Saturday, August 18, 2012

Weekend Newsbite: Sat. & Sun., August 18 & 19, 2012

 
Woke up this morning with this song going through my mind...

God bless ya, Frank!

And, yeah... I do love my wife!

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10 comments:

William R. Barker said...

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

http://detroit.cbslocal.com/2012/08/17/pizza-franchise-creates-not-after-dark-delivery-rule-in-detroit-after-driver-shot/

* AND YOU THINK AMERICA ISN'T - LITERALLY - FALLING APART...?!?! READ THIS ONE! READ THE WHOLE FRIGGIN' THING!

Has it come to this? Yes it has, according to Joan McKenna, whose son Tim McKenna, 19, was shot while delivering pizza in Detroit.

In the wake of the shooting, a Jets Pizza franchise in Dearborn ruled it will no longer deliver to Detroit after dark. Before the shooting, they sent two drivers to every nighttime Detroit delivery, one of whom was armed, Joan McKenna said.

(*SNORT*)

“They usually send somebody with a guy … who carries a gun,” she said. “Usually they have two go into Detroit after dark, if they have a delivery … One guy has a legal, he can carry a gun. That night, Timmy was the only one left, they had this one run to do, he said ‘yeah, I’ll do it.’ He’s a kid, he doesn’t think anything’s going to happen to him.”

Tim McKenna was shot in the ribs, and the bullet hit a lung, but he survived and plans to return in the fall to Adrian College, where he plays football. Pizza delivery was his summer job.

“He can’t play football right now, he’s on the team at Adrian, it’s really hard … It went right in the chest, this guy shot him right in the chest,” Joan McKenna said, adding, “It was a robbery, the guy wanted his money, he hit the gas and the guy went ‘pop pop’ and he was shot in the chest.”

Her son had about $35 on him, which is what the drivers carry, McKenna said.

“I had no idea he was in this kind of danger, I really didn’t,” McKenna said. She and her husband returned to the neighborhood to hand out fliers listing a reward for whoever turns in the shooter, but even in daylight they were too afraid they would get shot driving around, McKenna said.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 18, 2012 at 9:10 AM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

“I realize this is a terrible situation, it is tragic, but some people say it’s racist, we’re eliminating Detroit, we’re sectioning Detroit off from the rest of the world,” Langton said during his show on Talk Radio 1270, adding, “Some people will say ‘ Why should we let the acts of one stupid gun person, make a whole policy that alienates a city?’”

But Joan McKenna thinks any claims of racism are hogwash.

“You want to talk about racism? This has nothing to do with color, it has to do with people who are not willing to get up, plug in the coffee maker, and go to work … Come on, get a job, we’re not talking race here,” Joan McKenna said.

The shooter has not been caught and the McKennas are agitating Detroit police to keep searching, worrying it’s “awful low on their priority list.” “I need help because it’s not going to happen with the police,” Joan McKenna said.

She said police told her: “We’ll never catch this guy, literally, that’s what they said.”

Langton said the shooter, whoever he is, should face attempted murder charges. “You shoot a gun, nearly point blank at somebody, that’s attempted murder,” Langton said.

“When you want a pizza, you live in Detroit, you want it delivered after dark, thank the guy who shot my son, thank that guy,” McKenna said.

John from Chesterfield called in and said, “This is not racist, this is a high probability risk assessment. I was in the military … If you’re going to go into Detroit after dark the risk assessment is you’re going to be robbed, shot or mugged … There are people in Detroit who don’t want to go out after dark either, it’s crazy, but that’s it.”

Ryan, a resident of southwest Detroit where the shooting happened, said he would “never let his wife outside after dark.” Would he go outside himself after dark? “Yeah, I would, but I’m armed,” Ryan said.

He added that many delivery companies in Detroit won’t go to addresses they don’t already know.

Mike, a U.S. Post Office manager, said he had a part-time carrier who moonlighted in that area as a pizza delivery man, and he was also attacked. “The guy jumped out of the bushes and basically attacked him, pulled out a gun … It’s very dangerous over there. I’m black, I’m from the city, but that’s the highest crime area I staffed. I can’t blame the pizza owner for doing that. He has to look at those employees every day.”

August 18, 2012 at 9:11 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://ca.news.yahoo.com/ny-times-boss-thompson-eyes-8m-payday-173851328.html

* WONDER IF HE'S A LIB...?

(*SNICKER*)

Incoming New York Times CEO Mark Thompson stands to make at least $8 million dollars by the end of 2013, financial filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission revealed Friday.

The outgoing BBC director general will be paid a base salary of $1 million, a sum that will be substantially padded by assorted perks, bonuses and benefits.

When he starts work in November, the 55-year-old will be eligible for a $3 million signing-on bonus, $100,000 in relocation allowances, $25,000 for legal fees and $333,000 in salary and bonuses until the end of this year.

In 2013 he will also be eligible for $1 million a year under the company's annual incentive program and be able to tap $3 million as part of the company's long-term incentive program, bringing the total to nearly $8.5 million.

The Times, which is America's most prestigious newspaper as well as a growing online news power, said it had recruited Thompson for his ability to develop non-traditional news products.

* NOT JEALOUSLY, FOLKS... DISGUST.

August 18, 2012 at 9:19 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/314347/man-no-plan-mark-steyn

* ALL I'M GONNA DO IS SUGGEST THAT YOU READ THIS ESSAY BY MARK STEYN.

August 18, 2012 at 9:43 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/08/16/morning-bell-wind-energy-subsidies-are-as-useful-as-vhs-tape-subsidies/?roi=echo3-12866871547-9439513-13df5ab80121829e5bc5c8178818cb6d&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

The wind production tax credit is set to expire at the end of this year...

* THANK FRIGGIN' GOD! (STILL... I'LL BELIEVE IT WHEN I SEE IT!)

Heritage’s Nicolas Loris has made the case that the wind energy tax credit makes as much sense as a VHS production tax credit:

Can you imagine the logic: “We can’t afford to lose our VHS tape manufacturing plants. They provide valuable jobs. Americans need a variety of ways to watch recorded entertainment.”

"Wasting taxpayer dollars on different but similar programs — claiming that these subsidies really are necessary to create jobs or prevent layoffs — simply creates a “subsidies for me but not for thee” mentality in Washington…. Renewable energy production tax credits have received support from Democrats, Republicans, and industry groups, but that doesn’t make it good policy."

The credit is a huge handout to wind producers, allowing them to sell their electricity for less than market price. They would profit even if they offered it for free — because they would still pocket the subsidy.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

The subsidy is already equivalent to 50% to 70% of the wholesale price of electricity. And that isn’t the only special-interest treatment wind producers receive, as Heritage’s David Kreutzer explains:

"Though you would not know it from wailing and gnashing of teeth over the expiration of the [production tax credit, or] PTC, many states also have renewable energy standards that force ratepayers to buy wind, solar, and biomass produced electricity regardless of how much it costs. These renewable standards are separate from — and, for wind-power producers, in addition to — the PTC."

A business that cannot survive without taxpayers paying 50% of the costs does not help the economy. Instead, it eats up more value than it produces.

* SOUNDS REASONABLE...

Policies like the production tax credit concentrate benefits on a few [often politically connected] recipients and spread the costs among the rest of us through higher taxes and energy costs.

They hurt the economy by making production more expensive, which puts U.S.-based products at a competitive disadvantage.

This means fewer jobs for American workers.

Those production expenses also make necessities more expensive for consumers, who are already hurting from the higher energy costs.

(Higher prices across the board hit lower-income Americans the hardest.)

Congress should let the wind production tax credit expire as scheduled and offset the resulting tax hike with broad tax reductions elsewhere. And this should be only the first step toward eliminating energy subsidies — and seeing which energy producers can provide the best service at the most affordable prices for Americans.

President Obama often refers to an “all of the above” energy strategy when he advocates for taxpayer funding of energy production like wind and solar. Heritage’s Loris puts it succinctly: “The only ‘all of the above’ strategy America should embrace is the answer to this question: Which of these energy sources should we not subsidize? A.) Fossil Fuels B.) Nuclear C.) Renewables D.) All of the Above.”

* SOUNDS GOOD TO ME!

August 19, 2012 at 11:53 AM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://blog.heritage.org/2012/08/17/morning-bell-obama-edits-official-state-department-documents-to-tout-himself/?roi=echo3-12876327952-9450567-6ad6656b2690fda9f6d83e175f18d8ae&utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Morning%2BBell

Inserting himself into the biographies of past presidents on the White House website apparently wasn’t enough for President Obama.

* YEP! HE DID THIS! I'VE COVERED IT IN THE PAST. I SUPPOSE YOU COULD GOOGLE IT IF YOU DOUBT THE CLAIM IS ACCURATE. (I CAN ASSURE YOU IT IS, THOUGH!)

(*SHRUG*)

His State Department is now editing its descriptions of foreign countries into yet another taxpayer-subsidized campaign commercial for the Obama Administration.

(*ROLLING MY EYES*)

The State Department has recently ended its long-running series of Background Notes, which were analytical, objective histories of other countries. In their place, new “Fact Sheets” now tout Obama’s policies and actions toward each nation.

(No more historical context, no recounting of complex and long-standing issues in the country. Just cut to the chase — that is, the time when the current Administration came to power.)

* I'M PRETTY SURE THE CIA FACT BOOK STILL PROVIDES THE EQUIVALENT TO THE OLD "BACKGROUND NOTES."

Heritage’s Jim Roberts, one of the editors of Heritage’s Index of Economic Freedom, was struck by the disproportionate change in emphasis while doing some research recently. Roberts, who worked at the State Department from 1982 to 2007 and used to write these country profiles, said he had never seen edits like these under either previous Republican or Democratic Administrations. Roberts noted that “They seem to be not ‘fact sheets’ but brag sheets,” adding that the edits appear to treat countries more favorably when the Obama Administration agrees with their leaders.

* YEP. SOUNDS LIKE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION S.O.P.

Roberts is in the process of examining the differences between the historical Background Notes and the new, "Obamacentric" Fact Sheets.

He reveals:

Compare the nearly 1,200-word “Fact Sheet” published this week by the U.S. embassy in Brazil with the last Background Note on Brazil written during the George W. Bush Administration. The 4,100-word Bush document, chock full of facts and figures helpful in analyzing the country and its importance to the U.S., never once mentions the name of any U.S. President. The 300-word section on U.S.–Brazil relations takes up about 7% of the document.

* OK... (READ ON!)

Conversely, fully 70% (830 words) of the Brazil Fact Sheet, which is focused exclusively on U.S. relations with Brazil, discusses President Obama either directly by name (twice!) or in the context of the plethora of programs his Administration has launched with Brazil, including a shared “commitment to combat discrimination based on race, gender, ethnicity, or lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) status; to advance gender equality; a bilateral instrument that targets racism; support for HIV/AIDS prevention, promotion of clean energy technologies in Brazil, and mitigation of climate change.”

* JEEZUS...

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 19, 2012 at 12:08 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Thus far, Roberts has not found a comprehensive explanation for the debut of the Fact Sheets. The State Department’s website simply says, “As of May 2012, Background Notes are no longer being updated or produced. They are in the process of being replaced by Fact Sheets that focus on U.S. relations with each country.”

Since President Obama took office, the budget of the State Department has increased from $38.7 billion to $50.2 billion, and thousands have been added to the payroll.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Finding that these taxpayer-funded resources are being used to eliminate neutral publications that were highly useful to researchers — only to replace them with lopsided “facts” akin to a campaign commercial — is something the American people deserve to know.

* NOT THAT THE AVERAGE SCHMUCK WILL CARE...

(*SIGH*)

This follows an Administration trend that goes back to 2009. In March of that year, the Administration was caught editing President George W. Bush’s biography to soften his listed accomplishments, and it quickly reversed course.

* YEP! I REMEMBER THAT!

Just a few months ago, it was discovered that White House staff had edited the biographies of many past presidents on whitehouse.gov to include a bullet point or two inserting President Obama into each historical narrative.

* YEP... (*SIGH*)... IT DID INDEED HAPPEN, FOLKS!

These remain on the site, including a fabrication they inserted about President Ronald Reagan’s tax policy to make it seem similar to Obama’s.

(*SIGH*)

American officeholders are supposed to take great pains to separate their campaigns from their official duties. Using taxpayer resources to blatantly promote the president’s positions on foreign policy — and even editing the historical record — is an egregious abuse of power.

* AND THAT'S THE OBAMA PATTERN, FOLKS! IT'S NOT THAT REPUBLICANS NEVER CROSS LINES; NO, IT'S THAT YOU CAN POINT TO PRETTY MUCH ANY "BAD DEED" THAT A PREVIOUS REPUBLICAN (OR DEMOCRATIC) PRESIDENT HAS DONE... AND OBAMA HAS DOUBLED-DOWN.

* FOLKS... BROWSE THROUGH BARKER'S NEWSBITES. BROWSE THROUGH A SINGLE MONTHLY NEWSBITE POSTING - EXPLORED AT RANDOM - FROM EACH MONTH SINCE NEWSBITES BEGAN. YOU'LL SEE THE PATTERN!

August 19, 2012 at 12:09 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_CALIFORNIA_BANKRUPTCIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-08-17-19-12-49

Moody's Investors Service said in a report that the growing fiscal distress in many California cities was putting bondholders at risk.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

[Moody's] expects more municipal bankruptcies and defaults in California, the nation's largest issuer of municipal bonds.

(*SIGH*)

Three California cities - Stockton, San Bernardino and Mammoth Lakes - have filed for bankruptcy so far this year. They are not likely to be the last, Moody's said.

* FOLKS... DO YOU REALLY THINK IT'S A COINCIDENCE THAT DEMOCRATS HAVE LONG RUN CALIFORNIA (AND, YEAH... PUTTING ASIDE "ARNOLD" - WHO WAS A FAUX REPUBLICAN AT BEST - UNDER HIS GOVERNORSHIP DEMOCRATS CONTROLLED THE CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE, JUDICIARY, AND MOST LARGE CITIES MAYORITIES AND CITY COUNCILS) AND THAT CALIFORNIA IS A FISCAL DISASTER?

Moody's reports that some cities are turning bankruptcy as a new strategy to take on budget deficits and avoid obligations to bondholders, an emerging dynamic that could have ripple effects throughout the investment community.

* IF A PRIVATE BUSINESS DID THIS PEOPLE WOULD GO TO JAIL!

The agency also will examine the outlook for municipal bonds in other troubled states, according to Robert Kurtter, managing director of public finance at Moody's.

(Moody's would not say which states it will review, though Kurtter mentioned Michigan and Nevada as possibilities.)

* I*L*L*I*N*O*I*S...!!!

More than 10% of California cities have declared fiscal crises, according to the Moody's...

(*PURSED LIPS*)

"Credit analysis is based on the ability to pay and the willingness to pay," said Paul Rosenstiel, Principal at DeLaRosa & Co., a San Francisco-based municipal bond investment-banking firm.

Investors have historically assumed that cities are willing to pay their debts because they want continued access to the bond market, Rosenstiel said.

Now, some are not so sure.

* FOLKS... COM'ON... TO NOT DOWNGRADE CALIFORNIA WOULD BE IRRESPONSIBLE! JUST RE-READ THIS NEWSBITE!

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

August 19, 2012 at 12:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/19/world/middleeast/us-says-iraqis-are-helping-iran-skirt-sanctions.html?_r=1&hp

When President Obama announced last month that he was barring a Baghdad bank from any dealings with the American banking system, it was a rare acknowledgment of a delicate problem facing the administration in a country that American troops just left: for months, Iraq has been helping Iran skirt economic sanctions imposed on Tehran because of its nuclear program.

* ONE... MORE... TIME...

"...for months, Iraq has been helping Iran skirt economic sanctions imposed on Tehran because of its nuclear program."

* THAT HILLARY... SHE HAS THE IRAQIS EATING OUT OF THE PALM OF HER HAND, HUH?!

* JEEZUS FRIGGIN' CHRIST...

The little-known bank singled out by the United States, the Elaf Islamic Bank, is only part of a network of financial institutions and oil-smuggling operations that, according to current and former American and Iraqi government officials and experts on the Iraqi banking sector, has provided Iran with a crucial flow of dollars at a time when sanctions are squeezing its economy.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

Some current and former American and Iraqi officials, along with banking and oil experts, say that Iraqi government officials are turning a blind eye to the large financial flows, smuggling and other trade with Iran. In some cases, they say, government officials, including some close to Mr. Maliki, are directly profiting from the activities.

* AIN'T U.S. FOREIGN POLICY GRAND, FOLKS?!

* OH... AND BTW... NO DOUBT THIS SAME SHIT WENT ON UNDER BUSH.

“Maliki’s government is right in the middle of this,” said one former senior American intelligence official who now does business in Iraq.

Even as the United States has moved to tighten the vise against Iran this summer, the Maliki government has openly sought to enhance its already deep economic and political ties with Iran. Trade between Iraq and Iran, which fought a costly war from 1980 to 1988, has been growing rapidly ever since the American-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein, and it is now estimated to be as high as $11 billion a year. Among other openly acknowledged forms of trade, Iraq has contracts to buy large amounts of electrical power from Iran.

Several American and Iraqi banking and government officials also say that Iranian organizations have gained effective control over at least four Iraqi commercial banks through Iraqi intermediaries. That gives Iran direct access to the international financial system, supposedly denied to Tehran by the economic sanctions.

This year, Iraqi officials publicly expressed concerns that their large volume of trade with Iran might place them in violation of the sanctions on Iran, and they said they would seek a sanctions waiver. After those public statements, American officials privately told the Maliki government that Iraq would not be found to be in violation of the new Iran sanctions because of its publicly acknowledged cross-border trade, according to a former senior United States official.

* SO... WE'RE "CONSPIRING" WITH THE IRAQIS TO ALLOW THEM TO BREAK SANCTIONS WE OURSELVES HAVE PLACED UPON IRAN...?

* FOLKS...??? IS IT ME...???

August 19, 2012 at 8:53 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://blog.chron.com/txpotomac/2012/08/red-october-redux-john-cornyn-demands-answers-from-pentagon-on-russian-sub-in-gulf/

Russian submarine activity in the Gulf of Mexico[?]

This story hasn’t gotten much traction in the mainstream media, but Texas Sen. John Cornyn has been on it all week.

After receiving no satisfaction to earlier comments to the media, Cornyn wrote a letter today to Admiral Jonathan Greenert, the Pentagon’s Chief of Naval Operations, demanding answers.

“The submarine patrol, taken together with the air incursions, seems to represent a more aggressive and destabilizing Russian military stance that could pose risks to our national security,” Cornyn wrote. “This is especially troubling given the drastic defense cuts sought by President Obama, which include reductions in funding for antisubmarine defense systems.”

The story has received relatively little attention since appearing in the...Washington Free Beacon. According to the original report by longtime military correspondent Bill Gertz:

"A Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine armed with long-range cruise missiles operated undetected in the Gulf of Mexico for several weeks and its travel in strategic U.S. waters was only confirmed after it left the region, the Washington Free Beacon has learned. It is only the second time since 2009 that a Russian attack submarine has patrolled so close to U.S. shores. The stealth underwater incursion in the Gulf took place at the same time Russian strategic bombers made incursions into restricted U.S. airspace near Alaska and California in June and July, and highlights a growing military assertiveness by Moscow."

Senator Cornyn, a San Antonio Republican who sits on the Armed Services Committee, says the report is “especially troubling given the drastic defense cuts sought by President Obama, which include reductions in funding for antisubmarine defense systems.”

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Lieutenant Commander John Fage, dismissed Gertz’s report.

“We are aware of the reporting but we see nothing to indicate that it is true,” Fage told the Houston Chronicle.

* FOLKS... IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHO BILL GERTZ IS... (*SHRUG*)

* IF GERTZ REPORTED IT... I'D BET MONEY IT HAPPENED - JUST AS HE REPORTED.

Here’s the complete text of Sen. Cornyn’s letter:

Dear Admiral Greenert:

According to press reports, a Russian nuclear-powered attack submarine recently traveled undetected in the Gulf of Mexico on a month-long patrol. This submarine activity reportedly occurred in June and July, simultaneously with incursions by Russian strategic bombers into restricted U.S. airspace.

If these reports are accurate, the repercussions are serious. It is my understanding that an Akula-class submarine can be armed with an array of weapons, including torpedoes and long-range cruise missiles, capable of destroying both U.S. nuclear submarines and aircraft carriers.

The submarine patrol, taken together with the air incursions, seems to represent a more aggressive and destabilizing Russian military stance that could pose risks to our national security. This is especially troubling given the drastic defense cuts sought by President Obama, which include reductions in funding for antisubmarine defense systems.

In light of the gravity of this situation, I request a detailed explanation of the facts surrounding these reports. Thank you for your faithful service to our nation, your dedication to our Armed Forces, and your commitment to ensuring the welfare of our men and women in uniform and their families.

* LET'S SEE IF GREENERT DENIES IT.

(*SHRUG*)

August 19, 2012 at 9:11 PM

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