Friday, May 23, 2014
Barker's Pre-Vacation Newsbites: Friday, May 23, 2014
Oh, yeah...! The first vacation since December kicks off tomorrow morning as we head to Richmond, VA. for an overnight and then proceed further south... Charleston, SC. for our yearly sojourn with Pat, Vicki, and The Boys!
Oh, yeah... Husk... here we come!
Between eating, drinking, and general socializing with relatives, friends, and folks we've yet to meet I doubt I'll have much (if any) time for blogging while I'm gone, but... ya never know!
In the meantime... let's see if I can post a few newsbites - and by doing so "reach" some of you who "poo-poo" the social, political, and economic reality that's staring you in the face!
You know the drill - newsbites can be found in the comments section!
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http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2014/05/22/al-qaeda-terrorists-at-guantanamo-treated-better-than-our-vets/
President Obama finally addressed the nation Wednesday about the growing scandal at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. After meeting with VA Secretary Eric Shinseki he pledged to hold folks accountable.
* AFTER HOW MANY YEARS IN OFFICE...???
Thanks, Mr. President.
By now most American have heard about the VA’s infamous patient “secret wait lists” which reportedly contributed to the deaths of up to 40 veterans in the Phoenix area alone. Those patriots were American heroes who served our country proudly. Yet they were left to die waiting to see a doctor.
While the Gitmo ratio is 1.5 to 1, for America’s 9 million veterans receiving VA health care and 267,930 VA employees, the ratio is 35 to 1.
Here’s another secret the White House doesn’t want you to know about the VA. Al Qaeda detainees get better medical treatment than our veterans.
Say what?
Yes, it’s true. I know because I served as a Pentagon spokesman from 2005-2009 and visited Guantanamo Bay Naval Base over 30 times during those years.
Despite the fact that Al Qaeda terrorists carried out the Sept. 11 terror attacks, killing 3,000 people in America, the admitted co-conspirators and their roughly 150 fellow jihadists at Gitmo have approximately 100 doctors, nurses and health care personnel assigned to them.
* I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE THINKING - BECAUSE I'M THINKING THE SAME THING! BUSH WAS PRESIDENT...!!! BUT HERE'S THE DEAL: BUSH IS GONE! HE'S BEEN GONE! OBAMA HAS BEEN PRESIDENT, COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF, AND HEAD OF GOVERNMENT SINCE JANUARY 2009! IT'S NOW MAY OF 2014...!!!
Doctors and medical personnel are at their beck and call. Got a cold, a fever, a toothache, a tumor, chest or back pain, mental health issues, PTSD? No problem, come right on in. Military doctors are waiting to see you.
The VA and Gitmo eligible patient-to-health care provider ratios speak volumes. But beyond the Gitmo numbers, the situation at the VA is also a bright, shining example of misguided priorities and terrible mismanagement.
In late 2008, when Obama was president-elect, he and his staff were warned not to trust the wait times reported by VA health care facilities. But instead of fixing the problem, their focus was closing Guantanamo and improving the comfort of detainees - even though they already lived under some of the best prison conditions ever seen.
While some who see “2008” may reflexively say, “blame Bush, not Obama” the fact is that the VA’s health system has been fatally flawed for years, regardless of who has been the president.
* FAIR ENOUGH... BUT AGAIN, THIS SHOWS HOW SCREWED WE ARE... HOW FUCKED UP GOVERNMENT IS REGARDLESS OF DEMOCRATS OR REPUBLICANS "RUNNING" THINGS.
The VA is a classic example of big government gone wild. It is America’s second largest cabinet agency after the Defense Department. Since civil service promotions are traditionally based more on seniority than performance, and it’s near impossible to fire anyone, there’s a punch-the-clock mentality that’s pervasive. Not surprisingly, there's little to no sense of urgency. So to instill incentives, the VA shells out high salaries and bonuses, deserved or not.
* AND OBVIOUSLY THIS DOESN'T WORK! (THOUGH IT DOES PISS MONEY AWAY!)
According to a Fox News report, Phoenix VA hospital paid staff up to $357,000 for doctor executives and $147,000 for nursing staff. On average, doctors and nurses in Phoenix make just over half those figures.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
* RE: THE AUTHOR OF THIS PIECE...
J.D. Gordon is a retired Navy Commander who served as a Pentagon spokesman in the Office of the Secretary of Defense from 2005-09.
* JUST FOR WHAT IT'S WORTH.
http://dailysurge.com/2014/05/video-al-sharpton-defends-history-hate-one-jew/
* JUST WATCH THE VIDEO... AND REMEMBER... REMEMBER...
* AGAIN... CAN I POINT TO SCUMBAG REPUBLICANS? SURE! PLENTY OF 'EM! BUT WHEN YOU PUT THINGS IN CONTEXT IT'S SIMPLY UNDENIABLE THAT THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY STICKS WITH THEIR SCUMBAGS NO MATTER WHAT WHILE THE GOP AT LEAST HAS SOME SENSE OF SHAME... SOME LINES THAT CAN'T BE CROSSED (AT LEAST PUBLICLY).
http://cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/julia-seymour/gas-price-record-worsens-1245-days-above-3-gallon
Memorial Day weekend drivers will continue to take a hit as gasoline prices remain high.
May 20 marks the 1,245th straight day that the national average for a gallon of regular gasoline costs more than $3 a gallon, according to AAA data.
That's nearly three-and-a-half years above $3 a gallon.
* CHANT IT WITH ME, FOLKS: O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A! O-BAM-A!
USA Today reported last September that, for the first time ever, gas prices had been higher than $3 a gallon for 1,000 consecutive days - beginning Dec. 23, 2010, through Sept. 17, 2013. Unfortunately, that awful record streak of sustained highs has not been broken. Gas prices dipped in the fall, down to $3.179 (Nov. 12), but surged again.
ABC, CBS and NBC morning and evening news shows haven't spent much time on gas prices, lately. A Nexis search yielded only 11 stories mentioning what was going on with gas prices in the past three months.
(*SMIRK*)
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/05/22/Restaurant-With-No-Weapons-No-Concealed-Firearms-Sign-Robbed-At-Gunpoint
A Durham, North Carolina restaurant with a sign on its front door reading, "No Weapons, No Concealed Firearms," was robbed at gunpoint on May 19.
(*GUFFAW*)
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/contradiction-presidents-claim-va-admitted-23-veteran-deaths-linked-delays-care_793459.html
At a press conference Wednesday, President Obama said that the inspector general for the VA "did not see a link" between veteran deaths and delays in care at VA hospitals.
* UH-HUH...
It's true that the inspector general has not yet attributed deaths at the Phoenix VA to delays in care, but a VA internal review found a link between the deaths of 23 veterans and wait times at VA facilities.
"Delays in endoscopy screenings for potential gastrointestinal cancer in 76 veterans treated at Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals are linked to 23 deaths, most of them three to four years ago, according to the VA," USA Today's Gregg Zoroya reported on April 8.
"The delays occurred at 27 VA hospitals with deaths at 13 of the facilities. The worst record was at the William Jennings Bryan Dorn veterans hospital in Columbia, S.C., where there were 20 cases of delays and six deaths, according to a VA report."
(*PURSED LIPS*)
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/may/21/inside-the-ring-russia-tests-new-intercontinental-/?page=all#pagebreak
Russia conducted a flight test of an intercontinental ballistic missile Tuesday that state media in Moscow said included the test of an advanced warhead.
Russia, along with China, is developing ultra-high-speed, hypersonic vehicles for launch atop missiles. Hypersonic vehicles, both powered and glide weapons, are designed to travel at the edge of space and are being built to defeat U.S. missile defenses. The National Air and Space Intelligence Center stated in a report last year that Russia is working on a new class of hypersonic vehicle designed to “allow Russian strategic missiles to penetrate missile defense systems.”
* NEXT...
A senior State Department official said this week he will report to Congress on whether Chinese Communist Party elites are benefiting from Beijing’s economic espionage program.
Daniel Russel, assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, told a House hearing Tuesday that Beijing-backed economic cyber espionage is a major concern. Stolen U.S. data is being “transferred to Chinese companies or state-owned enterprises and used for commercial gain,” Mr. Russel told a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.
The Pentagon’s senior spokesman said Tuesday that the Defense Department shares the rest of the government’s concerns about China’s theft of trade data.
Several U.S. and allied defense contractors have been victims of Chinese cyberattacks. The most damaging case was the loss of secrets related to the Lockheed Martin F-35, the military’s newest jet. U.S. defense officials told Inside the Ring in March that F-35 secrets obtained by cyber espionage seven years ago have begun appearing in China’s new J-20 stealth fighter, which appears very similar in design to the F-35.
http://news.yahoo.com/u-faces-higher-food-price-inflation-2014-led-141513395--business.html;_ylt=AwrBJR.oaX9TjhMAxynQtDMD
The Department of Agriculture has warned of sticker shock facing home chefs on the eve of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, the unofficial start of the U.S. summer grilling season.
* DUH!
The agency said conditions in California could have "large and lasting effects on U.S. fruit, vegetable, dairy and egg prices," as the most populous U.S. state struggles through what officials are calling a catastrophic drought.
* BULLSHIT! (I MEAN BLAMING THE DROUGHT. REMEMBER THE DUSTBOWL OF THE '30's? THAT WAS A TIME OF DEFLATION!) FOLKS... SERIOUSLY... MAN-MADE - DELIBERATELY MAN-MADE - POLICIES ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR FOOD INFLATION AS WITH ALL INFLATION! FED POLICIES! TREASURY POLICIES! ALL DELIBERATELY INFLATIONARY! AND ASK YOURSELVES... HOW'BOUT RANCHERS... IF THE GOVERNMENT WANTS BEEF PRICES LOWER WHY ARE THE OMAMAITES DELIBERATELY DOING EVERYTHING WITHIN THEIR POWER TO "BREAK" RANCHERS AND CRIPPLE RANCHING? (AND DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON STATE GOVERNMENT IN CALIFORNIA! THEY'RE DELIBERATELY STARVING AGRICULTURAL LANDS OF WATER SO AS NOT TO "BURDEN" URBAN DWELLERS WITH HIGHER TAXES FOR THEIR WATER CONSUMPTION.)
The consumer price index (CPI) for U.S. beef and veal is up almost 10% so far in 2014, reflecting the fastest increase in retail beef prices since the end of 2003. Prices, even after adjusting for inflation, are at record highs.
Beef and veal prices for the whole of 2014 are now forecast to increase by 5.5% to 6.5%, a sharp advance from last month's forecast for a 3% to 4% rise.
Pork prices are set to rise by 3% to 4%, up from a 2% to 3% advance expected a month ago.
* AND THE FEDS JUST ALLOWED CHINA TO BUY SMITHFIELD!
* FOLKS... THIS IS MADNESS...!!!
The USDA said overall U.S. food price inflation for 2014, including food bought at grocery stores and food bought at restaurants, would rise by 2.5% to 3.5% in 2014.
* AND THAT DOESN'T TAKE QUALITY INTO ACCOUNT! (AND I'M NOT EVEN SURE IT TAKES PORTION SIZE INTO ACCOUNT!)
"The food-at-home CPI has already increased more in the first four months of 2014 then it did in all of 2013," USDA noted.
Egg prices are also climbing - up 15% in April alone - and are expected to rise by 5% to 6%on the year, and higher milk prices are feeding through to other products in the dairy case, particularly cheese.
* $3.99 A GALLON HERE IN ORANGE COUNTRY NY... WHICH BTW IS DAIRY COUNTRY!
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