Barker's Newsbites: Monday, June 30, 2014

So... just glancing over Drudge...

Gas prices are at a six year high for early summer - All Hail Obama!

Nice start to the week, huh?

America... or Amerika?

Folks... I just added a newsbite to this weekend's newsbites; a caution... backed by the wisdom, knowledge, and integrity of Ron Paul - a man I highly admire.

I was at first going to post it as a stand-alone now. Upon further consideration I've decided that I will instead wait till July 4th to post Mr. Paul's sentiments (and mine) as a stand-alone.

That said... if you're reading this... you might as well check out Paul's piece (along with the other newsbites) which can be found within the comments section of this weekend's newsbites post!

Weekend Newsbites: Sat. & Sun., June 28 & 29, 2014

Happy Saturday, Folks!

(And Happy Pre-Sunday While I'm At It!)

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, June 27, 2014

Allow me to lead off today's newsbites with the following front-page newsbite:

Senate Democrats blocked Republicans on Thursday from passing two bills that would require companies to verify the legal status of people before they hire them, and stop the government from handing out child tax credits to illegal immigrants.

Republican Senator Jeff Sessions tried to get approval for the two bills after saying illegal immigration is swamping the U.S., which is leading to reduce wages for Americans and higher costs as these immigrants start improperly receiving federal tax benefits.

Sessions first tried to pass the Accountability Through Electronic Verification Act, sponsored by Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa). That bill would require companies to verify whether possible employees are legally able to work in the country.

* SOUNDS REASONABLE TO ME...

But Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) argued that this e-verify provision was in the Senate’s broad immigration bill that passed a year ago, and said Democrats aren’t looking to negotiate passage of sections of that bill. “We are not going to take that bill apart piece by piece, as the senator from Alabama suggests,” Durbin said. “I object.”

Sessions said if the e-verify program can be accepted by Democrats in the larger bill, they should be able to approve it quickly this week.

* AGAIN... SOUNDS REASONABLE...

“If it’s so good, why don’t we bring it up and pass it now?” Sessions asked. “Why do we have to pass along with it a bill that will double the number of guest workers in the country, and would increase immigration?”

Sessions then tried to pass the Child Tax Credit Integrity Preservation Act, which would change the law to ensure illegal immigrants cannot receive child tax credit benefits. But Durbin objected again, and seemed to indicate he believes these benefits should flow to non-citizens.

“I want to make sure that working families with small children have the helping hand of our tax code,” he said. “I want to stop any fraud in any program in our tax code, but I don’t believe this bill is a balanced approach to solving the problem, and I object.”

* OUR ECONOMY IS A MESS... UNEMPLOYMENT IS UNACCEPTABLY HIGH... UNDEREMPLOYMENT IS UNACCEPTABLY HIGH... EACH YEAR WE BORROW ADDITIONAL HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS (ADDING TO THE $17 TRILLION PLUS NATIONAL DEBT) TO PAY FOR SPENDING WE CAN'T AFFORD.

* THE DEMOCRAT'S ANSWER: MORE IMMIGRATION. MORE WELFARE. MORE DEFICIT SPENDING.

* FOLKS... AMERIKA 2014 IS A SICK, SICK, SICK SOCIETY. WE'RE LIKE LEMMING RUSHING TOWARDS SUICIDE.

Durbin's comments left a stunned Sessions to note that the Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General has said $4.2 billion in child tax credits were given to illegal immigrants.

“I am flabbergasted, amazed that we would sit by and $4 billion in child tax credit payments to go out that are not justified,” he said.

* INSTITUTIONAL INSANITY...

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, June 26, 2014

So... the Drudge headline this morning is "USA Grinds To Halt For World Cup Game."

(Kind of amusing, actually - give the piece a read!)

Hey... folks... remember Napoleon III?

(If you haven't watched "The Magnificent Seven" in awhile... pick up a $4.99 DVD at Walmart and convene a family screening...)

Anyway... emerging from my ramblings is the following caution to my fellow citizens:

America is not Europe. Nor do we want to be. 

Unfortunately... by "we" I speak of Tea Party Americans, not establishment republicans, certainly not democrats.

Beware, my readers! The top-down highly centralized, bureaucratic European state "ruled" by a fairly cohesive cultural elite... that's what more and more American elites would have us become.

What of Mexico? What was I getting at mentioning "The Magnificent Seven?" Well... that's how the elites view "We The People" - as poor, helpless, pathetic Mexican peasants needing to be rescued.

Here's the problem: Americans are not Mexicans. (However, folks, understand, behind the pro-illegal-immigration push is a desire to re-create "We The People" as a more complaint population... easier to control... easier to exploit.)

Folks... do you want an America symbolized by "The Magnificent Seven" or... by Mexican peasants?

What's any of this have to do with soccer...?

(*GUFFAW*)

The fallback goal of the Left is to make us more "French." (More "European!") Folks... do you really want America to be Greece? Italy? Spain? Even Ireland or the UK? I don't. 

Folks... sports, movies, politics, life... if nothing else, Obama and his allies have always been totally frank about one thing; they have, are, and will continue to do all within their power to "fundamentally change America."

Folks... they've been succeeding. Contemplate the "modern" American economy. Examine the deliberate spurring of the growth of the American Welfare State. Consider the cultural assault upon traditional American ideals of right and wrong... good and bad.

Geezus, people... wake up!
 

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, June 25, 2014

No, folks... I haven't been hiding under the covers all day in a deep depression over last night's Mississippi GOP primary win by 76-year-old career politician and six-term U.S. Senator Thad Cochran.

Nope... just otherwise occupied today!

(*SMILE*)

Was I disappointed? Sure. The wrong guy won... and he won the Mississippi GOP primary only through democratic votes.

(*SHRUG*)

Forget the dirty politics... we're all big boys and girls. You expect politicians to lie. You expect supporters of politicians to play dirty. But, folks... the unavoidable truth is indeed that democratic votes decided who would be this year's Mississippi GOP candidate for the U.S. Senate.

And, folks... the GOP Establishment is just fine with that.

Anyway... on to newsbites!

Barker's Newsbites: Tuesday, March 24, 2014

Howdy, folks!

I'm STUFFED...

Did a radio show this morning and then out to lunch with my buddy (and the show's host) Frank.

Later on... I'll be donating blood.

Barker's Newsbites: Monday, June 23, 2014

Sorry for no weekend newsbites, folks, but it was a busy weekend...

DRESS SHOPPING for "The Mother of the Bride."

(She ended up - at my insistence - purchasing not one... but two... beautiful gowns!)

Anyway... on to today's newsbiting!

The Kind of People the Obamas and the Clintons Are...

All we know for sure is that Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are both scumbags.

Yep...

Them and Leon Panetta...

Them and Susan Rice...

(*GRITTING MY TEETH*)

Them... and the military top brass and even colonels and majors, and navy captains who knew the truth but refused to resign and demand public questioning under oath of themselves and their superiors.

The following is a front page newsbite of Edward Klein's latest reporting via the New York Post:

By 10 p.m. on Sept. 11, 2012, when Hillary Clinton received a call from President Obama, she was one of the most thoroughly briefed officials in Washington on the unfolding disaster in Benghazi, Libya.

* ACCORDING TO KLEIN... YES. ACCORDING TO HILLARY HERSELF...? NO.

* FOLKS... I'VE SAID THIS FROM THE BEGINNING - EITHER SHE WAS IGNORANT, UNINFORMED, AND INCURIOUS TO THE POINT OF WILLFUL DERELICTION OF DUTY... OR... SHE WAS DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR FAILING TO HEED WARNINGS AND FOR DENYING REQUESTS FOR AID FROM AMBASSADOR STEVENS AND OTHERS FAMILIAR WITH WHAT WAS GOING ON IN LIBYA ALL THROUGHOUT THE YEAR IN QUESTION.

She knew that Ambassador Christopher Stevens and a communications operator were dead, and that the attackers had launched a well-coordinated mortar assault on the CIA annex, which would cost the lives of two more Americans.

* "WOULD."

She had no doubt that a terrorist attack had been launched against America on the anniversary of 9/11.

However, when Hillary picked up the phone and heard Obama’s voice, she learned the president had other ideas in mind. With less than two months before Election Day, he was still boasting that he had al Qaeda on the run. If the truth about Benghazi became known, it would blow that argument out of the water.

“Hillary was stunned when she heard the president talk about the Benghazi attack,” one of her top legal advisers said in an interview. “Obama wanted her to say that the attack had been a spontaneous demonstration triggered by an obscure video on the Internet that demeaned the Prophet Mohammed.”

* OBAMA WANTED HER TO LIE... FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES... FOR HIS PERSONAL POLITICAL SELF-INTEREST...

This adviser continued: “Hillary told Obama, ‘Mr. President, that story isn’t credible. Among other things, it ignores the fact that the attack occurred on 9/11.’ But the president was adamant. He said, ‘Hillary, I need you to put out a State Department release as soon as possible.’”

* WHO IS THIS "ADVISER?" WE NEED TO KNOW. THIS NEEDS TO BE SWORN TO UNDER OATH.

After her conversation with the president, Hillary called Bill Clinton, who was at his penthouse apartment in the William J. Clinton Presidential Library in Little Rock, and told him what Obama wanted her to do.

“I’m sick about it,” she said, according to the legal adviser, who was filled in on the conversation.

“That story won’t hold up,” Bill said.

“I know,” Hillary said. “I told the president that.”

“It’s an impossible story,” Bill said. “I can’t believe the president is claiming it wasn’t terrorism. Then again, maybe I can. It looks like Obama isn’t going to allow anyone to say that terrorism has occurred on his watch.”

Hillary’s legal adviser provided further detail:

“During their phone call, Bill started playing with various doomsday scenarios, up to and including the idea that Hillary consider resigning as secretary of state over the issue.

* OF COURSE SHE SHOULD HAVE! ANY HONORABLE PERSON WOULD HAVE!

But both he and Hillary quickly agreed that resigning wasn’t a realistic option. If her resignation hurt Obama’s chances of winning re-election, her fellow Democrats would never forgive her. Hillary was already thinking of running for president in 2016, and her political future, as well as Obama’s, hung in the balance.”

* SCUMBAGS.

* DIRTY... ROTTEN... SCUMBAGS...

Obama had put Hillary in a corner, and she and Bill didn’t see a way out.

* BECAUSE THEY'RE BOTH DEEPLY DISHONORABLE PEOPLE!

(*SHRUG*)

And so, shortly after 10 o’clock on the night of September 11, she released an official statement that blamed the Benghazi attack on an “inflammatory posted on the Internet.”

* THIS WOMAN SHOULD BE IN JAIL.

The Benghazi Deception was in full swing.

* THIS ARTICLE IS (I'M GUESSING") THE FIRST OF A SERIES OF KLEIN ARTICLES TAKEN FROM HIS NEW BOOK "BLOOD FEUD: THE CLINTONS vs. THE OBAMAS"

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, June 20, 2014

Let's start today's newsbiting with a front-page newsbite!

A few moments ago I sent the link to "He Whose Name Dare Not Be Mentioned," but "he" is a very busy man. Since my buddy gets automatic updates each time I add a new post to Usually Right, by posting Mike Needham's commentary here, I'm actually upping the odds that he'll read it!

You should all read it. Those of you who don't consider yourselves fans of the "Tea Party" might find yourselves at least reexamining your own internal intellectual consistency. Certainly the "Tea Party" Republicans are the ones standing against crony capitalism.

Anyway... here goes...

Legendary computer scientist Alan Kay once said “The best way to create the future is to invent it.” It’s an ethos that has animated every great American entrepreneur and driven our nation’s economy since its founding.

Will that attitude survive the times we live in?

Today, two competing impulses vie for the soul of our nation’s economy. The first is that great American impulse: See a problem, start a company and solve the problem. The second is the advice of our nation’s crony Capitol: Hire a lobbyist to get politicians, regulators and bureaucrats to enact policies that protect you from competition.

Nowhere has the spirit of entrepreneurship been greater in the world than Silicon Valley. It is a bastion of free enterprise and proof the American Dream remains a reality. Yet, ever since Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah,  famously told Bill Gates in 2000 “If you want to get involved in business, then get involved in Washington,” the Valley’s relationship with Washington has changed.

The evolution of Big Tech has been well-documented. Once adverse to the ways of Washington, the industry has embraced the capital’s pay-to-influence culture, and headlines this week paint a startling picture:

The Hill:  McCarthy’s rise could be boon for tech

Politico: Tech riding high with expected McCarthy ascension

In article after article, Kevin McCarthy, the [now] third-ranking House Republican, is portrayed as the “unofficial ambassador to Silicon Valley for House Republicans.” Facebook’s vice president of U.S. public policy told one Washington publication that McCarthy “intuitively understands the industry’s culture of innovation and knows what’s needed to protect it.”

Protect it?

Facebook didn’t grow into a $168 billion company because Washington took steps to protect it. The same is true for tech giants Amazon, Apple, eBay, Google, Intel and Microsoft.

Nonetheless, companies and industries increasingly see their future tied to various actors in Washington. Take Dave Brat’s stunning victory last week. It sent shockwaves through the business community. 

Again, the headlines said it all:

Politico: Wall Street loses ally with Eric Cantor loss

KC Business Journal: How Eric Cantor’s loss is bad for business — big business, that is

Boeing’s stock dropped 2.3% the day after Brat’s victory on fears the Export-Import Bank would not be reauthorized. The taxpayer-backed export agency is predicted to “support” $10 billion in Boeing sales this year even though the company stated less than a year ago it could find its own financing.

On Fox News Sunday last week, George Will explained the significance of the Ex-Im Bank, which he said played “a larger role” than amnesty in Brat’s victory:

“I’ll tell you something that may get done now because of this, and that is de- authorizing, refusing to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank, which is known in Washington for very good reason as Boeing’s bank, and has become a symbol to people like David Brat of crony capitalism, not without reason.”

Even if you set aside the merits of this particular government intervention or that particular program, the degree to which businesses rely on the U.S. government and the ability a single member of Congress has to affect an industry is alarming.

The defeat of one politician and the elevation of another should not have an impact on industry, but it does. As government growth has gone unchecked, so too has the influence of government, politicians and bureaucrats in private sector business plans. Whether we want to admit it or not, America’s economy is a political economy.