(*NOD*)
But small businessmen are misled by the artificially low interest rates into making unwise investments, and those whose jobs vanish when the Federal Reserve's latest bubble pops suffer.
* AND THEN WE ALL SUFFER!
Without the knowledge or ability to move with the markets or diversify overseas, average Americans see their savings stagnate or depreciate - along with their hopes and dreams for a better tomorrow.
* YEP! RICK PERRY WAS RIGHT... WHAT BERNANKE IS DOING (WITH OBAMA'S APPROVAL) IS TREASONOUS IN TERMS OF IMPACT.
The only way to return to a sound economy is for the Federal Reserve to cease and desist its monetary manipulation and allow interest rates to be determined by markets, just as the price of goods, services, and labor should be determined by markets.
Everything the Fed is doing by pumping money into the economy benefits only the insolvent, too-big-to-fail banks.
Low interest rates encourage consumers to take on more debt, meaning more profits for the banks issuing those loans.
Purchasing mortgage-backed securities, as the Fed has done, keeps housing prices inflated, helping the banks who have non-performing mortgages on their books. However, it hurts consumers who continue to be priced out of the housing market.
(*NOD*)
In order to maintain a decent standard of living for the American people and to restore the vibrancy of the U.S. economy, it is time to end the Fed.
* AMEN! (THE PROBLEM? BOTH DEMPUBLICANS AND REPUBLICRATS ARE BOUGHT AND PAID FOR BY THE OLIGARCHS AND THEY WON'T END THE FED.)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204831304576597200095602270.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
When people age, the main valve carrying blood out of the heart becomes brittle. As this aortic valve narrows, it can cause debilitating heart failure, and even death.
Fixing the problem in the United States requires open-heart surgery.
In Europe, the problem can be repaired using a tiny catheter that introduces a replacement valve through an artery in the leg.
In July, a Food and Drug Administration advisory panel said this device should also be approved for sale in the U.S. It is expected to reach patients by year end - more than four years after it first hit the market in Europe.
This is an all too familiar story, the FDA impeding useful innovations in the U.S. Entrepreneurs here are forced to test promising medical devices in costly animal studies for years before they can advance their products into clinical trials. When clinical studies get started, the FDA is asking for longer and larger trials that increasingly mirror hurdles proposed for new drugs.
* OH! AND BY THE WAY... (READ ON...)
A 2011 study by the Boston Consulting Group of European device approvals suggests that Europe's more expedited process is just as rigorous and safe as the FDA's.
(*FEELING A HEADACHE COMING ON*)
In 2004, 86.9% of all medical-device studies listed in Clinical Trials (dot gov) were being carried out in the U.S.
Between 2004 and 2010, more than half of all innovative devices were first approved in Europe.
Because more devices now launch in Europe, companies increasingly study the products there.
By 2009, only 45% of clinical trials were run here.
* SO AN OUT OF CONTROL FDA IS NOT ONLY ENDANGERING THE HEALTH OF INDIVIDUAL AMERICANS WITH THEIR INSTITUTIONALLY SELF-SERVING FOOT DRAGGING, BUT THEY'RE ALSO FURTHER DAMAGING THE U.S. ECONOMY. GREAT!
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
Manufacturing is also moving overseas as a consequence. Many emerging-market countries including China, India and Brazil have enacted "country of origin" rules.
* SO... HOW'S THAT "FREE TRADE" WORKING FOR YOU, FOLKS?
(*SMIRK*)
These laws require a marketed device to be made in the same country where it received regulatory approval. Companies know they'll get European approval long before they get the FDA's nod. So if they want to market their devices in these emerging markets, they need to make sure manufacturing facilities are also located in the European Union.
Not surprisingly, U.S. investment in medical devices is falling. According to data from PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association, the number of newly started, venture-backed medical-device companies fell to 60 in 2010 from 118 in 2008. The magnitude of these declines dwarfs those seen in other entrepreneurial sectors. It can't reasonably be ascribed to the struggling economy alone.
(*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
* OH... AND ONE LAST "BTW"...
As for that aortic valve, more than 15,000 patients world-wide will receive the device by the time it's slated for approval in the U.S. Some Americans healthy enough to fly have sought the procedure in Europe. Tens of thousands of Americans unable to travel, and too sick to undergo open-heart surgery, have died during the intervening four years.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204226204576601232986845102.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop
Imagine the NFL in an alternate reality. Each player's salary is based on how long he's been in the league. It's about tenure, not talent.
The same scale is used for every player, no matter whether he's an All-Pro quarterback or the last man on the roster. For every year a player's been in this NFL, he gets a bump in pay. The only difference between Tom Brady and the worst player in the league is a few years of step increases.
And if a player makes it through his third season, he can never be cut from the roster until he chooses to retire, except in the most extreme cases of misconduct.
Let's face the truth about this alternate reality: The on-field product would steadily decline. Why bother playing harder or better and risk getting hurt?
If you haven't figured it out yet, the NFL in this alternate reality is the real-life American public education system.
Teachers' salaries have no relation to whether teachers are actually good at their job - excellence isn't rewarded, and neither is extra effort.
* BEYOND THAT, THERE'S NO DIFFERNTIAL BETWEEN THE PAY SCALES OF THE MORE DEMANDING (AND THUS HARDER TO FILL BECAUSE THERE ARE FEWER QUALIFIED CANDIDATES) TEACHING DISCIPLINES (MATH, SCIENCE) AS OPPOSED TO THE LIBERAL ARTS. (THUS YOU END UP WITH SUPPLY/DEMAND DYSFUNCTION.)
Pay is almost solely determined by how many years they've been teaching. That's it. After a teacher earns tenure, which is often essentially automatic, firing him or her becomes almost impossible, no matter how bad the performance might be.
And if you criticize the system, you're demonized for hating teachers and not believing in our nation's children.
(*NOD*) (*SIGH*)
Inflation-adjusted spending per student in the United States has nearly tripled since 1970.
* AND DO OUR KIDS COME OUT OF SCHOOL THREE TIMES AS EDUCATED AS WE DID - OR THAN OUR PARENTS DID? I'M PRETTY SURE THE ANSWER IS A BIG, FAT "NO" ON THAT ONE.
According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, we spend more per student than any nation except Switzerland, with only middling results to show for it.
Over the past 20 years, we've been told that a big part of the problem is crumbling schools - that with new buildings and computers in every classroom, everything would improve.
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
But even though spending on facilities and equipment has more than doubled since 1989 (again adjusted for inflation), we're still not seeing results, and officials assume the answer is that we haven't spent enough.
These same misguided beliefs are front and center in President Obama's jobs plan, which includes billions for "public school modernization."
(*BANGING MY HEAD AGAINST THE DESK*)
Perhaps no other sector of American society so demonstrates the failure of government spending and interference [as does the education sector]. We've destroyed individual initiative, individual innovation and personal achievement, and marginalized anyone willing to point it out.
* AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204524604576608952821321690.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
White House officials dismissed concerns about Solyndra LLC ahead of President Barack Obama's May 2010 visit to the failed solar-panel maker, despite acknowledging that the company and other clean-energy ventures could go "belly-up" by the 2012 election, according to emails released by Democratic lawmakers.
(The emails, provided to lawmakers in connection with a congressional investigation, continue to show White House and Department of Energy officials ignoring warning signs about the health of Solyndra, which filed for bankruptcy protection last month.)
The emails also show continuing debate between Energy Department officials and the Office of Management and Budget, which repeatedly warned about Solyndra's financial health.
(*DRIP-DRIP-DRIP-DRIP-DRIP*)
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