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2012
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April
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- Heather MacDonald on the Lessons of the Rodney Kin...
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 28 & 29, 2012
- My Buddy the Tory
- Pearl River School District v. U.S. Dept. of Educa...
- R.I.N.O.s Strike Again!
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 27, 2012
- The Scumbag Thirteen
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 26, 2012
- How Can Anyone Support Obama...?
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 25, 2012
- New York State Primary -- Tuesday, April 24, 2012
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 24, 2012
- I'm Begging You, Folks... READ Tyler Durden's Latest!
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 23, 2012
- Bill's Tattoo Rant
- Page-views...
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 21 & 22, 2012
- Barler's Newsbites: Friday, April 20, 2012
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 19, 2012
- This is Obama's and Holder's America, Folks
- The Democrat-Controlled Senate Has Done It Again...
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 18, 2012
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 17, 2012
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 16, 2012
- The Great Kobe Beef Scam
- Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 14 & 15, 2012
- Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 13, 2012
- The Case of John Derbyshire
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 12, 2012
- Gotta Share This...
- Pass the Norpramin...!!!
- Post #1,002
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 11, 2012
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 10, 2012
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 9, 2012
- Long Weekend Newsbites: 4/6-7-8/2012
- ObamaCare... Marbury v. Madison... and Conservatives
- Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, April 5, 2012
- Dr. Thomas Sowell on "Obama the Liar"
- Politically Incorrect Bill Strikes Again!
- Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, April 4, 2012
- China's Growing High-Tech Threat
- Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 3, 2012
- Just Read It. (Just Frigg'n Read It!)
- I Love Country Music
- Barker's Newsbites: Monday, April 2, 2012
- Even the Washington Post Can't Abide NBC's Outrigh...
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April
(47)
About Me
- William R. Barker
- Pearl River, NY High School Class of '81; Northeastern University, Boston, MA Class of '87.
7 comments:
http://news.yahoo.com/states-asked-apply-unemployment-test-plan-125932074.html
The Obama administration is looking for states that will experiment with unemployment insurance programs by letting people test a job while still receiving benefits.
* OH, YEAH… (*SMASHING MY FIST INTO A WALL*)… THAT SURE SOUNDS LIKE SOME EXPERIMENT!
The plan is a key feature of a payroll tax cut package that President Barack Obama negotiated with congressional Republicans in February.
* REPUBLICRATS. NO "REPUBLICAN" WOULD SIGN ON TO SUCH IDIOCY.
The Labor Department will open the application process Thursday for 10 model projects across the country. Any state can apply for the "Bridge to Work" program. … States that are chosen could get waivers from the federal government allowing them to tap their unemployment insurance accounts to pay for such costs as transportation for workers in temporary jobs.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* YEP. LET'S JUST PUT EVERYONE ON WELFARE! EVERYONE GETS A "GOVERNMENT CHECK!" SCREW THOSE OF US WORKING FOR A LIVING - WE CAN JUST GO AHEAD AND PAY FOR OTHERS TO WORK AND GET UNEMPLOYMENT AT THE SAME TIME ALONG WITH SUBSIDIZED TRANSPORTATION. (HEY… MIGHT AS WELL THROW FOOD STAMPS IN THERE TOO!)
* FOLKS… OUR AMERICA IS DYING. DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICRATS ARE KILLING IT!
Supporters of the programs say it helps workers retain or learn new skills and add new job references to their resumes. The plan passed with support from leading Republicans, including House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor.
* HAVE ANOTHER CIGARETTE, JOHN! HEY… ERIC… HAVE YOU EVER TRIED CRACK? GO FOR IT, DUDE!
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS… I WISH THESE TWO WOULD DIE. I REALLY DO.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47098817
New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits fell less than expected last week, according to a government report…
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
Initial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 2,000 to a seasonally adjusted 386,000, the Labor Department said. But the prior week's figure was revised up to 388,000 from the previously reported 380,000.
(*SMIRK*)
The four-week moving average for new claims, considered a better measure of labor market trends, rose 5,500 to 374,750. (Economists polled by Reuters had forecast claims falling to 370,000 last week.)
(*SNICKER*)
* IN OTHER WORDS, FOLKS… (*SIGH*)… THE "EXPERTS" ARE FULL OF SHIT. IT REALLY IS THAT SIMPLY.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/04/secret-service-pre-planned-party-at-colombian-hotel/
Secret Service officials planning a wild night of fun in Colombia did some of their own advanced work last week, booking a party space at the Hotel Caribe before heading out to the night clubs, hotel sources tell ABC News exclusively.
As first reported by ABC, the men went to the “Pley Club” brothel, where they drank expensive whiskey and bragged that they worked for President Obama. The men were also serviced by prostitutes at the club.
* I MISS GEORGE W. BUSH.
But the night didn’t end there. The men brought women from the Pley Club back to the hotel and also picked up additional escorts from other clubs and venues around town, sources tell ABC News.
* HELL… I FUCKING MISS JIMMY FUCKING CARTER!
Eleven officials were involved and, according to Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, who was briefed on the misconduct by Secret Service, “twenty or twenty-one women foreign nationals were brought to the hotel.”
ABC has learned that, when booking the party space, the men told hotel staff that they anticipated roughly 30 people.
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS… CAN YOU IMAGINE THIS HAPPENING DURING DUBYA'S TIME IN OFFICE - OR REAGAN'S? HELL… EVEN DURING THE CLINTON YEARS… THE JFK YEARS… I BET THE SECRET SERVICE WAS PROFESSIONAL.
* FOLKS… THIS IS "THE CHICAGO WAY." THIS IS WHERE EVERYONE "GETS A TASTE." THIS IS THE AGE OF OBAMA!
The officials’ misconduct in Cartagena last week, ahead of the president’s visit for the Summit of the Americas, has already forced three agents out of their positions.
* NOT GOOD ENOUGH! THIS IS THE PRESIDENTIAL DETAIL! THESE ARE THE ELITE OF THE ELITE! THIS IS SYSTEMATIC MANAGEMENT BREAKDOWN! THIS SHINES A LIGHT ON WHAT MUST BE A CULTURE OF "CHICAGO STYLE" CORRUPTION AFTER ONLY THREE AND A HALF YEARS OF OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE!
The Secret Service announced Wednesday that one supervisor was allowed to retire…
* ALLOWED TO RETIRE!?!? HOW'BOUT FIRED! HOW'BOUT PROSECUTED! HOW'BOUT JAILED TO SEND A MESSAGE!
http://www.nationalreview.com/corner/296509/conrad-fiasco-yuval-levin
Imagine if Republican Paul Ryan had produced his budget proposal and put it before his committee, but then his fellow Republican - Speaker of the House John Boehner - killed it, insisting that the House should not pass a budget of any kind so that his members could be spared a difficult vote in an election year.
Surely had any such thing happened it would have been treated as a monumental leadership crisis among House Republicans and a sign of gross dereliction and disorder.
Well that is exactly what has happened among Senate Democrats this week.
* AND YET… MAINLY A DEAFENING SILENCE. CERTAINLY NO PARTISAN SNIPING AGAINST THE DEMS BY THE MSM!
Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad proposed a version of the Bowles-Simpson plan as a draft Democratic budget and said he would bring it up for markup and eventually a vote in his committee - which - by the way - would be the first time the Senate Democrats have actually bothered to propose a budget in nearly three years.
But then Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid stepped in and killed the idea, insisting that no budget was necessary…
* ABSOLUTELY TRUE, FOLKS! HAND ON MY HEART… SWEAR TO GOD! THIS IS FRIGG'N REALITY IN THE AGE OF OBAMA!
And yet, the story has mostly been treated in the political press as a failure of bipartisanship.
(*SMIRK*)
Politico described it all as “a study in gridlock” and “a metaphor” for a “broken and politically polarized Congress.”
* BUT... BUT... BUT... IT'S PURELY INTERNAL DEMOCRATIC POLITICS! THE DEMS CONTROL THE SENATE! REID MAID THE CALL INDEPENDENTLY OF ANYTHING REPUBLICANS COULD DO! THIS IS LITERALLY "ALL THE DEMOCRAT'S FAULT."
Describing the pressure Conrad was under, The Hill deadpans that “Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who consulted with Conrad in recent days, said that he understood Conrad’s attempt to take the temperature of his committee but said the Senate is not ready to come together on a bipartisan plan yet.”
* BUT... BUT... BUT... BUT... DEMOCRATS DON'T NEED A SINGLE REPUBLICAN VOTE IN ORDER TO PUT A BUDGET ON THE TABLE! BOTH POLITICO AND THE HILL KNOW THIS!
As a study in gridlock, this week’s events should lead to a particular conclusion about the sources of that gridlock: House Republicans have proposed and passed a budget, the chairman of the Senate budget committee sought to propose one of his own, but the Senate’s Democratic leadership preferred inaction instead. That is in fact how essentially all of the “gridlock” of the 112th congress has happened, and it is not properly described as gridlock but as Democratic dereliction.
Republicans have put their views and proposals on the table, and Democrats have been afraid to do the same and so have offered nothing but vitriol.
The Bowles-Simpson approach to deficit reduction is not best understood as a bipartisan middle ground: It would involve major tax increases but no reform at all of our health-care entitlements (which are by far the foremost drivers of our debt problem). That makes it a plausible opening offer from the Democrats in budget negotiations, not a plausible ultimate outcome of such negotiations.
But [even so,] the Democrats have been unwilling even to make such an opening offer.
[The Democrats] prefer instead to offer nothing but demagogic scare tactics and then complain about an absence of bipartisanship.
* WITH THE MSM PROVIDING THEM COVER.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.popecenter.org/commentaries/article.html?id=2682
The latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show that, for many people, increasing their level of education pays off in higher earnings and lower unemployment rates.
* NOTHING NEW HERE, RIGHT? (READ ON!)
The more education you have, the better off you’ll be. High school graduates, for example, are almost twice as likely to be unemployed as college graduates, and they earn substantially less money per week.
* AGAIN... I'M GUESSING ALL OF YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH THIS... er... "ACCEPTED TRUISM." (KEEP READING!)
All of these statistics are the median — representing the person separating the higher half of a sample from the lower half.
* AND IF YOU DIDN'T ALREADY KNOW THIS... WELL... THEN NO MATTER HOW MANY DEGREES YOU HAVE... YOU'RE NOT VERY WELL EDUCATED.
(*WINK*)
It’s a mistake to assume that the median tells us what most people in that group will experience.
(*NOD*)
Thinking of the median as “typical” masks a lot of important details about educational outcomes.
(*NOD*)
To start with, note that the data are 2010 median weekly earnings for persons age 25 and over, and earnings are for full-time wage and salary workers. So, everyone is lumped together — regardless of age, the school they attended, their major discipline, their academic performance, and even the field in which they’re working. And anyone working part-time is excluded entirely.
Breaking the data down further is illustrative:
Among workers making $20,000 or less annually, 6% have master’s degrees or higher, 14% have bachelor’s degrees, and 9% have associate’s degrees.
Among those making between $20,000 and $35,000 annually, 5% have a master’s or higher, 15% have a bachelor’s, and 11% have an associate’s degree.
Those individuals are earning well below the medians for their educational levels. Staying in school didn’t necessarily pay off for them.
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
The chart also hides an important phenomenon that has become increasingly common in the last few years — unemployment and under-employment among people who have college credentials.
As this Gallup poll indicates, as of July 2010, almost 14% of those surveyed who had B.A. degrees and over 10% percent of those with post-graduate degrees were unemployed or underemployed.
Another reason why the BLS chart is misleading is that it lumps together people of all ages, who are at different levels.
People with professional degrees, for example, includes many lawyers who earned their degrees years ago, many of whom have high earnings (the median is $1,610 per week or over $83,000 annually). That information is of no relevance to a brand new J.D., who faces a job market that has shrunken greatly in the last few years. Many recent J.D.s are scrambling to find any job at all.
Furthermore, returns to higher education have been declining for more than 10 years according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Median starting salary for bachelor's degree recipients in 2009 and 2010 was just $27,000, down from $30,000 in the years 2006 to 2008 - and the trend is downward for college degrees.
Earnings also vary greatly depending on the student’s major.
Data from the U.S. Census Bureau show that median earnings run from $29,000 for counseling-psychology majors to $120,000 for petroleum-engineering majors.
Is it “worth it” to spend the time and money for a degree in petroleum engineering? If you can do it, probably “yes.” But is it “worth it” to get a counseling degree? That’s far from clear.
(*SNORT*) (*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)
Earnings vary based on the college or university attended. Last year, the Pope Center compared schools in terms of their graduates’ salaries in an NCAA Tournament of Starting Salaries. Even this unscientific (but representative) sample revealed large differences between schools — from $29,748 at UNC Asheville to $57,470 at Duke University.
(*SHRUG*)
Again, looking only at median figures obscures important details.
* UM-HMM.
An individual should not make decisions based on aggregate data, but rather on data pertinent to his or her particular circumstances.
Consider Sue, who just finished high school. Should she go to college? The median earnings for Americans who have already gotten college degrees is irrelevant to Sue. She needs to think about the cost of college and her own prospects, given her abilities. Nothing in the BLS chart sheds any light on her specific costs-versus-benefits comparison.
Given all the variables, telling all kids to “stay in school” is often bad advice.
* HEAR! HEAR!
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/19/us-iraq-violence-idUSBRE83I06N20120419
More than 20 bombs hit cities and towns across Iraq on Thursday, killing at least 36 and wounding almost 150, police and hospital sources said, raising fears of sectarian strife...
* IT'LL BE INTERESTING TO SEE WHETHER IN FIVE YEARS' TIME WE'LL LOOK UPON IRAQ AS A VICTORY OR A BLUNDER.
* OH... IN A SENSE I ALREADY BELIEVE - AND HAVE FOR YEARS NOW - THAT IRAQ WAS A BLUNDER. THAT SAID, I'M NOT CERTAIN. I'M HOPING FOR THE BEST. BOTTOM LINE, WHAT I BELIEVE IS THAT I WAS WRONG TO HAVE SUPPORTED THE INVASION AT THE TIME.
In Baghdad, three car bombs, two roadside bombs and one suicide car bomb hit mainly Shi'ite areas, killing 15 people and wounding 61, the sources said.
Two car bombs and three roadside bombs aimed at police and army patrols in the northern oil city of Kirkuk killed eight people and wounded 26, police and hospital sources said.
It was Iraq's bloodiest day since Al Qaeda's affiliate in the country, the Islamic State of Iraq group, killed at least 52 people with a series of 30 blasts on March 20.
* OH... ALL THE WAY BACK TO... er... MARCH... HUH?
(*SIGH*)
Heightened tension between Shi'ites, Sunnis and Kurds in the coalition government since U.S. troops withdrew in December has raised fears of a return to sectarian violence of the kind that pushed Iraq to the brink of civil war a few years ago.
The country is less violent than at the height of that conflict in 2006-07, but bombings and killings still happen daily, often aimed at Shi'ite areas and local security forces.
Kirkuk, home to Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen and others, is at the heart of a long-running dispute between the central government and the autonomous Kurdish region, which claims the city and the region's rich oil reserves.
A political crisis erupted in Iraq in December when the Shi'ite-led government tried to remove Sunni Deputy Prime Minister Saleh al-Mutlaq and sought an arrest warrant for Sunni Vice President Tareq al-Hashemi on charges he ran death squads.
Critics of Maliki viewed the moves as an attempt by the Shi'ite premier to consolidate power, and many Sunnis fear he is trying to sideline them from government. Maliki has said the charges against Hashemi were brought by the judicial system.
Parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi said security force leaders should take responsibility for not stopping the explosions. "Some (groups) are seeking to exploit the domestic crisis to target unity and try to sow sectarian and racist strife," he said in a statement.
Elsewhere in northern Iraq, two car bombs targeting government-backed Sunni Sahwa militia went off in Samarra, two blasts hit Baquba, a roadside bomb exploded in Mosul and another roadside device exploded in Taji.
One policeman was killed in the town of Hadid, 10 km (6 miles) west of Baquba, when gunmen opened fire on the station where he worked from a passing car, police sources said.
In the mainly Sunni Muslim province of Anbar in the west, two car bombs targeting police killed four and wounded 10 in Ramadi while a roadside bomb wounded four people in Falluja.
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