Saturday, April 14, 2012
Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., April 14 & 15, 2012
Another beautiful day!
Getting my "new" computer "delivered" today - by my buddy John and his lovely and gracious wife Cary!
Then... after the install... and after lunch... it's off to a few upstate NY wineries.
(Ah, yes... John is quite the oeophile!)
(*GRIN*)
Hey... he fixed my computer... whatever makes him happy!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
http://www.taxpayer.net/resources.php?category=&type=Project&proj_id=5221&action=Headlines%20By%20TCS
Taxpayers for Common Sense has awarded their "Golden Fleece Award" to Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) for introducing H.R. 4342, the Waterways Are Vital for the Economy, Energy, Efficiency, and Environment Act of 2012 (WAVE4 Act).
This legislation would codify recommendations made by barge operators to increase the federal subsidy for inland waterway construction projects on the nation's rivers.
* FEDERAL FUCKING SUBSIDIES...?!?!
"While the rest of the country is trying to find ways to trim the fat, Congressman Whitfield is trying to pad the wallets of barge companies," said Ms. Ryan Alexander, president of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Now that the space shuttle is retired, inland waterways are the most heavily subsidized form of transportation, but they still want more. That makes us shake our heads. This riverboat ripoff is a Golden Fleece."
* AND BOEHNER ALLOWS THIS.
Operation and maintenance costs of the inland waterways system are fully subsidized by the taxpayer. Currently, construction improvements to the navigation locks and dams are funded half by the treasury and half by a 20 cents per gallon tax on the diesel fuel used by commercial towboats on the system. All told, approximately 90 percent of the inland waterways costs are borne by federal taxpayers.
H.R. 4342 would shift even more of the funding burden onto the treasury.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... ABSENT VIOLENCE... (*SIGH*)
http://freebeacon.com/obama-family-tax-shelter/
President Obama and his wife, Michele, gave a total of $48,000 in tax-free gifts to their daughters, according to tax records made public on Friday.
* TAX FREE...
(*SHRUG*) (*CHUCKLE*)
The president and his wife separately gave each daughter a $12,000 gift under a section of the federal tax code that exempts such donations from federal taxes.
* NICE... GOTTA LUV THOSE TAX SHELTERS! (RIGHT MR. PRESIDENT? RIGHT MADAM FIRST LADY?)
There is nothing illegal about the president’s taking advantage of this tax shelter, but it does raise eyebrows given that he has lamented the myriad tax exemptions used by the wealthy — “millionaires and billionaires” like himself — to pay less in taxes.
President Obama has yet to propose a comprehensive plan to reform the byzantine tax code.
(*SMIRK*)
The Obama’s tax return indicates that the gifts...began in 2007, when the maximum exemptible amount was $24,000 per couple. The maximum exemption has since increased to $26,000 per couple.
(*SNORT*)
The Obamas paid a total federal tax rate of 20.5% on a gross adjusted income $789,674...
(*SMIRK*)
* BTW... THAT'S A SLIGHTLY LOWER RATE THAN OBAMA'S SECRETARY PAID - THE WHITE HOUSE HAS ACKNOWLEDGED THIS.
(*SNICKER*)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/apr/13/obama-north-korea-engagement-policy
Barack Obama's policy of "engagement" with North Korea lies "in tatters" after it was effectively shot down by Pynongyang's defiant but failed attempt to launch a long-range rocket.
Former U.S. officials closely involved with North Korea policy said Washington's attempt to win agreement from Pyongyang to abandon its development of nuclear weapons and rockets in exchange for desperately needed food aid has failed.
They now expect North Korea to try and overcome the embarrassment caused at the rocket breaking into pieces over the Yellow Sea by carrying out a third nuclear test in the near future.
* HIL-LAR-Y! HIL-LAR-Y! HIL-LAR-Y!
If that goes ahead, it will represent a significant foreign policy failure for Obama and prove a severe political embarrassment in an election year.
* OH, PLEASE... WHAT NONSENSE! THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE IDIOTS WHEN IT COMES TO FOREIGN POLICY. JEEZUS CHRIST... OBAMA AND CLINTON AREN'T EVEN BEING BLAMED FOR "LOSING" EGYPT! LIBYA IS A FREE-FOR-ALL. CHINA GROWS STRONGER AND MORE AGGRESSIVE BY THE DAY! RELATIONS WITH INDIA ARE LOWER THAN THEY'VE BEEN SINCE BEFORE THE SOVIET UNION FELL!
(*ROLLING MY EYES*)
In February, the Washington and Pyongyang reached an agreement under which the communist regime would halt its missile testing and uranium enrichment, and agree to the resumption of international monitoring of its nuclear sites, in return for Washington providing 240,000 tonnes of food to the North Korea which has faced widespread shortages and famine.
* BLACKMAIL. EXTORTION. YEP. GIVING IN TO IT IS AN OBAMA POLICY... AND TO BE HONEST, IT WAS ALSO A BUSH POLICY AND A CLINTON POLICY. DISGUSTING!
* OH... AND WORST OF ALL... IT DIDN'T EVEN WORK!!! THAT'S HOW FRIGG'N INCOMPETENT THESE BASTARDS ARE...!!!
The U.S. says it warned North Korea that the rocket launch – which Pyongyang said was intended to carry a satellite but which the Obama administration claimed was a ballistic missile test – would violate the agreement.
Charles Pritchard, a special envoy for negotiations with North Korea in the Bush administration and a special assistant to Bill Clinton on national security, said Obama's policy of engagement has now failed.
"It is essentially in tatters. They made a calculation. They reached out to North Korea and it fell apart," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/secret-service-scandal-and-alleged-prostitution-inquiry-began-with-night-of-partying/2012/04/14/gIQAytztHT_print.html
The U.S. Secret Service on Saturday placed 11 agents on administrative leave as the agency investigates allegations that the men brought prostitutes to their hotel rooms in Cartagena, Colombia, on Wednesday night and that a dispute ensued with one of the women over payment the following morning.
* JEEZUS FRIGG'N CHRIST... THE "CHICAGO WAY" SEEMS TO HAVE INFECTED THE SECRET SERVICE.
The situation deteriorated further Saturday when the Defense Department announced that five military personnel, who are staying at the same hotel, violated curfew Wednesday night and have been confined to their rooms.
* CAN YOU JUST IMAGINE IF OBAMA IS RE-ELECTED? FOLKS... THE FISH ROTS FROM THE HEAD DOWN.
Any presidential trip, but especially those abroad, involve immense manpower and logistical planning that can take place weeks before the president arrives, experts said. Typically, on a foreign trip, more than 200 federal officials from the Secret Service, Defense Department and White House staff are sent to the site two weeks ahead of the event. Once the president arrives on Air Force One, usually with a support plane and press charter plane in tow, an additional 200 people or more join the original group.
Several people familiar with the Cartagena investigation described a night of partying by members of the advance team, who created enough of a disturbance in the Hotel Caribe that hotel employees asked the group to quiet down more than once.
* GREAT. THE CHICAGO WAY MEETS SPRING BREAK. FOLKS... WE ARE SO FUCKED!
http://www.whitehousedossier.com/2012/04/14/biden-earned-21000-year-secret-service/
Vice President Joe Biden "earned" $21,000 last year from the Secret Service.
No, he’s not moonlighting as an agent.
Biden last year "earned" $20,900 in rental income from the Secret Service, which is paying him to host agents on his property so they can protect him.
* NOPE. NOT A JOKE, FOLKS. NOT A SATIRE. THIS IS JUST HOW OL' JOE ROLLS!
(*SMIRK*)
Most high-profile people in need of protection pay people to keep them safe. Government officials are allowed to have taxpayers pick up the tab. Biden is unique in that he actually gets paid by his bodyguards for the right to protect him.
* FOLKS. I'VE ADDRESSED THIS BEFORE. IT'S BEEN GOING ON SINCE THESE BOZOS TOOK OFFICE. IT'S DISGUSTING AND AN AFFRONT TO ALL OF US. THIS IS THE WAY THESE PEOPLE THINK! THIS IS THE WAY THESE PEOPLE BEHAVE! MY GOD... WE ARE SO FUCKED!
Biden’s tax records list rental income of $20,900 from a “cottage” on is property, which is reportedly being leased by the Secret Service and paid for at a rate that could earn him even more money next year.
* OH...! AND GET THIS, FOLKS! (READ ON...)
Biden took deductions for mortgage interest and taxes that allowed him to report only $12,653 of the amount on his federal tax return.
* WHAT A PIECE OF SHIT - HUH?
Of course, the Bidens badly need the money. They only had an adjusted gross income of $379,035 last year. This probably also explains why they gave less than 1.5 percent of their income to charity.
(*SMIRK*)
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/us/politics/white-house-doors-open-for-big-donors.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all?src=tp
Although President Obama has made a point of not accepting contributions from registered lobbyists, a review of campaign donations and White House visitor logs shows that special interests have had little trouble making themselves heard.
Many of the president’s biggest donors, while not lobbyists, took lobbyists with them to the White House, while others performed essentially the same function on their visits.
[T]he review showed that those who donated the most to Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party since he started running for president were far more likely to visit the White House than others. Among donors who gave $30,000 or less, about 20% visited the White House, according to a New York Times analysis that matched names in the visitor logs with donor records.
(the review showed that those who donated the most to Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party since he started running for president were far more likely to visit the White House than others. Among donors who gave $30,000 or less, about 20 percent visited the White House, according to a New York Times analysis that matched names in the visitor logs with donor records. But among those who donated $100,000 or more, the figure rises to about 75 percent. Approximately two-thirds of the president’s top fund-raisers in the 2008 campaign visited the White House at least once, some of them numerous times.
* WAIT FOR IT... WAIT FOR IT...
But among those who donated $100,000 or more, the figure rises to about 75%.
* HOPE... CHANGE... HOPE... CHANGE...
(*SNICKER*)
Approximately two-thirds of the president’s top fund-raisers in the 2008 campaign visited the White House at least once, some of them numerous times.
(*SMIRK*)
Patrick J. Kennedy, the former representative from Rhode Island, who donated $35,800 to an Obama re-election fund last fall while seeking administration support for a nonprofit venture, said contributions were simply a part of “how this business works.”
“If you want to call it ‘quid pro quo,’ fine,” he said.
* NICE...
(*SIGH*)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/15/us-afghanistan-attack-idUSBRE83E05620120415
Heavy explosions, rockets and gunfire rattled Kabul on Sunday as Afghanistan's Taliban launched a "spring offensive" with multiple attacks targeting Western embassies, the NATO force's headquarters and the parliament building.
The assault, one of the most serious on the capital since U.S.-backed Afghan forces removed the Taliban from power in 2001, highlighted the ability of militants to strike the heavily guarded diplomatic zone even after more than 10 years of war.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISGUST*)
Large explosions shook the diplomatic sector of Kabul. Billows of black smoke rose from embassies while rocket-propelled grenades whizzed overhead.
Heavy gunfire could be heard from many directions as Afghan security forces tried to repel Taliban fighters.
Fighting was still raging after nightfall, more than nine hours after the Taliban first struck following midday prayers.
[I]nsurgent fighters, some dressed in women's head-to-toe covering burqas, launched attacks in three other provinces. In the eastern city of Jalalabad, they attacked a foreign force base near a school and a blast went off near the airport.
Afghan security forces apparently failed to learn lessons from a similar operation in Kabul last September, when insurgents entered construction sites to use them as positions for rocket and gun attacks. On Sunday, insurgents entered a multi-storey construction site overlooking the diplomatic triangle and behind a supermarket. There they unleashed rocket-propelled grenades and gunfire, protected from the view of security forces by green protective netting wrapped around the skeleton of the building.
Hours earlier in neighboring Pakistan, dozens of Islamist militants had stormed a prison in the dead of night and freed nearly 400 inmates, including one on death row for trying to assassinate former President Pervez Musharraf.
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP... (*STILL SHAKING MY HEAD*)
U.S.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with American Ambassador Ryan Crocker to discuss what she called "cowardly attacks in Kabul and elsewhere in Afghanistan..."
* WELL, THEN - THERE YA GO! PROBLEM SOLVED! HILLARY'S "DISCUSSING" IT!
(*SNORT*)
Post a Comment