Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, June 19, 2012


It's all in the lyrics, folks...

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5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/233431-gop-proposes-bill-blocking-enforcement-of-obamas-immigration-policy

Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) on Monday proposed legislation that would block enforcement of President Obama's new policy of letting certain illegal immigrants request temporary relief from deportation.

* DAVID SCHWEIKERT. NOT JOHN BOEHNER. NOT ERIC CANTOR. NOT ALLEN WEST. (*SIGH*)

* IN ANY CASE, OBAMA HAD NO CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY TO MAKE THIS "NEW POLICY" IN THE FIRST PLACE SO ALL THIS IS DOING IS PROVIDING COVER FOR THE PRESIDENT'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL POWER GRAB.

"Last week, the president decided to grant amnesty and hand out work permits to hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, while over 23 million Americans remain unemployed and the civilian participation rate is at a 30-year low," he said Monday. "This amounts to an abdication of duty to the American people who are struggling in this economy.

* WHAT A JOKE. SCHWEIKERT CAN'T BRING HIMSELF TO JUST COME OUT AND ACCUSE THE PRESIDENT OF ACTING UNCONSTITUTIONALLY. I'D BET THAT SCHWEIKERT WAS TOLD IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS BY BOEHNER AND THE GOP ESTABLISHMENT "LEADERSHIP" NOT TO USE SUCH LANGUAGE.

(*SIGH*) (*A LONE TEAR SLIDES DOWN MY CHEEK*)

June 19, 2012 at 10:46 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-news-agency-reports-joint-syria-iran-russia-and-china-wargames/

* HILLARY...??? OH, HILLARY...?!?!

Iran, Syria, Russia and China are planning the “biggest-ever wargames in the Middle East,” according to an unconfirmed report on the semi-official Iranian news site Fars News.

* HILLARY...???

According to the article, the four countries are preparing 90,000 troops, 400 aircraft and 1,000 tanks for the massive joint maneuvers, which are to take place along the Syrian coast within a month.

* HILLARY...???

The report states that...Egypt has agreed to let 12 Chinese warships cross the Suez Canal for the exercises.

* HILLARY...!!!

China and Russia have come to the aid of both countries in recent months at the UN Security Council, vetoing military intervention in Syria and expanded sanctions on Iran.

* HILLARY... HILLARY... HILLARY...

June 19, 2012 at 10:51 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/study-state-pension-shortfall-ballooned-2010-210813413.html

[S]tates diverted scarce money away from pensions to pay for more immediate concerns, leaving a $757 billion hole in the retirement funds covering millions of public employees, according to a study released Monday.

The Pew Center on the States found 34 states failed to maintain safe levels of money in the pension funds, which most experts agree is about 80% of long-term obligations.

Four states — Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky and Rhode Island — didn't even have 55% of the money they'll need in the long run.

The total gap between the money states had available and what they'll have to pay out in the decades ahead reached $757 billion in 2010, the most recent year for which figures are available. That was up 9 percent from the year before, according to the study entitled "The Widening Gap Update."

* IT'S BUSH'S FAULT! (BUSH WAS PRESIDENT IN 2009... 2010... 2011... HE'S STILL PRESIDENT - RIGHT?)

States also faced a $627 billion shortfall in health care services for retirees. Essentially, for every $1 they'll eventually have to pay out in health care, states had set aside only 5 cents.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

* HEY... WHAT COULD POSSIBLY GO WRONG...?!?!

Nationwide, some 22.5 million public workers fall under a state pension plan. When states fall behind in their retirement contributions, they'll have to come up with even more money later to make up the difference. In addition, pension and retiree health costs are growing, driving up state expenses even more. That leaves states less and less each year to spend on education, public safety and other government services.

* YOU DON'T SAY!

Illinois had the worst funding level at just 45%.

* HEY... ISN'T ILLINOIS... (NEVERMIND!)

Robert Rich, executive director at the University of Illinois' Institute of Government and Public Affairs, stressed that the recession was not the chief cause of the pension problem, although it contributed by eating away at the value of investments. For years, states failed to pay their full share of pension costs, he said, so the problem won't be wiped away if the economy improves.

(*TICK-TICK-TICK*)

The problem [is actually] even larger than the report indicates. Many states [deliberately and unrealistically] calculate their funding levels by assuming an 8% return on their investments, a level that many experts believe is no longer realistic.

June 19, 2012 at 11:14 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.humanevents.com/2012/06/19/now-korea-is-cleaning-our-clock/

"The entry into force of the U.S.-Korea trade agreement on March 15, 2012, means countless new opportunities for U.S. exporters to sell more made-in-America goods, services and agricultural products to Korean customers - and to support more good jobs here at home."

Thus did the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative rhapsodize about the potential of our new trade treaty with South Korea.

And how has it worked out for Uncle Sam?

Well, courtesy of Martin Crutsinger of The Associated Press, the trade figures are in for April, the first full month under the trade deal with South Korea.

And, surprise! The U.S. trade deficit with Korea tripled in one month.

* FOLKS... (*HEADACHE*)

* YOU KNOW WHOM I HAVE THE MOST FRUSTRATION WITH IN TERMS OF DEBATING ECONOMICS AND POLITICS? SELF-DESCRIBED CONSERVATIVES. "FREE TRADE" CONSERVATIVES. WHY? BECAUSE NO MATTER THE REALITY, I JUST CAN'T GET THEM TO ACCEPT THAT THE DOCTRINE OF "FREE TRADE" AS PREACHED BY THE WSJ AND THE OLIGARCHS IS ENRICHING THEM AND IMPOVERISHING THE NATION!

Imports from South Korea jumped 15% to $5.5 billion in April, while U.S. exports to South Korea fell 12% to $3.7 billion.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Suddenly, the U.S. trade deficit with Seoul surged to an annual rate of $22 billion.

(*BANGING MY HEAD ON THE DESK TOP*)

Shades of NAFTA.

* YES, INDEED... (*SIGH*)

When NAFTA passed in 1993, we had a $1.6 billion trade surplus with Mexico. By 2010, our trade deficit with Mexico had reached $61.6 billion.

(*TAPPING MY FINGERS*)

There is other news of interest in those trade figures for those who chronicle the industrial decline of the United States. In 2011, America ran the largest trade deficit ever with a single nation - $295.4 billion, with China. [And] this year... the U.S. trade deficit with China is running 12% ahead of 2011.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

And the U.S. trade deficit with the world is now back up over $600 billion a year.

(*SARCASTIC STANDING OVATION*)

Free trade makes suckers and fools out of patriots. It is no coincidence that the real wages of U.S. workers ceased to rise in the mid-1970s, just as a century of U.S. trade surpluses was coming to an end. What do these mammoth and mounting deficits mean? A deepening dependence on foreign nations for the necessities of our national life. A steady erosion of our manufacturing base. A continued stagnation in the real wages of the middle class. And an unending redistribution of America's wealth to foreign lands.

If one would, in a sitting of a single hour, understand where and why America converted from the economic patriotism of Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Madison, Jackson, Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and Cal Coolidge to the free-trade ideology of academics and ideologues, none of whom ever built a great nation, let me commend a splendid pamphlet from The Conservative Caucus.

"The Conservative Case Against Free Trade," by Ian Fletcher and William Shearer, is a brisk walk through the trade and tariff history of the republic. It is a short story of national decline, of how a nation that converted itself in its first century from 13 agricultural colonies into the greatest industrial power the world had ever seen began to kick it all away in the third century of its existence. It is a chronicle of the rise and fall of the United States as a sovereign and self-sufficient republic.

(*SIGH*)

Anticipating the Davos crowd, Thomas Jefferson wrote: "Merchants have no country. The mere spot they stand on does not constitute so strong an attachment as that from which they draw their gains."

Instead of a trade policy crafted for the benefit of multi-nationalist corporations, we need a new trade policy that puts America and Americans first.

* HEAR! HEAR!

June 19, 2012 at 12:57 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/19/exclusive-secret-service-agents-partied-like-rock-stars-on-obamas-vineyard-vacation/#ixzz1yFl6r5sZ

* I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY.

* READ IT FOR YOURSELVES.

(*SHRUG*)

June 19, 2012 at 1:07 PM

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