Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 9, 2012


Finally... some GOOD news...!

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6 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://paul.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1970:enduring-commitments-abroad&catid=62:texas-straight-talk&Itemid=69

* BY CONGRESSMAN AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE RON PAUL...

Last week President Obama made a surprise pre-dawn trip to Afghanistan to mark the one year anniversary of the killing of Osama bin Laden and to sign a document further extending the U.S. presence in that country.

The president said, "We're building an enduring partnership ... As you stand up, you will not stand alone."

What that means in practice is that the U.S. will continue its efforts to prop up the [corrupt] government in Afghanistan for another ten years beyond the promised withdrawal date of 2014.

(*GNASHING MY TEETH*)

To those of us who believe the U.S. should leave Afghanistan immediately, the president retorted, "We must give Afghanistan the opportunity to stabilize." But how long will that take, when we have already fought the longest war in our nation's history at incredible human and economic cost to the nation and no end is in sight?

(*PURSED LIPS*) (*SIGH*)

There is little evidence of any sustained increase in stability in Afghanistan and, in fact, April saw the loss of 34 more American troops and an escalation of violence and upheaval.

Within 90 minutes of the president's departure, seven more people were killed in Kabul by a suicide bomber.

It is clear that our presence in that country is not creating any real stability. With Osama bin Laden dead and the al Qaeda presence in Afghanistan virtually non-existent, we are reduced to nation-building in a nation where there is no real nation to build.

(*NOD*)

We should ask ourselves why Obama's trip was a "surprise" visit rather than a normal state visit.

The reason is that after ten years it is still far too dangerous to travel in or out of that country.

Does that not speak much more loudly than the president's optimistic words about the amazing progress we have made in Afghanistan?

* YA KNOW... THAT IS A HELL OF A GOOD POINT! I HADN'T EVEN THOUGHT OF THAT!

What does our enduring commitment mean? Ask the South Koreans, where the United States has maintained an "enduring commitment" of US troops more than fifty years after hostilities ended.

By some estimates the United States taxpayer is saddled with a 40 billion dollar annual price tag for our "enduring commitment" to maintaining a U.S. military presence in Korea.

Polls suggest that particularly younger Koreans are tired of the U.S. military presence in their country and would prefer us to leave.

The same is true for the residents of Okinawa, who have argued strongly and with some recent success for American troops to leave their island.

The Soviets believed the road to their goal for a universal form of government ran through Afghanistan. They were also wrong and paid an enormous price. However, after nine years and 15,000 Soviet lives lost, the communist regime in Moscow realized its mistake and withdrew from that country. The Soviet withdrawal was complete in early 1989. The Soviet Union by that time had further plunged into economic crisis, fueled in great part by its commitment to maintain a global empire of client states. Later that year, the Soviet world began crashing down, with first the collapse of Eastern European regimes and then the Soviet Union itself. That collapse produced an economic calamity for the successor states from which most have not yet fully recovered.

It is not too late for the United States to learn what the Soviets discovered too late, back in 1989.

Mr. President: the time to leave Afghanistan is today, not in 2024.

* AGREED!

May 9, 2012 at 9:13 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/cia-unraveled-bomb-plot-from-within/2012/05/08/gIQA5tKOBU_print.html

The latest al-Qaeda bomb plot targeting U.S. aircraft was unraveled from inside the terrorist group by operatives — including an agent who posed as a willing suicide bomber — working on behalf of the CIA and its counterparts in Saudi Arabia and Yemen, said U.S. and Middle Eastern officials.

* YOU'VE HEARD OF GOVERNMENT PLAYING JUDGE, JURY, AND EXECUTIONER? NOW GOVERNMENT IS PLAYING BOTH TERRORIST AND ANTI-TERRORIST. (FOLKS... YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!)

May 9, 2012 at 9:19 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-08/pentagon-defends-buying-from-russia-trader-aiding-assad.html

The U.S. Army has a $375 million contract to buy 21 Russian-made MI-17 helicopters for the Afghans from Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state-run arms trader...

* TO REITERATE:

The U.S. Army has a $375 million contract to buy 21 Russian-made MI-17 helicopters for the Afghans from Rosoboronexport, Russia’s state-run arms trader...

* SO... THE AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ARE SPENDING $375 MILLION TO... er... BUY RUSSIAN RATHER THAN AMERICAN HELICOPTERS AND... er... THEN THE PLAN IS TO GIVE THE HELICOPTERS AWAY TO THE CORRUPT AFGHAN GOVERNMENT...??? UH-HUH...

The Army has taken delivery of nine of the helicopters for Afghanistan, with six more awaiting shipment and another six to be delivered by May 31. The U.S. has an option to buy an additional 12 Russian helicopters for the Afghans, who have been flying them for decades.

(*SPEECHLESS*)

U.S. commanders in Afghanistan concluded that the MI-17, one of the region’s most widely used helicopters, is needed “after considering its proven operational capabilities in the extreme environments of Afghanistan,” Miller said in the letter to Senator John Cornyn, a Texas Republican who’s led opposition in Congress to the helicopter contract.

* MEANING THE FUCKING RUSSIANS MAKE A BETTER HELICOPTER THAN AMERICAN COMPANIES CAN MAKE...?!?! (APPARENTLY SO...!!!)

The governments of Iraq and Pakistan also have asked the U.S. to supply them with MI-17s for counter-terrorism missions, according to the Pentagon’s inspector general.

* AMERICAN 2012: THE AGE OF OBAMA.

(*SIGH*)

May 9, 2012 at 9:34 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/mob-quad_644237.html

Late Monday night, in a shameful example of editorial cowardice, the Chronicle of Higher Education fired Naomi Schaefer Riley.

Naomi joined the Chronicle’s “Brainstorm Blog” a little over a year ago. It was a good hire — she’s written two insightful books on academia, "God on the Quad" and "The Faculty Lounges," along with dozens of articles on the subject. Her postings were smart and entertaining.

Last week she wrote about the world of “Black Studies” in a post titled “The most persuasive case for getting rid of Black Studies? Read the dissertations.”

You should read the whole thing, because it’s only 520 words...

(See: http://chronicle.com/blogs/brainstorm/the-most-persuasive-case-for-eliminating-black-studies-just-read-the-dissertations/46346)

Eight days and 497 comments later, the Chronicle’s Liz McMillen fired Naomi.

May 9, 2012 at 9:50 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/08/us-usa-florida-skinheads-idUSBRE8471EN20120508

Ten alleged members of a white supremacist group training near Orlando and Disney World for a "race war" have been rounded up in a series of arrests in central Florida, authorities said on Tuesday.

* YA GOTTA LUV "...TRAINING NEAR ORLANDO AND DISNEY WORLD..." (*SNORT*)

The arrests were based on evidence from a confidential informant who infiltrated the neo-Nazi organization known as the American Front 17 months ago, according to an arrest affidavit.

* A "CONFIDENTIAL INFORMANT," HUH? ONE WHO... er... "INFILTRATED" THE ORGANIZATION... OF... er... TEN (10) PEOPLE.

(*SCRATCHING MY CHIN*)

[Arrested were the "organization's"] alleged local ringleader, Marcus Faella, 39 [as well as] Christopher Brooks, 27, of Palm Bay; Richard Stockdale, 23, of St. Cloud; Kent McLellan, 22, of St. Cloud; Patricia Faella, 36, of St. Cloud; Jennifer McGowan, 25, of Cocoa; Mark McGowan, 29, of Cocoa; Diane Stevens, 28, of Kissimmee; Paul Jackson, 25, of St. Cloud; and Dustin Perry, 21, of Kissimmee.

* SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT... OUT OF THE TEN (10) "WARRIORS" THREE (3) WERE CHICKS...?!?! (LEAVING US WITH SEVEN GUYS...)

* FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... READ THE FULL ARTICLE. PERHAPS THESE CLOWNS REALLY DID REPRESENT A CLEAR AND IMMINENT THREAT... BUT SEVEN GUYS AND THREE CHICKS...?

* FRANKLY... I'M A BIT MORE CONCERNED ABOUT THE CRIPES... THE BLOODS... MS13... MEXICAN AND COLOMBIAN DRUG CARTELS...

(*SHRUG*)

* WELL... YOU GET THE IDEA.

May 9, 2012 at 10:09 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/3-big-chinese-banks-enter-us-banking-market-185200086.html

The United States on Wednesday opened its banking market to ICBC, China's biggest bank, for the first time clearing a takeover of a US bank by a Chinese state-controlled company.

* THIS DOESN'T SOUND GOOD...

Just days after high-level US-China economic talks in Beijing, the Federal Reserve approved an application from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to buy a majority stake in the U.S. subsidiary of Bank of East Asia.

The transaction will make ICBC the first Chinese state-controlled bank to acquire retail bank branches in the United States.

* AND WHY - PRAY TELL - IS THIS SUPPOSEDLY A "GOOD" THING...???

"This unprecedented acquisition of a controlling stake in a U.S. commercial bank by a mainland bank is strategically significant," Xinhua quoted ICBC chairman Jiang Jianqing as saying.

* UMM... YEAH... BUT IN CHINA'S INTEREST - NOT OURS!

May 9, 2012 at 6:43 PM

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