Friday, July 27, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, July 27, 2012


Off to New Hampshire later today!

Live Free or Die!

Hopefully a few newsbites prior to heading out...

"See" ya all on Monday!

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5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xb2_3R6oHSQ

* CAN YOU SPARE THREE MINUTES AND FORTY-EIGHT SECONDS?

* IF SO... YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS.

* YOU NEED TO ASK YOURSELF WHY YOU'RE HEARING ABOUT THIS THROUGH ME AND NOT VIA THE FRONT PAGE OF YOUR LOCAL NEWSPAPER OR VIA NETWORK NEWS.

July 27, 2012 at 7:57 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://heritageaction.com/2012/07/letter-farm-bill-will-not-solve-drought/?utm_source=heritageaction&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wwf-house-farm-bill

You maybe have heard reports that there is a severe drought affecting American farmers right now.

I have news for you: passing the trillion dollar farm bill won’t make it rain.

Passing the trillion dollar farm bill won’t make the crops grow.

And passing the trillion dollar farm bill will hurt taxpayers by providing overly generous handouts to farmers that are affected.

In fact, 85% of farmers already have crop insurance, which is subsidized by the government.

* BY THE TAXPAYERS... (THE "GOVERNMENT" DOESN'T HAVE ITS OWN MONEY!)

This new farm bill would just ensure they make a profit equal to 85% of their average earnings – even if the crop isn’t produced.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

And 80% of the farm bill doesn’t even have to do with farming! It pays for food stamps. How’s that going to help farmers affected by the drought?

* THE FOOD STAMP PROGRAM IS OUT OF CONTROL - DELIBERATELY SO! IT MUST BE CUT DRASTICALLY! I'D SAY CUT IT BY AT LEAST 70%.

Agriculture already has a more than adequate "safety net" in the gold-plated federal crop insurance program in which taxpayers pick up, on average, 62% of the premium costs for crop insurance. These policies allow businesses to guarantee up to 85% of their expected revenue.

Crop insurance cost taxpayers more than $11 billion last year. (With more than half of the country in moderate to severe drought, taxpayer costs for this generous program will easily be double, triple, or more in 2012.)

Agriculture is an inherently risky business, and as you said in your July 19th press conference, most producers already have subsidized federal crop insurance policies. Those that do not enroll in the highly subsidized program have a multitude of private sector options available for managing risk, including hedging, forwarding, diversification, contracting, and many other unsubsidized options. Taxpayers cannot afford to bail out producers who chose not to purchase subsidized crop insurance or to avail themselves of the many private sector options for managing their normal business risk. Taxpayers simply cannot afford to bear all the risks for any business sector, including agriculture.

The Federal Agriculture Reform and Risk Management Act (FARRM) passed by the House Agriculture Committee is not needed to address the current drought conditions. In fact, nearly 80% of the bill’s $957 billion price tag is not even directed at producers, but on social welfare spending programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Farm businesses are riding on several years of record farm income unlike other sectors in the economy. Net farm income is at $98 billion, nearly doubling between 2001 and 2011. Like all business cycles, farm incomes rise and fall as favorable growing years are periodically followed by poor years. Most farm businesses will not only be compensated by crop insurance for losses caused by the drought, but can also dip into savings wisely built up over years of record income. With concerns about tight commodity supplies, crop prices, especially for corn and soybeans, have risen to record highs and it is with these record prices that crop insurance losses will be calculated. In fact, some producers may see record profits when crop insurance indemnities are calculated.

Using the current drought as a pretext to bail out yet another sector of the U.S. economy while expanding the federal government’s role in the business decisions of agricultural enterprises is something taxpayers and our free-market economy cannot afford. Now is the time to roll back wasteful and market distorting taxpayer subsidies. FARRM does the exact opposite.

July 27, 2012 at 8:40 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/us-general-accused-afghan-hospital-scandal-cover-032604905.html

* FOLKS... THE "CHICAGO WAY" HAS FOUND ITS WAY INTO THE HIGHEST RANKS OF THE U.S. MILITARY DURING OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY.

* READ IT AND WEEP, FOLKS... (AND ASK YOURSELF WHY INSTEAD OF HEARING ABOUT THIS YOU'RE HEARING AD NAUSEUM ABOUT NONSENSE SUCH AS ROMNEY'S SUPPOSED "GAFF" CONCERNING THE BRITS NOT BEING READY FOR THE OLYMPICS.)

U.S. military officers accused one of the highest-ranking U.S. commanders in Afghanistan of trying to cover up a scandal at a U.S.-funded hospital in Kabul to limit bad news in an election year.

The problems date back to 2010, when US officers expressed concerns about the possible embezzlement of funds from the Afghan-run Dawood National Military Hospital and the lack of treatment provided to wounded Afghan soldiers.

Some Afghan soldiers died of malnutrition at the hospital, in conditions that one retired Army colonel described as "Auschwitz-like."

Several officers told U.S. lawmakers on Tuesday that they were encouraged by Lieutenant General William Caldwell, then head of the NATO-led training mission in Afghanistan, not to report the problems to the Pentagon inspector general.

"The general did not want bad news to leave his command before the election - or AFTER the election," Colonel Gerald Carozza, Jr., a now-retired US Army judge advocate, said in written testimony to the House Committee on Oversight.

"The general, like too many generals, was too concerned about the message, creating a stifling climate for those who had to deal with the reality," Carozza said, comparing Dawood to the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

* JEEZUS...

The accusations against Caldwell, which date back to the time ahead of contentious 2010 midterm congressional elections, come ahead of November polls in which President Barack Obama is seeking re-election.

Colonel Mark Fassl, who was inspector general of the NATO-led training mission in Afghanistan, echoed Carozza's concerns.

He cited Caldwell as saying "How could we do this or make this request with elections coming?" and then said the lieutenant general added, "He calls me Bill" - saying he believed Caldwell was referring to Obama.

* JEEZUS FRIGGIN' CHRIST...

Funds allocated for the Dawood hospital's use, notably for the purchase of medications, were spent two times faster than in a comparable U.S. facility, due to the corrupt practices in place.

The Pentagon inspector general is now investigating the accusations against Caldwell, who is now based in Texas.

* FOR MORE ON THIS...

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/auschwitz-like-conditions-u-s-general-accused-of-massive-afghan-cover-up-to-protect-obama-during-election-year/

July 27, 2012 at 8:59 AM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/27/morning-bell-justice-department-blocks-voter-id-at-every-turn/?roi=echo3-12682428416-9265112-33809ced3ff6025e6f73d69d8b958f38&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Stories of voting fraud are shocking, and states have been taking action to make sure that elections are secure. But the Justice Department, led by Attorney General Eric Holder, has blocked states at almost every turn.

This is the same Justice Department that stopped a non-partisan election reform by arguing that if party affiliation were removed from a ballot, African-American voters wouldn’t be able to identify and vote for the Democrats.

* TRUE STORY...!!! LOOK IT UP...!!!

Holder has continued to stoke the racial fires, calling a requirement for voters to produce photo identification a “poll tax.”

(*SNORT*)

Even the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals — the most liberal appeals court in the country — did not buy the Holder poll tax claim when it reviewed Arizona’s voter ID law. In Gonzalez v. Arizona (2012), the Ninth Circuit held that even though “obtaining the free identification required under [Arizona law] may have a cost,” such immaterial costs are not a poll tax.

Holder is now “investigating” Pennsylvania’s voter ID law, on the Left’s charge that it disenfranchises minorities.

Former Congressman Artur Davis, an African-American from Alabama who served in Congress as a Democrat from 2003 to 2011, finds this argument incredibly insulting. Speaking at The Heritage Foundation yesterday, Davis held up his driver’s license and said, “This is not a billy club. It is not a fire hose. I used to represent Birmingham and Selma, Alabama, and I know something about fire hoses.”

In states that have voter ID laws, the real-world results show that minorities have not been disenfranchised by any means. States that require ID to vote have offered free IDs to anyone who does not have one already.

In Kansas, which allows any of nine different forms of ID as proof of identity to vote: Out of a total of 1.713 million registered voters in Kansas, only 32 people had requested a free photo ID as of May 4, 2012. That represents only 0.002% of the registered voters in the state. Of those 32 voters, 80% were white, 10% were black, and the race or ethnicity of 10% was unknown. Thus, there is no evidence that minority voters were disproportionately affected.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

July 27, 2012 at 10:19 AM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Georgia, which has had voter ID since 2007, allows six different forms of ID to vote: The number of photo IDs issued by Georgia to individuals who did not already have one of the forms of ID acceptable under state law is remarkably small, averaging less 0.05% in most years, and not even reaching three-tenths of 1% in a presidential election year.”

What happened to minority voting after the law went into effect? In the 2008 presidential election, Hispanic voting in Georgia increased by 140% over the 2004 election. African-American voting increased by 42%. That is also a higher rate of increase than in other states without voter ID.

The evidence that producing photo ID is a burden simply isn’t there. “How can it be a burden to ask people to do something they do all the time?” asked Congressman Davis, who said he went to a news organization to do an interview on voter ID and had to produce his driver’s license to enter the news organization. (The Justice Department requires ID from visitors as well.)

Voter ID battles are not over, and activist groups are trying everything they can think of to challenge these requirements. The Minnesota legislature passed a referendum that placed the question of voter ID on the ballot for citizens to decide. But the ballot question is under litigation because the League of Women Voters has sued, arguing that the question is “misleading” to voters. The Minnesota Supreme Court will be considering it.

In the state of Kentucky, it has become clear that buying votes is a common practice. A person’s vote can often be bought for $50. Recently, it has come to light that cocaine and marijuana dealers are using drug money to buy votes and turn elections. According to one report, “In the Eastern District of Kentucky alone, more than 20 public elected officials and others have either been convicted or pleaded guilty in various vote-buying cases just in the last two years.”

America cannot allow its elections to be anything but secure and legal. Preventing voter fraud is common sense, and it is outrageous that the U.S. Justice Department would stand in the way.

July 27, 2012 at 10:19 AM

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