Friday, February 17, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, February 17, 2012


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8 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/16/us-venezuela-syria-idUSTRE81F2AU20120216

The government of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez is emerging as a rare supplier of diesel to Syria...

* YOU MEAN HUGO CHAVEZ REALLY IS A BAD GUY...? HORRORS! WHO WOULD HAVE THUNK IT...?!?!

(*SNORT*)

Chavez is a vociferous advocate of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad...

* O.K. ENOUGH. I'M NOT TELLING ANY OF MY READERS ANYTHING THEY DON'T ALREADY KNOW. WHAT I AM ATTEMPTING TO REMIND YOU OF IS THE HIGH ESTEEM MANY ON THE AMERICAN LEFT HAVE SHOWN CHAVEZ OVER THE YEARS AND NOTE THAT SUCH VILE MISJUDGMENT IS ALL TOO OFTEN STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE COMING FROM THE LEFT.

February 17, 2012 at 11:34 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.freep.com/article/20120216/NEWS15/120216021/Santorum-german-car

Rick Santorum preaches Made in America, but, according to his tax returns, he was driving a German-made luxury car just a few years back.

(*SMIRK*)

Santorum...has made American manufacturing a major theme of his campaign. He has called for tax breaks for U.S. manufacturers and one section of his campaign website is called “Made in America: Empowering American Families, Building Economic Freedom.”

But his 2008 tax return, released along with three other years Wednesday night, showed he was started driving an Audi A6 that year as part of his consulting business, putting nearly 12,000 miles on the car.

* OH... AND GET THIS...

He claimed $241 in depreciation on his assets that year. The website Politico posted the tax returns Wednesday evening.

* HEY... HOW MANY OF YOU RELY UPON YOUR CAR TO GET TO WORK? HOW MANY OF YOU CAN CLAIM "DEPRECIATION OF ASSET" FOR THIS ON YOUR TAX RETURNS?

(*SMIRK*)

During the Iowa caucuses, Santorum, a former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania, drew attention as he crossed the state in a 2006 Dodge Ram pickup belonging to a campaign aide and dubbed the “Chuck Truck" for aide Chuck Laudner. As was reported by the website autoguide.com earlier this year, “Whether or not it was intentional, the Dodge Ram has become a symbol for Santorum to prove that he’s hardworking and has spent the time to travel across the state.”

(*CHUCKLE*)

* FOLKS... I POST THIS PARTICULAR NEWSBITE MAINLY IN AMUSEMENT... BUT IN ALL SERIOUSNESS IT DOES REINFORCE TO AN EXTEND MY DOUBTS ABOUT EXACTLY HOW "REAL" RICK SANTORUM IS.

February 17, 2012 at 11:43 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/46416651

The dollar rose on a flutter of activity earlier Thursday, but after a few positive headlines out of Europe, it reversed course, tipping into negative territory, while the euro edged higher.

* FOLKS... THE DEMS AND THEIR MEDIA ALLIES AND THE WALL STREET BOOSTERS WITHIN THE GOP MAY TELL YOU THAT THE U.S. IS IN AN ECONOMIC RECOVERY...

(*PAUSE*)

DON'T BELIEVE THEM.

(*SHRUG*)

U.S. economic news was good for stocks even before the euro took off. But the gains in the single currency seemed to supercharge the move.

* FOLKS... AGAIN AND AGAIN I'VE POINTED OUT THAT IN THE WACKY WORLD OF "HIGH FINANCE" WHAT'S BAD FOR REGULAR AMERICANS AND LONG TERM AMERICAN INTERESTS IS OFTEN SEEN AS GOOD BY WALL STREET.

* HELL... IF (WHEN?) GAS COSTS YOU $5/GAL. THE MOVERS AND SHAKERS ON WALL STREET AND WASHINGTON WILL TELL YOU IT'S A SIGN OF A VIBRANT ECONOMY!

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

February 17, 2012 at 11:51 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/02/16/cbo-longest-period-of-high-unemployment-since-great-depression

After three years with unemployment topping 8% [and at times topping 9% and even approaching 10%], the U.S. has seen the longest period of high unemployment since the Great Depression, the Congressional Budget Office noted in a report issued today.

* O-BAN-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!

And...the CBO is still predicting that unemployment will remain above 8% until 2014.

* O-BAN-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!

* OH... AND GET THIS:

The report also notes that, including those who haven't sought work in the past four weeks and those who are working part-time but seeking full-time employment, the unemployment rate would be 15%.

* WOO-HOO! THE DEMOCRATS HAVE SUCCEEDED IN OUT-EUROPEANIZING EUROPE!

February 17, 2012 at 11:57 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/us-hit-debt-limit-election-day/379291

The United States Department of Treasury will reach the the statutory limit it is allowed to borrow money before election day, according to a new study by Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio., former director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget.

“Following the contentious debt ceiling last August, President Obama promised that he would take action to address the country’s fiscal crisis. He has failed to do that," Portman said. "In fact, his new budget increases spending and projects that Washington will be hitting the debt ceiling again in mid-October – burning through a $2.1 trillion debt limit increase in just over 14 months."

Portman's office notes that according to Obama's budget, total debt subject to the statutory debt will reach limit will reach $16.334 trillion by September 30, 2012. This is just $60 billion below the 16,394,000,000,000 debt limit.

Since the federal government is adding to the national debt at a rate of $132 billion a month, the debt ceiling is on schedule to be reached by October 15, 2012.

"This is an unfortunate but clear signal to the American people that Washington is spending too much, borrowing too much, and putting our nation’s fiscal stability at risk," Portman said.

* YA THINK...?!?!

February 17, 2012 at 12:00 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cleveland.com/open/index.ssf/2012/02/sen_sherrod_brown_acknowledges.html

Ohio Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown was more than four months delinquent in paying taxes on his Washington, D.C., apartment and had to pay a penalty and interest last week.

* AH... COULD HAPPEN TO ANYONE, RIGHT? O.K. LET'S ASSUME SO. BUT... (READ ON!)

This was not the first time, records show.

Brown also was delinquent in 2006 and 2007 and paid penalties and interest, according to tax records from the District of Columbia.

* NON-PARTISAN QUESTION: I WONDER WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE U.S. CONGRESS REPRESENTS COMPLETE FRIGG'N IDIOTS?

February 17, 2012 at 12:07 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www2.turnto10.com/news/2012/feb/16/2/nbc-10-investigates-central-falls-receivership-ar-935523/

Central Falls is Rhode Island's smallest city and also one of its poorest. Boarded up homes line many streets and one-quarter of the city's families live below the poverty line.

But since the city filed for receivership in 2010 and bankruptcy the next year, a few individuals have made a lot of money.

Receiver Robert Flanders is paid by the state. His fee is up to $30,000 a month.

His chief of staff, Gayle Corrigan, bills the city $100 an hour. Her deputy gets $60 an hour.

The total comes to about $56,000 a month.

City records show the chief of staff hired her lawyer's daughter last summer. Her mother worked at City Hall, too.

And NBC 10 has found that Corrigan, the woman selected to supervise City Hall and report directly to Flanders, was fired from her previous employer after it was discovered she was profiting from a secret scheme.

* NOTICE THAT NOWHERE IN THE STORY IS IT MENTIONED WHETHER THESE SCUMBAGS ARE DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS? HMM... ANYONE WANNA HAZARD A GUESS?

(*SMIRK*)

February 17, 2012 at 12:15 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.thedaily.com/page/2012/02/17/021712-news-campaign-1-3/

Rick Santorum is touting his promise to eliminate corporate taxes on manufacturers as he takes his surging presidential campaign to the Rust Belt. But that tax policy, which his campaign sees as a winner among blue-collar voters in places like Michigan, is coming under scrutiny from conservatives who are decrying it as thoroughly unconservative.

* PERHAPS BECAUSE... UMM... IT IS THOROUGHLY UNCONSERVATIVE...?!?!

Likening it to the need for America to produce its own food and weapons, [Santorum says]: “We need to have a manufacturing base in this economy. Why? Because of our national security.”

* AGREED. BUT THE PROPER WAY OF DOING THIS IS VIA TARIFF POLICY. (RAISE TARIFFS...!!!)

“Giving a preferential rate is picking winners and losers through the tax code,” said Curtis Dubay, a tax policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank. “The goal of tax reform should be a neutral tax code.”

* EXACTLY! (AT LEAST AS APPLIED TO AMERICAN FIRMS BATTLING AMERICAN FIRMS!)

* I HAVE NOTHING AGAINST SCREWING FOREIGNERS. (*SHRUG*)

“This is not free-market economics, this is trying to tilt the market toward manufacturing, and it will hurt the economy rather than help it, because resources would be artificially diverted from other sectors of the economy to manufacturing,” Dubay said.

* EXACTLY. (SEE... THIS IS ONE OF MY PROBLEMS WITH SANTORUM - HE'S SIMPLY NOT THAT BRIGHT.)

Kevin Hassett, director of economic policy studies at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, said Santorum’s plan would “create the biggest tax dodge in history,” as businesses raced to redefine themselves as manufacturers.

(*NOD*)

“How do you define manufacturing?” asked Andy Roth of the conservative Club for Growth. “Do movie studios manufacture films? Do book publishers, when they send a .pdf of a manuscript to China, are they manufacturing books? Companies are going to game this.”

* EXACTLY. (*SHRUG*)

February 17, 2012 at 5:25 PM

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