Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, April 24, 2012


Yes... deep down... Bill... the hopeless romantic...
 
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William R. Barker said...

* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=51055

* BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

With the number of Secret Service members and agents caught up in the partying-with-prostitutes scandal in Cartagena now at a dozen, and six already gone, how much wider and deeper does this go?

No one can take pleasure in seeing Secret Service agents -- whose deserved reputation is that they will "take a bullet" for the president, his family and all whom they protect -- shamed and disgraced.

Yet one would have to be naive to believe this was some isolated incident. No sooner was the first day's work done in Cartagena than 20 hookers were trooping into the hotel rooms of SS agents, supervisors and members of the military advance team.

And Sen. Charles Grassley asks a relevant question.

As the Secret Service travel and work in close contact with the White House Advance Office and White House Communications Agency, was the Obama staff oblivious to this misconduct? If they were aware of it, did no one report it to the White House chief of staff?

Hostile intelligence services often use "honey traps" to ensnare U.S. diplomats and journalists. Thus this hookers-and-agents scandal is no laughing matter.

And it hit just as we learned that the General Services Administration, purchasing agent for the U.S. government, shelled out $823,000 on a party for 300 employees at a casino-spa in Las Vegas, where the hired entertainment included a mind reader, a clown and a $75,000 bicycle-building exercise.

Jeff Neeley, the GSA western regional commissioner, invoked the Fifth Amendment rather than testify to Congress about what is now being investigated as criminal misconduct.

President Obama's appointee to head GSA, Martha Johnson, has resigned.

Infinitely larger in terms of the tax dollars looted or lost is the Solyndra scandal, where a green technology company favored by the White House went belly up after receiving an endorsement visit from Obama and an astonishing half-billion dollars in federal loan guarantees.

These events all point to a culture of entitlement born of a belief that now that the Democratic Party, the Party of Government, is again running the government, we can "let the good times roll" once more.

* DOES SHIT HAPPEN WITH REPUBLICANS? YEP. BUT, FOLKS... THINK ABOUT THE COMPARISONS...

(*SHRUG*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

April 24, 2012 at 8:52 AM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

And so we see President Obama for six months literally campaigning on the public dime. Not a day seems to pass that he is not helicoptering off the White House lawn on Marine One to Andrews Air Force Base to board Air Force One to fly to some swing state, while his staff finds an official cover event so the White House can charge most of the trip to taxpayers.

Has any other president spent so many days campaigning, half a year and a year before the traditional Labor Day start of the election season, or used tax dollars so flagrantly to buy re-election?

* RHETORICAL QUESTION. THE ANSWER IS "NO." AGAIN, FOLKS, IT'S NOT "GOOD" VS. "BAD" - IT'S "BAD" VS. "WORSE"... MUCH, MUCH WORSE.

The sense of entitlement appears to extend to the Obama family.

In 2010, at the bottom of the Great Recession, Michelle Obama, accompanied by daughter Sasha and friends, took Air force Two to Spain for a lavish vacation. The first lady paid for her stay at a five-star hotel in Marbella, but the cost of flying her there and moving her about, with scores of Secret Service agents, had to run into the millions.

And the trip came at a time when President Obama was instructing the nation on the need to sacrifice and the number of Americans on food stamps was setting a new record every month.

How many so-called "1 percenters" project a lifestyle as lavish?

Last December, flying out of the District of Columbia in separate planes, the first couple took a two-week Christmas vacation at a resort in Hawaii, the taxpayers' cost of which has been estimated at $4 million. Winters in Hawaii, summers in the Vineyard, and with it all subsidized by taxpayers?

What kind of example is this? Where is the spirit of sacrifice here?

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Lately, we learned that Leon Panetta, in the 10 months he has been secretary of defense, has spent $860,000 of taxpayers' money on 27 separate trips to his home in Monterey, Calif.

Curing Leon of his homesickness is getting expensive.

(*NOD*)

What all of the above reveals is how the Party of Government views the government. They see its perks, privileges and power as their entitlements, their inheritance, their patrimony.

April 24, 2012 at 8:52 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www2.wkrg.com/news/2012/apr/23/26/man-beaten-mob-critical-condition-ar-3659891/

Mobile, Alabama police expect to make arrests in the Matthew Owens beating case today.

* YOU HAVEN'T HEARD OF MATTHEW OWENS? HE'S A WHITE MALE.

Owens is in critical condition at USA Medical Center, three days after police say he was beaten by "multiple people" armed with chairs, pipes and paint cans Saturday night in front of his house on Delmar Drive.

* GUESS WHAT "TYPE" OF MOB IT WAS...

(*SMIRK*)

According to police, Owens fussed at some kids playing basketball in the middle of Delmar Drive about 8:30 Saturday night. They say the kids left and a group of adults returned, armed with everything but the kitchen sink.

Police tell News 5 the suspects used chairs, pipes and paint cans to beat Owens.

* DON'T WORRY, FOLKS... WHILE AS YOU CAN SEE THE REPORTER/EDITOR IS BENDING OVER BACKWARDS TO BURY THE LEAD... IT'S COMING UP...

Owens' sister, Ashley Parker, saw the attack. "It was the scariest thing I have ever witnessed." Parker says 20 people, all African American, attacked her brother on the front porch of his home, using "brass buckles, paint cans and anything they could get their hands on."

Police will only say "multiple people" are involved.

(*SMIRK*)

As the attackers walked away, leaving Owen bleeding on the ground, Parker says one of them said "Now thats justice for Trayvon."

(*SHRUG*)

* TRUE? WHO KNOWS. WAS THE VICTIM WHITE? YEP. (THERE'S A VIDEO.) WAS THE MOB BLACK? APPARENTLY SO.

(*SHRUG*)

April 24, 2012 at 3:23 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/23/us-usa-florida-firefighters-idUSBRE83M1KQ20120423

The Justice Department sued the city of Jacksonville, Florida, on Monday, claiming its use of written tests to determine promotions in the city's fire department discriminates against African-Americans.

(*JUST THROWING MY HANDS UP*)

* FOLKS... THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM!

April 24, 2012 at 3:37 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://nation.foxnews.com/earth-day/2012/04/24/green-activists-trash-park-earth-day

* AND (MORE PHOTOS)...

http://sfist.com/2012/04/22/marina_partiers_leave_behind_massiv.php#photo-3

Happy Earth Day, everybody!

[W]e found this scene on the grass at Fort Mason around 7 p.m. Saturday evening.

What looked something like this during the afternoon, by sunset looked like a good place to catch Hepatitis. That's also when the seagulls started swooping in, probably looking for beer can rings to choke themselves to death with. (Because of how disappointed in humanity they were.)

Not to get all hippie-preachy or anything, but this is kind of an offensive amount of trash, right?

Do normal and reasonable human beings not look at that mess and say, "...maybe we ought to like, I don't know? Take some of this trash with us? To a trash can?" or "Maybe we should bring that coffee table back home?"

We've seen our share of litter-y days in Dolores Park and some embarrassing trash pileups in Golden Gate Park, but leaving actual pieces of living room furniture is a whole new level of prickish park use.

"Those trash picker guys are going to be stoked about this!" was one justification we heard for the mess. We tried to get someone from the neighborhood recycling center on the phone to settle that bet, but they are unfortunately not open on Sundays, so we'll have to follow up on that later.

(*CHUCKLE*)

Anyhow, much of the mess was still around this morning, even after the recyclers had picked it over.

(*LAUGHING*)

April 24, 2012 at 6:50 PM

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