Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, August 20, 2013


Read 'em and weep...

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14 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bubba_just_plane_extravagant_XaSUKqaz40XBy0x5V9LDBL

Bill Clinton’s foundation has spent more than $50 million on travel expenses since 2003, an analysis of the non-profit’s tax forms reveal.

* TAX FREE TRAVEL... RIGHT? (NO "FAIR SHARE" FOR THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.)

The web of foundations run by the former president spent an eye-opening $12.1 million on travel in 2011 alone, according to an internal audit conducted by foundation accountants. That’s enough to by 12,000 air tickets costing $1,000 each, or 33 air tickets each day of the year.

That overall figure includes travel costs for the William J. Clinton Foundation (to which Hillary and Chelsea are now attached) of $4.2 million on travel in 2011, the most recent year where figures are available.

The Clinton Global Health Initiative spent another $730,000 on travel, while the Clinton Health Action Initiative (CHAI) spent $7.2 million on travel.

CHAI also spent $2.9 million on meetings and training, according to the report, conducted by the Little Rock, Arkansas Accounting firm BDK CPA’s and Advisors.

It’s impossible to discern from tax filings how the total travel costs were reached, although the former president is known to rack up his personal miles on private jets.

Wealthy businessman John Catsimatitis has lent aircraft to Clinton and to the foundation multiple times for travel, including Clinton’s recent trip to Africa along with daughter, Chelsea.

Clinton sometimes uses Catsimatitis’ Boeing 727, opting on other flights to use a smaller Gulfstream jet.

Sometimes Clinton uses the plane at a discount rate for the foundation, and sometimes Catsimatitis donates the flight time to the charitable foundation, which has a variety of programs to improve global health and improve conditions in Haiti and other far-flung locales.

* AND YET... THE CLINTON'S VARIOUS "CHARITABLE CONCERNS" STILL MANAGED TO RACK UP OVER $50 ON TRAVEL EXPENSES... NOT COUNTING FREEBIS...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* OK, FOLKS... HERE'S WHAT I'D LIKE TO SEE: I'D LIKE TO SEE A CALENDAR YEAR'S DAY TO DAY "EXPENSE ACCOUNT" FOR BILL CLINTON... HILLARY CLINTON... AND CHELSEA CLINTON. I'D LIKE TO SEE WHAT PERCENTAGE OF THEIR LIVES... THEIR VERY EXISTENCE AS INDIVIDUALS ON A DAY TO DAY BASIS... IS PAID FOR BY THIRD PARTIES. WOULDN'T THAT BE INTERESTING...??? WHAT ELSE DON'T THEY PAY FOR BESIDES "TRAVEL EXPENSES" SUPPOSEDLY "FOR CHARITABLE BUSINESS TRAVEL?" CLOTHING? DO THEY PAY FOR THEIR OWN CLOTHING? HOW MANY MEALS A DAY COME OUT OF THEIR INDIVIDUAL POCKETS?

August 20, 2013 at 10:28 AM
William R. Barker said...

* THREE-PARTER... (Part 1 of 3)

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/19/kerry-clears-benghazi-officials-clinton-punished.html

Secretary of State John Kerry has determined that the four State Department officials placed on administrative leave by Hillary Clinton after the terrorist attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi do not deserve any formal disciplinary action and has asked them to come back to work at the State Department starting Tuesday.

(*SHRUG*)

* AS HILLARY CLINTON MIGHT SAY, "WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?"

(*SHRUG*)

* AM I DISGUSTED? SURE? AM I SURPRISED...? NO. NOT PARTICULARLY.

Last December, Clinton’s staff told four mid-level officials to clean out their desks and hand in their badges after the release of the report of its own internal investigation into the Benghazi attack, compiled by the Administrative Review Board led by former State Department official Tom Pickering and former Joint Chiefs Chairman Ret. Adm. Mike Mullen. Those four officials have been in legal and professional limbo, not fired but unable to return to their jobs, for eight months… until today.

Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Raymond Maxwell, the only official from the State Department’s Near Eastern Affairs bureau to lose his job over the Benghazi attack, told The Daily Beast Monday he received a memo from the State Department’s human resources department informing him his administrative leave status has been lifted and he should report for duty Tuesday morning.

“No explanation, no briefing, just come back to work. So I will go in tomorrow,” Maxwell said.

(*JUST TRHOWING MY ARMS UP IN THE AIR*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 20, 2013 at 10:48 AM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 3)

Maxwell previously told The Daily Beast that the reasons for his administrative leave designation had never been explained to him. He contended that he had little role in Libya policy and no involvement whatsoever in the events leading up to the Benghazi attack. “The overall goal is to restore my honor,” Maxwell had said.

* FOLKS... GRANTED THE BENGHAZI "INVESTIGATION" WAS NOTHING MORE THAN A WHITE-WASH TO PROTECT OBAMA, CLINTON, PANETTA AND OTHERS "AT THE TOP OF THE PYRAMID," BUT IT DID AFIX BLAME ON THE PEONS. IS KERRY CONFESSING THAT THE PEONS WERE BLAMELESS ALL ALONG... OR IS IT SIMPLE THAT KERRY BELIEVES IN "FORGIVE AND FORGET?"

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

While not a formal discplinary action, Maxwell regarded his treatment as punishment because he was not able to work and was publicly identified as being blamed for the tragedy that cost the lives of four Americans, including his friend Ambassador Chris Stevens.

Maxwell had filed grievances regarding his treatment with the State Department’s Human Resources Bureau and the American Foreign Service Association, which represents the interests of foreign-service officers.

* SCREW THE INTERESTS OF AMERICA AND THE AMERICAN PEOPLE!

The other three officials placed on leave were in the Diplomatic Security Bureau, including then Assistant Secretary Eric Boswell and Deputy Assistant Secretary Charlene Lamb.

A senior State Department official confirmed to The Daily Beast Monday that all four officials placed on administrative leave were now returned to regular duty and would not face any formal disciplinary action.

* UNFRIGGIN'BELIEVABLE!

* SO, AGAIN... EITHER SECRETARY CLINTON HAS SOME EXPLAINING TO DO ABOUT WHY A "MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE" WAS ALLOWED TO HURT THESE FOUR "INNOCENT MENT" DURING HER TENURE... OR... SECRETARY KERRY IS KNOWINGLY REINSTATING INCOMPETENTS TO THE TOP RANKS OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 20, 2013 at 10:49 AM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 3 of 3)

The administrative leave designation was not a formal punishment, but did prevent the officials from working while the Kerry team, which inherited the Benghazi issue from the Clinton team in February, reviewed their cases.

“As soon as he came into the department, Secretary Kerry wanted to invest the time to review the ARB's findings and match those against his own on-the-job findings about security,” the senior State Department official said. “He's been hands-on focused on building on the lessons learned from the Benghazi attack to strengthen security at missions world-wide and continue the ARB's security paradigm shift.”

* FUCK THE FOUR DEAD AMERICANS INCLUDING AN AMBASSADOR...

* FUCK THE BURNED DOWN BUILDING LEFT UNGUARDED EVEN AFTER THE ATTACKS WERE OVER... LEFT UNGUARDED WITH SENSITIVE DOCUMENTS STILL INTACT WITHIN THE RUINS OF THE BUILDING.

* FUCK OUR BRAVE SPECIAL FORCES PERSONNEL WHO HELD OUT FOR AS LONG AS THEY COULD - PRAYING FOR AND NO DOUBT EXPECTING RESCUE - WHO DIED WHEN NO RESCUE WAS SENT.

As part of this process, Kerry asked his high command to complete a thorough review of the ARB’s findings. At the time of the report’s release, Pickering said the ARB had determined that blame for the security failures leading up to the Bengazi attack should be placed at the Assistant Secretary level but that no officials had committed breaches of duty that would warrant outright termination.

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

After consideration, Kerry reaffirmed the ARB’s finding that no employee breached their duty or should be fired but rather that some should be reassigned, the official said. The four individuals are not blameless and the fact that they will not be returned to the same positions is relevant, the official said.

(*SPITTING ON THE GROUND*)

* FOLKS... HOW CAN YOU READ THIS AND NOT BE OUTRAGED...?

Kerry and his team also considered the long records of the four individuals and the circumstances leading up the Benghazi attack when considering what to do with the sidelined officials, the official said. None of the officials will be able to get their old jobs back and Boswell will not return as the head of diplomatic security.

“[Secretary Kerry] studied their careers and studied the facts,” the official said. “In order to implement the ARB and to continue to turn the page and shift the paradigm inside the Department, the four employees who were put on administrative leave last December pending further review, will be reassigned inside the State Department.”

* TURN THE PAGE...??? TURN... THE... PAGE...?!?!

There was also concern in Congress that only mid-level officials with little direct responsibility for the Benghazi attack had been taken out of their jobs following the ARB report release.

* PERHAPS BECAUSE EVERYONE KNOWS THE REPORT WAS A DELIBERATE WHITE-WASH MEANT TO PROTECT CLINTON, ET AL?

“The ARB tried to blame everyone but hold no one responsible, except for some of the lower level people who were not in control of the situation,” Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT), chairman of the House Oversight National Security subcommittee, told The Daily Beast in May.

* YEP... WELCOME TO AMERIKA 2013.

August 20, 2013 at 10:49 AM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/2001093000000-fed-s-ownership-us-debt-breaks-2t-first-time

The Federal Reserve’s holdings of publicly traded U.S. Treasury securities (i.e. federal government debt) pushed above $2 trillion for the first time last week...

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

* HEY... FOLKS... QUICK QUESTION: WITH WHAT MONEY (GENERATED HOW? VIA PROFIT? HOW?) DOES THE FEDERAL RESERVE BUY U.S. TREASURY SECURITIES...???

* SIMPLE QUESTION - RIGHT? SO... WITHOUT GOOGLING... WITHOUT BINGING... WHAT'S THE ANSWER? DO YOU KNOW? IF NOT... WHY NOT?

Back on Dec. 31, 2008, before the Fed began its strategy of “Quantitative Easing," the Fed owned only $475.9 billion in U.S. Treasury securities.

(Launched in 2009, the Fed's Quantitative Easing (QE) efforts have attempted to stimulate the economy. Since then, the Fed’s holdings of U.S. government debt have more than quadrupled.)

* HOW'S THAT "STIMULATION" WORKED OUT FOR US, FOLKS...?

(*SNORT*)

* OH! BUT WAIT! THERE'S MORE!

In its latest weekly accounting, the Fed also said that as of Aug. 14, it owned approximately $1.299831 trillion in mortgage-backed securities that had been issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and Ginnie Mae.

* JUNK BONDS...???

* AGAIN... HOW DOES THE FED "PURCHASE" OVER A TRILLION DOLLARS WORTH OF MORTGAGE BACKED SECURITIES? WHERE DOES THE FED'S MONEY COME FROM - THE MONEY IT USES TO "PURCHASE" THESE SECURITIES? (AND, AGAIN... WHAT'S THE RATING ON THESE MBS? AAA+ OR JUNK OR SOMEWHERE IN BETWEEN?)

* OH... AND BTW...

Back on Jan. 14, 2009, the Fed owned only $5.6 billion in mortgage-backed securities.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

By law, the Fed is not permitted to buy U.S. Treasury securities directly from the Treasury. Instead it buys them in the secondary market. However, when the Fed buys U.S. government debt even on the secondary market it creates a closed circle: The Treasury pays the Fed the interest owed on that part of the federal government’s debt, and almost all of that interest - considered “profit” by the Fed - is paid back to the Treasury.

* CUTE, HUH...?!?! THE "INVESTMENT" IS A SURE THING - BACKED BY THE FULL FAITH AND CREDIT OF THE UNITED STATES... MEANING THE TAXPAYER... MEANING TAXPAYER BAILOUTS IF NECESSARY - AS HAPPENED WITH THE AFOREMENTIONED FANNIE, FREDDIE, AND GINNY MAE. THE FED MAKES A PROFIT (AND THEIR EMPLOYEES LIVE VERY WELL INDEED)! THESE "SECONDARY MARKET UNITS" MAKE A PROFIT (AND THEIR EMPLOYEES AND OWNERS MAKE OUT LIKE BANDITS)! THE POLITICIANS GET TO KEEP ON BRIBING US WITH OUR OWN MONEY THEY'VE TAKEN THROUGH TAXES PLUS THE FORTY-SOMETHING-CENTS BORROWED AND PUT ON OUR TAB EACH YEAR...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* AND THE PONZI SCHEME CONTINUES FOR ANOTHER YEAR WITH "WE THE PEOPLE" FURTHER AND FURTHER PUT ON THE HOOK YEAR AFTER YEAR.

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

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 20, 2013 at 1:22 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

“Monetizing the deficit refers to financing the budget deficit through money creation rather than by selling bonds to private investors,” said the CRS. “Hyperinflation in foreign countries has consistently resulted from governments’ decision to monetize large deficits. “According to this definition, the deficit has not been monetized,” said CRS. “Section 14 of the Federal Reserve Act legally forbids the Fed from buying newly issued securities directly from the Treasury, and all Treasury securities purchased by the Fed to date have been purchased on the secondary market from private investors.” “Nonetheless," said CRS, "the effect of the Fed’s purchase of Treasury securities on the federal budget is similar to monetization whether the Fed buys the securities on the secondary market or directly from the Treasury.

* READ THE ABOVE AGAIN, FOLKS. SERIOUSLY!

When the Fed holds Treasury securities, Treasury must pay interest to the Fed, just as it would pay interest to a private investor. These interest payments, after expenses, become profits of the Fed. The Fed, in turn, remits about 95% of its profits to the Treasury, where they are added to general revenues. In essence, the Fed has made an interest-free loan to the Treasury, because almost all of the interest paid by Treasury to the Fed is subsequently sent back to Treasury.

* 95% OUT OF 100% LEAVES... 5%... MORE THAN I PAY AS INTEREST ON EITHER OF MY CAR LOANS.

(*SHRUG*)

* FIVE PERCENT OF SUMS IN THE BILLIONS... HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS... ULTIMATELY TRILLIONS...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

“The Fed could increase its profits and remittances to Treasury,” said CRS, “by printing more money to purchase more Treasury bonds (or any other asset)."

(*SNORT*)

* FOLKS...

(*JUST THROWING MY ARMS UP IN THE AIR*)

As of Aug. 15, according to the Bureau of the Public Debt, the total value of Treasury securities held by the public was $11,952,073,953,024.85. (The rest of the federal government’s debt is “intragovernmental” debt — n.b. money that the Treasury owes to federal trust funds, such as the Social Security trust fund.)

* AGAIN... FOLKS... WE'RE TALKING A GOVERNMENT THAT HAS TO BORROW FORTY-SOMETHING-CENTS OUT OF EVERY DOLLAR SPENT EACH YEAR JUST ON ORDINARY OPERATING EXPENSES. IF WE CAN'T AFFORD TO PAY OUR OPERATING EXPENSES... CAN'T EVEN COME CLOSE... HOW CAN IT BE REASONABLY EXPECTED THAT ADDED FUTURE LIABILITIES - MONEY THE TREASURY OWES TO FEDERAL TRUST FUNDS SUCH AS SOCIAL SECURITY - CAN EVER BE MET... LET ALONE PAID OFF...???

August 20, 2013 at 1:22 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/08/20/claim-egypt-aid-cut-off-fuels-confusion-over-administration-policy/

* SIMPLY... (*SIGH*)... DANGEROUS INCOMPETENCE. (READ ON!)

Adding to the confusion over its Egypt policy, the Obama administration reportedly has decided to suspend aid to the military-backed government on a temporary basis - despite avoiding taking a public position on the matter.

The Daily Beast reports that, according to a U.S. senator and unnamed administration officials, the administration has temporarily suspended most of the $1.3 billion in military aid, as well as the delivery of weapons and economic aid amid a review of the financial support.

The office of Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., seemed to back up this claim. An aide to Leahy, in a statement to Fox News Radio, echoed what was reported in The Daily Beast - that Leahy's subcommittee "was told that the transfer of military aid was stopped...

* STOPPED IS STOPPED - RIGHT? BUT READ ON...

Leahy's subcommittee "was told that the transfer of military aid was stopped, that this is current practice, not necessarily official policy, and there is no indication of how long it will last."

* CURRENT PRACTICE BY NOT NECESSARILY OFFICIAL POLICY...??? WTF...???

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said a separate New York Times report that said economic aid programs are on hold is incorrect.

* AID... THAT... GOES... THROUGH... THE... EGYPTIAN... MILITARY... (WHO CONTROL THE EGYPTIAN GOVERNMENT!)

* BUT BACK TO MILITARY AID AND WHETHER IT'S BEEN SUSPENDED OR NOT... (READ ON!)

The Obama administration is openly disputing the report [that military aid has been suspended]. To date, officials have said that aid is merely under review, and that they would not make a determination on whether the ouster of ex-President Mohammed Morsi qualifies as a coup - because such a finding would, under U.S. law, require the administration to cut off aid.

* SO... IN OTHER WORDS... OBAMA IS REFUSING TO ACT IN A LAWFUL MANNER AND "FIND" THE COUP TO BE A COUP BECAUSE IF HE DID HE'D HAVE TO SUSPEND THE MILITARY AID OR VIOLATE U.S. LAW. (WHICH HE'S SHOWN A WILLINGNESS TO DO BEFORE, SO WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL HERE AND NOW WITH THIS...???)

Pentagon spokesman George Little also said "no changes have been decided." "I am unaware of any de facto suspension of assistance. I don't know where that came from," he said of the reports of an aid cut-off.

* THIS IS OBAMA'S PENTAGON... OBAMA'S PENTAGON SPOKESMAN...

* FOLKS... IS THIS ANY WAY TO RUN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY...?

August 20, 2013 at 1:49 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.hoover.org/publications/defining-ideas/article/154366

Next year, this nation will celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That occasion will rightly give rise to many reflections about how far this nation has come and where it will go in the future.

One early entrant into this dialogue is The Butler, a new film by Lee Daniels.

In the movie, Forest Whitaker plays the fictional butler Cecil Gaines, who worked for seven presidential administrations from Eisenhower to Reagan.

* THE... FICTIONAL... BUTLER...

The movie was inspired by the life of Eugene Allen, who did in fact serve in the White House between 1952 and 1986 under eight presidents from Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan.

* THE REAL BUTLER!

Days after Barack Obama was elected president, an affectionate account of Allen’s service was written up by Wil Haygood in the Washington Post.

* FOUND HERE: http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2008-11-07/politics/36906532_1_white-house-black-man-history

But Allen’s story stands in stark contrast to the fictional Cecil Gaines’.

(*SIGH*)

Born in 1919, Eugene Allen grew up in segregated Virginia, and slowly worked his way up the butler profession, largely without incident. Unlike the fictional Cecil Gaines, he did not...

***SPOILER ALERT*** (SKIP THE NEXT LINE TO SKIP THE SPOILER!)

...watch the boss rape his mother on a Georgia farm, only to shoot a bullet through his father’s head as he starts to protest the incident...

Instead, over a period of years, Allen rose from a “pantry man” to the highest position in White House service, Maître d’hôtel.

His life was marked by quiet distinction and personal happiness. He was married to the same woman, Helene, for 65 years. He had one son, Charles, who served in Vietnam. During the Reagan years, Nancy Reagan invited Allen and his wife to a state dinner as guests. When he retired shortly afterwards, “President Reagan wrote him a sweet note. Nancy Reagan hugged him, tight,” according to the story in the Washington Post.

During service, he never said a word of criticism about any president. Nor was his resignation an act of political protest.

The fictional Cecil, however, does not come to the White House under Truman, but arrives in 1957...

In general, the movie is full of hype. Cecil’s...

***SPOILER ALERT*** (SKIP THE NEXT PARAGRAPH TO AVOID THE SPOILER!)

...wholly fictional older son Louis gets involved in the civil rights movement from the time of the sit-ins through the rise of the Black Panther movement, and a younger brother, who professes pride in his country pays the ultimate sacrifice in Vietnam. Cecil’s wife, Gloria, falls prey to alcoholism and for a time has a shabby affair with the guy next door.

Gaines’ service is marked by quiet frustration, knowing that black workers suffered a 40% wage deficit that lasted under the Reagan years...

* TRUE? (WE'RE TALKING THE FICTIONAL "GAINES," NOT THE ACTUAL ALLEN.) IF SO I'D LIKE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT THIS.

...while being excluded from well-deserved promotions.

* AGAIN... WAS ALLEN EXCLUDED FROM WELL-DESERVED PROMOTIONS? WHAT WAS THE REAL DEAL IN THE REAL WHITE HOUSE vs. THE PORTRAYAL OF REALITY IN THE MOVIE?

***SPOILER ALERT*** (SKIP THE NEXT SENTENCE TO AVOID THE SPOILER!)

When the weight of these injustices hit him, Cecil resigns to join his son Louis in a protest movement.

* WHICH NEVER HAPPENED IN REALITY...

When Slate’s, Aisha Harris was asked “How True is The Butler?” her candid answer was “not much.”.

* SEE: http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/08/15/the_butler_movie_true_story_eugene_allen_vs_cecil_gaines_lee_daniels_fictional.html

August 20, 2013 at 3:22 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://reason.com/blog/2013/08/19/do-mike-rogers-and-dianne-feinstein-even

On Friday, Matt Welch took note of the news that the National Security Agency had violated its own surveillance rules thousands of times, withheld information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, and likely has, indeed, illegally accessed people’s communications.

Yesterday, John Fund, national affairs columnist for National Review, opined that it’s time for conservatives who have been supporters of the NSA’s surveillance to start asking tough questions.

* CASE IN POINT:

The Washington Post opened a can of worms last Friday when it reported that, in 2012, an internal NSA audit found that the agency had violated privacy rules 2,776 times within just one year. The audit counted only violations at NSA’s Washington facilities — nearly 20 other NSA facilities were not included. In the wake of the Post’s report, the NSA insisted that the violations were “inadvertent,” but it failed to explain why it had not shared the report with Senate Intelligence Committee chair Dianne Feinstein or other congressional oversight authorities. Yet some NSA defenders continue to insist that nothing is wrong.

* FURTHERMORE, SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON THE FACT THAT MOST REPUBLICANS ARE AS TWO-FACED AND HYPOCRITICAL AS MOST DEMOCRATS:

Back in July, House Intelligence Committee chair Mike Rogers claimed that there have been “zero privacy violations” on the part of NSA. After the leaked audit made news on Friday, he retreated to saying that “there was no intentional and willful violation of the law.”

* SO... EITHER ROGERS LIED... OR ROGERS HADN'T HIMSELF BEEN TOLD THE TRUTH... BUT EITHER WAY... SOMETHING IS INDEED WRONG!

A veteran intelligence official with decades of experience at various agencies identified to Fund what he sees as the real problem with the current NSA:

“It’s increasingly become a culture of arrogance. They tell Congress what they want to tell them. Mike Rogers and Dianne Feinstein at the Intelligence Committees don’t know what they don’t know about the programs.”

* BINGO...!!!

This veteran intelligence official himself was asked to skew the data an intelligence agency submitted to Congress in an effort to get a bigger piece of the intelligence budget. He refused and was promptly replaced in his job, presumably by someone who would do as told.

* I'D SURE AS HELL LIKE TO GET THIS PERSON'S NAME AND THE NAME OF THE PERSON WHO HE CLAIMS PUNISHED HIM.

Fund also makes note of Director of Intelligence James Clapper’s lie to Sen. Ron Wyden about mass collection and the deliberate withholding of information from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.

* FOR WHICH CLAPPER SHOULD HAVE BEEN INDICTED! THE PRECEDENT THIS SETS...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Fund's source noted:

In 1999, then-senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote "Secrecy: The American Experience," in which Moynihan analyzed the parallel growth of secrecy and bureaucracy in the U.S.

“Secrecy is a form of regulation,” Moynihan warned. “At times, in the name of national security, secrecy has put that very security in harm’s way.”

Moynihan observed that although secrecy is absolutely necessary for our protection, it all too often serves as the first refuge of incompetents or those drunk with arrogance. We should not give these groups the ability to cloak their operations — no matter how virtuous the goal.

* I AGREE.

August 20, 2013 at 3:40 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-lane-ethanol-mandates-creating-an-economic-pileup/2013/08/19/17346b08-08ef-11e3-8974-f97ab3b3c677_story.html

There are two iron laws of energy policy in the United States. Iron Law No. 1: A higher federal excise tax on fuel would efficiently reduce gasoline consumption and its negative side effects (air pollution, traffic congestion, carbon emissions, dependence on foreign oil).

Iron Law No. 2: Although economically rational, gas taxes are politically unpopular, so Congress will go to almost any length to avoid raising them, even if that means resorting to far less transparent policies.

* UMM.. er... A DISAGREE WITH BOTH PROPOSITIONS TO AN EXTENT.

* #1: WHEN YOU NEED GAS YOU NEED GAS. PERHAPS YOU'LL CUT BACK ON "UNNECESSARY" TRAVEL... BUT FOR MOST OF US WHO DON'T HAVE A DECENT PUBLIC COMMUTE OPTION TO GET TO WORK, WE'VE GOT TO PAY WHATEVER THE PRICE IS AND AT THE POINT THE PRICE ROSE TO UNSUPPORTABLE LEVELS... THIS WOULD LEAD TO A TRUE CRISIS.

* #2: CONGRESS RAISES TAXES ALL THE TIME! THEIR RELUCTANCE IS I FEAR OVERSTATED.

Hence we have Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards for cars, which take a PhD in mathematics to comprehend — and increase the price of a new automobile by hundreds of dollars.

Hence, too, we have elaborate government mandates and subsidies for blending ethanol into gasoline, which cause farmers to divert land, water and capital into growing corn and other crops for fuel rather than food.

True, ethanol policy became somewhat less irrational at the end of 2011, when Congress finally allowed a $6 billion annual tax credit to expire. But a 2007 federal law mandating ever-greater ethanol consumption remains on the books and it is starting to create the economic equivalent of a multi-car freeway pileup.

Known as the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), the law requires refiners to blend 36 billion gallons of ethanol and the like into transportation fuels by 2022.

* THIS LAW MUST BE REPEALED!

Alas, like many previous attempts at central planning, the RFS has run afoul of changing realities in the marketplace — specifically, a seemingly permanent leveling-off of motor-fuel consumption due to changing driving habits, the sluggish U.S. economy and CAFE standards, among other factors.

* TECHNOLOGY - VEHICLE EFFICIENCY - IS THE ONLY HONEST WAY TO LOWER GAS AND DIESEL USAGE.

As it happens, gasoline consumption hit an all-time high of nearly 9.1 million barrels a day in the year that Congress passed — and President George W. Bush signed — the RFS. It has since dropped by half a million barrels a day, and the Energy Department forecasts that the downward trend will continue through 2040.

* TRUE... I DO DRIVE LESS THAN I DID PRIOR TO KATRINA AND THE INITIAL OIL PRICE SPIKES OF THE "NEW ERA OF BUSHBAMA," BUT THE FACT THAT MARY'S HYUNDAI GETS 35 MPG (WHILE OFFERING OUTSTANDING PERFORMANCE, LOOKS, AND THE SIZE OF A MID-SIZED CAR) HAS THE MOST TO DO WITH OUR FUEL EXPENDITURES - WHICH ARE ULTIMATELY DECIDED BY PRICE AT THE PUMP NO MATTER WHAT SINCE - AS PREVIOUSLY NOTED - YA GOTTA DRIVE WHERE YA GOTTA DRIVE!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 20, 2013 at 4:01 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

The result is that the fuel industry is about to hit a “blend wall.” The 2007 standard calls for producers to blend more ethanol into gasoline than the market can absorb at the current standard rate of 10% per gallon.

* I THOUGHT IT WAS 15%? (SOME STATES, NOT OTHERS PERHAPS?) ANYWAY...

Producers can still meet their regulatory obligations by buying obscure, tradable credits known as Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs.

* GIVING IN TO EXTORTION...

(*SHRUG*)

Formerly a few cents per gallon, the price of a RIN recently reached $1.40 as businesses covered by the RFS — and speculators — snapped them up in anticipation of the “blend wall.”

* UNFRIGGIN'BELIEVABLE!

* TO HE WHOSE NAME DARE NOT BE MENTIONED: THIS... IS... GOVERNMENT...!!! THIS IS A WHOLLY-GOVERNMENT-CREATED MESS!

Industry experts expect companies to pass the cost along to consumers, to the tune of at least 19 cents per gallon at the pump, according to a study by the Energy Policy Research Foundation. The total cost would reach $25 billion a year.

* PAY MORE AT THE PUMP FOR DILUTED FUEL THAT ISN'T GOOD FOR YOUR CAR IN THE FIRST PLACE AND HURTS YOUR GAS MILEAGE... PAY MORE AT THE FOOD STORE FOR FOOD BECAUSE ETHANOL PRODUCTION SKEWS AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AWAY FROM CHEAP AND PLENTIFUL PRODUCE , MEAT, AND DAIRY... TAKE MONEY OUT OF THE PRIVATE ECONOMY AND HAND IT TO GOVERNMENT...

(*HEADACHE*)

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency bowed to these realities, announcing that it would use its waiver authority to reduce the ethanol mandates for 2014. That provides industry a reprieve of sorts; it certainly may spare politicians of both parties the trouble of running for office in the middle of a government-induced spike in gas prices.

* THANK GOD!

Still, the EPA’s action is far from a permanent fix. The 2007 law allows the agency to grant such waivers for only a year at a time. Oh, and here’s another perversity: Eliminating the “blend wall” would destroy the value of RINs people have bought to cope with it.

* GOVERNMENT...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Meanwhile, a central purpose of the 2007 law — energy “independence” — is well on its way to being met through other means, chiefly a boom in oil production that Congress and the Bush administration never anticipated. The Energy Department projected earlier this year that the United States will be able to supply two-thirds of its petroleum needs through the next three decades.

August 20, 2013 at 4:02 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://freebeacon.com/al-jazeera-caught-airing-fake-death-of-muslim-brotherhood-protestor/

The Al Jazeera news channel has been caught airing what appears to be the fake death of a Muslim Brotherhood-backed protestor in Egypt...

As a distraught woman yells in Arabic, the man in question can be seen clutching what is described as a gunshot wound. However, when the man’s hand is moved it becomes apparent that he has not been injured despite a pool of blood.

The fake death was first flagged by FSA Crimes, an advocacy website that tracks alleged war crimes committed by rebel fighters battling Syrian President Bashar al Assad.

“Covered in blood, his hand rests on what would seem to be the source of that blood, a gunshot wound,” FSA write of the apparently staged death.

“‘Doctors’ surrounding him as he lays there, eyes shut and face frozen,” FSA writes. “One of the ‘doctors’ then decide to lift the man's shirt up and to the viewers big surprise, there is no wound underneath the shirt!”

“The supposed dead man, wanting to obstruct the view of his non-wound for the camera, then effortlessly re-positions his legs in way of the camera,” according to FSA Crimes.

Al Jazeera quickly cuts to a different angle once the man moves.

Al Jazeera’s American station began broadcasting on U.S. television today. Though the news organization claims that it will be neutral, critics worry that it will adopt that same biases as its Arabic sister station.

* NOT TO MENTION ABC, NBC, CBS, PBS, CNN, MSNBC...

(*RUEFUL CHUCKLE*)

August 20, 2013 at 6:56 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.nationalreview.com/article/356260/missing-koch-report-eliana-johnson

In late September 2010, Iowa senator Chuck Grassley and six of his colleagues grew suspicious that a senior Obama administration official had improperly accessed the tax information of industrial behemoth Koch Industries.

After Austan Goolsbee - then-chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers - made an erroneous statement that implied direct knowledge of the company’s confidential tax status, the senators demanded that the Treasury Department inspector general for tax administration (TIGTA) investigate.

Now, more than two years since the completion of that investigation, and despite repeated requests from Koch Industries and Senator Grassley himself, the results have yet to see the light of day.

Ironically, federal law is designed to keep that information from public view. In order for Koch Industries or the general public to see the TIGTA report, the IG’s office must refer the case to the Department of Justice for prosecution. If Justice declines to prosecute, all the relevant information remains under lock and key. Critics worry that a highly politicized Justice Department is unlikely to take up cases that have the potential to damage the Obama administration.

* THIS... IS... INSANE...!!!

Asked how taxpayers might discover whether their information has been accessed improperly, a spokeswoman for the House Ways and Means Committee tells National Review Online that, in most cases, “They won’t.”

Koch Industries’ tax returns became the subject of controversy when, in an August 2010 briefing with reporters on a newly released tax-reform report, Goolsbee claimed that the company paid no corporate-income taxes. “We have a series of entities that do not pay corporate income tax,” he said, “some of which are really giant firms — you know, Koch Industries is a multibillion-dollar business.”

(*PURSED LIPS*)

Goolsbee’s assertion raised the eyebrows of a half-dozen GOP lawmakers, who subsequently called on Treasury Department inspector general J. Russell George to investigate whether Goolsbee had accessed the company’s tax returns in violation of federal law. In a letter to George, Grassley and his colleagues said they were “very concerned” by Goolsbee’s remarks. “The statement that Koch is a pass-through entity implies direct knowledge of Koch’s legal and tax status, which would appear to be a violation of section 6103,” they wrote, referring to the section of the Internal Revenue Code that protects the confidentiality of tax returns and all related information. George agreed to investigate.

Goolsbee tells National Review Online that his statement was nothing more than a slip of the tongue.

* I DON'T CARE WHAT GOOLSBEE SAYS... I CARE WHAT HE'S TESTIFIED TO UNDER OATH AND I CARE ABOUT WHAT THE INVESTIGATION REVEALED!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

August 20, 2013 at 7:12 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

He readily concedes that the company pays corporate taxes. “I certainly never saw any private information about their tax returns,” he says. “That I was in error ought to make that particularly obvious.”

George’s investigation concluded in August 2011. Since then, Koch Industries senior vice president and general counsel Mark Holden has repeatedly requested a report summarizing the agency’s findings from multiple federal agencies but has been summarily denied by all of them.

“TIGTA sent me to the IRS, the IRS sent me back to TIGTA, but none of them would release the report or any information about the investigation,” Holden says.

Asked why the potential victim of a crime is prohibited from viewing TIGTA’s findings, TIGTA communications director Karen Kraushaar declined to go into detail, telling me only that “federal confidentiality law, including Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code, prohibits us from disclosing any information concerning our review of such allegations. Therefore, we regret that we cannot provide you with any further information.”

* AND, HEY... IF YOU CAN'T TRUST THE IRS...

* FOLKS... IN ALL SERIOUSNESS - THIS IS ABSURD.

The chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have, in Congress, the unique power to view confidential tax information, including the TIGTA report that concerns the Koch brothers. In this case, Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, whose colleagues prompted the investigation, has declined to request the report.

* WHAT... A... SURPRISE! (*SMIRK*) MAX BAUCUS IS PART OF THE SENATE DEMOCRATIC LEADERSHIP! HE AND GOOLSBEE ARE ON THE SAME "TEAM!"

Grassley’s concern is that the law as it stands — section 6103 in particular — is being used to skirt transparency.

* YA THINK...?!

(*SNORT*)

“Taxpayer confidentiality laws are important,” the senator tells National Review Online, “but the purpose of those laws is to prevent and deter inappropriate uses of taxpayer information, not to prevent public scrutiny if or when that confidentiality has been breached or keep the victim in the dark.

* OR... KEEP... THE... VICTIM... IN... THE... DARK...!!!

A taxpayer should be able to know whether someone breached his or her confidentiality, whether any investigation resulted, and the outcome of that investigation. The taxpayer shouldn’t get the runaround from TIGTA.”

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

August 20, 2013 at 7:12 PM

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