Thursday, January 19, 2012

Well, Howdy, Folks!


My computer is physically at Phil's; it's only a matter of time (hopefully by Sunday or Monday at the latest) till Phil finds time to transfer my data to my "new" hard-drive and install said hard-drive into my "new" computer.

GOD BLESS PHIL...!

GOD BLESS PHIL...!!

GOD BLESS PHIL...!!!

In the meantime, let's see if I can do a bit of "newsbiting" while I'm here at my friendly neighborhood library!

4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/romney-parks-millions-offshore-tax-haven/story?id=15378566#.Txc-rJfCz8A

Although it is not apparent on his financial disclosure form, Mitt Romney has millions of dollars of his personal wealth in investment funds set up in the Cayman Islands, a notorious Caribbean tax haven.

*HEY… DON’T WE ALL…? (*SMIRK*)

A spokesperson for the Romney campaign says Romney follows all tax laws and he would pay the same in taxes regardless of where the funds are based.

* Question: WHY THE CAYMAN ISLANDS…? (*SHRUG*)

On Tuesday, Romney disclosed that he has been paying a far lower percentage in taxes than most Americans, around 15 percent of his annual earnings.

* AND FOLKS… IT’S NOT JUST A QUESTION OF CAPITAL GAINS BEING TAXED AT A LOWER RATE; I’D LIKE TO KNOW IF ROMNEY TOOK ADVANTAGE OF THE HEDGE FUND LOOPHOLE. (IF YOU’RE NOT FAMILIAR WITH THE HEDGE FUND TAX LOOPHOLE YOU MIGHT WANNA GOOGLE IT.)

Official documents reviewed by ABC News show that Bain Capital, the private equity partnership Romney once ran, has set up some 138 secretive offshore funds in the Caymans.

* WHO’S THAT AUTHOR… JOHN GRISHAM…??? (*SMILE TURNING INTO A SMIRK*)

Bain officials called the decision to locate some funds offshore routine, and a benefit only to foreign investors who do not want to be subjected to U.S. taxes.

* FAIR ENOUGH… HOWEVER…

Tax experts agree that Romney remains subject to American taxes. But they say the offshore accounts have provided him - and Bain - with other potential financial benefits, such as higher management fees and greater foreign interest, all at the expense of the U.S. Treasury.

"His personal finances are a poster child of what's wrong with the American tax system," said Jack Blum, a Washington lawyer who is an authority on tax enforcement and offshore banking.
Blum, the D.C. tax lawyer, said working through an offshore investment vehicle allows the investor to "avoid a whole series of small traps in the tax code that ordinary people would face if they paid tax on an onshore basis."
* AND ISN’T THAT THE PROBLEM, FOLKS - ADVANTAGES FOR “THEE” AND NOW FOR “ME?”

* ALL I WANT IS A TAX SYSTEM THAT TREATS EVERYONE EQUALLY! NO SPECIAL ADVANTAGES – NO “PUNISHMENT” VIA THE TAX CODE.

William R. Barker said...

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2012/01/19/perry-to-endorse-gingrich-after-dropping-out/

Texas Gov. Rick Perry has thrown his support behind Newt Gingrich…

* AND THERE YOU HAVE IT, FOLKS.

(*SHRUG*)

* AGAIN… NOT TO BEAT A DEAD HORSE, BUT THE LONG KNIVES ARE OUT FOR NEWT AND ONCE AGAIN I ASK YOU TO CONSIDER… WHO ARE THOSE “OUT TO GET NEWT” AND WHO ARE THOSE SUPPORTING HIM?

“Newt is not perfect, but who among us is?” Perry said while announcing he is abandoning his race to the White House. Perry added that Gingrich has the “ability to rally” the conservative movement.

* AND YOU KNOW WHAT, FOLKS; PERRY IS CORRECT ON BOTH COUNTS.

* FOLKS… YOU KNOW ME. YOU KNOW ME IN A WAY YOU’LL NEVER KNOW THESE “MOVERS AND SHAKERS” SUPPORTING OR OPPOSING GINGRICH. THEREFORE JUST ASK YOURSELVES… IF NEWT GINGRICH WERE TRULY THE SCUMBAG THAT THE PRO-ROMNEY FORCES OF THE GOP ESTABLISHMENT AND THE MEDIA ARE DESPARATELY – AND FALSELY – PORTRAYING HIM AS, WOULD HE HAVE THE SUPPORT OF THE BILL BARKER YOU PEOPLE KNOW?

* FOLKS… YOU KNOW ME… YOU KNOW WHAT I STAND FOR… YOU KNOW MY PERSONAL INTEGRITY. I’M BACKING NEWT GINGRICH NOT BECAUSE HE’S THE BEST POSSIBLE CANDIDATE BUT BECAUSE I SEE HIM AS OUR NATION’S ONLY HOPE FOR REDEMPTION. EVEN IF ROMNEY COULD BE ELECTED AGAINST OBAMA – WHICH I DOUBT – COULD YOU IMAGINE HIM ATTEMPTING TO REFORM OUR NATION’S POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC FAILINGS ALONG THE LINES OF HOW THE OLDER, WISER, BUT STILL THE GINGRICH OF 1994 WOULD? THE ANSWER IS “NO.”

* I SUSPECT CAIN WILL ALSO ENDORSE GINGRICH.

* BACHMANN… SHE’S NOT GOING TO DO ANYTHING AS LONG AS SANTORUM IS STILL IN THE RACE.

* THE QUESTION IS… WHAT WILL SANTORUM (AND THEN BACHMANN) DO ONCE IT’S DOWN TO A GINGRICH-ROMNEY TWO-MAN RACE?

* WHAT SANTORUM AND BACHMANN DO… THAT WILL DECIDE HOW THEY GO DOWN IN HISTORY. IF IN THE END THOSE TWO END UP SUPPORTING ROMNEY AGAINST THE FAR MORE CONSERVATIVE GINGRICH… WELL… THAT WILL TELL YOU ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THEIR TRUE ALLEGIANCES.

William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204468004577167032979864386.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

Newt Gingrich threw a rhetorical tomato at the White House in Monday's South Carolina primary debate when he noted that "more people have been put on food stamps under Barack Obama than any other President in history.

President Obama has presided over a food stamp boom[!]

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's latest data, a record 44.7 million people participated in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in fiscal 2011 at a $75.3 billion cost to taxpayers. That's up from 28.2 million and $37.6 billion in 2008.

Some four million people are now on food stamps in Texas, with California (3.7 million) and Florida (3.1 million) close behind.

[F]ood stamp rolls have historically risen in recessions (1974-75 and 1981-82) and fallen during robust expansions (1980s and 1990s). The exception is the last decade, as the rolls rose as expected during the short 2001 downturn but then kept increasing throughout the decade with the single exception of a modest decline in 2007.

* LET ME GUESS – BUSH AND THE RINOs…???

President George W. Bush expanded food stamp eligibility with the egregious 2002 farm bill by adjusting deductions and income tests and encouraging states to find more participants.

* I FUCKING KNEW IT…!!!

(*GNASHING MY TEETH*)

The Pelosi Congress then rebranded the program in the Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of June 2008 to emphasize nutrition rather than the stigma of receiving handouts. As a result and also thanks to the recession in 2008, food stamp participation rose by 10.9 million across the Bush Presidency.

* BUSH AND PELOSI…

(*GROWLING TO MYSELF*)

But Mr. Obama is now outstripping that dubious “achievement,” and in only three years rather than eight.

The 2009 “stimulus” bill increased maximum benefits and authorized more money for states to administer the program. Some 11.2 million more people have joined the rolls from 2009 through 2011, including 4.4 million last year during what was ostensibly an economic recovery.

(*SNORT*

Food stamps were intended to help the truly needy so children wouldn't go without nourishment, but Washington is slowly turning it into one more entitlement for millions of Americans. Mr. Gingrich received loud applause on Monday less for his partisan criticism than because he zeroed in on the dangers of dependence on government, especially for the poor. He said he wanted to "help poor people learn how to get a job, learn how to get a better job and learn some day to own the job."

This is the right political goal.

What's "crazy," to borrow [Democrat critiques], is for a society to shrug its shoulders when nearly 45 million citizens are on the food dole.

* HEAR! HEAR!

William R. Barker said...

http://news.investors.com/Article/598198/201201190802/obama-disney-world-tourism-new-york-fundraiser.htm
Hey, Mr. President! You've just destroyed the Keystone XL pipeline project and thousands of new union jobs. What are you gonna do now?
"I'm going to Disney World."
No, it's not another Obama vacation. He's flying Air Force One down to Orlando this morning on business.

* BTW… WHY DOES DISNEYLAND REQUIRE FEDERAL “MARKETING” ASSISTANCE…??? (RHETORICAL QUESTION; ANSWER: IT DOESN’T!)

Here's [one] problem with Obama going to Disney's Main Street: They have to halt all tourism there for him to be seen encouraging more tourism, close the whole place down to tourists for much of the day while he's there and before. Even Disney employees are being barred[!]

* FOLKS… (*SIGH*)… YA JUST CAN’T MAKE THIS SHIT UP…


[T]housands of existing tourists who expected to spend a valuable vacation day strolling the old-fashioned shops for fudge and Mickey ears, riding the steam-powered cars and horse-drawn streetcars and getting a photo with the real Snow White today are just plum out of luck…

* YEP… SOUNDS LIKE OBAMANOMICS IN ACTION…

This isn't the first time Obama's message has messed with the mechanics. A while back he flew about two hours to Columbus, Ohio for a 10-minute speech celebrating stimulus jobs at a construction site where workers had to take a day off without pay because the president decided to come mark their employment in front of cameras.

* OH, YEAH… I REMEMBER THAT ONE!

Does Obama, after all his lagging economic recovery, really want today's political optics to be this oblivious president himself shutting down businesses all along any Main Street so that the Real Good Talker can read from a teleprompter at yet another hand-picked crowd for the cameras? Seriously?

After shutting down Disney's Main Street, President Obama is heading to New York City this afternoon to paralyze Manhattan traffic again. That's because the Obama 2012 campaign has him scheduled for not one, not two, not three, but four campaign fundraisers in one evening.