Monday, October 1, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: October 1, 2012


So... anything new happen while I was in Boston drinking...?

(Actually it was mostly Brighton and Alston... but we did enjoy lunch in the North End at a place which reminded me of Joey Paesano's in Manhattan's Little Italy.)

Kim and Shaky are doing great; they're talking about the future, but no ring yet!

Ate at a Pakistani restaurant on Friday night after many, many sour beers at Sunset Grill.

(Good food... great friggin' desserts...!)

Ted came into town for Friday night, but my buddy Mike was unable to make it.

(Next time, buddy... next time!)

And now... home... at least two rides this week... last minute planning for this upcoming Saturday's trip to Texas... the first presidential debate on Wednesday... the gym today, Wednesday, and Friday...

(Busy, busy, busy, Bill!)

Anyway... let's see if I can knock some newsbites out today!

As always, folks... the actual newsbites can be found in the comments section!


10 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/afghan-motorcycle-bomber-kills-14-including-3-nato-085148091.html

A suicide bomber driving a motorcycle packed with explosives rammed his bike into a patrol of Afghan and international forces on Monday morning in eastern Afghanistan, killing at least 14 people, including three NATO service members and their translator, officials said.

* WERE ANY OF THE "NATO SERVICE MEMBERS" AMERICANS?

* AGAIN, FOLKS... THIS TYPE OF "REPORTING" IS BULLSHIT.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the blast, which came a day after the U.S. death toll in the war in Afghanistan reached 2,000 troops and as relations between international forces and their Afghan partners have been pushed to the breaking point by a surge in insider attacks by Afghan allies.

* WHAT'S THAT CHARLIE SHEEN SAID...? ("WINNING, DUH!")

* YEAH... NOT SO MUCH...

Coalition spokesman Maj. Adam Wojack would only confirm that three NATO service members and their translator died in a bombing in the east on Monday, without giving an exact location or the nationalities of the dead.

* AND YOU KNOW WHAT...?!?! THAT IS FUCKING UNACCEPTABLE! IF THIS IS WHAT WE GET FROM NATO PERHAPS IT'S TIME TO WIND DOWN THE "ALLIANCE."

William R. Barker said...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/examiner-local-editorial-pentagon-blows-it-again-on-military-voting/article/2507910#.UGmPzq6z7Hs

Congress passed the Military and Overseas Voter Empowerment, or MOVE, Act in 2009, to make it easier for military personnel and their families to exercise the franchise they risk their lives to defend.

Unfortunately, an Aug. 31 Department of Defense inspector general's report shows that the Pentagon has failed to implement this law.

The IG found that fewer than half of U.S. military bases set up MOVE-mandated voting assistance offices where military personnel could get the same assistance registering to vote and requesting absentee ballots as their civilian counterparts at "motor voter" locations stateside.

Pam Mitchell, interim director of the Pentagon's Federal Voting Assistance Program, claimed the IG inspectors had been using "outdated" contact information and that DOD's voter assistance is "the best that it's ever been." But in its survey of states with large military populations, the Military Voter Protection Project sided with the IG. The no-profit reported a 92% drop in absentee ballot requests by service members in Virginia so far this year, with the same pattern repeated in other states. If the Pentagon was really implementing MOVE, those numbers would be going up, not plunging.

* DISGRACEFUL... ABSOLUTELY DISGRACEFUL...

In a stern Sept. 7th letter to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, MOVE author Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, chastised the Pentagon for its "clear violation of a central provision of this federal law. ... The MOVE Act was not optional, and neither is our moral duty to protect the civil rights of our men and women in uniform and their families," Cornyn wrote.

* YEAH... I'M SURE THAT "STERN LETTER" IS GONNA TURN THE SITUATION AROUND...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

States are required to accept a downloadable federal postcard that both registers service members to vote and requests an absentee ballot. This postcard is also supposed to be readily available at all military installations. But the extremely low number of absentee ballot requests so far indicates that highly mobile service members are not aware of this option, because a resistant Pentagon has not made voter registration part of the regular check-in process at each new duty station.

To their credit, both D.C. and Virginia passed legislation applying MOVE to state and local elections, but military members stationed overseas can't vote if they don't request an absentee ballot 45 days before an election. That deadline falls on Sept. 22 this year. Friends and family members will have to make up for the Pentagon's inexcusable inaction by reminding service members to request absentee ballots if they have not already done so.

William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/us-military-deaths-afghanistan-hit-2-000-11-131020733.html

* THIS IS FROM SUNDAY, FOLKS...

U.S. military deaths in the Afghan war have reached 2,000...

* I'M GUESSING OVER 2,000 WITH THE LATEST ATTACKS...

(*SIGH*)

In addition to the 2,000 Americans killed since the Afghan war began on Oct. 7, 2001, at least 1,190 more coalition troops from other countries have also died, according to iCasualties.org, an independent organization that tracks the deaths.

The toll has climbed steadily in recent months with a spate of attacks by Afghan army and police — supposed allies — against American and NATO troops.

On Sunday, a U.S. official confirmed the latest death, saying that an "international service member" killed in an apparent insider attack by Afghan forces in the east of the country late Saturday was American.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

According to the Afghanistan index kept by the Washington-based research centre Brookings Institution, about 40% of the American deaths were caused by improvised explosive devices. The majority of those were after 2009, when President Barack Obama ordered a surge that sent in 33,000 additional troops to combat heightened Taliban activity. The surge brought the total number of American troops to 101,000, the peak for the entire war.

* FIRST OF ALL, CLEARLY OBAMA'S "SURGE" DIDN'T WORK. SECOND OF ALL, LET'S NOT FORGET THAT EVEN HAD THE "SURGE" BEEN THE RIGHT IDEA, PRESIDENT OBAMA REFUSED TO GIVE THE PENTAGON THE FULL COMPLIMENT OF "SURGE" TROOPS THE GENERALS HAD ASKED FOR.

According to Brookings, hostile fire was the second most common cause of death, accounting for nearly 31% of Americans killed.

* JEEZUS...

Attacks by Afghan soldiers or police — or insurgents disguised in their uniforms — have killed 52 American and other NATO troops so far this year.

American, NATO and allied troops are still dying in Afghanistan at a rate of one a day.

William R. Barker said...

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

http://abcnews.go.com/ABC_Univision/News/fast-furious-scandal-details-emerge-us-government-armed/story?id=17352694#.UGjf3BjDk7B

* THE REAL LIFE CONSEQUENCES OF ERIC HOLDER'S INCOMPETENCE AND DISREGARD FOR THE LAW. REMEMBER... HE NEITHER WORKED WITH - NOR EVEN INFORMED - THE MEXICAN AUTHORITIES OF WHAT HIS DEPARTMENT WAS DOING... ACTUAL GUN RUNNING. JEEZUS, FOLKS... MEXICO WOULD BE IN WITHIN THEIR RIGHTS TO DEMAND HOLDER'S ARREST FOR WHAT HE DID!

On January 30, 2010, a commando of at least 20 hit men parked themselves outside a birthday party of high school and college students in Villas de Salvarcar, Ciudad Juarez.

Near midnight, the assassins (later identified as hired guns for the Mexican cartel La Linea) broke into a one-story house and opened fire on a gathering of nearly 60 teenagers.

Outside, lookouts gunned down a screaming neighbor and several students who had managed to escape.

Fourteen young men and women were killed, and 12 more were wounded before the hit men finally fled.

Indirectly, the United States government played a role in the massacre by supplying some of the firearms used by the cartel murderers.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Three of the high caliber weapons fired that night in Villas de Salvarcar were linked to a gun tracing operation run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), according to a Mexican army document obtained exclusively by Univision News.

Univision News identified a total of 57 more previously unreported firearms that were bought by straw purchasers monitored by ATF during Operation Fast and Furious, and then recovered in Mexico in sites related to murders, kidnappings, and at least one other massacre.

* FOLKS... WE KNOW THAT AT TIMES LEGITIMATE AMERICAN GUN DEALERS WHO REPORTED SUSPICIOUS ACTIVITY TO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WERE TOLD TO SELL THE WEAPONS BY THE U.S. GOVERNMENT! THIS WAS THE PLAN... NOT A "SCREW-UP!"

As part of Operation Fast and Furious, ATF allowed...

* AGAIN... NOT "ALLOWED" - ENSURED!

...1,961 guns to "walk" out of the U.S. in an effort to identify the high profile cartel leaders who received them. The agency eventually lost track of the weapons, and they often ended up in the hands of Mexican hit men, including those who ordered and carried out the attack on Salvarcar and El Aliviane, a rehabilitation center in Ciudad Juarez where 18 young men were killed on September 2, 2009.

According to documents obtained by Univision News, from October of that year to the end of 2010, nearly 175 weapons from Operation Fast and Furious inadvertently armed the various warring factions across northern Mexico.

* NO! NOT "INADVERTENTLY!" THIS WAS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT OPERATION - TO "SEE WHERE THE WEAPONS WOULD GO" BY ACTUALLY PUTTING THEM INTO THE PIPELINE!

"Many weapons cross the border and enter Mexico, but that [Fast and Furious] number, quantity and type of weapons had quite an impact in the war in this area" Jose Wall, an ATF agent stationed in Tijuana from 2009 to 2011, told Univision News.

* SAID AN ATF AGENT...?!?! ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME...??? THE ATF WORKS FOR HOLDER!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Following the death of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry at the hands of Mexican bandits on December 14, 2010, media and Congressional investigations prompted hearings. On September 20, the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General report, which opened the door for sanctions of 14 ATF and DOJ officials.

* BUT NO "SANCTIONS" AGAINST HOLDER. SACRIFICE THE FOOT SOLDIERS, BUT NOT THOSE RESPONSIBLE. DISGUSTING!

In Washington, the Fast and Furious scandal became politicized, diverting the attention from the human cost in Mexico to political battles on Capitol Hill. In June, a vote to hold Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt ignored the real tragedy in Mexico.

* OH... MY... FRIGGIN'... GOD! CAN YOU BELIEVE THE FUCKING SPIN BEING EMPLOYED HERE...?!?!

* ERIC HOLDER WAS RESPONSIBLE! HE'S STILL OBAMA'S ATTORNEY GENERAL EVEN THOUGH WE ALL KNOW HE WAS RESPONSIBLE! THAT'S THE REAL TRAGEDY HERE IN AMERICA...!!!

The Univision News investigation also found ATF offices from states besides Arizona pursued similar misguided strategies. In Florida, the weapons from Operation Castaway ended up in the hands of criminals in Colombia, Honduras and Venezuela, the lead informant in the case told Univision News in a prison interview. "When the ATF stopped me, they told me the guns were going to cartels," Hugh Crumpler, a Vietnam veteran turned arms trafficker, told Univision News. "The ATF knew before I knew and had been following me for a considerable length of time. They could not have followed me for two months like they said they did, and not know the guns were going somewhere, and not want for that to be happening." Other firearms under ATF surveillance were permitted to leave the country from Texas, according to court documents and the exclusive testimony of Magdalena Avila Villalobos, the sister of an ICE agent who survived a confrontation with cartel hit men on a rural highway in Mexico on February 15, 2011. His fellow agent, Jaime Zapata, was killed during the attacks. "It's not from Arizona and Fast and Furious," Avila Villalobos told Univision News, speaking in her brother's stead for the first time, "but it's a very similar operation..." She later added, "Those weapons that have been recovered, it's been confirmed that they were weapons used in the shootout that killed Jaime Zapata and wounded Victor Avila." The Texas-based operation and the firearms linked to the attack were bought by two trafficking rings in the state, according to Raymond Thomas, the Zapata family's lawyer.

Earlier this year, Texas Senator John Cornyn had echoed Thomas' assertions.

Moreover, on September 25, Congressman Darrell Issa and Senator Charles Grassley, the politicians behind the Fast and Furious congressional report released in July, sent a letter to the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General, requesting an investigation into Avila's and Zapata's case.

* JEEZUS... FOLKS... WE'VE LOST COMPLETE CONTROL OF OUR GOVERNMENT UNDER OBAMA.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2012/09/29/pat_caddell_media_have_become_an_enemy_of_the_american_people.html

In recent remarks...former Democratic pollster and analyst Pat Caddell said, "I think we're at the most dangerous time in our political history in terms of the balance of power in the role that the media plays in whether or not we maintain a free democracy."

Caddell noted that while First Amendment protections were originally provided to the press so they would protect the liberty and freedom of the public from "organized governmental power," they had clearly relinquished the role of impartial news providers. Nowhere was this more evident than during the tragic death of a U.S. ambassador in Libya that was lied about for nine days, because the press and the administration did not want to admit it was a terrorist attack.

* WELL... MAYBE NOT CONSISTENTLY FOR A FULL NINE DAYS... BUT I GET THE POINT AND INDEED EITHER THEY LIED FOR MANY DAYS, OR, THE LEVEL OF SHEER INCOMPETENCE ALONE MERITS WHOLESALE DISMISSALS!

"We've had nine days of lies over what happened because they can't dare say it's a terrorist attack, and the press won't push this," said Caddell. "Yesterday there was not a single piece in The New York Times over the question of Libya. Twenty American embassies, yesterday, are under attack. None of that is on the national news. None of it is being pressed in the papers."

* WELL... AGAIN... CADDELL OVERSTATES A BIT... BUT THERE'S SIMPLY NO DOUBT THAT THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA DELIBERATELY GAVE OBAMA ALL THE COVER THEY COULD. (AND IF IT WASN'T DELIBERATE... THEN WE'RE BACK TO THE INCOMPETENCE ARGUMENT.) (FOLKS... ONE OR THE OTHER... PERHAPS EVEN BOTH... BUT CERTAINLY NOT NEITHER!)

Caddell added that it is one thing for the news to have a biased view, but "It is another thing to specifically decide that you will not tell the American people information they have a right to know."

* FOLKS... READ THE FULL TRANSCRIPT OF HIS REMARKS! PLEASE! IT GOES FAR BEYOND THE REPORTING I JUST NEWSBITED! READ THE FOLLOWING TRANSCRIPT IN FULL!

http://www.aim.org/video/pat-caddell-the-audacity-of-corruption/

William R. Barker said...

http://freebeacon.com/white-house-hack-attack/

Hackers linked to China’s government broke into one of the U.S. government’s most sensitive computer networks, breaching a system used by the White House Military Office for nuclear commands, according to defense and intelligence officials familiar with the incident.

* AND THE STUPID FUCKING AMERICAN PEOPLE ARE WORRIED ABOUT IRAN...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* BUT, HEY... THAT'S BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN TOLD - BY BOTH PARTIES... AND BY THE MEDIA - THAT IRAN IS OUR "ENEMY," OUR "ADVERSARY," AND THAT CHINA ISN'T.

(*STILL JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

One official said the cyber breach was one of Beijing’s most brazen cyber attacks against the United States and highlights a failure of the Obama administration to press China on its persistent cyber attacks.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* FOLKS... I'LL NEVER... NEVER... NEVER FORGET - NOR FORGIVE - BUSH PUSSYING OUT BACK BEFORE 9/11 WHEN THE CHINESE ENGAGED IN AN ACT OF WAR AGAINST US (THE SO-CALLED "HAINAN INCIDENT") AND WE JUST TOOK IT.

* MY POINT? BOTH ESTABLISHMENTS - THE DEMOCRATS AND THE REPUBLICANS - ARE IN LEAGUE WITH CHINA TO AN EXTENT I CONSIDER LITERALLY TREASONOUS. (I'M TALKING THE MONEY THAT'S MADE BY THOSE AT THE TOP...)

“This is the most sensitive office in the U.S. government,” said a former senior U.S. intelligence official familiar with the work of the office. “A compromise there would cause grave strategic damage to the United States.”

An Obama administration national security official said: “This was a spear phishing attack against an unclassified network.”

The official described the type of attack as “not infrequent” and said there were unspecified “mitigation measures in place.”

“In this instance the attack was identified, the system was isolated, and there is no indication whatsoever that any exfiltration of data took place,” the official said. The official said there was no impact or attempted breach of a classified system within the office.

* AND WOULD THEY TELL US THE TRUTH IF IT HAD BEEN...???

(*SHRUG*)

Despite the administration national security official’s assertion, one defense official said there is fairly solid intelligence linking the penetration of the WHMO network to China, and there are concerns that the attackers were able to breach the classified network.

* LISTEN... FOLKS... THIS IS BILL GERTZ REPORTING. I BELIEVE GERTZ. IF HE TRUSTS HIS SOURCES THEN I TRUST THEM.

According to the former official, the secrets held within the WHMO include data on the so-called “nuclear football,” the nuclear command and control suitcase used by the president to be in constant communication with strategic nuclear forces commanders for launching nuclear missiles or bombers.

The office also is in charge of sensitive continuity-of-government operations in wartime or crises.

The former official said if China were to obtain details of this sensitive information, it could use it during a future conflict to intercept presidential communications, locate the president for targeting purposes, or disrupt strategic command and control by the president to U.S. forces in both the United States and abroad.

* THE "OFFICIAL" AND "FORMER OFFICIAL" ARE TWO DISTINCT SOURCES.

Last week the senior intelligence officer for the U.S. Cyber Command said Chinese cyber attacks and cyber-espionage against Pentagon computers are a constant security problem.

“Their level of effort against the Department of Defense is constant” and efforts to steal economic secrets are increasing, Rear Adm. Samuel Cox, Cyber Command director of intelligence, told Reuters after a security conference.

“It’s continuing apace,” Cox said of Chinese cyber-espionage. “In fact, I’d say it’s still accelerating.”

* AND THIS IS A NATION WE HAVE "GOOD" RELATIONS WITH...??? FOLKS... THIS IS INSANITY!

William R. Barker said...

http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/10/01/obama_waives_sanctions_on_countries_that_use_child_soldiers

U.S. President Barack Obama issued a new executive order last week to fight human trafficking, touting his administration's handling of the issue.

* SOUNDS GOOD, RIGHT? KEEP READING...

"When a little boy is kidnapped, turned into a child soldier, forced to kill or be killed -- that's slavery," Obama said in a speech at the Clinton Global Initiative. "It is barbaric, and it is evil, and it has no place in a civilized world. Now, as a nation, we've long rejected such cruelty."

* WHAT A WONDERFUL, COMPASSIONATE, CARING MAN OUR PRESIDENT IS... OR SO IT SEEMS UP TO THIS POINT. (KEEP READING!)

But for the third year in a row, Obama has waived almost all U.S. sanctions that would punish certain countries that use child soldiers, upsetting many in the human rights community.

* FOLKS... THIS IS FROM FOREIGN POLICY MAGAZINE... THE CENTER-LEFT FOREIGN POLICY ORGAN OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY.

(*SHRUG*)

Late Friday afternoon, Obama issued a presidential memorandum waiving penalties under the Child Soldiers Protection Act of 2008 for Libya, South Sudan, and Yemen, penalties that Congress put in place to prevent U.S. arms sales to countries determined by the State Department to be the worst abusers of child soldiers in their militaries. The president also partially waived sanctions against the Democratic Republic of the Congo to allow some military training and arms sales to that country.

* MAKES YA... er... PROUD TO BE AN AMERICA, HUH?

Human rights advocates saw the waivers as harmful to the goal of using U.S. influence to urge countries that receive military assistance to move away from using child soldiers and contradictory to the rhetoric Obama used in his speech.

"After such a strong statement against the exploitation of children, it seems bizarre that Obama would give a pass to countries using children in their armed forces and using U.S. tax money to do that," said Jesse Eaves, the senior policy advisor for child protection at World Vision.

* YEAH... er... "BAZARRE"... CONTRARY TO THE RHETORIC OBAMA USES IN HIS SPEECHES... (*SMIRK*)... NOW WHO WOULD'VE THUNK THAT...?!?!

"The intent in this law was to use this waiver authority only in extreme circumstances, yet this has become an annual thing and this has become the default of this administration," Eaves said.

* LISTEN... IN ALL SERIOUSNESS... IF THE LAW ITSELF MEANS NOTHING TO OBAMA THEN WHY WOULD THE "INTENT" OF THE LAW MATTER TO HIM OR HIS MINIONS?

Bush signed the child-soldiers law in 2008. It prohibits U.S. military education and training, foreign military financing, and other defense-related assistance to countries that actively recruit troops under the age of 18. Countries are designated as violators if the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons report identifies them as recruiting child soldiers. The original bill was sponsored by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).

* KEEP READING... YOU'RE GONNA JUST LUV THIS NEXT SENTENCE...

Obama first waived the sanctions in 2010, the first year they were to go into effect.

* WHAT DID I TELL YA...?!

* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... READ THE FULL PIECE - BUT YOU CAN REST ASSURED... I'M NOT MAKING IT SOUND ANY WORSE THAN IT WILL ONCE YOU DO READ THE FULL PIECE.

William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/debt-jumped-12759t-fy-2012-10855-household-just-12-months-beats-2011

According to the U.S. Treasury, the debt of the U.S. government climbed by a total of $1,275,901,078,828.74 in fiscal 2012, which ended yesterday.

* ROUNDED... $1.276 TRILLION.

That means the federal government borrowed approximately an additional $10,855 for each household in the United States just over the past twelve months.

* NICE...

In fiscal 2011, the debt increased by about $10,454 per household - $401 less than the $10,855 per household increase of 2012.

* SO... MR. BOEHNER... REPUBLICANS IN THE HOUSE... ANY THOUGHTS? (YOU FUCKING SCUMBAGS!)

The $1.28 trillion that the debt increased in fiscal 2012 was about $47.18 billion more than the $1.23 trillion that the debt increased in fiscal 2011.

(*SARCASTIC CLAP-CLAP-CLAP*)

* AND, FOLKS... THIS IS WITH US (SUPPOSEDLY... OFFICIALLY...) "OUT" OF IRAQ AND WITH US SUPPOSEDLY PROCEEDING WITH OUR WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN!

William R. Barker said...

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3406bba8-08bb-11e2-9176-00144feabdc0.html#axzz28649xKcg

Bank profits from new mortgages have soared since the Federal Reserve began its third round of bond purchases two weeks ago...

* OLIGARCHS FOR OLIGARCHY - ANYONE SURPRISED...?

The rise in profit earned by banks from creating new mortgages came as Fed chairman Ben Bernanke sought to defend QE3 against attacks from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and other critics.

* WELL-DESERVED ATTACKS!

Mr. Romney said last week the Fed was keeping interest rates “artificially low.”

* WHICH IS ACCURATE! (EVEN THE OLIGARCHS AND ASSHOLES WHO APPROVE OF THE FED ACTION MUST ADMIT IT'S AN ARTIFICIAL STIMULUS!

QE3 would not lead to long-term inflation...

* UMM... ANYONE BEEN TO THE GAS STATION LATELY...? A FOOD STORE, PERHAPS? PAID A TUITION BILL...? RENEWED HEALTH INSURANCE?

* SERIOUSLY... BERNANKE IS EITHER INSANE... STUPID... OR JUST DOESN'T CARE THAT HE'S LYING AND THAT EVERYONE WITH A BRAIN KNOWS HE'S LYING.

“For banks which are mortgage originators this [QE3] was some of the best news they could possibly have heard,” said Steven Abrahams, mortgage strategist at Deutsche. “They will continue originating loans and selling them into the market at a significant premium.”

* UMM... YEAH... OBVIOUSLY!

“The banks are able to originate mortgages with these funds at prices well below the sale price in the secondary market,” said Dick Bove, bank analyst at Rochdale Securities. “Since the supply of new mortgages cannot meet demand until the origination facilities are rebuilt, the prices in the secondary market remain high [and] profits to the banks from mortgage originations soar.”

* YES... IT'S CALLED CRONY CAPITALISM! REGARDLESS OF HOW IT CONTRADICTS WHAT MANY WOULD LIKE TO BELIEVE, THE TRUTH IS... OBAMA IS FOR IT... ROMNEY (AT LEAST IN THIS CASE!) IS AGAINST IT!

* FOLKS... OBAMA REAPPOINTED BERNANKE; ROMNEY IS ON RECORD AS FAVORING BERNANKE'S OUSTER. THAT'S THE FACT!