Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, July 18, 2012


A song you'll know... but NOT sung by the singer you (probably) believe originated it!


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11 comments:

William R. Barker said...

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

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702303933704577532981276269006.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Can a President seeking re-election with a stagnant economy and high unemployment really be winning the jobs argument against a man who backed hundreds of thriving businesses?

Can a President who sank taxpayer dollars into green-energy failures now succeed by attacking an opponent who funded winning start-ups with his own money?

Yes...

(*SIGH*) (*SAD NOD*)

President Obama's attacks on Mitt Romney and the company he founded, Bain Capital, are deceptive and hypocritical. But Team Romney is compounding the damage from this character assault by conceding too much of the Obama critique.

* IMAGINE OUR CANDIDATE WAS NEWT GINGRICH... (*PURSED LIPS*)... GINGRICH WOULD BE ATTACKED TOO, BUT GINGRICH WOULD NO DOUBT BE GIVING FAR BETTER THAN HE GOT! INDEED, GINGRICH WOULD BE PUMMELING THE PRESIDENT... HARRY REID... THE LEFT... THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA...

(*SNORT*)

* YEP. NEWT HAS HIS FLAWS, BUT RIGHT NOW IF HE WERE THE NOMINEE THERE'D BE A STRAIGHT "US" VS. "THEM" FIGHT GOING ON.

(*SIGH*)

* I KNOW... I KNOW... SPILLED MILK... (*TEARS OF FRUSTRATION*)... BUT I HATE BEING "USUALLY RIGHT."

When attacked for "outsourcing jobs," the Romney camp responds by saying that Mr. Obama does it, too.

* FUCKING MORON...

Or the Romney campaign suggests that their candidate had already left the firm to save the Olympics when Bain was doing all the really bad stuff. Thus the trivial back-and-forth over when he really, finally, left Bain for good.

(*SNORT*)

* AND, FOLKS... DO ANY OF YOU (WELL, BESIDES FAITHFUL USUALLY RIGHT READERS WHO PAY ATTENTION) KNOW HOW ROMNEY "SAVED" THE OLYMPICS? BEGGING! FUNDRAISING! AND NOT JUST FROM THE PRIVATE SECTOR (WHERE CORPORATIONS CAN WRITE OFF THE DAMN DONATIONS) BUT ALSO VIA GOVERNMENT GRANTS...!!! (JEEZUS, FOLKS... YOU HAVE NO FRIGGIN' IDEA WHAT A PUTZ THIS GUY IS...)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

July 18, 2012 at 10:47 AM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

[H]itting Mr. Obama for his hypocrisy...won't win the argument if both men merely share the blame for acts of capitalism committed by Bain.

Instead, Mr. Romney should enthusiastically defend Bain, and the job-creating contrast with Obamanomics that it represents.

* YES!

Did Bain have to cut some jobs as it built companies that ultimately created many more jobs? Yes, but its companies created more than they lost, and this dynamic spirit of improvement and enterprise represents a far better path to prosperity than the government-directed, political investing of Mr. Obama.

* HERE'S WHAT SCARES ME, FOLKS: UP ABOVE I POINT OUT HOW ROMNEY "SAVED" THE OLYMPICS. WELL... AS GOVERNOR OF MASSACHUSETTS EXACTLY HOW MUCH GOVERNMENT-DIRECTED, POLITICAL "INVESTING" DID ROMNEY OVERSEE HIMSELF? Hmm...??? (SCARY TO CONTEMPLATE, HUH?!)

Mr. Romney can happily claim credit for Bain's entire impressive history...

* Umm... FOLKS... NOT TO BE A WET BLANKET, BUT... QUESTION: WHY ISN'T IT "ROMNEY CAPITAL?" (*SMIRK*) YOU DO UNDERSTAND THAT "BAIN" ISN'T JUST A WORD... IT'S "BAIN" AS IN "BILL BAIN" - A REAL PERSON!

* FOLKS... IMAGINE... IMAGINE IN THEIR FIRST DEBATE ROMNEY IS BRAGGING ABOUT "CREATING" BAIN AND THE MOMENT OBAMA GETS HIS TURN TO REPLY HE SIMPLY LOOKS AT ROMNEY AND ASKS, "WHY BAIN CAPITAL...? WHY ISN'T IT ROMNEY CAPITAL IF YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CREATED IT?"

(*SHRUG*)

* LET'S HOPE THE OBAMA CREW ISN'T AS KNOWLEDGEABLE - OR SMART - AS ME TYPING AWAY IN MY UNDERWEAR HERE IN HARRIMAN, NY.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Mr. Romney's Bain worked so well that it became the model for an entire industry. Mr. Romney helped create Staples...

* ENOUGH WITH FRIGGIN' STAPLES...! ENOUGH...! RAISE YOUR HAND IF YOU THINK THE CREATION OF ONE OF THE ORIGINAL "BIG BOX" STORES SOUNDS LIKE IT'LL APPEAL TO ECONOMIC NATIONALISTS WHO LONG FOR THE SMALL TOWN AMERICA OF YESTERYEAR?! I'M NOT SAYING THAT STAPLES IS "BAD." NO. WHAT I'M SAYING IS THAT ROMNEY WASN'T EXACTLY THOMAS ALVA EDISON, JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER, OR HENRY FORD! FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... ROMNEY'S "BUSINESS ACHIEVEMENTS" ARE VERY MUCH A DOUBLE-EDGED SWORD.

Mr. Romney has attacked Mr. Obama's Solyndra investment in particular, but he hasn't linked it consistently to the President's failed model of government-led investing or contrasted it with the successful culture Mr. Romney built at Bain.

* TRUE. (AND WHY...?!?! IS ROMNEY TRULY THIS STUPID...?!?!)

Mr. Romney may have thought that debating Bain was a distraction from focusing on the failed Obama economy. But with Mr. Obama using Bain as his main argument against Mr. Romney's record as a job creator, the Republican has no choice but to fight back or he'll lose the election. Americans will choose Bain capitalism over Solyndra crony capitalism, if Mr. Romney makes the case.

* LET'S HOPE... (*SIGH*)

July 18, 2012 at 10:48 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/city-compton-may-declare-bankruptcy-september-officials-084555526.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

The City of Compton, CA., a city of 93,000 people located on the outskirts of Los Angeles, must decide by September 1 whether to seek bankruptcy, according to its two most senior financial officials.

Such a move would see it join a growing number of deficit-hobbled California cities that have used the filing to restructure onerous debt loads.

Compton, which has an accumulated $43 million deficit and has depleted what had been a $22 million reserve, will run out of cash to make its payroll on September 1 at its current cash consumption rate, city comptroller Steven Ajobiewe told the city council during a July 17 meeting.

"I have $3 million in the bank and $5 million in warrants due in the next 10 to 12 days," said city treasurer Doug Sanders. "By then, the council will have a decision to make: don't pay the bonds, default on them, or have a serious talk about bankruptcy."

* THIS IS AMERICA'S FUTURE, MY FRIENDS. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN DEMOCRATS RUN GOVERNMENT - THEY RUN GOVERNMENT INTO THE GROUND. IT'S NOT A COINCIDENCE, FOLKS. AND, NO... REPUBLICANS AREN'T BLAMELESS. BUT DO THE MATH... HOW MANY OF THESE BANKRUPT CITIES ARE AND HAVE BEEN RUN BY DEMOCRATS VS. HOW MANY HAVE BEEN RUN BY REPUBLICAN CONSERVATIVES? Hmm?

July 18, 2012 at 1:17 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/romney-camp-calls-obama-taking-bain-donations-height-004505337--abc-news-politics.html

While Democrats assail presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's Bain Capital business practices, Republicans note that President Obama has not been bashful about accepting cash from Bain executives or other high-profile figures in the corporate buyout business.

"President Obama has based his entire reelection campaign on a vicious, dishonest assault on Mitt Romney's business career. The real question for President Obama is this: if Bain Capital is so bad, why have you taken nearly $120,000 in donations from them?" said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul.

"President Obama's actions are the height of hypocrisy."

* WHAT ELSE IS NEW... (*SIGH*)

According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks Federal Election Commission data, Obama has collected $118,121 from donors who list Bain as their employer between June 2004 and May 2012. (The period covers Obama's bid for the Senate and his presidential campaigns.)

One of Obama's top campaign financiers - Jonathan Lavine - is also managing director at Bain, bundling between $100,000 and $200,000 in contributions for the 2012 Obama Victory Fund, according to estimates released by the Obama campaign.

* MANAGING... DIRECTOR...?!?! (*SNORT*)

The president has also relied on other leading figures in the private equity sector as hosts for high-dollar fundraisers and as members of his Jobs Council.

July 18, 2012 at 1:23 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/military-professionals-discussing-the-medevac-dilemma-armed-or-escorted.htm

* MAY GOD HAVE MERCY ON ALL OUR SOULS.

* WE... THE AMERICAN PEOPLE... BEAR RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACTIONS, INCOMPETENCE, AND CRIMES OF OUR GOVERNMENT.

* ALL TOO OFTEN I AM ASHAMED FOR MY COUNTRY.

July 18, 2012 at 1:32 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/07/18/for-the-first-time-canadians-now-richer-than-americans

While Americans might enjoy throwing politically-charged barbs at their neighbors to the north, Canadians now have at least one reason to be smug.

For the first time in recent history, the average Canadian is richer than the average American, according to a report cited in Toronto's Globe and Mail.

And not just by a little.

Currently, the average Canadian household is more than $40,000 richer than the average American household.

The net worth of the average Canadian household in 2011 was $363,202, compared to around $320,000 for Americans.

* NOW OF COURSE MUCH OF THE MATH IS SUBJECT TO STATISTICAL GAMESMANSHIP - MUCH BASED UPON REAL ESTATE "VALUES" AS OPPOSED TO ACTUAL CASE, BONDS, STOCKS, ETC. THAT SAID... THIS NEWS IS DISCONCERTING. OR AT LEAST IT SHOULD BE! (BUT "UNEXPECTED?" A "SURPRISE?" NO.)

To add insult to injury, not only are Canadians comparatively better-off than Americans, they're also more likely to be employed. The unemployment rate is 7.2% — and dropping — in Canada, while the U.S. is stuck with a stubbornly high rate of 8.2%.

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

According to the report, real estate held by Canadians is worth more than $140,000 more on average and they have almost four times as much equity in their real estate investments.

* AH... EQUITY! YES...! THAT MATTERS, FOLKS!

July 18, 2012 at 1:39 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/309765/obama-flouts-rule-law-andrew-c-mccarthy

The president purports to be unbound by federal welfare law, which imposes work requirements on welfare recipients. The Washington Times reports that “such activities as motivational reading, housework, weight loss, and journaling” will now qualify for exemption from work requirements.

There is nothing new about this sort of thing. As Mona Charen points out, “It’s old news that Obama has contempt for the rule of law. He’s declined to ‘take care that the laws be faithfully executed’ on many subjects: immigration, the Defense of Marriage Act, labor laws, and environmental rules, among others.”

To take yet another example, Congressman Steve King of Iowa observes that Obama has serially flouted the federal law that requires the president to submit a plan to address Medicare’s fiscal health if, as long ago happened, the program’s trustee issues an insolvency warning.

The president does not even deem himself obliged to follow the health-care law he famously championed, imperiously issuing numerous “waivers” to excuse non-compliance.

{President Obama also famously] asserts executive privilege frivolously to stonewall Congress’s investigation of his Justice Department’s Fast and Furious program.

I could go on, but you get the point.

* ALL THIS IS TRUE, FOLKS. DOES ANYONE CARE...? DOES ANYONE REVERE OUR CONSTITUTION ANYMORE...?

[T]he Constitution provides Congress with powers to rein in a lawless president. Congress can cut off funding to the executive branch. It can impeach if the lawlessness is serious enough.

* THE DEMS CONTROL THE HOUSE SO OBVIOUSLY IMPEACHMENT & CONVICTION IS OUT. SADLY, SO IS SIMPLE LEGISLATIVE BRANCH UNITY TO PROTECT THE CONSTITUTION AND THE RULE OF LAW.

The House, on the other hand, is run by Republicans...

* NO. IT'S RUN BY RINOs. IT'S RUN BY JOHN BOEHNER AND HIS LACKEYS AND LAP-DOGS.

...but they are afraid to use their “power of the purse” to pressure the White House into lawful behavior.

The Constitution requires all revenue bills to originate in the House, a requirement the House has traditionally construed to extend to all spending bills.

Republican leadership would have you believe that out-of-control government spending is on autopilot.

GOP leaders want you to think that, when an executive agency like the Justice Department goes rogue, they are simply powerless to start slashing its budget.

* BUT...! BUT...! BUT...! (READ ON!)

But the spending and the taxes necessary to support executive malfeasance can happen only with the House’s complicity. [Republican] lawmakers have the power to stop this stuff, they just lack the will.

* VIOLENCE, FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... I FEAR IT'S THE ONLY ANSWER.

In short, President Obama has sized up Capitol Hill and knows full well that he is not going to be reined in. The welfare-law “waivers” are only the latest result. Unless you are dealing with a person who feels a moral obligation to conduct himself lawfully, the rule of law obtains only when it is demonstrated that lawlessness will not be tolerated. That is not the case here.

* FOLKS... I RESPECTFULLY REQUEST THAT YOU FOLLOW THE ABOVE-PROVIDED LINK AND READ THE FULL ARTICLE FOR YOURSELVES.

July 18, 2012 at 6:27 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.lvrj.com/business/amonix-closes-north-las-vegas-solar-plant-after-14-months-heavy-federal-subsidies-162901626.html

The Amonix solar manufacturing plant in North Las Vegas, heavily financed under an Obama administration energy initiative, has closed its 214,000-square-foot facility 14 months after it opened.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

A designer and manufacturer of concentrated photovoltaic solar power systems, Amonix received $6 million in federal tax credits and a $15.6 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to build the plant in North Las Vegas.

* EASY COME, EASY GO, RIGHT?

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN DISGUST*)

The company today began selling equipment, from automated tooling systems to robotic welding cells.

* SERIOUSLY... WHAT DO YOU WANNA BET MUCH OF THIS EQUIPMENT THE U.S. TAXPAYERS PAID FOR WILL BE SOLD TO CHINA AND OTHER FOREIGN NATIONS FOR PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR...

(*SHRUG*)

Rene Kenerly, a former material and supply manager at Amonix, said the plant has been idle since May 1, when he was laid off. At its peak, the plant had ramped up to about 700 employees working three shifts a day to produce solar panels for a utility customer in Amarosa, Colo., he said.

"I don't think they had a lot of training," Kenerly said. "There were a lot of quality issues. A lot of stuff was coming back because it had some functionality issues."

* FUCKING OBAMA... FUCKING DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY...

Sen. [Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) lauded the company when it announced it would start making solar cells in the Golden Triangle Industrial Park.

* AND NOW...???

(*CRICKETS CHIRPING*)

Mitchell Truman, president of Pan Western, a transportation service in North Las Vegas, said his company is owed about $60,000 for shipping costs related to Amonix and its partner, Cogentrics. "I'll never see that money," Truman said.

* DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH WAITING FOR REID AND OBAMA TO "MAKE IT UP TO YOU" OUT OF THEIR POCKETS, MR. TRUMAN.

July 18, 2012 at 6:52 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/tsa-let-25-illegal-aliens-attend-flight-school-owned-illegal-alien

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) approved flight training for 25 illegal aliens at a Boston-area flight school that was owned by yet another illegal alien, according to the Government Accountability Office.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Six of the illegal aliens were actually able to get pilot’s licenses.

(*SARCASTIC STANDING OVATION*)

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), chairman of the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Transportation Security, said he found the GAO's findings "amazing." "We have cancer patients, Iraq War veterans and Nobel Prize winners all forced to undergo rigorous security checks before getting on an airplane," said Rogers, "and at the same time, ten years after 9/11, there are foreign nationals in the United States trained to fly just like Mohammed Atta and the other 9/11 hijackers did, and not all of them are necessarily getting a security background check."

* FOLKS...

(*JUST THROWING MY HANDS UP*)

Although the illegal alien who owned the Massachusetts flight school had not undergone a required TSA security threat assessment and had not been approved for flight training by the agency, he nonetheless held two Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) pilot licenses, also known as FAA certificates.

* YOU... CAN'T... MAKE... THIS... SHIT... UP!

July 18, 2012 at 7:04 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0712/78637.html

President Barack Obama’s Jobs Council hasn’t met publicly for six months, even as the issue of job creation dominates the 2012 election.

* IS ANYONE SURPRISED? ANYONE? ANYONE AT ALL...???

[S]everal of the companies whose CEOs serve on the panel are involved to some extent in outsourcing...

(*SMIRK*)

* GE... GE... GE... GE... (AND NO DOUBT OTHERS AS WELL - BUT GE's CEO IS, AFTER ALL, THE CHAIR OF OBAMA'S JOBS COUNCIL IF MEMORY SERVES.

Obama named General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt to head the panel in January of last year...

* YEP! MEMORY SERVED! (*WINK*)

[T]he White House insisted that the council’s recommendations would lead to real action. The panel held three “quarterly” sessions last year with Obama: in February, June and October. “This has not been a show council. This has been a work council,” Obama declared during the January 2012 session, where the panel presented a report containing more than 60 recommendations aimed at stimulating job creation. "I have been tracking implementation of your recommendations. And we’ve seen substantial progress across the board,” Obama added. “Hopefully, we’ve at least met your expectations in follow-through and implementation; what we haven’t seen is a bunch of white paper sitting on a shelf somewhere collecting dust.”

* HOW MUCH POT DID THIS CLOWN SMOKE BACK IN COLLEGE...?!?! WHAT IS HE BABBLING ABOUT...?!?! THE MAN IS TOTALLY DIVORCED FROM REALITY! FRANKLY... IT'S SCARY.

July 18, 2012 at 7:17 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://politicker.com/2012/07/former-navy-seal-launches-pac-to-fight-obama/

* VERY INTERESTING...

Mr. Ryan Zinke has served in the Montana State Senate since 2009.

According to Afghanistan and Iraq Veterans for Congress, a political action committee dedicated to electing Republican vets, Mr. Zinke was a member of SEAL Team Six, the elite unit that killed Bin Laden, from 1990 until 1993 and from 1996 until 1999.

* "ACCORDING TO...???" IS THERE ANY DOUBT...?!?! IF SO... (*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*)

He held several titles including Task Force Commander.

In 2004, was named “Deputy and acting Commander, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force-Arabian Peninsula in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.” In that capacity he “led a force of over 3500 Special Operations personnel in Iraq in the conduct of 360 combat patrols, 48 Direct Action missions, and hundreds of sensitive operations” and “was responsible for killing or capturing 72 known enemy insurgents and terrorists.”

* THIS IS BEING REPORTED BY THE NEW YORK OBSERVER. I'M ASSUMING IT'S CORRECT.

Today, Zinke... announced the launch of Special Operations for America, a political action committee dedicated to “the election of Mitt Romney and like-minded candidates.”

* I'M HOPING IT ACTUALLY MORE IN KEEPING WITH FIRING OBAMA THAN WITH HIRING ROMNEY PER SE.

“Navy SEAL’s, Special Operations Personnel and Veteran’s across America have been outraged since Barack Obama conveniently took credit for killing Osama Bin Laden for political gain,” a statement announcing the launch of SOFA said.

“The active duty military has no voice as they are forbidden to publicly engage in the political campaign process and it is career suicide for senior military leaders to speak out against the President.”

Zinke, who has frequently slammed the president’s handling of the raid that killed Osama bin Laden, reiterated his criticisms of the operation. “The President has failed and he is jeopardizing the safety of our troops, their families and our National security for political gain. Obama has exposed the identity of special operations units, leaked classified information, and limited the rules of engagement of forces on the ground,” said Mr. Zinke.

“For those who have taken an oath to defend the Constitution against all enemies, both foreign and domestic, it is a call of duty to take back America from a Commander-in-Chief that is incapable of understanding the sacrifices that have been made for the values that have made America great.”

* HEY... IT IS WHAT IT IS... MAKE UP YOUR OWN MINDS. PERSONALLY... FROM WHAT I KNOW (OR THINK I KNOW), OBAMA IS "GUILTY AS CHARGED" WITH REGARD TO POLITICIZING COMBAT OPERATIONS. THIS BLOG IS FULL OF CITATIONS TO THIS EFFECT. (*SHRUG*)

July 18, 2012 at 7:39 PM

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