Sunday, November 10, 2013

Holiday Weekend Newsbites: Sat., Sun. & Mon., Nov. 9, 10 & 11, 2013


My respects to all of our nation's serving and retired veterans on this Veterans Day weekend... 2013.


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4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/6f10930c-489a-11e3-a3ef-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2kFwT1FJs

The Russian foreign and defense ministers will travel to Egypt next week on a visit seen as signaling a growing rapprochement between the two countries as the military-backed authorities in Cairo reach out for new allies and seek to lessen dependence on Washington.

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

* HOW WOULD YOU TERM THE OBAMA FOREIGN POLICY RECORD AS OPPOSED TO THE BUSH RECORD? ME...? FROM THE FRYING PAN INTO THE FIRE. SERIOUSLY, FOLKS... THIS ADMINISTRATION HAS BEEN A TOTAL FRIGGIN' DISASTER WHEN IT COMES TO FOREIGN POLICY... (AND DOMESTIC POLICY...)

A Russian official spokesman said that Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, and Sergei Shoigu, the defense minister, would discuss issues touching on “military and technical co-operation” – seen as a Russian euphemism for arms sales.

Cairo’s relations with Washington, its primary aid donor and military supplier for four decades, have frayed since the coup in July that ousted the Islamist Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s first elected president. As tensions with Washington increased over the summer, culminating in a U.S. decision to withhold part of its annual $1.3bn in military aid, Egyptian officials started to hint that their country would seek a realignment in foreign relations.

* LISTEN. I APPLAUD SAVING MONEY, BUT FROM OBAMA'S PERSPECTIVE THIS ISN'T ABOUT SAVING MONEY. BUT MONEY ASIDE... HAVING EGYPT BECOME PART OF MOSCOW'S SPHERE OF INFLUENCE FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE NASSER... GEEZUS... WHAT A FRIGGIN' DISASTER!

* TO BE CONTINUED...

November 10, 2013 at 10:37 AM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)

Nabil Fahmy, the foreign minister, went to Moscow on one of his first trips abroad after the coup. The second of two “popular diplomacy delegations”, made up of intellectuals and public figures, is currently visiting Russia. “Our government was always very apprehensive about the Muslim Brotherhood and might feel that with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi [the defense minister and de facto leader] in power, Egypt could resume its status as the leading Arab nation and help Russia restore its influence in the Middle East,” said Georgy Mirsky, a Mideast expert at the Institute of World Economy and International Relations at the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Though the U.S. administration has been at pains to avoid labeling the change of leadership in Cairo a coup, criticism in Washington of the ousting of Mr Morsi unleashed in Egypt a torrent of nationalist and anti-US sentiment, amplified by a combative and partisan press. Some in the Egyptian media have gone as far as accusing President Barack Obama of close personal ties with Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

* SEE, FOLKS... THIS IS WHAT I MEAN; ALWAYS HALF-MEASURES... ALWAYS PISSING OFF BOTH SIDES... NEVER FULLY TRUSTED BY EITHER SIDE. THIS IS NOT "LEADERSHIP." AGAIN... OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICIES FAILURES ARE ONLY OVERSHADOWED BY HIS DOMESTIC POLICY DISASTERS.

Amid the nationalist frenzy and talk of US conspiracies against Egypt, rumors of an imminent visit by President Vladimir Putin – cast almost as a savior coming to Cairo’s aid – began to circulate in the press and social media soon after the ousting of Morsi. But Badr Abdel Atty, Egypt’s foreign ministry spokesman, dismissed as “nonsense” any suggestion that Cairo sought “to replace one ally with another”.

* YEAH...??? ASK YOURSELVES, FOLKS... WHAT ELSE WOULD HE SAY?

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

The strengthening relations with Russia, he said, were an attempt “to provide Egyptian political decision makers with alternatives in the national interest.”

(*PURSED LIPS*)

* BUT ARE STRENGTHENED RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN EGYPT AND RUSSIA IN AMERICA'S NATIONAL INTERES - THAT'S THE QUESTION!

“As far as Russia is concerned, we have had very strong historical relations since the fifties and sixties and we fought with Russian weaponry in the 1973 war [against Israel] ,” said Mr. Abdel Atty. “So there is solid ground on which we can build for the future.”

* YEP...

(*CLENCHED JAW*)

The Soviet Union was a close ally under Gamal Abdel Nasser, the late president still revered by sections of Egyptian public opinion as a nationalist hero for challenging the west and championing anti-colonial causes until his death in 1970. For those Egyptians who now support General Sisi, the rapprochement with Russia harks back to the days of Nasser, when “our destiny was in our hands” and Egypt was not a U.S. satellite.

(*SIGH*)

November 10, 2013 at 10:38 AM
William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/student-loan-debt-owed-federal-government-463-under-obama

Since President Barack Obama took office in 2009, the amount of outstanding federal student loan debt owed to the government has skyrocketed, increasing by 463%.

* FOUR-HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THREE PERCENT...

The balance owed currently stands at $674,580,000,000.00...

* NEARLY $675 BILLION...

(*REACHING FOR A BOTTLE*)

...compared to $119,803,000,000.00, where it stood in January 2009, according to the Financial Management Service’s latest monthly treasury statement.

* MAYBE IT'S BUSH'S FAULT...?

(*SNORT*)

Direct federal student loan spending began to rise rapidly in fiscal year 2010, when the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act – one of the two laws that make up ObamaCare -- gave the federal government complete control over federal loans for education, the Direct Student Loan (DL) program. This aspect of HCERA became effective July 1, 2010, when the amount of outstanding loans stood at $178,806,000,000. Since then, the balance has increased by 277%.

“Under the DL program, the federal government essentially serves as the banker – it provides the loans to students and their families using federal capital (i.e., funds from the U.S. Treasury, and it owns the loans,” explained the Congressional Research Service).

During President George W. Bush’s time in office, the amount of outstanding loans increased from $67,979,000,000 in January of 2001 to $119,803,000,000 in January of 2009, an increase of 76%. This means that under President Obama the amount of federal direct student loans increased 509 percent more than under President Bush.

Direct-loan financing increased more than seven-fold over the last decade (2003-2013) with the amount of outstanding student loans standing at $90,795,000,000 in September of 2003.

November 10, 2013 at 2:15 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.infowars.com/dhs-to-hire-top-secret-domestic-security-force/

The Department of Homeland Security is to spend $19 million dollars on a private security force in Wisconsin and Minnesota, an armed unit that must have a “Top Secret” security clearance according to an official solicitation.

* WHY CAN'T DHS PROTECT ITSELF...?

According to a solicitation posted on the Federal Business Opportunities website, the Federal Protective Service, a sub-agency of the DHS, intends to hire “armed Protective Security Officer (PSO) services at various locations throughout the states of Minnesota and Wisconsin.”

* https://www.fbo.gov/?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=99fcfaba67468c42e81a0edc0df7e5b5&tab=core&_cview=0

“The project will have a requirement for the contractor to have a Top Secret facility clearance by the start of performance,” states the FPS notice.

Unlike previous solicitations, which normally detail how the guards will be deployed to protect government buildings, the document does not divulge what role the armed security force will undertake.

The fact that the contractors being hired must have a “Top Secret” security clearance clearly suggests that the DHS is not merely seeking to hire armed guards, but Blackwater-style mercenaries who will be engaged in some kind of clandestine activity.

(*SHRUG*)

The notion of an armed security force operating domestically under a “Top Secret” designation, something normally reserved for foreign spying and military operations, underscores how the DHS increasingly treats America like some kind of occupied territory.

(*SHRUG*)

The hiring of private mercenaries with Top Secret clearances also suggests the DHS may be planning on using the contractors as cutouts who will be involved in a variety of different operations outside the purview of public and Congressional scrutiny.

* I DON'T KNOW ABOUT THAT... BUT I DO FEEL THAT WE'VE GONE WAY OVERBOARD WITH ALL THESE "CONTRACT EMPLOYEES" OF THE U.S. GOVERNMENT - PARTICULARLY WHEN WE'RE TALKING ARMED INDVIDUALS.

For some, the idea of an ever-expanding federal government turning to a private security force with a “Top Secret” clearance will stir memories of Barack Obama’s pre-election promise to build “a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded (as the U.S. military).”

* HE DID SAY THAT!

* BUT FOLKS... THAT ASIDE... THERE'S PLENTY OF WHAT THEY'VE ACTUALLY "DONE" AS OPPOSED TO SIMPLY WHAT THEY'VE "SAID" TO PONDER. GOOGLE "STATE DEPARTMENT CONTRACTORS." SEE WHAT POPS UP! (NOTE... "STATE DEPARTMENT"... NOT DEFENSE DEPARTMENT - THAT'S A WHOLE 'NOTHER STORY!)

The DHS’ purchase of over 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition over the course of the last 12 months has also prompted concerns that the feds are gearing up for trouble. DHS also recently purchased half a million dollars worth of fully automatic pepper spray launchers and projectiles that are designed to be used during riot control situations.

November 10, 2013 at 2:33 PM

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