Welcome back to me!
Yep... recovered from the wedding - took yesterday off... and spent most of yesterday afternoon and early evening watching Dr. Who.
(The new season premiers on Saturday...!!!)
I note the world continues to go to hell...
I would say, "Chant it with me, folks... Die, Obama, die..."
(*PAUSE*)
Unfortunately... that would leave us with President Biden. (Not quite sure that would be better...)
Anyway... let's try some blogging today! On to Newsbites! You'll find 'em in the Comments Section of this post as I add 'em!
12 comments:
http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/18/us/missouri-teen-shooting/index.html
The officer who killed Brown says the teenager...
* A BIG, DANGEROUS, AGGRESSIVE TEENAGER...
...rushed at him full speed in the moments before the shooting, according to an account phoned in to a St. Louis radio station and confirmed by a source with detailed knowledge of the investigation.
According to the version on KFTK, phoned in by a woman who identified herself as "Josie," the altercation on August 9 began after Officer Darren Wilson rolled down his window to tell Brown and a friend to stop walking in the street.
When Wilson tried to get out of his cruiser, Brown first tried to push the officer back into the car, then punched him in the face and grabbed for his gun before breaking free after the gun went off once, the caller said.
* FOLKS... IF THIS IS TRUE...
(*SHRUG*)
Wilson pursued Brown and his friend, ordering them to freeze, according to the account. When they turned around, Brown began taunting Wilson, saying he would not arrest them, then ran at the officer at full speed, the caller said.
Wilson then began shooting. The final shot was to Brown's forehead, and the teenager fell two or three feet in front of Wilson, said the caller, who identified herself as the officer's friend.
* AGAIN... IF THIS IS TRUE... IT SEEMS TO ME BROWN IS THE BAD GUY.
* LISTEN... I'M QUITE CONTENT TO KEEP AN OPEN MIND. ARE THOSE ON THE LEFT? ARE THOSE WHO INSTINCTIVELY HATE THE POLICE?
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/ferguson-protesters-the-peaceful-the-elders-the-looters-and-the-militants/2014/08/18/d6be1262-26f3-11e4-8593-da634b334390_story.html
On one corner of a battered stretch of West Florissant Avenue, the epicenter of ongoing protests, young men pull dark scarves up over their mouths and lob molotov cocktails at police from behind makeshift barricades built of bricks and wood planks. They call the gasoline-filled bottles “poor man’s bombs.”
* AND SNIPERS SHOULD TAKE THEM OUT! WHEN THE AUTHORITIES ALLOW ANIMALS TO "LOB MOLOTOV COCKTAILS" AT POLICE WITHOUT THE LOBBERS BEING IMMEDIATELY "TAKEN DOWN" THIS IS ALL THE EVIDENCE I NEED TO DECLARE THAT THE "AUTHORITIES" THEMSELVES NEED TO BE REPLACED.
The young men yell expletives and, with a rebel’s bravado, speak about securing justice for Michael Brown, the black teen fatally shot Aug. 9 by a white police officer, “by any means necessary.”
* AND A REPORTER CAN GET THIS CLOSE SO AS TO KNOW THIS... BUT THE POLICE CAN'T TAKE THESE BASTARDS OUT...???
Some of the men are from the area — Ferguson or surrounding towns also defined in part by the gulf separating the mostly white law enforcement agencies from a mistrusting African American public. Many others — it is hard to quantify the percentage — have arrived by bus and by car from Chicago, Detroit, Brooklyn and elsewhere.
They will not give their names. But their leaders say they are ready to fight, some with guns in their hands. “This is not the time for no peace,” said one man, a 27-year-old who made the trip here from Chicago.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Then there are the looters, leaderless men who under cover of nightly political protest target liquor stores, beauty-supply shops and other businesses with inventories easy to sell and in high demand.
Ferguson police officials would not quantify how many looters have been arrested since the Brown shooting but presented a Washington Post reporter with a stack of roughly 50 arrest reports. While some of those arrested for stealing are from Ferguson, a large number have addresses listed in Illinois or in Texas.
“It’s like looting tourism,” an officer commented as he showed the reports. He asked not to be named. “It’s like they are spending their gas money to come down here and steal.”
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
DeAndre Smith, fresh from looting the QuikTrip on a recent night, told reporters: “I’m proud of us. We deserve this, and this is what’s supposed to happen when there’s injustice in your community. St. Louis — not going to take this anymore.”
* HEY, FOLKS... HOW MANY OF THE LOOTERS... THE MOLITOV COCKTAIL THROWERS... COULD PRESIDENT OBAMA POINT TO AND SAY, "IF I HAD A SON, HE'D LOOK LIKE THAT."
(*SMIRK*)
Many on the streets share that sentiment and feel, in terms of race relations, this city and its surrounding communities never emerged from the civil rights era. Two-thirds of Ferguson’s 21,000 residents are black, but only three of the police force’s 53 officers are.
* NICE... INFER DISCRIMINATION... BUT DON'T PROVIDE ANY EVIDENCE...
(*SMIRK*)
* HEY, FOLKS... JUST THROWING THIS OUT: WHAT'S THE RACIAL MAKE-UP OF TSA? WHEN I MENTION TSA WHAT THOUGHTS COME TO MIND?
(*SNORT*)
“This was a chance to vent about the national treatment of black men across the country,” said Ronnie Natch, a music producer and leader of the “peaceful protesters.”
Natch is 30 years old and has a 10-month-old baby. His wife gives out water and fruit to protesters from their base at the burned-out QuikTrip. “We want to show up at the front door every day and say, through words, that this shooting is not going to be swept under the rug,” Natch said. “There have just been too many deaths.”
* AND WHAT OF THE OWNER OF THE QUIKTRIP? (NOTICE THE REPORTER SEEMINGLY HAS NO INTEREST IN HIS OR HER FATE.)
Missouri had the nation’s highest black homicide rate in 2010 and the second-highest in 2011, according to the Violence Policy Center, a nonprofit group based in Washington. The city’s school system is crumbling, and Brown’s high school is in one of the nation’s most troubled districts.
* SPEAKS TO THE FURGUSON OFFICERS' STATE OF MIND WHEN ON PATROL NO DOUBT...
(*SHRUG*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/19/opinion/is-gov-perrys-bad-judgment-really-a-crime.html?ref=opinion&_r=1
* THE NEW YORK TIMES...
"...the indictment handed up against him on Friday — given the facts so far — appears to be the product of an overzealous prosecution."
* THE "HIM" IN QUESTION IS GOV. RICK PERRY OF TEXAS. THE ABOVE IS TAKE FROM THE OPENING PARAGRAPH OF A "HIT" "DEFENSE" PIECE. (YEP... IT'S A HIT PIECE... AND A DEFENSE PIECE - BUT I'M SURE THE DEBATE WENT TO THE WIRE ON WHETHER THE "DEFENSE" PORTION WOULD EVER SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY.
* FOLKS... PERHAPS IF YOU READ THE PIECE AS WRITTEN FIRST... THEN... CAME BACK TO READ THIS NEWSBITE?
Gov. Rick Perry of Texas is one of the least thoughtful and most damaging state leaders in America...
* YEP! THAT'S THE 18 WORDS OF THE TIMES' "DEFENSE" OF PERRY!
...having done great harm to immigrants, abortion clinics and people without health insurance during his 14 years in office. But bad political judgment is not necessarily a felony, and the indictment handed up against him on Friday — given the facts so far — appears to be the product of an overzealous prosecution.
* APPEARS TO BE? FOLKS... THEY'RE SCUM OVER AT THE TIMES. IF REPUBLICANS HAD DONE THIS TO A DEMOCRAT...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)
For more than a year, Mr. Perry has been seeking the resignation of the Travis County district attorney, Rosemary Lehmberg. He had good reason to do so: Ms. Lehmberg was arrested in April 2013 for driving with a blood alcohol level of more than three times the legal limit, and she verbally abused the officers who found her with an open bottle of vodka. She ranted and raved at the local jail, threatening sheriff’s deputies, and she had to be restrained in a chair with a hood over her head. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 45 days in jail. In addition to endangering people’s lives, she instantly lost her credibility as a prosecutor of drunken-driving cases.
But Ms. Lehmberg is also an elected Democrat...
* BIG SURPRISE? ANYONE...??? (*SHADING MY EYES, LOOKING AROUND THE ROOM*)
...and as the prosecutor in Austin, the state capital, she ran the Public Integrity Unit, which investigates corruption charges against state lawmakers, often including prominent Republicans. The office, in fact, has been investigating whether several medical research grants were improperly given to people with connections to Mr. Perry. Had she stepped down, the governor might have named a Republican to replace her, so she refused.
* WHY HASN'T SHE BEEN IMPEACHED? (CAN SHE BE IMPEACHED?)
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
After the arrest, Mr. Perry told Ms. Lehmberg that if she didn’t resign, he would cut the financing for the Public Integrity Unit. In June, he did just that, using his line-item veto to zero out the $7.5 million for the unit. That was a bad idea.
* PERHAPS. BUT WHY DOES NOT THE TIMES GIVE US THEIR BOTTOM LINE OPINION AS TO WHETHER LEHMBERG HAS POLITICIZED THE UNIT? WHY NOT GIVE READERS CONTEXT BESIDES "INVESTIGATES CORRUPTION CHARGES AGAINST STATE LAWMAKERS, OFTEN INCLUDING PROMINENT REPUBLICANS..."
Had county officials not stepped in with some money, the veto could have shut down an important investigative body and its cases.
* AGAIN... IF THIS IS A POLITICIZED UNIT AND NOT A NON-PARTISAN PROFESSIONALLY RUN ONE... THEN SHOULDN'T IT BE SHUT DOWN?
Mr. Perry should have left the matter to the courts, where both a criminal and a civil attempt to have her removed failed, or to the voters.
* AGAIN... I DON'T HAVE THE BACKGROUND I NEED TO MAKE A JUDGMENT. I DO KNOW THAT TEXAS COURTS ARE NOTORIOUSLY POLITICIZED.
But his ill-advised veto still doesn’t seem to rise to the level of a criminal act.
* NOPE.
After a complaint was filed by a liberal group, a judge appointed a special prosecutor, Michael McCrum, a San Antonio lawyer and former federal prosecutor, to take the case. A Travis County grand jury indicted Mr. Perry on two felony counts: abuse of official capacity and coercion of a public servant. The indictment says he exceeded his veto power by combining it with a threat to Ms. Lehmberg if she didn’t quit.
* BULLSHIT - ON THE FACE OF IT! I'D HAVE DONE THE SAME THING AS PERRY AND WERE POSITIONS REVERSED... PARTIES REVERSED... PLAYERS AND POLITICAL FALLOUT REVERSED... I'D STILL DEFEND SUCH A MOVE.
Governors and presidents threaten vetoes and engage in horse-trading all the time to get what they want, but for that kind of political activity to become criminal requires far more evidence than has been revealed in the Perry case so far. Perhaps Mr. McCrum will have some solid proof to show once the case heads to trial. But, for now, Texas voters should be more furious at Mr. Perry for refusing to expand Medicaid, and for all the favors he has done for big donors, than for a budget veto.
* BTW... THANK YOU GOV. PERRY FOR REFUSING TO EXPAND MEDICAID... FOR REFUSING TO EXPAND DEFICITS AND DEBT!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbXHg7_Zqjc
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2014/08/18/Report-After-WH-Meets-with-Big-Biz-Obama-May-Use-Exec-Actions-to-Increase-Guest-Worker-Visas
Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's FWD.us has poured in millions of dollars to Democrats and Republicans to push for amnesty legislation...
* MEANWHILE...
Cisco recently slashed another 6,000 jobs after pushing for amnesty legislation.
* MEANWHILE...
Microsoft announced it would lay off 18,000 American workers a week after its former CEO Bill Gates called for an unlimited number of certain guest-worker visas in a New York Times op-ed.
* AND...
And... the Chamber of Commerce has vowed to spend $50 million for amnesty legislation and more guest-worker visas.
* WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON, FOLKS?
In its analysis of the [Democrat-controlled] Senate's amnesty bill, the Congressional Budget office determined that an increase in the number of such visas would lower the wages of American workers...
Numerous scholars and studies have determined that America does not have a shortage of high-tech workers.
* WE'VE GONE OVER THIS, FOLKS...
(A recent Census report found that "74% of those with a bachelor's degree in these subjects don't work in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) jobs."
(*SHRUG*)
According to a Politico report, senior White House aides earlier this month met with "more than a dozen business groups and company officials to discuss potential immigration policy changes they could make." According to the outlet, "Oracle, Cisco, Fwd.US, Microsoft, Accenture, Compete America, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce" were represented at the meeting.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
[Via] Politico, "the ideas under discussion for executive action include allowing spouses of workers with high-tech visas to work...
(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD IN AMAZEMENT AT THE SHEER BRAZENNESS*)
...recapturing green cards that go unused, and making technical changes for dual-purpose visa applications." In addition, "agriculture industry representatives" have also pushed the Obama administration for an expansion of the "existing agriculture worker program." The Obama administration, according to Politico, "is also considering provisions for low-skilled workers for industries, like construction, that would allow individuals with temporary work authorization to gain work permits."
* OBAMA SURE DOES SEEM TO HATE BLACK PEOPLE... AND AMERICAN CITIZENS IN GENERAL!
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
President Barack Obama is considering executive actions that will give them more guest-worker visas in the high-tech and low-skilled sectors.
* NOTHING WE DIDN'T ALREADY KNOW... BUT THERE'S MORE!
This may come on top of Obama's potential grants of amnesty and work permits to millions of illegal immigrants in the country. While outside groups are urging Obama to "go big," Senate Democrats have expressed some concerns of late, as poll numbers have shown that executive amnesty may cost them control of the Senate. The White House is reportedly reaching out to big-business groups on guest-worker visas so they can give Obama air cover on his potential executive amnesty.
U.S. Civil Rights Commissioner Peter Kirsanow has urged Obama and the Congressional Black Caucus to oppose illegal immigration and more low-skilled work permits because it would disproportionately impact black workers at the bottom rungs of the economic ladder.
* WILLIAM R. BARKER... IN SOLARDARITY WITH THE CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS...
(*SIGH*) (*GRIN*)
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) has been the leading advocate for American workers in Congress, opposing Obama's executive amnesty and pointing out during every speech that massively increasing the number of guest-worker visas would only deal a "hammer blow" to the middle class and American workers who are already struggling in Obama's economy.
The Obama administration has already increased the number of guest-worker permits by possibly 100,000 when it allowed the spouses of high-tech guest-workers who are applying for permanent residency to obtain permits.
* GEEZUS...
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasdelbeccaro/2014/08/19/calfiornias-economic-collision-course-immigration-and-water/
You have heard it before: “As California goes, so goes the nation.”
* YEP. AND IT'S TRUE. WE'RE LARGELY SCREWED.
If that is the case, the national economy will be harmed for decades to come because of California’s misplaced priorities today.
* YEP. THE RED STATES CONTINUE TO DRAG US DOWN...
Indeed, by emphasizing high-speed rail over water and failing to deal with its debt crisis, California poses a long-term threat to our national economy and is on an economic collision course of increased immigration and lack of water.
* FOLKS... IT'S A DISASTER...
California has more than 38 million residents.
Despite net losses of millions of residents to other states, California continues to grow through immigration.
Latinos now equal the number of non-Hispanic whites in California.
With projections that show California’s population reaching 45 to 50 million within 20 years, you would think job creation would be job one for Jerry Brown.
* WHY NO... NOW I WOULDN'T THINK THAT.
Sadly, that is not the case today.
* I JUST SAID THAT...!!!
Despite a much-heralded "recovery"...
* TOTAL BULLSHIT. NO SUCH THING!
... [bandied about in the media and by Governor Jerry Brown, California still has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates. Also, more than 30% of the nation’s welfare recipients are Californians – even though California has just 12% of the nation’s population.
(It is not surprising, therefore, that California is ranked number one in poverty.)
* WHILE RICH LIBERALS ENJOYED SUBSIDIZED FLOOD INSURANCE...
(*SNORT*)
California is the most regulated, highest-taxed, most in-debt state in America. According to government data, from the municipal to the state level, California governments have more than $1.1 trillion in debt – much of that tied to pensions.
Beyond debt, Governor Brown recently signed a huge tax increase featuring a top rate of 13.3%.
(Overall, California taxes are 42% higher than Texas.)
California also has the most extreme, job-threatening global warming law in the world, which includes a 15-cent gas tax increase slated to take effect in 2015 – on top of the already record gas prices.
* GEEZUS... FUCK CALIFORNIA... I DOUBT I'LL EVER EVEN VISIT THERE AGAIN.
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
* BACK TO ILLEGAL (AND EVEN LEGAL) IMMIGRATION:
High debt, high taxes, high regulations and high poverty are not exactly the foundation on which to add 7 to 12 million people. California’s private sector needs an economic recovery far more robust and broad-based to absorb those new people. Unfortunately, California continues to make bad decisions with long-term implications. Perhaps worst among them is Brown’s decision to make high-speed rail a higher priority than water.
Over the last 7,000 years, California has endured droughts that have lasted up to 20 years, according to Scott Stine, a professor of geography and environmental studies at Cal State East Bay. California is in year three of its current drought, which is projected to result in economic losses of $2.2 billion to California agriculture in 2014 alone according to a UC Davis study – not to mention the loss of over 17,000 jobs.
* NOT TO MENTION THE HIT TO AMERICA'S FOOD SUPPLY! FOLKS... THE RICH CAN ABSORB FOOD INFLATION... THE POOR GET SUBSIDIZED... HOW'BOUT US?
To combat the lack of water brought on by drought and environmental policies that favor fish over people, California farmers are behind a drilling boom – for groundwater. The problem is that, at current rates of consumption, some believe California could run nearly dry of groundwater within two decades.
* DESALINIZATION, FOLKS; THAT'S THE TICKET!
Unlike his father Edmund G. Brown, Sr., who focused on water, Jerry Brown would rather see $68 billion spent on high-speed rail – a project for which there is no significant consumer demand and, like most every rail system, will likely require endless public subsidies and therefore add to the debt crisis. Brown recently killed a proposed water bond of $11.4 billion because he said it would “break the bank.” Apparently $68 billion won’t break the bank, but $11.4 billion would.
* HOW'BOUT NO BONDS...? NO NEW BONDS!
In California, despite what some say could be more than half a trillion dollars of public employment retirement-related debt, there is literally no concerted plan for addressing the issue – tinkering yes, real reform no. (Even Chicago’s Rahm Emanuel was honest enough to say that pension debts were deterring businesses from locating in Illinois!)
Rather than leading the national economy, California could well be holding down America’s economic growth.
In 2009, California sent out IOUs to creditors when hard pressed for cash and borrowed billions from the federal government. A decade from now it could be much worse. California’s welfare rolls will swell, adding to its debt crisis.
http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/reporter-blasts-clinton-royalty-who-gets-hold-her-crown-while-she-speaks_803420.html
The price of Hillary Clinton's scheduled speech and UNLV fundraiser could be going up.
Las Vegas Review Journal, which obtained Clinton's contract with the UNLV Foundation, reports in addition to her speaking fee of $225,000, Clinton is demanding a private jet, a presidential suite and adjoining rooms for her entourage, and Clinton refuses to mingle with the common folk. She wants to approve any media types attending the event.
A word about royalty. We don't have kings and queens in America, or at least we shouldn't. But when I see the red carpet UNLV is rolling out for Hillary Clinton in two months I start to wonder. Unless you're a mindless partisan, the details of that contract with the UNLV Foundation should disturb you. They were uncovered, as I said by the RJ's Lara Myers, and published over the weekend. The contract reads as if Hillary is being given the, yes, royal treatment.
Now it is bad enough that the UNLV Foundation folks agreed to that outrageous $225,000 fee as students struggle to make ends meet. But the contract they signed shows they were willing to agree to terms no self-respecting institution would.
She wants a private jet, a presidential suite, rooms for staff, and, get this, all cell phone charges for everyone paid for.
Oh, and [as] if the $225,000 is not enough, UNLV has to spring for a stenographer, and no one gets to see the transcription except... Hillary.
No media coverage at all.
No statements...
(Keep the rabble out of the room.)
The contract also says Hillary is not - and this is in ALL CAPS - NOT endorsing the sponsor. That is, she does not want anyone to think that she actually likes UNLV. No one can take a picture of Hillary and post it to Facebook or tweet it unless, of course, you get her agent's permission.
I gather UNLV held firm on a provision that no one was allowed to look her directly in the eye and that men were supposed to bow and women curtsy before her. I don’t know who should be more embarrassed, Hillary or UNLV? I only have one question: Who gets to hold her crown while she speaks?
http://www.aei-ideas.org/2014/08/study-a-fourth-of-public-school-spending-goes-to-salaries-and-benefits-of-nonteachers/
A new Thomas B. Fordham Institute study finds that the number of non-teaching staff in the United States has grown by 130% since 1970.
These three millions employers now account for half of the public school workforce with their salaries...
* GEEZUS...
...and benefits absorbing one-quarter of current education spending.
* CHRIST!
The largest single position is now that of “teacher aide,” which was pretty much nonexistent in 1970.
What’s going on? From an analysis by Chester Finn:
We don’t know nearly as much as we’d like on this topic, but it’s not a total mystery. The advent and expansion of "special" education, for example, led to substantial demand for classroom aides and specialists to address the needs of youngsters with disabilities.
* "ADDRESS THE NEEDS." NOT NECESSARILY "EDUCATE." NO. "ADDRESS THE NEEDS."
(*SMIRK*)
Broadening school duties to include more food service, health care, and sundry other responsibilities accounts for still more.
But such additions to the obligations of schools are not peculiar to the United States, and they certainly cannot explain big staffing differences from place to place within our country.
Our sense is that these millions of people have quietly accumulated over the years as districts simply added employees in response to sundry needs, demands, and pressures — including state and federal mandates and funding streams —without carefully examining the decisions they were making or considering possible trade-offs and alternatives. This was the path of least resistance and, at a time of rising budgets, was viable even if imprudent.
But it’s no longer sustainable in the public sector any more than the private.
* SO SAY "OLD MATH" FOLKS LIKE... er... ME. BUT LIBS... TAX, BORROW, SPEND... TAX, BORROW, SPEND...
Observe how private firms go about reducing costs, boosting productivity, enhancing organizational efficiency, and increasing profitability: they almost always start with staffing.
One could list plenty more examples. Changing staff — and staff-related budgets — is never easy, especially in the public sector, due to politics, contracts, and civil-service rules. But that’s what leaders are for: to overcome obliviousness, work through politics, catalyze rethinking, and rearrange practices that no longer deliver the required results at an affordable cost.
Post a Comment