Friday, April 26, 2013

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, April 26, 2013


Just because it's such a nice day!

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9 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/04/25/reps-challenge-dhs-ammo-buys-say-agency-using-1000-more-rounds-per-person-than/

Republican Rep. Jason Chaffetz said Thursday that the Department of Homeland Security is using roughly 1,000 rounds of ammunition more per person than the U.S. Army, as he and other lawmakers sharply questioned DHS officials on their "massive" bullet buys.

* AND HE SAYS THIS BASED UPON HOMELAND SECURITY'S OWN NUMBERS!

"It is entirely ... inexplicable why the Department of Homeland Security needs so much ammunition," Chaffetz, R-Utah, said at a hearing.

The hearing itself was unusual, as questions about the department's ammunition purchases until recently had bubbled largely under the radar - on blogs and in the occasional news article. But as the Department of Homeland Security found itself publicly defending the purchases, lawmakers gradually showed more interest in the issue.

Democratic Rep. John Tierney, D-Mass., at the opening of the hearing, ridiculed the concerns as "conspiracy theories" which have "no place" in the committee room.

* PAY NO ATTENTION TO THAT LITTLE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN... I... OZ... COMMAND YOU!

Chaffetz, who chairs one of the House oversight subcommittees holding the hearing Thursday, revealed that the department currently has more than 260 million rounds in stock. He said the department bought more than 103 million rounds in 2012 and used 116 million that same year - among roughly 70,000 agents. Comparing that with the small-arms purchases procured by the U.S. Army, he said the DHS is churning through between 1,300 and 1,600 rounds per officer, while the U.S. Army goes through roughly 350 rounds per soldier.

* DOES SOUND KINDA... ODD...

He noted that is "roughly 1,000 rounds more per person." "Their officers use what seems to be an exorbitant amount of ammunition," he said.

Nick Nayak, chief procurement officer for the Department of Homeland Security, did not challenge Chaffetz's numbers.

(*SHRUG*)

April 26, 2013 at 10:25 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2013-04-26/total-us-debt-gdp-105

Now that we have the first estimate of Q1 GDP growth in both rate of change and absolute current dollar terms ($16,010 billion), we can finally assign the appropriate debt number, which we know on a daily basis and which was $16,771.4 billion as of March 31, to the growth number.

The end result: as of March 31, 2013, the US debt/GDP was 104.8%, up from 103% as of December 31, 2012; or... a debt growth rate that would make the most insolvent Eurozone nation blush.

April 26, 2013 at 10:28 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.politico.com/story/2013/04/obamas-hubris-problem-90650.html?hp=l13

Tuesday morning, a peculiar announcement trickled out of the White House press office: President Barack Obama would be holding a moment of silence for the victims of the Boston bombings.

At the White House. By himself. No press or other intruders allowed.

(*DRUM ROLL*)

Except the White House photographer.

(*CYMBAL CRASH*)

That Obama assumed Americans would want an iconic photo of him privately mourning the victims of the bombings was emblematic of a kind of hubris that has enveloped the president and his White House as the president commences his second term.

(*NOD*)

Even as the nation’s workers wilted under a struggling economy and high unemployment, Obama decided to take two round excursions to Hawaii at taxpayer expense over the Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Just six weeks later, he jetted down to Florida for a luxury four-day golf vacation where he played with Tiger Woods. Meanwhile Michelle Obama also took another vacation, skiing in Colorado.

Even as the sequester began to force those who work for him in the federal government to take furloughs and government services were scaled back – including, famously, the White House tours – Obama stepped up his golf, roaring out of the White House in his motorcade three Saturdays in a row for the 50-minute round trip drive to the Joint Base Andrews course.

(*SHRUG*)

* BUT, HEY... IT'S NOT ALL BAD... LET'S GIVE THE PRESIDENT HIS DUE...

In a true Marie Antoinette moment, Obama offered to pare back his pay by five percent as a show of empathy for those being furloughed. At annual salary of $400,000, that would force him to get by on a meager $380,000, in addition to a couple of hundred thousand extra dollars he can probably expect to make this year from book sales.

* 18% FOLKS! THAT'S WHAT OBAMA'S "FAIR SHARE" WAS IN TERMS OF FEDERAL INCOME TAX ON HIS INCOME THIS PAST YEAR!

April 26, 2013 at 11:32 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_OBAMA_PLANNED_PARENTHOOD?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-04-26-11-37-33

President Barack Obama vowed Friday to join Planned Parenthood in fighting against what he called efforts around the country to turn women's health back to the 1950s.

* WHAT AN ASSHOLE.

* FOLKS... OBAMA'S POSITION ON ABORTION IS BEYOND SUPPORTING 3RD TERM ABORTION LEGALITY! AS A STATE LEGISLATOR HE VOTED AGAINST *AFTER* BIRTH PROTECTIONS FOR BABIES WHO SOMEHOW *SURVIVED" AN INITIAL ATTEMPT TO ABORT!

* FOLKS... MY PROBLEM WITH OBAMA ISN'T HIS POSITION PER SE - THOUGH OF COURSE I FIND IT REPREHENSIBLE. MY PROBLEM IS THAT OBAMA LIES ABOUT HIS OPPONENT'S GOALS AND LIES ABOUT HIS OWN BELIEFS WHEREVER AND WHENEVER IT SUITS HIM.

* FOLKS... WITHOUT HONESTY... HOW CAN YOU HAVE MEANINGFUL DEBATE... HOW CAN YOU HAVE MEANINGFUL DEMOCRACY?

April 26, 2013 at 12:36 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/04/26/buchanan-the-dark-side-of-diversity/

“I do not know the method of drawing up an indictment against a whole people,” said Edmund Burke of the rebellious Americans.

The same holds true of Islam, the majority faith of 49 nations from Morocco to Indonesia, a religion that 1.6 billion people profess.

Yet... some assertions appear true.

Islam is growing in militancy and intolerance, evolving again into a fighting faith, and spreading not only through proselytizing, but violence.

The Taliban blew up the Bamiyan Buddhas.

The Sufi shrines of Timbuktu were blown up by Ansar Dine.

In Saudi Arabia, Iran and Afghanistan, Christian converts face the death sentence.

In Nigeria, the Boko Haram attacks churches and kills Christians, as in Ethiopia and the Sudan, where the south seceded over the persecution.

Egyptian Copts are under siege.

Assyrian and Chaldean Christians in Iraq have seen churches pillaged, priests murdered.

In Indonesia, churches are being shut on the demand of Islamists.

Chechnya, Dagestan and Ingushetia are the sites of Islamist uprisings using terror to rip these statelets from Russia.

Muslim Uighurs are fighting to tear off a chunk of China and create an East Turkestan.

Muslim Malays in south Thailand have fought a decade-long war of secession.

Albania has acquired two sister Muslim states in Europe, Bosnia and Kosovo, both born in blood.

“Islam has bloody borders,” wrote the late Samuel Huntington. They are bloodier today.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

April 26, 2013 at 12:51 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

At the time of 9/11, al-Qaida seemed confined to Afghanistan. Al-Qaida may now be found in the Maghreb, Mali, Iraq and Yemen. Its Syrian auxiliary, the al-Nusra Front, is dominant in the anti-Assad rebellion.

Since Y2K, Islamists have perpetrated massacres in Mumbai, Madrid, London, Moscow, Beslan and Boston. Osama bin Laden appears no longer as popular as he once was, yet tens of millions worldwide still admire him. Why?

Islamism can also call upon true believers prepared to die for the cause. No other faith produces so many suicide bombers.

Jihadists are by no means a majority in the Islamic world, where they are also feared and hated. And in the West, they are but a fraction of our Muslim communities. The crisis: Even a tiny minority of terrorists like the Tsarnaevs can so inflame tensions between the West and the Muslim world they can bring our two civilizations into conflict.

What are the goals of the jihadists? Expulsion of Christians and infidels from the Dar al-Islam, the house of Islam. Expulsion of the American Crusaders. Overthrow of Muslim rulers who collude with the Great Satan. Annihilation of Israel. Infiltration of the homelands of a decadent, dying West. Death to all who insult the Prophet. Ultimate goal: Bring the world to acknowledge and act on the truth that there is no God but Allah and Muhammad is his Prophet.

And while the Islamic world remains far inferior in technology and manufacturing and military power, Muslim peoples are far more numerous and devout. With a fourth of mankind, their birth rate is higher and their numbers soaring, along with their militancy at home and in the diaspora.

In population and territory, the West is shrinking, while our Muslim minorities are growing and becoming more assertive in their demands.

How do we deal with this irreconcilable conflict between a secular West and a resurgent Islam? First, as it is our presence in their world that enrages so many, we should end our interventions, shut down the empire and let Muslim rulers deal with Muslim radicals. Second, we need a moratorium on immigration from the Islamic world. Inevitably, some of the young we bring in, like the Tsarnaevs, will yield to radicalization and seek to strike a blow for Islam against us.

* I DISAGREE WITH BUCHANAN ON THE LATTER, BUT DO BELIEVE THERE SHOULD BE ENHANCED SCREENING OF MUSLIMS.

What benefit do we derive as a people to justify the risks we take by opening up America to mass migration from a world aflame with hatred and hostility over race, ethnicity, culture, history and faith?

Why are we bringing all of the world’s quarrelsome minorities, and all the world’s quarrels with them, into our home?

What we saw in Boston was the dark side of diversity.

April 26, 2013 at 12:51 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/04/26/NYTimes-Confirms-Massive-Fraud-at-USDA-in-Pigford-Settlements-Breitbart-Vindicated

The New York Times reported Friday that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has likely enabled massive fraud in the Pigford series of legal settlements, in which black, Hispanic, female and Native American farmers have claimed to be victims of past discrimination.

* HEY... LET'S GO STRAIGHT TO THE HORSE'S MOUTH: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/26/us/farm-loan-bias-claims-often-unsupported-cost-us-millions.html?_r=0

* FOLKS... I'M ASKING YOU RIGHT NOW... CLICK ON THE ABOVE LINK... READ THE FULL NYT ARTICLE!

On the heels of the Supreme Court’s ruling, interviews and records show, the Obama administration’s political appointees at the Justice and Agriculture Departments engineered a stunning turnabout: they committed $1.33 billion to compensate not just the 91 plaintiffs but thousands of Hispanic and female farmers who had never claimed bias in court.

* "STUNNING TURNABOUT" IS THE TERM THE NYT DELIBERATE USES HERE; IF IT WERE THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION I'M GUESSING "COUP" OR A SIMILAR DESCRIPTIVE WOULD HAVE BEEN USED. (DOES ANYONE DISAGREE...??? CONFIDENTLY DISAGREE...???)

The deal, several current and former government officials said, was fashioned in White House meetings despite the vehement objections — until now undisclosed...

* UNDISCLOSED UNTIL NOW BECAUSE NEWSPAPERS LIKE THE NYT DIDN'T WANT TO BE IN A POSITION OF KNOWING THE TRUTH! (FOLKS... I'VE NEWSBITED ON THIS MATTER BEFORE... IT'S NOT LIKE THIS "NEW" INFO TELLS US ANYTHING WE COULDN'T HAVE CONFIDENTLY GUESSED.)

...of career lawyers and agency officials who had argued that there was no credible evidence of widespread discrimination.

* OBAMA DOESN'T CARE ABOUT WHAT'S TRUE AND WHAT ISN'T. HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT THE RULE OF LAW. TRUE... THESE SAME CRITIQUES CAN BE LEVELED AT MOST REPUBLICANS (AND AS REGULARS KNOW, THEY ARE HERE AT USUALLY RIGHT)... BUT OBAMA IS THE PRESIDENT.

What is more, some protested, the template for the deal — the $50,000 payouts to black farmers — had proved a magnet for fraud.

* OBAMA DOESN'T CARE ABOUT FRAUD. HE DOESN'T CARE ABOUT EFFECTIVENESS. (SEE: GREEN JOBS; GREEN INVESTMENT) INDEED, EXPANDING THE WELFARE STATE IS THE GOAL. SPENDING - EVEN WASTED SPENDING - ACHIEVES THE GOAL OF EXPANDING GOVERNMENT POWER AND DEPENDENCY UPON GOVERNMENT.

* FOLKS... THIS IS AN 8 PAGE NYT EXPOSE. PART OF THE REASON IT'S EIGHT PAGES IS SO THAT THE NYT CAN TRY TO BLUNT THE REALITY ITSELF REPORTS. READ THE ARTICLE. OBAMA IS A BAD GUY. HIS CRONIES ARE BAD PEOPLE. SEE FOR YOURSELVES.

April 26, 2013 at 1:06 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323335404578445021605046206.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

Fisker Automotive featured in a House hearing this week, as congressmen questioned how that luxury electric-car maker — now in financial straits — ever qualified for a $529 million federal loan guarantee.

* O*B*A*M*A!

The Obama Energy Department is facing some awkward questions — a la Solyndra — about what role politics played in granting that subsidy.

* NONSENSE. OBAMA HAS OVER THREE AND A HALF YEARS LEFT IN POWER. HARRY REID CONTROLS THE HOUSE. THAT INCOMPETENT RINO BOEHNER IS SPEAKER AND COME JANUARY 2015 I WON'T BE SURPRISED TO SEE BOEHNER AS HOUSE MINORITY LEADER. IN SHORT... IT DOESN'T MATTER WHAT OBAMA AND HIS ADMINISTRATION DO OR DON'T DO. THE PEOPLE HAVE SPOKEN. FULL SPEED AHEAD TO NATIONAL SUICIDE!

April 26, 2013 at 1:15 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/346689/diagnosing-dr-biden

Doctor Biden has joined Twitter as @DrBiden.

The account is “run by Dr. Jill Biden’s Office,” and it tells us absorbing things about Dr. Biden — things such as “Yesterday, Dr. Biden hosted an education roundtable” and “Yesterday, Dr. Biden honored the nation’s top teachers.”

It retweets praise, too: “Thank you Dr. Biden for your work as an educator and as a voice for all educators in our nation,” reads one tribute.

If a tweet is signed “Jill,” the doctoral bio informs us, this indicates that it is a “tweet from Dr. Biden.”

(“Jill,” if you’re wondering, is Dr. Biden’s nickname. Her formal name is “Dr.”)

Wherever she goes and whatever she does, Dr. Biden is always referred to as “Dr. Biden.”

“Is Joe Biden married to a physician?” wondered the Los Angeles Times in January. “You might have gotten that impression while watching television coverage of the inauguration.”

Dr. Biden isn’t a physician, of course. She has a doctorate – in “educational leadership,” whatever the hell that is.

Titles of nobility be damned; as a means of signaling that one is a person of general acceptability, an advanced degree now works wonders. No doubt many will look at the second lady’s splendid moniker and think, “Gosh, Dr. Biden must be smart! She is definitely not a mechanic.”

One can only wonder what Dr. Biden’s response would be to the urgent question “Is there a doctor in the house?!” Perhaps “Yes! Don’t worry, I’m here! I’m not too sure how to do a tracheotomy, though . . . ”

“The average Ph.D. thesis,” swiped the newspaper columnist J. Frank Dobie, “is nothing but a transference of bones from one graveyard to another.” Nobody who has read the average Ph.D. thesis could disagree. Nonetheless, there are more theses, more bones, and more graveyards than ever. By brazenly encouraging the education bubble and prioritizing the collection of trophy credentials, our elites are creating a steady stream of future Dr. Bidens.

Medical doctors are indisputably useful; perpetual liberal-arts students are quite the opposite.

* FOLKS... DON'T THINK THAT THE ARTICLE IS SIMPLY ONE HUGE SNARK TARGETING JILL BIDEN. IT'S NOT. IT RAISES LARGER POINTS AND COMES WITH SOME INTERESTING HISTORICAL CONTEXT. IT'S WORTH READING IN ITS ENTIRETY.

April 26, 2013 at 2:05 PM

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