Friday, November 7, 2014

Barker's Newsbites: Friday, November 7, 2014


Love Mark Levin...

 HATE Mitch McConnell and John Boehner...

 (Read today's first newsbite to find out why!)


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8 comments:

William R. Barker said...

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

http://m.cnsnews.com/mrctv-blog/michael-morris/levin-republican-leadership-just-handed-power-purse-back-president

What is the one thing that “has not been discussed by anybody anywhere about this election,” that had Mark Levin “chomping at the bit to get back on the air to talk to us?”

The government shutdown last year.

“What does that have to do with anything?” scoffed Mark Levin. “It has to do with everything.”

“Remember the government shutdown last year, for 16 days, October 1 – October 16? Well I remember it. I remember hearing an article in Politico – I have a long memory – where Speaker John Boehner privately warned House Republicans, they could lose their majority in 2014 as a result of shutting down the government.

* DOUCHE BAG...

“They picked up 13 seats at least yesterday. It wasn’t even an issue.”

(*SMIRK*)

“Ted Cruz came under withering attack by conservative and neoconservative commentators on TV, on FOX,” recalled Levin.

* YEP! ALWAYS REMEMBER, FOLKS, FOX IS NEOCON... FOX IS GOP ESTABLISHMENT... BY AND LARGE FOX IS ANTI-TEA-PARTY!

Republican senate members leaked to Politico, The New York Time and The Washington Post, trying to destroy Cruz, saying that he would cost them (the Republicans) the ability to reclaim the Senate. But that’s not what happened is it? The Republicans won nine seats.

* FOLKS... I'M HAPPY THAT NANCY PELOSI IS NO LONGER SPEAKER; I'M HAPPY THAT AS OF NEXT YEAR HARRY REID WILL NO LONGER BE SENATE MAJORITY LEADER; BUT REMEMBER... BOEHNER AND MCCONNELL ARE SCUM TOO.

“This is very, very important to remember folks, as we try to save the country from this massive spending,” remarked Levin: “This is the twentieth government shutdown last year, the twentieth. The biggest government shutdown prior to that was in the mid-90’s, Newt Gingrich versus Clinton, and they lost a few seats but they never lost a majority in the House. It was insignificant. And you keep hearing, even today, ‘government shutdown, we can’t do a government shutdown. We can’t do a government shutdown.’”

“Now, why am I talking about a government shutdown the day after the election?” asked Levin, "because everyone’s euphoric and giddy - yay, we won! We won!”

Levin then explained the importance of recalling the government shutdown:

“Because, within 24 hours of winning, the Republican leadership just handed the power of the purse [which belongs in Article I, not in Article II] back to the President of the United States.

“Mitch McConnell held a press conference today, at the University of Louisville, and he said, gratuitously, almost, we’re not going to shut down the government. We’re not going to endanger the national debt situation.”

“I wasn’t even going to start with this point,” remarked Levin, “but I’m going to bring it through. There’s a lot of good news, but there are a lot of issues we’ve got to confront.”

Then Mark Levin played a clip from McConnell’s press conference just yesterday:

Reporter: “The debt ceiling is coming up sometime this spring, this summer. Are we going to have another brinkmanship moment there, or are those sorts of crises going to end?

Mitch McConnell: “Let me make it clear. There will be no government shutdown and no default on the national debt.”

“Who’s talking about default on the national debt?” asked a frustrated Levin. “What we’re talking about is the national debt that is out of control.”

(*NOD*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

November 7, 2014 at 2:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 1 of 2)

“There will be no government shutdown.”

That means that the power of the purse is being surrendered by Mitch McConnell and the Republican leadership.

“There’s nothing left. There’s nothing that can be done. There’s no leverage now,” scolded Levin.

Levin then explained the importance of the power of the purse and its origins:

“The framers of the constitution, you can read it in Madison’s notes. You can read it in the Federalist Papers. You can read it in notes taken during the, several of the uh, ratifying convention to the states."

“The power of the purse was the key! They gave it to the House of Representatives."

“The House of Representatives had an absolute landslide night. Say what you will about the Senate and everything else. There’s no question, the House of Representatives, there are more Republicans now in the House of Representatives, some have said, since 1946, some have said, since 1928. The point is, the majority is huge! They own the power of the purse – the power to [spend] or not!"

* AND THEY WANT TO SPEND...

* THE BOEHNERS... THE MCCONNELLS... THE RINOs... THEY WANT TO SPEND...!!!

“To just glibly say, ‘There will be no government shutdown, and there will be no national debt prop,’ is to give it up.”

For those who disagree, Levin asks, “Then what is left for Congress to use to control a lawless president?"

("If you saw any of his press conference today, this man is in full Benito Mussolini-mode. Benito Obama was in full view.")

Levin then referred to comments made by Reince Priebus, wherein Priebus suggested that if Obama moved on his own to legalize illegal aliens, they’re (Republicans) not going to stand for it. "But they just surrendered the power of the purse to Barack Obama! What do they mean they’re not going to stand for it?!” questioned Levin.

Not only that, but "they (Republican leadership in the House and Senate) are working behind the scenes on a budget with the administration. Then they’re going to bring it out – this big, fat, massive budget. Then they’re going to say it demonstrates bipartisanship and that they can govern. But you’re screwed!”

* FOLKS... I FEAR IT MAY COME TO VIOLENCE SOONER THAN I'VE EVER ANTICIPATED...

“I’m not going to back off folks. This is where we have to get smart and mature and really zone in,” declared Levin. "Leave all of the “happy talk” to Fox News and talk radio. We’re going to be smart here,” said Levin.

So, what’s the number one lesson we’ve learned from all of this? Levin tells us:

“The government shutdown, such as it was, 17% of the government shut down, approximately a year from this election, had zero effect on the outcome of the election. Zero! None!"

“The Republicans picked up nine seats in the Senate, took the majority, and increased their majority in the House by another 13 seats. So, the government shutdown had no effect whatsoever, and yet, the Republican leadership is still running from it. They’re still scared of it.”

“How are we ever going to get our financial house in order? How are we ever going to get our financial house in order if we do not use the power of the purse – the power to tax, the power to defund?” pleaded Levin. “That’s the leverage Congress has.”

“But it won’t have it under this presidency, because the new majority leader, the old minority leader (Mitch McConnell), just surrendered it."

November 7, 2014 at 2:12 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://news.yahoo.com/exclusive-u-may-significantly-hike-number-troops-iraq-185858398.html

The U.S. military has drawn up plans to significantly increase the number of American forces in Iraq, which now total around 1,400, as Washington seeks to bolster Iraqi forces battling the Islamic State, U.S. officials told Reuters on Friday.

* AND WHAT IS THE NUMBER OF ARMED "CONTRACTORS" WE HAVE ON THE PAYROLL IN IRAQ? (AND IN OTHER COUNTRIES... COUNTRY BY COUNTRY?)

* YES, FOLKS... WE'RE USING MERCENARIES. WE HAVE BEEN. BEFORE OBAMA. (BUT OF COURSE OBAMA DOUBLED... TRIPLED... QUADRUPLED DOWN - OR MORE.)

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to offer details.

The United States aims to help advise and train Iraqi and Kurdish forces battling Islamic State fighters who swept into much of northern Iraq.

* FOLKS... UNLESS YOU'D SEND YOUR OWN KIDS OVER THERE... (*SIGH*)

* FOLKS... TIME TO SAY "ENOUGH IS ENOUGH."

* LET OUR "ALLIES" DO THE FIGHTING. THE OIL GOES OVERWHELMINGLY TO THEM ANYWAY!

November 7, 2014 at 2:24 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/ali-meyer/employment-situation-improves-october-except-african-americans

The employment situation in October improved in every way for most Americans, except for African Americans, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The number of African Americans who were employed in the United States in October dropped by 41,000; and the number of African-Americans not participating in the labor force increased by 114,000.

However, the employment picture for all Americans aged 16 and older improved from September to October, as the overall unemployment rate declined from 5.9% to 5.8%, the number of employed increased from 146,600,000 to 147,283,000, and the number of unemployed decreased from 9,262,000 to 8,995,000.

* YEP. GOOD NUMBERS. (*NOD*) (IF THEY CAN BE TRUSTED...)

The participation rate, which is the percentage of the civilian non-institutional population who participated in the labor force by either having a job or actively seeking one, also increased from 62.7% to 62.8% for all Americans.

* AND THAT IS GREAT NEWS! IT TRULY IS!

Those not in the labor force, which are those who not only did not have a job, but they did not actively seek one in the last four weeks, declined from 92,584,000 to 92,378,000.

* AGAIN... GREAT NEWS!

But for African Americans 16 years and older, some of those metrics worsened in October.

The number of employed African Americans 16 years and older decreased by 41,000 in October...

* THAT'S NOT GOOD. WHY? (MINIMUM WAGE INCREASES IN URBAN AREAS...???)

African Americans who did not have a job and did not actively seek one in the past four weeks increased by 114,000 in October...

November 7, 2014 at 2:49 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://online.wsj.com/articles/allysia-finley-teachers-unions-flunked-their-midterms-1415318909

Teachers unions this election provided an object lesson in how to lie with statistics by lambasting school reformers across the country for “cutting” education spending.

According to one ad, Gov. Sam Brownback (R) of Kansas signed the “largest single cut to education in Kansas history.”

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) stood accused of taking a $1.3 billion sledgehammer to schools...

Gov. Rick Snyder in Michigan [was charged with] slashing $1 billion from education.

Yet in Kansas, total per pupil spending has increased to $12,960 from $12,283 since Mr. Brownback was elected in 2010, despite a $412 per pupil decline in federal aid.

Mr. Snyder's state has increased education spending by $660 per student over his four-year tenure...

Mr. Scott's state has increased annual state funding for schools by 20% — nearly $2 billion — over the past four years.

* PERSONALLY... I'D HAVE LIKED TO HAVE SEEN THE CUTS... BUT POLICY ASIDE, THIS JUST GOES TO SHOW WHO YOU CAN TRUST - AND WHO YOU CAN'T.

The teachers unions also whacked Mr. Scott for expanding private-school scholarships for low-income kids, eliminating tenure, and linking pay to performance for new teachers. “Florida’s private-school voucher programs are a risky experiment that gambles taxpayers’ money and children’s lives,” Florida Education Association vice president Joanne McCall warned in a local newspaper op-ed. “Voucher schools are largely unregulated.”

* EXCEPT BY THE PARENTS... WHO HAVE THE GREATEST INCENTIVE TO SEE THAT THEIR CHILDREN ARE BEING PROPERLY EDUCATED.

(*SMIRK*)

So far as we know, there have been no reports in Florida of death-by-voucher.

In fact, scholarship recipients in Florida have posted academic gains equal to their public-school counterparts despite coming from more disadvantaged backgrounds.

* JUST AS CATHOLIC SCHOOLS HISTORICALLY AND PREDOMINATELY HAVE DONE MORE WITH LESS...

Mr. Scott’s challenger, Democrat Charlie Crist, in a previous life as the state’s Republican governor vigorously promoted vouchers; he quietly walked back his support during the campaign.

* CRIST IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST POLITICAL DOUCHE BAGS IN HISTORY!

Scott Walker also got whipsawed for expanding vouchers and reforming public-worker collective bargaining, which Wisconsin Education Association Council President Betsy Kippers claimed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel was really “aimed at tearing down the strongest advocates for public education: teachers.”

* FOLKS. THE FOLLOWING ISN'T "ANTI-TEACHER" - IT'S SIMPLY COMMON SENSE... AND THE TRUTH: TEACHERS ARE THEIR OWN STRONGEST ADVOCATES. PERIOD. PAY. BENEFITS. WORKING CONDITIONS. RETIREMENT PACKAGE. THESE ARE THE TOP TEACHER PRIORITIES. CERTAINLY THEY'RE THE TOP TEACHERS UNION PRIORITIES.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

November 7, 2014 at 4:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONTINUING... (Part 2 of 2)

Last year, thousands of teachers stormed the barricades in Raleigh, N.C., to protest legislation that Thom Tillis had quarterbacked in the state House reforming tenure and creating a modest voucher program. Sen. Kay Hagan — whom he unseated on Tuesday — this fall also ran ads charging Mr. Tillis with phantom education cuts: “The fact is: Thom Tillis hurts North Carolina students.”

Voters clearly didn’t agree.

Unions unsuccessfully sought to erect a firewall in Illinois, where Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn faced a formidable challenge from Bruce Rauner, a Republican businessman. Mr. Rauner has personally financed some of Chicago’s highest-performing charter schools and campaigned to reform teacher tenure, lift the cap on charters and introduce private-school scholarships for poor children.

“We’ve got a system rigged to protect the bureaucracy of the school system rather than set up to advance the agenda of kids and their parents,” Mr. Rauner declared last month. The Republican governor-elect can now claim a school-reform mandate, and Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has won an ally in Springfield in his brawl with the teachers union.

Unions also got clobbered in statehouse elections and, in some cases, on Democratic turf. A pro-charter group defenestrated three Democratic state senators in New York, giving Republicans control of the upper chamber. School reformers warned that re-electing the Democratic senators would give Bill de Blasio , New York City’s progressive mayor, and his union cronies hegemony over Albany.

The American Federation for Children, which supports private-school scholarships, elected all 13 of its legislative candidates in Alabama despite being outspent by the state teachers union 27-to-1.

In Tennessee, the pro-school-choice outfit toppled Democratic state Rep. Gloria Johnson, a teachers-union favorite.

A rare silver lining for the unions was California State Superintendent Tom Torlakson ’s slender victory over school reformer Marshall Tuck, a fellow Democrat and former head of the nonprofit Los Angeles-based Green Dot charter schools. Mr. Tuck, who was backed by other Democratic school reformers, including San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed and Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, was blasted by teachers-union ads as a creature of Wall Street who would turn “our schools over to for-profit corporations motivated by money” and “those who profit from high-stakes testing would take the joy out of learning.”

Perhaps no candidate for political office in California has posed a greater threat to the teachers unions than Mr. Tuck, an articulate, congenial and unassuming Democrat who ripped wide open the crack in the party over school reform.

The California State Democratic Party, progressive groups such as Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club, in addition to nearly every Democratic legislator and statewide officer — save one — backed Mr. Torlakson. A profile in courage, Gov. Jerry Brown refused to weigh in on the contest. Had the governor endorsed Mr. Tuck, there is little doubt that the reformer would have won and realigned the tectonic plates in Sacramento, hardening the backbone of Democrats who are afraid to buck the unions.

Yet Mr. Tuck can claim a moral victory, since he prevailed in most low- and middle-income communities in the state, including San Bernardino, Riverside and Fresno counties, and led in polls among minority groups.

(Mr. Torlakson won by racking up large margins in the Bay Area and other tony coastal areas — with voters unlikely to be sending their children to the schools in urgent need of help.)

On the whole, teachers unions got crushed in the midterms, and their biggest victory — the defeat of Marshall Tuck — was decidedly hollow.

November 7, 2014 at 4:11 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://online.wsj.com/articles/for-want-of-a-grouper-1415319486

We knew the sprawling reach of Sarbanes-Oxley would eventually regulate untold corners of the Earth, but the law has now officially gone under water. This fiasco of government over-reach is in the hands of the Supreme Court, which heard oral arguments Wednesday about whether a fisherman can be prosecuted for “shredding” a fish in Yates v. U.S.

John Yates is the captain of the Miss Katie who was trying to hook grouper in the Gulf of Mexico in 2007. His boat was pulled over and inspected by a Florida Fish and Wildlife Commissioner who determined that the boat’s haul of some 3,000 fish included 72 undersized fish that didn’t meet the federal requirement of 20 inches for grouper.

When Mr. Yates brought his boat to shore, federal agents counted only 69 offending fish; three were missing and unaccounted for.

* COULD NOT THE ORIGINAL COUNT HAVE BEEN WRONG...???

* AND WHY WAS "THE EVIDENCE" NOT UNDER GUARD... OR AT LEAST TAKEN INTO CUSTODY AS EVIDENCE?

The discrepancy spawned an investigation by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which hypothesized that the undersized fish had been thrown back into the water in an attempt to destroy evidence.

* THEN WHY NOT THROW ALL THE EVIDENCE OVERBOARD...??? WHY THREE FISH...???

A few years later...

* A... FEW... YEARS... LATER...?!?!

...federal agents apprehended Mr. Yates and charged him with destruction of evidence and violating Sarbanes-Oxley’s anti-shredding provision, which carries a maximum 20-year jail term.

* FIRST OF ALL... MAXIMUM 20-YEAR-TERM... WHEN MURDERS ROUTINELY SERVE SENTENCES FAR LESS THAN 2O YEARS...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* ALSO... WHAT EVIDENCE TURNED UP...??? (I'LL KEEP READING!)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

November 7, 2014 at 4:24 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Under language intended for financial miscreants, anyone who “knowingly alters, destroys, mutilates, conceals, covers up, falsifies, or makes a false entry in any record, document, or tangible object” with an intent to obstruct an investigation can be prosecuted.

In 2012 a federal jury convicted Mr. Yates and sentenced him to 30 days in prison along with three years of supervision and other restrictions.

* I'D LOVE TO KNOW MORE ABOUT HOW THIS CONVICTION CAME ABOUT... (BUT PUTTING THAT ASIDE...)

The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict last year. But as Justice Antonin Scalia noted on Wednesday, he could have gotten 20.

“Who do you have out there that exercises prosecutorial discretion?” Justice Scalia marvelled. “What kind of a mad prosecutor would try to send this guy up for 20 years or risk sending him up for 20 years?”

* GOOD QUESTION...

For that matter, Justice Stephen Breyer added, if we can apply this law to undersized grouper, why couldn’t it be used to prosecute a hiker who picked “a flower, knowing you’re supposed to let wildflowers blossom.” If the law was meant for handling fish disposal, “perhaps Congress should have called this the Sarbanes-Oxley Grouper Act,” Justice Anthony Kennedy joked.

* ONLY... NONE OF THIS IS FUNNY.

If only this were a laughing matter. The Justice Department has used Sarbox for all sorts of prosecutions, and its brief in the case asks the Justices to rule in its favor precisely because Sarbox is so flexible in its application.

Yet this elastic interpretation could wreak havoc on all kinds of businesses faced with dilemmas over handling inventory even in a purely hypothetical investigation.

Imagine a chemical company that has a spill. Best practices should counsel immediate clean-up, but under the incentives created by Sarbanes-Oxley the company could face penalties for cleaning up the spill — “destroying” evidence — that are worse than it would pay in environmental fines for failing to do so.

In Sykes v. U.S. in 2011, Justice Scalia wrote that Congress has an increasingly bad habit of writing vague criminal laws that violate the Constitution.

“Fuzzy, leave-the-details-to-be-sorted-out-by-the-courts legislation is attractive to the Congressman who wants credit for addressing a national problem but does not have the time (or perhaps the votes) to grapple with the nitty-gritty,” he wrote. “In the field of criminal law, at least, it is time to call a halt.”

The dumb-as-a-grouper Sarbox prosecutors are Exhibit A.

November 7, 2014 at 4:25 PM

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