Yearly Archives: 2009

Economy, Media, Politics

And What Caused The Mortgage Crisis?

Many have heard people on the right, not the media, but people on the right, accuse Barney Frank as having a role in the Freddie Mac and Fanny May mortgage meltdown. This C-SPAN video shows his role.

In this video, the word OFHEO is used a lot. OFHEO (Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight) is the regulatory agency setup to monitor them as relates to the Community Reinvestment Act and the subprime mortgage debacle. Nearly two years after the audits began, OFHEO’s one and only report to Congress is what we are seeing in this video.  That, and how all the Democrats on the Banking Committee attacked the messenger and ignored the message. And the rest is history. Thank you Barney Frank and Maxine Waters.

What follows is an excerpt of an October 27, 2008 post The Real Barack Obama. That post explains perfectly all that we are seeing from President Obama today.

The roots of it go back to a law called the Community Reinvestment Act, passed by President Jimmy Carter in 1977, under pressure from a community activist movement that started in Chicago.


ACORN aggressively sought to expand loans to low income groups using the CRA as a whip. Economist Stan Leibowitz wrote in the New York Post

In the 1980s, groups such as the activists at ACORN began pushing charges of “redlining”-claims that banks discriminated against minorities in mortgage lending. In 1989, sympathetic members of Congress got the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act amended to force banks to collect racial data on mortgage applicants; this allowed various studies to be ginned up that seemed to validate the original accusation.

And ACORN’s involvement in the mortgage crises is compounded, thanks to help from, guess who, Chicago lawyer Barack Obama.

ACORN showed its colors again in 1991, by taking over the House Banking Committee room for two days to protest efforts to scale back the CRA. Obama represented ACORN in the Buycks-Roberson v. Citibank Fed. Sav. Bank, 1994 suit against redlining. Most significant of all, ACORN was the driving force behind a 1995 regulatory revision pushed through by the Clinton Administration that greatly expanded the CRA and laid the groundwork for the Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac borne financial crisis we now confront. Barack Obama was the attorney representing ACORN in this effort. With this new authority, ACORN used its subsidiary, ACORN Housing, to promote subprime loans more aggressively.

I don’t know how Barack Obama can say with a straight face how he has no ties to ACORN, how he so easily dismisses them as a community group that merely helps low-income people. He is clearly and deliberately deceiving you, and the media lets him get away with it. When he says that, he is telling just as big a lie as ‘I did not have sex with that woman, Miss Lewinsky.’ Barack Obama is not being honest with the American people about who he is and where he wants to take this country. Examining his character and his past is not a distraction from the ‘real issues’ as his campaign will have you believe. First, we need to know who he is.

link: The Real Barack Obama

Media, Politics

Who Do You Trust?

On day 62 of the Obama Administration, already it is a matter of trust.  In no more time than it takes to make a u-turn in an American made V-8 gas guzzling SUV, one can write the Cliff Notes of the Obama Administration’s first 62 days.

On the campaign trail, he promised an open administration. Where the people could read proposed legislation on the internet no less than 10 days before it would be voted on.

From Washington, through fear, doom and gloom, and to prevent an ‘economic catastrophe,’ the President pressed the American people and Congress for the urgent passage of the largest spending bill in world history before anyone could know what was in it. It included a re-tooling of freedom and the free-market economy with a move to government controlled nationalized health care. No debate. No nothing.

On the campaign trail, he promised there would be no more earmarks. That he would check every line of every bill to remove earmarks.

From Washington, President Obama now says earmarks are cool. What is real cool about it is there are over 8500 earmarks in the proposed budget.

On the campaign trail, he promised an end to the special interests and lobbyists.

From Washington, they are not only in his administration, but many of the larger campaign contributors, AIG, are now receiving ‘bailouts.’

Speaking of AIG. Remember ‘those greedy’ employees who ran off with ‘your tax money’ in the form of bonuses? They can thank Barack Obama, Tim Guentner, and Chris Dodd for it. They wanted the employees to get it.   (And, btw, do appreciate  the  campaign contributions.) After seeing to it that you received your bonus, you’ll have to overlook the rhetoric now, calling you greedy rich Wall St. executives. (wink wink) We don’t really mean it, but the public outrage helps us advance the fall of the free market and subsequent rise in government power.

On the campaign trail, he had the solution to our economic problem.

In Washington, out of 18 positions in the Treasury Department, 17 are still unfilled. And Guentner does not have an assistant yet. Have you seen the President out recruiting? Has anyone asked him why, with the economy as the main focus of his campaign, he has the entire Treasury Dept. understaffed? Oh, I  remember. Executive experience wasn’t such a big deal for him. Because, they told us, he would make wise decisions. Remember during the campaign, his aides said that running this presidential campaign (that hasn’t and won’t end) was plenty of executive experience. Way more than the Governor of Alaska had. Way too many people believed it, or just did not care.

In assessing Barack Obama’s performance so far, I am reminded of an Al Gore quote. “He beTrayed this country. He Played On Our Fears!”

Of all that President Obama has done, as opposed to what he campaigned on, do you conclude that he has earned your trust or lost your trust?

Don’t look for polls on ‘trust’ as it relates to Obama himself and his administration. If there were a Republican in the White House, do you think the media would be so mute on the subject? No, that dog died.

Economy, Media, Politics

U.S. Constitution 1787 – 2009

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Congress just passed a law doing President Obama’s bidding, that of ‘getting those bonuses back.’ These are the same bonuses that the President approved when he signed that stimulus bill on Friday the 13th. That was also the day that the media watchdog died.

constitution-rest-in-peace

If the day comes that this bill passes the Senate and Obama signs it, that will be the day that our Constitution died.

related link: UPDATE:Sen Reid: Senate Should Take Up AIG Bill Before Apr 6

Economy, Politics

No, Not THAT America

On the economy, President Obama told a few million people in America that we will recover from this if we can get back to the values that built America. So why is he doing all that he can to re-write those values?

“We need to get back to a place where people know enough is enough,” he said. “If we can get back to those values that built America, then we’ll be OK.”

That was right after he promised to do everything he could to “get these bonuses back.” He is referring to using the power of the federal government to take the incomes of private citizens. 70 in particular of our 300 million citizens.

The seismic readings from across the Potomac are coming from our founding fathers turning over in their graves.

MSNBC: President promises on ‘Tonight Show’ to get payments back

Fair Tax

Dear FairTax Supporters

Sign the FairTax Save the Nation Petition now Nearly 50,000 of your fellow FairTax supporters have already signed the our “Save the Nation” Petition to President Obama.

Plainly speaking–we need you, too.

Can you add your name right now and help us reach 100,000 names to deliver to the White House for Tax Day 2009?

This is such a very dangerous time for America and each of us must do everything we can to change the course of the nation. Only the FairTax is big enough to solve our economic crisis without borrowing and spending so much money that massive debt cripples our economy for generations to come…

That’s why I’m asking you to take a moment now to tell the President we need the FairTax.

Momentum for the FairTax continues to grow–and for good reason. The FairTax is a real and permanent stimulus plan that America needs now more than ever. While our petition to the President makes this point very clear, it will only be heard if we have at least 100,000 names from grassroots citizens like you–who care deeply about their country and know that we can do better. Here’s the hopeful news: Your support has already had a huge impact in the past few weeks alone. Indeed, we’ve placed full-page FairTax ads in the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Tulsa World, and Investor’s Business Daily. Yesterday, Members of Congress even discussed the FairTax on the U.S. House floor during a one-hour “Special Order.” And speaking of Congress, we just picked up four more co-sponsors for H.R. 25, the FairTax bill, bringing our total to 51 this session. And we continue to add new names to our FairTax citizen army everyday thanks to your support of the FairTax cause.

Keep the momentum going: Please take moment now to read and sign our “Save the Nation” Petition. It won’t win the issue overnight, but it’s one more important step on our way to enactment.

And thanks again for all you do to support the FairTax.

Sincerely,

Ken Hoagland
National Communications Director

Media, Politics

Socialism, Government Control Advance

Nancy Pelosi and her fellow Democrats are making the move to socialism and total control over our lives on every front. Here’s my account of how far they have come in such a short time. Total or partial control over the financial industry, the auto industry, and most recently dictating how much people in the private sector should be allowed to make. If they can reach directly into your wallet, what’s left? The news media, specifically the print media, newspapers. That’s what’s left.

Is this the kind of change that Obama voters wanted? Somehow I don’t think so. But it is the kind of change we got.

This video from Rush pretty much nails it down for you.

related links: Pelosi asks DOJ to allow newspaper consolidation | House sets up vote today on taxing AIG bonuses

Economy, Media, Politics

Clearing The Way To Your Wallet

For weeks now, every media outlet has been railing against AIG for paying out bonuses to some of their employees. An easier issue to demagogue does not exist and everyone is on board with it.

The new CEO of AIG says the bonuses are part of their employment contracts. Now, because the government has given AIG billions of dollars to ‘bail them out,’ the administration feels that they have a right to intervene in the employee/employer relationship and pick the pocket of the employees, or ‘workers’ as Obama likes to refer to wage earners.

It was reported early on, but not since about a week or two ago, that the employment contracts like those being harangued by the media are normal for Wall Street traders. That they operate on a ‘low’ weekly salary, and the nut of their income comes in the form of a bonus arrangement based on whatever is well known in the industry and that these contracts were part of the terms of their employment.

If all the above is true, then it is easy to see how dangerous it is that the government is talking about interfering with that employee/employer relationship by voiding the contracts and not paying the ‘workers.’

It feeds the populist feeding frenzy of eating the rich. Only in a socialist state my fiends.

Media

Liberal Radio Network To File Bankruptcy

You have to give the Drobny’s an E for effort. They were also co-founders of Air America Radio, which has also gone bankrupt and changed hands a few times since then. From the Wall Street Journal . . .

Nova M Radio Inc., a competitor to troubled radio network Air America, is filing for bankruptcy liquidation, according to the company’s co-founder, amid mounting disarray in the small world of liberal talk radio.

Anita and Sheldon Drobny, a married couple from Chicago, founded Nova M in 2006 and have been funding the business partly out of their own pockets. Compounding their troubles: Nova M’s highest-profile host, Randi Rhodes, vanished from the airwaves earlier this month. Mrs. Drobny also said that her husband is currently hospitalized for problems stemming from the stress of dealing with the network, which has 34 affiliates.

From the Radio Equalizer . . .

In a troubling development for Sheldon Drobny’s fledgling NovaM libtalk network, flagship station KXDE / Little Rock has dumped his “progressive” format and switched to sports, according to talk radio reporter Perry Simon.

Fairness Doctrine, Pensacola, Politics

Rush Has Zero Impact, Part 2

Following up on an opinion piece in the Pensacola News Journal by Air America Radio host Mike Papantonio, the Lunch Counter post Rush Has Zero Impact was essentially, a copy of the comment I made on the PNJ’s website where the talk show host’s column first appeared.

Curiously enough, that same comment does not pass moderation on the Huffington Post, where the same article appeared today.

No, I’m not complaining. Just observing the thin skin of the Air America Radio people on Baylen Street. Actually, it is the Fairness Doctrine in action, as they would like it. Liberals in action are so amusing.