Thursday, August 21, 2014

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, August 21, 2014


Big night ahead, folks! My "niece" Maddy is gonna be officially a young woman - Sweet 16 - in less than 24 hours!

(Happy Birthday in advance, sweetie!)

And, folks... the dad... my "brother" Joey... he's pulled out all the stops! Come 6:30 p.m. tonight I'll be drinking Macallan at that world famous "neighborhood joint" The Marina Del Rey - Bronx New York!

(And recall, my friends... we're talkin' a Sweet 16... I can only imagine what Joey Baby has planned for his only child's wedding...!!!)

Anyway... whoever you are... wherever you are... at some point during this day or evening pour yourself a refreshing adult beverage and join me in spirit as I toast, "To Maddy! To she who is loved!"


5 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/20/obamacare-tax-forms-may-pose-challenge-for-enrolle/

ObamaCare customers won’t be able to file their tax returns next year until the government sends them a form detailing their coverage and tax credits, and if those forms are late some taxpayers could face a delay in seeking their refunds.

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

Federal and state officials said they’re working on the forms, known as the 1095A, and vowed to meet the Jan. 31 deadline for issuing them. But some tax professionals are skeptical, citing the administration’s iffy track record on being able to meet other deadlines in the massive health overhaul law.

* UNLIKE IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR - OR THE REAL WORLD FOR THAT MATTER - FAILURE TO ACHIEVE DEADLINE (EVEN LEGAL DEADLINES) WILL NOT COST ANYONE HIS OR HER JOB... LET ALONE PUT ANYONE IN FEAR OF GOING TO JAIL.

* SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP, CITIZEN! ALL HAIL OBAMA!

Filers need the forms to calculate whether they received the correct subsidy from the government, or if they owe money to cover a difference.

The forms are supposed to be issued around the same time employers issue W-2 forms to their workers detailing their earnings for the year. But some businesses provide their W-2s before the Jan. 31 deadline, and analysts said taxpayers may go ahead and file at that point, not realizing they still need to account for how ObamaCare affects their overall earnings.

* OOPS...

The IRS is handling most of Obamacare’s tax issues, but the 1095A forms are being issued by the federal health marketplace and the 15 state-run health exchanges.

(*ROLLING MY EYES*)

The web rollout of the federal website, HealthCare.gov, was a disaster last fall and several state-run exchanges had to scrap their web platforms, feeding into concern about what’s next as the second year of enrollment in the exchanges looms.

William R. Barker said...

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/james-foley-us-military-launched-secret-rescue-operation/story?id=25060796

U.S. special operations forces early this summer launched a secret, major rescue operation in Syria to save James Foley and a number of Americans held by the extremist group ISIS, but the mission failed because the hostages weren’t there, senior administration officials told ABC News today.

* AND WE'RE FINDING OUT ABOUT THIS ONLY NOW...???

* GEEZUS... AT LEAST CARTER HAD THE BALLS TO OWN UP TO HIS FAILURES REGARDING BLOW HOSTAGE RESCUE ATTEMPTS...

* YOU DIDN'T NOTICE ANY HESITATION WITH OBAMA CLAIMING PERSON CREDIT FOR "GETTING" BIN LADIN - DID YOU?

President Obama authorized the “substantial and complex” rescue operation after the officials said a “broad collection of intelligence” led the U.S. to believe the hostages were being held in a specific location in the embattled Middle Eastern nation. When “several dozen” U.S. special operation members landed in Syria, however, they were met with gunfire and “while on site, it became apparent the hostages were not there,” one of the officials said.

(*PURSED LIPS*)

The special operators engaged in a firefight in which ISIS suffered “a good number” casualties, the official said, while the American forces suffered only a single minor injury. The American forces were able to get back on helicopters and escape.

* "ESCAPE." OUR FORCES WERE ABLE TO "ESCAPE." (MAKE YA PROUD, HUH? NOT!)

“Intelligence is not a perfect science,” the senior official said. As to how the intelligence failed and why the hostages were not there, the official said, “The truth is, we don’t know. And that’s the truth. When we got there, they weren’t there. We don’t know why that is.”

* FOLKS... JUST CONSIDER THIS ADMINSTRATION'S TRACK RECORD WITH "THE TRUTH." THIS ISN'T A PARTISAN OBSERVATION - THIS IS JUST REALITY SPEAKING! THESE PEOPLE CAN NEVER BE TRUSTED!

Much about the daring mission itself remains a secret - officials said they did not want to reveal too much about the rescue attempt for fear of spoiling future efforts.

* FOLKS... REMEMBER HOW OBAMA AND TOP ADMINISTRATION FIGURES DELIBERATELY SHARED CLASSIFIED INFORMATION WITH JOURNALISTS AND FILM MAKERS SO AS TO HEAP GLORY ON OBAMA FOR "GETTING" BIN LADIN? COM'ON! YOU REMEMBER!!!

William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/aug/20/lawsuit-asks-san-francisco-to-share-pain-on-green-/

The Endangered Species Act has wreaked havoc for decades on rural communities, but a newly filed lawsuit could force San Francisco urbanites like House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to share their pain.

A federal complaint filed this week contends that the Hetch Hetchy Project, which supplies water to San Francisco and the Bay Area, has unfairly enjoyed an exemption from the “severe cutbacks” required in rural California in order to save endangered fish species.

* WHY, MY, OH, MY... I WONDER HOW SUCH A THING CAME TO PASS?

(*SMIRK*)

Craig Manson, who heads the Center for Environmental Science, Accuracy and Reliability (CESAR) in Fresno, said the lawsuit is aimed at addressing the “double standard” that forces farmers to give up water in the name of species conservation — without requiring Bay Area residents to do the same.

* ALL ANIMALS ARE CREATED EQUAL... IT'S JUST THAT SOME ARE CREATED... er... MORE EQUAL... RIGHT?

Mr. Manson wants the National Park Service to press the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to end the special exemption from the Endangered Species Act (ESA), but “the Park Service just won’t do it.”

* SPECIAL EXEMPTION, HUH...???

“I think the law is being subjectively applied,” said Aubrey Bettencourt, executive director of the California Water Alliance. “California is a tale of two cities. If you added all the agrarian counties of California together in terms of registered voters, that’s not even enough to offset either San Francisco or Los Angeles. There are not enough votes.”

The Hetch Hetchy Project at Yosemite National Park diverts water from the Tuolumne River dam to a pipeline that sends water 167 miles away to San Francisco. Without that diversion, about 15 percent more water would flow to the Sacramento Delta, which is critical habitat for threatened fish like the delta smelt, the green sturgeon and several species of salmon, according to the lawsuit.

* NOW, PERSONALLY, I DON'T REALLY GIVE MUCH OF A DAMN FOR THE DELTA SMELT, GREEN STURGEON, AND/OR SEVERAL SPECIES OF SALMON, BUT...

(*SHRUG*)

The Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service have ordered “severe cutbacks” in the amount of water provided to the Central Valley in order to protect the fish habitat, says the lawsuit, but those agencies “have required no such cutbacks for the Hetch Hetchy Project diversions because [the] defendants have never initiated the statutorily required ESA consultations.”

* HMM... ONCE AGAIN "ABOVE THE LAW."

Mr. Manson argued that cities shouldn’t be exempt from species-conservation mandates. “There seems to be an attitude of, ‘Well, they’re just farmers,’ and some of the more urban jurisdictions don’t care very much about the farmers,” said Mr. Manson. “There are a lot of people who don’t understand agriculture, frankly, and they believe the [rural] water users are the biggest threat to the Delta, and they certainly are not.”

William R. Barker said...

http://www.ijreview.com/2014/08/170048-star-witness-michael-brown-shooting-charged-theft-filing-false-police-report/

* THE HEADLINE:

Star Witness In Michael Brown Shooting Charged With Theft, Filing False Police Report

* SO... FOLKS...

Dorian Johnson, the primary witness to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, has an outstanding warrant for a 2011 theft in Jefferson City and pleaded guilty for filing a false police report related to that theft.

* REFRESH ME... IS MR. JOHNSON A "YOUTH"... A "TEEN"...?

St. Louis ABC affiliate ABC 17 cross referenced Johnson’s name against several records and discovered the warrant.

* I WONDER... HAD ERIC HOLDER PREVIOUSLY DONE THE SAME?

Johnson will be the star witness for any potential prosecution proceedings against Officer Darren Wilson for the shooting of Brown. Johnson was walking with Brown when the shooting occurred.

* JOHNSON SHOULD BE IN JAIL RIGHT NOW... YOU FOLKS KNOW THAT, RIGHT?

He has already done multiple media appearances where he falsely claimed Brown was shot by Wilson in the back.

He also has claimed that Brown never reached for Wilson’s gun, was “shot like an animal” and that Brown had his hands up and told Wilson he was unarmed.

Johnson’s claims helped inspire the protests and riots in Ferguson over the past 10 days, as well as the “Hands up, don’t shoot” rallying cry of the protesters and their supporters.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch has details about the 2011 charges against Johnson:

During the summer after his first semester at Lincoln, Johnson was charged with a misdemeanor after giving police a false first name after he was arrested on suspicion of theft. He later pleaded guilty. He was accused of stealing a package containing a backpack belonging to someone else from an apartment complex. When he was arrested in that case, he identified himself as Derrick Johnson and said he was 16. He is wanted for failing to appear in Jefferson City municipal court to answer to the theft charge, court officials said.

According to the Post-Dispatch, the president of the local chapter of the NAACP knew about the charges against Johnson, but the fact that he was guilty of lying to the police didn’t matter: Adolphus Pruitt, president of the St. Louis NAACP chapter, which has been encouraging witnesses to come forward, said Johnson’s false report case “doesn’t concern me.”

* SCUMBAG.

* AND HERE'S THE BIGGER, PROBLEM, FOLKS: THE NAACP MEMBERSHIP WILL EMBRACE PRUITT INSTEAD OF CALLING FOR HIS OUSTER.

* FOLKS... THERE IS DEEP DYSFUNCTION WITHIN THE AFRICAN-AMERICAN POPULATION. PERIOD.

Whether or not Johnson committed the crime, lied to police, or is proven false on his account of how Brown was shot by Wilson, finding out what actually happened in the Ferguson shooting will require more evidence and multiple eye-witness accounts. It is important for neither the mainstream media nor armchair pundits to act like they definitively know what happened in this tragic event.

* THAT'S ALWAYS BEEN MY POSITION. FUNNY HOW SUCH COMMON SENSE HAS TO BE PUT INTO WORDS TO CAUTION A SUPPOSEDLY PROFESSIONAL MEDIA AND VARIOUS GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-20/ferguson-prosecutor-says-no-charge-decision-until-october.html

The Missouri grand jury that began considering evidence today in the police killing of an unarmed man won’t decide whether to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson until October “at the earliest,” a spokesman for the local prosecutor said.

* OUTRAGEOUS.

* FOLKS... FOR REGULAR PEOPLE... THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IS ANYTHING BUT. IMAGINE THIS POOR COP AND HIS FAMILY. IMAGE THE STRESS THUS PLACED UPON EVERY SINGLE POLICE OFFICER IN FERGUSON AS LONG AS THIS LOADED "GUN" IS POINTED AT ONE OF THEIR OWN.

The grand jury, which is presented testimony and other evidence by prosecutors, must decide whether to indict Wilson for the shooting in the St. Louis suburb, and on what charge.

* IT'S AUGUST 21! THE SHOOTING TOOK PLACE HOW LONG AGO? WHAT'S THE FRIGGIN' DELAY...?!?!

A grand jury, which in this case is a panel of 12 jurors, traditionally hears evidence in many cases during the course of its term. Unlike a trial, or petit jury, a grand jury hands up an indictment rather than a verdict.

The Clayton, Missouri grand jury was empaneled in May, said Edward Magee, spokesman for prosecutor Bob McCulloch. He said that the process of presenting evidence will last until October.

* RIDICULOUS...