Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, December 10, 2014


Not that I want to newsbite...

(*SIGH*)

...what with the news being so dismal...

Boehner... McConnell... the rest of the RINOs...

DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE! DIE, RINOs, DIE!

(OK... I feel better now...)

Anyway... I'm behind on Christmas songs!

Here's one... the Christmas version of a song originally not a Christmas song!

Another...? Why not?! Indeed... I'll give you two: one secular... the other religious!


4 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_HILLARY_CLINTON_STATE_DEPARTMENT_FILES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-12-10-13-45-17

The State Department has failed to turn over government documents covering Hillary Rodham Clinton's tenure as secretary of state that The Associated Press and others requested under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act ahead of her presumptive presidential campaign.

(They include one request AP made four years ago and others pending for more than one year.)

The agency already has missed deadlines it set for itself to turn over the material.

* MISSED DEADLINES SHOULD LEAD TO CONSEQUENCES.

The State Department denied the AP's requests, and rejected the AP's subsequent appeals, to release the records sought quickly under a provision in the law reserved for journalists requesting federal records about especially newsworthy topics. (In its requests, the AP cited the likely prospect of Clinton entering the 2016 race.)

On Wednesday, the political advocacy group Citizens United sued the State Department for failing to disclose flight records showing who accompanied Clinton on overseas trips, [alleging] the department was unlawfully withholding the records it sought nearly five months ago.

The State Department is among the U.S. government's worst-performing federal agencies under the Freedom of Information Act. The agency's delays, unusual even by government standards, have stoked perceptions about what could be taking so long.

The AP requested copies of Clinton's full schedules and calendars from her four years as secretary of state; her department's decision to grant a special position for longtime aide Huma Abedin; Clinton's and the agency's roles in the Osama bin Laden raid and National Security Agency surveillance practices; and her role overseeing a major Defense Department contractor.

Last May, the State Department told the AP that its search for records pertaining to Clinton and the defense contractor would be completed by August. The agency said it now expects the files to be available later this month. Similarly, the agency said the Clinton and Abedin records would likely be completed in September. Now it says it will not finish until next April. The 4-year-old FOIA request still has no estimated completion date.

The agency's pace responding to requests for Clinton-related files has frustrated news organizations, archivists and political groups trying to research her role at the State Department in the months before Clinton decides whether to formally enter the 2016 race. At stake is the public's access to thousands of documents that could help understand and define her activities as the nation's chief diplomat under Obama.

The State Department generally takes about 450 days to turn over records it considers to be part of complex requests under the Freedom of Information Act. That is seven times longer than the Justice Department and CIA, and 30 times longer than the Treasury Department.

* UNACCEPTABLE!

An inspector general's report in 2012 criticized the State Department's practices as "inefficient and ineffective," citing a heavy workload, small staff and inter-agency problems. A study in March by the non-partisan Center for Effective Government said the State Department was the worst-performing agency because of its delays and frequent failure to deliver the full number of files that people requested.

William R. Barker said...

http://www3.blogs.rollcall.com/218/cromnibus-government-shutdown-negotiations/

With roughly 51 hours left before the government runs out of cash, lawmakers released the text Tuesday night of a massive 289,861-word, $1.013 trillion bill to keep federal agencies running past Dec. 11.

The spending package, a carefully negotiated piece of legislation between the Republican House and Democratic Senate...

* BULLSHIT. (HOW DOES ONE "CAREFULLY NEGOTIATE" A 289,861-WORD BILL?!)

...would fund the vast majority of government operations through September with the notable exception of the Department of Homeland Security.

* THROUGH SEPTEMBER...

(*JUST SHAKING MY HEAD*)

Republicans, frustrated by President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration, want to tighten the purse strings on the DHS, which the bill funds only to Feb. 27. DHS is the agency charged with carrying out much of the president’s immigration orders.

* REPUBLICAN LEADERS ARE FINE WITH OBAMA'S UNCONSTITUTIONAL ACTIONS!

House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers said the “cromnibus” spending plan makes the most of “each and every dollar.”

* $1.013 TRILLION CRUMBS...

Negotiations had stretched well past the timeline lawmakers had initially planned, and the schedule for House and Senate action has already been pushed back. The House Rules Committee is scheduled to meet on the legislation Wednesday at 3 p.m., and the House is expected to then vote on the bill Thursday.

That would leave hardly any time for the Senate to consider the legislation, or, more accurately, work through the procedural hurdles any one senator could impose on the bill to slow it down. While the House has not begun putting together a two- or three-day continuing resolution to avoid a shutdown, aides acknowledge there is a strong possibility they’ll have to move a stopgap CR when they vote on the so-called “cromnibus” — a portmanteau of CR and omnibus.

The expected Thursday vote in the House would technically comply with the three-day rule Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, insisted on when he became speaker, allowing members three legislative days to actually read bills. But it would not adhere to the 72-hour standard Boehner advocated for many times.

* I REALLY DO WANT BOEHNER DEAD...

The condensed timetable hardly gives lawmakers enough time to read — or digest — the 1,603-page bill. If members averaged 200 words per minute to read the dense legislative text, they would need 24 hours just to get through the bill. But most, if not all, lawmakers will be operating off of executive summaries of the measure. And according to those summaries, most of what is in the bill is what lawmakers already expected.

The bill would provide $554 billion for defense activities and $492 billion non-defense budget caps.

* AND IS THIS TOTAL MORE OR LESS THAN WAS PROVIDED LAST FISCAL YEAR? IF IT'S MORE... CONGRESS CLEARLY ISN'T DOING IT'S JOB... AND REPUBLICANS CLEARLY AREN'T LISTENING TO "WE THE PEOPLE" WHO ELECTED THEM.

Almost certainly, the major contention conservatives will levy against the bill is that it does not block the president’s executive action. Though members already knew the spending package wouldn’t, some have vowed to vote against any spending bill that doesn’t block implementation of the immigration order.

William R. Barker said...

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

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2014/dec/9/obama-asks-expansive-war-against-islamic-state/

Secretary of State John F. Kerry told Congress Tuesday that President Obama wants expansive war powers to pursue the Islamic State terrorists wherever and however he deems necessary, stunning lawmakers by requesting a war authorization that would even allow the Pentagon to commit American combat troops to the fight.

* GEEZUS... (THE CONSTITUTION REALLY DOES MEAN NOTHING TO THIS MAN...)

* UNFORTUNATELY... IT ALSO MEANS LITTLE TO MOST MEMBERS OF CONGRESS... AND PERHAPS EVEN MOST JUDGES.

Though Mr. Obama doesn’t want combat troops, he won’t have Congress tie his hands against unforeseen directions the war could take should the Islamic State evolve, expand its fight to other countries or prove more difficult to rout, Mr. Kerry said.

* "HE... WON'T... HAVE...???" THAT'S CONGRESS' JOB...!!! (ONE OF THEM, ANYWAY!)

Mr. Kerry was deployed to try to quell a growing furor over the administration’s approach, but his appearance didn’t appear to help, with lawmakers of both parties saying the White House appears to be trying to delay Congress from acting while doing little to step up on its own.

“The reason we’re here is a total failure of the president to lead on this issue,” said Sen. Bob Corker, the ranking Republican on the committee.

Secretary of State John Kerry testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2014, before the Senate Foreign Relations hearing on "Authorization for the Use of Military Force Against IS." (AP Photo/Molly Riley)
Secretary of State John Kerry testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, ... more >

Mr. Obama has repeatedly refused requests to propose his own war resolution. Mr. Kerry said he didn’t think it mattered who goes first.

For now, Sen. Robert Menendez, New Jersey Democrat and chairman of the committee, has written a draft authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) that would impose a three-year limit on the authority and forbid ground combat troops in most situations, with exceptions for intelligence gathering, acting as spotters or for rescue missions. He did not suggest a geographic limitation, however.

Lawmakers had hoped Mr. Obama, who won the presidency in 2008 in part due to his opposition to the Iraq War, would support strict limits. But Mr. Kerry said they don’t want to see them written into law.

“It sounds to me like you’re making the case for a rather open-ended authorization,” Mr. Menendez told Mr. Kerry, adding that he’s been disappointed with how little cooperation he’s gotten from the president’s team.

* TO BE CONTINUED...

William R. Barker said...

* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)

Mr. Menendez said he still plans to have his committee vote on Thursday on a war resolution, and if the Senate stays in session next week, he said he’d like to see a vote on the chamber floor.

He said he’ll push ahead even if they haven’t been able to iron out differences with Mr. Obama over limits to his war powers.

No matter what the Senate does, though, the debate won’t be finished this year.
House Speaker John A. Boehner, Ohio Republican, has said his chamber will take up the war debate next year — and he said it’s Mr. Obama’s job to propose a resolution to Congress and make the case for it to the American people.

The rise of the Islamic State, which goes by the acronyms ISIS or ISIL, has proved embarrassing for the president, who a year ago declared al Qaeda on the run and said it was time to begin ramping down the war on terror.

On Tuesday, Mr. Kerry made clear the administration considers the Islamic State, which has captured large swaths of Syria and Iraq, to be a branch of al Qaeda operating under a different name. He said that means Mr. Obama already has powers to go after them under the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs, so even if Congress doesn’t act, the president will continue to pursue the war.

“The fact is that we’re going to continue this operation, because the president and the administration are absolutely convinced — and I respect your opinion — [that] we have the authority,” he said.

He also quibbled with lawmakers who called the fight against the Islamic State a “war,” saying it will be dramatically different than what the U.S. did in Afghanistan and Iraq in the previous decade.

Mr. Obama already has committed thousands of troops to Iraq in what he says is a supporting role, backing that country’s troops. And the U.S. has conducted airstrikes in both Iraq and Syria to try to halt Islamic State advances.

Meanwhile, a defense policy bill about to clear Congress authorizes the president to arm and train Syrian rebel groups for the next two years, with the hope that those rebels will take the fight to the Islamic State inside that country.

* THE WAR PARTY, PEOPLE... THE BIPARTISAN WAR PARTY...

Senators did credit Mr. Kerry and Mr. Obama with pushing Iraq’s politicians to push for political unity, which has helped solidify much of the country in opposition to the Islamic State.

But Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who has a long history of working with and against Mr. Kerry during their days together in the Senate, blasted his former colleague for being too timid in pursuing the Islamic State. He called Tuesday’s hearing a “charade.”