Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 2, 2012


Just picture Donald reading today's newsbites aloud!

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7 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303916904577378080052874406.html?mod=WSJ_hp_MIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond

President Barack Obama made a symbolic trip to Afghanistan on Tuesday, arriving on the first anniversary of the killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to sign an agreement with President Hamid Karzai that marks a transition in the war while committing the U.S. to another decade of economic and military aid.

* LET'S DECONSTRUCT THIS FIRST PARAGRAPH POINT BY POINT:

* 1) BY "SYMBOLIC" TRIP THEY MEANT CAMPAIGN TRIP.

* 2) PRESIDENTS DON'T COMMIT AMERICA TO DECADES OF ECONOMIC AND MILITARY AID - CONGRESSES DO. WE'LL SEE IF THIS AND FUTURE CONGRESSES FUND OBAMA'S PROMISES.

Mr. Obama said the Strategic Partnership Agreement he signed in Kabul would allow the U.S. to disentangle from Afghanistan, while not specifying funding or troop levels.

[The President] delivered a rare prime-time televised address in which he assured Americans that the U.S. role in Afghanistan is shrinking while also promising long-term aid to the Afghans.

* UH-HUH.

Hours after Mr. Obama delivered his predawn speech and left Afghanistan, insurgents attacked a fortified compound that houses thousands of Westerners, including U.S. Department of Defense contractors and European Union police trainers, on the outskirts of Kabul.

Insurgents used at least two car bombs to attack the front gate of Green Village before other attackers stormed the gate and got inside the parking lot of the compound, according to one resident of the compound.

Well-armed contractors defended the facility as insurgents used rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns to try to attack, the resident said. Several Westerners were injured in the assault, but security managed to contain the attackers, he said. An hour after the attack, only one insurgent remained contained on the compound. The Kabul police chief at the scene said that six people were killed, including one Afghan student and one guard at Green Village.

* SEVERAL WESTERNERS WERE INJURED IN THE ASSAULT... SIX PEOPLE WERE KILLED.

* OH, YEAH... OBVIOUSLY AFTER 11 YEARS OF WAR WE'VE SHOWN THE TALIBAN WHO'S BOSS.

(*SMIRK*)

Hours earlier, Mr. Obama said his administration has been in direct talks with the Taliban, the first public acknowledgment of the negotiations by the president.

* SO MUCH FOR UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER! SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... IT IS THE OFFICIAL OBAMA ADMINISTRATION POLICY THAT WE NEGOTIATE WITH TERRORISTS EVEN AS THEY CONTINUE TO TRY AND KILL US.

The pact Messrs. Obama and Karzai signed outlines a 10-year relationship between Afghanistan...

(*PURSED LIPS*)

The White House said the deal "provides for the possibility of U.S. forces in Afghanistan after 2014, for the purposes of training Afghan forces and targeting the remnants of al Qaeda."

* SO THE WAR WILL GO ON.

* "TRAINING." ISN'T THAT HOW VIETNAM STARTED...? (RHETORICAL QUESTION...)

The agreement cements Afghanistan as a "major non-NATO ally" of the U.S., a designation — shared by Pakistan and Israel, among others — meant to signify the country's role as an important strategic American ally.

* JEEZUS... FRIGGIN' INSANITY! PAKISTAN... AN ALLY...?!?! THE PAKISTAN MILITARY AND SECURITY FORCES WERE PROTECTING BIN LADEN! AND BTW, HOW IS AFGHANISTAN ANYTHING BUT A DRAIN OF U.S. RESOURCES? SHOULD "ALLIANCES" BENEFIT THE U.S.?

Mr. Obama called the signing of the agreement "a historic moment for our two nations."

* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... THE CONSTITUTION IS DEAD... THE REPUBLIC IS DEAD.

May 2, 2012 at 10:29 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/abrambrown/2012/05/02/u-s-added-only-119000-new-jobs-in-april-stocks-double-their-losses/

Companies hired far fewer workers than anticipated in April, suggesting the labor market weakened for a second straight month.

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

Employment increased by [only] 119,000... Economists had expected companies to add considerably more workers to payrolls in April - closer to 183,000.

* OOPS!

The decline in growth was broad last month, coming across most sectors and industries. Service-providing employers still added the most, some 123,000 new jobs.

* OH, YEAH, BABY... SERVICE WORKERS... WOO-HOO!

May 2, 2012 at 3:05 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/47262178

New orders for U.S. factory goods in March recorded their biggest decline in three years as demand for transportation equipment and a range of other goods slumped, government data showed on Wednesday.

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

* AND THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY CONTINUES..

(*SMIRK*)

May 2, 2012 at 3:08 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/apr/18/tsa-mission-creep-us-police-state?fb=optOut

* A FOREIGN PERSPECTIVE AUTHORED BY JENIFFER ABEL AND CARRIED THE UK GUARDIAN:

Can I call America a police state now, without being accused of hyperbole?

Ever since 2010, when the Transportation Security Administration started requiring that travelers in American airports submit to sexually intrusive groping based on the apparent anti-terrorism principle that "If we can't feel your nipples, they must be a bomb", the agency's craven apologists have shouted down all constitutional or human rights objections with the mantra "If you don't like it, don't fly!"

This callous disregard for travelers' rights merely paraphrases the words of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, who shares, with the president, ultimate responsibility for all TSA travesties since 2009. In November 2010, with the groping policy only a few weeks old, Napolitano dismissed complaints by saying "people [who] want to travel by some other means" have that right. (In other words: if you don't like it, don't fly.)

But now TSA is invading travel by other means, too.

(No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit.)

In the past year, TSA's snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations – and even running checkpoints on highways – never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA's air marshal training center since the agency's inception: "Dominate. Intimidate. Control."

Anyone who rode the bus in Houston, Texas during the 2-10pm shift last Friday...

* NOTE: THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY RAN ON APRIL 18TH

...faced random bag checks and sweeps by both drug-sniffing dogs and bomb-sniffing dogs (the latter being only canines necessary if "preventing terrorism" were the actual intent of these raids), all courtesy of a joint effort between TSA VIPR nests and three different local and county-level police departments. The new Napolitano doctrine, then: "Show us your papers, show us everything you've got, justify yourself or you're not allowed to go about your everyday business."

Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee praised these violations of her constituents' rights with an explanation asinine even by congressional standards: "We're looking to make sure that the lady I saw walking with a cane … knows that Metro cares as much about her as we do about building the light rail."

See, if you don't support the random harassment of ordinary people riding the bus to work, you're a callous bastard who doesn't care about little old ladies.

* I COVERED ALL THIS AS IT WAS HAPPENING; SEE NEWSBITE ARCHIVES. (*SHRUG*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

May 2, 2012 at 3:40 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

No specific threats or reasons were cited for the raids, as the government no longer even pretends to need any. (Vipers bite you just because they can.)

TSA spokesman Jim Fotenos confirmed this a few days before the Houston raids, when VIPR teams and local police did the same thing to travelers catching trains out of the Amtrak station in Alton, Illinois. Fotenos confirmed that "It was not in response to a specific threat," and bragged that VIPR teams conduct "thousands" of these operations each year.

* REALLY, FOLKS...? REALLY...? THIS IS YOUR AMERICA?

Still, apologists can pretend that's all good, pretend constitutional and human rights somehow don't apply to mass transit, and twist their minds into the Mobius pretzel shapes necessary to find random searches of everyday travelers compatible with any notion that America is a free country. "Don't like the new rules for mass transit? Then drive."

Except even that doesn't work anymore.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Earlier this month, the VIPRs came out again in Virginia and infested the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel, also known as the stretch of Interstate 64 connecting the cities of Hampton and Norfolk. Spokesmen admitted again that the exercise was a "routine sweep", not a response to any specific threat. Official news outlets admitted the checkpoint caused a delay (further exacerbated by a couple of accidents), but didn't say for how long. Local commenters at the Travel Underground forums reported delays of 90 minutes.

I grew up in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. When I was a kid, my dad crossed the bridge-tunnel every day while commuting to work. When I was in university, I did the same thing.

The old conventional wisdom said "Get to the airport at least two hours early, so TSA has time to violate your constitutional rights before boarding." What's the new conventional wisdom – "Leave for any destination at least 90 minutes early, so TSA can violate your rights en route"?

Airports, bus terminals, train stations, highways – what's left?

If you don't like it, walk.

* YEP. THAT ABOUT COVERS IT. BUT THEN THERE'RE THE RANDOM PAT-DOWNS MORE AND MORE COMMON IN CERTAIN CITIES - NYC BEING ONE.

And remember to be respectfully submissive to any TSA agents or police you encounter in your travels, especially now that the U.S. supreme court has ruled mass strip-searches are acceptable for anyone arrested for even the most minor offence in America.

* WELL... FRANKLY I HAVE NO PROBLEM WITH THAT. (ASSUMING A GOOD FAITH ARREST!)

If you're rude to any TSA agent or cops, you risk being arrested on some vague catch-all charge like "disorderly conduct".

Even if the charges are later dropped, you'll still undergo the ritual humiliation of having to strip, squat, spread 'em and show your various orifices to be empty.

* MS. ABLE REITERATES...

Can I call America a police state now, without being accused of hyperbole?

May 2, 2012 at 3:41 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304811304577366333547967166.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

Ronald Reagan liked to quip that only in government is failure rewarded with more money. Witness the U.S. Postal Service, which the Senate has voted to give another $34 billion while delaying reforms that would save money.

The Postal Service is losing $25 million a day as more communication goes electronic, and the Postmaster General acknowledges that sometime next year the agency won't be able to pay its more than 500,000 employees.

Without serious reforms, its debt will climb to over $92 billion by the end of 2016.

* THEY CAN "REFORM" ALL THEY WANT - BUT THE DEBT REMAINS THE DEBT. I HAVE NO FRIGGIN' IDEA WHAT THE IDIOT WRITING THIS OP-ED MEANT TO SAY. (*SHRUG*)

Postal Service management, to its credit, has a credible plan to put the agency on firmer financial footing (at least for now) so it doesn't need taxpayer money. Yet the Senate bill creates one obstacle after another to implementing that plan. According to the Postal Board of Governors, "the Senate's bill would not enable the Postal Service to return to financial viability."

THE REID-LED DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED SENATE.

This may be a first in Washington: a federal agency wants to reform itself to save money but Congress won't let it.

Management wants to close about half of its mail processing centers and some 3,000 unnecessary post offices — letting Walmart or local stores take packages and sell postage stamps. But the Senate bill creates new rules to prevent or delay this.

* AGAIN, FOLKS... ABSENT VIOLENCE... WITHOUT LITERALLY KILLING THESE BASTARDS...

(*HOPELESS SHRUG*)

For example, Postal Service managers want to save $2.7 billion by changing mail delivery standards (such as relaxing overnight delivery requirements for some first-class mail), but the Senate bill locks in current standards for three years.

Managers want to renegotiate absurd no-layoff labor contracts to shrink its labor force faster. The Senate bill denies that authority.

Managers want to end Saturday delivery as soon as possible. The Senate bill allows this in two years but only if a federal study certifies there is no viable alternative.

(Republican Senator Susan Collins of Maine, a cosponsor of the bill, has said she believes ending Saturday delivery will put the mail service in a death spiral. Compared to losing $25 million a day?)

* FOR THE RECORD... SPEAKING OF "DEATH" AND SUSAN COLLINS...

(*SMIRK*)

* JUST SAYIN'...!!!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

May 2, 2012 at 5:09 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Meanwhile, the Senate bill gives the Postal Service a $34 billion lease on its zombie life, courtesy of the Treasury. The postal unions claim that $11 billion of this is justified because of overpayments by the Postal Service into the federal retirement system. The other $23 billion is to break a 2006 deal with Congress that required the Postal Service to fully fund its health-care retirement program.

* JEEZUS...

The Government Accountability Office recently recommended that, given the Postal Service's precarious finances, the agency should be required to prefund its liabilities now. Instead, the Senate bill says that the Postal Service only has to fund 80% of those health-care benefits. Take a wild guess who will eventually fund the other 20%?

(*PURSED LIPS*)

The Postal Service already has about $45 billion of unfunded liabilities in its retiree health-care accounts. It also has drawn down a $15 billion Treasury line of credit that it is unlikely to repay. In other words, the Postal Service already owes the Treasury billions of dollars, not the other way around.

The Senate bill is the result of one of those unholy political alliances of Democrats, who don't dare take on the union lobby, and Republicans who don't want local post offices shut on their watch. The Senate waived five budget points of order that were intended to prevent such fiscal raids. So bleeding Uncle Sam will borrow $34 billion to give to the bleeding Postal Service. Glad to have solved that crisis. Next issue?

* AGAIN... HERE'S THE ONLY VIABLE SOLUTION I SEE: KILL REID AND MCCONNELL. GIVE THEIR REPLACEMENTS ONE MONTH TO GET THEIR ACTS IN GEAR. IF THEY FAIL... (*SHRUG*)... TAKE THEM OUT. (AND SO ON AND SO FORTH...)

* NOPE! NOT A THREAT! NOT A CALL FOR VIOLENCE! ONLY A THEORETICAL COURSE OF ACTION! CERTAINLY I'M NOT THREATENING ANYONE!

We can only hope House Republicans have the good sense to laugh this out of the Capitol.

* YEEEEAH...

Darrell Issa of California is co-sponsoring a better reform that gives the Postal Service a fighting chance to survive for five to 10 years without being a $12 billion annual drain on the Treasury. His bill would appoint a federal control board to oversee postal finances and would have the power to cut costs, restructure the agency and renegotiate no-layoff contracts. This is modeled after the Washington, D.C. control board of several years ago that helped steer the district government back to solvency.

* I'M NOT GONNA HOLD MY BREATH.

The larger story here is how difficult it is to reform any government operation, even one that everyone admits is broken.

In the private economy, a company that loses money every year eventually declares bankruptcy and restructures or dissolves. In government, political constituencies protect a loser as long as Congress can keep soaking taxpayers. This is a very good reason to limit what government does.

May 2, 2012 at 5:09 PM

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