Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 21, 2012


A guy...

A gal...

And THE guy...

The last version - from Frank's 1966 album "That's Life" -  is quite interesting.

While I love the concept of the jazzed up version, on this song - as well as throughout the entirety of the album - Frank seems to be simply "mailing it in."

Perhaps he was going for spontaneity? Indeed, it could well be that his styling on this album was in direct response to cajoling that he try to "reach out to the kids" more? Certainly the word "casual" describes the general recording style employed by Sinatra via this album... unfortunately with more than a dash of "I don't give a damn; screw 'em if they don't like it."

Is the song... is the album... bad...?

Certainly not! This is Frank Friggin' Sinatra we're talking about!

I've always wondered though... what might this album have become had Frank taken it more seriously... had Frank been in "perfectionist" mode... had Frank been less distracted by... life... in 1966?

Anyway... (*GRIN*)... on to newsbites! (Found in the comments section!)

10 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/russia-china-warn-west-syria-064452353.html

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned the West on Tuesday against any unilateral action on Syria after President Barack Obama said U.S. forces could act if the Syrian leader deployed chemical weapons against rebels trying to topple him.

* I ONLY WISH JOHN BOEHNER, NANCY PELOSI, HARRY REID, AND MITCH MCCONNELL WOULD ISSUE A SIMILAR JOINT STATEMENT!

* FOLKS... EVEN IF YOU BELIEVE WE HAVE ANY BUSINESS ATTACKING YET ANOTHER COUNTRY WHICH HASN'T ATTACKED US... CONGRESS IS THE BRANCH CHARGED WITH DECLARING - OR NOT DECLARING - WAR VIA OUR CONSTITUTION. THESE SCUMBAGS IN THE HOUSE AND SENATE ONLY SEEK TO EVADE THEIR CONSTITUTIONAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES. IT'S DISGUSTING!


Lavrov spoke at a meeting with China's top diplomat one day after Obama, in some of his strongest language yet, said U.S. forces could move against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad if he resorted to chemical weapons against insurgents.

* AND BY WHAT FUCKING AUTHORITY WOULD OBAMA TAKE THIS NATION TO WAR AGAINST SYRIA'S ASSAD...?!?!

* FOLKS... DO YOU REALIZE THAT IF ASSAD'S MILITARY USES TEAR GAS (AS IN THE STUFF OUR POLICE USE) THAT WOULD BE TECHNICALLY A WAR CRIME... TECHNICALLY USE OF OUTLAWED "CHEMICAL WEAPONS." (POLICE CAN USE TEAR GAS; THE MILITARY CAN'T; 1993 INTERNATIONAL TREATY.)

Obama said on Monday he had refrained "at this point" from ordering military engagement in Syria.

* HE... HAS... NO... CONSTITUTIONAL... AUTHORITY... TO.. *NOT*... REFRAIN...!!!

Russia has also expressed concern about Syria chemical weapons, saying it had told Damascus that even the threat to use them was unacceptable. But Lavrov said on Monday that the Security Council alone could authorize the use of external force against Syria, warning against imposing "democracy by bombs."

* AND FRANKLY I DON'T EVEN BELIEVE THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL HAS THIS AUTHORITY! BUT FOR THE SAKE OF DISCUSSION - ASSUMING THE UN DOES HAVE THIS AUTHORITY - IN ORDER TO SEND U.S. TROOPS INTO COMBAT CONGRESS NEEDS TO AUTHORIZE IT!

William R. Barker said...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/top-u-generals-aircraft-damaged-rockets-afghanistan-081309091.html

Insurgents fired two rockets at the main NATO airbase in Afghanistan, damaging an aircraft used by U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Martin Dempsey...

* AS CHARLIE SHEEN MIGHT SAY...

(*DRUM ROLL*)

* W*I*N*N*I*N*G!

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

* YEP... THIS IS AFTER 11 YEARS OF U.S. MILITARY EFFORTS...

(*SIGH*)

* THE BLOOD... THE TREASURE... SQUANDERED... ALL SQUANDERED...

We think it was a lucky shot," NATO senior spokesman Colonel Thomas Collins said.

* THIS IS THE MENTALITY WE'RE DEALING WITH, FOLKS! THIS IS THE U.S. MILITARY 2012 - THE AGE OF OBAMA!

Shrapnel from the rockets also damaged a nearby helicopter.

* GOOD THING IT WAS "ONLY" A... er... "LUCKY SHOT."

(*SMIRK*)

"No one was seriously injured in the attack," a Pentagon spokeswoman said.

* Hmm... SO THERE WERE "NON-SERIOUS" INJURIES...???

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* FOLKS... KEEP READING... I'LL LEAVE YOU WITH THE FOLLOWING:

Bagram, which is home to around 30,000 military and civilian personnel, is occasionally targeted with rockets and mortar shells fired by insurgents from surrounding hills and fields.

* "OCCASIONALLY..." GREAT! WONDERFUL!

In 2007, the heavily guarded base was targeted during a visit by former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney.

Sporadic attacks also occur at NATO's other main airbase in Afghanistan, Kandahar Airfield, in the volatile south, although they rarely cause deaths or major damage.

* "SPORADIC..."

* "RARELY..."

* FOLKS...??? (*JUST SITTING HERE SPINNING THE CYLINDER OF THE REVOLVER*)

Before leaving Afghanistan, Dempsey met his Afghan counterpart, General Sher Mohammad Karimi, who raised the issue of insider attacks by rogue forces that have killed 10 American troops in the past two weeks.

* WELL... ISN'T THAT JUST SO SPECIAL! HE... er... "RAISED THE ISSUE." THE "ISSUE" OF TEN AMERICANS HAVING BEEN MURDERED JUST IN THE PAST TWO WEEKS ALONE!

There have been 32 insider attacks so far this year involving 36 shooters that have led to 40 coalition deaths, just over half of them Americans. Some 69 coalition troops have been wounded. That's a sharp increase from 2011, when 35 coalition troops were killed, 24 of whom were U.S. troops during the year.

* AGAIN, FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... CUE CHARLIE SHEEN: W*I*N*N*I*N*G!

* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... I THINK NOT.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

William R. Barker said...

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48725145

There's a different sort of drought plaguing California, the nation's largest farm state. It's $38 billion agricultural sector is facing a scarcity of labor.

* NOT EXACTLY. A "SCARCITY OF WILLING LABOR" WOULD BE MORE ACCURATE. UNEMPLOYMENT AND WELFARE ARE PAYING PEOPLE TO SIT ON THEIR ASSES RATHER THAN ACCEPT "MENIAL" JOBS... HONEST WORK.

"This year is the worst it's been, ever," said Craig Underwood, who farms everything from strawberries to lemons to peppers, carrots, and turnips in Ventura County. Some crops aren't get picked this season due to a lack of workers. "We just left them in the field," he said.

* YEP. FINE JOB THE FOLKS WHO RUN CALIFORIA'S UNEMPLOYMENT OFFICES AND WELFARE OFFICES ARE DOING, HUH?

The lack of workers is forcing farmers to pay more. In one of Underwood's fields, pickers are harvesting peppers for $9.25 a hour, or $5 a bucket, whichever is more.

(*PURSED LIPS*) (*SPITTING ON THE FLOOR*)

When asked if any local residents have come out to apply to work in the fields, Craig Underwood replied, "None. Absolutely none." He is even having trouble finding truck drivers and other semi-skilled labor for jobs that pay $12-$18 an hour.

* FOLKS... AMERICA IS COLLAPSING. IT'S THAT SIMPLE. EVERYTHING THAT ONCE MADE US GREAT IS DYING. OUR CULTURE IS DYING.

William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sallypipes/2012/08/20/gov-deval-patricks-new-health-law-is-flat-out-dangerous/

Beacon Hill (Boston, MA) was the scene of great fanfare earlier this month when Governor Deval Patrick (D) signed controversial new healthcare reform legislation into law.

Described as “immensely complex” by the Massachusetts Hospital Association, the core of the 349-page law aims to control the state’s mounting medical costs by indexing healthcare expenditures to the gross state product (GSP) — that is, the state’s total economic output.

Starting next year, healthcare spending will be allowed to grow no faster than GSP — and between 2017 and 2022, no faster than a half percentage point below GSP.

* FOLKS... ASK YOURSELVES... WHAT WOULD IT MEAN TO YOU AND YOUR FAMILY IF YOU WERE "ALLOWED" TO SPEND LESS AND LESS MONEY, YEAR AFTER YEAR, ON GROCERY SHOPPING? (THINK ABOUT IT...)

Insurers and large hospitals in Massachusetts will also have to pay $225 million in surcharges over four years, starting in 2013.

* FOLKS... IMAGINE IF ALL OF A SUDDEN, ALONG WITH ALL THE REST OF YOUR MONTHLY BILLS... YOU WERE ASKED TO PAY NEW "SURCHARGES." (THINK ABOUT IT...)

The measure’s backers project savings of $200 billion over 15 years.

* FOLKS... THIS IS SICK! THE ONLY "SAVINGS" I'M SEEING OUTLINED ARE THE "SAVINGS" OF NOT BEING ALLOWED TO PURCHASE WHAT'S NECESSARY TO BE PURCHASED! BEYOND THAT... "SAVINGS" PREMISED UPON NEW SURCHARGES... (*HEADACHE*)

Massachusetts State Rep. Steven Levy (R-Marlborough) has noted that the law contains no specifics as to how the savings it mandates will actually come into being.

* SOUNDS LIKE PELOSI'S LINE, "WE'LL FIND OUT WHAT'S IN THE (OBAMACARE) BILL ONCE WE PASS IT!"

He’s also called the gross state product a “random” number with which to straitjacket the healthcare budget.

Healthcare providers that don’t hit the government’s new annual spending targets will face serious consequences. Two new state agencies — the Health Policy Commission and the Center for Health Information Analysis — have been created to discipline them.

* MORE... STATE... WORKERS...

(*SIGH*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Physicians who fail to reduce costs can be compelled to file “performance improvement plans.” These filings are essentially designed to embarrass struggling hospitals. If providers don’t adhere to their improvement plans, the agencies can fine them up to $500,000. And there don’t appear to be any means for appeal or judicial review of these fines.

* JEEZUS... (CAN YOU SAY "LAW OF UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES...???")

Encumbering physicians with yet another layer of red tape is no way to reduce costs. Massachusetts Medical Society President Richard Aghababian has voiced misgivings that “the bill’s very stringent reporting requirements” will be particularly burdensome to “the smaller medical practices in the Commonwealth,” which generally lack the resources needed to shoulder such a hefty administrative burden.

* WHEN IS IT GONNA CLICK THAT THE MORE GOVERNMENT INVOLVES ITSELF IN MEDICAL CARE THE MORE SCREWED UP - AND EXPENSIVE... AND WASTEFUL - MEDICAL CARE GETS!?

Witness the impact that previous rounds of government-directed “reform” have already had. A study published last year in the New England Journal of Medicine noted that the Bay State’s 2006 health reform package had been associated with rapid new hiring in the Massachusetts health system.

That might sound like good news.

* IT'S NOT!

But it wasn’t doctors or nurses getting hired. Rather, it was scores of administrative workers, who were needed to process all the new paperwork mandated by the reform effort.

(*SIGH*)

* AND HOW ARE THESE ADMINISTRATIVE WORKERS TO BE PAID...? AND WHERE DOES THE MONEY COME FROM FOR THEIR BENEFITS...?

* FOLKS... DON'T YOU SEE...?!?!

The latest round of reforms will only exacerbate this trend.

(*NOD*)

When costs go up for healthcare providers, they have to compensate somehow — perhaps by laying off staff, restricting treatment options, or in the most severe cases, closing up shop entirely.

* CARE... SUFFERS...!!!

Ultimately, that leaves patients with fewer providers to treat them — and thus substantially longer wait times.

Bay Staters already have to wait 45 days on average for an appointment with a family medicine doctor... That’s a 50% jump in wait time since 2010.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*

Credit rating agency Moody’s has concluded that the law will have a “credit negative” impact on Massachusetts hospitals — meaning that it will reduce their revenues. Defenders of the law may view that as a feature, not a bug, of the reform effort. But in so doing, the law will undoubtedly force providers to cut costs by scaling back the availability of healthcare services.

This new legislation is the product of willful blindness on the part of Massachusetts legislators. Governor Patrick has authorized a hodgepodge of new mandates whose enactment only makes the specter of healthcare rationing and interminable delays more real.

As national policymakers watch, let’s hope they see Massachusetts’ approach for what it is — the antithesis, not the model, of genuine reform.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314531/splc-s-intolerant-campaign-rich-lowry

The Southern Poverty Law Center is the nation’s self-appointed monitor of “hate groups.”

Too bad it can’t tell the difference between people who hate blacks and people who support the traditional definition of marriage.

The SPLC’s promiscuous labeling of organizations it disagrees with as “hate groups” came to the fore last week when someone tried to shoot up one of its targets.

You may not have heard that an armed assailant stormed the offices of the Family Research Council.

* OF COURSE YOU HAVE... (RIGHT...?)

* BUT IF NOT... (READ ON!)

That’s because the assailant was a gay-rights activist and the assailed was an organization devoted to social-conservative causes. If circumstances had been reversed, you’d know. If a gun-toting Family Research Council volunteer had burst into the headquarters of the Human Rights Campaign, 60 Minutes would already have done its hard-hitting feature on right-wing terrorism.

* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... YOU KNOW IT'S TRUE - OR CLOSE ENOUGH!

The Southern Poverty Law Center calls the Family Research Council a “hate group.” This puts it in the same league as the True Invisible Empire Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, the Aryan Nation, the Supreme White Alliance, the Old Glory Skinheads and, of course, the American Nazi Party.

* FOLKS.. YOU JUST CAN'T EXCUSE THIS LEVEL OF IRRESPONSIBILITY. (AT LEAST YOU SHOULDN'T.)

A man named Floyd Corkins...showed up at the Family Research Council carrying a bag of Chick-fil-A sandwiches and a [loaded] 9 mm [handgun] and said “I don’t like your politics” before shooting an unarmed guard who managed to subdue him (the guard is recovering).

* ACTUALLY... THIS "GUARD" WAS ACTUALLY THE FACILITIES MANAGER - ALL AROUND HANDYMAN - AS I UNDERSTAND IT. (JUST CLARIFYING!)

Corkins volunteers at a gay community center.

According to an FBI affidavit, his parents “informed the FBI Special Agents that Corkins has strong opinions with respect to those he believes do not treat homosexuals in a fair manner.”

Obviously.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* AS FAR AS I KNOW... CORKINS STILL HASN'T BEEN CHARGED WITH A HATE CRIME BY HOLDER'S "JUSTICE" DEPARTMENT.

What the Southern Poverty Law Center is doing is profoundly illiberal. The whole idea of a “hate group” is an organization that is so irrational and beyond the pale that it has no legitimacy. The Southern Poverty Law Center brags about shutting down such groups, and rightly so. You presumably don’t have an argument with the White Patriot Party militia, unless you bring along a lead pipe.

* HOWEVER...

Putting the Family Research Council in the same category is a statement that it isn’t worthy of a democratic society — that its views shouldn’t be debated so much as shunned and marginalized.

This is the trend in the gay-marriage debate.

The attempt to punish Chick-fil-A for the opinions of its founder and CEO, although an abject failure for now, will probably be the template of the future.

(Asked if someone addressing a Family Research Council meeting was as guilty as someone addressing an Aryan Nation rally, the SPLC’s research director said “yes.”)

* FOLKS... THE LEFT ISN'T SORRY... THEY'RE NOT RETREATING... JUST THE OPPOSITE!

“Liberals claim to want to give a hearing to other views,” William F. Buckley Jr. once said, “but then are shocked and offended to discover that there are other views.”

The SPLC and its allies on the left won’t be satisfied until there are no other views on gay marriage.

William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314357/egypt-s-military-and-arab-spring-andrew-c-mccarthy

The mainstream media, it seems, have their template: We’ve spent 30 years and about $45 billion cultivating the Egyptian military, so rest assured it is not going to stand by and let Egypt fall under the yoke of Islamist rule.

* UH-HUH...

The Wall Street Journal has been all in on the “Arab Spring” fairy tale from the get-go, joining the bipartisan Beltway chorus in presenting the rise of Islamist totalitarianism as a spontaneous eruption of freedom fervor.

(*GRIMACE*)

Earlier this week, I wrote about Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi. He is a Muslim Brotherhood adherent who rose to the rank of general in Egypt’s military — the armed forces he has just been tapped to command by Mohammed Morsi, the Muslim Brotherhood eminence who was elected president of Egypt a few weeks back. My column was prompted by the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of Sissi’s appointment, which strained to put a positive spin on an unfolding catastrophe.

[I]t was jarring to find the WSJ burying General Sissi’s Brotherhood sympathies at the bottom of a lengthy profile. The thud came only after paragraph upon sunny paragraph of the conceit that Sissi’s decades of exposure to American military counterparts and his high standing in the eyes of Obama-administration officials boded well for future American-Egyptian relations and Israeli security.

(*SMIRK*)

On Friday, the New York Times reported on yet another key Islamist military appointment in the Brotherhood’s new Egypt: General Sedky Sobhi, who was just named army chief of staff.

Sobhi, it turns out, is the author of an academic paper that sharply rebukes American foreign policy as both insufficiently deferential to sharia (Islamic law) and too one-sided in favor of Israel. He’s on record calling for “the permanent withdrawal of United States military forces from the Middle East and the Gulf.”

Feel better now?

* LISTEN, FOLKS... I'D LIKE TO SEE THE U.S. MAINLY OUT OF THE MIDDLE EAST - BUT THAT'S OUT OF MY WORLDVIEW OF WHAT'S BEST FOR LONG-TERM U.S. INTERESTS! SOBHI IS AN EGYPTIAN. HE'S A MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD ADHERENT! HE WANT'S US OUT FOR FAR DIFFERENT REASONS THAN I DO!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

To its credit, the NYT does not repeat the WSJ’s sleight of hand. Rather than being obscured, General Sobhi’s sympathies are, for the most part, put up front. We quickly learn that he has forcefully argued against our military presence in the region, claiming that the U.S. has itself to blame for being (as the Times phrases it) “mir[ed] . . . in an unwinnable global war with Islamist militants.”

Still, while one can guess why the general feels this way, the Times is elliptical about his Islamist convictions and rationalizations until we come to the end of the story.

* PAY ATTENTION, FRIENDS... THIS NEXT BIT IS IN LINE WITH WHAT I WAS JUST SAYING...

Only then do we hear of Sobhi’s complaint about (as the Times puts it) U.S. “hostility toward the role of Islamic law” (if only!) and his objection to the American characterization of al-Qaeda and other Islamic militants as “irrational terrorist organizations” (Sobhi’s words).

The general posited the vapid (albeit commonly voiced) Islamist talking point that America created global terrorism by adopting policies that inevitably resulted in “popular grievances,” which al-Qaeda and other militants “tapped into.”

Obviously, there has to be a reason U.S. national security policies gave rise to “popular grievances” in the Muslim Middle East — that’s the elephant in the parlor that no one cares to notice.

(*DRUM ROLL*)

The pursuit of American interests and promotion of American principles are unpopular because they collide with classical sharia doctrine.

* YES!

[I]t is delusional to assume the Egyptian military is pro-American and thus a reliable bulwark against the advance of Islamic supremacism. Cairo’s armed forces reflect the broader society, whose able-bodied men are required to serve; and as even the Times now concedes, the Egyptian mainstream is Islamist.

[We've] spent nearly two years being told not to worry: Bet the farm on these generals we’ve been training and funding.

Yet...

(*SHRUG*)

[Egyptian] military promotions are not occurring in a vacuum. Things are going very badly in Egypt, and the reporting ought not be so vested in a rose-tinted narrative that it evades this unhappy bottom line.

Contemporaneous with ousting the pro-American Mubarak remnants, President Morsi assumed dictatorial powers. He indicated that he would unilaterally oversee the drafting of a new constitution. There is not much mystery about what it will say: During the campaign, he vowed that Egyptian law would be “the sharia, then the sharia, and finally, the sharia.”

Meanwhile, dissenters and journalists are already being imprisoned and beaten — if not worse.

Terrorist leaders have been sprung from the prisons.

The Sinai has become a jihadist haven.

Women are attacked in the street if they fail to don the veil.

A fatwa that prohibited eating during Ramadan was issued.

Christians are fleeing in droves, their churches torched behind them. And the emirs of Hamas are warmly received as brotherly dignitaries.

No amount of whistling can obscure the graveyard. Things are bad, and they are going to get worse.

William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390444443504577601310281203228.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_AboveLEFTTop

If your employer manages to get along without you for more than three months, should you continue to make contract demands?

(*CHUCKLE*)

On Friday, union workers at Caterpillar's Joliet, Illinois factory concluded that the answer is no.

* HOSANA IN THE HIGHEST!

They voted to accept a new six-year contract that limits wage increases and transitions workers from a defined-benefit pension system to a 401(k) retirement plan. Workers received $3,100 bonuses for signing the new agreement.

* SOUNDS GREAT! GETTING AWAY FROM DEFINED BENEFIT PLANS IS THE KEY TO ELIMINATING THE UNFUNDED FUTURE LIABILITIES PROBLEM THAT IS RAMPANT THROUGHOUT PARTS OF THE PRIVATE SECTOR AND LARGE PARTS OF THE PUBLIC SECTOR.

Caterpillar has expanded its non-union work force in places like Arkansas and Texas. But whether members of a union or not, Cat workers are now given opportunities, not guarantees. As with union workers across the country, the inevitable fact is that wages will rise if the economy grows faster and the employer's profits increase. This is the only path to higher standards of living for all workers, blue- or white-collar.

(*NOD*)

In this case, the good news is that management and labor at an important American company and major exporter have worked out a plan to stay competitive.

(*SINCERE CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10000872396390443855804577599634207831156.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLESecond

The Obama administration announced Friday that it's freeing up $473 million of unspent earmarks from appropriation bills between 2003 and 2006 for other local transportation projects.

* SO INSTEAD OF USING THIS "FOUND MONEY" TO PAY DOWN THE DEBT - OR AT LEAST TO AVOID BORROWING AN ADDITIONAL $473 MILLION DOWN THE ROAD - OBAMA IS SIMPLY SPENDING IT. GREAT! OUTSTANDING!

* FOLKS... YOU FEEL YOU NEED TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR. YOU DON'T HAVE THE $40 YOU NEED TO PAY AS YOUR CO-PAY. THE DOC SEES YOU ANYWAY AND YOU AGREE TO SEND HIM CHECKS FOR $10 OVER THE PERIOD OF THE UPCOMING NEXT FOUR WEEKS. ON THE WAY TO YOUR CAR YOU SPY A $50 BILL STUCK IN A BUSH. YEP. THAT'S WHAT IT IS! A $50 BILL. NOW DO YOU TAKE THAT $50 AND USE IT FOR A DOWN PAYMENT FOR LAYWAY CHRISTMAS SHOPPING OR DO YOU MARCH RIGHT BACK INTO THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE AND SETTLE YOUR ACCOUNT?

* FOLKS... GOVERNMENT *CAN* ACT AS RESPONSIBLY AS YOU WOULD... IT SIMPLY CHOOSES *NOT* TO!

[T]he money shuffle is merely another end-run around Congress, which has banned earmarks... But the White House is also back-flipping on the president's stated opposition to earmarks. (In his 2011 State of the Union he promised to veto bills that contained the extraneous appropriations.)

* Hmm... HOW TO PUT THIS POLITELY...??? HERE GOES: BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA IS A PIECE OF SHIT. (HOW'S THAT? DOES THAT ABOUT COVER IT?)