Thursday, February 19, 2015

Barker's Newsbites: Thursday, February 19, 2015


OK, folks... time for (past time for!) some newsbiting!


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6 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/next-surge-of-arctic-air-to-fr/42424056

Old Man Winter will be unrelenting across the Midwest and Northeast this week as yet another blast of arctic air spreads deep into the South and off the Atlantic coast.

This current push of arctic air is delivering air that is just as cold, or even colder than the air that brought subzero lows to the Midwest and Northeast during last weekend.

Millions will shiver from Chicago to New York City as record lows are challenged during this bitter blast. Records may also fall across parts of the South where temperatures manage to fall into the teens and single digits.

Floridians will even experience a taste of the arctic chill with temperatures dipping down to the lower 30s in cities such as Orlando, Melbourne and Daytona Beach.

At Cape Girardeau, Missouri, the temperature dropped to minus 19 F Thursday morning and set a record low for any date of the year. The old record was minus 18 F set during January 1977.

In the mid-Atlantic, some daily record lows set during the late-1800s will be challenged.

Throughout the Midwest, Northeast and into the South, insufficiently protected plumbing could freeze.

* BOY, OH, BOY... THIS GLOBAL WARMING IS SURE BRUTAL!

February 19, 2015 at 3:12 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.weeklystandard.com/blogs/why-cant-public-see-obamas-proposed-internet-regulations_858283.html

Republican senators Mike Lee, Ben Sasse, and Rand Paul have all been high profile opponents of the Obama administrations current plan to regulate the internet - in particular, Lee has called the regulation a government "takeover" of the internet and says it amounts to a "a massive tax increase on the middle class, being passed in the dead of night without the American public really being made aware of what is going on.”

And when Lee says that the American public isn't aware of what's going on, that is in no way hyperbole.

FCC Commissioner Ajit Pai has emerged as a hero for those opposed to the regulation because Pai has been taking to the airwaves decrying the fact that the public is not allowed to see 332 pages of proposed internet regulation before they are potentially passed.

* YES... YOU READ THAT RIGHT...

* ONE MORE TIME:

...the public is not allowed to see 332 pages of proposed internet regulation before they are potentially passed.

* JUST... LIKE... WITH... OBAMACARE...

* REMEMBER PELOSI SAYING "WE'LL SEE WHAT'S IN THE BILL AFTER IT HAS BEEN PASSED"?

February 19, 2015 at 3:44 PM
William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/commentary/ct-internet-regulations-fcc-ftc-obama-broadband-perspec-0219-20150218-story.html

If you like your wireless plan, you should be able to keep it...

* CUTE... (BUT SERIOUSLY... THIS SHIT AIN'T FUNNY!)

But new federal regulations may take away your freedom to choose the best broadband plan for you. It's all part of the federal government's 332-page plan to regulate the Internet like a public utility — a plan President Barack Obama asked the Federal Communications Commission to implement in November and that is coming up for a vote Feb. 26.

If all of this comes as a surprise, you're not alone. The plan has not been made public. And the FCC has made it clear that it won't be released until after the agency's commissioners vote on it. This is not right. If all of this comes as a surprise, you're not alone. The plan has not been made public. And the FCC has made it clear that it won't be released until after the agency's commissioners vote on it. This is not right.

While the plan contains no shortage of regulations, the most problematic may be the new "Internet conduct" rule. It's a vague rule that gives the FCC almost unfettered discretion to micromanage virtually every aspect of the Internet, including the choices that consumers have for accessing it. If a company doesn't want to offer an expensive, unlimited data plan, it could find itself in the FCC's cross hairs.

But restricting service plan options is inherently anti-competitive and anti-consumer. The inevitable results will be higher prices and less service for consumers along with an especially adverse impact on small providers and upstart competitors trying to differentiate themselves in a crowded market.

Consider that activists promoting this rule had previously targeted neither AT&T nor Verizon with their first net-neutrality complaint but MetroPCS — an upstart competitor with a single-digit market share and not an ounce of market power. Its crime? Unlimited YouTube. MetroPCS offered a $40-per-month plan with unlimited talk, text, Web browsing and YouTube streaming. The company's strategy was to entice customers to switch from the four national carriers or to upgrade to its newly built 4G Long Term Evolution network.

* WALL STREET OVER MAIN STREET... AGAIN...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

* TO BE CONTINUED...

February 19, 2015 at 3:55 PM
William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Or take T-Mobile's Music Freedom program, which the Internet conduct rule puts on the chopping block. The "Un-carrier" allows consumers to stream as much online music as they want without charging it against their monthly data allowance. And consumers love it; T-Mobile has been growing fast and may soon overtake Sprint as the third-largest wireless operator.

Low-price, prepaid voice plans are now also suspect. These plans brought mobile service to millions of low-income households, and because carriers have upgraded these plans to include data, they're the chief reason why such households now have mobile Internet access. But because these plans aren't the all-you-can-eat plans endorsed by the FCC, they, too, may violate the Internet conduct rule.

(*HEADACHE*)

Economists have long understood innovative business models and product offerings like these are good for consumers because they give them more choices and lower prices. Well-established regulatory economics has long rejected arguments to the contrary. To apply outmoded economic thinking to the Internet marketplace would just hurt consumers, especially the middle-class and low-income Americans who are the biggest beneficiaries of these plans.

The Internet is an unparalleled success story. It is a free, open and thriving platform for civic and political engagement, economic growth, educational opportunity, entertainment and much more. It has made the United States the epicenter of innovation. It is why Internet entrepreneur Mark Cuban has observed, "There is no better platform in the world to start a new business than the Internet in the United States."

* AND OBAMA WANTS TO BREAK IT... BREAK THE INTERNET...

(*SIGH*)

February 19, 2015 at 3:55 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/feb/18/ices-risk-assessment-illegal-immigrants-not-effect/

U.S. officials have little idea whether some illegal immigrants commit crimes or flee from authorities after being set free by law enforcement, a new report has found.

* HEY! I'VE GOT AN IDEA: DON'T SET 'EM FREE!

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, uses a process called the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program for some illegal immigrants as an alternative to detention.

* WHY NOT JUST CALL IT LEG - "LET 'EM GO"?

Immigrants are released with an expectation that they will return for their court appearances...

* NOT THAT SOUNDS LIKE A PLAN... (A DUMB PLAN...!!!)

“ICE cannot definitively determine whether the Intensive Supervision Appearance Program has reduced the rate at which aliens, who were once in the program but who are no longer participating, have absconded or been arrested for criminal acts,” the IG’s report said.

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

On top of that, the agency’s procedures are “not effective in determining which aliens to release or under what conditions,” investigators said.

* FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!

Among the problems, immigration officials asked illegal immigrants if they had a medical condition that could affect their attention or release. But some officers relied simply on the immigrant’s answers without conducting a medical evaluation, the report said.

* FOLKS... IF I WEREN'T LAUGHING SO HARD I'D BE CRYING...

February 19, 2015 at 4:15 PM
William R. Barker said...

http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/obama-islam-has-been-woven-fabric-our-country-its-founding

We hear a lot about the United States' Judeo-Christian heritage, but according to President Obama, "Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding."

* Er... NO...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

That's what the president told a White House conference on "countering violent extremism" on Wednesday.

Obama has said similar things in the past:

"I also know that Islam has always been a part of America’s story,” Obama said in a June 2009 speech in Cairo, Egypt. "Islam has always been part of America," he said in a 2010 statement marking the start of Ramadan. And in a 2014 statement marking Eid, Obama said the holiday "also reminds us of the many achievements and contributions of Muslim Americans to building the very fabric of our nation and strengthening the core of our democracy."

* PERHAPS HE'S GETTING ISLAM CONFUSED WITH WITCHCRAFT... SALAM AND ALL THAT...???

(*CHUCKLE*)

"Here in America, Islam has been woven into the fabric of our country since its founding. Generations - (applause) - Generations of Muslim immigrants came here and went to work as farmers and merchants and factory workers, helped to lay railroads and to build up America.

* K-12... COLLEGE... LIBRARY SCIENCE GRAD SCHOOL WORK... SOMEHOW I MISSED THIS...

(*SCRATCHING MY HEAD*)

"The first Islamic center in New York City was founded in the 1890s.

* OK... THE 1890's...

(*STILL SCRATCHING MY HEAD*)

America's first mosque, this was an interesting fact, was in North Dakota." (It was established in 1929).

* NO CAUSAL CONNECTION WITH "THE CRASH" AS FAR AS I KNOW, BUT PERHAPS WHEN OBAMA COMES TO ECONOMICS...

(*SHRUG*)

* OK. ENOUGH "PLAYFULNESS." LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSINESS:

In fact, the new nation's first dealings with Islam were tense and unpleasant.

According to a Heritage Foundation paper, shortly after America's founding, the United States "was dragged into the affairs of the Islamic world by an escalating series of unprovoked attacks on Americans by Muslim pirates, the terrorists of the era," who looted American ships and captured American sailors, holding them for ransom or selling them as slaves.

The paper notes that America's struggle with Muslim pirates from the Barbary States (modern-day Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya) began soon after the 13 colonies declared their independence from Britain in 1776 and continued for roughly four decades.

President Obama on Wednesday stressed that U.S. is not at war with Islam:"We are at war with people who have perverted Islam," he said.

* OK. FAIR ENOUGH. BUT WE ALL UNDERSTAND THIS! WHY CONFUSE THE ISSUE WITH LIES AND MISINFORMATION...???

February 19, 2015 at 4:25 PM

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