Hmm...
Seems as though Blogger is "upgrading" the look of all "their" blogs.
As you folks know... Bill doesn't like change.
Well... we'll see what happens.
* It sucks already... took me 10-15 minutes just to post this blurb in the format I want!
6 comments:
http://dailycaller.com/2012/04/02/santorum-complains-about-drudge-again-its-gotten-ridiculous-romney-propaganda/
Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum claims he no longer reads the Drudge Report anymore because it contains “propaganda” that helps rival Mitt Romney.
* SANTORUM CAN BE SUCH AN ASSHOLE.
* YES... DRUDGE FAVORS ROMNEY. DUH! ANN COULTER IS ONE OF DRUDGE'S BEST FRIENDS! PLUS... DRUDGE HAS NEVER STRUCK ME AS A "CHRISTIAN RIGHT" KINDA GUY.
* HELL... DRUDGE FAVORED ROMNEY OVER GINGRICH AS WELL!
* BUT, JEEZUS... TO SAY YOU NOW NO LONGER READ THE ONLINE PUBLICATION THAT IS WILLIAM R. BARKER'S HOMEPAGE...?!?!
* RICK... IT'S NOT ALL ABOUT YOU, BUDDY! THE DRUDGE REPORT IS A TOOL - ONE OF MANY. TO SIMPLY REFUSE TO USE IT BECAUSE BIG, BAD MATT DRUDGE MIGHT HURT YOUR ITTY-BITTY-WITTLE FEELINGS BY SHOWING PRO-ROMNEY BIAS...
(*SIGH*)
http://bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20220403uncle_obama_on_the_roads_again_rmv_approves_hardship_license
Just a week after he copped a plea in a drunken-driving rap, President Obama’s illegal-alien uncle has landed a hardship driver’s license from the Registry of Motor Vehicles, making it perfectly legal for him to drive in Massachusetts — even though the feds say he doesn’t belong here.
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... JUST... (*SIGH*)
The license award drew fire from one advocate of tough enforcement on illegals, Bristol County Sheriff Thomas Hodgson.
“Our democracy is predicated on law,” Hodgson said. “When we start to interpret these laws differently and manipulate them the way we want them to work for certain people, we start to send a mixed message to people that the law doesn’t really matter. Its subject to interpretation. You don’t have to follow the law. They find ways to justify it. We need the laws to be very clear. We need ‘no’ to mean ‘no’ again.”
Hodgson, along with sheriffs in Plymouth and Worcester counties, stood up for Secure Communities, a program that feeds local police fingerprint checks into federal databases to check the citizenship status of accused criminals.
Democratic Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick has refused to enroll the state in the program.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Obama, a Kenyan national, lost his license last week after admitting in court that Framingham cops had sufficient evidence to convict him in an August OUI bust. His lawyer, P. Scott Bratton, said Obama has an immigration hearing next month.
A judge continued Obama’s OUI case without a finding for one year, meaning he’ll face no further punishment if he stays out of trouble.
* YA KNOW, FOLKS, I DON'T EVEN CARE THAT HE'S THE PRESIDENT'S UNCLE. THIS STORY REPRESENTS THE DECLINE AND FALL OF A ONCE GREAT - AND SANE - NATION.
http://campaign2012.washingtonexaminer.com/blogs/beltway-confidential/solar-company-bankrupt-despite-win-win-doe-loan/459621
In keeping with the recent trend of so-called "green" companies going into the red, another solar energy company supported by President Obama's top administration officials declared bankruptcy today.
Solar Trust for America received $2.1 billion in conditional loan guarantees from [Obama's DOE] - "the largest amount ever offered to a solar project," according to Energy Secretary Steven Chu -- for a project near Blythe, Calif., but declared bankruptcy within a year.
It is unclear how much of the guarantee, if any, was actually awarded.
* WHAT'S IT MATTER WHETHER THE MONEY WAS AWARDED OR NOT? THE FACT IS, UNSPENT AUTHORIZED FUNDS WILL SIMPLY BE DIRECTED... RE-DIRECTED BY THE SAME INCOMPETENTS WHO "DIRECTED" THE FIRST LOAN GUARANTEE.
Senior officials in Obama's administration had very high hopes for the Blythe project. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar attended the groundbreaking ceremony, which he described as "a historic moment in America’s new energy frontier" and "another important step in making America’s clean energy future a reality." Chu trumpeted at the time that Solar Trust would prove that "when we rev up the great American innovation machine, we can out-compete any other nation."
* AND NOW THEY'RE BANKRUPT. (*SMIRK*)
The embarrassment should be bipartisan. "This is a huge milestone for our community," Rep. Mary Bono Mack, R-Calif., said when the company received its loan guarantee. "I look forward to continuing my work supporting projects . . . that will harness our local energy resources and help reduce our nation’s dangerous dependence on unstable foreign oil.”
* AGAIN, FOLKS... WHEN HAVE I EVER SHOWN ANYTHING BUT CONTEMPT FOR RINOs LIKE BONE-MACK?
Uwe Schmidt, chairman and CEO of the company, also argued that Solar Trust was good for the nation. He wrote last year that "the DOE loan guarantee is a 'win-win' for government and the companies involved and will not only advance the cause of energy independence but will create hundreds of thousands of jobs across the country."
* I WONDER HOW MUCH SCHMIDT POCKETED SINCE FEDERAL MONEY WAS AWARDED? (*SNORT*)
The bankruptcy makes Schmidt's attempt to rebuke DOE critics in the wake of the Solyndra bankruptcy particuarly ironic.
"Despite the posturing and finger pointing, the American solar energy industry is alive and well," Schmidt wrote in an op-ed for the Huffington Post, before discussing his company's business plans. Referring to Solyndra, he lamented that "one company's bankruptcy has cast doubt on the credibility of a government program that is otherwise being administered with incredible efficiency."
* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
The list of bankrupt solar companies has grown since Schmidt scolded Solyndra investigators.
How many more might go bankrupt? Secretary Chu won't say.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/IMF-chief-calls-on-US-for-more-cash/articleshow/12522131.cms
IMF managing director Christine Lagarde implored the United States to help back-stop debt-ridden European countries Tuesday...
(*JUST LAUGHED SO HARD I LITERALLY FELL OFF MY CHAIR*)
Legarde's comments came 64 years to the day after president Harry Truman signed the Marshall Plan, an unprecedented loan to rebuild post-war Europe.
Lagarde has asked members to give her $500 billion in extra funds to fight financial crises, including for possible future eurozone bailouts.
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=50561
It’s another month in Washington, and it’s yet another bailout.
This time, taxpayers will be tapped for another $41 billion to subsidize the United States Postal Service, a flagging entity that is struggling against the tide of modern technology, despite its competitive advantage in the mail-carrying business.
Last week, the Senate held a cloture vote on a postal bailout bill (S. 1789). The cloture motion was easily defeated, but not before five Republicans and almost every Democrat supported the effort to begin debate on the bill.
(What is even more troubling is that most of the Democrats who voted “no” did so because they felt that even the infinitesimal structural reforms in the bill went too far. They wanted no strings attached to the bailout. This sentiment could pave the road for an even worse bill later this month.)
* A BIT OF HISTORY:
In 1970, in response to a disruptive two-week strike by federal postal workers, Congress abolished the Post Office Department as a full cabinet-level department, and created the U.S. Postal Service, a quasi-private government-sponsored entity, referred to as a GSE.
The Postal Service began working like a private entity in the sense that it self-financed its operations, but it was still a part of the federal government in every other respect.
The USPS still enjoys tax-exempt status and a monopoly on first-class mail delivery.
On the other hand, it is also encumbered by intractable government directives and the “universal service obligation,” a legal commitment that mandates that it provide service to everyone at reasonable rates.
Furthermore, its workers are entitled to the full array of federal employee compensation, including costly retirement healthcare benefits.
This muddled legal status, not unlike most other GSEs, has precluded the Postal Service from innovating to compete in this era of electronic communication like other private entities, leaving taxpayers on the hook to bail out an entity that could not compete without the government-sponsored monopoly.
In recent years, as the Postal Service has failed to remain profitable even as a government-sponsored monopoly, it has become clear that advocates of full privatization back in the middle of the 20th Century were quite prescient.
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
It’s no secret that the U. S. Postal Service is on its way out.
The transition to electronic communication has dramatically reduced the demand for its services. Consequently, USPS no longer generates enough revenue to function as a self-sufficient entity, particularly when it comes to paying employee retirement benefits.
The Postal Service lost $25.4 billion between FY 2007 and FY 2011, and would have lost another $9.5 billion if not for the bailout in 2006.
As part of the 2006 agreement for USPS to recoup some of the money they had paid into the Treasury for their employees’ retirement health benefits, the Postal Service was required to prefund its future retirees’ health benefits with $5.6 billion per year to the Treasury for 10 years.
(Yet, Postal Service revenue has declined so precipitously over the past few years that Congress granted them a deferment from paying those prefunded obligations in 2009 and 2011.)
Now, USPS is in such dire straits that it won’t be able to fulfill its current payroll obligations without further help from taxpayers.
Supporters of the status quo inside and outside of Congress have concocted a scheme in which they are claiming that the USPS “overpaid” into the Treasury’s prefunded retirement account to the tune of $11.1 billion.
Last year, the GAO ruled that the Postal Service was wrong in their assertion that they overpaid for employee retirement benefits. After all, like anyone who pays a fixed amount into a pension fund with a variable rate of interest, there are ups and downs depending on the market. As such, any money recouped from the Treasury would engender more taxpayer funding.
(Don’t let them fool you with talk about “transfers” and “overpayments.” This is a pure bailout.)
The Senate bailout bill, which is sponsored by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), would not only allow the USPS to recoup the $11.1 billion and use it as life support for its current operations, it would also re-amortize the entire prefunded payment structure, denying the Treasury of nearly $30 billion.
(Supporters of the bill refer to it as an intra-governmental transfer. In reality, it is a backhanded bailout.)
In regard to immediate structural reforms, even Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe asked Congress for the flexibility to act more like a business and use innovation to restructure and cut costs.
In order to continue operating at a limited capacity, which is what the free market would dictate in this circumstance, there is a plan to end Saturday delivery, to cut the workforce by about 220,000 employees and to close 3,700 local post offices and 252 processing centers. That’s how creative destruction and supply and demand work in the real world. That is not how it works in Washington. Democratic nostalgia for the past is too potent to overcome. Democrats are completely averse to gradually winding down the Postal Service.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) has even suggested that people write more letters so that the USPS will have more work.
(*LAUGHING AND CRYING AT THE SAME TIME*)
The Senate bill does very little to afford the Postal Service the proper flexibility to cut and restructure its operations. It also continues Saturday delivery for several more years.
(The bill might have suffered a minor setback, but it will most likely come up again later this month, following the Easter recess.)
Supporters of the Postal Service [status quo] complain that the Postal Service is hindered by the government’s requirement that it prepay retirement benefits. But supporters can’t have it both ways. If they want the agency to control its own destiny, it must be able to stand on its own two feet — without the competitive advantages of a government-sponsored monopoly and tax-exempt status.
It’s time to let the wheels of economic progress spin. Let’s deal with the Postal Service the way we should have dealt with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. It’s time to privatize it or wind it down.
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