Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, September 26, 2012


Did you folks know about Hillary Clinton's "security waiver?"

 Read today's first newsbite...

 (Inside the comments section!)

(Hey, Rob... check out newsbite #3 as well!)

(And #9, Rob... read #9!)

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9 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/09/25/senators_to_clinton_show_us_the_aambassador_s_cables

Two top senators on the Foreign Relations Committee don't want to wait for the State Department to do its own investigation into the Sept. 11 attack in Benghazi that killed four Americans including Ambassador Chris Stevens; they want Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to show them Stevens's diplomatic cables and other correspondence now.

* SOUNDS LIKE A REASONABLE REQUEST. IF NOT THE WHOLE COMMITTEE, THEN AT LEAST THE CHAIRMAN, RANKING MINORITY MEMBER OF THE COMMITTEE SHOULD HAVE ACCESS.

"While we appreciate the sensitivities associated with this ongoing investigation, we must insist on more timely information regarding the attacks and the events leading up to the attacks," wrote Sens. Bob Corker (R-TN) and Johnny Isaakson (R-GA) in a letter to Clinton Tuesday.

* SERIOUSLY, FOLKS, WOULDN'T YOU THINK THAT THE DEMOCRATIC CHAIRMAN WOULD PUT POLITICS ASIDE AND SUPPORT WHAT CERTAINLY SEEMS A REASONABLE REQUEST?

They acknowledged that Clinton is in the process of setting up an Accountability Review Board, although its chairman former Deputy Secretary of State Thomas Pickering said Monday that the panel hasn't started it's work yet.

* ...HASN'T... STARTED... IT'S... WORK... YET...?!?!

But the senators don't want to wait for the board to finish its report, which might not be transmitted to Congress until next spring.

* SPRING...?!?!

The senators noted that Libya officials have said they warned the U.S. government about rising threats in Benghazi just before the attacks and they referenced the CNN reports, culled at least partially from Stevens's personal diary, stating that the ambassador believed his life was in danger.

"Despite these warnings, the State Department sought and received a waiver from the standard security requirements for the consulate," the senators wrote.

* WHOA! WHAT'S THIS ABOUT A "WAIVER FROM THE STANDARD SECURITY REQUIREMENTS...?!?!" THIS IS THE FIRST I'M HEARING ABOUT ANY "WAIVERS!"

"We are extremely concerned about conflicting reports over the events leading up to the attacks. Specifically, we are concerned over the apparent lack of security preparations made despite a demonstrable increase in risks to U.S. officials and facilities in Benghazi in the period leading up to the attacks."

* YEAH. ME TOO!

September 26, 2012 at 9:36 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.investors.com/092512-626958-household-income-down-82-under-president-obama.aspx

In another sign that the economic recovery under President Obama is not producing gains for average Americans, median household incomes fell 1.1% in August to $50,678, according to a report released Tuesday by Sentier Research.

* ACTUALLY... (*PAUSE*)... THE AUTHOR SHOULD HAVE WRITTEN "FELL ANOTHER 1.1% IN AUGUST." HERE'S WHY:

Since the economic recovery started in June 2009, household incomes are down 5.7%, the Sentier data show, and they are down more than 8% since Obama took office.

* AND, FOLKS... AS I ALWAYS NOTE... THE TRUE DISASTER THESE FIGURES REPRESENT IS ACTUALLY UNDERSTATED BASED UPON THE GOVERNMENT'S DELIBERATE LOWBALLING OF INFLATION. (AGAIN... THE GOVERNMENT DOESN'T INCLUDE "LITTLE THINGS" LIKE GAS PRICES AND OTHER FUEL PRICES AND FOOD PRICES INTO THEIR INFLATION CALCULATIONS.)

[A]verage incomes for middle- and lower-income households fell in 2011 after adjusting for inflation.

* AND AGAIN... THEY DELIBERATE UNDERESTIMATE INFLATION... MEANING THIS "FALL" WAS MUCH WORSE THAN EVEN THEY ARE REPORTING.

[Average incomes] rose only for the wealthiest 20% of households.

* YEP. THAT'S THE OBAMA ECONOMIC RECOVERY RIGHT THERE! INFLATE THE STOCK MARKET! DON'T DO AWAY WITH THE HEDGE FUND LOOPHOLE. DON'T SEND ANYONE TO JAIL WHO WAS INVOLVED IN CREATING THIS MESS. (YEAH, ROB... THAT'S THE REALITY...)

Meanwhile, another report released Tuesday finds that per-capita health costs jumped 4.6% last year...

* HEY... MY PREMIUMS WENT UP 17% THIS YEAR AND I'VE GOT HIGHER COPAYS AND LESSER COVERAGE THAN I HAD LAST YEAR. HOW'BOUT YOU...???

And a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released this month found that the number of uninsured climbed 1 million in the first three months of 2012 compared with last year.

* OOPS...

Other bad signs: The number of people on food stamps is up more than 220,000 in the first half of this year and up almost 12 million — or 34% — from June 2009 to June 2012.

The number of people in the labor force has fallen more than half a million in the past two months, with the participation rate down to 63.5%, a rate not seen in the past 30 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Almost 83,000 signed up for federal disability benefits in September, and more than 736,000 have joined in the first nine months of this year, according to the Social Security Administration. (That's a higher enrollment rate than the first nine months of the Obama presidency.)

September 26, 2012 at 9:50 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/26/14105135-libyan-president-to-nbc-anti-islam-film-had-nothing-to-do-with-us-consulate-attack?lite

An anti-Islam film that sparked violent protests in many countries had "nothing to do with" a deadly attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi earlier this month, Libya's president told NBC News.

* I KNEW THIS ALMOST IMMEDIATELY AFTER THE ATTACK. (CHECK THE BLOG ARCHIVES!) IT WAS OBAMA AND CLINTON WHO DENIED IT. AS OF LAST SATURDAY, THOUGH, MY BUDDY ROB STILL WASN'T "CONVINCED" THAT OBAMA AND CLINTON WERE SIMPLY LYING IN A LAME ATTEMPT TO AVOID TAKING RESPONSIBILITY FOR THEIR OWN SHORTCOMINGS AND INACTIONS.

(*SNORT*)

* WELL, ROB...? STILL "NOT CONVINCED?" WAS IT SIMPLE INCOMPETENCE THEN? I MEAN... LIES OR INCOMPETENCE. IT COULD WELL BE BOTH... BUT IT CAN'T BE NEITHER. ANY UPDATES ON YOUR LATEST THOUGHTS ON THE MATTER?

In an exclusive interview with NBC News' Ann Curry, President Mohamed Magarief discounted claims that the attack was in response to a movie produced in California and available on YouTube. He noted that the assault happened on Sept. 11 and that the video had been available for months before that.

* YEAH... SOMEHOW BOTH OBAMA AND CLINTON "OVERLOOKED" THIS.

(*SMIRK*)

Magarief said there were no protesters at the site before the attack, which he noted came in two assaults, first with rocket-propelled grenades on the consulate, then with mortars at a safe house.

* EVEN IN LIBYA, ROB, YOUR AVERAGE "PROTESTER" DOESN'T CARRY AROUND GRANADE LAUNCHERS AND MORTARS.

(*SMIRK*)

Magarief told Curry that based on the accuracy of the assault, he believes the attackers must have had training and experience using the weapons. "It's a pre-planned act of terrorism," he said, adding that the anti-Islam film had "nothing to do with this attack."

The Obama administration initially maintained that the attacks were directly linked to protests over the film. Speaking on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sept. 16, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice said: “What happened in Benghazi was in fact initially a spontaneous reaction to what had just transpired hours before in Cairo, almost a copycat of the demonstrations against our facility in Cairo, prompted by the video.”

* I'M CURIOUS, ROB... IF YOU WERE OBAMA WOULD YOU RETAIN THE "SERVICES" OF SOMEONE AS OBVIOUSLY DENSE AS SUSAN RICE? IN THE REAL WORLD THAT'S JUST WHAT OBAMA IS DOING - KEEPING RICE RIGHT WHERE SHE IS!

September 26, 2012 at 10:01 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.suntimes.com/15379932-761/low-wage-work-force-grows-30-as-the-number-of-jobs-shrinks.html

Low-wage workers in Chicago are better educated, older and rely more on that income these days to meet basic needs than 10 years ago.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

And there are substantially more of them.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

That’s according to a new report released by Chicago-based Women Employed and Action Now Institute that shows nearly one in six low-wage workers here last year held a college degree.

* SOUNDS LIKE A LEFT OF CENTER KINDA GROUP TO ME... BUT THE DATA SOUNDS MORE THAN PLAUSIBLE.

(*SHRUG*)

The report, authored by Marc Doussard, assistant professor in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, defines low-wage workers as those making $12 an hour or less.

The report revealed the share of payroll employees ages 18 to 64 working in low-wage jobs rose from 23.8% in 2011 to 31.2% last year. That’s a more than a 30% rise in the proportion of such workers.

* JEEZUS... CAN YOU IMAGINE WHAT OBAMANOMICS COULD DO IF GIVEN ANOTHER FOUR YEARS?! HE MIGHT BE ABLE TO GET THAT FIGURE UP ABOVE 50%!

(*SNORT*) (*STILL JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Meanwhile the share of households with a low-wage earner that got all income from low-wage earnings rose from 45.7 percent to 56.7 percent. That’s evidence more people are relying more on those dollars to meet basic needs rather than for disposable income.

* WELL... YEAH... WHAT WITH THE (SUPPOSEDLY) "NEAR-NON-EXISTENT" INFLATION.

(*SMIRK*)

The report showed that the percent of low-wage workers age 30 and older rose from 54% in 2001 to 57.4% last year. And last year only 6% of such workers were under age 20, compared with nearly 11% in 2001.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Among steps the report recommends policymakers take to address the problem are raising the state’s minimum wage, which is currently $8.25 an hour, and adopting living-wage ordinances. The report adds “legislation that strengthens collective bargaining rights, paid sick time, enforcement of anti-discrimination and fair labor standards laws and efforts by employers to improve scheduling and promote training and mobility... are also crucial.

* YEP... JUST AS I GUESSED... A LEFT-WING OUTFIT. THEIR FACTS ARE PROBABLY RIGHT; BUT THEIR ANALYSIS AND PROPOSALS ARE EXACTLY WRONG.

September 26, 2012 at 10:19 AM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.michaelyon-online.com/americas-dumbest-war-ever.htm

Yesterday a concerned father forwarded to Michael Yon a letter from his son in Afghanistan. Mr. Yon confirmed the letter's authenticity and republished it on his blog with permission:

Dad,

I am fed up. I cannot believe the lack of attention the recent changes in this war is receiving by the media or the country. I think I saw one thing on CNN about the following subject, but I had to dig extensively to find it. The purpose of this letter is to let you know of the garbage that our soldiers are going through right now. With this knowledge, I hope that you take action by writing your congressmen.

First, because of the recent green on blue incidents or "insider threats" as the new buzz phrase dictates, all coalition forces in Afghanistan have completely stopped partnering with the ANA, AUP, and ALP in order to prevent the death of anymore CF casualties by ANSF or Taliban disguised as them. This is also greatly spurred by President Karzi's indifferent attitude and lack of action to take measures to prevent further insider attacks.

Second, because of this massive change in policy (and complete change in mission) all U.S. forces are forbidden to actively patrol their AO and are to remain on their respective COPs/FOBs. There are only a few exceptions to this rule and they all pertain to "hardening" highway 1 in our AO. We have received orders that clearly state that all CF will no longer be allowed to drop air to ground munitions within the country of Afghanistan. This preempts Karzi's announcement that will be made shortly that states the above mentioned order, making it a tactical directive that he is ordering.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

September 26, 2012 at 3:01 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

To the first point: Our mission in Afghanistan is to partner with the ANSF on all levels. Now the policy makers are telling us that we are not allowed to do that and further more we are to take immediate measures to secure ourselves from the ANSF that are co-located with us. So the question now becomes, what is our mission? Furthermore, the implication is that we have absolutely no reason to still be in this country if we are not partnering with the ANSF. So why are we here?

To the second point: I don't think that the American citizens would be happy if they knew that their soldiers were being prohibited from defending themselves in any way because of politically driven orders, but that is precisely what is happening in this war right now even as I write this letter. The soldiers of the U.S. never engage the enemy unless we know that we have will always have the tactical advantage in defending ourselves, that advantage is the use of close air support and air weapons team. To take those weapons away from us is to level the playing field for the enemy and thus exposing our soldiers to more danger. In the school house they teach us that the minimum ratio that we are to engage the enemy with, is a 3:1 ratio. In other words, we have the highest probability of winning because we don’t fight fair. The sound tactical principles behind this teaching have saved lives. The very presence of aircraft over our foot patrols has also saved lives and now our chain of command is being told by our political leadership that this is now not allowed. If we are not partnering with the ANSF and we are not actively patrolling to prevent our enemies from massing their attacks on our COP and we can’t drop a bomb on the enemy that we have positively identified, than what the hell are we doing here?

Give us a mission or send us home. I honestly have no preference on what the politicians decide, as long as they just make a decision. Of course this will be a terrible inconvenience on the current elections so I am sure we will be forgotten, which really does not seem to be too different for how things have been going for the last eleven years.

Do not buy into what the some media outlets have already said about this. Casually saying that this is a frequent occurrence is false, and is an attempt to downplay the major ramifications for these decisions. We have never been so restricted in defending ourselves as we have now. This is not just a stand down. The other implication of this decision is that we will perhaps never regain our relationship with the ANA after we have executed these measures to protect ourselves from them. Essentially, we have left them to die as we watch from our high-tech cameras and UAVs. They will not forget this and I fear the relationship will never be the same.

I love you very much Dad and I don’t want you to worry about me any more than you already are, but I also know that this has to be brought up, someone has to say something about this. It is wrong to keep this hidden away while American soldiers are under constant threat of death and dying. I don’t care if you send this letter directly, this needs to be known.

Your son,

[In Afghanistan]

September 26, 2012 at 3:02 PM
William R. Barker said...

The U.S. Postal Service will default this week on a $5.6 billion congressionally mandated obligation to pre-fund retiree health benefits, marking the second time in two months the cash-strapped agency has done this.

* OH... AND BY THE WAY...

The USPS lost $5.2 billion in the third quarter of fiscal 2012, $2.1 billion more than during the same time period in 2011.

* THAT'S ONE FRIGGIN' QUARTER... ONE... FRIGGIN'... QUARTER...!

The Senate passed a postal "reform" bill this spring...

(*ROLLING MY EYES*)

The [Democratic] Senate bill restructures the pre-payments to make them "more manageable"...

* FOLKS... DO I HAVE TO SAY IT OR HAVE YOU ALREADY READ BETWEEN THE LINES AND SO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT THE SENATE'S BILL WAS SIMPLY ANOTHER "KICK THE CAN FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD" BILL WHICH FAILED TO ADDRESS THE MATH OF THE FUCKING SITUATION?

[T]he [Republican] House bill, which passed out of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee earlier this year, requires the agency to pay $1 billion of its fiscal 2011 prepayment obligations and make up the remainder in fiscal 2015 and fiscal 2016.

* IN OTHER WORDS... NOT KICKING THE CAN DOWN THE ROAD! IN OTHER WORDS... DEALING WITH THE ACTUAL REALITY OF THE MATH!

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the chief architect of the House bill, wanted to include postal reform measures in the six-month continuing resolution passed by Congress last week, but the proposal failed to make it into the legislation.

* WHY...??? WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR BLACKBALLING THE ATTEMPT? (NAMES WOULD BE NICE..)

* FOLKS... YOU KNOW I HATE THE REPUBLICAN HOUSE ONLY SLIGHTLY LESS THAN I HATE THE DEMOCRATIC SENATE, BUT ONCE AGAIN, IT'S FRIGGIN' CLEAR... AS BAD AS THE FUCKING REPUBLICANS ARE AT LEAST THEY'RE MORE WILLING TO ACTUALLY SLOW DOWN THE DECLINE OF OUR COUNTRY THAN THE DEMS ARE!

September 26, 2012 at 7:06 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/27/world/africa/clinton-cites-clear-link-between-al-qaeda-and-attack-in-libya.html?_r=0

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton indicated for the first time on Wednesday that there was an explicit link between the Qaeda franchise in North Africa and the attack at the American diplomatic mission in Libya that killed four Americans, including the ambassador, J. Christopher Stevens.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

* THANK GOD OBAMA "GOT" BIN LADEN AND ENDED THE THREAT OF... er..

(*PURSED LIPS*) (*SHRUG*)

She also said American intelligence and law enforcement agencies were working not only with Libya but also with other nations in the region to investigate the attack in Benghazi on Sept. 11. That indicated that the attack’s planning and execution might not have been the local, spontaneous eruption of violence that the administration had initially described.

* YA THINK, NEW YORK TIMES...?!?! YA FUCKING THINK...?!?!

* MY GOD, PEOPLE... IMAGINE... JUST IMAGINE... IF THIS HAD OCCURRED DURING BUSH'S FIRST TERM LESS THAN TWO MONTHS FROM ELECTION DAY! DO YOU SUPPOSE THE "TONE" ("INDICATED," HUH!) WOULD BE THE SAME COMING OUT OF THE GREY LADY...? DO YOU? SERIOUSLY?

Some Republican critics in Washington have argued that the administration played down the possibility of any connection to Al Qaeda, especially with President Obama in the midst of a re-election campaign in which the killing of Osama bin Laden is a major talking point.

(*SNORT*)

* Er... FOLKS... (*PAUSE*)... THE "INCIDENT" OCCURRED ON 9/11. (TODAY IS 9/26) THE FOREIGN PRESS WAS TELLING THE TRUE STORY MERE HOURS AFTER THE AMBASSADOR AND OUR OTHER FELLOW CITIZENS WERE MURDERED! I DO BELIEVE IT'S MORE THAN SIMPLY "SOME REPUBLICAN CRITICS" WHO HAVE ARGUED THAT THE ADMINISTRATION DELIBERATELY LIED SO AS TO AVOID TAKING THE HIT OF THE RESPONSIBILITY.

* FOLKS... AGAIN... THINK OF ALL WE KNOW NOW... ALL WE'VE LEARNED OVER THE PAST COUPLE WEEKS! AND YET THE NYT IS STILL TREATING THIS ADMINISTRATION AS IF THE REPORTAGE OF THE PAST TWO WEEKS HADN'T ACTUALLY RUN!

September 26, 2012 at 7:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/340acb6e-0756-11e2-b148-00144feabdc0.html#axzz27cmXAQhQ

Tim Geithner, the U.S. Treasury secretary...

* THE FT MEANS TIM "THE TAX CHEAT" GEITHNER... PRESIDENT BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA'S APPOINTEE...

...acted to shield Citigroup’s bondholders and management from accountability at the height of the financial crisis while taxpayers were left on the hook, a former U.S. bank regulator has alleged.

* HMM... I WONDER WHO THIS "FORMER U.S. BANK REGULATOR IS?"

Sheila Bair, who served as chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp during the crisis and its aftermath...

* WELL... IMAGINE... THAT... ROB...

(*TSK-TSK-TSK*)

* JEEZUS... WHAT'S NEXT... IS OBAMA'S MAJOR BUNDLER JON CORZINE GONNA SPILL THE BEANS...?!

(*SNICKER*)

* ROB. OBAMA IS A SCUMBAG.

...leveled fresh attacks at Mr. Geithner, the Obama administration, fellow financial regulators and bankers such as Vikram Pandit, Citi’s chief executive, in a new book that has laid bare policy disagreements of the past few years.

Ms. Bair claims that Mr. Geithner was relentless in his advocacy for Citi, both in its attempts to buy faltering lenders and when it came to applying restrictions tied to its various rescue packages by the government. “Tim seemed to view his job as protecting Citigroup from me, when he should have been worried about protecting the taxpayers from Citi,” Ms. Bair wrote of Mr. Geithner, who she nicknamed the “bail-outer in chief” of the 2008 crisis.

* OBAMA'S... HAND-PICKED... TREASURY... SECRETARY...

Ms. Bair criticizes Mr. Pandit for a lack of commercial banking experience and says she tried to force him out.

Ultimately, she says, Mr. Geithner did not want Mr. Pandit to be replaced.

Ms Bair attributes the decision to his close relationship with Robert Rubin, the former Treasury secretary who had served as Citi’s chairman.

* RUBIN... CORZINE... GEITHNER...

* HEY, ROB, DO YOU NOTICE A "PATTERN" HERE WHEN IT COMES TO DEMOCRATS AND WHEN IT COMES TO THE KIND OF PEOPLE CLINTON AND OBAMA VIEW AS "THEIR" GUYS? CERTAINLY YOU RECALL RUBIN'S ROLE IN CREATING THE POWDER KEG THAT BLEW UP IN 2008 - RIGHT?

Taxpayers were unnecessarily put at risk and Citi, despite its weakness at the time, was allowed to avert nationalization, a forced reorganization or meaningful restrictions on its activities, Ms. Bair alleges.

* "ALLEGES...?!?!" (HEY, ROB... "CITI FIELD!") JEEZUS...

* BTW... NOT QUITE SURE WHAT THIS "NATIONALIZATION" REFERENCE IS ABOUT. THEY NEVER WOULD HAVE FORMALLY "NATIONALIZED" CITI ANY MORE THAN THEY FORMALLY "NATIONALIZED" GM.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Geithner declined to comment.

* I'M... SURE... HE... DID...

September 26, 2012 at 8:29 PM

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