Saturday, June 1, 2013

Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., June 1 & 2, 2013


Here... enjoy a song!

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9 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.bet.com/news/national/2013/05/31/gun-violence-rocks-chicago-as-8-are-shot-in-one-day.html

The level of gun violence in Chicago, which has caused shock waves nationally, is continuing with eight people having been shot in the nation’s third largest city in a 24-hour period that ended Friday morning, including one that ended with the death of a 15-year-old boy.

* LISTEN... IT'S CHICAGO... A DEMOCRAT-CONTROLLED CITY... RAHM FRIGGIN' EMANUEL MAYOR...

Chicago’s murder rate is widely considered to be fueled by the drug wars that are fought between the city’s network of gangs.
* WHITE GANGS! WHITE GANGS FROM THE SUBURBS! BASTARDS...!!!

(*SMIRK*)

And in 2012, the number of murders climbed, with homicides increasing by 16% over the previous year.

* AND REMEMBER, FOLKS... THERE WERE NO GUNS IN CHICAGO IN 2011... THE WHITE GANGS MUST HAVE BROUGHT THE GUNS IN THIS YEAR!

(*RUEFUL GRIN*)

The homicide rate has been largely confined to the city’s south and west areas, African-American bastions of Chicago.

* DAMN THOSE WHITE SUBURBAN GANGS HAVE BALL, HUH?!

* NOTE: THE EXTREME SARCASM IS AN "INSIDE JOKE" DIRECTED AT "HE WHOSE NAME DARE NOT BE MENTIONED."

June 1, 2013 at 2:21 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2013/05/feds-suggest-antimuslim-speech-can-be-punished-165163.html

A U.S. attorney in Tennessee is reportedly vowing to use federal civil rights statutes to clamp down on "offensive and inflammatory" speech about Islam.

* FOLKS... (*SIGH*)... A U.S. ATTORNEY...??? RESPONSIBLE TO HOLDER AND ULTIMATELY OBAMA... (*PURSED LIPS*)

* FOLKS... THEY DON'T EVEN BOTHER TO TRY AND HIDE THEIR CONTEMPT FOR THE CONSTITUTION AND OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS!

* FOLKS... IN ALL SERIOUSNESS... ARM YOURSELVES. STOCKPILE AMMO. LEARN HOW TO USE FIREARMS SAFELY AND EFFECTIVELY. THIS STUFF AIN'T SLOWING... IT AIN'T STOPPING... AND BEFORE TOO LONG...

(*SHRUG*)

Bill Killian, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, was quoted by the Tullahoma News this week suggesting that some inflammatory material on Islam might run afoul of federal civil rights laws.

* KILLIAN SHOULD BE SACKED. IMMEDIATELY.

"We need to educate people about Muslims and their civil rights..."

* MUSLIMS - JUST AS NON-MUSLIMS DO - HAVE CIVIL RIGHTS WHICH THEY LEARN ABOUT IN SCHOOL AND HAVE EVERY RIGHT TO INDEPENDENTLY STUDY ON THEIR OWN. THIS KILLIAN IS OBVIOUSLY CONFUSING HIMSELF WITH A TEACHER!

Killian, along with the FBI special agent that runs the Knoxville office, are set to speak next week to a special meeting with the local Muslim community, informing them about their rights under federal law.

* IMAGINE... THIS FBI... THE HOLDER/OBAMA FBI... TEACHING ANYONE ABOUT THEIR RIGHTS! GEEZUS... WHAT A SICK JOKE!

Killian pointed to a recent controversy where a local Tennessee politician posted a photo of a man aiming a shotgun at the camera with the caption "How to wink at a Muslim."

* FIRST AMENDMENT!

"If a Muslim had posted ‘How to Wink at a Christian,’ could you imagine what would have happened?" Killian asked, according to the newspaper.

* FIRST AMENDMENT!

The Department of Justice did not respond Friday to a question about what guidelines it draws concerning offensive speech and Islam, or whether the department believes that civil rights statutes could be used to stifle criticism of Islam.

* SCUMBAGS...

While threats directed at individuals or small groups can lead to punishment, First Amendment experts expressed doubt that the government has any power to stop offensive material about Islam from circulating.

* EXPRESSED "DOUBT...???" WHAT DOUBT...?!?! READ THE FUCKING FIRST AMENDMENT!!!

"He’s just wrong," said Floyd Abrams, one of the country's most respected First Amendment attorneys. "The government may, indeed, play a useful and entirely constitutional role in urging people not to engage in speech that amounts to religious discrimination. But it may not, under the First Amendment, prevent or punish speech even if it may be viewed as hostile to a religion."

* AGAIN... THIS KILLIAN CLOWN NEEDS TO BE IMMEDIATELY CANNED!

"And what it most clearly may not do is to stifle political or social debate, however rambunctious or offensive some may think it is," Abrams said.

* I WAS TAUGHT THIS IN FRIGGIN' ELEMENTARY SCHOOL - HOW'BOUT THE REST OF YOU?

* FOLKS... OUR COUNTRY IS BEING TAKEN FROM US LITTLE BY LITTLE...

* FOLKS... THIS IS NOT A JOKE.

June 1, 2013 at 2:40 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/obamas-student-loan-rate-proposal-saves-average-borrower-25-day_732092.html

* WHAT A FRIGGIN' PIECE OF SHIT LIAR...

* READ THIS CRAP!

Reprising the "Don't Double My Rate" theme used during the 2012 presidential campaign, the White House is pushing a plan by President Obama this week to prevent interest rates on some student loans from doubling effective July 1.

However, the savings for most borrowers is rather less significant than might appear at first glance.

The White House uses the example of an incoming freshman, who they say will save $4,000 under the president's plan: If Congress fails to act, college will be further out of reach for millions of students and families. In fact, an incoming freshman who borrows $27,000 over the next four years - a typical debt incurred by today’s college graduates – is projected to pay over $4,000 dollars more over the life of their loans without the President’s proposal.

* EXCEPT... OBAMA'S LYING!

[The] the average savings for student loan borrowers is actually $1,126.

* NOT $4,000.

Despite tweets from the White House that seem to suggest the savings are annual ("Last year, President Obama helped students save an average of $1,000 on their college loans"), if the borrower repays the loans over the expected period of 12 years he or she will realize savings of $1,126 over twelve years... in other words $94 per year... or about 25¢ a day.

* WHY NOT JUST BE HONEST...?

June 1, 2013 at 3:39 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505123_162-57587033/wealth-of-most-americans-down-55-since-recession/

Increasing housing prices and the stock market's posting all-time highs haven't helped the plight most Americans. The average U.S. household has recovered only 45% of the wealth they lost during the recession, according to a report released yesterday from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

* AND I'M BETTING THAT THIS REPORT DOESN'T TAKE INTO ACCOUNT LOST BUYING POWER OF PRESENT WEALTH vs. PRE-RECESSION WEALTH VIA FACTORING IN THE REAL INFLATION RATE!

This finding is a very different picture than one painted in a report earlier this year by the Fed that calculated Americans as a whole had regained 91% their losses.

* BERNANKE LIED. (*SHRUG*) IS ANYONE SURPRISED...?

The writers of the report released yesterday point out that the earlier number is based on aggregate household-net-worth data. However, this isn't adjusted for inflation, population growth or the nature of the wealth.

* AH... SO... I STAND CORRECTED RE: MY INITIAL "BET." GOOD FOR THE ST. LOUIS FOLKS...!!!

Further, they say much of recovery in net worth is because of the stock market, which means most of the improvement has been a boon only to wealthy families. (About 80% of stocks are held by the wealthiest 10% of the population.)

* YEP!

June 2, 2013 at 11:21 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_IRS_INVESTIGATION?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-06-02-12-10-02

A House committee says a soon-to-be released Treasury Department report finds the Internal Revenue Service spent about $50 million to hold about 220 conferences for employees between 2010 and 2012.

According to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, that total included $4 million for an August 2010 conference in Anaheim, Calif., for which officials didn't negotiate lower hotel room rates.

The committee says the report found that instead, IRS workers who attended received benefits, including stays in presidential suites.

In addition, 15 outside speakers were paid $135,000 in fees, with one paid $17,000 to talk about leadership through art.

* THESE BASTARDS - THE IRS "LEADERSHIP" - SHOULD BE PUT AGAINST A WALL AND SHOT.

June 2, 2013 at 12:42 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_SCHOOL_SHOOTING_TRANSPARENCY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-06-02-11-42-39

A plan by Connecticut officials to withhold some Newtown school shooting records from the public would be another blow to government transparency...

* YA THINK...?!?!

The proposal is in a bill privately crafted by Gov. Dannel P. Malloy's office, the state's top prosecutor and legislative leaders.

* PRIVATELY CRAFTED...???

It would allow authorities to withhold from the public photographs, videos, 911 call recordings and other records depicting the physical condition of any victim of the Dec. 14 shootings, unless the family gives written permission.

* HISTORY IS HISTORY. THESE HORRIFIC EVENTS OCCURRED. WITHHOLDING THE RECORD FROM PUBLIC SCRUTINY ISN'T THE ANSWER.

The legislation would bar the release of emergency responders' audio transmissions but allow the public to view transcripts of the recordings at a cost of 50 cents a page.

* WITHOUT ACCESS TO THE AUDIO... HOW CAN WE BE SURE THE TRANSCRIPTS ARE COMPLETE AND UNEDITED?

The bill also would limit disclosure of the death certificates of the 20 first-graders and six educators killed in the attack to immediate family members only.

* I'M SORRY. DEATH CERTIFICATES ARE WITHIN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

Media groups and advocates of public records laws worry the bill, which is pending, would set a bad precedent by exempting specific incidents from FOI laws. They say it would encourage other crime victims to ask the state to limit disclosure of records now routinely released to the public, and it appears to make the Newtown killings more important than the dozens of other killings in Connecticut each year.

(*NOD*)

They also question the bill being drafted in secrecy and not being subjected to the public hearing process like other bills are.

* YEP...

"If you hide away documents from the public, then the public has no way of knowing whether police ... have done their jobs correctly," said Sonny Albarado, city editor at the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and board president of the Society of Professional Journalists, a free press advocacy group based in Indianapolis. "It sets a tone where it makes it easier to hide other things, and the public suffers, in my view," Albarado said. "Obviously, the mass murder of 26 people is a very horrific crime. But 26 people die regularly in most large towns within a few weeks or within a few months and we don't express the same kind of horror and we don't afford those victims or the perpetrators any kind of anonymity."

* TO BE CONTINUED...

June 2, 2013 at 1:05 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Parents of some Newtown shooting victims said at a news conference at the state Capitol on Friday that one of their main concerns was photos of the massacre scene being posted online. "I'm fully supportive of an open and transparent government, but I can't understand how distributing graphic photos of murdered teachers and children serves any purpose other than causing our families more pain," said Dean Pinto, whose 6-year-old son, Jack, was killed in the school shooting.

* HOW DO WE LEARN OF THE HORROR AND ABSORB IT IF NOT BY FACING THE RESULTS DIRECT? WOULD THESE PEOPLE REMOVE STUDY OF THE HOLOCAUST FROM OUR SCHOOLS? HOW'BOUT PHOTOS AND VIDEO OF WARTIME ATROCITIES? CENSOR THE AFTERMATH OF NATURAL DISASTERS...???

"Unfortunately, newspapers are no longer the only disseminators of information," he said. "The world of information has changed substantially over the past few years and our Freedom of Information laws need to adjust to the times. There are many who lack the common sense and decency of mainstream media (and) who will freely use these images for their own disgusting purposes."

* AMAZING. AS IF THE FIRST AMENDMENT TO THE BILL OF RIGHTS OF THE U.S. CONSTITUTION IS NOW OBSOLETE AND SO WE MAY IGNORE THE HIGHEST LAW OF THE LAND...

Colleen Murphy, executive director and general counsel of the Connecticut Freedom of Information Commission, said she has seen a chipping away of public disclosure laws by the state legislature and courts in recent years. Her agency enforces Connecticut's public records and meetings laws. Murphy said the commission is concerned about several bills in this year's legislative session. They include proposals to exempt the pardon process from public view, further restrict information about government employees from being released and allow public agencies to charge people for just viewing public records.

* "...EXEMPT THE PARDON PROCESS FROM PUBLIC VIEW, FURTHER RESTRICT INFORMATION ABOUT GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES FROM BEING RELEASED AND ALLOW PUBLIC AGENCIES TO CHARGE PEOPLE FOR JUST VIEWING PUBLIC RECORDS...???"

* FOLKS... THIS IS THE LEFT'S AMERIKA.

[A]bout a half dozen times since 2010, the Connecticut state Supreme Court has overturned rulings by the Freedom of Information Commission after the commission ordered the release of public documents.

"I've seen a gradual sea change ... toward more people asking questions about why should the public have access to information instead of why shouldn't they," Murphy said. "We forget why we have these laws. Any record created by government belongs to the people."

* AND, FOLKS, DON'T FOR A MOMENT BELIEVE THAT THE JUDGES WILL PROTECT THE LAW... PROTECT OUR CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS. MOST WON'T. THE INMATES ARE INDEED LARGELY RUNNING THE ASYLUM.

June 2, 2013 at 1:05 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.humanevents.com/2013/05/31/abolish-the-corporate-income-tax/

* BY PATRICK J. BUCHANAN

Sen. Carl Levin was aghast.

Before his committee sat - unapologetic and uncontrite - Apple CEO Tim Cook, whose company had paid no U.S. corporate income taxes on the $74 billion it had earned abroad in recent years.

“Apple has sought the Holy Grail of tax avoidance,” said Levin. “Apple has exploited an absurdity.”

Actually, Apple had done nothing wrong, except hire some crack accountants who chose Ireland’s County Cork as the headquarters of their international division. Thus Apple paid on profits earned outside the U.S.A. nothing but a 2% tax imposed by the Irish government.

Far from being condemned, Apple’s CPAs ought to be inducted into the Accountants Hall of Fame. The problem here is not with Apple, it is with Sen. Levin & Co.

It is no more immoral for Apple to move its headquarters for foreign sales to Ireland than for Big Apple residents to move to Florida to escape the 12% combined state and city income tax.

Among the reasons the Sun Belt is booming at the expense of the Rust Belt is not just the weather. Southern states strive to keep income and estate taxes low or nonexistent. They want companies and families to relocate and live there, and to spend their money there.

In a press release, “Avoiding Their Fair Share of Taxes,” the AFL-CIO hails Levin and bewails the fact that though the U.S. corporate tax rate is 35%, highest in the world, corporate income tax revenue has fallen to well below 10% of federal tax revenue. “Cash tax payments by non-financial companies in the S&P 500 Index fell … to $222 billion in 2010,” moaned the AFL-CIO.

[I]nstead of bewailing this, perhaps we should start thinking and acting as our forebears did. In the same Wall Street Journal that reported on Cook’s defense of Apple, former Sen. Phil Gramm described that earlier America: “Over the late 19th century, real GDP and employment doubled, annual average real earnings rose by over 60% and wholesale prices fell by 75%, thanks to marked improvement in productivity.”

And what is the difference between that age and ours? A 35% income tax rate on individuals and corporations that did not exist then, and would have been regarded by Americans of the Gilded Age as the satanic work of Friedrich Engels and Karl Marx.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

June 2, 2013 at 1:58 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

From the Civil War to World War I, our economy grew from one-half the size of Great Britain’s to twice Britain’s. American companies were capturing markets abroad. Today’s U.S. companies are looking for ways to relocate abroad. Herewith, a modest proposal to turn this around.

Since the U.S. corporate income tax now produces less than 10% of federal revenue and less than 2% of gross domestic product, abolish it.

Think of it. A continent-wide nation that doesn’t tax business.

Assume this would cost the Treasury $250 billion in lost revenue.

How to make it up? Put a 10 percent tariff on imports entering the United States, which last year added up to $2.7 trillion.

(*STANDING OVATION*)

This tax reform would thus be revenue neutral.

[W]hat would a corporate income tax rate of zero with a 10% tariff on goods entering the U.S.A. from abroad accomplish? First, every U.S. corporation that had moved abroad in search of lower taxes in recent years would start thinking about coming home and bringing its production and its jobs back to America.

Second, that $2 trillion in income U.S. companies have stashed abroad would come roaring back into U.S. institutions.

Third, foreign companies would begin to relocate and produce here in America, both to get around the tariff and pay no taxes.

Fourth, U.S. producers would see sales soar inside the $17 trillion U.S. market, at the expense of foreigners who would pay a 10-percent admission fee to get into this market - a fraction of what they used to pay in the 19th century.

* BACK WHEN AMERICA WAS ON THE ASCENT AND NOT THE DECLINE!

While this would cause a surge in unemployment among IRS agents and accountants, hundreds of millions of man hours could be redirected away from filling out tax forms and into productive work.

From 1865 to 1914, America had 10 Republican presidents. All believed in financing government by taxing imports, not the incomes of U.S. citizens or the U.S. companies that employed them.

* AND THEY WERE RIGHT!

“Since 1980, the U.S. has run trade deficits in every year totaling about $9 trillion,” writes columnist Robert Samuelson. (That is 9 thousand billion dollars in trade deficits!) It is what unmade America as a self-reliant republic and made China a manufacturing marvel. And those trade deficits are how America became a dependent nation in hock to the world.

* IT'S TIME TO GO BACK TO COMMON SENSE ECONOMICS! LET'S GO BACK TO THE FUTURE!

June 2, 2013 at 1:58 PM

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