Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, May 8, 2013


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William R. Barker said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_NUCLEAR_MISSTEPS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-05-08-03-13-34

The Air Force stripped an unprecedented 17 officers of their authority to control - and, if necessary, launch - nuclear missiles after a string of unpublicized failings, including a remarkably dim review of their unit's launch skills.

The group's deputy commander said it is suffering "rot" within its ranks.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

"We are, in fact, in a crisis right now," the commander, Lt. Col. Jay Folds, wrote in an internal email obtained by The Associated Press and confirmed by the Air Force.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

The tip-off to trouble was a March inspection of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., which earned the equivalent of a "D" grade when tested on its mastery of Minuteman III missile launch operations. In other areas, the officers tested much better, but the group's overall fitness was deemed so tenuous that senior officers at Minot decided, after probing further, that an immediate crackdown was called for.

The email obtained by the AP describes a culture of indifference, with at least one intentional violation of missile safety rules and an apparent unwillingness among some to challenge or report those who violate rules.

In addition to the 17, possible disciplinary action is pending against one other officer at Minot who investigators found had purposefully broken a missile safety rule in an unspecified act that could have compromised the secret codes that enable the launching of missiles, which stand on high alert in underground silos in the nation's midsection.

May 8, 2013 at 4:18 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/08/nyregion/city-fought-30-months-to-keep-e-mail-about-cathleen-black-secret.html

If you have lost three consecutive times in court on the same legal fight, with not a single judge giving you the time of day, and one of them saying that your main argument is “particularly specious,” what would you do?

If you’re the City of New York, it’s simple: file another brief with another court - and lose yet again.

* THIS IS WHAT CONTEMPT OF COURT CITATIONS ARE FOR!

Gallant to the end, city lawyers have marched into court, time and again, to resist the release of what every court said were public records - embarrassing e-mails about Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s proposed appointment of Cathleen P. Black, an executive from the publishing world, to the position of schools chancellor.

Ms. Black, the chairwoman of Hearst, had no experience in public education, and like her predecessor, Joel I. Klein, lacked the credentials legally required to serve in the position. Mr. Klein suddenly resigned in the fall of 2010, and Mr. Bloomberg immediately announced that he was putting Ms. Black into the position.

* BUT... BUT... BUT... "LACKED THE CREDENTIALS LEGALLY REQUIRED TO SERVE IN THE POSITION..."

“There was lots of controversy about how there had not been a public search for Joel Klein’s successor, so I was hoping that there was something in the e-mails that might shed light on the selection process,” said Sergio Hernandez, then a reporting intern for The Village Voice. So he filed a request for the records under the New York State Freedom of Information Law. At the time, Mr. Hernandez was 21 years old. Good thing he started young.

Last week, after a 30-month legal fight that could cost the city $100,000 in legal expenses, the e-mails were released.

They showed a mad scramble by Ms. Black, who was still the chairwoman at Hearst, and people in City Hall to line up powerful women to support her for chancellor. It was part of a campaign to win her a waiver she needed.

* A WAIVER...??? A WAIVER FROM THE LAW...???

* TO BE CONTINUED...

May 8, 2013 at 5:15 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

No one would mistake it for a grass-roots effort: an endorsement from Oprah Winfrey was brokered, and backing was sought from public figures like Diane von Furstenberg, Donna Karan, Evelyn Lauder and Whoopi Goldberg.

The correspondence read as if it might have been lifted from The Onion, the satirical newspaper. Had the Bloomberg administration really sought educational policy endorsements from what looked like the guest list of Studio 54 in about 1978? (For one hot moment, a blurb from Ivanka Trump was discussed with City Hall, possibly a concession to 21st-century celebrity, but that was vetoed. Her father — and if you don’t know who he is, good for you — has opined that passing up Ms. Trump might have doomed the Black chancellorship. Historians will have to sort out the what-ifs.)

Most remarkably, as Mr. Hernandez has pointed out, Ms. Black, who won the waiver she and Mr. Bloomberg sought, served only 95 days before she was forced out. The dispute over these e-mails has lasted nearly 10 times as long as her chancellorship.

That is typical of how New York City handles requests under the Freedom of Information Law; a credible study by Bill de Blasio, the city public advocate, of 10,000 such requests found that most city agencies failed to answer within the time limits specified in the law. About 10% of requests were ignored outright.

* AND YET NO ONE GOES TO JAIL... NO ONE EVEN LOSES HIS OR HER JOB...

Once the city goes into a stall, the only alternative is the courthouse. Through a colleague, Mr. Hernandez learned about a legal clinic at the Yale Law School that worked on such cases. Besides work done by the law students, the clinic arranged for Elizabeth Wolstein and Raffi Melkonian of Schlam Stone & Dolan to oversee the case. Justice Alice Schlesinger of State Supreme Court in Manhattan ruled emphatically in favor of Mr. Hernandez, rejecting all the city’s arguments.

Along the way, Mr. Hernandez, who is now 24 and describes himself on his blog, cerealcommas.com, as a “harsh-mannered reporter and professional troublemaker,” learned that the city had spent $25,000 through November litigating his case.

Another $2,500 has been expended since then.

The city will almost certainly have to pay fees, most likely much higher, to the firm that represented Mr. Hernandez.

I asked representatives of Mr. Bloomberg and Michael A. Cardozo, the city’s chief lawyer, how much the city had spent in trying to keep secret the public information in this and a number of other cases it had lost. A day later, Mr. Cardozo’s spokeswoman suggested filing a Freedom of Information request.

Was there some principle at stake in keeping even those basic facts secret?

No reply.

Perhaps a Freedom of Information request might get the answer.

More likely, though, the search for a hint of principle could go on for years and still come up empty.

* THIS... IS... BLOOMBERG.

May 8, 2013 at 5:16 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887324744104578471402725720678.html?mod=WSJ_hps_LEFTTopStories

A federal regulator, concerned about the growing number of college graduates unable to repay their student debt, outlined a set of options to reduce their burdens by refinancing or restructuring their loans.

* WHY SHOULD WE "REDUCE THEIR BURDENS?" DID ANYONE PUT A GUN TO THEIR HEADS AND FORCE THEM TO SIGN THE LOAN AGREEMENTS? I PAID OFF MY STUDENT LOANS. MY DAUGHTER IS PAYING OFF HER STUDENT LOANS. PERHAPS THE PROBLEM IS THE LOANS THEMSELVES... THAT THEY SHOULDN'T HAVE BEEN GIVEN IN THE FIRST PLACE... THAT PEOPLE NEED TO LIVE WITHIN THEIR MEANS!

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau's options, released in a report, aren't binding on the student loan industry. But they are an effort by the new regulator to prod student lenders, other regulators and potentially lawmakers on Capitol Hill to tackle what CFPB officials see as a growing economic threat from students unable to repay their debts.

* B*A*I*L*O*U*T*S...

* FOLKS... YOU KNOW THAT THIS IS WHAT THEY'RE GETTING READY TO DO. THEY'VE CREATED YET ANOTHER UNSUSTAINABLE BUBBLE WITH U.S. TAXPAYERS THE ULTIMATE FALL GUYS.

Lawmakers are focusing on the student-loan issue as interest rates on federal loans are set to double this summer. On Wednesday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) introduced a bill that would allow students who get federal loans to get the same rate big banks get from the Federal Reserve's discount window, meaning a reduction in rates to below 1%.

* NO! (GEEZUS... CAN YOU IMAGINE THE INFLATIONARY EFFECT OF THAT! COLLEGES WILL TAKE ADVANTAGE OF STUDENTS' ABILITY TO GET CHEAP LOANS BY UPPING TUITION, FEES, ROOM & BOARD, ETC., EVEN BEYOND RECENT INCREASES!)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

May 8, 2013 at 6:59 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Richard Cordray, the CFPB's director, said many college graduates are left paying unfairly high interest rates on their loans because they apply for the loans before they graduate and don't have much of a financial history.

* "UNFAIRLY...?!?!" INTEREST RATES ARE SUPPOSED TO BE PART OF THE SEE-SAW OF A PROPERLY OPERATING ECNOMY! THEY'RE SUPPOSED TO DISCOURAGE UNSAFE CREDIT... DISCOURAGE BUBBLES... DISCOURAGE THE PROBABILITY OF TAXPAYER BAILOUTS BECOMING NECESSARY!

* LISTEN... STUDENT LOANS SHOULD BE FIXED... EACH YEAR'S LOAN SHOULD HAVE A FIXED INTEREST RATE. IF THIS WERE THE WAY IT WORKED THEN FOR MOST STUDENTS THEIR FRESHMAN INTEREST RATES WOULD BE EITHER GO UP - OR DOWN - IN SUBSEQUENT YEARS AS THE LOANEE DEMONSTRATED SERIOUSNESS OR IRRESPONSIBILITY! IN OTHER WORDS, THE INTEREST RATES WOULD SERVE THEIR PURPOSE - TO ENCOURAGE "SMART" INVESTMENT AND DISCOURAGE "DUMB" INVESTMENT!

Refinancing of private loans is often available only to graduates with the best credit, and few companies offer private loan-consolidation programs.

* FOLKS... IT'S THIS CONSTANT "REFINANCING" THAT IS THE PROBLEM! THE BANKS CAN'T COUNT ON STABLE RETURNS BASED UPON LONG-TERM CONTRACTS BECAUSE CONTRACTS RENEGOTIATED HAVE CEASED TO BE LONG-TERM!

The report also floated the idea of a new mechanism to spur refinancing. "If further study determines that lack of access to affordable capital is a major impediment to the development of a refinance market, lawmakers could potentially authorize relevant agencies to facilitate the program," the report said.

* GEEZUS, FOLKS... HOW DO YOU SUPPOSE FREDDIE MAC AND FANNIE MAE CAME INTO BEING...?!?! HOW'D THAT WORK OUT...?!?!

Several lenders say they are already acting to help borrowers. Earlier this year Sallie Mae began accepting applications for loans that allow recent college graduates to make interest-only payments for a year instead of paying both interest and principal.

* HOW'S THIS HELP...?!?! IF ANYTHING IT SOUNDS LIKE PREDATORY LENDING... LIKE THOSE INFAMOUS FIVE-YEAR FIXED LOANS AT LOW INTEREST AND STARTING IN YEAR SIX... BOOM...!!!

And Discover Financial Services said it won't charge borrowers with new student loans a penalty when they pay their bills late or their loan payment is returned.

* AND WILL DISCOVER FINANCIAL SERVICE THEN "WRITE OFF" THE PENALTIES "FORGIVEN?" (THUS PASSING THE COST ON TO TAXPAYERS!)

May 8, 2013 at 7:00 PM

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