Saturday, December 8, 2012

Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Dec. 8 & 9, 2012


One of my favorites... no doubt you've heard it before... but have you ever heard the "B" side of this classic 45 rpm?

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11 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/335141/royal-presidency-mark-steyn

* PLEASE READ THIS.

* FIRST... IT'S BY MARK STEYN; THAT ALONE MAKES IT WORTH READING.

* SECOND... IT APPLIES NOT JUST TO OBAMA (THOUGH IT DOES APPLY ESPECIALLY TO OBAMA), BUT TO ALL AMERICAN PRESIDENTS AND OUR POLITICAL LEADERS IN GENERAL.

* THIRD... WHILE YOU'LL LAUGH... AND DEFINITELY SMIRK... IF YOU AREN'T TOTALLY JADED YOU'LL ALSO FIND YOUR EYES WELLING UP JUST A BIT BY THE TIME YOU REACH THE END OF THE PIECE. WE REALLY HAVE FUCKED UP THIS COUNTRY SOMETHING FIERCE, FOLKS.

December 8, 2012 at 9:53 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/12/08/fiscal-cliff-is-latest-symptom-of-unfair-redistricting.html

* HERE'S ANOTHER ONE I REALLY WANT YOU FOLKS TO READ! IT'S ACTUALLY A PIECE FROM THE DAILY BEAST AND IT COMES OUT OF A DEMOCRATIC PARTISAN PERSPECTIVE.

* OR DOES IT...???

* I SHARE THE AUTHOR'S MAIN POINT AND I ALWAYS HAVE!

* WHERE THE AUTHOR AND I DIFFER IS THAT HE SOUNDS AS IF HE'D LIKE A MORE "PARLIMENTARY" SYSTEM... A SYSTEM MORE IN LINE WITH PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. ME? I WANT REASONABLY DRAWN (COMPUTER DRAWN) DISTRICTS THAT ARE AS "SQUARE" AS POSSIBLE (IN A JIGSAW PUZZLE SENSE... THAT FIT TOGETHER TAKING ACCOUNT OF POPULATION REQUIREMENTS OF COURSE) AND THAT HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH RACE OR INCUMBENT PROTECTION.

December 8, 2012 at 10:34 AM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-illegal-immigrant-kidney-transplant-20121209,0,3537821.story

As an illegal immigrant, Jorge Mariscal waited eight years for a kidney transplant he feared would never come.

His persistence paid off Thursday when he underwent the procedure at Loyola University Medical Center.

(*SPEECHLESS*)

After years of uncertainties, Mariscal said he's excited about his future and grateful for the help he received. But he remains frustrated with a health care system that he worries might leave out an untold number of illegal immigrants in need of lifesaving treatments.

(*BEYOND SPEECHLESS*)

"Why can't we be treated the same?" he asked while sitting in his hospital room. "Health care should be a human right, not a privilege. At least give us the chance to fight for our lives with dignity."

* AT THE RISK OF STROKING OUT I'M GONNA CONTINUE READING THIS...

Mariscal's treatment is far from over. The pills he'll need to make sure his body doesn't reject the new organ can cost upward of $10,000 a year for the rest of his life. And paying for those, just like the surgery, is complicated by his immigration status.

* HIS STATUS IS I*L*L*E*G*A*L...!!!

Although Loyola agreed to cover the costs of the transplant...

* FOLKS... LOYOLA RECEIVES TAXPAYER SUBSIDIES.

...Mariscal will have to pay for the medicine.

* WHY... IS... HE... IN... OUR... COUNTRY...???

He applied for a grant through the Simon Bolivar Foundation, a medical non-profit, that would help cover his first year of anti-rejection pills. But without health insurance, he expects he'll have to pay for most of his medication.

* YEAH... RIGHT... LIKE THAT'S GONNA HAPPEN....

* TO BE CONTINUED...

December 8, 2012 at 1:20 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

To get a head start on his future medical bills, Mariscal started raising money three years ago. Together with Our Lady of Guadalupe Mission in Little Village, he has raised thousands of dollars through benefit concerts and other events.

The Rev. Jose Landaverde, pastor of the mission, said he felt compelled by the Gospel to help Mariscal after hearing his story. "Jorge is a lot of hope for the community," he said. "I believe that the Gospel moves us to be in solidarity with one another."

* IS THIS REV. LANDAVERDE A CITIZEN...? A LEGAL RESIDENT...? (HEY... YA NEVER KNOW IN AMERICA 2012 - THE AGE OF OBAMA!)

Aside from his help with fundraising, Landaverde organized a 21-day hunger strike in June against hospitals that denied transplants to patients because of their undocumented status.

* GOOD FOR HIM! BUT I'M STILL LEFT WONDERING... WHY IS MARISCAL IN OUR COUNTRY...?!?! WHY HAS HE NOT BEEN DEPORTED...?!?!

Landaverde said that after the strike, in addition to Mariscal's treatment at Loyola, the University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center agreed to evaluate Lorenzo Arroyo, another illegal immigrant, for a possible liver transplant.

* IT'S OVER, FOLKS...

Mariscal moved from Mexico to the U.S. when he was 1 year old. Now as a 24-year-old graphic-design student, he considers it his home.

* ENTERPRISING ONE YEAR OLD, HUH?! (*SMIRK*)

* FOLKS... IN ALL SERIOUSNESS, YES, THIS DOES CHANGE MY ATTITUDE A BIT... I'M NOT NEARLY AS OUTRAGED... I'M EVEN SYMPATHETIC... BUT TAXPAYER MONIES GOING TOWARDS THIS...??? LET RICH LIBS PAY FOR THIS! OBAMA'S A MULTI-MILLIONAIRE - LET HIM PAY FOR IT!

* AND, YEAH... IN A CASE LIKE THIS I WOULDN'T DEPORT MARISCAL. I'D LET HIM STAY. BUT HOW'BOUT IF HE WAS BROUGHT HERE AT 16 YEARS OLD INSTEAD OF AT 1 YEAR OLD...? MY POINT? WE NEED TO CREATE SOME SORT OF REASONABLE LEGAL FRAMEWORK WHERE PEOPLE WHO CAME HERE - OR WERE BROUGHT HERE - IN VIOLATION OF OUR LAWS DON'T GET TREATED "BETTER" THAN PERSPECTIVE IMMIGRANTS WHO ARE FOLLOWING ALL THE RULES AND WAITING THEIR TURNS!

Mariscal says he nearly returned to Mexico after doctors said he wouldn't be able to receive a kidney transplant in the U.S. because he is undocumented.

* FINE WITH ME!

Mariscal's mother, Sonia Lopez, is equally excited about her son's recovery — and her own. She gave one of her kidneys to her son. Transplant surgeon Amy Lu said both mother and son are doing well and that the kidney is functioning.

* FINE. HEARTWARMING! NOW DEPORT HER!

December 8, 2012 at 1:20 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/david-ignatius-mohamed-morsi-our-man-in-cairo/2012/12/07/14bb707e-409f-11e2-bca3-aadc9b7e29c5_story.html

* BY DAVID IGNATIUS

How did Washington become the best friend of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, even as President Mohamed Morsi was asserting dictatorial powers and his followers were beating up secular liberals in the streets of Cairo?

* SIX WORDS: BARACK-HUSSEIN-OBAMA-HILLARY-RODHAM-CLINTON.

The Obama administration has been Morsi’s main enabler. U.S. officials have worked closely with him on economic development...

* MEANING FORGIVING DEBTS... GIVING HIM MONEY...

(*SIGH*)

Visiting Washington last week, Morsi’s top aides were touting their boss’s close contacts with President Obama and describing phone calls between the two leaders that led to the Gaza cease-fire.

* A "CEASE FIRE" IN RESPONSE TO A "FIRE" FIRST TACITLY "ALLOWED" BY MORSI!

Probably thinking he had America’s backing, Morsi overreached on Nov. 22 by declaring that his presidential decrees were not subject to judicial review. His followers claim that he was trying to protect Egypt’s revolution from judges appointed by Hosni Mubarak. But that rationale has worn thin as members of Morsi’s government resigned in protest, thousands of demonstrators took the streets and, ominously, Muslim Brotherhood supporters began counterattacking with rocks, clubs and metal pipes.

Through this upheaval, the Obama administration has been oddly "restrained."

After the power grab, State Department spokesman Victoria Nuland said: “We call for calm and encourage all parties to work together and call for all Egyptians to resolve their differences over these important issues peacefully and through democratic dialogue.”

(Not exactly a thundering denunciation.)

“You need to explain to me why the U.S. reaction to Morsi’s behavior is so muted,” one Arab official wrote me. “So a Muslim Brotherhood leader becomes president of Egypt. He then swoops in with the most daring usurping of presidential powers since the Pharaohs, enough to make Mubarak look like a minor-league autocrat in training by comparison, and the only response... the Obama administration] can put out is Nuland’s statement.”

[I]t’s crazy for Washington to appear to take sides against those who want a liberal, tolerant Egypt and for those who favor Sharia. Somehow, that’s where the administration has ended up.

For a lesson in the dangers of falling in love with your client, look at Iraq: U.S. officials, starting with President George W. Bush and Gen. David Petraeus, kept lauding Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, despite warnings from many Iraqis that he was a conspiratorial politician who would end up siding with Iran. This misplaced affection continued into the Obama administration: Even after the Iraqi people in their wisdom voted in 2010 to dump Maliki, the United States helped him cobble together enough support to remain in power.

(Arab observers are still scratching their heads trying to understand that one.)

When assessing the turbulent events in the Arab world, we should remind ourselves that we’re witnessing a revolution that may take decades to produce a stable outcome. With the outcome so hard to predict, it’s a mistake to make big bets on any particular player. The U.S. role should be to support the broad movement for change and economic development and to keep lines open to whatever democratic governments emerge.

America will help the Arab world through this turmoil if it states clearly that U.S. policy is guided by its interests and values, not by transient alliances and friendships.

December 9, 2012 at 11:12 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/09/opinion/sunday/kristof-profiting-from-a-childs-illiteracy.html?pagewanted=1&ref=opinion

* READ IT AND WEEP... LITERALLY.

December 9, 2012 at 11:31 AM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.cnn.com/2012/12/06/opinion/bennett-student-debt/index.html?hpt=op_t1

A college degree was once synonymous with academic excellence and workforce readiness. Today, it seems synonymous with debt and underemployment.

Last week, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported that student loan debt increased to $956 billion, more than auto loan debt or credit card debt.

More worrisome, the student loan 90-day delinquency rate increased to 11% this past quarter and for the first time exceeds the "serious delinquency" rate for credit card debt.

Student loan debt is reaching bubble-bursting levels. By comparison, in October 2007, the start of the subprime mortgage crisis, 16% of subprime mortgages were 90 days delinquent...

(*PURSED LIPS*)

If the economy heads off the fast-approaching fiscal cliff and tax rates spike for lower- and middle-class Americans, it may accelerate student loan defaults to crisis levels. In September, Pew Research Center reported that a record one-in-five households owe student loan debt. The average student loan debt in 2011 was $23,300. So 20- and 30-year-olds buried under student loan debt are forced to put off other purchases crucial to the health of the economy, like buying a car or home or investing in the markets. Many are moving back in with their parents and delaying marriage and starting a family, two of the most vital building blocks to a healthy and prosperous economy. Valuable human capital is withering before it can even set its roots.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

December 9, 2012 at 12:12 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

The problem now rests in the hands, and wallets, of taxpayers. In 2010, the federal government consolidated its power in the student loan industry so it could eliminate private middlemen and directly issue and guarantee loans. By 2011-12, the federal government issued 93% of all student loans.

* NAH... NO SOCIALISM HERE...

(*SNORT*)

By nature, student loans are inherently risky. Students have hardly any credit worthiness. But the government is making a bad situation even worse.

* THE USUAL SCENARIO!

Federal lenders are notoriously lax. For example, they don't distinguish between loans to students pursuing highly employable fields such as health and education, and students pursuing majors that have a high unemployment rate, like architecture and arts. And yet, the federal government continues to flood the higher education market with more loans. In 2010, the Department of Education distributed $133 billion in student aid. In 2011, it was nearly $157 billion, a 17% increase.

* OH... AND...

[T]hese increased subsidies have not curtailed student loan debt or tuition costs.

* NO... OF COURSE NOT! JUST THE OPPOSITE - THEY'VE SPURRED TUITION COSTS AND THUS DEBT ASSUMPTION!

What's driving this debt crisis is a vicious cycle of bad lending policies eerily similar to the causes of the subprime mortgage crisis. Over the past 50 years, it has become conventional wisdom that everyone should go to college. High school guidance counselors and college admissions offices preach it, parents believe it and politicians cater to it. With near-universal demand and parents willing to pay or borrow almost anything to get their son or daughter through college, colleges and universities can drive up their prices. When tuition prices rise, the government subsidizes the difference by increasing federal loans. But these easy loans, many of which are increasingly going to middle-class students, only increase the price ceiling that colleges can charge, thus completing, or starting, the cycle.

Of course, these aren't the only problems in today's higher education financial crisis. Many colleges and universities are failing at their most basic responsibility: education.

(*NOD*)

Students are graduating ill-equipped for the needs of the modern workforce.

* THAT IS... IF THEY'RE EVEN GRADUATING!

More than half of all college graduates in 2010-11 were unemployed or dramatically underemployed.

Many employers rate college graduates today as unprepared or only somewhat prepared for the job.

* OH, YEAH... AND RESULTS LIKE THIS ARE CERTAINLY WORTH SUBSIDIZING TO THE TUNE OF $956 BILLION ALREADY WHILE ADDING AN ADDITIONAL $133 IN NEW LOANS EACH YEAR... AND OF COURSE THIS IS ONLY "LOAN" SUBSIDIZATION - NOT DIRECT SUBSIDIES!

* WE... ARE... SO... FUCKED...

December 9, 2012 at 12:12 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://washingtonexaminer.com/examiner-editorial-the-young-and-the-jobless/article/2515355#.UMTKAqxmPFx

* TO REITERATE:

The number of Americans reporting they had jobs actually fell by 122,000 last month.

The only reason the unemployment rate fell is that more than 350,000 Americans left the labor force entirely.

If the labor participation rate was the same today as it was when Obama was sworn into office, the official jobless rate would be 10.7%, notes the American Enterprise Institute's James Pethokoukis.

Those are not signs of a healthy economy.

For men 20 and over, the labor participation rate has fallen from 75.2% when Obama took office to 73.2% today.

For women 20 and over, it went from 60.4% to 58.4% today.

Those are not signs of a healthy economy.

The Obama "recovery"...has been one long period of young people simply giving up on finding a job in the first place.

* ON THE OTHER HAND...

Dig deeper into the Bureau of Labor Statistics data and you'll see that the number of employed Americans over age 55 actually grew by 177,000. Since President Obama took office, the 55-to-69-year-old worker cohort has grown by 4 million, while all other age groups have fallen by a combined 3 million.

* ANYONE CARE TO PUT ON HIS OR HER "THINKING CAP" AND HAZARD A GUESS AS TO WHY THIS IS...?

* YEP... THAT'S RIGHT... RETIREES AND ONCE UPON A TIME STAY AT HOME SPOUSES HAVING TO TAKE LOW-WAGE JOBS IN ORDER TO KEEP FAMILIES AFLOAT THAT WERE ONCE STABLE WITH A SINGLE WAGE-EARNER OR RETIREMENT INCOME STREAM.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* AGAIN...

Those are not signs of a healthy economy.

The outlook for the economy expanding isn't getting any brighter either. The Wells Fargo/Gallup small-business survey released Thursday found that small businesses expected to shed on average four jobs over the next year. This was the worst the survey had seen since the depths of the recession in 2008 and '09.

December 9, 2012 at 12:37 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://dailycaller.com/2012/12/09/food-stamp-use-reaches-another-high-in-september-47-7-million-participants/

Food stamp use reaches another high in September: 47.7 million participants

(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)

The most recent data on SNAP participation were released Friday, and showed that 47,710,324 people were enrolled in the program in September, an increase of 607,559 from the 47,102,765 enrolled in August.

* SO... OVER HALF A MILLION PEOPLE ADDED TO THE FOOD STAMP ROLES IN ONE SINGLE MONTH...

(*CLAP...CLAP....CLAP*)

The new numbers mean that an estimated one in 6.5 people in America were on food stamps in September.

* HEAR! HEAR! BRAVO...! ENCORE...! (AND NO DOUBT WE'LL GET THAT ENCORE WHEN THE NEWEST STATS ARE RELEASED YET AGAIN NEXT MONTH!)

December 9, 2012 at 11:09 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.10tv.com/content/stories/2012/12/08/columbus-apartment-application-crowd-loses-control.html

Columbus, OH. police sprayed Mace on several people in a crowd that had gathered to sign up for a list to get subsidized housing at a northwest Columbus apartment complex.

Police said the crowd started to gather Friday night for the Saturday morning event at The Heritage apartment complex on Gatewood Road near Sunbury Road in northeast Columbus. Authorities said that its highest number, the crowd reached 2,000 people.

* OVER... TWO... THOUSAND... PEOPLE...

* WHILE THE PRESS FOCUS IS ON THE BEHAVIOR OF THOSE ON LINE... (*PAUSE*)... I WONDER... (*PAUSE*)... WHY ARE WE SUBSIDIZING THE HOUSING OF THESE PEOPLE...? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE...?

* JUST THROWING IT OUT THERE FOLKS...

(*SHRUG*)

December 9, 2012 at 11:14 PM

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