I'd like to take this opportunity to thank my "regulars"
- both old and new - for flattering me with your kind words.
While this blog gets few comments (other than mine), I've
been averaging over 100 page views a day recently...
(*SHURG*) (*SMILE*)
...and the other day when I was working-out at the gym
one of the trainers informed me that he's become a "regular" visitor
to Usually Right.
Why do I do this? Why not?! I'd be doing the reading,
anyway, so why not share what I know and what I believe?
Does it annoy me that I get so few comments? Yes. More...
er... positive reinforcement would be appreciated. (And if and when you think
I'm going wrong have the balls to say so!) Do I understand why I don't get more
comments? Yep. Damn straight! I say some controversial things on my blog... remarks
that many of my professional friends can't really risk being associated with.
(You've heard of "discovery" in court cases and personal
investigations...)
Also... I know people are busy and commenting here risks
you getting drawn in to a long back-and-forth.
Also... most folks don't enjoy debating - particularly
women. ("Go along to get along" is more prevalent than not, it seems.)
Last... (*SIGH*)... not to get too egotistical... but few
"regular" folks have the intellectual heft and degree of knowledge
necessary to challenge me even if they don't "like" what they're
reading.
(*SHRUG*)
But, hey... I'll keep writing, folks! I'll keep sharing!
I'll keep providing an ongoing record of the decline and fall of a once great
nation and People in the hope that future historians may benefit!
(Yeah, yeah... I can "see" some of you rolling
your eyes out there! But in all seriousness... "Peoples' Histories"
are a concept actually lauded by the Left and frankly, they've got a point.
"Regular" people such as myself writing "diaries" and other
commentary... they're used by "real" historians to "fill in the
blanks" of the "broad swath of "elite" (top down) history.)
Well... that's today's Newsbites intro! And here's
today's Newsbites theme song!
Enjoy!
12 comments:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444097904577535322022316422.html?mod=WSJ_hppMIDDLENexttoWhatsNewsSecond
While lawmakers continue to fight over how to fix the ailing U.S. Postal Service, the agency's money problems are only growing worse.
The Postal Service repeated on Wednesday that without congressional action, it will default...on a legally required annual $5.5 billion payment, due Aug. 1, into a health-benefits fund for future retirees. Action in Congress isn't likely, as the House prepares to leave for its August recess.
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... THERE'S NO "FIXING" THE PROBLEM. WHAT WILL HAPPEN IS THAT THESE FOOLS IN WASHINGTON WILL SIMPLY ABSOLVE THE POST OFFICE OF THEIR FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS OR THEY'LL DIRECTLY BAIL THEM OUT.
(*SHRUG*)
The agency said a default on the payment, for 2011, wouldn't directly affect service or its ability to pay employees and suppliers.
* WHICH IS WHY THE JACKASSES IN WASHINGTON MAY WELL DO NOTHING FOR THE PRESENT... BUT IN THE END THEY'LL DO SOMETHING TO KICK THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD YET AGAIN.
$3.2 billion in the second quarter of this fiscal year...
* THAT’S HOW MUCH THE POST OFFICE LOST! LOST! IN ONE QUARTER! ONE QUARTER OF OPERATING LOSSES!
* FOLKS... ANYONE WHO'S INTERESTED... CHECK OUT WHAT THEY'VE LOST OVER THE PAST DECADE.
(*SIGH*)
* FOLKS... THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/48240333
Factory activity in the U.S. mid-Atlantic region contracted for a third month in July while a separate gauge of future U.S. economic activity declined in June.
(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
* CHANT IT WITH ME, FOLKS! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!
http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/19/world/meast/syria-unrest/index.html
Russia and China vetoed a new U.N. Security Council resolution Thursday that would have imposed new sanctions on the Syrian regime.
(*SNORT*)
The move came despite heavy [U.S.] diplomatic efforts.
* OH, YEAH... OL' HILLARY IS DOING A BANG-UP JOB AS SECRETARY OF STATE! WE'RE "WINNING." (YEAH... IN A CHARLIE SHEEN SORTA WAY!) (*RUEFUL GRIN*)
U.S. President Barack Obama called his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to discuss the Syrian situation, the White House said in a statement Wednesday.
* HEY... I WONDER HOW THAT WORKED OUT...?
But Thursday's Security Council vote showed those diplomatic efforts had failed.
* OOPS...
* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... YOU'VE GOT THE WIFE OF A FORMER PRESIDENT RUNNING THE STATE DEPARTMENT WORKING FOR A FORMER... er... COMMUNITY ORGANIZER AND SEMI-PROFESSIONAL POT-HEAD (ACCORDING TO HIS OWN WRITINGS)! WHAT DO YOU EXPECT...?!?!
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2012/07/awkward-obamas-job-council-agrees-with-romneys-corporate-tax-plan/
(*SIGH*)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/jul/18/editorial-persecuting-our-bin-laden-informant/
Shakil Afridi is a Pakistani physician who helped the United States obtain DNA samples that confirmed the presence of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.
He currently is serving a 33-year sentence for treason, allegedly for ties to the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam but in fact for his role in the bin Laden raid.
Some senators are seeking ways to bring pressure to bear on Islamabad to right this wrong.
* IT WAS OBAMA WHO "OUTED" THIS GUY! YEP... OBAMA... MORE INTERESTED IN CLAIMING CREDIT FOR "KILLING BIN LADIN" THAN IN PROTECTING SOURCES AND METHODS. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE FORMER NAVY SEAL (SEE YESTERDAY'S NEWSBITES) WAS TALKING ABOUT!
In June, Senator Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, along with five cosponsors, submitted "S. 3269," a bill providing that no foreign aid would be sent to Pakistan until Dr. Afridi is freed from prison, the charges against him are dropped and he is allowed to leave the country if necessary for his safety.
* SIX SENATORS... OUT OF 100. (MAKES YOU SICK TO YOUR STOMACH, DOESN'T IT?)
* HERE'S THE LIST OF CO-SPONSORS: Sen Coburn, Tom [R-OK]; Sen DeMint, Jim [R-SC]; Sen Hutchison, Kay Bailey [R-TX]; Sen Johanns, Mike [R-NE]; Sen Lee, Mike [R-UT]; Sen Risch, James E. [R-ID].
* NO DEMOCRATS... BUT ALSO NO MITCH MCCONNELL.
(*SHRUG*)
* FOLKS... THIS IS WHAT WE'RE UP AGAINST.
“President Obama sent [Pakistan] another billion dollars last week. We already send Pakistan $2 billion and they disrespect us, so what did we do? We send them another billion dollars,” Mr. Paul said on Tuesday. “People around this town are bemoaning there’s not enough money for our military yet we took a billion dollars out of the Defense Department and — an extra billion and sent it to Pakistan last week.”
* O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!
Senator Paul says he has enough signatures to bring the bill to a vote and pledged to do so pending the results of a July 19 appeals hearing in Pakistan on Dr. Afridi’s case. On Wednesday, however, the commissioner of the Frontier Constabulary, Tariq Jemeel, canceled the session because the relevant documents hadn’t been provided to the court. Authorities in Peshawar, where Dr. Afridi is being held, have warned the national government about threats to his life from the many Islamic militants incarcerated in the same jail. Islamabad isn’t interested in taking responsibility for Dr. Afridi from the Federally Administered Tribal Area where he was convicted, and no other province wants to accept a prisoner transfer.
There is dire need to pressure Pakistan to focus on this case and stop the miscarriage of justice.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton has said he should be freed, but the State Department has been unwilling to discuss using foreign aid or other forms of leverage to secure his release.
(*SHRUG*)
Senator Paul is [his fellow] giving senators the opportunity they need to stand up and be counted.
* YEP... BUT SO FAR...
(*SIGH*)
The message of "S. 3269" is that foreign countries shouldn’t view aid from the United States as a given. Human-rights matters as grave as Dr. Afridi’s unjust imprisonment should bear heavily on the decision to continue to send billions of borrowed dollars to Pakistan - particularly in times of economic distress at home.
Americans should know which of their senators would choose to cut these payments and who would continue them.
As Senator Paul explained, “It is the least the taxpayers deserve.”
(Not to mention Dr. Afridi.)
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78706.html
With [politicians] on both sides of the aisle clamoring for Mitt Romney to release more than two years of tax returns, an overwhelming majority of congressmen are declining to release their own.
(*SMIRK*)
Over the past three months, McClatchy Newspapers asked all 535 members of the House and Senate to release their tax records. Only 17 — or just over 3% — handed over the documents.
* SEE: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2012/07/18/156630/respondents-in-congress-to-mcclatchys.html
* 13 DEMOCRATS... 4 REPUBLICANS. (DISGRACEFUL!)
Another 19 [House members and Senators] said they wouldn’t release them.
* 11 DEMOCRATS... 8 REPUBLICANS.
The remainder didn’t respond to McClatchy’s request.
* VIOLENCE... IS... THE... ONLY... ANSWER...
(*SHRUG*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://blog.heritage.org/2012/07/18/morning-bell-the-end-of-welfare-reform-as-we-know-it/
The Obama Administration made yet another end run around [the Constitution] last week; this time, to gut the successful welfare reform law of 1996.
If this is allowed to stand, it will mean rewinding years of progress that lifted millions out of poverty.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
* THAT'S OBAMA'S STRATEGY. THE MORE AMERICANS WHO DEPEND UPON GOVERNMENT... THE MORE VOTES FOR ENDLESS GOVERNMENT EXPANSION.
(*SHRUG*)
Before the 1996 reform, welfare was a one-way handout: Government mailed checks to recipients who did nothing in return.
The new program the reform law established, Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), changed all that. It required able-bodied welfare recipients to work, prepare for work, or at least look for work as a condition of receiving aid. Welfare reform turned “welfare” into “workfare.”
* GINGRICH, FOLKS! (REMEMBER... CLINTON VETOED WELFARE REFORM TWICE... OR WAS IT THREE TIMES... BEFORE FINALLY SIGNING THE BILL IN REACTION TO EVER-GROWING RESPONSIBLE PUBLIC PRESSURE!)
At the time, liberals denounced the new law and predicted dire consequences for America’s needy. They said the reform would do “serious injury to American children” and “substantially increase poverty and destitution.”
* I REMEMBER! I WAS THERE!
There was “absolutely no evidence that this radical idea has even the slightest chance of success,” they said, crying that “No piece of legislation in U.S. history has increased the severity of poverty so sharply.”
* YEP. NO EXAGGERATION! THAT'S WHAT I REMEMBER.
In reality, the exact opposite turned out to be true.
(*NOD*)
After reform, the welfare caseload promptly dropped by 50%.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... (*SIGH*) (*HOLDING BACK TEARS*)... NEWT GINGRICH! YEP... NEWT. THE GUY THE GOP ESTABLISHMENT DESTROYED IN ORDER TO GIVE US MITT ROMNEY.
* JUST... THINK... ABOUT... IT...
(*SIGH*)
As the caseload plummeted, employment and earnings among recipients experienced an unprecedented surge upward. As Heritage’s Robert Rector reported:
"As welfare dependence fell and employment increased, child poverty among the affected groups fell dramatically. For a quarter-century before the reform, poverty among black children and single mothers had remained frozen at high levels. Immediately after the reform, poverty for both groups experienced dramatic and unprecedented drops, quickly reaching all-time lows."
(*SHRUG*)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
Still, the Left fought the work requirements.
(*SNORT*) (*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
But after legislative attempts to do away with them failed over the years, the Obama Administration decided to rescind the reforms without Congressional approval.
(*THROWING MY ARMS INTO THE AIR*)
This Administration has had no problem acting in an imperial way, rewriting law on its own, whether its new dictates are legal or not. In fact, Heritage legal scholars have determined this latest move is indeed illegal.
* FOLKS... YOU DON'T NEED HERITAGE LEGAL SCHOLARS TO TELL YOU THIS! I'M TELLING YOU THIS! THE PRESIDENT HAS NO CONSTITUTIONAL AUTHORITY TO DO WHAT HE'S DOING...!!!
Under the law, some 40% of adult TANF recipients in a state were required to engage in “work activities,” defined as unsubsidized employment, subsidized employment, on-the-job training, attending high school or a GED program, vocational education, community service work, job search, or job readiness training. Participation was part-time, 20 hours per week for mothers with children under six and 30 hours for mothers with older children.
* THE KEY THREE WORDS... 1) UNDER... 2) THE... 3) LAW...!!! (IT'S STILL THE LAW! OBAMA IS DELIBERATELY VIOLATING THE LAW!)
In the past, state welfare bureaucrats have attempted to define “personal care activities,” “massage,” “motivational reading,” “journaling,” attending Weight Watchers, and “helping a friend or relative with household tasks” as work activities. Expect far more of this in the future as no-strings-attached handouts again displace workfare.
Instead of helping people get back on their feet — from job training to obtaining employment — welfare will now go back to locking them in a cycle of dependence on the government.
* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... IT'S DELIBERATE!
President Obama has made no secret about his plans to expand the welfare state permanently.
* NO... NO HE HASN'T.
He has increased spending on federal means-tested welfare (“means-tested” benefits are doled out according to the recipients’ income levels) by a third since taking office.
* A THIRD! A FRIGGIN' THIRD...!!!
And he plans to increase this even further after the current recession ends, calling for a permanent increase in annual means-tested spending from 4.5% to 6% of gross domestic product.
Overall, President Obama plans to spend $12.7 trillion on means-tested welfare over the next decade.
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN SHEER DESPAIR*)
The welfare-to-work provisions of the TANF law were a real bipartisan success story — which is rare in a federal government with more than 80 means-tested welfare programs that provide cash, food, housing, medical care, and social services to poor and low-income people.
(*SAD NOD*)
At the beginning of last week, only two of these programs had active work requirements.
(*GRITTING MY TEETH*)
With Obama’s latest order, the list is now down to one.
(*GNASHING MY TEETH*)
http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/309888/imams-islam-and-environment-victor-davis-hanson
One of the joys of visiting California’s Yosemite Valley is a series of historic arched bridges that span the Merced River on the valley floor.
One, the 80-year-old Stoneman Bridge, is an architectural masterpiece and a tribute to Depression-era ingenuity and artistic elegance; the sister Ahwahnee Bridge and Sugar Pine Bridge were likewise designed to combine functionalism and beauty.
All are used daily, are appreciated by thousands of visitors each summer, and now are listed as endangered treasures by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
Environmental zealots are now proposing to demolish all three bridges, motivated by pie-in-the-sky dreams of allowing the flood-prone Merced River to be freed to find its original course, without human contamination.
[D]on’t laugh.
A petition circulated by an environmental group is forcing the city of San Francisco — in a state currently struggling with a $17 billion budget shortfall — to hold a November referendum on a proposal to blow up the historic O’Shaughnessy Dam that holds back the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir.
(That brilliantly engineered early-20th-century water-and-power project still supplies San Francisco and the South Bay with as much as 85% of their water, while providing the city with 400 megawatts of clean electrical power and providing Central Valley farms and towns with irrigation and flood control.)
Where the billions of dollars would come from to dynamite the vast dam and the penstocks, pipelines, and powerhouse complex and to clean up the ensuing mess; how the green electricity would be replaced; and where the Bay Area’s millions of residents would find their daily water are questions that matter little to ideologues who believe the aboriginal valley of Hetch Hetchy can be reborn without man’s baleful touch.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444873204577536782169804736.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection
Crude-oil futures extended their rally of recent days, jumping above the $90-a-barrel point on increased tensions in the Middle East.
* "RALLY." GREAT... (*SIGH*)
Nymex front-month futures were trading at $91.48 a barrel, up $1.61. Brent futures were trading at $106.83 a barrel, up $1.67. Both commodities are trading at seven-week highs.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444464304577534960619821248.html?grcc=5ec96c172b09f9db90662e531869cdefZ3ZhpgeZ0Z741Z200Z70Z2&mod=WSJ_hps_sections_opinion&grcc2=3ad06df30a2c0a7242e4c63041e5f5bc~1342716389746~18f3b45caef80572d421f68a979bd6dc~tsteub~1342716376263~3~2~0~0~0~741~200~70~0~2~
If Republicans are remotely serious about cutting the federal budget, one litmus test should be eliminating the $34 billion loan program that produced Solyndra, the solar company that went bankrupt after receiving $500 million of taxpayer subsidies.
Today the House Energy and Commerce Committee will vote on a bill sponsored by Chairman Fred Upton called the "No More Solyndras Act."
* SERIOUSLY...? THESE CLOWNS REALLY THINK CUTE TITLES ARE THE WAY TO WIN RESPECT?
This would defund the Energy Department loan guarantee program.
(*CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)
But some Republicans are teaming up with Democrats to save the subsidies for wind, solar, nuclear and advanced coal projects that are in their own backyards.
* NAMES...???
Republicans Joe Barton and Michael Burgess of Texas and Phil Gingrey of Georgia have defended this politicized venture capital operation. Messrs. Burgess and Gingrey didn't return our calls, but Mr. Gingrey said in one hearing that "I'm not ready to say we should throw the baby out with the bathwater and just eliminate the loan programs entirely."
(If not after four years of $1 trillion deficits, when?)
Mr. Barton has been one of the staunchest advocates of the subsidies and he told Politico last week: "I don't think we need to throw out the whole program. I think we can clean it up."
* LET ME ASK YOU, FOLKS... WHO WOULD SHED A TEAR IF SOMEONE PUT ONE BULLET IN THE HEAD OF MR. BARTON, ANOTHER BULLET IN THE HEAD OF MR. BURGES, AND YET ANOTHER IN THE HEAD OF MR. GREGORY?
* NOT THREATENING ANYONE...!!! JUST THROWING OUT A QUESTION...!!!
The program began in the late, not-so-great days of the Bush Administration.
* FIGURES... (*SIGH*)
Since March 2009, DOE has received $47 billion in loan guarantee authority, and three of the first five companies receiving guarantees have already gone belly up, including Abound Solar, Beacon Power and Solyndra.
Bloomberg reports that half the solar companies that have received loan guarantees have gone bankrupt.
Renewable energy deserves every chance to compete in the open marketplace backed by private investors. But DOE's taxpayer bet on alternative energy is looking steadily worse over time, as abundant natural gas for electricity generation is making renewable energy less competitive even with subsidies.
Republicans will be fiscal frauds if they renew the very money-losing energy programs they attacked Barack Obama for.
When the next Solyndra goes bankrupt, voters will have more than Mr. Obama to blame.
http://dailycaller.com/2012/07/19/usda-partnering-with-mexico-to-boost-food-stamp-participation/
The Mexican government has been working with the United States Department of Agriculture to increase participation in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), or food stamps.
* YEP! YOU READ THAT RIGHT!
USDA has an agreement with Mexico to promote American food assistance programs, including food stamps, among Mexican Americans, Mexican nationals and migrant communities in America.
* MY FUCKING COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED...!!!
“USDA and the government of Mexico have entered into a partnership to help educate eligible Mexican nationals living in the United States about available nutrition assistance,” the USDA explains in a brief paragraph on their “Reaching Low-Income Hispanics With Nutrition Assistance” web page.
“Mexico will help disseminate this information through its embassy and network of approximately 50 consular offices.”
* FOLKS... THIS IS REAL! THIS IS NOT AN ONION PIECE! THIS IS NOT SATIRE... NOT A SNL SKIT! THIS IS THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION...!!!
The partnership — which was signed by former USDA Secretary Ann M. Veneman and Mexican Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez Bautista in 2004 — sees to it that the Mexican Embassy and Mexican consulates in America provide USDA nutrition assistance program information to Mexican Americans,
* THAT PIECE OF SHIT BUSH...!!! THAT FILTHY, ROTTEN, SON OF A BITCH GEORGE W. BUSH...!!!
Some of the materials the USDA encourages the Mexican government to use to educate and promote the benefit programs are available free online for order and download. A partial list of materials include English and Spanish brochures titled “Five Easy Steps To Snap Benefits,” “How To Get Food Help — A Consumer’s Guide to FNCS Programs,” “Ending Hunger Improving Nutrition Combating Obesity,” and posters with slogans like “Food Stamps Make America Stronger.”
* FOLKS... THE INMATES ARE RUNNING THE ASYLUM! GEORGE W. BUSH WAS AN INMATE! OBAMA IS AN INMATE! THE VAST MAJORITY OF THE MEMBERS OF BOTH PARTIES ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES ARE INMATES!
“The partnership with the Mexican embassy was established in 2004,” a USDA spokesman wrote The Daily Caller in an email. “USDA does not perform outreach to immigrants that are undocumented, and therefore not eligible for SNAP.”
* THAT'S RIDICULOUS! HOW CAN YOU SEPARATE WHO GETS THE MESSAGE...?!?!
* FOLKS... CLICK ON THE LINK... READ THE FULL STORY. IF YOU'RE NOT OUTRAGED THEN I JUST DON'T KNOW WHAT TO SAY...
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