Sunday, February 24, 2013

Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., Feb. 23 & 24, 2013


So... the good news:

Got yet another extension of our "trial" SirusXM subscriptions - $37.01 for an additional six months!

(That's for BOTH cars... a TOTAL of $37.01 covers BOTH cars thru August!)

The bad news...???

No military coup to restore the Constitution.

(*SIGH*)

Enjoy this weekend's newsbites, folks; found within the comments section as always!

4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/22/nasa-missile-defense-tech-leaked-to-china-sources-say/?test=latestnews

A four-year FBI investigation into the transfer of classified weapons technology to China and other countries from NASA’s Ames Research Center is being stonewalled by government officials, sources tell FoxNews.com.

* FOLKS... ANYONE WHO DOESN'T "LIKE" FOXNEWS... GOOGLE THE STORY. SEE WHAT OTHER NEWS OUTLETS YOUR RESPECT ARE REPORTING.

Documents obtained by FoxNews.com, which summarize these and other allegations and were given to congressional sources last week by a whistle-blower, described how a “secret grand jury” was to be convened in February 2011 to hear testimony from informants in the case, including a senior NASA engineer. But federal prosecutor Gary Fry was removed from the case, which was then transferred from one office in the Northern District of California to another where, according to the documents, “this case now appears to be stalled.”

“The information is staggering,” the whistle-blower told FoxNews.com.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

The claims originate with several past and current NASA employees concerned with the systemic leak of highly sensitive information relating to missile defense systems, as well as what they call a troubled investigation into the leak.

The documents claim the FBI has been working with other agencies since 2009 on an investigation into foreign nationals working at Ames. This follows allegations by two Republican lawmakers earlier this month that the U.S. attorney’s office in the Northern California district was ultimately denied by the Justice Department when it tried to proceed with indictments.

* SOUNDS LIKE THE HOLDER "JUSTICE" DEPARTMENT... (*SHRUG*)

* ANYWAY... READ THE FULL STORY... DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH... BUT IT SOUNDS MORE THAN PLAUSIBLE TO ME.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/soda_ban_to_sap_your_4t5pEK0hvo3PoNZEBOdZ2L

* JUST... JUST... JUST...

(*PAUSE*)

(*SILENCE*)

* READ IT...

William R. Barker said...

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2013-02-22/news/fl-doctor-shortage-medicaid-expansion-if-florida-20130222_1_medicaid-expansion-new-medicaid-patients-florida-medical-association

TALLAHASSEE, FL. -- Brace yourself for longer lines at the doctor's office.

Whether you're employed and insured, elderly and on Medicare, or poor and covered by Medicaid, the Florida Medical Association says there's a growing shortage of doctors — especially specialists — available to provide you with medical care.

And if the Florida Legislature goes along with Gov. Rick Scott's recommendation to offer Medicaid coverage to an additional 1 million Floridians — part of [ObamaCare] that takes effect next January — the FMA says that shortage will only get worse.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/bob-woodward-obamas-sequester-deal-changer/2013/02/22/c0b65b5e-7ce1-11e2-9a75-dab0201670da_print.html

Misunderstanding, misstatements and all the classic contortions of partisan message management surround the sequester, the term for the $85 billion in ugly and largely irrational federal spending cuts set by law to begin Friday.

* LIES... WE'RE TALKING LIES...

What is the non-budget wonk to make of this? Who is responsible? What really happened?

The finger-pointing began during the third presidential debate last fall, on Oct. 22, when President Obama blamed Congress. “The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed,” Obama said. “It is something that Congress has proposed.”

* LIAR...

(*SIGH*)

My extensive reporting...

* THE "MY" REFERS TO THIS ARTICLE'S AUTHOR, BOB WOODWARD...

...for my book “The Price of Politics” shows that the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House and were the brainchild of Jack Lew and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors — probably the foremost experts on budget issues in the senior ranks of the federal government.

* OBAMA LIED. LEW DOUBLED DOWN.

Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved.

A majority of Republicans did vote for the Budget Control Act that summer, which included the sequester. Key Republican staffers said they didn’t even initially know what a sequester was — because the concept stemmed from the budget wars of the 1980s, when they were not in government.

* REPUBLICANS SUCK TOO. (*SHRUG*) WHAT'S THIS HAVE TO DO WITH THE POINT OF THE ARTICLE? OBAMA IS THE PRESIDENT AND HE FLAT OUT LIED... WHICH IS STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE FOR HIM.

On Tuesday, Obama appeared at the White House with a group of police officers and firefighters to denounce the sequester as a “meat-cleaver approach” that would jeopardize military readiness and investments in education, energy and readiness. He also said it would cost jobs. But, the president said, the substitute would have to include new revenue through tax reform.

At noon that same day, White House press secretary Jay Carney shifted position and accepted sequester paternity.

“The sequester was something that was discussed,” Carney said. Walking back the earlier statements, he added carefully, “and as has been reported, it was an idea that the White House put forward.”

This was an acknowledgment that the president and Lew had been wrong.

Why does this matter?

First, months of White House dissembling further eroded any semblance of trust between Obama and congressional Republicans. (The Republicans are by no means blameless and have had their own episodes of denial and bald-faced message management.)

Second, Lew testified during his confirmation hearing that the Republicans would not go along with new revenue in the portion of the deficit-reduction plan that became the sequester. Reinforcing Lew’s point, a senior White House official said Friday, “The sequester was an option we were forced to take because the Republicans would not do tax increases.”

In fact, the final deal reached between Vice President Biden and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in 2011 included an agreement that there would be no tax increases in the sequester in exchange for what the president was insisting on: an agreement that the nation’s debt ceiling would be increased for 18 months, so Obama would not have to go through another such negotiation in 2012, when he was running for reelection.

So when the president asks that a substitute for the sequester include not just spending cuts but also new revenue, he is moving the goal posts.

His call for a balanced approach [may sound] reasonable, and he makes a strong case that those in the top income brackets could and should pay more. But that was not the deal he made.